Why do you say your comment off topic, Kris? It seems very on topic to me.
Reading recent posts, Nate's most recently, my mind goes, at it often does
in discussions
of pro-life discourses, to the people who rail against abortion yet lift not
a finger to guarantee
the life of children born to a parent or parents who do not want them or are
unprepared, owing
to youth, poverty, and many other reasons. There are so many layers of
hypocracy they are
uncountable. The inequalities within this country, not to mention between
the US and Mexico
( relatively WELL OFF country), not to mention between the US and, say,
Liberia or rural
China or India or......... are so clearly ANTI-LIFE that we must constrantly
justify them through
ideologies of superiority -- moral, intellectual, you name it.
The vigilantes on the Arizona border are one more manifestation of a very
general, seemingly
timeless, malaise that affects the haves when dealing with those who have
less and want more.
I do not exempt myself from this criticism. As I sit at this terminal typing
I am using a massively
disproportionate amount of the resources for sustaining human life on this
planet. This, I
believe, is a good candidate for the original sin.
Not off topic in the least from my perspective, Kris.
And the solution is............... beyond our grasp..... which is no reason
to stop reaching.
mike
On Apr 3, 2005 7:34 PM, Kris Gutierrez <gutierrez@gseis.ucla.edu> wrote:
>
> THIS IS OFF TOPIC BUT IT CAN'T GO UNNOTICED--SOMETHING CLOSE TO HOME
> FOR THOSE OF US IN THE SOUTHWEST and hopefully something else to
> ponder: KRIS
>
> Soldados Mexicanos Muertos en Irak" (Xenophobes of the Minutemen
> Project want to play soldiers on the Arizona-Mexico border, hunting
> down "illegal aliens." Meanwhile, Mexicans are dying in Iraq for the
> US government) -- FULL TEXT:
> <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/04/soldados-mexicanos-muertos-en-
> irak.html>
> --
>
> Kris D. Gutierrez
> Professor
> GSE&IS
> Moore Hall 1026
> UCLA
> Los Angeles, CA 9009501521
> 310-825-7467
> On Apr 3, 2005, at 6:14 PM, Ana Marjanovic-Shane wrote:
>
> > Phil,
> > Thanks for the link!! And thank Nate for posting it
> > Ana
> >
> > Phil Chappell wrote:
> > Mike and All Spam lovers,
> >
> > Parts of Psychology of Art are here.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Phil
> >
> > http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1925/
> >
> > On Monday, April 04, 2005, at 02:52AM, Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >
> > <<Original Attached>>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Ana-- I am confused by the law of aesthetic response.
> > I get two (perhaps) relevant defintions from OED for catharsis:
> > 1. The purification of the emotions by vicarious experience, esp.
> > through the drama
> > 2. Psychotherapy. The process of relieving an abnormal excitement by
> > re-establishing the association of the emotion with the memory or idea
> > of the event which was the first cause of it, and of eliminating it by
> > abreaction
> >
> > My copy of Psych of Art has long ago been borrowed in extinction. Can
> > you elaborate so I can follow the rest of the thought?
> > mike
> >
> >
> > On Apr 2, 2005 11:27 PM, Ana Marjanovic-Shane <ana@zmajcenter.org>
> > wrote:
> > In the Psychology of Art, Vygotsky said:
> > "The law of aesthetic response ...: it comprises an affect that
> > develops in two opposite directions but reaches annihilation at its
> > point of termination.
> > This is the process we should like to call catharsis."(Psychology of
> > Art, MIT Press, 1971, p. 214)
> > Learning is often, probably always, driven by the law of catharsis --
> > learning which is meaningful and transformative.
> > But the emotion that develops in two opposite directions is not
> > always a benign and sweet thing. It is dramatic, it is breaking away,
> > it is or can become fully developed drama or tragedy. Think of the
> > great thought revolutions: Copernicus and Galileo.
> > The best learning, a true metamorphosis is never merely academic and
> > just cognitive.
> > But, there are more levels here. There is a difference between a
> > catharsis, as transformation into something new; and destruction, a
> > transformation after which nothing is left. However, a line between
> > the two is very thin.
> > What does it mean to be pro-life? A catch phrase, almost a battle
> > cry, that touches some people and blinds them to everything else:
> > complexities of human situation, effects on other people, scientific
> > findings... In the same breath, they can be against "abortion" and
> > for the "capital punishment". And it makes sense to them. And then you
> > have people who know how to use this catch phrase, this battle cry to
> > achieve some other goals. Goals which have nothing to do and may be
> > contrary to the meaning of "pro-life". You almost feel like a
> > spectator in a theater seeing how the affects develop in the opposite
> > directions and you wait for them to reach annihilation and the point
> > of termination. And you pray that the termination will be in the form
> > of the social catharsis -- not social destruction.
> > Ana
> >
> >
> >
> > Mike Cole wrote:
> > Breaking away
> >
> > Breaking away
> > stealing thoughts
> > cutting edges and
> > turning around.
> >
> > Hippity-hop!
> > I cannot stop.
> >
> > Butterflies, jellyfish,
> > marzipan sweet,
> > snap dragon flies
> > sprinkled with sand.
> >
> > Breaking away
> > over the wires
> > under the radar
> > covering tracks.
> >
> > Hippity-hop!
> > I cannot stop.
> >
> > Butterflies are blown northward
> > to the San Joaquin valley in profusion.
> > Orange, black, white fleeting lives,
> > Flying, blowing north.
> >
> > Breaking away
> > gently destroying
> > remembrance of life before.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Today the butterflies in our back yard crowded our beautiful purple
> > flowers. Not yet blown away on their
> > trip north. Heather appreciated the thoughts. Their lives are so short!
> >
> > Today Pope John Paul the 2nd died. They say he promoted pro life and
> > pro social justice policies. It is an
> > occasion,along with the furor over Terry Shaivo, for all of us to
> > re-think what it means to be pro-life and pro-poor. David tried to get
> > us to think about this issue earlier this week. Apparently his
> > comments did not resonate. Might
> > they evoke more externalized reflection the second time around?
> >
> > mike
> >
> >
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun May 01 2005 - 01:00:06 PDT