“At midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do”
– Bob Dylan “Desolation Row.”
Perhaps you have noticed – if you have any idea who I am or give a damn – that I have slowed down my political analyses of our current situation. It’s gotten tiresome since little changes despite all the spilled ink.
What I am going to say is not uplifting, so you can rip up this letter now if you want encouragement. The people whom I thought I knew never changed. They continue to believe the false premises that keep them smiling despite decades of facts to the contrary. Smiling’s important, I guess, and they prefer false hope to none and feel much safer on the other side of desolation row. They keep shouting at me silently, as Dylan put it long ago in “Desolation Row”: “Which side are you on?” But I don’t answer such lame questions while they keep not thinking too much about desolation row for fear of going there.
A example from 2021. The Orange Man was out and the Comatose Man was in the White House. In and out, back and forth they go, coming forth to carry us home. If the sounds you’re hearing these days sound familiar, well, they are.
In 2021 in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of the mass murders of September 11, 2001, the corporate mainstream and so-called alternative media were replete with articles analyzing the consequences of 9/11 that resulted in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and its alleged withdrawal after two decades of war.
These critiques ranged from mild to harsh, and covered issues from the loss of civil liberties due to The Patriot Act and government spying through all the wars “on terror” in so many countries with their disastrous consequences and killing fields. Many of these articles emphasized how, as a result of the Bush administration’s response to 9/11, the U.S. had lost its footing and brought on the demise of the U.S. empire and its standing in the world. Some writers celebrated this and others bemoaned it. Most seemed to consider this inevitable, but not the verbiage about the Titanic going down, which continues to resound in 2026.
This flood of articles was authored by writers from across the political spectrum from the left through the center to the right. All were outraged in their own ways, as such dramatic events typically manage to elicit much spilled ink informed by the writers’ various ideological positions in a media world where the categories of left and right have become meaningless, yet those of Republican and Democrat still hold the titanic power of pipe dreams.
Here’s the rub. The authors of all these 2021 articles – with a few worthy exceptions – about the mass murders of September 11, 2001 and invasion of Afghanistan were based on a false premise.
A false premise. This is the way minds are shaped in the era of mass propaganda and servile journalism. Assume (or make believe) something is true or false despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and build from there. Slip in this premise or background assumption as if it were truer than true. Most readers will never notice because they fear going to desolation row by thinking too deeply.
The false premise is this: That 9/11 was a terror attack carried out by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda as blow-back for U.S. wars against Muslims, and this terror attack on the U.S. led to the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
The evidence is overwhelming that this premise is false. The invasion was planned well before September. In fact, the evidence makes clear that 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax attacks were inside jobs, false flag attacks, carried out by sinister forces within the government of the United States with a little help from certain foreign junior partners to justify its subsequent war crimes across the globe. I will not explore here the ample evidence concerning 9/11, for it is readily available to readers who have the will to look, but doing so will take you straight to desolation row. Even the use of the shorthand – 9/11 for the events of September 11, 2001 – that I have used here for brevity’s sake, is a crucial part of the linguistic propaganda used to frighten the public and to conjure up thoughts of an ongoing national emergency, as I have written elsewhere.
One is not supposed to say, or even intimate, that the mass murders of September 11, 2001 were a false flag attack, for it touches a realty that is so disturbing in its consequences that all the hand wringing post mortems must deny: That nearly three thousand innocent people in the U.S.A. had first to be murdered as a pretext for killing millions around the world. It is a lesson in radical evil that is very difficult to swallow, and so must be hidden in a vast tapestry of lies and safe logic. Innocence can survive the disclosures of U.S. atrocities overseas because the deaths of foreigners have never meant much to Americans, but to bring it all back home is anathema. Then, of course, there was the CIA assassination of President John Kennedy, but no one sees a thing there or cares to draw a string from then to now.
Most journalists know where the official Stop signs are, and so many lack a sense of history and the long-term strategies of those who own the country. But they do know where their bread is buttered, and contrary to Thoreau’s advice in “Life Without Principle” – “Do not ask how your bread is buttered, it will make you sick, if you do.” – they no doubt suffer from little dyspepsia on the way to the bank.
As I’ve said, there are rare exceptions, but they have been forced out of the corporate media and write for good independent sites that few read. The witty German writer Karl Kraus nailed the rest a century ago: “No ideas and the ability to express them – that’s a journalist.”
