I got one of those stupid right wing emails that go around from an acquaintance in Billings – a hyper-religious right winger who imagines that he is Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders. This one viewed the history of the world through the lens of the history of beer, and of course concluded that “liberals” (the rest of the world, as he sees it), are stupid, lazy, and feed off “conservatives” (the smart minority of humans). I sat on it for a week, and then came up with a nuanced response, thoughtful and self-reflective, and sure to yield a positive response from his critically informed brain:

The last “conservative” was Barry Goldwater, deceased. Here’s a true story, as told by his daughter:

It seems every time some goofball or low IQ jackass says (s)he’s a conservative, Barry does a half-turn in his grave. It was bad enough with the Sarah and Pat Robertson and Dobson, but with the rise of the Teabaggers, his spinning got so bad that he ended up drilling his way over to the neighbors. They went and got him and re-buried him, but as a precaution put him on a spit so that he wouldn’t leave the yard again. Then they had a bright idea – they hooked him up to a generator. Now every time some dimwit right winger says something stupid, it generates electricity for their house.

You just lit up their yard lights.

“…the operation of expelling feelings or wishes the individual finds wholly unacceptable—too shameful, too obscene, too dangerous—by attributing them to another.” (Peter Gay, Definition of projection)

Everything that I see around me in this crazy country is projection. We differ from Islamic cultures culturally, but also in our ability to kill from great distances. Because we can drop bombs from aircraft and fire missiles at people, and now even use unmanned drones to accomplish these purposes, our killing, while indiscriminate, is also safe. For us.

The indignity that people express at the events of 9/11 is projection. We do the equivalent of 9/11 twice before breakfast, again after lunch, and then go home to our kids and have sex with our wives, girlfriends and mistresses, and then go out and do it again the following day because, you know, they are evil.

There is no difference between us and them. We are intolerant of their religion, they of ours. They kill us indiscriminately, we them. We’re just better at that game. We have among our ordinary Joe’s a few scholars, humanitarians, scientists, theologians, and sociopaths. So do they.

Our leaders (most of whose names we would not recognize) became leaders because they understand human nature better than the rest of us. They know that we all suffer from greed, lust, avarice, pride and anger, and so play to those vices as they play their global games for control of land and resources. We are taught to dress it up as patriotism, just vengeance, courage and honor. It is none of those things. It is indiscriminate killing. We are indiscriminate killers.

But those Muslims, why, they are even worse than us! So we are justified killing a million of them as the price for 2,819 of us. That 355:1 ratio speaks of another vice: Vanity.

The picture to the left is not a stock “forest fire” picture from somewhere, but one that was actually taken this week of a fire up in the hills near here.

We’ve had family and friends call from both coasts and Montana wondering if we are affected by the blaze. We are not – we are safely tucked away in town. We came down here to buy a house, and just did, but that house is down in Morrison, 45 minutes away. But the new house is … in the woods, the urban interface of course. Someday soon we might be running for our lives.

The fire started when a guy in a camper backed into a propane tank. [So goes the rumor.] It spread quickly, and because of shifting winds and other logistics, last night at 10 P.M. it was “zero percent contained.” Last I heard it was 7,0006422 acres and growing, and that 3,500 people had been evacuated. A hundred [167 as of 9/10] structures have burned, 167 as of 9/10 with 80% surveyed and eight people are missing. [All are accounted for.] (People often refuse to evacuate.)

Anyway, the People’s Republic is not directly threatened. [Though we are safe in SW Boulder, other parts of town are indeed threatened.] It is, I am told, the most destructive fire in Boulder Colorado history.

I’d be pleased to debate with anyone whether or not the role of the gadfly is honorable. I regard it as such, since gadflies more often than not say things that are plainly true but cannot be spoken in polite society.

