I have been feeling this acutely since 2003. I remember the exact time and place I knew we had crossed over to a dystopian nightmare. Now I often feel like I’m watching a very scary movie.
Full of exceptionalism and the zero sum game that lowers anyone elses quality of life to increase their own. Except that too is a lie, as only the wealthy and powerful reap the benefits.
This is what America was like before POTUS FDR formally recognized labor unions. The 40-hour work week and two-day weekends and decent wages were the concessions to the union demands in order to forestall a bloody revolution.
The “good times” period from around 1935 until around 1970 was an anomaly. The illegal undeclared war in Vietnam was a clear indication of disruption of the myth of the American Dream.
If the tent encampments give you stress, wait until a bomb falls on your tent if you happen to exist in Gaza.. oh, forgot, talking about that is anti- Semitic…
"When Bonaparte insisted that the heart is one of the entrails, that it is the pit of the stomach that moves the world, - do we thank him for the gracious instruction? Our disgust is the protest of human nature against a lie. The ground of hope is in the infinity of the world; which infinity reappears in every particle ..." ~Emerson
This again. You nail it every time. I hope for a better society and I work towards that goal but it is an uphill struggle and I plummet back down sometimes into the trough of despair. People accuse me of being a cynic but as George Carlin pointed out, a cynic is a disappointed idealist. I will continue to speak out until I draw my dying breath and I take comfort that I see great young people who will pick up the baton after me. I believe in them.
I think the fact that ppl today, young and old, can see images of genocide on their smartphones and feel a visceral revulsion speaks to the fact that our shared humanity can't be covered up by pointless abstractions or stupid ideas.
CJ>>"Everything about this dystopia is like this. If you could see it all with fresh eyes, you would scream in horror. The only reason anyone finds any of this tolerable is because we have become desensitized and accustomed to the madness."
SO TRUE Caitlin! I've been screaming in horror for a while now (mostly internally, but sometimes it overflows externally). It's had an alienating effect on me (i.e. I feel more and more alienated from other humans that think 'this world is normal and just the way it should be'.), and the number of humans that I've been alienated from grows by the day...
I wish there was some MAGIC PILL that would instantly give people Critical Thinking skills and a massive dose of EMPATHY and ability to put themselves in the shoes of others.
If you ever come up with the formula for that magic pill, please start pumping it into the municipal water supply of every town and city you possibly can. The world could do with a lot more folks with empathy and critical thinking skills.
Hello Chang, It will be Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett) if we wait for a magic pill. I totally agree with you that critical thinking has to go together with empathy and compassion. Some are born with it and some acquire it. Human nature is such we can all learn it if we care enough.
And yet when Trump ordered that the streets of Washington, D.C. be cleared of the homeless and their encampments because they were an eyesore, their documents, those we are all required to have in order to justify our existence, were destroyed along with the rest of their belongings.
The homeless do have the right to defend themselves, although they may not have the means to do so. Communities have a moral obligation to defend those who cannot defend themselves.
I am temporarily banned from Reddit for saying as much.
Thank you for this much-needed sermon, Caitlin's Encyclical Letter - Laudato Si’
And the recent, wasteful trip around the Moon was designed to show YOU who is in charge of directing humanity's wealth, to direct it the farthest possible distance from anyone who is lacking comfort or food or a future. Literally shooting humanity's most precious resources right out into the void of Space.
"Gil Scott Heron "Winter In America" (1974) HIGH QUALITY
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Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949 -- May 27, 2011) was an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word soul performer and his collaborative work with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron.
The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron's recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". On his influence, a music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists".
Winter in America is a studio album by American soul musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron and musician Brian Jackson, released in May 1974 on Strata-East Records. Recording sessions for the album took place on three recording dates in September and October of 1973 at D&B Sound Studio in Silver Springs, Maryland. The album served as the third collaboration effort by Scott-Heron and Jackson following the latter's contributions on Pieces of a Man and Free Will.
