Sunday, August 19, 2007

Tirade the Second: The Powerlessness of Joe Every(wo)man


The second rant Spartacus and I are barking and growling over springboarded from the first, which I detailed in my previous posting here. That other issue – anti-Islam boneheadedness in the UK (and the US, by extension) – was triggered by a link Sparks had sent me, which took me to a British bloke's vide(tu)torial on how to be refined, pleasant, and still an intolerant jerk.

I bumped into another video while researching online in… I don't know; I think it was anti-Bush politics and humor after having sent Spartacus my reply. I'd planned (mostly out of paranoia) not to post the link here… but once again my neck is out a bit – so to speak; I've never been detained against my will and constitutional protections, and would rather not trigger the mechanism to earn that Dubya – I mean, dubious – privilege.

But I will include the link here; the video addresses (humorously) the issue of the limitations of American free speech. Much as with my previous posting, I do not endorse what the fellow appears to be saying behind his actual words, nor the image flashed up onscreen for a brief moment. But I like the humor in it, and really hope the young gentleman speaking on it doesn't find himself residing in a certain piece of American turf in Cuba, or behind a set of bars, somewhere far away from here, that officially do not exist.

Anyway, as a second followup to Sparty's original email to me, I sent him the following email. Do please bear in mind that my comments are entirely keyboard-in cheek:

Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 4:29 PM
Subject: RE: Provocative Video?

Now, here's how a provocative video should be done!


The language is clean, it's funny… and may just motivate some folks to corrective action. But you didn't hear it from me.

Regards,

L. H. O'Swald

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? -- Andrew Johnson, 1865

Again, this was all in good, clean (but very irreverent) fun, and nothing more. I respect, and regard highly, the office of Commander-in-Chief (US)… just not the individual currently occupying that position. Heed the comedian's actual words, and ignore what you may think might be behind them, okay children?

Spartacus responded to me:

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 12:37 AM
Subject: Re: Provocative Video?

Not that it would do much good--W is just the idiot figurehead, and by now the coup has pretty much realized its goals and is firmly entrenched.

Orwell's biggest mistake was calling it "1984".

JUST KIDDING--everything is doubleplusgood!


So I answered:

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 4:15 PM
Subject: RE: Ungood!

Plus it would put Captain Sneer constitutionally in charge, rather than merely the fist (badly concealed) in W's glove. Thank God that this badministration's been propelled and guided by shortsighted greed and agendas – this nation would be doomed if George II's string-pullers had lined up a clear successor.

Now the rest of this country – more broke than before, and more polarized than ever – is left to clean up his horrid mess. Domestically, yeah, we can fix that. But it's too likely the US has been permanently ruined in the minds and eye of the rest of the reeling globe, vis-à-vis Iraq, and much of the Third-World world.

'Minds me of a quote of Heinlein's, from "Glory Road":

"Vox populi, vox dei" usually translates as "My God! How did we get into this mess?"

Regards,


At this point, a series of followup emails began slamming into my inbox:

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 5:36 PM
Subject: Re: Ungood!

Dear friend, you are much more optimistic than I. As I said previously, the coup is over, and is well entrenched. We are now living in the fiction that was the late Roman Republic--a democracy in name only. In reality, we are living in an oligarchic dictatorship. Mark my words, the next president of the USA will be a Repugnantcan, not that having a Democrap at this point would make ANY difference. The rule of law has been overwritten, the Constitution is a sham, any opposition has been effectively hamstrung.

Once the sheeple at large begin to realize the enormity of what has happened in the past years things will only get worse as belated, yet ineffective opposition grows.

Better grab a copy of 1984--it's our new survival guide. Better yet, try to get off the grid now, arm yourself and head for the hills.

Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century. -- Dame Edna Everage

"Democrap" and "Repugnicant" are party labels I devised during the contentious 2000 presidential election that gave us the aforementioned "Vox populi, vox dei" quandary. Sparkly was as much the sour curmudgeon then, and voted (IIRC) with nadir – I mean, Nader. Sparkles' next email:

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 9:10 PM
Subject: The Junta Has Decreed:

You Have No Rights


Yikes! While that one was still bouncing off my inbox's back wall, this one flew in:

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 9:28 PM
Subject: This Hits It Right On The Head

From the comments section of the transcript link I sent you. This sums up my position perfectly:

Bush and his minders are just the latest corporate-sponsored mandarins in a 50-year war on the middle and working classes of America.

