On a sunday afternoon my peace is disturbed by the sound of high-speed jets. Really not at all a pleasant sound.
I had thought that by living outside of the USA, I would, at least be somewhat further away from mindless celebrations of real weapons of mass murder.
I was wrong.............
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Brian Leiter's Sincere Attempt to Help the Younger Philosopher
Is there any other form of comfort besides bourgoise comfort?
---H. Kureishi, paraphrased from memory
Last night, when I should have been sleeping, I found myself browing through a discussion thread at Brian Leiter's Leiter Reports.
One part of me returned to my miserable past as a graduate student.
One part of me was rooted in the present and wanted to know why I've ended up where I am today.
But I noticed two broad patterns, which I shall call (inaccurately) the "hippie" and the "professional".
Professionalism always strikes me as smug--much as if someone were trying to squeeze into a box too small for them, while constantly smiling and saying "I can do it!".
Hippies, on the other hand, always sound very silly, like Paul Coelho when he tries to be wise.
I am, of course, simultaneously hippie and failed professional-wanna-be.
But there is something pathetic about the whole business, and I can only speculate that this is what has happened to education at the graduate level on account of "Neo-Liberalism".
About professionals, I have the strong impression that they could have been excellent Communists had they lived in Czechoslovakia after World War Two.
And one should never forget Kundera's remark that the most salient property of that group was their enthusiasm..........
I shall now, with great enthusiasm, attempt to squeeze myself into this box which has been carefully constructed by our capitalist social engineers so that it is just a little bit too small.......
---H. Kureishi, paraphrased from memory
Last night, when I should have been sleeping, I found myself browing through a discussion thread at Brian Leiter's Leiter Reports.
One part of me returned to my miserable past as a graduate student.
One part of me was rooted in the present and wanted to know why I've ended up where I am today.
But I noticed two broad patterns, which I shall call (inaccurately) the "hippie" and the "professional".
Professionalism always strikes me as smug--much as if someone were trying to squeeze into a box too small for them, while constantly smiling and saying "I can do it!".
Hippies, on the other hand, always sound very silly, like Paul Coelho when he tries to be wise.
I am, of course, simultaneously hippie and failed professional-wanna-be.
But there is something pathetic about the whole business, and I can only speculate that this is what has happened to education at the graduate level on account of "Neo-Liberalism".
About professionals, I have the strong impression that they could have been excellent Communists had they lived in Czechoslovakia after World War Two.
And one should never forget Kundera's remark that the most salient property of that group was their enthusiasm..........
I shall now, with great enthusiasm, attempt to squeeze myself into this box which has been carefully constructed by our capitalist social engineers so that it is just a little bit too small.......
Monday, May 13, 2013
on reading
Thoughts on Reading Němci, by Jakuba Katalpa
There are so many sad stories to tell.
Why?
Do we feel better afterwards?
Do we live better afterwards?
Every mother and every son,
Every lover and every daughter,
has a sad story to tell.
What else can we do?
To relive what we have lost,
And save what we did not understand,
while we were living it.
Every father,
and every son,
has a sad story to tell.
14 May 2013
Note: I purchased this book after reading a review. The reviewer remarked that because the book was long and had so many different characters, probably no one would read it-- these days we don't have that sort of time.
I am sure the reviewer meant no harm by the remark; but he might as well have said that today we've not got time to admit our ignorance of the most important things, or that we've not got time to understand more than we do. A sad sort of testament.
There are so many sad stories to tell.
Why?
Do we feel better afterwards?
Do we live better afterwards?
Every mother and every son,
Every lover and every daughter,
has a sad story to tell.
What else can we do?
To relive what we have lost,
And save what we did not understand,
while we were living it.
Every father,
and every son,
has a sad story to tell.
14 May 2013
Note: I purchased this book after reading a review. The reviewer remarked that because the book was long and had so many different characters, probably no one would read it-- these days we don't have that sort of time.
I am sure the reviewer meant no harm by the remark; but he might as well have said that today we've not got time to admit our ignorance of the most important things, or that we've not got time to understand more than we do. A sad sort of testament.
the ugliness of technology
I trudge down the stairs to the basement to retrieve my wet laundry.
I drag it up two flights of stairs to the elevators.
Once the elevator arrives at the stairs just below (but not exactly at)
my floor, the elevator stops, and a nasty, ugly buzzer sounds.
Why? Do I need to be told to get out? Why must I be assaulted by that sound?
Does it help me? Could some intelligence imagine that I need to hear that sound?
Or else what? I would not understand that it's time to get out? Can someone be that stupid?
