WHO DO WE HATE THIS WEEK?

“The sleep of reason brings forth monsters.”

Goya

“Reason sleeps tonight.”

Frank Ramirez

“It’s hard to figure out how to have debates with people who have completely different sets of facts. Like I say in the book, we’re not having a disagreement about different interpretations of reality. We’re having a disagreement about who is in reality and who is in a simulation, and it’s very hard to figure out how you stage a debate like that……The source of my speechlessness is a sense of near violent rupture between the world of words and the world beyond them.”

Naomi Klein

This substack is called This Is Not Music! Because sometimes you need more words than music. However, at this point in history, I would argue that we may need more music than words.

There is a joy and beauty to music. I am finding it very hard right now to find the same joy in words. Words fail me. I am feeling very uncertain, wanting to drink from the crucible of certainty and finding it empty and dry.

We are living in a world in flux. At my most pessimistic, I will say the world is truly fluxxed at this moment.

Last week I was thinking about Siskel and Ebert, and their trademarked phrase Two Thumbs Up. Why is it that many people are so certain in their beliefs that they refuse to continue to question? I’m going out on a limb here, but this problem may have begun with Siskel and Ebert.

What? Siskel and Ebert? Surely you jest.

Let’s look back and see. In 1975, two Chicago critics began a relationship that changed not only the world of film criticism, but life itself. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were film critics in Chicago, working for opposing papers. They were paired together as hosts of a show on their community PBS television, called Opening Soon At A Theatre Near You. Over the next eight years, the show morphed until 1986, when they renamed the show Siskel & Ebert & the Movies.

From 1986 to 1999, Siskel and Ebert coined the trademarked phrase Two Thumbs Up! This phrase came to mean they were in joint agreement in positively reviewing a movie. It became part of our lexicon, for not only reviewing movies, but showing general agreement in any number of situations.

It also opened the door to more people identifying as a critic. Judgement was made universal with this phrase. Now anyone in the general populace was capable of being considered as a critic, by expressing an opinion. The democratizing acceptance of armchair judgement grew exponentially with social media. They created an emoji for one thumb up, because Two Thumbs Up was trademarked.

Having an opinion and choosing sides, even when we know nothing about what we express is a requirement of modern life. We all have an opinion. Yes or no. Do you like it, do you take it to the extreme and love it, or did you hate it, which when taken to its extreme becomes a crime. Everyday Joes and Josephine’s have an opinion. The so called deplorables share an opinion ( and votes too). Feed that certainty with lack of education as these opinions are informed less by study, and more by gut feelings.

We learn who we should hate from our parents, as hates and fears are passed down like a big brother’s sweater. We are indoctrinated with the opinions from our circle of friends, our bubble buddies.

“I always knew she was no good”.

“ I could tell he was trouble, right from the beginning,.”

“Most of his type are trouble.”

“What do you expect? “THEY”are all like that ……”

It is a slippery slope, and I’ve been guilty of generalizing myself, but I also remember a time when I didn’t have an opinion on everything. Ask me why a certain engine is better than another, and I will shrug, and say in the words of the late Freddie Prinz, “It’s not my job, Man.”

Today, in the hyperbolic internet, you better have an opinion buddy, and you better get it right the first time, or God help you. You better find exactly the right words to express your opinions, because you will be judged. Perhaps all this judging is the real problem here.

I know it’s two thumbs up, but that begs the question. Two Thumbs Up what?

The world is seemingly going to hell with a handmaiden, which is funny but handyman might be more accurate. After all, we are ruled by geriatric old men, dry, desiccated, bereft of hearing, unable to feel anything but hatred, Eyeless in Gaza, consumed by anger, yet still holding onto control. We are not in good hands here. The hands are more like claws, witness the old mangy cats well into their ninth life.

These old men are sucking the life out of the room, fiddling while the earth burns, content to mine the oil and coal and natural gases, adding more fuel to the wildfires created by the climate changes they ignore at our peril.

