One of my favorite quotes is attributed to a few different people with different variations, but goes something like this- "Writing is easy, you just sit at the typewriter and open a vein". I find it to be true and it's time for another bleed because I haven't found anything else quite like it.
Those of you who know me know I wrote a blog locally about the underbelly of state and local politics for a number of years. Although I'm still proud of it and it certainly had an effect on local politics and outcomes here in "Hell", I hadn't read it in a long time and did so recently. After reading a few of my older pieces, I was literally stunned by my anger. It made me recall a comment from a reporter friend of mine describing my writing as "verbal ammunition" which I think tickled him, as being a reporter for a local rag, this sort of accurate description of events is strictly out of bounds. Have no fear, I'm still angry about the utter bullshit my family has suffered at the hands of sleazy local politicians and administrators and their minions, the farce that is the court system both state and federal, and the apathy of the "pillars of the community" in actually addressing anything worthwhile instead of basking in the perceived adulation of their positions.
Having said that, I think you will find this effort to be somewhat different. During my hiatus I have aged, I have read a lot, and I have reflected on many things- marriage, family, career/work, politics, what passes for "news", events at the state, national, and global levels, philosophies and perspectives of the intelligentsia and a host of other issues. A mid-life crisis? Maybe, but I don't think so. In conversations with those I find intelligent, I like to ask if they are seeing what I'm seeing and I ask it in different ways to see if the response materially changes- it doesn't. What I'm seeing is a change in pitch of the overall madness we encounter every day and it appears to me that it is becoming more strident by the minute. Those of you who wallow in the soothing bullshit of the mainstream media may wonder what I mean and this may not be the blog for you, but I encourage you to start looking beyond your everyday sources and try to understand. Waking from your media induced sleep and seeing through the fog comes to each of us in different ways and at different times in our lives, but my best advice is the sooner the better- otherwise you might just find yourself being run over by what you choose not to, or can't currently see.
What do we personally do about all this as overwhelming as even the thought of it can be? How about something. Anything. Instead of cowering, hiding or ignoring. None of those are going to get it done. Subscribing to someone else's ideology isn't going to get it done either- Red/Blue is over and simply a mechanism to keep your eye off the ball while the looting picks up steam. If you are feeling comfortable, you shouldn't be- the writing is clearly on the wall no matter what strata you think you are in. I guarantee you you're not in the club even though you might think so.
If you can entertain a thought without necessarily accepting it, want to explore the obviousness of our situation as a species, citizen of the U.S., and slave to corporate fascism, join me on my little soapbox in observing the escalating madness all around us.
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