When Democracy for Coin

Let's be honest about hyperbolic hand-wringing for the sake of democracy the people must speak! Because no one who votes for their coin is speaking "for the sake of democracy". Because a vote "for the sake of the economy" is not a vote for the sake of participation in governance.

*

To put it plainly:

if you believe governance is you do what you want and to hell with everybody but you, that is, self-rule that declares your self, including your economic self-interest, above all other interests, your "participation in governance" is your declaration of self-rule.

As in:

long live self-rule bless us all!

When Democracy for Coin

When the people speak for "the economy", how often is this shorthand for their coin, duh, their coin? Making it. Keeping it. Not giving it up.

Such that when the people speak for "the economy", how often is this shorthand for laissez faire, duh, laissez faire? 

As if the ultimate democracy is no rule but self-rule.

*

Hah.

Self-rule hostages us to individual responsibility.

As in:

safe placements for children removed from familial care, accident-free warehouses and factories, meat and produce and water to eat and drink without poison and disease, and so on, that exist not because self-regulation and nonintervention guarantee decency.

Please.

When self-rule speaks for economic self-importance at the expense of decency towards children, workers, and consumers, what is the "governance" you believe in, if not indifference ruled by self-indulgence?

*

As though:

"individual responsibility" is sacred. As it papers over your want is your right and the devil be damned like this too is inviolate. As harmless as the devil may care.

What are a few children, workers, and consumers - okay a few hundred children, workers, and consumers - okay a few thousand children, workers, and consumers - before your millions strong harks of long live self-rule bless us all?

Translation:

protecting anybody at the expense of self-rule that speaks for economic self-importance is [fill in the blank].

*

Self-rule declares "individual responsibility" the only governance it abides; wherein "responsibility" starts and stops with: your self, including your economic self-interest, is your polestar.

As for millions strong children, workers, consumers, and so on?

Hah.

When such polestar is liberated of any obligation but your self: (1) life is every individual for every individual's self and (2) in the crosshairs of indifference ruled by self-indulgence, "the people" and "the common good".

*

No.

A vote for such governance is no triumph.

It is, however, a vote for what you believe in and what you speak for:

you, amen.

Epilogue

Unless all of us altogether defend democracies worth saving -

democracies of "the people" and "the common good", by "the people" and "the common good", and for "the people" and "the common good" -

our vote for no rule but self-rule shall stand the world over

as our indifference ruled by self-indulgence and our economic self-importance at the expense of decency -

writ large.

M

*

Note

When Democracy for Coin continues as follows

When Democracy for Coin Is a Vote of a People that Speaks Such Will - Such Vote for Indifference to Decency as a Guiding Principle of Laissez Faire that Liberates a Government of a Democracy, a Republic, and a Nation of Its Duty to Govern, of Its Responsibility to the People, and of Its Obligation to the Common Good - Is No Triumph.

M

*

Author's Note

Theories of hydrogenated hot air excited by sham piety and fire-breathing invention roused to rabid combustion by frauds impersonating integrity and populism -

in other words,

legitimacy, as bankrupt and as trustworthy as rot, desolating and defacing any one good that gives a shit -

is not what I believe in and what I speak for, amen.

M

Ghosts of Christmas

Have you ever heard of a Christmas ghost who saves

greed?

Ghosts of Christmas

We know the ghosts of Christmas, as familiar as the advent: the grim past, the glorious present, the silent future. But this ghost story is no mere nightmare; it's how

good is saved.

*

Such comfort: the known and the familiar. It is a thing we crave, like it is something real and tangible and material and precious.

But it's a ghost.

That we cling to. A blanket that comforts the toddlers we used to be. The toddlers we manifestly are. When we demand the present be known and familiar. Not tomorrow: NOW!

Though a ghost cannot be commanded thus.

*

Still we invite them.

To be pasts brim with triumphs. Happiness, wealth, and unions all, charmed by the brittle plaster of remembrance. Sanctity preserved against rot.

Until such smoke writhes in the cool water of reality.

*

Of despair? No. The present is not hopeless. Who says that? No one.

But the feverish make believe of a child, it is not.

Nor is it the terror absent of sugar, too bitter a medicine to swallow. We are, after all, made of tougher grit than dogs' tails, no?

*

As for death, if there is a shadow that lives and breathes, it is the seasoned veteran of life's cessation. Implacable and mortally inescapable, none who oppose it, win.

Still we taunt it.

Though a shadow doesn't care.

*

Oh a good ghost story is good! 

Like doppelgangers of norepinephrine, specters coax panic to reign. But we are immune and invincible. Nothing as familiar as the advent, horrifies we callous and soulless.

As if a Christmas spirit is real and tangible and material and precious.

Long live greed bless us all!

Notes

(i) it goes without saying that ghosts of Christmas is a reference to A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (Charles Dickens);

(ii) while you may be inclined to read various words above, including advent, ghost, etc., as meaning but one of many meanings, this is not any inclination of mine;

(iii) likewise, figurative and idiomatic language above should not incline you to reason but one understanding is especially referenced while all other, representations for example, are indeliberate; 

including literal;

see also (ii);

(iv) although the generation for whom Pollyanna is a contemporary is the generation of a century past, evoking "Pollyannaism" in the glorious present is evoking the feverish make believe of a child to what exactly: live?

of course "Pollyannaism" is a reference to Pollyanna (Eleanor Hodgman Porter);

(v) while the grim past, the glorious present, and the silent future echo A Christmas Carol, this is neither the only intention nor the sole purpose for their inclusion above;

also sugar and dogs' tails as echoes of the nursery rhyme "What All the World Is Made Of" or "What Folks Are Made Of";

see also (ii, iii);

(vi) like a labyrinth, this ghost story is no mere nightmare; 

What are ghosts made of?

