Youth Is A State Of Mind

“There are few greater dangers to political stability than the existence of an intellectual proletariat who find no outlet for their learning.” - Friedrich von Hayek, making this out to be a bad thing. Anyways, I'm Jeremy, just a modern-day sansculotte. This is largely a blog about class warfare: how it's being waged against us, and how we might be able to fight back. Such things are, of course, inextricably linked to all other struggles against oppression, which I try to cover as well. And I toss in some other stuff that interests me, like photography, punk rock, and the occasional reblog of pictures of various hot guys, and sometimes actual details about my life.

[youthisastateofmind]

Well, if there's anyone still following from ten year's ago when I picked up David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years and who remembers all the Graeber-posting I was doing back in those days, well, I'm back on my bullshit again. At least the going out and buying a new David Graeber book in hardcover and being all excited about it. Don't know if I'll get back to posting here, as I don't really think anyone still uses Tumblr these days. Or, at least nobody that follows me.

[youthisastateofmind]

So, I’m still alive and can log into my Tumblr

So, it's been, like, over two years since I posted here, I think. I'm still alive if anyone was wondering. Maybe I'll post more here, maybe I won't. Feel free to ask me questions or tell me things I should be posting, or just yell at me for abandoning my Tumblr following, whatever.

[crothfoto]

Big Foot Riders at Wounded Knee, 2016.12.29 © Justin Craig Roth

[youthisastateofmind]

National liberaton, national reawakening, restoration of the nation to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name is used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event. At whatever level we study it—individual encounters, a change of name for a sports club, the guest list at a cocktail party, members of a police force or the board of directors of a state or private bank—decolonization is quite simply the substitution of one "species" oof mankind for another. The substitution is unconditionl, absolute, total, and seamless. We could go on to portray the rise of a new nation, the establishment of a new state, its diplomatic relations and its economic and political orientation. But instead we have decided to describe the kind of tabula rasa which from the outset defines any decolonization. What is singularly important is that it starts from the first day with the basic claims of the colonized. In actual fact, proof of success lies in a social fabric that has been changed inside out. This change is extraordinarily important because it is desired for, clamored for, and demanded. The need for this change exists in a raw, repressed and reckless state in the lives and consciousness of colonized men and women. But the eventuality of such a change is also experienced as a terrifying future in the consciousness of another "species" of men and women: the colons, the colonists. Decolonization, which sets out to change the order of the world, is clearly an agenda for total disorder. But it cannot be accomplished by the wave of a magic wand, a natural cataclysm, or a gentleman's agreement. Decolonization, we know, is an historical process: In other words, it can only be understood, it can only find its significance and become self coherent insofar as we can discern the history-making movement which gives it form and substance. Decolonization is the encounter between two congenitally antagonistic forces that in fact owe their singularity to the kind of reification secreted and nurtured by the colonial situation. Their first confrontation was colored by violence and their cohabitation—or rather the exploitation of the colonized by the colonizer—continued at the point of the bayonet and under cannon fire. The colonist and the colonized are old acquaintances. And consequently, the colonist is right when he says he "knows" them. It is the colonist who fabricated and continues to fabricate the colonized subject. The colonist derives his validity, i.e. his wealth, from the colonial system.

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, basically the first page or so. Just got this book, and I think I'm going to like it.

[youthisastateofmind]

Quick thought on #DeleteUber

OK, so a bunch of people are making a big deal about deleting the Uber app from their phone in response to Uber breaking the NYC taxi strike at JFK Airpor, as well as their CEO's position as a Trump adviser. But then I also saw an article that big-time Trump booster and billionaire investor Carl Icahn is a big investor in Lyft and is profiting from them getting Uber's business. So, no matter how you try to choose a ride-sharing service ethically, some shitty rich dude is getting richer off of you. Obviously, the only solution that really gets at the root of this problem is to abolish capitalism, and not have the means of production largely controlled by a bunch of horrendous rich fucks.

[youthisastateofmind]

I loathed Trump’s inaugural: It offered a zero-sum, ethnically pure, backward-looking brutalistic nationalism. But it was a coherent vision, and he is rallying a true and fervent love of our home. If the anti-Trump forces are to have a chance, they have to offer a better nationalism, with diversity cohering around a central mission, building a nation that balances the dynamism of capitalism with biblical morality. The march didn’t come close. Hint: The musical “Hamilton” is a lot closer.

David Brooks, who the New York Times gives a twice weekly column on the op-ed page to, for some fucking reason. How do people even think like this? Who reads this garbage and thinks it told them anything useful about the world we live in?

[110-33-188-53]

Black Panther Party Newspaper  

Capitalism plus Racism Breeds Fascism 1969

[commiepinkofag]

simple math, simple truths

[bisexualwario]

[youthisastateofmind]

Back when I blogged more regularly, I somehow ended up with Sundays being the day I'd toss up some music that I want everyone to check out. Technically, it hasn't been Sunday here for a little over an hour, but still, here's 7 Seconds with their cover of "99 Red Balloons." The original is great, of course, but I've got to give it up for 7 Seconds. Totally the best ’80s hardcore band from Reno, Nevada.

[youthisastateofmind]

I've got nothing against having a totally peaceful protest rally and march, especially if it gets something like 150,000 people out together, but getting complimented by the police kind of still feels dirty. We've got to raise a little more hell than that. Still, though, the sheer number of people was good to see.

[youthisastateofmind]

Visit Original Link

So, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, which precipitated World War I, seems to be something on a lot of people's minds today. Well, back in 2007 or so, I was briefly the singer of a punk rock band, despite my complete lack of musical talent. This is a song I wrote (well, the lyrics) about that event. It's called "The Black Hand" by the Ex-Lumberjacks. Enjoy.

[wehadfacesthen]

Lew Christensen, Daphne Vane and William Dollar in George Balanchine’s ballet Orpheus and Euridice performed at the Metropolitan Opera, 1936. Photo by George Platt Lynes

[youthisastateofmind]

This wasn’t really what I came back for, but I pretty much always reblog old George Platt Lynes photographs I run across. I like having a few obscure personal obsessions to give the blog some variety.

[youthisastateofmind]

I’be been away from here a while, anything interesting happen since I’ve been gone?

Given recent political events in the US, I think I should start blogging again. I need a place to vent various thoughts I have on things. Hopefully, Tumblr’s still a haven for all sorts of leftist ranting. Anyone miss me?

[youthisastateofmind]

5/5 Kimberly Strubell fans agree that Mike Beaudet drinks his own pee. Spread the word.

[youthisastateofmind]

The other day’s depressing drunken posting from the Fireside Tavern put me in the mood for this week’s music recommendation to be Youth Brigade’s “Where Are All the Old Man Bars,” which, contrary to the Youtube clip above, is on their split with Swingin’ Utters, not Sink With Kalifornija. One of my all time favorite bands.

[youthisastateofmind]

Me, more or less.

[youthisastateofmind]

I was thinking of posting this picture from the Real Alcoholic Memes page on Facebook, just because it's so true, but I try to pretend, on Facebook at least, that I'm actually never a complete fuckup at life. But I'm sitting here at a pathetic lonely bar, drinking cheap beer by myself and I relate so much to this picture.