 |
Friday, January 31, 2003
Move along. Nothing to see here
Apocalypse is in the air, both my watches stopped this week, and on Sunday I turn 40.
somewhere down the corridor tonight / there is a light that shines through / shines down on you / and if you were looking for a sign / a place to draw the line, well there you are / the guns are loaded and there's gas in the car and / play the anthem one more time / play the anthem one more time ~ Steve Wynn, Anthem
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Bush looks us in the eye and sells war
And the public buys it.
Today, the day after the SOTU by POTUS, is not a great day. Why I subjected myself to the address, I don't know. Well, I do. I need to know, to see firsthand what my fellow citizens are seeing. And, as Leigh correctly surmised, I needed to see it so I could blog about it.
So here I am, not a happy camper. It doesn't help that the fine people that I work with, the ones who watched the SOTU and with whom I've conversed about it (that would be three), thought it was "a good speech." We're going to war with Iraq because we have to, they reason. The President said so. Saddam is an evil man who hates America and wants to kill us all.
No, it doesn't help at all. Bush got up and lied to these people -- my friends -- scared them with horror stories, knowing fabrications (obligatory defensive statement: Saddam is, indeed, a brutal dictator). Then he promised the big lie, that he would protect them from the evil, that he would defend peace, an Orwellian concept if there ever was one.
I told one person that Bush's reasons for war -- many hidden WMD, links to Al Qaeda -- have no factual basis. The reply: He can't reveal his sources for the sake of their safety and for the sake of national security.
To this last point, today I found the following at Orcinus:
The gradual mechanism by which this phenomenon [fascism] gradually crept over Germany was vividly described in "They Thought They Were Free" a book by Milton Meyer about “how and why ‘decent men’ became Nazis”:
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.
That so many good, intelligent and caring people are not worried about Bush is perhaps the most worrisome aspect of all.
Monday, January 27, 2003
War is Terrorism With a Bigger Budget
A sign at the recent SF war protest demonstration, found at the bitter shack of resentment. Also a nice post over there on visiting my city, Atlanta.
A little something to whet your appetite
The publication date for Book V in the Harry Potter series is five months away, which isn't too long, really. But you'll wish it was tomorrow after reading..
Kissing Dementors: Fear and Social Discipline in the Harry Potter Novels
by Jennifer Garrison
‘That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life.'
Scariest ... the scariest thing ... hooded black figures ... cold ... screaming ...
Harry's eyes snapped open.
- J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (134)
In the third novel of her wildly popular Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling presents her readers with creatures called Dementors, magical prison guards that are, quite literally, the incarnation of fear (117). Rowling uses the image of the prison throughout her novels to critique a system of social morality based primarily on fear of punishment. In this novel, internalized social discipline and fear become almost the same concept and receive much of the blame for corruption and wrongdoing within social structures. Although many in the Christian right argue that Harry Potter novels oppose Christianity, this third novel actively promotes many fundamentals of Christian morality. What these novels do oppose, however, is a fire-and-brimstone image of an all-seeing deity who is always watching and waiting to punish. Through her descriptions of the wizard prison and the Dementors who guard it, Rowling suggests that there is nothing moral about a morality based on fear. (more)
via ::: wood s lot :::
Friday, January 24, 2003
Don Russell Wins "Beer Writer of Year"
Finally, something to aspire to.
Thursday, January 23, 2003
Ground zero: Where the buffalo roam?
Maybe there are no new ideas. Maybe the universe is finite and maybe that's why after two rounds of proposals for the World Trade Center site, the designs fall short of the call for innovation and look like, well, variations on Epcot Center.
The most revolutionary proposal isn't on the table of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. or the Port Authority or the governors of New York and New Jersey. It's in a short film by Richard Linklater (best known as the director of "Slacker" and "Dazed and Confused") that premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival, exactly a week after the public hearings on the new WTC site proposals.
In the 20-minute film, "Live From Shiva's Dancefloor," Manhattan walking-tour guide Timothy "Speed" Levitch posits that the site should be turned into a park full of free-roaming American bison, popularly known as buffalo. "Sixteen acres of blazing green grass, a place for togetherness, healing out loud, and spontaneous culture," says Levitch. "And in the middle of the park, the memorial should not be an inanimate slab of stone, but should have a heartbeat." Thus, the buffalo. ~ Su Ciampa on Salon.com (more)
via Kalilily Time.
