Shit Hits Fan: Shop, People, Shop!

In deepest, darkest Over There, where brown men with moustaches and brown women wearing head scarves speak that annoying chittering blah blah, Bhutto died in a spewing of lead and shrapnel, dozens more innocent participants attending her rally were blown to pulp, and the destabilization that threatens to cause a geopolitical cave-in has now become even more volatile and precarious. But what do you expect from people who have no idea about family, love, devotion, children, education, society or god? Who run around hitting themselves in the chest and head with their gnarled hands, cry out of toothless, spittle-webbed mouths and invariably blame Over Here for their troubles? Makes you sick, doesn't it?

And meanwhile in Over Here, the purple mountains majesty of cardboard and sea to shining sea of torn wrapping paper is being toted off to the landfill, clearing space in our gadget crammed abodes for even more Things, Items and the all important Etceteras. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ Our Savior® who looks over us all and protects us from Evil®. For it is He who prevents those from Over There ever interfering with our god-given right to consume and waste with good ol' gay abandon. And it is Him who smites those from Over There with what's been coming to them for a long time. Over Here is God's front porch where He likes to put his feet up and from which he scans the smokey and uncertain vista, julep in hand, tsking a mighty tsk.

This latest Christmas season has had more suggestions of a coming apocalypse than of peace-on-earth-goodwill-toward-men. Yes, there will be the vomitings of tragically deranged radicals here and there, making our hearts go tachycardiac and forcing us to turn to ever less reliable sources for answers to our multiplying fears, and those answers will be of the fire-and-brimstone variety because they are the simplest and most primally digestible of concepts: we act bad, make man in sky angry, he smash us. But there will be no final destruction of the species in a storm of fire hurled from heaven or a steady volley of dirty bombs from the hands of the never seen but conveniently ubiquitous Al Quaeda (attributes similarly found in the descriptions of other gods and demons populating our New World Order). Our end will be a creeping, overwhelming numbness, a dousing of the fragile flame that flickered for the briefest of moments. Like dying, once it finally happens we'll never know it did, or that we ever were here at all. And thus does our consumer, pop and religious obsession render the human experience as it stands presently: after all that turmoil and promise just so fucking, so wastefully banal.

I'm not sure whether this is a diatribe against consumerism, ignorance or religion. I just know that I fear for a world where all of those are rampant and thoughtless and spreading by the minute. Assassinations, beheadings and torture are once again familiar rituals and routinely used terms in our modern, evolved, supposedly enlightened culture. Prevailing attitudes condone malevolence, selfishness, division, lethargy, cluelessness and violence as long as there is a profitable exchange at the end and all in the name of god and country. The static is virtually everywhere, the toxins leeching into our thirsty bodies from the air, the water, the food, the fabrics, the media are unchecked, their warnings go unheeded. Consuming is breathing. Consuming is eating. Consuming is feeling. Consuming is living. And Death is eternal. (Possible side effects include the moment preceding Death being full of regret at the loss of what we as a race could have, should have done to lessen our pain, increase our intelligence and elevate our spirit.). How's that for a sales pitch? Truth in advertising, that's all it takes. So, feel bad? Feel afraid? Feel alone? You know what to do: close your eyes and listen. You will either hear "ka-ching". Or eternal nothingness.

Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Benazir Bhutto's assassination

Comments

[Americancitizen]

Steven,
You never cease to amaze. Your pieces are always on the mark. As an English teacher for 30 years, I became more and more saddened by the lack of thinking that my students exhibited. With No Child Left Behind and other politically driven standards, we have failed our students and our country. Perhaps this is not accidental. Our government does not want free, creative, thinkers. Teaching students to think is subversive. Well, I am guilty of that subversion. I think that is where our problems today begin. We have an uneducated electorate that cannot see through the rhetoric of ads or speeches. You cannot maintain a democracy with uneducated voters. That was why Jefferson wanted a free public education system for all. We must begin by addressing our crumbling, outdated ideas about education and teach our students how to think critically if we are to survive.

[nedpotter]

I think there are a lot of comments these days about religion that unfairly characterize organized religion using only it's faults. The list of negatives from religion is long, but the list of positives is far longer. Helping the homeless, feeding the poor, buying Christmas toys for kids with incarcerated parents, support groups of all types, school supplies for kids in Haiti, mutual support during devastating personal ordeals, making blankets for kids with cancer---these are what I see happening in churches. We are imperfect sinners doing our best. Sometimes that's enough, sometimes not.
And as for the rants about consumerism, I assume you're all talking about the consumerism that occurs AFTER you buy your computer? Peace and love.

[TXfemmom]

Remember, when Roosevelt rose to speak after Pearl Harbor, he spoke eloquently and forcefully about the need for all Americans to pull together, and to SACRIFICE.

That ignorant, arrogant, mental midget Bush said GO SHOPPING FOLKS, AND CUT TAXES FOR THE RICH.

[Crowhaul]

But remember, Steven, Bush wants us all to be good little shoppers.

How dare we consider not being the consumer they want us to be...

[ramal]

Evangelical Christians believe that only the blood of Jesus Christ will bring salvation to the world. Since I no longer believe in fairy tales, but rather believe that at this point most of the world's problems are brought on by a belief in fairy tales (i.e. belief in a "skygod"; belief that science and technology will rescue us; belief that we can get something for nothing without a price to be paid.) My only belief now is that the blood of the ruling class will bring about some sort of salvation. Maybe, maybe not. I await the revolution but without much hope.

