The Death of Twinkies

And Bam.

Today, I wish I could write a funny blog everyday, but I just can't pull the witty, caustic remarks out of my arse every morning. I mean, there is a limit. Usually what drops out is stodgy concern, or random comments about what really pisses me off in the world; written in a very unfunny way due to the amount of spleen being vented.

But today I have pushed the envelope from the death of the Twinkie, to the looming war in the Middle East, and I think that's a big enough gap to cover my rear today.

Don't get me wrong, I am not belittling the death of the Twinkie. Apparently, Hostess Cakes made some huge gaffes by raising execs salaries while starving the workers (does this sound familiar?) Could we replay this mistake one more time, America? And it is us, who will pay by going without money due us, as Hostess files for bankruptcy, or the lack of Snoballs in the world where a dearth of Snoballs is now needed.

The end of the Roman Empire started with free circuses, and ended with the Huns and the Visigoths. But they had people like the philosopher Marcus Aurelius to soften the slow death with some dignity. No where in that decline is mentioned a single Twinkie...

But truly, and I cannot with all seriousness emphasize this more: the death of the Roman Empire started with the end of the Republic, and the beginning of the Empire. We, too, have entered that phase. It seems to me that we crossed over when we adopted the national motto of, "In God we Trust" over the idealistic motto of, "Out of Many, One."

I am not an atheist (nothing wrong with that world view, though), and I certainly am an expert on fear; but even I can see how that change betokened the smallness of the world view that we have today. We have Gitmo, and laws that say "your freedom can be restricted by the whim of the State." And that a 'liberal' president signed that bill into law, under pressure from the Senate and House, is a tiny death knell for us all. A bell cannot be unrung. And the laws of this Land have been tampered with for the ill forever. It will take generations to 'unlearn' that mindset.

And that mindset comes from some of us. And it comes from Fear.

So eat yon Twinkies while ye may. And let's ignore the signs of an Empire falling. We can only hope we go the way of Britain, which still exists as a State, and not the way of Rome.


Jack Gilbert:

A Brief for the Defense Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay. If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation. We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil. If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude. We must admit there will be music despite everything. We stand at the prow again of a small ship anchored late at night in the tiny port looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning. To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come. From REFUSING HEAVEN (Knopf, 2005)