On an openly political note
I am fairly certain I will always remember where I was on Guy Fawkes Day, 2008. It was the fifth of November, in Tokyo and I was at work sorting through frantic text messages with American electoral updates from mates with access to a computer. The studio in 上大岡 (Kamiooka) has no computer and I wad bregrudingly teching children as the world was glued to news outlets, watching a great day in history for the United States of America.
4 November, 2008: John McCain got roundly spanked by Barack Obama in the presidential election and the United States elected its first person of colour to the White House.
I got the news of the final concession in 5 phone calls and 24 emails on my mobile. I turned cartwheels, cried, shouted and had a small seizure of joy over Barack's election. I am tap-dancing to see what promises to be an interesting political change, after suffering through eight years of constitutional erosion, military penile-compensation, new levels of international hubris, lost jobs, lost wages, and the first consistantly measurable poverty increase in the history of such statistics in the U.S. . President George W. Bush has been a fuck-up on a scale immeasureable and I cannot wait to see him go. I suspect that historians may treat him more kindly than current public discourse is being, but he really deserves every bit of the flak he catches for being an enormous douche. Seriously, I wish him struck by lightning, knawed on by angry, rabid chipmunks and buried in an unmarked grave next to Hitler and Ann Coulter. That goes for him, his family, his political allies, John McCain and a number of other murdering, conniving fuckwits for whom I cheer bringing back the molten-lead enema. Noone expects the Spanish Inquisition, especially when they have really, really earned it. Perhaps Gloria Steinem could take Dick and Gerorge hunting. Shot in the face? That is getting off light around her, really. As you can tell, the sentimental and reflective portion of this post is soundly over.
I could winge all day about Bush and Cheney. We are aware that they go with Reagan, Helms, and any number of conservative assholes in American politics. However, at this point, I turn my attention to criticising other goings on that I find equally (if not slightly more) disturbing. To start, Obamamania.
Barack Obama has achieved something great with the grassroots support of millions. He is every-bit worthy of the notes he is getting and the inspirational revitalisation his career and campaign have brought to American national politics. I have seen lazy, leftist hipsters actually get off their asses and cast a ballot because of him alone. Hey Lizzie, I may hate you but could you get off your ass and knight this guy simply for that? --However--, Barack Obama is not the answer to all American political woes. He will not bring choirs of angels to the White House, he will not end racism, he will not destroy the wealth gap, he will not sweep away corruption, he will not shit bricks of gold. Unfortunately, many mainstreaming Democrats everywhere seem to think that he is something akin to divinely-fit to do all this. Where in American politics have we heard about divine mandates recently? Electing Barack Obama to the presidency is amazing, but there is so much work that must continue. There has never been and may never be a time in political history where resistance was not, is not and will not be necessary, people. Astounding as it may be, you have to stay off your ass once you have gotten it off the couch. We must be as critical of Obama and the politicians elected with him as anyone else. Stay on the streets, keep the discussions going, bitch at people, cause a scene. Use glitter, ponies and small arms (those include bullhorns and guitars), if at-all possible. Being fabulous disturbs boring people.
On another note, and I have said it before, when discussing politics with people you are not required to be nice. Engaging with people in a discussion from differing points of view can be highly productive and rewarding; the greatest poltical impacts are often made by shifting someone's thinking or siply giving them new information to chew on. This is all well and good, but there are times when the poisoned pen and the sharpened tongue become useful and more powerful than anything else. If you encounter someone arguing from any of the following bases, feel free to rip their guts out and string them as signage along the sidewalk: religious politics, emotional reactions, basic irrationality or the ever-present incurable moron. Opinions stated in public are as open for discussion as any cursory bullshit. Opinions are like assholes; most people have then and some are shittier than others.
Please, be a cantankerous, emotionally cold, incurably rational, snarky bitch when it comes to points of political and social discourse. The stronger your position and the better you can argue your point, the less sense opposition seems to make. If you can make this apparent in public, it keeps those around you aware that what someone said should be taken into analysis and highly scrutinised. If they obviously have not read it or missed major points, call them out and inform them. I am so incredibly tired of people misusing terminology, misquoting text, taking passages out-of-context when convenient and calling on information that they do not understand. This does not take long to identify. Epistemology is not most people's specialty, but saying that a tax policy is "Marxism" is utterly ignorant of Marx's body of work and illogical at-best.
