My New Favorite Word

Today, I was reading the August issue of Spin magazine. (I like to keep up with what the kids are listening to.) In its pages, there was an interview with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame. (What an ego maniac.) In the article, he brought a concept that was unfamiliar to me: SIMULACRUM. In his words: "It's a copy of something for which there is no original. The classic example is the '50s diner. You know, you go to a '50s diner, and there was never such a place. It's basically a copy of the idea of what a '50s diner was, all mashed into one classic '50s diner."
I've been trying to think of a good example of my own to no avail. When I do, I'll be certain to post it. Any suggestions?

I get by with a little help from my friends.

This comic was sent to me by my old pal Jason. He and I used to be roommates in Jacksonville, and he was one of three of my droogs that helped keep me sane. He's actually one of four droogs I still consider droogs. We've been keeping in touch off and on through electronic medium, and he began checking out my blog. He thought it would be funny to forward this to me. It is. You have to come up with some mundane shit to keep posting every day. This comic has fostered ideas that will help me out a pant load.

One more painting of mine

This is probably the last of my paintings that will be posted. The others are either put away, too large, or pieces of crap. This one was done about a month and a half before moving from Jacksonville. It shows my state as a bit more optimistic, compared to the other painting I posted.

Firewalls

I tell ya; my firewall always has my back. I have a friend in the IT business, and he helped me purchase the components for the computer I have now. Well, he is amazed that I have not had any problems since we built this PC over a year and a half ago. I tell him that it is thanks to my firewall. It costs me $30 a year, and I know there are free firewalls on-line. But this one has stopped all intrusions thus far. It is worth it. I only mention it because, tonight, there was another attack on my CPU. If you refer to my archives, I posted my, "Somebody Hates You" blog the last time it happened. With my firewall, I can trace the point of origin for every attempted invasion. This one, like the last, came from South Korea, or, at least, it was relayed from South Korea. I've used this firewall for the entire time I've had this CPU, and it always lets me know when somebody's fucking with me. Don't get me wrong; I still have a backup hard drive. But I sleep better knowing that my firewall always has my back.

New Link: Life and Times of the Anasazi

I've added a new link that presents the information accumulated by my archeology professor, Dr. John Kantner. He is an authority on the subject of Southwestern archeology, specifically the Anasazi and the emergence of complex society. His work was recently featured on "Digging for the Truth", a show on the history channel that explores archeological mysteries. I'm not a student a Georgia State anymore, but when I was there, my degree concentration focused on archeology. And this guy was a great professor. He helped me out quite a bit by allowing me to work in the lab. He also recommended the field project that I participated in this past June. For these reasons, and the fact that he is just a great guy, I wanted to feature his research on my blog. What follows is a summary of his work in his own words. His site goes into much more detial, so take a few minutes to check it out. It's really interesting stuff.

"My research is broadly focused on how cooperative and competitive behaviors stimulate increased sociopolitical complexity, in the present as well as in the past. This research is informed by evolutionary theory and human behavioral ecology, which looks at the process of individual decision-making within a group context. My efforts to generally apply this theoretical perspective to understanding human behavior follow several different avenues: human behavioral ecology, Chaco Anasazi, regional analysis, ceramic analysis, and community analysis."

Some Anthropological Humor

Click on it to enlarge it for reading.

One of Paige's Paintings

Today I figured I'd post one of my wife's paintings. She's a much better artist. I'm never sure what she thinks about when she paints, but you can guess her state of mind in some of them. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing some of her work.

Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci was a prominent political figure in Italy during the early 20th century. He was a member of the Italian Socialist Party, became the General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party, and became Deputy (MP) of one of the Rome constituencies. This final position led to his imprisonment by Mussolini in 1926. While imprisoned, Gramsci penned over 2500 pages on the topics of politics, history, philosophy, literature, culture, etc. Through writing, he sought to advance Marxist theories. He did not just want to explain the existing order of things. He wanted to confront, criticize, and transform it into a new power structure for those dominated by others.
He believed theoretical and practical questions of culture to be extremely important to politics, stating that diverse forms of culture are never separated from politics. Politics is bound up w/ questions of leadership, hegemony. All information in his works revolves around this concept. Hegemony is the basis for the ways he approached his questions. With hegemony, Gramsci makes three challenges:
1. To liberal idealists who believe culture is a-political
2. To fellow Marxists who reduced culture to a reflection of the economic base.
(vulgar materialism of economism)
3. To existing States to transform into an expansive, democratic government of intellectual and moral leadership.
In his approach, a crucial link exists between culture and politics. To study culture, it must be broken down into its diverse forms and analyzed in terms of effectiveness. He rejected the concept of class domination. He supported a concept coupling force and consent (coercion plus hegemony). He was primarily concerned with the way complex series of cultural, political, and ideological practices cement a society into a relative, but incomplete, unity. He interrogated a wide range of cultural forms and marked out the historical and political sites of their interaction and formation.

Culture:

In his younger years, Gramsci developed the idea that we must stop viewing culture as encyclopedic, full of empirical data to be absorbed. This belief creates maladjusted people with false senses of superiority over those not privy to the information they’ve gathered. He said that this is not culture, but pedantry (insistent adherence to formal rules and literal meaning). Gramsci believed culture was organization and discipline of the inner self. Culture is the attainment of higher awareness, which enables the understanding of one’s own historical value and function in life. Through intelligent reflection, people can begin to question their dependence on existing structures. The ultimate aim is to know oneself better through others and know others better through oneself.
Twenty years later, he stated his interest in studying the forms of cultural organization the keep the ideological structures of a particular country in movement (churches, schools, media, doctors, lawyers, etc.). He also sought to find the number of people employed by these organizations relative to the entire population of the country. By doing these things, he could begin to deduce the cultural aspect of collective activities (degree of ideological influence). This is important because historical acts are created collectively through multiple wills, with similar aims, forming into the basis of a common perception. This helps discover what builds the attainment of a single cultural climate.

Hegemony: (supremacy of a social group)

1. Manifests itself as domination and intellectual and moral leadership.
2. Dominates antagonistic groups.
3. Leads allies
4. Must exercise leadership before attaining power
5. Must continue to lead

Political hegemony must exist and be continued because you cannot count on the power and force alone to insure the ability to exercise hegemony. The nature of hegemony is ethical-political in that interests and tendencies of the dominated group must be considered, aiding construction of compromise equilibrium. This equilibrium addresses another characteristic of the nature of hegemony; it must be economic. The hegemony must make economic sacrifices to appease the dominated, but not so much as to effect the essential characteristics of that particular economy. Hegemony must also understand the relation of political forces as they have manifested themselves historically, revealing the evolution of hegemony.
First, members of professional groups are conscious of the necessity of organization and homogeneity among themselves and others in the same trade. Next, a unification of economic interests among all members of a social class occurs. Upon realization that their interests transcend economic class, they understand that they must include the interests of other subordinate groups (this is purely political). These ideologies conflict until one prevails and propagates throughout society. Once formed, organizational structures (the STATE) facilitate this ideological unification by forming forces between the dominant and dominated in which the interests of the dominant prevail without exploitation of the dominated. This “relative equilibrium” comes into question during times of “crisis of authority”. Hegemony then becomes coercive, not leading, leading to its downfall.

