Thanks, Rick. Yes, and to your point: LB talked about this on Five 8 this week, re: Bishop Budde. That we should take what she did, use it as an example, and do it ourselves, but NOT lionize her individually or put her on a pedestal. Pedestals always end with disappointment. Always.
Your Sunday posts are just as jam packed with the knowledge I need to know as my favorite history teacher’s were. Dr. Marcus Orr who served in WW2 & was hit with shrapnel while liberating Auschwitz. He was one of the last casualties from that war & when he convalesced in the local VA hospital decided to devote his life to learning & teaching History. So, from his wheelchair, he took us on a journey & through the ages & also by reading books such as A Distant Mirror. He would relish your missives. This is the best compliment I can give you! Thx
The lines of that poem that sum up for me where we are now are:
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Substitute (if you can find something that scans) The US for Europe and states for nations. And Auden was prescient both about the coming September and January 20 (or the election) Although looking at the right wing rise in Europe, it stands on its own, too.
Try reading this and Sept 1, 1939 aloud and you will see what I mean by "sings." The latter never comes close to Stanza III of the former.
Thanks, Susan. I didn't know the poem about Yeats, and you're right, sing it does. The rhyme scheme of 9/1/39 is all over the place, which contributes to that.
Oh wow, Yeats died in January 1939. I didn't know that. Talk about getting out at the right time...
It isn't just the rhyme scheme. In the Yeats poem, even in the non-rhyming parts, there is internal rhyme and a really admirable internal alliteration. Not blatant, but it carries....It's that kind of thing I admire most in the sound of poetry.
The other good lines pre-echoing today:
When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,
And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed,
And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,
If all change moves ever so slowly, creeps upon us, is it a given that deadly cataclysm is the "antidote". 9/11 and 12/7/41 clearly awakened the US from a stupor, moreso a denial that a threat exists, one which was self evident and should have been addressed long before these dates of infamy. 9/1/1939 was instrumental to move Auden and deniers that one man stood between good and evil. The sinking of the Lusitania awakened many sleepy headed types against war, that the danger was real. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was the catalyst for the Great War, again the face of aggression.
No one woke up on January 21st, 2025, surprised to learn that the imbecile again defiled the Oval office. Yet many find it hard to believe he is the existential threat to everything we hold dear. MSM Sanewashing abounds, unjustified justification (the new known unknown) permeates our minds. He and his Project 2025 acolytes are determined to usher in another Gilden Age, an oxymoron if there ever was.
There is a resistance, albeit to my mind a very weak, impotent one. Call it dabbling around the edges, words not action. 45 only understands on thing, "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me." While dabbling occurs the senate cements into place Gilded age minded plutocrats, those whose mission is to favor the few at the expense of the vast many. Many of the many are willing accept these plutocrats, buying wothless memecoins, golden sneakers and other such bullshit, revering captains of the tech industry while they find another way to fuck us each day.
The point, is death the needed remedy? Will it take a 9/11, Pearl Harbor or Lusitania type event, many deaths at one time or a more precise event, an involuntary archduke or a voluntary Sitting Bull death to awaken those in the stupor bubble. One key determinant of stupor, the belief that the 2028 midterms will be the end of the dawn of Gilded Age deux. Should I sit at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, ignite my petrol doused body getting the stupored many to read my manifesto explaining why throwing away the great experiment is such a bad, wrong?
Cannot figure this out. Guess what's left, off to the local BP, petrol can in hand while wondering if self immolation is the thing to do. Dark times call for drastic action.
Self immolation ain't it, Old Man. Even if you did what you hypothesize, the sonofabitch would steal all the attention. That's what he does best.
You're best bet is to go outside your door and tell the whole world: Donald Trump, you are the sorriest sonofabitch in this land. May your time be short!
And then forget about him. Don't give him your attention in any form. There's always a certain sense of justice in this old world. Give it a chance. Be alive. Things can and do change in a heartbeat.
