To cite only a few examples,
by means such as, "zero tolerance" policies in public school systems,
to "no knock" warrants, to snooping on and control over employees
private lives by corporate employers, to the war on the Bill of Rights that is
the so-called war on drugs, to the brutal suppression of constitutionally
granted rights to free assembly and free expression by militarized police
forces, to the unconstitutional killing of both U.S. citizens and foreign
nationals abroad by predator drone attacks--daily existence within the nation
has become more repressive, less inclined to the acceptance of the moments of
creativity and uncertainty inherent to freedom. In fits and starts, by law and
deed, the U.S.
Granted, such ideals will
never exist in pure form. Still, by the same token, the sane neither shill for
utopia nor become adapted to tyranny.
The act of pepper spraying peaceful protesters by the enforcers of official power should not be viewed as an incidental occurrence. Conversely, the act is emblematic of a mode of mind gripping the nation and one that must be challenged in the streets.
Memes are ever-replicating,
exponentially reproducing, collectively evolving bits of human
thoughtware--while our bodies are the hardware. If their resonances remain
strictly in the realm of pixels and soundbites, a meme will translate into
little more than pop culture ephemera. Memes must be carried by flesh into the
non-virtual world; their human carriers might even be peppered sprayed
themselves and carted off to jail, if it comes to that.
Otherwise, as is the case at
present, memes dissipate…dissolving amid the ever-proliferating mirages of the
commercial hologram. Thus the tragedy of the consumer state: The manner the
present age of media-borne illusion usurps our instinctual drives and
individual longings--the appetites and imaginings--that compel our life force
to its zenith--but instead will induce us to spend our lives in the pursuit of
careerist vanity and consumer dreck, and, in so doing, serves to deliver our
passions to a wasteland of electronic dust.
When the inhuman demands of
a seemingly implacable system control the lives of a people, an aura of
nebulous fear, nettling resentment and habitual passivity, alternating with
impulsive aggression, will seize the spirit of a culture. This is what Walker
Percy wrote of a similar internalized landscape:
"Death in the form of death genes shall not prevail over me, for death genes are one thing but it is something else to name the death genes and know them and stand against them and dare them. I am different from my death genes and therefore not subject to them. My father had the same death genes but he feared them and did not name them and thought he could roar out old Route 66 and stay ahead of them or grab me and be pals or play Brahms and keep them, the death genes, happy, so he fell prey to them."--excerpted from Percy's novel, The Second Coming
In a declining culture, the
vitality available within daily experience withers and falls away, and is soon
supplanted by the dismal scions of the death genes. As reflected by the
architecture (e.g., bland, prefab retail strips; shoddily built subdivision housing;
sterile office parks) of late capitalism, beauty and common communion holds no
dominion. As a consequence, fecund dreams dry to dust and rise from the arid
land as blinding squalls of displaced fear and anger.
Antithetically, as an
antidote, on Thanksgiving Day, my wife and I trundled by subway train down to Zuccotti Park
My father is half Comanche;
he was born on a reservation in the U.S.
Significantly, by their
ongoing acts of aggression perpetrated against the OWS denizens in Liberty Park
in lower Manhattan (which, in itself, is an indigenous name, Manna-hata,
meaning, "island of many hills") the mayor of New York City and the
NYPD have revealed that they regard the area as Injun' Country. From the start
of the OWS occupation, the protectors of the present order surrounded the
"dirty, dangerous savages" within Liberty Park by blue uniform-clad
troops and by force attempted to drive them off the land--land that is as much
ours to appropriate as it is their own or anyone else's.
And don't talk to me about
private property…The land in question was stolen from the get-go in a shady
real estate swindle. Moreover, the OWS movement is a challenge to those types
of societal notions that have bestowed legitimacy on larceny.
Regarding the almost
exclusive exploitation of land for commercial exploitation e.g., the practice of
claiming as private property, inflating the price of, and ceaselessly turning
over for profit parcels of real estate has proven an enterprise that has
degraded both landscape and soulscape, and has proven to be a less than
propitious practice in regard to the health of the community at large and the
planet itself. Withal, this mode of mind has engendered a culture in which the
brutal and ruthless thrive…has enabled the rise of psychopathic personality
types to positions of unapproachable power whose creed is, "all the things
of the earth are 'mine' to exploit and it is my right to bring to submission,
lest I'm entitled to destroy, those things I cannot possess and control."
Conversely, my hours spent
in Liberty Park
The actions of and reactions
to the OWS movement serve to reveal the hypocritical core of the present
duopolistic political system. For example, if the recent brutal, police
"crackdowns" (in truth, outright abuses of constitutionally granted
rights) on the OWS movement had been coordinated and perpetrated under the Bush
administration, Democratic Party partisans would have been calling for hearings
of impeachment to be convened against George W. Bush. The lack of outrage among
liberal insiders regarding recent events is an object lesson into the invidious
nature of duopolistic rule. What Democratic Party partisans warn against--the
big business beholden, freedom phobic, Republican agenda--is advanced in a more
efficient manner when a Democrat is installed by the 1% in the U.S.
More and more, nationally,
as well as globally, people are catching on to the machinations of the 1%, to
the scams of crime syndicates such as Wall Street and the IMF, to the means by
which we have been coerced, by debt enslavement to neoliberalism's global
company store, into spending the fleeting days of this finite life working for
the inequitable power, wealth and privilege of these ruthless few.
At present, growing numbers
have taken heed of the situation and are fighting back. Within the span of a
few short months, the narrative of the corporate media has, to a limited
extent, been altered. Yet, at this point, the development is merely background
noise: The neoliberal order is collapsing; capitalism itself is nearly at the
end of its five hundred year run.
OWS is part of a global
movement of resistance that is laying the groundwork for a new paradigm.
Although, change will not come without struggle and suffering, without defeats,
betrayals and moments of despair. But, given the unsustainable nature of the
present order, a shift in both perception and practice is inevitable. Yet when
there are this many variables (known and unknown) in play, gazing darkly or
through rose-tinted eyewear will prove neither adequate nor helpful.
Finally, engaging in acts of
resistance are often not about winning or losing a particular battle; rather,
it is the propitious manner the act transforms one's character by drawing one
out of isolation and into the heart of life.
By such acts, we are
strengthened. Our resistance to the present order has deepened our character
and strengthened our resolve, and has bestowed upon us the courage to care
deeply about the lives and fates of others as well as the imperiled state of
our planet's environment. We can--and we will--meet one another in reclaimed
public space, and, finally, and, at long last, take up residence in a
life-vivifying landscape where the death genes grip is loosened and where the
wit of the world remains.
Phil Rockstroh is a poet,
lyricist and philosopher bard living in New
York City
No comments:
Post a Comment
I want to hear from you but any comment that advocates violence, illegal activity or that contains advertisements that do not promote activism or awareness, will be deleted.