1 Corinthians 2

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Flubber/Hawk

I watched part of a familiar movie yesterday, “The Absent-Minded Professor”, an old B&W Disney affair. You may know the plot. Fred McMurray plays the title character, Prof. Brainard, a science professor at a small college that is in danger of folding who has invented an anti-gravity substance. The villain, Alonzo P. Hawk, played by Keenan Wynn, is a tycoon that sees dollar signs in this invention, flubber. When Hawk discovers the invention, he implores Brainard to partner with him to make millions as contractors to the government. Hawk essentially steals the invention to prevent the patriotic Brainard giving it gratis to the Pentagon. There are a few other angles in the movie, including a love triangle with a woman, Brainard, and an extroverted English professor from the competing and not struggling college. I distinctly remember the Hawk character recurring in Herbie the Love Bug movies. He is always a rapacious capitalist, threatening to destroy whatever is good and, essentially public sector. I pondered at how this movie could not be made now. I think it would be seen as “socialist”, unkind to the “job-creators”, etc. Moreover, this was a G-rated family movie. It just shows how things have changed. We have embraced the Hawks of the world, and now the professors are the villains. That was another really neat thing about the movie. Everybody knew who the professors were and they had a place of respect in the community. Um, not s’much anymore, I think.

Dem Dems?

I've got to get to the music and religion a little more, but here's something I wrote to a friend this morning:

I have to say that I am feeling deeply disillusioned about the democratic party right now. I have been for a long time, but I felt pretty hopeful in '08. I have never seen such an opportunity squandered as I have with the Obama administration and the dems control of the executive and legislative branches at the beginning of his presidency. I guess I'm pretty far to the left of the spectrum right now, but the federal dems seem to be doing not much more than saying we're not quite as bad as the republicans, rather than denouncing the palpable evil that seems to be possessing that party, and their plans to destroy all of the civic and cultural institutions that we have built over the last century. But, as we found in 2000, our system does not accomodate 3rd parties very well. So I'm a reluctant supporter, with hopes and prayers that a new day will dawn...

Civic Nihilism/Parasitic Vines

This civic nihilism that we call libertarianism is like a parasitic vine that we have allowed to creep up and eventually cover and kill the tree. Rather than robustly respond and destroy it, we have, in a sense, nurtured it.
The tree becomes nothing more than food for the vine, and eventually dies and is subsumed by the vine.
We are now (and have been) to the point where, instead of working on how to improve and refine the elements of our society, as we did in the past, we are dismantling and destroying all that generations have built up.

To: To the Best of Our Knowledge re: Does the Soul Matter

The existence of the soul to my mind is a universal idea throughout cultures societies and religions until modern European culture. Most still have a traditional belief in an inner person that is separate from the physical body. Moreover, the materialist impulse has a profoundly bad track record. Why not, then, have a guest that does believe in an actual soul? To those of us in the arts, materialism explains such a small subset of reality. In a way, the lack of a traditional perspective might feed into the idea that NPR represents a small band of thinking.

To Diane Rehm re: Obama Discussion

Note to Diane Rehm, 21 April 2011:

I have always admired your ability and courage to call people out and keep them honest, but I have to say I was really disappointed with the disconnect between the eloquent and heartfelt comments from listeners and the predictable, dismissive, tired, and ultimately connected and insider responses from the panelists (with a few exceptions). The impression one gets is of a group of people who are overly invested in the status quo and who marginalize anyone who challenges it, even if they are slightly different flavors of whatever the "center" happens to be at a particular moment. Those of us who are branded "liberal", or "far left" right now are part of the intelligentsia of this country that has been responsible for much of the change throughout history that has made a life of dignity and prosperity for the human species that we now enjoy. The establishment currently has found success in marginalizing us as fringe, or outright branding us as dangerous. Those who are less intellectual in inclination have been marginalized, manipulated and distracted into ineffectiveness.
I realize NPR is struggling for federal dollars with a hostile right wing, but if a call-in show is not open to ideas from its listeners, and if NPR in general is not representing truth and resisting phony binaries (left/right, fringe/center, etc.) it is giving up what makes it worth the federal dollars.

Note to Schumer

I just got your message re: republicans voting to end medicare. The republicans have just handed you the '12 election on a silver platter. For heavens sake, don't blow this one. The republicans are fundamentally bullies and are pushing for very bad things. Please, please, stop giving in and conceding to them anything. The only way to get them to act for the public interest is to stand up to them. And at this point, it means defeating them soundly. If democrats don't do it, who will?