Since Monday's post have heard that Chelsea Manning , the brave whistleblower has decided to end her hunger strike, as from yesterday September 13th. The army has finally agreed to treatment for her gender dysphoria.
"This is all that I wanted – for them to let me be me,” said Chelsea Manning. “But it is hard not to wonder why it has taken so long and why
such drastic measures were needed in order to get this help that was
recommended.”
Chelsea was shown a memo stating she will receive
gender-reassignment surgery under the DoD’s new policy affecting
transgender service members.If this actually occurs, she will be the first trans prisoner in the US to receive such treatment, setting a precedent that could benefit thousands of transgender inmates.
“This medical care is absolutely vital for Chelsea.It was the government's refusal to provide her with this necessary care that led to her suicide attempt earlier this year.
It is still outrageous though that she was forced into this situation in the first place, at then of the day she should be free from any confinement, and a pardon should be given to allow her the freedoms that we all take for granted. She still ridiculously faces charges for her suicide attempt earlier this year.
Read more here and sign petition to drop all absurd charges against her here:-
Was going to write about David Cameron today, but decided against it, goodbye and good riddance to the dodgy ***** to say he wont be missed is an understatement. I have spent a dreary wet afternoon in West Wales instead immersed in Call Me Burroughs a spoken word album by the author William S.
Burroughs, that was originally released in June 1965 by The English Bookshop in Paris and later
by ESP-Disk' in New York. Call Me Burroughs marks not only the recorded
debut of William Burroughs, but also for many the first encounter with
his inimitable incredible voice.
Drug addict, gun enthusiast, cat lover, convict, conjurer, queer iconclast, long have I been a huge admirer, I've carried Uncle Bill's writings and the knowledge of his struggles, failings and accomplishments with me for the entirety of my adult life,who I first discovered in my teenage years, this consumnate flouter of norms and consensus reality who became one of the most enduring icons of the counterculture and our times. He has had an enormous influence on others too,from the Beats to punk rock, and
even hip hop, no other figure today is so widely considered the
epitome of cool.
His book Naked Lunch" stands with Jack Kerouac's "On the
Road" and Allen Ginsburg's "Howl" as the seminal texts of the Beat
Generation. With its harrowing scenes of junkie depravity, its view of
postwar America was the most extreme of all the Beats.
Burroughs
wrote all of his books under the influence of drugs,principally
heroin, alcohol, marijuana and methadone, despite this, his genius for
surreal black comedy tempered with hard, practical thought never
deserted him. Though he chronicled all its horrors and tried various
treatment programs, Burroughs in some real sense chose
addiction; it was his entree to the street slang and chronic desperation
of the noir lifers who occupied his fiction from “Junkie” (1953) on.
When he died at 83 in 1997, his friends reportedly tucked some heroin
and marijuana along with his .38 into his coffin.
Call Me Burroughs features the author reading from Naked
Lunch, The Soft Machine and Nova Express, three of his best-known works that utilize the
cut-up method developed by Burroughs and his artist cohort Brion Gysin. An eerie,haunting, powerful
deadpan drawl guides the listener through sci-fi innerscapes, narcotic
nightmares, reports from the edge of the apocalypse. Phantasmagoric
passages echo real experiences roaming the streets of Mexico, the West
Village, Tangiers.
The excerpts which, read as short stories,
are independent and do not require listener to be familiar with the
novels and follows the exploits of junkies, prostitutes, doctors, and others
as they move through grisly underworlds without concern for the borders
between reality and hallucination. By turns, they are blackly funny and
deeply sinister, often within the same piece.
Burroughs believed that language and image were viral and that the
mass-dissemination of information was part of an arch-conspiracy that
restricted the full potential of the human mind..With cut-ups, Burroughs found a means of escape; an antidote to the
sickness of ‘control’ messages that mutated their original content. If
mass media already functioned as an enormous barrage of cut-up material,
the cut-up method was a way for the artist to fight back using its same
tactics.
Call Me Burroughs came to fruition modestly, reportedly the
idea of Gaît Frogé, owner of The English Bookshop in Paris, with Ian
Sommerville engineering the readings on a tape machine belonging to Brion Gysin. Frogé enlisted poet-artists Jean-Jacques
Lebel and Emmett Williams for liner notes and in April of ‘65 1,000
copies were pressed.Recorded in his instantly recognizable, craggy and clipped mid-western
drawl at the English Bookshop, Paris, France in 1965.
