SUGGESTED LITERATURE, POETRY AND PROSE

Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999).

Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, The Scattered Papers of Penelope: New and Selected Poems, edited by Karen Van Dyck, translated from the Greek (Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2009) (From "Lipu": " 'The good thing about desire / is that when it disappears / the value of the desired object / disappears too.' " Id. at 97, 97-98).

Amanda Coe, What They Do In the Dark: A Novel (New York: Norton, 2012).

Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire (New York: Scholastic Press, 2009).

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (New York: Scholastic Press, 2008).

Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay (New York: Scholastic Press, 2010).

Amber Dermont, The Starboard Sea: A Novel (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012) (See Eleanor Henderson, "In Knots," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 3/4/2012.).

Natalie Dykstra, Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012) (See Brenda Wineapple, "The Missing Pages," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 3/4/2012).


Paula Fox, Desperate Characters, with an introduction by Jonathan Franzen (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1970, 1999).

Venus Khoury-Ghata, A House at the Edge of Tears, translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker (Saint Paul. MN: Graywolf Press, 2005) (From the backcover: "In the city of Beirut, five shabby dwellings circle a courtyard with a pomegranate tree weeping blood red fruit. The residents hear screams in the night as a boy is beaten by his father--a punishment for masturbating in his sleep. A crime not worthy of the punishment: the neighbors gossip and decide that he must have tried to rape his sisters. The poems he writes are perhaps an even greater crime to his father, but ultimately a gift to his eldest sister, who narrates their story with a combination of brutal truth and stunning prose.").

Venus Khoury-Ghata, She Says, translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker (Saint Paul. MN: Graywolf Press, 2001, 2003) (poems).

Liz Moore, Heft: A Novel (New York: W. W. Norton, 2012) ("I have always loved aggrieved & unbeautiful women. I have always loved beautiful women too, but it is the unbeautiful ones that haunt me & find me & abide, whose images I see before me when I go to sleep." Id. at 319.).


Toni Morrison, Home: A Novel (New York: Knopf, 2012) (See Christopher Benfey, "Ghosts in the twilight," NYRB, 7/12/2012; and Leah Hager Cohen, "Point of Return," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 5/20/2012).

Anne Rice, The Wolf Gift: A Novel (New York: Knopf, 2012).

Anuradha Roy, The Folded Earth: A Novel (New York: Free Press, 2011) (See Andrea Thompson, "Peaks," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 6/3/2012.).

Anne Tyler, The Beginner's Goodbye: A Novel (New York: Knopf, 2012) (I don't know why--though, perhaps, it is all those painted-toed women at yoga/asanas class--, but this passage made be laugh. "Danika was our designer, the designer preceding Irene. My father had hired her as his final act before handing over the business, and all at once I thought I saw why. I said, 'Danika! She wears toenail polish!' 'What's wrong with that?' my mother asked. 'I always feel uneasy about women who polish their toenails. It makes me wonder what they're hiding.' " Id. at 121. Also see, Joyce Carol Oates, "The Ghost of Desire," NYRB, 6/7/2012.).


Ellen Ullman, The Bug: A Novel (New York: Anchor Books, 2004).

Ellen Ullman, By Blood: A Novel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012) (See Parul Sehgal, "Secret Hearer," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 2/26/2012).


Ellen Ullman, Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents (San Francisco: City Lights Books 1997) ("The relationship between person and machine is completely reversed on the Internet. The Net is the knowledge repository, and the user can only search it." "The same could be said of a library, except the libraries have something the Internet considers nearly anathema: librarians. The current reigning ideology of the Internet is strictly opposed to the idea of a librarian's overriding sensibility, opting instead for the notion that anything, in and of itself, is worthy content. So it is entirely up to the end user to distinguish junk from literature. Hence the rapid proliferation of search engines. It is interesting to note that, over time, the search engines themselves are beginning to incorporate biases and strategies that could be characterized as ordering sensibilities. However, these strategies are not in the public domain, in a sense making each search engine a private card catalog, a personal collection." Id. at 78. From the backcover: "Here is a candid account of the life of a software engineer who runs her own computer consulting business out of a live-work loft in San Francisco's Multimedia Gulch. Immersed in the abstract world of information, algorithms, and networks, she would like to give in to the seductions of the programmer's world, where 'weird logic dreamers' like herself live 'close to the machine.' Still, she is keenly aware that body and soul are not mechanical: desire, love, and the need to communicate face to face don't easily fit into lines of code or clicks in a Web browser. At every turn, she finds she cannot ignore the social and philosophical repercussion of her work. As Ullman sees it, the cool world of cyberculture is neither the death of civilization nor its salvation--it is the vulnerable creation of people who are not so sure of just where they're taking us all.").

Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones: A Novel (New York: Bloomsbury, 2011) (See Parul Sehgal, "The Wind and the Rain," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 1/1/2012).

Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (New York: Grove Press, 2011) ("I had no one to help me, but the T. S. Eliot helped me." "So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn't be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language--and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers--a language powerful enough to say how it is." "It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place." Id. at 40. "I did not realise that when money becomes the core value, then education drives towards utility or that the life of the mind will not be counted as a good unless it produces measurable results. That public services will no longer be important. That an alternative life to getting and spending will become very difficult as cheap housing disappears. That when communities are destroyed only misery and intolerance are left." "I did not know that Thatcherism would fund its economic miracle by selling off all our nationalised assets and industries." "I did not realise the consequences of privatising society." Id. at 140.  Also see Kathryn Harrison, "Mummy Dearest," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 3/25/2012; and Joyce Carol Oates, "In a Panic About Love," NYRB, 5/24/2012.).

IMPERMANENCE, UNSATISFACTORINESS AND NONSELF

Ayya Khema, Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path, with a Foreword by Zoketsu Norman Fischer (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1987, 2001) ("Impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, nonself are the three characteristics to be found in all that exists. Unless we identify them within ourselves, we will never know what the Buddha taught. Mediation is the way to find out. The rest are just words. This is the action." Id. at 9. "Most people are looking for someone to love them. Some people find a few people to love them and then maybe love back. But some people are unfortunate and cannot find anyone. They become bitter and resentful. Yet really it works exactly the other way around. If we ourselves are loving, then we find innumerable loving people around, because everybody wants to be loved. That someone loves us doesn't mean that we are loving. The other person is feeling the love. We don't feel a thing., All we feel is gratification that somebody has found us lovable. That is another ego support, to make the ego bigger. But loving others goes in the direction of making the ego smaller." Id. at 33. "Skeptical doubt arises in people who are unable to love. To commit ourself to one ideal, to commit ourself to one path, to commit ourself to one spiritual activity, we have to be able to give ourselves wholly. If we cannot fully love, we cannot give ourselves fully. Where the spiritual path is concerned, we have to understand it and love it. Only then can we give ourselves to it wholeheartedly. If we do not give ourselves to the path with our whole being, it's as if one is married yet constantly thinking there might be some better marriage partner to be found. One can't have a very good marriage that way. We have to commit ourselves totally. Also if we are married and don't understand the other person at all, yet we love them, there isn't going to be a great deal of communication and communion. If we understand the other one, but don't love that person, the marriage is likewise a disaster." Id. at 74.).

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, What Makes You Not a Buddhist (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2008) ("Broadly speaking, wisdom comes from a mind that has what the Buddhists call 'right view.' But one doesn't even have to consider oneself a Buddhist to have right view. Ultimately it is this view that determines our motivation and action. It is the view that guides us on the path of Buddhism. If we can adopt wholesome behaviors in addition to the four seals, it makes us even better Buddhists. But what makes you not a Buddhist?" "If you cannot accept that all compounded or fabricated things are impermanent, if you believe that there is some essential substance or concept that is permanent, then you are not a Buddhist." "If you cannot accept that all emotions are pain, if you believe that actually some emotions are purely pleasurable, then you are not a Buddhist." "If you cannot accept that all phenomena are illusory and empty, if you believe that certain things do exist inherently, then you are not a Buddhist." 'And if you think that enlightenment exists within the spheres of time, space, and power, then you are not a Buddhist." Id. at 4-5. "Personal relationships are the most volatile and perfect examples of assembled phenomena and impermanence. Some couples believe that they can manage their relationship 'until death do us part' by reading books or consulting with a relationship doctor. Knowing that men are from Mars and women are from Venus provides the key to only a few obvious causes and conditions of disharmony, however. To a certain extent these small understandings may help create temporary peace, but they don't address the many hidden factors that are part of the relationship's assembly. If we could see the unseen, then maybe we could enjoy the perfect relationship--or maybe we would never start one in the first place." Id. at 25-26. "one is a Buddhist if he or she accepts the following four truths: All compounded things are impermanent. All emotions are pain. All things have no inherent existence. Nirvana is beyond concepts. These four statements, spoken by the Buddha himself, are known as 'the four seals.' Id. at 3. "The message of the four seals is meant to be understood literally, not metaphorically or mystically--and meant to be taken seriously. But the seals are not edicts or commandments. With a little contemplation one sees that there is nothing moralistic or ritualistic about them. There is no mention of good or bad behavior. They are secular truths based on wisdom, and wisdom is the primary concern of a Buddhist. Morals and ethics are secondary." Id. at 4. "As long as you accept and practice these four truths [or seals], you are a 'practicing Buddhist.' You might read about these four truths for the sake of entertainment or mental exercise, but if you don't practice them, you are like a sick person reading the label on a medicine bottle but never taking the medicine. On the other hand, if you are practicing, there is no need to exhibit that you are Buddhist.... But keep in mind that as a Buddhist, you have a mission to refrain as much as possible from harming others, and to help others as much as possible. This is not a huge responsibility, because if you genuinely accept and contemplate the truth, all these deeds flow naturally." Id. at 124.).

