Bill LaCroix: May 2017

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Special Prosecutor Now

In “days of old when knights were bold and toilets weren’t invented…” the Royal Ones whom we nostalgically elevate and glorify in movies and TV shows (“Game of Thrones”, “Star Wars” etc. etc. etc. etc…), were, in reality, monsters. For instance, “charity” in those days meant, to the Royal Ones at least, throwing the rotting leftovers from your sumptuous meals out into the streets in a location meant for beggars to pick through. Given the fact that the European strain of American democracy that fermented on this continent was conceived and predicated on the notion that that sort of thing was to be forever verboten here, a dispassionate observer (say, Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional Tralfalmadorians[i]) wouldn’t be able to avoid noting how ubiquitous, constant and inexplicable this nostalgia about long-gone royalty from an alternative-facts world is. As Vonnegut observed in his book about an American Nazi during WWII, ‘Mother Night’, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”[ii]

All this is a lot to expect a reader to digest in one paragraph, I know. But you’ll have to agree it’s nothing compared to the latest tidbit that fell off the edge of the Trump Dynasty’s golden spread last weekend? Are all you beggars ready to chomp down on this one? Here goes:

“…As supporters and opponents digested the provisions of the healthcare bill passed by the House…a letter revealed the Pentagon was finalising a lease on a privately owned apartment in Trump Tower for the use of the White House Military Office, which carries and safeguards the “football”, the device that contains the top secret launch codes the president needs if he wants to order a nuclear attack…”[iii]

Remember that bacteria was unknown in medieval times, so if you threw up or died from eating rotten food it was considered the Will of God. So consider, as we devolve back to those good ol’ Dark Ages when everybody knew their place (etc. etc. etc. etc…), is it the Will of God that our Orange Despot-wannabe is arranging to have “the button” secreted away on his “private property” at our expense for his financial gain??!!?

What kind of monster is this, and what kind of monsters have we become to allow such a thing?

Call your representatives. Now. Demand a special prosecutor. Now. Call Mitch Mcconnell (202) 224-2541 and Paul Ryan (888) 752-4050. Call them traitors. Be polite if you want to be, but I don’t think it’s necessary at this point.

Make them jump.

Now.

[i] “...they were two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber's friends. Their suction cups were on the ground, and their shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm. The creatures were friendly, and they could see in four dimensions. They pitied Earthlings for being able to see only three. They had many wonderful things to teach Earthlings about time…” Slaughterhouse Five, p. 26

[ii] Credit to author and playwright David Macaray for remembering that one.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/13/sorry-folks-donald-trump-everything-we-deserve

[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/13/tracking-trump-james-comey-fbi-fake-media

Why I Blog

Thoreau and Emerson had a discussion in May of 1846 about the Mexican War--our first war that set us on the course we still track today. Conquest of nation-states and the inevitable Imperialism that follows. Emerson counseled his friend that we can supersede the transgressions of a well-meaning State by the Muse. Thoreau wasn't so sure that the State was so well-meaning or that the Muse alone would be enough to supersede it. But he tried both the Muse and "other means" to our everlasting benefit. Civil Disobedience, in the American sense, has always been his child, in large part because he raised it to the level of Literature. "Other means" requires the Muse to be lasting and effective, and vice versa. How would anyone know what the hell you were talking about otherwise, let alone emulate what you're trying to do?

The problem with Progressives today, I think, is that we have been in the habit of letting other people--Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, Sun Myung Moon--tell our stories for us, people who do not mean us well. We haven't plugged our muse into our political discourse very much, and that's a big mistake. Mark Twain didn't make that mistake, and he was among the first American writers to use the new-fangled typewriter. Why do we children of Twain, Emerson and Thoreau make that mistake now with our new-fangled computers?

For all its faults, Corporate America understands that people are story-based critters, like it or not, and I think we progressives should like it. By definition, people make many important social (read: political) decisions based largely on who's the best storyteller. It’s in our nature, and Corporate Media is a classic example of how Nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve collectively created a cultural ‘narrative’ vacuum by allowing ourselves to be so easily entertained by—Corporate Media! And Nature hates that. She’ll allow the same garbage responsible for that vacuum (Corporate Media!) to be sucked in and to rattle around until it ruins our cognative motors before she’ll let that sad state of affairs stand. I'd ask any "America Firsters" stumbling on this blog and reading this far to consider: Rupert Murdoch is from Australia. Sun Myung Moon, now-deceased but whose creatures, the Washington Times and UPI still walk the face of the earth, was from Korea. The Koch Brothers, of course, were from the sheikdom of Texas. All of them were, and the living ones still are, so obscenely rich they apparently believed they own America simply because they paid for it, and we collectively let them define who among us are “real Americans”?! C'mon!

Although it helps to strive toward the goal, progressives don't have to be great writers, and I'm not claiming to be one. We simply have to acknowledge that we have the better stories and we’re sitting on our best ones. Our truest ones. Multi-national billionaires have better versions of American Liberalism and Progressivism than the real ones told by real Americans? Us? We shouldn't put up with that. Why do we?

Like any historic attempt, we need to find our Voice. Significant action will come only after our contemporary, progressive political muse matures, which it hasn't yet. Not to paint with too wide a brush, but too much of our positions have been framed in intellectual, almost-didactic prose, which, if you don't identify as an intellectual, means boring. Not all of it, just a whole lot of it, but never mind. If history's still a guide--and I hope it still is--there's hope, because when any progressive movement's Muse matures, it generally becomes the baseline for much of Western Civilization’s meaningful and therefore lasting literature. For example, "Mein Kampf" is still in print but I'll bet you'd have to turn over a lot of rocks to find someone to call it 'literature'.

So, this blog. It's a call, I suppose, to elevate our critical modern discussions out of Fox-news-landia back to where intelligent, caring Americans can find their feet and fight back, either with the Muse, by other means, or both. It’s not up to some politician to change the narrative. That’s up to us. So by definition we still have as good a chance as we ever had. Don't lose hope. It’s always been this way. At least in literate societies.

In other words, like Emerson advised and Thoreau partially agreed with: stories matter, and may the best Muse win.