The DISH
Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 8
Issue 5…Dedicated to the
Dialogue on Race…February 4, 2004
An Artist’s
Plea
By Yohannes Sharriff Smith
This place has a plastic feel, processed by foreign hands.
These void consumer good family values,
Endlessly advertised and sold
In a controlled market of wonders.
I stand on the platform of art, waxing conscious rhetoric.
Boycott the superficial corporeality.
Change reality by investing miscellaneous currency
Back into our Black communities.
Abandon the nigga noose!
Labels and golden chains purchases for fame!
Shackled sweet sun ripened strange fruit
Dangling from stained ruby jeweled collars
Led by the master’s reins.
I implore all who breathe
To search for more than degrees.
Reject the assimilated zombie syndrome.
Lobotomized clones spreading dis-ease
Moving street hear and empty Ph.D.’s
Blazing paths to wealth and prestige.
As whispering winds, on the campus of this planet,
Wisdom crafted by ancients
Canvases youthful continents.
Through homes and hallowed halls
T.H.I.N.C. finds evolving minds,
Birthing the infant thoughts of tomorrow’s hopes.
In the struggle to freely express
A personal definition of this existence,
Only you can save your aware intellect
From the death of enslavement.
(Note:
Revised and reprinted from T.H.I.N.C.: The Chrysalis of Evolution (1997))
Economic and Social Fora
On Wednesday, January 26, the global economic elite gathered in Davos,
Switzerland for the 2005 World Economic Forum. While attendees paid lip service
to topics ranging from African development to tsunami relief, the declining
dollar dominated discussions.
Unlike previous years, the US sent a fairly low-level delegation. This suggested a lack of concern, which increased skepticism among global leaders that the Bush administration is ready and willing to take the painful steps necessary to improve the situation.
Obviously, the Bush administration does not share the world's assessment that the dollar's free-fall is a crisis. With foreign investors still willing to hold US-dollar denominated securities, there is little incentive to reduce the federal budget and trade deficits, which are blamed for the dollar's troubles. Without the US engaged in the major discussion, the WEF ended on a rather pessimistic note for the global economic outlook.
While the world's power elite congregated in Davos, the World Social Forum gathered in Brazil. More than 100,000 social activists attended the fifth annual meeting. Formed in 2001, the annual conference has expanded its agenda from opposition to capitalism, globalization, free trade and the growing power of multinational corporations to working on issues of mutual agreement between unions and advocacy groups.
Heavily attended by European intellectuals, Indian trade unionists, African activists and numerous Latin Americans of various persuasions, the modest US representation came mostly from non-governmental organizations opposed to war and globalization.
In combination, the limited US participation at
these global fora suggests it does not care what the rest of the world thinks.
This is indicative of the dubious direction of the country under the Bush
administration.
Charles Wright Mills (1916-1962)
"There
are more men of knowledge in the service of power than men of power in the
service of knowledge."
Born in Waco, Texas on August 28, 1916, Charles Wright Mills is considered the
"most inspiring sociologist of the second half of the twentieth
century." A graduate of Dallas Technical High School, Mills briefly
attended Texas A&M. In 1935, he transferred to the University of Texas. He
excelled academically and acquired a reputation for "mouthing off to his
professors." Mills received his master's degrees in philosophy (1939) and
strong recommendations from all of his professors to the Wisconsin graduate
program.
At the University of Wisconsin, where he studied Max Weber under the German scholar Hans Gerth, Mills refused to make recommended changes in his doctoral dissertation on pragmatism. Nonetheless, he received his PhD in 1941, the same year he accepted his first academic position at the University of Maryland.
A 1945 Guggenheim fellow, Mills moved to Columbia University in New York City, where he worked closely with Paul Lazarsfeld, director of the Bureau of Applied Social Research. In 1946, he became an assistant professor at Columbia; he did not advance to full professor until 1956. From 1946-56, Mills turned down other offers of a full professorship, because he wanted to stay in New York City; he believed it was the center of U.S. culture and intellectual activity.
Mills believed social scientists should "say something useful about the human condition," rather than reside in their ivory towers, entertaining the esoteric. For his criticism and pragmatism, Miller was in constant conflict with his colleagues and bosses.
In turning a practical lens on the "big questions" of contemporary US society, Mills wrote The New Men of Power and America's Labor Leaders (1948), which unkindly compared the newly emerging US labor leaders to contemporary business leaders. His White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951) found the middle class expanding, but politically conservative because white-collar workers identified with the companies they worked for. The Power Elite (1956) pointed a critical lens on the socioeconomic and political class making the important decisions in the US. He described the relationship between political, military and business leaders, noting members of the elite class tend to graduate from certain universities, belong to the same exclusive social and country clubs, and intermarry.
