well...there's only one thing to say about this election:
SHIT
HAPPENS!
enjoy it!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
National Suicide
Tomorrow begins the suicide of what could have been a great nation. A nation gifted with the wealth of European intellectualism that could have taken us to the stars. A nation that could have repaired the effects of the great crimes upon which it was founded (i.e., the genocide of the native American, the enslavement of black Americans, and the wanton rape of the environment) with the vast wealth generated by its farms and factories and mines and accumulated by its rich and powerful. Tomorrow though, lower and middle class white Americans will begin the process of bringing the corrupt and powerful back into complete control of all branches of the American government. The party of the American right wing, the republican party, the party of corrupt and powerful Americans, will continue its efforts to establish, for all time, an aristocracy whose quality of life is so far removed from that of Americans who must work to survive that its operative nature will not even be understandable( in the next few decades) by those not of their class.
However, none of this is a surprise as what it represents is the colonial imperative at the heart of our society. To understand where we are going, one need only study the colonial period before ‘these united states’ were born. There existed, then, an aristocracy whose level of education and understanding and longevity far exceeded that of the peasantry that tended their lands and lived in such brutish conditions as were those of post Roman Europe. This ‘existential gap’ continued through the formation of ‘these united states’ and on through the civil war with brought about the formation of ‘The United States’ and the rise of the robber baron nation whose existence was founded on the wage slavery of factory and mine workers imported from impoverished parts of Europe in the late 18th to early 20th century. Again, the difference between the conditions of existence for the top 5% of ‘americans’ and the rest was that of a century or more due to the fact that the top 5% had access to electricity and running indoor water at least 50 years before the lower 95%. Essentially, the wealthy lived in light while the workers huddled in the dark of factories, mines, and hovels.
We can see this happening again, now, as the wealth of the lower 95% plummets while the wealth of the upper 5% accelerates to unheard of levels. With this comes the bifurcation of services and education and all other aspects of existence. Since American has divested itself of the ‘smokestack industries’ that once offered the hope of lifting the children of the lower and lower middle classes out of their condition, it has essentially divested itself of this class of people. They are now free, to do…whatever. Only for a narrow moment from about 1950 to 1980 did the wealth gap close. This, as may be easily understood, was the peak of our civilization where we put a man on the moon. Then in the age of Reagan (the golden age for most republicans) the beginning of the opening of the wealth gap started with ‘union busting’, corporate deregulation, and industrial ‘off-shoring’. (These all go hand-in-hand as deregulation allowed—no, encouraged—corporations to de-unionize and then move their jobs to the pools of the lowest wage earners capable of doing the jobs.) With this, the earnings of the wealthy started its long ramp upward while the wages of the American worker stagnated or fell. This continued to the point of the current collapse of the American economy due to massive off-shoring and even more corporate deregulation (sadly, under the democratic party). During this time, rich Americans diversified their land holdings and investments in such a fashion as to sever their connection with the lower American classes. That is to say, the top 5% of American live all over the better parts of the world and have investments all over the world. So whatever fate America has as it’s future, will not be their fate. We workers and former workers have been left behind.
Now, lower and middle class white America votes to bring The Party of Reagan back into power! This time, though, they bring them back with a crazy and violent mob party that started off calling itself the Tea Bag Party or Tea Baggers, until they found out what ‘tea bagging’ actually meant. This again, is not surprising as mob violence is always a close associate of conservative political behavior from lynchings to public school blockades to anti-abortion attacks on clinics to storming vote counting activities to stomping opposition protesters. Lower and middle class white America is angry and they want to hurt somebody in order to ease the pain of their own destruction. They will do it the way they have always done it. Hurt the black man, the Latino, and then themselves! The party that is most well established in doing this is the republican party, an amalgamation of the former Dixiecrat Party and the white businessman’s party. (Negros can enter through the rear.)
After tomorrow repubs will control the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. They may even control the Senate. President O will be marginalized, along with most of the rest of his unemployed black brothers, and pointed to the door. The legislative process will breakdown and the Krazy Kraker Koalition (formerly the Kraker Klowne Koaliton) will attempt to destroy the civilian federal government and turn federal governance of the country over to the military-intelligence-police-prison corporations. The rest of the power will go to KKK state governance. In another two years, President O will probably be unemployed. (He’ll, of course, get the biggest unemployment check of all his brothers.)
