Refusing to Submit to the Laws of Silence

A few days ago, at the venerable and genteel Chatauqua Institution in upstate New York, Anglo/American, Indian-born author Salman Rushdie was brutally attacked as he got up to address an audience about threats to freedom of expression in the world today.  Rushdie has intimate knowledge of what he speaks; he had to live in hiding for years after a fatwa and a bounty were placed on his head in response to perceived blasphemy in his novel, The Satanic Verses (1988).

In an article about Rushdie's assailant, the young man's mother says her son changed after visiting his father in Lebanon, predominantly bitter because she'd never introduced him to Islam.  He became moody and quarrelsome, sleeping all day and staying awake all night.

What really struck me is that in the middle of the article, the following advertisement appeared.  Was it because I'd mentioned the group in recent posts, so the ad targeted me, or is it something much more cynical?

To whit (the ad from the article in question):

Meeting Jihadists with Crusaders

If this ad appeared because LoS recently mentioned the Templars, it's understandable, that's how algorithms work.  If I Google "flights to Addis Ababa," I'd expect to see ads for flights for Adis Ababa on sites I visit.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence. 

But if they're intentionally marketing Templar-themed gear in an article about about a violent attack by a young Muslim, who appears to have been motivated by an old fatwa declared by the Ayatollah Khomeini, well....wtf, no?

The Templar motif has been widely used by groups both benign and malevolent, but like so many once-noble symbols, Templar imagery has been co-opted by the far right.  

"OK?" 

"18?"   

"Don't tread on me?"

White nationalists who have "defended" Europe from Muslim immigration are in the mix, Anders Breivik among them.  

But....using the attempted murder of Rushdie to sell merchandise, symbolically pitting one religion against another?  Responding to an Imam-inspired attack by marketing Templar-themed clothing, the cross staring right atcha....

It may be a coincidence.  Or it may be Diabolical....

Right-wingers call Latino immigration to the US an "invasion."  Some rght-wing Europeans see Muslims as the invaders.  All part of the "plan" -- the "Great Replacement" -- facilitated by the European left.  Which is why Breivik targeted young Socialists in his rampage that left over 70 dead.  Future "replacement facilitators," I suppose. (See more on Breivik as a fake cop, fake Freemason and fake Templar....)

And young, radicalized Muslims seem all too happy to riposte to the ripostes.  A "Cold Crusade," if you will.  No shortage of troubled, alienated young men on both "sides" to push into the role of martyr.  Who doesn't want to be a hero?

It goes without saying,  LoS supports an author's right to express their ideas, and if it so happens, to offend.  Just like we supported the arguably more offensive Charlie Hebdo.  

We wish Mr. Rushdie a speedy recovery and commend his courage in the face of threats he received during his defense of free speech for writers in any genre, anywhere they may be.  Obviously, not idle threats.  Rushdie's courage in the face of danger was not something played up by clever agents and publishing marketing departments.

And courage is needed, because these things have a way of snowballing and spawning copycats:  Police are already investigating a threat to J.K. Rowling after she tweeted her support for Rushdie.  

Try as you might, you can't silence us all.  If anything, you'll just encourage more insult and blasphemy, if only out of spite.  Ponder that.  I had half a mind to republish that infamous Mohammed cartoon, but I did that before, at the time it was really overheating the hookahs....Maybe I'll just film myself eating bacon off my copy of the Quran.  But to be honest, I have too many Muslim friends I respect to do that.  But see where the mind goes when you physically asault us?  Not pleasant places to visit.  There are better ways to speak up, and perhaps one of those ways is before your eyes.

By the way, the book which started this hubbub, The Satanic Verses, has, as of this writing, once again become a bestseller (number 1, in fact).  A fatwa and a brutal onstage stabbing;  now that's marketing!  I'm gonna have my publisher put an ad on Craigslist:  "Young, alienated Salafi wanted for a one-time performance, all expenses paid.  To be remunerated upon completion of the job.  Ice Mine author to be silenced.  (Please note that given the current shortage due to fierce competition from QAnon Global Elites, 72 underage virgins cannot be guaranteed, although a spot in Paradise has already been reserved)."

