For purposes of this blog, I have played up my “Leftist” past.
It only lasted about three years. As I was first a Zappist, I could never commit to anything as bogus as Socialism.
Human Rights brought me in (not the chicks, I was lucky enough as a Teaching Assistant). One thing that pushed me away from the Left was Political Correctness. It was so boring.
If you are already on the Left, why did we have to keep hearing the same shit, over and over!?
That’s why the commies moved from Political Correctness to “Environmentalism.” That shit was weak.
It was in 1980-1983, when I was a graduate student at Columbia University in New York. It was there that I worked as a Campus Community Organizer.
The political action group I was in, worked with many different groups, but never directly with the hard Left, like the Workers World Party or The Revolutionary Communist Party. I thought these people were nuts, or Agent Provocateurs.
I’ve always been a radio freak and that medium has always been very influential. I was tuned in to WBAI, a listener (and the Left) supported station. They had some compelling hosts and the subject matter seemed really important.
After a couple of years, the repetitiveness and almost total lack of broadcasting standards, together with the preponderance of Reggae Music, drove me away.
After I finished my studies and had a real impact with my political action, all I did was write songs and rhymes to express my lefty views. Being on the Left after the Islamic Revolution in Iran helped temper a full embrace of its anti-American nature.
The moment had passed for both me and the radio station. Reagan was President and I am only sorry now that I could not then appreciate his greatness.
I used to read Marx, the Frankfurt School, The Daily Worker, The Guardian, had subscriptions to The Nation, Mother Jones and Covert Action, read the New York Times cover to cover, and deserve a medal for reading all of Noam Chomsky’s torturous political books…but I knew America would always be a capitalist country. We were still Anti-Communist back in the 80s.
I must congratulate the Reds, they have come a long way…
God help the rest of us.
[Yes, I was at Columbia at the same time as the President. One day he will pay me back for that bag of weed we split!]