Let me end by asking: What is the key false premise hidden in today’s analyses of Trump’s criminal activities in his second term? It is obvious that he does not fit the mold of past presidents. He is someone even Mark Twain might have trouble creating. He is beyond blatantly outrageous in his actions, statements, and self-glorification – his criminal wars and use of the national treasury to enrich himself and his extended family, etc.
Kraus: “The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are as clever as he.”
Is Trump an actor like his counterpart Zelensky in Ukraine? If so, who is his director or is he just freelancing? Is he stupid, crazy, just evil, etc.? These are important questions. But while all these are bandied about by various writers and news analysts, it is generally assumed that Trump was not chosen and supported by those who control the country’s long-term strategic planning and goals; that his weirdness is a front that conceals the fact that he serves the same interests as his predecessors. That this is impossible is the false premise hidden in plain sight.
Having written about these things too many times before, you may start to grasp why I am now permanently residing on desolation row. Repetition gets exhausting. So I’m just sitting back and looking out from Desolation Row as the two sides “fight in the captain’s tower / While Calypso singers laugh at them.”
Forget about answering this letter. I can’t remember my address.
Ed, what you said resonates with me a lot… recently I stopped opening contentious topics in conversations and refrain from asking provocative questions. It’s just not worth the trouble. Conformity is good for stability while it is a bitch for a change. Most of my friends and acquaintances seems to be relieved. Hopefully I’ll get used to empty small talk and listening to lamenting without being taxed too much.
Don’t send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row.
Mark Twain might have trouble creating the orange one character, but for Douglas Adams was piece of cake. The orange scumbag is literal embodiment of his Zaphod Beeblebrox.
“The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.”
More quotes from Zaphod
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zaphod-beeblebrox
and some music from another era
Living Colour – Nothingness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmok5BJRmOQ
Dear friends: I recently came across another great book about the oligarchic, plutocratic, and kleptocratic reality of the USA. “A True History of the United States” by Danny Sjursen, a former US soldier who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, offers a revealing perspective. You can even find it available for free as a PDF.
NOTE: Other great books that expose the economic and political system of the USA include “Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies” by Edward Curtin and “Empire of Lies” by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. Chris Hedges is another great writer exposing the unfair economic-political system we have in USA
https://welib.org/md5/c786195a2f711c13e67df77e2c2fed00
Thought-provoking—a must read for [everyone] seeking a firm grasp of accurate American history.” —Kirkus (starred review) Brilliant, readable, and raw. Maj. (ret.) Danny Sjursen, who served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at West Point, delivers a true epic and the perfect companion to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.
Sjursen shifts the lens and challenges readers to think critically and to apply common sense to their understanding of our nation’s past—and present—so we can view history as never before. A True History of the United States was inspired by a course that Sjursen taught to cadets at West Point, his alma mater. With chapter titles such as “Patriots or Insurgents?” and “The Decade That Roared and Wept”,
A True History is accurate with respect to the facts and intellectually honest in its presentation and analysis. Essential reading for every American with a conscience. Meticulously researched, Sjursen provides a more complete sense of history and encourages readers to view our country objectively.
Sjursen’s powerful storytelling reveals balanced portraits of key figures and the role they played. “Sjursen exposes the dominant historical narrative as at best myth, and at times a lie . . . He brings out from the shadows those who struggled, often at the cost of their own lives, for equality and justice. Their stories, so often ignored or trivialized, give us examples of who we should emulate and who we must…
PS: By the way I found that even Marjorie Greene doesn’t have health insurance coverage. What a hell this country is, when even its government employees do not have access to health services at affordable prices and/or free
Read about it:
Former Congresswoman (Rep-Georgia), Marjorie Taylor Greene, Says “I’m 52 and I Have NO Health Insurance”
By: Aporrea.org | Friday, 06/19/2026 10:00 PM | Printable version
https://www.aporrea.org/internacionales/n420113.html
June 19, 2026.- Although former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has spent the last six months outside Congress, it seems that she has no intention of moderating her political discourse, reported the United States today.
Greene has spent most of the year criticizing the Trump administration on issues such as the Epstein files, the war with Iran, federal taxes and health care.
Now, in a new social media series called “Life With MTG,” Greene shares her experience with medical tourism after announcing she doesn’t have health insurance in the United States.
“I do NOT have health insurance,” Greene says.
