I'm currently reading Henri Lefebvre's Rhythmanalysis, and it sent me off on an online derive, searching for works by the British novelist/psychogeographer Iain Sinclair, revisiting my Situationist readings, and listening-to/reading DJ Spooky... here you can listen to Abstract Blowback 03 and other tracks and read about Rhythm Science
More of my distractions:
Skating on Thin Eyes
Sadie Plant: Psychogeography and the Derive
Urbanity: Lived Space and Difference
Moments of Excess
Social Fiction
Surveillance and Society
Granta profile of Iain Sinclair
City Brain: Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair and London Orbital
Down and Out in London
Landor's Tower
Iain Sinclair: Revolutionary Novelist or Revolutionary Nihilist
Bureau of Public Secrets
Not Bored
Nothingness.org
Situationist International Online
Spunk Library
Situationist Histories
Enter the Derive
The Drifters
Consumer Society and Authenticity
Social Anxiety in the Peach State
The Glowing Maid
The Lilith Gallery
Spectacular Times
A Short Defense of the SI
Fusion Anomaly
DJ Logic
Digital Ghost
Jahsonic Profile: Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky
Online Daily profile of DJ Spooky
Ambience for the Masses
DJ Spooky, Rhythm Science, and the Future of Culture
Howard Rheingold: Smart Mobs
DJs and Copyright Laws
OK I've wasted enough time, back to work...
Sunday, December 12, 2004
From Holler to the Hood
(courtesy of Virginia Blum)
A new Appalshop documentary named Holler to the Hood explores human rights violations, abuse and the placing of rural prisons in America. See a video trailer here.
This is powerful work... the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guatanamo are not an anomaly in our democracy, the spirit of destructive humiliation and torture is present in our own prisons and it is designed with the purpose of intimidating/destroying resistant cultures.
Check out some of the tracks from the movie and a Mountain Talk audio feature:
Traditional Bluegrass Meets Hip Hop
For more on Appalachian Culture:
Appalachian Studies Association
Rural-Urban Aesthetics
To my colleagues on the left, pull your heads out of your asses and re-cognize your alliances with rural people instead of blaming them for your losses. I live in a rabid red state and I find more alliances with rural people than I do with the urban professionals.
A new Appalshop documentary named Holler to the Hood explores human rights violations, abuse and the placing of rural prisons in America. See a video trailer here.
This is powerful work... the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guatanamo are not an anomaly in our democracy, the spirit of destructive humiliation and torture is present in our own prisons and it is designed with the purpose of intimidating/destroying resistant cultures.
Check out some of the tracks from the movie and a Mountain Talk audio feature:
Traditional Bluegrass Meets Hip Hop
For more on Appalachian Culture:
Appalachian Studies Association
Rural-Urban Aesthetics
To my colleagues on the left, pull your heads out of your asses and re-cognize your alliances with rural people instead of blaming them for your losses. I live in a rabid red state and I find more alliances with rural people than I do with the urban professionals.
World as Home
Independent press Milkweed Editions has a website, World as Home, devoted to books that increase our ecolological/environmental literacy.
Please support independent publishing.
Please support independent publishing.
Matthew Sawh: The Art of Culture War
Over at The Brown Daily Squeal Matthew Sawh has written an essay that attempts to map out The Art of Culture War: Political Strategy Lessons from the 1990s
Saturday, December 11, 2004
More on The Power of Nightmares
Please tell me that by now you have watched this very important BBC Documentary: The Power of Nightmares. If not watch it now!
Then check out this insightful critique (courtesy Matt at pas au-delà) of The Power of Nightmares from Media Lens and Adam Curtis's equally intelligent response--its great to see this kind of dialogical engagement.
Then check out this insightful critique (courtesy Matt at pas au-delà) of The Power of Nightmares from Media Lens and Adam Curtis's equally intelligent response--its great to see this kind of dialogical engagement.
Anxiety Culture
Another link that continues the theme of Propaganda Nation has been provided by Bruce at The River (as a part of his ongoing link war with Harry of Scratchings):
Anxiety Culture
Thanks guys--keep em coming!
Anxiety Culture
Thanks guys--keep em coming!
Susannity: Wake Up Soldiers
Another insightful post from Susanne of Susannity on the sacrifice of soldiers in Iraq and the hypocrisy of Donald Rumsfield:
Wake Up Soldiers
Susanne has 12 years of service in the military to back up her critiques and I recognize my limitations as a lifelong civilian, but as a student of history I wonder hasn't the military always been unconcerned with their soldiers welfare. By this I mean the soldiers are just viewed as pawns to be sacrificied for the higher cause (whatever that may be defined as being) and officers who think about soldiers before orders (in other word show undue loyalty to their men) are reviled by the military system (think about the wars of the 20th century). Check out this earlier post on an essay from Chris Hedges:
Entire Post on "Chris Hedges: On Current Books About the Iraq War"
Thanks Susanne!
Wake Up Soldiers
Susanne has 12 years of service in the military to back up her critiques and I recognize my limitations as a lifelong civilian, but as a student of history I wonder hasn't the military always been unconcerned with their soldiers welfare. By this I mean the soldiers are just viewed as pawns to be sacrificied for the higher cause (whatever that may be defined as being) and officers who think about soldiers before orders (in other word show undue loyalty to their men) are reviled by the military system (think about the wars of the 20th century). Check out this earlier post on an essay from Chris Hedges:
Physical courage is common on a battlefield. Moral courage is not. Those who defy the machine usually become its victim. And Lieutenant Fick, who we find in the epilogue has left the Marines to go back to school, wonders if he was a good officer or if his concern for his men colored his judgment. Those who make war betray those who fight it. This is something most enlisted combat veterans soon understand. They have little love for officers, tolerating the good ones and hoping the bad ones are replaced or injured before they get them killed. Those on the bottom rung of the military pay the price for their commanders' vanity, ego, and thirst for recognition. These motives are hardly exclusive to the neocons and the ambitious generals in the Bush administration. They are a staple of war. Homer wrote about all of them in The Iliad as did Norman Mailer in The Naked and the Dead. Stupidity and callousness cause senseless death and wanton destruction. That being a good human being—that possessing not only physical courage but moral courage—is detrimental in a commander says much about the industrial slaughter that is war.
Entire Post on "Chris Hedges: On Current Books About the Iraq War"
Thanks Susanne!
Cultural Studies Working Bibliography Website
(courtesy of Matthew Soar who posted it on the Cult-Stud listserv)
This is a new wiki website that collects working cultural studies bibliographies (in the wiki-spirit feel free to post your own):
Welcome to the Cultural Studies Working Bibliography website (v.1.0)
This is a new wiki website that collects working cultural studies bibliographies (in the wiki-spirit feel free to post your own):
Welcome to the Cultural Studies Working Bibliography website (v.1.0)
The Nation: Our Debt to Bill Moyers
Our Debt to Bill Moyers
Nation editorial
A few days after the commercial television networks' laudatory "news" reports on George W. Bush's nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to serve as Secretary of State, PBS's Bill Moyers countered with something rarely seen on broadcast television these days: serious journalism. Moyers devoted a substantial portion of NOW, the public broadcasting program he has hosted for the past three years, to an analysis of Rice's failure to take seriously warnings about terrorist threats before the September 11 attacks as well as her misguided response to those attacks, her role in the campaign for war on Iraq and her scheming to avoid cooperating with the 9/11 Commission. The devastating report brought to mind Edward R. Murrow's See It Now dissection of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Unfortunately, PBS in 2004 can't influence public opinion the way CBS did in 1954. Moyers recognized that fact when he launched NOW in January 2002; the former spokesman for Lyndon Johnson, senior correspondent for CBS, groundbreaking public television producer and winner of ten Peabody Awards and more than thirty Emmy Awards understood that the best he could do in these difficult times was to barter a bit of his prestige for the chance to erect an outpost of quality reporting in the increasingly corporatized broadcast television wilderness. Week after week, NOW has offered consistently bold and revealing examinations of issues ranging from the threat to environmental protections posed by international trade agreements, to the damage done to basic liberties by the Patriot Act, to the abuses of politics by special interests. Moyers, who is 70 and wants to turn his attention to writing, has every reason to be proud as he prepares for his last broadcast on December 17. At a time when TV networks--including PBS--were bowing to commercial and ideological pressures that were antithetical to journalism, Moyers created a program that many viewers recognized as the only reason to turn on the TV in the Bush era.
NOW will carry on with the able crew that Moyers assembled. And whether or not the program thrives without Moyers, the legacy he created will remain. James Madison said, "A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both" and warned that "a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." In a time of farce and tragedy, Bill Moyers did his best to arm the people with the power knowledge gives and to affirm that there's still a place for TV journalism that nurtures citizenship and democracy.
Link to Editorial
A Series of Reports/Essays/Speeches/Profiles by/about Bill Moyers:
Now, with Bill Moyers
The Dark Side of the Chemical Industry
Bill Moyers Will Not Go Gently Into the Night
9/11 for the Record
On the 9/11 Commission
Bill Moyers: A Journalist and His Times
Outsourcing and Patriotism
The Media, Politics and Censorship
Patriotism and the Flag
Keynote Address to the Conference on Media Reform
This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On.
Fooling With Words
Genesis: A Living Conversation
Trade Secrets
Bill Moyers Responding to an Attack by O'Reilly
Working for Change columns
Enron's Ken Lay, son a Baptist preacher, really knew how to pass the plate
Our Democracy is in Danger of Being Paralyzed
Republican Conservative Base Questions Bush
Yearning for Democracy
Earth on Edge
The Road to Clean Elections
Free Speech for Sale
Democracy in the Balance
Trading Democracy
The Secret Government
On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying
Interview with Howard Zinn
Review by Christian Century
On Bush Brand Environmentalism
Nation editorial
A few days after the commercial television networks' laudatory "news" reports on George W. Bush's nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to serve as Secretary of State, PBS's Bill Moyers countered with something rarely seen on broadcast television these days: serious journalism. Moyers devoted a substantial portion of NOW, the public broadcasting program he has hosted for the past three years, to an analysis of Rice's failure to take seriously warnings about terrorist threats before the September 11 attacks as well as her misguided response to those attacks, her role in the campaign for war on Iraq and her scheming to avoid cooperating with the 9/11 Commission. The devastating report brought to mind Edward R. Murrow's See It Now dissection of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Unfortunately, PBS in 2004 can't influence public opinion the way CBS did in 1954. Moyers recognized that fact when he launched NOW in January 2002; the former spokesman for Lyndon Johnson, senior correspondent for CBS, groundbreaking public television producer and winner of ten Peabody Awards and more than thirty Emmy Awards understood that the best he could do in these difficult times was to barter a bit of his prestige for the chance to erect an outpost of quality reporting in the increasingly corporatized broadcast television wilderness. Week after week, NOW has offered consistently bold and revealing examinations of issues ranging from the threat to environmental protections posed by international trade agreements, to the damage done to basic liberties by the Patriot Act, to the abuses of politics by special interests. Moyers, who is 70 and wants to turn his attention to writing, has every reason to be proud as he prepares for his last broadcast on December 17. At a time when TV networks--including PBS--were bowing to commercial and ideological pressures that were antithetical to journalism, Moyers created a program that many viewers recognized as the only reason to turn on the TV in the Bush era.
NOW will carry on with the able crew that Moyers assembled. And whether or not the program thrives without Moyers, the legacy he created will remain. James Madison said, "A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both" and warned that "a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." In a time of farce and tragedy, Bill Moyers did his best to arm the people with the power knowledge gives and to affirm that there's still a place for TV journalism that nurtures citizenship and democracy.
Link to Editorial
A Series of Reports/Essays/Speeches/Profiles by/about Bill Moyers:
Now, with Bill Moyers
The Dark Side of the Chemical Industry
Bill Moyers Will Not Go Gently Into the Night
9/11 for the Record
On the 9/11 Commission
Bill Moyers: A Journalist and His Times
Outsourcing and Patriotism
The Media, Politics and Censorship
Patriotism and the Flag
Keynote Address to the Conference on Media Reform
This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On.
Fooling With Words
Genesis: A Living Conversation
Trade Secrets
Bill Moyers Responding to an Attack by O'Reilly
Working for Change columns
Enron's Ken Lay, son a Baptist preacher, really knew how to pass the plate
Our Democracy is in Danger of Being Paralyzed
Republican Conservative Base Questions Bush
Yearning for Democracy
Earth on Edge
The Road to Clean Elections
Free Speech for Sale
Democracy in the Balance
Trading Democracy
The Secret Government
On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying
Interview with Howard Zinn
Review by Christian Century
On Bush Brand Environmentalism
Friday, December 10, 2004
Engaging Representations: Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum
ENGAGING REPRESENTATIONS: Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum
LEXINGTON, KY – Engaging Representations: Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum will be on display December 12, 2004, through March 6, 2005, at the University of Kentucky Art Museum.
