City Lights itself is generally in an anarchist, civil libertarian, antiauthoritarian tradition. Martin [co-owner and founder Peter Martin] named the bookstore after the film by Charlie Chaplin, whose Little Man has always been a symbol of the subjective man against the world. In the tradition of the great literary bookstores on the East Coast and especially in Europe, City Lights began publishing its own books in 1955 and now has about 100 books in print, none federally financed by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. (Its editors, in the Anarchist/Surrealist tradition, like it that way.)
OK, I lied. I lie. Never trust me with silence. What in there REALLY could an Objectivist find objectionable? They are doing creative work, funding it themselves, and doing so in disregard to what other people think. They are asking for freedom from coercion, but are not asking for a helping hand or a free lunch. They are using Capitalist principles and methods to fund culturally original work.
In the same way that the Free Speech Movement WAS a movement for freedom, for useful freedom, for good freedom, these people, in their own way, were blazing a path that could have been useful.
But what expands too quickly tends to shrink. Emotions based on naive hope deflate when they encounter opposition, and they turn easily to rage and resentment. In my view, rage and resentment became their politics, after a good beginning. Rage and resentment remained their politics, ever after, such that, to express their rage, they forgot their civil libertarianism and their antiauthoritarianism, certainly under Obama, but in spirit no doubt long before. Most of these types have long since made their peace with authoritarianism which comes with the proper name and from the proper people. They don’t know the quality of their coffee might drop precipitously, and objecting might get them in a Laogai.
This world is endlessly fascinating. So often people say one thing and mean something else, without even realizing it. You have to watch carefully, very carefully.
I am going to do my best to throw myself into tomorrow, no matter what happens. I am going to bed early tonight. I’ll see at 5am or so what happened. If we know.