Author: chimneyswift

This is an historical inevitability, I suppose. The way the ego swells with power, identifying capacity with justification and denying the unsightly blemishes in the mirror, attacking those who insist on trying to maintain standards of internal honesty…. this is our America, and has been for a while.

We cannot say that this is comprehensively the will of the American people. But the sad truth is that this is at least not anathema to the will of the people. It is easier to remain ignorant. For those who are a part of the Establishment, it is easier not to argue. Our current course, the decision to torture and make war, is very much the will of all those who participate in the creation and dissemination of politics and “news.” It is the will of everyone else to not have to worry.

The other part of the problem is that the opposition leadership has abdicated. There is no debate, no contest. Not on this, not on nukes over Iran, not on corporate malfeasance, not on the “PATRIOT ACT,” not on the prison industrial complex, not on the military industrial complex, not on the centralization of media power and its alignment with the interests of one political party….

It has been conceded by everyone in the halls of power that the system is stronger than even a large group who know better. The culture of the times has beaten down any impulse to stand on principle. Eventually we must hold accountable those who could but do not represent an opposition with strength and passion. Do they fear martyrdom, or more do they fear marginalization? No one wants to be Crazy Al Gore. Shunned and beaten like a pin~ata.

But something must be said! If these messages will not be carried forth by those who position themselves as leaders, then we must find ways to lead. What will you do? How will you get the word out? This is the time for making waves, while it is not yet being punished. How obvious is your dissent?

What we are faced with is a cult of power. The insight provided by thoughtful people neither strengthens the aura of America the Powerful nor the god-realm aspirations of the television hosts and producers, so we can not expect to see it.

The truth is a bitter pill to the delusional, and we are caught up now in a furious storm of self aggrandizement. Historically, these storms do not just blow over. First, for whatever strange mythological reasons, we must rage and howl and the wounded and bereft must moan and mourn.

I do believe that we in blogland can make some difference, but to me it is a matter of “creating a buzz,” finding approaches to penetrate the very selectively permeable membrane of American Media Consciousness.

This will only happen when it is undeniably a growing concern. When there are really pressing concerns about dissent. And then it will be demonized. But then, most people just want to go back to sleep. There will be a growing demand to make the noise go away, and the politicians will either clamp down or compromise. Some change will occur, and clamping down, no matter how hard in the meantime, fails in the long run.

I wish it was not this way. It saddens my heart. But I do not see any governors in the system. We are careening more and more out of balance. Please tell me I am wrong.

Is this cynical? It seems only founded in an honest reading of history. We can make little real progress in the domain of masses of people. The overwhelming majority of human growth occurs in individual lives. When the awareness of specific means to improve the common lot is widespread, then there develops a pressure to make such changes in societal structures. That is not often, and it is not now. Our task now is simply to mobilize some kind of popular dissent, to make known to a wider audience what the best reasons for a different course are. We can worry about anything else later on.

Here is a question for discussion. The Dems are done. We’re all done for the time being. So what do we do about it?

As I see it, our big purpose out here in blogland has been to demonstrate to any one that gives a shit that there are ways to present an opposition that are both clear and rhetorically sound. Also, we have provided ourselves a sense of community and comfort as we watch the principles upon which our civilization was built slowly be removed and replaced with ever more brutal rationales.

Once upon a time it seemed that we could serve as a conduit for the generation of rhetoric and strategy a la the Repuglican think tank apparat, only on a distributed (and pro bono!) basis. It has become very very clear, though, that the Democratic Party decision makers have no interest in this.

Politically it is has become obvious, this entire election cycle, that the Dems have no interest in taking a stand. They avoid stating clear arguments or pushing any kind of advantage. They do not act from any kind of modern media strategy. They want to come into power with as few obligations to make substantive changes as possible.

Any of these acts would presumably set them at odds with the “real” power in this country, whoever that may be. In any case, and for whatever reason, they are unwilling to act like a real opposition party.

Without a clearly stated opposition platform there can never be enough political will in the body politic to actually make substantive changes. Without substantive changes the Dems will slide further into irrelevance in both public appraisal and in fact. Pick any issue, any news cycle, and you’ll see it’s true.

So, now, our other task is to start thinking in terms of contingency plans (protests, organizing somehow under the radar of the surveillance state and cellphone/internet dependency, going to ground or building bastions of liberal community in our blue cities).

What will you do? Do you think there is a place for mass movement tactics in todays political climate? How about a few years from now? What about all of the surveillance we know is possible/ongoing? Any thoughts?

Here’s a thing: the faux news header is, :Where is the leader of Hezbollah hiding?”

Well, first of all, I think the answer is “In your Face.” What’s more though, is that the whole set up is obvious; the hiding, the chase, the inevitable spider whole, so called.

What these LOOZERS at the News Corporation are gonna get, real soon, is that this whole situation is way more fucked than they think.  
To the point, I also do not think the old-money Republicans have half the control over the evangelicals that they would like. These people are cloud cuckoo crazy land. It’s going to be odd, but I think the modern youth-Christian movement is more likely to end sad or silly than scary, and I certainly hope so. I do not discount that the sad could indeed be very sad.

For the modern evangelicals, the simple thing many people are afraid to grapple with, both inside and outside the movement is that apocalyptic cults don’t usually end well. As with the idea of “Home” that I mentioned the other day in the isolationism discussion, the dynamic engaged by worship does indeed exist. Whatever you call it, even if you only acknowledge the reality shaped by behaviors, modeled on beliefs, it’s there. Personally I think there’s a strong argument that there’s a lot more, that it’s obvious there’s a lot more than the materialist analysis allows. But regardless, the modern evangelicals are dreaming a bad end.

—

I have long been a surprisingly optimistic person, and I think that a big part of that is that I acknowledge that most of human history has been bloody.

It’s very sad. Eventually the sorrow of the world will stop the fighting for a while, again.

For our near future, though, I encourage everyone to begin practicing your cognitive stretching exercises. Thing can change dramatically in a very short time, that’s proven often enough through history, as well.

What does it mean to exercise? What does it mean, to change dramatically? This is a good exercise to start with: Imagine the most dramatic changes reasonably conceivable, try to find a variety, experiment with variations of every kind.

We can more easily accomplish what we can imagine.

So just a few thoughts…

Consider: The Jordanians say hey, we told you where Zarqawi was 4 or 5 times and you never did anything.

Bush goes to Baghdad just before we hit Zarqawi, does his patented tough talkin idiot thing, is hailed as a strong leader, a brave and glorious codpiece once again.

We hit Zarqawi.

A week after we hit Zarqawi the USA today blares that Afghanistan has suddenly gotten much worse! Holy Toledo!

….next is….?

I tend to think “not much,” for now anyway. These folks have an uncanny patience and sense of timing. The grand goal is always a master narrative.

But just as a further exercise in borderline paranoia, if this is a scripted strategy a la Karl Rove, I cannot help but wonder what the significant variable was that they keyed on to start the sequence.