Yes, they ignore all the warnings that were given since I was a young man. More than fifty years of warnings.

These warnings are now part and parcel of our transactional world. You can even buy carbon credits to shift the blame like the gods playing a shell game. Are we buying or selling? Which is better and which is worse? Can you get it for less? What do you expect? What did we expect would happen?

Expectations are the problem. We need to revisit my Rules of a Lasting Relationship:

My first rule for a good relationship (or a successful marriage) is to Lower Your Expectations. Expectations are nothing but false hope casting Judgements. Watch out for the people who want to put the fun back in fundamentalism. They nearly had us at jihad. It’s no joke the world is woke, it’s time to finally cancel Dad.

My second rule is you need a good sense of humour. If you can’t laugh at this world, you are doomed.

Last but not least is the real kicker.

Who do we hate this week? A common enemy will bring you together.

So who do we hate this week?

Carl Jung remarked in his book Memories, Dreams and Reflections upon his visit to Tunisia in North Africa, “Strangely, in setting foot upon Moorish soil, I found myself haunted by an impression which I myself could not understand: I kept thinking that the land smelled queer. It was the smell of blood, as though the soil were soaked with blood.”

So it is with the Gaza Strip, where souls are soaked with blood. Didn’t you mean soil? This small stretch of land is filled with so many people, so much history, so much blood. The US In one hand delivers Israel weapons and money, while at the same time, the other hand is sending humanitarian supplies to the Gaza. Truly, this is a case of having your cake and eating it too. Just as we have been talking about global warming for over 50 years, endless US Presidents have tried to solve this unsolvable situation. Usually it into their second term, when it becomes obvious that they cannot achieve any of their promises, that they go to Camp David to discuss the elephant in the room.

When I hear the Israeli government talking about “human animals”, I am reminded of a trade show in Seattle that I was at over 15 years ago. A customer of our company was there. He was Jewish, but more specifically a Zionist. He talked about exterminating the “hanimals”. “ They need to be put down, like a dog.”

I am thinking of my Mother’s advise, that when you have nothing good to say, saying nothing is advisable. Meanwhile, a young woman who was demoing products in our booth must have had a different mother, because she waded right in there, engaging this man on the Israeli-Palestinian question. I was proud of her for speaking her truth, while I remained mute, looking the other way. To me, there was nothing to be gained, because this man was never going to change his mind, so deep was his hatred. When someone dehumanizes an entire nation or people, there is no way that anything I could say would sway them. Why go there?

Yet, by not going there, I was condoning genocide. In my heart of hearts I hoped that a peaceful solution could be reached, but I am not convinced that a peaceful solution can be accomplished.

Who do we hate this week?

There is the proxy horror show that is Ukraine. No matter how this ends, (and so many interests do not want it to end…ever,) the only winners, if anyone can be called winners, is the ammunitions industry. The US Congress keeps being told by the Executive branch about the great deal they are getting from the billions of dollars in the form of military supplies.

“We send Ukraine our old weapons, while the US gets newer, bigger, and better weapons.” In America, Guns are king. In the US, parents consider the possibility of a shooter every time they send their kids to school.

It is beyond sad and sickening. Like the conflict in the Middle East, it is soul crushing. .

Who do we hate this week?

Our fears lead us to uncertainty. Uncertainty lead to a desire for certainty. Certainty provides the basis for hate. In our search for clues, we find conspiracy. As we used to say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

A common enemy will bring us together.

Isn’t that the definition of a mob?

“The deception is complete. It is the deception of all leaders. They pretend that they will be the first to die, but, in reality, they send their people to death, so that they themselves may stay alive longer. The trick is always the same. The leader wants to survive, for with each survival he grows stronger. If he has enemies, so much the better; he survives them. If not, he has his own people. In any event he uses both, whether successively or together. Enemies he can use openly; that is why he has enemies. His own people must be used secretly.”

Elias Canetti CROWDS AND POWER