I was just reading today's Labor Notes and see that there have been numerous trade union activists targetted and assassinated in Iraq. I'm not clear on why this is happening or who the people are who are involved, but this is a story that deserves wider attention. If anyone reading has more information on the killings, please post a comment.
Also from Labor notes, I found this blog, which has news of people killed at work this week. These kinds of everyday work deaths are rarely reported anywhere, but when the numbers of job-related deaths are calculated they always reveal the callousness of capitalism.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
A Guest Post from my Colleague, Josh: City Hall Can Be Veeeeeerrrry Slippery! Written 2/25/05
This is the tale of one mildly concerned citizen hoping to lower the incidence of broken hips on a wet snowy night. On Feb. 24 at about 6:30 PM, I crawled out of the subway on the SW corner of Chambers and Centre Streets. It had been snowing for an hour or 2. About 30 or 40 feet north of the subway exit I saw a businessman in his 40s or 50s slip and fall on his back, an elegant bit of stuntery that took approximately 0.03 seconds. I turned toward him asking if he was OK as a woman did the same. He said yes, got up, and walked on. The woman explained to him and me while wiping the sidewalk w/ her foot that it was really slippery right there because of a plaque in the sidewalk. As I walked away, I thought why not call 311 about this. Maybe they'll put up a yellow cone or something. I was walking heading west across Chambers to Greenwich St. and up about 4 blocks. The process was a bit more involved than I had imagined. I was on my cell until about 10 steps from my destination, some 10 to 15 minutes later. I talked to 3 individuals, all of whom were pleasant.
I explained to 2 of the 3 people that "there is a very slippery spot about 40 feet north of the subway on the corner of..... and I just thought you might mark it for other pedestrians." The second person I spoke w/ asked if that was in Brooklyn.
The third person, who took down my info, was courteous but a bit slow on the uptake. After waiting for her for what seemed like several minutes, she explained that "there is so much to put in before I can take your information, sorry!" "No problem," I assured her. Eventually, as I came within a block of my destination, I mentioned that I had to go soon. I decided not to mention to her toward the end that my phone hand was about to freeze and fall off. I sensed that she had all she could handle already.
At about 8:30 that night I went back to the same spot on my way home, and there was no evidence that the authorities cared. Maybe I should have said something to the 311 folks about how routine dangers add up to a terrorized mentality for working people and that budget cuts are destroying our public spaces and communities. That might have occasioned alerting Bloomberg, who would have taken time off from his busy schedule to fix this problem. After all, there must be some money in it.
Signed, Josh, sociologist and occasional thoughtful citizen.
I explained to 2 of the 3 people that "there is a very slippery spot about 40 feet north of the subway on the corner of..... and I just thought you might mark it for other pedestrians." The second person I spoke w/ asked if that was in Brooklyn.
The third person, who took down my info, was courteous but a bit slow on the uptake. After waiting for her for what seemed like several minutes, she explained that "there is so much to put in before I can take your information, sorry!" "No problem," I assured her. Eventually, as I came within a block of my destination, I mentioned that I had to go soon. I decided not to mention to her toward the end that my phone hand was about to freeze and fall off. I sensed that she had all she could handle already.
At about 8:30 that night I went back to the same spot on my way home, and there was no evidence that the authorities cared. Maybe I should have said something to the 311 folks about how routine dangers add up to a terrorized mentality for working people and that budget cuts are destroying our public spaces and communities. That might have occasioned alerting Bloomberg, who would have taken time off from his busy schedule to fix this problem. After all, there must be some money in it.
Signed, Josh, sociologist and occasional thoughtful citizen.
Subway Riding Part Two
This urban planner that I just met was explaining to me that the MTA is a state agency whose head is appointed by the Governor, so there really isn't any difference between The MTA and Pataki. "The MTA is Pataki," he said, and when Hevesi goes after them for mismanagement he's being a clever Democrat who's showing the people of NY that he's "looking out for us" - although of course that may be all about image and not much about substance. Aha! so, I didn't understand this at all when I made my last post, as I thought that the MTA was a city agency that was being starved by the state, sort of like CUNY, which also doesn't get enough money and then makes up the differences through tuition hikes and reduced services (such as cutting the counseling services).
Given that, I'm a bit confused about the way that the Straphangers' campaign is presenting the problems. What's the long story behind their backing of the five year capital plan? Some of the people on the "riders' diaries" on their page seem to see the whole plan as a boon-doggle while others feel that the Governor is on the right track. I don't get it. I hope that some expert in local politics who's reading will weigh in with an informed opinion here.
Meanwhile....in other news:
The weekend edition of Counterpunch is especially good today, and features an interesting, if
typically distressing article by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky mentioned this plan of the scary military-industrial complex types to put nuclear weapons in space the last time I heard him speak in NYC, about a year and 1/2 ago, and yet, as he points out in the article, despite plans to move ahead w/the strategies, there has been virtually no news coverage of it at all.
Also in this issue is an article about the royal coup in Nepal. The only problem with this article is that it assumes a good deal of prior knowledge of the Nepalese/British/and Indian politics, and unfortunately, I'm guessing most Americans don't know a lot. This would include me, although I went on a NJrve date last Summer with someone who explained a little bit to me about the Maoists, and the royalists and the rest. He had some interesting things to say about the role that the Buddhists play in the economy there, as well, but I didn't know enough from other sources to be able to evaluate any of what he said. I wrote to Chandra, and I'll post his response here if I get one. Counterpunch authors usually respond personally to letters, which makes me feel special. In fact, Alexander Cockburn, in this week's column, quoted extensively from several readers. Now, isn't that a nice way to run an online magazine?
Oh right, how could I forget? There's going to be a super-duper important and expensive awards show on TV tonight. I'm sure that will be the headline coverage on Monday's mainstream news shows. And the more people who do cover it, the more that people feel it's news and that they need to actually watch it. It's such a scam, although I've usually watched it, mostly in hope that someone will say something against American foreign policy. This year, because certain people would only go see movies at the Film Forum, I've barely seen any of the movies that are nominated, but I think that this is a good thing, generally.
Given that, I'm a bit confused about the way that the Straphangers' campaign is presenting the problems. What's the long story behind their backing of the five year capital plan? Some of the people on the "riders' diaries" on their page seem to see the whole plan as a boon-doggle while others feel that the Governor is on the right track. I don't get it. I hope that some expert in local politics who's reading will weigh in with an informed opinion here.
Meanwhile....in other news:
The weekend edition of Counterpunch is especially good today, and features an interesting, if
typically distressing article by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky mentioned this plan of the scary military-industrial complex types to put nuclear weapons in space the last time I heard him speak in NYC, about a year and 1/2 ago, and yet, as he points out in the article, despite plans to move ahead w/the strategies, there has been virtually no news coverage of it at all.
Also in this issue is an article about the royal coup in Nepal. The only problem with this article is that it assumes a good deal of prior knowledge of the Nepalese/British/and Indian politics, and unfortunately, I'm guessing most Americans don't know a lot. This would include me, although I went on a NJrve date last Summer with someone who explained a little bit to me about the Maoists, and the royalists and the rest. He had some interesting things to say about the role that the Buddhists play in the economy there, as well, but I didn't know enough from other sources to be able to evaluate any of what he said. I wrote to Chandra, and I'll post his response here if I get one. Counterpunch authors usually respond personally to letters, which makes me feel special. In fact, Alexander Cockburn, in this week's column, quoted extensively from several readers. Now, isn't that a nice way to run an online magazine?
Oh right, how could I forget? There's going to be a super-duper important and expensive awards show on TV tonight. I'm sure that will be the headline coverage on Monday's mainstream news shows. And the more people who do cover it, the more that people feel it's news and that they need to actually watch it. It's such a scam, although I've usually watched it, mostly in hope that someone will say something against American foreign policy. This year, because certain people would only go see movies at the Film Forum, I've barely seen any of the movies that are nominated, but I think that this is a good thing, generally.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Being an intellectual is easier than being a human being
Actually, it's been hard to be an intellectual today because the human being part has been so time-consuming, what with looking for a new room-mate and trying to understand what I was doing for the last seven months while I thought I was so blissfully happy in love. I always tell people that once something doesn't work out, that it's not so helpful to go back and rewrite the past as a bunch of meaningless foolery, but it feels that way today for a number of reasons I won't go into.
Today, I barely read the current news, but I have been back in the depths of Farrell Dobbs' Teamster Rebellion, a book that describes a model of well-organized militancy: the Minneapolis Truckers Strike of 1934. The truckers' success in getting the farmers and the unemployed on their side was especially impressive, and the coordination with workers to meet day to day needs of strikers and unemployed reminded me of the efforts made (in a very different situation) during the right wing trucker's strike in Chile. Today such a strike seems almost unimagineable, and not just because of the Taft-Hartley act.
And speaking of Chile, what's going on in Venezuela today, I wonder?
I'm so glad I wondered, Chavez is in the newsfor for declaring publicly that socialism, not capitalism is the only answer to poverty and inequality. Of course, this has got the American corporate media screaming "Castro," etc. "Venezuelan Analysis" has pointed out the distorting nature of such claims here.For A more reliable and nuanced discussion of Chavez's economic programs appears here in an article comparing Chavez to Abraham Lincoln.
And while the U.S. has shrugged off and dismissed Chavez's recent charges that the U.S. is planning to intervene again against the Venezuelan government, the U.S.'s behavior in the past towards Allende, Aristide, and going further back -- to Mossadeq and others, gives us plenty of justification for taking the news of pending American intervention against Chavez (socialist or no) very seriously.
Today, I barely read the current news, but I have been back in the depths of Farrell Dobbs' Teamster Rebellion, a book that describes a model of well-organized militancy: the Minneapolis Truckers Strike of 1934. The truckers' success in getting the farmers and the unemployed on their side was especially impressive, and the coordination with workers to meet day to day needs of strikers and unemployed reminded me of the efforts made (in a very different situation) during the right wing trucker's strike in Chile. Today such a strike seems almost unimagineable, and not just because of the Taft-Hartley act.
And speaking of Chile, what's going on in Venezuela today, I wonder?
