On 2006-03-05 07:32:00, Woof-a-Doof wrote:
Quite simply, it blurs our story. Perhaps there are comparisons to the Nazi Third Reich and the Holocaust. As I said, I am no expert on the topic.
Well, in my view, there's the problem. The topic of the Nazi regime and how it developed into a holocaust is so sensitive, so taboo as to be verbotten to speak of it. In my view, that's the single most effective way to ensure that it
does happen again! If you would read up on it and maybe make friends, as best you can, w/ people who have at least some family history involved (living memory is almost entirely gone now, that boat has sailed for all intents and purposes) then you may (or may not, I'd love to know, seriously!) see that it
is happening all over again.
The only difference is the imaginary hobgobblin is the insidious, deranged, insane druggiekid or "urban" culture instead of the entire Jewish culture and blood lines. The only reason why that is so, I'm convinced, is
because Americans tend to be much more tolerant and respectful of religions and cultures (cause any one you can name or imagine is part of
us!) Not saying that there is no bigottry, prejudice or racism, just that it's not accepted--it's something that all but a few dumb red necks try hard to eliminate from our own thinking; we find it offensive in ourselves and in others. But drunks, junkies and social malcontents? They (we?) are fair game, even for those who do these things privately in fear of being discovered. Now THAT is sad! And that's something that occured only very rarely under the Nazis; Jewish people changing their names and dissavowing their faith and culture.
However, again, that's an
awful lot to put on a poster board. I agree with you entirely on that; next one should have a better venu. There are plenty around the Bay Area, too. I've always thought it would be a nice idea to make up a whole bunch of little white memorail crosses w/ the names of the fallen and just persistantly make them keep showing up wherever the Sembler, Eckerd and other cronnie names appear. Get people to ask the question "WTF is w/ these crosses that keep turning up?" and then we answer by letters to editors, talk radio, casual conversation, street theatre at Bay Walk, anyone?
And you're dead on correct, sissy fag (well... you said you were waiting! LOL, just kidding, really!), about fun and smiles and good vibes being the wellspring of unity. Moreso that it's something largely beyond our control; we can look for it, hope for it, take chances and trust a little sometimes, but in the end it'll either happen or not.
Here's a great example of demonstration through art: Got to
http://fornits.com/anonanon/video/ and watch the third one, Bingo. There's a story funny behind this. This play then animation was almost certainly done by someone who was in a program very like Straight. Not only did they not state it explicitly, but some people got all bent out of shape when I and a friend showed it to them. We didn't know anything then about where the influence came from. We were debating that and trying to settle a bet. It was sort of a tragic comedy of errors. But, regardless, it's a great piece of art, in my opinion, that does an extraordinary job of illustrating a certain essance of the Program, under any name, w/o getting all political and controversial and confrontational and such.
That's one of the things that I always hope will somehow come out of this forum project of mine. And, astonishingly enough, sometimes it actually does! But all that angst and paranoia and prescient fear and aprehension, well I think it goes w/ the teritory too. I can't solve it or make it go away for you. Often enough I can't even sort it out for myself. But I
dearly hope it'll sort itself out a whole lot more often as we get older and wiser.
I do want to see all of ya'll at that concert. I swear on my good dog's head I won't encourage, or even tolerate, any sort of violence or harassment. I think anybody who has once valid grudges against them, or suspects that they do, and has the nads to show up anyway has earned a degree of respect just by that.
If anyone feels an overwhelming urge to punch someone's lights out or otherwise do violence, I'm confident that they'll walk away, punch a tree or vent by some other means. Why am I so confident? Cause I've been reading and posting to public forums for so damned long and met so many people in person after thinking I knew what to expect based on that; trust me on this or ask around--people are just a whole lot less rash in real life; especially when you're out in the sticks listening to some good music.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs.
-- E. Grebenik
