Saturday, October 4, 2014

The Best Thing One Can Do when It Rains…

I’ve been so distraught over the continuing leak of naughty photos of high profile actresses that I’d almost forgotten about the bigger world. I mean, let’s face it, that there more topless images of Kim Kardashian, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy is more than a bit surprising considering the subject (clothed candids might be more of a rarity).

And don’t get me started on Hope Solo. Actually, the only surprising thing for me is how people allow themselves to get talked into this type of behavior and situation but never expect it to end unpleasantly.

Meanwhile, half-way around the world, the Arab Spring (of 2013) which was a headline here in the Land of the Round Door Knobs for about forty-five minutes way back when has had an echo in the splash of color in the monotone cloth of conformity that Hong Kong is to the People’s Republic of China as tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people have taken to the streets demanding the right to have democratic processes we here who do have them have allowed to wither away from neglect and disinterest.

As Cold War Kids we called mainland China Red China even as our parents demanded Washington D. C. ‘unleash Chiang Kai-Shek’ which, with a half-century of hindsight, ranks with Dick Cheney’s assurance the Iraqi people would greet US troops as liberators as bleary-eyed, drunken optimism.

All the elements for a Greek tragedy are moving into place as the irresistible force camps out in the streets of the immovable object. One party in this disagreement already has all the experience anyone could ever need in not only crushing dissent but in power-washing the remnants of peaceful protesters from between tank treads. Happy Silver Anniversary.

If that language upsets you, you probably need to stick to leaked nudies of Kate Upton as a staple in your news feed rather than become angry at what the Chinese government will most definitely do to its own people while we watch, or perhaps because they know all we’ll do is watch.       

I’m thinking of Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ and the flood waters of inevitable alterations yet to come in a society signaling dissent with an umbrella never realizing no single drop of rain feels itself responsible for the flood which follows.

-bill kenny

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