It's reach was initially limited, though it fell into famous hands, and it certainly made quite an impression that year. The album would go on to have a wide influence, particularly in
England. Barry Miles, in his liner notes for the 1995 Rhino re-release,
says, "The Beatles may have been the soundtrack to 1965 for the
beautiful people of swinging London, but to the cognoscenti there was
something even cooler to listen to." :
"It's
in all the best homes, my dear," said Brion Gysin, and he was right. At
the height of the '60s, Call Me Burroughs was an essential record. The
Beatles all had copies and subsequently Paul McCartney included Burroughs on the sleeve of
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Art dealer Robert Fraser bought
ten copies to give to friends such as Brian Jones and Mick Jagger.
Marianne Faithful and Keith Richards' dealer had copies, as did numerous
painters and writers.It remains a
personal favourite of mine. If you manage to get yourself an actual copy the
CD booklet contains a wealth of information about Burroughs, the manner
in which these recordings were made, and about the Beat community in
Paris in the 50's and 60's, as well as including the liner notes of
original 1965 edition of the album.
For the rest of his life,Burroughs recorded a number of solo projects, in addition to
collaborating with everyone from John Cale, Laurie Anderson , Tom
Waits, Material, Disposable Hero's of hypocrisy , REM and Kurt Cobain.He remained a spoken-word performer and visual artist until his death in 1997.Call Me Burroughs is also the title of a authoritative new biography from Barry Miles, essential reading if you want a more detailed look at William Burroughs work, I am pleased to say that my own bookcases are already full with books by and about him, plus his literary friends and acquaintances.
Anyway I include a link to a recording of the LP at the bottom, hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Track listing:
All composition by William S. Burroughs
"Bradley the Buyer" – 6:24
"Meeting of International Conference of Technological Psychiatry" – 4:56
"The Fish Poison Con" – 6:59
"Thing Police Keep All Board Room Reports" – 1:25
"Mr. Bradley Mr. Martin Hear Us Through the Hole in Thin Air" – 4:16
"Where You Belong" – 6:38
"Inflexible Authority" – 10:45
"Uranian Willy" – 1:59
Tracks 1 and 2 from Naked Lunch; 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 from Nova Express; track 6 from The Soft Machine.
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning, currently serving a 35-year prison term for
passing classified files to WikiLeaks, said on Friday that she would
refuse to eat until given help for her gender dysphoria and "treated
with dignity, respect and humanity" by the government.
The
28-year-old Army private, who was born male but revealed after being
convicted of espionage that she identifies as a woman, tried to commit
suicide in July over what her representatives said was the government's
denial of appropriate treatment for those gender issues.
The Army
announced later that month that it would investigate Manning for
misconduct in connection with the attempt to take her own life, a probe
that could lead to indefinite solitary confinement, reclassification
into maximum security or additional prison time.
Some prison experts believe
that Manning's recent suicide attempt could result in a long stretch in
solitary confinement, a punishment viewed as torture in international
human rights conventions. Manning has already spent nine months in solitary
as a form of dishonorable,
illegal, shameful retaliation by the US military. She spent two months
in
a cage in a tent in Kuwait, and seven months at Quantico, where she was
forced to sit still, on her bed, staring directly ahead of her, for
hours
on end .She is currently serving a grossly unfair 35 year prison sentence for simply exposing lies and injustices,a brave courageous individual who now needs our support more than ever.In January 2010, Manning sent hundreds of thousands of documents to
Wikileaks about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, revealing a
dramatically higher number of civilian casualties than the Pentagon publicly acknowledged. The documents also included a video of an Apache helicopter attack that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.
After years of requesting the care she needs Chelsea has released a statement about the start of her hunger
strike,saying she would not willingly consume any food or drink, except water and prescribed medications.Manning also refused to “voluntarily cut or shorten her hair in any
way.” Army officials repeatedly force Manning to cut her hair to
“military standards” – an appearance that she says does not reflect her
gender identity.
Human rights advocates have repeatedly raised concerns about
Manning’s treatment in prison. After her arrest in 2010, she was
subjected to solitary confinement for extended periods and repeatedly stripped naked in her cell. Her treatment was so bad that a State Department spokesperson spoke out against the Pentagon and described it as “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.”Since her conviction, Manning has been repeatedly threatened with indefinite solitary confinement, for charges as frivolous as keeping an expired tube of toothpaste in her cell.
