Dennis Lehane, The Given Day: A Novel (New York: William Morrow, 2008) ("'What are you supposed to do,' Danny said,'when everything you built your life on turns out to be a fucking lie?'" Id. at 468. "[Luther] stood and crossed broken glass and stepped through the window. He never looked back at Old Byron. He worked his way through the feverish white folk and the screams and the rain and the storm of the hive and he knew he was done with every lie he'd ever allowed himself to believe, every lie he'd ever lived, every lie." Id. at 624.).
Dennis Lehane, Live By Night: A Novel (New York: William Morrow, 2012).
Dennis Lehane, World Gone By: A Novel (New York: William Morrow, 2015).
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
SOME WORKS BY DONALD S. LOPEZ, JR. ON BUDDHISM, RELIGION, ETC.
Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom: 104 Poems by Gendun Chopel, a bilingual edition, edited and translated by Donal S. Lopez, Jr. (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2009).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhism in Practice (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1995).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2008) (This book's "central claim is a modest one. It is that in order to understand the conjunction of the terms Buddhism and Science, it is necessary to understand something of the history of the conjunction," Id. at xi. "From the traditional perspective, the Buddhist truth is timeless; the Buddha understood the nature of reality fully at the moment of his enlightenment, and nothing beyond that reality has been discovered since. From this perspective, then, the purpose of all Buddhist doctrine and practice that have developed over the two and a half millennia is to make manifest the content of the Buddha's enlightenment. From the historical perspective, the content of the Buddha's enlightenment is irretrievable, and what is called Buddhism has developed in myriad forms across centuries and continents with these forms linked by their retrospective gaze to the solitary sage seated beneath a tree. From either perspective, in order to make this 'Buddhism' compatible with 'Science,' Buddhism must be severely restricted, eliminating much of what has been deemed essential, whatever that might be, to the exalted monks and ordinary laypeople who have gone for refuge to the Buddha over the course of more than two thousand years." "If something is lost, what is gained? This book surveys the long history of the discourse of Buddhism and Science in an effort to understand why we yearn for the teachings of an itinerent mendicant in Iron Age India, even one of such profound insights, to somehow anticipate the formulae of Einstein." Id. at xii-xiii. "The term aryan appears in the Buddha's first sermon, where he speaks of the ariyamagga and ariyacca. These terms have long been rendered as 'noble path' and 'noble truth.' What they mean in the original Pali is something of a grammatical conundrum. But for the long tradition of commentary at least, it seems clear that this famous translation is inaccurate: it is not the truths that are noble, but rather those who understand them. Suffering, origin, cessation, and path are truths, or facts, only for those who are somehow 'noble.' For all other, they are not true." Id. at 81.).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) (New York: Penguin Books, 2004).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2005) (From the back cover: "Over the past century, Buddhism has been embraced in the West, both as an alternative religion and as an alternative to religion. This volume provides a unique introduction to Buddhism by examining categories essential for a nuanced understanding of its traditions. Each of the fifteen essays uses a fundamental term to illuminate both the theory and the practice of Buddhism in traditional Buddhist societies and in the realms of modernity. Through incisive discussions or topics ranging from art, word, and ritual to sex, power, and death, the authors offer new directions for the understanding of Buddhism in the twenty-first century. The result is not only an invaluable resource for the classroom but an essential book for anyone seriously inserted Buddhism and Asian religions." In addition to Lopez, contributors are Ryuichi Abe, Timothy Barrett, Gustavo Benavides, Carl W. Bielefeld, Timothy Brook, Janet Gyatso, Marilyn Ivy, Charles Lachman, Reiko Ohnuma, William Pietz, Craig J. Reynolds, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Robert H. Sharf, and Jacqueline I. Stone.).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of The Heart Sutra (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1996).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., The Madman's Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Chopel (Buddhism and Modernity) (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2006).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., A Modern Buddhist Bible: Essential Readings from East and West (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002) ("It is perhaps best to consider modern Buddhism not as a universal religion beyond sectarian borders, but as itself a Buddhist sect. There is Thai Buddhism, there is Tibetan Buddhism, there is Korean Buddhism, and there is Modern Buddhism. Unlike previous forms of national Buddhism, this new Buddhism does not stand in a relation of mutual exclusion to these other forms. One may be a Chinese Buddhist and also be a modern Buddhist. Yet one may also be a Chinese Buddhist without being a modern Buddhist. Like other Buddhist sects, modern Buddhism has its own linage, its own doctrines, its own practices . . . And like other Buddhist sects, modern Buddhism has it own canon of sacred scriptures . . . " Id. at xxxix.).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Religions of Asia in Practice: An Anthology (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2002).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Religions of Tibet in Practice (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1997).
