I faint. Bring rosewater!

It's been fulminating in certain circles in past weeks, a vague, generalized discomfort almost palpable.

They can't quite put their finger on it, but something just isn't what they expected somehow.

Of course, the last several months' worth of victims could have told all of them, nothing has changed. The bombing, the torture, maiming, dispossession, all the smorgasbord of atrocities that has defined the USA since early genocide enthusiasts first declared itself to be a nation, continues apace.

This is, from the standpoint of politics, a shrewd move. Obama did not win by a landslide. Nearly half the US voting class preferred the old white dude who has been hit in the head one time too many.

And of those who did want Obama, few of them oppose the policies themselves, though many have strong opinions on how the various invasions, occupations, kidnappings and slaughter should be conducted.

The Obama administration is, very simply giving the people what they want.

And doing so with no small level of aplomb, as evidenced by decrees to the effect that the door will be left open on this or that, deftly avoiding an increase in outrage on the part of detractors, and at the same time reassuring the majority – and of course the corporate sponsors – the beneficiaries of those policies, that it will be business as usual in Palestine, in Occupied Pakistan, and naturally in the two more public theatres, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The "interrogation facilities" will continue operating, with some text about looking into considering the advisability of forming a task force to examine the possibility of re-evaluating the "public" item in that grisly little column, to assuage the vague discomfort of the miniscule minority opposed to seizing human beings and hauling them off for "interrogation." Indefinitely.

Very occasionally, one runs into someone, typically very young and very idealistic, who will unabashedly acknowledge that they fully expected the US to cease aggression and disarm the afternoon immediately following the inaugural parad, and that by sundown, Leonard Peltier – and the victims in all the dungeons – would be free and in or on their way to the bosoms of their loved ones, and by the next morning, the gunmen, torturers, and various operatives infesting the various theatres of atrocity would be repatriated, and a national health care system announced at lunchtime.

None of that has happened, nor will it, because those atrocities, those invasons and occupations, the massacres and killing sprees and maimings, the torture, will go on, not only because they make big money for big companies, but because it is the will and desire of the American people – at least the mainstream demographic, the (at least erstwhile) affluent "voting class," that it be so.

Suppose that the United States is The Hills (which, of course, it is, but that's a whole nother rant) Obama is not Adam DiVello, he's certainly not a sponsor. Obama is not MTV, he is just Lauren.

According to the Gallup.com website, the poll released on April 28 showed that the margin of pro-torture Americans was just a few percentage points above the margin of popular votes received by Obama, according to data made public shortly after the election.

Beliefs are beliefs. They are not about logic, they have no obligation, nor do they come with a guarantee, that they and facts will not have their differences.

Beliefs can, and as we see in this case, sometimes do, cause harm to others, including the believers.

They can also, and as we see in this case, frequently do give very real comfort to the believers, even when, and I think we might even say especially when, those believers have little else.

It would be different if it were just a matter of persuading one man to wave a magic wand and turn back time, unclick the "Submit Order" button, and magically "fix it."

The reality, however, is that he is just one man, and quite without magical powers. Obama is just Lauren, who does not have the power, for example, to single-handedly void a contract for advertising time signed and paid for years ago.

The US population has made some choices, not once, but over and over, consistently, for quite some time now.

To suggest that they did not know what they were doing, that they do not really want the merchandise that they ordered, and that is now being unloaded onto the dock, but were helpless to do anything about it, is to insult both their intelligence and their integrity.

Granted, not all are agreed on the subject of photos.

Some want documentation that their wishes are being carried out, their tax money spent as they ordered, while others just want it done, but consider photos to be "in bad taste," and anyone who publishes them to be motivated by a mean-spirited desire to "make America look bad."

The absurdity of this view, when considered from the perspective of the victims and their loved ones, is not without pathos.

