An Unfortunate Evolution!
This evolved into…
This!
Friends, as a teenager I had a real zest for reading tales of the American Wild West. I just loved the predictable stories of courage, of the battle between good and evil, of the eventual triumph of love and compassion over greed and skulduggery, the triumph of the little principled man over those with murder in their hearts.
Gunslingers usually came in two varieties: those to whom no deed was too dark and those who had a few nuggets of goodness and softness sewn into their hearts that eventually caught the undying love of the blond, blue-eyed heroine.
The plots were always much the same: stranger wearing two six guns rides into a conflicted town that had either a crooked Sheriff or a greedy Cattle Baron who was trying to grab hold of all the good land in the area. Or both.
Beautiful widow sees stranger and spurns him as a ‘worthless killer.’ Then a shoot out in the saloon results in the stranger killing the Baron’s drunken son. The stranger rides off but happens to ends up at the widow’s ranch house just as the wicked Cattle Baron is trying to burn it down…
Eventually I lost my interest in such simplistic yarns and moved into more cerebral stories by world famous authors. But I never forgot my Wild West period. Things were black and white and good always prevailed in America at least in those yarns.
And now, scores of years later, the new image that I have of the U.S. is shown in the lower photograph. Things are no longer black and white and good rarely seems to prevail. There are no courageous man to man shootouts any more. They have been replaced by gun massacres. Now missiles rain down on unprotected civilians in foreign lands killing women and kids.
Americans use depleted uranium or phosphorous bombs to attack mud villages or employ huge tanks which crush all resistance. They use torture, rendition, keep people in cages, ignore International Laws and Conventions…
Americans have turned into greedy bullies who’ll do anything to achieve their selfish ends. The big, bad Cattle Barons run the show now and all the good gunslingers and most of the courageous little people who stood up for what was right are gone.
How did America manage to change so much?
Nice analogy, but, at least with people I am real friends with, everyone is tired of sinking money, time and young kids into these positions. Sadly, the sheep mentality into “working for democracy” and with no jobs likely for so many here anymore, the only thing they can do, to survive, if they survive is to join up and feel a part of something, they don’t feel a part of.
At least, that’s how it appears to me. Although, when the draft was going, I got lucky and missed it and would not have joined for all the T in China anyway.
Here’s what I left in answer to you on my blog:
Hey, Thanks…..as for the election, as usual, too much emphasis is put on his winning. I believe it’s more to do with the cost of health care in that state, which you “have” to purchase. Realizing my position, if I “have” to purchase something, I too will not be able to afford it. It’s that simple. Sadly, the dems are so out of it and willing to attempt to work with the repubs who do not want anything to do with progress, that they have now missed the boat on the power they could and did have. Sad, isn’t it?
Cheers! and hope you are doing well!
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ps: Worse than the idiot election in Ma is this:
Supreme Court Ruling On Political Advertising
To go back and give corporations free will and able to toss as much money as they want to get people elected, is truly the death of america, not the election of one more idiot republican ; (
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The Supreme Court ruling really give the Cattle Barons a boost up in running the show. Any chance of small voices being able to speak out about issues will be drowned out by a flood of corporate money. But they are people and money is a voice.
If that is so we now need to find a way to put that corporate person in jail when it commits a crime. Too bad there is no chance of that happening.
We could just as well put all government offices up for sale with this new ruling.
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good question, David.
It is said that Wittgenstein was an avid viewer of Westerns in 1910-20.
Well.
Good versus evil, True versus false, binary logic, from Aristoteles to Ayn Rand .
After the Tractatus, which was the last word of Aristotetelianism so to say,
it is not known (to me) whether he came out of his juvenile habit.
Anyway, the black-white -true false- good-evil dichotomies seem to me an indication of
infancy.
On the other hand, it is NOT an indication of being a grownup to make everything relative.
See the shadings, but keep the values, and be strict on them.
A difficult task indeed.
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Hey Coffee, thanks for visiting and leaving us your comment on the election of Brown. The fact that Americans are returning to the Repubs. so quickly, I see as a really bad omen. I though 8 years of George W might have taught Americans a lesson. Not so!
The Supreme Court ruling is another bad omen. When are corporations going to be seen for what they are: a blight on society and the planet.
Jeannie, the moral decline of America is sickening to see. And worryingly, it is accelerating. There appears to be no voice for change, no real groundswell of righteousness. Beats me.
Groo, welcome. America is having difficulty in seeing the shadings or recognizing values. It seems to me to be receptive to a ‘Messiah.’
I hope that one like Hitler doesn’t emerge otherwise the world is truly lost.
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David,
this was my first post.
Wish You well from over here in Germany!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5T0fBcDu5U&feature=related
David and all, here’s a link my sis just sent me. Reminds me of our childhood. While you were watching all those good westerns…..this is part of our religious upbringing.. Bluegrass music
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I think the election of Brown last week is just so much smoke and mirrors. I got so many emails from some dear friends and as I am also on Obama’s mailing list I got one from there too. All the emails were saying “we have to help the Republican get elected AND we have to stop the Republican from being elected”….Know what??? I’m tired of the game.
It doesn’t matter if it’s left or right, republican or democrat. They are merely puppets for us to look at, to take our attention away from the real issues.
It’s not the “party” that’s taking America down. It’s the bankers and the money system.
Rothschild said” Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s rules.”
The supreme court ruling this week is also smoke and mirrors. They want our attention on this ruling to take our attention away from somthing more important. Corporations and their lobbyists have always given to each party’s campaigns (legal or not) so what’s new with this ruling?
I look for an event or a series of events to follow soon. (Something to blow up and scare the sheeple) so that we can’t complain too long or too loud.
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