Jack Burns Lives!

“All revolutions have failed? Perhaps. But rebellion for good cause is self- justifying–a good in itself. Rebellion transforms slaves into human beings, if only for an hour.”-Edward Abbey

Yesterday the House passed a bill imposing a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by AIG and other bailed-out companies. Many Republicans voted with Democrats to impose the tax, including some in my home state, Tennessee.

But not Marsha Blackburn, my representative in swanky 38139. She voted “no,” and no, I’m not surprised. She’s a Bush era sycophant that consistently votes to drill anywhere any time, supporting criminal organizations like Exxon and Shell, and she was one of the biggest fear mongers in the nation when Bush needed his minions to pound the war drums.

You can be sure that if a bill or action helps big corporations and hurts the environment, she’s for it. She represents the worst in this country and is a perfect example of what I mean when I talk about the dangerous and illegal co-mingling of government and corporate interests.

But back to AIG. They’re now suing their owner (that’s you and me, the citizens of the United States) for recovery of taxes. According to Democracy Now, AIG has quietly filed a lawsuit to recoup more than $300 million dollars in what it says are overpaid taxes. The company says it overpaid the government in charges for using off-shore tax havens. The citizens of the United States own an 80 percent stake in AIG thanks to their cushy $170 billion dollar gift, otherwise known as bailout.

Which brings me to another question. Why is there no popular rebellion in this country? Why do Americans allow this stuff to continue? I hear a few brave souls protested in front of AIG yesterday, and I applaud them. But most people won’t even speak up or out, and the reason they don’t is fear. They’re afraid someone might know what they think about things, and it might “hurt their business.”

That’s not being smart or deft. It’s being cowardly. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire by David Graeber.

For those not familiar with Graeber, he’s the anarchist social anthropology professor that left Yale after the administration decided to not renew his contract or reward tenure. Seems Graeber made too much sense and presented too much of a legitimate challenge to the establishment.

He’s now at Goldsmith’s College in London and is considered by some to be “the best anthropological theorist of his generation from anywhere in the world.”

One of his finest papers, Fragments of An Anarchist Anthropology discusses outline areas of research that intellectuals might explore in creating a body of anarchist social theory and the reasons why this has been so difficult to achieve. Graeber believes academics on the radical left have gravitated toward the more “High Theory” oriented Marxism rather than the more practice-oriented anarchism. “1. Marxism has tended to be a theoretical or analytical discourse about revolutionary strategy. 2. Anarchism has tended to be an ethical discourse about revolutionary practice.” (Wiki)

I’ll take practice over theory any day. And hey, we don’t even have to “practice” anarchism. Humans have been pretty good at it for thousands of years. We’re just not so great in getting the word out!

Fragments is available on this site as a download.

In Possibilities, Graeber applies anthropological theory to capitalism and its opponents. He uses case studies from diverse communities like rural Madagascans, pre-capitalist economies and urban international protest groups to expose the cruel truth state dominated capitalist societies.

Now I realize most people in the United States are highly skeptical of anarchism and any criticism of capitalism. It’s too radical. Conjures up visions of black clad youth with hidden faces tossing molotov cocktails into businesses.

Folks, that’s not anarchism. That’s misguided violence. In fact, you can just substitute the term “grass roots democracy” for anarchism. It’s essentially the same thing, where small groups of people have a say in the affairs of their community. Participatory democracy.

And no, that’s not what we have in the United States. We have a Representative Republic that’s really little more than an oligarchy where wealthy elitists run the affairs of state and economy. Cases in point: the current financial situation and the raid on the Treasury (otherwise known as a “bailout”) and the illegal, multi-trillion dollar war in Iraq.

And no, we don’t have to totally throw capitalism out with the bath water. But we better recognize, and damn quick, that there are some serious issues with growth capitalism, and those issues are having a serious effect on the planet. Bottom line: you can’t grow infinitely in a world of finite resources. The only economy that’s sustainable is steady state, a mix of small scale capitalism and socialism bound by biological and geophysical reality.

Too utopian sounding? On a large scale, yes. Perhaps it is. But not on a smaller scale. People are creating participatory democratic groups, employee owned companies, cooperatives and small local enterprises in communities all over the world. It works, and it doesn’t have to work on some grand scale to have an impact. In fact, grand scale is what we need to move away from. Let’s start thinking more locally. Local food and energy production, local democracy.

