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Leadbelly - where did you sleep last nite.......interactive page with chord pop-ups
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/l/leadbelly/where_did_you_sleep_last_night_crd.htm

Jack London and the Black Panther Party

I don't have access to a computer besides at the biblioteca, and I can't really do my thing at a library so much. I require coffee, and room to walk around. Read Jack London's John Barleycorn, which is a book I've been wanting to read for years but I think I picked it up at exactly the right moment. I can identify with what he calls his "long sickness" and although I associate it less with alcohol and more with philosophical introspection on life events, I believe his description of what alcohol does to a intellectually-oriented drinker is illuminating. I think of London as being in a category of vagabond American myth makers which would include Kerouac and Thompson. Some of the prose in John Barleycorn is strongly reminiscent of HST and London's The Road can be seen as a predecessor to On the Road and The Dharma Bums.

Besides this I've gotten back into the Panthers, first by finding a large paperback collection of the BPP's newspaper, originally called the Black Panther then changed to the Intercommunal News Service. Its worth checking out solely for the graphics and poster art. Then I picked up a recent book published about COINTELPRO called Theres Something Happening in Here that details the FBIs political repression of mainly left-wing students and groups like the Panthers categorized as Black Hate Groups, as well a small fraction of operations against the KKK in the form of the UKA. Book is valuable because it relates this period of dramatic enlargement of state surveillance and disruption of what are seen as political threats and our current phase of expanded policing power, restriction of Civil liberties. It also relates the periods of intensified repressive action with the public sentiment at the time, when people feel threatened, they will allow the government to carry out activities it would otherwise deem unacceptable.

So I'm still here, still reading, still thinking, no matter how many times people want to tell me I think too much. I'm just trying to make up for everyone else.

Goodnight Reagan Revolution

I feel confident in stating that Conservative economic policy, and the conservative world view in turn, have been dealt a fatal blow by the current economic recession. The troubles we are having with our economy represent the failure of the conservative ethic that the private sector can do everything better than the public. It shows plainly to all that deregulation and the attempt to create an unbridled capitalism can only lead to disaster for the majority while the fat cats get fatter. The instability inherent in this system is obvious, how many times must the pattern be repeated?? Only drug addicts and the mentally insane repeat an action incessantly and expect different results.

I say goodnight to the Reagan Revolution because George Bush was the last president from this era of new conservatism. This era goes back to Goldwater and the coalition of traditionalists and libertarians that tried to get him elected in 64. The era culminated with the Reagan years when the Neocons and Hawks were added to the team. I'm reading a good book on the subject right now titled "Us Versus Them" that follows the phenomenon of conservative politics in America, especially as it relates to foreign policy and nuclear weapons. It explains modern or new conservatism as an outgrowth of the sense of American exceptionalism, and a reaction to communism. This movement was essentially reactionary, it did not want to admit that nuclear weapons completely changed the nature of warfare, and could not accept the Realist school of thought regarding international politics. Denial of MAD was a distinguishing feature.

I believe this era is over because not only is the cold war over, but the attempt to transpose the cold war Us and Them mentality onto the war on terror has been a failure of momentous proportions. That the failure of this propagandistic enterprise (It did succeed in starting a war, but I hope people will be more wary next time) happened to coincide with the failing economy and President bush's departure from office is representative of the death of modern conservative philosophy. It blows my mind that in the debate over the economic stimulus plan republicans can give the same argument for the same policies that have caused this fiasco in the first place. They're insistence on their founding belief that more government spending will only make things worse shows how ill-suited the conservative philosophy is for modern America. I hope others can see this as well.

Obama has issued 4 executive orders. One states that Gitmo will be totally shut down within one year. Red cross will be allowed in, we'll see what they do with the prisoners. Another officially condemns torture, US military code must be followed by CIA. A third disavows the use of secret prison and rendition programs. This represents the reversal in policy I was hoping for, lets hope it keeps moving in that direction.



++George Mitchell, former Senate Majority Leader, was chosen as envoy to the Middle East.


++Richard Holbrook, former Ambassador to the UN, has been appointed envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Commission in 2000 Israel/Palestine. North Ireland negotions during Clinton

++Dennis Blair is in hearings to become director of national intelligence.

Stockholms syndrome on the societal level

Great idea mined from William Gibson's Spook Country an awesome post-cyberpunk novel about the post-911 atmosphere of fear, surveillance, blurring of lines between corporate and government intell. The idea is that the phenomenon of patriotism (nationalism) displayed by Americans after 9-11 was a collective form of Stockholm's syndrome. Stockholm's is a psychological condition developed by people in captivity and involves sympathizing or identifying with ones captors. Patty Hearst with the Symbionese Liberation Army is the classic example.

