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Home » Commenter “I am Spartacus” is fine

Commenter “I am Spartacus” is fine

The New Neo Posted on by

A number of you had wondered if the commenter known as “I am Spartacus” was all right. I decided to try to get in touch with him, and fortunately I heard back. I’m pleased to repeat that everything’s fine. He’s just been mega-busy, and appreciates everyone’s concern.

Comments

Commenter “I am Spartacus” is fine — 18 Comments

  1. Here’s one for “I am Spartacus” from a great little movie which redeemed Tom Hanks for me: “That Thing You Do.”

    The film is about a one-hit wonder band from the mid-sixties. “I am Spartacus” is the impromptu name for a solo the drummer came up with and at the end gets to play with his jazz idol.

    –“That Thing You Do – I am Spartacus”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKRewnv4rnw

    Best on your projects, Spartacus.

  5. It’s good to know that the Captain and crew of the good ship Neo look out for one another– particularly during this interminable pandemic-imposed isolation.

  6. “He’s just been mega-busy …”

    Not only understandable, but laudable.

    In instances where some might just talk, we have seen that Spartacus, does.

    Pacing and focus, plays a role, no doubt. You cannot be everywhere at once. Or, not for long.

  7. That’s good news, Neo. And the fact that you thought to look him up and share the news with your posse is another shining example of your innate considerateness. You are a most worthy Blog Mistress!

  10. I’ve mentioned before that there are tons of bad Marxist propadanga art, but also some pretty good Marxist art. The novel Spartacus is in the latter group.

    From Wikipedia:

    Howard Melvin Fast (November 11, 1914 – March 12, 2003) was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.

    Fast was born in New York City. His mother, Ida (née Miller), was a British Jewish immigrant, and his father, Barney Fast, was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant who shortened his name from Fastovsky upon arrival in America.

    Fast spent World War II working with the United States Office of War Information, writing for Voice of America. In 1943, he joined the Communist Party USA and in 1950, he was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities; in his testimony, he refused to disclose the names of contributors to a fund for a home for orphans of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War (one of the contributors was Eleanor Roosevelt), and he was given a three-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress.[3]

    While he was at Mill Point Federal Prison, Fast began writing his most famous work, Spartacus, a novel about an uprising among Roman slaves.[3] Blacklisted by major publishing houses following his release from prison, Fast was forced to publish the novel himself. It was a success, going through seven printings in the first four months of publication. (According to Fast in his memoir, 50,000 copies were printed, of which 48,000 were sold.)

    The film Sylvia adapted from his novel of the same name is quite bold for its era and good.

    I don’t understand how someone can write so impressively about individual liberty and join the Communist Party USA. Anarchists do claim to care about such things, but communists typically don’t.

  11. physicsguy:

    I tried to contact Occam several times but was unsuccessful. I don’t know what that means, but it’s anything from something innocuous to something much worse.

  12. I don’t understand how someone can write so impressively about individual liberty and join the Communist Party USA.

    TommyJay:

    Well, if you see the word in terms of the rich fat cats living large and stomping down on working joes plus the utopian promises of the state “withering away,” it’s not so hard.

    I caught the tail-end of those glory days. There’s an intense feeling of solidarity and having one’s life mean something in larger historical terms. It’s quite intoxicating.

    I guess you know some of this, but if you have never personally mounted those barricades, even in your mind, it does seem odd.

    IMO conservatives just don’t get this. I know they have their feelings of patriotism and their attachment to American history and the Constitution. All well and good. If push comes to shove and one must go storm the beaches of Normandy, conservatives will be there. But the rest of the time it is more the backdrop of personal life.

    For the left it is a full-time job. They never stop looking for the next edge. They never stop pushing for utopia.

    And here we are.

  13. huxley,
    Well put, and you obviously understand it better than I. I think I understand the “Viva la Revolucion” part, and that that sort of stuff can be lots of fun. It reminds of a lengthy interview response Michael Caine gave about being recruited for a hard left Marxist org back in his student or young actor days. (Can’t find any record of it now.)

    Now that you mention it, all that does mean tearing down the current “oppressive” state apparatus. And yet, there is going to be a new communist state apparatus, if you subscribe to that model. Do they really not have any inkling of what is to come if successful?

    Like Neo’s fool vs. nave quandry, I always wonder where the division is between the brainwashed and naive, and the duplicitous operators of the revolution.

    At least Anarchism is logically consistent, if profoundly ignorant of human nature.

  15. Thanks for the kind concern. I have been extremely busy and only dip in occasionally to read the essay and nothing else.

    To give you a sense of what I am involved in:
    – Standing up a Moms for Liberty parental choice organization in Oakland County. You have never seen fury like a Mama Grizzly fighting for her cubs. We just got chartered and now I have to help get a self sustaining structure in place. Then we have to have a state wide convention.
    – Re activating the Republican infrastructure in this county. What a mess!
    – Finding and pushing a candidate for city council that has a chance to win this November. City Council races are the off year races with consequence.
    – Recruitment of activists and harnessing them to their passion. Almost all people who were at TCF have become one. It was a hoot when Pro Publica has an article of how energized right wingers where getting involved in the election process.
    – Getting enough Republican workers to work Detroit and Pontiac elections.
    – Election Integrity, right now it is like water getting ready to boil when there is a simmering on the surface. Evidence is starting to come out and it isn’t the machines.
    – Counteracting the damn McBroom Report a “Republican” whitewash of fraud. “There was fraud but not really that much of it.” The Democrats will pound that report over our heads all through 2022.
    – Getting a forensic audit approved in Michigan. What a slog but it is coming.
    – Being part of the State wide Election Day Operation planning for 2022. What I saw at TCF will not happen under my watch.

    All this and having a full time job.

    So if you are mad don’t sit and pound out your frustrations on the keyboard. Push yourself away from the desk and get involved. Start with being an election day worker. It will open your eyes.

    I will pop in occasionally if events warrant it.

  18. @ Spartacus
    So good to hear you are still fighting the Good Fight and not languishing in the political prisoner gulag with the rest of the Capitol 500, which is what I feared at the worst.
    Drop us a line occasionally and keep us in the loop!

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