Paralyzed Rant

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Read this. Skip the article, it’s a tame analysis of a recent uptick in the support for the war in Iraq. Read the comments. Read the comments and, if you’re a decent and well-aligned person, your head will crackle and split from all the noise. You might start off thinking normal things like, “Well, I agree with him” or “She’s certainly deranged,” but keep scrolling and soon you’re wishing that you never learned to read. Because it’s a bottomless clusterfuck of dumb, panting rage. Anger from people who don’t know how or where to send it, so it ends up splattered in places like this.

Am I angry? Yes. And I don’t know what to do with my anger, either. Sign the True Majority petition to impeach Cheney? Fine, I did that. What’s next? March in the park? Terrific, I’ll join the first one that comes around, although I question how effective the tactics of the 1960s are in 2007. Protests are part of the news cycle; they’ve been defanged. You can buy the commemorative t-shirt and water-pipe, but the pundits are already running the analysis before it’s even started. Vote? For whom, the reactionary or the incoherent?

I want to get political, but how? This is not a rhetorical question; I have no idea what to do. How do you register your outrage with almost everything? There is no process and there is no outlet. I’ve been looking, but now I’m asking: give me something constructive to do and I will do it. Tell me where to show up and I’ll be there. Although maybe it’s better to stay off the grid, tend my garden, and just watch the show.

Rhythm & Sound – Actin’ Crazy
(Round Three 12″. Main Street, 1998)

Shlomi Aber – Freakside
(Freakside 12″. Ovum, 2007)
A summer techno highlight: play it super-loud and your head will be emptied of politics and everything else.

07.23.07  |  Uncategorized  |  america, Editorial, Questions, rant  |  Tweet It
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James A. Reeves is a writer, designer, teacher, and law student. He's currently finishing a big book about America, available on W. W. Norton in 2011. He lives in New Orleans.
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