I think it could work.  I'll wear a bullet-proof vest and a kevlar helmet.  When the bodyguard I've hired -- I know a cop from Uvalde, Texas who moonlights as private security -- subdues the attacker, we'll go down to the bar for some porkchops and beer, and start planning on how to spend the money my now-infamous novella will rake in.

Good job trying to suppress Rushdie's work, stabber-lee.  You dumbass.  Salamu alaykum....

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Camus' Son is a real Mothertucker

If you read this blog now and again you know we are interested in political extremism, conspiracy theory, and fascism.  We are not political extremists, conspiracy theorists, or fascists.

  

I can read Mein Kampf and not be a Nazi, and I can read The Communist Manifesto and not be a Marxist.  I can watch Fox News and...well, no.  I can't watch that (not-so-crypto)-fascist gibberish.  Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Tucker Carlson.  A Trinity of SWM outrage.  Fair and balanced commentary in a methane atmosphere.  TV emissions from a herd of swine.  

When Anders Breivik shot 67 and wounded 32 teenagers on Utøya Island after his bomb rocked Oslo, killing 8, I was horrified.  Two more people died during the massacre, attempting to escape.  77 people murdered in the name of the Great Replacement.

But his "manifesto" intrigued me.  His claim to be a Freemason (which he was, and was summarily expelled), his claim to be a member of a neo-Templar network (he wasn't)....all those elements made me curious as to what his influences were. Not from prurient interest, but as an historian, and as a writer with a long-standing interest in the radical right, Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, and the effects of the rabbit-hole of conspiracy theory.

I try to understand these things, not to glorify them, but to decrypt them, to find the dog-whistles, and, hopefully, make them easier to identify.  I don't feel I need an agenda to justify researching and writing about the things I find interesting (and deeply troubling), but it helps to announce that your intentions aren't nefarious.  For those unused to the codes of this milieu, it's easy to overlook the things obvious to those who are not.  When Carlson says "replacement," to most it's just a word.  For some, the works of French writer Renaud Camus come to mind.  

Christchurch, 2019.  51 dead.  El Paso, 2019.  22 dead.  Buffalo, 2022.  10 dead.  All mass shootings whose perpetrators cited the "Great Replacement" as a motive for their terrorism. Unite the Right rally, Charlottesville, 2017, Tiki-Time:  "Jews, will not, replace us!"

I understand why people don't want to spread the writings of white supremacist terrorists.  Breivik's 2083 is a rambling screed of 1000+ pages.  Mostly copy-pasted from online sources.  Gendron's document is much shorter, but is also cobbled together in the same fashion.  Both use the Great Replacement conspiracy theory as a justification for their actions, and their fury lies as much with the left-wingers who "enable" it as the "replacers" themselves.  Breivik, if you recall, murdered leftist white youths, not minorities.  People he called "Cultural Marxists."  Another far-right conspiracy theory. Standard Carlson rhetoric, by the by.

Briefly stated, the Great Replacement theory was first articulated in print by French writer Renaud Camus in books dating back to 2010 and 2011:  L'Abécédaire de l'in-nocence (Abecedarium of no-harm) and Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement).  

Camus wrote that French elites on the left, the Gauche caviar ("Caviar left"), are encouraging immigration and suppressing white birthrates in order to create a base of left-wing voters. These immigrants, he says, are easier to manipulate, and naturally more sympathetic to the left.

The American far right is obsessed with overturning Roe v. Wade for more reasons than a "Christian" belief in the "sanctity of life."

 

Check out this NYT special report.  It identifies 400 occasions on which Carlson cites Great Replacement.

Although Buffalo terrorist Payton Gendron disparages Fox News itself, his "manifesto" makes it clear he was motivated by the Great Replacement theory.  Since Camus' books have never been translated into English, somehow I doubt he got it from the original source.  As he says; he got it online.  I'll go out on a limb and say that Carlson had a great deal to do with getting the idea out there.  He is America's most-watched pundit, after all.  Carlson has mainstreamed far-right conspiracy theory.  Backtrack all you want, Tucker, but there are ten people dead in Buffalo you need to answer for. You cant feign ignorance of a theory you pushed in 400 segments (CNN)

I understand why people don't want to allow Gendron's screed to be made available.  Some people will get a kick out of it, and who wants to feed into perversity and racism?  Some feel it might spread his "ideas."  I would say that this argument is not valid.  Gendron was radicalized online:  these ideas are already out there, in many places, forever.  And what effect would it have compared to the effect Tucker Carlson has, with a regular audience of millions?