Yes, illogical is often a synonym semantically for "incorrect", "wrong", "irrational" and in far too many cases "blindly idiotic". I am a stickler among many other things. I do not apologise for being well-informed on certain things, I will not pander to the masses and I do not think that ignorance is an excuse for social irresponsiblity; I hope and exect that others do the same. On a side note, I realise that not everyone has access to the information I do or the education I had and am getting; this is no excuse for not taking new information under consideration in a clear-headed manner. I you are so wrapped up in an issue emotionally that it eclipses your rationality, smoke a bowl, have a Xanax, get laid and get back to me. In the mean time, shut the fuck up. People sharing their anecdotes is a powerful political tool, but only insofar as that motivates people to participate in some kind of political action or brings an issue to light. When it comes down to it, pulling on he heartstrings is not a good reason to make a decision. Relatedly, I am infinitely tired of hearing "I feel" when they meant "I think". Living in Portland for so long, that was often accompanied by new-aging, hyper-sensitive and oh-so-caring (read patronising and mollycoddling) crap. If someone is still on discursive training wheels, be aware of that and adjust accordingly but do not think for one milisecond that you should not challenge them or push their buttons a bit.
Note that all of this reqiures a great deal of attention to context and care with the subject. You should not fly off your broomstick if someone disagrees with you, but you should never hesitate to set boundaries, make clear that logic is the standard and expect thm to have some information to back-up what they say. That failing, then verbally crucify them. Most forms of discourse have their place, including public humiliation. Remember that. Don't tell people how to think, but do not fail to point out where their thinking may be lacking. If their ignorance is loud and forceful to begin with, try loud and forceful enough to knock them down a peg, or engage with the larger public around them if they are beyond communication.
Be strong, be rational, be attentive.
I bring that bit to a close because I can keep that section going for eons. I mov now to address something highly personal to me: queer politics...
I am sorely disappointed with the passage of marriage bans for "same-sex" (whatever the hell that really means) couples. I am however not disappointed because people cannot get married, I am disappointed that there are more legal precedents being set for letting someone's choice in partner(s) be basis for legal and through law more broadly social discrimination. I do not ride on the back of your bus, you faith-based polticking asstards. Rosa Parks simply did not move when told to, I will bite you if you attempt to tell me or anyone else. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints became directly involved in the California Prop 8 campaign both financially and in official, direct organisational discourse. They should legally lose their tax-exempt status. Moreover, why are churches involved in making broad social policy at all? Is it not enough that they tell their own how to live? Far be it from me to keep someone from imposing religiously-based restrictions and codes on themselves, but they need to keep it off of me. Social morality should be based on what is good for all people in a society without the axiom of "My/Our God said so". Call me an idealist, I like long, nigh-impossible projects. This passage brings me to my next point: Fuck marriage.
I do not want to be married personally, and I certainly do not want marriage as part of my political landscape. Marriage is rooted in faith, private property, capital exchange and opression. All the incredibly recent crap about love and the ideals of romantic relationships and healthy families is not only usually a load, but also irrelevant to the fact that marriage is a faith-based institution that for me and many others is limiting and problematic and more pontedly has no place in governments which should be as secular as possible. The legal benefits of marriage can all be accomplished through other legal means without the political monolith it is. Leave relationships up to contract law. let partners design their relationships, associated legal rammifications and benefits.
