Letter to the Comrades of Central Indiana DSA (CINDSA)

 

Comrades,

 

The strength of Central Indiana DSA (CINDSA) has lain in its positive, non-ideological, pragmatic approach that has concentrated on such vitals as housing and union organizing, items that directly

affect the working and personal lives of ordinary working people.  This has enabled CINDSA to reach out positively into the Indianapolis community, and draw support from people who would not ordinarily be drawn to an organization espousing socialism.  With good results, as we’ve seen in the recent campaigns for seats on the Indianapolis City-County Council for its new term that starts in 2024.  While CINDSA members may not be “thoroughly informed” on the often arcane left ideological causes of DSA at the national level and in the key national chapters, and where CINDSA has also been blessed by not having warring national caucuses who are roiled on these issues, its non-ideological, pragmatic approach has paid off and enabled CINDSA to do good work, from what I can see from my limited vantage point of not being able to participate much in CINDSA.

 

I have of necessity to work a political life-killing second-shift job at Kroger, which, because it is in retail, also means not having weekends available either.  (However, politically I’m able to somewhat make up for this by being a member of my union at Kroger, UFCW Local 700, and participating in the movement to build a strong reform caucus within this union.)  I participate somewhat more at the national level through Facebook, through a network of left Friends there, and I keep abreast of what national DSA is doing.  Although I am not a formal member, politically I’m aligned with the traditional social-democratic caucus within national DSA, North Star, and a strong adherent of DSA founder Michael Harrington’s “left wing of the feasible.”  I too am essentially pragmatic, and strongly believe that positive results, far more than “correct” ideology, are what are crucial and draw ordinary working people to support DSA politics and proposals.  However, I will say bluntly that much of what comes out of national DSA and its leading chapters is ultraleft, often drivel, and is even a throwback to neo-Stalinism. 

 

CINDSA has not become embroiled on issues such as Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas War, which are very much dividing points for DSA at the national and key local levels.  That is in fitting with CINDSA’s pragmatic approach.  For myself, I do not believe the struggle in Ukraine is a “proxy war” between Russia and the US and NATO.  I support the Ukrainian drive to preserve its independence, and achieve national self-determination.  This is, to me, consistent with the Marxist principle of, above all, the right of small nations to self-determination, even independence, and to be free of Great Power bullying.  For this same reason, I support (support which is only theoretical at this time) the rights of Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Taiwan to their own rights of self-determination, and to be independent of China should their peoples wish.  I wrote this up in an article published earlier this year by the excellent left group, the British Trotskyist Alliance for Workers Liberty, which is linked here, and which I hope CINDSA comrades will read.  (https://workersliberty.org/story/2023-06-26/marxist-case-tibet-xinjiang-hong-kong-and-taiwan-independence; see also, published as an addendum to my post here, https://workersliberty.org/story/2023-06-26/stalin-1913-and-national-question-note) On Hamas-Israel, I consider what Hamas did on October 7, 2023 to be atrocious and reprehensible, and although I am not at all an automatic pro-Israel supporter, I do defend Israel’s right to defend itself (which Sen. Bernie Sanders also supports), and believe Hamas must be extirpated, as it is an Islamofascist entity.  I know I differ from some comrades here, as the issue came up with two of them on Facebook, and they defriended me over my views, but that’s no matter—friendships often come and go on Facebook.  What was appalling to me was DSA’s support of the antisemitic “Free Palestine” rally in support of what Hamas did that occurred the very next day, October 8, in New York City, and which both New York DSA and national DSA doubled down in support of.  No, comrades, terroristic attacks on civilians are not, decidedly not, “resistance” and “decolonization,” and anybody who asserts so has lost both moral compass and intellectual bearing!  Some things are just simply beyond the pale; so atrocious there is no way to ever justify or excuse them.  Examples are the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941; 9/11; and the October 7 attacks by Hamas.  No one, now matter how grievous it is alleged they acted (and in the case of the October 7 attacks, all the Israeli victims did was be in the wrong place at the wrong time), certain things are never, ever justified.  We must be morally and intellectually clear on that, in my opinion.  It is to the great discredit of both national DSA and certain key DSA chapters that justified or even celebrated the Hamas attack that they did so.  Such is to be rooting for, act as cheerleaders for, unconscionable mass murderers, and far too many in DSA were simply, egregiously, wrong here.

