it makes me feel like a big man
I've been resisting doing things like commenting on news and politics. This is, at least in part, because it really bothers me how powerful people get to control what we talk about. Every Monday there is a news story about what movie made the most money. To whose advantage is it that we learn about the outcome of an oligarchical business war, then sow that profitable seed into mundane conversation with those seeking distraction from fear and confusion? In a world where suffering was truly abhorred, we would instead spend news time asking why there is such distortion between the lives of the poor and the rich. Of course, that kind of news wouldn't put us in a "buying mood," attract much-needed ad revenue, or reinforce our natural inferiority to our leaders.
But I've been reading a bit about the case where congress is enacting a specific law to keep a woman in Florida on a feeding tube. I want to have faith in politics, but I can come to no other conclusion than that national politics has become a game where symbols are manipulated with little regard to the relation between those symbols and real people's suffering and happiness. "Support the troops" means send them to die without question. So what can "we must protect life" possibly mean in this context? There is much huffing and puffing and sticking out of chests. I saw a body building competition on t.v. the other day, and the part where the final two contestants flaunt a series of poses is not at all a bad analogy for modern national politics.
It is just beyond hypocrisy that this pack of self-interested white folk, drunk with money and privilege, answer their own bleatings about small government by selecting individual lives to control. All this for the noble cause of having stern looks during important press conferences, their sanctimony a piece of flair on the standard uniform of expensive suits and fake dyed hair. This uncompromised Compassion Action has mobilized The President - you could not draw him away from vacation for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asians, but for a playing piece in an important battleground state he'll climb off the mechanical bull to be flown and chauffeured to do the right thing.
Well, if you want to stare right into the dark night that is the American legislative process’s soul, I have a suggestion. Visit the Texas Department of Corrections death row website. If you want to know what The State thinks about the Love of Life, read the last statements of those whose brief, fleeting awareness of the universe has been judged wrong and punishable by the injection of poison. I'm not shitting, do not go to this website lightly, but there is potential there for fearful revelation of a kind that is very rare.
But I've been reading a bit about the case where congress is enacting a specific law to keep a woman in Florida on a feeding tube. I want to have faith in politics, but I can come to no other conclusion than that national politics has become a game where symbols are manipulated with little regard to the relation between those symbols and real people's suffering and happiness. "Support the troops" means send them to die without question. So what can "we must protect life" possibly mean in this context? There is much huffing and puffing and sticking out of chests. I saw a body building competition on t.v. the other day, and the part where the final two contestants flaunt a series of poses is not at all a bad analogy for modern national politics.
It is just beyond hypocrisy that this pack of self-interested white folk, drunk with money and privilege, answer their own bleatings about small government by selecting individual lives to control. All this for the noble cause of having stern looks during important press conferences, their sanctimony a piece of flair on the standard uniform of expensive suits and fake dyed hair. This uncompromised Compassion Action has mobilized The President - you could not draw him away from vacation for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asians, but for a playing piece in an important battleground state he'll climb off the mechanical bull to be flown and chauffeured to do the right thing.
Well, if you want to stare right into the dark night that is the American legislative process’s soul, I have a suggestion. Visit the Texas Department of Corrections death row website. If you want to know what The State thinks about the Love of Life, read the last statements of those whose brief, fleeting awareness of the universe has been judged wrong and punishable by the injection of poison. I'm not shitting, do not go to this website lightly, but there is potential there for fearful revelation of a kind that is very rare.
posted by H. Now at 3:30 p.m.
7 Comments:
Good post. I've been thinking about it a fair bit today trying to think of some kind of useful response, but haven't gotten too far with that.
To me this story really talks about signalling, which I think is often underrated in all of the evolutionary sciences. It's something that goes well past 'image' - the whole point of this episode is not the particular woman's fate, nor the outcome of this particular court case. It's all about sending messages. And the messages aren't 'I have something of substance to say on this issue' - really they're just saying 'I want to indicated that I've made this particular set of gestures concerning this issue'...
Hmmm, like I said, I haven't gotten too far on the whole meaningful comment thing for this post...
I went to the site....not sure what you mean?
I'm not entirely sure what I mean either - it was sort of an emotional link. But, two things occur to me. First, it's just strange to hear what people who know they're going to die have to say. Second, it's scary how so many of them, with nothing to gain, continue to plead their innocence. I am afraid to think how many innocent people have died at the hands of the same state the president ruled.
Thanks Tim. I was reading that book on cats, and there was a line about facial expression. Don't think about what it means, but what it communicates.
Hmmm, I just ran into this:
We therefore see here the mainspring of the Spectacle, the sign, operating in the open.
Roland Barthes - Mythologies
You should read this if you haven't... the French really set in to this idea of the spectacle, and somehow managed to write about it pretty much perfectly over 40 years ago. Kinda odd...
Surely, with a name like DeLay, Tom DeLay is French. He must have read up on all the spectacle stuff. He sure acts like it.
Really enjoyed this post too eh.
The death site freaked me out though - I only read the incoherent statement of the last executed & his 'info sheet' w/ details of crime. I feel glad that that so many other countries, incl Oz, have no longer any executions, nor the same horrific level of violent crime.
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