In The Causes of World War Three (1958), Mills examined the threat of nuclear war and found it likely to happen precisely because preparations for it were being made. Mills was especially critical of his profession in The Sociological Imagination (1959) for its excessive reliance on quantitative methodology and lack of interest in real-world problems. He visited Cuba at the invitation of Fidel Castro in 1960. On returning home, he wrote Listen, Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba (1960), which described Castro's Cuba as an alternative to US imperialism and Soviet hegemony.
Mills also wrote on political philosophy and the role of the intellectual. He believed "the political calling of the intellectual [lay in] the unmasking of lies which sustain irresponsible power." His numerous essays, which appeared in left-wing publications, were collected posthumously in Power, Politics, and People (1963). Mills' other works include Sociology and Pragmatism, which was written in 1945 and published in 1964, The Puerto Rican Journey: New York's Newest Immigrants (1950), Character and Social Structure: The Psychology of Social Institutions (1953) and Images of Man (1960).
A maverick, personally and professionally, Mills married and divorced
multiple times and fathered three children. From 1947-48, Mills served as
vice-president of the American Sociological Society. He died on March 20, 1962
in Nyack, New York. (Sources: Encyclopedia Americana, www.genordell.com/stores/maison/CWMills.htm#bio
and www.tsha.utexas.edu/)
Disgruntled says: Following George W. (Dubya) Bush's inaugural address, analyses of what he said and its global implications were all over the map. To some, he "sounded like a petty dictator masquerading as a liberator." The anti-Bush rhetoric got so bad that Daddy Bush provided clarifications. Dubya's pledge to pursue global freedom did not mean the US would immediately start more wars to rid the world of tyrants in order to make it safe for McDonald's Big Macs, Monsanto's bio-engineered seeds and US grain-fed hormone-treated meat. Unlike the Iraqi incursion, which lacked up-front planning for the "peace" and purposely omitted an exit strategy - no one knows how long it will take to deplete Iraq's oil reserves -- ridding the world of tyranny will require re-instituting the draft and training more troops.
Disgruntled feels: Mystified! The US Congress, led by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and conservative Republicans, constructed charges and successfully impeached former President Bill Clinton for lying and encouraging others to lie about him having consensual adulterous sex in the Oval Office. The Bush administration fabricated the intelligence used to justify a war. Bush knowingly included false information that Iraq tried to acquire "yellow cake" from African in his 2003 State of the Union address. The war has caused untold death and destruction. Conservatives that led the Clinton impeachment have excused the fact that Bush lied about something far more costly and deadly than sex. Those who watched Clinton being crucified are mystified that these "men of honor" are now so silent.
Disgruntled wants to know: Something is seriously amiss. According to a group of fundamentalists and the new US Department of Education secretary, some popular cartoon characters are being used to advance the homosexual agenda. Rather than opposing the death penalty and war and working to eradicate disease and poverty, US Christians are attacking SpongeBob SquarePants. Studies show US children have fallen behind the rest of the civilized world in education. Determined to keep young minds locked in a box, our leaders are busy berating cartoons designed to teach tolerance, rather than working to improve the educational system. One has to wonder, is the US a culture in decline--completely out of its mind?
Academic Freedom or Neocon Agenda
By John Burl Smith
Today, the
solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces
of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free
university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific
discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research.
(Excerpt from Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961)
State Rep. Luke Messer (R-Shelbyville IN), Executive Director of the Indiana Republican Party, claims he introduced an academic bill of rights to address complaints made by students at Ball State and Purdue Universities of being indoctrinated with socialist and terrorist ideologies. At the center of this controversy is a complaint lodged by student Brett Mock against Professor George Wolfe, director of the peace studies program at Ball State. Messer authored the legislation at the request of David Horowitz, a former Communist and founder of the New Left. Billed as a former supporter of the Black Panthers, Horowitz has seen the light and is now a neocon that opposes affirmative action and claims liberal bias dominates college campuses and US mainstream media.
Messer hopes to force grading, teaching, selection of public speakers, and faculty hiring guidelines on boards of trustees at Indiana's public colleges and universities. Here are a few examples of his academic guidelines. Students should be graded solely on answers and knowledge, not on their political or religious beliefs. Curricula and reading should respect the uncertainty of human knowledge and provide dissenting viewpoints. Faculty shall not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious, or anti-religious indoctrination. The selection of speakers must promote intellectual pluralism and observe academic freedom. All faculty shall be hired, fired, promoted and considered for tenure on the basis of competence and knowledge, and in the humanities, social sciences and the arts with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and perspectives.
