lenkache

It was too good to be true: the Religious Right being so nice and quiet recently. Looks like we’re in for a revival, although expect to hear less about creationism in the classroom or the Ten Commandments in the courtroom. Get ready for natural law and practical reason. The Thomists are comin’ to town!

At least that’s what I got out of this New York Times Magazine article:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/magazine/20george-t.html?_r=2

 

If you noticed, even though “Robby” George’s underlying philosophy differs from, say, Jerry Falwell’s, the message is the same: no abortion, no gay marriage. Social justice? Forget about it! The reactionary politics remains the same, but packaging it under the Thomas Aquinas brand was a new twist.

I’m no philosopher, but when I jumped into the Marxist thing way back when, I found out that the founder started out as one. Fresh from the university, Marx, and his colleague Engels (who never attended an institution of higher learning) set out to clarify their own logical and analytical method before grappling with history, economics and politics. With some borrowings from Hegel and Feuerbach (with some big changes) they came up with what is now called dialectical materialism.

 

So, of course, I had to get into some of that. Realize something here: Marxism is an extended polemic with the bourgeois point of view on just about everything. In philosophy, there is a basic divide between idealism and materialism: what came first, mind or matter? Marxists say matter. But in the debates, Thomas of Aquinas never came up. His 13^th century idealism had been superseded by the rationalism of the 18^th century Enlightenment.

 

Kant replaced natural law with the “categorical imperative.” In place of divine revelation, Hegel put the Absolute Idea in its dialectical phases. Feuerbach later came along, trying to bring everything down to material earth (although he erred on the side of being too “mechanical” in his categories of existence). 

 

The point is that any philosophy is a product of mental processes of people living in a given society at a given time. It’s a response to a particular environment. Loves, hates, hopes, fears, dreams, nightmares – all of a kind specific to a specific set of people – provide the basis of any school of philosophical thought. And philosophers, like the rest of us, live in class-divided societies. Your philosophy says a lot about your social class.

 

My debates weren’t with Thomists, they were with modern idealists: positivists and pragmatists, descendants of British utilitarianism and empiricism. They were idealists because, even though they talked about knowledge as a product of our senses (as opposed to revelation), they held that since we are limited to knowing what our senses tell us, we can cannot make any sweeping statements about reality in general, just that part of it that each of us experiences. In other words, that nature – reality – is dependent on being experienced by humans.  Materialism holds that nature – the universe, the earth – exists, and existed, prior to, and independently of us.

 

Thomas of Aquinas would have had a hard time comprehending such a notion. He was probably the most advanced thinker of his time. But he lived at the end of what is called the High Middle Ages. He died in 1274. To think that his ideas could provide any sort of guidance to us now is an admission of utter intellectual bankruptcy.  

ритуал противоположен привычке. в корне.

поздравляю каждого из вас с завершением этого календарного года и со вступлением в новый.

Avatar is a long movie. The clichés and anachronisms emanating from the screen piled up so high and so fast they’d have constituted a safety hazard if we’d had to evacuate the theatre in a hurry. There’s the blood-&-guts commander (Stephen Lang) who makes Robert Duvall’s napalm-loving colonel in Apocalypse Now seem positively benign.  This massacre-minded Marine channels a character out of war movies stretching from To Hell and Back to Full Metal Jacket; and he echoes countless cavalry officers in who-knows-how-many winning-of-the-West epics – calling natives of the planet Pandora “hostiles!"

Then there’s the creaky, coincidence-ridden plot. A scientist slated to participate in a program in which humans, who cannot survive in Pandora’s atmosphere, have their minds linked with artificially created bodies of Na’vi, the planet’s natives who are twice as tall as us, suffers an untimely death. Luckily, there’s a twin brother (Sam Worthington), whose genome fits that of the avatar designed for the deceased.

The twin, a Marine veteran, takes the dangerous but well-paying job because he needs an expensive operation to regain use of his legs. Director James Cameron apparently shares my skepticism about current US foreign and domestic policy. The vet suffered his wounds in a war in Venezuela; and even a hundred years from now, we still don’t have free health care for all – not even for a vet!

In a particularly anachronistic scene, the project’s lead scientist (Sigourney Weaver) wakes from a session in suspended animation grumpily demanding her cigarettes – and gets them handed to her, proceeding to light up. Tell me it ain’t so: people of the future are still hooked on tobacco? And a high-tech lab doesn’t have the health and safety standards of a Dallas restaurant? Talk about dystopia!

