August 23, 2010
August 23, 2010
Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves.
The power of questioning -- not simply believing -- has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it. ***
Note from the Editors:
It would appear, when reading this edition, that the global recession encompasses much more than an economic downturn -- country after country is experiencing a depravity of leadership. From France to Italy, Ghana to America, the elite's thirst for power leaves the most vulnerable parched, and yet the people continue to vote for their own enslavement, a phenomenon that has Jan Baughman scratching her head and concluding that she has a greater understanding of her dog's thought process. Yet, when one researches Interactive Conflict Resolution, as Michael Barker does, it becomes apparent that the roots of protracted social conflicts grow from capitalism, a system that is completely off limits. Hence the myth of Change We Can Believe In.
In France the depravity has taken on a brave new stature -- a short one that is, with a big reactionary agenda that would inspire even the Tea Partiers to vote for a foreigner with a name like Nicolas Sarkozy. Gilles d'Aymery sheds light on "Sarko the American" and translates a Baudelaire poem that is apropos to his agenda. Fabio De Propris continues his series on Berlusconi's Italy with a look at the lack of artistic masterworks in the cartoon-like Joker's World Syndrome that has gripped the country for two decades, and as Femi Akomolafe reports from Ghana, the president's price and tax increases, despite his campaign promises to the contrary, demonstrate that he doesn't have the interests of the people at heart. And thinking of thought processes, Maxwell Clark takes a look back at Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind -- seemingly silly if not highly offensive, and perhaps a precursor of contemporary cognitive science -- he'd like to hear from our audience on the matter.
Off the airwaves and onto the bookshelf, Charles Marowitz reviews an analysis of the horrific shortcomings of modern-day radio and the deceitful power of the toxic right who employ prevarication, innuendo, and verbal abuse in order to threaten their enemies and consolidate their political base. While they demonize Afghanistan, London's fearless Tricycle Theatre brings that country's little-known culture to its stage with astonishing breadth -- Peter Byrne provides a synopsis of its plays. And having returned from his musical tour, Isidor Saslav shares the sights, sounds, and stagings of the "German Disease" that has infected the global opera scene. We close with the poetry of Claudine Giovannoni & Guido Monte on the unity of things and the illusion of time, and your letters.
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"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense."
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Patterns which Connect
Political Disconnect And The Invisible Shackles
On those magical occasions when Mestor, our canine companion, joyously accompanies me in the car, I watch him with his head out the window observing the scenery passing by and wonder what he processes when he sees a deer, a flock of sheep, the green hillsides. We are both enjoying the experience from our respective perspectives, but the surroundings symbolize something completely different to each of us, with words and concepts that I register and that he cannot comprehend any more than I can fathom their representation to him. It is like trying to imagine being blind or deaf and understanding the concepts of colors and sounds without the shared experience of the seeing and hearing. More... Jan Baughman is a clinical researcher and Swans' co-editor.
Of Conflict And Misdirection
Interactive conflict resolution (ICR) "involves problem-solving discussions between unofficial representatives of groups or states in violent protracted conflict." (1) Within a capitalist world, whose very foundations are premised on exploitation, the development of such initiatives plays a critical role in defusing (often violent) disputes that stem from revolutionary resistance to institutional injustice. More... Michael Barker is an independent researcher who currently resides in the UK.
Sarko The American
In his review of Bill Press's latest book, Toxic Talk, Charles Marowitz writes about "right-wing orators and demagogues" -- the likes of "Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Lou Dobbs, Laura Ingraham, etc." and their financiers, media barons such as Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes -- who, armed with a consubstantial vulgarity, toss grenades of racism and bigotry on a daily basis against the Other -- the people who are not them. Their xenophobic hatred reaches far beyond this nauseous circle that perorates its repetitive Islamophobic messages, like the current assault against the project for an Islamic cultural center in Manhattan amply demonstrates. More... Gilles d'Aymery is Swans' publisher and co-editor.
