OK, that wasn’t fair. Two books I just finished, Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postelwait, and Andrew Thomson, and After Liberalism by Immanuel Wallerstein, fit together in an unexpected way. The first one was a fairly light read, interesting primarily for being first-hand accounts of three idealistic “young” people working for the U.N. in Cambodia, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Haiti during the 1990s when each of those places was wracked by variations of ethnic cleansing, fascist terror and horrifying incomprehensibly savage civil war. But as often happens when you read more than one book at a time, themes suddenly overlap and a deeper understanding springs up.
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So Much for the Moral High Ground is a pleasing rant against all the spiritual bullshit we’re being deluged with these days. I like this person’s take: just blast away, and forget about trying to meet the “enemy” in the middle. There’s no chance of ‘working it out’ with the Christian right. Maybe there are some lefty liberation theologists or Unitarians out there that we can find alliances with on specific political efforts, but my basic feeling is we have to drive all talk of spirituality out of political life. I know a lot of people feel like what’s wrong with politics is that it is so devoid of soul, so disconnected from the deeper issues of our lives. A long, fun holiday weekend. Many thoughts have come and gone, but one stuck for a bit… and I just looked up the data: Kerry spent $317.7 million, the Democratic Party $618 million, all demo candidates $406 mil (I assume that means another 90 million over Kerry’s number), then a bunch of 527s spent over $200 million… so roughly 1.25 BILLION DOLLARS was wasted on this recent election. I know a fair amount of that dough would only be made available to Democrats and people who wouldn’t really alter the way things are. But a mighty big chunk of that money was spent by people who know better, and dream of bigger changes. Before we’re all beaten down and cave in to the endless prattle about “reclaiming” the Democratic Party, what about using all that money to start a biting, fighting, no-holds-barred NATIONAL daily newspaper that spits and claws and insists on truth and won’t shut up? If Gannett could launch USA Today, why can’t the rich and well-enough-off who sunk so much money into NOTHING instead dedicate a portion of their financial largesse to launching a newspaper, a TV network, and more….. and not like that unbelievably lame Air America. It’s time to break with the Democrats for good and clearly stake out a territory with some intergrity and reliable commitment to the concerns of ordinary people. |
 NEW 2nd EDITION NOW AVAILABLE! Buy one here (Pluto Press, Spring 2025)  NOW AVAILABLE! Buy one here (Spuyten Duyvil, October 2023)  Shift Happens! Critical Mass at 20 (2012)  Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78 (2011)  Nowtopia (2008)  After the Deluge (2004)  The Political Edge (2004)  Critical Mass: Bicycling's Defiant Celebration (2002)  Reclaiming San Francisco: History Culture Politics (1998)  Bad Attitude: The Processed World Anthology (1990)  Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco's Mission Bay (2nd edition: 2011) All books available at chriscarlsson.com/stuff. |
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