Mr. Fish- I’m Younger Than That Now

[n2doc]

by MR. FISH on JANUARY 31, 2010 · 2 COMMENTS
in RECENT CARTOONS

It is a queer fact, indeed, that none of the most outspoken and anti-authoritarian radicals in this country are under 65-years-old.

Queer because radicalism and the job of saying fuck you! to the bureaucratic versions of mom and dad have traditionally fallen to much younger men and women; men and women who, as they approach early adulthood, are suddenly outraged to find how disinterested the dominant culture is in their ideals and their passions and their deep desire to live, perhaps even raise a family, in a saner society.

One thinks of Voltaire, Rimbaud, Phil Oches, the young Picasso, the Beats, the Yippies, the hippies, the Panthers, Warhol’s Factory riffraff, the Gen X, Y and Z-ers, that sort of thing. One doesn’t typically think of somebody who might smell a little poopy or somebody who is likely to loose his teeth in a sneeze or who might proclaim loudly and repeatedly that Velcro, microwave ovens and cable television are newfangled and faddish and cockamamie.

Regardless, when Howard Zinn died last week at 87 there was something about the silencing of his voice that seemed unfair and tragic. How could a spirit that was so intellectually vibrant and forward-thinking and balls-to-the-wall energetic die, literally, of old age? It was like reading the impossible headline: James Dean Dies in Porsche 550 Spyder at Age 91. It struck me as absolute bullshit.

more:

http://www.clowncrack.com/2010/01/31/im-younger-than-that-now/

[Solly Mack]

1. Recommended

and then some

[zazen]

2. his idea of public intellectual is limited--we have plenty

"Specifically, who are the public intellectuals, freelance or otherwise, whose social commentary and wry observations and self-examinations can be relied upon to advance the species forward and to deepen our collective and happy misunderstanding why we’re all here? Who will be left once Chomsky and Sahl and Vidal and Allen and Scheer and Krassner disappear?

I can’t think of anybody …"

If he means vocal intellectuals with PhDs and academic positions . . . well, one point is that these folks got tenure when you only had to publish a couple of articles and not be grant-active and weren't clawing your way to earn 40K a year with 200K in debt competing against 1500 other applicants for one position. Just off the top of my head though today I can think of Bob Jensen, George Lakoff, Mark Crispin Miller. . . and various female feminists who've managed to stay radical and keep their jobs.

But a lot of the serious intellectuals have opted not to go into or stay in the academy, for a variety of reasons. The best feature of the Internet is how it's allowing so many brilliant non-academic (and non-journalists) to get air time just by virtue of the power of their arguments. Naomi Klein, John Michael Greer, Richard Heinberg, Chris Hedges, Matt Taibbi (who's a journalist, but has great potential in the next decades), and on and on and on.

There was a real masculinist, romanticist (even for women) elevation of the public critic until the 1980s/90s. I grew up around it. A lot of these people had stay at home partners and weren't expected to integrate parenting into their daily lives. They could just focus on a few areas of life and argue about them vociferously. The intellectuals we most admire today acknowledge and experience more of the "living in the body" and living in a network of commitments.

Not to downplay the loss of the inestimable Howard Zinn. . . but I disagree with the spin on this essay.

[safeinOhio]

3. Strange

I was thinking about this the other day. 40 some years ago we were saying "never trust anyone over 30"

Now I'm saying "never trust anyone under 60"