Paying the Vic(k) One Last Time
Primary tabs
It's late and I can't sleep, so rather than post a comment here, I'll ramble. Fuck it, it's my blog too.
I love animals as much as the next progressive. Dogfighting is wrong, sick, twisted, and people who enjoy it deserve jail and then some. But it is also more than just a horror from which decent people recoil. It is a kind of porn, a distraction for your mind, something used by the Powers we all oppose, to get you to think about this instead of that. And it's working.
If you had the choice between saving a child's life and a dog's, it's pretty clear what you'd do, right?
To me, that is the essential question. We all have only so much energy, so much constructive rage. And we're all slaves to emotion and sentiment. It's merely a question of which button to push; every person has "that thing" that makes them crazy. Makes them lash out, act and speak without reason, react without thinking. And that's a bad thing- when another knows this about you, they can control you.
Once upon a time, an image of a Black man looking appreciatively at a White woman brought about the strongest emotions in "some people" (read: powerful white men). Today, those men have somewhat less power, and so it's important for those who want to control us, to invigorate our emotional response regardless of our "race" or gender. So what better to do that, than stories and images of brutalized dogs? Is there anything more emotion-generating than images of hurt puppies? Perhaps hurt babies, but that's debatable.
Pets are universally loved, in that only a very few sickos really enjoy watching them be hurt. This cuts across social, economic, and cultural lines. Show an image of a bunny getting its skin peeled off, and 99.9% of viewers will respond. Emotionally. Unthinkingly. I think the word I'm looking for is "viscerally." And so, in this time of Constitutional Crisis, economic implosion, endless war and various other crises, we get: Michael Vick is the Devil! Time for your Minute of Hate.
People of almost all races, genders and socio-economic classes are really hurting today, in this country. They are *mad* and pissed off and generally confused about whom to blame, why they feel that way, and what to do. That's on purpose. Our media is an utterly controlled and constructed Product. From start to finish, every minute of programming you view on TV or read in the papers is vetted, crafted, fit within a worldview. And also: highly separated from reality. Most of you agree on this point, when we're discussing other topics. But in the Vick/dog case, many forget this. Again, I understand why they do. Emotion can overwhelm. That's why we have developed it, genetically speaking. There are times (reproductively speaking) when it makes sense.
But this isn't one of those times. The simple fact is that "Michael Vick" is a media construction, and that construction is serving its ultimate purpose. Let me see if I can explain.
Vick is a beautiful, rich, talented athlete and probably has a host of other desirable qualities. He is, at the same time, a dark skinned, thick lipped, athletic (when many non-Blacks are not) man who exudes a kind of sexual energy that plays directly on white (male) fears about potency. eyeroll, Jeebus, can't we get past this already? He is everything the "cracker" is not, everything that our media teaches us to hate, when things go wrong in our lives that we can't control.
Lost your job? Blame an "unqualified" minority and affirmative action. Lost your job? Blame "Mexican" illegal immigration. Lost your home? Blame "government programs" which have messed with the "free" housing market. Lost your wife? Blame that "thuggish" looking hoodlum on the corner with all the bling-bling hotties macking on his flashy car. And so on. Are you seeing the pattern here? Anytime things get rough for "regular" white folks in this country, the volume gets turned up to 11, with respect to the not-white people who are "causing" the problem. And so we have Vick.
I'll let better bloggers like Lambert remind us all of the fine details of the utter and historical Constitutional Crisis that faces us today. I'll let Atrios remind us of the many, many Wankers in our Serious Beltway media who decide what is the important issue of the day. But I won't let people slide on the Vick case, nor allow them to think that it's not race related. It is not only possible, but probably, on purpose that this story conflates the issues of race, animal abuse, and wealth. What better way to "talk about" these issues, while at the same time avoiding the much more important reality of them in places in which the horror factor is 10 fold? We talk about Michael Vick, and thus we don't talk about 000s of thousands of dead Iraqis (who are brown), or millions upon millions of American citizens (who are also brown or black) languishing in our prison systems, often for no real cause.
Horror porn is a new and disturbing feature of our social culture. I don't think it's been this bad since much, much older times. I hate the Victorians, but at least they imparted to us the sense that horror shouldn't be marketed and profited upon. Or at least, that's my impression of them, no matter. Once upon a time, people in this country wouldn't have discussed the Vick case in "mixed company." Not because he is innocent, but because it isn't decent to "get off" on horror. Today, that seems inverted. Our media brings us ever more graphic, and at the same time ever more unreal images of horrors, so that we are too distracted from the real ones to stomach or notice them.
