THE GREAT GADFLY:

Futility Makes Me Hot

I feel like piecing together something full of warmth and beauty and compassion and shooting it out of a confetti cannon for the world to absorb.

That's what I feel like doing, allright. Not sure if that kind of super happy sunshine is in my plumbing, though.

While I was taking a shower this morning, I was wondering what would happen if real life imitated "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I was wondering who in my life would become pod people, who would openly resist the alien invasion, and who would silently fight the aliens while pretending to be a pod person. Before feeling way too much like Judy Davis in her cunniliguistic "fox or hedgehog?" scene in "Husbands & Wives", I concluded that if such a thing were to happen, it would be quite unsafe for me to go to work. So, given this conclusion, maybe an alien invasion would be a good thing.

But then, I'd probably wind up being one of those pod people gone horribly wrong, like at the end of the Donald Sutherland version of the film where you see a little poodle running around with the head of a screaming man. That would be just my luck.

Of course, that story and the concept of "pod people" is nothing but a big ol' thinly veiled metaphor to begin with - originally serving as a commentary on McCarthyism, I believe. In the real world, we don't have glowing coccoons or alien motherships (Celine Dion notwithstanding)...but we do have pod people. We do.

It's not about "pro" or "anti" this or that. It's not about what color cowboy hat you're wearing. It's not about whether you have a flag on your SUV, or a NO WAR! button on your backpack. It's about....well, I can't put it any other way than this, as simple as it sounds...it's about THINKING.

I'm a firm believer that one can't have a strong relationship with one's convictions if they don't at least welcome a dissenting viewpoint in for a visit, just to try it on and make damn SURE your beliefs are right by you. This is a sign of confidence. And on the other end of that, I'm also a firm believer that the first step to carrying your point of view is to have compassion for those with whom you disagree. Call it "love thine enemies", call it what you want. I'm a firm believer in putting those things most important to you through boot camps and endurance tests over time.

I think the most transgressive act anyone can perform right now is to find someone whose views differ radically from yours, invite them to dinner or even just a cup of coffee, and make a point of LISTENING to each other. Put away the slogans and the posturing and the CNN buzzwords and the figureheads and the Michael Moores and the No Spin Zones and all the rest of the mass-media-conditioned triggers...and just speak from the gut. Not regurgitating what you're fed from the Great Glass Teat or from the corporate-sanctioned pages of our newsweeklies or the liberal-overflow of Hollywood...what do YOU think? What do you FEEL?

So we have Freedom of Speech. I'd also like to think we have Freedom from the Media.

I like to believe we have the potential of much more intimate connection than that of spewing rhetoric injected into our intellects from magazines and news networks and propaganda tracts and talk shows. I like to believe we have a lot of common sense to share. I like to believe that I may not agree with you, but it makes sense to me why you'd think the way you do.

We live in dichotomous times right now. There's no space between either/or - nothing but a slash. To observe how we're reacting and to try to form one's own response is to be "passive" or "on the fence". Apparently, the only way to make a difference is to look like an idiot and piss people off. I'd like to believe there's another way. I'd like to believe it's possible to hold up the dignity and value of other people, whether or not I share their political views. I know - asking too much.

Maybe I'm a pod person. Maybe I'm living in a pod and I mistake it for the world. Or maybe I'm like that guy in Spinal Tap and I'm just not able to rip my way out of it.

All of a sudden I'm hungry for some pizza.