Facebook a minor innovation...

Thank god for Michael Dawson, who tells it like it is.. e.g. , about Facebook...

"The real story of Facebook is that, as 'social networking' software, it was a

moderately clever idea and minor technological breakthrough. The

government, if it were ever allowed to compete with private enterprises,

could sponsor or directly develop an excellent substitute for that in a

month, and make it non-commercial and secure. But that wouldn't serve

the corporate overclass, would it? they are looking-- and paying-- for

exactly what Zuckerberg and his bodies are providing: new ways of a

gathering free information about the details of people's off-the-job

activities."

From: "Spybook", Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011,

http://www.consumertrap.com/

And, as I've said before at this very blog, Facebook or some such social networking technology

shouldn't be in private hands, and could very well be treated as a public utility, free

for all, and free from advertising.....

The real story of Facebook is that, as “social networking” software, it was a moderately clever idea and minor technological breakthrough. The government, if it were ever allowed to compete with private enterprises, could sponsor or directly develop an excellent substitute for that in a month, and make it nThe real story of Facebook is that, as “social networking” software, it was a moderately clever idea and minor technological breakthrough. The government, if it were ever allowed to compete with private enterprises, could sponsor or directly develop an excellent substitute for that in a month, and make it non-commercial and secure. But that wouldn’t serve the corporate overclass, would it? They are looking — and paying — for exactly what Zuckerberg and his buddies are providing: new ways of gathering free information about the details of people’s off-the-job activities.on-commercial and secure. But that wouldn’t serve the corporate overclass, would it? They are looking — and paying — for exactly what Zuckerberg and his buddies are providing: new ways of gathering free information about the details of people’s off-the-job activities.

The real story of Facebook is that, as “social networking” software, it was a moderately clever idea and minor technological breakthrough. The government, if it were ever allowed to compete with private enterprises, could sponsor or directly develop an excellent substitute for that in a month, and make it non-commercial and secure. But that wouldn’t serve the corporate overclass, would it? They are looking — and paying — for exactly what Zuckerberg and his buddies are providing: new ways of gathering free information about the details of people’s off-the-job activities.

spring oh lovely spring..

Oh Spring! Lovely Spring!

NOT

Oh how lovely! Spring oh Spring

How Lovely it AIN'T!

OPEN THE WINDOWS

breathe the fresh air

and hear the neighbor's stereo pounding in the back

the dogs barking non-stop on one side

and dogs barking non-stop on the other side of the house

all aided and abetted by the norms of capitalism

I worked like a dog all week goddamn it

and now I can do whatever the hell I want

the hell with you

and Hoorah for me

The Consumer Trap

A blog that is in many ways more informative than this one is: "The Consumer Trap" (which also happens to be the name of a good book). ((If there's any value in my blog, it's got more to do with personal style or, shall we say, the way certain facts get concretized.....)) ----http://www.consumertrap.com/ ---- I especially recommend the recent remarks about Facebook.....

the USA as anti-paradise

anti-paradise?

Don't you mean consumerist, militarist hell?

My neighbor bristles when I speak this way. After all, he's no fan of war and he wants to spend more time with his family. He feels forced to work so much, and, then he buys things for his kids or himself to make up for the suffering he's endured at work, to apologize to his kids that he can't spend more time with them....

Each of us has potentialities unrealized within existing institutions and structures....

but it is the actual which kills us, degrades us, and beats us down until the potentialities can only be grasped as part of our sorrow.

the slaughter of innocents...

I heard President Obama say that the USA is a special country, a country that won't stand by as innocents are slaughtered... So, I guess that pretty soon there will be a bombing campaign (by NATO or US airplanes) in Juarez, Mexico.....

a little doggerel

Today, dear reader, we indulge in a bit of silliness, thereby ruining, no doubt, the reputation of this austere blog...

Love is blind?

Ha!--What a joke!

Whoever said that was a bleary eyed optimist:

Love is a chattering beggar,

who tricks us into making promises we can't keep,

--And then takes malicious pleasure in our failures.

Wal Mart FASCISM

Today I went shopping at Wal Mart.

As my father pointed out, the building is unsafe. There's no rear exit, and it's a huge building. What would happen in a fire?