Some timely thoughts on taxes
Ok, I can't find it on the web, but I'm going to share this anyway, sans link. I found it sometime in 2001 (pre-blogging days) and saved it in a Word doc. It was authored by Scott Davis, who is self-employed and holds an MBA degree, and it originally appeared in the Online Journal.
When Clinton raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.5 percent, he balanced the budget, avoided further taxes on the already beleaguered middle class, and created the longest peacetime expansion in American history. He simply took dormant money from the wealthy, and made good use of it. If millionaires did make the world go 'round it would have spun off its axis. Instead, even millionaires got wealthier in the Clinton boom. His tax plan kept that money from going into useless merger deals through bond financing and from going offshore. However, the rich felt they deserved even more, so they funded the attack machine against Clinton, and the Bush campaign with the "It's your money" slogan. What they really mean is: "I got mine, and I'm keeping it."
Now that the forces against economic justice in American life have asserted themselves and run the country under figurehead Bush, signs that America is sliding into a two-class society are everywhere. The largest growth in general aviation is jets. I'm sure there are several in your neighborhood. The fastest growing industry is prisons, and isn't it a shame all the millionaires behind bars? We lead the developed world in children born into poverty. Bush is our first president with an MBA. When he rejected Kyoto, he did saying his job was to protect American industry. On September 11, he crowed that America would be "open for business tomorrow." He has internalized MBA values. Just as we surrender the Bill of Rights when we walk through our company's doors every morning (try, for example, to actually exercise freedom of speech in the office and see what happens). We will, if Bush stays in power long enough, have the same lack of freedom wherever we go.
Fortunately, we still have a system designed to protect the public. We have the power of the vote, and can restore the system to its original purpose, having office holders actually represent the interests of the people. It takes the unholy alliance of a complacent electorate, and big money to distract the public from the real issues and onto trivial pseudo-scandals to get the kind of government we now have. But with an informed and activist electorate, who can see past the lies of the Republicans to the sellout behind the façade, we will limit Bush to one term. A Clintonian tax plan, breakup of monopolies and near-monopolies, government investment in infrastructure, research, and education, support of fair trade, a living wage, support of unions, fostering employee-owned businesses, breakup of monopolistic strangleholds and other roadblocks for entrepreneurs, could all help bring the American dream back for too many who have lost hope.
It is our money. It is also our government. The land, and its future are in our hands.
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
The intelligence of the net-connected
How else explain the results of the CNN/Wolf Blitzer poll asking, "Whose views are most like yours when it comes to the Iraqi crisis?"
President Bush?
or
Sen. Edward Kennedy?
This a.m., the results were 75% in favor of Kennedy. (via The Rittenhouse Review)
Best of the blog
Hard to pull out an excerpt from a piece that is blazingly brilliant from beginning to end, so, if you haven't already, just go read all of Mike Golby's analysis of Apocalypse Now and its source material, Heart of Darkness.
Ok. Here's a teaser:
Right at the outset, we know that Kurtz is no patsy. He's one of the most decorated Special Forces operatives around. The guy's certainly not dumb. He is, in fact, the military un-blinded by reason, seeing war for what it is. He's a god, damn it. And he's treated as one. Even that dickhead colonel Gorman back at base recognizes it in a GOP kinda way. 'Out there with these natives it must be temptation to be God, 'cause there's a conflict in every human heart between the rational, the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph.' I mean, how's that for a George Bush speech? He manages to insult everybody's intelligence while tracking the truth. He's an ugly part of each one of us. (more)
Ray, you put this one on your list yet? Into the Lake of Fire, indeed.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Talking Blogroll Blues
I’ve been thinking about Wealth Bondage. I’ve been having thoughts, thoughts on the eve of the apocalypse. I mean, look, Kangaroo Jack was the top box office draw over the weekend.
We’re In a Dark Time... and I find I have little enthusiasm for this novelty choking hazard age.
I’ve been reading Craig’s BookNotes, and I’m hardly encouraged. And then I think about abuddhas memes, and the lack thereof.
How can we find any footing among the floating wreckage:jettisoned cargo?
Ah, but perhaps that’s where we’ll find some Allied folks, among the Mousemusings, Nonsense Verse, and Meanderings of Unabashed Liberal Musick. Possibly even Inside Gretchen’s Head.
