RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,272
(lariat holster noose)
I'll probably get hung for
this one (noose). They'll
probably be pulling me
off my silent horse for
these words (lariat). It's
most likely, I'll get shot.
(holster). So, there's a
sense to this sequence,
understand me?
-
It was October, 1967, when
I could have committed my
first serious offense. It would
have involved draft-officers
from Whitehall Street, tracking
me down and - I suppose -
me doing something about it
to stop them in their tracks.
-
Power is passe, and all things
and meanings fade. Even that.
Today, military people are
honored - which is just part
and parcel of the way society
has been twisted. The purview
of the sick mind has been given
wide latitude - to effect its lies;
to proceed with its foul visions;
to continue to kill and maim. It
was Bertrand Russell who said
'War doesn't determine who
wins, but who is left.' He also
said "The first step in a fascist
movement is the combination
under an energetic leader of a
number of men who possess
more than the average share
of leisure, brutality, and
stupidity. The next step is
to fascinate fools and muzzle
the intelligent, by emotional
excitement on the one hand
and terrorism on the other."
That pretty much speaks for
itself.
-
Things like that always made
good enough sense to me but
I found that they always went
unheeded. Why that should
have been was beyond me, but
it testified to the variant of truth
whereby the mass of men lead
lives of a quiet desperation - to
mangle Thoreau and not make
much of a point. He got away
with a lot, just because of where
and when he was. Living like a
mama's boy, right near to the
train tracks and proclaiming
his isolation at a 'pond' - all
the while doing nothing but
measuring the depth of the
waters and noting the works
and manners of animals. I
guess you could say he then
'reflected' while watching
animals who never reflected
on what they were doing but
instead just 'did.' Life should
always be so simple.
-
After a while, everything does
become routine. Even death and
destruction, manipulation and
control. People stop thinking
because they've never started.
By such factors a world is made,
or a society anyway, within a
pre-existent world. I've found
that you can't tell people anything
that doesn't first fit the patterned
principles of that which they've
first assumed - after it's been
drilled into them from age 2. If
there was some human edict,
for instance, within our genetics,
that certain things need only be
done once, wouldn't that be much
nicer than the duplication we see.
To begin with, 'procreation.'
After all, 'How many Adam
and Eve situations do we
really need? Once they found
the key to unlocking that process,
all the human animal has ever
done is bang away to make more
of the same. We're enslaved by
our own genetics and our own
sex-drives for continuation.
(Read Richard Dawkins, 'A River
Out of Eden').
-
Apparently, the more people
see, the less they perceive.
Instead, they do things like
go on talk shows or babble
to the press about and of
the considered slights that
they've been witness to over
things that went against the
grain of the patterning they
were given at a young age.
At a certain level that's really
all it is. As in, 'You do not fit
my picture of what should be,
so kind sir, please be gone.'
That, then, is the story of life.
-
I've taken a few of my own
demented moments to try and
sort out my life. On the whole
I'd say that effort has been a
dismal failure and what do I
know? People like me, now,
standing close to the exit gate
and wondering how to go at it,
just find themselves muttering
in a green gaze of stupefaction
as everything near them begins
to fall apart. I'm here to say,
folks, 'It's your world, if you
want it, but I don't think it's
worth the effort.' Let the tyrants
rule and wreck, let the shoppers
fall, have the kids shot down,
drop the bombs and kill the
wounded. In the end, all you
ever get is the same damned
mess, and the same dead scene.
Your ideas of what you think
'Hell' might be have always
been present. And you're
right within it...Funny thing is,
as I was writing this, down the
road a distance off, and seen
through the window where
I sit, a bus just went by. We
get a few occasionally, taking
people to any one of those
vacation lakes and communities
that begin littering the landscape,
though well-hidden, about 15 miles
away. Memorial Day weekend now
looms, which starts all that seasonal
stuff. On the side of the bus, in
large letters, was written 'New
Age Coach Co.'
No comments:
Post a Comment