Holden and Detergent
One day long ago, when looking for usernames on livejournal, I settled on oldhen - less as a reference to aged poultry, and more as a nod to Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in J.D. Salinger's quite brilliant Catcher in the Rye. A lot of critics read Catcher as an expression on teenage angst, something every adolescent goes through, but not much else. To me there is so much in that book that is so true of life at large, but that's a topic to expound on at length. Like Holden, tend to find myself on the fringes of society, looking on at the phony world. I initially thought this was some sort of reaction to my undergrad days, but have to realise that it probably be thus for a while, so I might as well get used to it.. Of course, that's about where comparisons end, my english composition writing is nothing to write home about, and I doubt Holden Caulfield cared much for science or politics..
Alright, that's the last self-obsessed whine for a while, am going to try blocking out the D thoughts for a while, lead a pretty priviliged existence, could've been dealt a much worse hand..
Meanwhile, the latest round of the circus that is US democracy is just over. In all this media hype over close races, it's easy to forget that only 10% of the races are even competitive. Like Arundhati Roy puts it - voting in a US election is a bit like trotting down to the store to choose a brand of detergent, whether you pick Tide or Ivory Snow, they're both owned by Procter and Gamble. The media play up this "liberal" vs "conservative" bollocks, when in terms of actual policy it's more like "neo-liberal" pitted against (neo)"conservative". The Bush years have been horrible, near fascist years no doubt, but on many major issues from immigration to Israel to healthcare to welfare you'd be hard pressed to pick apart Bush the Elder and Clinton, for example.. And of course lest we forget the brave souls of the US Senate recently voted to suspense habeas corpus (the very basis of a civic society) and endorse torture - a vote that wasn't remotely close..
It looks like the Democrats might control the House at any rate, would love for them to do something radical and prove me wrong, but the odds certainly seem stacked against that. Screw electoral politics, the alternative to me seems to be to build a politicised populace that will not stand for this kind of bullshit, irrespective of which party is in power.
There are some who would question my criticism of US electoral system while being ineligible to participate in it, but I write this as a subject of and worker for Empire, who presumes to criticise his employer and master. :-)
Alright, that's the last self-obsessed whine for a while, am going to try blocking out the D thoughts for a while, lead a pretty priviliged existence, could've been dealt a much worse hand..
Meanwhile, the latest round of the circus that is US democracy is just over. In all this media hype over close races, it's easy to forget that only 10% of the races are even competitive. Like Arundhati Roy puts it - voting in a US election is a bit like trotting down to the store to choose a brand of detergent, whether you pick Tide or Ivory Snow, they're both owned by Procter and Gamble. The media play up this "liberal" vs "conservative" bollocks, when in terms of actual policy it's more like "neo-liberal" pitted against (neo)"conservative". The Bush years have been horrible, near fascist years no doubt, but on many major issues from immigration to Israel to healthcare to welfare you'd be hard pressed to pick apart Bush the Elder and Clinton, for example.. And of course lest we forget the brave souls of the US Senate recently voted to suspense habeas corpus (the very basis of a civic society) and endorse torture - a vote that wasn't remotely close..
It looks like the Democrats might control the House at any rate, would love for them to do something radical and prove me wrong, but the odds certainly seem stacked against that. Screw electoral politics, the alternative to me seems to be to build a politicised populace that will not stand for this kind of bullshit, irrespective of which party is in power.
There are some who would question my criticism of US electoral system while being ineligible to participate in it, but I write this as a subject of and worker for Empire, who presumes to criticise his employer and master. :-)