I’ll take an INSITEVIEW where I find it, but Jaysus, it can be a Sandhill Trek, and beware The Daily Howler. But with perseverance, we’ll be Seeing the Forest.
Don’t you feel like a Slacktivist sometimes, though? I do. I Ruminate This. I’m always looking back….looking forward. But where am I? Going in circles on a baggage carousel?
I don’t know. Am I overlooking The Obvious?
My advice: Make it a Serenity Quest, and stay healthy with a hardy OnePotMeal. Maintain Open Brackets, ride the Whiskey River of This Modern World. Bush? Watch, watch him. He’s truly a Homeless Guy, surely not of this planet. Oblivio, man. Unfortunately, he has tremendous power.
Shit. We’re in High Water. Not just Wood’s Lot. Everybody’s lot.
Who’s with me? skippy? Joker? barbtries? Gnome-girl? Lyttle? Pen-Elayne? (on the Web). Oh. Fatshadow?
Hel-lo? You people want to put down the Rittenhouse Review for a moment?
What? What’s all the Hullabaloo? WTF Is It Now? No coffee? We have a Mad Percolator? This IS bad news. But we can still make the MemeMachineGo!… can’t we?
Good. Marek "wake up" J. is on the case, despite the absence of a blog. It’s okay, Z. Rage, Boy, if you must. But put away your whip. Don’t sassafras me. You Live Your Life As If It’s Real, then we’ll talk.
It’s the age. A Miasma in the House of Bite Me, essentially. If you get my drift.
We might get daintily dirty, we might hang Electric Bananas on our walls, and yet, despite Momentary Lapses of Dilution, and according to my O b s e r v a t i o n s after reviewing my Notes From A Life in Progress….uh….where was I?
Ahem. Excuse the IMproPRieTies. It’s Kalilily Time! Once more, Into the Lake of Fire!
Friday, January 17, 2003
Listening in
Excellent Lockergnome Windows Daily newsletter yesterday from Chris Pirillo:
Eavesdropping? No, I'm just listening for tech-talkers. I know you're out there - uploading your thoughts to this faceless global cluster. It's the stream of 21st century consciousness, and it lurks inside every mind. Take the Geeky Chick , for example: "When I met up with you guys IRL last week, Gretchen had asked me, 'So how did you come to know (about) Chris?' I know many people know you via CFH and Lockergnome, but I am a true blogger. I had honestly never heard your name until I started reading blogs! I had actually come across Gretchen's blog first, and read hers more often, since your previous blog design was not too happy in my default browser (Chimera). I love blogs. I have met so many interesting people and have made many new friends through them. I think I've actually made more friends via blogs than in real life, as sad as that sounds! Okay, maybe not sad... this is the way of the digital age, I guess. Heck, I even met the man I am going to marry via chats online! Viva la inter-web thingy!" Viva indeed. The conversation is here. Are you listening? (more)
Thursday, January 16, 2003
So much great stuff
So little time. Blogs are such rich, varied, interesting, individual human expresssions that, for me, they are overtaking my usual reading diet. Unfortunately, as work also requires I read and research, this tends to be of more than passing interest; it's affecting my livelihood, people! Can we all please go back to our boring, carefully edited printed matter and quit lettin fly out here in cyberspace?
Just kidding. If we did, we'd never unearth treasures such as Digby at Hullabaloo. Here he is on Illinois Gov. Ryan's commutation of death sentences of Illinois deathrow inmates and the conservative reaction to the act:
Can we get down to brass tacks on this? When the judicial system is as arbitrary, corrupt and prone to error as the Illinois judicial system (along with most jurisdictions in America) it is immoral to entrust it with the ultimate punishment of death. And if one defends such systems in the name of the authority of the State, and believes that it is destructive to the State to question its infallibility, then one is a Totalitarian.
Many conservatives are flirting openly with Totalitarianism these days and their lack of empathy and moral judgment, even in the face of a gross miscarriage of justice, is indicative of a frightening will to power. All those years of studying Stalinism in order to defeat it seems to have evolved into a sort of Stockholm Syndrome in which the student has come to identify with the subject. (more)
UPDATE on blogging's rich pageant: The Issues Guy at Seeing The Forest points to an interesting piece of journalism (printed matter...it's not just blogs, it's the conflagration of blogs, printed product available online and other online-only output that's producing career-threatening ADD) at The LA Times, an op-ed called Cruel and Unusual Punishment on the Farm. Among other excerpts, he pulls out:
Factory farmers may do as they please in the care of animals, with no standard to consult but industry norms dictated by a rigid economic calculus and a view of animals as unfeeling machines.
