Letters to the Editor
J.C. Miller
Published Letters: 319 Editor's Choice: 34
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back to reality
[Read the article: Iraq: War of imagination]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, it does seem very puzzling indeed, and aptly put, that “ . . . so many highly accomplished, experienced, and intelligent officials came together to make such monumental, consequential, and, above all, obvious mistakes. . .” Nearly inconceivable, really, that competent adults could “mistakenly” end up murdering half a million people, unless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unless the only puzzle is a delusional one we create to shield us from what is real. Unless we were to take the bold step, just as an experiment, of unplugging from the Matrix, just momentarily, long enough to free our minds of the arbitrary constructions we use to hold off discomfort and fear, those made-up ideas and images fed to us daily and swallowed whole without thought: “President”, “officials”, “leader”, “governing”, “diplomat”, "educated", “State Department”, “Administration”, “policy”, "intelligent", “statesman”. All repeatedly inscribed, intoned, uttered, almost chanted, by very earnest and neatly dressed figures, as if the symbols or sounds somehow actually signified something real.
And then, unplugged and momentarily free of that reality constructed for us, if we were to simply observe the behaviors, the language, the reactions and expressions, what do we see? We see large, well-dressed children, caught in lies and misbehaviors, driven by fear, now telling more lies, smirking and talking tough to cover the fear and bad behavior, acting and speaking impulsively, pointing fingers, taunting rivals, acting out, hitting back, hurting, without empathy, moral deliberation, or remorse.
But that’s not what we need to see, in fact it’s barely tolerable. It would require facing that we have ceded our well being to children lacking impulse control. Far less discomforting to plug back into that safer reality with the images and symbols of competent adult leaders, of officials deliberating and developing policy, exercising moral judgment and vision, acting in the best interests of a people. They’ll get things back on track, back to reality, any time now, just like they always have.
Won’t they?
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now that you're rested,
[Read the article: A quiet life among autumnal people]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Forget the painting Garrison, the beauty and truth in your prose live on in anyone lucky enough to encounter it. And the almost bittersweet, resigned, second-person vibe is congruent, artful ………yet belies the real power in your gift. The power of art and of the idea to speak truth. Needed now more than ever.
Now get up.
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My God. Heather!
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How dare you, with your effortless and fiercely beautiful prose, use a TV column to expose the pathology of empire, of capitalism, of a privileged class of children lacking impulse control? What has gotten into you? In juxtaposition, the sharp and useful but pedantic political analyses of your peers – those Serious and Educated Male Thinkers - seem passionless, almost . . . . . . . . . impotent.
Now Mister Jones, something is happening here and you don’t understand, do you? That feels bad, like being left out of something you really want to be part of. Especially when you have something valuable to add, and nobody’s paying attention. You have insights too, but the attention and excitement are “over there”.
And Heather, can you see that the power of your talent is blowing Mr. Jones away? That his fearful male psyche attacks and criticizes because he feels lowered in status? Because you are successfully deconstructing his ordered, privileged, hierarchy? And you, a female, are loved for courage and intellect, by fans! Ouch.
BTW, I’m not much of a TV fan, but I’ve always thought that pretty much the entire appeal of the desperately, inanely popular “Friends” was precisely the mass relief it provided: that, aided by the laugh track’s psychological bonding, it normalized, even celebrated, arrested intellectual and moral development – allowing the audience escape from the anxiety that might otherwise push boys and girls into adulthood. That is, “See? Ha, ha! It’s perfectly OK to be 30 and behave like a 4 year old. We can laugh along and feel OK about it!”
But maybe I just hate America.
Mr. Jones?
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A more empathic re-reading
[Read the article: Don't like Christmas? Get a life]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A more empathic re-reading, on the order of Brian T.’s, might have forestalled some of the reactions borne of personal affront. We are easily stimulated by hot sounds (“Get a life.” , “Christian culture”) to reflexively defend and react, mentally spinning out arguments immediately. But that’s when we stop listening and giving full attention to what might really be communicated under the hot, threatening sounds.
A man genuinely celebrating the joy and happiness of Christmas, and of his faith, has little need for bitterness, intolerance, or to reopen wounds, remorse, and dismay. Someone sincerely taking solace and comfort in the traditions and icons of his religious practice finds contentment there, not the haunted drive to continuously re-create, and not the lost hope for his own passing time that can find refuge only in what hope can be mustered for a child’s future.
The flippant revelry and “screw you” that seems to have pushed so many buttons – isn’t it really to cover a deeper emptiness and loss of hope that indicts the false promise of the season more profoundly than the many reactions to it? The way that sugar cookies can temporarily cover a craving, but not offer sustenance? Is Garrison possibly telling you, with a hit of anger, “The comfort I find here is, after all, meager, so back off, it’s what I’ve got.” ?
If you tolerate your offense long enough for a re-read, you might find, under the glib and sugary surface, a sad Everyman’s need to create, “out of confusion and dismay”, something to fill the failed promise that 2000 years of men and their religions have rendered the world’s most beautiful idea.
Work with that.