We Are All Capable of Lying to Ourselves But At Critical Moments We are Called Upon to Be Honest

"Call me a police officer, I need to call a police officer" the man is hollering. He had been pounding on the door, trying to push rather than pull. Osama says "No! You can't use the phone. Use a public phone." He demands the phone book? "I don’t have a phone book and besides if you want to call the police just dial 911." He wants Osama to show him the phone. "I can’t see any phone." He is standing next to the phone. Finally he spots the phone. He quiets down. He makes his phone call. He sits down in front of the café near the phone. All third party phones are required to provide 911 access. He is accosted by two street people who he proceeds to he chase off, street people are very territorial. He returns and is shouting at Osama again. Osama orders him out again. "It won’t do you any good," he tells Osama. "You can’t get me for trespassing this time for I have called the cops myself." "I don’t want you in here," Osama says and orders him out again. He retreats and is pacing back and forth in the intersection then tries to get back inside the café again and is evicted again.

We did not hope, nor did we expect, to be integrated into the prevailing system of economic, political, and cultural power – Stanley Aronowitz – The Knowledge Factory, 2000 p.xvi

David says, "if I miss a day I get cranky. Do you find that you do too?" "I don’t miss a day or at least I haven’t since December," I say. "I always at least write the date and place and have never failed to write at least one page in my notebook. It would be unimaginable to have missed a whole day." He is trying to write a screenplay about Emperor Norton but lacks a source of conflict. I then headed to the Abir and asked for a Prohibition Ale but it came out looking like very week piss and the barmaid said, "This is not beer."  I had a Fat Tire instead. The cash register goes beep when button for beer is pushed and the shift supervisor says this is happy hour and the price goes down  by fifty cents. Hurrah for happy hour.

Acts of love, because they are unattached to the world of commodities are radical propositions – Zadie Smith – Changing My Mind, 2009h p206

The public good

            Is a private grief

While a private

            Good is merely greed

The financial leaders of America and their political servants have seemingly reached the cynical conclusion that our society is not worth saving and have taken on a new mission that involves not creating wealth for all, but simply absconding with whatever wealth remains – Matt Taibbi –Griffopia

Biblical Capitalism: the belief that unregulated capitalism is biblically mandated

One of the greatest authenticity dreams of the avant-garde is this possibility of becoming criminal – Zadie Smith – Changing My Mind, 2009 p94

It is not a revolution until a revolution becomes revolutionary. It is not a revolution if it stops short of being a revolution.

You can take the ruling class by surprise every few decades, and the ruling class duly spends the next few decades making sure it doesn’t happen again – Alexander Cockburn – The Nation 12/17/10 p9

It said SAVE THIS AD

            So I did

I came across it

            Yesterday

Yellow and crumbly

I still have

            It

If I can’t use it

            Someone else

            Might

It is for tires

I don’t have

            A car anymore

But I know someone

            Who does

Someone has to push the rubble / to the side of the road, / So the corpse ridden wagon / can pass. –Wislawa Szymborska

At critical points in history we need to become intolerant of our own lies

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue… Intellectually it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield – George Orwell – In Front of Your Nose