May 7, 2012
May 7, 2012
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. ***
Many thanks to Paul Buhle and John Ryan for their financial contributions. Please help us.
Note from the Editors:
After much anticipation and drama, the French people have spoken, electing François Hollande as their new president and tossing Nicolas Sarkozy into the lion's den, where he joins 10 other European leaders who fell victim to the global economic crisis. Gilles d'Aymery gives his short post-election analysis of why Sarkozy lost and the challenges facing France today. In light of this change, one can only imagine that US President 44 fears he will be relegated to number 12 in that den as the US economy remains anemic. The best campaign slogan he can offer this time around is the uninspired "Forward." Eppur si muove... Speaking of change, Manuel García, Jr. posits that Americans are presently too fearful and without vision to rise up and overturn neo-liberalism. Jan Baughman, sartorially speaking, finds them too unwilling to give up their creature comforts, as exemplified by the hypocrisy of a NASCAR Earth Day event. Jonah Raskin's essay on the rich and those who serve them may help explain the disconnect between the 1%, and the 99% who continue to vote against their own interests. Also disconnected were the public and private lives of Emma Goldman, whose sexual politics, according to Michael Barker, may not have been quite as advanced as we might be led to believe.
On the cultural front, it's unfathomable that only 70 years ago, in a dark period of US history, Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps -- comic artist Kevin Pyle keeps the issue alive in a book reviewed by Paul Buhle. Writing in our contemporary dark period, the Global War on Terror and its myriad victims, Peter Byrne's monologue tells of the returning security forces struggling to translate their war zone skills to defending the Homeland on its own turf. Raju Peddada continues his series on Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, a philosophical meditation on the dissolution of time and the distortion of our memory. In the French corner, Marie Rennard lends a unique perspective to fecal matter; Christian Cottard's creative tale -- we hope it's fictional! -- tells of a wintery weekend misadventure; and Simone Alié-Daram's acrostic poem speaks of solitude and serenity. On the poetry front, John Marshall channels a night spent on his brother's front porch, and Guido Monte describes a visionary image of an unknown God in front of the world's evil. We close with your letters on Europe, France, hope, and Manuel.
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RESISTANCE: In The Eye Of The American Hegemon
What is
YOUR Purpose?
Question
YOUR Answers!
War is NOT
the Answer
Think
before you think! —Stanislaw Lec
Don't believe everything you think!
Localize!
Relocalize!
Conserve!
Don't believe.
Think!
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Patterns which Connect
Why Don't Americans Rise Up?
In her May Day article "Welcome to the 2012 Hunger Games: Sending Debt Peonage, Poverty, and Freaky Weather Into the Arena," Rebecca Solnit lists the present ills of US society, threading her presentation with recommendations for numerous books. Her aim is to inspire Americans to participate in the nonviolent revolutionary ferment that aspires to end the many injustices she catalogs, and which is focused in the Occupy Wall Street movement and celebrated this year with a resurgence of May Day demonstrations in American cities and towns. More... Manuel García, Jr. is a retired physicist, author, and family man who lives in Oakland, California.
How I Spent Earth Day 2012
I awoke to a beautiful Kansas spring day; the air quality was better than most, as if the earth were reminding me of what once was, and what could be. Nothing was in the air but excitement, because we were treating ourselves to an outing at the special Earth Day NASCAR race. The nice weather was indeed fortunate, considering that on the prior weekend unseasonable tornadoes not only tore through the state, but ravaged the entire southeast along with baseball-size hail, which seems to be turning into the new national pastime. I quickly got dressed, jumped into the Prius, and headed to Costco to buy some groceries for our tailgate lunch -- the cost of this celebration was already a stretch to our budget. More... Jan Baughman is a clinical researcher and Swans' co-editor.
The Help For The Wherewithal
The rich seem to need more help than the rest of us. They certainly want more help and they can afford to pay the help handsomely. In northern California, where I live and work, the help tend to be white and Latino. They are rarely African American. In fact, I do not know any African Americans employed by a wealthy family in the counties to the north of San Francisco: Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino. The African American population is very, very small. How do I happen to know about the help? More... Jonah Raskin is a professor emeritus in communication studies at Sonoma State University, California.
