Maybe someone should tell the reactionaries among us that they shouldn’t use other people’s assholes as basis for conversations. If opinions are like assholes and everyone has one, one thing we have to admit is they are all pretty much the same in form and function.
The problem with our time is not that people will or won’t become socialist slaves. As a socialist, I can tell you with some authority that the last thing socialists want are slaves.
The problem is that topics of conversation are so narrow. All I’m hearing in political debate these days is agreement over the same set of words over and over from a million different people. I can almost tell when the radio and TV heads of our Bloated Age change their rants from how many different people I hear the exact same words from. It’s sad and pitiful to see a U.S. Senator quote the deans of AM radio insanity.
Rogue? Maverick? Rebel? Reactionaries rebelling against what, exactly? Certainly not against the established order of human exploitation for personal gain. They are not for a more just, livable, and free society. Personal freedom to buy, sell, and trade human labor? What about being free from labor? Being free to indulge the very things that make us human, like mind, reason, imagination?
For god’s sake, give me a James Carville line. He’s an asshole. Paul Krugman or Rachel Maddow. A Barack Obama or Jim Hightower line–or, hell, even Desmond Tutu–would be good once in a while (though they’re none of them assholes).
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