I'm so glad I wondered, Chavez is in the newsfor for declaring publicly that socialism, not capitalism is the only answer to poverty and inequality. Of course, this has got the American corporate media screaming "Castro," etc. "Venezuelan Analysis" has pointed out the distorting nature of such claims here.For A more reliable and nuanced discussion of Chavez's economic programs appears here in an article comparing Chavez to Abraham Lincoln.
And while the U.S. has shrugged off and dismissed Chavez's recent charges that the U.S. is planning to intervene again against the Venezuelan government, the U.S.'s behavior in the past towards Allende, Aristide, and going further back -- to Mossadeq and others, gives us plenty of justification for taking the news of pending American intervention against Chavez (socialist or no) very seriously.
When Reading About Iraq Becomes a Distraction from the Really Bad News
At least the horrors of war, tyranny, etc. seem part of the potentially reversible damage that humans regularly inflict upon each other. Much worse is the new found fact that women's breast milk in the U.S. contains enough rocket fuel residue to expose infants to thyroid damage. Of course, in countries such as Iraq, where the U.S. has been using depleted uranium it's obvious that major environmental problems and the military-industrial complex are not separate issues. After all, rocket fuel is connected to the "defense" of the country, and is apparently showing up in bovine and human milk because chemical waste in water used in irrigation that somehow gets into the food we eat. Isn't it sad? To read more, go here.
But wait, there's more....The global warming news is very, very bad right now. This website has succinct easy to read stuff about what's going on, and also some simple actions that individuals can take to reduce CO2 emissions. I don't know anything about these guys at Black Rhinoceros, but they seem cool to me. What about the terrifying news about water? You can read a lot from that book, Blue Gold on the Third World Traveler website. That, by the way, is a great resource for information. They have William Shawcross's stuff on Cambodia there too, which again, is less terrifying to read about than the long-lasting, catastrophic environmental news that gets worse every day. Oh yeah, and of course, that war in Iraq is all about controlling the fossil fuel whose burning is sending our planet straight toward what those radical right christians call the "end times."
It's enough to make you want to either become a full time environmental activist and or spend your time on such less difficult problems to solve as war, poverty, and the protection of civil liberties, oh, but they're connected, for as Ross Gelbspan put it in his interview with Kelpie Wilson of Truthout, "If one honestly acknowledges the scale and urgency of the problem, it becomes clear that it cannot be effectively addressed without major structural changes to global economic dynamics. And, from what I've seen, the major environmental groups - and especially their funders - are not prepared to address that reality."
I agree, and I think that both the media and a lot of people would just rather that most of us not know anything at all.
But wait, there's more....The global warming news is very, very bad right now. This website has succinct easy to read stuff about what's going on, and also some simple actions that individuals can take to reduce CO2 emissions. I don't know anything about these guys at Black Rhinoceros, but they seem cool to me. What about the terrifying news about water? You can read a lot from that book, Blue Gold on the Third World Traveler website. That, by the way, is a great resource for information. They have William Shawcross's stuff on Cambodia there too, which again, is less terrifying to read about than the long-lasting, catastrophic environmental news that gets worse every day. Oh yeah, and of course, that war in Iraq is all about controlling the fossil fuel whose burning is sending our planet straight toward what those radical right christians call the "end times."
It's enough to make you want to either become a full time environmental activist and or spend your time on such less difficult problems to solve as war, poverty, and the protection of civil liberties, oh, but they're connected, for as Ross Gelbspan put it in his interview with Kelpie Wilson of Truthout, "If one honestly acknowledges the scale and urgency of the problem, it becomes clear that it cannot be effectively addressed without major structural changes to global economic dynamics. And, from what I've seen, the major environmental groups - and especially their funders - are not prepared to address that reality."
I agree, and I think that both the media and a lot of people would just rather that most of us not know anything at all.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The Daily Insult of Subway Riding
Last night on my way home, I saw a headline on a newstand, "The Coming Subway Crisis". I was anxious to read it, and thought of it just this morning, as my room-mate and I stood wedged between other riders on the crawling, Manhattan Bound F out of Brooklyn. We compared horror stories from the previous weeks, during which one or the other of us had experienced trains skipping our station with no posters warning of ride changes, or simply horrendous delays. We're not alone in the city, as service cuts and fare hikes go together to create just one more (at least twice) daily insult to the working people of NYC.
Let me share my stories. On Jan 27th, the first day of classes at CUNY, I left the house at 12:20, leaving ample time to get to my 2pm class. However, once I was in the train we moved a few feet and sat in the tunnel, moved a few feet and then sat in the tunnel. This went on until we got to the FIRST express stop....50 minutes later. Realizing that I would miss my class, I left the train, ran out of the station and called my office, asking them to put a note on the door for the students. I got done with the conversation and went back to the station only to find that the same train, complete with all the riders I'd seen on the way was still sitting there, only now the doors were closed and several people were standing on the platform, waiting to get on. I did finally make it to Chambers street at exactly 2pm. What I find especially outrageous about all this was that there were absolutely no indications that there were going to be delays. About a week ago, I was on another F train that sat and sat and sat in the tunnel, then spit us out at Bergen street and went out of service.
"It gets worse every day," a man on the platform said.
And yet, where is the news about the egregious service on the F train? I heard a lot about disrupted A/C service, but there was nothing so bad on those lines during the track fire repairs as there were on the F train during "regular" service. With today's snow, I don't know whether I'll be able to get back from Manhattan tonight, as the trains will no doubt be backed up on that rickety bridge over the Gowanus canal. Yes, D, the Smith and 9th street stop is the highest point in the subway system, according to the people at nycsubway.org, and that is why our train is the little engine that couldn't.
Why is the service getting so shitty? Most of the articles I found say that this is beyond MTA corruption, which was the focus of protest in the 2003 fare-hike, but that it is the more general problem of lack of state support. The state and city have reduced the amount of money given to subsidize the subways, leading to crappier service and higher fares. It's the same problem that we face in most public institutions, like public universities and the Post Office (which, in my neighborhood, is falling apart and has an average wait of 45 minutes whether you're picking up a package or mailing something). This article today's Newday, for example, says that the state subsidy to the MTA has gone from 19% to zero since the 1980s.
Soon after the fare-hike proposal was made, Bruce Schaller explained the situation well,And of course, there's also the corruption and fraud in the MTA. Remember this? and don't forget the close ties between the MTA head and ALfonse D'Amato. However, there is something about Alan Hevesi's ideas that I don't trust. He seems like one of those fiscal conservatives, and I guess that's the program, since he's comptroller. Anyone out there have any comments on this?...any far left policy analysists reading?
After reading the Straphangers' campaign web-page I learned that my impression that service is better in wealthier neighborhhoods is supported with evidence. The 6 train, which serves the Upper East Side (and apparently the Mayor) got the highest rating. Once again, the G (cross Brooklyn) got the worst. The F, which gets worse with every passing week, actually rated 12th out of 21. I suggest that if you ride the F train and have complaints that you take action. Here is the straphanger's campaign, where you can read more and get involved.
As regular service has gotten exponentially worse since the snow storm followed by the track fire, I feel daily that I am being ignored and disregarded by the city as Manhattan remains the playground or the super-wealthy while the rest of us are crowded in Brooklyn/Queens/Bronx and forced to ride trains that feel as if any minute they will shudder right off the tracks.
Let me share my stories. On Jan 27th, the first day of classes at CUNY, I left the house at 12:20, leaving ample time to get to my 2pm class. However, once I was in the train we moved a few feet and sat in the tunnel, moved a few feet and then sat in the tunnel. This went on until we got to the FIRST express stop....50 minutes later. Realizing that I would miss my class, I left the train, ran out of the station and called my office, asking them to put a note on the door for the students. I got done with the conversation and went back to the station only to find that the same train, complete with all the riders I'd seen on the way was still sitting there, only now the doors were closed and several people were standing on the platform, waiting to get on. I did finally make it to Chambers street at exactly 2pm. What I find especially outrageous about all this was that there were absolutely no indications that there were going to be delays. About a week ago, I was on another F train that sat and sat and sat in the tunnel, then spit us out at Bergen street and went out of service.
"It gets worse every day," a man on the platform said.
And yet, where is the news about the egregious service on the F train? I heard a lot about disrupted A/C service, but there was nothing so bad on those lines during the track fire repairs as there were on the F train during "regular" service. With today's snow, I don't know whether I'll be able to get back from Manhattan tonight, as the trains will no doubt be backed up on that rickety bridge over the Gowanus canal. Yes, D, the Smith and 9th street stop is the highest point in the subway system, according to the people at nycsubway.org, and that is why our train is the little engine that couldn't.
Why is the service getting so shitty? Most of the articles I found say that this is beyond MTA corruption, which was the focus of protest in the 2003 fare-hike, but that it is the more general problem of lack of state support. The state and city have reduced the amount of money given to subsidize the subways, leading to crappier service and higher fares. It's the same problem that we face in most public institutions, like public universities and the Post Office (which, in my neighborhood, is falling apart and has an average wait of 45 minutes whether you're picking up a package or mailing something). This article today's Newday, for example, says that the state subsidy to the MTA has gone from 19% to zero since the 1980s.
Soon after the fare-hike proposal was made, Bruce Schaller explained the situation well,And of course, there's also the corruption and fraud in the MTA. Remember this? and don't forget the close ties between the MTA head and ALfonse D'Amato. However, there is something about Alan Hevesi's ideas that I don't trust. He seems like one of those fiscal conservatives, and I guess that's the program, since he's comptroller. Anyone out there have any comments on this?...any far left policy analysists reading?
After reading the Straphangers' campaign web-page I learned that my impression that service is better in wealthier neighborhhoods is supported with evidence. The 6 train, which serves the Upper East Side (and apparently the Mayor) got the highest rating. Once again, the G (cross Brooklyn) got the worst. The F, which gets worse with every passing week, actually rated 12th out of 21. I suggest that if you ride the F train and have complaints that you take action. Here is the straphanger's campaign, where you can read more and get involved.
As regular service has gotten exponentially worse since the snow storm followed by the track fire, I feel daily that I am being ignored and disregarded by the city as Manhattan remains the playground or the super-wealthy while the rest of us are crowded in Brooklyn/Queens/Bronx and forced to ride trains that feel as if any minute they will shudder right off the tracks.
