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Youth Beyond the Politics of Hope

Youth Beyond the Politics of Hope

Tuesday 13 October 2009

by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Feature

As the counterrevolution that has gripped the United States since the late 1980s appears to be somewhat modified in the emerging presidency of Barack Obama, the dark times that befell us under the second Bush administration have far from disappeared. The assault that the second Bush administration waged on practically every vestige of the public good - from the Constitution to the environment to public education - appears to have lessened its grip as the Obama regime inches towards its first year in power. Yet, the range, degree and severity of the problems the Obama team have inherited from the Bush administration seem almost too daunting to address successfully: a war raging in two countries, a legacy of torture and secret prisons, a dismantling of the regulatory apparatus, a poisonous inequality that allocates resources to the rich and misery to the poor, an imperial presidency that shredded the balance of power, a looming ecological apocalypse, a ruined reputation abroad and a financial crisis that is almost unprecedented in American history - policies and conditions that have brought great suffering to millions of Americans and many millions more throughout the world. But the crisis that is most often forgotten or repressed in the daily headlines of gloom is the war that is being waged at home, primarily against young people, who have historically been linked to the promise of a better life, one that they would both inherit and reproduce for future generations. In a radical free-market culture, when hope is precarious and bound to commodities and a corrupt financial system, young people are no longer at risk: They are the risk; young people are no longer troubled; they are trouble.

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How a Militia Sprouted from the Beans of Egypt, Maine

In early October, the Second Maine Militia opened its meeting with the traditional shooting of the televisions. The 50 or so "members" (there are no rolls and no one pays dues) chatted quietly as the blasts rang out. A small cannon was fired into the woods, parting the trees and shaking the windows of the house nearby.

But no real televisions were harmed. The sets were just cardboard boxes painted with inane smiley faces and decorated with slogans like "Feel good!" "Proud to be USA!" "Safe in the homeland!" The aluminum-foil antennas, however, did collapse miserably from the real gunfire.

The purpose of the annual meeting, the same as it has been since the militia started in 1995, was to bring together the politics of left and right over speeches, food, live music, and, of course, live ammo. The attendees were a wildly diverse group: young activists and anarchists in black, old beat-up Maine woodsmen with beards to their bellies, retired white-haired college professors, Second Amendment zealots, conservatives, libertarians, Marxists. But they all shared the belief that the U.S. government has lost its moral authority, that both political parties had "degenerated," as one attendee put it, "into whores for wealth and arbiters of empire." (See an authentic experience of Maine plus 49 others from around the U.S.)

"From the beginning, we were the No-Wing Militia," said Michael Chute, 54, who served as range officer for the slaughter of the televisions. "We ain't right wing, we ain't left wing. We're trying to get the folks to see the problem ain't left versus right, it's up versus down." He uses a tool analogy. "A Republican is a standard screw," said Chute. "A Democrat is a Philips screws. So whichever way you vote you get the screw." (See a review of the movie version of The Beans of Egypt, Maine.)

Michael Chute, the host of the event, which took place on the 17 acres of his property in North Parsonsfield, happens to be married to one of the better known writers of the last 20 years, Carolyn Chute, 62, author of five novels. Her first book, The Beans of Egypt, Maine, sold 350,000 copies and made her a darling of the literary establishment in the 1980s. The critics compared her to Faulkner and Steinbeck, because what she wrote about so well and so convincingly was the back-broken underclass in Maine, the people who work, like Carolyn once did, in shoe factories or scrubbing hospital floors or picking potatoes. Her characters watch helplessly, like Carolyn did, as children die from lack of healthcare. Indeed, Carolyn and Michael Chute lost a baby in 1982 after the local hospital refused to treat the complications from her pregnancy. (See the All-TIME 100 Novels.)

The couple live in a drafty unfinished house with no hot water. "I haven't had a hot water heater since 1970," she says. It also has no septic system (they use an outhouse, even in the bitter Maine winters) and has only a wood stove for heat. It goes without saying there is no television, and certainly not a computer. Chute writes her books on jangled old typewriters. Her husband sometimes hunts moose for their protein.

A best-selling author, broke and eating moose? They ran short on money years ago when Michael, due to illness, had to quit his job as the caretaker of the local cemetery. Carolyn had shared the cash from her book sales and big advances to help her daughter, mother, and several friends. After the books no longer sold, what they had left, mostly, were the family and the friends.

When the gunfire subsided at the October meeting, chili and cold beer and whiskey came out and someone offered the guests a tall can of marijuana cookies. For entertainment, Michael twanged his Jew's harp, the instrument disappearing in his foot-long beard, as a young couple strummed a song called "F--- You." The scene could have come from Carolyn's latest book, The School on Heart's Content Road, which features (among other things) a militia movement that brings conservatives and hippies together (and polygamists, secessionists, farmers, home-schoolers, intellectuals, vegans — her vision is generously inclusive).

Earlier in the festivities, a few people had made speeches. One of the presenters, a retired professor of economics from Duke University named Thomas Naylor, 73, who heads up a secessionist movement in Vermont, suggested that Maine secede from the union. I asked Naylor, who doesn't own or particularly like guns, what he thought of the Second Maine Militia. "It's a variation on the Swiss shooting club, with social and political overlays," he explained. "It's a fairly benign way of confronting one's powerlessness."