Suggest to an "average American" that its thugs on a killing spree foreign policy might enjoy the same popularity globally as domestically, or, if you're a real badass, dare to imply that the world and its population are not the property of the US, and 99 times out of 100, the response will be something about how the US has much bigger weapons and just might have to whip them out to stamp out dangerous ideas like that.

If it did not kill people, it would be a cute and comical folkway.

There are some gaps that can't be bridged, and this is one.

That does not change the reality that there are whole huge swaths of the earth where it is now almost impossible to find a single soul whose life has not been touched by US "policies," who does not at least know someone who has been kidnapped, murdered, tortured, maimed, invaded, occupied, generally dispossessed courtesy of, and in accordance with the desires of the American taxpayer.

Events set in motion so long ago cannot be turned back, no more than time itself.

Notwithstanding the illusions of those who may understandably feel some vague discontent that may come to identify itself as a prick or several of buyer's remorse, as the fine print is read, and the clarity of hindsight reveals writ large upon the wall the lines of the sad last hour we players of all the world will collectively strut, Obama is but a mortal man, a human being, and as such no less deserving of compassion than the victims of the bloodlust, the personification of which is his chosen destiny.

To Greed has ever gone the spoils, our species will fall, not to some unique and new malevolence. Greed is a tired old rag of malevolence, our mortal blow is simply a matter of degree – and timing.

Aggressors deliver their own future into the hands of their victims, and while in a perfect world, those victims would show themselves to be a better class of folks than those aggressors, this is, due to human nature, unlikely, and just how unlikely is born out by human history.

Every empire since recorded history would have done the same thing, had it had the means, just as surely as all have eventually fallen on their own sword. The difference in our own time is that the US-dominated empire of "key industries" will fall on a sword that – plainly speaking again – blow us all up.

Societies make choices, and choices have consequences. The choices the US society has made, and has been allowed by the rest of the world to implement – choices like consolidating all but a fraction of the world's resources into a very few hands, the development and collection of weaponry capable of destroying the earth several times over, are not compatible with the survival of our species.

Is there, then, to be no hope?

That depends on the goal.

If we, as a global society, truly have a shared goal of a future – any kind of future, then we would do well to heed the wise words of Derrick Jensen's seminal article "Beyond Hope:

"hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency; it means you are essentially powerless."

We the weak are far from powerless. In fact, as T.S. Eliot reminded us long ago,

"Beware the weapons of the weak. The strong have no defence against them."

Perhaps Eliot was having a premonition of Jensen:

"When you give up on hope, you turn away from fear.

And when you quit relying on hope, and instead begin to protect the people, things, and places you love, you become very dangerous indeed to those in power.

In case you're wondering, that's a very good thing."

NOTE:
This was originally posted to my Baywords Blog over a year ago, but in light of the recent decree that the activities of US gunmen and assorted "wet work" operatives in this or that ancient land shall cease, effective immediately, to be referred to as "combat," it seems appropriate to make it available here.

Obviously, one could make the argument that in the reality-based universe, the victims are equally dead, maimed, dispossessed, tortured, and/or all of the above regardless of what terms the US taxpayers are instructed to use or refrain from using when thinking or speaking of the actions that are, to them, more precious and desirable than their own lives, even the lives or a chance for a future for their children.

To do so, however, would be disingenuous, as it would ignore the very real comfort that so many of those taxpayers receive from obeying the decree.

Think of those Xtreme horror movie scenes where the monster wins, where no hero arrives at the last minute to save the group of helpless huddled victims.

As the savage beast is smashing through the door, the mothers cover their children's eyes, and in broken, halting voices, begin to sing lullabies or whisper happy tales of magical castles and beautiful princesses, fighting to the death, that one last battle - to give their babies the only thing they can hope to give them before their inevitable grisly doom - a few seconds of comfort.

Can he call himself humane, who would yank the mothers' hands away?

Resistance or opposition, armed or unarmed, to any policies or actions of the US or Israel is the de facto definition of terrorism.

