Monday, May 30, 2011

For the Indignant

For the Indignant:

You are indignant--Fed up with lies.

Your eyes shine brighter than all the police shields and all the police helmets.

You refuse to use their weapons--Violence and lies.


The truth unites you.

The truth frightens them.

The truth frightens their police.

Their police,

Their guns,

And their money

cannot defeat you.


The world sees you,

and the world shares your hope.

The world hears you,

and nods in agreement.


What they call “order” is disorder,

what they call "politics" has no polite name,

and our common humanity lives despite their lies,

--despite their childish tricks,

translating “indignation” as "anger"--

When you rejected their tool:

Violence.


We have seen it all before

And we don’t believe the lies.


I turn my eyes toward Spain,

and I smile.

I turn toward Spain,

and I wave:

I am sending you an embrace,

I am sending you my love and my hope.

the Democracy Movement in Spain

It happens that I know creative young people in El Paso, one of whom could think of
no better theme for a choreographic composition than drunkenness, alcohol.

I wonder. If you have the time to create, and if you have the resources to actually create a dance (dancers willing to work for free and you have a space to move in---no matter how inferior and sub-standard that free space is), and
you, being twenty-one years old can think of nothing better than that!??!

Ah, but the interesting thought is how under the influence of alcohol, one becomes first friendly and then...not, even sick.......

Don't get me wrong. Alcohol could be a theme, a legitimate topic, but it all depends upon how it is treated.....

Dare I say what I am thinking? That this is a theme (so far as I have seen it treated) worthy of a twelve or thirteen year-old and not a twenty-one year old? Dare I say that among my high school students in Bratislava I witnessed more sophistication about alcohol? And, if so, wouldn't that be not a matter of individual responsibility but, rather, cultural forces---the severe hostility toward pleasure in Puritan culture as well as the absence of a public transport system and the extended geography of a constellation of buildings such as is EL Paso. (Yes, I mean that: I don't regard El Paso as a city at all; merely a shapeless concatenation of buildings....)

Is it to be explained as a reaction to American Puritanism? Does it not represent an intensely egotistic focus? As if there were nothing more important......

And, consider, by contrast the young people of Spain who are, today, giving all of us an example....

I am adding a link now to the Manifesto of the movement (in English),'

¡Democracia Real YA!

correction

Recently I told the story of my father's disappeared hat, presumed stolen.
The hat has now returned.

Perhaps I should delete the earlier entry. Perhaps I shall.

Most salient for me, however, is that ordinary long-term residents of the city of
El Paso were willing to endorse the conclusion that the hat had been stolen,
and endorsed it without hesitation.

Indeed, one told his own tale about the theft of a wheel chair.....

weather report El Paso, Texas

wind
wind
wind
dust
dust
dust
dirt
dirt
dirt
ycccccch!
yccccccch!
yccccccchhhh!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Patriotism in USA and SK

The Patriotic (Nationalistic) American says, "I love my country!"

If you say, "Have you ever lived anywhere else?"-- and the answer is invariably "no".....
he is irritated and annoyed.

The Patriotic (Nationalistic) Slovak says, "Our girls (women) are the most beautiful in the world."

It doesn't matter if he's been anywhere else, but Slovaks seem to travel more than citizens
of the USA. (Yes, I know Europe is more compact.) And if the Slovak has been to the United Kingdom where obesity is dominant (as in the USA) he is sure that Slovak girls (women) really are better.

But given the evils of militarism and climate change denial, somehow I prefer the Slovak's pride to the American's pride......

Actually I did talk to Slovak friends about the propensity for not very well travelled countrymen of theirs to proclaim the beauty of "our" (their Slovak) girls ('women' for the USA audience)---and he readily acknowledged that such sentiments would naturally be most prominent among the less well travelled.....

But, now that I am here in the USA, even if SLovak ladies are not the most beautiful, yes I would say that on average in a room full of people in Slovakia, there will be many many many more women who attract my eye..... than in El Paso Texas.......

george bush like a communist?

If I am not mistaken, one claim made by George Bush the younger was that,
with regards to torture,
he had been told by the relevant "experts" that it was allowable,
hence he thought no further.

First there is a Socratic thought: about such matters there really are no experts---alternatively, a moderately reasonable individual if given the relevant facts about, e.g., "water-boarding" would say, without hesitation, that it is torture, and unjustified.

But, secondly, I recently happened to be reading the novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera. The character Tomas is thinking about the Czechoslovak Communists
who said things like "we didn't know"....

Once the terrors of Stalin were revealed, after many had been unfairly murdered,
Tomas describes the sort of things the prosecuting attorneys (responsible for the
deaths of innocent men and women) say:

I didn't know; I believed [what I was told]....

Tomas finds this an inadequate defense for those murderers, and I make a similar judgment about Bush and his like....

