Monthly Archives: July 2005

Canon(s)

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This post is in response to Em’s comment on my previous post.  I was commenting but it became so long that I thought it best to just make a new post:

Relevant excerpt of Em’s comment follows:

My only quibble with the author will probably be cleared up when I read the book (whenever that time comes): I wonder how long a work has to exist in time before it proves worthy of canonization, in his view. Cultural forces repressed dissemination of works by women and racial and ethnic minorities for so long that much that’s potentially life-forming and changing might be ignored if he defines value over time too rigidly.

I agree entirely, and although I can’t speak for the author I’d bet he does too.  One of the many points of rejection of much of my education is the fact that it was based almost entirely on dead (or living) privileged, white men of European descent.  This group of people constitute such a miniscule amount of the total human experience that such a focus is shameful and intolerable.

In the section on "Canons," Edmundson returns to the discussion of "Identification" for a moment:

"I, growing up in the [Northern] white working class, found no book more fascinating when I was seventeen than The Autobiography of Malcom X.  …  In terms of literal identity, Malcolm X and I had virtually nothing in common, but reading his book shaped me in ways that continue to matter thirty-five years after the first encounter" (125, my insertion from later in the paragraph).

"One’s literal identity—the product of race, class, gender, and socialization—is not the sole, and very often not even the central, ground for literary identification" (126).

He does not explicitly say so, but I’m willing to bet that for him Malcolm X is in the canon.  Based on the title of the section "Canons," and his other comments, in particular regarding truths, I do not think that he subscribes to, and he certainly is not recommending, one overarching canon.

I guess this might be another criticism with the book.  He could be clearer on occasion, but then the book would be much longer and far more "academic."  It is not a perfect book by far, but it is a darn fine one.

I hope this helps!  And I hope you know I would not be recommending it if he did subscribe to one semi-set, slowly evolving canon.  I do, though, think that much of what has been "the  Western canon" is of immense value and deserves to be defended, retained, read and taught—precisely because it does fit his definition of what should be in a canon.  But, and this is a big but, much, much more from so many other perspectives needs to be added.  How that is to be accomplished in the relatively short time of a university education I have no idea.  But then if this sort of reading is being left until college, and probably left for good after college, then we have a much larger problem than who happens to get taught in those oh so short 4 years of university.

Thank you for helping me clarify, Em!

Why Read? (a review)

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Why read? / Mark Edmundson.
New York : Bloomsbury, 2004
146 pp. ISBN 1-58234-425-6

I started reading a library copy of this wonderful book a few months back.  But, due to the incessant pain brought on by constantly slapping my hand before I could write or highlight in it, I ordered myself a copy.  As life is life, or mine is my life anyway, it took me a few months to get back to it.  I finally did, and I am so glad.

The book is short and are there are no chapters per se, but lots of short sections.  It is a great book to read if you only have short periods in which to do so.  It would also be excellent to read in one sitting, although I see no reason to rush it.  Edmundson says quite a lot in most of the sections and it is good to ruminate on what he says for a bit before pushing too far forward.

Just a few short years ago I would have utterly dismissed this book and its premise.  Now, although I may not agree with every word, primarily because I am lacking exposure to many of the authors he discusses, I do agree in the main.  This, by the way, is not some sort of intellectual agreement with an idea, like one might agree that privatizing social security is a good idea.  No, this is a full-blooded, it will affect how I live my life and get by for the better in the world, agreement.

Edmundson is looking at the value of a liberal arts education.  Most particularly, he is looking at the value of literature to change lives, to provide an answer as to how one should live their life, and as a source of truth.  The book is addressed to teachers of literature and the humanities, and "to students and potential students of literature" (3).  I would say it best addresses the student, but then that is also the point of view from which I am approaching it.

"The moral of this book is that [William Carlos] Williams has it right.   Poetry—literature in general—is the major cultural source of vital options for those who find that their lives fall short of their highest hopes.   Literature is, I believe, our best goad toward new beginnings, our best chance for what we might call secular rebirth" (2-3).

I particularly enjoyed it as there is a lot of overlap with the work I have done with Dr. Richard Stivers.   Edmundson even cites several of Stivers’ sources, such as, J.H. van den Berg, Kierkegaard, Milan Kundera, Don DeLillo, and others.   His views of consumer culture, technology, the power of language used to its fullest, the consumerist turn of the university, and others, have quite a bit of overlap with Stivers.   I find it a bit more explicitly hopeful than Stivers though.   I hope to discuss this book with Dr. Stivers in our book discussion group after we finish Mimesis and its related readings.

