Posted on: May 30, 2010
Avatar, 2009. Directed by James Cameron
“Avatar” is a fine movie with an excellent message, or two, or three. Watching it months after all of the hype, I was able to drop my guard, suspend my disbelief, and see its high points without resorting to easy cynicism. Though that may come later. The high points, aside from the wonderful images of Pandora, are its antiwar, anti-imperialist themes, along with an underlying critique of capitalism that no doubt has sparked many a conversation around the nation’s water coolers. We need much more of that. But there are other aspects which drew my attention as well, especially the idea of living in harmony with Nature, the interconnectedness of all living things, being physically in each moment, and the high contrast between the native peoples of Pandora and the imperialist forces from Earth trying to exploit or annihilate them.…
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Posted on: May 25, 2010
California Gold Rush. 1850. Photo by L.C McLure
I’m not sure when it happened, just that it did. And I’m guessing that America is unique in this way. It’s quite probably the first nation that associated the personal pursuit of wealth with “freedom.” And it’s probably the only nation on earth that thinks this is a fact set in stone, and no one should even try to question it.
Freedom equals the ability to get rich, apparently. Freedom equals the lack of restraint on business, because aside from being to the manor born, the fastest way to get rich in America is through business, and right now, the best business is Finance.
But let’s break this down a bit more. First of all, the gap between rich and poor in America is huge and getting bigger. Most Americans will never, ever be rich, nor will their kids, or their grandkids.…
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Posted on: May 23, 2010
The Scream, by Edvard Munch. 1893
Death in Life
Fall down breathe out the last
Fall down
Because belief is gone
Tripped up on the way
Tripped up
Because an earlier time
An earlier phase
Made one feel
That now was endless
Now was always
And the end was so far away
We could afford to give it all up
In the moment
…
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Posted on: May 4, 2010
Mary Ann Vecchio, kneeling by the body of the slain student, Jeffrey Miller.
Photo by John Filo. 1970.
We do not learn. It’s as if the past never happened. As if the millions of lives lost in war after war after war are all forgotten. And when people in the moment rise up and protest more of the same, they get shot down.
Forty years ago today, four innocent students were gunned down by the National Guard at Kent State in Ohio. Nixon had announced an expansion of the war into Cambodia a few days before, and protests ensued across the country. On May 4th, 1970, the war came home to America. Guardsmen on the Kent State campus fired more than 60 shots, wounding thirteen students and killing four. That sparked nation-wide outrage and the largest antiwar protests to date.
We do not learn.…
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