Alternatively Speaking

Below, a dear friend expresses concerns over my decision to split from an institution I had worked for over five years. My position appears below my friend's message. I post it here on this public blog for the sake of both posterity and as a humble guide to anyone else contemplating leaving his or her job in these dark times. If the people are to prevail, courage, clarity and good conscience must be cultivated and nurtured.

Q

Well. I finally read the letter. It feels bad, is all I can say. She obviously invests in Authority as a concept. This faith of hers will catch up to her. It is clearly a weakness that she thinks is a strength. I do wish you were a little bit more willing to deal with (manipulate) other people's weaknesses and needs. I know you are taking the high road here, but no one else knows this, and you're the one who's out of a job. This could be considered your weakness, you know: the moral ground. It just might kill you. Be careful, because its not worth that. Not this kind of fight. Maybe others, but not everything stands for everything. M_____'s stance maybe emblematic of The Man, but your silence and refusal to 'play' makes you more of a threat to yourself than The System. Why don't you work for a political organization? Have you ever?

talk soon, H.

“Each time society, through unemployment, frustrates the
small man in his normal functioning and normal self-respect, it trains
him for that last stage in which he will willingly undertake any
function, even that of hangman.”

"The corporate employee “does not regard himself as a
murderer because he has not done it out of inclination but in his
professional capacity.”

--Hannah Arendt from "Organized Guilt and Universal Responsibility”

"The mass of those who serve systems of terrible oppression
and state crime are not evil. They are weak."

--Chris Hedges

Hi H_____

Well, the passages quoted above essentially capture why I felt I had
to resign my position at the school. Don't get me wrong, I have no
martyrdom complex though it may appear that way on the surface. But as
the quotes above by Hannah Arendt so clearly put it, unemployment, or
the threat of it, can make monsters of any one of us . . . if we, both
collectively and as individuals, allow it. By quitting the way I did,
I accomplished several important goals: First, I denied her the
further ability to put me through the wringer. Second, I left under my
own power. Third, as I expressed to B____, I denied her, and
unfortunately B_____, the continued benefits of my skills. Finally, I
kept my self-respect, which is devalued in class societies in general
but especially under Capitalism, but at least to me, is more important
than any individual job or benefit I may have to forsake in order to
preserve it. For me, my mental health and self-worth is a
pre-condition for anything else I may do in life.

This really hit home to me earlier today after reading these pieces in
the New York Times (see here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/education/10education.html and
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/nyregion/08schools.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a2)
on the streamlining of the process that in the past have kept teachers
run afoul of the system, for whatever reason, in these so called
"rubber rooms." What struck me is how most of these people allowed
themselves to be subjected to this demeaning practice of being stuck
in legal and professional limbo until their fates are decided. For
some, like the individual close to retirement, I could fathom it. But
for most of the rest, I could only think of that passage, I believe
from the bible, that goes "what does it profiteth a man all the riches
of the world, if he loses his soul" and of the above quote of Chris
Hedges that " those who serve systems of terrible oppression and state
crime are not evil. They are weak." M_____ is weak. I am not and that is
why I need not stand behind authority, especially at this point in the
accelerating descent of Capitalism and its institutions into the
dustbin of history, if we are lucky, or, if not, the abyss with all of
us going along with it. Capitalism is dead. It killed itself.

Now, to be fair, I would not quite go as far as pegging M____ as an
outright participant in state crime and evil. However, she has
certainly placed herself, seemingly squarely, in the camp of the
establishment. To extend the point further, her romantic involvement
with a tried and true member of the security apparatus of the state to
me shows that, while not quite there yet, there likely is a latent
capacity for her to become a willing executioner. I simply cannot
fathom, even as supposedly a liberal-progressive as she fancies
herself, much less a radical-progressive, that one would have or
establish a link to to someone (a CIA Interrogator!) working in
perhaps the darkest corners of the security apparatus of this country.
The stench, to me, would be too great and simply should be anathema to
any thinking, aware and conscientious person.

