Five rappers that Have Weathered the Storm

What’s hip-hop music if not an outlet to combat life’s hardships? Since its early days, the culture has acted as a platform for oppressed and overlooked folks to voice their struggles. Yesterday, on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, all of the world paid tribute to the citizens of New Orleans who’ve endured through homelessness, government neglect and the destruction caused by broken levees.

With the city’s strong natives in our thoughts, I couldn’t help but think of rap’s survivors, artists that are no strangers themselves to hard times. Life constantly challenges men and women of all backgrounds, but it’s all about how one thrives through the difficult periods. These five rappers have weathered their own personal storms to emerge victorious. Salute them.

EMINEM
One look at the current Billboard 200 albums chart is all that’s needed to see Eminem’s resiliency. Last May, Marshall Mathers released the comeback record Relapse, after five years of musical inactivity caused by drug use and the death of his best friend, and fellow D12 member, Proof. While the LP was a financial triumph, many fans and industry types questioned its direction, accusing Em of going too far into conceptual horror and goofily-voiced flows instead of earnestly cleaning out his personal closet. Having heard the complaints, Em returned this past June with a proper resurrection record, Recovery, which has spent seven weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart.

KANYE WEST
Last September, Kanye West became Public Enemy No. 1. overnight. In a now-infamous episode of foot-in-mouth foolishness, the superstar producer-rapper stormed the MTV Video Music Awards stage and tainted young pop/country singer Taylor Swift’s Best Female Video victory. West, clearly a Beyoncé fan, professed his appreciation for B’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” vid over Swift’s “You Belong With Me.” As if public opinion wasn’t sour enough in the incident’s wake, famous folk, ranging from Katy Perry to President Obama, voiced their disdain for ’Ye’s actions. Fortunately, a year away from the limelight and dope music have done West’s career good. Today, he’s as prolific as ever (see his Twitter profile or weekly “G.O.O.D. Friday” music series), and has the year’s most anticipated album on deck. No longer are heads asking “Where are you, Yeezy?”; he’s everywhere

T.I.
While the hip-hop world impatiently awaits his seventh LP, King Uncaged, T.I. is most likely just happy to still be here. On March 26 of this year, Tip was released from prison after serving a yearlong sentence for federal weapons charges. The road to jail began in May 2006, when the Atlanta rap star’s childhood friend, Philant Johnson, was shot to death after a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio. As if his demeanor wasn’t damaged enough following that tragedy, T.I. crossed paths with authorities again in October 2007, when federal ATF agents raided Tip’s home and seized an arsenal of firearms. Being that he was a previously convicted felon, T.I. couldn’t legally possess guns; jailtime was imminent, but he and his team used the promise of community service and public speaking engagements to shorten his behind-bars stay. As part of his preach-positivity campaign, Tip recorded a PSA commercial for local ATL television in which he encouraged witnesses to not remain quiet—charges of “snitching” soon hit him. Those insults, coupled with questions of whether jail had cooled off the self-proclaimed King of the South’s popularity or not. Yet, as this weekend’s box office numbers show (Takers, starring and produced by T.I., earned over $20 million), he’s back on top.

CAGE
On the low, underground lyricist Cage has battled through some of the darkest forces that hip-hop has ever known. During his teenage years, Cage was kicked out of high school and suffered beatings at his father’s hands, which led to drug abuse and alcohol consumption. To avoid jail time for her son, his mother convinced a judge to have Cage sent to the Stoney Lodge psychiatric hospital, where he stayed for 18 months. There, he attempted suicide several times. Rather than completely succumb to his troubled past, however, Cage has since aired out his demons through his music. Though his music is often, if not always, dark in tone, Cage remains a survivor.

DR. DRE
Dr. Dre may be one of the industry’s largest entities today, but his road to such immensity hasn’t been easy. Particularly in the superproducer’s early day, the good Doc has overcome tons of adversity. The first hurdle came in July 1991, when he exited the groundbreaking crew N.W.A, which led to a war-of-words, both on wax and in the press, with former groupmate Eazy-E, as well as Dre’s teaming with former bodyguard Suge Knight to form Death Row Records that August. His subsequent success with Knight and Death Row proved his staying power, yet that relationship went sour in 1996. Looking to forge his own movement, Dre started Aftermath Entertainment, the label’s first release being the underwhelming compilation Dr. Dre Presents The Aftermath. A couple years later, though, Dre was on top of the world, after signing Eminem in 1998 and dropping the colossal 2001 album one year later. The rest is, including the acquisition of 50 Cent and various hit records produced, is history

Life sucks

Sadness is all I've ever known.
Inside my retched body it's grown.
It has eaten me away, to what the fuck I am today.
There's nothing left for me to say.
There's nothing there for me to hate.
There's no feelings, and there's no thoughts.
My body's left to fucking rot.
Life sucks, life sucks, life sucks, life sucks.

It has been fucking this way, since my fucking waking day.
To this fucking land of waste.
We're worked, erased, and then replaced.
Boredom has taken over my brain.
Chilled the blood inside my veins
Left me in this place insane.
All in sickness and in pain.
Life sucks, life sucks, life sucks, life sucks.

Everyday we gotta rot away in school
I'm feeling like a fucking fool
I HATE EVERYONE, they all hate me in return.
People bitching off my ear.
I can no longer fucking hear.
Nothing ever goes my way.
And it's never fucking gonna change.
Life sucks, life sucks, life sucks, life sucks
I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life!
I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life!

Reading Book List

Life: The Odds
by Gregory Arthur Baer

The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn
by Diane Ravitch

The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story
by Richard Preston

To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian
by Stephen E. Ambrose

Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism
by William J. Bennett

The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
by Daniel J. Boorstin

The Marxist roots of Black Liberation Theology

What is Black Liberation Theology anyway? Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright catapulted black liberation theology onto a national stage, when America discovered Trinity United Church of Christ. Understanding the background of the movement might give better clarity into Wright's recent vitriolic preaching. A clear definition of black theology was first given formulation in 1969 by the National Committee of Black Church Men in the midst of the civil-rights movement:

Black theology is a theology of black liberation. It seeks to plumb the black condition in the light of God's revelation in Jesus Christ, so that the black community can see that the gospel is commensurate with the achievements of black humanity. Black theology is a theology of 'blackness.' It is the affirmation of black humanity that emancipates black people from White racism, thus providing authentic freedom for both white and black people. It affirms the humanity of white people in that it says 'No' to the encroachment of white oppression.

In the 1960s, black churches began to focus their attention beyond helping blacks cope with national racial discrimination particularly in urban areas.

The notion of "blackness" is not merely a reference to skin color, but rather is a symbol of oppression that can be applied to all persons of color who have a history of oppression (except whites, of course). So in this sense, as Wright notes, "Jesus was a poor black man" because he lived in oppression at the hands of "rich white people." The overall emphasis of Black Liberation Theology is the black struggle for liberation from various forms of "white racism" and oppression.

James Cone, the chief architect of Black Liberation Theology in his book A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), develops black theology as a system. In this new formulation, Christian theology is a theology of liberation -- "a rational study of the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ," writes Cone. Black consciousness and the black experience of oppression orient black liberation theology -- i.e., one of victimization from white oppression.

