This is also a bit off topic, but...

I have a background in communications arts. I am interested in all types of
media. One of the most interesting stories I have read, viewed, etc., was
in a comic book from the early '70s called "Slow Death" comics. In it,
Earthlings get to a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri and, um, "do their
thing", so to speak. It looks remarkably like the story of the colonization
of Africa, America, Asia, Austrailia...well, you get the picture. Anyway,
the imagery of the "colonists" in their spaceman attire, and other visual
effects which seemed extremely appropriate to the story, really disabused
the reader of any notion of frontier individualism on the part of these
hired "explorers". It may sound silly, but I've always wanted to try to
bring this little story to a larger audience via TV or film. Perhaps
someday...

- DDeBar

----------
> From: Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CHOMSKY] The "big/small" enterprise debate
> Date: Tuesday, June 24, 1997 8:11 PM
>
> El 24 Jun 97 a las 9:16, Lawrence Libby nos dice(n):
>
> >  I have
> > come to believe that the myth of the independant homesteader in the
> > US is just that: a convenient myth.  It is of great use to the
> > people who slash welfare and other socially beneficial programs.
> > What follows is one paragraph from _The Way We Never Were, American
> > Families and the Nostalgia Trap" by Stephanie Coontz HarperCollins
> > 1992:
> >
> > "In reality, prairie farmers and other pioneer families owed their
> > existance to massive federal land grants, government-funded military
> > mobilizations that dispossesed humdreds of Native American societies
> > and confiscated half of Mexico, and state-sponsored economic
> > investment in the new lands.  Even 'volunteers' expected federal
> > pay: Much of the West's historic 'antigovernment' sentiment
> > originated in discontent when settlers did not get such pay or were
> > refused government aid for unauthorized raids on Native American
> > territory. It would be hard to find a Western family today or at any
> > time in the past whose land rights, transportation options, economic
> > existance, and even access to water were not dependant on federal
> > funds. 'Territorial evperience got Westerners in the habit of
> > federal subsidies,' remarks Western historian Patricia Nelson
> > Limeric, 'and the habit persisted long after other elements of the
> > Old West had vanished.' "
>
> Thank you for this piece of social historic realism.  It is very
> useful when one has to deal with neoliberals who praise an inexistent
> "lonely individual without State" in America.
>
> I believe, however, that the "free homesteader" was none the less
> free because there was a whole nation behind him.  This has always
> been the case when settlement took place. But settlement itself can
> assume many different forms.
>
> Will return on this later.
> Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky
> [log in to unmask]