Culloden and Other Battles

I am about 100 pages into the book, "Culloden," by John Prebble. After reading about William Wallace, a friend of mine, who is Scots, borrowed that book and loaned me this one on Culloden.

The Battle of Culloden took place on April 16, 1745 and was the end of the Jacobite Rebellion in which the Highlanders tried to help prince Charles Edward Stuart regain the throne of England.

I have heard about this battle for a while. How the Clans were buried in mass graves afterward. How the clan system of the Highlanders ended on that fateful day as well as the Rebellion.

What amazed me was the stupidity of Prince Charlie in the battle. As the Brits and Brit-Lovers stood toe to toe with the Highlanders of the Jacobite Rebellion on the Culloden Battlefield, there was a whole lot that went wrong. A few of the Rebel leaders stated that it wasn't a good day nor a good location for a battle, but had to stand toe to toe against the Brits anway. Those leaders were smart.

When the battle started, it was mostly cannon fire from the Brits into the lines of the Highlander Scots lead by Prince Charlie. Charlie had command of the whole field and was the only person who could give the order to charge. He held back, however, for an hour as the Brit cannons tore to shred the Highlanders. Basically, Prince Charlie was responsible for the destruction of his own Rebellion.

"Culloden" [1961] starts with the battle and will go on into what happened to the folks around that Rebellion afterwards. I look forward to reading about those good old patterns.

This brings me to the genocidal war with Iraq so King Dick and co-King George can attempt to steal the resources of the Iraqi people. This invasion, lead by the two Kings who are Chicken Hawks who don't know how to fight wars or battles, has lead the U.S. to an impending economic collapse not unlike that of the Soviet Union. This battle, allegedly to end terror but really to steal resources, will result soon in the starvation of five million Iraqi's. This battle has killed over a million Iraqi's. What helps in the sustaining of this battle is the fact that the numbers of U.S. casualties are kept low and thus keeping support of the American moronic population. I wish there was a massive uprising against this genocidal and globally destructive war, but there won't be. Let's be honest, folks, Americans just don't give a shit about five million Iraqi's about to starve to death, the fact that Iraqi's are now selling their children in order to survive, sanctions and destruction of the health care system are killing more Iraqi's, etc. In a way, I have given up on the idea of an uprising in the states and keep myself mentally prepared for an impending collapse. It is kind of liberating not to fight this constantly, keep my head up, and inform folks who may not know or understand. Basically I've changed my tactics to something more realisitic.

The last battle I'll talk about was with Felicia. We had Felicia for a week over the New Year, and it was terrible. I won't give the details because it was really a very awful week, but rather liberating at the end. Felicia is immersed in mall culture and has a great desire to get away with the crimes of stealing and lying as well as flunking out of school [currently at 4-f's and a b]. I have worked so hard these many years with the help of many, especially Shusli, to try to get Felicia to be more of a global thinker, kind and compassionate, honest, not a thief, etc. However, the patterns of her behavior and her mother's as well have proven as stubborn as Prince Charlie letting his Highlander Scots get decimated by cannonfire at the Battle of Culloden.

Unlike Prince Charlie, I know this is not a good time or place for battle. Shusli and I have faced the overwhelming odds of massive cannon fire, the inability to create a charge that would create change in my theiving and lying daughter who does poorly in school.

The cannon fire of Mall Culture, the small arms of willful stupidity, and the ability to make a powerful stand against folks who want Felicia to have a standing on life far and above that of the American Willfully Stupid Mall Culture, have indeed won the day.

I have learned by reading books of history and current events and pyschology various patterns of folks from nations to individuals. Felicia and Lisa have dug a trench deep and wide across a battlefield that is open, are armed with the cannon fire of Mall Culture and small arms of Stupidity, and I look at them across the field on these stormy wet days and realize, this is a battle that I cannot win, and therefore a battle I will no longer fight. It is time to get my forces out of harms way and keep them safe to struggle elsewhere for other things that are worthy of struggling for where even if the chances are overwheling, I'll at least have a chance.

Since Felicia has stolen from Walgreens to this last Friday when she went home after a week long stay with Shusli and I, Shusli and I both have suffered greatly in this battle. It has been liberating for me, and I'm sure Shusli as well, to realize that Felicia will be nothing more than your average everyday mall rat immersed in pop culture as the one and only true source of life. This is not an insult toward her, this is just surrendering to the truth like I surrendered to the truth that no Americans will stand against the starvation of five million Iraqi's. I feel no stress to teach Felicia there is more to her world that the mall and pop culture, she does not and will not hear of it and neither will her greatest ally, her mother. Felicia will not go to college and will continue to struggle tooth, fang, and claw, to be willfully stupid. Being attractive to the opposite sex and being popular are the most important things in the world.

I surrender the battlefield to Felicia and Lisa and gladly step aside for their head long charge into American Mall Culture and Willful Stupidity. Oddly, this doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would. This last month has lead me to great suffering and crying on Shusli's shoulder, but this surrender is liberating. I no longer have to struggle to try and get Felicia to see beyond mall culture (and it's been a struggle). I no longer have to struggle to get Felicia to get good grades. I no longer have to struggle to get Felicia to try to be something other than attractive to the opposite sex. My struggle to create a compassionate, empathetic, intelligent, world viewed daughter has been abruptly stopped in this last month long battle. Instead of taking my forces full on into the cannon fire, I have chosen to walk away and not struggle that way any further.

I will still have Felicia every other week. I will end my Wednesday visits. And I will let Felicia and Lisa call their own shots as far as Felicia's life goes. My struggles lie elsewhere. Felicia shouldn't be a struggle. She should just be a 12-year-old kid.

Well, in a year or two, we'll see if Jerry Springer can't help straighten all of this out.