Edmundson adapts Richard Rorty’s Final Vocabulary into the concept of the Final Narrative, which "involves the ultimate set of terms that we use to confer value on experience" (25).

"All human beings carry about a set of words which they employ to justify their actions, their beliefs, and their lives.   These are the words in which we formulate praise of our friends and contempt for our enemies, our long-term projects, our deepest self-doubts and our highest hopes.   These are the words in which we tell, sometimes prospectively and sometimes retrospectively, the story of our lives" (25-26 quoting Rorty).

These narratives are, in fact, not supposed to be final, although most people never question or change the narratives they grew up with.

Rorty calls people capable of adopting new languages "ironists," because they inflect even their most fervent commitment with doubt.   It’s possible, they know, that what today they hold most intimately true will be replaced tomorrow by other, better ways of seeing and saying things.   They comprehend what Rorty calls the contingency of their own state.
Appreciating the contingency is very close to appreciating one’s own mortality.   That is, Rorty’s ironists are people who know that they exist in time because it is time and the changes it brings that can make their former terminologies and their former selves obsolete (26). 

Edmundson’s "provisional thesis statement" is that:

the function of a liberal arts education is to use major works of art and intellect to influence one’s Final Narrative, one’s outermost circle of commitments.   A liberal education uses books to rejuvenate, reaffirm, replenish, revise, overwhelm, replace, in some cases (alas) even help to begin to generate the web of words that we’re defined by.   But this narrative isn’t a thing of mere words.   The narrative brings with it commitments and hopes.   A language, Wittgenstein thought, is a way of life.   A new language, whether we learn it from a historian, a poet, a painter, or a composer of music, is potentially a new way to live (31-32).

He takes on theory, interpretation, critical thinking, and other "hot topics" of the recent past in the liberal arts, and although they have their use, he finds them sorely lacking unless they are used as a guide to how one is to live.   I have to give a hearty "Amen, brother!" to that.

On theory:

But experience has shown me that there are more viable and more varied options for students in literature itself, and that contemporary theory, though not without its appeals, tends to be implausibly extreme in its vision of experience and, accordingly, untenable as a guide to life.   Can you live it?   Alas, it’s generally the case that no one can live out the latest version of theoretical apostasy and that, just as depressing, no one, even the theory’s most devoted advocates, is even mildly inclined to try (42).

On critical thinking:

But what good is this power of critical thought if you do not yourself believe something and are not open to having those beliefs modified?   What’s called critical thought generally takes place from no set position at all.   There is no committed vantage, however transient.   Rather, one attacks from any spot that one likes, so everything is susceptible to denunciation (43-44).
…
When one thinks critically in behalf of creating a Final Narrative, that is something else again.   Then you are sifting visions for their application to life.   A great deal is at stake.   But most of what passes for critical thinking takes place in a void.
In general, critical thinking is the art of using terms one does not believe in (Foucault’s, Marx’s) to debunk worldviews that one does not wish to be challenged by.
What happens when you teach critical thinking unattached to some form of ethics, or some process of character creation (44)?

I’ll let you read the book for his answer to this.

On criticism:

…, virtually every critic or school of criticism that matters has worked to reduce literary experience, vast and varied as it is, into a set of simple terms.   They’ve turned contingent literature into delimiting philosophy (or, one might say, "metaphysics"), which says that there is one mode of happiness, one kind of good, one form of ideal life for everyone (49).
…
We will not have real humanistic education in America until professors, and their students, can give up the narcissistic illusion that through something called theory, or criticism, they can stand above Milton, Shakespeare, and Dante (50).

On interpretation:

The test of an interpretation is not whether it is right or perfect, but whether it leads us to a worldview that is potentially better than what we currently hold.  The gold standard is not epistemological perfection.  The gold standard is the standard of use.

On truth:

What I am asking when I ask of a major work (for only major works will sustain this question) whether it is true is quite simply this: Can you live it?   Can you put it into action?  Can you speak—or adapt—the language of this work, use it to talk to both yourself and others so as to live better?   Is this work desirable as a source of belief?  Or at the very least, can it influence your existing beliefs in consequential ways?  Can it make a difference (58)?

