Karl Killin' Katrina = "Hey, Joe Normal: Do You Believe in Seatbelts?"

Hey Man,

While I try to keep it low-key to encourage dialogue and learn how y'all think, and sometimes it's better to have pure "control" groups for the social analysis I'm doing, I often look at you guys with the exasperation of a parent telling his teenager to wear a seatbelt: I can explain the history of cars, the speed of cars, the physics behind their potential weight and destructive power, the danger of other drivers, the various car-accident statistics...

...and what I get back is: "DAD!!! I'm in a BIG METAL BOX! How can I possibly get hurt? DUH!!!"

(sigh)

So, in an effort to save the world I figure I'll launch a tonne of these salvos, because frankly I ain't crazy: I'm a happy camper because I don't let "The Man" drive me crazy, and I kick it with too many who do.

The world I live in makes a lot more sense than the aggressively sold anecdotal half-knowledge I've heard tersely repeated through pursed-lips and furrowed brows. It's like people trade whatever "headlines" they happened to catch, and a "denial" of the value of their statements even to helpfully correct them is "insulting" to their intelligence. This is where we are all turning into Karl Rovebots: the genius of his strategy is we have to indulge every lie, malicious or otherwise, as long as one can cite mainstream media proof.

I've realized that I can't beat "facts", they're too bloody personal when it comes to politics, and people get too shook when they're world view is proven to be a series of lies - which it inevitably is, and in candid moments you know journalists will freely admit the inherent corruption in their organizations.

It's gonna get worse: with our focus increasingly being trained away from local issues and onto national or global ones, we're all just gonna be herded into buying bigger lies. When you know your local issues, you can see for yourself the practical impact of choices made on a smaller, personal and community scale. Unfortunately the U.S. biggest export is "culture", and if they're getting more Fascist, then we will too...

(I mean it too, look up the definition and map it to what you know is happening... it's scary.)

So "facts" I mostly leave alone, but I can consistently beat the crappy "logic" used to support facts served as a thin-gruel by the media, it has a similar effect, but new logic is better as an empowering "tool" people can use themselves going forward.

All both "they" and "we" need is that one big headline a day man, just that one huge "fix" for all of us to get high.

The mighty and influential U.S. Govt needs every news organization in the world to say their "message" just "once" and exactly as they want it printed or shown, and with the most neutral "unbiased" analysis bereft of any "context" that could be taken out of context.

And it should certainly be reported: it's a "story".

However, even if half of the same news organizations say it was wrong, in a fast-paced world where only a fraction may catch a quiet correction late in the news or in the back of the paper... that just sets up the next round of shallow debate.

You just have to believe me: The Man's been trying forever to screw us.

Just ask all of your favorite artists, writers, musicians... and please, give them the benefit of the doubt.

I mean, c'mon.

I was at a Billy Idol concert the other nite (a friend had free tix - and he's bananas, an awesome performer, I had no idea), and something struck me yet again when he said at the end of his show in his crazy-cracker-cockney accent: "Remember, watch your brothers back, and don't worry, we're gonna win!"

These people make us too bloody happy to disrespect them by not listening to them, and for the life of me as an artist myself, I can't imagine why they would say the stuff they do unless they believed it - nor why they'd believe it unless they did some homework. For me personally, it would represent a disgusting lack of self-respect and respect for my audience to lie in my art...

They're also a hell of a lot smarter than we're taught to give them credit for, and that's what I'm trying to prove by writing this down: you can say it well or you can say it loudly, if you do both they'll kill you. So, I'm saying it historically well right here and right now, and soon I've just gotta go make history with it...

Kanye's got a new lyric saying: "Who gave Saddam anthrax?/George Bush got the answers." I don't think he's only referring to what he's saying: I think he's alluding to the fact that the U.S. Govt. admitted the anthrax "fingerprint" proved that what was sent to the people calling for an investigation right after 9/11/ had to come from Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Not Osama in a cave. Not Saddam in a palace.

