Saturday, June 9, 2007

Interlude?

I’ve been mulling over a post for VIEW FROM THE MOON for several days, unsure why I haven’t written anything. For awhile I was asking, “What’s the use?” Maybe I’ll take Cindy Sheehan’s cue. Maybe I’ll just say, “The show is cancelled because of lack of interest.”

I picture those who look at this blog as falling into three groups: 1. A small group who agree with me on Zionism and other things, and who probably know more about them than I do, and who can read the same opinions a thousandfold on other websites. 2. A small group who regularly scan the Internet for anti-Zionist and “anti-Semitic” opinions and leave canned comments lifted from “talking points” distributed by the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center – lifted verbatim, spelling mistakes and all. 3. A very large proportion, a huge proportion, who have no idea what I’m talking about and couldn’t care less. To the latter crowd belong those who think that Iraq attacked the United States in New York, who believe that some nations are “evil” and some “good”, who have absorbed two generations of teachings that Arabs are sinister and cruel while Jews are noble victims, and who have no idea where Palestine and Israel and Iraq and Iran are, much less what Zionism is or how Israel came into being. If I could believe that VIEW FROM THE MOON had influenced even one of this latter group to become informed and to escape the conventional thinking about American foreign policy, I would feel successful and would never consider quitting. . . but I have no reason to be that optimistic.

Viewed from the Moon, the Earth still looks beautiful. . . silent, blue, seductively veiled in swirls of white clouds. But then it always looks that way. From the Moon you can’t see the explosions in Iraq or Palestine. You can’t hear the tortured screams of prisoners of the Americans and Israelis. If you had just arrived on the Moon, in fact, you would have the impression that you were looking across black space at a luminous cosmic paradise.

Paradise lost, perhaps, but not because of a heavenly Old Testament disciplinarian. Paradise lost, rather, because of the nature of humankind and its inability to organize itself so that its most wise, kind, generous and peaceful members are in charge of its nations. When the Earth is viewed from the Earth, where for the most part the greedy and selfish and brutal rule, the peaceful lunar view seems a sad mockery.

And yet lately Americans (those few paying any attention) could get the impression that we are going through a slight lull in the steady rise of violence and insanity. Here are some of the positive events that have created this intermezzo:

1. Neocon Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief Iraq war criminals, booted out by the World Bank because of brazen misconduct and incompetence as President of the bank.

2. I. Lewis Libby, Wolfowitz’ protégé and co-planner of wars in the Middle East, given a reasonably hefty prison sentence for his crimes, although for some reason still walking around a free man.

3. Representatives of the United States sitting down and talking with Iranian representatives in the first public diplomatic discussions between the two nations in many years. This accompanied by a decrease in American anti-Iranian oratory and in what were almost daily Israeli threats to bomb Iran.

4. Some signs that even Republicans are finally starting to join in pressuring Bush to do something about ending (or at least altering) the American military presence in Iraq.

5. An increase in lip service to curbing global warming.

6. An upset tummy for G.W. Bush which kept him from embarrassing the United States overseas for at least a few hours.

7. That great American national icon (who may replace the Statue of Liberty as the symbol of American ideals and aspirations), Paris Hilton, put into jail for a series of flagrant violations of law, then let out by a strangely compassionate sheriff, and then put back again. Which of that is positive news and which is negative news depends on whether you are Paris Hilton or almost everybody else, but in general it gives the impression that justice is being done, or at least attempted, in a country where there is a blatant double system of incarceration for the rich and famous on the one hand everybody else on the other hand.


Of course I know that there have been negative as well as soothing developments in the past couple of weeks, and that the sewer of horrors gushes unabated in occupied Palestine and Iraq and Afghanistan. I know that those who scheme for war have not stopped their scheming, and that any apparent improvements in U.S. policies will probably prove illusory and shortlived. Nevertheless, being able to write a few positive things has provided a pleasant interlude.

5 comments:

Davoh said...

"..and who can read the same opinions a thousandfold on other websites. 2. A small group who regularly scan the Internet"

A problem that besets everyone in those categories, Fleming.

I can't, actually, offer much assistance or advice .. but whatever you write is valuable to one person, at the least.

Anonymous said...

The think MOON has a future, I enjoy it. If you check your stats you have had 2335 visitors and somthing like 3500 page views. You are averaging 90 a week, excellent for being on the net a few months. I don't see an amount of comments that matches that volume of visits but you probably hit the nail on the head when you wrote about the few that are loyal readers. Stick with it Fleming!

Nabila Harb said...

In the realm of political journalism or activism, one must continue to publish the facts, irrespective of the size of the audience. Whether readership is one or one million, what matters most is determination to show the world that unjust policies always will be challenged. Any one who speaks out against U.S./Zionist foreign policies is 'a thorn in the throat of the oppressor'.

Fleming said...

Thanks for the encouragement, all. I needed it.

Nabila, your words and their truth bring to mind something I was thinking earlier this morning.

It occurred to me that in this universe of multi-millions of blogs, where one person's contribution seems ridiculously ineffectual -- like a little pebble thrown into a large bay -- there is a more encouraging way to look at it: If each of us blogging against U.S./Zionist policies reaches even ten readers, a thousand of us collectively are reaching 10,000 people, which is significant . . . and as 10,000 pebbles strike the bay the circles of influence may spread.

You've made me feel better!

Fleming said...

To continue my previous comment after applying my primitive mathematical skills, I can now be even more encouraging.

Although each of us may have only 10 repeat readers in a given month, people come and go, and so each of us may reach a total of 100 readers in the course of a year. . . which is a cumulative total of 100,000 for 1000 bloggers.
Hooray!