george bellows
Back in the time fascism was introduced to America with police in the airports, I swore off flying, glad I did. I was taking a short flight and carried a small bag with one day of clothes in it. I was told to stand aside, regarded as a criminal in a police station. A humorless government man went through my things, found nothing but clothes, what a disappointment. I watched to be sure he didn't plant something on me to be found at next inspection station. Standing with my back to the wall being looked at as a criminal curiosity by everybody walking by, I swore to myself I would never enter another airport. Somebody invariably says, "Never say never." I say, "Never. You said never twice." I've let my passport go. I don't want to leave the country. I refuse to submit to fascism. I have no choice, but I do have a choice about going someplace by plane and putting myself through suspicion for being an American citizen, at home, herded like cattle, paying for the opportunity.
Everyone who lives beyond an hour's drive of my home will not see me in future unless they come to where I am. I don't even like to go to town anymore. One day last week I'd gone to town for groceries, donkey grain and bird seed, and came home to a big Ford 150 pickup parked in my parking space. I thought it was funny at first, presumptuous to the max, and parked across the road by the mailbox. My jewelweed almost waist high grows around the parked car, but for the path that goes around the left front fender to the house. The jewelweed was so tight up against his truck, he had to trample some getting out, and I had to trample some more to walk around the truck to the path. I was ok with him parking in my spot. The place really does look like nobody lives there, exactly the way I want it. I took it as my fault he chose to park there. But it pist me off for the jewelweed to be trampled just as it's orange orchids are opening. He'd also gone over the chain with the no trespassing sign on it. I put a note under his wiper blade noting this is not a parking lot. It wasn't somebody I know, because I don't know anybody with that new a pickup.
I've seen disrespect come into the mountains, generation by generation, each generation a little bit more disrespectful of others than the generation before. I don't feel safe leaving the house now for somebody wanting to go look through that old house nobody lives in. Respect for others is a thing of the past. This is the quality of life in police state. The state shows no respect to anyone, and pass it on to the people. The television solves all problems instantly with guns and explosions. I'm seeing a condition of rapid decay, entropy, throughout the American land. I'm seeing a people who have lost touch with the basically practical down to even the last lick of good sense. Two-thirds of a century of television's anti-intellectualism have advanced traditional American anti-intellectualism to anti-intelligence, to anti-learning, to anti-paying attention, to anti-noticing, to anti-awake. In our politicians, Ted Cruz got into Harvard law school somehow and passed the tests somehow and evidently graduated somehow. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana went to Oxford, in England, and he makes Cruz look brilliant. School failed these people. They got nothing from it. This whole generation of the young politicians is college educated airheads.
It makes me glad I got my schooling half a century ago. I'm thinking of somebody in my Shakespeare class I ran into a few years after we were out of school. In our conversation I mentioned a memory from the class and was told, "I forgot everything about Shakespeare when I turned in my final exam." This is how Lindsay Graham, Jindal, Cruz, the Bushes went through school, forgot it the moment they turned in the final exam. This is an absurd polar extreme of anti-intellectualism. Hundreds of thousands of dollars put into an education forgotten graduation day. I'm sad, somewhat, to see the USA imploding of its collective willful anti-intelligence. It is not going to reverse any time soon. Television won't allow it. The Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdoch will not have it. The implosion is so far advanced it will have to complete the process before it can start up again. America historically, traditionally squanders its benefits. We're on our downhill run now, created and generated by the particularly American tragic flaw, anti-intelligence.
george bellows
george bellows
I've seen disrespect come into the mountains, generation by generation, each generation a little bit more disrespectful of others than the generation before. I don't feel safe leaving the house now for somebody wanting to go look through that old house nobody lives in. Respect for others is a thing of the past. This is the quality of life in police state. The state shows no respect to anyone, and pass it on to the people. The television solves all problems instantly with guns and explosions. I'm seeing a condition of rapid decay, entropy, throughout the American land. I'm seeing a people who have lost touch with the basically practical down to even the last lick of good sense. Two-thirds of a century of television's anti-intellectualism have advanced traditional American anti-intellectualism to anti-intelligence, to anti-learning, to anti-paying attention, to anti-noticing, to anti-awake. In our politicians, Ted Cruz got into Harvard law school somehow and passed the tests somehow and evidently graduated somehow. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana went to Oxford, in England, and he makes Cruz look brilliant. School failed these people. They got nothing from it. This whole generation of the young politicians is college educated airheads.
george bellows
It makes me glad I got my schooling half a century ago. I'm thinking of somebody in my Shakespeare class I ran into a few years after we were out of school. In our conversation I mentioned a memory from the class and was told, "I forgot everything about Shakespeare when I turned in my final exam." This is how Lindsay Graham, Jindal, Cruz, the Bushes went through school, forgot it the moment they turned in the final exam. This is an absurd polar extreme of anti-intellectualism. Hundreds of thousands of dollars put into an education forgotten graduation day. I'm sad, somewhat, to see the USA imploding of its collective willful anti-intelligence. It is not going to reverse any time soon. Television won't allow it. The Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdoch will not have it. The implosion is so far advanced it will have to complete the process before it can start up again. America historically, traditionally squanders its benefits. We're on our downhill run now, created and generated by the particularly American tragic flaw, anti-intelligence.
george bellows himself
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You hit it the nail right on the head...Good blog...I have removed myself from The DCP so the only comments you will see are on here but rest assured I read every post...
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