Poli Psy: What’s Up for O-Nine
Published January 9, 2009
If I can’t keep resolutions, I can make predictions . . .
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Poli Psy: Against Patriotism
Published July 22, 2008
“Here, brother, for you a flag,” sing the proud sons and daughters of Armenia, formerly the proud sons and daughters of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. “Look at it, three colors / It’s our gifted symbol / Let it shine against the enemy / Let Armenia always be glorious!”
Down in Harare, where the dictator [...]
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Poli Psy: “Honor Guard”
Published October 10, 2007
Don’t ask me if MoveOn’s Petraeus/”Betray-Us” advertisement in The New York Times was good for the left, the right, the president, the war, the country or the Jews. All I know is, it’s a sure sign of the creeping militarism of a political culture when you can’t insult a general without everybody leaping down your [...]
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Poli Psy: “Why March?”
Published March 28, 2007
It should have been easy to get out of the house on Sunday, March 18 — the day before the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq — for the first of a nationwide series of demonstrations to bring the troops home. The weather was clear and crisp in New York, where I was; most [...]
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Poli Psy: Basic Instinct?
Published May 10, 2006
Mother.
Say the word and emotions rush forth. I’m not just talking about the love and guilt that moved 152 million Mother’s Day cards off the shelves last year. As an email from Jane Williamson of Ferrisburgh’s Rokeby Museum reminded me, motherhood is more than personal. It’s symbolic, religious . . . and political.
“The original call [...]
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Poli Psy: Naming Names
Published March 15, 2006
It was Memorial Day 2005 when Ross Connelly, co-publisher and editor of The Hardwick Gazette, decided to use his weekly editorial to name the American soldiers killed in Iraq. By that time, 34 months after the U.S. invasion, the American casualty count was 1735.
Connelly headlined the column “In Memoriam.” Trying to squeeze in as many [...]
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Poli Psy: Body Politic
Published October 12, 2005
Call me a meat puppet, but I like my politics corporeal. Before the Internet, activism meant bodies in a room, arguing, scheming, flirting, drinking. Taking on a task, you made a commitment to people who could hold you accountable. The “movement” was a network of thousands of rooms, thousands of relationships.
One commitment you made was, [...]