31.10.02

VVV Archaeology is in my soul. Today as we were driving across Worcester to give the paper to the printer, I found myself contemplating the use-wear patterns on the yellow lines on the road, and what they reveal about people's driving habits -- where people cut corners, where they make left-hand turns, and so on.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 04:48 -- link --

29.10.02

VVV There have been a lot of complaints circulating about the media's coverage -- or lack thereof -- of recent anti-war protests. Stories are brief, report low estimates of attendance (or none at all), and are buried toward the back of the paper. The explanation is generally based on some sort of "ruling class conspiracy" theory -- that the media, like the government, wants war to seem inevitable.

The media's self-appointed role in a free society is to be a sort of Socratic gadfly -- questioning everything, particularly the doings of those in power. Don't just take anyone's word for it; press for better explanations and more information. The lack of coverage of the protests is seen as an abdiaction of that role. But I think much of the problem can be explained by the media's desire to be the gadfly.

The master-narrative of war coverage so far has been its inevitability. Those in power are moving steadily toward confrontation with Saddam Hussein, and only distant nations like France are raising any questions. But this isn't being told in a "foregone conclusion" sort of way -- it's being told in an alarmist way. The media is setting up the "inevitability" storyline as a backdrop for its own questioning of the war. And the media has questioned the war -- every day, columnists, editorial pages, and investigative reports denounce the administration's course. The effect of all this is to enlarge the media's role, as the seeker of truth exposing the machinations of the powerful. Recognizing a strong anti-war movement would disrupt this storyline.

Of course, the same could be said for the anti-war movement. Recognizing the media's role would disrupt their storyline of a hegemonic powerful class heading for war that's being resisted by "the people" (though most of "the people" are turned off from the antiwar movement by its radical leftist leadership).
posted by Stentor Danielson at 22:10 -- link --

VVV I had a desire to listen to "El Capitan," probably due to all the people in band tonight whingeing about marches, particularly those of the Sousa persuasion. So I hopped on over to mp3.com and put "Sousa" into the search box, to see if anyone was offering any of John Philip's tunes. Several of the classics came up, of course, but it turns out he's got a new song out: "So U's a Gangsta."
posted by Stentor Danielson at 20:17 -- link --

VVV

Atheist Scout Fights Decision To Boot Him The Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts has given Eagle Scout Darrell Lambert about a week to decide "in his heart" if he's truly an atheist. If he insists on sticking to his belief that there is no God, the Council will terminate his membership. "No way" is he going to change his beliefs, says Lambert, who has been in scouting since he was 9 years old. "It'd be like me asking them to change their belief. It's not going to happen." His beliefs, if unchanged, give the Scouts no choice, says Brad Farmer, council's Scout executive in Seattle. - via Witchvox

This hurts. It almost makes me want to get more involved with Scouting again, so that I can drag the organization kicking and screaming into the 21st century (or back to the earlier 20th, since the religious intolerance in the BSA has been increasing in the last few decades).

I don't want to sanitize Scouting to remove references to God for fear that it might offend someone. Scouting's program has a religious element, and anyone who joins has to be prepared to deal with that. But Lambert clearly did just that. He was able to accept and respect the religious exercises of his fellow Scouts, because he found the remainder of the experience rewarding. And that ability to respect others' religion, to maintain the ties of brotherhood despite a difference in belief, is a crucial part of what the Scout Law means when it says "A Scout is ... reverent." The Council, apparently, is not able to do the same. For all Farmer's claims of righteousness, on this point Lambert is the better Scout.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 17:27 -- link --

27.10.02

VVV A Baptist minister explains why posting the Ten Commandments is a pointless exercise:

State Faith Trial Seeks Quick FIx As Answer But like so much in American culture, we want a quick and easy fix. We don't want to spend hours in prayer and spiritual formation. We don't want to spend days and weeks rebuilding broken families and impoverished communities — these are the very seed beds of evil. We want something we can do in a hurry, or better yet, something someone else can do. If people of faith really understood the purpose of Scripture, and the power of worship, the monument would be seen for what it really is -- a futile attempt to get God in our lives without much effort on our part. This has not been the way of God in the past, and we can be sure this is not the best way for us now. - via Votelaw, cited by Ignatz

Can I get an amen from the congregation?
posted by Stentor Danielson at 21:25 -- link --

VVV The sermon and readings in church today focussed on the "love thy neighbor" passage in the Sermon on the Mount (starting at Matthew 5:43). The point being made was the importance of seeing the humanity of even your most dreaded adversaries. It reminded me of my favorite Henry Lawson quote: "The more you listen to a bad character, the more you lose your dislike for him."

When I came home, I started reading Charlene Spretnak's The Politics Of Women's Spirituality. Spretnak is part of the school of thought that proposes that the earliest agricultural civilizations were idyllic Goddess-worshipping matriarchies, who were destroyed by patriarchal invaders. And I came across this revelation in a footnote to her introduction:

However, even with the current conditioning that men receive, many of them, although seemingly a minority, exhibit considerable empathy and gentleness, do love women, and report that they do not resent and/or hate their mothers; in fact, the mother-son bond expressed by such men appears to be genuinely deep and loving."

I think it's a clear sign that you've become too wrapped up in your caricature of the Enemy, too willing to dehumanize them and ascribe to them everything evil in the world, and too disconnected from how they actually think, when it comes as a surprise to you that some among your enemies might actually love their mothers.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 14:48 -- link --

VVV

Mondale Likely To Yield To Pleas To Run For Senate Former vice president Walter F. Mondale is likely to yield to pleas from Democratic leaders and step in for the late Sen. Paul D. Wellstone in Minnesota's critical Senate race, several party officials said today. Gov. Jesse Ventura, an independent, threw a possible monkey wrench into that prospect by suggesting that whoever he appoints to fill Wellstone's seat in the current Congress could serve until a special election in November 2003. Ventura said he had been told his appointee might serve for a full year, until a special election in 2003 that he said would offer "a fairer test" to both parties.

I don't really know anything about Minnesota election law, but I suspect the Democrats' plan -- switch the ticket to Mondale and hold the election as scheduled -- is the correct legal procedure. It seems logical that Ventura's appointee would only be able to serve until the end of Wellstone's current term. But at the same time, I can see the merit in appointing someone who would serve a full year before a special election. The election results are likely to be skewed by a sympathy vote in the Democrats' favor, especially considering that the press is eulogizing Wellstone in glowing terms. Mondale will be able to run on his mythic stature (Minnesota was the only state to vote for him when he challenged Reagan in 1984) and his apolitical image, without being subjected to the political trials of months of campaigning. And Norm Coleman, the Republican candidate, is in an unenviable spot. He needs to fight hard to come out on top. But the harder he fights, the worse he will look, as voters will see him playing politics so soon after Wellstone's death and insulting the memory of the deceased.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 12:24 -- link --