{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Ted Rall's Marxism In The Hamptons ","description":""Ideology is stupid for those of us who have no power. It doesn\u2019t matter what we would do if we did. We don\u2019t. Seizing power, taking out the idiotic, incompetent, greedy, evil and stupid people who are ruining our lives is what matters.\u201d The Anti-American Manifesto. Ted Rall is a political cartoonist, graphic novelist, journalist, proud Marxist, intellectual, and all around agitator, it is his mission to teeter on every edge, pushing the boundaries of what this culture, and other cultures, can bear to hear about themselves. He\u2019s radicalized. Sometimes it gets him into trouble with the Alt-Right, the regular right, the soft Left, and of course Isis. Few people, besides The Pope, dare to say the word revolution these days. Rall doesn\u2019t mince words when he says that revolution is the quest for happiness and that it is worth throwing out the whole political system and starting from scratch. \u201cA revolutionary war against exploitation is the only way we can begin to directly adress and solve most of our problems.\u201d We need to define evil and then point to those doing it, \u201cthe politicians, beaureacrats, corporate executives, media power brokers and environmental exploiters who spend every waking minute thinking of new ways to fuck us over and rape the world we live in to make an extra buck.\u201d  Ted is an amazingly astute political voice, and after his string of successful graphic biographies he longs to get back to his meatier books, like: The Anti-American Manifesto, which asks the question \u201cWhy is there the absence of a full-fledged revolution in America for over two centuries? What\u2019s the explanation for the failure of Americans to revolt, even when they have a chance?\u201d The main feedback was his advocating the use of force to seize power. His position is that we are already living in a system with a huge amount of violence. \u201cWe might not always be aware of it being \u2018privileged white folks.\u2019 Every time someone is evicted from their home\u200a\u2014\u200amaking people homeless is violence, depriving people of healthcare is violence\u200a\u2014\u200adrones, bombings, police shootings\u200a\u2014\u200athere\u2019s violence throughout the system! I\u2019m advocating an end to violence that may require some violence in order to effect.\u201d When I ask him how he moved this far left and became a Marxist, he told me that he\u2019s been paying attention and that he cares about people, that it is \u201csimply illogical and irrational to advocate an ideology that starts from the point of view that we are all created un-equal.\u201d He explains that the metrics that capitalism uses to justify paying some people more than others don\u2019t even make sense. \u201cSome kids are just born smarter than others. Are the ones not lucky enough to be born smart\u200a\u2014\u200ashould they be condemned to a life of poverty and misery and cancer because of this accident of birth?\u201d When I remind him that not everyone agrees that we are entitled, just by being alive, to basic rights\u200a\u2014\u200ashelter, health care, education\u200a\u2014\u200ahe fires back: \u201cIf you don\u2019t believe that\u200a\u2014\u200aTHEN YOU\u2019RE AN ASSHOLE!\u201d "People who want revolutionary change and are totally against violence should think\u200a\u2014\u200ahow is that ever going to happen?! The rich and powerful are never going to give up power voluntarily!\u201d My favorite part of The Anti-American Manisfesto is Rall\u2019s advice for those of us in the bourgoisie and the petit bourgoisie who want to know what we should do to begin to bring about radical change. Rall advises \u201ctaking posession of oneself.\u201d He tells me its a mental shift - you just decide\u200a\u2014\u200aI\u2019m done with this system. I\u2019m no longer vested in it.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re waiting for the day you see people out on the streets with red flags so that you can go join them\u200a\u2014\u200ayeah! These are my people! I\u2019m dropping everything\u200a\u2014\u200alet\u2019s go!\u201d ","author_name":"Phantom Hampton Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/phantomhampton.libsyn.com","html":"