Hi, I'm mejeffdorchen and welcome to the Moment of Truth, the one moment in broadcast history where the truth is not blinded by the tossing of acid into its eyes by some dirty company thug.There are a few different kinds of Moments of Truth. There's the kind based on solid fact, where I take some incredible but true fact, like that the CATO Institute has a former member of the Pinochet gov't working for them on social policy. Then I make some lighthearted joke, like: "That explains why a recent CATO Institute report reccommended 3 major strategies for US Gov't relations with labor organizations: arbitration of disputes, limitations on union political contributions, and the application of electric shocks to the genitals."
Ha ha ha!
Sure, it's funny till it happens to you.
Anyway, so that's one kind of Moment of Truth: the incredible but true fact slash lighthearted joke formula.
The second major kind of Moment of Truth is where I ignore all facts and just rattle on, relying solely on my native wit, wisdom, powers of rhetorical charisma, and the internal blazing brilliance of my soul.
For example, I might meander philosophically concerning the nature of truth and the various mechanisms inherent in capitalism that mutilate the truth beyond all recogniton. I might, say, ponder the polymorphous character of Truth, that character of Truth revealed when it is considered as varying infinitely in correspondence with the infinite variety of locations one can occupy in the universe.
Then I might discuss the capitalist attempt to filter out all aspects of the truth except those supporting the image of the human being as an entity motivated only by greed, pettiness, and fear. Then I would say that this effort by capitalism and its media mouthpieces to extract the infinite juicy joyous meaty goodness from existence and throw it away, leaving only the dusty, ashy, worthless dross -- I would maintain that this effort to turn everything into horrid poisonous crap is central to the capitalist project of world domination, as is its campaign to indoctrinate humanity into collaboration on its project, both as under- or over-paid producers of crap and destroyers of beauty; and as eager consumers of crap and destroyed beauty.
Then I would boil my argument down to, "Capitalism wants to destroy the world and put crap in its place." And I would conclude by asserting that this is a bad thing.
That's the second kind of Moment of Truth: the kind where I just go on and on, giving my native wit, wisdom, powers of rhetorical charisma, and the internal blazing brilliance of my soul free rein, without anything so inconvenient as an examination of the facts.
The first is fact-based, then making fun. The second is loose-cannon polemicism without any facts. They're like compliments to each other, and in a way each relies on the other. Like, when I go off on a didactic yet witty rant, I rely quite a bit on the notion that most of my listeners have heard me do a fact-based essay and know that I have some facts to back up my unreasonable disdain for the so-called free market and its rigged shell game. And conversely, when I do a fact-based essay, I like to think that most of the listeners have heard a few of the philosophical, cosmological, espistemological ramblings so that they understand that I don't just make fun of quirky news items, but that I also have an articulated analysis of the significance those items have in the connected web of systemic injustice corporate culture uses to perpetuate and increase its domination of the power and resources of our planet and our societies.
The third type of Moment of Truth is the marriage of these two. That's when I'm feeling distrustful that anyone is paying attention to me, or if they are, giving me any credit for having any brains at all. So I try to cover both my ass cheeks. I'll take a fact, like the recent revelation that it has been US Gov't policy to allow wealthy foreign nationals wishing to become US citizens to expedite the issuance of a green card by making large investments in US corporations. I might point out that this story was reported on NPR's All Things Considered, not as the shocking revelation that the government is extorting money for the benefit of private corporations in exchange for naturalization priviliges, no, apparently that bizarre and sickening facet of the story eluded the All Things Considered staff, but as a story of the trials and tribulations of being a rich Swiss person and having the INS change its rules on you when all you were trying to do is bribe some capitalist into getting the US government to issue you a green card.
And then I would try to make sense of how a program like All Things Considered, no stranger to being bribed by such corporations as Archer Daniels Midland, might have an editorial blind spot when it came to recognizing corporate abuse of the Constitution and possible conflicts of interest between the public and private sectors. I would no doubt be generous and conclude that the journalists who work for All Things Considered are just really god damn stupid. But I would certainly point out that the form their stupidity takes is guided in part by Archer Daniels Midland, turning the bounty of the American farmer into value-added products such as vitamin c from corn.
The fourth kind of Moment of Truth is the hodge-podge, the collage, the snippet collection. That's sort of what this one is. But then, this is also a fifth type, the metamoment, in which I talk about what exactly I do and why and how.
Next week I want to talk about some ideas I have concerning a book I read a long time ago. The book is called The Garbageman, and its author, who killed himself quite some time ago, was a Canadian named Juan Butler. He also wrote a book called The Cabbagetown Diaries, which I have never come across. Anyone with information on Butler or his books, please email me over the coming week via the show's website. I'm particularly interested in the quote that opens The Garbageman, the question about who, in an anarchistic utopia, where all people can develop themselves to their fullest potential, who will pick up the garbage?
That question and more will be answered next week when I, mejeffdorchen, return with another Moment of Truth.
Notice: The copyright on these essays will only be invoked if someone besides Jeff Dorchen tries to make a profit with them or uses them without giving Jeff credit.
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