Emma Goldman's Sexological Obsession
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was a major anarchist thinker and activist, who "perhaps more than any other prominent woman of her times, understood the perplexing psychological and sexual dimension of women's subordination in modern industrial culture." But despite her libertarian (public) attitudes toward love and marriage, and her vigorous condemnation of the ongoing repression of women, her personal life was another matter, and "In reality, Goldman was personally tormented by her own subordination to her lover and manager, the exploitative and philandering Ben Reitman." More... Michael Barker is an independent researcher who lives in London, England.
Hungry Man, Reach For The Book
A Graphic Reminder Of Japanese-American Internment
Kevin Pyle is an outstanding comic artist, whose earlier work, Blindspot, brilliantly (and for a young adult audience), without a moment of didacticism, traced the spontaneous war games of growing boys into a self-realization of their destructiveness. Here, he offers new light on an almost-forgotten issue (except for the survivors and their descendents), the relocation of more than a hundred thousand Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. More... Paul Buhle is a retired academic and comics' editor who lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
Monologue
On Guard
I stand here with my eyes on the edge of the still water and square my shoulders like a bulwark against evil. But it doesn't work. My bulwark days are over. The pool is impregnable, except to a gummy sort of fat snail. Evildoers never come near this place. What would they sabotage, my boredom? When people ask me what I do, I no longer say "security." More... Peter Byrne is an American-born teacher and writer who lives in Lecce, Italy.
Arts & Culture
The Magic Mountain: Thomas Mann's Humanistic Enterprise (Part II)
Let us indulge in some facetious conjecture. Western theology proclaims that "God" created everything in six days, and took respite on the seventh; whereas, Mann took several years to create The Magic Mountain, suffusing it with an overwhelming and intimidating depth -- that almost all of God's proudest creation, humanity, finds it difficult to scale or fathom. As a matter of fact, Mann, represented by the rationalist-atheist Settembrini, often admonished humanity in his book for being led into the abyss of absolutism, and ignorance, by their "creator." Isn't that a tantalizing paradox? More... Raju Peddada is an industrial designer who lives in Des Plaines, Illinois.
French Corner
Exit Sarkozy, Enter Hollande
The polls were correct, after all. François Hollande has been elected the new president of the French Republic with almost 52% of the vote. As a reader noted, Nicolas Sarkozy is the 11th European leader thrown out of power since 2008. After the first round, Sarkozy had little chance to get reelected. He needed the Front National and centrist votes. By going after the votes of the Front National he alienated the centrists. Then Marine Le Pen announced that she would deposit a blank ballot, and François Bayrou, the centrist Brutus, said he would vote for François Hollande. Sarkozy was cooked. More... Gilles d'Aymery is Swans' publisher and co-editor.
Le coin français
Caca
Voltaire, dans son Dictionnaire philosophique, avait jugé bon de consacrer un article entier aux « Ventres Paresseux » un autre au « cul » et pour faire bonne mesure un dernier aux « déjections ». Gageons que le lecteur d'aujourd'hui ne se réjouira pas moins que celui du dix-huitième siècle de voir témoigner à ce sujet l'attention qu'il mérite, en commençant par l'examen de son étymologie. More... Marie Rennard est une auteur et poète qui vit à Annecy, France. Elle est l'éditrice en chef du coin français.
Les ders des ders...
On a fait les derniers deux cent kilomètres dans l'inquiétude, la tension, les rafales de vent et une pluie giflante. Et, malgré ça, on était quand même heureux de rouler. On avait quitté la ville vers la fin de l'après-midi pour quatre jours de repos dans la maison, enfin le cabanon qu'on avait fini par acheter en pleine montagne. En vrai, c'était une ancienne bergerie sacrément confortable pour les moutons et un peu moins pour les humains. Depuis deux trois ans, tout notre fric y passait. More... Christian Cottard est né en 1953 et vit à Velleron où il exerce la profession de professeur d'EPS.
Acrostiches
Soucis vertueux oubliés Simone Alié-Daram, à la retraite d'une carrière distinguée en médecine, est une auteur et poète qui vit à Toulouse, France.
Poetry
Martha Metre
Goodnight, Martha Metre; John M. Marshall is a poet who lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Multilingual Poetry
To an unknown god
and eugenio said: Guido Monte teaches Italian and Latin literature in Palermo, Italy.
Letters to the Editor
Europe, France, hope, and Manuel. More... We appreciate your comments. Please, remember to sign your e-mails with your real name and add your city, state, country, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Thank you.
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