A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
When I was taking one of my anthropology courses (or maybe it was
psychology) in college, the story was told about a group of Navajo men
who were given a trip to Chicago, under a New Deal government grant,
so they could have a good time while scientists watched them having
it.
They did everything any regular tourist might do in the City of
the Big Shoulders, seeing the aquarium, the planetarium, Marshall
Fields' giant department store, and so on. When they got back to the
reservation, they were interviewed about their trip. Shockingly, not a
solitary one of them seemed to have noticed the single noisiest, most
ubiquitous attraction in the whole city, the famous elevated railway,
or "El". None of the gentlemen had any impression or memory of it at
all.
The scientists eventually concluded that the Navajos more or less
didn't see or hear the elevated railway, because it was so far outside
their lifelong frame of experience. It's said that Pacific islanders
or Australian Aborigines killed and ate Captain Cook for much the same
reason.
I'm not sure about the Navajos in Chicago—they may have been
pulling the scientists' legs—I've heard they liked to do that; I
hope they still do—but I'm pretty much convinced that a similar
phenomenon explains why establishment media fail to see Presidential
candidate Ron Paul when he's standing right in front of them. So
"embedded" are they with the government, sharing its tunnel vision,
that Ron might as well be invisible to them: a serious candidate who
wants to abolish the income tax and the IRS? You've got to be
kidding!
It's a theory, anyway.
If you enjoy "Political Geometry", my essay on the so-called
political spectrum in this issue of L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian
Enterprise, there are a couple of things you can do. First of all,
please pass this essay on, especially to local news media who, Dr.
Paul has shown us, are definitely in need of some sort of reality
therapy.
Second, please get a copy and read my 2001 novel
The American
Zone, which concerns itself with the same subject, only in an action
story about refugees from our world and others like it, encountering
unexpected difficulties with the task of owning their own lives in the
North American Confederacy, and where the points of the political
diamond are represented by various characters Win Bear has to deal
with.
Thanks!
L. Neil Smith
Publisher and Senior Columnist
L.Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise
EDITOR'S NOTE:
I'm all drugged-up on various chemicals my Doc gave me to try
and let me live through the pain of this back/shoulder injured
muscle. Turns out sitting at my desk doing TLE was making it
not heal but instead get worse. I'm trying various things to
help, but I find working rather naturally makes me tense-up,
which not what I need right now. Just goes to show ya, there's
always something! But the World needs TLE, so I answer the
call. I hope you will do something to advance the cause
of liberty today!
Sweeter Than Wine has been nominated for a Prometheus Award.
Down With Power will be in print and on Kindle and other such
on January 20, 2012.
L. Neil Smith's new novel Sweeter Than Wine is out:
Amazon.com Dead Tree
Amazon.com Kindle
Barnes & Noble Dead Tree or Nook
Don't have a Nook? Click:
buy at BarnesandNoble.com
Don't have a Kindle? Click:
buy at Amazon.com
Get your very own Come Back with a Warrant doormat from
Amazon.com. Two styles to choose from! Just click on the one you
want:
Down With Power—a handbook & guide for libertarian/tea-partian
action—has been sent off to the publisher. It is also on the web at
down-with-power.com
(a.k.a. "L. Neil Smith's Little Gold Book")
The graphical novel Phoebus Krumm by L. Neil Smith, Scott Bieser
and the artist known as ~3~ is now complete on the web at:
bigheadpress.com
and you can order yourself a paper version Real Soon Now.
L. Neil Smith's Lever Action is slowly appearing on the net
at http://down-with-power.com/lever_action/
Mr. Smith's work is featured on "The Heart of the Matter" website.
Be sure and check L. Neil Smith's blogs
at BigHeadPress.com and
"The Moratorium".
Remember our e-mail discussion lists you can join:
[this one]
or mail to:
[email protected]
We are a Reader-Supported eMagazine.
Ken Holder
Editor-in-Chief
editor@ncc-1776.org
