Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Aurelius gives us this day his daily insights. . .
In driving down the narrow, inner-ring, suburban streets of the Twin Cities metro area, I experienced a familiar event. Actually, I was in the exit lane on the freeway as traffic was coming to a stop along the main three lanes due to rush hour. Now my general rule of thumb is to never do more than fifteen or twenty miles more per hour than the 'trapped' lanes next to me. Dumb asses are always going to try to pull out without warning, that's just what is in the dumb ass'es nature, and I prefer to have the laws of physics on my side when it comes to avoiding their dumb asses. This meant that dispite the fact that my exit-only lane was relatively clear, the rest of the freeway was bumper to bumper, so I was driving about twenty-five or thirty. Naturally, I immediately had someone in an SUV come flying up on my ass at about sixty and start getting all crazy gesticulation in my rear view. She then seemed to channel the fact that I could fucking care less about her need to drive as fast as possible, so she passed me on the shoulder and went cannonballing up the exit ramp.
This seemed to me to be ap propos of our society and some of the maladies of consciousness that afflict it. Sure, she was acting inside the law and had the right of way, but sometimes grown ups need to deal with the fact that simply because they have the right to do something does not make it the best choice. If she is doing the legal limit of seventy, and some sixteen year old in a big van pulls out suddenly with a load of his home-school brothers and sisters, children are still going to die. "It all happened so fast, there was nothing I could do" won't cut it. Reasonable people with a reasonable capacity for foresight consider consequences.
This cartoon bullshit in Europe and the Middle East is the same way. Sure, the Freedom of Speech entitles those of us who were fortunate enough to be born in a liberal state to print or say just about anything we could possibly want. There are times for pushing the limit of that, say in the comedy of Lenny Bruce or in a purposefully profane blog site such as my own. At other times - say when there are multiple wars engaged on muslim soil - restraint might be the mark of wisdom.
I believe in comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, attacking religious dogmas is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Yet we also have a responsibility to 'act locally.' Start your criticisms with your own self first. As Americans we have a much greater capacity to assist change in the major religions of our own nation, than we could ever hope to apply to the religion of the Middle East. Let's deal with the fundementalism in our own backyard. With the poor saps who have let Ralph Reed and a handful of rich bastards pervert their often perverted but occassionally noble christianity into a tool of political obfuscation. To ignore the big problems, and devote their 'spiritual efforts' to imposing a set of laws in this country that is uncomfortable for the majority of us, but that prepares this 'christian nation' for the return of their messiah. That's where us rational folks need to apply some afflicting criticism.
I'd also argue that we should be realistic about these violent protests going on all over the Middle East. It's called a safety valve. Most of these protests are occurring in states that are highly authoritarian. Very few authoritarian states have had long-term success by standing on their populations neck twenty-four seven. Even behind the Iron Curtain in ole Soviet-istan, a small amount of political comedy was permitted in their papers, about the equivalent of the Jay Leno monolouge. Does nobody remember the protests in China a while back regarding Japan's return to certain educational texts glossing over the atrocities committed in WWII? China, does not have a track record for letting protests get out of hand - they usually just run the poor fuckers over with tanks - but this protest held no threat to their power structure, in fact it helped them with the foreign policy goals they held at the moment.
Same with these Mohammed 'toons. Most of these countries are highly controlled states. If you want to hold a protest regarding a lack of civil liberties, or to question why 90% of the states riches are poured directly into the hands of the royal family; the 'security forces' have got a problem with that. You want to indulge in a little religious fanaticism, antagonize a little socialist country on the edge of the arctic circle - big fucking deal. You are not even hacking at a limb on the tree of evil, you're just running around with a pair of pruners making a shitload of noise.
Finally, I want to weigh in on those church bombings going on down in the South. I don't think I've read all that much about it, but the obvious fucking motivation seems to be somehow excluded by the mainstream press. Here is my prediction.