WALK SLOWLY

Thomas Cleary, ed. & trans., The Taoism Reader (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2011) (From Sayings of Ancestor Lu: "Walk slowly, at a relaxed pace, and you won't stumble. Sleep soundly and you won't fret through the night. Practitioners first of all need serenity and patience. Second, they need dispassion, not to think about the past or be concerned about the future. If you think about the past, your former self will not die. If you think about the future, the road seems long and hard to traverse. It is better to be serene and relaxed, not thinking of the past or future but just paying attention to the present, acting normally. Each accomplishment is an achievement, and this will build up. If you are eager for completion and vow to do so many deeds or practices, this is still personal interest, calculating merit and striving for gain. Then the mind cannot be pure. This is the root of inconsistency." Id. at 181.). 

STOP AND BREATHE!

Thich Nhat Hanh, Breathe, You Are Alive!: Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2008) ("In the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, also known as the Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha shows us how to transform our fears despairs, anger, and craving.... This sutra is so basic and so wonderful. There are many great sutras, but approaching them without this sutra is like trying to reach the top of a mountain without a path to go on." Id at 3. "We can begin to enter the present moment by becoming aware of our breath. Breathing in and breathing out, we know we are breathing in and out, and we can smile to affirm that we are in control of ourselves. Through Awareness of Breathing, we can be awake in, and to, the present moment. Being attentive, we already establish 'stopping' and concentrating the mind. Full Awareness of our Breathing helps our mind stop wandering in confused, never ending thoughts." Id. at 39. "We need to organize our daily lives so that the positive seeds are watered every day and the negative seeds are not watered. We all have seeds of suspicion, despair, and anger, In one person, they are stronger; in another person, they are weaker, We do not want the people who live around us to water our negative seeds. Every time a negative seed is touched and watered, we suffer." "But we can do better than simply not watering our negative seeds; we can water our positive seeds of happiness, loving kindness, forgiveness, and joy. We call this the practice of selective watering. We water the flowers, not the weeds, so that the flowers will bloom in the other person. When we make the other person smile, we benefit as well, It does not take long to see the result of our practice." Id. at 77-78.).

Jim Pym, You Don't Have to Sit on the Floor: Making Buddhism Part of Your Everyday Life (Berkeley: Seastone/ Ulysses Press, 2002) ('The Buddha's teaching of simple mindfulness or awareness as a way of enlightenment is particularly suitable for people of today. The whole secret of mindfulness can be summed up in the two words: 'Remember!' and 'Awareness.' 'Remember to be aware of your breath. / Remember to be aware of where you are. / Remember to be aware of what you are doing. / Remember to be aware of what you say. / Remember to be aware of what you feel. / Remember to be aware of what you think.' Try it for a little while. Do you see why it is simple to say, but hard to do?" "The key to mindfulness as a form of meditation lies with the breath.... [T]he breath is used as a vehicle to calm the mind...." "Awareness of the breath leads to other avenues of awareness. When you stand, sit, walk or lie down, know what you are doing. When you are eating, drinking, bending or stretching and even going to sleep, know what you are doing. In other words, whatever you are doing be fully aware of it.... Id at 57-58.).

'DEEPLY TOUCHING THE PRESENT MOMENT'

Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ (10th Anniversary Edition), with an Introduction by Elaine Pagels, and a Foreword by David Steindl-Rast (New York: Riverhead Books, 1995, 2007) ("In Buddhism, our effort is to practice mindfulness in each moment--to know what is going on within and all around us. When the Buddha was asked, 'Sir, what do you and your monks practice?' he replied, 'We sit, we walk, and we eat.' The questioner continued, 'But. sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats,' and the Buddha told him, 'When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.' Most of the time, we are lost in the past or carried away by future projects and concerns. When we are mindful, touching deeply the present moment, we can see and listen deeply, and the fruits are always understanding, acceptance, love, and the desire to relieve suffering and bring joy." Id. at 199-200.).  

LIVE IN THE MOMENT, IT IS ALL YOU HAVE

Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life (New York: Riverhead Books, 2002) ("The Only Moment We Can Be Alive: I have arrived, I am home / In the here, In the now / I am solid, I am free / In the ultimate, I dwell" "We cannot enjoy life if we spend a lot of time worrying about what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow. We worry about tomorrow because we are afraid. If we are afraid all the time, we cannot appreciate that we are alive and can be happy now." "In our daily life, we tend to believe that happiness is only possible in the future. We are always looking for better things, the right conditions to make us happy. We run away from what is happening right in front of us. We try to find things that make us feel more solid, more safe and secure. But we are afraid all the time of what the future will bring. We are afraid we'll lose our jobs, or possessions, the people around us whom we love. So we wait for the magical moment--sometime in the future--when everything will be as we like, as we want it to be." "But life is available only in the present moment. The Buddha said, 'It is possible to live happily in the present moment. It is only moment we have.'" "When you come back to the here and the now, you will recognize the many conditions of happiness that already exist. The practice of mindfulness is the practice of coming back to the here and the now to be in touch deeply with ourselves, with life. We have to train ourselves in order to do this. Even if we are very intelligent and we understand it right away, we still have to train ourselves to live this way. We have to train ourselves to recognize that the conditions for happiness are already here." Id at 99-100.).

SOME SUGGESTED SUMMER READING FOR LAW STUDENTS

Fritz Allhoff, Terrorism, Ticking Time-Bombs, and Torture (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "The general consensus among philosophers is that the use of torture is never justified. In Terrorism, Ticking Time-Bombs, and Torture, Fritz Allhoff demonstrates the weakness of the case against torture, while allowing that torture constitutes a moral wrong, he nevertheless argues that, in exceptional cases, it represents the lesser of two evils." Where in Kant when you need him?).


Craig Calhoun, The Roots of Radicalism: Tradition, the Public Sphere, and Early Nineteenth-Century Social Movements (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2012) ("After thirty years of neoliberal attacks, the European and American labor movements are severely weakened, many of their accomplishments are threatened or undermined. Specifically, labor issues remain important, both in the first industrialized countries and in new manufacturing complexes around the world. Unions are still formed and still fought by employers. But ordinary people also seek voice in nationalist, religious, and populist movements and a diverse range of others. They seek the survival of indigenous ways of life, languages, and religious rituals. They seek the protection of old neighborhoods slated for destruction and rights for dwellers in new slums. They seek fair treatment for migrants, recognition for sexual minorities, cleaner air, and secure land tenure. These movements are often hard to classify in Left-right terms. They do not coalesce into a single social movement answering a single social question (though with considerable effort some form coalitions to pursue common struggles). But they are the bases for resistance to concentrations of economic and political power, global capital, and corrupt states. And in each, participants express aspirations as well as grievance, and hopes for a better world as well as outrage at threats to the world they know." Id. at 315-316. To the next to last sentence I would insert an amendment or qualification: for "resistance" I would suggest that "largely ineffectual resistance" is closer to the mark. For the most part, each individual movement has its own unique and narrow agenda, which renders it difficult to form meaningful alliances with other movements. And, being relatively small, each individual movement usually has insufficient weight (or resources) to accomplish anything meaningful, sustainable, or more than symbolic. But that is a political statement/assessment, and Craig Calhoun is writing history.).


Dale Carpenter, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas: How a Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2012).


Robert D. Cooter & Hans-Bernd Schafer, Solomon's Knot: How Law Can End the Poverty of Nations (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "In Solomon's Knot, Cooter and Schafer propose a legal theory of economic growth that details how effective property, contract, and business laws help to unite capital and ideas. They also demonstrate why ineffective private and business laws are the root cause of poverty of nations in today's world. Without the legal institutions that allow innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive, other attempts to spur economic growth are destined to fail." Also see, David Cole, "The Gay Path Through the Courts," New York Review of Books, April 5, 2012, at 34.).


Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012) ("In our twenty-first-century world the lethal combination of technological advances, terrorism, global crime, state-sponsored violence and socio-economic inequality has raised instability and insecurity to alarming levels. At the same time, the engine that has driven this escalation, the global arms trade, grows ever more sophisticated, complex and toxic in its efforts." "It might therefore be thought essential that the world's democratic nations should address this trade collectively and urgently. If it must exist, then surely it should be coherently regulated, legitimately financed, effectively policed and transparent in its workings, and meet people's need for safety and security?" "Instead the trade in weapons is a parallel world of money, corruption, deceit and death. It operates according to its own rules, largely unscrutinized, bringing enormous benefits to the chosen few, and suffering and immiseration to millions. The trade corrodes our democracies, weakens already fragile states and often undermines the very national security it purports to strengthen." "Global military expenditure is estimated to have totaled $1.6tn in 2010, $235 for every person on the planet. This is an increase of 53 per cent since 2000 and accounts for 2.6 per cent of global gross domestic product. Today, the United States spends almost a trillion dollars a year on national security with a defense budget of over $703bn. The trade in conventional arms, both big and small,  is worth about $60bn a year." " The US, Russia, the UK , France, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Italy, Israel and China are regularly identified as the largest producers and traders of weapons and materials." Almost always shrouded in secrecy, arms deals are often concluded between governments who then turn to manufacturers, many of which are now privately owned, to fulfil them. . . ." Many arms deals contain elements of. . . arrangements stretching across a continuum of legality and ethics from the official, or formal trade, to what I will refer to as the shadow world, also known as the grey and black markets. The grey market alludes to deals conducted through legal channels, but undertaken covertly. They are often utilized by governments to have an illicit impact on foreign policy.  Black market deals are illegal in conception and execution. Both black and grey deals frequently contravene arms embargoes, national and multilateral laws, agreements and regulations. In practice, the boundaries between the three markets are fuzzy.  With bribery and corruption de rigueur there are very few arms transactions that are entirely above board." Id. at xxii-xxiii. "The Shadow World is a journey of discovery into this powerful, but secretive world." "It begins with an arms company founded by a group of senior former nazi officers in the aftermath of Germany's defeat that developed into one of the most nefarious networks of arms dealers the world has known. And it ends with the ill-conceived wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have been a goldmine for US and allied defence manufacturers, as well as for the shadow world." Id. at xxix.)


John D'Agata & Jim Fingal, The Lifespan of a Fact (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2012).


David Hackett Fischer, Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies, New Zealand and the United States (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "Fairness and Freedom compares the history of two open societies--New Zealand and the United States--with much in common. Both have democratic politics, mixed-enterprise economies, individuated societies, pluralist cultures, and a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law. But all of these elements take different forms, because constellations of value are not the same. The dream of living free is America's Polaris; fairness and natural justice are New Zealand's Southern Cross." "[H]istorian David Hackett Fischer asks why these similar countries went different ways. Both were founded by English-speaking colonists, but at different times and with disparate purposes. They lived in the first and second British Empires, which operated in very different ways. Indians and Maori were important agents of change, but to different ends. On the American frontier and in New Zealand's bush, material possibilities and moral choices were not the same. Fischer takes the same comparative approach to parallel processes of nation-building and immigration, women's rights and racial wrongs, reform causes and conservative responses, war-fighting and peace-making, and global engagement in our own time--with similar results." "On another level, this book expands Fischer's past work on liberty and freedom. It offers a sweeping look at the history of fairness and also poses new questions in the old tradition of history and moral philosophy. Is it possible to be both fair and free? In a vast array of evidence, Fischer finds that each of these great values adds strength to the other. As many societies become more open--never twice in the same way--an understanding of our differences is the only path to peace.").


Stephen M. Gardiner, A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2011) (From the bookjacket: "Climate change is arguably the great problem confronting humanity, but we have done little to head off this looming catastrophe. . . . Gardiner illuminates our dangerous inaction by placing the environmental crisis in an entirely new light, considering it as an 'ethical' failure. Gardiner clarifies the moral situation, identifying the temptations (or 'storms') that make us vulnerable to a certain kind of corruption.  First, the world's most affluent nations are tempted to pass on the cost of climate change to the poorer and weaker citizens of the world. Second, the present generation is tempted to pass the problem on to future generations. Third, our poor grasp of science, international justice, and the human relationship to nature helps to facilitate inaction. As a result, we are engaging in willful self-deception when the lives of future generations, the world's poor, and even the basic fabric of life on the plant is at stake. We should wake u to this profound ethical failure, Gardiner concludes, and demands more of our institutions, our leaders and ourselves.").


Cindy Hahamovitch, No Man's Land: Jamaican Guestworkers in America and the Global History of Deportable Labor (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2011) (From the bookjacket: "From South Africa in the nineteenth century to Hong Kong today, nations around the world, including the United States, have turned to guestworker programs to manage migration. These temporary labor recruitment systems represented a state-brokered compromise between employers who wanted foreign workers and those who feared rising numbers of immigrants. Unlike immigrants, guestworkers couldn't settle, bring their families, or become citizens, and they had few rights. Indeed, instead of creating a manageable form of migration, guestworker programs created an especially vulnerable class of labor." "Based on a vast array of sources from U.S., Jamaican, and English archives, No Man's Land tells the history of the American 'H2' program, the world's second oldest guestworker program. Since World War II, the H2 program has brought hundreds of thousands of mostly Jamaican men to the United States to do some of the nation's dirtiest and most dangerous farmwork for some of its biggest and most powerful agricultural corporations, companies that had the power to import and deport workers from abroad. Jamaican guestworkers occupied a no man's land between nations, protected neither by their home government nor by the United States. The workers complained, went on strike, and sued their employers in class action lawsuits, but their protests had little impact because they could be repatriated and replaced in a matter of hours." "No Man's Land puts Jamaican guestworker's experiences in the context of the global history of this fast-growing and perilous form of labor migration.").


Rob Hengeveld, Wasted World: How Our Consumption Challenges the Planet (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "A practical look at the sustainability of our planet from the perspective of a biologist whose expertise is in the abundance and distribution of species, Wasted World presents a fascinating picture of the whole process of using, wasting, and exhausting energy and material resources. And by elucidating the complexity of the causes of the current global state, Hengeveld offers us a way forward.").


David Kinkela, DDT and the American Century: Global Health, Environmental Politics, and the Pesticide That Changed the World (Chapel Hill, NC: U. of North Carolina Press, 2011) (From the bookjacket: "Praised for its ability to kill insects effectively and cheaply and reviled as an ecological hazard, DDT continues to engender passion across the political spectrum as one of the world's most controversial chemical pesticides. . . . David Kinkela chronicles the use of DDT around the world from 1941 to the present with a particular focus on the United States, which has played a critical role in encouraging the global use of the pesticide." "The banning of DDT in the United States in 1972 is generally regarded as a signal triumph for the American environmental movement. Yet DDT's function as a tool of U.S. foreign policy and its use in international development projects designed to solve problems of disease and famine made it an integral component of the so-called American Century. The varying ways in which scientists, philanthropic foundations, corporations, national governments, and transnational institutions assessed and adjudicated the balance of risks and benefits of DDT within and beyond America's borders, Kinkela argues, demonstrates the gap that existed between global and U.S. perspectives on DDT. DDT and the American Century offers a unique approach to understanding modern environmentalism in a global context.").

Allan H. Meltzer, Why Capitalism? (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2012) ('There are several reasons regulations fail. Two of the more prominent are capture (of the regulators) and circumvention (of laws meant to restrain risky, or bad, behavior). Capture occurs when the regulated become the regulators, or when regulators plan to make a lucrative career change by joining the industry they hitherto had been regulating. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is famous for the extent of movement between regulator and regulated. The SEC is not alone.  Regulators often look for people with detailed knowledge of their subject. The regulated industry is a likely source, so it is not unusual to find people moving back and forth. The Federal Reserve is a training ground for bank and financial market economists. The Internal Revenue Service is a training ground for tax accountants. The list is long." Id. at 36-37. "Regulation fails when, however well-intentioned, it is poorly designed. I have put forward two laws of regulation to explain why regulation often accomplishes less than it promises. First, lawyers and bureaucrats promulgate regulations, but, if they are costly to the regulated, markets will circumvent them. Second, regulations are static whereas markets are dynamics. If regulations are inconvenient or costly, markets will learn to circumvent them, say by capturing the regulators, or carving out exemptions for themselves. Complex laws offer endless ways for effective circumvention often unnoticed." Id. at 42.).

