Free the Internet and Don't Hope for Change at the Inaugural BalI

Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle

Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan

This weekend events will highlight two Americas who cohabit in a state of mutual, smoldering conflict, like an unhappy marriage, and a third America of creative destruction arising out of the ashes of its parent's culture wars. In Washington Sunday, Democrats will hold a lavish, corporate sponsored bash in the time honored tradition of second inaugurations. Obama will party hardy, making peace with the way business gets done in the capital of squeaky-wheel America, but in the process putting the kibosh to hope and change as a rhetorical flourish.

Earlier today, gun-loving, camouflage wearing so-called "patriots" marched on state capitols across the country to show their disfavor with the president's forthcoming gun-control measures. Riding tractors and brandishing their machine guns, they came to make war, not peace, at least by waving signs and looking fierce.
Both of these weekend entertainments are more about style, tribal affiliation and cultural alignment than substance. Both events feature a fair share of over-the-hill types flaunting their prowess and waving things around in inappropriate ways. And both Obama's inauguration and the gun rallies will be followed by a day honoring a man whose sacrifice and commitment to non-violent principles makes us all pull up our socks and try a little harder to live up to our best lights. 

The interesting development is the celebration this weekend also marking the advent of a third America, a young person's America that is in the process of upending the first two. This tribe had a first anniversary, a year since wide-spread internet protests shut down an effort in Congress to pass bills protecting against copyright infringements in January 2012. Proponents of internet freedom now have their own cultural icon as well in the figure of Adam Swartz, who committed suicide this week while facing prosecution for illegally downloading and sharing files owned by MIT on the internet. The views Swartz and other internet activists espouse are controversial and go to the heart of assumptions about what human nature consists of. So do the principles of non-violent resistance. But a distrust of government motives is something this new wave group has in common with conspiracy mad NRA supporters. Is there a political realignment in our future? Keep tuned for which way the wind blows.

Sleepwalking to Nowhere

This morning the alarm went off even though it shouldn't have. That kind of thing used to really bother me, but not so much any more. Getting up in the dark when I could have easily slept for another hour. There must be a purpose for those twists and turns of fate besides giving me an extra hour to write. Maybe more than anyone ever imagined. I'm reading a book, Parallel Worlds, A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku. It's a fascinating narrative of recent developments in cosmology and physical science, something about which I've always been somewhat curious, but had little to no grasp of. One of the new theories coming out of the quantum revolution in physics is one about alternative universes that arise every time there are choices to be made, sort of like Schrodinger's Cat who is alive and dead at the same time. Too difficult to explain fully, but nevertheless it  has been a revealing way to think about where we are as a country, seemingly stuck between two alternative views of the universe, deadlocked and unable to either defecate or get off the pot. Especially given the Mayan end of time, and the beginning of a new long cycle, it seems likely to me that what we are witnessing is the dying of an old way of looking at things and the rise of a new consciousness. Certainly listening to the fumbling in the media around gun violence and who or what is to blame for the deaths in Newtown, there might be some good come out of all the soul searching, if we can seize the moment and take some step forward. The people who claim that there are no outright or easy solutions, so doing nothing is the best option, I hope they can be effectively silenced by all the outraged people who are adamant that something needs to be done. Something in this case means taking a step despite the uncertainty, choosing between two alternative views, and moving beyond the current status quo that is really a black hole leading nowhere.
The same situation holds with every major issue, from our fiscal woes to global warming to the politics of the Middle East, doing nothing is giving in to the mistakes of the past that have led us to these impasses. Moving out of the comfort zone is the only way to ensure our survival. The question remains, will we be able as a species to find a way to organize ourselves and find solutions that do not entail a world of haves and have nots, higher walls and bigger guns? That's not a reality I would want for my children and their children, but it seems increasingly likely that that is the way we are going. Like spoiled children, we don't seem able to take even the tiniest steps away from our cherished ideas and favorite toys.

We are all Adam Lanza's mother

I confess I have been silent on this issue, like many, not wanting to light the short fuse of 2nd Amendment warrior-advocates. But now the time is right, the blogosphere is lighting up, and I feel compelled to do my part to get a hold of the moment and push the collective consciousness in the direction of common sense corrections. The killings in Newtown are so horrific it must be the chance now at last for us to put a stake through the heart of yet another right wing boogie man. Along with deniers of global warming, gun control opponents stand on ideology rather than reason, with seriously lethal results. If the events of yesterday are not enough to make someone gag with horror and revulsion at the idea of automatic weapons in the hands of madmen, they either have an empathy deficit or are so good at deluding themselves with the sound of certain words that it amounts to a pathology. We have all heard the argument before that outlawing guns is not the answer to these massacres. But at least outlawing the ownership of rapid-fire pistols and assault rifles will lessen the sheer numbers of dead. As William Saletan wrote yesterday, there will always be madmen, and no country is immune from the onslaughts of socially isolated lone wolfs intent on committing suicide by mass murder. But every other country in the civilized world recognizes that easy access to combat weapons does nothing for personal security, is not something that hunters require, and only heightens the chances of lunatics trying to outdo each other in the lethality of their final evildoing.
The problem is people like Adam Lanza's mother now have bought into the allure of security that possession of Terminator caliber weaponry brings. Absurdly, toting a Glock today is like driving a Suburban was 15 years ago. It makes you feel invulnerable to the rising tide of madness when all it really does is add to the total mass of lunacy. When otherwise sober adults think that the answer to the murder yesterday of Newtown's 20 kindergarteners is training and arming elementary school principals, it is time for all of us to take a deep breath and admit that, like Pogo said, the only enemy we are facing is us.
Obama said that he intended to take meaningful steps. Let's hold his feet to the fire on this one.