Re: YouTube piece

Studying history is very much akin to having a giant inbox that keeps filling up with new material faster than one can keep up with it; the problem is that things simply won't stop happening. Just the other day, for instance, there was a bit of a happening when the inexplicably prominent Glenn Beck dedicated some large portion of his newish Fox show to pointing out that the United States is heading down the road to fascism, helpfully illustrating his point with old footage of Nazis marching around like Nazis. Beck did soften the blow by describing our nascent brand of fascism as being of the non-violent sort or, to put it another way, they're marching us towards Nineteen Eighty-Four Big Brother! Of course, Orwell's imagined totalitarian government was not non-violent at all and in fact depended very much on perpetual warfare and unaccountable torture (ahem). But in Beck's defense, he's probably never read the book. Perhaps defense is the wrong word.

The point, though, is that each time something wacky is recorded in the political sphere these days, we risk losing sight of what's really important: wacky things that were recorded in the political sphere decades ago. The political wackiness of yesteryear is less depressing insomuch as that it does not directly reflect on our nation's current decline, as today's nonsense does; on the contrary, it may help to remind us that things have always looked terrible, at least in the eyes of about half of the nation at any given time.

Thus it is that I have helpfully compiled the following set of ten interesting and moderately amusing YouTube clips depicting the political life of yesteryear.

On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 12:18 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Yeah, I'll get on that and have it back to you in a bit.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 12:15 PM, Michael Hogan <Michael_Hogan@condenast.com> wrote:

This is insane. Want to take a shot at tweaking the top of your post to tie in to this so we can post this afternoon?

On 4/2/09 11:08 AM, "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Probably for the best; I don't know anything about art anyway. Also, here's a video that's making the rounds today and which might work as a hook for the YouTube piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTzCdY6SqDQ&feature=player_embedded <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTzCdY6SqDQ&feature=player_embedded>

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 12:17 PM, Michael Hogan <Michael_Hogan@condenast.com> wrote:

Its interesting but its not the kind of thing I can pay for.

On 4/1/09 9:24 AM, "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Okay, I'll keep my eye out for something along those lines. Also, the New Museum is serving as the launch venue for the global Berlin Wall 20th anniversary festivities and I'm supposed to be attending tomorrow night; would you be interested in a short piece for the Culture blog?

More info:

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/off-the-wall-berlin-bash-in-new-york/

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Hogan, Michael <Michael_Hogan@condenast.com> wrote:

Hey Barrett,

Yes, thanks. It looks great. I'm hoping we can find an opportune moment to use it, same as we did with the Friedman piece. If you hear of a wild political video making the rounds, let me know.

Thanks and best,
Mike

-----------------
Michael Hogan
Executive Online Editor
Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com] <mailto:barriticus@gmail.com%5D>
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 01:34 PM Eastern Standard Time
To: Hogan, Michael
Subject: YouTube piece

Howdy-

Did you receive that YouTube piece the other day?

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302