Joe's alarms are disturbing, but essential for staying aware of all that is happening in the world. Walter Mitty is not exactly the image that leaps to my mind, though, which is instead invaded more by scenes of coping with a dying loved one, haunted by the maddening see-saw of false hopes for miracles and devastating realities of the disease, leaving the mind paralyzed, numb and useless.
I hit such a wall this morning. It fits the weather. All week, our very own Darth Vader appeared to be facing his ultimate demise while unseasonably warm and sunny days fed into the giddy frenzy that we might finally see him depart in disgrace. Today, though, intense winds bring in dark clouds and rain and plummeting tempteratures as I hear the Dick has foiled us yet again, and watch footage of more torture in Abu Ghraib, read of the Democratic Party's abandonment of Russ Feingold's heroic but lone attempt to stanch yet another devastating wound to our democracy, as I discover yet more evidence of the military takeover of this country, as I listen to more of the incompetence, graft and greed that has left thousands upon thousands needlessly suffering in a country we needlessly invaded, as well as a region we have needlessly abandoned right here at home.
And on and on and on and on....
I asked recently what folks thought our next "New Pearl Harbor" might look like. Most agree there will be some kind of homeland event to justify our next invasion, and as Joe has been cyberly shrieking for months now - and appropriately so - it appears Iran is our next target. That certainly makes some logical sense, though logic has never seemed to drive the cabal's thinking. They might believe that another homeland attack is necessary to rejuvenate the 9/11 battle cry that appears to have brought them so much favor for so long. Personally, I tend to believe this would represent yet another in the very long chain of miscalculations and "misunderestimations" of human nature. Believing Iraq would love to be liberated was perhaps not too far off, but then delivering occupation and humiliation instead sealed the fate of their doomed mission, at extremely great expense to everyone concerned - civilians, soldiers, economies, resources - except for those who reaped such great benefits, the KBRs and Halliburtons of this world. Their preoccupation with excuses and justifications exposes such psychological pathology, it’s truly hard to believe.
But to make the point, let's start with that river in Egypt, the impetus for all those excuses and justifications (but a starting point that has its own genesis, which I'll save for another time). Their colossal case of denial apparently manages to excuse and justify the fact that their shenanigans are not fooling the large majority of Americans, despite the media mouthpiece and despite the billion-plus they have spent on public relations. They convinced themselves the world and America would love their bravado in Iraq, and they show no signs of awareness, much less admitting they were wrong. So it's not even clear to me that their plan requires another inside job; the 9/11 specter will suffice, in their minds, at least. The downside of another such event, after all, is that it would happen on their watch, and they do capitalize a great deal on maintaining their role as our protectors. The upside of course would be martial law and all those dictatorial perks Bush has so openly salivated over.
Either way, we will invade yet another country.
And either way, we lose yet more of our grip on our democracy, and on our human dignity.
So now, knowing what actually will happen but entertaining some speculation as to how, I find myself with yet another question. How much more information do we need?
Like most of you, I comb the internet on an almost daily basis, looking for yet more evidence that evil is afoot, nay, ahead. But how much more evidence do I need?
The information and evidence keep piling up, now at a pace that is so astounding one stays in a perpetual state of hyperventilation trying to take it all in. Any one of the scandals that make up this avalanche, at any other time in our history would have taken down even the most popular and distinguished of administrations.
Yet not one of them has gained enough traction to stop them. This fact alone is the most astonishing. It's even gotten to the point that the poll numbers seem to expose the fact that the people see through even the media hype, but since the media tell the stories, they die on the vine.
And so what do I do? I keep chasin' the paper. Or, e-paper, whatever. I keep tracking down yet more information and evidence, as if there were not enough goods on these folks three years ago. As if I - ME! - I'm gonna find that one crystal, pure, unassailable, unequivocal, piece of truth that will reverse all this madness and set it straight again.
I've begun to feel like a junky, searching frantically for that ultimate high that will stop all the raging guilt and pain tearing through my head. Or like a nymphomaniac desperately seeking orgasm.
Anyone out there identify with this angst?
Maybe you, unlike these thrill-seekers, have begun like me to think we understand that all ultimate Nirvanas are false. The junky keeps going for the high greater than the last one, and the nymphomaniac becomes a sex maniac; just a shift in the goal for the same desperate energies to focus on. Each scurrilous and shameless news factoid breaks like a bomb, but fails to ignite, then disintegrates like so much fluff for the six o'clock news. Just like the junky and the maniac and the American viewing public, we are all beginning to forget the larger stream and implications of the mudslide in our scramble for one more piece of dirt.
But today I'm asking myself: Can I understand well enough to give better aim to the chase and ask the really hard question? Surely we can all agree we have more than ample information and evidence, not only on the evil perpetrators, but on what fate awaits us. Now what, precisely, do we do about it?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ok. I wrote all that this morning, but just could not bring myself to post it; reality is enough of a downer without wallowing in the misery here. So I did some 'real' work, and then took a break by (you guessed it) checking for the latest onlline.
And as it happens, I am not the only one out there today feeling a bit on the pessimistic side. Reddhedd over at firedoglake happened upon a similar fit of angst, and had what is actually a very reasonable response for the moment, the perfect Tom Paine quote. "These are the times that try men's souls...."
Check it out. Meanwhile, I hope others out there suffer similar such fits as I had this morning. Not that I wish this on anyone else, but then again, if you're not filled with angst these days, you're not paying attention. And clearly you are, or you wouldn't be here.
