Sunday, March 19, 2006

bozoism: a swedenborgian perspective

How the delights of every one's life are changed after death into things that correspond can be known from a knowledge of correspondences; but as that knowledge is not as yet generally known I will try to throw some light on the subject by certain examples from experience. All who are in evil and who have established themselves in falsities in opposition to the truths of the church, especially those that have rejected the Word, flee from the light of heaven and take refuge in caves that appear at their openings to be densely dark, also in clefts of rocks, and there they hide themselves; and this because they have loved falsities and hated truths; for such caves and clefts of rocks well as darkness, correspond to falsities, as light corresponds to truths. It is their delight to dwell in such places, and undelightful to dwell in the open country. [2] Those that have taken delight in insidious and secret plots and in treacherous machinations do the same thing. They are also in such caves; and they frequent rooms so dark that they are even unable to see one another; and they whisper together in the ears in corners. – Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell

The sinister farce of American drug policy hit its normal two notes this past week: one clownlike, and the other terroristic. The clownlike note was provided by the DEA’s demand that Canada extradite the Johnny Appleseed of marijuana to stand trial for thirty years – thirty years the monsters want to cut from his body – for selling pot seeds. Now, LI has long been in favor of putting DEA agents themselves in prison, after suitable show trials, for kidnapping, theft, blackmail, and the usual like, but we have doubts this is going to happen. It is one of those peculiarities of national character that the American, a type that tattoos snakes not being tread on on its forearm, has been shredding his rights like so much dead dermis for thirty years in the ‘war against drugs.’ Is this because the average American is a buffoon, an asskisser, a dog in love with a flea or a flea in love with a dog, a pariah among the higher order of Swedenborgian angels that circulate through our celestial body continually? I dunno, I just live here. A nation that passes two million of its population through the prison pipeline, many of them for either selling the means to medicate and enjoy oneself without a permit from the doctor and a profit made by a pharmaceutical company, should be investigated not so much by Amnesty international as by Bozo international. The alarming growth of bozoism in this country, which triumphed in Florida in 2000, is, perhaps, something that can be cured. I recommend high gas prices and another decade of 700 billion dollar debts, myself. Maybe it is a temporary epidemic. Those who think bozoism is simply a tiresome fad disease, a psycho-somatic poltergeist, are urged to read Rumsfeld’s op ed in the WAPO. Obviously, this is a man in the last throes of bozoism. Unfortunately, I have it on good authority that he has not yet been quarantined.

The terroristic face is being shown in America’s great ally in Latin America: Columbia. On the one side of the coin is sending a harmless Canadian to jail, and on the other side of the coin is supporting, with might and main, the familiar conjunction of fascist and drug dealer, all wrapped up in a very pretty package of free trade for all. Somehow, the media critics of Chavez, who go through every election and referendum in Venezuela looking for the stronghanded methods of communism – we just know they are there! – somehow ignored an election in which armed narcotics godfathers, paramilitaries who have already negotiated with the Uribe government to avoid extradition to the U.S., have helped Bush’s man achieve that magical 70 percent of the vote – with more than 60 percent of the voters abstaining.

The place to read about it is the invaluable Colombia Journal online.

“Colombia’s electoral process is undermined by paramilitiaries who use violence and intimidation to determine which candidates can and cannot run in regions under their control and to ensure that their chosen candidates are elected. As the Associated Press noted only two days before the March 12 congressional elections, paramilitary leader Rodrigo Tovar, “who’s accused of several massacres against civilians as well as being a major drug-trafficker, reigned over much of Colombia’s Caribbean coast, deciding who could and could not run for public office.”

An additional factor that aided the paramilitary cause in the congressional elections was the low voter turnout. Preliminary reports show that only 34 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, low even by Colombian standards—42 percent of voters participated four years ago. In one Bogotá precinct, only 80 of the 1,200 registered voters showed up to cast a ballot. The combination of the paramilitarization of the electoral process and the voter apathy evident in many areas not under paramilitary control ensured a victory for pro-Uribe parties.”
Hilariously, the Bush administration is worried about the coca growers in Bolivia, and so is the American news media.

Who will deliver us from the curse of Bozoism, o my fallen cohort of droogs?
I don’t know. I’m going out to smoke a joint, now.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Monsieur--I saw a Swedenborg church just the other day in the East 30's and was subliminally attracted to it.

Oh, God, this was a gorgeous post! It's gotten rid of all atavistic rage about sermons in Methodist drag back in hated Alabama! I'm so excited by your joint I'm going to get offline and abuse myself with the windows open!If I got caught, I'd just say that I thought natural light wasn't enough for the white high-rise people to see in unless they used long-distance surveillance! Swedenborg has given me some new cave 'n' cleft design ideas! $$$$$$ for Vermin Direct LLC!

Vermin Direct LLC is getting just soooo fashionable--and we'll all do anything to get famous...

(You'll find that everything has reversed itself at this point: Anything you write offline in longhand at this point gets published automatically, not the other way around. the internet is more old hat than it's cracked up to be.)

Anonymous said...

Be careful, roger. By smoking a joint, you are objectively supporting the terrorists, don't you know? And, they are watching and listening.

I don't know. The libertarian crank on the other board I mentioned several comments ago? He is making more and more sense. He pretty much completed a definitive smack down on a conservative, ex-military "I lurrrrvvvve America" goof trying to still justify Iraq (after all the revelations even our tepid, morally dead conservative press have leaked). What is the matter with Kansas indeed?

There's a new secession movement in Vermont. Makes you think.

Arkady said...

There's a new secession movement in Vermont. Makes you think.

Indeed it does! Decision making through the democratic process is an excellent thing. It often yields results people can live with. Even the prissily anal, spastically violent market democracy we have is pretty good for social organization.

The Grundy Partisans swooping down on Roger -- hellbent on inculcating moral clarity or beating him to a pulp, or both -- tend to dominate our system because there's nothing an oligarch likes better than self-appointed paramilitary crusaders. They get all sorts of encouragement and attention from the media. They get special favors from the government; faith based payola scams, protection of codified stupidity, tax exemptions and so forth. They've got the mentality of a DLC partisan, a fourth grade alpha bully wannabe and an internets troll, all kept viable with subsidies and recruiment outreach from the punitive arm of the state.

Arkady said...

New York Pervert,

There's no Technorati tag for Vermin Direct, LLC yet, but the day will surely come when they are part of internets folklore. When that time comes, I hope we don't get elbowed out by arrivistes.

Roger Gathmann said...

Wait a minute ... whose sweeping down on me? I don't want to get into a fight with a sweaty DLC-er -- I can just see em blindsiding me with their blackberry, bopping me on the head.

So let me amend this: I would smoke that joint if only I had it!

Oh, talking of which -- I have to recommend the MOJO interview with a Mass. psychiatrist who defends marijuana and talks about a pharma attempt to market pure thc as a proper pain killer. http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/11/grinspoon.html Sad sad sad and funny in a sad way.

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