7.11.01

Ok, so it took me a little longer than I thought it would to write. I’m sorry; I’ve been working on quite a few other projects lately as well as simply enjoying some time away from the office. However, I did do some thinking over the little vacation I took, so here goes.

You might notice that I have added a second archive to the site. Figured the last page was getting a little long and with this whopper of an entry it might get a bit clumsy, so there ya go.

Also in big Space Monkey news, I have acquired my own website address that I will be implementing soon. Sadly, spacemonkey.com/.org/.net were all taken, so I had to go with something a little different, spacemonkeyx.com. However, I kind of like the anononymity that lends itself anyway, so I think it will work out fine. No, I'm not going Black Muslim on you, though I do have some bean pies to sell. I have yet to find a host for the domain, though, so until such time you'll still be able to find me here. Don't worry, when I move you'll know.

And now, on with the rant...

A week ago, America celebrated the 225th anniversary of the date when our forefathers declared themselves independent from their colonial master, Britain. What that must have been like to live in a country that, until recently, was controlled by a man who was half a world away, who didn’t understand the dreams you had for yourself or your family, who didn’t understand that you were a man who yearned to be free to help build a powerful nation under God, with Liberty and Justice for all; and who didn’t understand that there was no way you were going to pay that much for tea or molasses. So, you band together, some less willingly than others, and do your best to kick him and his boys out of your little club.

The idea of America from the beginning was Freedom, with a capital F. America was a place where a man – only a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant man, mind you, but a man – could own land, regardless of his family name or his background. Land where he and his family could live free from the royal hierarchies that had plagued him in the Old World and could do whatever he pleased to survive. He could be a farmer, he could be a cobbler, he could raise cattle, and he could even be a slave trader – how entrepreneurial of him, eh? Whatever he decided upon, he would be free to speak his mind, practice his religion, own a gun in order to maintain a standing militia (no one understood what it meant then, either), and assemble whenever he and one or more friends felt the need. Seems like it was a pretty swell deal, if you ask me.

The most appealing thing about early America was the frontier, the West – you know, Ohio and Illinois. Imagine being able to pack up your belongings, leave the sharecropping farm you’ve worked and lived on your entire life, and strike out into the wild unknown of this relatively undiscovered country. Maybe you’re looking to strike it rich (keep on heading West, young man); maybe you’re looking for a place to call your own; maybe you’re just fed up with South Carolina, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the land, the country, the pure freedom you’re seeking is out there waiting for you – all you have to do is claim it as your own.

Once you’ve found a nice little place, you do a little scouting around – “Nobody here but us Injuns” – and BOOM! - You’re a landowner. You have a few pigs that made the trip with you, so you setup a pigpen and begin to raise hogs. Your horse changes from a vehicle to a machine once you hook up the plow to raise crops. You hunt a seemingly endless supply of deer in the nearby forest; your family has plenty to eat. You even have time to take up woodworking, creating many beautiful pieces of furniture for your wonderful log home. You have fresh water from the stream that runs into a small lake on the north side of your land. At night, the stars shine like God intended while the crickets and the bullfrogs play their music across the night sky. All is right with the world.

Now flash forward a few hundred years. That same piece of land that was the bedrock of this family’s new life is now a strip mall featuring a $1.99 dry cleaner, a former Jazzercise club that is available to lease, and a Little Caesar’s (Pizza, Pizza). The lake was drained and filled with dirt back in the 1920’s when a factory that made Model T’s was built on the site; the river is so polluted by runoff from the paint factory that closed down in 1978 that no animals can survive in it; the forest was cut down back in the late 1940’s to make room for the cheap, generic houses that turned into the “suburbs”, populated by fresh-faced G.I.’s home from the war; the deer were run out and hunted down before anyone understood the idea of conservation; if you squint through the smog and try to block out as much light from the 24-hour Schnuck’s parking lot as possible, you can almost make out the Big Dipper; there might still be crickets playing their music, but over the constant dull rumble of I-70 and your next-door neighbor playing “The Real Slim Shady” at full blast at all hours of the night, you can’t be too sure. And all is right with the world?

Here’s your word for today, the 225 year and one week anniversary of our nation’s declaration of independence:

weltschmerz \VELT-shmairts\ (noun)

1 : a mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world to an ideal state

Am I comparing today’s America to an America that never actually existed? Did that sharecropper from South Carolina immediately cut down all the trees, kill all the deer, fill in the lake, and pave over everything, hoping to be the first dry cleaner in the world to offer his services at $1.99? I’d like to think that maybe he did, because that would make it much easier to see what’s become of his land and ours.

With this self-inflicted delusion in mind, America’s history takes on a much brighter spin! Maybe concrete was a natural phenomenon in early America, maybe entire states were covered with the stuff until some guys came in with jackhammers, broke it up and planted trees! Louis and Clark went exploring, but they were just scouting new locations for Pizza Hut franchises. Perhaps Daniel Boone was looking for a good place to get his photos developed and luckily he discovered a land where there were Walgreen’s on every corner. And they say it was a Gold Rush that led so many people to California, but I think it was really the allure of the billboard farms; yeah, the billboard crops were so thick you couldn’t even see the mountains through the huge signs that read “Abercrombie and Fitch” or “All Sears tires on sale - 4 for $179!”. Man, I’m so good at being a spin-doctor; I should be in politics or advertising (what’s the difference anymore anyway?)!

