Uncommonly slow week, including yesterday. Went to the cemetery, then to Santori's, then to to library, then to the hairdresser to make an appointment for today. Other than that, generally hung out and did household chores.
I'm listening to Roots: The Saga of an American Family in the car and find it absolutely absorbing. It's been 34 years since it was written--hard to believe--and I guess has become the definitive history of slavery in the United States. I'm not sure how healthy that is. I tend to distrust fictionalized accounts of actual events or phenomena, especially "historic novels"--a contradiction in terms, it seems to me. I know it's a snob's attitude, but I'm afraid I turn somewhat haughty at what I regard as--I love the word--"truthiness" in books.
Nevertheless, I'm greatly enjoying Roots.
WIDER: What I'm not enjoying is the infinite capacity of the American public to be snookered by the not-so-dynamic military/media duo. In Common Dreams.org, Tom Engelhardt asks "Will Our Generals Ever Shut Up?" He lists a a number of the think tank denizens, military advisers, and prominently, "journalists,"all enthusiastically pro-empire and notes:
"These figures and numerous others like them, are repeatedly invited to U.S. war zones by the military, flattered, toured, given face time with commanders, sometimes hired by them, and sometimes even given the sense that they are the ones planning our wars. They then return to Washington to offer sophisticated, 'objective' versions of the military line."
It's a good--if depressing--article which points up the almost overwhelming odds against the voices of reason that urge an end to aggression and striving for peace. Reminds me of that great scene in The Shining: While driving to The Overlook, Jack Nicholson hears his little boy respond to a question about where he got a piece of information he just repeated with great conviction. With a sly grin, Jack says, "It must be true; he saw it on the television," drawing out the last phrase in his unique Nicholsonian way.
Well, we're constantly fed militaristic crap from these generals and their minions and their cohorts and their fellow criminals about how we must continue the slaughter for all kinds of right and good and necessary reasons.
It must be true; we saw it on the television.