This will essentially be the end of ‘The United States’. After losing all of the wars it’s currently engaged in, ‘The United States’ will return to being ‘These United States’ and then back to a set of mostly agricultural colonies run by the children of the top 5% who like to play with their slaves in the dirt. When they are finished, the land (or what’s left of it) will return to the Native American. China will be world ruler and perhaps the ruler of the inner solar system.
So let’s all go out and vote tomorrow! Kool-Aid will be served!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
another 99 problems
 |
| I got 99 problems |
but a bitch
ain’t one!
I got ninety nine problems
but a bitch
ain’t fun.I got NINETY-NINE problems
shit, dis BITCH
ain't ONE!
I got 99 PROBLEMS
but this bitch's just scum:
I got $0.99 problems
but a BITCH
ain’t one...!
I got ninety nine problems
and this bitch IS one
!
HIT ME:
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Why Fire Juan Williams?
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/1021/AR2010102101474.html).
Vivian Schiller (of NPR), ‘told an audience at the Atlanta Press Club that Williams should have kept his feelings about Muslims between himself and "his psychiatrist or his publicist."’ (Of course, the liberal wimp later recanted: "I spoke hastily and I apologize to Juan and others for my thoughtless remark.") (Why are all liberals--except for me--such little puss-puss wimps? MAN-UP you little wimps! stand your ground against these ignorant retrogressive republicans, tea baggers, and the KKK!)
Anyway, there is a better reason to fire Juan Williams: Juan Williams is a dumbass! (Noun 1. dumbass - a stupid person…blockhead, bonehead, dunce, dunderhead, fuckhead, hammerhead, knucklehead, loggerhead, lunkhead, muttonhead, numskull, shithead dolt, dullard, pillock, poor fish, pudden-head, pudding head, stupe, stupid, stupid person - a person who is not very bright…) Actually, I’ve always thought of him as more of a pudden-head! So, Juan’s such a pudden-head he get’s scared when he sees someone on a plane wearing Muslim garb:
“I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. [YEAH RIGHT-jb]
as if some jihadist, about to pull-off a terrorist act, is going to advertise himself as being a Muslim: ‘Hey look at me, I’m a terrorist and I’m about to attack this airplane!’
on the other hand, if Juan’s just ‘uncomfortable’ around someone who looks like a Muslim, then Juan’s just a plain bigot! It’s pretty stupid to communicate to the world, including your employers, that you’re just a prejudiced idiot!
now, Juan had been warned by NPR, but he’s so stupid he just kept mouthing off. but don’t feel bad for Juan, he got what he deserved: a $2M raise at the ‘Fux Nuws Nutwork’ ! Yes, Juan’s back where he belongs, as Rupert Murdoch’s $2M boot lick (“—Fox rewarded his seconding of O’Reilly’s bigotry with a $2 million contract…”-- http://www.thenation.com/blog/155548/npr-fires-juan-williams-its-own-foot).
if NPR had kept him on, they would have lost all credibility with their one and ONLY base, the intelligentsia, i.e.: LIBERALS!
NPR (as all liberals) should remember one thing: ‘F… THE REPUBLICANS!’
__and a good day to you too sir__!
Monday, September 13, 2010
The KKK and the Koran
whew…lucky i got out of the so called, middle east, before the KKK (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/12/afghanistan.quran.protests/?hpt=T2) started buring (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbLYzw6J7JY&feature=fvw ,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwtkv4jJc3M&feature=watch_response ) and shooting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLzN7IxdhrA&feature=related ) korans!
but, hey: what would jesus say? “just say: YES!”
what is it with these KraKers and the Koran? (note: many of the videos around are euros going at it, not u.s. southern bumpKins. But then, I’m not looking too far.)
is it 9/11?
if it is, then don’t they know that while the al-qaeda killed 3,000 on 9/11, we’ve killed at least 20,000 in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan in the last ten years? don’t they know that none of the people on the planes were from these countries?? don’t they know that the u.s. would never attack the people who actually pulled-off 9/11, the saudis???
no, they don’t!