One of the tasks of black theology, says Cone, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the experience of oppressed blacks. For Cone, no theology is Christian theology unless it arises from oppressed communities and interprets Jesus' work as that of liberation. Christian theology is understood in terms of systemic and structural relationships between two main groups: victims (the oppressed) and victimizers (oppressors). In Cone's context, writing in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the great event of Christ's liberation was freeing African Americans from the centuries-old tyranny of white racism and white oppression.

American white theology, which Cone never clearly defines, is charged with having failed to help blacks in the struggle for liberation. Black theology exists because "white religionists" failed to relate the gospel of Jesus to the pain of being black in a white racist society.

For black theologians, white Americans do not have the ability to recognize the humanity in persons of color, blacks need their own theology to affirm their identity in terms of a reality that is anti-black -- “blackness” stands for all victims of white oppression. "White theology," when formed in isolation from the black experience, becomes a theology of white oppressors, serving as divine sanction from criminal acts committed against blacks. Cone argues that even those white theologians who try to connect theology to black suffering rarely utter a word that is relevant to the black experience in America. White theology is not Christian theology at all. There is but one guiding principle of black theology: an unqualified commitment to the black community as that community seeks to define its existence in the light of God's liberating work in the world.

As such, black theology is a survival theology because it helps blacks navigate white dominance in American culture. In Cone's view, whites consider blacks animals, outside of the realm of humanity, and attempted to destroy black identity through racial assimilation and integration programs--as if blacks have no legitimate existence apart from whiteness. Black theology is the theological expression of a people deprived of social and political power. God is not the God of white religion but the God of black existence. In Cone's understanding, truth is not objective but subjective -- a personal experience of the Ultimate in the midst of degradation.

The echoes of Cone's theology bleed through the now infamous, anti-Hilary excerpt by Rev. Wright. Clinton is among the oppressing class ("rich white people") and is incapable of understanding oppression ("ain't never been called a n-gg-r") but Jesus knows what it was like because he was "a poor black man" oppressed by "rich white people." While Black Liberation Theology is not main stream in most black churches, many pastors in Wright's generation are burdened by Cone's categories which laid the foundation for many to embrace Marxism and a distorted self-image of the perpetual "victim."

Black Liberation Theology as Marxist Victimology

Black Liberation Theology actually encourages a victim mentality among blacks. John McWhorters' book Losing the Race, will be helpful here. Victimology, says McWhorter, is the adoption of victimhood as the core of one's identity -- for example, like one who suffers through living in "a country and who lived in a culture controlled by rich white people." It is a subconscious, culturally inherited affirmation that life for blacks in America has been in the past and will be in the future a life of being victimized by the oppression of whites. In today's terms, it is the conviction that, 40 years after the Civil Rights Act, conditions for blacks have not substantially changed. As Wright intimates, for example, scores of black men regularly get passed over by cab drivers.

Reducing black identity to "victimhood" distorts the reality of true progress. For example, was Obama a victim of widespread racial oppression at the hand of "rich white people" before graduating from Columbia University, Harvard Law School magna cum laude, or after he acquired his estimated net worth of $1.3 million? How did "rich white people" keep Obama from succeeding? If Obama is the model of an oppressed black man, I want to be oppressed next! With my graduate school debt my net worth is literally negative $52,659.

The overall result, says McWhorter, is that "the remnants of discrimination hold an obsessive indignant fascination that allows only passing acknowledgement of any signs of progress." Jeremiah Wright, infused with victimology, wielded self-righteous indignation in the service of exposing the inadequacies Hilary Clinton's world of "rich white people." The perpetual creation of a racial identity born out of self-loathing and anxiety often spends more time inventing reasons to cry racism than working toward changing social mores, and often inhibits movement toward reconciliation and positive mobility.

McWhorter articulates three main objections to victimology: First, victimology condones weakness in failure. Victimology tacitly stamps approval on failure, lack of effort, and criminality. Behaviors and patterns that are self-destructive are often approved of as cultural or presented as unpreventable consequences from previous systemic patterns. Black Liberation theologians are clear on this point: "People are poor because they are victims of others," says Dr. Dwight Hopkins, a Black Liberation theologian teaching at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Second, victimology hampers progress because, from the outset, it focuses attention on obstacles. For example, in Black liberation Theology, the focus is on the impediment of black freedom in light of the Goliath of white racism.

Third, victimology keeps racism alive because many whites are constantly painted as racist with no evidence provided. Racism charges create a context for backlash and resentment fueling new attitudes among whites not previously held or articulated, and creates "separatism" -- a suspension of moral judgment in the name of racial solidarity. Does Jeremiah Wright foster separatism or racial unity and reconciliation?

For Black Liberation theologians, Sunday is uniquely tied to redefining their sense of being human within a context of marginalization. "Black people who have been humiliated and oppressed by the structures of White society six days of the week gather together each Sunday morning in order to experience another definition of their humanity," says James Cone in his book Speaking the Truth (1999).

Many black theologians believe that both racism and socio-economic oppression continue to augment the fragmentation between whites and blacks. Historically speaking, it makes sense that black theologians would struggle with conceptualizing social justice and the problem of evil as it relates to the history of colonialism and slavery in the Americas.

Is Black Liberation Theology helping? Wright's liberation theology has stirred up resentment, backlash, Obama defections, separatism, white guilt, caricature, and offense. Preaching to a congregation of middle-class blacks about their victim identity invites a distorted view of reality, fosters nihilism, and divides rather than unites.

Black Liberation Is Marxist Liberation

One of the pillars of Obama's home church, Trinity United Church of Christ, is "economic parity." On the website, Trinity claims that God is not pleased with "America's economic mal-distribution." Among all of controversial comments by Jeremiah Wright, the idea of massive wealth redistribution is the most alarming. The code language "economic parity" and references to "mal-distribution" is nothing more than channeling the twisted economic views of Karl Marx. Black Liberation theologians have explicitly stated a preference for Marxism as an ethical framework for the black church because Marxist thought is predicated on a system of oppressor class (whites) versus victim class (blacks).

Black Liberation theologians James Cone and Cornel West have worked diligently to embed Marxist thought into the black church since the 1970s. For Cone, Marxism best addressed remedies to the condition of blacks as victims of white oppression. In For My People, Cone explains that "the Christian faith does not possess in its nature the means for analyzing the structure of capitalism. Marxism as a tool of social analysis can disclose the gap between appearance and reality, and thereby help Christians to see how things really are."

In God of the Oppressed, Cone said that Marx's chief contribution is "his disclosure of the ideological character of bourgeois thought, indicating the connections between the 'ruling material force of society' and the 'ruling intellectual' force." Marx's thought is useful and attractive to Cone because it allows black theologians to critique racism in America on the basis of power and revolution.

For Cone, integrating Marx into black theology helps theologians see just how much social perceptions determine theological questions and conclusions. Moreover, these questions and answers are "largely a reflection of the material condition of a given society."

In 1979, Cornel West offered a critical integration of Marxism and black theology in his essay, "Black Theology and Marxist Thought" because of the shared human experience of oppressed peoples as victims. West sees a strong correlation between black theology and Marxist thought because "both focus on the plight of the exploited, oppressed and degraded peoples of the world, their relative powerlessness and possible empowerment." This common focus prompts West to call for "a serious dialogue between Black theologians and Marxist thinkers" -- a dialogue that centers on the possibility of "mutually arrived-at political action."