Alas, the situation with Communism was superior to ours insofar as the wrongness, the fundamental criminality of what had been done was recognized.....(a country had been placed in the hands of a foreign power, just as the USA has now been placed in the hands of a ruling class, whose powers have become more entrenched than ever before...... and how is that connected to torture in particular? Well, the use of any means to hold onto power is a common thread--although admittedly, the USA seems (usually) to favor the murder and terror of people in distant countries, while the terror in CSSR was internal.... . I suppose the forms of internal control in the USA, as has been noted by others, are largely more psychological......though there again, I have been told that the use of tasers (e.g.) is more common in the minority neighborhoods of the country....


Friday, May 27, 2011

DOKTOR PENDEJO,the neurologist

warning for the sensitive: I think I was pretty annoyed, and stewing in my own juices when I wrote the following...... Moreover, given the complexities of the situation, it's hard to know what really happened or if I was being fair. Nonetheless, I think there's something to be said for the idea that the doctor-patient consultation is such a bizarre situation, and too one-sided, so that we have a right to our reactions--- The system is screwed up starting from the fact that we go to the doctors, and not the other way around. The entire system is hierarchic in a way that takes away one's control/power, and that rightly deserves criticism... My greatest doubt about what's written below is that I don't know what's actually in the mind of the doctor who pissed me off..., subject to this background......and caveats.....

MEMORIES OF A SMILE
Some people are too arrogant to hear the truth, for example my father's neurologist,
who I fondly refer to as "Dr. Asshole".

My mother tried to explain her sincere concern about a diagnosis of Parkinsons...
She said we'd bought books.
I corrected her. He'd bought only one.
But we'd also looked on the web, and we had also checked books out of the library. And I had corresponded with the friend of a friend who was diagnosed with Parkinsons many years ago.

Doctor Asshole smiled at my mother. I shouldn't have corrected her. How dare he so much as smile? Only one book purchased----that's no crime
We did what we could to learn. Do we deserve his contempt, his haughty superiority?

How could I be so foolish as even to give this haughty man ammunition? My mother's mistake was a natural one: we'd surveyed several books, looked around at several sites, even if we'd only purchased one book. Our attempt was a serious one within the limits we live with. NOthiing to be scorned. Undeserving of that smug little smile.

For god's sake, man, you should be apologizing for now changing the diagnosis. Haughtily saying you no longer think its Parkinsons. Have you any idea about the effect of your words on ordinary people? Do you even care? Or is it all about your ego, your superiority, your so-called knowledge?

I suppose that all of his medical books during his training were purchased? Was he that rich?
Is he that rich now?

Well, we are not. We are not rich. Nor are most Americans. And it is nothing to sneer at.

The man has earned his nickname: Doctor Asshole, Senor Pendejo.

Your arrogance is ugly and distracts from whatever knowledge and skill you may possess.

Every vist to your office is an enormous exercise in disdain and contempt......

It's a pity I don't believe in Hell....

consumerism report

In Slovakia
Every cab-driver knows:

The Americans have lost their souls.

Friday.27.May.2011

GMOOH!

made a trip to a shop
and was told by a falsely friendly salesperson
money is the cause of everything
and he cheerfully threw in the thoughts
in order to get money
or
for the sake of money
as a kind of refrain
or parenthesis
sealing in every thought
and breaking my heart

ah
alas
tooo sad for me to say
what I was thinking

but then without love
and without money
what must my life be?

meaningless
and pointless
on all accounts....

In Slovakia,
I could at least joke that
I was poor but had friends,
Here in the Land of Imperial Power and Infinite Cruelty
I've not even got a friend's shoulder to cry on
let alone anything to drink
nothing to drink
no one to drink it with

the most i can hope for
is a few erotic dreams
spoiled by waking
and the return to barren reality

misery

Complaint from the left:
"But surely you must realize that all these things you describe---the mindless

consumerism of loud stereos, large trucks, bad food and all--is just a reflection

of the misery of those on the bottom end of the USA class structure....

These are unhappy people. And you have an elitist attitude toward them..."



My reply:

Well, it's not exactly elitist. I have lived in countries where there is less inequality,

and the air is different. Life is freer. One is not so overwhelmed by the misery,

and it's precisely for that reason that I wish, someday to leave this land of

misery forever--never to return.....



I also suspect that for many residents of El Paso, the most salient fact is either that they do not dwell in Juarez, or that they do not dwell in Mexico---so there is, perhaps, an element of smugness in their consumerism.....



Note

The "complaint from the left" was provoked by reading Robert Paul Wolff's [name now corrected 30 May 2011] recent comments on the class structure of USA society......which I would recommend to anyone interested in understanding the class structure of USA society...



RECOMMENDED READING:




LA CARRIÈRE OUVERTE AUX TALENTS


Posted by RP Wolff Wednesday, 25 May 2011




As Wolff explains the above French was Napoleon's way of saying that talent was more important than anything else---false in Napoleon's France, false in today's France,

and false in today's USA.....

windy, dirty, dusty

The weather in El Paso, Texas continues to be very unpleasant.
This would not be my choice of a place to live if I had only my own happiness to consider.

While it is not possible to say of any specific event of "unusual" weather that it was
a result of anthropocentric global warming, it is predicted that one consequence of
climate change will be more instances of weather which was previously regarded as
unusual---such as the drought in El Paso, Texas.

