I'm blacklisted, says opera maestro

[babsbunny]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/19/classicalmusicandopera-usnationalsecurity

Composer John Adams accuses US of paranoia and says its security forces are following him

However, Adams believes that the Republican administration manipulated the memory of the attacks. '9/11 was a very glamorous event,' he said. 'I'm using the term in a very ironic sense - 3,000 people being killed; it's a terrible tragedy, but in the scale of human tragedy it's very small.

'I think Americans went into what the novelist Philip Roth called "an orgy of narcissism" as a result of 9/11 - we kept replaying those images and kept re-reminding ourselves of what an indignation and how horrible and terrible that event was. And then, of course, we struck out by invading the wrong country.'

[midnight]

1. McCarthy era mindset.....Sure fits the bill......

During the interview, presenter Petroc Trelawny asked Adams if he felt that America was living through an age of paranoia that resembled the McCarthy era of the Fifties.

'Well it is, and of course Congress has continued to sign off on these Patriot Acts that continue to clip the wings of human rights,' said Adams, adding that poets, novelists and musicians with left-wing leanings are often watched, including, he said, the American composer Aaron Copland, who was 'hounded' all his life. 'I'm sure the FBI had a large file on him. So we artists assume that we are being followed.


Here is a link that I looked at to discover this mindset.....


'http://www.trackedinamerica.org/timeline/mccarthy_era/intro/

[Igel]

2. I'm always left curious at the end of such articles.

I know, the intent is to arouse indignation, but screw intent.

Why is the name "John Adams" on the list--how did it get there and why is it still there? (Notice that this phrasing distinguishes between the name and the referent under discussion.)

Is it because of something this particular John Adams did, some pattern of his behavior? Is it because of something that a different John Adams did, some pattern of that man's behavior? Is it because there was somebody who they sought travelling falsely under the name "John Adams"? (And, was that guy ever caught, and through oversight his name not purged from the list?) Is it because "John Adams" is the kind of name that people, additional or otherwise, might falsely travel under?

The article is built on the assumption that "John Adams" as it appears on the list is there as a result of some bureaucrat's deciding that the American composer, born in 1947 and the author of "Nixon in China", merits scrutiny and added his name to the list. I don't know that I can adopt that assumption without some evidence. Random, unpleasant things happen to people without always having reasons that amount to the personal.