Twenty-one works on view from the collection of Louisville's Speed Art Museum offer a profound and provocative exploration of how the world in which we live today is represented in art. The exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, and photographs by nineteen artists from across the globe. Focused on the examination of physical and cultural environments, the exhibition presents subject matter from abstract emanations of land-and cityscapes to incisive social and historical critiques. Engaging Representations also illustrates the influences of art history and the mass media, and the roles these visual agents play in creating meaning and shaping cultural identities.
The frenetic energy of urban life springs forth from Catherine Yass's lightbox image of a blurred, brightly colored cityscape; the rows of windows and walls and the frenzied intersection of humanity with the constructed urban environment is echoed again in UK art professor Arturo Alonzo Sandoval's Cityscape #6. The compelling blend of architecture, sculpture, and furniture that characterizes the work of the Cuban artists known as Los Carpinteros suggests the compartmentalization of city dwellers, while also critiquing the bureaucratic vision of twentieth-century urban planners, as well as the ideals of Modernism.
Allusions to and appropriations from art history animate the works of Cindy Sherman and Vik Muniz. Sherman casts herself as Madame de Pompadour in a “send-up” critique of both women's roles and eighteenth-century portraiture. Muniz's provocative photographic constructions recycle masterpieces by Théodore Géricault and Caspar David Friedrich, while also alluding to Jackson Pollock's paintings.
Engaging Representations also examines the construction of historical identity and the confluence of power, politics, and ritual in creating and preserving cultural legacies. Artists such as Carrie Mae Weems expose, debunk, and transform stereotypes of gender and race in their poetic and provocative works. Both current and archival images are used in her works to demonstrate how photographs, which are so often considered purveyors of truth, create misleading mythologies of history and identity. Weems's works, along with Louis Zoellar Bickett's Family Grave Dirt, demonstrate our need to preserve and memorialize our past and present identity.
“We are grateful to The Speed Art Museum for this opportunity to showcase cutting edge works to our visitors,” said Kathy Walsh-Piper, museum director.
Engaging Representations is organized by The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, in coordination with the University of Kentucky Art Museum and curated by Alice Stites, The Speed Art Museum Adjunct Curator. This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and the Friends of the University of Kentucky Art Museum.
Engaging Representations is free and open to the public. A special Artists and Members Preview will be held December 11 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the museum’s galleries. This event is free to artists, students, and UK Art Museum members. Please call 859-257-5716 for more information regarding this preview event.
ART AT NOON:
Alice Stites on Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum
LEXINGTON, KY (December 8, 2004) – The University of Kentucky Art Museum’s monthly Art at Noon series presents Alice Stites on Wednesday, December 15, at noon in the museum’s galleries.
Stites, Adjunct Curator at The Speed Art Museum and UK Art Museum guest curator, will discuss the images and ideas presented in the exhibition Engaging Representations: Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum.
This exhibition and Art at Noon are free and open to the public. For more information, call Deborah Borrowdale-Cox at 859-257-6199.
The University of Kentucky Art Museum, located on the corner of Rose St. and Euclid Ave., is open noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday and noon to 8 p.m. on Friday; closed Monday and University holidays. For general museum information, call 859-257-5716 or go to University of Kentucky Art Museum
LEXINGTON, KY – Engaging Representations: Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum will be on display December 12, 2004, through March 6, 2005, at the University of Kentucky Art Museum.
Twenty-one works on view from the collection of Louisville's Speed Art Museum offer a profound and provocative exploration of how the world in which we live today is represented in art. The exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, and photographs by nineteen artists from across the globe. Focused on the examination of physical and cultural environments, the exhibition presents subject matter from abstract emanations of land-and cityscapes to incisive social and historical critiques. Engaging Representations also illustrates the influences of art history and the mass media, and the roles these visual agents play in creating meaning and shaping cultural identities.
The frenetic energy of urban life springs forth from Catherine Yass's lightbox image of a blurred, brightly colored cityscape; the rows of windows and walls and the frenzied intersection of humanity with the constructed urban environment is echoed again in UK art professor Arturo Alonzo Sandoval's Cityscape #6. The compelling blend of architecture, sculpture, and furniture that characterizes the work of the Cuban artists known as Los Carpinteros suggests the compartmentalization of city dwellers, while also critiquing the bureaucratic vision of twentieth-century urban planners, as well as the ideals of Modernism.
Allusions to and appropriations from art history animate the works of Cindy Sherman and Vik Muniz. Sherman casts herself as Madame de Pompadour in a “send-up” critique of both women's roles and eighteenth-century portraiture. Muniz's provocative photographic constructions recycle masterpieces by Théodore Géricault and Caspar David Friedrich, while also alluding to Jackson Pollock's paintings.
Engaging Representations also examines the construction of historical identity and the confluence of power, politics, and ritual in creating and preserving cultural legacies. Artists such as Carrie Mae Weems expose, debunk, and transform stereotypes of gender and race in their poetic and provocative works. Both current and archival images are used in her works to demonstrate how photographs, which are so often considered purveyors of truth, create misleading mythologies of history and identity. Weems's works, along with Louis Zoellar Bickett's Family Grave Dirt, demonstrate our need to preserve and memorialize our past and present identity.
“We are grateful to The Speed Art Museum for this opportunity to showcase cutting edge works to our visitors,” said Kathy Walsh-Piper, museum director.
Engaging Representations is organized by The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, in coordination with the University of Kentucky Art Museum and curated by Alice Stites, The Speed Art Museum Adjunct Curator. This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and the Friends of the University of Kentucky Art Museum.
Engaging Representations is free and open to the public. A special Artists and Members Preview will be held December 11 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the museum’s galleries. This event is free to artists, students, and UK Art Museum members. Please call 859-257-5716 for more information regarding this preview event.
ART AT NOON:
Alice Stites on Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum
LEXINGTON, KY (December 8, 2004) – The University of Kentucky Art Museum’s monthly Art at Noon series presents Alice Stites on Wednesday, December 15, at noon in the museum’s galleries.
Stites, Adjunct Curator at The Speed Art Museum and UK Art Museum guest curator, will discuss the images and ideas presented in the exhibition Engaging Representations: Contemporary Art from The Speed Art Museum.
This exhibition and Art at Noon are free and open to the public. For more information, call Deborah Borrowdale-Cox at 859-257-6199.
The University of Kentucky Art Museum, located on the corner of Rose St. and Euclid Ave., is open noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday and noon to 8 p.m. on Friday; closed Monday and University holidays. For general museum information, call 859-257-5716 or go to University of Kentucky Art Museum
The War Between the Christian Right and the Christian Left
We must remember that many Christians find Bush and his policies abhorrent. These are our allies and can play a strong role in fighting the neo-conservatives:
The Christian Left
Christian Allies
The Rapture Debunked
And from across the pond:
Save us from the politicians who have God on their side
Remembering what spirituality might look like:
Karen Armstrong: The Spiral Staircase--My Climb Out of Darkness
The Christian Left
Christian Allies
The Rapture Debunked
And from across the pond:
Save us from the politicians who have God on their side
Remembering what spirituality might look like:
Karen Armstrong: The Spiral Staircase--My Climb Out of Darkness
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Canadian High Court OKs Same-Sex Marriage
The Canadians far ahead of the US in the civil rights department:
Canadian High Court OKs Same-Sex Marriage
The High Court Decision
The Supreme Court and Same Sex Marriage
Canadian High Court OKs Same-Sex Marriage
The High Court Decision
The Supreme Court and Same Sex Marriage
Kansas International Film Festival Call for Entries
KANSAS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL CALL FOR ENTRIES
The Kansas International Film Festival seeks entries for its next festival,which will take place September 9–15. The festival accepts feature length documentary and narrative films. There are awards for audience favorites and a $250 cash prize in each category. The festival is a celebration of independent cinema and features a Think! series of socially conscious documentaries, experimental works, foreign films and American indies. All films screen in beautifully restored theatres operated by the Fine Arts Theatre Group in the Greater Kansas City area. The early deadline is March 31, 2005 ($30 entry fee), the final deadline is April 30 ($40 entry fee). Accepted formats are 35mm and DVCam. Contact KIFF, Dotty Hamilton, 7927 Hallet, Lenexa, KS 66215; phone: 816–501–3646.
For more information visit Kansas Film Festival, or email info@kansasfilm.com
The Kansas International Film Festival seeks entries for its next festival,which will take place September 9–15. The festival accepts feature length documentary and narrative films. There are awards for audience favorites and a $250 cash prize in each category. The festival is a celebration of independent cinema and features a Think! series of socially conscious documentaries, experimental works, foreign films and American indies. All films screen in beautifully restored theatres operated by the Fine Arts Theatre Group in the Greater Kansas City area. The early deadline is March 31, 2005 ($30 entry fee), the final deadline is April 30 ($40 entry fee). Accepted formats are 35mm and DVCam. Contact KIFF, Dotty Hamilton, 7927 Hallet, Lenexa, KS 66215; phone: 816–501–3646.
For more information visit Kansas Film Festival, or email info@kansasfilm.com
Soren Kierkegaard: Worldwide Clearance Sale
"Not just in commerce but in the world of ideas too our age is
putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so
dirt cheap that one begins to wander whether in the end anyone
will want to make a bid."
Soren Kierkegaard, in Fear and Trembling
Richard John Neuhaus: Kierkegaard For Grownups
putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so
dirt cheap that one begins to wander whether in the end anyone
will want to make a bid."
Soren Kierkegaard, in Fear and Trembling
Richard John Neuhaus: Kierkegaard For Grownups
BBC Documentary: The Power of Nightmares
(Reposting from 11/22: I first saw this documentary mentioned at Wealth Bondage, then my buddy Paul told me the international students in his apartment complex were sharing downloaded versions, so I sought out an online version and, of course, the great folks at Information Clearinghouse have come through again making all three parts available. Of course the biggest thanks are due to the BBC who aired this three part documentary. As the Happy Tutor states, Can you imagine this being aired on US TV?)
Should we be worried about the threat from organised terrorism or is it simply a phantom menace being used to stop society from falling apart?
Watch pt.1--The Power of Nightmares: Baby Its Cold Outside
The Power of Nightmares continues its assessment of whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. Part two, the Phantom Victory looks at how two groups, radical Islamists and neo-conservatives with seemingly opposing ideologies came together to defeat a common enemy.
Watch Pt. 2--The Power of Nightmares: The Phantom Victory
The Power of Nightmares assesses whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. In the concluding part of the series, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it.
Watch Pt. 3--The Power of Nightmares: Shadows in the Cave
For those that don't have the technology to watch it--here are the transcripts
Should we be worried about the threat from organised terrorism or is it simply a phantom menace being used to stop society from falling apart?
Watch pt.1--The Power of Nightmares: Baby Its Cold Outside
The Power of Nightmares continues its assessment of whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. Part two, the Phantom Victory looks at how two groups, radical Islamists and neo-conservatives with seemingly opposing ideologies came together to defeat a common enemy.
Watch Pt. 2--The Power of Nightmares: The Phantom Victory
The Power of Nightmares assesses whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. In the concluding part of the series, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it.
Watch Pt. 3--The Power of Nightmares: Shadows in the Cave
For those that don't have the technology to watch it--here are the transcripts
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Amnesty International Report: Women's Lives and Bodies--Unrecognized Casualties of War
Women's lives and bodies -- unrecognized casualties of war
Press Release
Amnesty International
Women and girls bear the brunt of armed conflicts fought today both as direct targets and as unrecognized "collateral damage". Lives Blown Apart a new report in Amnesty International's campaign, Stop Violence Against Women, calls for global action to challenge both the violence and the failure of governments to prevent it.
"Patterns of violence against women in conflict do not arise 'naturally' but are ordered, condoned or tolerated. They persist because those who commit them know they can get away with impunity," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
The report lays out the global picture revealing a systematic pattern of abuse repeating itself in conflicts all over the world from Colombia, Iraq, Sudan, Chechnya, Nepal to Afghanistan and in 30 other ongoing conflicts. Despite promises, treaties and legal mechanisms, governments have failed to protect women and girls from violence.
"Women and girls are not just killed, they are raped, sexually attacked, mutilated and humiliated. Custom, culture and religion have built an image of women as bearing the 'honour' of their communities. Disparaging a woman's sexuality and destroying her physical integrity have become a means by which to terrorize, demean and 'defeat' entire communities, as well as to punish, intimidate and humiliate women," said Irene Khan.
Entire Report and More Resources
Press Release
Amnesty International
Women and girls bear the brunt of armed conflicts fought today both as direct targets and as unrecognized "collateral damage". Lives Blown Apart a new report in Amnesty International's campaign, Stop Violence Against Women, calls for global action to challenge both the violence and the failure of governments to prevent it.
"Patterns of violence against women in conflict do not arise 'naturally' but are ordered, condoned or tolerated. They persist because those who commit them know they can get away with impunity," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
The report lays out the global picture revealing a systematic pattern of abuse repeating itself in conflicts all over the world from Colombia, Iraq, Sudan, Chechnya, Nepal to Afghanistan and in 30 other ongoing conflicts. Despite promises, treaties and legal mechanisms, governments have failed to protect women and girls from violence.
