Today is Sunday. I am writing in the afternoon because I “slept in” this morning rather than my 6AM customary hour. Yesterday was spent at Cordova Dragway, a “stone’s throw” from  the Mississippi River. Most of the day was spent on my feet, but happy to be among racers, and fast cars. To be “happy” (a slippery term) one ought to discover one’s tribe, those speaking your language, passionate for life in ways that parallel one’s own. I can’t explain it but I believe that’s the way it is. I stood for the entire day, enjoyed a number of interesting conversations about the challenges, aspirations, and thrills of racing, and listened in on others, equally worth my time. Therefore today was dedicated to physical recovery. I’ll write about Cordova, but in a day or so, after I’ve thought about my time there.

How about a joke or two? I pause to reflect upon felt sense of life at present. I can never forget the tyrannous attempt of the Trump 2.o administration to transform us into obedient tools. Then irony, the ability to  recognize the surreal clash of ignorance, of unconcealed cruelty with reality is key to a firm grasp of selfhood, to maintain one’s agency. Irony! A sense of the sardonic is critical!

I offer for your enjoyment, for your stimulation, for your well-being two jokes from Slavoj Zizek. Zizek* is quite unique as a philosopher, having become a celebrity in Europe. You can find him on Youtube.

No. 1

“POPULISM” IS THUS
by definition a negative phenomenon grounded in a refusal,
even an implicit admission of ignorance.
We all know the old joke about a guy
looking for his lost keys under a street light;
when asked where he lost it, he admits
that it was in a dark corner.
So why are you looking for it here, under the light?
Because the visibility is much better here.
There is always something of a trick in populism.
It looks for the causes of troubles
in the Jews,
since they are more visible than
complex social processes.

The application to America is obvious. American populism has elected fellow-travelers who conveniently hunt down racially profiled individuals, deporting them to a potential death.

No. 2

A patient in a large hospital room with many beds
complains to the doctor about the constant noise
that other patients are making,
which is driving him crazy.
The doctor replies that nothing can be done;
one cannot forbid the patients
from expressing their despair,
since they all know they are dying.
The first patient responds: “Why don’t you then
put them in a separate room for those
who are dying?”
The doctor replies calmly and glibly:
“But this is a room for those who are dying.”

I am ready for a tune. How about you? Simon and Garfunkel composed this masterwork commentary of the darkness haunting all of us: My Little Town.

* Slavoj Zizek is a philosopher and cultural critic. He is the author of more than thirty books. For Zizek, jokes are amusing stories that offer a shortcut to philosophical insight.