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Interview: New York activist and writer MICKEY Z says that we're all responsible for looking after Earth for future generations.
"Take up yoga, lefties, because you're gonna need an awful lot of flexibility to perform the contortions necessary to explain and justify President Obama's actions over the next four years."
This was Mickey Z's candid response to the US Presidential election result and the likelihood of far-reaching change in the future.
Lacerating and radical with a healthy dose of sarcasm, these comments are indicative of the wider thinking of the self-educated New York-based anarchist activist. "The planet is in a critical condition. Our actions should reflect that urgency," he explains about his politics.
A prolific writer, 48-year old Mickey Z - which is derived from his birth name Michael Zezima - has just published No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun In The Land Of Denial, his sixth non-fiction book, as well as his first novel CPR for Dummies.
The former is a short, sharp radical critique of what the author calls the "hypocritical white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" that goes by the name of the United States of America."
Using a mixture of essays, one-act plays, inspiring quotes, poems, lists and short-stories, he highlights intensifying environmental destruction, the massive amounts of extreme poverty that still exists throughout the world and the rapacious nature of US power.
As the title implies, Mickey Z says that his book is an attempt to "cut through the façade of blissful ignorance and points the finger at US citizens who support global destruction via their tax dollars, their silence and their support for the troops."
No Innocent Bystanders certainly delivers on this count, constantly challenging the reader to take stock of how they live their own life and, more importantly, to take action. "In this age of information overload, we can longer hide behind the convenient veil of 'I didn't know'," he points out.
US liberals are a favourite target of Mickey Z, with one chapter of the book ironically listing eating free-range chicken and watching Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as ways to change the world.
"Personally, if I'm called a 'liberal,' I take it as a serious insult," he says. But, surely, I ask, aren't liberals part of the solution rather than the problem?
"From where I sit, a liberal is one who is armed with information but chooses compromises over solutions," Mickey Z replies.
"The liberal left in the US today, personified by wealthy celebrities such as Michael Moore, Jon Stewart and Barbra Streisand, does nothing but dilute genuine radicalism and are thus very much part of the problem."
He is also critical of the current patterns of dissent in the US. "What passes for dissent these days is the occasional weekend parade - I mean, protest," he says with a wry grin.
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