Let's say that I last went to university when Aristotle wore shorts. After studying the sciences to please my father for two semesters, I decided to study Literature to please myself. This was in a socialist country, in a Presbyterian college which I joined after studying in a Catholic school. I guess that is why I am an atheist, but that would be beside the point. In the Land of the Free, I decided to do some courses in English because I love the language. I must admit that I'm having fun. My Professors are a very nice bunch and they do the best that they can, albeit with their puppet strings pulled by the invisible "nanny state" here. A year ago, a friend in San Francisco, Pessolini land, called me worried about an elocution contest that his 8 year old daughter was supposed to participate in. Her teacher did not allow her to read Casabianca because she did not like a poem where the protagonist died. She then disallowed Yeats' The Stolen Child because it spoke of children being kidnapped by fairies.

Things at university are no different. You might say that I live in the fascist enclave of Chicago, ruled by "off with their heads" Richard Daley, and that is a reason for the drab syllabus that we have to do with. I'm not sure that this is the case. We study e e cummings' "loneliness" and "in just -" but not his really combative, brilliant poems like "the way to hump a cow" or "my sweet old etcetra." Turn the radio on in this city and if you hear Bob Marley, then you're sure to hear Buffalo Soldier  or Redemption SOng, but not some of his mroe controversial music like "Got to Have Kaya Now." I guess any mention of drugs is taboo in Chi Town, never mind that I have seen the wealthy do drugs at parties and in the most exclusive hotels, in public, and with the waiters looking the other way. Even Daley must know about this - he runs a Gestapo state as everyone knows. I don't do drugs but have no problem enjoying music about them. The nanny, and his name is Richard Daley, is the Gestapo. Cross the state border to Milwaukee and listen to the FM stations there and they have no such pretensions.

Chicago is home to the American Nazi Party who used to march through Skokie because that is a prdominantly Jewish locality and the literature and music scene here remind me of a more sophisticated "Entarte" classification than Hitler foisted on his people. The world went to war with Hitler, reluctantly, and more than 50 million people got killed. I doubt that Daley, a non entity outside Chi Town, and a dog in the manger while he holds on to hereditary power in this dirty, crumbling and dying Baghdad of the future, would be responsible for more than the 500 odd deaths that take place every year in his fief while his bootlickers sing his praises in the Chicago Tribune and the Sun Times. But the soul of this city is dying, slowly, with it's people turned into un-thinking zombies. Illinois' schools rank 47th out of the 50 states in the USA. There stilla re some decent universities. I wouldn't be surprised if they, too, slide in the future, to a similar level as the schools here.

Does anyone remember when s fascist state ever produced a great artist, writer, poet, musician etc? If you could think of any, do let me know.