http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/20-0
Comments on this one have been extraordinary. Here are four of the best:
On the “Hard Work”
“We will honor the fallen by showing our unyielding determination to press ahead … to move forward with the hard work”
“Our troops will continue the hard work. … We will press on.”
As long as “we” are working hard, and “we” are pressing on…well, it’s sufficient, right? Life is not absurd, “we” are not murderers; the violent, oppressive, hypocritical, brave new world “we” have created is not the mother of all blights. “We” are not diseased (as a small distant voice somewhere in our brain keeps telling us).
It is the language of slavery; do the “hard work,” but avoid specifics, motives, and reasons at all costs.
On Lemmings & Lemming Mutants
For “Lemming” Mutants” like us, who have found a different reality, our frustration knows no boundaries. We watch in horror as thousands continue to die by the gun, or the bomb, or the depletion of resources, the lack of access to water, etc.
And all the while the military industrial complex and the warmongers and profiteers expel euphemisms that seem to satisfy the majority of cliff jumpers, urging them on as one, just another day of destruction, horror and pain. Our “leaders” merely press the buttons, accepting pellets of complicity and convenience, food and sustenance and reward for what all lemmings deem right and just and honorable.
The United States is diminished and at the hands of our “leaders” and those so eager to follow. The democratic party, the republican party merely facilitate and proclaim our duty to jump.
When another lemming begins the march towards oblivion its effect is hardly one person’s downfall. It is the degradation and destruction of civilization. And as one civilization succumbs so will all of us suffer.
Those who expel gasses through their mouths, twisting our horrors into quaint tradition and honorable measures are the true monsters of us all. For in reality and in plain speak, those that exalt war and wrap it in flags are feasting on roasted lamb and fine wines atop all the dead.
On the “Lost” and “Fallen”
I wonder, will the psychopaths in charge of this country deign to call all of the people they will MURDER by slashing SS, Medicare and Medicaid “lost” or “fallen”?
Getting your ass blown up in the service of the fascist neo-liberal elite sure is great copy but having yourself starved to death or watching your loved ones physically deteriorate due to lack of funds is just as effective and just as important a role in the global sweep of neo-liberal fascism.
Why not honor all of the seniors and poor, who will die for the great neo-liberal fascist cause, with medals?
We could call them Sacrifice Awards: 5 points for being blown up in a pointless war, 3 points for watching your parents die untreated, 2 points for every child who missed a treatment.
Then add just add up all your Sacrifice Award points, register at sacawards.com and you’ll be eligible for lots of great deals from participating vendors like Wal-Mart, GM and Monsanto. …
On Shakespeare: Falstaff’s “Catechism” on Honor
(Henry IV, Part 1)
Well, ’tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honour set-to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No.
What is honour? A word. What is in that word “honour”? What is that “honour?” Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead.
But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.”
Comment:
This is a powerful “catechism” from one supposed to be a coward and fool, Sir John Falstaff during the battle of Shrewsbury. This testimony is as the French say “sans pareil.”
“Therefore I’ll none of it.” And that is the battle cry of revolutions.
I have wondered many times whether WS was anti-war in his heart and what he would write if he were alive today. Would he write a play with the title “Obama, Part 1” with battles all around the globe?
Even though England of his time was different from the USA today, what emerges from his “King-plays” is that war-making of all kinds had long been and perhaps forever been the principal industry of his island nation, as it is of our nation today. I suspect that WS would immediately recognize that our society and war-making habits are no different from his England; and that Falstaff would have a big belly laugh if we claimed to be better (and he had a huge belly).