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While
we are on the subject of evil... HISTORICAL
EVIL:
"The Triangle Fire," by Leon Stein with a new introduction
by William Greider. (Cornell University Press, 2001.)
EVIL
IN THE RAG TRADE:
"NO SWEAT: Fashion, Free Trade, and the Rights of Garment
Workers," edited by Andrew Ross. (Verso Press 1997.)
BORDERLINE
EVIL:
"Border Witness," by Maureen Casey and Brian Casey. (The New
York State Labor-Religion Coalition, 2002).
COSMIC
EVIL:
"Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy,"
by Susan Neiman. (Princeton U. Press, 2002.)
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> NO SWEAT NEWS >
NEWS ARCHIVE
"NOTHING
WAS SIMPLE."
Jeremy
Larner wrote the screenplay for "The Candidate" (1972) and won an
Oscar for it. Now, with a remake of that movie in the works, he
talks about dress codes and social justice.
NOTHING WAS SIMPLE
I'm shocked to think I'm now older than the men and women who used
to teach me about the 1930's in America -- and that most of the
young people I know cannot remember that brief time -- I date it
from about 1967 to 1970 -- when America was alive with the possibility
of how different we might be, how we could realize the dream of
liberty and justice for all in a fair and free society.
I thought afterwards we were only a few unlucky breaks -- and assassinations
-- and atrocities -- from making it come true. We came a long way
in six months of electoral campaigning in '68 -- unseated a President
and made it mandatory that this country disentangle itself from
Vietnam and fulfill our potential as a model of democracy.
What we got was Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and a surge of greed
around the world which threatens to put the human species out of
business. And of course, I never really embraced the simple terms
I just described. We all knew it was going to be a struggle, and
one of the biggest problems was confusion on the left, and the easy
gratifications of hatred, elitism and violence -- which provided
the best friends the right ever had, and do so to this day.
All along there was a confusion about democracy -- as if there could
ever be socialism without it! Even the word "socialism" seems antiquated
-- and perhaps we could do without it. The best governments turn
out to be mixed economies -- which is exactly what America is --
and we lose a lot by pretending otherwise!
Democracy itself is not a finished state, but a work constantly
in progress. We should not be shocked at the ongoing injustices
in American history -- they are present in the histories of every
country on earth. What democracy gives us is the chance to fight
back, the chance to protest injustice and the means to change it.
The core of American individualism is not the lottery ticket of
a chance to get rich; it's the right of every individual to exercise
his Bill of Rights freedoms. What a pity so few of our leaders even
refer to the Bill of Rights, let alone accept the basic job of extending
freedom and equality.
Equality does not mean all people are equal in every respect. They
are not. It means that all individuals are equal in the eyes of
the law, that all have the same chance.
Nothing was as simple as we said it was back then, or as easily
possible -- and we could hardly anticipate the merchandising of
rebellion into cultural and consumer products that have nothing
to do with social justice or a better world.
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