, P .. ., 9 C :A, s y, The Michigan Daily Wednesday, October 16, 1985 Ginsberg: 'Every thing is upside down' By Alan Paul OET ALLEN Ginsberg, known for decades for his outspoken disdain and disregard for "the system," is confused. ,The man whom J. Edgar Hoover's I considered "potentially ngerous" because of "expressions o strong or violent anti-US sen- tinent" as well as "conduct in- dicating a propensity for violence and ahtipathy toward good order and government" can no longer com- prehend the American scene. "For years I thought that we were on the verge of apocalypse," Ginsberg said. -"Now I think we're on the brink of total insanity - total Mr. Magoo." |Ginsberg's confusion is prompted by political, social, and economic fac- ters. He sees the ruling conservatives biehaving extremely, college students becoming narrow minded, and a deb- thr economy maintained by agreement. 'The conservatives are acting wierdly radical," Ginsberg said. "In 1980, they said they wanted to reduce the deficit and the federal bureaucracy. Instead, we have unheard of deficits - figures the New Deal Democrats couldn't have dieamed of - and an attempt to reduce local government's power by taking away their taxing rights. The conservatives are not conserving traditional American values. The srlall farmer is being wiped out. The old' Norman Rockwell picture, which was the heart of the conservative ideal, is gone. Everything is upside down." Ginsberg is also concerned about the new spirit that is overtaking 4merican youth; college students veting for military buildup and again- st social concerns, and more and more young people joining neo- conservative groups. "The younger kids seem to be get- ting a nasty temperament. The means never justify the ends. The young (conservatives) are using a lot of deradation tactics and it's not a very nice human quality," Ginsberg said. The poet perceives the American economy as so bad it is comical. "Everyone is scared to death," Ginsberg said. "The whole economy is maintained by agreement; there's no gold standard, just paper. So, everyone is scared to pull the plug. The whole nation is in debt now." Ginsberg believes that the new "campus conservatism" stems from several causes. It is both a response against the mistakes of the '60s left wing and a triumph of the "military- industrial cooperative." "The idiocies of the left were agressiveness and excessive violence and an over idealism," Ginsberg ex- plained. People were carrying around pictures of Mao and Castro, both of whom were essentially creeps also." "More importantly, however, people today are locked into the dynamics of the military-industrial cooperative and can't escape into the middle class. Military funds are get- ting bigger while money for the arts is virtually disappearing. Almost all new academic money goes into military research." Ginsberg, who will give a reading tomorrow night at Rackham Auditorium, burst upon the poetic world in 1956, at the age of 30, with the first line of "Howl." I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked. Ginsberg and cronie Jack Kerouac emerged from the thriving San Fran- cisco beatnik scene and had tremen- dous influence on the development of the "hippie culture." Throughout his career, Ginsberg has been censored and criticized over his forthright writing about his homosexuality. He has strong words for some of his recent antagonists. "The Moral Majority and the Stalinists are mirror images of each other. Both are totalitarian, strong arm organizations and will .not tolerate any dissension. Ginsberg, once the subject of exten- sive FBI files, recently contributed to Unamerican Activities, a book about FBI sabotage. It details the counter intelligence of the new left and the FBI sabotaging of the Black Panthers and other leftist organiztions. Many of the FBI files were provided by the Daily. Almost 30 years after "Howl," Allen Ginsberg is still writing new poetry. Recently, Collected Poems (1947- 1980), was published by Harper and Row, White Shroud (1980-85) is due soon. Ginsberg has been a Buddhist for over a decade, practices daily meditation, and strives for "spiritual expansion," which he feels many people are lacking. "I think people are restless. They are almost forced to sell out to yuppie values. There's less psychology, less sensitivity. People have retreated into themselves, their sense of emotional expansiveness is gone. It has been replaced by material expansiveness. Many young people are essentially being forced into the military in- dustrial system. Independence and self reliance are atrophied and that is very un-American. It's against the American ideal of freedom and ex- pansiveness," Ginsberg said. Gin- trying to be John Wayne, an insisten- sberg also believes that last week's cy on being number one all the time, is capture of the Palestinian hijackers sad," Ginsberg said. was hypocritical. Despite all his seemingly "We should go around capturing depressing beliefs, Ginsberg is an up- American terrorists in Nicaragua," beat man. Meditation has helped him Ginsberg said. "We've practiced..remain calm and peaceful, and his terrorism all along. The CIA has been linked to the training of Libyan terrorists." "It is morally wrong for the ad- ministration to get so worked up over terrorists. Incidents have been used, with the aid of the media, to create I4IIiiiiilIIIIIIIIIll public hysteria in order to secure more military money.'' Ginsberg does not believe that III' Americans are feeling good about IIII+I) themselves and their country, as has 'I tl'III been widely touted. T sII ||Il llll |11IIIIIIIb I 1111181 "The American soul is sad. ThisI IIht,...I sense of humor is still sharp. 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