A lively discussion last night, about “rules,” the many uses of rules, the origin of all rules, and considerations upon breaking rules. The discussion was wide ranging and sometimes passionate. Passion is natural, rising from a variety of motivations. Let’s be honest that fear often motivates many an impassioned soliloquy. When I suspect that…
Lately I’ve been thinking about determinism… WTF you might think! Perhaps one of the most enduring conundrums of philosophy is the ongoing debate, the wrangle over whether freedom is possible, whether the word refers to anything at all, — in a rigorous cause and effect universe. Speculation about the topic can be traced as…
Neither divine punishment nor the nemesis of history. It is difficult not the see the pandemic as the consequence of our devastating, short-sighted choices regarding the environment. We have treated planet Earth as a dumping ground, a warehouse for dross and garbage, a heap of ruins. Yet it is impossible to save the planet…
The rain falls steadily non-stop, then in sheets. Weeks of mounting drought, then today flood warnings. Nature is a condition of extremes. After all, is not “the mean” a quantity that humans judge to be “just right” for the purposes of life? Nature, being “blind,” the feedback of cause and effect, “knows” nothing of…
We are no longer alienated and passive spectators but interactive extras; we are the meek lyophilized members of this huge “reality show.” It is no longer a spectacular logic of alienation but a spectral logic of dis-incarnation, no longer a fantastic logic of diversion, but a corpuscular logic of transfusion and transubstantiation of all…
Biopoliticsbecoming immunopolitics…The latent catastrophecoursing through and troubling the early decades of the century. The catastrophe is ungovernableand brings to light all the limitsof neoliberal governance. It has the tone of the irreversibleand the timbre of the irreparable.Nothing will be like it was before. Yesterday’s world appearsas a remote, collapsed worldthat has now slipped away.In…
NASA: Earth is trapping ‘unprecedented’ amount of heat, warming ‘faster than expected’Catherine Garcia, Night editor Wed, June 16, 2021, 6:41 PM Since 2005, the amount of heat trapped by the Earth has roughly doubled, according to a new study by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers. This is contributing to warming oceans,…
Several days ago a friend sent me this graphic. The three fates are pictured attending to their respective duties, measuring and allocating the course of good and the not-so-good fallout of “chance” in the life of the individual and also of nations. Our ancestors understanding of “determinism” had to do with the meta observation…
ProPublica yesterday published a scoop on the tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans. Included were the returns of Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Aside from the issue of how ProPublica obtained the returns, is confirmation of what well informed Americans already knew. One would…
We visited the Flea Market at the Kane County Fairgrounds. Pandemic restrictions have recently been lifted here in Illinois. We are eager to freely move about in public. The fairgrounds had more exhibits of bric-a-brac, colorful 1950s vintage serving bowls, a collection of solid brass doorknobs embossed with a cross, — than we could…
