Somedays synchronicity takes over and makes my job a whole lot easier…
Monday was one of those days.
A connecting principle
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible
Currently, I am teaming with my English teaching colleague on an interdisciplinary project for my seniors throughout which they are working to identify the sociopolitical narratives that surround us and then deconstructing them to see, well, what lies beneath, I suppose. Before the semester ends they will be producing a journal of self-produced investigative reports examining the power of the dollar in politics focusing on topics ranging from factory farming to fracking to the SEC (non)regulation to SOPA to NAFTA to… well, you get the idea.
The project is pretty ambitious to lay on a group of 60 seniors who at this point in their academic careers really just want to get the flock out of high school. And it is also something I am not sure I would have had the inclination or ability to grock at that age. But no matter, we forged on, hoping that we could hook them with a series of WTF moments as they questioned how our government, ostensibly of, by and for the people was working for them – or was it… working against them? [maniacal laugh...]
In the midst of the abrupt return to school (that only comes after a really rewarding vacation), I took a little step up to Shattuck to get a mid-morning Americano. As I was walking back in my own little reverie (that only comes after getting a delicious coffee and the knowledge that your prep is only half way over), I glanced over at a shop window that I had never noticed before, as I never really walk on this side of the street.
There staring out of the window at my wondering eyes was this:
And this…
Wait. What?
Okay, so yeah, I know I work in Berkeley and as such we might not be such an accurate reflection of the rest of the country, but still. There I was face to window glass with the exact premise, neé purpose of the project I had been envisioning.
I quickly shot photos of each of the other twelve panels which chronologically outlined the key turning points in the transition from a government of, by and for the people to a government of, by and for the $$$$$. And then I ran back to tell my colleague. And… being that it is Berkeley, we decided to take a little field trip the next day. We would have them look at the images and try to work out what the purpose of the store front was, the agenda, who might be behind it…
When we got there we talked about it a little bit and I challenged some of the kids to see if they could find out who was the occupant of the building. Boy, do seniors love this kind of challenge. Before I knew it they were on it and had gotten the attention of someone in the building. Suddenly our field trip was a seminar in a local progressive think-tank called Maplight.org. They took us up and showed us what they do and offered any sort of assist that our students might need. Just because they can. “It is what they do,” they said.
Talk about amazing. And whether or not this would only happen in Berkeley, I cannot really say, but I am certainly glad it happened on that day.
If you act, as you think
The missing link
SynchronicityWe know you, they know me
Extrasensory
SynchronicityA star fall, a phone call
It joins all
SynchronicityIt’s so deep, it’s so wide
Your inside
Synchronicity
Occupied.
Up from the basement to my best friend’s farm
Where we’ll work so hard, we can do no harm
We’ll till the land and duck our debts
Underneath soft sun, chewing Nicorette
This will be a better year
This will be a better year
Make a little money, take a lot of shit
Feel real bad, then get over itThis will be a better year
Early on in my time Hong Kong I went out with an Aussie guy who fancied himself a real local-style ex-pat in the 852. He was a musician who had found me on Myspace (hey, it was 2005, don’t judge) and he was pretty cute. Except for the name and the wanna-be-scenester element, but anyhow… Most of our time together invloved required a good amount of lager and me trying not to pay attention to a lot of his rather transparent dialogue. One night while we were out at the Fringe Club, having the requisite beers, we were talking US politics. This was the onset of the second term with W. and he asked me, with total sincerity, why Americans were not rioting in the streets about the political situation under which we certainly were feeling the suppression of our civil rights, liberties and sovereignty.
Taking in his earnest tone, I had to tell him the only truth I knew – that even the most liberal, socially conscious and politically active of my friends, when faced with the choice of getting out in the streets versus feeding their families and paying their mortgages, were most certainly going to go with the latter. He tilted his head – a good look on him – and then shook it. What? I said, Like you Aussies would be out there?
“In Australia George Bush would have never gotten through the door in 2000.”
Weeeellllll…. to give him his due this was the height of all that “Yee-haw = Foreign policy” garbage, Bush had just had that *super* awkward moments with Premiere Hu, because apparently the Chinese wouldn’t let him through the door either… (and it was running non-stop on Hong Kong t.v.) and it was pre-John Howard anti-Muslim accusations, Kiv-vin Rudd implosion and the least popular Australia PM ever in Julia Gillard. Also, I have to credit him for preempting one of the best moments of Russell Brand’s career that would come three years down the road at the VMA’s:
Anyhow, my long-lost point is that I think of that moment often (the conversation far more memorable than most of the evening frankly…) and I do wonder: why aren’t Americans rioting in the streets?
