Fall Leaves, Winter Comes
--Owl Moon, Megan RichardsAll the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray.
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day
--California Dreamin',
Mamas and the Papas
Strange fascination,
fascinating me
Ah changes are taking the pace
I'm going through
--Changes, David Bowie
Whoever has no house already
will build none now
Whoever is now alone
will long remain so
--Autumn, Rainer Maria Rilke
___________________
The leaves are changing and the cycle of nature moves on, except in the Middle East, where the promised greening of the Arab Spring didn't quite mature; it was simply not gravid.
Arab Autumn would show some sort of quickening and maturation; it is not, because it did not arrive. The movement fell on fallow ground. Democracy avoids taking hold in Egypt and will not blossom in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq or any other Middle Eastern society. Spring signals an efflorescence, something more than a few mild days. It is a riot of sprouts and buds which fast become fruit and flowers.
The Arab Spring was a largely orchestrated event Twittered around the world and then a quick fizzle. Social media will have to do more than figure only the most outrageous events for a 15-second viewing if its promise as an agent of social change is to come to fruition.
Nature has not failed us, and her colors blaze around us now, but the man-made seasons don't follow through on their promise. Moreover, why are U.S. citizens were provoked to be so crazy over protest against governments abroad, while we squelch such appearances here in The Homeland ™? That the people are so vulnerable to be riled up on behalf of others while they are tamped down at home is a travesty and a tragedy.
We believe in witches, vampires, zombies and democracy, and just know that these things are fain to pop up at any time. Unfortunately (for the latter), these are diaphanous and ephemeral constructs; maybe none of them are really the thing we think they are.
There may be no Arab Autumn, but just as sure as there's a Santa Claus, we are enjoying an American Autumn. It was heralded in by unreasonable searches of electronic communications sans warrants and evidence of criminality and secret panels dictating the deaths of U.S. citizens like recently murdered cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
It will be a cold, hard winter.
_______________________
[click on above image to vote]
[click on above image to vote]
Labels: al-awlaki, phony war on terror, PWOT, seasons, warrantless surveillance. arab spring
posted by Lisa at 6:57 PM
5 Comments:
And then, we have this:
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90062646?Obama%20sends%20U.S.%20troops%20to%20fight%20the%20Lord%27s%20Resistance%20Army%20in%20Africa
One African lady commenting this morning on Al Jazeera TV said "why?...the reason is, of course..OIL"
Not sure that the Arab Spring was "orchestrated", Lisa, any more than the revolutions in Russia, France, or this country were.
But look at the differences in outcomes.
Our revolution manages to set up a semi-republic than has managed to stumble along in a semi-decent manner.
The French fell into military dictatorship and twenty years of war within a decade. It then precipitated a series of internal rebellions and external wars that lasted until 1945.
The Russian was even worse; the appalling tyranny that was the Soviet Union is still one of the worst in history.
The big difference appears to be that both the European versions were more similar to the Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan than to ours, featuring a truly repressive Old Regime, an very destructive fight to overthrow it, a very poor society with deep internal flaws, and histories of external invasion, conquest, and internal inequality.
With that historical parallel it should have been obvious from the jump that the Arab revolutions were pretty doomed. The U.S. public, never slow to delude itself, however, was also fooled by the media puffery surrounding the whole business.
Not surprising. But not encouraging, either...
Chief,
[1st, I must say mea culpa re. the attribution: Jim wrote, I merely gussied up.]
However, I agree about the staged nature of all revolutions. It is always a small animating crowd which hopes for official suppression to gain airplay.
Of course today with Tweets and FB blood looks good, too, hence the few zips around the globe of the girl killed in the street during a protest. If she'd looked like Mother Theresa of blessed memory, I doubt the image would have had the same cachet. And what has come of it?
I don't know the story in their country; the news spins it how the DoD or the administration wants them, and anyway, it doesn't make a whole hill of beans in my country.
I'm not so much an isolationist as a realist: Why do we get whipped up into these momentary frenzies without viewing the big picture? I read something on addiction recently which might explain it: Much like the heroin addict, our pleasure centers are stroked when we become incensed, or receive a Tweet or an email.
Could the media display and fomenting leading to emotional discharge be the opiate of the people? If so, all of our media feeds are not a re-wiring our brains so much as giving us continual skin pops.
Just an idea.
I think it's just people being people, Lisa.
In the terms of revolutions, it's always been the case that about the 20% who give a shit drag the other 80% along for the ride.
In the case of the "news"...well, we're humans. We love a Cinderella story, regardless of how ridiculous it is. The people who turned the "Arab Spring" into a feel-good tale of Right triumphing over Might were the same fucking idiots who made "Pretty Woman" a box-office smash.
Right?
Never underestimate the human capacity to believe impossible shit they WANT to be true...
Chief says The People are,
the same fucking idiots who made "Pretty Woman" a box-office smash
QED
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