Beardy Guy Musings

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.” - James Madison (Fourth Presidentof the United States)

Thanks to some folks at MIT we now have Government Information Awarness. Their Mission:

To empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy-to-use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America.

To allow citizens to submit intelligence about government-related issues, while maintaining their anonymity. To allow members of the government a chance to participate in the process.

Technorati Tags: Government Information Awareness

A couple days ago I mentioned this story over at The Nation in which Renana Brooks offers an analysis of Bush’s use of language.

Given the manipulative content of Bush’s speeches on the 4th, it seems like a good time to reflect on his words. Emma over at Notes on the Atrocities also takes a look at Bush’s speech.

“By killing innocent Americans, our enemies made their intentions clear to us,” Bush said from a red-white-and-blue-bedecked stage set up on a sun-soaked field. “And since that September day, we have made our own intentions clear to them."

Who killed innocent Americans? Not Iraqis. Bush has provided zero, zilch, nada in the way of evidence which might link Iraq to 9/11. He’s mixing the shit here.

The United States, Bush said, “will not stand by and wait for another attack, or trust in the restraint and good intentions of evil men."

Who’s good and evil? Are Iraqi civilians evil? Were they deserving of 3/12/03? What about 3/15/03? Maybe they deserved 3/17 or 3/19? Just what was the threat posed by Saddam? Where are the chemical and nuclear weapons? The constant repetition of these accusations does not make them true.

“We will act whenever it is necessary to protect the lives and the liberty of the American people."

“Without America’s active involvement in the world, the ambitions of tyrants would go unopposed and millions would live at the mercy of terrorists,” he said. “With Americans' active involvement in the world, tyrants learn to fear and terrorists are on the run."

What in the hell is he saying here? The “ambitions of tyrants”? Please, tell me, what had Saddam done to us? What has he ever done to the U.S.? Bush is fond of talking terrorism, of bringing up 9/11 and suggesting that we should live in fear, afraid for our lives. From the perspective of an Iraqi it is the U.S. and George Bush that is the terrorist. It’s currently estimated that 6,000 - 7,000 Iraqi civilians died as a result of our recent aggression. That does not count the thousands who were injured, many maimed for the rest of their lives. Does this not far outweigh the pain and suffering of 9/11? Just in pure numbers it does. So, tell me again, who is the terrorist? George Bush, you are a piece of shit.

Technorati Tags: 9/11, George Bush, Terrorism

Troop morale in Iraq hits ‘rock bottom’

In one Army unit, an officer described the mentality of troops. “They vent to anyone who will listen. They write letters, they cry, they yell. Many of them walk around looking visibly tired and depressed…. We feel like pawns in a game that we have no voice [in]."

Technorati Tags: Iraq, War

The Declaration of Independence

Watch out, some folks might label you a traitor or subversive for reading such radical propaganda:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

Thanks to Cory at Boing Boing for posting it there.

Steve Gilliard over at the Daily Kos has written an excellent summary of the current situation in Iraq.

The look on Donald Rumsfeld’s face lately has not been a happy one. As the Bush Administration and its defenders try to pretend that the war in Iraq is not going badly, the reality is that things are getting worse with little hope for a solution in the near future.

Viceroy Jerry has asked for 50,000 troops to maintain his rule. There’s one small problem with that. There aren’t 50K to give. The US military is nearly at the end of it’s deployable strength and needs to withdraw the 3ID as soon as possible.

Each day that passes get’s uglier and uglier. Bush apparently does not know who’s in charge of finding the WMD. Saddam is still on the loose. Resistance to U.S. occupation grows each day. Back on the ranch Cowboy George is inviting attacks on the U.S. troops.

Of course I’m just looking at it from the point of view of a citizen in this country. I have no idea what it must be like over there. As if the Iraqi’s were devastated enough by 10+ years of economic sanctions we pounded their country with Gulf War 2. They didn’t ask for Saddam, nor did they ask for Bush. Why does the U.S. constantly interfere in the affairs of so many countries? Never forget that Rumsfeld was shaking hands with Saddam in the 1980’s.

Today we celebrate Independence day. I wonder, what does that mean?

Technorati Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush, War

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

An ongoing tally of the cost of the war in Iraq
The tally updates every second and I’ll tell ya, it’s scary to watch. We’re spending about $2,000 every second.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, War

Maybe it’s the heat? 

