Requiem For Our Civilization By Charles Sullivan

[♦ nivek ♦]

Wasn't sure where to place this, Rants won coin toss and minimutt nosing the keyboard whilst I type.

 

kFL

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By Charles Sullivan

 

11/06/07 " ICH " -- -- It seems inexplicable that so many of the

American people can be so dazed and confused, while moral degenerates

ransack our nation, piss and defecate upon the Constitution and the

Declaration of Independence, and brazenly loot the public domain,

making a mockery of the rule of law and societal norms; whatever they

may be.

 

Incredible lies are routinely passed as truth and the world as we know

it is unraveling, as we prepare to invade and occupy yet another

country, perhaps igniting World War Three. We go on with the insipid

routine of our dull lives: we go shopping, and bombard our senses with

mind numbing entertainment, telling ourselves that it­, fascism­,

can't happen here, even as its poisoned blossoms unfold before our

astonished eyes and fill our lungs with their noxious fumes.

 

We refuse to believe what we are seeing and we dismiss it as too

preposterous to be real. We no longer wholly trust our own senses or

follow our most innate instincts, failing to recognize that they are

all that is true; all that allow us to survive the wretched madness

that pursues us like rabid dogs, and relentlessly nips at our fleeing

heels.

 

Increasing numbers of us move through this world with a sense of

impending doom but we do not fully comprehend its origins or the

breadth of the disaster it portends. We sense not only that something

is wrong-- ­something is terribly, irreconcilably, sickeningly, wrong.

We do our utmost to repress those feelings, telling ourselves that our

worst fears, our darkest nightmares, are irrational, unfounded

phantoms of the imagination; so many ghosts lurking under our beds.

 

We have been programmed to believe that we are the greatest nation to

ever emerge from the mists of history, that everything about us as a

people is exceptional and exemplary. Despite a history of endless

provocation and war and countless other forms of self mutilation, we

claim that we are a peace loving people­, god's own children, animated

by divine stirrings.

 

But perhaps our state of confusion, our disorientation, and our shock

at what the government is doing in our name­ all of which seems to be

occurring at the blinding speed of light­ and our refusal to believe

that which is so blatantly obvious to all but those who wear mental

blindfolds, or the criminally insane, is a form of psychological shock

and awe that has been deliberately imposed upon us not only by

depraved politicians vying for wealth and power, but by our every

societal institution.

 

We have arrived at our place as a result of an educational system that

does not teach us how to think, but to follow rules and obey

authority; to bow to self policing peer pressure and group think: a

system that prepares us to pass math tests but not those of citizen

and neighbor. We dutifully recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag

but we hold no allegiance to the world's people, or its stunning

biological and cultural diversity, or to truth. We were led to the

precipice by religious institutions that operate by the same

principles as "for profit" corporations, encouraged by Zionist and

Christian fundamentalists with visions of Armageddon dancing in their

crazed, bigoted heads. We are here because we pay attention to a media

monoculture that does not inform, but lies and deceives for money.

 

We are here because we are morally lazy, uninterested, distracted,

overworked, over burdened with debt, and apathetic to a fault. We

confused the symbols of democracy with democracy itself; and we

foolishly thought that democracy could somehow magically move of its

own accord, without our participation as citizens. Too many of us

believed that all that was required of us was to vote in elections in

which the outcomes were preordained by the candidate's access to

wealth. We told ourselves this is democracy, but we were tragically

mistaken. And now it is too late.

 

The rush to Armageddon will occur quickly; it must happen, like the

passage of the Patriot Act, before the people have time to digest what

is being done to them, before they can concoct an intelligent and

rational response to shock and awe; before the people can organize

against the premeditated murder and mayhem that awaits them.

 

We Americans are the product of free market ideologues, religious

zealots, and vulgar experiments in social engineering. We are being

led to slaughter, and to be slaughtered, by dark and foreboding forces

bent on the destruction of all that is decent, just, and beautiful.

 

Yet many will continue to believe that the president and his henchmen

are sane and just people. Some will even ordain them devout Christians

and extol their dark virtues as enlightenment and courage. Others will

continue to believe that the sycophants in Congress will awaken at the

eleventh hour to save us from our own delusions and excesses, not

recognizing that we are alone and have only one another. It has always

been so; but rather than uniting against our tormentors­ we fight

amongst ourselves.

 

Events may already be in motion that have acquired an unstoppable

momentum, like a hulking meteor streaking in deadly silence toward the

earth in precise accordance with the laws of motion. But like all

tempests, they too will eventually blow themselves out and, better

people than us will someday attempt to rebuild the world anew. I wish

them luck and amazing grace, the kind of grace that is so

conspicuously absent in us. In the words of labor organizer, Joe Hill,

murdered by the state before a Utah firing squad: "Good luck to all of

you."

 

No more can we enjoy the sight of soft summer sunsets in tranquil

settings, accompanied by the singing of the wood thrush, and choirs of

chanting insects embracing the darkling twilight; but forever more the

rocket's perpetual red glare and silent, distant death. We are nearing

road's end. The time is fast approaching to mount the nearest

hillside, to hold our loved ones close; to sip some vintage wine, and

watch the fireworks that are even now hurtling their way toward

Armageddon. The time is nigh to watch the world as we knew it wink out

of existence, and to say goodbye. It's been good to know you.

 

Charles Sullivan is a nature photographer, free-lance writer, and

community activist residing in the Ridge and Valley Province of

geopolitical West Virginia. He welcomes your comments at

csullivan@phreego.com .

[Ouroboros]

This I've seen first hand with my kids and with people we know:

We have arrived at our place as a result of an educational system that does not teach us how to think, but to follow rules and obey authority; to bow to self policing peer pressure and group think: a system that prepares us to pass math tests but not those of citizen and neighbor.

 

It's a very sad and dark article, but I'm afraid there's a chance he's right...