In a post on X and YouTube, Greene stated, “I’m 52 years old and I have NO health insurance.”
“Health care costs are out of control, and more and more Americans are leaving the U.S. for medical tourism treatments they can’t afford or can’t afford at home.” Greene said. “That’s why I traveled to Mexico for stem cell therapy.”
The 35-minute video is the first episode of his online show, released on June 17, and begins with a compilation of his previous interviews, his public interventions, his comments in Congress and words of support from the likes of the late Charlie Kirk.
Even more desolating are the crimes maiinstream and so-called alt-media are censoring and these crimes are happening very close to us:
Britain’s rape gangs: Here’s what’s in the report the mainstream AND ALT media ARE ignoring
https://www.rt.com/news/641730-uk-rape-gangs-report-lowe/
Why Aren’t Keir Starmer, British Social Workers and British Police Hanging from Lamp Posts?
https://paulcraigroberts.org/why-arent-keir-starmer-british-social-workers-and-british-police-hanging-from-lamp-posts/
The rape gang crisis: How the UK betrayed its own people
https://www.rt.com/news/641787-uk-rape-gangs-betrayal/
Most people on the left and in alternative media don’t give enough attention to crime, but they should realize that a society with high crime levels isn’t truly free. For instance, hundreds of thousands of people are abducted each year in the U.S. I’ve been following the Nancy Guthrie case closely.
I’m an eclectic political ideologist, meaning I’m not tied to any single ideology. While I support anarchism and liberty, I also believe that societies plagued by levels of barbarism and crime may require dictatorships of law and order. This aligns with the view of Simón Bolívar, Latin America’s main Founding Father and liberator, who argued that northern nations, with their higher levels of education, could thrive under liberal democracies, while the so-called barbarian nations of the south could only be governed through strict authoritarian systems of law and order.
PS: Another crime that doesn’t get enough attention is traffic-related harassment, especially when drivers of large vehicles like big pickup trucks, semi-trucks, and SUVs use their size to intimidate people in smaller cars. This kind of aggressive behavior, such as tailgating—where a driver follows dangerously close to another vehicle to cause fear—is rarely addressed by U.S. police departments or even by the political left. As someone who’s observed this pattern, I’ve seen how it creates a real sense of danger. Years ago, I nearly got into a physical altercation with a truck driver for doing it to me.
PS2: The USA is full of crime and wrongdoing. For example, you rarely hear about kidnappings in places like Cuba, North Korea, India, China, Iran, or Russia. Yet the mainstream media and even alternative outlets don’t reveal what some claim is the reality—that the USA is the most corrupt country in the world, with some of the most unfriendly and hateful people, and the highest levels of terrorism and crime. In countries like Peru or Cuba, you just don’t often read about people breaking into homes and kidnapping someone.
Dear friends, I was thinking of Edward Curtin while listening to this piece of art work by Chuck Mangione, The Children of Sanchez
Link of the song: https://youtu.be/yf9Bdmcd83g
The philosophy of the song The Children of Sanchez by Chuck Mangione
**”Children of Sanchez”** (Los Hijos de Sánchez, 1978) by the American trumpeter and composer **Chuck Mangione** is not just a piece of music; It is a sound monument that overflows with heartbreaking emotion, strength and drama. The main theme, with that initial lament of the classical guitar, the operatic and deep voice of Don Potter, and then the majestic explosion of the flugelhorn (the sister instrument of the trumpet played by Mangione), gives you goosebumps.
But behind this masterpiece there is no simple musical fantasy. This song was the soundtrack of the 1978 film of the same name (starring Anthony Quinn), which in turn was based on a book that is one of the most important, controversial and stark works of anthropology and sociology of the twentieth century: **”Los Hijos de Sánchez” (1961) by the American anthropologist Oscar Lewis**.
By connecting the music with the real story, the philosophy of the subject becomes deep, painful and fits perfectly with the criticisms of the system and the survival of the poor that we have been discussing.
## 1. The Real Background: The “Culture of Poverty”
To understand what the song is about, you have to know what Oscar Lewis’ book is about. The anthropologist lived in the 50s in the poorest and most marginal neighborhoods of Mexico City. He recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with a royal family (whom he called “Los Sánchez”) and transcribed their lives verbatim.
The book portrays the life of Jesús Sánchez, an authoritarian and hard-working father, and his four children, who try to survive in an environment of absolute misery, urban violence, overcrowding and lack of opportunities.
