Tag: politics

Political Past

If I were an ex-libretarian, I don’t think I’d admit it on the first date. Maybe the third or the fourth.
“Do you want to go steady with me?”
“Yes, but there’s something you should know. I used to be a . . . libretarian!”
Yikes! But I’m a socialist now, you explain. No longer beleive in letting sick people die or putting old folks out on the street or leaving kids uneducated. By the way, did you see the news today? Oregon Libretarians are pleased as punch that a new tax raise has been defeated, so kids will now have the shortest school year in the nation. It’s the Mississippi of the northwest! (and how many Oregonian kids will soon be able to spell the name of that notorious spelling-bee question state?)
Well, ok, Libretarians claim there’s money out there to pay for these programs. The state just needs to cut other things. No word on what these things would be. Maybe Oregon has a gigantic prison system like California and could parole people occasionally and save millions. I can’t find the article from this morning’s newspaper on the website, but here’s a releated article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/01/29/state1728EST7087.DTL

Coffee House pseudo-intellectual

Somebody recently called me a “coffee house pseudo-intellectual.” Hrm, that makes me thirsty. Maybe I should go get a decaf soy latte. It’s like coffee-flavored protein.
anyway, apparently my offense was citing FAIR and Noam Chomsky. So if you unquestioningly repeat the lies of the administration “iraq kicked out weapons inspectors in 1998,” you can be a real coffee house intellectual, but if you cite a source which quotes the Washington Post or the New York Times or the actual words of former leader-types, why, then you’re a faker. Intellectual, clearly then, equals liar. Or at least one who does no fact checking or research.
I could dilligently check all facts myself by looking through newspapers from 1998, but I’m lazy. somebody has already done this for me. Too bad fact checking groups are tainted.
We will never have truth in this country when those who tell the truth are so perfectly denigrated. It’s like there’s an official list of dilligent researchers to ignore. I mean, it’s one thing to drag the name of Rush Limbaugh through the mud, but he gets all of his information from the backs of cerial boxes and the klan website. People who do real research must suck unless they spout the biased company line of whoever is currently elected.
In short, I’d rather be a “coffee house pesudo-intellectual” (mmmm… soy latte) than an outright idiot.

Celeste Hutchins
Music Application
Writing Sample 1 of 2

Political Tract

It is entirely clear that in our current system, few people other than artists enjoy their jobs so much that they would keep doing them if they didn�t have to. It is also clear that our current system is entirely unsustainable. Our primary goal in our current system is economic growth. This means we must keep making more things every year than we did the year before, over and above any population growth. And such is our system that if we fail to grow in a year, we are in a recession and many people end up out of work. Popularly, this is not seen as a shortcoming of the system, but rather as a moral failing of the individuals affected. Furthermore, the system requires the middle class to consume more and more every year. There is only so much stuff that people want to have, however, so that it is necessary to make things disposable. The only way to keep the middle classes consuming more and more is to make them throw away what they already have. This ever-rising so-called “standard of living” does not grow higher when people must work at jobs that they do not like so they can buy things to throw them away. Meanwhile, the environmental and human costs of raw materials continue to mount. For a few to live like disposable aristocracy, others must live in poverty and environmental damage and wasting of resources must mount higher and higher.

Because this kind of capitalist excess is socially and environmentally unstable and unsustainable, it will fall. The only question is how. We can sit and wait until the ocean levels rise, disastrous uncharacteristic weather patterns pummel us, and asymmetric warfare rains down upon us from all sides, or we can act now and avert carnage, extinctions and continuing genocide.

Aside from these points, the primary weakness of our system is over and under centralization. Some systems are over centralized. Other systems have no central planning whatsoever. All of these systems are setup as inefficiently as possible so that elite individuals can profit off the inefficiency and pocket the difference between dollars spent and value received.

We can build a better system. We can break away from the old one.

I foresee great changes. Americans will say no more to a system where civil rights have been whittled down to the right to chose what color car to buy. We will say no more to enslaving the third world for private profit. We will say no more to people being poisoned by pesticides, condemned to poverty and stuck toiling away our lives in stupid jobs that offer us no freedom or leisure time.

We will couple automation with sustainable development. Nobody�s time will be more valuable than anyone else�s. Production will be to fit human needs rather than capitalistic growth. Things are valuable only in so much as the benefit human lives. We will cease production of pointlessly disposable items. Durable goods will actually be durable, re-usable and recyclable. Buildings will not be knocked over for no reason. Instead of principles of capital and ownership, we will have principles of use and collectivization. People will form voluntary associations locally to meet local needs. Every home will be a squat. The residents will have the means to maintain their homes and their collective living arrangements.

