Letters to the Editor
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The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard ...
... was, alas, a work of fiction.
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I've read all these letters
and I'm feeling torn between two sides: those who want change but think Floyd's language is high-flown and useless and those who feel energized by it. I was caught by Floyd's point about civil disobedience in high places: I have myself wondered--before it became clear to me that Democrats are really mostly a kind of Republican variant (or rather they are both, democrats and republicans, coporatists, or whatever you want to call them)--anyway, wondered why senators and congressmen didn't do some kind of sit down strike for the sake of conscience: since people are dying, both Americans and Iraqis, for no good reason; that--not to get all impassioned and high-flown, but to state something I think to be a reality--that the one thing I want to be sure of is that when I come to die that I do not feel ashamed of how I have lived. I can't imagine anything worse than living my last moments feeling like my life was a lie. Now maybe that means I need to be with the anti-Floyds in the thread or maybe with Floyd or maybe somewhere in between--but surely the anti-Floyds and pro-Floyds in this thread (leaving out the insane trolls, who I just skip over these days and ignore like dust in the wind blowing in my eyes as best as I can)--anyway, all of us here seem to agree something is terribly wrong and we need to think of how to work on it. Do those of you writing so passionately against Floyd's rhetoric really think it is so misplaced? I agree that marches and monkey wrenching don't make sense to me as plans of political action, but individual acts of conscience do make sense to me, and each of us surely must determine those as best with can with reason as our guide. I see what Floyd is saying and I see what the anti-Floyds are saying and I am just not quite sure what to do. Except to know that there are some lines that I could never cross, and I think if I was a democratic congressman or senator I would be embarassed as hell to vote along with Bush like so many of them are doing (so that in all reason I cannot see them as true democrats). Is it that the anti-Floyds are just too hopeful? Too unwilling to see how bad it is? That all is left is individual acts of conscience? Or is that too gloomy a view? Perhaps its best to act as if there was hope until it becomes clear to each individual that there is none: and then we are each left with our conscience to decide what to do. But I don't feel angry with the Floyd's or the anti-Floyds in the thread, because it seems to me anyway that we are all in a really bad spot.
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Jkalos
Thanks for a thoughtful post. First, as an "anti-Floyd" let me stress that I am not a Bush apologist.
I'm an "anti-Floyd" because I'm tired of all the self-important, self-righteous breast-beating by the likes of Floyd--and the just plain bad writing that results. It's worse than worthless; it's counterproductive. You don't think that the so-called "moonbat-o-sphere" on leftwing blogs is not going to be a campaign issue in 2008?
Moreover, I think Floyd et al. mistake passion for broad acceptance of their views. Just because he feels strongly about something does not mean everyone else who is tired of Bush feels just as radical. All you do is turn off (after significant eye-rolling) all those who are inclined to vote the way Floyd presumably wants them to vote. They'll vote for the sensible-sounding candidate over the one supported by the rhetoric-spewing likes of Floyd.
He reminds me of the character of Strelnakov (sp?) in Doctor Zhivago. He's all passion and despises everyone who doesn't share his passion, but in the end he becomes little more than a feared figure hiding out on a train from the numerous enemies he's made over the years.
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Amity: there are things called "links"
in Chris's post; click on some of them (the ones to http://www.chris-floyd.com) and you'll be taken to Mr. Floyd's own site, "Empire Burlesque," where you will find many posts by the self-same Chris Floyd, many of them on the same theme. From there you can research archives, some of which will link you to pieces stretching over quite a number of years in which Chris Floyd has detailed horrors and issued warnings regarding the Bush Regime and its enablers.
Of course not everyone can keep up with everything all the time, so it's no real shame not to know of his work before seeing it in Salon. However, among dissident writers, Floyd has been on the leading edge since well before the advent of Our Current Nightmare.
And Holly, it's probably best for you to just "walk on by" when you see a Chris Floyd post. Certainly no one -- least of all anyone here -- would want to interfere with your serious business of closely following the potential for a dust up in the Senate. The information you seek is no doubt available, even if you don't find it here right now. On the other hand, there are -- as you acknowledge -- many who appreciate Floyd's polemical efforts, which don't necessarily give you the level of detail you're after. The marketplace can accommodate both, don't you think, without diminishing or hampering either.
As for Our Trolls, WTF, Thoreau didn't accomplish anything either.
Have a nice day!
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Oh, but he did
As for Our Trolls, WTF, Thoreau didn't accomplish anything either.
Oh, but he did. He gave us the unfortunate idea that all heart and no head is a perfectly fine strategy, that just going with your feelings is all that's required because, after all, it's so easy.
He also managed to earn the contempt of all his contemporaries, who hated his smug self-righteousness.
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Thoreau did accomplish
a few things. He once helped a slave escape in the underground railroad. That his mom helped wash his laundry only makes his attempts at self-knowledge more real to me. Moms love to help. Don't be embarrassed by Moms, all you Thoreau despisers! The slave still was helped, even if was by a a man in Mom-washed clothes. And a book was written by that same man that has helped me through many a hard hour (more so than any so-called sacred text). Self-knowledge with a Mom's help and an Emerson's seems more achievable to me, somehow, than more fantastic alternatives.
All praise to Henry.