UPDATE: 6 pm EST; I just heard the singer interviewed. She said she had to do this because her parents stood up for civil rights. She said The Star Spangled Banner doesn't represent her.
For Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's State of the City address yesterday, a Black woman was asked to sing the National Anthem and she decided she should sing a different song but didn't tell the officials beforehand...She sang the Black National Anthem (what?) "Lift Every Voice and Sing", lyrics of which which happen to come from one of my personal favorite poets, James Weldon Johnson, and which were set to music by his brother in 1900.
Here's a little of the lyric (you can read the rest at the link and I hope you do):
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
I just hope that means America. The article on the link has reactions...you might like to check them out.
Thanks for the tip, Ron xx
50 comments:
~ FreeThinke says:
Lift Every Voice and Sing is, indeed, known informally as "The Black National Anthem."
There's nothing wrong with the words, they're rather good in fact, but the MUSIC is frankly terrible. I first heard of it when it appeared in the 1982 edition of the Episcopal Hymnal in a church I was serving at the time.
Like certain African and Asian folk songs that have been stuck in various Christian hymnals because of misguided sentiment, ignorance of musical values and political correctness, it is as out of phase with the great hymns of the church as a beard and mustache–––or heavy red lipstick, turquoise eye shadow and thick black mascara–––would be on the Mona Lisa.
It is not a "hymn" at all, but rather a "song," but black churchgoers strongly identify with it, even though it has none of beauty and integrity of authentic Negro Spirituals and none of the harmonic inventiveness and expressive quality of Jazz. Instead, Lift Every Voice and SIng sounds like stuffy, sentimental "Parlor Piano Music" from the Victorian Era.
although it is beautiful - i hope they didn't pay her to sing one song and she adlibbed another. a little bit of anarchy showing in this story.
unruliness should never be the rule of the day. she's just shown she cannot be trusted to keep to her word.
Hi, FT.
Nobody's arguing that the music or lyrics aren't good. As I said, Johnson is a favorite poet of mine..a Black Pastor who has written really beautiful stuff.
The point is that we don't invite anyone to sing the National Anthem and have them sing something other than that at a public event..don't you think?
and yes, to compare this type of thing to HOW GREAT THOU ART or A MIGHTY FORTRESS is cruel! Very interesting but not at all surprising that it would appear in an Episcopal hymnal so many years ago, huH?!
nanc...I don't know if they paid her but yes, she was definitely invited to sing OUR National Anthem and only told her family she decided to substitute it...as if nobody'd notice!?
I guess my point is about how divisive things like this are....more and more African American v American. That's NUTS. Black Americans are MORE American than I am. I'm first and second generation American in my family! Most Blacks go back for many generations!
I'm a singer, as you know, and am imagining them having asked me to sing the National Anthem and my pulling out some Armenian Anthem? Would that go over?
Quite rude and unprofessional to sing something other than what was agreed upon. As a professional woman, I strive to go above and beyond what is expected of me. I'd think this should stain her reputation significantly.
I would have thought the black national anthem would have sampled a George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars song.
"One Nation Under a Groove"
To my thinking, by hyphenating "American", you disqualify yourself of that title.
This was egregious and a deliberate slap at AMERICANS.
If I was ever in a position to hire her, I wouldn't, because her heart wasn't made in America.
tmw
I was in the middle school in the district I work for and a voice came over the loud speaker and said that so-and-so was going to sing the "new National Anthem." They went on to sing the song mentioned here. I was furious to say the least. WE HAVE A NATIONAL ANTHEM!!!
Right, TMW...her heart is definitely NOT made in America...good way to put it.
pops! You have GOT to be kidding me? Does anybody complain or the kids just get indoctrinated and nobody cares?
ARE WE NUTS?
You nailed it, Z. Many Americans are stark raving loony-bins!
They should have stopped her and insisted she either sing the true National Anthem or not sing at all. That's what I would have done. That was entirely disrespectful, and arrogant as well!
I was not the only one upset. Maybe Obama would salute if you played this song here. As for anything actually American like The Pledge or the American Flag or a war hero like John McCain that's another story.
