BERGMAN ON THE INFANTILE IN THE ARTIST

“Like all other children, it seems to me I remember deciding to go out into the forest and lie there and pretend to be dead until everyone was sorry. Everyone knows that all their lives artists—particularly if they’re the sort that function as I do—retain a strongly infantile streak; or, to put it better, the creative streak is so deeply tied up with a sort of infantility, or a leftover of the child’s attitude to the world about him, that the artist also retains a lot of marginal behavior traits.” (Bergman on Bergman, p. 83)


WHO’S THE REAL GIRLY-MAN?

Arnold Schwartzensomething has a lot of nerve calling other real men, “girly-men”. This oiled up, perfumed, curly-haired little big man who wants all other males to look at and admire his body had better stare into his own mirror. Who is more narcissistic than a body builder? What type of man is more body obsessed than a female cover girl model than a body builder? What kind of male is so sissified inside that he has to build up a huge exterior to cover up that sissy side? Remember the guy on the beach who always got sand kicked in his face until he built his body up to hide the little guy on the beach inside? I think the real girly-man is Arnold Schwartenyoumaycallit himself. And, you all know, if a man’s got to tell you he’s a real man by putting down your manhood, we know what that means, don’t we?


FROM BERGMAN TO SCHWATRZENEGER TO DENNETT: or
FROM GREAT ARTIST TO DUMBBELL TO INTELLIGENT

Dennett (the last of him for awhile) in Freedom Evolves (p. 287) summarizes threats to freedom. “The real threats to freedom are not metaphysical but political and social. As we learn more about the conditions of human decision-making, we will have to devise, and agree upon, systems of government and law that are not hostage to false myths about human nature, that are robust in the face of further scientific discovery and technological advances. Are we freer than we want to be? We now have more power than ever to create the conditions under which we and our descendants will lead our lives.”

Dennett is onto the real thing for humankind. We must develop a value system that is based on real men and real women and on how their biology ticks and not on a value system based upon some pie in the sky hypothetical superbeing's mumblings about this and that coming from four or so millenia ago.


YOUR BIG REPUBLICAN BROTHER IS WATCHING

You think we don’t live in a fascist state yet? Well, don’t hold your breath. What are we to make of Republican efforts that smack of Nazi dirty tricks to suppress and intimidate voters all across this land?(Read it.)

In Florida, Republicans tried to remove Democratic voters from he rolls by insinuating they were criminals. Republicans in Kentucky intend to send “poll watchers” to harass voters by pretending to check into voting credentials of black voters. Who gave them this right and duty? In other places, Republicans have sent out false fliers about times and places of elections to confuse Democrat voters. A Republican in Michigan spoke of the need to “ ‘suppress the Detroit vote’. Detroit is 83 percent black.” In South Dakota, Native Americans were turned away from the polls in a special election by Republicans who demanded they have picture ID.

Let me tell you, these Republicans are nasty and dirty street fighters without a shred of democracy running throught their veins. Real intelligence like Kerry's won't make the grade. We'll have to get as fascist as Republicans are before we'll retake American democracy and put it back on the right track. (This information is from a longer report by Jo Becker, Washington Post, as it appeared in the Spokesman Review, Thursday August 26, 2004.)
___________________________________________________

"Only the mediocre are always at their best." —Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944)