With that, "Marriage" as the one-partner, lifetime, sexually exclusive, religiously based, and property-concerned instution we now know it to be is not good for queer politics. It represents a disturbing amount of assimilation into a straight power-base that I see as oppressive and yes, gasp, bad. Queers (in the broadest of senses) exist as a social entity because we pose a literally peculiar challenge to dominant paradigms. Relationships, genders and sexual norms have all been profoundly affected by the resistant social discourse and very existance of people outside the norms of the power-group. Not only have they been affected, but the standard can only exist as a standard as long it has a comparitive state to something considered "queer" to it. I like open-relationships, polymory, childless couples, swingers and solitary people. I like those for the same I like freaks, leatherdaddies, bull dykes, mods, faggots, faeries, screaming queens, adrogynes, drag divas, sluts, perverts, kinky fucks, other "bad queers" and sloppydetachedmeaningless sex. We make the so-called straight-acting suburanite white faggots looks bad and love it. Everyone should appreciate these, if not because they participate in or identify with any of those things themselves, because they are representations of a kind of liberty that should be available to all without opression from the masses. If you believe them to be immoral, check your value-system against the idea that your values in this regard are valid only as far as they apply to you. No great catastrophe comes of people being free to exist as they like without someone telling them how they ought to exist. I want to deny noone their chosen relationship structure but I ask that it not be the imposed standard of how all of us should live. Queer everyting. Fuck with the stable. Ask inappropriate questions. Cause a scene. Have butt-sex (or at least try it...it comes highly recommended).
This comes to a much alrger discussion about social liberties. My value systems are based on the idea that individual liberties extend as far as they do not affect anyone else's individual liberty. Essentially, do whatever you like unless it becomes an issue that stops other people from existing as they please. A complicated epistemological and political mess of an idea, huh? With that great liberty comes profound responsiblity to analyse behavior and be as accountable to your community and society as possible. This means (for example) that yes, living in the suburbs in a large house with two cars as a childless couple is bad. You do not require that much space or raw material to exist quite comfortably and by consuming that much more you are taking finite resources away from where they could be better used. In the scope of things, because so many Americans like their suburban homes with lawns and big vehicles, children are homeless, many people cannot eat, jobs are limited, and the price of groceries and housing is outrageous. This is all related. Isn't that fascinating? I do not have the time or space to here give the full explanation (which could take years) but I happy to recommend some great reding and resources. Please use less, buy less, do more.
I am going to end this long rant. These political issues have been burning in my mind of alte and I felt that I should write something extensive on them finally.
I am not going to bother with much revision or editing for the fact that this is a rant and I am tired of staring at this screen, but there you have it.
Stir the shit kids, stir the shit.
4 November, 2008: John McCain got roundly spanked by Barack Obama in the presidential election and the United States elected its first person of colour to the White House.
I got the news of the final concession in 5 phone calls and 24 emails on my mobile. I turned cartwheels, cried, shouted and had a small seizure of joy over Barack's election. I am tap-dancing to see what promises to be an interesting political change, after suffering through eight years of constitutional erosion, military penile-compensation, new levels of international hubris, lost jobs, lost wages, and the first consistantly measurable poverty increase in the history of such statistics in the U.S. . President George W. Bush has been a fuck-up on a scale immeasureable and I cannot wait to see him go. I suspect that historians may treat him more kindly than current public discourse is being, but he really deserves every bit of the flak he catches for being an enormous douche. Seriously, I wish him struck by lightning, knawed on by angry, rabid chipmunks and buried in an unmarked grave next to Hitler and Ann Coulter. That goes for him, his family, his political allies, John McCain and a number of other murdering, conniving fuckwits for whom I cheer bringing back the molten-lead enema. Noone expects the Spanish Inquisition, especially when they have really, really earned it. Perhaps Gloria Steinem could take Dick and Gerorge hunting. Shot in the face? That is getting off light around her, really. As you can tell, the sentimental and reflective portion of this post is soundly over.
I could winge all day about Bush and Cheney. We are aware that they go with Reagan, Helms, and any number of conservative assholes in American politics. However, at this point, I turn my attention to criticising other goings on that I find equally (if not slightly more) disturbing. To start, Obamamania.