I understand that there are people who regard this song as “the black national anthem.” I do not know what that means. The word anthem denotes a sacred song, or a song of praise, and primarily to one’s country. Are we talking about a people who subscribe to the peculiar idea of black nationalism, black separatism, or Afrocentric orientation? As I wrote in my most recent post, “I do not think it is necessary to redefine our National Anthem to encompass a “black perspective …” We are Americans, a fact that far exceeds the concept of any hyphenated ethnicity (a hyphen denotes division, not unity). It should be sufficient that each and every one of us is a Red, White, and Blue American.
What a disgrace. The singer says she was representing herself. Really? Then what's she there for? If she wants to represent herself she can sing it in her shower.
The National Anthem represents the country, not the perfomer. Gayle's absolutely right, disrespectful and arrogant is what this was.
The best thing that could have happened would have been if everyone in attendance had walked out. Or, if everyone had sung the real National Anthem and drowned her out.
Is this what we are to expect if Obama gets elected? A constant "in your face" four year gloat?
If it is, it'll set back any Presidential black candidacy for years.
Pris
Pris, the article said some of them thought they should have just started singing over her; hope isn't lost, right?
But. they didn't.
And, you will LOVE this....the tape I heard of the Denver news reporting this dwelt heavily on how so many people were sending 'hate mail' and making angry calls to talk show hosts. See? The news couldn't condemn HER, but those who had the nerve to complain, were 'HATEful'.......typical.
Ah oh. I guess I didn't need to post on this. ;-)
~ FreeThinke, who is up very late after a long early evening nap, says:
I heard the early part of Mike Gallagher's show tonight. He broadcast the actual performance of this event.
It was very strange. The woman, who sounds like a Whitney Houston wannabe, actually sang James Weldon Johnson's words to a strange, Black Gospel-style version of the TUNE we all know as The Star-Spangled Banner.
In my view even if she HAD sung the words of Francis Scott Key, it STILL would have been an atrocity, because a jazzed up, ethnically-ornamented, highly informal, "pop" approach to the National ANTHEM is completely unacceptable to me.
So, in reality it is more that STYLE of the presentation that is more offensive than anything else.
I'm sure many would disagree, but anything that mars the dignity, solemnity, reverence and splendor of this music is a travesty.
Of course the tune originated in the taverns of England with very different words and a very different purpose. It started out life as a cheery, lilting DRINKING SONG. but so did a number of the great Lutheran hymns.
Basic "tunes" are quite neutral. It is the way composers and performers TREAT them that gives them specific character and meaning.
But the singer in question DID use the tune normally associated with The National Anthem.
James Weldon Johnson's words fit very poorly with it.
"She said The Star Spangled Banner doesn't represent her."
Perhaps she should find somewhere else that does represent her then. Now that i think about it i'd like to see this fool turn away American soldiers or law enforcement authorities if they were to come to her aid, since the last time i checked they serve the Star Spangled Banner which apparently doesn't represent her. Unless off course she was just behaving like a stupid, insolent child who just wants to have a good whine.
Plato, "Laws"
ATHENIAN: And the uneducated is he who has not been trained in the chorus, and the educated is he who has been well trained?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: And the chorus is made up of two parts, dance and song?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Then he who is well educated will be able to sing and dance well?
CLEINIAS: I suppose that he will.
ATHENIAN: Let us see; what are we saying?
CLEINIAS: What?
ATHENIAN: He sings well and dances well; now must we add that he sings what is good and dances what is good?
CLEINIAS: Let us make the addition.
ATHENIAN: We will suppose that he knows the good to be good, and the bad to be bad, and makes use of them accordingly: which now is the better trained in dancing and music--he who is able to move his body and to use his voice in what is understood to be the right manner, but has no delight in good or hatred of evil; or he who is incorrect in gesture and voice, but is right in his sense of pleasure and pain, and welcomes what is good, and is offended at what is evil?
CLEINIAS: There is a great difference, Stranger, in the two kinds of education.
ATHENIAN: If we three know what is good in song and dance, then we truly know also who is educated and who is uneducated; but if not, then we certainly shall not know wherein lies the safeguard of education, and whether there is any or not.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Let us follow the scent like hounds, and go in pursuit of beauty of figure, and melody, and song, and dance; if these escape us, there will be no use in talking about true education, whether Hellenic or barbarian.
CLEINIAS: Yes.
I think that the young lady who sang this song is a patriot who is learning to love her country. That she sought to take the words of a "separatist" black national anthem and "tie it" to the tune we all know and love as the Star Spangled Banner, is, IMHO, a huge and much needed step towards national racial reconciliation.