Corporations will cease, with all factory production automated and run by the government. Less will be made, because less will be needed. As much as possible, items produced locally will be consumed locally.

People will brew their own beer, and their own biodiesel, and generate their own power with the solar arrays on their roofs. Yet many tools will be owned in common. Few people actually need their own vacuum cleaner. Almost no one who has one uses it everyday. Because of growth, inefficiency and systems of ownership, people currently must buy all the tools they might ever need. However, alternatives exist even now. In Berkeley, there is a tool library that residents with a library card may check out tools from. I foresee a future where many tools are owned in common by neighborhoods, blocks, buildings or associations. The interconnectedness and interdependence of all people will be clear. No one�s time will be worth more or less than anyone else�s. The currency will be measured in hours.

People will still work as teachers, as nurses, as firefighters as repair people, but fewer hours will be required. These people will have time to peruse art, sports, music, crafts, and passion. No one will be made to live in poverty for the benefit of anyone else.

This can and will come about. There is no reason to continue our unequal, disposable and militaristic social systems. Too often we resemble what is worst about human nature. There is no reason not to resemble the best. The technology we require is present. All we need is the will to make our vision happen.

in the original version, foresaw the western states suceeding. this is better writing than my tuba paper, so i’m going to use it. and the notes towards a comic opera. my music counts more than my writing. i don’t have examples of academic writing, but they’re not necessary, and anyway between this, the tawdry fiction and my statement of purpose, at least i’ll come across as somewhat literate.

Well, it’s a new year and Oakland’s homicide rate reset to zero at midnight and is probably at least below five right now, definietly in the single digits. A news article yesturday said there were 113 homicides last year, so it’s probably right around there. I imagine if a nunch of people got killed on New Years Eve, it would have been in the paper this morning.
Anyway, I have a solution for this. This isn’t one of those “after the revolution” sort of solutions either. I mean, it’s very easy for liberals to say that people kill each other because they’re stressed and then point at the usual suspects for causing stress. Unemployment, ecenomic stress, lack of health care, etc. Yeah, I could tell you that it’s stressful being fearful that you’ll lose all your savings and end up being homeless if you get sick, because of lost wages and hospitals bills. And then I could tell you that we really need socialized medicine, so folks wouldn’t have to be so worried and so they would have less stress, and if they did get super stressed anyway, they could go to talk to a shrink about it and maybe figure things out and not kill somebody. Yeah, I could sip my latte as a very pious liberal and tell you that. But let’s take a hard-nosed, conservative look at things. Paying for everyone to have decent healthcare is expensive. Funerals are expensive too, but a hundred or so a year is a lot cheaper than insuring all of Oakland. Plus, where’s the profit motive? Nobody gets rich off of resource equality. Only inequality creates unequal wealth and thus richness. This sort of expensive, liberal, non-punative approach is simply not feasable under our current system. Only after the revolution can we . . .
But I promised a solution that would work now and not be dependant on the armed struggle of the proletariat and I have it. Bring in Jessica Fletcher. Her little town of Cabbot Cove had a tremendous muder rate. More than one a week and a population much smaller than Oakland. It’s true that catching those responcible didn’t seem to diminish the murder rate in Cabbot Cove, but police in Oakland beleive that some of the same people might be responsible for several homicides, so in Oakland, it might make a difference. At the very least, it would get the murders off the street once they comitted a crime, which is better than nothing. Only a Hollywood solution can solve complex social problems while maintinging the stus quo, spending no money and being entertaining all at the same time. So a Hollywood situation is obviously what we need.

It is entirely clear that in our current system, few people other than artists enjoy their jobs so much that they would keep doing them if they didn�t have to. It is also clear that our current system is entirely unsustainable. Our primary goal in our current system is economic growth. This means we must keep making more things every year than we did the year before, over and above any population growth. And such is our system that if we fail to grow in a year, we are in a recession and many people end up out of work. Popularly, this is not seen as a shortcoming of the system, but rather as a moral failing of the individuals affected. Furthermore, the system requires the middle class to consume more and more every year. There is only so much stuff that people want to have, however, so that it is necessary to make things disposable. The only way to keep the middle classes consuming more and more is to make them throw away what they already have. This ever-rising so-called �standard of living� does not grow higher when people must work at jobs that they do not like so they can buy things to throw them away. Meanwhile, the environmental and human costs of raw materials continue to mount. For a few to live like disposable aristocracy, others must live in poverty and environmental damage and wasting of resources must mount higher and higher.

