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Amazing Grace
By Charles Sullivan
11/06/07 "ICH
" -- -- It seems inexplicable that so many of the
American people can be so dazed and confused, while moral
degenerates ransack our nation, piss and defecate upon the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and brazenly
loot the public domain, making a mockery of the rule of law and
societal norms; whatever they may be.
Incredible lies are routinely passed as truth and the world as
we know it is unraveling, as we prepare to invade and occupy yet
another country, perhaps igniting World War Three. We go on with
the insipid routine of our dull lives: we go shopping, and
bombard our senses with mind numbing entertainment, telling
ourselves that it—fascism—can’t happen here, even as its
poisoned blossoms unfold before our astonished eyes and fill our
lungs with their noxious fumes.
We refuse to believe what we are seeing and we dismiss it as too
preposterous to be real. We no longer wholly trust our own
senses or follow our most innate instincts, failing to recognize
that they are all that is true; all that allow us to survive the
wretched madness that pursues us like rabid dogs, and
relentlessly nips at our fleeing heels.
Increasing numbers of us move through this world with a sense of
impending doom but we do not fully comprehend its origins or the
breadth of the disaster it portends. We sense not only that
something is wrong—something is terribly, irreconcilably,
sickeningly, wrong. We do our utmost to repress those feelings,
telling ourselves that our worst fears, our darkest nightmares,
are irrational, unfounded phantoms of the imagination; so many
ghosts lurking under our beds.
We have been programmed to believe that we are the greatest
nation to ever emerge from the mists of history, that everything
about us as a people is exceptional and exemplary. Despite a
history of endless provocation and war and countless other forms
of self mutilation, we claim that we are a peace loving
people—god’s own children, animated by divine stirrings.
But perhaps our state of confusion, our disorientation, and our
shock at what the government is doing in our name—all of which
seems to be occurring at the blinding speed of light—and our
refusal to believe that which is so blatantly obvious to all but
those who wear mental blindfolds, or the criminally insane, is a
form of psychological shock and awe that has been deliberately
imposed upon us not only by depraved politicians vying for
wealth and power, but by our every societal institution.
We have arrived at our place as a result of an educational
system that does not teach us how to think, but to follow rules
and obey authority; to bow to self policing peer pressure and
group think: a system that prepares us to pass math tests but
not those of citizen and neighbor. We dutifully recite the
pledge of allegiance to the flag but we hold no allegiance to
the world’s people, or its stunning biological and cultural
diversity, or to truth. We were led to the precipice by
religious institutions that operate by the same principles as
“for profit” corporations, encouraged by Zionist and Christian
fundamentalists with visions of Armageddon dancing in their
crazed, bigoted heads. We are here because we pay attention to a
media monoculture that does not inform, but lies and deceives
for money.
We are here because we are morally lazy, uninterested,
distracted, overworked, over burdened with debt, and apathetic
to a fault. We confused the symbols of democracy with democracy
itself; and we foolishly thought that democracy could somehow
magically move of its own accord, without our participation as
citizens. Too many of us believed that all that was required of
us was to vote in elections in which the outcomes were
preordained by the candidate’s access to wealth. We told
ourselves this is democracy, but we were tragically mistaken.
And now it is too late.
The rush to Armageddon will occur quickly; it must happen, like
the passage of the Patriot Act, before the people have time to
digest what is being done to them, before they can concoct an
intelligent and rational response to shock and awe; before the
people can organize against the premeditated murder and mayhem
that awaits them.
We Americans are the product of free market ideologues,
religious zealots, and vulgar experiments in social engineering.
We are being led to slaughter, and to be slaughtered, by dark
and foreboding forces bent on the destruction of all that is
decent, just, and beautiful.
Yet many will continue to believe that the president and his
henchmen are sane and just people. Some will even ordain them
devout Christians and extol their dark virtues as enlightenment
and courage. Others will continue to believe that the sycophants
in Congress will awaken at the eleventh hour to save us from our
own delusions and excesses, not recognizing that we are alone
and have only one another. It has always been so; but rather
than uniting against our tormentors—we fight amongst ourselves.
Events may already be in motion that have acquired an
unstoppable momentum, like a hulking meteor streaking in deadly
silence toward the earth in precise accordance with the laws of
motion. But like all tempests, they too will eventually blow
themselves out and, better people than us will someday attempt
to rebuild the world anew. I wish them luck and amazing grace,
the kind of grace that is so conspicuously absent in us. In the
words of labor organizer, Joe Hill, murdered by the state before
a Utah firing squad: “Good luck to all of you.”
No more can we enjoy the sight of soft summer sunsets in
tranquil settings, accompanied by the singing of the wood
thrush, and choirs of chanting insects embracing the darkling
twilight; but forever more the rocket’s perpetual red glare and
silent, distant death. We are nearing road’s end. The time is
fast approaching to mount the nearest hillside, to hold our
loved ones close; to sip some vintage wine, and watch the
fireworks that are even now hurtling their way toward
Armageddon. The time is nigh to watch the world as we knew it
wink out of existence, and to say goodbye. It’s been good to
know you.
Charles Sullivan is a nature photographer, free-lance writer,
and community activist residing in the Ridge and Valley Province
of geopolitical West Virginia. He welcomes your comments at
csullivan@phreego.com .
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