American Dissident

The American Dissident was created as an IDEAL in direct opposition to the mass of indistinguishable journals that serve literature as status-quo-friendly entertainment and diversion.  It seeks instead to publish literature that questions and challenges that status quo and to promote the ideal of DEMOCRACY (vigorous debate, freedom of expression, and criticism of all institutions and icons).  THE IDEAL POET, WRITER, ARTIST & PROFESSOR, whom The American Dissident seeks to publish, actually dares, now and then, to "go upright and vital and speak the rude truth in all ways" (Emerson) and knows, like others, in his heart what he shouldn't write or speak openly about.  But unlike others, he is compelled by inner Socratic daemon to transgress those taboos.  For truth, he will even RISK career. For democracy, he will risk speaking and writing truth.  The American Dissident decries censorship and the culture of self-censorship and forced positivism pervading the nation in all her institutions.