Graeber addresses all of this, and he’s worth a listen.

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”-Edward Abbey

Early morning is my favorite time of day, when it’s quiet and still. No cars, tee-vees or other blaring contraptions, only the welcomed stirrings and sounds of a few local inhabitants.

Today, I’m visited by a pair of Carolina wren and their cheery song as they hop about the garden collecting nesting materials. They’re joined by an uncommon and shy visitor, a brilliantly colored White-breasted nuthatch. Not so uncommon to this bioregion, but not often seen in my garden.

Soon, our southern spring sky will be a brilliant blue, and the yard will be filled with blooming Indian strawberry (Duchesnea indica) and wild violets (Viola nephrophylla) and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) butterflies.

Indian strawberry and wild violets are considered undesirable weeds by most of my suburban neighbors, pests that need to be wiped out by chemical cocktails provided by criminal organizations like Trugreen. But organizations like Trugreen don’t just kill weeds. They poison ground water and are a direct contributor to the decline in urban amphibian populations. Every time I see their truck pull into my cove, I go into Homeland Security Advisory Level Red. I’m tempted to reach for my lever action rifle, John Vogelin style, but don’t, despite the fact I’m confronted by terrorists that “hate my way of life.”

Most folks prefer that “perfect lawn,” a monoculture of non-native grasses propped up by poison and not found anywhere in nature. But not us. We like it wild at Casa Burns. Our world is a world of wonder, a phenomenally complex and beautifully interactive system filled with hundreds of interacting, living species in an area only 1/4 of acre large. It’s a magical place with chickadee, woodpecker, possum, raccoon, mourning dove and the rulers of the nighttime sky, Nycticeius humeralis,(Evening bat) and Bubo virginanus (Great horned owl).

Welcomed friends, all, and I believe it’s our patriotic duty to protect their freedoms and way of life.

Thanks to Mike Coronella from the Abbeyweb for sharing this story….as my friend Hayduke says “We’re Back!”

Preserving Abbey’s legacy
Bookseller Ken Sanders works to maintain impact of late Western writer.
By Katie Drake
The Salt Lake Tribune

Though it has been 20 years since his friend Edward Abbey passed away, it is only recently that Ken Sanders has been able to put aside his grief and remember the good times.

Now Sanders is inviting others to remember Abbey, and hoping a new generation can be inspired by his passionate environmentalism in the process.

Ken Sanders Rare Books will host a night of remembrance at 7 p.m. Saturday at the store, 268 S. 200 East, Salt Lake City. Speakers will include Ken Sleight, the inspiration for Seldom Seen Smith of “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” and Tim DeChristopher, who recently gained notoriety posing as a bidder and running up auction prices of gas and oil leases around Arches National Park.

Sanders feels the event will be a perfect transition from old-school environmentalism to the new school of environmental civil disobedience.

“[Abbey] resonates with young people today as they discover him,” Sanders said.

Indeed, Abbey could have been speaking of DeChristopher when he said, “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

DeChristopher read Abbey’s works in college and believes it would be a grave mistake for his generation to dismiss Abbey as irrelevant. He believed in the spirit of Abbey’s writings, but did not want to follow the same “destructive” path, instead committing acts of civil disobedience and founding www.peacefuluprising.org.

“He inspired me to find my own path and my own way to be effective,” DeChristopher said.
Sanders, Sleight and other old Abbey friends will be on hand to share stories and exploits of the events that inspired many of Abbey’s writings. For Sanders, it is all about keeping his late friend’s voice alive.

Abbey was dismayed that his works were labeled classics, because he felt that while universally acknowledged as great books, no one ever reads the classics.

He should not have worried.

All of his works, except for one, have been continuously in print, and Sanders cannot keep used copies in stock.

“The only reason that I talk or speak about Ed is that it is important to keep the words of Edward Abbey alive,” Sanders said.

On Saturday night there should be plenty of people assuring he lives again.

Remember Abbey’s road
Ken Sanders Rare Books will host a night of remembrance for Edward Abbey on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the store, 268 S. 200 East, Salt Lake City.