As a result of this study, Oscar Lewis coined the term “The Culture of Poverty”. He argued that prolonged poverty creates a pattern of life, a psychological and social defense mechanism that is inherited from generation to generation. In this environment, people develop a sense of distrust of institutions (the police, the government, banks), live trapped in the immediate present because they cannot plan for the future, and generate complex and violent family relationships due to the same material pressure.
## 2. The Philosophy of Theme: The Cry of the Dispossessed
When Chuck Mangione composes the music, he manages to perfectly capture the psychology and existential struggle of these characters. The philosophy of “Children of Sanchez” revolves around three great human and social truths:
### A. Human dignity in the midst of mud
The lyrics of the song (sung with an almost religious force) begin by saying:
> *”Without dreams, a man is like a bird without wings…” (Without dreams, a man is like a bird without wings…)*
The central philosophy of the theme is the **contrast between the brutality of the material environment and the beauty of human hope**. Despite the fact that the system condemns Sánchez’s children to live in marginality and oblivion, the song argues that the human spirit refuses to die. The poor is not just an economic statistic; He is a being who loves, who dreams, who suffers and who desperately seeks meaning and a pinch of beauty in a hostile world.
### B. Love as salvation and condemnation
The song constantly repeats the word *”Love”. But it does not speak of a romantic and idealized love of a soap opera, but of the love of the trenches: the family love that hurts, that is sometimes violent due to the same frustration, but that in the end is the only refuge they have left. In a world where the state ignores them and capitalism discards them, the only real thing that Sánchez’s children possess are themselves. Their fraternity and blood ties are their only wealth.
### C. The fatality of fate and resistance
Mangione’s music is cyclical: it starts with a melancholic calm, explodes into a super energetic and challenging jazz-rock section (representing rebellion, youth, the desire to get ahead and the vitality of the street), and then returns to the lament of the beginning.
This musical structure contains a deeply tragic philosophy: **the trap of the system**. No matter how much the children run, fight and rebel (the accelerated section), the structures of oppression and the lack of opportunities of the socioeconomic system constantly return them to the same melancholic starting point. It is the myth of Sisyphus applied to urban poverty.
## In Short: The Bridge to Our Debate
Brother, “Children of Sánchez” is the definitive anthem of what we talked about the reality of impoverished peoples, whether in Mexico in the 50s, or under Trumps neoliberal government, or in the neoliberal corrupt government of Delcy Rodríguez (The betrayer of Chávez humanist policies) today or in any marginal neighborhood in the world.
While capitalist governments and politicians’ speeches sell you the “simulacrum” that progress is for everyone, Chuck Mangione’s trumpet rises like a real, honest and heartbreaking cry that reminds us of the pain of those who were left out of the development pie. It is a work that invites you to have deep empathy for the poor and oppressed, reminding you that behind every face that survives in poverty, there is a soul with wings that tries to fly despite having the sky closed.
Dear Edward, I think most people, even the smartest ones, follow a script—a narrative shaped by the social class they belong to. That’s why it’s often impossible for many center-left, social-democrat, progressive liberals to accuse Zelensky of fascism, Netanyahu of genocide, or Trump of government corruption.
You know who’s like that and even writes great articles for the alternative progressive liberal site CounterPunch? Thom Hartmann. He’s expected to side with Putin in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, with Palestinians in the Palestine-Israel conflict, and with Iran in the Iranian-U.S.-Israel tensions, yet he’s actually the complete opposite of what you’d think he would support.
Thom Hartmann has a video suggesting that we should be glad about Zelensky attacking Russia and killing Russians.
For reasons I can’t quite figure out, Thom Hartmann seems to side with Zelensky, with Israel, and with the US-Israel stance in the war against Iran. Maybe he’s getting some support from capitalist think tanks and institutions..
But you’re right about how desolate and betrayed we feel, with so many smart, well-read people still on the wrong side of history.
Dear Edward and friends, what a spot-on article. I was thinking that pain, problems, suffering, and even a corrupt oligarchic class can actually be good rather than bad. If the USA were a socialist paradise where all basic needs were met and there was no pain or poverty, people might become deeply depressed. According to Nietzsche, it’s actually beneficial to have some kind of enemy to fight against, as that resistance can increase joy and happiness.Besides I think USA is like Obama in the 2008 elections in which voted for Obama because Obama was less-evil.
