The Heroes Are Dead
By The Colonel
This morning on my way to work I was listening to ‘Beyond Here Lies Nothin’, a new song off Bob Dylan’s new album ‘Together Through Life’. The opening of the song is unexpected and uncompromising, and there’s an intentional bitterness, despair and exhaustion in Dylan’s voice and how he delivers his words, and you’ll know what I mean once you listen to it:
I love you pretty baby
You’re the only love I’ve ever known
Just as long as you stay with me
The whole world is my throne
Beyond here lies nothin’
Nothin’ we can call our own
Over the course of 4 decades, Bob Dylan has proven to be a great critic and observer of the western culture and civilization. He has described it’s rise and fall, flourish and failure and triumph and demise in words that are sometimes clear and vivid, sometimes cryptic and enigmatic, sometimes uplifting, sometimes gloomy and always fascinating. Take for instance this new song: it’s amazing how he nails the very essence of our frightening emptiness, fading hopes and slaughtered dreams in such few words.
Our materialistic ideology, our inflated sense of co-dependency and entitlement and our delusion of righteousness and invincibility along with our absolute disregard and disrespect for every other beings, cultures and species have infected, blinded and corrupted us. Our hearts are blackened and our spirits are poisoned; and as we stand on the verge of self destruction and oblivion, we still refuse to see the truth, we still refuse to learn from our mistakes, and we still refuse to let go of dreams that for far too long have turned into haunting nightmares.
We live our lives inside convenient, safe boxes, we’re like a fish swimming in a bowl without knowing about the big waters outside it’s safe four little walls or daring to explore them. We are taught to worship one god, pledge to one love, serve one government, and live and die under one roof. As if all the purpose in the universe, all that is and ever will be, the alpha and the omega is us and our small lives, and going back to Dylan’s song, beyond here lies nothin’. That my friends, is indeed ignorance, intellectual bankruptcy and spiritual disease, a gripping, inescapable doom that no savior can save us from.
For far too long we have exhausted, exploited and exterminated every possible life source on this planet: we turned free animals into our amusing pets, trees into our toilet papers and oceans into our dumpsters. We invaded people in their countries and homes, raped them, tortured them and murdered them and justified our unjustifiable acts as bringing liberty and justice to them.
In pursuing illusions of happiness and prosperity, we became slaves to the grind, servants of gluttonous evil corporations and allowed them to invade our privacy and shape our emotions and thoughts and dictate our needs and priorities: every American must live in a borrowed house and consume multiple credit cards to buy Chinese manufactured garbage and eat junk food and watch amateur idiots on TV. The greed is good and the more is better; and look what it’s gotten us, look what they did to us. Broken pride, shattered lives, lost souls. One nation under god, in debt, on it’s knees. Is this what you want? Is this what you were searching for? Is this what you were promised?
It’s too late for delivering humanity from morbidity and saving the world and making it a better place, it’s too late for coming together and living as one in peace and harmony, it’s too late for foolish fantasies that exchange the cold, hard facts of the real world for an imaginary Utopia. We are way too corrupted and decadent for any of that. The game is over and the heroes are dead.
But what each of us can do as individuals is educating ourselves, seeking purpose beyond the four little walls of our convenient boxes, understanding and accepting our place in the universe and realizing that we are neither the beginning nor the end, that we are only a small spot in a much larger picture, that all things may not end with the death of our physical body and material world, that there’s much more to it than we can comprehend; and therefore becoming dependent on a materialistic life and being defined by it’s merits is like building a house of cards, all it takes for it to be scattered is a push. We need to take the best of our lives and the time that has given to us to enjoy the simple pleasures of life and better ourselves and explore our consciousness, awareness and spirituality.
A life based on self deception, greed, ignorance and enslavement can and will never be fulfilled, for if a materialistic life within a safe box is what you’re seeking, brother you are going down. Beyond that life lies nothin’.
Yep, it’s a screwed up world but it really wasn’t all that to begin with. Be thankful you’re not the one getting blown up by an IED in Iraq or anything else that devastating.
