I got high today and watching Fox News, yes I do watch it, keeps me sane, I realized something. There exists a similarity between 1) some of Fox News’ rhetoric and America’s state of mind; and 2) The novels and letters read by Don Quixote and his subsequent spiral into lunacy.
For those of you who don’t know who Don Quixote is: A fictional character created by Miguel De Cervantes. He is an old man, who outlived the years of feudalism, and stays in his deteriorating castle reading novels. He is desperate, impressionable, and reads stories about knights and heroism, and the battle against the evil Moors (Arabs) who had taken over the promised land (The Crusades). In his isolation and desperation he dons an old armor suit he owns, gets on his old, sickly horse (who he views as an enviable beast) and rides off. He gets into all sorts of trouble, and at one point finds himself staring at Moor Giants. He faces them head on, only to run into giant windmills, get tangled up in the blades, and he becomes a laughing stock for all who see him.
Quixote read novels, works of fiction, which were based on facts, the Crusades. When you sit down and watch TV pundits, like Glenn Beck, Hannity and O’Riley, we are bombarded with something. The network the shows air on has openly admitted it’s not news, it’s opinion, based on fact. See that? This right-wing, fear-mongering giant, has become our novels, and we’re Quixote. We’re faced with a similar situation. Poor economic times, war has raged for the last years, Generation Y is arriving at adulthood….Older people, who make up the biggest voting demographic, are our Quixotes. Not just older people, people in poor economic times, people with a lot of things going on, people who are impressionable, and who will hold on to something for the sake of having something, those are Quixotes................
And the ‘novels’ rage on: Beck insisting that Obama is a black demon, Hannity demonizing Hamas and everything muslim every single night, and O’Riley, avoiding issues and relying on logical fallacy to make his points… I am a pretty smart kid, and I did a little ‘keyword density’ study on fox news. They are the only news show to reference Shariah Law, Imam, and the word support more than a few times per show. They have referenced imam, support, and shariah law more than one time per minute on average on primetime for the last week and a half. So for all non-advertiser-paid air-time Fox News had, somebody was talking about this imam, supports, and shariah law within the same sentence once a minute!!! FOR A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!!!!!!!!. This constant bombarding of implications, based on pure speculation, but based on facts has created a new breed of Quixote. A dude flew his plane into a building, A guy went by himself to Pakistan solo-mission-Rambo-style-imma-get-you carrying a sword, a gun, and night vision goggles, police and homeland security experts say that domestic right-wing crazies are stepping up rhetoric (they also say that although rhetoric is more violent, potential for actual violence remains low)…
But where does that leave America?? Standing in a field, looking down at windmills, believe it or not. We find ourselves in the midst of a psychotic episode, like the one Quixote had on that fateful day. No matter how loud Sancho (trusty sidekick) tried to warn him, he ended up fighting a windmill… Our windmill today is that damn mosque. Local new Yorkers don’t want the mosque to be built. But letting that fear, and that anger take over is just like when Quixote tried to kill the windmills. The truth is that its just a mosque, or as Sancho would say, it’s just a windmill.
In my opinion, the Mosque is nobody’s business except New York’s business. It’s a constitutional guarantee that religious freedom is a way of life in this country. Fox news, as I already mentioned, is the ONLY news network hyping this story. PERIOD. Other news networks reference it, but in reality, there’s nothing to see here, because the constitution protects this right, so we all know where this is going to end: if the owner wants to build a mosque, he's building that mosque. This is the type of situation where Fox LOOVES to find itself in, and sadly, it’s loyal following too. Here’s the Windmill: IF the president chooses to support this mosque, Fox and conservatives can rattle off about how this president sympathizes with terrorists, and how he’s a muslim, and how he doesn’t see eye to eye with the American people…. BUUT, if he sides with the majority of Americans, and says: HEY, THIS ISN’T GOING TO BE BUILT HERE, he will go against the constitution, the same document that gives him his power, and the same document conservatives say they protect. Just imagine, see, it’s all an attack on religious freedom, first this mosque, then synagogues, then churches….
