If somehow compelled to pass an awkward evening among upper-middle-class, middle-brow intellectuals, I could discuss _________ without sounding like an ignoramus:
a) The difference between free verse and blank verse
b) The difference between banks and credit unions
c) The difference between stocks and bonds
d) The difference between “techno” and “house”
e) Vichy France
Thanks to Dean Baker for obviating my petty titter-tattering about the NYT with this solid, incisive autopsy.
What’s May ‘68 mean to you?
You’ll be shocked to hear that the New York Times thinks of the approaching 40th anniversary as a nice excuse to decry anti-capitalism as simultaneously juvenile and elitist. Apparently all we need to know is that even old Maoists have i-phones these days.
I feel no end of rage towards the political artchitecture we’ve inherited from baby boomers, and in particular for its leftist ruins. But the New York Times I hate even more.
Sarkozy prevails because at the end of the day people graduate from graduate school and buy i-phones?!? Is that why so many of you are afraid of social democratic reforms- do you think it’s going to take away the diversity of nonfat yogurt options and cable tv now that it’s finally getting good? Really. Cuz I can promise you we socialists love the shit out of pizza, too. Rest easy.
Ooh, the whole bit closes with the suggestion that May 1968 actually _made_ Sarkozy, which makes a sick bit of sense, and resonates with Tom Frank’s famous writings on how the upshot for the 1960s was Reaganism and a better soundtrack for Pepsi ads. It’s a windfall for adolescents, the knowledge that you can be a rebel your whole life without ever having to think about politics.
i have a plan for dealing with the onslaught of great, new, smart heavy music that drones and yawns and rocks and has cool art and limited edition, virgin vinyl releases. the plan’s called “going over to rob’s house.”
that said, i’m not overwhelmingly in the mood for communing with my metal roots, which were always more AstroTurf-style roots considering the metal-as-crap company i keep w/ raenie and turstfur. the troof is that sugar/unwound/slint are closer to home w/ me in all sorts of visceral ways i’ll never undo or try to undo.
i think this speaks to the weird experience of just barely qualifying as a generation x-er, assuming the metrics involved being born before 1980. i was born in Feb 1979, and always ran with an older crowd. so metal never seemed uncool, it always was in proximity, but it doesn’t quite evoke “anthems of my youth” vibes in the same way as alterna-indie stalwards and/or my inherited baby boomer influences like dylan and young and also-rans like joel.
all that, merely to introduce this nice feature with personal guitar hero dave pajo in the Onion, on the topic of his ‘mid-life crisis’ metal project, Dead Child. it’s still hard to read him talking about Zwan, as i was around for some of the as-yet-unspoiled moments before the fall. but more than the guitar moves i’ve stolen, it’s Pajo’s awesome, unspoken and punk-as-fuck lack of affect that sets a lingering standard
for me.
also, props to jason heller, whom i’ve watched rise from being an underlooked, badass zinester to a full-blown, Onion-working-for whatever.
update: politico dem-warrior ben smith concurs it’s a rare feat that the obama campaign
could come so close to being asshole-free.
from Clive W. Barrow critical state theory
o Welfare State = Regulatory Policies
• Most critical theorists would agree that as the regulatory activities of the welfare state have expanded in scope, the distinction between public and private spheres of life has been steadily eroded across an ever-widening range of social activities. The welfare state has expanded is involvement not only in the regulation of economic relations, such as those between labor and management or those between the corporation and the environment. The state has become similarly involved in also regulating institutions of civil society that are primarily concerned with the development sof personal identity and normative values, such as the family, education and the Church. In this social sphere, the welfare state has been more and more directly involved in the regulation and promotion of specific normative values (e.g. abortion and racial integration) and in the maintenance of specific family structures (e.g., through day care maternity leave, and family allowances). (7)
o Welfare State = Redistributive Policies
• It is worth noting that welfare states have not generally redistributed income among classes as much as they have evened out income throughout the lifetime of individuals within classes.
• Redistribution of wealth and income among organizations has been left to private organizations that still compete for their relative shares in the marketplace. The most prominent examples are the trade unions and employers associations that explicitly negotiate the division of production between wages and profits…Nevertheless the institutionalization of collective bargaining has resulted in very little redistribution of income among classes in most of the welfare states and even less redistribution of wealth over the course of the last century.
husker du rarities comp and an early live document? eff bleeping yeah, manny!
will the early stuff be more like land speed or “statues/amusement,” ubu-ish punk rock stuff?