Donald S. Lopez, The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History and Teachings (New York: HarperSanFrancisco/HarperCollins, 2001) ("Unlike many mantras that seem to have no semantic meaning, Vajrasattva's mantra can be translated. It means, 'Om Vajrasattva, keep your pledge, Vajrasattva, reside in me. Make me firm. Make me satisfied. Fulfill me. Make me compassionate. Grant me all powers. Make my mind virtuous in all deeds. Hum ha ha ha ha hoh. All the blessed tathagatas, do not abandon me, make me indivisible. Great pledge being. Ah hum.' " Id. at 90-91. "But there is also another challenge, the challenge provided by the dharma, which makes the remarkable claim that it is possible to live a life untainted by what are called the eight worldly concerns: gain and loss, fame and disgrace, praise and blame, happiness and sorrow." Id. at 256.).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhism in Practice (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1995).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2008) (This book's "central claim is a modest one. It is that in order to understand the conjunction of the terms Buddhism and Science, it is necessary to understand something of the history of the conjunction," Id. at xi. "From the traditional perspective, the Buddhist truth is timeless; the Buddha understood the nature of reality fully at the moment of his enlightenment, and nothing beyond that reality has been discovered since. From this perspective, then, the purpose of all Buddhist doctrine and practice that have developed over the two and a half millennia is to make manifest the content of the Buddha's enlightenment. From the historical perspective, the content of the Buddha's enlightenment is irretrievable, and what is called Buddhism has developed in myriad forms across centuries and continents with these forms linked by their retrospective gaze to the solitary sage seated beneath a tree. From either perspective, in order to make this 'Buddhism' compatible with 'Science,' Buddhism must be severely restricted, eliminating much of what has been deemed essential, whatever that might be, to the exalted monks and ordinary laypeople who have gone for refuge to the Buddha over the course of more than two thousand years." "If something is lost, what is gained? This book surveys the long history of the discourse of Buddhism and Science in an effort to understand why we yearn for the teachings of an itinerent mendicant in Iron Age India, even one of such profound insights, to somehow anticipate the formulae of Einstein." Id. at xii-xiii. "The term aryan appears in the Buddha's first sermon, where he speaks of the ariyamagga and ariyacca. These terms have long been rendered as 'noble path' and 'noble truth.' What they mean in the original Pali is something of a grammatical conundrum. But for the long tradition of commentary at least, it seems clear that this famous translation is inaccurate: it is not the truths that are noble, but rather those who understand them. Suffering, origin, cessation, and path are truths, or facts, only for those who are somehow 'noble.' For all other, they are not true." Id. at 81.).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) (New York: Penguin Books, 2004).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2005) (From the back cover: "Over the past century, Buddhism has been embraced in the West, both as an alternative religion and as an alternative to religion. This volume provides a unique introduction to Buddhism by examining categories essential for a nuanced understanding of its traditions. Each of the fifteen essays uses a fundamental term to illuminate both the theory and the practice of Buddhism in traditional Buddhist societies and in the realms of modernity. Through incisive discussions or topics ranging from art, word, and ritual to sex, power, and death, the authors offer new directions for the understanding of Buddhism in the twenty-first century. The result is not only an invaluable resource for the classroom but an essential book for anyone seriously inserted Buddhism and Asian religions." In addition to Lopez, contributors are Ryuichi Abe, Timothy Barrett, Gustavo Benavides, Carl W. Bielefeld, Timothy Brook, Janet Gyatso, Marilyn Ivy, Charles Lachman, Reiko Ohnuma, William Pietz, Craig J. Reynolds, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Robert H. Sharf, and Jacqueline I. Stone.).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of The Heart Sutra (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1996).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., The Madman's Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Chopel (Buddhism and Modernity) (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2006).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., A Modern Buddhist Bible: Essential Readings from East and West (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002) ("It is perhaps best to consider modern Buddhism not as a universal religion beyond sectarian borders, but as itself a Buddhist sect. There is Thai Buddhism, there is Tibetan Buddhism, there is Korean Buddhism, and there is Modern Buddhism. Unlike previous forms of national Buddhism, this new Buddhism does not stand in a relation of mutual exclusion to these other forms. One may be a Chinese Buddhist and also be a modern Buddhist. Yet one may also be a Chinese Buddhist without being a modern Buddhist. Like other Buddhist sects, modern Buddhism has its own linage, its own doctrines, its own practices . . . And like other Buddhist sects, modern Buddhism has it own canon of sacred scriptures . . . " Id. at xxxix.).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Religions of Asia in Practice: An Anthology (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2002).
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Religions of Tibet in Practice (Princeton Readings in Religions) (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1997).
Donald S. Lopez, The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History and Teachings (New York: HarperSanFrancisco/HarperCollins, 2001) ("Unlike many mantras that seem to have no semantic meaning, Vajrasattva's mantra can be translated. It means, 'Om Vajrasattva, keep your pledge, Vajrasattva, reside in me. Make me firm. Make me satisfied. Fulfill me. Make me compassionate. Grant me all powers. Make my mind virtuous in all deeds. Hum ha ha ha ha hoh. All the blessed tathagatas, do not abandon me, make me indivisible. Great pledge being. Ah hum.' " Id. at 90-91. "But there is also another challenge, the challenge provided by the dharma, which makes the remarkable claim that it is possible to live a life untainted by what are called the eight worldly concerns: gain and loss, fame and disgrace, praise and blame, happiness and sorrow." Id. at 256.).