Irving Morris, The Rape Case: A Young Lawyer's Struggle for Justice in the 1950s (Newark, Delaware: U. of Delaware Press, 2011) (From the bookjacket: "The Rape Case chronicles one lawyer's seven-year struggle to ensure that long-delayed justice was not permanently denied. This true story details the sensational events of a fall night in 1947 that shocked the sleepy city of Wilmington, Delaware, and left three young men fighting for their lives in a lurid, highly publicized trial. Their hope for freedom faded slowly over years, until a young attorney named Irving Morris took up their case. The sole champion of an infamous and unpopular cause, Morris endured derision and numerous courtroom defeats before finally winning his clients freedom. This engaging, detailed account of the events surrounding Delaware's 'trial of the century,' written by the man who ultimately saw that justice was done, is a lesson in the courage and character required of those who would ensure fairness and the rule of law." Take special note of Justice John Paul Stevens's review of the book. John Paul Stevens, "A Struggle with the Police and the Law," The New York Review of Books, April 4, 2012, at 56.).


Martha C. Nussbaum, The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London, England: Belknap/Harvard U. Press, 2012) ("Fear's Narcissism": "Fear is primitive. We saw this even in physiological terms: fear is connected to primitive brain processes that are shared by all vertebrates, and human fear, while in many ways more complex, continues to partake of these shared animal origins. . . . That does not mean that fear is not valuable and often accurate--but its view of the world is exceedingly narrow. Unlike grief and sympathy, it has not yet conceded the full reality of other people. And in its partnership with disgust human fear is in some ways worse than animal fear: for animals don't fantasize that other groups of animals are foul and that they themselves are pure and non-animal. So human fear combines animal narrowness with a peculiarly human shrinking from animality--in other groups of people, where animality is always imaged to be." Id. at 55-56. "Fear is a 'dimming preoccupation': an intense focus on the self that casts others into darkness. However valuable and indeed essential it is in a genuinely dangerous world, it is itself one of life's great dangers." Id. at 58.).


Corey Robin, Fear: The History of a Political Idea (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2004) ("A good place to begin an investigation of intimidating fear in contemporary America is the workplace, for it is there--in the underregualted practices of hiring and firing, promotion and demotion; in the coerced and coercive intimacies between employer and employed, supervisor and supervised--that fear has an especially toxic effect. Despite the fact that adult Americans spend the overwhelming majority of their waking hours at work, and despite the fact that the business press openly confesses that 'the workplace is never free of fear, and it shouldn't be' and that 'fear can be a powerful management tool,' the workplace remains a vast terra incognita protected from public scrutiny by high towers of legal argument and political indifference. Wielding threats of firing, demotion, harassment, and other sanctions, employers and managers attempt to stifle speech and action, to ensure that workers don't talk back or act up. Employers do this not because they are cruel, but because they believe, as former Intel CEO Andrew Grove writes in his Only the Paranoid Survive, that fear spurs the fevered pace of contemporary industry, that it is an essential prop of our political economy. Workplace fear creates an internal social order that can only be described, with little exaggeration, as feudal, a world less postmodern than premodern, whose master theorist is neither Karl Marx nor Adam Smith but Joseph de Maistre." Id. at 20-21.). "It is not merely workers at the low end of the service economy who experience these forms of command and fear; so do white-collar employees. Grove, for example, liked to run Intel the way Al Capone ran Chicago. On one occasion when an aide was late for a meeting, Grove waited, 'holding a stave of wood the size of a baseball bat.' After a time, Grove slammed  the wood onto the surface of the meeting-room table' and shouted, 'I don't ever, ever, want to be in a meeting with this group that doesn't start and end when it's scheduled.' Other employers are less bullying, but no less intimidating and controlling. Going high tech, they rely on computer technology to monitor their employees' every move. The Investigator software program--used by ExxonMobil and Delta--keeps track of not only workplace performance measures (like the number of employee key strokes and mouse clicks per second), but also troublemakers. Should an employee type 'alert' words like 'boss' or 'union,' Investigator automatically forwards her document--saved or unsaved, sent or not--to her supervisor. 'Back in the fifteen century,' one PR executive explains, 'they used to use a ball and chain, and now they use technology.' " "In the corporate workplace, intimidation and spying coexist with phony affirmations of individualism, while employees terrified of losing their jobs are corralled into elaborate performances of faux bonhomie and loyalty to the firm. The result can often be humiliating and degrading. After NYNEX cut its workforce during the mid-1990s, for example, it required its MBAs and skilled technicians to attend a three-day-long retreat where they were encouraged to discover their own creativity by hopping around a room in different ways. Some hopped on one leg, others on two, still others with hands in the air, and one with a hand covering his eye. According to one participant, 'The leaders would say things like 'Look at how creative you are, how many different ways you can out to manage to jump around the room.' And we all did it . . . . We all did it. A marketing executive at a radio-station chain that had also undergone a round of firings recounts how a management consultant at a motivational seminar handed out water pistols to the employees and had them squirt each other--to help them get in touch with their more playful selves. 'There were all these executives running around squirting each others,' he says. He thought about not joining in, but reconsidered after asking himself, 'If I don't squirt, will I be gone too?' Such games, he added, were 'the most uncomfortable thing for professional men and women. A lot of us felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, reluctant to play the game. But they kept at it. It was almost like it was designed to break you down. I think it was a way of humiliating us.' After a round of layoffs at the Bank of America, corporate higher-ups established a voluntary program for employees to 'adopt' an ATM machine. More than 2,800 employees signed up, faithfully cleaning their own machine and its environs--on their own time, without extra pay--just to save their jobs." Id. at 22-23. From the bookjacket: "For many commentators, September 11 inaugurated a new era of fear. But as Corey Robin shows in his unsettling tour of the Western imagination--the first intellectual history of its kind--fear has shaped our politics and culture since time immemorial." "From the Garden of Eden to the Gulag Archipelago to today's headlines, Robin traces our growing fascination with political danger and disaster. As our faith in positive political principles recedes, he argues, we turn to fear as the justifying language of public life. We may not know the good, but we do know the bad.  So we cling to fear, abandoning the quest for justice, equality, and freedom. But as fear becomes our intimate, we understand it less.  In a startling reexamination of fear's greatest modern interpreters--Hobbes, Montesquieu, Tocqueville, Arendt--Robin finds that writers since the eighteenth century have systematically obscured fear's political dimensions, diverting attention from the public and private authorities who sponsor and benefit from it. For fear, Robin insists, is an exemplary instrument of repression--in the public and private sector. Nowhere is this politically repressive fear --and its evasion--more evident than in contemporary America. In his final chapter, Robin accuses our leading scholars an critics of ignoring 'Fear, American Style,' which, as he shows, is the fruit of our most prized inheritance: the Constitution and the free market.").


David Scheffer, All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "As senior advisor to Albright and then as President Clinton's ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, Scheffer was at the forefront of the efforts that led to criminal tribunals for the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, and that resulted in the creation of the permanent International Criminal Court. All the Missing Souls is Scheffer;s gripping insider's account  of the international gamble to prosecute those responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and to redress some of the bloodiest human rights atrocities in our time." "Scheffer reveals the truth behind Washington's failure during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the anemic hunt for notorious war criminals, how American exceptionalism undercut his diplomacy. . . .").


Richard Sennett, Respect in a World of Inequality (New York & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2003) (From the bookjacket:  "As various forms of social welfare were dismantled th[r]ough the last decade of the twentieth century, many thinkers argued that human well-being was best served by a focus on potential, not need."  "Richard Sennett thought differently. In this dazzling blend of personal memoir and reflective scholarship, he addresses need and social responsibility across the gulf of inequality. In the uncertain world of 'flexible' social relationships, all are troubled by issues of respect: whether it be an employee stuck with insensitive management, a social worker trying to aid a resentful client, or a virtuoso artist and an accompanist aiming for a perfect duet." ". . . Sennett explores the factors that make mutual respect so difficult to achieve. First, unequal talent: Sennett acknowledges that even in a perfect world, inequalities of ability remain. Second, adult dependency: the dependent face challenges in earning both self-respect and respect from others. Third, degrading forms of compassion: both impersonal bureaucracy and intrusive volunteerism." ". . . Sennett investigates how self-worth can be nurtured in an unequal society . . . how self--esteem must be balanced with feeling for others, and how mutual respect can forge bonds across the divide of inequality.").