My answer has always come back to a couple of general principles. 1) that Americans have become sated (á la Aldous Huxley) to the point of dullness akin to some sort of drug induced stupor preventing the majority of the population from actually taking in any new information in a critical or analytical way, and 2) that until people literally go with out, and actually feel the poverty under which most of the world lives, they will not be motivated to make any sort of change. And by motivated I mean scared shitless.
Fast forward to the second week of September 2011. I am in my American Government class and one particularly precocious student asks me, “Why don’t Americans get out in the street and demand that this country change? Why won’t people do it?”
Immediately I was brought back to that evening at the Fringe in 2005. Another student at the table says, “They have too much to lose.”
“Yeah,” says another. “I mean those people in the Middle East and Africa and stuff don’t have anything so there’s no risk.”
I consider what this means, that the children of our country think the only things that can be lost are tangible before I interject. “Well, I think you guys are kind of right – but I also think that anyone who dares to speak out against the status quo that envelops them is taking a risk, regardless of their financial circumstances…” I explain my two general assumptions. They listen.
“Well, I guess people are going to start rioting pretty soon then, huh?” one of them suggests.
Five days later, people take to the streets in New York City.
Well, my young, thinking friend, I guess you were right.
The East Coast kids, man, we just don’t know
Singing wait, wait, stop, drop me, go, go, go
But I’m taken by the hand to a blue pay phone
We can break blue laws with our skin and bones
This movement is unlike any I have ever seen, if for no other reason than the fact that the people have stayed out there – even when it has not been great “television” – our local media seems positively disappointed that the protestors are decent, well-behaved people. And the message seems to be resonating with all sorts of people, nearly 99% one might say. I am fascinated and impressed by the interest my students are developing in the situation and that they may be living on the precipice of total paradigm shift. And if you can’t win them over with Josh Harkinson, The Nation, Matt Taibbi, Paul Krugman and Amy Goodman, you can always get them to see the light darkness with numbers:
After reading them a piece by Matt Taibbi the other day the economics started to really sink in: 62 million Americans have a zero or negative net worth. Tuition for public universities in California has increased more than 20% in the last year. We are educating them for a world that won’t employ them or provide the opportunities for to create a new halcyon age.
Make a little money, take a lot of shit
Feel real bad, then get over it
This will be a better year
Oh I keep pushing boulders
I stay game till sun’ll shake my shoulders
Oh, I keep feeling older
I stay game, stay game, stay game
Right in their own backyard, the Occupy Oakland movement has become world news. Add to that the continued inclusion of social media in all of this (there’s an app for that!) and you suddenly have a much more aware (if not always informed) public. The hypocrisy abounds. And if there is one thing that gets a teenager furious, it is hypocrisy.
We have let this generation down and they are right to be angry. I hope their anger will translate to action and that action will translate to change. This is the class of 2012… a year of prophetic significance, after all…
Last week the same precocious student who had asked about rioting in the streets asked me if he could get extra credit for organizing a protest movement.
I guess I am glad that some things don’t change.
I thought of Bukowski again today.
We are
Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes.
~ Bukowski, ‘Dinosauria, We’
I thought of Bukowski again today.
I am very disappointed about the forced resignation of Representative Anthony Weiner, (D-NY). In a world with far more significant problems than Weiner’s sexting habits and history, America chose to focus wholy on one man’s odd choice to send someone a picture of himself in his underpants. The key issue was the user error which caused the photo to post rather than be sent as a private message between consenting adults, though mental midgets like Andrew Breitbart, Reince Preibus insist that the issue was the photo itself.
If a majority of his constituents were okay with it, why do members of the opposite party care so much? If they really think Weiner’s behavior is so categorically reprehensible and the cause of untold moral outrage in our country, they should have put their thinking caps on and let him stick around so he could have been the Democratic Party’s Palin. I mean, damn, that woman is a godsend to every opposition party.
Of course, that they did not clearly underscores that they know it is not that big of a deal and so they had to make it a big one while they could.