No, releasing it wouldn't have many ill effects. I'd say allowing people the opportunity to read and discuss it may in fact bear positive results.  If we hear someone discussing certain themes or using certain expressions, we might be alerted to their meaning among extremists, having been exposed to them by reading Gendron's drivel.  And if it's not too late, you might be able to get through to them somehow.

I've heard this described as a free speech issue, but I'm not sure how the 1st Amendment applies here exactly.  I know a direct and specific call to violence is not protected.  But I don't know if a general or vague appeal is, or not.  I don't know where the legal line is drawn.

A comment on a site I saw a few days ago about a video of someone reading from Gendron's screed being withdrawn from YouTube has (had?) a valid link to the PDF (yeah.docx.PDF), and I acquired a copy.  I haven't read all of it yet.

I will, though, and you can bet it echoes Fox News' fascist pundit Tucker Carlson.  You ever wonder why America is such a steaming mess?  Try starting with this: The country's most widely-watched TV host uses the language and pushes the conspiracy theories of neo-fascists.  Theories which have indisputably motivated terrorists in Oslo, Christchurch, and now Buffalo.

I think this document is important for sociologists, psychologists, law enforcement officers, historians,  journalists, political scientists, etc.  I'm not saying it has any intrinsic value, but when a guy kills ten people due to their race, and has a long list of recent antecedents, we need all the insight we can get into the messed-up minds of the right-wing mass-shooters who are paradoxically both lone wolves and a movement.

Carlson, you're one big mothertucker.  Dangerous, deadly, and crazy like a Fox.

The Ballot or the Bullet?

It's time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet. It's either a ballot or a bullet.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz ("Malcolm X" at the time), The Ballot or the Bullet, April 3, 1964, Cory Methodist Church, Cleveland, Ohio. (Boldface added)

I began this months ago and never really finished it, but it's still relevant, so I publish it now, with some additions.  It's somewhat wonky, but not all that bad....

In the past few years a few of my ostensibly pacifist, liberal American friends have purchased firearms, specifically because of the increasing presence of firearms at right-leaning protest marches and rallies.  They figure if the right wing is going to be heavily armed, they themselves should be prepared to defend themselves.  Some of these friends are LBGTQ, some are merely Democrats.  But they admit that the Trump years left them scared.  I only recently learned of groups like the Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) and Redneck Revolt, leftist groups advocating training with firearms.  This trend does not bode well.

SLA Banner

If the hard (and even the not-so-hard) right and left are arming themselves, not for hunting or sport but for political fears, one wonders how long it will be until the shooting starts.  I've read of course about groups in the 60's and 70's like the Black Panthers, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the Weather Underground (left wing).  And I've lived through the rise of the 90's militia movement, and more recently the birth of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys (right wing). 

In the 90's, right-wing rage was fueled by two standoffs during which excessive force by the ATF resulted in a large number of  civilian casualties.  The first was against the Weavers at Ruby Ridge (1992) and the second against the Branch Davidians at Waco (1993).  A rage that is perfectly justified.  At Ruby Ridge, ATF agents killed, among others, a 14-year-old kid, Sammy Weaver, and a woman, Vicki Weaver, while she held her baby in her arms.  At Waco, aggressive tactics led to a fire which resulted in the deaths of 76 people, including 25 children.  I remember the outrage I felt.  

The Waco incident begat even more violence; on the second anniversary of the tragedy, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  At least 168 were killed and over 680 were injured.  McVeigh didn't trust the ballot, so he chose the bullet.

These militias didn't get as motivated by the MOVE bombing (1985), in which an incendiary device dropped from a helicopter by the Philadelphia PD caused a fire that left 6 adults and 5 children dead, but hey, the victims weren't white.  And if that seems too "woke" an interpretation, I say horse-hockey.  McVeigh, the militias, the Proud Boys, and perhaps to a lesser degree the Oath Keepers, all adhere to varying degrees of a white nationalist ideology.