You are absolutely correct in that M_____ sees her attachment and service
to the establishment as a strength and a means to assert her
conditional (thus tenuous) authority. However, as you also said, she
is in for some major disappointment and, more immediately, my
semi-forced departure is going to cost her in the long run. Yes, I
could have manipulated the situation but that simply means I would
have had to go along with the game and out-maneuver her within it. I
did not want to give any legitimacy to the process by my participation
(sort of what I think should happen with the dog and pony show that
are elections in this country) and I normally do not like to contest
something on my opponent's home floor. Besides which, there was
nothing for me to contest as I had already decided during the summer,
as you are aware, that I was not staying on at the school. All that
happened is that I left a wee bit sooner than I planned. Such are the
plans of mice and m . . . people :-).

Overall, as the situation with Julian Assange (wikileaks) shows, there
is a price to be paid for defying authority. If we truly want to
overturn this rotten order, we must practice paying the price. This
includes acts of defiance both large (like Assange's) and small (my
own). Again, no martyrdom complex; just the realization by me that a
stand had to be taken no matter what the short . . . or long term
consequences are. I hope you now can understand why I acted as I did.
For me more was at stake than a job. A gauntlet had been thrown and if
I didn't respond forcibly now why, and under what wherewithal
(emotional, intellectual, ideological . . . etc.) would I do so when
the stakes are higher. Like anything else, using your resolve and
relying on your integrity takes practice. Use it or lose it.
Unfortunately, for most Americans, it seems, the path of least
resistance seems to be the norm. For example, appearing in Scientific
American "Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology &
Evolutionary Biology Guy R. McPherson points out, “79.6% of
respondents to a Scientific American poll are unwilling to forgo even
a single penny to forestall the risk of catastrophic climate change."
This from a supposedly more intelligent and enlightened audience. It
does appear that "good Americans" are going to outdo and put to shame
"good Germans" doesn't it?

Postscript: While I did not respond to it directly, I will do so now. Far from my silence and refusal to "play" being more of a danger to me than the system, the existence of this creative space does show I do have a voice. In addition, you try as best as is possible, as I said in the main post also, to not fight on your enemy's "playground" or strictly speaking imitate plays from his or her playbook.

This is precisely what has been the tact of so-called progressives for years now epitomized by the strategy of lesser-of-two-evil voting. In practice, what that has meant is many a movement suffering death by strangulation or suffocation within that graveyard of movements: the Democratic Party. Now, we find ourselves without a party, movement, advocate or whatever that speaks for the mass of the politically and economically excluded. At this point in history that encompasses the bulk of the population.

Similarly, I did not wish to be buried by a process that is rigged for my defeat and that I could more efficiently and effectively neutralize by dispensing with altogether. Far from being silent, my actions, and not just quitting, but doing so resolutely and decisively in spite of the state of the present economy, speak much louder than words. Basically I said "Take This Job and Shove it!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnhhjGavEq8). Actions always speak louder than words.

As far as my activism, the closest I've come since departing Internationalist Socialist Organization years ago to being part of anything is considering joining the Socialist Equality Party (International Committee of the Fourth International). Their grasp of the present state of things is, I feel, impressive. However, I do have some differences with them and honestly I am not sure if anything can be done at this point except brace oneself and let things run their course. This reminds me of Villanova versus Georgetown in the 1984 basketball NCAA championship game. Not only would the masses have to be very well organized, but also, like Villanova that year, they would have to play the perfect game to win. Interesting that this happened in 1984.

I must say, this has all been worth it, no matter what else comes, just for the experience. It is interesting how cowed people have become(and just 40 years after the Civil Right's Movement and 30 Years after Johnny Paycheck) that rather than simply supported I've met with, well, fear. Like if a job is the most precious of things and it is eternal or, at least until death anyway. Also, like I should place no confidence in my skills and abilities which, considering the obstacles placed before me, have always seen me through. Sure we all have to eat but is that simply what we want to be reduced to; survival at all costs. Even if that means stripping away what it means to be human? Can we all say moooooooo! I have to wonder if Julian Assange (wikileaks) had thought the same way, was affected by his more cautious supporters or even detractors, we would have ever seen the material his organization obtained see the light of day or if it even would have been made available to wikileaks at all. As Mark Jackson, former Knicks player and now NBA commentator on TNT would say, "come on Man! Y'all better than that! I am, so I did. Yes I did say "take this job and shove it!"