She is demanding written assurances from the Army that she will
receive all of the medically prescribed recommendations for her gender
dysphoria and that the “high tech bullying” will stop. “High tech
bullying,” is what Chelsea describes as “the constant, deliberate and
overzealous administrative scrutiny by prison and military officials.”
Manning's condition is dangerous and cruel, and
presents a significant suicide risk for Manning.
Here is Chelsea Manning's impassioned statement which she released on Friday :
“I need help. I am not getting any. I have asked for help
time and time again for six years and through five separate confinement
locations. My request has only been ignored, delayed, mocked, given
trinkets and lip service by the prison, the military, and this
administration.”
“I need help. I needed help earlier this year. I was driven to
suicide by the lack of care for my gender dysphoria that I have been
desperate for. I didn’t get any. I still haven’t gotten any.”
“I needed help. Yet, instead I am now being punished for surviving my
attempt. When I was a child, my father would beat me repeatedly for
simply not being masculine enough. I was told to stop crying—to “suck it
up.” But, I couldn’t stop crying. The pain just got worse and worse.
Until finally, I just couldn’t take the pain anymore.”
“I needed help, but no one came then. No one is coming now.”
“Today, I have decided that I am no longer going to be bullied by
this prison—or by anyone within the U.S. government. I have asked for
nothing but the dignity and respect—that I once actually believed would
be provided for—afforded to any living human being.”
“I do not believe that this should be dependent on any arbitrary
factors—whether you are cisgender or transgender; service member or
civilian, citizen or non-citizen. In response to virtually every
request, I have been granted limited, if any, dignity and respect—just
more pain and anguish.”
“I am no longer asking. Now, I am demanding. As of 12:01 am Central
Daylight Time on September 9, 2016, and until I am given minimum
standards of dignity, respect, and humanity, I shall—refuse to
voluntarily cut or shorten my hair in any way; consume any food or drink
voluntarily, except for water and currently prescribed medications; and
comply with all rules, regulations, laws, and orders that are not
related to the two things I have mentioned.”
“This is a peaceful act. I intend to keep it as peaceful and
non-violent, on my end, as possible. Any physical harm that should come
to me at the hands of military or civilian staff will be unnecessary and
vindictive. I will not physically resist or in any way harm another
person. I have also submitted a “do not resuscitate” letter that is
effective immediately. This shall include any attempts to forcibly cut
or shorten my hair or to forcibly feed me by any medical or
pseudo-medical means.”
“Until I am shown dignity and respect as a human again, I shall
endure this pain before me. I am prepared for this mentally and
emotionally. I expect that this ordeal will last for a long time. Quite
possibly until my permanent incapacitation or death. I am ready for
this.”
“I need help. Please, give me help.”
Fight for the Future has launched a petition supporting Chelsea in her hunger strike.Which you can sign here, please stand with her :-
The Israeli army has laid a
lengthy list of charges against Issa Amro, the longtime Palestinian
activist and organizer in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.Issa is a prominent human rights defender and founding member of
many non-violent organisations in Hebron who work peacefully against
Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Amongst these organisations include the the
Hebron branch of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), https://palsolidarity.org/ and Youth Against Settlements, which Issa, aged 36 is a founder a group that organizes non violent demonstrations and direct actions against the violent settler encampments that are protected by heavily armed soldiers who frequently harass Palestinian residents in the city.
Every year, Youth Against Settlements organizes a week of activities calling to open Shuhada Street.
Once the city’s main commercial strip, Shuhada Street was closed off to Palestinians in 1994.Issa inspired by the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and that of Martin Luther King, founded Youth
Against Settlements in 2007, advocating civil disobedience and
non-violent and pro-active measures to document and protest against the
Israeli occupation in Hebron and the West Bank. He also organizes nonviolent demonstrations to resist settlement expansion and the confiscation of land.
On 26 February 2016 a non-violent protest took place in Hebron, calling to re-open Hebron's Shuhada street, lift the closed military zone in Hebron and put an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine. Although the protest was totally peaceful and no stones were thrown, it was met from the outset with excessive violence from the side of the Israeli army, which fired rounds of tear gas, stun grenades, and runner coated steel bullets against the demonstrators. Two participants, the lawyer Farid Al Atrash and journalist Mohammad Jardat got arrested. The lawyer Farid Al-Altrash was holding a sign reading ' Free Palestine' when he was arrested and beaten before being taken to the Jaabara police station in the Kiryat Arba settlement.