The US-funded attack by Israeli thugs on people who dared to attempt to take aid to atrocity victims crammed into what is believed to be the World's Largest Concentration Camp is just a reminder, that underlines in innocent blood the ancient truth that those who would step between a rich man and his next chest of gold do so at their own peril.

The reminder was needed because a few hundred of the 6 billion people on earth tried to take aid to atrocity victims, and a few thousand more cheered them on.

It's especially important that the world's youth, who, like all other up-and-coming new generations before them, tend to be both impetuous and more idealistic than pragmatic, understand that any and all notions of right and wrong, good and evil aside, business is business.

It's not so much that "defense" industry companies would receive less revenue if aid were taken to Gaza. It's about setting an example, driving home a lesson. In this case, the point, the lesson is that if the United States, as Chief Warlord, and Israel, as its pet goon squad, say that the people in Gaza shall receive no aid, those who defy that decree will be exterminated.

Those who google the specifics of events in the Levant back through the centuries will learn that the actual human beings who constitute the Palestinian population, are, like the people of Afghanistan, of Iraq, basically victims of geography. They all happened to be born in the wrong place at any time.

All the debates, the beliefs, the emotions, are nothing more than the desired results of the marketing necessary in order to maximize the profits of the corporate players of what the media - and historians - have termed "The Great Game."

The bottom line is that it's about the bottom line. Arithmetic. Plain old numbers and the quantity of riches they represent.

Israel, the "fat little pit bull with the important job of guarding America's oil in the region," will be praised by many for "showing restraint" in their attack on the little handful of ships who sought to bring aid to the victims of the last few decades of atrocity survivors huddled in the camp.

The response was carefully calibrated. The people of the United States have provided Israel with more than enough weaponry to vaporize all the boats with a single shot.

But with politicians on board, even unpopular ones who fail to praise crimes against humanity as a standard business practice the decision was made to go with a very high-visibility attack on one boat, murder a few, maim a few dozen.

The objective was to set an example and serve as a warning to the other boats in the little convoy, and to the world's people, that when the warlord says these people shall receive no aid, those people shall be bombed, that family shall be tortured, that child assaulted, anyone opposed is subject to immediate extermination.

Though obviously it is easier to market armed or violent resistance as "terrorism," that any opposition, whatever form it takes, constitutes an act of terrorism, (as does opposition to that principle itself), is so deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of such a large swath of the world's people, that politicians on board or not, the "calibrated" attack was, for its part, merely an instance of that abundance of unnecessary caution typical of US strategists.

The mainstream population of the US, let alone that of Israel, is not only accustomed to seeing their tax money used to blow people up - they actively desire and wish this.

The decades of systematic and ceaseless marketing have so successfully de-humanized so many "Other" populations that today all that is needed is an announcement that this or that group opposes the bombing of another group, and are therefore in need of bombing themselves, in order to liberate them from their "anti-American sentiments."

The position of those populations NOT being currently bombed was illustrated the other day by German President Horst Koehler, who suddenly found himself in a world of hurt, when he pointed out that business is business.

It is not only forbidden to oppose atrocity, it is forbidden to mention the reality that those who fail to be complicit, to "go along," are subject to being seized and hauled off to one "facility" or other (the existence of which it is also forbidden to mention) where they will be "detained indefinitely" and "interrogated intensely."

The only permitted behavior is to wait for the sound of the bombers over your city, wait quietly for your child's name to be called, and when it is, hand him over.

Revolutions - the real kind, not the "as seen on TV" business decision kind, occur only when a sizeable majority of a population knows that they will be killed, one way or another, no matter what they do.

Once I have that certainty, that I will die whether I obey you or not, that is the tipping point that punctures the balloon that holds all your negotiating chips. That balloon - my life - is your last chip.

By attacking only one ship, the US warlords and their Israeli hired guns not only reinforced the message that those who oppose them will die, but its converse - those who obey, those who are complicit, are rewarded with a chance that they might live.

It's The Great Game's Grand Prize for the little man, for the Good German. Enter for a chance to win!

