Negative Legacy....
...for want of oil and power, lies were created; for want of yellow cake, an ideal was denied; for want of a CIA sacrifice, trust disappeared; for want of honesty, people die and a nation was lost.
It seems that very few things are manufactured in the United States anymore, except for lies and bungling incompetents. And just as our manufacturing interests were eager to shift U.S. jobs to overseas locations, our liars and incompetents spread their oily, fecal begrimed hands across oceans as well. This very bad Theatre of the Absurd play has stolen stationery from Italy, created forged documents from Niger, recruited a second banana from England, condemned a personification of Satan from Saudi Arabia hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Syria or running a deli on Long Island (the director can't decide) and tied him to an evil villain in Iraq whose very existence threatened innocent Americas with toxic mushroom clouds. We have a cast of thousands from from Iran, suspicious interlopers from Palestine and Israel, and critics from France and Germany. We also have far too many deaths, a training ground for explosive experts, daily episodes of bloody carnage, an overstressed and faltering military, a mountain of debt, 5000 pairs of cracked rose colored glasses, a spendthrift, dithering domestic government under the control of a majority party with third rate skills and delusions of grandeur, and a spinelsss minority party of groundhogs who see their shadow and burrow away to hide. To the terminal shame of all those who prefer stage presence to overacting and melodrama, we have the height of slapstick comedy.
With such a badly conceived story and poorly executed plan, is it any wonder it would take an outsider (Patrick Fitzgerald) two years to wade through the butchered prose, fractured reporting, poor quality stage props and mangled scenes to get to the crux of the plot?
Over two hundred fifty years ago, our original drama was conceived, cast and produced by a learned and dedicated group of thinkers, writers, and designers. Today, their magnificient idea is hardly recognizable. Those responsible for maintaining the integrity of the message and the honorable nature of the craft have been unwilling and unable to do the real work of protecting and maintaining an historic treasure. Ham handedly, they've taken short cuts and forged new paths through mental terrain unfit for human habitation. They've cheated and short changed the members of their cast and their audience. They've resorted to faulty advertising and questionable marketing. Like blind rhinoceros on a mad rampage, they've trampled the rights of others, broken the covenant of their positions and instead of cleaning up the messes they've made in their playpen, have hired other incompetents without conscience to merely brush the broken pieces of public trust under the rug. The detrius and offal is now so high, no one with awareness can avaoid stumbling over it.
Prior to our current horror and legacy of deceit, we had the legacy of Richard Nixon and the Watergate coverup. Prior to that glitch on the timeline of history, we had the legacy of Ronald Reagan the Iran-contra, and prior to that, we had the legacy of another ill conceived and poorly executed war - Vietnam. Possibly the most similar legacy for contemptibility, coercion, deceit, lies, and intiminidation all under the guise of patriotism and flag wrap would be Joseph McCarthy and the exploited fear factor of a Godless red menace. All that pomp, ceremony, grandstanding and posturing left the certitude that we had to have a recognizable enemy beyond our borders so we would not notice the enemy within, and that shoddy tactic and sleazy approach hasn't changed. The only new element to the legacy of Now, is a legacy we embraced in 1912 through 1917 during the days of silent movies. Max Sennett brought us the Keystone Kops, a band of incompetent, loud, frantic and energetic nincompoops remembered for their bumbling, bungling, lunacy and thoroughly stupid attempts at being saviors and men of action.
Isn't there some way our polarized nation and our few capable but disaffected public servants can come together long enough to say it's time we saw the end of all the jerks, shysters, and underhanded scalliwags sucking at the national teat? Can we not clean our own house and throw out the trash and garbage? Has this country lost all semblance of responsible action, determination and the shared spirit of a treasured nation that believes in itself, each other, and its experiment in equality? Haven't we the strength and clear vision to run all the bastards out on a rail? If we cannot find the courage to face the pettiness of our individual complaints and ignore both the real and perceived slights perpetrated against us, we will never achieve our own promise. Our current legacy will never change and we will continue to repeat these same monumental mistakes again and again. Our continued betrayal by our leadership is horrific enough. Our betrayal of ourselves will surely kill us.
