Socrates, 469-399 B.C.
Marilyn's lifelong struggle (as an unwanted girl, as a woman,
as a sex "object"; ultimately as a totally-oppressed human being, constrained by
everyone else's desires and obsessions--that have followed her into her grave)...
All of these elements are captured in her onscreen performance
in "The Misfits"!
There "SHE" is, the "Blonde-bombshell, Sex object",
standing alone.... exposed in all her naked fury.... out in the middle of nowhere...
on the waterless Nevada desert dance-floor of man's desire...
SCREAMING "Know thyself, you bastards! Look what you're doing! Look
at what you're doing to this "Man's world" of yours-- where anything that
YOU are NOT A PART OF... Anything, wild and free and beautiful in the sight of God...
HAS to be BEATEN INTO SUBMISSION OR DEATH or DESTROYED COMPLETELY--
AND WITH ANYTHING!!!
"ANYTHING GOES" IN YOUR WORLD OF LIES AND HATRED AND ABUSE!
LOOK AT YOURSELVES YOU BASTARDS...YOU "FANS"..OF WHAT???
OF YOUR OWN, SICK EGOS!!!
KNOW YOURSELVES FOR A CHANGE!!!
YOU CAN'T FACE ME!!!
BECAUSE YOU DON'T EVEN -- "SEE"-- ME!!!
SO YOU IGNORE All THAT WHICH YOU CAN'T SEE!!!
ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS LOOK AT AN "IMAGE" OF "ME"!!!
LOOK AT ME AND SEE ME AS I AM!!!
I'M SO SICK OF YOU LOOKING AT ME AND NOT SEEING ME!!!
I'M SICK OF STANDING OUT HERE, NAKED ON THE STREETS YOU BUILT--
WHEN YOU PAVED-OVER EVERYTHING THAT WAS WILD AND FREE AND GOOD!!!
I'M SICK OF LIVING!!!
I'M SICK OF LIVING IN A WORLD THAT YOU WANT TO CONTROL-- OR DESTROY, SO THAT
NOTHING IS BEYOND "YOU"!!!
WHAT ABOUT ME???
DON'T I MATTER AT ALL???
THE REAL ME?????
WHY CAN'T YOU SEE ME...AS I REALLY AM??????
WOULD IT KILL YOU???
SEE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?
WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME AS I AM???
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE WILD, FREE, WORLD OF LOVE AND UNBRIDLED BEAUTY
THAT I FEEL: FOR LIVING...FOR YOU... AND FOR EVERYTHING THAT SURROUNDS US...
US!!! DAMN IT!!!! US!!!!...
ME AND YOU.... AND ALLTHESE WILD, FREE HORSES...
WHICH YOU CAN'T STAND THE FREEDOM OF,
THAT YOU WANT TO CONTROL
AND DESTROY THE SPIRIT OF...
AND TAKE CREDIT FOR MAKING...
AND MAKING INTO WHAT???
INTO NOTHING MORE THAN AN EXTENSION OF YOUR OWN DAMN "COWBOY" IMAGE!!!
YOU'RE NOT COWBOYS!!!
THEY LOVE THE LAND AND THE BEAUTY OF IT ALL!!!
YOU'RE JUST CONTROLLING EGOTISTICAL PIGS!!!
ASK YOURSELVES!!!!
WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?????????
TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELVES....
YOU "FANS"... OF WHAT? NOT OF ME!!! YOU'RE ONLY FANS OF YOURSELVES!!!
More on this later! And wait until you find out what Thomas Paine has in common with Marilyn!
So, who WAS Socrates? You've just seen Marilyn "DO Socrates" (ie, Socratic Dialogue, yelling at
the men in "The Misfits!!!)
Socrates was THE Greek philosopher of antiquity, whose profound thinking was best
described by his brilliant student, Plato.
The "Socratic" method of TEACHING is now known as the "Socratic Dialogue" (which has
affected every "discourse" (exchange and challenging of ideas)--from Karl Marx's
"dialectic"-- to "surfing" the internet!
As Socrates would take walks with his students (like "walking around" a Marilyn web ring) and he would challenge the student to "Know thyself"... by asking MORE questions, after every answer that the student gave him. Each question revealed more weakness in the student's "beliefs". The problem with most Marilyn web sites is that there is NO "questioning"...just "The Goddess" and more links to "The same".
The CONTINUAL "questioning" for which the Marilyn Network News is known (and for which the, "In your face" email from MNN's publisher is best-REMEMBERED, long after it's been read) is based on these principles of Socrates.
It's a difficult question and answer process, in which "the teacher"(or journalist/agitator) makes POINTED AND REPEATED INQUIRY of "the student" (web site user/reader)... to reveal truth-- regarding the weakness of the current position (ie thoughtless Marilyn addictions like her "murder", the abuse of fans, the greed of the licensing "business"/virtual grave robbing, etc). And, through the process of MNN's question, "What's your answer to THIS?" the Marilyn community becomes more aware of itself! KNOW THYSELF!!!
And thus, Miss Peggy's chat
group (finally) GETS moderated...
Online "screen names"--not real people-- clean up their "act"
(both online and in email).
And, who knows.... maybe "The Estate" WILL now "go after" that lousy
PORN site (using Marilyn as the meta-tag "hook") that we've heard is
showing-up "Number One" at the
top of the EXCITE search engine!