In his book Prophesy Deliverance, West believes that by working together, Marxists and black theologians can spearhead much-needed social change for those who are victims of oppression. He appreciates Marxism for its "notions of class struggle, social contradictions, historical specificity, and dialectical developments in history" that explain the role of power and wealth in bourgeois capitalist societies. A common perspective among Marxist thinkers is that bourgeois capitalism creates and perpetuates ruling-class domination -- which, for black theologians in America, means the domination and victimization of blacks by whites. America has been over run by "White racism within mainstream establishment churches and religious agencies," writes West.

Perhaps it is the Marxism imbedded in Obama's attendance at Trinity Church that should raise red flags. "Economic parity" and "distribution" language implies things like government-coerced wealth redistribution, perpetual minimum wage increases, government subsidized health care for all, and the like. One of the priorities listed on Obama's campaign website reads, "Obama will protect tax cuts for poor and middle class families, but he will reverse most of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers."

Black Liberation Theology, originally intended to help the black community, may have actually hurt many blacks by promoting racial tension, victimology, and Marxism which ultimately leads to more oppression. As the failed "War on Poverty" has exposed, the best way to keep the blacks perpetually enslaved to government as "daddy" is to preach victimology, Marxism, and to seduce blacks into thinking that upward mobility is someone else's responsibility in a free society.

Liberation Theology

INTRODUCTION

In the late 60s a new social and intellectual movement appeared on the Latin American continent. The movement is rooted in the Christian faith and Scriptures and seeks its ideological superstructure based on the religious reflection in close association with the Church organization(1). It is typical not only for Latin America but for the entire Third World and any social situation of oppression.

Members of the religious orders are committed to the vow of poverty and do not own property individually, nevertheless they enjoy a standard of living and security that separates them from the daily agony of the poor. The question then arose for some of them what is the ideal of poverty in a situation where most are suffering dehumanizing poverty, and what should the Church and Christians do about it?

Liberation theology thus emerged as a result of a systematic, disciplined reflection on Christian faith and its implications. The theologians who formulated liberation theology usually do not teach in universities and seminaries, they are a small group of Catholic or Protestant clergy and have direct contact with the grass-roots groups as adviser's to priests, sisters or pastors. Since they spend at least some time working directly with the poor themselves(2), the questions they deal with arise out of their direct contact with the poor. Liberation theology interprets the Bible and the key Christian doctrines through the experiences of the poor. It also helps the poor to interpret their own faith in a new way. It deals with Jesus's life and message. The poor learn to read the Scripture in a way that affirms their dignity and self worth and their right to struggle together for a more decent life. The poverty of people is largely a product of the way society is organized therefore liberation theology is a "critique of economic structures". Phillip Berryman described the liberation theology in the following terms:

"Liberation theology is:

1. An interpretation of Christian faith out of the suffering, struggle, and hope of the poor;

2. A critique of society and the ideologies sustaining it;

3. A critique of the activity of the church and of Christians from the angle of the poor".

NORTH AND SOUTH

Unlike in North America the Catholic Church was a major part of the machinery of conquest and colonization in Latin America. It all began with a decree from pope Alexander VI who, in 1492, divided the world not yet under the Christian rule between the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs and conferred to them the right and duty to propagate the Catholic faith. The conquest was done with unbelievable cruelty and complete disregard to any human decency to say nothing of the presumed ethical values of Christianity. There were only sporadic individual protests from some missionaries of conquest like Bartolomé de las Casas in Hispaniola (XVIth century) or from the bishop of Nicaragua, Antonio de Valdivieso (stabbed to death in 1550). The conquistadores imposed a model of Christendom where civil and religious authorities were connected - religious authority being a ruling one and the civil authority executing the orders of the religious one. Clergy remained predominantly in the cities and towns serving primarily the ruling class (e.g., in schools) and enjoyed all the comforts provided by a privileged status and the ownership of land. During the independence movement in the 19th century, bishops sided with the Spanish crown, and popes made pronouncements against the struggle for independence(3).

The social and political structure imposed on the continent had its roots in the ecclesial doctrines formulated by Thomas Aquinas. In such a religiously dominated society there was no room for innovation, for social mobility, for free and spontaneous thinking, for democracy and democratic institutions. Society represented a rigid, hierarchical, feudal structure fixed once for ever, resembling the ecclesiastical institution. All this was quite opposite to the society developed in the North.

SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS ROOTS OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY

The theology of liberation, though explicitly mentioned for the first time in 1968 in a speech by a Peruvian theologian delivered in the fishing port of Chimbate, has roots in religious and social movements that swept the Latin American continent in the 50s. Catholic bishops were concerned with the increasing influence of Protestant missionaries, the growing secularization of the population and the spreading of communist ideas (these were topics of the first plenary meeting of CELAM - Latin American Bishops' Conference - in 1955 in Río de Janeiro). Church problems were aggravated by the lack of clergy to serve poor people in the country and the visible complicity of the Church with an unjust social order. The social situation in Latin American countries gave rise to revolutionary movements in Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Peru. In Brazil, peasants became militant and the radicalized middle-class people went to work directly with the poor. A Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire(4), developed a new method for teaching literacy to the masses of peasants through the process of "conscientizaçao", consciousness-raising. All these movements and problems arose directly from the conditions of abject poverty, how 70% of the population lived. In a socio-economic analysis of the structure of Latin American society, some Christians and missionaries began to utilize Marxist tools (5) without, of course, embracing the philosophy of dialectical materialism.

The missionaries raised questions of the theological significance of a social revolution. On the religious plane, a strong impetus for changes and new vision of the world came from the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)(6). Latin American bishops insisted that the final documents should deal with the issues of development and human progress as a historical imperative. One statement of a Latin American bishop is especially significant: "Authentic socialism is Christianity lived to the full, in basic equality and with a fair distribution of goods" (7). Father Camilo Torres exemplifies this new attitude. He realized the need for a United Front linking together peasants, workers, slum dwellers, and professionals for basic changes. He expressed the need of revolution for implementing the fundamental changes in the economic, social and political structures. The essence of revolution was the removal of power from the privileged to the poor majorities. Revolution could be peaceful if the privileged elites did not put up a violent resistance, and the Christians should become involved. He sacrificed his own life in the struggle in 1966. On the international plane, social scientists emphasized that underdevelopment was structurally conditioned by the exploitation by foreign economic powers maintaining Latin America in a system of dependency on hegemonic centers. Such a system of oppression calls for ethical indignation. The encyclical of pope Paul VI "Populorum Progressio" (1967) (8) critiqued the international economic order, explicitly condemned the capitalistic system as presently known for the social evils and called for development through consensus rather than struggle:

"[It is a system] ... which considers profit as the key motive for economic progress, competition as the supreme law of economics, and private ownership of the means of production as an absolute right that has no limits and carries no corresponding social obligation".

"We know ... that revolutionary uprising - save where there is manifest long-standing tyranny which would do great damage to fundamental personal rights and dangerous harm to the common good of the country - produces new injustices, throws more elements out of balance and brings on new disasters".