On use:

The test of the reading that leaves the provinces of the author’s vision is use.  What can we do with this work?  What aspects of our lives does it illuminate?  What action does it enjoin? …  The ultimate test of a book, or of an interpretation, is the difference it would make in the conduct of life (73).

On the canon(s):

I think that canonical works, the ones you read as part of a major—the books of which there may be many or few, depending on the teachers’ views at a given time—ought to be the testing and transforming books that have influenced people in exciting ways over a long period (122).

The test of a book lies in its power to map or transform a life. … Works of art matter to the degree that they can help people do this.  Books should be called major and become canonical when over time they provide existing individuals with live options that will help them change for the better.  A democratic humanism can have no other standard for greatness (129).

On "what happens now and in the future if our most intelligent students never learn to strive to overcome what they are," or as I might say, today’s American:

What you’re likely to get are more and more two-dimensional men and women.  These will be people who live for easy pleasure, for comfort and prosperity and the satisfactions of cool, who think of money first, then second, and third; who hug the status quo; who believe in God as a sort of insurance policy (cover your bets); people who are never surprised.  They will be people so pleased with themselves (when they’re not in despair at the general pointlessness of their lives) that they cannot imagine that humanity could do better.  They’ll think it their highest duty to have themselves cloned as often as possible.  They’ll claim to be happy and they’ll live a long time (139).

This book means a lot to me because I was one of those people who for many years had a final Final Narrative.  The words that I used to construct my world, while many, were reasonably fixed in their allowed usage.  My early experiences, along with many years in the military, had led me to a mostly instrumental rationality.  I had also assiduosly ignored literature with a very vocal, yet indistinct, purpose.  In an ironic twist of fate, it was actually an education in analytic philosophy that finally saved me.  How is that possible, you ask?  Quite simple really. 

Reflecting on my first "real" job on a nuclear missile site in Western Germany at the height of the Cold War, along with learning more about the pretty much unspeakable horrors committed by men upon other men during the 20th century (and all others preceding it), was starting to show me the limits of instrumental rationality.  Now add on top of that a good education in analytic philosophy and what passes for critical thinking in today’s academy and one rather quickly and precipitously falls off the cliff edge of instrumental rationality and, dare I say it, instrumental reality. 

None of what I was learning, or what I saw around me over the years, had anything to do with the ultimate, and essential, question of how one ought to live their life.  In fact, since the middle ages, philosophy, in a Western sense, had completely abandoned it as a legitimate question.  There is work going on in this arena now by people like Martha Nussbaum, Robert Nozick, and others.  In fact, this work has been going on all over the world since before man began recording his thoughts.  One will simply not be exposed to much of it in most analytic or Anglo-American philosophy departments though.  There, intense navel-gazing of a kind that has no impact on the real world of everyday experience, and grand theorizing of the kind Edmundson criticizes, such that, "no one, even the theory’s most devoted advocates, is even mildly inclined to try" (42) to live by it, is spawned, encouraged, and rewarded. 

I received, although I should say "took," a great education.  And then, in a most educated act of defiance, I rejected most of it as useless to the conduct and experience of life.  I still enjoy some areas of analytic philosophy, and it can be immensely fun to "us[e] terms one does not believe in (Foucault’s, Marx’s) to debunk worldviews" (44) that I do not wish to bother with.  Of course, I may believe the terms and I may even prefer the challenge of another view, but when one has been trained as well as I in this sort of "critical thinking" it is so easy to deconstruct and undermine any position on any any topic that it quickly becomes boring,  It is just another form of cheap and easy entertainment.  One that fades as rapidly as the latest show trial from America’s consciousness.  I refer to this sort of philosophy or critical thinking as "mental masturbation."  It can be extremely enjoyable, but ultimately it is not very satisfying.

I shouldn’t say that it was analytic philosophy, by itself, that saved me.   It certainly did not do so on its own, but it was a major goad.  By seeing such a waste of some of the best minds the world has ever known studiously avoiding the most important question one can ask oneself or another, I was convinced that there had to be another way to the "truth" (with a small ‘t’).  [That there is no capital 'T' "Truth" is one commitment that I came by very dearly.   It was one belief I did not want challenged, and that I resisted for quite a while even when the truth of the matter was abundantly clear to me.  This is one of the very few inversions of my earlier Final Narrative that actually provides me comfort.] 

