Howard Zinn: an indignation against the bullies of the world

[Karmadillo]

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/003204.html

Why I Liked Howard Zinn

<edit>

Zinn, on the other hand, was always recognizably a human being among other humans. He didn't hector, he didn't sneer, and he was never abstract. He made you think: in a better world, there would be more people like this. And maybe I could be more like him, since he doesn't make it look that hard.

This was to me one of the most meaningful things Zinn wrote, from his autobiography:

The events of my life, growing up poor, working in a shipyard, being in a war, had nurtured an indignation against the bullies of the world, who used wealth or military might or social status to keep others down.

That's not a manifesto about democracy, freedom, the means of production blah blah blah. It's just a simple perspective that anyone can understand: bullies are bad.

I agree, and I think that's pretty much all there is to say about politics and life. Bullies are bad, from the ones who make fun of the smelly kid in third grade to the ones who douse mideast villages with white phosphorus. People of the world unite: you have nothing to lose but all those bullies.

[EFerrari]

1. Thanks.

[QC]

2. K&R!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Bullying in school can result in weapons being brought to school,

bullying in the world can result in terrahists coming to a theater near you.

[scarletwoman]

4. Very nice! Thank you for posting this!

"People of the world unite: you have nothing to lose but all those bullies."

Most definitely!

:thumbsup:
sw

[unhappycamper]

5. When the Veterans for Peace were raising money for the Winter Soldier hearings in DC,

Howard was a speaker at another VFPer's house in Newton.

We had just collected about a foot of snow in the Boston area and the fellow that was supposed to have picked Howard up could not get his car through the snow. I had just gotten my new Honda Civic and said "I can pick Howard up if someone navigates." Before you knew it I was off to pick up Mr. Zinn at his home.

What a treat. I had heard him speak at many of the events we have had on Boston Common but had never met him personally. I even got to meet his wife, Roslyn (she passed away in 2008).

Sev (my navigator) and Howard were chatting on the way over to our fundraiser. I just listened and drove.

We had a pretty successful event. In addition to Howard we had one of the men who testified in the original Winter Soldier hearings in 1971. We had about 65 people at the fundraiser and collected almost $6,000.

So I was taking Howard home and he asked me "What do you think about Afghanistan?" I told him it was a mess and I wasn't sure if we should have invaded Afghanistan or not. He quoted Smedley Butler to me: "War is a racket. It always has been." Howard was a member of the Smedley Butler Brigade of the Veterans for Peace (I knew that) but I was surprised to hear him say that. Those two sentences changed my perspective on the Afghanistan occupation. From that point forward I started calling the Iraq and Afghanistan adventures "occupations".

I started to follow the money, as Deepthroat to Bob Woodward to do in the early 70s.

At the moment I'm taking a break from posting in the Veterans forum, but I have a pretty good idea of military expenditures. I know the cost of aircraft carriers, LCS ships, the ever bloated $239 million dollar F-35, the 1/3 of a billion dollar F-22, the $10+ billion we have wasted on two (count them, two) DDG-1000 destroyers, the $1 million dollar MRAPs we have airlifted to Iraq, the $400 dollar per gallon of delivered gas in Afghanistan, the contractor fraud and waste, and the $1.1 million dollar soldier in Afghanistan.

I only wish I had brought my dog-eared copy of "A People's History of the United States" and had asked Mr. Zinn to sign it for me.

RIP Howard Zinn.

[WeCanWorkItOut]

6. I remember him as a good man. But if he had shown some indignation against doctors' salaries ...

it might have been helpful today.

That's Amy Goodman's great weakness,
and a very serious one: she doesn't criticize her friends,
the progressive beneficiaries of an abusive system.

To be fair, she, like Howard Zinn, may not known how much
many doctors, lawyers, and others are overcompensated.
(I heard Paul Krugman mention the doctors part
quietly, once. But this met with disapproval,
and he never mentioned it again.)

That's the problem, many of the monopoly-professionals have such a good lobby
(like the aggressive Robert Kuttner),
that many good people think our extreme inequality
vis a vis the rich professionals, is only natural.

But make no mistake about it: doctors and some other professionals
are abusive, "bullies," if your will,
in the sense of demanding far too much.
People live worse lives and die younger because of their abuses.

[G_j]

7. K&R