Israeli soldiers and Border police attack journalists during Hebron protest .
From the outset of the protest it was clear that the Israeli armies main target was Issa Amro. For the first time since he started his human rights activities the Israeli civil administration had given the direct order to arrest him. At first rubber bullets were shot against him, then a sniper aimed at him, he quickly left the protest in fear of being shot.
On Monday 29 February 2016, three days after the protest, Issa passed through checkpoint 56 to meet an Israeli group from Breaking the silence, a link to their website is here :- http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/
However the group was also facing problems. Although they had a special permit to access Issa's house, the army refused to let them in, so the meeting needed to be held outside. While Issa was responding to questions from the group, soldiers came to arrest him.
Arrriving at the police station the investigator accused him of Facebook incitement and organising an illegal protest. The investigator accused him of being the main organizer of the Friday 26 protest and that he had disturbed soldiers on duty and escaped when they tried to arrest him. Je denied all the accusations, but the investigator continued to show him social media pictures from 2012, 2013, and 2014, all of which showed nonviolent events, such as the Olive harvest, the Open Shudada Strret campaign, and a recent art event. One police officer even told him, that they did not legally hold anything against him, but that there were orders from above to arrest him. The subsequent trial against him and of Farid Al- Atrassh is clearly aimed at punishing them for their human rights activities. Their treatment as well as the accusations against them ,lack any foundation and Israel is clearly misusing its military court system to restrict the fundamental basic rights of human rights defenders, including the right of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Issa is not a criminal but a human rights defender who uses principles of non-violence that can only be commended. He and all other human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
I believe should be able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities,
including through the exercise of their right to free assembly, without
fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions. Amro is one of dozens of leaders across the West Bank and East Jerusalem
who are using nonviolent tactics, civil disobedience, and direct action
to challenge Israel's occupation. The work of these activists has gone
nearly unrecognized, with most of the international media attention
focusing on rockets launched from Gaza , but for years he and others have been working to instill the principles of nonviolent
resistance and civil disobedience in the hearts of Hebron's Palestinian
youth, even if no one is watching.
His military trial will begin on September 25th
Read more here, the original source of much of information contained above :-
On September 9th, 1971 the Attica Correctional Facility in the State of New York exploded in rebellion.
Less than two weeks after the killing of imprisoned black
revolutionary George Jackson inmates attempted to free a fellow inmate
from his cell after reports that he was being tortured. When guards
realized that prisoners had successfully come to the aid of their fellow
inmate they attempted to collectively punish the prisoners. Instead of
being punished the prisoners revolted. Almost 1,500 inmates in Cell Block D rebelled and seized control over the
Attica Correctional Facility several months after they had formally
submitted a 27-point manifesto to the prison administration and the
media with a list of demands for prison reforms and an end to racism and brutality against prisoners.
At the time of the uprising, there were 2,300 inmates living in a
facility built for 1,600. Though over 60 percent of inmates were Black
and Latino the prison was completely run by white guards and employees,
many of whom were openly racist..Prisoners were only allowed one shower
per week and one roll of
toilet paper each month. Their mail was heavily censored to cut out
anything involving prisons and prisoners’ rights. The medical neglect
within the facility was criminal. Guards often pitted inmates against
each other to incite racial violence.Inmates also labored for 40 cents a
day, assembling mattresses, shoes
and license plates.
The level of unity that developed among prisoners
was nearly unprecedented. There were four days of negotiations, until
then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered state police to take back
control of the prison by brutal force. When the uprising was over, at
least 39 people were dead, hundreds were left maimed and wounded and the prisoners left were subjected to extreme
brutality and torture. Those who were
considered leaders, the prisoner negotiators, spokesmen and security
men, were singled out for prolonged abuse. The example of the Attica prisoners uniting and
standing up for their rights and dignity in the face of such intense
repression inspired and electrified people around the world.
The Attica prison uprising was by no means an isolated or spontaneous
clash. It came as a revolutionary mood swept through Black and Latino
communities and other progressive sectors of the population in the
United States.By September 1971, the Civil Rights movement had transformed itself
into a movement for national liberation among the Black, Puerto Rican
and Chicano populations.Starting in 1964, rebellions swept urban areas throughout the United
States. Major insurrections took place in Rochester, Harlem, Watts,
Newark, Detroit and other cities. When Martin Luther King, Jr., was
murdered in 1968 more than 120 cities went up in flames as young people
battled police, National Guard units and state troopers.Revolutionary organizations like the Black Panther Party and Young
Lords Party were militantly organizing in urban communities. Millions of
people were protesting the Vietnam War and joining the women’s and LGBT
liberation movements.
