Shun the dub (wow, just missed by an m)
I recently read Winnipeg writer Miriam Toews’s book A Complicated Kindness about a dysfunctional Mennonite family and as I was reading it, it occurred to me that the act of shunning, the Mennonite version of “I can’t hear you”, is being wasted on mere dancers, fornicators and card playing infidels.
For the non-Mennonite versed, shunning basically means you are not allowed to acknowledge the existence of the officially shunned individual, even if the shun-victim is your wife, your child or your boss. Fortunately there’s a whole slew of rules for this bizarre turn of events that allows you to continue to function in a quasi-relationship with this person, to cohabitate even with someone who no longer exists. That’s as creative an interpretation of the world as I’ve seen yet, barring the current U.S. administration.
Which makes me think of the natural connection between the two, a symbiotic relationship as it were. And to help stir that concoction up, a new mode of civil disobedience, of political action, of just saying no, is born. Its tagline -“Shunning: It’s not just for Mennos anymore” - the inaugural shunnee, none other than the eminently shunnable George W. Though perhaps just this once, we can have a deep discount for a gaggle of his cabal cohorts. A special three-for-one deal that includes Rummy, Cheney and Georges in one monster shunathon – a shun troika extraordinaire.
Think of it. If the terrible triplets no longer existed, there would be no presidential draft dodgers (no, that suggests an actual thought followed by an action – how about “I didn’t want to go so I didn’t have to because rules, laws and morality are for poor and ugly people, not rich white brats like me”), soldiers would not go off to do nasty things to people or to be killed themselves and the Geneva convention would not be shamelessly flouted, not to mention the constitution of the United States being compromised by White House lawyers trying to wrest power from congress and bestow it where it “rightfully” belongs – in the presidential office. Can you spell Fascist boys and girls? (kudos to Anthony Lewis and his article “Making Torture Legal" in the July 15th 2004 issue of The New York Review of Books – kudos in general to the NYRB for their great articles on the frightening developments under George the Dub).
Granted I am not an American and maybe there’s some basic genetic link I am missing (though my grandfather was American and his son, my uncle, returned there as an adult and is as hard-core American as you can get) that allows me to understand why a person would want to choose someone who is stupid, a liar, a bully and a coward as their leader.
Last time I checked those were not the primary qualities of a good boss-guy. I know there’s a whole whack of Americans who feel the same way that I do, which gives me great hope despite the fact that there remains a large percentage of people who continue to believe what the Dub says just because he says it emphatically in single syllable words.
I was interested to read Bush’s comment about Kerry’s recent much praised Democratic National Convention speech as being a “clever” speech like this is the worst thing a person could do. You gotta watch out for those clever types, they’re just trying to bamboozle you. This from the man who told us that WMDs definitely existed in Iraq, who declared the hostilities over in that country, hundreds of deaths prior to what continues to be an endless quagmire. And not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan, that long-ago war he initiated and “won”, where recently Doctors Without Frontiers declared they had to withdraw from the country due to an exceedingly dangerous situation, made more so by the reckless merging of U.S. military and humanitarian actions, thus managing to jeopardize the lives of all engaged in true humanitarian actions.
And as everything gets more and more insane and I fear for the world if the Dub’s brought back into power, whether by declaring no election due to terrorist threat (oh good one – that’s never been tried by a pathetic tyrant holding onto power any way he can) or by an illegal, immoral or just plain incompetent election process like the last one, it may seem a lame, head-in-the-sand approach, but since nothing else appears to be working, I’m willing to take the chance. And I encourage you as well to Shun the Dub. Do it now and do it often. What have we got to lose?
For the non-Mennonite versed, shunning basically means you are not allowed to acknowledge the existence of the officially shunned individual, even if the shun-victim is your wife, your child or your boss. Fortunately there’s a whole slew of rules for this bizarre turn of events that allows you to continue to function in a quasi-relationship with this person, to cohabitate even with someone who no longer exists. That’s as creative an interpretation of the world as I’ve seen yet, barring the current U.S. administration.
Which makes me think of the natural connection between the two, a symbiotic relationship as it were. And to help stir that concoction up, a new mode of civil disobedience, of political action, of just saying no, is born. Its tagline -“Shunning: It’s not just for Mennos anymore” - the inaugural shunnee, none other than the eminently shunnable George W. Though perhaps just this once, we can have a deep discount for a gaggle of his cabal cohorts. A special three-for-one deal that includes Rummy, Cheney and Georges in one monster shunathon – a shun troika extraordinaire.
Think of it. If the terrible triplets no longer existed, there would be no presidential draft dodgers (no, that suggests an actual thought followed by an action – how about “I didn’t want to go so I didn’t have to because rules, laws and morality are for poor and ugly people, not rich white brats like me”), soldiers would not go off to do nasty things to people or to be killed themselves and the Geneva convention would not be shamelessly flouted, not to mention the constitution of the United States being compromised by White House lawyers trying to wrest power from congress and bestow it where it “rightfully” belongs – in the presidential office. Can you spell Fascist boys and girls? (kudos to Anthony Lewis and his article “Making Torture Legal" in the July 15th 2004 issue of The New York Review of Books – kudos in general to the NYRB for their great articles on the frightening developments under George the Dub).
Granted I am not an American and maybe there’s some basic genetic link I am missing (though my grandfather was American and his son, my uncle, returned there as an adult and is as hard-core American as you can get) that allows me to understand why a person would want to choose someone who is stupid, a liar, a bully and a coward as their leader.
Last time I checked those were not the primary qualities of a good boss-guy. I know there’s a whole whack of Americans who feel the same way that I do, which gives me great hope despite the fact that there remains a large percentage of people who continue to believe what the Dub says just because he says it emphatically in single syllable words.
I was interested to read Bush’s comment about Kerry’s recent much praised Democratic National Convention speech as being a “clever” speech like this is the worst thing a person could do. You gotta watch out for those clever types, they’re just trying to bamboozle you. This from the man who told us that WMDs definitely existed in Iraq, who declared the hostilities over in that country, hundreds of deaths prior to what continues to be an endless quagmire. And not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan, that long-ago war he initiated and “won”, where recently Doctors Without Frontiers declared they had to withdraw from the country due to an exceedingly dangerous situation, made more so by the reckless merging of U.S. military and humanitarian actions, thus managing to jeopardize the lives of all engaged in true humanitarian actions.
And as everything gets more and more insane and I fear for the world if the Dub’s brought back into power, whether by declaring no election due to terrorist threat (oh good one – that’s never been tried by a pathetic tyrant holding onto power any way he can) or by an illegal, immoral or just plain incompetent election process like the last one, it may seem a lame, head-in-the-sand approach, but since nothing else appears to be working, I’m willing to take the chance. And I encourage you as well to Shun the Dub. Do it now and do it often. What have we got to lose?
posted by Bubbles at 8:45 AM
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