I poke my head into what remains of the American and German peace movements every once in a while, and it’s always disappointing. For years the heads at demonstrations have been a sea of balding pates, white and gray (not that there’s anything wrong with balding or white haired heads). It’s very literally a dying bunch. I exchanged texts with Nuke Resister.org at one point years ago, commenting that everyone in one of their demonstration photos seemed to be over 60, and my correspondent wryly replied that they did have one woman there who was 50.
Like the ritualistic demonstrations the writing shows this decrepitude – it’s tired, formulaic stuff, regurgitating language from literally half a century ago, largely for a readership of a similar age, debating tactics from an anti-Vietnam War struggle which relied on the written word, on leafletting, letters-to-the-editor, in a 2025 world of social media, where young people are watching TikTok and other media in which videos literally never stop. Here Ralph Nader continues to proposition writing one’s congressperson as a form of political activism.
But this very obvious geriatric condition cannot/must not be discussed. I’m guessing Kovic’s response to me is an attempt at ironic dismissal. It seems so lame, so impotent, but more importantly, so trite. In response to my criticism of his writing as boilerplate he offers „thank you for your kind and thoughtful comments regarding my piece. I found them to be very helpful. Again, thank you! Best always“? Is this thought to be witty? Self-deprecating irony? This is very much a weak self-own.