So, the day ended with a bright blue sky and a burst of sunshine, and the Tom Paine quote, so there is hope. I do feel, though, that hope in this case rests upon our addressing the question up there above the stars; what do we do about all this, besides simply cataloging our outrage. Any ideas?
dr. elsewhere
7 comments:
We need to stop playing. Don't buy the drugs that fund them. Don't buy the products that fuel the offshore companies, don't invest, no Walmart. I mean be strict with yourself. Toss the TV and cable (you're paying for propaganda), cell phone (it's tracking)If in govmt service (local, state, fed) don't accept illegal directives. Live simple, buy locally and frugally, know your neighbors. Cut everything to the bone, cut up the credit cards, pay cash or do without. Take your power back, remember we enable them. And their power and wealth is an illusion. Its paper and the paper they offer others to take their orders. Don't play anymore. Pull out of the game.
THE WEAKER THE WINE
By SU TUNG P'O (1036-1101 AD)
The weaker the wine,
The easier it is to drink two cups.
The thinner the robe,
The easier it is to wear it double.
Ugliness and beauty are opposites,
But when you're drunk, one is as good as the other.
Ugly wives and quarrelsome concubines,
The older they grow, the more they're alike.
Live unknown if you would realize your end.
Follow the advice of your common sense.
Avoid the Imperial Audience Chamber,
the Eastern Flowery Hall.
The dust of the times and the wind of the Northern Pass.
One hundred years is a long time,
But at last it comes to an end.
Meanwhile it is no greater accomplishment
To be a rich corpse or a poor one.
Jewels of jade and pearl are put in the mouths
Of the illustrious dead
To conserve their bodies.
They do them no good, but after a thousand years,
They feed the robbers of their tombs.
As for literature, it is its own reward.
Fortunately fools pay little attention to it.
A chance for graft
Makes them blush with joy.
Good men are their own worst enemies.
Wine is the best reward of merit.
In all the world, good and evil,
Joy and sorrow, are in fact
Only aspects of the Void.
Jonathan Schooler of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver told Science the study built on evidence that too much reflection could be detrimental in some situations.
"What may be really critical is to engage in [conscious] reflection but not make decision," he added.
A friend recently counseled me in words not unlike those of worthy Sun Tung Po above.
He said that what we are witnessing here is the last gasp of the old order that, with or without our support or resistance, will certainly fall. Later, but probably sooner, like the Titanic, it will take many of the good down along with the greedy. Hopefully we can minimize its impact upon us by our preparing for local sustainability and stepping off the grid as much as we can.
After the Congressional campaigns this year, I will be abandoning national politics as a hopeless fantasy. It is not an answer for serious people seeking life and death solutions. The only national political action I may be working on in ’08 will be a “Don’t Vote for President on Election Day” campaign.
As I am fond of quoting from Tom Eliot’s, Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, I too have "wept and fasted, wept and prayed" for an answer to our current political crisis. Unlike Eliot’s anti-hero, I am unwilling to consider that I am incapable of actions of any consequence. We have raised a nation of effeminate, ineffectual Prufrocks, who refuse to force the moment, any moment, to its crisis. I am tired of this model for my life.
Since before the war I, like many of the rest of us, have tried every democratic means to effect change and stop the slaughter of the innocents. All of this has been to no avail. I have found myself, of late, forced into the crisis of even possibly abandoning my commitment to non-violence. I have despaired of any political method of deflecting my country from its precipitous descent into fascism and barbarism.
I think the primary course of effective action for me (not necessarily you) lies, not in protest or polemic, but in finding some way of changing hearts and minds through art. I don’t know where this commitment will lead. I am not concerned with my impact, or what the critics will say or even whether it will amount to less than nothing. I now see that it is my path, my redemption and my way out of this dark wood.
If you are wondering, I will not be deserting the ranks of our tireless progressives working in the (local) political vineyard. Neither will I be resisting the temptation to fire a Letter to the Editor on the pages of the local fish-wrap from time to time. I do not intend to give up all my bad habits.
Its just that now I must find some way of creating my own Angels in America - my own Guernica - my own Dead Man Walking, to melt the hard heart of this terrible nation.
Wish me luck!
Bob Boldt
Jefferson City, MO
That's a profound post, Doc. And the comments, ahh, they make me realize I am not alone. As to the first part of the post, yes, we are beyond hope that the course can be reversed. This hand must be played out. Our situation is much like that of Germany in the 1930's. Bush is Hitler, and the neocons of his administration are Goebbels/Speer/Goering/Himmler/etc. The evangelical-fundamentalist Christians are the National Socialist Party.
This is not to say all efforts are meaningless. In fact our efforts may determine whether our western civilization is destroyed, or just beaten to within an inch of its life. Like 1945 Germany.
Walk in love. WALK IN LOVE. It is what separates us from the "barbarians", and it is the only way to change hearts and minds. Is that not the one lesson we have learned from Iraq? Let us not ever feel that we have anything to be ashamed of, for God is on the side of the peace loving people of the world. Never be silent about the injustice. Never let us feel that there is no one to speak for us when they come for us. never Never NEVER let them take your capacity to love.
To all of you who have posted and commented above and to those who might follow, I was reminded of Seymour Hersch's quote from some time ago:
"It's got to play itself out".
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