The Madness Behind My Madness

Well, Folks, some of you out there, at least the occasional stumble-bum who accidentally runs across this while on his or her way to some other 'Net destination, like the latest hot bestiality or atrocity-porn site, may be wondering, why all the anger, bub????

Well, lessee.....

For starters, there's the whole Katrina debacle, which, in most other parts of the world, would probably lead to much of the afflicted country's governing classes swinging from lamp-posts, but, here, which leads to much sentimentality, posturing and profiteering instead.

The war in Iraq, which was a cluster-fuck from conception all the way to the latest round of mass murder in Tal Afar, which goes on as we speak.

There's the rise and enshrinement of the clerico-corporate elites and their always-hopeful-venal-murderous supporters who pollute American political, social and cultural life with their peculiarly noxious combination of salvation, sanctity and self-indulgence, with just a dash or two of boiling self-righteous rage, racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and all the rest of that Good Jazz thrown in for taste.

Of course, if you're a "mainstream"(Ha!!!!)rootin'-tootin'-shootin' White Man or wanna-be White Man, you'll take careful pains to deny that you're a racist. In fact, you'll become grossly indignant at even the slightest accusation of such a gross breach of social niceties.

All this while you and your leaders use code words to describe all the black, brown, yellow and red folks you secretly hate and wish destruction of the most long-lasting and painful kinds on.

You've done it ever since Nixon and the GOP inaugurated the Southern Strategy during the '68 elections, and you've been using versions of it ever since. Part of it is to fool the greater American public into thinking that you're not really a bunch of greedy, self-interested and -absorbed, racist sons-of-bitches who've all the brains of eel excrement and the heart of a child-molesting pawn-broker, but, more importantly, it's so you don't have to feel one nano-second of guilt, shame or remorse for who you are and what you do.

Can't have THAT now, can we????? Nope, surely not!!!!!

Not that the overt racists, with all their talk of "White Pride" and "White Power's about loving the White Race, not about hating others", are any better or less hypocritical. They aren't, but, at least you know where to aim your rifle with them.

Then, there's the Democratic Party, which is so divided between its office-holder, don't-rock-the-boat-too-much-or-we'll-lose-our-phoney-baloney-jobs-wing, which will do ANYTHING to cut a deal, in secret, of course, with their GOP counter-parts, short of gratifying them orally on the Capitol Building's steps on High Noon on a Midsummer's Day, and the grass-roots, liberal-progressive wing, who've been out of power at the national level for so long, I'm afraid they've got quite comfortable being there.

That latter wing is beginning to find itself again, after a long, difficult and painful struggle, but I only hope that it isn't too little, too bloody late.

As for the Greens and the other portions of the American Left, I commend their intentions, but fault them for their in-fighting, lack of understanding and mobilisation outside of their base constituencies, and most of all, for leaving the majority of the European-American working class and poor to the very un-tender mercies of the American Right, who've been able to use these groups over and over and over again like a steel condom.

The Left in this country blew it in the 1960's and '70's by generally ignoring, marginalising and trivialising those groups' concerns, and by not generally making a stronger, more serious effort to recruit, mobilise and unite these people with their counter-parts in the African-American, Asian-American, Latino, Native American and Pacific Islander communities.

Such an effort wouldn't have had to mean accepting all of the racist, sexist, homophobic and other crap that many working-class and poor European-Americans carry around in their heads, anymore than the ethnocentric, homophobic and other crap that members of the various minority communities carry around in their heads.

Now, before any of y'all out there say, "Well, neither I nor MY family, friends, etc, have any of that crap in our heads," I say to you-prove me the Hell wrong.

In just about any part of the world you go to where there's been a long history of domination of one group by another, and this country's no exception(So much for American Exceptionalism, Folks!!!) by a damn-sight, those who belong to the ruling classes, and those who aspire to be like 'em, have all sorts of crap in their heads about the alleged inferiority, dirtiness, loud-mouthed, drunken, boorish, sexually promiscuous antics of those beneath them, while those on the bottom, and understandably so, have all kindsa crap in their heads about the prissiness, effetteness, viciousness, hypocrisy and so on, of their "betters".

Both sets of views contain elements of truth, but, in reality, contain far more half-truths, mis-conceptions, mis-understandings, and outright lies than anything else.

Both obscure and deny the humanity of each other, and both sets make it possible for people, including Yours Truly, to say and do words and deeds that would be considered indecent and immoral at best, and filthily genocidal and rapacious at worst.