 

Comrades of CINDSA, you are youthful for the most part, far younger than am I, 77 years old now.  I am a veteran of the 1960s left, an active left force that existed long before many of you were born, and which also petered out from both an onslaught from the right (Nixon, Reagan) and, just as tellingly, from its own inadequacies, principally its substitution of moral indignation for concrete political programs.  Comrades, the great US early 20^th Century philosopher, Santayana, tells us so well:  “Those who do not remember history are condemned to relive it.”  So, please, Comrades, I urge you—learn the history of earlier left movements, both for the positive lessons they can give us, as well as for the negative ones.

 

On a positive note, youth is a time of vitality and questioning; however, it is also a time of know-it-all arrogance and stupidity.  Be willing to learn from older comrades, many of whom are resigning now in disgust from DSA, despite being members for decades, because of DSA’s present de facto pro-Hamas attitude.  This, Comrades, is no time for “Good riddance!” flippancy.  One of the great failures of the 1960s New Left was the great youth of its activists and leadership.  We of the New Left were young and arrogant, and so we made a lot of mistakes we needn’t make.  And in the end, following the fiasco of the 1969 SDS National Convention, literally went “poof!” overnight—from an organization 100,000 members strong to nothing!  That could happen too easily to DSA too—already it has lost 20% of its membership.  The youthful enthusiasm of those under 35 who are now drawn to DSA because of Israel-Hamas are not enough to make DSA grow if DSA alienates those of the population 35 and older, who are far more pro-Israel than those younger, with ignorance notable among the young, I’m sad to say.  A recent poll indicated that 20% of Gen Zers believe the Holocaust was a hoax!  67% believe that Jews as a class are “oppressors.”  Far too much of the US public believes there was an independent country called Palestine before the creation of Israel (as a fact, there was no such entity).  Comrades of CINDSA, “left” antisemitism is a big problem, every bit as significant, or even more significant, as Islamophobia. 

 

Which brings one more point.  What can I do now to participate well in CINDSA given my work limitations?  Well, for one thing, I could serve as an intellectual resource.  I’m well read on left literature, am a university graduate, am an extensively published writer in left magazines and on left websites, and have also taught adult education courses on China after Mao, Marxism, and the Communist Manifesto.  I also have a BlogSpot blog, “Politically Incorrect Leftist,” (politicallyincorrectleftist.blogspot.com), which I urge all of you to check out.  This Letter will also be posted there.

 

Finally, to end on a positive note, you Comrades of CINDSA are so much better than the hidebound, tired old leadership you replaced!  A leadership that no longer gave a damn about DSA, and certainly didn’t give a damn about you, young Comrades who wanted to carry on the organization.  You will be interested to know that these hidebound oldsters also were against me too.  Even though they had participated positively in my Marxism and Communist Manifesto classes, and was not the ogre I had been portrayed as being by the equally hidebound “peaceable religious progressives” of Indianapolis (with whom several of these old DSAers overlapped), I had committed the “unpardonable sin” of criticizing one of their cronies for designing and installing for Indianapolis DSA a most inadequate website.  In Indiana, overgrown high school clique that it is, one just does not criticize cronies!  And so, these hidebound “leaders” plotted against me.  I’ve published two blogs on what happened with them on my “Politically Incorrect Leftist” blog, the first one on August 14, 2010, “Dregs” (linked here:  https://politicallyincorrectleftist.blogspot.com/2010/08/dregs_14.html), and a second one that drew on the critical testimony of a lifetime resident of Indianapolis pointedly noting he’d never even heard of DSA here before meeting me.  This second blog, published on February 17, 2011, with the pointed subtitle, “Letter from One of ‘the Masses’” is linked here:  https://politicallyincorrectleftist.blogspot.com/2011/02/dregs-aftermath1-letter-from-one-of.html, I bring up this old history not to re-fight old sectarian battles, but to let you know, much younger Comrades, that roiling conflicts with the hidebound “old ‘progressives’” are nothing new here in Indianapolis, or in Indiana, truly a State of Mediocrity!  (Which the dictionary tellingly defines as “not good enough.”)  I hope you young Comrades will check out these blogs of mine, and realize the fight for a good, effective left confronts many obstacles, some of them even internal.  So, thank you, Comrades, good luck, and keep up the good fight!

