LUDIC LOG

One of the books I picked up on my recent sojourn in San Francisco was "On the Brink of a Bloody Racial War, with the White Race Targeted for Extermination", by Ben Klassen. Klassen is the founder of the of the World Church of the Creator, a white-supremacist religion that paints communism, democracy and the tiresomely inevitable worldwide Jewish conspiracy as the primary enemies of humanity (which consists of only white people). He's also the author of "RAHOWA", which stands for, of course, "RAdical HOWArd", and it's an entertaining, action-packed novel about a hotshot rookie on the extreme snowboarding circuit.

Ha ha! Just kidding. It stands for "RAcial HOly WAr", and he intends it as a battle cry for white racist radicals all over the world. These people must act now, he says, because otherwise, the white race will be extinct "within a few generations". Why the extinction of white people is an undesireable end is not clear to me, but who am I to argue? The book is a real find, a veritable treasure trove of hilarious racist nonsense, bizarre historical misstatements, pseudo-science, and demented religious ramblings, all wrapped up in the thin crispy shell of grammatical errors and tortured prose. I'm assuming that no one reading my log needs or wants anything resembling a philosophical refutation of Klassen's delusionary racist notions; if you really need to know why it's contradictory that the Jews both control the world and need to operate a massive, secretive conspiracy, or why the idea that all the "mud races" will eventually die out if white people stop helping them is unsound, or how tenuous is the notion that the Jews are now and have always been the driving force behind communism, then you're really reading the wrong page.

I do want to mention that despite my 'enjoyment' of the book, it's made me really uncomfortable ever since I got it. When I returned from San Francisco, I put it in my suitcase instead of my carry-on; recent events have shown that having the wrong reading materials in your baggage can lead to all sorts of trouble with airport security. And I briefly considered reading it on the train on the way back from the airport, but the ethnically busy makeup of a typical CTA train gave me pause. People are always saying that online, you should use emoticons to denote your intent, because it can't be read in text the way it can face-to-face. I disagree with that notion, and think that it's sometimes even harder to communicate intent in person than it is in prose -- and here's perfect proof. I don't know what facial expression I could have worn to indicate "yes, I am a white-looking guy (I'm not really white, but I play a white man on TV) with a camoflage jacket, and shaved head and tattoos, and yes, I am sitting in the middle of a bunch of black and Latino people reading a 400-page book filled with nothing but white supremacist hate literature, but I don't agree with it and am in fact reading it just so I can see how stupid it is, so please don't beat me to death", but I'm pretty sure I couldn't have winged it, so I decided to leave the book in my bag until I got home.

In the meantime, the book continues to amuse, and perhaps I'll post some excerpts down the line. So long for now, and until I get that t-shirt printed up that says "I'm only kidding", allow me to wish a very healthy and happy "Radical Howard" to you and yours.