Do you remember what your life was like at 20 months old? At 20 months one can say several words. Self reflective awareness begins to form with language. Best of all, every waking day is literally “the first day of the rest of one’s life.” We repeat the phrase as adults as a reminder…
I’ll not forget my first visit to a drag strip. Drag strips are often in out of the way places. By definition it was and is an “outlaw” activity. I was a high school sophomore. I lied to my father about my intentions, in order to gain permission to go with Eddie to the…
I am seated before a screen, letters, words, sentences appearing by magic, as fingers press buttons. The words, arranged in grammatical structure convey the meaning within my mind, and serendipitiously to your mind, if you should discover and read the post. The symbols on the screen are evanescent, held in being by retinal persistence. …
This morning I read more from Virilio’s book, Lost Dimension, published in 1984. I read a few pages and came upon this section. These words left me existentially numb. For now I can read no further. Basically, if the early sciences were sciences of the earth, of matter and of physical sciences, sciences of…
There are few issues more compelling than individual freedom. Around fifteen or so of us, responding to an essay on Einstein’s morality, debated the whether and to what extent we are individually free. Einstein thought that there was no exception to the uniformity of cause and effect within a closed system. Yet, he also…
GLOBALIZATION describes the opening decades of the 21st century. Countries and cultures are bound together by light speed communication disrupting old boundaries and ways of life. I think about this a lot. Can we conceive a way forward, a productive support for a humanly productive humanity,—avoiding the cul de sac of exploitation? Are we…
“global village”
now becomes disturbing.
Instantaneous military presence,
pure speed,
exhaustion of the world,
geocide.
The twilight of places…
What about the rhythms of daily life,
the cosmic rhythms?
Speed paralyzes us.
Go faster, but where?
Everything is moving,
but nothing is changing.
It still takes a child 20 years to develop,
and 3 hours to digest a meal,
—but there is no future.
Each time speed of movement increases,
control and traceability increase the same amount.
We are now submerged
by ubiquitous commerce,
the spectacle,
repetition and shock.
Public space crumbles,
is replaced by networks of communication.
The counterpoint of the worst,
of peril,
is the imperative of rescue,
the shelter that saves,
the church as a ark and refuge
It is not a question of denying progress
but dealing with it’s negativity.
There is no substance without accident
and no accident without substance.
(taken from LOST DIMENSION originally published in 1984)
If you have visited this blog to any extent you are aware that I am taken with the work of Paul Virilio. It seems to me that his work can be a lifeline of understanding, and perhaps a entre to applying CPR in the context of disintegration of institutions here in the West
I love coffee shops. It was love at first sight. In 1970 I began my two year tenure in Tokyo. I was twenty one. That the social environment was alien to a kid from Durham North Carolina is an understatement. Then I discovered Fugetsudo coffee shop in Shinjuku. It no longer exists, as one…
Life can be considered a journey. From the first flicker of self awareness to the palpable confidence at the height of physical and intellectual powers; then to the inexorable decline of passing years, –the precarity of ones life is the enduring subtext. It’s the consistent back-beat of a bass drum anchoring the melody and…
The tomato vines are fading, the last of the fruit will soon be picked. The squirrels have taken a share over the past several weeks. Who knew they could be vegetarians? Life is nothing but adaptable. There was a time when we humans would pass on a tomato. But we learned. Now the tomato…