all they know is what rush, palin, hannity, the savage, beck, and levin tell them; and all that is just so much bushshit.
the right-wingers are our jihadists, or more accurately, ‘teahadists’ ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teahadist )! and they’re all worked up (like shiites at a sunni religious convention) over an islamic community center two new york city blocks away from and completely out of sight of ground-zero! ( http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/slideshow/ALeqM5iNLTahM5QJw8Ts0SpTgWLjXwN7gAD9I435J80?index=0 )
of course, most of these bumpkins have never been to new york city; so they wouldn’t know how long a nyc block is! some teahadist stated (or so i heard while i was away) that no further mosques should be built in the u.s. well, ok…as long as no further churches, cathedrals, or synagogues are built in the u.s. (and…how about slapping a healthy property tax on the ones already built?)
so, If the teabaggers have become teahadists, then I guess the next thing we’ll see is rush, palin, hannity, savage, beck, or levin (or, better yet, all of them) ‘jack’n’ a plane and flying it right into a mosque somewhere!
too bad for the mosque...just another day in muddle ameriKa!
but, let's get serious: burning a koran in this provocative fashion is a 'hate crime', just like spray painting a swastika on a synagogue! and our two bright guys: obama and holder ought to know it!!!!!! they never even mentioned this possibility! what's wrong with these lawyers? stupid or something?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwtkv4jJc3M&feature=watch_response ) and shooting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLzN7IxdhrA&feature=related ) korans!
but, hey: what would jesus say? “just say: YES!”
what is it with these KraKers and the Koran? (note: many of the videos around are euros going at it, not u.s. southern bumpKins. But then, I’m not looking too far.)
is it 9/11?
if it is, then don’t they know that while the al-qaeda killed 3,000 on 9/11, we’ve killed at least 20,000 in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan in the last ten years? don’t they know that none of the people on the planes were from these countries?? don’t they know that the u.s. would never attack the people who actually pulled-off 9/11, the saudis???
no, they don’t!
all they know is what rush, palin, hannity, the savage, beck, and levin tell them; and all that is just so much bushshit.
the right-wingers are our jihadists, or more accurately, ‘teahadists’ ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teahadist )! and they’re all worked up (like shiites at a sunni religious convention) over an islamic community center two new york city blocks away from and completely out of sight of ground-zero! ( http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/slideshow/ALeqM5iNLTahM5QJw8Ts0SpTgWLjXwN7gAD9I435J80?index=0 )
of course, most of these bumpkins have never been to new york city; so they wouldn’t know how long a nyc block is! some teahadist stated (or so i heard while i was away) that no further mosques should be built in the u.s. well, ok…as long as no further churches, cathedrals, or synagogues are built in the u.s. (and…how about slapping a healthy property tax on the ones already built?)
so, If the teabaggers have become teahadists, then I guess the next thing we’ll see is rush, palin, hannity, savage, beck, or levin (or, better yet, all of them) ‘jack’n’ a plane and flying it right into a mosque somewhere!
too bad for the mosque...just another day in muddle ameriKa!
but, let's get serious: burning a koran in this provocative fashion is a 'hate crime', just like spray painting a swastika on a synagogue! and our two bright guys: obama and holder ought to know it!!!!!! they never even mentioned this possibility! what's wrong with these lawyers? stupid or something?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
talk back...like an egyptian
whew...just back from egypt! what a place to visit! i love the desert, so i'd almost love to live there. i found out that i can take the heat. it was 108F in the shade in the 'valley of the kings'. burn baby burn! it's nice and cool down in the tombs and up in 'the great pyramid', but the air is so 'close' you really get a sense of what it was like to be buried alive! (at least in the first few moments...before the torches went out!)
taking the train up the nile from aswan and luxor to cairo, you really get to see life in the country side. no euro-american would make it a day 'out there'. even in the small towns you see along the way. so back to the city driver!
now the big downside to egyptian city life, on the street, is: there're no emission controls on most cars! the air in cairo is almost unbreathable at the traffic peaks (which seems to be almost all of the time). (get me back to the tombs! or the 34th floor of the grand hyatt!) on the other hand, alexandria is much better, due to the sea breeze. the skyline in alexandria is incomparable. imagine manhattan with a beach! standing on the beach, is to be enveloped by a great cultural enclave going around a huge bay. too much to see. too much to buy.
