TURNING IT OFF

scott freeman layin it to it

When my mind has been functioning today it has been puzzled by the dive civilization is taking. In my earlier years, college years, last half of the 60s, when I was becoming aware of civilization, it seemed like there was a bit of hope possible then, that we're improving, becoming a more humane society. What I didn't know then, and I suspect many others didn't either, was the momentum of nation building had come to a halt in the time of the Kennedy assassination and we didn't feel it yet. By now we're seeing and feeling what followed, and I don't feel any hope for civilization and can't say I know anybody that does. Surely some do, but I don't know where. It would have to be pre-school. The upper-case Bank (corporate takeover of all the world's governments) might fulfill the prophecy of what's to follow global business and government.

It feels to me like we went over the top in our collective American wheel of fortune. Fortune got better and better with us. We were at the top of the wheel about the time of the Kennedy assassination. From then on it's been downhill and since 1980 it's been a downhill run. This is why I don't believe a recovery from this "recession" is on its way. It's more like the beginning of a gradual decline that becomes steeper and steeper. I used to think Obama might turn us away from the momentum of the last half century, but don't see that anymore. Like Ralph Nader gave as his reasoning for consciously taking votes away from Gore in Bush's favor, he said the Republicans will get us "there" faster. There, I take to mean to the breaking point when our government turns away from the people and the people see the need to rise up. Though with all the divisive propaganda we've been receiving for the last 30 years that's been working, we're most likely to rise up in civil war, one bunch of ideologues against another.

My solution is to forget thinking any good will come from our government to the American people from this point on. I used to believe our government had our best interest at heart, and have seen throughout my lifetime it's true, if you're a corporation. If I can get it out of my head that keeping up with what they're doing in Washington DC this year is about the same as reading about any year picked from the past, 1813, I'd maybe read more history. It's only aggravation I feel thinking about those people I believe to be traitors, in that they say I'll do this for you to get your vote, then when they've got it, never heard of you. What'd you say your name was? Remember elections in high school? Suddenly whoever is running for election is glad to see you suddenly after never seeing you before. A guy I went to school with in Charleston had business ambition and political. When he was doing very well in his business a state politician took him for a huge amount of money, lost the election, no money to pay you back with. Sorry. His health broke down and he died not long after. Betrayal. That's why I don't honor politicians. Part of why. Every one of them meets the description of John Lennon's song, Nowhere Man, esp Lyndon Johnson who was president at the time of the song, lying us into the war in Vietnam and everything else. I was glad to see him go out in disgrace. One of those moments where Justice seems to work.

The news is good entertainment, nonetheless. The soap opera for men. Daytime soaps advertise washing machine detergent. The story line goes nothin aint never right, ever-things always bad as it can get. Evening soaps advertise soap for shaving. Tune in tomorrow and see more action of US troops bullying the poor people of the world, System Of A Down pounding in their headphones patrolling with machine guns. We're Number One. Numero Uno in case you don't know English. On NPR it's the same without the slide show of a few seconds of action shots, a tank shooting its big gun, moslems praying, homes broken into at night by troops with flashlights on their guns, barking in English, a useless language except for tone of voice and body language. We get a chamber pot full of propaganda in the face telling us it is necessary for our "freedom" to destroy what's left of a helpless country, then leave with a chip on the shoulder saying clean up your own mess. It's your fault. I can hear that mess now and laugh at it. Because I can't change the course of anything beyond myself.

I get brief lectures from people who want me to believe I can change things. Look at biographies of people who changed big things with an idea. I don't care enough to spend the rest of my life in court. Cindy Sheehan is still beating her head against a concrete wall. I prefer to stay at home and paint, write to you, listen to good music and watch good movies. I don't have a lot of time left any way you look at it, and see no reason to spend my later years in aggravation over what a bunch of certified frauds are doing and claiming it's for my benefit. I'll stay at home, tune them out, watch movies, read good books, and practice allowing--allowing all others to do whatever suits them to do and allowing myself the same. I'll practice living like the Bible recommends, giving no importance to the temporal. I kind of tend that way anyway. Now is a good time to take it further, get closer to it. Still, it hurts to lose a friend and a pet.