"All-Star Activist"
Broadcast

1) "The Titanic Overture"

     The times were crazy, but probably inevitable. . . . . and loathe that the conservatives are to admit it, they have lost the culture war since the 1960's and apocalypse did not come with "the unspeakable". But they have managed to win an increasing array of political victories for themselves and big business. So what's the fuss? See what conditions were like back then for a young man questioning his surroundings. . . . .

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2) "Jim Crow Seats"

     It slowly became apparent, just looking around, that this young man lived in a segregated society and his fondest memory his sitting with his uncle in the black section of the ball park, passing around the wine bottle. They seem "warmer" and "looser" than the uptight fathers and mavens who guard the gates of society and tell him to conform, always conform. Can there be a way of life different than the one he knows?

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3) "Melville Hell"

     There was only one way out of this backwards town. . . . . and that was by going to college. This young man would have long conversations with my father, running around with a group of "working-class" scrappers who otherwise didn't have good things in store-- jail, factory work, or the military; it didn't matter which, but it was all a dead-end. Years later, one ended up driving a dump truck and another became a howlin' fundamentalist minister carrying on like a whiskey-slingin' werewolf on the hunt for soul-savin'. . . . .

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4) "Egg-Head Splatter"

     The 1950's were full of moral panics and issues about hygiene and absolute "purity", if not "red-meat" issues that only belied a deeper insecurity about who these crusaders actually were and for every crusader who points a finger, there are secretly three fingers crooked back at them personally which usually says more about them than the victims they're trying to pull down with the collective "witch-hunt". Yet there was some mind-expanding stuff out there on the fringes, like "The Beats" and what would be eventually known as "LSD".

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5) "The Fabian Society"

     The young man joins a left-wing society on campus run by a brilliant professor who is an expert on the history and psychology of fascism, and lays out the truth about race and class and poverty. . . . . some of the more unpleasant truths that rarely get seen or talked about when American dreamers are busy "getting theirs" and not necessarily thinking about their neighbor in some of the more poverty-blasted corners of America's forgotten promise.

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6) "Existential Sit-in"

     Skirmishes would break out on the porch when southern sympathizers would needle the young liberal about his views and tell him to join the "sit-in" crowd at the diners if he really believed what he sort of half stood-up for in front of these intimidating fly-boys from the military. He decided he would do something, and had the experience of his life and faced "a trial by fire" where he truly, indeed "came back alive" and saw his ideals emerge victorious.

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7) "Running C.O.R.E."

     Feeling empowered, this young man noticed that all the blacks-- boys and girls-- were stuffed into one dorm like animals-- dressed in a suit, with typed letters in hand, he went down to the dean's office and showed them his royal flush-- that he'd mail notice of these unjust conditions to the Federal Government of Equal Opportunity and get the University's funding revoked. The dean gogged, choked, fumed, hollered, threatened, and ultimately gave in. . . . . and the rest is history.

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8) "Ominous Administrative Shadows"

     Next came "The Student's Right's Movement" which lay siege to the spire and their "trap-door politics" and "star chamber" administrative justice "that made the bodies disappear without a trace" with quiet expulsions and thumb-screw tactics. A girl turned the young man onto this movement from Berkley, California and he rallied the students for a big "show-down". . . . . but ultimately she faltered and it was him looking down the barrel of a figurative cannon as the authorities snapped photos from the roof of the hall and the timid covered their faces. He pointed his finger and said, "I can see you!"

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9) "Nibbling Betrayal"

     The movement is hopping like mad. . . . . against the war, against society, everything. . . . . and the chips are down. But not everyone is prepared to throw themselves headlong into the times, and think to protect themselves with careerism and let "The Young Turks" go out there and face the wrath of consequences. The vaunted old professor, who ran "The Fabian Society" and gave jaw-dropping lectures on the nature of fascism, is succumbing to the evils of what he warned against. . . . . "divide & conquer" and remaining loyal to the system that is exactly the beast that is sustaining the problem while only pretending to be a provocateur for the liberal elite who are wedded to the system. The horror of this cannot be imagined. . . . .

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10) "Southern Military Feudalism"

     The backbone of the military and hierarchy and racism springs out of a feudal society where a small amount of men own all the land and keep the lower classes divided and class-conscious and ultra-obsessed with honor and chivalry so they can go off and fight the elite's wars. There has always been a strong anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian strain in American life that makes this so. Only be aware of such things. . . . . and not fall into its trap.

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More to come. . . . .

Putting it to Pen

"Fuchs Power"-- The introduction to "a work in progress" about that whole scene, brought to you in "high-def"! (¶)