The Archives

Excerpts from Electric Degeneration, Degenerate Press' semi-weekly e-zine, free and ad-free. A full episode contains sections for music reviews, upcoming events, blasphemy, classifieds, and anything else we feel like saying. If you'd like to subscribe just contact us.

You can surf the entire archive.

If you can't find what you're looking for by surfing, use this handy search feature:

11/29/2001

BLASPHEMY
Now that the Attack on Afghanistan is headed towards a finale it's time to look to the future. If we kill, or capture then kill, bin Laden what next? Nobody is saying life will return to normal. In fact, if I hear one more media outlet declare we're entering a new age I'm gonna hurl. Bush is already speaking loudly and pointing a big stick at Iraq to prepare us for the next round of posturing and possible military action, and congress is busily pushing laws that, in any sane moment, would be unconstitutional at best. But this is hardly any sane moment.
Before the Cold War the US didn't have to give a damn what happened in the rest of the world. We were geographically separated enough to enjoy such ignorance. Transportation and communication technology hadn't bridged the gap enough to allow seemingly petty squabbles to interfere in our day to day life.
Eventually we couldn't ignore the conflicts in what was the motherland for the vast majority of US citizens and we took a side in two world wars.
Pardon me while I oversimplify, generalize, and make huge leaps of logic and time, but then came the Cold War.
The theory was that communism would spread and eventually we'd all be speaking Russian or Chinese or something, and the personal liberties we'd fought and killed for would be swept away in a red tide. So we took sides in conflicts all over the world, some in secret and some with massive military campaigns but few with any degree of success such that we could claim clear victory.
The fall of the Berlin wall pretty much punctuated the end of the Cold War era. It wasn't the CIA or the Marines that won the war. The USSR just couldn't compete with our military and industrial production and consequently collapsed. The countries that relied on their support have since collapsed entirely or lapsed into third world poverty. For a brief time there the US could again ignore what was happening in the rest of the world, as long as the oil kept flowing from the mid-East and the cheap toys and electronics kept coming from the far East.
But now easy and cheap transportation and communications have bridged those oceans. We have joined the rest of the world, like it or not. And the rest of the world has problems we're not used to dealing with.
So when the president talks about the war on terrorism try (hard) not to think of it as something like the war on drugs - an expensive, impossible task that will waste billions of dollars and incarcerate countless people, some of whom we know personally, under unjust laws with no end in sight. Instead, try to think of it as a new Cold War, where secret trials and assassinations take place with no need to worry about it affecting our day to day lives since we'll never hear about it, while massive military operations take place in countries we know little about and could care even less but at least we get to see those flashy night-vision-green smart bomb video game displays, and in the place of the specific fear of our kids getting busted for smoking a little pot and ruining their entire lives we just have a general worry about the end of the world as we know it.
Meet the new era, same as the old era.
No, I'm not suggesting we do nothing. I don't have an answer. It is a war. I just hope I'll live long enough to come out of the cold...
Degenerate RVI has posted a few things on the DP Blasphemy board. Check it out:
http://www.degeneratepress.com/blasphemy/

PARTY HARDY
The discussion continues, but no new ideas for New Year's this week. Our current top three choices, in no particular order are: Las Vegas, Memphis/Graceland, The Star Bar/Truckadelic. Ideas? Votes?
Here's one bit of feedback from a subscriber:
I vote New Orleans, and yes there will be an abundance of morons out on new years eve-but when isn't there? I mean if there's no house to have a house party at, then I think rebirth an george porter followed by insane drunkeness @ butler street bar or snake&jake's would be fun....but then again I miss N.O.
Editor's response:
Yeah, I miss N.O. too but the damn Sugar Bowl is the next day, from what I've heard, and it'll be damn tough to find a hotel room. And I've been to N.O. several times so unless there's a once in a lifetime can't miss show I'd rather do something new.


Contact Degenerate Press

Take me to Degenerate Press' home page!
There's no place like home... no place like home...

All content on this site is owned by Degenerate Press and cannot be used without our permission. We have lawyers for friends with nothing better to do than cause trouble (no kidding), so play nice. Copyright © 2002, All Rights Reserved