{"id":107608,"date":"2018-03-19T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=107608"},"modified":"2018-03-16T20:05:26","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T20:05:26","slug":"russia-russia-russia-americas-theater-of-the-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/03\/russia-russia-russia-americas-theater-of-the-absurd\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia, Russia, Russia: America\u2019s Theater of the Absurd"},"content":{"rendered":"

14 Mar 2018 – <\/em>The recent article, linked-to below, by columnist Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, covers a lot of ground; with thoroughness, wit and clear thinking.<\/p>\n

Mostly, Taibbi pinpoints how much trouble and confusion we\u2019ve managed to create for ourselves and our world since 911.\u00a0 Lost in our mazes, we tumbled down the rabbit hole with Alice, and we\u2019ve been wandering through a Kremlin-constructed Wonderland for at least the past 2 years!\u00a0 (One wonders: When have the citizens of a true \u201cdemocracy\u201d been so gullible, so misled?)\u00a0 Taibbi\u2019s is a fine (and rare!) piece for reflections; here are some of mine:<\/p>\n

Maybe our biggest problem is how everything has become so blurred.\u00a0 Where are the fine lines separating truth from half-truth from falsehood; fantasy from reality?\u00a0 In our New Reality, we’ve lost our markers, our borders, our boundaries, our sure-footing and belief-systems.\u00a0 Without borders and boundaries, we are constantly invaded by images, dribble and diatribes from our new Theater of the Absurd\u2014i.e., our own media of hodge-podge \u201cnews.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a kid, I watched a fledgling Johnny Carson MC a NYC show called “Who Do You Trust?”\u00a0 Other early TV fare included “To Tell the Truth” and “Truth and Consequences.”\u00a0 The Walt Disney Hour featured “Fantasy Land” and “Tomorrow Land” and “Frontier Land” nonsense about Davy Crockett and the Alamo.\u00a0 In 2018, we’re living in “America Land”–a fantasy empire where we’ve been trained to trust no one and to fear our own shadows.\u00a0 We live with such fear, paranoia and schizophrenia, we take it for granted that we must have military-style weapons to protect ourselves from meddling \u201cRussians,\u201d and our own government, the \u201cother,\u201d even our shadow-selves.<\/p>\n

My only problem with the article was at the end when Taibbi referred to Trump as a “sleazeball.”\u00a0 The problem with that sort of characterization is that it reduces some 60 million Americans who voted for Trump to stooges.\u00a0 That will just offend and harden positions all around.<\/p>\n

“The center cannot hold,” Yeats wrote.\u00a0 “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”<\/p>\n

All sorts of disasters are likely within the next few years as the Empire implodes (like the Twin Towers!), unraveling and tearing itself and our planet to pieces.\u00a0 Geophysical and climatic disasters, of course.\u00a0 Plagues of new and re-animated diseases.\u00a0 Insane gun violence.\u00a0 Explosions and chemical weapons.\u00a0 Economic depression.\u00a0 Dissolution of the E.U., separatist movements in the U.S., Europe, etc.\u00a0(If Putin is behind all of this\u2014he would have to be about the most intelligent and craftiest person who has ever lived\u2014a mix of Leonardo da Vinci and Machiavelli!)<\/p>\n

Used to be there were men of wisdom who would write fine columns in places like the NY Times<\/em>, and occasionally speak on TV.\u00a0 (Women and “minorities” were not represented nearly enough back then, but a few like Ruth Benedict, Denise Levertov, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansburry could break through.\u00a0 Luminous souls like Martin Luther King uplifted all who could hear his resonant truths.\u00a0 JFK, also, could inspire a new generation with an \u201cAlliance for Progress\u201d and a \u201cPeace Corps\u201d\u2014idealism that sought embodiment.)\u00a0 Now–for the most part–steady, reasoned, balanced reportage and analysis is\u00a0moribund or defunct.\u00a0 Santayana’s idea about learning from history is always valid; but we had better learn how to imagine a better, saner world, too–or we’ll stew in the juices of our doom.<\/p>\n

Superficially, we’ve never been more connected–but we’re largely disconnected from our roots and traditions: our intellectual, philosophical and spiritual moorings.\u00a0 (Forget the past\u2014it\u2019s \u201cirrelevant\u201d!\u00a0 Onward, ever onward\u2026, but, towards what end?\u00a0 Do we dare pause to ponder?\u00a0 How many Americans still read books?\u00a0 How many dialogue rather than Twitter?)<\/p>\n

\u201cRead not the Times, read the Eternities,\u201d Thoreau forewarned.<\/p>\n

We need a cultural Renaissance, a global Age of Enlightenment…, but with robots flipping our hamburgers, 60,000 homeless in L.A., an opioid epidemic claiming more American lives every 18 months than our imperial barbarism claimed in Vietnam in 10 years, our prospects are parlous and too dim to discern.<\/p>\n

And, on top of all that\u2026there\u2019s Russia!<\/p>\n

When I was a kid there was a toothpaste called \u201cIpana.\u201d\u00a0 It tasted okay, but what I most remember about it was an inane jingle that a big, cartoon beaver would sing as he brushed his 2 huge buck-teeth in front of a mirror.\u00a0 The beaver sang: \u201cBrush-a, brush-a, brush-a\u2026with the new Ipana\u2026brush-a, brush-a, brush-a\u2026it\u2019s better for your teeth!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Every time I hear the word \u201cRussia\u201d these days, I hear the voice of a buck-toothed beaver and all the pseudo \u201cpatriots,\u201d in a chorus of confusion, singing, \u201cRussia, Russia, Russia\u2026with the new Ipana\u2026it\u2019s better for your teeth.\u201d \u2013Gary Corseri<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the link to Taibbi\u2019s excellent adventure:<\/p>\n

Russiagate and the New Blacklist<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Gary Steven Corseri is a m<\/em>ember of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.<\/a> He<\/em> has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including,<\/em> TMS (Transcend Media Service<\/a>)<\/a>, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and<\/em> Counterpunch.\u00a0 He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on<\/em> PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere.\u00a0 He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.\u00a0 Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Mar 2018 – We need a cultural Renaissance, a global Age of Enlightenment…, but with robots flipping our hamburgers, 60,000 homeless in L.A., an opioid epidemic claiming more American lives every 18 months than our imperial barbarism claimed in Vietnam in 10 years, our prospects are parlous and too dim to discern. And, on top of all that\u2026there\u2019s Russia! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":84067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}