 All the above was established in the first ten minutes, leaving me a little grumpy – and not about nicotine. But in the next thirty or so languid minutes, as I watched our hero explore Pandora and become accepted by its people, the absolutely stunning special effects and totally seamless story-telling lulled me into a state of suspended disbelief.

Old wine? Yes – when our hero finds his Na’vi love interest (Zoe Saldana) Brendan thought of Disney’s Pocahontas, which I had taken him to see when he was little. The gung-ho marine brought Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket to Nick’s mind: a movie I made him watch over five years ago as part of my unsuccessful campaign to stop his enlistment. 

But what a great new bottle! Cameron, who directed the first two Terminators and Titanic, is a master of coaxing full-bodied thrills from thin storylines. Don’t go see Avatar just for the spectacle of it (although it could be enjoyed just on that level). See it, and see how the presentation of the spectacle doesn’t simply excuse, but requires, re-telling a story, or stories, we know. 

Pandora is different – too different for someone like me to comprehend. Cliché and anachronism and creaky old plot devices disappear into resonance. And that allows me to identify with the too different Na’vi: blue-toned, feline-featured, El Greco-esque creatures, several removes from Rousseau’s Noble Savage. As the story develops, I anticipate – demand – it be told in my terms. Trust and love; conflict and betrayal; right and wrong; life and death: they all have to be there.

And in Avatar, just when it seems that the invaders will conquer and destroy this most beautiful planet…well, I don’t want to spoil the ending – I’ll just say they find themselves in a war against an entire world. At the end the audience didn’t cheer or clap the way I’ve witnessed at the finales of lesser epics. For my part I was too tired, and not just from the film’s two-and-a-half hour length. No, I’d been through an exhausting journey. It was the good kind of tired.  

Правда, пришлось самим прокладывать лыжню в Раубичах)

Not even a year into his term, Barack Obama has emerged as the most cynical president of memory. His predecessor was the most dishonest (some old-timers may say that was Nixon but I view his rather crafty duplicity a little differently than George W. Bush’s bald-faced lies). Clinton was the most hypocritical; the first Bush the most befuddled. Reagan was…never mind.

 

Obama’s pledge to get out of Iraq within, what was it, seven months, has morphed into a plan to “start drawing down” troop levels late next year. Afghanistan? It’s not just the 30,000 new troops. Yesterday, Hamid Karzai said it would be 20 years before his country could handle its own security – and he said it with Obama’s secretary of defense standing at his side. 

 

A new policy toward Latin America? We have a military build-up in Colombia; a warning from the secretary of state that our southern neighbors “should think twice” about what countries they draw close to; and support for a military coup in Honduras. Oh, and then there’s that spy the Cubans busted earlier this month, working under cover of USAID. 

 

I’m not even going to mention the Nobel Peace Prize.

It’s Copenhagen, though, that wins him the prize for cynicism.  As with those other issues, everything he said during his campaign is forgotten. The joint statement Obama calls “meaningful and significant” is neither. It ratifies the utter failure of the conference, which was supposed to set initial limits on carbon emissions and produce an international treaty.

The Copenhagen conference was announced two years ago, every country – at least the big polluters – was supposed to come in with a proposal. The US went in there with nothing. The administration, the congress ignored the issue. (Of course it was ignored the year before. “Dubya” thought of climate change as he did evolution – just another one of those theories.)

 

And this is not about China, which desperately needs to develop. With four times the US population China consumes one-fourth the amount of the petroleum used by this country. China is a huge producer, and burner, of coal. But it is also well ahead of the US in developing wind and solar power, as well as production of electrically-powered cars and motorcycles. 

 

This is about the US, with the world’s largest economy – and burning the world’s highest amounts, per capita, of fossil fuels. As long as the way things are done now keep giving a competitive edge to US capitalists, nothing will change, at least, not for the better. Not in Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin America, and not in our water, air, or ozone level. 

 

But even the capitalists have to realize that this is the world their children and grandchildren will have to live in, many will say. Well, I say, the early 19^th century industrialists may not have had the science but they had to know that the crap they were pumping into rivers and lakes, and into the air wasn’t good, and that it wasn’t just going to “go away.” The people living around the factories knew it. The owners didn’t live in those areas, of course, but they read newspapers, which talked about the issue even back then.