Total focus on one man’s penis. That Weiner’s own party freaked is an eve bigger mysterty. Maybe they thought they were missing out on some quality collective outrage, or something. We apparently have the collective intellect of a 15-year-old boy. In a world rife with war, degenerating domestic industry, social isolation and sadness, violence, an absence of health care, regular miscarriages of justice, government sanctioned fraud in big business, and rampant political corruption of all sorts of real consequence…
We are
Born into this
Walking and living through this
Dying because of this
Muted because of this
Castrated
Debauched
Disinherited
Because of this
Fooled by this
Used by this
Pissed on by this
Made crazy and sick by this
Bukowski knew. We know. We can do something about it.
Will we?
Bob Herbert gets it. I wish the GOP did.
Today one of my students was telling me that he got stumped by one of his university interview questions over the weekend. Considering the student as well as the outcome, I am going to have to say “stumped” is a wee bit of an overstatement, but none the less, the question was interesting. As a future lawyer, he has applied for a Law and Politics program. On seeing that the interviewer said, “I see that you have aptly demonstrated your interest in law, but what about politics? What interests you about politics?”
“Uhhh….” He began. “Politics is interesting because it is the element of the system that works on enforcing law… like, they work together to effect change…”
Okay, so not bad. Always good to fall back on interdependence and relationships.
He asked me, what I would have said. What a perfect day to ask me such a question. I told him I was not sure I could answer the question in light of the current political sh*tstorm underway in the States. He persisted. I gave in with little more encouragement: “I think that politics is fascinating because it is like the crystallization of all the best and worst extremes of the human condition. It is the fun house mirror of our society.”
He laughed and then looked at the clock. Maybe I should have re-thought my answer.
In the wake of the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill the nature of the extreme right in our country has been disclosed to such a degree that even the “mostly extreme” right sees the red flags. Like I said yesterday: It is embarrassing. I am frightened to see the potential for hate that this has brought out in the people who we have chosen to represent us. Jesus – if this is who we have become we really are a Generation of Swine.
Bob Herbert’s op-ed piece in the New York Times pretty much summed up what I was trying to say yesterday (that is why he earns the big bucks, yo.) and I know lots of people are going to say that he is some liberal-leftist-socialist-racist-tyrant. So before you go there, consider what David Frum had to say about what the GOP has earned themselves as a result of the past few weeks years:
We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat… by mobilizing [the Republicans] with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. He went on in another piece to say that “Conservatives have whipped themselves into spasms of outrage and despair that block all strategic thinking.”
The behavior that Herbert describes in his piece defies any sort of rational explanation – oh, yeah BECAUSE IT IS IRRATIONAL. Beyond that it is inexcusable, but it was at the hands of a bunch of Teabagger Morons. So what then of yelling “Baby Killer” at Bart Stupak, (who frankly does not speak for my uterus in any way) on the floor of the United States House of Representatives? Randy Neugebauer [from Texas - HOW SURPRISING] came forward to admit it was him (though made up quite a justification for it) a day late. In the military don’t they have punishments for “conduct unbecoming”? Why do we have to put up with this kind of bullshit in the hallowed halls of “the greatest Democracy on the planet? [Be sure to read the comments following the Neugebauer article if you check the link.]
Yeah, the greatest “democracy” on earth. Maybe, as the Aussies point out, that is not necessarily the best thing.
“In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep.” ~ Hunter S. Thompson, 1979
**Thank you to Twitter friends: seanbedlam, shockozulu aka John Cusack, lizzwinstead, pourmecoffee, deringolade and cody_k for all the links and great posts over the past few days.**
How embarrassing.
For eight long years people in Washington had to mostly bite their tongues when it came to the vitriol that Bush and Cheney were spewing in and around the capitol world. You know, like when Bush was telling us that if we did not support legislation like the “Patriot” Act we were UN-American and Cheney was telling US Senators to “go fuck themselves.”
Today, after an arduous and ultimately not entirely satisfying run, the Health Care Reform Bill passed in the US House of Representatives. 216 votes were needed and they got 219. Certainly not a landslide, but hey. When Representative Stupak reversed and voted for the bill, a Republican Congressperson yelled “Baby killer!” Making it even more hideous, the Representatives know who it is and won’t say. Way to go Texas whoever you are. What is this Parliament for God’s sake? Who knew there was a three drink minimum for a House vote? [Maybe this is to demonstrate how health care reform won't help belligerent drunks idiots?]
How completely embarrassing.
Add that to the fact that Congresspeople ‘booed’ the President of the United States of America IN THE CHAMBER.
If there is more embarrassing than completely embarrassing, this is it.