SO much going on in the World
It's not the morning yet, but I sat down at my desk just now and was sadly looking at this cute, chunky little "Democracy Now" coffee cupthat I bought for that librarian. It came in the mail today, so I sat and looked at it and thought, "this cup is so cute and solid, so much more so than the flimsier lightweight cups over at his place. I should give it to him because he actually needs it." This went on for a while and I decided that this sort of thing is boring for you to read and I'm keeping the cup.
I couldn't find much more information about the Friendster/Eharmony deal, except that the CEO, Scott Sassa, was recently brought in in August. He made news in the world of computer types because he fired troutgirl for some pretty innocent blog entries about Friendster's switch from Java to PHP. Silly, huh?
But then, there were other important things going on, more important that the receipt of the shiny Democracy Now mug in the mail, more truly terrifying than corporate media gossip, more depressing than breaking up.
It is very scary, for example, that Israel's defense minister made a public threat against Iran and called for U.S. support. This reminded me of that prescient article that some of you may have read by Seymour Hersh
This should be a worthwhile event to go: Greg Palast and Pratap Chatterjee are speaking on Monday the 28th at Columbia's Teachers' college. I'm teaching that night, but maybe someone else will go and describe the event.
I was looking for more about that story in Ha'aretz and found out that someone has just been arrested and charged with plotting an assassination attempt on President Bush. You can read about it here in the Guardian
(I found the timing of this somewhat bizarre, as I was just in the gym listening to Will Durst on my mp3 player as he talked about how loose Bush's security seemed to be in comparison with Cheney's after 9/11....for, it is really Cheney who is president after all, as this book will explain.
I'm anticipating that when I get up to drink coffee out of my sparkling new mug and head off to my luxiurious open rehearsal at the Philharmonic tomorrow morning that there will be all kinds of fresh panic in the air, and especially since they just convicted Lynn Stewart for what seemed like perfectly reasonable activities for a lawyer in a political case, I can't imagine that it's going to be easy for this guy to get decent, aggressive defense.
I couldn't find much more information about the Friendster/Eharmony deal, except that the CEO, Scott Sassa, was recently brought in in August. He made news in the world of computer types because he fired troutgirl for some pretty innocent blog entries about Friendster's switch from Java to PHP. Silly, huh?
But then, there were other important things going on, more important that the receipt of the shiny Democracy Now mug in the mail, more truly terrifying than corporate media gossip, more depressing than breaking up.
It is very scary, for example, that Israel's defense minister made a public threat against Iran and called for U.S. support. This reminded me of that prescient article that some of you may have read by Seymour Hersh
This should be a worthwhile event to go: Greg Palast and Pratap Chatterjee are speaking on Monday the 28th at Columbia's Teachers' college. I'm teaching that night, but maybe someone else will go and describe the event.
I was looking for more about that story in Ha'aretz and found out that someone has just been arrested and charged with plotting an assassination attempt on President Bush. You can read about it here in the Guardian
(I found the timing of this somewhat bizarre, as I was just in the gym listening to Will Durst on my mp3 player as he talked about how loose Bush's security seemed to be in comparison with Cheney's after 9/11....for, it is really Cheney who is president after all, as this book will explain.
I'm anticipating that when I get up to drink coffee out of my sparkling new mug and head off to my luxiurious open rehearsal at the Philharmonic tomorrow morning that there will be all kinds of fresh panic in the air, and especially since they just convicted Lynn Stewart for what seemed like perfectly reasonable activities for a lawyer in a political case, I can't imagine that it's going to be easy for this guy to get decent, aggressive defense.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Friendster and Eharmony - Friends or not?
Here's something interesting.
I was upset about what I learned about Neil Clark Warren and wrote a letter to Friendster complaining about their "match up" with the edating service. Did they not know that NCW was connected to "Focus on the Family?" I wondered....
Friendster's customer service reps. wrote back:" We are NOT partnered with eHarmony, someone started this rumer. It is a hoax.
thank you"
Unless something has changed since Nov. 30th, Eharmony and Friendster may not be partners, but they did make a big deal together, as Friendster made eharmony the exclusive matchmaker that could advertise on its site.
Eharmony's own press releases announce the agreement, which was also covered in MSNBC's business news section:
eharmony press release
msnbc article
This has been reported on earlier in the Month, and others have contacted Friendster about the deal. Note this article by David Evans on Corante.com
Later on, I'll try to find out more information about the relationship between the two sites, and update you on my correspondence with Friendster.
I was upset about what I learned about Neil Clark Warren and wrote a letter to Friendster complaining about their "match up" with the edating service. Did they not know that NCW was connected to "Focus on the Family?" I wondered....
Friendster's customer service reps. wrote back:" We are NOT partnered with eHarmony, someone started this rumer. It is a hoax.
thank you"
Unless something has changed since Nov. 30th, Eharmony and Friendster may not be partners, but they did make a big deal together, as Friendster made eharmony the exclusive matchmaker that could advertise on its site.
Eharmony's own press releases announce the agreement, which was also covered in MSNBC's business news section:
eharmony press release
msnbc article
This has been reported on earlier in the Month, and others have contacted Friendster about the deal. Note this article by David Evans on Corante.com
Later on, I'll try to find out more information about the relationship between the two sites, and update you on my correspondence with Friendster.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Neil Clark Warren, Not Just Christian, Creepy Christian
Thanks to that anonymous commenter who alerted me to the fact that Neil Clark Warren, whose "eharmony.com" is constantly advertised on Air America Radio, is not just sorta Christian, but a pal of right-wing wacko, James Dobson. It does say right on Warren's profile on the eharmony page that he has appeared on "Focus on the Family" but I never noticed this before. Thank goodness I didn't give them any of my money.
It is sort of old news. I did a little googling and discovered a few articles, including this one one which sent me to this one at the Daily Kos,. Finally, I found this oneat monkeyfilter which has a lot of astonished commentary following it, including the interesting fact that (Bush contributors) Sequoia Capital and Crossover Ventures just invested $110 million in the company at the end of last year.
There's nothing wrong with creating a Christian dating service, but there is something troubling about the "stealth" quality of eharmony and the weird, panicky ideas that you can find in their published work.
Here, for example, is :
one of NCW's articles for FOF
One Christian database said that Dr. Warren founded an outfit called the "Associated Psychological Services" in Pasadena, CA. Here's something by one of their on-staff counselers, which describes the plague of pornography and how it can disrupt a happy marriage:
"Secret Sins of the Heart"
And what about Dr. Warren's previous academic deanship? Well that was at an institution called the Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical college whose history you can read about here. Basically, it seems that it began with a radio ministry.
Now what types of fellows will we find there?
According to C. Eugene Walker's 1965 book review of one of the founder of the psychology program, Donald J. Tweedie, Jr., (the one where Warren once was the dean), Tweedie's book contains "admonitions to use Bible reading and prayer with virtually all counselers (whether Christian or not) since herein lies the only hope of help; and, the view that non-Christian psychotherapists really can't help their patients. However, he grants that God may choose to help some of them in spite of the nonChristian therapist. These discussions are sprinkled with references to the Holy Spirit as the "Great Psychologist" and as a "participant observer" in therapy" For more, go here
I suppose it's possible that the college has gotten more relaxed since the 1960s, but I doubt that, given the climate in the country, and in Southern California in particular during the 1970s and 80s.
So, Eharmony promises true love, unbelievable compatibility and then takes your money for their crazy right wing causes. While some say it is old news, why then is Air America happily taking their money and why is it that Friendster just made a big advertizing deal with them? Did either business look very far into this new client?? If people freaked out that Bowlmor lanes had Palestinian investors, it seems that people should freak out that eharmony is a stealthy right wing Christian cash cow.
It is sort of old news. I did a little googling and discovered a few articles, including this one one which sent me to this one at the Daily Kos,. Finally, I found this oneat monkeyfilter which has a lot of astonished commentary following it, including the interesting fact that (Bush contributors) Sequoia Capital and Crossover Ventures just invested $110 million in the company at the end of last year.
There's nothing wrong with creating a Christian dating service, but there is something troubling about the "stealth" quality of eharmony and the weird, panicky ideas that you can find in their published work.
Here, for example, is :
one of NCW's articles for FOF
One Christian database said that Dr. Warren founded an outfit called the "Associated Psychological Services" in Pasadena, CA. Here's something by one of their on-staff counselers, which describes the plague of pornography and how it can disrupt a happy marriage:
"Secret Sins of the Heart"
And what about Dr. Warren's previous academic deanship? Well that was at an institution called the Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical college whose history you can read about here. Basically, it seems that it began with a radio ministry.
Now what types of fellows will we find there?
According to C. Eugene Walker's 1965 book review of one of the founder of the psychology program, Donald J. Tweedie, Jr., (the one where Warren once was the dean), Tweedie's book contains "admonitions to use Bible reading and prayer with virtually all counselers (whether Christian or not) since herein lies the only hope of help; and, the view that non-Christian psychotherapists really can't help their patients. However, he grants that God may choose to help some of them in spite of the nonChristian therapist. These discussions are sprinkled with references to the Holy Spirit as the "Great Psychologist" and as a "participant observer" in therapy" For more, go here
I suppose it's possible that the college has gotten more relaxed since the 1960s, but I doubt that, given the climate in the country, and in Southern California in particular during the 1970s and 80s.
So, Eharmony promises true love, unbelievable compatibility and then takes your money for their crazy right wing causes. While some say it is old news, why then is Air America happily taking their money and why is it that Friendster just made a big advertizing deal with them? Did either business look very far into this new client?? If people freaked out that Bowlmor lanes had Palestinian investors, it seems that people should freak out that eharmony is a stealthy right wing Christian cash cow.
Hunter S. Thompson, Rest in Crankiness
Good morning, oh my devoted readers.
