Civil War in Iraq?
Gandalf Grey
By Bob Patterson
Created Nov 4 2006 - 12:32pm
The Main Stream Media coverage of the WMD kerfuffle in Iraq isn't the only
indication that Surrealism is quietly experiencing a revival that has
escaped the notice of the roster of conservative talk show hosts. The Los
Angeles County Museum of Art [1] is preparing for a Magritte [2] show. The
movie Tidelands is a stealth cultural treasure that satirizes the "lovable
dysfunctional family" genre with ghoulish glee. Runing With Scissors is the
story about living without the restraints of the conformity of the
bourgeois. The ultimate proof that the philosophy of Andre Breton has become
a dominant force in the contemporary scene will come next Wednesday, when
the mid-term elections deliver control of both the House of Representatives
and the Senate to the Democrats and President George W. Bush claims the
results are an overwhelming mandate for him to continue his present Iraq
policy, whatever it is.
On page 886 of The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, readers will, in the
section titled "Surrealism," find this slogan: "The simplest surrealist
gesture is going out into the street, gun in hand, and taking pot shots at
the crowd!" The Surrealism revival has reached explosive levels in Iraq.
President Bush, who reads Camus, surely knows that the best way to fight
surrealism in the streets of Baghdad, is to respond in kind, and so, on
November 8, 2006, he can say that the American people have decreed that
Congress will run domestic policy via the new Democratic majorities, and he
will dispense his infallible foreign policy in the same way that his loyal
subjects have come to know and love.
Jean-Paul Sartre has written: "The supreme refinement of consumption is to
destroy the possession without enjoying it." Doesn't that describe the
efforts to establish democracy in Iraq?
Can fans of surrealism hear the latest casualty numbers and not think of
this bit of dialogue from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Oh don' bother
me," said the Duchess, "I never could abide figures." One can also respond:
"It's just a number."
The number of possibilities for surrealists far exceeds those for most
people because they refuse to be shackled by the constraints of reality.
Does anyone doubt that when surrealists hear about closet gays leading a
legal move to outlaw gay marriage, they would applaud enthusiastically?
Andre Breton defined Surrealism thus: "Pure psychic automatism, by which it
is intended to express, whether verbally or in writing, or in any other way,
the real process of thought. Thought's dictation, free from control by the
reason independent of any asthetic or moral preoccupation." (Ibid page 885)
Would he not be wildly enthusiastic about using computer programming to
"flip" votes in a democracy?
When asked why Osama had not been apprehended, President Bush replied by
saying: "because he's hiding." Even a surrealist understands that.
When you ask "How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb,"
the truly hip will answer the riddle by proclaiming: "The chair!"
If a building just collapsed, would that be surrealism? Would it be
sabotage, or, if other nearby buildings had been rammed by jets, would it
just be considered an act of sympathy and a show of surrealistic solidarity?
A true surrealist can open Thus Spoke Zarathustra and point at random to a
passage and find it worth quoting. "Proving comes hard to him: he considers
it more important to be belived." You can apply that to a certain someone's
WMD's claim, fighter pilot experience, and/or faith in electronic voting
machines.
In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad wrote: "There was a touch of insanity in
the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight: and it was not
dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of
natives - he called them enemies! - hidden out of sight somewhere."
In Catch 22, Joseph Heller wrote: "Nothing so wonderful as war had ever
happened to them before, and they were afraid it might never happen to them
again."
Suppose a company was operating in an area where it was unable to be held
liable for mistakes and could get government contracts without bidding, and
yet they called it quits after collecting 21 billion dollars. Would that
qualify as surrealism?
Camus wrote: "Exquisite sensibilities evoke the elementary furies of the
beast."
In a world of existentialists, wouldn't someone who says: "I am the
decider!," be king?
Jack Kerouac wrote: "But then they danced down the streets like
dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after
people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the
ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of
everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace
thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding
like spiders across the stars iand in the middle you see the blue
centerlight and eveybody goes 'Awww!'"
Now, the disk jockey has reached into a pile of records, picked one at
random, and will now play the Rolling Stones song commonly refered to as
Star Star . It's time. Have the kind of week that would shock Andre Breton.
_______
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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson