Surely Some Revelation Is at Hand

[marmar]

from The Rumpus:




Surely Some Revelation Is at Hand
Steve Almond


.....(snip).....

There’s a moment, in the beginning, when the enormity of the violence feels genuine. We’re compelled to wonder: How did we get here? How did we consent to live in a culture where an unstable 22-year-old can acquire a sophisticated weapon with such ease? Where his disturbed passions are not only tolerated, but reinforced, enlarged, given shape?

He didn’t just wake up one day and decide to murder a politician. He made a plan.

*

But remember: it’s just a moment. It dissolves.

Then we’re in America again and it’s all moving too quickly – our eyes, our screens, the facts. Someone says lone gunman. Someone says crosshairs. A surgeon in a strange hat announces that the bullet fired into Giffords’ head passed “through and through” and, after a moment, we understand what he means.

It’s like watching Kabuki theater, a saga of contrived sorrow and recrimination, the voices of a thousand news people sounding grave because it’s their job. After a while, we realize that we’re not just watching the Kabuki. We are the Kabuki. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://therumpus.net/2011/01/surely-some-revelation-is-at-hand/

[leveymg]

1. That is an all-time greatest rant. Brilliant. KNR

[bemildred]

2. A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing:

:thumbsup:

[Doctor_J]

3. It's not at hand

and don't call me Shirley