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Hiding From Shame, Addicted to Optimism: The Tyranny of Our Collective Comfort Zones
The technologies that inflicted upon the world the ongoing tragedies in both the Gulf of Mexico and Japan serve a dangerous addiction, an addiction to blind optimism, a habituation of mind that allows us to dwell within provisional comfort zones but renders vast spaces of the world into deathrealms.
After each catastrophe, there ensues a scramble to contain the damage leveled, as, concurrently, the apologist of the present system explain the anomalous nature of the event. Yet, this much should be obvious: Attempting to clean up the mess, after it occurs, as oppose to altering the way of life that incurs the damage, is analogous to an addict believing a few days in detox will serve as a solution to his addiction.
In the same way drug dealers are reliant on an addict's unwillingness to reflect on the carnage created in his life, as well as, the havoc reaped in the lives of those near him, engendered by his addiction, the small group of hyper-wealthy elites who benefit from the current system rely on collective cognitive dissidence (or, as it has been termed, the fear of fear itself) to dissuade the public at large from peering deeply into the pernicious situation.
One of an addict's biggest obstacles is his optimism i.e., he is convinced he can figure out somehow, someway to use his drug of choice in a less destructive way…and, by reflex, rebels against the deepening sorrow that he must change.
When large, powerful corporations create messes beyond their ability to control the damage wrought by their institutional cupidity, those in charge spare no expense aggressively confronting the problem…that is, of course, by means of public relations blitzes aimed at the general public, while tsunami-sized waves of campaign contributions flood the coffers of elected officials.
Apropos, a school of thought has developed in which framing the perception of a catastrophe supersedes all other considerations. An after the fact casuistry, possessed of crackpot optimism, similar to the following, is affected: Dated technologies were at fault in that particular mishap, but, not to worry, in the near future, new innovations will safeguard against similar calamities.
Sure thing: The future will be bathed in the benign light of new technological wonders; our dread will be washed away by sparkling clean coal. Magical technological innovations will soon render nuclear power so safe that the only danger to the general public will be posed by the risk of being smothered by its profoundly huggable properties.
Such are the free market capitalist's versions of End Time belief systems, a variation of the type of magical thinking that induces an individual to scan the empty sky, waiting for Jesus to float earthward and redeem the ceaseless folly perpetrated by mankind.
If we are willing to accept being lulled back into our comfort zones by such fantasies (that are as craven as they are preposterous) we might as well wait around for hazmat crews of leprechauns riding flying unicorns to arrive on the scene and clean up the messes that corporate capitalist greedheads inflict on our increasingly besieged planet.
In a manner similar to how the indefatigable salesmen of the consumer state sell optimism, but, in reality, deliver anomie, the propagandist of the neo--liberal paradigm promise peace and prosperity -- yet their shock troops, comprised of the political and media elite, instead level class warfare at home and perpetual war abroad that renders landscapes blighted and mindscapes shell shocked.
Among their most pernicious contrivances has been to convince the passengers seated aboard the runaway train of the corporate state that the blur of landscape out the train's windows is caused by their own poor vision and the impending crash will be due to their negative thoughts. The implicit message imparted is: "If only you would have thought more optimistically and worked harder, you'd have been one of life's winners and you would have been cruising above the impending carnage in your private jet. How sad for you, loser. And, by the way," they lie, "did you know socialists are manning the controls of the doomed train?"
While these practitioners of the art of weasel word wizardry insist they sell hope, in reality, they sell shame.
Growing up in the deep south, being raised, as we say there -- not brought up, but raised--like corn, hogs (or Lazarus or zombies from the grave) and socialized there, shame is a subject with which I'm well acquainted; it has taken me a lifetime (and it remains an ongoing process) to sort through and shake out the shame-based sensibility acquired there.
"If you think that I am dumb, There is another universe of stupidity that I can show you!" -- comment posted on my FaceBook page when a stubborn, inconsiderate fact would not yield to his rightist umbrage.
What is the origin of such an outlandish, inadvertently self-satirizing statement?
Shame (its flip side being southern pride) arises, descends, converges and intermingles from manifold influences and multiple traumas: The bizarre-as-a-talking-serpent concept of sin passed down through Calvinistic belief systems; the legacy of degradations inflicted from being on the losing (and morally wrong) side of the Civil War; as well as, the degraded social milieu that circumscribes the lives and fates of large numbers of the permanent white underclass residing in the region.