Below are my comments on Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" model for human fulfillment. According to Maslow's model, humans have five basic needs that can be arranged in a pyramid like fashion. These are: Physiological Needs (at the top), Safety Needs, Needs of Love, Needs for Esteem and, finally, Needs for Self-Actualization (at the bottom). After the top tier need is secured, according to Maslow, we seek in successive order the fulfillement of the rest. Here is what I had to say:

I like the scheme presented here describing and contextualizing the basic human, and I might add, at least with the top tier need for survival, the animal instinct for survival.

I would only extend it further to explicitly take into account the laws of thermodynamics (i.e. matter cannot be created or destroyed, the universe tends toward a state of disorder or entropy). The implications of these Laws for, to use a dated term, mankind hit me a number a years ago.

It seems to me that from law of entropy one can draw a direct line to our present predicament. Because all creatures strive to ensure their survival and that means securing food, shelter and, in the case of our species, clothing, then it follows that the best way to do that from an individual standpoint is to, on one hand over-produce (preferably by exploiting others) so as to never run out and, on the other hand to hoard. This to me is the material basis of greed; The instinctual fear of not having enough and starving.

Moreover, is this not the basic defect of market economies or ooooh Capitalism? The system over-produces, the elite hoard as much of the surplus as they can get away with and the masses are left increasingly gasping. However since it is the masses that produce the surplus, squeezing them ever harder tends to reduce the rate of surplus creation because the masses cannot consume (buy) at the increasing levels necessary to raise the rate of profit. It is in the forms of profits, after all, that the Capitalist elite hoard the surpluses created within the system. Thus new means have to be introduced to keep it all going. This is where debt and financialization come in. Through these techniques or mechanisms the elite can continue their hoarding and the masses can keep up consumption. Except that, as we see today, this is a edifice built on quicksand and will eventually sink into the depths. This is partly because of the exhaustion, in its many forms, of the masses and, of course, resource limits (i. e. Peak Oil, Climate Change, water, soil and air pollution . . . etc.). In sum, while we as species have created these massive economic edifices so that only a few can delusionally believe that through the hoarding of massive wealth they could permanently stave off entropy, in actuality they have succeeded in accelerating the effects of the law of diminishing returns as well as entropy on an individual and planetary scale. This, by a supposedly intelligent species.

Below are comments (on an article by Noami Wolf) I posted on the commondreams.org comments section regarding the tasering and arrest of Andrew Meyer after he had attempted to ask 2004 Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry why he allowed his victory to be stolen away by Republican electoral shenanigans. After seeing him in complete non-action while a citizen's right to free speech was stunned out of him, I think we all know the answer.

Yeah this guy just wanted to be “youtube famous.” I guess the same people that are saying this as well as belittling Ms. Wolf want to be “commondreams comments section famous.” If they are not progressive minded, why then not attend to websites that more closely match their points of view? Why, go to websites looking to be offended or looking for opportunities to be hipper-than-thou? Dudes, if this was a prank by the student this means the cops are doubly stupid. First, for showing everybody what brutes they really are and, second, for allowing themselves to be drawn in by this supposed prankster. Any way you slice it, this was an attack on not only this student, but the body politic. If by by body politic we mean the the people and their right to self-rule.

I agree with Ms. Wolf. Like Kent State over 40 years ago, this incident represents a litmus test for the American people. it is either Fight or Flight! From all appearances, the choice, flight, has already been made. Forget about Kerry, he ’s an elite tomato can. Rather than see one of their own dismantled like that, the other students could have all placed themselves between the Gestapo wannabes and the student being attacked. They could have also just surrounded the cops and let them know they will be hurting no one today. I know that is challenging authority. But so was the Declaration of Independence challenging established authority. So was the Civil Rights Movement challenging authority. Authority that has turned tyrannical should and can be challenged. None other than Abraham Lincoln stated that:

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

and

“The people are the masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it”

How about that radical Thomas Jefferson:

“And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that his people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms…The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Whatever their warts these men understood that liberty comes at a price. Often a very steep one. The time, as Ms. Wolf noted, has arrived. Will we as free people individually choose to be the next Crispus Attucks or the next Anne Frank?