I take the bus. It is high off the ground. Sometimes when I leave it,
I feel that I am falling out of it to the hard pavement below.
As I leave the bus, again a nasty,ugly buzzing noise occurs. I can imagine some
clever -wannabe engineer designing that obnoxious sound---to warn deaf
people that the doors are about to close. After all, he's helping the elderly avoid injury!
Or, is he? Or is he helping the bus company make cheap, shabby, junky buses?
Why not make doors that close more gently? Rather than doors that slam shut.
Not to mention the obnoxious advertising everywhere---the worst of it in the windows or covering the windows from the outside.---And abuse, an assault, a sign of contempt and disrespect which no one seems to notice.
Someone is about to leave the bus. They press their plastic card against the reader and an
ugly mechanical voice sounds. Again ugly. Again obnoxious.
Someone enters the bus. Again that ugly voice. And for each person entering or leaving, my ears are tortured by obnoxious sounds.
And the buses are crowded, cheap, creaky......austerity, austerity, austerity..... and stupidity ....half-thought out so-called inventions assault us everywhere.
I drag it up two flights of stairs to the elevators.
Once the elevator arrives at the stairs just below (but not exactly at)
my floor, the elevator stops, and a nasty, ugly buzzer sounds.
Why? Do I need to be told to get out? Why must I be assaulted by that sound?
Does it help me? Could some intelligence imagine that I need to hear that sound?
Or else what? I would not understand that it's time to get out? Can someone be that stupid?
I take the bus. It is high off the ground. Sometimes when I leave it,
I feel that I am falling out of it to the hard pavement below.
As I leave the bus, again a nasty,ugly buzzing noise occurs. I can imagine some
clever -wannabe engineer designing that obnoxious sound---to warn deaf
people that the doors are about to close. After all, he's helping the elderly avoid injury!
Or, is he? Or is he helping the bus company make cheap, shabby, junky buses?
Why not make doors that close more gently? Rather than doors that slam shut.
Not to mention the obnoxious advertising everywhere---the worst of it in the windows or covering the windows from the outside.---And abuse, an assault, a sign of contempt and disrespect which no one seems to notice.
Someone is about to leave the bus. They press their plastic card against the reader and an
ugly mechanical voice sounds. Again ugly. Again obnoxious.
Someone enters the bus. Again that ugly voice. And for each person entering or leaving, my ears are tortured by obnoxious sounds.
And the buses are crowded, cheap, creaky......austerity, austerity, austerity..... and stupidity ....half-thought out so-called inventions assault us everywhere.
The Grouch Reads
The Grouch Reads......The Endless Crisis; How Monopoly-Finance Capital Produces Stagnation and Upheaval from the USA to China, by John Bellamy Foster and Roert W. McChesney
Last night I was reading TEC. I was surprised to learn that there are a significant numer of economists who clearly recognized the tendency toward an increasingly small number of companies running things.
It's not exactly monopoly, but it's enough of an "uncompetitive" market to matter.
Two or three large companies can, in effect, set the prices. The larger company sets the trend by high pricing. The other companies won't offer their goods at lower prices because companies have learned that such warfare is bad for profits. (There are interesting details which I will omit for now.)
But the students I meet seem to believe in some sort of perfect competition, andol the idea of monopolies or oligopoly is nowhere in sight. (Incidentally, economists who use those terms should send a check to Greece to cover the intellectual property right rental fee.)
So as BF and M tell the story, economics has, consequently moved further and further from the real world.
As, I said, I'm leaving things out---like an interesting quote from Buffett saying that the ability to control prices is more important than any sort of managerial talent.
Here, in Central Europe, the Unreality Principle reigns supreme. I've heard countless times that the Crisis is not serious locally. And students have never heard the word "austerity"
Yeah, right.
That's why the public services are so very generous!---Buses and trains are never, never crowded. The toilets in the trains are always clean and........You get the idea.
And the local government did not axe fifty or so government agencies, and they did not gloat about it when they did so. Nor did the local financial newspaper nod its head, sharing in the gloating....
None of that ever happened.
Last night I was reading TEC. I was surprised to learn that there are a significant numer of economists who clearly recognized the tendency toward an increasingly small number of companies running things.
It's not exactly monopoly, but it's enough of an "uncompetitive" market to matter.
Two or three large companies can, in effect, set the prices. The larger company sets the trend by high pricing. The other companies won't offer their goods at lower prices because companies have learned that such warfare is bad for profits. (There are interesting details which I will omit for now.)
