村上春樹のUndergroundを読んでいます。
To all of them I posed the same question, that is, whether they regretted having joined Aum. Almost every one ansewered: "No, I have no regrets. I don't think those years were wasted. "Why is that? The answer is simple -- because in Aum they found a purity of purpose they could not find in ordinary society. Even if in the end it became something monstrous, the radiant, warm memory of the peace they originally found remains inside them, and nothing else can easily replace it.
In that sense, then the Aum path is stil open to them. I don't mean that former members are likely to return to the fold. They are aware now that it is a very flawed and dangerous system, and agree that the years they passed in Aum were filled with contradictions and defects. At the same time I got the impression that, to a greater or lesser degree, there is still within them an Aum ideal--a utopian vision, a memory of light, imprinted deep inside them. If one day something that contains a similar light passes before their eyes (it needn't be a religion) what is indide them now will be pulled in that direction. In this sense what is most dangerous for our society at the moment is not Aum Shinrikyo itself, but other "Aum-like" entities.
村上春樹のUnderground自体はサリン事件の被害者へのインタビューで構成されていますが、Undergroundの続編の様な形でオウム真理教の元信者へのインタビューも実施し、上記はそこからの引用です。
今日取り上げた "return to the fold" は文脈からすると「元の仲間のところに戻る」意味の様ですが、辞書で "the fold" の意味を確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: the fold) A group or community, especially when perceived as the locus of a particular set of aims and values.: he's performing a ritual to be accepted into the fold
・Collins Dictionary: When someone joins an organization or group, you can say that they have come into the fold. When they leave the organization or group, you can say that they leave the fold.: The E.U. wanted to bring the U.S. back into the fold.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: your home or an organization where you feel you belong: Her children are all away at college now, but they always return to the fold during the holidays.
To all of them I posed the same question, that is, whether they regretted having joined Aum. Almost every one ansewered: "No, I have no regrets. I don't think those years were wasted. "Why is that? The answer is simple -- because in Aum they found a purity of purpose they could not find in ordinary society. Even if in the end it became something monstrous, the radiant, warm memory of the peace they originally found remains inside them, and nothing else can easily replace it.
In that sense, then the Aum path is stil open to them. I don't mean that former members are likely to return to the fold. They are aware now that it is a very flawed and dangerous system, and agree that the years they passed in Aum were filled with contradictions and defects. At the same time I got the impression that, to a greater or lesser degree, there is still within them an Aum ideal--a utopian vision, a memory of light, imprinted deep inside them. If one day something that contains a similar light passes before their eyes (it needn't be a religion) what is indide them now will be pulled in that direction. In this sense what is most dangerous for our society at the moment is not Aum Shinrikyo itself, but other "Aum-like" entities.
村上春樹のUnderground自体はサリン事件の被害者へのインタビューで構成されていますが、Undergroundの続編の様な形でオウム真理教の元信者へのインタビューも実施し、上記はそこからの引用です。
今日取り上げた "return to the fold" は文脈からすると「元の仲間のところに戻る」意味の様ですが、辞書で "the fold" の意味を確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: the fold) A group or community, especially when perceived as the locus of a particular set of aims and values.: he's performing a ritual to be accepted into the fold
・Collins Dictionary: When someone joins an organization or group, you can say that they have come into the fold. When they leave the organization or group, you can say that they leave the fold.: The E.U. wanted to bring the U.S. back into the fold.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: your home or an organization where you feel you belong: Her children are all away at college now, but they always return to the fold during the holidays.
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