I just read the following quote and thought about how it still rings true today and how fitting it would have been for my post, Thinking about history.
"The crisis we are experiencing today is not just a European crisis, nor a crisis of morals, economics, ideologies, politics or religion." -- Jean Gebser, 1949
From, Gebser, Jean. The Ever-Present Origin, translation by Noel Barstad and Algis Mickunas. (p xxvii)
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Thinking about history
History's so strong
History's so strong
History's so strong
History's so strong*
The song pumping out of a black Honda sitting at the traffic light as I jogged by.
Funny how an idea follows you wherever you go.
I've been thinking a lot about history lately. Mostly because a friend, Hank from book club, posted a link about Bruce Springsteen's new album and the foreword he wrote (Springsteen, not Hank. Although I have no doubt Hank could have written an equally moving, if not better, foreword) for the book, Someplace Like America: Tales from the New Great Depression, by Washington Post photographer Michael Williamson and writer Dale Maharidge.
Hank noted that the photographs in Someplace reminded him of Walker Evans' work. In my smart ass reply I said the work reminded me of Dorothea Lange's. Either way, the photos are reminiscent of the work by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers hired to document America during the Great Depression, a group that included Evans and Lange.
In "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Walter Benjamin lays the foundation for his historical materialism as an action against historicity and its assumptions of historical progress. In "Thesis XII," Benjamin writes, “Not man or men but the struggling, oppressed class itself is the depository of historical knowledge.” For Benjamin the lessons of history are to be taken and learned from the everyday activities of ordinary, working class people – "…the very detritus of history." An idea we see in the work of the FSA photographers, Springsteen, Willamson and Maharidge.
That these works align with Benjamin is not the astounding part, or perhaps it is? Each of the above mentioned artists and writers have documented the struggle of the working-class. But what has been learned? Some might argue that progress takes time, after all a century hasn't passed since the FSA's photography program and the publication of Someplace. Yet, the idea that we are going around in circles, just repeating ourselves cannot be overlooked.
Writer and philosopher, George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."**
It seems that remembering history is not the problem. But gleaning something new from it is. We are repeating history precisely because we have not learned what it is trying to teach us. The FSA photographs and the Williamson and Maharidge book are just one example of this cycle and they are not a new cycle in themselves. We must ask what moment in history are they repeating and so on?
Recently, Kyle and I went to see the Hunger Games. Hank recommended the movie because, as he wrote in another Facebook post, "... it is the best presentation of the Republican anti-Washington myth." He also noted that it followed the theme from his post about Springsteen (discussed above).
The movie was okay, too long in my opinion and, although I agree with Hank's interpretation, the storyline did seem tired. Kyle thought the movie was cliché. At the end, when Coriolanus Snow, played by Donald Sutherland who looked remarkably like a cross between Santa Claus and The Wizard of Oz (I doubt this is a coincidence), ascended a set of stairs (I won't say more than that in case you haven't seen the movie). Kyle said, "Why don't they just paint 'Zeus' across his back?"
To his thinking the entire movie was another retelling of Greek mythology. Same story with a contemporary, sci-fi look. The gods above pulling the strings of the mortals below. The ultimate puppet masters. This also can be said about Hank's interpretation of the movie, the gods (Wall St, government, etc.) pulling the strings and manipulating the lives of the working-class.
How do we break the cycle?
Something very strong is at play here and it will no doubt require a strength of character that I doubt I possess in order to change the course of history. Does it start with the individual? Is it collective, or both? I think about Marx and his proletarian revolution. To me, he overlooked one thing about the proletariat, they actually wanted to be the bourgeoisie. They wanted what they did not have.
This wanting is fodder for exploitation. The everyman is the donkey with the carrot tied to the string. Constantly moving toward the carrot, but never arriving. When disaster strikes he vows never to be fooled again, but soon enough everyman is back chasing a carrot again. Is it the fault of the 'gods' for exploiting this, or the fault of the everyman for falling for the carrot? Both. In order to change history, we need to change our patterns. We can't, as Einstein is credited for saying, keep doing the same things and expecting different results.
Unfortunately, it's a bit like being in a gunfight, nobody wants to blink and both sides want to 'draw' at the right moment, before the other guy get's the drop.
The hunger games, indeed.
* Save the Population, Red Hot Chili Peppers
** Reason in Common Sense: Volume One of "The Life of Reason" Ch 12
History's so strong
History's so strong
History's so strong*
The song pumping out of a black Honda sitting at the traffic light as I jogged by.
Funny how an idea follows you wherever you go.
I've been thinking a lot about history lately. Mostly because a friend, Hank from book club, posted a link about Bruce Springsteen's new album and the foreword he wrote (Springsteen, not Hank. Although I have no doubt Hank could have written an equally moving, if not better, foreword) for the book, Someplace Like America: Tales from the New Great Depression, by Washington Post photographer Michael Williamson and writer Dale Maharidge.Hank noted that the photographs in Someplace reminded him of Walker Evans' work. In my smart ass reply I said the work reminded me of Dorothea Lange's. Either way, the photos are reminiscent of the work by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers hired to document America during the Great Depression, a group that included Evans and Lange.
