He Got Game: Chuck D at the CHF

Today Ira and I attended two events at the Chicago Humanities Festival. Although both events were held downtown at the First United Methodist Church on Washington, they couldn't have been more different. The first event was an appearance by the British novelist and literary critic David Lodge, who gave a lecture titled "Time in the Novel" that provided a concise overview of basic ideas regarding the relationship between temporality and storytelling drawn heavily from the work of Gerard Genette. Then, Lodge read a humorous excerpt from Author, Author, his new novel about Henry James, that illustrated the techniques he deployed in order to create the illusion of simultaneity in a particular scene.

Whereas Lodge gave a witty and polished talk, Chuck D--yes, the Chuck D from Public Enemy, still the greatest rap group ever--offered a more free form talk. The official title of Chuck's talk was "Hip-hop and the Digital Divide," though the issue of access to new digital technologies was not really primary issue. Chuck gave a rambling sermon that began by bemonaing the recent election results, then railed against the dumbing down of American culture, and concluded with remarks about the need for the hip-hpo generation to know their mustical history, because the story of musical migrations is also the history of African-American migrations. But my account here is selective. To be honest, Chuck was all over the place in his talk, which was given off the cuff. At the close, he even apologized for his digressions, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I'd heard most everything he had to say before, but it was good to hear someone from the 'streets' broadcasting the news using rhetoric less polished than, say, the writers from The Nation or In These Times.

The highlight, for me, was witnessing Chuck D at the pulpit, dressed down in a Cubs cap, black t-shirt and jeans and bathed in the light pouring through the stained-glass windows, rail against George Bush's faux faith as a cover for corporate greed while reminding the crowd of the need for authentic Christian values. In many ways, Chuck's remarks were another version of the call for the progressive Left to reclaim the Christian legacy and to forge a fighting collective--an argument advanced by Cornel West and, of course, Slavoj Zizek.

A few other moments that I want to remember from my notes... (1) Chuck D noted how ill educated and solipsistic many Americans are at this isolationistic moment. Remarking on people he'd encountered in his travels to 53 countries, Chuck said he found people elsewhere to be "quicker, wiser, more humane and smarter" than your average American. (2) He noted that rap is not a genre of music, but rather a "vocal application on top of music." (3) Chuck noted that if you placed a person dying of AIDS on a stage next to a Lexus that was crushed by a wrecking ball, more people would express outrage about the machine being destroyed than the human being.

Was the Election Rigged?

I've gotta admit that I harbor many of the same that doubts about the 2004 election results that Mark Crispin Miller raises in Salon.com.

Miller, a media critic, pulls no punches and declares that the election was rigged. I know for sure that the election wasn't entirely clean. What election is? But would I endorse his bold claim? Ultimately, my gut tells me that he's right. Rove and the Repugs probably hedged their bets to get Bush back in the White House.

As Letterman just quipped, "a warning to Ohio: the crooked voting machines are due back in Florida."

Many people, Republicans and Democrats alike, will immediately reject Miller's concern about vote fraud as a conspiracy theory, but why shouldn't we be skeptical about virtual voting and other dubious technologies that could relatively easily be used to rig an election. After 2000, I don't know why there weren't outside observers, from the UN or wherever, monitoring this election.

Anyway, here're Miller's remarks from Salon.com.

Mark Crispin Miller is a media critic, professor of communications at New York University, and author, most recently, of 'Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order.'

First of all, this election was definitely rigged. I have no doubt about it. It's a statistical impossibility that Bush got 8 million more votes than he got last time. In 2000, he got 15 million votes from right-wing Christians, and there are approximately 19 million of them in the country. They were eager to get the other 4 million. That was pretty much Karl Rove's strategy to get Bush elected.

But given Bush's low popularity ratings and the enormous number of new voters -- who skewed Democratic -- there is no way in the world that Bush got 8 million more votes this time. I think it had a lot to do with the electronic voting machines. Those machines are completely untrustworthy, and that's why the Republicans use them. Then there's the fact that the immediate claim of Ohio was not contested by the news media -- when Andrew Card came out and claimed the state, not only were the votes in Ohio not counted, they weren't even all cast.

I would have to hear a much stronger argument for the authenticity, or I should say the veracity, of this popular vote for Bush before I'm willing to believe it. If someone can prove to me that it happened, that Bush somehow pulled 8 million magic votes out of a hat, OK, I'll accept it. I'm an independent, not a Democrat, and I'm not living in denial.

And that's not even talking about Florida, which is about as Democratic a state as Guatemala used to be. The news media is obliged to make the Republicans account for all these votes, and account for the way they were counted. Simply to embrace this result as definitive is irrational. But there is every reason to question it ... I find it beyond belief that the press in this formerly democratic country would not have made the integrity of the electoral system a front page, top-of-the-line story for the last three years. I worked and worked and worked to get that story into the media, and no one touched it until your guy did.

I actually got invited to a Kerry fundraiser so I could talk to him about it. I raised the issue directly with him and with Teresa. Teresa was really indignant and really concerned, but Kerry just looked down at me -- he's about 9 feet tall -- and I could tell it just didn't register. It set off all his conspiracy-theory alarms and he just wasn't listening.

Talk to anyone from a real democracy -- from Canada or any European country or India. They are staggered to discover that 80 percent of our touch-screen electronic voting machines have no paper trail and are manufactured by companies owned by Bush Republicans. But there is very little sense of outrage here. Americans for a host of reasons have become alienated from the spirit of the Bill of Rights and that should not be tolerated.

