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AT IT AGAIN
Here’s one you won’t print. 1 wonder how
aware you are of the consistent Christian
bashing in your publication. I cannot
remember the last issue that did not contain
some form of attack against the Christian
Faith, or at least against those who claim it. If
one replaced “Christian’’ with “Jew" in much
of your writing, they would be left with some
thing not unlike the propaganda floating
around Germany in the 1930’s. I suppose big
otry knows no national or economic bound
aries, but it is most unsettling to see those
who obviously consider themselves to be
“open-minded" and “tolerant" seizing every
opportunity to assault those who believe dif
ferently than they do. I recognize that this
hostility toward the Christian faith is charac
teristic of much of American media culture,
and that you are but a small part of this.
However, you are the closest to me. I just
don’t want to see any stuff about “diversity"
or “tolerance" in your rag, unless you really
believe it. As it stands, if “hypocrisy is the
greatest luxury," you are in the lap of it.
My name is unimportant
No address
Just wanted to offer a quick bit of praise
and thanks for the review of Queensryche’s
Q2K disaster in the January 5 edition of
Flagpole. As a longtime diehard Metal fan,
when I saw the review of my former favorite
band’s latest record I was fully expecting a
column of “Queensryche? What are they still
doing around? That’s, like, sooooooooo 80s”
type rhetoric. Instead, I was treated to a
review 1 could have easily written myself.
Chris McKay presented point after point of
valid, well-thought-out observations as if he
had been reading the ultimate anti-Q2K page
that a friend and I created (check it out:
geocities.com/grungeryche). Even better
than the fact that his opinion coincided with
mine was the fact that he knew what he was
talking about—he made several references
to classic Queensryche material. THANK
YOU for reviewing an album by a band of
this style of Metal, and THANK YOU for not
allowing just any ol’ Joe Music Fan to review
it.
PS. Now if we could just get a glowing
review of Dream Theater’s new masterpiece
in local print, I’d see to it that you guys win
the Pulitzer.
Matt Smith
Athens
Recent events in Seattle have focused the
world's attention on a global menace; that of
multinational corporations creating an homo
geneous global economy where a very few
live in insane luxury, while everyone else,
namely those who produce goods, struggle
constantly for the necessities of survival.
They do this by moving factories (or
investing in them) into countries with no, or
lax environmental and labor laws, thereby of
course being able to produce things very
cheaply. This undermines companies (and
their workers) in nations such as the US.,
where we have toiled for centuries to estab
lish workplace safety and establish protec
tions for the natural world.
These companies argue that they are
ending “poverty” in undeveloped nations,
when In reality they are replacing ecologi
cally sustainable, self sufficient societies with
cash-dependent Western style ones. Is a
farmer who can live honestly off his land,
drink clean water, and breathe clean air
poorer than an Atlanta worker who must
commute in toxic clouds of smog 74 miles
each day (on average) and buy their water at
the grocery store? Who makes this determi
nation? But once people are addicted to
Western styles of consumption it will be very
hard for them to return to a sane lifestyle,
because their traditions will have been lost.
And addicting people to these patterns will
result, when raw materials run out, in the
biggest social catastrophe this planet has yet
seen. But that is exactly what the C.E.O’s of
these companies want. By divorcing people
from their traditions, they will create a per
manent class of desperate, money dependent
people willing to work for anything, just to
eat. Now there are of course advancements
in every culture which should be shared, to
end suffering and encourage a truly sustain
able global society. And that is definitely,
despite their altruisiic rhetoric, not whal
these companies are up to! They are starting
with the lie that money solves everything,
and as the provider of (minimum) money in
miserable working conditions, using that to
justify their every action. People, mesmer
ized by glamorous Western advertising, often
the only image of our people they see, want
(they think) to live like us. And they will
allow themselves to be subjected to all kinds
of indigrities in hopes of achieving that.
I do not promote violence of any kind, but
the violence at the protests in Seattle is a
mere foretaste of what will occur if those in
power abnegate their responsibility to use
their positions of wealth and comfort to
devise true solutions to humanities’ prob
lems, and merely focus on perpetual self
enrichment. But we are all also to blame, for
we have become a nation of obedient con
sumers, buying every trinket expelled from
their plastic injection mold factories, rather
than seeing life as a challenge to become self
sufficient, noble, clean and non-harmful to
the world and those around us. May I make
some suggestions?
Rather than seeing the solution to all of
your problems in even more money, look
around you to see what you have to help you
survive without it. If you have a yard, plant
food. If you have a roof, put up a solar heat
collector, photo voltaic panels, a windmill
and rainwater collectors. Insulate your house
to the max (with non-toxic products) and find
an occupation to earn some, if not all of the
cash you need from home, looking forward to
the day when you need none! Band together
with friends and live collectively. If you have
sincere religious convictions, we still are,
thank God, exempt from property taxes when
living communally as sincere renunciates.
But most importantly, find the value in
your life from refining yourself spiritually
and attacking the ills of society, rather than
buying things for the cheap, momentary
thrills they supposedly provide. Companies
rely on convincing people to buy junk they
don’t need. But a person without inner focus
can never find satisfaction, while a person
with it, who relieves the sufferings of others,
has the greatest riches existence can pro
vide.
Support uniform international environ
mental and worker safety regulations for ALL
countries in the W.T.O. by writing and calling
your elected officials, and tell them you will
vote them out if they don’t as well!
Remember, many of these jerks are just
pawns of big industry, but they can’t be
bribed if they aren’t even in office! And that's
up to you! Also, support the Green Party, the
only party to really understand that politics
(and everything else) are pointless in a world
too toxic to live on.
Gordon Lee Stelter
Athens
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D FLAGPOLE JANUARY 19, 2000
