The Python constricting American thought
Wendy Davis's current essay spurred me into writing this essay which I have been contemplating. The fact that my essay hasn't been written, until now, was allowing an internal pressure building. Some of you may be feeling this same pressure, releasing it better than I. With every day's news, one cannot help but to be filled with growing frustration, disgust, revulsion and sense of helplessness.
If ignorance were bliss, I would not be feeling any of this--instead blissful indeed. But once eyes are opened, things seen cannot be unseen. If you believe your lying eyes, the view is horrible to contemplate. Is there anyone on this site who has no sense of dread about what seems to be on an unstoppable inertia to overwhelm us all, like a tsunami of filthy truth. Not the truth we would like to see, but the truth that is. No Polyanna world view here. No realistic expectation of a better world. Pessimism, yes. Does any one here sense a more optimistic world view? Please elucidate.
The Python is the constrictive effect that TPTB have successfully blinded or misled the majority of the citizenry in this country. I venture to say, without any other confirmatory support, that citizens in many other countries are much more aware of the truth state of affairs.
The prime pin, the keystone, of this blinding is the Massively Slanted Media, blaring out to all daring to watch, sitting on their couches, fatigued from working often 2 to 3 jobs. Don't bother us with those nasty facts, I want to watch The Voice or Jeopardy. Don't ruin my fucking day, prick.
The USG has not told the truth for at least 70 years. We should start believing them now? Propaganda assaults us from cradle to grave. America the beautiful! Beautiful genocide. Human rights! Three-fifths of a human--until after a civil war, with lagging equality still unrealized by most of the oppressed. John Hancock--rum rum runner. Tom Jefferson, racist slave owner. Andy Jackson, let's put his face on our money--the face of a genocidist. Yes, that's more like it. Celebrate this American "hero". The effing DemonRats still celebrate the Racist and the Genocidist with their annual Jefferson-Jackson annual commemorations. Show your gratitude to them: "yes, master, thank you for letting me live in this wonderful reservation."
The status quo is brazenly enforced by the Criminals In Attendance. Suicide with two gunshots to the back of the head. Cremation without autopsy. The Disappeared, old and young, for different reasons. Empty the ghettos, such nice kidneys! Liver ain't bad either.
What is the genesis of this thought constrict growing progressively more pervasive? Money. Of course that's part. Intimidation. Did you see the fresh cut on Bernie's right cheek during the DNC convention? Cut himself shaving, ya think?
Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald falling into the intellectual abattoir of Russophobia. What happened to these heretofore good guys? What diverted them from the truth, from reality? None so blind as those that will not see.
Suppression of contrary opinions from social media. Not news. Just more and more obvious. Don't look this way, look that way. Whack! We told you to look THIS way, not THAT way!
ODNI staring from the sky
looking at you and I
Watch your step, man
We are
Where's the solace? Unicorns and rainbows? Reason for hope? Nope.
How to wake the sleeping?
The comfortable or exhausted couch potatoes unaware of the descent of our alleged constitutional republic does not want to be disturbed, as mentioned above. Perhaps 10% of the population is "woke", likely not even that. They must be awakened, but slowly. Too much truth at one time can be lethal, crawl back into the carefully constructed PTB shells. Bread and more circuses please.
Just a few days ago, when the Trumposaurus had us on the brink of WW3, I considered calling my family to alert them. But thought better of it. Why alarm them if nukes are gonna start raining in the April showers? But now the imminent danger has passed. How many of these brinkmanship episodes can we sustain? How do we disseminate the truth when there is so much active opposition? How do we penetrate the pseudo-complacency and ignorance in a way that it will be acceptable to the cognition of the many?
Watching YouTube the past year, it is noticeable that across the entire political spectrum, more and more people are becoming subscribed the the various channels. This is conincident with falling reliance upon the legacy, corrupt, lying media. But such growing awareness is occurring too slowly in my view. Will YouTube allow this truth-borne deviation from the "approved story"? If there is a tipping point, then YouTube will be shut down before that point is achieved. So too with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other parts of the data-mining surveillance state. They will not be allowed to operate.