This revolutionary mood in the community
sank deep roots within the prisoner population too. The Attica prisoners
were reading revolutionary newspapers. They were studying Marx and
Lenin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Kwame Nkrumah, and Franz Fanon and reading
socialist, communist and revolutionary nationalist newspapers.Prisoners
were staging uprisings all over the country, not just in
Attica, New York. The rebellions were extensions of the national
liberation struggles happening all over the United States.
Attica Blues - Archie Shepp
Today September 9th on the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion, prisoners across the United States will begin a strike that will be a general work stoppage against prison slavery.
In short, prisoners will refuse to work; they will refuse to keep the
prisons running by their own labors. Prisoners are striking not just for
better conditions or changes in parole rules, but against prison
slavery. Prisoners state that under the 13th Amendment which abolished
racial slavery, at the same time it allowed human beings to be worked
for free or next to nothing as long as they were prisoners. Prisoners
see the current system of prison slavery to thus be a continuation of
racial slavery, which is a system that generates billions of dollars in
profits each year for major corporations in key industries such as
fossil fuels, fast food, banking, and the US military.
Due to all of these factors, at the present time round 1 in 100
American adults is locked behind bars, and many more are on probation,
parole, house arrest, or in immigrant detention facilities. While
African-Americans, Native, Latino, and poor whites make up the bulk of
the prison population, black, brown, and red convicts make up much a
higher percentage of inmates than their white counter-parts. For
instance, there are currently more African-American people locked within
the prison industrial complex than were held in racialized slavery
prior to the American civil war in the 1860s. It is in this climate in the footsteps of their predecessors at Attica that today's
prison rebels have organized themselves to carry out the strike.
45 years after Attica the cruel mass incarceration system in the USA that is still inherently merciless and immoral and must continue to be exposed.A radical vision for change behind bars is still urgently needed, and it was powerfully captured in the Manifesto of Demands
read out by LD Barkley, one of the leaders of the Attica rebellion who
was killed along with 38 others when the prison was violently re-taken:
We are men! We are not beasts and do not intend to be beaten or driven
as such. The entire prison populace has set forth to change forever the
ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here
and throughout the United States.
What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who
are oppressed...We call upon all the conscientious citizens of America
to assist us in putting an end to this situation that threatens not only
our lives, but each and every citizen as well.
Life is short moves so fast In moments of slumber leaps, Everything bought together Thoughts flying free, Sailing the seas of time Carrying a mighty love, Lamps of resistance Following free birds on earth, Releasing defiant cries Light found in the dark. Laying with all the hope
We have managed to save,
Allowing impalpable imaginings
To work their magic and become real,
As our journeys continue unbroken We leave behind traces of struggle, Evidence of battles fought and won Stories of endurance, pain and survival, Moving forward unbowed, unbeaten
Keeping hopeful, steadfast and strong,
An act, made to escape paying taxes is known as Tax evasion. Such practices can be deliberate concealment of income, manipulation in accounts , disclosure of unreal expenses for deductions, showing personal expenditure as business expenses, overstatement of tax credit or exemptions suppression of profit and capital gains etc.This will result in the disclosure of income which is not the actual income earned by the entity. It is surely one of the biggest problems of our age.
In a piece of research published by HMRC,
people who used tax avoidance schemes were asked about why they took
them up. With very few exceptions, avoiders were aware that the tax
avoidance scheme introduced to them was “unusual” and “at the edge of
tax law” — they followed the letter of the law if not the spirit.
It highlighted the reassuring language used by those marketing the
schemes that was “designed to make the tax avoidance schemes appear
appealing and acceptable”. For example, tax avoidance schemes were
described as: being smart with your taxes; a technical exploitation of
the law; a form of tax relief; well within the [tax] guidelines; and an
opportunity to exploit tax efficiencies.
Anonymous shell corporations and secret bank accounts are vital
resources for those engaged in tax evasion and money laundering. But
this web of secrecy has started to crumble in recent years due in part
to revelations from whistle-blowers embedded in this complex web of tax
havens and fake corporations.
