Give me liberty or give me death!

Happy Independence Day!

And out of gratitude to the French for their indispensable contributions to the American victory, here’s Derrida’s essay ‘Declarations of Independence’.

Gore Vidal on The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

It was in 1972 when Nixon won and there was not much to laugh about. And I was speaking in Boston to a large, youthful audience…And somebody said, “How do you explain that we here in Massachusetts were the only state to vote for McGovern?” And I said, “Well, I could compliment you and say Boston is the Athens of America,” and they started to applaud dutifully, and I said “No, no, no.” I said “It’s not that.” I said “Since the beginning of the Republic, Massachusetts has been the most corrupt state in the Union and you know a crook when you see one!“

–Transcribed from a 2003 interview at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

Space, Dwelling…Microwaves?

Maybe. Video of Bruno Latour and Peter Sloterdijk at Harvard available here.

(Link happily discovered on http://www.anthem-group.net/, so thanks to the intriguing hivemind that runs things over there!)

Divided Cities Conference

I’ll be volunteering for most of this next week:

Leaders from Divided Cities to Meet at UMass Boston April 14-16

Building on his successes at bringing together leaders from divided societies in South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Iraq, Padraig O’Malley, the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor of Peace and Reconciliation at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, is convening a meeting of leaders from places where the dividing lines run straight down city streets.

Called the “Forum for Cities in Transition” (FCT), the conference, to be held April 14 through 16, will bring together leaders and representatives from Kirkuk, Iraq; Mitrovica in Serbia and Mitrovica in Kosovo; Belfast and Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland; and Nicosia, Cyprus. Conceptually, the conference builds on O’Malley’s long-held belief that people from divided societies are the best people to help others in divided societies.
[...]
In addition to dealing with issues such as race, ethnicity, religion, and political ideology, as well as the geographical flashpoints within each city where different sides clash, conferees will also discuss, in smaller groups, non-partisan topics such as electricity, water, and sewer systems;seemingly mundane topics, but topics about which O’Malley believes opposing parties can find common ground, and then work towards a greater understanding.

Ultimately, said O’Malley, the hope is that the representatives will agree to form a “club” of divided cities;annual meetings with each of the participating cities hosting the others on a rotating basis. For now, though, O’Malley just hopes to bring the group together, show them their common ground, and let the participants take it from there, including the setting of each day’s agenda.
[...]
The conference will end with a public panel discussion on Thursday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m. at UMass Boston’s Campus Center, titled “Divided Cities: Common and Uncommon.” [...]“

http://www.bostonirish.com/

Notes and commentary on the conference will be posted here for anyone who might be interested.

Two Quotes on the Law

In this sphere, in contract law that is, the moral conceptual world “guilt,” “conscience,” “duty,” “sacredness of duty” has its genesis—its beginning, like the beginning of everything great on earth, was thoroughly and prolongedly drenched in blood. And might one not add that this world has in essence never again entirely lost a certain odor of blood…?

–Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality

Law does not grow by syllogistic compulsion; it is pushed by the social logic of domination and challenge to domination, forged in the interaction of change and resistance to change. It is not only in the common law that the life of the law is experience, not logic. Behind all law is someone’s story—someone whose blood, if you read closely, leaks through the lines.

–Catharine MacKinnon, Crimes of War, Crimes of Peace

“It’s only making it worse…”

I heard this discussion on the current military conflict between Israel and Hamas on the BBC World Service while driving home from Boston last night.

Chilling stuff. I haven’t been able to find any information about whether Jihad Rustum is okay.

Someone should tell Itay that the international press is being denied access to Gaza.

Alright, homies…

…let’s get drunk!

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Damn.

Y’know, given all the amphetamine that passes through human users into the sewage system, then into the water supply, and, presumably, up through the roots of thirsty flowers, it’s about time someone corrected Rimsky-Korsakov’s bumblebee for 21rst century accuracy.

Wild, wacky stuff

Video of a 2005 discussion between Cornel West and Slavoj Zizek has been posted on youtube.

Just in time to disrupt my final exam flow. Awesome.

Prayer

I recently spoke with someone very close to me concerning the subject of prayer.

I have relatively little traditional background when it comes to this aspect of the religious experience. As an adolescent, I regularly attended Hebrew school and Shabbat services, but because I could only pronounce, rather than actually understand Hebrew, prayer is something I’ve almost never authentically practiced in a formal setting or traditional manner.

Once, when I was six, I prayed really hard for my recently-deceased salamanders to come back to life. They remained limp and were subsequently flushed down the toilet by my mildly sympathetic parents. Since this was before my parents decided that, despite their apathy for organized religion, I should have some exposure to it, I’m still not sure who I was praying to.

The conversation took place over AIM. The basic question concerned how one could reconcile a desire to find refuge in prayer with 1. the reality that most prayers are not answered and 2. the absence of any apparent rhyme or reason as to why God would answer some prayers and not others. Out of respect for my interlocutor’s privacy, only my input is included here.

zNomadSun : prayer doesn’t have to include the assumption that someone or something specific is listening and putting your requests on a to-do list
zNomadSun : prayer is, or at least can be, taking the uncertainty and pure potentiality of the future into one’s hands, and submitting one’s hopes and wishes to the infinite and unpredictable forces that will bring it to pass
zNomadSun : because prayers aren’t answered in the same way as orders at a restaurant
zNomadSun : there isn’t a person at the controls of all activity in the universe intervening here-and-there because certain people figured out a way to ask him to

[she asks, in essence, how i think prayer does work, then]

zNomadSun : it doesn’t work; i think, that’s sort of the point i’m making — submitting a wish to the chaos of the universe isn’t going to change the universe’s mind about how to treat you, precisely because the universe doesn’t have a mind
zNomadSun : but rather, prayer is an admission of finitude and humility in the face of a world that is too complex for us to ever wholly grasp or understand, and a future that is always beyond our power to control
zNomadSun : we articulate our hopes, so that they might leave the pure interiority of our minds and come back to us with the worldly affirmation of the spoken word, and we ask that they will be fulfilled, because we know that they cannot be fulfilled through sheer force of will alone
zNomadSun : something else is required: grace
zNomadSun : every success has been achieved thanks in part to factors beyond the control and awareness of the individual who succeeded, and in recognizing that, we admit that we need the help of a power, or powers greater than ourselves, transcendent to human consciousness and intrinsically mysterious — thus, the heavy burden of pure responsibility is lifted from our shoulders, and we can take some solace in the very limitedness that once seemed to be the primary cause of our suffering
zNomadSun : and because we are human beings, always painting the world in the colors of human spirit, the mysterious unfolding of the present into the future stands in relation to us as a force that holds some share of human sentiments, and in constantly providing us with the material by which we synthesize the past with the ever-collapsing present (i.e. a pure, two-fold stream of fresh time and infinite possibility), it connects us to ourselves as creatures always hoping forward, as ekstases carving on surfboards of pure will inexorably down that inexhaustible temporal stream toward infinite) — and whatever we might find in this force of mysterious unfolding that calls out to us with an undeniable demand for deep, devotional regard as sacred, I see no reason to not also call God.
zNomadSun : or, that’s my perspective, anyway
zNomadSun : your mileage may vary

I haven’t taken the time to go back and analyze the extent to which these thoughts might be half-baked, unclear, or incoherent, but they felt valuable enough coming out to share with you.

Any comments appreciated.