Of course they do. Of course Pakistan wants the U.S. out of the Middle East, they want exclusive rights to oil reserves, and they want nuclear weapons. This is an example of the desirable Super Power-ness and indeed sovereignty for which my country has set the example. Was it agreed that these other ‘nations’, pickled in histories of their own making and right, should swear fealty to the major domo of the West? Was the promotional film for democracy and freedom focused more on the best-looking actors and the 2% of wealth than the Bill of Rights? And who ARE the Pakistanis, the Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranians… am I to believe they are represented by their government, when I am not represented by my government? It is a problem of identity with me.
I long for an extended, abstracted look at the march of history… I yearn for a conversation in which I can reflect along with others upon the absurdity of expecting different results time after time. Maybe within that I yearn for some ultimately rational being to convince me of the impossible… this must be a human trait. If I continue to believe that the government of the people, by the people and for the people is within my range of influence without money, without size, or without complete acceptance of certain martyrdom… then, I’m destined to be a martyr, or an ex-pat.
My nationality is different from my nativity and my nature… but it is inseparable, just the same, from my knowledge of self. My Americanism has been the straw, the water in which the particulates of blood and soil and time have hardened into the mud-bricked figure of me.
There was a time I’m sure, for many a one, when taking a permanent vacation in Bali or New Zealand was a social and personal act sharp enough to cut the ties that bound to our native culture. Maybe there was a time when the sign signified enough to redeem the signifier… but that time is not now. I think of a deeper rebellion, the personal rebellion, a movement which is carried forward in the quietly violent battles of the individual identity. Three years of anthropological theory has taught me that the deconstruction of ideas and identities is a necessary part of understanding their construction, and an entirely new way of looking at things.
It is perspective which I seek…
In many ways, in the hours and seconds that fill my day, I don’t think about politics. Stickers and signs today made me realize it was an election day in my community… but for what? I feel utterly powerless to change the rudimentary wrongs that I feel… and so I am oblivious to local elections, and I’m fairly certain I now identify with people that don’t even vote in Presidential elections… I identify more with George Carlin in that sense now than ever.
So, who am I? I am educated, officially too, and I am a thoughtful person, with opinions and passions. But I’m starting to feel that I cannot spare the mental and emotional energy it takes to claim a political stake in this system. It is fundamentally futile. I am inspired by the Declaration of Independence, but it is because someone crafted words so well and true that they extend beyond rhetoric into philosophy. And if I hold these truths to be self-evident, which I do, I find myself wondering why so many are ignorant, mislead, and willfully blinded. Truth is often uncomfortable, but it is a person’s duty to acknowledge it, nonetheless. So maybe I’m resentful that no one gives a shit. But I’m not an ambitious person. I’ll never be a leader of anything. Maybe I’m comfortable blaming something beyond my control… seriously, maybe Samuel Adams had nothing to lose, or he got more pussy by being radical… I don’t know. But I do know this:
I want to be happy. I want world peace. But if I can’t have world peace, I want to be happy in my relationships, I want love to be the most important thing in my life because I KNOW it. And all the pain that accompanies it, as well. It feels like the ONE TRUE THING. Even in pain, it’s what I’m good at. And if I evolve, I evolve through my experience of life. My little life, my little existence, my identity, is based on love. If I’m angry with Islam and Christianity, I’m angry because fundamentalism and religion sacrifice love for dogma… they are violent in their unforgiving, unwavering nature.
Love is violent sometimes, but it is personal. Personal violence is understandable, even forgivable if not acceptable, but it acknowledges the individual nature that has been cultivated among us. In my country, in my culture, we place a high value on individualism… but we cannot change a thing about our government or our communities on our own… hmmm.
I’m just thinking… and I welcome you to think with me.
The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
So, what are the Facts?
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