now, of course, the sea side apartments making up that skyline are somewhat 'funky' when you get up close, but hey...you can't have everything! they're really cheap with respect to, say, manhattan or alexandria virginia rents or prices. however, all the apts have a/c, a great view, and satellite. (bathrooms are so so...) so, even by 'american standards', alexandria is quite livable. (if i ever get any money, i'll be blogging from there.)
cairo, on the other hand, is the big city! rough and gritty little kitty. brash and in your face. (try out the night scene around the central train station or off on some of the side streets leading away from the main avenue that takes you to the pyramids!)
luxor has the same vibe (on a smaller scale). get out of the sheraton and checkout 'downtown'--i.e., the souks. i ended up following some 'salesman' out of a back door, through some really narrow back alleys, through a door and into a real egyptian 'mall' (intense). just like some of the first malls in the u.s. back in the early sixties. (of course, no a/c!) they're making it though. they'll be just as modern as we are now, in a few decades, if left alone.
unlike us (?), though, almost everyone is bribe-able! that is, every official and any corporate type and most guys on the street. a lock on something just means: give me baksheesh man! want a tour of that nuclear power plant with the lock on the gate? no problem man: baksheesh! want to stay in the great pyramid overnite? how much? want to jump in the front of the line? just make sure the guy at the window has been paid off. essentially nothing is really 'forbidden' if you have enough money. now...how like us it that?
this leads to the question of how do you like your corruption? democratized or just for the elite? in america, corruption (or the cost of corruption) is simply built into everything. all the price fixing, misrepresentation, handouts, and deals are done before you ever see the product! you--the little guy--just get a price. take it or leave it! the rich elite pocket the difference between what something 'really costs' and what you pay for it. (they also pocket the difference between what they pay you to make something--IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE A JOB WHERE THEY'RE PAYING YOU anything--and what they can sell it for!) ha: gotcha come'n & go'n! (FIRST LAW OF BUSINESS: NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK!)
now, over there, nothing has a fixed price for anybody. every price can be bargained down. (imagine doing that in a nordstroms here!) actually did that in some shop that looked very much like 'the gap'. of course though, once back in the tourist enclaves, e.g., the luxor sofitel (very very nice, except for the location), NO DEAL. the deals have already been fixed for your convenience. (trust me, it's really really convenient not to have to go down in the souk and squabble over change--remember, an egyptian pound is worth about 1/5th of a u.s. dollar. but, on the other hand, i'm sure no rich euro-ameri trash pays the 'street price' to stay in the sofitel!)
all in all: egypt is a really inexpensive trip (in the 'off season'--our summer) if you get your airfare early. you can go ***** all they way. klm runs a tight ship with really great personnel who'll help you out of most of the mistakes you can make. they'll make all sorts of adjustments to your itinerary if they can (for a price...of course). a trip to egypt is much less than a trip to, say, big sur or france!
as far as all of the hustlers and drivers and souksters go, all you have to learn to do is: 'talk back...like an egyptian'!
taking the train up the nile from aswan and luxor to cairo, you really get to see life in the country side. no euro-american would make it a day 'out there'. even in the small towns you see along the way. so back to the city driver!
now the big downside to egyptian city life, on the street, is: there're no emission controls on most cars! the air in cairo is almost unbreathable at the traffic peaks (which seems to be almost all of the time). (get me back to the tombs! or the 34th floor of the grand hyatt!) on the other hand, alexandria is much better, due to the sea breeze. the skyline in alexandria is incomparable. imagine manhattan with a beach! standing on the beach, is to be enveloped by a great cultural enclave going around a huge bay. too much to see. too much to buy.
now, of course, the sea side apartments making up that skyline are somewhat 'funky' when you get up close, but hey...you can't have everything! they're really cheap with respect to, say, manhattan or alexandria virginia rents or prices. however, all the apts have a/c, a great view, and satellite. (bathrooms are so so...) so, even by 'american standards', alexandria is quite livable. (if i ever get any money, i'll be blogging from there.)
