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Today's
Stories
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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Weekend Edition
October 22 / 24, 2004
The Illness
is the Cure
Purchasing
Individuality in America
By
M. JUNAID ALAM
Bracing against the Marxist menace,
America erected a powerful pantheon of ideas where the deities
of Capital received frequent and fulsome tribute. Foremost among
these deities was Individuality. The scripture inscribed at the
base of this particular god was unmistakably clear: Americans,
unlike their enslaved Soviet counterparts, were free. Uninhibited
by draconian government, unimpeded by drab tyranny, their horizons
were limited only by their individual willpower, work ethic,
and imagination.
New enemies have stepped out
from battered caves and Babylonian crevices to replace the old,
but the sanctity of Individuality still stands, untarnished by
time. Striking down oily terrorists abroad and grubby miscreants
at home, Individuality inveighs against all enemies of Capital
with unmatched fury: as an integral part of their quest for 'uniqueness,'
Americans hold a natural right to pursue infinite power
and wealth, without regard for fellow Americans or human beings
elsewhere. And if these worldly treasures happen to become amassed
in the hands of a select few--if, by the very procurement of
immense profit by these few, many more are fated to suffer misery--that
is simply the nature of the game: Kings crowned and paupers parsed
out by the forces of the Great American Way.
But between kings and paupers
lies the public. Pretty prose extolling the virtues of Individuality
may massage the moral senses of handsome millionaires even as
it mocks the lot of voiceless victims, but above all its impact
is most pronounced--and most important--among the large middle
layer of the broader American masses. In a period of affluence
and widespread wealth, the rhetoric of Individuality finds many
receptive ears; wages and living standards rise, social mobility
eases class tensions, new products are introduced and new markets
opened up. On this rail of economic upswing, the ideological
train of Individuality enjoys a smooth ride. There is no need
to ask too many questions about long-term consequences, eye too
closely the story of the Self-Made Man, worry about those left
behind, or philosophize about the social desirability of certain
products, advertising, consumption, and so on. Life is good,
and backdrop, unnecessary.
But what happens when the Self-Made
Man is unmade? What happens when the woman married to the unmade
Self-Made Man must work long hours so the family's income may
merely match what the father alone once earned? What happens
when real wages stagnate, when work hours increase, when benefits
dwindle, for a major part of the working class and even a growing
portion of the 'middle class'? What happens when not only low-end
jobs but skilled labor is sacrificed at the altar of Capital's
freshly minted deities of automation and outsourcing; when social
safety nets evaporate, when income inequality grows? What happens--in
a word--now?
A healthy society would have
prepared some answers. But not healthy society alone: American
society, too, has prepared answers. Here, however, one will not
find any rebuke of the endless glorification of the (successful)
individual or easing up of the contemptuous derision directed
at 'those who did not make it'; any criticism of that type of
differentiation which recognizes only the level of domination
achieved over others; any emphasis on the importance of social
and collective responsibility or on the wealthy classes' abdication
of such responsibility. The unhinging of Individuality from its
rails of Opportunity and Affluence has not given rise to much
concern or consternation in America: Decades of inundation by
capitalist theology will not permit it.
Instead, the spectacle has
only become more absurd, more intense. What was previously only
the obligatory worship of Individuality has now been subsumed
by the fervent cult of Individuality. Signs of this cult
are omnipresent. In the social sphere, everywhere one turns one
finds a coiling loop of deception: the life sucked out of the
worker by the strict regimentation, monotony, and hardship imposed
by Capital is 'relieved' by products claiming to offer myriad
instant enhancements to one's individual features or attributes.
For every illness the market system produces, it offers up a
supposed cure, relayed by advertisement, obtained by purchase,
and administered by consumption. Thus, the illness is the
cure. A brief examination of just some of the more salient
'cures' currently being administered in America to the nation's
youth today will reveal the dangers posed to the well-being of
any society that clings to this faulty loop as a respiratory
system.
