Thursday, February 23, 2006

The Pontius Pilate Syndrome

This is to be considered an angry blog. This will be coming out soon on your shelves with the exact same title. I'm suffering completely from a superiority complex from the world around me. I'll be happy if it turns out to be just that, a complex. But I doubt it. There have been too many Jesus' being crucified in the recent past. And the media, here exists a love hate relationship, has tons to do with it. Sometimes as Pharisees and sometimes as the screaming crowds.

Main/Original characters:

Jesus, Barrabas, Pontius Pilate, Pharisees and the screaming crowds. Refer to various chapters in the bible. "Crucifixion of Jesus" google search will give you the entire story just in case this religious literature has never made it into your realm of knowledge. Pay attention to this story. I'm going to base everything else on this story. I will be trying to show that the world has gone crazy, is screaming bloody murder at the wrong people. Worse, that the people with the power, authorities or not, are doing the "wash my hands' clean act and delivering innocent people to the slaughter. As far as I'm concerned, enough!!!!

Copy Cats:

This story is being enacted everyday. Here are a few known stars:
Recently, Oprah as Pontius Pilate, James Frey as Jesus, The smoking Gun as the pharisees and as usual, the screaming crowds as themselves. Ultimate crime, the book "a million little pieces.

So who told Oprah this book was written for her, to her or because of her. This book had sold over 700, 000 copies without her intervention. The smoking gun.com, finds exaggerated issues in the memoir's details. They don't claim the memoir has falsehoods. No. They claim Oprah has been duped. This would have had little to no effect had Oprah not bought into the falsehood that this book has anything to do with her because she picked it for her book club. It is just a book club Oprah! Anyway, she calls in to Larry King Live's show, gives her honest opinion, then has to rescind that with the words "I was wrong, you were right". "You" here cannot refer to myself and those like me. You is the smoking gun, the people who keep her wealth and power going. She proceeds to berate poor James Frey over nothing. So there were falsehoods, lets take every memoir and tear into it as the TSG did with this book. Of course, of course there will be tons of thing like this to find. And you know what? This book is not about prison. But Oprah, saved herself, washed her "innocent" hands clean and send James Frey to the slaughter house. Shame on Oprah and those like her. Especially the audience that greeted James Frey with applause, and were booing him before the show was over because she berated him. If you have to get your own opinion from Oprah... Need I say more? Oprah, get it that you went after James Frey and not the other way round. If you feel stupid and embarrassed, blame your bad judgment not James. He never came after you. And you being Oprah, calling him, does not demand that he change his tune from how he marketed the book. Get over yourself!

Saddam as Jesus (the irony of this is not lost to me), Bush and his government as Pontius Pilate, Osama as Barrabas, the people of the US as usual as the screaming crowds.

Does anyone need a brief synopsis of this? Of course in this case Pontius Pilate had more in mind than just keeping his hands clean. But still, the people needed vengeance over crimes and they were happy to send the young lads, aka the army, to fight the enemy? What??? The enemy was never Saddam. Not within their angry context. And now Saddam is crucified as Osama walks free. Where have we seen this before? And do we know that this particular story's Barrabas is wanting to wreak more havoc. Of course we do. So the people wanted blood. And they got it. Unfortunately, a lot of it has come from the US as well.

Government of Kenya as pontius Pilate, Raila and LDP as the pharisees, the real culprits of the Anglo leasing and Goldenberg scandals as Barrabas and the usual screaming crowds as themselves.

Dear Kenyans, if you all don't stop screaming along with the crowds for people where their guilt has not been proven to resign. If you all don't stop asking for blood now and without due process, you are going to get blood. It will be that of Jesus, whomever that turns out to be. And the Barrabas will continue to walk amongst you all. It is imperative that you step back and breathe. Think. Patience. It is pretty apparent that the Pilate here is beginning to give in to the demands of the crowds. Even teh real Pontius Pilate could see that by all means, Jesus was innocent. But he gave teh crowd what they wanted. And they were happy. I wonder how long it was before Barrabas was up to his old tricks again. Again I urge you all, think. Some things are better done correctly, and that sometimes means a little more slowly. Don't help crucify Jesus. We were meant to have learnt something from the bible story after all, weren't we?

So...