Boy, I’m slackin. I have not been motivated to do anything the past few days. Actually, I am taking a more pro-active role at my place of employment but outside of that I, er, just don’t care. I’m felling very apathetic about most things. It’s interesting, but some folks think I need fixing. There seems to be a sentiment that there’s something wrong with me. I suppose I can’t know for sure but I don’t think there is.

Why is happiness so important? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be miserable. But I don’t know that I want to be happy either. I think I just want to be. I’ll take the good with the bad and try to keep it all in context.

I think that perhaps I’ve just exhausted my limited social energy. I’m feeling like I want to be alone more than I have in the past. I’m not content but I’m not really interested in making any changes at the moment. Yes, I want to be left alone. That may sound harsh but it’s where I’m at. I need space. I’m feeling a shift in myself. Perhaps it’s only temporary but what has been open is now closed. I will be by myself because that’s what I have to do. 

I think I used to be afraid of being alone. Perhaps it was a fear of what that might imply about me. If I’m alone then I’m not desired which is a negative about me. I think otherwise now. I’m not afraid of this. I wish I’d faced certain fears that I’ve turned away from in the past. Perhaps it’s the easy way out, but it’s what I choose for now. Perhaps I’m just looking for some sort of mental safety or comfort, I’m not sure. I suppose every choice has positives and negatives, every choice is right and wrong.

07/03/2003 
They accepted his offer 

U.S. troops attacked in Iraq. It’s not funny it’s just sick. He knows he’s safe and makes such fucked up, clueless remarks.

Adam Felber at Fanatical Apathy responds:

Bush Double-Dog Dares Militants to Hurt US Soldiers 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Wednesday challenged militants who have been killing and injuring U.S. forces in Iraq, saying “bring them on” because American forces were tough enough to deal with their attacks. “There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “My answer is bring them on…” 

“…in fact,” the President continued, “I don’t think Iraqi militants have the guts to kill more Americans. I think they’re yeller .” Bush, who during Vietnam war bravely combatted an extremely inconvenient schedule, made his remarks a mere 6,211 miles from the front lines. 

07/03/2003 
This is funny 

1. Pay a visit to Google.

2. Type in (without using any quotes): weapons of mass destruction

3. Click the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

Go do it now…

07/03/2003 
Bring them on 

The tough guy invites attacks on U.S. troops. What a putz.

07/03/2003 
Where did they go George? 

Meeting last month at a sweltering U.S. base outside Doha, Qatar, with his top Iraq commanders, President Bush skipped quickly past the niceties and went straight to his chief political obsession: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Turning to his Baghdad proconsul, Paul Bremer, Bush asked, “Are you in charge of finding WMD?” Bremer said no, he was not. Bush then put the same question to his military commander, General Tommy Franks. But Franks said it wasn’t his job either. A little exasperated, Bush asked, So who is in charge of finding WMD? After aides conferred for a moment, someone volunteered the name of Stephen Cambone, a little-known deputy to Donald Rumsfeld, back in Washington. Pause. “Who?” Bush asked.

Heh. The “leader” of the “free world”. It just gets better and better. The rest of the story is here.

Thanks to Mike over at Tread lightly on the things of earth I found A Nation of Victims by Renana Brooks over at The Nation. An excellent article which draws much needed attention to the careful use of language by Bush to manipulate the public. Brooks writes:

George W. Bush is generally regarded as a mangler of the English language. What is overlooked is his mastery of emotional language–especially negatively charged emotional language–as a political tool. Take a closer look at his speeches and public utterances, and his political success turns out to be no surprise. It is the predictable result of the intentional use of language to dominate others. 

President Bush, like many dominant personality types, uses dependency-creating language. He employs language of contempt and intimidation to shame others into submission and desperate admiration. While we tend to think of the dominator as using physical force, in fact most dominators use verbal abuse to control others. Abusive language has been a major theme of psychological researchers on marital problems, such as John Gottman, and of philosophers and theologians, such as Josef Pieper. But little has been said about the key role it has come to play in political discourse, and in such “hot media” as talk radio and television.