Naylor's secession call — an appeal for local control — went over well. "F--- America," said Will Neils, 32, a Green Party activist from Lincolnville, Me. "What have they done for us lately? Bush f---ed us, Clinton f---ed us. Let's cut the United States loose and let it drift downstream." Maine should stand up for Mainers, said Neils. In his view, the common enemy uniting Mainers, especially in the impoverished communities Neils grew up in, is government "run by and for the rich and on the backs of the poor." "I live beside conservatives," said Neils, "and there's no reason I can't find intense political ground with them. When we get together, we talk about community, how to take care of our people, feed our people. There's no place in that community for the likes of J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs."

Michael Chute kindled a fire as night fell and the party was ending, and I sat down with his wife, who wore big boots and a blue bandanna that tied back long kinky hair. "We should secede," she said, almost to herself. Over her jungle-camo jacket she strung a bandolier that held what looked like the 7.62 mm rounds for her AK-47, the rifle she calls "my baby" because "it kicks just a little bit and has a deep sound." But there was nothing deadly about her ammo: the shell casings were affixed with pencil points. "The point being," the novelist explained, "that we should make our pencils our bullets."

Slideshow from 10/4/09 at the Lion's Lair

Schoolhouse.

Upcoming Shows! This Weekend!

43rd Street Zoo Presents at the Lion's Lair: Tonight we brought you Privatized Air (California) with Brother Rockwell, This Saturday Night: Punishment of Scaphae with Eldon Riley, This Sunday Night: meaTBikini, Slow Form of Suicide (Illinois) and Sons of Disobedience - All Shows $5, 21+, 2022 E. Colfax, Please come join us!

THIS SUNDAY NIGHT! meaTBikini, Slow Form of Suicide, Sons of Disobedience

Come join us this Sunday night at the Lion's Lair! It's Shane from meaTBikini's birthday! Slow Form of Suicide (Illinois) and Sons of Disobedience will also be playing! The line-up has changed slightly from the original posting. meaTBikini will be headlining this show, and Sons will be opening. Only half of the original members of Doll Dumpster are together now, but they will at least be attending the show, and maybe we can get a few songs out of the remaining members...(fingers crossed).

Thank You to DJ Baggett

We would like to say thank you to a techno scene legend in Denver, DJ Baggett. Baggett played at the Lion's Lair on Sunday, September 20th, 2009, from his rock vinyl collection, mashing up songs spanning generations. Thank you Baggett for taking the time to play the Lair!

Eldon Riley Returning to the Lion's Lair, Thurs. Nov. 19th, 2009

Eldon Riley so kindly played for us at the Lion's Lair on Sunday, Sept. 6th along with local acoustic favorites Cain and April. We are very pleased to announce that he will be returning to play on Thursday, Nov. 19th, along with Gregory Urman (who will be headlining) and Chad Neidt. With all three offering acoustic sets, Chad will open the show with his hilarious takes on popular culture, Eldon will then play his set influenced by punk, then Gregory will bring us a set with more serious musings about life. All three artists can be found on myspace.

Sun. Oct. 4th at the Lion's Lair: Line-up Announced!

Pics from the D.F.O.S. Show, Lion's Lair, 9.4.09

Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at the Lion's Lair

Stay tuned, bands TBA.

D.F.O.S, Sons of Disobedience & The Taints!!!

We have a show coming up...soon!!! This next Friday, September 4th, to rock the pants off the start of your Labor Day weekend, we present to you (click on flyer for larger image):









Much love to all of you. I'm probably going to walk over and catch the show at Wasteland tomorrow night with Sid if anybody would like to join.




Brandy [CCL] 1608

Globally Dead: The Anti-Global Dance Party

So Cardinal decided to start off our blog discussing his cello lessons...in a brief sentence. A lot has changed in our lives since January when that first blog was posted and he was at the beginning stages of playing the cello, and we were at the beginning stages of wanting to book shows together. Our vision for our company, 43rd Street Zoo Presents has developed into a reality of how to bring together the people of two different music scenes, and to expose people to music they might not otherwise consider listening to. Cardinal, whose real name is Kevin Carlberg, is from the drum and bass/techno scene, and I have my roots in punk and rock. We cross-promote across the two scenes, and have begun building a community around this concept at different venues around Denver, including the famous Lion's Lair on Colfax Ave., and warehouses such as the Denver Creative Co-Operative Studios (DCCS) at 4th and Lincoln. Our first official show was Globally Dead this past July at DCCS. This was the definitive anti-after party to the annual Global Dance Party at Red Rocks.

We threw a rockin' Globally Dead party - we had over 250 people through the door with over ten dj's playing til dawn. I wish my photo documentation of the night was better, but I was busy making sure the adult beverage department was running smoothly, so I didn't have a lot of time for photography.

Thanks to our friends who helped us get that party rockin'. Kayla, Panda, Chase, Eli, Jason...it wouldn't have been possible without all of you!!!!

Here's Panda behind the bar...serving our friend Beekay.

off to my lessons

practice practice practice... first post of this blog and I have enough time to practice.

l8