Happy Juneteenth

Slavery is bad.  I'm glad it no longer exists in this country, at least not legally.  In 2021, America began a new national holiday, practiced previously in some states and localities: Juneteenth.  On June 19th, 1865, by order of the sitting president Andrew Johnson, the US Army proclaimed the end of slavery at Galveston, Texas, the final rebelling Confederate state to undergo military occupation. When Juneteenth was enacted, I had a new paid day off on my postal job...that was good.  I heard some local people interviewed today on the news and a couple of them spoke as if they were themselves once slaves...one hinted that he was still in the struggle to not be a slave anymore.  I recognize that injustice exists with many groups on many different levels...but let's not confuse that with slavery.  Happy Juneteenth, a good celebration of the close of an evil human practice, at least in this country... 

Great Old TV Episodes: A Change of Mind...from The Prisoner

A CHANGE OF MIND is from the 1967-68 British spy/sci-fi series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan as a British secret agent kidnapped to a mysterious resort village that serves as his prison while the "wardens" plot to trick him into revealing why he resigned.  In this episode Number 6, as the Prisoner is designated, faces charges of antisocial behavior toward the Village and its people, the consequences for which may ultimately lead to a lobotomy for him by ultrasonic beam.  At the early hearing, the preceding inmate...also charged with similar infractions...finishes and steps up to the podium, emphatically repeating after the prompts provided for him "They're right, of course. Quite right. I'm inadequate. Inadequate! Disharmonius! I'm truly grateful! Believe me!  BELIEVE ME!!!"...and then robotically walks off. The whole scene reminded me of those old forced reeducation camps under communistic regimes like China and Cambodia in which the "students" were ordinary people forced to "confess" their supposed counterrevolutionary crimes before others...or the forced public confessions of those purged in the Stalinist trials of the Soviet Union in the 1930s.  But this sort of pressure to get folks to admit to unwarranted accusations and flounder in self-flagellating guilt in front of others isn't just confined to totalitarian dictatorships. A disturbing trend on the progressive side of society calls for gatherings in different work or educational settings in which the attendees feel compelled...to preserve their employment or educational status and hopes...to admit to unfair privilege and past slights against victimized groups.  I am a strong advocate for researching past injustices and not sugarcoating or whitewashing history to create a fantasy narrative.  But putting unwilling individuals in situations where their livelihoods and status depend on saying what the leaders of these "necessary conversations" want to hear is counterproductive and will only render the very causes being promoted less successful in the long run while providing fuel for fascist movements...

I also like A Change of Mind because it has a neat little twist at the end...and the idea of the individual being able to overcome the manipulations and pressures placed upon him from others has always appealed to me.  Maybe it's for this that The Prisoner has long been one of my very favorite television series.  If you have Roku you can watch all the episodes, including the one I just discussed, on Tubi...