I believe that is pretty much what Bill McKibben was heard to say today on "Democracy Now'.
(I'll be adding a link later.)






Wednesday, May 25, 2011

obnoxious El Paso (neighbors)

Nine in the morning
and the neighbor
is outside making noise
with power tools.....

I don't share the value (so-called) of "home ownership"
as the blurb for an academic book once put it...

I thought about buying the book since it seems to point out the disadvantages of suburbia,
but then I didn't think I could stomach it (living as I do surrounded by the madness of it all) or
even for a minute listen to the pretense that any of this stuff makes sense (unless one is deaf, dumb, blind, and totally lacking in imagination)

Call me uncharitable. But, better yet, do something about the asshole next door.....

GMOOH

you want an argument? OK, try this: Why should his desire for trimmed shrubbery---plants not native to the region and requiring excessive importation of water--be given higher priority than my desire for quiet? In suburbia capitalist consumption (buying power tools, e.g. or dogs) is always given priority over anything else. Suburbia is a consumerist hell.

The Sea Within

MAR ADENTRO

The Sea Within (Official Translation: The Sea Inside)

warning note: this is a draft which should be revised

This Spanish film is not an "inspiring" tale, as they say over at Wikipedia.
It is not about how knowing a quadriplegic made it possible for women to do things
they would otherwise not do.

That is rubbish, but just the sort of HAPPY HAPPY bullshit one expects from Hollywood
or Wall Street.

The film is about human relationships. It is about the pain of a man who can never
do what he dreams about doing, a man who is tortured every day with memories
and impossibilities.

It is the story of how different individuals--a sister-in-law, a nephew, a brother,
a father--react to his situation.

It is the story of the different ways in which they love him. Indeed, one of the insights of the film is the sensitive depiction of these family relationships.

The film also shows how different women reacted, and how only one loved him enough to do what he actually asked.

The psychological complexity and sensitivity of the film is reduced to empty cliches by the article about it currently up at Wikipedia.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Bravo Brian Leiter

Over at his "Leiter Reports", Professor Leiter has asked the question
whether "everyone in the blogosphere" isn't a "sanctimonious jackass"?

I certainly think I fit the bill, and I am happy to hear Professor Leiter point out that this is common to all bloggers!

Bravo Professor Leiter!

Work! Work! Work!---but WHY?

I am neither a professional actor, nor a professional dancer, but I have had the privilege of knowing and associating with professionals. I have been on stage with them, and I have learned from them.


Recently, I listened to a harangue or a rant delivered by a young actor and playwright to a younger group of dancers. He emphasized the importance of work. He said that it was

no compliment to be told that you work hard. That was taken for granted. He was

annoyed when graduating students were paid the compliment: They worked so hard.



He pursued this theme with great vehemence and at length.



He also did say why it mattered: because with the performance you (the assembled dancers) have coming up, you will establish your "brand".



As I listened in silence, I felt extremely uncomfortable. I was, in fact, annoyed and disturbed.

I do not think that a theatrical performance is a product like any other and I do not think that the laws of capitalist production and distribution apply to the arts. I realize that most people in the USA think otherwise, or blindly assume so, but I am of a different opinion.



I prefer to recall the words of the Slovak dancer, Tomas Danielis, when he was asked about working hard. He said something like this, "Well, yes I work hard, very hard. But, then you stop and think about it, and you realize that, at the same time, you are having lots of fun."



I very much prefer Danielis's words to the rather grim portrait of endless toil suggested by the American playwright.



However, I do think that the American simply got it wrong.



First, let's think about students.



Students of theater and dance are acquiring tools which they will use for the rest of their lives. So, it is important for them to learn as much as possible, to acquire skills, and acquire them with as much mastery as possible.



In actual practice, no student is equally skilled at all the components of his craft--and so, too, no full-fledged professional is equally talented in all respects. Nonetheless, the skills are quite simply useful--they will come in handy later in solving specific problems.



But, that is only about technique. There is more to art. And that region of the "something more" is precisely what cannot be taught, but can only be learned during a career in which the dancer or actor uses whatever skills his or her training has provided.



From the outside, lengthy rehearsals and practice, repetition, working and re-working can be described as "work", but it is not the work of the assembly line, not the work of the factory, and not the work of the telephone salesman or even the work of an advertiser or marketing agent. It is creative work. It is an open-ended activity because the target of the activity, the goal and what it aims at is, quite simply, reality---not reality insofar as it matches our prejudices or our silly fantasies, not reality insofar as it will earn money, not reality insofar as it will satisfy the wish of the politician for glory and honor--but raw, unfiltered,

reality--standing there and not caring about you, not caring about your plans or your projects.



The goal of the dancer and the actor is to uncover some part of the beautiful and complicated mystery of being or reality or humanity and make it available to others.



A writer writes hoping to be read and the dancer or actor needs an audience.



So, there is a kind of debt. You demand someone's attention, and you had better have something to say that is worth hearing.



But, then again, you are devastatingly ignorant of reality, and you want to know her,

and if you ever see some glimpse of her, you will want to share what you've seen.



