[Marxism] Swans' Release: December 15, 2003

["Gilles d'Aymery" <aymery@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.swans.com/
December 15, 2003 -- In this issue:

Note from the Editor:  The first paragraph of our "About" page reads,
"In a time of revisionism, faux-semblant, spinning news and skewed
information, Swans is about thinking, questioning, observing and
providing a forum for ideas that is lacking in the mainstream media"
(yes, it's the forum that is lacking...). Well, this rendition has much to
do with the mainstream media. Phil Rockstroh equates it to a soul-
sucking monster in the form of Medusa, whom he fantasizes
beheading. Richard Macintosh begs for a return to true journalists in
the likes of Ernie Pyle or I.F. Stone and away from the fabricated,
embedded robots with their nightly reading of the official party line. Eli
Beckerman screams out against remaining silent in the face of the
mainstream marketing machine; and Gerard Donnelly Smith takes on
that very machine, whose heart-sickening racist advertising glorifies
Custer, the stereotypes about a blood-sucking past and a total
obfuscation of the genocide of Native Americans. It may be many
moons before any of their desires are fulfilled or their views
embraced, but Swans will continue to provide this forum for
expression. Again, it's not the ideas that are lacking, but the forum that
is missing...

On the sunny side of the equation, Scott Orlovsky puts forward his
optimism for the New Year when, with the winter solstice behind us,
we will all look at the brightness of the on-going light of life; and
Vanessa Raney offers an allegory on the season of benevolence.

In the meantime, the silly pre-electoral season continues unabated with
its political posturing and event positioning. Our co-editors add their
own take on what can be expected from the 2004 "polls" and the
"gotcha" ball game. Hint: with the Dow inching up, Saddam smoked
out, Howard Dean smoked in, the Greens gone D.O.A. and the
antiwar movement on life support, the big white boys are back in
business....biiiiiiiig time, assuming they were out in the first place,
which they were not... We are not back to square one. We never left
home plate. As the dreaded French would say, c'est la vie. Vive Free
Market Corpocracy!

Fittingly, new contributor Scott Albers reviews Amy Chua's excellent
book, World on Fire, which examines how "free market democracy
breeds ethnic hatred and global instability." Hard to be suckered again
and again, isn't it? So, we end with a poem by e.e. cummings that will
remind readers that the beauty and mystery of life is not a fable,
whatever the big boys say and do.

Enjoy this latest issue. As always, please form your OWN opinion,
and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that
makes ours grow.

                                    *****

Here is the list of all the pieces:

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/procks15.html
On Approaching The Medusa Of Mass Media
by Phil Rockstroh

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/rmac20.html
Journalists And Pretenders - by Richard Macintosh

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/elib014.html
A Silent Wind - by Eli Beckerman

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/gsmith11.html
Custer Didn't Have To Die: If He'd Only Had A Cell Phone!
by Gerard Donnelly Smith

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/sorlov17.html
Music Of The Sun - by Scott Orlovsky

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/vraney08.html
To Save A Man - by Vanessa Raney

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/ga168.html
They Got Him - by Gilles d'Aymery

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/jeb130.html
White House Polemics - by Jan Baughman

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/salber01.html
Amy Chua's "World on Fire"
Book Review by Scott Albers

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/xxx104.html
LVII - Poem by e. e. cummings

                                    #####

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Thank you for reading Swans.

Gilles d'Aymery
--
Swans

"Hungry man, rush for the book: It is a weapon."  B. Brecht

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