Twitter mania

      Yeah, I just signed up for two twitter feeds, @GlobalRevLive,
and @HongPong, where I am reminded to  @OccupyWallSt.
       Ah the scent of People Power in the morning...
       It smells like... a lot of hungry people waking up in the streets of North American cities, searching for truth... searching for justice..food would be good too...
       Previously I mentioned the article by Chris Hedges, 'Why Revolution Must Start In America', published in the July/Aug issue of Adbusters magazine, which says: "Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and former international correspondent for the New York Times.  His latest book is 'The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress'."  Well I am an unabashed fan of Adbusters, and its editor Kalle Lasn.  They of course have a video feed of the occupation of Wall St. on their website.
      I don't recall seeing a word on this in my local Postmedia publication...
      So it's up to us humble bloggers, us community-minded netizens, to speak truth to power!!!
      Have a look at the summer edition of Adbusters, the one with both Justin Bieber and Louis Riel on the cover, and go ahead and read such articles as "Will The Revolution Begin In London?", "The Spark That Lights Up Australia" and,  "Unleashing Canada's Revolutionary Potential".
      Joel Bakan has a new book that made the Edmonton best seller list, called 'Childhood Under Seige'.  (Thanks Edmonton Journal. There are some things you do well!).  But again, Adbusters is well ahead of the curve, and publishes a letter from a young student that is well worth reading.
      To summarize, this student (Ian S.) picked up a copy of Adbusters in the students union.  He came across an article on "bipolar disorder", which made him cry.   He writes that a few months ago he was diagnosed as "bipolar" after a 45 minute session with a psychiatrist and a printed questionnaire.
      Upon this basis, the psychiatrist prescribed three powerful psychotropic drugs, consisting of an anti-anxiety drug, an anti-depressant drug, and an anti-psychotic drug.
      After taking the pills for a week, he decides to read up on them, and consults a therapist, who says there were no grounds to diagnose him as "bipolar", and that dangerously little is known about the anti-psychotic drug he took.
       The letter writer further states that the therapist confirmed his wariness over the relationship  between psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical lobby, and that {they} were at the mental health facility weekly.
        After taking the said medications, he attempted suicide four times in five months and nearly flunked out of college.  He goes on to curse the pharmaceutical companies, their lobbyists, and the psychiatrists they lobby.
        He states that {they} nearly killed him, and reminds us of the death of a little girl after psychiatric treatment  (Rebecca Riley?).   He concludes, "For doing that to a little girl, they deserve the worst punishment that society can offer.".
        I haven't read Joel Bakan's current best selling book, but I believe this distinguished professor of Law at UBC covers this horrifying trend of labelling children and prescribing to them powerful and addicting psychotropic drugs.
        On my Twitter feed, I'm following those who try to enact change, for revolution is needed throughout our world.  I'm especially concerned about corporate lobbyists bringing death to innocents with their corrupt practices.  Adbusters has continuously covered this blight on society, and has a very special term for it: "The Culture Of Death".
       
        

    Yippie!!  I've got nine friends on Facebook, and seven tweets on Twitter.
Now I've got the miracle of Blogger to really go to town, for you see,
two of those friends on Facebook are literary editors, and it would be nice if they were to take notice of the ramblings of this wayward buffalo.
     I have the advantage of an excellent Liberal Arts education from several Canadian universities, including McGill in Montreal and UBC in Vancouver, culminating in a BA General from the University of Alberta in 1992.
     I once typed up a website called The Able Generalist, expounding on the advantages of a generalized education rather than a specialization, for how can one limit oneself to a single talent when one is blessed with several?
     This blog replaces that website, and will be the home of the cleverly named 'Abel, Generalist', whose outpouring of art, words, and music await your return visits. Enjoy!
     With my major in Art History, minor in English, numerous writing, drawing, painting, and music courses, I'm here to share evidence that you are in the virtual presence of a REAL ARTIST.
     I believe I qualify as both an Able Generalist and a Real Artist, so stay tuned, you may just find your heart and spirit engaged.  (Comments welcome...)
    As for the Alberta Buffalo, well that is another guise I've taken on, for sadly I fell into a void of powerlessness (learned helplessness) and saw myself as one of the millions of Alberta Buffalo driven over the cliff at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a famous Alberta landmark.
    The able generalist now faces his greatest challenge, far beyond the hopes of a rewarding literary career, as politics has taken priority over aesthetics. I'll need to reach back to my years as an undergraduate student of political science at McGill University to find a way to survive the forces of evil driving innocent Albertans like me over the cliff.
     If only I could fly before I hit the bone bed waiting below...
     One can only hope I've escaped this metaphoric fall, as I face the real fall of 2011 in Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta.
     Recently I enjoyed a few days in the Rocky Mountain resort town of Jasper, which I used as a 'Vision Quest' to figure out how to fly and not fall... I believe I saw many routes forward, including finding a book on the "living thoughts of Machiavelli", by Count Carlo Sforza, for sale at the Jasper Public Library.
    I'm studying Machiavelli just like I did 35 years ago at McGill, for as Machiavelli wrote:
   "When any evil arises within a republic, or threatens it from without...  the more certain remedy is to temporize with it, rather than attempt to extirpate it; for almost invariably, he who attempts to crush it will rather increase its force, and will accelerate the harm apprehended from it."
     and, " Prudent men make the best of circumstances in their actions, and, although constrained by necessity to a certain course, make it appear as if done from their own liberality."
     Yes power has seriously threatened my artistic nature, so I'm also reading modern theorists on the evils of global capitalism, such as Chris Hedges who has an article entitled 'Why The Revolution Must Start In America' in the Jul/Aug issue of Adbusters, and Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation.
     As Los Lobos sang, 'Will the Wolf Survive?' 
     For further updates on the fate of this Alberta Buffalo, stay tuned.