Fastened to a dying animal: A jeremiad regarding the US election process

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Fastened to a dying animal: A jeremiad regarding that affront to the nation's dignity known as the US election process
By Phil Rockstroh
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Apr 30, 2008, 00:20

Here in this crumbling empire once known as the American republic, here in a nation that, at present, for all practical purposes, only produces Cheetos and killer drones, whose architecture is being winnowed down to thriving rural meth houses and foreclosed upon suburban McHouses, whose corrupt corporate culture has bequeathed upon our suffering planet dying oceans and the hyper-caffeinated tsunami of Red Bull Capitalism -- the essential question confronts us -- how does one retain (not retail) one's humanity amid the catastrophic machinery and inane accouterment of our age?

"Show your wounds," exhorted the late 20th Century artist Joseph Boyce. The wound becomes the womb, poets tell us. Out of painful truth, beauty is born. But, antithetical to the orthodoxies of consumer capitalism, there are no shortcuts. According to legend, Faust sold his soul for a glimpse of eternal beauty and the hidden knowledge of the world. Sadly, we've done likewise (but worse, pathetically) for a glimpse of Paris Hilton's privileged (but hardly gated and guarded) cooter.

Here, now, sprawled upon the detritus of our dignity, we are confronted by the exponential dynamics of decay known as the US Presidential Election cycle. In this, all three corporate candidates are of little use to us. Although all three have done very well for themselves by the present and prevailing arrangement known as Disaster Capitalism.

What motivation do they have to change the system by which they've thrived? McCain, Clinton, and Obama must serve the interests of the corrupt corporate class -- or else they would be marginalized. Paradoxically, as we have witnessed, as of late, if they make even the most minute rumblings to the contrary -- as for example, blundering into a steaming pile of the obvious such as the observation that the battered laboring class of the nation might be embittered by their lot -- they risk political immolation by being labeled an elitist.

...

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3235.shtml

[malaise]

1. Superb article

K & R

[ShortnFiery]

4. Hey, I loved watching "fight Club" and "The Warriors" but THAT *Anarchy* solution

just doesn't work in anything much more substantial than our fantasies. :shrug:

You don't have to follow lock step but if you don't pick a team (choose who you'll support for President), kindly stay the hell out of our way because we are going ALL THE WAY!

IMO, Obama is our LAST BEST HOPE.

Go Obama! :patriot:

[malaise]

5. I agree that any Dem is better than McSameasBush

but they've all sold out to the corporations.

[Dhalgren]

2. Thanks for posting this. It is an excellent diatribe!

Just one of many, many passages that stand out:

"There are evil entities afoot in the nation known as radical liberals who scheme to take away your guns and give them to Islamofascist terrorists so that those agents of Satan over at Planned Parenthood will be free to rip fetuses from their mothers wombs in order to expose the unborn to porn."

You got to love Phil...

[ShortnFiery]

3. What a Tragedy all the way around! The once noble Rev. Wright has now fallen victim to ARROGANCE

of what both Power and Privilege has gleaned for him over the past 35 years.

I believe that Obama was truly saddened ... I also firmly believe that Rev. Wright Was not "the same man" that Obama met in the late 1980s.

All I can do is relate to my perspectives over the years: When I joined the Army ROTC Program (1977) I was "so full of pride' and confidence. Like my father before me, I was Commissioned into the Regular Army Officer Corps. I felt, at that point (1981) that someday, perhaps I too could be an instructor at the US Military Academy - just like DAD. :shrug: I loved all the push-ups, Airborne School, spit shining my jump boots for inspections, etc. etc.

Yes, in the 1980s you would have not known me. However, it was the harsh lessons of FOUR (4x) long years active duty service, that I changed from a moderately right wing secular republican - to an unabashed "bleeding heart liberal." :wow:

Therefore, I surmise that I "broke free" from proving myself to Authority Figures whom I have admired. The foregoing MENTALITY is the mirror opposite to HRC's emotional BURDEN that seems to be constantly seeking authoritarian recognition and/or approval.

That is, HRC, mostly subconsciously, continues in her sad attempts to please her DEAD right wing father. I was "one of the few" BLESSED daughters with a right leaning secular libertarian father who, underneath the surface, had the "heart and soul" of a social worker. I became an independent woman and let go of all those GAWD AWFUL emotional yearnings to achieve POWER and thereby "please daddy." As a consequence, my father and I grew very close during his final years on this earth.

Not unlike Obama's warm sentiments to his father figure, Rev. Wright, I morned the sometimes HARSH REALIZATIONS that "my father" - the man that I will always consider "my hero" had MANY FLAWS ... as do we all. :shrug:

IMO, the definition of mature adult relationships: Those that are grounded in the respect for the complexity of the people we choose to hold dear.

We love them BEYOND their human weaknesses and they LOVE US BACK in the same manner.