the adventures of Theoden-cat
Jan. 21st, 2005 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseI have a warm, purring lump of orange-cream cat in my lap at the moment. This pleases me immensely, and seems to make him rather happy, too.
Having poor![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zinjadu have to wake me up to say that he's swallowing yarn, however, did not make me happy. Nor did carefully reeling the yarn out of him. Very yuck.
He turned on the dryer yesterday, too, apparently. Presumably by sitting or pushing on the controls.
Highlander last night was very cute, also. Much naked!Duncan. Much sexy!Methos. Much subtext between them. All was happy.
And in response tozhapper's comment in one of yesterday's entries, and LJ cut for the benefit of people who are tired of seeing talk about American politics, here are my own simple
Chris makes a good point about this election - the intellectual and artistic communities of the United States are growing angrier and angrier, and more and more dissatisfied with our nation. The intolerance is ridiculous, the trend is moving toward censorship, and all the ground we've gained in the last twenty or thirty years is swiftly being lost as conservatives re-entrench themselves and try to take us back to some mythic golden age that never existed, where everyone was straight, Protestant, and Republican.
We're fighting endless wars that I still don't think were right to begin with, and hell if I want the rest of my adult life to be ruled by them as the last three and a half years have been. The death tolls and war crimes make me ill, the self-congratulatory practices make me nauseous, and I burn to watch a man who I disagree with on everything that matters represent me and every other sane American I know to the world community. I'm tired of feeling like I have to apologize for being an American, because I'm humiliated by the way this country acts in the world community. This is a new Vietnam, and I dread having to explain to the next generation why this happened.
And all this time, I've been looking for an answer - looking for what it is that I should do in response to all of this. The answer isn't to leave - that's admitting defeat, and if everyone who felt the same as I left, they'd win. More than that, they'd be free to do whatever the fuck they want with the land and life here, and that's not acceptable to me. Protesting? Protesting here in Seattle is akin to preaching fire and brimstone to the choir - we already know. Chris suggests, and I think he may be right, that the answer is the same sort of intellectual and artistic revolution that has always gone on under the noses of oppressive regimes... and I don't think it melodramatic to call this that. I find this an interesting thought - it makes a lot of sense, to me. Whether or not I'm the virtuoso artist or academic who can write that sort of thing... meh, probably not, but it's probably worth a try.
Call it down from the watchtowers - read and recite and love those poets and writers that the government wouldn't want us to be thinking about, listen to music, write and paint and do whatever you can to break out of the mold. Maybe it'll just keep stirring the same pot of discontent, maybe not. And don't slip into the norm - watch out for everyone else's rights as much as you watch out for yours, don't hide, and don't give up.
I'm thinking right now of something my Norse Sagas professor keeps repeating (I know, what a surprise that I would tie it back to that): the sagas were written by Icelandic authors trying to figure out what had gone wrong in their history to bring them, in the 13th century, to the point that they had to crawl back to the king of Norway and beg his protection from civil war run by the three richest families, who were effectively making a bloodbath of the island. By exploring their history, the saga writers attempted to pin down what had gone wrong, where they had diverged from the path of their proud first settlers. Not a bad format to keep in mind, if you ask me.
What has gone wrong? Where did a country theoretically built on the intention of freedom and religious open-ness go wrong? At what point did we make of ourselves the policeman of the world, and become the exact sort of oppressive regime we vilify?
Too much politics too early in the morning. I need tea.
Having poor
zinjadu have to wake me up to say that he's swallowing yarn, however, did not make me happy. Nor did carefully reeling the yarn out of him. Very yuck. He turned on the dryer yesterday, too, apparently. Presumably by sitting or pushing on the controls.
Highlander last night was very cute, also. Much naked!Duncan. Much sexy!Methos. Much subtext between them. All was happy.
And in response to
zhapper's comment in one of yesterday's entries, and LJ cut for the benefit of people who are tired of seeing talk about American politics, here are my own simple Chris makes a good point about this election - the intellectual and artistic communities of the United States are growing angrier and angrier, and more and more dissatisfied with our nation. The intolerance is ridiculous, the trend is moving toward censorship, and all the ground we've gained in the last twenty or thirty years is swiftly being lost as conservatives re-entrench themselves and try to take us back to some mythic golden age that never existed, where everyone was straight, Protestant, and Republican.
We're fighting endless wars that I still don't think were right to begin with, and hell if I want the rest of my adult life to be ruled by them as the last three and a half years have been. The death tolls and war crimes make me ill, the self-congratulatory practices make me nauseous, and I burn to watch a man who I disagree with on everything that matters represent me and every other sane American I know to the world community. I'm tired of feeling like I have to apologize for being an American, because I'm humiliated by the way this country acts in the world community. This is a new Vietnam, and I dread having to explain to the next generation why this happened.
And all this time, I've been looking for an answer - looking for what it is that I should do in response to all of this. The answer isn't to leave - that's admitting defeat, and if everyone who felt the same as I left, they'd win. More than that, they'd be free to do whatever the fuck they want with the land and life here, and that's not acceptable to me. Protesting? Protesting here in Seattle is akin to preaching fire and brimstone to the choir - we already know. Chris suggests, and I think he may be right, that the answer is the same sort of intellectual and artistic revolution that has always gone on under the noses of oppressive regimes... and I don't think it melodramatic to call this that. I find this an interesting thought - it makes a lot of sense, to me. Whether or not I'm the virtuoso artist or academic who can write that sort of thing... meh, probably not, but it's probably worth a try.
Call it down from the watchtowers - read and recite and love those poets and writers that the government wouldn't want us to be thinking about, listen to music, write and paint and do whatever you can to break out of the mold. Maybe it'll just keep stirring the same pot of discontent, maybe not. And don't slip into the norm - watch out for everyone else's rights as much as you watch out for yours, don't hide, and don't give up.
I'm thinking right now of something my Norse Sagas professor keeps repeating (I know, what a surprise that I would tie it back to that): the sagas were written by Icelandic authors trying to figure out what had gone wrong in their history to bring them, in the 13th century, to the point that they had to crawl back to the king of Norway and beg his protection from civil war run by the three richest families, who were effectively making a bloodbath of the island. By exploring their history, the saga writers attempted to pin down what had gone wrong, where they had diverged from the path of their proud first settlers. Not a bad format to keep in mind, if you ask me.
What has gone wrong? Where did a country theoretically built on the intention of freedom and religious open-ness go wrong? At what point did we make of ourselves the policeman of the world, and become the exact sort of oppressive regime we vilify?
Too much politics too early in the morning. I need tea.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 07:40 pm (UTC)I wouldn't discount good old everyday political involvement of the write-to-your-senator variety, either . . .
no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 07:52 pm (UTC)No, and it would probably be a very wise idea for me to get into the habit of that. I'll put that on the list of things I need to do, at some point.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 11:08 pm (UTC)You keep talking about tea and I'll start calling you Remus. Not a threat, just informing you.
I totally feel you on the whole politics thing. We'll make it through these years. We must.
*wants kitty* *steals* What?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 05:36 am (UTC)That's it exactly. We just have to keep getting through.
No, no - MY Theo-cat! *grins*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 05:11 am (UTC)"He turned on the dryer yesterday, too, apparently. Presumably by sitting or pushing on the controls."
Ahh yes, Theoden and my Snape, they ARE indeed kindred souls aren't they?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 05:36 am (UTC)