Those of you who know my
political bent realize this banter isn't avatar. Collateral
Damage are the buzzwords of the millennia. From Terra Haute,
to Baghdad and Kabul, loss of what we perceive as minimal and
insignificant is very tangible indeed. As real as a couple of
Kamikaze Boeings obliterating the World Trade Center. Like
that would ever happen. Oh wait...it did.
Until that fateful Indian Summer's day of doom, we piddled
around in our meaningless lives, worrying about the hydrobill and
when to have the tires aligned on our sport utilities. We
watch Alex Trebek on Jeopardy, looking for a little braincandy, but
quickly flip the channel when he's in Africa with little black kids
covered in flies, and dirt covering their swollen, infected
abdomens. Similarly, we ignored Osama bin Laden even after the
Embassy bombings. It was just an image from a far of land
twinkling through the 6:00 news.
I have long feared what is truly
the inevitable. That our shallow existence only serves to find
gain in the circle of life. Lacking are we in altruistic
thought and action. By nature, we oafish Narissians boggle
around in our paradoxically orderly, but chaotic lonely planet in
the manner which suits us best. Where indeed are the selfless
people? Although my own methodology doesn't seek to provide
"collateral damage" insofar as I am not a prophet, but I am a
profit.
In terms of where does this leave
the activist now? In the 60s we feared political oppression,
now we fear political disregard. Whether one is a peaceful
moderate leftwinger(as in politix, not Maple Leafs), or a nihilist
brandishing a tire iron, the government would indeed believe it has
"carte blanche" to justify a suppression of constitutionally
guaranteed free volition.
You ask whether we will be unified
and tactically intelligent with our protest. Howard Zinn
describes the largest strike in U.S. history: He quotes the
New York Times(though not exactly a bastion of anticapitalist
sentiment) as "The grave danger of the situation is that it will get
completely out of the hands of the leaders." From June until
September of I think...1934, 421,000 textile workers reeled through
months of riots, mass arrests, and death that spread from the Deep
South to New England. Once the organizers were beaten,
ostracized and some quietly disposed of, the union disbanded their
strike before Roosevelt got off his high horse and set up a board of
mediation.
So unless those activists who raid
the G-8 summit in Alberta next year, actually go there with clear
and definitive purpose, unified in a stand against social injustice,
cultural rape and pillage, and "Bombs over Baghdad"(or Kabul,
Israel-Palestine, Columbo, Belfast, Kashmir, Congo...yada, yada,
yada) we would only fall short and be blasting our megaphones on
deaf ears. (While ducking from blasting tear gas canisters).
You question if the world will be
poloarized between Allah loving Islams and God fearing
Amerikans. Does this does of Dubya Dogma I clipped from the
Times say anything?
>>"The President bluntly warned
foreign governments they had a choice: "You are either with us, or
you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation
that continues to harbour or support terrorists will be regarded by
the United States as a hostile regime."
Hostile Regime! Ha! This
coming from the guy with the most state executions under his belt in
any gubernatorial period in Amerikan history. I won't even
start on the foul qualities of his pater familias.
In the end, the foreshadow of
totalitarianism under the "Romulan Cloak" of Democracy will
propagate already preordained bias. Though individually, you
and I consider ourselves evolved from this type of antiquated
philosophy, collectively, by human nature and the only
animal(besides ants) capable of waging war: prejudice, hate,
and the malicious apparition of judgement will endure. This
poison will leech from not only multinational captains of industry,
but continue down the social hierarchy reaching the most wretched
and hardscrabble of us all.
One more interesting point in the
deluge of "for profit" mediaswamp today. Saddam Hussein stated
"Iraqis are well trained in pulling victims from bombed out rubble
and could have saved many of the missing(at WTC)." Peculiar
that he says it as if its some kind of lofty ideal to be proud
of. He says "Amerika has let it's people down." Well, I
think it's been letting people down since 1776, but that's another
story.
Now is the time for introspect, and
where your loyalties lie it seems. Luckily I've almost
completed my Golden Yak, Maxamillion(to whom I give
Thanxamillion). Now to find some chicken bones and a cat to
boil(they only boil dogs in Korea). Whether its God, Allah,
Jehovah, Cuchulainn, or a tuber that looks a lot like Mordechai
Richler you believe in, I still question whether one or a million
prayers and tythes will bring ataraxis and wavelength known history
has lacked. Peace, Love and "Godspeed" to all of us still
searching for Epicurean Gaia and lost paradise.
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