05w39:1 Everybody must get stoned Posted October 1st, 2005 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2005 week 39 number 1 (everybody must get stoned) ——————————————————————— The ’60s Trap | David Greenberg http://www.slate.com/default.aspx?id=2125915&nav/tap1 “No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese’s documentary about Bob Dylan’s early years, is but the latest item in a flood tide of Dylanalia that, in trying to pay due homage to America’s most important rock artist, constricts his four-decade career to its first six years. […] Though delightful to watch … the documentary wallows in baby boomer nostalgia. […] Despite subsequent droughts and misfires, Dylan has since turned out some brilliant albums – from Desire in the 1970s to Infidels and Oh Mercy at either end of the 1980s to Time Out of Mind a few years ago – that approach his greatest work and surpass much of the folkie stuff that still draws so much giddy attention. So, why have we been so quick to ignore the bulk of his career? One part of the answer is that Dylan shares a problem with the 1960s as a whole: Scholarship and popular commentary alike are shaped by the baby boomers who lived through the period and have never quite transcended their own youthful enthusiasms. As Rick Perlstein noted in Lingua Franca several years ago, the preponderance of boomers in the historical profession – and, he might have added, in the culture overall – has made it hard for younger voices to gain a hearing for ideas that argue with the prevailing, familiar tale of the decade.” A Less Fashionable War | Charles Shaw http://tinyurl.com/bran7 “Thirty years ago Gore Vidal noted that ‘roughly 80% of police work in the United States has to do with the regulation of our private morals – controlling what we drink, eat, smoke, put into our veins – with whom and how we have sex or gamble.’ Then there were roughly 250,000 prisoners in the nation. Today there is more than 2 million, with another million in county jails awaiting trial or sentencing, and another roughly 3 million under ‘correctional supervision’ on probation or parole. The total national cost of incarceration then was $4 billion annually; today it’s $64 billion, with another $20 billion in federal money and $22-24 billion in money from state governments earmarked for waging the so-called ‘War on Drugs.’ Nationally, around 60% or more of these prisoners are drug criminals. Yet, throughout all this time and expense there has not been the slightest decrease in either drug use or supply.” —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself to this list, go here http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Saturday 01 October 2005 @ 6:13 PM
