alternative culture jam

by Mankh

technician of the ethereal
whammy bar, was that for real, y’all?
dressed with vest and bare arms
gifted with some strummin’ charms

eclectic electric
no car could ride smoother,
vibrations emanating, rising
the ways his hands maneuver!

without a word
that guitaring talked,
metal stringed emotions
his fingers walked

sometimes soft
sometimes a silent shout,
for making us feel without a doubt,
blessings to ya, Beck,
as you’re peelin’ out . . . . . .

“Jeff Beck – Nadia – (Live at Ronnie Scott’s)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drAv2FoYji8&t=9s
&
“Jeff Beck – Behind The Veil”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQDjSGnmYBI

~ Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)
        allbook-books.com

by Mankh

A provocative title because I wanted to get people’s attention because I get frustrated with the lack of change and the stuck consciousness that doesn’t want change.

In my late teens or maybe had turned twenty I worked a summer job in the mail room of a NYCity advertising agency, as perhaps I would find a career as a copy writer, writing snappy lines to sell stuff. The turning point was delivering the mail to an office and seeing men and women, rather dressed-up, discussing the storyboard for selling toilet paper. I remember thinking: You have to try and sell toilet paper?! I have better things to do.  . . . Yet to this day I can’t help writing snappy, catchy titles and such like.

That anecdote is not just personal but to show how much of the world runs on a sales pitch, a veneer, the proverbial lipstick on a pig (no offense to pigs). To follow the metaphor in the modern vernacular, it’s: Let’s make the shit-show look like fun because you can squeeze the Charmin or have a life-sized, stuffed animal animated bear to show how “ultra strong” the toilet paper is, or the flat-out advertised warfare, “Zelensky pitches investors on Ukraine while virtually ringing NYSE bell,”[1]  proving that it’s not about “democracy.”

The deeper point of the title of this essay revolves around how rotten you think the “system of domination” – as Steven T. Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape) refers to it[2] – is, or if you think that there’s a potential for change because even Hitler slept with his dog. Hitler was, after all, a human, even though he didn’t behave much like one.

One can always cherry-pick a situation, and if what nowadays is called “toxic positivity” gets in the way of real change, then the cherry goes sour. “Hitler was very fond of Blondi, keeping her by his side and allowing her to sleep in his bed whilst in the bunker.”[3]

History 101 is the USEmpire’s approximately 400 broken treaties with the Native Peoples. Yet people still believe the next election is gonna bring about some long-awaited change? Ok yeah, in the warm-and-fuzzy department maybe a dog will get slept with, however, the self-proclaimed master corporate race marches on.

Many years ago I gave up thinking that Empire (US and/or global corporate), the “system of domination,” or whatever one calls it is redeemable, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think a victory can happen here-and-there. Over the years I have read of various legal decisions favoring a positive change with regard to the environment or other issues. One judge, not bought and sold, can make a big difference; as recent example: “NY Judge Orders Unvaccinated Employees Be REINSTATED with BACKPAY”[4].

While helpful, imho, changes here-and-there are not enough nowadays, and even those victories can be used as a perpetual carrot for greater potential change that only comes piecemeal.

“Blondi played a role in Nazi propaganda by portraying Hitler as an animal lover.”[5]

With such propaganda, there are always two sides to the coin:

“Hitler loved Blondi so much, in fact, that he allowed the dog to sleep on his bed with him…. However, he was also a strict disciplinarian and would hit Blondi if she didn’t follow his commands.”[6]

How long will people continue to sleep with the dogs of war while ignoring the “hits” or atrocities in Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, even in the US (think about it), and now billion$ going to Ukraine instead of dialgoue-ing every day until reaching a peace agreement.

Everyone makes their choices. There can be overlap situations but basically I see the choices as: perpetuating and gung-ho for the “system of domination” as is; going along with the “system of domination” because it’s comfy ok here and better than, oh, communism or some dictator-crazed country; striving to make changes within the “system of domination;” realizing that the “system of domination” is just that, a system in which domination prevails. So to riff the modern phrase: another way is necessity.

“For decades, my identity was political, but I’ve come to understand that there’s no political solution when you’re dealing with someone else’s rules.”
~ John Trudell

If the here-and-there positive changes are in the box of “someone else’s rules,” then deeper change remains the dangling carrot. Eventually, the “system of domination” aka Empire will fade, or suddenly fall out of grace due to millions (maybe billions?) of people seeing and living the bigger picture, or, as with the following example from history, self-implode because it knows no other way and cannot think clearly, only react out of fear or greed or self-image-preservation:

“In April 1945, Allied troops started liberating concentration camps and were slowly making their way to Adolf Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. The dictator knew that his capture was nearing and there was no escape. Rather than be captured by the enemy, Hitler decided that taking his life was the only option he had. He was also concerned for Blondi’s well-being if she was taken by the Russians. Hitler acquired cyanide capsules as a means of suicide, and wanting to confirm whether the pills will do the job, Blondi became the test subject. On April 29, Hitler gave Blondi a cyanide capsule. The capsule worked, and Hitler was inconsolable when the dog died.”[7]  Bless you, Blondi, you were a dog, not a Nazi.

Until implosion occurs, changemakers can strive for a carrot here-and-there, and those fed up with the status quo can figure various ways to revamp, for simple examples, shop local, or stop a lithium mine in Nevada[8].

Bookend anecdote . . . At a stop light on the busiest suburban road I turn my head and notice a patch of land with trees, a miniscule wooded area that allows my mind to drift to forests. Yet I also notice that the area is surrounded by a fence with some trash up against the outside of the fence beneath the “No Dumping” signs! As the light turns green I drive onward thinking of how the actual world, the energized, wild and thriving Earth has been downsized and imprisoned. In mindless realtor lingo, that patch of woods is a “vacant lot,” while to the locals it’s an overlooked sideshow to suburbia’s strip mall, car culture, hustle-and-bustle. And there’s no road sign showing how to reverse that trend.

NOTES:

[1] https://news.yahoo.com/zelensky-pitches-investors-ukraine-while-155045529.html

[2] film: The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code
book: Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery
https://originalfreenations.com/

[3] Blondi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondi

[4] https://rumble.com/v1px5cv-breaking-news-ny-judge-orders-unvaccinated-employees-be-reinstated-with-bac.html

[5] Ibid #3.

[6] “What You Don’t Know About Hitler’s Dog Blondi”
https://www.grunge.com/614689/what-you-dont-know-about-hitlers-dog-blondi/
[7] Ibid.

[8] Protect Thacker Pass
https://www.facebook.com/ProtectThackerPass/

~ Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)
His most recent book is Moving Through The Empty Gate Forest: inside looking out. His website: www.allbook-books.com