Ideology:

Gramsci stated that ideas are material forces. To him, Ideology is the general term for the way sets of ideas become dominant material forces in society. This is not spontaneous. It occurs through forms of schooling, relative maturity of the language, and the nature of dominant groups. To realize this, philosophy must be dispelled as difficult. All people are philosophers and define their philosophy through these structures. Gramsci believes we all belong to a group that encompasses these social elements, which share the same mode of thinking and acting. We are all conformists; we are always functioning collectively. Therefore, we must find the type of conformism our society belongs to. Our personalities are composite, consisting of Stone Age elements, principles of advanced science, and the total of past prejudices and intuitions of a future philosophy uniting humanity. These realizations are essential to grasping the ideology of a culture.
The construction of ideology has three dimensions, which link elites with people: language, common sense, and folklore. If someone speaks and understands the language incompletely the person will have views restricted to immediate and self-interested concerns. Also, every philosophical current leaves behind a residue of common sense, which evidence of its historical effectiveness. This relationship is assured by politics. Common sense is constantly transforming. It is the generic form of thought common to a particular period and a particular popular environment. These thoughts form the basis of a society’s religion, or folklore.
As ideology dominates, it is also resisted by actions of subordinate groups. This is a direct result of the fact that every person can be considered a philosopher. Anyone can form new concepts that threaten the established power structure. Therefore, the main problem for hegemony is to preserve the ideological unity of the social bloc, which the ideology serves to unify.
Here, Gramsci says that ideology is not just a question of political beliefs. It is the material force that organizes human masses and creates an internal psychological concept in which consciousness is structured.

Intellectuals:

Ideological structures of dominant groups are supported by various functionaries that support the structures, intellectuals. Every social group creates the intellectuals who give it homogeneity and an awareness of its own function. But every social group also emerges out of preceding economic structures with previously established intellectuals that are uninterrupted by changes in political and social forms. Therefore, no social group has its own isolated group of intellectuals. This allows diffusion of ideas and formation of collective thought that permeates all levels of society. This reveals that intellectualism is a function in relation to the general social structure of society. The importance of intellectuals lies in the idea that they are the dominant group’s deputies in exercising the functions of social hegemony and political government through both civil and political societies: Spontaneous consent and coercive power.

The State:

Gramsci defines the state as the entire complex of practical and theoretical activities with which the ruling class not only justifies and maintains its dominance, but manages to win the active consent of those over whom it rules. The function of state can be found in the will to conform. The state exists in two realms: civil and political societies. Civil is the realm of consent. Political is the realm of coercion, force, and intervention. The concept of state is though of as a political society used to control the masses in conformity with a given type of production and economy. Gramsci believed the state was the hegemony of one social group over an entire nation that is exercised through ideological structures (church, schools, etc.). The state should be understood not only as the apparatus of government, but also the private apparatus of hegemony or civil society.
At the formation of a state, centralization was minimal. The state was mechanical bloc of social groups within the political and military domain of a dominant group. But these groups had a life of their own. In modern states, social groups become subordinate to the active hegemony of the dominant group. Autonomy is broken through coercion as the State becomes centralized, and the entire national life is put in the hands of the dominant group.

Let me know if you have any questions about the above summary. I will do my best to elaborate. Also, check out amazon.com and ebay.com for more Gramsci readings.

Another short, short story

All of my stories have the same problem exhibited here. The problem is point of view. I am trying to give my works a more intimate perspective. That's why nothing more substantial has been presented. Hopefully, I will find the ambition to revise my longer stories to resolve this issue. Until then:

He was running the vacuum cleaner when the telephone rang. He wasn’t really cleaning as much as he was chasing the cat around. He hated cats. He especially despised looking after his neighbor’s cat. His neighbor was out of town at a medical convention. She was a gastrointestinal surgeon, and apparently there had been some breakthrough in sphinteroplasty procedure. She was expected home today, and he had fallen behind in his duties. He didn’t feel the paltry sum he would receive was worth too much devotion. As he chased the cat under bed, the answering machine picked up. He remained oblivious to anything but the tabby now diving into the closet.
Sweat dripped into his eye, so he shut off the vacuum. Wiping his brow with his forearm, he collapsed onto the bed, bouncing slightly. He turned his head to check the time on the clock by the French doors that led into the back yard. He then realized he would not finish in time. In fact, he was already late. There, outside the window, was his neighbor. One hand held her cell phone, and the other covered her mouth. He jumped off the bed and ran to open the door.

