Letters -- PW #33
Dear
PW,
No, thank you. PW has some interesting articles, but I’m
tired of its overall tone -- the reconstituted Marxism, which even in its
more orthodox form has been tried on a vast scale and found wanting; and the
feeling of Gen-X entitlement that permeates the voices of all reporters, editors
and correspondents -- as my father would say, that the world owes you a living.
Life may not have to be a sweatshop-and-tenement existence, but you
got to put a little something into it if you want a little something out of
it. That’s Law #1 of Thermodynamics.
(and the hypocrisy of articles like “Get a Bike -- Get a Life!” galls
me. You all own or want cars, and
you know it.)
I am grateful to PW
for getting me through my Job from Hell (1991-92, R.I.P.) and helping me see
humor in other unpleasant, if less excruciating, work experiences, and I think
the stories from the electronic sweatshop have their place alongside those
from the mines, the factories and the cotton fields. But until you guys accept that work, like love, is a basic human
need, and that capitalism is at least no worse than any other social-economic
system, you’re going to just be pissing energy away, instead of using it to
invent healthier, more rewarding, and more challenging worlds of work for
our and future generations.
R.B.S.
Belmont, CA
Dear
PW,
This is your “old” acquaintance Mark Henkes, who wrote the
short story, “The Swineherd” from
Pennsylvania and which you published in the summer of 1992, issue #29.
Thank you for sending the latest issues of your publication. It is innovative.
I write because I want to let you know that I have been
fired from my position with the PA House of Representatives, partially because
I published “The Swineherd.” ...Anyway, I have been told by a Philadelphia
reporter that the Speaker of the House’s staff telephoned a literary magazine
in Pennsylvania and told the editor/publisher not to publish “The Swineherd.”
An investigation is pending. It
would be fun to nail their asses. In
the meantime, I am unemployed and on welfare because I want to be, because
I am writing a screenplay for a movie dealing with the character of “The Swineherd.”
Thank you again for publishing my piece. It went a long way to getting me fired and
to help me do what I really want to do in life --write fiction.
Please keep sending a copy of PW. I will contribute more cash one of these days
like I said I would. Right now it’s
snowing more than a foot of snow here and I’m California Dreamin’.
When I get hold of a WATS line I’ll call you.
Sincerely,
Mark
Henkes
To:
pwmag@well.sf.ca.us
Finished Adam's piece
in PW 32 last night. Haven't I seen these utopian projections somewhere
before?
PW,
I was happy to see Processed World no. 32 try to tackle
the question of a new society and how to get there again, something you haven’t
really done since the first issue, thirteen (!) years ago. But the actual content of “Death
of a Nation” left me quite upset in several ways.
Completely left out of the repression angle was the war
on drugs, which is actually being used,
in real time, to impose police state-like measures. In fact, there were few references to this
question anywhere in this number, a fairly major departure from the past. What few references did exist in “Death...”
were along the lines of “drug addiction” in the new society as a problem inherited
from the old one. Seems like a rather
staid leftist take on the question of altered forms of consciousness.
While i’m unalterably opposed to homophobia in any form,
I thought the piece went all out to portray homosexuals in nothing but favorable
light, in contrast to the deserved
criticism leveled at ethnic nationalists. Even a soap opera was lauded because it portrayed a lesbian situation
(complete with gay-oriented ads?). Kwazy
Wabbit showed far more perceptiveness in his piece, “Boudoir and Bidet,” with
its portrayal of gay bosses who differ little from their straight counterparts.
Berkeley now has a gay mayor, who’s also head of the Chamber of Commerce
and an anti-homeless advocate, and San Francisco has the lesbian businesswoman
Susan Leal on its Board of Supervisors. The
fact that Pete Williams, the Pentagon’s spokesman during the Gulf War, was
gay was acclaimed by some papers as a sign of progress.
Besides such bourgois characters, there are also the “nationalists,”
those who see all heterosexuals as sexless, conservative bigots, or claim
that all hetero-sex is essentially rape, a perspective which has poisoned
relations between the sexes. In fact,
the only mention of heterosexuals in “death...” was in connection with conservative
family types. (Even Wabbit alluded
to all heterosexual men having wives? Really? Many
of my friends have not even had a casual relationship in quite a while.)
Is Adam afraid to challenge the latest Bay Area P.C. line, which seems
to be that bisexual or gay is good, heterosexual is bad?
