New American Century

[mnaz]

We hold these truths to be self-evident:
A brand-new metronome of mono-culture.
We pray for the cleansing blood of capital,
to wash away the flood of identity.
We pray for the atonement of markets,
to mass-produce our spirit and dream.

We lurk in icy black depths of fear, poised,
with devices to blow nerves of steel,
and buttons, so many buttons.
We cross steel-crushed ocean foam, parted,
clutching more efficient weapons than before,
muttering freedom, sweet freedom.

In the end, we are drawn to the word.
Sheer design and will may pierce the heavens,
same as weapons of will may scale the invincible,
same as our way of life is threatened by shadows,
always by shadows, by a sinister unseen.
There will always be another campaign.

[stilltrucking]

I have trouble staying on message. I ramble. You on the other hand have a gift for:


Succinctness
In a nut shell
Beautifully done



(“mein Erlebnis par excellence”)
http://www.ethicalspace.org/archive/200 ... ure-1.html

[Zlatko Waterman]

Dear mnaz:


Way back around 1968 when I was talking against the dangers of bigger and bigger business in the US and the commodification of everything ( see William Gibson's brilliant dystopian satire, "Pattern Recognition" ( a novel) ), one of my favorite, fearless poets, Philip Levine, wrote this poem for his collection , "Not This Pig":


( paste of Levine poem):



Animals Are Passing From Our Lives


It's wonderful how I jog
on four honed-down ivory toes
my massive buttocks slipping
like oiled parts with each light step.


I'm to market. I can smell
the sour, grooved block, I can smell
the blade that opens the hole
and the pudgy white fingers


that shake out the intestines
like a hankie. In my dreams
the snouts drool on the marble,
suffering children, suffering flies,


suffering the consumers
who won't meet their steady eyes
for fear they could see. The boy
who drives me along believes


that any moment I'll fall
on my side and drum my toes
like a typewriter or squeal
and shit like a new housewife


discovering television,
or that I'll turn like a beast
cleverly to hook his teeth
with my teeth. No. Not this pig.

--Philip Levine


( end paste)


There are interesting comments about this poem here:


http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/ ... nimals.htm


To me, it is a poem about defiance. I am the pig. I am bound for slaughter and there's not much I can do about it. I'm in Slaughter-House Five and the firestorm is walking the earth above me.

The important thing is to keep the firestorm out of our own heads. That's the only inviolate property we have left, like Winston Smith writing his diary or screaming in pain as O'Brien tortures him on the gurney.

Thanks for your comments.


--Z

[mnaz]

Thanx Still, & Z.

more a rant than a poem, of course....

triggered by some Condoleeza comments I recall from awhile back, some sort of sermon about market economies.... (and she's right. of course).....

and then it kinda took on a life of its own. In the wee hour shadows.

[Zlatko Waterman]

Dear mnaz:


Because we have the Internet and can circulate images ( like the horrific scenes of murdered and maimed children Jim posted) and words to one another, can cleave through some of the official lies, war and worldwide brutality have become a little more real to those whose hearts are open to the truth.

I was drafted for Vietnam three times, the first time in 1965, when I was a college sophomore and just awakening to the miracle of substituting college ( an institution I flourished in for over thirty years) for my untenable family.

Because I was fortunate enough to get some very good draft resister and "leftist" counseling from some friends of mine, one of whom was an American communist ( that's not the way for me-- it turns out to be a party, like all the rest, with its own brand of totalitarianism), I resisted the draft and was prepared to move to Canada ( I was all packed), when I was exempted on a bureaucratic medical snafu.

I went back to college, but not away from protesting. Coming from a solid union background and poor, poor people, I was primed to "speak truth to power" ( unfortunately, while a good and accurate phrase, one which has become almost a cliche-- the viruses of mass media blur-meister-ing infect every bit of language).

So I got involved, at a fairly warm, but not heated level in anti-Vietnam war protests.

Believe me, this Iraq thing looks all too familiar.

You have obviously done some soul-searching lately. I can see it in the passion and intellectual soundness with which you answer pro-war or "equivocator" positions-- "we can't bring the troops home now-- chaos will result" ; "we'll dishonor the sacrifice of those who have already fallen . . .", etc..

You answer that mumbling well.

