Braille Maps
by Charles D.J. Deppner
Maybe not being led by, but making the mistake of asking for directions.
War nerves wearing down on us. Filling your car, in an effort to continue with necessary and reliable monotonies of daily existence, suddenly becomes an issue of conscience.
Flags, ribbons and pendants have taken permanent residence in our vision- often, just left or right of center. They fill nooks and crannies, slowly crowding in from our peripheral vision.
Taboos and Forbidden Fruit
Fear is a form of respect. We respect things- and fear things- by vesting them with “powers.”
In order to get someone to fear something, you require him or her to respect their potential of harm: In essence, their strength.
By characterizing something or someone as having the capacity to inflict death or grant life, you’re promoting an image of amazing strength.
Your campaign promoting the evil of something becomes a twisted yet effective example of there being no such thing as bad press!
The more they tell the young of the incredible damage caused by illicit behavior, the more such behavior increases. Children reflect the basic innate nature of humans’ desire for strength. They recognize the concern of their lifeguards as being a dare, hypocrisy, or a sign of weakness.
The players in your nightmare are elevated to cult status. Slowly, the counterculture starts to gnaw, and you wake up a stranger in a strange land.
Pity the corporation.
Certainly, vigilance is not on the side of the average person. It’s hard to defend- even recognize one’s true ideals against the possibility that entities we rely upon to manage our communications, transportation, utilities, and sustenance are working to destabilize our personal sense of morality and justice.
Corporate America “wants” this war. Corporate- whether you’re talking the corporate media or its handful of corporate sponsors. But they, as much as us, have to recognize the chaotic nature of the free market of ideas.
September 11, 2001 struck at the corporate heart. The role of the victims of September 11 as family members, Americans, and individuals is too easily beleaguered by their roles as employees of a nerve center of corporate economics.
Corporations have every right to be afraid. This is an assault on things held holy to them. If “big oil” and “big media” want to actively convince people to support an exercise of an advanced and organized force against an inadequate, even primitive state, it’s their prerogative. In turn, perhaps they deserve as much pity in their two-dimensional misgivings as those who shall become their victims- victims of thought as well as force.
Because living in fear, even with the capacity to successfully “lash out,” is still a pitiable state. And, maybe by extending as much pity (versus fear) to our enemies- both obvious and discreet- as we do to those we love most; we might be able to understand better. And, in turn, cure them of what truly ails.
Iceberg Out