I believe that my father also remarked that this was probably illegal....

(Perhaps, might it be that someone was paid a bribe to ignore it? Maybe, I do not know.....)

I don't like Wal Mart. The air is bad. The lighting is bad. And we know that Wal Mart is ruthless in the way it treats people (no unions) and ruthless in the way business partners are treated.

In some cases Wal Mart does not even pay taxes. I have read that in some places in the USA, the taxes that customers pay (the local sales tax) when they make a purchase at Wal Mart does not even go to the local government...

And I don't like buying clothes made in El Salvador or Nicaragua ... I am sure that the people who grew the cotton and made the shirts were not well treated.

But, in the place where I currently live, there are not many places to go shopping. -Unless you are willing to drive 20 or 25 miles... which, again, is ecological madness....

As the fotos on this blog show, greedy companies deserted this neighborhood because higher profits were to be made elsewhere. That's the way American capitalism works. It's not enough to make a profit--you must make more and more profit...

Plainly, this gives the lie to the commonsense idea that businesses have a kind of social function--supplying people what they need. Businesses in America are part of a system designed to support a wealth gap, to increase the gap between rich and poor, and they, in effect, are a means of sending more and more tribute to a ruling class...very feudal that....

Actually, in Wal Mart, I needed to buy contacts (contacct lenses), and that's when the FASCISM I refer to above occurred. As a captive audience, I was compelled to endure pointless questions before I could purchase what I really wanted.

And since the questions were set up on a computer----well that's sort of totalitarian, isn't it?
--dictated from on high...

I mean, I had to endure five or six computer screens asking me stupid questions like,

would you like twenty boxes of contacts
or five boxes
or a hundred boxes

Shit if I buy a thousand boxes, I'd get a good discount! And I would probably be dead
before I could use them all....

No, I don't like Wal Mart. I don't like El Paso. and I don't think the USA is especially a good place to live.... and every sign is that it's getting worse... \

PS
Then there's the fascism/totalitarianism/greedy attempt to control at Walgreens: as the nice sales lady said, "Our computer is telling us you filled this prescription at another pharmacy...."
What the fuck? When did I sign a contract with Walgreen's promising to give all my money to them? What are we? Slaves to Walgreens. You have to have a life time promise to always buy only from them?????? How disgusting, offensive...****!!!!==censored....none of your f...ing business. How dare they?

---another case where computers and technology make us all (me, when I shop, and the person helping me) less free....

service with a smile? ha ha ha "service' is another word whereby we are enslaved.....

I want equal relationships of solidarity with other citizens, not with some bowing and scraping person behind a counter who smiles falsely.....A culture of service? Make me puke. I really prefer the surly Slovak attitude towards customers---at least that's honest!

Recommended Reading

Erik Olin Wright and Joel Rogers, American Society: How It Really Works, WW Norton, New York and London, 2011; Part 1: Capitalism.

Recommended Viewing

http://www.democracynow.org
Special Program: The 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire,
Friday, 25 March, 2011

the u.s.a....

The U.S.A. is a cruel society,
in which they can take a person apart,
piece by piece,
and when they put you back together,
they "forget" to use all of the pieces....

Oh Spring!
Oh Spring!
How Pleasant it is go go for a walk in the Spring in El Paso!
--Pleasant???In El Paso?????----NOT!

There is a smell in the air as I walk across the parking lot,
--that unforgiving hard and flat territory where cars regard me as a nuisance.

The smell is not the fresh smell of spring;
it is the stale smell of heart-attack giving grease,
undoubtedly due to the omnipresent grease merchants,
whose premises get mis-named 'restaurants' .

Fast Food? One out of Two; it's fast, but not really food fit for human consumption.

And if you listen carefully,
you will hear the sound --not particularly pleasant--that the cars make.

And your eyes will be stunned by the bright lights as they speed by,
in a night otherwise dark, and empty.

And maybe, maybe, if you try hard,
you can breathe in a little stifling dust,
unmixed with the exhaust fumes or cooking oil.

