Fucking the Goats

“An old man walks into a pub in Scotland, his feet shuffling, his back bent. He drags himself to a stool and orders a beer. Placing the full glass in front of him, the bartender inquires upon his sad face.

The man answers with a smoky and trembling voice in a Scottish accent: ‘Ah tell ya, man! This pub, this very pub we’re sitting in. I built it, with me own hands! But do they call me Pubmaker? Nah! See the wall over there, that protects our town? I built it, with me own hands! But do they call me Wallmaker? And the bridge, you know, that crosses our river, I built it, with me own hands! But do they call me the Bridgemaker? But I tell ya, man; YA FUCK ONE GOAT!’ “

For most people, a mistake can follow them for the rest of their lives. One drink too many can have disastrous consequences, for both the person that overestimated their ability to drive, or the potential harm that can be visited upon others as a result of such a decision. One poor decision when it comes to safe sex can lead to venereal disease, unwanted children, or untold damage to one’s reputation. A smart-assed comment to the wrong person can lead to a loss of employment, unfavorable attention in school, or poor first impressions in what could otherwise be desired relationships.

Yet… this does not apply to everyone, does it?

Our corporate media is still knee-deep with people that were cheerleaders for two mismanaged wars, an unprecedented erosion of civil rights, and a lowering of political discourse to where it rivals the arguments of third-graders. Our political class has managed to fuck up absolutely everything it has touched, from the social safety net to the public standard of living. We are still arguing as to whether climate change is exacerbated by humans, and we still have to convince a plurality of Americans that healthcare shouldn’t be a commodity. At no point has America improved in living memory.

Wall Street has complained non-stop about taxes being too high, regulations being too tight, and profits not being high enough. Despite all evidence to the contrary, there are people and politicians that agree with them. They have buried our economy time and time again, they have created a wage-gap that boggles the mind, and they have created an atmosphere where the American middle-class is disappearing. Still, they are complaining.

We still argue daily whether a legal medical procedure for women should be outlawed because it makes old, impotent men feel icky. We still argue daily that homosexuals should be given the same rights as heterosexuals, where the main heralds for their continued second-class status are a class of people rife with pedophiles, misogynists, and closeted homosexuals. We have to contend with the source of the logic being an ancient fairy tale.

At one point, people that are more intelligent than an aluminum can will have to admit that we have lost these battles. That we will never be able to stop the ravages of climate change, that abortion and homosexual rights will continue to be contested year after year, election after election. We will have to accept that illegal and immoral wars for profit will continue, regardless of the reasons stated. Our economy will slip further and further into feudalism, where the richest of Americans will always profit on the misery of everyone else. Our politicians will never represent the electorate.

We can claim that they are wrong, and they are. It will not do much good, as facts have become little more than a point of view in American culture. The only thing that is left to do now is to engage in damage control, to attempt to mitigate the destructions and depravities at the hands of the idiots.

The least that we can do is document who was wrong. Who stood up for the corporate rights to poison our planet. Who worked hardest to see that the American people became slaves to their corporate masters, and who worked hardest to see that we experienced a return to the Dark Ages when it came to medical and civil rights. The corporate media will not write these books, they will not make these documentaries. They have a vested interest in ensuring that our country goes to shit, because their ratings and paychecks depend on our misery. It is up to the American people to ensure that our children, our grandchildren, and the poor sonsofbitches that inherit this shithole of a planet know exactly who fucked up on purpose.