When nations grow old, the Arts grow cold,

And Commerce settles on every tree;

          —William Blake

Vigorous debate is the cornerstone of democracy.  But how vigorous can it be when most politicians, left and right, are but purchased-corporate puppets?  And how vigorous can it be when established-order poets, writers, and artists are fed by the universities, corporate foundations, and government grant-agencies? How many dare bite those hands that feed?  Very, very few indeed. In America, these things have helped reduce literature, for the most part, to apolitical ornamentation.  
     The letters below will reveal an uncanny sameness of reaction, as if one college “leadership” course on how to deal with critics were taken by proponents of the established order and one principle learned: DO NOT DEBATE! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DISPROVE CRITICISM WITH LOGIC! Preferably, remain silent or, if need be argue you have no time for debate or excuse yourself with “decorous and prudent” (Emerson) civility or respond with an asinine, cutesy, pseudo-clever quip, or if sufficiently angered by the criticism, simply call the critic an “asshole.”

“In the Field of social psychology, a breaching experiment is an experiment that seeks to examine peoples’ reactions to violations of commonly accepted social rules or norms. The strength of the reaction is taken as an indication of the strength of the rule” (Wikipedia).  Evidently the strength of “thou shalt not offend poets, editors, and academics” is a damn strong rule.

     The Faustian deal of literary functionaries, both high and low, is generally with the hand that feeds. Academe is of prime importance because it shapes the very core soul of the Nation and has been encouraging students and professors alike not to criticize, debate and challenge, but rather to team play, team deny, team lie, and team swill at the trough.

     The most negative criticism of The American Dissident and/or its editor will be included, per usual, under this rubric, which is open to letters from contributors who have chosen, as civic duty, to actively challenge hypocrisy. What is needed is a small army of kamikaze literati to shake up the Machine. But how to find recruits? 

     Positive comments have been received on this section. Due to space restrictions, letters, especially those written by the editor, have been truncated and many others not included. The following are real letters. Nothing has been taken out of context. There are no jokes here, except the sad kind… 

—Concord & Elsewhere in Massachusetts—

To the Concord Book Shop:  Has hypocrisy become an American trait?  How odd you'd be listed with “Fearless Independents”!  “Chamber-of-Commerce Dependents” would be more honest!  But if I'm wrong and you are fearless, then please consider stocking once again The American Dissident, a Concord-based literary journal.  BTW, the journal is featured this month in the Concord Public Library Art Gallery.  Why not take a gander... then we'll see just how fearless... [No response—oh, but of course!] 

To Honorable Niki Tsongas (5^th District, Massachusetts):  Please take a moment to read my complaint regarding the National Endowment for the Arts (www.theamericandissident.org/NEA.htm).  Can we not make that organization accountable?  BTW, I am equally disgusted that I am unable to obtain any public funding whatsoever for my 501 c3 nonprofit literary journal from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Concord Cultural Council. How might I legally fight the NEA, MCC and CCC on the grounds that I am being denied funding for political reasons?  Thank you for your attention, though I expect little if anything at all.  After all, the gulf separating the common citizen from the common politician in the USA is immense. [No response—of course!]

To Nick Capasso, Curator, DeCordova Museum (Lincoln, MA):  [N.B.:  He is the fellow depicted in the center of the watercolor on p. 3.  I’d invited him to visit the exhibit, “Literature, Democracy & Dissidence,” held at the Concord Free Public Library in the hope of eventually doing a similar one at DeCordova.  A week after the end of the exhibit, I sent the following, having heard not a word.]  May I correctly assume that  a) you did not have the opportunity to visit the exhibit; b) you did visit, but one or several of your friends were satirized in the watercolors (e.g., perhaps the curator of Thoreau Institute?); or
c) you did visit, but did not like the emphasis on fond (substance), as opposed to forme.  If your response is “a,” how might I get a hearing for my critical watercolors vis-a-vis De Cordova? Finally, if there is one artistic principle that guides me, it is bite the hand that feeds or is apt to feed.  From that principle, one can be assured of maintaining ones course on the pathway of truth.  In fact, most of my creativity stems from direct conflict with pillars of the community, artistic, literary et al.  If your response is “b” (and let’s hope not!) or even “c,” what does that say about art? 

