Maximum Robin

I get it she says.  I understand she tells me.  All those hoses and belts, all the tubes and valves, all those wires and lines that are leaking and spraying so much sorrow and doom and that man thought four or five times more and four or five times faster than me…… It makes sense why he would take his own life.

It makes complete sense.

She tells me this on the way to the balcony for a smoke.

I follow her out while it makes sense to me.

Maybe it wasn’t just Mr. William’s own morbid malaise.

Maybe it’s us.  All of us.  The worst of us.

We live in an age where heroes are impossible, where dignity and elegance are endangered if not extinct.  There is hardly any grace anymore. It is now virtually impossible for a champion of ordinary people to establish any meaningful foothold before they are either dissected by corruption or seduced by it.

Selfishness now elevated to virtue.

Peace, love and understanding bifurcated into “isms”.

I think we have reached the point of no return.

We may just be fucked.

The only question I have is who we’re taking with us.  How many other species?  How many beavers how many whales how many bees?  How many fucking caribou are we going to take with us?  Every mammal on this planet knows the entire planet is now toxic.  They can see it smell it and taste it while they swim or hunt.  While they forage and breathe.

They know.

And so do we.

Bloodshed is the new normal and nutritious food is neither.  We cannot bear witness to all the war and famine and suffering on this scale now, just how jacked up shit is, and not know how goddamn close we are to the end of days for too much longer.  We cannot keep this up.  You cannot smell your shampoo in the morning without understanding that rain forests are evaporating.  It’s virtually impossible despite your personal grooming choices.

Goddamn we are brave.  We rage against the dying of the light.  Oh my how we rage. We have cable tv and relatively slow internet.  We have HD and smartphones that keep us from even looking at each other.  Been in an elevator lately?  We consistently vote against our own interests out of fear and ignorance. The human race is stuck in its own stupidity.  Our very own vulgarity and self loathing. We can’t be bothered about the better angels of our nature having expired.  We are now subject to barely more than our foibles and weaknesses as the race of man and they will most surely be our demise.

The planet cooks, it’s actually baking.  Soon water will be at a premium like gasoline.  Politicians rape and steal.  Religions and ideologies visit war on the rest.  All covered, spun, spewed and packaged for our entertainment and so called edification on cable tv in HD.

Violence and firepower elevated to a virtue.

There simply is no countervailing wind to blow against the avarice and mendacity that constantly engulfs us with every breath we take and every move we make.  There simply isn’t.  It doesn’t exist.  It’s not democrats.  It’s not liberals.  It’s not social workers or teachers or unions.  Combined they have not enough to oppose the human mountain of filthy lucre that piles everyday despite the best intentions of what is not a unified front.

What we have now is a gale, a hurricane, that has already ripped apart any sail that would turn its wind, its force, into anything but malice .

It really is like evil is winning.

We slash funding for education while we demonize teachers and then build more prisons for profit.  We cut food stamps and unemployment beneficiaries off at the knees while we arm our police departments with weaponry intended for third world military conflicts.

She tells me this on the way to the balcony for a smoke.

Drinks for my friends.

20 Responses to “Maximum Robin”

  • Lacie Harmon:

    I thought this very thing (though it wasn’t crystallized so beautifully) until I found out about the Parkinson’s. Now, I think he didn’t want to turn into a Michael J. Fox story: without comic timing, propped up by drugs in front of cameras by adoring supporters, a shadow of his former genius, unable to bring the message through.

    • Domingo:

      I think it was both. Even if you can’t know how bad it will get, for you can’t. The idea alone, whilst the world is getting worse and worse. One can’t bring peace with weapons, one can only bring peace by abolishing weapons completely. They spend money on that while people are being thrown out of their houses, can’t afford care anymore, can’t eat, drink clean water, and if they do eat it’s all genetically engineered or toxic in another way. One can only make changes for the good, bit by bit. But one needs oneself for it, completely.

      For how can one change the world when one can’t even keep up with oneself anymore? How can one fight against it all, even in little steps, if little steps might be too much for oneself already? How to buy us more time if, like you said, your own timing is so off? How to be the face of good if you can’t keep your own face together?

      Being onself is already extremely hard in this world. Let alone if there is something eating away at the self. Depression and Parkinson’s. Both are among the worst.

  • wecespedes:

    You do justice to prose and with the images of a poet.
    I was taken into the storm and carry a far but you were kind to me, like Dorothy of OZ I landed safely at the end, and I thank you for that. The world is beyond fixing. It has to be replaced. A new train of thought that will replace the present one is what has to happen. You are helping to do just that. Thank you.

  • Helen Streett:

    Your words break my heart because I fear they are true and I fear the consequences goose-stepping toward us. I worry that it really IS too late–that we have reached the point of no return, as you wrote. I think of my kids and my little grand-babies and want to warn them–but to what end? So I want to wrap them safely up in soft cloaks to protect them. Part of me knows that they can’t be protected. Another part fights, “raging against the dying light”, wishing and willing that they can be saved, that we can, all of us, be saved. But despite our best intent, our efforts to unite; despite the crys “vote them out!”, we are really all just thrashing around desperately by ourselves, hopelessly ignorant of the way back to unity, reconstruction and peace. We are helpless fledglings who have forgotten how to be A PEOPLE.