Short version: did the images in this post cause you to write and respond as greatly and with such emotion as Sarah's hurt dog post did? If so, why? If not, why not? Think on why there is a difference in your response, if any. I would never argue that human beings are more "deserving" of humane treatment, but I will argue that the life of a child is more worth fighting for, and saving from horror, than that of an animal, if given that choice. I guess that's a false choice, because we should be able to protect both sets of innocents. But in truth, it seems we can't. Or rather, it seems we don't want to. We can get very, Very upset about animals. We can also be so about dead Iraqi children.
What does all this overflowing emotion actually accomplish?
Well, at the very least it has to make at least some of us think. I suppose that's the silver lining here.
Anyhoo- I won't make this any longer by linking to a bunch of depressing war and prison statistics. But they are there, to be found and read and even to make your bile rise, should you want to consider them. Perhaps I'm just an illogical hypocrite, but I do feel that in this age, in these times, I have to prioritize. I just can't seem to be more upset about one man who kills dogs horribly when I consider a cabal of men who not only murder innocent foreigners, but do so much more to millions of people around the world. And not a few animals, either, I will add. And plants, and ecosystems, and fish...
Who is the real enemy here? Vick is guilty, or so he said to our justice system. Are there no white dog fighters in the NFL, or America? If so, when are they going to get this much attention? Conversely, are we making so much progress on the environment, the occupation, the debt/deficit, peak oil, freedom and democracy, that speaking about the small but very ugly horrors of one rich black man is the best use of our time?
The Abyss awaits you, and you can look into it and come back stronger. Or, you can fool yourself with the ersatz, Hollywood version of "confronting truth." The choice is yours. But don't tell me that it's morally superior to weep over hurt animals, and at the same time ignore destructive humans who not only hurt animals, but also lots and lots of people, concurrently and for the same greedy and selfish reasons. Michael Vick killed a bunch of dogs, horribly. Is that the worst thing going on in the world today? No. So why is it that I have to read, hear about, and discuss his case more than any other issue this week?
That is what I call "fucked up." And I didn't even really talk about the American prison system, of which Vick and also many innocent people are forced to be part. If you call getting repeatedly gang-raped, infected with AIDS, addicted to drugs, beaten and locked down and left for weeks in isolation "justice" for any crime, you're as sick as those who force dogs to fight. I'm not saying this will happen to Vick, but it does happen to millions of Americans daily, many of whom commited no actual crime, legally or ethically, at all. But- Nevermind! another Black man has transgressed the privilige the White Father foolishly granted him, so fuggetaboud all that and turn up the volume on the Game.
What- this horror hasn't made you stop sending your money (for cable, tickets, player's jerseys espn, SI) to pay ig'nant hoods like Vick those millions so he can abuse dogs for fun? Or did you think he is the only NFL player involved? Whatever.
OK, I'm done with this issue for good. Can we agree that pro sports are likely just as corrupt as national politics, and thus either blend them together in our outrage, or ignore the former because the latter affects us all more? Christ, this is why i hatehatehate our "culture of celebrity."
Just Kill your TV and I promise, this sort of shit will go away. At least at the level of Millionaire Hoodlum Nigger with a Bigger Cock than You. That's what matters here, right?
- chicago dyke's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Comments
CD - I Read Your Post Three Times
And I'll likely read it again in the morning (later morning). And that's not due to any diminished capacity for comprehension on my part at this time of day.
If I could add something at this point, I would - but I'm just not as insightful, provacative, reasoned or elloquent as you - ever - and less so when it's late and I'm tired too.
Thank you for this post. Thank you for lending some perspective to this issue - perspective that has been lacking of late.
The Bill of Rights is a born rebel. It reeks with sedition. In every clause it shakes its fist in the face of constituted authority. . . . it is the one guaranty of human freedom to the American people. - Frank Cobb
If only we had access to...
...an infinite number of alternate universes. Then we could see what would have happened to a white sports star who was caught in this.
Without that, it's hard to see what role race may or may have not played.
Personally, I think the case had all the elements needed to be ultra-sensational regardless of skin color.
* A beloved celebrity
* Rubbernecking novelty -- not your everyday train wreck, but a rarely discussed taboo
* Man's best friend
* Unconsensual cruelty (the analogy isn't to consensual porn, but to snuff porn)
* Vivid confessions from co-defendants
With all these factors, you've got a story-and-a-half.
Occam's razor suggests that we shouldn't assume more complex reasons than we have to. Maybe someone's behavior in this process was race-motivated, but I have a hard time seeing how this story would have played out a lot differently with a Caucasian.
Also...
... one can argue that layering a speculative racial theme onto the Vick story is a big part of why it's a distraction, especially in the leftysphere, which tries to be less obsessed with celebrity scandals than the MSM is.
