SPAM: Re: [Marxism] Location information

[Intense Red <intnsred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 > 1) How did you get interested in Marxism?

   Long story.  The shortish version: in 1983 I found myself pulled out of a
military school I was going to in Ft. Lewis, WA and assigned the duty of
"CQ" (charge of quarters; basically, watch the barracks) because my school's
instructors were reassigned back to the 2nd Ranger Battalion when they were
called out on alert and sent to invade Grenada.  So for weeks I was on CQ:
24hr on/24hr off, watching an empty barracks.  It was boredom to the extreme.
For 24 hours I'd watch movie reruns and CNN to see our "heroic" Grenada
invasion.  For my 24 hours off I'd sleep, hit the bars and get drunk, and try
to get laid.  Typical army life.

   One moment I remember from my CNN news watching was the moment the Rangers
"rescued" the "threatened" American medical students.  I saw it clearly on TV
and still remember it to this day.  When the Ranger battalion finally got
back to garrison, I talked with many of the guys I knew and I learned a
completely different story.  I was told firsthand that I was lied to by CNN.

   But no problem, the Army does very effective indoctrination.  I shrugged it
off.  One of my specialties was opposing forces, and since I was smarter than
average, I could tell you exactly how a Soviet motorized rifle battalion
would deploy, what weapon systems they possessed, what ranges they could
fire, and intimate details of their tactics.  I could also parrot all of the
anti-communist propaganda that I had picked up after being in the military
for years.  I'm ashamed to say I voted for Ronny Raygun -- twice. :-(

   After I got out of the military, I had some medical problems due to my
service.  That didn't sit well with me (understatement!), but the VA told me
I could go to college for voc rehab.  Cool.  The very first semester I took a
300 level class on political ideologies taught by a local Republican lawyer
who was the county prosecutor.  Uh-oh; it was a semester long debate.  I
devoured the class and everything I could read about Marx.  I had an
epiphany: I had been had!  I realized that while the Soviet system had many
flaws, their goal was honorable and just -- distinctly different from
capitalism's goal.

   To make matters worse, I also read Bellamy's turn of the century work
"Looking Backward."  That amazed me.  I had always been interested in US
history but never had heard such a book was so popular in its time.  I
switched my major from compsci to social science.  A while later I started
reading Liberation Theology, Gnosticism and delving greater into the colonial
era Christian communist sects, utopian socialism, and mainstream Marxism and
Marxist-Leninism.  I've never looked back.

 > 2) how do you respond personally and politically to the apparent
 > "triumphalism" of the system today, the so-called "End of History"

   Being a student of history, I more or less shrugged it off.  Depressing,
yes, it was.  But I often thought back to a CPUSA article I once read.  In
the article, a young CPUSA member from Maine in the late 60s told Gus Hall
that he believed in Marxism, in a more just society, and that he wanted to
spend some time working on those issues.  Gus Hall laughed and said something
like, "Son, you'd better plan to spend the rest of your life working on that
struggle!"

   Our lifetimes are a mere drop in the bucket in terms of history.  The best
we can hope for is to live by the Golden Rule and to work hard for justice.

 > 3) What are some of the books that have influenced your political
 > evolution and that you think other people would learn from?

   Since I'm interested in stabbing the beast in the heart, American
capitalism interests me for numerous reasons.  One of the most influential
books I've read was Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward, 2000-1887"
<http://www.socialismonline.us/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=1";>.
Non-scientific?  Yes.  Utopian?  Yes.  Uplifting and eye-opening to the
possibilities of alternative constructs of society?  Definitely!

 > 4) What are the political conditions in the region of the world you live
 > in?

   I live in rural, far northern New England.  This is knee-jerk redneck (or
more accurately, conservative New England Yankee "hick") country.  Yet I see
loads of possibilities!

   People know the country is on the wrong track.  If you approach people as
to their core concerns -- job disintegration and increasing poverty around
here -- you will hit paydirt.  There are many issues which people will move
to the left if you hit them with the correct line.  People don't want to hear
intellectual crap or big theories -- they want to hear clear, plain language
that addresses their problems and offers realistic solutions.  Once you hit
that note they're more open to bigger and more radical ideas.  A
semi-populist hitting on class issues has the country waiting.

 > 5) What are your political activities?

   In two words: not enough.  I've semi-recently returned from overseas and
I've been playing around starting up the socialismonline.us web site, a poor
imitation of a BBS I ran in the 1980s.  I'm trying to get the layout of the
US politically and want to work beyond the peace and justice issues I'm
involved in and to help build a mass 3rd party.  The Green Party seems one
possibility, since they have a state branch where I'm at, and I'm curious to
learn more about the Labor Party.

   I feel leftists in the US have to work to build a new mass party.  While I
agree with all the logic of the people dissing ABB, without an alternative,
why not vote for Kerry and the Democrats?  Without an alternative party, do
we suggest that people stay home and not vote?  That's suicidal -- we need to
motivate people to participate and become active.

   We need that alternative *party*!  I know that'll mean putting up with all
sorts of progressives and liberals, but the alternative is to reside in our
politically correct elitism and to let the duopoly continue to reign.  That
is unacceptable in my view.

--
"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political
activity remains.  To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy
task, but it can be done." -- US President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt


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