It's another depressing day in the Heartland. Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide last night. When I was in highschool in Chapel Hill. I spent many an insomniac night reading The Great Shark Hunt which I'd gone to straight after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. What I remember best about Thompson was his description of watching the Watergate hearings, funneled through his alter-ego, Raoul Duke,
"The slow-rising central horror of Watergate is not that it might grind down to the reluctant impeachment of a vengeful thug of a president whose entire political career has been a monument to the same kind of cheap shots and treachery he finally got nailed for, but that we might somehow fail to learn something from it. Already - with the worst news yet to come - there is an ominous tide of public opinion that says whatever Nison and his small gang of henchmen and hired gunsels might have done, it was probably no worse than what other politicans have been doing all along, and still are. Anybody who really believes this is a fool -...What almost happened here- and what was only avoided because the men who made Nixon president and who were running the country in his name knew in their hearts that they were all mean, hollow little bastards who couldn't dare turn their backs on each other- was a takeover and perversion of the American political process by a gang of cold-blooded fixers so incompetent that they couldn't even pull off a simple burglary...which tends to explain among other things why 25,000 young Americans died in Vietnam while Nixon and his brain trust were trying to figure out how to admit the whole thing was a mistaske from the start."
Obviously, back then he was at least partially right. People didn't learn from the Watergate scandal, and the scandalousness of his presidency wasn't just the tapes - it was the war in Vietnam. Reading back through this now, it's clear to me that what I loved about Thompson when I was a highschool kid in the empty eighties was partly that intense wordiness and that he made the obsession with politics seem as cool as rock and roll. The drugs were the "excuse" for the excessiveness of the prose, and they became a distraction for the readers. I think the excesses of his lifestyle finally reduced the sharpness of his political commentary in print, and that we had lost him a long time ago. His suicide is very sad and I do want to know what the immediate cause was. I'm sure many will speculate and that the speculations will be facile.
I wish I knew what Thompson would say about the literal prostitution scandal now unfolding? The Gannon/Guckert circus.. There's a good article about it by Gary Leupp in Counterpunch.
Here's another onethat posits a connection between Karl Rove and Gannon.
And finally, here's something that's just silly: Art in the park
It's another depressing day in the Heartland. Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide last night. When I was in highschool in Chapel Hill. I spent many an insomniac night reading The Great Shark Hunt which I'd gone to straight after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. What I remember best about Thompson was his description of watching the Watergate hearings, funneled through his alter-ego, Raoul Duke,
"The slow-rising central horror of Watergate is not that it might grind down to the reluctant impeachment of a vengeful thug of a president whose entire political career has been a monument to the same kind of cheap shots and treachery he finally got nailed for, but that we might somehow fail to learn something from it. Already - with the worst news yet to come - there is an ominous tide of public opinion that says whatever Nison and his small gang of henchmen and hired gunsels might have done, it was probably no worse than what other politicans have been doing all along, and still are. Anybody who really believes this is a fool -...What almost happened here- and what was only avoided because the men who made Nixon president and who were running the country in his name knew in their hearts that they were all mean, hollow little bastards who couldn't dare turn their backs on each other- was a takeover and perversion of the American political process by a gang of cold-blooded fixers so incompetent that they couldn't even pull off a simple burglary...which tends to explain among other things why 25,000 young Americans died in Vietnam while Nixon and his brain trust were trying to figure out how to admit the whole thing was a mistaske from the start."
Obviously, back then he was at least partially right. People didn't learn from the Watergate scandal, and the scandalousness of his presidency wasn't just the tapes - it was the war in Vietnam. Reading back through this now, it's clear to me that what I loved about Thompson when I was a highschool kid in the empty eighties was partly that intense wordiness and that he made the obsession with politics seem as cool as rock and roll. The drugs were the "excuse" for the excessiveness of the prose, and they became a distraction for the readers. I think the excesses of his lifestyle finally reduced the sharpness of his political commentary in print, and that we had lost him a long time ago. His suicide is very sad and I do want to know what the immediate cause was. I'm sure many will speculate and that the speculations will be facile.
I wish I knew what Thompson would say about the literal prostitution scandal now unfolding? The Gannon/Guckert circus.. There's a good article about it by Gary Leupp in Counterpunch.
Here's another onethat posits a connection between Karl Rove and Gannon.
And finally, here's something that's just silly: Art in the park
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Computer Dating
So, it's true, "eharmony" is based on Christianity. Check out this article by Joel Keller. (you'll have to skip a sort of weird sexist intro about the guy's date, but his other comments are interesting).
From there, procrastinating in full gear, I started reading more issues of "Blacktable" and came up with this story. Since I used to be an anarchist, though sort of reluctant at the time, I totally enjoyed
this representation of anarchist demos.
It's true that anarchists are great at organizing themselves. They(we) are more concerned with process than anyone, and unfortunately, they are really, really concerned, perhaps unbeknownst to Ashley Glacel, about "intra-movement politics"
From there, procrastinating in full gear, I started reading more issues of "Blacktable" and came up with this story. Since I used to be an anarchist, though sort of reluctant at the time, I totally enjoyed
this representation of anarchist demos.
It's true that anarchists are great at organizing themselves. They(we) are more concerned with process than anyone, and unfortunately, they are really, really concerned, perhaps unbeknownst to Ashley Glacel, about "intra-movement politics"
Monday, November 29, 2004
Saturday, October 30, 2004
in Case you forgot...The other Left
It's two days till election day and everyone's talking about Bush and Kerry. Last night my room-mate and I watched Alexandra Pelosi's "Diary of a Political Tourist," a shallow commentary on the primary season that eliminated the candidates Pelosi could probably have gotten the most access to: Kucinich, Braun and Sharpton. Gee, it's great to have all these "independent" documentary films out there isn't it ?
I bet HBO is wishing they hadn't given her so much cash to make that movie. She even got a hug from huggy-bear Karl Rove himself.
In contrast, the last episode of Altman and Trudeau's "Tanner on Tanner" was spot-on.
So, visit counterpunch for a dose of reality regardless of who you're voting for:
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair10192004.html
and try not to confuse voting with political action.
Here are some interesting views on the big day:
http://members.aol.com/vlntryst/dissenting.html
This one is interesting:
http://www.dennisfox.net/papers/antiauthoritarian.html
enjoy your Tuesdays,
I bet HBO is wishing they hadn't given her so much cash to make that movie. She even got a hug from huggy-bear Karl Rove himself.
In contrast, the last episode of Altman and Trudeau's "Tanner on Tanner" was spot-on.
So, visit counterpunch for a dose of reality regardless of who you're voting for:
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair10192004.html
and try not to confuse voting with political action.
Here are some interesting views on the big day:
http://members.aol.com/vlntryst/dissenting.html
This one is interesting:
http://www.dennisfox.net/papers/antiauthoritarian.html
enjoy your Tuesdays,
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Labor Law, American History, War, War, War
Howard Zinn was on target today in the article that appeared as the top headline on Commondreams.org. He said, about Kerry's campaign, and I agree:
"He [Kerry] should not be saying that he will wage the Iraq War better, that he will replace U.S. troops with soldiers from other countries. If it is immoral for our soldiers to be occupying Iraq and killing Iraqis every day, then it is immoral for foreign soldiers to do the same.... To those who say that we must not ''cut and run,'' Kerry can say, with some authority: We did cut and run in Vietnam, and it was the right thing to do."
Going on to argue that Kerry should focus on economic security, because this is what American people continue to identify as the most important issue to them, Zinn insists that this is not a Utopian or impossible platform for a winning campaign. (thanks to my fave librarian for the correction here) Even if he doesn't mean that Kerry can win on a straight-up Kucinich style platform, which is how I originally read this article, I don't share Zinn's confidence. Zinn mentions William Lloyd Garrison - a great example of a hugely successful visionary, but he didn't influence the world through election to the presidency or the holding of any elected office. He remained steadfastly outside politics.
However, Zinn's main point I do agree with. It's a cry for a political vision not dominated simply by what marketing hacks determine is "electable." Even if it's impossible, so-called impossible things do happen, as Zinn pointed out in another optimistic article in the Nation last week. I just seriously doubt that a presidential campaign is the place for these issues to get heard.
Kerry will probably fail to change his argument for tough, tough, tough USA, and for that reason, those people who are reluctantly (and not reluctantly) voting for him on the "Anybody but Bush" platform should heed Zinn's words. Don't forget US history! Don't forget the Vietnam war -- and especially, don't forget the war on Iraq and the every day deaths, maimings, kidnappings. Keep shouting about what really matters. Please don't get lost in the CBS memo spin cycle. (that doesn't mean I'm not going to read Kitty Kelley. I don't know if it's perverse pleasure, but I'm beginning to think that the Bush/Rove duo is akin in historical importance to Hitler/Goebbels.)
How does this relate to U.S. labor law? In my work on my book revisions, I've been reading a book that argues that the reason that the American labor activists never created successful legislation, and eventually gave up on even seeking to pass labor-friendly laws was that the Supreme Court overturned everything that labor passed in the 1890s. The author of the book finds this terrible but I see it as a confirmation of Marx's early arguments that the state under capitalism is a tool for managing class conflict, not a true vehicle for social transformation. From this, Big Bill Haywood was convinced that dwelling on the passage of laws was a waste of time and that it would be more fruitful to fight w/direct (economic) action, along the lines of the general strike. hear hear. Now will pro-choice and other activists take up the challenge, instead of desperately voting for anyone who promises to preserve Roe V. Wade? What a passive position! It's not our role to "shut up and support Kerry" but we can't count on Kerry to say what we believe -- we must argue with him and keep making the arguments ourselves.
Am I see-sawing back and forth here? My anarchist roots and my Bush hatred are in deep conflict.
Finally, Good ol' New Yorker, they posted an old article by good ol' Ronnie Dugger on voting machines from 1988!
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?040920fr_archive01
"He [Kerry] should not be saying that he will wage the Iraq War better, that he will replace U.S. troops with soldiers from other countries. If it is immoral for our soldiers to be occupying Iraq and killing Iraqis every day, then it is immoral for foreign soldiers to do the same.... To those who say that we must not ''cut and run,'' Kerry can say, with some authority: We did cut and run in Vietnam, and it was the right thing to do."
Going on to argue that Kerry should focus on economic security, because this is what American people continue to identify as the most important issue to them, Zinn insists that this is not a Utopian or impossible platform for a winning campaign. (thanks to my fave librarian for the correction here) Even if he doesn't mean that Kerry can win on a straight-up Kucinich style platform, which is how I originally read this article, I don't share Zinn's confidence. Zinn mentions William Lloyd Garrison - a great example of a hugely successful visionary, but he didn't influence the world through election to the presidency or the holding of any elected office. He remained steadfastly outside politics.
