Meditation on Isaiah 26:5-6

It's Sunday, so Old Testament.

"He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.
Feet trample it down -
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor."
(Isaiah 26:5-6)

Always be on guard with those willing to quote scripture, but nonetheless, let me rap.

Why would the lofty city be trampled to dust by the footsteps of the poor and the oppressed? Because earthly (read: capitalistic, militaristic, or ultra-rich) power cannot sustain itself. In other words, the institutions and people within them wielding excessive wealth, arms, political power, and/or ego do not practice a spirituality and praxis that the Lord acknowledges as valid. Bluntly speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ did not come to comfort the ultra-rich or even the American middle class, but the global poor, and the fucked up thing about wealth and power, even in modest increments, is that it allows one the privilege to not have to encounter the oppressed or the poor. White people don't need to have friends of color which leaves them lacking in the basic understanding of their own white privilege. Rich people in capitalism, by definition, do not need to entertain the anxieties of privation. And white, middle-class citizens of the United States do not know the trials endured by those who are oppressed by United States Armed Forces, United States police forces, United States industrial-prison complexes, or simply society at large. All this privilege creates a certain sense of entitlement that allows white, middle-class (and monetarily above) United States citizens to experience a lofty sense of deservingness. But come on. Christianity, the spirituality offered to us by Jesus of Nazareth, is not about the Self, the Dollar, or even Stability - no, a life centered around Christ is inherently centered around the humbling of the powerful by the soiled and weary feet of the disregarded, dispossessed and disenfranchised.

A Thanksgiving Prayer (2016)

A Thanksgiving Prayer (2016)

Original by Williams S Burroughs. Revised by Bucko Rinsky

To Dwayne Marion Stafford for making racists afraid by any means necessary

Thanks for the wild salmon and the passenger pigeons

Destined to be shat out through wholesome American guts.

Thanks for all the pipelines

Pulsing poison and oil and potential jobs.

Thanks for Blackwater, TigerSwan and Wells Fargo

For securing the borders of peace and greed.

Thanks for the Right to Vote

To stimulate hope in the pesticidal stew of modernity.

Thanks for ignorance, pride, and violence by pale-faced asses.

For Fox News, Netflix, the NFL and head trauma.

Thanks for churches preaching morally-insured prosperity

In the Twittering depths of the promise-less land.

Thanks for All Lives Matter but some more than others.

Thanks for the War on Terror

For domestic peace and the industrial-prison complex.

Thanks for the FBI, CIA, NSA, local pigs, Snapchat,

And one nation under surveillance.

Yes, thanks for all the memories –

All right, let’s see your phones.

You always were psychotic and you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal

Of the last and greatest of human dreams.

 “Sell all your possessions and give to the poor.” (Luke 12 : 32-34)

Remember November 26 is Buy Nothing Day!

Reflections on "Requiem for the American Dream: Noam Chomsky and Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power" (2015)

Truth is my girlfriend and I were searching Netflix for The Notebook (2004) and Noam Chomsky's name came up under the film title Requiem for the American Dream: Noam Chomsky and Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power (2015). We didn't find The Notebook that night, but this morning I finished the latter film. I recommend it as it is informative and an informed populace is the cornerstone of a thriving democracy, which under the current conditions, is not what's happening with the American Democracy.

Some Summary, Some Reflection on The Principles of the Concentration of Wealth and Power:

1.REDUCE DEMOCRACY - The powerful and wealthy never liked Democracy because it gave the majority the ability to check the opulent minority. The powerful and wealthy live by a 'vile maxim,' namely, 'all for ourselves and nothing for anyone else.'

2. SHAPE IDEOLOGY - This 'vile maxim' purporting selfish greed must become a national value especially in the face of the movements of the 1960s (Native American, Civil Rights, Women Rights, Anti-War, Student Movements etc.) so the solution becomes to reduce funding and standardized education, a move which we continue to see with the increase of charter schools under Obama.

3. REDESIGN THE ECONOMY - The financialisation of the American economy and the decline of manufacturing. Evil banks, remember the financial crisis of 2007-2008?   Chomsky: “And, of course, the capital is free to move. Workers aren’t free to move, labor can’t move, but capital can.” So manufacturing workers of the world are put into competition ('dey terk er jerbs') while the executives above will take risks and move money around in complicated ways so as to produce so-called profits.

4. SHIFT THE BURDEN - The 'precariat' meaning precarious proletariat meaning working class people living precarious lives because of low wages, increasing rent costs, medical bills, are a potential threat to the status quo. In order to curb the threat of popular movements, the corporations that control so much wealth and subsequently policy, paid and politiked their way out of paying a fair share of taxes while wage and consumption taxes continue. Capital can move, corporations can take their business to better tax havens, but Americans, well we're here to stay for better but increasingly worse.

5. ATTACK SOLIDARITY - De-fund social programs. Media divisiveness and non-coverage of social movements. Make education expensive. Trap young people in debt thus creating general anxiety and reducing social and political engagement.

6. RUN THE REGULATORS - From the business/political perspective, it makes sense for economists and financial experts/lobbyists to regulate the business and financial sector because of the specialized knowledge, but again the financial crisis of 2007 - 2008. The insidious result is a revolving door and a cultivation of power and irresponsibility among these crowds.

7. ENGINEER THE ELECTIONS - The DNC's non-support of Bernie Sanders. The fact that our options are a capitalist idiot , a politiking war-hawk, a bad cartoon of a libertarian, and a strange doctor who doesn't seem credible. All of this along with the supreme court ruling equating money as free speach thus opening the door for corporations (read in legalese: immortal persons) to pave the way for whomever they seem fit. Finally, are we even talking about policies in 2016 or just scandal after scandal...