Richard Sennett, Together: The Ritual, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "Living with people who differ--racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically--is the most urgent challenge facing civil society today. We tend to avoid engaging socially with people unlike ourselves, and modern politics encourages the politics of the tribe rather than of the city. In this thought-provoking book, Richard Sennett discusses why this has happened and what might be some about it." "Sennett contends that cooperation is a craft, and the foundations for skillful cooperation lie in learning to listen well and discuss rather than debate. In Together he explores how people can cooperate online, on street corners, in schools, at work, and in local politics. He traces the evolution of cooperative rituals from medieval times to today, and in situations as diverse as slave communities, social groups in Paris, and workers on Wall Street. Divided into three parts, the book addresses the nature of cooperation, why it has become weak, and how it could be strengthened. The author warns that we must learn the craft of cooperation if we are to make our complex society prosper, yet he reassures us that we can do this, for the capacity for cooperation is embedded in human nature.").


Robert J. Shiller, Finance and the Good Society (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2012) ("An essential part of what finance professionals actually do is dealmaking--the structuring of projects, enterprises, and systems, large and small--an activity that bring convergence to individuals' often divergent goals. Financial arrangements--including the structuring of payments, loans, collateral, shares, incentive options, and exist strategies--are just the surface elements of these deals. Dealmaking means facilitating arrangements that will motivate real actions by real people--and often by very large groups of people. Most of us can achieve little of lasting value without the cooperation of others. Even the archetypal solitary poet requires financing to practice her or his art. An income to live on, publishers, printers, arrangers of public readings, the construction of suitable halls for public readings--there is a hidden financial architecture behind all of this." "All parties to an agreement have to want to embrace the goal, do the work, and accept the risks; they also have to believe that others involved in the deal will actually work productively toward the common good and do all the things that the best information suggests should be done. Finance provides the incentive structure necessary to tailor those activities and secure these goals." "In addition, finance involves discovery of the world and its opportunities which ties it in to information technology. Whenever there is trading, there is price discovery--that is, the opportunity to learn the market value of whatever is being traded. This in turn involves the revelation of people's feelings and motivations, and of the opportunities that exist among groups of people, which may in turn make even more ambitious goals possible." "Along with being the science that structure the achievement of goals, finance embodies a vital technology. As such, it has demonstrated continuous progress over the centuries, from the beginnings of money lending n the ancient world through the development of modern mortgages markets as well as the legal and regulatory structures necessary to sustain these innovations. And it will continue to progress. Finance, suitably configured for the future can be the strongest force for promoting the well-being and fulfillment of an expanding global population--for achieving the greater goals of the good society." Id. at 8. In reading Finance and the Good Society--or, for that matter, reading most of the titles listed in this blog posting--, one might consider the role of law and lawyers-- especially lawyers engaged in practice related to financial transactions--in all of this. How do law and financial/transactional lawyers impact and/or contribute to the "hidden financial architecture"? Are we social engineers?  Or, are we mere social parasites? We have a choice, you know!).


David K. Shipler, Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America (New York: Knopf, 2012) ("The American system relies on a paradox. On the one hand, the Constitution restrains the whim of the official, who is supposedly shackled by the intricate web of judicial precedent enforcing the checks, the balances, and the bold restrictions on government's incursions into the people's rights. If the rule of law holds, freedom does not depend on the goodwill of those in power." "On the other hand, freedom depends on the Constitution's resonance among the citizens. The affection for liberty, animated by the written words reaches beyond their original intent or dictionary meanings,  'Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women,' said Judge Learned Hand. 'When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.' " These past two years this blogger has gotten to observe what seems to be a growing distain for liberty in American society as a collection of soon-to-be lawyers seemed to have endorsed overwhelming a policy requiring them to inform on each others' alleged wrongdoing. Can a society or community survive based of the morals of a fink? Good fences make good neighbors.  I don't mind my neighbor's business. And, my neighbor does not mind mine.).


Kristin Shrader-Frechette, What Will Work: Fighting Climate Change, with Renewable Energy, Not Nuclear Power (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2011).

Ruti G. Teitel, Humanity's Law (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2011) (From the bookjacket: "Teitel offers a powerful account of one of the central transformations of the post-Cold War era: the profound normative shift in the international legal order from prioritizing state security to protecting human security. As she demonstrates, courts, tribunals, and other international bodies now rely on a humanity-based framework to assess the rights and wrongs of conflict; to determine whether and how to intervene; and to impose accountability and responsibility. Cumulatively, the norms represent a new law of humanity that spans the law of war, international human rights, and international criminal justice. Teitel explains how this framework is reshaping the discourse of international politics with a new approach to the management of violent conflict.").


Lynn Stout, The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public (San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012).


Julian E. Zelizer, Governing America: The revival of Political History (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "In recent years, the study of American political history has experienced a remarkable renaissance. After decades during which the subject fell out of fashion and disappeared from public view, it has returned to prominence as the study of American history has shifted its focus back to politics broadly defined. In this book, . . . Julian Zelizer [] assesses its revival and demonstrates how this work not only illuminates the past but also helps us better understand American politics today." "Governing America addresses issues of wide interest, including the rise of the welfare state, the development of modern conservatism, the history of Congress, the struggle over campaign finance, changing views about presidential power, and national security. Throughout, it addresses four big questions: How have interpretations of American political history changed over time. How have taxes and budgets constrained policymakers? How have changes in the political process defined historical eras? And how have policy and politics interacted on decisions like going to war?").


Heidi Wenk Sormaz & Bruce Tulgan, Performance Under Pressure: Managing Stress in the Workplace (Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2003) (Needless to say, one will need to read and make use of this last book if you are a young lawyer and senior partner finds out that you "wasted" time reading any of the books listed above. Wasted time, unless you are very imaginative and are able to find some creative way to bill clients for your reading habits. (However, such creativity might bump up against the rules of professional responsibility.) So, if you are a reader, you will be stressed out in the workplace. So, you will have to be a closet reader, and simply manage the stress resulting from the fear of being outed as the worst kind of deviant--a reader of substantive books. Read these books; engage with the ideas of these books; find a few closeted readers with whom you may meet secretly to discuss these books. We have reentered the dark ages. Notwithstanding all the lip-service given to encouraging critical thinking, the authoritarian powers that be do not want you to think independently of them. They don't care what you think, and would prefer that you not think at all. So, be a rebel: READ AND THINK! Readers are our twenty-first-century's equivalent of The Dark Age's monks, the only hope of preserving civilization for future generations.).

SEEING THROUGH TO THE NOTHING *

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2010) ("A person has to get rid of the four notions of self, a person, a living being, and a life span in order in order to have the wisdom of nondiscrimination.  'Self' refers to a permanent, changeless identity. but since according to Buddhism. nothing is permanent and what we normally call a self is made entirely of nonself elements, there is really no such entity a a self.  Our concept of self arises when we have concepts about things that are not self.  Using the sword of conceptualization to cut reality into pieces, we call one part 'I' and the rest 'not I'."  Id. at 45-46.  "All the media around us encourage us to focus on ourselves.  What is self?  It is our imagining.  The barrier between self and nonself is created by deluded mind.  How do we remove that barrier and liberate ourselves from the notion of self?  The Buddha advises us to meditate on the nonself nature of things Whenever we look at a leaf, a pebble, a cloud, a river, a baby, a society, or a human being, we look deeply into it to see its nonself nature, so we can liberate ourselves from the notion of self.  The meditation on nonself needs to be practiced every day, in every moment of our daily lives.  Whether we're eating, walking, siting, working in the garden, whenever we look at other people, the clouds, the grass, we see that we are in those elements and those elements are in us; we are not separate."   "We often forget that the human being is a creature that evolved from animals, plants, and minerals and that humans appeared only recently in the evolution of life on Earth.  When we think we have the right to do anything we want and that other animals, plants, and minerals are only the means for us to get what we want, then we have a very wrong notion about what it is to be a human being. . . ." Id. at 145-146. "Subhuti asks what this sutra should be called and how we should practice its teachings, and the Buddha answers that is should be called The Diamond That Cuts through Illusions.  A diamond has the capacity to cut through all ignorance and afflictions.  He also says that we should practice in an intelligent way, that we should learn to look deeply so that we will realize that even transcendent understanding is not an independently existing dharma and that his teaching has no separate nature.  That is why Subhuti says, 'The Tathagata has nothing to teach.' "  Id. at 89.).


*   " 'I don't have illusions.  I'm one of those people who see through to nothing.' " Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People, reprinted in Collected Works (New York: Library of America, 1985), at 263-281.