I'm not saying that all the people killed in these standoffs were peaceful innocents, but the police responses were an almost guaranteed recipe for catastrophe.  At the MOVE bombing, for example, 500 police officers were mobilized and fired over 10,000 rounds at the MOVE compound in the exchanges of gunfire that preceded the bombing.  The Weavers and the Davidians were also heavily-armed.  But there are ways to deal with these kinds of situations that need not result in firefights and loss of human life, it's just that American law enforcement doesn't yet seem to have mastered the art of de-escalation.  We are a violent society.  Always have been.  The American public is armed to the teeth, and our police look more and more like GI Joe than Officer Friendly.

Neither "side" of the left/right spectrum can claim innocence when it comes to political violence:  the Weather Underground, SLA, and Panthers were not just waving guns around for street theater.  I know my history.  The right-wing militias talk a lot of talk, but those leftist groups of the 60's were no shirkers when it came to planting bombs, robbing banks, and many other acts of violence.  

It has seemed that in recent years a 60's-style storm is brewing.  The internet has intensified existing political divisions, as Google algorithms lead people to websites that correspond to previous searches and essentially serve as a tool for confirmation bias.  People are increasingly living within separate "infospheres" and it's making political discourse increasingly difficult to meet in the middle.  

The protestors/mob/insurrectionists/patriots (take your pick) of January 6th sincerely believed that the 2020 election was stolen, as that is what their President and choice of media were telling them.  Fox pundits still say the election was stolen, CNN calls that narrative "the big lie."  I was aghast at what I saw that day, but if ordinarily decent people genuinely believed an illegitimate election pushed Biden into office, it's understandable they'd want to do something about it.  People had lost faith in the ballot, and they resorted to the bullet.  

I don't want to start a political shouting match.  This post is not about who's right and who's wrong, just some observations about the increasingly different "reality tunnels" into which we're being led, and how people are increasingly choosing to arm themselves because of it.  It's a tunnel through which a dead-end road runs.   

I remain hopeful, but it's hard not to be pessimistic about it all.  It's hard to debate an opinion when the very facts are in question.  We have an ex-President who for years has uttered easily-refuted lies on a daily basis, yet people still believe him.  The "lamestream" media, the "enemy of the people," are not considered trustworthy.  Healthy skepticism is not a bad thing, but when the truth becomes lost among a daily deluge of "alternative facts" -- Orwellian Newspeak for "demonstrable falsehoods" (aka "lies") -- we've gone beyond healthy skepticism into the realm of paranoia and a reactionary complicity with the dishonorable manipulations of self-serving con-artists.  If half of the American population no longer trusts the ballot, how long will it be before they again decide to cast the bullet?

And what happens when a good chunk of one half decide they need to arm themselves against a good chunk of the other?

If "civil war" does come, it won't be fought by armies, but will essentially be terrorist acts, street-fighting, murder, and assassination.  I don't think we've reached the point of no return, but despite a seeming lull in domestic political violence, I fear more of the same on the horizon.  I'm sure people felt the same in the 60's.  Maybe it will pass, and our "anni di piombo" are behind us.  I lived in Italy in the late 70's, and recall having to learn about what mail not to open, not to linger too long in front of the windows, to be alert for strange cars in the neighborhood.  I recall vividly General Dozier's kidnapping.  It wasn't 24/7 fear and paranoia, but it was a fact of our lives.  I just hope that it won't become like that in America's most certainly "interesting times" to come.  If we make it through 2024 without a repeat of 2020, maybe I can stop holding my breath.  My face doesn't look so good in blue.

Be safe people, and read the news with all the critical might you can muster.  Am I being overly alarmist?  I hesitated to use the term "civil war" earlier, but "civil conflict" or "political violence" didn't seem to fit for a future scenario because as I see it, we're already living it.  I believe a lot of our current problems boil down to unresolved political issues between the Federalist/Anti-Federalist factions during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and which was part of the rhetoric used in Congressional debates in the years just before the Civil War.  The very name of the Tea Party movement evoked the Revolution, but what we seem to be witnessing today is a younger, more radicalized phase arising out of that discontent, which, though angry, remained mostly peaceful despite the sometimes violent rhetoric ("2nd Amendment solutions," for example).  I was always alarmed by that kind of talk, a kind of sewing of seeds which today are bearing such bitter fruit.