Thanks for this, Old Man. Personally, I was never a fan of self-immolation. If you're going to resort to violence, there are more useful things to do, seems to me. Also, it hurts too much.
You're right about the other events being sudden, unexpected, and full of body counts. Trump Redux will have its body count, too, and as anyone who lived through the LA fires can attest, knowing something is coming, or might come, is no less terrifying than a sudden burst of lightning.
if enough people dabble around the edges, the whole thing collapses...it's the cumulative effect of everyone defying in small ways that will do it. At least, that's what I tell myself.
It's weeks like this that start wars. My idea, which has been percolating for a while now, is that we need to start the process of dividing the "United" States into, at least, two countries, but more than likely 4-5. I feel safe in saying that we will NEVER be united again, so let's skip the war and peacefully divide up the spoils. I'm not sure how it would work geographically if the states weren't contiguous, but those are details that will work themselves out, probably with passports. I don't believe the people of Germany or Italy or France can freely move across their borders without showing a passport, so it would unfortunately be the same here. We have to get over this notion that we MUST remain the "United" States. It will soon be killing people who won't muscle under to this regime.
There is no compromise anymore. THEY will not bend, and WE will not bend, so what other solution is there? This current situation cannot be sustained for long. At the end of Trump (or Vance's) term, there will only be more "fighting to the death," and that will continue for the foreseeable future, every four years, if not every two. Do we WANT to continue to live like that? I don't, although if sunset is death, I'm at about 4:00 in the afternoon in the middle of summer, so it's really not as concerning for me as it is for the generations that are far younger than me. It's going to be up to them to get it done. As it turns out, the very worst thing Lincoln did was insist that the Confederacy rejoin the United States. Imagine where we'd be right now if he hadn't. The South would now be Trumperland, and we in the North could continue enjoying our freedoms, unencumbered by edicts from a man who thinks he's king of the world.
Thanks, Steve. Jefferson Davis did not want a civil war. He wanted the Supreme Court to rule on whether or not secession was legal. I'm no legal scholar, but it seems to me that, if we go back through the original paperwork, the decision to enter the Union is not a once-and-forever thing. Lincoln thought otherwise, and one could probably make the argument that the violence, and certainly the military occupation after, was not really in the spirit of the Union. On the other hand, the Southern states were run by disgusting slaveholding oligarchs who deserve what they got.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, northern VA; the Philadelphia region of PA; NH, VT and ME if they want; call it American Coalition of Eastern States, or ACES. We'd have the largest city in the country that's also the financial capital of the Western world, plus West Point and the Naval Academy, plus Langley, plus the Delaware corp system; and probably we could keep DC as the capital.
California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii -- Pacific American Western Nation, or PAWN.
Let Trump preside from Mar a Lago over the neo-Confederacy. Good luck with that.
Greg completely left out where I live too, which is near Chicago. That would probably be a coalition of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin (if they get their act together!), and Illinois -- and that might only be Northern Illinois, there are some whack jobs in the southern part of the state. The Union of American Heartland States, or UAHS (that would be a national cheer too). "Yoooooaaahhhhh!" Howard Dean would be our first president.
Right now, Illinois is a blue island in a sea of red. Texas would probably have to be subdivided all on its own -- it's already the size of a regular country!
Mr. Olear, I just joined as a paying member because you, as I, see clearly that our country is at a critical juncture of change that most people don’t see. We are on a knife edge that will make or break our democracy. You see and speak clearly about the looming threat and insanity of the Rough Beast. I am so grateful for your clear vision and that you speak out in spite of the potential danger. We are on a terrifying ride that we cannot get off. All norms are crumbling around us with us wondering if they can ever be restored. Thank you for your depth of knowledge and intuitive vision that sees clearly through the deluge of change. You give me hope because if we can see and speak truthfully about what is really happening we may come out of it on the other side. Perhaps
I read somewhere that Joni Ernst caved partly because she thinks Hegseth will implode all by himself and then she will get the nod for the DOD. Is that even remotely possible?
