Howard Zinn was the great historian and activist who with his classic A People’s History of the United States changed the consciousness of a whole generation. After reading him you would never look at history the same way again. A very public figure, inspirational orator, a great orgnaiser who believed in the power of the common people and who did not flinch from speaking truth to power.

J. D. Salinger, on the other hand, was a recluse, an aggressively private person who shunned fame and the world that idolized him. His all-time classic The Catcher in the Rye defined the angst and anger of an era and achieved a sort of cult status.

Both men detested authority, cocked a snook at the establishment and did not have much use for the received wisdom. Of course, I do not know enough about either of them to present even a half-decent study of contrasts about them, nor would I want to. All I want to do here is jot down my thoughts by way of tribute.

So, Salinger first. I read The Catcher in the Rye at an “advanced” age, even so it had a deep impact on me. I cursed myself for not reading him earlier. The novel is about this teenage character Holden Caulfield who is completely disillusioned with life around him – parents, teachers, education system, social mores. His cynicism, his devil-may-care attitude is infectious, and you completely identify with him as he navigates through a minefield of hypocrisy and pretense around him. If I had read this book when I was gauche and geeky (some would say I still am) teenager some of Holden’s irreverent attitude would have rubbed off of me too.

But having missed the bus, I do not want the young of today to grow up with the same regrets. That is why I always urge whoever would listen to me to read this book. My older son – not fond of books – never even attempted. The younger one did but abandoned it half way through. What the hell is wrong with the teenagers of today! Maybe the world has moved on, the grip of the system is becoming tighter and non-conformism is no longer fashionable. But if you look closely the world and its problems have not changed much. If at all things have only worsened.

It is against this rising tide of authoritarianism Howard Zinn warned us and declared “education can, and should be, dangerous.” I discovered him in the early 1990s along with Noam Chomsky and other famous American dissidents. The irony is that the majority of Americans have never heard about them – which is not the fault of the American people but their mass media which has marginalised all the voices and faces that matter. Such is the power of corporate media and the culture of obedience that it can completely shut out critical thought from public discourse.

Ditto about the real history. The history which A People’s History of the United States promulgates, a history from the point of view of the people, a history in which the people are the actors and agents of change. Zinn rejected the idea of “great men of history.” According to him it is the small acts of millions of people that bring about change. Of course, this subterranean view of history is not new from the Indian perspective. Mahatma Gandhi too believed in the power of the people and successfully mobilised the Indian masses against the British.

Like Gandhi, Zinn was a great believer in “sataygrah” which he interpreted in the American context as civil disobedience. “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem,” Zinn writes in one of his articles.

Before I came across A People’s History of the United States I had read Chomsky’s Year 501: The Conquest Continues, that was a real eye-opener – not just for its earth-shaking content but also for the fact that such a radical book could even exist in such a go-getting, highly hedonistic culture. That book opened the door for me to the vibrant, albeit marginalised, dissident movement in America. From that moment on I had a new respect for America and its people. I avidly devoured books and articles by these writers and that’s when I came across Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

It should be compulsory reading for all Americans – and people around the world. But guess what, you’ll not find it on the course list of any American school or university. Why? Because it is rejects the official history as seen and written by the rich and the victorious. It unearths details and facts about American history – from the genocide of native Americans to the greed and cruelty of European conquerers, from the exploitation of the poor and working class to the uncontrolled rapacity of the rich, from the bravery and sacrifice of the common people to the manipulation of public purse and policy by the wealthy – that do not sit well with the powers-that-be. It is a subversive book which if read widely can spark a revolution. Maybe it will, someday. Is it any wonder then that the establishment has been quick to denounce it as “revisionist history”?

But Zinn never cared about what the masters and their hangers-on had to say about the book. In the court of public opinion he was already king – the book has sold more than 2 million copies and was famously touted by Matt Damon in the movie “Good Will Hunting”. Recently the book was made into a documentary “The People Speak” by History TV. I’ve yet to watch it. Zinn’s autobiography You can’t be neutral on a moving train is also a compelling read. He comes across as a caring, compassionate man; a teacher who connected with his students and the public in a very special way; an activist who devoted his entire life to the cause of social change and world peace.

This is what Zinn writes in the introduction, “When I became a teacher I could not possibly keep out of the classroom my own experiences. I have often wondered how so many teachers manage to spend a year with a group of students and never reveal who they are, what kind of lives they have led, where their ideas come from, what they believe in, or what they want for themselves, for their students, and for the world.”

They do not make teachers like that anymore, do they?

These two men, Zinn more than Salinger, enriched my life as they did, I’m sure, of millions of others. Thank you. Will end with a verse from P.B. Shelly which Zinn quotes in A People’s History of the United States:

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquished number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many; they are few!

We too, the whole family, went downtown to join the protest march. The previous night we hurriedly put together a couple of posters with catchy slogans. In the morning, we bundled up, crammed the posters in the boot of the car and headed downtown. We parked the car at a distance and walked to the square where the march was to start from. It was cold like hell and our breath seemed to freeze in midair and I wondered whether it was a good idea to venture out in this arctic weather – with the family, with little kids.

