itsall ann illusion-
I've been thinking about my college buddy, Chris, all day today.
today is a day that was created for "manufacturing consent".
my cosmic bandito bud, allan weisbecker sent me an email
today. ok, yes, it's an email to a lot of people but i always
treat his down south perspectives like personal mail and i
answer each one like i would an email from any other friend.
sometimes he writes me back and sometimes he doesn't. i try
not to send emails that have questions in them (unless they're
rhetorical)... i don't want friends to feel like they have to
take time out of their day to write to me unless it's their
idea and their choice.
ok, sorry, i'm getting off the point here...
so here's allan's cosmic letter today:
*****************
Hi folks,
There’s been a slight delay in the book shipping. In order to make it financially feasible to send the books from the UK by airmail, Humdrumming is using a bulk carrier/agent (airmailed individually, the books would have cost over $12 each to send). Although, as promised, the books left Humdrumming last Monday, they’re not actually leaving the UK until today, Monday, September 11. Hold on…
Right. September 11. Five years ago today we had a very bad day here in the United States. A lot of innocent people were slaughtered, two wars resulted, and more innocent people were slaughtered. A true national and international catastrophe. A day of infamy.
Please take a few minutes to view a short film about a certain aspect of this very bad day.
video.google.com
Back? The film you just saw is not as off-subject from my book as it might seem. There are several themes that run through the book, the main ones being dishonesty and, in the larger sense, why the world is so fucked up.
See, my take is that the primary reason why the world is so fucked up is the belief in lies, whether the lies are that a bevy of virgins await your suicide and slaughter of innocents, or that the overthrow of a dictator who had nothing to do with the slaughter of the innocents is the proper reaction to it.
If you’re interested in the subject of lies and why people believe them, there are two books you should read.
One is Manufacturing Consent, by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman. Although written in 1988 -- years before the slaughter of innocents five years ago -- this book explains why lies have been told about the slaughter, and why so many people believe the lies. Manufacturing Consent is, in my view, the most important book of our time.
amazon.com
The New Pearl Harbor, by David Ray Griffith is a dispassionate, impeccably sourced journalistic look at the slaughter of innocents from five years ago. It does not tell you what happened that day, but what most certainly did not happen. That you have not likely heard about this book (or any of the issues raised in it) is predicted by Manufacturing Consent.
amazon.com
So there’s symmetry here.
Listen: there is nothing I can do about Moslem fanatics believing whatever horseshit they believe, about virgins or anything else, since they do not read what I write. All I can do to make the world a bit less fucked up (all our jobs) is make observations to people who do read what I write, and hope that as a result a couple of them pay better attention to what’s going on around them. Or even one person.
And no, I don’t have some special line on truth. I don’t know what happened on the awful day five years ago. I do know, however, and know without doubt, that we’ve been lied to about what happened, and that a lot of people believe the lies.
And, again, I do know that this one thing is true: The belief in lies is the primary reason why the world is so fucked up. This is the only line on truth that I have.
If you feel that on this anniversary of the slaughter of innocents I’ve done a bad thing, a disrespectful thing, in observing that we’ve been lied to about the slaughter, I (respectfully) ask you to take a moment to rethink your attitude.
For me, the most respectful reaction to the slaughter is to know as much as is possible about how and why the slaughter took place. We owe the innocents, their memory, that much. And we owe ourselves that much.
#
But back to my book, when you’ll get it: We’re talking about a one week delay. I just found out about this myself. My sincerest apologies.
Another screw up: A couple months ago, in pitching you on buying my book, I said I was going to the UK to sign the copies before shipping. Partially due to health reasons (my sinusitis), but mainly because of circumstances in my personal life, I did not make the trip. As you’ll see if/when you read the book, my recent life has lately been chaotic in every way (an understatement).
Please trust me that the delay in shipping, plus my non-trip to the UK, were not purposeful; there were no lies involved. If you’re nevertheless a bit cranky, I don’t blame you; I hate it when people don’t keep their word, even if they don’t lie in their word-breaking.
That’s all for now.
I’ll be in touch.
Allan
aweisbecker.com
***********************
i haven't answered the email yet (i still have about 10 others
from this weekend ahead of his to answer first)...
but here's a poem that could be speaking to both you and
allan... not about what happened five years ago... but about
watching any television or reading any newspapers TODAY!
A Ritual to Read to Each Other
by William Stafford
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.
And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.
And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider—
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe—
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
newsfromnowhere.com
********
i don't expect you to click all the hyperlinks in this post
but i DO HIGHLY recommend watching the 14 minute video on youtube.
-el polvo
ps- i liked this first part of the poem so much i'm
typing it again:
"If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star."
i'm so glad so many of us here have had the pleasure of
meeting and spending some quality time with each other...
but here in the network bar is where we really get to know
what kind of people we are, eh? |
