Amendment IX: January 2016

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Electoral Politics

If you have convictions, cast your vote accordingly. If you lack convictions, vote for the candidate without a penis. She lacks convictions, too--except for the conviction that she is somehow entitled to be the next President of the United States (which, as convictions go, is not a particularly admirable one).

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Party Of The Craven

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Donald is a head-fake. I simply cannot believe that the Republican Party establishment will allow an egotistical buffoon with absolutely zero political experience to become the head of the Party. Trump is pure political theater designed to throw Democrats into a panic so that they will go for the "sure thing" (HRC) instead of the "upstart" Bernie Sanders. A ballot cast in fear is not a ballot freely cast. You can quote me on that.

Friday, January 15, 2016

We, The Citizens Of The Invisible Whitmanian Republic...

The Invisible Whitmanian Republic (IWR) has continued, largely underground, since Walt and the other two members of the Holy Trinity (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau) set it in motion almost a century ago.

From about 1963-1973, it dared to raise its Transcendentalist head above the surface here and there. A lot of good music was made, the wisdom (if not the very notion) of a war was put in question, bigotry made unfashionable, and a criminal President was driven from office (but not, unfortunately, put behind bars).

Then came the Great Right-Wing Revanchement: Reagan finished his second term as Governor of California in 1975 and the so-called “neocons” (Corporatocratic Fascists or CF) went to work, grooming him and preparing the country for the unveiling of their New American Nightmare in 1980. Since then, they have pretty much called the tune by financing the devolution of the so-called two-party system into an almost air-tight duopoly that staffs an Imperial Presidency and a largely ceremonial congress modeled on the Chinese Politburo.

The CF bought up news media and made skillful use of their network of retrograde Christian churches for propaganda purposes. Its Pentagon allies went to work (aided by massive “defense”—actually “offense”—spending) to rehabilitate militarism in the public eye after the humiliating debacle in Southeast Asia. The CF even formed an unholy alliance with Zionists (despite an almost innate anti-Semitism throughout their ranks) in order to turn Jews—heretofore reliable foot-soldiers for the moderate to radical left—to their imperialistic purposes.

And they implemented CF economics: a systematic transfer of wealth from the American working poor and middle class to the upper 1% in exchange for a worthless promissory note that reads, on its face, “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats.” In the fine print, however, is a notice of foreclosure on the traditional bedrock of middle class stability and financial security: the family home.

Perhaps their greatest stroke of genius has been the pitting of the middle class against the working poor through a rhetoric of white victimage. This strategy is a form of race-baiting that has proved to be remarkably effective because the middle class is disproportionately Caucasian and the working poor are disproportionately people of color. As the members of the predominately white middle class experience ever greater economic insecurity, they look down the socio-economic ladder for someone to blame--the Black and Latino working poor. Meanwhile, the corporatocracy robs them blind from above.

The American middle class asks nothing more from its government than to be bought, reassured, appeased. Its theme song, Fleetwood Mac's “Little Lies” (released in 1987—just months after Reagan broke the news of his Administration’s Iran Contra criminality), expresses this desire in the form of a jingle. Its religion is Disneyanity (diagnosed by the great Protestant theologian Paul Tillich when he observed that, by the middle of the 20th century, Christian “faith” had come to mean “belief in the unbelievable”). Its “vision” for the future: Robin Leach's “champagne wishes and caviar dreams.” As a consequence, the American middle class is easily manipulated and difficult to betray (since they are involved in continual self-betrayal). But even lemmings have their limits.

And one must never underestimate the role of what the Qur’an calls takabbur (self-aggrandizement) in the affairs of women and men. Many stalwart CF'ers drink the same Kool-Aid that they serve in generous portions to the American electorate. The more they drink, the greater the distance between their perceptions of the world and the facts on the ground. Even if they manage to avoid over-playing their hand—What? They haven’t already?—history is the record of unintended consequences. Something unforeseen will crash the party.

We, the citizens of the IWR, must stick to our knitting and quietly go about our business with dignity, integrity, and grace despite the surreal conditions of life under CF Empire. The Palestinians call this sumud (type that word into the search feature at Ghaffar Khan Society for a fuller explanation of this term).

At some point (maybe in our lifetimes, maybe later), the proverbial shite will hit the imperial fan and the world will need the visionary sanity that we cultivate among ourselves in order to pick up the pieces and usher in the dawn of a brand new day.

Listen carefully.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Emersonian Prophecy

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick, there will be bitterness in our laughter, and our wine will burn our mouth.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Napoleon," 1845.