Today, to that same aching need,
I bring my reticent desires.
The gaping abyss simmers with the anguish
of a thousand wounds.
The life shimmering in the air
is the only one you see.
Vainly, you clutch at it
from the midst of battling shadows.
AN ABRUPT AND TRAGIC TWILIGHT
It is an abrupt and tragic twilight.
From a row of darkened apartments
an empty window is illuminated by a T.V.
The light is extinguished. It's dark.
reality would be unbearable,
but, everything is splashed with silvery light.
In the yard near by,
I can almost hear the grass growing.
Flowers spring from the ground,
flickering flames burning red and gold, blue and white.
Signs and street lights jump up and down
beneath a curious, crescent moon.
Radiant stars shine,
imbedded in the hallow sky.
THE STREET NOISE RECEDES
The street noises recede behind,
as the door closes and I plunge into shade.
In the library the books draw me,
like some strange attractor,
their silent tumultuous din excites me,
their serene orderliness fills me
with a calm sense of well being.
Magically time is suspended and preserved.
Down dim aisles patrons pause
before the written record
of life's myriad dreams,
in reflective sculptural forms.
Listening, I hear the World's many voices
and realize there are hours and moments for everything.
EVERYONE KNOWS EVENING
Everyone knows evening
is a time when everything is insubstantial,
a time when anything can and does happen.
Tonight, as I drive Westward towards home,
the setting Sun is a portal to Hell bursting with fire;
on both sides of the road, the city
unravels into suburbs; that sight,
lights blinking on, lawns solemnly
loosing their color, and traveling clouds
every bit as fantastic as Mandiville's travels
and who make all those wonders seem superfluous:
I open my eyes content just to live.
The valley floor is cloaked in darkness,
in it the city looks like some disdainful deity.
Spreading before me are the many people
who think of time only as a string of events,
people like the ones I've talked with today,
and I realize that this contact has been illusory
that an invisible impermeable barrier separates us:
a magical menagerie where all
constantly live in their own present-
lost in an eternity of now.
THROUGH SMOLDERING RUINS
Through smoldering ruins
down desolate miles of raw sex,
parked in a dead end,
where futility struggles
with bites and scratches,
the sickly grey shrinking horizons,
the refuse of shattered lives.
On the winning team
sublimination drives
their black hearse of desires,
with the decapitated corpse
of the dead day in back;
which mounts splitting white walls
littered with amputated time,
the spreading stain of blood
before the prisoner's eye;
her echoing sobs rend the air,
to retarded to understand
the revulsion she feels-
the barbed wire shame
that the radical right call justice,
the prisoner vainly tries to sleep
locked in his shared disgrace.
Going, going
shadows stretch towards
the great freedom.
Beyond all this,
the virtual reality nightmare
has already caught him,
in its black hole embrace.
It is rumored, a man had
been released from prison after serving a sentence for
murder. The radical right thought that his sentence was to light,
and so
subliminally induced him to rape a retarded girl. The radical
right were paid
$2,500 of undeclared revenue for the rape of the retarded girl.
A sick and
disgusting act, which they called justice. Finally, to add stupidity
to their
disgrace, they then used the event for an excuse to fire 20 men, who
were former
convicts that were successfully working at good paying jobs.
Firing them is an
event that increases the likelihood of their being reimprisoned.
If true, all
one can say is isn't it a stupid, needless shame.
RECALCITRANT UNDERSTANDINGS
Clouds form in a great cotton swath
across an anemic colored sky,
they become a river of blood
more livid then the sunset.
Two neighbors stand in the street
shouting their scripted conversation,
beside them unnoticed lays the dead day
whose face looks a waxy greyish- blue.
One's head rises above their shirt
a rooster, complete with coxcomb,
crowing common places
heralding the dawning night.
The other is a cat
who thinks that her observations
are really quite profound.
How sad that the truth
is never recognized
by recalcitrant understandings.
TWO WOMEN
Two women were standing in a store
before a mirror, one was trying on a dress;
both were peering intently at themselves,
when suddenly they both let out a shriek.
Before them, in place of their own faces,
were two huge monstrous heads
that had suddenly sprung out from behind their bodies;
where they had been hiding out of sight in the glass.
SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
Two rows of thin trees
recede into the dismal twilight,
while out of the dark brambles
white flowers bloom.
The Summer evening smiles.
MANUFACTURING OPINION
Democracies are processes
not products. They must be eternally vigilant least
they lose their precious rights. But, how is one to know when
their civil liberties
are at risk by insidious, unobtrusive domestic elements. Then,
to late, society
wakes up after the damage has been done - always for the best excuses
- to find
itself subject to the tyranny of internal groups.
It is hypothesized that
in America today we are confronted with a dilemma. How
can we effectively function in a responsible fashion in our Democracy,
if our
information is subject to censorship by a media which engages in a
propaganda
model deliberately designed to misinform the public on every important
issue?
How can we identify our interests if the radical right dominated media
forfeits
the public's right to know for their own factional interests?
One way is to engage in
lengthy on going analysis projects, of the "stories"
presented by the propaganda model. Another way is to avail oneself
to
alternative sources of the news. Under a propaganda model, if
the second
alternative was effective every effort would be made to eliminate the
alternative sources of information.
This would accomplish a
variety of things. First, it would prevent varying
perspectives from being presented to the public; thereby making the
propaganda
model more effective. Second, lacking adequate information, it
would impair the
organization of effective opposition. Third, it would tend, over
time, to
isolate dissident voices. Fourth, isolated individuals, i.e.
potential
opposition leaders within targeted groups, could then be demoralized
and
destabilized. Fifth, the parameters of debate on any issue could
better be
determined. This is not meant to be construed as an exhaustive
analysis of this
"hypothetical problem. This is a partial list, which hopefully
will raise your
consciousness and serve as a catalyst for thoughts of your own on the
subject.
The next stop is to look
for examples which may serve to confirm this logical
extension of the propaganda model "hypothesis". In the bay area
around Oakland
and San Francisco, there is a history of political activism and alternative
sources of news. Within the last year three events have transpired
which tend
to confirm our propaganda model "hypothesis". First, pirate radio
stations not
federally licensed, with a broadcast radius of a few miles, have been
cracked
down on. Second, public radio in Oakland, associated with Berkeley,
has had its
board of trustees move to make its radio stations "more mainstream"
, by either
firing, or, placing on administrative leave a station manager
and key staff
members, of long standing, who refused to comply with censorship.
Radio is
particularly important among the poor, who are most apt to be disgruntled;
because, even if they haven't either the time or money for either the
paper or
T.V. chances are they will at least have access to the radio.
And, if a small
number of listeners are motivated, they can, by word of mouth, spread
the
alternative perspective around. It is an inefficient method of
communication
for the public,which can easily be overwhelmed by the propaganda model;
but, it
can serve as a structure for meaningful, constructive social interaction.
Third, the independent paper a major daily has recently been
purchased.
If a tyrant can control
the informational input to a people,
then, they can manufacture public consent. Theoretically, this
would be
done without the people even noticing it. The potential negative
impact on a
free Democratic society would be devastating, in terms of the integrity
of its
public institutions and erosion of its civil liberties.
For further information
on the propaganda model please read MANUFACTURING
PUBLIC CONSENT by Noam Chomsky.