Shame stains southern sensibilities like red clay on Sunday whites.
A large number of the blustering, willfully ignorant, southern men that I grew up around, whether they are khaki clad, country club smoothies or leather jacket-donning punk rock belligerents, were twisted inside out, kicked and stomped insensate by shaming authority figures before they shed their baby teeth. If one listens closely, one can detect the voice of shame-bearing demons hissing in their every utterance.
Yet the knowledge of the origin and source of their suffering remains buried deep within these men. To acknowledge shame (even to oneself) is considered a tacit admission of having something to be ashamed of i.e., "If you ain't got nothing to be ashamed of, you miserable peckerwood, then you wouldn't have no need to feel it." So, more or less, the line of thinking, rather train wreck of pathology, passing for thought, goes.
Accordingly, a strong impulse arises to explain it all away -- to claim the entire episode is a misunderstanding, or to dismiss their feelings as being trivial, or merely an indulgence of weak-willed, thin wrist losers, or impugn the motives of those who find grievance in the situation. This mode of mind has made multi-millionaires of the black magicians of rightwing talk shows, experts at performing emotional sleight of hand tricks that displace the shame of their listeners on a host of targets.
The cordiality of my fellow southerners is as facile as it is fragile. In southern culture, a great deal of psychic energy goes into distancing oneself from shame. Brooding beneath southern culture's superficial charm and gentility is the unspoken threat: "Be nice, now" that often translates to, "ya'll do as I say -- and there won't be any trouble."
More often than not, it is all made personal. Affronts are long remembered and resentments cultivated, and being confronted with information outside of one's realm of experience and field of reference is regarded as condescension.
Being made to feel "less than," by insults, real or imagined, can bring on a noxious cascade of shame and its concomitant host of desperate evasions and violent displacements to mitigate the feelings of unease engendered.
This is how it was explained to me on FaceBook recently by a feller named Frank who was addressing the issue of his loathing of liberal/socialist tyranny: "My facts are correct. The far left is nothing more than the new set of communists looking to take over. Just a call me a southern god fearing commie killer who cannot wait to put more notches on his weapon if the day ever arises again. I did enjoy killing them so. Your sheep I will never be. That's a fact. [R]eal Americans have better things to do that listen to your drivel. I'm out of here."
Just what kind of demented cultural circus produces these crack-brained battalions of killer clowns for Liberty? A culture with a brutal and rigidly enforced (but furiously denied) class structure that inflicts constant humiliation, yet, because of its nebulous structure, remains hidden from view.
Therein exists the allure and tenacity of neo-confederate hagiographic nonsense. Pride is held near, and clutched closely to oneself, because the corporate state has left the white underclass bereft of little else. It is painful to admit to being powerless and devoid of a means to change the trajectory of one's fate. One feels demoralized and diminished as a result.
Moreover, nationwide, under the present system, riddled with vast economic inequity, the negative repercussions for disobedience and failure are more than most people can endure, economically as well as psychologically. In a culture where success is deemed the end all/be all of all things, failure is devastating. In a corporate structure rigged to benefit a privileged few, and upward class mobility is merely a mind-fogging, cultural myth -- then failure is altogether likely.
Combine this, with the pernicious, puritanical/Calvinistic notion that failure is due to flawed character, and you have a troubled population…staggered by self-doubt, roiling in the unfocused rage of the humiliated, and primed and stoked for demagogic displacements.
While nice liberals retreat to their comfort zones, the forsaken laboring class constructs insulating walls of resentment. In the US, more and more, the criteria that forges personality and informs our condition is wrought by the calculus of enclosure: guarded gate communities; isolation in motor vehicles; the insular pixel fiefdoms of the internet; long work hours, often spent in cubicles, comprised of meaningless labor, and cut-off from both the norms of nature and resonate human contact.
These conditions create an existence as redolent of the aromas of existence as plastic covered cheese-food. In cultural terms, it is as if the people of the US have become mummified in plastic packaging wrap… have been rendered -- Body Bag People.
Of course, one yearns for the void to be filled. But with hearts and minds mortared closed, sealed off from the shock and humiliation experienced from the daily economic exploitation of a hidden, intractable class system – what penetrates these self-constructed prisons is loud, stupid, even fascistic in tone and theme e.g., violent video games; the empty spectacle of steroid-fueled professional sports hype; the exercise in Rock and Roll imperium that US militarism has become; fundamentalist sermons that long for the blood and thunder of Armageddon. In short, all the Sturm and Drang necessary to pierce protective walls, yet, at the same time, insure one remains ensconced in one's comfort zone.