And he (it's Issues Guy, so I think I'm making a safe assumption this time) notes, "It's just one more aspect of the corporate ethic that is harming us all in so many ways. No regard for the environment. No regard for our kids. No regard for the poor. No regard for the elderly. No regard for our health. And this kind of stuff - horrible, cruel treatment of animals."
Indeed, the corporate ethic, the corporate state...where will it end? For those wondering and probing the question, see my Friends at left.
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
TIME magazine asks, the people answer
A TIMEeurope.com poll asks: Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?
North Korea? nope.
Iraq? guess again.
The U.S.? Bingo!
via the ever-amusing and politically astute maruthecrankpot at WTF Is It Now??.
Monday, January 13, 2003
It’s good to be three
Living with a three-year-old certainly helps one remember the beauty and wonder of the world. For instance, did you know that the birds live in the trees? Ok, yeah, you did, but how often do you stop to consider it? All these trees around us, they’re homes for a whole species of creatures sharing this planet with us.
Or how about a CD player? How does that work? Well, the disk turns around really fast, and there’s this laser that shines on it and reads the music and then it’s transmitted and translated by speakers where it comes out as music. That was my answer, but I might as well have said, “magic.” That pretty much covers technology for the non-technical anyway.
But for a three-year-old, magic is a real and practical concept, like gravity. Eleanor has been telling us she’d really like to have some magic dust, and could we pick some up at the store for her? We tell her we’re not sure where to get magic dust, and then joke with each other that if we did know where to get it, we’d surely go get some. House a mess? Poof, sparkling and neat. Vote recount? Poof, Supreme Court actually let it proceed. 9-11? Poof, America still home to natural vistas and, uhm, tribes of people. Oops, that one worked a little too well.
And when a three-year-old’s wonderful view of the world combines with a three-year-old’s fearless desire to add to her vocabulary, you get great results. Like yesterday on the way to my parent’s house. We always go by a ranch with six horses, which is a thrill for Eleanor. Eleanor is also afraid of bulldozers. Just so happens that the ranch was doing some renovation requiring bulldozers, and, it also happens that the horses were all up near the house, instead of out in the field. We were speculating as to why as we drove by. “Maybe they’ve all come over to have some lunch,” Leigh said. Then, from the backseat, Eleanor offers: “Maybe they’re furious because of all the bulldozers.”
Sometimes young children ask the most profound questions. During Christmas Advent, we were reading a passage – Bible quote plus explication -- each night before dinner. One of these was about Christ being born to teach mankind to be good.
“Why did he need to do that?” Eleanor wondered.
“Because sometimes people aren’t good. Sometimes people are naughty,” we explained.
“Why are people naughty?”
“They just are.” That’s about the best we could do.
She’s a sweet little girl and, as her Grandma says, full of love. Several times she’s offered to say grace before a meal. One night it was one simple and solemn word: “thanksgiving.” More recently, it was, “God made me what I am. I’m a wooly lamb.”
Amen.
Friday, January 10, 2003
Two films with stories to tell
Documentaries can be quite the stimulating film genre. It helps to remember that it’s all fiction, docu or no, and the last one I viewed – The Kid Stays in the Picture -- exhibited an awareness of this up-front.
The film begins with a quote from its subject, the movie producer Robert Evans, to the effect that there are three sides to every story: Your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Shared memories serve each differently, says Bob.
Evans' story is a Hollywood story in fact and in narrative arc. It’s the classic American story Hollywood so loves to tell: young man with a dream plays his breaks perfectly, stays true to his vision, gambles….and wins (including the girl).
But it doesn’t end there, as this is the chronicle of a man now in his later years. After reaching the pinnacle – successful head of Paramount studios -- there is the inevitable decline.
I won’t go into the details of either Evans’ rise or fall. But I will encourage you to see the film and check it out for yourself. The film is very well crafted, with a good many stretches that are brilliant. Evans’ life was well-documented in photographs, and the filmmakers put the photos -- and excerpts from his films -- to extraordinarily good use.