Oh, Murderous Beasts of the Night!
You pass yourselves off as trucks.
But I know better:
You have evil intentions.

footnote to yesterday's post

footnote to yesterday's entry:

USA-style capitalism also opens up the following possibility:

when you get to be eighty-five years old you can be living in

your own home, surrounded by clutter--all the consumer items

you've purchased over the years (keeping them whether they continue to work or not)...

and you can be far from family and friends...

like a king in his counting house swimming in gold coins.....

but socially isolated.... without adequate social supports.....

in a country where the money, your money, has gone to bombs and banks.....

saner voices?/The Grouch Reads

The Grouch reads: "American Society: How it Really Works", by Erik Olin Wright and Joel Rogers, WW Norton, New York and London, 2011.

These highly regarded sociologists say things much more nicely than me--more diplomatically, with more scholarship...(and importantly with more supporting evidence than).but, methinks that sometimes they say nothing I haven't said or hinted at in a variety of posts...... . . . . . .e.g., when they say:

"... the American economy is far too oriented to a narrow conception of standards of living that is preoccupied with income, wealth and material consumption rather than the overall quality of life. True prosperity gives weight to leisure and free time rather than simply income. It places high value on public goods and collective consumption rather than simply private consumption. And it is concerned with long-term environmental sustainability rather than simply present conditions." (p. 8)

So my ability to have a social life (including liberal consumption of alcoholic beverages)--a "social life" being a non-competitive relationship with others, not a relationship essentially involving buying and selling/market exchanges, but a kind of coming together for the purpose of enjoying one another's company...and that is hampered by the lack of a certain public good called public transport--which goes hand in hand with the over-emphasis upon individuals buying their own personal climate-destroying machines.......and then there's also something called puritanism. (what me enjoy alcohol? NO, no, that would be childish. Ha Ha Ha. Only teenagers and immature young people like to drink.... I prefer to work all my life and spend my spare time in church.)

alcohol

"Oh, no," he said, including me in his 'we', "we don't drink....."

Yeah, right.

In this miserable, primitive, sick country, I wouldn't dare go to a bar and have a drink.

There is no drinkable beer. (Yuppie concoctions with pretentious labels and imaginary pedigrees don't count.) But oh yes, I do like alcohol--and real beer, not the piss water available here--and I do like getting drunk. It sure as hell beats reality. But there's no public transport to speak of.--Anyway, I hate to drink alone and I have no friends here. It just wouldn't make sense to drink---like every part of my life in this misery.

a premature epitaph

Were I to die today, you could write this epitaph tomorrow:

Returning only half on purpose to the USA,

--half heartedly as a merchant on board a ship will toss goods overboard

during a storm to escape drowning--

Returning to the land where he had been born,

he was horrified to see everywhere unnecessary suffering,

suffering which he had not seen in the backwards lands of Eastern Europe....

a kind of suffering which was only intensified by the omnipresence of the evil

called "the latest technology"... itself a sort of false god

worshipped by the most miserable....

error

I may have said that Bradley Manning hadn't been charged.

He has been charged with a crime, but he's not been put on trial.

Even so, that does not excuse his treatment.

And his treatment is torture.

I apologize but I've not got time now to track back and find older entries, however

I don't think anyone should be damaged by this hasty correction.

speechless

considering all the crap we are bombarded with
the in-house propaganda and crap music
in stores like Walgreens and Albertsons

not to mention the crap television you find in some doctors' waiting rooms
crap television:
political propaganda (courtesy of Faux News or another ....)
disgustingly exploitative and manipulative cop shows
or disgustingly exploitative pseudo-psychological crap pretending to give
us a picture of a serial killer's mind--but not making a serious attempt to do so,
and, in the end being pornographic, and manipulative, but not helpful, not
insightful, bothering but not improving.....

all that
all that crap
passes without notice
and is not worthy of mention

but something just a little bit sexy
not even a lot
has to get a warning label

sorry,
this is a sick country,
I don't care if you've heard it before
I don't care if I've said nothing new.