 

In solidarity with you,

Comrades of CINDSA! 

 George Fish,

DSA member

since 1996

Still More Poems on "Spirituality": Three Early Irreverent Poems of Mine

 All written in the first decade of the 21st Century, when I started writing in earnest anti-religious poetry, starting Christmas Eve 2004.  I present these as still relevant, irreverent in appropriate ways that really do tackle and bring down religion, and just as timely and as well-done as my later irreligious poetry--GF.

I AM GODZILLA.

I AM GREATER THAN GOD!

by

George Fish

 

I am Godzilla.

I am greater than God!

For one thing,

I have a last name.

Further, I destroy cities,

I don’t just sit on a cloud

for all eternity

and fart.

Moreover, I am greater

than Jesus Christ.

I destroy churches,

I don’t allow them

to do evil

in my name.

So, who am I?

I am Godzilla!

Godzilla!

Godzilla!

Godzilla!

Godzilla,

greater than God.

 

A PRIEST-PEDOPHILE’S SOLILOQUY

by

George Fish

 

After finishing off a bottle

of the sacristy’s

Communion wine,

the Catholic priest opened up

and said exactly

what was on his mind.

“You know,” said he,

“I reflect so strongly,

so positively,

on the words of our

Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ

when he said,

‘Suffer the little children

to come unto me.’

I enjoy being as Jesus

and having the little children

come unto me.

And yes, they do come,

and while they may sometimes

feel they’re made to suffer—”

He became agitated

as he interjected,

“But remember,

they brought

it on themselves,

they asked for it.

They seduced me—”

He calmed down,

smiled, and continued,

“What’s far more important is,

I will come!”

MARY IMMACULATE

by

George Fish

 

Mary Immaculate!

Mother of the

Son of God!

Lifelong virgin,

never touched by man.

Schtupped by the Holy Ghost

instead.

Mary Immaculate indeed!

 

But tell me,

Mary Immaculate,

bearer of the Divine Child,

but also woman of the flesh,

precious for it,

vulnerable and easily

taken advantage of

for it,

how did it feel

to be told by

the angel Gabriel

that God had chosen you

to bear his Son

sans the joy of

carnal copulation?

Did you mutter to yourself,

perhaps disgustedly,

“Fuck!  Here I am,

a mere fourteen,

and a virgin too,

and now I’m made pregnant?

God, why the hell

Are you making me

go through this shit?”

Yes indeed,

bearing extraordinarily

the Divine Child!

The Divine Child

come supposedly

to heal

the hurts of

the human flesh,

but

too goody two-shoes

to be born of that flesh

itself

like everybody else.

 

But poet Etheridge Knight

exulted that he was

Born of a Woman,

and even published

a book of poems

honoring it

by having his little book

bear that title.

Bobby Seale

openly,

defiantly

affirmed it

when he wrote,

“Everybody got here

through good old

downhome screwing.”[1]

Yes, yes, indeed!

 

What’s so horribly wrong

with that,

O stern, puritanical

God the Father?

What’s so wrong with that,

O Jesus Goody Two-shoes?

Is

Mary Immaculate

there

to atone for

the supposed sin of Eve,

who did nothing more

than anyone really human

would do,

exercise the mind’s natural curiosity

and thirst for knowledge,

even if,

in naïve innocence,

it should inadvertently

transgress

Big Daddy God,

aristocratic overseer

straight out of a

Tennessee Williams play?