In "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Walter Benjamin lays the foundation for his historical materialism as an action against historicity and its assumptions of historical progress. In "Thesis XII," Benjamin writes, “Not man or men but the struggling, oppressed class itself is the depository of historical knowledge.” For Benjamin the lessons of history are to be taken and learned from the everyday activities of ordinary, working class people – "…the very detritus of history." An idea we see in the work of the FSA photographers, Springsteen, Willamson and Maharidge.
That these works align with Benjamin is not the astounding part, or perhaps it is? Each of the above mentioned artists and writers have documented the struggle of the working-class. But what has been learned? Some might argue that progress takes time, after all a century hasn't passed since the FSA's photography program and the publication of Someplace. Yet, the idea that we are going around in circles, just repeating ourselves cannot be overlooked.
Writer and philosopher, George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."**
It seems that remembering history is not the problem. But gleaning something new from it is. We are repeating history precisely because we have not learned what it is trying to teach us. The FSA photographs and the Williamson and Maharidge book are just one example of this cycle and they are not a new cycle in themselves. We must ask what moment in history are they repeating and so on?
The movie was okay, too long in my opinion and, although I agree with Hank's interpretation, the storyline did seem tired. Kyle thought the movie was cliché. At the end, when Coriolanus Snow, played by Donald Sutherland who looked remarkably like a cross between Santa Claus and The Wizard of Oz (I doubt this is a coincidence), ascended a set of stairs (I won't say more than that in case you haven't seen the movie). Kyle said, "Why don't they just paint 'Zeus' across his back?"
To his thinking the entire movie was another retelling of Greek mythology. Same story with a contemporary, sci-fi look. The gods above pulling the strings of the mortals below. The ultimate puppet masters. This also can be said about Hank's interpretation of the movie, the gods (Wall St, government, etc.) pulling the strings and manipulating the lives of the working-class.
How do we break the cycle?
Something very strong is at play here and it will no doubt require a strength of character that I doubt I possess in order to change the course of history. Does it start with the individual? Is it collective, or both? I think about Marx and his proletarian revolution. To me, he overlooked one thing about the proletariat, they actually wanted to be the bourgeoisie. They wanted what they did not have.
This wanting is fodder for exploitation. The everyman is the donkey with the carrot tied to the string. Constantly moving toward the carrot, but never arriving. When disaster strikes he vows never to be fooled again, but soon enough everyman is back chasing a carrot again. Is it the fault of the 'gods' for exploiting this, or the fault of the everyman for falling for the carrot? Both. In order to change history, we need to change our patterns. We can't, as Einstein is credited for saying, keep doing the same things and expecting different results.
Unfortunately, it's a bit like being in a gunfight, nobody wants to blink and both sides want to 'draw' at the right moment, before the other guy get's the drop.
The hunger games, indeed.
* Save the Population, Red Hot Chili Peppers
** Reason in Common Sense: Volume One of "The Life of Reason" Ch 12
Friday, September 2, 2011
My computer is a vacuum
 |
| Kyle and "Geefle" at work. |
It seems he thinks that when I enter a search term in a browser - sometimes he asks me to look something up for him, while he stands over my shoulder - it activates a vacuum cleaner in cyberspace.
When the sought after information is found, this cyber-hoover sucks it up like a dust bunny from under the couch and instantly appears on the monitor.
Perhaps I should explain. I think the last time Kyle used a computer punch cards were all the rage.
He is currently working on a major book project; an undertaking that has been going on for over a decade and has involved a great deal of research, reading and note-taking.
How has he accomplished his research without a computer or using the internet?
Kyle goes to the library and checks out books, makes notes on reams of the graph paper he likes and records major concepts on index cards with his favourite writing instruments: a Pilot Hi-tecpoint V7 Grip pen in various colours (excluding candy-colours of course), pencils, Sharpies, highlighters, and the old stand-by we once could not live without, Liquid Paper.
On the floor around his desk, and slowly creeping their way into the living room of our smallish apartment, is his filing system; stacks of folders containing his work and notes, written in English, German, Latvian, as well as some Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.
To call Kyle a Luddite would be wrong. He’s just not that interested in computers; he isn’t mesmerized by gadgets.
Sure, when he’s ready to compile all of his work into a coherent and readable format, in other words a manuscript, he’ll get a computer – he’s mentioned it twice in the last 12 months. But until he actually needs one, it’s old-school devices for him.
As for me, it's rare when I'm not in front of a computer.
Perhaps Kyle is on to something; maybe my computer is a vacuum?
Thursday, July 21, 2011
What?! No doodle?!