Thanks so much, Patricia. I appreciate you joining, and I hope you get as much out of this lovely comment-board community as I do. I will continue to call stuff out, rest assured. And please, call me Greg.
Hard to know what to say, so much to mull. But one thing led to another. The reference to HW Bush and the thousand points of light comment. When I hear that, all I can think of is the Willie Horton ad that comes to mind. Give no Bush credit for ANYTHING. Geo HW Bush should be forgotten just like his idiot son, W. Sorry for my digression…
There are some—and I’m one—who believe everything happens for a purpose, and the divine purpose behind 45/47’s shit show is to wake up those who “would rather die” than “let [their] illusions die.” I stand with all who are “woke” in envisioning the world we want and refusing to be angered, confused or bullied by those who seek to put us in a state of hopelessness. He’ll eventually self-implode. Evil always does. “There’s a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”
A terrific post. So many intuitive, introspective and intelligent minds of the past and indeed we humans are constantly in a time loop of the rise of decency and bravery and then the darkening clouds of corrupt despair. Seems a never ending cycle.
"History
Never Repeats"
I tell myself
before I go to sleep...
It doesn't repeat, but it plays cover songs all the time... ; )
It's like a jukebox in my brain
The myth of the "savior" has been poisoning our minds for millennia. Good luck telling the MAGA faithful that the "benevolent dictator" is a lie.
Maybe we need to tell stories without individual "heroes". Stories where we all pull together and save ourselves from ourselves.
Thanks, Rick. Yes, and to your point: LB talked about this on Five 8 this week, re: Bishop Budde. That we should take what she did, use it as an example, and do it ourselves, but NOT lionize her individually or put her on a pedestal. Pedestals always end with disappointment. Always.
Greg, this is brilliant. I will reread it several times. Thank you.
Thanks so much, Elisabeth!
Your Sunday posts are just as jam packed with the knowledge I need to know as my favorite history teacher’s were. Dr. Marcus Orr who served in WW2 & was hit with shrapnel while liberating Auschwitz. He was one of the last casualties from that war & when he convalesced in the local VA hospital decided to devote his life to learning & teaching History. So, from his wheelchair, he took us on a journey & through the ages & also by reading books such as A Distant Mirror. He would relish your missives. This is the best compliment I can give you! Thx
Amy, I am humbled and flattered by that. Thank you so much!
FOREVER WARS
SUMER VS ELAM
2900 BC
Terrible humans
AND NOW
another Psychopath that would be GOD.
ORANGE IMAGO
or
ORANGIMAGO
excellent essay, though I tend to agree with Auden's evaluation of the poem. The one he wrote in 1939 (in February) says much the same thing but "sings" far better: In Memory of William Butler Yeats. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/161870/in-memory-of-w-b-yeats
The lines of that poem that sum up for me where we are now are:
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Substitute (if you can find something that scans) The US for Europe and states for nations. And Auden was prescient both about the coming September and January 20 (or the election) Although looking at the right wing rise in Europe, it stands on its own, too.
Try reading this and Sept 1, 1939 aloud and you will see what I mean by "sings." The latter never comes close to Stanza III of the former.
Thanks, Susan. I didn't know the poem about Yeats, and you're right, sing it does. The rhyme scheme of 9/1/39 is all over the place, which contributes to that.
Oh wow, Yeats died in January 1939. I didn't know that. Talk about getting out at the right time...
It isn't just the rhyme scheme. In the Yeats poem, even in the non-rhyming parts, there is internal rhyme and a really admirable internal alliteration. Not blatant, but it carries....It's that kind of thing I admire most in the sound of poetry.
The other good lines pre-echoing today:
When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,
And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed,
And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,
If all change moves ever so slowly, creeps upon us, is it a given that deadly cataclysm is the "antidote". 9/11 and 12/7/41 clearly awakened the US from a stupor, moreso a denial that a threat exists, one which was self evident and should have been addressed long before these dates of infamy. 9/1/1939 was instrumental to move Auden and deniers that one man stood between good and evil. The sinking of the Lusitania awakened many sleepy headed types against war, that the danger was real. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was the catalyst for the Great War, again the face of aggression.
