Displacement

A little literary criticism goes a long way in displacing familiar ideas, rolling back the curtains on the mechanics behind settled landscapes. Wouldn't the uncomfortable familiar have made more sense long ago had E.P. Thompson and Raymond Williams been part of a required summer reading list? There really was a time when private property didn't exist the way it does today. Who would have thought it? I never understood the importance of the commons, the implications, the independence they offered, the absence of yokes for all members of the population. And they weren't obscure traditions in hamlets over yonder. Even famous poets like Wordsworth relied on those common laws that made hedging possible for firewood in the cold, and wrote little poems to bemoan the losses of those small freedoms. Little by little, over centuries, we've eliminated every possible road to freedom for all but the most privileged.

Foucault on Fearless Speech "Parrhesia"

In Foucault's Fearless Speech, he starts out by offering a genealogy of "parrhesia" [free speech in English] which appears in Euripides for the first time in Greek literature [c. 484-407] (11). "The one who uses parrhesia ... is someone who says everything he has in mind: he does not hide anything, but opens his heart and mind completely to other people through his discourse (12). It departs from "rhetoric" which is meant to "help a speaker .. prevail upon the minds of [an] audience (regardless of the rhetorician’s own opinion)" while the "parrhesiastes acts on other people's minds by showing them as directly as possible what [s/he] actually believes" (12).

Sometimes, there is a "pejorative sense" of "parrhesia" found in Plato and Christianity in reference to the dangers of allowing anyone to say anything (12-13). But in classical texts, mostly, parrhesia is viewed in a positive light, meaning "to tell the truth." According to Foucault, the "parrhesiastes says what is true because he knows it is true; and he knows that it is true because it is really true.... There is always an exact coincidence between belief and truth" (14).

Foucault asserts that the classical sense of parrhesia can no longer happen within our current epistemological framework, post-Descartes. The "modern (Cartesian) conception of evidence" demands a coincidence of belief and truth mentally, while the Greeks sought out the coincidence of belief and truth "in a verbal activity," parrhesia (14).

There are two questions, the first classical and the second modern: 1) how can we know that someone is a truth teller, and 2) how can that individual be so sure? "Courage" is a strong indication that someone is a parrhesiastes: "If there is a kind of 'proof' of the sincerity of the parrhesiastes, it is [his or her] courage" (15).

There are three requirements for someone to be a parrhesiastes or something to be parrhesia. Firstly, danger must be involved: “[T]here has to be a risk or danger … in telling the truth” (16). Secondly, parrhesia must function as criticism: “Parrhesia is always a game between the one who speaks the truth and the interlocutor” … and has to engage in “a criticism of the interlocutor or of the speaker” (17). Thirdly, “in parrhesia, telling the truth is regarded as a duty,” and maybe more importantly, “the orator who speaks the truth is free to keep silent” (19). So then, choice becomes a factor out of a sense of duty ... to the truth? The positive and classical sense of parrhesia establishes a relationship then between freedom and duty—two ideas which in the Cartesian sense are often deemed psychologically incompatible.

Parrhesia, moreover, is very specifically a verbal, not a mental, activity, through which certain relationships are formed between the speaker and—“truth through frankness [or honesty], … his [or her] own life through danger,” … and the “self through criticism (self-criticism or criticism of other people)” (19).

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“Dorian harmony” is courageous (100-1). We always run the risk of thinking too much as opposed to living out our political aspirations for social justice. As such, I find the concept of “epimeleia heautou,” “the care of the self,” very useful. To take into account “whether there is a harmonic relation” between one’s logos and bios as Socrates emphasized (97), is to encourage a “willing[ness] to care for the manner in which [one] lives the rest of [her] life” (98). I wonder what a contemporary test or “basanos” or “touchstone” (97) would look like?

Bushy Logic

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia asked President Bush to intervene in Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, but apparently the administration does not believe that an immediate cease-fire is the answer. Of course they don't.

