This Week: The Year in Review

The 2009 Nygaard Notes Year in Review: A Year of Empire

Update on the Nygaard Notes Book: Delayed But Not Dead

Greetings,

Every year I offer a look at the previous year in Nygaard Notes. I usually do it at the end of the year, but here we are already into 2010, and I haven't yet reviewed 2009. But the good thing about history is that it doesn't change (although our recollections of it may change), so it's not too late to reflect on the past year.

I mostly do these reviews because I think they're fun. But there are some useful purposes that are served by them, as well. Three useful purposes, actually, which are:

1. Long-time readers may have forgotten, or failed to read, some pieces that they might find interesting. This will jog their memories;

2. New readers of the Notes will get a sense of what they missed, and what to expect, and:

3. It helps me to notice the patterns of coverage, what things were missing, what were strong points, weak points, etc. from the past year.

Here is the statistical summary of Nygaard Notes 2009: A total of about 70,300 words, taking up approximately 158 pages, which appeared in 25 unique issues. That's about one issue every two weeks.

In addition to the usual summary of what was in the Notes, this year I am also offering a little personal information to explain how things are going in the production of the Notes. I'm doing this because, as I reflect on this year, it seems like it was a very strange and unusual year in the history of the Notes, and readers may be interested in knowing a bit about it. If you're not interested, feel free to skip it.

The thing about the end of a calendar year is that it doesn't care what else is going on. The fact that I am right in the middle—almost at the end, actually—of a series on Empire doesn't matter to the calendar. So this Year in Review issue will mark a one-week break in that series, to which I will return with the next issue.

I hope you enjoy the look back at the recently-completed year, and that you are looking forward as much as I am to the coming year of Nygaard Notes!

Nygaard

The 2009 Nygaard Notes Year in Review: A Year of Empire

I began talking about the idea of Empire in the very first issue of the year 2009, when I referred to the "United States of Empire." I then went on to use the word Empire no fewer than 120 times over the course of the year—about 10 times more often than in 2008—making it perhaps the most common word in the Notes in 2009, after the word "the." So I have taken to calling 2009 the Year of Empire in Nygaard Notes.

Another thing I notice as I look back on the year 2009—which included issues #420 through 444—is that I seemed to publish fewer issues than in years past, but they were often extra-long. These extra-long issues that I call "double issues" (even though they are not exactly double the normal length) used to be a rarity, but this year I published five issues that were substantially longer than the usual 2,200 words in the average issue. There is a reason for this, but I won't get into it now. I'll talk about that during the next Pledge Drive, which isn't too far away now...

I also ran a number of multi-part series in 2009: One called "On Freedom" (issues 421-423); one called "Propaganda from Afghanistan" (432-434), one that I called "On Hope" (437-438), and the series on Empire that began with issue #442 and is still underway (to be continued after this Year in Review issue).

How did Nygaard Notes start out the year of 2009? The Notes began the year on hiatus. I was in the process of assembling/writing a book, mostly composed of pieces from the first ten years of this august publication. Now, at the end of 2009, the book itself is on hiatus! See the other essay in this issue for more on that subject.

2009: The Content

The first actual issue of 2009 arrived in your mailboxes on February 13th, and it was composed mostly of some thoughts on the disappointment in the Obama administration that was already evident among many, barely a month after the inauguration. I offered the Nygaard Notes Home Remedy for the Treatment of Disappointment, Betrayal, Discouragement, and Related Problems. See issue #420 if you're still suffering from this malady, or if it's gotten worse.

The Freedom Series began with the very next issue, where I took a few weeks for an in-depth look at the idea of Freedom, and how it is understood in the modern USA. I looked at different kinds of Freedom, Freedom and social class, Rush Limbaugh, Freedom in the U.S. Constitution, and asked: Who wants to be a millionaire?

I also took time to analyze the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, took a look at the national switchover to digital television, and introduced the idea of Solidarity Economics to all of you Nygaardians out there.

All of that came your way in just the first four issues of the past year!

Issue #424 was the first of several double issues, and in it I took a look at Obama and the GWOT—the Global War on Terror—which doesn't seem to have changed much despite the ascension to office of a new administration, does it? I ran a couple of articles about Afghanistan in the spring, and made my first mentions of the idea of Empire, to which I was to return for an in-depth look later in the year.

It seems like a long, long time ago, but it was just last April that everyone was terrified about Somali "pirates." Remember? I ran a piece back then about the Propaganda surrounding this issue, and I debunked a bunch of widely-believed ideas in the process. A version of that article was published on the website of the national publication CounterPunch.

Those who rely on the U.S. information system for their news wouldn't know it, but the worldwide economic crisis has given rise to some amazing calls around the world for a radical reformation of the global economic system. In issues #428 and 429 I took a look at some of those calls.

June brought a look at the so-called Pentagon Pundits story, where supposedly-retired Generals from the U.S. military were secretly being paid to propagandize in support of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. I wrote about a couple of official investigations of the scandal, and of my (so far unsuccessful) attempts to get the results for reporting to you. I drew some lessons from the experience.

