A Little ISIL Etiquette

As I was working in the yard this afternoon, the first afternoon in which a pleasantly surprising Caribbean tropical low enveloped us in Fayettenam, I began to ponder the enigma of ISIS. (or ISIL)  Full well I know about this group.  How could one not with their extreme and murderous propaganda in the media.  It is not unlike the SS, the gestapo, and the Nazi party.  I have to remind myself that the mass genocide of Jews in Nazi Germany was not that long ago.  While there seems to have been a break in the pattern, if one looks mass genocide has circulated the globe.  One only has to look under a rock in Africa to find heinous atrocities against humanity.  My lesson learned is although we in America during my lifetime have been spared direct contact with mass genocide on a national level, never has it stopped.  Perhaps 9/11 was meant to be a reminder of how other countries continue to suffer and America tools own as her own self-proclaimed superpower.  I have learned in my lifetime it is best to live in the trenches.  It is wise and prudent to hide what you have and live with humility.  Johnny Depp could attest to this widely disseminated midwestern cultural trait.  One does not grandstand as millennials do today.  (Am I wrong to blame it on the millennials?)  Perhaps I am judging to harshly from my viewpoint as a professional musician.  That is the way it appears to me.  There is very little music, and there is a lot of hype.  There is a lot of narcissism.  There is a lot of misogyny.  I mean fuck me dude.  I always liked Dr. Dre.  It took me many months to find Snoop Dog's single "What's My Name, Part ll."  Still I listen to it, but I don't want to hear about Mr. Dre becoming a billionaire and hating women.  These things do not interest me.  What interests me is savvy music making.  What happens as a result of fame before maturity?  Well.  I am not saying Dr. Dre has not chosen a wise financial planner.  I am saying that a life of excess in many cases can kills its constituents.  That is the history of Rock 'n' Roll. That is the history of jazz.  That is the history of Hip Hop.  Still I miss the influence of an East Coast West Coast battle to produce quality Hip Hop music.  I don't miss the juvenile gangsta drive by shooting.  Then again these rival music production posses could have been acting in the same pattern as the Italian mafia, to which I do not brandish scorn.  While many died in the violence of the mob, in certain ways these men lived a certain lifestyle that was not afforded them in the good old U.S. of A.  Are we being afforded everything we deserve today in America, by government, by our neighbors, and by businesses?  I think not, and that is why I continue to rage against the machine.  Upon reflection and my life of half a century it brutally is apparent to me that Americans are not afforded a percentage of what previous generations had, the Baby Boomers to be specific.  This generation made out.  They had military reserve pensions, they had civic pensions, they had social security, they had retirement plans, they had full medical coverage, and they had influential jobs within a community who controlled themselves.  That is not the case today.  Today we have an oligarchy.  Comparatively speaking the youth of today are living in barren desert enveloped by murderous sand.  It is not unlike predicted lifestyles post apocalypse, but they don't know it.  It is slim pickings.  There is no free love, except the free love on "them internets."  By free love I mean a cultural movement which has rebelled against mainstream society and has decided to mark their own territory.  Metaphorically this movement could be represented by getting high and riding a bus around the country trying to get laid.  I can think of worse things to do for enlightened people, and that is the quicker.  The people who participated in the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test were educated people.  They chose to live this way as did Paul Bowles and other expatriate American artists.  They chose a Bohemian lifestyle over what was being offered in America at the time.  Upon returning to America after twelve years abroad working on ships, still I cannot find one ounce of appeal of the lifestyle afforded to the average American.  It sucks.  Education sucks, and I am an educator.  I possess a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Never have I taught public school, because its lifestyle was not good enough for me.  After diligently preparing myself for sixteen years, a life in North Carolina public education was the last thing on my list that appealed to me.  Perhaps it had something to do with my student teaching experience.  Other than the inexplicable and exorbitant amount of hard core pornograpy available free on them internets, I can find nothing appealing about modern day life in America.  Television has been purchased and is marketing erroneous propaganda, music is childlike, and the once adult perceptions we knew about our world have been capped.  We as Americans have been censored.  It is a brutal existence.  it is a brutal existence that has led to mass murder on streets, in theaters, in businesses, and on military bases.  Still the infuriating murmur among politicians and survivors is gun control.  Gun control is not the answer to America's murder problem.  We are too afraid to take the time to look at the lives of those who have committed this murder.  We are too egotistical, we are too busy, and we are too vain.  First let me clarify I do not know who is and should be responsible for researching adolescent murders.  I assume it would fall into the category of mental health.  Psychological health care in America has been reduced sharply even with the continual return of combat troops in the Middle East. Many necessary social programs that are integral to the health of America has been put on old.  Its seems our government can't find the money to fund them, or they believe these programs are unnecessary.  All we have to do is ask ourselves why would an adolescent commit such a violent hate crime and tend to those causes.  No, America will do as the American medical establish has done.  We will treat the symptoms and continue to go to the bank every day.  If we cure cancer, all of those worker bees will lose their jobs.  It is far better a society of chaos.  We have this chaos, and maybe it is interesting to the gods.  Maybe the great wealthy families observe the arena of life from their ivory balconies and revel in it.  They laugh, yet one day it may catch up to them.  That could be the day when Jesus Christ returns to the earth to judge all men living and dead.  When the earth is destroyed, from what balcony will those gods stand?  In the mean time despondent America youths are suicidal.  They may not be suicidal in terms of actually ending their lives.  They may be suicidal in a value assessment that dying may be more interest than living their lives in the same pattern.  Their lives are what we are afforded today in America.  Not much.  A fast talking Easterner shows interest in you.  He entices you with ideas of training and fighting for a cause. This cause is not your parents, your teachers, or the bullies who follow you every day.  They offer you an independence from Uncle Sam, the man, and our menial everyday lives.  They make you feel needed and important, and then they tell you with this heroic act you will be remembered as a martyr.  This sounds pretty enticing to me compared to life in America.  Lost sheep are everywhere, and until we recognize them and tend to their needs, terrorism will continue.  After returning to America after twelve years a broad working on ships, I do not want to be competitive with my neighbor.  This is what we are required to do.  Capitalism is and always has been a fucked up socioeconomic system, and we are living in is sand-enveloped desert.  (P.S.  I don't have much to lose writing this, because either FBI or Department of Homeland Security planes have been circling my house for days)  It's interesting America knows how to pick a fight even with the most docile of figures.  I seek peace, serenity, privacy, and adulthood, and I am offered aerial antagonism.  I don't much like pondering defection mode.  I would just rather make music.