The Invisible Library

I saw the Pixies last night, at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. I was blown away. Really tight playing, a solid show all around. I was super impressed and had a great time. They did a fantastic rendition of Nimrod’s Son where, in the second verse, they slowed the pace down and added a sot of dark-edged country sound to it that I think was an improvement over the original.

During Vamos, Joey Santiago took center stage and played his guitar with a drum stick, played with some noise colloge and tapped out the melody on the raw end of his amp coard. It was fun, though after the show, whle walking back to the metro, I heard two kids lamenting that he dropped the notes and was just making noise.

Kids these days. I tell ya, they have no respect for the art of their elders. Why, in my day, we loved noisey rock and roll– the fewer notes the better.

Over lunch, Kevin and I were discussing The Librarian, that execrable show that TNT aired last night. After lambasting the hackneyed plot (though the actors did a remarkable job, considering the stilted dialogue and ridiculous story) we got to discussing the Pyramids.

Kevin and I share a fascination with esoteric lore of all sorts, from Theosophy to Astrology and the more outlandish brain droppings of mystics from all over. However, we differ on our views of history. Kevin is a big fan of the Great Pyramids, much in the way that many are: as monuments to something greater than humanity, that spiritual impulse to devote one’s life (and as I pointed out, the lives of thousands of slaves and coerced peasants) towards the construction of something representative of the Awe of the Divine.

Being an atheist with a progressive sense of social justice, and in possession of a thoroughly modern world view, I have mixed feelings about the Pyramids. While I do recognise their importance as grand monuments to the Human Spirit, I also cannot fully appreciate them as being worth the sacrifices made to build them. While Kevin argued that the builders of the pyramids were glad to give their lives for something greater, I take a slightly more cynical view: that they were coerced with lies spread by priests into giving up their freedom, and often times their lives, for the aggrandisement of a King who fancied himself semi-divine and thus, beyond mere human concerns like compassion for the less fortunate. Filled with hubris, the Pharaohs decided that they were more important than history and wished to outlive it. Ironically, their pursuit of immortality ensured that something would remain, though the pyramid’s have become more an abstract symbol for human achievement, while the names and deeds of those particular kings have become little more than footnotes in history books.

I fully realize these views are the product of my 21st century lifestyle and 20th century upbringing, are contradictory and disregard historicity as well as cultural differences. But, I am vast, and contain multitudes. I don’t apologize for being modern, unsympathetic towards those whose religious delusion leads them to coercion of others through lies and trickery, or culturally smug. I’m better than the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Mullahs of Islam and the Preachers of the Moral Majority, all rolled together in one gigantic Frankensteinian ego monster, because I recognise the human cost of their Big Ideas.

So, the Great Pyramids, while fascinating as architectural and cultural objects, were only possible through coercion, lies and the suffering of uncounted thousands. I suspect President Kill Again understands this on some emotional level (with his infamous Thinking Gut, perhaps) but completely misses the bigger picture: that whatever his reasons and motivations may be for waging his wars, be they cultural shifts towards the Radical Right or Military Adventures in Mesopotamia, his actions are made possibly only by the suffering of his fellow human beings and history will remember this fact, above all others.

Six score and nineteen years ago, the American Civil War ended. The Confederacy was dragged kicking and screaming back into the Union in order to preserve Unity, economic prosperity, and so we wouldn’t have to change the number of stars on the flag¹. At the time, this seemed like a good idea. But, as the recent Presidential Ugliness has shown us, in the long run, this idea sucks eggs. We should have let the Confederates go when we had the chance.

Now, we’ve let them into the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court and they’re trying to rewrite the Constitution (When they aren’t just ignoring it outright) to suite their ends of turning this once great Experiment in Democracy into a Christian Theocracy that, were it’s rhetoric slightly more Arabesque, would give the Mullahs in Saudia Arabia a holy hard on.

This election made one thing very clear: their really are two Americas. John Edwards may have thought he was being allegorical but there is far more truth in symbolism than many care to admit. Blue America and Red America, while not exactly regional places, are very clear states of mind. These mental states have created these two Americas that are very separate, very much at odds with one another. As Steve gilliard pointed out:

Liberals, members of the reality-based community, cannot understand why right-wingers cannot see the self-serving nature of those in charge and make much of the blind religious faith of evangelical fundamentalists who support Bush. Again: Bushco doesn’t want policies. They want power. The power to empty the Treasury, to enrich their golfing buddies, the power to enforce social, intellectual and cultural conformity at the expense of independent thinking. How else will they get enough of the populace to vote against their own best interests?

Here’s the thing: right-wing voters can see it. They like it. Jane Smiley’s wrong. They know perfectly well which end is up; they’re bullies and, at heart, monarchists/theocrats, and they want to be associated with brute force. They know it’ll cause pain to people they hate, so they like it.

Well, I say, if it’s a Confederacy they want, It’s a Confederacy they shall have. Only this time, it’s we Unionists who will Secede.

Take a look at this electoral map. While not all of the Blue States are contiguous, they are all in pockets, the Coasts and the Northern Midwest states, plus Hawaii.

Here is what I sugest: Blue America should succeed from Red America. While the regional Red vs. Blue state divide is not a complete match, it�s better than what we have now: two very different Americas trying to get along as one. The Confederates don’t like our culture; all of our decadent art and filthy museums? Fine. We’ll take them with us. All the important cultural institutions are in Blue America anyway. Along with all the ivy league schools and most of the other educational centers that are so rife with pinko sentiment. But we get to keep Wall Street. It’s in that hot bed of Liberal sentiment, New York, so commerce is ours. Red America hates Hollywood values but they love Hollywood movies. From now on, they’ll get them second run, and pay through the nose for them. Oh, and we get Washington DC as well. It’s not like they were visiting the Smithsonian anyway and they’re always going on about how they want someone from outside the Beltway to run things. Fine. Move your Confederate Capitol to Arkansas.