No one woke up on January 21st, 2025, surprised to learn that the imbecile again defiled the Oval office. Yet many find it hard to believe he is the existential threat to everything we hold dear. MSM Sanewashing abounds, unjustified justification (the new known unknown) permeates our minds. He and his Project 2025 acolytes are determined to usher in another Gilden Age, an oxymoron if there ever was.
There is a resistance, albeit to my mind a very weak, impotent one. Call it dabbling around the edges, words not action. 45 only understands on thing, "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me." While dabbling occurs the senate cements into place Gilded age minded plutocrats, those whose mission is to favor the few at the expense of the vast many. Many of the many are willing accept these plutocrats, buying wothless memecoins, golden sneakers and other such bullshit, revering captains of the tech industry while they find another way to fuck us each day.
The point, is death the needed remedy? Will it take a 9/11, Pearl Harbor or Lusitania type event, many deaths at one time or a more precise event, an involuntary archduke or a voluntary Sitting Bull death to awaken those in the stupor bubble. One key determinant of stupor, the belief that the 2028 midterms will be the end of the dawn of Gilded Age deux. Should I sit at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, ignite my petrol doused body getting the stupored many to read my manifesto explaining why throwing away the great experiment is such a bad, wrong?
Cannot figure this out. Guess what's left, off to the local BP, petrol can in hand while wondering if self immolation is the thing to do. Dark times call for drastic action.
Self immolation ain't it, Old Man. Even if you did what you hypothesize, the sonofabitch would steal all the attention. That's what he does best.
You're best bet is to go outside your door and tell the whole world: Donald Trump, you are the sorriest sonofabitch in this land. May your time be short!
And then forget about him. Don't give him your attention in any form. There's always a certain sense of justice in this old world. Give it a chance. Be alive. Things can and do change in a heartbeat.
Thanks, much appreciated,yes life must go on
You're welcome.
He's complain that the fire was out before he could roast marshmallows, and isn't that NASTY.
Thanks for this, Old Man. Personally, I was never a fan of self-immolation. If you're going to resort to violence, there are more useful things to do, seems to me. Also, it hurts too much.
You're right about the other events being sudden, unexpected, and full of body counts. Trump Redux will have its body count, too, and as anyone who lived through the LA fires can attest, knowing something is coming, or might come, is no less terrifying than a sudden burst of lightning.
if enough people dabble around the edges, the whole thing collapses...it's the cumulative effect of everyone defying in small ways that will do it. At least, that's what I tell myself.
It's weeks like this that start wars. My idea, which has been percolating for a while now, is that we need to start the process of dividing the "United" States into, at least, two countries, but more than likely 4-5. I feel safe in saying that we will NEVER be united again, so let's skip the war and peacefully divide up the spoils. I'm not sure how it would work geographically if the states weren't contiguous, but those are details that will work themselves out, probably with passports. I don't believe the people of Germany or Italy or France can freely move across their borders without showing a passport, so it would unfortunately be the same here. We have to get over this notion that we MUST remain the "United" States. It will soon be killing people who won't muscle under to this regime.
There is no compromise anymore. THEY will not bend, and WE will not bend, so what other solution is there? This current situation cannot be sustained for long. At the end of Trump (or Vance's) term, there will only be more "fighting to the death," and that will continue for the foreseeable future, every four years, if not every two. Do we WANT to continue to live like that? I don't, although if sunset is death, I'm at about 4:00 in the afternoon in the middle of summer, so it's really not as concerning for me as it is for the generations that are far younger than me. It's going to be up to them to get it done. As it turns out, the very worst thing Lincoln did was insist that the Confederacy rejoin the United States. Imagine where we'd be right now if he hadn't. The South would now be Trumperland, and we in the North could continue enjoying our freedoms, unencumbered by edicts from a man who thinks he's king of the world.
