tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post5732650956835582505..comments2024-03-28T10:05:08.122-04:00Comments on BLCKDGRD: Dread Was His Nature, and He Hared Through Sunlight and Shade, Head Swiveling for the Copperhead He'd Begun to Covet, the Ballyhooed Killer a Camouflaged Godhead on Which His Ingrained Faith Cohered, and Finally His PriesthoodUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-3688134849099411222013-07-05T07:44:27.931-04:002013-07-05T07:44:27.931-04:00IN BUFFALO
The scene: Buffalo, New York,
late 19...<b>IN BUFFALO</b><br /><br />The scene: Buffalo, New York, <br />late 1970s or early 1980s, <br />the campus of Buffalo State College. <br /><br />The Philosophy Department sponsored a talk by Robert Nozick <br />open to the general public <br />and scheduled in the early evening. <br />Three or four dozen people showed up, as I recall, <br />including myself, a graduate student in a different discipline<br /> from a neighboring institution of higher learning. <br />Nozick was wearing a blue wool blazer, a white turtleneck sweater, and blue jeans.<br /><br />During the question period, I asked, <br />"You've mentioned two ways of examining the morality of an action - <br />whether it corresponds to a received code of conduct, <br />and what its effect will be on those who are the object of the action. <br />But what about its effect on the person who DOES the action?"<br /><br />Nozick thought for a minute before replying <br />(an actual minute - I don't mean 10 seconds that felt like a minute),<br /> said, "I need to consider that more", <br />and went on to another question.<br /><br />How did I feel? Triumphant, in having shut up the famous author? Amused? Heartbroken?<br /><br />As I recall, I was saddened.<br /><br />In my current view, the problem that Nozick had in answering my question <br />comes from the fact that, in his tradition, all the heavy lifting is done by the intellect, <br />and life's persistent questions are treated as academic exercises. <br /><br /><b>The last two paragraphs of Erich Fromm's <i>The Heart of Man</i> are relevant here:</b><br /><br />Man's heart can harden; <br />it can become inhuman, yet never nonhuman. <br />It always remains man's heart. <br />We are all determined by the fact that we have been born human, <br />and hence by the never-ending task of having to make choices. <br />We must choose the means together with the aims. <br />We must not rely on anyone's saving us, <br />but be very aware of the fact that wrong choices make us incapable of saving ourselves.<br /><br />Indeed, we must become aware in order to choose the good -- <br />but no awareness will help us if we have lost the capacity to be moved <br />by the distress of another human being, <br />by the friendly gaze of another person, <br />by the song of a bird, by the greenness of grass. <br /><br />If man becomes indifferent to life there is no longer any hope that he can choose the good. <br />Then, indeed, his heart will have so hardened that his "life" will be ended. <br />If this should happen to the entire human race or to its most powerful members,<br /> the the life of mankind may be extinguished at the very moment of its greatest promise.<br />mistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-63097345408629239822013-07-04T12:50:39.151-04:002013-07-04T12:50:39.151-04:00thank you mis tah .. . thank you mis tah .. . annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07224316837055308827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-3078337067646388962013-07-04T11:57:24.520-04:002013-07-04T11:57:24.520-04:00from "writers no one reads" - first line...from "writers no one reads" - first lines from the stories of pierre bettencourt <br /><br /><b>My wife and I have a way of sleeping together that might seem a bit bizarre: neither face to face nor back to back, but with the soles of our feet pressed together.</b><br /><br />vonnegut in <i>cat's cradle</i> describes this as the bokononist rite of <b>boko-maru</b><br /><br />while checking the spelling of boko-maru, i discovered a couple of interesting science facts:<br /><br />>>Irving Langmuir came up with the idea of ice-nine as a way to entertain H.G. Wells who visited Schenectady in the 1930s.<<<br /><br />>>Borasisi and Pabu, the Sun and Moon; the binary trans-Neptunian object 66652 Borasisi and its moon 66652 Borasisi I Pabu now bear their names.†<br /><br /> "Borasisi, the Sun, held Pabu, the Moon, in his arms and hoped that Pabu would bear him a fiery child. But poor Pabu gave birth to children that were cold, that did not burn...Then poor Pabu herself was cast away, and she went to live with her favorite child, which was Earth."<<<br /><br />mistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-27649086289396303642013-07-04T09:04:58.082-04:002013-07-04T09:04:58.082-04:00nothing topical? ok - here's an anti-war poem...nothing topical? ok - here's an anti-war poem - anti-wwi - from a dead male poet of noncolor<br /><br /><b>i sing of Olaf glad and big</b><br /> <br />by E. E. Cummings <br /><br /> <br /><br />i sing of Olaf glad and big<br />whose warmest heart recoiled at war:<br />a conscientious object-or<br /><br />his wellbelovéd colonel(trig<br />westpointer most succinctly bred)<br />took erring Olaf soon in hand; <br />but--though an host of overjoyed <br />noncoms(first knocking on the head <br />him)do through icy waters roll <br />that helplessness which others stroke<br />with brushes recently employed <br />anent this muddy toiletbowl, <br />while kindred intellects evoke <br />allegiance per blunt instruments--<br />Olaf(being to all intents<br />a corpse and wanting any rag <br />upon what God unto him gave) <br />responds,without getting annoyed <br />"I will not kiss your fucking flag"<br /><br />straightway the silver bird looked grave<br />(departing hurriedly to shave)<br /><br />but--though all kinds of officers <br />(a yearning nation's blueeyed pride) <br />their passive prey did kick and curse<br />until for wear their clarion <br />voices and boots were much the worse, <br />and egged the firstclassprivates on<br />his rectum wickedly to tease <br />by means of skilfully applied<br />bayonets roasted hot with heat--<br />Olaf(upon what were once knees)<br />does almost ceaselessly repeat<br />"there is some shit I will not eat"<br /><br />our president,being of which<br />assertions duly notified <br />threw the yellowsonofabitch<br />into a dungeon,where he died<br /><br />Christ(of His mercy infinite)<br />i pray to see;and Olaf,too<br /><br />preponderatingly because<br />unless statistics lie he was<br />more brave than me:more blond than you.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Copyright 1931, © 1959, 1991 by the Trustees for E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1979 by George J. Firmage, from The Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings. Reprinted by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.<br /><br />http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15408<br />mistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-18833952585757618692013-07-04T08:56:44.245-04:002013-07-04T08:56:44.245-04:00At least I wasn't standing on my bass boat. An...At least I wasn't standing on my bass boat. And be fair: I don't do aliens.<br /><br /><br /><br />BDRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06557941385560728052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-28057042954785662722013-07-04T08:52:10.293-04:002013-07-04T08:52:10.293-04:00Adding: yeah, I know you trolled me there.Adding: yeah, I know you trolled me there.Landruhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11954074164878242561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3020960402708303830.post-57576305558216241712013-07-04T08:51:46.023-04:002013-07-04T08:51:46.023-04:00PDFs of obscure French philosophers' theories ...<i>PDFs of obscure French philosophers' theories of cultural signifiers and the subaltern and the like are OK</i><br /><br />Honestly, I'd rather read the black helicopter corporatey alien stormtrooper overlord conspiracy theories. It's way better comedy.Landruhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11954074164878242561noreply@blogger.com