As the first record produced by the two musicians, it was also the first of their work together to have Jackson receive co-billing for a release. The album features introspective and socially-conscious lyrical content by Scott-Heron and mellow instrumentation and soundscape stylistically rooted in jazz and the blues, which produced a fusion of bluesy jazz-based vocals and Jackson's free jazz arrangements. The album is also one of the earliest known studio releases to contain proto-rap elements such as a stripped-down production style and spoken word-vocalization.
Heron's father Gil Heron (1922 - 27 November, 2008) was a Jamaican footballer/soccer player. He was the first black player to play for Scottish club Celtic FC after being invited on a trial in 1951. Heron went on to score on his debut, on August 18, 1951 in a League Cup tie against Morton that Celtic won 2-0.
I have been feeling this acutely since 2003. I remember the exact time and place I knew we had crossed over to a dystopian nightmare. Now I often feel like I’m watching a very scary movie.
As I remember, I had that same sense of crossing over into dystopia in September, 1951. I was only about three minutes old when the lights came on...
America today:
1. Impoverished working class
2. Endless war
3. Militarized police
4. Largest prison system in the world
5. Corporations legally exploit the vulnerable
6. Wealth transfering into the billionaire class.
7. Legislative bodies, courts, & media all hostage to corporate power.
God, what a nightmare. Wake me up when it's all over.
In that case, you will need to sleep for longer than Snow White.
And don't forget:
8. No universal health care and a HHS Secretary who wants to outlaw vaccines for childhood illnesses and start easily avoided epidemics.
It works just fine for the people who matter.
Full of exceptionalism and the zero sum game that lowers anyone elses quality of life to increase their own. Except that too is a lie, as only the wealthy and powerful reap the benefits.
This is what America was like before POTUS FDR formally recognized labor unions. The 40-hour work week and two-day weekends and decent wages were the concessions to the union demands in order to forestall a bloody revolution.
The “good times” period from around 1935 until around 1970 was an anomaly. The illegal undeclared war in Vietnam was a clear indication of disruption of the myth of the American Dream.
If the tent encampments give you stress, wait until a bomb falls on your tent if you happen to exist in Gaza.. oh, forgot, talking about that is anti- Semitic…
Almost nothing that humans do is natural. Why do you think cats stare in bemused contempt?
"When Bonaparte insisted that the heart is one of the entrails, that it is the pit of the stomach that moves the world, - do we thank him for the gracious instruction? Our disgust is the protest of human nature against a lie. The ground of hope is in the infinity of the world; which infinity reappears in every particle ..." ~Emerson
And the cats are right!
And why do you think babies cry when they are born?
This again. You nail it every time. I hope for a better society and I work towards that goal but it is an uphill struggle and I plummet back down sometimes into the trough of despair. People accuse me of being a cynic but as George Carlin pointed out, a cynic is a disappointed idealist. I will continue to speak out until I draw my dying breath and I take comfort that I see great young people who will pick up the baton after me. I believe in them.
I believe in young people, too. They are capable and worthy. We should encourage and support them as much as possible.
I think the fact that ppl today, young and old, can see images of genocide on their smartphones and feel a visceral revulsion speaks to the fact that our shared humanity can't be covered up by pointless abstractions or stupid ideas.
It's a deliberate destruction of civil society and the social contract in order to discredit and get rid of democratic self-governance itself.
CJ>>"Everything about this dystopia is like this. If you could see it all with fresh eyes, you would scream in horror. The only reason anyone finds any of this tolerable is because we have become desensitized and accustomed to the madness."
SO TRUE Caitlin! I've been screaming in horror for a while now (mostly internally, but sometimes it overflows externally). It's had an alienating effect on me (i.e. I feel more and more alienated from other humans that think 'this world is normal and just the way it should be'.), and the number of humans that I've been alienated from grows by the day...
I wish there was some MAGIC PILL that would instantly give people Critical Thinking skills and a massive dose of EMPATHY and ability to put themselves in the shoes of others.
If you ever come up with the formula for that magic pill, please start pumping it into the municipal water supply of every town and city you possibly can. The world could do with a lot more folks with empathy and critical thinking skills.
Be that pill! Recruit others to join you.
