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Thursday, October 31, 2002
Remedial despair 
| | Sheila Lennon: Life after Wellstone. I'm sure the answer to the Was he murdered? question is no. Small plane crashes involving politicians and celebrities are creepily common. But the fact that old idealists find assassination conceivable is a subject worth visiting. There's something a bit too familiar about losing a principled iconoclast like Wellstone. About the murders of JFK, RFK and ML King, Sheila writes, |
| | These public figures seemed genuinely to care about the fate of the little guy, and they became inspirations, especially for the young, to channel similar idealism into political action. As leaders, as symbols, they were irreplaceable. Whatever their personal foibles, they represented to us a chance to change the world for the better. |
| | Their deaths seemed to suggest, over and over again, that anyone who put themselves out there would be cut down. |
| | We also share the same feeling Hunter S. Thompson puts so well here. These people were idealists, fighting for good causes. Justice. Equality. Human dignity. Opportunity. Their deaths not only scarred our brains (Thompson's metaphor); they broke our hearts. I remember knowing instantly, the moment I heard Martin Luther King had been shot, that the world changed for the worse in a huge way. It wasn't just the riots that followed. It was the sudden absence of a strong moral force. King's murder was deeply and profoundly discouraging. This country was made far worse by it. I don't believe we ever recovered. |
| | If you want to change history, assassination is a very effective method. I find myself wondering today what the Middle East would be like if Rabin and Sadat had lived. Worse, I suspect that both men were doomed by their own brave idealism. |
Shedding light on a black hole
| | Talk about a tale of woe. Amy Wohl reports that her email newsletter, which goes out only to subscribers (and which has been going out since long before anything called an ISP went into business) is being blacklisted as spam by Interland, and, presumably, by every other ISP that relies on the same blacklist that erroneously lists her newsletter. |
| | Sounds like the the blacklist cure is worse than the spam disease. |
Another fashion statement
Making muse together
Googlejism
FIY
| | If you want a controlled study in the politics of DIY art, compare and contrast this development to what's happening with the record industry. |
He has my jealousy
OS eX
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