However, Zinn's main point I do agree with. It's a cry for a political vision not dominated simply by what marketing hacks determine is "electable." Even if it's impossible, so-called impossible things do happen, as Zinn pointed out in another optimistic article in the Nation last week. I just seriously doubt that a presidential campaign is the place for these issues to get heard.
Kerry will probably fail to change his argument for tough, tough, tough USA, and for that reason, those people who are reluctantly (and not reluctantly) voting for him on the "Anybody but Bush" platform should heed Zinn's words. Don't forget US history! Don't forget the Vietnam war -- and especially, don't forget the war on Iraq and the every day deaths, maimings, kidnappings. Keep shouting about what really matters. Please don't get lost in the CBS memo spin cycle. (that doesn't mean I'm not going to read Kitty Kelley. I don't know if it's perverse pleasure, but I'm beginning to think that the Bush/Rove duo is akin in historical importance to Hitler/Goebbels.)
How does this relate to U.S. labor law? In my work on my book revisions, I've been reading a book that argues that the reason that the American labor activists never created successful legislation, and eventually gave up on even seeking to pass labor-friendly laws was that the Supreme Court overturned everything that labor passed in the 1890s. The author of the book finds this terrible but I see it as a confirmation of Marx's early arguments that the state under capitalism is a tool for managing class conflict, not a true vehicle for social transformation. From this, Big Bill Haywood was convinced that dwelling on the passage of laws was a waste of time and that it would be more fruitful to fight w/direct (economic) action, along the lines of the general strike. hear hear. Now will pro-choice and other activists take up the challenge, instead of desperately voting for anyone who promises to preserve Roe V. Wade? What a passive position! It's not our role to "shut up and support Kerry" but we can't count on Kerry to say what we believe -- we must argue with him and keep making the arguments ourselves.
Am I see-sawing back and forth here? My anarchist roots and my Bush hatred are in deep conflict.
Finally, Good ol' New Yorker, they posted an old article by good ol' Ronnie Dugger on voting machines from 1988!
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?040920fr_archive01
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Every day is a day for Durito!
Ten years ago, when the Zapatista army of National Liberation (EZLN)first opposed U.S. neoliberalism, NAFTA, etc. they created a way to resist and understand globalization and its long lasting efffects. My mind turns to this in the aftermath of my lecture on the Plains Indian Wars of the 1860s-1880s, which always affect my students with appropriate horror. I never know how to end the lecture myself, but at the end of today, all I could think of was to say, "well that's you know, genocide," or something like that.
The excitement that I get out of an effective performance, a successful lecture on something so horrible really freaks me out, but at the end of it, I'm just at a loss, especially when I see the students depressed and disgusted faces. The story for example, of the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862, or of the robbery of the Black Hills. When you hear it for the first time, it's so shocking, and their shock wakes me out of my numbness. Now,it is time to recall another time, recalling another time:
(from Subcommandante Marcos..........March 11, 1995 -- while hiding in the jungle.)
************************************
DURITO II
(Neoliberalism seen from the Lacandon Jungle.)
It was the tenth day, with less pressure now. I went away a little to put up my tarp and move in. I was going along, looking up, searching for a good pair of trees that didn't have a dead hanging branch. So I was surprised when I heard, at my feet, a voice that shouted, "Hey, watch out!" I didn't see anything at first, but I stopped and waited. Almost immediately a little leaf began to move and, from under it, a beetle came out who began to demand: - Why don't you watch where you put your big boots? You were about to crush me! - he yelled.
This demand seemed familiar to me.
- Durito? [little hard guy] - I ventured.
- Nabucodonosor [Nebuchadnezzar] to you! Don't be a leveler! - answered the little beetle indignantly.
Now I had no room for doubt.
- Durito! Don't you remember me? Durito, I mean, Nabucodonosor, just kept looking thoughtfully at me. He took our a little pipe from within his wings, filled it with tobacco, lit it, and after a big puff which brought on a cough that wasn't at all healthy, he said: Mmmmh, mmmh.
And then he repeated: - Mmmmh, mmmh.
I knew that this was going to take a while, so I sat down. After several "mmmh, mmh," Nabucodonosor, or Durito, exclaimed: Captain? The same! - I said, satisfied to see myself recognized.
Durito (I believe that after recognizing him, I could call him that again) began a series of movements of his feet and wings that, in the body language of the beetles, is a kind of dance of joy and to me has always seemed like an attack of epilepsy. After repeating several times, with different emphases, "Captain!," Durito finally stopped and fired the question I so feared: - Got any tobacco? - Well, I...- I drew out the answer to give myself time to calculate my reserves.
At that, Camilo arrived and asked me: - Did you call me, Sup? - No, it's nothing... I was singing and.. and don't worry, you can go - I responded nervously.
- Oh, good - said Camilo, and retired.
- Sup? - asked Durito, surprised.
- Yes, - I told him. - Now I'm a subcommander.
- And is that better or worse than Captain? - Durito asked insistently.
- Worse - I told him and myself.
I changed the subject quickly and held the bag of tobacco out to him saying: - Here, I have a little.
To receive the tobacco, Durito performed his dance again, now repeating "thank you!" over and over.
The tobacco euphoria over, we started the complicated ceremony of lighting our pipes. I leaned back on my pack and just looked at Durito.
- You look the same as ever - I told him.
- You, on the other hand, look pretty beat up - he responded.
- It's life - I said, playing it down.
Durito started with his "mmmh, mmh." After a while he said to me: - And what brings you here after so many years? - Well, I was thinking, since I had nothing better to do, I said to myself, why not take a turn around the old places and get a chance to see old friends - I responded.
- Old mountains still get green! - Durito protested indignantly.
After that followed a long while of "mmmh, mmmh" and of his inquisitive looks.
I couldn't take it any longer and confessed to him: - The truth is that we are withdrawing because the government launched an offensive against us...
- You ran! - said Durito.
I tried to explain to him what a strategic withdrawal is, a tactical retreat, and whatever occurred to me in that moment.
- You ran - said Durito, this time with a sigh.
- Well, yes, I ran - and what about it? - I said, annoyed, more with myself than with him.
Durito didn't press. He stayed quiet a good while. Only the smoke of the two pipes formed a bridge. Minutes later he said: - It seems like there's something more that's bothering you, not just the "strategic retreat."
- "Withdrawal," "strategic withdrawal" - I corrected him. Durito waited for me to go on: - The truth is that it bothers me that we weren't prepared. And it was my fault we weren't prepared. I believed the government did want dialogue and so had given the order that the consultations for the delegates should begin. When they attacked us we were discussing the conditions of the dialogue. They surprised us. They surprised me... - I said with shame and anger.
Durito went on smoking, waited for me to finish telling him everything that had happened in the last ten days. When I finished, Durito said: - Wait for me.
And he went under a little leaf. After a while he came out pushing his little desk. After that he went for a chair, sat down, took out some papers, and began to look through them with a worried air.
- Mmmh, mmh - he said with every few pages that he read. After a time he exclaimed: - Here it is!
- Here's what? - I asked, intrigued.
- Don't interrupt me! - Durito said seriously and solemnly. And added: - pay attention. Your problem is the same one many have. You refer to the economic and social doctrine known as "neoliberalism"...
"Just what I needed... now classes in political economy," I thought.
It seems like Durito heard what I was thinking because he chided me: - Ssshh! This isn't just any class! It is the Chair [as in university] par excellence.
That about the "Chair par excellence" seemed exaggerated to me, but I got ready to listen to it. Durito continued after some "mmmh, mmmh"s.
- It is a metatheoretical problem! Yes, you start from the idea that "neoliberalism" is a doctrine. And by "you," I am referring to those who insist on frameworks that are rigid and square like your head. You think that "neoliberalism" is a capitalist doctrine to confront the economic crises that capitalism itself attributes to "populism." Right? Durito didn't let me answer.
- Of course right! Well, it turns out that "neoliberalism" is not a theory to confront or explain the crisis. It is the crisis itself made theory and economic doctrine! That is, "neoliberalism" hasn't the least coherence; it has no plans nor historic perspective. In the end, pure theoretical shit.
- How strange... I've never heard or read that interpretation - I said with surprise.
- Of course! How, if it just occured to me in this moment! - says Durito with pride.
- And what has that got to do with our running away, excuse me, with our withdrawal? - I asked, doubting such a novel theory.
- Ah! Ah! Elementary, my dear Watson Sup! There are no plans, there are no perspectives, only i-m-p-r-o-v-i-s-a-t-i-o-n. The government has no consistency: one day we're rich, another day we're poor, one day they want peace, another day they want war, one day fasting, another day stuffed, and so on. Am I clear? - Durito inquires.
- Almost... - I hesitate, and scratch my head.
- And so? - I ask, seeing that Durito isn't continuing with his dissertation.
- It's going to explode. Boom! Like a balloon blown up too far. It has no future. We're going to win - says Durito as he puts his papers away.
- We? - I ask maliciously.
- Of course, "we"! It's clear that you won't be able to without my help. No, don't try to raise objections. You need a superadvisor. I'm already learning French, for continuity's sake.
I stayed quiet. I don't know what is worse: discovering that we're governed by improvisation, or imagining Durito as a supersecretary in the cabinet of an improbable transition government.
Durito attacks: - I surprised you, eh? Well, don't feel bad. As long as you don't crush me with your big boots I will always be able to clarify for you the road to follow in the course of history, which despite its ups and downs, will raise this country up, because united... because united... Now that I think of it, I haven't written to my old lady - Durito lets out the big laugh.
- I thought you were serious! - I pretend to be annoyed and throw a little branch at him. Durito dodges it and keeps laughing.
Now calmed down, I ask him: - And where did you get those conclusions that neoliberalism is the crisis made economic doctrine? - Ah! From this book that explains the 1988-1994 economic project of Carlos Salinas de Gortari - he answers and shows me a little book with the logo of Solidarity.
- But Salinas isn't president anymore.. it seems - I say with a doubt that shakes me.
