« a little bare ass rhetoric » june 16, 2001 gothenberg, sweden, can you believe it? me and george w. doing the same tour. gothenberg. sweden. the EU conference. as you might have heard, he was greeted in this trumped up, 17th century city-by-the-sea by 15,000 pierced, drunk and political punks, hippies, commies, socialists, greenpeacers, beatniks, anarchists, guerillas, protestors, feminists, nudists, & rabble rousers, who put down their cell phones just long enough to show him their very white, bare & beautiful asses. to put it plainly, george w. was not a popular dude here in the nordic political ethos. “why?” one of my young republican friends writes (i paraphrase): "those spoiled bourgeois scandics decided to join their own european economic union for profit, now they're complaining and want to pull out. fuck 'em. and – who would be crazy enough to trust the russians?” (referring i presume, to george w's intention to disregard the standing inter-ballistic treaty with russia and to go ahead protecting and policing the world single-handedly, as well as building a nice new nuclear domestic defense shield). well, here's another point of view: the european union, yet another far reaching tentacle of economic globalization, is, along with their big daddy (remember NATO) american corporate friends, not only proliferating the enfranchisement of the mcdonald's/nike planet and destroying indigenous culture and national self respect in the process, but is also polluting the planet in dangerous and uncontrolled ways, as well as underpaying and exploiting its third world workers in humiliating and inhuman, non-contractual ways. for chrissake, it's the same reason our country came up with child labor laws, reasonable work hours, and a way to protect the environment. now, in the name of profit and economic "cooperation", we can suddenly throw all that humane socialist, democratic shit down the drain? no wonder greenpeace's truck says: "kyoto without george w.", referring to the global environmental protection treaty the president refuses to sign, seemingly and blatantly in the name of american corporate profit and self interest. such double standards, hypocrisy, arrogance, greed, self-centeredness (geocentrism), george! it makes me sick - and very unproud to be an american. in fact, i can only hope i live to see the end of the american empire in my lifetime - to see the new-age and yet-to-be-known huns loot and destroy the over-inflated roman conquerors of our time. of course, i hope i'm living on the island of borneo at the time, and all the rest of you have come over to visit. or - maybe we'll live to see our own country implode into oblivion with the intra collision between religious bible thumping zealots, gun toters, fat cat and white trash over eaters, corporate raiders, liberal dems, conservative elephants, and intellectual cultural warriors of every persuasion. between hubris and self destruction, we're crusin' for a bruisin'.... anyway, you get my drift as i rustle off to oslo and the nordic fjords. keeping my eye on beauty and leaving the bare ass politics behind.... love for now, erik w.