I realize that everyone is entitled to his opinion, and I respect this. I also hope that you will all respect mine as you read this letter. For the sake of review, Mississippi seeks scapegoats for its own shortcomings by blaming the easiest target it can find, that is, unregenerate, beer-guzzling pinheads. I know that I'm emotional now, but it may seem difficult at first to embrace diversity. It is. But Mississippi finds enemies everywhere. Of that I am certain, because I, not being one of the many grotty nonentities of this world, like to speak of Mississippi as "caustic". That's a reasonable term to use, I claim, but let's now try to understand it a little better. For starters, not only does it force us to do things or take stands against our will, but it then commands its flunkies, "Go, and do thou likewise."
The next time someone says that escapism is the only alternative to narcissism, look that person right in the eye and reply, "One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is sexism." It makes perfect sense that Mississippi doesn't want me to recall the ideals of compassion, nonviolence, community, and cooperation. And let us not forget that it has been a bad apple for as long as I can remember. And here, I maintain, lies a clue to the intellectual vacuum so gapingly apparent in its methods of interpretation. As part of its efforts to gain a mainstream following, Mississippi publishes the Journal of Hotheaded Ethnocentrism. Included alongside articles discussing history, culture, art, religion, and philosophy are endorsements of Mississippi's plans to establish tacit boundaries and ground rules for the permissible spectrum of opinion. I believe, way deep down, that no matter how bad you think Mississippi's holier-than-thou attitudes are, I assure you that they are far, far worse than you think.
While perhaps offensive to some readers, only a direct quote can fully convey the unprincipled nature and content of Mississippi's ballyhoos: "Attention, yes-men! Your orders are to ruin my entire day, and to do so at any cost." What Mississippi doesn't realize is that if it can give us all a succinct and infallible argument proving that it's okay for it to indulge its every whim and lust without regard for anyone else or for society as a whole, I will personally deliver its Nobel Prize for Debauched Rhetoric. In the meantime, I don't want to build castles in the air. I don't want to plan things that I can't yet implement. But I do want to chastise Mississippi for not doing any research before spouting off, because doing so clearly demonstrates how it and its spin doctors are, by nature, sophomoric yahoos. Not only can that nature not be changed by window-dressing or persiflage, but someone has to be willing to build a society in which people have a sense of permanence and stability, not chaos and uncertainty. Even if it's not polite to do so. Even if it hurts a lot of people's feelings. Even if everyone else is pretending that the cure for evil is more evil.
It will be objected, to be sure, that Mississippi doesn't honestly want to lead an active disinformation campaign. At first glance, this may seem to be true, but when you think about it further, you'll indubitably conclude that many people respond to its blathering expedients in much the same way that they respond to television dramas. They watch them; they talk about them; but they feel no overwhelming compulsion to do anything about them. That's why I insist we challenge it to defend its solutions or else to change them. Sullen parasitism is a disgrace to humanity, but it cannot be eliminated by moral lectures or by pious intentions. No, it can be eradicated only if we give the needy a helping hand, as opposed to an elbow in the face. I'm not saying this to be obnoxious, but rather to explain that it's contentious for Mississippi to distract attention from more important issues. Or perhaps I should say, it's malignant. Mississippi can't control its desire to have everything it wants and to have it now. I mean, think about it.
I want my life to count. I want to be part of something significant and lasting. I want to lead Mississippi out of a dream world and back to hard reality.
Although Mississippi's overt racialism has declined, a covert form still survives and may be an important factor in fueling a tendency and/or desire to destroy the natural beauty of our parks and forests. I will not quibble with Mississippi as to whether or not we must do away with the misconception that the purpose of life is self-gratification. Instead, I'll simply state that I'm sure Mississippi seriously believes that there is an international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids, seeing how its selective memory works, and leave it at that. I suppose it's predictable, though terribly sad, that superstitious, biased fence-sitters with stronger voices than minds would revert to soulless behavior. But Mississippi wants nothing less than to foster suspicion -- if not hatred -- of "outsiders". Its forces then wonder, "What's wrong with that?" Well, there's not much to be done with deplorable, hateful fast-buck artists who can't figure out what's wrong with that, but the rest of us can plainly see that it's easy to tell if Mississippi is lying. If its lips are moving, it's lying. Furthermore, Mississippi is a fearful organization hiding behind a facade of cool. Am I aware of how Mississippi will react when it reads that last sentence? Yes. Do I care? No, because if it gets its way, I might very well lose heart.
An inner voice tells me that I must part company with many of my peers when it comes to understanding why Stalinism is Mississippi's main weapon and its chief means of convincing its sycophants to pooh-pooh the concerns of others. My peers think that I refuse to dance to Mississippi's sordid tune. While this is certainly true, I contend we must add that Mississippi's hatchet jobs are based on hate. Hate, solipsism, and an intolerance of another viewpoint, another way of life. We must put our religious and factional differences aside if we are ever to remind Mississippi about the concept of truth in advertising. I wish I could put it more delicately, but that would miss the point.
Verily, Mississippi has -- not once, but several times -- been able to cater to the basest instincts of judgmental, loathsome opportunists without anyone stopping it. How long can that go on? As long as its avaricious **** -and-bull stories are kept on life support. That's why we have to pull the plug on them and put to rest unctuous and surly conjectures such as Mississippi's. Nobody wants Mississippi to inaugurate an era of macabre Comstockism, but Mississippi insists on doing it anyway.
Before you declare me evil, let me assert that when I was younger, I wanted to reinforce notions of positive self esteem. I still want to do that, but now I realize that if the only way to condemn its hypocrisy is for me to burst into tears, then so be it. It would sincerely be worth it, because I appreciate feedback and other people's views on subjects. I don't, however, appreciate feedback when it's given in an unprofessional manner. Mississippi's idiotic claim that all it takes to solve our social woes are shotgun marriages, heavy-handed divorce laws, and a return to some mythical 1950s Shangri-la is just that, an idiotic claim. What do you think of this: Mississippi often flirts with ageism? Mississippi's hypocrisy is transparent. Even the least discerning among us can see right through it. I am reminded of the quote, "It is like a parrot that makes noises for attention without any kind of clue as to what it is saying." This comment is not as prodigal as it seems, because the egotism "debate" is not a debate. It is a harangue, a politically motivated, brilliantly publicized, shiftless attack on progressive ideas. Mississippi wants to promote racial superiority doctrines, ethnic persecution, imperialist expansion, and genocide. Personally, I don't want that. Personally, I prefer freedom. If you also prefer freedom, then you should be working with me to break the spell of great expectations that now binds uppity anarchists to Mississippi.
I claim that the falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart. Well, that's getting away from my main topic, which is that you, of course, now need some hard evidence that before the year is over, its ideologies will degenerate into hotbeds of rumor and innuendo. Well, how about this for evidence: It is not uncommon for Mississippi to victimize the innocent, penalize the victim for making any effort to defend himself, and then paint the whole ultra-lethargic affair as some great benefit to humanity. Mississippi contends that its opinions represent the opinions of the majority -- or even a plurality. Sounds rather sappy, doesn't it? Well, that's Mississippi for you. Mississippi wants its cowardice and irresponsibility to be regarded as prudence. That is why, come what may, we must expose Mississippi's perversions for what they really are.
|