Radio Interview: Mark Ames Talks About Why Rampage Massacres Make Sense In A Reaganomics World

Entertainment / eXiled Alert! / February 13, 2009

By Team eXiled

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This interview was aired on Los Angeles’ KPFK radio program called “4 o’clock Tuesdays.”

Mark Ames is the author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion from Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine. You can reach him at ames@exiledonline.com.

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13 Comments

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1. aleke | February 13th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
hell yaeh! Good book MArk. loanin it out to all me mates
2. Homer Erotic | February 13th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
The long, angry rejection letters from publishers you described in the interview really screamed denial to you, I would think. You must have really touched a raw nerve in US society, not in the least because those publishers who behaved in what I would have called an inappropriate and unprofessional way, were part of that “Top 20%” who were the main beneficiaries of the economic changes of the post-80’s world.
3. GOD | February 13th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Reaganomics are no longer HERE. This isn’t ’81.
4. geo8rge | February 13th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Massive immigration of low status workers, without an equal number of doctors lowered low skill workers salaries, while making health care impossible for them to get.
You keep saying the rich people were the ones that won. Government workers are the ones that got easy jobs, salary increases, and pensions 20 years out of high school. Please look at ibvallejo.com for details of the amazing deal police and firemen got in that sad little town. Then yap about the rich.
It is still hard to get rich, and hardly guaranteed. Many rich people actually did something worthwhile. Rich people can blow it, And once blown you are unlikely to get another shot. I personally think Martha Stewart deserves her $$$ even though I hate her. None of this is true with government workers.
As far as Reaganism went, something needed to be done about economic stagnation caused by policies dating back to Hoover. You may recall that pre Regan rich people could pay no taxes by investing in tax sheltered investments. Reagan put in the Alternative Minimum Tax, which forced rich people to pay taxes.
End of Rant
5. Geo8rge Is An Idiot | February 13th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Geo8rge do you have a grasp of one single fact?
1. Reagan didn’t put in the Alternative Minimum Tax, it became law in 1969. News flash: Reagan wasn’t president in 1969.
2. Economic stagnation in the 1970s was due to policies enacted by Hoover in the 1920s and 30s? Wow, that’s a new one. Which policy of Hoover’s caused inflation 50 years later?
3. You may recall that post-Reagan rich people and corporations invest in offshore tax shelters to pay no taxes.
6. Alan Minsky | February 14th, 2009 at 12:10 am
Great interview!
Here’s an easy way to access the interview. Go to http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/
then scroll down to Tuesday Feb. 3 at 4:03pm, and click on either “play” or “download.”
The interview with Mark Ames starts about 36 minutes into the show (the music leading into the segment is classic early 80s hip-hop).
7. Alan Minsky | February 14th, 2009 at 12:29 am
disregard previous post
the audiolink wasn’t uploading on my computer – it’s there now…
pretty picture too
8. aleke | February 14th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Geo8rge hasn’t read the book and knows nothing about waht he’s talking about
9. aleke | February 14th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I really look forward to that BBC documentary by the way. I was thinking about how to best get the subversive message of the book out; maybe a comedy film is the best subverter?
10. booltox | February 14th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I really appreciate Marks work. I have been giving his Going Postal book as gifts to my “cubical deformed” buddies that are teetering on blowout. I don’t think anybody has actually read it yet. But when they finally pop, the book will be there with an explanation. At least I hope that’s how it works.
11. Anonymous | February 15th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Mark, that question toward the end, “how would you describe the Exile,” is a very good one. I’d say something like
“Exiled Online is an angry, frequently offensive, over-educated general news site, focused especially on war, crime, politics, Russia and America, and attacking hack journalists who only report press releases.”
And even though hack journalists do it, asking him ahead of time for a list of questions so you can think up snappy answers is probably smart, because on the radio, a thoughtful pause is just dead air. (Which is part of why I prefer reading to listening and wish there was a transcript of this, but lots of other people prefer listening.) It is a friendly interview, after all, and you can make it clear that if he wants to deviate from the list or not send one, that’s fine too.
“GOD”, I’d say that from FDR’s New Deal through LBJ’s Great Society and all the way through Carter’s presidency was one economic swing, and the Reagan Revolution was the start of another swing that we’re most definitely still in. Reaganomics, the federal hostility to living wages, welfare, public schools, and public hospitals, is definitely still here.
Aleke, a sense of humor is key, but outright comedy may just be like a steam valve that makes workers MORE compliant. Dilbert and Office Space were fun, but a lot less thought provoking than Fight Club or Sicko.
12. Anonymous | February 15th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Like a steam valve in that it releases pressure to prevent it getting too high, I mean, when what we want here is for workers to feel pressured enough to fight back against rich bullies.
13. Snarky | February 16th, 2009 at 12:43 am
Attention poster of post #3: You are a moron. You are saying that Reaganomics aren’t here after eight years of Bush? Wow, just wow. Have you even compared Reagan’s economic policy to Bush’s?