Killing time

I'm reading Ward Churchill's book about "A little matter of Genocide." It's bathroom reading, if you know what I mean. No other way to keep reading material so deeply troubling.

Churchill, whatever you may say about him, should be read. Digested. Because his scholarship is interesting, and because what he writes about forces a re-think of every fact you might think you know about European conduct in the Americas. We have acted deplorably as a culture toward those who came before us. Hey, we've acted just as awfully to just about everyone who's got in our way so it should be no surprise... We have a tremendously prodigious capacity for self-delusion and going with the delusions of others. It's what our economy's based on, it's what our government is based on.

What that ends up causing is pretty damn nasty for anyone caught in our pincers.

Meanwhile, in other parts of my life, I'm considering buying real estate. You know, the property my white forefathers stole from the tribes of North America before they killed 98% of them.

So I think I have reason to kvetch. Property rights, you see, only hold as long as the humans in power want them to. And if you get in their way? Barrel of gun, bayonet, harpoon. Lunchmeat.

I don't wonder that our politics are corrupt. I know where corruption emerges from.

Same barrel.