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CounterPunch
January
18 / 19, 2003
The Armageddon
Jamboree!
Dance, Puppets of Weltschmerz,
Dance!
By ADAM ENGEL
Jazz Owl : I wanna sing-a, about the
moon-a and the June-a and the Spring-a!
Church Owl: Stop! Enough is too much!
-- from some old cartoon I forgot who
made it (Warner Brothers?) let 'em sue me.
Fairies Angels and UFOs will come and god and
goddess too (he'll come like Gary Cooper in a tux and she in
sequins like Marlene Dietrich -- or is it the other way?) so
loud was the Rock N' Roll of LIFE, so ineffective, but fun anyway
to make some noise and dance. We'll dance on their graves and
on our own; we'll clang our pots and smoke them; we'll amplify
our ukuleles, bang the ear-drums slowly, meltdown decibel boom
or bust and
WELCOME TO THE WOODSTOCK, D.C. ARMAGEDDON
JAMBOREE!
Greed, fear and Muzak be damned! We'll
have a blast (no pun intended), and know this doesn't have to
be, this Thanatos Waltz, although it is and was and ever always
puff of us poof of us bodies in time to be forgotten.
Oh well. Big deal. Shut up. Dance. Dance
or die. Dance and die. Don't matter: do the bunny hop hustle
bump and grind jitterbug Charleston go go go, L'il sister, show
yer hoochie koochie cuckoo shoes nude to the waist oh darlin'
lemme part yer beet curtains it's only for one night a life without
consequence, a Dance without permit.
Pick an issue, any issue, the environment
the economy the wars in Asia, Africa, South America, Middle East
gangland drug land terror land if you don't think this is bats
you're surely bats don't matter anyway bro' just dance!
And NO this DOES NOT HAVE TO BE!
Oh Puppets of Weltschmerz! Why must we
cower before our deranged Fearer and his gas-bag gang of fools
(surely they're out of their league and their minds)? Every one
of them, like Mad Adolph, yearns to be Gott of his own psychotic
Dammerung. It does not HAVE to be, but verily, it will.
Sooooooooooo,
Let the people converge (and dance).
Set out on this vast night pilgrimage (and dance) to their own
Capital (and dance), the seat of Democracy (and dance), the power
node (and dance) the monad (and dance), Stonehenge on the Potomac
and dance, dance, dance!
If it's gonna be The End let's be BAD
CHILDREN and tootsie waggin' two-step shake them Botox baby,
go go go!
Or maybe it won't be the end at all.
Maybe this DOES NOT HAVE TO BE.
But this is so apocalyptic ain't no march
on Washington 100,000 people and great speeches the beginning
of something but then what? Malcolm X said THE MAN wanted every
one of those folks outta town by sun down and sure enough every
one of those folks was outta town by sundown what kind of deal
is that as historian John Henrik Clarke said enough show biz
enough celebrity speeches enough Million Man March (and no women)
then back to the same old Nothing With Cream On Top nonsense...oh
enough! Really enough. The world indeed was too much with us.
Sooooooooo -
dance dance dance! Americans, come out
of your homes and walk (before you dance). Pack your backs and
your papooses and your rations, whatever you can carry, this
is not Exodus but In-To-Us we're all converging on the CENTER
that's not even a state!
There's 280 million people in this country
and every goddamn one of them has got to go to Washington and
DANCE! What the hell they gonna do kill 280 million of us? And
with what, Nukes? Bio weapons? This is the MAN'S town even if
he is a Wall-flower, even if he skee-daddles like HE did during
the 9/11/01 attacks, just gets in HIS plane and leaves. Even
if the hallowed halls of Congress are empty - doesn't matter
either way, does it? just more space to dance - nobody's gonna
do anything to anyone because 280 million people won't even fit
in D.C. -- we'll be all over the place, massing upon Maryland,
vexing Virginia, teeming o'er Tennessee. And nobody has to worry
about going back to your jobs because your boss is comin' too
if he knows what's good for him and that's not a threat it's
an explanation: they're talking NUKES again, first strike, the
whole shebang. This is absolutely outta control (don't even talk
about the environment don't go there don't have time) and anyway,
if all 280 million of us converge then who are the MIGHTY MILITARY
MEN gonna be shootin,' their own families for gods sake?
"Biblical, epochal ...yeah, yeah,
yeah" or whatever Gerry Garcia and the Beatles said at one
time or another because THIS IS OUR CHANCE so let's dance the
last dance in honor of Donna Summers and the leisure suit.
Oh, Citizens of Mexico, Canada and anywhere
else in the Americas if you can make it across the boarder and
I'm sure you will cause the cops'll have their hands full trying
to get us the hell out of OUR capital city, YOU ARE INVITED.
We SHALL overcome by voting with our
feet - thump, thump - by demanding to be seen and heard - thump,
thump - by demanding EVERYTHING immediately and sooner, no refunds,
and reminding the folks in power that they're not in power after
all. We are.
Sooooooo -
shake yer booty, booby (an yer boobies
too!), quake rattle rock and roll!
Look upon this dance, ye mousy, and DESPAIR!
Adam Engel
is taking dance lessons. Anyone with decent tunes, or heavy-duty
audio equipment and HUGE POWERFUL amps can contact asengel@attglobal.net.
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