These fire-bombings are the act of a few wackos who are assosciated in some vague way with the 'militia men' movement. They are members of a group of gun-worshipping white guys who look forward to the upcoming 'race wars' with the same excited trepidation that some of our poor evangelical friends look forward to their 'rapture.' These 'race wars' will be a time of great violence, but also a period of trial where those of the 'superior' race will earn glory and respect.
The pattern we see here is no great variation. They burn down some predominately white churches (since the 'enemy' strikes first) then they wait a few weeks and begin to target some predominately black churches - simulating a counterstrike. The timing around MLK jr day cannot be ignored. These wacko fucks who seek to stir up racial animosities for their own delusions almost always target religious holidays or other such events. Look at the shit in Iraq for another example. I'd bet my sideburns that's what's going on down in 'bama right now.
The problem is bigger than most folks realize. Even if my scenario seems a bit over-the-top to my worldly, urbane readership, this is another situation where the fragmentation of our media and society inflicts some heavy wounds upon our nation. In the white-supremist media these church fires will be explained in exactly that framework. They have their own record labels where angry young bands will write rap-rock songs that channel the rage at these church fires in exactly that way. They have countless websites devoted to expressing a world view where this scenario would be perfectly valid. They based their media system on the proven model that damages over 100 million 'born agains' in our country.
We cannot rely upon the major media to act as a neutralizing common ground. That has been completely bought and paid for by those who think the entire meaning of life can be expressed only in the most holy act of 'consumerism.' With the lead up to wars and the ignoring of scandals, we can be pretty certain that the sooner most network and cable programming becomes irrelevent to our public sphere the better. Then we've got these fragmented sub-cultures where one can sinfully surround oneself with music, news, opinion, movies, and damn near every social relationship that remains soundly within the constraints of this retarded world-view. It's a fucking sticky wicket.
The internet, and the blogs/forums in particular, are our best shot at reform and saving souls. Here, where free speech remains omnipotent, where various opinions often clash and even folks with good Ideas better be ready for stunning criticism.
I used to be involved with a local group that advocated media reform, but I lost my drive with them. We cannot 'reform' the established media, that's trench warfare and we ain't got the guns or the numbers to assault their dug-in defenses. We need to fight revolutionary war style, going into the frontier of the internet - refusing to line up in front of the red-coats for a chance to swap the smash and bleed.
Yeah, my sisters and brothers, it is here on the internet where we shall win whatever victories the rational have left to win.
This seemed to me to be ap propos of our society and some of the maladies of consciousness that afflict it. Sure, she was acting inside the law and had the right of way, but sometimes grown ups need to deal with the fact that simply because they have the right to do something does not make it the best choice. If she is doing the legal limit of seventy, and some sixteen year old in a big van pulls out suddenly with a load of his home-school brothers and sisters, children are still going to die. "It all happened so fast, there was nothing I could do" won't cut it. Reasonable people with a reasonable capacity for foresight consider consequences.
This cartoon bullshit in Europe and the Middle East is the same way. Sure, the Freedom of Speech entitles those of us who were fortunate enough to be born in a liberal state to print or say just about anything we could possibly want. There are times for pushing the limit of that, say in the comedy of Lenny Bruce or in a purposefully profane blog site such as my own. At other times - say when there are multiple wars engaged on muslim soil - restraint might be the mark of wisdom.
I believe in comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, attacking religious dogmas is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Yet we also have a responsibility to 'act locally.' Start your criticisms with your own self first. As Americans we have a much greater capacity to assist change in the major religions of our own nation, than we could ever hope to apply to the religion of the Middle East. Let's deal with the fundementalism in our own backyard. With the poor saps who have let Ralph Reed and a handful of rich bastards pervert their often perverted but occassionally noble christianity into a tool of political obfuscation. To ignore the big problems, and devote their 'spiritual efforts' to imposing a set of laws in this country that is uncomfortable for the majority of us, but that prepares this 'christian nation' for the return of their messiah. That's where us rational folks need to apply some afflicting criticism.
