"O Nature, and O soul of man! how far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies! not the smallest atom stirs or lives in matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind." -Herman Melville, Moby Dick
All human beings have a talent for the denial of the more unpalatable aspects of ourselves, but we Americans have turned denial into a form of collective genius. There is no need to burn books, if the public is too ignorant to know they exist -- or too benumbed to resonate with their content.
Regarding the death of well over half-a-million Iraqis, the majority of the citizenry of The Corporatists States of America have experienced a comparable degree of regret and remorse that their oligarchic overlords experience when topping-off the tanks of their corporate jets with fuel purchased with money plundered from their employee's retirement accounts ... Sans conscience above -- sans conscience below.
Dante posited Limbo (that quiet suburban community ringing Hell) was a place reserved for those who evinced indifference to the world around them. It would seem our corporate/consumer version of Damnation (which now includes Casual Fridays in Hell itself) requires prescriptions for anti-depressants, urine tests, and Reality Television competitions to enter its inner most circles.
As stated, human beings have always possessed an immense capacity for self-deception -- but, at present, we Americans can no longer afford stupid, naked monkey business as usual: The stakes are too damn high. When we, as a people, cannot or will not connect the needless deaths of well over half-a-million Iraqis with the oversized motor vehicles in our driveways, the situation has grown dire indeed.
How can we go on this way? At this point, a guilt-induced, collective nervous breakdown in the middle of our morning commute would seem to be in order.
By existing in this degree of denial, what have we conjured? What sort of a society do we call forth when our lives are as isolated, benumbed, inauthentic and devoid of conscience as they are at present? The answer is: We're living in the midst of it -- this hideous era of pervasive flimflam and permanent war. Call it: The Haliburtonization of everyday life. Again, as above -- so below.
We live in a nation dominated by salesmanship (commercial, political, religious). Accordingly, the salesman's credo is: a facile mendacity trumps a stubborn truth -- because an honest mode of being would cause the buyer to become wary of the giddy lie of the pitch. Hence, complicity in its duplicity is what the corporate/consumer state demands of us.
The salesman's counterfeit smile is, of course, camouflage. Beneath it is hidden a face more closely resembling that quintessential corporatist and Haliburton-allumni-in-good-standing: Dick Cheney; his joyless, thin-lipped, psychopath's half grin is the true countenance of our death-enamored empire.
A salesman's repertoire of manipulative enthusiasm and sham amiability fronts the whole criminal enterprise. Is it any coincidence that Las Vegas and prisons are the fastest growing population centers in the United States? -- We've become a country comprised of clip-joints and jails -- a land of suckers and criminals -- with a cultural landscape peopled by corporate scam artists, congressional bagmen, and war criminals (hiding in plain sight in the highest offices of the land). It's a natural progression, due to the fact that capitalism has always depended on a predatory class of sociopaths, has always relied upon thievery and murder, and, therefore, needs an endless supply of suckers and victims.
Yet, most of us Americans are no one's victims. Any con artist worth his smarmy smile is aware of this fact: As a rule, a mark is made the victim of his own greed. Moreover -- by means of our complicity in allowing our identities to be molded by a culture dominated by proliferate propaganda, empty salesmanship, and our own lies of omission -- the fate of a hapless mark, bamboozled by self-inflicted selfishness, is the criteria we live out daily. Apropos, we're now condemned to shuffle through our lives as somnambulating ciphers, dim denizens of a world made manifest by mountebanks.
We should be cautioned. History reveals: What a nation inflicts upon the world -- its own people will, sooner or later, inflict upon each other. There is no need to warily scan the horizon line for its arrival, because we're already living in the midst of the angst and emptiness we have wrought. Ergo, when dreams mean nothing -- when words and images are rendered meaningless -- our lives reflect these dismal states.
Words, images, and dreams are our internal analog of the vast, manifold, and incomprehensible sublime of the cosmos. When we dream: We are spiraling supernovas and spindling stalks of slime mold. We are schools of silent fish and we are the fulmination of thunder. We are uniquely ourselves; yet, we also contain all of existence. To lose our dreams is to lose our soul. Hence: To have the verities of our inner selves twisted and distorted towards the selfish ends of corporate capitalism and the dishonest agendas of mass media-driven political discourse is to become estranged from passion, empathy, and imagination; thereby, we grow inured to phrases such as preemptive war, collateral damage and acceptable losses -- expressions that we should find repellent, if not, flat-out mortifying.
