Reading today's Los Angeles Times, through my online subscription:
* This article, about a re-enactment of an 1811 Louisiana slave rebellion, caused me to wonder, So where are the slave rebellion reenactments instead of the Civil War reenactments? I think the slave rebellion ones will have a heck of an impact on white southern Civil War buffs, who so often seek excuses for their ancestors' treasonous, hateful behavior. Hmmm....
* Glad to see Kshama Sawant survived Amazon's brazen attempt to force her out of her Seattle, WA City Council seat.
* The smell of marijuana and a large business/industry corrupting Carpinteria, CA, a small town just south of Santa Barbara. It is a beautiful town, as I recall it, and one that was more affordable in part than most places in Santa Barbara. Local communities tend to be controlled by the largest industry in tandem with real estate businesses. It is a fact of life in American history. It is why communities should not assume the "hippie" cannabis business will behave any differently. There is also something to the pollution marijuana smells cause.
* This profile of the less than 10,000 population town of Taft, CA, which I have been to on a few occasions in my time living in CA (mostly for law cases, including depositions, and walking around the town) is interesting to me because it shows, even in Taft, it is not 100% right wing or "Red" in the current, modern parlance. There is the gay male cheerleader in town, the various "libs," and others who do not fit within the usual corporate media-political strategist for the DNC/RNC profile. Why should their voices, when combined with the majority of city and suburban dwellers not count for presidential elections, or, for that matter, districting? The idea that the majority of citizens of Taft, who are a distinct and clear minority view of voters, should have more representation or more of their voices heard, is fundamentally anti-democratic, anti-republican, and goes against the grain of anything we would normally find moral in terms of human governance. That the oil industry is a threat to the planet is something that also required to be said.
* Related to the two stories immediately above is this one about the anti-CA fervor in Boise, Idaho, where CA residents are apparently moving in relatively higher numbers than from other places. Boise is a gorgeous community, from what I have heard from those who moved and regularly visit there. What I find interesting is the article never asks, Shouldn't people in Boise be more upset at the globalized economy which undermines their wages? At the rich people in Boise who have lived there for generations who exploited them with poor wages and benefits? Or maybe ask, Why is it that a gorgeous place like Boise never developed before? Nah. Easier to blame the Californians. The funny thing is it is mostly right wingers who are moving there, not "libs." It reminds me of a Los Angeles Times Magazine piece, not on the Internet for some reason, about Californians who left the Golden State and came back. It profiled a number of business people and their families. The business people said they found the workforce too uneducated, too poor in their cultural habits, and not enough of a labor pool to, well, exploit. The business people's families largely said they missed malls, missed things to do that were not merely "outdoors," found the people closed-minded, not very bright or engaged, and ultimately dull. These people who the magazine article profiled labeled themselves as "conservative" and one literally said how he thought he was a conservative until he moved to the small town in Arkansas or Kentucky, I forget which of the states. So amusing. So telling. Perhaps it is why the article is not on the Internet, as far as I last checked.
* As AOC said at the big Iowa rally for Bernie yesterday, the key is solidarity, not merely unity. The robots are coming, and they should not come in a structure that only benefits the wealthy and powerful. Technological change should benefit the majority of people and humanity as a whole. We see this in the Times' Business section article regarding the technological undermining of longshore workers, and those truckers who are not supporting their fellow workers should wake up, especially if Andrew Yang and Elon Musk are correct that their friends will successfully implement self-driving commercial trucks. One may say, "Wait, being against technological changes is a Luddite position, and why should those jobs, so drudging, so wracking to a human body, remain at all?" I get that. But if the result is simply unemployment and no universal basic income, no economic assistance from government, and only letting the well off employers extract more profits--exploitation is the old economic term for this--then, I stand with those who want to fight back against that type of change. It remains frustrating to me that Harry Braverman's "Labor and Monopoly Capital" is not taught in high school or college, and I would guess most living Americans have never read it. However, I loved the Wiki reference to the book that the Wall Street Journal, in 2009, said it was one of the "five best books on working." Still, the Wiki reference does not make clear the other main point in Braverman's book is how technology is not "neutral," and how its implementation is subject to the structure of a community's or nation's political-economy and society. That is even more important than the attack on Taylorism, which one may intuitively understand and learn from other books.