I shall keep saying it so long as it is true.

spring, oh lovely spring

fresh air

open the windows

breathe the air

inhale the dust

hear the cars

hear the dogs barking

one, two, three dogs

a malicious cacophony

at five am

at five pm

and at other times scattered evenly throughout every twenty-four hour period

dogs barking themselves hoarse

squeaking as much as barking

like sandpaper for the ears

thanks to our good neighbors....

our deaf neighbors

our anti-social (as all true-blooded capitalists must be) neighbors...

no,

this is not civilization!

get me out of here!

obscenity

i continue to regard the omnipresence of "vehicles"

--mostly large noisy trucks--

with the attendant social effects

(e.g. obesity, an absence of decent walk areas---sidewalks flanked by

large noisy trucks and barking dogs don't count as decent)

as obscene

I wish I could puke this city out of my system

but then I wouldn't even call it a city,

but rather a disaster,

a technological disaster....which should not even exist...

another proof of god's non-existence..

hating el paso texas -- a rant

every morning without exception when I wake, my head is unclear,

my nose is stuffy,

I experience nausea....

every day

there is endless discomfort

unending discomfort in elpastexas

not to be relieved by exposure to sun and wind

not to be relieved by the monstertrucks and their loud music

nor even by ingestion of greasy food at a local restaurant

eptx

unremitting

joyless

ugliness

invades every sense

eye

ear

nose

-touch, too, as skin cringes and retreats

and the "moral" sense too pays a price:

sympathy kicked by antipathy and stubborn certainties

produced by the misery of this place

the cold sun

the sharp sand

You can be oh so confident if you have a narrow vision of the world

blind to all beauty,

even fearing it,

and you can push aside any hint that there is something beyond

the borders of your shriveled imagination,

all the while smugly self-satisfied.....

two plus two = 4

the manufacturer of the currently failing nuclear plants in Japan

is General Electric

Recently the economist Richard D. Wolff noted that GE paid only 3.4% in US taxes...

Here's a quote:

General Electric (GE) deserves special mention. The New York Times reported that its total tax payment amounted to 14.3% over the last five years.⁴ Citizens for Tax Justice promptly corrected it: the profits tax it paid in the US, (as opposed to its worldwide taxes on its worldwide profits), is only 3.4%.⁵ Thus, GE paid a far lower tax rate on its income than most Americans paid on theirs. In 2009, GE received a huge $140 billion bailout guarantee of its debt from Washington.⁶ By choosing GE's chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, to head his Economic Advisory Panel, President Obama effectively rewarded the corporate program: give us more and tax us less.

The above (in black) was cut and pasted from:

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/wolff210211p.html

Please

Please

Please

Don't tell me that the world is made up of individuals and that there are no social forces,

no cultural forces, no ideologies..

And don't try to deny that the American ideology is miserably limiting...

I just spoke to a guy who runs a cultural center--a kind of "private club".

I.e., you get as much culture as you can pay for...

In his defense, if the membership fee is low, it could be something of a public entity...

But the very idea of a private club for culture is problematic.

Culture should be for everyone. If not, then you don't have culture. You have elitist in-breeding.

As I said to the well-meaning individual who operates a private club for culture: say what you will about Eastern Europe and Communism or Socialism or whatever you want to call it: they were right about one thing--every community, every neighborhood should have a cultural center, place where people could go because they were living in that community---not a fee-based club.....

And the communists were right in another way: they provided public transportation.....

free speech in the over militarized north

let's see
there's this State Department spokesperson
who says something
half way true?


No, at best ten percent true.
torture of Bradley Manning stupid?
stupid?
Sorry, that is really, really not strong enough---hence, 10percent true....

But that's too much truth for the USA.

So the guy gets fired. (Oh yeah, he resigned "voluntarily"....yeah, right,
and the USA purchased California and Texas from Mexico-----after invading
the country, killing the men, raping the women, and burning down buildings....)

free speech
ha
ha
ha

speak the truth? you could lose your job....

silly and misguided

what a silly and misguided country

girl is banned

woman is ok

(or : "girl" is banned, etc.)

yet women who work in the home,

without whom the economy would not function

do not get the respect they deserve

and their work is under-appreciated

(No. Sorry. "Mothers' Day" just doesn't do it....)

but it's easy to focus on random occurrences of "girl"

sounds heard

thoughts not discerned

what a silly country

how misguided.....

poor women?

more and more ....

poor children?

more and more...

you could wipe out all occurrences of 'girl' and none of that would occur

indeed I seem to recall reading about how 'woman' was attested for a pre-puberty female...

silly

noise, noise, noise

of course the local inhabitants don't notice the noises that cars make
because they live in their cars

and what about the noisy truck selling ice cream
playing idiotic music
over-played popular tunes?

up and down the street

ad nauseam

get me out of here

happy days are here again

THE RICH DON'T USE PUBLIC SERVICES.....

