Delicious Human Filth

"Under the terms of a 'compromise', three of Bush's worst nominees will be voted on and they will likely be confirmed. And what did the Democrats get in return? They got to keep the right to filibuster, provided they promise not to use it!"
"That's right. The Democrats got nothing. And what will happen when even more disgusting candidates are brought up as nominees for the Supreme Court? The Republicans will simply roll out the threat of the 'nuclear option' once again, since nothing in the so-called 'compromise' prohibits them from doing that."
"This again demonstrates the need for a mass popular movement of resistance. Without the kind of mass upsurge that we witnessed in the 1960s, there is nothing that will prevent the current threatening dynamic from continuing. This is why we called on people to go to Washington, and make their presence felt in the streets. The world can't wait any longer. We need to be about the business of driving the Bush regime from power."

C. Clark Kissinger


Unfortunately, Kissinger is absolutely right, but fails to observe the fundamental use of entertainment as mediating attention away from real life and world issues. Personal freedoms are of lesser importance because entertainment removes focus from real life existence and replaces it with a toned down, bastardized landscape of virtual imagery catering to base desires and simple wants. Not only is this mindless entertainment economical, but also political; it masks the urgency of real social issues and diminishing personal freedoms offered in a capitalist society that is becoming more and more totalitarian and theocratically power-based. Because of this factor, many people, like those Kissinger is addressing, may never heed his call due to a type of legitimized ignorance. Unlike the 60's, we need a new method of protest and pro-active, anti-bureaucratic resistance because what we understand has been augmented not only by politicians, but by new social realities that we unwittingly accept through indifference.

posted by Simon @ 9:44 p.m.