Gore Vidal on the U.S. Garrison State

New World Notes #599, 28:49 (August 27)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Gore Vidal

Progressive historian, essayist, and novelist Gore Vidal is in fine form as--with much wit--he explains what's wrong with the United States.

Spoiler Alert: The answer is, two fake political parties with essentially the same program; perpetual war that benefits only the military-industrial-political complex; the ruinous costs to the citizens of perpetual war; and rule by the financial elite.

Sounds like he's got us pegged pretty well ... but he was speaking in 1982. Some things never change.

Vidal spoke to the Golden Gate Business Association, in San Francisco, on January 28, 1982. The audio recording (which I have condensed) was provided by The Gay Life radio program on station KFAN, San Francisco. Thanks to all.

This is the first broadcast of this speech on New World Notes. The episode title is mine, not Vidal's.

Dog Day Afternoon at the Movies

New World Notes #598, 29:04 (August 20)
Broadcast quality MP3 (38 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Archer City, Texas. The Royal Theater was gutted by fire in 1965,
shown in The Last Picture Show in 1971, and reopened in 2001.

Three short, Progressive documentary films on our environmental crises--specifically, on fossil fuels, air and water pollution, consumer-electronics trash, and Wall Street schemes. The films are,

• 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds by the Post Carbon Institute (Richard Heinberg)
• The Story of Cap & Trade by Annie Leonard
• The Story of Electronics by Annie Leonard

This program was previously broadcast. Files downloaded from the links, above, are identified as NWN #283.

Annie Leonard is now (since 2014) Executive Director of Greenpeace USA.

Gore Vidal

New World Notes #597, 28:49 (August 13)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Progressive historian, analyst, social critic, public intellectual, anti-imperialist, and wit (not to mention novelist and screenwriter) Gore Vidal is fondly remembered in this tribute. Vidal is in fine form as he holds forth in two interviews, from 2005 and 2003. With a brief introduction by K.D.

Gore Vidal, October 3, 1925 - July 31, 2012.

Thanks to the U.S. program Five o'Clock Shadow (2012, containing the 2005 interview) and the Australian program Dateline (2003) for the Vidal audio. I have excerpted from, edited, and condensed both programs. Top photo courtesy ABC News.