I debate (internally) why I continue to write here. There is no huge readership, but several dedicated-to-the-abuse (apparently) friends who keep coming around for more. I get a lot of dick enlargement stuff and there are apparently many women interested in getting to know me intimately (and are willing to share their Viagra). And then there is the occasional visit by no_slappz (whut up, dude, you don’t love me no more?)
But, basically, this place is where I rant. It is where I take my hair down (heh) and let go with flurries of cursing and ass-chewing. I never really think (anymore, that is) that I am going to reach many, if anyone (altho I did start this blog for that very reason). I keep dreading to admit, out loud, my conclusion that it really is too late. That America is too far gone down the divide (hence, we will never be able to stand together to fight the internal menace that has stolen our way of life and the honor it once was to be called an American). I do describe all the issues with every post, so no need in continuing beating that dead horse in this one. But suffice it to say that the brainwashing has worked and I cannot, within my faculties, figure out a sound way to fix it (heal it, is more precise).
I wonder if Greg Palast felt something similar when he wrote this about J.D. Salinger’s death and his most noted book, “A Catcher In The Rye” (h/t Dandelion Salad) For contained within this article is a phrase that describes what I have been trying to do (and I wish I had thought of this)
“wipe the fuck off this smeared planet”:
Kvetcher in the Rye
Monday, February 1, 2010by Greg Palast
In the sixth grade, the Boys’ Vice-Principal threatened to suspend me from school unless I stopped carrying around A Catcher in the Rye I think because it had the word “fuck” in it. Since the Boys’ Vice-Principal hadn’t read the book – and I don’t think he’d ever read any book – he couldn’t tell me why.
But Mrs. Gordon was cool. She let me keep the book at my desk and read it at recess as long as I kept a brown wrapper over the cover.
I think J.D. Salinger would have liked Mrs. Gordon. She wanted to save me from the world’s vice-principals, the guys who wanted to train you in obedience to idiots and introduce you the adult world of fear and punishment. Mrs. Gordon wanted to protect the need of a child to run free.
That’s, of course, how the word fuck got into Salinger’s book. For the 5% of you who haven’t read it, the main character of the book, Holden Caulfield, tries to erase the f-word off the wall of a New York City school. He doesn’t want little kids like his sister Phoebe to see it, that somehow it would trigger an irreversible loss of her childhood innocence:
I thought Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them—all cockeyed, naturally—what it meant, and how they’d all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days.
Which is where the title came from. Salinger’s Caulfield, pushed to the edge of his own youth and directed to prepare himself for the job market, could see for himself only one career: as a catcher in the rye. He imagined a bunch of kids playing away happily in a rye field, but a field on a cliff’s-edge. Every time a child, lost in their game, would drift toward the edge, Caulfield’s job would be to catch them before they fell.
Any other job would just turn you into a “phony,” that is, an adult. All adults were phonies, even the nice ones, who took jobs they hated, taught textbooks and catechisms they didn’t believe and lived lives of self-inflicted disappointments, while pretending it was all OK. Then with phony grins, they’d demand that you join their painful parade of delusion and decay.
Nearly half a century after I covered up Salinger’s book in a carefully folded brown wrapper, I thought I’d read it to my twins. They were now eleven, in the 6th grade.
But I couldn’t. In his 1956 book, Salinger had railed against a post-war world of boys in school blazers trying to get to “first base” with their steady dates. America itself was an adolescent, and despite the police beatings of marchers in Alabama, despite the “drop, tuck and don’t look at the flash!” drills we did weekly in Mrs. Gordon’s class to prepare for the Russian nuclear attack, America was still weirdly, optimistically child-like.
We knew then that the world could only get better: we would go the moon and eventually, vacation there. JFK announced the Alliance for Progress and poverty would end in Appalachia; and Paul McCartney wanted to hold our hand. Every nasty meanie, like police in Selma, was met by a legion of victorious innocents led by Martin Luther King. So we all held hands in a circle while Pete Seeger strummed “We shall overcome.” Everyone would get a scholarship; and we really, truly believed we would overcome.
Even the social critics – Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Bruce, Jack Kerouac – were just big, mischievous kids.
Yes, there were a bunch of old phonies like Joe McCarthy and the Boys’ Vice-Principal, but their days were numbered.
Then we fell over the cliff.
A bullet through the skull replaced Kennedy with Nixon. We shall overcome was replaced with the vicious “Southern Strategy;” the Cold War exploded in hot jungles; then came the idiot wasteland of the regimes of Ford and Carter and Reagan and Clinton and Bushes, a degenerative march as the machine of America rusted and died.