If not, then it should follow: We should change the names of the civilian casualties of war, inscribed upon their respective tombstones, to simply read "Collateral Damage." Moreover, narratives of bereavement should sound something like this: "You see, when the bombs of the Preemptive Warriors fell on our home -- our child, now named, 'Collateral Damage,' was asleep in her crib, and she became 'our little Acceptable Loss.'" Now try this: See how the statement above sounds when you substitute the names of your loved-ones -- or even the names of your pets.
In opposition to empathy, the corporatist mode of being instructs us that human life, like material objects, exists merely to be used, used-up, then discarded; nature is to be subdued, exploited, and decimated; trees -- toppled; rivers -- dammed up; mountains -- ground down to silt; words -- degraded, attenuated, and stripped of meaning. Finally, they will come for us.
Phil Rockstroh, a self-described, auto-didactic, gasbag monologist, is a poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living in New York City. He may be contacted at: phil@philrockstroh.com Visit Phil's Website
Talk about collective, national denial...is it really any surprise -- when you stop and think about it -- that the United States finds itself in its current predicament? Has everyone conveniently forgotten the giddy glee with which we "snookered" the Native Americans, grabbing New York for a whopping $29 worth of trinkets? (a lesson taught in every classroom to every public gradeschooler) This country was founded on deception and cold-blooded murder, with an honorless trail of countless broken treaties with the Native Americans that runs right up to the present day. And the principal of our collective debt -- with interest -- has finally come due.
With typical hypocritical "missionizing", we have built our house of cards upon a Native American graveyard. And with equally typical irony, we are now reaping exactly what we have sown. The shallowness of our honor is now reverberating throughout our collective guilty conscience.
Lone Ranger: "Uh oh, Tonto...we're surrounded by injuns. Looks like we're in a heap of a lot of trouble".
Tonto: "What you mean "we", White Man"?
by
Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 5:11:10 AM
Ah, the collective delusional American way. Don't you just love it?
It is sad indeed that so many who live here are all too happy to trade their intellect for the blissful, opium-like substance known as ignorance. Has anyone as of yet done a study to find out why we're so willing to do this? I'd really like to know. Just like the seeming love that so many people hold for DUBYA, I just don't get it!
As someone who has never taken the lazy tack of allowing others to think for me, I have to say that I am sometimes incredibly dismayed at those of my species who are so willing to do just that. What gain can there possibly be in being so disconnected from one's own intellect?
I feel as if I am living in one of the rings of Dante's vision of hell, and I can't figure out what I did to get there. I don't drive a gas guzzling American fuck-you-mobile. I don't buy into the rampant comsumerism of the day. Hell, I can barely afford to buy much of anything since event and circumstance have conspired to keep me in an unending state of financial poverty. And yet, I am stuck in and married to a society that praises mediocrity, places virtue on stupidity, allows that same stupidity the floor in any debate, and demonizes anyone with the audacity to think for themselves.
I almost feel as if this world is trying to break me; to bring me down to its level. Common sense is cast to the winds. Intellectual prowess is antiquated. Evolution is wrong, but irrational religious drivel is de regur. It's hard to keep my mind clear sometimes.
At least I have this place as a bit of a respite from the tumult of the moronic.
It is no surprise that we are now reaping the whirlwind. One can only imagine the depth of the karmic debt this country must face for its five to six centuries of death and destruction. It's just sad that all must suffer, including those who find our actions as a country to be reprehenisble.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 3:46:47 PM
It's not like I have a choice in the matter. Yeah, I am pissed off about the world I live in, but that's nothing new. Some would say it's the way of the world.
I just get so downhearted sometimes. I look at the way people are, and I just can't understand it. Why on earth would anyone actively and willingly work to remain stupid? It makes no sense to me at all.
I have worked long and hard on my mental faculties. I could have pissed away the entirety of my primary and secondary education like so many I knew did. I just couldn't see myself doing something like that.
The killing thing is it almost seems for naught. Here I am at forty-four, an unemployed blue collar guy watching as my life, my health, and everything I hold dear (honesty, integrity, humility, hard work, and determination) all melt slowly away before my eyes.
I can't tell you how many resumes I have sent out. I can't tell you how I have begged for jobs. I can't tell you how dehumanizing it feels to do those things, and still be without work. There are some days I just don't even want to wake and face the world.
Oh yes, I am depressed...of that there can be no doubt. I had so much in my life at one time, and now it's all gone. It was taken away from me by the ruinous politics and policies of DUBYA. He was put in power by stupid people who coudn't see beyond the ghost that looked like Osama; a ghost that was manufactured by DUBYA and his fuck head pigs.
