We have a front-row seat at a performance of msm propaganda when the foremost representative of that media, the prestigious New York Times, reports on a decision of the American justice system to allow its servants to commit murder.
Make no mistake about it, the main story of the day (Ferguson) written jointly by three journalists in the main newspaper of the nation contains not a careless word. We read what the masters want us to know.
The opening paragraph spells it out: no charges against white cop who ”fatally shot” unarmed black teenager. The spotlight follows the race aspect. This is one of the two main themes. Keep playing the race card. But don’t overdue it. Don’t say that the police officer murdered or killed the kid, go with ”fatally shot.”
More important, don’t put the police murder in context. Don’t mention that police officers kill 10 people a week in the USA, which is ten times more than their European colleagues. The police-killed victims belong to the poor or marginalized segment of the population. Although ”people of color” are disproportionately represented, the number of whites alone still exceed any figures in Europe. And don’t whisper a word about the recent and ongoing dynamic militarization of the police in general, or how it parallels the expansive surveillance and security apparatus. In short, rip this story out of context…
so that we can do our main job, protect ”the system”.
The concentrate of the propaganda
Of the hundreds of demonstrators outside the courthouse and the thousands in the streets of Ferguson, the NT Times quotes one unnamed woman. One person of tens of thousands. Unidentified. She says, “The system failed us again.”
This should be follow by a fanfare, Tat-tat-ta-taaaaa, because this is the heart of the message, the concentrate of the propaganda. It is repeated more forcefully in an official statement by the murdered boy’s family, ”We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen.”
Listen carefully, Dorothy, the system didn’t fail. It works precisely the way it’s supposed to work. Everyone, particularly the angry and disenfranchised poor people, are to be made clearly aware that the servants of the system, the police in this case, can do whatever they want to do including murder. The system will protect them. Just as it protects the wealthy who are too big to fail and too rich to jail. Just as it takes from the majority of the people to give to a tiny minority of people running the system.
Why should we work together to fix the system? The system is the problem. The system causes injustice, generates colossal inequality and protects those who commit crimes. The NY Times tells us to have faith in the system, to fix it.
The system is evil. It doesn’t need fixing. It needs replacing.
*
“Live not too fast or too slow.
Don’t run from the times, don’t follow the flow.
Truth can hide in shadows, beauty doesn’t always glow.
Struggle for justice and help love to grow.
Avoid all circuses with no clowns in the show,
and watch out for an eagle who rhymes like a crow.”*
Dartwill Aquila
*(The word Eagle comes from the Latin word Aquila.)
*
*
On this day in 1650 in the beautiful Dordogne valley of southern France, Louise came away from the bed of their child and said, as she often did, ”The angel sleeps.”
Her husband, Pons, watched her take up her knitting in the chair by the fire. The dance of the flames seemed to try to enhance her beauty.
”What are you smiling at?” she asked.
”My happiness,” he answered.
”I think this is the last day of fall,” she said.
She couldn’t have surprised him more. What a strange thing to say, he thought and was surprised even more by the love that swelled so forcefully within him.
He stood up and took her knitting from her, said, ”One shouldn’t knit on the last day of fall,“ and led her by the hand to the bed.
Nine months later, on the first day of fall, their son François greeted the world. Here are some of the things he wrote:
Quotations of François Fénelon
– All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
– Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others as by self-examination thoroughly to know our own.
– Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.
– There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true.
– Speak little; listen much; think more about understanding the heart and try to adapt yourself to the needs of the speaker than trying to say clever things to them. Show that you have an open mind and let everyone feel secure and receive comfort when they open their heart to you. Never say more than is necessary, and speak with complete honesty. No one should fear disappointment by trusting you.
– A people is no less a member of the human race, which is society as a whole, than a family is a member of a particular nation. Each individual owes incomparably more to the human race, which is the great fatherland, than to the particular country in which he was born. As a family is to the nation, so is the nation to the universal commonwealth; therefore it is infinitely more harmful for nation to wrong nation, than for family to wrong family. To abandon the sentiment of humanity is not merely to renounce civilization and to relapse into barbarism, it is to share in the blindness of the most brutish brigands and savages; it is to be a man no longer, but a cannibal.
*
My comment about the last quote: What would this child of love writing over 300 years ago think of today’s nationalistic, rasist and fundamentalistic world led by ”indispensable” Americans?
See: Imperial Evil Dressed in Indispensable Bullshit
*
“No fashion can compete with a smile, and it never goes out of style.”
Dartwill Aquila
*
We all have first hand experience of democracy. It might be three friends choosing between two restaurants or a school class choosing between choices of an outing.
Majority decides. Decisions, whether on policy, laws or choices, are the products of democracy. On the show-of-hands level, the products come out crisp, clean and quickly. National level democracy demands an extensive, long and complicated process, logistically vulnerable, culturally inflexible and economically corruptible. Governmental democracy is dead in nearly all countries. The decisions of the governments favor a minority at the expense of the majority. Call it what you will, it’s not democracy.