It was, in fact, exactly what Mark Edmundson describes that saved me.  It was "a liberal arts education [using] major works of art and intellect to influence [my] Final Narrative, [my] outermost circle of commitments.  [My] liberal education use[d] books to rejuvenate, reaffirm, replenish, revise, overwhelm, replace, in some cases (alas) even help to begin to generate the web of words that [I] defined [myself] by. …  Th[is] narrative [brought] with it commitments and hopes" (31-32).  …  I learned a new language from  historians, poets, painters, composers of music, and from writers of great literature—a langauge, or should I say languages, which showed me a new way to live. 

Austen, Zola, Flaubert, Defoe, Dickens, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Boccacio, Dante, Homer, Aristotle, Kierkegaard, Socrates, and so many others have provided me so many other ways of viewing the world and so many possibilities.  Other aspects of a broad, liberal education have coalesced into more coherence thanks to writers such as these.  If in fact I have been saved, which is an entirely different question, then it is the kind of education and use of that education that I have put it to which Edmundson is recommending that has done so.

My primary criticism of this book is that it has no bibliographical references or index.  The book is short enough that an index is not critical, but would be useful.  But, considering the number of references made to other authors, often with no mention of the work a citation is taken from, the lack of a bibliography or proper references in place is inexcusable.

I highly, and wholeheartedly, recommend this short but insightful book.  Why read, indeed!

My country ’tis of thee

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This is mighty close to what I’ve been trying to say:  Goodbye Columbus from Whiskey Bar.

I’m not a big fan of patriotism, at least not as most Americans
understand the word. Patriotism is just another word for nationalism,
and nationalism in my book is the modern equivalent of the black plague
– an incubator of xenophobia at its least, a killer of millions at its
absolute worst. And we’ve seen enough of the absolute worst over the
past century to understand where nationalism could ultimately lead: the
extinction of the entire human race.

…

If America is to be an exceptional nation, one worth glorifying above
all others, it has to be because of the quality of her justice and the
strength of her democracy — not because of the language she speaks, or
the God she worships or the color of her skin. And not because of her
material wealth or military power or imperial ambitions. Least of all
those.

…

Without that ideal, patriotism is just tribalism: the mindless
glorification of "us" and the demonization of "them." And in the case
of America, "us" includes a long list of right-wing idiots who I feel
absolutely no affinity with or loyalty to — beginning with Rush
Limbaugh and continuing through the loudmouth Bush supporter who sits
just outside my office. I don’t want to be in their tribe. And I sure
the hell don’t want them in mine.

As for the rest of my fellow Americans? Their lives are no more –
and no less — precious than any other group of human beings with a
flag and a national anthem. I don’t wish them ill, but the moments when
I feel any emotionally solidarity with them (like on the morning of
9/11, or, briefly, in Jimmy John’s the other day) are becoming quite
rare. I don’t really feel like I even know them any more.

Go read the whole thing.  His conclusion may be startling to many, but I feel the pain, distance, and loneliness of his final paragraph all too well.  Thanks to David at Sivacracy for the link.

More fuel for the fire about the poor and disadvantaged being the ones who serve:  Immigrants in the US Armed Forces from Ann at Sivacray.  Ensure that you click through to the Christian Science Monitor for the entire article.

And again, the hypocrisy of the rich and the Right:  Yellow Elephants and Chickenhawk Rich Kids by Siva at Sivacracy. 

The issue is duty. The problem is hypocrisy.

People who support a war have a duty to enlist in the arms service.
As William James wrote, "a belief is that upon which you are willing to
act." If our nation is so threatened that it is worth sacrificing the
life of any of us, then it is worth sacrificing the lives of all of us.
Anything less is a lie to yourself and others.

And yes, this is the Siva who spoke at ALA Annual.  I missed him unfortunately.  I knew that he was speaking, but not at which session and by the time I could check email I had missed him.  And yes, I get a lot of my news and commentary from Sivacracy.

above 96th street
they’re handin’ out smallpox blankets so people don’t freeze
the old dogs have got a new trick
it’s called criminalize the symptoms
while you spread the disease
and i hold on hard to something
between my teeth when i’m sleeping
i wake up and my jaw aches
and the earth is full of earthquakes

my country ’tis of thee
to take shots at each other on the primetime tv
why don’t you just go ahead and turn off the sun
‘cuz we’ll never live long enough
to undone everything they’ve done to you
undo everything they’ve done to you
Ani DiFranco, ’tis of thee from up up up up up up

Bless you Dorothea and everyone else who has someone they care about deployed

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Dorothea writes about thinking about someone deployed while watching the fireworks last night in NOT HOME.

