Aug. 23, 2011
Along with renowned authors and scholars, the new movie, "The Kingdom of Survival" features Shawnee State University's own author and outlaw historian, Professor Mark Mirabello, Ph.D. among other controversial characters in recent history.
Also appearing in the film are renowned linguist and dissident Prof. Noam Chomsky, gonzo journalist Joe Bageant, legendary reclusive cabin builder Mike Oehler, ring leader of an emerging dissident culture Bob Meisenbach, anarchist book publisher Ramsey Kanaan, egalitarian radio host Sasha Lilley and folk musician Will "The Bull" Taylor, aka "Willy Tea."
Chomsky is one of the fathers of modern linguistics and a major figure on analytic philosophy. Bageant, transcendentalist, is author and columnist known for his books, "Deer Hunting With Jesus – Dispatches from America's Class War" and "Rainbow Pie – A Redneck Memoir."
On Friday, May 13, 1960, Meisenbach led 64 students to protest against the House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities led by Senator Joe McCarthy. The protest paved the way for public dissent and became known as the day that made the "sixties" possible.
Kanaan is best known as the founder of AK Press, one of the largest distributors of anarchist and left-wing books in the world and in 2007 he established PM Press, a new radical publisher.
Lilley is editor of "Capital and its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult" and co-founder/host of the Pacifica Radio program "Against the Grain."
"The movie explores modern skepticism in America, and uncovers provocative links between survivalist philosophy, ecumenical spirituality, radical political theory and outlaw culture," said Mirabello.
Writer and director M.S. Littler, known as a maverick writer and film maker, will be at the showing on the SSU campus and a question and answer period will follow the movie.
The movie will be shown at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15, in the Flohr Lecture Hall at Clark Memorial Library; and Friday, at 2 p.m. at Portsmouth Public Library. It is free and open to the public.