Today would have been Marshall McLuhan's 100th birthday, so why didn't Google create a doodle? Seems like a no brainer doesn't it?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
AutoShare Buzz: EVs coming to Toronto car sharing company
Yesterday I was out wandering in my neighbourhood, shirking mundane domestic duties and enjoying a rare sunny day; when I came across a small car parked in a back alley.
The car was sitting outside a two-car garage, and although you can't see it in the photo below, it was plugged in!
I saw a gentleman in the garage and stopped to talk to him about the car.
It turns out the gentleman was Bill McLaughlin. He, along with his son Kevin McLaughlin, are owners of the Toronto-based company AutoShare, and the car - their first fully electric vehicle (EV) - a Mitsubishi I-MiEV.
As distant relatives to Sam McLaughlin, co-founder of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in 1907, the owners of AutoShare are no strangers to automobiles. Parked inside the garage were two antique automobiles, a 1929 Buick and a 1937 Cord.
I asked McLaughlin what it was like to drive the MiEV and he said it wasn't much different from driving a regular car except when idling. "When you come to a stop-light it's very quiet," said McLaughlin.
He also explained the car should be available to AutoShare members soon; the company is currently making partnership arrangements for parking and charging.
"I just realized the juxtaposition," said McLaughlin, looking at the EV and then the gems inside the garage.
Indeed, the automobile industry has come a long way.
The car was sitting outside a two-car garage, and although you can't see it in the photo below, it was plugged in!
I saw a gentleman in the garage and stopped to talk to him about the car.
 | ||
| The headlight peaking over the front of the MiEV belongs to a 1929 Buick. |
It turns out the gentleman was Bill McLaughlin. He, along with his son Kevin McLaughlin, are owners of the Toronto-based company AutoShare, and the car - their first fully electric vehicle (EV) - a Mitsubishi I-MiEV.
As distant relatives to Sam McLaughlin, co-founder of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in 1907, the owners of AutoShare are no strangers to automobiles. Parked inside the garage were two antique automobiles, a 1929 Buick and a 1937 Cord.
I asked McLaughlin what it was like to drive the MiEV and he said it wasn't much different from driving a regular car except when idling. "When you come to a stop-light it's very quiet," said McLaughlin.
He also explained the car should be available to AutoShare members soon; the company is currently making partnership arrangements for parking and charging.
"I just realized the juxtaposition," said McLaughlin, looking at the EV and then the gems inside the garage.
Indeed, the automobile industry has come a long way.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
AMEX is Phishing
Just the other day I received a letter (the one you see below) from American Express (AMEX).
In it, AMEX points out that I have not used my credit card in the past 12 months. That is correct.
They go on to say, if I wish to keep my account open I should use my credit card within 35 days of the letter's mail date (April 8, 2011), and "benefit from the experience of being an American Express Cardmember."
In the past, when I've used my AMEX credit card, I've found the experience to be remarkably similar to that of other credit cards; anxiety over whether or not I should really be buying an item I can't pay cash for; indifference when I get my monthly statement. But I digress.
AMEX goes on to say that if I do not use my card with 35 days, they will "for [my] own security," close my account.
Sounds like one of 'those' email scams doesn't it?!
The kind that looks like it's from a reputable organization, such as a bank or credit card company, and whose message is designed to make recipients think their accounts are in danger if they don't act quickly and submit their password or other personal information.
How can my credit card account be in danger if I'm not using it?
I get it, I'm a lousy customer. AMEX hasn't made dime one from me in the past year and they're trying to scare me into using my card by going shopping. "I better go buy something or else they're going to cut me off!" is the reaction they're hoping for.
It's a shameful tactic, if they don't want to keep my account they should have said so.
In the meantime, I'll be looking for my scissors, adios AMEX.
In it, AMEX points out that I have not used my credit card in the past 12 months. That is correct.
They go on to say, if I wish to keep my account open I should use my credit card within 35 days of the letter's mail date (April 8, 2011), and "benefit from the experience of being an American Express Cardmember."
In the past, when I've used my AMEX credit card, I've found the experience to be remarkably similar to that of other credit cards; anxiety over whether or not I should really be buying an item I can't pay cash for; indifference when I get my monthly statement. But I digress.
AMEX goes on to say that if I do not use my card with 35 days, they will "for [my] own security," close my account.
Sounds like one of 'those' email scams doesn't it?!
The kind that looks like it's from a reputable organization, such as a bank or credit card company, and whose message is designed to make recipients think their accounts are in danger if they don't act quickly and submit their password or other personal information.
How can my credit card account be in danger if I'm not using it?
I get it, I'm a lousy customer. AMEX hasn't made dime one from me in the past year and they're trying to scare me into using my card by going shopping. "I better go buy something or else they're going to cut me off!" is the reaction they're hoping for.
It's a shameful tactic, if they don't want to keep my account they should have said so.
In the meantime, I'll be looking for my scissors, adios AMEX.
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