Beirut is Dying Again

I just read an article by Robert Fisk, "The Empire Leaves Beirut to Burn," and I can't help but wonder why. I mean really, Why? It was just a few weeks ago I was looking out over the water in the coastal city of San Sebastian, Spain and listening to two tourists discussing the beauty of the view, the city on the water, the richness and variety of the lifestyle, the food, and the culture. I heard one American voice say, "it reminds me of Beirut back in the day." I have never been to Beirut, but I have heard stories of its beauty and majesty, seaport city on the Mediterranean, Paris of the Middle East now in the midst of what is being called a humanitarian emergency. The UN is pushing for a safe humanitarian corridor for much needed aid and supplies, but so far Israel "is reported to have rejected the idea."
I can't help but wonder how many people, and I mean citizens -- not leaders, but citizens -- agree with the way governments around the world address threats. I mean ... there really is no way for our world leaders to check in with us, and if there were they wouldn't. When millions of people protested around the world against the impending US invasion of Iraq, not only did it not have an effect -- it didn't even slow the Bush boys down. If the whole world put its foot down, and said to leaders everywhere "NO," would they listen? If the whole world, and again I mean citizens, Demanded that world leaders stop their madness -- would they listen? Because let's stop kidding ourselves, the world is made and unmade by a few, not by many.
I just read that "the war has made even factions in Lebanon that don't support Hezbollah increasingly angry at Israel." I wonder why. People are dying. People are losing their homes and their jobs ... their futures, and they don't have a say in the matter. They have no choices. They are not being given choices. Human life should be as meaningful to each and every country - not just the lives of our own citizens, but the lives of other citizens from different countries. There is something deeply wrong with the rhetoric of citizenry. If Israel feels justified and righteous in destroying Beirut Machiavellian style in retaliation for Hezbollah's actions, then the Israeli government should be stepping up to provide humanitarian protection and aid itself. The brutalization of citizens around the world to the tune of governments and their decisions needs to stop.

2nd Hand Sex

Cervical cancer is preventable and curable. Yet, it is estimated by the CDC that over 9,700 cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed in 2006 in the United States alone and that at least 3,700 women die from cervical cancer in this country annually. Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common form of cancer for women and as many as 500,000 women develop cervical cancer each year. The culprit is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the world and the most common in the United States according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Human Pappilomavirus or HPV.
There are more than 100 different types of HPV and most of them are harmless. About 30 types of HPV are transmitted sexually. High-risk types of the virus can lead to abnormal Pap smear results and cervical cancer. Low-risk types of the virus can also lead to abnormal Pap smear results and to genital warts. With regular screening and Pap smears, cervical cancer can be prevented and treated. The virus is the most common cause of cervical cancer.
It has been around for a while. Cases have been documented in medical records as far back as the times of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. In the 1800's, researchers suspected that cervical cancer was a sexually transmitted infection because they noticed that nuns and virgins did not contract cervical cancer while wives of husbands who traveled a lot [and probably played around a lot] along with second wives of husbands whose previous wives had died of the disease had a much higher chance of contracting it.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 50 percent of sexually active men and women "acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives." Approximately 20 million people in the United States are currently infected according to the CDC. Many HPV infections have no signs or symptoms so a carrier may transmit the virus from partner to partner without knowing it. By the age of 50, 80 percent of women will have acquired sexually transmitted HPV at some point in their lives.
Most HPV infections go away on their own. The body's own immune system can deal with and eliminate many types of the virus, and most HPVs do not lead to cancer. A high-risk HPV is a necessary but not sufficient cause. Of those women who do develop abnormal cells on the cervix, most can be treated without developing cervical cancer with early detection. Cervical cancer is a slow moving cancer, and regular Pap smears are effective in early detection and prevention. Also, it is a combination of factors that can contribute to the development of cervical cancer from diet to lifestyle to the presence of other STDs like herpes, chlamydia, other infections or a compromised immune system.
It's true that thanks to better screening methods and regular check-ups, the number of cases of cervical cancer has significantly declined in the United States over the past several decades. And now that there is a new vaccine available for the HPV virus that causes cervical cancer and clinical trials show that it's working, the number of cases should continue to drop dramatically. The FDA approved the vaccine in June. However, the vaccine called Gardisil has only been approved for girls and women up to the age of 26. Unfortunately, women who do not have regular access to good healthcare are still at a higher risk for developing cervical cancer despite better screening methods which really should be available to everyone.
But this isn't just a problem for women to deal with. Men have to take some responsibility too, and how about starting with responsible sex? Don't expose someone else to a disease unnecessarily. It just ain't right. People should be straight up when sharing their sexual history with eachother, and take care not to put each other and other people at risk. Being honest and practicing safe sex can save lives. More than 70% of Americans had never heard of this sexually transmitted virus that causes cancer until recently, and most men have no physical symptoms. Well, everyone should hear about it and try and do something about it.