But the students I meet seem to believe in some sort of perfect competition, andol the idea of monopolies or oligopoly is nowhere in sight. (Incidentally, economists who use those terms should send a check to Greece to cover the intellectual property right rental fee.)
So as BF and M tell the story, economics has, consequently moved further and further from the real world.
As, I said, I'm leaving things out---like an interesting quote from Buffett saying that the ability to control prices is more important than any sort of managerial talent.
Here, in Central Europe, the Unreality Principle reigns supreme. I've heard countless times that the Crisis is not serious locally. And students have never heard the word "austerity"
Yeah, right.
That's why the public services are so very generous!---Buses and trains are never, never crowded. The toilets in the trains are always clean and........You get the idea.
And the local government did not axe fifty or so government agencies, and they did not gloat about it when they did so. Nor did the local financial newspaper nod its head, sharing in the gloating....
None of that ever happened.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Crisis Denial
Crisis Denial--It's all the rage in the Czech Republic---at least among the wise.
And, here again, there's a word in Czech that one needs to properly describe the trend: bagatelizovat, to play down, or trivialize---And, while I know nothing of the etymology, I can't help imagining that what's happening is that a bagatele is being played to the tune of human suffering.....
Recently, I spoke with two pleasant Czech economists. As is my wont, I could not resist raising the topic of the Crisis. One of them responded with an allusion to the words of their President (also an Economist): There is not a global crisis. It only affects parts of Europe and America.
Well, errr, it afflicts the most advanced capitalist economies. So, there's something of significance in that. I also suspect that a detailed examination of what's going on in Germany or China would show that their economies (and the well-being of many people) have been affected. That is, however, a controversial claim.
But, what I'd really like to say is: You say there is no world crisis. So, what is it? A merely regional matter? Tell that to the new suicides in the USA, or Greece, or Spain, or their survivors. I don't think that they'd find much solace in the thought that the economic collapse is merely a regional matter.
A recent report in the USA points out that the suicide rate in the USA has increased. Experts hesitate to blame the crisis; but I do not.
Here's a link to a short BBC story about suicide in the USA:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22391293
"Panic of 1873": A Black Friday in Vienna triggered the first of the - so far! - three Great Depressions of world capitalism. When will we have the last one?"--Picture and commentary courtesy of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung/NYC
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=643913352289938&set=pb.515346938479914.-2207520000.1368351150.&type=3&theater
And, here again, there's a word in Czech that one needs to properly describe the trend: bagatelizovat, to play down, or trivialize---And, while I know nothing of the etymology, I can't help imagining that what's happening is that a bagatele is being played to the tune of human suffering.....
Recently, I spoke with two pleasant Czech economists. As is my wont, I could not resist raising the topic of the Crisis. One of them responded with an allusion to the words of their President (also an Economist): There is not a global crisis. It only affects parts of Europe and America.
Well, errr, it afflicts the most advanced capitalist economies. So, there's something of significance in that. I also suspect that a detailed examination of what's going on in Germany or China would show that their economies (and the well-being of many people) have been affected. That is, however, a controversial claim.
But, what I'd really like to say is: You say there is no world crisis. So, what is it? A merely regional matter? Tell that to the new suicides in the USA, or Greece, or Spain, or their survivors. I don't think that they'd find much solace in the thought that the economic collapse is merely a regional matter.
A recent report in the USA points out that the suicide rate in the USA has increased. Experts hesitate to blame the crisis; but I do not.
Here's a link to a short BBC story about suicide in the USA:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22391293
"Panic of 1873": A Black Friday in Vienna triggered the first of the - so far! - three Great Depressions of world capitalism. When will we have the last one?"--Picture and commentary courtesy of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung/NYC
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=643913352289938&set=pb.515346938479914.-2207520000.1368351150.&type=3&theater
Saturday, May 11, 2013
shameless self-promotion
If RP Wolff, can do it why not me?
http://www.amazon.com/Neurotic-Exotic-Land-ebook/dp/B007AVZVW4/ref=la_B007CFCEXW_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368263867&sr=1-1
The book is largely set in Bratislava, and is (sort of ) an action-adventure story.
Perhaps: WoodyAllen meets James Bond......
(RPW donates any funds his publications generate; I won't do that. I've got two elderly parents who could use help.)
http://www.amazon.com/Neurotic-Exotic-Land-ebook/dp/B007AVZVW4/ref=la_B007CFCEXW_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368263867&sr=1-1
The book is largely set in Bratislava, and is (sort of ) an action-adventure story.
Perhaps: WoodyAllen meets James Bond......
(RPW donates any funds his publications generate; I won't do that. I've got two elderly parents who could use help.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
