By Daniel Alegi. OpeEdNews.com Sept 17, 2003
The Big Baghdaddy is pulled down and the image settles indelibly in our
pre-formatted heads. Act 1 of the highest-rated fictional reality-TV show of any century then goes on extended commercial break.
We are in it now.
All of us CNN-addicts, couch-generals, unemployed work-aholics and
fear-aholics have all headed for the loo, where new airport-style digital gizmos tell us ove and over how to lubricate our rusty American Dream illusions. Meantime, voices reassure our wallets that Gulf War 2 (GW2) was just a cheap outing, a worthwhile scuffle, a garage sale bargain.
Glad you could all pitch in to the venture, all you plastic-flag waving
patriots, all you shopper" consumer" people.
The pitching during this commercial break will be as incessant as when telemarketers get their new "sign-up for MCI" lists. The ruling sales force knows. When the country's mood needed to be shifted - Damn! Boom! Go! Go! - was it not shifted swiftly?
Feels as if maybe some of the Viagra-craze may have penetrated our pathologically apolitical machismo, and resurrected dark pulsions and solitary thrusting for the ephemeral pelasures of global manipulation and control.
Will witty verbage as: "Think Gas, Not Oil" or "Think US not Dem" (Oscar night pro-war rally wit) suffice to re-elect an unconvincing addict of dubious past and muddled present as our continuing global mis-leader? "Jail to the thief" promises better.
No matter how long it will take to restore the basic principles of the
nation after the dark fraternity that rules it now is removed from power, we the people should not forget the cost and consequences of the unconscionable actions taken not in our name.
They include the war and its dead ("collateral damage" really disrespects those innocents) as well as the opportunity costs for domestic programs that could have been created and supported here if only the skim chance of conflict had been kept in proper diplomatic perspective.
So what if public schools continue to output blue-collar-bound depressive kids who might well be fed psychotropic drugs by the time
they reach fifth grade? The crackdown on education is just one of the costs of war. The lack of any reform in our barbaric for-profit-only health system is another, as is the spreading military-prison complex plague. This is what we defend and kill for, a dream land sold to
Darwinism and its selective process? Young men put away with three strike draconian laws, or made to enlist? Let's wake up and open the White House windows, dust off the secrecy, let all the skull and bones emerge from the bolted closets.
The commercial break points only one way: we must spend. Whether we went to school and make good money, drive a truck and play bar darts, or make 5.50$ an hour in a day-care, we must invest in this reality show. The tax game has been sweetly setup for us: more if we have more, less if we have none. In the name of stimulation the race of one against the other for economic survival has begun. The busier we are chasing our debt, the less we pay attention. Or maybe progressives could break out and kill their TVs. Wake up.
When we stop looking only at the future the place to be complete and
satisfied, we may start focusing on the here and now, politically as well as existentially. For others as well as for our own material benefit.
Altruism. What a crazy anti-American thought.
Let's not intellectualize the discourse though. Never. The audience gets too small. But if we let go of paralyzed, centrist political stances made of labels and cliche's, and gather and reinforce our common mission in terms of action to be taken for the common good. Would this not be worthwhile?
A new, real commitment to action is a notion of (r)evolutionary importance.
The main metaphor is that we're on a commercial break. Between big reality shows. Wars or other such climaxes. We are on short break and we are asked as always to buy into this show, to support it, to sacrifice for a national purpose. But what if the show was one of the most devastating, life changing and addictive reality shows ever masterminded?
I am convinced this gang of moderately intelligent businessmen (one bad
apple destroys a high cabinet IQ) will be remembered in the future as an
itchy bunch of multi-legged parasites stuck on the collective back of the global population. By the power of surprise and by ruthless and relentless demolition of the self-confidence and natural fearlessness of each individual, this blood-sucking posse (the historians will insist) has kept in check an enormous mass of peaceful people. These same people were otherwise fully empowered (by constitutional rights) with the voting means to free themselves.
Future generations must celebrate this necessary liberation from
oppression. How we shampooed this greedy lice colony off our hard-working backs, tired of living in moral and social dirt. That would be a story worth watching. And telling.
Unless a clean 2004 election takeover occurs, rest assured that there would not be a proper investigation of 9.11, nor a public probe into the dishonest motivations that made us conquer Iraq while hypnotized by these con artists and second rate illusionists. Do we want real public scrutiny of the process by which the Enron "cosa nostra" sting came to be? Hello?
Now. Name the countries that border on Iraq.
(Pause)
Anyway.
If it's not the old Barnum Bros. Lollapalooza shuffle all over again, then what is it? Certainly, during this commercial break, the king and his frat brothers (and sister) will strategize without pity to refill the impeachable throne, lest the teenage revolutionary colony of 1776 wake-up from its daze and turn its undeserved destiny of today into successful truth-seeking opportunity.
Our vote is not what we buy. That is not real choice. Nobody really cares if you drink Pepsi or Coke. Really. Our vote is who WE - and no one else - select to lead this country to peace and prosperity.
So, when the commercial break is over, the best choice you can make is not to return to the TV, skip the next commercial break, don't watch the hypnotic ACT III of this script.
Go outside to look at the world as it really is. Un-mediated.
Walk, don't drive. Your neighborhood is not a scary place; there is nothing to fear, no terrorists out to get you. Go out and meet a neighbor, ask each other who you are voting for and why, or save that for tomorrow. Make a coffee the old fashioned way and the $3.50 you saved at Starbucks, donate it to independent media voices.
Have a drink of water.
It's your wake up call.
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Daniel d@cinemahead.com makes film, media and culture blogs. His film "Czar of Make Believe" has won awards but has never been screened on TV in the U.S. For the past two years Daniel has been a visiting university professor of Culture and Communications in Sweden. He also works in coop with: http://www.cinemahead.com This article is originally published at opednews.com copyright Daniel Alegi, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached
