Comments on: Fast poetry

By: Michael Robbins

Michael Robbins — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:32:21 +0000

Dream Song 61
Full moon. Our Narragansett gales subside
and the land is celebrating men of war
more or less, less or more.
In valleys, thin on headlands, narrow & wide
our targets rest. In us we trust. Far, near,
the bivouacs of fear
are solemn in the moon somewhere tonight,
in turning time. It’s late for gratitude,
an annual, rude
roar of a moment’s turkey’s ‘Thanks’. Bright & white
their ordered markers undulate away
awaiting no day.
Away from us, from Henry’s feel or fail,
campaigners lie with mouldered toes, disarmed,
out of order,
with whom we will one. The war is real,
and a sullen glory pauses over them harmed,
incident to murder.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:29:23 +0000

Sorry if you thought I was insulting you. But thanks for insulting me in your response. Classy.

By: michael robbins

michael robbins — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:21:00 +0000

No need to refute Chomsky’s logic, eh? Just call him “his holiness,” thereby suggesting that I believe every honeyed word that falls from his lips.
Also a good tactic: pretend the argument’s about something other than it is, if you can’t refute it. For instance, if someone points out the injustice of a situation, pretend he said he was “eager to be put in harm’s way,” then ask him why he isn’t doing something that would have exactly zero effect on the situation.
The question of our complicity precisely does not lead to the conclusion that we should enlist — but then, no sane person thinks it does, so you’re pushing an open door. If you & I enlisted, do you think that futile gesture would make the situation better in even the slightest way? How? Did you imagine that I was pointing out our complicity because it makes me feel bad? So the problem is about my individual psychology? Because all my enlisting would do (again, nobody else has to be told this) is make me feel less guilty. Wouldn’t make the situation or the war any better.
Since you insist on juvenile sniping, I’ll decline to respond to you again. Questions of ethical responsibility for political & economic horrors are actually too important to me for me to be bothered with people who can’t have a discussion without dragging it onto some inane level of personal insult.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:10:07 +0000

Ooooohhhh, well then if his holiness Noam Chomsky says so, I guess I have to agree. Ok, fine Michael, since you’re so eager to be put in harm’s way, why don’t you drop what you’re doing right now and go enlist? What’s stopping you?

By: Michael Robbins

Michael Robbins — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:47:25 +0000

Also, Slate.com reveals the RNC protesters making my case for me:
“Two cops approach the group. A medic pulls out his radio. ‘To Snipe, to Snipe, this is Whiskey Tango, do you hear us? We’ve got two coming.’ The police, both women, ask the group to clear the ramp. Some do, some don’t. ‘These people have nothing against you,’ one of the officers explains, indicating the drivers. ‘Just give us a few minutes,’ pleads a protester. One officer pulls out a can that looks like WD-40. ‘If you do not move, I will mace this group,’ she says. They move.”
“These people have nothing against you.” It’s a dialogue, all part of the wonders of the free marketplace of ideas. Hey, we just disagree.

By: Michael Robbins

Michael Robbins — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:44:54 +0000

That’s great, Matt. You should write a manifesto. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the question was how to end the wars that are started in rude disregard of yr sensibilities. Conscription would arouse public opposition to the war that the government could not ignore, & would make wars more difficult to fight. And, of course, you & I are as responsible for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths our disadvantaged proxies have caused as they are — more so, probably, since we have a greater degree of freedom to oppose the war. Since you don’t actually seem to see what the point is, here’s Chomsky making the case better than I can:
“I was very much involved in the resistance, but I was never against the draft. I disagreed with a lot of my friends and associates on that, for a very good reason, I think at least as nobody seems to agree. In my view, if there’s going to be an army, I think it ought to be a citizen’s army. Now, here I do agree with some people, the top brass, they don’t want a citizen’s army. They want a mercenary army, what we call a volunteer army. A mercenary army of the disadvantaged. And in fact, in the Vietnam war, the U.S. military realized, they had made a very bad mistake. I mean, for the first time I think ever in the history of European imperialism, including us, they had used a citizen’s army to fight a vicious, brutal, colonial war, and civilians just cannot do that kind of a thing. For that, you need the French foreign legion, the Gurkhas or something like that. Every predecessor has used mercenaries, often drawn from the country that they’re attacking like England ran India with Indian mercenaries. You take them from one place and send them to kill people in the other place. That’s the standard way to run imperial wars. They’re just too brutal and violent and murderous. Civilians are not going to be able to do it for very long. What happened was, the army started falling apart. One of the reasons that the army was withdrawn was because the top military wanted it out of there. They were afraid they were not going to have an army anymore. Soldiers were fragging officers. The whole thing was falling apart. They were on drugs. And that’s why I think that they’re not going to have a draft. That’s why I’m in favor of it. If there’s going to be an army that will fight brutal, colonial wars, and that’s the only likely kind of war, I’m not talking about the militarization of space and that kind of thing, I mean ground wars, it ought to be a citizen’s army so that the attitudes of the society are reflected in the military.”

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:12:47 +0000

Uh, yeah, I know what the point is. I just think sending more people to war just for the sake of equality is stupid. We shouldn’t be sending anyone. We shouldn’t be starting wars in the fucking first place.

By: Michael Robbins

Michael Robbins — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:33:36 +0000

Well, that’s the point, Matt. You (& Boyd & I) can stay home while less fortunate folks go do our killing for us. & dying.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:07:14 +0000

I like Michael’s, Angela’s, and Boyd’s comments, but if they ever bring back the draft, I’ll be in Canada, thank you.

By: Boyd Nielson

Boyd Nielson — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:12:25 +0000

And by “Fixies rise up! etc.” I hope it is clear (and, doubtless, how absurd I clarify this) that I mean, by God, you better at least be riding a Bianchi.