It’s very comforting to think that maybe our freedom hasn’t been lost. Maybe there are still places in this country where a man can stake his claim and live life without interference from outside forces. Perhaps some of the land is still untouched, and not just because they’re waiting for the condos to go in sometime in fourth quarter 2003. But what if none of this is true? What if everything is owned? What if there is no more room for a man to make his own path? What if all the paths have been taken? What then?

You get the America of 2001; a country of men and women who have lost hope, because in their eyes everything has already been done and someone owns everything already. When a people lose hope for a better future, you see them only caring about themselves. They want to feel better about their situation and the easiest way to do so is to feel superior to those around them. Since they can’t go out and change the world anymore, they buy things – luxuries that someone else can’t buy, things that advertising has told them will make their life better. However, they soon find a never-ending cycle they cannot possibly live within. During the 80’s it was BMW; the 90’s had SUV’s; in a few years it will be electric cars, maybe. There’s no end to your madness if you want to be trendier than your fellow man; and when people can’t afford to stay on top, they become angered, embittered, and depressed. They spend all their free time watching television, finding solace in the lives of people who do not exist or they find unimportant social issues they must fight against to somehow justify their existence. Sound familiar?

So what does this leave us with? A land who’s people exist only to outdo their neighbors, not to help them; a people who’s faith is in their television, not their fellow man; a people who are dying from the diseases called apathy and cynicism.

“Cynicism!? You better take a look in the mirror, Son, cause that’s all you’re preachin’.” Despite the cynicism I’ve expressed today, I do have faith; faith in people, not in companies; faith that the stars will still be shining, even though the parking lot is making them hard to see tonight; faith that tomorrow can be better than today. I have an ideal state that does not exist, but I believe can exist if we, as a nation want it to.

Sadly, one thing I don’t have faith in is that Americans want to change things. Why bother to look up from my Palm Pilots to see what’s going on around me? Why detach the cell phone from my ear long enough to listen? Why should I? I have my brand new, $100 Tommy Hilfiger Jeans on, my fly new Nike shoes are tied up, my beeper keeps blowing up, and there’s a new episode of Alley McBeal on tonight – everything is going just fine in my world. Is that so?

Right now in North Carolina, the state Supreme Court is making a decision on whether or not DCFS agents can enter a house without the owners’ consent; interview the kids without the parents’ consent or even presence; and possibly take away the kids from their family – all based upon someone in the public filing a complaint, with little to no evidence backing up the complaint, that those children MIGHT be abused.

Some people think the government should regulate the content of movies, art, literature or music, because they think telling their kids “no you can’t watch that” makes them a bad parent.

Many people believe that if you take guns away from law-abiding citizens, that somehow criminals will no longer have guns.

Everyday, Americans’ right to the pursuit of happiness is being demolished by those who that it will somehow corrupt the entire nation if Bob and Gary or Anne and Susie love each other.

Our schools are becoming prisons as children are subjected to “zero tolerance” rules that take away freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press.

We need to ban dodge ball so the kids who are less athletic won’t feel like they’re being picked on; you can’t play duck-duck-goose because the unpopular kids never get to be “the goose”; you can’t single-out kids to be on an all-star team because then those who didn’t get picked won’t feel like winners; you can’t choose a valedictorian of the graduating class because it’s unfair to the kid who finished dead last. Just wait until the kids of today grow up and aren’t treated with the utmost respect and admiration by everyone they come in contact with. Ok, maybe it is a good idea to ban guns before they get their hands on them.

Straight-laced, non-rhythm-havin’, woman-hatin’, golf-playin’, still-sayin’-“Getting’ Jiggy With It”, higer- paid, can’t-dance’, uncool, unhip, should-be-embarrassed-of-the-color-of-his-skin-and-his-family-heritage, White Devil Honkey Redneck Crackers and their stereotypical, oppressive mindset are the number one cause of the problems of minorities in this country – not drugs, alcohol, materialism, the welfare system, crime, single-parent homes, or their “leaders” constantly reminding them that they are all victims of a massive conspiracy perpetrated by every white guy in the world, even if he’s just as poor as they are.

A place where both parents have to work so they can afford the Ford Explorer with the Limited Edition Eddie Bauer Outdoor Package, but they both miss their sons’ little league baseball game and they’ve never met even one of their daughter’s high school teachers.

The nation’s children have more buying power than ever because their parents think that giving them money or buying them what they want will prevent them from shooting up their classmates. Little do they know they could save a lot of money, possibly enough to not have to work overtime, if they would just spend some time with their kids.

People know more about the characters on Dawson’s Creek than they do their own neighbors.

These problems will strip Americans of everything that at one time made this country great. Our basic rights and freedoms, as laid down in the Constitution, are beginning to look more like the rules written at Animal Farm; changing with the desires of a nation who has given up hope. And this is from a book that was supposed to be a criticism on communism.

The thing that pisses me off the most about our country and the things I've mentioned as going horribly wrong, is that I have no idea how to change them. Protesting doesn't do any good. Some would say I could make a difference with my right to vote, but when all you're doing is voting for the candidate that you believe is the least corrupt, you're not making a difference. The only way to do anything is is to somehow bring about a change in people's mindsets; but we run into the same problems as before - people are too content with their lives to want anything to change. Can we do anything or is this like bringing a squirt gun to a forest fire? Are we too late? I hope not.

America is not what it was supposed to be. America is not what it used to be. America is what it is. This experiment that our forefathers began 225 years ago, has developed into an uncontrollable monster that would make Mary Shelley proud. And someday this beast will hunt us down, screaming our names as it stalks us across the icy, barren tundra that was once the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, but is now the final resting place of the American Dream. Until such time when the monster has defeated us and we are able to start over again.

Space Monkey