Sunday, December 26, 2004
Contradictions and Sabotage
New in the Sabotage section of the GuvWurld News Archive, Andrea Batista Schlesinger's latest piece for AlterNet, Steps Forward, Steps Backwards.
Schlesinger explores a few of the contradictions history should reflect from 2004, including: lapses in human and civil rights, even as we mark 40 and 50 year milestones from major advances; lapse of the assault weapon ban even as the threat of danger is supposedly at its greatest; limits on overtime pay despite declining standards of living. This list could be inexhaustible; the contradictions are themselves indicators of a much broader pattern of sabotage.
Sabotage is human nature, it happens unwittingly. At times each of us has been "our own worst enemy." Overcoming this tendency on a personal level is doable once it is recognized, yet sabotage still haunts us on a macro level as our species decimates the environment. The sabotage paradigm can put many things in perspective, and do it without attributing motive. For this reason it is a valuable frame in the effort to awaken Americans in denial of the fascism of these Orwellian times. Peruse the 100+ articles in the Sabotage section of the GuvWurld News Archive and you will become more deeply attuned with many more examples (talking points) at your command.
Also consider an amulet I have bearing the Chinese character for Progress. I bought it with a small card saying: "Progress is the result that occurs when we stop making trouble for ourselves." Sabotage and Progress are thus related circularly, as yin is to yang.
I don't mean to get new age on you. Consider the influence such guidance has had on recent GuvWurld commentary. Rather than pursuing inaccessible and unaccountable Congressmembers, the No Confidence Resolution is targeted at City Councils, more available to the average citizen and more susceptible to pressures applied by constituents.
Likewise, rather than advocating recounts which reinforce the unwarranted legitimacy bestowed upon the first vote "count," No Confidence frames election reform as a matter of conditions necessary for elections to be beyond question. The connection is choosing not to continue futile efforts, to abandon rigged games and simulated competition, to stop making trouble for ourselves. This applies on all scales from pulling out of Iraq and operating cooperatively in international affairs, to turning off the TV and talking with your neighbors about the contradictions of propaganda.
And so we come full circle. Schlesinger's AlterNet piece concludes:
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Schlesinger explores a few of the contradictions history should reflect from 2004, including: lapses in human and civil rights, even as we mark 40 and 50 year milestones from major advances; lapse of the assault weapon ban even as the threat of danger is supposedly at its greatest; limits on overtime pay despite declining standards of living. This list could be inexhaustible; the contradictions are themselves indicators of a much broader pattern of sabotage.
Sabotage is human nature, it happens unwittingly. At times each of us has been "our own worst enemy." Overcoming this tendency on a personal level is doable once it is recognized, yet sabotage still haunts us on a macro level as our species decimates the environment. The sabotage paradigm can put many things in perspective, and do it without attributing motive. For this reason it is a valuable frame in the effort to awaken Americans in denial of the fascism of these Orwellian times. Peruse the 100+ articles in the Sabotage section of the GuvWurld News Archive and you will become more deeply attuned with many more examples (talking points) at your command.
Also consider an amulet I have bearing the Chinese character for Progress. I bought it with a small card saying: "Progress is the result that occurs when we stop making trouble for ourselves." Sabotage and Progress are thus related circularly, as yin is to yang.
I don't mean to get new age on you. Consider the influence such guidance has had on recent GuvWurld commentary. Rather than pursuing inaccessible and unaccountable Congressmembers, the No Confidence Resolution is targeted at City Councils, more available to the average citizen and more susceptible to pressures applied by constituents.
Likewise, rather than advocating recounts which reinforce the unwarranted legitimacy bestowed upon the first vote "count," No Confidence frames election reform as a matter of conditions necessary for elections to be beyond question. The connection is choosing not to continue futile efforts, to abandon rigged games and simulated competition, to stop making trouble for ourselves. This applies on all scales from pulling out of Iraq and operating cooperatively in international affairs, to turning off the TV and talking with your neighbors about the contradictions of propaganda.
And so we come full circle. Schlesinger's AlterNet piece concludes:
"So, as we close the book on 2004, faced with such stark inequalities between Americans' social and economic realities, the goal is to prevent the United States from itself becoming a contradiction in terms."With at least the past four years as evidence, this cliche ending is a contradictory copout. The 50 States are hardly united; pretending they are continues to make trouble; and it is sabotage to make a goal of maintaining this denial. As other recent GuvWurld entries have discussed, ruthless honesty specifically requires helping others see where they are not being truthful with themselves.
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