Human Stupidity

There are, of course, many examples of human stupity. Smoking is one of them. Subsidizing tobacco farmers and then spending a tremendous amount of money for drugs that help people stop smoking is another. And killing in the name of religious faith is another. And giving any kind of credence to right-wing media clowns is another. And being happy to die for one's country is another. And believing that our brief moments on this planet are meaningful is another. And if human beings are, to a large degree, stupid, then how can we have a meaningful democracy?

I'm reading Arturo Escobar's Encountering Development in which he discusses how development policies towards poorer parts of the globe are a form of colonization, which they undoubtedly are. Yet he is forced to criticize nutrition programs and health-care programs. Without question there's a massive development infrastructure, with many a public and private bureaucrat scurrying toward yet another conference on how to drag the apparently undeserving billions out of poverty. and without question whatever has been done has resulted in a global catastrophe--there being too many people who profit from this infrastructure. Yet those nutrition programs? There can be principled critiques of neo-colonialism, and yet, despite all that, some people do genuinely try to offer selfless help to others. Must we condemn all efforts to do so?

Democracy

If I have a value, it's a belief in democracy. But, of course, it's a nuanced belief. I'm fully aware of Walter Lippmann's critique of democracy in which an ill-educated, ill-informed citizenry tries to make decisions on challenging, complicated issues. The current health care "debate" ought to make this problem clear. Or sometimes people bemoan the lack of an adequate scientific education in America, especially when the ignorant offer their opinions on evolution or climate change. But it's not the fault of science education: it's cognitive dissonance. They just don't want to believe in these things and no amount of education is going to change that. Yet Lippmann's advocacy for the idea of a technocratic elite making decisions for people is equally problematic, since such an elite inevitably starts to make decisions that favor itself. Intellectual or technocratic elites can't help but become nomenklaturas. At the same time, I believe in a reasonable level of discrimination. I despise discrimination based on meaningless characteristics--like skin color, gender, religion, wealth and so forth. And I especially despise those who discriminate against others who have been denied the opportunity to educate themselves. So, for example, a racial discrimination that argues that one group is inferior because of its ignorance is an outrage, particularly if the discrimination itself is responsible for that ignorance. Yet I have no problem with discrimination when it's directed toward those who have had the opportunity to educate themselves but decided not to. So I'm intolerant of fools. And the problem is how to reconcile the vast swathe of fools who inhabit this country with this belief in democracy. I cringe when I hear some bombastic politician refer to the ingrained wisdom of the American people. As an uninterrogated assumption, it appalls me. All too often Americans have shown a lack of wisdom.

So what we need is a wise democracy--perhaps an impossibility.

A Literary Perspective

"When literature was in question my brother considered even a European, or rather a world, war to be just literally a bloody nuisance interfering with his work. . ." (184).

Stanislaus Joyce, on James Joyce, in His Brother's Keeper

How else to view the endless wars and stupidity?

Back to Agoraphobia

By the way, Howe is mainly discussing Dickinson's poem, "My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun."

The poem narrates the poet imagining herself as a gun, out in the "Sovreign woods," the great, all-powerful outdoors, killing but unable to be killed, controlled but deadly, in short, an insane poet. But let's say that there are two kinds of poets: again, the agoraphobes and the claustrophobes. Dickinson is the agoraphobic type. The claustrophobic type is, say, T.S. Eliot, who is oppressed by rooms and narrow streets. Eliot, too, is insane, but has a controlled insanity.

Can there be a healthy poet? Maybe William Carlos Williams, who dealt with illness yet wrote about the power of words and things--and words as things: "This is just to say."

And my interest in Baroque music? The claustrophobes of composition, especially with their mathematical precision. Order relieves the pressure of oppressive rooms and narrow streets, yet it's a fool's paradise. Order is an illusion.

Corporate Persons

The former Solicitor General of the U.S. says that "Corporations are persons." It's perhaps the only metaphor used by the fanatical right wing. But let's say it's true--then could corporations be executed? Could they be jailed? Do they have the right to vote (I mean directly)? Could they hold a seat on the Supreme Court? Could they marry? Could they get drivers licenses? Could they die?

More Agoraphobia

Susan Howe (My Emily Dickinson) on Emily Dickinson and others:

"Jonathan Edwards, Emily Bronte, and Emily Dickinson looked into the core of eternal destruction. They greeted what they saw with affirmation and elation" (114).

"Dickinson was expert in standing in corners, expert in secret listening and silent understanding. Bristling with Yankee energy, chained to an increasingly demanding agoraphobia, she moved through that particular mole of nature in her--she studied Terror" (116).

Which explains why I like open spaces, long vistas, the room to breathe and maneuver. I, too, have stood in corners: but what interested me were the walls, not necessarily the actions contained within the walls.

So I misread Dickinson all the time: I am interested in misunderstanding her metaphors: the woods aren't "Sovreign" to me.

Airplanes

Today, I'm flying back to the great Northwest, even though I have difficulty believing that planes can actually fly.

You might imagine that flying is not my favorite activity.

Emily Dickinson was an agoraphobic--she feared the great, empty wilderness (read universe) that surrounded her. So have other Americans.

I seem to have a more European sensibility: maybe that explains my attraction to places like Alaska. Open spaces.

O The Irony

O the irony. I need, unfortunately, to state the following: Read everything as if it were in quotation marks--even this. Yeah, yeah, what about the previous entry in which I chastised Albert Goldbarth for using quotation marks: but there he employed them around only one word, while here (there, here: fort da!) everyting is equivalent--the most democratic attitude in the universe.

I've been traveling: hence the lacuna in entries. Now I'm in Chicago--OK, really, Northbrook. Yesterday, I was in Indiana. The strangeness of time and place. The oddities of experience and event. My friend in Indiana said that my basic, core belief was that everyone was insane.

No disagreement there. Yet it was in response to a comment--remember the quotation marks--that I had no core beliefs. So both are true and not true. In a hundred years, in fifty, will anyone care?

More important: does anyone care now?