And here we are today, begging for spare parts from China and my daughter glued to YouTube videos of Lady Ga-Ga’s crotch, and my son slicing off a cop’s head in Grand Theft Auto and a President, telegenic and painfully hollow, playing the lost and ineffectual shepherd over an electorate divided between the terrified and the greedy. In place of prophets, we are offered a caravan of kvetching clowns piling out of the Volkswagen on MSNBC.
There’s no way to wipe the fuck off this smeared planet. I’m supposed to try. I’m an investigative reporter, meaning I have a professional commitment to the childish belief that if I shout loud enough, I can warn people away from the cliff’s edge.
Well, it’s better than a real job, but no less “phony,” no less of a petty illusion.
I’m holding this book, the brown wrapper lost who the hell knows when, and I know it would just be laughable, inscrutably ancient to those wisened, worldly children of mine.
I’ve put it back on my shelf.
You stand on the cliff edge and there’s no one left to catch.
Jerome David Salinger 1919-2010.
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, is a Nation Institute/Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow for investigative reporting. www.gregpalast.com.
There must be something in the air or water. I’ve been having the same thoughts since the beginning of the year. My site is much like yours as far as visitors go. But then I get it. Thats what they’d want me to do. Quit ! Well I have news for them. I am no quitter and will not quit. I may back off which I have done recently, but I will not quit. If what I write reaches only one person a day, that is one more that is aware of whats going on. That makes it worth it to me. The only way at this time I will quit, is if I drop dead.
B’man, you are a rare breed. You do have away with words yet keep it simple enough that this underachiever with a good enough diploma understands. You are as others I follow[very few] a beacon of light in the deep dark depths of this abyss we call America. You are all that is good in a person, where few remain. I’m proud to call you a friend.
I understand your disappointment. I struggle with the same on a daily basis. What the hell am I doing ? Why do I give a shit, when others don’t ? Does anyone even care anymore ?
Like you, I started my blog in hopes of reaching out and telling people about all the corruption and shortcomings of those that hold our trust. I soon found that unless you’re a known name sponsored by the same corporation we fight against, most of what we write falls on deaf ears. But as I said earlier, if I reach One person, that is one more for our side. Will one make a difference ? Absolutely ! If that one person tells another and so on, soon there are many.
But I too feel that it is to late to “wipe the fuck off this smeared planet”. They may have won the battle, but the war is coming. If it doesn’t in our time, the people of the future will be just as doomed. I have even thought about this a lot lately. But what kind of revolution can one person start ? Hell, we cant even get enough folks together to impeach past war criminals. It’s like I’ve said before, The only way people will revolt is when they have nothing else to do. Until that day, the song remains the same.[zeppelin]
I don’t know what to tell you, really. Don’t give up telling it like it is. These ears are not deaf and these eyes can see. And remember, there’s a new generation that may stumble across your blog and read it. The information you post will help them in their fight.
Ed
P.S.- I have an idea and will contact you with it.
Posted by Ed | February 1, 2010, 10:49 pmThanks, Ed. I want to say that you and I are the longest and closest allies in this war. I can’t swear to it, but I believe your link was one of my first I shared and added to my Blogroll. We go way back, and even like brothers who care deeply for each other, have met our disagreement, got down in the dirt to wrestle, got up, cooled off and are EVEN BETTER for it since. Relationships, the strongest ones, are tested and secured in this manner at times. My sister and I fought like cats and dogs as we grew up, but she is the closest person in my life today for it. It comes down to trust, doesn’t it?
My wife and I hardly ever argue. But early on we did once… a horrible bout. But we dusted off, apologized (in a couple of ways, hint, hint) for the misunderstanding (which it was) and we have been together for over 20 years now. This is one of the reasons why I trust you so much, Ed. You took my verbal beating, doled out your deserved counter attack, then we could admiringly make up and become even better friends.
I, like you, can’t stop. I wrote that, being honest, but have no intention of discontinuing (if for no other reason than I need to rant and rave about these injustices). But I often wonder, what is the worth?
Then someone like Lynda, or Suzan or Jay or Tengrain or kelso or Lisa Golden or any number of the ones that support this maniac’s wild rantings, hoping you guys realize the value (albeit not much, I still believe my work contains value). Like you, if I can reach just one person and shake him or her just enough to wake up… to see the truth of what has taken over our country.
