Sylvan Reverie

And neigh like Boanerges;
Then, punctual as a star,
Stop–docile and omnipotent–
At its own stable door.
- Emily Dickinson

As it whinnied with a power to match the wailing of the fabled bean sídhe, I was startled out of my reverie today by a provocative display of strength, a determined charger that flowed forward with the same air of confident inevitability as a rising tide. From a passenger’s perspective, I admired the distances that flashed past as though they were frames on an old film; and as I quietly absorbed all of this, I found myself truly happy to have taken a train.

… do not calle up That which you can not put downe
- H.P. Lovecraft

I saw a piece on CNN today about the booming car culture in China, and the possible ramifications this will have on the oil sector. What I couldn’t help but remember was a time when American auto companies were falling all over each other to sell China on automobiles. Representatives of our auto industry engineered new and inventive ways to convince the Chinese that they couldn’t do without a car. The Chinese car culture, then, would seem to be something of our creation, rather than China’s – all two hundred fifty million -plus potential auto purchasers in middle class China, for which the car is now a status symbol. That’s two hundred fifty million or more times the oil consumption, and two hundred fifty million or more times the pollution. But this was seen as a real boon for the American economy at the time, as a means of bolstering the American auto sector; and so our people went to China and pushed for a car craze.

We all now have seen that the biofuel idea may not have been our best solution to Middle East oil dependency. I know there are still proponents who say that the programs haven’t been given enough time and funding; but I would have a hard time asking someone who’s already starving to give me more time for developing a good second generation biofuel source.

While talking about oil, I’m of course reminded of George W. Bush – Gawd’s solution to Osama Bin Laden (America’s former solution to the USSR in Afghanistan), and to the wickedness of gun-hatin’ gawdless homo-rights-supportin’ Democrats. Well, either Gawd has a perverse sense of humor, or someone misrepresented himself and his agenda.

I’m starting to think that what the world needs least right now is another batch of our solutions. Like our quote from Lovecraft illustrates, we’ve created solutions that we can’t easily change or dispatch – we’ve set loose monsters of our own creation, and in all likelihood will just wind up creating even more monsters to dispatch the current ones.

Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.
- Sydney Smith

I recently had a somewhat demoralizing visit with my psychiatrist. The plan was to ask him where I stood in regards to getting a job, and perhaps get some ideas from him what kind of work might best suit me. What I got is just further example for why I detest surprises, as he informed me that I should not seek employment, that he felt it would overtax me and cause the bipolar disorder to worsen. I’ve already been out of the daily grind for a couple years now, and wasn’t expecting to dive right back into it. What I’d hoped for was to get the green light to pick up a part-time job somewhere, but my psychiatrist’s recommendation was that I continue to allow my wife to be the bread-winner, and focus myself on doing housework and establishing a strong daily routine. I will talk with my therapist tomorrow about this, and see if there are other options I haven’t yet discovered.

I would say right now my mind is in real conflict with the desire to somehow rebel against my illness and medical advice, to get a job and force myself to rise back to levels of productivity I knew in my past; and then there is the more stoic voice in my mind, telling me that this is where I’m at now, that these are the cards I’ve been dealt, and that I need to make the most of where I’m at. Either try to be my best based on pre-illness terms, which I may not realistically be able to do; or be my best based on the terms dictated to me by this illness, something I can’t do while trying to rebel against the bipolar disorder. It’s a conflict of two different perspectives on doing one’s best, and it’s tearing me apart.

Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike – brothers of one father and one mother, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all.
- Chief Joseph (Hinmaton Yalatkit), of the Nez Percé

The sound is fading away
It is of five sounds
Freedom
The sound is fading away
It is of five sounds
- an Anishinaabe Song

I am watching the news intently, I’m watching for official US positions regarding Tibet and China. You see, I fully support the right of the Tibetan people to govern themselves and, like many Americans I also think Tibet itself should be given back to the Tibetans. However, I am no great fan of hypocrisy, and I think if the government of the US wishes to support Tibet it should lead by example and finally start to treat the Indians fairly. The places in the United States with some of the highest concentrations of poverty are Sioux reservations. Diabetes is an epidemic among Indians, due to a high concentration of cheap, sugar- and carbohydrate-rich foods in reservation markets. The last time I was at a powwow, it was difficult to turn my head in any direction and not see an Indian who wasn’t either obese, an amputee, or both. People feel sympathetic to the oppression of Tibetan religious freedom, which is right; but many ignore the brutal policies of the United States in stamping out the various religious practices of the Indians, of which the desecration of Lakota holy ground in creating the Mount Rushmore monument (and subsequent Crazy Horse monument) is perhaps the most fitting symbol.

While the current government of America cannot and should not be held accountable for the brutal policies of past governments, I think the fact that the American government still takes from the Indians without giving back, continues to insult and oppress the customs and traditions of many Indian nations, takes a lot of thunder out of America’s voice in trying to stand up to the Chinese over Tibet. While I still think it’s right to stand for Tibet, I think that stand would be more effective for officials of the US if they would first stand for the downtrodden, poverty-stricken people within their own borders.

It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
- Barack Obama

Unfortunately, Obama’s strategists seem incapable of mounting a proper defense for this remark. In my opinion, such a defense would read something like this:

‘The truth for many is, if you aren’t bitter, if you aren’t outraged, then you just haven’t been paying attention. With our government broken and our finances in turmoil, bitterness and mistrust are the truth for many of the Americans who have been hit hardest by the current administration’s incompetence. It’s a bitter truth, but one that needs to be explored if we’re going to start working on solutions. It would seem to me, therefore, that the candidates who attacked me for my previous comments to this effect would themselves represent the same kind of out of touch elitism that put us in this mess to begin with.’

What amazes me is that the course of this nomination process might swing on Obama’s awkward defense of his own comments – his opponents, like crocodiles grinning from their pools of muck, seem only too happy to twist any word they can, even if it risks dragging the unity and reputation of their own party right into the muck with them. I’m reminded in some ways of the 2000 election, where a decent person got hammered by His Holy Stupiderness, Pope George II (who turned out to be not so holy after all, and until recently probably thought a ‘papal visit’ was another phrase for his favorite sex position). While America didn’t technically vote Bush to power, enough Americans voted for him that he was able to wrestle the presidency out of the hands of the man who truly won the election.

Now, although Obama is technically winning in delegate counts, enough Americans have voted for Clinton that she’s within striking range of pulling what I think should be called the George Bush Power Grab, and the awkward defense of a single comment could serve as the fulcrum she needs to lever herself into a better position … and that she’s doing the same thing Bush did to her former Vice President seems not to have dawned on any of the people who keep voting for her. I have to admit disappointment in Obama, not for making this comment, but for not making it more openly and with a better defense mounted. This wasn’t something out of touch, elitist, or to be worried about, it was an opportunity to explore an important social issue in America.