I'd also argue that we should be realistic about these violent protests going on all over the Middle East. It's called a safety valve. Most of these protests are occurring in states that are highly authoritarian. Very few authoritarian states have had long-term success by standing on their populations neck twenty-four seven. Even behind the Iron Curtain in ole Soviet-istan, a small amount of political comedy was permitted in their papers, about the equivalent of the Jay Leno monolouge. Does nobody remember the protests in China a while back regarding Japan's return to certain educational texts glossing over the atrocities committed in WWII? China, does not have a track record for letting protests get out of hand - they usually just run the poor fuckers over with tanks - but this protest held no threat to their power structure, in fact it helped them with the foreign policy goals they held at the moment.
Same with these Mohammed 'toons. Most of these countries are highly controlled states. If you want to hold a protest regarding a lack of civil liberties, or to question why 90% of the states riches are poured directly into the hands of the royal family; the 'security forces' have got a problem with that. You want to indulge in a little religious fanaticism, antagonize a little socialist country on the edge of the arctic circle - big fucking deal. You are not even hacking at a limb on the tree of evil, you're just running around with a pair of pruners making a shitload of noise.
Finally, I want to weigh in on those church bombings going on down in the South. I don't think I've read all that much about it, but the obvious fucking motivation seems to be somehow excluded by the mainstream press. Here is my prediction.
These fire-bombings are the act of a few wackos who are assosciated in some vague way with the 'militia men' movement. They are members of a group of gun-worshipping white guys who look forward to the upcoming 'race wars' with the same excited trepidation that some of our poor evangelical friends look forward to their 'rapture.' These 'race wars' will be a time of great violence, but also a period of trial where those of the 'superior' race will earn glory and respect.
The pattern we see here is no great variation. They burn down some predominately white churches (since the 'enemy' strikes first) then they wait a few weeks and begin to target some predominately black churches - simulating a counterstrike. The timing around MLK jr day cannot be ignored. These wacko fucks who seek to stir up racial animosities for their own delusions almost always target religious holidays or other such events. Look at the shit in Iraq for another example. I'd bet my sideburns that's what's going on down in 'bama right now.
The problem is bigger than most folks realize. Even if my scenario seems a bit over-the-top to my worldly, urbane readership, this is another situation where the fragmentation of our media and society inflicts some heavy wounds upon our nation. In the white-supremist media these church fires will be explained in exactly that framework. They have their own record labels where angry young bands will write rap-rock songs that channel the rage at these church fires in exactly that way. They have countless websites devoted to expressing a world view where this scenario would be perfectly valid. They based their media system on the proven model that damages over 100 million 'born agains' in our country.
We cannot rely upon the major media to act as a neutralizing common ground. That has been completely bought and paid for by those who think the entire meaning of life can be expressed only in the most holy act of 'consumerism.' With the lead up to wars and the ignoring of scandals, we can be pretty certain that the sooner most network and cable programming becomes irrelevent to our public sphere the better. Then we've got these fragmented sub-cultures where one can sinfully surround oneself with music, news, opinion, movies, and damn near every social relationship that remains soundly within the constraints of this retarded world-view. It's a fucking sticky wicket.
The internet, and the blogs/forums in particular, are our best shot at reform and saving souls. Here, where free speech remains omnipotent, where various opinions often clash and even folks with good Ideas better be ready for stunning criticism.
I used to be involved with a local group that advocated media reform, but I lost my drive with them. We cannot 'reform' the established media, that's trench warfare and we ain't got the guns or the numbers to assault their dug-in defenses. We need to fight revolutionary war style, going into the frontier of the internet - refusing to line up in front of the red-coats for a chance to swap the smash and bleed.
Yeah, my sisters and brothers, it is here on the internet where we shall win whatever victories the rational have left to win.
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Great post. I regret not returning here sooner. We should enjoy the freedom of speech on the Internet while we can, if the right gets its way, our days will be numbered...
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: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 8:07:00 PM
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