Monday, December 5, 2011

this is ridiculous said the dog now they not only have to walk me they have to rush up with their sanitary plastic bags what is it but old-fashioned Imperialism

I swear I had not seen this until last night when I wrote Saturday evening about my inability to use language yet for what I want to say about Occupy (h/t):

Our language has not yet caught up with the political phenomenon that is emerging in Zuccotti Park and spreading across the nation, though it is clear that a political paradigm shift is taking place before our very eyes. It’s time to begin to name and in naming, to better understand this moment. So let me propose some words: “political disobedience.”

I didn't hear about the police action at McPherson Square until past six last night; I was on Sugarloaf. I would have been there taking photos if I'd known, but let me be clear: I would have done everything in my power, including moving the fuck out of the way if a cop in riot gear told me to get the fuck out of the way, to avoid arrest, not only because I owe too many creditors too much money, not only because I'm only pissed at potentially losing privileges I assumed were mine by birthright, not only because I believe in the uselessness of protest to genuinely alter the re-feudalization now inevitable by and out of control of our bankrupt warlords' craven greed (I do believe in the usefulness of the protests to further accelerate the implementation of our bankrupt warlords' daydreams of police state), but all three plus I can't find the language to imagine any other outcome than the slow and grim and inevitable re-feudalization.










RIDICULOUS

Alicia Ostriker

This is ridiculous
said the literary old woman
nobody gives us any respect
the young in one another's arms
are talking on their ipods
the politicians are lying through their teeth
and our husbands are taking a nap

this is ridiculous
said the tulip
all those genetically altered blossoms
those stupid long-lived orchids
that are practically plastic
and those fancy designer grasses
getting more market share

this is ridiculous
said the dog
now they not only have to walk me
they have to rush up with their
sanitary plastic bags
what is it but old-fashioned
Imperialism


7 comments:

  1. The only sustainable things are shaking fists at our cloud overlords, nelsonmuntzing, & the great leveler.

    Socrates is dead!

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  2. Fuckface Hiatt.

    You just put those links up there to raise my blood pressure, don't you.
    ~

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  3. Alright, I’m bringing out the big guns. When my father formed, along with Bella Abzug, Allard Lowenstein, Alan Baron, and others, the New Democratic Coalition post-Chicago Dem convention riots, our house in U. City was the sleepover destination for many American freedom fighters, e.g. all of the above plus Bill Kunstler, Hollywooders Dick Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, and many others. But I had a girl-crush on Congressman Lowenstein like no other, probably because of the gentleness of his person and fierceness of his political oratory, a winning combination in my book. This, from his Brutal Mandate:

    Men can issue the direst of predictions and undertake only the most piddling of preventions, as if they did not believe their own prophecies and only wish to be remembered among those who will be able to say “I told you so” if the worst should come to pass.

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  4. I'd love to be wrong - my arrgh isn't about my future, it's about my daughter's - but I have too much faith in the assholosity of power to think those that have it, regardless what team they claim to play for and what large or small stakes they are playing for, won't use it. What if - sorry, I keep saying this - at any one moment, things ARE as good as humans are capable?

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  5. My arrgh is about your daughter too, but also you and yours and me and mine. Our human capacities are largely withdrawn even from ourselves. We'll have to inspire each other to manifest new capabilities. We have to, BDR. I don't want to be refeudalized. My own recent life gives the lie to your question. Look how courageous I am, darling. Look how brave. http://writtenwordspokenword.blogspot.com/2011/12/statement-of-purpose.html Anyway, Allard saw you coming. This from his Harvard Day speech 6-6-69:

    "The only thing that seems certain to me is that nothing is certain; that inevitabilities are myths, that how we behave will profoundly affect how things come out, that the dogma that things cannot get better is suitable only for those who hope to make such prophecies of doom self-fulfilling."

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  6. I haven't given up, I've just lack a new language and not faith in the old language. I'm working on it.

    And you've been blogrolled in Because Left (next time you're stranded in Waldorf and can get out to DC, I'll buy you a drink and you can make it into Me and Mine).

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  7. Thank you Frances for saying better than I ever could what I was feeling. Thanks for the recognition BDR. Also

    The only people who were arrested were those who wanted to be arrested. Never fear. The park police and OccupyDC folks actually know how to do this in a civilized manner.

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