* Also in the Los Angeles Times Business section is the almost always brilliant Michael Hiltzik. His column today on light bulbs, specifically LEDs, CFLs, and how the Republican officeholders and corporate media dummy down our culture. Hiltzik shows there were environmental issues with CFLs, but how LED lights removed most of the environmental challenges, and how, for public policy to work, it must do so without ideological cynicism. Empirical data gathering and analysis, accepting of compromises when the facts--not power centers' demands--require those compromises, should be how we evaluate and implement and reform public policies.
* Ooops. Hard work does not translate into higher wages. So readers may understand, this article was placed in page C2 in the Business section. What a surprise as to how corporate media plays up other things that are trivial and not this study. What a surprise in a system not designed for workers' lives to be improved. Ugh. There will be no talking heads in corporate broadcast media saying, "Wait! Maybe if we had more private sector unions again. Maybe if we had free college and people did not have to worry about crushing medical bills. Or maybe if we started to spend on the military only what the Russians and Chinese spend combined, instead of what the Chinese, Russians, and the next 8-10 nations thereafter spend combined and redirected our resources to infrastructure improvements and the Green New Deal policies Bernie has proposed." Nope. Not allowed. It was funny. Last week, a candidate for the nomination of my congressional district tried to tell me about health care issues, "It's so complicated." Really? If it is too complicated for you, then why are you running for the office? I did not get to say that to this particular candidate, and now regret that.
And on to the New York Review of Books:
* This is an extraordinarily insightful article about the history of "Porgy & Bess." I think we are now at a point where even Gershwin's demand to use African-Americans in the play is not enough. It raises legitimate questions about appropriation, but I still find the music compelling.
* Historically analyzing anything to do with an organized religion is fraught with danger, largely because such an analysis leads to a rejection of "magic" beliefs and beliefs grounded in "what someone told me when I was a kid, and that's enough!" I always wince when I see the bumper sticker "God said it! I believe it! That settles it!" One would like to ask those persons, "Which translation did you read? Did you read what 'God' said? What is it that 'God' actually said that you believe and believe it is settled?" Well, we know what happens there. Cognitive dissonance at the highest, most acute level. Screams of "Heretic!" And, historically, we know it gets worse from there. Anyway, this article from a religion scholar about Mary, mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, is one worth reading for those interested in the cultural and theological history of Christianity.
* This article is only worth reading to expose how corporate media narrative biases and limitations seep into even the most critically intellectual of journals. Michael Tomasky's discussion is ultimately banal and pedestrian, though it is still better than most newspaper and television pundits' perspectives. His refusal to analyze the basis for Sanders' support, his refusal to show he understands how corporate media works in fact, and inability to analyze outside the box that is, well, the television box, mar this article's import.
* The NYRB has been great on the climate change issue in the past year, more than usual. This is another intriguing analysis of important books on this subject. I crack up in despair and frustration when I hear questions to political candidates about climate change, and the demand that whatever we do, we should not have to sacrifice or change our lifestyles in any way. I wonder, and have said, How will the catastrophes change our lifestyles if we don't take serious actions now? Oh well. That is not how human beings behave. We are T-Rexes helplessly watching the meteor crash into the planet, except this time, the meteor is our fellow human beings who control our societies' fossil fuel industries, and the rest of us who think this is either a hoax or not worth any immediate structural changes.
Finally, an amusing note. I was invited to join an "Ok, Boomer" FB group. I did and published a comment highlighting my short story from 2016, "Boomerang." I am pleased to say I have had over 60 likes/loves and growing, and almost every commenter thanked me or said something kind to me. I have been called an "Okay Boomer." The Ok, Boomer phenomenon is one I welcome, as it moves our argument forward, and it allows us to begin to realize it is not necessarily about a generation, though the word "generation" is from the same root as "general" and "generalization," and sadly, for 60% of white Baby Boomers and addled Oldsters, the generalization fits. It is to realize who is controlling the world, and how the attacks on younger people is so hateful, wrong, and self-defeating. The Kids, as I call anyone younger than a Baby Boomer (1946-1964 birth years), are in the best position to vote in huge numbers, and join with those of us more, ahem, enlightened Boomers and Oldsters to vote for political leaders who will mobilize people to change systems to protect people, other living creatures, and our planet. For those still not sure where this started, it appears the meme, phrase, and movement started with this New Zealand female politician, who pushed back against an older, white, male politician.