For some reason all this makes me think of that skit on SNL where Tom Hanks plays a Trump supporter on "Black Jeopardy" who discovers he has more in common with his black competitors than moneyed whites.  Left, right, black, white.  Perhaps our emphasis on these divisions obscure the fact that what we're really dealing with is an ongoing class struggle.  And though I understand the temptation of the bullet, I'm still willing to try to push ahead with the ballot.  But for it to work we need to start by rejecting lies and make an honest attempt to agree upon the truth, or at least the facts.  Maybe I'm just naive, but I'd rather not just yet resort to buying an AR-15.

 

A gilet jaune does not a Gilet Jaune make

I wrote this on Facebook a few days ago and reproduce it here because it seems to have been well-received....

For my friends in the US (and elsewhere), this is a weird time in France. For the last three [now four] weeks we've been in the grips of popular protest movement that has gotten increasingly violent. Toll booths have been set on fire or otherwise damaged, a prefecture was torched, a tax office bricked up. Hundreds have been hurt, including hundreds of police. Three [make that 4] people have been killed. Friends, and my own son, have inadvertently gotten tear-gassed.

It was initially sparked by an increase in taxes on diesel and other energies, but has morphed into a general anger over the cost of living, a government removed from the people, the suppression of services in the country such as post offices and schools, while politicians in Paris live like aristocrats of old, and mega-corporations like Total pay no tax. (And yet the poor like the rich pay a 20% VAT). It's neither left nor right, and not led by unions. It's hard to meet the protestors' demands because they are many and varied. They don't have and don't want self-appointed leaders. The government has announced a moratorium on the tax increase, but most suspect it's just a ploy to calm things down and they'll just put it into effect later than planned.  [The government has since announced it will drop the plan to increase these taxes altogether].

This is about city versus country, Paris versus Provence, the rich versus the poor; one demand is the re-institution of a suppressed tax on large fortunes.

[City versus country:  People in the city don't have to drive, so the concerns of the gilets jaunes are alien to them.  A student of mine pointed out that this all really began when the government reduced the speed limit on country roads from 90 to 80 kph.  In the city, you can barely drive faster than 30, so again, no problem for a city-dweller.  The move was widely seen not as a way to improve safety but a way to impose more fines and collect revenue.  An example:  I have gotten three speeding tickets in the last year, compared to one in the preceding 15!

City people also don't need to drive for basic services such as post offices and doctors.  Country people do.

Rich versus poor:  Obviously, rich folks don't give damn about the price of basics; a man driving a Maserati doesn't care if a baguette is a euro or a euro-fifty.  For people living on the minimum wage, even twenty cents is a big deal.  There are families with two salaries who still finish the month with a serious overdraft.  People "get by", but do not prosper, cannot save money, cannot take nice vacations or buy new clothes and sometimes have to get by on pasta at the end of the month.  After bills, rent and fuel for the car, a lot of people don't have anything left; indeed, they finish in the negative.  An example: I lived this way for years, and thanks to "reforms" due to kick in come January, will have to live that way again.  Note that my examples are from my own experience; take my word for it, it applies to just about everyone I know.]

This week the high-school students joined in to protest "reforms" to the Baccalaureate, and it started to affect me personally. A blocked metro meant almost an hour to walk home on Monday, almost missing work on Tuesday, a half an hour wait on Wednesday for a tram that should come every 8 minutes. Today [last Thursday] I couldn't get to work as the metro was again shut down and buses stayed away from my workplace.

Two days ago a protest at a HS in Blagnac resulted in the entryway being torched and apparently other schools suffered the same. My son didn't go to school because classes were cancelled for fear of the same thing happening there.

Now the unions are calling for strikes, including within the police (not the officers, but the canteens, admin personnel etc.) The farmers might get in on it because they suffer quite a bit.

Wild rumors are flying. I heard some groups threatened to come into Paris armed. For days the papers have not been talking of a "movement" or "protests" but "insurrection". It's a wild and tense time, with no small amount of fear of what will happen come Saturday, which have been the most violent days so far.

