Mulling over the stories that permeated the prating crowds for the past week or so -- the Middle East Road Map with a "ride herd" vision-thing, the once-ubiquitous weapons of mass destruction turned MIA in Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, Martha Stewart's legal tribulations, etc. -- we felt these stories had very little leg absent the obfuscated context within which they are being peddled by the media; that of the November 2004 US presidential elections. Why then follow this all-around herd-like, scripted mentality, we wondered; and we thought, as Tennessee Williams stated, "[T]here is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go."
So, keeping in mind the literary aspect of Swans, we are departing alright. First, we visit the doldrums many have encountered lately with Phil Rockstroh's experience of awfulness in a world consumed by 'Junk' (Alma Hromic may have had this world in mind when, following her reading of Subhankar Banerjee's Seasons of life and land, she wrote her essay on preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge); and then we let Scott Orlovsky weave his way, with solidarity and determination, "to energetically augment the vitality and beautiful strength of creation." For his part, Louis Proyect brings forth the third installment in his series of reviews of radical authors; this time he scholarly delves into John Sanford's The People From Heaven.
Then we move to our regular heading, "Patterns which Connect," with a thorough essay by Gerard Smith on the 'liberation theory' and the use of Aquinas to advance through force a hegemonic democratization and a global market economy, while Milo Clark revisits our immensely destructive and quite dystopian social system and Richard Macintosh shows how the two major American political parties have historically pursued the same terrorizing nuclear policies to achieve their strategic objectives.
This brings us to the "Countdown to November 2004" that, although still largely under the radar-screen, is directing most of the current decisions being made in the corridors of power. Deck Deckert once more relates the unresponsiveness of his representatives -- actually the total disregard they have for their constituents (with the exception of the fat cats). Eli Beckerman, a Green activist, suggests that the peace movement needs an increasingly independent political stance; and we are reposting an October 2002 article by Gilles d'Aymery in which he argues in favor of a third-party candidate. Finally, we conclude this issue with Richard Hine who brings a view from Britain concerning the various demonstrations of "anti-Americanism" that have surfaced there in the past few months.
As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that makes ours grow.
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Phil Rockstroh: Bouquet Of Corn Dogs
This morning, as with so many mornings as of late, I had to undertake an
agonizingly intricate procedure just to pull myself together enough to
drag myself from bed to face another day in the Empire of the Mean and the
Medicated.
More...
Scott Orlovsky: Quantum Jump
many believe that love can be found in another
a personal love
a satisfaction in another's embrace
yet often this appears
as psychologically immature
More...
Alma A. Hromic: Seasons Of Life And Oil
You've probably never heard of Subhankar Banerjee. At least, you probably wouldn't have heard about him until the faecal matter hit the rotating blades concerning his latest book. More...
Louis Proyect: John Sanford's The People From Heaven
When I discovered the bitterly sardonic novels of Nathaniel West in the early 1960s, I never would have suspected that he was a Communist. Like most people coming of age during the waning days of the witch-hunt, I assumed that Communism and experimental literature were mutually exclusive. More...
Gerard Donnelly Smith: Liberation Theory: Precedent for a New Millennium of Bloodshed
In retrospect, the American Civil War was just a war of liberation, rather than an economic power struggle between two capitalistic systems in competition. The tens-of-thousands of men who died and who were maimed did so not at the profit of the industrialist, military machine of the North, but for the liberation of the enslaved Africans in the South. More...
Milo Clark: Reviewing, Refocusing And Recapitulating
Last edition, I timed out. Needed to stand aside to look at what is going on, get back to ground. Here's some of what I stand on. We exist in simultaneity within which there is congruence yet have conditioned ourselves to perceive sequentially in dissonance. More...
Richard Macintosh: The Time's Plague
I remember the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was twelve years old at the time. To the members of my family, it meant the end of World War II and the accompanying deprivations of wartime life. More...
Deck Deckert: They Still Aren't Listening
My wife and I recently moved from one end of the country to the other and everything changed. We went from hot to cold, flat land to hills, puny palms to towering cedars, steaming sandy beaches to snow-covered mountains. But one thing apparently hasn't changed a bit. 'My' politicians aren't listening. More...
Eli Beckerman: T-Minus None
It is time, my friends, to demonstrate a universal political truth -- that brave stances rooted in principle are rewarded, while hollow regurgitation of popular sentiment gains you nothing as a politician. More...
Gilles d'Aymery: Vexing Electoral Realities (10/21/02)
Whereas the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the January 1991 resolution authorizing the US president to go to war against Iraq with a thin majority -- 250-183 in the House and 52-47 in the Senate, some congress people having been swayed to vote yes after hearing the incubator story -- a story that turned out to have been entirely fabricated; More...
Richard Hine: Can't See The World For The Trees
In a recent op-ed piece for the (London) Independent ("The danger of this infantile anti-Americanism," 15 May 2003) Gavin Esler joins a growing chorus of prominent commentators decrying what they perceive to be an ever escalating "anti-Americanism in this country" (Britain). More...
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