"The Institute for Fiscal Studies in Britain put out a report saying that by 2017, the average British family will be $4,500 poorer by way of wage cuts and cuts to the social services on which they've historically arrived.

At the same time that report came out, the Sunday Times did their list of richest people in Britain, which said: "The rich have come through the recession with flying colors. The rest of the country is going to have to face spending cuts. But it has little effect on the rich, because they don't use public services." The class dynamics could not be clearer.

I'm not going to tell you the details about the cuts that are happening in places like California, Ohio, Minnesota and Arizona, because you know these stories much better than me."

The above was cut and pasted from David McNally's "The human recession" at Socialistworker.org

http://socialistworker.org/2010/07/13/the-human-recession

BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

conversation overheard

concerned citizen 1: I am so worried about our government budget. What should we cut?

concerned citizen 2: Well, those universities don't do much except produce trouble-makers.....

concerned citizen 1: I know just what you mean.

CC2: you know, those people who make us listen to advertising and see stupid commercials. They actually go to school to learn to do that crap!

CC1: Really? I thought that universities just produce atheists and communists.

CC2: They do that too, but mostly they produce business management, advertising, and marketing and that sort of major.

CC1: Oh, but those are the people who got us into this mess in the first place.

CC2: Yeah.

CC1: Damn right!

CC2: Yeah, that's what they should get rid of!

CC1: The sooner, the better!

Modus Ponens/Tollens and Naomi Klein

I was interested to hear Naomi Klein giving a rather long-winded account of how some groups in America reject the very idea of global warming because they see that dealing with reality would mean abandoning cherished dogma about the distribution of the surplus......aka "economics' (vulgarly said)...

In a time when the ruling class is determined to destroy public universities, and whereas Philosophy Departments are also a victim....

IT is worth pointing out that were knowledge of baby logic more widespread--and baby logic is taught in Philosophy Departments at public universities--Klein might have simply said

What's modus ponens to one is modus tollens to another.....

Modus Ponens

If anthropocentric climate change is real Then we need to change our economic system.

Anthropocentric climate change is real.

Therefore, we need to change....

Modus Tollens

If a.c.c. is real, then we need a new economic system.

We don't need a new economic system.

Ergo, climate change is not real.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/9/naomi_klein_tim_dechristopher_guilty_ver

Hitler and the "art" of persuasion....

In the past year I've viewed a few movies for the sake of my stay-at-home elderly parents.

And one of the less pleasant aspects of that has been the "extras" which they put on DVD's--usually some sort of hero worship directed at the film maker and actors....

In the case of "Downfall" I noticed that some people connected to the film seemed to express something like awe or astonishment at Hitler's influence, or his ability to influence.

However, I think they were making a mistake. They confused the fact of influence (as in a storm or an explosion) with being in control (knowing the consequences of the forces one unleashed).

(Reference: I recall that Terry Penner used to refer to a passage in Aristotle with a similar distinction.)

Of course, my remark assumes that if you unleash forces that ultimately backfire and destroy you and your plans, then you never were in control. But that seems like a reasonable assumption....

the USA is a backwards country

the other day, waiting in the doctor's office, I viewed a drama about a psychopathic killer.

Not my taste, but I was in a waiting room dominated by a "large screen" tv.

The creators' of the drama attempted to recreate the killer's obsession with the drowing of a woman. I did not watch carefully, but I did find myself watching a scene in which the killer watches a woman drown, a scene in which the killer enjoyed seeing the woman "give up".

I've carried that scene in my memory, and I am angry at the manipulation involved, angry at the makers of the drama, and angry at the doctor and his office manager for imposing this unpleasant spectacle on me.

