AN OLD BEATNICK MEETS GEORGE BUSH IN A TAVERN

Finally watched The Butler last night. Spent a large part of the movie in tears. All the pain that finally buried this "very sensitive" child under alcohol abuse came back last night. The interesting thing to me is how "conservative" I was as child and youth, in that I believed all the myths about America. After WWII, I really believed all the things about America's greatness, its love of freedom and justice and free speech. What the 50s and 60s taught me, finally and painfully, was that the American people were no better or worse than any other nation of people. 

Unrealistic "idealism" is what tortures modern conservatives also. They cling to the past, and they believe all the nonsense they were taught as children. They can't see modern America in a real light, and they are incapable of seeing the "injustices" created by free enterprise or capitalism. I do believe that capitalism is the best method for distributing a nation's wealth as long as the distance between those most and least rewarded does not grow too great. Which it has. 

Sadly, modern Teapublicans can't help "blaming" others for being poor because conservatives cling to the myth of "free will", thus it's easy for them to blame others and to praise themselves. They are controlled by evolutionary forces just as much as the less fortunate are controlled by genes and nurture. Those who succeed usually have a "sense of entitlement". The sense of entitlement describes a psychological or electrochemical state in the brain/body that leads to success. Their "psychological state" is a cause of success rather than an effect of success, and a grown Teapublican can no more take credit for that psychological state of being than a honeybee can take credit for being the queen of the hive. 

This film explores the difference

In my own case, I was driven by pain to try and understand who I was and what made me into the person I was. Success became secondary to that struggle. I was tortured by insecurity and shame. Until I reached the bottom of my personal struggle, trying to escape my worker bee status was next to impossible. It was like trying to climb up a hill of marbles. By the time I did understand the forces that drove me, I was in my 50s, a late start in the rush to earn fame and fortune in the free enterprise system. If only Teapublicans understood their fortunate electrochemical inheritance and quit "being proud" of themselves, we'd have quite a different nation to live in. 

Pardon my length, but simple-mindedness is not one of my strongly evolved characteristics. Complexity of thought comes with the territory of self-understanding. Thus, I am not George Bush and he is not me. Back in the day, however, I'm sure we'd have enjoyed drinking a beer together had we known each other. I enjoyed the company of many a young George Bush in the taverns where I "bought my alcoholism" one drink at a time.

FEATHERED SHAFT OF BEATNICK OLDSTER PUNCTURES A DUCK'S BREAST

Today I took my hour walkabout in the nearby Fred Meyer store (recently purchased by Kroger). When I emerged, the clouds had flown the sky, and, unfortunately, I missed a chance to take my walk on a decently warm winter's day.

My real topic, however, is a sadder theme. At one corner of Freddy's, I several times passed the angry face of Phil Duck, glaring from a pillow no compassionate woman would want to lay her cheek upon, and I realized for the zillionth time how sad the face of the average (not all) faith-ridden Southern male is. He can display only various shades of two faces: an angry face and the sarcastic smile which is all the humor an embittered Southern male can manage. Just study the faces and listen to the quips of the Duck Billed Robertson family. It's so obvious, it's a wonder not more are wise to the ducktails they use as mouths.

Their foul temperament comes from two sources. Their forefathers lost a war and they still can't get over it, and they are the victims of a religion which encourges the average (not all) father to lay freely about himself with a rod upon the shoulders and backsides of his average child so as not to spoil him. From such an unspoiled philosophy, the average (not all) Southern Bible Bibber is left with bitterness and sarcasm as his two responses to a world he did not make and cannot accept. If that isn't a sad tale, I don't know one when I see it. 

The story I linked to above (see Phil Duck) claims that their ducky show sports 8.6 million viewers. If you'll notice that number is close to the numbers that old time German, Rush Limbaugh, used to claim and Fox News still claims. All three claim the same sad number of embittered, out of touch Americans. A very sad, small, unchanging number indeed.