From Nick Capasso:  Thanks for the reminder. I ran right over to the Library to see your show. Congratulations!  While DeCordova Museum does have a long track record of presenting politically engaged contemporary art, I’m afraid that we will not be able to include your work in our exhibition program. Good luck fining [sic] other venues for your work.

To Nick Capasso: Again, do you know the curator at Thoreau Institute?  [No response—oh, but of course!] 

From Professor Jack Conway (University of Massachusetts—Dartmouth):   Dear Mr. Bone [sic]:  I am always inyterested [sic] when one of my many students bring to my attention any remarks regarding all my many publications. The follwoing [sic] was recently brought to my attention: “Jack Conway writes: ‘I teach my students at both Bristol Community College and the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth that the genre of poetry is a ‘big tent’ with room beneath it for many different forms and styles. I also teach them that there are many people with measuring tapes out there in the world of poetry today trying to measure American Poetry for a coffin and to beware of them.’ Perhaps Conway also needs to inform his students that poetry is, or at least should be, much more than “form and style.” It is, or at least should be, also substance. He needs to inform them which “substances” constitute taboos; for example, criticism of the University of Massachusetts and its creative writing professors. Conway needs to challenge his students to break those taboos. Moreover, he might inform them that that coffin is being measured perhaps because of the nation’s poetry professors, including Conway himself.”  I presume it apperad [sic] in your blog or something. I am not sure. I find it hard to believe that you migth [sic] write something like this with so little information, including what I teach. Well, the Internet has been good for one thing: It has allowed people like yourself who woud [sic] not be published otherwise to try and feel some limited success. Good for you. As for me, I guess I'll get back to real publishing. Thanks for the comments. I's [sic] too bad you have it all wrong but I'm pretty sure your readers expect that. I kknow [sic] the student who brought this to my attention did. They said, "Look at this trite shit.." I had to laugh. When I sked [sic] who wrote it she said, "Some undereducated pig." Yikes. So there ya go. I guess the good news is that those of us who teach in colleges and universities reach far more people than stuff like this. In fact, I recently read a wonderful statement saying that blogs and self-publishing sites like I presume yours is, are now looked upon by t he current generation as vanity presses without the paper. Well, goodluck [sic] in whatever it is you do and I am sincerely glad that even without much of an education you can feel some limited success publ;ishing [sic] even if it is seen as pedestrian.

To Professor Jack Conway:  Come on, surely, as a professor, you can do better than making fun of my last name! And you really ought not to be encouraging students to engage in similar, childish ad hominem rhetoric (e.g., "Some undereducated pig.").  With that regard, examine theamericandissident.org/AdHominem.htm.  In fact, why not direct your students to that web page?  It might actually incite them to think! All I did concerning you was simply examine with a sharp critical eye a rather vacuous statement you made regarding poetry (for the full context, consult theamericandissident.org/BookReviews-Rattle.htm).  Vis-à-vis publishing, why denigrate self-publishing, given the rather bourgeois nature of the publishing machine? Besides, since when did quantity (“all my publications”) indicate quality? Do you actually know any poets who haven’t published right and left and everywhere else? Indeed, being well-published today and vaunting that fact, as you do, is as banal as it gets.  Since   you’ve demeaned my record in that area without having any idea of it, I attach a partial list to this email.  You note:  “I am sincerely glad that even without much of an education you can feel some limited success…”  But can you actually make such a broad determination regarding my “education” from five sentences?  Or do you simply choose to perceive anyone apt to criticize you as automatically uneducated?  If so, apparently you’re not the only one in higher education to do that. Indeed, it is as if an intellectual cancer has been spreading in the ranks of the professorate, rendering real critical thinking to the realm of improper manners, while lowering “education” to that of collegiality and general multicultural groupthink.  For the record, I do possess a doctorate from the Université de Nantes (France)… not that that makes me particularly “educated,” though through ivory-tower eyes it likely would. On another note, the plethora of spelling and grammar errors in your email ought to dumbfound, though given the state of networked-cronyism in Massachusetts, perhaps not.  Indeed, reading your email reminded me of reading the worst of student papers. I suggest you consult my writing-well lecture (theamericandissident.org/DUWritingWell.htm), especially point #9 with regards proofreading and spell checking.  You note, regarding my five-sentence critique:  “I guess the good news is that those of us who teach in colleges and universities reach far more people than stuff like this.”  Good news?  It would make me cry if not such old news.  Those of you—not all, but perhaps as many as 99% of you—“who teach” have been disgracefully failing the citizenry relative to the importance of democracy.  Far too many of you have proven to be frightfully terrible role models in your conformity (i.e., herd-like behavior), careerism, and spinelessness.  You fail to teach the importance of questioning and challenging, not to mention vigorous debate, preferring instead to inculcate blind obedience to the canon and worship of its icons Pinsky, Collins, Dove, Angelou, Snyder et al. Finally, what you failed to do is examine my argument that for poetry to be meaningful, it should be more than simple forme, metaphor, and playful wit.  In other words, it NEEDS to contain substance.  These things said, why not consider subscribing to The American Dissident? Your students (well, perhaps not that female) would surely appreciate its refreshingly critical stance.  [No response]