Is that such a crime?

A Hitler, a Stalin, a God,

or a Big Daddy

would think so,

but not a fully human being

exulting in our race’s humanity

and thirst for knowledge

and freedom.

 

And so I celebrate you

for your agony,

Mary Immaculate,

you yourself

Born of a Woman,

you yourself

conceived through the flesh.

Immaculate yourself

in your oh-so-human

agony and sorrow,

watching even your

Divine Son,

Jesus Goody Two-shoes himself,

die cruelly through the flesh

as nothing but

an ordinary criminal.

 

Mary Immaculate!

Schtupped by the Holy Ghost

or not,

deflowered or not

By Arrogant Divine Manipulation,

or just the end-result of

the natural in Man,

I honor and celebrate you!

As I celebrate all

who are Born of a Woman,

all of us

who come to our lives

and our best selves

not through the

Divine ersatz,

but through

becoming fully

human

ourselves.

 

All of us,

naturally,

affirmatively,

Born of a Woman,

and not the mating product

of “virginal”

sexual intercourse

with a mere bird!

 

 

 

---

[1] Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, Vintage Books, 1970, p. 248.  Seale was a leader of the Black Panther Party.s

Yet More on "Spirituality": My Poetic Communing with the "Spirits"

 Alcoholic, that is.  Here's my poetic take on that--GF

THE SPIRIT RESIDES WITHIN ME

(My Understanding of True Spirituality)

by

George Fish

 

The Spirit resides within me.

I think it’s Jack Daniels.

Or maybe it’s Jim Beam.

Or Beefeaters.

Or possibly Tanqueray.

Or could it be Stolichnaya?

Or Grey Goose?

Or even Old Overholt?

I’ve communed

with so many Spirits

these past few days

I don’t know

which ones remain.

Which ones will stay

for awhile,

and which ones

will go quickly,

or have even already left.

Hell, for all I know

the Spirit within me now

has a flowery demeanor.

Because that Spirit

I now have inside

could well be

Richard’s Wild Irish Rose!

 

 

More on "Spirituality": My Three Most Favorite Original Irreligious Poems

 One of the ways I positively sublimate my anger at my victimization by Catholicism and by professed Christians (overwhelmingly; though I was also victimized by a religiously observant Jew who I thought was a true friend) is to write irreverent, even blasphemous poetry, poetry I've found out, is also liked by others, has an artistic feel and edge to it, and, as my close friend and fellow ex-Catholic John Triplett notes, is also "theologically correct" while also being sardonic and quite edgy.  Below are my three most favorite original irreligious poems--GF

JESUS CHRIST, JESUS CHRIST!

by

George Fish

 

Really!  Some Son of God,

Savior and Messiah

you are!

Creating Christianity!

Or at least

uncritically lending your name

to this dubious enterprise.

Sheesh!  Your own omniscience

should’ve told you

that was a really bad idea!

Yet you did it anyway.

No wonder you got crucified—

you deserved it!

 

SO I’M SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE

(revised)

by

George Fish

 

that some guy

named Jesus Christ,

who was supposedly

the Son of God,

as well as God himself

in human form,

died of crucifixion

on the cross

to save me from

my sins and thus

enter the Kingdom

of Heaven when I die,

where for all eternity

I will praise God

incessantly,

same as

the people of North Korea

praise their Kim family

leaders—

all because

 a couple of

thousand years earlier,

in a mythical bucolic

place between the

Tigris and the Euphrates rivers,

which is gone now forever

without a trace

(rather like Camelot,

or Atlantis),

a naked young woman,

who didn’t know at the time

she was naked,

ate of a forbidden tree fruit

because she was beguiled

by a talking snake

that stood on its hind legs?

What do you take me for,

an utter rube?

Do you believe I’m

really that stupid?

C’mon, get out of here!

