Time's Fool

Judd: I have a friend who was in Desert Storm and he is adamant that we should not be providing the policing function that we are now. He saw first hand just how good we are at waging war and how difficult it is to provide the ongoing security function in a post war environment. It seems that if our military has a clear, definable objective, it functions very well. But when the objective gets muddled, as it does with security/policing of a populace, then it doesn't do so well. The increasing influence of Iraqi politics seems to be eroding our already limited ability to provide the policing/security functions. ------------ Jerry: The US military is now an occupation force in Iraq. The functions of an army of occupation are vastly different than the functions of an army of conquest. Consequently, both the structure and the organizational culture of the occupation units must be extremely different from the structure and organizational culture of the conquering units. To pretend that t...

Human beings interact with one another --inter-act. That is, when in the presence of another person, we are constantly responding to each other, to the words we speak, to the gestures we make, to the tone of each other's voice, to the clothes we wear, to the idea we each have of the other. Verbal communication, non-verbal communication, our ideas of our own social status and the status of the other person. . . . Each of these 'areas' includes a variety of symbols/signs/signals. Interaction between humans is mediated symbolically. We send each other signals and we respond to those signals. People in each other's presence --whether it is physical presence or presence mediated by text, or telephony, or TV or radio or film, or whatever-- are constantly engaged in a very subtle "dance" with each other. (The "realtime" media, of course, make possible more dynamic inter-action than the recorded media.) This is the dance of what sociologists call "s...

“Conventions: The Land Around Us” is a documentary film essay on the topic of cultural and political change. It takes as its particular subject matter the confrontations that took place between anti-war demonstrators and the US political establishment in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. While bringing to life the emotional and ideological dynamics of that historical moment, it also places it in the dual context of interactional analysis and the history of American Utopian movements. Poster; Description; Project Report.

The New York Times > Books > Mr. Natural's Creator Visits the World of Art : "After the discussion, Mr. Crumb quickly ducked out of the library, avoiding a throng of fans, and later joined Mr. Hughes for dinner, where they took a while to warm up to each other, but by the end were in a spirited discussion about Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, whom Mr. Hughes interviewed in the late 1970's. Mr. Hughes told about an exchange in which Speer said that architecture was certainly one way to unite a people, but that if the Nazis had had television, there would have been no stopping them. Mr. Crumb, finishing his plate of baked chicken, beamed. 'Oh, that's great,' he said. 'It's true.'"

I recently experienced a Vipassana meditation course, as taught by S.N.Goenka. The course included instruction and hour-long periods of practice for nearly all of a ten-day period. A major intermediate instruction is to attend to the sensations on the body surface. (First, for three days, only the upper lip area. Then, on the fourth day, slowly moving one's attention down the body from the scalp to the feet and up again.) The claim was made that a variety of sensations are constantly occurring on the body surface, sensations of which one's normal mind is unaware, and that persistently and patiently intending to attend to these sensations will result in an increasing awareness of such sensations. (. . . Will result in a modified mind capable of noticing them.NOTE) The experience consequent on following the instruction to attend for an extended period was that more sensations were noticed than had been the case previously. (Pains, itches, touches of cloth and of air movement, ...

Wolfram-first step Originally uploaded by Paul DeRougiez . I'm looking for the edge. For a good edge to think on. Big claim Wolfram makes here. I've begun to read his book online. We'll see where it takes me, if anywhere.

Levels of Consciousness Originally uploaded by Paul DeRougiez .