Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, January 18, 2007
What can 50 do against 300 million?
Morning all!
I loved the alice walker quote: “activism is our rent for living on this planet.” For some reason it reminded me of a Coretta Scott King quote: “When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone.”
I was informed by my landlord yesterday that I have to move out. The place is for sale, you see, and he doesn’t think it “shows well with the way I live.” I’ve been pondering that. The insult wasn’t needed - he was perfectly within his right to simply ask me to move out (with 30 days notice, which he is giving), but “the way I live...”
It is true that I have no bedroom furniture. He’s not clever enough to have a clue about my veganism, my animal rights activism, which (despite the oppressive AETA) are still legal anyway. So I really do think he was referring to the bedroom decor. Are people really that shallow? Of course they are. And somehow his little superficial insult has become a symbol in my mind of capitalisms enormous capacity to destroy community.
Or maybe I’m a little crazy. lol.
Chilly here a few short miles from the pentagon…
and since my captcha word is “work”, I guess I’d better.
Posted by Deb on from NoVa 01/18 at 07:57 AMDeb, I hope a new and better place for the sameor less rent shows up by Sunday.
Ah, Jackson Pollock...misunderstood by the large majority who don’t see what he did, even if I can’t say for sure it was what he was trying to do...leave a graphic record of the act of creativity.
Ice melting, warming up, better weather today for going out into which is what I must do. Oh whee.
Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 01/18 at 08:07 AMThanks mudge! I’m sure I’ll find something soon!
Posted by Deb on from NoVa 01/18 at 08:31 AMGood morning Deb and Mudge...sorry to hear about the landlord, Deb. Housing in the usa is a major problem for so many. His insulting remark just shows how limited his thinking is.
Great article, Mickey. I think I disagree with this one statement though, “...there’s been no shortage of rebels in the U.S....” I think that we in the usa are short about 2 and a half million rebels. What can 50 do against 300 million, depends on the kind of weapons that the 50 have. One person with a nuke is more powerful than a million saying, “Please don’t bomb us.”Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/18 at 08:32 AMHello Expendables...from chilly, sunny Astoria.
Deb: My wife and I were in a somewhat similar situation last year. We contacted everyone we knew and got incredibly lucky. We landed in a much better apartment in a much better building in the same neighborhood...and get this: it’s rent-stabilized. We didn’t realize how much we needed to move until we were forced out. Spread the word, Deb, you never know who has the lead that can change your life. Good luck, my friend.
Hello Mudge and RMJ. I’ll be back soon to chat further. As captcha sez: “future.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/18 at 10:12 AMGood morning all,
Good luck with your search, Deb. Who knows, you might even find a landlord who’s capable of respecting your personal choices even when they’re none of his business!
Mickey I found the last line of your article to be poignant: “Obviously, we need a radical new vision of courage.”
I’m not sure that we Expendables do, but ‘we’ the general populace most certainly are in desperate need.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/18 at 10:40 AMNice article Mick, good spirit, but was Jackson Pollack really a subversive or radical while being funded by the CIA?
Jackson Pollock: cia stooge?
by Nick Mamatas
“Jackson Pollock and other modern artists were secretly subsidized and promoted by the CIA as an antidote to the iconography of Soviet Realism and as a counter-punch to the body of post-war art, which was radicalizing both artists and viewers.”And I’m sorry to niggle but is a sell-out ad for crappy sweat shop sneakers the best Jackson clip you could find?
Posted by Youngfox on from wonder 01/18 at 10:53 AMMorning all...good luck, Deb.
I’ve got a quote from Fredrick Douglass…
“Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”
“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North, and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages, and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.”Posted by JOS on from Chicago 01/18 at 10:56 AMLove the FD quote, JOS.
Youngfox: I was going for “irony” with the video. Perhaps I missed. As for the CIA canard, I guess we can each believe what we choose. My point (in the article) was to use Greenberg’s quote about Pollock and his ilk as a jump-off point...no matter how one feels about Pollock.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/18 at 11:02 AMIs it a “canard”?
I thought you might clarify if that was the case.
Honestly one article does not a “belief” make, I just thought I would throw that one out there and see who might pass or punt.
I realize it was more about the quote than Pollack himself but stranger trains of thought have departed from the station of your posts in the past.Sorry about missing the intent of the video, perhaps I am suffering from an irony deficiency.
Have a nice day.Posted by Youngfox on from no longer 01/18 at 11:18 AMJust like the day after Johnny Cash died a commercial came out with his “I’ve been everywhere, man” song...Pollock’s death brought about an eventual converse ad...I have to say, though, that of all the products in the world, converse is one of the least offensive to me...again, if I did any research into their production methods, I am sure I would soon change my mind.
Here’s a question to all the artists here, or creative extremists, and I think that means everybody...if the CIA went up to you andsaid they would pay you to continue your creativity without any strings attached, would you do it?
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 01/18 at 11:57 AMSpeaking of stranger trains of thought…
How did the french word for ‘duck’ end up being used to refer to a ‘red herring’ (is there an aquatic referential comonality?)?
JOS, your question’s an interesting one. Free money’s a nice idea, but it’s never really free, is it?
