I sit at my computer, seat swirled 22.8 degrees, watching
Apocalypse Now on the television I've pledged to send off to the dump four times this week. It is not the first I've seen it, nor the second, however, it is the first time on T.V. The movie is great, as usual, but in the end we get to the final diatribe on `the f-word;' a word so powerful as to be reserved its own letter (A for snoot/intelligence; C for mediocrity; B and D for failure; and F for fucked). Near the end, as some of you may recall, Kurtz states, "They train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write (BLEEP) on their airplanes because it's obscene!"
Indeed....
...please take the jump,
Meanwhile CNN, Fox, and MSNBC show young men firing down across at an ostensibly vacant lot where a convenience store used to stand... where sentient beings used to congregate and eat their breakfast, now reduced to target practice.
Words, I am aware, can surely take on meanings and shapes far stronger than the actions they represent. This is part of the dilemma: the unforeseen, the horrors of the abyss; how we allow them to manufacture/frame justice, improperly catalogue honor, and taint `Freedom'...
We are aware there is a problem. They are not aware, or do not appear worried (acceptance of their `sacrifice'). They are not directly affected. We are only affected through empathy and foresight, save a few dead relatives, friends, and the occasional paralysis.
When `Freedom' is muttered--especially twenty-some odd times in a terse speech-- it brings with it connotations. One of which being what half or so of the electorate appears to be consuming: An everyman in the midst of an extemporaneous pseudo-blunder, yet shooting from the hip, heart, or soul... they're not exactly sure which, but that's not the matter. And the rest who see an elitist schmuck in the midst of a good o'l boy routine, visibly perturbed with the idea that he must, at times, explain himself and his motives to those he claims to represent...
But there is one level on which both parties come together, and that, of course, being the word `Freedom'itself... and, also, I suppose, as is true with all good car wrecks, to see if, today, he'll completely loose it...
Bob Dylan, primarily in the early decades, while oft being hounded by reporters attempting to decipher his occasionally cryptic rhymes, much to the reporters bemusement, would go into a (considerably lengthy) rant concerning Word Association (furthered by Carl Jung; [I'm an INFP, heart pinned sportingly upon my sleeve and so on]).
"I think we all have different... ideas of all the words we're using. If I say the word `House' we're both going to see a different house, if I just say the word, right? We're using all these other words like `Mass Production' and `Movie Magazine,' we all have a different idea of these words too... so, I don't really know what we're saying here."
Indeed, as well, that is true to a very real degree; The personal image we attach to all such nouns. However, in regard to the term `Freedom,' thrown about as of late like a recyclable-yet-lacking-reasonable-incentive parcel hovering down the highway, it's a bit different.
As Americans, Citizens of these United States, we come to understand the value and respect such Freedom deserves. As liberals we work in unity to make these Freedoms and Liberties accessible to as many as are willing to accept them and the responsibilities they entail. At my strongest behest I ask that you, under no circumstances, hesitate or falter in the aid of preaching Freedom, especially by her maiden name, Liberality.
An open dialogue is that which they most fear: For under these `frames,' as we all very well know, there lays a foundation, sturdy, eternal and honorable... One which they cannot, and may not, bend to their fickle will.
`Call it like it is,' my friends... along the lines of Conyers, Durbin, Pelosi, Dean, Obama, Slaughter, among many other honorable names we are lucky to find in our ranks. Do not waver when quarrelling, bringing into the open, and thusly repelling the means and modes of fascists and tyrants, at home or abroad, ...i know you won't... this is all preliminary measures, as we can for the moment afford... a pep rally, pie-laden cheerleaders and all...
To be sure, they sense their resemblance in these debates to the more strict horrors of history--and, in fact, whenever a liberal must find solutions we must create them, whereas these regressives can simply drudge out conveniently edited tombs.
To bring this somewhat reserved and refined rant to a conclusion, and to present a tomb of my own, one I hope you will also become more acquainted with, I quote a man who makes my point abundantly clear and violently poetic: the great Albert Camus (from Resistance, Rebellion, and Death):
You said to me: "The greatness of my country is beyond price. Anything is good that contributes to its greatness. And in a world where everything has lost its meaning, those who, like us young Germans, are lucky enough to find a meaning in the destiny of our nation must sacrifice everything else." I loved you then, but at that point we diverged. "No," I told you, "I cannot believe that everything must be subordinated to a single end. There are means that cannot be excused. And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want just any greatness for it, particularly greatness born of falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive." You retorted: "Well, you don't love your country."
Perhaps that sounds familiar to some of you... First 50+ pages free at `look inside this book' at Amazon, although I recommend you buy from Powell's, if need be.
thanks for reading,
zach, IN