Alan Simpson, a nominal Republican, recently annoyed me when he said of Social Security that it was a “…milk cow with 310 million tits.” He’s filling a political role here, as it is the job of Democrats to do the one big thing that Republicans cannot accomplish: destroy Social Security. So when he said that, I thought: “Tool.” Obama will keep him on that commission, as he is merely doing what Obama wants him to do – apply a little grease to the wheels as we are driven to the end of Social Security.

But his social commentary is a little more interesting:

“In your country club, your church and business, about 15 percent of the people are screwballs, lightweights and boobs and you would not want those people unrepresented in Congress”

The screwballs and lightweights are everywhere these days, and cameras are attracted to them like bugs to a porch light. It leaves the impression that this country is just plain nuts. But it is not. Only 15% of us are so. And dammit, they vote!

Ted Danson is an idealist.

He was Sam Malone on Cheers, the recovering alcoholic ex-pitcher with the lady obsession. He’s also a “Hollywood liberal” – that is, he supports Democrats, goes to Barbara Streisand parties, and while not stupid, boasts no great political insight.

Being a Democrat does not make one an idealist. Far from it. The reason I [speculate] that he is an idealist is a little thing he did when Cheers ended its run. The entire cast, past and present, came out to be applauded and stood before the audience. Danson, while the cameras blazed away, took off his toupee. He wanted the world to know that he really did not have that beautiful head of hair. The back of his head was, like mine, follicle-challenged.

So here’s why I speculate: Idealists (I am one) do not like inner turmoil – that is, it upsets us when our inner selves are not congruent with our outer presentation to the world. We have to be ‘real’. We self-reflect to attain harmony with the world. Danson was obviously having some turmoil, as balding Ted was not at all like beautiful Sam, and he wanted the world to know that.

That would be like Paris Hilton admitting she has no talent, or Dick Cheney no empathy. It isn’t done very often. And usually when we see someone voluntarily bares his soul in public, it’s a sign of idealism.

Here’s the other thing about Ted Danson that it does not hurt to speculate about: He’s pretty. A man with such good looks has more career options than we ordinary folks, and will find it easier to make his way. Acting is a common choice for very good looking people, and to succeed they have to work very hard at their craft. That is how Danson developed his abilities.

He did not develop his intellect. He didn’t have to. He’s not stupid. Idealism makes him a Democrat, but not an insightful political person. I am finding a lot of that around.

I catch a lot of hell because I probe people I meet on the Internet – I have only their words and tone, and yet intuit the inner meaning of their comments, and draw conclusions based on those clues. How dare I! But when a person writes on these pages, he/she reveals a whole lot, and it doesn’t take a genius to piece together things. So I look at how people present, see clues, and draw conclusions about those people that are contrary to the persona they want to project. It infuriates them!

People do the same sort of sleuthing about me … am I a complete phony? World weary? Pseudo-intellect? A cross-dresser? Do I work from my mother’s basement?

Usually, when someone says something about me that is true, it stings. I reject it. Then I ponder it. Then I cop to it. I am, after all, an idealist, and it is that last feature, the copping, that gives me inner and outer harmony.

Idealists, by the way, are often annoying. We don’t make good intellectuals, as there is too much “should” in us, and not enough “is.” We make terrible politicians, as that profession requires deceit even of honest men and women. We usually end up as teachers or historians or counselors. An idealist accountant is like a brown polar bear – pretty rare. Idealists started the feminist movement – easy enough to see. Dropping bras was akin to dropping toupee. And we have, by definition, never had an idealistic president. They all claim to be, but that phoniness is part of being a successful politician.

Just so you know – if you need to understand me better, now you do. I never set out to annoy you. I was only being true to self.
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PS: As I gather from Swede’s comment below, one might conclude from this that I regard idealism as some sort of superior trait, and that this post is is just bragging. Far from it – idealism is a curse, as it takes we who suffer from it out of the mainstream. If all of us were idealists, very little would ever be accomplished. We have a role to play, but a minor one, kind of public conscience, but that is an annoyance to most people. Compromise is an essential part of any endeavor, and idealists don’t do that very well.