Any American who has braved
adolescence in the past fifteen years has already been exposed
to capitalism's most intense and relentless effort of 'individualizing'
the individual: the apparel industry. Immense pressure, reaching
its crescendo during high school but beginning as early as elementary,
is exerted over youth to select a certain style of dress. Boys,
for instance, find themselves identifying with one of several
possible groups: 'preppies', with their clean-cut, expensive,
buttoned shirts, pressed khakis, and stylish loafers; 'gothics',
recognized by the overwhelming blackness of their attire, prominent
chains, and piercings; 'jocks', outfitted in muscle shirts, tank
tops, and sneakers touting advanced scientific engineering features;
and 'gangstas', donning pants always prepared to fall off and
long, baggy hooded sweatshirts, layered over with four or five
faux-gold chains.
At first glance, all this seems
more or less harmless. One can endlessly debate the aesthetics
of it all, but styles and fads come and go, and any child's particular
choice of one over the other is hardly a blow against genuine
individuality. The real problem lies is in the fact that it is
not actually style that is being chosen, but status being
bought. Anyone familiar with the scene well knows that
no boy literally pines after the aesthetics of this or that shirt,
pair of shoes, or pants, or agonizes over this or that particular
design. Rather, what is desperately sought after is entry and
acceptance into one of the various social cliques; what is coveted
is the approval of the clique members by immersing oneself in
all the proper external 'gear' associated with the projected
image of that clique.
Equally well understood by
both children and parents is that, despite the vastly different
images each clique attempts to project with its choice of apparel,
preppies, jocks, gothics, and gangstas alike all obtain their
license to cliquedom through the exact same means: walk
into a mall, enter a clothing store, buy the goods, and leave.
All the clothing styles are equally expensive, each with their
own exclusive company brandings, with "quality", ie.,
branded, shirts and sweaters ranging from $20-$50, pants $30-$60,
and shoes $50-100, on average. Therefore what we see in this
supposed foray into 'individuality' by youngsters is merely an
expensive game of gaining group acceptance, an anxious rush into
conformity poorly disguised as individual 'choice' and 'style.'
This is no better, and in fact
probably worse, than youth's overall headlong rush into materialism
and endless hankering after the latest consumer products. Leaving
aside the issue of cost, what kind of individuality save the
most superficial and trite can be gained by the obsessive fetishization
of apparel? How does one become more unique of by announcing
to the world via his t-shirt logo that he is the "property
of Abercrombie & Fitch?"
All that really occurs here
is the subsuming of the individual into the hype and mantra projected
by the clique. This is a kind of vicarious fantasyland where
wearing sagging pants transforms one into a rhyme-rolling rap
star, sporting athletic shoes catapults one into all-star NBA
player status, and shrouding oneself in black adds the aura of
a rock star. And if the 'rap star', 'all-star', and 'rock star'
all happen to harbor hatred or suspicion for one another based
on a quick glance, as so often happens in clique-filled schools
across the country, then chalk up one more point for 'individuality'--superficial
differentiation.
The bitter irony is that those
who suffer most for this false individuality are the working-class
mothers and fathers who must slave away at work to pay for it.
While rich and well-off children can be lavished with expensive
clothes without much financial worry for their parents, the poorer
kids invariably demand the same kind of status-defining items
from their already over-pressured parents. Thus the story of
people like Kechia Williams is not atypical: a mother of five
and university custodian who rises at 4 a.m. to begin work at
6, she already works overtime "to pay for basics like new
school clothes and supplies," but finds her boys "always
begging for brand namesespecially the ones the rappers are talking
about," and can "see in their eyes how bad they want
something, and I want to get it for them." (Newsweek
Sept. 13, 2004)
Whatever the pressures exerted
upon young boys in capitalist America, they pale in comparison
to the much greater pressures brought to bear against young girls.
