Saturday, October 4, 2008

A Modest Proposal....

Given that both American political parties, and perhaps capitalism itself is utterly discredited, perhaps it is time to move towards a new type of political thinking, or in this case reviving and fine tuning one from the past that went a bit off the rails. The SPK (Socialist Patients Collective or sozialistschen Patienten kollektiven in it's native German language) is the only political party that ever made sense to me.
The SPK members were mental patients recruited from the Psychiatric Neurological Clinic of Heidelberg University by Dr. Wolfgang Huber who politicized them and sent them out to fight the good fight. They soon joined forces with the Red Army Faction (better known as the Baader-Meinhof Group) and became known as the nut wing of that movement.
A bit of background for the unfamiliar, the Baader-Meinhof group were a hardcore
left wing political action group with a fairly incomprehensible philosophy (big deal,
isn't all political thought incomprehensible to a reasonable human?) formed in West Germany in 1970 by Andreas Baader (pictured above with his brains splattered across the floor of his prison cell), Gudren Ensslin, Thorwald Proll, Holger Meins (who would die after a long hunger strike in prison), Jan-Carl Raspe, and would soon include a respected German journalist Ulrike Meinhof among it's dozens of members. They took to the streets, targeting ex-Nazis and representatives of American imperialism in an orgy of arson, murder and kidnapping. They would make world headlines by hijacking a jet (in collaboration with PLO), bombing American military bases in Germany and the murder and kidnapping of many West German industrialists who had been Nazis in WWII. More on the Baader-Meinhof group can be found here.
Dr. Huber's theory was that the pressures and hypocrisy inherent in capitalist society is enough to make a sane person nuts. How'd you think I got this way? I was the smartest kid in my school until sixth grade when I was proclaimed a delinquent by teachers and school administration, and I've had to live on the borders of society ever since. Huber was onto something, something we need to look into and fine tune into a real workable political theory.
The SPK itself didn't work out too good. On April 24, 1975 SPK members seized the German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden and demanded the release of RAF/SPK members imprisoned in Germany. They made a mess of the action, one members blew his own leg off mishandling a bomb and the police were soon in control of the ground floor of the embassy. A blood bath ensued. The SPK might not have accomplished anything but you gotta love their moxie.
It's not just mental patients who need an organized political action group like the SPK but anyone with medical problems (meaning all of us as some time in their lives).
As one who carries an incurable and life threatening liver disease (hepatitis c) I can attest to the corruption and incompetence of the medical establishment. Dealing with doctors who refuse to diagnose, hospitals staffed by morons and insurance companies run by thieves and liars is enough to send anyone into a blind rage. After eighteen months of mis-diagnoses and apathy I've been told there's little that can be done for my condition. But I should come back every six weeks for more testing so they can keep billing me and my insurance company (which tries to deny every claim). Had I never gone to a doctor at all, nothing in my life would have been any different. Except I'd have many thousands of dollars lying around that now lines their pockets. I'm left to sit and wait for my liver to rot, and ponder my revenge.....

10 comments:

  1. Help me out here, kid.

    One day you're offering, gratis, a plan to save capitalism from itself.

    The next day, you're in favor of blowing it up?

    I used to have health insurance, bare-bones useless crap, until even that was out of my grasp. I wish I'd never had it. I could use that dough I WASTED on it today.

    I believe the USA is the only country in the civilized world where you can lose your home because you had the nerve to get, say, cancer. Or hepatitis C.

    But hey, more tax breaks for Exxon/Mobil. Those poor widdle billionaires aren't rich enough.

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  2. JD,
    I'm not advocating anything, just pondering a few options. Nobody listens to me anyway. Notice, I'm the only ex-WFMU DJ that wasn't offered a job @ Sirius (when I was on the air I was the only FMU jock whose audience was large enough to be measured by the Arbirtron rating people. The Hound.net site gets over a half million hits a month). I think the SPK's problem was that they did bomb places and hurt people (which immediately discredited them). The posting is more about my personal facsination w/the SPK/RAF than a real call to action. I just thought it would read funnier as such.
    I guess it's just not that funny....
    Oddly enough the day I posted it the NY Times ran a cover story linking Obama with ex-Weatherman bomber Bill "Pussywhipped" Ayers. Talk about bad timing.

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  3. "...The posting is more about my personal facsination w/the SPK/RAF than a real call to action. I just thought it would read funnier as such."

    I dig, I was just kidding you. I've got a fascination with some stuff that I'd never advocate. I never get tired of reading about Oswald and a few other lunatics.

    BTW, It seems as if YouTube took the vid down.

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  4. thanks, I changed the clip to an interview w/Andreas Baader (too bad Sarte's prison visit wasn't filmed!).
    Spoken Duetsch?
    BTW if you want to see how Paulson got us into this current financial mess check out this video, and dig the nervous laughter in the backround:
    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/28/business/20080928-SEC-multimedia/index.html#

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  5. Any juicy tidbits on the Red Brigades Hound? For me, these "terrorist" groups are just far too trendy and chic. Us Oirish, we didn't have any Can, Neu or Amon Duul albums - it was all Horslips for us goddamit! (sort of joking there. Anyway, here's 2 webpages of opposing Irish terrorist factions which are relatively interesting if you were a teenage in Ireland during the 70s:

    1) The Irish Republican army (fighting for "united Ireland"): http://www.sinnfein.ie/
    Note: it is a sad state of affairs for the IRA that the homepage of their political wing currently has a headline about the Irish National Ploughing championships lol!!!!.

    2) The Ulster Defence Association (defending "Norn Ayrlund" for the Queen and good people of Britain etc.): http://www.scottishloyalists.co.uk/paramilitaries/uda.htm

    Some hardcore "terrorists" in them gangs I'll tell you boyo! Cheers, Brendan

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  6. Also... while we're on terror gangs... the following is a brief outline of what happened to you if you were caught performing actions in your own community that upset the IRA (e.g. dating British soldiers, selling drugs etc"

    "...KNEECAPPING - Method favoured by the Provisional IRA for dealing with informers, drug dealers, or anyone who does something to annoy them or infringe on their territory. Kneecapping is, strangely, most frequently reserved for Catholics, as a non-fatal but nevertheless highly effective deterrent. In this case, their 'territory' refers to run-down, Catholic areas of certain cities in the North of Ireland, Belfast being the best-known example. Generally a drug dealer would be warned at least once or twice by the local IRA before being kneecapped. If he continued to deal drugs after that, not having any knees left to speak of, he would most likely be killed..."

    and

    "..ust as the IRA|PIRA used kneecapping as a deterrent for crimes, the loyalists use a similar technique, on a smaller scale. The IRA use a pistol in most cases - occassionally a shotgunto perform kneecappings. The Loyalists prefer a Black & Decker Power Drill for the same job..."

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  7. All the latest innovations in knee surgery were developed in Irish hospitals for the reasons mentioned in Brendan's post. BTW yr package is in the mail.

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  8. Speaking of nuts, this guy's GOOD:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4-TZspqlOs

    Hound, I would've sent this to you as an e-mail, but I'm not seeing a "contact" on your blog. If you want to take this comment down and post the YT, my feelings won't be hurt.

    And, a thanks to Josh for sending me this YT link!

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  9. Is that the guy from J&H Productions? (on the above Youtube link). Why would I want to take it down?

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  10. I meant take my comment down, and post the YouTube video so peeps wouldn't have to copy and paste.

    Anyhoo, if I lived in NYC I'd be beating feet every Sunday up to Harlem to listen to Rev. Manning.

    In lieu of that, there's a slew of his rants on YT.

    ReplyDelete