 

Back then, a writer likened the attitude of the rising bourgeoisie’s lack of concern for the future to Madame Pompadour’s famous statement: “after us, the flood.”  Not much has changed. Obama’s job is to make us think something is being done about it all. We just need to be quiet and wait for him to work it out.  Believe it.      

Last night's Christmas light ride was great! I wish Lenka could have made it, but I hear those baby hormones can just take over sometimes. Hope you're feeling better today.

They said the ride was going to be about 13 miles when we pulled out, but I really don't think it was that far. If it was, I'm in MUCH better shape than I thought. So many pretty lights, and my bike looked great too. They went out about 15 minutes before the ride ended, so the timing was pretty good. Again Super Big Thanks to Poison Kitty!

We stopped at the Old Monk for dinner afterward. Laura and I got Butterscotch spiked Hot Chocolate, and the guys got beer. I was happy for the warmth because we had to sit outside! There was a 6 top inside with one guy there. His 5 friends were at the table next to him ( also a 6 top). We asked really nicely if they'd make room for us since it was could out. They scrunched their noses up like we smelled funny and said no. What jerks! We still had a good time.

Tonight I get to hoop at the celebration at the Cathedral of Hope. I hope it's not totally freezing! It's hard to hoop if you're all bundled up. After that, it's off to Brindle's. Since I have to get up and work in the morning, I'm not sure how long I'll get to stay. Work! Oh well, things fall the way they do...

Съездила сегодня на книжную ярмарку.
Елки, какое же правильно решение я приняла 5 лет назад и выделила деньги на покупку кпк.
(ну, в итоге отделалась подарком, но я была готова, да-да. Лена, мое тебе ОГРОМНЕЙШЕЕ спасибо:)
Конечно, бумажный вариант несравнимо приятнее, но с моей периодически обостряющейся потребностью в литературе - я бы ни разу не смогла себе позволить покупать такое количество книг за такие деньги.
Да, я лузер с маленькой зарплатой, но это другой вопрос:)

И с кпк меня в транспорте не укачивает, а с книгой - очень даже неприятно получается.

Кстати, Татьяна Ивановна, вот тот самый ролик, который Вы до сих пор не видели:)
Обязателен к просмотру:)

подсмотрено у zauralych

The next four days are pretty well booked. Tomorrow night is the Christmas light ride. I'm totally excited about using the lights Poison Kitty loaned me. They look AWESOME on the bike!

The next night is the big Solstice shin dig in Oak Lawn. I heard it's the 2nd biggest Solstice celebration in the US. I'm going to be hooping in the opening ceremony. Should be a good time even though it's tricky to hoop in such a tight space.

Saturday J Law is in town. I know it's gonna be a festive night. It's her first trip back since she moved to Berkley and everyone is totally psyched that we're all getting to go out together.

Sunday is Youth Orchestra class followed by another Solstice circle at a friends house. I need to figure out what to take to that pot luck. I'm also excited to see what kinda of activities Bryan has planned. It'll be good to catch up with that group of friends. I haven't seen them in a couple of months.

And now for other news....Zira raced into the house looking extremely proud. She had something in her mouth and at first I thought it was a pecan. So I reach out to take it from her. Thank GOD I realized it was a mouse before I touched it! I had to bribe her to drop it with a hand full of treats. I think it was her first successful hunt, and she REALLY didn't want to give it up. While she ate the treats I tossed the poor limp critter into the trash. I wasn't sure what else to do with it. Oh, and when I told Lance, he kinda beamed like a proud papa:)

У Мінску распродаж абутку ледзь не стаў трагедыяй



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Обсуждение в м.хабре гомеопатического препарата с концентрацией 10^-400 (!!!) сушеной печени барбарийской утки.

Goodkat:
Концентрация 10^-400 — это как?

smirik:
Это означает, что когда-то рядом с лекарством на расстоянии не более 1000 км пролетала барбарийская (мускусная) утка.

Goodkat:
В известной нам части вселенной около 10^80 атомов.
10^-400 — утка пролетала в соседней вселенной :)

smirik:
Да, кстти. Вот так, ненавязчиво, мы доказали теорию существования параллельных Вселенных.

