Assimilation In Four, Three, Two ...

Later this month AK Press is publishing Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform.  I'm getting it as part of the Friends of AK Press program, and it is a subject I've been interested in for a while.  Why would a group so generally despised and misunderstood want to conform to society's norms so badly?  It obviously goes well beyond equal rights (you can still have equal rights without having to adopt the values of society as a whole), and I want to know what drives that.  Is it that most people, no matter what their particular bent, have a desire to conform?  Is it a bit of self-loathing that manifests itself after years of being told you are inferior and an aberration?  Is it that 95% of the population is just idiotic?  It's a fascinating subject, and I'm glad AK Press is tackling it, though I'm sure it will cause a bit of a controversy.

I don't know what directions the book will take (and it is an anthology, so expect the usual variants in quality), but my guess is that the question of why many homosexuals feel the only safe route to take is one where you mimic heterosexual culture in every way you can -- marriage, children, voting Republican -- may be delved into and taken to task, and that is something that needs to be done.  In the span of history, the modern gay rights movement is fairly young, and it has come a long way, but there are factions within it that seem to have forgotten what was being fought for, and I think this may be the book that helps set the record straight -- no pun intended. 

Like many AK Press books, I probably won't be reading it as soon as it arrive in my PO box, but when I do, you can expect a review here.  In the meantime, I advise anyone with at least a passing interest in the subject to check it out ... as I predict this tome is going to get a lot of press in all the right places.

Pie, Pie My Darling

I've been reading Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade Cookbook which I got through my Friends of AK Press deal.  Despite the title, this is not a cookbook, it's a history book and activist guideline for how to cut people down to size with a well-timed pie to the face.  As someone who has spent almost his entire life pranking people, I appreciate it as those in power deserve to be pied every once in a while.  (The fact is, many of them need something even more extreme as the decisions they make often effect people's lives in negative ways and I'm a firm believer in an eye for an eye.)

Politicians, newscasters, actors -- nobody is immune from these antics.  To read the first-hand accounts of the pie tossers and how they get by security is nothing short of amazing.  Reading the reasons why they do it makes me think their targets should be thankful they came armed only with pies and an agenda and not a Luger.  From what I see, the people pied deserve it.  When you press for clearcutting forests or want states to be get rid of libraries and give those tax dollars to businesses instead, a face full of cream is about the best you can wish for.

The Middle East right now is a victim of threat by example.  Egypt set the example.  Other people have caught the fever and have started protesting, marching through the streets with fists raised.  In a sense, they have the same spirit as people like the Biotic Baking Brigade.  Their actions aren't as directed, but the desire to show those in power that their time has come is the same.  Reading this book (which I have not yet finished), is a good reminder of the importance of protest and pranks.  They can cause change, and if they don't, they still make you feel better.  You can either complain about your leaders or oust them.  Remember: if the only way an leader can justify itself (be it human or an agency of humans) is by force, it is no real leader and deserves to be dismantled.  Just because someone or something has a title doesn't mean it deserves it.  What it does deserve is a pie smack dab in its face.

A word of warning, though.  As I was reading the book I came across this disturbing essay title: Menstrual Pies!  Just seeing the title reminded me of a video I saw a few years ago, and the stomach churning feeling I got from it.  The essay is not what it seems, so I would not skip over it if you are reading the book, and nor would I put the book back on the shelf if you are thumbing through it at your local bookseller. 

If  you're in Wisconsin today, you know how nice it would feel to lob one of those pies at your union-hating Republican servants.  If you're in Libya, you may want a pie but probably need bullets.  Either way, the spirit of freedom and fairness is alive and well.  It is up to those who want such things to take them.  Your leaders won't give them to you, they must be snatched away from them.  This book reminds you that such a thing is possible.  Nobody is safe, and there are no exemptions.  It's a bit refreshing, quite honestly, like a an custard pie to face.

Anti-Semitism Examined and Debunked

I recently finished The Politics of Anti-Semitism which is edited by the always reliable duo of Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. The title is bit vague. One casual acquaintance, upon seeing me carry it, asked, "You're reading about how politicians hate the Jews?"

Not really.

A series of incredible essays by people like Cockburn, Bruce Jackson, Michael Neumann, George Sunderland, Linda Belanger, Robert Fisk and Edward Said (among others) takes the media, politicians and Jewish groups to task for their blanket anti-Semitic labels to anyone who, chiefly, dares to criticize Israel's actions against the Palestinians. Each essay is a powerhouse of knowledge, firsthand experience and examination, and if this seems even slightly interesting to you, I highly recommend it.

(As an aside, a director friend of mine who is Jewish, once thoroughly criticized me for my defense of Palestinian acts of self-defense. While he didn't flatly call me out as anti-Semitic, had the conversation gone on much longer I'm sure I would have been painted with that brush.)

