Tea Bag Terrorists

Artists need not be so involved in the pursuit of Truth and Beauty that they ignore the world around them. Dr. JohnnyWow! has little interest in producing graphic blandishments to comfort and amuse the middle class.

In America a political movement referred to as the Tea Baggers is swelling in the underground, fanned by the popular media. A bit of background research into this phenomena – going behind the superficial coverage of the press, reveals a very disturbing trend of discourse. The press reports what the Tea Baggers say in public, which is far removed from what they say in private.

The Good Doctor had the good fortune to be married for two decades to a full-blown schizophrenic. He is familiar with many aspects of what is popularly referred to as ‘crazy’. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and philosophers can slice and dice the subtleties of the human psyche by defining and re-defining the manifestations of the irrational, but the term ‘crazy’ is convenient shorthand. In the real world, ‘crazies attract crazies’. This is an interesting phenomenon to observe. It has not been determined whether this is accomplished by aura, scent, or hidden signals, but ‘crazies attract crazies’. The various memes of terror, conspiracies, visions, nightmares, and anxieties are wildly contagious. It is a rare individual that is immune. After all, some of our world leaders believe in Jesus or Mohamed without a shred of evidence and are seemingly unaware of the hilarious contradictions inherent in such beliefs.

The elections approach, and the economy will continue to sag. As the weather improves, we will be inundated by the fears and nightmares of the Tea Bag Terrorists polluting our collective mental space. The Good Doctor has been sketching a few of the memes that are sure to surface. Irrational fears and weirdly disjointed narrative structures will predominate as the national consciousness is contaminated with vile discourse.

As citizens we have been fertile ground for the seeding of Fear. We can now foresee endless fear of Terrorism. Our tax money is squandered overseas, chasing a rag tag bunch of zealots. Meanwhile, at home, our financial institutions and capitalism have done vastly more damage than a handful of Terrorists could ever do. We reward the Bankers while they foreclose on the workers.

Rather than living in terror of the followers of Islam, we should live in Terror of our fellow citizens that claim to be doing God’s work.

“We live in a time where there are no shortages of opinions and an incredible deficit of facts.”