Interest and Perspective

Flashback
[I wrote this on 8/5, two weeks ago and less than a
week before Cindy Sheehan started everyone's engines
up. Funny thing is that it started out as an email to
a friend regarding Bush's suggestion that we teach
creationism in schools. Looking at it in light of the
past two weeks is interesting methinks. It's a true
relief that we just needed some event or person to
coalesce around, and that we haven't been completely
stultified yet.]

Why don’t I talk about us, that is, Americans. First
off, the last two decades have been insane and
inhuman; as a country we’ve lost sight of the proper
goals of a civilization, that is, enlightenment of the
people, their comfort, and peace. The framing of the
situation comes from different perspectival models, to
use a military term, but the bottom line is this: our
country is out of balance. In fact, we’ve been
spinning out of balance for the last two decades, from
what I've gathered.

That said (and left unexplained, we (and here I mean
again my colleagues) are in a unique position, not only
to recover a lot of lost political ground, but also to
reclaim a lot of our heritage, our humanity. It is
altogether possible to create real change in our land:
in addition those who’ve had their eyes open since the
beginning (You know who you are, you kidders), large
numbers of mainstream America have woken up to the
plain facts that their leadership stinks, that it in
fact despises them and wishes to staunch the bleeding
by tightening the noose. The current administration
has done nothing positive (the fear-filled jingoist
may disagree), and in fact in recent days has proposed
that American schools not only go back to being lazy
about science, but actively teaching half-truths about
our natural origins (only if they want to, of course).
Bush may have our souls’ best interests at heart if
what he proposes is that we recognize our place in a
world guided by forces unseen, but Americans know that
this is not science and does not belong in public
school science courses. The result is a flat insult to
their intelligence. (We won’t even talk about how a
“activist” court might remedy such an error.)

So the people of America know enough, thank god,
through our cultural memory and sufficient education
(for those who needed it, which may not include our
aforementioned downtrodden who neither needed nor
received this sort of education from the state) to
realize these problems. What’s more, we also know
enough (enough of us, at least) to see a new path. We
all long for peace, comfort, and human connection. The
government can provide the first, to a large degree,
can aid us in attaining the second, and has nothing to
do with the third. Bush won’t provide spiritual
meaning – we’ll provide it ourselves. My friends and
colleagues know that, given restricted government
interference in our lives (which the right wing
espouses as a goal while simultaneous building up the
machinery of control), we will find peace and
happiness and will lead our brothers and sisters to
the same. The right wing does not believe this. And
the corporate branch of the conservative party will
have none of it—they’ve inventory to liquidate.

You may ask, if you are against government
interference in our lives, why are you against Bush’s
plan to “give schools more freedom”? Well, the answer,
my conservative-minded friend (whom I am by no means
bashing, given that my though train looks
counterintuitive and may bear a resemblance to the
paradox many conservatives see in liberalism, which,
once addressed, may actually turn out to be a point of
solidarity between everyone, regardless of which side
of the virtual, arbitrary, and dehumanizing “political
specturm” we’re all forced to place ourselves on) is
this: Bush’s granting schools license to teach
nonscience subjects in science classes, subjects which
should be intrroduced in philosophy classes, is not
freedom.

Freedom would mean educating our children with
textbooks that come from the same decade, not letting
the kids in the red states get the shaft from those
that benefit by keeping them in the dark.

Freedom would be giving public schools money to study
philosophy. But this can’t be allowed to happen.
Bush’s coalition is not only made up of the
spiritual/religious-minded, but also the
corporate/money-minded, who would certainly pull the
rug out from any hippy-dippy shit like that (read:
neo-cons and religious conservatives never the
twain shall meet).

But back to my main point, which is not as dark as
this diatribe may sound. Bush is starting to look
ridiculous, and people my age think we’re all pretty
smart. We may not all want to lead just yet, but we
can certainly throw the bums out in three years. Let’s
hope they don’t do too much damage before then.