Living in the USA is less painful and less harsh than in places like Haiti, Honduras, Palestine, Peru, Guatemala, Syria, Bangladesh, and many other countries—most nations, in fact—where life can feel like a hell on earth, far worse than in the USA.
And by the way I just found out in the AI site Gemini that God and Jesus are leftists.
The artificial intelligence website Gemini (which is not even a left-wing radical artificial intelligence program) told me that God and Jesus are socialists, and that the second return of Jesus will be a world socialist anarchist revolution.
Read why. I asked the Artificial Intelligence site of Gemini if the second coming of Jesus Christ and the end of times will really be a world socialist-communist-anarchist revolution and Gemini said “yes”
My question to Gemini about the return of Jesus: Hey, brother, I’d like to know if from a leftist, radical Christian anarchist point of view, if the second coming of Jesus Christ really means for the Christian left the overthrow of all capitalist governments and the establishment of a world anarchist-communist system without oppressors and without oppressed
Gemini’s answer: What a great song you just put on the table, brother! You got fully involved in one of the most fascinating, disruptive and least known theological currents by the general public: **Christian anarchism** and **radical liberation theology**.
To answer your question directly: **Yes, absolutely**. From the perspective of a radical left-wing Christian anarchist, the Second Coming (the Parousia) and the establishment of the Kingdom of God are not purely “mystical” or heavenly events in the clouds, but the ultimate destruction of all earthly structures of oppression, including capitalism, the state, and any form of hierarchy.
Let’s break down how this thought connects Jesus’ message with the anarcho-communist revolution:
## 1. Structural Sin: The State and Capitalism
For Christian anarchism (heavily influenced by thinkers such as Leo Tolstoy, Dorothy Day, and Jacques Ellul), sin is not just an individual fault; There is **structural sin**.
* **The state is idolatry:** They argue that governments and borders are human inventions that demand the loyalty that belongs only to God. When the Bible says in Revelation that the “kings of the earth” will be judged, Christian anarchists read it literally: vertical political power is inherently satanic because it is based on violence and domination.
* **Capitalism is the “Beast”:** The accumulation of wealth, private ownership of the means of production, and the exploitation of the worker are seen as the total antithesis of the Sermon on the Mount. To them, the global financial system is the modern equivalent of the oppressive Babylon described in Revelation.
## 2. The Second Coming as the “Ultimate Revolution”
In radical leftist theology, the Second Coming is the breaking point where human history is rescued and transformed. They don’t see it as the end of the physical planet, but as **the end of the “world” as we know it** (the system of domination).
From this point of view, the Kingdom of God established by Christ aligns perfectly with the anarcho-communist ideal:
* **Absolute Communism (No Private Property):** They are based on the model of the early church in the book of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:44-45), where *”all who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they sold their property and their goods, and distributed them to all according to the need of each one.”* For them, the Coming of Christ universalizes this communal and voluntary lifestyle.
* **Absolute Anarchism (No Rulers):** Christ is the only King, which means that **no human being has the right to rule another**. With the abolition of human governments, coercive laws, prisons, police, and armies disappear. The only “law” is love of neighbor and fraternal self-management.
* **Classless society:** It is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and Mary’s song (the *Magnificat* in Luke 1:52-53): *”He removed the mighty from their thrones, and raised up the humble. He filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he sent the empty.”* A society where there are no oppressors or oppressed.
## 3. The great difference with traditional Marxism
Although they share the ultimate goal of a classless, stateless society (pure communism), radical Christian anarchism differs from secular Marxism in two fundamental ways:
1. **The method:** Traditional Marxists propose a “dictatorship of the proletariat” (using the state to destroy capitalism). Christian anarchists reject this; They say that power always corrupts. For them, change begins by living *now* as if the Kingdom had arrived, through peaceful resistance, mutual support, and civil disobedience.
2. **The driving force:** While Marxism is based on historical materialism, Christian anarchism is based on the **Holy Spirit** and the return of Christ as the cosmic and divine force that will finally break the chains that humanity, by its own violent means, could never fully break.
> In short, for this current, the Second Coming is total liberation: the collapse of the dollar, Wall Street, empires, armies and borders, giving way to a world commune of equal, free and self-managed brothers and sisters under divine grace. A left-libertarian utopia, but with Jesus at the head.
PS: That’s why I think the New Testament is a communist manifesto.