If you’re going to

insult my intelligence

like that,

I want nothing to do

with you at all!

                                                                JESUS IS

                                                            OMNIPOTENT,

                                                            OMNISICIENT,

                                                          AND IMMORTAL

                                                                      by

                                                                George Fish

 

He is the Christ,

the Son of God,

the Savior,

the Messiah.

He can do anything

he wants, even to—

fucking dogs!

And why would he

not want to fuck dogs?

After all, being up there

in heaven for all eternity

must get really boring;

fucking dogs might well be

a welcome diversion from

a steady diet of—

angel pussy!  (But since

all angels are male,

it’s not so much angel pussy

as it is—angel asshole.)

Besides, how do you know

Jesus doesn’t fuck dogs?

You don’t.

And if you say indignantly,

“Jesus would never

fuck dogs!” I can properly

retort, “Who are you

to claim to know the—

Mind of God??”

 

 

 

 

 

Mental Health Writings: A Poetic Take on What Is Also "Spirituality"

This poem of mine, my angry screed on the booze-soaked unctuous hypocrite Catholic priest who was my high school principal in the small-town Catholic school where I became the first National Merit Finalist in the school's history, was written originally some time ago, yet, in view of my blog post on "spirituality," takes on a new timeliness.  This priest/principal, who previously to my achieving the National Merit honor, had talked to me only three times prior, and all those times only to reprimand me.  But now, since I was National Merit, he couldn't have enough to do with me!  His unctuous fawning made me feel unclean.  A teacher I had then said this priest was a very shy man who used alcohol to overcome his shyness.  So, my "spiritual" victimization was probably also an alcohol-induced victimization!--GF 

IN UNSENTIMENTAL REMEMBRANCE

(A True Story of a True Priest)

by

George Fish

 

Padre Pop-Tart Jesus!

Holy Priest!

I’m sure you don’t remember me,

you ignored my existence when I was a junior.

You spoke to me just three times then.

each time only to reprimand me.

I’m sure you’ve also forgotten how

I was the first National Merit Finalist

in St. Mary’s history,

and how you oozed on me for that.

Always wanting little chats about my glorious future,

your unctuous fawning on me

making it clear

that it wasn’t my future that mattered.

What really mattered

was your chance to bask in my reflected glory.

 

Padre Fish-on-Friday Anchovy!

Holy Priest!

How I hate you for your oily slime.

You made my National Merit honor

turn into ashes in my mouth.

You showed me how much contempt you really had for me

when you unctuously fawned all over me.

For you saw not the person I was,

you saw not the troubled brainy youth

trying to survive in a world that hated him.

No, you saw only the National Merit honor.

An honor you wanted to aggrandize for yourself.

I was just a pawn in your venal chess game.

You make me want to vomit!

 

Padre Divine Quintessence Pizza!

Holy Priest!

Is there plenty of booze for you now

in that nether world wherever you are?

Is there a stand-up bar in Hades?

Do you still use booze

to cover up

your shyness,

your inauthenticity,

your unctuous insincerity?

Are you still as phony as you were

when you were my high school principal?

Always being sure to be oh-so-so

much on the right side,

the respectable side,

the winning side.

You weren’t one to back losers.

Nosiree!

And I was a loser when I was a junior,

a transfer student with so-so grades,

coming from a school where gangs ruled

and I had to play dumb so I wouldn’t be beaten up.

You were much, much more concerned

with outward appearances and surface gloss.

So you didn’t see me at all

when I was a junior.

But that sure changed when I became a senior!

I’d gotten a new paint job—

one that had “National Merit” written all over it.

Ooh, you loved that!

At last!  Your big chance

to steal some light from my radiant glory.

How much had you been drinking

when you oozed all over me?

More—or less—than when you reprimanded me?

So busy hiding your drinking,

so dishonest,

so unwilling to face up to your problem

and what you really were.

No, you couldn’t do that.

That was too authentic.

So you went on burying your shyness behind booze,

unctuousness and lick-ass fawning.

