People are always changing -- even as they partly stay the same.
Countries are always changing -- even as they partly stay the same.
On the country level, before we can answer questions such as:
Do I like/love America?
Am I loyal to America?
Am I patriotic to America?...
we have to first ask this question:
Which America are we talking about?
Are we talking about the American people?
Or The American Government?
Are we talking about the Democratic-Republican America at its best?
The America that is based on the democratic-equal rights principles of Jefferson and Franklin and Tom Paine and Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King...and the legacy of their greatest Presidents...George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower's Farewell Speech...and all that has made the American Dream great, the American Spirit great -- and the leader of all other nations...
Or are we talking about Narcissistic, Imperialist, Corporate and Political America?
That part of political-corporate America that trades campaign/party support dollars for corporate favors?
That part of political-corporate America that allows mortgage companies to hide 'Trojan Horses or Viruses' in sub-prime mortgage contracts?
That part of political-corporate America that trumpets 'free trade' policies and 'free market/no regulation' policies in the name and spirit of Adam Smith when Adam Smith would have been apalled and disgusted by how these political-corporate policies continue to allow the rich to keep getting richer and richer on the backs of the rest of America which is getting poorer and poorer?
That part of political-corporate America that keeps pampering and catering to the richest and most powerful people in America while watching watching middle class jobs disappear to other countries in the world; more and more middle class families go into bankruptcy; more and more middle class homes end up in foreclosure; more and more middle class savings accounts and pension plans end up in CEOs 'dividends, 'salaries and executive bonuses', 'separation agreements', 'spa junkets', and the like...?
And the part of political-corporate America that then turns around and 'bails these CEOs out of their own impending bankruptcies based on their own greed, and more greed?
And the part of political-corporate American that keeps invading new countries and killing more and more innocent foreign civilians and its own American soldiers in these new countries in the name of 'chasing Bin Laden' (even though Bin Laden wasn't in Iraq), and now again, into a new country -- Pakistan -- which is supposed to be an American ally but which obviously is not very impressed with America continuing to invade their airspace looking for 'terrorists'?
How would America feel if Pakistan 'justified' invading Hawaii's airspace looking for 'terrorists' in its island mountains?
How would America feel if a country like Russia 'justified' invading Alaska's airspace looking for 'terrorists' in the mountains of Alaska? Oopps, sorry Governor Palin, rationalizes the leader of the imaginary invading force: 'We killed a number of your Alaskan citizens -- but it's all 'justified' -- in the name of God, democracy, justice, unilateralism, and your own American way. It's called 'colateral damage'.
Now I know that as free thinking, free writing philosopher, I am entering 'American politically incorrect' territory here -- and I will 'couch' my words as carefully as I possibly can to get my message across without people wanting to go 'ballistic' on me...
But still, it is my job as a philosopher to go where other people don't want to go, to see through hypocrisies and double standards, ethical improprieties, and 'loose, pathological verbal associations' that can so quickly turn into negative stereotyping, discrimination, racism, 'reverse-racism', hate-mongering, divisionism, segregationism, alienation, disenfranchisement, marginalization, suppession, exploitation, rebellion, revolution, and even anarchy against all of these -- and violence, both of the psychological and physical kind...
All of these psychological, emotional, economic, political, and physically negative places where America used to be -- and most of us surely do not want to go back to...
All of these potential, political and social areas for 'American character regression' -- separated only by the 'powder keg' of a political party that is losing an election and that starts off a string of 'nasty, negative innuendos' and 'loose, pathological associations' in order to light the fire and trigger off the 'worst in American right-wing extremism' -- and you don't think that Madonna's 'Nazi imagery' is appropriate here?
I ask you this: How is the recent hate-mongering amongst the right-wing, extremist American people that was triggered off by the 'negative, loose associations' of the American Republican Party any different than the 'left-wing religious-political tirades' of The Reverend Jeremy Wright?
Let it be clear here that I can be a 'right-wing Republican-Conservative-Capitalist Idealist' just as easily I can be a 'left-wing Democratic-Liberal-Socialist Idealist'
DGB Philosophy aims to use the dialectic-democratic process constructively and creatively to engage the American political process and the American people into a dialogue that seeks to integrate 'the best of both polar political parties', 'the best of both political-socio-economic worlds' in order to come up with a working plan based on an idealist-realistic dialectic-democratic vision that is for the betterment of ALL of America including the middle class and including the disenfranchised, marginalized lower class -- those without any form of humane, reasonable health care; not just the politically and economically top 5% who can afford the best doctors in the world, the best lawyers in the world, and sometimes even the most powerful politicians in the world.