Yet the sense of powerlessness is not mitigated for long, a nebulous sense of unease nettles. The world appears to bristle with threats…a low-grade hysteria is maintained and ceaseless war is both convenient and inevitable. Yet all the ramparts and fortifications of the national security state still do not create a sense of safety; instead, its siege mentality increases the interior void of the US populace, and, as a result, the vitality of life is barred entrance.
Blood sacrifices must be made to the god of the inner abyss...corpses are tossed into the void.
Over the top? Given the fact of the hundreds of thousands of corpses the US empire has lain under the native soil of nations from the Persian Gulf to Central Asia (and now North Africa) in only the past decade up to the present -- which, in combination with a government that practices and a general public that is indifferent to the use of torture -- the image limned above doesn't seem hyperbolic in the least.
At what point, does it become incumbent upon an individual to seize back his identity, to reject being defined by the exploitive, dehumanizing demands imposed (and small bribes proffered) by corporate/governmental elites?
The ongoing tragedy in Japan reveals how dangerous it can be to refuse or defer the challenge.
37 Comments so far
Show AllIn my line of work I see the shame and fear on faces of men who would ordinarily never seem anything but arrogant buttheads. It goes all the way up to the president. His shame is buried deep in culture and society, and he found a bunch of all white guys to play with and he chose to give up his principles in order to play. This runs true through so many others, so MANY others. Pick someone and figure out their shame, You will be surprised at what's really there. And work on your own while you are at it. Shame and fear serve no one. Ridding yourself of it will make you a better human being, able to care for others, have compassion and forgiveness.
The shame of the government whores is a collective mind fuque. They want their egos soothed by power and money, so they go play with power money people and offer up their butts for proprietary soothing.
Our shame is our failure to make it right and stop the shameful warmongering by the shameful idiots in government with their MIC butties.
It is the unhealthy shame of the pretend christians that is the appeal used to manipulate and recruit christains. The bible introduces unhealthy shame almost immediately using Adam and Eve. One moment they are "naked"without shame in the Garden of Eden, the next moment they are covering themselves and unhealthy shame is created, shame where non existed. This is the premise of the false christian doctrine, create unhealthy shame. Their is plenty of healthy shame available, but it is the unhealthy shame which is conjured up to manipulate people that is dangerous. Our so called political, business and pretend christian leaders have no sense of healthy shame or dignity. Just as drug addicts whom have destroyed their neural pathways to the pre frontal lobes and their ability to realize healthy shame has been severed and so unhealthy shame is conjured up and presented for public consumption using the sociopathic, psychopathic, happy talk psychobabble to instill the American public with mindlessness . As far as dignity it is best displayed by the poor.Two memorable dignified people I've ever met are the 1 legged farmer I met in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. The only thing he wanted was a transistor radio that he could listen to while tending to his farm. Another, a bedraggled beggar at the Constant Spring market in Kingston, Jamaica. I always gave him all my change and small bills, he always was grateful saying he would do the same for me. Our leaders lie, steal treat Americans with derision and contempt never apologizing or even acknowledging healthy shame for their wrong doing of collecting their proceeds from graft and corruption. As for the beggar, the ladies at the market kept him alive, providing him with food, water and so forth.More dignity. Pat Robertson and his ilk trumpet their non existent generosity, a lie, for the poor while stealing money from their congregations of fools. He sits behind a desk, obviously taking a shit and proclaiming it to be prayer. This from someone who doesn't know what prayer is or how to prey. That the prey that he knows. They are also tax exempt, feeding at the government trough and by promoting political candidates the are criminals, as that is illegal for tax exempt organizations and routinely ignored and never prosecuted,
It is the unhealthy shame of the pretend christians that is the appeal used to manipulate and recruit christains. The bible introduces unhealthy shame almost immediately using Adam and Eve. One moment they are "naked"without shame in the Garden of Eden, the next moment they are covering themselves and unhealthy shame is created, shame where non existed. This is the premise of the false christian doctrine, create unhealthy shame. Their is plenty of healthy shame available, but it is the unhealthy shame which is conjured up to manipulate people that is dangerous. Our so called political, business and pretend christian leaders have no sense of healthy shame or dignity. Just as drug addicts whom have destroyed their neural pathways to the pre frontal lobes and their ability to realize healthy shame has been severed and so unhealthy shame is conjured up and presented for public consumption using the sociopathic, psychopathic, happy talk psychobabble to instill the American public with mindlessness . As far as dignity it is best displayed by the poor.Two memorable dignified people I've ever met are the 1 legged farmer I met in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. The only thing he wanted was a transistor radio that he could listen to while tending to his farm. Another, a bedraggled beggar at the Constant Spring market in Kingston, Jamaica. I always gave him all my change and small bills, he always was grateful saying he would do the same for me. Our leaders lie, steal treat Americans with derision and contempt never apologizing or even acknowledging healthy shame for their wrong doing of collecting their proceeds from graft and corruption. As for the beggar, the ladies at the market kept him alive, providing him with food, water and so forth.More dignity. Pat Robertson and his ilk trumpet their non existent generosity, a lie, for the poor while stealing money from their congregations of fools. He sits behind a desk, obviously taking a shit and proclaiming it to be prayer. This from someone who doesn't know what prayer is or how to prey. That the prey that he knows. They are also tax exempt, feeding at the government trough and by promoting political candidates the are criminals, as that is illegal for tax exempt organizations and routinely ignored and never prosecuted,
I agree the first step is to stop the warmongering.