We also get the Constitution, and the name along with it. You won’t miss it. We’ll be the USA and you can be The Confederate States of Jesusland or whatever Biblical name you can conjure up. Fine with us.

Now, succession isn’t easy. Their will be some uncomfortable years of adjustment. Mostly for the Confederates, as they’ll have to get used to not having Blue State tax money funding their roads, schools and small businesses. Georgia Tech used to be a nice school. But once the Confederates get their way and Education is privatized, they can say bye bye to their NCAA teams². But hay, they want to abolish all that pesky government interference in education and economics anyway. The hardest part will be for the Unionists who currently reside in blue counties stuck inside Red States. There’s quite the archipelago of Unionists out there and we’ll have to establish guidelines so they can immigrate to safe territory. I suggest a Treaty of Naturalization: Once the two Americas are separate political entities, anyone born prior to the date of succesion and living in the Confederacy can immigrate to the US and receive immediate, free citizenship. After all, you were born in the US. I would suggest a reciprocal guideline for those living in the US who wish to immigrate to the Confederacy but we all know how they feel about immigrants.

So where will the new American States go from there? That’s up to all of us to decide, since, after all, we’ll be a real, functioning Democracy again, instead of the Confederate sham that we have now³. Hay, the skies the limit. And since we’ll need to replace the vacuum left by the Democrats becoming the conservative party, then maybe the Greens (or some as-yet unknown party that is actually Liberal) will step up and fill the void.

And what will become of our Confederate neighbors? It’s unlikely that they will be able to keep on making wars, since most of the means of production that belong to the military industrial complex will be in the US. Not that that will stop them. They do love to blow shit up and don’t let a little thing like economics, the well-being of their citizens or reality get in the way of their boys having a good ol time. I predict that within a generation of succession, the Confederacy will be running on slave labor and dirt roads, just like grandpapy used to. And they’ll love every minute of it. Sure, they’ll effectively be a third world nation of subsistance farmers, oil fiefdoms and corporate slavery. But they’ll finally be rid of that nasty liberal and cultural elite that they hate so very much.

_________
1. If you think the process is tedious for a regular bill, try passing one involving amending the flag. It’s easier to discuss evolution with a Republican.
2. We will of course have to send archivists and librarians in to retrieve the few cultural artifacts and resources left behind by secession.
3. I’m thinking Universal healthcare, Legal Homosexual Unions with all the benefits and maybe even decriminalization of marijuana, just to name a few of my pet ideas.

I didn’t see this anywhere else on the Blogosphere, so go me for being on the ball:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned Friday, broadening an exodus that has emptied more than half of President Bush’s Cabinet before he starts his second term.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s cabinet member number nine to resign in a month. Sure, some adjustments are always in order for a president’s second term but nine resignations in a month? Either the rats are jumping ship (except for the biggest rats, Rumsfeld and Chenney, who probably can’t fit through the portholes) or else President Kill Again is purging the pseudofascists in order to replace them with the real thing. Given the choices for replacement, I’m leaning towards the latter, unfortunately.

Out of curiosity, what does it take to get a scandal to stick to this bunch? Torture, corruption and invasion isn’t enough, apparently. Anybody got any incriminating pictures of W and Condi?

Birmingham News:

MONTGOMERY - An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.

A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for “the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle.” Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the “homosexual agenda.”

[…]

Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed.

“I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them,” he said.

A spokesman for the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center called the bill censorship.

“It sounds like Nazi book burning to me,” said SPLC spokesman Mark Potok.

[…]

If the bill became law, public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as a genetic trait and public libraries couldn’t offer books with gay or bisexual characters.

When asked about Tennessee Williams’ southern classic “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” Allen said the play probably couldn’t be performed by university theater groups.

Allen said no state funds should be used to pay for materials that foster homosexuality. He said that would include nonfiction books that suggest homosexuality is acceptable and fiction novels with gay characters. While that would ban books like “Heather has Two Mommies,” it could also include classic and popular novels with gay characters such as “The Color Purple,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Brideshead Revisted.”

It starts with ripping out a page here and a page there and then, before long, we’re digging holes and burrying all the books, or just torching them where they sit on the shelves. This is worse than the Nazis because at least the Nazis just built bonfires and shoved the books in. With a Nazi, you know where you stand and have something to swing against. But with a Republican, they like to pretend it’s some moral crusade for Baby Jesus and all the little cherubim at home and paint the opposition as evil sodomists and cock suckers for Satan. They learned their lessons and are trying to legislate hate and degredation instead of just stomping on our faces with jackboots.

The CBLDF is fighting this and, as Neil Gaiman sugests, becoming a member is an acceptable Christmas Gift for that bibliophile or librarian in your life.

John Halbo suggests that Joseph Moncure March’s The Wild Party would make an excellent stocking stuffer. And I agree. Just search inside the book and you’ll see (Gads! Now I’m rhyming! Oh what luck, and timing…)

Anyway, This book is made all the better with At Spiegelman’s illustrations. Which got me thinking, what other little books would thrill adults (of a suitably deranged and askew humor) if they were to find them in their stockings on Christmas morning?

Obviously, for illustrated books full of humor and strangeness, the grand master is Edward Gorey. Amazon has a nice little catalog of all of his books in print and they are all well worth it.

Any other suggestions?