We shall see. Walking thru town to get home, one could hear people talking only of this and irritated at the inconvenience, yet not angry. People are in general quite supportive from what I've seen. Not all, but a lot. There's a palpable tension and I've heard sirens all day.

Anyway, despite it all, I feel safe, though I worry for my family and have advised my son to be alert once school starts back up. I've said he can go on strike if he feels aggrieved, but to stay away from anyone trying to start fires or otherwise act in a violent manner. Maybe that's wrong, but to be honest, I generally support the protest. I abhor the violence, but it has caught the government's attention. For better or for worse remains to be seen....

So, if you've seen something on TV or in the papers, this is one view of what's been going on.

[Final thoughts.  Saturday (12/8) was not as bad as expected, but from what I saw, the violence which did occur was not perpetrated by the gilets jaunes proper, who are mostly normal working-class men, and a lot of women, but young hooligans with their own agenda.  They may wear a yellow vest, but a gilet jaune does not a Gilet Jaune make.  The movement is largely trying to calm the violence and we have strong denunciations of arson and vandalism from among the protesters.

I predicted this protest would continue and so far have been proven correct.  I think next Saturday will see a significantly cooler situation.  X-mas is around the corner and it's getting colder, and the government won't tolerate another day of violence.  BTW, don't let Trump 's tweets fool you.  A March for the Climate this weekend drew more people than the gilets jaunes protests and among the marchers were several gilets jaunes.  People are not fools, they know something must be done about climate change, they just don't want the cost placed entirely on their shoulders.

Coming to Toulouse today, I passed a pretty well-entrenched gilet jaune blockade.  They had a cabin, a campfire, a friendly attitude, and seemed to be pretty chummy with the Gendarmes present on the scene.  That was very interesting to see indeed.]

Confederate Monuments: Removal and Resistance

I've written a couple of posts about honoring the Confederacy and the removal of Confederate monuments here on LoS, so I found this Op-Ed interesting.  In the wake of today's violent clashes in Charlottesville, which resulted from a rally to protest such a removal, it seems especially relevant.

The Case for taking down Confederate monuments

The Charlottesville clashes came after the KKK and various white nationalist groups planned a “Unite the Right” rally to protest the slated removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee.  For the time being, the statue is still in Emancipation Park, formerly known as Lee Park.  That alone is the sign of the times -- the change itself, and the resentment it has provoked.  It was the third, and largest, rally held in Charlottesville this year. 

And like the previous two, the rally was met by large number of counter-protesters, and things quickly degenerated:

On Saturday morning, men in combat gear — some wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets and carrying clubs and sticks and makeshift shields — had fought each other in the downtown streets, with little apparent police interference. Both sides sprayed each other with chemical irritants and plastic bottles were hurled through the air.

After the protesters had begun to disperse, someone taking a cue from terrorists in London and Paris drove their car into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing one and injuring 19.  Three cars had already smashed into one another earlier in the day, sending people running.  A State of Emergency is in place.

None of this surprises me.  I've seen too many "The South will Rise Again" bumper stickers on trucks with gun racks.  As I wrote in 2010:

Wild and woolly times ahead.

Be Prepared for the Years of Lead!

I have the feeling this just the beginning. 

Update:  from today's NYT, a little more background.  Art matters.

The Statue at the Center of Charlottesville’s Storm

Update 8/16:  Who'd a thunk it?   

Robert E. Lee opposed Confederate monuments (except grave markers apparently)

Update 8/17:

NYT list of Confederate monuments coming down across the country

Update 8/19:

Trump Aside, Artists and Preservationists Debate the Rush to Topple Statues

Update 6/9; the snowball grows:

National Cathedral Is Taking Down Its Confederate Stained Glass Windows

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More on Laws of Silence: 

The Battle of the Battle of Liberty Place

Ain't just whistlin' Dixie  

The Politics of Removal  

Tea for Two: American Years of Lead

Assassin's Creed! Art that Kills! Art Imitates Death!

This is such a Postmodern mind fuck I don't even know where to begin.  Picture of Russian ambassador's assassination wins World Press Photo award.  A photograph of an assassination in an art gallery with a photography exhibition entitled "Russia through Turks' eyes."  Russian victim, Turkish assassin.