I don't agree government powerbrokers are "whores" because I think prostitution is an honorable, consensual profession providing a great service to society. What these folks are doing is not whoring.
And, yes, I've worked on my own societal shame of being a woman who enjoys my sexual self and what it can do for me.
In addition to figuring out someone's shame, look at how that shame and humiliation has lineage which manifests as generational pathology, abuse, addiction, etc. This, in addition to the nebulous cause of the working class' powerlessness and suffering (which the author notes), and you have an angry and confused working class who find easy and false answers via elite punditry, eliciting anger and resentment toward a host of scapegoats.
I wanted to commend you for your comment about working on your own shame. It's one of the big steps we must all take to begin building unity among the working people.
>>"Just what kind of demented cultural circus produces these crack-brained battalions of killer clowns for Liberty? A culture with a brutal and rigidly enforced (**but furiously denied**) class structure that inflicts constant humiliation, **yet, because of its nebulous structure, remains hidden from view.**"<<
I think I can see this psychology at work on some other situations too. Great stuff, overall!
all in all, a fine effort, but one, again, that leaves the thinking 'off planet'...
the entire article premises that private property, the parsing of the physical planet and the resulting competition for life's necessities, is correct...that the shame is due to psychological, rather than physical, controls...
this is wrong...
from the article:
~ While these practitioners of the art of weasel word wizardry insist they sell hope, in reality, they sell shame. ~
they sell shame? only as a secondary line...
their primary product is land, and the attendant resources...this is where the author needs to go...who do we pay for land, and why?
again, from the article:
~ At what point, does it become incumbent upon an individual to seize back his identity, to reject being defined by the exploitive, dehumanizing demands imposed (and small bribes proffered) by corporate/governmental elites? ~
individuals seizing identities is one thing...
what is needed is local groups to seize control of local lands, to cooperatively defend and manage them against industrial damage, that they, one and all, might be sustained thereby...
this taking, this reclaiming, would have a dramatic effect on 'identity'...
I suggest September 22, 2012...
perhaps another article that includes the word 'banker' would show growing awareness...
This is a very powerful piece of work. We need are good teachers... people who can open doors that reveal hidden insights. This guy is one of them. Very nice.
http://www.gpln.com
A joy to read...a double header...this and Chris Hedges...previous comments equally interesting
This is great stuff overall, except Rockstroh really needs a good editor. Like most pieces pasted up on CD, this one has its share of errors, and some of his sentences are grossly overwritten to the point of incoherence. Still, he's a good and imaginative writer. He just needs a good editor, because his perspective is very valuable.
I also came from a Southern culture, and he's dead on with his descriptions of how shame works, mostly in men of that culture. It's very rooted in a shaming style of Christianity that seems unique to the South. Rockstroh really gets to the heart of how self-destructive this shaming dynamic is. Someone else who totally got this was Joe Bageant, who passed away last month. Big loss for all leftists.
Ephraim, I knew that Joe Bageant was very sick with cancer but didn't know he had passed away (I've been traveling the last two weeks and didn't see anything about it). This is very sad, and a great loss indeed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist_International
Read, then what do you propose we do?
I was trying to get you to think beyond "doing".
Sometimes the best , but least discussed , action is to stop doing things.