There is quite a bit of discussion on the news, on talk radio, and the blogs of course, concerning Glenn Beck’s rally on the National Mall. There were, according to CBS News, which actually has an algorithm to estimate the size of crowds, 87,000 people there. That’s a good-sized crowd, and of course, Dick Armey and the Koch’s were behind the scenes providing the buses and potty-booths for them.

But I wonder what it means. American right wingers will scoff at the notion that French and Greek workers will pour into the street when there is an attempt to undo their system of wages and benefits. From their point of view, those kinds of people are on welfare and are merely afraid of losing their easy money.

But when Greek and French people pour into the streets, it has an effect. It stops things from happening that the majority of people in those countries do not want to happen. When Bush was preparing to attack Iraq, there were huge demonstrations in France and Spain and Germany, and it was so bad that the leaders of Spain and Great Britain had to meet with Bush on a ship in the Canary Islands to discuss the war plan. It was too dangerous elsewhere, the security needs were too much.

And in the end, Germany and France and Turkey stayed out of Bush’s war. The Bushies were furious. “Old Europe”, they called it: Countries where popular rule actually causes governments to behave themselves.

Crowds of people can be dangerous, in that an excitement can take over and violent things can happen. Beck’s organizers had a long list of requirements for attending his rally, including prohibition on alcohol, guns, and pointed and sharp objects. Signs had to be approved. They wanted a peaceful gathering. And when it was over, they went home. Nothing changed.

In the United States, workers don’t pour into the street anymore, and even if they did, it would not change anything. They have no power. They seem to know it. And that is the key to understanding why French and Greek workers do hit the pavement – it has an effect. They do have power.

Why? Unions. They are organized. We were in Barcelona a few years back on May 1, May Day. There was a parade, but it was not a “parade” like we have here, floats and celebrities and horse shit. It was just miles of people, locked arm-in-arm, walking down the street. They had bands and banners, but the only point of the parade was to make a statement. “We are one.”

Power – that’s all it is. Power. Unions don’t have all the power over there, or even most of it. They only have some power. And that is enough to make their lots better than that of most people in this country.

So what did Glenn Beck’s rally accomplish? I don’t know. It was done for the sake of television images. Beck is trying to draft a little bit behind the civil rights movement. He’s got a massive ego, and though there is disagreement among those who know, and I don’t know, I suspect he is a master showman, and that when goes home at night he is a regular guy, a bit off-kilter, dry drunk and all of that, but knowing that he is stroking fools for his own ends.

I only know this: In the United States public rallies have no impact on public affairs. We don’t have power in the streets or at the ballot box. We are not organized. Our lives will continue to get worse until people realize that there is power in numbers, but only if arms are locked. Massive crowds at football games do not affect real power centers.

These are the words of a song by TradeMartin on YouTube, We’ve got to stop the mosque at Ground Zero:

We’ve got freedom of religion, I understand,

But …

OK, stop! I need hear no more. I got it.

Here are remarks of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg defending Imam Rauf:

Imam Rauf, who is now overseas promoting America and American values, has been put under a media microscope. Each of us may strongly agree or strongly disagree with particular statements he has made. And that’s how it should be – this is New York.

And while a few of his statements have received a lot of attention, I would like to read you something that he said that you may not have heard. At an interfaith memorial service for the martyred journalist Daniel Pearl, Imam Rauf said, ‘If to be a Jew means to say with all one’s heart, mind, and soul: Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ehad; Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one. If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one.’

In that spirit, let me declare that we in New York are Jews and Christians and Muslims, and we always have been. And above all of that, we are Americans, each with an equal right to worship and pray where we choose. There is nowhere in the five boroughs that is off limits to any religion.

By affirming that basic idea, we will honor America’s values and we will keep New York the most open, diverse, tolerant, and free city in the world.

And finally,Abbie Hoffman:

You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.

The latter quote is on the wall above my desk. I like to think that I am not an assimilated conformist.