Bush uses several dominating linguistic techniques to induce surrender to his will. The first is empty language . This term refers to broad statements that are so abstract and mean so little that they are virtually impossible to oppose. Empty language is the emotional equivalent of empty calories. Just as we seldom question the content of potato chips while enjoying their pleasurable taste, recipients of empty language are usually distracted from examining the content of what they are hearing. Dominators use empty language to conceal faulty generalizations; to ridicule viable alternatives; to attribute negative motivations to others, thus making them appear contemptible; and to rename and “reframe” opposing viewpoints. Read more…

Normalcy? Democracy? 

I found this story over at the Daily Kos. Concerning Nader voters and Nader’s suggestion that he might run for president Kos writes:

I’ve tried to encourage a truce between Democrats and Nader voters in the interest of ousting Bush and returning this nation to some measure of normalcy… 

Screw him. Let him run if he wants. It’s a Democracy. But every vote for Nader can’t be anything more than a vote for Bush. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded, and will get no respect for enabling our nation’s systematic destruction by the Bush cabal.

I wonder, what is this normalcy he speaks of? What does that mean? Further to the left on the political spectrum? He also states that this nation is a democracy. Not true. It’s way past the time that we should be talking about what this nation really is. It’s past the time that we continue the American Revolution that started over 200 years ago and create a real democracy. We don’t need normalcy, we need a true, participatory democracy.

06/30/2003 
Survivor 

I hate 99.9% of all television “programing”. I use the television to watch rented movies or the Simpsons. Apparently the latest best idea is a whole slew of reality shows. Yuck. Do we really need this kind of negative drama? Isn’t the world ugly enough without it? I was browsing around today and ended up looking at a site of mine which is no longer updated and found this. Written by a fellow MeDiA Co-oper, Morgan, and originally printed in a little community publication called The Village Idiot. Thought it was definitely worth a post here.

Morgan writes:

I must now recount my frustration that boiled during the first season of Survivor-the new t.v. show that “captured real people, thrown out into the wild-away from their families, away from life as they new it-to the bare minimum-forced to fight-to work together-to SURVIVE, and the toughest, most level headed SURVIVOR would receive $1,000,000”…

Does anything sound a bit odd here? To me, the hollywood aesthetic has taken a few steps too far into their dehumanizing “virtual universality”, and the consumers have sunken a few levels deeper into the blind, degrading, dehumanizing, exploitative pop culture of the day… it is sick, and to my demise the show was so successful, so adored, so widely accepted, that after it was all over the participants got to do McDonlads commercials and write all-access biographies… and, better yet-the producers were asked to do it all again… 

The word survivor is defined: one who remains alive, or existent there’s this lady, a mother of 4, she’s just overcome an addiction to crack, she’s working harder than anyone could imagine to pull herself back together, and then-just last week-she receives the results to some blood tests she had done… she’s HIV+… but, you see, she doesn’t give up-she’s fighting-she’s smiling in the face of a world gone sour. She can’t return home to some middle class life now that her “survival” test is over… no, she will not be able to fight for the $1,000,000 prize…and she sure as hell doesn’t need a group of hollywood t.v. producers to set up some obstacles so that her struggles seem real-no, no she doesn’t, because what she receives instead is an onslaught of fingers pointed-she’s an outcast-an outlet for the worlds blame-and this happens, and it is real-everyday! But still-our proud america, it needs to view harmless entertainment to pass the time… Read more…

06/30/2003 
Radical Blogs 

A couple weeks ago I discovered the Mad Prophet Blog.

I’ve also been reading Matthew Cheney’s Occasional Subversion. On the subject of the conservatives and privilege Matthew has an excellent comment on an article posted by Steve Gilliard at Daily Kos.

Steve writes:

The whole lot of them, Coulter, Scarborough, O’Reilly. What are they afraid of? What can happen to them if the world doesn’t go their way? Nothing. Coulter has a Cornell degree for God’s sake. O’Reilly did graduate work at Harvard. What are they afraid of? They’ve made it and no one is seeking to take anything from them. Yet, they cower in fear like scared rabbits, jabbering as some new threat, defending the indefensible.

Matthew responds:

I doubt they are afraid for themselves – what they’re trying to protect is the continuation of their privilege. The world they want is one inhabited by people like themselves, and they are terrified that such a world may be coming to an end. They know they are untouchable. It’s their children and their friends' children they worry about. They are desperate to protect their lineage, to shore up the walls of privilege for people like themselves so that the future is controlled by their little group.

