Monthly Archives: March 2004

It was way back in 1960, that Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized System, the book that was to make author and self-styled radical Paul Goodman (1911-1972) famous, appeared on the scene. Not terribly well written, laden with psychobabble, quaintly misogynistic, and chock full of an astonishing amount of flagrant homosexual references—not at all PC for the time—that were somehow ignored by his avid followers, the book railed against the establishment destroying the dreams and lives of American youth.

While the work has not aged particularly well, and as Joseph Epstein put it, “Many of the things Paul Goodman asked of in his essays and books of the 1960’s have now come about, and with rather pitiful consequences…”, there is no doubt that Goodman genuinely cared about the youth of his day.

In our society, bright lively children, with the potentiality for knowledge, noble ideals, honest effort, and some kind of worthwhile achievement, are transformed into useless and cynical bipeds, or decent young men trapped or early resigned, whether in or out of the organized system. My purpose is a simple one: to show how it is desperately hard these days for an average child to grow up to be a man, for our present organized system of society does not want men. They are not safe. They do not suit.

Goodman also recalled, after speaking to a group of young men in Canada, condemned as he felt to a bleak future, “I turned away from the conversation abruptly because of the uncontrollable burning tears in my eyes and constriction in my chest.”

For all his faults, and there were many, Goodman was on to something. Too bad that the New Left that so staunchly identified with him was to make matters far worse, by strengthening the very institutions that he wanted to tear down.

Colleges in the 1960’s were labeled “repressive” by the assorted demonstrators. Why? Many of them were tied in with government and military agencies, “evil” corporate employers were allowed to recruit on campus, there were never enough minorities on the faculty, and curricula stressing Western civilization discriminated against the cultural heritage of people of color. Of course, you could still actually get a decent education and have reasonable prospects of getting a job upon graduation.

Goodman may not have liked the all-too-common cookie cutter conformity coming out of the colleges then, but he would despise what exists now: a politically correct maelstrom of gelded officials, being manipulated by mostly unqualified Leftist malcontent faculty, to descend into ever greater levels of irrelevance, while crushing the individualism of all but the strongest-willed of the student body.

Goodman was no fan of pre-college public schools either, but here again, the institutions have only gotten worse. In his day, people were still debating the notion of federal aid to education, but by the 1970’s, the Feds won the debate, and have essentially controlled public elementary and secondary education ever since. Indoctrination now runs rampant, and if you can stand the shock, check out a current U.S. History textbook. Then, you’ll understand how a nation founded by rugged individualists, pioneers, real heroes, and risk takers has been transformed into a land teeming with rapacious “victims,” political operatives, sports “heroes,” and low rent media celebrities.

Goodman would be positively apoplectic if he were to see how Ritalin is handed out like candy to “hyperactive” boys, whose most common offense is that they are not acting sufficiently lobotomized for today’s classroom. But he would react perhaps most violently to how children are so devalued today—pious Hillary Clinton platitudes notwithstanding.

For Clinton and her fellow travelers use children only as a vehicle to advance their pernicious Socialist agenda. How sad that these very kids are conditioned to be as lambs led to the slaughter. And how fitting, in a karmic sort of way, that Goodman’s writings, far too influenced by his libertine desires, and inspiring a generation of vipers, would boomerang back into corruption and stricture he could barely imagine.

Singer/songwriter Laura Nyro (October 18, 1947-April 8, 1997), blessed with incredible musical talent, if not the looks that would have facilitated stardom, achieved her greatest commercial success writing pop hits for other artists. Indeed, the subject of this essay is much better known in its cover version by the 5th Dimension, who took it to number 27 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in July of 1970. Their unusually soulful rendition was no doubt inspired by Nyro’s bravura performance on her “New York Tendaberry” album.

If our country still needs to be saved these days, the conditions are far different from 1969, when the gospel-tinged song was written. How much do Laura’s protest sensibilities still apply?

Come on, people! Come on, children!
Come on down to the glory river
Gonna wash you up, and wash you down
Gonna lay the devil down, gonna lay that devil down

The unabashed Christian reference to baptism was unusual then in Leftist circles, and would be simply unacceptable nowadays. Nyro was never your garden-variety radical, and it’s quite telling that the song starts out this way. Before we do anything else, our sins must be washed away, and that would include drug abuse, something she did not support, even though most of her peers did.

Come on, people! Come on, children!
There’s a king at the glory river.
And the precious king, he loved the people to sing:
Babes in the blinkin’ sun
Sang “We Shall Overcome.”

Our first notion of a “king” at the river, especially in keeping with the earlier lyric, would be Christ the King—and He’s there all right. But, there’s also another king, as in Martin Luther King, recently assassinated, and halo still fully intact. Note the past tense in “sang.” Why aren’t the babes singing anymore? HAVE they overcome?

I got fury in my soul
Fury’s gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind I can’t study war no more.

Save the people! Save the children! Save the country now!

Now, for the big statement: She is chock full of fury! In this context, it can only be righteous anger, and it’s enough rage to take her to the “glory goal.” This is intriguing. “Glory river” is one thing, but “glory goal”? If we start with baptism, the goal has to be salvation, but she also must purge her mind of any bellicose thoughts, even if the line from the spiritual “Down by the Riverside” seems a bit too facile.

