I feel I just lamented how Columbia handled the free speech issue when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke there last week, when I read about Ayaan Hirisi Ali in today’s NY Times. She was a former member of the Dutch Parliament who left there and fled the Netherlands due to the credible death threats she received from Islamic extremists when she became critical of Islam. Hmm, this seems so unfortunate given the credibility the president of Iraq has been trying to gain by speaking at Ivy League USA about how the West has his country and people all wrong.

Granted, I do not know if their is a connection between Ayaan’s threats and Iran, but it seems to me that free speech should be done from and on both perspectives as a promotion of credibility. Then again, credibility seems somewhat subjective, doesn’t it?

I wish I could have seen Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinajad at one of my Alma Maters last week, Columbia. President Bollinger introduced him, but in a way harsher than I thought fair for A. A world leader, B. An invited guest, and C. A controversial speaker who may have alienated himself from the audience but after such a straw-man set-up, looked pretty decent in comparison. Free speech is the very reason I blog here, and I think that the president’s confrontational introduction of the other president helped to reinforce the very self-righteousness that the Iranians commonly accuse Americans. Forget about some of the strange (and incorrect) claims that the Iranian president offered (can there really have not been a Jewish Holocaust in the 20th Century, or can there really not be a single homosexual in Iran right now?), I am just thinking here about the freedom of speech and the politeness that should be shown to an invited guest and (like him or not) a world leader who may have nuclear weapons.You be the judge:

I read this story on CNN and it really made me pause and think about how vast the world of possible terrorist targets really is. In a nutshell:

Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the federal government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned.

I suppose it is better to learn this in a test so we know what our vulnerabilities are. Suffice it to say, that I wonder the value of knowing the vulnerabilities if there are neither plans nor funding to fix them?

I read this article in CNN yesterday about six nuns who were excommunicated, which in Catholicism means they are no longer able to officially receive the sacraments and have been declared to be so far outside of Catholic teachings and beliefs that they have separated themselves from the faith (even though the process of excommunication means the Vatican or church officials formally throw them out). 

Ready to read about nuns who run guns to fight against oppressive regimes or nuns who lie down in front of meetings of bishops to confront them about the inability of women to be ordained, I was not ready to read about nuns who believe Mary, the mother of Jesus, speaks through one of them (and may in fact be Mary’s reincarnation).

Ahh, the wonders of organized religion never cease. This is a breadth of fresh air compaired to homosexuality, abortion, masturbation, divorce, and other Catholic no-no’s.

Amazing how fast time moves, even when we are not having fun. I realized I have not posted here for several days, not because I have been traveling or away, but because time just seems to fly by. Really fast.

It feels like yesterday I attended Simon and Cornel’s discussion, and while I brought my laptop with me to the event and liveblogged it, I could not connect to the wireless network so still have the entries in my laptop. It will be forthcoming.

I have a lot to talk and write and post about, and now I have to turn my attention to carving out the time to do it.

He said it is so rare for him to engage in dialogue, where somebody in the academy has a good tempure. Simon is a white, blues brother.

“What I bring to this dialogue is my baggage.” This is like a blues man in the life of the mind. Blues is catasrophe in the mind. Horrendous.

Wow, Cornel is engaging. The vocal changes. Preacher-esque. Very many references to literature. Kafka.

Little of philosophy of death in philosophy.

COurage to htink for oneself. We would rather evade this, and keep and domesticate the catastrophic. This is how we motivate ourselves in the light of our desires.  

I am having trouble typing, as he is melodioiusly carrying me through his message. But, his message is strong.

He comes from a history of African people who restle with social death, and the psychic death that comes from white fear and hatred, and the real jim Crow death, and spiritual death of nihilism. Blues and Jazz men and women use their craft

Think of the corpses of John Donne, as they wait for us.

He said that Simon is a metathinker, interested in metaphilosophy. What is philosophy. What is the role of philosophy. What is politics?