Monday, December 21, 2015
"BASTARDS OF THE REAGAN ERA"
Reginald Dwayne Betts, Bastard of the Reagan Era (New York: Four Way Books, 2015).
R. (Reginald) Dwayne Betts, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison (New York Avery, 2009).
Reginald Dwayne Betts, Shahid Reads His Own Palm (Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2010).
R. (Reginald) Dwayne Betts, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison (New York Avery, 2009).
Reginald Dwayne Betts, Shahid Reads His Own Palm (Farmington, ME: Alice James Books, 2010).
Sunday, December 20, 2015
JURGEN HABERMAS
Jurgen Habermas, The Crisis of the European Union: A Response, translated from the German by Ciaran Cronin (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity Press, 2012) ("Today, all federations have adapted themselves more or less to the nation state model; the United States, too, has become a federal state at the latest since the end of the Second World War. The United Nations can understand itself at the beginning of the twenty-first century as an association of 193 nation states. The question that James Madison already confronted in 1787 arise all the more urgently with regard to the European Union: can a federation of member states with democratic constitutions satisfy the conditions of democratic legitimation without clearly subordinating the national level to the federal level?" Id at 32-33.).
Jurgen Habermas, Europe: The Faltering Project, translated from the German by Ciaran Cronin (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity Press, 2009) (From "The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Legitimation Problem of a Constitution for World Society": "Cosmopolitan citizens take their orientation from universalistic standard which the peace and human rights policies of the United Nations must satisfy no less than a global domestic politics negotiated among the global players. National citizens, by contrast, measure the conduct of their governments and chief negotiators in the international arenas in the first instance not in accordance with global standard of justice, but above all in terms of the effective pursuit of national or regional interests. But if this conflict were fought out in the heads of the same citizens, the notions of legitimacy which evolved with the cosmopolitan framework of the international community would inevitably clash with the legitimate expectations and demands derived from the frame of reference of the respective national-states." Id. at 109, 116.).
Jurgen Habermas, The Lure of Technocracy, translated from the German by Ciaran Cronin (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity Press, 2015) (From "The Next Step--And Interview": For the first time in the history of capitalism, the collapse of the entire financial sector manifestly had to be averted or postponed through the guarantees of the taxpayers; and in most cases the citizens didn't even receive the corresponding property titles in return. The injustice of the burden-sharing cries out to heaven: the banks continue to gamble away merrily while the protests retain a more local character--on London streets in flames, on Puerta del Sol in Madrid, before the City Hall in Lisbon, on Syntagma Square in Athens and so forth, Occupy Wall Street aside, these movements are as different from each other in cause, character, composition and motivation as the occasions and conditions at the national levels. The silent majorities to which these movements appeal are disheartened. They probably sense the systematic entanglements of everyone with everyone else, and are overwhelmed by the sense of the fatal impotence of their governments in the face of the potential threat of still unregulated markets. For this reason alone, we need a workable core Europe in order to re-establish a halfway tolerable balance between politics and the market." Id. at 63, 70-71.).
Jurgen Habermas, Europe: The Faltering Project, translated from the German by Ciaran Cronin (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity Press, 2009) (From "The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Legitimation Problem of a Constitution for World Society": "Cosmopolitan citizens take their orientation from universalistic standard which the peace and human rights policies of the United Nations must satisfy no less than a global domestic politics negotiated among the global players. National citizens, by contrast, measure the conduct of their governments and chief negotiators in the international arenas in the first instance not in accordance with global standard of justice, but above all in terms of the effective pursuit of national or regional interests. But if this conflict were fought out in the heads of the same citizens, the notions of legitimacy which evolved with the cosmopolitan framework of the international community would inevitably clash with the legitimate expectations and demands derived from the frame of reference of the respective national-states." Id. at 109, 116.).
Jurgen Habermas, The Lure of Technocracy, translated from the German by Ciaran Cronin (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity Press, 2015) (From "The Next Step--And Interview": For the first time in the history of capitalism, the collapse of the entire financial sector manifestly had to be averted or postponed through the guarantees of the taxpayers; and in most cases the citizens didn't even receive the corresponding property titles in return. The injustice of the burden-sharing cries out to heaven: the banks continue to gamble away merrily while the protests retain a more local character--on London streets in flames, on Puerta del Sol in Madrid, before the City Hall in Lisbon, on Syntagma Square in Athens and so forth, Occupy Wall Street aside, these movements are as different from each other in cause, character, composition and motivation as the occasions and conditions at the national levels. The silent majorities to which these movements appeal are disheartened. They probably sense the systematic entanglements of everyone with everyone else, and are overwhelmed by the sense of the fatal impotence of their governments in the face of the potential threat of still unregulated markets. For this reason alone, we need a workable core Europe in order to re-establish a halfway tolerable balance between politics and the market." Id. at 63, 70-71.).
