Missing Burroughs

In the London Review of Books, there is a review of the new Barry Miles biography of William Burroughs by Gary Indiana. I would love to think that is his real name and believe Burroughs would also appreciate it. Home of The Music Man! Anyway... Indiana opines that Burroughs "lived in the future from an early age" and so anticipated the "staccato, associative patterns produced by the internet,TV channel flipping and 'screen reality'; considered unreadable when they were published, the trilogy books can be followed today almost as effortlessly as a novel by Hemingway." The fact we can now read Burroughs says something profound about our cultural moment. Again, Indiana: "The radically anti-authoritarian, left-libertarian notions he espoused probably look like irresponsible nihilism to many of those ensconsed at their computer screens during most of their waking life, or bedazzled by mobiles and ubiquitous electronic signage ina society overloaded with information yet drained of authentic experience. It now seems almost logical that the insight Burroughs offers into the brain-scrambling technical synaesthesia spreading everywhere would be exactly what brands him a crackpot..." The logic he found so grotesque is now normalized, Exterminators run rampant, and we cannot even mock the practitioners anymore, now that irony has vaporized. I am reminded of another lost, drug-addled hero who foresaw ( and foretold) the future: Hunter S Thompson. He too had a prescient relationship with guns and would have had a thing or two to say about the primary season.

Religion, Capitalism and Democracy

The election of Narenda Modi of the BJP is the logical expression of the global neoliberal economic project. As inequality, climate chaos and conflict over scarce resources increases the pressure on the fragile fabric of global society, we see xenophobia and religious/ethnic sectarianism spread exponentially. The burgeoning newly educated class of India, mostly young and ambitious, came out in record numbers to support the pro-corporate Hindu nationalist who promises de-regulation and growth. Their "education" has included indoctrination into the virtues of capitalism, the glories of Krishna and resentment at The Other, in this case Muslims, for holding back their personal prosperity and material success. They dream of "mountains and mountains of things" ,as the Tracy Chapman song goes. In the Ukraine we see fierce sectarianism based on language and culture. A xenophobic right-wing is in ascendency as it exploits economic tensions and the collapse of basic institutions. We could say much the same dynamic is playing out in Syria, Egypt and other countries caught in the backlash of the so-called Arab Spring. Here Islamic fundamentalism thrives and spreads south to Nigeria, Sudan, Yemen and beyond, far faster than the USA and Europe can build drone bases. Extreme drought brought upon by anthropogenic climate change is changing the landscape and social relations on an unprecedented scale. The US is not far behind. Religious fundamentalism and scapegoating of The Other are growing with the uncertainty and fear. Expect to see heightened rhetoric about threats to "our way of life" in the election season as people continue to believe they can elect their way to security. I keep a picture on my office wall of the ecstatic youth celebrating after the election of Barack Obama and imagine the youth of India also continue to believe in Hope and Change through capitalist "democracy".

Stand Your Ground

In this NY Times article we learn a little about a tragedy that hits very close to home. The young foreign exchange student who was shot and killed was a soccer player on the team my best friend ( and co-blogger) teaches. As in every situation, we have a continuim within Montana "gun culture" from the legislator "with a gun in her closet" to the ever-growing number of whack-jobs with full on arsenals in their bunkers. I have my own hunting rifles and shotguns so I can harvest game. My neighbors have stacks of assault rifles so they can withstand " the coming firestorm" and "coming collapse" (language from survivalist website suvivalblog.com) In a post-rational America, none of the crazed logics around the term "collapse" would surprise anyone; Christian millenialism, The New World Order, the rise of Cliven Bundy's negroes or the NRA Tea Party loathing of Big government. And we don't yet know what kind of "ideological rubble" the shooter was buried under, but we are going to learn more about his own arsenal and paranoid delusions. The point is, as the Patriots and weapons manufacturers arm everyone to the teeth to make themselves safer and the world safe for democracy, we can expect chaos to reign. Chris Hedges refers to these glassy eyed believers as "neoliberalisms shock troops" because private property, the foundation of capitalism, is the God they worship above life or any nebulous "pursuit of happiness". Perhaps the model Wayne La Pierre and Sarah Palin would most like to emulate is the Congo where every citizen is armed and everyone Stands Their Ground. Those people know how to keep and bear arms, by God, and the Castle Doctrine is the highest ( perhaps only) law of the land ( or jungle).