I spend a lot of time dealing with the isms of the world. The good ones, like... Activism , Anarchism , Anarcho Syndicalism , Anti-imperialism , Atheism , Collectivism , Contextualism , Criticism , Cultural Relativism , Darwinism , Decentralism , Egalitarianism , Environmentalism , Evolutionism , Existentialism , Feminism , Humanism , Idealism , Individualism , Intellectualism , Journalism , Leftism , Liberalism , Localism , Marxism , Modernism , Multiculturalism , Nihilism , Pragmatism , Progressivism , Rationalism , Realism , Reductionism , Relativism , Revisionism , Romanticism , Skepticism , Socialism , Social Realism , Tribalism , Unionism , Utopianism , Zapatism .
And the bad ones... Anglicanism , Anti-intellectualism, Bushism , Capitalism , Catholicism , Colonialism , Conformism , Conservatism , Consumerism , Corporatism , Creationism , Cronyism , Defeatism , Despotism , Dogmatism , Dystopianism , Egotism , Elitism , Escapism , Extremism , Fanaticism , Fascism , Federalism , Feudalism , Fundamentalism , Globalism , Heroism , Imperialism , Interventionism , Isolationism , Materialism , McCarthyism , Militarism , Moralism , Narcissism , Nationalism , Neoconservatism , Patriotism , Racism , Republicanism , Rightism , Sectarianism , Sexism , Terrorism , Totalitarianism , Unilateralism , Wahhabism , Yellow Journalism , Zionism .
I'd like to meet:
I’d like to meet lots of people. For instance… anyone working to change peoples minds, those who understand how institutional education is actually working to dumb us down, people who understand the propaganda model, anyone fighting indoctrination of any kind, people who believe ‘the people’ should be in charge of society, and especially people who understand all of those things.
Will we VOTE DIFFERENT in 08?
Davis Fleetwood
The United States is Terrified
Noam Chomsky
The Myth of the Liberal Media
The Propaganda Model of News
Fascism & Democracy
Bush Regime vs Hitler
On Human Nature and Aggression
Howard Zinn
Atheist
Zachary Kroger
Meet Barack Obama
www.barackobama.com
Music:
There’s always something playing in the background. Here are some favorites. I dig 10,000 Maniacs , A Perfect Circle , Ani Difranco , Bare Naked Ladies , Billy Corgan , Clutch , Coldplay , Counting Crows , Elvis Costello , Everclear , Fiona Apple , Green Day , John Lennon , Marilyn Manson , Moby , Mudvayne , Natalie Imbruglia , Natalie Merchant , Nellie McKay , Nine Inch Nails , Nirvana , Pearl Jam , Robynn Ragland , Sarah McLachlan , Slipknot , Smashing Pumpkins , Social Distortion , Steve Earle , The Beatles , The Cardigans , The Cranberries , The Dixie Chicks , The Shins , The Wallflowers , Todd Snider , Tool , Tori Amos , and U2 . That’s a good list of stuff I listen to often.
When I’m not listening to music I’m listening to talk radio or a podcast I’ve downloaded. Here are some shows I subscribe to. I get Business Week , Democracy Now! , Digital Debates , EcoTalk , Humanist Network News , KCRW’s Left, Right & Center , Meet the Press , Mother Jones Radio , Newsweek , No One’s Listening , NORML News This Week , Out There , President's Weekly Radio Address , Radio Nation , The Al Franken Show , The Movie Blog , The Randi Rhodes Show , The Ring of Fire , The Steve Earle Show , and Uncomfortable Questions .
Movies:
I'm a minor movie buff so there isn't really a typical kind of movie that I like. A list of favorites would include things like American Beauty , Big Red One , Clerks , Closer , Dog Day Afternoon , Dogma , Fight Club , Good Will Hunting , Groundhog Day , Kill Bill I & II , Lost in Translation , Matchmaker , Monty Python and the Holy Grail , Natural Born Killers , Ocean's Eleven & Twelve , One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , Pulp Fiction , Reality Bites , Reservoir Dogs , Scarface , Sling Blade , The Blair Witch Project , The Bourne Identity , The Bourne Supremacy , The Breakfast Club , The Game , The Garden State , The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou , The Motorcycle Diaries , The Royal Tenenbaums , The Usual Suspects , True Romance , When a Man Loves a Woman ... and probably a couple of others that I can't think of right now.
