This website is designed primarily to act as a means of immortalizing slightly to moderately edited versions of letters/comments that I wrote in response to various important articles which appeared on the progressive political website Salon.com. My screen name over there is cmysticism.
Of course, the original versions of these letters are now buried amidst the numerous pages created to hold the hundreds of comments that the most popular columnists on Salon.com often receive in response to their articles. Hence, my desire to have a permanent place on the Net to store what I consider to be some of the best and most important letters I have ever written there. As noted above, the versions seen here are modified slightly to moderately so as to correct any errors that may have appeared in the original versions, and to make them as reader-friendly as possible. However, being the prick that I am towards my opponents in the political sphere who can care less about American values and the Constitution, I decided to leave all of my nemeses' spelling and grammatical errors intact when I quote them, so feel free to laugh at them for all the mistakes they make (I know I do! Muah-hah-hah!). Among my favorite and most knowledgeable progressive columnists on Salon.com are Glenn Greenwald and Joan Walsh, and the largest number of my letters are in response to the many awesome articles produced by these two. I do respond to the articles of other Salon.com writers from time to time too, and the most important of those letters will appear here also.
Additionally, I will post some of my most important responses to articles that originally appeared in the comments/letters section of political sites or blogs other than Salon.com (such as Alternet or Common Dreams), and a few essays here and there that simply pop up in my head but never appeared anywhere else.
A secondary purpose of this site will be to hold copies of various progressive articles found all across the Net that I consider to be particularly important for people to see, but which are difficult to read on their home pages due to technical matters. If such technical matters are ever corrected by the original authors of these articles, I will immediately remove them from here. Full credit will be given to the original authors of such articles, of course, and they retain full copyright on any of their material that appears on my site.
As the name of this site makes clear, I am an insurrectionist of the highest order. Further, I am the purest form of patriot in existence. I am a socialist, and by that I mean a genuine supporter for the future establishment of a classless and moneyless society with no conception of a political state, as originally formulated by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in their various books, beginning with The Communist Manifesto. As such, I am not one of those numerous pseudo-socialists who use the label but are in actuality Leninists or Trotskyists that support what is best described as state capitalism (i.e., the system of the former Soviet Union, China, Cuba, etc.), or supporters of a highly liberalized variation of capitalism, i.e., "social democrats" (the form of capitalism extant in many First World European nations), whose goal is to attempt to tame capitalism and make it less malicious to the working class by instituting various state-funded social welfare programs and fairly heavy regulation of business. These state capitalists and social democrats are not genuine socialists as the term was defined by its creators, Marx and Engels, as both state capitalists and social democrats support a system that features a continuation of the state, a continuation of the use of money despite the fact that our post-industrial world renders the need for such a medium of exchange totally archaic and counterproductive, and a continuation of class divisions that separate society into two contending economic classes of people--a tiny minority of owners who live in luxury and an extremely large majority who own no productive property and are forced to labor for the owning class in exchange for a comparative pittance.
As a genuine socialist, I am the absolute worst nightmare to the established order, the most formidable foe that the conservative elements of society who most strongly support the current world order could ever imagine. Though presently small in number, we represent a huge hope for humanity achieving a better and more democratic world order that will use the marvels of modern technology to eliminate production for profit and the wage system in favor of a system where all the industries that every single human being on the planet depends on for survival and comfort will be socially owned and used to provide for the material needs of all, not just the profit interests of a small number of owners. Why do you think the pundits on the Right always call their progressive opponents "socialist" whenever the latter individuals initiate any program or policy that is seen to inconvenience big business? The progressives fear being pinned with that name by their opponents even more than they do the word "liberal." Demonizing words that mean positive things is a very good strategy on the part of those wonderful folks on the Right, and their opponents on the Left bend over backwards to prove that they do not identify with those words.
You may be wondering, why would a socialist like myself currently work so closely with progressives and other members of what are often referred to as the Left when the latter individuals are engaged in a futile effort to create a kinder and gentler version of capitalism rather than facing the fact that any variant of the system must be abolished and replaced with a new system that is much more socially advanced?
The answer: because I have to face reality. Right now, as I said, socialists are quite small in number, especially those whose principles and policies fit the genuine meaning of the term. Progressives are quite large in number, however, and I believe that each and every one of them have the ability to rise above the cowardice which so many of them have displayed since the conservatives took over the government and the social conscience of America beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980. The values and principles of the progressives, while flawed in several ways, are nevertheless much better for the world to embrace at the present time IMO than that of the conservatives in most ways (with a notable exception or two). On average, they tend to respect the tenets of democracy much more than their opponents on the other side of the political spectrum do. Further, to a progressive the term "freedom" is defined as civil liberties, in contrast to their opponents, who most often define "freedom" as the "right" of the free market to operate with no inconvenience for its few actual beneficiaries. In other words, I believe the progressive/liberal definition of freedom is far closer to the definition intended by the Founders of America when they wrote the Constitution than the definition of the word most often used by conservatives.