To Richard Callaghan, Director of the Bedford Public Library:  Yesterday I met with you for a brief moment by the circulation desk regarding my new book and biannual literary journal, The American Dissident.  “Did you want to donate the book?” you immediately asked when I showed it to you.  “Not really,” I said.  “Do you ask the multimillionaire writers whose books you purchase to donate theirs?”  You didn’t respond.  Yes, do you ask multimillionaire Concord-author Doris Kearns Goodwin to do that?  Surely, the logic must escape you.  Then I showed you a copy of The American Dissident.  “Oh yes, I think we looked at this a while ago,” you said.  “Yes, you probably did and I never got it back,” I replied.  “Nobody even informed me of your conclusions with its regard.  Why did you reject it?”  “You have to understand we’re only a local library,” you said.  “Well, about five  local libraries subscribe,” I argued.  The points you make are not cogent ones.  The real reasons for your not subscribing and not purchasing that book are evident.  Why do you not have the courage to state them?  Are you just too used to prevaricating?  Clearly, you found the criticism and viewpoints repugnant in The American Dissident.  Clearly, you don’t give a damn about the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights, in particular:  “II.   Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.” 
Your library does not contain the points of view expressed in The American Dissident and in my book.  It is that simple.  And you simply shrug that fact off; dismiss it, as you dismiss democracy.  Shameful!  By the way, I have a doctoral degree from the Universite de Nantes (France).  How about inviting me to read at Bedford Public Library?  It would never happen!  Look at yourself in the mirror.  Look at this country and what is happening to it, rather than gloat in your prizes and executive titles.  “Anytime you want to donate the book, we’d be glad to add it to our collection,” you stated a second time.  “Why would I want to donate it to a library that doesn’t want to support the small press and local authors?” I responded. “How do I know you wouldn’t just throw it in the garbage like you did with that copy of The American Dissident?”  You really dishonor the area’s dissident American revolutionary patriots and dissident writers like Emerson, Thoreau, and Alcott.  You promote established-order poets, but do not do the same for poets who dare go against the established-order grain.  You promote National Poetry Month, but would likely not even permit me to post a flyer on your bulletin board protesting that month.  Yes, the Academy of American Poets acts as a censor.  The American Library Association needs to discuss its Bill of Rights and how it is likely not being implemented in most public libraries and otherwise scorned by many library directors like you.  In other words, that Bill of Rights really tends to be nothing but backslapping hot air.  The very issue evidently interests you not in the least as indicated by your lack of desire to even discuss it with me.  Instead of opening your shelves to tough criticism of the academic/literary established order, you prefer purchasing heaps of Dummy and Idiot books and vacuous bestseller novels.  You buy books by famous people without even asking what famous often tends to mean.  For you, likely without even reflecting, it automatically means excellence.  For me, however, it means playing the game and kowtowing up the ladder to dubious “success.”  This email and your response will be published in the next issue of the journal so that citizens around the country can read it.  One day, I suspect you’ll be getting an award for promoting vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy, and even one for tolerance of dissident viewpoints in the public library.  Hey, how about if I donate my book during Banned Books Week.  Yes, you could display it next to other banned books. I look forward to what you have to say and do hope it’s much better than “we’re just a local library.”  

