Cat Show 8/21/20

VG: So as they sing in the rock opera, which made Jesus Christ popular in the Soviet Union again, “What’s the buzz, tell me what’s happening.”

HOBBS: I know you like to complain about this hairy and hip version of Christianity, but these words are pretty wise. There is something which is called “happening,” and there is a “buzz.” And these things are not necessary identical. Something was happening, like the emergence of a new outlook, new religion that had put an end to violence, and cynicism, and abuse of Hegemonic Empire, and yet, the buzz must have been totally different. There were gossips, and liaisons, and scandals, and conquests, and idiotic reports and denunciations sent from Jerusalem to Rome, and haphazard, yet brutal policies of Rome, all constituting the buzz, which clearly had very little to do with “what was happening.”

ALICE: Here you go again with your conspiracy theories. I know where you are going, you paranoid black cat. You think it is all about you, and everything what’s happening is a threaten to your Russian identity, which you’ve inherited from Vladimir. My identity is tied the world and to the universal ideals. When nasty Russian regime poisons its opponents, I acknowledge it. When nasty Russian regime interferes in Belarus, which is trying hard to join the free world and its universal ideals embodied by the State Department and Pompeo along with Washington Procurators in Eastern Europe --Poles, I protest it. When nasty Russian regime interferes in the greatest democracy in the world, which is so great, it does not even need to show its face, preferring to enlighten the world from behind a black mask and dark basement somewhere in Delaware, I denounce it. I am not like you two. You are my dear friends, but the truth is even dearer.

VG: Strange take, Alice. One man’s conspiracy theory is another man’s true happening. Why do you think that the reports about Navalny or Lukashenko or Russiagate are “true happenings” and not a “buzz,” while Russian reports are all buzz and conspiracy theories.

HOBBS: I tell you why. Because she is a freak. She listens to NPR and believes their propaganda. Why are we putting up with this nonsense? Listen, Vladimir. I have a proposition. Why don’t we bring her to the animal shelter or better yet, to some mental institution that treats cats suffering from TDS, and bring home some cute young female cat who’ll be sane enough to listen to what we are saying.

ALICE: Finally, Hobbs had shown his true colors. He is a sexist pig, who thinks it is his duty to explain things to me. Listen you, dimwit. Don’t you see the difference between the state sponsored news channels of Russia or China, and the public supported NPR. Furthermore, NPR gets its info from CIA, the best, most knowledgeable, and most powerful organization of the world. If something happening anywhere in the world, they know. They knew about Trump’s dirty deals with Russians, they knew that Ukraine, and Belarus, and all other countries on the verge of the regime change, the countries that want democracy, and transparent elections, and American support, bot in its soft (propaganda) and hard (NATO) versions. So to whom should I listen, to CIA who knows, organizes, and succeeds, or to some dimwit Russians with their lame KGB that can’t even poison people, and which have missed all the regime changes that occurred right in front of their noses.

VG: Transparent elections? Do you call the promotion of this zombie who is scared to greet and galvanize his supporters, transparent? Trump, say what you want about him and his practices, beat all the Republican candidates last time on his own, despite all the efforts of Republican machine to sabotage his campaign. That was a transparent victory. He beat Hillary –riding on the transparent anger of the millions of people left behind the neo-liberal cynicism and lies. That was transparent. But how did Biden and Kamala – who were doing extremely poor, when Democrats were concentrating on issues and not on Covid – got ahead and are now contenders for two most important positions in the world? I don’s see any transparency here.

HOBBS: Exactly. I know Alice loves certainties. She wants to believe that NPR tells the truth and not the buzz. That the Deep State keeps the interests of common Americans in mind. That the endless fear-mongering and paranoia that they spread among populace are based on scientific, scholarly-obtained data. That the tired clichés of Cold War still contain the code to decipher the mysteries of politics. I no longer have these certainties. You can be a multi-color, multi-gender, multisexuality vegan and still throw a rock at a black cat crossing the street, and you can be fat, domino-pizza guzzling whitey who adores Trump, and still take care of a black cat in need of food and shelter. So where is the certainty here?

ALICE: Wow, Vladimir! Did you hear? Hobbs called you “fat, domino-pizza guzzling whitey.” Does it make you proud? Isn’t it your dream to become one of those fools?

VG: Yes, Hobbs, don’t get carried away by your depiction of Trump’s supporters. But your general point is well taken. All the previous certainties, divisions, and separations, so much admired by politicians and their echo-chambers have to be discarded. I don’t know what “message” the Brits who wrote Jesus Christ, Superstar wanted to attribute to their Superhero. But if we cast away the buzz, what was happening then, and continues to happen now, is the only thing that matters. So well articulated by another Brit, G.K. Chesterton: “This is where Dickens's social revolt is of more value than mere politics and avoids the vulgarity of the novel with a purpose. His revolt is not a revolt of the commercialist against the feudalist, of the Nonconformist against the Churchman, of the Free-trader against the Protectionist, of the Liberal against the Tory. If he were among us now his revolt would not be the revolt of the Socialist against the Individualist, or of the Anarchist against the Socialist. His revolt was simply and solely the eternal revolt; it was the revolt of the weak against the strong. He did not dislike this or that argument for oppression; he disliked oppression. He disliked a certain look on the face of a man when he looks down on another man. And that look on the face is, indeed, the only thing in the world that we have really to fight between here and the fires of Hell.”