Because this kind of capitalist excess is socially and environmentally unstable and unsustainable, it will fall. The only question is how. We can sit and wait until the ocean levels rise, disastrous uncharacteristic weather patterns pummel us, and asymmetric warfare rains down upon us from all sides, or we can act now and avert carnage, extinctions and continuing genocide.

Aside from these points, the primary weakness of our system is over and under centralization. Some systems are over centralized. Other systems have no central planning whatsoever. All of these systems are setup as inefficiently as possible so that elite individuals can profit off the inefficiency and pocket the difference between dollars spent and value received.

We can build a better system. We can break away from the old one.

I foresee the western parts of the United States breaking away from the Union. People in Northern California, Oregon and Washington will say no more to a system where civil rights have been whittled down to the right to chose what color car to buy. We will say no more to enslaving the third world for private profit. We will say no more to people being poisoned by pesticides, condemned to poverty and stuck toiling away our lives in stupid jobs that offer us no freedom or leisure time.

We will couple automation with sustainable development. Nobody�s time will be more valuable than anyone else�s. Production will be to fit human needs rather than capitalistic growth. Things are valuable only in so much as the benefit human lives. We will cease production of pointlessly disposable items. Durable goods will actually be durable, re-usable and recyclable. Buildings will not be knocked over for no reason. Instead of principles of capital and ownership, we will have principles of use and collectivization. People will form voluntary associations locally to meet local needs. Every home will be a squat. The residents will have the means to maintain their homes and their collective living arrangements.

Corporations will cease, with all factory production automated and run by the government. Less will be made, because less will be needed. As much as possible, items produced locally will be consumed locally.

People will brew their own beer, and their own biodiesel, and generate their own power with the solar arrays on their roofs. Yet many tools will be owned in common. Few people actually need their own vacuum cleaner. Almost no one who has one uses it everyday. Because of growth, inefficiency and systems of ownership, people currently must buy all the tools they might ever need. However, alternatives exist even now. In Berkeley, there is a tool library that residents with a library card may check out tools from. I foresee a future where many tools are owned in common by neighborhoods, blocks, buildings or associations. The interconnectedness and interdependence of all people will be clear. No one�s time will be worth more or less than anyone else�s. The currency will be measured in hours.

People will still work as teachers, as nurses, as firefighters as repair people, but fewer hours will be required. These people will have time to peruse art, sports, music, crafts, and passion. No one will be made to live in poverty for the benefit of anyone else.

This can and will come about. There is no reason to continue our unequal, disposable and militaristic social systems. Too often we resemble what is worst about human nature. There is no reason not to resemble the best. The technology we require is present. All we need is the will to make our vision happen.

A while back, I emailed Senator Dianne Feinstein to ask her to vote against the war resoltuion that Bush was asking for. She voted for it and it passed. So perhaps soon, a bunch of young folks, perhaps some friends of mine, will march off to kill and get killed so that the stockholders of chevron can make an extra fifty cents a share. Biodiesel is the future, people. Carpool and ride busses or people will die horrible deaths to feed the plutocratic industrialist criminal swine!
I seem to be off on a tangent, like one might find at Pancakes for Pinkos. But my coming point is important and I don’t want to trvialize it, so listen up:
Today, I received email back from Feinstein telling me that she had to disagree with me. At the bottom was the statement she made on the senate floor. Part of it is very intestesting. She says, “I serve as the Senior Senator from California, representing 35
million people. That is a formidable task. People have weighed in
by the tens of thousands. If I were just to cast a representative vote
based on those who have voiced their opinions with my office and
with no other factors I would have to vote against this resolution.” Then she goes on to explain that she voted in favor of war anyway, despite the wishes of her constituents. So, in effect, our congress people are knowling going against the will of the people. Our “elected” representatives hide behind “secret data” and “intelligence reports” which are invariably revelaed to be either utterly lacking or a pack of lies. The truth of the matter is that we’ve launched the cruelest embargo in history against iraq with sanctions that cause thousands of people to die and Bush Sr, Clinton and Bush Jr shuold be tried as war criminals for their rolse in it. No wonder we’re opposed to the world court tribunal in The Hauge.
Feinstein is a tool of corporate criminals and war profiteers. I use the word “elected” in quotes, because most peope realize that a vote for either major party is futile and stay home. When the people try to weigh in directly on issues of dire importance, they are ignored. The only hope for change is direct action. Howard Zinn notes in A People’s History of the United States that every political movement that as sought to create change through the ballot box has fizzled out, while direct action in the frm of wildcat strikes and civil disobediance has been tremendously successful. We need to be out in the street. Write the letters to the “representatives,” but back it up with action. The mass protest is mightier than the pen.