Failed transcendence. Obsessed with the german idealistic school. Wrestling with a pessimism. There is something positive about the quest, but there will never be closure.

“My brother, Simon.” Interesting refrain he keeps making.

Little about the enslavement of workers. Capitalism is so powerful that workers did not begin to organize until 100 years after Argentina, which is hardly known as being a steller example of social justice.

Cornel is like CHekhov, he does not have a Romantic trace, in him at all.

When dealing with the catastrophic in the everyday life, it is like a tragic comic, a steady ache of the tragic in our lives. Simon begins with a Romantic, and ends with disappointment. Cornel did not start as a ROmantic. From the very beginning, he does not have disappintment, as he never expected anything.

So, does philosophy begin with disappointment? It does if it begins with Romanticism. Think about the disappointment of Beckett, try again and fail again and try better.

Cornel is full of righteous indignation. He is here to help to promote Simon’s new book (which is why this is sponsored or at least has the presence of Verso books).

Get out of one’s narcissistic ego, and then move on. Self love is empowering and liberating. Marvin said Jesus is love. James Baldwin. Morrison and Beloved. None of them is an Americanized love, which is Holleywood, Romantic love. Thus, African American relate to the love of the Hebrews in the Old Testament. This love helps keep America alive, where American terrorism has 400 years of history for American blacks. 9/11 has a long history with Americans of African descent.

The role of what philosophy can contribute. He would join the army to fight the Nazis, but not sure about if he would join the early Americans at the time of the Revolution, as that would be hypocritical for African Americans. He hates imperialism.

He is a deep Democrat, which means he can pull from a number of traditions in order to understand it.

Really engaging, pulling references almost out of a hat, or rather a deep well of experience and education and reading and feeling. Not Romantic, of course. Can’t leave the two parties, as these are the only places to bring change. Find some nooks and crannies to find a home in them.

It is impossible to tell the story of white supremacy without getting crushed.

Keep fighting for deep Democarcy.

He finished. What a past 70 minutes between the two of them.

Time to turn off and stand up.

So, here I am again, liveblogging another academic event. This event begins at 8:00, and I arrived at 7:35 to find not a single seat. Thus, I am sitting on the floor in the back of the Theresa Lang Community & Student Center at the New School in New York City. The fire sign above my head states that the room has a capacity of 200 people. Given the fact that there are people sitting in every seat and on the floor in all the aisles and in front of the emergency exits, let’s hope there will not be an emergency situation.

Clapping, so it must be them. Too bad I am in the back on the floor and cannot see them at all.

Cornel West (Princeton) and Simon Critchley (New School) will speak on Thursday night on the topic of  “The Meaning of Ethical Commitment and the Possibility of Political Resistance” at the New School for Social Research. According to their website:

The program will be held on Thursday, Sept 20, at 8:00 p.m. in the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor. Admission is free, and no reservations required. Seating is first-come first-served. For more information call 212.807.9680

This promises to be an engaging evening, and I am really looking forward to it! I have heard Cornel West speak (though never in person), and I know Simon Critchley has a reputation as being an engaging speaker and professor as well.  I often do not make time to attend cultural events such as this one; always working or studying instead. However, this is one of the reasons I live in New York–the culture, educational opportunities, and energy that comes from so many things happening all the time that work to expand horizons. 

Technorati Tags: Cornel West, Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research

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The newest book in Bill Irwin’s The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, Family Guy and Philosophy just came out (the link is to my Amazon Store that helps in a very minor way to pay for this blog’s expenses). Too bad Amazon does not have the image for this book yet. It is partly thanks to this book that a wider audience gets exposed to philosophy at all. Philosophy as a discipline has gotten (perhaps even promoted?) the reputation that it writes for and speaks to only itself. While this is far from its roots in the Greeks, much of the philosophy in the English-speaking world has become more and more focused upon issues that do not have an immediate relevancy for ordinary people. Am I the only one who notices this and thinks that perhaps many in academia may be missing something here?

Technorati Tags: Family Guy, Bill Irwin