GV's humanism, liberalism and egalitarianism have been evident over a very long and extraordinarily productive life. Who can ever forget his famous (to some, infamous) sparring with the Guru of the current right-wing movement, William F. Buckley, in 1968? Who will forget the immortal (and I daresay, apt) words, Crypto-Fascist? For speaking the truth about the absolute corporate and imperial control over the fates of human beings around the world, GV received (from Mr. Buckley, then, and many others, later) nothing but personal attacks, including the usual harsh epithets about his personal life. To me, reading GV has always been an intellectual treat- his biting satire and incisive takes on the corrupt and the powerful- these will likely fly well over the heads of a great many readers whose measures of political reading are limited to Ann Coulter and Tom Friedman. During the dismal and blood-splattered Bushco years, I have found solace in reading GV's Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, Dreaming War, Imperial America and others.
I will bring this discussion to a close by mentioning two other influential sentinels, both of whom have also passed on during the heyday of the Bushco mafia. I wish to say a few words about Hunter Thompson, founder of the so-called gonzo-journalism, and John Ross, a lifelong rebel who fought relentlessly against American imperialism, and its attendant exploitation of the poor, uncontrolled corporate greed, and the perpetual war machine.
Hunter Thompson (HT, 1937-2005) was a regular contributor to Rolling Stone magazine for many deacdes. Wayne Ewing created three documentaries about HT. The first of these was Breakfast with Hunter in 2003, the first year of the criminal invasion of Iraq by the Bushco mafia. This was followed by When I Die in 2005, and Free Lisl: Fear and Loathing in Denver in 2006. The first chronicles HT's work on the Fear and Loathing film series, and his fight against the justice system. The second is a farewell greeting in anticipation of his impending death, and the last is devoted to his efforts to free Lisl Auman, wrongly convicted to life in prison (this reminds us of the fate of Troy Davis most recently in the Texas execution chamber when the majority of witnesses recanted) for the shooting of a policeman.
HT is most famous as the author of essays and books such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), an examination of '60s counterculture; and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail (1972), in which he discusses his support for the McGovern campaign, and his abject disdain for Richard Nixon (about whom he said, after his death in 1994, "(he was a man) who could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time", and that -- he was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. [He] was an evil man--evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it"5. Ironically, HT realized the extent of unmitigated evil represented by the Bushco mafia, which exceeded by far anything Nixon could have dreamed of. As a result, HT is quoted as writing in 2004, --Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for--but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush--Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him."6
HT's gonzo-journalism was based on the idea that a true reporter must become directly involved in experiencing first-hand the development of the event being covered. He maintained this approach throughout his journalistic life, even as he became a staunch supporter of workers' rights, social welfare, and the civil rights of Blacks and minorities. There was one aspect of HT's beliefs that does not resonate with my own, and that is in the area of guns and lethal weapons. HT was a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and by all accounts, possessed a large cache of guns and other firearms. Personally, my idea of liberalism includes a lasting belief in non-violence, and the indomitable strength that comes from it. I am quite aware of the American belief in the right to bear arms, but I believe this right is rather frequently carried too far. This tendency to maintain one's material and territorial rights, by accepting that potential violence in the world must be countered by equal or greater violence, is I believe what has prevented this country from becoming a gentler and more empathetic society and culture.
Finally, I would like to say a few words about perhaps the least well-known of the sentinels I have discussed here. During the nightmarish Bushco years, I would often visit a politically left-leaning website, Counterpunch, and in its pages, sometimes find columns by John Ross (JR, 1938-2011), whose style was entirely no-nonsense, and who clearly understood the corruption that drives a business-centered, greed-driven oligarchic tyranny. While an American by birth, he was one of those rare human beings who could not stand by while injustice filled the life surrounding him. He had to protest (as a much younger Rachel Corrie did also), and he had to expose the violence and crimes of the mighty and powerful committed regularly upon the weak and dispossessed. During the Bushco tyranny, I had occasion to exchange some brief correspondence with JR, who was then stationed in Mexico, and witnessing the rampage of corporate agri-business, drug-related and other violence in that country, instigated (as often over many decades in countries south of its border) by the U.S. DEA and other agencies. Earlier, I had occasion to read JR's unbelievably revealing Murdered by Capitalism, in which he not only exposed the frauds and tyranny inflicted over many centuries by moneylenders, bankers and corporations (whose business it is to enrich themselves), but most impressively, he illustrated his book (as I believe he did his other seminal books, The Annexation of Mexico: From the Aztecs to the IMF, Chronicles of Resistance 2000--2006, and others) with rare photographs (several at unmarked graves) of the victims of capitalist violence and soulless greed. Ross's work reflected a deep and abiding interest in rebel movements like the Zapatistas in southern Chiapas state. In his last years, while in Mexico, he followed and campaigned relentlessly against NAFTA and its nefarious effects upon sustainable agriculture.
As someone from a distant shore, I have found it revealing and reassuring to find the likes of GV and some of the sentinels I outlined here that speak for humanity, common decency, true caring and human rights. The dismal and blood-splattered Bushco years have indeed brought me further into contact with these and other broad-minded, liberal, and progressive human beings. As my father taught me, being Liberal and Broad-Minded was indeed what life was all about. Oddly, bigots and purveyors of zealotry will tell the gullible- being liberal is equivalent to being unprincipled! The zealots scream ad nauseum that liberals suffer from moral relativism. Obviously, the truth is quite the opposite. But the ear-splitting noise machine of the bigotry and racism wagon wins quite a few converts, almost every day. These converts are the steady clients of the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Becks- in other words, the McCarthys of the day.
As indicated in the title of this article, the reality presented to us by this list of insightful and humane thinkers is that most, if not all, have either passed away within the past 10 years (even as they witnessed the increasing barbarity and mindlessness of this country), or are of advancing age. This truth does raise the specter of this nation running out of thinkers once these rare, great ones are gone. I can, of course, think of somewhat younger giants primed to fill their shoes (Norman Finkelstein and Greg Palast come to mind immediately), but their number is woefully small, even as the ranks of the vicious, deeply ignorant hatemongers multiply alarmingly.
References
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