In 1956 Eisenhower warned America about the military industrial complex and how it robs the citizen and all humanity of its democratic rights.

Obviously...Ike saw what was coming and he left the soiree before it became the tragedy that is today.

Democracy is already dead...the only thing keeping America functioning as if it is a democracy is the momentum of traditional expectations among the lumpen who still believe the bullsh*t that is being shoveled at us through bought-off politicians and corporate-owned media.

Soon, with financial collapse, Peak Oil, systemic collapse and global warming on the horizon… the gloves of our authoritarianized government will have to come off in order to keep the working poor in their place. THE DISMANTLING OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION BY THE LATEST ASMINISTRATION IS FACILITATING THIS. Then most of America, duped into thinking that they have wealth through credit and a measure of control in their daily lives, will taste the bitter end of the holographic illusion we have been living in for the last 51 years.

BUSH and CHENEY are not pioneers in this extractive capitalism scheme that is truly returning America to a feudalistic state....they are merely the current handpicked players carrying out their orders from the richest of the rich who truly run this country. And they despise intellectualism, liberty and any social contract that benefits the "lower classes".

My advice to any American who owes more than they're worth or makes less than $300,000 a year: dig in, get off the grid, pay of your debt, know your friends and exits, prepare to do without, learn how to fight, and get ready to see unbelievable violence, death and misery in this country in the wake of the neocon revolution.

Brother! This was getting bleak!! And here came his next email:

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 10:17 PM
Subject: Yet Another Bullseye

This article goes far to explain what is/was at stake, and why/how it is suppressed/subverted, crushed.


This one's another sober read. I skimmed it – Naomi Klein argues her point(s) with genuine intellect and familiarity – but I still need to give it a much more thorough read, and mull it further.

At this point online, I was finally able to get an email in edgewise:

Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:30 PM
Subject: RE: Yet Another Bullsarse

Pardon my bluntness, bud, but who lit your short fuse?

As long as we live, we have hope (and have to hope) – dum spiro, spero, as St. Andrew the Apostle is reported to have said. And you've got two very crucial reasons to hope, right there under that roof: wife, and kid(s). No matter how evenly you and the Mrs. have split your respective roles down the middle, you are still fully responsible for their lives, their security… and their futures. You start making like the average ostrich and cramming your head in the sand, you might just as well tell the man to stick it to you.

 (Excuse me.)

This country, yes, is largely in the hands of the military-industrial complex, wisely feeding the sheeple all the bread and circuses they want, and then some. However, and nota bene, my friend: we've not been disarmed of a) our firearms (much as I detest them) and b) our means of speedy communication. Granted, a good EMP could take down the Net (cell and computers both) faster than you could say "pap fills my skull". But just let 'em try.

So long as a huge groundswell doesn't suddenly yank [away] all the corporate benefits and breaks (much as that's badly needed), then the evil pigs on top of the heap will allow the transition from Repugnicant to Democrack, since either major party has a vested interest in keeping that pipeline open.

The current badministration will fall next Fall, and it is likely that a Democrap will take it. I agree that – at this point – Hilary is too polarizing (not her fault), and Obama is too inexperienced; and Edwards might just be a bit too far from the front of the fray. But we are in too much of a cesspit (excuse me again) overseas for the lemmings to vote in[to office] more of the same. There will be a change.

What must change (and just for starters; these are the biggest) are ludicrous governmental policies toward a) education funding; b) health-care funding; c) environmental repercussions; d) the military as an extension of immediate national "interest". These can be accomplished under either party (e.g., King Ahnold of Kellifonnya has been able to thumb his nose with ease at his own party), though the Dems seem more committed toward these ends.

And for now, much of this can be done without pinching the corporate hawgs beyond their limits of tolerance. "Hogs"? Shoot; I'm picturing something that combines the worst traits of lolling pigs, and cruising, hungry sharks. But whatever; you keep them fed, though gradually more leanly, and they'll largely ignore us while we work at the littler things (for beginners: health care, adequate money for our schools). Later, we can begin dismantling some of the ludicrous, entrenched legislation (how about term limits for our representatives? And let's flush the idea of funding government by casino!).

