Newtopia | Issue #9 - March 2003: "Sovereignty"

As many of the readers of this publication are aware, its name has its origin with Mr. Lennon. The first reference to the concept of nutopia -- its current spelling owes its existence to the imagination of Charles Shaw, founder of newtopiamagazine -- appears on Lennon's album, Mind Games. On it there is a few seconds of silence, a silence that was meant to serve as the anthem of this imaginary place. It is from that inspiration that the purpose of this publication is based.

People in America argue moral imperative, that Hussein is a despotic leader who victimizes his own people. When looking at this in light of the way we reacted to the behavior of the Taliban, it seems more and more apparent that the moral imperative is simply a fringe benefit, an ornamental, non-structural curtain wall covering the raw, exposed truth that this war is being fought pre-emptively for a future controlling Energy and a plan to openly reshape the Middle East as a secular democracy. We are sending soldiers to die today so that in twenty years we will be the true and apparent Empire everyone fears. The Empire isn't going to happen today, but we'll wake up in 2025 or 2030 and realize we control everything. Everything.

The Bush Administration has accomplished what no other presidency in modern history has managed: it has achieved effective domination of all levers of power in American society. It directly controls the military and internal security apparatus, has approved massive economic expenditures, dominates the judicial branch, exercises indirect control over mass media, and has engineered a virtual breakdown in the constitutional system of checks and balances. The result is that there is no longer any effective, constitutionally sanctioned route via which the silenced majority of the American public can express its opposition to policies which are dramatically and demonstrably not in its best interest.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Chechnya refused to be re-incorporated into the Russian Federation as one of its 21 autonomous republics. The roots of the Chechen dissent reach as far back as the late 18th century, when the Chechen resistance to the Russian colonial forces evolved into a full-fledged war in 1785-1791.

Even if the majority of French spent most of last summer congratulating themselves for pulling back from the abyss of Le Pen's black hole. That's because whatever the reasons for Le Pen's near-election, the mere fact he was runner-up raises a number of nagging questions. Number one on the list: Does Le Pen's appeal suggest the French are a racist, anti-immigrationist people?

Sovereignty is never absolute. It is a human concept based on exception: the sovereign is exceptional. It is a form of power profoundly based on the interpretation and will of law. That makes it malleable, human, but nonetheless powerful. Alex White Plume is not a sovereign, not yet at least. He is an Ogala Sioux Indian. His claim to sovereignty rests on the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

No other recent event showcases the madness surrounding what is called political correctness more than the 1999 "niggardly" debacle in Washington. D.C. David Howard, the director of a municipal agency, announced to his staff that budget cutbacks were forcing him to be niggardly with funds, and there was such an uproar, he was forced to resign. He did get his job back, but only after the mayor acknowledged that he had been too quick to condemn Howard's use of the word. However, there was no shortage of commentators who-though acknowledging that the word "niggardly" has nothing at all to do with race-criticized Howard for using it.

They watched as their shadows, merging silently before them, slipped under the perilous weight of the evening light into the ash at their feet, and then she fell. Subterranean pipes burst with the heat, the earth yawned obliquely and into the void Fareeza plummeted, like a doll flung down by a petulant child. She sank rigidly upright, her body feeding the chasm of smoldering oil. The indigo hair burst into flames, the white hands fluttered upwards, the mouth he so adored blossomed and was lost in a burst of cinder.

In a relentless, heroic crusade against the British, whom he kept at bay, for twenty long years, on his own steam, Tipu Sultan's exalted vow was to drive the British, the foreign 'infidels' and 'usurpers,' out of his kingdom and, ultimately, from Indian soil. And, when he died a hero's death, over 200 years ago, in only his 49th summer of existence, the decks were cleared for the Union Jack's monopoly on its futuristic Jewel in the Crown. After Tipu, the 'Tiger' of Mysore, there's just no one to stall the smooth run of the English juggernaut in its firm resolution to conquer India.

Despite the modern man's achievements or to put in a glorified manner, despite the greatness of this age, peace eludes the Earth like a dread.

I believe the Year When It All Changed was 1975, when Old Marin became Modern Marin. I am not sure what got it all started. As you recall, the Seventies were weird. The people who had moved into the area in the mid-Fifties from San Francisco or further away started to see their boomer kids go off to college. Many apparently happy marriages were closely self-examined and did not stand up to scrutiny. Some parents had lost kids in Vietnam. Disillusionment gradually defeated illusionment, turning into delusionment. Change and pot smoke were in the air.

Machismo's customary associations are with the demonstratively aggressive, vain, and foolhardy. It thrives --- and dies --- in the bedroom, in an alley over two broken beer bottles, or on a motorbike dirt track. Machismo is a pocket mirror reflecting most visibly on itself and a long-distance lens recording the rest of the field as incidental extra. Image is its reward --- and booby prize.

Karl Marx was a Fool. Religion is not the opiate of the masses. Human beings are essentially religious beasts, and if we don't have a Christ figure, we'll make religions out of turnips, political or intellectual ideas, or whatever the fuck. What I object to, and what I think Marx did too though he didn't say it very well, is the way religions that rely on a central authority figure and a promise of an afterlife play right into the hands of power mongers, encouraging the devoted to embrace their suffering in the name of eventual redemption.

From the shattered streets of Israel and the Occupied Territories comes a vivid account of one man's anguish and determination to make sense of a conflict seemingly without end. Living at the very heart of East Jerusalem, Henry Carse, writer, practical theologian, scholar, and father of four children living amidst the mayhem, ventures out to engage with Israeli and Palestinian friends alike to starkly reveal the desperation and hope that thrive in that barren place.

An alternative to the life you've been dreaming, the ideas you've been drinking, and the rhetoric you've been eating.

12. Mourning One's Own

The current state of affairs in sex, relationships, and sexuality from a global, political and cultural perspective. All things cold, detached, multi-partnered and hedonistic.

Newtopia's resident mother hen chimes in on Motherhood and its role in the New World Order.

A rampant nosedive into the road flanked by media and politics.

my brow pulls down; my upper lip thrusts forward. / I look to myself as if I could guard something, / am a little pissed off, like / baboons in the parking lots on television look

I am a Filipina woman. / And in my country / There are three thousand / American soldiers. / This is my song, / My song of satire, my lament, / My call to action

Water runs downhill to the sea, a confluence / of spume and every human thing collected / as it falls. Pockets of dust are bits of skin from / the coastal towns, updrafts are an alchemy of feathers

Shortly the discontent will rise / again, for it is clear you are trying / to return to something you / cannot describe

Finalist in the Richard Yates Short Story Contest

wasn't sure if I wanted to hear more or not but it seemed Abdulla was giving me a good story to write about. Neeha seemed to me a good person. Why would anyone want to rape her; especially her father? I knew Abdulla wouldn't lie to me because we had been friends since college, and I had never known him to tell me anything that was not true. My heart developed feelings I never thought I had. Why her Father? It was such a bitter truth. As I sat with my face in my hands, pouring out my heart, Abdullah poured himself another drink of wine.

Cutting edge cultural news with an American Flair by Buzzwords author Andrew Gallix, chief editor of 3am.

Writes Benjamin R Barber, a professor of political science, in his persuasive book, Jihad vs McWorld: "Caught between Babel and Disneyland, the planet is falling precipitously apart and coming reluctantly together at the same moment." His canon is, indeed, striking - a penetrating analysis of the fundamental conflict of our times. A state of conflict: of consumerist capitalism versus religious and tribal fundamentalism.

CinemaShrink Says "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, brilliant or bizzare, suggests that a man who discovers that the most despicable ideas in his mind make incredibly popular TV shows is a man who wrestles with an enemy of the people within his own psyche. Killing an audience, killing a supposed enemy and killing the soul merge into a deadly game of intrigue and entertainment."

CinemaShrink Says, "All the Real Girls is for all the men who have ever asked the question, "What do women want?" Watch closely, slowly and be delightfully surprised. Find out what real women mean when they say they want the real thing. Love is not a fantasy. Love is a feeling. It survives disillusionment."

I was in a bar drinking with a friend, and the news that Lisa Lopes had died came on TV, and he didn't really give a fuck, which I can understand. I think it made me realize that lots of people really wouldn't give a fuck, and I felt sorry for them for that. I can remember standing in a newsagent's a few days after the death of Aaliyah, and she was on the cover of Dazed & Confused, I think, and I remember thinking damn, she must have been thinking it was all going so well...