Hello Chang, It will be Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett) if we wait for a magic pill. I totally agree with you that critical thinking has to go together with empathy and compassion. Some are born with it and some acquire it. Human nature is such we can all learn it if we care enough.
Nice to see you back.
Just finished reading ‘One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This’, by Omar El Akkad.
Thinking of Hind Rajab. And Aaron Bushnell.
Jeremiah Wright had it right - God, damn America.
To paraphrase Lord Salisbury: "The people of the West are carrying a lunatic asylum on their backs."
that's CA CAPITOL CITY, start ~3:00:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPsPawTRsgI
and couple of more places around the city:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/sacramento-homeless-tents-at-c-and-30th-gm1655708962-534524619
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/sacramento-homeless-tents.html?sortBy=relevant
https://nypost.com/2022/07/19/sacramento-facing-record-homeless-crisis-crime-wave/
More taxes for MILITARY? More wars? More AI to REPLACE HUMANS???
TRILLIONS OF DEBT, with every day MORE 'thanks' to MENTALLY IMPAIRED POLITICIANS?
How long will American stay silent and watch this all?
You make too much sense Cait.
Steak at Costco is minimum $75 for family of steaks and moreso $100-125.. Wild
Chomsky's boiled frog has its effects.
If most of us are aware that tent living can lead to a harmful outcome, tent living would be abolished in a healthy population.
If there exists homelessness in our neck of the woods, and we do not react, then aren’t we responsible for it?
Moreover, if the authorities just walk in and destroy tent encampments, do the holes have the right to defend themselves ?
4th Amendment
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue,
but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmtion, and particularly describing the place to be searched,
and the persons or things to be seized."
Need anymore be need to be said?
And yet when Trump ordered that the streets of Washington, D.C. be cleared of the homeless and their encampments because they were an eyesore, their documents, those we are all required to have in order to justify our existence, were destroyed along with the rest of their belongings.
So sorry for the typos.. should read’do the homeless have the right to defend themselves?’ And not :” do the holes……
The homeless do have the right to defend themselves, although they may not have the means to do so. Communities have a moral obligation to defend those who cannot defend themselves.
I am temporarily banned from Reddit for saying as much.
proposed changes to Louisiana law on homelessness
https://www.commondreams.org/news/louisiana-homeless-bill
Thank you for this much-needed sermon, Caitlin's Encyclical Letter - Laudato Si’
And the recent, wasteful trip around the Moon was designed to show YOU who is in charge of directing humanity's wealth, to direct it the farthest possible distance from anyone who is lacking comfort or food or a future. Literally shooting humanity's most precious resources right out into the void of Space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuqU5XSo-1U
"Whitey on the moon" written, performed by Gil Scott Heron
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Encore from Bardic Orbit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2zKdIcOV5s
"Gil Scott Heron "Winter In America" (1974) HIGH QUALITY
Sound Signals
7.71K subscribers
Subscribe
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Share
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4,128,370 views May 31, 2011
Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949 -- May 27, 2011) was an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word soul performer and his collaborative work with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron.
The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron's recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". On his influence, a music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists".
Winter in America is a studio album by American soul musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron and musician Brian Jackson, released in May 1974 on Strata-East Records. Recording sessions for the album took place on three recording dates in September and October of 1973 at D&B Sound Studio in Silver Springs, Maryland. The album served as the third collaboration effort by Scott-Heron and Jackson following the latter's contributions on Pieces of a Man and Free Will.
As the first record produced by the two musicians, it was also the first of their work together to have Jackson receive co-billing for a release. The album features introspective and socially-conscious lyrical content by Scott-Heron and mellow instrumentation and soundscape stylistically rooted in jazz and the blues, which produced a fusion of bluesy jazz-based vocals and Jackson's free jazz arrangements. The album is also one of the earliest known studio releases to contain proto-rap elements such as a stripped-down production style and spoken word-vocalization.
Heron's father Gil Heron (1922 - 27 November, 2008) was a Jamaican footballer/soccer player. He was the first black player to play for Scottish club Celtic FC after being invited on a trial in 1951. Heron went on to score on his debut, on August 18, 1951 in a League Cup tie against Morton that Celtic won 2-0.
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