Evans became the head of Paramount during the late 60s and early 70s, and helped usher in that era’s down-to-earth focus. At this point in the film, Evans, in his film-long voice-over narration, says that good films begin with good scripts. “No wonder he was a successful producer,” I remarked to my friend, who had already seen the film. “Wait until you see the films he made,” he replied. I won’t reveal those here (that’d be like giving away the plot), but rent it and find out, along with the stories behind them. You’re in for a treat.
---
What can I say about Bowling for Columbine? It’s a Michael Moore documentary, and if you’ve seen any of his others, you know just what to expect. And I hear ya, right-wingers: Yeah. A buncha lies from a self-serving wacko leftist egomaniac.
I don’t know about that. Is a nightmare a lie? Because that’s what this film is. Its centerpiece and most disturbing section is closed-circuit camera footage from inside Columbine High School during the massacre with 911 calls from the incident as the audio. That section is followed by footage of Charlton Heston in Denver about 10 days later speaking at an NRA meeting, bellowing about guns. That’s the film in a nutshell. Or maybe gunshell. Crazy, violence-obsessed, gun-obsessed culture absolutely unaware and unconcerned for the toll on human life of such insanity.
Thank goodness Cirque du Soleil was on Bravo the night I watched my “for your academy award consideration” copy on loan from my film critic friend. After Bowling for Columbine, Leigh and I needed to watch something expressing the mystery and beauty of the human spirit.
---
While on films, thought I’d get something off my chest: the latest Star Wars “film” is one of the worst pieces of crap every committed to celluloid. Or is it completely digital? Whatever. It’s a badly written and acted soap opera plus some nasty ultra-violence. In other words, the one-time genius Lucas has helmed a film that epitomizes the bad fantasy/action filmmaking of today. Even when Bob Evans lost his touch, he didn’t produce dreck this decadent.
Thursday, January 09, 2003
Blogging is the river
I don’t know if on your walks you have noticed a long, narrow pool beside the river. Some fishermen must have dug it, and it is not connected with the river. The river is flowing steadily, deep and wide, but this pool is heavy with scum because it is not connected with the life of the river, and there are no fish in it. It is a stagnant pool, and the deep river, full of life and vitality, flows swiftly along.
Now, don’t you think human beings are like that? They dig a little pool for themselves away from the swift current of life, and in that little pool they stagnate, die; and this stagnation, this decay we call existence. That is, we all want a state of permanency; we want certain desires to last forever, we want pleasures to have no end. We dig a little hole and barricade ourselves in it with our families, with our ambitions, our cultures, our fears, our gods, our various forms of worship, and there we die, letting life go by – that life which is impermanent, constantly changing, which is so swift, which has such enormous depths, such extraordinary vitality and beauty. ~ J. Krishnamurti, Think on These Things.
Wednesday, January 08, 2003
Deepak Chopra says
"You can talk to the whole of life -- influence the whole of life." But if your blog comments are in the single digits, probably not.
via whiskey river (the stuff in quotes)
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
Mad props to Mad Perc
Hop on over to my newest favorite blog, Mad Percolator, for some good reading. In his (UPDATE: I mean HER) Jan. 4 post, an essay that explores ideologies, media propaganda, faith, and speculations on the purpose of writing, you'll find gems such as:
"Just as Wigand said, 'the cigarette is a nicotine delivery system;' the American media is a capitalist ideology delivery system."
and
"I don’t think the working man is running the show. I harbor a quintessential American belief that a tiny percentage of rich people are running the overall show. If you think so, too, then you and I make up an 'us,' and the rich bastards are a 'them.' "
(more)
Monday, January 06, 2003
Too smart to handle
Ollie North was so afraid of this woman, he ran. Her talk radio show kicks Limbaugh's butt in the ratings in her South Florida market. Get the story from the source: A BuzzFlahs interview with Randi Rhodes.
RHODES: So, out of courtesy, North comes in to my studio at 6 PM . . . expecting either a hack, or another underprepared person, which is fairly typical, but instead he sees the indictment, the conviction, the Executive Summary, the Independent Counsel's autographed copy of Firewall and the Post article.
You know I never got to talk to him about Koch, the Jesus "Roadshow" or "family values." He was enraged that I had a brain, and that I knew Mr. Walsh's materials very, very well. He was steaming and ugly. I felt like I had confronted pure evil. Then, he threw off his headphones and stormed out.