I firstly can’t begin to imagine that I’m either extreme or creative enough for such a thing to ever be possible in my case, however I don’t think I could say yes in all good conscience...there’s guaranteed to be an ugly reason behind their carrot on a stick.Considering the possible promotion and/or subsidisation of such artists as Pollack; if they subsidised by buying paintings otherwise going unsold, or by assisting unseen through galleries, etc., would this necessarily have been a bad thing? What if the artist(s) never even knew about it until after the fact?
My second paragraph seems to undermine my thoughts in the previous one, but there it is.
Anyone have any other thoughts on that?
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/18 at 12:13 PMI readily accepted U.S. gov’t money when I received unemployment insurance (the closest thing this country has to subsidized art). If the CIA were insane enough to give me money without maintaining any control over how it was used, sure I’d take it. Imagine CIA $$$ being used to help a group like the GGE (yesterday’s post) or donated to an anarchist website like Infoshop.
As for the “canard,” well, I don’t know if it’s a canard. I guess I’ve had a handful of folks read this article and choose to focus only on the alleged CIA-Pollock link and I took it out on Youngfox. Sorry, dude.
Btw, I did change the video in today’s post. Much funnier now.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/18 at 12:58 PMG’Day Expendables. Today it is winter where I am.
Re: commodified renegades and true rebellion. Since there isn’t now and hasn’t been for some years, any effective leadership on the American left, today’s article prompts me to think about what comes next, for people who choose to carry their dissent into the public arena. I haven’t yet found my answer to that question, as it seems to be a poor second choice to a firm political strategy with a clear goal, i.e. occupy Congressional offices in order to punctuate the antiwar message of the last election (as was suggested elsewhere on the ‘net).
Starting some “project” (media, etc) leaves me limp, as it’s been done to death, to no apparent effect, even with great resources. Keeping to myself also makes me ill, though I understand this society is highly effective at isolating people. I don’t have an answer, other than the obvious: take notice of what happens around you, speak up when the chance presents, and survive as best you can.
Captcha sez “future.”
Posted by Zenprole on from Urth 01/18 at 02:24 PMHi everyone...I just deleted a message from one of the really “progressive” groups. They are supporting a petition calling for redeployment. Calling for redeployment while the Congress offers a non-binding resolution just goes to show how far we have to go. Redeployment and non-binding resolutions are taking us backwards.
Mudge...Keep warm there with the melting ice.
Zen...I share your view that change is almost impossible.
JOS...great quote from Frederick Douglas. I think I need to print that one out and hang it on my wall.
Mickey, Amelopsis, and Youngfox...I remember a while back we had a similar discussion here. I think it concerned selling books at Starbucks. It seems to me that accepting money from anyone is never wrong unless it influences the writing or the art. If the CIA wanted to give me a gift today, I would gladly accept and use it wisely...but I would not change my belief system for a million dollars. That quote from Gibran just came to mind, “They think me mad because I will not sell my days for gold. I think them mad because they believe my days have a price”. (I know I am misquoting there.)
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/18 at 02:56 PMThat’s my take...though I do see Amelopsis’ point, in that there might be a part of me that would hate any sort of connection to such a organization.
I would take that money in a second…
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 01/18 at 04:05 PMAn interesting Nation review of Tristram Stuart’s new history of global vegetarianism, “The Bloodless Revolution.”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070205/lazare
Posted by Jordan on from 01/18 at 04:57 PMDon’t get me wrong - taking the money in a second is my first instinct but I liken it to the idea of having a character like Tony Soprano do you a favour....you never know when it might come back to haunt you.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/18 at 05:53 PMI get your point, Amelopsis. But compared to some of the elected officials in Vermont, Tony Soprano is like a choir boy.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/18 at 06:16 PMHere’s another way of looking at it: MIT, as far as I know, is the beneficiary of much Pentagon funding. MIT was, as far as I know, the primary source of Noam Chomsky’s salary. Chomsky’s MIT career certainly contributed to him having the kind of lifestyle that alllowed for him to pursue his important social and political work.
Almost all money is blood money but taking from the rich and giving to the poor is always an option.
Jordan: Yes, that review was “interesting,” in the sense that it was contained more than a few inaccuracies and seemed to voice the reviewer’s opinion on vegetarianism far more than his opinion of the book being reviewed. I just may write about this in my next Veg News column. Btw, based on past experience, I’m not sure what your agenda is in posting a comment here...using your real name, no less. Care to comment about that?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/18 at 07:07 PMI just read that article now and I second your opinion of it, Mickey. Quite a number of innacurate assumptions abounded, not least regarding the reasons and logic behind the choice of vegetarians to be such.
I’d have to say I found it a little bit insulting to my intelligence.Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/19 at 10:29 AMJust ran across it in my weekly perusal of the Nation. Since this is the only blog I regularly read that deals with vegetarianism in a political way, I thought I’d post it. Inaccurate, opinionated, or whatever else, it was at least provocative, which is why I posted here, even though it was a bit of a non-sequiter as a result. I wasn’t endorsing or not endorsing it.
Posted by Jordan on from 01/20 at 10:36 PMThanks, Jordan. I’ll write about that review in Veg News.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/21 at 07:26 AM
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