That means stop doing the things that oppress people, stop doing the things that are alienating, stop trashing the environment.
Just stop doing.
And that includes stop buying.
btw, I have lived your list for a few decades already.
stop assuming I'm a US citizen
stop assuming I'm not in a minority
stop assuming a whole heap of things
stop assuming I'm playing a game.
Save your anger for your enemies and read the content of my posts.
Further, has it occurred to you that this is a public forum and that while I may address the one person I post for everyone.
such odd responses considering this has been my first post to you in months
Morticia,
I understand what you are saying. I have been a member of CD for a long time, although commenting for just a few weeks. If your comments don't fall within the narrow perameters set by some of the posters, you get heckled and insulted. We are supposed to be open minded here!
One of the best pieces I've read in a long time.
I've not read anything by Rockstroh before this --- but I like this guy's spirit and (with some reservations) his style, and would encourage CD editors to carry more of his musings.
Granted, his writing in this piece seems sometimes as wordy as GWF Hegel's, but even his too- too-long sentences at least don't come at the expense of comprehensible depth or substance --like Hegel's often do.
Most important to me is the substance of what Rockstroh's spirit/intellect looks at, here ---the individual and mass-psychological state of us USAan's (basically, our deeper emotional inner life) - a subject that I hear fewer and fewer progressive commentators ever earnestly address anymore, as if the subject is now somehow old-fashioned or irrelevant...
Rockstroh lists himself as both a philosopher and a poet, and not at all as a politician. Good for him. And, hopefully, good for us, his audience.
USAn's especially, today need more philosophy and poetry in the best Enlightenment tradition, and far far less 'political analysis.'
Incredibly well written article. Kudos to you as a writer and more importantly perhaps as an original thinker. Keep up the original work my friend.
Not just the south though, sadly my city of Detroit is one of the most segregated in the country.
The problem is the suites and in the suites who want us ordinary people to divided along north v.s. south, black v.s. white, gay v.s. straight etc, lines so we can be easily divided an conquered by concentrated wealth and power. I am sure this author has good intentions and certainly the people he criticizes are loathsome, but to put in terms of blaming the south rather than blaming the oligarchy feeds the problem rather than unifying against the true victimizers IMO.
We need to organize like the Harlan Country coal miners did, not point regional fingers, that just allows the oligarchs to laugh their way to the literal bank.
The curses of the deep south have spread from see to polluted sea:
I. emotionally crude bible thumping simplistic old testament religion being repackaged under the "christian" label.
2. Blind bigotry and racism where about 25 percent of the population can't accept a black man as president. (Oh, please don't tell me he's not black. Maybe he just got lost in an Oreo cookie bag)!
3. Cheap country music with false accents and two-bit tales.
4. The most destructive, wasteful and hostile sport ( yes, there is football and mixed martial arts) of NASCAR has been on national sports center for years now. I'd just love to see a flotilla of Prius's do Daytona with the winner being the best gas mileage and disqualification for any scratches or dents.
5. Anti science and intellectualism held to such high esteem that there's a literal race to the bottom of the Bubba Head barrel of know-nothingism. Hey, let's make lobotomies available with food stamps.
6. Lets make up for that "lost" civil war by fighting in every overseas one available.... especially if they have a different (think false) holy book and plenty of oil.
Thank you for this essay. Thoughtful and timely. In addition to comfort-zone addiction, there is the problem of political cowardice. Which is to unconsciously calculate a cost-benefit risk analysis, and then mute political expression or political action. As 1930s German political culture showed, and as US political culture now shows, cowardice has catastrophic costs and horrific consequences.
Great essay - explains a lot about how those obnoxious people got that way: lots of abuse. (They're not just in the South, although my first foray across the Mason-Dixon Line was a real eye-opner.)
The Nazis were well on their way to perfecting this sick ideology - but it took Americans to raise it to a true art form. Can you imagine someone like that spending much time alone? The things they must tell themselves in order to hate 'others' must be mindboggling... I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't so destructive and toxic to society. Hate-mongers - and they're everywhere these days. Misery loves company...
Mr. Rockstroh, you've probably heard it before, you're a rockstar!
Thank you for your lyrical philosophizing.