So alas here we stand, in front of windmills, a “Quixotean” intersection, where lunacy, comedy and tragedy come together….for us, Quixote, there is no easy decision..... Cervantes really did see this coming……
For those of you who don’t know who Don Quixote is: A fictional character created by Miguel De Cervantes. He is an old man, who outlived the years of feudalism, and stays in his deteriorating castle reading novels. He is desperate, impressionable, and reads stories about knights and heroism, and the battle against the evil Moors (Arabs) who had taken over the promised land (The Crusades). In his isolation and desperation he dons an old armor suit he owns, gets on his old, sickly horse (who he views as an enviable beast) and rides off. He gets into all sorts of trouble, and at one point finds himself staring at Moor Giants. He faces them head on, only to run into giant windmills, get tangled up in the blades, and he becomes a laughing stock for all who see him.
Quixote read novels, works of fiction, which were based on facts, the Crusades. When you sit down and watch TV pundits, like Glenn Beck, Hannity and O’Riley, we are bombarded with something. The network the shows air on has openly admitted it’s not news, it’s opinion, based on fact. See that? This right-wing, fear-mongering giant, has become our novels, and we’re Quixote. We’re faced with a similar situation. Poor economic times, war has raged for the last years, Generation Y is arriving at adulthood….Older people, who make up the biggest voting demographic, are our Quixotes. Not just older people, people in poor economic times, people with a lot of things going on, people who are impressionable, and who will hold on to something for the sake of having something, those are Quixotes................
And the ‘novels’ rage on: Beck insisting that Obama is a black demon, Hannity demonizing Hamas and everything muslim every single night, and O’Riley, avoiding issues and relying on logical fallacy to make his points… I am a pretty smart kid, and I did a little ‘keyword density’ study on fox news. They are the only news show to reference Shariah Law, Imam, and the word support more than a few times per show. They have referenced imam, support, and shariah law more than one time per minute on average on primetime for the last week and a half. So for all non-advertiser-paid air-time Fox News had, somebody was talking about this imam, supports, and shariah law within the same sentence once a minute!!! FOR A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!!!!!!!!. This constant bombarding of implications, based on pure speculation, but based on facts has created a new breed of Quixote. A dude flew his plane into a building, A guy went by himself to Pakistan solo-mission-Rambo-style-imma-get-you carrying a sword, a gun, and night vision goggles, police and homeland security experts say that domestic right-wing crazies are stepping up rhetoric (they also say that although rhetoric is more violent, potential for actual violence remains low)…
But where does that leave America?? Standing in a field, looking down at windmills, believe it or not. We find ourselves in the midst of a psychotic episode, like the one Quixote had on that fateful day. No matter how loud Sancho (trusty sidekick) tried to warn him, he ended up fighting a windmill… Our windmill today is that damn mosque. Local new Yorkers don’t want the mosque to be built. But letting that fear, and that anger take over is just like when Quixote tried to kill the windmills. The truth is that its just a mosque, or as Sancho would say, it’s just a windmill.
In my opinion, the Mosque is nobody’s business except New York’s business. It’s a constitutional guarantee that religious freedom is a way of life in this country. Fox news, as I already mentioned, is the ONLY news network hyping this story. PERIOD. Other news networks reference it, but in reality, there’s nothing to see here, because the constitution protects this right, so we all know where this is going to end: if the owner wants to build a mosque, he's building that mosque. This is the type of situation where Fox LOOVES to find itself in, and sadly, it’s loyal following too. Here’s the Windmill: IF the president chooses to support this mosque, Fox and conservatives can rattle off about how this president sympathizes with terrorists, and how he’s a muslim, and how he doesn’t see eye to eye with the American people…. BUUT, if he sides with the majority of Americans, and says: HEY, THIS ISN’T GOING TO BE BUILT HERE, he will go against the constitution, the same document that gives him his power, and the same document conservatives say they protect. Just imagine, see, it’s all an attack on religious freedom, first this mosque, then synagogues, then churches….
So alas here we stand, in front of windmills, a “Quixotean” intersection, where lunacy, comedy and tragedy come together….for us, Quixote, there is no easy decision..... Cervantes really did see this coming……