The implications of this observation are obvious, but will be misunderstood and denied by most. This is because people have a hard time seeing that the US government doesn't serve them, in fact it serves corporate interest which wants people to behave a certain way. We're free so long as we keep buying what their selling and don't rock the boat to much. People aren't aware that they are captives because the walls have such pretty wallpaper.

But we are captives of an economic and political system (hard to draw a line anymore) that we don't have an option of participating in our not. By participation I don't mean the democratic kind, the kind that forces the government to obey the people. I mean the passive participation by which the people obey the government and the corporate capitalist economy.
Slavery never ended, we just gave slaves a new name. We call them employees.

The supposed symbolic relevance of Obama's election

There is much talk about Obama's election being the historic moment showing how far we've come from our racist past, our country now entering a so-called post-racial period. Lets all celebrate a quasi-democratic election of a quasi-black man and pat ourselves on the back for not being racist. This is dangerous stuff, this idea that racism is over because we elected a black president. He's not even Black, he's rich.

By saying Obama is not black what I mean is for an African-American to become successful in American politics, he must to some degree lose his blackness. He has been be educated to speak like an educated person which essentially means learn to talk like a white person.

Obama wasn't a powerful black man talking about racial issues, like Jesse Jackson did. Powerful black men can instill fear in white people, and Obama somehow avoided creating these fears. He did this by downplaying his race, and not bringing issues of race to the forefront. On the completely superficial level that is somehow relevant to many, his skin is not very dark. This is unfortunate and I only bring it up to show how shallow our politics have become and that fact that racism is still alive and well in the US of A.

This election will be used as convenient symbol people can point to and say, "see, we are become less racist with time because we elected a black man".
People think this is the only form of racism we have to address, that after we right the wrongs of slavery we can consider ourselves no longer racist.

I point to Ward Churchill's observation that all American forms of domination, subservience, and imperial ambition are rooted in the subjugation and attempted extermination of the Native Americans. Until we address this original act of of racism and acknowledge that this country is founded on notions of racial superiority, we will continue to be a racist imperial nation.

So if we elect a Native American as president, then maybe we can have this conversation again, but I don't see that happening. It is easier to simply deny the original sins of this nation and not address the underlying racism that this country is founded upon on and which still exists today. Indeed, our whole visage of liberty, democracy, and humanitarian ideals would be shattered if we admitted to the actions and justifications used to obtain this country we call the United States of America. Therefore, this idea of a post-racial society is hogwash, a pretty window dressing for further imperialism which is always based on a notion of racial superiority. The hypocrisy could not be more obvious, and our population could not be more oblivious.

Farewell to Arbusco

The eight years of George W. Bush's administration have come to an end. If one good thing came from these eight years, its the bringing of people from my generation to political consciousness. I stood by without much interest as Bush became president and appointed his cabinet selections. Not until the invasion of Afghanistan in Nov. 01 did I begin to become interested in the foreign policy of this administration and the phenomenon of neoconservatism. By the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I had become informed through the countless books, articles, and documentary films documenting the dangers of the course we had set upon and the history of American involvement in other countries, much of it covert.

So if one good thing came from the Bush years is a scepticism of the promises of politicians hopefully combined with an interest in listening to our elected leaders and holding them accountable. Obama is picking his cabinet and this time I'm paying attention. I'm looking out for the involvement of his picks with various think-tanks and organizations, a web of which stretched through Bush policy-making and makers. I'm aware of the historical record of how presidents manipulate public opinion and play off fears and insecurity. Because of this awareness I can see that Obama is playing off the overwhelming public sentiment demanding a fresh start in Washington. His rhetoric of change is being bought up by the public without the kind of critical thinking that is needed. We can't simply cheer when Obama says he has change we can believe in. We need to demand that he spell out what is change is and how he will implement it.

The inauguration took place yesterday and it was the biggest spectacle I've seen since the rallies at Nuremberg, or the Olympic opening ceremonyif the Nazi comparison is too much for you. I plead with the American public to not get caught up in the fanfare, lets keep our attention on the shape his administration is taking in these very important first days. I will be just as critical of Obama as I was of Bush, I'm not celebrating any victory because I know neither Democrats nor Republicans represent my political ideals. I will be critical of Obama because I'm not partisan, I don't bring a home team mentality to politics, I don't identify myself with the nation or its unique form of nationalism. I stand outside that with my own beliefs, many of them coinciding with the foundational values of the American democracy that have been subverted. I'm trying to perform my role as an informed citizen in a superficially democratic society.