Hi Ana,
But isn't that true of any time in any place? How could people keep writing
poetry or living an academic life during the Holocaust? How could we keep
doing what we do during the last 20 years or so while Africa is going to
successive phases of hell? How could we do anything while the US sponsored
dictatorships killed people everywhere in Latin America? How could we act
without a slight rendition to denial while the current ecological crisis?
The list could keep growing, I guess. And I guess that we keep going on
because... why?
David
Ana Marjanovic-Shane writes:
> Don't you find yourself torn between the need to continue with the
> important things in your own life: to prepare for the next task in your
> profession, on one hand, and, on the other, the enormous human tragedy,
> amplified with the deeply troubling political conditions in this country
> and in so many other parts of the world?
> I have a vivid feeling of a deja vu: a common feeling like I felt during
> the wars in Yugoslavia. How can one think of the nuances of the activity
> theory when people are dying in a tragedy? How can one continue discussing
> differences and subtle similarities between philosophical and linguistic
> theories of meaning, when the future of the judicial system is at stake
> and the people in power look like people who usurped the power of all
> decent values of this country? Does our theoretical understanding of human
> cognition, give us any clue how to act in a crisis like this to help
> people organize, mobilize and overcome the crisis?
> Peg, thank you for this wonderful ramble. I just read an article in the NY
> Times about the same thing.
> At the same time, I am trying to prepare an analysis of a fairy tale by
> H.C. Andersen for a conference in Belgrade a week before Sevilla. Stepping
> from one to the other world is not an easy thing these days.
> Ana
>
> Peg Griffin wrote:
>
>> It's about discourse and taking advantage of difficulty with memory
>> retrieval.
>>
>> The weekend shrub blitz (including Condoleeza allegedly coming home to
>> Alabama to help) reeked of the authorship of Karl Rove.
>> As soon as that came into my mind, I realized the shrubs had successfully
>> interfered with my ability to remember. I could not recall that last
>> awful
>> thing we should still be trying to hold Rove accountable for. I could
>> not
>> grab it from memory storage; the hooks to it were obscured. Yes, I
>> remember
>> badly and yes more so as I get older. But manipulating and amplifying
>> natural and individual processes for cultural mass effect is exactly what
>> the shrubs, and especially Rove, are so adept at.
>>
>> Then I saw a news article exposing Rove's roll and verifying my analysis.
>> It was quite clear that Rove was back in DC and the shrub moves in the
>> gulf
>> were governed by the political calculus Rove does so effectively. But
>> nothing nothing nothing in it gave a hint of what I couldn't remember.
>>
>> It would have been off the point, losing focus, rambling for people to
>> identify that relevant thing about Rove.
>>
>> They couldn't write about the woman from the CIA who's married to the man
>> who bucked part of the shrub story about weapons of mass destruction.
>> They
>> couldn't repeat that her name and identity as CIA had been leaked to a
>> newspaper. They couldn't put in that this is the one thing involving
>> Rove
>> that might support legal action and trim the shrub a bit.
>>
>> If we don't keep on that track about Rove, the shrubs are more likely to
>> be
>> able to continue to prey upon us.
>>
>> Is this an example of what is meant by discourse type demands supporting
>> the
>> status quo and contributing to the manipulation of the populous?
>>
>> This is why I like so much the IF Stone book on the Hidden History of the
>> Korean War. A ramble.
>> Peg
>> PS Cyndy Sheehan's bus tour stops here for a little bit tonight. Less
>> time
>> preparation than the first support vigil for her but maybe more folks! I
>> hope and think.
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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David D. Preiss
home page: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~ddp6/
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