Not caring at all whom you hurt,

and whose achievement you turned into

cheap and tawdry tinsel.

Not caring at all.

 

Padre Blessed Virgin Spirit-rape!

Holy Priest!

You’ve been dead many, many years.

But you know what?

I still hate you for what you did to me.

Yes, Padre Spirit-rapist,

you still make me want to vomit!

CONTRADICTIONS OF FEMINISM

 (My first political blog since 2022, short but pithy.  No, I'm not "misogynist" (a point I also make below), but I am intrigued by the finding of psychology that we humans often believe contradictory things simultaneously--GF)  

Now that we are into third-wave feminism, where women managers proudly have signs on their desks reading “Girl Boss,” and the ultimate goal of “women’s liberation” is for women to be CEOs and managers, such as the female head of GM, which is now feeling the heat of the UAW strike against it and the other Big Three automakers (Update:  GM just settled with the UAW, making major concessions to the union.  Ford also settled, and made major concessions to the union.), and who makes $29,000,000 a year salary alone [!], far and above what any rank-and-file auto worker makes, perhaps we should revisit Freud’s pensive and irritated, yet honest for its time, question, “What does a woman want?”  (Freud, who could be so iconoclastic on certain matters of sexuality, while simultaneously being a prisoner of then-prevalent societal Victorian sexual norms.)  This admitted cis male’s jaded answer is, “They want both the derivative perks of being on the pedestal as well as full equality with men, and the want them both at the same time.”  Yes, I say cynically, women want simultaneously to say to a man, “You’re a heel, and a louse” while dining in a fancy restaurant with that man she is berating, and with that man picking up the whole of the tab, plus tip, for both of them!  But this is not meant to be either anti-feminist or misogynist:  it’s just to point out one of the many contradictions of life and protest, such as what I experience as a worker in my workplace, where so many of my fellow work colleagues both resent management, yet long to become managers themselves!  Such is life; and such is one of the ironies—and ironing boards—of lived life.

Mental Health Writings: NAMI’s Wretched Writing Style

 (The last of my mental health writings for a while, which was true at the time of posting--GF)

I know NAMI well, having been a member since December 2019 (but not going to renew my membership when it expires November 2023), receiving its publications, including its national magazine, NAMI Advocate, and reading many of the articles it publishes.  Thus can I properly pass judgment on what I’ve seen:  what I’ve seen is truly wretched, article after article (and the same goes for NAMI oral presentations at conferences) in the same breezy, superficial, saccharinely cheery “positive thinking” vibe that does massive injustice to the seriousness of the topics it deals with:  mental illness, its treatment, and its effects on families, caregivers and others.  Moreover, it’s a very homogenous style, where one presentation is interchangeable with another, as though they were auto parts.  This even carries over in the first full-length book NAMI has commissioned, NAMI Chief Psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Duckworth’s You Are Not Alone (New York: Zando, 1922), wherein the breeziness and good cheer of the presentation once again belies the seriousness of the topics covered:  mental health and its treatment, and the successful navigation to get such treatment through the maze of clinics and practitioners, insurance companies, “stigma,” and the myriad of people affected by being involved with a person under psychiatric care, such as caregivers, family members, friends, and others.

 