...for want of oil and power, lies were created; for want of yellow cake, an ideal was denied; for want of a CIA sacrifice, trust disappeared; for want of honesty, people die and a nation was lost.
It seems that very few things are manufactured in the United States anymore, except for lies and bungling incompetents. And just as our manufacturing interests were eager to shift U.S. jobs to overseas locations, our liars and incompetents spread their oily, fecal begrimed hands across oceans as well. This very bad Theatre of the Absurd play has stolen stationery from Italy, created forged documents from Niger, recruited a second banana from England, condemned a personification of Satan from Saudi Arabia hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Syria or running a deli on Long Island (the director can't decide) and tied him to an evil villain in Iraq whose very existence threatened innocent Americas with toxic mushroom clouds. We have a cast of thousands from from Iran, suspicious interlopers from Palestine and Israel, and critics from France and Germany. We also have far too many deaths, a training ground for explosive experts, daily episodes of bloody carnage, an overstressed and faltering military, a mountain of debt, 5000 pairs of cracked rose colored glasses, a spendthrift, dithering domestic government under the control of a majority party with third rate skills and delusions of grandeur, and a spinelsss minority party of groundhogs who see their shadow and burrow away to hide. To the terminal shame of all those who prefer stage presence to overacting and melodrama, we have the height of slapstick comedy.
With such a badly conceived story and poorly executed plan, is it any wonder it would take an outsider (Patrick Fitzgerald) two years to wade through the butchered prose, fractured reporting, poor quality stage props and mangled scenes to get to the crux of the plot?
Over two hundred fifty years ago, our original drama was conceived, cast and produced by a learned and dedicated group of thinkers, writers, and designers. Today, their magnificient idea is hardly recognizable. Those responsible for maintaining the integrity of the message and the honorable nature of the craft have been unwilling and unable to do the real work of protecting and maintaining an historic treasure. Ham handedly, they've taken short cuts and forged new paths through mental terrain unfit for human habitation. They've cheated and short changed the members of their cast and their audience. They've resorted to faulty advertising and questionable marketing. Like blind rhinoceros on a mad rampage, they've trampled the rights of others, broken the covenant of their positions and instead of cleaning up the messes they've made in their playpen, have hired other incompetents without conscience to merely brush the broken pieces of public trust under the rug. The detrius and offal is now so high, no one with awareness can avaoid stumbling over it.
Prior to our current horror and legacy of deceit, we had the legacy of Richard Nixon and the Watergate coverup. Prior to that glitch on the timeline of history, we had the legacy of Ronald Reagan the Iran-contra, and prior to that, we had the legacy of another ill conceived and poorly executed war - Vietnam. Possibly the most similar legacy for contemptibility, coercion, deceit, lies, and intiminidation all under the guise of patriotism and flag wrap would be Joseph McCarthy and the exploited fear factor of a Godless red menace. All that pomp, ceremony, grandstanding and posturing left the certitude that we had to have a recognizable enemy beyond our borders so we would not notice the enemy within, and that shoddy tactic and sleazy approach hasn't changed. The only new element to the legacy of Now, is a legacy we embraced in 1912 through 1917 during the days of silent movies. Max Sennett brought us the Keystone Kops, a band of incompetent, loud, frantic and energetic nincompoops remembered for their bumbling, bungling, lunacy and thoroughly stupid attempts at being saviors and men of action.
Isn't there some way our polarized nation and our few capable but disaffected public servants can come together long enough to say it's time we saw the end of all the jerks, shysters, and underhanded scalliwags sucking at the national teat? Can we not clean our own house and throw out the trash and garbage? Has this country lost all semblance of responsible action, determination and the shared spirit of a treasured nation that believes in itself, each other, and its experiment in equality? Haven't we the strength and clear vision to run all the bastards out on a rail? If we cannot find the courage to face the pettiness of our individual complaints and ignore both the real and perceived slights perpetrated against us, we will never achieve our own promise. Our current legacy will never change and we will continue to repeat these same monumental mistakes again and again. Our continued betrayal by our leadership is horrific enough. Our betrayal of ourselves will surely kill us.
posted by kaz at 8:59 PM
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