I'm unaware that there's any shortage of unmistakably true stories about America's inhumanity to minorities and non-white people around the world. Is it possible that those who insist that the Vick story must be about race are serving to derail and possibly even delegitimize that discussion?
There were 53 Dogs At Vick's Dog-Killing "Kennel"
just sayin...
Some might say "distraction"; others "very rich metaphor"
Or possibly "potent signifier." [dodges zucchinni]
One characteristic of very rich metaphors is that they can be turned this way and that, catching the light in different ways, and mean different things to different people at the same time. (To draw on my wonderful heritage of DWMs, it's not a coincidence that I referenced Othello in this context.)
And it's not at all surprising that the story of Vicks and his dogs has generated such passionate threads on this blog, as opposed to any other A-, B-, or C-list blog I can think of: (1) We have achieved--though I say it--a uniquely diverse group of fine writers, (2) some of whom are black and some of whom are feminist, (3) at least one of whom is witnessing to his beliefs as an animal rescuer, (4) we have a long history of posting on the confluence of sex, power, and abuse, as well as (5) a continuing thread on the nature of evil. And did I mention (6) that we're all media savvy way beyond the average?
How could we not be posting on Vicks?
Now I agree totally with CD that at one level the Vicks story is a construct. She writes:
It is no coincidence--and would be, I imagine, an emergent conspiracy--that we're hearing about Vicks this summer, as opposed to sharks and missing white women (all of whom are always in plentiful, or gin-up-able, supply). We're hearing about Vicks because the lizard backbrain of the country, inflamed by the wingers because that's all they've got going for them**, is about to undergo one of its periodic spasmodic racist convulsions, and the question over the next year is how bad it's going to get***. Vicks (in this narrative), as the uppity nigger "justly" ostracized by white authorities, is surely caught up in this violence and rage-inducing machinery.
And yet... On another level...
Surely it's wrong to torture and kill dogs, no matter what color you are. And that should, at least feed into a progressive narrative that it's wrong to torture and kill any living thing, regardless of whether it's property or not. (I cannot help be reminded of the fact that Vick's ancestors were likely to have been property. Was that wrong because people should not be property--or wrong because animals, beings capable of empathy, flesh that will live and die, just like we do and will, should not be property? Notice how this line of thought feeds neatly into an both an attack on Dominionism (cf. Genesis 1:28) and an attack on the corps as artificial persons, since why should a person without empathy have dominion over me?
Note that neither "level" contradicts the other. Both may be right. That is the way with metaphors...
But I ramble. So let me, like CD, get really hated and throw gasoline on the flames here, and ask a question that, because it's an obvious underlying subtext to the entire discussion if you think visually, exposes another aspect of this very rich metaphor:
** Some would argue that's all they've ever had going for them.
*** It could get bad. Wait 'til a black family moves into a white person's home, when the white person lost their mortgage in the crisis. Think the rich folks who set all that up are going to be doing anything other than laughing all the way to the bank while "let's you and him fight"? Don't kid yourself.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
huh?
Umm, dog fighting is a whole hell of a lot worse than porn. Nobody forces to Julia Bond to do the things she does, and she's still plenty healthy afterwards.
and no, watching porn and getting your rocks off is not the same thing as watching dogs rip each other into little pieces. Sexual acts should arouse most people, and there is nothing psychologically wrong with you if they do so. Violent acts should unnerve people, and there is something psychologically wrong with you if they don't.
As for Michael Vick, he should get a whole hell of a lot more time than he's going to, but what can you do. This isn't a crime that's treated that seriously in most areas of the country.
CD,
To pick up your theme of posts that will make people hate you, I'll brace myself for your response to my next one... about another place where I don't see racism.
Big head and a million legs
great point, CD. it is true that we'd be outraged over this with anyone. but you are right that there are good reasons it has "legs." and so many. the problem is, people who dont want to see that have other things they can legitimately look at, thus denying that your insights exist.
but is life so either/or?
real story. legs that run with the speed and endurance of heirarchical motivation and history and a will to put the handsome black success story in his place.
that being said...what a sick sorry bastard. or i should say, what a sad success story in the USA. one of many.
___________________________
.delusions of un mundo mejor.
the strongest support for the point i'm trying to make re vick:
i just read at another place:
compare and contrast: vick's and romney's dog/s. sure, vick tortured and killed 53, so that's an important difference. but romney is running for president of the united states and vick is a fucking entertainer. whose torturous habits are potentially going to have a greater impact on the largest number of people, and animals?
we get nonstop vick coverage for what? three weeks now? romney's poor shitting dog tied to a roof top? other than the blogs, nada. or if it did show up in the SCLM, it flashed and disappeared.