Political Musings

Thought I'd share this e-mail (in italics) I received this grim morning, which managed to make me grin, if only momentarily.

Dunno if the e-mail's author wants to be named, so I'll leave him/her anonymous. Make Ashcroft's cronies do their 'data mining.'

Shit. Are you making plans to move to Sweden yet? What the fuck is wrong with America? Unfortunately, it appears Repugs may have tipped the scales in their direction with well-placed anti-gay marriage referenda. Someone needs to write something about the Republican obsession with the asshole--why do you care so much how other people (i.e., gay men) are having sex. Bigots.

I must admit that I was paging through Jim's exquisite DK World Atlas last night, thinking of long, Swedish summer days and wondering if Ira and I might get on the tenure track in Sweden.

And why the hell didn't young voters turn out? P. Diddy?

I'd like to scapegoat Puffy, but, sadly, I think many American kidz are conservative and/or cynical.

I'm really impressed with Obama's margin of victory--and even more so with Kerry's in Illinois. I think Obama clearly had coattails--and he did well even in conservative areas. The Dems need to take a look at what he's doing. He shouldn't be such a superstar--black, legal aid lawyer, snooty professor--and he still can woo non-Democrats. Rather than lamely moving to the center, I hope they take heart from the performance of Obama and the near upset of Specter in PA by a fairly liberal Dem. I hope the Dems get angry and start holding Repugs accountable--they have the Presidency, House, Senate and Supreme Court--if things don't improve in America it's your goddamn fault. If things get morefucked up in Iraq, take fucking responsibility.

As much as I'd love to see the Democratic party move leftward, I fear that they'll continue to drift right in a misguided hope of winning back the South. But we'll see...

Please apologize to Ira for how shitty our country is. Did you hear bin Laden had a line in his latest tape that "If we hate freedom, why didn't we attack Sweden?" Heh. The only sensible thing he's ever said.

Ira is more positive than me. Having grown up in the USSR, she knows not to let authoritarianism break one's spirit. Of course, it's sad to think that the spectre of the Soviet Union has to be evoked in order to make the present-day US of A appear in a good light.

Take care. At least you live in a sane state--though it still worries me a little that ANYBODY voted for Keyes.

I agree, though I don't think Keyes is that much wackier than other politicos from the Christian Right. He just is more direct in declaring his beliefs

Oh, by the way, apparently the Pentagon HAD mulled over some possibilities for increasing the size of the military--including extending Selective Service to age 35. I'll vouch for your flaming homosexuality before the draft board.

Yeah, and if that doesn't work there's always the Iggy Pop strategy...

Mourning in America

A sad, fucking day to be sure. The 2004 election guaranteed that all branches of government in the United States will be dominated by a crass coalition of conservatives — greedheads and bible freaks — and that the standard of living for most Americans will continue to deteriorate for years to come.

It's sickening how the Repugs have used bullshit 'cultural' issues (abortion, gay marriage, flag burning) to drive a wedge through the electorate, many of whom seem to be either too ignorant and/or too stupid to recognize that they are voting against their own economic interests and our Constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties.

Looks like the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer, the environment will get dirtier, and affordable health care for all Americans will remain a pipe dream. And I don't even want to think about the ongoing privatization of everything and what could happen to Social Security.

At present, writing from Chicago, the only bright spot I can discern is Barack Obama's massive victory over out-of-state, right-wing nutter Alan Keyes in the Illinois Senate race. I'm glad I live in Chitown, a proudly Democratic city, and Illinois, which remains a solidly blue state. One thing I gleaned from the electoral maps is that I would prefer not to live in a vast portion of this country—all those Repug-dominated districts — which are apparently populated by prosperous, selfish cynics, whose primary concern is to avoid paying taxes, or gullible wanna-be 'patriots,' who believe the lies and propaganda churned out by the Bush-Cheney plutocrats.

Anyway, now that the Repugs control everything, I hope people start holding them accountable for the sad, sorry, shitty state of the Union. If things don't improve in this country and pronto, the GOP and their supporters have nobody but themselves to blame.

Cornel West: Righteously Indignant About the State of Democracy Today

Cornel West
Originally uploaded by erasmus.

On Friday (Oct. 29) Ira and I went to hear Cornel West speak at the Borders Bookstore downtown on State Street. Although the event was poorly organized, as Borders wasn't prepared for the overflow crowd, started the event late and neglected to shout off the store's loudspeakers, West's talk was captivating.

For about 35 or 40 minutes, West spoke extemporaneously on topics addressed in his new book, Democracy Matters: the fragility of the 'democratic experiment', the fact that the United States is an Empire, the need for Socratic questioners to interrogate imperialist orthodoxies, and the need to buttress and draw upon a Western (no pun intended) democratic tradition that can present a radical challenge to contemporary corporate nihilism.

West's talk was exactly what I expected and had hoped for -- a rousing sermon that introduced the audience to the major themes outlined in his new book. West is a master orator, and he had me, Ira and and many others in the audience on the verge of tears as he recounted examples of people having the courage to fight against oppression and exploitation.

I was the last person to get my book signed before West began speaking, and during our brief encounter I said something to the effect that his book provided me with hope during a particularly anxiety inducing historical moment. West appeared to appreciate my remark, but I noted that during his lecture, he emphasized the difference between hope and optimism. West insisted that, as a black man in the United States, he simply could not be optimistic (or pessimistic, for that matter).

Here's a picture of Cornel West in action. Unfortunately, all of the pictures that I shot turned out blurry, but I think this image conveys a sense of West's intellectual dynamism.