This kind of language, which is assiduously promoted by many nonprofits, of which NAMI is one, and which is designed to be “inclusive” (even though some of us with a more “elitist” regard for language might regard it as “dumbing down” or “speaking only in euphemisms”), has been masterfully dissected by Atlantic staff writer George Packer in the April 2023 issue of that esteemed magazine (which is a hallmark of genuinely good writing).  His short but pithy article, “The Moral Case Against Euphemism” devastatingly mocks such “inclusive” but vapid language, language that Packer dismisses well and with flourish.  He writes:  “Imprecise language is less likely to offend.  Good writing—vivid imagery, strong statements—will hurt, because it’s bound to convey painful truths.”  Such as, in the case of NAMI, the actual realities of living with, and suffering through, mental illness.  “Imprecise language” also infantilizes—another hallmark involved in its usage.  Again, as Packer points out, the euphemistic, “inclusive” language of the new nonprofit Language Police is pitched to a sixth- to eighth-grade reading level.  While such may theoretically garner a larger reading audience—after all, according to statistics I’ve seen, 57% of the US population reads only at a sixth-grade level or below—it does so by trivializing and infantilizing content, and making the expression of adult content childish rather than adult; thus radically oversimplifying and brushing off the inevitable hardships that will attend in the real world when people have to deal with mental illness and psychological disfunction, either in themselves, or in loved ones and acquaintances.  Remember, the sixth-grade level is only the beginning of real literacy, and is too young to acquire critical reading skills and understanding, which don’t even begin until the eighth-grade level.

 

NAMI’s wretched language also suffers from all the defects adult writer (who wrote as an adult for adults) Barbara Ehrenreich pointed out in her excellent critique of the cult of “positive thinking,” her book Bright-Sided (New York: Picador, 2009).  Ehrenreich’s book is aptly subtitled “How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America” (emphasis in original), and tears apart all the “positive thinking,” “look on the bright side” pabulum that infests the culture particularly of the US in the present time.  This includes the world of the nonprofit advocacy groups such as NAMI.  Being forever “bright-sided,” always “thinking positive” undermines what Ehrenreich properly calls for:  not negative thinking but (her words) “realistic thinking.”  Infantilizing the issue of mental illness rather than writing about as an adult speaking to other adults doesn’t make its understanding any less onerous or palatable, and doesn’t extend the realm of proper diagnosis, treatment, and provision of help one iota.  And Ehrenreich should know—she wrote Bright-Sided by becoming involuntarily immersed in the universe of “positive thinking” when she had to deal with her own breast cancer, where the realm of “positive thinking” in the face of a serious medical condition abounded!

 

Yet, mental illness and its often-painful realities can be properly dealt with in adult ways by adult prose aimed at adult readers in very compelling ways.  We need not the saccharine nostrums of the NAMI Advocate or You are Not Alone.  As an excellent example, take a good reading of Jonathan Rosen’s “American Madness” in the May 2023 issue of the Atlantic, the poignant and often wrenching account by Rosen of his childhood best friend, a brilliant young man who became schizophrenic and, in a fit of schizophrenic hallucination, murdered his fiancé.  Rosen’s account brings home not only the realities of mental illness, but also, our failure to provide adequate psychiatric treatment for it all too frequently.  This is adult writing for adults.  And thus makes a positive contribution to the subject.  A greater contribution, I might add, than I think NAMI makes.

 

I, too, am a writer who’s had to deal with my own mental illness (or, technically, “mental disorder”) of borderline personality disorder accompanied by bouts of acute depression.  Often my own disorder would interfere with my writing, and chagrin not only myself, but also editors, who were understandably irked at my not always delivering on time.  I had to write under the double burden of professional pressures and mental illness going on simultaneously, and had to overcome both.  But overcome I did, had a fairly successful (not monetarily, but in quality and quantity of output) several-decades long writing career (which still continues, by the way).  I even became a biographee in Who’s Who in America for both 2019 and 2020, thus achieving my Andy Warhol fifteen-minutes-of-fame!  And, I can say, without the help, but only the hindrance, of NAMI.  (I’ve written on NAMI’s hindrance elsewhere in my other mental health writings such as my “Politically Incorrect Leftist” BlogSpot blogs of September 19 and 28, 2023.)

 

All of which makes me very appreciative of adult writing for adults.  Over the past few years, I’ve been reading adult writers who wrote for adults in both the socialist press and popular literature, from Frederick Engels to Ernest Hemingway, and can tell you firsthand, reading adult literature written for adult readers is a joy to behold!  It will also “spoil” you, make you not want to go back to “inclusive” infantilizing, “positive thinking” pabulum such as NAMI proffers.  But being so “spoiled” is definitely worth it.