Rushdie Continued

“The truth is that there is no whale. We live in a world without hiding places; the missiles have made sure of that. However much we may wish to return to the womb, we cannot be unborn. So we are left with a fairly straightforward choice. Either we agree to delude ourselves, to lose our ourselves in the fantasy of the great fish, for which a second metaphor is that of Pangloss’s garden; or we can do what all human beings do instinctively when they realize that the womb has been lost for ever — that is, we can make the very devil of a racket. Certainly, when we cry, we cry partly for the safety we have lost; but we also cry to affirm ourselves, to say, here I am, I matter, too, you’re going to have to reckon with me. So, in the place of Jonah’s womb, I am recommending the ancient tradition of making as big a fuss, as noisy a complaint about the world as is humanly possible. ” (99)

From Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands

Inside or Outside the Whale?

I’ve gone back and forth in my mind for a long while concerning the idea of agency; agency relating to the ability of people to unmask or declothe the empire for what it is in response to intense amount of efforts that been invested in stealing and controlling people’s imaginations from the earliest stages of their lives. The modern capitalist ideology runs deep and penetrates the remote corners of the planet. Global commodiites (food, celebrities, clothing, etc.) can be discussed in villages without electricity or televisions. Is there the potential that many of us are constrained by our location and geography, that dominant narratives can be more intense place to place? What does the dialogue look like between those that believe themselves to be outside of the whale with those that remain inside?

the new year . . . “i can’t go on, i’ll go on”

a week of hedonism is over, a new job awaits in the northeast, the passive search for meaning continues, but needs to be more active

i have quit writing in the blogosphere for some time now, but a friend has requested me to continue which i very much appreciate, maybe this will be a lifter of spirits and some newly invoked energy for the new year

the week has ended with a feeling of meaninglessness, i’m nervous about the new job i’m going to be taking in providence, rhode island, unsure of my ability, of my overlapping of politics with the organization for which i’ll be working , concerned that I lack the committment

moreover, i’m scared of life in many tangible ways, i’m scared of love, of my very finitude, of my ability to commit to a life of resistance and working towards a more ethical world free of the countless political injustice we have before us

i feel too serious for close  friends i’ve had for a long time, but scared of the seriousness and committment of other friends i’ve met more recently over the past couple of years.

it’s a depressing feeling when meaningful discussion is pushed aside and we are afrad of delving deeply into what is so important for us to survive as humans on this planet or what is also important for us to begin to feel whole again, to help fill in the empty, cold feeling we often experience in modern society

i’ve been reading a few of simon critchley’s works in philosophy and i’ve found good spaces for thinking through avenues I would like to pursue in the future, Critchley has written A Very Short Introduction to Continental Philosophy, & another new book titled, Infinitely Demanding. Both have been useful for me in terms of thinking through certain philosophical ideas, namely nihilism. Thus, I’ve re-titled my blog, the search for meaning, because I see this to a very core principle for radical politics and philosophical discourse. Of course, within this title I believe is implicitly the notion that meaninglessness is very much a part of the world in which we live and spaces that we occupy. So, the search for meaning is one that requires more constant action and a commitment to new spaces full of meaning and ethics.

Here’s a link to an interview with Critchley that will better explain his ideas, way better than I’ve articulated above and maybe some discussion can occur as a result.

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200308/?read=interview_critchley

Caring for Kuntri

Ok, here’s my something…

 I’m just in first semester of Indigenous Studies and Law at school…  breathing outside my normative framework of thought and language.  Ha…  but the breathing is in words from my language…  anyway, this stuff I’m learning is the first full on focus I’ve given to contradicting paradigms, to real pluralism…   I was in India last year, where I met Sundeep and Penny, and some of the conversations which I listened to were for me kind of conceptually orgasmic – ‘yeah, I really can’t articulate anything vaguely engaging with that sentence but I want to… to know it, feel it, mould with it’.

