Enemies: A Love Story

Ken Vandermark is a saxophone player who lives in Chicago. He recently wrote about Ornette Coleman who visited our fine city as part of Jazz Fest.

Here is Vandermark on Coleman and Democracy:

"Ornette has been able to craft an extremely interactive framework in which to work. As with a Democratic society, this demands that the individual be responsible enough to be fully informed and inquisitive in order to completely participate in the dialogue and decision-making process that's involved."

That's the ideal. One can't help but think our version of Democracy more closely resembles Idiocracy.

Still as Ray Nitsche the great Green Bay Packers middle linebacker once said...no wait, now that I think of it, it wasn't Ray Nitsche, it was that slightly over-wrought dude, Friedrich Nietzsche "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger."

I remember seeing that quote at the beginning of John Milius "Conan the Barbarian," and hell, if it all worked for Arnold the Terminator, I guess it can work for us too. So let's thank all those idiots for reminding us of what we aren't and don't want to be. I guess we can even thank Bush/Cheney for waking up a lot of people.

And now that I'm at it, I'd like to thank all of my enemies, real and imaginary, who have shown me the way. It's good to find some kind of clarity. The lies keep piling up, but really they are poor weapons. We can vaporize them with the light. And they make us stronger. Yeah, that's right! Except when they kill us, and then, well, then we're dead, and at that point, another journey awaits us. I guess.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out James Howard Kunstler:

"The Party That Wrecked America. It's official now: John McCain and Sarah Palin are up in the latest polls now that the conventions are over. I view this as a positive development. It will give the Obama-Biden campaign incentive to get serious. It would have been a disaster for Obama-Biden to come out of this past week ahead. It might have prompted them to kick back and be complacent.McCain-Palin have nowhere to go now but down, and I will tell you exactly how this will happen. They can run away from President Bush, but they can't run away from the Republican Party.

The Republicans will be regarded from now on as "the party that wrecked America." Over the weeks ahead, as carnage in the economy and the financial markets ramps up, it will become increasingly clear. It is important that this meme be spread through the internet. I urge all commentators who read this blog to adopt and spread the idea that the Republicans are "the party that wrecked America." It will work because it is the truth. Use it freely. Don't bother attributing it to me. Just spread the word. Get the meme going."