Thursday, March 09, 2006
The Way of the Wolf
My friend C- has got me reading book one of The Vampire Earth series by E. E. Knight. I did study Literature, but sometimes one just enjoys the pacing and predictability of pulp fiction. (Actually, I'd say that part of what makes something 'pulp' fiction in the age of Tarrentino, might be more accurately described as unpredictable predictability - but whatever.) It's a book with a lot of cliches: alien vampires have taken over the planet, good aliens will work some 'magic' on some of the resistors to make them special - sort of like a totem thing, combined with classic war novel violence and loss. Dispite all this, there be one kernal of wisdom that, like the higher forms of literature, has stuck in my head and continues to get me thinking.
As the protagonist is getting some of his 'magic' applied to him, changing him from a human soilder into a 'wolf', his shamen says somethings to him regarding the value of hate. "Your cultural histories are filled with tales of the reluctant hero who takes up arm to fight evils, only to win and then return to his simple farm and family. A valient warrior who fights bravely and shows mercy to his fallen foes. This is an O.K. image for a society that needs to downplay violence and domesticate the males, but one must break through this to embrace true hate. It is O.K. to hate the [evil vampire aliens.] Your species is being eaten!" (This is my paraphrase.)
This got me to thinking about how true that is. Revolutionary women, the proud young blacks who gave their lives for the Black Power Movement, even those few fucking democrats who criticise this current administration; all are/were labled 'angry.' As if being angry somehow had some bearing on whether or not that movement was in the right.
We are in a class war that's been raging for at least a few hundred years if not a few thousand. Those who some would call the ruling class or the elites have made purposeful descision to affect the lives and environment that we all develope in. Five or six decades ago men of my class (regardless of skin color, although us whites obviously had it somewhat better) had little rights at all. You worked in the mine or the factory or the stockyard. If a saw took your hand or mine dust killed ya by thirty five, well that was just too fucking bad. If god or anybody else cared then you would have been born with money to avoid these deathtrap jobs.
Young men of my class were kidnapped into the navy and consripted into the army to fight wars that almost never had anything to do with the best interests of themselves, their families, or even the country.
The ground they took with their strikes and their rebellions has been quickly lost by our generation. We've been so dumbed down by media and the quick pleasures of consumerism. We buy what we don't need for the emotional package that brainwashing (advertising) says we (and everyone else) should desire. Our education system turns kid against kid and provides plenty of opportunity for alienation and trauma - an organized masses who can see past skin color/gender/sexual orientation/religion to the reconstruction of society has been twarted in so many ways.
To insure our media is never used against them, the corporate interests have bought up just about every damn frequency and bandwidth. If they don't fill them with pro-business propaganda, then they just fill them with bullshit ('christian' radio) or porn.
We deserve to be angry. Sometimes that what it all comes down to.
As the protagonist is getting some of his 'magic' applied to him, changing him from a human soilder into a 'wolf', his shamen says somethings to him regarding the value of hate. "Your cultural histories are filled with tales of the reluctant hero who takes up arm to fight evils, only to win and then return to his simple farm and family. A valient warrior who fights bravely and shows mercy to his fallen foes. This is an O.K. image for a society that needs to downplay violence and domesticate the males, but one must break through this to embrace true hate. It is O.K. to hate the [evil vampire aliens.] Your species is being eaten!" (This is my paraphrase.)
This got me to thinking about how true that is. Revolutionary women, the proud young blacks who gave their lives for the Black Power Movement, even those few fucking democrats who criticise this current administration; all are/were labled 'angry.' As if being angry somehow had some bearing on whether or not that movement was in the right.
We are in a class war that's been raging for at least a few hundred years if not a few thousand. Those who some would call the ruling class or the elites have made purposeful descision to affect the lives and environment that we all develope in. Five or six decades ago men of my class (regardless of skin color, although us whites obviously had it somewhat better) had little rights at all. You worked in the mine or the factory or the stockyard. If a saw took your hand or mine dust killed ya by thirty five, well that was just too fucking bad. If god or anybody else cared then you would have been born with money to avoid these deathtrap jobs.
Young men of my class were kidnapped into the navy and consripted into the army to fight wars that almost never had anything to do with the best interests of themselves, their families, or even the country.
The ground they took with their strikes and their rebellions has been quickly lost by our generation. We've been so dumbed down by media and the quick pleasures of consumerism. We buy what we don't need for the emotional package that brainwashing (advertising) says we (and everyone else) should desire. Our education system turns kid against kid and provides plenty of opportunity for alienation and trauma - an organized masses who can see past skin color/gender/sexual orientation/religion to the reconstruction of society has been twarted in so many ways.
To insure our media is never used against them, the corporate interests have bought up just about every damn frequency and bandwidth. If they don't fill them with pro-business propaganda, then they just fill them with bullshit ('christian' radio) or porn.
We deserve to be angry. Sometimes that what it all comes down to.
Comments:
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anger is good...i respect angry people...getting pissed off and doing somehting with your anger is what built our country...i try and get angry at least once a day..and with forest gump running our country i can do that....sometimes more... like your blog..jac
I've enjoyed reading through your blog.
And, yes, I get your point about anger. Sometimes I think if you're not angry, you're not paying attention. But I see what you mean about what you said over on Meditation Matters about getting too cynical. One of the things that I'm NOT going to do is let the goons now in control of this country take away my happiness. I'm not going to give them that much power. So that's one way I manage not to get too cynical.
And, yes, I get your point about anger. Sometimes I think if you're not angry, you're not paying attention. But I see what you mean about what you said over on Meditation Matters about getting too cynical. One of the things that I'm NOT going to do is let the goons now in control of this country take away my happiness. I'm not going to give them that much power. So that's one way I manage not to get too cynical.
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# posted by 
: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:39:00 PM
: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:39:00 PM
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# posted by : Thursday, April 26, 2007 8:15:00 PM
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