The Berkeley Win a Kilo Contest Dear Lenny, I meant to write earlier but in these times of rapid change, who wants yesterday’s news? Just two days before my interview to seek unemployment (benefits), I was called to the wall, again. I am managing Eugene ”Gus” Newport’s campaign for Mayor of Berkeley. Gus heads a slate of progressive candidates put forth by Berkeley Citizens’ Action. The slate icludes city council, auditor and school board candidates. We also wrote and support two initiatives (Props. A and B) requiring city government to withdraw public funds from banks doing business with South Africa. These are assured of winning and where we’ll put city money then, only Marx knows. Our third initiative proves that “ grassroots” really means something in Berkeley: Prop. C. calls for the decriminalization of marijuana. Ellen Willis Fundraising efforts on behalf of the Pot Initiative indicate that our support is coming from the little people—the decent and concerned citizens prepared to pay $1.00 for a raffle ticket. First prize is a kilo of Columbian. If I were a candidate, I’d rather win the raffle than the election! The opposition slate is headed by a two-term incumbent named Warren Widener. He is seeking an unprecedented third term. Remember what happened last time a politician asked for “ four more years?” Widener is a Republican symp and we are reluctant Democrats. He is supported by real estate interests, banks, railroads and out-of-town doctors. Being a pawn of these interests, he voted against the South African Divestment Plan in the city council and opposed the rent rebate initiative sponsored by BCA last November. Renter rebates passed by 78% in Berkeley. Running seven candidates and three propositions for the price of one is a bizarre business. Our votes must be mobilized by labor while theirs can be had with capital. Our campaign is very dependent upon the efforts of a ocuple of hundred progressive activists in Berkeley. Working with these people is a great experience. There is all the warmth of an intentional community and a wealth of expertise and resources. We are greatly aided by the venality of the opposition, of course. Because this is a heads up race between two black candidates, black voters finally have an opportunity to make a genuine choice and many, many people are fed up with the present administration. 1am enclosing a few raffle tickets. I think of them as dope futures in the len s commodity market. They are collector’s items as well. And so, Lenny, I am having a wonderful time and wish you were here. We really must encourage Joe Uris to run for Mayor of the Gray Rose. Then I could pack up my carpet bag and come home for a couple of months. Love and Kisses, Shelley. A Dictionary For The Eighties As the ‘70s draw to a close, it is painfully obvious that militant critics of our society have fallen on hard times. Young, eager, and sexy only a decade ago, they have aged badly. By .now the lease perceptive of them have realized that radical if no longer chic; where once crowds of people hung on their every word, now the same words are almost certain to elicit an uncomfortable silence, a tactful change of subject, or an outright sneer. But most radicals have not yet caught on that “ the same words’’ are actually at the root of their problem. In keeping with a general tendency to cling to the manners and mores of their beloved ‘60s (radicals are a conservative lot), they have failed to master the subtleties of contemporary discourse. It’s impossible for people to communicate if they don’t speak the same language. And so, for those who would rather not spend the ‘80s standing alone in a comer muttering ‘‘The country is swinging to the right!’’ I’ve compiled a basic vocabulary. dogma: a political belief one is unreasonably committed to, such as the notion that freedom is good and slavery is bad. bias: predilection for a particular dogma. For example, the feminist bias is that women are equal to men and the male chauvinist bias is that women are inferior. The unbiased view is that the truth lies somewhere in between. ideology: a body of dogma, usually based on the stubborn belief that some social injustice exists and ought to be corrected. Not to be confused with “ ideas,’’ which are commonsense propositions like “The truth lies somewhere in between,’’ and “Life is unfair.” ideological fanatic: a compulsive purveyor of ideology. In particular, one who can’t resist bringing up pet dogmas at awkward or inappropriate moments, such as during a sensible discussion of more important issues, or at a social gathering where someone has unwittingly offended the fanatic’s beliefs (see supersensitive, below). The term is often applied to women who drag feminism into everything, as when they make a fuss because some terrific populist politician thinks abortion is murder. Also used of people who make themselves into terrible bores by repeatedly criticizing the same social evil, simply because nothing has been done about it. party line: an opinion shared by three or more ideological fanatics. independent thinkers: people who refuse to do the easy thing, the popular thing, who boldly repudiate party lines. For example, women who declare that it’s okay to be a sex object again; straight liberals who confess that the scene on Christopher Street makes them sick. Stalinist: formerly, a disciple of or apologist for Soviet dictator and mass murderer Joseph Stalin. In current usage, a particularly abrasive ideological fanatic. One who hews to the party line and accuses independent thinkers of telling the people in power what they want to hear. Stalinists can never get it through their heads that a person can be sympathetic to their cause without being an ideological fanatic; a typical Stalinist trick is to insinuate that such people are not as sympathetic as they pretend. For instance, Stalinists invariably get their backs up when male friends of the women’s movement refer to Bella Abzug as “ that loudmouthed bitch.” (cf. popular ‘60s epithet, “ fascist” ) humorless: what you are if you do not find the following subjects funny: rape, big breasts, sex with little girls. It carries no imputation of humorlessness if you do not find the following subjects funny: impotence, castration, vaginas with teeth, supersensitive: in the habit of hearing insult and bigotry where none is intended. Jews are traditionally the worst offenders, being inclined to take constructive criticism like “Pale-faced Jew-boy, I wish you were dead” as evidence of anti-Semitism. The especially supersensitive may even react angrily to compliments, such as “I prefer liberated women, they’re better fucks.” shrill: female paranoid: Jewish Zionist: paranoid crank: see ideological fanatic. Also supersensitive. oppression: the endless abuses committed by ideological fanatics—especially pushy blacks, women, Jews, and homosexuals— against long-suffering regular people. Oppressors have often been known to corner their victims at dinner parties and subject them to Stalinist harangues. Another common form of oppression consists of asking the victim tactless personal questions, such as “Do you share child care with your wife?” survivor: a white middle-class person who manages to function despite recurrent nightmares about being chased by giant black lesbians with pitchforks. decadent: preoccupied with insignificant matters of Lifestyle, such as one’s need for a satisfying sexual relationship; frivolous. (It caries no imputation-of decadence if you are frivolous about rape, big breasts, or sex with little girls.) narcissist(thanks to Tom Wolfe, this clinical term is beginning to be supplanted by the more colorful ‘‘child of the me decade” ): one who selfishly pursues personal freedom and pleasure instead of buckling down to the grim but necessary duties of a mature adult. Specifically, anyone who gets a divorce, has an abortion, sleeps with someone of the same sex, lives alone, lives with a lover with no intention of getting married, leaves a moribund relationship for a vital one, or is reluctant to have children (unless there is a good reason for the reluctance, such as having had a hysterectomy). Also, a woman who thinks it’s important that she have orgasms, complains about being cooped up at home with her kids, insists that even middle-class women have problems, or believes that freeing women is more important than strengthening the family. Contradictory as it may seem, many narcissists are also ideological fanatics. Reprinted by permission of Ellen Willis Village Voice © Village Voice. 1979 16
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