No More Washington or America
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Cy Twombly Achilles’ Shield 1978 Virtue signaling in the US of A has already reached new heights, and there’s little reason to believe it won’t
[See the full post at: No More Washington or America]You’re right: D.C. just named “Black Lives Matter” street. Not to be out-signaled, DeBlasio named a street in each of the 5 burroughs after BLM. Bigot. What you need to do is name EVERY Street in EVERY town, county and city “BLM Street”, or Boulevard, or Avenue, Highway, etc, otherwise, YOU JUST DON’T CARE.
But look on the bright side: you’ll always know where you are! You’re on Black Lives Matter Street. And you can never leave.
One thing’s for sure: erasing “Paw Patrol” shows what kind of serious and important people they are.
All the history I’ve read says that we have a compulsion to tear down the old before building anew. By anew, I do not mean ‘significantly different’. Just new. New palce temple mausoleum much like the old palace temple mausoleum. New emperor much like the old emperor. New population much like the old population that we decimated, exiled, and enslaved.
Slavery, bad old school chattel-in-chains slavery, has never seemed more likely to again become an openly major part of human civilization since 1865. Never mind Libya etc. We’re talking a major disruptive growth industry. Somebody’s got to work for peanuts getting the last vestiges of petroleum and coal out of the pits. As peak oil rides its downward slope, peak slavery begins its upward curve.
I’ve read that hoary old rotten quote by Orwell quite a bit lately. Something about the future being a boot stamping someone’s face over and over.
To put it mildly: FUCK THAT SHYTE. Only serious losers fall for that crap. Here is the shape of the future since the first hominid discovered how to blow tunes from a bird’s wing bone:
Why don’t we take a little piece of summer sky
Hang it on a tree
For that’s the way to start to make a pretty world
For you and for meAnd for the sun we’ll find a lemon bright balloon
You can hold the string
Oh don’t you know that little world of ours will be
The prettiest thingWe can have rain enough for the stream
To hold our happy faces
When we want a breeze, I’ll blow you a kiss or two
Take me in your arms and our little world
Will be the place of places
Nothing left to make but breakfast and loveWe’ll hang a little sign that just says Paradise
Population two
And we together can make a pretty world
For me and for you
For you
It’s what I wanted to do for you
To make a world – with you!In the cold water of a stream
Sitting I washed my clothes
While sitting and washing my clothes
I was thinking about my dear mother.While sitting and washing my clothes
I was thinking about my dear mother.On the edge of а high hill
Willow branches are swaying
While the willow branches are swaying
I was thinking about my dear mother.Even the willow branches are swaying
I was thinking about my dear mother.In the cold well water
(She was) sitting and washing her hands
While sitting and washing her hands
I was thinking of my dear mother.While sitting and washing her hands
I was thinking of my dear mother.Bushes and trees are curved by the wind
I have thought about my dear mother
In the bitter water of spring
I was thinking about my mother
Who gave me birth.We can blame… the leaders. We can blame… the institutions. We can blame… each other. We can blame… God or suitable stand-in. We can blame… ourselves.
We can blame like pros. In ten years, we can tumble statues of Trump. Or lord knows whom. We can stomp ’em with our wornout boots over and over. cuz after all, it’s always somebody else’s fault. I just work here.
My opinion:
Groups of enablers, influencers working for competing groups of elitists trying to manipulate the minds of the irrelevant rifraf.My garden is flourishing and has already supplied me with a delicious harvest of spinach.
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@ Mr. House
I enjoyed reading the Harper Essay, although it is meant to be read and digested by “my betters”https://harpers.org/archive/2020/05/how-the-anti-populists-stopped-bernie-sanders/
populism is the ism that goes with mob rule.
“Populism” was a word used to express the horror of seeing hierarchies collapse and the lowly clamber to places where they did not belong.
Elites rule us because elites should rule us. They are in charge because they are the best.
This essay is excerpted from The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism, which will be published next month by Metropolitan Books.
– Thomas Frank is an American political analyst, historian, and journalist.When we refer to history–to date–it’s been to a poorer time. Has always been. But in 20-30 years it won’t be. And all of these issues won’t matter at all.
Black Lives Matter protests are large because USA society continually strives to disregard the continual suppression of blacks. Saying, “Well All Lives Matter” is just more disregard. It’s as if your house is burning and when you call the fire department to complain about how long it is taking them to arrive they tell you, but lots of other people’s house burn all the time. That’s being told your house doesn’t matter. And as to where to “draw the line” about dismantling honorific public memorials…in the USA it is simple and clear: With Confederate symbols. The Confederate rebellion aimed to destroy the United States and to maintain slavery. Those f**king traitors who caused over 600000 war dead then raised monuments to their lost cause in order to terrorize blacks after the war and they deserve no public honor. Any good old boy who will boycott Nascar now that they have banned the Confederate flag at their events can simply make sure the door doesn’t hit their whiny-ass on the way out of the respectable house of civil society. Such losers may try to rewrite history, but no, the winners get to write history. You do not see Nazi monuments in Germany, so all you USA white supremacists need to just get over it.
