Santa exists only if we make him real through belief. The American project in democracy is similar.La Nation's Melissa Harris-Perry. I must admit, it's a novel argument. Along similar lines, socialism with Chinese characteristics is a fish that grants wishes and Saudi monarchical absolutism is a giant blue Robin Williams.
In any event, I am happy to see that the advocates of democracy see it in the same light I do: as the final, bloody, catastrophic end of an aspirational selfhelpism gone completely mad with power.
26 comments:
"La" Nation rather than "The" Nation: why? It's not a pun, it's not a play on words, it's not actually clever in any way. Is it just a tic at this point?
IOZ, please write a book about that last sentence. Seriously.
Oh, yeah, plus: yellow cake uranium.
I've been telling you for years that progressivism is a religion. All religions insist on faith. Progressivism is Christianity, shorn of the overt supernatural. God all that crazy old shit is replaced by "democratic governance by the people" -- just as crazy and far stupider, but at least not supernatural by definition. Therefore it can be established without obviously running up against the separation of church and state.
Barack Obama entered the kitchen and struck the frying pan with a wand, saying, "O fish! O fish! Be ye constant to your convenant?" And Melissa Harris-Perry replied,
"Come back and so will I! Keep faith and so will I!
And if ye fain forsake, I'll requite till quits we cry!"
And we know what happens to the fish in that story.
Rumor has it, nonny, that IOZ actually talks like Maurice Chevalier in everyday conversation. Truth.
You watched the Gulf War, what do you see day after day? The one smart bomb falling down a chimney.
so, virginia, sant claus is real cuz we believe in him?
lol
And which governmental model is most represented by "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson in a tutu with angel wings?
Which form of governance is Shaquille O'Neal in a turban? And who's sack of riches has the itches, bitches?
Monsieur, you seem to be in a bit of a dry spell. As you have tired of relentlessly mocking Matty Woodchuck, might I suggest a new subject for neo-liberal inspiration: Karl Smith.
I know your stated disbelief in economics makes this seem a little counterproductive, but he produces some awesome material, and when he strays into philosophy things just get crazy. He wrote something that he said was about causality a little while back that sounded more like finite element analysis.
It always boils down to the manipulators and the manipulated or so it seems.
Anne,
I like your comments. At the very least a little mystery in life makes things more interesting. Still, there are those who want everything cast in concrete. It upsets the poor dears when it isn’t.
Inasmuch as you share with KV a deep understanding of just how easily good Americans will whore themselves to get a little closer to where the money river burbles in the night, I'm surprised you didn't title the post
Santa Baby
or
Hurry down the chimney tonight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMmSbxB_Sg
rob p. , (and hello ..i don't think that we have ever talked before ) ..i just put another comment back to high A. on the last post .. and came over to read a bit on this next one .. .why are you writing to me here ?.. i haven't said anything on this one / i take a quick look to see who all commenting here are at some point , i remember you as being about, well .. between the ages somewhere of eer' and mis'tah , and a jazz man like my daddy,of liking .. i'll go take a quick look again .. . / this reminds me , ..i wish ioz would do a post on aging ..to provoke some conversing on .. . ,i'll add a quote of something that i left over on cuneyt's pg in a comment to pen jack c.,that gives a suggest of part of what i mean .. .
as i've said to davidly and a few others .. .i was an ancient child ,and older than i am now at cuneyt's age .., . aging is an odd thing .. how it can go in many ways depending on how you live your life ,and of what happens to you in living it ,and of what you are born with ..of body .. and of mind able .
ops .." " quote marks for above ..
Anne,
I wrote you because of a rather unkind comment in the previous post regarding you and mercury – didn’t mean to cause confusion. Yes, I enjoy playing jazz, used to play in bands but no longer. Now I just play for fun.
Santa Claus: What would you like for Christmas?
Little girl on his lap: My own credit card.
Or Mae West, Enron, responding to the young thing who exclaimed "what wonderful diamonds" ...
"goodness had nothing to do with it .."
But my favorite is a two-line poem by my friend Jack Conway entitled "Christmas at the Funeral Parlor":
Naughty or nice,
they're all on ice.
"Of course it's all in your head, Harry, but what makes you think it's not real?"
democracy is FAKE. Harris is stealing my material.
Eerily 4:12PM, /cheer.
"Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things."
"The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society."
"These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters."
Blumer, following George Herbert Mead, claimed that people interact with each other by interpreting or defining each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions. Their 'response' is not made directly to the actions of one another but instead is based on the meaning which they attach to such actions. Thus, human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and signification, by interpretation, or by ascertaining the meaning of one another's actions.
see
Blumer, H. (1969) Symbolic Interactionism; Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
If that "/cheer" was meant as a plus-up, High Arka, then in the future, please don't encourage me that way.
It will greatly upset the folks here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/bestofthefray/comments/oo2l4/eerily_youre_still_posting_junk/
(If you don't understand, just ask Inky next time he's around ...)
/violin
bring it
eer', i had a quick look at the link .. ,i don't know .. in guessing only .. of what your connect is with the.. in the fray bunch, and of all the ideas around these odds of linking like reddit ,.. . what are your ideas i wonder ,beyond what you have said there ..about why you might be out of tune with the flow there .. .
I wouldn't read Melissa Harris-Perry for all the white russians in LA, but the general gist of the social construction of nation-states is pretty interesting. Lisa Wedeen esp. has had some good stuff recently. Of course, nobody studies America, for the same reason nobody studies American political economy. (Although that's starting to change. . .)
"Metafiction will save democracy" is hilarious.
is so many go mad with power!
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