Poetry and Politics – Voices From the Past
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By Siv O'Neall. Axis of Logic.
Axis of Logic
Sunday, Oct 17, 2010
The Psychopaths are trembling
Playwright and poet Harold Pinter, in his Nobel prize acceptance speech
on 7 December 2005, at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, made an
unforgettable speech, fiercely condemning the Bush/Blair attack on Iraq
and, in general, U.S. arrogance and lawlessness, saying “The
invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism,
demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law”.
In
his speech, Pinter quotes a poem by Pablo Neruda, the Chilean leftist
poet who was the Chilean consul in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War.
Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him "the greatest
poet of the 20th century in any language."
“…from every socket of Spain
Spain emerges
and from every dead child a rifle with eyes,
and from every crime bullets are born
which will one day find
the bull's eye of your hearts.”
‘I'm Explaining a Few Things’
– by Pablo Neruda (1936)
The occasion for reminding the world of Pinter’s words (and of Pablo Neruda) at that time has never been more relevant.
The
U.S., acting as the right arm of the Corporate Empire, has never been
more blatantly contemptuous of international law and human decency.
Moral concepts just do not exist any more. The Empire is senselessly
destroying one country after the other, devoid of any feeling of the
value of human lives. For what? To achieve global dominance, a pipe
dream which is going to turn into ashes one day very soon when it
becomes clear that no such thing is or has ever been possible. Adolf
Hitler had his megalomania. The U.S. Empire has its equally frightening
faith in its own invincibility. But the columns and walls are tottering.
One
day soon the whole house of cards is going to collapse and we will see
the dregs of cruelty and megalomania in the harsh light of day, without
the embellishment of Newspeak. ‘Pax Americana’ will finally show up as
the eternal war that it was always meant to be. ‘American superiority’
will finally be seen for what it is, a slogan designed to fool the
people into a state of semi-conscious opium limbo. ‘Ignorance is Strength’,
the slogan from George Orwell’s 1984, fits perfectly into the secret
plans for corrupting the U.S. citizens, and then the entire world, into a
mode of thinking where no questions are asked and no violence is considered excessive. As long as it is perpetrated on second-class humans, that is: everybody but U.S.
citizens. ‘Homeland security’ is the catch phrase. All heads bow in
devout unison when the term is uttered. The gospel says that the
homeland must be spared from terrorists, Muslims and any darker-skinned
and certainly more or less criminal individuals.
The Psychopaths who are trembling in their chateaux, in their gated communities far away from the lowly plebs
and, in the greatest contempt for the needs of the common people, are
still perfectly unaware of the tremendous earth quake that will be
occurring the day the people have had enough. The psychopaths are
scared. Of course they sense the danger of driving the knife into the
bodies so deeply that the victim is barely breathing. If they do not
sense it, they will be even more surprised the day the lid comes off the
boiling pot of anger, frustration and suffering. Shock waves are sent
out from the layers inside the earth. The gates and the reinforced walls
are going to be swept away by the tsunami that is on its way.
The psychopaths are incredulous, but under the veneer they are
scared to death. They are busy accumulating all there is to be
accumulated, no matter what. They are the strong ones, they are power
itself. How can they be the targets for the rebels that will soon be
tearing everything down? They are in their fortified towers with caves
full of silver and gold. Sure, nothing can reach and disturb their
complacent existence far away from ‘the dregs of society’.
But noone sums up the situation of U.S. Corporate power, that takes as a given its own invincibility and its right to invade, plunder and kill, better than Harold Pinter himself in his Nobel prize
acceptance speech. Destroying harmless nations while making its own
citizens and the world believe that they are fighting for freedom and
democracy, civil rights, justice and equality is simply the rule of this
ruthless game. In their carefully constructed self love and
unquestioned superiority, U.S. citizens sink into a blissful ersatz
nirvana.
It is so convenient not to see through the brittle façade the
Corporate Empire is putting up. It could be swept away with a sobering
act of resistance. But the rebels have not emerged from their caves.
Yet. The day will soon come.
The revenge by the masses will be a powerful tornado that will sweep
away all the lies and do away with the slave/master relationship we are
now being crushed under. Yes, there will be a new dawn.
“The
United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing
military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World
War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti,
Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile.