I think Matthew’s on target here. Actually, this is something that needs to be talked about far more than it is and it does not surprise me one bit that it’s an anarchist who shines a spotlight on the subject. Power. Privilege. Social, political, and economic hierarchy. Our society is based on many layers of hierarchy, different relationships of domination, and a society which is so structured cannot be truly democratic. Structured inequity requires a lack of democracy because it is, simply, not fair. If people were truly in control of their destiny they would not create policies which contributed to their own subjugation. Such a system as ours is maintained by manipulating public discussion away from this fundamental reality as well as creating the perception that democracy is in place.

I’m watching movies. Lots of movies. Film festival entries for the upcoming MeDiA Co-op festival as well as hollywood stuff. In the past 2 weeks I’ve seen The Hulk, Finding Nemo, and 28 Days Later.

I’m not much for reviewing movies but thought I’d offer a few words on these three. The Hulk is the best comic book movie thus far. The one ingredient that I really enjoyed: comic book style frames throughout the movie. Very nice. Next, Finding Nemo, is the best Pixar flick yet. I normally forgo anything touched by Disney because they are, in fact evil. However, I make exceptions for Pixar movies. The last was also the best: 28 Days Later. Stop what you are doing and go see this movie. Do not take children. Damn, I’ll be seeing this one at the theater again. Shot with digital and very scary. As far as the soundtrack, the use of Godspeed at the very beginning set the tone perfectly for the whole movie.

“The Selling of the Iraq War: The First Casualty”

Go get your java or drink of choice. Then, come back and read this.

John Judis and Spencer Ackerman detail the lies which were fed to U.S. citizens to manipulate the nation into a war. Go read it.

Tim Dunlop at the Evatt Foundation has written a really nice article on blogging. He describes the blogosphere as as “somewhere between an online academic seminar and Friday night at the pub.” Perfect if you ask me and I know you didn’t. This is definitely one of those get a coffee and sit down for a bit articles so get yourself comfy before you check it out.

Just the other day I was writing about the relationship between democracy and our expression through blogs. Tim is digging into this relationship when he writes:

For the individual blogger, or even for the reader who decides to leave a comment, there is a real blowtorch-to-the-belly aspect to blogging in that, by engaging in political debate in such a public way, people often move beyond their own knowledge horizon, or come up against people who are simply better informed than they are, or who have thought about the topic more deeply. Under such circumstances bloggers can be forced to do their growing up on a subject in public, which can be a difficult thing. But it is also good thing, and it gets us back to the idea, espoused most fully by conservative thinker Christopher Lasch, that argument precedes understanding and is central to democratic opinion formation. 

Lasch says that democracy requires argument and that public argument involving ordinary citizens has been usurped by an elite, a group of insiders who either because of political connections, expertise or other institutional reasons have easier access to the media and are therefore able to dominate public discourse. Such debate then tends to happen within pre-defined parameters that reflect the education, specialisation and norms of that elite. Thus, not only do they dominate public argument by virtue of their elite access and knowledge, they also tend to define the topics, terms and presentation of such debate and are liable to judge any lay contribution as illegitimate.

Yes! Of course Chomsky often discusses this. If you haven’t read him you should. I’d suggest starting with Manufacturing Consent.

The net affect is not only anti-democratic, in that democracy relies on public argument between all sectors of society, not just its elites, but the very idea of debate-as-learning gets turned on its head. Instead of seeing arguments as a source of knowledge, they become seen as a sign of lack of knowledge. This criticism is misplaced because as Lasch says, “our search for reliable information is itself guided by the questions that arise during arguments about a given course of action. It is only by subjecting our preferences and projects to the test of debate that we come to understand what we know and what we still need to learn. Until we have to defend our opinions in public, they remain opinions in Lippmann’s pejorative sense - half-formed convictions based on random impressions and unexamined assumptions. It is the act of articulating and defending our views that lifts them out of the category of ‘opinions,’ gives them shape and definition, and makes it possible for others to recognize them as a description of their own experience as well. In short, we come to know our own minds only by explaining ourselves to others.”

