A Forum for the New World Order

Ha! When I was grade-school-age, that word’s stepchild, antidisestablishmentarianism, was the boasting tool for anyone wanting to prove their spelling prowess. I, being apparently antiestablishmental from a very young age, argued that in fact the longest word was something else; a word which now escapes me. Not unfortunately, because it turns out even that word, whatever it was, wasn’t the longest in the English language. The longest word, technically, is some chemical term for a lung disease or something. In any event, I oughtta wrap up this introductory paragraph with a statement that ties this childhood narrative into a thesis on antiestablishmentarian propensity in contemporary history, and I thought of a premise tonight whilst watching "Burn After Reading", so there we go.

My impression on the first viewing was not only that the movie is friggin’ awesomely hilarious, but that it was a convoluted epic tale that took unrelated individuals and knocked them together in a tragi-comedic particle collider for no apparent reason (hence the tragedy). I realized tonight, however, that the tumult in "Burn After Reading" arises from the proverbial butterfly effect catalyzed in the opening scene.

*spoiler alert*

In the beginning, a man is fired, or more specifically, told he is being "moved out" of his position at the C.I.A.. Instead of letting them fire him, Cox (the man referenced above), preemptively quits. We can glean from his interactions that he’s an antiestablishment-type that muckraked, perhaps a little too much. We’re not sure that’s what got him "fired". In fact, the reason given at the exit interview is his drinking problem, to which he replied, "you’re a Mormon! Next to you, we ALL have a drinking problem!" Gotta love Mormons at the C.I.A..

You wanna see a drinking problem?! Cox’ll show you DRINKING PROBLEM. And so, his cheating wife now has real ammunition to divorce him, the proceedings for which she burns his financials and, tertiarily, his in-progress memoirs to disc, gives them to her lawyer’s receptionist who, in dropping the disc at her gym inadvertently lands the data in the hands of a personal trainer who is mislead by her hapless Hardbody accomplice to perceive the "highly classified shit" as a bargaining chip to pay the high cost of the cosmetic surgery she’s desperate to undergo and which she temporarily forgot about upon falling for the man who was initially having an affair with Cox’s wife. People die. People are literally murdered in this circus of events because of a string of misunderstandings arising from Cox’s bad fortune. I just went to the script to count the number of times he mutters, or yells, "what the fuck?". It was only 4, apparently. But this phrase seems to sum up the overarching theme in the movie.

I think the film serves as a warning to any establishment that would attempt to silence those who speak truth to power. If you think about it, each character suffers their fate directly or indirectly as a result of the C.I.A.’s firing move. "Burn After Reading" ends with the department head closing the case, saying "I’m fucked if I know what we did (to contribute to the case)". And there’s the irony: those at the tippy-top these days seem not to realize, or believe, or even care, that their decisions have serious consequences on the world.

WTF?!

Wake up, everyone! We’ve been fleeced. We’ve been systematically fleeced and subsequently BLAMED for the crisis that has arisen from the fleecing!

I’m watching these housing hearings and I’m experiencing deja vu: I myself have been subject to such hearings because I wanted to build a house. I wasn’t trying to sell sub-prime mortgages to the public, I wasn’t taking unwarranted bonuses while fudging numbers, more generally to contemporary history, I wasn’t defrauding investors of $50,000,000,000.00. I wanted to build a modestly modern house on 0.06 acres in an historically designated neighborhood. Shame on me.

I wonder now if some of these corrupt bastards discussed public ignorance when they made their dealings. I think they probably chuckled to each other that no one would notice because everyday Americans were too busy with their own "scandals" of bureaucratic minutiae: parking tickets, personal debt, personal bankruptcy, equipment failure (broken cars, computers, windows), dismantled families, divorce, etc. I think they counted on it.

Meanwhile, well-meaning citizens fulfilled the wet dreams of the capitalists who drove them to their meaningless liberalism and "acted local", not global. They carried cloth bags to grocery stores, ate tofu, they recycled and composted. They did it all. And when they really wanted to get their political thrills, they participated in local government and really "spoke out" against people who were trying to denigrate the historic spirit of their historic neighborhood.

I wonder if these liberals are watching C-Span right now, or if they’re too busy buying tofu.

My sister, a Mormon, called us, Atheist polyamorous Communists, to invite us to dinner Sunday evening. We told her, jokingly, that we wouldn’t be joining them because we’re boycotting everything Mormon. We’re, I reiterate, just kidding her–mostly. Some families in this climate, however, are not. Does the LDS church realize that it’s support of Prop. 8 divides the very families it claims to be saving?

BTW. I write on other subjects as well. See my other notes.

At a time of economic and social crisis, when people can’t get basic medical coverage; when people are dying in war, when thousands of voters are purged from rolls, when there are people in our own country that are zombified by a fear drum-beat to the frenzied end of plotting to assassinate President Obama; it would behoove us to get our priorities straight. I’m not going to be popular for this, but that means you, gay community.

I have spent years and money and effort supporting gay rights, and I will continue to do so. I applauded last year’s Sundance film, “For the Bible Tells Me So”, even though it made its point partly by bashing my own personal relationship ideals. I man a booth at gay pride in spite of the GLBT director’s insistence that we don’t belong in their club. I think I get it sometimes when some people think liberals are elitist.

Right now we need to be about feeding the poor. Right now we need to be about worker’s rights. Right now we need to come together and keep people from becoming homeless. Have you ever known someone in need of a doctor, but couldn’t afford it? Bring on the hate mail, but I think that’s something that trumps the right to get divorced.

A healthy and happy populace will put away hate and fear eventually. People will come to know there is nothing to fear but fear itself, and all those hate mongers will be on the wrong side of history soon enough. In the meantime, It just doesn’t look good for our party to have the affluent arm singularly obsessed with marriage. It’s a bit of a barometer to the divided state of our country; economically and otherwise.

Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 4:55pm

I got the email from the Obama campaign: “Even Rove says McCain went too Far”. I didn’t even read the body. I don’t need to.

First of all, NOTHING is going too far for Rove. Look at his record.

Second, I don’t even try to fathom Rove’s intention with that statement. I just assume it’s sinister.

Attention all Obama supporters: Ignore it. That is the only way we can stave off the manipulation from the right.