I’m a huge fan of documentaries as well. I like America: Freedom to Fascism , An Inconvenient Truth , Bowling for Columbine , Bush’s Brain , Control Room , Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room , Fahrenheit 9/11 , Go Further , Grass: The History Of Marijuana , Hidden Wars of Desert Storm , In Plane Site , Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers , Loose Change - 2nd Edition , Manufacturing Consent , Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause , Orwell Rolls in His Grave , Outfoxed , Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land , Plan Columbia , Roger and Me , Super Size Me , The Corporation , The Doomsday Code , The End of Suburbia , The Falling Man , The Fog of War , The Future of Food , The God Who Wasn't There , The Ground Truth , The Hunting of the President , The Money Masters , The Road to Guantanamo , The Root of All Evil , The Take , The Weather Underground , The Yes Men , Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War , WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price , When the Levees Broke , Who Killed the Electric Car , and Why we Fight .
Television:
I don’t watch television. Oh sure, I own one… and it even gets turned on from time to time, that’s what my DVD player and Xbox are hooked up to. The last time I remember turning on my television to watch a regularly scheduled program was February 8, 2004. I only know that because I can Google it, that’s the day Bush was on Meet the Press. I get together with friends and family to watch special things like the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, or the Grammys so it’s not like I have no exposure to the television. I think it’s almost impossible not to have some level of exposure to it, even if it’s merely water cooler discussions about The Desperate Housewives, or Survivor. It’s inescapable.
I had been a subscriber to some sort of entertainment system, cable or satellite, for my whole life. I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t have access to ‘Pay TV,’ in my youth I spent far too many hours in front of MTV, HBO, and ESPN. I recall my mom saying goodnight as I was sitting on the couch watching MTV, and me still being there when she got up in the morning. MTV showed videos back then though, I mean I wasn’t watching 20 hours of Real World reruns, but I’ve done that too. I also remember a time when I could literally recite every word in Superman II, My sister was even better, she could recite both Beastmaster and Poltergeist, she was a strange kid. At some point, you’re going to need to come to grips with the fact that overexposure to television is fucking all of us up, just turn the goddamn thing off.
Books:
There are a few books that had a profound effect on me a few years back and I think everyone should read them. Books like The Legacy of Luna by Julia ‘Butterfly’ Hill, Ishmael and The Story of B by Daniel Quinn, The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, and Eco-Economy by Lester Brown. These books, along with a few scattered influences, completely changed my worldview. Actually, it was the awareness generated by these books that I was able to develop my own worldview. I imagine prior to reading them I was as influenced by the media and culture as most people are today.
I’ve read some fairly interesting books here lately as well. For instance, The GOD Delusion by Richard Dawkins, 1984 by George Orwell, A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn, American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips, Bushwhacked by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them and The Truth with Jokes by Al Franken, No Logo by Naomi Klein, Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman, The Triumph of Evolution by Niles Eldredge, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast, With God on Their Side by Esther Kaplan, The Politics of Truth by Joseph Wilson, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Lies of George W. Bush by David Corn, and I read anything I can get my hands on from Noam Chomsky . What little time I carve out for fiction is usually delegated to the most recent Harry Potter book at the time.
Heroes:
I can't say I have any 'heroes' per se, but here's a list of living people, some known and some not so known, that I have a great deal of respect for... Amy Goodman , Bono , Dennis Kucinich , Gianni Lazuli a.k.a. Flux Rostrum , Gloria Steinem , Howard Zinn , Janeane Garofalo , Julia ‘Butterfly’ Hill , My Mom Jackie, My Sister Kate , Naomi Klein , Noam Chomsky , Richard Dawkins , Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , Sean Penn , Woody Harrelson . There are many others as well, some I even know about, others I don’t.
There are also some people who’ve died, like Abbie Hoffman , Gandhi , John Lennon , Kurt Cobain , Marla Ruzicka , Martin Luther King Jr. , My Grandmother Kate, Princess Diana , Rachel Corrie , and Rosa Parks . Again, undoubtedly there’s a whole mess of these people I’ve never heard of.
