You can quote me on that...Life imitates Art Edition

Art often imitates life because what better muse is there than the pain and prosper that is life itself? What is disheartening and inspiring is that authors from about 25 years ago up to hundreds of years past still prophetically speak to the ills and joys of life as it relates to today. Does this represent past authors pinpointing some fundamental predisposition inherent in all humans, those to come and those present? Maybe. Does it mean that no matter what has happened, how many items have been destroyed, how much carnage is amassed that humans are forever fated to continually make the same mistakes? Probably. But, when we finally destroy ourselves(i hope I'm looking down, not looking on) I truly hope that the quotes and contexts shown below, as well as many other nuggets of wisdom from authors past, survive as our epitaph so when that amoeba decides to evolve and start this whole process over again, man will look back at the legacy from today and heed our inadvertent warning. But, alas probably not...

"Woe to the inhabitants on Earth! that now, While time was, our first parents had been warned"
-John Milton "Paradise Lost"-1667( the gas crunch, the cries for moral legislation, the rampant drug use. Hey, just because you call yours Prozac and a junkie calls his LSD doesn't make you two any different. Remind you of the seventies? We just love to repeat history, don't we? On that note...)

"We were a demonstration of abnormal psychology...That was when we should have packed up our things and gotten out of there...We were worst than dishonest. We were ridiculous...'Dad, I think we better get out of here. We made a mistake'...He said, 'we certainly weren't going to go home with out tails between our legs.’ Vietnam!"
-Kurt Vonnegut "Hocus Pocus"-1990(OK, so this isn't exactly "25 years ago up to hundreds of years past" but I thought it was a perfect example of history repeating itself. This was written before the first Gulf war and the New Millennium Equivalent to Vietnam and was probably meant to warn against the mindset that led to and perpetuated the Vietnam war. However, like the loading dock scene in the movie “The Mist”, no one listens to the Artist.)

"Big Brother is watching you"

-George Orwell "1984"-1948(Given that Orwell wrote 1984 about Stalinism and its namesake's treatment of Russian Socialists, I am not going to be so hard on the soon-to-be-former-chief executive who shall remain nameless's administration. Call him dumb, call him redneck, call him anything but the SOB is better than Stalin. I know that's like saying I would rather be stabbed in the arm than shot in the stomach, but hey. Even though Orwell's novel is hyperbolic not prophetic(God I really hope that's true), there is a correlation between the Gov't's habit of listening to our phone calls, peeping what books we check out of the library, scanning emails for buzzwords and "Big Brother's" creation of telescreens and its other methods of monitoring the people of Oceania...

Even though Orwell's novel is hyperbolic and hopefully not prophetic, there is a correlation between the Gov't's habit of making words and phrases taboo and Big Brother's act of changing or deleting words from the lexicon. Like liberal. How in the hell can you make the word liberal out to be bad. A word that means generous, a connotation that means caring...That is some slick shit, I tell you. Comparing this administration to "Big Brother" may be a bit overzealous and cheapens "1984" a little bit, but you gotta admit there are some similarities...)

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing"

-William Shakespeare "Macbeth"1603-(I know I touched on this in the last LL post but I had to put this one up here. It was the impetus for this whole post. What in the hell is going on at the airport. Let's not even talk about the Chapter 11's in the airline industry or how its quite apparent that the major airlines could give a good shit about our comfort, but let's talk about the "security". Why do I have to take off my got damn shoes? I know i have a foot odor problem but it still doesn't make any sense. Don't we have metal detectors? Why can't I walk through with my damn shoes on? I used to blame that ugly arse shoe bomber but its been like 3 yrs. since that incident and no change in the shoe shit. OK, that was just venting...

I assume all of this is because of 9/11. Its crazy that the cause of all this was a bunch of pissed off, ball-heavy terrorists. They didn't sneak a bomb on the damn plane. They Hijacked it with box cutters. All the signs were there, people. They went to flight school but didn't care about learning to land...For Christ's Sake, half of them didn't even have sufficient paper work to be Americans. They didn't give a shit. They knew how lazy we were and that we would pass right over them. I say that to say that if we really had our shit tight, they would have been deported before 9/11 because they didn't have the right documentation. We didn't check. We didn't ask. The funny thing is that the immigration debate never brings this up(that's how i know its more about taxation than security). The airline security doesn't get paid enough to check 110% all the time, barely even enough for 85%. They don't give shit either. What the hell does showing my ID 4 fucking times have to do with airline security? I guess a terrorist can't get a fake ID, huh...

It is merely a deterrent not security. There's a difference. It wouldn't get me so incensed if this were highway speeding or shoplifting we were trying to deter, but this is national fucking security here, man. Can't we get some profile specialists, some body language analysts, some highly trained guys/gals with AK'S waiting for shit to pop off? Now, THAT'S security. What we have now’s not security just an inconvenience. Sound and fury; signifying nothing. IRAQ!)

"...That is [the] premise This story will draw a conclusion from it and show at the same time that the premise is incorrect. That will be a new thing in logic."
-O. Henry "A Service of Love"-1912(A nice one for the whole "War for Oil" sentiment some seem to have. This premise tells us that if we go to War in Iraq, recipient, by genetic and logistic fortuity, of 1/5 of the world's oil reserve, we will ease the price of gas, oil's derivative. Now, that is our premise: acquisition of commodity by force. The conclusion: No one will win this war. It is evil and strains resources that could be put to better use. Using myriad vital resources to acquire one. Uh-huh. However, you and I know gas prices are 4 bones per gallon now( I like the correlation with “4 bones” and a fossil fuel). I started driving almost ten years ago between the first Gulf conflict and the present one. Gas was 99 cents. But, this war's going to keep gas affordable. Uh-huh. Guess that's that "new thing in logic")

"One ever feels his twoness-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. "

-W.E.B DuBois "The Souls of Black Folk"-1903(We had to read this for summer reading at NCAT's(AGGIE PRIDE!!!) Honors Program. What pissed me off the most about that book was the book's a HUNDRED YEARS OLD and the same nonsense is still going on. If you ever had the glorious pleasure or genetic misadventure of being black in America, YOU know exactly what Mr. DuBois is talking about. Dead On!)

"O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!

O brave new world

That has such people in’t!"

-William Shakespeare "The Tempest"-1623 (this pretty much sums up the love and caring we humans are capable of when we want to try. Take Katrina for example. There were people where I lived -Stamford, CT-that were taking time off work to drive supplies down to N.O. Not to mention how this describes our firefighters, policemen, teachers, soldiers, and etc. sacrificing everyday to make life a little better for all. Indeed, how beauteous mankind is...or can be)

Bruce Eagle the Full Metal. Peace!!!