Having said this, if you were to ask me: 'Who do I think has the closer, better picture of what is wrong with America between Senator McCain and the much maligned Reverend Jeremy Wright?' -- I would have to say I think Reverend Jeremy Wright is closer to the truth of the American Problem, albeit stated in the crudest and bluntest of fashions, full of theatrics, and who can forget his use of profanity against America. It does not matter whether the 'loose, negative associations' are 'extremist-left-wing' (Wright) or extremist, right-wing' (Bush, McCain, Palin...) -- they are just as dangerous, the closer they get to stimulating violence. The goal here is to solve the worst of the American problems through dialectical-democracy, free speech and free debate; not through stimulating anyone towards the use of violence. I have no compassion for what Bill Ayers did in the 60s. He should have gone to jail for what he did. But as long as he was helping Obama to build better housing in Chicago when the two met, and not preaching or practising violence, and not ripping anyone off -- then I will give Obama the benefit of the doubt on this one. Just as I can see why Obama walked away from the Reverand Wright's political-religous extremism, if not completely his message. I can see the common bond between Reverend Wright and Obama in terms of them both wanting to 'speak up' for the 'disenfranchised' and 'marginalized' in America; not let very real American political problems fester, rot, and infect, under the carpets and in the closets of real American businesses and homes.
I do not believe that makes my opinion 'anti-American'. Nor do I believe it makes the Reverend Jeremy Wright 'anti-American' even though, like McCain he went 'over the edge'. Like McCain -- and probably like me, and indeed, like all of us at different times -- we all have to watch the 'loose associations', 'negative stereotyping', and the degree to which we are possibly exciting other people towards 'divisionism rather than unity, hate rather than peace, and violence rather than free dialectic-democratic speech and debate'.
I am 'anti-McCain', 'anti-Palin', and 'anti-Bush' -- to the extent that all of them propogate loose associations and negative stereotypes in the name of being 'patriotic to America'. In my opinion, they all envision -- or will not move us away from -- a divided, war-ridden, more or less bankrupt America. More loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. More loss of soldiers in foreign countries.
Where is the American Dream for anybody but the political and/or corporate elite?
I do not believe in the values that they stand for, which in my opinion, is an America for the rich.
I believe in an America for the people, by the people; not an American political-coroporate elite that exploits the American people.
I believe in 'self-empowerment for all'; not just the rich and politically-corporately powerful.
I believe in getting out of Iraq -- a country where Bin Laden never was; a country where 'weapons of mass destruction' never were.
I believe in focusing on the American economy and getting out of debt; not deeper into it.
I believe in enhancing international diplomacy and human relations; not sabotaging it.
I believe in making more allies; not more enemies.
I believe in working with the Pakastanian government -- and saving an ally -- to weed out Bin Laden, Al Queda, and Taliban extremist-terrorists; not bypassing the Pakistanian government -- and creating a new enemy -- to invade Pakistan unilaterally, like the America Government bypassed The United Nations to invade Iraq, unilaterally -- with the 'justification' for invading Iraq (i.e., 'weapons of mass destruction that were threatening America's national security') now having been completely disproven.
I value and trumpet the 'Enlightenment-Romantic' values that America was built from.
I don't value bankrupting America in the name of 'bogus wars' and 'bogus mortgages'.
I don't think that the Jeremy Wright was railing against Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Tom Paine, Abraham Lincoln, democracy or equal rights. In fact, I know he wasn't.
He was railing against 'Narcissistic, Unethical, Unilateral, Imperialist, Corporate-Political America'...He was railing against 'The Masters of War', he was railing against that part of political-corporate America that took America into Vietnam, and into Iraq, and now into Pakistan...He was railing against the same pathological element of America that Eisenhower was warning us against in his Farewell Address.
Nobody took offense to Eisenhower's profoundly prognastic and prophetic Farewell Address. Nobody has accused Eisenhower of being 'anti-American'.
Nobody has -- to my knowledge -- ever accused Bob Dylan of being 'anti-American' for writing or singing 'The Masters of War', or 'With God on My Side', or 'The Times They Are A Changin', or 'Blowing in The Wind', or 'The Ballad of John Brown', or 'It's a Hard Rain Gonna' Fall', or 'Ballad of A Thin Man', or 'It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding'...
I remember seeing Dylan at a concert getting a standing ovation when he sang out probably the most famous line fom his song, 'It's All Right Ma, I'm Only Bleeding'...this not too long after WaterGate...
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But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
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It's equally appropriate today.
These Dylan political protest songs are as much about American 'Enlightenment-Romantic' values -- democracy, equal rights, compassion, differential unity, justice for both the rich and the poor, getting along with our neighbor regardless of what color he or she is -- as anything that has been committed to political speech and/or paper...
It's okay for American politicians to bring religion -- read Christianity -- into the White House and The Senate.
