A Welcome Relief of Black and White

“Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.”
--Slovenian proverb

“I don’t mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.”
--Samuel Butler

There was a great budo quote along the lines of a warrior speaking the truth even when it is unpopular, but I couldn’t find it. I thought it was in one of my many books on the subject, but apparently I just read it in a bookstore once. I’d like to credit it to Gichin Funakoshi, but seeing as how I don’t even recall the exact quote, I’ll never know. So, instead, I found two quotes just now that I’d never actually seen before and thus had no prior bearing on my personal code of conduct (and are therefore, ironically, somewhat irrelevant). I didn’t want to search indefinitely for a quote just to preface this post, so I figured “to hell with it” and just went ahead with the post.

When I was young, my mom used to remind me, “Choose your battles.” Though it is an adage she herself apparently has since forgotten, it is something I have taken to heart. I have operated by it for years. Combine that saying with the oft-used expression “Well, you can’t win ‘em all,” and you have reason to discern when and where to at least win some. I don’t let myself get baited into fights unless they are the kind that I feel are important enough to wage.

Okay. I’m about to delve into some very, very touchy subjects, things I prefer never to blog about (at least, not on my own blog). Some of you are highly politically minded and will jump all over this, for better or worse, and I apologize if this turns brother against brother.

And before I begin, I want to make it clear that I am not explicitly pro-Obama. I am dead Center, so I tend to call Bullshit when I see it. That’s all this is about. Some things are better left unsaid, but some things need to be exorcised from one’s mind and heart, because one can feel very frustrated after the kind of intellectual isolation I have had. But I am not “pro-” anything or anyone.

Now. Here are a few points.

First of all, you can’t be Socialist and Nazi and Muslim. It’s just not possible. One hyperbole at a time, please. Politics aside, let’s all at least use words according to their actual definitions. I’m calling bullshit.

Second, Barack Obama isn’t a Muslim anyway. He’s a Christian. He has prayed in public—to “our” God, to the Christian God, if there really is such a difference (never mind the whole “God is One” thing Christian rock bands proclaim from the highest mountaintop).

Besides, remember that whole Reverend Wright thing? Yyyyeah… why would Obama have been vetted for his pastor’s insanity if he weren’t even Christian? Why would any of that have mattered? (Not that it should have anyway, but I don’t want to call myself an Individualist, because like I said, such labels are heavier than people seem to know, and I don’t want to misuse words’ meanings like everyone else.) You can’t condemn the president for being a dangerously insane Christian-esque wacko who subscribes to the notion that God damns America and for being a Muslim terrorist in disguise. You can’t have it both ways. It’s one or the other. I call bullshit.

As far as Reverend Wright is concerned, I personally think he is the worst kind of Christian. “God damn America?” No, sir. God damn no one, except maybe Bernie Madoff and his ilk. But “screw” you for putting a hideous face on mainstream Christianity. This is precisely why I don’t currently go to church! Because I, as a Christian, want nothing to do with the “bumper sticker slogan” mentality that has consumed the Church at large, perpetrated so consistently by Rev. Wright. His entire preaching style is based on zingers and one-liners, not to mention the borderline hateful displays of fire and brimstone. Ignore him and maybe he’ll go away.

You’ll notice that neither of these points are actually political but more linguistic than anything else. But the next one definitely is political:

Third, there will be no “death panels,” and I am sick of hearing the term. It’s one of the most embarrassing examples of how the irresponsible smearing during the election has left lasting stupidity that does far more harm than good. Thanks, FOX News, for being grossly irresponsible with your constituent-conscious lies. Because a lot of people are still terrified from the inanity you sowed. Obamaphobia has evolved and produced an entire new generation of spawn, which will in turn stupidly grow into an overwhelmingly stupid new hive mind of stupid. An irrational terror of pandemic proportions. How does this help America?

Fourth, regardless of what you feel about Obama (I’m somewhat on the fence myself—again, not expressly supportive of him!), you have to come to terms with one simple, plain, obvious FACT: Barack Obama did not cause the recession! He didn’t deregulate anything like someone in the past eight years may or may not have, removing a small pebble from a great dam, throwing off the delicate balance of powers, eventually going from minor leakage to full-blown Great Flood. Barack Obama isn’t why I was laid off almost two years ago and had to leave my hard-earned community, putting my life on hold. He also didn’t demand that he get a ridiculous amount of money without an oversight committee. So it’s a bit irritating to hear the locals ‘round these parts talk like the world was in pristine shape up until Election Day. Unless the people have been infected with some new, contagious form of amnesia, I call bullshit.