The Magna Charta of the new pastoral approach to social problems became the documents of the second plenary meeting of CELAM convened in Medellín (9), Colombia (1968). They called for the Christians to be involved in the transformation of society; denounced institutionalized violence and named it a "situation of sin"; called for renovating societal changes; called for the defense of human rights; called for consciousness-raising evangelization and spoke of "comunidades de base" - lay-led groups of Christians as basic organic units of society and pastoral activity. The documents often used the term liberation and spoke of the interrelationship between liberation and evangelization:

"The Church ... has the duty to proclaim the liberation of millions of human beings, many of whom are her own children ... This is not foreign to evangelization "

The general assumption was that basic changes would come through a conversion on the part of the privileged and powerful. Revolutionaries were defined as those who sought radical changes and who believed that people should chart their own course and not as those who were using violence.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION

Facing enormous problems in the society, some theologians realized that the traditional theology concerned with religious dogmas and abstract religious concepts lost any relevance. It became an abstract speculation removed from the original spirit of the Gospel message and out of touch with real life. On the social level it served the rich. They realized that if one really cared for and believed in the Christian ideals, one had to answer the question: how to be a Christian in a concrete historical situation? The basic concerns in Latin America shifted thus from "whether one can believe what Christianity affirms to what relevance Christianity has in the struggle for a more just world."(10) Out of such considerations was born "liberation theology," outlined for the first time by a Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez a few weeks before the Medellín conference. Gutierrez (11) defined theology as a "critical reflection on praxis in the light of the word of God." Liberation theology has two basic principles: first, it recognizes a need for liberation from any kind of oppression - political, economic, social, sexual, racial, religious; second, it asserts that the theology must grow out of the basic Christian communities and should not be imposed from above, that is, from the infallible source book or from the magisterium of an infallible Church. It explores the theological meaning of human activities:

1. It interprets Christian faith out of the suffering, struggle, and hope of the poor;

2. It critiques society and ideologies sustaining it, pretends not to lay down specific rules for how to struggle for justice, but stresses that a responsible commitment with class conflict is an expression of love for one's neighbor. Through solidarity with the poor theologians of liberation advocate the transcendence from class division to a new type of society;

3. It critiques the activity of the Church from the angle of the poor.

The main theme, liberation, is considered at three levels of meaning which are interconnected. At the social and political level liberation is an expression of aspirations of the oppressed classes and peoples. This liberation emphasizes the conflict in the economical, social and political process between the oppressed and the oppressors. At the human level the liberation is conceived as a historical process in which people develop consciously their own destiny through the social changes. At the religious, salvific level the liberation means liberation from sin, the ultimate source of all deviation from fraternity, of all injustice and oppression. It brings man back into communion with God and fellow men, which is the radical, total liberation. These three processes cannot be separated, they form a unique, complex process ("proceso unico y complejo"). For the first time sin was formulated in social terms as a concrete social act and not in traditional way as an abstract, and even an allegoric personification in the person of satan, or at best, a personal act. For the first time the religious, salvific plan was explicitly linked to the human experience in a society.

PRIORITY OF PRAXIS OVER THEORY

Direct source of liberation theology was the personal experience of many priests, pastoral workers and sisters who in the 60s made an effort and came close to the poor. It grew out of their reflections. E.g. Brazilian theologian Clodovis Boff spends half a year working among the poor in the state of Acre.(12) Theologians of liberation are thus "organic intellectuals" who can bridge the sharp class barrier in Latin American society. Gutierrez and other liberation theologians (13) insist that theology is a secondary reflection, the first commitment being the work among the poor. The shift is from the abstract speculation to living one's faith. This emphasis on the primacy of praxis over the abstract contrasts with the Catholic orthodoxy. Traditionally, priests preached resignation to "God's will" in a way that it reinforced the belief that the present distribution of wealth and power comes from God. Peasant society indoctrinated this way tended to internalize a fixed and even fatalistic view of the universe with symbols and rationalizations.

Gutierrez (14) found three meanings of poverty: the dehumanizing lack of material goods, the openness to God and commitment to solidarity. The Bible understands material poverty as an evil resulting from the oppression of some people by others. Therefore the Medellín document (15) suggests that a poor Church denounces the unjust lack of goods in this world and the sin that causes it, preaches and lives spiritual poverty as an attitude of spiritual openness to God and commits itself to poverty. Voluntary poverty is considered an act of love and liberation, of solidarity with the poor and those who suffer injustice. This commitment calls for giving up the relatively comfortable life and going to a barrio or a rural area to live with the people. By this act the clergy still would not become poor themselves. Next they have to develop a model of activities based on the work of Paulo Freire. The encyclical "Redemptor Hominis" (16) is pervaded by the perspective of liberation:

"Injustice, the exploitation of some human beings by others, the exploitation of the human being by the state, institutions, and mechanisms of economic systems, must be called by their name."

"... liberation must be inserted into the entire contemporary reality of human life."

"... liberation is a faith reality, one of the basic biblical themes, deeply inscribed in the salvific mission of Christ, in the work of redemption, and in his teaching."

The praxis of liberation theology finds its embodiment in the Christian ecclesial base communities. They are small, lay-led groups of Christians that see themselves as part of the Church and work together to improve their lot and establish a more just society. Base communities were a result of pastoral problems related to the lack of clergy in the country. They had their antecedents in the activity of Catholic Action in Belgium and in "cursillos de Cristianidad" - a kind of weekend retreats - in Spain. In Latin America they combined the social and educational function with the pastoral activity. Their primary motivation is religious based on popular religiosity embodying the cults of the saints and Virgin Mary. (This popular religiosity may be an uncorrupted illustration of Karl Barth's definition of religion: all religions in history represent human effort to reach God and in fact are forms of idolatry). They were modeled on the work of Paulo Freire. They include several activities like teaching peasants to read and write, organize self-help, and raising their self-consciousness(17). Slowly some clergy adopted this method for "reevangelization of adults" meaning by this term spreading of the message of Christ to its fullness. Such evangelization covered the topics like sources of poverty and social injustice, community questions in human relations, religious tenets and assertions etc., all this in close connection with the Bible. Base communities have an enormous impact on society. They constitute the initial step in raising the consciousness of the people by giving them a broad perspective on their role and place in the society, they help people to project their vision of life and motivate them for involvement. Such communities develop a sense of solidarity within the group; generate mutual aid and support; they serve as a training ground for the experience of democracy and direct their social and political actions.

As a whole, these communities do not fit into the traditional vertical, hierarchical authority system of the Catholic Church. At some point the powerful and the Church hierarchy itself saw the community as a threat to its domination (18) and used intimidation and violence against them. However, there is no way now to turn the clock back, therefore some bishops opted to include base communities in the overall ecclesial structure and subordinate them to their rule and control as a cell in their organization. The conclusions of the Medellín conference were confirmed by CELAM meeting in Puebla (1979) (19):

"We see the growing gap between rich and poor as a scandal and a contradiction to Christian existence. The luxury of a few becomes an insult to the wretched poverty of the vast masses".

"Analyzing this situation more deeply, we discover that this poverty is not a passing phase. Instead it is the product of economic, social, and political situations and structures, though there are also other causes for the state of misery. In many instances this state of poverty within our countries finds its origin and support in mechanisms which, because they are impregnated with materialism rather than any authentic humanism, create a situation on the international level where the rich get richer at the expense of the poor who get ever poorer".

It was a great victory for the theologians of liberation when the Puebla conference adopted the vocabulary and the themes of liberation theology.