cairo, on the other hand, is the big city! rough and gritty little kitty. brash and in your face. (try out the night scene around the central train station or off on some of the side streets leading away from the main avenue that takes you to the pyramids!)
luxor has the same vibe (on a smaller scale). get out of the sheraton and checkout 'downtown'--i.e., the souks. i ended up following some 'salesman' out of a back door, through some really narrow back alleys, through a door and into a real egyptian 'mall' (intense). just like some of the first malls in the u.s. back in the early sixties. (of course, no a/c!) they're making it though. they'll be just as modern as we are now, in a few decades, if left alone.
unlike us (?), though, almost everyone is bribe-able! that is, every official and any corporate type and most guys on the street. a lock on something just means: give me baksheesh man! want a tour of that nuclear power plant with the lock on the gate? no problem man: baksheesh! want to stay in the great pyramid overnite? how much? want to jump in the front of the line? just make sure the guy at the window has been paid off. essentially nothing is really 'forbidden' if you have enough money. now...how like us it that?
this leads to the question of how do you like your corruption? democratized or just for the elite? in america, corruption (or the cost of corruption) is simply built into everything. all the price fixing, misrepresentation, handouts, and deals are done before you ever see the product! you--the little guy--just get a price. take it or leave it! the rich elite pocket the difference between what something 'really costs' and what you pay for it. (they also pocket the difference between what they pay you to make something--IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE A JOB WHERE THEY'RE PAYING YOU anything--and what they can sell it for!) ha: gotcha come'n & go'n! (FIRST LAW OF BUSINESS: NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK!)
now, over there, nothing has a fixed price for anybody. every price can be bargained down. (imagine doing that in a nordstroms here!) actually did that in some shop that looked very much like 'the gap'. of course though, once back in the tourist enclaves, e.g., the luxor sofitel (very very nice, except for the location), NO DEAL. the deals have already been fixed for your convenience. (trust me, it's really really convenient not to have to go down in the souk and squabble over change--remember, an egyptian pound is worth about 1/5th of a u.s. dollar. but, on the other hand, i'm sure no rich euro-ameri trash pays the 'street price' to stay in the sofitel!)
all in all: egypt is a really inexpensive trip (in the 'off season'--our summer) if you get your airfare early. you can go ***** all they way. klm runs a tight ship with really great personnel who'll help you out of most of the mistakes you can make. they'll make all sorts of adjustments to your itinerary if they can (for a price...of course). a trip to egypt is much less than a trip to, say, big sur or france!
as far as all of the hustlers and drivers and souksters go, all you have to learn to do is: 'talk back...like an egyptian'!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
A Tale of Two Films
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...when I first saw ‘2001 a Space Odyssey’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_%28film%29). A king was about to fall and a nation tear itself apart in the culture war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war). But, between the nights of April 2, 1968 and April 3, 1968 those, who were lucky enough to gain admittance under the proper circumstances, were transfigured. I was too young to pass through the star gate, but I was there, having travelled across the city by myself. As I became aware that the sounds I was hearing, as we entered the ellipse of the Uptown’s auditorium, was some sort of music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligeti), I began to get the feeling in my gut that something was different here and something was going to ‘happen’. Something quite unlike the cheese S.F. films I had grown up with. Then, in the dark of the auditorium, I heard Also Sprach Zarathustra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Also_sprach_Zarathustra_%28Richard_Strauss%29) for the first time in my life, as the camera lifted from the dark side of the moon to reveal an alignment of the Moon, Earth, and Sun in brilliant C major. The veil was lifted from my eyes and the philosophy of my fathers died on the spot.
By the end of the film I was reduced to a dazed silence having no idea of what I had just seen and heard or what had just happened and why. I remember, a number of us got on the bus outside the Uptown. There was no conversation. Everyone was deep in thought. Then someone mentioned that they had read ‘The Sentinel’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinel_%28short_story%29) and told us the story. I had become a child again.
It was many weeks before I saw ‘2001’ again, and it was not the film I saw the night after the premier. I later found out about the cuts and was crushed. I realized that I had seen the best film I had ever seen (I hadn’t seen much of the European or avant garde cinema at the time, having just become a teenager) and would never see it, whole, again. This was my greatest heartbreak until I watched America fumble the manned space program many years later. Little more than a year later we stepped out onto the moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing) and truly entered ‘The Space Age’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Age), the age in which I became a man.
