Happy Interdependence Day

Being the type to generally embrace any and every excuse to throw a party, I like all holidays, especially when there's barbecue and fireworks involved (fireworks being arguably the third greatest Chinese contribution to world civilization, after books and noodles). I like celebrations, and I like people who are in the midst of celebrating.

Of course, I also like to excise from my attention all forms of loopy nationalistic propaganda as I participate in events such as July Fourth Weekend, whose entire premise is pretty much nationalistic propaganda. See, I really don't like being hustled, and since the essential objective of nationalistic propaganda is to turn people into suckers and suck-ups, well that whole thing doesn't work for me. Admittedly there's something vaguely funny about dorky dittoheads who think it's patriotic to wave flags made in China and watch fireworks made in China while US hegemony turns to toxic compost beneath their clogged noses. There's also something vaguely tragic about it, this desperate hunger to belong to something great which drives people to fabricate rather than realize greatness, and to put out their own eyes and cut out their own hearts in order to avoid unlearning lies about that which is ungreat.

Do I love this country? It depends on what you mean by "country". I certainly love the land and many of the people. I love movies and sandwiches and tequila. I love the blues and jazz and rumba and rock. I love Thoreau and DuBois and Hurston and Whitman and Hughes. Actually I love a lot of things happening here. But there are also plenty of people and institutions and operations in this country whose destructive agendas directly collide with my interests and those of humanity and the Earth; they are my enemies, even if they live in the same country as me or occupy high offices in the corporate-political power structures of this nation-state. That's just how it is and how things are gonna go down, and I couldn't care less if this means that infantile cootie-carrying labels get lobbed at me by dimwits so remedial they're still stuck on such games; I wouldn't listen to such fools discuss the weather, much less the proper relationship between individual and country.

So I enjoyed the weekend. It was a nice opportunity to relax and watch fireworks and chat with neighbors and watch the US Olympic trials. And of course every weekend is a nice opportunity to declare our interdependence:

We, the people of planet Earth,

In recognition of the interconnectedness of all life

And the importance of the balance of nature,

Hereby acknowledge our interdependence

And affirm our dedication

To life-serving environmental stewardship,

The fulfillment of universal human needs worldwide,

Economic and social well-being,

And a culture of peace and nonviolence,

To insure a sustainable and harmonious world

For present and future generations.

Comments

[nezua]

hell YES 'mano. thanks for the fireworks. and i do not mean the jpg.

[Kai]

Hehe, yeah maybe the actual fireworks inspired me to attack the topic with booming sounds and showers of sparks...