Yes, this is a RANT! Long overdue from me. Solutions? Light from the darkness? Alternatives to despair? I want to believe, yet I can't.
How to end this essay? Look up? Look down? Close the eyes? Go to sleep?
It is my custom to conclude many essays with a song. Today, that song will not be hopeful. Instead, this song will be in honor of the surveillance state, although it could just as well be about darkness.
Comments
heh, I don't like you in the 'despair mode' ...
I agree with everything you say and feel the same way, but one can't simply allow it to overwhelm oneself.
Be a believer in the unintended consequences, which are never predictable, never thought out. but will bring the 'awakening and change' you crave for. There will be war and may be that's what is needed. You can't avoid the destruction, before you start rebuilding. So, let's destroy what's oppressing us. What does it say: Don't we have the inalienable right to pursue our happiness? So, if it would make many of us very happy to destroy this gawd-awful system, then we just should do it and be happy about destroying it. It's your right. Given by the almighty even (according to USians).
Heh, I don't like you sounding really, really hopeless. That's a no, no. And it's an order from a German friend. So, there, that's all I have to say.
I don't know how to hug an alligator, but I could try.
Hugs.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Thanks for the encouragement
As you correctly note, the tenor of my rant is despair. If reconstruction must be preceded by major destruction, then we, including our European friends, are in quite a fix. So, for now, I will try my best alligator smile.
this is the 20th type of smile ... and it's awesome.
There are 19 types of smiles
There is a video in there ... about smiles ...
Sigh, ich verblöde. (mimi going ga ga) Sorry, I will leave you in peace now and behave.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Yes, despair
I am very stuck now. My house is a mess of bubble wrap and boxes that have not been broken down to recycle. My new revived interest is accumulating fossils and rocks. The price inflation there has been evident in the 6 months I have been doing it. I have excuses for some days when I fear falling on my head if I bend over and days when I feel like shit because of ulcer pain and nausea. Bags of real garbage outside that I can't get down the driveway to be rid of them.
I can't get around to planting seeds (mostly bought last year). It's still snowy here (southern tier of NY) but I have indoor hydroponics with dead plants in them. Not a good water-attender for those. Not an efficient house-cleaner. I had one for 3 times, expensive and stuff got moved out of semi-organized piles. My house, my rules. No reorganizing, I have trouble finding things as it is.
The US needs a reset. By the public. No more wars halfway around the world ostensibly to defend us. No more RINOs and DINOs. The current administration is hauling us backward and there is not enough kicking and screaming about that. I wish elections were more often held and that we had the options of None of the Above (winner) or No Confidence. A pipe dream. Does pipe dream refer to opium?
Frustration is an every day occurrence. Will any of us be alive some morning? Who to believe? Never the government. I gave up on NYT and WaPo over a year ago. My local paper is a Gannett-owned rag. I only read the obits to see if I knew anyone who died.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
What's new?
This is the same old same old. War mongering profiteers to the end.
We are a nation founded on genocide and built by slaves.
The oligarchs have always controlled the country. Perhaps it is worse since the creation of the CIA - a tax funded private mafia for the PTB.
I wish I saw a solution for the country, but our greed and willing blindness spell checkmate.
Now I do think you can find a spot as an individual and weather the storm in more comfort than most...helping folks when you can. My strategy is to learn a new song, take a walk in the woods, tell jokes and laugh with friends. No it doesn't change anything (except my attitude).
The US has been the world's leading merchant of weaponry for 25 of the last 26 years...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2mabTnMHe8]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
leading merchant of weaponry
Which year weren't we? And who overtook us?
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
If being WOKE comes with an outsized portion of responsibility
for the new view of the situation we find ourselves in, we're going to suffer. Nothing has changed, but everything looks very different.
I started watching Wormwood yesterday. This is not a show for anyone teetering on the brink. CIA, bio weapons, disposable humans, endless wars for profit, massive domestic propaganda; already in full swing in the early 50's. This is not a fictional drama, it's a DOCUMENTARY!
Before the second episode was over I was yelling a stream of profanities at the screen and cursing Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ford for backstopping the horrors done in our name, even to this day, by our government, our "representative democracy".
