Welcome to Poetic Terrorism--a new method of communication. A new vocabulary for resistance. We're opening a new front in the war against soundbytes and corporate catchphrases, because it's impossible to think when your words are controlled by discourse that is manufactured by imperialist corporations and sold to us wholesale in our schools and TVs. Bullshit shoved down our throats by government spokespeople and paid advertising--WE (you) have something to say, SAY IT!
Poetic Terrorism is profoundly nonviolent. It is the resistance of our voices. We are controlled by a submersion tank of manufactured ideas--by the media repeating the talking points of the government.
Poetic terrorism is about bringing the art of resistance into every facet of our lives. Live your life loudly. 'There is no becoming, no revolution, no struggle, no path; already you're the monarch of your own skin--your inviolable freedom waits to be completed only by the love of other monarchs: a politics of dream, urgent as the blueness of sky.'--Hakim Bey
This blog is open to anyone's words and ideas. If you would like to post, email jed.bickman@gmail.com to let me know--I'll give you privileges and then you can post whatever you want.
Friends, the society we live in is nothing if not imprisoned. The last twenty years has seen an explosion in the rates of incarceration, while crime rates have remained steady. At this rate, in ten years, every American will either be in prison or a guard beating the shit out of them. This won't happen because America thrives on the facade of freedom, which can only be maintained if the middle class ignores the penal system. The justice system is racist, classist, vindictive, and unthinking.
To be convicted of a felony in America is to lose all hope. It is difficult or impossible for people leaving prison to find a job, to be self sustaining. Of course, they didn't gain any skills or education in prison. Excons can't even vote--they are systematically disenfranchised and dehumanized. And so, rates of recidivism (people returning to prison after a short time on the outside) are huge and growing. How would you make it on the street after fifteen years in prison, after fifteen years of being a number, a beast in a cage? No family, no job, no home. Back to the joint, back to the cooler.
The first step is to change the laws, especially the drug laws. Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses constituted the largest group of Federal inmates (55%) in 2001, down from 60% in 1995. Drugs? White people smoke, a lot more than black people, and don't worry a damn about getting arrested.
Then, to change what incarceration means. People should be able to get an education, to gain skills, to introspect and find themselves in writing, in art, in something meanigful. Education in prison works--for every dollar spent on education, recidivism rates nosedive.
But it's not about that. It's not about the people. It's about the right of the government to declare a human a beast, to remove their name and their being, to lock them in with a mass of despirate, abusive men and guards to fend for themselves. Sexual abuse is rampant, and is perpetrated by guards as well as inmates.
There's so much wrong with this shit, I've got to stop before I lose control.
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" Saturday, March 12, 2005