(As if sexual orientation is a choice,
instead of basically an inborn trait.) Criticizing
the bad elements of gay politics is no more homophobic than criticizing muddle-headed
black and latino nationalists is racist.
So why criticize one and not the other?
But what disturbed me the most was the social democratic
tone throughout. “The U.S. Constitution
was generally retained...” Like the
parts which give Congress the power to raise an army and a navy (to force
the young to do their “duty” tour of social service?), or regulate interstate
commerce and levy taxes? Or the federal
judiciary, up to the Supreme Court? The
Constitution is a blueprint for a centralized capitalist state, which is why
so many opposed it in the 1780s. It can be used by a truly new society as much
as a machine gun can be used for plowing the earth.
In contrast to Mickey D.’s “trading
Futures,” the society envisioned in “Death...” retains market relations,
albeit with the window dressing of “cooperatives.”
The idea that in a new society the associated cooperatives would exchange
their products was rejected even back in 1876 by Marx (“Critique
of the Gotha Program”). Public acclaim is unlikely to supplant financial
competitiveness when social production is still split up among separate enterprises
whose workers still relate to them as property (read capital).
This is nothing more than self-managed capital, which Adam correctly
pointed out years ago (back in his radical days) is actually capital-managed
self. These days, Adam seems to listen more to folks like Louis Michaelson,
who in no. 30 asserted that the roots of capitalism lie in Third World slavery,
rather than European enclosures and wage slavery. Once again, politically correct but historically
inept.
To top it all off, the “utopia” envisioned in the story
shows little awareness of the connection between industrialism and capitalism.
The vast technological structure is not merely a collection of value-neutral
machines, circuits, means of transit, etc.
It is the embodiment of alienated social relations in material form. Computers cannot be produced en masse without the deadening, dangerous
work required to mine silicon produce printed circuits. And their mass usage requires zoned-out operators
pacified (and “fried”) by low -level radiation.
All this seems like a half-baked, hazily thought-out co-optation
of Bolo-Bolo, a genuinely radical
vision of social transformation in which both the state and the market are
done away with as primary social institutions. Now we have the proposition that not only the state, but the market
and the Frankenstein-like global machine will slowly wither away. If Pacifica is a model transition society (run
by psychics? Gimme a break!), i say
no thanks.
The very premises of the historical trajectory which underlies
the story are thoroughly wrong. The
U.S. (Oceania?) ruling class is in no way headed for a compradour [sic] bourgeoisie
role. It is engaged in a three-way
fight with its counterparts in Japan (Eastasia?) and Western Europe (Eurasia?),
but it’s a pretty even fight at this point. “Death...” seems to be based on trends that
may have had some validity a decade ago.
But thanks to wage-cutting, “down-sizing” and globalization, American
industry is again competitive (e.g. in cars, electronics). Other glaring errors pepper the story, such
as the assertion that military production involves low wages, quite the reverse
of the actual situation. In fact,
it seems like the whole thing was written inside some remote academic ivory
tower; the piece shows little awareness of 1994 realities, and displays a
sense of detachment from the goings-on it describes.
My sad conclusions is that these days, the politics of many
of the Processed World contributors
do not even come up to the level of social democracy. This is quite a change from the project’s early
promising days.
J.S.
Berkeley, CA
To:
Processed World <pwmag@well.sf.ca.us>
Subject:
Issue #32
Another great issue, folks. As befits your main topic, I'm writing to you
in the medium of the (immediate) future, E-Mail, to comment on your contents
this time.
Letters were interesting as usual (hiya
Ace!), and the layout was real nice. I
kept trying to figure out if the shapes meant anything, though. Perhaps it was a bit distracting in that respect.
"Mickey
D." had a nice sense of the sarcastic and a good grip on social anthropology
and such. I really learned a lot from his research on
gift-giving societies. I wonder if
it's coincidence that many of these societies are either matriarchal or treat
each gender with equal respect. Gift-giving as its viewed in the West does
seem to be more the domain of women...
Chris' dystopias
showed us three very sad figures, and I hope I don't project the same image
when I'm, in essence, writing letters to friends (and PW!)
using my modem instead of the way I used to do it, on my computer at work,
printing it out, mailing it, hoping it arrives...