Barack Obama has achieved something great with the grassroots support of millions. He is every-bit worthy of the notes he is getting and the inspirational revitalisation his career and campaign have brought to American national politics. I have seen lazy, leftist hipsters actually get off their asses and cast a ballot because of him alone. Hey Lizzie, I may hate you but could you get off your ass and knight this guy simply for that? --However--, Barack Obama is not the answer to all American political woes. He will not bring choirs of angels to the White House, he will not end racism, he will not destroy the wealth gap, he will not sweep away corruption, he will not shit bricks of gold. Unfortunately, many mainstreaming Democrats everywhere seem to think that he is something akin to divinely-fit to do all this. Where in American politics have we heard about divine mandates recently? Electing Barack Obama to the presidency is amazing, but there is so much work that must continue. There has never been and may never be a time in political history where resistance was not, is not and will not be necessary, people. Astounding as it may be, you have to stay off your ass once you have gotten it off the couch. We must be as critical of Obama and the politicians elected with him as anyone else. Stay on the streets, keep the discussions going, bitch at people, cause a scene. Use glitter, ponies and small arms (those include bullhorns and guitars), if at-all possible. Being fabulous disturbs boring people.
On another note, and I have said it before, when discussing politics with people you are not required to be nice. Engaging with people in a discussion from differing points of view can be highly productive and rewarding; the greatest poltical impacts are often made by shifting someone's thinking or siply giving them new information to chew on. This is all well and good, but there are times when the poisoned pen and the sharpened tongue become useful and more powerful than anything else. If you encounter someone arguing from any of the following bases, feel free to rip their guts out and string them as signage along the sidewalk: religious politics, emotional reactions, basic irrationality or the ever-present incurable moron. Opinions stated in public are as open for discussion as any cursory bullshit. Opinions are like assholes; most people have then and some are shittier than others.
Please, be a cantankerous, emotionally cold, incurably rational, snarky bitch when it comes to points of political and social discourse. The stronger your position and the better you can argue your point, the less sense opposition seems to make. If you can make this apparent in public, it keeps those around you aware that what someone said should be taken into analysis and highly scrutinised. If they obviously have not read it or missed major points, call them out and inform them. I am so incredibly tired of people misusing terminology, misquoting text, taking passages out-of-context when convenient and calling on information that they do not understand. This does not take long to identify. Epistemology is not most people's specialty, but saying that a tax policy is "Marxism" is utterly ignorant of Marx's body of work and illogical at-best.
Yes, illogical is often a synonym semantically for "incorrect", "wrong", "irrational" and in far too many cases "blindly idiotic". I am a stickler among many other things. I do not apologise for being well-informed on certain things, I will not pander to the masses and I do not think that ignorance is an excuse for social irresponsiblity; I hope and exect that others do the same. On a side note, I realise that not everyone has access to the information I do or the education I had and am getting; this is no excuse for not taking new information under consideration in a clear-headed manner. I you are so wrapped up in an issue emotionally that it eclipses your rationality, smoke a bowl, have a Xanax, get laid and get back to me. In the mean time, shut the fuck up. People sharing their anecdotes is a powerful political tool, but only insofar as that motivates people to participate in some kind of political action or brings an issue to light. When it comes down to it, pulling on he heartstrings is not a good reason to make a decision. Relatedly, I am infinitely tired of hearing "I feel" when they meant "I think". Living in Portland for so long, that was often accompanied by new-aging, hyper-sensitive and oh-so-caring (read patronising and mollycoddling) crap. If someone is still on discursive training wheels, be aware of that and adjust accordingly but do not think for one milisecond that you should not challenge them or push their buttons a bit.
Note that all of this reqiures a great deal of attention to context and care with the subject. You should not fly off your broomstick if someone disagrees with you, but you should never hesitate to set boundaries, make clear that logic is the standard and expect thm to have some information to back-up what they say. That failing, then verbally crucify them. Most forms of discourse have their place, including public humiliation. Remember that. Don't tell people how to think, but do not fail to point out where their thinking may be lacking. If their ignorance is loud and forceful to begin with, try loud and forceful enough to knock them down a peg, or engage with the larger public around them if they are beyond communication.
Be strong, be rational, be attentive.
I bring that bit to a close because I can keep that section going for eons. I mov now to address something highly personal to me: queer politics...