Recently Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s "Countdown" in his monologue entitled “Bush's Legacy: The President Who Cried Wolf” (found here: http://www.truthout..org/docs_2006/011207A.shtml) weighed in on the course the Administration will follow in pursuit of its aims in the Middle East as laid down by President Bush in a nationally televised address to the country. While Mr. Olbermann’s indignation and incredulity over the path of escalation over diplomacy chosen by the Bush Admistration is certainly deserved, there are some real weaknesses inherent in his line of thinking. We can start with how he seperates the two party duopoly from the course the Admistration has followed since . . . well even before 9/11 and that he gives the mythical American people more credit than they're probably due.

The two party duopoly has supported all that this Administration has done from the start. They are not concerned about the lives of American soldiers, much less the lives of Iraqis. Put simply, both wings of the SINGLE party are committed to the maintainance and expansion of the American Empire. Their concerns are two fold. On one hand, they realize their "Project for a New American Century" has hit a major road block and, on the other hand, are deathly worried about the ramifications domestically and internationally of this massive failure of American Imperialism. As Black Commentator put it a while back; "the pirates are lost at sea and don't know how to find their way back."

I wonder if the war had been a "cake walk,” as originally claimed by the desktop warriors in Washington, The NY Times and The Washington Post, would the American People (meaning mostly white folks of course) have soured on the War? I would surmise, probably not. As Scott Ritter, of UN Weapons Inspector fame, put it: "the American people are not against war, they're against losing." A comment that succinctly captures the White Supremascist mindset not only of the American elite but also a major part of its White subjects who not having quite the same stakes at risk within the Empire will want to cut and run when things do not go smoothly. I think it is this glaring weakness that is at the heart of the tepid and frankly inane so called anti-war movement. A truly principled anti-war movement would be animated by a desire for restitution and justice FOR THE VICTIMS of this war. That the American military is hemorrhaging badly (not a bad thing in my estimation) would be a tertiary rationale not the core motivation. Regardless of failure or success, this war, like the war it is most frequently compared to: Vietnam, would not be any less a "Crime Against The Peace." It was began on the basis of lies and is simply about lucre and power. For this offence against humanity several Nazis were executed or imprisoned for life following their trials at Nuremburg. This is a truism that I think is frequently lost within the debate, centered as it is on American losses, amongst the so called Left in the US.

This brings me back to Mr. Olbermann. As indignant and on point as he sounds, the stance he takes in his commentary ultimately leads to a blind alley. He gives out free passes to some of the Republicans and essentially the entire Democratic Party who, by the way, could stop this war on a dime at this point by withholding funding or initiating impeachement proceedings. The problem is that the Republicans would blanch at such moves and, in any case, the mealy-mouthed Democrats have already made clear neither de-funding of the war nor impeachment is remotely on the table. They're just trying to cover their asses and tamp down dissent on their Left. In addition, Olbermann has nothing to say about the larger socio-economic system (YES, CAPITALISM!) that is at the heart of this resource war as well as many of the coming catastrophes of this 21st century. In the end, Olbermann's protestations, much like FDR's actions during the Great Depression of the thirties, seek more to contain the System's self-destructive tendencies and save it from itself than killing the disease that the System is upon humanity.

What’s up Joe! It is your friend from Brooklyn wanting to say hello as well as weigh in on your latest piece. As always, you express your opinions in the most colorful manner. I am glad that in your piece prior to the present one you connected with folks from the other side of town so to speak. My parents are from Dominican Republic and when I was there last summer I witnessed the extreme poverty but also the greater sense of community. I mean people actually visit each other’s homes for no particular reason and social life is not mediated through the mall, the mass media/entertainment complex or cell phones. I tell you every time I see someone with a cell phone or the earpiece to one sticking out of their ear I cannot help but cringing. I’ve always felt that much communication is lost during a phone conversation. You cannot read the other individual’s body language, which in turn impacts, no so positively, tone and delivery. Then, with cell phones, there is the added ingredient of being always within reach but not necessarily in touch. As a result, conversation tends to become staid, banal and just plain mindless. This is why Kurt Nimmo (you’ve probably heard of him, his blog is at http://www.kurtnimmo.com/ ) derisively calls the 40 and under crowd “the cell phone generation.” A group by and large wrapped up in its own self-centeredness and thus unable and unwilling to engage the pressing issues of the day. Even if it’ll ultimately result in great harm befalling them.

