Swans Commentary
http://www.swans.com/
October 6, 2008
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"Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty,
like a grain of salt, easily dissolves. The power of questioning -- not
simply believing -- has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it."
Note from the Editors: Well, we the People joined forces and gave them a
piece of our minds, bombarding Congress with threats should they pass the
Paulson Wall Street bailout plan, and they listened! Or so it seemed. What
they found missing from the 3-page plan was not help for the People; it was
the most important political ingredient -- pork! It was politics as usual,
and Congress compromised, not to appease the angry constituents who are
watching their retirement pittances and economic situations implode, but to
seduce the House Republicans who voted against the initial plan. As Gilles
d'Aymery puts it, we have a government of the DOW, by the DOW, and for the
DOW. Aymery offers a tangible bailout plan that would address the crisis by
helping Main Street. Read it, then send a copy to your Representatives,
remind them they work for you, and that it's you who decide if they keep
their jobs. Then, STOP VOTING FOR THE BUMS! If they have any ounce of sanity,
they'll get the message, though Charles Marowitz thinks that a touch of
analysis should be used to determine who is psychologically fit to lead. He
starts with John McCain, whose textbook personality type was born from the
trauma of his imprisonment.
As a child, Ted Dace had to retreat into a fantasy world to escape the wrath
of his father, and he learned the hard way that freedom can exist in an
otherwise deterministic universe -- a notion he explains with the help of
physics. Carol Warner Christen offers a modern-day socio-political parable of
survival of the fittest in the insect world that is relevant to our current
predicament and the difficult times ahead. Unfortunately, there are well-
hidden forces working against our ability to influence politics; however,
Michael Barker keeps digging, and in his current analysis uncovers the links
between democracy-manipulating organizations such as the National Endowment
for Democracy and the media. It will take many more of us -- an overwhelming
majority -- to heed R. Scott Porter's words and demand from our leaders that
the military-industrial complex be transitioned to peaceful enterprises.
If you need an excellent primer on activism, read Louis Proyect's review of
Carlton Jackson's biography of Genora Dollinger, a remarkable woman who rose
to the occasion against racism, imperialist war, class oppression, and
alienation in the 1930s -- an inspiration to the similar world we confront
today. A second biography is reviewed by Peter Byrne -- that of Richard
Wright, a promising African-American writer who was unable to transcend race
and become a universal writer. Ardent book collector and Art Shay fan Raju
Peddeda attempts to extrapolate the meaning of Shay's being through his work.
We close with a haunting poem by Guido Monte and Alison Phipps (illustration
by Giuseppe Quattrocchi) that searches for a way of escape from our closed
"world limbo"; a Michael Eddins poem, whose tragedy requires a boy to escape
with his black lab into the woods; and your letters.
# # # # #
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/desk074.html
Blips #74 - From the Martian Desk - Gilles d'Aymery
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/cmarow118.html
John McCain: Freud To The Rescue - Charles Marowitz
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/tdace03.html
Fate - Ted Dace
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/carenc46.html
What Parable Is This? The Old Woman Said - Carol Warner Christen
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/barker05.html
Imperial Media Manipulators Assistance - Michael Barker
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/porter06.html
American Wars On Herself And Others - R. Scott Porter
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/lproy49.html
Carlton Jackson's "Child of the Sit-Downs" - Book Review by Louis Proyect
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/pbyrne82.html
Up From Mississippi - Book Review by Peter Byrne
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/rajup01.html
A Slow Shutter On Art Shay - Raju Peddada
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/gmonte52.html
Mondana Commedia n.4: Limbo (World Comedy n.4: Limbo)
- Poem by Guido Monte & Alison Phipps
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/eddins02.html
Black - Poem by Michael Eddins
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/letter149.html
Letters to the Editor
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