8.  KEEP THE RABBLE IN LINE – Militarize police and spy on your Yahoo email account and your twitter feed and everything else.  Imagine if healthcare workers, I’m talking about the ‘specialists’ keeping your grandma alive in the nursing home unionized?   Imagine if the service industry in American had a union.  Imagine if labor organized because we’re all already laboring away for hourly wages, so why not organize, be represented by ourselves, and present solutions to management that they had to take seriously.  But be careful because organized labor is a serious threat to the infamous 1% and the technocrats that protect them.

9. MANUFACTURE CONSENT - The new iPhone doesn't have a headphone jack but you do have the old one which is old and lame. Do you know what that commercial is actually selling or was it just funny? Chomsky says the market economy should be characterized by informed consumers making rational decisions, but what advertising is doing is selling landscapes and celebrities and iconic presidents hoping to become just that and frankly nothing much at all.  A marketing major at my bar had a few drinks and said s/he’s in marketing to understand and manipulate how people think. 

10.  MARGINALIZE THE POPULATION – Chomsky offers April 15^th, Tax Day.  If this was a participatory democracy, where Americans actually influenced policy, then the sending of payment to further aid in the political sphere should be a day of celebration, a celebration of how awesome, inclusive and positive the United States Government actually is.  But this is not the case, paying taxes to some alien institution figure-headed by either Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton is the nightmare of tomorrow. 

Conclusion:

Information. Organization. Solidarity. Love. Positivity. Sympathy.  Community.  All for holding those with power and wealth accountable to society.  Ultimately, this society is based on the acquisition of wealth, of money both on the large scale and the personal scale, but what would a society look like with the human person as the primary focus.  The human person sleeping on the sidewalk.  The human person dispossessed of a rewarding job, of a healthy meal, of dignity. 

And why not throw some Jesus into the mix?  Jesus is just alright with me.

3“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Don't (A Flash Fiction Confrontation of History) #FredHampton

"A lot of people in America hate you for what you did Grandpa."  I knew that wasn't the truth, but those that did know of his actions, raged.
"I know."  His head hung low.
"You shot a sleeping man through a wall."
He squared up.  "That man was armed on the other side of that wall."
"And asleep! And weren't you and how many cops armed as well?"
He looked at his daughter, my mother.  "No one knows for sure if he was asleep -"
"Or what?! Just laying in bed in his underwear while cops raided his house?!"

I never should've watched the documentary on the Panthers.  I never should've asked my Grandpa about his time on the force [sic].  Now I was one of the offspring of one of the murderers that only Howard Zinn ever cares to write about when it comes to the history of the USA.  I'm a recent proponent of ignorance especially when it comes to family.

He broke our silence with a renewed vigor.  "Who knows to what end his violent message could have reached?"
"Don't Grandpa, your dead fucking wrong: the violent message was the assassination of a sleeping man and believe me, Grandpa, those that struggle for justice in America heard your message perfectly."
His vigor was short lived and his demeanor shriveled.  "We were just following orders - "
"Just fucking don't!  Don't ever fucking say that again. Don't."
"Don't talk to you Grandpa that way!" My mom had had enough.
"Don't mom."  The time for decency has vacated this family; this is just the beginning of reconciliation.

Sharing Walls

Outside of the North wall of my apartment sits the air conditioning unit.  I know as much about air conditioning units as I do about cars as I do about bums, or the Homeless, or 'Neighbors' as some charitable people would rather call them as they gentrify the areas that the former previously inhabited.

Today I finished exorcising the past from my bedroom - new coat of paint, new bed, new layout simplified from all that past which needed purging, but outside that aforementioned North wall - under one of the three windows into my bedroom -  sat two plastic bags.  One bag contained to go containers that needed no further investigation, the other contained library books.

If you want to know what sort of literature bums check out from the library and then leave behind an air conditioning unit in one of those black plastic bags that corner stores stuff with consumer vices then here is a sampling:

1. Diseases and Disorders Handbook. Ed. Regina D. Ford
2. The Prince. Niccolo Machiavelli
3. Witchcraft: It's Power in the World Today. William Seabrook

Or as I subjectively interpreted the titles as I gingerly pulled back the black plastic to reveal the moldy titles:

1. (What's going on with this ailment and is this behavior really my fault?)
2. (How to control my peers.)
3. (Are all those utterances actually bewitching curses?)

The strangeness began August 12th, 2016 when I asked a man to leave who was leaning up again my apartment building in between my bedroom window and my new roommates window.  His face revealed no ill-will towards me but sort of haunts me in it's lack of understanding towards my request - if you don't have a home, why would someone ask you not to rest upon the wall of their own?

Soon after I came upon the trash left by my air conditioning unit and decided to rid it of my sight.  Now a month later, the presence of some odd library titles has me pondering again the daily existence of the marginalized and the proximity in which those with and those without lay their heads down at night.  I have no doubts I shared a wall with an unseen fellow man in the past year - the books, the takeout, the Ice Mountain gallon jug, but mainly the appropriate space for a sleeping human to lie guarded by air conditioning units, forest green electrical boxes and pine trees on the North exterior wall of my bedroom.  It's an alien intimacy, an unknowing solidarity, a closeness to the far out.

Forgive me for I threw out the moldy library books, and I'll forgive, but not forget, my complacency in this culture for allowing all of this shit to exist.