“Sorry,” he mouthed as he turned the knob.

“You..., you’re...”

“Naked. I know. You must think I’m crazy.”

“Well,” she began; “I can see your nuts.”

SIN CITY

The movie version of this classic comic has just been released on DVD. The film is based on three graphic novels written and illustrated by the incredible Frank Miller. As co-director, Miller took great pains to insure that the graphic images were accurately translated to the big screen. The above photos show the stunning results. If you haven't seen it, you gotta check it out. If you are a fan of the comic, you should be ashamed if you have not seen it already. The film, as well the graphic novels, are a gripping blend of pulp and noir unparalleled in cinema and print.

Quickie

Quote from Hamlet:

"There is more to this world than our philosophies.”

Serenity

This photo of my wife in Cathedral Grove at Muir Woods always calms me. We went there on our honeymoon in San Francisco, and when we arrived at around 8 in the morning, we were the only people there. We walked through without a single human disturbance other than the shuffling of our own feet. We spoke only in whispers as we trekked through the expanse of these magnificent redwoods. It was a serenity I've rarely experienced, and one I will not forget.

One Of My Paintings

This painting depicts my psychological and emotional states the last year or so I lived in Jacksonville, FL. It was painted on Halloween '00, about eight months before I moved to Tallacrappy; a year and a half before arriving in Atlanta.

This is an original short, short story. What do you think?

SIMILITUDE

He rolls over, putting one arm over her shoulder as he pushes his other under the pillow. Worming his body toward her, he slides his head from his pillow to hers until his lips press against the pocket of skin just behind her jawbone, where her neck and the back of her ear meet. A mild sigh escapes his lips, and the air passes over her sensitive skin, causing the hairs there to prickle. He draws closer, wrapping his arm around her, embracing her small frame into his broad shoulders. He pulls his hips toward hers, aligning their bodies.

“What are you doing?” She speaks, breaking the silence.

“I thought you were asleep.” He squeezes her tightly.

“How can I with that prod of yours poking me in the back.”

“I’m just tryin’ to show some love.”

“I know what you’re tryin’ to do.” She squirms, breaking his grip.

“Come on, now...” He’s interrupted as their tabby leaps onto the bed and pounces on his shoulder, purring violently and kneading biscuits into his arm. He shrugs the cat from his shoulder and rolls onto his back. The tenacious feline burrows under his chin, rubbing their faces together. “Go away, kitty.” He says, tossing the cat to the floor.

“Hey,” she begins. “Don’t do that. Be nice.”

“Well,” he raises himself up and rests against the headboard. “It’s annoying when the cat’s all over me. He only does it when he’s beggin’ for food. I hate that.”

This kid is hilarious!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the show is on MTV, but man, oh man, is it funny. I'll explain, for Jeremy. This kid makes several short films and gags on the public and puts them together for each 30 minute episode. For instance, last night I saw one where he was doing a sketch with jars of peanut butter and jelly. Jelly was telling peanut butter that he was her soul mate. A wimper comes from off camera; it's chunky peanut butter. He says jelly will never love him because he's fat. Andy suggests dancing lessons to make chunky peanut butter more attractive. He introduces chunky peanut butter to a dance instructor he knows, salsa. Salsa teaches chunky peanut butter to dance, and the two fall in love. The End. Yes, all the shorts are as mundane as this one, but there is something about the kid that cracks me up. No, I'm not high.

Michel Foucault

Another installment in my Anthropology series follows. Michel Foucault theorized on a multitude of issues. I only provide a basic summary of my theoretical readings. Comment if you would like some clarification. Better yet, go to Borders and pick up one of his books. You'll find him in the philosophy section.