I guess you could say I qualify as collateral damage. My life is nothing but a pale apparition of what it once was. I am nothing because of the politics of fear that has destroyed everything this country once stood for.
I will hang on, though. Even as threadbare as it may look, I still have something resembling hope left within this battered shell of a man. Forgive me for being so dramatic and maudlin, but there are times I have no choice. I want so badly to have my dignity back, and I feel as if this election goes the way of 2000, 2002, and 2004, there will be no regaining my dignity at all.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 3:11:11 AM
It might sound trite or over-simplified, Pappy, but it's not. One moment of true faith is more powerful than all the collective power and wealth of these Satanic ghouls. Never underestimate the power of your faith, my friend.
As a partial answer to one of your questions, Pappy, the reason so many people appear to be asleep is that there has been a systematic assault over the past 50-60 years to propagandize the Western public via television, radio, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, public education, the Internet, the porn industry, gambling, drugs, false religious leaders, and various and sundry other forms of mass manipulation.
Similarly, some folks are beginning to wake up. Take heart, Pappy; you are not alone! If you stop to think about it, there are definitely MORE good, decent people who are NOT drunk on power and empty of values than there are these power mongers; there are people who understand that patriotism is NOT wrapping bloodied flags around a tarmac full of coffins from an illegal, immoral war and calling that patriotism; there are people who still know the difference between right and wrong, without the need for a PR firm to spin night into day and lies into truth.
Faith is a precious gift. These Satanic, near-soulless traitors who have stolen our government are truly empty little pets for Dante's innermost circles. Rejoice that you can see clearly, and continue to voice your ideas and ideals; in the end, your light and our collective light shall drive their dark shadows from the face of the earth and from the conscience of humanity.
by
Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 11:30:40 PM
It might sound trite or over-simplified, Pappy, but it's not. One moment of true faith is more powerful than all the collective power and wealth of these Satanic ghouls. Never underestimate the power of your faith, my friend.
Faith, it's about all I have left. I can see no other reason why I am still sucking air. Truly almost everything else in my life has left me. I have a roof over my head only because my roommate looks upon me as the brother he never had. I am grateful for this, but on the other side of the coin, it's so embarrassing to feel like I am no more than a well educated bum. It's not that I don't try, it's just that nothing I try seems to work.
I have millions of irons in the fire. I have my writing here and elsewhere. I have my harp. I have my business. I send out resumes. I keep on keeping on. However, some days, it just doesn't seem worth it. I can't give up, even though just about every part of me wants to do just that.
As a partial answer to one of your questions, Pappy, the reason so many people appear to be asleep is that there has been a systematic assault over the past 50-60 years to propagandize the Western public via television, radio, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, public education, the Internet, the porn industry, gambling, drugs, false religious leaders, and various and sundry other forms of mass manipulation.
I know, boy howdy, do I know. I know because I have resisted all these things (except perhaps for the porn). I have not been hoodwinked into a sleeping stupor, but I sometimes wish I had been. It would make dealing with the shit in my life so much easier.
A part of me is jealous that I can't be so easily lulled into a consumerist slumber. I'll freely admit it right here and now for the whole world to see. I wish I could abandon my good senses, my intellect, and my concern and just turn into another brain-dead, nose-picking, drooling mental midget. Then the fact that I am being fucked so hard by the Republican agenda wouldn't hurt so much. I could put on my best "What, me worry?" smile and pretend none of this means anything.
But I can't do that. My self respect, such as it is, won't let me go there. My conscience would never let me get a moment's rest. I have to be able to live inside my skin. To sell myself short like so many seem willing to do would make that impossible.
Similarly, some folks are beginning to wake up. Take heart, Pappy; you are not alone! If you stop to think about it, there are definitely MORE good, decent people who are NOT drunk on power and empty of values than there are these power mongers; there are people who understand that patriotism is NOT wrapping bloodied flags around a tarmac full of coffins from an illegal, immoral war and calling that patriotism; there are people who still know the difference between right and wrong, without the need for a PR firm to spin night into day and lies into truth.
I want to believe you are right. I want nothing more than to once again feel like there is more to my life than merely existing. I want to believe I am not the only tortured intellectual that exists. I want to know there are more people than you or I that know there is a difference between blind nationalism and true patriotism. Having a change-over come November 7 would go a long way in helping restore my faith in this country, and the people who call it home.
Faith is a precious gift. These Satanic, near-soulless traitors who have stolen our government are truly empty little pets for Dante's innermost circles. Rejoice that you can see clearly, and continue to voice your ideas and ideals; in the end, your light and our collective light shall drive their dark shadows from the face of the earth and from the conscience of humanity.