  • Very interesting I also see it as precise as you! And I like this very much. Keep up the good work!

  • Excellent commentary, as usual … I love your writing style … but I’m not ready to give up on humanity … yet …

    • Peggy Frigard:

      I haven’t given up either. Some things can be discouraging, but as long as there is breath in my body, I will use my voice and do what I can w/ what I have.

    • Poet:

      I agree. I am not ready to give up us yet. We are the majority. We need to awaken the sleeping, overwhelmed and the ignore-ant ones so we can Unite. We also need to try to reach and heal those we can among the elites. Those who are too far gone need to be contained where they can no longer destroy us all. Peace

  • Peggy Frigard:

    We have to speak up for what we feel and know is right, or wrong. And,without fear of what others think. Frankly, I could give two shits what people think of my opinions. I have always been “opinionated”. I used to be ashamed of it. I ruffled some feathers. I have come to the point where, I don’t care what is “politically correct”. Besides, who decides what really is politically correct? I’m going to keep on saying my views, although some people expect me, or others to keep their opinions private, just because they do. I’m gonna be me. And, you know what? It’s liberating. I’ve lost some “friends” on facebook, but it is what it is. Personally, I think it’s a good thing to say what’s in our head, w/o apologies. Sorry, I’m on a rant. But, I am just elaborating on your blog and your message. And, I couldn’t agree more.

  • Rhonda Z:

    Don’t stop now, you are on a roll. ~ Rhonda Z.

  • Jay:

    I’m speechless after reading this one…..

  • Pam Veselinovic:

    I agree with you and your smoking friend, Michael. It’s all true.

    The Parkinson’s thing isn’t a given, though. I work with many people with Parkinson’s disease and some are barely symptomatic, while others are Michael J Fox like. There are huge variances in how they are affected. There are neurologists out there prescribing the right medications at the right dose, and believe me, symptoms vary.

    I don’t have Parkinson’s disease but I do suffer from depression and a lot of has to do with the state of the world, the nonstop reading of information via the internet, the way people are now with their stupid phones, my advancing age, the grim prospects of ever having anything decent, etc. Few things make sense anymore. The world is bursting at the seams. Las Vegas is going to run out of water, yet people ignore the warnings and use MORE water now. You can’t swim in the Gulf of Mexico because of flesh eating bacteria. Probably because of the oil spill and all the chemicals that were dumped in the gulf to “clean up” the mess. Etc. When I read of Robin Williams hanging himself with a belt, as Mick Jaggers girlfriend did recently, I wonder what keeps us all from doing it? What keeps me from doing it? The answer is I have kids. That’s the only thing that matters anymore.

  • Tishijo:

    This only makes me wonder if conditions described here are really so much worse than they ever were, or is that we just have a closer look at the destruction of our environment, for example, due to the advancement of electronics and the magical gift of social media. And isn’t it that advancement that enables us to bring people together from all over the world in a common cause to fight against evil and destruction? I am reminded of the Barack Obama campaign for President, as an absolutely unprecedented grassroots movement but enabled greatly via the Internet. I remember sitting at a round table in an Iowa campaign office being introduced around the table to folks from six different states who came a long way, even left their jobs because of his message of hope. We have not lost that power to organize for the better good, and I see it every day on Facebook and Twitter, in an incredible dialogue of good vs evil! Do not despair, we still have hope, and we have people organizing and working for change every day. As for Robin Williams, his death serves to bring focus on his life and how he lived it, always with kindness, giving, laughter and love. Carpe’ diem! Sieze the day! Make the most of all that we have to make this a better world.

    • Connie:

      I think Twitter and Facebook serve as an outlet for people to release the political tensions that need to be preserved to spur people to get out in the streets. It’s wonderful that you are willing to click on petitions and share news stories, but, if you aren’t willing to march in the street holding a sign, make phone calls, and knock on doors we won’t be able to create real change.

  • john christopher:

    I love it when somebody really gets it…you can sense the passion in the human soul rise.

    Robin owes nothing to anyone. He gave everything he had…which was considerable.

    Saintly souls keep giving until they can’t anymore.

    The weight of a greedy, insensitive world just slipped from his caring grasp.

    Should we be alarmed?

    The music stopped a long time ago, but we keep dancing…and Robin, with his brilliant parodies, has been telling us for years…”why are you dancing? The bombs going off around you are not music. They are bombs.”

    Robin implored us to wake up, take refuge…educate ourselves and understand what is really going on.

    Why does a fat, conservative political prostitute sit in the prime minister’s office in Canada? Because poor people vote against their best interests and social democrats split their votes…simple.

    How can people in the United States imagine theirs is the greatest country in the world when they elect a moron as president…twice?

    The world is dying and we’re all wondering what to wear at the wake.

  • seriouslypagan:

    Thanks for sharing this. We can’t hear the truth too often.

  • Connie:

    I feel like I’ve been slammed against the shore over and over by huge, almost unending waves. Now I’m dog paddling back to a quiet cove where I am cutoff from this reality and I can pretend a different future is possible. I know better, but, this I can live with–for a while.

  • Kenny Williams:

    Spot on brother.

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