[LoriB]

If you're trying to emulate Mark Morford, it's not working.

[NoFactsJustTruth]

Steven, do you know if this 'Evil®' company has a retail store? I went to an 'evil' website, but I DON'T think that was the same thing, and not really very evil either. I'd sort of like to at least also see the options, you know, before I purchase what I KNOW a bunch of damned hypocrites are trying to sell me.

I mean, I've seen the 'Thank the Lord Jesus Christ Our Savior®' stores in some of the malls, and since OUR 'consumerism' is now manifestly tied to religion, that mean's SHOPPING is a path to eternal salvation,...RIGHT?

I'm thinking that the idea some have of 'Heaven' - is INDEED credit cards with 'no limits' and an eternity of 'shopping'. With every 'purchase' an angel gets it's wings...

Shopping, buying, fit and a shan,
The Devil's tool is an idle hand...bag.
Oh well..

Thank you, again, Steven. You're anathema to ANY of the current 'status quo' leaders that're STILL playing 'fear cards' at us, and saying 'stay the course'.

[lamarguerite]

Steven,

I can relate to your lament. Thanks for being one more voice speaking of the growing unease in our world. A dark cloud is coming over us, made up of many of the things you mention. Dogmas, magical thinking, power, consumption, pollution, alienation, greed, obscurantism, all add up to make us all feel anxious. Even the lightness of Christmas was not enough to lift us out of our fears.

And then comes the question of why? Why is this happening? Can't we all love each other, and let in the light?

http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com

[luzcannon]

Well said, Mr. Weber. Love your style, sympathize with your POV.
and
you have to take your fabulous intelligence, your gifts, your passion and despair, and do the hard hard work of imagining how we can turn things around. Present us with one story, one scenario of hope.
We could rededicate this country's resources into inventing and manufacturing remedial and zero-net-impact technologies. Write that speech - I Have A Green DREAM, if I may reference one individual who did imagine, who did find a vision to give to his people.
I love your rants, being likeminded. *And* I encourage you to go beyond. Make shit up, help create the vision we need. We need those stories more than anything if we are to survive. Our job as artists is not just to reflect reality, it is to create it. As the man said "IMAGINE".

[goldcoastsailor]

There was a time in Europe called the Enlightenment, when Protestants and Catholics thought maybe they could live together without killing each other. Out of this came our American form of government. The history of Islam has no such enlightenment. What we need is a new worldwide enlightenment, a turning away from official religious sanctioned rule, otherwise the unease with everything that you feel will be the new dark ages coming home to roost.

[tiredofthis]

Thank you for putting it all into perspective--where did i set that VISA card down??

[JudyGee]

It's the shit in the shopping bags. We will buy anything, wear it or eat it. There is already toxic fatigue, Americans having a very short attention span. China, it should be noted, apologized just the other day for feeding antidepressants to the fish they dye. My brain screamed but it was only a silent echo in my mouth. Perhaps, they also sent over some mutated viruses, the new kind that causes us to die when we get a cold. We no longer even know what it means to be civilized, and why it is the highest good. Or, why it's destruction began with us, at the moment we stepped over a homeless person or held our noses from the stink, or didn't wonder aloud why the mentally ill were roaming the streets instead of living in group homes, as was once the plan. So, perhaps it is fitting that we have elevated the most base and viscious among us, the most corrupt and larded, and been robbed and mugged and impoverished by them. We are a very dark and soulless place. The Statue in the harbor should be removed. America is no longer here. We are among the disappeared, and all we have left behind is just the incessant bleating of CNN, with more news of our irrelevant stock market, the phony statistics, the fake oil prices. And a hyphen.

[Curiouser]

Shopping won't get us out of this mess. But then, I think most of us know that already.

Religion won't get us out of this mess. We know that too.

Violence only makes matters worse. Besides, it was Jesus who promoted turning the other cheek. Is that where the expression "cheeky" came from?

I don't know the solution to the problems. But I know there are many. I wish the White House knew as much.

[TheIndependenceParty]

In the weekend following the assassination of President John Kennedy, ... the construction of the new house across from my home was stopped, as was virtually all work in America. glimmering grey light shined through windows everywhere, ... televisions bringing truth, we hoped.

My brother and I dug a hole in the homesite across the street, and covered it with plywood planks, in the grey, cold, third weekend of November 1963, ... to find warmth from worry, and escape from fear. It did not work for us then, and it will not work for the children of Pakhistan today!

The "X-Rays" which have been released may be related to the death of Benazir Bhutto, but they are cartoons, ... not true radiographs, and certainly not proof of the cause of her death.

To this day, the American People have never received a full and unveiled accounting of the death of President John F. Kennedy. Autopsy photos were included in the Warren Report which could not possibly have been those of our President. No explanation for the substitution has ever been provided.

Pakhistan's children will deserve a full accounting of why Ms. Bhutto's assasiantion is or is not fully and appropriately documented. I assure you that they will want, and eventually demand, a much clearer accounting than we received here in the United States, so many years ago.

May Benazir Bhutto rest in peace, and be forever revered by her sisters and brothers in Pakhistan, as a faithful daughter of Islam, and as a patriot, and proponent for the preservation of Democracy in her homeland. Her faith in the Prophet and in her Pakhistani People will shine forever, both in her Home and in All the World.

I am honored to have lived in the days when she was among us here on the Earth.






There were no riots that I recall.

[degjack]

Whoa...! Your writing is...violent.

Yes, it would appear the planet and its species are dying.