This dovetails with Timothy Noah's article, "The Baby Boom was a Bust" in this month's Washington Monthly. I am grateful Noah has woken up and I hope this discussion takes the type of political turn I hope it takes, which is to show the nation's majority of citizens have moved decidedly left--and Boomers had better wake the hell up. It is not enough to vacillate between corporate Democrats/corporate Republicans who say "I got mine!" and reactionaries and racists who say, "Get off my lawn!" It is time to get out of that rut of ignorance, greed, and hatred, and embrace your children. I have long said the entire analysis of the Sixties student movement is fundamentally wrong in its focus. We should realize, They were just kids. And the parents are to blame for the excesses and madness which developed. The kids were correct about how wrong America's war against Vietnam was and how the civil rights movement was correct. The parents, however, the misnamed "Greatest" Generation, just pissed on their kids and refused to listen, preferring to ridicule them, beat them up with their police they controlled, and were happy to create resigned cynicism and return to consumerist, anti-human values.
And on that note, Season 4 of "Rick & Morty" begins tonight, which is one of the two most intelligent shows on television (the other being "Bojack Horseman" with the last four seasons of "South Park" and "The Good Place" being close seconds). Here is how to catch up to Season 4, if you have not seen it, though I also recommend, Season 1, Episode 2, which is the take off on "Inception" and the most extraordinary plot line about the nature of humans and dogs. I find most Boomers and Oldsters have problems following these programs. Sad. I learned about R&M, BH, and The Good Place from our children. I try to listen to them when they speak about artistic matters and the world. I have learned much from them on artistic matters, and find they are learning much about the world on their own--and, as my son said yesterday, "Dad, I now get why you were yelling at the television in the 1990s when I was young."
Finally, an amusing note. I was invited to join an "Ok, Boomer" FB group. I did and published a comment highlighting my short story from 2016, "Boomerang." I am pleased to say I have had over 60 likes/loves and growing, and almost every commenter thanked me or said something kind to me. I have been called an "Okay Boomer." The Ok, Boomer phenomenon is one I welcome, as it moves our argument forward, and it allows us to begin to realize it is not necessarily about a generation, though the word "generation" is from the same root as "general" and "generalization," and sadly, for 60% of white Baby Boomers and addled Oldsters, the generalization fits. It is to realize who is controlling the world, and how the attacks on younger people is so hateful, wrong, and self-defeating. The Kids, as I call anyone younger than a Baby Boomer (1946-1964 birth years), are in the best position to vote in huge numbers, and join with those of us more, ahem, enlightened Boomers and Oldsters to vote for political leaders who will mobilize people to change systems to protect people, other living creatures, and our planet. For those still not sure where this started, it appears the meme, phrase, and movement started with this New Zealand female politician, who pushed back against an older, white, male politician.
This dovetails with Timothy Noah's article, "The Baby Boom was a Bust" in this month's Washington Monthly. I am grateful Noah has woken up and I hope this discussion takes the type of political turn I hope it takes, which is to show the nation's majority of citizens have moved decidedly left--and Boomers had better wake the hell up. It is not enough to vacillate between corporate Democrats/corporate Republicans who say "I got mine!" and reactionaries and racists who say, "Get off my lawn!" It is time to get out of that rut of ignorance, greed, and hatred, and embrace your children. I have long said the entire analysis of the Sixties student movement is fundamentally wrong in its focus. We should realize, They were just kids. And the parents are to blame for the excesses and madness which developed. The kids were correct about how wrong America's war against Vietnam was and how the civil rights movement was correct. The parents, however, the misnamed "Greatest" Generation, just pissed on their kids and refused to listen, preferring to ridicule them, beat them up with their police they controlled, and were happy to create resigned cynicism and return to consumerist, anti-human values.
And on that note, Season 4 of "Rick & Morty" begins tonight, which is one of the two most intelligent shows on television (the other being "Bojack Horseman" with the last four seasons of "South Park" and "The Good Place" being close seconds). Here is how to catch up to Season 4, if you have not seen it, though I also recommend, Season 1, Episode 2, which is the take off on "Inception" and the most extraordinary plot line about the nature of humans and dogs. I find most Boomers and Oldsters have problems following these programs. Sad. I learned about R&M, BH, and The Good Place from our children. I try to listen to them when they speak about artistic matters and the world. I have learned much from them on artistic matters, and find they are learning much about the world on their own--and, as my son said yesterday, "Dad, I now get why you were yelling at the television in the 1990s when I was young."
