A creature of habit and no means, I spend a lot of time paying attention to the death of my notions of what government is and should be. I also spend a lot of time being insulted by the way some people, in whatever political or televised venue, consider me and many others too stupid or unwilling to face the pressing issues of the day.
I smoke a lot of dope, sinsemillia cannabis. I am not ashamed of this. I do not think there is anything wrong with this. I think the endless propaganda concerning marijuana is about maintaining a system of domination and disenfranchisement of people who see through the lie of the American dream.
My near-constant 'drug' use does not make me a babbling idiot barely able to use the English language or turn to property or violent crime to support my 'habit.' It is me attacking the ennui engendered by the atomistic alienation necessary for the success of capitalism. It has helped me understand my personal desire and combat the culture of inadequacy foisted upon us all by advertising and authoritarians. A culture many of us still support by acceptance of 'democratic' institutions and the glorified historical narrative.
I live in a state whose 100-year history is being celebrated this year. Even though, approximately 70 years before, many native Americans wee forcibly sent here as part of the United States long history of exploitation and expropriation. This same history that feeds into our current quagmire. We aren't celebrating the Trail of Tears or the Native American genocide this year, just the thievery of my white ancestors. The same institutionalized thievery that informs the Iraq war (occupation) or any war for that matter, is being celebrated in schools and paegeants all across this state. And we wonder if Iraq will happen again. Iraq is a big Indian war.
It sickens me to see the so many corporate shills in the MSM. It sickens me to hear their mantras of navel-gazing worship. Honestly, I wasn't terribly affected by 9/11. I implicitly understood that it was political theater. Deadly and tragic, but a spectacle that would feed all cyclopean eyes in the largest media-market in the world (honestly, the streets of Manhattan are one giant soundstage these days). I realized the brilliance of the attack, especially in the days after, as the paranoiac chorus amplified and reason was sloughed away. Plus, the logic of terrorism has been examined by authors like Don Delillo (in his underappreciated novel, Mao II)and Guy Debord (The Society of the Spectacle). I had little sympathy for those that died that day. We have little sympathy for the Native Americans, Africans, the poor Europeans, that died for this nation. We forget, unless the memento mori is politically expedient (remember the Alamo, the Maine, Pearl Harbor, 9/11).I doubt people will have much sympathy for me when I die. Considering that their deaths became the bloody flag to dismember this country and the false promise it held for the world.
I suggest everyone quit watching television. Television has been a race to the bottom for sixty years. How many interesting and amazing people exist in this world, how many great stories (not the usual human interest triumph stories) remain untold. I hate advertising. As a great comedian (Bill Hicks) once said,
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself. No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. Aaah, no really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers, Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously.
No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself. Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, "he's doing a joke”... there's no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a friend - I don't care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking machinations. I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, "Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart." Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags! "Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research - huge market. He's doing a good thing." Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags! Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!
Let us begin to do away with notions of the average and the normal. These notions come from where. The idiot box in your living room. The machine that spews forth lies and inadequacies and half-truths and sometimes brillant entertainment. Let us do away with the notion that America is somehow exceptional. We are land of human beings who make mistakes and commit injustice.
I get tired of the complaints about the bias of the MSM. Their bias is simple, they are biased towards power. The MSM exists to exult those that are successful in the manufactured, corporate American Dream. Those that are lucky as well as conniving. Some of us know that most 'stars' can't act or sing or even entertain beyond the trainwrecks of their personal lives. Some of us know that lots of CEOs and MBAs don't care about anything except their piles of money. Some of us know that athletes are winners in the genetic sweepstakes, yet some of us idolize and worship them. They emphasize the exceptional, even though most of us live un-exceptional live. We need to feel inadequate so we can continue to spur economic growth (for what purpose, why is growth necessary?), so we can consume a disproportionate share of the world's resources in are quest to be exceptional. A fool's errand.
Every action (or inaction) I undertake, and I believe this is true for everyone, is ultimately political. We do not exist in a vacuum, spontaneously producing and meeting our needs and desires. Eating processed junk tacitly supports corporate agriculture and the war-machine (fertilizers are manufactured from petroleum, fruit from chile is shipped using excessive petroleum). Watching television instead of reading Emma Goldman or trash novel that excites your real desire is a political choice. Going to your job and accepting the conditions is political. I realize people have to compromise to survive. Most American compromises are for convenience and accepting the mantras of laziness and instant gratification as a personal philosophy.
And if you are in marketing, die. Please.