The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be
purged and can never be forgiven.
“Hundreds
of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they
take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy?
The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to
American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.
“It
never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it
wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of
the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless,
but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand
it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power
worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a
brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
“I
put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on
the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it
is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most
saleable commodity is self love. It's a winner. Listen to all American
presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the
sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to
defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people
to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of
the American people.'
“It's
a scintillating stratagem. Language is actually employed to keep
thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly
voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie
back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence
and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not
apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line
and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons,
which extends across the US.
“The
United States no longer bothers about low intensity conflict. It no
longer sees any point in being reticent or even devious. It puts its
cards on the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn't give a
damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent,
which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own
bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and
supine Great Britain.”
Harold
Pinter died in December 2008, but his spirit is still with us. Pablo
Neruda died about two weeks after the Chilean president Salvador Allende
had, on September 11, 1973, been so brutally overthrown and probably
killed by the U.S. and CIA-supported forces of the dictator-to-be, the general Augusto Pinochet, and his fascist thugs.
The following poem, written during the Spanish Civil War, could just as well serve as an illustration of the countries plundered and laid in ruins from U.S.
brutal invasions.
Excerpt from ‘I'm Explaining a Few Things’ – by Pablo Neruda (1936)
…
And one morning all that was burning,
one morning the bonfires
leapt out of the earth
devouring human beings --
and from then on fire,
gunpowder from then on,
and from then on blood.
Bandits with planes and Moors,
bandits with finger-rings and duchesses,
bandits with black friars spattering blessings
came through the sky to kill children
and the blood of children ran through the streets
without fuss, like children's blood.
Jackals that the jackals would despise,
stones that the dry thistle would bite on and spit out,
vipers that the vipers would abominate!
Face to face with you I have seen the blood
of Spain tower like a tide
to drown you in one wave
of pride and knives!
From ‘Explico algunas cosas’ por Pablo Neruda (1936)
…
Y una mañana todo estaba ardiendo
y una mañana las hogueras
salían de la tierra
devorando seres,
y desde entonces fuego,
pólvora desde entonces,
y desde entonces sangre.
Bandidos con aviones y con moros,
bandidos con sortijas y duquesas,
bandidos con frailes negros bendiciendo
venían por el cielo a matar niños,
y por las calles la sangre de los niños
corría simplemente, como sangre de niños.
Chacales que el chacal rechazaría,
piedras que el cardo seco mordería escupiendo,
víboras que las víboras odiaran!
Frente a vosotros he visto la sangre
de España levantarse
para ahogaros en una sola ola
de orgullo y de cuchillos!
Chile,
Pablo Neruda’s home country, has never truly recovered from the U.S.
led coup against the democratically elected Salvador Allende who was
trying, as a true humanitarian and socialist, to restore human rights,
dignity and property to the desperately poor indigenous people of this
nation, so cruelly plundered and exploited by European colonials ever
since the days of Columbus.
All over Latin America, the bells of freedom for the oppressed people
are ringing louder and louder. As the psychopaths in the castles of the
global Empire are trembling, indigenous people are standing up straight,
lifting from their backs the burden of their centuries-old submission.
In this fight for freedom and human dignity they are supported by their
own movements for justice and equality. In Venezuela, in Bolivia, in
Ecuador, and all over Latin America, we are seeing the emergence of
signs of liberation from the Global Empire. Voices of freedom are
ringing loud and clear and the Empire is trembling.
The
times are gone when the U.S. could steal whatever they would, until
very recently, have claimed as their birthright. The brutal giant is
toppling and very soon we will see the light of day emerging from the
ruins of the plundered countries the Empire has been trampling to
shreds, with corpses piling up in the hundreds of thousands and personal
dignity and right to life being scoffed at. The universe will be reborn
as a place where people have the power to decide for themselves the
fate of their nation. The world will be a place where all people will
have the right to a life in dignity – with freedom from constant fear.
_________________
Notes:
Idem note [2]
Siv
O'Neall is an Axis of Logic columnist, based in France. Her insightful
essays are republished and read worldwide. She can be reached at siv@axisoflogic.com
© Copyright 2010 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints
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© Copyright 2014 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the
article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of
Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!
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