I sure as hell hope you are right. I honestly don't know how much longer I can carry on in this sort of world. I'd give anything to feel like I did a mere seven years ago when I had my own place, two fully functional vehicles with full fuel tanks, all my bills paid, and enough money left over to go to see a movie in a theater, get a nice, thick steak, or take a drive to Austin just for the hell of it. I miss all those things. I want them all back.
It's not like I am asking for the world to fall at my feet. I just want my human dignity back. Is that so much to ask?
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 3:37:24 AM
I do not know what is your primary occupation but the above folks have many jobs everywhere and of different kinds. Maybe you could get in touch with their local rep and talk. They are employee-owned and very versatile. They do give benefits. Another source of info on the issue is Craiglist, maybe you have heard of it. I have just recently finished searching jobs for my son:) and that craiglist was a gem.
Good luck
by
Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 251 diaries, 3598 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 7:38:50 AM
Here is a copy/paste from the "About Us" for SAIC:
"We are a leading provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services and products to all branches of the U.S. military, agencies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other U.S. Government civil agencies, as well as to customers in selected commercial markets. Our customers seek our domain expertise to solve complex technical challenges requiring innovative solutions for mission-critical functions in such areas as national security, intelligence and homeland defense. Increasing demand for our services and products is driven by priorities including the ongoing global war on terror and the transformation of the U.S. military."
I think the above pretty much speaks for itself. But don't despair, Pappy. Remember...Satanic forces thrive on disrupting the economic foundations of creative individuals, because the more they can make people feel dependent upon them, instead of upon Providence, the more chaos and havoc they can wreak.
NOTE to Pappy: When I was talking about faith, Pappy, I was talking about faith in yourself, faith in your values, and faith in the true Creator of each of us and our world -- the one who invests up with free will, NOT the Satanists who attempt to enslave us.
by
Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 10:56:30 AM
While I appreciate the concern, to propose to me that I become part of the machine against which I rail leaves me in a real quandary. Was this suggestion made seriously, or was it done to prove a point? Frankly, I have to believe it wasn't done seriously.
I could no more work for a company that is a part of the DOD death machine than I could vote for a Republican, or even consider becoming a part of that draconain party.
I have my principles! I have my self respect to consider! If that's all that is out there for me, then I suppose I'll just have to hunker down and accept being a street person when that reality comes around.
There are things in life that are more important than money. I know that makes me sound like anything but a "true" American. So be it! I know I can't eat my principles. I know I can't stay warm turning my scruples into firewood. I know I can't put a roof over my head with my conscience. However, I also can't live inside my own skin if I violate my principles, scruples, and conscience just so I can fall face first at the altar of the almighty dollar. I simply can't do it!
So, if this was a serious offer, thanks but no thanks. If it was a joke made at my expense, I suggest it was rather sick and gratuitous.
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 12:09:49 PM
It was a serious information provision, not an offer, just trying to help. Let's not be political very much when a person needs (as Pappy said) to live, eat, have a roof and survive. I am not working for that company, I just know that it has many things and there are many jobs and some of those are associated with the things you do not like and some are not. I did not mean to do anything but just help in providing info. No jokes or anything; how can a person joke when the matter of sustenance is in question is beyond me.
Here is my logic, though and please, do not consider me cynical. Finding something you truly want takes time. You can work for a short time for someone you do not like and then move somewhere else.. I guess. But whatever you decide, I certainly did not mean to mock anything or joke on your principles.
by
Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 251 diaries, 3598 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 1:18:38 PM
"You cannot be serious". (Although, according to what you've said, you WERE serious.) All I can say is that, while everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, if it were possible to miss the mark any more in terms of offering up something genuinely helpful to Pappy, you certainly have managed to achieve that.
by
Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 2:06:13 PM
It was a serious information provision, not an offer, just trying to help. Let's not be political very much when a person needs (as Pappy said) to live, eat, have a roof and survive.
Followed by...
"You cannot be serious". (Although, according to what you've said, you WERE serious.) All I can say is that, while everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, if it were possible to miss the mark any more in terms of offering up something genuinely helpful to Pappy, you certainly have managed to achieve that.
I appreciate the idea, but the point remains there is no way on this planet or any other I could work for a company that fuels so many of the problems against which I write. As I said, I have to be able to live inside my own skin. As much as I drop the word "hypocrite" on this site, the LAST thing I want is for anyone to be able to use that word in my direction. For me to ally or associate myself with any company such as that one would mean I had officially sold out my principles for the almighty dollar.
