I guess, if I don't want to lose readers (or more likely just reader) , I have to keep this thing rolling. I find myself getting sucked this way and that into contexts and out of them. I find pro-war blogs to be rather unsettling, more unsettling than the mainstream media, which is just high-production pornography. These calculated biases and the like sort of make me a bit self concous about my own ability to limit my persepective and read only what I want about the world. I realize I too have used this Internet to construct a pretty comfortable self-affirming view of the world.



It seems like we had a long period, before all of this real killing started, where I was just reading the same things over and over, we were re-iterating our calculated points of view. And now, there's actually people dying, and it just seems so terrible that we as bloggers so self righteously go about linking to this and that story as ways to inflate our egos.



Or at least that's the way I feel when i read the pro-war blogs, and well now I'm feeling slightly sick about my info-addiction. I've certainly cut down on drinking and I think I'm destroying myself with this crap instead these days.



Anyway, I ran into a pro-war blog which said some pretty nasty things about a peace protester that died, and I'd feel even sicker if I linked to the page. But it basically spoke of her brainwashing and of how the blogger saw a photo of her with a bullhorn and felt aversion.



The other day I was at a peace rally, here in Adelaide. And it began quite good, I mean I felt a lot of energy from the folks around me, I half suspected there was some tear gas leaking in one of the police vehicles because I was more emotional than the actual situation warranted.



But anyway, it was really well organized, but it was inherently political. I mean, we actually have politicians representing the anti-war factions. There was this socialist there, and when I heard him speak he seemed as simplistic as the rhetoric machine on the other end of the table. Almost anti-soldier, and almost anti american people, and that sort of disgusted me. Surely there were Americans (myself) and soldiers in the crowd. After that guy spoke there was some guy who yelled his whole speech, and a lot of people left. It's wierd that the mixing of peace with rhetoric can make the whole energy of the people standing there kind of dwindle. I mean the people were standing there because they were being lied to, and when you have a group of people come together like that the least effective way to use their energy is to have them stare at simplistic assholes with microphones, I mean it just seems kind of counter productive to peace, and almost like sabotage.



Additionaly they had this piano and terrible singer there that tried to get the crowd to sing a song "Not in our name." and that lost a lot of the crowd. And honeslty, that's the least of my concerns, weather my good name is getting spoiled, because you're goddamned right it's my fault, it's as much my goddamned fault as it is anybody in the military who don't want to be there any more than I want them to be there. And sure you're aloud to be a little bit anti-american, Lord knows our simplistic media engine is the basis for most of the simplistic media engines in the world, but it takes the gullibility of the individual to tango. And where the hell do you think Rupert Murdoch is from?



This kind of fundamentalist, blame dodging bullshit is what sets up rivalries and creates dispute, and it's part of all of us, and it's everyone's fault.



I have a feeling the reason so many people are actually for the war is that they have a hard time admitting that every idea they have has been put there by the television. I mean, there's lots of us kids who wholeheartedly accept that, and well it's just irony, and it's a reason to rebel and be wacky. And it's an excuse for being different than everybody and feeling essentially isolated. The only way we're going to stop this war is to make peace hipper, sexier, and more fun to watch on television. And I'm not just talking about the current conflict in Iraq, they're going to go on killing as long as they can until the world offers something more interesting to watch.



I mean the only reason that Bush and Blair and Howard are able to control the world as they do is because the doom they speak of is quite honestly the most interesting thing on television. I honestly think that this conflict has as much to do with Joe Millionaire as it does with 9/11. I am reminded of a slogan that went with the Rush Limbaugh show back in the day.



"Love 'im? Hate 'im? Watch him."



And we do, do we ever, and as we do they're able to slip in all kinds of ads for their weaponry, and we don't really have much of a choice but to buy it. I mean, after all, those were some pretty convincing ads, or at least had some good production value, and really it's more of a pain in the ass to call in and have our subscription canceled.



Anyway this is ranting, but it'll keep my reader happy.