[Update: As I work on the "labels" for this site, many years after it began, I note for prosterity that for at least a year or more this was called "American Samizat," after the "underground" Samizdat literature circulated in eastern Europe when it was forbidden by the government. It took a long time for me to discover that (a) I'd mispelled it and (b) somebody else was using the title for his blog, but correctly spelled. I changed the blog title quickly to "American Dash," starring the Dash brothers, a device that kept me happily talking to myself for several more years. I briefly changed it again to "Scorched Mirth," after I started a new 'portal' blog with a more forward-looking agenda, called Dreaming Up Daily. But I couldn't maintain the satiric tone and I was postings less and less. So now--about five years after this first post--I mostly cross-post appropriate screeds from other blogs, though now as I review these early entrys, I'm inspired to maybe revive the Dash Brothers and see what they're like now...]


There are many reasons a writer or a piece of writing doesn't get published.
Political censorship.
Commercial censorship.
Because the piece of writing isn't very good.

We will ignore all of those reasons at AMERICAN SAMIZAT.

We don't intend to publish stuff we know is bad, but our standards may be warped, because it's our stuff. So what. We'll live with that possibility, in order to make sure we aren't subjecting ourselves to the first two reasons:censorship.

Because of political censorship, writers in the Soviet Union circulated "Samizat" or self-published, do-it-yourself pages. "Samizat" was apparently a parody of the Gosizdat, the state publishers.

Now with the Internet and the Blogger technology, American Samizat is online.

In America, political censorship is more subtle than state control. It is closely allied with commercial censorship, since corporations wield the greatest political power.

In America, you don't hear dissenting voices on television, not because of their views (of course not) but because they don't draw an audience. Right wing radical radio talk shows excite the rabid rabble. Coincidentally, their agenda serves corporate power.

In America, you don't hear or see the real thinkers, the serious people, on television or read them in the daily press. Judging from TV, there is not a single serious person with challenging ideas in psychology, ecology, philosophy, social and cultural analysis, and few with anything to say about the arts except thumbs up or down.

Even 30 years ago, there were authentic public intellectuals that the public knew. Not any more. Now public intellectuals are people like Bill Bennett, a right wing poster boy with a bevy of little elves who write his books.

In America, you don't see or hear very many real artists, real poets, very often. These days you seldom see or hear or read real journalists. A few columnists, a few comedians and comic strip authors, that's about all there is of any value in the mass market.

Good books however are heroically written and some are published. A few good movies are made and some are even seen here and there. We need to bring attention to these. We need critique, we need satire and dissent, but we also need hope and praise and love.

We need to raise the level of comment and discussion of our common culture and its artifacts. America and the West in general are being dumbed down, and it's not accidental. Stupid people don't know how to do anything except work and buy the things they're supposed to buy.

All forms of censorship are insidious, commercial censorship especially, because it's invisible. Nobody signs petitions or organizes demonstration on behalf of a victim of commercial censorship. Nobody knows how.

Political and commercial censorship foster the worst kind of censorship of all: self-censorship. The work that never gets written honestly because the writer has lost heart.

We at American Samizat are all professional writers. We are all citizens of the United States, and everything we write, every word we breathe into print or utter, every song we sing and every line we invent, are fully protected by copyright. Anyone may read what we post, but no one may steal our work. The corporations have stolen our time and deformed our work long enough. We aren't going to let them or anyone else stop us or steal from us.

We are professionals, but not much of our most honest work gets out of the room of its making. We believe in quality of work, in artistry, in working hard to communicate, inspire and delight. But too much of our work is compromised by the demands of others and their stated and hidden agendas. We want to shape and rewrite and edit our own work, not censor it.

We use pseudonyms. But not always. You may see our work elsewhere, if we're lucky, but it won't always be under the same name. We however will always know when our work is honestly acquired.

Here at American Samizat the Brothers Dash will post their thoughts, and their writings of all kinds-essays, articles, satire, reviews, poetry, drama, fiction. They will be political, cultural, intellectual, personal. Since we are borrowing the space and good graces of our host, we will sometimes let him post something of his own.

None of us is making any money right now. We don't know from day to day how much longer we can keep writing. Some of us (at least) aren't so young anymore. America is unforgiving about age and about illness and about money. One or all of us could disappear at any moment. So every post will be precious to us.

We have no idea if anyone will read us. But we do know that it will now be possible. Despite the fact that a couple of us have had to work in advertising and public relations from time to time, we are totally terrible at promoting ourselves. One of us writes grants, but he has never written a successful grant for himself. His grants have brought in thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars for others. But he can't get a dime for himself. So it goes.

If you drop in on American Samizat from time to time, you will get to know us better, and we hope you will have a good time---feel your synapses snap and sizzle, your funnybone quiver, with some occasional exercise for your tear ducts. Welcome.

AMERICAN SAMIZAT:
The Brothers Dash: Christopher, Morgan, Theron, Gabriel and Phineas.
Other family members may chime in from time to time, as well as our host.