I’m not even sure where to start. It was a crazy week, but a very long
one.
There was no “weekend” last weekend, so it’s just been a miserable
14-day
week filled with the stress of a PFC hearing (and now a recall, and
writing
a Constitution Court petition for review as fast as I could Friday
morning), falling behind on my readings (which are for philosophy
classes
and I love them), having interviews and a rough draft due for my
journalism
class, and having two six-page philosophy papers to write. Then on
Tuesday
afternoon, one of my cavities decided to get infected, and I spent the
next
four days (the last four days? I dunno…) in a Vicodin-spun infection
haze.
But then there was some saving grace at the end of the 14 days. The
office Magic 8-Ball is on a roll of correctly predicting things in my
life,
and the latest one was also the nicest: Last night I got to spend some
more
quality time with one of the most beautiful young men I could imagine.
I
hadn’t seen him in a couple of weeks, but he called. He’s fun and
clever
and nice and sexy. Yay in a big way, eh?
This morning I get to see some footage of New York’s Finest treating
peace protesters what appears to be inappropriately roughly, with a
circle
of police surrounding singled-out protesters and using what looks like
a
lot of force. I’m glad to see dissent is still treated so well by the
government. On the other hand, it was a short piece of footage, and CNN
now
has stopped showing it, instead replacing it with a story that all is
well
and everything went smoothly in New York City. I’m sure that’s the real
story. Check out www.indymedia.org if you want a different view.
I’m heartened by reports of millions of people around the world
again
marching against war. People — no matter what opinion they have about
war
— need to step up and get their voice involved in this discussion.
We’re
not talking about taxes or medical marijuana or welfare or any other
gardne-variety policy concern; we’re talking about killing a whole lot
of
people, angering a large part of the world — we’re potentially talking
about the escalation toward another world war. Wake up now and say
something, and stop worrying about some stupid party or your stupid car
or
going shopping.
On the other hand, another world war could provide a lot of
come-uppance
to a lot of sedentary, self-satisfied people who have no thought beyond
buying new Rubbermaid stuff at Wal-Mart (cuz it’s on sale, doncha
know!)
and living out their life on the couch. Bring it on, I say.
I’m disturbed this week by the way that anti-war and pro-war people
argue with each other. That is to say, they don’t — they simply argue
PAST
each other. And they do this because they don’t realize that the other
side
is at a very different place in their understanding of what reality is,
of
how the world works, of what people are like, of how people OUGHT to
relate
to each other in the world. And all of this, at is basis, boils down to
philosophy, and it doesn’t get enough respect in our society. How we
conceive of our own subjectivity — of what the “I” is — is the very
basic
groundwork that slowly builds all the other layers of reality on top of
it,
and then by the time you get to the point where you have a pro-war
person
and an anti-war person facing off, neither of them can possibly
understand
the other’s arguments because they don’t understand reality in at all
the
same way.
We need a new language, one that acknowledges and incorporates the
differences in reality between the myriad groups and subgroups of
people in
the world. Otherwise, any hope for social formation or public policy
really
is lost; we should just wait for near-total annihilation.
Aahh, near-total annihilation. Now there’s something that, after
14-days
of craziness, I could go out and march in the streets for.