Had she asked permission to change the words, it would never have been granted. Had you polled people, 90% of Americans would have "hated" the idea. But now that she's done it, I think it's kinda wonderful. And maybe, just maybe, we could "add a verse or two" to our national anthem, and sing them occassionally, something a little more "inclusive".
e pluribus unum!
btw - Maybe we can make it a new "National Drinking Song!"
I agree with Gayle, they should have kicked her off the stage if she didn't sing the American National Anthem. This kind of horsesh** is what keeps racism alive and well in this country.
I absolutely disagree with FJ,
"I think that the young lady who sang this song is a patriot who is learning to love her country. That she sought to take the words of a "separatist" black national anthem and "tie it" to the tune we all know and love as the Star Spangled Banner, is, IMHO, a huge and much needed step towards national racial reconciliation."
Using a black seperatist song promotes black seperatism, period. If people like this want to heal the wounds of racism a good first step would be to actually show a little support for our country. If not, then they can leave.
LOL, the word "drunk" is in it. That's poor taste and choice of wording. Makes me think of the liquor sto' and waitin' on that welfare check.
Could you read my post in the previous thread on origins of e pluribus unum then, please? THAT is where I'm coming from.
Disagreement is one thing. "Absolute" disagreement, quite another.
FJ.."Learning to love her country" now, why? Like Michelle Obama is, now that a Black man is running for president?
Why not before? I sympathize with her but mostly because she's bought into a racist America I don't see anymore. I'm not Black, so I can't know for sure, but it feels to me like the pimps like Jackson and SHarpton are invested in reminding Black AMericans, who deserve to feel every BIT as American as WE are (more, in my case, since I'm first and second generation here!), that Whitey's to blame, that Blacks will never be fully accepted, etc etc....and, until they stop telling Black Americans that, this woman will feel like she does.
Time to get over the past and move on, and having sung all of our National Anthem proudly and beautifully, might have helped that group listening......and her.
I'd love more conversation on this because your sentiment really surprised me, FJ. I respect your opinions so much, I'd like to hear more if you don't mind. I do see your point...but to mix anthems when we ARE all Americans? I just don't understand that. Or can you imagine having two people sing different anthems at each public event? Is that solidifying or is that dividing!??
The singer says she was representing herself. Really? Then what's she there for? If she wants to represent herself she can sing it in her shower.
The National Anthem represents the country, not the perfomer.
Well said, Pris. It is self-centered narcissism and being indoctrinated in multicultural ethos that warps judgment and blurs distinction on what creates national unity and not national segregation.
Does this sound like a BLACK SEPARATIST text to you? Here is the complete poem. The words appear to me to have UNIVERSAL significance.
As I said earlier, the PERFORMANCE was just plain LOUSY from an artistic point of view, and the attempt to wed these words with the tune we know as The Star Spangled Banner creates a ludicrous effect. But the words, themselves, are not evidence of "Black Racism."
That this came to be known as The Negro National Anthem has nothing to do with the intent of the author. He wrote it as part of a celebration commemorating Abraham Lincoln.
~ FreeThinke
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee;
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our GOD,
True to our native land
James Weldon Johnson June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938
Timeline
I think that the young lady who sang this song is a patriot who is learning to love her country. That she sought to take the words of a "separatist" black national anthem and "tie it" to the tune we all know and love as the Star Spangled Banner, is, IMHO, a huge and much needed step towards national racial reconciliation.
fj, I wouldn't call her "anti-American"; but I would say she lacks judgment and lacks a certain core element that should be instilled in every heart of every American. If we are to be one people, we need a shared, sacred rallying symbol of unity. That would be the Flag and the National Anthem. If she wants to play artistic mangling and political interpretation of the Anthem, she can do that on her own time; it was inappropriate for her to do it in the setting that she did.
There are things that just shouldn't have to be stated- unwritten rules that everyone instinctively understands. You don't show up to funerals wearing a clown get-up. You don't attend a wedding in your jogging clothes.
The national anthem, as is, represents her. It's a lying, crying shame that she has been taught to think otherwise, putting ethnic ties over the bond of national loyalty to Americans of ALL ethnicities. It would be the height of narcissism for every single ethnic/special interest group to think somehow to feel good about themselves and make a statement, they need to inject their own little flavor into everything- especially into the national anthem.