A photo that looks staged but isn't.

The Tarantino-attired hit-man straight out of Reservoir Dogs yelled “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria! Step back! Step back! Only death can take me from here.”

The Atlantic lays out some context and the Franz Ferdinand analogy that popped into my head.

It is also difficult not to draw historical parallels to other assassinations that have sparked broader conflagrations; despite the limits of the analogy many drew to the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914, which led to the First World War, global tensions today are such that seemingly small events could easily escalate, with dire geopolitical consequences. Though Turkish-Russia relations have thawed since the downing of the jet last year—after which, at one point, a poll found Turks viewing Russia as the country’s top threat—thousands of Turks have in recent days protested Russia’s involvement in Syria as the rebel-held enclaves in eastern Aleppo have collapsed.

The pristine white floor under the ambassador's back compared to the painterly strokes of blood around the dead assassin.  Burhan Ozbilici manages to get a perfectly crisp shot of the assassin while he's waving a gun about and yelling at the cowering patrons, but it all gets fuzzy and out of focus when the assassin is dead and no longer a threat.

Which is actually how it kind of works.  I've had a gun pointed in my face and I was as calm as an egg, everything before writ in crystalline clarity, all sharp edges and a purity of thought and action in an almost Zen-like harmony.

And then, when it was over, at the next red light, hands trembling, confusion, fear, a wellspring of emotion.

But this is old news now, just wanted to get a few random thoughts out there into the ether.

"Manifesto" of mass-shooter Elliott Rodger

For those who might be interested, this is the self-aggrandizing and self-pitying autobiography of the Santa Barbara mass-shooter.  Personally, I didn't get very far.  Dude loved his video games, that's for sure.  Given his father's Hollywood connections, you'll be hearing lots of Illuminati mind-control talk about this one, probably even Project Monarch.  I probably don't even have to say "probably" anymore....

My Twisted World: The Story of Elliott Rodger by Elliott Rodger

The Living Tarot in Bangladesh

Recent parliamentary elections in Bangladesh have resulted in violence, as these things are wont to do, claiming at least 21 lives as of January 6th. (Bharat Press).  This photo was snapped on January 5th in Rajshahi by a Reuters photog:

I know nothing about Bangladeshi politics and am not sure if that violence is being played out today.  No lack of respect intended but this shot seems so archetypal, kind of familiar.  To the point, it reminded me of the following Tarot card, the 5 of Wands from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck:

The Rider-Waite deck was first published in 1909, illustrated by Pamela Colman (1878-1951) under instructions from mystic A.E. Waite (1857-1942), himself influenced by master occultist Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) and the Sola-Busca Tarot (ca. 1491).

Colman Smith, ca. 1912

Colman had been initiated in the Golden Dawn in 1901, putting her into contact with Waite.  This commission is certainly her most widely known work; the deck itself is arguably the most widely-recognized.  I think they're beautiful and after almost thirty years I'm still struck with a sense of wonder as I remove the cards from their hand-carved box with inlaid flower on the lid I bought for them. It's Indian, I believe (wouldn't it be more full-circlish if it had been made in Bangladesh).  This box is a perfect size, as if it had been made to the deck's dimensions.  This was an inexpensive item from Pier 1 Imports.  My high school style relied upon Pier 1, my blue Mao cap (no red star) and Chinese slipper-type shoes were part of my daily attire.  New Waver, dude.  Strangely, these shoes were known among other people I knew as Jap Flats or even Pol Pots.  Something along the line of the "they all look the same" branch of genetic research.

Those shoes cost about three bucks and at the beginning had woven cloth soles.  Basically, they were a kind of espadrille; you could see them a lot in Kung Fu films, another 80's staple hungover from the 70's.  Those Mao caps were also de riguer for the budding young bohemian back in the day.

