Howard Zinn and JD Salinger both passed away recently. They belonged to that near mythical generation of Americans (like my beloved and missed Grandparents) who survived the Great Depression and World War II to witness the birth of American Supremacy.
Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye never had the Holden Caulfield rebellion effect on me because I read it much too late. I was already 25 and firmly ensconced (or so I thought) in my persona. However, reflecting on it today, I recognize in it a kernel of my irritation with authority.
But, I first picked up a copy of A People's History of the United States in 1993 after Clinton's victory and when I was listening to Conservative Talk Radio. It was fascinating. How could the stories by true? My American History classes never touched on these plights or the struggles of the poor and oppressed.
Ludlow? The IWW? I'd never heard Mark Twain wrote against War, and more directly against Organized Religion, Governments and the Elites than just in his heavily cloaked but indisputable polemics starring Huck and Tom. And even though I'd lived in the Chicago land area for 20 years I had never heard of Haymarket Square or the subsequent events of the now widely dissembled Weathermen.
Reading the stories of the workers struggles planted the nascent seed pods of my journey to Liberalism, which flowered along the banks of the Euphrates 10 years later, and away from anti-human conservative pathology.
Of course, the Punk Ass Bitch Conservatives over at She Who Shall not be Named 2's site have only evil things to say about a World War II veteran and staunch defender of the poor and exploited, who fought passionately for Civil Rights and stood courageously against the Vietnam War. They (still) hate Zinn because he stood against warfare and oppression, and Conservatives love to oppress and kill people.
Democracy Now has a fitting Tribute to Howard Zinn and the Real News Network often interviewed Zinn because of his great moral integrity and they way he fundamentally changed the way We the People should view our deference to authority and our acceptance of the Outrage of War.
Related:
NPR's All Things Considered asked David Horowitz to comment on Howard Zinn's passing: Not surprisingly Horowitz as a radical chicken hawk anti-human punk ass bitch conservative who hates the poor and oppressed and loves war insulted and slandered Zinn because Howard Zinn fought for those crushed under the iron heel of anti-human conservatives.
We could use far more progressive voices like Zinn's on the scene today, as we are on the brink of being totally swallowed up into a plutocratic corpocracy where the only things that matter and have any real influence are wealth and corporations. It's a new American slavery; kinder and gentler than, and not racially based as was its preceding form, but slavery nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteIt's a revival of Feudalism. The moneyed Kleptocrats who control government, ensure laws are framed for their benefit, stifles debate and wants The American People to remain cogs in the wheels of Industry and War.
ReplyDeleteAs Howard Zinn wrote: It is very important for the Establishment - that uneasy club of business executives, generals, and politicos - to maintain the historic pretense of national unity, in which the government represents all the people, and the common enemy is overseas, not at home, where disasters of economics or war are unfortunate errors or tragic accidents, to be corrected by the members of the same club that brought the disasters.
Gene,
ReplyDeleteI heard that BS on NPR with Horowitz and nearly smashed my dashboard! Needless to say, now I only listen to Boston CDs on my commutes.
Fing unbelieveable.
SP