I am in the first section on Ginsberg who was never a friend, but rather a nemesis for fifty years (1946-1997). There is a constancy between them as enemies worth perhaps more to both than friendship could ever offer.
Fascinating, as Spock would say. They mirror one another almost to perfection.
(Ex-friends, p47):
``Now, in the mid-1960s, as before, the major difference between us had to do with our wildly contrasting ideas about America. Ginsberg's anti-Americanism of the 1950s had been bad enough, but the form it took in the 1960s as it exfoliated (or perhaps metastasized would be a better word) was even worse. His disciples and friends now extended way beyond the relatively narrow circle of the Beats to encompass the entire world of the counterculture---from rock musicians like Bob Dylan to hippies and yippies like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin to a variety of `gurus' peddling one form or another of Oriental mysticism. What they all had in common was a fierce hatred of America, which they saw as `Amerika,' a country morally and spiritually equivalent to Nazi Germany. Amerika's political system was based on oppression, to which the only answer was resistance and revolution; and its culture was based on repression, to which the only answer was to opt out of middle-class life and liberate the squelched and smothered self through drugs and sexual promiscuity.
I simply could not stomach any of this, least of all the disgusting comparisons to Nazi Germany. Even when I was at my most radical, I still loved America, and my own utopian aspirations were directed at perfecting, not destroying, it. It went without saying that there were problems and flaws, above all the plight of the blacks and the poor, but I was confident that they could be effectively addressed through programs of radical reform within the going political system.
As for Vietnam, like Ginsberg and his friends I was opposed to the war, but unlike them, I thought it was a mistake, not a crime...''
What Podhoretz evidently didn't understand was what made Vietnam a crime. It was understood to be a mistake from the beginning. Nevertheless, those in power maniacally pursued it from its already dark origin all the way through to its absurd end in the abyss. It was never a good idea, gone tragically wrong. It was a bad idea driven out of all reasonable proportion into a bloody and insane nightmare.
Old news. We have much more fascinating events awaiting us now in the world of Islam. I am sure in another few years somebody like Podhoretz will write as if all this too was just a big mistake. We meant well, but some how it just got worse on its own...
Chuck Grimes