by Ted Lucy
They came here uninvited. Set up settlements. Brought slaves.
They called the residents of these shores savages
To justify stealing their land.
With their false tongues and their diseases they killed nine savages
Of every ten. There was plenty of land.
Behind the banner of their bible they filled it.
Cram the children of their slaves into prisons and jails
Cram the children of their native population onto small scraps of land
Blame them for their troubles. For talking up. For talking back.
Demanding rights. And they sing
God Bless America
From shore to shining shore. They sing
God Bless America
As they curse and blame their troubles on the men
I made gay.
They don’t care about the women much.
The men they strap to trees like honored sacrifices, and they sing
God Bless America
When they should beg
God forgive us for we have sinned.
We always knew, we always should have known
The bible we used as a tool to conquer these lands
The bible we used as a tool to leverage its wealth
The bible we used as a tool to rid ourselves of a native nuisance
The bible we used as a tool to catch and harness and drag the citizens of Africa
Over the sea of Columbus like cattle and spit at like angry dogs
The bible we used to name this place the shining city on a hill
Warned us. Named us.
The bible we converted into plowshares and guns
Instead of reading it--
May one not be pardoned?--
It told us not to sing.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
At the Bookstore
I met a young man in a bookstore
I was there to begin my new book tour.
He asked me my name.
He was glad that I came.
Did I find what I came there to look for?
I was there to begin my new book tour.
He asked me my name.
He was glad that I came.
Did I find what I came there to look for?
Monday, February 4, 2019
Universal Healthcare--Really?
Life offers us practically unlimited options, but very limited opportunity to experience them. The constraint of a single life is the greatest impediment. There’s nothing we can do about that. We can’t live the single life and the married life. We can’t have no children and few children and many. We can’t devote our lives to literature and be a marine biologist and priest and an atheist. We can’t spend our lives devoted to a single driving passion and deep our toes in everything.
On top of that we have everywhere forces compelling us to limit our already-too-limited options and our already-too-limiting experiences even further. Social approval is one, religion (or any quasi-religious ideology) is another, law is another. Why do we hate slavery so much? Slavery contracts a human’s options to the point approaching zero. But it is only the most severe instance of the same thing that effects and constrains all our lives. It is to life what prostitution is to marriage. It makes disturbingly bald the situation in which everyone already lives.
But law does not have only to constrain. This is why I am in favor of universal, single-payer healthcare. Not only do people without means suffer and die when they can’t become part of the healthcare system, but many others are compelled to limit their lives in unnecessary ways in an all-too-constraining culture (and in one that calls itself “the land of the free”). People get jobs they don’t want, keep jobs they can’t stand, stick to places they don’t want to be because they fear the danger of going without healthcare. We must be clear: healthcare is in industry that shackles everyone. It shackles a few people to the place they are happy to be. No doubt there were a few slaves who, apart from being called slaves, were relatively content with their lot. But where private industry controls any part of access to healthcare, we are all victims. Happy slaves are unenlightened victims.
On top of that we have everywhere forces compelling us to limit our already-too-limited options and our already-too-limiting experiences even further. Social approval is one, religion (or any quasi-religious ideology) is another, law is another. Why do we hate slavery so much? Slavery contracts a human’s options to the point approaching zero. But it is only the most severe instance of the same thing that effects and constrains all our lives. It is to life what prostitution is to marriage. It makes disturbingly bald the situation in which everyone already lives.
But law does not have only to constrain. This is why I am in favor of universal, single-payer healthcare. Not only do people without means suffer and die when they can’t become part of the healthcare system, but many others are compelled to limit their lives in unnecessary ways in an all-too-constraining culture (and in one that calls itself “the land of the free”). People get jobs they don’t want, keep jobs they can’t stand, stick to places they don’t want to be because they fear the danger of going without healthcare. We must be clear: healthcare is in industry that shackles everyone. It shackles a few people to the place they are happy to be. No doubt there were a few slaves who, apart from being called slaves, were relatively content with their lot. But where private industry controls any part of access to healthcare, we are all victims. Happy slaves are unenlightened victims.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Recent Political Debates: The Take Away
It has become abundantly clear that neither reason nor evidence will change anyone's political support. You can tear down their reasons, you won't change their mind. They'll just find new reasons. You can tear down the new reasons. They'll just stop listening to you, and then, in a little while, they'll forget what you said revert to their old reasons. This is true of both sides (it's why we think there are only two sides). Whatever your stance, you'll glom onto whatever events seem to qualify as evidence, and you'll investigate them only in so far as their integrity as evidence allows--like any climate denier who says "Well, it's cold today in Chicago," confusing climate with weather, which is something that has been pointed out to him numerous times but which he can't quite hold onto the next time it is cold in Chicago. You'll take in whatever feels like evidence and ignore whatever feels like counter evidence. You can't argue anyone away from his position.
What can you do?
You can move the discussion to a ground in which they have no stake, a ground where their defenses are down, where their nonpolitical hearts agree with yours. You can talk about why they believe what they believe. What are the mechanisms of belief? Everyone in his heart wants just to believe he is right but actually to be right. If the basis of their beliefs is not reason and if political affiliations are not based on evidence, where do they come from?
Two important theories explain it: the first is laid out in Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. The other is provided by Rene Girard in The Scapegoat. For a good overview of the first, you can go here: . For the second here: and here
Accordingly, our beliefs are based overwhelmingly on our social groups, those with whom we wish to identify. Very little choice is involved. We are fundamentally mimetic creatures. The same phenomenon that makes us laugh when the crowd laughs more than when the joke is funny and makes us yawn when the leader yawns more than when we are tired makes us believe what our people believe more than what the facts dictate. We think overwhelmingly with our fast brains--which is to say with our automatic brains, the ones that say "danger, run," before ever stopping to see if the danger is real. We are mimetic creatures. We are also lazy and fearful creatures. It takes a great deal of effort to engage the slow brain, and there is a great deal at stake if we do. It may lead us away from our tribe, where we feel safe, where we feel we belong. It may lead us into uncertainty and loneliness.
But that is the task of life. And this is what you may convince the other of. This is the ground of debate. The rest is noise that elevates to violence that will need a sacrifice to quell it.
What can you do?
You can move the discussion to a ground in which they have no stake, a ground where their defenses are down, where their nonpolitical hearts agree with yours. You can talk about why they believe what they believe. What are the mechanisms of belief? Everyone in his heart wants just to believe he is right but actually to be right. If the basis of their beliefs is not reason and if political affiliations are not based on evidence, where do they come from?
Two important theories explain it: the first is laid out in Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. The other is provided by Rene Girard in The Scapegoat. For a good overview of the first, you can go here: . For the second here: and here
Accordingly, our beliefs are based overwhelmingly on our social groups, those with whom we wish to identify. Very little choice is involved. We are fundamentally mimetic creatures. The same phenomenon that makes us laugh when the crowd laughs more than when the joke is funny and makes us yawn when the leader yawns more than when we are tired makes us believe what our people believe more than what the facts dictate. We think overwhelmingly with our fast brains--which is to say with our automatic brains, the ones that say "danger, run," before ever stopping to see if the danger is real. We are mimetic creatures. We are also lazy and fearful creatures. It takes a great deal of effort to engage the slow brain, and there is a great deal at stake if we do. It may lead us away from our tribe, where we feel safe, where we feel we belong. It may lead us into uncertainty and loneliness.
But that is the task of life. And this is what you may convince the other of. This is the ground of debate. The rest is noise that elevates to violence that will need a sacrifice to quell it.
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