Why Nationalism?
What a coincidence -- the day I'm typing this today is September 11th, 2003. No lie. Well the day was filled with red, white, and blue and flags and all that jazz. Most Amercians -- not all -- are proud to be American. However, most of these proud Americans didn't start getting proud until their country got attacked on September 11th, 2001. (The same goes for [other] wars.)
I really hate it when people just go about their day complaining about everything, not taking a minute to think about how lucky they are. But then when something big happens like a death in the family or a terrorist attack or a war or something, they get all appreciative all of a sudden. They buy all this stupid merchandise that has flags on it and stuff, which is stupid, because you're being proud of something that you weren't proud of before, and being appreciative of something when you weren't appreciative of before. It's all an act. You don't realize it, beause you have been taught at an early age to conform to this maddness -- to be sad when someone dies, to be angry when your country is attacked. Look inside yourself. You don't care. Not unless it affects you directly like if one of your relatives died in the World Trade Center or something. Most of us didn't know anyone who died there. You aren't sad. When you heard the news of that day, you were EXCITED. FACE IT. All you stupid humans want war. Lives are too boring without it. On an ordinary day, you complain about little things like a traffic jam on the free way, and how you have to get up early for work or school. Then when a war comes--bam!--it suddenly makes you realize that you have something to live for, some mystery to each day, some action. What a joke. People who don't appreciate life and how lucky they are BEFORE something tragic happens don't deserve to live. You get all sentimental about people who die, but you know, we all have to die some time, and tisn't like all the people who died were innocent. They were all cussing, sex-hungry humans, probably most of which have done drugs. EVIL. I don't see how you all can automatically feel something for people who probably deserved it. Just stop and THINK about things before you pretend to feel sorrow or anger.
If it had happened to another country, would you feel the same way? Probably not. Tis all about nationalism. Just because tis YOUR country, you get all puffy when something happens to it. Before, most people wouldn't care; Americans insult America all the time . . . or at least, they used to before the terrorist attack and the war. Some still do, but not as many as before, I reckon. Now there's all that flag merchandise. Almost everyone bought something with the American flag on it after the terrorist attack. Do you realize what a sucker you're being? Companies do this to make money off you -- putting a simple flag design on something, and making it cost a bunch. Why waste your money? I mean, you don't have to go advertising that you're an American. You're here, so you probably are. Tisn't like it matters anyway.
Nationalism is just like cheering for your state sports team to win. I hate that too. Who cares if they belong to your state or not? People get all worked up, putting bets on their team, paying so much money to watch a game live, plus the extra expenses of hotdogs and stuff. Sports teams get enough money as it is, plus the grandest spot on television, complete with all the advertisements that had enough money to pay for that slot during the game. All they do is play a GAME -- something a ten year old could do; and you give them all this attention and buy their merchandise and go to their games, putting even more money in their pockets. Nationalism is just like this. People cheer for their home team, just because it's their home team. People care about America only because it's our country . . . while most people aren't happy with the way the government is run and stuff like that. Why does everyone blindly conform like this? Don't you guys have a mind of your own? Don't you see how pointless it is? If you didn't care before, why care now? It only shows that you're only acting. You're not only fooling others, but fooling yourself.
Of course, this doesn't apply to gothics, because they're anarchists, but that's another story. . . .
Before you go, read this chain letter I got years ago. I saved it, because it made me cry and because tis so true. After reading it, can you be honestly proud of being American? Being human? Can't you see how the world is deteriorating? How wisdom and maturity are decreasing with each increase of technology? How the human race needs to end?
Forty years ago when I was a first grade school child, guns were as common as dirt. Many, if not most adult males, had a rifle or shotgun in the closet or in a rack in an unlocked truck. Many, if not most, had a 38 revolver in the nightstand drawer near their bed or in the glove box of the car. You could buy a revolver or even a 20mm antitank rifle through the mail from advertisers who placed ads in popular magazines.
There were no school yard massacres in those days.