HISTORY AS A FOCUS OF THEOLOGY

The liberating message of the Gospel does not identify any social form as just. It permeates the total historical realization and places it in a broader perspective of the radical salvation. Only when the Gospel message is not implemented in life then it becomes inevitable to search for an ideology that would justify a determined social situation. For believers, therefore, the evangelization is liberating since it announces the radical liberation that includes the transformation of historical and political conditions in which they live. But without considering the social and political reality, the analysis would lack the depth and would fall into another extreme of spiritual reductionism equally erroneous, according to the theologians of the liberation theology. For many theologians appeals to eschatological "beyond" have no relevance, they must be rooted in the historical present or rejected.

In the theological literature one can find frequent references and allusions to Marxism and Marx, in the social and economical analysis. It does not mean the acceptance of marxism, and especially, of course, the concept of life, its philosophy to the exclusion of the Christian faith. Some go so far as to affirm that there is no systematic theology in North America today without the analysis of Marx.

In the realm of international relations the theologians of liberation adopt, in a somewhat naïve and simplistic way, the dependence theory which maintains that the underdeveloped countries were set up as main producers of raw materials and agricultural products by an international division of labor (20). It entails also the political dependence. Medellín Conference (1968) and Secretariat General of Celam (1973) accepted the dependence as a fact. "Nos referimos aquí, particularmente, a las consecuencias que entreña para nuestros países su dependencia de un centro de poder económico, en torno al cual gravitan. De allí resulta que nuestras naciones, con frecuencia, no son dueñas de sus bienes ni de sus decisiones económicas. Como es obvio, esto no deja de tener sus incidencias en lo politico, dada la interdependencia que existe entre ambos campos." And: "... la dependencia parece como un hecho ... sobre ese hecho se elabora una teoría que esta en búsqueda, que se critica a sí misma ... La teología de la liberación tiene en cuenta la teoría de la dependencia y es imposible, al mismo tiempo, no tener en cuenta la teoría de la dependencia. Y la tiene en cuenta con su sentido critico, sin embargo, la teología de la liberación debe ser más atenta a estas variaciones y a estas criticas en la teoría de la dependencia, evitar generalización, enriquecerse con otro tipo de analísis y de niveles."(21)

READING THE BIBLE

Reading the Bible and interpreting it from the viewpoint of the poor is an essential element in the theology of liberation (22). Without that religious aspect, the theology of liberation would be just an extension of social analysis. A few examples will give a clear idea of what is involved in here. In the story of Genesis, creationism is not an issue. The peasant masses are able to appreciate the poetical account of creation better than anyone else since it deals with the objects of their everyday experience. Liberation theology stresses the goodness of creation, the dignity of the poor as God's image and their dominion over the earth and their rights to its fruits (it cannot escape in this analysis that only few own the land - "tierra"). Sin assumes social dimensions in the story of Cain and Abel and is not rooted in the story of Adam and Eve (the traditional basis of the abstract and mythical concept of the sin). The story of Exodus becomes a prototype of liberation constituting a basic paradigm of God's saving action. Little attention is given to the miraculous, the emphasis being put on the oppressive rule and liberation. Prophets and prophecies are seen as conscientizers of the people. Christ is a figure representing struggle, death, and vindication - in short - liberation:

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore, he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19)

No doubt this reads like a social manifesto! Jesus himself lived like a poor, in real material poverty, not a spiritual one. His criterion of a just life was practical material aid for one's neighbor! Jesus made enemies by denouncing the organized and ritualized religion of his time that was not committed to the love of one's neighbor. He was executed by the order of the Church authority that felt threatened in its organization and power. The New Testamental communities of the faithful are seen as the first "comunidades de base". How revealing this reading of the Bible is in the light of the fact that the Catholic Church also felt that its power was threatened by the base communities and objected to that aspect of the theology of liberation. It did not hesitate to use intimidation and silencing on the most prominent expounder of liberation theology, Leonardo Boff (23). Also as an excuse for persecution of the theologians of liberation the Church hierarchy used their presumed espousal of the Marxist doctrines. Liberation theology is thus based on the Bible. However, Bible is not taken literally, but symbolically as a sign.

METHODOLOGY

From the discussion presented we deduce three basic planes of operation or mediation of liberation theology (24):

1. The socio-analytical i.e., the perception of social reality. In this context it is the condemnation of the capitalistic system as the source of evils (explicitly expressed in the quoted fragment of "Populorum Progressio");

2. The hermeneutic i.e., the theological reading of social reality in the light of faith based on the Bible. Leonardo and Clodovis Boff (25) succinctly formulated it in this way:

"... Faith helps the Christian endorse and support those historical movements that have a greater affinity with the ideals of the gospel. Today, for example, we perceive that the Christian ideal is closer to socialism than to capitalism. It is not a matter of creating a Christian socialism. It is a matter of being able to say that the socialist system, when actually carried out in reality, enables Christians better to live the humanitarian and divine ideals of their faith";

3. The pastoral service, the praxis i.e. search for the viable avenues for the praxis and embodiment of the theology of liberation in pastoral activity. Again we find a formulation of it in the Boffs' work:

"... Church has the duty to act as agent of liberation. It must attempt to articulate its words, its catechesis, its liturgy, its community action, and its interventions with established authority, in the direction of liberation."

CONCLUSIONS

The analysis of the social situation by concerned Church workers leads to the formulation of a social theory and provides a tool for liberation theology. The social theory becomes dialectical if it envisions the possibility of a systematic change. Liberation theology too opts for the social changes. Often the Marxist analysis is selected as the best suited tool to describe the socio-economic situation.

The Church hierarchy itself has a difficulty in choosing either the socialist or the capitalistic system, both with their advantages and limitations, as the model to be propagated for current economic structures.

Interesting is that throughout all the deliberations and sincerity of the theologians of liberation, not a single word was said about the disparity between the overgrowth of population and the economic growth in countries with endemic poverty.

In the realm of international relations the theology of liberation adopts, not with a certain naïveté, after certain Church pronouncements, the dependence theory which maintains that the underdeveloped countries were set up as main producers of raw materials and agricultural products by an international division of labor.

The main theme of the theology of liberation - liberation - is understood as a break with the present order, an integral development, and an embracing of its three levels of meaning (Gutierrez) (26):

1. an aspiration of the poor and liberation from oppression;

2. gradual expansion of freedom and actualization of the ability of human beings to take charge of their own destiny;

3. on the religious level, attainment of freedom of Christ as a communion with God and with other human beings.

