"intellectual firepower"

Excerpt from Punk Music.com/Verbicide Magazine Interview
interview conducted by Jackson Ellis, and Douglas Novielli

Jackson Ellis: Who is involved with running Soft Skull, and how did guys get started?

Sander Hicks: I'm the biggest shareholder and but there is also a board of directors who are also shareholders and mostly friends of mine or people that I've met in the last 10 years of my life in NYC, people that I think are the best minds of my generation, people that I think are the best people to run an independent, radical publishing company—and we're radical, but we're not a partisan group, we're not doctrinaire—

JE: And you're definitely not anarchists.

SH: And we're definitely not anarchists! But I think what we're finding this weekend is that the best minds of society are not being attracted to either anarchism or a partisan left socialism these days. I think you're finding a lot of mediocrity, conformity, and rote thinking, rather than a certain spirit of intellectual firepower, and belief, and a great powerful rationality. You're just not finding these things in these so-called "radical" groups, so I'm personally feeling a little bit on edge this morning, especially after the panel on ostracism. We had a short question-and-answer period after these panelists had an hour-long talk about their own personal anecdotes of kicking crazy people out of their little anarchist groups, and it got me thinking, Is ostracism justice? How do you actually create justice in a radical community? One of the formative things in my political life in the past couple years is that I've been kicked out of the ISO, and I feel like the process was really unjust and was not even following their own stated processes in their handbook. Back to the question about who Soft Skull is, Nick Mamatas and I are both ex-ISO people—he's actually been kicked out twice—and he's twice as smart as I am, but he doesn't have half the people skill, so "HA" (laughter)

...

DN: Why is it important to have an alternative press?

SH: Because the corporate media is full of cowards. Corporate media doesn't encourage risk or adventure...they're they opposite of us, in a lot of ways. A producer at "60 Minutes" who I was admonishing for screwing us, he retorted that "it's not the media's job to be critical"—which in some ways I understand, because it's not our job to pontificate or editorialize about our own political opinions. But it's irresponsible to not keep your eyes open. I think the story in this country that media is missing is an oligarchy that just stole an election; since about 1980 there has been a big conservative backlash that we all need to fight against, and if you want to debate whether or not there are merits to certain planks in the conservative political philosophy I would grant that, but at the same time the actual political practices of Reagan, Clinton, and Bush I and II are deathly. They give everything to big business; they preach this "Wall Street Journal heritage foundation" theory of laissez-faire capitalism; they're doing it now on a global scale—they need to be stopped. Which is why it frustrates me to see such a pseudo-anarchist gathering.

...

DN: Can literature, art, and music save the world?

SH: No. Politics and philosophy can save the world, blended with a new spiritualityÉthere has to a major seismic shift in consciousness. It can't be dictated from above by a revolutionary elite, it has to come from below, from the people. But at the same time it has to involve a lot of discipline and hard work, and it's not going to happen overnight. I think art, literature, and music are a big part of spreading the message, and should be in the interests of deeper principles.

JE: What do you think has a better chance of happening: politics and philosophy saving the world, or destroying the world?

SH: I think it's already destroyed the world in a lot of ways. Philosophy only comes into the picture after politics have caused destruction, but we need philosophy to lead the way, rather than coming into the picture "in the twilight." I'm really into a left that learns from its mistakes in the 20th century.

JE: What do you find is the most rewarding part of what you do?

SH: Daily life; working with people that I like. Working at Soft Skull means that we have a team of good people. I've achieved something that I've always dreamed of having, which is a job that I love. I want to run a company in which everyone believes in what their doing. My job is to make sure everyone is finding the work to be meaningful—it's not always fun or entertaining, but nobody there expects it to always be fun. It's a very positive workplace.

JE: Last question: what is the best advice you can offer to aspiring publishers?

SH: It's a great business if you're willing to do what you love, but not necessarily get paid. It's tough; it's a long haul. You have to think of yourself as a defender of freedom, and the life of the mind. You need a lot of intellectual integrity. You need to be a radical, but you also need to understand the care that one needs to be a good editor. You can't have any opinion that's not based in fact, or at least in theory. Theory is tricky, because a lot of people think opinion is theory, and it's not. Theory is derived from evidence, while an opinion is just anything you can say. It's intellectually irresponsible to throw around opinions.

 

 

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