Upon returning from the RNC protests in September, I got the same request for firsthand insight from everybody in Southern California: Who were these "anarchists" the media and authorities regarded as a terrorist threat, and what could they possibly believe in that warranted such fears? Of course, explaining that the majority of overeducated, black-clad youth with hardcore patches and motherless-child stares weren't so much hell-bent for chaos as loudly agitated over their own desires—not knowing what they wanted, crystal clear about what they didn't—lowered the pop counterculture appeal their appearance on FBI watch lists had momentarily elevated. Yes, they spent their downtime at seminars about post-capitalist life and the fraudulence of American democracy; but this had less to do with drinking a different flavor of Kool-Aid than with escaping what they'd been taught in order to find out what they believed. Which always seems a good step toward... More >>>