I know that may make me seem like I don't want to work. For from it. I'd love to wake up tomorrow to an invite from an employer to come and work for them. However, I have to be able to live with myself, and to work for anyplace that is allied with the war effort would make that impossible. I am sure something will come along...hell, maybe some entity will read my stuff here, and decide I am worthy of their employ, either on staff, or as a freelancer.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 3:41:43 AM
Emblematic of what we're dealing with here, is, I believe, captured in this short email exchange I had this morning with an (un)concerned citizen.
Message sent by barry
Message :
"Is there more to life then a didgital camera and a giant t..v? I doubt it. George Bush and Cheyney represent the real America.They are us.Is that bad?I doubt it.Have enough money,you can have fun.Is there anything better then having fun?I doubt it.Iraq is a way for Americans to let off steam,like sports .Me ,I prefer golf.Now thats a real way of life.As for you,keep waving at windmills,it is silly but harmless."
I reply: If your missive isn't a quixotic attempt at humor (charging at the windmills of irony -- not to mention good grammar and syntax) -- your statement (as well as your pitiful life, as you inelegantly describe it) is simply another dim variation -- summed up -- succinctly by the expression "the banality of evil".
by
Phil Rockstroh (26 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 42 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 2:00:12 PM
The struggle to discern the difference between "surviving" and "living" seems to me to be the core of what's being discussed here. I read a piece a while back discussing Edward Bernays -- the father of public relations -- that described the intentional decision to move the US from a society of "need" to a society of "want".
As long as we continue to seek our "wants", rather than our needs, we are in trouble. Similarly, I am beginning to think that if we thoroughly accept that G-d sustains our survival, so that we might fulfill our purpose for "living" (i.e. the reason we chose to reincarnate at precisely this point in time and space), we might actually be able and/or assisted in achieving that noble, "high road" purpose. If we get the two parts confused, however, we shall undoubtedly fail; or at least struggle (unnecessarily) mightily and painfully in the process.
(It's interesting that in Darwinian theory -- the atheistic core of the Satanatic movement -- the primary mantra is "SURVIVAL of the fittest". Maybe this will help highlight the difference between survival and living.)
by
Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 2:20:29 PM
But we're in no more danger from an imaginary being such as Satan -- then we are from having fairies steal on children. The danger we face is completely human. Moreover, it's the most dangerous sorts who appear to harbor a deep and abiding belief (delusion) in the existence of God and the Devil.
by
Phil Rockstroh (26 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 42 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 2:37:33 PM
However...(LOL)...I respectfully disagree with your atheist perspective. (Nevertheless, I'll leave the lights on, and tne the key under the rock by the side of the door, should you ever change your mind.)
Ooooops...did I say that out loud? (The part about the key being under the rock by the side of the door) heheheheh
by
Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 2:55:20 PM
I have found it interesting that when I read about Satanists, (i.e., the Anton LeVey sort) it's almost like reading an Ayn Rand novel. T'were it not for the fact that I also rail against anything christian, up to and including their sworn enemy and antithesis, Satan, I might be interested in joining up. Of course, that stuff about bringing human anthropomorphic robots (androids) into reality sort of makes me scratch my head as well, but that's just me.
As far as the difference between survival and living, I'd like to be able to do either on my own. I frankly don't care which one I do, as long as it means I have money. If I can pay my bills, keep my car on the road, and maybe get a nice pedal harp out of the deal, all the better. For now, I'd be happy with a place of my own.
I know it will happen again. I can't stay in this position for ever. It's only a matter of time until something good this way comes.
Thanks to everyone who wrote to me on this issue. It's nice to know that there are people outside my immediate personal circle who care about me.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 3:52:55 AM
My personal belief -- dissociated from theology -- is that we're all on our way home -- it's more a matter of how we get there. (I also believe that just like Australia was the repository for England's jails and asylums, Earth serves the same function for the universe, but that's another matter entirely. LOL)
by
Lilith's Spirit (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 12:04:14 PM
My personal belief -- dissociated from theology -- is that we're all on our way home -- it's more a matter of how we get there. (I also believe that just like Australia was the repository for England's jails and asylums, Earth serves the same function for the universe, but that's another matter entirely. LOL)
Hmm, the earth as a penal colony for the rest of the universe? It makes sense to me. What else could explain the ass backwards nature of this planet and the naked apes that tear voraciously at it's dying core?
As for being on our way home, I sure hope we get there soon. I am tired of the ride, and I don't want to drive any longer.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 3:29:55 PM
I thought I had coined the expression a couple of years ago that Earth is to the Universe what Australia was to the Earth. Then, the other day, I found this link.