The liberation thus is a complex process and for a liberation theologian it has human, historical and political dimensions of salvation. For an atheist, agnostic or Marxist, the liberation process has a purely historical sense and nothing else. Salvation is the artificial transcendent dimension of liberation. The traditional Catholic view was that our earthly life was a transitory phase to the way of heaven, treated as a trial. This tradition is reversed by the theology of liberation which asserts that there is a continuity between the temporal process and ultimate transcendence. The Church and Christians should be involved in human history - the one human history where people are shaping their destiny! The theology of liberation says that politics is the most important dominant dimension today. After the Medellín meeting, the reactionary forces mounted an offensive against the new way of thinking. The attack came from the CIA and conservative, traditional circles of the Church. Bishop Alfonso Trujillo and Belgian Jesuit Roger Vekemans organized a campaign and eventually bishop Trujillo became elected the secretary of the CELAM. The encyclical of Paul VI "Octogesima Adveniens" (27) (1971) suggested caution and restrain. At the same time repression against progressive clergy and archbishop Helder Camara, later also against Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff, and others (28), was instigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. During the preparation for the CELAM conference in Puebla, the preparatory document was rejected by the conservative bishops. However, the final document was accepted upon the insistence of the Latin American bishops. The document is rather inconclusive, and tries to replace the liberation theology terminology. In 1973, Trilateral Commission was instituted in the U.S., primarily as a means to making imperial domination function more smoothly under the cover of the advocacy of human rights and the ideology of national security (29). The Church hierarchy shows essentially a devious character. It claims not to be involved in politics, however, it sides explicitly with one side only depending on the convenience of the situation. In a new situation in the modern world and the new Church-State relationship, the Church is losing control over societies. This new situation is sometimes defined as the end of Christendom understood as the unity of Church and State. The Church therefore feels threatened and some members of its hierarchy are searching for a new justification of its existence.

Liberation theology may be the solution. It happens that the Marxist analysis serves heuristically to discern the evil of the social injustice and pose the questions. Some see the convergence between the Marxist analysis and the original Christian ideals. Both ideologies are striving for a utopia, one for a classless society, the other for a Kingdom of God. Thus Marxist socio-economical analysis is fully vindicated in liberation theology. Traditionally, the Church claimed to be the Kingdom of God. Liberation theology redresses the errors of the Church, reminding it to serve the Kingdom of God, but understood as an earthly affair. Its service should consist of the ongoing humanization of the human realm at every level and in every situation.

The theology of liberation is not unique to Central and South America. Parallel movements exist in Africa and Asia and in various cultures with various religions or ideologies. They represent a reaction against the European and North American theological establishment. In Asian cultures, people talk about "liberation both human and cosmic" which represents a struggle for a full humanity. The foundation is cosmic religion - the attitude of all human beings vis-à-vis Nature. Non-Christian religions do not envision the ultimate reality as a "personal being", therefore are metatheistic or nontheistic. The starting point for collaboration between the Christians and non-Christians is liberation. (30)

As the Protestant Reformation began as a revolt against corrupt practices in the Roman Catholic Church stressing the personal convictions and was more in tune with the modern age than Roman Catholicism, so the liberation theology is also a manifestation of a new worldwide movement for human emancipation. It constitutes a new, timely phenomenon and strives to implement the full realization of a human being in harmony with the Nature and for the believer, in harmony with the original Christian message.

Habit

You know I got a habit it ain’t gonna lead nowhere
Except to the many legions of the people with a problem
But nobody cares
‘Cause all I do is
Sit and dream about drinkin and women and music
It’s just gonna
Give me another reason to use and abuse it
But still I gotta
I live and I learn all I wanna do is burn down
And so I light it up
I live and I learn all I wanna do is burn

You know I got alot of wrongs to right
I been fightin, lying, cheatin on you every night
I got a habit yo I’m bad at it but it’s alright
‘Cause in the end I wanna be the one holding you tight
But I got to hold on make way
I said the drinking and the women and the music got me crazy
But I’m addicted
Uplifted, now I just can’t stop
Yo she’s all that I need
Everything that I got ya know

eugenics on the way

I may be a little crazy, but take a look around everything is fuck up. Think we need to open our minds as a unit because of shit like this. Alex Jones from the website is pointing out that doctors are killing us, and many of you are too dumb to realize. Do you realize what are in those meds that they are giving you. Take a look at Lindsay Lohan, and by extension millions of Americans are being poisoned with methamphetamine style drugs like Ritalin that cause brain shrinkage, heart problems and a myriad of other disorders. info wars also highlights how SSRI prozac drugs are turning people into psychopaths and leading to a massive increase in suicides and other reckless behavior.

Young girls and even babies are now going into puberty as a result of milk laced with hormones, Bisphenol A and a toxic cocktail of other ingested substances.

This right here is so mid blowing the deadly threat of sodium fluoride and how it causes IQ reduction, bone cancer, and how vaccines are also contributing to a massive and sustained chemical attack on free humanity as the globalists’ eugenics agenda goes into high gear. Pick up a book and stop the way that you are thinking, the time is now stand the fuck up and fight back

Fueled by disappointment

Every morning you put on a smile... Inside you feel all alone. With no support from your so-called friends who come around to get stoned. Been let down so many times, I KNOW YOU FEEL BETRAYED. I'll always be right by your side. I WON'T GO AWAY... No one sees underneath, no one sees the disappointment. You always put up a front that everything is fine. You act as though you're doing alright, ALL ALONE YOU CRY...

Fuck This I'm out

I'm counting down the days 'til I can get the fuck out of this place
I swear I'm never coming back 'cause I found everything that I lack
I found comfort in a land far away
Where I don't feel like I've got a foot in the grave

It's not about you, it's about me
Leave me alone

I'm so sick of fighting with every single person that I know
And I'm so sick of lying and burying myself in a hole
I just want to fill that tank up and drive
It's the only thing that still makes me feel alive

I don't think I'll ever make it out alive
So I might as well just kill myself tonight
I don't want to
But I don't see any other way

F.T.W

Everyday I try to better myself but, nothing happens I only get screwed. Their is no help for the poor people just want to use you and toss you to the side. I am getting really fuck sick of all the bullshit that is going, i guess you can call me desperate.
So that means you all should get out of my way. However, whats the cost to live your dream do you feel me everything glittering ain't what you think it will be. Fuck the haters I’m headed to the place you like to go. they say what you fighting for the game is on life support and Gary Coleman just passed, life is short Momma said I should reconsider law school that means I wear a suit and be a troop and feel awful. Hell naw, got a degree but what that cost you you make a good salary just to pay Sallie Mae. It seems like I will always be ducking bill collectors like Jehovah’s witness. Until they showed up at your door at Christmas, account overdraft what I got this debit for. Summers dead it got me drinking thinking bitch I better blow. these hoes ain't checking for no nigga with no vehicle. Praise God it’s hard to stay spiritual, how they got these niggas on the TV selling miracles. You mean to tell me everything gonna be fine if I call your hot line and pay 29.99 shit. Just dropping some more food for thought they when you are at the bottom their is only one way up. I will be waiting to see if the is really true.

Boombox 8-12-10

Killah Priest Feat. Steven King, Sonny Seeza (Onyx), iCON The Mic King & Empuls “The Destroyer”
Young Jeezy Death B4 Dishonor
DJ Muggs & Ill Bill “Ill Bill TV”
Mac Miller “Don’t Mind If I Do”
The Cool Kids “Gold Links”
J. Cole “Blow Up”

Work in progress

I am a work in progress
I am the king of all losers
The have not's look up to
Thus everyday I try my best
their are sometimes that I fuck up
I am the first to admit that help
I need to work on myself
so I see that we are only human
and that are flaws make us who we are
No is perfect
and that is something that i realize
In my heart i feel that change will come
In due time i will continue to work
thus good times will occur
thus bad times will occur
However time will tell
If I will change
this is the first step
and more will come

History of Punk Art or Revolution?

