19 Mar Peace Through Autos
19.03.06
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Behold the new face of the anti-war movement. Sure, she’s pretty. And I’m completely on board with the “no war” sentiment. But why does she have — as Josh Marshall astutely points out — a Mercedes-Benz symbol on the other side of her face? Have the hippies been so soon forgotten? Or is she trying to imply that the road to peace goes through globalization?
Alas, the hippies have been forgotten. But the commodification of culture, and especially counter-culture, continues at the feverish pace of economic and technological globalization. Indeed, Marx is having the last laugh (or is it cry?). When Bob Dylan began singing for Victoria’s Secret, it was symbolic of the end of the last vestiges of innocence. Or was it? There are a few holdouts left: the poet Gary Snyder, Leonard Cohen, the Catholic Worker movement, engaged Buddhists…. But there are things one might do in everyday life to honor the memory of the hippies: refuse to use your credit card (I don’t have one), refuse to conspicuously consume, refuse to let the clothing on your body be a marketing vehicle, become a vegetarian, ride your old one speed bike to work, don’t buy a microwave oven, read poetry aloud, turn the tv off (well, if its C-SPAN’s series on Law and the Courts, we can make an exception), love unconditionally, share your lawn tools with your neighbors, and maybe something you baked in the kitchen or raised in the garden, participate in a community garden, support locally owned businesses whenever possible, be loyal to merchants who are fair and trustworthy: your mechanic, the barber, what have you. Have leisurely conversations with those near and dear, and be sensitive to the vulnerabilities of others. And by all means read the likes of Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Partha Dasgupta, Meghnad Desai, Peter Unger, Jonathan Wolff, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Robert Goodin, Iris Marion Young, Brian Barry, Peter Singer, the late Kenneth Rexroth (the spiritual godfather of the Beat poets), the late Iris Murdoch…. (Make your own list) Hold to truth as your lodestar, come hell or highwater (and both will come, rest assured). Spend some time comforting the sick and dying. And by all means, spend some time away from the computer!