I don’t pay any conscious attention to the news propaganda anymore – at this point it consists almost entirely of opinion rather than matters of fact.
And these are the blatantly manipulative opinions of people whose opinions don’t warrant any attention. Almost without fail, it seems the news propaganda exists only to direct money into the pockets of humans whom I would dearly prefer to see begging for handouts on the street.
In my opinion it is far better to be uninformed than misinformed and manipulated. But, of course, the really significant stuff still trickles through.
Caitlin Johnston, my favorite poison drinker, has been paying faithful, awed tribute to Aaron Bushnell. If you didn’t know, Aaron was the active service US airman who self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. on February 25th, in protest of our nation’s participation in the horrifying atrocities of Israel’s War on Palestine.
She recently wrote a piece she called “The Most American Thing That Has Ever Happened,” in which, with suitably tragicomic sense, she noted that the only thing the police who arrived at the scene could think to do was point their guns at the man burning to death, and order him to lie down on the ground.
I couldn’t repost that piece.
This sort of event is very much NOT the sort of thing I WANT to focus on in detail on here.
But how can I not? Here was an ordinary, everyday human being, possessed of such profound empathy, compassion, and conviction that he could no longer benefit from and be party to an unspeakable abomination, that he was compelled to sacrifice his life in the most horrific, agonizing, and shocking way possible. All in the desperate attempt to get us to PAY ATTENTION!
He committed the ultimate act of poison drinking, saturating every cell of his being in the very toxins WE are all creating, OUR portions, in those portions that we so blithely decline to even taste, and then ignited it to burst forth into radiant light, through unspeakable agony.
Like the birth of a sun.
This is the single most heroic act I have ever heard of. It’s the most wholehearted act of compassion I can imagine. It deserves a greater tribute than I could ever hope to pay.
It’s odd how so many people who will go on and on about the self-sacrifice of a single Palestinian 2,000 years ago, seem to have scant compassion for the Palestinian child killed, often in extreme agony, ON OUR BEHALF, every 10 minutes, RIGHT NOW.
If, as they expect me to believe, this 2,000 year-old sacrifice was actually made by a diety, to my mind it renders it all the less impactful. “God,” existing beyond time and space, with infinite perspective, decided to suffer and die for what has to be an inconceivably miniscule duration, only to spring immediately back to life.
But for a finite mortal to make such a sacrifice, plunging himself into eternal extinction through an act of unimaginable agony, driven by overwhelming compassion… now THAT is a sacrifice that fills me with awe and profound reverence.
Let me reflect deeply, regularly, in profound love and gratitude, and with limitless admiration, on Aaron Bushnell.
May I never forget his name.
May I never forget his act of unthinkable heroism.
And most of all, may I never forget his purpose – that somehow we might awaken from our ravenous zombie sleepwalk and regain our humanity.
How can I NOT, in whatever tiny capacity I have, make SOME attempt to try and reflect the light that he died to bring into this dark world?
Please consider Caitlin Johnstone’s latest tribute to Aaron –
A Profound Act Of Sincerity