I could not agree more. Some of the best moments in my life have been the long discussions in coffee houses during which I’ve experienced those incredible moments of exchange and co-creation with my fellow humans. Dunlop suggests that bloggers are often too busy shouting and miss the chance to change minds, but that the process is, nonetheless, an opportunity for the sharing of knowledge. This kind of exchange, be it in a coffee house, street corner, or bloggsville, is a fundamental ingredient of the democratic process and the action of being a citizen. I think it’s in these kinds of moments, when we connect with our minds open and deal with our assumptions and our ignorance that we become something greater… we transcend.

The article evolves into an excellent discussion of the concept of “public intellectual” and the space that blogsville provides for an engaged discussion “where the ordinary citizen is no longer passive but can be a participant in the argument.” It’s in these discussions that the lines of expert, intellectual, and “lay citizen” become blurred and the process, or practice of being intellectual becomes the focus. It’s the action of thinking and discussing, engaging in public debate, that we deepen our role as citizens participating in, co-creating new understanding, new knowledge.

Dunlop goes on to tackle the subject of Truth with a big T and how 

blogging resurrects the idea of capital-T Truth, calling the bluff of postmodernists and reinstating it at the heart of public discussion. But it does this in a way that say Mannheim or even Kant would not recognise. Blogging reinstates a Kantian notion of truth, but it does so by grounding it in partisanship, not relegating it to the ostensible objective sidelines.

One interesting point in thinking about these categories and breaking them down which Dunlop never states: It’s not just about recognizing that citizens engage in the practice of intellectual thought, but that intellectuals are citizens as well. We’re talking about recognizing the categories but also about their potential breakdown in the process of engagement. Perhaps it would make sense to suggest that just as we are all humans, we are also all citizens at a base level. As citizens we should be in a constant state of uplifiting one another through the process of engaged citizenship in which knowledge is not used as power over, but is more horizontal and open to a broader range of human experience.

You might also want to check Tim’s blog, the road to surfdom.

Like Emma over at Notes on the Atrocities I’ve written that I didn’t neccesarily “support our troops”. Seems like each day that goes by things are getting messier in Iraq. There’s also this over at BlogLeft. 

Of course the troops are not too happy with the situation and are still in danger.

The icing on the cake? It’s very possible that Saddam is still alive and U.S. military units searching for WMD have run out of places to look.

An estimated 5,531 to 7,203 Iraqi civilians have died because of the war. Could someone tell me again, who’s the terrorist?

I shouldn’t be at the keyboard 

You see, I’m a bit drunk and I get the feeling that it’s not an accepted practice in blogsville to be at the keyboard while intoxicated. Fuck it. It’s not as though I have a readership that will be disappointed. Heh, I don’t think I really have a readership. Funny, I’m wondering (about many things) but for the purposes of this blog at this moment, I’m wondering “why do I bother”. Yes folk, the self-pity dial has been turned up to it’s highest setting and Denny wonders why he feels neglected.

Hell, why shouldn’t I wonder. On a certain level I’m just being honest. Why do I, why do we, blog? More specifically, why do I make this effort. I suppose I started because I thought this would be a way for my family to keep up with what’s going on in my life. Then, somehow, I began to think I was writing to a larger audience. I don’t think that’s really the case. Hell, I’m not even sure my family bothers. So, I wonder, is my time spent for naught? Should I spend this time napping or cooking? I don’t know. Why do I make this attempt to communicate? Maybe it’s not about communicating, maybe I just do it for myself. Perhaps it helps me feel connected to people unknown.

I waited too long to start this. I feel myself quickly sliding from drunk to sleepy.

I’ll end on this on a personal note. I think that I should be very, very careful before I ever consider an intimate relationship with anyone. I think it would be better to be lonely than to cause someone else pain.

I think I just want to crawl into the nook of a tree root somewhere and slowly melt into it… to be absorbed into the tree. I feel emotionaly exhausted, confused. I came home tonight and wanted to drink lots of beer and be numb. I succeeded.

06/20/2003 
Orrin Hatch: computer killer and software pirate 

According to this article at Wired Sen. Orrin Hatch “suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed.” Heh. Funny thing, this asshole’s official website makes use of unlicensed software.