My faith provides me a foundation that gives me cause to hope for humanity, despite our insistence on repeated self-rape. [Excuse me once again, folks; I'd told him I was going to be blunt!] It also pushes me to do more than just either ignore, or seethe at, the injustices of the world. Thus far I've done little against them… but even a bag of old shirts dropped off at Goodwill, a handful of money stuffed in the Salvation Army kettle, does something positive. So does pressuring our legal representatives, regardless of their (and our) party-affiliation.

We do need to seethe about the injustices, the disparities, of course – and as loudly and publicly as possible. The raving man on the corner, half a century ago, has been supplanted by a dozen pasty-faced geeks posting video and photos of elected crooks being busted yet again, and setting up and maintaining laudably iconoclastic websites. These actions need to be encouraged… but I'd like to figure a way, as well, that doesn't risk desensitizing us, or leading us into feeling that all/any action is futile. And it must not stop at simply ranting and chanting, either.

I do not, and will not, give up, sir. I urge [of] you the same.

Regards,

Patrick Heinrich

I'd been picturing poor Spartacus getting gloomier and gloomier as further discouraging news rolls in to Sparks Central. I needn't have fretted; he answered me:

Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 1:55 AM

Thank you for your passionate reply.

If I gave you the impression that I've given up hope, well, that was not my intention. If I had really given up hope, I wouldn't be reading any of this nor passing it on. I'm like a pendulum, swinging from a desire to not have to think about such things, because the enormity of it all is overwhelming, and a desire to not bury my head in the sand, because I think the IDEAL of America is worth fighting for. It is these conflicting impulses, plus the indifference and widespread lack of understanding among the American people which I find so frustrating.

And yes, I am acutely aware of my wife and child(ren)--without them, I would be bandolier bedecked, in DC, h(a)unting politicians.

We are on the verge of martial law. It has already been instituted in some places/circumstances (Nawlins post Katrina), and against individuals (post 9/11 dragnet detainees). Precedents have been set (suspension of habeas corpus, trampling the Constitution), other mechanisms are in place (Patriot Act, stacking the judiciary, neutering Congress). Overt or covert, bit by bit, we are falling under the yoke of repression.

"> We do need to seethe about the injustices, the disparities, of course - and as loudly and publicly as possible. ...These actions need to be encouraged... but I'd like to figure a way, too, that doesn't risk desensitizing us, or leading us into feeling that all/any action is futile. And it must not stop at simply ranting and chanting, either."

I agree with you--but [not] what/how to do. What frustrates me so much is a) too many people seem to think there are no real fundamental problems, or b) think the current political landscape will bring about any effective change.

Last election, Democraps swept into office with much ballyhoo. What has been accomplished--NOTHING. D & R, R & D, it makes no difference--they are just the dog and pony show to keep the plebes distracted while the real playahs continue to run things from behind the curtain.

You have too much faith in the system. The system cares nothing for us, and will do nothing for us. It rewards our faith by feeding us platitudes and decoys while slowly bleeding us dry. You can't work within a system which is totally rotten.

I'm afraid the only way to effect real change is to return to the militant mindset of the '60s & '70s (17 and 19). Subvert, resist, revolt.

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. -- J.K. Galbraith

"I think the IDEAL of America is worth fighting for" – Hear, hear!! Today we stand – or squat – terribly far from the ideals on which this proud nation was founded, and on which it flourished for so very long. But, no, I don't have a whole lot of faith in the system. However, I’m also not ready to join an armed rabble (not that this is what Spartan is getting at). I do agree with the idea of reviving the Vietnam-era (and Revolutionary-era) outlook on building, rebuilding, and saving our country.

I think it's already rolling, in fact. We've seen a wonderful series of rallies and other movements against the Iraq war, for just one example. The groundswell that put the Dems back into a (tiny) majority of Congress rode in on the outrage of the masses. I believe that this is more than the "dog and pony show" that it looks like to Spartacus. But, yes, it's deeply frustrating and terribly disappointing that they've not yet accomplished more this year – my expectations were higher… but the remain so, also.

Further bottom line: I repeat that we have at least a bit less to be anxious about, in that there really is no "son of George" standing in the rightist wings, ready to don George Jr.'s dollar-stuffed, Halliburton-furnished, mantle. A true coup looking to ensconce itself permanently would have furnished solid continuity, a clear successor. This is what I meant in the first place by saying that this gang of crooks and idiots has been shortsighted.

Thank God.

 
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