Neo-Politicos: Thanks for the Enmities!

“Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo”
- Ambrose Bierce
(American Writer, Journalist, Editor and gigantic Cynic, 1842-191?)

Dear, Ambrose,
What would you say today?
Sincerely,
m.

*ahem*

Here we are, awkwardly resting on the precipice of the yet another question mark for my time:
Health Care Reform.
And in true Modern American style, everybody’s pissed off about it.

Are the money hungry insurance companies finally being put in their place OR… are they jamming us up again?
And… which side of the debate should I align with?

I have a facebook home page full of comments from both hand-wringing “conservatives” and defiant “liberals,” and the 25- and 50-comment threads full of their passionate rants about whichever side of the debate they fall on. Plenty of comments ending in either a sardonic (and somehow, often misspelled???) “Comrade” or some inference of socialism - or in condescending comments equating a lack of support for Health Care Reform to warmongering or racism.

I can’t help but wonder if anyone else is noticing what I’m noticing:
In the Digital Age (unless you prefer “Age of Information,” whatever) it’s becoming increasingly clearer that we’re all getting a little… meaner.
Consider marriage. Race. Environmentalism. Sexual preference. Diet. Even… Smoking.
Having any strong opinion on these and similar topics can get people pretty riled up, but I think it’s worth noting how the conversation has become somehow more extreme. (And I don’t mean the Mountain-Dew-snow-boarder kind of extreme, but in the Mountains-Of-Afghanistan-waterboarding kind of extreme.)

So… have we as a people benefitted?

I mean, all these people seem to think they know what’s best for the American people - how’s that working out for us?
How does either side react when the other side questions or challenges them? Are we in a time where a healthy dialogue begins or… do people start building walls and tying lynch ropes in their minds, like in days of (not that) old?
Just a thought.
Probably nothing, right?

Take a look at this:

And this:

Now picture Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Alice Paul or Ronald Frickin’ Reagan - fresh off his unlikely renewed popularity - circulating either of them for their causes?

So… how’s our progress?

I’m afraid something weird has happened… and we all watched it in slow motion, like being just a little too late to stop your glass of water from falling off the table. Unfortunately it’s more abstract than a glass of water, so it’s a tough one to put my finger on. I can say one thing about it without a doubt:
I kinda don’t want to listen to any of it.
And it’s their faults if I miss something worth listening to.

I recently read an article (linked by my current favorite thinker David Dark - you should definitely be reading The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, btw. I don’t know him, but I blame his book for this blahg. Sorry, Mr. Dark - hope you’re not mad) on “gender-theorist-turned-philosopher-of-nonviolence” Judith Butler, in which all sorts of well spoken words and light-years-ahead-of-me brain power were on display. Without getting into much detail - read it for yourself - I found myself a little perplexed. I agreed with essentially all she had to say about “grievability” until the discussion laid out at the end of the article touched on a demographic that as far as I can tell, has been poorly represented on genocidal levels. Yet I can tell you… If I were to question this person’s standpoint in a public forum, I doubt I would find compassion from both sides of the argument, which I find odd because both sides claim to be so friggin’ great.

The whole thing makes me want to say:
Y’all get the Heisman:

(Haha. Chief fans.)

Liberal. Conservative. Progressive. Red States, Blue States, Purple States and so forth.
Meh.
I’d rather take residence in the Beige State… is there one?
Do I need a label to get through this crazy time? If, in order to be heard or respected or even to have one of these Eloi deign to a conversation, I have to be part of one of these so-called open minded factions… isn’t there a red flag in there somewhere?

I think both of ‘em just wanna be right - err - “correct.” I don’t think either the so-called “Conservative Right” or the so-called “Liberal Left” give a rat’s ass about me, especially since I don’t wear a badge from either team on my sleeve - but it looks like this is Prison Rules, and the independents get picked off first. If I ask a valid question, should expect a straight answer, or a rhetoric-charged reply that’s really a statement to someone else rather than an answer to me?
Why should I be taxed 3 times for every dollar I make?
Will I be able to drive on the roads if Ford Motor Company built them?
When does life begin?
Will the law protect me if I have less money than someone else?

I’m able to ask these questions in an honest search for truth.
Are you able to answer them in the same way?

If you find yourself firmly on one side or the other, I don’t think so. I really don’t.

Paint it any way you want, for people allegedly so concerned with justice… what they say and what they do aren’t adding up, because my voice doesn’t count unless I use their megaphone.
Wow. My heroes.
Again:

“Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo”
- Ambrose Bierce

Hey all you Punk Rockers: What happened to questioning authority? Or… are only certain authorities questionable?

Little did the Descendents know just how right they’d be:

I want to be stereotyped,
I want to be classified.
I want to be masochistic,
I want to be a statistic.
I want to belong.
I want a Suburban home, Suburban home, Suburban Home, Suburban Home!

