ACT 1
🎧EL•BE: “Spectators looking on, many in a rage / Fresh off the stand i’m standing on the stage / Handcuffs on my wrist, shackled my feet / brick walls blindfold me so i can’t see / It’s straight jacket crazy locking me in a box / While the knives of hate thrown at me won’t stop / [They set time on the clock, huh, only 60 years?]
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Over the years of enduring wrongful incarceration i have come to understand, overstand, and INNERSTAND many things about the U.S. Criminal Justice System. Which is made up of many different courts. One thing about all courts, past or present, they are the stages for public spectacle delivered by a unique cast of players.
THE PLAYERS
The titles of the players in the court has changed since the middle ages of Europe and Ancient Kemet, but their roles have pretty much remained the same today. The Judge [King] is the most important; the Prosecutor [Queen] the most powerful; the Jury/Panel [audience] the most catered to and entertained; the Defense Attorney [Sophist] the most ambitious; and the Accused [Jester/Fool] the most expendable.
The fool has always been an intriguing character throughout history. Despite his or her tragic endings (often death) caused by their ignorance or lowly status, in many instances, they prevailed in the end. Like Shakespeare’s Hamlet played the fool to survive the unjust court of his uncle. There many contemporary examples too. Like ex heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Mike Tyson.
Early in his career he had one of the best trainers ever, Cus D’Amata. But after his trainer died, Tyson started having problems. People took advantage of him due to his naïvety and background of poverty. Clearly, Tyson was seen as a fool while making bad financial, career, and marital decisions. Ultimately those decisions helped land him in prison in the 1990s.
Tyson was shamed by sports critics and spectators alike for being so foolish. But there was still hope for the young, former champion upon his release. However, he soon started behaving sporadic and saying crazy things in interviews. And he wasn’t winning fights like he used to. The critics started to write Tyson off as someone who’s life would end in tragically.
However, while Tyson was made to be a fool in the court of professional sports, he seemed to have learned his lessons and has one of the best comebook stories that sports and entertainment has ever seen. Now Mike Tyson’s name is attached to humility, redemption, and a forgiving heart. I wonder if when Tyson is releasing his pigeons from the their coops, is he laughing at those who made him the fool?
Regarding the fools or criminal defendants of the court in the criminal justice system. They are either playing a fool (guilty acting innocent) or made into a fool (innocent made guilty) or on rare occasions they are both [the joker]. However, they are all always the victims of the public spectacle.
ACT 2
EL•BE:”They set time on the clock, huh, only 60 years? / & pushed me to the bottom of a whole lotta tears / & a whole lotta fear, wishing for my herse / I CAN’T BREATHE down here can it get any worse? / [This public spectacle mane gotta be a curse]…
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Historically criminal trials have always been used as public spectacle by the State (ruling class) to evoke fear and admiration into the hearts and minds of its general public (poor/working class). Which is but a Machiavellian method to gain and maintain its power and control. Anarchy is always bad for business for the ruling class.
Today due to the advancement of U.S. civilization and its many court systems. There are many criminal trials of women, men, & children in state and federal courts that go unknown to the wider public’s knowledge. The criminal trials that are published on t.v. and social media are due to either the activism of a few enlightened citizens or by state sponsored lobbying groups.
THE PUBLIC SPECTACLE
In all cases it is the power of the state that allows its courts to open its doors to mass media. This includes platforms like Court T.V. It’s reasonable to conclude that all the criminal cases that are selected to be public spectacle are in the interest of the state.
The infamous public trials of the killers of Emmett Till, OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman were all spectacles of injustice. In each of these trials the criminal defendants played the fool and were acquitted of murder. All at the expense of the moral and ethical standards of the ideals of justice.
The outcome of those trials were all bent toward the interest of the ruling class or the blood lust of the public. i strongly believe OJ was acquitted because the state feared more anarchy after the L.A. Riots in 1991, that were ironically caused by the injustice of the rogue cops being acquitted in the senseless beating of Rodney King.
Another notable public spectacle was the televised trial of former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. Who was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd on April 20, 2021 less than 1 year after the incident. For many observers the trial’s outcome was a needed spectacle of justice. But for who, the victims of police brutality or the corporations losing money due to riots and property damage?
Despite the clear and long awaited message of the police finally being held accountable when Chauvin was found guilty. It was more symbolic than reality. Because the 12 jurors in that case could not deliver justice for millions of Black and Brown people with a single conviction of one rogue cop. It would have to take a collective of millions of people to change the structural glitches that allow racism and violence to persist.