Then suddenly it was over...1967 was a magical year we are told because an album came out that changed peoples lives. For some the greatest album of all time by the most influential group of all time that regularly tops readers charts.....yep that album was Velvet Underground and Nico. oh yeah another album came out Sgt Peppers Crappy Hearts Club Band and music would never be the same coz all that's bad in music comes from ... The Beatles. We will explore their legacy in later parts but before we leave there's one other vital band we should mention as they contribute to the next phase with their sound. Along with the VU the other band commonly singled out as being influential were those lovable political rockers the MC5 from Detroit. Between them they created different notions of a pop underbelly, of a pop angry and politicised with a sound to boot that could incite as well as excite. Great music didn't have to be comfortable or in tune. Guitars could be set on stun and discordant. They were in a minority. They sold bugger all but their influence still stretches over 30 years !! not bad...They are last link to The Yardbirds etc before rock moves in a more metallic direction. What we see is the pop song as a three minute burst of youth and spontaneity being dragged to an intellectual mind numbing album length of concepts to be explored. So where did it all go wrong ? Well musicians became rock stars who suddenly had the desire to be taken seriously... they didn't want to get old before they died...they started touring to ever larger amounts of people becoming ever more distant from their record public, becoming richer and fatter. They wanted to be recognised as artistes pursuing a valid form of expression.
So as we progress what we have got ? A drug addled generation of free lovers who have lost the plot in a welter of mysticism and pretentiousness. Its the birth of stadium rock, hard rock and giant egos and super bands. We started with 3 minute burst of youth and spontaneity and we leave with Cream turning Robert Johnson's majestic blues of Crossroads into a 17 minute guitar torture, John & Yoko in bed, concept albums and a desire to be taken seriously. Dark days indeed.

Yet something odd happened in England. We never lost the notion of small bands playing raw rhythm and blues/ 12 bar and that was something that was going to have a large impact in later years but I'm getting ahead of myself. Next part into the seventies via 1969.... God what a nightmare - ridiculous album sleeves, ridiculous makeup, ridiculous lyrics and plenty to laugh at... and that's just the men !

Jim Morrison puts our first look at Punk Rock in perspective with this quote from 1969 "The thing they called rock, what used to be called Rock'n'roll -it got decadent. And then there was a revival sparked by the English. That went very far. It was articulate. Then it became self conscious, which I think is the death of any movement... It became incestuous. The energy is gone. There is no longer a belief."

Arizona the police state

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a blatant profiling bill into law, securing Arizona’s title as the first official police state in the nation. If enacted, a whopping 30% of Arizonans – or nearly two million Latinos—would be walking around with a target on their backs.

Under the law, police must stop anyone who they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe may be an “illegal immigrant.” President Obama slammed the new law as a severely “misguided” way to deal with immigration. Republican lawmakers, on the other hand, are scrambling to excuse the fact that the bill mandates racial profiling and could waste hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. According to Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), former lobbyist for the anti-immigrant group behind the bill, FAIR, police can use plenty of other cues—like people’s hair, or shoes—to determine immigration status.

What these idiots don’t realize – aside from the fact that this is America and not Iraq – is how corrupt the agencies behind these “safety” initiatives really are. The same goes for DUI. Arizona is the only state in the Union with “slightest degree” laws, meaning you can theoretically be arrested for rinsing with Listerine or taking a spoonful of cough syrup before getting into the car. That may be rare, but if you read the Arizona Revised Statutes, you will be arrested for DWI at .05, then DUI at .08. Which is a joke to differentiate the two because they carry the same fines and sentences.

Anyone who believes DUI laws have anything to do with “safety” is an idiot. Every single scientific and medical study done proves that driving does not become unsafe until approximately .14. In fact, using cell phones while driving has been documented to kill more people every year than drunken driving! But, there are no fanatical groups like MADD going after cell phones and lobbying our money-grubbing politicians to ban them, so instead they choose drinking.

If you care one bit about yourself, your loved ones, and about the principles of freedom, get the hell out of Arizona. It’s not getting better – it’s only going to get worse as tax revenues continue to fall and the crooked politicians look for more and more ways to steal your money from you. While ruining your life in the process for good measure.

Arizona is in a Hole

As i look around in Arizona, the end has become people have lost their minds. Arizona, is free falling into a big hole that the state will not come out of. You may be asking yourself what hole, the hole that Arizona is in is as the following: the people have lost all faith, and hope. Every where people are hurting and they are rapidly getting more desperate as time goes on. Also, the jails are getting to full with pity criminal's that shows me that the government of Arizona only sees us as a way to make money. Work is getting harder to find people are loosing their homes faster than you can look. Teacher's are also loosing their jobs. Jane Brewer, is and the rest of the GOP is clueless, tax cuts for the rich is not the answer, when the rich get a tax cut they do not create jobs the only sit on their money till they feel the need to spend it. I think the answer is to have payroll tax cut because it is the working man and woman who spend most of there pay checks when they receive them. I also think the new sales tax should go away because the new sales tax gave the company an excuse to raise there prices. Also, I feel that the government of Arizona should not sell jails and prisons, to private company's, that is only asking for trouble hints the murders that ex scaped from King man. The Time has come Arizona , it is time to change who has power, The GOP has shown over the past 50 years that they can not get the job done. We also, need to educate ourselves on who is really making the choice because if you do you will see that they all have a agenda and we are not part of it. The time is now make a difference or the future of tomorrow will not have a future.

Pro-Liar

president of the united states is what I'd like to be
I'll determine all your fates, a president's what I'd like to be
gonna build a brand new nation

I'll be very honest
I won't let you down
while I wear the crown
you'll be proud of me
Just you wait and see

I won't interfere with your private lives
in the white house I'll thrive
have your own jobs

everything will be alright
everything will be just fine

and we will fight against all those
who stand in the way
of America with the new upgrade defense
and won''t have nothing to worry about
we'' have to tighten our belts
and do the best we can
so just sit back, relax
and let me take complete control

Punks most fucks have not heard

Here is some kick ass old school punk bands that most of you fucks have not heard. If you call yourself a punk were is your passion to take down the man. It seems like the ones who call their self's punks now a days are just a bunch of dumb fucks who want pity. However that is not punk so go fuck your mother then come back to me with a renewed passion for Americas real music. Here comes the list I will be taking most of you fucks to school step your game up. P.S. Punk is not riding in a tour bus. List get it in

Johnny Thunder and the Heartbreaks
Eater
Pagans
The dead boys
The zeroes
999
Flamin Grooves
Radio Bird man
The Saints
The Bags
The dils
the nuns
Rhino 39
saccharine trust
The Modern Lovers
Richard Hell
Jack Tragic
Wire
The Lewd
chron gen
u.a.x
F word
the alley cats
black randy & the metro squad
art attacks
negative trend
The lurkers

WE need to fight more for Real Change.

Strategies for Revolution

Our job is to tap the discontent seething in many sectors of the population, to find allies everywhere people are hungry or angry, to mobilize poor and working people against imperialism.
We have an urgent responsibility: to destroy imperialism from within in order to help free the world and ourselves from its grasp.
Our final goal is the destruction of imperialism, the seizure of power, and the creation of socialism. Our strategy for this stage of the struggle is to organize the oppressed people of the imperial nation itself to join with the colonies in the attack on imperialism. This process of attacking and weakening imperialism involves the defeat of all kinds of national chauvinism and arrogance; this is a precondition to our fight for socialism.