Basically, Foucault believes you have to refuse analyses from the symbolic and structural. You must figure things in terms of genealogy of relations of force, strategic developments and tactics. Societies have relations of power, not meaning. History has no meaning, so there is no need for interpretation. Dialectic interpretation is evasion of the reality of conflict. (thesis-antithesis-synthesis) Semiology is evasion of the violent character of reality. (symbolic anthropology)
Power, in Foucault’s view, is posed in either juridical terms (sovereignty) or terms of state apparatus (Marxist view). Historically, people had only denounced mechanisms of power. The mechanics of power were never analyzed. Analysis of power has to begin on the basis of daily struggles of ordinary individuals (phenomenological). This is done through his genealogical approach. A scientist must historically contextualize the event. This can account for the formation of knowledge, discourse, and other things without reference to the transcendence of the static.
There are many obstacles to this approach. History tends to be perceived ideologically, repressively, and economically. Ideology cannot be used without circumspection. It always stands in opposition to another aspect of truth. It refers to a particular order of a subject. And it stands as secondary to some aspect that functions as its infrastructure. Repression is inadequate in discovering the precise productive aspect of power. It’s only one, limiting aspect of power.
Foucault also has ideas about the concepts of sovereignty and state. He finds them synonymous. When evoking these terms, we speak of law. If power depends on the state apparatus, we perceive the laws as repressive. (police = punitive) In actuality, power extends beyond the state. The state apparatus itself operates on other power relations. (I’m too paranoid to hypothesize concretely) As for the dichotomy of state power vs. revolutions, revolutions are as diverse as power relations. Some even occur against a state but leave the actual power structure untouched.
Foucault’s ideas of surveillance are particularly interesting. Surveillance began as new technologies increased the ability of rulers to take census of the population in the 17th and 18th centuries. Rulers began to grasp the diversity within their domain and manipulated their laws to promote social production and service. To briefly summarize his concept called, “Panopticon,” the possibility of observation alters behavior. You think you are being watched, so you behave appropriately.

Foucault also discusses the politicization of the intellectual. He believes the relationships between evolutionist and socialist thought; and the ambiguous effects of evolutionism caused the “specialist” to rise as a political figure. (deposing the writer who encompassed many disciplines and related them in broad terms.) Also, Intellectuals are linked to the functioning of truth. He describes the political economy of truth as centered on a form of scientific discourse, subject to economic and political incitement, the object of diffusion and consumption, produced and transmitted under control of exclusive apparatuses, and the issue of debate and confrontation. He offers a couple propositions about truth. It is understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production and operation of statements. (truth produces definitive concepts). In addition, truth is linked circularly with systems of power. (it’s manipulated) Foucault also goes into the political problems of intellectuals. He says they shouldn’t just criticize or protect current truths, they should ascertain the ideas of forming new ones. Don’t attempt to alter people’s consciousness; transform the political, economic, and institutional regime of truth. Don’t attempt only to emancipate truth, but detach the power of truth from forms of hegemony. (social, economic, and cultural)

Primary source: Paul Erickson and Liam Murphy, editors. Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory. New York: Broadview Press. 2001.

My Lyrical Interpretation of Radiohead's "2+2=5"

Are you such a dreamer

to put the world to rights?

I'll stay home forever

where two and two always makes a five.

I'll lay down the tracks,

sandbag and lie.

January brings April showers,

and two and two always makes a five.

It's the devil's way now;

there is no way out.

You can scream, and you can shout.

It is too late now.

Because…you have not been

payin' attention

payin' attention

payin' attention

This is how I felt about the American public in the buildup to the war in Iraq. I felt the first words were meant for our President, who we know now was quite manipulative in gaining support for the invasion. The last half was meant for the American public, who took his word for it.

A Warm Up

What follows is a summary of the rise of the middle class in Sweden; the authors are mentioned below. "What does Sweden have to do with me?" you may ask. Our societies are quite similar. Read this, and it could be as if you were looking into your_own_reflection:

The Time Keepers

Frykman and Lofgren begin this section stating that time plays an important role in all cultures:
- Marks phases and rhythms of individuals and the collective.

