The Antisocial Socialist

Were there any events in your life that inspired and interest politics and activism? What were they?

I was pretty much raised that way (see icon; Hiroshima Day vigil when I was six). My parents were both left-leaning hippies (never mind what became of my bio-father's politics later); my mother used to carry around Mao's Little Red Book. Embarrassingly, I went door-to-door for the NDP when I was still in grade school (even worse, it was for that asshole Bob Rae).

My childhood was such that as an adult, I don't really understand it when people say they're not interested in politics, or they don't know about world events at all. We only got a few TV stations, so when the TV was on, we were generally watching the news. Or CBC was blasting in the kitchen. My mother was involved with a peace group, and I went to meetings and marches and vigils with them.

In 1987, the Conservative government passed the Free Trade Accord (the precursor to NAFTA). My mother took me and her friend's daughter to the big anti-FTA demo downtown. I was eight years old and the squirrels in Queen's Park seemed about as interesting as the march itself. But then the mounted OPP came on their horses and surrounded the Legislature. "If you try to cross the street, we'll arrest you," they boomed.

Now, I couldn't have explained the complexities of international trade agreements when I was eight. But I did know that they were important. I knew that they meant a lessening of environmental and labour regulations (I would have said: "The Americans will take our water and trees and workers won't get paid as much or be allowed to join unions."). I knew that our government was bad, and working with the Reagan government that killed innocent people in Nicaragua.

My mother must had known that she, with two small children in tow, probably wasn't a big target for arrest (this is pre-911, and we were white after all) but she took the threat somewhat seriously. "Do you want to risk it?" she asked.

We two kiddies, eight and ten years old respectively, felt it an important enough cause that if we got arrested, we'd be like all those anti-war protesters and Civil Rights activists we'd heard about. We knew that if the police grabbed us, we were supposed to go limp and make it hard for them to drag us off (not like it would have been) or charge us with assault. She handed my friend a quarter. "If I get arrested, call [her friend]." And off we went. None of us got arrested that day, but I suppose deciding to cross that road was a symbolic crossing for me. The government and the police could not be trusted, not even if you were a child. The interests of the capitalist state were diametrically opposed to those of the people and the planet. And your only recourse was to kick up a fuss about it.

The movie version of Watchmen

I'm a bad comic book geek, and I've actually never read Watchmen. Yes, I know I should, and I will eventually. I think the movie will probably be awful and Alan Moore will want his name stricken from the credits, because that always happens when they try to adapt his novels. (Though I liked the adaptation of From Hell.)

This said, I'm still going to see it. The promo shots are pretty. I'll read the book first so I know what I'm missing.

Titty-fucking

Maybe it's because I'm a chick, but I just don't get the appeal. Sorry! It's one of those acts that isn't inherently fun, but it's not actually unpleasant, so getting your partner off can be entertaining. I must add, though, it's a bad visual angle from the girl's point of view.

Anything else I have to say on the subject is way TMI for a public post.

Which of these questions are you least excited to answer? Give a top 3!

Hmm, I'm generally happy to answer any of these. You guys give good meme. I'm going to say The Watchmen, because I had to admit that I hadn't read it, titty-fucking, because the more entertaining the response would be, the less I'm willing to give it over the internets (hence, my response is kind of boring), and the ones about sports, because I don't know anything about sports.

esizzle

Most of you know that esizzle is awesome. If you don't, please make note of it. She is awesome online and even more awesome in real life. It's true that the galaxy does revolve around her (Hah! You thought it revolved around a rich white man, didn't you?) because she doesn't abuse the power by, say, making it revolve in the opposite direction to make us dizzy every so often. Which is what I would do.

Anyway, I think I have blogged about esizzle before by plugging her web comics, but I have some new LJ friends, so another plug can't hurt. esizzle makes the best stick-figure comics on the internets. Yes, better than mine. You can find them here. They are little sparkling gems of ennui and despair.

Also, she is going to help me shoot my movie. Yays!

(Okay, seriously, that thing with reversing the rotation of the galaxy? Please don't try it. Even though it would be wicked fun.)

That's all for this meme. I've now blogged about everything.