ROCKSTROH: Notes from Atlanta, Georgia: A Lie Of The Mind

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I’m in Atlanta, Georgia, at present. Among the scent of pine trees and the reek of southern denial. The moribund economy has thwarted the city’s manic drive to silence its resentful ghosts by means of constant motion … Below the lilting southern accents here, one detects rage … Not simply the ubiquitous hate-speak on right-wing talk radio. But an animus bred by truth-deferred … that southern pride is a lie of the mind — a blown banner … foisted skyward to distract the minds of my fellow southerners from the ground level truths of a system rigged to enrich the privileged few and keep the many working for their benefit. (How do you think they filled the ranks of the Confederate Army to kill and die for the rights of rich men to own slaves?)

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One Response to “Notes from Atlanta, Georgia: A Lie Of The Mind”

1.  TheMisfortuneTeller said:
   December 21st, 2010 at 5:56 pm
   Some corresponding considerations:
   …
   If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
   Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
   Bitter as the cud
   Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
   My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
   To children ardent for some desperate glory,
   The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
   Pro patria mori.”
   – Wifred Owen, Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori
   “Patriotism: combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any man ambitious to illuminate his name.”
   “Patriot: the dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.”
   – Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

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