Friday, December 18, 2015
THE POLITICS OF POVERTY ERADICATION
David Rieff, The Reproach of Hunger: Food, Justice, and Money in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015) ("In revolutionary moments, institutional thinking tens to be formulated in zero-sum terms. And even in non revolutionary moments, once a course of action is undertaken that its architects believe will be transformative, admitting failure or, worse still, error, or for that matter even changing course without any such admission, is not something that ever comes easily to large, powerful institutions such as the World Bank, the development agencies of major Western donors, or the major philanthropies and development NGOs." Id. at 109. "It is a commonplace that shameless self-promotion is all but inscribed on the DNA of contemporary culture. Go on Twitter and you'll find a huge number of the tweets go roughly, 'A wonderful article/speech/intervention by John Smith,' and then you note the heading reads, 'Retweeted by John Smith.' When Norman Mailer published a collection of essays in 1959 called Advertisements for Myself, such self-promotion was thought by many to be unworthy of the serious writer Mailer certainly was. Today promoting oneself isn't viewed as shameful, it is actually viewed as part of doing one's job. And as we all seem so hellbent on 'branding,' and advertising seems reasonable to people even though advertisements are manipulations at best and usually outright lies, what matters more and more are one's good intentions, not whether one is telling the truth. How else to explain the twenty-first-century fashion among philanthropies, UN agencies, and campaigning groups (including a number involved on food issues, notably Bono's ONE Campaign) to ask people to vote on what kind of world they want? Have people become so skilled at quelling their own common sense that they believe such appeals, which are essentially polls, and polls taken in a world increasingly run as a plutocracy, with inequalities of money and status not seen in Europe of North American since Balzac's time, can translate into political or social power? But as in the proverbial case of the emperor's new clothes, it is in no one's interest to say what a sham, what a simulacrum of democracy this particular fashion is self-flattery and the manufacturing of consent really is." Id. at 119. From the book jacket: "Some of the most brilliant scientists, world politicians, and development experts agree the eradication of hunger is an essential task for the new millennia. Yet in the last decade, the prices of wheat, soy, and rice have soared. It has condemned the hundreds of millions of the world's population who live on less than one dollar per day to a state of hunger and insecurity." "In The Reproach of Hunger, Rieff, a leading expert on humanitarian aid and development, searches for the causes of this food security crisis, as well as what lies behind the failures to respond to disaster: failures to address climate change, poor governance, and misguided optimism. Riff cautions against the increased privatization of aid, as well as the interventions of celebrity campaigners, whose busineess-led solutions rob development of political urgency. He dismisses the idle hope of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that food scarcity can be solved by technological innovation alone." "The path ahead, Rieff reminds us, demands we rethink the fundamental causes of the world's grotesque inequalities and understand that what is at stake is a political challenge we are failing to confront.").
Thursday, December 17, 2015
ISLAM AND TOLERANCE
Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz, Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue (Cambridge. Massachusetts, & London, AEngland: Harvard U. Press, 2015).
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
FOOD FOR THOUGHT/UNDERSTANDING: IDENTITY
Amy Ellis Nutt, Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family (New York; Random House, 2015) ("We are all born with traits, characteristics, and physical markers that allow others to identify us, to say, 'He's a boy' or 'She's a girl.' None of us, however, is born with a sense of self. By the age of two, children recognize themselves in a mirror, but so do chimpanzees and dolphins. Even the humble roundworm can distinguish its body from the rest of its environment via a single neuron. But of our 'who-ness' or 'what-ness'--our essence--there is no single place in the brain, no clump of gray matter, no nexus of electrical activity we can point to and say, Aha, here it is, here is my self, here is my soul." Id. at xviii.).
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
CHARLES PERCY SNOW
C. P. Snow, The Affair (Strangers and Brothers, Book 8) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1960, 2000).
C. P. Snow, Corridors or Power (Strangers and Brothers, Book 9) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1964, 2000).
C. P. Snow, A Coat of Varnish (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1979, 2000).
C. P. Snow, The Conscience of the Rich (Strangers and Brothers, Book 7) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1958, 2000).
C. P. Snow, Corridors or Power (Strangers and Brothers, Book 9) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1964, 2000).
C. P. Snow, Death Under Sail (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1932, 2000).
C. P. Snow, George Passant (Strangers and Brothers, Book 1) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1940, 2000).
C. P. Snow, Homecomings (Strangers and Brothers, Book 6) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1956, 2001).
C. P. Snow, In Their Wisdom (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1974, 2000).
C. P. Snow, Last Things (Strangers and Brothers, Book 11) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1970, 2000).
C. P. Snow, The Light and the Dark (Strangers and Brothers, Book 2) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1947, 2001) ("As we walked through the court to his dinner party, he broke out in a clear, passionate tone: 'All men are swine.' He added, but still without acceptance, charity, or rest: 'The only wonder is, the decent things they manage to do now and then. They show a dash of something better, once or twice in their lives. I don't know how they do it--when I see what we are really like.'" Id. at 280.).
C. P. Snow, The Malcontents (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1975, 2000).
C. P. Snow, The Masters (Strangers and Brothers, Book 4) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1951, 2000).
