Join me at the American Street
...where I'll be posting each Thursday (and cross-posting/archiving here).
Do we have ANY fight left in us?
Still, we wait for someone else to unfurl the anti-war banner from an overpass or spray-paint THE ONE PARTY STATE on each stop sign at the four-way intersection near the high school. But outward signs of discontent are few-to-nonexistent, and those of us not surrounded by like-minded citizens wonder, "Isn't anyone in this community feeling as abused and outraged as me?" Who would know.
Dissent without resistance. We're guilty as fuck and you know it.
Like damsels in distress, we dream of salvation from the Democrat who "grows a spine" or a contemporary version of Edward R. Murrow to conquer the hostile airwaves. Someone to waltz onto the television screen and fashion something meaningful from the scattered shards of dissent lying here and there. In our heart of hearts, we know it isn't going to happen. But clinging to the fantasy spares us from pondering what risks we are willing to take and what sacrifices we are willing to make, if any.
Liberals like to think of themselves as tough. The sad, uncomfortable truth is that we are role-playing in ornate costumes stained with the blood, sweat and sacrifice of generations past. We are hiding behind peace signs and the hollowest of platitudes to feed our self-righteousness. What have we fought lately? Plenty, if one's idea of "fighting" is writing letters to the New York Times and Nancy Pelosi.
I like admitting this as much as you like hearing it: With the rarest of exceptions, today's Liberal is anything but tough. And getting that way - like the boxer preparing for The Big Fight - should be a top priority among those who purport to be "reality-based." As individuals, we are far too preoccupied with appeasing authority - with "playing by the rules" - to cause The Powers That Be any real trouble. This has to change.
If the function of knowledge is to inform action, where is the action in this sterile, stifling ghost town of conformity we call America?
Like the polished Democratic politicians who preen before the cameras, grumble on cue and then accommodate the dark forces of fear and oppression as if it's Just Another Day, so, too, does the rest of the citizenry engage in this charade. Expecting elected Democrats to fight, even as we ourselves do nothing but write the occasional letter and/or check, reveals a debilitating character flaw that must be corrected if our downward spiral is to be broken. Until this fundamental weakness is acknowledged and overcome, our Constitutional Republic will lie in ashes as The Knobby Boot stands on our collective throat. Short of such an epiphany and correction, we can only look forward to a future of disappointment, resignation and submission. And until each of us takes it upon ourselves to change personally, we will deserve our lousy fate.
Dissent without resistance, it should be noted, is a form of consent. If official acts offend our sense of decency, moral sanction must be enacted, and justice applied through punishment and restitution, or one’s words have no meaning but to flatter one’s sense of piety. Autonomy, human dignity, integrity, and justice cannot be obtained without accountability. Thus there are distinct limits to a strategy of moral theatrics in containing such things as the neurosis of militarism and the associated pathogen of aggression; at some point, risks must be taken to curtail systematic global violence. The problems of terrorism, foreign and domestic, lay and official, I would observe, promise to get worse until the popular desire to be either righteous or reassured is surpassed by a popular desire to be informed and effective; faith in piety or patriarchy is not conducive to personal growth. Reflective analysis is the antidote to doctrinaire strategy and tactics.Most of you already know - even though you can't bring yourself to admit it - The Republic is deader than Elvis. The definition of "post-Constitutional" is painfully obvious to a thoughtful, erudite reader such as yourself. You've been following the crimes of the Bush Administration for over a half-decade now. And you're accustomed to feeling a cold blade thrust into your heart by the politicians you send to D.C. to do The People's work. It's a fucking wonder any of us have any blood left. Come to think of it, that would explain the anemia.
~Jay Taber, The Power of Moral Sanction
Still, we wait for someone else to unfurl the anti-war banner from an overpass or spray-paint THE ONE PARTY STATE on each stop sign at the four-way intersection near the high school. But outward signs of discontent are few-to-nonexistent, and those of us not surrounded by like-minded citizens wonder, "Isn't anyone in this community feeling as abused and outraged as me?" Who would know.
Dissent without resistance. We're guilty as fuck and you know it.
Like damsels in distress, we dream of salvation from the Democrat who "grows a spine" or a contemporary version of Edward R. Murrow to conquer the hostile airwaves. Someone to waltz onto the television screen and fashion something meaningful from the scattered shards of dissent lying here and there. In our heart of hearts, we know it isn't going to happen. But clinging to the fantasy spares us from pondering what risks we are willing to take and what sacrifices we are willing to make, if any.
Liberals like to think of themselves as tough. The sad, uncomfortable truth is that we are role-playing in ornate costumes stained with the blood, sweat and sacrifice of generations past. We are hiding behind peace signs and the hollowest of platitudes to feed our self-righteousness. What have we fought lately? Plenty, if one's idea of "fighting" is writing letters to the New York Times and Nancy Pelosi.
I like admitting this as much as you like hearing it: With the rarest of exceptions, today's Liberal is anything but tough. And getting that way - like the boxer preparing for The Big Fight - should be a top priority among those who purport to be "reality-based." As individuals, we are far too preoccupied with appeasing authority - with "playing by the rules" - to cause The Powers That Be any real trouble. This has to change.
If the function of knowledge is to inform action, where is the action in this sterile, stifling ghost town of conformity we call America?
Like the polished Democratic politicians who preen before the cameras, grumble on cue and then accommodate the dark forces of fear and oppression as if it's Just Another Day, so, too, does the rest of the citizenry engage in this charade. Expecting elected Democrats to fight, even as we ourselves do nothing but write the occasional letter and/or check, reveals a debilitating character flaw that must be corrected if our downward spiral is to be broken. Until this fundamental weakness is acknowledged and overcome, our Constitutional Republic will lie in ashes as The Knobby Boot stands on our collective throat. Short of such an epiphany and correction, we can only look forward to a future of disappointment, resignation and submission. And until each of us takes it upon ourselves to change personally, we will deserve our lousy fate.
There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies on the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
~Mario Savio; Berkeley, 1966
posted by Arvin Hill at 5/18/2006 11:10:00 AM
<< Home