forgettery

"the united states of amnesia" is what gore vidal calls our republic. we seem to be innoculated against our own history. the tsunami of media swamps our social and political perspective.

think of how infrequently one of our ubiquitous talking heads compares the mire of iraq with the quicksand of vietnam. are not the same overweening malign certainties bursting from the mouth of president birdshit as they did before from lyndon and milhouse? doesn't the bombast of rumsfeld remind you of the chill declarations of macnamara?

and the terrifying video vomiting from our televisions - aren't the similarities eerie? shouldn't we be doubly appalled?

we forget things on a personal level. name all your high school teachers. like me, you probably can't. you may remember you first kiss, but how about the twenty second or the thirty fourth. city life is a regimented series of ignorings, a survival round of sloughings. there is a logic to personal forgettings.

our societal forgettings are more dangerous and dangerously orchestrated. remember the twelve foot high cement wall being built around the adhimiya section of baghdad? seen any photos of it lately? you can think of a dozen more orwellian memory holes.

there was something else important i wanted to add but, dammit, i've forgotten.