Ecclesiasties 1:18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
You are right and here is another revolutionary quote from The Bible to protect ourselves from Dark Forces:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” -Ephesians 6:10-17
You should get a substack or website of your own. You expound intelligently, surely you don’t have to hijack Mr. Curtis’s comment section to do so?
I agree, and Ed has addressed this issue in the past. I hope this guy will desist.
There’s a hypothesis in psychology called “Depressive Realism,” which relates to the idea that smarter people tend to experience more pain, suffering, and sadness in their lives.
Depressive realism is the psychological hypothesis that individuals with mild to moderate depression may perceive certain aspects of the world more accurately than those without depression. While “normal” individuals often use an optimistic bias to overestimate their capabilities or control, the theory suggests depressed individuals see reality without these illusions
Henry Miller once said that the job of every thinker, intellectual, and writer is to make those around them feel depressed, sad, and worried. I think John F. Kennedy expressed something similar about the media and press, suggesting their is to make people feel both excited and concerned. What an extraordinary philosopher and thinker Kennedy was. He should have formed an aristocratic party of the nation’s spiritual and mental elite.
Hello, many names of people have been mentioned and quoted, music that has been listened to and heard. Who, what names have we not heard or listened to? What music have we not heard ? Have we all been in only one and the same prison?
Makes me think back, past Dylan, all the way back to poor TiJean, poor Jack, (whom Dylan lionized, as did so many others), who climbed up Desolation Peak, (a real place), to find and face his demons, intending to defeat them… But he climbed back down a defeated man who, according to those who knew and loved him, would “never again be the same”… Only his own mental and spirityal deterioration lay ahead…
He “went up on the mountain, there to make his stand”, (a lyric from the old Dave Van Ronk classic ‘Hang me O Hang Me’… “Wouldn’t mind the hangin’ but it’s the layin’ in the grave so long, poor boy… I been all around this world”).
Poor Jack… poor TiJean…. went up to look his demons in their eyes, and indeed did so, but it was he, not they, that blinked… He climbed back down to spend the rest of his life sinking ever deeper ‘into a bottle’ until he drowned in the dregs of his own genius… still a brilliant writer to the ‘bitter end’… ‘The Vanity of Duluoz’, his last, was among his very best, but no measure of self-awareness nor accumulated wisdom could save him from the despair he found up on that mountain…
Beware, dear Mr. Curtin… Do not allow yourself to wallow,,, Once the vortex grabs hold of you, once you can feel its current spiraling toward the drain, you better kick like hell, boy, and stroke against that deadly current with every ounce of strength you can muster, or else you’d better say your good-byes NOW, while ye still can… (Ask me how I know about such things…)
Swing low, sweet chariot,,, “Coming forth to carry us home”… I have indeed noticed your recent hiatus, sir… And I do indeed know very well who you are… and I do most definitely “give a damn”…
Sounds t’ me like you are yourself trudging up that mountain, uselessly following the beckoning of desolation… “Rifle o’er yer shoulder, dagger in your hand”?… (Another lyric from the same old Dave Van Ronk tune as linked above)… The hangin’ won’t be that bad… But the layin’ in a cold grave for so long?… Think, sir, before you allow yourself to wallow… it will come soon enough… no need to help it along…
Some writers, (all too many, in fact), may write in self-regard, taken with demonstrating their brilliant skill with words… Likely all writers crave affirmation when they’re young and still need to prove to themselves who they are… But a well-worn writer, a mature writer, a writer who is no longer desperate to prove anything, a writer who has “been all ’round this world”, writes for a purpose that lies far beyond self-regard… That is a writer to whom his own sheer brilliance with the language no longer brings satisfaction…
Mr Curtin writes:
“The Orange Man was out and the Comatose Man was in the White House. In and out, back and forth they go, coming forth to carry us home”.. mmm… nice… but he no longer finds satisfaction in such a brilliant turn of phrase…
“If the sounds you’re hearing these days sound familiar, well, they are”. Hmm… Shades of Dylan’s own brilliance… “If you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme, keep your tambourine in time, It’s just a ragged clown behind, I wouldn’t pay it any mind, it’s just a shadow you’re seeing that he’s chasing”…
The self-deprecation of confident genius chasing shadows takes no pleasure in itself… Such self-awareness is the most telling signpost of wisdom itself, if one can withstand the swirling current once all artificial flotation devices have been cast away…
“All were outraged”, Mr. Curtin writes, “in their own ways, as such dramatic events typically manage to elicit much spilled ink informed by the writers’ various ideological positions in a media world where the categories of left and right have become meaningless, yet those of Republican and Democrat still hold the titanic power of pipe dreams”.