Fifth, town hall meetings are not to be mistaken for KKK rallies. Please, please, keep the picketing outside, where it belongs. As I tell the fourth-graders, “Let’s use our inside voices!” I understand that a lot of people are pissed off. I’m not patently dismissing anyone with emotional investment in a political issue. But I am saying that civility gets more done than chanting belligerent slogans. Why do you go to a town hall meeting? To get answers or to throw tomatoes? Never mind that the real rabble-rousers were proven to be planted by corporations with not-so-hidden agendas! (Rachel Maddow is at least one TV personality who exposed them. See? I’m willing to cite my sources instead of just regurgitate fourth-hand “information” I heard from an angry Republican coworker at lunch.) Town hall meetings? More like Town hall kangaroo courts, mere stages for absurdist one-act plays. I call bullshit.

“Grab a torch and a pitchfork! We’re going to Town Hall!”

Sixth, the country is not “going to Hell in a hand-basket,” or some other such trite, partisan garbage. People have been saying that since the 50s. That’s what someone says every time the pendulum swings with a new administration. And guess what? We’re still standing. America may be a little punch-drunk, wobbling a bit, but it’s still standing. For this point, I am simply going to quote myself from a comment I left on someone else’s blog:

I'm thinking, "Yeah, right. Every time the pendulum swings, one side is declaring that the country is headed for the shitter. Guess what? We're all still here. The world didn't end with the Patriot Act, and the world isn't going to end with Cash for Clunkers, either."

I'd be more interested if there were outspoken Democrats lobbying against the bill at town hall meetings and if Repubilcans would side with Obama, but it'll never happen. Like I said, this whole ordeal is pure, unfiltered partisanship. My-Team-Is-Better-Than-Your-Team politicking is getting a little old for those of us in the Center.

I call bullshit.

Seventh, Glenn Beck is a punch line to a bad joke. I’m not even going to qualify that one. I’m just going to say it and move on.

Here’s a little public service announcement for you: the election is over. It ended ten months ago.

”The more you know…”

Finally, I have a shocking revelation for all of you. This may shake you to your very core. You may react with outrage and denial, but when the words sink in, they may come as a sort of ontological knee-in-the-groin. Here goes. Ahem.

No one reading this blog has any power to do anything about it. We are the Little People. We are voiceless and infinitesimally impotent to affect macro-level affairs. You can picket, you can blog, you can petition, you can send forwarded emails—you can do all the lobbying you want, but you have no more influence over politics than a single Cardinals fan has over the outcome of a game. The most we can do is cross our fingers and watch to see whether or not it all really does come crumbling down. So all this mundane bickering amongst ourselves, the Little People, is just wasted energy.

I’m sorry to break it to you this way.

Barack Obama simply doesn’t go around kicking puppies. If you want to be politically charged, fine, but lets stick to level-headed facts. Let’s be aware, not alarmed. Personally, I don’t care for politics in the first place, so you’re free to do as you like with whatever “information” you find. But don’t expect me to not call bullshit when I see it, even when it’s regarding an issue I’m not particularly passionate about. I do “choose my battles,” but I also have too much integrity to let this go on and on and on and on and on and on… without putting in my two cents’ worth. Hence the desire to find that great opening quote for this post, something I failed to do.

Most of you will probably fail to notice how innocuous this post actually is. It’s politically ambivalent. I’m not misquoting facts to stir the pot. I’m not (deliberately) insulting anyone for their feelings on a political issue. I’m not playing that game. And I’m certainly no self-congratulatory Liberal. I’m just calling bullshit.

The theme on the blog lately has been “shades of gray,” and I would just like to put a little bit of a filter on the world to discern more between black and white. Fact or bullshit. I’m sick of this Impressionistic, charcoal blur of ashen relativity. I personally prefer not to be an easily manipulated, over-reactive, pre-disposed bobblehead of a propaganda puppet. But that’s just me. Like I said, you’re free to do as you like. If you need me, I’ll be in back, ignoring the cacophony and playing Star Wars: Battlefront II.


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