CAAA-AAAN U DIG IT???
It’s Saturday August 3, 2024. It’s 5:30am and I absolutely wish I wasn’t awake right now but I don’t really have a choice in the matter. I’ve been battling a stubborn low blood sugar that has been haunting me all night. It’s gotten to the point where the fake hunger pangs of the low blood sugar have merged with the real hunger pangs (because I’m legit hungry for breakfast now) and the combo makes my stomach painful. Got a busy day ahead and was hoping to maximalize on rest tonight but ***U CANT ALWAYS GET WHAT U WAAAANT***
Tossing in bed, I kept thinking about that 1979 movie The Warriors, which was a huge fav for me growing up and still is. I won’t go into it, but there is one particular scene I am fixating on right now: When the meeting of all the gangs in NYC is held, a leader from a prominent gang proposes a city-wide truce among all the gangs. He even boldly suggests that they far outnumber the cops- and in their numbers combined- could realistically hold power over the city alone. But first- he says they would all have to get over this petty business of feuding over “pieces of turf”.
My mind reels at the thought of concepts such as nations and borders. Like don’t get me wrong- cool things come from other countries. There’s things like different languages, cuisines, fashion, art, music, ideas ETC But these aspects of culture have been around as long as humans began to evolve and they are more regional differences to me than anything else. Regional differences make sense because depending on where you live- you deal with different shit. It is natural and logical that eventually the regional culture of that space will reflect this. I’m sure winters in Siberia are tough- which probably in turn affects what people eat and dress like when they live there. Conversely- northern New Jersey promotes a lot of sad home decor choices, big hair, and even bigger nails. (Still unsure why but we’ll get to the bottom of it someday!)
Maybe it’s less apparent to americans, but people from around the world, especially dense regions of empire such as europe, have probably noticed from history class that borders don’t really hold any real importance at all. They are completely fluid and especially arbitrary. They change all the time, usually at the whim of some ruling man and his silly, petty turf wars. When I went to that polish saturday school growing up, we studied the history and geography of Poland a lot. I found it so hard to concentrate on any of this, not just because of undiagnosed ADHD, but because it was hard to care or remember about all the details involving how that one country was carved up, divided, erased, reinstated constantly over the course of a 1000 years. Just endless dudes drawing new squiggly lines over old squiggly lines after every feud with some other dudes. I could not care less. Also, I refuse to believe that all of these people lacked the imagination to do something better with their time and energy while on this planet.
So what is a country? And what is patriotism if not thinly veiled nationalism? When you kill in the name of a country or a border- what are you actually doing? Are you truly defending a people or your dear beloved home? Or are you simply protecting the capital of the ruling class of that country (they’re the ones who sent you to do their dirty work, after all).
I recently met a person who expressed confusion and anger at the current state of politics in the USA. Whenever this conversation comes up these days- heads are hung low and shaken from side to side, almost as if to rid the afflicted of the demons that accompany these thoughts inside their brains. But I heard remarks that it truly shocks me to hear from any reasonable adult living in the USA today. They said - I can’t believe how far downhill this country went. They said it used to be a good country- but now it’s bad. (This was the expressed sentiment anyways. I have the memory of a peanut and can’t remember their exact words used, forgive me.)
Whenever people comment about the sadness of America’s decline, I do get annoyed (to say the least). That is because these comments usually operate under the assumption that this is a legitimate country that was organically founded. That it deserves to exist. That this land promotes freedom and democracy and that you can actually encounter these concepts at work here. I am not a historian AT ALL, promise youuu, but I don’t have to dig too far to see that this country was in fact founded upon genocide of the indigenous populations, slavery, coercion/extraction/exploitation, war, and greed. And nothing has changed much - the plantations where enslaved people labored for hundreds of years turned into modern-day for-profit prison systems and the laws of this land still criminalize poverty- the same poverty that the law has created itself. Those at the bottom of the economic ladder will always be abused and extracted from first. This land was taken from people who tended to it for a very very long time. This country is a settler colonial state and simply put - should not exist. Should any “border” exist though? Men have fought over these petty lines since the beginning of time and all over the world. Every country was founded on the spilled blood of regular folks who are just trying to survive their small blip in time here. What a waste of human potential and precious human life.
Would you ever build a house for yourself or even future generations of your loved ones on an unsteady ground? Can you construct a solid foundation when inhabiting quicksand or a swamp? I don’t think these foundations will hold. The house will fall down and eventually nature will swallow the ruins whole.
I truly believe if people began engaging with their inner artist, their inner child, and employed some creative imagination in a collective manner - I do truly believe we could overcome these obstacles to a thriving human civilization. But instead, we veer in the opposite direction - we are told to remove ourselves from the vulnerability of the self and others. Whichever way it goes in the long run- a quick scan of human history will prove several facts, an important one being that: empires always FALL. I will celebrate the fall of this particular empire rather than mourn it.
“The problem in the past has been the man turning us against one another! We have been unable to see the TRUTH, because we have been fighting for ten square feet of GROUND. Our TURF, our little piece of turf…