NEW YORK - 7 - 11 November, 1998 - Whether I would live in Flatbush or Midwood(two areas of Brooklyn) looked as though it would be contingent on New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani. I laughed about it at the time(my legend "inappropriate" laughter) because the question rested on whether Mayor Guiliani(whose latest obsession is chewing gum on sidewalks) would retaliate against one of my potential roommates for associating with the publisher of that hell-raising journal the GENERATOR 21.
Get that? An employee of the City of New York was worried that our little magazine would be too radical for His Honor. My laughter had to do with how much I tone down the radicalism here in deference to our advertisers.
Pat Moynihan just opted out of politics. Newt Gingrich is dethroned. Chewing gum.
You don't have to be A.J. Liebling or even H.L. Mencken to do a critique on this one, Friends.
So now we have The Writer in New York, the fulfilment of a lifetime promise. Full-tilt, bull-goose looney, in-your-face life on the million corners of the five boroughs seasoning the pages of the GENERATOR 21. YOU have a front seat.
SNIPPETS FROM MY NOTEBOOK: Immediately noticed a body language difference between East Coast and West Coast bar behavior. Here on the East, people in bars will give their backs to those not party of their little party while sitting at the bar. It's an odd form of closing others out and keeping their groups contained. Seldom saw that in San Francisco, so it's striking here....
Nothing satisfies more than being able to serve up crow. One of the reasons that the Mouthpiece Media have become a favorite whipping boy in these pages is their constant inability to accept the simple reality perceived by the average person on the street.
Worse yet, too many people in this business of journalism(including some
of the writers here) presume to tell Jean and Joe Sixpack what they believe we should think, in fact force feed it to us, despite our growing contempt and repugnance.
Some of them are even using the L-word(Liberal) again. But let's not wait around for anyone to use that accursed S-word.
Let me be the first: Socialism.
That didn't hurt, did it? Yet that little S-word is avoided like the plague in these United States. Ask Barney Frank. The word socialism has been mistakenly made synonymous with totalitarian, state-control Communism and been villified and misused in this country for over seventy years. Meanwhile, thoughtful people from Lord Bertrand Russell to Vanessa Redgrave have not been afraid to embrace it.
Recently I brought the word up in our private writer's conference and precipitated shock and disbelief. Confusion. What did I mean by "socialism?"
The question of the GENERATOR 21's status as an "alternative" magazine has provoked the query in the past: What alternative are we advocating?
As mentioned before, Libertarianism is a strong strain in these pages because so many of the writers here are self-avowed Libertarians. Meanwhile, Yours Unruly has been viewed as so far to the Left as to be accused of being "radical." My belief is that the only reason the philosophy espoused is prey to the R-word is because politicians identified as "progressive" or "liberal" in America are actually for the status quo, while "conservatives" run the gamut from social Darwinism to crypto-fascism. In any enlightened society what is perceived by others as my radicalism would be called simple socialist democratism.
You see, This Writer tends to reject Libertarianism because it focuses on freedom(s) while failing to have a concern for compassion. It pretends that everyone has a bootstrap with which to pull themselves up --- AND THAT JUST AIN'T SO. Thus, in my book, it fails to offer any vision of hope to the hopeless and misses the mark of providing comfort to the afflicted.
Because the evidence of our own eyes and our historical experience have proven time and again that rapacious capitalism and the so-called "free" market operate in favor of the wealthy and powerful classes, some social mechanism needs to exist which fairly distributes resources to the people of the nation and the world, which checks the exploitative nature of corporatism, and mitigates the influence of money as a means of social control. That mitigating influence is almost invariably a form of socialist intervention in public life.
We know that if the current system of multinational corporatism remains unchecked the planet will be despoiled, the rain forests will be a memory, and millions of people --- especially in the southern hemisphere --- will suffer and starve. We also know that the resources exist today to feed, clothe and house all the hungry, poverty-stricken and homeless of the world. The impulse to do so is nearly anathema to raging capitalists, only a socialist intervention in public life will ameliorate suffering.
Am I talking about redistribution of wealth? Hell, yes. Am I saying that class warfare in the form of unrealistic taxation, racial and ethnic discrimination, and corporate propaganda obtain in the current political environment and needs to be opposed? You betcha. I am saying that the house is already on fire and we need to do something about it, by any means necessary. The means which we know works most effectively at saving our families and generations to come is socialist intervention in public life.
ABOUT THIS EDITION: We have eight great new features for you in this Hall of Mirrors edition. I'm not going to focus on any of them, because I feel they are all wonder. Go to the Dailies page. You'll see.
Thanks for coming back this week.
WHY?
Because we like you....
Be Good to Each Other,
Rudy's worried about chewing gum? Oh please!
The Writer shows up in a bar in Chelsea and plays The Who's "Don't Get Fooled Again" on the jukebox. An off-duty cop, a Brit ex-pat and various patrons start to sing along. The 25 y.o.a. bartender strolls down to the end of the bar and says, "Great tune!" sotto voce. Is revolution always right under the skin of the working class these days? Is the sideshow becoming less amusing?
Read in the New York Times that no less a celebrity talking head than George Stephanopoulos has said about this election's results that he and fellow pundits were "...all wrong, all the time."
So now that the pundits and experts have admitted they didn't know jack about what the American people were thinking and feeling, and couldn't see the roaring freight train of public backlash against the Monica-fixation rushing headlong toward the Republican Congress(Duh!), the MM folks are discovering that people of color had significant impact on midterm election results. Crimey!
We're glad you're here. We have a lot to offer this(and EVERY) week. Stick around. More importantly: TELL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS. We want you here EVERY DAY.
Rod
ROD AMIS is a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he writes the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and most recently at WebLab's new Reality Check site.
Rod is also a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he writes on web design and development issues every Thursday; and a contributing writer for Faulkner Information Services.
When not busy with publishing chores at this site, and answering sixty -to- one hundred e-mails a day, he likes to throw darts; seek female companionship; and listen to Tupac, Beethoven, Philip Glass, Joni Mitchell, James Carter, Eric Clapton, Snoop Dogg, Etta James, Miles Davis, Handel, Portishead, Toots & the Maytals, Bob Marley, Sinead O'Connor, techno, house, jazz.... You get the idea.
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