Into the Abyss

Sun Aug 13 21:37:02 CDT 2017

            I wake early. Most days I’m up around 4 a.m. The air is fresh
and cool in summer, there is little traffic on the roads, and even the
animal world is relatively quiet during some phases of the moon. News
doesn’t change much over the weekends because the people who write the news
work Monday through Friday jobs, while those who make the news prosper by
plotting their next image show during the news-quiet weekends. Anyway,
those of us up at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning have better things to think
about than what makes a splash in the cess-puddle of news.

            I think about trauma and what makes a warrior culture, such as
our own, tick. In other primitive cultures, the greatest warrior struts and
vaunts his triumphs as the people adore him for his pride and ability. He
has celebrity status and the lesser warriors try to emulate his behavior in
anticipation that they, too, might become great warriors and prance before
the adoring tribe. Such cultures celebrate the great warrior because he
triumphs over lesser people. Yet, all the while, he is a great warrior only
because his developmental trauma and ptsd make him hypervigilant and
aggressive.

            When I check the news, I see a primitive warrior culture with
advanced technology, where even the weak warrior triumphs through his
manipulation of the wares of sophisticated primitivism, and it makes me
feel sick and weary. Our greatest potentials deliver our greatest ills.

On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 6:55 PM, gary webb <gwebb8686 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't think anyone knows what the answer is... There was innocent blood
> shed and people injured, the incoherence of the moment, and the battle for
> hearts and minds latter, the mentally deranged and black hearts of the body
> politic... Fortunately, I don't think this was a victory for the Nazis, but
> they'll be back... In Boston, no less...
>
> On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 9:40 PM, jesse gooch <jlguuch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I live in Charlottesville. I wasn’t there for the mess yesterday, but I
>> was downtown this afternoon and it’s insane. There is a sniper posted
>> across from city hall because of a press release that Richard Spencer
>> wanted to give. He tried, but people just chanted the word “shame” over and
>> over until he left. Also, the pavilion at the end of the outdoor mall is
>> full of riot cops on standby, there are large, windowless DOC busses
>> (usually used to transport inmates) parked in case they need to truck
>> people off, and there are a lot of state police mean-mugging people and
>> marching up and down the mall. They even cancelled the showing of Roman
>> Holiday (obviously not that important, but still). One of my friends was
>> nearly hit by that car and was, at 3 this afternoon, still visibly in shock.
>>
>> I’ve avoided this thing for a while. Partly because I don’t see the point
>> in removing one statue of Robert E Lee from a town that is littered with
>> monuments to slave owning politicians (not sure why they all get a pass and
>> the guy that led armies to protect their interests needs to be removed),
>> and partly because I’m on parole and don’t want to be sent back to prison
>> for fighting with people over a statue that I don’t really think should be
>> removed. After being down there and talking to some people that I know, I’m
>> rethinking my lack of involvement. Sadly, in the end, the white
>> supremacists were able to attract media attention that they absolutely
>> love, and now there is a good reason for a heavier police presence. I’m not
>> sure what the answer is.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Aug 13, 2017, at 5:22 PM, gary webb <gwebb8686 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Terrorism is tool used by different ideologies. I agree there are big
>> similarities between our home grown extremists and those from the Middle
>> East. What is weirder now, at least in US, is instead of the paramilitary
>> backwoods extremist, a la Timothy McVeigh, where most everyone was
>> universal in condemnation, now from certain administration officials on
>> down, you have silence. There is no vigorous condemnation or disavowal.
>>
>> This event seems more organized and more media based. These guys aren't
>> desperate. They want images to illustrate the intolerance and violence of
>> protesters. I don't think they wanted any suicide bombers, or drivers. They
