Open Thread - Friday, March 25, 2016
Food for thought and funkin' Galactic.
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
~ Albert Camus ~
Absurdism is a philosophical perspective which holds that the efforts of humanity to find meaning or rational explanation in the universe ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists.
The Colonist of Good Will: On Albert CamusAlgerian Chronicles shows that Camus still has something to say to us—not about terrorism but economic justice.
oward the end of his recent memoir, Jean Daniel, the last surviving friend of Albert Camus and the most distinguished journalist in France, permits himself an anecdote. It’s the summer of 1951, and Camus’s book-length essay The Rebel will soon be published. The writer has taken his mother to a party with friends in Paris. After dancing with several women, Camus leans over and tells his mother that he’s been invited to the presidential palace. She is nearly deaf, so he repeats: “Mother, I’ve been invited to the Elysée!” Madame Camus is silent for a long moment. Then she takes her son’s ear and shouts: “Don’t go, my boy! It’s not for us! It’s not for us!” Camus smiles and gives a shrug to the table. “He didn’t say anything,” recalls Daniel, “but he seemed proud of his mother.” Camus never went to the Elysée, of course. The only palace this son of a cleaning woman ever entered was in Sweden to collect the Nobel Prize, and even then he went with reluctance.
For almost any other French intellectual, a humble background like Camus’s might have been a handicap, but for him it was a source of pride. Born in Algeria into the lowest stratum of the pieds-noirs—the French-speaking settlers who had lived on the land for more than a century—Camus was a pure product of the Third Republic. His family received a state pension after his father was killed fighting in World War I. He was a scholarship student educated by charismatic schoolmasters who had whisked him through the standard lycée curriculum. While the rest of the French intellectuals made a pastime of hating their bourgeois upbringing, Camus reveled in his hardscrabble origins. He was less prone to romanticizing the proletariat because he came from it: words like “exploitation” and “subsistence” were gleaned not from revolutionary brochures but from life itself. Whereas his great antagonist, Jean-Paul Sartre, grew up in a family that made him feel “indispensable to the universe,” Camus described the world of his childhood as one of “gentle indifference.” “I was not poor enough to feel my desires as demands,” Sartre declared in his autobiography. This was not a problem for Camus, whose passions often overwhelmed him.
Albert Camus on Strength of Character and How to Ennoble Our Minds in Difficult Times
“We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again in a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more…”
In 1957, Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) became the second youngest laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to him for work that “with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.” (It was with this earnestness that, days after receiving the coveted accolade, he sent his childhood teacher a beautiful letter of gratitude.)
More than half a century later, his lucid and luminous insight renders Camus a timeless seer of truth, one who ennobles and enlarges the human spirit in the very act of seeing it — the kind of attentiveness that calls to mind his compatriot Simone Weil, whom he admired more than he did any other thinker and who memorably asserted that “attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Nowhere does Camus’s generous attention to the human spirit emanate more brilliantly than in a 1940 essay titled “The Almond Trees” (after the arboreal species that blooms in winter), found in his Lyrical and Critical Essays (public library) — the superb volume that gave us Camus on happiness, despair, and how to amplify our love of life. Penned at the peak of WWII, to the shrill crescendo of humanity’s collective cry for justice and mercy, Camus’s clarion call for reawakening our noblest nature reverberates with newfound poignancy today, amid our present age of shootings and senseless violence.
The Real Impact of Economic DespairMore and more, I am reminded of that old adage that “it isn’t what you don’t know that’s the problem, it’s what you know that just isn’t so.” A recent research paper from the Brookings Institution investigated one of those “things we know,” and came to some disquieting conclusions. When it comes to staying in school, many economists talk about the “aspirational effects” of income inequality. When students look around them and see a better life, they are incentivized to invest in their own human capital—such as investing in their own education. But what if that conventional thinking is wrong? What if inequality doesn’t incentivize students at the bottom of the income ladder to work harder, but rather disincentivizes them? This is one of the questions Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine sought to answer in a new paper published as part of the Spring 2016 Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Kearney and Levine found that low-income children growing up in states that have greater income inequality are dropping out of high school at higher rates than are children living in states with less income inequality. The authors point to a concept they call “economic despair,” or a feeling that economic success is unlikely because the distance from the bottom to the middle of the ladder is too far to climb. If students perceive a lower benefit to remaining in school, then they will choose to drop out — even if they aren’t struggling academically.
Inequality is front and center for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump’s candidacies. Do their messages turn-off rich voters?