How would it be unifying, how do we identify ourselves as one people, should we each take liberties with the Flag? What if I wanted to change a few things on the stars and stripes and add a color I like...a symbol that represents my individuality, etc.?
But the words, themselves, are not evidence of "Black Racism."
FreeThinke,
It's not so much about racism, as it is about a fixation on race and a lack of understanding of proper decorum and national unity behind a common symbol of our shared unity.
I don't care how beautiful the song is, in and of itself. It is not the National Anthem, and it was highly inappropriate for her to sing anything else but the anthem of our country.
FJ.."Learning to love her country" now, why? Like Michelle Obama is, now that a Black man is running for president?
Why not before?
Here's a "rambling" half-answer...
For the past 44 years (since the '64 Civil Rights Act) it has been "popular" to deride America as an inherently racist country and to recount her history from the perspective of her most "oppressed" member (be it slave of agricultural illegal immigrant). However "unjust" and/or "untrue" this viewpoint is, the new left liberals began mainstreaming this perspective in schools starting with my generation (I'm in my fifties). This all stemmed from the anti-war movement and from emancipated neo-liberal thought constructs (ie-Rawlsian theories of "social Justice").
When I left California in 1966 (after 3rd grade), America had been a place to be "proud of". When I returned in 1970 (8th grade) I was puzzled to discover that everything had changed in the California School System. All of a sudden patriotism was square, ethnicity was "hip", and there was a "Black Student Union" and a "Chicano Club" and whites were largely excluded and harassed by other school kids as "establishment/ racist" oppressors. Minorities felt "newly empowered" and were largely left free to ignore and deride the Mainstream white culture and were encouraged to explore their own "unique cultural and ethnic identities". In fact, new-left liberals encouraged its' once "un-enfranchised" citizens to form their own rice-bowls in university level women's and black history programs and to even write a new history about America and what it was represented from the perspective of an oppressed and un-empowered citizen.
The new left counter-cultural student movement of the 60's had literally "flipped" both history AND the culture. Howard Zinn's faux-history was now being accepted as a "mainstream truth". And as Nietzsche said...WtP 534 (1887-1888) - The criterion of truth resides in the enhancement of the feeling of power.
The ethnic minorities of my generation and "beyond" have been taught to bear a grudge and feel resentment. It made them feel more powerful, independent and therefore more in control of their own destinies. And as undeserving as this may be, Obama's candidacy IS thawing the chill these people have been taught to feel for their country and allowing them to begin to identify with parts of the "mainstream establishment" instead of viewing themselves as 2nd class citizens or looking to "separate entirely" into ethnically-centered regional states (as perhaps many Mexican American radicals dream in the west and as perhaps black separatists centered in Chicago and NY once dreamed).
"Justice" is sometimes more easily described as a "feeling" than anything one can easily put into words. It has been called a "moral sense"... and a "sixth sense". It includes ideas as to how one would expect others to treat them, and until now, many blacks (as everyone in the entire world for that matter) have felt a desire to share in the "ultimate power" that only the presidency of the United States can represent.
Until now, there has always been a "white man" between them and "ultimate power". The same feeling, I believe, applies to many women and ALL self-segregating or identifying minorities.
And as Nietzsche also has stated...
"...do you want a name for this world? A solution for all its riddles? A light for you, too, you best-concealed, strongest, most intrepid, most midnightly men?-- This world is the will to power--and nothing besides! And you yourselves are also this will to power--and nothing besides!"
Obama may not be a "representative" of a typical black man... but regardless, many blacks view him as such and identify with him merely becuase of his race.
So to understand me better, I suggest you read Nietzsche's Essay "Good and Bad, Good and Evil." Most blacks equate white culture with the "Master Values" of the essay and their own values with "Slave Values". Blacks are now realizing, for perhaps the very first time, that they can be Masters and are becoming open to exchanging their sense of "slave values" for the opportunity to experience the power of "establishment" master values.
Like the Jew Shylock in Merchant of Venice who resented the Christian merchants and longed for equality and the "power" of being able to exact his "pound of flesh" as a "doge". For no amount of money compares to the "feeling of power" the master gets in being able and "officially permitted" to render legal jusgements and PHYSICALLY PUNISH OTHERS according to you own standards and will. And it is from the actual ability to PUNISH others that one draws their own personal "sense of justice".
