The Jack Bull.

[byronius]

I just finished watching this film. A beautiful work. John Cusack and John Goodman bring out the complex nature of the birth pains of civil society. Fair people, and unfair people. Good judges, and purchased judges. Good Law, and lying sheriffs. Friends, and bitter enemies. Life and Death come to all things that live, and Time moves on, and character and circumstance repeat.

I have something to say. The United States of America was murdered on December 11th, 2000, by crooked politicians wearing black robes, calling themselves the Supreme Court of the United States Of America. They used laws written to protect the rights of besieged black American citizens to nullify the will of the American Electorate, in a bold mock of all that is sacred about the idea of this nation. They murdered an idea, a philosophy that I hold sacred. My friend Aldous will point to the darkness in this nation's soul and action, but that is not what I mean. I mean the Idea. The way of living together that was conceived Here. When practiced well, it is a Light. When practiced poorly, it is not. When murdered, it is gone, until it is resurrected by others who hold it more dear, more important than sustenance, comfort, entertainment, profit, consolidation, rule.

I have not lived in America for over six years now. This time has brought about the worst in the people that live in this land. The best have been robbed of their spirit, coralled into chain-link fence areas, guarded and bullied into silence by men who are paid with their taxes. Lives have been ruined by slander and clever dealing. Formerly American soldiers have died to protect a corporate state which owes them no loyalty, which has only demeaned them with dishonorable speech and cuts in Veteran's Administration programs. We have become a land without meaning. The Idea has been murdered, and without the Idea, the soul of this nation has withered to a black stump. All that is left that is good is beleaguered; all that is dark and destructive has profited handsomely. Speakers of truth are either pathetically quiet, or unheard in the rush to greed by all — who will stand and pay the heaviest price, when all around, even some with good hearts, abandon the Idea in the rush for survival in this New Land?

I have not felt at home here for six years. I do not know these people. They are not my Fellows. They do not Believe. The bravest, and I honor them with my life and words for as long as I live, have spoken and written and marched — but they have been swept back again and again by lies, slander, clever dealing, and electronic election fraud. It seems as if Wisdom and Logic themselves have been spitted and set to burn in these days. I am ashamed for us, that we have failed so miserably to Set Things Right. There is little Law, and even less Justice in this land, and without these things there will be nothing of worth left to our children.

November 7th. Everyone speaks with hope. Some men I know are refusing to vote, choosing instead a silent reproach that will surely hasten our slide into Empire. I cannot bear to argue this with anyone, anymore. I say the Vote is all that is left; some say it is already gone. I choose to believe that the Criminal System has not yet taken complete power. They have suffered small defeats here and there, that have consumed the lives and fortunes of good and honorable men; they have not yet found the Perfect Voice of Control. If they continue their as-yet unbroken string of electoral victories, resting on the nature of Frightened People to let pass in darkness those things they cannot bear to witness or contemplate, I will lose my faith, as many others have. I do not think we will recover the Idea in this generation, if this happens. Perhaps it is for the best, somehow. It may be that our prostration and humiliation by the weaker among us will serve someone else as a strong lesson. I'm sure it does already.

November 7th. William S. Burroughs called the 1960's 'the last great gasp of the human race'; but I think it is fourteen days from today. When the gains appear to be minimal, and the close races swing to the Republicans at the last minute, I will know they have succeeded in finding the Voice. Ours will be silenced; those who cheat the Idea will alone be heard. Men's thoughts will turn from Justice to Revenge; it is all that is left to the man denied Law, and Justice. It will be perfect Anarchy, clothed in 7-11's and reality shows. Some say it already is; I say — not until November 8th.

Vote. For the sake of the Idea. Vote.

[ceile]

1. I agree.

And by the way my SO has been dying to see Jack Bull. I'll pass on the good review.

[villager]

2. By "not live" do you mean you moved? Or that America

has ceased to be the America you once lived in? If the latter, well then, yeah, I haven't lived in America in a long time, either.

Perhaps Burroughs was right about the 60's. the other side made sure there were overdoses and "lone nuts" to bring that "security breech" to a halt...

[byronius]

3. I'm still here. And America is a state of mind, and I live there, so...

I guess I still do live in America.

[genie_weenie]

4. The America you speak of has Never existed.

It's like Augustine's City of God. A Nebulous Ideal. But, what's worse is that for over 200 years Americans have allowed themselves to be deluded into believing they live in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Whereas the Rulers have simply trickled-down just enough wealth and divided the "lesser" classes to keep them docile.

[byronius]

5. My buddy says the same thing.

People's History of the United States, and all that. Nonetheless -- the philosophy is sound, practice perhaps not.

[leftstreet]

6. "For the sake of the Idea"

Sad, but true.

k&r


cafepress

[Bad Penny]

7. Great film

Speaks the truth. Goodman's best performance by ten miles. He's fantastic in it