Hearts, Minds, Souls – The Whole Thing
November 5, 2008
When you do anything personal or close to your heart, you put your soul into it and there isn’t any doing that by half. It’s the same with writing.
One of my favourite stories about creativity one that Winton Marsalis tells about Milt Jackson, the legendary vibraphone player with the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Marsalis, part of a New Orleans jazz dynasty, got to jam with his hero when he himself was a prodigious young trumpet player on the scene.
Marsalis stepped up on the stage and played a couple of standards, awestruck and nervous but holding his own to play alongside his idols. When he came off, Milt Jackson said: “You notice how the music changed after you was up there?”
Marsalis said: “Yeah, I heard that.”
Jackson: “You know why that was?”
Marsalis: “No why?”
Jackson: “That’s cause you wasn’t up there.”
It’s like anything you do – but if you put yourself into it and people don’t like it, then there’s nothing more you could have done.
While I’m here and it’s the day it is, I’d like to extend a warm This Is This congratulations to Barack Obama. While it’s a staggering landmark in politics, my only concern is that the consequences it will have on gun-toting fascism and the far right.
Under the Bush administration, state-sponsored gun-toting fascism was tolerated and allowed to exist where it could be monitored and regulated.
Under Obama, my fear is that this will drive corporate greed and race-hate underground, making it more attractive and pushing breaches of the Geneva Convention into the shadows where it will thrive in backstreet Guantanamo Bays.
We’ll see I guess. Don’t let me spoil the moment.
I actually like Joe Biden from what I’ve seen, although I don’t know too much about him. Of the four candidates, he was very much the George Harrison of the bunch, and similarly I think we’ll warm to him.
9 comments
Isn’t Obama the Anti-Christ who’s going to bring about the End of Days? I suspect that I will have a good chortle this evening checking out various right wing and fundie websites I’ve bookmarked at home.
Personally I’m pleased this morning that there are signs that America’s slide into a right wing fascist religous dictatorship was not as inevitable as I feared it might be and perhaps may even be reversed.
Say one thing about Dubya though he was a bit like Mrs T, you either loved him or hated him but you couldn’t ignore the crazy bastard.
Mention Gordon Brown or David Cameron to my own teenage kids and they’ll shrug in indifference but they’ve definitely both got strong opinions on the subject of George W Bush and we’re not even Americans.
I’m confused, here.
Was Marsalis playing WELL onstage or not?
Does ‘toting a gun’ make you a fascist automatically? I mean, an American citizen’s right to bear arms is protected by the Constitution for a reason- it’s so that if the American Citizenry doesn’t like the government, and has to use force to remove it, they can. Is that fascist? I rather think that’s just a way of saying, ‘OK, we put you in charge, but – you don’t rule. Take away the right to bear arms and the First Amendment and the American citizen is nothing more than a subject- to a whim.
I’m confused, here.
Was Marsalis playing WELL onstage or not?
No.
Does ‘toting a gun’ make you a fascist automatically?
No.
I mean, an American citizen’s right to bear arms is protected by the Constitution for a reason- it’s so that if the American Citizenry doesn’t like the government, and has to use force to remove it, they can. Is that fascist?
No, but now I’m confused. You’re saying the head of state presides over a population who are protected by a law that states that if they don’t like their president, and they have enough firepower, they can force them out of office?
I rather think that’s just a way of saying, ‘OK, we put you in charge, but – you don’t rule. Take away the right to bear arms and the First Amendment and the American citizen is nothing more than a subject- to a whim.
In the UK, we don’t have citizens. We only have subjects. Some we don’t discuss at the dinner table.
No.
OK.
No.
Good. I don’t own any but I have many friends that do, and many have concealed carry permits.
No, but now I’m confused. You’re saying the head of state presides over a population who are protected by a law that states that if they don’t like their president, and they have enough firepower, they can force them out of office?
Yep. that’s why that particular amendment is there- so that the people can change the government by force if necessary. The whole point.
But it’s not aimed at the President, who technically does not rule over the population but rather is a check/balance for the Senate and Congress.
We have those subjects over here too. I seem to discover at least one on a daily basis. In conversation. Over dinner.
Not as confused as we are Ed, what’s gun control go to do with your new Prez ? I know gun rights are a big issue out there in the colonies but it’s largely a non issue on this side of the pond. it is a non issue to me, I’m opposed to an armed citizenry here but if you folks want to arm yourself to the teeth it’s your country not mine feel free to do so.
Back in George Washington’s day the ultimate in military hardware was a musket and virtually everyone had one, the balance of power between the government and the peasantry was a lot more balanced so I would wonder just how relevant the Second Amendment is today, I rather doubt a citzenry armed with handguns and hunting rifles would be much of a match for a military with helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles.
In America government comes up from the people, whereas in the UK – no matter how many Human Rights Acts are passed – we are conditioned to think that government comes down from, well, the government. It’s a difference that basically explains a lot of the differences between the American attitude to government and human rights and the British one. It’s a post-revolution thing, I think.
Nice point Katherine.
And the HM the Queen is the head of the government.
Whereas the US has: “government of the people, by the people, for the people”
… we have (does the voice): “By me, for them, for the people.”
Keef – I missed this comment first time as you were held in moderation (I think you must sign in from two machines, because you confuse my spam filters.
I think this is really fun. US citizens pay taxes and fund the armed forces, whose commander in chief is their elected president. The people have the right to bear legally registered weapons and try to overthrow the government.
The rules:
If a citizen dies, the government can’t be held acountable.
If a citizen kills anyone they can be executed by the government.
Any weapons bourne by citizens in combat must be registered and approved by the government they are trying to overthrow.
I do use 2 machines Cliff, my home one and my work one (usually the latter) but I work (well turn up daily at least) for a large American corporation and depending on load my connection gets routed through proxy servers all over the world,
If I visit websites that track where visitors come from it’s fascinating to see where they think I am, Usually it’s either Atlanta, Georgia or Richmond, Virginia but I have made guest appearances from Germany, Korea and China.
I am not in fact located in any of these exciting places but in a decrepit 1960’s office block not too far north of Birmingham (the original one not the one in Alabama)
Leave a comment. Play nice. I will turn this blog around.