He's just planting the seeds that'll grow son, you can even cultivate your own bonzai tree.

Roughly half the time these "conspiracy theorists" use the U.S. Govt's own admissions of guilt that most "media" just won't print because it's an "old story" (or they're evil corporate shills... take your pick). Documents are declassified (The Northwoods Papers), people are caught and testify under oath (CIA drug-running cases), and their ongoing admissions alone (black helicopters and Gulfstreams are STILL disappearing people TODAY - they never said they would stop) make parallel "conspiracy" theories so damned logical that disbelief in their possibility is undeniably insane.

Our old friends at Google can still find all the "mainstream" sources you want (for now - in tracking them for a year they're "disappearing" too), so just add a few words together and "Stir It Up..."


1. Artists have to hit "truth" to make a lasting impact, otherwise their stuff sucks. Some get away with it, but on balance it is far easier for an "expert" to run circles around Joe Average than for an artist to. We've got better natural instincts for judging their work, and unlike "experts" and the rise of "think tanks" for whom the inverse is undeniably true: the more honest an artist is with themselves, their fans and their work, the better their chances of having a long and productive and lucrative career and respect from their peers. It's a much more democractic process: WE pull the puppet strings that make them dance, WE decide if they suck or not, unlike "experts" who we are told to grovel in front of.


2. The history of U.S. Govt. evil is so easy for us to digest that when we see it in movies and TV shows we can follow along gaily with a complete understanding of it's possibility: it's never shocking, it's merely acceptable "context" for a "story" they wanna tell. I've seen a hell of a lot more stuff than you have over the last year, so history ain't no mystery, but any adult in the world can casually cite their own list: supporting multiple dictatorships, genocides, spy games, illegal wars, the biggest prison population in the world, the war on drugs... this ain't the time for "disbelief", that's crazy talk: this is just another one of those times.


3. The defiant arrogance of the mass-media is denying the democractic certification of independent media: we're talking about "millions" of people cross-referencing sources and trading analysis. The marginalized definitions used are not authoritative, they are deliberately disrespectful: don't buy the lies. Sure, you can call it "The Year of the Blogger", but when you never write another story about blogs again then you're full of crap - or when you "hardly" do, then how can they be so important as to warrant the term: "Year of the Blogger"? It's just like TIME Magazine calling Noam Chomsky "The Most Important Intellectual of our Time"... and then losing his phone number. When it comes to the media, words speak louder than actions, and if you look closer: they often don't match.


4. We believe all sorts of crap on the "innernet!", except when it comes to politics: what happened to "crooked politicians" as a "rule" and not an "exception"? Today it's no longer just one crazy nut poring through thousands of pages of official government documents (actually... thanks a lot man!!!), it's hundreds of them, and thousands of fact-checkers posting the originals as .pdf's and .jpeg's among others - I've seen a bunch, including a wicked set of GOP Talking Points on RAW Story explaining how to discredit Joe Wilson and defend Karl Rove. The logic used to dismiss these people is asinine: who would do it for what reason? Who would fight through the "crazy" stereotype because they feel they have to? These aren't snake-oil salesmen or TV psychics, and they're certainly not landing huge book and TV deals by speaking the "truth" for it's own sake. In fact, they could just pull back and push an "official" story to rake in the big bucks - even Bob "Watergate" Woodward sold out right after that, and don't think I'm not considering it: convo's like this I just can't keep up forever...


...and I dare you to imagine a world where we all gave up.


Peace,
BK

_________________

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Black Krishna Brand

Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/

Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm

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BONUS: Download this awesome Billy Idol song from back in the day...

"Sweet Sixteen"


(...)


ENDNOTE: Sometimes I feel like I'm walking around and everyone's now missing an arm:

BK: "Ahh!!! Dude, you're missing an arm!"

Dude: "No I'm not."

BK: "Oh crap."