October 2009

Commentators, politicians, and people of every stripe have started yet another predictable cycle bemoaning the recent downturn in civility, particularly as it pertains to the national political dialogue.  They claim that shouting has replaced rational debate; sound bites have replaced intelligent discourse; partisanship has replaced compromise; and confrontation has replaced deference.  Many point to the anonymity of the internet, where flaming and trolling are valued more than contributing t

Corporations, as they endlessly scheme for complete control over the planet’s finite resources, will order the planet’s social order into whatever structure is necessary to insure corporate dominance over the individual. Orwell recognized the corporate entities driven ambition to abolish represenative government in favor of corporate oligarchy. For anyone who isn’t blind it’s easy to recognize that representative democracy in the U.S. has been cast aside.

A conversation with Gore Vidal unfolds at his pace. He answers questions imperiously, occasionally playfully, with a piercing, lethal dryness. He is 83 and in a wheelchair (a result of hypothermia suffered in the war, his left knee is made of titanium). But he can walk ("Of course I can") and after a recent performance of Mother Courage at London's National Theatre he stood to deliver an anti-war speech to the audience.

From the youtube provocateur expose to being blacklisted as a spammer, making a film about the secretive trilateral process, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), has been an interesting journey.