See, I think we can let computers (television/jobs/etc.)
trap us or we can make 'em work for us. It's just a machine; WE'RE supposed to be the
brains of the outfit. Since I signed
on line, I've become a MUCH better and faster personal correspondent, AND
I've made new friends. Significantly,
many of these friends turn out to be quite social and in-person get-togethers
have often resulted. I think this
is an aspect which ought to be mentioned as well as the negative one Chris
implies here and mentions in "The
Shape of Truth" (isolation, staring at a screen, etc.).
Again, many arguments against computer
technology also apply against television - the superhighway's not that dissimilar
to a home shopping channel (got a kick out of the final tale, Chris!).
You can let it suck you in, sell you to the advertisers (YOU Are The
Product, as Adbusters Quarterly reminds
us), or you can get your business (and entertainment) done and then flip the
off switch. Many of us are capable of the latter.
No real comments to Kwazee Wabbit on
his past occupations except, here again, a good connection is made between
"thankless" work/services and traditionally "woman's"
work. This can't be overstated.
Jon's "Drink of Water" was
quite spooky, and would've fit nicely in After
Hours (especially since I couldn't figure out the ending, as I can't with
many of the stories in AH)... "The
Scientific Sun," by the scientific son, was even spookier, being true.
I wouldn't mind living in Adam's near
future, except I always have the feeling that, for whatever reason, I'm going
to be one of the first up against the wall come the revolution. Just paranoid, I guess.
Always good to see bike stories.
Makes me wish I could ride one better. Since I can't, I'm thankful
for subways!
The absolute gem of issue #32, however,
was Michael Botkin's "Welcome to Pacifica." I found myself wishing this were novel-sized;
I'd acquire it in a heartbeat! Is
he ever planning on expanding this world? The many technological changes/shifts weren't the only interesting
thing here; Michael has a real flair for characterization as well.
Bravo!
I may photocopy Richard Wool's "Eureka!"
for my husband's family, half of whom are now gratefully employed (after long
bouts of unemployment in recessive Connecticut) at the Foxwoods casino.
Then again, I don't think so. Foxwoods
may contain The Evils of Gambling, but it's also enabled the Pequot Indians
to buy back most of the land that was originally stolen from them, and that's
got to say something. Not to mention
that it's probably made my nephew feel a bit prouder about being an Indian.
I just can't get as down on it as Richard
does, and his comparison of gambling to toxic wastes and nuclear industries
really offends me. If you need to
compare what you consider The Tragedy of Gambling to anything, a more apt
analogy might be the tragedy of alcoholism (or poor health in
general),
or fishing rights disputes, or something else that affects the traditional
ways of life - NOT something that's directly responsible for poisoning people
in large numbers. It also cheapens
the real horror of environmental racism, for which you needn't look farther
than places like Harlem of Greenpoint/Williamsburg... [The author, Richard
Wool, has claimed himself a compulsive gambling alcoholic who’s shoved a barbed
hook through an earthworm. Ed.]
I also have no comment on "The
Pyramid and the Tree" - too New Agey for the likes of me, I'm afraid.
Keep in touch - can't wait for my next
fix of PW!
E.W.
Brooklyn, NY
Yo!
dispossessed,
Lookin’ good ... hopefully theze werdz find allau in the
very best uv health an’ determined spiritz...
Re. #32 n’ Futurology; while it may very well b that change
frightenzz people the korncluzhun duz not necessarily mean that it iz a 4-gone
etc. ... change only frightenz the domestic when they r victimz uv it as herd
memberzz and surplus proletai ...
So what I iz wondering iz where r the success stories about
that wily, independant, contumant who dares 2 think and act so az 2 bekum
that agent/example uv change? You
kno’, like: “I made an’ sold this buck-knife that Elena Bobbit used”... or
“I grew the vegetables that were enjoyed by the BACAT corporation gathering.” Or other ideas which lead “inquiring mindzz”
2 thots uv alternate modes and sumthing more than rat-race exercizes in futility
... (i.e. one step4ward, two steps bak)...
Meanwhile, du take advantage uv this relative period uv
grace and realize that the dispossessed will not quietly starve in the streets.
Thus a military-industrial technocracy will think thotz which will
be manifest by more taxes, social engineerz, ergonomic habit and work sites.
But notice that it is not the quality uv yor lives that iz improving,
rather it iz the quantity uv restrictions + illusion.
Nevertheless, thankx, take care,
Onward,
Obiter
Dicta, Folsom St. Prison, CA
