One Last Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

[filkertom]

Nobel-prize-winning author and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has died at the age of 89.

Which political writers and writings have influenced you? Mine would be a long list, but the US Constitution, Thoreau, Jefferson and Adams and especially Benjamin Franklin, essays by Zinn and Greenwald and Conason and Ellison, and the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman would all be up there.

ETA: Thanks for the mention by lola_mccrary below. How could I have possibly forgotten Garry Trudeau? Walt Kelly and Al Capp did some small bit, but, holy FSM, Doonesbury is arguably the most influential comic strip of all time.

Comments

[alymid.livejournal.com]

Abbie Hoffman (certainly not the only one, but you listed most of the rest I would have)

[danceswithlife]

Garry Trudeau. I was reading "Doonesbury" in 1971 at the age of 14 in Orange County, CA. Probably the first political thing I ever did was to call the Orange County Register to protest the paper dropping the comic at the height of its criticisms of Nixon.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

Murray Rothbard, L. Neil Smith, and Ayn Rand.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Joseph Heller, pretty much for everything.

Kurt Vonnegut, mostly for Cat's Cradle and Jailbird

Robert Penn Warren, for All the King's Men

John Stuart Mill and John Locke.

Lately, Naomi Klein for The Shock Doctrine

Berke Breathed

Thorstien Veblen

John Mortimer

...and the Jon Lee Anderson biography of Che Guevara on the fringe left, and the writings of Ayn Rand, Harry Browne and Robert Bork on the fringe right actively influenced me AWAY from their ideas.

Solzhenitsyn / Mother Russia

[bfeist.livejournal.com]

Through sheer coincidence, over the last few days I've listened to "Mother Russia" by Renaissance, sung by Annie Haslam, a few times for the first time in decades. (See, Tom? I *do* listen to music other than yours sometimes, and it isn't even always filk!)

Aside from the irony of my listening to a song which was at least in part inspired by Solzhenitsyn just before he died, the fact that such a rock song exists is intrinsically ironic given the man's aversion to such music.

Ayn Rand

[bfeist.livejournal.com]

I was profoundly moved by Rand's writings when I was a teenager; it took years for me to conclude that her philosophy was simplistic to the point of absurdity. I still appreciate many of her ideas and consider them valid, but I've generalized them to the point where she would find them rather alien, and counter to her teachings.

In particular, I believe in a sort of generalized selfishness as a supreme and desirable motivating force. However, my concept of self does not end with this physical body, or even with the mind operating it. Self is anything with which I choose to identify with. Self is my own consciousness, my family, my neighborhood, my country, my species, all life, and my planet, galaxy, and entire universe. It includes, on occasion, men, feminists, liberals, readers, martial arts practitioners, fat people, smart people, SF&F fans, Internet users, teachers, and photographers.

Anything that I do for any of these communities (or many others), I do for my extended self... all such acts are acts of selfishness, and no further reason for doing them is needed.

Of course, I also do things to promote other communities not part of my "self" when I feel that doing so would be a good thing for my extended-self. I support civil rights for various groups that I'm not directly part of, because that makes the world I live in (part of my extended self) more to my liking. Besides, people that I care about *are* part of those groups, and anyone that I care about is automatically part of my extended self.

"The Virtue of Selfishness"? Absolutely. Would Rand recognize it? Nah.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

I am not much impressed by writing about politics per se because it's usually so partisan; I tend to read about things that affect our political environment or understanding thereof. I would cite

Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa

On the Law of Nations by Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Earth in the Balance by Albert Gore

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker

and, of course The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn

(Just a coincidence that the first three were written by U.S. senators.)

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

My favorite political writers: Robert Heinlein, who got political both in his fiction and non-fiction (yeah, I know, some of his views were a tad rightist, but he did have a few good points), Harlan Ellison (many of his nonfiction essays, even the Glass Teat stuff, was overtly political), the late, lamented Molly Ivins, Dennis Miller (his "Rants" collections all adorn my bookshelf) and George Carlin, another dearly missed one. Also James Carville, my fellow Cajun and LSU grad, in his books such as We're Right, They're Wrong and Had Enough?.

Re: Solzhenitsyn / Mother Russia

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

It was also the song I thought of when I heard of Solhenitzyn's death. It is such an evocative song that you can almost feel his pain through the music.

Re: Ayn Rand

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

For a nice disillusioning look at how Rand actually put into practice what she preached (or failed to), the book to consult is Judgment Day, by Nathaniel Branden. Turns out the whole "Reason and logic/no first use of force or fraud" thing is only for when economic coercion is sufficient to dominate your enemies.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

I don't know if they were exactly what you'd call political but Carlos Castanda's books, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, I will fear no evil by Heinlein and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran were influential books in my youth. The Life and Death of Lenin almost got me kicked out of 5th grade.

[gavroche42.livejournal.com]

My short list contains a few that have been mentioned, plus a few others. I know I will think of others later I regret not thinking of now:

Victor Hugo
Thoreau
Joseph Heller
Phil Ochs
Billy Bragg
Garry Trudeau

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ivins was a true mother goddess, and Carlin would slide in the stuff and you'd laugh and laugh and later you'd think, "Hey, yeah." And Dennis was pretty good, too, until he wet 'em after 9/11. I literally cannot listen to him anymore.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Jeez, I should drag out the Ochs. Haven't listened to it in years, but he sure had some tremendous, gutsy songs.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Political writers, as an influence on the writing? I would have to say the Pulitzer-winning duo of Mike Luckovich and David Horsey. And I say duo because, even though Luckovich works for the Atlanta paper, and Horsey for the P-I here in the Emerald city, they both went to U-W... and have a similar thing for just every once in a while reaching out and grabbing your heartstrings.

I think it's at least in part why I took up the tradition of writing eulogies.

Writings... not so much, perhaps Jefferson, but the real influences have been the quotes, mainly Franklin and (more importantly) Patrick Henry:

“Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third — .” (TREASON! cried the speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses) “... And George the Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”

[gavroche42.livejournal.com]

Here's a site (http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics.html) with the lyrics for most of his songs, for those reading this who are unfamiliar with his work. Some of the songs were specific responses to the news that don't hold up as well today, but it's amazing how much does hold up (in some cases sadly.)

A partial list of songs I recommend:
Outside of a Small Circle of Friends
Love Me, I'm a Liberal
There But for Fortune
No More Songs
I Ain't Marching Anymore
The Power and the Glory