My heart goes out to you and to everyone else in this situation this, or any year.  I now have a definitely different reaction to fireworks displays over the last few years.  It was only two years ago that I suffered through the 4th with my son in Iraq.  That was one year I was glad to be alone during the fireworks.  It was a wonderful display, for what it was worth, but it is extremely hard to see when tears are streaming for 20 minutes straight.

There are people that I know who are deployed, I just have the luxury of not knowing that they are.  This doesn’t make it much easier though.  It is not possible to serve for so long without developing a profound sense of "brothers (and sisters) in arms."  This is a wonderful feeling of inclusiveness and leads to an immediate sense of connection with outstanding people such as Karen and Michael.  Whatever commonalities or differences we have, this connection is strong.  I just often wish it was for a different reason.  Nonetheless, it is to be cherished.

I’d also like to salute and say "Bless you" to those, like Dorothea, who actually give some thought to those deployed.  It is quite simple to put up a ribbon or put a sign in your yard or throw some stupid magnet on your car or tie a miniature flag onto your antenna until it rots away.  These things have absolutely nothing to do with supporting the troops if they are all that you do.  They only make the one who does them feel better. 

All I ask is that you stop and think for a few minutes about the war and those deployed, and those who we are supposedly there to help, until it deeply and physically moves you and then to act on those feelings wherever they may lead you.  They all deserve our thoughts on more than the 4th of July, or Memorial or Veterans Day each year.  They deserve it each and every day that even one of them is deployed.

This is my country too…and I am going to celebrate

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I really haven’t been in much of a celebratory mood in regards to the 4th this year, but I’ve decided that I’m going to anyway.

I lead a pretty solitary life.  I do have friends, but everyone is always busy with their own lives (which is the way it should be), so it is just me today—which is rather un-American.  People shouldn’t have to celebrate the 4th of July by themselves—so I’m not going to.

Seems my new hometown(s) have a parade, so I’m going to join my community and go watch it.  My community radio station, WEFT 90.1 FM, of which I am a member, has a float and wants folks to accompany them.  Maybe next year—I don’t even have a WEFT t-shirt.  I need to get one.

And I intend to go watch the fireworks this evening although I’m not sure where I’m going to go to do so.  I’ll figure that out later.

Been a busy little boy this morning; finally.  I put up the curtain rod for my bedroom curtains that have been tacked up for 10 months now, and I washed the curtains.  I cleaned the bathroom too.  I still have plenty to do but maybe after the parade I’ll get some more done.

Rebates for PowerBook and router.
Re-hang the curtains in the bedroom.
Organize for my 590HCP paper due in about 6 weeks.
Decide on my practicum project and write my supervisor because the paperwork is due Friday.
Reply to some Comments at the blog from the last week or so.
Do some ALA write-ups?
Straighten up the living room.
Think about how I’ll connect both computers to the printer.  (I did get both to work individually.)
Do some reading.
Change the sheets on the bed.
Go running? (Pretty darn hot out there, but then it is a tradition of mine on the 4th.)
Other things?  (There are hundreds…)

Well, for now I better go get ready for the parade.  Yuck, sunscreen.

Update:

The parade was fairly nice.  It lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes.  I can’t really say I felt much community though.  It felt more like a collection of disparate peoples willing to tolerate each other for the good of the day.  What the heck do I know though?  I’ve only been here for less than a year.

There were more high school bands than I could count or at least from towns I’ve never heard of.  Lots of fire trucks from different departments.  Politicians of both stripes.  Why only 2 stripes is my question.  Hell, there are 13 in our flag, why not 13 major parties? 

Too many color guards to count.  I saluted Old Glory the 1st time and stood at attention for the rest.  There were several radio stations, all commercial except WEFT.  Shriners on all sorts of different little vehicles.  AMVETS.  Former POWs.  American Legionnaires. 

A guy wearing a George W mask carrying a placard that said MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.  Folks from the local AWARE chapter (Antiwar and Antiracism Effort) had signs about the war, $$ for education and healthcare, and others.  Some idiot from a local gun club was dressed up as a shabby Chief Illiniwek and was leading some stupid chant.  Can we please just get rid of this inane and racist symbol at our university?  And, no, there’s nothing we can do for the local idiots who believe in "The Chief Forever."  Even if the university does get rid of it—and they will have to someday because the courts will order it if they don’t voluntarily—I fear it will be years before the local supporters literally die off.