And all that is very demanding. We say it requires "work" which is mainly time,

focus, attention, a willingness to follow paths and see where they lead, an openness to

failure and a willingness to continue. And none of that is the "work" for which the rich pay people. The rich, the wealthy, the ruling class want your praise and your adoration, but they don't want to know the truth about themselves. And, that's why, as Ferlinghetti once said, the arts are always revolutionary. Or, in a different mode, they've got to be surprising and disturbing or else they are a waste of time. And, that means they will be surprising and disturbing for the practitioners as well as their audiences.



But none of that is the Puritanical self-flagellation suggested by the talk of endless toil.

Better to follow Danielis and talk about how much fun it all is!



LINK

Tomas Danielis performing choreography by Frey Faust.







the grouch reads and recommends

The Grouch Reads:
Aaron Ben-Ze' ev, Love Online: Emotions on the Internet
Cambridge University Press, 2004

I can freely recommend this book to anyone who uses the internet.

It seems to me that some of the puzzling or surprising features of internet communication are simply amplified in the case of online love affairs--the topic of Ze'ev's book.

Ze'ev, a philosopher, has a particular theory of the emotions (presented in his 2000 book "The Subtlety of the Emtions". ) I've not read that book, but have read a later book, co-authored by Ze-ev, and know something of the theory from that source.

Ze'ev sees emotions tied up with problems, or crisis situations. Hence insofar as love online involves uncertainties (will s/he send me a message today?) it will be more emotional.
That's not a good way to characterize his overall view, but it gives some idea of what he's up to.

To repeat: I don't claim to have fairly summarized Ze'ev's basic view, but only mentioned part of it.

I've only read two chapters of the book, but it seems to me that he is noticing and describing some features of internet communciation in general, not merely the case were two individuals share erotic fantasies.

In any case, I wanted to write this note mainly to recommend the book.

Perhaps, someday, I shall have to read his earlier book and try to say, in broad outline,
something about his view of emotions.

Or, perhaps, I shall try to say more in the future, as I continue to read Love Online.

Monday, May 23, 2011

weather report: El Paso, Texas

WIND
WIND
WIND
BLOWING DUST
DUST
DUST
DUST
DIRT
DIRT
DIRT
YCCCCH
YCCCH
YCCCH
cough
COUGH
COUGH
COUGH
GMOOH!

a cruel country

Why keep people alive when you give them so little of the stuff that makes life worth living? It is cruel! Is it only because you want their MEDICARE DOLLARS????

This is a cruel country.
--A place where people are kept alive by a not very friendly or efficient system of distributing medical care-- and then they have nothing, no pleasures except a social life that consists in visiting the doctor and the pleasure of eating.

Note well: medicine and technology belong to all of us (by nature, by right)
yet in the perverse system of social organization we suffer with on a daily basis they are monopolized and exploited by a tiny group of people.....(censored).....

And the food which is one of the few pleasures of the elderly....isn't actually very good.

That's not civilization. That is a form of torture. It is barbarism.....

Sunday, May 22, 2011

urbane, civilized...

Not so very long ago, it seems to me, I recall reading on certain blogs,
written by educated citizens of the USA,
about how Obama was educated, urbane, civilized....

The other day I read that Bin Laden had been shot in the back of the head,
"execution style"....

Or, should I say, Bin Laden, unarmed, was shot in the back of the head,
in an educated, urbane, and civilized style....

(His wife who was also unarmed was shot as well--not in the back of the head--but surely
in an equally educated, urbane, and civilized style.)

education, civilization, urbanity!

ugly el paso

Well, I've been thinking about it...
and yes..
I would say
El Paso, Texas is the ugliest place I've ever lived in.....
the most unfriendly
the most unpleasant
the worst food
the worst weather
the worst public transport

Let's put it like this:
engaging in unwanted conversation with a young man working in a gas station
where I'd gone to buy milk
I found him urging me to donate a penny to a worthy cause
whereupon I told him "no" as a matter of principle
don't ask me
ask bill gates or the man who owns the company you are working for
because their lunch money is going to be more than the spare change
of everyone you know and everyone I know put together

which, of course, was incomprehensible to him (tho not to you dear reader)
because his response (as if he hadn't heard a word I'd said)
was to put a penny of his own in the container.....

(No, he didn't understand when I told him it was a matter of "principle"....)

This then leading to a very brief exchange ending with his words,
as he stared at his mobile phone, no doubt eager to receive a message
from the girlfriend who will meet him around the corner for a burger and fries
before going to park....

"Well, I like it here!"

But, of course the question is not whether you like it here or not, but what you're basing your judgment on: have you ever actually lived anywhere else?
But that might interfere with the USA custom of confidently expressing one's opinion and thereby proving one's freedom and happiness, no matter how lacking in a basis in reality that opinion might be....

Saturday, May 21, 2011

gmooh

GMOOH!

el paso primitive

see after-thoughts below

I am sure I would be better off if I ceased to think of this place entirely,

this place of sheer misery,
but as I seem stuck here,
thinking about it seems inevitable....

Thinking of El Paso, Texas, the word which springs to mind is PRIMITIVE.

I've heard that word used in very nasty ways, but then when something is very dirty
perhaps a nasty word is justified...

