Andreas Toupadakis announces and explains his shattering decision to leave the United States and return to his homeland, Crete. Scott Nearing, almost 70 years ago, was pushed into a simple life based on "conscientious self-reliance." Milo Clark withdrew to the Hawaiian Rainforest. Why? Steve Gowans asks, "Democracy? When?". If you look at Jan Baughman's analysis of a report on a proposed new kind of education and muse the finest bull we get fed with day in and day out, as described in "The Dictatorship of Bullshit," the answer to Gowans' question is at best, certainly not tomorrow. Look at the Serbs, very much off the radar screen now (except for Slobodan Milosevich), and at the bull they've had to swallow for a decade. Unfathomable! From the late 1800's to today, Democracy (one could add, reason and intellectual integrity) has lost ground to the point that it's nowadays a pale ghost of itself. It may be a part of the answer to why people withdraw from society.... It simply may, sadly.
Alma Hromic is back from New Zealand and lightens this rendition with an essay on Harry Potter. Toupadakis shares with us a touching autobiographical short story. Sandy Lulay's poem laments war — which one? They seem eternal. Is the American culture as destructive as a few quotes suggest? All we appear to know is to bomb to smithereens entire societies. Our latest patriotic motto is to keep killing, go to the Mall and shop till we drop. Both are "good" for the economy, we hear. War and the Mall....what a metaphor! These are trying times... Let's hang in there and, as Michael Stowell said a few weeks ago, do what we can.
Please read this rendition and then form your own opinion; and do not forget to let your friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that makes ours grow.
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Jan Baughman: The New Kind of Education
The power elite, with their war on terrorism, anti-free speech, don't criticize the government, and either you're with us or you're with them, have declared their next victim: America's universities and colleges. More...
Jan Baughman is a Biotech scientist and Swans' co-editor.
Stephen Gowans: The Dictatorship of Bullshit
Comedian George Carlin has a way of getting to the heart of a matter quickly. What the US produces in abundance, says Carlin, is bullshit and bombs. More...
Stephen Gowans: Democracy? When?
It was one of those radio programs where a bunch of people, usually journalists and lawyers and university professors and politicians, sit around a microphone and discuss the issues of the day. More...
Stephen Gowans is a writer, a political activist and a Swans' columnist.
Andreas Toupadakis: Back to Crete
The author explains his decision to leave the USA and return to Greece. More...
Andreas Toupadakis is a former nuclear scientist.
Gilles d'Aymery: Talk About Demons!
An old Serbian saying states that a lie has short legs. Will the saying be proven incorrect? Indubitably, the entire decade of the nineties has had very long legs, unremittingly denouncing the Serbs as savages, genocidal monsters... More...
Gilles d'Aymery is Swans' publisher and co-editor.
Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic & Dr. Predrag Jaksic: Sweeping the Truth Under the DU Rug
On March 24, 1999, NATO attacked Yugoslavia with planes and rockets. According to Yugoslav Army sources, Depleted Uranium (DU) ammunition (rounds of 297 grams) was used for the first time on the 30th of March near the city of Prizren. More...
Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic & Dr. Predrag Jaksic are Yugoslav scientists.
Pedja Zoric: Lie Has Short Legs
E-mail exchange between the author and Don Sellar, the Ombudsman of The Toronto Star. More...
Pedja Zoric is a computer guru and a member of the Serbian Canadian Society of Vancouver, BC.
Alma A. Hromic: The Potter of Gold
The first time I ever heard of a little boy named Harry Potter was walking through the streets of Oxford, England, with a friend whom I hadn't seen for some time... More...
Alma Hromic is an acclaimed novelist and a poet who was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. She is the co-author with R. A. Deckert of Letters from the Fire
Andreas Toupadakis: A Trip to the Garden
"Androulió, get up ... get up so we can make it before sunrise." On the afternoon of the previous day, I had overheard that we would be going to Koutalá today. More...
Andreas Toupadakis is a former nuclear scientist.
Milo Clark: Ending or Beginning?
Toynbee's ponderous volumes of history suggest that some nations consider themselves outside history, above history. More...
Milo Clark is a Swans' founding member, advisor and columnist.
Scott Nearing: The Making of a Radical (Excerpt)
Let me illustrate with the true story of a young American couple, "John" and "Mary." Both were working in the labor movement. He was steady-going and a plugger; she was vivid, energetic, active. More...
Scott Nearing: The Real Freedom of Free Speech
Gentlemen, I am on trial here before you, charged with obstructing the recruiting and enlistment service to the detriment of the service, to the injury of the service, and with attempting and causing insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and the refusal of duty within the military and naval forces. More...
Scott Nearing [1883-1983], was a social critic of imperialism, a radical whose ideas and opinions led him to be ostracized by the US society after World War I.
Sandy Lulay: Uniform Engendered
Created blind,
He is a figment of
A fractured mind;
An eager benediction
Of an army simile.
More...
Sandy Lulay is Swans' in-house poet.
R. D. Laing & Derrick Jensen: Three Quotes to Ponder
Our behavior is a function of our experience. We act according to the way we see things. If our experience is destroyed, our behavior will be destructive. More...