C. P. Snow, The New Men (Strangers and Brothers, Book 5) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1954, 2001) ("Unable to keep myself away, hurrying to the laboratories to hear remarks that I did not want to hear, I found Luke and Martin already there. They might have been following old Bevill's first rule for any kind of politics: if there is a crisis, if anyone can do you harm or good, he used to say, looking simple, never mind your dignity, never mind your nerves, but always be present in the flesh." Id, at 109.).
C. P. Snow, The Search (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1958, 2000).
C. P. Snow, The Sleep of Reason (Strangers and Brothers, Book 10) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1968, 2000).
C. P. Snow, Time of Hope (Strangers and Brothers, Book 3) (Cornwall: House of Stratus/Stratus Books, 1949, 2000) ("Years afterwards, I realized that, when I was his pupil, I crasly underestimated Getlife as a lawyer. It was natural for me and Charles March to hold our indignation meetings in the Temple gardens; but though it was hard for young men to accept, some of Getliffe's gifts were far more viable than ours. We overvalued power and clarity of mind, of which we both had a share, and we dismissed Getliffe because of his muddiness. We had not seen enough to know that, for most kinds of success, intelligence is a very minor gift. Getliffe's mind was muddy, but he was a more effective lawyer than men far clever, because he was tricky and resilient, because he was expansive with all men, because nothing restrained his emotions, and because he had a simple, humble, tenacious love for his job." Id. at 262.).
Friday, December 11, 2015
MANIPULATION AND DECEPTION
George A. Akerlof & Robert J. Shiller, Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2015) (“We are creating a new, broader meaning for the word phish here. . . . It is about getting people to do things that are in the interest of the phisherman, but not in the interest of the target.” Id. at xi. “By our definition, a phool is someone who, for whatever reason, is successfully phished”. Id. at xi. “Free markets do not just produce what we really want; they also produce what we want according to our monkey-on-the-shoulder tastes. Free markets are also about producing wants, so we will buy what they have to sell. In the United States the goal of almost every business person (with the exception of some who sell stocks and bonds and bank accounts . . . ) is to get you to spend your money. Free markets produce continual temptation. Life is a proverbial trip to a parking lot in which you are constantly passing spaces left open for the disabled.” Id. at 20. Note: The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has seen an explosion in schools, and education generally, operating on a corporate-business model, and this is not just in for-profits schools. So, if key university administrators are essentially businessmen and businesswomen who are trying to get you to spend your money, then what are they really selling? Is it some thing one needs? Or is, it a something you want, and want because the ‘want’ has been manufactured? In otherwords, to what extent do universities phish for phools?).
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
WHEN IT COMES TO NATIONAL SECURITY, IS IT OKAY FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO LIE TO THE COURTS?
Lorraine K. Bannai, Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu and His Quest For Justice (Seattle & London: U. of Washington Press, 2015) ("The documents that Peter brought Fred were remarkable and indeed shocking. They, together with other key documents found by Aiko, showed that the government had purposefully suppressed, altered, and destroyed material evidence during World War II to ensure that the Supreme Court upheld the wartime curfew, forced removal, and--if it reached that issue--incarceration. The government had, in sum, engineered a 'win' based on a false and fraudulent record and had lied to the court, Among other things, the documents showed that the government had withheld form the court key intelligence reports at odds with its claim that its actions were justified by military necessity. They also showed that when the government learn that General De Witt's Final Report contradicted its arguments in Fred's case, the original report was destroyed and a new, altered, more consistent with the government's arguments, was given to the court." "The documents showed that the government knew of, and withheld, its own intelligence reports that refuted its claim of military necessity, In Fred's case, the government had argued that Japanese Americans posed a threat that required immediate action. In order to support that argument, the government provided the Supreme Court DeWitts's Final Report, in which DeWitt asserted that the orders were justified because Japanese Americana were prone to disloyalty and because there was evidence suggesting that they were involved in illegal shore-to-ship signaling. Solicitor General Fahy stood behind DeWitt's report in his oral argument before the Supreme Court. He asserted, '[N]ot only the military judgment of the general, but the judgment of the Government of the United States, has always been in justification of the measures taken; and no person in any responsible position has ever taken a contrary position." Id. at 139-140.).
Monday, December 7, 2015
PROPAGANDA
Jason Stanley, How Propaganda Works (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2015).
"During the decade I was immersed in the arcane details of formal semantics and pragmatics, the United States was in the throes of a mad experiment in mass incarceration, falling largely on the heads of the minority who were the descendants of slaves. Sylvia Wynter published an article that begins with the information that "public officials of the judicial system of Los Angeles routinely use the acronym 'N.H.I.' to refer to any case that involved a breach of the right of young Black males who belonged to the jobless category of the inner city ghettos. N.H.I means 'no humans involved.'" Wynter's article links the method of dehumanization of American citizens of African descent to the dehumanization of Armenians by Turkish pan-nationalists in the First World War Period, and Jew by German nationalists during the Second War World period, In these latter cases, the dehumanization was a preparation for mass slaughter." Id. at xiv (citing Sylvia Wynter, "'No Humans Involved': An Open Letter to My Colleagues," Knowledge on Trial 1 (1994): 3-11).
