227. MODEL CITIZENS
Back whenever, when the
first astronauts and all that,
John Glenn and the others,
began the Mercury 7 flight
program, one of their silly
watchwords was 'A-OK'.
That - meaning of course -
all is good, running smoothly,
top form. It lasted maybe
three years, but for a while
everyone used that phrase.
I was in about sixth grade
when all that began - never
liking what I heard. Hated
that one. The same way
I never had any use for
'model citizen.' That was
another that really irked
me. Some vote-of-confidence
phrase about a common,
mischievous, like-everyone-
else, creep. 'He's a fine,
upstanding citizen.' As soon
as you hear that one, by the
way, take off for the hills,
You're about to be reamed.
That was about 1960, when
most everyone else, regular
people, in the country
still had those grand
opinions of civic things.
People running for office,
at any level, back then
were just assumed to be
perfect. That was before
all the usual shit starting
hitting - secret perks and
perverts, CIA murders and
FBI lies. It was fairly for
the average, everyday Joe,
to think nothing bad at all
about his government and
its people - they made
secular saints out of most
of them. Right up there with
movie stars, Clark Gable,
John Wayne, and James
Stewart. Most politicians
could get away with
anything. Not that they
don't now either, but.
The heck with all that.
What I was saying
was, if you begin
hearing about any fine,
upstanding model
citizen being A-OK,
just remember, the penal
colonies of our great land
are mostly populated by
'model citizens.'
-
So that was my ten cent
civics lesson for now. It
won't mean much past that.
Like the Pope today : he's
taking it upon himself now,
I read today, to 'add' to the
beatitudes. Add to them!
Can you believe that? One
of the new ones is like
'blessed is the person who
concerns their self with
caring for the environment
and preserving our planet.'
That's just one, of four.
Their so lame and politically
bullshit correct that this Pope
person can't even say 'He'
like in the old beatitudes.
'Blessed is he who....'
Such malarkey. Such
malarkey everywhere.
And people still fall
for this. More likely
it should be 'Blessed
is the person who keeps
their remote clean
and prevents it from
getting lost in the couch
while their fat ass sits
upon it watching sports.'
Now that would
be something.
-
You see, my 'education'
as a little kid - the basic,
rudimentary stuff that
everyone gets - was
more, and still is, like
indoctrination than it
was any form of real
'knowledge.' That's
what grade school did
to me. Made me a
jaundiced cynic; can
that be? Maybe I mean
a jaded cynic. In any case,
I got the cynic part right.
I noticed things like that
the most - as in last night's
chapter - on things like
that bus trip back down
to the seminary. Everyone
was cocooned and safely
personal in their own space.
The gentle lull of a bus trip.
That's the way it all should
be, but never is. The idea
and the point of the 'social'
education, in the guise of
'knowledge' and learning,
that we go through in
those first 6 or 8 years
of mandatory school is
meant to ruin all that by
forcing us to believe that
our blabby lives should be
concerned with others and
all those fake concerns
which that brings : all the
niceties and falsities of
things like holidays,
birthdays, 'wondrous'
events, faith and hope
in others and all that. I
was never much of a
punk or an evil-doer,
don't get me wrong,
but I really never put
much credence into
any of what I was
taught. It was all a
streamlined means
of acclimatizing me
towards an acceptable
level of cooperative
social-interaction.
Yeah, like Vietnam.
A fine, model citizen
doing his A-OK best
to promote the human
race. A hell of a lot
of teaching needed
for that. I think back
now and an only wonder,
of those other people
on that quiet bus in old
1964 - who of them
knew, or had any inkling,
of what was coming down?
Who lived past their own
comfortable, stable and
warm circle of events?
In a few short years it all
would be so changed over
as to be unrecognizable by
any of them, model citizen
or not.
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