Thursday, February 19, 2009
Cowards and Monkeys
Surely everyone by now has heard about Eric Holder, the black Attorney General, calling the USA a "nation of cowards" in matters of race and also about the New York Post cartoon of a the crazy stimulus monkey being shot by police. Well, I could say a lot about it, but I'll resist at this moment. Except for this... it takes a good bit of courage (the opposite of cowardice) to publish political satire, but it takes a coward to place blame on everyone else instead of taking responsibility for his own hardships and struggles. What if John McCain, or any other white guy, had said the same thing as Holder? He'd be lynched, or at least figuratively shot like a crazy, over-stimulated monkey (or the cartoonist who drew one).
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6 comments:
“Nation of cowards” sounds unfair, but what may be actually meant behind - and what seems actually true not only for USA but for all “rich”, especially Western, “Christian” countries today and on all rather than only “racial” matters - is that yours are nations of terrible hypocrites, becoming a sort of massive, officially supported and quasi-“obligatory” disease of all kind of “attenuating”, “problem-hiding” lies probably motivated by the necessity to avoid difficulties in otherwise rather comfortable life (for the deciding majority). Take your famous “standard” and totally artificial “American smile” as a seemingly innocent and formally “positive” but still definite manifestation of this hypocritical “politeness forever”. You can't be sad, or disappointed, or angry, or subjectively moody in your own way, can you? You must smile, smile, smile, all the time, everywhere, in any case... And praise everything and everybody, all the time, in ever growing, grotesquely exaggerated degrees. Can you just personally, moderately dislike “African Americans”, or Jews, or white Christians, or Muslims, or feminists and just acknowledge it publicly, without any big idea, just to say “I like this, I don't like that”, as a part of one's personal freedom? A little crazy, those your “political limitations”, thinking about it seriously (and have nothing to do with real politeness, of course). There are certainly numerous much harder cases of this omnipresent hypocrisy that could be sometimes interpreted as “cowardice” (fear of being “non-standard” and therefore “badly accepted”), but it's rather far from any ordinary, classical “fear”. It's your treacherous collective, social fear, the first sign of aging and decline of an externally yet visibly “dynamic” civilisation. What are you afraid of, indeed? “I could say a lot about it, but I'll resist at this moment.” Why would you, my free, open and prosperous American sister (“Free Bird”, remember?)? What are they really worth, those famous Western “liberties” and “personal freedom” so loudly proclaimed, if finally one cannot openly say this and that, almost nothing at all, to avoid omnipresent but thoroughly “masked”, though maybe largely imaginary “political conflicts”, to be eventually reduced to an “English conversation” style (talking only about weather to remain neutral). As far as I could note, our European English are not that neutral actually in their today's discussions (for example, on everything concerning European Union :) ).
So what's your problem out there, our exemplary, all-nice American friends? Despite all hypocritical arrangements, the melting pot is completely broken and falls apart at explosive rates (even without any deep “hatred” behind it!), your - and thus inevitably world's - elites of all kind now appear to be just organised bands of vulgar, ultimately selfish frauds and liars of unlimited abuse (usually only winning in proportion to their crimes and rarely punished), your “moral values” of all levels turn into an ocean of hidden vices and infinite hypocrisy, your “model” into a deep disappointment, your sweet and famous “life style” into a frustrated system of antagonistic interests and ever more conflicting passions (“believers” vs “nonbelievers”, “right” vs “left”, “rich” vs “poor”, etc.), whereas the champion, hugely over-produced and growing national wealth of the last time would imply something opposite... What happens to you, our best and last hope, and why can't you tell the truth, even now? Is it because things are really that bad? :) Well, now then it's really scaring, even for the brave minority! :) And you know, if ever you need to be saved from your excessive consumption as the ultimate origin of all problems, some of us are ready to help, especially those that tend to have opposite problems :) ... Swapping worlds and their problems ... Sounds strange, but who knows, the effect might be positive for everybody... Let's hope that at least a virtual, blog version is coming, here and now. Keep posting.
as usual, not much is said when the shoe is on the other foot. anyone remember cartoons about condi rice having to face much ire from the media. here's one example to jog folks' memories.
http://www.fraterslibertas.com/Images/Politics/Rice2.jpg
Wow! that Andrei dude is long-winded. Great at sweeping characterizations too. He should get a job painting houses, he did such a good job on the rest of us with one brush. How's that for the truth?
Andrei, I don't really think that our 'melting pot' is broken. Too many people have been convinced by the politically inept that we never even had a melting pot to start with. But they are wrong. The melting pot is alive and well in most communities where people of different flavors mix and blend quite peacefully. Don't believe all the bad things you read about America and Americans. :-)
As for "excessive consumption", who is to really judge us or anyone else? That is the very foundation of American Freedom - allowing others to enjoy their own freedoms without trying to interfere with them. There is so much personal responsibility involved in peaceful coexistence with those with whom we disagree. We have to choose to either ignore or tolerate our differences. We cannot expect everyone to share our own priorities. My personal priorities are for the health and well-being of my family, but if someone else's priorities are to always look great and have expensive things it is not my place to tell them they are wrong- unless they are too lazy to do the work to acquire their own things and expect me to *give* them all they want. This is the "American Way." Everyone is supposed to be responsible for his/her own lives, and when people put their time, energy, and money into taking care of themselves then they don't really need everyone else to give them everything. Anyway, it is probably necessary to have some grasp of the probabilistic nature of life to be able to understand what freedom really is and how it works. And perhaps most people just haven't gotten there yet?
e.l., yes, exactly! And how many times was George Bush depicted as a monkey?
LOL, guy, it's okay. We can try to clear up the confusion.
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