This is largely the reason men in "ancient days" were viewed as being "superior" to women, for the force option was always open to them. Women were physically weaker" and this "inability" was seen as an inability to exercise "courage". Women were "forced" into temperance, and therefore required to be more "cunning" than physically strong.
...for what it's worth.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/johnson/johnson.html
If you want a treat and would like read some of Johnson's very best, check out the above link..It's gorgeous stuff but too long to put here in a comment. Enjoy..you'll be glad you looked.
The point about this woman, and Prager, Medved, Ingraham, etc.etc. have carried this story (Prager saying this ONE STORY encapsulizes everything that's wrong with this country right now)...the point is that she was disrespectful to the occasion, prideful and forced division again across the country rather than unity. That her feelings led her to this is the saddest part of the whole thing.
Is there a solution? A new song lyrics of which talk of our magnificence but humbled because of our past racism?
I don't think so.
Wordsmith..excellent points..thanks. I agree with you totally.
FT..thanks for your thoughts, too. It's SO not about separatism. She is the one who emphasized separatism.
FJ...I've been corresponding with a Black conservative from FPM who's contemplating voting Obama; he's explained a lot of what you're described here and so you do have an unusual empathy toward the Black American experience, no doubt about it. There IS a feeling that they have no power, whether it's true or not, absolutely.
Was this a way to demand it? Did it make for a better understanding or did it provoke peoples' anger because she treated OUR anthem as a White anthem, in essence, by dissing it......? (and, in a way, she sure did, no?)
What will our country come to when we have two anthems? Will it become three when the Mexicans want theirs sung? Will it be like the DMV with twenty languages???
Am I going overboard in extrapolating all of this? I hope so.
God, please heal the Black American heart and mind; and heal White America so we encourage instead of discouarge.
And please kick Jesse Jackson in the A$$ for having propogated this THEM V US deal we all live with now. Amen.
I'm eager for NAMASTE, a blogger I've only just now become familiar with, to post here and am hoping she will!
In the meantime, please read her post for the Fourth! It's inspirational and I believe it's very ON TOPIC.
http://w1thmywholeheart.blogspot.com/
thanks, namaste.......z
hi z! thanks for stopping by my blog. good grief woman! your comment made me tear up and put my hand on my heart! thank you!
anywayz, here's my thoughts about this post. you are absolutely right. i'll even go a step further and say that this woman's action was just plain belligerent and mean-spirited. she needs to get over herself and behave like a professional. her motives were not for the love of her parents, as she claims. her motives were for the LACK of love she has for herself. pride rooted in hostility and rebellion is not pride, it's ego. if the racial injustices she's experienced wounded her so deeply that she jeopardizes her own livelihood, then she ought to seek counseling.
that's my two sense.
and i'll definitely be visiting here again. thanks for the inspiration!
:)
~maria
I wish you could have a talk with that singer, Maria..show her there are Americans who share her color but not her feelings. YOU are the inspiration, trust me.
thanks SO much...z
FJ...I do understand what you're saying it and what you're saying is backed by two Black friends who feel MUCH less fond and secure about America than I would hope they did.
I just think it's WRONG. e pluribus unum.......we have to be a LOT more unum if this country's going to survive and Black Americans need to remember we're FOR them, and the Jacksons of this world who've convinced them they need affirmative action and are oppressed, etcetc need to listen more to Cosby and people like Namaste, don't you think?
I do. But until a black, an hispanic, a woman, etc. have been made "king"... they will nor BELIEVE that THEY "have the power" and not "somebody else".
And who knows, maybe once they come to this "realization" they WILL listen to Cosby and Sowell and Thomas.
It's all "in their head"... an "inferiority complex" made worse by programs like affirmative action which tell them their not as capable as the rest of us.
That notion HAS to get dispelled or they'll never take and own responsibility for the future.
So even though I hate the idea of Obama as president, some "good" might come of it AND it will test the strength of our political system, which was originally designed (but is now weakened) to withstand your 'worst enemy' becoming president.
erratum - "not fully" vice "nor" above.