Yet, when I purchase a movie with even a brief glimpse of a woman's breasts or bottom,
the DVD comes with a warning label.

I dare say: no one has yet been ruined by a brief glance at a woman's breasts or bottom, or
indeed, vagina.

That's not what ruins people. Poverty and inequality do. Lack of access to education does.

And, what's more: the drama about the killer had absolutely no insights to offer. It was stale, hackneyed, cliched. The attempt to view the killer's mind did not take place in a context where it could bring any further insights. It occurred in the context of a familiar style of narrative with little or no novelty or creativity.,

Yet, that sick little drama was funded. There is ample money available for that sort of crap.

And there was money for the doctor to purchase the large screen TV...

all in a time where, we are told, the "economy" is not doing well....

the case of the Hitlerin office manager

I've written before about unpleasantness in the waiting rooms...

televisions turned on...

no allowed to be turned off...

and no one allowed to change the channel...

very unpleasant

not considerate

and today whilst visiting my father's cardiologist--who I can only praise for his openness,

mildness and professionalism--I had an unpleasant encounter with the so-called

"Office Manger" Frau Hitlerova

Well, she could have taken a page from Hitler's book in the German film "Downfall"

with a portrayal of Hitler by Bruno Ganz.

"It is my will!" said Hitler--or words to that effect

So, too Frau Office Manager said

"The TV goes on when I arrive and off when I leave."

with the unspoken message:

no questions allowed

no suggestions

no discussion

love it or leave it

IT IS MY WILL

how surprising that so Hitleresque an attitude should appear in the land of the free,

in El Paso, TExas....

as if to provide a sharp contrast to the easy-going doctor

No, this woman put me in my place.

And I went away muttering and cursing.

Yes, I would say that this is another mundane example of fascism in America,

but then, you know that political scientists and philosophers don't like it when

I talk that way.....

But they are not dealing with the office manager, are they?

And another thing: why the hell should there be advertisements for junk food in a doctor's office?

And another thing:

I've been very impressed (negatively) with the local health don't care system.

My mother recently hassled rudely over the phone,

my mother who is eighty four years old and has worked very day of her life....

And a local Tenet Healthcare Corp run hospital cannot seem to get its shit together.

six pm the day before my father's operation I get a call about a missing piece of

paperwork! Hey it's not my paperwork! I'm not the doctor!

And the operation is scheduled for eleven thirty in the morning the next day.

HOW VERY UNIMPRESSIVE

what a pain in the ass

I've said it before: That's what happens when you put profits first, courtesy I gather of

the influence of the likes of City BAnk...

oh dear

oh dear

am I going to say it,

I think I can't stop myself:

why not try socialism?

why not try democracy in the workplace?

why not have workers run the factories?

Get rid of managers in the schools.

Get rid of administrators in the colleges and universities.

And Frau Office Manager could be one of many equal citizens..... including patients --who would decide collectively about tv policies... (is that really too much to ask?)

oh dear,

what a dream....

facebook fascism and international woman's day

My mother has worked all of her life--and at the age of eighty-four, she continues to work--in the home, unpaid labor, but real labor.

My father, by contrast, has retired--and my mother continues to take care of him.

I have been helping my mother, so I too have been working in the home, and it doesn't count for the official statistics. I am not part of the "market".

But I do work.

I do contribute.

However facebook will not allow me to specify my position as "unpaid labor in the home".

Indeed, facebook bans other categories..... Hence my term 'fascism'--not used the way that political scientists my like, but, nonetheless, it has a point...

So, on this day when women should be celebrated, let us recognize the incoherence of the dominant economic theory in this region (as in so many others)....

Note
The economist Nancy Folbre has more articulate things to say about this issue of women's labor in the home....(more articulate than what I've said)...but even she just mentions in passing the case of care for the elderly....

Wim Wenders, "Untergang"

[modified 11 Feb. 2012]

Brief summary: I agree with Wenders' reaction to the film, and also fault Wikipedia (the version at the original date of writing) for failing to understand Wenders' critique. I myself also express dissatisfaction with the film. (added 11 Feb. 2012)

I just saw the film "Downfall", which depicts Hitler's final days.

Prior to viewing it I took a peak at the Wikipedia article on the film, and discovered Wim Wender's assessment of it.