Many others of course.

I went for a run after getting home although it had clouded up and was thundering loudly.  It started raining on me at about 7 mins. in.  It was basically just a sprinkle and then light rain so I didn’t really mind.

As I’m writing this update I’m listening to some special from Democracy Now.  Not very uplifting to say the least, but one really should know the history of one’s nation.  It is a great way to keep from becoming nationalistic, unlike so many today who greatly confuse nationalism and patriotism.

Not sure about the fireworks tonight.  We are under a severe T-storm warning until 7 PM with showers and thunderstorms to follow.  Guess I’ll have to play it by ear.

Update 2:

Still not sure about the fireworks.  At least we haven’t gotten the t-storms, just some light rain.  I’m thinking I’ll drive over to the schoolhouse and park and then walk somewhere open-ish and plunk down my lawn chair which is so conveniently in my trunk.  It is only about 5 blocks north and east of the main location.  Of course, a thousand other locals may have the same idea.  Of course, the storms could come in the next hour also.  Although, I see the severe t-storm warning has expired.  Just light rain and isolated t-storms predicted now.  OK, take the IDs out of your wallet and leave it at home cause it’ll take more than a little summer thunderstorm to wash me clean away.  Besides, didn’t I just love playing in summer storms when I was a kid?  "Oh, little boy, where are you?"

As you can see (like you care) I did get some things accomplished.  Yay, me!  I also took a nice saltwater bath after getting the bedroom back in some order.  Someday I will have a bathtub that even my smallish self fits in dangit!  I would’ve stayed in much longer if it wasn’t so darn uncomfortable folding myself into it. 

Guess I better get more food before I go too.  Maybe I’ll have a Klondike bar cause how can it be the 4th with no ice cream?  Of course, a little charcoal grilled meat and watermelon would’ve been nice at some point today too.  <huge sigh>

Excuse me for a minute please.  Got to put a CD on.  I love my community radio station, and this is even good light jazz, but on top of all the fresh air and exercise I got today, and a warm bath, it is putting me to sleep!

Well, I need to get that ice cream so I’ll leave you with a little commentary from "City of Dreams" by the Talking Heads:

From Germany and Europe
And Southern U.S.A.
They made this little town here
That we live in to this day

The children of the white man
Saw Indians on TV
And heard about the legend
How their city was a dream

We live in the city of dreams
We drive on the highway of fire
Should we awake
And find it gone
Remember this, our favorite town

The Civil War is over
And World War One and Two
If we can live together
The dream it might come true

Underneath the concrete
The dream is still alive
A hundred million lifetimes
A world that never dies

We live in the city of dreams
We drive on the highway of fire
Should we awake
And find it gone
Remember this, our favorite town

Economic Independence Day

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Economic Independence Day by David Morris at AlterNet.

But perhaps some of us could take a few moments to ponder what patriotism meant to those who took the considerable risk of declaring war on the mightiest nation on earth. And how they went about declaring and defining their independence.

Many events led up to our formal declaration of independence. But the pace quickened when, on a cold
December night in 1773, a band of colonists forced their way onto three ships docked in Boston Harbor and dumped more than 90,000 pounds of tea into the sea.

As Thom Hartmann points out in his excellent book, "Unequal Protection," the colonists’ actions were as much a challenge to global corporate power as they were a rebellion against King George
III.

Happy Independence Day

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Lest anyone think the previous post makes me un-American just one day away from our primary National holiday, well, the hell with it.  I can’t change your opinion of what patriotism or being an American means.  These are, fortunately or unfortunately, completely individualistic concepts.  That is the nature of concepts such as these, along with others such as freedom, liberty, equality, and other such critical concepts in a democracy.  Oops, that’s another one.

I spent over 20 years on active duty in the United States Army.  My son is now going on 6 years with a bit more than 2 1/2 left.  He has been to Iraq once already.  These are simple facts; nothing more.

What we feel about our service is anything but a fact.  I will not presume to talk for my son, although I do have a good inkling of how he feels.  When people hear that I spent over 20 years in the service, I am usually asked if I liked it.  I try not to be too much of a smartass when I answer said question, but believe me, it is hard.

To be honest, that is a completely stupid question!  It would be pretty much the same no matter what it was I had done for such a length of time, although I can think of a few occupations which might tend to trend to a generally positive or negative response.  But 20 years of most anything, or at least in the military, simply cannot be enjoyed or not.  It is far more complicated than that.  I absolutely loved some things, and I absolutely despised other things.