I live in the shadow of a famous Lee monument. It's on the Confederate culture (ahem) tour. Folks (white men, sometimes with their children, sometimes in costumes) take their pictures in front of it all the time. Lee, of course was the deranged General who prolonged and bloodied the war between the states by egomaniacally choosing to pit his fervor for battle against all his military buddies. He lost untold men (including those fighting for the union), lost his wife's property (it's now a cemetery for soldiers), his daughters couldn't find anyone to marry because prospective mates were dead. But, you know, women's welfare takes second place to their man's games. He fought to the insanely bitter end and didn't quit until his soldiers had no food for days. That's their hero. A war-addicted racist. Oh, but he was pious. Everyone writes about his Christianity. His blood-cult suffering path to heaven. That's who Southern boys are taught to heroize. Shame, indeed.
I agree with this article.
I apologize to everyone who commented first or prior, as, once again, because I am not paying for cable or broadband, I must copy what you all have written, read it at home and thank you and/or comment later. Got far enough though to read about Joe Baegent, and personally lament that he won't be sharing with us hence.
But I do wish to get on board now, if for nothing more than to echo how strange indeed the things have become that give us comfort. If we wish to market cheaper shoes buffalos perish. If we wish to wear beaver skin hats beavers perish. Well, those to be imitated had more pairs of shoes than we had. Those to be imitated had the beaver skin hats. For a given period my grandmother was real comfortable during the flapper era when she was out flapping; yet she got so loaded once she passed out on the beach the morning after, and had to go to the hospital for burns. But the model for many ladies then was the flapper who drank alot. We gotta have fish, right? We gotta get hip to the thousand and one ways the hipsters can cook that fish. The NPR commentator says Chilean Bass are thriving, but I see at Richard Stallman's site there are folks pressuring Costco to help slow their annihilation. You might find it comforting to text, just as some knit, just as I type comments like this one. But you might find texting so comforting that you do it while driving. And then, when you're in the trauma room with a needle in your femoral artery the thing will have ended up appropriating discomfort. I could take my comfort too far too.
I messaged Phil Rockstroh on facebook that I was gonna check the Common Dreams page on that platform first to see reactions to his article above (before checking the real Common Dreams site)...because I actually had come to expect that more such responses would wind up there [this piece of his didn't show up on CD's fb page]. Somehow I had come to the view that facebook comments on articles pile up much faster than they do on, for instance, the Common Dreams site itself. But, on second thought...am I becoming conditioned? Do the facebook comments have the same depth? Well, "in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom," sometimes. One hopes for any kind of snowball to start rolling.
I like Rockstroh's very human presentation of impressions, without orthodox theory to weave them together. The behavior of consumers ultimately, though, imo may need a few castaway frames to revist...if we are to have a better explanation; and each one will probably once again need to make its case as thoroughly as possible. As far as from whence we will dredge them up, Chris Hedges has confirmed the worst of my suspicions re academe [should have trusted my instincts]; and thus I become even more convinced any "social criticism" school or movement that gets going today will have to unearth them without a whole lot of official guidance. Yep, frames/paradigms that postmodernists, linguists, cognitive buffs, blue dogs, and aperspectivalists-in-general...long ago saw fit to throw out on their respective "trash" heaps. Not advocating brashness here, it's an uncharted zone when you differ with Chomsky on this and that, someone who has done a lot for my era. Neverthelesss, perhaps a use for all the terabytes besides bad movies will be found. We didn't use'em to tabulate results from polls to ascertain if folks wanted vouchers instead of Medicare. Neither has anyone out in the "insular pixel fiefdoms of the internet," save Mother Jones, seen fit to plaster those breakdown charts depicting what was spent on the bailout...to plaster'em all over creation ($14 trillion in reality). So, perhaps we can use those gigs for a few forgotten frames...at least rework'em a little.
Normal guilt is not bad imo...as per what Lasch wrote. But playing upon it and reinforcing an inordinate amount over to commonplace human foibles is what I call the "works trip"...or the jot and tittle trip. Legalism as per ancient Chinese history, which morphed to Nazism over in our neck of the woods. The crowd in pursuit of a witch.
They got to talking about Lakoff over on Hartmann's boards, so I wrote some of what's below for that space (but haven't shared any version of it yet there). Omitted in what follows is a segment regarding Lakoff not being the be all and end all, as I have already indicated my pov re this above...
