[Philadelphia, 9/10/12] Note: When I wrote this 13 years ago, I was publishing regularly at Common Dreams and CounterPunch. When Common Dreams refused to run this, I realized something was fishy. Eventually, I’d learn there are taboos at all American “dissident” websites. Rediscovering this piece, I’ve appended a poem written about the same subject. It will be in my next self-published book, tentatively titled,
Brilliant portrait of the Hameriker I too left, for entirely selfish reasons after ten years of its stink: your exit is entirely 'moral'/ 'aesthetic' because of the insufferable & widespread culture of depravity & neglect which I fortunately observed only from a distance. But even that was too short a length to endure. Linh this is your finest woerk to date.
Mr. Dinh, America doesn't need people with your intelligence. What it needs are people, "just smart enough to do the increasingly [mindless and regimented] sh*tty jobs [that make wealth for their capitalist masters] but not smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and talk about how badly they've been f*cked by a system that threw them overboard thirty [now 44] f*cking years ago" (George Carlin).
Being too smart, too perceptive and too interested in revealing the truth gets you nowhere in this country. To achieve middle-class success here one needs to be a mindless drone. Show up for work on time, endure eight to ten hours of mindless monotony, go home and repeat the next day. I hope things are going well in south east Asia.
What a horrible story. We are so depraved in this country. On a lighter note, great photograph of the gentlemen in the mortar board hat. Is that the right word?
This article was a truly fine and powerful piece of commentary. After Common Dreams refused it, was it ever accepted elsewhere, or did you meet with similar rejection at all your other outlets?
It is interesting to note how the authorities seem to have plenty of time to bust people for selling "loosies" or bootleg recordings, or even have the health authorities shut down someone informally handing out free meals, while having no inclination to go after people like this.
And here's one reason I greatly admire you: you did not back off when you realized those GD “progressives'” limits. At one time I thought it reasonable and excusable for writers to respect those boundaries; that after all, if they wanted to argue something worth hearing they had to be published, and to be published they needed to take heed. I can't believe that anymore.
Brilliant portrait of the Hameriker I too left, for entirely selfish reasons after ten years of its stink: your exit is entirely 'moral'/ 'aesthetic' because of the insufferable & widespread culture of depravity & neglect which I fortunately observed only from a distance. But even that was too short a length to endure. Linh this is your finest woerk to date.
g.
Mr. Dinh, America doesn't need people with your intelligence. What it needs are people, "just smart enough to do the increasingly [mindless and regimented] sh*tty jobs [that make wealth for their capitalist masters] but not smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and talk about how badly they've been f*cked by a system that threw them overboard thirty [now 44] f*cking years ago" (George Carlin).
Being too smart, too perceptive and too interested in revealing the truth gets you nowhere in this country. To achieve middle-class success here one needs to be a mindless drone. Show up for work on time, endure eight to ten hours of mindless monotony, go home and repeat the next day. I hope things are going well in south east Asia.
What a horrible story. We are so depraved in this country. On a lighter note, great photograph of the gentlemen in the mortar board hat. Is that the right word?
This article was a truly fine and powerful piece of commentary. After Common Dreams refused it, was it ever accepted elsewhere, or did you meet with similar rejection at all your other outlets?
It is interesting to note how the authorities seem to have plenty of time to bust people for selling "loosies" or bootleg recordings, or even have the health authorities shut down someone informally handing out free meals, while having no inclination to go after people like this.
Thanks for a well told horror story
And here's one reason I greatly admire you: you did not back off when you realized those GD “progressives'” limits. At one time I thought it reasonable and excusable for writers to respect those boundaries; that after all, if they wanted to argue something worth hearing they had to be published, and to be published they needed to take heed. I can't believe that anymore.
Great article, if hard to read.