Believe me, if things were ok in my mind, I would likely just go back to making money and living my life. But in my truest self, in my best effort to understand and scrutinize the details, I believe shit is REALLY bad. So bad that if I did stop writing, I would not be able to live with myself when the SHTF. I care about people (all of you, yes) but even (maybe especially) those that are still blinded. Cause when it gets bad, these fools won’t have a clue. I don’t want people suffering (much less dying) when they could have paid a little attention and prepared.
Call me. You have my number, don’t you?
Posted by BuelahMan | February 2, 2010, 7:36 amThank you for your fervent efforts to help save the world.
Because having read you for a while I see that as your mission.
And I applaud your attempt.
As to the Palast essay:
And not by accident,my friend.
Not by accident at all.
Thank you for all you do to inform us and warn against the encroaching night.
S
then came the idiot wasteland of the regimes of Ford and Carter and Reagan and Clinton and Bushes, a degenerative march as the machine of America rusted and died.
__________________________
Posted by Suzan | February 1, 2010, 11:31 pmSuzan,
When it is put that way (saving the world) it sounds so grandiose.
But, really, isn’t that what we are all trying to do? All that have added something to this post, I see as saviors of this world. I don’t mean that in any silly, stretched way. I mean it from my heart.
For, from my perspective, we are so close to true devastation that any silly decision could kick off a World War. From the actions of Shillary and Obomba, I would think we are pretty damned close to releasing those dogs of war on Iran and China.
I have written about that here several times and have claimed over and over, that will be the last straw. The world goes into battle and guess who the losers will be? Every Fucking Body!
I thank you for your continued support. We must stay in this together, telling the truth, otherwise we stand ZERO chance (as opposed to the minuscule one we have as we work).
Posted by BuelahMan | February 2, 2010, 7:40 amI was reading A Tale of Two Cities… the French Revolution was ruthless it kind of scares me if Americans were too wake up in mass like that!
Posted by Jay Midnyte | February 2, 2010, 12:50 amThat is a great book. Ruthless.
I don’t know if America has it in her anymore. The French of the day didn’t have American Idol and the Super Bowl or …
We have a means in this country to avoid such an atrocity. It is called elections. But, people will have to shirk this bullshit two party paradigm of wizardry that has everyone enchanted.
Posted by BuelahMan | February 2, 2010, 7:46 amB-man:
For better or worse, we are in the same fight and on the same side. Our tactics differ, but our goal remains aligned, as you suggest. I hope we never hit the purity test phase, tho…
Keep ranting and screaming into the void, we are listening.
Regards,
Tengrain
Posted by Tengrain | February 2, 2010, 10:38 amTengrain: We´re doing it with direct action as well as words. I´ll be involved in a very big international event down here and we´ve started a companion blog to the RawDawgBuffaloRadio Show, “THEEDUCATIONOFFOLKS.WORDPRESS.COM.” It´s not just Torrance and me. B´Man, Jay Midnyte, Nicki Nicki Tembo, RIPpa, and HedgeFund Marko will all be contributing as the mood catches everybody.
But one piece at least will always be on the Thursday topic.
I intend to keep screaming, but I doubt there was anything I´ll ever do in my life to equal getting Madga´s kids out of Bógota and into La Ciudad De Panamá. They´re just adolescents. In this first world, they deserve the expectation of a long life and death by natural causes. They shouldn´t have to carry a 9mm pistol with them on the way to school! I blame the USA fully for this and Obama´s escalation of PLAN COLOMBIA worst of all. HE IS NOT BETTER THAN PALIN. IN TERMS OF MORAL VALUES, SHE´S PROGABLY BETTER THAN HIM, JUST CANNOT EXPRESS HERSELF.
I think in a year, we´ve accomplished a lot although sometimes B´Man, Torrance and Jay get more skeptical than me that we´ve accomplished anything. I believe that The Pitchfork´s NOT ever calling up the radio show speaks volumes about the self-confidence of liberals. Despite the perception that RDBR is a “black” show, we´ve never been about race although we confront SYSTEMIC RACISM and it´s ongoing Black Holocaust. Not whether some Republican back bencher called Obama a “mean name.”
I reiterate that you had no reason to apologize to your non-movement Scissorheads. Nor do B´Man and I owe you any apology. B´MAN
Posted by kelsosnuts | February 4, 2010, 10:23 am…and I live with the malign effects of American policy every moment of every day and we are not pleased about it. If someone makes an offensive remark about Jews or Latinos, I´ll be pissed off for a moment. That they actively or passively support PLAN COLOMBIA and Zionism pisses me off continuously.
Posted by kelsosnuts | February 4, 2010, 10:26 am