[cont]
[cont from above]
Might be wrong but the biggest assist I think we can get is to describe accurately what our system is (biggest assist for folks who "attempt" to become informed or scholarly...I am not a scholar by nature nor by virtue of the number of my degrees). It is impossible imo even to accept, or fully and consciously recognize or ponder ramifications of the stupid things deficit hawks in the House of Representatives endorse...until we really understand the ground out of which such doctrines arose. Yep, might be wrong or shortsighted, but it seems to me there are at least seven frames besides Lakoff's that could help us once again. The first is the society-becomes-an-addict frame (Wilson-Schaef and Rockstroh), the second is the meritocracy frame, third the shock doctrine frame (or empire frame), fourth the technological society frame, fifth the mimetic rivalry frame, sixth the narcissism-as-body-snatching frame, and seventh the our-many-selves frame. There's AT LEAST one more (which I overtyped and now can't recall). IMO forget any special status afforded by "scientific" spin. After the double-slit, after Sheldrake's hypothesis, and/or after the possible need for six more dimensions...all that's in flux.
For how society molds the desires and thinking of individuals it's best imo to strive for infinite patience [or in my case to shoot for as much as my mother had with folks], for it seems some morphic-mimetic field now has the same Fox and Foxesque telescreen pixel fiefdoms we've been talking about...enlisted. If you recognize that something is way wrong [versus, say, limited and vague problems even the "adjusted" narcissists Lasch wrote about recognize] and that we as a society are not just a few degrees off course to prosperity, happiness, and/or fulfillment...then you will recognize that souls have been warped by our "social" arrangement, and that minds and desires have been warped. It's not just generalized talk. You have what Chris Hedges, and Rene Girard have written too...what Wendell Berry, Lakoff, and Ellul have written...what Bly, Woodman, Lasch, Illich, Roszak, Kozol, Postman, Marie von Franz, Jung, Katherine Raine, Thoreau, and Blake have written...and many, many others...all of which was/is not just talk.
It may not be possible for what I am suggesting to come about; or, if it did, make much difference. But it is the best way out that occurs to me. As I wrote above, to me the notions of our comforts in this society in this era have become arbitrary (or, by means of our commercialized happy-talk Prolefeed media...especially arbitrary)...and dictated by mimesis. By the same token, it looks to me, just as per Girard, that this trip has been beating down humans here on Earth for a long time even without 21st century media. In this particular era, if they're not REALLY beat down as scapegoats, then below the surface quite frequently and surprisingly one finds individuals beat down psychically by said paradigm...as ISMW Ellul, Fromm, William Stringfellow, and many others have noted (I know, I know...twas ever thus). I escaped demise after more than one beat down...only via love that came my way. My idea of phenomenology [ye olde Husserlian phenomenology] leaves "concepts" fairly open in terms of what to anticipate if, say, a big snowball were to hit Earth and we all ended up in an alternate dimensional set up. "Anything Israel does is ok and Jesus is coming"...gets on my last nerve quite enough. Yet I try to make room for those who look for Jesus because, for all I know, unconsciously they are perhaps just as tired of many things in the "church" as they are consciously weary of the way our society is in general. As message board etiquette goes, it's not the place to present my idea of a path to sanity for beat down folks who haven't the time to re-analyze society with a bunch of tossed out theories [for myself I am becoming cognizant there are more-hands-on-chores awaiting as well]. But, anyway, if you're in need of such: Google "still small voice." Google "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly..." Check out "silence" in context of Quakers, Vapasana, Karunamai [newdimensions.org], "The Silent Temple," and this http://thisibelieve.org/essay/28381/ Ones Higher Self isn't wasted http://www.humanmedia.org/catalog/program.php?products_id=43
Gee, for a guy that claims not to be an intellectual (not one by nature or number of degrees), your comment sure seems to take on an intellectual tone. But then who could blame you. Easy to be inspired by an article that was at once both intellectual and poetic. It was a blessing.
My mother's side of the family was from the South (Mountain City, Tenn.) Her take on this particular phenomenon was far less intellectual (although she graduated number one in her class with highest grade point ever); "you cannot overcome ignorance". Ignorance in her paradigm, of course, was more than lack of formal education. It was generation after generation of bigotry and close-mindedness that could not help but yield the types of 'southern personalities' that the author laments. In the kindest, most respectful manner, I humbly suggest the author confuses his ability to understand his 'southern demons' with the abilities of the average denizens.
For myself, I'm certainly no intellectual, though I possess what are probably similar degrees. Mine were obtained through deceit and skulduggery and during the fog of more conventional addictions. In retrospect, I am almost certainly not worthy of weighing in here (not to mention that I am new to this site).
But, alas, it's a free country. Mostly. So here goes.
