LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

The View Of US / Us From Elsewhere

These are some further thoughts that emerged from a long discussion of these matters two nights ago at dinner with some visiting amiga-scholars from Australia, Germany, the Caribbean and South America (from abroad this nation looks completely mad):

, an amigo replied concerning Andrew Jackson:
"Now there was a unity executive!"
To which I responded:
"Complete idiot demagogue, but by golly, the US Is Us or frack you all.
He was evil, but he was our evil, the perfect personification of who we were then and have dreamed us being ever since. He believed in small ‘d’ democracy – at least for his kind, i.e. the Jacksonian Democracy – and the Union of the United States.
Horrible. But, he wouldn't have let these dorks get away with this bs. 
So we all do know what's coming, right? Disunion.
That's what this crooked, corrupt, ignorant faction wants. They want the end of the United States as we have known it.
Do not say, “Let them go, then, we’re better off without them. Do not fantasize they will secede and not go to military war to make us them.
Anyone poor is now in their minds in the order of god's order to be slaves.
Not a new idea at all for Them, as the ideas were broadcast far and wide by the most powerful and wealthy of the secessionists (including too the constant drumbeat that They are the victims here, of Us and the Slaves) – “Enslave ‘em all.” In George Fitzhugh's argument for enslaving anyone no matter what tone of skin, who is not wealthy and powerful, is that women are already slaves. “Our wives are our slaves,” he says, “but we (meaning husbands) are not slaves to them.”
My response to amiga's remark in response to the above:
"This is one of the reasons we are so deep in our national history – attempting to discover the roots of what has been going on in this country since Reagan was the front by which the corporate, plutocratic elite declared war on the rest of us (though it really began with Nixon). This has all been as much planned as was secession and Civil War, and for so many of the same reasons. No not the preservation and expansion of slavery per se, but the the conviction that the top 1% is entitled to privileged inequality. Everyone else is unworthy of any consideration, any say, any agency at all in how things are run, are done, and accumulated. Think of it this way. You may consider yourself a protagonist, as are the narrators of our body of slave narratives. The rules of rhetoric then demand for a protagonist and antagonist. However, when you are enslaved, your antagonist is not merely your ‘owner’ but the entire system which is constructed to keep you from agency of any kind in the operation of your life. The entire system is constructed to make war on you. It has ever been thus for women, and as we see, women are the weakest links in a world of equality for all, when comes to making class war, as our agency within any system: religious, legal, economic, has been the most recent agency achieved by any group."
Further, there are these matters myself and the amigas think about most:
We've been observing and speaking about these matters for decades already. 
Only recently have we begun to see / hear, here and there, some others finally not afraid to say it as well.  People fear if they say these things in public They will call them crazy. But They have demonstrated their insanity for years now, so why be afraid of what They say now?  They are already bent upon our destruction, and grinding us under their heels.
However, it is particularly disturbing that in our quest for equality within diversity, on 'our side' it is all factions too. No one sees their inequity is only a part of deliberately planned Big Picture. We whine about our very own niche unfairness, such as most lately women writers complaining about how unfairly they're treated within the industry, from editors to reviewers to readers.
This is an inevitable consequence of women turning their backs on the belief that feminism means sisterhood and loyalty to each other. Admit it, women in these areas, we do tend to feel we, and our friends and colleagues just a leetle bit superior to other women who do not strive with the hurdles of the creative industries. So we've turned our back on the women who haven't had our privilege to do so. We're entitled, women who aren't in IT, academia, television, publishing, journalism, etc. are not. Yet we cry that Others are not recognizing our entitlement. Why should they? We don't recognize other women who aren't us as worthy as we are. So we are reaping what we've sowed ourselves.

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