Planet of the Blind

Well of course you like Downton Abbey. It is what Tom Wolfe would call plutography. "Pornography was the great vice of the Seventies; plutography – the graphic depiction of the acts of the rich – the the great vice of the Eighties." And now the old vice is back and being theorized like crazy. A well crafted piece in last Sunday's New York Times magazine presents a Rococo picture frame's worth of intricacies–Foucault, Marx, Adorno, Neiman-Marxism–and yet, in the end, we're simply turned on by the sight of the very wealthy pouring amber Scotch from crystal decanters. And as Tom Wolfe would tell you, it's the small acts of the rich that turn us on. The rest is just the lurid and relentless cheapness of the soap opera.

There was a day when he saw they were the same creature. Blind man and dog had become something Pythagorean–a combined soul comprising all the elements. The man felt so damned grateful he actually lay down in a public park with his arms and legs pointed at angles, the circle in the square, pure DaVinci, and his dog stood over him and carefuly washed his face. A woman came running crying out. She thought the man was having a heart attack. She saw the dog was wearing a special harness and accordingly she thought something heroic was going on. Perhaps the superb guide dog was trying to breathe life into her owner? “Madame,” said the man, “we are just sharing our soul. We are animists. Do not worry.” 

 

 

Photo: Connie Kuusisto (Wildlife photographer)

My friend Jim who founded Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City sent me this sassy video of the "Helsinki Complaints Choir" which will help you immensely on a Monday, or even a Tuesday:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrTNbIPEvcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The other day I was accused of being pretentious by a faculty member. I had used some big words in an email to a group of faculty: they were: “metonymy” “synecdoche” and “abjure”. I was suggesting that the tenor of a faculty senate debate was problematic, presenting a singular issue as standing for the whole. Histrionics depend on this strategy and even college faculty fall prey to it. One might say ” especially” college faculty because university professors are groomed to be contrarians. Alas, skepticism without sophistication about the uses of rhetoric leads to easy credulity every time. My email might have been patronizing, rather than pretentious. I had to wonder how my correspondent had fared on the SAT back when.

Meanwhile I’m watching Wallace Shawn on Chris Hayes’s Sunday TV show “Up” and praise be, Shawn is talking about socialism without apology. He’s describing the global scale of industrial exploitation. He’s talking about the crimes of Capitalism. The rise of industrial suicides and the decline of labor unions. A dark narrative of our times. But what a relief to hear this discourse from the cathode tube. (That’s right, I don’t have a flat screen.)

CNBC has a new confrontational hidden camera show called “Filthy Rich”…one hopes it’s about confronting sweatshop owners. How about authentic feeling, empathy for the poor? Forget TV with the Donald?

“We are enjoying a privileged life because the world is the way it is.” (Wallace Shawn, just now.)

Maybe before rushing out to buy the IPad 3 one may properly ask Apple about the people who made them? I’m so pretentious! An upstart! How annoying!

I wonder if the professor who called me pretentious felt emboldened because I’m blind? Blind guy using big words! Ableism stands behind the assertion I suspect. I’m “uppity” apparently. What can I say? I’m interested in the transition of Hegelian dialectic to Marx, and fascinated by the incorporation of Enlightenment principles into the transactional nature of political discourse. And of course this gets worse: I’m a poet. What could be more irritating? Oh, and it gets worse, I believe in the social democratic form of capitalism they have in Finland. I’m all for the rich, just as long as they create functioning neighborhoods.

Two nights ago I gave a poetry reading at 601 Tully, a neighborhood community center located in one of Syracuse’s poorest neighborhoods. I read poetry for about 20 minutes and then listened to students and community members read their own work. It was a restorative evening. Look! Everyone was slinging lingo! Hell, some were even using big words!

“Angela Brighton spent her 26th wedding anniversary packing up her family’s belongings before returning to the budget hotel where she, her wheelchair-using husband, Mark, and their three sons have lived for the last four and a half years. The family’s housing association landlord has been granted permission to repossess their home, and the Brightons, unable to pay the resulting court costs and outstanding rent totalling £67,000, now face bankruptcy.”

See full story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/feb/11/disabled-housing-wheelchair-user

 

HSCF is accepting applications for the Advocates in Disability Award (ADA).

The HSC Foundation’s  ADA Award has gone national and is seeking the next generation of disability advocates!! Young leaders with disabilities are encouraged to apply for the 2012 Advocates in Disability Award (ADA)!

 

The purpose of the ADA Program is to award and encourage a young individual with a disability between the ages of 14 and 26, who has dedicated himself/herself to positively affecting the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families in the United States. The program also supports an innovative project developed by a young person with a disability that serves and empowers individuals with disabilities.

 

The Advocates in Disability Award (ADA) is a program of The HSC Foundation, funded in part by the Sarah Beth Coyote Foundation. The selected recipient is awarded $3,000 in recognition of his/her past disability advocacy and will receive up to an additional $7,000 in funding support for his/her proposed project that focuses on serving and empowering individuals with disabilities.

 

Applicants must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States at the time of application submission and recipient selection. 

The Advocates in Disability Award Program is part of The HSC Foundation’s National Youth Transitions Initiative (NYTI).

 

To apply, please see the attached guidelines and application. You may also apply online at: www.hscfoundation.org/2012ADA.php

 

Applications must be received by February 28, 2012 (by 5:00pm EST).

 

Best regards,

 

 

Ryan Easterly

Manager, National Youth Transitions Initiative

The HSC Foundation

Washington, DC

REasterly@cscn.org

www.hscfoundation.org

 

 

 

 

“I know these blacklisters,” he wrote. “They operate behind closed doors, with phone calls, mailed threats and off-the-record meetings. They work in the dark because, as Al Smith said, nothing un-American can live in the sunlight.”

–Pat Buchanan, commenting on his dismissal from MSNBC for his overtly racist views.

Hmmm. Sounds like the Nixon administration to me…

(AP)  ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday that Occupy organizers have created a "relatively successful" movement because they focused national discussion on wealth disparity despite lacking leadership and a unifying set of goals.

The Georgia Democrat said at an event in Atlanta that Occupy organizers have succeeded in forcing the media and Congress to realize the "chasm is getting greater than leaps and bounds" between the rich and the poor.

See full article: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57379128/jimmy-carter-casts-occupy-movement-as-successful/