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 ‘Surely Some Revelation Is at Hand’Posted on Jan 11, 2011
David Sirota calls this Steve Almond essay the best take he’s seen on the Giffords shooting and it’s hard to disagree. “What happens when a large and well-armed portion of our citizenry can no longer apologize?” Almond asks. “When humility becomes another form of humiliation? Their heroes exhort them: Never retreat. Reload.” We won’t ruin the essay by summarizing it. Just go read the damned thing.
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By Sir2You, January 12, 2011 at 10:51 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
It saddens me to realize there is no conspiracy, there is no attempt at deception on your part. You really truly think you are being rational. Now, you have the ‘constitutional’ right to spew bile out of your mouth, but do not be surprised when others avoid you, except for those who also vomit bile. You simply stink. And we do not wish to be partakers of your vomit. Someone famous once said ‘Those in their twenties who are not liberal, do not have half a heart. Those who are not conservative in their forties, do not have half a brain. How old are you?
Report thisBy Leefeller, January 12, 2011 at 4:04 pm Link to this comment
Steve Almonds essay provides an enlightened freshness, sadly most of those who would really need to understand the premise, may not be capable.
Very powerful essay, finally someone focusing those cross hairs on the correct target. (sorry about that, the drivel made me do it)!
Report thisBy David, January 12, 2011 at 3:47 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
William Pitts has every right to spew his vitriol and lies. I have every right to ignore it. Even his stupid statement about the ‘gold scam’ on Becks’ show. Did you know that gold has gone up every year for a decade? Due for a ‘correction’, obviously, but much better than cash, or even the Dow. Just because you speak with fancy words, and well structured sentences, does not a scholar or genius you make. He is still an idiot.
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, January 12, 2011 at 3:12 pm Link to this comment
PatrickHenry, January 12 at 2:18 pm Link to this comment
“Never retreat, reload”. What an assinine statement.
Sun Tsu, Palin is not.
**********************
Absolutely! Sun-Tsu taught that you should never engage in a battle you haven’t already won. George Washington always beat a retreat when he was losing, on the grounds that he could cede anything as long as he didn’t lose his army.
Report thisBy rjf7r, January 12, 2011 at 9:21 am Link to this comment
A great essay! However, I am not convinced, after his quote of an historian’s description of “fascism”, that Almond is right to say “America is not a fascist state. We still enforce ethical and legal restraints on our population.” Yes, but do we enforce them on our government, or on our corporation? I’m quite sure that even in the depths of Nazism they still enforced the laws of civil society on ordinary people in ordinary situations—even while their government—and their corporations—did the unspeakable.
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, January 12, 2011 at 8:18 am Link to this comment
“Never retreat, reload”. What an assinine statement.
Sun Tsu, Palin is not.
Report thisBy ardee, January 12, 2011 at 7:12 am Link to this comment
Peetawonkus, January 11 at 8:16 pm Link to this comment
ardee,
“Seeking blame, tieing this act to the horrific acts of violence committed around the world daily, to the need for more stringent gun control, less vituperative political discourse, more humanity and charity in general somehow, I think, diminishes the tragic deaths and, at the same time, makes more of them than seems logical.”
Really?
Yes, really…astute political repartee you offer….NOT.
Report thisBy rollzone, January 11, 2011 at 4:35 pm Link to this comment
hello. we like killing people. we have mastered the
Report thistaming of the environment, but within our savage
survival gene remains the killing pleasure. our kill
desire is artificially fulfilled through media, but
every so often someone can not be satisfied by
artificial simulations- and death must occur
firsthand. we license our children in the armed
forces, we continue them in roles of authority, and
ultimately we all want to execute murderers. if we
could, we would all be killing each other, and to the
victor the spoils. it is a revelation that we have
survived together this long.
By Peetawonkus, January 11, 2011 at 2:16 pm Link to this comment
ardee,
“Seeking blame, tieing this act to the horrific acts of violence committed around the world daily, to the need for more stringent gun control, less vituperative political discourse, more humanity and charity in general somehow, I think, diminishes the tragic deaths and, at the same time, makes more of them than seems logical.”
Really?
Report thisBy gerard, January 11, 2011 at 1:15 pm Link to this comment
One Revelation that might be at hand is that not only words are important, but how words are used—that is, the spirit behind the words—whether what is said ratchets up hatred on all sides by leaning on rage and resentment or whether it presents compassionate, fair-minded, accurate and creative solutions to problems and encourages unity and understanding. In this respect Pitt is no model, either. His essay is too full of blame and anger to be truly helpful.