"Women and girls are not just killed, they are raped, sexually attacked, mutilated and humiliated. Custom, culture and religion have built an image of women as bearing the 'honour' of their communities. Disparaging a woman's sexuality and destroying her physical integrity have become a means by which to terrorize, demean and 'defeat' entire communities, as well as to punish, intimidate and humiliate women," said Irene Khan.
Entire Report and More Resources
Propaganda Nation
Rob Walker introduces us to a world in which people volunteer to market products in order to gain a sense of purpose. Is this similar to devoted bloggers spreading their insights, tastes and opinions, or, is it something more sinister in that it grooms us to accept propaganda in our daily lives? William Powers wonders about the Tyranny of Choice while BK Loren recognizes this disorder in contemporary America as being reflected by the politics of our current president.
James Howard Kunstler wonders about the extent of this social dis-ease while Douglas Rushkoff serves up a Frontline documentary examining the Persuader culture. Dion Dennis over at CTheory has, for some time, been providing insightful critiques of the politics of our consumer nation. If their is any confusion of where I am going with this particular grouping of links, Nancy Snow makes it all clear in her collection of writings.
The Hidden (in Plain Sight) Persuaders
Rob Walker
NY Times Magazine
Balter did not count on the agents taking BzzAgent so seriously. He still doesn't seem to know quite what to make of it. He has met only a handful of agents, and while he said he intends to meet more, he sounded almost nervous about it. A number of those he has met have been almost apologetic about not doing more -- about not buzzing enough on this or that campaign. The biggest complaints come from people who say they have not been invited to join enough campaigns. One agent resigned because he said he was unsure whether he could live up to BzzAgent's ethical standards.
This might be the most peculiar thing about BzzAgent: not only are its volunteer agents willing to become shock troops in the marketing revolution, but many of them are flat-out excited about it. At his apartment, Desjardins told me about another book he had read because of BzzAgent. Called ''Join Me,'' it's about a guy who decides he wants to start some sort of voluntary group -- a commune, a cult, whatever you want to call it. He puts an ad in the paper that just says, ''Join me,'' and to his surprise, people are interested. They didn't know what they were joining, or why, but they joined anyway. The guy, whose name is Danny Wallace, decided to turn his followers into a good-deeds army, basically on the ''Pay It Forward'' method. The book is nonfiction.
Why, I asked Desjardins, did people join a group without even knowing what it was? Well, he explained, Wallace's theory was that they just wanted to be part of something. That made sense to me. After all, some people are lucky enough to find meaning and fulfillment through their work, family or spirituality. But many people don't. Many people have boring jobs and indifferent bosses. They feel ignored by politicians. They send e-mail to customer service and no one responds. They get no feedback. It's easy to feel helpless, uncounted, disconnected. Do you think, I asked Desjardins, that there's some element of that going on with BzzAgent?
''I think for some people it probably is,'' he answered. ''For me, it's being part of something big. I think it's such a big thing that's going to shape marketing. To actually be one of the people involved in shaping that is, to me, big.'' That made sense to me too. After all, there is one thing that is even more powerful than the upper hand, more seductive than persuading: believing.
Entire Article
The Tyranny of Choice
William Powers
National Journal
That's what shopping -- and life -- is all about these days: choosing one's preference from a bewildering array of options. The U.S. is a choice-happy society, and we seem to like it this way. But as the Christmas catalogs come tumbling in and Best Buys throng with people staring in bovine mystification at the baffling new TV choices (plasma? LCD? LCoS?), you have to wonder whether all these choices are really making us happy.
Entire Column
Swooshing the Presidency
BK Loren
Orion
For years, America was thought of as a democracy-oriented country. But now we, and the rest of the world, are recognizing that the most significant thing the USA, Inc. does is market product. We've come around to understanding, finally, that America is a marketing-oriented country, and that our president is our most important marketing tool. What's more, from our celebrity culture to our Humvee-enforced "free" market democracy, America has, in many ways, become the product.
In the beginning there was the Word. In the 21st century there is the Logo. It is worshipped, all-powerful, and we are created anew every day in its image.
Entire Essay
Big and Blue in the USA
James Howard Kunstler
Orion
We've sunk so much of our national wealth
into a particular way of doing things that we're
psychologically compelled to defend it even
if it drives us crazy and kills us.
Entire Essay
The Persuaders. Dir. Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin. Correspondent: Douglas Rushkoff. Frontline (November 2004)
Priming the Pump of War: Toward a Post-Ethnic, Post-Racial Fascism and Inventing W, the Presidential Brand
Dion Dennis
CTheory
Also visit Nancy Snow's website which includes Propaganda Inc. and Information War and Propaganda and America's Image in the World and Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Propaganda
Why Think About Propaganda?
James Howard Kunstler wonders about the extent of this social dis-ease while Douglas Rushkoff serves up a Frontline documentary examining the Persuader culture. Dion Dennis over at CTheory has, for some time, been providing insightful critiques of the politics of our consumer nation. If their is any confusion of where I am going with this particular grouping of links, Nancy Snow makes it all clear in her collection of writings.
The Hidden (in Plain Sight) Persuaders
Rob Walker
NY Times Magazine
Balter did not count on the agents taking BzzAgent so seriously. He still doesn't seem to know quite what to make of it. He has met only a handful of agents, and while he said he intends to meet more, he sounded almost nervous about it. A number of those he has met have been almost apologetic about not doing more -- about not buzzing enough on this or that campaign. The biggest complaints come from people who say they have not been invited to join enough campaigns. One agent resigned because he said he was unsure whether he could live up to BzzAgent's ethical standards.
This might be the most peculiar thing about BzzAgent: not only are its volunteer agents willing to become shock troops in the marketing revolution, but many of them are flat-out excited about it. At his apartment, Desjardins told me about another book he had read because of BzzAgent. Called ''Join Me,'' it's about a guy who decides he wants to start some sort of voluntary group -- a commune, a cult, whatever you want to call it. He puts an ad in the paper that just says, ''Join me,'' and to his surprise, people are interested. They didn't know what they were joining, or why, but they joined anyway. The guy, whose name is Danny Wallace, decided to turn his followers into a good-deeds army, basically on the ''Pay It Forward'' method. The book is nonfiction.
Why, I asked Desjardins, did people join a group without even knowing what it was? Well, he explained, Wallace's theory was that they just wanted to be part of something. That made sense to me. After all, some people are lucky enough to find meaning and fulfillment through their work, family or spirituality. But many people don't. Many people have boring jobs and indifferent bosses. They feel ignored by politicians. They send e-mail to customer service and no one responds. They get no feedback. It's easy to feel helpless, uncounted, disconnected. Do you think, I asked Desjardins, that there's some element of that going on with BzzAgent?
''I think for some people it probably is,'' he answered. ''For me, it's being part of something big. I think it's such a big thing that's going to shape marketing. To actually be one of the people involved in shaping that is, to me, big.'' That made sense to me too. After all, there is one thing that is even more powerful than the upper hand, more seductive than persuading: believing.
Entire Article
The Tyranny of Choice
William Powers
National Journal
That's what shopping -- and life -- is all about these days: choosing one's preference from a bewildering array of options. The U.S. is a choice-happy society, and we seem to like it this way. But as the Christmas catalogs come tumbling in and Best Buys throng with people staring in bovine mystification at the baffling new TV choices (plasma? LCD? LCoS?), you have to wonder whether all these choices are really making us happy.
Entire Column
Swooshing the Presidency
BK Loren
Orion
For years, America was thought of as a democracy-oriented country. But now we, and the rest of the world, are recognizing that the most significant thing the USA, Inc. does is market product. We've come around to understanding, finally, that America is a marketing-oriented country, and that our president is our most important marketing tool. What's more, from our celebrity culture to our Humvee-enforced "free" market democracy, America has, in many ways, become the product.
In the beginning there was the Word. In the 21st century there is the Logo. It is worshipped, all-powerful, and we are created anew every day in its image.
Entire Essay
Big and Blue in the USA
James Howard Kunstler
Orion
We've sunk so much of our national wealth
into a particular way of doing things that we're
psychologically compelled to defend it even
if it drives us crazy and kills us.
Entire Essay
The Persuaders. Dir. Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin. Correspondent: Douglas Rushkoff. Frontline (November 2004)
Priming the Pump of War: Toward a Post-Ethnic, Post-Racial Fascism and Inventing W, the Presidential Brand
Dion Dennis
CTheory
Also visit Nancy Snow's website which includes Propaganda Inc. and Information War and Propaganda and America's Image in the World and Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Propaganda
Why Think About Propaganda?
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
New documents point to Union Carbide culpability on Bhopal
UP THE LEAK WITHOUT A PADDLE
New documents point to Union Carbide culpability on Bhopal
Grist
Since the Bhopal disaster in 1984, Union Carbide Corp. (UCC), owner
of the leaking chemical plant, has denied responsibility, saying that
its Indian subsidiary (Union Carbide India Limited, or UCIL) was
solely responsible for the plant's design and management. But newly
uncovered documents cast doubt on that claim, indicating that UCC
provided substantial help in procuring safety equipment and other
parts and providing technical consultation on the plant, and also
engaged in cost-cutting at its Indian subsidiary. In light of what
followed, the final line of one document is chilling: "Union
Carbide's know-how, technical support, and majority ownership of UCIL
provide assurance of technical competence." Meanwhile, last week an
enterprising activist embarrassed Dow Chemical, which now owns UCC,
by posing as a representative of the company on BBC TV news and
pledging $12 billion to help the suffering survivors in Bhopal. Dow
was then forced to do damage control and explain that it had no
intention of giving a single penny to the victims.
US giant's defence on Bhopal could be undermined by company papers
A brilliant bit of Bhopal activism
BBC Fooled by Yes Men
New documents point to Union Carbide culpability on Bhopal
Grist
Since the Bhopal disaster in 1984, Union Carbide Corp. (UCC), owner
of the leaking chemical plant, has denied responsibility, saying that
its Indian subsidiary (Union Carbide India Limited, or UCIL) was
solely responsible for the plant's design and management. But newly
uncovered documents cast doubt on that claim, indicating that UCC
provided substantial help in procuring safety equipment and other
parts and providing technical consultation on the plant, and also
engaged in cost-cutting at its Indian subsidiary. In light of what
followed, the final line of one document is chilling: "Union
Carbide's know-how, technical support, and majority ownership of UCIL
provide assurance of technical competence." Meanwhile, last week an
enterprising activist embarrassed Dow Chemical, which now owns UCC,
by posing as a representative of the company on BBC TV news and
pledging $12 billion to help the suffering survivors in Bhopal. Dow
was then forced to do damage control and explain that it had no
intention of giving a single penny to the victims.
US giant's defence on Bhopal could be undermined by company papers
A brilliant bit of Bhopal activism
BBC Fooled by Yes Men
Chilean Women Celebrate Gaining Right to Divorce; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias Says There Are No Real Democracies in Latin America
( Womens ENews and ZNet)
As Chile became one of the last countries to enact a law that makes divorce legal many women are celebrating their newfound ability to leave abusive mates and enjoy more legal and financial independence.
Chilean Women Celebrate Gaining Right To Divorce
(VHeadline)
President [Hugo Chavez Frias] has told the intellectuals that giving power to the poor is urgent and inescapable, especially the power of knowledge and that is the philosophy behind the education missions.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias Says There Are No Real Democracies in Latin America
As Chile became one of the last countries to enact a law that makes divorce legal many women are celebrating their newfound ability to leave abusive mates and enjoy more legal and financial independence.
Chilean Women Celebrate Gaining Right To Divorce
(VHeadline)
President [Hugo Chavez Frias] has told the intellectuals that giving power to the poor is urgent and inescapable, especially the power of knowledge and that is the philosophy behind the education missions.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias Says There Are No Real Democracies in Latin America
Some Federally Funded Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says
(courtesy of Slacktivist and the Progressive Blog Alliance for the notice about the federally funded abstinence programs)
I'm trying to keep an optimistic outlook, but this anti-science policy is unnerving. Its a tragedy that in the 21st century we continue to lie to our children about gender and sexuality. What damage does this do and how many lives are ruined? Check out Ceci Connolly's report in the Washington Post:
To Read the Entire Report
I'm trying to keep an optimistic outlook, but this anti-science policy is unnerving. Its a tragedy that in the 21st century we continue to lie to our children about gender and sexuality. What damage does this do and how many lives are ruined? Check out Ceci Connolly's report in the Washington Post:
Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.
Those and other assertions are examples of the "false, misleading, or distorted information" in the programs' teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.
To Read the Entire Report
Monday, December 06, 2004
Barry Yeoman: Dirty Warriors
Dirty Warriors
By Barry Yeoman
Mother Jones
How South African hit men, Serbian paramilitaries, and other human rights violators became guns for hire for military contractors in Iraq
Dirty Warriors
By Barry Yeoman
Mother Jones
How South African hit men, Serbian paramilitaries, and other human rights violators became guns for hire for military contractors in Iraq
Dirty Warriors
Wendell Berry: Compromise, Hell!