Casamurphy – I call bullshit to your argument.
And for an eloquent and thorough rebuttal (which I can in no way match), take a few minutes to read and digest this open letter:
https://pastebin.com/WBzAFDgAI love the writer leads with the strength and moral weight of their argument, which is utterly persuasive and compelling, and only at the end says – yeah, and btw I’m of colour. That totally exemplifies what can be achieved by taking responsibility for one’s state in life and getting on with it, rather than playing the perpetual victim.
Rioters toppled a statue of a confederate soldier in Portsmouth, Virginia, last night, while police watched.
Unfortunately it seems a black lives matter organiser was badly hit on the head by the falling 600 pound statue.
The woman directing the mob, dropped her 10 pound sledge hammer, and slipped away into the darkness.
Clearly his b!ack life didn’t matter. Maybe he was considered just a slave to the cause?
When I look back at history, the common theme for my ancestors leaving the old world for the new world, is they did not like being treated as slaves!
JFK’s speech to the nation following the Alabama National Guard protecting the admission of the first black students to the state’s public university is very poignant when juxtaposed to the rantings of Mr. Trump.
@Huskynut Yeah, “You’re just playing the victim, lots of other people’s houses burn down all the time!” My argument stands. White racist USA citizens will do almost anything to deflect and disregard the suppression of blacks. Those of us that want the suppression to be addressed don’t ask for that improvement because we disregard the value of all lives or the virtue of taking responsibility for one’s state in life. To accuse us of such disregard simply highlights the disregard our accusers have for equal rights in our society. Indeed, we simply are asking all our fellow citizens to not only accept responsibility for their state in life but to also accept their responsibility to uphold the ideals of a just society.
This whole article struck me as woe be me, because this change (if it actually happens) impacts ones perception of the universe. Well that is the whole point behind change.
As a white European I intellectually understand that we have wreaked havoc upon Africa and black people and I also understand that I have no understanding of the effects that that may have caused because I have never ever walked in those shoes.
So if Black Life Matter wants to get rid of stuff, and destroy something along the way, including our understanding of “stuff” that is near and dear to white progressives (whatever that crappy phrase means or implies) – good, because it will force me to evaluate my understanding and my beliefs and change them, and hopefully it will do the same for most of us.
So I think casamurphy has it quite right. Lets see on how white “progressive” individuals deal with with real change that they do not control.
Its kinda pathetic the amount of collective stupidity on display here with these protests, makes me despair for our future.
The fact that so many still seem so oblivious to some of the realities of human nature, of life itself, with species, sub species continuously striving for dominance, fitness … the realities of tribalism (which we seemingly try so hard to deny exist), in group preference, ethnocentrism, xenophobism, pathalogical altruism in some. Huntington’s quote comes to mind:
The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
Anyway, so what’s next, what’s the endgame here? Apropriation of the white man’s property and savings? Having to leave our houses for all those who’m whitey has wronged, past or present in whatever way? No one ever seems to think of what would happen if the tables were turned, if we were the minority. Everything would be utopia huh, no more discrimination, no more preferential treatments … human nature, societal dynamics simply gone.
Funny after 2008 and occupy that the US fell so hard for the oligarchy’s divide and conquer shtick. One would almost start to side with the elites on this one. Why do the peons in their gullibility, stupidity deserve any better really.
Hedges’ latest article is a great run down of the mess were in. The fact that so many are still oblivious to all of this is greatly dissapointing. The global plutocracy must be laughing there asses off.To the list of dynamics, of traits at play, one could add ecological overshoot induced violence, misery, disorganization, etc. Look up the summary of Catton’s book on wiki. Does a much better job. That wer’e not even close to discussing these things, or labour’s surplus, loss of bargaining power … deflationary trends, Fed policies is disheartening.
@Huskynut You stated your opinion of what the letter said and my comment addressed that so I showed respect to you. What you gave me in return is judgment and jumping to conclusions. Do you have no appreciation for the efforts of others? Your judgment of whether or not I read the letter is not only meaningless but also rude unless you state your reasons for that claim. Cite a passage from the article here and build your case, but oops, unfortunately, you won’t be able to do that in a way that our public can appreciate since the hosts of that article apparently thought about as much of the article as I did your description of its value: This page has been removed!
