January 2, 2012
January 2, 2012
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. ***
While we almost met our 2011 fundraising goal thanks to a last-minute anonymous contribution, we are beginning the year 2012 with the contributions of Michael & Therese Pacheco, Ann & Isidor Saslav, Melissa Smith & David Saslav, and Aleksandar Jokic. A neat way to begin the year... Many thanks to all. Let's hope that donations keep coming regularly so that we do not have to once again kneel on our knees and beg for help come October. Again, best wishes for the New Year to our readers, contributors, and donors. If you can, please contribute early.
Note from the Editors:
Yet another year has passed; each one seemingly shorter than the previous, but each still long on humor, if one can find humor in the absurdities. As Horace Walpole put it, "The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think."
Who could have predicted the litany of political sex scandals that occurred this year, from Weinergate and the valuable lesson about not tweeting photos of one's penis, no matter how well endowed (and especially if you're a congressman); the sexual entrapment of Dominique Strauss Kahn that ruined his shot at the French presidency; to the downfall of serial misogynist Herman Cain and his withdrawal as a bizarre US presidential contender? America's revered Penn State football team was tainted by the alleged pedophilia sexcapades of Jerry Sandusky -- a scandal that will continue to unfold well into 2012, hopefully at the expense of Sandusky, his enablers, and a football team and not that of more innocent young boys...
Presidential circuses were performed around the globe in preparation for 2012, and the struggles for power and the promise of change remain a joke. Nicolas Sarkozy is fighting to hold on to his reign of France, despite the disappearance of DSK; Vladimir Putin is maneuvering to reelect himself; and in the United States, a cadre of right wingnuts and an unethical former speaker of the house are vying to replace the "socialist" Barack Obama. You couldn't script a better comédie humaine.
Then there is the not-so-humorous state of the economy, which wreaked havoc on the eurozone and inspired the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement this year. Are the banks and the 1% willing to share their spoils in the New Year, or is the joke on the rest of us? Turmoil, thus far, has had the last laugh on the pockets of the people; expect more of the same in 2012. And behind all of these events, screaming in the background to get our attention was the environment, asserting her power all across the globe, from earthquakes and tsunamis, to flooding and drought; a force to be taken seriously, if we are to take ourselves seriously in the future.
Thus we begin with our 2012 irreverent and Infamous Predictions™ that poke fun of the coming year, followed by some essays on more serious matters from Gilles d'Aymery, Manuel García, Jr., Michael Barker, Charles Marowitz, Paul Buhle, Peter Byrne, Jan Baughman, Raju Peddada, Guido Monte, and your letters. We at Swans send you our best wishes for a New Year filled with peace and humanity, along with a modicum of humor.
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Swans' Definite Predictions
2012 Predictions
Remember Tevye the Dairyman in the 1971 Norman Jewison-directed movie Fiddler on the Roof? Remember when Tevye (played by Chaim Topol) sings about "traditions, traditions," with the fiddler (played by Tutte Lemkow) gently accompanying him with his violin? Traditions exist in all cultures. They run through the ages in families and communities. They are a bridge between the past and the unknown future and allow an uncertain, often challenging present to be more bearable -- a feeling of belonging to the long chain of life. And so it is with Swans Infamous Predictions™, a tradition. At one point in the song Tevye says: "You may ask, how did this tradition get started? I'll tell you. I don't know." Sure enough, we cannot tell you either in regard to Swans predictions, but they began the second year after the publication's inception in 1996. Perhaps the abysmal socioeconomic conditions, the wars, the destruction of the social contract, the inequities, the injustice, the senselessness, all of which our contributors covered time and again, called for a respite, a breath of fresh air, a pause, a need to be serious enough not to take oneself seriously -- to laugh at it all. As Lord Byron wrote in Don Juan, "Nothing can confound a wise man more than laughter from a dunce." So the tradition goes on courtesy of a bevy of Swans. As always, take it or leave it. More... Written by an appropriately irreverent subset of the Swans collective.
Tidbits Flying Across the Martian Desk
Blips #120
"I used to think that the world was shaped by love. I'm sorry, but that's nonsense. It's shaped by money. Money, avarice and greed -- these are the three main constants."
Gilles d'Aymery is Swans' publisher and co-editor.
Patterns which Connect
The Endless Reality Of The Imperfect Now
"If we can stop thinking about what the future might bring and embrace the present for what it is, we would be a lot better off," reasons John Gray in his Christmas Day editorial posted on the Internet by the BBC News Magazine, "A Point of View: The endless obsession with what might be." Gray is an English political philosopher who compares the ideas of Francis Fukuyama and Arthur Koestler to develop his argument, and justify his conclusion... More... Manuel García, Jr. is a retired physicist, author, and family man who lives in Oakland, California.
