Abe Golam (by way of US Department of Art& Technology) on Tue, 11 Jun 2002 21:44:05 +0200 (CEST)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

<nettime> Knock Knock Knockin' On Heaven's Door: Why Are We Scared To/Of Death?



MEMORANDUM

To: Randall M. Packer, Secretary 

From: Abe Golam, Director of the Office of Political and Economic Insecurity

Re: Knock Knock Knockin' On Heaven's Door:  Why Are We Scared To/Of Death?

------

As we know, the President's most important job is to protect himself while
appearing to defend the American people. Since September 11, all levels of
government have been pointing fingers like never before while our airports
become Keystone cop scenarios and our border security remains a farce. We
are in the process of producing and stockpiling more medicines to treat
the disillusioned masses whose retirement plans have been plundered by the
reigning oil-garchy now in power, those stupid white men and women who are
still trying to regain their balance after having been knocked over by a
ten-ton intelligence failure like none ever experienced in postmodern
times.  Even as they pretend to be taking steps toward improving
information sharing among our intelligence agencies, and suggest in their
media-manipulated spin doctoring that we are beginning to deploy more
resources and personnel to protect our critical infrastructure, our
federal investigators are still working with computer technology
manufactured in the dark ages. Our children have access to better
technology than our federal intelligence agents.

The changing nature of the threats facing America requires a new
government, a new administration, a new way of looking at the world that
protects the environment, that celebrates diversity, takes care of the
poor, and prioritizes the development of new forms of art using advanced
digital technologies that will help us find a cure to the "death-denial"
of our present leaders.

Our current administration continuously churns out the propaganda butter
while greasing up our virtual asses so that they can mind-fuck us better
than Brando does Maria Schneider in Last Tango In Paris.  We are asked to
keep our eyes out for "invisible enemies" as if we were all Supermen and
Superwomen with x-ray vision able to leap collapsing buildings in a
single, helpless bound. We are told that these "invisible enemies" can
strike with a wide variety of weapons and that America needs a single,
unified homeland security structure that will improve protection against
today's threats and be flexible enough to help meet the unknown threats of
the future.

Whereas it's true that a great tragedy has struck America, and innocent
people of all walks of life have unnecessarily lost their lives, our
domestic agenda has been hijacked by far right wing ideologues and
military-religious zealots who are trying to whittle away at the basic
rights of all US citizens as guaranteed by our Constitution.  As a result
of these ruthless, unpatriotic acts against freedom of speech and the
right to dissent, we have no choice but to become politically active
ourselves and to demand change in the current administration's personnel
make-up.

As part of our next major political action, we should form an exploratory
committee to see if it is feasible to declare a candidacy for the
Presidency of the United States of America. Under the banner of the
Experimental Party whose motto is "Representation Through Virtualization"
- we will recruit a candidate whose virtual identity is guaranteed to stir
up controversy in the global computer networks, that "non-place" place
where the true battle for democracy in America will be fought and won. As
part of this exploration, we will attempt to locate The Real Moral
Majority, those whose ethics and aesthetics will, without compromise, tell
the truth so help them God or whatever other word they use to describe The
Supreme Fiction.

We will not appease soccer moms or corporate dads, we will not pretend we
have endless amounts of taxpayer money to give back to everyone so that we
can essentially buy their votes while making sure their rights as a U.S.
citizen die on the vine, and we will not let the super-rich steal continue
to steal their hard earned retirement money so that they can buy another
Lear jet to fly them out to Monaco where they can secretly buy old
paintings previously stolen and hidden by the Nazis and their moneyed
co-conspirators.

We WILL ask for sacrifice. We will ask for sacrifice from SUV trust-fund
babies and get-rich-quick wannabes whose vaporware dreams of dot.com glory
have turned to dust. We will demand the immediate impeachment of
Vice-President Richard "Tricky Dick" Cheney. We are naming names, and the
first to go has got to be the ex-CEO of Halliburton whose shady business
dealings allowed him to pocket tens of millions of dollars while
corrupting an already corrupt energy company that is leaving its
ex-workers in the dust the same way the oil-garchy fund-raisers at Enron
did during the hey-day of cooking books and stealing national elections.
Remember, "Tricky Dick" is just one artificial heartbeat away from the
Presidency. Once he goes, the rest are sure to follow.

As we know, the one thing Americans, perhaps more than any other nation on
the planet, fear - is death itself. Under the protective guise of
"Homeland Security", we find ourselves primarily a nation of insecure
workers scared to death of our future, of our ability to consume corporate
food at any cost, of our right to buy gas guzzling vehicles that double as
tanks in case we encounter the next fucked-up mass murderer at the
upcoming stop light. What's worse is that that fucked-up mass murderer may
be your high school son, your pedophilic priest, your favorite football
star, or your local Congressman.

As a nation of laws, we must always remember that our ability to prosecute
the real criminals is crucial to our survival.  Those who steal elections,
rob Peter to pay Paul, deprive citizens of their basic constitutional
rights to vocally oppose the egregious war policies of the present
administration, are criminally unpatriotic, and need to be dealt with
immediately.

For those of our fellow citizens who fear death, we should ask them to
remember that death is an advisor. Death is always there, always with you,
watching your every move. Death has only one thing to say to you and says
it over and over again: live this life to its fullest and find security in
your own heart, the way you act toward others, the things you create.



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net