Thought du jour - 11 September 2011

"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it." - Noam Chomsky

"Thought" du jour - 10 August 2011

"The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire." - Rick Santorum

So much for the idea of the freedom of the individual. Never forget that the modern Republican Party equates "freedom" simply with the ability to earn more money (and they don't really mean a lot of money - just enough to afford an HD television and a couple of weeks of vacation at some consumerist Nirvana every year; in other words, just enough to keep you from really questioning the inequitable nature of the system that they want to maintain for their paymasters), as opposed to... well, everything else that makes us human - and yet somehow they've managed to convince a lot of Americans that it's the Democrats who want to control their lives.

There's a word for the kind of political philosophy that the Republican Party way of "thinking" represents, and the society to which it will inevitably lead. It's called Fascism.

Paul Kimball

Thought du jour - 28 July 2011

"The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." - Pierre Trudeau

Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.

It's an interesting, thought-provoking talk, but I think the key that Schwartz misses is not that we have too many choices, but that we seem to treat all of these choices as equal (as he does). There's a big difference between choosing a salad dressing, which shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds, and choosing whether or not to get married, or which job offer to take.

In short, the problem lies not with the number of choices we face, but in our management of those choices, and our tendency to micromanage our own lives. After all, if you pick a salad dressing that you find you don't like, it's not the end of the world - just throw it out, and try another brand or flavour the next time you're at the supermarket.

Focus on what's significant, and filter out what's not... or, in other words, don't sweat the small stuff.

Paul Kimball

Thought du jour - 21 July 2011

"We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents." - William J. Brennan

Pop Matters: The Housemartins, "Hopelessly Devoted to Them"

"In the morning, when I’m woken
By the sound of my alarm
Stretching out my arm
I want to screw it up in my palm

And I’ve taken this route to work
A thousand times or more
And when you’ve seen it all before
you tend to get a little bored

They’ve got the keys to all my doors
They hold my where and when
So I guess I’ll always be
Hopelessly devoted to them

In the office when I’m working
There’s a funeral atmosphere
I know I lost someone dear
But I didn’t see him disappear

And I’m lying in my bed
'Cause its keeping me awake
And you think there's no escape
They’ve bound me up in their tape

They’ve got the keys to all my doors
They hold my where and when
So I guess I’ll always be
Hopelessly devoted to them."

One of the great, underrated bands of the 1980s, The Housemartins combined great pop melodies and harmonies with radical and biting lyrics by lead singer Paul Heaton, who was concerned with social inequality, and the class system, often reflecting a fair dose of social gospel Christianity (although Heaton has repeatedly stated that he is an atheist). As the phrase on the cover of their classic album London 0 Hull 4 said: "Take Jesus - Take Marx - Take Hope".

I heartily recommend listening to both London 0 Hull 4 and The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death (their second and final album) while reading Situationist philosopher Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life.

Paul Kimball