Our radical tour guide
Courtesy of Ron Jacobs
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Ron Jacobs is a traveler—literally and figuratively. Raised as a military brat, Jacobs saw his share of US outposts as a child and teen. Later, he hitchhiked thousands of miles around the United States. Jacobs' wanderlust also encompasses journeys outside the mainstream culture. His open and curious mind has resulted in much writing, including books like The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground and the novel, Short Order Frame Up.
His most recent book, Tripping Through the American Night, is a collection of essays and other observations. Jacobs writes regularly for Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, and other webzines, and his work has appeared in publications around the world. He currently works in a public library in Asheville, NC.
I spoke to Ron Jacobs about his life, his ideas, and his new book. Our conversation is below.
Some Recommended Reading, Listening, and Viewing From Ron Jacobs
- The Sixties Papers, edited by Stew and Judith Albert
- Chapters 1 and 2 of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Marx and Engels
- Battle of Algiers
- The Floodgates of Anarchy, by Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer (also available from AK Press)
- What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party Film/Audio Library, from Newreel/Roz Payne Archives
- Women, Race, & Class, by Angela Davis
- Cointelpro 101, from The Freedom Archives
My Conversation With Ron Jacobs
Planet Green: Is there a common thread that connect the essays that make up your new book? Could that theme be related to your line: "the empire is also in our minds"?
Ron Jacobs: I would say there are a couple common threads. One would be the experience of living in the USA while constantly being reminded how little the nation's true essence actually has to with how the nation is advertised. This naturally has to do with both the actual fact of the Empire and its actions, as well as how that empire works itself into our thought and emotional processes. The empire in our minds is an idea that Fanon expressed well in his works writing about the psychology of the oppressed and the oppressor. Both end up locked in roles that they might not relish. To break out of them however, usually requires something on a cathartic level.
PG: What was your personal journey like? How did that catharsis emerge for you?
RJ: The fates played a role in how my own journey went. My father was a military man. Consequently, I grew up accompanying him to military outposts around the globe, from Pakistan to Germany and around the US. Like most Americans, I was convinced that what he was doing was for the greater good of all the people—Americans and others. It was the year 1968 that began to change that belief. Although some cognitive dissonance began forming in my early adolescent brain before 1968, the events of that year made it clear that what I had been told about the United States and what the United States actually was were two very different things. For me, 1968 began when I saw a Vietnamese man killed on TV by a Saigon policeman and ended with my father going off to do his part in the murderous adventure in Vietnam.
In between, two of my heroes—Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy—were killed; bloody insurrections took place in cities around the world, including two that I knew fairly well—Baltimore and Washington, DC; my mom cried while we watched the police fight protesters in Chicago; and Richard Nixon won the presidency. By the time my father had returned from his tour in Vietnam, I was avowedly antiwar and a supporter of the Black Panthers. I spent my high school years in Germany where a combination of left wing politics, rock music, some hash and LSD, Bobby Seale, Abbie Hoffman, and Karl Marx created a political and cultural affinity I still essentially adhere to.
PG: Can you give us a couple of examples of how that political and cultural affinity is expressed in your new book?
RJ: Sure. The first one that comes to mind would be my recollection of the day Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency. I hitched to downtown DC from the Maryland suburbs. The song playing in the last car I was in was Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." Some kind of synchronicity there. When I got to Lafayette Park, the party was on. In the same piece I describe the history leading up to the event and what it meant according to the left. Another example could be my story of the struggle against corporate food giants at the University of Maryland by a group of politically charged counterculture freaks and their alliances with straighter leftists in their battle to create a food co-op.
PG: What similar type of inspiration/motivation might readers gain from your book? What led you to compile this particular collection?
RJ: I would hope that reading this book might provide people with hope that it is possible to live a life of relative integrity in the belly of the beast. The reasons I put together this collection were these: people asked me when a collection of my essays was coming out. After conversing with friends and acquaintances in the world of small publishers, the selection of pieces that combined personal experience with broader observations seemed to make the most sense. I see it as something like a travelogue—a journey through physical, intellectual, and psychic space, as it were.
PG: Is there anything else you'd like to say to Planet Green readers and how can they further connect with you and your work?
RJ: I appreciate the opportunity to communicate with you and your readers. Plus, it's nice to get the word out there about this book. The ebook format certainly has its limitations, but it is part of the future, I guess. The words are what matters, not the medium they are delivered. However, there are lots of people who can't afford the electronic format. Oh well... If folks want to read more of my stuff, I write very regularly for Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. There are my other books, too. Although a bit hard to find these days, they are available online and the Weather Underground history is at hundreds of libraries. Also, I have another novel, The Co-Conspirator's Tale, coming out in the spring from Fomite Press, which is a new publishing venture out of Burlington, VT.
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