Author's posts
Dec 17 2009
The implausibility of the narrative.
When politics gets to a point where there is no reality and we the people are only offered a story written by and for the villain with one face, politics becomes poetic faith. Our choice is between two sides of the same face. We emotionally invest in the choice believing that the pols we’re offered are going to win the day for we the people. We expect the reality of oppressive governance to end, everything will be groovy, and hopey changiness
will once again rule the land of the free and the home of the brave. Yes we can!
Feb 26 2008
Catch 22 or how I learned to love the war
Wars within wars, layers like an onion. My grandmother’s sayings rising to the top of my consciousness “My heart is like an onion. You may peel if you will but under every layer is another layer still”, all rush through my mind. The stew that is my being is called into action here and now. The collective knowledge or brainwashing, the personal, the so called rational, it’s all churning and in overdrive.
No relief in sight, calls for rationality offer nothing even close to rational. WTF is rational when nothing is clear, nothing is resolved everything is in flux. I hold on to what I can of my flawed and biased assessment of what’s going on. Is this wrong? Am I a bad Democrat, a hater, a lover, a cultist, a betrayer of the best outcome? Chastised by people I respect as a possible weak link in this battle over no difference other then mandated heath care vs. 15,000,000 left out. Heh? My feeble mind can not compute nor should it have to. I go screw you, political machines. My instincts are my friend, I think, I hope. Deliver me from the only answer? Then again perhaps this is the best bet. Roll those dice!
Take a stance and fear not I say. Then again trust experience. Who, in times like these, offers relief or even a reality that makes sense? “No one” I say, deep inside. My head spins, nausea ensues yet still I cannot let go of the hope. The layers within the Democratic party freak me out. Where does politics end and any answer to the madness begin? Not in the electronic vibrations shot out into my brain from my computer, not in the TV. Where is the answer? Nowhere. Still I cannot let go of hope, the antidote to cynicism, the only raft I have in this sea of inevitability.
Jan 14 2008
Across the great divide
I’m a lurker at heart, commenter, a non writer a visual left brain artist type, no wonk, no lawyer. I came to the net for some semblance of truth, and/or satisfaction or vague ideas of bringing reconciliation to the divide I saw between reality and what i was told was reality. The cooked up culture war being a symptom of nothing more then the manipulation of a vast and varied continent that long ago started a dream. A dream borne from discontent with an ‘inevitable’ Empire, by men (sorry for the sexist remark here) who while privileged had the vision to move this colony to self determination and a concept that has propelled the concept of governance to heights never before established. A dream that while always contained the seeds of human evil also had a thread of human possibilities. I just can’t get over the “We the People” part. It is the thread that hooks me and saves me from despair. Where is the “We the People” part? I cannot believe that technology and marketing can kill the impetus that started this organic process towards self governance.
The divides I see are not larger then the original intent, and while some will argue intent original was always divisive not progressive, I see it, it’s called human progress. I see it daily in peoples lives, not the distortions of the dream, but in the realization that something basic is wrong here. This essay is just a reminder that the divides we share, although polarizing and personal should not overshadow the united part. Not united by our silly politics but united in progress. Lets move towards a destiny that is not defined by the forces of tyranny who assume the shape of our discontent and offer us strings of beads for our hard won birthrights. ‘We the people’ is now a global force not just our tallying of momentary gain personally, you me all of us face a reality we must shape beyond the great divide. Political reality is made by people who face fear and do not accept it. The only way out of our great divide is to remember that we the people determine reality. What do you want for the real world? If your answer is peace, prosperity, equity, justice, reach out and take it is there and you make it real.
I’m so old that the song that inspired this essay by The Band is not on You Tube. this sad version is it.
Sep 20 2007
The Law, a rave
The Law is beautiful, the Law is cruel. It is self evident truths and inhumane oppression. What ever it is was brought home to me, last night, not by the Blood and Guts War which we never see, except in our dreams, but by an asshole who jumped in line and was cranked to go.