KAREN HORNEY

Karen Horney, Feminine Psychology, edited with an Introduction by Harold Kelman (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1967, 1973) ("Among all the manifestations of the neurotic need for love, I want to emphasize one that is very common in our culture. It is the overvaluation of love. . . ." "An important characteristic of the neurotic need for love is insatiability, which shows itself as an extreme jealously: 'You must love only me!' We can observe this phenomenon in many marriages, love affairs, and friendships. Jealousy, as I understand it here, is not a reaction based on rational factors, but is insatiable and demands that they be loved exclusively." "Another expression of the insatiability of the neurotic need for love is the need for unconditional love, which is expressed as 'You must love me, no matter how I behave.' This is an important factor. . . . The need for unconditional love shows itself also in their demand to be loved without having to give anything, as if to say: 'It is simple to love someone who reciprocates, but let's see if you love me, if you don't get anything in return.' . . . It can go so far that even in their sex life they may feel, 'You love me only because you get your sexual satisfaction from me.' The partner must prove his real love by making sacrifices in his moral values, reputation money, time, etc. Anything that falls short of this absolute demand is taken as rejection." Id. at 246-247. "Another sign of the neurotic need for love is the extreme sensitivity to rejection, which is so frequent among persons with hysterical characteristics. They perceive all kinds of things as rejections and react with intense hate." Id. at 248.).


Karen Horney, Final Lectures, edited by Douglas H. Ingram (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1987).

Karen Horney, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1950, 1970) ("The most pertinent symbol, to my mind, for the neurotic process initiated by the search for glory is the ideational content of the stories of the devil's pact. The devil, or some other personification of evil, tempts a person who is perplexed by spiritual or material trouble with the offer of unlimited powers. But he can obtain these powers only on the condition of selling his soul or going to hell. The temptation can come to anybody, rich or poor in spirit, because it speaks to two powerful desires: the longing for the infinite and the wish for an easy way out. According to religious tradition, the greatest spiritual leaders of mankind, Buddha and Christ, experienced such temptation. But, because they were firmly grounded in themselves, they recognized it as a temptation and could reject it. Moreover, the conditions stipulated in the pact are an appropriate representation of the price to be paid in the neurotic's development. Speaking in these symbolic terms, the easy way to infinite glory is inevitably also the way to an inner hell of self-contempt and self-torment. By taking this road, the individual is in fact losing his soul--his real self." Id. at 39. Neurotic Pride: "With all his strenuous efforts toward perfection and with all his belief in perfection attained, the neurotic does not gain what he most desperately needs: self-confidence and self-respect. Even though godlike in his imagination, he still lacks the earthy self-confidence of a simple shepherd. The great positions to which he may rise, the fame he may acquire, will render him arrogant but will not bring him inner security. He still feels at bottom unwanted, is easily hurt, and needs incessant conformation of his value. He may feel strong and significant as long as he wields power and influence and is supported by praise and deference. But all of these feelings of elation collapse easily when, in a strange environment, this support is lacking; when he incurs failure; or when he is by himself. The kingdom of heaven does not come through external gestures." Id. at 86. "[T]he neurotic development, initiated by the early unfavorable constellation, weakens him at the core of his being. He becomes alienated from himself and divided. His self-idealization is an attempt to remedy the damage done by lifting himself in his mind above the crude reality of himself and others. And, as in the stories of the devil's pact, he gets all the glory in imagination and sometimes in reality. But instead of solid self-confidence he gets a glittering gift of most questionable values: neurotic pride." Id. at 87. "This book began with a vigorous emphasis on the importance of the real self.  The real self . . . is the alive, unique, personal center of ourselves; the only part that can, and wants to, grow. We saw that unfortunate conditions prevent its unimpeded growth from the very beginning." Id. at at 155. "In terms of the devil's pact, the abandoning of self corresponds to the selling of one's soul.  In psychiatric terms we call it the 'alienation from self.' This latter term is applied chiefly to those extreme conditions in which people lose their feeling of identity, as in amnesia and depersonalization, etc. . . .  It is strange and even startling that a person who is not asleep and has no organic brain disease does not know who he is, where he is, or what he does or had been doing." Id. at 155-156. "To put it succinctly: neurotic pride is the enemy of love." Id. at 246. "[T]he pride system removes the neurotic from others by making him egocentric. To avoid misunderstandings: by egocentricity I do not mean selfishness or egotism in the sense of considering merely one's own advantage. The neurotic maybe callously selfish or too unselfish. . . . But he is always egocentric in the sense of being wrapped up in himself. . . . [H]e  lives in any case by his private religion (his idealized image), abides by his own laws (his shoulds), within the barbed-wire fence of his own pride and with his own guards to protect him against dangers from within and without. As a result he not only becomes more isolated emotionally but it also becomes more difficult for him to see other people as individuals in their own right, different from himself. They are subordinated to his prime concern: himself." Id. at 291-292.).

Karen Horney, The Neurotic Personality of Our Time, (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1937) ("The craving for affection is so frequent in neuroses, and so easily recognizable by the trained observer, that it may be considered one of the surest indicators for an existing anxiety and its approximate intensity. In fact if one feels fundamentally helpless toward a world which is invariably menacing and hostile, then the search for affection would appear to be the most logical and direct way of reaching out for any kind of benevolence, help or appreciation." "If the psychic conditions of the neurotic person were what they frequently appear to himself to be, it ought to be easy for him to gain affection. If I may verbalize what he often senses only dimly, his impressions are something like this: what he wants is so little, only that people should be kind to him, should give him advice, should appreciate that he is a poor, harmless, lonely soul, anxious to please, anxious not to hurt anyone's feelings. That is all he sees or feels. He does not recognize how much his sensitivities, his latent hostilities, his exacting demands interfere with his own relationships; nor is he able to judge the impression he makes on others or their reaction to him. Consequently he is at a loss to understand why his friendships, marriages, love affairs, professional relations are so often dissatisfactory. He tends to conclude that the others are at fault, that they are inconsiderate, disloyal, abusive, or that for some unfathomable reason he lacks the gift of being popular. Thus he keeps chasing the phantom of love." Id. at 105-106. "Modern culture is economically based on the principle of individual competition. The isolated individual has to fight with other individuals of the same group, has to surpass them and, frequently thrust them aside. The advantage of the one is frequently the disadvantage of the other. The psychic result of this situation is a diffuse hostile tension between individuals. Everyone is the real or potential competitor of everyone else. This situation is clearly apparent among members of the same occupational group, regardless of strivings to be fair or of attempts to camouflage by polite considerations. . . . " "The potential hostile tension between individuals results in a constant generation of fear--fear of the potential hostility of others, reinforced by a fear of retaliation for hostilities of one's own. Another important source of fear in the normal individual is the prospect of failure. The fear of failure is a realistic one because, in general, the chances of failing are much greater than those of succeeding, and because failures in a competitive society entail a realistic frustration of needs. They mean not only economic insecurity, but also loss of prestige and all kinds of emotional frustration." Id. at 284-285.).


Karen Horney, New Ways in Psychoanalysis (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1939, 1966) ("If narcissism is considered not genetically but with reference to its actual meaning is should, in my judgment, be described as essentially self-inflation. Psychic inflation, like economic inflation, means presenting greater value than really exist. It means that the person loves and admires himself for values for which there is no adequate foundation.  Similarly, it means that he expects love and admiration from others for qualities that he does not possess, or does not possess to as large an extent as he supposes. According to my definition, it is not narcissistic for a person to value a quality in himself which he actually possesses, or to like it to be valued by others. These two tendencies--appearing unduly significant to oneself and craving undue admiration from others--cannot be separated. Both are always present though in different types one or the other may prevail." ". . .The factor which contributes most fundamentally to the development of narcissistic trends appears to be the child's alienation from others, provoked by grievances and fears. His positive emotional ties with others become thin; he loses the capacity to love." "The same unfavorable environment produces disturbances in his feeling for self. In the more severe cases these mean more than a mere impairment of self-esteem; they bring about a complete suppression of the spontaneous individual self. . . ." "What does an individual gain by self-aggrandizement?" "He escapes the painful feeling on nothingness by molding himself in fancy into something outstanding. . . . The more he is alienated, not only from others but also form himself, the more easily such motions acquire a psychic reality. Not that he discards reality because of them--as the psychotic does--but reality takes on a provisional character, as life does for a Christian who expects his real life to begin in heaven. His notions of himself become a substitute for his undermined self-esteem; they become his 'real' me." "By creating a fantasy world of his own in which he is the hero he also consoles himself for not being loved and appreciated.  He may feel that though others reject him, look down on him, do not love him for what he really is, it is because he is too far above their understanding. My personal impression is that the illusions do far more than give secret substitute satisfactions. I often wonder whether they do not save the individual from being crushed entirely and thus whether they are not literally life-saving." "Finally, self-inflation represents an attempt to put relationships to others on a positive basis. If others do not love and respect the individual for what he is they should at least pay attention to him and admire him. The obtainment of admiration is substituted for love--a consequential step.  From then on he feels unwanted if he is not admired. He loses any understanding of the fact that friendliness and love can include an objective or even critical attitude. What falls short of blind adoration is to him no longer love; he will even suspect it of being hostility. He will judge others according to the admiration or flattery he receives from them.  People who admire him are good and superior, people who do not are not worth bothering with. Thus his main gratification lies in being admired, but also his security rests on it, because it gives him the illusion that he is strong and that the world around him is friendly. It is a security on a rickety basis, however, any failure may bring to the surface all the underlying insecurity. In fact, not even a failure is needed to elicit this effect; admiration paid to someone else may be sufficient to bring it about. Id. at 91-94.).

