A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
© 2007 Howard Zinn
293 pages



This year I have become convincted that democracy is not something that happens at the ballot-box but on the streets. It consists in mass movements forcing the institutions that oppose them to reform. Howard Zinn's pet subject, social movements, is thus of great interest to me. His book title and cover invoke a spirit of conviction, of fighting for justice -- and its contents do not disappoint.

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress is a collection of essays, most written on a simple theme but some working the theme into biographical coverage of people and organizations. Zinn introduces the book with an essay on the use of history to inform, inspire, and provoke people to action. The essays that follow constitute such a history, although not one as general or as tightly woven as A People's History of the United States. The essays can be read by themselves, and topics vary.  Although most of the essays are about people of conviction of who have stood up against the powers that be (Freedom Riders, Henry David Thoreau, Eugene Debs, soldiers in revolt) many see Zinn attempt to provoke readers more directly by writing on topics such as class, immigration, nationalism, pacifism,  government, and war. Although to witness so much injustice throughout history is almost discouraging, the ending essay encourages optimism: even when the odds are against us, human history has proven to be unpredictable. Struggling for a better society is always a gamble, but if we do not participate, there is no chance that matters will improve. 

As usual, Zinn communicates his own passion clearly. Because the essential idea is one so positive that no one could be against it -- people struggling against injustice -- I suspect those who object to Zinn do so owing to his approach. While some might prefer to defend various nations and concepts with some concessions that they do harm , Zinn sees national boundaries, war, and the like as fundamentally malevolent. I enjoyed visiting the stories of those who have tried to "fight the good fight", and can imagine re-reading this book in the future. I reccommend it.

The Tyrannosaurus Prescription

The Tyrannosaurus Prescription and 100 Other Essays
© 1989 Isaac Asimov
323  pages

I take for granted that I will enjoy a work by Asimov, particularly a collection of essays, but this made for a particularly enjoyable read. The Tyrannosaurus Prescription covers a lot of ground: while the initial sections of the book contain essays on the future, space, and science in general,  the book's large "Forwards" section spans much of the humanities (history, literature, linguistics) in addition to miscellaneous matters like dogs and fantasy. Asimov's essays on humanity's future were especially enjoyable for me to read, given that the essays were written decades ago and many are dated now. "The Globalized Computer Library", initially published in 1980, predates popular access to the Internet, but imagines a computer system like it -- although closer in spirit to the databases of Star Trek. He's a talented communicator, riveting me with his speculations on how humanity might begin to colonize the solar system. His own ideas emphasize the Earth-Moon system, but they won't be happening anytime soon. Coincidentally, as I read that particular section I heard news that the US is more or less canceling its lunar and Constellation project plans. The book ends with reflections on science fiction and a few personal essays coauthored by himself and Janet Asimov.

A book like this would have never been published without the author's name being the key selling point, however much I enjoyed it.  Although I don't know how many people would enjoy the book in total, the scope is so general and varied that I imagine anyone can enjoy at least some of it -- and readers who enjoy Asimov will be interested regardless. I enjoyed this more than I've enjoyed any Asimov work since reading Constantinople in the fall.

Teaser Tuesday

Via Should be Reading.

A reader once wrote: "If violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, why is there so much violence in the world?"
And I replied, "Because there is so much incompetence." - p. 206-207.

- Isaac Asimov, The Tyrannosaurus Prescription 

Storm of Steel

Storm of Steel

© 1921 Ernst Jünger

319 pages

Storm of Steel is the oddest war memoir I have ever read. I've read a few of them in hopes of understanding various motivations for young men marching off to war, and ensure that I never foget the human cost of war and nationalism, but Lieutnant Jünger's story begins when he and his company disembark from troop trains onto the front and ends with his final retreat from the front, having been injured repeatedly in the meantime. For about four years, Jünger lives in the trenches or in occupied French homes on the front when he is not in the hospital recovering. He writes of life in the trenches and the experience of "going over": he coughs his way through clouds of poison gas, roots for Baron von Richoften's airmen above him, admires the new tanks being brought into battle, and writes frequently on the trials of war. 

 Although he offers many details about life at war, humanity seems to be missing. Junger is a curious soldier: his passions are never inflamed. He sees the war as a rough trade, a game almost: he does not view enemy soldiers with hatred nor contempt, and he pities his fellow Germans who have made the war personal. He sees the war as a crucible of sorts: a great trial of the soul. It is a chance fro him to prove himself. He sees nothing greater than  a man's ability to stand in the admist of a storm of bullets and artillery and fight -- never losing his nerve, never doubting that his cause is just and his duty imperative. Aside from this, Junger seems detached from the dirty business of fighting. He scarcely reacts to the horrors around him except to hope that things can be repaired after the war. When he is injured by shrapnel and arms fire, his reaction is bizaarely non-emotional. He merely comments that blood loss is copious and summons one of his soldiers to help him back to the nurse's station. When a trench partially caves in on him, he comments that it made for a "very unpleasant" half-hour.  What he does wax emotional about beyond courage under fire  is a soldier's Duty, which is his primary motivation for fighting. So committed is he to "duty and honor" that when he and his company are partially surrounded by English troops, he drags himself up from the ground with blood in his lungs and starts shooting at them at close range. Incredibly, his company escapes to safety.

There are many details here for the student of the Great War: one of the most poignant for me was his account of digging a trench and encountering long-buried equipment left over from 1914, serving as a grim reminder that for all the western front's bloodshed, the lines of battle scarcely  moved.  Despite this, I don't know how effective  the memoir might be in communicating the horror of life on the front. Jünger's detachment seems to deny war its sting, but at the same time adds a deeper level of subtle horror in giving him the ability to accept it. The worst kind of tragedy is the unnoticed. Although Jünger's attitude makes him appear to be a stereotypical soulless Prussian soldier, intent on advancing the Fatherland, I have not noticed the attitude expressed in such an extreme way before -- and I wonder if this version of the memoir has been edited to reflect the postwar Jünger's political views. 