In those days the possession of so much as a Tijuana stag film could get an adult a few days in the pokey. Booze could not be sold from after midnight Saturday until Monday morning. Stores closed up by 6 PM on every other evening, 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. No stores were open on Sunday. The vagrancy laws were enforced, as were the curfew laws for children. If you spoke a racial slur or derogatory remark about someone's family you were likely to get a broken nose for your pains. Then you got whipped when you got home and had to explain yourself. Children were not allowed to talk back to their parents, nor were they allowed to run like a pack of wild animals through the stores or up and down the streets. Parents were the authorities you had to answer to. Punishment was a bar of soap in the mouth for lesser crimes and a belt across the buttocks for more serious offenses. All adults in the community were to be obeyed and respected. All adults in the community held themselves to be responsible for all the children. Credit was something precious and hard to get, a badge of higher standing in the community. Bankruptcy was shameful, as was illegitimate birth. A young man who got a girl pregnant and didn't do right by her would never get a responsible job in his own town and would have to spend years proving himself again as trustworthy. Thrift and virtue, virginity and self-restraint, self-reliance and moral character were hallmarks of respect and public esteem. Ministers, school authorities, and parents all firmly believed that they had a moral responsibility to live and conduct themselves, and hold others to high standards of moral conduct and good character. They believed that setting an example for others was a civic obligation, the badge of authority of adulthood.
There were no schoolyard massacres in those days.
America, since that time you have universalized every form of pornography and filth. You now have normalized every kind and type of perversion and deviancy. You have taught and rewarded Moral Relativism from kindergarten through university for the last four decades.
America, you have made the murder of babies in the womb a routine substitute for moral character and an acceptable form of birth control, and in so doing proclaimed to all your children that their lives are worthless to you. You have allowed them to become the wards of the state by abandoning them to the public schools and turning your teachers into daycare workers and baby-sitters. You have encouraged and rewarded your children for remaining in a state of immaturity long into their adult years by remaining in that state of self-absorbed immaturity yourself. You have tolerated, and rationalized, and justified self-indulgence as an enshrined right. You, America, planted the seeds of wanton greed, lust, self-glorification, self-righteousness, and arrogance. You have pacified your military into garbage collectors and traffic cops. You have militarized your policemen into paramilitary goon squads and unsupervised organizations. You have turned your face away and allowed clergy to molest children and go unpunished. You have allowed your judges to become Skinner-ian social experimenters.
You have allowed your leaders to commit flagrant and public crimes and shouted down and demonized those who would hold them accountable. You have closed your eyes to blatant criminal activity and acts of war by your elected representatives so long as your wealth and positions are not harmed.
You have labored mightily for forty years and defended your choices against any and all who tried to stop the evil. You have made yourselves into indentured servants to unlimited desires and enslaved yourselves to mindless passions. You have elevated the most corrupt to the highest positions and persecuted those who would try to undo the horrors.
Now in your advancing years, the fruits of your labors have come home to you. Now the seeds of destruction you sowed and nurtured and defended have flourished and are reaching their appointed harvest.
Why are you now surprised? You have reached the ultimate fulfillment of all your desires and dreams. Your aspirations have reached maturity. These are your children, America. They are everything you raised them to be. They are the epitome of everything you slaved for all these years.
The children who have been performing these hideous acts of evil, these schoolyard massacres, are not nice, normal, "good kids " who suddenly became deranged psychotics after touching a gun. Each and every one of them signaled their intent through their behavior months, years in advance. Each of them was known to parents, teachers, police, other children as being twisted, perverse, dangerous, and blatantly so. Each had a long history of flagrantly violent and dangerous behavior that was known to everyone they ever came into contact with.
Where were the adults all those years?
This is your reward for your lifetime's success at sabotaging, betraying, denying, and overturning a thousand years of law, morality, religion, and culture. Embrace your legacy, your monstrous offspring. They are the mirror image of you, their parents, and the society you have reshaped.
For a generation you have fought long and hard to achieve this day. You have succeeded. Now those other days are gone. Then, children respected their elders. Parents respected themselves, each other, and their leaders. America was respected by her friends, and by her enemies.
There were no schoolyard massacres in those days.