Karen Horney, Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1945, 1966) ("Sexual intercourse as such--aside from its biological function--has the value of constituting proof of being wanted. The more the compliant type tends to be detached--that is, afraid of being emotionally involved--or the more he despairs of being loved, the more will mere sexuality be likely to substitute for love. It will then appear as the only road to human intimacy, and be overrated as love is, for its power to solve everything." Id. at 61. "The more the emotions are checked, the more likely it is that emphasis will be placed upon intelligence. The expectation then will be that everything can be solved by sheer power of reasoning, as if mere knowledge of one's own problems would be sufficient to cure them. Or as if reasoning alone could cure all the troubles of the world!" Id. at 85. "Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning." Id. at 135. "The most comprehensive formulation of therapeutic goals is the striving for wholeheartedness: to be without pretense, to be emotionally sincere, to be able to put the whole of oneself into one's feelings, one's work, one's beliefs. It can be approximated only to the extent that conflicts are resolved." "These goals are not arbitrary, nor are they valid goals of therapy simply because they coincide with the ideals that wise persons of all times have followed. But the coincidence is not accidental, for these are the elements upon which psychic health rests. We are justified in postulating these goals because they follow logically from a knowledge of the pathogenic factors in neurosis." Id. at 242.).

Karen Horney, Self-Analysis (New York: & London: W. W. Norton, 1942, 1968) ("But even if we grant that a considerable number of people can profitably analyze themselves, will they ever complete the work? Will there not always be problems left that are not solved or not even touched upon? My answer is that there is no such thing as a complete analysis. And this answer is not given in a spirit of resignation. Certainly the greater the degree of transparency and the more freedom we can attain, the better for us. But the idea of a finished human product not only appears presumptuous but even, in my opinion, lacks any strong appeal. Life is struggle and striving, development and growth--and analysis is one of the means that can help in this process. Certainly its positive accomplishments are important, but also the striving itself is of intrinsic value. As Goethe has said in Faust: 'Whoe'er aspires unweariedly, / Is not beyond redeeming.' " Id. at 275-275 (italics and emphasis added).).


Karen Horney, The Unknown Karen Horney: Essays on Gender, Culture, and Psychoanalysis, edited with and Introduction by Bernard J. Paris (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2000) ("SEX AS A THING APART[:] When a person loses touch with his own identity, he is no longer aware of his real feelings and desires, which become distorted or repressed. He engages in pretenses and becomes emotionally insincere. Sex becomes impersonal and degraded because he engages in it without really being there." "The process of self-idealization is part of a vicious circle that degrades sex even further. . . . " "A conflict arises here because even though the neurotic regards sexual activity as a form of degradation, he also overvalues it as a means of proving his lovability because he beats himself down, he feels that no one can love him, but . . . he has an overwhelming need for love and human contact. He feels that even though he is unlovable as a person, maybe another will love him for sex, which is all he has to offer. So sexual attractiveness is a substitute for being lovable, and the sexual partner provides the human contact the neurotic craves so desperately." Id. at 156. ).

ENLIGHTENED SWORDSMANSHIP: NEED THE PRACTICE OF AMERICAN LAW (OR, FOR THAT MATTER, THE TEACHING OF AMERICAN LAW) BE SO SOUL-LESS?

Daisetz T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture (Bollingen Series LXIV), with an Introduction by Richard M. Jaffe (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 1959, 2010) ("The swordsman's 'unconscious' and the psychoanalysts' 'unconscious' are not to be confused, for the former is free from the notion of self. The perfect swordsman takes no cognizance of the enemy's personality, no more than his own. For he is an indifferent onlooker of the fatal drama of life and death in which he himself is the most active participant. In spite of all the concern he has or ought to have, he is above himself, he transcends the dualistic comprehension of the situation, yet he is not a contemplative mystic, he is in the thickest of the deadly combat. This distinction is to be remembered when we compare Eastern culture with Western. Even in such arts as that of swordsmanship, in which the principle of opposition is most in evidence, the one who is to be most intensely interested in it is advised to be liberated from the idea." Id. at 96-97. "One great advantage the sword has over mere book-reading is that once you make a false move you are sure to give the opponent a chance to beat you. You have to be on the alert all the time. While to be on the alert is not the ultimate of swordsmanship, it keeps you true to yourself: that is to say, you are not allowed to indulge in idle thinking. Thinking is useful in many ways, but there are some occasions when thinking interferes with the work, and you have to leave it behind and let the unconscious come forward. In such cases, you cease to be your own conscious master but become an instrument in the hands of the unknown. The unknown has no ego-consciousness and consequently no thought of winning the contest, because it moves at the level of nonduality, where there is neither subject nor object. It is the reason that the sword moves where it ought to move and makes the contest end victoriously. This is the practical application of the Lao-tzuan doctrine of 'doing by not doing.' Sun-tzu, a great authority on warfare, says: 'It is not the best thing to win every battle one is engaged in; the best thing is to win without planning to win.  This is perfect victory.' " Id. at 132-133. "But we must remember that it is no easy task to realize this state of mind, for a man has to go  through a great deal of discipline, not only moral but highly spiritual. As Ichiun says, a first-class swordsman must also be a 'perfect man': he is not only to be great in his profession, but as a moral character he is also to be great in every way; the swordsman must be more than a mere technician who cannot think of anything else but displaying his skill in the art of killing. As long as the technician is impatient in the demonstration of his art he can never come out victorious in his combat. . . . " Id. at 209-210. "We are not necessarily all ascetics, but I do not know if there is not in every one of us an eternal longing for a world beyond this of empirical relativity, where the soul can quietly contemplate its own destiny." Id. at 256-257.)

LUDWIG VON MISES WOULD BE BESIDE HIMSELF WERE HE ALIVE TO COMMENT ON THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS IN EUROPE . . . AND IN AMERICA.

Ludwig von Mises, Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises, Volume 1: Monetary and Economic Policy Problem Before, During, and After the Great War, edited and with an Introduction by Richard M. Ebeling (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2012).

A 1950s and 1960s BROOKLYN CHILDHOOD

Martin Lemelman, Two Cents Plain: My Brooklyn Childhood (New York: Bloomsbury, 2010) (From the bookjacket: "Martin Lemelman's elegiac and bittersweet graphic memoir Two Cents Plain collects the memories and artifacts of the author's childhood in Brooklyn. The son of Holocaust survivors, Lemelman grew up in the back of his family's candy store in Brownville during the 1950s and '60s, as the neighborhood, and much of the city, moved into a period of decline.").

A LITTLE PRAYER

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Energy of Prayer: How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice, with an Introduction by Larry Dossey (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2006) (Gathas for Daily Activities: Waking Up: "Waking up this morning, I smile. / Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.  / I vow to live fully in each moment / and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion." Id. at 152.). 

THIS MORNING I ATTENDED MY 100TH ASANA CLASS ASANAS/PRACTICE.

Bernie Clark, The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga: The Philosophy and Practice of Yin Yoga, with a Foreword by Sarah Powers (Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2012).

B. K. S. Iyengar, Light On Pranayama: The Yogic Art of Breathing, with an Introduction by Yehudi Menuhin (New York: Crossroad, 1985) ("Aims in Life (Purusarthas): 12. Man has four aims in his life: dharma, artha, kama and moksa. Dharma is duty. Without this and ethical discipline, spiritual attainment is impossible. Artha is the acquisition of wealth for independence and higher pursuits in life. It cannot give lasting joy; nevertheless, a poorly nourished body is a fertile ground for worries and diseases. Kama means the pleasures of life, which depend largely on a health body. As the Kathopanisad says, the 'self' cannot be experienced by a weakling. Mosksa is liberation. The enlightened man realises that power, pleasure, wealth and knowledge pass away and do not bring freedom. He tries to rise above his  sattvic, rajasic and tamasic qualities and so escape from the grasp of the gunas." Id. at 9. "4. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (I 16) mentions the six destroyers of yoga practices; over-eating, over-exertion, useless talk, undisciplined conduct, bad company and restless inconsistency. According to the Bhagavad Gita (VI 16) Yoga is not for those who gorge themselves, starve or sleep or stay awake too much. The Yoga Upanisads include bad physical posture and self-destroying emotion, like lust, anger, fear, greed, hatred and jealousy." Id. at 47.).