Identifying shame as the underlying cause of the 'ignorance' is about as useful as (insert some quaint southern expression here). Why would the author engage in this? Unless I'm missing something, he, like so many others, have some (non-comfortable) optimism that if enough people can be taught the error of their collective thinking as well as a crash course in civic responsibility, then a 'critical mass' can be reached after which 'we, the people' will be liberated from the chains long enough to initiate the change so badly needed.
Two problems. After years of brainwashing (see the Powell memo), the people are not going to 'come around', at least not in large enough numbers, and , as my mother would say were she still with us, "they certainly ain't gonna come around in the south". Secondly, even if, by some miracle, enough did come around, then what? We seek a political solution? Since we have but one political party, the property party, consisting of two right wings, Republican and Democrat (Gore Vidal), it is clear that this option is not viable until the current system is dismantled.
This does not even take into account the notion that those in charge would never let this happen.
Let's be frank. Nazis run this country. 9-11 proves that. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then read Griffin and watch Gage. This is, without question, the gravest issue of our time, or, for that matter, of any time. If we do not fight back on this, we will never get the opportunity to help mend the environment or seek peace and social justice. They (the Nazis) will have won WWIII without ever having fired a shot.
"Why is it my responsibility"? What you are really asking is why do I have to take on the entrenched evil while others sit around. The answer is that their inaction does not excuse ours. After all, we all, by our acquiescence for so long to their criminal behavior, are responsible for the way things are today. Even if it starts with but a few people, "we, the people" must stand up to the evil that guides this country.
We owe that much to our children.
Thanks for the interest, mayor. It still seems to me as though the title of Rockstroh's article alone is worth a lot more comment (though I've still not read a number of posts above).
Did I say "intellectual"?
There's a little song, mayor, on Aimee Mann's most recent CD called "Stranger into Starman." Worth downloading imo. As you might have guessed I'm pretty impressed with Rene Girard's ideas. Some reading here no doubt think obsessed. But the fact is there are many Girard scholars who lose me. A scholar to me has mastery over a given field. My OJT was limited in whatever whenever. My own inquiries went hither and thither. I also think of scholars in terms of my own favorites. They're always breaking up the fallow ground...bucking the system. Somewhat close to poetry...or ISMW Socrates' "divine madness." OTOH they have a very non-mad side. Their intonations it seems indict in a lively way, but their facts back'em up. Their conversation is divergent (Schumacher advocated thinking more divergently), but when their recall steps in I guess it's convergent in the best sense of the word. Gore Vidal is like this, whom you cited.
The starmen are the ones we strive to imitate [except I dig the upstarts like Nader, Shiva, and Caldicott...whom all the "intellectuals" are wishing would get exposed in scandals or just go away]. We wish to have the same desires that they have. But when we get too good at it they say, "Get away, get away." When in a given epoch we all realize we aren't going to achieve the status we were promised we could...then we start looking for all the pretenders polluting the pure archetype (why our genuine gift/merit cannot be appreciated). This among Girardians is, as best as I can tell, often called "the war of all against all." Over on the Hartmann boards in a How to Persuade thread someone said something about haggling ideological purists. Anyway, it was probably some sort of apprehension of all this that caused Tokusan to burn up his commentary on the Diamond Sutra.
Note, I am not saying at all that informed individuals not as sharp as my favs are not the ones that inspire hope, or not the ones who will need to keep hope alive.
If a false flag occured it was a bad thing. But if we knew Victor Ostrovsky wrote the truth than we would know false flags do happen. If one thinks in terms of numbers of dead...surely an op doesn't need to be a false flag op to be the most reprehensible. There are a lot of insane things that happen with empire. Lot's of'em parallel what Ewen Cameron MD attempted. Consider how many states in the US allow physician assisted dying, and then investigate the alternative. Whatever appears most heinous to one may be viewed differently by another. We could always shoot for valuing one enough to let 99 sit. But, in the realm of p o l i t i c s imo you sometimes have to go with the flow of outrage that is strongest, with what's really tangible to the greatest number. Sacrifice that for anything, and I start to wonder if the anything is real. First imo we have to harness the outrage of all those suddenly swindled out of their Rajasic nuclear family trappings (which DO have their decent/normal place). Why? Cause those moms are gonna have the most energy. That swindle is what they know to be tangible. Some may call me New Age, but with p o l i t i c s imo ya gotta let that utilitarian shadow have his say too.