Monday Morning quarterback
Sept. 17th - I met a communist in Washington Square Park
To my new subscribers, welcome to Monday Morning Quarterback.
This is where I share the coolest things I saw this week (TikTok’s, Tweets, quotes, essays, etc.) and a real life experience.
Enjoy the show and comment on the post if you want to chat about anything in the newsletter (I promise I’ll respond:). And, feel free to share it if with a friend if you think they’ll like it. It would mean the world to me.
Experience: Detroit Lions Communist
I may or may not have been spreading Communist propaganda in Washington Square Park last week (if you’re an FBI operative, I definitely was not; if you’re a loyal reader of Poor Billy’s Almanac, I most certainly was).
When you’re spreading hypothetical propaganda in a public space, you never know who you’re going to run into. A psychopath, a passionate communist, or someone with obscure knowledge of native Americans.
I was on the southeast entrance of the park when I saw a burly man and his daughter walking towards us. They were both wearing Lions jerseys in preparation for the season opener against the Chiefs. He looked like your typical jolly midwestern NYC tourist visiting his West Village daughter he gives rent subsidies to like the HUD.
I asked the normal question, “Are you guys communist?”
No response.
“Overthrow capitalism?”
Ignored.
They looked like nice people, so I chirped them, “You know Dan Campbell’s a communist.”
The dad said something under his breath. His daughter lashed out at him and told him to shut up.
But he couldn’t help himself.
He turned around and said he wanted to check us out.
His daughter begged him to not walk over to us. My heartbeat picked up a little. What if he had ill intentions? What if his daughter was trying to prevent him from doing something stupid he was capable of? What if they were midwestern Trumpers?
He walked within inches of my face.
“What are you guys selling?”
Uh oh, I thought.
“We’re a marxist organization.” My voice was shaking. I sought this upon myself and now I’m going to deal with the consequences.
“I know but what is it? Are you like a political party? Communist?”
I said, “We’re a revolutionary political party. Cashless, moneyless society. But yeah, communists”
“Where has there ever been communism?”
Ohhhh. Another one of these guys. He wants me to say Russia and China so he can “own me.” We deal with these types of people all day. As long as they keep their hands to themselves, which they usually do, it’s not an issue. I mean they aren’t pleasant people, don’t get me wrong, but it’s rare for these people to gather the courage to actually get physical.
I said, “I’d say communism has never actually been tried.”
He said that wasn’t true. There has been communism before.
This isn’t the usual route these people go down, but okay, I’ll bite.
He then said something that surprised everyone in my group, including myself.
“There was a communist society. The American Indians.”
Wow.
We all started smiling and laughing. He was right. Karl Marx said it himself. Ancient tribes and indigenous people were some of the best examples of a cashless, moneyless society. People who lived off the land and in harmony with other tribes.
Mr. Detroit Lion was right.
And it was a wholesome moment for all of us. His daughter, smiled proudly and said bye to us.
I told him good luck tonight and he said thank you and good luck building your communist party.
TikTok: Why we can’t create challenging art
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One of my favorite TikTok’s this year. Brandon Lemon answers the question: Why haven’t art and culture changed in the past 30 years?
Brandon uses arguments from Mark Fisher, Frederic Jameson, and Marc Auge. The main point is that our power dynamics and relationships to power haven’t changed in that time frame because of our neoliberal culture.
Essay: An Open Letter to Taylor Swift
Ted Gioia writes the newsletter, Honest Broker. “A frank and opinionated guide to music, books, media, and culture. He is the author of 12 books, and previously served on the faculty at Stanford.” In this essay, he pleads with Taylor Swift to invest in artists in a unique way.
Here’s a cool history lesson from Ted.
Back in 1919, the four most powerful creative visionaries in Hollywood decided to unite the artists. That was even the name they gave their business: United Artists. The four people who founded United Artists were the three most popular movie stars in Hollywood (Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks) and the most famous director (D.W. Griffith). They proved that artists can control their own destiny.
Media: The Employee we all need
🤣
Quote:
“Do you know the story of the monkeys of the shitty island?"
I asked Nobory Wataya.
He shook his head, with no sign of interest. "Never heard of it".
"Somewhere, far, far away, there's a shitty island. An island without a name. An island not worth giving a name. A shitty island with shitty shape. On this shitty island grow palm trees that also have shitty shapes. And the palm trees produce coconuts that give off a shitty smell. Shitty monkeys live in the trees, and they love to eat these shitty-smelling coconuts, after which they shit the world's foulest shit. The shit falls on the ground and builds up shitty mounds, making the shitty palm trees that grow on them even shittier. It's an endless cycle."
I drank the rest of my coffee.
“As I sat here looking at you," I continued, "I suddenly remembered the story of this shitty island. What I'm trying to say is this. A certain kind of shittiness, a certain kind of stagnation, a certain kind of darkness, goes on propagating itself by its own power in its own self-contained cycle. And once it passed a certain point, no one can stop it -even if the person himself want to stop it.”
Haruki Murakami Bonus:
This is in response to the Megyn Kelly/Trump interview when Kelly asks Trump, “Can a man become a woman?”
Trump pauses. He doesn’t really have a good answer for it. And you can tell he isn’t as hateful and assertive on the topic as he is on something like immigration or oil and gas.
He’ll do it to appease his base and is morally spineless, but bro doesn’t relish in hating LGBTQ+ like he does other groups.