B. K. S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga, Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Yehudi Menuhin (New York: Schocken, 1977).

B. K. S. Iyengar, The Tree of Yoga, edited by Daniel Rivers-Moore, and with a Foreword by Patria Walden and Manouso Manos (Boston: Shambhala, 2002) ("Though yoga is often considered in the West to be only physical, it is also a physio-psychological and psycho-spiritual subject. It is a science which liberates one's mind from the bondage of the body and leads it towards the soul. When the mind reaches and merges with the soul, the soul is freed and remains thereafter in peace and beatitude. If a bird is kept in a cage, it has no possibility of movement. The moment the cage is opened, the bird flies out and seizes its freedom. Man attains that same freedom when the mind is released from the bondage of the body and comes to rest on the lap of the soul." Id. at 5-6. "The problem with many of us is ambition. You want to perform the asana as you see me perform them, but you forget that I have been practising yoga for more than fifty years, whereas you are just beginning. An ambitious or impatient approach will bring you illness--physical illness or mental illness. So treat the practice of yoga as part of your life, allowing it space within your normal activities." Id. at 28. "Yoga cannot be learnt through lectures. Yoga has to be taught by precept, and in teaching, practical things are involved. . . . " "There is very little value in teachers' certificates. The value is in the teacher's way of approaching teaching. The world is pure, atman is pure, but unfortunately the people living in the world are very corrupt. As yoga became more popular in the West, many people started teaching yoga, claiming to teach the Iyengar method. Some used my name, and unfortunately still use it, to teach things which I myself never taught. . . . [T]he important thing is not the certificate. What is important is whether you are compassionate.  You have to be compassionate as well as merciless. The two have to go together, but you must know where to be compassionate and where not to be compassionate in order to help the pupils with their problems." Id. at 163-164.).

Leslie Kaminoff & Any Matthews, Yoga Anatomy, Second Edition, illustrated by Sharon Ellis (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2012).

HOWEVER, TRUE YOGA IS NOT MAINLY ABOUT ASANAS/POSTURES. "THE TRUE AND ENTIRE PURPOSE OF YOGA IS SPIRITUAL IN NATURE." FOR ME, THIS WILL BE A VERY LONG, ENDLESS (EXCEPT BY DEATH) JOURNEY. AS THEY SAY, 'IT IS THE JOURNEY, NOT THE ARRIVAL, THAT MATTERS.' AMERICANS, GENERALLY SPEAKING, MAY BE A RELIGIOUS PEOPLE RELATIVE TO, SAY, EUROPEANS; BUT AMERICANS ARE NOT A VERY SPIRITUAL PEOPLE. MOREOVER, AMERICANS ARE AN ANTI-INTELLECTUAL PEOPLE; AND, IN MANY CRUCIAL ASPECTS,  THE "ENLIGHTENMENT" NEVER REALLY ESTABLISHED STRONG ROOTS HERE AFTER THE NATION'S FOUNDING GENERATIONS [E.G., THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION IS, FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, A CONSERVATIVE, COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY DOCUMENT.] IN THE CONTEXT OF YOGA, MOST AMERICANS ATTRACTED TO YOGA HAVE LITTLE INTEREST IN THE SPIRITUAL OR HIGHER ASPECTS OF YOGA. RATHER, THEIR INTEREST DOES NOT GET MUCH BEYOND MERE ASANAS AS PHYSICAL FITNESS. I AIM TO GET BEYOND THAT, AND INTO THE SPIRITUAL, AND STRIVING TOWARD GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS. THE ASANAS--OR, TO BE MORE PRECISE, THE PRACTICING OF THE ASANAS--, THOUGH ESSENTIAL, ARE MERELY THE PLATFORM FOR PURSUIT OF THE SPIRITUAL.

Richard Rosen, Original Yoga: Rediscovering Traditional Practices of Hatha Yoga, illustrated by Evan Yee (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2012) ("What is modern yoga all about?  Traditional Hatha Yoga is what might be called a 'full-time job'--time-consuming, strenuous, physically dangerous, and morally objectionable to mainstream standards in more ways than one. If the practice was to appeal to a popular audience, corners had to be cut so that the average householder-practitioner could fit a practice into her busy schedule, and dangerous or objectionable exercises had to be modified or excised altogether. When the dust of renovation settled, there really wasn't much left to do, so exercises were imported from outside sources--Indian wrestling and Western gymnastics--to beef up the practice. They were given Sanskrit names to make them seen 'yogic'; in this way, modern Hatha Yoga became asana-centric, or more precisely, it became equated with asana.  In fact, most 'yoga' classes, . . . books, and videos nowadays are 'asana' classes, books, and videos. I'm not here to criticize this development, a many traditionalists do; I actually believe that the modern 'asana-ization' of Hatha Yoga was a good thing, a way to draw hyper, body-image-conscious Westerners into the fold and get them hooked. According to both the Hatha-Yoga-Pradipka and Gheranda-amhita, the first-stage of traditional Hatha Yoga isn't the behavioral injunctions--the yamas and niyamas as it is in Patanjali's yoga--but asana. What we Westerners have been doing for the last sixties years or so is just that, practicing the first traditional Hatha stage, preparing ourselves for . . . what?" Id. at 3. We have been preparing ourselves for NOTHING ELSE--the asanas have become the end-goal of westernized/American yoga. We are stuck in the first stage, not really wanting to explore the truly deeper and spiritual aspects of traditional or to strive toward higher consciousness. After all, doing such would be detrimental to, and inconsistent, with a life geared toward materialism and making a buck. Traditional yoga is inconsistent with the American Dream.).

SO, WHAT IS A PERSON TO DO?  ENGAGE IN A TRUE YOGA PRACTICE!

T. K. V. Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga: Developing A Personal Practice, Revised Edition (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1995) ("The practice of yoga gives us the chance to experience the many different meanings of the word yoga. We have already described yoga as a movement from one point to another, higher one that was previously beyond our reach. It doesn't matter whether this shift comes about through practicing asana, through study and reading, or through meditation.-- it is still yoga." "In our practice we concentrate on the body, the breath, and the mind.  Our senses are included as part of the mind. Although it theoretically appears possible for body, breath, and mind to work independent of one another, the purpose of yoga is to unify their actions. It is primarily the physical aspect of our practice that people see as yoga. They will rarely notice how we breathe, how we feel the breath, and how we coordinate our breathing with our physical movement; they tend to only see our flexibility and suppleness. Some may want to know how many asanas we have mastered or how many minutes we can stay in a headstand." "Much more important than these outer manifestations is the way we feel the postures and the breath. . . . " Id. at 17. "Yoga cannot guarantee us this or that particular benefit if we practice diligently. Yoga is not a recipe for less suffering, though it can offer us help in changing our attitude so that we have less avidya and therefore greater freedom form duhkha. We can understand the whole practice of yoga as a process of examining our habitual attitudes and behaviors and their consequences." "What suggestions does yoga make about our interaction with others--our behavior toward those around us--and about our attitude toward ourselves? The attitude we have toward things and people outside ourselves is called yama in yoga, and how we relate ti ourselves inwardly is called niyama." "Yama and niyama deal with our social attitudes and lifestyles, how we interact with other people and the environment and how we deal with our problems. These all form a part of yoga, but they cannot be practiced. What we can practice are asanas and pranayama, which make us aware of where we are, where we stand, and how we look at things. Recognizing our mistakes is the first sign of clarity. Then gradually we try to bring about some changes in the way we show our respect to nature or relate to a friend. No one can change in a day, but yoga practices help change attitudes, our yama and niyama, it is not the other way around." Id. at 97. Or, as one of my teachers puts it: "What we do here on the mats carries over into what we do off the mat." From T. Krishnamacharya's Yoganjalisaram: "SURRENDER TO YOGA, FOR / WHERE IS THE CONFLICT WHEN THE TRUTH IS KNOWN? / WHERE IS THE DISEASE WHEN THE MIND IS CLEAR? / WHERE IS THE DEATH WHEN THE BREATH IS CONTROLLED?" Id. at 220.).

YOGA (AND BUDDHISM) ARE CHANGING MY LIFE. OR, RATHER, I AM CHANGING MY LIFE THROUGH MY YOGA PRACTICE (AND MY PRACTICING BUDDHISM).