4 - The Michigan Daily -Friday, February 2,_2001 31be Sid$ign Bailg 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 daily. letters@umich.edu Narrativising the ascent into fascism JOSH WICKERHAM Tims r WORLD 0 ;<.,.>. s E ,; { f '> ^ . ; 15 gK^ rt^ EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 GEOFFREY GAGNON Editor in Chief MICHAEL GRASS NICHOLAS WOOMER Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. 66the armed "Aprophets conquered and the unarmed ones were ruined." - Niccolo Machiavelli Recognizing our cul- ture of violence as a nec- essary precursor to violent rule, it's reassur- ing that we made it through another Super- Bowl. That faux-war machine of commodified antagonism is just the dis- traction we need to ignore Bush Sr.'s "New World Order." Pigskin keeps the violence at home, sideshow to our ringleader's democratic irreverence. Read Junior's latest guffaw: "I'm about to name my brother the ambas- sador to Chad." Enough with the election jokes Big Brother. All the people want is your sinful- ly simian smirk. Let war hawk Cheney run the show. At least he'd give us an intima- tion of the malevolent maelstrom brewing in the bowels of the trilateral commission. Oh my. I'm quite ahead of myself. The telling of the tale begins during dinner at grandfather's assisted living cen- ter. Conversation had run dry. Ethyl, my grandfather's caretaker enlightened us with a world view quite influenced by the book of Revelation, which ecclesiastics have since fictionalized for mass consumption. Imagine Schwarzenegger's "End of Days" in print. And I quote: "You'll be sitting there like you are now and I'll look down to but- ter my bread and when I look up, bloop you'll be gone," Ethyl prophesized. "You'll just disappear." Chewing my soggy macaroni and cheese, I looked down to butter my bread, hoping for the impossible. No such luck. Fictional Revelation-based books seem to be all the rage in convalescent home cir- cles these days. But according to Ethyl, this wasn't fiction. Apparently, before peo- ple start disappearing, the Antichrist will unite the world under his totalitarian rule. It's a compelling enough argument. Machiavelli is in our blood. Neitzsche, no fool, predicted Hitler's ascendance. Can the Bible do the same? Is the rise of the Overman inevitable? Hitler didn't win the war. We did. And how do you win a war against totalitarian- ism? You become your enemy. You take control. Noam Chomsky shares this sentiment. Our society is heading toward a more rigid and absolutist structure, the linguist asserts. Private media excludes legitimate public dialogue. The everyman is nothing more than a statistic. You are nothing but a con- sumer, lost in a sea of bogus ideologies pursuing created wants. And that's the capitalist ideal: Total atomization. Watching TV, playing video games or otherwise not paying attention. We can also refer to this as the great recline of Western Civilization. It's probably hard to imagine your future self as nothing but an atom of con- sumerism while you're coveted in this tight-knit Ann Arbor community. But in the hearts of every talk-shown and pornoed liberty lover is a feeling that democracy is Dubya. And that's scary. Plutocracy, autoc- racy and aristocracy are not democracy. While the "dumb president" is unitin not dividing, the nation-state is disappe ing. The ascent into hyper-modernity is taking shape on the global stage. But I'm hopeful for our ascent into fas- cism. Not that I'm a fascist. Look at the benefits: War mobilizes, catalyzes and pushes people to the limit. To realize the full reach of our abilities, we need to finish what modern thought has set in motion. Fascism can negate the modern world by pushing our period of high modernity to the breaking point. And then we wake up. "Oh captain, my captain ..." where are you steering this ship of fools? Dubya, trusting Jesus as his favorite philosopher (whatever that means), is lead- ing the charge to the gallactic millenium. Chomsky is right. The portent is omi- nous. You are being recruited for a war. Now it's decision time. Are the odds better pulling strings and playing a part in the world charade or jumping ship swim? Me, I wanna disappear. Josh Wickerham's column runs every other Friday. He can be reached pia e-mail atjwickerh@umich.edu. Wait until Ed Martin affair ends to fmd new head coach To THE DAILY: To all those students and Daily writers calling for Ellerbe's head, I have another view for you. Brian Ellerbe isn't going any- where, at least not until the Ed Martin fiasco ends. Why would a high profile coach (Piti- no, for example) come to a school only to get their program wiped clean and scholarships removed? The only smart thing for the University to do would be to wait until the Martin case is resolved, and hire a new coach once they know what they are dealing with. Ellerbe will be the sacrificed once the case is closed. IAN LANG LSA senior Daily must remove Goodstein's 'pencil' test sports skills To THE DAILY: Upon reading the drubbing of the Michi- gan basketball team's staggering loss to Michigan State in Wednesday's issue I was embarrassed. This embarrassment stemmed not from our defeat however, but rather the honor and integrity