In the Shadow of Joy

The feeling I have when surrounded by Obamaphiles reminds me of my adolescent experience in a pentecostal church: discomforting. Long ago I realized that Barack Obama is a salesman peddling a product: Barack Obama. Naturally, this makes me a pariah — an alien sensation! — among many.

Enthusiasm and euphoria, especially of a religious nature, is immune to inquiry and analysis. Being high is justification enough. So because I am loathe to ruin their buzz, among Obamaphiles I smile and remain silent.

When I want to voice my opinion, I remind myself of the Taoist maxim: Spare speech and let things be. And I comfort myself with In Tenebris #2 by Thomas Hardy.

---

WHEN the clouds’ swoln bosoms echo back the shouts of the many and strong
That things are all as they best may be, save a few to be right ere long,
And my eyes have not the vision in them to discern what to these is so clear,
The blot seems straightway in me alone; one better he were not here.

The stout upstanders say, All’s well with us; ruers have nought to rue!
And what the potent say so oft, can it fail to be somewhat true?
Breezily go they, breezily come; their dust smokes around their career,
Till I think I am one born out of due time, who has no calling here.

Their dawns bring lusty joys, it seems; their evenings all that is sweet;
Our times are blessed times, they cry: Life shapes it as is most meet,
And nothing is much the matter; there are many smiles to a tear;
Then what is the matter is I, I say. Why should such a one be here?…

Let him in whose ears the low-voiced Best is killed by the clash of the First,
Who holds that if way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst,
Who feels that delight is a delicate growth cramped by crookedness, custom and fear,
Get him up and be gone as one shaped awry; he disturbs the order here.

---

Cynics and gadflys have always been pariahs and outcasts.

Hmm. Maybe I should start a commune.

Against Nationalism

Love of country is a prejudice. Love of country leads to war. That’s why I hate nationalism.

Why do you hate America?

Why do you hate Japan?

Against exceptionalism

America is not an exceptional nation. Nor is America an exceptional civilization. Human civilization has existed for more than 10,000 years. What is two hundred plus years of national history compared to 10,000 years of human civilization?

Civilization is based on irrigation, agriculture, and sanitation. Every viable civilization on this planet has had those technologies. If you believe in the myth of American exceptionalism, you need to read more history. And sincerely ask yourself: What is so exceptional about America?

The Aztecs had irrigation and urban planning. The Egyptians completed massive public works. And Athens had democracy.

What is so special about America? Why do people’s hearts swell with pride when they see a tattered banner flapping in the wind?

All of the presidential candidates buy into the myth of American exceptionalism. But I never believed that America was exceptional — even after thousands of recitations of compulsory indoctrination — worshipping an ugly and inelegant icon — and I no longer believe in the myth of American greatness. And I do not quite understand the point of “electing” a “president” to the greatest military empire that this world has ever seen. (And I distrust the motives of anyone who would be King.)

If you believe that America is exceptional because it is a liberal democracy, you haven’t been reading the news. As Noam Chomsky never tires of pointing out, America is not a functioning democracy because public opinion does not matter. America is not a liberal democracy: it is an oligarchy: Our political class is made up of the rich and rules for the rich. Is that fact in doubt?

While I do admit that America is better than other nations, especially if you’re a sexual minority, it is past time we abandoned the myth that we live in a country that is exceptional; that we live in a land that is blessed by God. What does it mean for God to bless a nation? Does God bless Algeria? Does God bless Morocco? Does God bless Zimbabwe? Do you actually believe that the Creator of the Cosmos is really concerned with geopolitics? (If you answer yes to that question, I assume you’re still stuck in the narrative of the Old Testament.)

I’m tired of the myth of American exceptionalism. I’m tired of the narrative of nationalism. And I’m tired of the belief that patriotism — the Religion of the State, which is a form of prejudice — is a virtue.

I wish people would abandon these tattered security blankets.

And wake up.

Against Nationalism

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

---

∧ PATRIOTISM = …

Patriotism is for the Narrow Minded

I hate the Fourth of July. It is a peurile celebration of hypocrisy, a time to gaze in awe at glittering lights and croon “Wow. Isn’t America great!” or “Oooh. God loves us, doesn’t he!”

Howard Zinn writes:

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking — cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on — have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power. (Source)

I abandoned the myth of American greatness early in the presidency of George W. Bush Dick Cheney. And I don’t miss it. Because I hope and pray that, one day, we replace that petty and provincial myth with a new one.

The Year is 1984

The situation in the world is double plus ungood and becoming ungooder. But for users of the Internet who can discern the difference between truth and truthiness, there is some hope.

Ever read Orwell?

Perhaps its really been 1984 ever since the The National Security Act of 1947 after which the Department of War became the Department of Defense.

The National Security Act of 1947 is a historic piece of legislation. It single-handedly created a modern military organization, comprised of four institutions that operate effectively to this day: the Department of Defense, the United States Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council.

But what do I know. I’m just a dumb dumb drone.

America the Beautiful

That Britons and Americans have proven so comfortable with the idea of forcing thousands of people to be free by slaughtering them—with Maxim machine guns in the nineteenth century, with “precision-guided munitions” today—seems to reflect a deeply felt need as well as a striking inability to imagine the lives and viewpoints of others. (Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis)

how many dead iraqis so far?

has there been a coup in america?

A Nation is a Paltry Thing

A nation is a paltry thing: a space on a map; a pennant flapping in the wind.

A nation is a paltry thing: the illusion of identity and difference where no difference exists.

A nation is a paltry thing: its history numbered in mere hundreds (or thousands) of years; a span of time all too brief.

Yet we cling to the idea of nation, as if ennobled by it; sanctified by it; justified by it.

And some are willing to fight and die for a nation, as if a nation were more than a collective illusion.