Hi. I hesitated coupling these two essays, but we're grown-ups and can separate. Still, Zinn's thoughts need to be asborbed through serious, quiet reflection and I'd suggest that process before dessert. Ed
ZNet - Nov 6, 2004 http://www.zmag.org The Optimism of Uncertainty by Howard Zinn In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy? I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world. There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible. What leaps out from the history of the past hundred years is its utter unpredictability. A revolution to overthrow the czar of Russia, in that most sluggish of semi-feudal empires, not only startled the most advanced imperial powers but took Lenin himself by surprise and sent him rushing by train to Petrograd. Who would have predicted the bizarre shifts of World War II--the Nazi-Soviet pact (those embarrassing photos of von Ribbentrop and Molotov shaking hands), and the German Army rolling through Russia, apparently invincible, causing colossal casualties, being turned back at the gates of Leningrad, on the western edge of Moscow, in the streets of Stalingrad, followed by the defeat of the German army, with Hitler huddled in his Berlin bunker, waiting to die? And then the postwar world, taking a shape no one could have drawn in advance: The Chinese Communist revolution, the tumultuous and violent Cultural Revolution, and then another turnabout, with post-Mao China renouncing its most fervently held ideas and institutions, making overtures to the West, cuddling up to capitalist enterprise, perplexing everyone. No one foresaw the disintegration of the old Western empires happening so quickly after the war, or the odd array of societies that would be created in the newly independent nations, from the benign village socialism of Nyerere's Tanzania to the madness of Idi Amin's adjacent Uganda. Spain became an astonishment. I recall a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade telling me that he could not imagine Spanish Fascism being overthrown without another bloody war. But after Franco was gone, a parliamentary democracy came into being, open to Socialists, Communists, anarchists, everyone. The end of World War II left two superpowers with their respective spheres of influence and control, vying for military and political power. Yet they were unable to control events, even in those parts of the world considered to be their respective spheres of influence. The failure of the Soviet Union to have its way in Afghanistan, its decision to withdraw after almost a decade of ugly intervention, was the most striking evidence that even the possession of thermonuclear weapons does not guarantee domination over a determined population. The United States has faced the same reality. It waged a full-scale war in lndochina, conducting the most brutal bombardment of a tiny peninsula in world history, and yet was forced to withdraw. In the headlines every day we see other instances of the failure of the presumably powerful over the presumably powerless, as in Brazil, where a grassroots movement of workers and the poor elected a new president pledged to fight destructive corporate power. Looking at this catalogue of huge surprises, it's clear that the struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who have the guns and the money and who seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars: moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, patience--whether by blacks in Alabama and South Africa, peasants in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Vietnam, or workers and intellectuals in Poland, Hungary and the Soviet Union itself. No cold calculation of the balance of power need deter people who are persuaded that their cause is just. I have tried hard to match my friends in their pessimism about the world (is it just my friends?), but I keep encountering people who, in spite of all the evidence of terrible things happening everywhere, give me hope. Especially young people, in whom the future rests. Wherever I go, I find such people. And beyond the handful of activists there seem to be hundreds, thousands, more who are open to unorthodox ideas. But they tend not to know of one another's existence, and so, while they persist, they do so with the desperate patience of Sisyphus endlessly pushing that boulder up the mountain. I try to tell each group that it is not alone, and that the very people who are disheartened by the absence of a national movement are themselves proof of the potential for such a movement. Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don't "win," there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope. An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. *** "September 11th was a faith-based initiative."- Fran Liebowitz on why there's too much religion in the world, on Charley Rose, 10/29/2004. Progreso Weekly - Nov 4-10, 2004 http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Landau&otherweek=1099720800 A Post-Election Rant By Saul Landau It's over. But questions remain, beyond the fairness of the voting process. Before November 2, Beverly Ryan commented that "God is out there, actively campaigning for President Bush." The born-again Christian retired legal secretary from West Palm Beach, Florida, voiced the belief of tens of millions of voters. Was she right? Did the Almighty play a role in the campaign? Ryan believed that aside from blessing America - and presumably telling the rest of the world to go f. itself? - He had intervened in this U.S. ritual and directed born-agains to vote for Bush. Ryan represents a sizable portion of the electorate, including some 4 million evangelicals who had not voted in 2000. So, Bush let his pious articulation ring forth. "I feel like God wants me to run for President," W allegedly told Rev. James Robison. How did he get this feeling? "I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me," reports Stephen Mansfield in The Faith of George W. Bush, citing a Texas preacher who recalls Bush confiding those words to him in 1999. While Bush boasted of his link to the Higher Power, Kerry tried to feign religious fanaticism, along with promises to strengthen the military, get Castro and Chavez, pursue the endless drug war, and kill, kill, kill the terrorists. I, like other Kerry supporters also had faith that Kerry lied, that he wouldn't do the terrible things he promised. Bush doesn't know from truth or lies. He speaks and assumes what he says is true, regardless of facts. Each candidate lusted to govern the empire, actually agreed on most of the global policies: support for free trade pacts and corporate globalization; keep the military budget high; don't do any basic redistribution of wealth and offer Israel more support than it asks for. Kerry claimed he could better administer the occupation of Iraq and work with all our allies. Bush claimed he had found a few allies to actually work with him. What allies? The Soviet menace imploded a dozen years ago and the institutions designed to combat it remained. Indeed, a useless NATO has grown larger than ever but has no purpose other than to employ generals and buy unnecessary airplanes and bombs. The campaign rhetoric actually negated the notion of democracy that we all learned in schools, where political opponents would carefully explain their positions and an informed electorate would decide. As Kerry lied - I hope - and Bush mouthed empty clichés, the non-committed public grew confused, but not informed. The depth of public ignorance manifested in Tuesday's election are reflected in a study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks on perceptions of Bush and Kerry supporters, based on September and October interviews. After the media repeatedly informed that Iraq did not have significant WMDs, 72% of Bush supporters continued to believe that Iraq had possessed or was about to develop those dangerous weapons. Seventy-five percent of Bush backers remained convinced that Iraq had offered backing for the 9/11 terrorists. 