FJ....will his losing put them back into their funk? Wouldn't you THINK that this Rene Marie might be so thrilled that a Black man was considered THIS seriously that she might realize that White Americans are NOT racist? But, it won't be enough. If he loses, Mr. Z predicts terrible riots...REALLY awful unrest. But, I doubt he can lose, because Mrs. Z predicts ballot stuffing like we've never seen before. (in the Black Crenshaw District here in LA, a friend who worked 35 yrs for an eye doctor told me the elderly Black patients there told them voting was EASY because there were nice people who come to their homes or old age homes and get them to do absentee ballots and then they come when the ballots have arrived and help them VOTE!! ISn't that PRECIOUS? For YEARS, Kathy said they heard this...it's stepped up SO BIG TIME this year and nobody will say anything...trust me)
Or, if he loses (Please God, because, as you know, FJ, America will NEVER recover; not with leaving this war or giving amnesty to illegals most of whom have ZERO allegiance to this country, or the tax structures or the healthcare changes or paying for illegals' college, and especially the SCOTUS appointments those old geezers in the courts now have been hanging onto just long enough for a lib to appoint more just like them and he'll DO that)
But, of course, those are all things most of Black America would applaud.I suppose a kind of creeping socialism and mediocrity will be the new America. I guess we'll have to be the HUGE losers if he's elected and they will be thrilled. (but not ALL Black Americans...I know some who despise Obama)
can we suggest a HUGE setback in this great country's future might be enough for Black America to understand this country's not racist? What a terrible comeuppance.
And all of us have done nothing to warrant it. NOTHING.
will his (Obama) losing put them back into their funk?
Ask Hillary's feminist supporters...
They'll always have an excuse to talk themselves back into their funk. But it does make it harder and harder to continue the charade.
And all of us have done nothing to warrant it. NOTHING.
This funk was created entirely by the Left. They need to "take America down" so that they can institute their one world UN government. D'Souza's book, "The Enemy at Home" made that abundantly clear. And as Nietzsche forewarned (GoM), w/o G_d...
If we leave aside the ascetic ideal, then man, the animal man, has had no meaning up to this point. His existence on earth has had no purpose. “Why man at all?” was a question without an answer. The will for man and earth was missing. Behind every great human destiny echoes as refrain an even greater “in vain!” That’s just what the ascetic ideal means: that something is missing, that a huge hole surrounds man — he did not know how to justify himself to himself, to explain, to affirm; he suffered from the problem of his meaning. He also suffered in other ways as well: he was for the most part a pathological animal, but the suffering itself was not his problem, rather the fact that he lacked an answer to the question he screamed out, “Why this suffering?” Man, the bravest animal, the one most accustomed to suffering, does not deny suffering in itself; he desires it; he seeks it out in person, provided that people show him a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering. The curse that earlier spread itself over men was not suffering, but the senselessness of suffering — and the ascetic ideal offered him a meaning!
The ascetic ideal has been the only meaning offered up to this point. Any meaning is better than no meaning at all; however one looks at it, the ascetic ideal has so far been the “faute de mieux” [for lack of something better] par excellence. In it suffering was interpreted, the huge hole appeared filled in, the door shut against all suicidal nihilism. The interpretation undoubtedly brought new suffering with it — more profound, more inner, more poisonous, and more life-gnawing suffering; it brought all suffering under the perspective of guilt. . . .
But nevertheless — with it man was saved. He had a meaning; from that point on he was no longer like a leaf in the wind, a toy ball of nonsense, of “without sense”; he could now will something — at first it didn’t matter where, why, or how he willed: the will itself was saved.
We simply cannot conceal from ourselves what is really expressed by that total will which received its direction from the ascetic ideal: this hate against what is human, even more against animality, even more against material things — this abhorrence of the senses, of reason itself, this fear of happiness and beauty, this longing for the beyond away from all appearance, change, becoming, death, desire, even longing itself — all this means, let’s have the courage to understand this, a will to nothingness, an aversion to life, a revolt against the most fundamental preconditions of life — but it is and remains a will! . . . And to repeat at the conclusion what I said at the start: man will sooner will nothingness than not will . . .
The New Left seems to think that the only problem that the world will have in the future is debating which version of the Internationale to sing at UN sponsored events. ;-)
LOL~~ Snagged this from the Puffington Post this am...