Here is a true conservative who always challenges us to consider what it means to be an American and to consider the consequences of our actions for the future of our country, its citizens, and its places. Those who insist that progressives are only "liberal" are missing the point and perpetuating a dangerous myth.
"Compromise, Hell"
Wendell Berry
Orion
To Read the Entire Essay
More Wendell Berry:
The Work of Local Culture
Why Wendell Berry Matters
"Thoughts in the Presence of Fear" and "The Idea of a Local Economy"
"Compromise, Hell"
Wendell Berry
Orion
WE ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY -- I mean our country itself, our land. This is a terrible thing to know, but it is not a reason for despair unless we decide to continue the destruction. If we decide to continue the destruction, that will not be because we have no other choice. This destruction is not necessary. It is not inevitable, except that by our submissiveness we make it so.
We Americans are not usually thought to be a submissive people, but of course we are. Why else would we allow our country to be destroyed? Why else would we be rewarding its destroyers? Why else would we all -- by proxies we have given to greedy corporations and corrupt politicians -- be participating in its destruction? Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us.
How do we submit? By not being radical enough. Or by not being thorough enough, which is the same thing.
Since the beginning of the conservation effort in our country, conservationists have too often believed that we could protect the land without protecting the people. This has begun to change, but for a while yet we will have to reckon with the old assumption that we can preserve the natural world by protecting wilderness areas while we neglect or destroy the economic landscapes -- the farms and ranches and working forests -- and the people who use them. That assumption is understandable in view of the worsening threats to wilderness areas, but it is wrong. If conservationists hope to save even the wild lands and wild creatures, they are going to have to address issues of economy, which is to say issues of the health of the landscapes and the towns and cities where we do our work, and the quality of that work, and the well-being of the people who do the work.
To Read the Entire Essay
More Wendell Berry:
The Work of Local Culture
Why Wendell Berry Matters
"Thoughts in the Presence of Fear" and "The Idea of a Local Economy"
Net File-Sharing Doesn't Hurt Most Artists
We all know this, but its good to see it in the mainstream press... The only threat is to the corporate dominance and control of artistic endeavors. Free yourself ...
Yahoo
Most musicians and artists say the Internet has helped them make more money from their work despite online file-trading services that allow users to copy songs and other material for free, according to a study released on Sunday.
Recording labels and movie studios have hired phalanxes of lawyers to pursue "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa, and have sued thousands of individuals who distribute copyrighted material through such networks.
But most of the artists surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said online file sharing did not concern them much.
Artists were split on the merits of peer-to-peer networks, with 47 percent saying that they prevent artists from earning royalties for their work and another 43 percent saying they helped promote and distribute their material.
But two-thirds of those surveyed said file sharing posed little threat to them, and less than one-third of those surveyed said file sharing was a major threat to creative industries.
Only 3 percent said the Internet hurt their ability to protect their creative works.
"What we hear from a wide spectrum of artists is that, despite the real challenges of protecting work online, the Internet has opened new ways for them to exercise their imaginations and sell their creations," said report author Mary Madden, a research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The nonprofit group based its report on a survey of 809 self-identified artists in December 2003. The survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Article Link
The Actual Report
Pew Internet and American Life Project
Yahoo
Most musicians and artists say the Internet has helped them make more money from their work despite online file-trading services that allow users to copy songs and other material for free, according to a study released on Sunday.
Recording labels and movie studios have hired phalanxes of lawyers to pursue "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa, and have sued thousands of individuals who distribute copyrighted material through such networks.
But most of the artists surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said online file sharing did not concern them much.
Artists were split on the merits of peer-to-peer networks, with 47 percent saying that they prevent artists from earning royalties for their work and another 43 percent saying they helped promote and distribute their material.
But two-thirds of those surveyed said file sharing posed little threat to them, and less than one-third of those surveyed said file sharing was a major threat to creative industries.
Only 3 percent said the Internet hurt their ability to protect their creative works.
"What we hear from a wide spectrum of artists is that, despite the real challenges of protecting work online, the Internet has opened new ways for them to exercise their imaginations and sell their creations," said report author Mary Madden, a research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The nonprofit group based its report on a survey of 809 self-identified artists in December 2003. The survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Article Link
The Actual Report
Pew Internet and American Life Project
China Miéville: Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read
I've long lamented that there are few good guides for the discriminating genre reader (in my case Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror/Slipstream) luckily I stumbled upon Fantastic Metropolis which seems to be willing to step up and claim this role. At their site, China Mieville, author of King Rat and Perdido Street Station, presents a list of essential works for socialist readers:
Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read
Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Chris Hedges: On Current Books About the Iraq War
Chris Hedges reviews Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright and the Fall of Baghdad by Jon Lee Anderson.
"On War" by Chris Hedges
New York Review of Books
Excerpts:
The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief. They know the lies the victors often do not acknowledge, the lies covered up in stately war memorials and mythic war narratives, filled with stories of courage and comradeship. They know the lies that permeate the thick, self-important memoirs by amoral statesmen who make wars but do not know war. The vanquished know the essence of war—death. They grasp that war is necrophilia. They see that war is a state of almost pure sin with its goals of hatred and destruction. They know how war fosters alienation, leads inevitably to nihilism, and is a turning away from the sanctity and preservation of life. All other narratives about war too easily fall prey to the allure and seductiveness of violence, as well as the attraction of the godlike power that comes with the license to kill with impunity.
But the words of the vanquished come later, sometimes long after the war, when grown men and women unpack the suffering they endured as children, what it was like to see their mother or father killed or taken away, or what it was like to lose their homes, their community, their security, and be discarded as human refuse. But by then few listen. The truth about war comes out, but usually too late. We are assured by the war-makers that these stories have no bearing on the glorious violent enterprise the nation is about to inaugurate. And, lapping up the myth of war and its sense of empowerment, we prefer not to look.
The current books about the war in Iraq do not uncover the pathology of war. We see the war from the perspective of the troops who fight the war or the equally skewed perspective of the foreign reporters, holed up in hotels, hemmed in by drivers and translators and official minders. There are moments when war's face appears to these voyeurs and killers, perhaps from the back seat of a car where a small child, her brains oozing out of her head, lies dying, but mostly it remains hidden. And the books on the war in Iraq have to be viewed, through no fault of the reporters, as lacking the sweep and depth that will come one day, perhaps years from now, when a small Iraqi boy or girl reaches adulthood and unfolds for us the sad and tragic story of the invasion and bloody occupation of their nation.
War is presented primarily through the distorted prism of the occupiers. The embedded reporters, dependent on the military for food and transportation as well as security, have a natural and understandable tendency, one I have myself felt, to protect those who are protecting them. They are not allowed to report outside of the unit and are, in effect, captives. They have no relationships with the victims, essential to all balanced reporting of conflicts, but only with the Marines and soldiers who drive through desolate mud-walled towns and pump grenades and machine-gun bullets into houses, leaving scores of nameless dead and wounded in their wake. The reporters admire and laud these fighters for their physical courage. They feel protected as well by the jet fighters and heavy artillery and throaty rattle of machine guns. And the reporting, even among those who struggle to keep some distance, usually descends into a shameful cheerleading.
Those who cover war dine out on the myth about war and the myth about themselves as war correspondents. Yes, they say, it is horrible, and dirty and ugly; for many of them it is also glamorous and exciting and empowering. They look out from the windows of Humvees for a few seconds at Iraqi families, cowering in fear, and only rarely see the effects of the firepower. When they are forced to examine what bullets, grenades, and shells do to human bodies they turn away in disgust or resort to black humor to dehumanize the corpses. They cannot stay long, in any event, since they must leave the depressing scene behind for the next mission. The tragedy is replaced, as it is for us at home who watch it on television screens, by a light moment or another story. It becomes easier to forget that another human life has been ruined beyond repair, that what is unfolding is not only tragic for tens of thousands of Iraqis but for the United States.
...
The reason wars should always be covered from the perspective of the common soldier or Marine, as Wright does, is that these foot soldiers are largely pawns. Their lives, despite the protestations of the generals and politicians, mean little to the war planners. Officers who put the safety of their men before the efficiency of the war machine are usually viewed as compromised. Wright, by writing about one conscientious officer, Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick, who at times defies orders that he believes will get his men killed needlessly, shows us the raw meat grinder at the core of the military, how it pushes aside all those who do not offer up the soldiers under their command to the god of war.
Physical courage is common on a battlefield. Moral courage is not. Those who defy the machine usually become its victim. And Lieutenant Fick, who we find in the epilogue has left the Marines to go back to school, wonders if he was a good officer or if his concern for his men colored his judgment. Those who make war betray those who fight it. This is something most enlisted combat veterans soon understand. They have little love for officers, tolerating the good ones and hoping the bad ones are replaced or injured before they get them killed. Those on the bottom rung of the military pay the price for their commanders' vanity, ego, and thirst for recognition. These motives are hardly exclusive to the neocons and the ambitious generals in the Bush administration. They are a staple of war. Homer wrote about all of them in The Iliad as did Norman Mailer in The Naked and the Dead. Stupidity and callousness cause senseless death and wanton destruction. That being a good human being—that possessing not only physical courage but moral courage—is detrimental in a commander says much about the industrial slaughter that is war.
...
Those who carry out this killing will pay a terrible price. As the unit approaches Baghdad they become weary with the indiscriminate shooting of unarmed Iraqis, including families that drive too close to roadblocks. Wright notes that "...the enlisted Marines, tired of shooting unarmed civilians, fought to be allowed to use smoke grenades." Many of these young men will never sleep well for the rest of their lives. Most will harbor within themselves corrosive feelings of self-loathing and regret. They will struggle with an unbridgeable alienation when they return home, something Evans sees glimpses of in the final pages of the book.
...
These Marines have learned the awful truth about our civil religion. They have learned that our nation is not righteous. They have understood that there are no transcendent goals at the heart of our political process. The Sunday School God that blesses our nation above all others vanishes in war zones like Iraq. These young troops disdain the teachers, religious authorities, and government officials who feed them these lies. This is why so many combat veterans hate military shrinks and chaplains, whose task is largely to patch them up with the old clichés and ship them back to the battlefield. It is why they feel distance and anger with those at home who drink in the dark elixir of blind patriotism, and absorb mythology about themselves and war.
One of the Marines in the book returns to California and is invited to be the guest of honor in a gated community in Malibu, a place where he could never afford to live. The residents want to toast him as a war hero.
"I'm not a hero," he tells the guests. "Guys like me are just a necessary part of things. To maintain this way of life in a fine community like this, you need psychos like us to go out and drop a bomb on somebody's house."
But these veterans will also miss war. They will miss it because at the height of the killing they can ignore the consequences. They will miss having comrades, whom they mistake for friends, comrades who at the time seem closer to them than their families. They will miss the brief, unfettered moment when they were killer gods and everyone around them fighting a common enemy, and facing death as a group, seemed fused into one body. "They like this part of war," Wright correctly writes of the comradeship, "being a small band out here alone in enemy territory, everyone focused on the common purpose of staying alive and killing, if necessary."
The end of war is cruel, for these comrades again become strangers. Those who return are forced to face their demons. They must fall back onto the difficult terrain of life on their own. Wartime comradeship is about the suppression of self-awareness, self-possession, and self-understanding. This is part of its allure, the reason people miss it and seek years later, often with the aid of alcohol, to recreate it. But outside of war the camaraderie does not return. These young men and women are sent home to a nation they see in a new light. They struggle with the awful memories and trauma and are shunted aside unless they are willing to read from the patriotic script handed to them by the mythmakers. Some do this, but most cannot.
...
We are losing the war in Iraq. There has been a steady increase in the assaults carried out by the insurgents against coalition forces. The attacks over the past year have risen from about twenty a day to approximately 120. We are an isolated and reviled nation. We are tyrants to others weaker than ourselves. We have lost sight of our democratic ideals. Thucydides wrote of Athens' expanding empire and how this empire led it to become a tyrant abroad and then a tyrant at home. The tyranny Athens imposed on others it finally imposed on itself. If we do not confront our hubris and the lies told to justify the killing and mask the destruction carried out in our name in Iraq, if we do not grasp the moral corrosiveness of empire and occupation, if we continue to allow force and violence to be our primary form of communication, we will not so much defeat dictators like Saddam Hussein as become them.
Entire Review Essay
More from Chris Hedges:
Chris Hedges and the Mythology of War
"On War" by Chris Hedges
New York Review of Books
Excerpts:
The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief. They know the lies the victors often do not acknowledge, the lies covered up in stately war memorials and mythic war narratives, filled with stories of courage and comradeship. They know the lies that permeate the thick, self-important memoirs by amoral statesmen who make wars but do not know war. The vanquished know the essence of war—death. They grasp that war is necrophilia. They see that war is a state of almost pure sin with its goals of hatred and destruction. They know how war fosters alienation, leads inevitably to nihilism, and is a turning away from the sanctity and preservation of life. All other narratives about war too easily fall prey to the allure and seductiveness of violence, as well as the attraction of the godlike power that comes with the license to kill with impunity.