But it is not okay for American religious preachers to bring politics and socio-economics into their places of worship, and onto their pulpit.
Meanwhile, every Sunday, if not more often, American preachers have to deal with the dead and wounded men and women who come back from war -- on a very personal, and close-up basis, not from distant ivory White House towers. Same with their terrified and/or grief-struck friends and families of young men and women coming home from war -- or not. Same with the greater and greater number of terrified people who are losing their homes, or have lost their homes to the same greedy CEOs on Wall Street that the American government just bailed out.
And who is speaking for all of the innocent women and children in Iraq and Afghanastan and Pakistan -- all of the marginalized, disenfranchised, homeless and/or dead people in these countries who never, ever wanted any part of war?
Is anyone in the White House talking for these people? Is anyone in the Republican Party -- new or old -- thinking about, and feeling for, and grieving for -- these people who have nothing to do with the Taliban or Al Queda or Bin Laden?
Reverend Jeremy Wright was.
Jeremy Wright combined religious and political rhetoric to get the same point exactly -- minus the 'coolness', minus the 'political correctness', and minus the 'diplomacy' -- that 'Five Former Head Secretaries of State -- got to too: specifically, that the next American President needs to build up its network of allies in combination with 'social-political interest in the well-being of other countries, and a resulting more favorable overall American sentiment; not continue to kill all such favorable sentiment altogether, and continue to lose one ally after another in the process of invading one country after another in the spirit of unilateral, arrogant, imperialistic -- 'we will go it alone, and we don't need a justifiable reason' -- America at its worst.
Like the fall of Rome, narcissistic, imperialistic corporate-political America is self-destucting in the throes of its lack of integrity and ethical, national and international values.
But the CEOs are still walking away with millions.
The political and corporate power players who need to be held accountable for the national and international self-destruction of America will, in all likelihood, walk out of the middle of this political-corporate disaster zone much, much richer than they were before they created it. And smelling like roses.
At least CNN is doing its part to name the people they think most responsible fo 'The Nightmare on Wall Street'.
And Lou Dobbs continues to play his part trying to create 'Independence Day'.
I like Lou Dobbs even though I don't like how he 'slants his questions' and 'leads the witness' to get the answers from the American people for his question polls that he is looking for to support his thesis.
Still, his editorial opinions are generally good, and to the mark. In my mind, Lou Dobbs is a better Republican Idealist than McCain and Palin combined. And on top of that -- Lou Dobbs has that 'populist, middle class passion and compassion' that separates him from most elitist Republicans. It gives his political views a partly 'Liberal-Democratic' flavor to them as well as a 'Republican Idealistic Foundation'.
But alas, Lou Dobbs does not want to be associated with either political party.
So he remains a 'Good, Strong American Third Force' -- which is good for America, because it shows Americans that political opinions don't have to be 'reduced and syphoned down' into either a Republican viewpoint' or a Democratic viewpoint.
Maybe someday DGB Philosophy may be construed as a legitimate Fourth Force in American Democracy.
I will call it: The DGB Dialectic-Democratic (Liberal-Conservative, Capitalist-Socialist, Humanistic-Existential) Party.
Or just 'The DGB Dialectic-Democratic Party' for short.
Enough for today!
P.S.
To an evolving, more compassionate, humanistic-existential America, it should not even matter whether Obama is Christian or Muslim. It is the person and his or her character who counts; not the name of the religion. It is the ethics, the compassion, the altruism, and the humanism in the principles of a religion by which it should be judged; not by its name.
My parents are both Christian -- Protestant to be more exact. My girlfriend of almost ten years -- Sharida Ali - is colored, Trinidadian, and Muslim. She is probably more Conservative than I am, definitely more financially astute than I am, has worked her way up higher in Corporate Canada than I have, more comfortable in a board room than I am, is more family-oriented than I am, is more religous than I am, is more compassionate with people than I am, puts on Christmas Dinners for the members of her Church, pounds the pavement as a community worker, as I pound my keyboard as a political philosopher...She reminds me of my mom in most of her main, key ingredients -- specifically, they both care about family, friends, and people, are constantly giving of themselves... The whole 'Christian' vs. 'Muslim' issue is a totally irrelevant distraction. The best of the Muslim religion has about as much to do with the Taliban, Al Queda, and Bin Laden as the best of the Christian religion has to do with that religious fiasco that went on in Texas behind closed gates...
It is all about 'loose associations' and 'negative, hateful stereotyping' from these loose associations.
It is where America is coming from; not where most of us want America to go.
-- dgb, October 12th, 2008.
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It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.
Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.
So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.
As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.
While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.
A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.
Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.
While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.
While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.
While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.
-- Bob Dylan, Copyright ©1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music