Her ill-timed, totally inappropriate act has been fodder for speculation that it could have a possible backdoor blowback on Obama. Obama immediately rapped Marie for her wrong headed switcheroo, and said that there's only one national anthem. Obama had to move fast and knock the singer's act. The Democratic convention will be in Denver in August and Obama can ill-afford to have even the slightest hint that he approves anything that could be construed as an act that disrespects America's number one, time tested emblematic expression of American patriotism, especially from a black singer. And even more especially given that Colorado with a Democratic controlled legislature, and rising numbers of younger voters and Hispanic voters could be ripe for the picking from the GOP orbit in the fall.
We heard Obama's remarks about Rene Marie on the radio Thursday night....yes, he condemned what she did but not after he talked about how popular her song is in Black churches, how very beautiful it is and how much they've always enjoyed singing it...'but this country only has one National Anthem.....'
He can't risk ticking anybody off, dontchaknow.........He played it RIGHT down the line.
...so that everyone could hear what they wanted to hear.
and, of course, what ELSE is new?
I know this is 'politics as usual' and no Republican's above this type of campaigning, either, but Obama is just the MASTER.
Did you see where if he makes a mistake in something he's said and has been advised it was STUPID, they come back and say he has REFINED his views? REFINED?
And he will come out once a week now and say he was CARELESS or ARTLESS. Do we want CARELESS AND ARTLESS in a PRESIDENT? That could cost us a LOT!! "ooops...gee, that was careless.. that bomb I dropped..that tax raise.. careless..oops"
Imagine McCain saying "well, I'm just refining my opinions.."?? Ya, right. And getting away with it??? As nanc would say bwwaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Did you see where if he makes a mistake in something he's said and has been advised it was STUPID, they come back and say he has REFINED his views? REFINED?
Doesn't he need to ask for unanimous consent to revise and extend his remarks BEFORE he speaks? How fortunate for Obama that McCain is a gentle man and Senatorial colleague. ;-)
It's like declaring a war on Iraq, launching the invasion and then claiming it was a mistake and being given a "Do-Over". Dhimmicrats. G_d bless 'em. Nobody else will.
thanks, you make the point I meant to make, too.
If McCain continues to be another Bush in the way he's downplaying and softpedaling all of Obama's idiocies, then we are in TROUBLE. Bush got NOWHERE being MR NICE GUY, did he.
As another poster once smartly said "The only thing Bush got for reaching across the aisle and being nice was a few missing fingers".
I seriously doubt McCain WILL take much more of Obama's stuff. If I were him NOW, I'd be saying constructive things like "We need a president whose first impressions of the problems facing this country are sound based on experience and excellent input from trusted colleagues. While I respect REFINEMENT and am glad we can recognize carelessness or artlessness in ourselves, it scares me a little. I'm not one to say one can't change an opinion, but I'm hoping experience in any candidate, years of dealing with major problems and their solutions, will guide him into making the best decisions for this country. I believe I am the candidate with that qualification."
You are right. McCain needs to launch a serious offensive... and the sooner the better. It's a shame he doesn't have a "netroots" equivalent 501c like Kos or MoveOn. They're the real movers behind Obama and the DNC.
Usually the VP keeps the other side of the aisle in line as "attack dog". Unfortunately, once elected, Dick Cheney let himself get so bogged down in running the war that he left his boss exposed to every kind of ridiculous attack and essentially left the President's back unprotected for eight years. This President's unpopularity is, IMO, Cheney's greatest failing. Cheney developed no 'expendable' machine (like netroots) to launch counter-attacks with. And when he did attempt to counter, it was largely ineffectual (ie - L'Affaire Plame).
Now you can say it was Karl Rove's delegated job to keep the Democrats off-balance and in the box, but Karl wasn't elected to do anything, nor did he have the power $$$ backers behind him. The buck stops with Cheney.
Well, the only guy I know with the right stuff to back McCain at present is Newt. Newt was VERY effective as a minority leader (but less so as a Majority Leader). And given a Democratic Congress, McCain is going to need a real bulldog.
Yes, I was about to write you "ROVE IS THE ONE I BLAME" but you're probably right..maybe Cheney.
I agree with you; Newt could do this, but I feel like Newt's going mushy on us. That kind of stupid Bill O'Reilly "let's be fair at ALL COSTS" I'm not willing for the cost to be my country anymore.
DOWN WITH FAIRNESS....Let's give 'em what WE get in abundance.
I'm w/ you. Rochambeau time! I say its' our turn to go first...
"master got me workin'..." hilarious!
Yup..I'd say it's OUR turn to kick 'em in the.......did he say?!...naaa
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