The world today is no theater where actions and feelings are represented and interpreted, but a market on which intimacies are exhibited, sold, consumed. The theater is a site of representation, whereas the market is a site of exhibition. Today theatrical representation is yielding to pornographic exhibition. —The Transparency Society, The Society of Intimacy…
Yesterday I received an email from a friend expressing an opinion that repudiated Quantum Mechanics. For the majority of us this opinion is unremarkable, seeming irrelevant. Quantum Mechanics is a field of esoteric mathematics describing the behavior of invisible forces that constitute material objects. Field effects dance with improvisation, to support the visible superstructure…
My exploration of Zhuangzi continues. I am drawn toward his story telling, his manner of doing philosophy. This 4th century BCE Taoist intellectual responds to several defined schools of thought by writing philosophical fantasy. Philosophical fantasy! Imagine someone rising to his/her feet in a lecture hall at a philosophy conference Q&A session, to describe…
Raining now. Prospect of rain for the rest of the day. Well and good for the trees and shrubs. A good drink is needed before the frost of Fall arrives. Today these words from Ludwig Wittgenstein captured my imagination. But I did not get my picture of the world by satisfying myself of its…
There was a beginning. There was a beginning before that beginning. There was a beginning previous to that beginning before there was the beginning. There was existence; there had been no existence. There was no existence before the beginning of that no existence. There was no existence previous to the no existence before there…
If the United Auto Workers strike declared against “the big three” auto companies is not on your mind, it should be. Initially the strike is shutting down three plants. It is doubtful the gap between what the Union is asking and what the companies are offering will be narrowed soon. The picketing is likely…
I am taking a course in Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The book was first published in Great Britain in 1954. I’ve read it once before and cannot be sure whether I was in high school, or college. Golding writes a parable, a deft assay of our human condition, of the trajectory…
Today stands to be full. A literature class is scheduled for the afternoon. Consideration of Lord of the Flies by William Golding. later in the afternoon, I am fortunate to participate in a exploration of Artistotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. The day begins at Starbucks, by reading the Taoist text composed by Zhuang Zhou, reported to have…
I obtained a copy of one of the great works of Asian literature to enlarge my appreciation of the Taoist sensibility of life and world. Nowadays, fragmentation, seemingly intractable polarization demands that common ground be found. Is any synthesis upon which enough of us can stand together possible? Drown if you must. Do not…
Today is Labor Day. Monday a day of respite from work. Work is the joint enterprise to sustain ourselves, to build shelter, cultivate, to transport, to prepare food. Also, work is essential to fashion a place of safety, a refuge that is “home.” I am reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I…