Let me state unequivocally that I am proud of my service to my country. 

I am also proud of my son’s service.  In the sense that one is proud when a duty is accomplished.  But then I despise Kantian deontological (duty) ethics.

I, also, often question why I gave up 20 years of my life when I look around me and see what ‘good’ it did for the society in which I live.  Yes, there is no question that I was naive.  It is a simple, but sad, truth.  I served for all those years in the hope that our society, and the world at large, would be a better place for my efforts and those of the many who served with me. 

I am a completely different person now, a mere 7 years after leaving the Army, than I was then.  Maybe it is more education, or more of my specific education, that I have since recieved.  Maybe it is the fact that my eyes are now open to that which goes on around me, in a more community and worldly since.  It is very simple to be insulated from a lot of the world while on active duty.  And believe me, it is something they count on.  It is a big help with the whole ‘structure and discipline’ effort.

I do not know what all has contributed to my changes as a person in the last 7 years, but they are many.  A divorce, kids going off to college and the military, 7 years of advanced education, new friends, different locations,…all contributed.  Having a child sent to war, much less a war I did not believe in, was also a major factor.

I love my country very much.  No one should question that.  But I am scared for its present and very scared for its future.  I am at a loss as to how to understand many of its citizens.  I feel very much like a stranger here.  I do not recognize much that I would call my idea of America, nor of democracy.  Yes, I could change my focus and be more positive.  I could also put the blinders back on.  I will not.  There are many good things about America.  They just aren’t valued much by the mainstream of the populace or press.  As a nation, we have gotten away from what is truly important.  I am not sure we can, as a nation, return to them either.  Market forces are just too strong for most people. 

It is lonely, disturbing, frustrating, depressing, and to be misunderstood by most, to be where I am in these thoughts.  I have no doubt that this view is shortening my life in multiple ways.  So be it.  I will not turn a blind eye to what is, and I will not stop considering what could be.  My mission is to figure out how best to bring about what can be good about America.

At the moment I am continuing to educate myself, and educating those around me when I can.  I am working at becoming a member of a profession which believes, at least in principle, with most of my commitments to democracy and a just society.  I am working to find the people and organizations within this profession that truly do espouse and live by these principles.  I am exposing myself to ideas contrary to what I have been taught, and even those I have come to currently hold, so that I may question all of my commitments.  I am looking at organizations of various sorts that purport to act to make the sort of society I would be proud to call an American democracy.  I am trying to be a responsible consumer.   These and many other small acts are what I am doing to ensure a change for the better.

These are my birthday gifts to my country.
 

No Child Left Behind…by the Military

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Now here is something I am so very happy to see:  The ‘Leave My Child Alone’ Movement.  I can only hope that it spreads.  Maybe if our press were doing its job, and parents really knew what was in something as misleadingly titled as No Child Left Behind, it would.

Maybe a wholesale rebellion on the part of parents would force the resurrection of the draft.  I’d hate to see that, but then it would be far more honest.

For two hellish years while in the Army I was a Recruiter.  I absolutely hated it!  The only time in my life when I have ever felt like a predator was when using the lists provided by the high schools or those generated by schools electing to use the ASVAB test for ‘guidance counseling.’  I would be told over and over by some child not to call them but would be ordered to do so anyway.  Eveything in recruiting is a numbers game and contacts must be made and all contacts must be recorded, and once we have a name they had to be contacted every so often.  Because you know, miraculously, after telling you to "F*** off" for the last 9 months they just may change their mind.

I was not a very good recruiter.  I didn’t have the right attitude.  I’m never happy about being no good at something, but now that I look back on it I am proud that I sucked as a recruiter.   I did put a few people in the Army, but they were mostly ones who came to me.  I hope they all did well and got out after their 1st enlistment.  And before some idiot labels me unpatriotic, keep in mind that in all of the services we only need the vast majority to serve one enlistment.  Otherwise, there’d be too many in the middle with almost no way for anyone to move up. 

That may not be the case today, but if so, it is due to the complete mismanagement of this war by the civilian leaders in charge.  They are the ones who have created the conditions where mid-career servicemembers are getting out before retirement, and where almost no one wants to join the service due to lengthy deployments and Stop Loss orders.  It is hard to get that cheap education they promise you in the Guard or Reserves if you are in a combat zone for two years only to go back nine months later.

