I’m afraid you hit the nail on the head with that one, Maitri. I wonder if they were ever accepted. sigh…

How do you not converse in a common language, when man is bounded by the simplest tethers: eating, sleeping, screwing, waste elimination? Isn’t this your essential argument as to why others ought consider the rebuilding of New Orleans ‘worthy’, because we are all in the same base position on this planet and need to recognize that profound sense of brotherhood? There’s nothing wrong with logical rebuttal. There’s some need to counter large wave attacks. But for efficiency’s sake, we first have to eliminate the emotionality of it and secondly have to address the negotiation aspects. That will move the process forward instead of relegating it to mere bickering. Futility is what some want to engender; the sense of powerlessness amongst the masses creates the need for a “strong leader” or “decider” to rise to power.

Before McBride began blogging, he did a series of public education lectures, occasionally getting deeply frustrated at attendance measures or by people who decided to be awesome and not attend after informing him they would. But look where he’s gotten by just not taking no for an answer, and not serving himself. But if, in absurdist lingo, I equate McBride to Jason Bourne or Gadbois to Frida Kahlo, am I saying something or am I deflecting? Of *course* most people want to say something: the nature of life is to express self or other. “Beware of the night poodles” may be the most profound statement you are able to hear at your level of thought, PRECISELY FOR ITS SEEMING ABSURDITY. Alice In Wonderland was a moving political manifesto.

The non-futility of absurdist comi-tragedy is the freedom of investment of the individual mind. Instead of pack running, a planted field sprouts according to conditions affecting each respective plant. It’s trusting the masses with some sense of themselves (My sheep hear My voice) and even trusting that weeds cannot choke the vineyard nor affect the harvest because of the wise overseers (perhaps like you, in your field) who root out the freestanding threat but only trim the one entwined with the fruit, that nothing be wasted in its time.

To me, that’s not a sinking feeling but a glorious one. The hope of mankind, in its absurdist way, has sprung from New Orleans, and why would anyone working on the side of good fret one moment about that?

a) how do I know who gets it and who doesn’t?,
b) how to converse in a language I don’t speak?, and
c) I don’t have any time to do anything more than lob back in the most logical way I know how when this city may flood again this hurricane season and no one thinks this is a federal emergency that warrants immediate reaction, resources and action from the folks in charge.

Why is the awareness of talking into the nonsense preceded by a sinking feeling? It’s the hesitant beginning of acknowledging that logic and proof aren’t widely accepted in this society anymore, most voters want to say something … anything … based on their prejudices alone, and that if I connect two dots on the canvas with a straight line, someone will retort with Beware of the night poodles!

P.S. I’d like to think my Upaya is Maitri, probably better known to you as Metta, to some living beings. *smile*

Most of what ‘officials’ are reported as saying in the news is really just public negotiation; that’s the corporate political system, including investor clues. The whole point of volunteer activists like the brilliant McBride – who’s been working the pump issue furiously for a year – is to upend the backdoor dealbrokering and restore democracy. (Whether the blogger realizes that or not isn’t always a dominant concern.) The newsmedia catches up at a certain point.

But that’s why it’s not expedient (Upaya) to get so fussed up about the ‘handouts and blame’ pundits. Either they know it’s public negotiation, or they don’t. If they don’t know it, they’re irrelevant. If they do, there’s no point just lobbing back: you have to hear them, to listen and negotiate. There are greater sins and lesser sins, and people do get that.

You people are doing good work cleaning up this town, and yes, you are “talking into an absurdist canvas of uncharted proportions.” Why that should engender a sinking feeling, I have no idea.

The whole (expletive deleted as it’s not Ashley’s blog)bunch of them should be held criminally liable.

Guess all of the venom I wanted to use for this revelation can now be reserved to whatever travesty unfolds tomorrow. *rolls eyes*