Betrayed.
Lied to.
Lulled into a stupor.
Fast asleep.
It hurts to begin to wake, but closing my eyes is impossible. What was I thinking all these years? Who was I trusting? Why?
Why?
“The story around the world gives a silent testimony:
— The Beresovka mammoth, frozen in mud, with buttercups in his mouth…..”
The Adam and Eve Story, Chan Thomas 1963
^^^This!^^^
I am not sure that I am completely "woke," but I am far more "woke" than almost anyone I know. It is so difficult trying to share what I believe to be the truth. Most people do not want to hear it and definitely do not want to believe it. There are so many times that my frustration boils over due to my own inability to get people to see what is happening to us and what has been done in our names by our own government.
When the Peace vigil was still active, I found the most successful angle to approach people was that of cost. But cost does not address the immorality of what has been and is going on. And nearly every one of our elected representatives are compromised or hamstringed in some way by the powers that be.
This part of your comment above really hit home for me. It is a daily struggle and there is no way it can be ignored any longer. Great comment.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
my eyes
[video:https://youtu.be/qsM7qCulsRM]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
It's April 19 and snogging outside
That fits the mood that seems to have overcome many here and elsewhere. Sun would make things better.
I just opened a BarkBox that was Christmas-themed. For those you unaware or dogless it's a monthly box of squeaky toys and treats. That was rescued from my car along with a new bag of dog food. And another box that's still on my porch. Ironically, since the two items for Skya were imported I told her it was Christmas in April. And it was.
I will be happier when my daffodils bloom I hope.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Everything is better
When the daffodils are in bloom
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
In an alternate universe
the planet was saved by Jimmy Carter's program to invest in renewable energy.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Instead we mocked him in his cardigan,
asking us to turn down the heat and drive slower. Then RayGun drove a stake through his heart with the pre-election hostage deal with the Iranians, embracing free-dumb and the wisdom of the free market.
Carter was a fluke, a President and CIC who actually had a conscience and cared about others. Just look at how he has spent his retirement years.
“The story around the world gives a silent testimony:
— The Beresovka mammoth, frozen in mud, with buttercups in his mouth…..”
The Adam and Eve Story, Chan Thomas 1963
Carter brought the Carter Doctrine
though, which obligated the US to do whatever it took, including war, to keep the flow of oil going as long as Saudi or maybe the entirety of OPEC, agreed to sell their oil in US Dollars. I believe I read that in Howard Zinn. NONE of them are clean and none have been clean. That is the horrible, negative truth. Every time I read some new snippet of previously unknown to me betrayal I literally come very close to screaming. Many profanities are spewed and I truly do feel for anyone who's in the room when I do it.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Carter's presidency was drenched in as much blood as
other presidents. Don't forget that he had Kissinger on his staff and the things he did showed that he was a sociopath. I wish I had bookmarked the article on Carter's blood drenched presidency.
How did Reagan get away with holding the terrorists release until after he became president? Isn't that what people are saying Trump did with the Russian sanctions?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Carter had . . .
Brzezinski, not Kissinger and shed less blood than most.
Unfortunately, he did nothing for labor and started the great deregulation.
But we should never lose sight of the fact that he believed his policies would benefit all Americans.
Let's start by unlearning Newspeak
"Woke" is a past-tense verb, NOT A FUCKING ADJECTIVE. If there's one word I would use to sum up the FOX News-ified Democrats and totalitarians-in-liberal's-clothing I ran away from on Daily Kos, it might be that. It's the Democrat equivalent of "nucyoolar".
Here's a new term for consideration: "De-education". I think it explains itself well enough in context. Let's all stop allowing it to be done to us and go on the offensive against any who promote it.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
ouch
does aware work better for you?
question everything
Fact-checking...
Wait, what? I don't know about Amy Goodman, but I looked up Glenn Greenwald and the first thing I got was THIS:
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/04/russiagate-surveillance-politics-russian-...
