{"id":14722,"date":"2013-08-09T11:42:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T18:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=14722"},"modified":"2013-08-09T11:42:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T18:42:44","slug":"thoughts-on-lifeand-yes-that-photo-does-have-a-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/09\/thoughts-on-lifeand-yes-that-photo-does-have-a-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on life(and yes, that photo does have a point)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KittySoapDispenser_080913\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes. That’s a soap dispenser. In the shape of a kitty. Who is tied to the top of a Christmas box by a big golden bow. And who has holly stuck in its fur. And who is (quite understandably under the circumstances) sad-eyed and apprehensive. In fact, I’m rather surprised the poor porcelain beastie didn’t come to life and furiously claw the nose off the Chinese worker responsible for its plight.<\/p>\n

I bought it at an estate sale this morning. I didn’t buy it because it’s a good thing (yeah, trust me on that). I bought it because it demonstrates a point. And because I could demonstrate that point for a mere 50 cents, even though I estimate that 50 cents is about 10 times what that poor, pathetic item is worth.<\/p>\n

Back to that in a moment.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

First, I’d like to say two things about the screed I wrote<\/a> the other day.<\/p>\n

Part of me is grateful for the large response it’s gotten. But the fact is it wasn’t what I meant to write. And having written it, I’m distressed to see it being misinterpreted.<\/p>\n

I actually meant<\/i> to write a meditative piece of a sort I’ve done before — about living our own lives around<\/i> and in spite of the growing tyranny. But the writing went its own direction. You can say my Evil Twin (or my Better Self, whichever you prefer) finished the piece for me.<\/p>\n

Having written it, I looked at it and … frankly found it rather wimpy. That final line (“… we will damn well finish you”) that’s being taken as “Looks as if Claire thinks it’s finally time to shoot the bastards” is no such thing.<\/p>\n

If you read the passages leading up to that, you’ll hear me saying something more like, “We’ll be patient and when you’ve finally destroyed yourself with your outrages and excesses, freedom-loving people will deliver the coup de grace<\/i><\/a> — which is by definition an act of mercy.<\/p>\n

Not a word written about shooting, either. Or any form of violence. If I had<\/i> specifically been talking about violence, it would have been more like “after you would-be tyrants have hoist yourself on your own petard, we’ll gather up the bloody pieces of you and bury them, nice folks that we are.”<\/p>\n

I actually expected people to perceive me as being (believe it or not) overly cautious, and possibly full of hot air.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Of course, I was<\/i> talking about insurrection. And delivering the coup<\/i>. But there are a lot of ways to do that.<\/p>\n

When that mass of partying kids charged through the Berlin Wall in 1989, they were able to do it only because the cruel bureaucracy behind the wall had failed. Armed bureaucrats no longer had power over them, even though scant years earlier it seemed as if the wall was going to stand forever, with soldiers continuing to mow down anybody who tried to cross it without the Authorization of Authoritah.<\/p>\n

But that night … nobody had to fire a shot. Far from it. The coup was delivered by happy young people who just wanted to get over to the other side to look in shop windows and have a drink.<\/p>\n

Of course, coups against tyrants can<\/i> be delivered in less jovial form, as Nicolae Ceaucescu<\/a> learned later that same year.<\/p>\n

I have no idea how our growing tyranny will eventually end. Given that it’s shaping up to be a tyranny of bureaucrats rather than a tyranny of Evil Dictators (despite the excesses of the Bushes, Obamas, and most of their ilk), I expect it’ll end more with a whimper than a bang.<\/p>\n

I just know — and I really do know it — that whatever the form our tyranny takes, however it finally ends, whatever we must do to defend ourselves — at the end, freedom-loving people will<\/i> be here to deliver the coup.<\/p>\n

Because through oppression, war, cruelty, stupidity and all, we always<\/i> outlast the bastards.<\/p>\n

And in the meantime, we have lots<\/i> of power to help the would-be tyrants weaken themselves.<\/p>\n

Whether some shootin’ (from our side; they are already shooting at us, of course, and doing worse than mere shooting at freedom) is involved at some point, I simply do not know. I would rather see us help topple the UberGovernment by making our data security better than their snooping, by denying it money, by helping along the de-legitimization that it’s already doing such a good job at, by withdrawing any respect (let alone reverence) for it. I would like to see Outlaws in action.<\/a> I would like to see hackers hack it and more Snowdens take more dramatic measures. I would like to see Moles destroy it from within, Agitators destroy it by making it a laughingstock, Ghosts destroy it by slipping out of its grasp, and Cockapoos destroy it by bleeding it dry.<\/p>\n

If it comes to shooting, I hope freedom fighters recognize the right moment — and are as cagey as the Lexington and Concord Minutemen were against the “all-powerful” Redcoats.<\/p>\n

If it needs to be done, let us do it wisely and well.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

And yes, all this — every bit of it — is still related to that hideous … kitty thingie at the top of the column. Okay. Maybe distantly related. But still related.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned, I got that grotesquely abused kitty at an estate sale. You know me; I love garage sales. Estate sales, on the other hand, are depressing.<\/p>\n

A garage sale is just people getting rid of junk. An estate sale is a snapshot of a whole life. This one was typical. A well-kept little house brimming with tchotchkes. A husband and wife, both now gone. No evidence of kids or grandkids or even pets. A record in “stuff” of two people deteriorating from brisk middle age to creaky old debility (from baseball caps from the biggest local employer to walkers and those strange toilet-things on wheels). <\/p>\n

You could tell a lot about these people from what they left behind. Her religion was Jesus, his golf. (Has there been a single piece of Christian art, at least since the Reformation, that hasn’t been either totally tasteless or a desperate attempt to look trendy? Has there ever been a golf joke that anybody younger than 70 could appreciate — jokes about Tiger Woods’ sex life excepted?)<\/p>\n

Whole rooms were filled with things like Soap Kitty above. Well, granted, I chose the worst of the worst. But you get the idea.<\/p>\n

These people had themselves a nice little life in a nice little house. I’d guess they were happy with each other and with their lot. In some ways, they probably lived an enviable life.<\/p>\n

But what did they do? What did they leave behind? What does the record of their days say — about them and about the purpose they lived for?<\/p>\n

Did they even have<\/i> a purpose?<\/p>\n

Maybe. I’d be awfully arrogant to judge them solely by their soap dispensers and cookie plates. But that’s all I know of them.<\/p>\n

They were probably happier than a lot of freedomistas I know. We who are always looking around and seeing the terrible things others manage to miss.<\/p>\n

But at the end, what’s the sum? What will I leave behind? What will you<\/i> leave behind? <\/p>\n

Specifically, what will we leave behind that testifies to the value we place on freedom and the work we did to bring that value to real life? Will we only bitch about what’s wrong from here to eternity? <\/p>\n

Or will we leave a mark — something that says, “No matter what the outcome, I worked not just for a living, but for freedom”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes. That’s a soap dispenser. In the shape of a kitty. Who is tied to the top of a Christmas box by a big golden bow. And who has holly stuck in its fur. And who is (quite understandably under the circumstances) sad-eyed and apprehensive. In fact, I’m rather surprised the poor porcelain beastie didn’t come to life and furiously claw the nose off the Chinese worker responsible for its plight. I bought it at an estate sale this morning. I didn’t buy it because it’s a good thing (yeah, trust me on that). I bought it because it demonstrates…<\/p>\n

Continue readingThoughts on life(and yes, that photo does have a point)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-spirit","category-resistance","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}