Joe,
Great stuff . . . again as always. You've been told this before but I'll say it again -- you're the best writer on the net that I've read and I've spent ten thousands of hours trolling for the good stuff. Keep it up and I want to thank you for giving me free food for thought and lots of laughs at our culture's and our own expense.
Your Virgil may not write the Aeneid but he's following in a hallowed tradition nevertheless. It must be fun being his Boswell, kind of stands the whole Johnson, Boswell thing on its head.
Take care,
Rob
Berkeley, California
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Rob,
Thanks for the kind words. I doubt if I'm the best writer on the net, but I do know that the writing on the net would be a lot better if the writers took more time with their work. Somehow, the openeness of the net makes writers forget their responsibility to readers. As an old newspaper editor once told me, "It is a goddamned privilege to speak to even ten people with your writing, much less a million. Be worthy of the valuable time they took out of their lives to read what you wrote. Respect the privileged position you have as a writer or reporter."
I try never to forget that. Sometimes I even manage to be worthy of good people like you who take time out of their lives to read my essays.
In friendship,
Joe
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Hi Joe,
Thanks for the reply and the compliment. You can tell who's good people among the "bloggers" by the graciousness and speed with which they reply to reader feedback. It goes without saying that you're in that category even if you'd probably take exception to being called a blogger in the strictest sense.
I completely agree that this country is in deep shit. In fact, I have a half a mind to leave and resettle in Canada or France if possible. The challenge is doing it legally and bringing my family (wife and twin seven-year-old boys along). I'm sick and tired of the submissive attitudes and the indifference to the lost of our constitutional freedoms. The mass historical and political willful ignorance is absolutely staggering and at this point intolerable and inexplicable.
I've given up arguing with people about the Patriot Act, the so-called Bankruptcy bill, tort reform, 9/11. I've yelled myself blue in the face and marshalled all the intellectual and ethical arguments I can. I've made literally thousands of calls to Congress and it's all to no avail. This country is hopeless. I really think it's over. There is really no polity called the US; only a national security state. We have no purpose, no real guiding principles, no morality, no truth and are just an out-of-control leviathan with an imprisoned, cowed population, tranquilized and in thrall of corporate consumerism. Far from being a democracy, we've become one giant hypocrisy.
The mass media spouts out an endless stream of lies which might be considered one big joke if the fucking joke weren't on us. Nothing but big and small lies and brown-nosing up to power and elite privilege. We have a centrally controlled press, which has hermetically sealed itself off from public comment and scrutiny.
This past Monday, after a long hiatus I spoke on the phone with my good friend Gordon Sterne who is a transatlantic repertory and commercial actor living in Earl's Court in London. "Why," he asked, "can't Americans express themselves anymore about politics? What happened to freedom of speech? You've been gagged and you've gagged yourself -- it's appalling."
I concurred completely, adding that I was up against this every day and that I was literally ill from it. And this is in Berkeley, the supposed birthplace of the Free Speech Movement and stomping grounds of Mario Savio.
At the Free Speech Movement cafe on campus undregrads are in their lap top and latte comas, staring and tapping away on their keyboards, jawboning into their cell phones or else they're transported far, far away in iPod land. When I was there last week pointedly and emphatically reading the panels to my twin seven-year old boys that were so painstakingly prepared and displayed at the Free Speech Cafe about the history of the movement and its cultural and political importance all I got were cold stared and hostility from most of the overfed, under-informed South Asian and Indian kids dispatched there on their parents' dime.
And then it dawned on me, no wonder we're in such deep shit. There's no spirit of student rebellion or activism on campus in the thick of the gravest constitutional crisis we've ever had. The kids going to Berkeley in the 50's, 60's and 70's were a cross section of working and middle class in Calfornia. They paid hardly anything for their tuition and affirmative action was repsected and in ascendency. There was a diverse student body with many blacks and Hispanics -- perhaps not enough -- but they were there. Now with affirmative action's demise thanks to Ward Connerly UC Berkeley, like UCLA, lives up the nickname of "University of Caucasians Lost among Asians".
There's no class consciousness anymore and pop culture has been completely commercialized and commodified for the most part. It's also the fault of the aging rockers who've sold their songs and souls to mammon and Madison Avenue. The trail of outrages and disgust never ends.
I know it's not that much better in many places abroad but at least there's the realization among most people that the USA is a rogue, outlaw state and needs to curbed even if their own governments are pretty bad and would be even worse if they had the nuclear arsenal and military reach that we have.
I'm about to throw in the towel, which is fucked because I've been committed to the history and enlightenment ideals of this country, even if the deeds seldom stacked up to the creed. But I think it's beyond over. There's no fight left and if people like me have given up and are about to leave, who do we have left?
When last week I told my brother, who not too long ago was a firebrand enviro activist, that I was seriously thinking about buggering off from this country his response was an anodyne, "Well, lots of people have left, that's a valid choice." No "I'm with you brother, please stay and we'll fight the good fight together for the sake of our consciences and the future of our children." No, it's go ahead, nobody's stopping you. What the fuck is up with that?
I think they've won, man. They've done their number on us and it's worked like a charm on even the segments of the population that were still resisting and dissident. The 9/11 truth movement seems to be going nowhere and the "opposition" is in disarray. The Democatic party is a ball-less pathetic excuse for a party and should be disbanded immediately. I've completely disassociated myself from the Democrats, a party with whom I've identified for 35 years. They're pathetic and contemptible and I can't even support good Democrats as long as they associate themselves with that discredited, corrupt party.
Thanks again for being who you are and getting it across to the rest of us -- it's an inspiration and a balm.
Rob
Berkeley, California