The 2016 presidential primary elections — now essentially halfway over — have placed income and wealth inequality right at the forefront of America’s political discourse. The entire Bernie Sander platform rips the gains of America’s rich at the expense of low- and moderate-income people and advocates for comprehensive economic reforms that aim to narrow the nation’s vast economic divides. And billionaire Donald Trump, in his stab at a populist pitch, regularly blasts the impact of globalization on average American workers. Mainstream media analysts have generally categorized white working class voters as Sanders and Trump supporters. Neither candidate, the conventional punditry suggests, would seem to have an appeal to more affluent voters. But this assessment, our new analysis of voting patterns indicates, may not be accurate. We looked at voting results from the most affluent county in each of the 2016 primary states where we now have data. Candidates traditionally pay considerable attention to counties like these since voter turnout, the research shows, strongly correlates with household family income.
America's explosion of income inequality, in one amazing animated chart
Defenders of the economic status quo in America continue to assert that economic inequality (1) doesn't exist, (2) isn't as bad as you think, or (3) is actually good for everybody.
That's despite empirical evidence that the gap between the rich and the middle class is wide and growing and that the trend is hollowing out the middle class, as well as sociological findings of its corrosive effect on society and politics. Among the "grave moral consequences of widening inequality in an environment of modest growth" identified by political economist Benjamin M. Friedman in 2009, for instance, are "racial and religious discrimination, antipathy toward immigrants, [and] lack of generosity toward the poor"--all features of our current campaign landscape.
Funk the world.
Don't forget to vote.
Comments
No funkin' excuses
It says open in the title. Yinz guys sleep late?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
My hubby is still snoozing
but the dogs got me up for breakfast hours ago...
How's things in your world this morning, Tim? Other than the obvious income inequality, of course
And since its an open thread...is there any way to set your preferences so that links open in a new tab? Or to keep your edits on comments from moving your old comment back to the top of the list? Those are the only two things I keep wishing I could change (and they're minor)...
My world?
It's upside down. I am caring for a terminal spouse, ALS, and life is challenging me to be my best. During the past year, she has stopped walking, stopped talking and lost most of the use of her hands. One of these days, I'll have to put together a diary about navigating insurance and Medicare.
I left click links to open a new tab. I see my links are a little goofy. The editor is funny about the precedence of block quote, bold and link. Back to the top of the list is a time stamp thing. The comment gets a new time stamp, back to the top of the list.
It's just funky that way.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I'm so sorry...
I'm relatively new here and I had no idea you were dealing with so much. My stepdaughter spent several years caring for an ALS patient in Asheville and talked to me often about his failing health...I can only imagine how difficult the circumstances are for you. I will hold you and your wife in my thoughts...and look forward to the missive on our oh-so-helpful healthcare system.
Thanks
Caring for my wife has given me tremendous perspective on life. I have a much better understanding of what is important, which is probably a diary all to itself. In the meantime, the hospice volunteer is coming by @11, so I can go work out. I better get my Sweetie dressed and medicated.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Morning, Tim et al!
Its overcast and a little foggy here, but should be clearing off this afternoon.
Since our state voted already, I've been watching the upcoming states with interest, but I keep seeing stories like this:
http://realprogress.online/2016/03/24/clinton-using-dirty-tactics-trick-...
Do you supposed voters are aware enough now that these kinds of tricks won't give her the advantage she's hoping for? I worry that most aren't paying attention like those of us on the blogs and that the Clinton machine could manage to cut Bernie's lead in Washington and other states that favor him to prevent the kind of blowout that will give him momentum
And have you seen all those posts on reddit from NY voters who have discovered their registration got magically changed from Democrat to no party affiliation or Republican? I swear I'm going to have to dust off my tin foil hat and wear it full time from now until the convention...
Absurdism
the art of not giving a shit and caring passionately at the same time. A bit flip but sort of how I understand it.
I was not raised in the US and suspect that is why philosophies such as absurdism, existentialism and nihilism do not feel so foreign.
I had better get back to work before I lose the whole morning following up on this most excellent open thread.
Kudos.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Thanks Steve
I like to dissect absurdism down to, "Don't sweat the small stuff and it is all small stuff".
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Morning NCTim
I like that too
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Good morning
Unfortunately, I have little faith in my fellow citizens. In general they are television addicted know nothings, who allow the media to frame and define the debate/issues. And, the media is lazy and/or corrupt.
Who is the savant out there? Eternal respect for the person who identifies the guitar player.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Eric Clapton. nt
Hey O
Great to see you around these parts. Not Clapton, but you still have my respect.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Great to see you too, Tim.
