Provocations

Questioning the assumptions of war and the lies on which they are built

Sometimes I am aware that a post does not meet the title of this blog because of the negligible amount of provocation involved. I think that this interview does qualify, by challenging much that many of us assume is OK. Importantly, it is filled with reason and a few questions - about an aspect of US conduct which is common to many other countries: the lies used to justify war.

David Swanson is the co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, and has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign. David is the author of "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union", and his latest book is called "War is a Lie", published in November 2010

From the Notebooks of Elias Canetti - 1

With thanks to Luca and This Recording.

It is a great pleasure to listen to people who have nothing to say. They ought to be what they are and not be judged for it; still less should one try to influence them. Keep your eyes wide open and let it all flow in, in all its senselessness, disorder, and futility. You can make sense of it only later, in your own imagination.

- The Notebooks of Elias Canetti

The Tyee: Mark Vonnegut's Sane Response to Psychosis

The Tyee:  Mark Vonnegut's Sane Response to Psychosis.

Informative and balancing review of mental illness, based on the book and the reviewer's experience.

Quote:

Canada is currently experiencing a crisis in mental health care. If Mark were again wandering the streets of Vancouver in a delusional state, he would barely be noticed. The devastating impact of untreated mental illness has had its way with many homeless people who are constantly visible. Since one of the most common characteristics of psychosis is that people don’t understand that they are ill, people often refuse treatment. Particular points of view about what constitutes human rights have begun to prevail and it's becoming more difficult for ill people to receive the treatment that their illnesses make them want to refuse. I know many consumers and even more families who understand the deadly consequences of protecting people's "rights" to be mentally ill. Many families, including mine, have endured the painful struggles of helping an ill family member receive treatment against their will; we are rewarded when the person, well again, thanks us for fighting on their behalf.

The implications of charity - an animation by Slavoj Zizek

This development of charity as a "built-in" feature of our politico-economic system has been grinding away in my mind for a while. It's a relief to have it articulated so well. 

In this country, at least, the food bank was intended as emergency relief.  Now, as corporate government treats hunger as a food bank responsibility, the food banks are running out of food and calling on the people to give more, many of them the same ones who now need the food bank themselves.

A quote for family and community in a challenging season

My wish with Outliers is that it makes us understand how much of a group project success is. When outliers become outliers it is not just because of their own efforts. It's because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances— and that means that we, as a society, have more control about who succeeds—and how many of us succeed—than we think. That's an amazingly hopeful and uplifting idea. - Malcom Gladwell

According to Gladwell, it's the extreme that tells us most about the middle.

• See also: Provocative quotes

Canadian doctors encourage US citizens to go for real health care

A little truth to dilute the poisonous lies being spread in the US.

Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premier and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada. They tell Americans that Canadian universal health care works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal health care systems.

Paul Hawken puts the wonder into perspective

A quote for the season:

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

- Paul Hawken, to the Class of 2009, University of Portland

David Simon's 'The Wire' lays it bare

Still think there might be some value to "the war on drugs"? I challenge you to watch this video and still have some justification for that thought.

Think the war on drugs is BS but can't articulate very clearly why? Watch this video.

Wonder why inner-city stuff seems predictable and stuck? Wonder what's going on in the "world's most livable city" - Vancouver - where every few days a gang member is killed?  How will that end up?

Who really cares?

Sick of reading stats and hearing platitudes?

Watch this video. It's well-presented.

Then, you may well decide to watch the second half.

"When television history is written," one critic says, "Little else will rival 'The Wire.'"And when historians come to tell the story of America in our time, I'll wager they will not be able to ignore this remarkable and compelling portrayal of life in our cities.  - Bill Moyers.

OK. Enough said.

James Lovelock on planetary and human survival

Quote for our times:

For the first time in its 3.5 billion years of existence, the planet has an intelligent, communicating species that can consider the whole system and even do things about it. They are not yet bright enough, they have still to evolve quite a way, but they could become a very positive contributor to planetary welfare.

- James Lovelock

Full interview

Joe Bageant interview: US working class and the state of the nation

An interview with Joe Bageant, my favourite commentator on the US scene:

More from Joe:

• Joe Bageant thinks out loud "from the Cheap Beer Zone"
• Where young US liberals get their news
• Television has no effect?
• Joe's blog