tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post910275638076670720..comments2024-02-12T23:25:09.583-08:00Comments on Overweening Generalist: On the Connecticut school shootingmichaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-20686265546994540982012-12-19T02:33:28.385-08:002012-12-19T02:33:28.385-08:00@Anonymous: sorry man: Blogger catches anyone &quo...@Anonymous: sorry man: Blogger catches anyone "Anonymous" as spam, so I had to go in and unhook your post.<br /><br />Glad you brought up HSBC. In case anyone missed this little gem: That bank got caught laundering drug money from the most violent Mexican drug cartels, Iran, and al-Qaeda...and no one does any prison time! They're like states unto themselves, literally too big to jail, which is so fucked up it's hard for me to comprehend the ramifications. A $1.92billion fine adds up to about two week's worth of what they "make"? <br /><br />But I don't see it as a media conspiracy. Hell, if the public wanted to get all riled up over banks, this is what? The 900th sick-assed story about how bankers get away with everything? No: people can understand the slaughter of innocent children. They get that. It resonates. And makes for great ratings!<br /><br />You nail the insanity of killing innocent brown kids making the guy a hero. And you also nail the inability or unwillingness to see how our laws and assumptions seem to cause more harm than they're worth. You could be screaming in the wilderness, but I'd rather you posted in places like this spot. <br /><br />Thanks for adding to the value of the blog with your comments!michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-28071308418632788192012-12-19T02:22:12.213-08:002012-12-19T02:22:12.213-08:00@Andrew Crashaw: I'm basically with you regard...@Andrew Crashaw: I'm basically with you regarding anarchism and corporations. Susan Faludi's book - Stiffed - surprised me, because she was becoming a big-time feminist academic star, and then she wrote a book that I thought was so stark, staringly sane: the economic system, as it has mutated, harms both women AND men. <br /><br />I tend to think the gun laws should be the main point of emphasis after this latest incident - and I hope a straw/camel/back one, at that - but I appreciate anyone who seeks the etiology, without demonizing an entire class. <br /><br />When I wrote about NAFTA/neoliberal economics, I do think its effects inform the general meanness and willful ignorance that seems so rampant. But it's far removed from why that bright sociopathic young guy slaughtered the kids. <br /><br />I'm always interested in that which goes unsaid, that which seems buried or occluded. Thanks to all commentors on The OG who venture that way.<br /><br />Andrew: the gender politics issue seems quite complex, and I see how Power would try to influence how "Men" are viewed, as well as women. But I think more of "reality" is made by humans communicating with each other, outside of the mainstream media, while still being influenced by it. Whatever masculinity "is," however it can be defined, I think it shines through for biological reasons, and people can influence each other in saner, healthier interpretations of what it means to be "male." <br /><br />It won't happen over night. And I think we will always have a small percentage of violent men, age 15-35 with us. It would be a good idea to make it very difficult for them to get hold of military rifles, in my opinion. Australia did it: they had a mass shooting on the avg of once a year, then some guy mowed down 35 people one day a few years back, the public pressured the gvt, and in 12 days they banned assault rifles, and the incidence of crazed shootings has dwindled to almost zero. And they still watch violent Hollywood films and watch violent vide games in Oz. It can be done. michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-17812033215272145392012-12-19T02:02:24.904-08:002012-12-19T02:02:24.904-08:00@Bobby Campbell:
>But how much of it that we p...@Bobby Campbell:<br /><br />>But how much of it that we perceive actually resides in self/other/both/neither remains ultimately indeterminate.<<br /><br />I couldn't have said it better, although I wish I could've.<br /><br />But thanks for making the emotional plague connexion with guns. I think we have something there, but the public isn't ready for it yet, is it?<br />michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-83352011704689911452012-12-18T20:14:11.953-08:002012-12-18T20:14:11.953-08:00This whole tragedy smacks of the all
Monica all th...<br />This whole tragedy smacks of the all<br />Monica all the time media focus.<br />Meanwhile HSBC is off the hook for<br />truly horrible crimes and the focus<br />isn't on the perpetrator and why he<br />was apparently totally failed by the<br />society he lived in.<br />We have some guns to hang, that'll<br />make sure the next nut who wants to<br />kill his mother and her students will have to play Lizzie Borden.<br /><br />As a thought experiment, turn back<br />the clock, remove the guns from the<br />situation and look at what is left.<br />It's too late to save the victims<br />but maybe if we cure the disease<br />instead of plastering over the symptoms with more unwise and<br />knee jerk laws we could all live<br />in a better and safer world.<br /><br />Of course Prohibition and the War<br />on Drugs were so successful we should try it again with a new<br />evil thing. The Sullivan Act has<br />been in effect banning "Assault<br />rifles" since 1934, but media<br />idiots have re-written the popular<br />image to obscure that fact.<br /><br />The true Hel of this incident is<br />if he wanted to kill innocent kids<br />all he had to do is go to a recruiter and he could have done it<br />and been called a hero and wore a<br />few medals for it.<br /><br />Now the same nation who routinely<br />sends young men to murder brown<br />children is all upset because it<br />happened here.<br /><br />And both of these things are so wrong they cannot be explained away<br />with any rationality.