tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post6545669686773706676..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Approaching the 50th Anniversary of the Free Speech MovementUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-34451014309854115102012-11-14T04:38:17.291-08:002012-11-14T04:38:17.291-08:00Brad,
Certainly true, that.
The middle of the ni...Brad,<br /><br />Certainly true, that.<br /><br />The middle of the night in the downtown streets may be bleak, cold and at times a bit menacing, but there, and then, what speech one does encounter tends to move (for whatever this movement may be worth) more fluently outside that authoritarian control box. <br /><br />Perhaps at times a bit too fluently. There are blades, there are dogs, instruments for enforcing (or forcing) a point.<br /><br />Earlier on in the random night described in this poem, there had been a quarrel that escalated into a stabbing, there at that sidewalk encampment in front of the movie house. Second of such incidents in the past week. The cursing and snarling, a touch powder that can blow up in a moment.<br /><br />Then of course arrive the night-cruising fleets of authority.<br /><br />The participants in the 1960s FSM manifestations, as can be seen in the photos and videos I've posted, were largely UC students, with a smattering of local citizens of the same white liberal middle classes added in (as on that December day of many bumbershoots on the Sproul steps in the rain -- rain always a deterrent to the younger and more hardy, yet perhaps less well-equipped and also less patient, of the protestor "masses").<br /><br />The unusual aspect of Occupy, as you'll have noted, was the presence of a few students, in among the ragged and the unwashed.<br /><br />Then as now however, there were certain groups that seem to have stood off, regarding what was going on as an exercise in futility at best. In particular black people, who are in general, for obvious historical awareness reasons, so much harder to fool with talk about freedom.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-16187086433827133572012-11-13T19:14:02.352-08:002012-11-13T19:14:02.352-08:00For Mr. O, people without a conscience, even the r...For Mr. O, people without a conscience, even the rudiments of one, are psychologically, spiritually dead.<br /><br />Pogo was a big influence in my adolescent years, and still is. Walt Kelley was a wise ole dude.<br /><br />Beautiful poem today, and a terrific post.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-47468075182108895982012-11-13T16:19:13.540-08:002012-11-13T16:19:13.540-08:00Today's authoritarian capitalism will entitle ...Today's authoritarian capitalism will entitle you only to so much free speech.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-24533570017299491142012-11-13T13:51:35.341-08:002012-11-13T13:51:35.341-08:00Terry,
I had shared that hope.
But -- pfft, eva...Terry, <br /><br />I had shared that hope.<br /><br />But -- pfft, evaporation, or anyway air gone out of the balloon, alas.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-37520703139551944432012-11-13T13:25:09.302-08:002012-11-13T13:25:09.302-08:00Tom: Great poem. I had hoped, along with many othe...Tom: Great poem. I had hoped, along with many others, that the Occupy movement might be the harbinger of a new counterculture uprising, but it seems not to be.tpwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05909239000589253931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-28442526226542907132012-11-13T13:24:46.979-08:002012-11-13T13:24:46.979-08:00Hazen,
Basic research...
Could this be what Ousp...Hazen,<br /><br />Basic research...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg34QzNQL48" rel="nofollow">Could this be what Ouspensky meant by Dead People Rule the World</a>?TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-31258662152356919062012-11-13T12:18:17.722-08:002012-11-13T12:18:17.722-08:00Vassilis reminds there is a curious repeating syst...Vassilis reminds there is a curious repeating system to these power structure upheavals. Déja vu all over again. Depressing yet true, too true. Would 'twere otherwise, but then again...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeuTOgdWiHQ&feature=related" rel="nofollow">Turn turn, turn</a>. For all oppressive forms of social control there ought to be a complementary turnabout in the fluid bag of tricks of the unfolding dialectic, a season for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MufwTCgodmM" rel="nofollow">a peaceful seizing</a>.<br /><br />If only. One fears now the machinery has grown too large, too well hidden, to be seen, much less overthrown. Though even aboard the USS Love Pentagon the cracks are beginning to show, on the Down Low, beneath the waterline.<br /><br />But maybe it's a No-Worries situation, yeah? Relax your mind, there is oversight, be certain <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/13/google-transparency-report-government-requests-data" rel="nofollow">you are now being watched</a>.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-63582956512709763152012-11-13T11:44:48.292-08:002012-11-13T11:44:48.292-08:00The “Polytechnic” movement lasted long enough to h...The “Polytechnic” movement lasted long enough to help bring down a hated junta some 40 years ago and then its star performers sooner or later became politicians and/or government officials who become part of the establishment that became responsible for eventually bringing Greece to its current dire financial and spiritual state—sound familiar?<br />Btw, a really fine poem.<br />vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-58202795245557224342012-11-13T11:22:27.255-08:002012-11-13T11:22:27.255-08:00Many thanks, friends.