It's A Berlusconi World: Part II
Berlusconi's Italy is a capital material for a writer. A character that could have been born in the imagination of a comic book writer becomes the leader of a Western country. A cartoon madcap becomes real and flashes his surgically enhanced smile. Very funny. But imagine if, say, the Joker left the funny papers and movies to become, with his re-heated flesh and bones, president of the United States? Imagine as well that he owned all the most important mass media in the country. Who then would still draw comic books or make movies about the Joker? More... Fabio De Propris is a teacher, writer, and translator who lives in Rome, Italy.
The Phrenology Of Mind
It is much the lesser known fact that in the biographical memoirs of Karl Liebknecht he accounts of his close comrade Karl Marx applying phrenological tests to his brainpan in England. No doubt Marx's suasion towards the phrenological movement is accounted for by his deep reading of Hegel. Indeed, under the then unabashed heading of "Phrenology," the table of contents of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind lists the following topics of observation for his book: More... Maxwell Clark is a writer who lives in New Haven, CT.
Africa
The Cost Of Living Is Killing Me
"And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."
A paraphrase: And now, whereas the New Patriotic Party (NPP) laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. The NPP imposed hardship on you, but I will make your life miserable with heavy taxes. Professor Adebayo Adedeji once said, "Any economy policy that marginalizes people is doomed to failure." It is looking increasingly clear that the Mills administration does not believe in the saying that you cannot de-feather a bald chicken. More... Femi Akomolafe is a computer consultant, a writer and social commentator, and a passionate Pan-Africanist who lives in Kasoa, Ghana.
America: Myths and Realities
Bill Press's Toxic Talk
Although there is diversity to be found in all the performing arts, there is one medium that is almost exclusively dominated by right-wing orators and demagogues and that is talk radio, viz. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Lou Dobbs, Laura Ingraham, etc. What virtually unites all of these commentators is a simplistic, ornery, destructive conservatism. They are the vigilantes of the Republican Party, the Ku Klux Klan of the Toxic Right who employ prevarication, innuendo, and verbal abuse in order to threaten their enemies and consolidate their political base. More... Charles Marowitz is an author of over two dozen books and numerous essays and articles who lives in Southern California.
Hungry Man, Reach For The Book
The Great Game Lost
It makes sense that London's fearless Tricycle Theatre would bring Afghanistan to its stage. What astonishes is the breadth of the project. The neighborhood theatre with an international reach has long since acquired a reputation for treading social and political minefields. Now it has added an historical dimension. The Great Game refers to the 19th century struggle between Britain and Russia for dominance in Central Asia. More... Peter Byrne is an American-born teacher and writer who lives in Lecce, Italy.
The World of Music
Current Offerings At Some European Opera Houses
At the end of May of this year I made another trip to Europe to catch up on some operas that I had never seen before. These operas ranged from the Baroque (Handel) to the ultra modern (Franz Hummel). Sadly, too many of them in their presentations suffered from the "German Disease": the imposing of sets and costumes at variance with what the original composers and librettists imagined, desired, and executed. Would that this disease were actually confined to Germany; but it seems to have spread around the world. More... Isidor Saslav is a concertmaster who lives with his wife, concert pianist Ann Heiligman Saslav, in Overton, Texas.
Poetry
L'examen de minuit (Midnight Enquiry)
Both in French and English, this famous poem will, in the eyes of careful readers, immediately make the connection with the current president of France, the right-wing demagogue Nicolas Sarkozy. Has anyone ever heard about the famous line La Bêtise au front de taureau ("The Stupidity like a bull's brow")? -- English translation by Gilles d'Aymery. More... Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was an eminent French poet and critic.
Multilingual Poetry
ápokatástasis
... and the existential needs: Guido Monte teaches Italian and Latin literature in Palermo, Italy.
Letters to the Editor
On Michael Doliner, intelligent design, and the "way we people think"; praise for Louis Proyect and Tony Judt; and the legend of Boris Vian's song "Le Déserteur." More... We appreciate your comments. Please, remember to sign your e-mails with your real name and add your city, state, country, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Thank you.
Swans by Subject
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