“We want to be
free...free to ride...free to ride without being hassled by the man”.
So
declared Peter Fonda's character in the motorcycle epic Wild
Angels as he struggled to articulate the whole point of his
existence. A declaration of independence, in a manner of speaking,
but a declaration shorn of responsibilities. And so it was that the
Generation of Swine were led to believe that freedom carries
no responsibility, that freedom lies, like some motorcycle gang
living on the fringe, deep in the woods, in total alienation.
As we
speak, the bikers are wrapping up festivities at what has to be one
of the great Ass Festivals in America. Over a quarter million of the
great unwashed gathered from all over the country and descended, as
they do every year at this time, upon the hapless town of Sturgis,
South Dakota. The purpose of this demonstration is unclear except
perhaps to rumble through the streets, buy souvenirs, and consume
mass quantities of alcohol and petroleum; no masks, no social
distancing. Pandemic be damned.
This
is, in microcosm, where we are today in America. Half the country is
not taking necessary precaution, wearing protective gear, nor social
distancing. Thirty five percent is reported to have told pollsters
if a vaccine were introduced that they won't take it. The mayor of
Los Angeles has cut off utilities to homes hosting large parties,
gatherings intended to circumvent the public closing of bars and
restaurants. That large gatherings have proven lethal, notably
former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain died after
attending tRUMP's little rally in Tuscon earlier this summer, goes
unheeded. As the minister in charge of the national health, Mike
Pence, so inarticulately put it, the guidelines established by the
Center for Disease Control (CDC) will not determine how or when we
reopen the economy or send our children into harms way. We will open
our businesses and schools, authority be damned.
Another
of the great Ass Festivals is about to convene, this the quadrennial
gathering of the rarefied mendacity known as the ResCUMlickan Party.
This time to renominate the most ignorant, vile, corrupt and
incompetent man ever to disgrace the national political stage. The
nation be damned.
The
common denominator here is alienation. Here the denizens of society
gather to express their willful ignorance, giving the collective
society the great middle finger. This is not only deeply troubling,
but is outright dangerous. As armed bands storm state capitals to
somehow 'liberate' us from some wholly imaginary oppression, one is
reminded of the films of the late sixties featuring motorcycle gangs
terrorizing small communities for no apparent reason, except that
they could be terrorized. Vandalism writ large.
Contrast
this with the Democratic National Convention where national leaders
ranging from Vermont's independent Bernie Sanders to former
Republican Governors John Kashic of Ohio, and New Jersey's Christine
Todd Whitman, called for national unity to confront the barbarians at
the gates. In a very un-Obama speech, the former president sounded
the alarm reminding all of us that responsibilities attend the
exercise of freedom, that to stand aside and not participate is to be
complicit in the undoing of the republic. It has come to that.
“I met her on the
strip three years ago
in this Camero with
this dude from L.A
I blew that Camero off
my back
and drove that little
girl away
Now there's wrinkles
'round my baby's eyes
and she cries herself
to sleep at night
when I come home the
house is dark
sobbing baby if you
make it alright
“She sits on the
porch of her daddy's house
all her pretty dreams
are torn
she stares off alone
into the night
with the eyes of one
who hates for just being born
All the shut down
strangers and hot rod angels
rumbling through this
promised land
my baby and me, we're
gonna ride to the sea
and wash these sins
off our hands
Tonight, tonight the
highway's bright
out of our way,
mister, you best keep
for summer's here and
the time is right
for racing in the
street”
----Bruce
Springsteen, Racing in the Street
Fascism,
as Hannah Ardrendt tells us, is not an ideology but merely a revolt;
not a march to a glorious future but a vandalism of the present in
pursuit of some imaginary past. It is a revolt born of alienation,
an alienation, Eric Hoffer reminds us, rooted in self-loathing. A
movement of manifest hatred. They hate the present because they have
not lived up to the moment. They hate us because they hate
themselves.
Always
there is some small measure of truth supporting every noble lie. One
could accept the rational that the great alienation beneath the
maggot hats is born of economic hardship and stagnation, of middle
class struggle for existence. All that is true, but the revolt began
well before the conservatives got their hands about the throat of the
republic. People like William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater and Ronald
Reagan were haranguing Americans about 'freedom' well before the
advent of hard times, indeed their screeds coincided at precisely the
last time in which the middle class was invited to the party, the
last time the middle class benefited from economic good times.
Nothing about the critique computes, for this movement is not based
on reason but rather passion, the passion of hatred. What binds
Caesar Disgustus to his idolaters is not sound and rational public
policy designed to advance their interests, but hatred. He hates the
same people they do. That is the common denominator, that is the
cement that binds One has only to confront the latest outrage in
which the Scum-In-Chief twitted that he has just made the suburbs
safe by signing an executive order limiting the spread of low income
housing in suburbia. In this way those in our great suburbs will be
'free' to enjoy their middle class existence without threat of having
rub shoulders with undesirables; and we all know who are these
undesirables. Freedom is defined not as creating opportunity but in
limiting it. The very ideal of Freedom is now perverted in a crass
attempt to shore up a political base for the upcoming election.
“freedom's just
another word
for nothin' left to
lose”
----Chris
Kristofferson “Me and Bobby Magee”
Freedom
divorced from context; freedom alienated from responsibility; freedom
as cudgel with which to vandalize the very foundations of freedom;
freedom in service of a villain. Let us wash these sins off our
hands.
An' Br'er Putin, he
jus' laugh and laugh
Flush
this turd, November 3rd.
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