The Definition of Socialism

Socialism is the total opposite of capitalism/imperialism. It is the rejection of empire and white supremacy. Socialism is the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the eradication of the social system based on profit. Socialism means control of the productive forces for the good of the whole community instead of the few who live on hilltops and in mansions. Socialism means priorities based on human need instead of corporate greed. Socialism creates the conditions for a decent and creative quality of life for all.

Revolution is a fight by the people for power. It is a changing of power in which existing social and economic relationships are turned upside down. It is a fight for who runs things, in particular, for control by the people of what we communists call the means of production

Punk and Jazz Connection

When jaded music-nuts, chin-strokers and hipster whipper-snappers mull about things like 'where did punk rock come from,' very rarely do you hear anything about jazz. Some poor souls are under the misconception that "jazz" only means Chuck Mangione or George Benson, forgetting such pioneers as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler, all of whom are the real grand-daddies of punk.
To see the connection, you have to go back to the original performers who influenced punk. Usually you hear about the MC5, the Stooges, the Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. One thing all of these amazing groups had in common (other than not burning up the charts) is the raw grit and noise they splashed across their records, something that had been lacking in rock for a while. One other important common denominator is that they were all jazz fans, using their guitars to imiate their favorite players or actually using horns themselves.

Look at those Detroit greasers, the MC5. Ray Charles and Screamin' Jay Hawkins were part of their sets but so was Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra- this is most obvious on Kick Out The Jams and semi-legitimate releases of their early material. Unfortunately, their record companies and their producers scrubbed up their music somewhat and this wasn't always obvious from their records- their next album, Back in the USA was based on Chuck Berry much more than any jazz that they loved.

Then there's their Motor City homeboys the Stooges. Iggy was lecturing at a college (!) a few years back, talking about the Stooges. He played a Stooges record then he played a jazz album (I think it might been have Coltrane). His whole point was to show what the band was trying to do, successfully or not. Most of all, you heard this with Steve Mackay's sax wailing on Funhouse, especially on the free-form "L.A. Blues." Maybe they were trying to simulate how their live shows ended or maybe they didn't have enough material (like on their first album) but there was no doubt that this wasn't Chuck Berry material (I ought to stop picking on Berry though since he is a pioneer and a God in his own right).


When I started out I was inspired by people like Ornette Coleman. He has always been a great influence- Lou Reed
Even though John Cale's influence and the work he did with minimalist composers John Cage and LaMonte Young heavily influenced the early work of the Velvet Underground, there was another strong influence at work with the band. Lou Reed said that "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate Ornette Coleman with guitars- I don't think it was successful but it was still a mind-melting blast. Later on, Lou would follow this influence by using the late Don Cherry (a Coleman sideman and a great player himself) as part of his stage band in the late '70s and recording The Bells with him. Reed actually can full circle when he made a guest appearance with Ornette and Prime Time at their live show at Avery Fisher Hall in New York in '97: since Lou is playing the elder musical statesman nowadays, he decided to do 'Satellite of Love' rather than 'European Son' (which would have been more appropriate).

Most of all, there's that lovable crank Captain Beefheart. If the spastic rhythms that his band blurted out weren't clue enough, then his saxophone playing should have left no doubt about his influences. Especially on Trout Mask Replica, his playing is a tribute to Coleman and Ayler, even more so than the Stooges, Velvets or MC5. Delta blues were also important to him and this became to dominate his music more and more in the seventies.

It's interesting to think about the other performers from the late sixties who were jazz buffs. Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia not only played a kind of jazz in their long solos but they would also perform with jazz musicians (Jimi with Larry Young and Garcia with Ornette years later). Most guitarists from that time (Page, Beck, Clapton, Richards, Townshend) were most into blues and R&B. The garage bands would take this to an extreme, making the same music rawer, simpler and louder. Years later, most alternative bands would follow the same path.

At this same time, jazz itself was going through an interesting development. The Filmore in California was hosting the psychedelic bands as well as Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley and Roland Kirk. This was important because it helped to open jazz up to young, white audience. In the case of Davis, it also may have changed his attitudes about music. The stupid rumor that he was pressured into fusion by his record company doesn't hold up- Miles had the idea himself to use electric instruments. The shock was as big as when Bob Dylan did the same thing with his music but proved just as influential. If Miles helped produce a whole wave of bland fusion performers, in his time, he also made music in the '70s that was as metal as AC/DC or Metallica.

Years later, when punk started up, some of the players were also jazz fans, especially the incestuous New York scene. Patti Smith's second album, Radio Ethiopia, contained a frenzied title-track that rivals "L.A. Blues." (Supposedly, Ornette himself was slated to play on it). Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd of Television certainly had Coltrane and Ayler in mind when they took off on their solos. Voidoids guitarist Robert Quine sounded like this was where his head was at also. In all, they had the same thing in mind as Lou Reed when he was trying to get his guitar to imitate the jazz he loved.

By in large though, this kind of jazz influence was not directly seen in most punk rock. Other than Lora Logic (Essential Logic/X-Ray Spex) and James Chance (who had played with Ornette guitarist Bernie Nix), you didn't even see any saxophones. Most punk bands went for noise and maybe songs but not much "improvisation" or musicianship- these seemed too foreign or uncool to the whole experience. Look at the Sex Pistols, Dead Boys, Dictators, Blondie, Ramones, Clash, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers, Adverts and the Cleveland and West Coast groups just to see this. They listened to a dirtier version of the blues and R&B that most of the sixties guitarists were into: the garage bands. And of course, there was also the MC5, Stooges, Velvets, Beefheart...

Today, many of the grunge and alternative bands follow the same path. The list of jazz-influenced bands ranges from the few obvious to many not-so-obvious. Sonic Youth had done a show with Sun Ra shortly before he died and the Minutemen did a show with Ornette bassist Charlie Haden. Other signs of hope abound: Naked City (with John Zorn), Borbetomagus, Blurt, Spanish Kitchen and Bazooka. Most likely, and hopefully, there's many more. This may mean that there isn't a real, solid movement out there for this yet but that may only because most alternative bands who broke through the charts haven't taken this particular route yet. That's how we measure things, isn't it?

So what is the real, direct link between the free jazz of '50s and '60s and punk rock? One big difference is that in free jazz there were very talented, accomplished musicians playing complex music. With punk, you had a bunch of amateurs who played simple music. They did and still do have a lot in common though. Both were (and are) hated by many so-called critics, writers and the old guard of their respective types of music. They also each re-wrote the the whole goddamn book on their own music, challenged many preconceptions and opened many eyes- you may hate them but it's hard to ignore each of them. Maybe most importantly, they each spawned a sub-culture of musicians, bands, clubs, scenes, record labels and all kinds of collectives to help nuture their own music. This was important because it took YEARS for either style to be accepted and assimliated into the mainstream. Still, the two types of music are, mostly, as exclusive of each other as they were in the heydey of punk or free jazz (hey, how about FREE PUNK then?).

This isn't to say that the whole idea of rock-fusion music isn't dead or gone. Who knows if any of those new bands won't constitute a movement themselves. Or maybe they'll become influences for another wild style of music just like the punk grand-daddies did. One thing is for sure: it'll be quite a laugh to see how the record companies would try to market all of this.