Ask yourself how many beauties you subvert during the course of a day. No one is brave enough for this. Capitalism helps or does not help reflection where essential joy is concerned. I recall a trip to the Soviet Union when I was 26 years old. I saw that possession of the wrong book was the invitation to a cavity search. This past week, reading of tortures directed by the Central Intelligence Agency, and in particular of “rectal feeding” I’ve remembered rather vividly being searched by the Soviet border guards when I attempted to enter the Soviet Union during the first Reagan term. If governments are generally untrustworthy, so too are they generally resistant to human dignity. At this stage of my life I won’t be convinced otherwise.
Who lives a life of happiness, the pursuit thereof? I prefer free markets and capitalism to what I saw recently in China where I spoke with writers who must gather in secret; where the freedom to speak against the suppression of egalitarian ideas is still far off. I’m not confused. Yet freedom demands I say what I believe to be true: namely that state supported dehumanization is aberrant. The United States has not stood up for freedom and human dignity in the years since 9/11.
How many beauties do you subvert during the course of a day? I know I’m small. My arms are relatively weak. I’m a blind poet. An intellectual. I’m the man likely to carry the wrong book when crossing a border. I will not stand against poetry. I won’t flinch. This means I won’t salute the cruelty and barbarous violations of human rights perpetrated by the United States government. Back in 1983 I had Soviet fingers up my ass. I’ve not forgotten. When I hear Dick Cheney justify torture I laugh. I really do. He’s a man with no appreciation of essential joy; a man who doesn’t understand what freedom is.
Planet of the Blind 