2007 Rewrite
"Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?" sings the country singer Alan Jackson. I was in tenth grade. I heard the news on the radio as my mom drove me to school. I thought it might�ve been a Don Bleu prank when the DJ lady said "It�s Armageddon," but Don Bleu did his own pranks and that lady was obviously not Don Bleu. All day in my classes we did nothing but watch the news. I used the free time to work on one of the novels I was writing.
Ironically, two weeks before 9/11, my Literature teacher had us students write what we would do if we had to go to war right after high school. She was asking because we were going to read All Quiet on the Western Front soon. I wrote that I would flunk school until the war was over so I wouldn�t have to go. Not that I was anti-war, but just because I didn�t like to be forced to do anything; and like most humans, I selfishly didn�t want to get killed. Also on that same day, I had woken up in the middle of the night and heard a deep, raspy voice ask me, "Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready?" I was scared and didn�t answer.
Ready or not, 9/11 came. Then my Literature teacher asked us to write about the "tragedy." I listed all the reasons why war was a good thing. To quote another song, "It�s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!" (REM) I had a smile on my face the whole day. Even my drunk father couldn�t get me down. I was happy for the Earth that at least a little bit of the dreadful human population had been lowered. Now there were a little less people to pollute the world with their garbage, cruelty, immaturity, perversion, and awful genes. Most people would get mad at me for my opinion (what else is new?); but at least I was being honest, unlike all those phonies who pretended like they cared about the �innocent� victims they didn�t even know. If people were honest with themselves, they would admit that they didn�t care about those strangers at all. In fact, they were probably excited. People complain about how boring their lives are; they want an exciting one like the kind in the movies. Well, now they got it. We�re living history here. Another war.
Before 9/11, everyone I knew criticized America. People went through their day complaining about everything, not taking a minute to think about how lucky they were. White rapper-wannabes complained about how they wished they lived in a ghetto, PEGs (punks/emos/gothics) complained about the government and how they wanted anarchy, everyone complained about little things like traffic jams on the freeway which made them late for work or school, and teenagers everywhere used drugs because their lives just weren�t exciting enough without getting high.
Then BAM! The 9/11 "tragedy" happened, and suddenly people became grateful. Now they had something to live for, some mystery to each day, some action. Suddenly all those Americans who previously criticized their country were now buying flag merchandise, which was everywhere. Companies put a simple flag design on something, made it cost a bunch, and like suckers, people bought it. Why do people feel they need to advertise they�re Americans when it�s already obvious they are because they live here? With all that nationalistic pride going around, prejudice inevitably grew. Many singers started singing patriotic songs too, because they didn�t want to miss out on the profit. I didn�t hear any end of the world songs on the radio for a few years.
As for the innocence of the victims who died, why do people automatically assume they were innocent? They were probably cussing perverted drug users like mostly everyone else. Maybe they deserved it. Ever think of that? Ever consider the reason why the "terrorists" attacked us? People never do things without reason unless they�re mentally ill. Anyone who assumes they were or just plain evil is being na�ve. Perhaps the �terrorists� thought they were doing the world some good by ridding it of some Americans. Perhaps they thought they were doing God�s work, just as President Bush thinks as he orders our military to invade Iraq�which for some reason is the country we�re at war with, not the one that attacked us, but no one seems to notice that. Aren�t we just as bad as the terrorists for invading a country and forcing them to change their government? What business is it of ours? We have enough problems in our own country as it is; we don�t need to be butting into other countries� problems and trying to fix theirs when we can�t even fix our own. Murders, rapes, and poverty go on everyday in America. In fact, I even heard that child abuse increased after 9/11 because some parents took out their anger about the terrorist attack by attacking their children. And people say we�re innocent? The only innocent ones are children, and they don�t stay innocent for long since they grow up to be just as evil as their parents.
One would think that people would want to forget a tragedy. But according to my calendar, 9/11 is called Patriot Day now. Soon it may turn into a national holiday, and people everywhere can "celebrate" by wasting their lives on alcohol just like on New Year�s Eve. Or maybe they will "celebrate" by shooting fireworks up into the air, which by the way, symbolize bombs for those of you who have forgotten.
Copyright © 2003-2007 JANS INDIGO. All Rights Reserved.