Jack Random

Jack Random is the author of the Jazzman Chronicles (Crow Dog Press) and Ghost Dance Insurrection (Dry Bones Press). See The Chronicles have been posted on the Albion Monitor, Bellaciao, Buzzle, CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, Pacific Free Press and Peace-Earth-Justice. www.jazzmanchronicles.blogspot.com

March of the Lemmings...

Tuesday, 21 August 2012 00:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random

America's Voluntary Self-Destruction - The Lemming Condition tells the story of a community of arctic rodents who blindly follow tradition, culture and peer pressure on a suicidal march over a cliff and into the sea.

Alan Arkin’s fable is of course fiction, based on a myth perpetuated by a popular Disney documentary on animal behavior. Creatures in nature generally intuit the path to survival and no species eagerly commits mass suicide or self-destruction – no species that is with the possible exception of the human species.

It occurred to me after the spectacle of the recent election in Wisconsin, where common folks, working people with their livelihoods at stake, signed the death warrant for Wisconsin labor by rejecting a recall of their notorious anti-labor governor.

The Myth of Equal Rights...

Tuesday, 10 July 2012 00:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random

An Illusion of Progress - "The civil rights movement illuminated the hypocrisy of the liberal promise. It made overt, and recorded on television for the world to see, an old daily fact of American life: that a black person who protested his condition, or moved one step out of line, would be arrested, or beaten, or inundated with water hoses, or killed, and the national government of the United States…would not act to save him." - Howard Zinn, “Howard Zinn on Race,” Seven Stories Press (2011).

The gateway to the South is Nashville, Tennessee. For five years in the mid nineties I was privileged to live in that sprawling city of over a million citizens. While distinctly southern in culture, its status as a center of music and a magnet for talented and diverse musicians gives Nashville a more tolerant and enlightened feel.

In many ways, Nashville is less symbolic of the South than it is representative of America and like so many cities across the nation, it is home to two distinct and largely separate communities.

The Myth of European Socialism...

Wednesday, 20 June 2012 00:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random

Backlash Against the Austerity Doctrine - "The countries that are doing very well in Europe are the Scandinavian countries. Denmark is different from Sweden, Sweden is different from Norway – but they all have strong social protection and they are all growing. The argument that the response to the current crisis has to be a lessening of social protection is really an argument by the 1% to say: 'We have to grab a bigger share of the pie.'” - Joseph Stiglitz, Common Dreams 4/27/12.

There are few themes the American right likes better than accusing the centrists of the Democratic party of trying to enact European socialism. Led by their corporate candidate for the White House, they point with apparent glee at the economic slide in Europe and proclaim the triumph of conservative economic theory.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Europe’s decline was in fact a direct consequence of its adopting American-style free enterprise economics. The initial crisis (along with our own) was caused by drinking the kool-aid of Wall Street’s brave new theory: that wealth could be created where none actually existed.

Selling War in Syria and Iran

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 21:58 GFP Columnist - Jack Random

Masked Iranian special forces march during the Army Day parade in Tehran on April 17, 2012. Iran will respond with force to any threats to its territorial integrity, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech at the parade.

“The bond between our two countries is unbreakable. The United States will always have Israel’s back when it comes to Israel’s security.” - Barack Obama to Bibi Netanyahu, March 5, 2012

The atrocities of war, like a deranged soldier killing innocent women and children, may momentarily shock our senses but they do not come as a surprise. “War is hell” is cliché because it is the most accurate description we can imagine. War is a shadow on the human spirit that lingers well beyond the last bullet. It is a curse on the soul that never lifts.

There is no more violent and destructive act humans can inflict upon themselves than war. History may argue that war is an inevitable consequence of human nature but to engage in war without profound deliberation and reticence is to commit a crime against all humankind.

The War on Democracy

Friday, 06 April 2012 14:27 GFP Columnist - Jack Random

From Disenfranchisement to Citizens United - “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.” - Justice John Paul Stevens, Dissenting Opinion Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

An ideal democracy would practice majority rule, a universal franchise, proportionate representation, an open and equitable electoral process and a verifiable voting system.

This is the standard by which all representative democracies should be judged. Unfortunately, the United States of America, the world’s first and foremost democratic nation, falls short on all accounts. What is more disturbing is that after two hundred years of advancement toward a more ideal democratic republic, we are now moving decisively backward.

The War on Labor: Right to Work

Wednesday, 22 February 2012 00:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random

“When you are approaching poverty, you make one discovery which outweighs some of the others. You discover boredom and mean complications and the beginnings of hunger, but you also discover the great redeeming feature of poverty: the fact that it annihilates the future. Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry.” - George Orwell, Down and Out in London and Paris

As a fan of George Orwell I have grown to wonder if too many of our political geniuses misinterpreted his classic work 1984 as a how-to book on controlling the masses. Had they read his earlier autobiographical work Down and Out in London and Paris, they would have understood that Orwell was a man of the people and his sympathy was planted firmly with the poor, the outcast and the working class.

Of all the Orwellian phrases in common use these days one of the most egregious is the Right to Work. Adopted in twenty-three states, right-to-work laws effectively ban labor unions by prohibiting workers from gaining union representation by a majority vote. The Right to Work is the right of a worker to refuse to pay union dues. Because unions gain power by representing workers as a united front in negotiations with management, right-to-work laws negate that power.