Both are rooted in self-righteousness, which, as a friend of mine pointed out to me a few years back, is the worst drug of all, and self-pity, which, in my opinion, is the second-worst drug.

Both are dangerous, not only to the health of the individual addicted to 'em, but to the societies that become hooked on 'em, too.

And, Brother, have we ever been on a combo-self-righteousness-self-pity trip for the past four decades at least now, and I don't see any signs of it endin' anytime soon.

To me, and Yes, Vagina, it ties into the points I just made here, the Dems, Greens, and other groups on the American Left have some opportunities here in the light of the Iraq and Katrina disasters, but, I'm afraid that, due partially to lack of resources(Money, money and more money, as well as organisation and mobilisation, are what's most needed, and NOW), but also due to ideological and other nasty bits of in-fighting, combined with a lack of out-reach to European-American and minority middle-class, working-class and poor people beyond their traditional bases, are gonna result in a big, fat, fizzle, and the Right will get another blank cheque to govern this country right into the God-Damn ground, because there's simply no other viable alternative to it.

I write this out of frustration, anger, hopelessness, and, worst of all, despair, for the future of this planet, this country, this state(Nevada), this city(Las Vegas), and my own personal future.

The reason I say that despair is the worst of all????

Simple, Simon. It's that when despair runs the show, then only the most extreme solutions and measures to problems seem like the only viable ways of going forward.

It's despair that drives much of the Arab and Muslim world into endorsing and supporting suicide bombings.

It's despair that makes groups like the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party so appealing to many members of the African-American community.

It's despair and fear that motivates many well-meaning, and many not-so-well-meaning, European-Americans to embrace clerico-corporate rule at any price, even if the price means that they and their children will have little to no future in the long run.

It's despair, combined with wrath, envy and other such emotions, that can make solutions like ethnic cleansing and genocide seem so appealing.

Don't believe me???? Just ask a so-called ordinary Sudanese, Sri Lankan, Ulsterman or Green Irishman, Rwandan, Lebanese, ex-Yugoslav or citizen of the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States about the events that led up to the destructive conflicts that have rent their homelands apart.

Yeah, you'll get different versions of why these events happened, and who's to blame, but, in the end, one of the common factors I think you'll find is despair, both for the futures for their countries, their racial, ethnic and religious groups, and themselves personally.

Does despair kill???? Only if you let it.

But, Brother, from where I sit right now, it's hard NOT to despair, even just a teeny, at the shape of how the world's goin'.

Oh, in partin', for all of you offended by my characterisation of the American Right and its followers, just remember this; I'm a 40 year-old European-American male, who grew up lower-middle-class and working-class in Nevada, with a lot of the accompaning prejudices and foibles of lower-middle-class and working-class European-Nevadans, so I think, Hell, I KNOW, I've at least some authority from which to speak about you lot. So, don't think I DON'T know about nor can sniff my way around the bullshit that some of you out there like to deceive others, and especially yourselves, with.

It ain't gonna wash with me.

For those of you on the Left, of whatever stripe, offended by my remarks, I'm also a high-functioning autistic, living on Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income, and have been, since the late '80's, intermittently active in various local(both in the Reno-Sparks area, from which I originally hail, and Las Vegas), and recently left a local peace group here in Vegas, because I got fed up both with the ideologically- and interpersonally-motivated in-fighting that went on in that group.

So, I've also got some authority, however small, to speak about that angle as well.

Also, for everyone, I've also read about history and politics for most of my 40 years, so I can, to a degree, speak with some authority from that stand-point too.

Hell, I've even got a BA in History from UNLV, if that will satisfy some of you punters out there.

If it don't, well, tough.

I ain't gonna get into intellectual pissing contests with academic prats and wankers, no matter the degrees they possess or not.

You want that??? Go down to your un-friendly neighbourhood bar and try and impress the denizens there with just how smart and right you are.

If you're a good little wanker, maybe you'll get your head, or other portions of your anatomy, handed to you by some piss-drunk and pissed-off son of a bitch with nothin' left to lose, 'cept his or her sanity and freedom.

You ain't gonna get it here.

If you wanna debate, on the other hand, fine. Just PROVE your points, don't preach, to me, 'cos I won't take it here.

Well, that's it for now. If you've any questions or comments, just check my profile, and you'll know where to contact me.

If you've just got insults, or bits of Shit-and-Giggle like "You suck, Dude," do me, the world, and yourself a favour, and keep it to yourself like a good little moron.

Don't have the time nor patience to put up with such crap anyway.