"Dirty" not sexy!

I had a rather unsatisfying conversation earlier today at the so-called Glass Box,
a pretentious upstairs from a factory space which houses a variety of artistic
and craft workshops as well as a theater group and a dance group.

The place is filthy.
The floors are dirty and dusty, and, consequently the air is not clean.

A legitimate reason for this (or perhaps "cause") beyond the control of the renters
is that the building itself has not got sealed windows. What exactly does that mean?
I don't know. But, someone collects rent, so,... well? I guess the rent is low, but,
well, so I suppose that means there are no laws in El Paso, TExas?--no building codes? CAn it really be legal to have residents in
so (faute de mieux) primitive a structure?

Indeed, what are the working conditions for the workers who work below? Might
their working conditions actually be primitive?--and unpleasant, even unhealthy?

At any rate, I don't understand why the residents or owners of the Glass Box (better called the Sand Box or the Dirt Box in light of the filth there) don't bother to mop and sweep.

The rather lame excuse I heard was that due to El Paso's wind and dust, there was no point.
If they were to sweep and mop today, tomorrow it would be dirtier again.

Well, yes, but the question is: If you sweep and mop today (even two or three times if need be), will it be less dirty and less dusty tomorrow?

I am reminded of the joke: Why wash? You'll only get dirty again. Obviously, that strategy is idiotic for personal hygiene, and I can't see it is less medieveal if we are talking about a building where many people work--let alone a place which advertises itself as a location where the public can enjoy art and artistic events. Is Shakespeare supposed to be better if the floor is dirty and dusty? Or should we be seeing Brecht or some Communist play about suffering workers? Should we suffer their miserable working conditions as part of a lefty play?

In fact this attitude towards cleanliness strikes me as simply medieval, hence again primitive.

In the nineteenth century working and middle-class families were obsessed with cleanliness. Even if they had only one set of clothes, the men would go around naked as their work clothes were washed and dried. That high standard of cleanliness--that nineteenth century standard---is higher than anything I've seen locally. (See my earlier blog entry about the filth and dirt at the theater of "Chapin High School.) Hence, my remark that El Paso is positively primitive, even medieval.

another excuse:
Well, factories are dirty!
There are workshops here! Have you ever seen a car factory?
My response:
Well, actually a couple of years ago I was in an auto factory belonging to Kia Motors, the Korean company, a factory located in Slovakia, in Central Europe. And the factory was immaculate--110% clean. Apparently in modern factories everything is very high tech, and there are lots of computers, so dirt and dust would be damaging. To judge from the remarks I heard today at the Glass (Sand) Box, either El Paso or the USA has not yet reached that technical level..... hence once again, not exactly up-t0-date, or contemporary, or advanced, so primitive or medieval...... and sadly so....

after-thoughts (added 21 June)
where did I get the idea of pretentiousness from? Was that unfair? Well, I suppose writing later, it now seems that most people associated with gbox are sincere; and I cringe a bit when I re-read this and think of them......but "pretentious" is not the harshest criticism you can make... and while I don't recall exactly what I had in mind at the time of writing, I do think there are elements of elitism---the thought that we are something like an "exclusive" or "alternative" society here.......and while I myself am very uncomfortable in this country, it is hard for me to take such exclusionary tactics completely seriously.......because the most sophisticated among the USA citizen seem to employ certain patterns of thought that I find alien.....but which seem omnipresent in the world's largest owner of weapons of mass destruction (e.g., the belief that hard work always pays--which is tantamount to the denial of something I take to be demonstrably false, viz., that the USA has a class structure.....)

As for the dirt in the place, since writing this I've met the man responsible for cleaning up, and I have the impression that he is over-worked; so, I wouldn't like to add to his burdens.....

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Luna Papa

(note: this is somewhat incomplete and imperfect, but might yet be of some interest..)

"LUNA PAPA"

I've just seen this movie, and I've just read the Wikipedia entry.

About the Wikipedia entry:
At this point in history "surreal" is a cliche. Best to avoid it.

The story maintains a linear narrative with no disruptions of the time sequence.
Characteristic of surrealism is the use of dreams, and in dreams events may seem to operate according to laws other than those of waking life. This film is more accurately described as containing features of "magical realism"--by which I have in mind that ordinary or everyday events can take on a fanatastic quality. (Someone who insisted on using the word "surreal" might quibble with me about the film's ending; but I think that it too is best classed an an instance of "magical realism".)

(I suppose my greatest discomfort with the word "surreal" applied to this film is simply that the vast majority of events depicted in the film are all-too-real in substance. The film is, in some way, fantastic as Homer is fantastic, but there too the events depicted are fundamentally realistic. --Yes, I know there are gods and such, but the fundamental reality remains... "Un Chien Andalou", e.g., has no such familiar narrative structure in the way that L. P. does.... Of course the Wikipedia writer was probably using "surreal" in a very colloquial and imprecise sense; so much the worse for his entry.)