From English Professor JT Skerrett, Jr. (University of Massachusetts):  do you really think that insulting and reviling the faculty is the way to persuade us to read your publication? You don't kmow [sic] anything about sany [sic] of us and your e-mail suggersts [sic] that you don't know aything [sic] about politics either.  [see 10/16/08 “Warning: The Citizen General Has Deemed the Current Academic Culture Harmful to Democracy Academe” at wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com]
 

—Outside Massachusetts—

To Jason K. Chapman, Director, Information Technology, Poets & Writers, Inc.:  Question:  Is The American Dissident banned from your listing of Literary Magazines paid for with the help of public monies thanks to the NEA? 
Answer:  Yes.  (Or could I be wrong?)  [No response]

From Jonathan L. Lister, Jr. (Lebanon, PA):  It is often difficult to find a publisher who will put work out there that is confrontational in a social justice venue, a political action vein, and for that I thank you. My own history with dissension comes from the revolutionary poets I have studied with at Naropa University. Amiri Baraka taught me to always find a voice for change, to always look for who profits to find the guilty, Jack Hirschman showed me how to write for the streets, the poorest and most disenfranchised among us, and Sonia Sanchez embodied the power of peace; that the real measure of a weapon is the putting down of that weapon. 

To Jonathan L. Lister, Jr.:  Baraka and Hirschman sold out to fame and the literary machine.  Too bad Naropa University didn’t encourage you to criticize it, its deans and kowtow chairpersons.  Bite the hand that feeds!  Your poems are riskless.  [No response]

From Jack Hirschman:  dear g. tod—dunno if these two poems will answer your prayers re dissidence and the poet (per your fine sheet of thoughts)—let me know when you have a moment—sempre, jack hirschman, poet laureate of the city of san francisco

To Jack Hirschman: Thanks for sending poems my way.  However, I’m looking for poetry rooted in a personal experience and/or direct conflict with power, preferably local.  And rarely do I ever receive such poems.  Also, I have a problem with poet-laureate designates and have cartooned a number of them over the years, you and Ferlinghetti included.  See attached.  That said, I’m always wide open to debate and to altering my opinions when proven wrong.  

From Jack Hirschman:  Bottom of Form

a communist serves as the poet laureate in a big city in this country and you carp and cartoon and call it dissidence?  you deserved that pome about Stalin. If you really had guts you'd publish it, sadsong George. 

To Jack Hirschman:  Evidently, I hit a nerve, and that is always the purpose of satirical cartoons.  Too bad Ferlinghetti is too high up there in the realm of bank accounts to receive the toons I’ve done on him.  Thank you for the confirmation.  I suspect the San Fran Chamber of Commerce and city council also have their card-carrying communists?  And what difference communist poet laureate or communist businessman or noncommunist?  Help me here, per favore!  How not to think of Jorge Guillén, Castro's poet-laureate houseboy!  Now, calm it down and contemplate.  I am a fervent believer in dialogue unlike many communists... and many capitalists! 

From Jack Hirschman: no in fact, you don't believe in dialogue, and your basic approach is blindly cut off from the perception of another—sad myopia.  perhaps you haven't read the most important book of poems written by an american in a generation. it's called THE ARCANES and is 1,000 pages long. google my name—it;s jack hirschman. you're gonna eat your toon.