Back when I was a pup, this was the only deck easily found...I think I bought mine in a B. Dalton's or Waldenbooks down the road from my parents' place--for 8 dollars even--in a strip mall near the entrance to Northdale, one of the way-too-numerous unincorporated collections of subdivisions in North Tampa with the usual insipid names, evoking rural tranquility and the genteel life.  I often heard a snippet from Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia in my mind, a "sample" from the film found on the soundtrack:  "Slums of the future...."  Mainstream bookstores were much more limited in those days but you could still pick out some spine-tingling titles.  How many times did I look at those glossy black paperbacks until my meagre allowance or hoarded lunch money accumulated into enough coin to acquire them?  The Necronomicon, The Satanic Bible, or The Magic Power of Witchcraft.  I not only had to collect my money, but gather up my courage.  I was a D&D kid and these books were powerful for me, exuding a kind of danger.  I kept them discretely placed on my bookshelf behind such innocuous tomes as Singing Wheels or Little House in the Big Woods.  Not because I'd get in parent trouble or have them confiscated, but I wanted to avoid a concerned talking to; plus, these were my private interests.  A book of shadows should stay in the shadows.

The bookstore where I bought the cards might have even been the same place I plunked down a few dollars for Eden Grey's (Priscilla Pardridge, 1901-1999) influential A Complete Guide to the Tarot, published by Bantam in 1970.  I still refer to it from time to time on those rare occasions when I pull out the deck and have a go.  When I read, I don't usually have the book meanings in my head, but I do like to sometimes take a peek in order to stimulate my thoughts.  It was written with the Waite-Rider in mind and these cards illustrate Grey's text.

For a while in High School I ran with a group of self-styled Wiccans and that influenced my readings.  Why not, I suppose, but I would have been much-better served if I'd dug more into the Bible, the Kabbalah and the Golden Dawn, which spawned both Wicca and the O.T.O.  Wicca founder Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) and O.T.O. founder Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) had cut their teeth on its teachings and rituals.  Crowley even designed his own Thoth Tarot deck, but in my opinion they compare poorly to Colman's graceful lines and the deceptive simplicity of their composition and symbolic content.  Waite and Colman do less with more and her work has aged more gracefully; Crowley's additions just seem kitschy, crowded and contrived to be menacing.

Tarot for me is not about fortune telling, but it is a useful way to place some random data into a structure and contemplate the correlations:  numbers, suits, reoccurring images, Major vs. Minor arcana.  Hell, if we can use Rorschach inkblots to measure the psyche, why not Tarot cards?  I run loose with the cards and stick to the so-called "Keltic" cross layout or sometimes (rarely) a simpler three card technique for a quicker way to inquire about relatively simple concerns; I think less about traditional meanings than I do at developing my own series of impressions based upon the internal correspondences and little details that might catch my eye.  The meaning of a card, none of it inherent, changes anyway in terms of where it appears and in the relationship each card has with those around it.

I rarely look at the cards unless my wife mentions it and someone presses for a reading.  Sometimes I'm half-lit by this point, which is not the best state to be in when working with systems more complex than a bottle opener.  But some of these readings have turned out really well.  I elicit commentary from the querent:  "What do you see?  What does this bring to mind?"  I'm still excited when I begin to formulate a narrative while the querent is still throwing darts blindfolded (not literally!)  The querent's wide-eyed recognition can be delightful.  Not so much if the brow over the wide eyes is darkened.

Anyway, apart from the fact that I have a strange tendency to sleep in a position like the Hanged Man (XII in the Major Arcana), I have nothing here to add.

This was not intended to be a reminiscence or a "Tarot" post, merely a juxtaposition of two images.  In the first we see men fighting in a field using staves over the results of a disputed election.  In the second, we don't know the cause, but the strife and weaponry are the same.  The sky is blue and the day seems lovely.

The Waite-Rider deck is simple, yet not devoid of complex symbolism derived from Waite's extensive mystical knowledge; in addition to the Golden Dawn he was a Freemason and Rosicrucian who'd later write extensively on ceremonial magick, the Kabbalah, alchemy and other Western esoteric traditions.  I still refer to his New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (1921) whenever I write about Freemasonry or related topics.

All that knowledge is distilled into a series of 78 clean-lined and finely composed images of a Goldilocks just-rightness.

I love coming back to an old flame from something so (superficially) unrelated.  Time folds and the threads that keep the past and future bound together become visible.  Tie up the fraying ends or tear through them, let it all drift apart.  Apparently the ghost of someone, I can feel it overlooking my shoulder, is urging me on.  But that could be something else entirely.