But the words of the vanquished come later, sometimes long after the war, when grown men and women unpack the suffering they endured as children, what it was like to see their mother or father killed or taken away, or what it was like to lose their homes, their community, their security, and be discarded as human refuse. But by then few listen. The truth about war comes out, but usually too late. We are assured by the war-makers that these stories have no bearing on the glorious violent enterprise the nation is about to inaugurate. And, lapping up the myth of war and its sense of empowerment, we prefer not to look.
The current books about the war in Iraq do not uncover the pathology of war. We see the war from the perspective of the troops who fight the war or the equally skewed perspective of the foreign reporters, holed up in hotels, hemmed in by drivers and translators and official minders. There are moments when war's face appears to these voyeurs and killers, perhaps from the back seat of a car where a small child, her brains oozing out of her head, lies dying, but mostly it remains hidden. And the books on the war in Iraq have to be viewed, through no fault of the reporters, as lacking the sweep and depth that will come one day, perhaps years from now, when a small Iraqi boy or girl reaches adulthood and unfolds for us the sad and tragic story of the invasion and bloody occupation of their nation.
War is presented primarily through the distorted prism of the occupiers. The embedded reporters, dependent on the military for food and transportation as well as security, have a natural and understandable tendency, one I have myself felt, to protect those who are protecting them. They are not allowed to report outside of the unit and are, in effect, captives. They have no relationships with the victims, essential to all balanced reporting of conflicts, but only with the Marines and soldiers who drive through desolate mud-walled towns and pump grenades and machine-gun bullets into houses, leaving scores of nameless dead and wounded in their wake. The reporters admire and laud these fighters for their physical courage. They feel protected as well by the jet fighters and heavy artillery and throaty rattle of machine guns. And the reporting, even among those who struggle to keep some distance, usually descends into a shameful cheerleading.
Those who cover war dine out on the myth about war and the myth about themselves as war correspondents. Yes, they say, it is horrible, and dirty and ugly; for many of them it is also glamorous and exciting and empowering. They look out from the windows of Humvees for a few seconds at Iraqi families, cowering in fear, and only rarely see the effects of the firepower. When they are forced to examine what bullets, grenades, and shells do to human bodies they turn away in disgust or resort to black humor to dehumanize the corpses. They cannot stay long, in any event, since they must leave the depressing scene behind for the next mission. The tragedy is replaced, as it is for us at home who watch it on television screens, by a light moment or another story. It becomes easier to forget that another human life has been ruined beyond repair, that what is unfolding is not only tragic for tens of thousands of Iraqis but for the United States.
...
The reason wars should always be covered from the perspective of the common soldier or Marine, as Wright does, is that these foot soldiers are largely pawns. Their lives, despite the protestations of the generals and politicians, mean little to the war planners. Officers who put the safety of their men before the efficiency of the war machine are usually viewed as compromised. Wright, by writing about one conscientious officer, Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick, who at times defies orders that he believes will get his men killed needlessly, shows us the raw meat grinder at the core of the military, how it pushes aside all those who do not offer up the soldiers under their command to the god of war.
Physical courage is common on a battlefield. Moral courage is not. Those who defy the machine usually become its victim. And Lieutenant Fick, who we find in the epilogue has left the Marines to go back to school, wonders if he was a good officer or if his concern for his men colored his judgment. Those who make war betray those who fight it. This is something most enlisted combat veterans soon understand. They have little love for officers, tolerating the good ones and hoping the bad ones are replaced or injured before they get them killed. Those on the bottom rung of the military pay the price for their commanders' vanity, ego, and thirst for recognition. These motives are hardly exclusive to the neocons and the ambitious generals in the Bush administration. They are a staple of war. Homer wrote about all of them in The Iliad as did Norman Mailer in The Naked and the Dead. Stupidity and callousness cause senseless death and wanton destruction. That being a good human being—that possessing not only physical courage but moral courage—is detrimental in a commander says much about the industrial slaughter that is war.
...
Those who carry out this killing will pay a terrible price. As the unit approaches Baghdad they become weary with the indiscriminate shooting of unarmed Iraqis, including families that drive too close to roadblocks. Wright notes that "...the enlisted Marines, tired of shooting unarmed civilians, fought to be allowed to use smoke grenades." Many of these young men will never sleep well for the rest of their lives. Most will harbor within themselves corrosive feelings of self-loathing and regret. They will struggle with an unbridgeable alienation when they return home, something Evans sees glimpses of in the final pages of the book.
...
These Marines have learned the awful truth about our civil religion. They have learned that our nation is not righteous. They have understood that there are no transcendent goals at the heart of our political process. The Sunday School God that blesses our nation above all others vanishes in war zones like Iraq. These young troops disdain the teachers, religious authorities, and government officials who feed them these lies. This is why so many combat veterans hate military shrinks and chaplains, whose task is largely to patch them up with the old clichés and ship them back to the battlefield. It is why they feel distance and anger with those at home who drink in the dark elixir of blind patriotism, and absorb mythology about themselves and war.
One of the Marines in the book returns to California and is invited to be the guest of honor in a gated community in Malibu, a place where he could never afford to live. The residents want to toast him as a war hero.
"I'm not a hero," he tells the guests. "Guys like me are just a necessary part of things. To maintain this way of life in a fine community like this, you need psychos like us to go out and drop a bomb on somebody's house."
But these veterans will also miss war. They will miss it because at the height of the killing they can ignore the consequences. They will miss having comrades, whom they mistake for friends, comrades who at the time seem closer to them than their families. They will miss the brief, unfettered moment when they were killer gods and everyone around them fighting a common enemy, and facing death as a group, seemed fused into one body. "They like this part of war," Wright correctly writes of the comradeship, "being a small band out here alone in enemy territory, everyone focused on the common purpose of staying alive and killing, if necessary."
The end of war is cruel, for these comrades again become strangers. Those who return are forced to face their demons. They must fall back onto the difficult terrain of life on their own. Wartime comradeship is about the suppression of self-awareness, self-possession, and self-understanding. This is part of its allure, the reason people miss it and seek years later, often with the aid of alcohol, to recreate it. But outside of war the camaraderie does not return. These young men and women are sent home to a nation they see in a new light. They struggle with the awful memories and trauma and are shunted aside unless they are willing to read from the patriotic script handed to them by the mythmakers. Some do this, but most cannot.
...
We are losing the war in Iraq. There has been a steady increase in the assaults carried out by the insurgents against coalition forces. The attacks over the past year have risen from about twenty a day to approximately 120. We are an isolated and reviled nation. We are tyrants to others weaker than ourselves. We have lost sight of our democratic ideals. Thucydides wrote of Athens' expanding empire and how this empire led it to become a tyrant abroad and then a tyrant at home. The tyranny Athens imposed on others it finally imposed on itself. If we do not confront our hubris and the lies told to justify the killing and mask the destruction carried out in our name in Iraq, if we do not grasp the moral corrosiveness of empire and occupation, if we continue to allow force and violence to be our primary form of communication, we will not so much defeat dictators like Saddam Hussein as become them.
Entire Review Essay
More from Chris Hedges:
Chris Hedges and the Mythology of War
Place Theory Bibliography, Pt. 1
Adams, Paul, Steven Hoelscher and Karen Till, eds. Textures of Place: Exploring Humanist Geographies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Agnew, John A. and Jonathan M. Smith, eds. American Space/American Place: Geographies of the Contemporary United States. NY: Routledge, 2002.
Allen, John and Doreen Massey. Geographical Worlds. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Anderson, Kay, and Faye Gale, eds. Inventing Places: Studies in Cultural Geography. NY: Wiley/Halstead Press, 1992.
Augé, Marc. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. NY: Verso, 1995.
Boal, Frederick W. and David N. Livingstone, eds. The Behavioral Environment. NY: Routledge, 1990.
Casey, Edward. The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
---. Getting Back Into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
---. Tramp in America. Reaktion Books, 2001.
Duncan, James and David Ley, eds. Place/Culture/Representation. NY: Routledge, 1993.
Entrikin, J. Nicholas. The Betweenness of Place: Toward a Geography of Modernity. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1991.
Hayden, Dolores. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000. NY: Pantheon, 2003.
---. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.
Hayden, Dolores and Jim Wark. A Field Guide to Sprawl. NY: W.W. Norton, 2004.
Jackson, Peter and Jan Penrose, eds. Constructions of Race, Place, and Nation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Kearns, Gerard and Chris Philo, eds. Selling Places: The City as Cultural Capital, Past and Present. Pergamon, 1993.
Lane, Belden C. Landscapes of the Sacred: Geography and Narrative in American Spirituality. Revised Edition. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2001.
---. The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Landscapes. NY: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1991.
Lippard, Lucy. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered World. NY: New Press, 1997.
Lopez, Barry. “The American Geographies.” About This Life. NY: Vintage, 1999: 130-143.
---. “Introduction to Nature Catalog.” Ken Lopez—Bookseller (2000) http://www.lopezbooks.com/articles/lopez.html
Malpas, J. E. Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Massey, Doreen. Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
Massey, Doreen and Pat Jess. A Place in the World: Places, Cultures and Globalization. NY: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Meyrowitz, Joshua. No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electonic Media on Social Behavior. NY: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Morrison, Dane Anthony and Nancy Lusigan Schultz, eds. Salem: Place, Myth and Memory. Northeastern University Press, 2004.
Nast, Heidi and Steve Pile, eds. Places Through the Body. NY: Routledge, 1998.
Potteiger, Matthew and Jamie Purinton. Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories. NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Relph, E.C. Place and Placelessness. NY: Routledge, 1976.
Sack, Robert. A Geographical Guide to the Real and the Good. NY: Routledge, 2003.
---. Home Geographicus: A Framework for Action, Awareness and Moral Concern. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
---. Place, Consumption and Modernity. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Sack, Robert, et al, eds. Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Seamon, David and Robert Mugerauer, eds. Dwelling, Place and Environment: Towards a Phenomenology of Place and World. Krieger, 2000.
Shields, Robert. Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity. NY: Routledge, 1992.
Staheli, Lynn A. “Place.” A Companion to Political Geography. ed. John A. Agnew, et al. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003: 158-170.
Thayer, Robert L. LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Till, Karen E. “Places of Memory.” A Companion to Political Geography. ed. John A. Agnew, et al. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003: 289-301.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
---. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974.
Agnew, John A. and Jonathan M. Smith, eds. American Space/American Place: Geographies of the Contemporary United States. NY: Routledge, 2002.
Allen, John and Doreen Massey. Geographical Worlds. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Anderson, Kay, and Faye Gale, eds. Inventing Places: Studies in Cultural Geography. NY: Wiley/Halstead Press, 1992.
Augé, Marc. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. NY: Verso, 1995.
Boal, Frederick W. and David N. Livingstone, eds. The Behavioral Environment. NY: Routledge, 1990.
Casey, Edward. The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
---. Getting Back Into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
---. Tramp in America. Reaktion Books, 2001.
Duncan, James and David Ley, eds. Place/Culture/Representation. NY: Routledge, 1993.
Entrikin, J. Nicholas. The Betweenness of Place: Toward a Geography of Modernity. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1991.
Hayden, Dolores. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000. NY: Pantheon, 2003.
---. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.
Hayden, Dolores and Jim Wark. A Field Guide to Sprawl. NY: W.W. Norton, 2004.
Jackson, Peter and Jan Penrose, eds. Constructions of Race, Place, and Nation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Kearns, Gerard and Chris Philo, eds. Selling Places: The City as Cultural Capital, Past and Present. Pergamon, 1993.
Lane, Belden C. Landscapes of the Sacred: Geography and Narrative in American Spirituality. Revised Edition. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2001.
---. The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Landscapes. NY: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1991.
Lippard, Lucy. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered World. NY: New Press, 1997.
Lopez, Barry. “The American Geographies.” About This Life. NY: Vintage, 1999: 130-143.
---. “Introduction to Nature Catalog.” Ken Lopez—Bookseller (2000) http://www.lopezbooks.com/articles/lopez.html
Malpas, J. E. Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Massey, Doreen. Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
Massey, Doreen and Pat Jess. A Place in the World: Places, Cultures and Globalization. NY: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Meyrowitz, Joshua. No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electonic Media on Social Behavior. NY: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Morrison, Dane Anthony and Nancy Lusigan Schultz, eds. Salem: Place, Myth and Memory. Northeastern University Press, 2004.
Nast, Heidi and Steve Pile, eds. Places Through the Body. NY: Routledge, 1998.
Potteiger, Matthew and Jamie Purinton. Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories. NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Relph, E.C. Place and Placelessness. NY: Routledge, 1976.
Sack, Robert. A Geographical Guide to the Real and the Good. NY: Routledge, 2003.
---. Home Geographicus: A Framework for Action, Awareness and Moral Concern. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
---. Place, Consumption and Modernity. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Sack, Robert, et al, eds. Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Seamon, David and Robert Mugerauer, eds. Dwelling, Place and Environment: Towards a Phenomenology of Place and World. Krieger, 2000.