The conviction of Chauvin can very easily be used as a distraction by the ruling class from real systemic change; change that would undermine their generational power hold. The same thing happened with the tacit excuses made by officials not creating authentic equality for Blacks by justifying Affirmative Action symbolism, rather than exercising its policy.
The public spectacle of criminal trials in the U.S. are seeming to be going the way of The Hunger Games (2012), a movie where spectacles are used as epic and elaborate distractions from the real political and economic issues. This brings me to the new internet and social media force of The Court of Public Opinion that has brought about the Cancel Culture. This Court of Public Opinion is mostly influenced by powerful corporations where many celebrities, politicians, and business moguls have been wrongfully shamed or scandalized for having different views or financial interests than such corporations.
Regardless if the public spectacles are criminal trials or trials by public opinion. As mentioned earlier, those accused in them will either play the fool, be made the fool, or evolve a combination of them both and become a Joker — or what is known in mythology as the tricker.
ACT 3
EL•BE:”This public spectacle mane gotta be a curse / i wiggle & i squirm, push & pull with hella force / can’t find an exit of escape but my soul still search / My heart beat calm, my mind won’t spazz / until i figure out this puzzle i’ma sit here laugh — HOODINI!”
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For the last 23 years i have been made a fool by a less than fair criminal justice system and by haters in the court of public opinion. The other day i received a hateful letter calling my wrongful incarceration a hex. The author of this letter called me a fool and said that my efforts at speaking out to the world about my injustice through art, music, spirituality, intellect, and litigation were no different than a clown putting on a pathetic juggling act.
Of course, i laughed at this spectator’s displaced self-hate, but only through the tears of my prolonged suffrage. While telling myself You gotta keep laughing from crying. Your time to shine is near!
Being made the fool by the spectacle of injustice has revealed something much more fascinating and beautiful than i ever expected. Inadvertently i was initiated upon what is known as The Fool’s Journey.
THE DIVINE TRICKSTER
In modern times when we think about a trickster it is usually someone who is playing the fool to catch a fool. Like the iconic character, Keyser Söze for the 90’s classic movie Unusual Suspects (1994). Where Söze outwitted his enemies and got away by pretending to be a crippled. But there is more than just playing the fool to being a mytho-trickster.
In the 19th century African-French novelist, Alexandre Dumas’ classic book The Count of Monté Cristo (1845) the character Edmond Dantés was made the fool by wrongful imprisonment. He lost all that he loved while being tortured in prison for 5 yrs until he escaped.
After amassing wealth Dantés learned to play the fool by returning to his old town as the Count Monté Cristo. Where he exacted revenge on all those responsible for his unjust treatment.
Dantés became the Mytho-Trickster for a couple of reasons:
- After he was made the fool by the spectacle of injustice & survived, he evolved into a mytho-trickster.
- As such, he was then used as a tool by The Creator for Divine Justice/Karma.
In mythological traditions around the world (especially in Afrika) trickster gods like Tahuti (Thoth / Hermes), Oya, Loki, Coyote, Dionysus and others are said be sent from The Creator into the human world to break and re-establish relationships, to reawaken consciousness to the eternal Now, and restore Justice. They appear in many different forms and genders. These beings are known to have boundless vitality, creativity, and mischievousness.
In mythology the trickster is often depicted as an anti-hero. He or she is edgy because their powers came at the expense of great personal sacrifice, battle, or suffering. And since their imagination has no limits, their persona leads us to the heights of heaven or into the depths of hell. Therefore, the life lessons they give us are often at the expense of our own stupidity. At which, tricksters can be heard laughing at us from the distance, in the form of faint whispers in the wind.
For the practitioners of Tarot Card reading The Fool card (Le Mat) — numbered 0 — is symbolic to what is called “The Fool’s Journey.”
To the left is African inspired Tarot art by Safara.
Meaning to partake on a path of the unknown in life. Life is filled with risk. Even a turtle has to stick its neck out to advance. And i suspect that anyone who was made the fool and passed the trial will be rewarded beyond measure.
The thing about mythology is not that its characters or settings are true, but rather that the lessons it contains are. These truths are timeless and found in each of us at different points of our lives. All myths will be renewed: meaning, all the characters and settings will change to suit a new generation, but their truths will remain forever.
With all that said, to those who made me a fool by the courtrooms of injustice i say, ”All my sorrows were Divine Purpose / now the world is my circus/ I AM the Ringmaster!”