Just as a few thousand of us around the world, even a few old people like me who cannot plead the misty-eyed idealism of youth, grasped at that frail straw of hope for our species represented by the Gaza Flotilla - and knew exactly what we were doing, the overwhelming majority of the world's people - without realizing what they are doing at all - grasp at that carefully calibrated chance for their individual survival.

It's such a small thing. A few hundred people taking aid to Gaza, a small patch of our planet that holds the distinction of containing the most human beings per square foot, mile, meter, your pick, beating out even longtime champion Tokyo in the population density event.

Gaza also holds the record for atrocity victim density.

We could easily call it The World's Largest Concentration Camp, too, if it weren't such a tiny geographical area, and if we had more deets on the unknown number of serious contenders are broiling across the sprawling Sahara.

Killing, maiming and torturing the men, women, and children crammed into Gaza is the de facto favorite sport of Israel, which someblogger used to call "the USA's fat little pitbull," assigned to the "very important job of guarding America's oil in the region."

That's just a colorful, bloggerish way of pointing out that every grisly crime committed against the residents of Gaza, and the Palestinians as a people and as a nation, is nothing but the implementation of yet another business decision, no diffferent from Darfur, from Occupied Iraq, Occupied Afghanistan, Occupied, Pakistan, all the various countries in which business decisions are being implemented.

The world has become so enured to these business decisions, and the impact they have on human beings, that a few hundred people setting out to take aid to a group of atrocity victims, it gets in all the papers! It's news!

Just as a drowning man will grasp at a straw, an unreasoning, instinctive reflex, so do the few of us who dare, in thought, word, deed, or any combination, to oppose the implementation of these business decisions grasp at the Gaza Flotilla.

It is our straw of hope. If there can be a few hundred of us who have the resources - and the will to apply them - to take aid to one group of victims, can we apply the cockroach in the kitchen rule?

Could that mean that there are at least a few hundred more of us who wish we were on that Flotilla, but are too old, too infirm, too poor, to go anywhere?

Could there even be a few hundred who just needed a light turned on, a head-bop with a clue stick, an example set, who might go on a subsequent Flotilla?

Could there be subsequent Flotillas, even if US-funded Israeli gunmen turn this one, and those several hundred people into red mist?

The people on the Gaza Flotilla are not heroes. In recent years, especially in the US, it has become standard practice to label as a "hero" anyone who exhibits even the most basic common decency.

If you saw someone bleeding on the side of the road and stopped to help, if you saw a child being assaulted and chased off the attacker, if you shoved an old lady out of oncoming traffic, rescued a kitten from a burning building - you will very likely be called a "hero" in the media of any country who picks up the story. If the US media picks it up, you can count on it.

It's just another odd conundrum of our topsy-turvy world that in a culture molded by such sustained and successful marketing efforts, the same "hero" label is just as routinely applied to he who caused the bleeding, attacked the child, ran over the old lady, or set fire to the house - provided, of course, that the perpetrator's actions were taken in the context of the implementation of business decisions, so that rich men might obtain more money.

People taking aid to atrocity victims are not heroes, and should not be news.

That the Gaza Flotilla is news, that this is what our species has come to, is the really big story, and the people on that Flotilla, though not heroes, are nevertheless much more than just decent human beings, though they are certainly that.

They are undeniably courageous, unarguably selfless. They are risking their own lives to help their brothers and sisters, but what they represent goes way beyond even that noble goal.

The Gaza Flotilla is a straw of hope, for any and all human beings who, even as we drown in the bloody waters of our own destruction, continue to oppose doing harm to others, even in the name of business.

Here are my blogs. I don't really need another one.

A Celebration of Fine Trash TV
http://mangonocturna.blogspot.com

Twilight: Random Layers of Lemons and Lulz
http://twilightapalooza.blogspot.com

Digital Immigrant Ghetto
http:/digitalimmigrantghetto.blogspot.com


I am also stalkable on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mangonocturna