Shields, Robert. Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity. NY: Routledge, 1992.
Staheli, Lynn A. “Place.” A Companion to Political Geography. ed. John A. Agnew, et al. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003: 158-170.
Thayer, Robert L. LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Till, Karen E. “Places of Memory.” A Companion to Political Geography. ed. John A. Agnew, et al. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003: 289-301.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
---. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974.
Thomas Ligotti: Literature Is Entertainment or It Is Nothing
An interview at Fantastic Metropolis with Thomas Ligotti:
Entire Interview
To read/listen to some stories by Ligotti:
Thomas Ligotti Online
Horror stories in the short form are like campfire tales or urban legends that are just a way of saying “Boo.” They have nothing to do with the real world in the minds of most readers. Nevertheless, I think there’s a great potential in horror fiction that isn’t easily available to realistic fiction. This is the potential to portray our worst nightmares, both private and public, as we approach death through the decay of our bodies. And then to leave it at that—no happy endings, no apologias, no excuses, no redemption, no escape.
Some horror writers have done this consistently, but not very many. I’ve been entertained the works of these writers—it’s all show business after all—and beyond that I’ve felt a momentary satisfaction that someone could be so audacious as to speak ill of the precious gift of life when we’re all brainwashed from childhood never to utter a discouraging word. Of course, it’s not really possible to avoid affirming life, even when you’re writing a horror story defaming it. The act of writing is an affirmation, as is the act of suicide. Both are vital and idealistic gestures. Joseph Conrad said that he shunned the supernatural because it wasn’t necessary to depict the horror of existence. I wish he hadn’t. Because the supernatural is the metaphysical counterpart of insanity—the best possible vehicle for conveying the uncanny nightmare of a conscious mind marooned for a brief while in this haunted house of a world and being slowly driven mad by the ghastliness of it all. Not the man’s-inhumanity-to-man sort of thing, but a necessary derangement, a high order of weirdness and of desolation built in to the system in which we all function. Its emblem is the empty and inexplicable malignity that some of us see in the faces of dolls, manikins, puppets, and the like. The faces of so many effigies of our own shape, made by our own hands and minds, seem to be our way of telling ourselves that we know a secret that is too terrible to tell. The horror writer has the best chance of expressing something of that secret. It’s really a lost opportunity, or perhaps a blessing, that so few take advantage of this potential that lies in horror fiction. Instead, they do the opposite: they discover all the secrets… and how trivial they are. A stake through the heart. A silver bullet. An exorcism. We win. All is well. Nighty-night.
...
That seems like such a strange question to me. Essentially you seem to be asking, “Why would someone want to feel better than they normally feel?” I can understand why some people might have an aversion to drugs and alcohol due to unfortunate experiences in their childhood with drug-using or alcoholic relatives… or because they have a fear of losing control… or even because they’re lucky enough not to feel the need to alter median emotional state. But none of these was the case with me. Nor do they seem to be the case with the human race in general. There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such a state is not tolerable to most people. Why else would someone succumb to the attractions of romantic love more than once? Didn’t they learn their lesson the first time or the tenth time or the twentieth time? And it’s the same old lesson: everything in this life—I repeat, everything—is more trouble than it’s worth. And simply being alive is the basic trouble. This is something that is more recognized in Eastern societies than in the West. There’s a minor tradition in Greek philosophy that instructs us to seek a state of equanimity rather than one of ecstasy, but it never really caught on for obvious reasons. Buddhism advises its practitioners not to seek highs or lows but to follow a middle path to personal salvation from the painful cravings of the average sensual life, which is why it was pretty much reviled by the masses and mutated into forms more suited to human drives and desires. It seems evident that very few people can simply sit still. Children spin in circles until they collapse with dizziness.
Through art, either as creators or consumers, people are transported into other realms of consciousness. This seems harmless enough… until the art is taken away. Everyone takes it for granted that they can always fall back on art. But talk to a writer who can no longer write. Or witness the spectacle of a musician or a music lover who suffers from chronic pain or depression and is no longer capable of escaping into their beloved world of sound. Then there are infirm athletes who can no longer avail themselves of the adrenalin rush they once received on a regular basis. And all these methods are mere candy when it comes to getting high. As the saying goes, candy is dandy but liquor is quicker. Drugs, of course, are the quickest of all. The fact that they, too, are more trouble than they’re worth as much due to legal and societal sanctions against them as it is to their primary effects.
Entire Interview
To read/listen to some stories by Ligotti:
Thomas Ligotti Online
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Southeast Stockton: Eating Healthy Gets Tougher in Poor Neighborhood
NPR
Stockton is just a short drive from some of California's richest farmland. Yet in economically distressed southeast Stockton, it's difficult to find fresh fruits and vegetables. Markets mainly sell high-salt, high-sugar foods and alcohol.
Eating Healthy Gets Tougher in a Poor Neighborhood
Stockton is just a short drive from some of California's richest farmland. Yet in economically distressed southeast Stockton, it's difficult to find fresh fruits and vegetables. Markets mainly sell high-salt, high-sugar foods and alcohol.
Eating Healthy Gets Tougher in a Poor Neighborhood
Nadine Gordimer: Telling Tales
NPR
Telling Tales: Interview with Nadine Gordimer
Amid commemorations and ceremonies on World AIDS Day Dec. 1, a unique anthology of short fiction was published. Entitled Telling Tales, the book was conceived by novelist and Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer in response to the HIV-AIDS crisis in southern Africa. Gordimer, 81, decided that it was time for writers to do something collectively for a cause. "If musicians can get up and sing, we can get up and write."
Telling Tales features 21 distinguished authors from around the world, including Günter Grass, Kenzaburo Oe, Salman Rushdie and Arthur Miller. Five of the featured writers are winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and all donated their stories waiving any fees or royalties. The book's profits will go to medical and advocacy programs on AIDS.
Telling Tales: Interview with Nadine Gordimer
Brooks Jackson: Political Ads--There Outta Be a Law!
I think that there is a simple solution to this problem of unpunished lying/slander in political TV ads. Simply ban all candidates from advertising on TV and provide free air time for forums in which the candidates discuss the issues and are required to define their positions in a public statement...
False Ads: There Outta Be a Law
False Ads: There Outta Be a Law
Bitch Ph.D.: Do I Bitch About Students Too Much?
Browsing over at pas au-delà I found a link to Bitch Ph.D. where I read a revealing and honest discussion of the interaction between professors and students (from the professor's point of view). I think I might start off the next semester with a discussion of the issues Professor B raises in this post. I usually discuss the politics of academia as my writing classes are gatekeeping courses (despite my attempts at resistance and subversion), but Professor B has crystallized some of the main ideas--thanks!
Do I Bitch Too Much About My Students
Do I Bitch Too Much About My Students
David Jagernauth: Bush, Can I Say Censorship?
(courtesy of Matt who posted this in a comment to More On CBS and NBC Refusal to Air United Chruch of Christ TV Ad )
Bush, Can I Say Censorship?
Bush, Can I Say Censorship?
Moving Ideas: Post Election Analysis
Post-Election Analysis from Moving Ideas' Members
Read post election analysis all in one place - from ballot initiatives and the gender gap to what's next for the progressive movement.
Post Election Analysis
Read post election analysis all in one place - from ballot initiatives and the gender gap to what's next for the progressive movement.
Post Election Analysis
Scott Ritter: Confronting the Theocracy of Evil
Alternet
Entire Article
I had come face to face with a phenomenon I have come to describe as the 'theocracy of evil.' Going beyond mere political ideology, the theocracy of evil encompasses a faith-based value system that embraces a simplistic 'good versus evil' opposition. If Saddam is evil, such thinking holds, then evil must be confronted, and such niceties as fact and fact-based logic no longer apply. As such, WMD became simply an enabling issue – something designed to focus the attention of the public while those in charge pursued the broader agenda of confronting evil.
The 'theocracy of evil' establishes a deeply ingrained mindset that may be the reason why the U.S. intelligence community failed to accurately assess Iraq's WMD capabilities; why Congress failed to adequately debate the issue of Iraq before voting to go to war; and why the American public willingly allowed itself to be drawn into a war without demanding more proof to back up the Bush administration's allegations. If Saddam is evil, such thinking holds, then he surely intends to acquire WMD, and as such every bit of data collected regarding Iraq must be assessed with that assumption foremost in mind.
President George W. Bush repeatedly used the bully pulpit of the presidency to preach the 'theocracy of evil', most notably on Jan. 20, 2003, during his State of the Union address. "Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror," the President said. "States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger."
...
The pervasiveness in America today of the 'theocracy of evil' has led to a widespread 'ends justify the means' mentality that may prove fatal to a democratic institution founded on the principle of the rule of law. Andrew Mackinlay has made it clear that as far as he is concerned, democratic principles will trump the 'theocracy of evil' in Great Britain. "Politics be damned," the influential member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs said to me during my stay in London. "If it turns out that the Blair Government lied or misrepresented fact to make its case for war, then the defense of democracy requires nothing less than coming to a full accounting over what transpired, regardless of the consequences. I'm certain my constituents would demand nothing less of me."
Looking at the political landscape in the United States today, I wonder if there are politicians today from either major party who are willing to do the same in defense of American democracy, or constituents with the courage to demand it.
Entire Article
Timothy Karr: Between Big Media and Brotherly Love
(courtesy Free Press News)
Timothy Karr of MediaChannel asks "Why allow for local competition and innovation in Philadelphia when you can shut it down via well-funded connections in the capitol?"
Between Big Media and Brotherly Love
More on this issue:
A proposed Pennsylvania law now on its way to the governor's desk could pose a hurdle for the city of Philadelphia's ambitious plan to provide broadband service throughout the city via Wi-Fi.
By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
Law May Snag Philadelphia Wi-Fi Rollout
Large phone and cable companies fight city wireless Internet access initiatives by pushing states to pass legislation that could make it illegal for municipalities to provide this service.
By Jesse Drucker, Wall Street Journal
Telecom Giants Oppose Cities on Web Access
Timothy Karr of MediaChannel asks "Why allow for local competition and innovation in Philadelphia when you can shut it down via well-funded connections in the capitol?"
Banish the notion that America's communications industry nurtures technological innovation to help make media more accessible to average Americans.
The reality today is that we live in an era where large corporations work hand-in-hand with lobbyists and compliant legislators to stifle any technology that returns control of our media system to the public.
The latest evidence lies hidden within a Bill en route to the desk of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. House Bill 30 — an industry-drafted and inspired sprawl of corporate concessions — has tucked within its more than 70 pages an amendment that effectively kills efforts in Philadelphia to provide citywide wireless access at little or no charge.
The bill cleared both Pennsylvania's House and Senate on Friday. A signature from Governor Rendell would scuttle "Philadelphia Wireless" — an ambitious plan to build a Wi-Fi network to serve the city's working-class communities — before the project could begin.
The problem, according to the Bill's principal sponsor, Verizon Communications, Inc., is that community-supported wireless poses a "significant threat" to the multi-billion dollar company's near monopoly hold on wireless access across the city. Why allow for local competition and innovation in Philadelphia when you can shut it down via well-funded connections in the capitol?
Between Big Media and Brotherly Love
A proposed Pennsylvania law now on its way to the governor's desk could pose a hurdle for the city of Philadelphia's ambitious plan to provide broadband service throughout the city via Wi-Fi.
By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
Law May Snag Philadelphia Wi-Fi Rollout
Large phone and cable companies fight city wireless Internet access initiatives by pushing states to pass legislation that could make it illegal for municipalities to provide this service.
By Jesse Drucker, Wall Street Journal
Telecom Giants Oppose Cities on Web Access
Turkmenistan: Stranger Than Fiction
Turkmenistan’s ‘Great Leader’: The Ceausescu Career Path?
by David Lewis and Andrew Stroehlein
Transistions Online
Contrary to his own belief, Saparmurat Niazov is mortal. What happens to Turkmenistan--and the region--after he's gone is something the international community needs to prepare for, argues the International Crisis Group.
If you look up “cult of personality” in the dictionary, you might find a picture of Turkmenistan's president, Saparmurat Niazov. And wherever you look inside Turkmenistan, you'll see the same image.
It is not a simple matter of the ubiquitous public murals of your average dictator: Niazov has a golden statue of himself in the capital, Ashgabat, that moves with the sun. On state television, Niazov's portrait revolves continuously on the corner of the screen. His nationalistic, quasi-spiritual tome, the Ruhnama, not only forms the basis for much TV programming but also dominates Turkmenistan's education curriculum. He's renamed the months of the year, with the month of January now replaced by his self-adopted name, “Turkmenbashi” or “father of all Turkmen.”
With no checks on his power, Niazov makes bizarre decisions that essentially become law without any public debate or legislative procedure. In August, he decreed that those seeking a driver’s license must first pass a 16-hour course on the Ruhnama. In the same month, he personally banned nas, a popular form of chewing tobacco, and earlier in the year, he declared gold teeth not only unsightly but also forbidden. His building projects, perhaps the most megalomaniacal aspect of his rule, now include a multimillion-dollar contract to build an ice palace in the desert.