>> wanted a fight. Then, say no one was injured or hurt, we would be bombarded
>> of images of protesters of the left attacking these doe eyed college
>> republicans... And I don't think it's a coincidence that these "riots" are
>> taking place in college campuses... The have been on the Right's target
>> list for a long time...
>>
>> There is something weirder going on here in the US...
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 4:55 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Umm, how does Alt-Reich murder by car differ from those recently also
>>> murders by car by Muslims in Paris?
>>> Nuance ain't necessary here.  White fear is just our US flavor.  They
>>> are equally terrorists.
>>>
>>> These terrorists all fear extinction.  They know they are dying, and
>>> that makes them frantic!
>>>
>>> David Morris
>>>
>>> On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 3:36 PM Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Well, Drudge IS Jewish, after all. So there must be at least a tiny
>>>> speck of consciousness about this kind of stuff... race memory, if you
>>>> will. At least enough to give him a frisson of uncanny, generational
>>>> recognition.
>>>>
>>>> Re: the look and attire of the right-wing mob this time... on Twitter
>>>> the self-described "scumbag left" (like the Chapo Trap House gang) are
>>>> calling this "the Pussy Riot" and comedian Doug Stanhope has stepped
>>>> up with a great solution for the next time there's a tiki
>>>> torch-wielding bunch of Nazis marching through your town: water
>>>> balloons filled with gasoline.
>>>>
>>>> The footage of that Nazi plowing through the crowd of peaceful
>>>> protesters is harrowing and disgusting in its blatant, brazen
>>>> cowardice.
>>>>
>>>> But I have to agree with you, Gary. Positive (by which I mean
>>>> negative) reactions to this affront set aside for the moment, I do
>>>> believe that the waters of the Rubicon are lapping at our collective
>>>> toes. It's like the Powers That Be (or, in this case, the rogue Deep
>>>> State faction that I've been calling the New Fascist International)
>>>> have perfected some new form of brainwashing - a technique that leaves
>>>> the subject/victim's mind not only altered, but booby-trapped against
>>>> any and all attempts at reasoning with it.
>>>>
>>>> Real journalism is "Fake News". Lies in the service of the Far Right
>>>> agenda are Truth. BLM = KKK. Immigration = White Genocide.
>>>>
>>>> Booby-trapped brains. Impervious to reason, logic, or empirical
>>>> evidence that contradicts their erroneous beliefs. And with every
>>>> passing day, everywhere you look, there's more of these fuckers. For
>>>> fuck's sake, they're working in the WHITE HOUSE.
>>>>
>>>> We are so royally screwed.
>>>>
>>>> Jerky
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 4:02 PM, gary webb <gwebb8686 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > I don't know about the rest of the list but I've been unnaturally
>>>> disturbed
>>>> > about the events of Charlottesville. As an American, I suppose I
>>>> should be
>>>> > more cynical, and actually come to expect this sort of violence, but
>>>> there
>>>> > is something off. Looking at the pictures, these Unite the Right guys
>>>> look
>>>> > pretty unremarkable, like VCR repairman,not what I'd associate with
>>>> > storm-trooper, AKA Puck Beaverton, the resemble Arendt's depiction of
>>>> > Eichmann, not paramilitary types, which I've come to expect, but its
>>>> > nonetheless remarkable in 2017, that the "Blood and Soil" movement
>>>> nonsense
>>>> > feels it can make a big PR-push into the mainstream.
>>>> >
>>>> > I found the President's silence to be remarkable, and David Duke's
>>>> tweet,
>>>> > and this all goes back to that NRA video Jerky posted a while back, a
>>>> > campaign is afoot to provoke and demonize the left, and that's what
>>>> these
>>>> > Alt-Right Nazis do, then the right has images which they spin to
>>>> scare the
>>>> > hell out of paranoid suburbanites...
>>>> >
>>>> > It looks like the plan backfired, and an innocent woman was killed
>>>> > protesting, and others injured by some kamikaze white nationalist
>>>> from Ohio.
>>>> > But I'm sure in the coming months or years, they will have their Horst
>>>> > Wessel... and the Right will continue to use these assholes as blunt
>>>> > instruments, just like the Weimar right did, thinking that they can
>>>> control
>>>> > them, until its too late...
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> -
>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
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