These were all commonplace phrases during Vietnam, used by those who needed to feel the US was invincible, couldn't make a mistake, was destined to put the whole world right, etc., etc..

It is, as I've said before, old news.

Howard Zinn's history of the US from the point of view of those in front of, rather than those holding, the guns, is worth reading:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books


Zinn has much to say about American "insurgents" throughout our history.

A psychiatrist friend of mine warns against "compassion fatigue." Stay aware, even if not physically engaged. You can burn out.

You and Jim both need a rest.

Peace,


--Z

[mnaz]

Zlatko...

Compassion fatigue is a real possible pitfall, no doubt, but so is potential consumption by anger. I've got a lot of it. I was sucked into this latest lie, on top of the littany of original ones, for months and months.... this business of "we can't leave Iraq until blah blah blah". Only in the last couple of months did I even think to question it.

I do appreciate my country. It has done good in the world, not only bad. But I will never buy into "my country, right or wrong". I will not pledge allegiance to wrong. And Vietnam was wrong. I saw that as a fourteen-year-old. I missed the draft by four years or so. If they had called me, it's hard to say for sure what I would have done, but I don't think I would have gone.

Like I say, at least in Iraq we can say that a terrible tyrant has been removed from power, but this positive is nullified if we persist in endless war, propelled chiefly by imperial motives. The next year or so will reveal more of what Bush is really up to. If he persists in pushing for a permanent military presence and recycling the same babble about Iraqi security readiness, then I hope we all wake up and start applying some serious political hurt on the G.O.P.

I've just had it with the whole f***ing mess. You're right. I do need a break. I should pour my energy into my writing.... desert sketches, whatever.

Enough.

[jimboloco]

We hold these truths to be self-evident:
A brand-new metronome of mono-culture.
We pray for the cleansing blood of capital,
to wash away the flood of identity.
We pray for the atonement of markets,
to mass-produce our spirit and dream.

We lurk in icy black depths of fear, poised,
with devices to blow nerves of steel,
and buttons, so many buttons.
We cross steel-crushed ocean foam, parted,
clutching more efficient weapons than before,
muttering freedom, sweet freedom.

In the end, we are drawn to the word.
Sheer design and will may pierce the heavens,
same as weapons of will may scale the invincible,
same as our way of life is threatened by shadows,
always by shadows, by a sinister unseen.
There will always be another campaign.

i like what you did here
it envelopes a world view
jaundiced and worn, and held prisoner by our need for structure and safety, in the end we are drawn to the sword, alive with inadmissable fear and contempt for others. thankyou.

[stilltrucking]

i like what you did here
it envelopes a world view

ten four jimbo, that is what I was trying to say
mnaz has distilled my world view down to its essence

mnaz I wish you would not take a break, I need you to keep on keeping on. but do what you got to do.

I should pour my energy into my writing.... .

I think that is exactly what you are doing here.

Erlebnis, you have given me a lens to focus my experience.
The internet is just one more thing that adds to information anxiety. I have a brother who is a psychiatrist he is very careful to discriminate between anxiety and fear.

[Dixie]

Rant on!

You speak well, and for many!

[abcrystcats]

This is a beautiful and powerful piece of writing.

[stilltrucking]

Leo Strauss and the "New American Century"
Matthew Sharpe


http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_ ... cle_id=921

[mnaz]

I can't revisit my darker riffs, just as they occurred to me. They happen only once, and it's rare when I even try to record them, though I was on a roll last fall....

Final kingdom theories seem to play well to any given generation, even the hired soldiers, before the blood runs for awhile-- then it's back to group rethink. The same damn pattern keeps repeating itself. Sue me for my rather obvious protest. I'm used to it.

[stilltrucking]

The same damn pattern keeps repeating itself

Oh yes indeed, in the cosmic scheme of things I think it takes about 15 billion years to complete the cycle of the eternal return.

Right back where we started from.
Meanwhile we ride the ego trip.

I wish I could remember jimboloco's post about despair.
something like this I think?

Through despair
despair is conquered

[hester_prynne]

Indeed, new words, new fables, new mantras, like "money is thicker than blood..."

Fantastic piece here Mnaz.....fantastic....

thanks for posting
H

[stilltrucking]

Believe me, this Iraq thing looks all too familiar.

Looks pretty strange to me Norman.

We are all crispy critters this time.