Preface commentary: The file info tells me I wrote this on May 5, 2003. I have no reason to argue; I remember writing it, but I don't recall specifically when or why. Turns out, though, that I had six unposted posts cluttering up my desktop among the flurry of useless image files that I hadn't stowed away yet. Nonetheless, I post it here in Free Thoughts because I can't remember the specific World Event or Politic that set me off. It seems ... rather general. "Bittersweet"° One of the reasons peaceniks seem so vitriolic and bitter from time to time is that, on those occasions that we are right, there's generally not much cause to celebrate. We killed 10-12 Iraqi civilians for every US soldier lost; not bad. If we let the new Iraq come apart, we can shoot for a better ratio in tweve years. Woo-hoo. Hooray. No Iraqi WMD. I'm so happy to be a citizen of the Coruscant Empire; I wonder when the Clone Army is coming to save us from the third world .... Oh, joy, the false justifications for war have been exposed. Let me dance and celebrate over the human losses, the cultural-history disaster, and the abandonment of dignity because the justifications for war have come undone. We must remember that a great good has been done for humanity: a tyrant has been removed through the only methods available to our intellect and compassion. There never was any other way but to install a dictator, support a dictator, and destroy a dictator. It could never have been any different, because in a great and honest society like America we never give the world anything short of our absolute best. And we must celebrate the show of force, for what nation on Earth would choose to challenge our military might, now that our aims have been shown to be so noble? Who could possibly disagree with our reversal of traditional American military policy into a vigilante state looking for an excuse to take someone down? Today I am proud to be an American.° How foolish was I to doubt the honesty of my executive administration when, in reality, honesty is the enemy? How wrong was I to possibly wonder why honest justifications for warfare were so hard to come by; fie! upon what follies could I possibly support such an evil enemy as honesty? Damn! Why does it hurt to smile? Ah, yes ... because a smile, like a kiss, should always be honest. I wish to thank 73% of my American neighbors, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the State of Florida election system; between our booming economy and our astounding moral resolve, America has never looked more ... more ... Babylon doesn't even begin to cover it. But this dream is never over. Not until the last light of Liberty is snuffed. And even then it cannot stay dead; if Cthulhu might lie at R'lyeh, whence shall Liberty retreat? She will wait, and she will dream. And in strange aeons .... Millions have come before me, their sweat and toil carving out a noble idea handed from generation to generation until it became inconvenient. That idea is only inconvenient because people no longer have a taste for its fruits. And though I may be the last real American who believes in the ideological foundation of this allegedly great nation I shall not lose hope. In a world where Liberty has existed, people cannot live for long without it. The faster it gets worse, the faster it will be over. Forgive me if I don't whoop it up over that. ... er ... something approximately like that. Notes: ° Bittersweet - I know for a fact that I was listening to "Bittersweet Symphony" that day, reflecting on how outraged I was that The Verve's tragedy was being exploited in Muzak form for a vocational school commercial. Aside from that, I think it has something to do with general sentiment. Nonetheless, the title is from the file name I assigned it at the time I saved it. ° proud to be an American - Actually, realizing how rare of a breed the ideological American ("a more perfect union", "all men are created equal", "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", &c.) it is somewhat a privilege. A dubious honor, however, as we're now an endangered, if not dying species. We figured out the Three-Fifths Rule (for the most part), have managed to not outright lose a war yet, put a man on the moon, and have a booming internet porn industry. Life ain't bad, and I wish my fellow Americans could realize that. It's a new world now; going to war won't save the economy the same way it did in the past. Quite obviously. If more Americans would simply relax and enjoy the fruits of being an American, perhaps the sad necessity of dishonest wars and the sacking of our Constitution by the Justice Department wouldn't come about. :m:, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
