Michael Savage - Shift in Philosophy

Shift in Philosophy

Savage introduced himself to certain writers in the North Beach area of San Francisco in the early 1960s. He befriended and traveled with Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Stephen Schwartz, also an acquaintance of Savage from this time, reported Savage possessed a photograph of himself and Ginsberg swimming naked in Hawaii and used the photograph as sort of a "calling card." Savage maintained a correspondence with Ginsberg consisting of ten letters and a trio of postcards across four years, which is maintained with Ginsberg's papers at Stanford University. One letter asked for Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti to come do a poetry reading, so others could "hear and see and know why I adore your public image." One postcard mentions his desire to photograph Ginsberg in a provocative way, though Savage states that this correspondence is actually a forgery created by homosexual detractors. Another acquaintance was poet and author Neeli Cherkovski, who says Savage dreamed of becoming a stand-up comic in the mold of Lenny Bruce.

Around 1980, an acquaintance, Robert Cathcart, says in his private conversations with Savage he knew him to have conservative political views. Schwartz stated Savage became alienated from the North Beach scene in the early 1980s. Savage had intense arguments with his liberal friends. When asked about his shift in politics and other views, Savage replied, "I was once a child; I am now a man." Savage has cited many occurrences in his life that helped shape his conservative views. Savage states that his opinions on welfare were partly shaped by his first job out of college as a social worker. He described one incident in which his supervisor had him deliver a check to a welfare client to furnish their apartment, while his own apartment was furnished with cardboard boxes. Another turning point occurred for him as a writer of health and nutrition books in the 1980s, when he experienced what he saw as "political opposition" after making the suggestion that the closure of homosexual bathhouses might be necessary in response to the emerging AIDS epidemic. In 1994 his final health and nutrition manuscript, Immigrants and Epidemics, was rejected by publishers for being inflammatory. In 1996, Savage applied to become the Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. The University instead selected award-winning journalist and China scholar Orville Schell. Savage sued the University, contending discrimination for being conservative. Savage later dropped the lawsuit.