Friday, August 17, 2007

Aug 17_2007 - Everbody's A Critic


Everybody’s a critic. Even me. I posted some book reviews on Amazon.com and the response has been generally negative. I am not surprised though. Few people bother with writing thoughtful reviews on books. The writers tend to be people who really liked the book or who really didn’t like it much at all. And so when you write a review that is kinda on the negative side of things it usually pisses off the people who liked it.

It does provide me with an easily accessed list of books that I’ve read and records my impressions of them though. And which is very cool for me because I like to go over them from time to time and see if my thinking about them has changed.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

August 9, 2007 – The Late Richard Rorty on “How It’s All Gonna End"


I guess this is all old news as far as many of you are concerned, but this “final interview,” (he died a few days after giving it) with the noted American philosopher and intellectual Richard Rorty wherein he predicated how (what passes for) liberal democracy in America will finally come to a crashing, complete, and no-BS end, without even the façade of individual rights and liberties, (like what we have now), and never mind the boiling frogs stuff.

“Rorty said,” in the interview, “that after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, ‘it became clear that the political right would try to substitute the 'global war on terrorism' as an excuse not only for keeping the national security state intact but for undermining the political institutions of the old democracies. I was terrified that the Bush administration would carry American public opinion with it, and would succeed in brushing the liberties of the citizen aside.'

Even though public support for the Bush administration is at low ebb, Rorty still believed that ‘sooner or later, some terrorist group will repeat 9/11 on a much grander scale. I doubt that democratic institutions will be resilient enough to stand the strain.’ “

I completely agree. Whether the next Commander-in-Chief is a Dem or Rep, “liberal” or conservative, whether the US Congress has a Dem or Rep majority in either or both houses, or whether the SCOTUS is 5-4 strict-constructionist or ACLU sympathizers, it ain’t gonna matter one fookin’ bit. Before the dust even settles the tanks will roll out, the cops and feds will start rounding people up, and the whole rest of the coup d’etat protocol we’ve seen over the years in the Turd World States where they have this thing down to science.

I am not just being paranoid either. This what I honestly have felt to be our precarious situation for long time, and now someone of substance and stature and, given his terminal condition, nothing to lose by saying it, has said it too. Sooner or later al-Qaeda, Hamas, North Korea commandos or someone such as them is gonna get hold of a suitcase nuke or dump a few barrels of ricin into some major city’s water supply…and well, you get the idea.

I dare anybody to tell this won’t happen. It’s just a matter of when.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

July 24, 2007 - No Working Class Solidarity Here Guys!




According to this article in the Washington Post, a carpenter's union local outsourced their picket line to paid local homeless types in order to raise its numbers. Sheesh. Not much working class solidarity here, you guys. Outsourcing your own labor struggle is kinda of a tip-off that you either don't have much support for your actions within your own base or the membership feels itself too good for such tasks. Either way though...

"Although their placards identify the picketers as being with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters" says the article, "they are not union members. They're hired feet, or, as the union calls them, temporary workers, paid $8 an hour to picket. Many were recruited from homeless shelters or transitional houses. Several have recently been released from prison. Others are between jobs. ‘It's about the cash," said Tina Shaw, 44, who lives in a House of Ruth women's shelter and has walked the line at various sites. 'We're against low wages, but I'm here for the cash.' Carpenters locals across the country are outsourcing their picket lines, hiring the homeless, students, retirees and day laborers to get their message across. Larry Hujo, a spokesman for the Indiana-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, calls it a 'shift in the paradigm' of picketing."

Unions suck in this country. They actually operate more as labor agencies whose sole purpose is fiduciary; that is to say, to get their members the best possible deal on wages, benefits, and working conditions, and give short shrift to the concept of class struggle and labor solidarity. That however should be their main purpose; elevating the condition and power of the working class. And which is how the unions act in Europe and most other places. In America though the political dimension of class struggle has totally escaped the often corrupt and always politically oblivious labor union leadership.




Wednesday, July 18, 2007

July 18_2007 - I Think Reformists Are Wrong


I was surprised to read Glen Allport's column on Strike the Root yesterday wherein he lays out all the ways that political parties, special interest groups, ideologues, mercantilists, and the rest of the running dogs of statism, screw up liberal democratic governance, and then goes on to endorse the candidacy of a statist politician in an election in order to "fix" it all! Go figure? The real problem with state governance is the state itself; who runs it and how hardly matters. That has been my conclusion based on my own historical analysis, anyhow. It really surprised me that the STR publisher would post such an article given STR's stated position on such matters.

Reformism is a waste of time. In the end, when the bourgeoisie finally conclude that they can't dominate the political process any longer, they will undoubtedly turn toward fascism to maintain control and retain their privileges. That is what they've always done in the past.

July 18, 2007 - Road Trip!


2007 CrimethInc. Convergence - July 25-29, 2007 Athens, Ohio

From the promo website:
"Last summer’s convergence featured over forty workshops, including urban exploration, traveling for free, the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, Proudhon and mutualist banking, local radical history in Winona, stories from the 2005 G8 protests in Scotland, squatting to own, several self-defense workshops, a reading group for which literature was distributed in advance, a discussion for survivors of sexual abuse, a report on anarchist activity and challenges in Latin America, a conversation about anarchism and spirituality, and a discussion entitled 'Lucy Parsons and Post-Left Anarchy in the 1880s.' In addition, there was a puppet show about mountaintop removal, an anti-authoritarian jug band performed traditional spirituals, and a filmmaker presented a documentary about a Brazilian form of anarchist psychotherapy."

Sounds kinda of interesting and I am planning on attending. It's a short distance from where I am now and it would be good to remind myself that there are more of us out there than the media reports, eh? If anyone reading this has been to a previous convergence or has any other tips, advice or opinions about these kind of events or the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective, please get in touch.

See ya' there!


, ,

Sunday, July 15, 2007

What Happened to FreedomSLUT?


I've seen that unique and useful site get bogged down with commercial spam before sometimes, but the admin doesn't delete it any more, and so it has become kinda useless. You can dig through all the crap postings to find the occasional gem still, but who really wants to, eh? Sad.

Tech Tags:

July 15, 2007 - Agony Vs Agonizing


I've been experiencing some nerve pain in my neck and arms lately, making it hard to type very long or much. And so I haven't been. I seem to be getting better. Shingles, as this condition is called, are a bitch. But I endure.

On the other hand I've been able to catch up on my reading and also spend more time with the kids.

I may take a trip out to the coast soon or maybe even to Costa Rica. If I can't do any useful work, I may as well have some fun.

Any book suggestions? Or fun suggestions?

tags: