Writing On Your Palm

Lessons Learned

9 August 2004

My recent (though, pointedly, not first) venture into political commentary in this column has opened my eyes to a few things.

First off, thank you to all who wrote me commenting on this column, whether you agreed with me or not. Open communication and discussion is vital to free and open societies, and I applaud you all for participating. Now, on to what I learned.

Lesson 1: There needs to be more of this.

Emails and forum posts regarding the last column fell mostly into one of two categories: those that thanked me for saying something that they felt needed to be said, and those that disagreed with such commentary having any place on a "tech site". Nearly every single person that wrote me in disagreement made that point, that my political comments were both unwelcome and out of place, or inappropriate.

As is usual when someone disagrees with me, this got me thinking. For one thing, Writing On Your Palm is most emphatically not a "tech site" only. I cover mobile technology, yes, but I like to think it's in a larger context. This site is, at its core, about writing in the 21st century. It's a site for writers (both those currently writing and those who just want to), and in addition to covering tools for writing, I've covered free speech, copyright law, writer's block and myriad other topics that have nothing at all to do with PDAs. None of those columns elicited the wrath with which so many emails hit me over the last two weeks. Why would that be?

Because none of those other columns took a stab at anyone's ideology. I pointed out that those willing to support George W. Bush in the wake of his well documented lying, waffling (yes, waffling, like how he was vehemently against the 9/11 Commission until he started to suffer politically for it, then he was all for it) and kowtowing to big money interests at the expense of the American public were misled, deluded by a very effective propaganda machine.

"I've worked too hard for my illusions just to throw them all away." -- Guns 'n' Roses

Almost as if eager to prove my point for me, the Bush faithful came out of the woodwork to tell me that I was wrong. Or to phrase it like popular conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly, "WRONG!!!" I had one poster on my Pocketnow.com discussion group inform me that if I knew anything about economics at all, I'd know that tax cuts for the rich benefit everyone, that Trickle Down Economics could still work (despite three decades of evidence to the contrary). I found these discussions interesting and invigorating, at least as long as they stayed clear of personal attacks.

And yet, there it was, an undercurrent running through all the negative posts. Politics had no place on a tech site. It was "off-topic."

I started to think about the ghettoization of American politics, why such thoughts would be taboo on a site admittedly not devoted to politics.

In the 1900s, politics was the entertainment of the masses. Everyone knew about the issues, people listened willingly to politicians make speeches that make today's "pre-edited for sound bites" scripts look like the TV commercials they are, and they cared. Geez, these people acted as if politics mattered, as if their lived depended on it. And you know what? They did.

We've managed to become jaded in this country to politics. The very thing that makes America so different, the thing that makes our grand experiment so unique in human history, and most 21st century Americans can't be bothered. Not gonna think about politics, American Idol is on. Maybe it's my perspective from serving this country in uniform (by the way, most of the respondents who mentioned being former or active duty military were overwhelmingly in favor of the last column, hmm...), but I think it's not only our privilege as Americans to discuss politics, it's our responsibility. "Those guys in Washington" aren't there by birthright, we put them there! Those jokers work for us! And if they're not doing a good job, we have the right and the duty to discuss what we're going to do about it.

So while I have no intention of turning this into a political blog, I will continue to talk about this stuff as I see fit. If Jesus could be a loudmouth liberal, I can too.

Lesson 2: In the immortal words of Grand Moff Tarkin, "You're far too trusting."

For my tastes, many Americans are far too willing to see what they want to see, and not skeptical enough about the nature of government and power. I had several people ask how the Patriot Act had affected me personally, as though I had no right to question it unless it had. Sorry, but power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I'm not about to give the government the power to oppress me if I have anything to say about it. Yes, John Kerry voted for the Patriot Act. In the haze following the attacks, so did just about everyone else. Most hadn't had the chance to read it before they were called to vote. It was only after the bill had passed that we'd found out how much we'd really given up.

I had one reader demand the name of just one person that had actually been harmed by the Patriot Act. Here it is: Rhuhel Ahmed. A British citizen, Ahmed was taken in Afghanistan and detained in the Guantánamo Bay camp for two years, during which he claims to have been beaten and tortured. At the end of that period, he was released with no charges.

I don't know about you, but I'm not comfortable living in a country that can abduct anyone it wishes and hold them without charge, access to legal counsel or contact with their families on nothing more than suspicion. This is not the conduct of a government that feels it has the right to act only with the "consent of the governed." And just because I haven't been personally oppressed yet, doesn't mean I should keep quiet until I am. Because by that time, it will be too late.

"First they came for the Communists,
 and I didn't speak up,
   because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
 and I didn't speak up,
   because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
 and I didn't speak up,
   because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
 and by that time there was no one
   left to speak up for me."

-- Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

Lesson 3: "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Satayana

It's not as though this is new stuff, folks. I was consistently amazed by how many people were trotting out tired old arguments with the implication that this time, things will be different. Human nature is human nature. Trickle down economics isn't going to help anyone but the upper 1% any more than it did under Reagan. Bush's focus on fear and security is disturbingly similar to similar ploys in other fascist regimes throughout the twentieth century. Ben Franklin warned us, over two centuries ago, that "they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Yet just as there were those that sought to appease King George in Franklin's time, all too many Americans are willing to swallow whatever our George tells us.

And here the lecture endeth. I've got some actual PDA and writing column in the pipe, so we can look forward to a look at Plucker, a discussion about the love of writing, and analysis of whether or not a PDA really can replace a laptop. It's been a slow summer in the tech industry, but some really cool stuff is coming up. In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves.

"Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

Did you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fighting
For their promised land

And
I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry selling soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war

Look at the shoes your filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry selling soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
And I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry selling soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
I don't need one more war

I don't need one more war
What's so civil about war anyway?"

-- Guns 'n' Roses, "Civil War"

Jeff Kirvin
Jeff@writingonyourpalm.net
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Jeff Kirvin is available for consulting on mobile technology. Email me today!