The Rhetoric of Hope

I wrote before that I'm a news junkie, and the news these days is downright scary. I find myself asking the question 'why?' a lot when I watch things like CNN, the BBC, or even CBC Newsworld. The big one for me right now is: Why does it seem like our actions in the Middle East bring nothing but suffering? I know, I know, the question is incredibly subjective, and you could blame it on a lot of things... But why? It always comes back around to that crazy-making question.

As much as it pains me to admit this, I was a staunch supporter of the Canadian government's decision to send troops to Afghanistan, and not Iraq, but with the news item recently about civilians getting caught in Canada's crossfire, I have begun to wonder if maybe things aren't getting too hot to handle over there. The tipping point for me was the unit's commander telling the press that it wasn't their fault, it's the Taliban's fault. In all fairness, that unit was under fire, and I can't even imagine the stress that they must have been under. The fact is, it could have been a whole lot worse. Is it unreasonable of me to ask one thing; that we say that we screwed up and are really sorry? When we start looking to assign blame on others for our failings, we risk tainting our every effort in any direction thereafter. Why not admit our wrongs and ask for - if not forgiveness - then at least understanding. Surely that would not be too hard?

A lot of people ask why the people of the Middle East hate us so much. Well... they don't. By and large the people of the Middle East are just about the most generous, friendly and compassionate people on the planet; they treat their guests with great kindness and have a strong sense of community. This is probably why they have endured so much in the last thousand years, and yet have prospered. Until now. Up until now they have had one thing that has allowed them to thrive - not just to survive. That one thing was hope. Hope that if we were to come - as in Iraq - that we would give them freedom from fear. Hope that the quality of their lives would improve. Hope for a bright future for their generations as yet unborn. Hope that tomorrow they would look out on a better, more tolerant, world.

Instead, we gave them rhetoric. A patronizing 'father knows best, so run along and play' rhetoric that was used to cover for our cynicism, imperialism, and worst of all: Greed. And the people we said we wanted to save saw right through it.

I no longer want to hear the rhetoric of hope, I want to see its reality.

Friendship is Freedom

*The following is an excerpt from a personal journal written Sept 19, 2001*

Oscar Wilde once said: "A true friend stabs you in the front". This is a very true statement, after all, if the people we know, and love, and (hopefully) respect won't tell us to our faces when we do or say monumentally stupid things, then when do we know? Probably never.

Everyone says "Friends come and go". I say "Friends come and set you free".

After all, there's a great degree of freedom in friendship; here are the ones with whom you can communicate, who will tell you when you screw it up, and will not abandon you. Ever.

Liberating, isn't it?

Confessions of a News Junkie

That's right, my name is Johnny and I am a News Addict, I have been an addict for about four weeks now and I can't seem to stop watching, reading or listening to the news. It's weird how that sounds, but the fact is it's true; I can't seem to get enough news, and the sad thing is that I have learned that this kind of intellectual binge means that I have been feeding my brain a lot of crap. It's like I'm doing to my brain what Morgan (Super Size Me) Spurlock did to his body. I have discovered, however, that I can still cram a lot of useless junk into my well developed cerebellum than I had at first thought. Oh, and CNN is to journalism what MacDonald's is to cuisine.

Time for me to rant.

CNN thinks that it can pass of mediocrity and blandness to the viewing public and get away with it, and why shouldn't they? They are the biggest, therefore they must be the best; otherwise they wouldn't be the biggest, right? WRONG! Damn it! CNN has finally pissed me off. I had to subject myself to them for at least a couple of hours a day (I could have made it four, but I also subscribe to Democracy Now! and Al-Jazeera), but it finally dawned on me that CNN's entire staff - particularly that putz Wolf Blitzer - wouldn't recognize honest journalism if it blew up in their faces like an Iraqi-made roadside bomb. I mean, for crying out loud, there are unexploded cluster bombs killing children in Baghdad (go to Al-Jazeera for the full story) and the best that they can come up with is a story on how it's not good for kids to insult other kids. Well FUCK YOU Paula Zahn! I used to get eight shades of shit kicked out of me by bigger kids in school, and that, on a good day.

