Thursday, June 18, 2009

Life is Worth Losing

My favorite Comedian, and a personal hero of mine, died last year in late June. George Carlin was a genius of our time, a revolutionary. He was a man enlightened. A savant of comedy for the way he infused his art with political activism, philosophical awareness, and satire of human absurdity. This is a quote from one of his shows. Rest assured, there will very likely be more to come, as this only covers the political side of things, but a better critique on contemporary politics, I have yet to find.

"There's a reason that education sucks, and it’s the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it. Be happy with what you’ve got. Because the owners of this country don’t want that. I’m talking about the real owners now, the big, wealthy, business interests that control all things and make the big decisions.

Forget the politicians, they’re irrelevant.

Politicians are put there to give you that idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, and they’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the State Houses, and the City Halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.

They’ve got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want—they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interest. You know something, they don’t want people that are smart enough to sit around their kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

They don’t want that, you know what they want?

They want obedient workers, obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it.

And now they’re coming for your social security money.

They want your fucking retirement money; they want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later because they own this fucking place. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it! You and I are not in the Big Club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you in the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

The table is tilted folks, the game is rigged.

Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good honest hard working people, white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about…give a fuck about you! They don’t care about you at all, at all, at all.

And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.

That’s what the owners count on, the fact that Americans are and will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white, and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth, it’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

-Max Ehrmann

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Theory of the Leisure Class

Thorsten Veblen had one, but I think I prefer the Richard Yates/Sam Mendes variation.
It starts with a dance:


“What do you do?”

“I’m a longshoreman.”

“No, I mean really.”

“I mean really, too.”

“Starting Monday, though, I’ve got a better job. Night cashier in the cafeteria.”

“Well, but I don’t mean things like that. I mean, what are you interested in?”

“Honey─” (And he was still young enough so that the audacity of saying “Honey” on such short acquaintance made him blush) “─Honey, if I had the answer to that one, I bet I’d bore us both to death in half an hour.”

I moves to a fight:

"So now I'm crazy because I don't love you, right? Is that the point?"
"No! Wrong! You're not crazy, and you do love me. That's the point, April."
"But I don't. I hate you. You were just some boy who made me laugh at a party once, and now I loathe the sight of you. In fact, if you come any closer, if you touch me or anything, I think I'll scream."

"Oh, come on, stop this April."
[He touches her for an instant and she screams at the top of her lungs before walking away. He chases after her]
"Fuck you, April! Fuck you and all your hateful, goddamn - "
[He breaks a chair against a wall]
"What are you going to do now? Are you going to hit me? To show me how much you love me?
"Don't worry, I can't be bothered! You're not worth the trouble it would take to hit you! You're not worth the powder it would take to blow you up. You are an empty, empty, hollow shell of a woman. I mean, what the hell are you doing in my house if you hate me so much? Why the hell are you married to me? What the hell are you doing carrying my child? I mean, why didn't you just get rid of it when you had the chance? Because listen to me, listen to me, I got news for you - I wish to God that you had!"

You did it to yourself, man, you should have gone to Paris. "It takes backbone to lead the life you want, Frank."

Sam, Mendes, you are a god at capturing the hopeless emptiness of suburbia.

"Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness."

Remember this little gem?



My hat goes off to you Mendes


-Bohemian Dandy



Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Life in the Fourth Dimension

Everything is happening all at once. I am me, and I am me, and I am a million different me's, simultaneously, living the same life through different eyes. I want everything in life, and that's a contradiction. Life through paradox is the only way I know how. I am Dorian Gray in Bohemia, a vagabond with a top hat; I am me, and I am me, and I am a million different me's, all circumventing an esoteric core.

"Where are you going?" "What are you doing with your life?" "Choose a life, one life, and live it until your last breath escapes you." I refuse. There is too much to experience and so little time. To live this life right, to see and do everything you can possibly do, you have to be more than one person. I reject singularity, I reject linearity. I am the epicenter from which a million different me's are sprouting. I am the Bohemian, the Dandy, the Rockstar, the Romantic, the Rebel, the Philosopher; I am me, and I am me, and I am a million different me's. Together, I'll live life to the fullest, like people only dream. Stay with me, as I venture down the rabbit hole.

-Bohemian Dandy

"There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet." - Dr. Manhattan

BEHOLD!

A boy born from far beyond,
betwixt Bohemia and Babylon,
A binary brother of both bombast and brevity
a bipolar being both beatnik and dandy
a bachelor of badinage,
A bastion of bedlam,
A bacchanal of Bordeaux and bourbon
Currently bridled, but bound to burgeon
A believer in things both classic and beautiful
Bound with every breath to a life bountiful
A beacon of light in this bourgeois banality
Bonjour my brethren,
-Bohemian Dandy