Free your mind and you’ll be living in a Garden of Eden EVERY SINGLE DAY, at least that’s how I feel.
word life, colonel.
speaking of dylan. we are now (especially southern california) living in a reality that was portrayed almost exactly in the movie “Masked and Anonymous” starring bob dylan.
i’d say the sign of the apocalypse is that fucking twitter.com… first of all what a fucking stupid name… and i must be an alien to this planet because who the fuck gives a shit what someone is doing every 5 minutes or if they’re going out to hang at starbucks are do laundry?
Pornster you’re completely right, freedom of mind is our most precious asset as human beings. That’s why the powers that be are doing everything in their power to corrupt it and take it away and turn every human being on this planet into mindless, soulless obideint workers. Our only weapon against them and their billion dollar army of fascist governments, ruthless bankers and deceptive media is our consciousness and awareness.
And Chip Love, ‘Masked and Anonymous’ was a good movie, one of the most memorable scenes is when Jack Fate (Bob Dylan) talks to the soldier:
Soldier: I wish I could live in my dreams. Do you dream?
Jack Fate: Yeah, I dream. I dream that I’m walking through fire. Intense heat. I don’t pay much attention to my dreams.
The signs of the apocalypse are all around us. I just watched ‘The Obama Deception’, the latest movie produced by InfoWars.com who made it available for streaming both on their website and on YouTube. It’s frightening and mind blowing, and I promise you after watching it, you’ll never think of Barack Obama the same way you did. Check it out:
Good doc by Alex Jones with flashes of Joe Rogan, Jesse Ventura, Willie Neslon, Dennis Kucinich, KRS… always glad to hear again from Webster Tarpley (Author of “9/11: Synthetic Terror: Made in America”). I love how Tarpley in passing addresses the “media whores”.
Interesting how Obama addresses the “World Order” (ie: “Anglo-American Empire” as Tarpley notes). This doc rehashes that Bankers control all the shit that happens; that wars and financial collapses intentionally instrumented for the purposes of power/profit/control.
Alex Jones says JFK was the last true president of the U.S., showing the Zapruder clip…. but this suggests why Obama is going along with the power structure… He don’t wanna have his head blown off. The question is how can Obama truly institute change and not become a martyr for naught?
Shit! I didn’t know Henry Kissinger (who in this doc speaks of “The New World Order”) gave Obama his first job out of college. Wow! That says everything!
Jeremy Steele says:
‘The question is how can Obama truly institute change and not become a martyr for naught?’
I don’t think Obama even has any intention to institue any fundemental change, he’s merely amusing the masses and buying more time to calm a country on the verge of collapse and prevent social riots and uprisings. He’s one cog in the same machine that’s been controlling, dominating and devastating this country for as long as one can remember. The difference between him and Geroge W. Bush is his charming face, his semi-intellectual words and his vague promises of a tomorrow that will never come. American people have yet so much to learn and regret.
You inspired me, Colonel, to reread Tarpley’s Synthetic Terror book again. On page 108 he notes Gianfranco Sanguinetti’s observation that modern states tend to resort to terrorism and violence at two specific times; during their birth, when they are in severe crises, and also in the process of their extinction, the latter which is the case of the U.S., it seems. We’re a once great nation who’s candle did burn strong but not long.
“Globalism” is a last ditch desperation attempt to mask US weakness, ravaged from utter corruption, where money and power means more than everything and everyone else. It’s culminated to where we are now…
While Obama did represent a lot of positive things, and created for many (blacks in particular) feelings of Euphoria… it’s ultimately an illusion, it’s looking more and more like. I noted this early on when Obama approved the Bush spy bill, and, sadly he’s showing how two faced he is on essentially all fronts. The way the invisible gov’t plans to have it, Obama in 8 years (if we last that long) will be seen as “weak”, like Carter was (who also was controlled by the same people controlling Obama now).
Ralph Nader on CNN after Obama’s inauguration brought up the question of whether Obama would really do what he promised, of if he’d turn out to be an “Uncle Tom”, which caused, of course, the corporate lackeys to demonize him, suggesting the statement was utterly racist. However, I think calling Obama an “Uncle Tom”, may be accurate.
Wow Colonel you really are drinking the Kool-aid.