<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-75724371961079309372012-12-18T17:34:38.252-08:002012-12-18T17:34:38.252-08:00It is interesting that you mention the neo-liberal...It is interesting that you mention the neo-liberal agenda for disempowering men by taking business overseas. There is an intersting book "stiffed, the bertrayal of the modern man" (i read the first chapter and the last chapter, simply becasue I was doing an essay on feminism and lifestyle politics), it argues w that western economics, as it is practiced, has disenfranchised both men and women by co-opting certrain forms of feminist and rhetoric and "popular" male "laddish" views of women. (n.b I am not talking about feminism qua feminism), a lot of feminists still think that everything is partriarchel, but actuuly business at is practiced might have borrowed things from patriarchal discourse, but I tend to think that it has mutated into something completely different, and bassically plays on the gender politics we have these days. I think the increase in concentration on men as mass-murderers, rapists criminals etc and that the only good men in the media now, are law-enforcement (even if they are "toughguys" lie to me etc) or Entrepeneurs, speaks volumes to how men are seen if they are not in the narrow roles which are declared as "legitimate", I think geekery is one of the roles that has taken precedence recently. I think this does increase male alientaion and apathy, though its only one factor in many that lead to these kind of things, not everything is dispositional. <br /><br />The rhetoric that is under the surface (though I might be wrong) given is that men are naturally rapists murderes, criminals, rubbish with social skills (unless they have a "gift") etc and only by the might of the state bringing in stricter laws can these be overcome, conversly anarchists see the state as the main cause of these kinds of problems. I tend to side with the anarchists, though with an eye to corporations.<br /><br />one of the biggest papers in england "the Independent" gave nearly an entire issue over to the discussion of this incident. and came to the conclusion that it was mainly to do with the gun laws, and although I think that this has to be discussed and is important it is clearly not the main problem, though prevention is one of the ways to go about solving it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-91470196102444329932012-12-18T15:10:16.668-08:002012-12-18T15:10:16.668-08:00Emotional plague, eh?
The thing behind the things...Emotional plague, eh?<br /><br />The thing behind the things.<br /><br />But how much of it that we perceive actually resides in self/other/both/neither remains ultimately indeterminate.<br /><br />Good! That makes utilizing the final secret of the Illuminati all the more easier.<br /><br /><br /><br /> Bobby Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03809136879430277243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-41189384506613246412012-12-17T18:44:34.616-08:002012-12-17T18:44:34.616-08:00The Hakim Bey/PLW problem reminds me of the omnipr...The Hakim Bey/PLW problem reminds me of the omnipresent problem of separating the work from the personality and politics of the Artist. Can we read Being and Time and have our minds blown by all those wild ideas, while knowing Heidegger wore full-on Nazi regalia while lecturing, ending class with the Heil Hitler salute? What about Ted Nugent's music? What about Pound's poetry? On and on. We just have to face the facts and negotiate with ourselves. <br /><br />A funny idea floating out there: most of these high-profile mass shootings are by white males, so let's PROFILE them!<br /><br />While I know there are gun owners of high emotional intelligence, I confess I tend to see the NRA and gun culture in general as some of the worst of the mass of Not-Rich.<br /><br />But why are they so afraid? Lanza's mom had those guns registered to here, and now the story is she had fallen under the survivalist narrative. Even in Connecticut!<br /><br />I think there's a problem with - this gets to paideuma, the semantic unconscious - less-than-helpful assumptions about male identity and masculinity, but I do think a large part of the material underpinning of this has to do with not understanding economics, politics, and class warfare. When daddy suddenly couldn't find work because of the neoliberal "free trade" agreements that sent his job to China/Mexico/India/wherever, daddy suddenly felt less a man. Mom brings home the bacon? Why did this happen? Well, turn on the radio. Rush Limbaugh got big right around the time NAFTA went through. A coincidence? I never thought so. michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-37174037923521487622012-12-15T14:05:10.081-08:002012-12-15T14:05:10.081-08:00Yes, sadly yes, to all of that.
A few years ago I...Yes, sadly yes, to all of that.<br /><br />A few years ago I stayed up late updating one of my websites, and I put up an image link to RAW's "Guns and Dope Party" as the last thing I did before going to bed.<br /><br />I woke up to news of the VA Tech shooter, and w/ my late night handy work still up on my computer, I had to wonder if I actually agreed w/ it. <br /><br />I didn't and I don't.<br /><br />I had a similar experience upon learning the open secret that Hakim Bey allegedly has leanings toward pedophilia. What do you suppose goes on in temporary autonomous zones then?<br /><br />Y'know that scene in 'Wilhem Reich in Hell' when our man yells "That's not what I meant!" to the tune of the world turned upside down?<br /><br />What does an anarchist do when the idealism of it turns out to function as an intellectually lazy dodge out of the fray of the horror of the situation?<br /><br />Design solutions, I guess...<br /><br />After Aurora I floated the idea of a baby step that I thought no one could object to: Mental health screenings for purchase of automatic weapons. It got objected to on the basis that this seemed like a "pre-crime" methodology. (by a sometimes reader of this blog)<br /><br />After several more shootings I wonder if it still seems that way to our 2nd amendment friends? Or if it might work to start erring some on the other side of the equation?<br /><br />*I tend towards e-prime when in disagreement w/ folks, if some of those sentences clunked a bit!Bobby Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03809136879430277243noreply@blogger.com