Well, this weekend hasn't lived up to my expectations, but that's hardly surprising. I drank a lot Friday and spent yesterday hung over and feeling shitty until I went to bed; I don't think it was only the booze, either. A hangover wouldn't have accounted for the mental malaise that lurked around me all day. I did get some query letters out, and watched Chungking Express, which was even better than the first time I saw it, so the day wasn't a total waste of consciousness.

I really want to see the series on the myth of terror this article is talking about. While I doubt it will change the minds of any fear-mongering politicians in Britain, it would be nice, especially if it had enough of an impact to make Britain think twice about having jumped on the terror bandwagon being driven by this country's cadre of conniving liars and whores.

I've been thinking a lot about why regular people lend their support to governments and/or political parties that, at their core, do nothing to represent the interests of the aforementioned regular people. The way I see it is that people are subjected to so much false or distorted information that they are no longer aware of the underlying reality. Not only the government and media feed this information to them; their churches, workplaces, families, and pop culture also inform their views. The real problem isn't that there are so many lies being circulated, it's that nobody wants to go to the effort of sorting the truth out. It's simply easier to believe what the President, or the newsanchor, or the pastor, or the parent, says. That way, no nasty little tidbits of information that run contrary to one's established worldview come to light, and no extra thought need be applied. I have no sympathy for those who breathe in the atmosphere of deceit without ever coughing, but it's nevertheless sad that the people that have the most to lose by uncritically accepting what's fed to them are the ones who ask the least questions.

On a larger scale- and this is where I'm at odds with a great deal of people- is the issue of belied in grand concepts. For now, I'll deal with the State. Assuming that some sort of central government is useful- another idea I'm not particularly convinced of, but I'll save that for later- I do not believe that unwavering allegiance to said government ("the State") is anything less than idiotic. The Founding Fathers would agree with me that never questioning one's government, or better yet, failing to be critical at all times, is foolish in the extreme, as such behavior leads to the individual being exploited by the State. If your government says jump, you should not ask how high; you should ask why jumping is necessary. Of course, a democratic State may allow you ask that question, but should you do so, you risk the condemnation of the State and its supporters, because the State does not want to be questioned. If it is questioned, then its viability is also in question, and those who profit from the existence of the State- politicians, for example- are threatened. It's better to create an image that the State is every man's friend, and that everyone should do their part for the State, even if said part is something unnecessary and/or odious, like, say, travelling across the globe to engage in war on another State that threatens the interests of your State- but not the citizens thereof. The citizens of both states get screwed because of a handful of people at the top. The absurdity is that the State does a fine job of convincing its constituents that it's acting in their best interest, and they totally buy it, because the State has been preparing them for such thinking since it started funding their education at the age of five or six. It's brilliant, actually, how good a job the state does of creating those who will support it, and allowing a modicum of "dissent" to make itself look magnanimous. Of course, the State has the support of any other number of allies, such as the media, the Church, the "market," and so forth. Since they all suckle on one another's bilious teats, it is in their collective interest to butress the opinions and actions of one another. That way, such groups profit from the shallow desires and beliefs they've created for the average person, who consumes them voraciously and without regard for any implicit meanings.

Fuck. I'm not really in the mood to be writing this, since thousands of people have done a better job of it than I. None of this is revelatory; people have railed against the bankruptcy of the State and similiar ideas for ages. I suppose that I've written what I have because, at this point in time, so few seem to acknowledge that even the least radical notions I've put forth, e.g. the deceit and hypocrisy of the government and media, exist at all. Once again, futility rears its ugly stone head, but you know what? Fuck futility. It might actually turn out to be the beast at the end of the road, but right now, I'm going to keep going. I don't think it's futile for people to think critically, despite any results thereof. In my case, I'm happy to have come to the point where I can see the State as a painfully manipulative, callous thing, knowing full well that it would be so much easier to accept the idea that the government acts in my best interest or that the media is being honest to me. It's not fun thinking that the conclusions I've reached could be wrong, and that I'm in a complete minority by giving minimal credibility to the government, but I take consolation in having tried to sort out the truth from the lies. Unlike a lot of people, I've fucking tried, and I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong. I might not participate in American democracy like the rest of you, but at least my knee doesn't jerk very much anymore.