The Wikipedia entry neglects to mention the visual sensuality of the film. The colors are stunning. And the various villages and structures, jumbles of cars, machines and idiosyncratic buildings produces scenery which is enormously pleasing to see. I would even say I enjoyed hearing Chulpan Khamatova's voice....

Needless to say, I would recommend the film. It is a delight to see. It is fantastic without being an empty fantasy. It is an entertaining tale which maintains contact with reality. There is cruelty in the film, and sadness-- just as there is in real life. Yet the film is beautiful and, even, hopeful.

El Paso, Texas: cruel and mean-spirited

Consider the words: "El Paso is a military town."

What do those words mean? In practice, that means that El Paso, Texas is a very bad place to live.

I cannot fully defend that claim in this short note, however I shall do something to explain what I have in mind.

I heard those words while standing in line in that most ugly of uglies, "Albertsons", and the woman who spoke them spoke with great confidence, as if she knew what was what.
I confess that I was not so impressed with her knowledge. She had just mis-classified
me on the basis of my accent. No, my dear, you cannot simply assume that everybody with
a Northeastern accent is from New York City.

However, her arrogant boldness was not the sort of approach that made me eager to correct her.

But her words rang in my memory as I discovered recently to what depths of greediness and mean-spiritedness the El Pasoan can sink.

My father is eighty-six years old. He remembers what it means to experience an economic Depression. He lived through the so-called "Great Depression". He worked at a variety of odd jobs when he was a boy. And as a young man he joined the Marine Corps, being sent overseas to the Phillipines, Japan, and other places.

Today when he is eighty-six years old and not really healthy, he likes to remember the past, a time when he was young and athletic.

A few months ago he received in the mail a cap, a cap commemorating his service as a soldier during World War Two.

My father does not really like to brag so much as recollect. I am sure that he is proud to think he contributed to the defeat of a non-democratic power, proud to think he may have made freedom more possible for his family and those he cared about, but he wore his cap with reluctance. We'd suggested he wear it only because it was the easiest cap to hand on a very sunny day.

Today I have learned that someone stole that cap. The man who stole the cap was not a veteran of World War Two, and so he could not wear the cap..... why did he steal it?

Why would anyone steal from an eighty-six year old man in a wheel chair?

Perhaps the cap is merely lost......

The Grouch reads...

The Grouch Reads:
Ben-Ze'ev, Love Online

At one point, Ben-Ze-'ev points out that the Internet might be most beneficial for those who alerady have an active sociallife, people inclined to be sociable. He also consdiers that for shy people there may be some advantages, but I suspect that, on the whole, those who are already sociable and happy in the offline world will benefit most.

If that is true, then this will be another example of a familiar fact. Technological innovations do not benefit everyone equally. One might make the argument that, in fact, they will always benefit individuals differentially--so long as we have grotesque inequality in power and money, and education.

And that would mean that most (or perhaps all) "progress', so called, is neither good nor bad.

Consider medical innovations. We live longer than people two hundred years ago, or people in pre-industrial societies today. But, who, exactly is "we"? Even today, most people don't enjoy the access to modern medicine which I have just assumed you, gentle reader, possess.

And, what good is it to live a long time if one is socially isolated? If one is in pain---whether it be physical pain, or mere nausea, or psychological pain in the form of social isolation?

I suspect that many of the elderly do not live lives rich in social contacts and rich in stimulation. So, living longer just isn't good, in and of itself. And if that's the biggest achievement of our societies, then the situation is pretty bad. You've got a "good" that's only neutral (neither good nor bad, but good if certain conditions are fulfilled--but mostly they are not)--and even that good (access to modern medicine) is not universally shared.

All in all, I am inclined to agree with Ted Honderich, who once said (optimistically, I would stress) that he looked forward to a future when people would look back upon our age as one of utter barbarism.

additional note about the Internet:
The Internet just intensifies features of the mass media which were already present when Eric Fromm wrote "Escape from Freedom". People are bombarded with certain pictures and even facts, but the organizing structures needed to make sense of that "information" (more accurately called "mere stimulation") is lacking. Consequently the stimulation brings no advantage to the one stimulated....

weather report eptx

el paso texas
weather report

BLOWING WIND
WIND
WIND

BLOWING DUST
DUST
DUST
DUST
DIRT
DIRT
DIRT

yccccch
gmooh

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

eptx

this is really a horrible place
people are so far away
separated from one another by their cars
and the wind and the sand

the air conditioning is oppressive
the wind is oppressive
the looks i get when i enter doctors' waiting rooms are oppressive
and so are the television sets
(thankfully not omnipresent, but nearly)

the sound of the wind late at night is irritating
sand in my eyes and ears and nose is irritating
the large trucks that dominate my field of vision are irritating
as is their incessant boombooomboom

i resent, deeply resent, the requirement that one travel via personal automobile
i hate personal automobiles
they are so impersonal

the space where one sits is so small, claustrophobic
the time spent sitting on one's ass is unhealthy
hence the enormous size of El Paso asses....
hence the overwhelming abundance of merchants of fatty, greasy, food by-products
---usually consumed by people who never leave their enormous trucks...

and I could go on and on and on and on
suffice it to say
I don't like it here
no,
I don't like it here,
not at all.....

gmooh

weather report

El Paso, Texas: weather report

WIND
WIND
WIND

DUST
DUST
DUST

DIRT
DIRT
DIRT

YCCCH
YCCCH
YCCCH!