Which brings me to your latest piece where you bemoan the state of the nation and its somnambulant inhabitants. I kinda feel that, like me, you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired! Perhaps I mentioned this in one of my earlier messages to you but after the rot (and I don’t mean the actual physical rot but the social rot) that was laid bare by hurricane Katrina, I’ve never felt the same. I just felt this deep despair coupled with rage. Black people were largely abandoned and left to drown. Meanwhile that goddamn witch Barbara Bush looks around the Dante’s inferno that was the New Orleans Superdome at that moment and says:

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them. (1)

All I could think of was how do White folks continually allow the worst elements from amongst them to rise to the top, or remain there, and lead them. These people are barbarians and represent the most backward sections of humanity. There should have been riots in every major city in this country! Yet, what did we get? Yep you guessed it, hand wringing by the so-called Left and outright hostility or indifference by all these compassionate conservatives (sic) we have around here. More recently, after the suicide of three prisoners in the notorious Guantanamo concentration camp, we get some of these nuggets:

Colleen Graffy (the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy on the BBC’s Newshour):

It does sound like this is part of a strategy—in that they don’t value their own lives, and they certainly don’t value ours; and they use suicide bombings as a tactic. Taking their own lives was not necessary, but it certainly is a good PR move.

Guantánamo base commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris:

I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.

Wait a minute let me get this straight, three men who were being held incommunicado, subjected to torture both physical and mental for several years and robbed of all hope took their own lives as a PR move or as a way of attacking their captors! Do Americans really buy this bull crap! It is the absolute epitome of hubris, denial and just plain bone-headedness that someone could think the suicide of these desperate men was something other than their choosing the only means of escape they felt left open to them. Any one of us would likely do the same considering the situation.

Like you, I lament the condition of what passes for the Left in this country. This morning I was reading about the eviction of the urban farmers in LA from their land and saying to myself will the people in this country ever learn or will the Barca lounger approach to resistance continue to be the norm. Yeah, we’ll just chain ourselves together, engage in peaceful civil disobedience and have a party while we’re at it. Uh hugh, that’ll stop’em. Here is what Daryl Hannah, speaking on Democracy Now, describes what happened next:

There has been a massive show of force. I can see hundreds of police cars and I can't even tell you how many police and storm trooper outfits. And they're executing an eviction, which is -- seems to be unnecessary. Because there was a deal on the table -- the Annenberg Foundation and the Trust for Public Land had put an offer on the table for Mr. Horowitz. And I don't know why they're wasting taxpayers' money this way. These are families who depend on this food. Literally, they're subsistence farmers.

I see hundreds of police officers. They've got band saws, they've got a teargas canister pointing right at us, a big gun with a teargas thing on it, bolt-cutters, generators, and cables, and climbing people in climbing gear. The officers -- some of them are putting on rubber gloves. I don't know if that's to handle some of the people down below the tree who are in lockdown mode. But hopefully they won't be using chemical weapons. (2)

Later in the program Tezozomoc, the elected representative of the South Central Farmers says:

We basically continue today, we’re going to court. One of the things that will happen is that as usual, Mr. Horowitz's arrogance will probably get him in a lot of trouble. One of the things that he has done is the destruction of personal property. The bulldozing of the plots is -- we are going to go challenge that situation in court today, because that is destruction of personal property. When somebody is evicted, you can't destroy their property. You have to give people an opportunity to take that property with them. Even after the eviction. And that happens – you know, if you're evicted out of an apartment, they can't just destroy your stuff. They tell you, “ok, you have 10 days, and in 10 days you'll have three hours to get everything out of there.” And that's one situation that he obviously has overestimated his authority. (3)

I quoted them at length Joe because both speakers are indicative of what’s wrong with the supposed Left. Hannah can’t understand why they, the powers that be, are doing this and that “hopefully they won’t be using chemical weapons”. Is she really that naïve? They do not give a flying fuck about the little people. The money on the table is not the issue in this particular instance. Whenever they, the peons, even slightly get out of line, we’ll have to show them who’s boss. Just like we did with the Transit workers in NYC. Yeah, and we can *only hope* that the same folks that justify and applaud torture and collective punishment won’t resort to chemical weapons. Hell, let’s take them to court! That’s what we’ll do! Great Plan Edison! Nevermind, that the court system is part and parcel of the system of domination and serves the interests of private power, it’ll be fair and balanced. Sorta like Fox News.

