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Tentatively, Convenience's Reviews > The American Ruling Class is Crazy
The American Ruling Class is Crazy
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by
It's funny. I lived in Baltimore County for 40 yrs & in Baltimore City per se for 19 yrs from 1975 to 1994. During that time I was fairly politically active: I refused to register for the draft during the Vietnam War, I participated in protests against US intervention in South America, I was involved in anti-racist activism, I wrote political satire, I protested the Gulf War, I was a publically visible anarchist. I went to anarchist gatherings across North America. I was also completely lunatic fringe.
During that time I was never particularly friends w/ the slightly older Baltimore anarchist scene: the people who put out the "Social Anarchism" magazine, the people who did the anarchist radio show. I never really liked "SA", it was too stuffy for me, too academic - too much Johns Hopkins University, not at all street. I was street. But I also wrote bks, made experimental films & music, etc.. I remember sending them a handwritten letter about their version of anarchy not being wild enuf for me, not chaotic enuf.. that sort of thing. The letter might very well have been stupid but I'm sure it represented taking more revolutionary risks than they ever did or wd.
Nonetheless, I look at this publication from 30 yrs & ago & realize that I might be friends w/ these folks now. I wonder if they're still alive? They are, they have a website. & maybe I STILL wdn't be friends w/ them. Where were they all those yrs? Safe in their homes w/ their computers? (Like I am now?) I met ONE person connected to SA at ONE anarchist gathering - in Chicago in 1986.
No matter. I like this collection. One paragraph of the intro reads:
"Our major difficulty is itself difficult to describe briefly. We included only verified items that had an element of humor. Now, when you write down the humorous and then read it over several times, it no longer seems terribly funny. With the documents here, something else happens. As that veneer of humor wears off --and that occurs quickly-- the political implications become clearer. And you may find yourself, as we did, shifting from a grin to a grim response."
On the more obvious end of the above, there's a quote from Richard Nixon:
"I can go into my office and make a phone call, and within 25 minutes 70 million people will be dead."
It's only in retrospect that I realize that they must've been somehow connected to Situationist Ken Knabb - who also went/goes under the name of "Bureau of Pulbic Secrets".
During that time I was never particularly friends w/ the slightly older Baltimore anarchist scene: the people who put out the "Social Anarchism" magazine, the people who did the anarchist radio show. I never really liked "SA", it was too stuffy for me, too academic - too much Johns Hopkins University, not at all street. I was street. But I also wrote bks, made experimental films & music, etc.. I remember sending them a handwritten letter about their version of anarchy not being wild enuf for me, not chaotic enuf.. that sort of thing. The letter might very well have been stupid but I'm sure it represented taking more revolutionary risks than they ever did or wd.
Nonetheless, I look at this publication from 30 yrs & ago & realize that I might be friends w/ these folks now. I wonder if they're still alive? They are, they have a website. & maybe I STILL wdn't be friends w/ them. Where were they all those yrs? Safe in their homes w/ their computers? (Like I am now?) I met ONE person connected to SA at ONE anarchist gathering - in Chicago in 1986.
No matter. I like this collection. One paragraph of the intro reads:
"Our major difficulty is itself difficult to describe briefly. We included only verified items that had an element of humor. Now, when you write down the humorous and then read it over several times, it no longer seems terribly funny. With the documents here, something else happens. As that veneer of humor wears off --and that occurs quickly-- the political implications become clearer. And you may find yourself, as we did, shifting from a grin to a grim response."
On the more obvious end of the above, there's a quote from Richard Nixon:
"I can go into my office and make a phone call, and within 25 minutes 70 million people will be dead."
It's only in retrospect that I realize that they must've been somehow connected to Situationist Ken Knabb - who also went/goes under the name of "Bureau of Pulbic Secrets".
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