Myself, I don't see the point of the film. Yes, it is upsetting to see violence, and the violence in the film is far less than the actuality. But, for insights I would turn rather to books or other films.

Nonetheless, I've been thinking about what Wenders has to say (insofar as I've understood his criticism--reading him in the original German with my less than complete knowledge of that language), and I've put together my own take on what he says.

So far as the English language Wikipedia article goes,

The Wikipedia article is incomplete or unsatisfying insofar as the writer/s simply says/say

that Wenders made a technical analysis of the film (or something to that effect.)

But it's not so "technical" that a naive viewer like myself (or, dare I say, you) can't understand it.

Consider the psychologist's notion of "scripts" or "schemas"--handy and familiar routines, or chunks of rules/abstract notions put together for understanding reality.

If I know someone is a father, e.g., that structures my experience, in advance, so to speak, of actual experiencing.

So, too if I now a building is a restaurant....

So, too, the makers of "Untergang" began with the mundane event of a job interview--preceded, however, by an interview with an old woman, who happened to be depicted in the film, and that's important to mention..l..

Nonetheless, by focusing on the job interview, and the young woman who wanted a job,

and turning Hitler into the boss, and a not so bad one (it seems).....the film did effect a degree of normalization of the man and the historical events.....

She was just like us: looking for a job. Her boss just happened to be Hitler....

No, that doesn't sound right.

A defender of the film might like to emphasize the current day interviews with the older woman, a woman who said: Yes I could have known....(known about how evil Hitler was....)...

But, it is a question of emphasis, and the power of the cinematic depiction with actors, versus the current day interview.

I am inclined to agree with Wenders about the overall effect, namely, the film tended to trivialize Hitler, to frame him as an employer.

For a more profound understanding of World War Two or Hitler, I would have to turn elsewhere...

A psychologically deeper approach is found, e.g., in the recently published novel by Keith Oatley, "Therefore Choose", and if I were to single out a quality that makes that book different from the film, it would be the tension and discomfort I experienced in reading the book.

I wasn't sufficiently uncomfortable while viewing "Downfall".....

Movies? Just now I don't know.

NOTE

Slight modifications added February 11, 2012. (I have not checked Wikipedia to see if there is a newer version of the article.)

El Paso's Bad Weather

Once again the weather is shitty: blowing dust.

Many (perhaps most?) people I meet suffer from an allergy or a cold...

Yeah, what a lovely place.... if you are a cactus or a snake....

Vienna's Opera Ball?....

Let me see if I get this right.
A young woman slept with Berlusconi. He paid her.
She was at that time "under age". In Italy, if you're eighteen, it's legal to sleep with someone for money,...
(Well, is that the right way to put it? What is legal/permitted here? Paying someone ? or receiving money? .....)

Now that woman went to the Vienna opera ball, and she, err, Google translate says "eclipsed"....
the ball... (I am looking at a Czech headline, and I don't say I know Czech well.)
She cast a shadow?

Well, let's be clear. If anyone's done wrong here, it was Berlusconi.

As for the woman in question, better that we ask why she sought that way of earning money.

As for such holy events as Opera Balls, what are they really? An excuse for the privileged to
flaunt their wealth? That is their essence---excess and privilege..

So, when I think of it that way.... well it just shows what Berlusconi is all about.... Such balls are throw-backs, anachronisms belonging to the glories of empires and the thievery which is aristocracy..... It amazes me that Europeans have not outgrown them....I don't think the lady was out of place....

after-thought:
on a slightly more reflective level, I'm inclined to say that sex per se is neither good nor bad,
but it depends upon all of the details.....and all of this gossip is, well, just that, talk on the surface of things....

en passant: all news programs, including Al Jazeera (and most especially CNN and the BBC) effect a certain FLATTENING of events, those rhythmic voices, made-up faces, and even pretty women. None of it serves us in attempting to understand the course of events. It is a medium a manner of presentation which fights against our understanding of reality. Yet, I know of no solution.