I mark, as I might, given it’s personal significance, The Space Age as the high point of American civilization. Kubrick had given us a vision of how it could be and what we could become out amongst the stars. Wernher von Braun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_von_Braun) had given us the means to step off this planet and move onto higher ground. Yet, it was not to be. We reverted to the animalistic ways of the retrogressive culture within our society and spent the money that would have elevated us on wars of idealism waged with the religious fanaticism of those who have nothing to live for but their warped beliefs in a heavenly reward for a life without 'sin'.
We spent trillions on wars against the communists who would have taken over the whole world; the hippies and dopers who wouldn’t die for their country; the queers who slaver around in the filth of their nightly assignations; and the Islamists who would take over what’s left of the world. We created an out of control military-industrial-intelligence complex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-industrial_complex , http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/) that couldn’t stop one young man with inflammable underwear from getting on a plane and burning himself up. We’ve fouled our air and our waters and allowed our educational and medical systems to fall into almost complete dysfunction! We have allowed our corporations to move almost all of their manufacturing and technical jobs overseas to cheaper labor pools causing massive permanent un- and underemployment, thus wiping out ‘the middle class’. We have allowed our financial and banking institutions to become centers of fraud and corruptions of every sort and then bailed them out with taxpayer dollars when they collapsed under the weight of their fraudulent repackaging of sham mortgage loans, thus causing a world wide economic collapse.
The space age world of my youth is now long dead. For today’s youth the space age is ancient history sometime before the great war of 911. The world that has replaced the world of my youth is a financially spent world of cynical liars who have turned ignorance and stupidity into virtues and institutionalized technical wizardry into nerdiness. Corrupt politicians in the pockets of corrupt businessmen who sell health and justice right along with Viagra and Coke Zero. A world where it is cool, in some circles, to wear your pants down below your ass and revel in a music that glorifies sexual violence and killing each other over a rock of crack cocaine. As those, below; so those above. A world where The Right news is taught to the faithful on the Fux News Nutwork by fat jolly white fellers who know black in the white house just ‘ain’t riight’!
Crapitalism has triumphed over Clownmunism and the world that is left branded is that, so wickedly depicted, in 'Idiocracy' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy)! As the great wiki puts it:
“…natural selection has become indifferent toward intelligence, so that in a society in which intelligence is systematically debased, stupid people easily out-breed the intelligent, creating, over the course of five centuries, an irredeemably dysfunctional society. Consequently, the children of the educated elites are drowned in a sea of sexually promiscuous, illiterate, alcoholic, ADHD, degenerate peers.”
Sound familiar? I first saw this on cable coming in during the middle of the film and wondered: WTF? But, after a while I got into it and nearly busted ‘my Balls!’ Every scene is a scream! Easily as funny as ‘Dr. Strangelove’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove). The main problem with this film is that it was too conservative in trying to maintain its verisimilitude. Five centuries? How about five decades of republicanism! In ‘Idiocracy’, the people still wear their pants up over their assess, although ‘Ass’ is the biggest hit on the big screen at the time depicted in the film. As Not Sure’s doctor puts it, just as Not Sure sees just where he is:
“Right, kick ass. Well, don't want to sound like a dick or nothin', but, ah... it says on your chart that you're fucked up. Ah, you talk like a fag, and your shit's all retarded. What I'd do, is just like... like... you know, like, you know what I mean, like...”
and
“Don't worry, scrote. There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick-ass lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now.”
Yeah…well…you know: welcome to your future. A long way down from ‘2001’. Remember, the apes in ‘2001’ were on their way to The Space Age. The ‘tards’ are on their way back to The Stone Age. And what awaits them before the get there? ‘The Road’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road), but that’s another story…
.end-of-line.
By the end of the film I was reduced to a dazed silence having no idea of what I had just seen and heard or what had just happened and why. I remember, a number of us got on the bus outside the Uptown. There was no conversation. Everyone was deep in thought. Then someone mentioned that they had read ‘The Sentinel’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinel_%28short_story%29) and told us the story. I had become a child again.