Back then, it was the unpopular Vietnam War, fashioned by JFK’s brain trust, escalated by LBJ, and finally ended by Nixon. The battlefield loss was humbling enough, to say nothing of the pointless carnage, aided and abetted by feckless “leaders” and a home front torn by protests that absolutely were supported by the Ruskies.

These days, however, the enemy is pure Evil, bent on destroying anything that is not fundamentalist Islam. Laura’s fury would surely rise up to defend her beloved New York City, rather than waste time worrying about what we could have done to provoke such a thing as 9/11. For my money, she is looking down in dismay as to the reaction of her successors in the peace movement. After all, it takes both sides to attain peace, but only one side to pursue war—something the pitiful Spaniards will soon learn.

Come on, people! Come on, children!
Come on down to the glory river
Gonna wash you up and wash you down
Gonna lay the devil down, gonna lay that devil down.

Important enough to repeat.

Come on people! Sons and mothers!
Keep the dream of the two young brothers
Gonna take that dream and ride that dove.
We could build the dream with love, I know
We could build the dream with love, I know

“The two young brothers” are the assassinated Kennedys, but she, like many of her era, was taken in by the media image, and the protective press coverage. It was not easy to determine then that their dream was mostly about bedding beautiful women, while rising to fame and power, on the backs of those same little people Laura cared about. Uber-feminist Nyro would have excised this particular lyric, knowing what we know now.

Tossing cynicism to the wind, though, if we approach the dream as some sort of grand and glorious socialist utopia, and ride the dove of peace, no one can deny that love would be more helpful than, say, hate in building (as in creating in reality) this and most other dreams. Of course, al Qaeda’s dream is in direct opposition to any of ours, and the Lefties would fall right alongside everyone else. Trouble is, many from the 60’s just don’t get it. Maybe it really WAS the drugs.

We could build a dream with love, children,
We could build the dream with love, oh people,
We could build the dream with love, I know,
We could build the dream with love.

I got fury in my soul,
Gonna take me to the glory goal.
In my mind I can’t study war no more.

Save the people! Save the children! Save the country now!

So, what can we conclude?

To be opposed to what ended up being a pointless and idiotically managed war could legitimize the anti-war sentiments of the song. But, mark well her religious basis! The glory goal is salvation, and building THAT dream is ultimately the only way to save the people, the children, and the country.

For those wondering how long it would take for the next shoe to drop, it was 30 months—exactly. For on 11 March 2004, a brutal, cowardly, and senseless terrorist attack blew up four packed commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 200 people and wounding 1,500. Although the jury is still officially out on the identity of the perps, all indications are that it is al Qaeda, rather than Spain’s homegrown ETA (Euskadi Ta Azkatasuna), the terrorist group that has been fighting for Basque independence since the 1960s in a campaign of bombings and assassinations.

Certainly, the bad blood between Muslims and Spain goes back much further than problems in the Basque region. Way back in the 8th century, Spain was the first Christian country in Europe to be invaded by Arab Islamic armies, and portions of the country were under Muslim control until the end of the 15th century. Though the spirit of the Reconquista goes back to ca. 718, when the Christian Asturians opposed the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga, it was not until 11th century, when Moorish unity broke down and the Christian kingdoms of northern Spain began to be affected by an aggressive, anti-Muslim, crusading zeal, that the movement began in earnest. A series of wars followed, and by the mid-13th century most of country had returned to Christian rule, the last Moorish enclave being in the region of Granada in the south.

Of course, as the Islamic fundamentalists would tell the story, “Muslim Spain” was conquered by the infidels, conveniently discarding about 400 years of prior history, and now the true believers must conquer it back. Ever wonder how many people have willingly converted to Islam besides modern day compliant spouses?

Perhaps this day of infamy will be Spain’s wake-up call. Radio talk show host Michael Savage asked on that day, “where are the Conquistadores?” Maybe they will be those leaders, who can inflame Spain’s shocked citizenry into remembering their Catholic roots, forgetting some of their ultra-tolerance, and standing up to the new breed of invaders.

And what else besides ultra-tolerance could explain the continuing prominence of uber-phony Dr. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute? Zogby is already on record supporting Hizbullah, being an apologist for Yasser Arafat, and listing as his first precept on 9-11 an incredible thinly-veiled blame the victim screed. And while they were still picking up the body parts in Madrid, Zogby had to appear on as many media outlets as he could demanding that we not let this event cause “more” discrimination against Arab-Americans, or Arabs in other nominally Christian countries.

Yes, Jim, not discriminating against Arabs should definitely be priority one for Spaniards these days.

Only in America could a Lebanese Maronite Catholic re-invent himself as the spokesman for Arab-Americans, cleverly using both his alleged Christian identity and his elite background in Islamic theology, to straddle the constituencies of both the Christian/secular Arab-Americans, as well as their Muslim fundy counterparts. Throw into the mix a talent for kissing up to the power brokers, a knack for confounding the usual suspect media morons (not hurt by his Leftist Democratic politics), and his playing the victim card, and thus you have yet another ethnic “leader.”

In an interview with radio talk show host Michael Medved, Zogby invoked the memory of FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans and others during World War II, as a warning. How interesting that this Democratic activist and critic of the war in Iraq should remind us of this sick event in our nation’s history, opposed at the time by many in the Federal government, including J. Edgar Hoover, and driven only by Roosevelt’s fervent racism against the Japanese.

But don’t expect Zogby to disavow that Dem icon any more than he could unambiguously condemn Islamist terrorism. Ultra-tolerance, indeed.