The Panama Papers, revealed that a single law
firm, Mossack Fonseca, facilitated the creation of more than 200,000
offshore entities.The Tories and the right-wing press love to point the finger at those
at the bottom of society like people on benefits, the disabled and
immigrants. But the truth is tax
avoidance by large corporations and the super rich is a far bigger drain
on society, with some estimates saying that it costs the UK over £120
billion a year.
Companies that make use of our infrastructure and services while avoiding tax are freeloaders and parasites! Simple as!
Avant-garde composer John Cage was born today in Los Angeles,1912. Cage moved in the 1940'S TO New York, where he quickly became known as not just a composer but as a radical aesthetician who profoundly influenced people in several domains.
Though his achievements as a composer and a theater artist remain well known, he was also a brilliant and original writer, especially at the intersection of poetry and politics. He died in 1992, but his influence continues to echo.
Whenever John Cage performed, he insisted that the auditorium have
accessible exits: A spectator who didn't want to stay, he said, should
be able to leave easily. Cage—most famous for his 1952 composition 4'33", in which musicians sit in perfect silence for four minutes and 33 seconds—was a gut anarchist.
John Cage - 4'33 performed by David Tudor
His music relied on
mathematical patterns, randomness, improvisation and chance to create
unique sounds and rhythms. He could be said to be one of the developers of modern
dance. Cage's pieces are controversial because they are vastly different
from mainstream music. All of his compositions were difficult to
reproduce and perform, which was an embodiment of his anarchist views.
He believed that difficulty would ensure that "a performance would show
that the impossible is not impossible" -this being Cage's answer to the
notion that solving the world's political and social problems is
impossible. Cage considered himself to be an anarchist, and was inspired
by the work of Henry David Thoreau.whose texts he used in various ways, most brilliantly in his Song Books, where the performers repeat, " The best government / Is no government at all." In an interview in 1985 John Cage said, "I'm an
anarchist. I don't know whether the adjective is pure and simple, or
philosophical, or what, but I don't like government! And I don't like
institutions! And I don't have any confidence in even good
institutions."
Asked about the word ecology, the composer replied that whenever he heard that seductiv word he knew he'd soon hear the word planning and " When I hear that word, I run in the other direction." He also boasted that he never voted.
Some have said his philosophy was more important than his music. He became a Zen Buddhist which impacted enormously on his music. According to Cage music was " purposeful play" however " this play is an affirmation of life - not an attempt to bring order out of chaos , nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we are living, which is so excellent a once one gets one's mind and desires out of the way and lets it act upon its own accord"
Such an approach that set him so apart from other composers. For him it was the Eastern virtues of " Simplicity , disorder and chance." that he built his ideas and music upon..Cage's unequivocal questioning of the status quo remain an inspiration for todays artists who are struggling to forge a career. Ever the anarchist, Cage stated :! I think my activity in the arts is analoqous to political activity. It gives an instance on how to change things radically. " I will end with this poem from his visionary hand.
Anarchist Poem
We don't need government
We need utilities.
Air, water, energy
Travel and communication means
Food and shelter.
We have no need for imaginary mountain ranges
Between separate nations.
We can make tunnels through the real ones.
Nor do we have any need for the continuing division of people
Into those who have what they need
And those who don't.
Both Fuller and Marshal McLuhan
Knew, furthermore
That work is now obsolete.
We have invented machines to do it for us.
Now that we have no need to do anything
What shall we do?
Looking at Fuller's geodesic world map
We see that the Earth is a single island, Oahu.
We must give all the people all they need to live
In any way they wish.
Our present laws protect the rich from the poor.
If there are to be laws, we need ones that
Begin with the acceptance of poverty as a way of life.
We must make the world safe for poverty
Without dependence on government."
For the past 50 years Noam Chomsky’s writings on politics and
language have established him as a preeminent public intellectual and as
one of the most original and wide-ranging political and social critics
of our time. Among the seminal figures in linguistic theory over the
past century, as a dedicated opponent of war and injustice for more than half a
century Chomsky has also secured a place as
perhaps the leading dissident voice in the United States. His dozens of books and writings for innumerable journals have
made him one of the best-known radical voices in the U.S. and around
the world, responsible for contributing to the commitment and shaping
the thinking of countless people.Here is a compilation of 50 years of ideas and analyses condensed
into 2 hours 43 minutes. Riveting and essential. His words still carry the immense power that criticism and analysis at
its best can exemplify: the power of people to understand the world in
order to better understand how to change it.