Whew!!… mmm… We want to exalt the writer who can set down such brilliance in mere words, but he no longer takes the least bit of satisfaction from regard of his own brilliant skill…
Mr. Curtin clearly no longer writes to garner recognition, as young writers do… He now writes to serve a purpose far beyond self-regard, and thus he can take no satisfaction any longer from the exercise of his brilliance alone, but rather will feel despair if he thinks his purpose has not been advanced…
Rest assured, Mr. Curtin… Some of us do understand… (One wonders if Patrick Lawrence may be reading)…
I have recently been trying to promote what we need to do in order to stave off being lost to despair… Mr. Curtin decries the failure of all his brilliant analyses of our current events to change their course… I am suggesting, as widely as I can, that to save ourselves from the vortex of despair, we need to desist from our incessant analyses of all these depressing events as they pass, to spend more of our time and energy in recounting our more hopeful imagination of a better future…
“May you live in interesting times”… A benediction or a curse?… It does not matter… We most assuredly do… Of all the humans who have ever been alive, not many of them have had the opportunity that History, and its sister, Fate, are holding out to offer us.
We live among the spiritual rubble of a fallen nation… The task that History and Fate have so ruthlessly set upon our shoulders is to build a new nation from the rubble that surrounds us on every side…
Ruthless??… Or kind??… Talk about “interesting times”… How could we possibly ask for more?… How could we possibly ask for a more soul-stirring challenge? 100 centuries of human strife and desperate striving, and now the outcome “all depends on us”?… Who would rather sit and cry?…Who’s willing to roll up their sleeves?…
We are living on, at, or within, (not sure which preposition is appropriate), a cusp of History where, after 100 centuries of tragedy, strife, and striving, Humanity’s very Fate, our species’ very survival, is in immediate question every single day…
From here, from this cusp on History’s wheel as it turns, we will either find our way through to a glorious future, for generations yet unborn, over millennia that are yet to pass, or else we will ALL die, to leave our legacy to the cockroaches, among the smoking radioactive cinders, perhaps hoping somehow, from our final unburied resting places, that somehow, over the next few million years, they can do better than we did…
Interesting times??… Indeed… How could we ask for anything more ‘interesting’ than this task that History and Fate have laid upon us??
Take heart, good Mr Curtin… Do NOT allow yourself to wallow… Rest assured that Humanity sorely needs for YOU, and for people like you, for the most brilliantly talented among us, to apply your wisdom and brilliance to the noble cause of our survival itself… Do not grovel in endless, and increasingly useless, analyses of the problem… Instead apply your energy and brilliant wisdom to help us all imagine the SOLUTION to the problem…
Our (Humanity’s) fate is indeed yet “blowing in the wind”…. Will the white dove ever sleep in the sand?… It’s up to us, it’s up us who now are alive, of all the generations represented by the 10,000 years of our human yearning, to answer that question. Will she ever sleep in the sand? Out of all the humans that have ever lived, it is upon us, it is upon our generation, that the task of determining the fate of Humanity itself has been laid…
Interesting times??… You betcha!!… “The time for hesitation’s through… No time to wallow in the mire”… In our times… times like none that have EVER come before… Despair is the constant companion of us ALL… We must NOT allow ourselves to wallow… There is just too dang much shit we gotta do…
Enough analysis of the problem… Time to begin working together to create a SOLUTION…
“If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem”… Eldridge Cleaver…
Enough analyses of the problem… We KNOW what the dang problem is, fer crissakes… sheesh… Instead of further analyzing the problem, which has already been as analyzed as could ever possibly be useful, let’s begin to SOLVE it instead…
Stay tuned… More coming
Thanks very much. Don’t worry. I am very far from wallowing. If I were, I would not have written this critique. Desolation Row, to my mind, is a mental and spiritual place where those who realize the cruel absurdity of our situation come together to laugh and cry and vow to never cross over to the street of lies that brings false comfort. All dissenters and artists gather here in the pursuit of truths, not to wallow, but to create something true and beautiful out of the transcendent knowledge in their hearts. As Dylan the artist put it: “to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.”
” We KNOW what the dang problem is…..”