To Jack Hirschman:  Since I am engaging in dialogue—responding to each and every point you make—, why state that I don’t believe in dialogue?  Where is the logic in that?  On the other hand, you have conveniently failed to respond to each point I’ve made.  Therefore, perhaps, you are the one who doesn’t believe in dialogue, not I!  Besides, your responses tend not to be responses at all, but rather ad hominem directed at me (e.g., “sad myopia”) and statements of self-vaunting.  Indeed, to call ones own book “the most important” is simply a sad (since you like that adjective) example of egomania gone awry and is precisely what I’ve been observing over the years in the poetry and academic milieu:  unchecked delusions of grandeur and self-congratulations.  Let others make the statements of greatness with your regard, not you!  And preferably let the others who make the statements not be blurbling friends, as so often was the case regarding the Beatniks, especially the Beat members of the friends-only American Academy of Arts & Letters.  Now, who the hell in his right mind would want to read 1,000 pages of your poetry?  And who the hell in his right mind would want to read 1,000 pages of mine?  Get real, man, get real! Besides, quantity is never a good measure of quality.  Sadly, like the bulk herd of poets today, you seem to think it is.  Send me the greatest poem out of the 1,000 pages, the poem that will last a decade or even two after your death (note, I didn’t write centuries).  Amiri Baraka, who I don’t care for, at least managed to get his poetry-circle networking ass fired from his job as poet laureate of New Jersey.  Why haven’t you gotten yours fired from yours? Clearly, you are not dangerous to the city council cogs, local poetaster circles, and San Fran State University poesy professors.  Am I right? 

From Jack Hirschman: don't look for debate chums, join a revolutionary organization like the league of revolutionaries for a new america and begin to live your language, as pasolini understood, as what it really is—action.  Jack

To Jack Hirschman:  Thanks, Jack.  As for action, do you mean kowtowing up the ladder to poet laureate?  Do you mean stifling voices of anyone who disagrees with you?

From Jack Hirschman:  really, george, you sound like a pouting adolescent—you know—obviously—very little of me and you've already have come from a bunch of premeditated conclusion probably based on lf's rejection.  he's your real target. i myself have just come from the flor y canto latin poetry events of revolutionary poets, myself included as a translator of roque dalton's clandestine poems—get it from curbstone press. read the poem act then write me again because you'll have then gotten to know me better. j.a.h. 

To Jack Hirschman: Try avoiding ad hominem rhetoric (e.g., “pouting adolescent”) since it is a sure sign of adolescence and no cogent argument. Your use of ad hominem already tells me a lot about you.  Besides, why should I want to know more or much about you?  Is it the fame inanity you seem to bathe in?  Is that it?  Why do you continually need to vaunt yourself? I’ll certainly check up on Dalton, but won’t need a translation by you. We need to hammer the corruption inherent in our poetry milieu for it has become largely co-opted (rendered innocuous) by corporate America.  BTW, the cartoon I sketched on you was done as a result of a blind praise article on you I’d read in some West Coast free paper several years ago.  What I read gave me no desire at all to hunt for more.  In fact, I believe we already had a dispute perhaps a decade ago RE Left Curve.  You’d chastised me because I’d praised Céline over the Beats.  My “real targets” as you term them are frauds, left or right, revolutionaries (à la John Lennon in his mansion writing we’re gonna have a revolution, Ferlinghetti in his mansion saying the same, Fidel killing Cuban dissidents, Mao murdering millions, Stalin doing the same, not to mention good ole American corporate porkers).  What I am looking for and almost never receive are submissions of poetry written from direct activist experience, no matter how insignificant.  Since you purport yourself to be thus, why did you send poetry not thus?  I suspect you’ll ignore most points made in this email.  [No response]

To Jack Hirschman:  Para ti, Jack, traduzco en español más próximo a nosotros (en la derecha) el pequeñito poema de Dalton (en la izquierda):

Juro que lo oí decir

«Salvo en una sociedad completamente justa,
lo mejor de la vida
es ser jefe.»    rd
 