It’s rare that I write about my personal muck here. I have this recurring thought about how I get around in life. For the past several years I’ve felt like I’m wading through a somewhat murky stream slipping and sliding on rocks I can’t see. I don’t really trust myself or the people around me. I don’t trust my thoughts about what’s in front of me. It seems each year that passes I’m more aware of how little I understand about myself and the world. I’m not sure if I care about my state of confusion or if it is confusion. Am I just acknowledging the complexity of life?

Nearly three years ago I ended the 2nd five year relationship of my life. That was followed by 2.5 years of being single (for the most part). After so much time being “single” one would think that one might get a better grasp of one’s identity but in some cases perhaps that’s not the case. Identity. Who am I? What am I doing with each day on this planet? What makes me happy or sad? What do I want for myself? Who, what is my community? What does it mean to love someone? Why do I still live in Memphis? Why do I live in a city? Why do I spend so much time in front of my computer? What are relationships? What kinds of relationships are there? Do I want to be in a relationship? Why or why not? What is the purpose of a relationship? Am I loved? Do I feel loved? Do I love? How do I love? How do we express love? What are the different kinds of love? Do I think enough about how I live? Am I deliberate enough in the way I live? Too deliberate? Am I aware enough of my surroundings? Am I aware of each moment? What about my body? Am I healthy? Am I as appreciative of my body? Why do we wear clothes?

Breathe.

How do I know who I am? Is it possible? Have I even scratched the surface of who I am? Do I avoid thinking about who I am? What are the questions I have not thought of? To what extent am I shaped by my environment? How am I perceived by my co-workers, friends and family? How do their perceptions of me affect their behavior towards me? How would my life be different if I chose to fully exploit my status as a white male with the particular skill set that I have? What does it mean to have that choice? What would my life be like if I were a black woman? A child in Iraq? What if I had been born in any country other than the U.S.? In what ways does my life and level of material consumption affect the life of others? Do I help my fellow beings often enough? When I do help is it in the “right” way? How many times have I thought I was helping only to find out later that I was hurting? How have I hurt people? How is my well being related to the well being of my neighbor?

Breathe.

Am I asking these questions because I really want to know the answers or do I just want to convince myself that I care when in fact I do not? Do I appreciate people to the extent that I probably should? Do I respect them enough? Do I respect myself? How much control do I have over my own life? Why do some people seem so sure of themselves? Do they know what they say they know? What does it mean to be sane? Am I sane? What about right and wrong, good and evil? What am I afraid of? Why haven’t I cried in a long, long time? If I let myself be open at the right time, if I let myself cry, what would come out? Why do I have those moments of elation? Where do those feelings of intense joy come from? Do I keep myself from having them more often? Is it possible or desireable to live in that state all of the time?

I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

Ever wish you’d been born as a squirel? Seagull? Anything but human? That’s what I’m wishing right now.

There’s a very interesting discussion concerning weblogs and democracy going on in blogsville. Jon Lebkowsky responds toPerry de Havilland’s suggestion that blogs are not democratic: 

I think Perry de Havilland misses the point, though he posts a serviceable definition via Wikipedia (A democracy is a form of government in which the people, either directly or indirectly, take part in governing. The word democracy originates from Greek, and means rule of the people.) Having posted this, Perry goes on to assume that take part in governing means that people merely vote, as in a representative democracy, where a majority selects someone to make laws and policy by which all are governed. This all-too-common assumption actually undermines democracy, because it assumes that the people defer power to their representatives, and are more or less helpless to have an effect beyond voting.

Jon makes the point perfectly. Democracy is nothing if it is not direct. Some would argue that “representative democracy” cannot even exist because by some definitions democracy does not allow representation. They would argue that the idea has been so misused that the original is now lost or nearly. I’ve made it a somewhat regular practice to ask folks to define democracy, citizenship, and freedom. The answers are usually uninspired grammar school nonsense. Here we are smack dab in the middle of freedomland and we cannot define or describe it’s central processes, characteristics, and responsibilities?

Democracy ought to be a part of our everyday lives and our lives are a social, communal process. We’re talking about self management of our lives at various levels through the related processes of communication, deliberation, and policy creation that is directly connected to our experience. For some people, certainly a minority of the population, blogs are becoming an increasingly important part of how we communicate and deliberate. Blogs are not democratic. My blog is an expression of my opinion, my thought. It is my written voice in one realm of human activity.