All of this would be simply comical if it were not so deadly tragic. The apparent lunacy of a dictator is no joke to those who suffer under him.
SHOW TRIALS AND POLITICAL MURDERS
There is no political freedom in Turkmenistan, one of the world's most repressive regimes. Niazov--who controls the country through the Ministry of National Security and the police--dominates the political space. The constant pre-emptive control of the population includes frequent checks on internal travel and surveillance of people considered suspicious. The widespread physical presence of security troops and police officers make most people think twice about objecting to government policy.
The few dissidents and political opponents who remain in Turkmenistan often end up arrested and detained, sometimes in psychiatric hospitals following the well-worn Soviet practice. Court proceedings against some of those oppositionists can only be compared to Stalin-era show trials. Many dissidents have been forced to leave the country--mostly for Europe or Russia--and even there they are not safe from the hands of Niazov's agents: witness last year's violent attack on opposition leader Avdy Kuliev in Moscow and the subsequent ouster of eight Turkmen embassy officials on suspicions they were planning to murder Moscow-based dissidents.
But repression targets not only overt opposition figures, but also ordinary people. The authorities have forcibly resettled ethnic minorities. Farmers have endured police raids and harassment because of government concerns about poor harvests or to collect “surplus grain.”
Persecution of businesspeople is also common: the successful are often the target of dubious allegations, arrest, and imprisonment.
No human rights groups can operate on the ground in Turkmenistan. In fact, a November 2003 law on public associations effectively outlawed activity by unregistered groups of any kind, under threat of hard labor.
SILENCING ALL BUT THE PRAISE
There are no free and independent media in the country; all newspapers are state-controlled, competing only in their sycophantic praise of the president. Foreign newspapers are banned, including those from Russia. The last Russia-based radio station, Mayak, was closed in July, leaving Radio Liberty's Turkmen broadcasts over shortwave as the only source of outside information in a local language.
Controls on information inside the country are as dangerous as they are absurd. Since 1 May, for example, the regime has ordered health care workers not to write diagnoses of infectious diseases such as cholera, dysentery, measles, tuberculosis, and hepatitis in medical records or health bulletins. (This came just weeks after Niazov's dismissal of 15,000 qualified medical workers, who were replaced with untrained army conscripts.) In June, an outbreak of plague apparently killed seven people in the eastern city of Mary and two others in an Ashgabat suburb. At one health clinic the chief doctor reportedly told staff to go from house to house threatening people with arrest if they dared to reveal the “state secret” of the plague outbreak.
But the most deadly infectious outbreak in Turkmenistan over the long term will likely be ignorance: the country's education system is in rapid decline. Under Niazov's “reforms” of reducing primary and secondary education from 11 to nine years and reducing university from five to two years, a generation is emerging that has little idea of the world beyond the president's writings and very few skills for running the country when the great leader dictates no more. Turkmenistan's education system is now little more than ideological indoctrination in Niazov's mythical and nationalistic Ruhnama.
Forty percent of Turkmenistan's population is under 14, and for many young people, the Ruhnama has simply become a normal part of daily life. It is not only the central school textbook: the Ruhnama may be the only book many of them have ever read. The new generation is assimilating Niazov's warped words in the same way their parents and grandparents took in Lenin's. Unskilled and ideologically indoctrinated, this up-and-coming generation will be completely unprepared to run the country when the time comes.
To Read the Entire Essay
by David Lewis and Andrew Stroehlein
Transistions Online
Contrary to his own belief, Saparmurat Niazov is mortal. What happens to Turkmenistan--and the region--after he's gone is something the international community needs to prepare for, argues the International Crisis Group.
If you look up “cult of personality” in the dictionary, you might find a picture of Turkmenistan's president, Saparmurat Niazov. And wherever you look inside Turkmenistan, you'll see the same image.
It is not a simple matter of the ubiquitous public murals of your average dictator: Niazov has a golden statue of himself in the capital, Ashgabat, that moves with the sun. On state television, Niazov's portrait revolves continuously on the corner of the screen. His nationalistic, quasi-spiritual tome, the Ruhnama, not only forms the basis for much TV programming but also dominates Turkmenistan's education curriculum. He's renamed the months of the year, with the month of January now replaced by his self-adopted name, “Turkmenbashi” or “father of all Turkmen.”
With no checks on his power, Niazov makes bizarre decisions that essentially become law without any public debate or legislative procedure. In August, he decreed that those seeking a driver’s license must first pass a 16-hour course on the Ruhnama. In the same month, he personally banned nas, a popular form of chewing tobacco, and earlier in the year, he declared gold teeth not only unsightly but also forbidden. His building projects, perhaps the most megalomaniacal aspect of his rule, now include a multimillion-dollar contract to build an ice palace in the desert.
All of this would be simply comical if it were not so deadly tragic. The apparent lunacy of a dictator is no joke to those who suffer under him.
SHOW TRIALS AND POLITICAL MURDERS
There is no political freedom in Turkmenistan, one of the world's most repressive regimes. Niazov--who controls the country through the Ministry of National Security and the police--dominates the political space. The constant pre-emptive control of the population includes frequent checks on internal travel and surveillance of people considered suspicious. The widespread physical presence of security troops and police officers make most people think twice about objecting to government policy.
The few dissidents and political opponents who remain in Turkmenistan often end up arrested and detained, sometimes in psychiatric hospitals following the well-worn Soviet practice. Court proceedings against some of those oppositionists can only be compared to Stalin-era show trials. Many dissidents have been forced to leave the country--mostly for Europe or Russia--and even there they are not safe from the hands of Niazov's agents: witness last year's violent attack on opposition leader Avdy Kuliev in Moscow and the subsequent ouster of eight Turkmen embassy officials on suspicions they were planning to murder Moscow-based dissidents.
But repression targets not only overt opposition figures, but also ordinary people. The authorities have forcibly resettled ethnic minorities. Farmers have endured police raids and harassment because of government concerns about poor harvests or to collect “surplus grain.”
Persecution of businesspeople is also common: the successful are often the target of dubious allegations, arrest, and imprisonment.
No human rights groups can operate on the ground in Turkmenistan. In fact, a November 2003 law on public associations effectively outlawed activity by unregistered groups of any kind, under threat of hard labor.
SILENCING ALL BUT THE PRAISE
There are no free and independent media in the country; all newspapers are state-controlled, competing only in their sycophantic praise of the president. Foreign newspapers are banned, including those from Russia. The last Russia-based radio station, Mayak, was closed in July, leaving Radio Liberty's Turkmen broadcasts over shortwave as the only source of outside information in a local language.
Controls on information inside the country are as dangerous as they are absurd. Since 1 May, for example, the regime has ordered health care workers not to write diagnoses of infectious diseases such as cholera, dysentery, measles, tuberculosis, and hepatitis in medical records or health bulletins. (This came just weeks after Niazov's dismissal of 15,000 qualified medical workers, who were replaced with untrained army conscripts.) In June, an outbreak of plague apparently killed seven people in the eastern city of Mary and two others in an Ashgabat suburb. At one health clinic the chief doctor reportedly told staff to go from house to house threatening people with arrest if they dared to reveal the “state secret” of the plague outbreak.
But the most deadly infectious outbreak in Turkmenistan over the long term will likely be ignorance: the country's education system is in rapid decline. Under Niazov's “reforms” of reducing primary and secondary education from 11 to nine years and reducing university from five to two years, a generation is emerging that has little idea of the world beyond the president's writings and very few skills for running the country when the great leader dictates no more. Turkmenistan's education system is now little more than ideological indoctrination in Niazov's mythical and nationalistic Ruhnama.
Forty percent of Turkmenistan's population is under 14, and for many young people, the Ruhnama has simply become a normal part of daily life. It is not only the central school textbook: the Ruhnama may be the only book many of them have ever read. The new generation is assimilating Niazov's warped words in the same way their parents and grandparents took in Lenin's. Unskilled and ideologically indoctrinated, this up-and-coming generation will be completely unprepared to run the country when the time comes.
To Read the Entire Essay
Friday, December 03, 2004
More on CBS and NBC Refusal to Air United Church of Christ TV Ad
From Alternet:
Rest of "Would Jesus Ban This Ad?"
Also earlier post:
Network Hypocrisy
The Rev. John Thomas, who serves as general minister and president of the United Church of Christ (UCC), is having a hard time figuring out why the same broadcasters that profited so handsomely from airing the vicious and divisive attack advertisements during the recent presidential election are now refusing to air an advertisement from his denomination that celebrates respect for one another and inclusiveness.
"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," said Thomas. "What's going on here?"
...
What was controversial? Apparently, the networks don't like the ad's implication that the Nazarene's welcome to all people might actually include ALL people.
Noting that the image of one woman putting her arm around another was included in the ad, CBS announced, "Because the commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the (CBS and UPN) networks."
Rest of "Would Jesus Ban This Ad?"
Also earlier post:
Network Hypocrisy
Without Sanctuary: Artifacts of Lynching in America
James Allen's documentation of this dark, repressed side of America is an important reminder of the extent of racialized violence in our country. It was first a traveling exhibit, then a book, and later was an online site, unfortunately it has been removed from the website. I say unfortunate because it was a tool for learning and confronting this past--one cannot comprehend the racialized violence of lynching until they look into the laughing, smiling celebrating faces surrounding a horribly disfigured and slaughtered human being (even as reproductions of photographs on a website the horror of these pictures still remain with me today). We so easily typify the evil of genocides in other countries while ignoring our own crimes against humanity (if anyone is unsure why we should remember these acts, please ask and I will reply):
My Original Post on Without Sanctuary
NPR: Report on Without Sanctuary Exhibit
CNN: Exhibit of Photos Displays Racial Hatred
Bad Subjects Review of the Book
Art Review When It First Toured the Nation
Village Voice Review of the Book
Facing History and Ourselves
American Lynching (Documentary)
Strange Fruit, Jazz and Civil Rights
My Original Post on Without Sanctuary
NPR: Report on Without Sanctuary Exhibit
CNN: Exhibit of Photos Displays Racial Hatred
Bad Subjects Review of the Book
Art Review When It First Toured the Nation
Village Voice Review of the Book
Facing History and Ourselves
American Lynching (Documentary)
Strange Fruit, Jazz and Civil Rights
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Elizabeth Barret: Stranger With a Camera
(thanks to Jessica Hays who recommended this documentary after listening to me babble on about autoethnography, bias and representation)
Highly recommended for its narrative structure... its meditation on the media and representation... Barret's self-reflective (authoethnography) movement between her attempts at representing the story and her understanding of the impossibility of fully understanding/representing these events... what is the responsibility of the media (and researchers, governments, NGos, etc...) in representing cultures/communities... and a great example of community-based filmmaking (Appalshop)... much more... unfortunately it isn't available online so trek on over to your nearby university or public library and see if they have a copy (if not request that they get one--most libraries are actually very cool about acquiring materials for patrons)
ITVS Site for the Documentary
PBS Site for the Documentary and Further Resources
NPR Interview with Elizabeth Barret
Austin Chronicle Review/Interview
The Media Interrogated in Stranger With a Camera
Appalshop site for the Documentary
Appalshop Films
Comparison of Blair Witch and Stranger with a Camera? (very good analysis)
Califronia Newsreel Review
INTERPRETING FILM: MEANING AND REPRESENTATION, CULTURE AND POLITICS, THE TRUMAN SHOW AND STRANGER WITH A CAMERA
Highly recommended for its narrative structure... its meditation on the media and representation... Barret's self-reflective (authoethnography) movement between her attempts at representing the story and her understanding of the impossibility of fully understanding/representing these events... what is the responsibility of the media (and researchers, governments, NGos, etc...) in representing cultures/communities... and a great example of community-based filmmaking (Appalshop)... much more... unfortunately it isn't available online so trek on over to your nearby university or public library and see if they have a copy (if not request that they get one--most libraries are actually very cool about acquiring materials for patrons)
ITVS Site for the Documentary
PBS Site for the Documentary and Further Resources
NPR Interview with Elizabeth Barret
Austin Chronicle Review/Interview
The Media Interrogated in Stranger With a Camera
Appalshop site for the Documentary
Appalshop Films
Comparison of Blair Witch and Stranger with a Camera? (very good analysis)
Califronia Newsreel Review
INTERPRETING FILM: MEANING AND REPRESENTATION, CULTURE AND POLITICS, THE TRUMAN SHOW AND STRANGER WITH A CAMERA
Dubya the Movie!
(courtesy of Goose of Comments From Left Field)
Who would play Dubya when they make a movie about him? There is an ultimate actor who would be perfect for the role--can you guess who it would be? This is a must see portrayal of the man, the legend: DUBYA!
Dubya the Movie
Who would play Dubya when they make a movie about him? There is an ultimate actor who would be perfect for the role--can you guess who it would be? This is a must see portrayal of the man, the legend: DUBYA!
