If this be treason, make the most of it!
Patrick Henry
A couple weeks ago— though it seems like half a year in this hyper-speed news cycle that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have helped spin even faster— incoming Tea Party Congressman, Allen West stated publically that he not only considered Assange’s decision to leak classified State Department cables to be an act of treason, but equally treasonous the further dissemination of the leaks by any news agency in the country. He baldly called for American news outlets to be censored for running stories based on the WikiLeaks’ cable dump. [Read more here.] Then later Allen back-tracked and said, “I didn’t say ‘censored.’ I said ‘censured.’”
Last Sunday evening, while the Seahawks staggered to their NFC West Championship win, NewsWrights United’s Wes Andrews led five other theatre artists: Jose Amador, Llysa Holland, Spike Friedman, Ramon Esquivel and Josh Parks, in publically reading excerpts of the leaked cables at Annex Theatre in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Personally, I was proud to be in the audience participating at least vicariously in what the blow-hard Tea Bagging demagogic moron, Allen West, considers sedition.
The excerpts the actors chose to share originated from consulates spanning the globe from Venezuela to Iran, and included both inspiring stories of personal heroism to gossip about absurdly profligate parties thrown by quasi-governmental gangsters in the Caucasus [see here]. Perhaps the most striking feature of these communiqués is the remarkably consistent quality of writing: far better, far more cleanly evocative than most of what passes for journalism these days. Apparently the authors, diplomats spread across the globe, all consider themselves members of a secret elite club who compete to impress each other with their wry yarns spun from foreign adventure.
While the events described vary widely, one theme came clearly through each of the cables read Sunday night. People in other countries care deeply about the United States of America. No, they don’t love us, perhaps don’t even respect us. But they care what we do and what we think. A lot. And those of them that hate and/or fear us don’t do so because of our aggression and our imperialism. These crass aspects of Americanism are the ones they actually understand and abide, and even hope to emulate. No, it is our blithe and breezy free-thinking, our defiance of authority, our belief in the individual and his or her right to express themselves openly— in a word our liberalism— that that they fear, as these cables give evidence time and time again.
One of the notes I jotted to myself while listening to these classified cables being read was “Theatre is inherently subversive.” In a digital world, the simple act of consuming your art or your journalism off the electron grid qualifies as low-grade sedition. Adding leaked classified documents as source material serves to spike the punch to an intoxicating level. Tom Paine would recognize this work as what it plainly is: a tiny tune-up of world democracy. It was theatre like this that gave birth to the Czech Republic. No one person can ever fully comprehend or appreciate the enormity and the pervasiveness of its power. But you can catch a glimpse. And so I did, Sunday night. NewsWrights United currently plans to stage more of these WikiLeaks offerings, I’ll be sure to let you know so you can catch one too, and share the delicious sedition-steeped fun. (Thought to be certain you keep current on NewsWright United’s doings, you should “like” us at Face Book.)
Long live the United States of America. And long live the blend of art and the treason that makes her rise, often against her own mendacious, mediocre volition, to her best.
Allen West is not a moron, You are a moron.
(You'd like to call him "racist," but his skin is dark, so you call him "moron.")
I hope your Islamists kill you for your efforts.
Posted by: David Tsal | 11/26/2011 at 06:38 PM
David,
Welcome to Just Wrought. I thank you for your comment in theory. In practice, you haven't really said anything besides "Is not, you are" and "I hope some vaguely defined boogy man kills you."
Can you add a little substance to your comments? We enjoy that here at Just Wrought.
Cheers!
Paul
Posted by: Paul Mullin | 11/26/2011 at 07:39 PM
I guess he went away. In the old days (limbs creaking), we used to say that someone would delurk, flame, and go back to lurking.
Posted by: Louise Penberthy | 12/05/2011 at 02:40 PM