"During the decade I was immersed in the arcane details of formal semantics and pragmatics, the United States was in the throes of a mad experiment in mass incarceration, falling largely on the heads of the minority who were the descendants of slaves. Sylvia Wynter published an article that begins with the information that "public officials of the judicial system of Los Angeles routinely use the acronym 'N.H.I.' to refer to any case that involved a breach of the right of young Black males who belonged to the jobless category of the inner city ghettos. N.H.I means 'no humans involved.'" Wynter's article links the method of dehumanization of American citizens of African descent to the dehumanization of Armenians by Turkish pan-nationalists in the First World War Period, and Jew by German nationalists during the Second War World period, In these latter cases, the dehumanization was a preparation for mass slaughter." Id. at xiv (citing Sylvia Wynter, "'No Humans Involved': An Open Letter to My Colleagues," Knowledge on Trial 1 (1994): 3-11).
"Why are we so inclined to confuse, quite sincerely, objective claims of reason with what turns out to be, introspect, biased and self-serving opinions? Why does seemingly objective discourse seem nevertheless to tap into bias and stereotype? And most pressingly, why, across continents and centuries, are the claims of oppressed and exploited groups routinely dismissed at the time, when history has subsequently revealed that the claims should have appeared to be clearly correct? These are the questions at the hear of this book." Id. at xvi-xvii.
Jason Stanley, Know How (Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 2011).
Jason Stanley, Knowledge and Practical Interests (Oxford: Clarendon Press/Oxford U. Press, 2005).
Jason Stanley, Language in Context (Oxford: Clarendon Press/Oxford U. Press, 2007).
Sunday, December 6, 2015
DEHUMANIZATION
David Livingstone Smith, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2015) ("[D]ehumization is the belief that some beings only appear human, but beneath the surface, where it really counts, they aren't at all." Id. at 4-5. ("We are all potential dehumanizes, just as we all are potential objects of dehumanization. The problem of dehumanization is everyone's problem. My ask is to explain why." Id. at 25. "In this book, I will argue that when we dehumanize people we think of them as counterfeit human beings--creatures that look like humans, but who are not endowed with a human essence--and that this is possible only because of our natural tendency to think that there are essence-based natural kinds. This way of thinking does;t come form 'outside.' We neither absorb it from our culture, nor learn it from observation. Rather, it seems to reflect out cognitive architecture--the evolved design of the human psyche." Id. at 101. [Query: Have you noticed the need of many people to "feel special," to think of themselves as "unique" in a world of several billion people? Is this apart of the human psyche? If it is, then perhaps the tendency to dehumanize is part of the human psyche as well. After all, it is really difficult to maintain the view of oneself, or one's group, as special and unique unless one views some others as less-than-special, less than unique.] "In this chapter [Chapter 7, titled "The Cruel Animal"] I'm going to defend the proposition that Homo sapiens are the only animals capable of cruelty and war. I'm going to explore where this leads and use it to develop a more detailed explanation of why dehumanization causes moral disengagement." Id. at 203. "Sometimes dehumanized people are thought to be a deposed or hated 'animal' of no determinate kind. However, they are more often represented as any of three kinds of creature: dangerous predators, unclean animals,or prey. There are occasional departures from this pattern, but for the most part, it is surprisingly robust across both time and place." Id. at 252. Ask yourself, how does the law dehumanize certain people? As lawyers, what is your role in that dehumanization process? Lately, there is a lot of lip-service being given to mercy, compassion, forgiveness, etc. Perhaps a little more attention should be given to our dark side, our tendency to dehumanize. It is relatively easy, and comfortable, to contemplate dehumanization by others, or aboard. It is a greater challenge to look closer to home and see the dehumanization of others in our own minds and hearts. And ask yourself whether notions of racial, ethnic, cultural, national, etc., pride are masking acts and values of dehumanization.).
Saturday, December 5, 2015
ARUNDHATI ROY ON INDIA, GLOBAL CORPORATE CAPITALISM, FASCISM
Arundhati Roy, Capitalism: A Ghost Story (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014) ("The [Indian] army is experienced enough to know that coercive force alone cannot carry out or manage social engineering on the scale that is envisaged by India's planners. War against the poor is one thing. But for the rest of us--the middle class, white-collar workers, intellectuals, 'opinion-makers'--it has to be 'perception management.' And for this we must turn out attention to the exquisite art of Corporate Philanthropy." Id. at 17. "Poverty, too, like feminism, is often framed as an identity problem. As though the poor had not been created by injustice but are a lost tribe who just happen to exist and can be rescued in the short term by a system of grievance redressal (administer by NGOs on an individual, person-to-person basis), and whose long-term resurrection will come from Good Governance. Under the regime of Global Corporate Capitalism, it goes without saying." Id. at 37. "Do we need weapons to fight wars? Or do we need wars to create a market for weapons? After all, the economies of Europe, the United States, and Israel depend hugely on their weapons industry. It's the one thing they haven't outsourced to China." Id. at 43. "Capitalism is in crisis. Trickledown failed. Now Gush-Up is in trouble too. The international financial meltdown is closing in. [] Major international corporations are sitting on huge piles of money, not sure where to invest it, nor sure how the financial crisis wildly out. There is a major, structural crack in the juggernaut of global capital." Id. at 45.).
Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living (New York: The Modern Library, 1999).
Arundhati Roy, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2009) ("Fascism's firm footprint has appeared in India. Let's mark the date: Spring 2002. While we think the U.S. president and the Coalition Against Terror for creating a congenial international atmosphere for fascism's ghastly debut, we can't credit them for the years it has been brewing in our public and private lives." Id. at 42. "The incident, creeping fascism of the past few years has been grounded by many of our 'democratic' institutions. Everyone has flirted with it--Parliament, the press, the police, the administration, the public. Even 'secularists' have been guilty of helping to create the right climate. Each time you defend the right of an institution, any institution (including the Supreme Court), to exercise unfettered, unaccountable powers that must never be challenged, you move toward fascism." Id. at 43.).
Arundhati Roy, The Greater Common Good (Bombay: IndiaBook Distributors, 1999) ("'If you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country...' (Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking to villagers who were to be displaced by the Hirakud dam, 1948.) I stood on a hill and laughed out loud." Id. at 1. "From being self-sufficient and free, to being impoverished and yoked to the whims of a world you know nothing, nothing about--what d'you suppose it must feel like? Would you like to trade your beach house in Goa for a hovel in Paharganj? No? Not even for the sake of the Nation?" Id. at 39. "Power s fortified not just by what it destroys, but also by what it creates. Not just by what it takes, but also by what it gives. And Powerlessness, reaffirmed not just by the helpless of those who have lost, but also by gratitude of those who have (or think they have) gained." Id. at 61.).
Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire (New York: Open Media Pamphlet Series/Seven Stories Press, 2004) ("In the United States . . . the blurring of the distinction between sarkar and public [that is, between the government and the people] has penetrated far deeper into society. This could be a sign of a robust democracy, but unfortunately, it's a little more complicated and less pretty than that. Among other things, it has to do with the elaborate web of paranoia generated by the U.S. searcher and spun out by the corporate media and Hollywood. Ordinary people in the United States have been manipulated into imaging they are a people unde siege whose sole refuge and protector is their government [and their guns?]. If it isn't the Communists, it's al-Qaeda. If it isn't Cuba, it's Nicaragua. [If it is blacks, it's illegal immigrants?] As a result, this, the most powerful nation in the world--with its unmatchable arsenal of weapons, its history of having waged and sponsored endless wars, and the only nation in history to have actually used nuclear bombs--is peopled by a terrified citizenry, jumping at shadows. A people bonded to the state not by social services, or public health care, or employment guarantees, but by fear." Id. at 7-8. "If you think about it, the logic that underlies the war on terrorism and the logic that underlies terrorism are exactly the same. Both make ordinary citizens pay for the actions of their government. Al-Qaeda made the people of the United States pay with their lives for the actions of their government in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The U. S. government has made the people of Afghanistan pay in the thousands for the actions of the Taliban and the people of Iraq pay in the hundreds of thousands for the actions of Saddam Hussein." Id. at 11. "A second hazard facing mass movements is the NGO-ization of resistance. [] NGOs give the impression that they are filling the vacuum created by a retreating state. And they are, but in a materially inconsequential way. Their real contribution is that they defuse political anger and dole out as aid or benevolence what people ought to have by right. They alter the public psyche. They turn people into dependent victims and blunt the edges of political resistance. NGOs form a sort of buffer between the searcher and public. Between Empire and its subjects. They have become the arbitrators the interpreters the facilitators of the discourse, They play out the role of the 'reasonable man' in an unfair , unreasonable war." Id. at 41-43. "The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in." "Real resistance has real consequences, And no salary." Id. at 46.).
AS AMERICANS, WE NEED TO WAKE UP TO WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN THE GLOBAL WORLD . . . AND THE MANY THINGS FOR WHICH WE, THE PEOPLE, ARE RESPONSIBLE.
Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living (New York: The Modern Library, 1999).
Arundhati Roy, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2009) ("Fascism's firm footprint has appeared in India. Let's mark the date: Spring 2002. While we think the U.S. president and the Coalition Against Terror for creating a congenial international atmosphere for fascism's ghastly debut, we can't credit them for the years it has been brewing in our public and private lives." Id. at 42. "The incident, creeping fascism of the past few years has been grounded by many of our 'democratic' institutions. Everyone has flirted with it--Parliament, the press, the police, the administration, the public. Even 'secularists' have been guilty of helping to create the right climate. Each time you defend the right of an institution, any institution (including the Supreme Court), to exercise unfettered, unaccountable powers that must never be challenged, you move toward fascism." Id. at 43.).