- Creates stability.
- A society’s understanding of time reveals its cultural foundation.
- Alterations w/in this concept can signify changes w/in society.

In the 18th and 19th centuries:

As Swedish society began the transformation to an industrial economy, rifts developed due to differing concepts of time between the upper class and the peasants.
- Elites found the peasants to be lazy and irresponsible, not grasping time’s significance.
- Their more standardized concepts confronted the perceptions of the peasants.

How did the lower classes view time?

For them, time was cyclic. Their levels of production and work were inseparable from the conditions of nature.
- Sow oats when the beech leaves begin to sprout
- Mow hay when the arnica is in bloom.

The working year also received its structure from periods of rest and annual festivals, which were landmarks in the annual rhythm.

Upper classes:

Time was linear and could be broken down into components. (seconds, minutes, etc.)
They valued punctuality and efficient organization of time.

Time Becomes Money:

Time became a market commodity. New ideas of rational economic production and profitability led to splits among the peasant class.
- Development of industrial production during the 18th and 19th centuries put greater demands on workers and their organization.
- Working life became organized by the principle that a worker sells his labor (time), to the employer, who buys it.
- Success depends on the efficient use of the workers’ time.
- Increased production demands led farmers to view labor as a resource demanding management.
- Industrial capitalism transformed some peasants into small businessmen, negotiating exchange between farmers and consumers.

Disciplining Time:

During this transition, factory administrators and farm owners remained dissatisfied with the peasant’s concept of time. The lower classes were reluctant to adjust to linear perceptions. A few solutions were developed:
- The gruel bell efficiently marked times of work and leisure on the farms, increasing production, efficiency, and profitability
- In the factories, the whistle performed a similar, but more specialized purpose.
- Regulations were developed to organize factory life into a precise schedule.
- Violations resulted in fines.

These trends further distinguished the boundaries between work and leisure, and the control of time became a symbol of power in the workplace.

Bourgeoisie View:

Virtues of punctuality and efficiency were highly regarded as evidence of one’s worth. This view was employed by the middle class to justify their perceived entitlement to lead the old nobility and the mass of peasants.

Time becomes geared toward the future:

- In education, “evolutive” time developed. Foucault describes this as the chronological linking of educational elements in direction of a fixed goal, the career.
- Mentalities of upward mobility and accumulation were all geared toward future expansion.

- Life was a career ladder to be climbed.

- Working classes were not expected to be career minded. There was no upward mobility. Their lives progressed in predictable steps.

Built-in-clocks:

Times was to become clear and visible.
- Clocks were found in public places as well as all areas of the bourgeois home.There was constant awareness of time’s passage

The Tyranny of Time:

In modern settings, time can be seen as an object with life of its own. It prevents a person from doing the things they want to do. Work and leisure are defined by the concept of time.
- Blue-collar workers felt controlled by time as it defined so many aspects of their lives.
- White-collar workers felt they had time under control because of their efficient means of time management. (planning calendars)
- This perception was merely symbolic. As the white-collar worker utilizes the calendar to organize time, the person does not notice the way their lives become shaped by the calendar, actually limiting their future activities.

Interest to me:

Foucault’s concept of “gaze”. In the Swedish system, it is the lower class under scrutiny, and they are the ones subject to the power structure maintained by the middle class, their bosses. In this system, I believe the clock represents a structure of power similar to the “panopticon”.

A look into the future...

...all the way to August. I'm going to expand the site to include my anthropological thoughts. I may upload term papers, quotes, presentations, article summaries, and/or theoretical ramblings. I will not be holding back since no one will read them, other than Jeremy. And he knows me well enough to take these things "with a grain of salt." Where does that come from, anyway "grain of salt"? It's gotta be old; I've heard it my whole life.

Peace to the oblivion.

A Point to Ponder