I say more power to these sorts of parents!  Please, educate yourselves and your children.  When the rich and corporate interests start sending their own children off to fight in our All Volunteer Force, then and only then, should the poor and middle class parents allow their own children to be targeted by this kind of predatory behavior by their government.

We talk an awful lot about the separation of church and state in this country, but what about the separation of the schools and the military?  And lest you think it is only the high schools and colleges, it is not.  Militarism is present in our middle and even in our elementary schools.  You should be very, very afraid!  And then you should get very active!

What can you do?  Talk to other parents.  Talk to your local school principal.  Talk to the school board.  Write/call/fax your state and federal Representatives and Senators.  Learn which organizations in your community, such as the Peace and Justice Coalition, are active on this issue.  Join them.  No one is working on this issue in your area?  Then see the 1st answer and start one!  There are dozens of other ideas I am sure.  My god people!  This is your country, these are your schools, these are your laws enacted by your legislators, and most importantly, these are your children!  It is too late for one of my own due to the example I set as he was raised; it is not too late for many of yours.

For more info and similar ideas on this topic, see my lengthy post of 5 June 2005.

Bloggers at ALA

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The OCLC Blogger Party was simply awesome!  It was great fun meeting so many engaged, intelligent, and caring  librarians.  Here is the post that the OCLC folks had running during the evening: it’s all good evening post

It was a raucous gathering to say the least.  I was quite impressed with most everyone I met.  Regarding those that I wasn’t, well, I’ll keep my snarky comments to myself, especially since I doubt I was very impressive to too many people either.  But I definitely can empathize with Jenica’s comment from ACRL about wishing I felt cooler than I am.  We missed you’ Ol’ Cool One.’

ACRL holdovers included Jane from A Wandering Eyre  and Joy from Wanderings of a Student Librarian.  I also met Walt Crawford from Walt at Random and Cites and Insights and so on, Roy Tennant of Current Cites and LJ and so on; our hosts George, Alane, and Alice; Cathy De Rosa and other folks from OCLC, Meredith at IWTBF, Steven Cohen at Library Stuff, Jessamyn from librarian.net, Christopher from Curmudgeony Librarian, Aaron from walking paper, Karen from Free Range Librarian , Rochelle from Tinfoil + Raccoon, Michael from Library Dust, Eli from Confessions of a Mad Librarian, Laura (Rikhei) from Lethal Librarian, Laura from lis.dom, Jenny from The Shifted Librarian, Michael from Tame The Web, Gabriel, Chrystie, Brian, and too many others that I have forgotten or didn’t get a chance to talk to.  Sorry!

After the party broke up, about 13 of us went out to dinner.  Had some nice conversations with Eli and Michael McGrorty and others at our end of the table about LIS education and what is needed to obtain adequate compensation for librarians among other topics.

I especially cherish my conversations with Karen (FRL); thanks for the kind words!  I just wish wish I hadn’t had those couple of glasses of wine so I could remember them better.  <sigh>    I do have the gist of them in my memory though, and as such will cherish them. 

It was all good as they say!

Cookin’ with the home networking gas

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I wish I could say that I’m giddy, but that’d be pushing it a bit.  But, boy am I happy!

I went shopping earlier and ended up getting a wireless router at Best Buy for a really decent price after rebate.  But it gets even better.  It took all of about 8 minutes, and flawlessly the 1st time, to get it set up with the PC desktop wired and my PowerBook wireless.  Woohoo!  I had to poke a few settings on the Mac but figured them out myself in about 2 minutes. This is so cool! It’s like I’m finally livin’ in the future as Life magazine used to promise me when I was a kid.

Now I just need to figure out how to lock the wireless system down securely, and then see how far I can get in and out of the apartment.

I can’t believe how easy this really was.  Computers, at least PCs, just aren’t this easy usually.  I am not posting the brand and model of my wireless router for fairly evident reasons, but if you want to know in case you’re thinking about it yourself, post a comment or email me and I’ll email you the info.  It is a broadband router with wireless and 4 wired Ethernet connections for under $39 after rebate.

Apple’s AirPort Express is supposed to be extremely simple, but it is $129!  It really couldn’t have been $90 simpler.  Just couldn’t seeing as how easy this went.

I was on my wired broadband last night with the PowerBook but TypePad was down for upgrades so I couldn’t post about that happy event.  But, hey, this is far cooler!

Posted via a wireless PowerBook.