One of my classes is ‘Indigenous World-Views’…  we’ve been learning about indigenous philosophies, kinship, caring for kuntri (country), wellbeing…  this is the last journal entry I wrote for it…

We walk on kuntri with shoes on. Way to not notice what we’re stepping on. But we can read the ground beneath these soles, if we don’t get so distracted on the processed words of ‘infotainment’ (neo-knowledge) commodifying knowledge and colonising thought processes.Indigenous knowledges across the world are consistently facing displacement because of an almost reflexive assimilation by mainstream mentality of anything graspable to the colonial-Capitalist paradigm which invalidates anything from a unique framework: thousand upon thousand years’ roots deep in the soil. Knowledge is cultivated by the maintenance of the quality of sacred relationships between each other and the earth/sea.[1] In this way, the politics of human rights and environmentalism are synonymous… not even… they are each other. Caring for kuntri is part of broader Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander world-views and philosophies centering around ‘the core… notion of profound connectedness and relatedness that extends to everything comprehensible and beyond.’[2] It’s mental isn’t it? I spose the point is, in this paradigm it is mental. There’s not really a concept of pluralism. Or there’s a ‘concept’ of it, but being conceptualised ‘it’ becomes an entity of this framework. Pluralism is homogenised.  Not entirely – it depends on what is for someone(s).Sovereignty is mentally uprooted under the dictatorship of, inter alia, governments, education, health and welfare, and exported to museums [3]. The truth is, however, that self-determination hasn’t been uprooted, as such… what is consumable has been consumed[4] and projected… but self-determination is something inherent to the fluidity of culture… It’s kind of like the extraction of Indigenous knowledges for grafting ‘contemporary western management process[es]‘. Glen Woods, who wrote this topic, sees that ‘[t]here is a fundamental failure… to recognise that this knowledge both inspires and governs a way of life and cannot be separated from it and mean anything.’[5] I got wanting to know what Amanda brought up in class – what is that ‘Western’, ‘mainstream’, neo-liberal, imperialistic, normative, colonising, ostracising, imposing, ‘ness’? There is something more to it. Maybe it’s just Darwinism – ie. philosophically hence existentially surviving-as-the-fittest and consuming-the-world-accordingly. A self-fulfilling prophet. I reckon caring for kuntri is where it’s at. To bring ourselves down and into what is. This now. This carpet under my foot, air over my skin. Letting go of the stories which make up a world of isolation in my brain – which mean I am living in a frozen ‘the past’ or ‘the future’. Instead learning from the stories which make up a world in every moment – bringing the connection and fluidity and unity of then and when into this now. Constantly re-creating and real-ising my life, my past, my future in every experience. The value in multiplicity of logic. Fiction. Which is more than a section in a library – it becomes my own experience, as my dreams, and my ancestors’ stories, and my children’s stories. I suppose living secluded from kuntri can mean that I truncate myself at some place and put trust only in what I can control, and so I begin to impose my definitions onto the worlds which threaten me. Then I’d deny ‘proper feeling’ in my interactions with others – people, living and non-living beings, the earth – and ‘threaten a severing of connectedness’.[6] Actually, today in class I really got that – we were talking about it being pretty okay between Aboriginal peoples and the First Fleet (the first fleet of convicts which came to Australia) until someone (an Aboriginal person) maybe said, ‘I’m just going to get a sheep for tea,’ then a person from the Fleet said ‘That’s stealing’ – bang. A blamative way of seeing, so entrenched in that British system. And there is such huge distrust in that. To see someone take a sheep and feel so threatened as to kill them – controlling the threat by imposing your definition, of the fiction in the spaces between you, onto them.[7] And so you kill them. It’s the same, eh… the inevitable paddy wagon when a group of Aboriginal people are in the park in the evening, young military officers disappearing people their own age, torture on a person touching your skin, of your skin. Imposition of your definition over the threat. I want to not talk so much as know. I’ve been feeling pretty stumped. All this information, all this thought and learning in my head, but when I look for something to take in my fingers and type up I can’t tell what is mine. I can’t find an articulation of anything. I’m figuring it has alot to do with me having so much to grow. And I do know that that means living these things I am learning so that they become experiences. Which is something to sit with. So in terms of more… more conversations, more sponging of other peoples’ thoughts and ways of seeing. There’s an articulation of part of my space. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Footnotes [1] Glen Wood 2007, ‘Topic 5 – Caring for Kuntri’ in Judy Atkinson, Bilyana Blomeley, Liz Lewis, Rachel Lynwood, Marcelle Townsend-Cross, Glen Wood 2007, ‘CUL00401 Indigenous World-Views: Study Guide’, 59, 64. [2] Glen Wood, above n 1, 61. [3] Greta Bird, 1993, ‘The Process of Law in Australia: Intercultural Perspectives’, 60. [4] Irene Watson, 2005, ‘Settled and Unsettled Spaces’ in 1(1) ACRAWSA Journal, 40, 41. [5] Glen Wood, above n 1, 62. [6] Judy Atkinson, 2007, ‘Topic 3 – Wellbeing – “ways of being in the world”‘ in Judy Atkinson, Bilyana Blomeley, Liz Lewis, Rachel Lynwood, Marcelle Townsend-Cross, Glen Wood 2007, ‘CUL00401 Indigenous World-Views: Study Guide’, 31, 36. [7] ‘Telling Stories’ by Tracy Chapman, 2000. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bibliography Atkinson, J, Blomeley, B, Lewis, L, Lynwood, R, Townsend-Cross, M, Wood, G, 2007, ‘CUL00401 Indigenous World-Views: Study Guide’, Gnibi Southern Cross University, Lismore. Bird, G, 1993, ‘Legal Process in Australia: Intercultural Perspectives’, Butterworths, Sydney. Chapman, T, 2000, ‘Telling Stories’. Watson, I, 2005, ‘Settled and Unsettled Spaces’ in 1(1) ACRAWSA Journal.