This page is no longer available. It has either expired, been removed by its creator, or removed by one of the Pastebin staff.Wrongthink.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” – George Orwell, 1984
Let’s get started on those statues! Then we’ll erase Mammy and GWTW, all black Oscars, all slave artifacts in museums, American history, then black voices who disagree, then all people who ever sinned, including Lincoln, Churchill, and Wm Wilberforce, then the United States of free speech, free action, and 10 Human Rights, then at last history altogether, so we cannot learn from it, “it” being “reality.” Then there will only be the Party, the eternal now, which being unable to defend ourselves, as ignorant as animals, will stamp on our faces forever.
In 1984 Winston’s sole job was exactly what you propose: Erasing history. Rewriting it. You approve of its erasure in the missing article, and laud their suppression of basic human rights — free speech — without even reading, with no curiosity or alarm. Does this not give you pause? Assange is in prison for this, for trying to tell you the truth, which includes both good things about us all, but also bad. You seem to approve of the censorship that would have him silenced, imprisoned, and the war crimes he revealed hidden, the criminal state that committed them, protected. Don’t.
“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” And violent power, of the State, of the billionaire oligarchs, control the PRESENT, they choose WHICH statues and histories fall, since all men sin, yourself included. These wealthy oligarchs to a man are SUPPORTING BLM, which shows clearer than I ever could that they consider BLM, the riots, the political actions as SUPPORTING themselves, their injustice, the violent State, and the [white] people who run it. Unreflective suppport is therefore helping them, and therefore by your definition hurting black people and the fight against racism. …Which is not a stretch at all, since it is exactly these people, these method, this party, who have done the same thing in every DNC state and city where conditions specifically against Black Community have gotten worse for 50 years in a row, while non-DNC areas have slowly improved. So whatever method they are using, it’s clearly counterproductive. Erasing human rights, free speech, discussion of history clearly does not help the Black Community and cause. How could it?
It’s not the actions or discussion itself that’s the problem, but the method: the end justifies the means. Clearly statues come down all the time, monuments are renamed, but we have a democratic PROCESS by which to do it. I don’t just go to the “Jackson Building” and burn it down, because later we find it was named after Michael Jackson, not Stonewall. You may think I’m kidding, but I’m not: GwtW was only latest in criminal line of embarrassments. Removing Wilberforce, the PM who ended British slavery, was only yesterday. Erasing the California mural by Aurnotoff last year was another, where the artist portrayed Washington as killing Indians, a shocking and revolutionary political statement in 1930, but the existence of Washington AT ALL, in any way, even to discuss his pros and cons and history could not be permitted in our new environment of universal tolerance. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/san-francisco-murals.html The AntiFascists erased Churchill, a man whose legacy is defined by fighting fascism. So that makes the statue-pullers…Fascists, I guess? Without discussions, words, artifacts, we don’t know who we are, and are sheep to the slaughter, unthinking, unknowing, unaware. …Which is exactly what is occurring in BLM right now, as people ask questions (Shocking! How dare you!) “you got half a billion dollars this month, where’s our money going?” Seems fair. Except those donations are going TO WHITE PEOPLE, as it is a shell corp for a group that donates primarily to DNC candidates, almost exclusively Presidential ones. Who — Biden, Klobuchar, Buttigeig, Warren, Sanders — are all white. There’s an argument there, but without free speech, we can’t ask, can’t know this, can’t improve, and the same black experience will keep happening as the same black money will keep getting pulled out of the same cities like Chicago and Baltimore, and will keep getting worse as they have for decades, with more black people getting killed by it.
I cannot condone the death of free speech, the elation of its suppression, nor can I condone violence, murder, and arson as a means of discussion, to make changes by any means necessary, because I feel like it. “I want it, so I took it.” This is against every thing spoken by Dr. King and is a travesty of his name and movement, an immense disservice to the Black cause, and seeing black riots on TV for a month may both set back stereotypes by 20 years and get Donald Trump reelected.
In his hallmark speech Dr. King said “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.”
Those out today are against Dr. King and everything he stood for. I am for Dr. King’s dream and what he stood for. Too bad without history, without discussion, everyone else forgot. And that is why we don’t erase history, ESPECIALLY the bad parts, ESPECIALLY the bad speech. Choose.
Ilargi-
I like it when you write instead of cite, and the thought-provoking comments here indicate others do, too.
Thanks.I don’t know what to make of all this. You don’t learn history from statues or movies, so I don’t necessarily see the censoring of those things as the re-writing of history. At the same time, we need to remember what was bad about slavery and the mistreatment of minorities (or the mistreatment of anyone who we don’t think of as “in our tribe”). However, although I don’t think human nature can be altered (just as the characteristic behaviour of no species can be altered), I can’t help thinking that the near constant picking out of particular races or particular traits (e.g. “policeman murders unarmed black man who posed no threat”, rather than “policeman murders unarmed man who posed no threat”) , doesn’t help us think of people as all having the same rights and responsibilities.
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