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The ZEITGEIST Edition:
 POLICY MATTERS: ADAM J. SMITH predicts the Final Battle in the War on Drugs. U.S. Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, seems to agree!
 LONDON CALLING! FELICITY USSHER looks toward a future Zeitgeist.
 POWERSBOOKS: BOB POWERS talks with Carrie Brown, author of "ROSE'S GARDEN."
HOUSE OF CARDS has a brand new Joke of the Day.  TRIO: RADIO RAHEEM sees "THE SEASON OF THE WOLF: The Triumph of Cynicism," when he looks at the Zeitgeist.
HOT LINKS(Not From Louisiana) gives a new G21 SILVER SURF AWARD, and debuts a new Link Partner!  BARE KNUCKLES: Part 2 of JEFF WINBUSH's "Search For Spike."
DON'T READ ME FIRST! Our Publisher talks about the Spirit of Our Times and this Edition.  BarnesandNoble SEARCH: If you're like us, you like good writing. Use the Barnes and Noble Search Engine page to find great savings on good books, delivered right to your home or office!
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Despite differences in skin colour, location, language, accent and sexual behaviour, we all love, shit and hope. This is the zeitgeist, or spirit of our age, in the sense that it is this philosophy of equality that confronts the racism of imperialism, and the class prejudice and sexual chauvinism of old-fashioned economics. We needed [a new zeitgeist] to help us cope with the effects of immigration, full enfranchisement and education for all, and to help us move on from the disaster of wars between nations.
But equality has become interpreted as sameness, and now we are seeing the drawbacks of such an immense, bland category for all human types. Our politicians dare not stray from the wishes of the loudest tabloid newspaper, as though democracy meant governance by the masses; and we can only buy products that most people want - from global chains of shops in identical high streets in identical towns.
Even the staff at Boots the Chemist, which recently took over Ireland's national pharmacy, are identical in every store, along with their products. The chatty, middle-aged women who knew their Dublin customers personally have been replaced by cloned clock-watchers who have no experience of life, let alone the capability to suggest remedies based on it. And Ireland's Quinnsworth supermarkets have been taken over by Tesco, which serves all its customers stodgy English puddings. Capitalism at its extreme has meant that only the voice of the majority can be heard - not just economically, but politically and socially.
It is not that the propaganda of sameness has served its purpose. In many areas, understanding of others is still needed to maintain political stability. Ireland, made into a Celtic tiger by EU subsidies, is now bristling under its first encounter with immigration and locals are accusing newly-arrived Bosnians of stealing Irish jobs, just as Brits accused black arrivals in the 1950s. But the time has come to make the zeitgeist more complex.
We all care for our loved ones. We all need food, work and stability to hope for the future. But people vary enormously in their behaviour, and the significance they give it.
How highly do you value financial independence? What makes you embarrassed? What is funny? This cultural variety must be celebrated as a real and positive way of distinguishing between groups of people. What is your relationship to the land and to your mother? Who, beyond your immediate companions, best represents your viewpoint?
This is the stuff that makes communities and creates political loyalties, but these real identities swim against the tide of our current age, where bland uniformity is the aim of global business and group identity has become a marketing tool.
Rather than working to forge communities, modern England has turned identity into a lucrative new art form. An industry has sprung up to launch new stereotypes into the void, and to create jobs in a country whose raw materials are under conservation. This new industry, known as information marketing, breaks people down into ever smaller social segments. Supermarkets, banks and Internet Service Providers trade people's personal details, providing advertisers with material to create new consumer profiles.
Real communities are not defined by consumer preferences such as who uses the same shampoo. Real people laugh at the idea that buying Häagen-Dazs ice cream could turn them into a more sociable, shaggable person. But the widespread belief that, apart from spending power, we are all the same, prevents communities from expressing themselves socially and politically in all their glorious variety.Communities must become politicised with leaders who dispute ideas and push for change. Government should become management and employers should become responsible, if only to preserve their image. Maybe networks of cables will help achieve this, by linking people who share common values, and by inspiring intelligent, young people to start their own companies. Powerful grass-roots organisations are not the spirit of our time, which has seen empires and nations replaced by global business. But they could be the zeitgeist of the future.
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