Author: Steven Guccione

Parrothead Politics

Steven Guccione

Growing up I knew some guys from Mississippi who knew Jimmy Buffett’s family.  The song Margaritaville was a big hit, especially on the gulf coast when I was in high school.  So Buffett’s music is at least a part of my life’s soundtrack.

I always wondered where he stood on ‘events” since being from Mississippi doesn’t leave much room for moderation, socially or politically. Now Mr Buffett is from a military family, from Mississippi (as I mentioned) and is quite wealthy.  He is also well travelled and a musician and artist.  So it could go either way.  Of course, he could also just be aonther guy in the middle of the road, who splits his ticket ot just has his own opinions about things.

I always think of a line from one of his songs (I forget which one) that gives a good synopsis of an ex-pat southerner:   “I ran away from politics, it too bizarre at home”. Yes indeed.

I grew up in David Duke’s Louisiana and I decided early on who my Bad Guys and my Good Guys were.  Of course that made it harder to stay in a place where somewhere around half of the people you ran into we in the former category.

Well, yesterday Mr Buffett decided he didn’t care who he alienated.  A few years ago I went to a Buffett concert and said it would be my last. Too may Old Drunks.  I suppose it was the same folks who were Young Drunks when I first started listening to him. Now I think I will go see him again, just as a show of support.  Maybe time to fill in part of my Buffett catalog.  If you are looking for a good one, I have been liking his “Far Side of the World” from 2001.

Jimmy Buffett to Play Rally for Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum – Rolling Stone

 

Libertarians

Steven Guccione

When I was younger I fell in with a crowd of Libertarians.  We were younger and the emphasis was on the “Liberty” part.  I used to say, half jokingly, that Libertarians were just Republicans who wanted to smoke pot (legally).  In heavily Baptist Texas at the time it seemed like it could be a good idea.

I read Ayn Rand, but it was poorly written stuff and seemed very far-fetched.  I mean, would the world really collapse if a bunch of billionaires left society?  Really?  And how could they thrive, much less survive, Gilligan’s Island-like, with just a handful of people, even very smart people?  I mean, they certainly wouldn’t have iPhones.  I doubt they would have decent clothes after a year or two.  Forget the private planes zipping in and out.

I ran across this older PBS article that was probably bumped up by the Sears bankruptcy.    A good story.

Oh, those old friends:  I would say they are pretty much plain old Conservatives these days, maybe even far-right.  I could go on with the inherent flaws in Rand’s ideas, but that would take a while.  These days when I run into a younger person who seems to be taking this ‘philosophy’ seriously, I mostly try to show some disrespect for it and maybe let them figure it out themselves.

Column: This is what happens when you take Ayn Rand seriously

 

Mourning for Whiteness

Steven Guccione

I read this when it first came out, and I have to admit it befuddled me.  It was such a strange point of view to me.  Certainly this was a serious person with serious ideas published in a respectable magazine.  I went back to re-read it (I admit I googled for Alice Walker, not Toni Morrison so I had trouble finding it at first).

I have read it three or four times in in the last couple of years and it embarrasses me that I didn’t understand what the author was talking about.  It was a literal account of what was happening, and what was about to happen.  I would say it is prophetic, but only because I didn’t see what was coming as quickly as the author.

Today every time I see people being gunned down by some bland fellow (Las Vegas last year, Pittsburgh this week) this pops into my mind, and I read it again.  I don’t know what the answer is, and the author doesn’t seem to either.

Mourning for Whiteness

By Toni Morrison