No, you don’t, because you used citation:
“If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem”
“….Do not grovel in endless, and increasingly useless, analyses of the problem… Instead apply your energy and brilliant wisdom to help us all imagine the SOLUTION to the problem…”
Yeah…it’s bad…we have to do something about it…..
Some time ago I heard a wisdom from a psychologist regarding psychotherapies: people are very willing to change everything except fundamentals. Even when the former are obviously rotten people are very seldomly willing/able to change them.
And who knows more about Desolation than the victims of war?
You ask: Is Trump an actor like his counterpart Zelensky in Ukraine?
I concluded that virtually all of them are actors, performing their parts in scripts written by those whose names we might guess at but can never be sure of. I might like Kirk Douglas better than Burt Lancaster, but I would likely enjoy (or dislike?) the movie regardless of who was selected for the part.
At the higher reaches of the hierarchy, someone occasionally sneaks in who might not be an actor, but whose part is equivalent to an appearance on “Candid Camera”, where he is the only one who isn’t in on the joke and has no idea that he and everything around him are staged to produce a certain effect.
I don’t ever remember the venality and avarice being quite so obvious as it now is. I can only ascribe this to two things. The first is that they are now confident that there will be no further impediments to the achievement of their objectives, regardless of their own behavior. The second is that they are secure in the knowledge that accountability has entirely disappeared in our system–you can now shout truth from the rooftops, and all you can see down there in the crowds is a collective yawn. They yawn because they know nothing will be done.
What did Shakespeare say about all the world being a stage and all of us actors …?
Sometimes people forget to use their intuition. Or maybe they just don’t listen to it. I listen to mine and it has revealed truths for which I was damned by my friends. I learned to keep to myself.
These same friends now see that I was right all along and they ask me, “How did you know?”
I have no fecking’ idea how I knew. I JUST KNEW. I imagine they still won’t listen, so I keep to myself.
Also reminds of Dylan’s “Slow Train” of which lyrics read like written today. Begins and ends…
“Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
“Can’t help but wonder what’s happenin’ to my companions &
“But it sure do bother me to see my loved ones turning into puppets
“There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend”
Five and six years after the popular wisdom swallowed in toto the “scientific” claims concerning the “Covid Pandemic”and unquestioningly incarnated all of the salivating habits of Pavlov’s Dog in response to government and corporate directives designed to cripple our economy, create mindless automatons, impair thru (gain-of-function) ’vaccines’ the health of families and divide them into obstinate warring factions, there is now unimpeachable albeit unheralded evidence that Covid was a scam, a bioweapon, created in 120 U.S government-funded labs abroad (and in Raleigh, North Carolina) to be used against its own taxpayers.
Yet today, the arch criminals [elected and appointed] whom, for years, have been and yet remain at war with their own countrymen, continue to live in comfort and luxury, enjoy their emoluments, and have been disappeared from the media and public consciousness. They still prosper in no fear of prosecution for their felonies and treasons. Meanwhile, the sheepul, insensitive to our country’s historic war crimes and its ‘cup of trumbling’ alliance with “our valiant little ally in the Middle East,” are today being micro-focused on the hapless U.S. enemy of the day, and the attendant media and alternate media mind control, lies and damned lies, and endlessly show their historic awareness by ruminating about the currently reigning, sold-out, redheaded National Cockatoo, gasoline prices, and what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, to borrow the title of one of Israel Shamir’s books, “The Masters of Discourse” remain firmly in control of the international destruction throttle.
“Desolation Row!” What a title, Ed!
There are none so blind and those who will not see. There are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear. There are none so cognitively dissonant as those who disdain to alter their opinions.
Totalitarianism, incipient in our country for many years, is now completing its journey in bold, unfaltering steps… its restrainers have been silenced, removed, marginalized or demonized… while the body politic lies impotent, seemingly content with its losing struggle to participate in one or more of its fast-diminishing bread and circuses.
What remains of our culture slumbers in an increasingly uncomfortable semi awareness of a dawning, long-planned universal tribulation, hopelessly unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
Desolation Row!
the arch criminals [elected and appointed] whom, for years, have been and yet remain at war with their own countrymen —
Should be : the arch criminals, who for years have been and yet remain at war with their own countrymen, continue to
Oscar: Written hurriedly…. thanks for the grammar lesson!
Hey Oscar,,,, Thanks for the grammar lesson! (was written hurriedly – and as I speak).