I am sorely disappointed with the passage of marriage bans for "same-sex" (whatever the hell that really means) couples. I am however not disappointed because people cannot get married, I am disappointed that there are more legal precedents being set for letting someone's choice in partner(s) be basis for legal and through law more broadly social discrimination. I do not ride on the back of your bus, you faith-based polticking asstards. Rosa Parks simply did not move when told to, I will bite you if you attempt to tell me or anyone else. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints became directly involved in the California Prop 8 campaign both financially and in official, direct organisational discourse. They should legally lose their tax-exempt status. Moreover, why are churches involved in making broad social policy at all? Is it not enough that they tell their own how to live? Far be it from me to keep someone from imposing religiously-based restrictions and codes on themselves, but they need to keep it off of me. Social morality should be based on what is good for all people in a society without the axiom of "My/Our God said so". Call me an idealist, I like long, nigh-impossible projects. This passage brings me to my next point: Fuck marriage.
I do not want to be married personally, and I certainly do not want marriage as part of my political landscape. Marriage is rooted in faith, private property, capital exchange and opression. All the incredibly recent crap about love and the ideals of romantic relationships and healthy families is not only usually a load, but also irrelevant to the fact that marriage is a faith-based institution that for me and many others is limiting and problematic and more pontedly has no place in governments which should be as secular as possible. The legal benefits of marriage can all be accomplished through other legal means without the political monolith it is. Leave relationships up to contract law. let partners design their relationships, associated legal rammifications and benefits.
With that, "Marriage" as the one-partner, lifetime, sexually exclusive, religiously based, and property-concerned instution we now know it to be is not good for queer politics. It represents a disturbing amount of assimilation into a straight power-base that I see as oppressive and yes, gasp, bad. Queers (in the broadest of senses) exist as a social entity because we pose a literally peculiar challenge to dominant paradigms. Relationships, genders and sexual norms have all been profoundly affected by the resistant social discourse and very existance of people outside the norms of the power-group. Not only have they been affected, but the standard can only exist as a standard as long it has a comparitive state to something considered "queer" to it. I like open-relationships, polymory, childless couples, swingers and solitary people. I like those for the same I like freaks, leatherdaddies, bull dykes, mods, faggots, faeries, screaming queens, adrogynes, drag divas, sluts, perverts, kinky fucks, other "bad queers" and sloppydetachedmeaningless sex. We make the so-called straight-acting suburanite white faggots looks bad and love it. Everyone should appreciate these, if not because they participate in or identify with any of those things themselves, because they are representations of a kind of liberty that should be available to all without opression from the masses. If you believe them to be immoral, check your value-system against the idea that your values in this regard are valid only as far as they apply to you. No great catastrophe comes of people being free to exist as they like without someone telling them how they ought to exist. I want to deny noone their chosen relationship structure but I ask that it not be the imposed standard of how all of us should live. Queer everyting. Fuck with the stable. Ask inappropriate questions. Cause a scene. Have butt-sex (or at least try it...it comes highly recommended).
This comes to a much alrger discussion about social liberties. My value systems are based on the idea that individual liberties extend as far as they do not affect anyone else's individual liberty. Essentially, do whatever you like unless it becomes an issue that stops other people from existing as they please. A complicated epistemological and political mess of an idea, huh? With that great liberty comes profound responsiblity to analyse behavior and be as accountable to your community and society as possible. This means (for example) that yes, living in the suburbs in a large house with two cars as a childless couple is bad. You do not require that much space or raw material to exist quite comfortably and by consuming that much more you are taking finite resources away from where they could be better used. In the scope of things, because so many Americans like their suburban homes with lawns and big vehicles, children are homeless, many people cannot eat, jobs are limited, and the price of groceries and housing is outrageous. This is all related. Isn't that fascinating? I do not have the time or space to here give the full explanation (which could take years) but I happy to recommend some great reding and resources. Please use less, buy less, do more.
I am going to end this long rant. These political issues have been burning in my mind of alte and I felt that I should write something extensive on them finally.
I am not going to bother with much revision or editing for the fact that this is a rant and I am tired of staring at this screen, but there you have it.
Stir the shit kids, stir the shit.