RETURNING TO THE ABOVE ENTRY:

I leave the after-thought though it is inadequate. I flee from the philosopher's measurement of right and wrong with careful argument--though, there too, one can learn much. But, I can think of no better recourse than an allusion to the character of Professor Avenarius, created by Milan Kundera--he who complained that the true friend of the erotic, the true hedonist, would not care if he were seen in public with a beautiful woman.....(So, by that test, both the Italian and the Austrian businessmen fail to measure up.....)

footnote to Libya

message for Britain, the USA, France, and anyone else who has supplied Gaddafi

with arms:

his crimes are your crimes

bad reporting in Wisconsin?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022803518.html

seems to fit what I saw the last time I took a look at a Wisconsin paper....

what kind of country is this?

via Brian Leiter's blog ("The Leiter Reports") I came across the following

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022803518.html

("My life as a communist", by Bill McKibben, Tuesday, March 1, 2011, Washington Post)

I draw the conclusion that Glenn Beck has absolutely no respect for the truth.

As I'd already come to believe that GB is willing to incite people to violent acts directed at individuals who, it seems, have in some way offended the sensibilities of GB, and

that those sensibilities have little to do with reality...

I found myself wondering:

What kind of country is this?

What kind of country is it that becomes apoplectic at the sight of a naked breast

or any other piece of human anatomy connected to reproduction or waste excretion....

And considers the mention or sight of such things as "obscene" and --to judge by

the reaction---dreadful, shocking, titillating!

What sort of country is this?

My answer: a very, very sick one.....

USA's very much LESS THAN BEST Health (don't) Care system

My father had to go for some tests at the hospital.

My mother had the duty of filling out numerous forms.

And, then, prior to the test, the nurse needed my father's history.

Hello? Are there no computers in this country? How many times have I been asked these questions? How many times? Almost every time my father needs some health care.....

Is it technologically impossible to share information? There are so many god damn ass holes who are happy to sell personal information about me and you! But there is no info. when it comes to health care.

What the f. is wrong?

Well, note in passing:

At the very same hospital, there was a LARGE SCREEN TV (that's a real necessity)

and there was a POLICEMAN

Oh, yes, let's get technical: He was a member of the BORDER PATROL.

Now that does make me feel safe.

What a country! sigh. Yawn. Excuse me while I throw up.

Signs of Spring?

There's a pounding noise in my head.

My neighbor (too friendly a word that!) is playing his music.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

It's one thirty in the afternoon, and I really don't want to hear this, having not gotten enough sleep last night....

What is it about Americans? The weather changes and they think: time to play "my" music LOUD!

What disease is it?

Get me out of here!

hating El Paso Texas

Gentle Reader,
At the risk of boring you and repeating myself,
It may yet be a good time for me to review a few of the more unpleasant truths
about my life in this benighted outpost on the edge of a mighty empire....

The weather is not healthy.
The living conditions are not healthy.
Sun alone does not make health.
Needed too are such ingredients as social solidarity and fresh fruits and vegetables.

But for daily unpleasantness, it is hard to beat the misery of dry skin,
cuts on your fingertips springing up overnight at the edges,
oh so painful,

And then there is the allergy which I seem to have acquired,
and have endured for three or six months,
getting worse every day,
making my head spin,
filling my throat and nasal passages with a stubborn white fluid...

an allergy to what?

Perhaps the idiotic forced air heating system,
perhaps the omnipresent air conditioning systems favored by all of the local merchants
and medical authorities...
(called by some beloved fictional characters "quacks"---hence, that fictional calling
can't be taken seriously by you)

all in all,
an ugliness only equalled by the more magnificent ugliness of the
local version of USA-style wealth inequality,
manifested by a certain tone of voice used in identifying the
region of the city from whence one comes...

manifesting itself in such recent appearances as the explanation
by a member of the local water mafia, who explained that they
could not shut off the water in regions dense with hospitals and
medical facilities, who failed to note that precisely those regions
happened as well to be "high rent" districts.

The places where the richer people lived were better
served by a so-called public service... i.e., a so-called public service which,
miracle of miracles, served the broad public in a discriminating fashion,
favoring the more monied among the public.

No, gentle reader, it was not Karl Marx who said that we are all created equal,
it was one of those holy men deemed a "founding father"......
But, you see how wrong he was....