Report thisBy gerard, January 11, 2011 at 1:15 pm Link to this comment
One Revelation that might be at hand is that not only words are important, but how words are used—that is, the spirit behind the words—whether what is said ratchets up hatred on all sides by leaning on rage and resentment or whether it presents compassionate, fair-minded, accurate and creative solutions to problems and encourages unity and understanding. In this respect Pitt is no model, either. His essay is too full of blame and anger to be truly helpful.
Report thisBy mississippi, January 11, 2011 at 12:27 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
wow, a 20 second wiki-search of w.b. yeats and you have
Report thishim totally figured out.
By JJW, January 11, 2011 at 11:38 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Much attention and commentary about the violence in Arizona. I weep.
Yet silence on two wars. As if people of other nations are not humans too. As if the life of a nine year old child in Iraq or Afghanistan is nothing and can be stolen without consideration, regret, or remorse.
How we deceive ourselves into thinking these wars are justified and/or not our responsibility.
Report thisBy Queenie, January 11, 2011 at 10:52 am Link to this comment
To Ray Duray:
Thank you, thank you! Yes, William Rivers Pitt’s piece is far superior to anything I have read. I read it and printed it out to re-read and share. He nails it!
Report thisBy Jim Yell, January 11, 2011 at 10:04 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Clearly we need reasonable gun control regulations. We tried a culture in the 19th century where weapons were more common than toothpicks and the result were huge numbers of un-necessary deaths and injuries. That is why even then Sheriffs disarmed visitors to towns in effort to cut down on the impulsive murders that were common amongst hard drinking and physically aggressive males.
The real control of weapons though are the attitudes and opinions of society as a whole. If we don’t make clear our disapproval than we validate the use of violence.
On a national level we have completely surrendered to violence as a device to get what we want, or more correctly what corporate America wants, an excuse to cheat people out of their resources at the cheapest possible rate and to create a reason for the country to spend excessive amounts of money for weapons and research for killing, because that is where the profits huge are.
As a voter I feel that my vote has been dismissed as the President we elected has failed upon virtually every level that he promised action. I feel both the Republicans and the Democratic party no longer make much pretense of dealing with the obligations of government for the whole.
I tell you what the next election I am going to vote for a 3rd party candidate and hope that large numbers of people do the same. I don’t think the break in faith represented by the Republican and the Democratic Parties can be fixed, they must be replaced at the ballot box.
Report thisBy G.Anderson, January 11, 2011 at 9:04 am Link to this comment
Trying to make sense of the senseless, is what makes you crazy. But finding reasons
to justify our acts of inhumanity, is common place. Violence in our society is accepted, when it seems
reasonable. So searching for reasons for murders like this always becomes the way we
deal with it. Yet that’s the very same process killers use to disguise their acts of insanity.
When reasons fail, we look to blame, and when we blame our anger seems reasonable again.
People don’t want to think that they live in a world, in which they have no control, where
violent irrational acts are unpredictable. But we do, we all do. Yet, most of us, no matter
what our political beliefs, would never act violently toward others.
Violence as always is the penultimate act of a narcissist.
Report thisBy ardee, January 11, 2011 at 7:47 am Link to this comment
What to think?.....what to say?......what to do?
I am trying to put this event in its proper perspective, that it was, in my opinion, the act of a madman, not subject to rationalization, not a tool to espouse a political or social cause. Seeking blame, tieing this act to the horrific acts of violence committed around the world daily, to the need for more stringent gun control, less vituperative political discourse, more humanity and charity in general somehow, I think, diminishes the tragic deaths and, at the same time, makes more of them than seems logical.
It is certainly tragic that such acts occur all too frequently, whether in schools, churches or shopping centers, whether in Arizona or Afghanistan. But it is also sad that many use these deaths to further their own causes, regardless of the importance or even relevance of them to what occured.
I think I need time, time to process, time for the evidence to manifest, time to grieve as well.
Report thisBy Ray Duray, January 11, 2011 at 7:39 am Link to this comment
For the life of me, I can’t figure out what Sirota found to be worth reading there.
For one thing, the Almond article praises the work of W.B. Yeats, who it turns out was a Fascist sympathizer in the 1930s. Is this one of your heroes? Yeats is certainly not one of mine, no matter how clever a turn of phrase he could tap out on an Underwood.
Far more virile, alive and far more useful in my mind is this verbal assault from solid lefie William Rivers Pitt who is not granting one inch of territory to the criminally insane cheerleaders of the Far Right: http://tinyurl.com/4erp4vn
Pitt does not mince words, nor does he let the guilty off the hook.
Report this