A Dirty Job

A Dirty Job
© 2006 Christopher Moore
400 pages

When the Devil is too busy,

and Death's a bit too much

They call on me, by name you see --

For my special touch. 

(Voltaire, "When You're Evil")

Charlie Asher is the last person you might expect to find stealing into the homes of the deceased, looking for beloved possessions to make off with. He's a typical Beta male -- a timid, nonconfrontational "nice guy" who survives on intelligence and disarming kindness rather than brute strength. All he ever wanted out of life was the love of a beautiful woman and the chance to keep his late father's secondhand store in business, but he saw someone he should not have seen -- Death, in the form of a tall dark stranger wearing a minty green suit standing at his wife's bedside in the hospital, where she has just given birth. The startled stranger soon vanishes, along with her favorite CD. She won't be needing it anymore, for she is now dead: killed by a blood clot in her brain formed during labor. No one else sees Death, not even the hospital security tapes -- but Charlie did, and now along with the demanding responsbility of taking care of a newborn by himself, he will soon be drafted into the ranks of Death.

The minty green stranger is not in fact Death himself: the "Big D" has been gone for centuries. Forces unknown compel those among the living, like Charlie and Minty Fresh (the hospital visitor's proper name), to seek out the dying and protect their souls. The souls attach themselves to beloved posessions, and "Death Merchants" -- Minty's name for his coworkers -- collect these posessions and deliver them to their new bodies as soon as possible, thus facilitating in reincarnation. It's a dirty job, but important -- for if souls are not protected by the likes of Charlie, they become food for the Forces of Darkness. Like the imprisoned Titans, these forces cannot be allowed to gain any strength, lest they invade Earth and chaos ensue. Charlie's life, never an epitome of normalcy -- not with mildly but lovably insane employees -- becomes increasing strange. His neighborhood and city are soon home to sinister voices from below and menacing birds from above. Charlie is a  Death Merchant in a prophetic time, one in which a great battle is predicted to be fought in San Francisco -- one that will end with the rise of a new "Big D". The Death Merchants have no real idea as for whom that might signify a victory.

As Charlie settles into his role as a father and death merchant through the next six years, the predicted battle draws closer. Physical manifestations of dark spirits are able to take to the streets of San Francisco, feeding on the souls Charlie and others miss. As dark forces are wont to do, they delight in wreaking havoc. Charlie's daughter becomes an object of attention to two massive hell hounds named Alvin and Muhammad -- and then matters just get weird, culminating in a desperate drive to the Three Jewels Buddhist Center.

For a book about death, A Dirty Job is surprisingly funny, both darkly and absurdly so. Moore's dialog is particularly effective, and the characters here are more developed than in Lamb. A plot twist at the climax made for a delicious surprise, giving the endgame new vigor. If you're looking for an entertaining novel, A Dirty Job will delight.

Red Emma Speaks

Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader
© 1973, 1996 ed. Alix Kates Shulman
464 pages
         

 Emma Goldman was an incorrigible political activist and social critic during the Gilded Age, speaking out against nearly everything society held dear – the government, capitalism, organized religion, and marriage. She was clearly a woman of passion, and I bought this book intrigued by what she might have to say about a period that I am a student of.

Red Emma Speaks consists of articles and essays opining on the organization of society, social institutions, violence, and revolution. Compiler Alix Kates Shulman introduces each section of the book, giving the reader context, and Emma introduces the book proper herself with an extended essay titled “What I Believe”. The themes there are repeated and expanded throughout the book. All of Emma Goldman’s beliefs originated from a fervent belief in humanity’s potential – the belief that people can and should take command of themselves, living purposely. She did not, however, value states and nations: her belief in the human spirit is ardently individualistic. She takes arms against any institution that would in any way limit the individual from living freely – thus her passion for anarchism. Anarchism as understood and practiced by anarchists is not the absence of order, but the absence of outside, inflicted order. She, like Emile Carles, sees people as being able control and governs themselves as individuals. She sees the society’s progress as not resulting from the will of the majority, but caused by the provocations of individuals. The “majority”, the masses, are an inert thing that conform to outside pressures and accomplish nothing on their own. 

Her worldview and passion are certainly interesting and well-expressed here. I enjoyed engaging with her, reading and reflecting. Her relationship with socialism was particularly fascinating: like Carles, her ideal is of anarchic socialism. Reading Carles made me realize that socialism and communism were not ideals necessarily connected with a strong state, and Goldman is a reminder of this. Socialism connects to Goldman in that it supports the equality of humanity. Of particular interest to those interested in the history of socialism and communism is her analysis of the Russian state, which she claims is not communistic at all. To her, Russia is nothing more than another class-bound state: its economy is not socialized, but nationalized. She draws a sharp distinction between any government and the society it purports to serve.  Her relationship to violence is equally interesting: she seems to wrestle with it, regarding political violence as a necessary evil but then retreating given that it creates more problems than it solves. A perfect example of this is the planned assassination of Henry Clay Frick: not only did the attack on the robber-baron’s life fail to draw positive recognition to their cause, but it undermined their moral high ground.

            This is a strong book, well worthy of a recommendation to students of the period and of related thought. Goldman’s is a passionate, articulate voice that provokes the reader into revaluating convention and old perceptions.

Teaser Tuesday (2-2))

Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbringer of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State- and Church- begotten weed, marriage?  - Emma Goldman (p. 211, Red Emma Speaks)