So the blood the Americans got and continue to get has a lot of their own mixed in with it. Herein bringing me to my point, that we must all stop and think before we join the crowds screaming for blood. We must identify who needs to be saved, Jesus or Barrabas. The above is just but a few examples of this happening everyday. We all must stop sending Barrabas free, just so as to be in tune with the rest of the world. It's high time someone stood up for the facts and not the hype! As I mentioned before, this is just the beginning. May I urge that everyone reading this take a step back and wonder where in their lives they have become part of the screaming crowds. And maybe change their ways and urge the Pilate not to wash his hands, but to insist that due process be allowed to rule the day.

9 comments:

Msanii_XL said...

So oprah should have given dude a pass, because 'its just book club', Her reputation would have taken a beating, maybe it was little bit shrill but still. when you start co-signing some questionable things then problems arise...if your name is your revenue then you have to distance yourself..remember the Carmelo anthony and the stop snitching campaign. why was the gentleman threatning legal action anyway?

About process in Kenya? really? the same country that has let some high profile 'murders' go unsolved? you gotta cut pple some slack the justice system/structure is a joke. i mean i think it has gotten to a point that the pple just wanna see some head roll, regardless of the Some of the resignations are cosmetic...

Lets hope this is A 'Complex'...

Challenging post!

Mimmz said...

Well, Msanii_XL. Everything you say is true and valid. And Oprah did not have to give James Frey a free pass. But she certainly did not have to dance to the tune of the smoking gun and other media outlets. She was manipulated by them and she let them. And James Frey, the nobody, had to take the hit. That's the point of the post. Oprah can be mad, offended, whatever. But she needs to be it, not told she needs to feel a certain way and then feel that way. Especially just so as to preserve the 'Oprah'. That was Pontius Pilate. He needed to still be liked, maintain his power and position and so he gave the crowds an innocent Jesus to crucify.

My point is, where does integrity fall into all this? And sure, our justice system fails us all the time. But is choosing not to adhere to it while we find solid ways to fix it the solution that will see us through? And honestly tell me, if you were being accused of something, wouldn't you expect and deserve due process? And quite honestly, I think there are a lot of people chanting after blood, that have no idea what the real issue is. Just following the hype, and not informing themselves at all. That I have a problem with.

Glad you were challenged. It is what I was hoping to achieve.

Girl in the Meadow said...

I can't just say i was challenged, i must admit that is a good post.

When sometimes it seems just good to be euphoric,
I wish you could have given the newspapers a pseudonym because they are not not to blame. Many times they make us euphoric without a reasonable cause

Mimmz said...

Hi Shiroh. Thanks for your comment. About the newspapers, I definitely wanted to give them a pseudonym. It was more appropriate to fit it into some other issues and leave Raila and his crew on the Anglo leasing scandal. The newspapers, I have tons of examples that I could use. Most fitting was the recent 'uproar' they caused over government vehicles purchased in 2002 and equating these to the drought or was it blaming the drought on it? I was livid. Left that part out in the interest of keeping the post short enough to be effective. Maybe I'll post something on that and other newspaper started issues later.

Anonymous said...

inasmuch as the crowd is baying for blood, due process must be followed. but in a situation as this, the jury is out as to whether due process will indeed result to convictions and reparations.
what was looted must be reclaimed and the culprits apprehended.

Prousette said...

I noticed that we do not have Jesus in the kenyan scenario or do we?
I like the way you have looked at it.
I will put it this way.
If you left someone in charge of your house to take care of and when you come back in the evening you find a whole wall which divided the rooms missing. On questioning them they insist you are wrong, that the wall is there, but you can all see a gaping hole. You ask your neighbor to confirm and he says yes the wall is down. Yet the one you left in charge is adamant that you are both wrong. The next day you wake up he has put back the wall and says it never was down. What do you do?

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Ego is a terrible thing. Going by the point of view in this post, if Oprah had only had the good grace to call in a new audience and publicly, sincerely apologise for the mistakes she made concerning the matter, perhaps more people would have been happy.

Mimmz said...

Allow me to make you madder about this Oprah story. In my rants and raves about this issue, it has come to my attention that Oprah actually gets monetary gains from the publishers of the books she picks for her book club. Makes good business sense since she increases the sales significantly. However, it means that there's no basic charity or good guidance to a good read without her making a penny. Hypocritical, not so?

Anonymous said...

I love Oprah,and on the same breath i am so disappointed by just know that she does gain "monetary gains from the publishers of the books" while i guess it is in all of us to make a quick back if it is possible