http://www.brightlightsfilm.com
What's the Point?
for release 07-16-07
Washington DC
by Lightning Rod
In Harry Nilsson's timeless animated musical fairy tale The Point, Oblio and Arrow have been banished to the Pointless Forest. They encounter the Rock Man. When they ask him if this is the Pointless Forest,
the Rock Man says,
"Say, babe, there ain't nothing pointless about this gig. The thing is you see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear. You dig? Did you ever see Paris?"
"No."
"Did you ever see New Deli?"
"No."
"Well, that's it. You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear."
This is the profound message of the fairy tale. Even a rock could understand this simple truth. You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.
A rock can see it, and Iraq can see it, and we have a president who sees what he wants to see and hears what he wants to hear. He's living in a fairy tale.
He wants to see progress being made in Iraq. So he sees it. He wants to hear that democracy and freedom are blossoming in the Mid-East, so he hears it. He's in the Pointless Desert fighting a pointless war with your money and your children and husbands and wives.
We are spending billions of dollars and ruining countless lives with this war. My question is: What is the Point?
Oh yeah, we are rescuing the world from Al Queda. The only problem with this theory is that the plant of terrorism, whether you want to call it Al Queda or Hamas or MS-13, flourishes on devastation and destruction and war and chaos and occupation. These are just the conditions we have created in Iraq by our invasion.
How we can imagine that we are spreading freedom and democracy with Shock and Awe and occupation and tens of thousands of killed Iraqis and 2 million refugees created is beyond me, I don't get the Point.
The neo-cons, who are still very much in control of this regime, have an agenda. The neo-cons want to establish neo-colonialism. One of their objectives is to secure hegemony over the Mid-East and it's oil resources. If it wasn't for the oil in the region we would abandon the Iraqis to their sectarian amusements just like we ignore the suffering in Darfur.
The Poet's Eye sees that the Point is oil. But that's a slippery subject and you see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear. We would much rather hear that we are fighting to spread freedom and democracy and to protect our shores from evildoers and terrorists than we want to hear the truth. The truth is that we are sacrificing our flesh and our treasure for the enrichment of a few. Until we wake up and see this truth, we will be wandering in the Pointless Forest.
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