|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Michael Parenti Social Notes |
|---|
| Sex Symbol of the Left |
|
This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, April 16, 1986. The annual Michael Parenti worship services were held in Boulder this week. Attending were all the heavy breathing elements of the Boulder Left, some female, who tingle with excitement that they could have both an intellectual and physical crush on one and the same man. Parenti, a highly successful capitalist, makes his living denouncing capitalism to those predisposed to laud anything that would explain their own inability to make money. Boulder leftists unencumbered by trust funds are often reluctant to leave Boulder and become removed from their food stamp outlets, so their champions have long ago learned to ship in their heroes. Parenti recently made the decision that capitalism frowns on other forms of economics – unlike the open-minded communists who are always experimenting – and since this is news to Boulder’s Intelligentsia, they think him a prophet of truth. Like all leftists, Parenti makes the expedient of straw dog construction work for him. He takes the pronouncements of the far right semi-fascists, assumes the popu1ation at large has believed them, further assumes that if the facts were known the population would revolt, and charges for revealing this truth. Really. Nobody, not even Horace Greeley or Daddy Warbucks, has ever believed that capitalists and -ism were propelled by concern for the common good. It assumes that opportunities for individuals to rise satisfy the needs of the competent and the incompetent alike. Hampered, somewhat, by a collection of smarmy, greedy, demented powerhouses that gouge the public at every opportunity, capitalism still is more energizing than socialism, which expects and delivers nothing. Parenti can count on his audiences being unthinking. Last night he trotted out an example of how our media lies. Like all liars, be said, they cannot keep their story straight. For example, we are told there is no freedom of religion in the Soviet Union, and then they forget and run stories on Moscow Synagogues and Orthodox Church attendance, etc., etc. The conclusion he wants us to reach is that there is freedom of religion in the USSR. But does the contention that there is no freedom of religion in the Soviet Union die by the examples be leaves? Hardly, they speak to the communists' inability to stamp out the occult. That showcases abound in Moscow proves nothing. That their nation and its own citizenry at large are off bounds to the foreign press speaks volumes. Yes, our media lies, usually by omission and the incredible vanity and ignorance of our reporters. But as long as money can be made exposing this, we have the best press going. Our media thrives off its own incompetence. It moves in cycles and defective. But when inspired, it does a decent job. Parenti would have the press homogenized and tailored to give correct views. There is no doubt that our press loves Reagan and lets him get away with murder. The cycle will return. In communist nations, where leaders hardly willingly retire, there is no fear of revisionism. This is a reply from a member of the Labor Movement when it had both balls and point and more good on its side: Sender Garlin. When I knew this wonderful gentleman, he was in his dotage, which is to say into his late eighties he left the impression he was about to drop to the floor and give me fifty push ups while recounting in hysterically funny detail some of his many tales of the political history of the United States.  |
| Post your views and reviews on The Boulder Lout Forum. |