Eugenic Propaganda, Old And New (Part II of II)
By 1931 the American Eugenics Society faced increasing internal pressure, partly caused by the Depression but also aggravated by a reorientation of major funding agencies, such that by the end of the year "the Society was nearly seven thousand dollars in debt." With dissension growing within their ranks, Leon Whitney (the Society's executive secretary) resigned, as did long-time board members Harry Laughlin, Charles Davenport, and Madison Grant -- although it is important to recognize that the AES's Committee on Selective Immigration continued to be "led by" Madison Grant and Harry Laughlin until 1935 (as it had been for the previous eleven years). More... Michael Barker is an independent researcher who lives in London, England.
Victims Of Democracy
DEMOCRACY -- It resounds almost everywhere. It is what people fight for, sometimes die for. It is the liberty banners unfurled by the hordes of Americans swarming around Wall Street and similar protestations in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, and many others. 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
David Harvey At Large
A recent, informal survey of the influence of Marxism in the US academic world, relative to a decade or two ago, reveals a largely melancholy picture -- but with an unanticipated, recent uptick. Self-avowed Marxists, as a group, have grown steadily older without being replaced in later generations. In many fields from history to literature and philosophy, to name only a few, today's graduate students in many places may hardly know the references to argue one way or another, although it goes without saying that clever disproofs of Marxist ideas continue to be rewarded with grants, appointments, and so forth. More... Paul Buhle is a retired academic and comics' editor who lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dispossession Set In Stone
An online article in February 2011 of the JTA ("The Global News Service of the Jewish People") begins: "Is the Holocaust passé for Hollywood and the world's filmmakers? This is the first year in at least half a century that not a single Oscar or Golden Globe entry has focused on the horrors of the Shoah. Equally ignored, with one peripheral exception, are films on World War II and the Nazi regime." More... Peter Byrne is an American-born teacher and writer who lives in Lecce, Italy.
Arts & Culture
End Times
The final New York Times was delivered to the blue tube at the bottom of our hill on Sunday, September 25, 2011; home delivery stopped all together in Anderson Valley on October 1. Then, in typical fashion of this saga, which I've described in the previous three chapters, on October 5 we received a phone call from a NYT representative wanting to know if we no longer wanted to receive the paper... Gilles was of course taken aback, then politely replied that we in fact do want to receive the paper, but home delivery was stopped thanks to a financial decision by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. In the end, it was no surprise that the NYT publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., never took the time to respond to my pleas for help to save our Sunday delivery. More... Jan Baughman is a clinical researcher and Swans' co-editor.
Christopher Hitchens, Coyote, Or Saint Paul?
Within four days in mid December 2011, Christopher Hitchens, Kim Jong-il, and Václav Havel all died. At the end of my comments, I list articles on (or involving) Christopher Hitchens by five well known left-wing writers: Alexander Cockburn, Norman Finkelstein, Michael Parenti, Louis Proyect, and Scott Hamilton. More... Manuel García, Jr. is a retired physicist, author, and family man who lives in Oakland, California.
The New Definition Of Hope!
In 1997, I had the overwhelming pleasure of tracking the "Hale-Bopp Comet" for the whole summer, in the western skies, which I had shared with my ten-year-old daughter. Last summer, I went out every night with my boys to look at Mars. It was this big ochre star, occasionally mistaken for a flying object, rising every night in the eastern sky, to string a huge parabola to the southwestern horizon, keeping pace with the moon, as if in its orbit. More... Raju Peddada is an industrial designer who lives in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Multilingual Poetry
Miracles
(des relations dans les jours sans but, entre des messages et des produits de marketing que tu achètes et vends à l'instant jusqu'à toi-même dans un marché aliéné, où il n'y a plus de personnes, mais des fausses identités comme des faux masques plus ou moins productifs, et où chacun a perdu son nom every person has not a real name, no more, como personas hemos perdido nuestro nombre...) More... Guido Monte teaches Italian and Latin literature in Palermo, Italy.
Letters to the Editor
Various feedback on Swans review of the most momentous year in decades, and a thoughtful message on language blending to reach the archetypal idea of man. 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
- Activism under the Radar Screen Keep in Mind...
– Fourteen million trees are cut down in the U.S. each year to supply paper bags nationwide. – According to researchers at the University of Michigan's Center for Sustainable Agriculture, an average of more than 7 calories of fossil fuel is burned up for every calorie of energy we get from our food. So, it takes 3,500 calories of fossil fuel to eat your 500-calorie breakfast. – "They" say that nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary to end the Pacific War and save lives. Was Hiroshima necessary? You be the judge. What will "they" say once they have nuked Iran? – According to tolerance.org, every day at least eight blacks, three whites, three gays, three Jews, and one Latino become hate crime victims. – Please support Swans. – You can syndicate Swans with our RSS Feed, courtesy of Sean M. Burke. – Support your local businesses. – Say NO to Amazon.com and the corporate bookchains! Support your local independent bookstores! Check Independent Bookstores in the U.S. and Canada. – You can visit Swans READING ROOM for some books we recommend. – Every time you reload the front page, one of 87 different quotes appears randomly in the left margin. – Thank you for visiting Swans and for reading its contents. Endeavor to become an agent of change. – Let us know if you wish to receive an e-mail regarding each new edition (twice a month) with the Note from the Editors, and please become a financial subscriber. See our Donate page.
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