Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams

[anotherdrew]

a little reminder of just where we are from one of our dearly departed wisemen...

A Thanksgiving Prayer
by William S. Burroughs

Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shit out through wholesome
American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind the
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.

[bananas]

1. wild turkey and passenger pigeons

a night i'll never forget.

[pretzel4gore]

2. even the left seems to want to deny

that the former USA (now the WSA) was the biggest investment the human race has ever made, in terms of genius, hope, hard work and good fortune! and it ALL got hijacked by boors!
rush limbah-humbug should be the president in 2008. selected by acclamation. let the mediawhores dance

[anotherdrew]

4. things could be made better, not perfect but better

I wonder if we're not drifting quickly into a new civil war situation. these right-wing neo-fascists are not going to go quietly.

[pretzel4gore]

9. i truly believe we use the rw trick against them...

when one reads the books (up from conservativism, by lind, blinded by the right, by brock, also 'blinded by the might' by cal thomas, hunting of the president, by conason, fortunate son by hatfield, stupid white men, by moore, the twilight of common dreams, by gitlin, the united states of anger, by esler, strange justice, by mayer/abramson, fear of falling -the inner life of the middle class, by ehrenreich) the overwhelming role played by the newsmedia repeatedly comes to the fore. the idea is, as the nazipoohs know so well, is that the 'media' is truly despised, by everybody. and the right used this wrath to its own advantage (see 'liberal media') while still usurping power over society. we can do the same. harry reid et al think that reaching out, compromising etc must do the job, cuz they DO NOT want to create classwar divisions where the majority is proactive:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/dec2002/gore-d21.shtml

snip>
"In explaining his decision, Gore has offered only one political motivation—but it is a highly significant one. Referring obliquely to the 36-day battle over the Florida vote and the Supreme Court ruling that ultimately handed the presidency to his Republican opponent, Gore told his “60 Minutes” interviewer, “I think a campaign that would be a rematch between myself and President Bush would inevitably involve a focus on the past that would, in some measure, distract from the focus on the future that I think all campaigns have to be about.”
In other words, a second Gore-Bush contest would inevitably raise the overtly anti-democratic manner in which the 2000 election crisis was resolved, and bring into question the legitimacy of the Bush administration. In his desire to avoid such issues, Gore reflects a preoccupation of the entire ruling elite and both political parties"
<snip
the pigmedia is warring already against us, the rich already are waging civil war against the people- this should never be left out of any assessment of what 'our side' does, cuz the upper class twits will remain loyal to their classmates if we let them....

[mopinko]

3. thanks for reminding me about the word

finks. what great word.

[anotherdrew]

5. I've taken to calling the rethugs "clowns" lately but...

no-good lousy rat-finks is far more fair to the clowns.

[omega minimo]

6. "nation of finks" includes the lame finks that let the rat finks take charge

that's all of us-- a nation of finks


If we REALLY had "balls" we'd own up to that, instead of always pretend we know better and are better than the neo con finks.

[anotherdrew]

7. i agree actually

I've seen that for years now, we let it happen and are collectively responsible. It just seems like so many are just 'zombied' out and not every really learning anything or even thinking about anything beyond tv, work, sports, etc. Which isn't really surprising since 1000s of billions of dollars have been spent in the "advertising" and "public-relations" industry for at least five or six decades to ensure that that zombification was put in place.

[omega minimo]

8. yes and no

advertising, PR and TV had their zombifying effects prior to 1980, the rise of Reaganism, the arrival of MTV........... but after that the mega media mergers came and what had been a diverse flow of creative ideas became a mindless rehash of everything that came before-- to this day.

and with computers, youngsters really are trained like rats in a maze to have pushbutton responses, no reading skills and zero attention span.

the first step is recognizing we can affect change, the opposite of which (apathy) comes through your line "It just seems like so many are just 'zombied' out and not every really learning anything or even thinking about anything beyond tv, work, sports, etc."

kpete has a great (as usual) thread up now about civic responsibility. kids have to push back against the forces that want them zombified.

:yourock:

[bigmonkey]

10. Can I suggest a connection I saw just the other day?

Just a thought, I might be getting carried away.

Homeownership. One additional reason we need more individual homeownership is that it provides an urgent impetus to keeping yourself educated about the real world. Condo ownership less so. More renters and more condo owners mean more people who never have to deal with stubborn reality in an innovative, determined way. I'm seeing homeownership as an encouragement to the kind of independence of thought and self-reliance that the MSM aims to dull.

[omega minimo]

11. no

:puke:
:evilfrown:
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