The ruling elite (the 1%) and their administrators (government and media) deny the absence of democracy, but they fool fewer and fewer people. We need merely remind ourselves that democracy means rule of the majority and stare the opposite squarely in the face. The majority of the people do not want
to give their money to banksters,
to feed the war industry,
to lack privacy,
to fear sickness under a profit hungry medical system,
to work for wages below existence sustainability,
to be thrown out of work because poor people can be exploited elsewhere,
to see super-profitable corporations pay little or no taxes and receive subsidies from the government,
etc.
It is not suprising that the rulers, and those who benefit by serving the prevailing order, deny the lack of democracy. The ”progressive” deniers are another question. They demonstrate not only the difficulty in swallowing this painful truth, but also demonstrate crucial cracks in their extensive education. Common people, ordinary workers and citizens of the hoods have more knowledge about the structure of the nation and nature of the government than these graduates of academic institutions. The majority of the people are well aware that money rules and that democracy is a bullshit badge worn by the plutocracy. The progressive deniers have difficulty seeing through the arrogance of their education to get these obvious truths in focus.
Dan Dangl, for example, states in an article titled Who Rules the World? that there’s ”a widely-shared view that the US is indeed not a democracy. In fact, this perception was confirmed in a research study released earlier this year by professors at Princeton and Northwestern University.” Notice that Dangl doesn’t state that the US isn’t a democracy, but that there’s ”a widely-shared view” to this effect, and this ”perception” is confirmed. You probably think I’m a nit-picker, but the bold-faced subtitle to his article reads, ”How a concentration of wealth and political power undermines democracy.” How can something that doesn’t exist be undermined? Dan resists denying the death of democracy, because he would have to say what the US is, if he says what it ain’t (sic).
This denial of dead democracy characterizes a large portion of progressive intellectuals who criticize symptoms of the prevailing order while diverting from the causes. They defend the myth of democracy with fundamentalist determination, even if they must contend that the democracy is undermined, weak, faulty, subverted, crippled or any other epithet to keep the democracy icon standing. They typically claim participation in the election process could remedy the situation. Former congressman Dennis Kucinich exemplifies this by encouraging people to defeat Republicans in the next election and thereby ”begin to restore a badly broken democracy.” Kucinich must have been visiting another planet during the recent Obomber (sic) administration.
Here’s how the academic heavies express the denial in The Oxfam Report on inequality, ”This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems.” Oxfam is too pompous to use such a common word as democracy and therefore speaks of ”inclusive political and economic systems” – which is not dead but threatened.
Here are a few titles that can be used in the countries or organizations falsely claiming to be a democracy:
Plutocracy = rule of the wealthy
Oligarchy = rule of the few
Corporatocracy/Corprocracy (Corporate dictatorship) = rule of the corporations
Kakistocracy = rule by the worst
Kleptocracy – rule by thieves
Military dictatorship = rule by the military (or by a military-corporate complex receiving at least 50% of all taxes)
Fascism = rule by a marriage of business and government
Any country that can wear all of these titles should be regarded as a totalitarian state. Should the totalitarian state dictate conditions for other states and countries, it should be regarded as a Totalitarian Empire.
*
“The dictators aren’t naked.
They’re dressed in magical synthetic democracy
that only the privileged can see.”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
I’ve seen them. The strong. The fast. The fearless.
I haven’t seen the strength of their love,
the speed of their tolerance,
or the courage of their humility.
I haven’t seen them in the competition for justice,
The World Games for Peace
or The Humanity Olympics.
I believe I will.
For the moment they are too busy trying to convince themselves
that they need to be stronger, faster and braver to be what they are.
Challenging yourself is never much of a challenge,
you quickly reach a point where you can’t win.
The challenge to build a better world is the ultimate challenge,
you quickly discover that you can’t lose when helping everyone to win.
“The gym of character where we can train
our determination, humility and compassion
is called The Struggle for Justice”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
(drain)Pipe Dream
Humanity is a single species of Homo sapiens organized in a dynamic global society claiming the entire world as its habitat. *
This global society is structured to favor individual possession of the earth’s resources.
The individuals with the most possessions decided the policies of humanity. **
— End of summary
* Unlike other society building creatures humanity cannot move to another location when they have exhausted the resources at their disposal.
** The policies of the decision makers invariably promote the increase of the possessions of the decision makers regardless of the consequences for other Homo sapiens, other forms of life or the condition of the earth.
”
We can’t change the terrain by drawing prettier maps.”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
On this day in 1695 Zumbi dos Palmares, leader of the Quilombos in Brazil was killed. He was 40 years old. Because he had fought for the refugee and fugitive slave settlements the Portuguese rulers captured him and cut off his head.
The Quilombos practiced a form of martial art dance called the capoeira which is popular throughout the world today in its classic form and appears to be the source of break-dancing. Zumbi was undoubtedly one of the first capoeira dancers but probably not the very first one.
The Portuguese were not the first people to cut off the heads of their enemies, but they maintained a practice that, like capoeira, is still popular today. I doubt if IS in Iraq are aware of their Roman Catholic heritage.
“We can accomplish more by confessing our ignorance than by boasting of our knowledge.”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
A little while ago, some 13 or 14 thousand years, when all humans lived in tribes and clans hunting, fishing and gathering fruits, nuts, roots, berries, mushrooms and other edibles, God was having a crisis.