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Greenwald has not completely lost his moral footing
Thanks for the link
See, I'm smiling (?)
okay, here it is.
on Democracy When?:
“GLENN GREENWALD: So, obviously, the use of chemical weapons in any instance is horrific. It’s a war crime. It’s heinous. And it ought to be strongly condemned by everybody. I think that it’s—the evidence is quite overwhelming that the perpetrators of this chemical weapons attack, as well as previous ones, is the Assad government, although, in war, there are always lots of reasons to doubt, and we certainly shouldn’t run off and make hasty decisions, until there’s a real investigation, to make the evidence available.
I think the more important question at the moment is: What is the actual solution? Obviously, what’s happening in Syria is and long has been a horrific humanitarian crisis, filled with war crimes committed by pretty much every actor there. The Assad government has killed more people than any other. But the question is: What solutions do you think are viable?” and...tra la la (nice way to bury the lede; whatever).
The Asaad government has killed more
people than any other country? My God Glenn, what in hell have you been smoking...
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
There's the other half of Greenwald--Russophobe
So, again, not simply with Syria, how waken the sleeping? If we get past this mess, there will be more sophistry and diversion, duplicity and secrecy--until the elusive resolution of this nightmare existence in which a malign sword of Damocles is ready to strike at any moment--apparently capriciously. Do we have time to await the slow growth of enlightenment? How do we stall long enough?
i've pretty much given up hope,
and i may be better for it, who's to say? when i read horrors like this and this via wikiLeaks), and know that under the great black hope it wasn't all that different, and poke about here (WTF sustainable future?) and sense that once again edward bernays is laughing from his grave...and that Important Bloggers give advice as to 'how YOU can survive while millions die',...i blog, even tho' i'm down to copy paste in my dotage to relieve some of the pressure.
and i tithe food, order a few heirloom seeds online in hopes that crutch-gardening works a bit better this year (with mr. wd's good help), bake 3-loaves of bread (like today), and live w/ the sword of damocles hanging overhead.
but one way or another, capital rules, and i'm pretty agnostic about wsws's hope that the seeds of a workers coalition is coming. and oh, fuck me, i forgot about the recent US approval of darpa's gene drives (iirc, wm. engdhal said march) and bill gates and co.'s green revolution and geo-. great music gets me thru some days, too, esp. playing for change. going out when i can to look at the night sky helps put things into perspective as well.
but as strife delivery pontificated: amerikans: no one will save you! especially not by voting. so when good trends come along, we can be glad of them, but not invest to much hope in them...for now, anyway.
i'd meant my first response to this question,
ya silly mon. (smile) but i'd commented at length, iirc, to your comment on my own diary...but never mind, that un's a dead thread in any event.
There is an upside Ed -
We will be the first to notice and recognize when (and if) the tide of tyranny swings back to sanity.. Not much consolation I'm afraid Ed - I'm at that age where the game clock is closing in fast and right now all the opposition has to do is run the same play over and over - my troubles will be over.
Peace
FN
"Democracy is technique and the ability of power not to be understood as oppressor. Capitalism is the boss and democracy is its spokesperson." Peace - FN
I, on the other hand...
...am at that age where I still need to know there's a future worth living in, where I can actually grow, succeed, and still achieve my dreams.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
More power to you, TLM
Keep punching up!
The Python?
Well there's always this Python...
And in case it wasn't clear:
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Still funny
After all these years
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
The Python choking 'Murican thought is just capitalism.
After all, it's harder exploit a well-educated, thoughtful population than one simply taught rote facts with rose-tinted glasses.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
The glasses need to best-colered filtered
Otherwise the underlying content of crap becomes visible. But the smell lingers yet.
i was disappointed that you'd never responded to my comment
up yonder, wally gator. did it harsh your mellow too far?
nor to my answer to your comment on my diary. folks around this juke joint sure do skitter off to greener fields, don't they?
I am unsure as to which comment you refer.
Please do not think of me as ducking answers--I eat ducks--tasty!
“How to end this essay? Look up? Look down? Close the eyes?
Go to sleep?”
No! Definitely not!
Go get em, Alligator Ed.
If they get away this time, you go back, Ed, and do it again!