Sundurbans in India, Climate Change & Livelihood

I’m no huge fan of the New York Times. I do however enjoy the honest reporting of Somini Sengupta from time to time. Her work in the South Asian region has done well in highlighting the inordinate amount of attention paid to an India rising economically and displaying the more telling polarity of an India that is continually struggling to meet basic needs for the poor. Without a any particular political analysis, Sengupta helps to display how utterly inadequate the state and market has been in creating a more equitable society.

RE: Sexual Ethics

“We play all kinds of sex psychos, nuts, creeps, perverts, and weirdos. We laugh it off saying what the hell, it’s just a character. But deep inside, it’s you, baby.” – Lee Marvin, actor/man in transition.

I pulled this comment from an essay that a friend, Brynn White, is writing/editing down for Film Comment that she sent me to read; she knows that I like Lee Marvin because she helped turn me on to the fellow. I like his honest, if sometimes brutal and indifferent, characters.

Rape Is Normal? by Robert Jensen

Rape Is Normal?

By Robert Jensen

It is not surprising that we want to separate ourselves from those who commit hideous crimes, to believe that the abominable things some people do are the result of something evil inside of them.

on editing and adding links . . .

with the previously e-mailed information , you can all add some links, change up the website how you’d like, and add your own touches

i have added links on current politics i’ve been engaging with and i’d love to see all of your similar interests and links

peace, sundeep

ryan wilson with some thoughts

wilsonious Says:
April 2nd, 2007 at 2:17 pm Sylvie.
A word that exists almost in the air…

In the world of plants, it is the rare organism that exists without roots, without a fixed location in the earth.

There are, however, a group of plants, bromeliads/orchids/spanish moss(for you southerners) being the most recognizable that fix all their energy from ether (sun, and water/carbon latent air). beautiful plants, that, when they do set root, it is for support only.

where from here?

so by now some of you might have located this site

i want this to be an open space that can be used frequently or infrequently depending upon our common desires for dialogue and working through ideas

as an introduction, i’d love it if we could start by sharing some of our personal geographies and then going from there in helping to continue a sustained dialogue

i’ve included the earlier e-mails that were in response to a mass e-mail i sent in early january, so one can filter through those if you so desire

i suppose that’s it for now

sundeep