For them, 'choices' stretch far beyond the meager scope of mere
apparel into the vast beyond of cosmetics, or 'beauty products.'
As the name implies, these are advertised to enhance their wearer's
beauty, their desirability, their sex appeal, their comeliness,
in myriad ways. One cream will offer smoother skin, another,
age-defying powers; one lipstick brand will promise lustful lips,
only to be outdone by one offering even more lustful lips--and
less stickiness to boot. In this manner, a thousand other variations
on a thousand other aspects of the female form will be presented
and peddled as improving one's attractiveness.
Once again, at first glance
there appears to be nothing alarming about this situation--and
once again, what is seen at first glance turns out to be deceptive.
For the keen observer will note that what is impressive in this
arrangement is not the vast number of products and sheer
combinations intensely advertised and offered by the market to
young girls, but rather the narrow, suffocating scope of what
aspect of a woman's overall humanity the market is targeting--and,
by its emphasis and glorification--what aspect a woman's humanity
is reduced to: eye-candy.
The reduction of young girls
to eye candy has very painful consequences for many of them,
and very happy ones for capitalism. An artificially-induced and
distorted competition to be the most beautiful and attractive
ensues, invariably with its small share of 'winners' and large
share of 'losers,' the latter of whose anxiety, insecurity, and
frustration is quickly pressed into service by the market, which
beckons them to purchase more and more products to improve their
place in the pack. Instead of cultivating individuality or uniqueness,
this process only cultivates insecurity and unhappiness.
Other critical areas of development
are left neglected and underrepresented--where are the massive
billboards and pinups appealing to and advancing women's strength,
intelligence, self-reliance, and versatility? What one finds
instead in most media avenue are images of apparently anorexic,
doe-eyed, half-naked women striking submissive sexual poses.
In this environment, women are taught at a young age by the market
not about solidarity or self- advancement, but to set themselves
against each other in competition for pole position in the race
to be the best eye candy.
And candy in precisely whose
eye? Obviously, that of the man. "Sex sells"--and by
"sex" what is mostly meant is sexy women--because men
buy. Here we see the infinite cleverness of capitalism, the grand
masking game that it plays in American society. Of course, there
is no visible male authority figure, no controlling, overbearing
stereotypical sexist barking orders, directing or commanding
women to run around feverishly and anxiously to improve their
looks, to alter their appearance, to become bare-bone thin, or
adjust themselves in any other number of superficial, sexual
ways for male pleasure. In our atmosphere of depoliticized feminism,
of a feminism decapitated by the guillotine of Capital, women
are more or less free in that they are not forced to do
any of these things--they simply 'choose' to. This is a feat
no sexist could duplicate.
What lessons can be drawn from
this brief exposition? For many decades, we have been force-fed
a major lie: capitalist ideologues intone that there can only
be true individuality within a framework of economic 'freedom'--freedom
for Capital, that is--and any serious attempt to curb the freedom
of Capital will, conversely, result in a severe curbing of individuality.
But what does reality tell us? That, far from offering the positive
value of individuality to counter its negative tendency to produce
economic inequalities, capitalism instead merely reproduces
and replicates its economic inequalities in the social sphere.
Genuine individuality--not
the false idol of Individuality, as defined, packaged, and peddled
under capitalism--is indeed possible. It is possible in a world
where the sagging of one's pants or amount of lipstick on one's
face does not determine one's status or desirability; where status
and desirability are not in turn determined by a handful of elites
who invent artificial distinctions and exacerbate natural ones
as a means of enriching themselves at the expense of the security
and self-development of those below them. It is possible in a
world where all individuals exercise control over their economic,
and therefore social, destinies. Genuine individuality is possible
in a world where, in essence, individuals are allowed to exist
genuinely.
M. Junaid Alam, 21, Boston, co-editor of radical
youth journal Left Hook,
feedback: alam@lefthook.org
Weekend
Edition Features for October 16 / 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
/
|