The Twitterverse was alive and well with all the latest on the situation from start to finish. Here are some of the choice bits:
The federal government forced me to buy two wars in the last 10 years.
Politics are so jive. That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh we like it, uh-huh uh-huh.
Last night at dinner I was reminded of the most recent controversy swirling around the Obama White House… You know, how Rahm Emanuel has a foul mouth. Oh wow. How amazing. This old news is in the news because Sarah Palin is all offended… so much so that she took it to her Facebook page. Gasp. You Go Girl. So here is the deal. SPalin is totally offended that Rahm Emanuel referred to liberal politicians who were not supporting the Obama health care plan as “Fucking retarded.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
So Spalin, the woman who called her own Down’s Syndrome child, the one she is now defending – along with those pesky liberal Dems she normally hates so much – yes, you guessed right: RETARDED.
Personally, I think that Sarah Palin is really dangerous – she has what has often been referred to as “retard strength” in terms of her public sway. I am not sure if it is to do with her innate abilities in this area, or if it is more of a statement towards the collective brain power of her constituents. Either way, they are sofa king re todd did. And today she is in the great state of Tennessee, telling the Tea Baggers that “America is ready for another Revolution.” Yes, this from the lady who keeps going on about being so sick of “talk talk talk” that she quit governing, wrote a book, went on TV, and gives speeches.
SCARY.
Emanuel is sort of known for his use of colorful language. And you know how I feel about the use of the “F-Word.” I think it is fan-fucking-tastic. But Lil’ ol’ Sarah, she sure is hurtin’ for certain. Funny, she didn’t seem so offended when Dick Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to “go fuck himself.” Anyhow, of course Emanuel apologized, because this is the sort of shit we need to be worried about:
Today Emanuel apologized for using the phrase. “The White House remains committed to addressing the concerns and needs of Americans living with disabilities,” says a White House aide, “and recognizes that derogatory remarks demean us all.”
It is assumed Emanuel stands by his use of the word “fucking.”
I thought the following comment with regard to the whole thing was pretty funny:
Does anyone understand that the words ‘profanity’ and ‘obscenity’ do not mean the same thing? It is another of the many shames of the current occupant of the White House that he can joke about teaching profanity to children. Profanity is not a joking matter.
Naturally ‘obscenity’ is great fun… and very suitable for children.
This post is relatively redundant in the vein of Sarah-Palin-Needs-to-GFH. But I feel better now. And here is a little Holy Fuck interlude to brighten your day.
Mao Tse Tung said: “Drought? Whatevs. Make Rain. Oops. Snow.”
On October 1, 2009 there was a big old party in Hong Kong to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong big-ups their Chinese-y-ness for stuff like this. [The same happened during the Olympics when Hong Kongers forgot about their rampant disregard for, disparagement of, and disgust with "Mainlanders" and everyone was "Chinese" for two weeks.] Still, National Day was particularly ironic in my mind. The bastion of Beyond-Free Enterprise that is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region celebrating 60 years of Communism? What? I suppose it was as good a reason as any for a kick ass fireworks display, but the reality of paying homage to Mao’s October 1, 1949 declaration of the People’s Republic seemed totally transparent. [Like the finest silk, some may say.]
As a result of all the pomp and circumstance I found myself thinking a lot about the PRC and how they view the world. I considered their efficiency and secrecy and thought, “Hey, maybe they are onto something.” I contemplated the “One Country – Two Systems” explanation for the HK-PRC connection, the way that China can make Hong Kong a part of the PRC without “fixing what is not broken.” [It is a tenuous explanation - at best. But one thing I have noticed since I have been in East Asia is that tenuous is good enough for Beijing. Consider the Taiwan issue, or Tibet, if you are not afraid of complete censure. Frankly, based on the arguments China uses for both of those regions, they should also incorporate Mongolia and Vietnam... The thing is China, like most modern governments it seems, firmly believes in and employs the practice that if you say something often enough it will become true. The difference between China and a lot of other places is that they are less concerned with it actually becoming true; saying it is enough. And in that way they seem to have a special kind of integrity.] I thought about how Beijing believes that if they block the internet it is not there. How if they say there is no financial crisis, there is no financial crisis.