- I know that, but look who drew up the plan - says Durito and points out a name. I read: - "Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon" - I say, surprised, and add: - So there isn't any break? - What there is is a cave of thieves - says Durito, implacable.
- And so? - I ask with real interest.
- Nothing, just that the Mexican political system is like that dead tree branch hanging over your head - says Durito and I jump and look up and see that, sure enough, there is a dead branch that is hanging threateningly over my hammock. I change places while Durito keeps talking: - The Mexican political system is just barely attached to reality with pieces of very fragile branches. It will only take one good wind for it to come down. Of course, when it falls, it's going to take other branches with it, and watch out, anyone who's under its shade when it collapses! - And if there isn't a wind? - I ask while I check whether the hammock is well tied.
- There will be... there will be - says Durito and looks thoughtful, as if he were looking at the future.
We were both left thoughtful. We lit our pipes again. The day began to get underway. Durito kept looking at my boots. Fearful, he asked: - and how many are with you? - Two more, so don't worry about being stomped - I said to calm him. Durito practices doubt methodically as a discipline, so he continued with his "mmmh, mmmh," until he let out: - But those coming after you, how many are they? - Ah! Those? Like some sixty...
Durito didn't let me finish: - Sixty! Sixty pairs of big boots on top of my head! 120 Sedena [Defense Dept.] boots trying to crush me! - he yelled hysterically.
- Wait, you didn't let me finish. They aren't sixty - I said.
Durito interrupted again: - Ah! I knew so much disaster wasn't possible. How many are they, then? Laconically, I answered: - Sixty thousand.
- Sixty thousand! - Durito managed to say before choking on the smoke of his pipe.
- Sixty thousand! - he repeated several times, crossing his little hands and feet together with anguish.
- Sixty thousand! - he said to himself desperately.
I tried to console him. I told him that they weren't all coming together, that it was an offensive in stages, that they were coming in from different directions, that they hadn't found us, that we had rubbed out our tracks so that they wouldn't follow us, in short, I told him everything that occurred to me.
After a while, Durito calmed down and started with his "mmmh, mmmh." He took out some little papers that, as I started to realize, looked like maps, and began questioning me about the location of enemy troops. I answered the best I could. With each answer Durito made marks and notes on his little maps. He went on a good while, after the questioning, saying "mmmh, mmmh." After some minutes, and after complicated calculations (I say this as he used all his little hands and feet to do the figuring) he sighed: - What's said: they're using "the anvil and hammer," the "sliding lasso," the "rabbit hunt," and the vertical maneuver. Elementary, it comes from the Rangers manual of the School of the Americas, - he says to himself and to me. And adds: - But we have one chance to come out well from this.
- Ah, yes? And how? - I ask with skepticism.
- With a miracle - says Durito as he puts his papers away and lies back down.
The silence settled down between us and we let the afternoon arrive between the branches and vines. Later, when night finished falling from the trees, and flying, covered the sky, Durito asked me: - Captain... Captain... Psst! Are you asleep? - No. - ...
What is it? - I answered.
Durito asks with pity, as if afraid to hurt me.
- And what do you intend to do? I keep smoking, I look at the silver curls of the moon hung from the branches. I let out a spiral of smoke and I answer him and answer myself: - Win.
P.S THAT TUNES IN TO NOSTALGIA IN THE QUADRANT
On the little radio someone, to a blues rhythm, tears out the one that goes: "All its gonna right with a little help of my friends..." [sic]
P.S. THAT NOW, REALLY, SAYS GOODBYE, WAVING A HEART LIKE A HANDKERCHIEF.
So much rain and not a drop to sate the yearning...
Go on again.
Health, and be careful with that dry branch that hangs over your heads and that pretends, ingenuously, to shelter you with its shade.
The excitement that I get out of an effective performance, a successful lecture on something so horrible really freaks me out, but at the end of it, I'm just at a loss, especially when I see the students depressed and disgusted faces. The story for example, of the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862, or of the robbery of the Black Hills. When you hear it for the first time, it's so shocking, and their shock wakes me out of my numbness. Now,it is time to recall another time, recalling another time:
(from Subcommandante Marcos..........March 11, 1995 -- while hiding in the jungle.)
************************************
DURITO II
(Neoliberalism seen from the Lacandon Jungle.)
It was the tenth day, with less pressure now. I went away a little to put up my tarp and move in. I was going along, looking up, searching for a good pair of trees that didn't have a dead hanging branch. So I was surprised when I heard, at my feet, a voice that shouted, "Hey, watch out!" I didn't see anything at first, but I stopped and waited. Almost immediately a little leaf began to move and, from under it, a beetle came out who began to demand: - Why don't you watch where you put your big boots? You were about to crush me! - he yelled.
This demand seemed familiar to me.
- Durito? [little hard guy] - I ventured.
- Nabucodonosor [Nebuchadnezzar] to you! Don't be a leveler! - answered the little beetle indignantly.
Now I had no room for doubt.
- Durito! Don't you remember me? Durito, I mean, Nabucodonosor, just kept looking thoughtfully at me. He took our a little pipe from within his wings, filled it with tobacco, lit it, and after a big puff which brought on a cough that wasn't at all healthy, he said: Mmmmh, mmmh.
And then he repeated: - Mmmmh, mmmh.
I knew that this was going to take a while, so I sat down. After several "mmmh, mmh," Nabucodonosor, or Durito, exclaimed: Captain? The same! - I said, satisfied to see myself recognized.
Durito (I believe that after recognizing him, I could call him that again) began a series of movements of his feet and wings that, in the body language of the beetles, is a kind of dance of joy and to me has always seemed like an attack of epilepsy. After repeating several times, with different emphases, "Captain!," Durito finally stopped and fired the question I so feared: - Got any tobacco? - Well, I...- I drew out the answer to give myself time to calculate my reserves.
At that, Camilo arrived and asked me: - Did you call me, Sup? - No, it's nothing... I was singing and.. and don't worry, you can go - I responded nervously.
- Oh, good - said Camilo, and retired.
- Sup? - asked Durito, surprised.
- Yes, - I told him. - Now I'm a subcommander.
- And is that better or worse than Captain? - Durito asked insistently.
- Worse - I told him and myself.
I changed the subject quickly and held the bag of tobacco out to him saying: - Here, I have a little.
To receive the tobacco, Durito performed his dance again, now repeating "thank you!" over and over.
The tobacco euphoria over, we started the complicated ceremony of lighting our pipes. I leaned back on my pack and just looked at Durito.
- You look the same as ever - I told him.
- You, on the other hand, look pretty beat up - he responded.
- It's life - I said, playing it down.
Durito started with his "mmmh, mmh." After a while he said to me: - And what brings you here after so many years? - Well, I was thinking, since I had nothing better to do, I said to myself, why not take a turn around the old places and get a chance to see old friends - I responded.
- Old mountains still get green! - Durito protested indignantly.
After that followed a long while of "mmmh, mmmh" and of his inquisitive looks.
I couldn't take it any longer and confessed to him: - The truth is that we are withdrawing because the government launched an offensive against us...
- You ran! - said Durito.
I tried to explain to him what a strategic withdrawal is, a tactical retreat, and whatever occurred to me in that moment.
- You ran - said Durito, this time with a sigh.
- Well, yes, I ran - and what about it? - I said, annoyed, more with myself than with him.
Durito didn't press. He stayed quiet a good while. Only the smoke of the two pipes formed a bridge. Minutes later he said: - It seems like there's something more that's bothering you, not just the "strategic retreat."
- "Withdrawal," "strategic withdrawal" - I corrected him. Durito waited for me to go on: - The truth is that it bothers me that we weren't prepared. And it was my fault we weren't prepared. I believed the government did want dialogue and so had given the order that the consultations for the delegates should begin. When they attacked us we were discussing the conditions of the dialogue. They surprised us. They surprised me... - I said with shame and anger.
Durito went on smoking, waited for me to finish telling him everything that had happened in the last ten days. When I finished, Durito said: - Wait for me.
And he went under a little leaf. After a while he came out pushing his little desk. After that he went for a chair, sat down, took out some papers, and began to look through them with a worried air.
- Mmmh, mmh - he said with every few pages that he read. After a time he exclaimed: - Here it is!
- Here's what? - I asked, intrigued.
- Don't interrupt me! - Durito said seriously and solemnly. And added: - pay attention. Your problem is the same one many have. You refer to the economic and social doctrine known as "neoliberalism"...
"Just what I needed... now classes in political economy," I thought.
It seems like Durito heard what I was thinking because he chided me: - Ssshh! This isn't just any class! It is the Chair [as in university] par excellence.
That about the "Chair par excellence" seemed exaggerated to me, but I got ready to listen to it. Durito continued after some "mmmh, mmmh"s.
- It is a metatheoretical problem! Yes, you start from the idea that "neoliberalism" is a doctrine. And by "you," I am referring to those who insist on frameworks that are rigid and square like your head. You think that "neoliberalism" is a capitalist doctrine to confront the economic crises that capitalism itself attributes to "populism." Right? Durito didn't let me answer.
- Of course right! Well, it turns out that "neoliberalism" is not a theory to confront or explain the crisis. It is the crisis itself made theory and economic doctrine! That is, "neoliberalism" hasn't the least coherence; it has no plans nor historic perspective. In the end, pure theoretical shit.
- How strange... I've never heard or read that interpretation - I said with surprise.
- Of course! How, if it just occured to me in this moment! - says Durito with pride.
- And what has that got to do with our running away, excuse me, with our withdrawal? - I asked, doubting such a novel theory.
- Ah! Ah! Elementary, my dear Watson Sup! There are no plans, there are no perspectives, only i-m-p-r-o-v-i-s-a-t-i-o-n. The government has no consistency: one day we're rich, another day we're poor, one day they want peace, another day they want war, one day fasting, another day stuffed, and so on. Am I clear? - Durito inquires.
- Almost... - I hesitate, and scratch my head.
- And so? - I ask, seeing that Durito isn't continuing with his dissertation.
- It's going to explode. Boom! Like a balloon blown up too far. It has no future. We're going to win - says Durito as he puts his papers away.
- We? - I ask maliciously.
- Of course, "we"! It's clear that you won't be able to without my help. No, don't try to raise objections. You need a superadvisor. I'm already learning French, for continuity's sake.
