Plug · 31 December 02
If you’re as bored as I am with the stream of retrograde neocon newspeak from power-dazzled apologists – those who, despite having long abused the gravitas of rage and instability brought about by an unspeakable atrocity a year and a half ago, continue to use it to justify the telling of simplistic lies on behalf of the greedy and stupid (it’s amusing to note that the most lurid Cold War fantasies of covert propaganda spread on behalf of the military-industrial complex by government operatives have been rendered irrelevant by a chattering horde of now serving it up for free every day: who needs black ops when you’ve got blog*spot) – then you’ll find a breathtaking voice of reason in .
Written with astonishing conviction and clarity by the historian Mike Wallace, whose breadth of knowledge on New York and its history are incomparable, this short, incredibly sane book hits at precisely the right targets (for example, the ‘profiteers’ who would fling up a massive shopping mall at Ground Zero) and, more importantly, offers a comprehensive plan for rebuilding lower Manhattan informed by a rich understanding of what makes a city work for its residents, not just its businessmen.
Buy it, read it, shove it in the face of the next person who uses the word ‘democracy’ as a euphemism for ‘predatory capitalism’.
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