Okay, it's time to straddle the missile again, just like Slim Pickens in "Dr. Strangelove." (If you're under 40 you might have to look that one up.)
I got an email from an interstate friend recently. Nice guy. Very nice, in fact. But I was a little surprised by something he said. He'd read my blog (cool!) but felt I came off as a little "bitter."
I've heard this kind of thing before on occasion.
Fortunately, I've been an activist long enough to know that this is not something to take personally. (I'm not sure it wouldn't count as a compliment anyway!). It is a fragment of a larger phenomenon and one that has been cleverly ingrained in the general populace by politicians, media, and even well-meaning parents.
A quick disclaimer. I don't particularly enjoy writing about myself in this blog. In fact, I don't want this to be that kind of a blog. However, as I've said many times, I use the "micro" to illustrate and lead to the "macro" -- if it will serve as an example of the point I'm trying to make. Hence, whether I like it or not, if my personal experiences lead me to a larger topic, I will write about myself. So I suppose today I have to be the "micro."
Okay, from my studies and work and discussions over the years, as I said above, what my friend is illustrating is the personalization of a larger phenomenon (which, as I say, I am now doing intentionally myself to deconstruct that phenom).
Noam Chomsky has often said that when elites want to avoid a real issue, they personalize it. That's why he's attacked so often by them. Hence, instead of addressing Chomsky's valid and precise comments on, say, Iraq, they just say something like: "He's a typical leftie troublemaker." Or whatever. The point being, they trivialize what he says by trivializing him, with tried-and-true slander sound bites. Don't believe me? Do any of these sound familiar?
* In the early days of Women's Liberation (and often since), feminists were derided as "men-hating lesbians." (Which also carries the implication that lesbianism is some kind of evil in itself.) They were all bundled together, just like that, and sent up the river. But never fear: The fems won.
* Unionists were "socialists." Yikes! Can you imagine trying something other than this wonderful capitalism? Of course, socialism is okay to capitalists if it means that corporations can escape paying taxes and expect massive bailouts from OUR taxes if they tumble like toddlers in the "free and open" marketplace that they're always blowing hot air about.
* To this day, anyone who challenges the powers-that-be rather than just going along with the crap they're fed by The New York Times is a "conspiracy theorist." Ooooh. Better watch out for those dudes! I know that I feel threatened by at least two conspiracies a day.
* War protesters (well, we're really talking invasions, but the commonly used misnomer is "war") are often called "un-American." Could anything be farther from the truth? People with the courage to speak up, stand up, defend the Constitution, and save lives rather than allow their government to send young people off to kill and be killed for oil or power or strategic position -- these people are un-American? The United States Declaration of Independence states: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. [emphasis added] Yes, you have the RIGHT to speak up, protest, and haul your government into line. Don't let some pinhead with a TV show tell you otherwise.
The list goes on: "left wing nut job," "liberal media" (there is NOTHING liberal about America's mass media!), "malcontent," "welfare mother." Demeaning labels that are very useful to elites trying to protect their interests and phony views. As with all propaganda labels, occasionally they might be true. That's what makes them work on a wide scale. Hold up one example and tar everyone else with the same brush.
I have also studied racism and one of the things I learned is that you can really do a number on someone's good reputation by calling them a racist. Now, if someone IS a racist, they deserve all they get. But there are people who will throw that term to just pull the rug from under someone with an inconvenient view. Why? Because due to the abhorrent history of racism in America (and elsewhere), when that word is thrown at you it is mud that is almost impossible to get entirely off. And it's all an elite or right wing talkshow ego turd needs to cast at least a shadow of a doubt over your character. Game over. Well, not entirely.
So being called bitter might just be a compliment. But it's reflective of the same brainwash that says we all should be happy and behave like perfect little consumers pretty much all the time. Grinning like idiots, bearing no "baggage," and keeping the pharmaceutical companies in business if we need a little boost.
This is all nonsense!
One does not have to be miserable to be a realist. (And speaking seriously about serious things does not make you miserable.) We need realists! Hiding in your home, spending money, popping pills, watching TV 18 hours a day, describing yourself as "carefree" etc etc... these things are not reality. That is escapism. And as I've said before, you can kid yourself for only so long but reality is going to come knocking sooner or later. And the blissfully ignorant won't be prepared. I'd rather be reasonably content and forearmed. Working towards a better world with more happiness for all. I'd rather help others than buy a luxury car. I truly believe that your priorities will one day come back to bite or bless you, according to the important choices you've made. Think about it.
