Old or Bold
Posted on:: November 25th, 2003
“Every warrior knows that perfect safety is a fool’s paradise. The premise of the current war on terror is that we can entertain our way out of the terrorist threat. It’s entertainment to feel an illusory omnipotence that will hunt down every evil-doer and infidel–a kind of adolescent road rage, really. The old heads in your squadron know to protect such greenhorns from their enthusiasms, at least until they learn or die. “There are old pilots and bold pilots. There are no old, bold pilots.”
Categories: Uncategorized dw
“…a kind of adolescent road rage, really.”
Man…it is so out of whack that I can hardly even fathom the sunrise. How did this all get going? I am cynical, and I blame the Democrats for evaporating.
“September 11th” has been turned into a kind of mesmerizing myth and corresponding ideology by the current administration, in order to carry out any and every item that was already on their agenda, without opposition. It was as if a permanent green light went on for the political right wing, and, because of that, we should wary of perpetrating that link by succumbing to the ideological version of that day, and to see it for what it really was–a terrible day in a vast continuum of history, and not a watershed event for this faction of the Republican Party. We have compromised the meaning of our Republic by letting the current administration hijack our history. Had I met my fate on that day, I would in no way want the meaning of my life to be twisted for use in this way. The course was detailed before the day, and the problem of anti-Americanism–and not ?Terrorism? (that overused buzzword which has suddenly come to stand for any act of opposition to the will of the dominant interest, or the so-called ?American People?)–was well known in its detail, too, for the perpetrators to have been so quickly identified.
The policy of the current administration is to reduce the entire world to the principle of “order”–to rule a “mono-polar” world–and that version of history, one of absolute totalitarianism, where one human faction dictates not only law, but life and death, good and evil, for the whole world according to their own local economic interests (that is to say purely self-interested ones, opposed to those of common interest (like health and disease, the global environment, etc.)), is not a feasible model to be acting out upon. The natural principles of balance and conservation (shall I say equilibrium), like night and day, or yin and yang, have always proven stronger in the long run than man’s obstinate desire, in the whirl of the moment, to play the omnipotent role of God over Nature. Are we so far beyond the ?Will To Power?? Indeed, we are only that.
The proper way to proceed would have been to just stay open to everyday risk, to live out the vicissitudes of the world of men as men (or women–whatever), to continue with intelligence and counterintelligence, to modify and enhance security procedures, and to take the strictest of measures (I am not wholly opposed to the spirit of the Patriot Act, as far as I understand it, but just in some of its anti-American details.) in winning world peace through cooperation, and not by vicious indiscriminate unilateral belligerence. The idea that we have avoided some future holocaust because of preemptive action now is an utterly ridiculous fallacy.
Yes, but do not forget that aggression arises from a repressed (or misdirected) libidinal drive–this is the mark of the tyrannical impulse in political will–unless, of course, it comes from a desperate rebellion against excessive poverty! We might rule poverty out in this instance.
How the hell are we going to get out of this mess?
Imagine another ten years (or longer) of “cracking down” on everyone who doesn’t agree with…abortion, corrupted capitalism, multilateral citizenship in the world as opposed to monomaniacal control, “God” being on “our” side, and so on….
I’ll bet the US will need more war to deal with the massive and growing deficit – couldn’t consider spending less (lots less) on arms now, could we ? – kinda like the schoolyard bully going around picking fights so that he doesn’t have to change his identity.
Hi my name is izabel i see your blog. I’m from Poland and I study english. I have a blog too. my adress blog:www.melt-soul.blog.pl I won;t you write in my blog in “księga gości”_in polish(book write)
thank you
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem.”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, I heard the hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
(And) see the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
(I can) hear the undertaker’s bell
(Yeah), nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, God is in heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Copyright © 1983 Special Rider Music
Wow, critical thinking, logic and rhetoric seem to be in short supply.
May I suggest a short reading list to broaden your horizons?
Nicomachean Ethics : Aristotle
The art of Rhetoric: Aristotle
John Adams: David McCullough
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, (volume 1, 2 & 3) : William Manchester
…People of Earth
The sky is open to the stars. Clouds roll over us night and day. Oceans rise and fall. Whatever you may have heard, this is our world, our place to be. Whatever you’ve been told, our flags fly free. Our heart goes on forever. People of Earth, remember.
A horizon is only as valid as the mind it inhabits.
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