Neocons should wash their mouths out with soap for allowing statements about "promoting intellectual pluralism and observing academic freedom" to slip out. Neocon propagandists, such as Horowitz, mouth Bush administration talking points at every opportunity and condemn the slightest dissent as liberal bias. They attack most media with their liberal bias mantra, while praising Fox News as "fair and balanced."
Although they claim the US is a conservative
nation, they complain that its educational system is too liberal. Either
students are not learning in college or they are being indoctrinated with
conservative views after leaving school.
The product of a liberal arts education at the University of Memphis, most of
my classes were based on classical theories whether history, economics,
philosophy or psychology. The views of sociologists, like Charles Wright Mills,
were not taught. Any economic theory other than capitalism was discounted and
dismissed as socialism or communism. The poor quality of their conservative
education, not their liberal bias, is the reason US students have difficulty
competing internationally.
The Eisenhower Prophecy or Mills' Elite
By John Burl Smith
In the
councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted
influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The
potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
(Excerpt from Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961)
Leaving office in 1961, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the danger posed by the military-industrial-complex. Pleading for balance, he feared economic and industrial interests, combining with the military, would dominate decision-making and use war to enrich US corporations. Independently of Eisenhower, C. W. Mills in The Power Elite examined US capitalism and came to the same conclusion. Mills' book analyzed the role of family history and connections as the basis of the power elite that dominates the US.
Wide-ranging, Mills' historically based conclusions begin with those who held high positions in the colonies and provinces during and directly after the American Revolution; family power grew into national power. Representing generations of education and community standing..."ancestors who filled pulpits, sat on the bench, served in the army or navy, members of the House or Senate, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, or men of letters..." sowed seeds that grew into family power. This enabled the next generation to begin at the professional and business strata. Primarily urban, Eastern, mainly Protestants, especially Episcopalian and Presbyterian, native-born, Ivy League college graduates inherited power in the US.
According to Mills, the 1886 Supreme Court decision, which declared the Fourteenth Amendment protected corporations, facilitated the rise of corporate power. Ushered in by William McKinley, economic elite, like J. P. Morgan, simply bought up corrupt Senators and judges. The powers of federal and state governments were scattered and unorganized, while the powers of industrial and financial corporations were concentrated and interlocked. With more revenues and employees than many states, corporations bought and controlled political parties, laws, and Congressmen.
Mills' description of the period following WWII until the 1960s, like Eisenhower's warning, foreshadows today and the War on Terror. "Warlords have gained decisive political relevance and the military structure of America is now a considerable part of the political structure. The seemingly permanent military threat places the military in control of men, materiel, money, and power. The nation is in a permanent-war economy controlled by private-corporations." Dominated by military capitalism, warlords and corporate rich define US relations based on the War on Terror. Resources are allocated according to military and corporate needs.
Finally Mills concluded, of the
three types of circles that compose the power elite today, the military
benefitted most in its enhanced power, although the corporate circle became
more entrenched in public decision-making. Professional politicians lost the
most, so much that in examining events and decisions, there now exists a
political vacuum in which the corporate rich, warlords and families rule the
US. (At http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Mills/millsr1.html,
read an excerpt of Mills' The Power Elite.)
Mailbox:
E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email Propaganda_Matrix@yahoogroups.com
As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush
Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their
seeds, which Iraqis have developed over centuries. Instead, they will be forced
to buy seeds from US corporations. That is because in recent years,
transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties
originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be
living under the new American credo: Pay Monsanto, or starve."
Email www.newscuts.com
American media whitewashes Bush's global bullying by Patrick Martin January 25,
2005 - 06:06:38 If the president of China, Russia, Japan or Germany had given a
major speech in which he claimed the divinely ordained right to remake the
entire world as he saw fit, the American media would lose little time in
denouncing that individual as a megalomaniac and threat to world peace. There
have been no such blasts from US newspaper and television pundits, however,
against George W. Bush, whose inaugural address put forward just such a
perspective.
Email http://207.44.245.159/article7808.htm Divided We Fall..By Dom Stasi...The $40 million inauguration extravaganza - most expensive ever- symbolically urinates upon the graves of the over 1300 young Americans who've died for Bush' lies, mistakes and corporate greed. That money would buy one helluva lot of body armor for our troops. But that $40 mil will instead buy martinis, hookers, influence and contracts here in America.
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