I'm nearly done with A People's History and have found it more stimulating with every chapter. This should be required reading for everyone! So much of it is grim, factual, but Zinn isn't mired in pessimism; quite the contrary: he points to the actions of heroes (the people really responsible for our 'equality' and 'openness' had to fight for it and die, and serve time...) as signs of life - the fact that we've made any progress points to ;lds9,cx, dddl';s0...
In a society of complex controls, both crude and refined, secret thoughts can often be found in the arts...
~
"Liberties are not given, they are taken" - Aldous Huxley
~
You think I have visions
because I am an Indian.
I have visions because
there are visions to be seen
-Buffy Sainte-Marie
~
The Pentagon historians wrote that when Eisenhower met with President-elect Kennedy in January 1961, he "wondered aloud why, in interventions of this kind [Vietnam], we always seemed to find that the morale of the Communist forces was better than that of the 'democratic' forces." [sneer-quotes mine]
~
The prisoners of the system will continue to rebel, as before, in ways that cannot be foreseen, at times that cannot be predicted. The new fact of our era is the chance that they may be joined by the guards. We readers and writers of books have been, for the most part, among the guards. If we understand that, and act on it, not only will life be more satisfying, right off, but our grandchildren, or our great grandchildren, might possibly see a different and marvelous world.
My father is a history teacher. He's politically moderate, having been raised lower-middle (lower) class but having benefitted from the wealthy due to his own hard work and academic achievement. He has succeeded, raised a successful family, and no longer encounters subversive thought outside of The Onion. I doubt he's read this but I really hope I can convince him to do so. I sent him an issue of The Baffler a few years ago and didn't really get a response: "It's just over-intellectualization." [speaking of The Onion...]
Seoul Junk: I have been busybusy being an employed person; training, teaching, getting set up in my new digs in Mok-dong (some discord with the apt., but it will all work out). It is very hot and humid here and I'm dripping with sweat.
In Korea there is a cable channel dedicated exclusively to the game Baduk (Korean name for Go). The kids don't play, though, preferring videogames like Warcraft &c. I've only played for a year and have been getting my ass handed to me by old geezers here in Seoul. They've played all their lives and are really incredible. I need to find some beginners to play with...
Last week I went to Soyosan, a beautiful (smallish) mountain outside Seoul featuring some really amazing temples. We ate lunch at a restaurant with seating in the middle of a stream. Sitting ankle-deep in cold running water eating sundubu-chigae while the waitstaff risked life and limb delivering food and replacing dropped chopsticks made us want to violate the Korean tipping system (no tipping). It was my first excursion beyond Seoul, and it was really amazing to breath some 'fresh' air and see lush greenery, exposed cliffs, and the temples were truly awe-inspiring. Korean hikers are pretty entertaining, too. They get all geared up in Gore-tex, boots, argyles pulled up high and whatnot just to take a 1k hike up a gentle sloping 'mountain.' They're scrupulous about the nature, too. While people seem to think nothing of littering in Seoul, in Soyosan I actually saw people picking up trash!
posted by Brad Larcen 7/25/2002[edit]