Cognitive Dissonance

I am having a difficult time reconciling Krauthammer's claim that there is no bigoted Christian redneck with the fact that Alabama still refuses to eliminate segregationist wording from its state constitution.

Play something sad.

The punchline here in this story about a violinist being made to play at a checkpoint is that the outrage here is for denigrating the symbol of the Holocaust. I think there is a lesson here about human nature, perhaps about the priority that self-perception takes over inhumanity towards others in accounting for our moral motivations. There is another lesson in the TalkBack beneath the article which blames most of the buzz around the story on feminists, but I'm clueless about what that lesson is.

There Are No Words to Describe Them

Get ready to say goodbye to polar bears. Due to global warming, creatures unknown to the Arctic are migrating up from the south.

Moral Rebellion With a New Face

I've encountered the phrase "deliberate childlessness" in a few places now. It's becoming a bit of a buzzword, though admittedly still a marginal one.

Arrested For Mouthing the Word "No"

The lesson to be learned here is that civil liberties are no longer a party-neutral issue.

T-Shirt Ideas

One wonders if the scapegoating of homosexuals serves the same kind of electoral purpose that segregation served in mobilizing poor White Southerners into a political coalition half a century ago. That is, politics has its Machiavellian schemers (Karl Rove, who probably doesn't care much about the gay marriage issue personally, I'd bet) and its earnest cultural practitioners (the high school kids who are swindled by this talk into creating for themselves anti-gay identities). When something is done as a political expedient (putting divisive propositions on local ballots), I always wonder if it is meant by those who cynically manipulate public perceptions to have such far-flung cultural consequences, or if they'd actually rather it weren't taken too seriously.

Did I actually just read that there are Christians who want to wear these shirts? The notion of an article of clothing as a means of public censure has a Scarlet Letterish zeal to it.

This is sad.

It's perhaps partially reassuring that some soldiers were sufficiently disturbed by an order to kill three-year olds that they spoke to newspapers about this. That deploying an army inevitably loosens psychopaths with guns on an innocent world needs to be reckoned among costs of military action. In the first reports, the speechless victim is always victimized. In this case, we might have been led to think that this girl had to be shot because she may have been carrying explosives. No, it turns out she was running away. And she was carrying schoolbooks. In real life, unlike in literature where writers are encouraged to practice restraint, the irony's mawkish.

Schisms

Here are the beginnings of the inevitable ideological schisms that ought to take a bite out of Republican party unity, as a consequence of their electoral windfall. Both among neoconservatives
(and it's interesting to note that the objection here is that the ideological vanguard suffers from the same "immunity to disconfirmation" of Bush backers as a whole) and then among the Republican majority over abortion. In some ways, the party's fantastic unity may have been a consequence of its being in the minority for so long as much as its being a representation of the single largest cultural bloc. Perhaps it's comforting that nothing tears a political party in half quite like ascendancy. If gridlock means government inaction, it's something conservatives can support.

I wonder if Kerry could have focused his criticism of the war and appealed to conservative intuitions if he described it with phrases like "social engineering", "nation-building", and "utopianism".