I prefer not to take a break from daily writing. Still, Covid imposed a day off. Monday night I ran a high fever. I had delirious thoughts, attempting to connect ideas that promptly fell apart in my semi conscious misery. Now with Tylenol and Paxlovid I am feeling much better. 

I cannot get the conflict in Gaza out of my mind. The divide between good and evil is much less clear with Gaza than the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The state of Israel with American support is “armed to the teeth” to deter any attempt to negate it’s existence. Hamas, a politico-religious organization has sworn itself to destroy Israel. Part of the story though is glossed over in our press. Informal expropriation of land owned by Palestinians on the West Bank has been tacitly allowed by the Israeli government for some time. Currently the Netanyahu government directed the IDF to lay waste northern Gaza, now appears willing to kill unlimited numbers of Palestinian civilians in the south in their bid to eliminate Hamas. Plans for razing of Rafah appear as preparations to commit genocide. Mass demonstrations have engulfed American college campuses. I wonder why it took so long.

Nietzsche wrote about how peoples define themselves. It is quite impossible for one people to approve what another people approves. After all difference is what makes a distinct people. Nietzsche describes this as a table of values which hangs over the heads of every people, a rationale for their successes as a people. 

No people could live without first evaluating;
if a people will maintain itself, however,
it must not value as its neighbor values.

Much that passed for good with one people
was regarded with scorn and contempt by another: thus I found it.

Much found I here called evil,
which was there decked with purple honors.
Never did the one neighbor understand the other:
ever did his soul marvel at his neighbor’s delusion and wickedness.

A table of values hangs over every people.
Behold, it is the table of their triumphs;

Behold, it is the voice of their Will to Power.

Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Kaufmann and Hollingdale, Of the Thousand and One Goals

I mused to myself about what would constitute a short list of American values. Surely the right to own and carry weapons would be a important value. The rest of the world thinks us quite insane on this account. In the popular imagination the American West was won because settlers defended their families and their land with guns. On a whim I then wondered how many movie names includes the term “gun.” Here are some that a quick search revealed:

Top Gun
Young Guns
The Man with the Golden Gun
2 Guns
Johnny Got His Gun
The Way of the Gun
Young Guns II
Last Train From Gun Hill
God’s Gun
American Gun
The Gun That Won the West
Bill’s Gun Shop
Hand Gun
The Fastest Gun Alive
The Guns of Navarone
Jane Got a Gun
Gun Crazy
Guns, Girls and Gambling
Guns & Moses