Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Monday, January 10, 2005
The Mickey Z./Press Action Interview
Mark Hand, editor of Press Action (and, for full disclosure, a longtime friend of mine) asked some questions...like this one right here:
Q: You sometimes categorize yourself politically as an anarchist, or at least as an anarchist fellow traveler. What people and events have had the greatest influence in the development of your political philosophy?
...and I came up with some answers...like this, for example:
A: I’m allergic to labels...but authority has always made me uncomfortable: parents, teachers, bosses, landlords, police, priests, older sister. I felt this way long before I had ever heard the word “anarchist.” Could be those twelve years of Catholic school, I guess. That was my inoculation...making me immune to trusting authority and needing some sky-god to solve my problems. To this day, I feel physically ill when an “authority figure” imposes his or her will on me or anyone around me.
In a more literal sense, reading Guy Debord was a revelation...a wake-up call to my innate spirit. Same goes for Chomsky...and the many authors who influenced my shift toward veganism. Bukowski. Emma Goldman, so many...and today I find Arundhati Roy to be an epiphany every time I read her words or hear her speak. On the artistic side, Bruce Lee and Marcel Duchamp also stand out as influences. The list goes on and on. As someone who did not attend college, I do the self-education thing well. One book leads to another which leads to a film perhaps or a radio program and so on. Eventually, I realized that the worldview I was cultivating had a name: anarchism (or perhaps anarcho-syndicalism).
To read the complete interview, please click here:
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/hand01102004/
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