Darn. Thought I had it. Guess I'm a mile off. Very kind of you to offer respect anyway.
That makes it worth the trying.
I believe...
at that time his regular guitarist was Brint Anderson, but I'm pretty sure Gatemouth Brown sat in on a couple of cuts on that record. That sounds like Clarence.
Brint Anderson is a good guess
Not many people know who he is.
Did you listen? It's got Gatemouth's fingers all over it. Joe Krown was Gate's keyboard player for a number of years.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Yeah...
I listened after I posted and then edited the comment to reflect what my ears had heard. I'm pretty sure Anderson was his regular guitarist back then.
Indeed Brint Anderson was and I think still is ...
... Joe Krown's guitar man.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Good morning, all.
Thank you for the OT, Tim. Would you like a little funny with your absurdism?
From Bill Maher. (I'm late catching up with podcasts, so it is not current.)
Funkin' A
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Mornin' Tim and all!
Nothing better to start off a Friday morning
than a good philosophocal discussion.
Camus' Myth of Sisyphus is a favorite of
mine - keep rolling that stone up the hill,
because what else are we going to do?
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Good Morning DR
It is kind of like going to work for the man.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
And if you don't like...
...what you see here, get the funk out...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqP76XWHQI0]
I want my two dollars!
Cuz
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Some quick political conjecture
I think that a lede got buried yesterday. Elizabeth Warren said that she was definitely going to endorse someone this cycle. I don't think she's said that before.
If we take her at her word we can surmise that she has already decided who she is going to endorse
A lot of pressure would have been put on her from the Clinton camp especially as she her endorsement would have given HRC a clean sweep among woman senators.
The timing of endorsements is critical and usually agreed between endorser and endorsee
Now my prediction -and I am usually wrong: Warren will endorse Sanders a couple of days before the NY primary.
Assumptions and conjecture are fun.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
She voted in the Massachusetts primary,
so she definitely has made up her mind. Lucky for her that she didn't have a caucus or she wouldn't have been able to do it privately.
I hope you are right, of course. I expected her to stay out of it, and endorse the eventual nominee. But, if she endorses one or the other, I don't see how she can be true to herself and endorse Clinton.
I so hope you're right
If Warren stays true to her own standards, it kind of has to be Bernie, doesn't it? The only way it could be Clinton is if she sold out for some insider gain and damn it, that would make me lose all respect for her.
He could of used her help in Massachusetts
I was sure disappointed in her.
The endorsement
is better off coming when big numbers of delegates are at stake rather than to win a state - NY and CA are pivotal and would yield biggest bang for the endorsement buck.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Okay then...
let's see her endorsement before those states. I sure hope it happens.
Good morning!
I did not sleep in. I was up and out of bed by 6am. I'm giving a talk on gender at a conference and I needed to do some last minute prep.
Morning Drew
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Good to see you here.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Morning HD
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
weather
We had a blizzard Wednesday and at least a foot of snow fell on my house. There's no where to put it, so a lot of it went on the flowerbeds. Hope they survive as it will take a long time for it to melt away, and the sun is not going to cooperate. A local amphitheater canceled their annual Easter service because they won't be able to clear out the snow and they have 3 days. Not complaining, just expressing how much snow there is. (I don't attend it anyway).
This is my 3rd winter in this house. It feels good to know I have someone good and dependable who automatically comes and shovels snow for me anytime it is 3 inches or so or more. The first 2 years were a pain. Same with lawn mowing. Finally have that worked out. Someone who moves a lot told me it usually takes 5 years to get things like this all smoothed out, and new friends, contacts, stores figured out, various needed service providers, etc.
nowhere
looks funny as two words doesn't it.
It's now like no there there. There is no where there.
We had ~1" of pollen
It's pine pollen season.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
morning, tim
Camus didn't think much of cars. When once a friend warned him of the dangers of driving on French highways, Camus said, "don't worry, I hate speed and don't like automobiles." But Camus' publisher, Michel Gallimard, he loved speed, and had purchased for hisself a spiffy new Facel Vega, an out danger-mobile that Gallimard's old tutor, Rene Etiemble, pronounced: "This car is a tomb." Camus was going to take the train, but Gallimard persuaded him to come along for the ride. "Hey little friend, who's in a hurry?" Camus asked nervously, as Gallimard continued to speed along roads built for horses, not cars. Gallimard plowed the Facel Vega into two trees; Camus was already dead when, as he was pulled from the wreck, Gallimard, dying, wondered aloud: "Was I driving?" Camus' briefcase had been flung from the car, and was lying open: in it, his unfinished The Last Man, with the words: "Life, so vivid and mysterious, was enough to occupy his entire being."