---
BUZZFLASH: A lot of "mainstream media" think that there is no audience for progressive shows or outlets. What are your comments?
RHODES: Oh, I am so glad you asked. I am a ratings and revenue queen. Number 1 or 2 in the ratings usually. So what are the "mainstream" talking about? Well, they say Liberals don't make money because no one wants to hear them. Okay, let's think.
First, remember that more Americans are registered or identify themselves as Democrats than Republicans. So here's the dirty little secret of news talk. There are advertisers making huge "buys" on really low rated shows that air nationally. If advertisers only go where the listeners are why do they buy cable news, Oliver North, or Rush Limbaugh who has horrible ratings?
They are buying CONTROL of CONTENT. It's leverage, whether it's radio, cable or network. They control millions of dollars of any company's revenue source. So that if something is said or done to disrupt their global business, they take their advertising elsewhere, or threaten to and then shut down the message.
---
RHODES: Ask yourself, why does ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) advertise? Do they want to sell you a soybean? Why does Boeing advertise? Are you gonna' buy aircraft? Aircraft parts? GE the largest defense contractor wants to sell you a light bulb and/or a missile? And then there's BASF -- they don't make anything! They just make it better. Uh huh. They're buying CONTENT. Millions and millions of advertising dollars DO affect the message you get. It controls the news that is reported and the news that is NOT.
Like this so much I had to steal it
America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless versimilitude can set that line straight." ~ James Ellroy
via American Samizdat.
Saturday, January 04, 2003
Say hello to Sawyer James Matrullo
This is a wonderful chronicle of a birth, told in pictures and short captions. Congrats to the Matrullos.
A wake up call
The last big story of 2002 read:
Reagan and Saddam in bed
Rumsfeld shaking his hand
While selling to the Evil Man
chemical, nuclear and biological weapons
anthrax, insecticides for use on Iran
this deadly activity never addressed--
the enemy of our enemy
was our friend.
Hardly a new story.
A reporter named Andreas Zumach
obtained the portions of Iraq's
12,000-page declaration
regarding its weapons program
which had been erased and redacted
by the U.S. government,
which described efforts
by U.S. nuclear weapons labs
at Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia
to train Iraqi nuclear scientists
and give non-fissionable materials
for the construction of a nuclear bomb.
Hardly newsworthy.
(more)
via You LIve Your Life As If It's Real, the poet, writer and real gone cat Ray Sweatman, Wood S Lot, and, not least, William Rivers Pitt. Go read.
Friday, January 03, 2003
Blogland Inc.
Hi. First day on the job? Welcome. I can help you get started.
It’s not really a job, is it?
Well, no. Ha. Just, you know, everything is, when you get down to it.
Yeah, but I have a job. I came here to get away from it.
Sure, sure. I understand. Friggin boxes they try to put you in….ahem….right this way….here’s your cube. I hope you like it. Good light, nice chair, and fast Internet access.
Okay, thanks. Guess I’ll….hey, where’d he go? Hmmm…well guess I’ll settle in. I’ve heard so much about this. I read To Blogland and Beyond, I subscribed to the newsletter…and now, here I am. Damn, where’d he go? Where is everybody? Guess I’ll fire up this computer and get started….hmmm, this is easy….let’s see…which template?….no, too flashy…yeah, that’ll work…we’ll call it High Water, that about sums it up professionally, politically, globally. And, of course, it’s one of Dylan’s best songs in ages. Okay….(typing) “What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Assuming there’s a you here. Assuming there’s a me here. Hello, you. Welcome to High Water. Where we write on the Web….because we can.” …..Now, just hit “post”…okay, looks good….here goes…. "click"
Think I’ll stretch my legs. Wonder if there’s a coffee maker around here….God, it’s quiet. I can here myself thinking. Thinking: “it’s quiet.” Maybe I’ll post something about that….where is everybody? I’ll just walk down this way, past this row of cubes. Damn, they’re all staring intently into their monitors. I don’t want to break their concentration. Ah, here’s the coffee maker. Wow, an espresso machine….and it automatically makes a latte as I enter the little break room. Amazing….mmm…good stuff. (machine LED display flashes, “Enjoy your beverage. Blog on.”).
