An Old Play on a New Stage

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. . . Oscar Wilde

If the great Irish playwright was living today, I believe that he would not be speaking of men and women who really love their country; men and women who understand that what is right for the human community that is their nation will be right for them. I trust that he would be pointing out the cruel absurdity of yapping dogs turning up at Presidential venues with guns. I believe that he would be indicating the idiocy of Neanderthals waving the Gadsden War Flag in front of the White House, implying that we are at war with our president as we were once at war with England and George III. He would know this for what it is - racism. I have faith that he would be directing our attention to the monstrous malice of vote whoring politicians waving that same flag from a balcony of the U.S. Capitol. He would be commenting on the sociopathic self promotion of people like Palin, waving the Constitution and stirring up her following with nothing more than vitriol and bitter resentment. Oscar Wilde spoke the truth. It was his job. It is the job of all serious writers.

I am a lifelong conspiracy theorist, and like Chris Carter’s Fox Mulder, I believe the truth is out there, and that it wants to be heard. I am not a glass-half-full woman. Some have called me a professional pessimist – true enough. Expect the worst. Why be disappointed? Still, in these days when Wilde’s vicious patriot has taken control with more money, more noise, more rage, I have a great sense of optimism. I hear the truth fluttering at the window.

Soon the subpoenas will fly, the government will be shut down, and the Tea Party mongrels will begin to draw blood from the ankles of their Senior Senators and Congress People. Presently the structure will begin to shutter like a skyscraper built on an unstable foundation. Hate is weak and cowardly, as love is strong and courageous. It will crumble without doubt because its bricks and mortar are of an inferior material - greed. I refer you to 2008 to see how suddenly that rotten substance deteriorates once it starts. This lousy economy will jump start it.

Call me naïve – it has been done before. Call me crazy – it has been done before. Call me stupid – that has never been done before, but hey, be the first. Nonetheless, I intuit and believe that we are in the final stages of labor. It will be hard and painful, but we shall give birth to a better reality.