Monday, November 22, 2004

The Granma Moses of Radical Writing

By Mickey Z.

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Posted 11/22 | Add a Comment

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  1. My only experience with Mr. Blum was by way of his earlier work, Rogue State.  Thanks to MZ’s interview with Mr. Blum, which was first posted on his own website, I became more familiar with his other works.  I am indebted to you, MZ, for broadening my growing appreciation of this most insightful man.  I particularly encourage everyone to read his series of essays which are entitled, Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire.  They may be found on Mr. Blum’s website.

    Posted by Nader Rider from  on  11/22  at  11:58 AM

  2. Don’t just read it online, buy it if you can afford to..Publishing works like this - CC can put out, say a lot of the more radical stuff they do because that stuff is paid for by St. Clair, Blum etc.....and you help offset the costs of the recent book by Yosef Grodansky (expect a review from me tonight/tomorrow) called In the Shadow of the Holocaust - a key missing link in Jewish history - how the Zionists manipulated the displaced Jews of Europe and blackmailed the allies.  Many of these Jews did not want to move to Palestine, and were forced to by armed Zionists.

    This is an incredibly important book, and Greg Bates and CC deserve a nobel prize for putting out an English version of it (it has been out in Israel for six years)...  As Michael Lerner (who i usually find annoying) writes in the introduction “Zionists were not only oppressive to Palestinians, but also to Holocaust Survivors.” This book refutes a myth that even I believed, that Jews had “nowhere else to go.”

    Posted by j cummings from  on  11/22  at  06:06 PM

  3. TO NR, Killing Hope was originally published under another title, so it precedes Rogue State by many years. The CIA: A forgotten history (Zed Books, 1986).

    When I read Killing Hope in 1995, it was more interesting and exciting than any spy novel. And let us not for get LBJ informing the Greek ambassador: “F*ck your president and your constitution”. Gotta love it. It reveals in one sentence the depths of hatred, arrogance and depravity of the American mindset.

    Look forward to you review of the Grodansky book Jordy. Btw, what is your take on Lenni Brenner’s book on Zionist collaboration with the Nazis (as it relates to Grodansky)? I have not yet read it but often read his articles at Counterpunch.

    Thanks.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from  on  11/22  at  06:31 PM

  4. I would only say that all I know about, all that is happening in the world, and has happened, I wish I didn’t know. Since I awoke the world that was, is gone. This one is ugly, filled with ugly men, doing ugly things for no readily apparent rational reason. It saddens me greatly, I am filled with anger, stuck here. Listen, we have to figure out a way to flush these turds, put them back where they came from. Maybe we could lock them up in a room and hit them with nonstop “Sympathy For the Devil” 24/7 til they screamed for momma.

    Posted by burnie from somewhere-everywhere, wherever music is, us is  on  11/22  at  10:19 PM

  5. Burnie has awoken to reality (or one layer of it), and that is the first step toward liberation/humanization. The problem is most people even attaining this level will turn back. A case in point, a somewhat random example of a group that is by no means the most exploited in the world: part time teachers carry the bulk of the work load at the university level (I assume it is the same throughout the industrialized world) while full time teachers do much less work and get many more (financial etc.) benefits. The power clearly rests with the majority of the oppressed group to strike and bargain for a more fair working condition. But will they do it? Not if the slave/totalitarian mindset is deeply embedded. I’m sure there are many cultures and countries where this would not apply. But it seems the more wealthy the country the more brainwashed and cowardly are the middle classes. This is my banal observation, thanks to Mark Hand for this site for allowing me to let off some steam!  grin

    Anyway, the dilema generally relates to Burnie’s point about the direness of the situation. But this may also offer Burnie some hope (not Killing Hope) that alot of the world’s problems are psychological/cultural, of the mindset and perception. In other words, many of our current circumstances need not be so if people just made the effort to change them (not saying it would be easy even if we decided to change things, but might often turn out that it was easier than we had feared).

    “Quite an experience living in fear isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave” from Bladerunner…

    Burnie, read Welcome to the Machine by Derrick Jensen. That book will either make you more depressed or so angry that you will refuse to do nothing else but change the world for the better.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from  on  11/23  at  12:42 AM

  6. Listen this may sound frivolous and bit off center, it is, have any of you ever thought of just circumventing the insanity and starting a worldwide cultural exchange of music, dance and art in its many forms, with absolutely no governments involved. we do this people to people. We declare a world war, and invade each other with all that makes us human beings in the best sense. Let your freak flag fly-csny

    Posted by burnie from somewhere-everywhere, wherever music is, us is  on  11/23  at  01:26 AM

  7. No prob Burn, I’m all in favor in tapping into our creative side to bring about a revolution in consciousness. But. Capitalism is amazingly good at co-opting dissent. And so you can have a Green Day video that rightly points out what idiots many Americans are (politically) and yet somehow, it does not seem to lead to a revolutionary consciousness (slowly creeping counterhegemony, yes, maybe). It seems that many of the people who espouse the cultural route to changing the world do so because they (understandably) hate “politics” and the drudgery of political organizing. No doubt that those who are the very serious poltiical types (the super intellectual Leftist ) could use a bit of loosening up through creative means such as art and music and dance and humor.

    Having been to the last two or three Earth Days in Tokyo, I have noticed that it is increasingly becoming a flea market to sell hippie clothing and jewlry and less a forum for environmental education, let alone a forum for green political organizing, let alone a forum for radical green political organizing. Certainly we need the drums, hemp t-shirts and beer, funky styles in order to transcend the sterility of political rhetoric. But we also need to prioritize the need to abolish the global monetocracy (a system designed to destroy the world) and relay this information in a clear way to a wide number of people.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from  on  11/23  at  03:47 AM

  8. Re Brenner - hsi stuff is always worth reading - I find him a very lyrical writer - if you can find a used copy of Zionism in the Age of Dictators it is one of the greats.  The Grodansky book is one step further though - in regards to refugees who had “the right of return” to Germany, Austria, Poland, and many wanted to, but were forced to be conscripts in the Zionist army.  There was chaos at these refugee camps and the Zionists controlled them.  They forced people against their will to be cannon fodder in the “independce war” (nakhba) in Palestine.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  11/23  at  02:09 PM

  9. Okay, It would still be a wonderful thing. Short and to the point; we are butchering people in Iraq, most people are appalled at the horror being inflicted there-shooting wounded fighters,
    shooting people swiming across the Euphrates River who have white rags to signify status as non-combatants, flagrant killing of civilians of any gender or age. If I ever wished anything it would be to put fucking bush and his band of #### ups on the front lines and abandon them there, where they could experience their demise in violent living terror for all to see. If writing words like these is an invitation to trouble-so be it, if you want to kick me off this site so be it. What these idiots are doing is beyond what anyone should have to experience on this earth, and I won’t be quiet, and I hope more people start screaming bloody murder-this has to stop and our government needs to be brought to its knees, period. On a lighter note, did you enjoy the Piston vs Pacer game the other night, everyone wring their hands over the fighting and the bad light it casts on the NBA. What kind of people are we human beings. Murdering a downed wounded fighter gets hardly a blip on the radar screen and Ron Artests’ punch is front page news-pardon me while I puke.

    Posted by burnie from somewhere-everywhere, wherever music is, us is  on  11/23  at  02:15 PM

  10. Burnie:

    One way to avoid detection, or at least a further layer of protection are internet proxies, check it out.

    As for the rest of your rant: right on ‘bro. But know that Kerry was going to kerry on with the same bloodbath. We have to upturn this empire before it destroys the planet.

    And thanks Jordy, look forward to your review.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from  on  11/23  at  06:32 PM

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