And in the whole build up to the 60th Anniversary and in the weeks after, I just kept singing this song:
Mao Tse Tung said change must come
Change must come thru the barrel of a gun
Not thru talkin’ and not through waitin’
And sittin’ around just contemplatin’ the facts
‘Cos we know what they are…
And one thing you have to give Beijing credit for, they are not into sitting around and waiting. They get shit done. In fact they let nothing stand in the way. Not even the weather. Fast forward one month. It is no secret that China has been suffering a drought, (or maybe it is since it could be interpreted as some sort of failure on behalf of China – [mind that Mandate of Heaven, yo... even Mao didn't dis' the Emperors - only the Capitalist Pigs.] Anyhow, drought. It has been pretty bad, and so (though it is probably somehow Mongolia’s fault,) China decided to take action and on or around the 1st of November they seeded the clouds above Beijing. China v. The Weather, Round One. China got the victory.
Then the weather changed.
Doh!
Global Climate Change FTW. And so it seems, even Beijing knows when to acknowledge that the weather may be in China, but like Hong Kong, it is gonna do its own thing.
The actual point here, is that Hong Kong /= China. I have said it before, and I will say it again: HONG KONG and CHINA no son iguales. And so what made me finally sit and write this one more month later? I read a blog by someone I used to know ranting about his current situation. Granted his situation does suck, but when I hear stuff like this:
I feel compelled to answer: If you “live” in Hong Kong, you do NOT live in China. And though it is a complete pain in the ass for Chinese nationals to secure entry to the US, this is completely and totally NOT the case for Hong Kongers – they are from that other system, remember? And I have been away from home longer than this guy and I have never been asked if I am a “terrorist” – I am not even sure how that works, or if that was just hyperbolic for effect.
Mao Tse Tung said a lot of stuff… but in the end, even he had to admit some of it was maybe not the best way forward and so, while lip service would continue to be paid, he did encourage people to please do what was necessary to actually get paid… Not thru talkin’ and not through waitin’, And sittin’ around just contemplatin’ the facts, ‘Cos we know what they are, So let Mao Tse Tung be your guidin’ star… Do what you need to do but please, just do not make a scene.
And life gives you drought, make some rain, er, snow, er… wait, never mind. Blame Mongolia and shop in Hong Kong, it will all work out in the end.
<<DISCLAIMER: This post was just a collection of random thoughts that seemed to somehow go together at 5 a.m. this morning. I am not actually vested in a particularly consistent position regarding Tibet, Taiwan, Mongolia, Communism – “or any -ism for that matter. -Ism’s in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself” – nor am I particularly vexed by anyone’s personal need to rant vent on their blog. I just want to reiterate: HONG KONG IS NOT CHINA. That is all.>>
Has Perez Hilton Become Relevant?
I am not sure how I feel about this, but there is a little bit of vindication. First of all, I do regularly visit Perez’s site. I used to love it, but in the last year or so I have become a bit disenfranchised… it clearly caters to a different audience (‘tween star gossip leads the way) and I am not interested in all the Perez-promoting, I found him much more interesting as a reluctantly famous bitch than an overtly attention seeking one. [I think What Would Tyler Durden Do? is a much more clever catch-all of insults and they are done without the little white graffiti additions.] Secondly, I have to admit with a good dose of humility (humiliation?) that I have actually learned things from the Hilton site, like interesting newsworthy things that I might not have otherwise as I live in Asia and do not get the same kind of American news coverage. Lightweight or not [his material, not his physique... clearly not in the lightweight division], he does keep on certain issues, like gay rights and political mis-steps to do with the election.
The other day he had McCain up there as his Quote of the Day, in which McCain said:
“I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption.”
I am not going to get into the whole redundant argument that even someone with my mathematical abilities can see that gay parentS = 2, just like parentS = 2. Not the point here, or too obvious for words.
The point here is that Perez Hilton was picked up in the Huffington Post. Yes, the Huffington Post, which I consider to be legitimate news. The article is interesting and I think brings up an important point: regardless of your opinion of relevance, intelligence or malevolence, the tabloid readers are voting. And it might just make a difference.
Our ‘Founding Fathers’ (the ones I like the best in particular) held fast to the elitist notion that not everyone should be allowed to vote, because basically not everyone was smart enough to vote*. True or not, we’ve all got the go ahead now, and people like Perez Hilton just might be the most effective at getting out the voters through increasing the interest and s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g out the importance.
And by the way, the Founding Fathers were all men, so doesn’t that make them the original Same-Sex-Parents?
* My Australian friends who live under mandatory voting law say it sucks because it encourages bad election results as people who don’t care vote randomly, or worse contentiously. Maybe they need a little Perez down under.
Amanda