Well argued, CD
Of course, you're right. And I made the connection between Romney, the Dog Seamus, and torture.
But damn if I didn't make the final link between the different treatment of Romney and Vick, as CD just did.
Damn, this stuff is subtle.
Although I have to say I trailed the biggest piece of flamebait yet in my previous comment, but nobody seems to have risen ....
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
re: the bloody fetus
that's a good one, lb, and i have to think about it. but off the top of my head, i suspect that because the wingers have long used that image in a purely polemical (and hypocritical) manner, it wouldn't have had the same effect on us here. reproductive rights people understand that the blood on that fetus is also from a fully formed living woman who deserves to control her own body, even when that means "ugliness" in that process.
a fetus has fewer rights than an animal, in my book. indeed, i grant the fetus the same rights as any parasite- it's my choice and mine alone if i want to tolerate it or not.
Agreed, CD
If "rights" is even the word we want.
Xenophon makes a powerful argument, if I'm not distorting it, that if you can't enter into a contract, you have no rights.
But that means it's OK to torture dogs.
And it also means that corporations, as persons, have rights (at least in our current situation).
So... Food for analysis, here, at least. There are times when its wonderful to be on the C list, because they don't have discussions like this on the A list.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
That big black penis dun ruined everything!
I will carry her across the threshold
I will make dim the light
I will attempt to spend my love within her
But though I try with all my might
She will laugh at my mighty sword
She will laugh at my mighty sword
Why must everybody laugh at my mighty sword?
Lord, hep me if you will
Maybe we're both crazy, I don't know
Maybe that's why I love her so
From A Wedding in Cherokee County by Randy Newman
++++
Oh-so-serious note: everything we hold dear will pass, everything we see will wither, everything we save will ultimately be spent. I will repeat for the sapphically-inspired 69th time that we do not increase compassion, love and respect in one location by circumscribing it in another--never, ever, ever.
I don't know how to change the mentality of the world, all I can do is try to do no harm and give aid and comfort when and where I can. The MSM is now such a bogeyman that at night I fear it will pop up outside my bedroom window, leering in to feed me collective nightmare's about the black man or the powerful woman or Chris Matthew's Fred Thompson Tugger (a modest and discreet rubber device, used to keep Chris in a calm and serene state).
To me (a silly person) there is no monolithic black or brown or white man or woman--perhaps this pov is a luxury of the pale race I seem to be a member of. My father was an angry man--I feel adrenaline surge through me at times, brought on by fear or indignation or what-have-you. But I will never know what it is like to circle the wagons around "my people"--it will never, ever be that way for me. "My people" weren't disenfranchised, enslaved, lynched, scorned, dismissed, abused and cast upon the shores of dysfunction and disdain, no 40 acres, no mule, no fair shake. It sometimes feels like the wounds of slavery, Jim Crow and casual racism can never heal. If it was just a scar maybe we could get our country to move along, but it still bleeds, some days more visibly than others.
Here's another fun "Save the baby or the dog" Jack Bauer scenario: Save your humanity or save your identity. Why would anyone have to make such a choice? Why indeed.
++++
Identity is a commodity, MJS
and therefore replaceable. Humanity, being a facet of your soul, is not.
Dearest Sarah
Following your formula, the choice looks rather simple: one must save the identity, because it can be found and replaced, while one's humanity is located in esoteric ectoplasm, and quite beyond our ken.
++++
Then it's a good thing I'm not logical, isn't it?
being human, and all.
I'd say that who I am is what I know, believe, remember, love. So yes, those things are embedded, irreplaceable. Without them, I might as well be dead -- and since I don't have to be back next week to save the world again in some other poorly-written bit of snuff porn (what else is 24, after all?) ... I can choose not to choose, or choose humanity. Die either way, but not be a traitor.
24 is the new 12
I've never seen the show 24, but have read some things about it, hence the reference.
I ponder the marriage of heaven and hell, the reconciliation of opposites--the merging of reason and feeling, light and dark, the cohering structures of the ineffable. That's why I keep hammering at a mindset that decries sadism and cruelty in one place, but dances past it in another like it was some sort of set piece, a mere ploy at gaining our hearts--I've said my piece (endlessly...). It will not let me go, arriving everyday at the door to my self--I await the day that my understanding shows up with a mind that seeks to feel and a heart that seeks to learn--and they don't beat the crap out of one another.
Fair Warning: Detective Neptune will soon be caught up in a story about an impossible reconcilliation, and the "coincidence of opposites" plays a role that is both vexing and integral to the plot. Coincidence? Hmm...