Spare me the Bullshit all you who seek to capture Medicare Dollars

Like Professors Penner and Rowe, in their commentary on Plato's "Lysis", I am not much impressed by claims of pure altruism.

I was, indeed, much heartened by their forthright rejection of such claims.

And I am much irritated ((not to say pissed off)) when people have the temerity to praise me for helping my parents. I suspect that many people would like to absorb my activities under the label of "selfless love" or some other form of religous bullshit.

And that really does piss me off.

No, it's really not a "blessing". Nor is it a miracle.

If I didn't help them, no one else would.

---and that fact is an indictment of the USA system of medical provision. It is a great, big damning fact.....because it is repeated in many families....

So, when someone who makes money off the elderly tells me that I am a "blessing", I hear a large bit of false consciouness and utter ignorance--as well as Mystification to cover up the very real sacrifice that I am making. (I may never recover from the negative consquences of this
fact.)

In fact, I would say that such a person does not in the least understand what I am doing or why I am doing it.

They would like to save themselves from thinking by appealing to a bullshit category taken from religion---selfless love. Sorry, there is no such thing.

Loving Juliette, Romeo is happier---that's the sort of thing lovers do say. And a lover who doesn't or wouldn't is probably in an abusive relationship, or, at any rate, a relationship that is rapidly going downhill, and (hopefully) ending...

But trying to categorize my actions in that way is also a way of ignoring the FAILURE of the Health Maintenance 'System of which they are a part!

Instead of saying the honest thing: The USA system is failing, does not do what it should, and this person recognized it, and tried to make up for that failure....
they would prefer to say:
How saintly! How altruistic! How Christian!

I am getting sick just thinking about it.

note:
The above reflections were inspired/provoked by a very real conversation with a manager at "AM Health Care" El Paso, Texas...

Overheard...

"There is," said the traveller,"only one sin--to live without joy.."

"Yes, " he said," I know what you are thinking. Some people are unhappy through no fault of their own, and are joyless despite wanting to be happy. Yes, that's true. But, then it's not their sin. It's someone else's sin. Someone else's fault, but it is the most hideous and cruel of deeds, to take away joy, and the chance for joy...."

"I do think..." he paused, "well, the way you treat old people in the USA.... well, that's an example.
I except the rich, of course---the truly evil and heartless minority which does more mischief in the world than anyone can imagine. Truly evil they are...but even when old they lead an altogether different sort of life....

But, still, you have this extremely high-tech system of medical care, and it is all wasted.
Why keep people alive when you take away their joy in living? Joy in living does not come from sitting in a clean middle-class house watching television! It requires active engagement
with other human beings. It requires activity, real things to do, not just shopping!

And, this is where your society is hopeless and miserable. It is as if you regard the old (and the young, for that matter) as mere things that must fit into a great social machine, and you don't think they are people at all.

When I think of it, it is so obscene! I don't know whether to pound my fist or cry.
In the end, all I can say is this: I shall be very glad when I leave your country. Other countries are not so joyless, even if you have managed to export your misery to many countries.

Yes, he said, sadly, I shall be very happy to leave....

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

F.-ING BIG DEAL

aFTER TWO WEEKS!
My mother is finally getting the pain relief she needs....

But I am not impressed!

Yesterday, after my mother had contacted the doctor's representative AGAIN
on Monday after a week of trying....

I went to WALGREENS (Puke.puke.puke)\
I went up to the counter and told the guy my mother's name ETC
And he said, "No, there's nothing here."
ONly when I said I wanted to complain did he say: You'll have to come back
tomorrow. The manager's not here.

After thinking a while, the man behind the counter suggested I speak to the Pharmacist.

After five minutes or so speaking to the Pharmacist, he said, yes, the medicine was available, but I would have to wait.

After about five minutes, he called my name, and I had to stand in line for ten minutes.

Altogether I must have wasted 20-25 minutes---not to mention the prior hassles over the course of three weeks (pointless trips to Walgreens, nonsense from the druggists) and the time my eighty-four year old mother did not have any pain relief.......
WALGREENS IS BULLSHIT

Ahh, but we are not done yet. Now I've got to go to Walgreens (puke puke) again, right now.
We shall see how long I have to wait in line and what sort of nonsense I must hear.
I can hardly wait
anticipatory puke

Monday, May 16, 2011

the USA is a BAD PLACE TO LIVE

further evidence that the USA is a bad place to live

GMOOH

link provided by Leiter Reports (thanks)

consider just this line

The United States is being refashioned as a plutocracy in which the wealthiest 1 million persons are a new aristocracy and governmental programs that inconvenience them by making them pay their taxes are dismantled. (Juan Cole)


Link to Juan Cole's "The Koch Brothers and the End of State Universities"

gmooh
gmooh
gmooh

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Dear Blue Cross Blue Shield

Dear Blue Cross Blue Shield,

My mother woke today at 6 in the morning. She was unable to sleep because of pain.

