“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” - George Orwell · What if George wasn’t just being ironic, what if Mr. Orwell was on the right track, but didn’t expand his thinking far enough to provide a real roadmap for a successful future for us all? Imagine having license to wage protracted war on every wrong you have ever witnessed; line up thugs and mow them down with brutal force¿ What if our free will yoked us to some mythological condition where restraint from violence only yielded greater oppression, and what if keeping the gloves on when faced with the nazis of our time only results in greater oppression by spineless apes serving as handmaidens to the “stinking rich”? What if disallowing every sacred text ever written about love and forgiveness rendered all of mankind, as Dinah Washington opined “better than the rest”¿
Interesting fantasy for a sultry afternoon when my home state is burning to its roots because a handful of petronazis want to extract more fossil fuel from mama Gaia at a time when all of non-venal science has proven that to be a “suicidal act.” What do you suppose master Lao Tzu meant when he recommended “empty their minds and fill their stomachs, . . . treat people like ‘straw dogs’.” A movie which BTW, though i find Dustin Hoffman generally tedious was, and remains a favorite. When master Tzu says ‘empty their minds’, is he referring to the placid surface the mind can achieve after disciplined meditation in a concerted effort to open our anatomical passions to the metaphysical reality of star dust filtering through our semi-tragic, semi-comedic existential protoplasm?
When master Tzu says fill their stomachs, is he referring to the “comfort food” one might find in cajun ribs out of Louisiana where black and white folk sit cheek-to-jowl chomping BBQ pork ribs and sucking down white lighting and lemonade¿ I’m lost anymore, but am willing to bet were i to sit at the bedside of her/his hurtingnest-hangover-wakeup; of the dumbest jackass in _rumpland with a half-pint of Jack Daniels and photos of the blackest pornography this sick world could render, that person rather than be inflamed would simply succumb and become the base character that s/he has aspired to since the 1st moment in their socialization said “you may not".
Master Tzu has said elsewhere “give evil nothing to oppose, it will disappear on its own.” No passion i have ever asserted resulted in any cosmic success i am aware of - decades of increasing decline, maybe; countless doubts and questions, certainly - but never acquisition of the complete nature that my conceit provided as a standard. We have nothing left to lose, except everything this speckled planet of blue and green gave to us openly and freely from the first moment we found voice for the moon other animals could only howl at. We who claim such wisdom with our convictions and who have been completely unable to cede her power, just as “man” has never allowed himself the subjugation only “she” who delivered us in the 1st place can provide. (autobiographical frustration, no doubt - but ultimately of her own design · for ‘she’ is diabolical, and i am simply a faint offspring) don’t believe me ask her, she’ll tell herself if she still lives.
So who, or what came up with this pacific hysteria of calm love in the midst of an emotional inferno? It wasn’t me, but i feel like i’ve been blamed for it, and every injustice any other person has ever committed from the time i first learned to listen to other people's feelings. I do not regret the that ineffable capacity, however sleight; Leonard Cohen himself said “i could not feel so i tried to touch,” so who am i to complain about some possibly emotional fiction that i possess ‘empathy;’ i say empathy based only on the narrow number of humans i’ve ever met who actually, “Grock” me, or i them. Anymore, my expectation for understanding is pretty much exhausted and i look forward to the ice cold reality of dead corpuscles surrounding my once vibrant consciousness - not from surrender about things i have no control over, but curiosity to learn more about the abundant things in this huge universe which i clearly have no control over - happy trails, mother & fatherfuckers ·
jts 08/09/2020
http://stoanartst.blogspot.com
reprinted with permission - all rights reserved
∞
No comments:
Post a Comment