башорг

My last date with Elena might have been just that – my last. It’s not my fault; she brought up the subject – Cuba of course. She had to start talking about that blog, Generation Y, which is all the rave now among this country’s Cuba-bashers. It’s all about the suffering of the people and the brutality of the government.

Unfortunately for Elena (or maybe for me, or maybe for the possibility of “us”) I had some “ammo” because the blogger had stirred up attention last month with a story about being briefly “kidnapped” and beaten by Cuban security agents. I’d been doing my “homework.” The worst part is the “showdown” took place at a get-together at Jerry and Amanda’s place (he’s my union buddy who first set me up with Elena, their neighbor). If we had been on our own I could have kept the discussion contained to “differing interpretations of reality.”

But there was jerk there who thought he knew it all, who was sure that Yoani Sanchez, the blogger, was on the cutting edge of a movement poised to bring down Raul Castro and return Cuba to the capitalist fold. Here’s what I laid on him:

Sanchez, born in 1975, graduated in 2000 with a degree in philology. Left Cuba with her son for Switzerland in 2002, on a 90-day tourist visa. Did not return after 90 days but stayed, working a series of jobs, doing translation work for various publishing houses, and giving Spanish classes. Petitioned the Cuban embassy in 2004 for permission to return to Cuba, citing “family reasons.” Permission granted.

First question: Why didn’t she ask for political asylum? Second question: If, as she states in her blog that she had left her homeland because of “economic suffocation,” did she bring herself and her son, for whom she now despairs of his future, back to Cuba?

So far, not a very unusual story. Lots of Cubans leave Cuba, like lots of Latin Americans leave their countries. But lots of Cubans go back (even from here, about ten percent annually). Living and working in a foreign country can be hard, especially without the proper papers, then there’s the language barrier, prejudice, etc. But Cubans know that despite hardships, in Cuba they will have a house, food, education and medical care, all free (or very close to it), and personal security, as the crime index there is infinitely small compared to the rest of Latin America.

But Sanchez got her blog going and now she’s the darling of the economic embargo crowd. And her personal crime index has supposedly risen. She says that on Nov. 7^th agents of Cuban government security “threw me into a car…I took a paper one them carried and put it in my mouth. I was beaten to make me give back the document.” They also grabbed her husband, Orlando, and had him in a “karate hold.” “They hit me on the kidneys and the head so that I would give back the paper….They threw us in the street….A woman came up: ‘What happened?’ ‘A kidnapping,’ I responded.” (www.desdecuba.com/generaciony)

When she hosted a press conference in her home three days later, the BBC correspondent asked, where are the bruises and other marks left by the beating? They had disappeared, she said, except for the ones on her buttocks, which, “lamentablemente, I can’t show. CNN and AFP also reported the lack of injuries. No witnesses have surfaced. For some unexplained reason, Sanchez did not post photos of her injured self at the time of the alleged beating.

Come to think of it, despite all her talk about suffering in Cuba, on her blog I’ve never seen a photo of a child begging in the street, or the body of a “disappeared” person, discovered in an alley, showing signs of torture and a bullet hole in the back of the head.

Sanchez and her husband are unemployed, yet the home we see in blog photos seems spacious, comfortable, and attractively decorated. She’s clearly getting by on more than the minimum standards of Cuba’s egalitarian system. She says she gets her extra income by giving Spanish lessons to tourists. Funny, I thought tourists went to sunny tropical spots like Cuba to lie on the beach, not to study a foreign language. I wonder if her “students” stop by the US Interests Section for some “financial aid” before showing up for class.

Generation Y is a pretty sophisticated website. It gets 14 million hits a month, and appears in 18 languages; the US Department of State’s website gets a tenth of the hits, and appears in only six languages – which is why the people at State (and the CIA love people like Yoani Sanchez). I don’t know a lot about the internet but I know I could not run a blog like this one without a lot of help – which costs a lot of money.

Think what you want about Cuba. But don’t think Yoani Sanchez is just another blogger. And don’t believe for a minute her tales of injustice.

So, I explained all this, as calmly as possibly while the idiot kept interrupting me, without ever raising my voice, not even once, I swear! Elena was strangely quiet during most of the discussion. She didn’t bring it up afterward. I didn’t get another invite to the house. I should probably call her up.