[lbo-talk] Back in the belly of the beast

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Wed Dec 8 06:49:06 PST 2004


I've been traveling lately and I am pretty sure that my fellow lbo-ers miss the daily dollops of my misanthropy :). Now I am back, and to make up for what you've missed here is my latest:

The US is like a shithouse - you have to go away for a while and then come back to realize how much it really stinks.

Santiago de Chile turned out to be an interesting place. It's neo-liberal appearances notwithstanding - it offers excellent public services, especially transportation. And of course its main assets are the people - one can befriend more people there in a year than in the US in a whole year.

Despite the nearly universal loathing of Bush, Americans seem to be quite welcomed there and the attitudes toward the US - generally positive. I think an explanation is the US expats, a few of whom I had a chance to meet. Wonderful people. It's amazing what even a relatively short absence from this vast wasteland and sewage of civilization aka US of A can do to human mind and spirit. Get the clue.


>From the memory lane: the restored Pablo Neruda's house is an architectural
feast - definitely worth visiting. President Allende's monument stands next to the rebuilt Presidential palace where he was killed on September 11, 1973. Somebody placed a floral arrangement next to it. The date itself evokes the idea of poetic justice.

Back in the Miami International Airport I stumbled into a waiting room with the scare box on - the current scaremongering by CNN was about the dangers to the US food supply - foreign food that is. It looks like US-ers refined their tastes a bit lately and started snubbing shit-food dished out by Macdonaldses and Burgerkings - so the industry is fighting back with the proven tactic - fear mongering. I am looking forward into this development - it may spell lower prices for imported food, which I really enjoy.

At home, at last, I opened the last issue of The Nation magazine, where twenty or so left-of-the-center intellectuals were given a forum for their insights and suggestions what is to be done. It provides painful testimony that left-of-centrism is a spent force in this goddess-forsaken land - it has nothing new to offer beyond old trite platitudes. How depressing.

If there is a hope that we will see a better world order - it will not happen here. Perhaps in Asia, or Latin America, or even Europe - but not here. US-ers will sooner die of media-induced fear and choke on their own shit than change their lazy and arrogant ways. This has a clear political implication - the left should support free trade and outsourcing, because it steers productive resources into the places where they will eventually make a difference instead of buying more SUVs, guns, and plywood suburban residences.

Wojtek



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