++++
more support for my argument: DMX is next
Because everyone who mistreats dogs is nonwhite, right? I mean, there is just no way that there are any white people in AZ who are abusing animals, and thus news should focus on this
overpaid nigger with a big dick your white daughter wants to fuck because he's famous and on TV all the timehorrible excuse of a human being. And like in VA, dog abuse is the most important use of limited prosecutorial resources, i mean i just cannot believe that this headline reflects anything other than the sunny, perfected reality that is AZ, in which there are no other important stories that affect lots and lots of people. i'm also very, very sure that the prosecutor in AZ working on the DMX case has no intent whatsoever to make himself look good to his electorate, or get free national media time riding this wave.and MJS: i did admit that my 24-esque comparison was a lousy one, as a stupid false choice. progressives can and should care about ALL living beings. speaking of which:
Xenophon makes a powerful argument, if I’m not distorting it, that if you can’t enter into a contract, you have no rights.
But that means it’s OK to torture dogs.
well, i guess we have to go there then. do you know how glue is made? that beef you eat? those eggs you cook? that leather you wear? did you know that in china they skin cats (alive!), so that Barbie dolls can have pretty outfits for little american girls to play with? or how about the navy's use of dolphins for military purposes- is there anything more obscene than taking the most intelligent "animal" on earth and turning them into suicide bombers?
again...if it's animal outrage that matters, let's take it all the way to 11, and dedicate ourselves to that project, as some of the better people on this blog have done. i'm not being sarcastic or flippant: i really do believe that those who work to save animals are better people than i am, because i am weak. that is, i can somehow find the energy to get back on the horse and fight to save those miserable, brutal, unworthy creatures called "human beings" and "niggers," but when i have to look at animal abuse up close, all i want to do is kill. the "humans" who made it happen, that is. and i know that's wrong. just as i know that someone, even a weak and worthless person like myself, has to step in and try to change the humans on this earth, so we can save the animals that share this planet with them.
CD, Just wanted to say
CD,
Just wanted to say that, while I disagree with your emphasis about half the time and your views about a quarter of the time, I find your variety of subjects, fine writing, and (mostly) clear thinking really stimulating. You seem to tolerate and encourage views that differ from your own. And you invite discussion. All great qualities in an editorialist/blogger. I hope you won't feel damned by faint praise or find these comments patronizing, because I don't mean them that way at all. Yours is one of the blogs I come back to, even if you perplex me at times. Glad you are back to writing.
Straw men and straw dogs
OK, OK, I'm at my physiological low and I can't respond as I should. But I hate to get that headline out there...
As far as DMX, well, I have to admit that Xenophon and CD called their shot. Looks like a full-fledged moral panic is under way, eh? Not only do the niggers torture animals, their minds are clouded by drugs... (This from a President who blows up frogs. Then again, the state has a monopoly of violence, but I guess that's OK.)
CD, re glue: I keep arguing for a continuum, for the unity of all these issues. I can't see to make that clear, because I'm not getting responsive answers. What am I doing wrong? Why can't people do the good that they're good at? Or are you arguing for a single mighty top-down signifier of what is most moral? I think that as long as people are tugging the rope in the correct direction, that's all that matters...
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
Killing the humanoids might turn people off to animal rescue
CD: I second what twitch wrote. You just keep on articulating your rage and passions: Prometheus smiles knowing the light from his fire yet still burns in you.
++++
Efficiency has a way of being frowned upon, MJS
So yeah, probably people would be appalled if the appropriate treatment were doled out to these reprobates.
Some.
Maybe.
Other reprobates would probably pay money to watch ...
thank you, twitch and mjs
(and how boooooring! would this blog be if we always all agreed on everything? ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
i have learned long ago not to let mere words hurt me. actually, i learned this lesson because of an animal. remind me to post on the hair/snake moment of my youth...
anyway, i was thinking that all day today in my session (that i signed an agreement not blog about, so, sorry) that this is the biggest difference b/w me (and most here), and all the rest of those who want to contribute to public discourse.
some of us aren't afraid to be wrong, to exchange ideas, to listen to other perspectives. to compromise, and to hold to a truth even in the face of great unpopularity.
some of us are deeply and mortally afraid of all that, and do everything possible to keep discourse framed in terms and constructs that make lives muy comfortable. and unexamined. and unchallenged.
i know which group i'm in, and i'm proud to be in your company.
lambert- we'll work on this. but if i may: you are NOT doing anything wrong. my god man, that's just silly. you know your value, here and in general. great ideas take time to articulate properly. accept it, and know you are respected and valued for what you've done already, as well as what you will do.