Dubya the Movie
John Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
(I posted this on 11/19/04, but it is very important so I've reposted--thanks to Casey aka Mason for bringing it up again)
Democracy Now
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
Watch/Listen/Read
Democracy Now
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man - a highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.
20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."
Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits - Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.
John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes always convinced me to stop."
But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book is titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
Watch/Listen/Read
Avishai Margalit: Human Dignity Between Kitsch and Deification
An interesting meditation on the socially prescribed limits/boundaries of respect and dignity:
Human Dignity Between Kitsch and Deification
Human Dignity Between Kitsch and Deification
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Republican Jesus; Network Hypocrisy
I saw this cartoon earlier in the Village Voice, but Paul at Eyeteeth just reminded me to share it:
Republican Jesus
Paul also posts this painful cultural moment. Please make it stop, please stop this mainstream media hypocrisy!:
NBC, CBS bar United Church of Christ ad welcoming gays, minorities; Networks say the commercial is ‘too controversial’
See the ad campaign that CBS and NBC do not want you to see:
God Is Still Speaking
Republican Jesus
Paul also posts this painful cultural moment. Please make it stop, please stop this mainstream media hypocrisy!:
NBC, CBS bar United Church of Christ ad welcoming gays, minorities; Networks say the commercial is ‘too controversial’
See the ad campaign that CBS and NBC do not want you to see:
God Is Still Speaking
Laura Dunn: Subtext of a Yale Education
Yale University is the largest land-holder in New Haven, CT, yet pays no taxes on their property because supposedly it is a non-profit organization—end result New Haven is the fourth poorest large city in the U.S. Yearly, Yale reaps billions of dollars in contributions from alumni (how many give money to improving New Haven?) and grants from corporations/government (not just the U.S.)/military. 11% of Congress are graduates of Yale. Our current president and his vanquished opponent were both graduates of Yale.
Also, it is the largest employer in the city of New Haven as it has become the main industry. In recognition? of its proclaimed public role this multi-billion university (business) set about in the mid-90s to break the service unions in order to open up the food services on campus to private corporate food chains, and subcontract to out of state, non-unionized workers, at half the wages (thus even these opportunities for much lower wages will leave New Haven). Dual result, huge increase in already high unemployment in New Haven and further destruction of the urban structure/soul.
Yale is not alone... its just the fattest cat (and we are the chump parakeets)
The movie that inspired this diatribe and more links:
Subtext of a Yale Education. Directed by Laura Dunn. Austin, TX: Citizen Films, 1998.
'Subtext' airs Yale hypocrisy
The Subtext of a Young Filmaker's Education
Also, it is the largest employer in the city of New Haven as it has become the main industry. In recognition? of its proclaimed public role this multi-billion university (business) set about in the mid-90s to break the service unions in order to open up the food services on campus to private corporate food chains, and subcontract to out of state, non-unionized workers, at half the wages (thus even these opportunities for much lower wages will leave New Haven). Dual result, huge increase in already high unemployment in New Haven and further destruction of the urban structure/soul.
Yale is not alone... its just the fattest cat (and we are the chump parakeets)
The movie that inspired this diatribe and more links:
Subtext of a Yale Education. Directed by Laura Dunn. Austin, TX: Citizen Films, 1998.
'Subtext' airs Yale hypocrisy
The Subtext of a Young Filmaker's Education
J. Douglas Allen-Taylor: He Got Shame
He Got Shame
J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
AlterNet
In the full court press to place blame for the Pacers-Pistons brawl,
Ron Artest is sacrificed. But who, really, is at fault?
He Got Shame
J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
AlterNet
In the full court press to place blame for the Pacers-Pistons brawl,
Ron Artest is sacrificed. But who, really, is at fault?
...fans pay the bills for sports franchises – and all the salaries of players, coaches, and commissioners alike – and so as much as fans might be culpable in the Basketbrawl in Detroit, the NBA cannot afford to go there. Somebody must be sacrificed, and this time it was Ron Artest. Was he lynched? That is far too harsh a word for those of us old enough to remember was lynching was really about. Will he suffer greatly, or at all? Perhaps, but that is not the point. What has happened is that in the Ron Artest Affair we have watched history altered before our eyes, shaping public opinion, and then affecting the conclusion. Of all the things about this event, that should worry us most of all.
He Got Shame
Ohio Election Fraud Weblog
Ray Beckerman's description of his site:
Ohio Election Fraud (formerly Fairness)
As a result of my life as a lawyer, my strong belief in the rule of law as the bedrock of democracy, and my experience as a voter protection hotline volunteer in Ohio from October 30th through November 2nd, I have devoted my blog to covering and assisting grassroots activism seeking to (a) set aside the fraudulent results of the 2004 Ohio "election" and (b) investigate and prosecute the crimes committed in that "election" against the citizens of Ohio, the American people, and our American way of life. The evidence is overwhelming that the election in Ohio was stolen. If we permit a second presidential election to be stolen, the rule of law, and with it democracy, are gravely imperilled in this country. If you have (a) organizing activity which you would like to submit for possible publication, or (b) significant information or offers of concrete assistance that would be of interest to activists, please submit by email -- with "OEF" as the subject -- to ohioelectionfraud@mindspring.com.
Ohio Election Fraud (formerly Fairness)
Susannity: Our Sense of Community
Susanne has a style of writing in which she brings serious theoretical problems into play with the considerations of everyday life. Very impressive! Check out her latest post which thoughtfully contxtualizes, within a "politics of location," a recognition of the increasing fragmentation of contemporary life in which we lose close contact with our neighbors.
Our Sense of Community
Our Sense of Community
Serena Anderlini D'Onofrio: On Hardt and Negri
"Hadrian or Caligula?"
Serena Anderlini D'Onofrio
Bad Subjects
My critique of the NYBR review embarks with some observations about the narrative strategy Judt uses to dismiss the books. He jabs at Mussolini’s pathetic attempts to recoup Roman grandeur through Italy’s belated modern colonial projects, by claiming that, compared to other more successful imperial efforts, “there is little to say in defense of [them]” (38). Later on he begins his would-be analysis of the two books in question by presenting Negri as a confirmed criminal justly condemned by a fair judicial system, as he affirms that “Negri . . . spent many years in prison for his part in the homicidal radicalism of Italy’s Lead Years” (40). If Judt thinks Italians were so bad as colonialists, it is not clear where he gets his trust in the Italian judicial system, which has no presumption of innocence and no habeas corpus provisions, and which, in the Seventies, kept dozens of innocent citizens suspected of terrorist activities in prison without the slightest evidence against them, including the famous anarchists Pinelli and Valpreda. The first one was “suicided” by the police, as Dario Fo jokes in his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist; the second languished in prison until more than a decade later it was discovered that a Fascist group was responsible for the massacre of which he was accused.
Negri is in a sense part of that group and a victim of the same system, since no violent acts have been actually pinned to him, but rather the inspiration for Autonomia operaia, a highly subversive group in what turned out to be a failed revolution, but not the most violent of them. At one point, Negri was also a member of Potere Operaio, a revolutionary group that dissolved into area collectives in 1973. Sentencing Negri to jail for terrorism is like trying to blame Marx and Engels for the Russian Revolution. Revolutions happen, and some are more successful than others in actualizing their vision and making it stick. They are often responses to vastly unjust systems that have been unable to amend themselves. One cannot pin on individuals the due course of history. So why not grant Negri the benefit of the doubt as he is presented as an author of the books under review? (This is what Alexander Stille had done in his lengthy NYRB review of Empire, which offers details on Negri’s political vicissitudes and passes no direct judgment on him.) It seems that in this more recent issue of this self-described progressive and intellectually sound journal, the “presumed guilty” syndrome of the Italian judicial system has spilled off to Judt’s mode of reasoning, in an eerie resonance with the logic of those who are keeping the Guantánamo prisoners locked in, against any shade of respect for the Geneva agreements. This spilling is a pernicious syndrome for American self-described liberals. After all, the European partisans who mounted the anti-Nazi resistance that helped Americans win World War II would be called terrorists if the Nazi were allowed to write history.
In addition, the review also passes judgment on those who read Hardt and Negri’s books, as he makes fun of widespread campus students’ enthusiasm for it. These gutless intellectuals --the implication is -- are no threat to the bad guys of American imperialism and allow Cheney to “sleep easy”. Yet I have experienced teaching Empire to undergraduates here in Puerto Rico, and it brings lethargic minds to life, it sparks their interest, it catalyzes their thinking as if it interpreted body/mind energies that were already active within them. I haven’t tried Multitude on them yet, even as I believe the effect will be much more astounding, for while Empire still has some Derridean cloudiness to it, Multitude is crystal clear, as if all the clouds of self-doubt and censorship had disappeared and a new, somewhat utopian, vision was allowed to emerge in all its beautiful, loving simplicity. Multitude presents at least two key ideas that might wake up Cheney from his easy sleep and should be mentioned in sound a review. The “immaterial labor” which forms a model for today’s styles of productivity, and the “swarm intelligence” that operates within “distributed networks” are key concepts to explain the upsurge of the global peace and justice movement within and outside of the United States, an upsurge whose strength is mounting despite the higher surveillance enforced in the belly of the beast.
Entire Essay
After the Empire
ACME: Special Issue on Empire; Ephemera: Special Issue on The Theory of the Multitude
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri: Multitude--War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
Serena Anderlini D'Onofrio
Bad Subjects
My critique of the NYBR review embarks with some observations about the narrative strategy Judt uses to dismiss the books. He jabs at Mussolini’s pathetic attempts to recoup Roman grandeur through Italy’s belated modern colonial projects, by claiming that, compared to other more successful imperial efforts, “there is little to say in defense of [them]” (38). Later on he begins his would-be analysis of the two books in question by presenting Negri as a confirmed criminal justly condemned by a fair judicial system, as he affirms that “Negri . . . spent many years in prison for his part in the homicidal radicalism of Italy’s Lead Years” (40). If Judt thinks Italians were so bad as colonialists, it is not clear where he gets his trust in the Italian judicial system, which has no presumption of innocence and no habeas corpus provisions, and which, in the Seventies, kept dozens of innocent citizens suspected of terrorist activities in prison without the slightest evidence against them, including the famous anarchists Pinelli and Valpreda. The first one was “suicided” by the police, as Dario Fo jokes in his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist; the second languished in prison until more than a decade later it was discovered that a Fascist group was responsible for the massacre of which he was accused.
Negri is in a sense part of that group and a victim of the same system, since no violent acts have been actually pinned to him, but rather the inspiration for Autonomia operaia, a highly subversive group in what turned out to be a failed revolution, but not the most violent of them. At one point, Negri was also a member of Potere Operaio, a revolutionary group that dissolved into area collectives in 1973. Sentencing Negri to jail for terrorism is like trying to blame Marx and Engels for the Russian Revolution. Revolutions happen, and some are more successful than others in actualizing their vision and making it stick. They are often responses to vastly unjust systems that have been unable to amend themselves. One cannot pin on individuals the due course of history. So why not grant Negri the benefit of the doubt as he is presented as an author of the books under review? (This is what Alexander Stille had done in his lengthy NYRB review of Empire, which offers details on Negri’s political vicissitudes and passes no direct judgment on him.) It seems that in this more recent issue of this self-described progressive and intellectually sound journal, the “presumed guilty” syndrome of the Italian judicial system has spilled off to Judt’s mode of reasoning, in an eerie resonance with the logic of those who are keeping the Guantánamo prisoners locked in, against any shade of respect for the Geneva agreements. This spilling is a pernicious syndrome for American self-described liberals. After all, the European partisans who mounted the anti-Nazi resistance that helped Americans win World War II would be called terrorists if the Nazi were allowed to write history.
In addition, the review also passes judgment on those who read Hardt and Negri’s books, as he makes fun of widespread campus students’ enthusiasm for it. These gutless intellectuals --the implication is -- are no threat to the bad guys of American imperialism and allow Cheney to “sleep easy”. Yet I have experienced teaching Empire to undergraduates here in Puerto Rico, and it brings lethargic minds to life, it sparks their interest, it catalyzes their thinking as if it interpreted body/mind energies that were already active within them. I haven’t tried Multitude on them yet, even as I believe the effect will be much more astounding, for while Empire still has some Derridean cloudiness to it, Multitude is crystal clear, as if all the clouds of self-doubt and censorship had disappeared and a new, somewhat utopian, vision was allowed to emerge in all its beautiful, loving simplicity. Multitude presents at least two key ideas that might wake up Cheney from his easy sleep and should be mentioned in sound a review. The “immaterial labor” which forms a model for today’s styles of productivity, and the “swarm intelligence” that operates within “distributed networks” are key concepts to explain the upsurge of the global peace and justice movement within and outside of the United States, an upsurge whose strength is mounting despite the higher surveillance enforced in the belly of the beast.
Entire Essay
After the Empire
ACME: Special Issue on Empire; Ephemera: Special Issue on The Theory of the Multitude
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri: Multitude--War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
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