What a crock of shit man. I’ve come to the conclusion that the supposed Left in this country has gotten so fat off the New Deal and the over-arching golden age of capitalism, that they have lost their “cojones.” They seem to have forgotten how power works. It’s like they keep getting their asses kicked and still insist on the same tactics that just failed them. Whenever el Pueblo has won anything in this country fighting the system it has seen blood spilt. That remains true today and will remain forever true as long as class societies exist. Fredrick Douglass once said, “power yields nothing without a demand.” That was his way of saying if you want something you’re gonna hafta kick some ass. The Right clearly understands this and this is why they are consistently against gun laws. Just picture someone like Al Franken or Leslie Cagan on the eve of the American Revolution talking about moderation. Shit if the American patriots didn’t bayonet both of their asses the redcoats surely would have. It is not by accident that our right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution. Even the “Founding Fathers,” greedy Mercantalist Capitalists that they were, understood the dangers of a tyrannical government with no hard means of reining it in. At this point reasoning with the system will not work and barely ever did before. Reforms, even if possible, only buys the system time and are short-lived anyhow. Things have gotten way too far out of hand. I have friends who, though meaning well, go to the latest anti-war demo and think they are doing something other than making a meaningless spectacle. Hello! Your puppets, teach-ins, snazzy placards, street theatre and such are being met with rubber bullets, sometimes live ones, mace and batons. Yet, the war went on and goes on. Then again, maybe that is the point. Go out let yourself be fenced into designated free speech zones while “protesting”, call the whole smelly shitty surreal scene a demonstration of popular resistance and then go home and ask “mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?”

I am of the opinion that since the state is consistently pulling a Tiananmen Square on us we are going to have to eventually Iraqify this joint. I just do not see any other way out. Yes, build those grass-root organizations and initiate the movement. However, be ready to fight it out because power will most certainly not be relinquished peaceably. That has never been the M. O. of any ruling class and the American one seems to be particularly nasty and brutish. In the end, those who close off all avenues to peaceful change invite violent change. In the neo-con’s warped version of this adage, they did just that with Iraq and now, even more distinctly, it is happening with Iran. We desperately need a change in course confronted as we are by Peak Oil, global warming, economic meltdown, when the real estate bubble goes POP, and Fascism and its handmaiden military adventurism. For the good of themselves as well as the rest of humanity, U. S. citizens must put on the brake big time on the grasping planetary hegemon that is their country.

In any case, one way or another we will see civil war or revolution here when the contradictions and looming ecological disasters come to a head. In the not so distant future there will be no more big-box stores full of cheap crap from countries paying slave wages. No more, as James Howard Kunstler put it, “easy motoring within this drive-in utopia.” Certainly, there in no room any longer for a set of folks such as American liberals who function as a faux opposition and are movement killers rather than movement makers. Move-on, whom I sorely wish would do just that, comes to mind here. We are essentially at the point now where this regime in particular, but also the system as a whole, gangster-like character has become readily apparent. Trouble looms ahead, from all angles, for the U. S. Capitalist ship of state. They’ve tacitly acknowledged as much by getting Kellogg Brown and Root to build these so-called “detention and processing camps” to supposedly deal with “an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S.” (4) Why, one might be led to ask, would they be expecting such a large movement of people thus ostensibly necessitating these camps and are these camps reserved just for “illegal immigrants?” No, like the Iraqi people we’ll have to fight if we are to rid ourselves of this oppressive system. Otherwise, it will keep trudging along until it self-destructs like the tape recorder in Mission Impossible after being played.

I know you realize all this shit Joe but for one thing, I know you’ll understand what the fuck I mean and for another, I just want to show you the love. Heaven knows, the way things are going, we may find ourselves shoulder to shoulder in one of KBR’s detention centers waiting for the Grand Ole Opera to play our exit tune while munching on Soylent Green. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come down to that and people in this country rise up and throw the bums out if not give’em the Lenin treatment.