Arundhati Roy, The Greater Common Good (Bombay: IndiaBook Distributors, 1999) ("'If you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country...' (Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking to villagers who were to be displaced by the Hirakud dam, 1948.) I stood on a hill and laughed out loud." Id. at 1. "From being self-sufficient and free, to being impoverished and yoked to the whims of a world you know nothing, nothing about--what d'you suppose it must feel like? Would you like to trade your beach house in Goa for a hovel in Paharganj? No? Not even for the sake of the Nation?" Id. at 39. "Power s fortified not just by what it destroys, but also by what it creates. Not just by what it takes, but also by what it gives. And Powerlessness, reaffirmed not just by the helpless of those who have lost, but also by gratitude of those who have (or think they have) gained." Id. at 61.).
Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire (New York: Open Media Pamphlet Series/Seven Stories Press, 2004) ("In the United States . . . the blurring of the distinction between sarkar and public [that is, between the government and the people] has penetrated far deeper into society. This could be a sign of a robust democracy, but unfortunately, it's a little more complicated and less pretty than that. Among other things, it has to do with the elaborate web of paranoia generated by the U.S. searcher and spun out by the corporate media and Hollywood. Ordinary people in the United States have been manipulated into imaging they are a people unde siege whose sole refuge and protector is their government [and their guns?]. If it isn't the Communists, it's al-Qaeda. If it isn't Cuba, it's Nicaragua. [If it is blacks, it's illegal immigrants?] As a result, this, the most powerful nation in the world--with its unmatchable arsenal of weapons, its history of having waged and sponsored endless wars, and the only nation in history to have actually used nuclear bombs--is peopled by a terrified citizenry, jumping at shadows. A people bonded to the state not by social services, or public health care, or employment guarantees, but by fear." Id. at 7-8. "If you think about it, the logic that underlies the war on terrorism and the logic that underlies terrorism are exactly the same. Both make ordinary citizens pay for the actions of their government. Al-Qaeda made the people of the United States pay with their lives for the actions of their government in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The U. S. government has made the people of Afghanistan pay in the thousands for the actions of the Taliban and the people of Iraq pay in the hundreds of thousands for the actions of Saddam Hussein." Id. at 11. "A second hazard facing mass movements is the NGO-ization of resistance. [] NGOs give the impression that they are filling the vacuum created by a retreating state. And they are, but in a materially inconsequential way. Their real contribution is that they defuse political anger and dole out as aid or benevolence what people ought to have by right. They alter the public psyche. They turn people into dependent victims and blunt the edges of political resistance. NGOs form a sort of buffer between the searcher and public. Between Empire and its subjects. They have become the arbitrators the interpreters the facilitators of the discourse, They play out the role of the 'reasonable man' in an unfair , unreasonable war." Id. at 41-43. "The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in." "Real resistance has real consequences, And no salary." Id. at 46.).
AS AMERICANS, WE NEED TO WAKE UP TO WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN THE GLOBAL WORLD . . . AND THE MANY THINGS FOR WHICH WE, THE PEOPLE, ARE RESPONSIBLE.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
RULE OF LAW IN THE GLOBAL CONTEXT
Stephen Breyer, The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities (New York: Knopf, 2015) (“This brings us to perhaps the most pertinent reason for attempting to address today’s transnational problems through law: any success in that effort helps to advance the rule of law itself. The rule of law represents the polar opposite of the ‘arbitrary,’ which the dictionary equates with the unjust, the illegal, the unreasonable, the autocratic, the despotic,, and the tyrannical. Like democracy and human rights, the rule of law is something more than an ideological commitment for Americans; it is a sine qua non for our system, and where it does not exist, our interests cannot be secured. At the time of 9/11, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and I were in India, about to discuss the rule of law with Indian jurists. Our reception there made clear to us that the important divisions in the world are not geographical, racial, or religious but between those who believe in a rule of law and those who do not. Jurists across the world help to weave this fabric in their day-to-day work, persisting in their labors even if, in the manner of Penelope’s handiwork what is woven by day sometimes unravels during the night, Yet we continue working, not as politicians but as technicians, hopeful but uncertain of success, Id. at 283-284).
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
NO ONE WOULD EVER DESCRIBE AMERICANS AS "AN INTELLECTUAL PEOPLE"
Sudhir Hazareesingh, How the French Think: An Affectionate Portrait of an Intellectual People (New York: Basic Books, 2015) (All great nations think of themselves as exceptional. France's distinctiveness in this regard lies in its during belief in its own moral and intellectual prowess." Id. at 5. Also, Mark Lilla, "The Strangely Conservative French," New York Review of Books, 11/22/2015. "Culture is a cult object in France. It has been estimated that about half of the French population is reading a book at some point every day, around two thousand book prizes are given out every year, and three thousand cultural festivals are held, often in splendid settings. Large government subsidies are given to public radio stations like France Culture, as well as to independent bookstores and countless little magazines. Some years ago the the literary historian Marc Fumaroli, now a member of the Academie Francaise, published a blistering attack on this system, titled L'Etat culture (The Cultural State). He did so, though, not on the grounds that it was elitist or cost too much, but in the name of high culture, arguing that government largesse and cultural bureaucracy stifled genuine creativity and independence." "Anti-intellectual populism a l'Americaine has no traction here." Id. at 50.).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)