What are ghosts made of?

Night and shade and sour lemonade.

Gloves and heels and devils in deals.

That's what ghosts are made of.

M

*

Author's Note

This ghost story may not be a romantic fantasy of guts and gore, but the shadows at our heels are no less haunting as our companions for Allhallowtide and Christmastide.

As what was, what is, and what could be.

Ghosts.

Of vows and oaths, dead souls, and what should not be.

For though we are without doubt or conscience without feeling or soul, romantic fantasy is trusted. What else is the past we trust with hearts proud without real memories of really being there but smoke from our own fire-breathing invention? As if confidence pretending not to defy belief is the real past, present, and future.

After all, what haunts we who veni vidi vici is not what is make believe, it is what was, what is, and what will be real.

What is death made of?

What is death made of?

Future spent and every hope rent.

Void sublime sans one more last time.

That's what death is made of.

M

Give Up: The Battle for Good

Like a foghorn from a lighthouse, you say give up. Upon a wing and a wave, you hear a message for no one but you.

that's the hook line and sinker of it

'till velvet seats are lined by it

this roller coaster's not through with us

be still for morrow's still for us

Give Up: The Battle for Good

Forgiveness.

It's just for you.

Personal responsibility.

It's just for them.

Dialogue.

Words are a waste. Even though words have brought you and them to this point. This exhausting point. This exultant point. This unendurable point. This disbelieving point. Right now.

*

Don't give up

because you're protesting.

Don't give up

because you don't care.

Don't give up

because it doesn't matter.

*

Own it. How fed up you are. Of being shamed. For overextending yourself on leased I've made it wheels. For lying to hustle fudge figure commissions. For double dipping on tax breaks.

Then:

Own it. How blood boiling mad you are. At the self-absorbed who live beyond their means. At liars who scam for a living. At frauds who rob taxpayers.

* 

Own it. How forgiveness runs thick as butter. If it was what Jesus done, then it be what you done. Because that be the glory of God. Salvation for nothing but believing.

Then:

Own it. How no sin done be unpunished. There be God's judgment and there be justice in the now. Because lawlessness cannot be had. Not in the here where injustice be.

*

There be no talking. Because there be no agreeing. Because you share nothing with them. Neither common ground. Nor common goal. Nor common future.

Because they sick and tired of cooperating with you. Sick and tired of tolerating. Sick and tired of unifying.

It's time for you done talking. Because real solutions to real problems of real people for the real world is they done talking.

*

Give up

because you want to.

Give up

because only God forgives hypocrites who hypocrisy; owns harms after words; and parleys with mortal judges.

Give up

because nothing good ever comes of giving a shit.

 

On Giving Up and Giving In

In the battle for good and evil, there's much ado about not giving in.

To communism. To socialism. To regimes that are so-called "exemplars" of oppressive corruption. That subject party members to investigations of loyalty. That pull no punches to punish dissenters as traitors against party and nation.

Not unlike, say, democracies or republics or democratic republics. That subject party members to tests of fealty. That retaliate against disloyalty as betrayals of party and nation.

Which is to say, the battle for good and evil isn't a battle about not giving in to one ideology over an other. The battle for good and evil is a battle about not giving in to regimes of integrity for sale. Because there's nothing principled about licking the hand that signs the checks you cash.

*

Moreover, there's much ado about not giving in.

To religious rule. To regimes that are so-called "exemplars" of radical extremism. That subject citizens to morality policing against godless offenses. That sanction military crackdowns of civil protests against undemocracy.

Not unlike, say, democracies or republics or representative democracies. That empower the morality policing of citizens qua "conscience" denials of health care, justice, education, services. That threaten military enforcement of law and order against civilians at civil protests.

Which is to say, the battle for good and evil isn't a battle about not giving in to one canon over an other. The battle for good and evil is a battle about not giving in to regimes immune to mortal judgment. For a divine right to immunity without limits is endowed no one.

*

In other words, what's in name only is your much ado about not giving in.

M

*

On Giving Up and Checking Out

In the battle for good and evil, there's much ado about not checking out.

Leveraging viciousness. Not letting any fish, no matter how small, go. Flinging every stone. The hotter the heat, the better. The muddier the mud, the better than better. Because the stakes are too high.

After all, it's all for you.

Checking out?

It's just for them. 

Meanwhile, you whinge and wail: unfair! when viciousness leveraged is hostile; when fish, no matter how small, won't let go; when every stone without mercy is flung; when heat that's hotter, charbroils; when mud that's muddier, tars and feathers you. 

After all, it's all for you.

Not much ado about sticky flagpole running?

It's just for them.

Because the stakes are too high.

*

Which is to say, giving up the battle for good is the common ground and the common goal and the common future of them. And you.

M

*

Epilogue

Suppose I say:

Trust no one but me! They don't want me to tell you the truth, but I'm telling you: you can't trust them! Would they say that? No! Because they're liars! They know it! You know it! Everybody knows it!

Would you believe me?

Am I standing up to "them"? Because I'm saying this? Are you standing up to "them"? Because you're grinning and roaring and eating this up?

Suppose I say:

Who'd believe a fake who says: Trust no one but me! A loser and everybody knows: losers get what they deserve!

Am I giving "them" hell? Because I'm saying "fake" and "loser"? Are you giving "them" hell? Because you're flying the words in my mouth on your flags unfurled?

*

You say this speech is your voice because [fill in the blank]. 

Tell me:

Are words that pretend to be true just as good as being true?

*

You say this speech is the truth because [fill in the blank].

Tell me:

Do you believe the truth? Or do you believe words that pretend to be just as good?

*

If only I was born yesterday!

M