Political Post

As a younger person, I would say I was "into" politics and the philosophies involved. I do sort of take pride in my familial and cultural background in that I come from two strains of social progressiveness, one of which is southern and working class (yes political and social progressives existed in the south, and probably still do) the other jewish and intellectual. I find this kind of ironic, that my mother's family, which is the southern, working class part, had very progressive politics, intermarried racially, supported the Union during the civil war, etc and on my father's side is the old American left of Jewish pinko types, my grandfather was a lawyer involved in various labor disputes in the 20s, 30s and 40s on the side of the laborers and was a founding member of the Lawyer's Guild, the first integrated lawyer's union in the United States. I think all that's super cool, and I choose to take pride in it.

When I was in middle school, I fancied myself a communist, I had a notion of the kind of injustice which permeated our civilization, and our history as a country and a society, and I thought that to do away with it we ought to institute socialism, perhaps by any means necessary. As I got older, I became disenfranchised with communistic ideals, especially revolutionary communism, and my political views generally mellowed into some vaguely formed sense of democratic socialism. I certainly don't want to do away with democracy, but I'd like it if the social structures which are meant to serve the state and it's citizens were socialized, medicine, education, the prison system, etc. And if you haven't noticed, in the post Reagan era, the opposite has increasingly been the case to the point where the military is practically privately owned and ventures like the invasion of Iraq, in which millions of people have been killed or displaced, are not for the benefit of the people of America or the world, but corporate entities.

That's another post altogether. I told you that story, so I could tell you my feelings on memorial day. If you followed my Livejournal from the ages of 15 to 17 or so, I'd make some kind of socialistic rant about killing babies, that is not my intention. I find myself increasingly apathetic to politics and the news, unlike many members of my generation I was never all that impassioned by the prospect of Barack Obama's presidency, I was cautiously optimistic but deep down I had a sense things would turn out like they have, for the most part. I don't really read or follow the news, I read or hear about horrible things happening in far away places, the bureaucracy and corruption of our government, and I begin to feel bad. CNN or MSNBC gives me a headache, Fox News is absolute rubbish. It's a selfish thing, but I find my quality of life is higher if I avoid all the information on current events that's out there, because frankly here on my laptop there is absolutely nothing I can do to make a difference and that is the cold, hard, grotesque truth. I don't like facing things which are grotesque, I'd rather avoid it, again my quality of life is subsequently higher and I find being and staying happy challenging enough on my own, although no longer impossible as I previously thought it was.

What was I going to talk about? Oh yeah, Memorial Day. Today we remember fallen soldiers, by going to the beach and drinking beer and eating meat or do we watch a specific sporting event? Something like that. Certainly, it must be much more meaningful and reflective if someone you know is a veteran or was lost overseas, but for most people it's a day off and that's fine, I'm not judging that. Life is short and if something causes people to live it a little more, and to enjoy one another, well that's good. I for one went to see my parents, I drank some beer and grilled some steak, I haven't had a home made grilled steak in a very long time so I enjoyed the pleasure of it, as well as waxing philosophical with my father on a sunny day.

But what about this other thing that's going on, where we reflect on fallen soldiers. I struggle with an ambiguous attitude toward's our countries armed forces. Thomas Jefferson famously said the tree of liberty is watered by the blood of patriots. Upon reflection, there is something very Aztecan about that notion, "the roots of the tree of life are watered with blood", the Aztecs believed that without blood sacrifice the sun would not rise. Further inquisition has proven this is not the case. I feel a similar philosophy permeates and justifies today's military-industrial complex. We build jets and bombs and aircraft carriers, we kill innocent people, to water the roots of the tree of liberty. Then again, in the case of at least one modern war, WWII everybody's famous war because we were the unambiguous good guys against pure evil, that was more or less the case. Other things happened, Japanese internment camps, that sort of thing, but overall that is a war we can feel good about (if one can feel good about war its not a good thing). The Korean war, Vietnam, the Iraq wars, etc, not so much, eh? So what are we going to do with the history we are creating, the scarred individuals coming back from these conflicts, to say nothing of the people on the other side who were told they could expect democracy and prosperity but then again maybe not, how about instead a pile of rubble and cradling your dying children.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, these are just the thoughts that have come out as I've typed. That's how I'd like to structure this thing, just to let things flow out and try not to censor or edit anything. Just press "publish" when I've run out of things to say. Let me see, can I find an appropriate poem for the occassion... hmm. There are lots of inappropriate ones, more than I could count. Well, here is one I always thought was better than it actually was, but the metaphor I was trying for is kind of pertinent.

And neither did Joshua, the walrus

Made aquatic martyr of all underwater

Sacrificed, an aquatic lamb of god

Nailed ten times to a seven sided crucifix

Left hanging, until he bled a river of red

That stained the sea cucumbers crimson

Fed the fury and hatred in the hearts of sharks

And travelled across the city of sea lions

Until it roused the coming legion of clams

Rising to take revenge against the Carpenter

In tribute to their shucked and devoured brethren

By forcing him to build a fortress of walrus bones

A new mecca for crustaceans and mollusks

And holy pilgrimage for all the creatures of the sea

To shelter them from man kind's poison and pollution

The scent of his corruption, his misbegotten god

When from the depths of a trench rises a throne for Trident

So he may preside over a new oncoming age of oysters

Creeping to the beaches from the ocean, to over take us

Riding on the blood soaked waves of Joshua, his sacrifice.