I stayed quiet. I don't know what is worse: discovering that we're governed by improvisation, or imagining Durito as a supersecretary in the cabinet of an improbable transition government.
Durito attacks: - I surprised you, eh? Well, don't feel bad. As long as you don't crush me with your big boots I will always be able to clarify for you the road to follow in the course of history, which despite its ups and downs, will raise this country up, because united... because united... Now that I think of it, I haven't written to my old lady - Durito lets out the big laugh.
- I thought you were serious! - I pretend to be annoyed and throw a little branch at him. Durito dodges it and keeps laughing.
Now calmed down, I ask him: - And where did you get those conclusions that neoliberalism is the crisis made economic doctrine? - Ah! From this book that explains the 1988-1994 economic project of Carlos Salinas de Gortari - he answers and shows me a little book with the logo of Solidarity.
- But Salinas isn't president anymore.. it seems - I say with a doubt that shakes me.
- I know that, but look who drew up the plan - says Durito and points out a name. I read: - "Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon" - I say, surprised, and add: - So there isn't any break? - What there is is a cave of thieves - says Durito, implacable.
- And so? - I ask with real interest.
- Nothing, just that the Mexican political system is like that dead tree branch hanging over your head - says Durito and I jump and look up and see that, sure enough, there is a dead branch that is hanging threateningly over my hammock. I change places while Durito keeps talking: - The Mexican political system is just barely attached to reality with pieces of very fragile branches. It will only take one good wind for it to come down. Of course, when it falls, it's going to take other branches with it, and watch out, anyone who's under its shade when it collapses! - And if there isn't a wind? - I ask while I check whether the hammock is well tied.
- There will be... there will be - says Durito and looks thoughtful, as if he were looking at the future.
We were both left thoughtful. We lit our pipes again. The day began to get underway. Durito kept looking at my boots. Fearful, he asked: - and how many are with you? - Two more, so don't worry about being stomped - I said to calm him. Durito practices doubt methodically as a discipline, so he continued with his "mmmh, mmmh," until he let out: - But those coming after you, how many are they? - Ah! Those? Like some sixty...
Durito didn't let me finish: - Sixty! Sixty pairs of big boots on top of my head! 120 Sedena [Defense Dept.] boots trying to crush me! - he yelled hysterically.
- Wait, you didn't let me finish. They aren't sixty - I said.
Durito interrupted again: - Ah! I knew so much disaster wasn't possible. How many are they, then? Laconically, I answered: - Sixty thousand.
- Sixty thousand! - Durito managed to say before choking on the smoke of his pipe.
- Sixty thousand! - he repeated several times, crossing his little hands and feet together with anguish.
- Sixty thousand! - he said to himself desperately.
I tried to console him. I told him that they weren't all coming together, that it was an offensive in stages, that they were coming in from different directions, that they hadn't found us, that we had rubbed out our tracks so that they wouldn't follow us, in short, I told him everything that occurred to me.
After a while, Durito calmed down and started with his "mmmh, mmmh." He took out some little papers that, as I started to realize, looked like maps, and began questioning me about the location of enemy troops. I answered the best I could. With each answer Durito made marks and notes on his little maps. He went on a good while, after the questioning, saying "mmmh, mmmh." After some minutes, and after complicated calculations (I say this as he used all his little hands and feet to do the figuring) he sighed: - What's said: they're using "the anvil and hammer," the "sliding lasso," the "rabbit hunt," and the vertical maneuver. Elementary, it comes from the Rangers manual of the School of the Americas, - he says to himself and to me. And adds: - But we have one chance to come out well from this.
- Ah, yes? And how? - I ask with skepticism.
- With a miracle - says Durito as he puts his papers away and lies back down.
The silence settled down between us and we let the afternoon arrive between the branches and vines. Later, when night finished falling from the trees, and flying, covered the sky, Durito asked me: - Captain... Captain... Psst! Are you asleep? - No. - ...
What is it? - I answered.
Durito asks with pity, as if afraid to hurt me.
- And what do you intend to do? I keep smoking, I look at the silver curls of the moon hung from the branches. I let out a spiral of smoke and I answer him and answer myself: - Win.
P.S THAT TUNES IN TO NOSTALGIA IN THE QUADRANT
On the little radio someone, to a blues rhythm, tears out the one that goes: "All its gonna right with a little help of my friends..." [sic]
P.S. THAT NOW, REALLY, SAYS GOODBYE, WAVING A HEART LIKE A HANDKERCHIEF.
So much rain and not a drop to sate the yearning...
Go on again.
Health, and be careful with that dry branch that hangs over your heads and that pretends, ingenuously, to shelter you with its shade.
Sunday, September 12, 2004
lefty movies and other stuff
The other night, I saw a film called "Hijacking Catastrophe." Here's a link to amazon's info on the book that the film
was based on.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1566565812/qid=1095034705/sr=8-6/ref=pd_ksr_6/103-6742193-8730236?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The movie was good, It was inspiring despite the excessive "talking head" visuals and lack of new really concrete information or fascinating footage. What really worked well was the analysis, the framing, the very eloquent comments from the people who talked: Chomsky, Norman Mailer, Norman Solomon, Vandana Shiva, etc.
The central themes: the history of PNAC, the rise of this particular wing of the Republican party of neocon uber-imperialists, the sadism of the media coverage and the actual program for the "shock and awe" methods of bombing, the marketing of Bush as the masculine leader non-pareil. It really makes you feel that these people are fascists who will stop at nothing. Honest to God, the film put me into a near panic.
It would work well in a classroom setting, as it is only 1 hour and 22 minutes long. Sut Jhally, who directed and produced it, is a very well-known media critic, who wrote major television criticism books that I recall well from grad school: "the ideological octopus," and "Enlightened Racism," an audience analysis of the Cosby show in Apartheid South Africa.
Since then: lots has gone on for me. I went to see an exhibition related to a book about Puerto Rican in-line skaters in Williamsburg, in the midst of the now-deeply gentrified Bedford ave., Today,I got a copy of a somewhat new book on the Triangle Fire, which I'm teaching in a coupla weeks. I went to my friend's fortieth birthday, a milestone celebrated by a group of truly cool people, most of whom work in the health and education professions. Many of them are seriously worried or even depressed, believing fully that Bush will win the election. I know that I too should seriously be considering that this is possible, but I have trouble believing that it will really happen. More likely to me is that somehow they will steal the election or even suspend it, after having cooked up some fear of terrorism to the 'nth degree. Why do I still believe that the American people are too smart to elect this asshole, or to buy the bullshit that is shoveled their way day in and day out? There's so much evidence to the contrary.
This brings me to the last thing I wanted to mention. The bizarre turn of Benny Morris. It's about people's need to believe in their own rightness and nothting else. Morris has collected more information on Israeli war crimes, and is noted for this by almost every serious scholar of Palestine/Israel in his book, "The Origin of the Palestinian Refugee Problem":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521338891/qid=1095132856/sr=8-8/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i8_xgl14/002-2648542-6484052?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Instead of denying that this happened, however, Morris now argues that it was necessary. Early this year, he came out explicitly in support of "transfer," "ethnic cleansing," or, to put it bluntly, "genocide" when he was interviewed in Ha'aretz and The Guardian. There are two good commentaries on him on "the electronic intifada" web page.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2369.shtml
This is depressing, but I find it easier to believe that people are actually working their way around information than I find it easy to believe that they are simply ignorant. To suggest that people are ignorant, seems to me almost patronizing. They are probably not ignorant, nor are they evil. They just don't want to believe the truth that suggests that they must act. If they are ignorant, they are willfully so, like the Poles who lived next to the trains that ran to Auschwitz. How can they not know that when the bombs drop on populated areas that they are killing people?
was based on.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1566565812/qid=1095034705/sr=8-6/ref=pd_ksr_6/103-6742193-8730236?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The movie was good, It was inspiring despite the excessive "talking head" visuals and lack of new really concrete information or fascinating footage. What really worked well was the analysis, the framing, the very eloquent comments from the people who talked: Chomsky, Norman Mailer, Norman Solomon, Vandana Shiva, etc.
The central themes: the history of PNAC, the rise of this particular wing of the Republican party of neocon uber-imperialists, the sadism of the media coverage and the actual program for the "shock and awe" methods of bombing, the marketing of Bush as the masculine leader non-pareil. It really makes you feel that these people are fascists who will stop at nothing. Honest to God, the film put me into a near panic.
It would work well in a classroom setting, as it is only 1 hour and 22 minutes long. Sut Jhally, who directed and produced it, is a very well-known media critic, who wrote major television criticism books that I recall well from grad school: "the ideological octopus," and "Enlightened Racism," an audience analysis of the Cosby show in Apartheid South Africa.
Since then: lots has gone on for me. I went to see an exhibition related to a book about Puerto Rican in-line skaters in Williamsburg, in the midst of the now-deeply gentrified Bedford ave., Today,I got a copy of a somewhat new book on the Triangle Fire, which I'm teaching in a coupla weeks. I went to my friend's fortieth birthday, a milestone celebrated by a group of truly cool people, most of whom work in the health and education professions. Many of them are seriously worried or even depressed, believing fully that Bush will win the election. I know that I too should seriously be considering that this is possible, but I have trouble believing that it will really happen. More likely to me is that somehow they will steal the election or even suspend it, after having cooked up some fear of terrorism to the 'nth degree. Why do I still believe that the American people are too smart to elect this asshole, or to buy the bullshit that is shoveled their way day in and day out? There's so much evidence to the contrary.
This brings me to the last thing I wanted to mention. The bizarre turn of Benny Morris. It's about people's need to believe in their own rightness and nothting else. Morris has collected more information on Israeli war crimes, and is noted for this by almost every serious scholar of Palestine/Israel in his book, "The Origin of the Palestinian Refugee Problem":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521338891/qid=1095132856/sr=8-8/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i8_xgl14/002-2648542-6484052?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Instead of denying that this happened, however, Morris now argues that it was necessary. Early this year, he came out explicitly in support of "transfer," "ethnic cleansing," or, to put it bluntly, "genocide" when he was interviewed in Ha'aretz and The Guardian. There are two good commentaries on him on "the electronic intifada" web page.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2369.shtml
This is depressing, but I find it easier to believe that people are actually working their way around information than I find it easy to believe that they are simply ignorant. To suggest that people are ignorant, seems to me almost patronizing. They are probably not ignorant, nor are they evil. They just don't want to believe the truth that suggests that they must act. If they are ignorant, they are willfully so, like the Poles who lived next to the trains that ran to Auschwitz. How can they not know that when the bombs drop on populated areas that they are killing people?