”What have I done? What have I done?” he moaned again and again.
His wife didn’t say anything and he tried not to look at her. He knew he would see that what-did-I-tell-you expression that she had down to perfection. The problem couldn’t be avoided indefinitely.
”OK, OK, I fucked up,” he confessed. ”What are we going to do about it?”
”We?” she asked triumphantly.
”Please don’t be that way. I admit I made a mistake. Are you going to help me out or aren’t you?”
”Well what did you expect?” she asked. ”What were you thinking when you gave them all that power?”
”I thought they’d use it to beautify the world.”
”I don’t know about you sometimes. One minute you’re wiser than anyone and then in the next minute you’re as naive as a 10-year-old.”
”It’s not wrong to experiment, to try something new,” he said defensively.
His genuine regret melted his wife’s heart. She embraced him and kissed his sorrowful eyes.
”No,” she said, ”It’s never wrong to try. You’re such a dreamer. I’m sorry, it’s not you that I’m angry at, it’s them. They are so arrogant. And they have no respect for life. They don’t even appreciate the gift of life they possess.”
”I know, I know,” he said. ”They destroy everything. I can’t even keep track of all the species they’ve destroyed in the past 100 000 years, not to mention the other hominids. And they just keep multiplying and getting stronger. They’re already everywhere. I can’t flood the whole earth to get rid of them and I can’t set it on fire. How am I going to get rid of these pests?”
”No, problem,” said his wife, ”give them property, money and religion. In 20 000 years, at the most, they’ll have destroyed themselves.”
”But they’ll destroy everything else as well.”
”No not everything. They’ll do a lot of damage, but like with a forest fire, life and the earth will survive and be better than ever afterwards. The earth will be greener, the oceans richer and many exciting species will develop.”
”You think?” he asked.
She gave him her haven’t-you-learned-to-trust-my-judgement-by-now look.
*
“DNA is the book of life.
Any form of life can read it,
whether a blade of grass
or an illiterate lover.”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
Look to the left
Look to the right
Look straight ahead
See life
and the people who are afraid of it
the people who love it
and the people who try to own it.
Look at the hard
Look at the soft
Look at the flowing
See life
and the people who don’t go anywhere quickly
the people who travel to the stars silently
and the people who see nothing but themselves.
Look with your heart
Look with your soul
Look with your humanity
See life
and the people who need your help to help you
the people who support the growth of your greatness
and the people climbing to the heights of isloation.
*
“What happens when the money runs out
and the people you hired for protection
are left with nothing but their guns?”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
The black November night was approaching the depths of 4 o’clock when conscious contemplation replaced sleep. How was I going to present my book System Humanity in three weeks? Nothing. My thoughts were incoherent whispers in winds of darkness. They seemed to have gathered in my bladder. I sat up in bed with my feet on the floor and noticed a spot of light on my arm, a round spot about the size of a large star if my arm was the sky. At first I thought the spot of light came from within me, the glow of a weird sore about to burst through my skin. Before I could panic the spot disappeared when I moved my arm. I moved my arm back and could see that it was a spot of light shining on me. What’s going on? Everything is black. I was in a dark room, with a closed door on a dark night. Where did that spot of light come from?
It came from a streetlight over the roof of a house across the street, through the window of the adjoining room and through the keyhole of the door. The spot of light was a key of light. It released a wave of joy.
The smile I wore when I opened my computer burst into amazement. My scheduled blog had just gone live. The last line of the rather abstract poem to a rather abstract picture read:
A spot of light
the truth
shows me the direction
to the garden of healthy humanity.
Wow, wow and double wow! Wait one minute! What truth? There are millions of truths. This question sat at the back of my mind like an itch all day. Hints and suggestions popped up everywhere until I remembered a white dot from many many years ago in England. Strolling along an outdoor art fair, a Jamaican artist, on discovering that I was a teacher, drew a white dot on the pavement with a piece of chalk and asked, “Do you teach them about the dot?”
“What about the dot?” I asked confused.
“Any dot, any spot, anywhere,” he answered. “It’s all connected. Everything is connected to everything. It’s all one. Do you teach them that? You can get to anything anywhere from this dot.”
Yes, it’s all one and everything is connected. The Jamaican’s dot is connected to the dot of light that landed on my arm through a keyhole. Humanity is one and it is part of all life, which is part of the world. Atoms that were present in the air Cleopatra breathed from Caesar’s kiss may be present in my body.
Every truth must be connected to every other truth. I’m sure that’s true, but I don’t know what that means. Or if it matters. Truthfully, it’s comforting to know that my confusion is part of everything.
“It’s OK to be confused about everything
as long as you’re certain about something.”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
Threads of the unavoidable
pull innocent angels into glittering cages
where they are forced to sing unworthy songs
to torture the hope
of our common imagination.
Tears of blood paint warmth
in the creases of my experience
as the lullaby of life
whispers promises of love
stronger than mountains of darkness.
A spot of light
the truth
shows me the direction
to the garden of healthy humanity.
“Doubt is the catalyst of discovery.”
Dartwill Aquila
*
*
System Humanity 