The simulacrum of the eighties known as the last seven years seemingly continues. Anyone who has followed this blog, or my previous home, The Covington Blog (now defunct), knows that I have watched, with great alarm, at the return of the eighties, from the horrible fashions to the even more horrible music (Morrissey+ REO Speedwagon=EMO) to, yikes, players from the Reagan/Bush regimes crawling out of their holes to make the world miserable once again.
Yet, here we are again, playing the superpower again, except with a new twist: We are speading our love to our moderate "friends" in the Middle East in hopes of stemming the tide of something called Islamofascism, or the like. Seymour Hersh alluded to this sometime ago.
The other new twist is our ersatz Reagan Administration, reaching for the past and dragging the rest of us into somekind of circus freak genuflection on God, guns, and guts=Amurca Grate!!!, and for thosse old enough to remember the original, well, aren't you sorry you asked the question "Can they get any stupider, more corrupt, and/or dangerous?". Yes, Virginia, they can, and they got Santa working as a greeter at Wal-Mart to boot.
One thing is the same, however: The fearful, existential Monolith that is trying to destroy "Amurca". Back then, it was the Soviets, and Communism in general, and it was our duty to overthrow legitimate pro-Marxist governments by re-arming the overthrown oligarchies and their right wing death squads. Now, it is Islamofascists (whatever that means) but the fear is the same: They will come and take our women and our guns. They will come and take our Bob Seeger records. They will take Jesus and kill him (again). We will have to stop eating baby back ribs (okay, this one may be new) and we are not selling to Iran (the other new wrinkle).
Oh yeah, the other thing that's the same, and what has painted a target on our collective backs; Back then, we used to do this thing called a Proxy War, when the Superpowers would use poor brown people to do their dirty work for them. That hasn't changed much either, except that some of the poor brown people we used against the Soviets in Afghanistan decided to fly our own jets into the WTC, because we made promises we wouldn't keep, and because we wouldn't go home.
That's one of the wacky things about the whole eighties simulacra-we watch endless repeats, with no laugh track, and pretend its some new shit.
Gah. Just seeing North again makes me physically sick. Why is that motherfucker not in prison? WHY?!?!
ReplyDeleteThe only time I actually came within an hair's-breadth of being kicked out of the house growing up was during Ollie North's testimony.
ReplyDeleteDad called him a hero. I said, and I quote:
"Ollie North, John Poindexter, Robert MacFarlane, and yes, Ronald Reagan gave AID and COMFORT to the enemies of the United States. That's TREASON. YOU know what the punishment for treason is - WHY HAS IT NOT BEEN CARRIED OUT SWIFTLY AND CERTAINLY??!?"
In my younger days, I used to say that we'd have been a lot better off if John Hinckley had been a better shot. Seeing the Bush Crime Family now, though, I have to rescind that (at least partially).
WF
Hear, hear, Mr. Singer & Wes.
ReplyDeleteThe '80s? Fuck. I remember one salient self-loathing moment for impetuously enlisting in the United States Marine Corps.
On the Saturday after the October 23, 1983, bombing of a Marine Corps Headquarters Unit in Beirut, as cool rain penetrated my wool uniform on the coast of New River inlet at Camp Lejeune, NC, Ronald Reagan flew in on his "Marine One" helicopter and delivered a sub-par acting job of heart-felt thanks for all that we were doing as Jarheads with condolences for the lost souls, etc. The sweat from my seething neck and brow for the utter disdain I had for him, his presidency and the entire Military Industrial Complex in which I, in turn, assumed culpability remained camouflaged in my drenched blues. Little did I (and other Americans) realize that at the very same time the funding for the Iran-Contra Affair was being established through the Palmer National Bank in Washington, D.C., and was being orchestrated by a criminal who was my superior wearing the same uniform as I.
Speaking of salient points:
"brown people we used against the Soviets in Afghanistan decided to fly our own jets into the WTC, because we made promises we wouldn't keep, and partly because we wouldn't go home."
I think a lot of people often forget this point, Wizard.
Keep spreadin' your magic,
Rintrah