Okay, back at the cube. It’s weirdly quiet. But I can hear “tap, tap, tap.” It sounds like rain. Sort of. (opens blogger, types “What is the sound of one hand blogging? Tap……..tap…….tap….. What is the sound of ten thousand hands blogging? A revo-fucking-lution. A friggin thunderstorm. We’re here, We’re on the net, and we aren’t gonna take it anymore.”) Damn, should I post this? What the fuck? I don’t know what I’m doing…I don’t know who “we” is….but I’ve read about shit like this…who know’s, somebody else might groove to it, besides, it’s just a blog….”click” (Stands up to look over cube walls. See’s nothing but windows and far walls.)
(phone rings…answers on third ring, after recovering from odd sensation of hearing a phone.) Hello?
Hey Joe12, what are you doing, man?
Who is this?
The ruler of blogland.
The what?
Look, I know what you’re thinking. Ruler? Fuck the rules! Right? We all feel that way…until we figure out how to use them…to make a little scratch, know what I’m saying? It takes a little while. You start out young and idealistic. Believe me, I get it.
Are you….
Don’t worry about who I am. I’m just an entity, like you, floating in this new space I’ve created. I might be who you think I am. I might be somebody else. Shit, out here, it’s hard for even me to know.
Yeah, I hear ya. But does it have to feel that way in the physical world as well? This is one gray building, with gray cubes. Reminds me of work, which is not what I expected at all.
Joe, ya gotta get with the lingo. It’s not “physical world”; it’s “meatspace.” Hey, it’s technology. The sense of style, the groovy, go with it thing is way over. Let’s review this little puppy we call the Internet. It’s all about making money, which is what (at the end of the day) everything boils down to. And whether you’re cool or not. The net is neutral, and essentially soulless. Haven’t you seen all the warblogs?
Fuck them.
They’re media stars, Joe. And who are you?
One man with a blog, damn it. You can’t be who I thought you were. And I’m not at all sure what I’m doin here. But I am free to post whatever the hell I feel like, right?
Sure, man. I just think you have potential, so I thought I’d jump in here and try to help you out.
Uh, no thanks.
Joe, Joe, Joe. The road you’re headin down…I can see it already. That’s friggin 1968; that's 2002. Get with the program, Joe. You have potential kid. There’s money to be made here. Look at the pornographers. They know…they know what sells and how to exploit it. It’s beautiful, really. Embrace the dark side, man….heh, heh…. You know it’s just a scam. You can make some money off this thing. It’s what the smart people are doing. Look at the bubble…if you didn’t make a shitload then…well….I know, you’re a latecomer. You’re still poor as dirt, right? That’s okay. We need new blood, but let’s get rid of those quaint revolution notions right now. (hangs up)
Ruler of blogland? Ha! What a joke. Sure, there are restrictions, forms, the Total Information Awareness program. I know I had to pass a test and pay an entry fee….and sign a form saying that technology is neutral and has no power to change me or anyone else. But still, I thought I was free to post whatever I wanted…
(Opens blogger, types) “What are we doing here? On the net, with technology….We relatively rich, mostly white, somewhat educated writers. Anybody out there have an answer to that one? I don’t think so. Yeah, I’ve posted about how communication, self-expression, connecting can be a revolutionary act, and could even lead to revolutionary changes. But aren’t the warbloggers communicating and connecting with audiences many times the size of whatever number of intrepid souls who might be out there reading this? Why do I think what I’m doing is more important? What’s the difference?
But is it important? To me, certainly. Maybe to some others. But it’s a small community we’re talking about here. Blogland is the only place I know of where this is going on. Is the trend toward communication, human connection that ultimately sweeps away the dark fantasies of twisted rulers and brings to the fore social and economic justice? Or is there a ruler of blogland, a final arbiter on what is happening, or what can happen? And mustn’t he or she, figurative or real as the case may be, be overthrown?
I feel something out there, beyond these cube walls, pushing at them, bowing them to the point of collapse. Something is happening…Mr. Jones.” ….click…
---
(A few weeks and many posts later…)
Wow, a personal e-mail…...click, click
“It’s a battle, man. It’s always and forever a battle. It’s human nature. Without conflict there’d be no interest, no heat. But there’s also love, caring, cooperation, discussion, negotiation, and compromise. Unfortunately, the latter must battle the former. Hee, hee. I wrote a poem about it here http://realrealgone.blogspot.com.