that Raphael Goodstein lacked in the authorship of his column. I am embarrassed that the Daily employs someone with his lack of constitution. I think you should take away his pencil and give him a ball. See what he can do with it. Michigan State is the defending national champion. Last time I checked, that means they are the best team in the country. We were smashed by the best team in the league in their gym last year. What else do you expect? They _ C.s c ! i 0 beat us again this year. So it goes. However, I do think it is unfair to say that the basketball team casts a dishonorable shadow over the University of Michigan. Was anybody watching when we beat Indi- ana? How about Iowa (no. 14)? How about when we held a serious lead over Illinois (no. 7) for the majority of the game? I am by no means saying that we have an excellent bas- ketball team, much less a good one. But I think we deserve some respect. Charlie Bell's comment about State's lack of competition is reprehensible. State may have won, but Bell is a loser. Where is the sportsmanship? Put Bell and Blanchard on a court by themselves and I think Bell would be hard pressed to make the same comment. Bell would get hurt. We have decent players, we are just hav- ing a bad year. Maybe it's the coaching. Maybe not. Give Moore and Queen and Robinson a couple years. Have faith, they will wow you. Fans, don't go the way of Goodstein and jump off; the bandwagon when the road gets bumpy. Hang on and they will give you the ride of your life. JEFFREY LEV Engineering freshman Sanz's '80s affinity Y0 clouds intellegent, good music taste To THE DAILY: In Branden Sanz's column ("All I ever needed to know (I learned on '80s radio)," 1/31/01), he says that he soured on ra4 when Nirvana hit the air. I have to ask why? Because it swept in an era of bands ghat sung about what was really going on in life? Or because they actually wrote lyrics from the heart rather than Ratt's "Get in our way, we'll put you on your shelf?" Or is it because it completely countered the superficial transgender hair rock of the late '80s? Obviously, Sanz has a problem with intelligent music that is true to itself and requires some talent to produce. 0 Grunge came around for a reason, and that was to create smarter music fans. Sanz probably would have hated the Beatles' White album or Led Zeppelin's Led Zep- pelin I. You missed out on the best music of the last 20 years, Sanz. NELSON LOPEZ LSA first-year student f f Grievances: Disgruntled with the 'U' DAVID HORN HORNOGRAPHY ur school - this school - is dis- graceful. Noth- ing is quite as it should be. Top to bottom; minute details to ulti- mate purpose; academics to semantics, the Univer- sity has a lot of work to do if it wants to truly realize what it claims to be all about. I don't see all of what goes on. I am one student and my scope is limited. I'm not involved in every organization; I don't know every student and faculty mem- ber; I don't take every class nor am I enrolled in every college. I have spent less than two years here, but I've seen some things - in the classroom and elsewhere - that trouble me and my $20,000-plus tuition. O.K. First things first: I lived in South Quad my freshman year and the elevators don't work. The elevators don 't work in South Ouad! friends in South Quad this year and I'm greeted by the same thing. The elevators ought to work just fine. The failures don't end on East Madison Street though. Angell Hall is a wreck these days - and the construction is only partly to blame. While I can appreciate the Uni- versity's effort to renovate and expand the principal building on Central Campus, I have a hard time reconciling the inconve- niences it causes. For a long time, there was no real way to get into the building from the Diag. Now it's just a tiresome eyesore, and the sounds of sawing and drilling echo throughout the classrooms of Angell - a constant distrac- tion. Fix Angell, but don't do it all in one shot. Work on it a little over the summer, maybe some at night. But don't sacrifice a healthy academic environment for the expedient construction of a building. Once inside, things aren't always better. I had a sociology professor last semester (class of approximately 20) who did not know the name of a single student. He was material. They are each an intermediary; communication should be their greatest asset. I have been blessed by never having encountered such a GSI (I'm an English major, and I'm not even quite sure where North Campus is), but my friends tell me that they legitimately can't understand a word from their G.S.I.s. Unacceptable. We use the Frieze Building at all. Unacceptable. Wolverine Access. At least there seems to be some progress being made. The online registration arrived, and as much as I miss the soothing guidance of the CRISP lady, that aspect of University life is improved. But this closing down at mid- night business? Come on. When do th1 think I'm awake? When do they think have time to be messing around with my schedule? Why would a service like Wolverine Access ever be closed? Unacceptable. There's much more bitching to be .voiced but there is only so much that can fit on this page. This is a smattering - a sam- (I.n. n I I i