tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post4820593099188962430..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: I Don't Understand AnythingDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-89234640484809760962011-05-25T12:11:11.870-07:002011-05-25T12:11:11.870-07:00I take a “real measure of hope and pleasure” in th...I take a “real measure of hope and pleasure” in these things too (except for Glee, can we still be friends?).<br /><br />I worry sometimes that for kids of the generation some of the big consequences of under-regulated capitalism—starving public institutions, extreme inequality, those are the ones that come to mind—are just the facts of life. This concern, I suppose, comes from being of this generation and seeing things more or less this way until I took an active interest in economics and politics.<br /><br />But witnessing so many young people get involved in the Obama campaign does give me some real hope. Even more encouraging in my mind is that so many young people voted—and voted overwhelmingly for Obama—in the 2008 election. I just hope his popularity with that demographic had something to do with his policy aims and wasn’t all due to savvy marketing. <br /><br />I’d like to think that, piecemeal as they may be, this administration’s reforms to the financial and healthcare systems will help people my age to see that social democracy is possible and that it would make for vastly more decent lives for vast majorities.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05976778879166898676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-12565799677959821722011-05-04T11:47:34.086-07:002011-05-04T11:47:34.086-07:00Honestly, I think people are just behaving as they...Honestly, I think people are just behaving as they think they should for appearances sake. I don't think all this over-the-top celebration over death is genuine.myst101https://www.blogger.com/profile/03727999380764907413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-52067703962068820442011-05-04T03:46:33.687-07:002011-05-04T03:46:33.687-07:00Quote for the win: ""But I just can’t fi...Quote for the win: ""But I just can’t find it in me to be glad one more person is dead, even if it is Osama bin Laden.”-Harry Waizer, World Trade Center survivor.<br /><br />Violence really only begets more violence, especially given how many innocent people were harmed pursuing a man whose death only makes his organization more powerful as a younger, more potent figurehead is chosen in his place. People act like we killed Hitler, like a single act ends anything at all. All killing Osama did is make people hate us more. And what act of unreserved and cold-blooded vengeance ever deserves rejoicing celebration?<br /><br />At moments like this, I realize that there's a certain kind of self-serving and bloodthirsty (or maybe just sinfully ignorant) patriotism that I'm proud not to understand. Why and how can so many people conclude that this is cause for celebration, that this action is a win at all?JenCowitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11744200916322079142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-24204661347838701202011-05-02T13:43:10.055-07:002011-05-02T13:43:10.055-07:00> I found last night's display disturbing, ...> I found last night's display disturbing, disproportionate,<br />> and, frankly, unseemly.<br /><br />To say nothing of this morning's headlines. All the papers<br />had it on the front page, of course, but only the<br />New York Post would brandish the headline "ROT IN HELL".<br /><br />CNN was still flogging it at lunchtime. There was a press<br />conference with a White House guy and a military guy.<br />There was one reporter who was trying to get the military<br />guy, who had previously mentioned that a woman believed<br />to be bin Laden's wife had been trying to shield him when<br />he was killed, to say that bin Laden or his people had<br />been "using" her as a shield. The military guy refused<br />to be a party to this guy's spin -- he said he wasn't<br />there and didn't know anything about anybody's motivations.<br /><br />> I was just taken aback by the bloodlust frat-party<br />> atmosphere. . .<br /><br />Well, as your metaphor suggests, it's probably at least<br />partly a testosterone thing, same as cheering for a sports<br />team on TV (sports is a surrogate for war, is it not?)jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-10172368228454706162011-05-02T09:34:16.509-07:002011-05-02T09:34:16.509-07:00There are plenty of things I can, er, "bellyf...There are plenty of things I can, er, "bellyfeel" -- I was just taken aback by the bloodlust frat-party atmosphere that seemed to erupt among so many young people in college campuses and in cities across the country on hearing the news. I teach kids of this generation, I have taken a measure of real hope and pleasure (some of it bellyfelt or at any rate heartfelt) from the work they did on the Obama campaign, for their love of the show Glee, for their effortless embrace of diversity (easily the thing I like best about my country). Hearing them last night roaring USA! USA! because we've thrown trillions of dollars and killed hundreds of thousands of people to slaughter the latest "personification of evil" (granted, sure, he was evil, but dag, the <i>personification</i> of evil?), I don't know, I just suddenly felt I didn't understand what was making people tick at some deep discomfiting level. I found last night's display disturbing, disproportionate, and, frankly, unseemly. I still do. If it means we can declare victory and end the wars and get our Constitution back, though, fine, I don't need to understand it, I'll take it.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-38661982222959120772011-05-02T08:46:58.888-07:002011-05-02T08:46:58.888-07:00> There are times when I am proud of the effort...> There are times when I am proud of the effort I have<br />> taken to understand what is happening in the world and<br />> the understanding that effort has rewarded me with, but<br />> on a night like this I have to admit I don't think<br />> I understand anything at all, I don't understand my<br />> fellow citizens at all, I don't understand what is going<br />> on in people's heads.<br /><br />There's a difference between "understand" and (as Orwell<br />put it in his invented Newspeak) "bellyfeel".<br /><br />I don't "bellyfeel" my fellow citizens either; this is obvious<br />to me every time I walk into the pizza parlor across the street<br />and see people glued to a baseball game on the HDTV on<br />the wall.<br /><br />But don't kid yourself that just because you (and I) can't<br />"bellyfeel" things (most) other people do that that means<br />those others are (necessarily) crazy, or wicked, or "irrational".<br />They may be misguided, and I often think they are, but I<br />can't be sure of that either -- emotion is, they're saying<br />now, an essential component of cognition, and if my<br />emotional range is blunted or different from the norm,<br />that **may** mean my cognition is "defective", in some<br />evolutionary sense, as well.<br /><br />So, like autists, you and I have to work out the things<br />we can't "bellyfeel" for ourselves the way folks on the<br />spectrum have to work out how to interact with other people<br />without offending them or getting thrown out of the<br />restaurant or off the plane, or getting arrested.<br /><br />For us, that will have to suffice for "understanding".<br />And, like autists, we have to restrain ourselves from having<br />meltdowns when other people don't react or behave the<br />way we think they should, or the way we would.jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com