But you’re right. Something may very well be happening. It’s time. The wheels are turning. A counter to the soulless ghouls in charge must rise up. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction…hee..I can’t help it, I’m a metaphysical mofo, but ya gotta shake it off, roll with it, but most importantly be yourself. Find yourself. Because without personal change, political change is just an illusion. Ya know what Lou said “self-knowledge is a dangerous thing. The freedom of who you are.” Always liked that line.
Anyway, like yer blog. Keep it up. And get some comments. This one is pretty good: www.haloscan.com. I can help you with it if you need it.
Best,
Jackofhearts
PS: Loved “ruler of blogland.” Great stuff!
----
(Many e-mail exchanges, Instant Messenger chats, phone calls, and discussions over beers later, Jackofhearts takes Joe12 to meet his buddy, PainterMan, and his friend, TheAfrikanner.)
PainterMan: There’s a small band of us. We’re putting together guerilla networks. Even with Blogland so heavily regulated, even though they've convinced people that you have to pass their tests, use their software and even go to their building to blog, we’ve been able to make connections with some bloggers, just as Jack did with you. And now we’re growing, areas of affinity coalescing into something that may yet break the bounds of cyberspace. This is the kind of thing they give lip service to at Blogland. They hype a few media stars, even warbloggers, and fleece the masses at the door. That’s their plan, anyway. They are looking to expand Bloglands across the nation. Corporate sponsorships. It’ll be like TV for the elite.
You started connecting with Jack here right away, and he found me one night when he was fooling around with his puter and found Blogaria, the underground alternative to Blogland. But remember, anywhere there’s a coherent signal, these jerks have instrumentation, even Blogaria, I’m afraid.
You got a warning and it was swift. They move fast now, they’re feeling threatened so they’ve stepped up their efforts to cut off communication.
Joe: So you’re an underground blogger?
PainterMan: Yeah. You should see my blogroll – subversives all. But you can’t see it, because you haven’t patched into OUR matrix -- yet. It’s small, yes, but at least it isn’t restricted, you just have to know where to look. At least it hasn’t been co-opted to become just another business, with hierarchies and status-junkies, and puffed up wankers of every type.
Joe: I don’t know. They weren’t too bad, seemed to want to help…
PainterMan: Yeah, sometimes they feel you out first. To see if you can be molded and made useful. You’re on dangerous ground now. You could disappear. In fact, you will disappear, but it’s all in how you choose to, and whether it’s you that chooses. You still have that choice, Joe. You still have freedom, but it comes at a very high price right now.
Joe: So I was right, and I didn’t even know it.
Jack: That’s right. Keep writing. Exercise your voice. Use your own computer and log into the underground network. Sure, what brought you here has been co-opted. But we want something more….Like TheAfrikanner, here…
Afrikanner: “All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime / Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme…You can always come back / but you can't come back all the way.”
Aye, and you can’t, can ya? But you can’t tell me the attempt isn’t the main thing. Heh, yeah, I’ve seen your stuff. Keep at it. It’s all you can do. Add your light, Joe. And when “the ruler of blogland” tells you people don’t do that anymore, tell him “they do as long as I’m doing it.”
Jack: And if it finally gets co-opted, which it will, at least you made the attempt to create and to change things…even if it is all an illusion, at least it’s a beautiful one. “Beautiful vision, stay with me all of the time. The oneness, the oneness, the oneness…red robe, red robe, red robe, let your red robe go. Bit bop, bit bop, big breasts, behind the stadium, sha la, la, la, la, lalalalala la-di-da.”
Joe: (swats him on the back) Hey, snap out of it. He does this sometimes…
PainterMan: Here, he needs one of these (hands Joe a tinfoil hat). And here’s one for you too.
Jack: Thanks, but I’m naturally stoned.
PainterMan: No it’s to keep the thought probes from detecting you. This way you CAN get stoned, without worry, and the pointy end does double duty as a one-hitter.
Jack: And if my thought-dreams could be seen, they’d put my head in a guillotine.
PainterMan: Exactly.
TheAfrikanner: Dylan. That sucker will be listened to a thousand years from now.
Jack: And it certainly helps if you have a killer blues band behind you.
----
Okay, I’m think I’m on this underground network….ah, yeah, I’m patched in. here we go…
“Welcome, comrade, brothers and sisters armed with nothing but imagination and spirit. To start your own, free blog choose your user name and password and click “continue”….
|
 |