AK Press and CounterPunch worked together to put this book out. (I got it through the Friends of AK Press program, which I encourage you to look into.) Quite honestly, every book these two publishers do together is fascinating, and this is no exception.

Ironically enough, I was reading this when Obama administration decided to criticize Israel's plan to build 1,600 homes in a disputed region of East Jerusalem. The administration took a lot of heat for its relatively tame words. It was interesting to see the main thesis of the essays in the book in action right in front of me on CNN ... and this was written in 2003.

I can't imagine what the critics of the Obama administration's admonishment would think if they read this book ...

Her First Book

My daughter wasn't even a year old when I started reading to her. The first book? Alexander Berkman's ABC of Anarchism, a classic from 1929 reprinted by AK Press and obtained through its excellent Friends of AK Press program.

My parents would have been appalled.

My daughter is five now, and I still read to her on a regular basis, though she's nowhere near as interested in reading as I was at her age. She's slowly getting it on her own, though, which I think will improve her interest level. I've got around nine hundred books in my library and let her know when she can read she can read of them she can reach. (With that one exception.)

That first book, though, was important to me. I know none of it stuck, but I wanted a seed to be planted. I wanted to, when she would ask me years later, be able to tell her that her first book was an important one, and why it was important. It's essential reading for anarchists and the politically minded in general. I don't exactly expect her to have the same political values as mine, but I know she won't learn the proper things about anarchism in school, so I wanted to get first dibs on that.

Perhaps in the future, when she's been reading for few years on her own, she'll delve into the first book I read her. Maybe she'll have questions. Maybe she'll dismiss it as leftist garbage. If I can get her to question it, though, then I have done my job. You see, I don't think a parent's goal is to get their kid to think like them. It's to have the child question the parent as to his or her beliefs. That should be what every parent strives for. Anything less is unacceptable ... and in some cases dangerous.

Let's hope this first book set the gears in motion for her to be on the right track. At the very least it's better than Limbaugh.

Investigating The Walk

Talking the Walk: A Communications Guide for Racial Justice is an important book with a lot to say if you are involved in any kind of activist group (race-based or not), but I have to wonder if its message is a little lost.

The book, edited by Hunter Cutting and Makani Themba-Nixon, gives activists the tools to effectively deal with issues of race when it comes to things like dealing with the mainstream media. It teaches people how to fashion the debate, how to get issues into the public eye and so on. Honestly, I could see this AK Press book being used in colleges, as it is that thorough and set up to do that very thing. Any questions about the book's validity are also addressed by the use of examples where the described tactics clearly worked. But, again, does it matter?

Now that Obama is president, I've actually heard people say the country is no longer racist. And then there are those who use his race as the butt of jokes (which I've covered on the Cancerous Zeitgeist blog). These two groups are the extremes. There are those who think racism is gone, and those for which it will never go away. Yes it is important to get both groups to hear messages that racism exists and it should be eradicated, but you have to wonder how you can effectively get it through their heads. This book claims to show activist groups how.

On one hand, repeating a message over and over will eventually cause it to sink in and become effective. That's something this book understands.

On the other hand, you spend a lot of time and effort appealing to morons. Time spent on them is time not spent on something else.

Racist messages in the media and from the government must be fought and countered. I don't think any progressive thinking person would argue otherwise. Knowing how to fight and counter is essential, hence the need for the book. I just have a problem taking the fight to idiots.

I am conflicted when it comes to this book. I can see its importance (and it is very well written), but it is not something I would pick up for casual reading. (I actually got it because I'm a Friend of AK Press, which is something everyone should look into.) The only parts of the book that actually interested me were the media situations that were presented (such as Katrina) and how they were dealt with by activist groups. That was interesting.

I've always been a firm believer in letting people drown in their own stupidity and ridiculous beliefs. I understand that when it comes to issues such as race, that stupidity becomes a huge problem for other people. On some level, however, it becomes a gay marriage problem.

The gay marriage problem is simple. Homosexuals want to be treated like heterosexual couples when it comes to marriage. They want assimilation. I would argue that assimilation is a bad thing (look at how well it worked for Native Americans). Equal rights, freedom, and all that comes with it is important. Assimilation destroys cultures. Asking for the right to marry isn't as effective as somehow taking it. Asking to be treated as equals when it comes to race, isn't as effective as demanding it. That's why I always loved the Black Panthers over say King, Jr. When you demand, you don't lose your sense of self. When you ask, it's akin to begging your master for a treat.

This book walks that line, but it often strays into the demanding side, which is why I feel it was worth reading. I just wish most of the focus would've been on creating your own media instead of using the enemy's.