The bottom has indeed risen...Many thanks, friends.<br /><br />The bottom has indeed risen up to meet us, and we are it. And even more alarming, turns out, on closer inspection, <a href="http://www.planetwaves.net/pogo.web.jpg" rel="nofollow">it is us</a>.<br /><br />But still, as Nin reminds -- ah, that airy dream! And Hazen -- But what a moment!<br /><br />The sensory data incorporated in this post passed across the dulled neural threshold between 2 and 4 AM, 11/12/12. While the true-life events here reported were transpiring, the tiny walkman with the one earbud that survived the springtime auto mayhem was bringing in a talk by one's long ago college classmate Tom Hayden, regarding the survival of the spirit of the Free Speech Movement. Which went on just up the street from the presently indicated location. <br /><br />One's own memory functions now impaired, one relies at critical moments (when faked recollections simply won't do the trick) on the still keen mnemonic powers of the Dame of the Manor.<br /><br />She says the FSM did indeed really happen, she was there, this (the period documentary photo-capture) was how it was, sort of.<br /><br />For lack of a better understanding, one imagines the movement to have been a complicated workaround for getting up the nerve to ask her for a date. At least that would have made sense.<br /><br />Aram will have remembered the atmosphere of the epoch. <br /><br />Stephen in his poem fortuitously evokes it all without perhaps intending to. All has changed yet something<br /><br />remains the same, dimension<br />of time other than it<br /><br />that when the sound of each,<br />which happened, first...<br /><br />Chicken or the egg? Repressive old order, revolting young? Time immemorial or blurred memorial of the upside-the-head blows of yesteryear?<br /><br />Proximate instigation came from recent conversations with WB regarding certain of his recent posts, leading back toward some of the matters broached <a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/curzio-malaparte-bolshevik-coup-detat.html" rel="nofollow">herein</a>.<br /><br />And the rest may or may not be be <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5taPhvqbXE" rel="nofollow">history</a>.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-50904840684178011612012-11-13T11:11:09.054-08:002012-11-13T11:11:09.054-08:00The way this builds toward and crashes into the fi...The way this builds toward and crashes into the final lines -- "banging on every newspaper box / <br />in repetitive percussive impatient urgent enquiry / to see if the lost magic of revolution / might still be lingering / in a broken coin slot" -- quite frankly is a wonder of the verses' furious lament. I like this very much. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-57468308405009059842012-11-13T10:48:30.938-08:002012-11-13T10:48:30.938-08:00To the memory of Mario Savio.
But what a moment!...To the memory of Mario Savio. <br /><br />But what a moment! Doomed, yes, because The System Machine, which the FSM addressed, is a dead thing that kills everything sooner or later, as we are seeing. The System Machine proudly turns the world to carrion and feeds on the carrion that it produces. Death sustains it. Every day there are fewer human attributes and qualities to The System Machine. As Ouspensky said, dead people rule the world.<br /><br />But for a time, for a moment, for a decade or more, starting in Berkeley in 1964, an alternate current coursed around the planet. “That airy dream” grew into a vision of another way to be in the world; it opened a few minds (just not enough minds) to other possibilities. Maybe that’s all we should expect this late in the game. A civilization going downhill for ten thousand years builds up a certain momentum, carries everything before it, and stops only when it hits bottom. There is a growing awareness that the bottom is rising up to meet us. We have no more control over this than a man who has tripped and fallen headlong down the stairs can control his descent.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-42220218940584919222012-11-13T09:44:51.664-08:002012-11-13T09:44:51.664-08:00I love the quiet click of the picture of no one . ...I love the quiet click of the picture of no one . . .<br />Wow, that is the essence. <br />And that airy dream<br />I still dream . . . <br />and sometimes the street people seem to mock it all.<br />I am thinking suddenly of that yo-yo man in Berkeley,<br />all day with his yoyo ing . . . <br /><br />Thank you for the poem, the post, yet again. Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-15151849080694080732012-11-13T09:30:17.954-08:002012-11-13T09:30:17.954-08:00Tom,
"It lasted one moment. . ." [says...Tom,<br /><br />"It lasted one moment. . ." [says it all].<br /><br />Great photos of Berkeley in the sixties, a few years before my time there (but we heard about it in high school, across the bay, didn't yet know what it might mean) followed by those of efo -- what a coupling.<br /><br />11.13<br /><br />light coming into sky above black plane<br />of ridge, silver of planet below branch<br />in foreground, wave sounding in channel<br /><br /> remains the same, dimension<br /> of time other than it<br /><br /> that when the sound of each,<br /> which happened, first<br /><br />silver of low sun reflected in channel,<br />shadowed green pine on tip of sandspit<br /><br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-51460250102397234952012-11-13T09:21:08.261-08:002012-11-13T09:21:08.261-08:00Love that poem, Tom.
--AramLove that poem, Tom. <br />--AramAram Saroyanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00094197656438972909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61501817021484367652012-11-13T08:09:33.102-08:002012-11-13T08:09:33.102-08:00Was that one moment always going to be something p...Was that one moment always going to be something past?<br /><br />The poem hurts to read and it's beautiful.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.com