Posted by pancho (64.165.200.29) on February 10, 2002 at 18:06:41:
I'm intrigued by this concept of "selling out". I've seen lots of people accused of it, as they've been accused of getting paid by some handlers somewhere...or taking orders from someone else. I have been accused of all of the above and worse. I wonder who does the buying? If I WANTED to sell whatever it is I sell "out"...where do I find the buyer? Am I supposed to walk up to a Muslim or someone in a Bathey and say..."I want to sell" Sell what?...might be the logical reply.
When Peter says I am a "sell out"...what does it mean? Does it mean that Muslims paid for the monuments? Does it mean that I get money to hold these views, that I believe none of them...that were it not for the money I am paid to "sell out" I wouldn't be doing any of this? Is there supposed to be an agent somewhere feeding me cash so I write the things I do...and does it benefit Muslims or Saddam or the Kurds that I sell my sculpture and use the proceeeds to build monuments?
Why not just go to work for the Man directly? Why not make Arab monuments...after all Arab Americans are an even greater force in American politics than Assyrians are. What is it that peter imagines the Assyrian community he represents has that someone "wants" so badly that they pay me to....to do what....make sculptures of Assyrian Kings and place monuments in American cities? Why would anyone bother with Peter or the AUA or Atour and the Federation? What do they have to offer anyone...why would you want to sabotage or neutralize them...what program or momentous effect are they likely to have on world affairs or national policy that one must deter and sidetrack them? What threat to anyone, but themselves, do the Assyrian clubs and bingo parlors pose that anyone would bother with them?
I wish someone WAS paying for this stuff.