So I'm on my second attempt at reading/finishing Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". I started it more than six months ago, and after about two hundred pages (or years), at least two mill D E A D, and too many gross accounts of explorers' misinterpretations of what Jesus meant when he said "Go into the world and preach the gospel", I had to put the murdered baby lamb of a history lesson down in order to regain my appetite/hope for the present/future/faith in humanity. (Incidentally, only the appetite returned.) Then, lo and behold, I start interning for this documentary project - time coding and archiving footage, writing clip synopsis, blah blah blah - and one of the interviewees for the film is none other than the actual man/historian/pinko Howard Zinn! And the best part? It's not like he's just a contributing talking-head historian, rather, he is actually part of the story being told! He hid the Pentagon Papers for Daniel Ellsberg for a time back in the 60s or 70s - or whenever the whole Vietnam... Watergate... Nixon mess happened. (Obviously, I'm no historian, nor do I fully understand the doc I'm working for.) I'm all, "how cool is it that I'm cutting and pasting the text of Howard Fuckin' Zinn's recently spoken words? I'm part of something special...maybe...!" So anyways, it made me pick up the book again so I could read his first-hand account of that VietWatNix junk, but I started with WWI instead. I don't know why; I suppose I was curious about the Socialist movement (don't tell my dad).
Cut to today, three weeks into the Espionage Act. I'd yet to pick up the book this morning as I had to move my car to a legal space. As soon as I stepped outside onto the sidewalk I smelled summer, and with the long 4th of July weekend beckoning me forth, I left footprints of happiness in the wake of my stroll to where I'd left my vehicle. THE FUCKING GREEN ENVELOPE OF DOOM crammed under my wiper didn't kill my joy at first. I grabbed it, entered my car, took off my headphones and my sunglasses, and searched for the amount this ticket would cost me... $24? No... $35? No... $48?... FUCK YOU GODDAMN MUTHERFUCKERS. No, I think I yelled something closer to YOU FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT. Yes, that was it. (You've seen my parking rants, you know how I roll.)
After re-parking my car, I attempt to calm myself down on my walk to the train. Money worries (especially saving for huge future events like moving and planned unemployment) can weigh very heavy on one's heart and rip out one's peace of mind - thereby making one a complete sourpuss bitch and not fun to be around. I don't want to be that one this long camping-weekend. Ah, the book; I decide to get lost in Zinn's eloquent and poignant prose -- even going to far as to think "now those people, those people had it rough - get some perspective".
But see, all that rhetorical jazz I used to assuage myself? That shit don't work with Zinn. 1) History actually happened. This isn't fiction; these people existed and suffered -- usually unjustly and at the hands of utmost puritanical stupidity and hypocrisy, propelled by white male ego, entitlement, and infinite greed. 2) Uhmmm, it still fucking happens. Only now, today, we lock people up under the guise of protecting the masses from terrorism (instead of communism, or treason) and we do it via oppressive and unconstitutional law called The Patriot Act (instead of The Espionage Act). We throw people in the brig sans due process, only we keep them in Guantanamo Bay, or the back room of an airport or whatever torture chambers the White House has privy to that Geraldo hasn't discovered yet.
The foundation of this nation is bologna-sandwich-firm at best. The government has no apparent interest in its people. Freedom is a slogan, akin to Just Do It or Just Say No. It's an allusion, a masterful marketing gimmick. The popular opinion of this country is to end the war in Iraq, as was it the popular opinion of this country to keep out of WWI. And if you keep your head buried in racks of discount clothing or in a newspaper or in your Big Mac Value Meal or in your fucking meds, the government will leave you alone.
My father, in his elder age (brain now ten years soaked in Limbaughisms and O'Reilly-urine) will tell you he values safety over freedom. He says terrorism is the reason. And when I ask him how that translates to him, or his family, getting carted away by FBI, tossed away in a cell with no explanation of charges, denied constitutional due process of law and waiting waiting waiting while the witch hunt round-up continues? He thinks he's immune; he also thinks some innocent should suffer for the good of many. He says terrorism is such a foe, that some freedom MUST be relinquished. I imagine if my father were around during WWI, he would have said, of the socialists fighting the war and conscription, "Treasonists! Drag them to the streets and shoot them like dogs!" Oh, my daddy.
So history repeats itself essentially. The present-day is only more desirable since it is better lit, less diseased, more connected and arguably more humane. The value system, the hierarchy, the management/labor gap, the propaganda, the injustice and war, that is all exactly the same.
Which brings me back to this doggone brilliant Zinn-afflicted documentary! Grassroots social movements spur progressive policy change, history proves it time and time again. This decade has seen the rise of the newest effectual tool of that movement, the documentary film. Support documentary filmmakers, support documentary films. Even a hopeless realist like me can't deny their far-reaching impacts. Even I believe change is possible, and the only way I believe hearts and minds can be truly moved is by film (and music) (but mostly film). See one today!
Happy Independence Day.
(Oh, btw, the pictures here are of this amazing spider sculpture at Embarcadero & Mission in SF. We have it on loan from some country in Europe through August. If you have the means, I highly recommend a visit! And thanks to commenter, e, for the Fascism image!)
1 comment:
wow that is so cool that you are working on that project!
that sculpture is amazing!
when i was doing some research this freaked me out a bit:
"The Schutzstaffel (help·info) (German for "Protective Squadron"), abbreviated SS- or Runic "SS" (Runic)- was a major Nazi military organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to an elite force that served as the Führer's "Praetorian Guard," the Nazi Party's "Shield Squadron" and a force with as much political influence as the regular German armed forces. Built upon the Nazi racist ideology, the SS, under Heinrich Himmler's command, was primarily responsible for the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazis during the Second World War."
s.s.
secret service.....
primary job to protect the president... have we been setting our government up for fascism???
"Fascists promote a type of national unity that is usually based on (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, national, racial, and/or religious attributes. Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as among its key parts: nationalism, militarism, totalitarianism, statism, dictatorship, populism, collectivism. In addition, Fascism opposes classic political and economic liberalism, conservatism, and communism."
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