From The Editors

The Future

By AC & CH

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Cover by jaime johnson
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Seymour Hersh can predict the future. Between his secret Pentagon sources-cultivated over the three decades since his reporting on the My Lai massacre-and a purported understanding of what he calls "the neoconservative ideology," Hersh is convinced that we'll be at war with Iran in the coming months. In his March 8 lecture in Brown's Salomon Center, Hersh mentioned that one of the sources for his recent New Yorker article, which alleges that US operatives are already working within Iran to identify possible bombing targets, told him that, "If you do your story right, it's going to be wrong." That is, if enough people believe the article and do something about it, Hersh's predictions about a coming war with Iran won't pan out. Sy, however, seems unconvinced by this logic; his interest lies in faithfully chronicling the hidden underside of war, from My Lai to Abu Ghraib, not in preventing its occurrence in the future. Asked what he would do differently in the Middle East, he had little to offer.

Here at the Indy we admit to much of the same reticence. We are nihilists, even the chick who writes the List. "Read the neoconservatives," Hersh said. Sy, we're nihilists. We read nothing except for Turgenev and anyone who has the brass balls to comment on him.

Iran is next. Syria? Next. Lebanon? We'll hit it as we're going by Syria. Israel? What the fuck, some good beach spots. UAE? The United States invented acronyms. It's time for the war to spread. Carpet bombing. Lots of little robots (see p. 10) making us sandwiches, killing journalists (see p. 2). The future on the horizon is robotic, meaningless, pre-programmed by Daniel Pipes. We believe in nothing.

Hersh's prediction of war in Iran may be a bit unlikely for our already overstretched armed forces, and the president's press secretary has denied the any intention of invading Iran. Still, Scott McClellan, like Ari Fleischer before him, has lied to us. "Everyone lies" is Hersh's axiom. He began the lecture by declaring what he and his reportage stood for: moral courage, or truth. This, of course, is the kind of shit Bush supporters put on bumper stickers.

As the lecture spiraled towards its My Lai-esque conclusion, Hersh took questions from the audience. The most revolutionary reporter of his generation conducted what can best be called a Dubya-style press conference, replete with covering for his military buddies and refusing to talk about his works in progress. And after all the saccharine bullshit Brown students have heard on the lecture circuit, there was something refreshing about this evasion. It was good to see that a man who gave us the chronology of US foreign policy over the last 50 years had about as much use for our liberal pleas as the current president. At least, unlike Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, Hersh had little interest in pretending that his lucrative trip to our little town was anything but. His refusal to indulge the unanswerable questions posed by the audience should at least remind us that the solutions we seek are not to be found in guest lecturers, no matter how famous or distinguished.

Afterwards, all we really wanted to do was challenge some aristocrat to a duel, or plot to blow up the Czar's carriage only to pull out at the last second to avoid killing innocent bystanders. This was the meaning of Sy Hersh's worldview-he told us that all one has to do is read the neoconservatives; then again we couldn't really know what was going on in Iraq and probably never will. If that doesn't get you reading Fathers and Sons, we don't know what will.

Hersh, paradigm of the moral journalist, described his reportage as akin to bearing witness, dismissive of the thought that his reporting might change history. Hersh is skeptical of that idea-"If you write the story right, it will be wrong"-even though his work always attempts to shame our government into old-fashioned integrity and honesty.

It's hard to believe in this possibility when the man responsible for uncovering top-level complicity in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is that jaded, but hey, we're all nihilists now.

-AC & CH

Ephemera

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Person with Newspaper

"But there's not the least need for them to understand our conversation," observed Bazarov.

"Whom do you mean?" put in Evdoksya.

"Pretty women."

"What? Do you adopt Proudhon's ideas, then?"

Bazarov drew himself up haughtily. "I don't adopt anyone's ideas; I have my own."

As If You Care

I don't know about you guys, but I don't really want a reference to my orgasm habits or the amount of pot I smoke as our class motto. I mean, seriously UCS, we seniors here at the Indy find it incredibly inappropriate that you would choose to demean us in this, our most glorious hour. Not only are we realllllly interested in what our motto is going to be-not to mention the rest of that awesome senior-stuff you keep e-mailing us-but we feel that our motto will serve into the most distant future as an important definition of our collective essence. We are the class of 2005, and forever will be, so let's get a list of mottos that accurately reflect our intense greatness. How about "Born on September 11," like on the Budweiser bottles, you know? How, after all, could you ignore the defining fact of our college lives? Or maybe: "The Brown University Class of 2005: Not Terrorists." I hereby make my plea for an annulment of the present motto voting process, in hopes that you will understand the sincerity of our desire to carry on the traditions of our Brunonian forefathers, even long after they have ceased to have relevance.

-WH

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