I hold you responsible.

She and I have been trying to obtain the needed pain medicine now for more than a week.
I have spelled out the details below.

However, you together with Walgreens have not held up your end of the bargain.

My mother is eighty-four years old and she deserves more than you are providing by way of help. Although, of course, I would say the same thing if she were forty-four years old.

There is, however, one difference: as an older person she has less energy to fight for her rights, and less energy to defend herself. It is a barbaric society which via its institutions puts the weaker members of a society in a position where they must actually fight to obtain basic medical care.

AM Health Care-El Paso, Texas

-------'R'-'E'-'S'-'P'-'E'-'C'-'T'
--I'll tell you what it means to me!----

Dear Manager,
You phoned me up on Friday, pestering me, and contributing to a thoroughly unpleasant day.
(When an eighty-four year old woman suffering from severe pain is denied access to needed pain relief, that does sort of get under your skin--especially if the woman in question is your mother. But that unpleasantness was foreshadowed by a phone call from the boss (who does not use so honest an epithet) at AM Health Care.) You also phoned up my mother and insulted her, spoke to her in a condescending fashion. (See explanatory note below)

My mother and I have decided that we do not wish to have further contacts with you.

Indeed, as I review the history of our association with your organization, the following fact becomes salient:

In the past several months, your organization has been more eager to steal my mother's time with a survey of customer satisfaction than it has been eager to actually provide the care and services to which she was entitled.

That alone is a good reason to terminate our relationship. Your phone call, and especially the insulting way in which you spoke to my mother, was only the final nail in the coffin.

I wonder: do you attend seminars where so-called experts teach you to "capture" Medicare funds? And wasn't that (the "capture" of Medicare funds) the real purpose of your annoying phone calls?

That's a thought I've had. I don't say it's true. I have no proof. But, I've had enough signs and indications of the quality of what you are providing to say conclusively and with no doubt in my mind: Goodbye. It's not been good to know you,.

EXPLANATORY NOTE on Age-ist Language and the Prevalence of Age-ism among institutions in the USA

When someone is complaining that she has been treated unfairly by a system which is, in effect, systematically AGE-IST, it is not nice to refer to her as "sweetie" (or "honey" or "cutie")
Those terms imply inequality. They imply that the old person is "cute" and not a fully responsible or fully competent human being.


An analogy which might help to clarify my point: Suppose an African-American woman who refused to sit in the back of the bus were addressed or described as a "cute darkie".....or some such similar epithet. I think it would be grotesquely demeaning, and so too, is it grotesquely demeaning to hear an eighty-four year old woman say that she is not getting the care she needs, and respond with language suggesting she is somehow 'cute'....as if her claims and concerns were not fully deserving of respect.

A sociolinguistic treatise which could be written about this. (For all I know, maybe someone has written one.) The one place I've come across somethign similar is in a book by Simon Blackburn, "Ruling Passions", where he discusses the sexist point of view which sees women as "cute", hence childish.

For a non-scholarly, but wholly accurate accvount, one could see various episodes of the TV serial, "Waiting for God", in which the heroic old lady Diana deals with condescending language in the natural way--by striking the offending party with her cane.

why stay?

I have heard the voices, "Why stay? -- It's a free country!"

I'm really not in the mood to fully analyze the stupidity implied by that remark.
It's like asking a person living next to a nuclear disaster: Why don't you move? It's a free country! etc.

But a brief, if inadequate answer: No, the USA is not a free country. (I.e., Not in the relevant sense) People are enslaved by their IPOD's and other devices.
The wealth is not fairly shared. People are robbed and enslaved from the day they are born until the day they die. "Upward mobility" is a myth, a lie. But to say all of that adequately and fully would require more time than I have available. Nonetheless, it may give you some idea as to why I regard talk of "freedom" as simply uninformed, hence stupid or ignorant.,

However I will say the following:

Someday my mother may fall down,
and she won't be able to get up again by herself;
If I'm not there no one else will help her.

Someday my father will fall down,
and he won't be able to get up again without help;
If I'm not there to help him,
no one else will.

File that under: "How much respect do the elderly really get in the country that spends more of its wealth on killing people than any other country?"



America Doesn't Care

When I used to work in an American-run high school overseas, I used to despise the way in which my co-workers eagerly followed orders. characteristically, the orders were made by relatively unsophisticated people with no especial creative talents, but they were designed from the outset to limit the possibilities for thought.

So, too whenever I encounter someone associated in any way with the health industry, they are able to show real emotion within a very limited framework--and precisely that aspect of the situation makes the emotion false.

It is all top-down. Emotion emerges like a caged insect struggling to escape from the glass you've placed over it, one little leg struggling to force its way under the edge of the glass despite the pressure exerted from above.

And pressure is always exerted from above in the USA-don't-care system---pressure in the form of wages and payments.....

a cruel empire, a heartless empire which masquerades as something it is not....

And all health care workers share in the system. They are part of it, whether they will or not. In such a situation, only an enormous yearning for honesty will give them any chance of retaining some shred of dignity. And that means most lost their dignity and self-respect ages ago...