Based on my above observations, it's my hope that the progressives will eventually get completely fed up with trying to tame capitalism and come to the realization in large numbers that the vaunted free market economy needs to be junked in favor of a new system whose economic basis is far more in harmony with the principles they espouse than any variant of capitalism could ever be. In other words, it's my firm hope that the progressives of the present will one day morph into the socialists of the future.
When I read the columns of some of the greatest progressives in America, including Glenn Greenwald and Joan Walsh, I realize that human nature is entirely salvageable and there is indeed hope for our species to create something far better than that which exists now. All it takes is a few individuals like them to make it clear that those who routinely besmirch and denigrate the image of the entire human race are entirely unjustified. If a few of us can achieve the level of courage and enlightenment as those two, then there is every chance that the vast majority could reach that level in the future too.
Below are links to the articles that appear in the two main sections of this site (both works in progress), the first containing re-edited versions of the many letters I have left in response to various articles on Salon.com (and other cyber locales), the second containing articles from other authors that I also hope to preserve.
Also down below is a link to my section on Famous and Awesome Quotes, which are a collection of some of the best and most meaningful quotes that I have ever come across, and all of which I think are completely worth heeding by everyone who reads them. None of them are from me, but all have greatly inspired me. I mention the source of each quote, and if known to me, the book or a link to an article on the Web where it first appeared. More quotes will be constantly added as I come across them, so if you enjoy this section of the site, check back on a regular basis (though I cannot promise the frequency with which I will add new quotes; I will simply continue to do so as I come across them).
DO SOLDIERS DESERVE PRAISE OR SCORN FOR SERVICES RENDERED IN WAR?
A BRIEF DEBATE OVER YOUTH LIBERATION
MY RESPONSE TO AN ATHEIST WHO DISPARAGED ALL SPIRITUAL BELIEFS AS "NONSENSE"
ARE THE PROGRESSIVE BASE A BUNCH OF WHINERS WHO EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
WHY IS WOMAN-ON-MAN VIOLENCE SO TOLERATED BY OUR SOCIETY?
WHY DON'T AMERICANS PROTEST AGAINST THE GROWING INEQUALITIES OF CAPITALISM?
PROGRESSIVES NEED TO GIVE UP THEIR HOPE OF TAMING CAPITALISM
WHY DOES OBAMA SUPPORT THE WAR ON TERROR, EVEN AT THE COST OF OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES?
WHY DOES THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION JUSTIFY THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION'S ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES?
IMPORTANT TIDBITS ABOUT YOUTH LIBERATION
WHO ARE THE TRUE PATRIOTS--SOLDIERS OR CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS?
MARXISM IS NOT MESSIANIC AND IS IN FULL HARMONY WITH PROGRESSIVE VALUES
THE NEOCON VIEW OF FREEDOM AND THE MILITARY
DO AMERICAN VALUES GET IN THE WAY OF PROTECTING THE NATION?
FREEDOM OR SECURITY--WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT?
MY RESPONSE TO A CONSERVATIVE WHO CLAIMS OBAMA'S POLICIES ARE FAR LEFT
WHY DO THE DEMOCRATS CONSTANTLY NEED TO COMPROMISE ON THEIR PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES?
WHY OBAMA CANNOT BE COMPARED TO MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
MY PROBLEM WITH MINDLESS OBAMA SUPPORTERS
WHY I THINK THE LEFT SHOULD BE TOUGHER ON OBAMA
WILL PROGRESSIVES EVENTUALLY STOP TRYING TO TAME CAPITALISM AND BEGIN OPPOSING IT INSTEAD?
WAS OBAMA'S MOVE TOWARDS THE POLITICAL "CENTER" A GOOD THING?
ARE THE PERSONALITY TRAITS OF POLITICIANS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE POLICIES THEY SUPPORT?
WHY IS AMERICA AT WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST?--MY RESPONSE TO A NEOCON
WHY WOULD GAYS WANT TO JOIN THE MILITARY?
WHAT SHOULD OBAMA DO ABOUT IRAN?
MY MAIN PROBLEM WITH ATHEISM AND ATHEISTS
WHY TAXATION IS NECESSARY IN A CAPITALIST SYSTEM
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
MY REASSURANCE TO A FELLOW PROGRESSIVE
SOCIALISM VS. SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
DEBBIE NATHAN'S WEBSITE--Ms. Nathan is one of the best investigative journalists in America, and her articles and blog posts are a must read for any moderately open-minded individual.
FAMOUS AND AWESOME QUOTES--a continuously updated collection of highly meaningful and inspirational quotes that I have compiled into a single page for all political activists and those striving for change amongst seemingly impossible odds to peruse and be inspired by, some from famous personages of yesteryear, and others from contemporary sources that I have come across.
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