In my 20s, I was a regular reader. The magazine's progressive slant reinforced my politics, framed by the fact I was a young reporter, working for low wages and trying to survive the Nixon years. Over time, as my appetite for less doctrinaire material expanded, I turned to other publications for articles that went deep and challenged me.
Recently, going through a borrowed copy of the Utne Reader, it was like getting reacquainted with an old friend. The progressive slant is still there, along with the familiar format -- digests of independent ideas and the alternative press. What's impressive is the quality of curation and organization in assembling a tight package of 16 articles, plus music, film and book reviews, in a 92-page issue.
Of course, all this material is readily available online. But with the firehose of information on the Internet, I was content to take just a sip with the printed page. During my recent vacation, I was delighted to find in the May-June issue three articles by Portland authors and another one with a Portland-specific reference.
-- In "Employee Discounts," Kjerstin Johnston, editor in chief of Bitch magazine, writes award-winning fiction from the point of view of a temporary sales clerk hired on at Barnes & Noble. Basing the story at a mall store in suburban Seattle, she opens a window on the mind-numbing corporate culture that pervades everything from sales incentives to employee banter to a fling with a fellow worker. It's a great piece, full of razor-sharp insight.
-- In "Stealing and Selling Nature," Tim Swinehart argues that current U.S. history curriculum in our public schools contributes to "ecological illiteracy." He should know. He teaches at Portland's Lincoln High School. "When we're not taught to understand the intimate and fundamental connections between people and the environment in our nation's history, it should come as no surprise that we struggle to make tthse same connections today." he writes.
-- "In "Don't Be A Stranger," Adrian Chen disputes the notion that friendships and romances formed online are intrinsically creepy and out of sync with the Facebook-driven behavior that sees us increasingly interacting only with those we already know. Chen is a blogger and senior writer for Gawker and an editor at The New Inquiry. Back in 2006, Chen was taking off from college and had become an active member of a Portland-based online DIY community called Urban Honking, where young people dove into subjects like rap music, vegan cooking, and science fiction. It was there, on a message board, that he met his best friend Austin, who in turn had met his wife three years earlier. when he sent a random instant message on Makeoutclub, a social network founded in 2000, four years before Facebook, and then "populated by lonely emo and punk kids."
Where Facebook lulls people into an endless stream of pointless status updates and "likes," strangers are forging real and complex friendships in online communities outside of the social media mainstream, Chen says. "Internet friendship yields a connection that is self-consciously pointless and pointed at the same time: Out of all of the millions of bullshitters on the World Wide Web, we somehow found each other, liked each other enough to bullshit together, and built our own Fortress of Bullshit." Intriguing.
-- Finally, in "Signs of the Zeitgeist," Eric Utne, the magazine's founder, writes a back-of-the-book essay in which he recounts three recent events that he says "seem to distill the times we are living through right now." 1) Encore 2013, a gathering of leaders of a movement to encourage people in the latter years of their live to devote themselves to solving tough problems. 2) A rally in Washington, D.C., to encourage President Obama to kill the Keystone XL pipeline and support the clearn energy economy. 3) The 30th anniversary celebration of the Portland Waldorf School, where Utne gave a keynote address on "Education and Parenting in an Era of Technological Change."
Waldorf education is popular with executives at companies like Google, Apple and eBay because it discourages the use of electronic gadgets in early childhood, Utne observes. "I came away more convinced than ever that Waldorf schools are bulwarks against the seductions of the technological age, as well as models for the education of the future," he declares. Possibly. But how are you going to get that sentiment to take root in a country where people are lost -- sometimes literally -- without a mobile device within easy reach?
All in all, it was a fine issue that also touched on immigration. the environment and the importance of play, as demonstrated in George W. Bush's paintings. Now that I've been reacquainted, I'm going to have to spend a little time with my old friend.