Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Three Beautiful Things 05/22/07: Stories, Teeth, Anarchy

1. Our working class literature students are writing family stories after reading China Men and it was enthralling, not only to hear the gripping tales students read aloud today, but the writing was superb. Really superb.

2. I have never enjoyed going to the dentist that much, but when a good hygienest cleans my teeth, I find it blissful and my dentist hired Tricia not long ago. I think this was my third cleaning on her watch and I think she's first-rate. What a relief...

3. I watched the 1983 documentary film "Anarchy in America" tonight and it was the kind of film I like the most. It took an idea, anarchy, that is widely misunderstood and abused, and looked at anarchism in a historical as well as contemporary context and helped explain how deeply committed to freedom and liberty the anarchist movement is.

4 comments:

Dubya said...

If the anarchists is so committed to freedom an' liberty as you claim, then answer me this: what have they invaded lately?

Hah, bet yer stumped on that one.

Pinehurst in my Dreams said...

When I think of Anarchy, I think of the French Revolution. (Bloodbath).

Go Figure said...

I have got to question the viability of anarchy. Besides there are so many types its hard to know what type is being promoted. Why not just have the government run by the people for the people, the way it was intended, instead of government run by the corporations for the corporations? We ought to at least try the model we have before we discard it for something else.

raymond pert said...

Dubya: How about Seattle, huh? WTO? 1999? Wasn't that there a pritty good evasion?

P.inMyDreams: The history of anarchism is varied, ranging from peaceful co-ops and communes to non-violent resistance to drunken angry young men in black bandanas busting downtown Seattle business windows. The film is very illuminating regarding this history.

Starr: You hit the nail on the head twice: so much variety and government for the people by the people...anarchism, at its best, would like to see more power and liberty in the hands of people so they can run things their own ways and it's very optimistic about the basic goodness of people to do it ethically and with good judgment...much like the best elements of libertarians...but, the history of anarchism has also been marked with a lot of knuckleheads with molotov cocktails and baseball bats who make it difficult for the more idealistic anarchists to make their case

jennifer: A student of mine checked out this dvd from our public library and insisted I see it...I was very glad I did...you might see if it's available at a library near you or through interlibrary loan...you know, it's a pretty usa centered piece...some Russia...but depending on how your kids are studying history or political history, at some point this might be a helpful dvd for posing questions about the role of a government and for power arranged hierarchically...maybe there's a film out there somewhere looking at anarchism movements in Canada..who knows?