When feeling need for...something...I seem to recall that some people reach for The Bible, open it at random and find something on that random page appropriate to their need for....comfort, understanding....something. I don't use The Bible for such endeavours, but I have a tattered copy of
Carl Sandburg's
"The People, Yes" on the shelf under my computer, and I use that. It's a second printing, dated 1936. The book has has seldom failed me. I opened it yesterday afternoon, feeling somewhat numb, and mildly depressed after the previous night's primary results and announcements. I opened the book at random - once only - it opened to page 158, and this passage hit me in the eye straight away.
The people laugh, yes, the people laugh.
They have to in order to live and survive under lying politicians,
lying labor skates, lying racketeers of business, lying newspapers, lying ads.
The people laugh even at lies that cost them toil and bloody exactions.
For a long time the people may laugh, until a day when the laughter
changes key and tone and has something it didn't have.
Then there is a scurrying and a noise of discussion and an asking of the question
what is it the people want.
Then there is the pretense of giving the people what they want,
with jokers, trick clauses, delays and continuances, with lawyers and fixers,
playboys and ventriloquists, big-time promises.
Time goes by and the gains are small for the years go slow, the people go slow,
yet the gains can be counted and the laughter of the people foretokening revolt carries fear to those who wonder how far it will go and where to block it.
7 comments:
The DNC "win" by Hillary didn't get me down...the writing was on the proverbial wall from the get-go. I had hoped for better, but I'm in the same boat as all the other voters wanting more than a Trump or Clinton. A bit relieved actually, as the new POTUS will have a difficult term by any measure, but I base my assessment on astrology. The adage that we get what we deserve couldn't be truer with our two presumptive nominees, as I'm not one to dismiss the collective as innocents. They are misguided, in my opinion, but not naive victims. I'm certain the feeling is mutual with my support of The Bern and not Hillary. The 2020 election will be the turning point, for better or worse, and it's this election that pushes upon 2020. I like John Townley's view that the astrology of the future is constantly drawing us toward it.
As for your comfort in Sandburg, your random selection was fitting for you, but I'm not comforted in that poetry, though fitting, because it reminds ME that we, the collective electorate, missed our opportunity once again. The majority has culled the selection to either a female Obama or a fascist bigot as the pick-of-the-crop. I'll admit to enjoying the Republican implosion, as the Republican elites scramble to find meaning for their continued existence under the Trump regime.
We just finished the Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune T-square and now have the Saturn-Neptune square through September...nothing is as it seems. The election astrology has Jupiter within orb of squaring Pluto, December Jupiter opposes Uranus, with Neptune sitting right on the S Node, January has the last near-square of Uranus-Pluto. Discomfit abounds...LOL.
BTW - Just after commenting, GiGi started barking at something out the window. Two ducks and their NINE goslings! Wow!!! They were waddling down the sidewalk. Two neighbors and I tried our hand at a rescue, but they were too wily for us. They disappeared into a neighbor's backyard, then vanished...they must have found an out. I'm now back in the house, sweaty as can be.
Nature is my typical source of consolation. I have lots of plants, shrubs, and trees, which attract many varieties of life. The hummingbirds, butterflies, and several migratory birds are in the yard currently, with comers-and-goers week after week.
mike ~ I didn't want to believe the writing was on the wall this time - at the very least I wanted this thing to end as more of a tie, even if Clinton was to grasp the nomination finally. Tuesday's results caused me to spiral down for a while - I'd expected better.
Yes, 2020 or 2024 will bring a turning point - I'd been hoping it would be brought into better focus this time, while I'm still around and still kicking reasonably accurately....lol!
Ah well..."life's a beach and then you die". ;-)
I'm not exactly comforted by the snippet thrown to my by Sandburg's book - but the coincidence of it randomly appearing brought me back to earth, out of the doldrums.
I hope that, as you point out, the astrology of the times indicates a touch of the unexpected coming up, as long as it's unexpected in a positive way.
LOL! Lovely sight you had of the duck and its babies. It reminded me of an experience we had some years ago on the way to Lawton. A similar troop of duck and goslings was crossing the highway, the big semi in front of us stopped in its tracks to allow them to cross. A definite "Awwwww!" moment, and gold star to the semi truck driver!
A very insightful essay about our current state of affairs in the USA:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36340-anti-politics-and-the-plague-of-disorientation-welcome-to-the-age-of-trump
mike (again) ~ thank you - yes, very good piece. I especially like:
What does politics mean in the face of an impending authoritarianism when the conversation among many liberals and some conservatives is dominated by a call to avoid electing an upfront demagogue by voting instead for Hillary Clinton, a warmonger and neoliberal hawk who denounces political authoritarianism while supporting a regime of financial tyranny? What does resistance mean when it is reduced to a call to participate in rigged elections that reproduce a descent into an updated form of oligarchy, and condemns millions to misery and no future, all the while emptying out politics of any substance?
Did you notice this: "Gaius Publius: Puerto Rico Democratic Party Reduced Primary Votes to 8% of What Was Expected"?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/06/gaius-publius-puerto-rico-democratic-party-reduced-primary-votes-to-8-of-what-was-expected.html
mike (again) ~ Yes, I did read that. Also read that in California there are still hundreds of thousands of votes still to be counted - one source said 950,000, another something like 3 million. I think Bernie said - either today or yesterday - that it's likely the gap between his and Clinton's numbers will be closer once all are counted.
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