What about the blogosphere or blogsville (as I prefer to call it)? Is it democratic? I would never claim to understand it and just jumped in recently. Nor do I have a strong sense of how important it may be in terms of it’s influence of the global, capitalist media. I think the interenet, as an entity is certainly having an impact of how the media and nation states function. It allows for a larger flow of information which is less controlled by capital and the state. What we’re talking about is the voices of millions now connected not just with blogs but alternative news sources such as Indymedia and thousands of forums. The internet is the street corner of 1920 cities. It is a place where some of us go to gather information from a variety of sources, discuss the validity of that information and it’s application in our daily lives.

Of course there are limitations. Many do not have consistent access to the internet or even computers. Many that do have access do not have the skills necessary to publish a website or blog. It is not flesh or blood which is both a limitation and an advantage. It is not a park bench though it could be experienced while sitting on a park bench. In the end we should remember that the internet and our blogs, while an improvement over the one way communication of television and radio, are just mediated communication which may be used to increase the level of participation in the creation of a more democratic society.

Shiny and pretty 

Yes indeedy, I took a leap into the New Weblog Showcase. I was unable to enter a couple weeks ago because of the deadline. As of this week I qualified… yippeeee. Like others who have entered, I’m hoping that this will lead to more folks finding Where We’re Bound. If you have a blog, you can vote for me by linking to this specific post from your blog. (Your blog must be registered with the Ecosystem for your vote to count.)

As a part of the process I’m supposed to vote for at least three other blogs in the show case. I thought I’d start with Racism or Why They Don’t Understand Us. Prometheus states:

When a series of events happens, we humans tend to assume that the things we see first cause the things we see next. Intellectually we know that things may be caused by other things we never see. In fact, we know that we never see everything and rarely see all of the things we do see. But that sort of consideration rarely comes up day to day.

I’m always amazed at how much we assume every single day. We rarely scratch the surface of anything in life.

My second vote goes to Prison Privatization which is an excellent read at my newest favorite blog. Why are we not more aware of the prison industrial complex? According to Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans in an article entitled The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy":

Over 1.8 million people are currently behind bars in the United States. This represents the highest per capita incarceration rate in the history of the world. In 1995 alone, 150 new U.S. prisons were built and filled.

The U.S. Justice system is the farthest thing from “just”. It’s not about justice or protecting society. It’s about money.

My third vote goes to Brian Flemming’s Bill Gates to die in New York: Thoughts on the DV revolution. As a community media activist, digital filmmaker, and co-founder of the MeDiA Co-op this is a subject that interests me. I love the idea of decentralized, micro-cinemas popping up all over. 

06/17/2003 
Some blogs have all the luck… 

Byzantium’s Shores caught my eye with this post about The Truth Laid Bear’s New Blog Showcase. Jaquandor writes:

There’s a weekly contest called the New Blog Showcase , which is just that: a showcase for newly-started blogs, to help them get some promotion and traffic. (It’s run by the same guy who administers the popular Ecosystem… 

…This week’s winner is Mac-a-ronies, a left-leaing (I think) blog written by a lady going by the name “Mac Diva”. I don’t begrudge her the victory, since she won fair-and-square. But still, she was a known commenter on Eschaton before launching her own site – the launch of which was, if I recall correctly, mentioned in a front-page post by Atrios himself, and almost immediately permalinked by Kevin Drum , another of Blogistan’s biggies. 

What’s my complaint? It just strikes me as one of those “There ain’t no justice” moments that a blogger whose blog has, in all likelihood received more hits in less than two months than mine has in nearly a year and a half, has won a contest whose stated purpose is to generate traffic for newly-minted representatives of Blogistan.

Hmmmmmm… I jumped into blogville in March and I’ve enjoyed my stay thus far but I do indeed wonder about how it works. Specifically, I wonder about how sites gain readership in the blogsville. It’s not just about quality or frequency of writing though that is a factor. It seems like it’s a who you know kind of thing and that kinda stinks. Though what does my opinion matter… I’m just a wiggly worm.

Thanks to Blog Left for pointing out this articleby Eric Hobsbawm over at the Guardian. The primary point of the article is that in the abscense of any other single superpower, America is making half-assed attempts at empire building. Hobsbawm also questions how other nations will respond to American militarism as well as what other external and internal variables might limit it. Well, that’s a gross simplification of the article so head over there and read it for yourself.