63% affirmed that the media had proven that proposition; some heard experts verify it. 55% of the Bush voters assumed that the 9/11 Commission had confirmed this "fact." Steven Kull, director of PIPA, interpreted the date as confirmation that Bushies believed that this message came from "the Administration." Further, Bush backers "have not accepted the idea that it does not matter whether Iraq had WMD or supported al Qaeda." In other words, after revelations of the various Commissions investigating the issue whose conclusions were amply reported, tens of millions of voters still maintained that the secular Saddam regime possessed dangerous weapons and colluded with the religious terrorists. Gross cognitive dissonance? Or did Bush-backers secretly insert Stepford wives' chips into 50 million born-again brains? Has Dick Cheney arranged for the Manchurian-candidate style brainwashing of tens of millions? Yes, legions of people receive news from biased sources - like Fox - and cannot confront the fact that billionaire hucksters manipulate them to propagate a corrupt system designed to protect their ill-gotten wealth. Some stubborn Republicans undoubtedly still believe that their Party carries the heritage of Lincoln freeing the slaves and Eisenhower winning the war. And as Thomas Frank dramatizes (What's Wrong With Kansas), Democrats don't confront the social issues. Surveys revealed that voters often ascribed positions and beliefs to their leader, contrary to the facts. A "regular guy" like George Bush couldn't be a religious nut and extremist on foreign policy. He's patriotic and clear. Maybe he tried to avoid Vietnam and used family wealth to slide into the National Guard where he at best barely complied with the rules. But now, he has matured into an ideal, courageous military commander, not a sleazy little coward who never had a fight in his life. His followers believe in his pugnacious veneer. After reading this, I thought briefly about trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to some of Bush's followers. Kerry on the other hand, opposed the Vietnam War, went there anyway to see action, killed people and then returned with the conclusion that the U.S. was doing terrible things to its own GIs and to Vietnam. Nor should we have invaded Iraq. But once there, he intoned, we must accomplish our mission. What mission? The one we shouldn't have undertaken? The servile media re-enforced the notion that Bush actually had leadership qualities (ignorance, stubbornness, refusal to read or listen to other opinions). Voters favorable to him became impermeable to ideas that might contradict his views. Indeed, many voters saw their leader as a role model: infallible and righteous. As a model, Bush teaches that he doesn't commit errors or acknowledge facts that might undermine his beliefs. He repeats the word freedom. I conclude that he means "free from the burden of doing anything that helps another human being." Saying it is enough. George W. Bush has become a cult leader. Those who claim to interpret the Bible literally attribute to him Godlike powers. I will search the Holy Book for passages extolling the virtues of election rigging. This election proved that tens of millions of Americans believe that they or their preachers get direct messages from God. The ministers instruct the foot soldiers of the Lord on how to vote. But I cannot fathom how people can believe the peddlers of sleaze and slime. The "sins" of Russ "The Junky" Limbaugh, William "The Gambler" Bennett, or Bill "The Sex Harasser" O'Reilly should have sufficed to wipe the illusory pus from any believer's eyes. Bush backer Rev. Jimmy Swaggart was "trying to find a correct name for it - this utter, absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died. God calls it an abomination. .These ridiculous, utterly absurd district attorneys and judges and state congress. 'Well, we don't know.' They oughta - they oughta - they oughta have to marry a pig and live with them forever. I'm not knocking the poor homosexual, I'm not. They need salvation just like anybody else. Sept. 12, 2004 During a preaching - fundraising - tour in Indio California, Swaggart propositioned 31-year-old Rosemary Garcia. In his car, she began to perform her magic when cops stopped the couple for driving on the wrong side of the road. Garcia said that Swaggart wanted to watch porn on TV. "He asked me for sex. I mean, that's why he stopped me. That's what I do. I'm a prostitute." In 1984, Swaggart declared that "Sex education classes in our public schools are promoting incest." Eighteen years later, on November 10, 2002, after confessing to being a pornography and sex addict, Swaggart denounced the Prophet Muhammad as a "pervert" and a "sex deviant." But Swaggart also believes Armageddon will "be fought in the valley of Megiddo. It is coming. They can sign all the peace treaties they want. They won't do any good... It is going to get worse... My Lord! I am happy... I don't care who it bothers. I don't care who it troubles. It thrills my soul." It chills my soul that after Swaggart's repeated confessions on his porn and prostitution addictions, millions still donate money to that mountebank. He epitomized Bush's life: do as I say not as I do. In 2004, candidates contested for governing rights over the troubled empire. Neither had plans to fix the rising deficit, reinvigorate the dollar, stimulate foreign investment in the United States (at its lowest point in 25 years) or, most importantly, successfully export our order to those "immoral" states that export oil to us. Indeed, the best or worst man won. Now we must go to the streets to organize opposition. Our lives become meaningful not by voting, but by playing a part in our history - to bring more justice and equality to the world, not less. [Landau teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University and is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. His new book is The Business of America: How Consumers Have Replaced Citizens and How We can Reverse the Trend.] Copyright 2004© Progreso Weekly, Inc. * To subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ===================================================== NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ===================================================== ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. 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