Comments on: Memorial Day musings: Americans, politicians, and the great species divide

By: Scholars and Rogues » WordsDay: the hegemony of poetry and lyrics

Scholars and Rogues » WordsDay: the hegemony of poetry and lyrics — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:21:26 +0000

[...] doesn’t need a lot of explanation. In the next lines we have an expression of the artificial red vs. blue political divide that divides us against ourselves. As bad as this internecine warfare is for the culture as a [...]

By: grennels

grennels — Mon, 28 May 2007 22:51:23 +0000

Class war? I only see bullets coming from ONE side.
That’s not war it’s genocide.

By: whit

whit — Mon, 28 May 2007 22:02:17 +0000

Make up your minds, do you want more species, or fewer species? How brilliant, to create more species out of people! Surely we can recognize the beauty of top-of-the-foodchain predators. Let us be prey then for this glorious new type, the first true cross between the animal lineage and the slime molds.

By: cld

cld — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:52:22 +0000

I don’t think the very rich are speciating because there are too few of them and the people they have children with are, often as not, nearly randomly selected, e.g. the Garibaldis.

What they are is atrophied.

By: jon

jon — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:08:23 +0000

No doubt about it, there’s a class war going on. Been happening for quite a while, too. And now, whenever you mention it you get yelled at for engaging in class war. Neat little circle. And somehow it’s never class war when the rich benefit.

If we’re able to separate out the ubermenschen, then we also have untermenschen that deserve their own differential treatment. The diffficulty is to always see the humanity in the opponent or antagonist. The rich suffer from the same emotions and wiring as the rest of us. Their circumstances and perspective is different, as are the consequences of their actions. We can find solace and amusement in the progress of their foibles, but it’s really only our own story, written with a larger, gaudier crayon.

I’ve always read Hunter Thompson as a realist documenter, using the only words that could make sense of the persons and circumstances he found himself among. He was able to make us see the grotesque derangement that power, lust and avarice create. He showed us the contortions that people and society undergoes in pursuit and avoidance of the consequences. He spared himself less than anyone else. And he let us laugh at it all so we could see it more clearly, feel it more deeply.

By: JD

JD — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:43:41 +0000

Class warfare! Class warfare!

You know things are pretty far gone when the RICH are somehow able to get away with crying “class warfare” when someone brings up the truths you’re writing about. How the hell does that work? Every time Bush uses the phrase “class warfare” he might as well be saying “Let them eat cake,” but he always gets away with it.

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:08:00 +0000

Pachacutec – who I reference in my missive above – has just posted a related item of interest here.

By: greg stene, ph.d.

greg stene, ph.d. — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:56:05 +0000

You know what’s the problem with blogs? You get nutjobs like me dropping by occasionally screwing with the accepted train of thought.

On this Friday, leading in to Memorial Day, my thoughts turn to my dad, who was wounded in WWII

By: Jim Booth

Jim Booth — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:30:29 +0000

Well, it might have been possible to classify Hunter himself as a separate species (something that would have pleased him, no doubt), but I see your point. Hunter knew from the start, as do most of our great journalists, that the real struggle is not between left/right, red/blue, what have you -it is haves/have-nots.

As for Paris Hilton being another species from – me, at least – I find that oddly comforting….

But I digress…I think that the Democrats are no more interested in my concerns as a citizen of this country than the Republicans – and the Republicans don’t care about my concerns at all…Why? I don’t have enough MONEY.

And I’d point you to the fact, as we enter the Memorial Day weekend, that the kids dying in Iraq for the benefit of American oil interests and the enrichment of contractors don’t have enough….

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:15:45 +0000

Sam,

Although I share your frustration and disappointment, let’s not tar all Dems with the same brush. The guys I’ve always supported–the ones who showed real leadership against this stupid war, like Feingold, Sanders, and Leahy–did the right thing and voted against that craptastic bill.

Here’s the Gang of 14: http://www.thenewsblog.net/2007/05/80-14.html

We do have leaders willing to speak the truth and stand for the people, but they just aren’t enough. They’re lone voices in the wilderness, drowned out by the risk-averse, money hungry, and those who believe it’s more important not to upset Mr. 28% than it is to fight for their country.