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzf_wGQAac]
Camus was a wise man
I like that version of "People are Strange". Although, it would be an abrupt change from most of what I listen to. I'm imagining it wedged between some zydeco and Hendrix.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Is it Friday again?
no. it is not friday.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxPqR6wQqQQ]
Because...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rprf7LEraU4 width:420 height:315]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICY4jZaHlBs width:420 height:315]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu3SdvNmBQY width:420 height:315]
Good morning/afternoon Tim, good people~
Stayed up late working on a new piece and then Dan decided to pull an all-nighter until he thought he heard thunder around five am and decided he needed to kick Cleetus out the bed and hop in. Back up at ten to hit the ground running to scout out content on the NSA/Snowden beat...the joys of spring break.
In case anyone missed this and is interested there's a livestream event tonight
A Conversation on Privacy
I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~
Thanks Tim, for an awesome OT, and for sharing about your
Sweetie and how things are. My wife and I call each other Lovie and our heavy lift together is mental health. Yours in at a whole different level altogether and I commend you for your all the care and for how you share it with us. Please convey our best wishes to your Sweetie today. And thanks for the music. I so love how filled with music all of c99 is; it's just wonderful. Have a great day, eh.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Question for the Mods: just a small housekeeping question about
the list of our comments in our account. The list gives me the option to edit a comment of mine and so on. Thanks for that. Is there a way that the list could tell me if another c99 member has responded to a comment of mine?
I know to follow the sidebar in an ongoing discussion, and naturally when I have written an article, I check in on the thing as the day goes along.
I don't know how else I would know a day or so later if someone had commented upstream to something I had blathered on about. Apologies if it's an existing feature. I wonder if the list of my comments could have some kinda flashy-thingy to let me know. Like in the 90s, "You've Got Mail," or something. Then I could continue the discussion - or not - but at least I'd know about the response comment. Thanks and cheers,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Johnny is the go to guy on this.
Not speaking for him, I think it is on the list. I know he is working on an upgrade to the site, and it will have more of the bells and whistles we all like. Pretty sure I read this request is one of them. Maybe the answer is in "New Member Info" link on the top left. I know it has been asked and answered. I just can't swear I can accurately represent what was said.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Thanks, dkmich, I'll go look there. Hooray for Johnny!
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Thank you
I am not always in a funk, but some how settled into a Friday Open Thread sub-theme.
A song for Sweetie.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Juz linking to an American Prospect article
Good afternoon, y'all. Ran across this article at lunch and figured I'd drop it here.
The Long March of Bernie's Army by Harold Meyerson
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking
NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc
Good article thanks for the link True Blue
I'm a WFP member and do not like it at all. It's really hooked into centrist establishment Dems. A recruiter for WFP outside my local 'progressive' yuppie grocery store was signing people up. He told me that what WPF was focusing on trying to signing up centrist Democratic voters. Locally and nationally they do not support 'progressive' candidates. Cuomo?
We helped elect a young State House representative who ran as a progressive with a D and a WFP after his name. We donated, canvassed and worked hard for his campaign. He won our 85% Democratic district. He turned out to be a sleazy,corrupt, corporate tool. He's now a city supervisor and is busy literally demolishing Portland. He's running for major this year and I hope to god he gets his ass kicked. I'm switching to Dem. for the primary and then going Indie.
The article was interesting but too Democratic party concentric. I don't know how people are going to pry the vampire squid off humanities face but the Democratic Party is not viable as a vehicle for change on any level. With Independents now at 43% and rising somethings got to give. Politics are not static and the old lines are breaking down as they are totally bogus. Here in Portland no Republican can win dog catcher so the bent pols young and old just become Democratic and continue to wreck the place. Organizing within the thoroughly corrupt Dem. Party is a dead end on any level. Incremental change my ass, progressive my ass.
I feel exactly like this Bernie supporter:
I'm voting for Bernie. I won't vote for Clinton. Not for one minute do I believe that the Democratic party if it absorbs the Bernie movement will have any effect on the Democratic party's agenda.
I worked hard for Dean as a presidential candidate and via my county Dem party as a hands on DNC chair. then there was the bottom up change you can believe in huckster. Deans now a pharmaceutical lobbyist and Obama, the great pretender, turned out to be another corporate endless warrior just a shallow entertainer.
Couldn't agree more
Hard to imagine the equivalent of OFA in this cycle though - the feel is very different (fortunately)
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire