Counterculturalist
13th November 2014, 18:01
I'm a 37 year old grad school student in Toronto. I returned to school six years ago after spending 13 years working in a factory in the industrial wasteland of Windsor, Ontario.
Politically, I'm either a Marxist with anarchist tendencies, or an anarchist who really likes Marx. I'm also an avid feminist. By way of explanation of my user name, I'm also interested in various countercultural movements, from romanticism, into surrealism and dada, through the beats and the new left and punk rock.
You could say I'm a lifelong lefty. My parents were hippies and instilled a fairly socialist, or at least progressive, viewpoint in me from a young age. As a child, I was obsessed with classic rock, and took the lyrics of people like John Lennon and Bob Dylan very seriously. As a teenager I got into punk rock, and lyrics by the likes of the Dead Kennedys and Crass strengthened my convictions.
While I never abandoned my beliefs, being stuck in a factory and the resulting substance abuse I undertook to escape the mind-numbing tedium led to several years of effective apathy. Upon returning to school, I found myself becoming re-politicized.
I'm mostly interested in re-inserting the ideas of the left into public consciousness. Occupy Wall Street was a good first step, but victims of capitalism need to know that there is an alternative that is neither the barbaric feudalism of the right, the watered-down liberalism of the so-called political left, or the obscurantist elitism of the academic left.
I doubt I'll be the most prolific poster here, but I'm looking forward to participating in discussions.
Politically, I'm either a Marxist with anarchist tendencies, or an anarchist who really likes Marx. I'm also an avid feminist. By way of explanation of my user name, I'm also interested in various countercultural movements, from romanticism, into surrealism and dada, through the beats and the new left and punk rock.
You could say I'm a lifelong lefty. My parents were hippies and instilled a fairly socialist, or at least progressive, viewpoint in me from a young age. As a child, I was obsessed with classic rock, and took the lyrics of people like John Lennon and Bob Dylan very seriously. As a teenager I got into punk rock, and lyrics by the likes of the Dead Kennedys and Crass strengthened my convictions.
While I never abandoned my beliefs, being stuck in a factory and the resulting substance abuse I undertook to escape the mind-numbing tedium led to several years of effective apathy. Upon returning to school, I found myself becoming re-politicized.
I'm mostly interested in re-inserting the ideas of the left into public consciousness. Occupy Wall Street was a good first step, but victims of capitalism need to know that there is an alternative that is neither the barbaric feudalism of the right, the watered-down liberalism of the so-called political left, or the obscurantist elitism of the academic left.
I doubt I'll be the most prolific poster here, but I'm looking forward to participating in discussions.