Perhaps, in my case, this "bitterness" thing is partly a cultural difference. I was born in Australia. Our history and culture is more different to that of the U.S. than many might think. Although reality shows and bad "action movies" from Hollywood are doing their best to turn us into Yankee clones.
Aborigines have inhabited Australia for around 40,000 years. I want to acknowledge that first. A fascinating, ancient people.
White Australia began in the late 1700s as a penal colony. The British -- in their infinite domineering wisdom -- decided to take the strain off their overcrowded jails (we spell it "gaols," incidentally) by sending offenders to the Great South Land, Terra Australis, Australia. People who may have, literally, only stolen a loaf of bread could be sent thousands of miles on a dangerous and agonizing sea voyage and dumped in a very harsh place for any number of years. Cruelty.
So, white Australians began with an understandably healthy contempt for authority. Today, it is more a healthy suspicion of authority. (Well, maybe we still have a teeny bit of contempt -- Who could blame us?) This is a good thing! If a prime minister tries to sell us on something we might just get in his face. Unlike a U.S. president, making a speech in front of a flag and talking about God -- that isn't going to cut it in Sydney or Brisbane. He or she had better have the facts. (Australia just named its first female prime minister, Julia Gillard. And she was installed through our parliamentary system of government in which her own party booted out another guy to put her in. No national election required. Now, wouldn't that have kept George W. on his toes?)
Of course, we still get sucked in sometimes and it's a less than perfect system. But you can see the difference. White America was settled by God-fearing puritans who thought they were building God's Country and showing the world the way to live. After they were finished slaughtering thousands of indians and Mexicans, of course. And that same sense that those in charge know what they're doing -- that the U.S. is on a mission from God -- still exists. Don't believe me? Look at the theatrics of presidential speeches (or conventions) and so many other things. Hundreds of flags, a direct line to God, speeches you'd swear could only be written with the blood of Christ. It's nuts! But a lot of people eat it with a spoon.
Furthermore, Michael Moore got it right in his film "Fahrenheit 9/11." He traced U.S. history. He compared the U.S. to Canada, France and other Western nations. And he found that, unlike the citizens of those other countries, many (most?) Americans live in fear. Which brings me back to the media and politicians and your parents. How your thinking has been shaped. In the 50s there was a "red" under every bed. These days it's a terrorist. Lock your doors! Buy a gun! Buy three guns! And watch out for those Mexicans coming across the border into what used to be, well, Mexico. Or the crazy lefties. The Yellow Peril. The might of minuscule Cuba! And on and on and on.
Plenty to fear! But I look out the window and I don't see these things.
But fear is the controller's greatest tool. His favorite form of propaganda. Frightened people will fall into line. And they will obey orders, and listen to Colin Powell lie his ass off at the United Nations, and they will blow up government buildings in Oklahoma City (the street of fear runs both ways), they will attack "strange looking" foreigners because they could be terrorists, they will drag James Byrd behind a pickup truck for three miles until he's dead and mutilated, they will form the KKK, they will burn "witches" at the stake in Salem, Massachusetts (we never burned any witches at the stake in Australia -- guess it's a puritan thing), they will believe that a provincial tyrant named Saddam Hussein is sleeping with terrorists and has incredible weapons of mass destruction that can fly from Baghdad to Boston, they will lock up anyone remotely Japanese because the Japanese air force bombed Pearl Harbor, they will be terrified that they will go broke at any instant and be immediately living in rags, they will go out and buy all the unnecessary crap they can because some politician or billionaire on TV said that's how a "good economy" is stimulated. They will fear being "bitter" or sad or out of fashion or different. It is safer to run with the pack. But the pack seldom seems to run towards altruism or real, lasting happiness. Pack mentalities are like that.
They will do all of these things. Rather than find out the facts and take sensible action: which may only mean sending an email to their senator and telling them to stop talking nonsense.
But, thankfully, all this is changing and has been for some time. As I've said before, there are millions who protest the idiocy and cruelty of the status quo and want the elites brought back to earth and a more humane world to prevail. You just don't hear from them unless you reach out and look around because it's the rich guys who own the mass media. And they aren't about to tell you to try and change a damn thing.
This isn't atom splitting. It's pretty simple. Do you care about your kids? Well make an effort. Feeding them vegetables just won't cut it.
I'm sorry if that sounds bitter. The truth can be a bitter pill sometimes.
Take care and, yes, keep smiling!
Adrian Zupp
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