Your Brother in Arms,
Johnnie Q

Below is a letter written to Joshua Frank in response to his article entitled " It's 2004 All Over Again . . . " Nothing that I have seen in the days following the elections, including Rumsfeld's resignation, has changed my mind about the socio-political situation in the country and what will have to happen for progressive change to happen here. Considering how prolific a writer Mr. frank has been, I thought I would get a more sanguine response other than a message thanking me for writing. My guess is that although Mr. Frank clearly knows what is up with the two party duopoly, he still cannot quite bring himself to see what the utlimate implications are. As I've mentioned before in previous blog entries, the crisis within global Capitalism in general, and American Capitalism in particular, will utlimately lead to an explosion. In the next few months to a year the Democrats will be exposed for what they are; the ruling class's B-Team. As such, they will simply deal with aesthetics rather than a real change in course whether it has to do with Iraq or the ongoing economic race to the bottom U. S. workers are in the thick of. Eventually, we'll see either civil war or revolution in the streets in this United States of America.

Dear Mr. Frank,

I just finished reading your article on the DV website and I could not agree with you more. I have been reading your pieces for some time now and I think with this piece in particular you really hit the nail right on the head when you accuse the Liberal intelligencia of covering their corporate subsidized asses rather than call a spade a spade. I have long since (from the beginning of the Clinton years at the latest) gotten wise to the game of the Democratic Party. Its role, much like that of what in the electrical business we call an "explosion proof fitting" which dampens electrical sparks in volatile conditions (such as in an auto body shop), is to dampen and derail movements from below. Otherwise, revolutionary sparks could lead to an explosive revolution and the overturning of the now clearly obvious rot at the center of the Capitalist system. The system will not make it out of the 21st century. The question is will humanity not make it out with it. Things do not look to peachy as it stands now.

I would add that I think part of the problem with liberals, in addition to what you mentioned in your article, is that deep down they understand that at this point, real change in this country which assuredly means overthrowing the rule of Capital is likely, ala Mao, only going to come from the barrel of a gun. For obvious reasons, this is something they fear and I fear also because of the likely enormous bloodshed. However, paraphrasing what someone once said, if you close all avenues to peaceful change, then all that remains are violent ones. Again, Please do not read me wrong, I am not so much advocating change through violent means as I simply recognize we've been hemmed in really good. Now we'll have to fight and essentially Iraqify this place if we and likely the rest of humanity hope to see the other side of the 21st century. I believe the 60's were probably the last chance in this country to change things relatively peacefully. Things have gone way too far down that slippery slope at this point and the ruling class understands that. This is why it has braced itself for the violent upheavals that will inevitably come (perhaps afer the "pop" in the real estate bubble) by putting the finishing touches on the fascist/police state.

As a person of color I, as well as other people of color, have never really been allowed a permanent seat at te table of American prosperity. What Katrina exposed, other than the apparently worsening effects of global warming, was this very fact. This is why it did not surprise me in the least when in numerous newscasts, black folks were referred to as "refugees." From the very founding of this country when African slaves were calculated to represent 2/3 persons, there has been an unspoken but evident truth within the mainstream that we are not Americans; we are a people without a country. Thus, abandoning us to the whims of the fates, to borrow a bit from Greek mythology, came easy to the rulers, who may have also seen it as a convenient backdoor pogrom much like, I suspect, many white folks. I speak of all of this only as way of explaining my next point. That is, people of color in this country, and studies have bore this out, in general have not seen this country as the shiny city on a hill; a beacon to the world. We never could afford to. This why people of color in this country have always been in the thick of progressive change and why by and large, except for some sellouts (think Condosleeza and Colin cancer here) never bought into the bit about spreading democracy or eliminating WMDs. We saw it as the Willie Hortinization of a whole country!

All I can say is keep on hitting the Fat Democats. If by some miracle a third party presidential candidate could get past the grossly unfair ballot placement laws, raise enough bread, survive the Diebold voting machines, stave off capital flight, a military coup or an assassination attempt, this country might have chance.

Peace, Q