I think that the desire, of outfits like CNN, to keep our eyeballs glued to the channel with their inoffensive oral flatulence, could be best halted with a return to a single, one-hour per day news program. That really is nostalgic optimism getting the better of me, I know, but I want to turn on the news tomorrow and see something that will provoke me to do more than just spit at the TV in frustration. To prove my point, I submit to you, the reader, that the CBS show '60 Minutes' crams more real journalism into one show a week than CNN can put into a 24-hour day. Mind you, I have my guilty pleasures; including The Daily Show (with John Stewart), and The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC Television. I also love our local news media, it may not be slick, but at least it's relevant.

One last thing: Bill O'Reilly doesn't even rate an insult. I got better things to do... Like sleep.

Day 3

You know those days... The ones that people mention as some sort of nebulous point of time past. One of those days. You know the ones I mean, right? Well I WISH TO HELL today was one of those days, 'cause that would be a massive fucking improvement on the day I have had today!

There comes a point when one is confronted with a heavy work-load that seems unavoidable where you just want to walk up to your boss, hand in your keys and other work related paraphernalia and say: "Since you seem to think that YOU can do my job better that I can (and you know that no one can - or will), you've got it. I'm done with this shit, this place, and above all, I'm done with you. Screw my last paycheck, my extra vacation pay, my overtime in arrears, and lastly - screw you! I'm leaving right now; if you want to stop me, you had better have a gun, because you are going to have to SHOOT ME!"

One of those days.

It occurs to me that there are two kinds of employers. The first kind selects the best possible candidates for the positions they have, give them a specific task, and then get out of their way. Nuff said. The second kind tends to give vague instructions (at best - at worst they give self-contradictory ones), and is never satisfied with the work you do, and will ultimately try to make sure that it gets done the way they would do it. Looking over your shoulder every step of the way, or worse, 'reminding' you every 5 minutes to get it done, when it isn't really that critical, and you have more important things to work on.

It's funny. I am still employed, and - for the foreseeable future - I still intend to go to work, but that iron resolve is slowly eroding under the onslaught of an emotionally corrosive work environment; and it really is a coin toss whether I will just walk away in disgust, or simply endure as a soulless automaton. Time will tell.

Day 2

I'm a reader. This is maybe obvious to someone reading this, but just for the record, I read a lot of crap. Along with that crap though is a healthy dose of good stuff. The latest in the 'good' category is a book called "A War Against Truth" by Paul William Roberts; if you've read it you'll understand where I'm coming from here, but if you haven't then sit down and read it. You'll be glad you did.

The thing is, I realized that George W. is the closest thing to a pathetic figure of classical tragedy that we have today. To be clear: I think that he is a small-minded bigot with a narcissistic view of his mission in life, but... You have to think. He stands there in front of the whole world, and reads his speeches (which have got to be prepared for him, we've seen what happens when he tries to ad lib), never realizing that he has put himself - politically - in harm's way. People call him evil; GIMME A BREAK! The man is way to stupid to be evil. The powers behind the throne: Dick, Paul and Donald, now those guys scare the shit out of me. They create chaos, hatred and despair and call it 'democracy building', anyone who believes their powder coated rhetoric has not really thought much about this at all. And the sad fact is that when it all hits the fan, George is gonna be left holding a very empty bag, and the Triumvirate will have gotten away with its contents.

They say that God sees all. What are you seeing now?

Day 1

Day 1. This blog is just another in a series of attempts to maintain my sanity in the face of a world I barely understand. If you like it, great. If you hate it, also great. I'd like to write something really classy and inspirational about 'all praise and criticism being gladly accepted' but the fact of the matter is that - like anyone - I'd like to just hear the good stuff. That said, if you have any criticism to offer, offer it, my ego can probably stand the pounding, just try to keep it constructive.

Thanks,

Johnny C.