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Rodolfo

orphic_lycidas

About Me

The bourgeois, as soon as he becomes disgusted with the muddle and decay of his own class, necessarily turns to the proletariat, and since he has only been taught to regard them as inferior brutes, he is able to turn to them with pity, as one turns to animals... And yet what leagues and leagues the bourgeois has yet to travel, even when arrived at this realisation of the proletariat as the most suffering class, before he can understand the reality of the society in which he finds himself ! For he has to understand that this most suffering and exploited class, this herd of ill-treated animals, is something very different, the sole creative force of contemporary society. This class which he comes to comfort and set free and relieve, has on the contrary the task of comforting and releasing and reviving him. These sufferers afflicted by war and capitalist anarchy and slumps are to fight and destroy these very evils. The world of his youth whose ruins he sees tumbling on them, is to be rebuilt and more largely planned by them. This humiliating knowledge, which can only be won against his instincts, by an insight into the structure of the social relations in which he lives, is the most difficult of all wisdoms for the bourgeois to attain.

-- Christopher Cauldwell, "Studies and Further Studies in a Dying Culture" (IV. H.G. Wells: A Study in Utopianism)

Either we will be capable of returning by present-day means to this superior idea of poetry and poetry-through-theater which underlies the Myths told by the great ancient tragedians, capable once more of entertaining a religious idea of the theater (without meditation, useless contemplation, and vague dreams), capable of attaining awareness and a possession of certain dominant forces, of certain notions that control all others, and (since ideas, when they are effective, carry their energy with them) capable of recovering within ourselves those energies, which ultimately create order and increase the value of life, or else we might as well abandon ourselves now, without protest, and recognize that we are no longer good for anything but disorder, famine, blood, war, and epidemics.

-- Antonin Artaud, "The Theater and its Double" (VI. No More Masterpieces)

I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4-------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4

My Interests

Reading, literature, history, film, art, political activism, revolutionary socialism (anarchism/Marxism), hating on non-vegetarians & Irish whiskey truffles.

I'd like to meet:

Illness, insanity and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life. -- Edvard Munch..

Music:

Cisco Houston, Rage Against the Machine, Portishead, Bob Dylan, Paul Robeson, Hank Williams, Sr, The Doors, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Last Men, Phil Ochs, Katie Jane Garside, Rachel Jacobs, The Mary Timony Band, Garbage, Helium, Smashing Pumpkins, Fiona Apple.

Movies:

The Passion of Joan of Arc, Red Psalm, Battle of Algiers, Burn!, The Dying Swan, Edvard Munch, Evening Land, Punishment Park, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Part II, Hara Kiri, Mouchette, Rashomon, THX 1138, JFK, State of Siege, Airplane!, Who's That Knocking at My Door; Hearts and Minds, Harlan County, U.S.A, Inside the CIA: On Company Business.

Books:

Fiction: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Jorge Luis Borges, William Blake, John Keats, Euphorion of Athens, Henrik Ibsen, Euripides, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Michael Wilson, Shinobu Hashimoto, Philip Roth, Lawrence Durrell, Katharine Burdekin, Anton Chekhov, "The Descent of Inanna," Homer, "Journey's End" - R.C. Sherriff; Non-Fiction: "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" - Frederick Douglass, "The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution" - Shulamith Firestone, "The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World" - G.E.M. De Ste. Croix, "Art and Artist" - Otto Rank, "Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why" - Gerald D. McKnight, "European Fascism" - S.J. Woolf (editor), "Violence and the Sacred" - Rene Girard, "Studies and Further Studies in a Dying Culture" - Christopher Caudwell, "They Take Our Jobs!": and 20 Other Myths about Immigration" - Aviva Chomsky, "Civilization and Its Discontent" - Sigmund Freud, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" - Paulo Freire, "Sophocles and Oedipus" - Philip Vellacott; Friedrich Engels, Mikhail Bakunin, Karl Marx; Comic Books: THE MAXX - Sam Kieth, WATCHMEN - Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons.

Heroes:

Not heroes but worth taking a look at:The Gracchi Brothers, Jesus of Nazareth, Gerard Winstanley, Thomas Paine, Frederick Douglass, Karl Marx & Frederich Engels, Mikhail Bakunin, Eugene V. Debs, the IWW, the Spartacist League, Friends of Durruti, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Malalai Joya... all the great artists.... the everyday rank and file behind the social movements that struggled and continue to struggle for equality and social justice.

My Blog

There Will Be Blood: a promising subject, but terribly weak results

There Will Be Blood: a promising subject, but terribly weak results By David Walsh 6 February 2008http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/ther-f06.shtml Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ...
Posted by Rodolfo on Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:35:00 PST

XenuTV: Interview w/ Actor & Ex-Scientologist Jason Beghe

The Church of Scientology, along with the Unification Church (or the Moonies), is the single most successful cult in the United States. Since the appearance of the Internet-based group Anony...
Posted by Rodolfo on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:50:00 PST

On the Church of $cientology

Tory Christman, born 1947, is a former member of the Church of Scientology. She left the organization in 2000, after being a member for about 30 years and is now one of its most visible and high-profi...
Posted by Rodolfo on Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:41:00 PST

Ron Paul: White Supremacist

The New RepublicAngry White ManThe bigoted past of Ron Paul.James Kirchick,  The New Republic  Published: Tuesday, January 08, 2008If you are a critic of the Bush administrati...
Posted by Rodolfo on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:56:00 PST

Giuliani Exposed As Fraud by NYC Firefighters

'Critical failures by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani before, during and after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, raise serious questions about his ability to be commander-in-ch...
Posted by Rodolfo on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:57:00 PST

Pakistan’s Power Puzzle

Pakistan's Power Puzzle Barnett R. Rubin (http://icga.blogspot.com/2008/01/pakistans-power-puzzle.htm l) The Pakistan Electoral Commission's decision to postpone the elections scheduled for January 8...
Posted by Rodolfo on Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:21:00 PST

Heim’s Eight-Dimensional Universe and the Hyperdrive

Prepare for Ludicrous Speed Written by Alan Bellows on October 5th, 2006 at 11:57 am From DamnInteresting.com This is a classic Damn Interesting article which was originally published on 11 January ...
Posted by Rodolfo on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:53:00 PST

The Real History of the Crusades

The Real History of the CrusadesBy Thomas F. Madden With the possible exception of Umberto Eco, medieval scholars are not used to getting much media attention. We tend to be a quiet lot (except during...
Posted by Rodolfo on Tue, 25 Dec 2007 04:39:00 PST

Why Barack Obama Sucks More Than You Could Possibly Imagine

Sitting Out the Obama Dance in Iowa Cityby Paul Streethttp://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=126 87.I recently witnessed a disturbing event.  I was among the ten thousand predominant...
Posted by Rodolfo on Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:35:00 PST

Helium (1993 - 1999)

     Ah... anxy, neurotic '90s indie bands, how I miss thee.  The symbolically etymological imagery of the lyrics and thematic fixation on sexuality and degradation made The Dirt of Luck and the Super...
Posted by Rodolfo on Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:54:00 PST