The Red Hibiscus: Remember the Savage

America! Are you awake?

There's this inane letter floating around called Not One Damn Dime, supposedly calling for a national consumer spending halt on Inauguration Day. Well those of us who voted for the real winner of the last election - most of us want to do something - to make a noise - to register our protest - and for many, it's not the first occasion for that protest. But how in the world is DOING NOTHING going to affect Bush, as the boycott hoax purports?

This is nothing more than a dramatic representation of propaganda. It also sadly represents the gullibility of the American people. Wake up! You are not part of a herd. You have a brain. Use it. Think about the absurdity of this supposed boycott and spend a few minutes working out the logic.

Here's what the boycott hoax is saying: on January 20, everyone who opposes Bush should stay away from the grocery store, the gas station, the independent book store, the neighborhood hardware shop, the emergency room, the one-woman caterer, the dentist, the barely-surviving bakery, all the places we put our money ... for 24 hours. This collective passivity is going to rock George Bush's world? This is going to show the troops stationed in Iraq our support, as the email claims? This is going to demonstrate some sort of integrity? Send a message?

The boycott hoax encourages American passivity: it tells us to lie down, to be silent, to continue on our impotent way doing nothing. The hoax wants us mute. It hopes we will see money as the exchange for protest. And its author is pretty damn sure that we Americans are easy marks.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.

This mantra of "Not One Damn Dime" sounds alot like the hypnopaedic-like slogans that Brave New World introduced. Remember soma? "a gramme is better than a damn"?

We all need to pull out Huxley and freshen our memory. Because someone is betting that we will all lie down.