"Essay - Rough Draft"
Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:35 am
The last line is a tip o the hat, Al...
No Current Title
We have all read and heard and seen. We have all debated, cried and raged. We have all lived and some of us have died, as the screws have grown ever-tighter. We have tasted sorrow, and the bile of revenge. We have bore witness to atrocity, and we have seen the brightest shining lights of humanity at his and her best. We are human beings.
What does this mean to you, living out your daily routine, eating hamburgers, making love to your wife, taking your son fishing or to play sports? What does this mean as you meander about, so passionate when you have an audience, yet totally oblivious when in your bed, reading a war novel? What does this mean, here and now, this life, that you believe you have the right to live because someone says you're safe now because of whatever measure?
How do you feel knowing that, no matter what our government, or any government, does for the good or ill of their nation(s), it will always, without fail, come crashing down at some point in the future? Every empire must fall. Rome fell, and when she did, it is safe to say quite a few heads were caught sleeping. Where will you be when your home is a bomb shelter? What will you tell your child(ren) when the booted, masked men come to the door because you said something in IHOP about current national fareign and domestic policy? How will you combat your worst fears about what a nation can succumb to, when those who have the firepower aim their "enemy of the state" guns at you and your family?
One thing that has always fascinated me, all my life, is how people can be so easily manipulated towards a cattle-herd view of a topic, with so little being said, or shown to them. The larger a group, the easier it is. People, on a base level, defer to whoever is the loudest, most intelligent, and most vicious. It is the natural order. The strong defer to the alpha and his or her ilk. People are taught in school that a male lion is some sort of king in his domain, yet it is the females of their species who bring the kills, direct the migration of a pride, and dictate the ley lines of power. Lions defer. We defer in a similar manner. Those with the most to lose, will often bow because they wish to maintain what little they have, at all costs.
When you think about that, at the most brutally honest level, what, in all honesty, are you protecting with your denial, hate, and violence? What are you accomplishing for your betterment? One more cheeseburger in the bag for Bob Jr.? Is this what life is? Is this how happiness is met, by completing the grand design to consume, at all costs, everything within reach, and therefore deny so fully the existence of your internal misery you cannot even believe its there?
I look around my country, both far from my doorstep and here at my building I live in. What I see are shattered beings. Sure, people are married and going to college, and have perhaps made it big in financial life. Sure, they have a home. Sure, they have their spouse, their dog named Spot, and their high speed internet in every room in their home. Sure, they have bright, witty children who they want to see grow up and......
What will you do, America, when you wake up and you are an enemy in your own home?
The time is near.
No Current Title
We have all read and heard and seen. We have all debated, cried and raged. We have all lived and some of us have died, as the screws have grown ever-tighter. We have tasted sorrow, and the bile of revenge. We have bore witness to atrocity, and we have seen the brightest shining lights of humanity at his and her best. We are human beings.
What does this mean to you, living out your daily routine, eating hamburgers, making love to your wife, taking your son fishing or to play sports? What does this mean as you meander about, so passionate when you have an audience, yet totally oblivious when in your bed, reading a war novel? What does this mean, here and now, this life, that you believe you have the right to live because someone says you're safe now because of whatever measure?
How do you feel knowing that, no matter what our government, or any government, does for the good or ill of their nation(s), it will always, without fail, come crashing down at some point in the future? Every empire must fall. Rome fell, and when she did, it is safe to say quite a few heads were caught sleeping. Where will you be when your home is a bomb shelter? What will you tell your child(ren) when the booted, masked men come to the door because you said something in IHOP about current national fareign and domestic policy? How will you combat your worst fears about what a nation can succumb to, when those who have the firepower aim their "enemy of the state" guns at you and your family?
One thing that has always fascinated me, all my life, is how people can be so easily manipulated towards a cattle-herd view of a topic, with so little being said, or shown to them. The larger a group, the easier it is. People, on a base level, defer to whoever is the loudest, most intelligent, and most vicious. It is the natural order. The strong defer to the alpha and his or her ilk. People are taught in school that a male lion is some sort of king in his domain, yet it is the females of their species who bring the kills, direct the migration of a pride, and dictate the ley lines of power. Lions defer. We defer in a similar manner. Those with the most to lose, will often bow because they wish to maintain what little they have, at all costs.
When you think about that, at the most brutally honest level, what, in all honesty, are you protecting with your denial, hate, and violence? What are you accomplishing for your betterment? One more cheeseburger in the bag for Bob Jr.? Is this what life is? Is this how happiness is met, by completing the grand design to consume, at all costs, everything within reach, and therefore deny so fully the existence of your internal misery you cannot even believe its there?
I look around my country, both far from my doorstep and here at my building I live in. What I see are shattered beings. Sure, people are married and going to college, and have perhaps made it big in financial life. Sure, they have a home. Sure, they have their spouse, their dog named Spot, and their high speed internet in every room in their home. Sure, they have bright, witty children who they want to see grow up and......
What will you do, America, when you wake up and you are an enemy in your own home?
The time is near.