But don't "thank" The Marilyn Network News! HATE OUR G_ _ DAMN GUTS FOR IT!
It's a 2,500-year-old honor: To be so-hated! For, just as Socrates was hated by the "insiders"
of Athens... MNN is hated by "Marilyn insiders" who glorify ignorant
"opinion" and disregard FACTS. One self-described "insider" named
'Connie' has shown
the world-- apparently proud of herself-- by opening threatening MNN:
That if MNN didn't remove the true, documented,
description of (her apparently) online, flaming abuse of a 14 year old
"Newbie", named Emerald...until the girl dropped right out of
Peggy Wilkin's group. Connie's threat was to "expose" MNN's publisher as a
"Child pornographer"-- if we didn't remove "her" first name. That porn-assertion landed Connie
with a local police "interview", demanded by her state's attorney general.
Of course, there was NO truth to her threat to "expose" us!
In a web-world of screen names and fantasy, MNN's reporting warned MM fans of the dangers of online chatting-- yet still showed journalistic professionalism by not revealing "Connie"'s true identity). This "Anything goes" mentality is, of course-- even when expressed with insane viciousness-- what the wwweb is all about. And in "Marilyn's world", on the web, there is SO much abuse and egotistical control! ANYTHING GOES! And so MNN became, like Socrates' threat to the society of ancient Greece... something that the insiders needed to destroy (destroy the virtual mirror... that MNN journalistically held to the faces of those who chose (or choose to this day to continue) to live in "Marilyn Hell"!
Condemmed to death by HIS enemies, Socrates surrounded himself with his loyal students, like Plato. And, with COMPLETE self-control...for he DID "Know himself"--to the end-- Socrates drank the cup of poison hemlock... and with his last breaths, he maintained a belief that man could achieve goodness... through the wisdom, gained through the examination of truth!
Socrates dictum, "Know thyself" is pure-Marilyn, in "The Misfits", standing alone and exposed on the waterless Nevada desert dance-floor, SCREAMING "Know thyself, you bastards! Look what you're doing to me! Look what you're doing to the "Man's world" of yours-- where anything wild and free and beautiful in the sight of God as to be BEATEN TO DEATH or DESTROYED!" That, kiddies, is "ART"!!! :-)
Paine was born in Thetford England; and so-impressed Ben Franklin in London--as a FEARLESS THINKER-- that Franklin arranged for Paine to come to the colonies in 1767, to WRITE and agitate for the inevitable change that men like Franklin knew was coming!!!
In short, Paine's legacy, as a free thinker and champion writer of the "unpopular notion", guaranteed (twenty years later, on September 25, 1789) that when James Madison DEMANDED...on the floor of the then-deadlocked, Continental Congress... that the United States Constitution include 10 Amendments, placing the primacy of the American constitution on the shoulders of the citizen's-- to both shoulder the fulfillment of the nation's obligations...and still be safe enough, by design, to state, in writing, the total respect the liberty of the people (to do the right thing).
Thus was born the "Bill of Rights", including the greatest legal provision that has EVER been conceived: The First Amendment, which CAME "First"... because a lone, brilliant--and despised for it-- writer, named THOMAS PAINE had demonstrated, in his writing, the FEARLESS RESOLVE that was needed to overcome any adversity; inspiring--through ART-- the strength of the people to DO THE RIGHT THING AND PREVAIL!!!
In her own way, Marilyn Monroe...the ARTIST... established in the 20th Century... the
questioning (of place and values) that was her RIGHT as a free American; and from which
the "women's movement" of the 1960's and 1970's can be traced: As stereotypes (which
Marilyn portrayed and which Mansfield perpetuated...and which even Marilyn Quayle was recently
asked to comment on--relative to the Souther Baptist Convention's statement
that, essentially "women should submit to their men".
What makes Marilyn significant, as an "icon" was her RIGHT to be anything SHE
wanted herself to be: Movie star, etc...and she was THE FIRST WOMAN to do this
on such a worldwide scale!
In 1776, Paine had published COMMON SENSE, a pamphlet that (like MNN) AGITATED the community of thinkers, sitting astride their "comfort levels" and DEMANDED answers to the looming questions facing the community.
And, as that wasn't enough, in December, 1776, Paine followed COMMON SENSE with THE CRISIS,
a work that began with the most stirring words, "These are the times that
try mens' souls. The 'summer soldier' and the 'sunshine patriot' will, in this crisis, shrink
from the service of their country.
...Tryanny, like hell, is not easily conquered."
Washington had THE CRISIS read aloud to his troops, before they went into battle.
After the war, Paine went to England and to France--where he made the leadership mad... no matter WHERE he went, things were NEVER "Good enough"! Not in religion, not in the brutality of the French Revolution..NEVER!!!
The community of man could always be improved!!!
And because of Paine, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution GUARANTEES that the press shall be able to freely provide responsible accounting of the public figures that "rule" the community; and document their abuses and also champion the causes of those, who like Socrates, believe that man is inherently ignorant...but strives for goodness, through hard work.
That's all Laser Radio and MNN have EVER wanted...just to PUSH for us ALL to be better and a better example for those who follow us!
John Guthrie; president Laser Radio, Inc. Publisher of MNN
1am, Tuesday June 16, 1998