Thursday, March 20, 2003

Two Gunslingers Soccer Match

"Two gunslingers, walked out in the street
And one said "I don't wanna fight no more"
And the other gunslinger thought about it
And he said, "yeah what are we fighting for?"

Imagine this: Iraqi soldiers will see our troops advancing on them and then Iraqi guys will say "Hey gunslingers! Let's play soccer instead" and our troops will say "Hey gunslingers! Let's play! But lay down your arms first" and then they will call CNN to make an order for 2 million soccer balls to be delivered to the desert of Iraq and CNN would get an exclusive on broadcasting the greatest soccer games the world had ever seen. And for the next 40 days the world will watch The Humanity at Play 24 hours a day . And it will be serious business. And those who don't like soccer will play basketball or cricket or baseball or they will play hide and seek (which is hard to do in a flat desert so it will require great creativity). And those who don't like games can play in the sand, make mudpies. And Iraqi soldiers will then show pictures of their wifes and sons to American soldiers who in turn will show them pictures of their loves ones and tell them about fresh baked pies in 24 hour diners on the outskirts of towns and then they will sing and tell stories around the campfires and it will be the greatest gathering of Humanity. Imagine One Million Soldiers playing soccer. Just Imagine. If I was a soldier in the desert this is what I would be imagining, that any moment now some Iraqi soldier will just shout "Hey gunslingers! Let's play soccer instead!" and then I won't have to kill him... and then I will not have to kill him... now. right now.


Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Permission Statement

Chris Locke wrote this column for Corante. He hasn't written much there yet. How 'bout that grocery list man. But back to the point. Why am I taking the time to remind you about that article? Hm...Let's not have any niceties about it, let's just pluck some words and run with it, shall we?
It's interesting that the first Ad Hominem post is titled 'Permission Statement'. Opppss. You missed that. You actually thought the title was Ad Hominem and then you wondered what the fuck that ment. Yeah, the title is "Permission Statment".

"What we are seeing today on the web -- discounting the plethora of corporate spew -- is the emergence of ourselves as human beings discovering what it means to be human. If you're not doing that, do it. Spook yourself. If you're already spooked, don't quit now. We've only begun to scratch the surface. Why is the net getting so much pushback from the top-down hierarchies of power that freak if they can't control everything. Because it's working, that's why. We're giving ourselves permission to be outlaws"

Let's have an honest talk.
Yo are so proper and nice and would never be an outlaw.
You secretly dream of being an outlaw but not actually being one in the light of day.
You would never stand in front of a buldozer but you will cry for those who did.

Being Human is Outlawed.

Outlawed? Who outlawed it?
Possible answer coming ..... bada bing... drum rolls.
Watch out. Here it comes.

You.

Congratulations.
You passed the law.
You wrote the law.
You enforce the law.

You Outlawed 'Being Human' for yourself.
You are safe.
You will die safe, unused, hardly a scratch on you (unless you stand in front of a bulldozer)

And you thought it was some High School teacher or a teller at the bank or your father or your mother or Department of Motor Vehicles. Nope. it was You all along. You just didn't know aobut it. You just didn't know that it was You who revoked the Permission to remain Human. (No, you don't have to stand in front of a bulldozer)

And now... Enter Seth Godin.
State your permission