It was many weeks before I saw ‘2001’ again, and it was not the film I saw the night after the premier. I later found out about the cuts and was crushed. I realized that I had seen the best film I had ever seen (I hadn’t seen much of the European or avant garde cinema at the time, having just become a teenager) and would never see it, whole, again. This was my greatest heartbreak until I watched America fumble the manned space program many years later. Little more than a year later we stepped out onto the moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing) and truly entered ‘The Space Age’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Age), the age in which I became a man.
I mark, as I might, given it’s personal significance, The Space Age as the high point of American civilization. Kubrick had given us a vision of how it could be and what we could become out amongst the stars. Wernher von Braun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_von_Braun) had given us the means to step off this planet and move onto higher ground. Yet, it was not to be. We reverted to the animalistic ways of the retrogressive culture within our society and spent the money that would have elevated us on wars of idealism waged with the religious fanaticism of those who have nothing to live for but their warped beliefs in a heavenly reward for a life without 'sin'.
We spent trillions on wars against the communists who would have taken over the whole world; the hippies and dopers who wouldn’t die for their country; the queers who slaver around in the filth of their nightly assignations; and the Islamists who would take over what’s left of the world. We created an out of control military-industrial-intelligence complex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-industrial_complex , http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/) that couldn’t stop one young man with inflammable underwear from getting on a plane and burning himself up. We’ve fouled our air and our waters and allowed our educational and medical systems to fall into almost complete dysfunction! We have allowed our corporations to move almost all of their manufacturing and technical jobs overseas to cheaper labor pools causing massive permanent un- and underemployment, thus wiping out ‘the middle class’. We have allowed our financial and banking institutions to become centers of fraud and corruptions of every sort and then bailed them out with taxpayer dollars when they collapsed under the weight of their fraudulent repackaging of sham mortgage loans, thus causing a world wide economic collapse.
The space age world of my youth is now long dead. For today’s youth the space age is ancient history sometime before the great war of 911. The world that has replaced the world of my youth is a financially spent world of cynical liars who have turned ignorance and stupidity into virtues and institutionalized technical wizardry into nerdiness. Corrupt politicians in the pockets of corrupt businessmen who sell health and justice right along with Viagra and Coke Zero. A world where it is cool, in some circles, to wear your pants down below your ass and revel in a music that glorifies sexual violence and killing each other over a rock of crack cocaine. As those, below; so those above. A world where The Right news is taught to the faithful on the Fux News Nutwork by fat jolly white fellers who know black in the white house just ‘ain’t riight’!
Crapitalism has triumphed over Clownmunism and the world that is left branded is that, so wickedly depicted, in 'Idiocracy' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy)! As the great wiki puts it:
“…natural selection has become indifferent toward intelligence, so that in a society in which intelligence is systematically debased, stupid people easily out-breed the intelligent, creating, over the course of five centuries, an irredeemably dysfunctional society. Consequently, the children of the educated elites are drowned in a sea of sexually promiscuous, illiterate, alcoholic, ADHD, degenerate peers.”
Sound familiar? I first saw this on cable coming in during the middle of the film and wondered: WTF? But, after a while I got into it and nearly busted ‘my Balls!’ Every scene is a scream! Easily as funny as ‘Dr. Strangelove’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove). The main problem with this film is that it was too conservative in trying to maintain its verisimilitude. Five centuries? How about five decades of republicanism! In ‘Idiocracy’, the people still wear their pants up over their assess, although ‘Ass’ is the biggest hit on the big screen at the time depicted in the film. As Not Sure’s doctor puts it, just as Not Sure sees just where he is:
“Right, kick ass. Well, don't want to sound like a dick or nothin', but, ah... it says on your chart that you're fucked up. Ah, you talk like a fag, and your shit's all retarded. What I'd do, is just like... like... you know, like, you know what I mean, like...”
and
“Don't worry, scrote. There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick-ass lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now.”
Yeah…well…you know: welcome to your future. A long way down from ‘2001’. Remember, the apes in ‘2001’ were on their way to The Space Age. The ‘tards’ are on their way back to The Stone Age. And what awaits them before the get there? ‘The Road’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road), but that’s another story…
.end-of-line.
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