Friday, September 10, 2004
Letting William Rivers Pitt speak for me today
Hi peoples,
Last night, I was having dinner w/my favorite librarian, and I asked "how is it that people can still believe that Osama Bin Laden was somehow connected to Sadam Hussein?" and he said, "because we don't have a media." Too true. I forget the source of misinformation all too often.
William Rivers Pitt had a great commentary on this issue today. Check it out here:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091104Y.shtml
If you didn't look at it yet, Jesse Jackson also had good comments on why it is that Kerry's campaign has failed to respond to the bullshit attacks on them. You can find it in Doug Ireland's column on "Commondreams.org" or follow this link:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0908-13.htm
And now, I'm taking off to do the only thing that will stave off total media obsession: going to the gym where I will simultaneously sweat and listen to either Al Franken's radio show, which makes me feel perversely "in-tune and secure" because I can imagine that despite my workout time, I am not missing a minute of important "breaking news" should it happen,....or where I will blissfully ignore everything and instead listen to a medley of Metallica, Moby and other loud fast stuff while pumping my little legs as fast as they can go.
oy!
Last night, I was having dinner w/my favorite librarian, and I asked "how is it that people can still believe that Osama Bin Laden was somehow connected to Sadam Hussein?" and he said, "because we don't have a media." Too true. I forget the source of misinformation all too often.
William Rivers Pitt had a great commentary on this issue today. Check it out here:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091104Y.shtml
If you didn't look at it yet, Jesse Jackson also had good comments on why it is that Kerry's campaign has failed to respond to the bullshit attacks on them. You can find it in Doug Ireland's column on "Commondreams.org" or follow this link:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0908-13.htm
And now, I'm taking off to do the only thing that will stave off total media obsession: going to the gym where I will simultaneously sweat and listen to either Al Franken's radio show, which makes me feel perversely "in-tune and secure" because I can imagine that despite my workout time, I am not missing a minute of important "breaking news" should it happen,....or where I will blissfully ignore everything and instead listen to a medley of Metallica, Moby and other loud fast stuff while pumping my little legs as fast as they can go.
oy!
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Will Scandals Never Cease? and other things
I'm simultaneously exhausted and exhilirated by the waves of scandals revealing the total mendacity and corruption of our boy president. Despite "Texans for Truth" and other revelations, it seems increasingly that the truth doesn't matter to many Americans. That's not what I wanted to write about though.
The other day, I was googling Chip Berlet, the researcher who did so much for the Anti-Racist Action network back in the 90s and found this article on the principled ways of dealing with sectarian leftists, etc. in mass organizations.
http://resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/1999/12/berlet.html
He writes particularly about the bad practice of block voting by cadre organizations. When I left L&R during the split in 1998, I remember thinking (and telling people) that I thought that it had been very difficult to be a participant in good faith in mass organizations while also beholden to the idea that one must find the correct revolutionary position and argue it vociferously, always putting L&R first. I voted strongly against making L&R a cadre organization back then, as people debated our future, and I lost. So, I left the organization, which I thought was becoming increasingly irrelevant to other movements and incapable of doing the least bit of productive work, much less bringing on the revolution. This article on sectarians and mass orgs was useful and a little less personally charged.
The other day, I was googling Chip Berlet, the researcher who did so much for the Anti-Racist Action network back in the 90s and found this article on the principled ways of dealing with sectarian leftists, etc. in mass organizations.
http://resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/1999/12/berlet.html
He writes particularly about the bad practice of block voting by cadre organizations. When I left L&R during the split in 1998, I remember thinking (and telling people) that I thought that it had been very difficult to be a participant in good faith in mass organizations while also beholden to the idea that one must find the correct revolutionary position and argue it vociferously, always putting L&R first. I voted strongly against making L&R a cadre organization back then, as people debated our future, and I lost. So, I left the organization, which I thought was becoming increasingly irrelevant to other movements and incapable of doing the least bit of productive work, much less bringing on the revolution. This article on sectarians and mass orgs was useful and a little less personally charged.
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Fall Feels Good
I've finally recovered from the Republican National Convention, and I'm ready to write about something new. Oh really?
Today's topic: The Democratic Party is not the sum of all opposition to right wing politics. Over the past few years, I've been flummoxed by right-wing students whose response to criticism of right-wing policies is to point out the flaws of the Clinton administration or the Democrats. More than once, I've seen a student criticize the war in Iraq, only to have a right-wing student criticize that student for having (presumably) supported the Kosovo invasion. (AS IF!, I would silently think, and hope that student under the verbal gun would respond with something similar).
The right-wing student's assumption is that all people who opposed the war in Iraq must have that view for simple partisan reasons, as if their political beliefs were determined only by a party line. Therefore, they must have also supported the ("left wing") Kosovo invasion.
We all know that most leftists didn't support Kosovo, and at that time, most of us weren't confused about that, since we didn't support Bill Clinton. During that bombing campaign, I recall protesting Madeline Allbright, who spoke at Minnesota's commencement in 1999. I also "did" Bill Clinton in the Minneapolis May Day parade with my Critical Resistance buddies, who were dressed as the "smart bombs" that were hitting hospitals, schools and other targets in Kosovo. (My job was to hit on women in the parade audience and apologize for bad bomb strikes repeatedly. More than ever, with Bill Clinton recovering in the hospital, I think "Our President, Gargantua.")
I used to blame just the ignorant right-wingers for the "if you're not with us, you must be a Democrat" type reasoning, but after days and days of listening to Air America, it's easy to see how the Dems' appropriation of the left works.
Today's anti-Bush talking-points have created a situation of straight-up appropriation, and it's insidious, as "anybody but Bush" frenzy gets to the point that Michael Moore, whose Bowling For Columbine exposed the horrors of Kosovo and other American "wars of choice" starts to argue that people on the Left don't like Bush because he didn't spend enough time and effort bombing Afghanistan in Farenheit 9/11, or as you will hear almost the entire Air America staff harping on every show about how Bush's focus on Iraq is losing the "war on terror."
We've got to, especially now, keep arguing for a real left agenda so that we can put real pressure on whoever is elected in November.
Today's topic: The Democratic Party is not the sum of all opposition to right wing politics. Over the past few years, I've been flummoxed by right-wing students whose response to criticism of right-wing policies is to point out the flaws of the Clinton administration or the Democrats. More than once, I've seen a student criticize the war in Iraq, only to have a right-wing student criticize that student for having (presumably) supported the Kosovo invasion. (AS IF!, I would silently think, and hope that student under the verbal gun would respond with something similar).
The right-wing student's assumption is that all people who opposed the war in Iraq must have that view for simple partisan reasons, as if their political beliefs were determined only by a party line. Therefore, they must have also supported the ("left wing") Kosovo invasion.
We all know that most leftists didn't support Kosovo, and at that time, most of us weren't confused about that, since we didn't support Bill Clinton. During that bombing campaign, I recall protesting Madeline Allbright, who spoke at Minnesota's commencement in 1999. I also "did" Bill Clinton in the Minneapolis May Day parade with my Critical Resistance buddies, who were dressed as the "smart bombs" that were hitting hospitals, schools and other targets in Kosovo. (My job was to hit on women in the parade audience and apologize for bad bomb strikes repeatedly. More than ever, with Bill Clinton recovering in the hospital, I think "Our President, Gargantua.")
I used to blame just the ignorant right-wingers for the "if you're not with us, you must be a Democrat" type reasoning, but after days and days of listening to Air America, it's easy to see how the Dems' appropriation of the left works.
Today's anti-Bush talking-points have created a situation of straight-up appropriation, and it's insidious, as "anybody but Bush" frenzy gets to the point that Michael Moore, whose Bowling For Columbine exposed the horrors of Kosovo and other American "wars of choice" starts to argue that people on the Left don't like Bush because he didn't spend enough time and effort bombing Afghanistan in Farenheit 9/11, or as you will hear almost the entire Air America staff harping on every show about how Bush's focus on Iraq is losing the "war on terror."
We've got to, especially now, keep arguing for a real left agenda so that we can put real pressure on whoever is elected in November.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Feels like '68? Schwarzenegger praises Nixon, calls Humphrey a "socialist"
What were the headlines on Schwarzenegger's speech last night, let's see...
CNN says "Schwarzenegger's Star Power Dazzles Delegates" The New York Times "Upbeat Republicans Revive Theme of Compassion" and the Washington Post "Bush's Leadership Against Terror Hailed"
My headline: "Schwarzenegger on Nixon in '68 'A Breath of Fresh Air"
That's the news story, people, the one thing of substance that the man said. He said, Hubert
Humphrey was a socialist and Nixon supported "free enterprise" and that's when he became a Republican, 1968. He went on to try to convince immigrants from Guatemala that they should be Republicans if they believe that their families can manage their money better than the Republicans can. If he's talking about the California state government, he may be right, since they're the ones that handed the cash and the rights over to Arnold's buddies at Enron.
Meanwhile, an activist from the Ruckus Society says "we seek a safer world."
CNN says "Schwarzenegger's Star Power Dazzles Delegates" The New York Times "Upbeat Republicans Revive Theme of Compassion" and the Washington Post "Bush's Leadership Against Terror Hailed"
My headline: "Schwarzenegger on Nixon in '68 'A Breath of Fresh Air"
That's the news story, people, the one thing of substance that the man said. He said, Hubert
Humphrey was a socialist and Nixon supported "free enterprise" and that's when he became a Republican, 1968. He went on to try to convince immigrants from Guatemala that they should be Republicans if they believe that their families can manage their money better than the Republicans can. If he's talking about the California state government, he may be right, since they're the ones that handed the cash and the rights over to Arnold's buddies at Enron.
Meanwhile, an activist from the Ruckus Society says "we seek a safer world."
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