But we were not alone. There were tens of other families with little kids. We thought we were doing it for them, to safeguard their future and our world from the depredations of an empire gone mad. We knew the U.S. was invading Iraq for its oil. The pretexts were many and justifications many more. But nobody was fooled. The high point of selling this fraudulent war to the world was Powell’s ridiculous presentation to the UN General Assembly. How good men can be enlisted to do bad things!

Protest against the war in downdon Toronto: Was it all in vain?

One can make a case for a just war. But if there was ever an unjust war it was this. Come to think of it, this is the goddamn 21st century, not some dark ages of barbaric tribal warfare. We have an international rule of law, a Western Civilisation that never stops crowing about itself, an evolved human race with mind-boggling achievements in art, science and culture. But suddenly, at that point in our benighted times, it seemed as if none of it mattered. One superpower drunk with power and hubris was bent upon destroying our history, our dignity.

And it did. With aplomb and with impunity. Seven years on, millions dead and a country devastated, the madness continues. In retrospect, all those fevered days of protests look surreal, even ridiculously naive. But what else could have we done? The world agitated and churned in desperation, the dis-empowered consumers for once tried to become citizens. For that brief moment we held out a hope that at last people’s will be done. But that was not to be.

What followed was shock and awe, and the world watched on with impotent anger and disbelief. The following are the words I wrote in helpless rage. They do not matter much today, except to refresh our memory and mock our innocence. Here goes…

Full spectrum madness

An Empire out of control

Is there no one to stop this madness?
NO ONE?

we tried, millions and millions
around the world
but failed
we protested, we prayed
but to no avail

these hollow men
armed with ‘vile maxim’
drunk with power
dreaming of ‘avarice beyond dream’
with hubris in their heart
mammon on their mind
will stop at nothing
NOTHING

no reason, no rhyme
will stop them
no god, no faith
will stop them

they speak in democracy’s name
but ignore peoples’ cries
they speak in truth’s name
but utter nothing save lies
LIES
they talk of liberty
but snare minds in chains
talk of peace, but wage war

high hypocrisy, low cunning
what shock, what awe
the like of which
Orwell and Swift, Twain
and Thoreau never saw

these hollow men
are not stupid
nor are they mad
working on a grand plan
nursing, nourishing a vision
they want a finger in every pie
a jackboot on every land

for centuries they’ve conquered
foreign lands and made their own
destroying culture, life, memory
in their wake

today they march again,
bomb again, mutilate again
without a care for life or law

that thousands of children
have died already is not enough
that depleted uranium is mutating
babies already is not enough
that the country is starved
and strafed already is not enough
the Empire now must
kill them to save them
as if Vietnam never happened

these hollow men
talk of morality and rights
while making mockery of both
swear by resolutions
while having vetoed most

weapons of mass destruction
is the new mantra
WMD WMD WMD
here’s a preamble to
the new tantra

who has the largest stockpile of WMD
biological, chemical, nuclear?
USA

who has used WMD wantonly
with intent clear?
USA

who is the only one who has used
the A-Bomb not once but twice?
USA

who is making the most noise
shrill and sanctimonious?
USA

who should disarm and destroy WMD?
IRAQ

Hark. Bark. Laugh.

what civilization is this
that doesn’t die laughing
in face of such absurdity
what progress is this
that has gagged your voice
amid media unreality
what age is this
that worships still at the altar
of high and mighty

these hollow men
come into power and pelf
by hook and mostly by crook
they wangle your vote
strangle your voice
they give you liberties
that matter not
then rule over life and death
our life and death

cheer cheer for gift of life
life crushed by
routine work, endless debt
slave away for the American Dream
earn spend, spend earn
in two words is end of life
that’s what the masters want
and that’s how you must behave

blood and sweat oil the system,
every minion, every satrap
in oil’s thrall
nature under the thumb
time to conquer men and all
to appease SUVs, heat
huge homes and granite hearts

time to feed fires of profit
with mindless slaughter
time to assault truth
with official blather
time to pacify demons
of the new world order

welcome to the
New American Century
age of unchallenged power
chilling arrogance
age of stifled hopes
unleavened nightmares
age of congealed imagination
slumbering outrage
age of ‘either you’re with us
or with them’

Empires have risen and
fallen before
this Empire too will
bite the dust
but not before the world
has gone bust
not before blood is spilt
for power lust
not before gods are buried
under earthy crust

9/11 came out of the blue
a godsend, a manna from heaven
a neo-con dream come true
a sun of black fears rises anew
a pretext for endless war 24/7

a
war of the rich against the poor
war of the powerful against the weak
war of the smug against the unsure
war of the conceited against the meek

regime change is back in fashion
rulers will be made and unmade
at mere fancy and whim
Yesterday Afghanistan
Today Iraq
Tomorrow your country and mine

it had come to this
WHY?
how could centuries of wisdom
flowering of intellect and grace
quest for beauty and elegance
achievements good and great
come to this?
this apocalypse?
this moment of truth
terrible, tragic?

what is this truth that
holds such sway?
that profit, greed, power
have won the day?
that finest of human values
have turned to clay?

for how long will flawed
humans stumble and fall?
for how long will cruel
gods delight in our folly and gall?