I need to post thoughts on:

• Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed
• Antonio Gramsci's Political Writings v.1 and v.2
• Pier Paolo Pasolini's In Danger (collection of poetry, cultural criticism, and political agitation). Pasolini detests the style of the hippies, who wore the rags of revolution rather than fight its battles. Long hair does nothing for him, an openly gay communist.
• How to Survive a Plague, documentary depicting AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACTUP) and their direct action to demand AIDS treatment from the FDA, NIH, etc.
• the Allied Media Conference, in which media activists from across the country met to "decolonize minds."
• personal, internal transformation vs. collective, political action (have I, at the age of 23, already soured on organizing vs. personal liberation? Life is short -- a quote from Detroit: "No matter how many maps or studies we [i.e. 'the people'] bring, we will never have as many nor will we be as articulate as those in power." In other words, as long as we speak the oppressor's language, we are compromised, and they will always win when they set the rules of the game. The alternative, stagnation or perpetual disaffection from day to day clockwork on-the-ground work, is what disgusts me. Freire himself made the transformation from organized agitation and political engagement to personal, almost spiritual liberation.