Juro que lo oí decir

“Salvo en un medio literario completamente justo,
lo mejor de la vida

es ser poeta laureado.”  gts
 

To Michael Silvestro, Vice President for Human Resources & Institutional Effectiveness (Passaic County Community College):  Well, I was going to apply for the English Critical Thinking position-opening... until I read your amazingly onerous title and immediately realized the critical thinking you would likely insist be taught would be anything but critical thinking.  [No response]

To Doug Lederman, editor of Inside Higher Education:  How about something with teeth... for once?  Must cartoons be like the toothless filler poems published in the New Yorker and The Atlantic?  Why not have riskier cartoons that will instigate debate?  How disappointing, yet unsurprising, it was to read the June issue of The Atlantic!  Yes, an article, "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower," the only article signed anonymously, for chrissakes!  It's as if in America the academics are living/teaching under Hitler.  Yet they are not.  (See attached for cartoons.)  Also, see my essay on the NEA, which of course you will not publish because it dares name names.  [No response]
To editors of Pax Americana:  Does not your amazingly unrealistic, if not self-vauntingly egocentric, goal of creating a network of writers et al “that will one day undermine the military-industrial complex” constitute a “rant”?  Why therefore state you dislike “rants”?  Logic is all but absent in the minds of far too many writers and poets today!  Humor will not budge the complex one iota!  At least, subversive anger will shake it up a tad.  Rethink your statement of purpose, deflate it a couple of notches, and try bringing it into reality.  Look at the horseshit in your own literary backyard, try cleaning it up a little, then set your scope a notch higher. 

From Ben Mirov, Pax Americana: Thank you for your criticisms of pax americana. Rarely do we receive such insightful, incisive comments. We have taken your letter into consideration and hope future issues will include a larger amount of subversive anger. If you would like to donate to our operation please do so at your leisure. We can assure you that any proceeds sent out [sic] way will go towards the cleanup and removal of all horse shit from our backyards.

To Michael Wiegers, Copper Canyon Press:  My assumption is that you've received money from the NEA.  Does that mean you are silenced with its regard?  Please examine the attached personal-experience essay.  None of these items are published.  Hopefully, you are not mind-numbed by multiculturalism, which in America sadly takes precedence over truth. 

From Michael Wiegers:  Thanks for sharing your work with us. I'm afraid I'm not reading unsolicited submissions at this time. I wish you the best in finding the right home for your work.

To Michael Wiegers:  Well, that's one way to skirt the issue, though as thinly veiled as it gets.  Of course, you're on the NEA tit, right?  [No response]

To Diane Haithman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer: Too bad you didn't have the guts or permission or brains to ask Gioia some hard questions.  What is wrong with today's journalists?  You simply report what these characters say, instead of questioning and challenging what they say.  Too many journalists are sell outs.  If you still have any free thought in your journalism-school brain, examine theamericandissident.org/NEA.htm. 

From Diane Haithman:  Thanks for writing…Diane

To Diane Haithman:  You’re welcome.

To Gale Nelson, Assistant Director of Literary Arts, Brown University:  Your fellowship for an established international writer "who is unable to practice free expression in his or her homeland" seems to be quite an oddity.  Why “established”?  In fact, how can one be “established” if the established order rejects ones free expression?  Your fellowship seems pretentiously nationalistic.  It is as if you’re saying in America we have unbridled free expression.  Yet try expressing yourself at Brown University, for example, and likely you’ll find yourself on the unemployment line or, if tenured, denied extra courses, sabbaticals, and/or emeritus designation! Why not establish instead or in addition a fellowship for an American writer who finds him or herself ostracized for practicing free expression in America?  Universities in this country are not generally bastions of free expression at all, but rather bastions of collegiality, speech codes, backslapping, networking, image-distorting, and fear of going against the grain or bucking the system.  In fact, why not actually establish a fellowship for professors in America who cannot find teaching jobs in America because they cannot obtain three letters of recommendation certifying they do not generally practice free expression when employed and would thus likely never make waves?  Yes, I am one of those writers and professors.  Thank you for your attention.  I look forward to your response! 

From Gale Nelson:  My thanks for your suggestions. I'll forward them to the committee members who review the policies for the International Writers Project at Brown University.