In June I had my only Pledge Drive of the year—I normally have two, but the recession gave me pause—then I began a five-part series on Propaganda from Afghanistan. It took all those parts to describe the pattern of information that USAmericans receive from our media about US actions in Afghanistan. Here are the five things that US propagandists typically do, and that the media typically report, when a US atrocity is discovered: 1. Deny. 2. Quibble. 3. Obscure the Issue. 4. Promise an Investigation that never happens (or that is never reported). 5. Hope People Forget.

Throughout the summer I took some (relatively) quick looks at things like health care, transaction taxes, the minimum wage, a major tax scam by corporations, Public Relations and politics, and more. As fall approached I took a look at some of the challenges being presented to The World's Only Superpower by other countries, and by other groups of countries.

When October rolled around I offered a major piece on Iran (a version of which was published in CounterPunch). I followed that with a piece on the nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

It was back in April that I started talking about a series on the military, the military-industrial complex, the militarization of our culture, and what we can do about it. But I said that "I have a couple of other things I want to get to before I come back to that." The "couple of other things" became several things, and the more I researched the subject the more I realized that the military aspect of our culture is only understandable in the context of Empire. So I started talking about Empire back in the spring, kept coming back to it in fits and starts, and then in November I began a series I call The Empire Series, which is still underway.

And that's where we stand at the beginning of 2010: in the middle of a big series, and with the usual long line-up of topics to tackle. I'll never get to them all, and will try—as I always do—to avoid making promises about what I will be doing next week. But the overall plan, and the promise, remains the same: to continue to provide the unique, accessible, politically-useful independent journalism to which you all have become accustomed.

I hope you'll stay with me for another year of Nygaard Notes. Should be a good one.

Update on the Nygaard Notes Book: Delayed But Not Dead

I've been saying for almost a year now that I am "probably 80 percent done" with this book I'm working on. I'm still about 80 percent done. This little essay is an explanation, for those of you who are interested, of why I am still NOT done.

Back in October of 2008 I took a break from publishing the Notes to concentrate on assembling a book from writings that had appeared in Nygaard Notes over the first ten years of its history. (The first issue of Nygaard Notes was published in September of 1998.)

The first thing I want to say is this: The only reason I could take such a break was because of the generosity of those of you who not only made Pledges to the Notes, but also those of you who made extra, special Pledges to support the work while I was on hiatus. Thank you! I want you to know that your Pledges have not been squandered! The process is just much slower than I had imagined, and that I implied to you that it would be.

When I began work on the book, I naively expected that the entire project would take "a few months." Ha ha ha. Here's what has happened since.

My first surprise was how long it took me to simply go over the hundreds of essays that had been published over ten years. Believe it or not, in that first decade I had published over one million words. I still can't believe it when I say that.

The next surprise was the content of the book itself. My original idea—actually, the idea of the many of you who have encouraged me to write a book—was to simply do a collection of my favorite essays. Sort of a "Best of Nygaard Notes" type of thing. That's what I had in mind, and that wouldn't have taken all that long, I don't think. But I quickly came to see that the project that I wanted to do was a different project.

As I read through the million words I began to see that there was a thread that ran through the work, and it had to do with my emerging understanding of how ideas operate in this culture, and how we are encouraged to believe certain things and not other things. I had come to refer to this process as Propaganda, which I spell with a capital P to distinguish it from the standard use of the term. I realized that I had talked about it a lot, but it was spread out over many issues, in no order, with big gaps between discussions. I started thinking that it would be good to pull all of those ideas together in one place. "This is what a book is for," I said to myself.

Besides seeing this thread in my published work, I also started reflecting on the various classes, workshops, and presentations that I had done over the years. I could see that there were some points that seemed to me to be unique in the realm of whatever-it-is that you want to call what I've been doing: Propaganda, Critical Analysis, Movement Strategizing, Media Analysis, or fill-in-the-blank. "Unique enough to write a book about?" I wondered.

Suddenly, instead of a "Best Of" collection of unrelated Nygaard Notes essays, I decided that it would make more sense to try and collect and organize the various essays that had to do with Propaganda to see if they could form a more linear, unified book. I decided that they could, BUT....

I also saw that it would need some additional writing, including some re-writing of the existing essays, transitions between the different parts, some new essays that filled in a few gaps, and so forth. A lot of my understanding of what was needed came from the various friends and allies who read through the early drafts of sections One, Two, and Three of what now looks to be a four-part book. You folks are amazing! Thank you.

I extended the hiatus for a while, but still couldn't get the manuscript done. Then I resumed publishing the Notes in February of 2009, and the book slowed down. Then I had a bunch of tumult in one of my other jobs. By the middle of the summer I couldn't handle it all, and realized that something in my life had to change. In September, one year after beginning the process, I decided that I had to take a break from the book. It's not dead, by any means. There will be a book, and it won't be off in the distant future.

I want to apologize to all of you who have encouraged me in various ways to write a book. I have said on many occasions that it would be out "soon." I haven't been able to do what I thought I could, at least not yet. Thanks for sticking with me. I'm still excited about the book, but I think I will refrain from promising anything for a while here, at least until I know better what I'm doing.