Sorry Colonel – that statement was about the posts, your article was beautifully written, I loved it. But you know how I like sexy brown men who can write!
I”I don’t think Obama even has any intention to institue any fundemental change, he’s merely amusing the masses and buying more time to calm a country on the verge of collapse and prevent social riots and uprisings. He’s one cog in the same machine that’s been controlling, dominating and devastating this country for as long as one can remember. The difference between him and Geroge W. Bush is his charming face, his semi-intellectual words and his vague promises of a tomorrow that will never come. American people have yet so much to learn and regret.”
Amèm brother, preach on!
I got flack here for quoting the Berlin Taz calling Obama a “Uncle Tom”. But see Warren Buffet and George Soros, two of the main persons responsible for the current disaster supporting him from the beginning. And what about a entire runway of the Washington airport closed to park corporate jets during the inaguration? Or the way the bailouts are being handled? Or the way helicopter Bernake, after the “crash” of september 2008, has keep his “helicopter MK II running as if Bush were in office?
I think that the September crash was engineered to push the politicians to support the bailouts and put a Uncle Tom with more charm that McCain to supervise them.
“But you know how I like sexy brown men who can write!”
I’m cute and brown Kay, but I do not know if I could write well in my second language!
Calling Obama Uncle Tom in fact doesn’t do him enough justice. I prefer to call him Tonto. Old timers might know who I’m talking about: there was this redneck TV character with a Napoleon complex, wearing a gay mask, riding throughout the old west and killing Indians, their women and their children. He used to call himself Lone Ranger. He had a sidekick, a treacherous Indian who was helping him in his crimes, an Idian serving a white man to kill his own people and destroy his own tribes. His name was Tonto.
And Kay, welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your vacation. Now let’s fight a little.
i’d prefer uncle tom, myself, although i guess colonel you could call obama uncle tonto if you like
i still say dennis kucinich should’ve been pres
Uncle Tonto, right on Jeremy, I like that. Check out this picture of Lone Ranger & Tonto. I don’t know it’s just me or they really look like Bush & Obama together:
http://www.lonerangerfanclub.com/images/lrtcolor.gif
They do look alike!
The similarities are eerie.
Btw, did you know that “Tonto” in Portuguese, Italian and Spanish means “fool”?
I didn’t know that, but it’s really interesting.
It’s possibly more than interesting, Colonel, if you choose to read into it…
Yep, I always found that odd and racist about the Native American Uncle Tom character in Lone Ranger.
He is called Tonto.
As Germy said, that means fool or dumb in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
For example:
Dumb whore= Puta tonta
BY JEREMY STEELE In ‘05, The Supreme Court of Canada rejected an appeal of a ruling against the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission who claimed the word “Kemosabe” was racist to native Americans.
Here’s a couple of Tonto jokes:
———
The Lone Ranger and Tonto went camping in the desert. After they got their tent all set up, they fell sound asleep.
Some hours later, Tonto wakes The Lone Ranger and says, “Kemo Sabi, look towards sky, what you see?”
The Lone Ranger replies, “I see millions of stars.”
“What that tell you?” asked Tonto.
The Lone Ranger ponders for a minute, then says, “Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of
planets. Astrologically, it tells me Saturn is in Leo. Time-wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the morning. Theologically,
it’s evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What’s it tell you, Tonto?”
Tonto is silent for a moment, then says, “Kemosabi, you dumb ass. Someone has stolen tent.”
———
One day the Lone Ranger and his companion Tonto were walking through the desert when Tonto suddenly stopped, bent down to the ground and said, – “Buffalo Come!”
And the Lone Ranger said, “How do you know Tonto?”
Tonto replied, – “Ear stuck to ground…”
Right on.
I wonder how come there hasn’t been a Lone Ranger/Tonto gay porn parody yet.
Brokeback Ranger!
How about ‘Lone Ranger Takes Tonto To The Mountain’.
“Lone Bone Ranger Fucks Tont-Ho in the Ass XXX” … has symbolic meaning
It’s casting time. I don’t care who plays Lone Ranger, but Christian XXX should play Tonto. I know he’s a bit white for that, but come on, a little make up will fix it. It’s Hollywood, goddammit.