Descendents, Suburban Home

Here’s my official statement: Right Here.
Seriously. I can’t remember the last time I heard so many people explain so much, so differently, so loudly while actually communicating so little. (Kind of stole that from these geniuses.)
Beyond of course, which side they fall on - that part is usually pretty clear.
I have decided: I’m on my side.
Not because I don’t care - and definitely not because I’m afraid my opinion will be unpopular - but because I’m still trying to educate myself as to what just happened (which certainly makes me a little uncomfortable, seeing as it’s sort of already gone down) and I’m too damn tired to pretend to know it all.

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
Ambrose Bierce

Congratulations, Know-It-Alls: I care less the more I know.
Seems like the general consensus is that everyone is pissed off, no one got all they wanted and everyone seems to think Obama got ‘em good in some way. This tiny lil’ story is certainly not going to make many people too happy… but how could a cynic like myself possibly read anything these days without being distracted by the distinct feeling that whatever I was reading was total horseshit?!

What did good ol’ Brother Bierce say?

CYNIC, n.
A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his vision.

As always, feel free to comment here!

Haiti, Meet Mr. Grouchy Pants

Mike Lewis - World Traveler
(Had to print that for those who don’t know - can’t have you thinking that’s me, I’m way better looking.)

Okay!
So, I thought those of you brave souls who got suckered in by my FREE BEER headline from the last post helped pitch in might be wondering what’s going on with my friend Mike Lewis. (Add him - you’ll be glad you did. Especially if you contributed… there are photos and updates from the trip now! You can actually see your greenbacks at work. Nice, right?)

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about and would like to be a part of something awesome: Mike Lewis has taken a trip to Haiti in an effort to put actual feet on the ground and help, read about it here. Did I mention you could pitch in? (C’mon, it will be a lot more rewarding than your third viewing of AVATAR, and can even be for the same price!)

Well, thanks to Bill Power (because ol’ Grouchy Pants Lewis got my email address wrong the first time) that is now possible. I’m not sure that I shouldn’t have edited this, but I picture a guy trying to bang out an email in whatever brief exposure to internet access he can come by so… let’s just deal with it. We should probably give him a break, he’s not typing this from the comfort of wherever I’m writing or you’re reading so… we’ll be fine.
Brace yourselves - and thank you for taking the time to… care.

Hey everyone

I’m alive in Haiti, rained all night so everything is wet but that also meas it’s cooler and less dust. The people I’m camped with are Hard Core they came here 5 days after the earthquake. With little money an bags of supplies, they are not with any organization, and they are working next 12 countries who sent in workers some who are here with no pay. None of these people have training of any kind and two have been with out work in the US and they toil here pulling bodies from a fallen hotel where 200 wheny missing and 70 where Americans. These people don’t know where the next supplies are coming from and they do deal making everyweek to get rides into town, for supplies they funded by te random peope like me who come camp with them and bring funds and supplies thanks to all of you. They are not with any church or group they are people like you and I who heard the call and made there way to a country killed by earthquake. This a level of service I don’t understand and they inspire me to do more, work more, and learn to hear the call. Your funds you sent an supples you sent are going to several projects 1) water filters to make clean water for 14 camps of people each camp has 500 to 1000 people who are homeless and wait for UN support. 2) I have toys and all the supplies you sent with me going to and orphange run by Yogi nuns who operate the poorest orphange I have ever seen, these wemon do the Hard work they themselves are sick becuase the kids are sick, but they hold them and love them one 2 yr old I met was starving and they have been nursing her back from the edge of death becuase of malnutition she still can not walk or talk. But aide is not reaching small NGO like this one who reach so many people though as a christain I don’t share the Yogi belief system we walk common ground in the belief if saving peoples lives who have been taken by poverty. Everytime I go on a trip like this one I’m reminded that gods call is to serve people. So my probelms in life always get knocked down to perspective when watching people who have nothing fighting to hang on to the chance if a life, puts buisness, bills, ad our silky American probelms which don’t amoun to a thing when you see what Real need looks like.

So, now what?
Well, there is still plenty to be done - and knowing Lewis, probably a lot more than is immediately obvious. You can still donate to:

This Shirt Changes Lives

(And while you’re at it, why not join up? All the cool kids are doing it.)

Almost as important as you actually doing something to help, spreading the word would be most appreciated. How hard is it to just…
Pass it on?

And now, those of you well adjusted can call it encouragement (if that’s you, LUCKY) or you can see this next bit for what is more comfortable for some of us: The Ol’ Obligatory Guilt Paint Job On Our Tender Dear Hearts!

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25:40

(hahah. Sorry. You can blame David Dark for that. I’ve been doing a lot healthy questioning lately, and unfortunately it has led to some very annoying self-examinination - although in truth, just how much of an inconvenience is writing a blahg? - but more on that later.)

As always… comments are more than welcome here!