Thanks, Steve. Jefferson Davis did not want a civil war. He wanted the Supreme Court to rule on whether or not secession was legal. I'm no legal scholar, but it seems to me that, if we go back through the original paperwork, the decision to enter the Union is not a once-and-forever thing. Lincoln thought otherwise, and one could probably make the argument that the violence, and certainly the military occupation after, was not really in the spirit of the Union. On the other hand, the Southern states were run by disgusting slaveholding oligarchs who deserve what they got.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, northern VA; the Philadelphia region of PA; NH, VT and ME if they want; call it American Coalition of Eastern States, or ACES. We'd have the largest city in the country that's also the financial capital of the Western world, plus West Point and the Naval Academy, plus Langley, plus the Delaware corp system; and probably we could keep DC as the capital.
California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii -- Pacific American Western Nation, or PAWN.
Let Trump preside from Mar a Lago over the neo-Confederacy. Good luck with that.
Wait a minute. I live in a blue county and city in a red state - Texas. Do I get to be part of say - PAWN? Asking for a friend.
Greg completely left out where I live too, which is near Chicago. That would probably be a coalition of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin (if they get their act together!), and Illinois -- and that might only be Northern Illinois, there are some whack jobs in the southern part of the state. The Union of American Heartland States, or UAHS (that would be a national cheer too). "Yoooooaaahhhhh!" Howard Dean would be our first president.
Right now, Illinois is a blue island in a sea of red. Texas would probably have to be subdivided all on its own -- it's already the size of a regular country!
Could blue St. Louis become part of Illinois, please?
I live in a red county in a red state. I’d just need to get out. Period.and I would
Mr. Olear, I just joined as a paying member because you, as I, see clearly that our country is at a critical juncture of change that most people don’t see. We are on a knife edge that will make or break our democracy. You see and speak clearly about the looming threat and insanity of the Rough Beast. I am so grateful for your clear vision and that you speak out in spite of the potential danger. We are on a terrifying ride that we cannot get off. All norms are crumbling around us with us wondering if they can ever be restored. Thank you for your depth of knowledge and intuitive vision that sees clearly through the deluge of change. You give me hope because if we can see and speak truthfully about what is really happening we may come out of it on the other side. Perhaps
I mean: Hegseth! Really?
Pete plans on murdering anyone that dosen't join his church.
His church is stupid.
What might save us is his stupidity and total ineptitude. Might.
I read somewhere that Joni Ernst caved partly because she thinks Hegseth will implode all by himself and then she will get the nod for the DOD. Is that even remotely possible?
Thanks so much, Patricia. I appreciate you joining, and I hope you get as much out of this lovely comment-board community as I do. I will continue to call stuff out, rest assured. And please, call me Greg.
Hard to know what to say, so much to mull. But one thing led to another. The reference to HW Bush and the thousand points of light comment. When I hear that, all I can think of is the Willie Horton ad that comes to mind. Give no Bush credit for ANYTHING. Geo HW Bush should be forgotten just like his idiot son, W. Sorry for my digression…
I am here for the Bush slander! This is a safe space for that!
We really should stop sanewashing our exes.
Ex actly.
There are some—and I’m one—who believe everything happens for a purpose, and the divine purpose behind 45/47’s shit show is to wake up those who “would rather die” than “let [their] illusions die.” I stand with all who are “woke” in envisioning the world we want and refusing to be angered, confused or bullied by those who seek to put us in a state of hopelessness. He’ll eventually self-implode. Evil always does. “There’s a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”
Beautifully expressed, Earl. Thank you. I quite agree, and I stand with you!
Love you bringing Thucydides into things.
A terrific post. So many intuitive, introspective and intelligent minds of the past and indeed we humans are constantly in a time loop of the rise of decency and bravery and then the darkening clouds of corrupt despair. Seems a never ending cycle.