Wednesday, June 10, 2009

AND NOW ...

...FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

If I could 'write', I would. What I mean by that is me and holding a pen and writing legibly are not activities that are necessarily something that is a part of my 'new normal'. That factored into me putting my life out here in the world.

Also, I believe wholeheartedly in that you have to 'claim you dream', by asking for it and letting life know what you want. Since I didn't know anyone well enough in the 'provincial town that I was jogging around' to talk about stuff with, I didn't.

Besides, I don't get the same things from the media that everyone else does.

I try to have a care when someone post something about a worldly observation. If someone has something to say about their personal life, I can easily have a heart, and speak appropriately. But when it comes to something in the media, sometimes I can get a little hasty and 'jump' someone. I do think my right to my opinion begins in the back of my head and ends at the tip of my tongue.

DEFINITION - DYSTOPIAN

Two girls out here, Cathy and Beth, come up with smart and very insightful commentaries. Alaina and Ken are just plain smarter than I am. Heck, I am sure that more than the four of them that reads this mess of mine are out there that can make that claim!! And you know what? That is cool. 'Be not satisfied with one's own ignorance', or something like that. Along with 'keep company with men of good repute', I get to think that through my associations I am a sort of smart cat! Otherwise, why would some of these folks let me hang around!

I was a junior league kid when I stumbled on '1984'. I read that book and suddenly the headlines in the newspapers that I was delivering looked 'different'. And they have never looked the same since. I had always been a 'why' kind of kid, and between Winston Smith and Redford in 'All The President's Men', I stopped letting people tell me what to think about things in the news.

That was also when I made up my mind to leave Detroit. I didn't care for the mayoral administrations of Coleman Young, and it was his brand of politics that crippled this city and has left it vulnerable. I saw his politics as a micro-version of what they citizenry of Oceania had to deal with. People here swallow things hook, line and sinker, even when they know different.

On the macro scale, the war in Iraq is an example of how we have allowed ourselves to be led into getting behind something for nebulous reasons. Why are we even in Iraq? I mean, really? I am sure that everyone knows that in the Arab world, Al-Queda, in the person of Bin Laden, got along with Sadaam Hussein's Iraq like cats and dogs.

I wonder if people ever ask themselves if that was true, why are they saying that there is a connection to the SAUDI ARABIAN TERRORISTS that led the attack on the Twin Towers? I mean, Hutch won't let me come sit with him at Michigan Stadium for an Ohio State game. Good friendship can only be stretched so far!

But in this example, they are not even friends. In fact, they had an open animosity for one another. The Al-Queda base were in the crap mountains of Afghanistan. If we were really looking for who attacked us, why didn't we go there first? Or to Saudi Arabia, WHERE THEY WERE FROM?

Uh, why are we in Iraq again?

PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY

I want y'all to know that I am a conspiracy guy. I figure if so much of this stuff is true, from Knight of the Templar and all that stuff from the Dan Brown books, and the meetings of the Tri-Lateral Commission, then there has to be something to some of it.

'Every truth has to make sense. Is that not doubly so for a lie?' -yup, my boy Nietzsche!

The idea for getting control of the oil in Iraq was first formed in a think tank called 'The Project For The New American Century'. Rummy, Wolfie, Condi, and Shotgun blast to my buddy's face (Cheney) were all part of that think tank. That was back in the 70's, when the oil crisis hit. So is it any wonder when they got to Washington, that when they got the chance, they went into Iraq with NO PROVOCATION.

When the Iraqis went into Kuwait, I remember there being talk of a 'misunderstanding' between Baghdad and Washington. Sadaam thought that some high political cat had said that the US weren't interested in meddling in the Mid East, and that was the sign he took to move on Kuwait. Was he right or wrong, we don't know, do we? Anywho, when Bush Sr., took the advice of the military and pushed the Iraqis out, there was a big political stink about it, saying that we should have moved all the way to Baghdad, and grabbed Hussein.

AND THE PROBLEMS WITH CATS AND DOGS

Is that if you have too many of them, you eventually get chaos. Iraq, despite whatever you want to say about it, was doing pretty alright by Middle Eastern standards. They produced a lot of college folks, and there was relative peace ... the people didn't know shortage and want until AFTER we got there and messed up everything. The secular violence, was not a problem until we got rid of the strongman who intimidated everyone into an uneasy, but livable peace.

Like in the mafia stories, where the 'Don' is weak or killed, the neighborhood is enmeshed in violence. Not only that, the architects of the war did a poor job on the 'hearts and minds' aspect of the war. Again, by the standards of living that they were accustomed to, the people there were doing pretty alright. If there was no running water, nothing at the grocery and what little you could find was too expensive to purchase, what kind of gratitude do you think you would have for America? Rrr-iiiiggght. Again, what are we doing there?

IT'S JINGO-TASTIC!

Because I gave at the office, and people who know me personally also know that I would give again, rightly or wrongly, I am comfortable with saying things like this about bad policy. I remember as a child, not begin able to understand the anger some people had for the military. Still don't. But what the Vietnam era set the future up for, was a rush to support the military despite bad rationale for using the military.

From having to watch my cousin deal with coming home, to punk kids messin' with me in ROTC (If I get a chance, I aim to scan and upload my twin sis' in the Navy ROTC unis ... too cute!), to when I actually signed and left, folks were trash talking military service. That is why I have the attitude that I do, that I know what kind of sacrifice I would make for you, because when you go ... wait, that is a digression.

My point is, I am wondering where the earlier, at best ambivalence towards the military suddenly became this swell of support, this 'love the soldier, hate the war' thing we have now. It doesn't really make sense to me. Support the troops? By celebrating their going off into harms way? There is a super Jedi mind trick going on ...

So we identify with the the soldiers in a personally objective way, in the fashion we form attachments to our sports teams. Those intense emotions build for a time, then dissipate into nothing, because that is all they really are, and the connection we have is an illusion.

I believe in a strong military. I also believe in the 2nd Amendment and am thankful for the work of the NRA (despite some of the misguided rhetoric they can create). But we have let reason fly out of the window, and let slogans and buzzwords replace actual thinking.

What ... is ... going ... on ..?

NEXT: MORE 'GOAT THINKIN'!

3 comments:

betty said...

I go with conspiracy theories too, Mark, but I do believe the Dan Brown books are nothing but fiction and I personally don't believe a single thing he writes despite the first line in the Da Vinci Code that says "fact".

I'm not much good about politics when it comes to why we are in the war we are in. I do know I try to support the military as much as I can and am glad that there are people out there willing to serve and potentially give their lives for our freedom or the freedom of other countries. Unfortunately, I think there will always be wars or rumors or wars until True Peace comes back (Jesus) but I don't think that will happen in either one of our lifetimes.

betty

Ken Riches said...

Thanks for the shout-out. Not sure I am any smarter than the next guy or gal, but I certainly enjoy learning about our world and what makes it tick :o)

Not sure I agree with you position on Iraq, they were under a dictatorship and have a history of bulling others. At the time we went in, the sentiment in our country was tense and we were not about to take anything from anybody. Remember there was bipartisan support originally, it is the lack of planning and strategy that has created the new quagmire.

As for the troops, they deserve our respect and our thanks. Thats all I have to say about that.

Beth said...

My big phrase in college was "Question Authority." I realize now that is a little simplistic, but the sentiment is still the same.