April 11, 2003

  • The World...


     


    The Iraqi populace reminds me of a wolf in spring that may exceedingly drepedate exploitable game but only after a prolonged winter of excruciating starvation.  Wolves, under normal conditions of sustenance, never take more game than they need.  But following a period of extensive deprivation, they will, in almost compensatory madness, engage in temporary over-predation.


     


    Like a pendulum swinging from one extreme (fascist lockdown) to another (unbridled liberty), the Iraqi populace now is looting their land.  Who can blame them?  Most of these people feel they are only taking back what has so long been taken and withheld from them.  If the Iraqi culture is basically amoral and corrupt, we can expect such looting to continue without self-regulation.  However, if the culture, like a wolf, is essentially a moral entity exaggeratingly shaking off the stranglehold of near mortal oppression, we can expect a rapid peak of aberrant behavior, followed by a restoral of norms and civil sensibilities. 


     


    Wolves are noble animals liable to seeming temporary destructive insanity only upon rebound from the starkest of circumstances.  I believe that we’ll find that the Iraqi people, too, are a noble people and that the immediate lawlessness there witnessed  will melt away with a freely-evolving vision of rebuilding upon a new day.


     


    The Blog...


     


    Forced to Xanga? Constrained to Blog?


     


    ...from a Univ. of Fla. writing course description:


     


    1. Online Journal (ongoing)
    You will be expected to update your online journal (on the website     http://www.xanga.com) 2-3 times each week as assigned (with a total of 15 journals by the end of the semester), and each entry should be approximately 200-250 words. The journals should serve as good practice in making your writing accessible. While I will be providing specific topics of discussion or will be assuming that your journal entries will serve as an extension of class discussion and reading, please remember that your journal entries will be accessible to anyone subscribed to the Xanga website. Writing your journals with this consideration-unintentional readers who seek to understand and connect with your writing-will serve as good practice in making your writing reader-friendly, cohesive, coherent, clear, and approachable.

    Though these journal entries will be printed in a broadly public (non-university-sponsored) forum, please remember that I will not tolerate any language in your journals that goes against the University of Florida's harassment policies. You are expected to treat your discussions of course material and class proceedings with dignity and respect. Any journals that revolve around anything outside of assigned topics or assigned readings will not be considered for credit under any circumstances. Any journals written under a "screen-name" aside from what I have designated in the first class will not, under any circumstances, count for any class credit.


     


    The Mind...


     


    Another version would have us acknowledge, in an era when reality TV shows are all the rage, that for many of us the ultra-reality of war is nigh-irresistibly fascinating.



    It's a scary impulse, but one that our media moguls surely recognize. As they compete to satisfy it we're immersed in what's lately been described as "militainment" — news coverage, particularly on the tube, that seems almost to revel in the suspense and excitement, and inevitably the violence and suffering, of combat.

    —Steve Ford, "So terrible we can't get enough," News Observer (Raleigh, NC), March 23, 2003


    Is it 'militainment' or 'milightenment' for you?

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