Etymology

May 2nd, 2010

I’m just finishing

Hampton Sides’ awful-and-excellent

new book Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking

of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin.

No one is or ever was more beloved to me than Dr. King, and nothing is more

repugnant to me than killing, but it’s interesting to learn that near the end of his life,

he was so frustrated with the state of affairs in America that even he

questioned the wisdom of going forward under the banner

of nonviolence.  In these troubled

times, I go inside and

start a fire.

The etymology

of the word “assassin” is likewise

interesting, and as with more than a few things,

the interwebs will misinform you about it.  Just as the ‘net

generally teaches that Sufism is a mystical sect of Islam, when in fact

Sufism arose in India and predated Islam by thousands of years, it also teaches

that the Assasan (pronounced ass-SAH-san) were a group of Is’mailis who were fed

hashish and trained to kill for al-Hassan ibn-al-Sabbah.  In fact the Assasan were

a band of Sufis who arose in Persia who were so troubled by the political

tenor of their times — which differed little from our own in terms

of the maniacal greed and non-sense displayed by the rich and

powerful — that they took the giant moral step of killing

to clean house.  In these troubled

times, I go inside and

start a fire.

Having grown up

on the same Gulf of Mexico that

Clayton Cubitt did, looking as I do at the Earth

bleeding and the whales bleeding and the Afghan children

bleeding while the rich and powerful sit on their hands — when they’re

not using them to count blood money, that is — I am reminded, in the non-linear

way I’m reminded of things (hey, this ain’t CNN), of Chris Rock discussing the

matter of O.J. Simpson shortly after O.J. was acquitted:  ”So you gotta

think about O.J.’s situation: $25,000 a month in alimony, another

man driving around in his car, fucking his wife, and a house

he’s still paying the mortgage on! — now I’m not

sayin’ he shoulda killed her,

but I understand.”

In these troubled times,

I go inside and

start a fire.