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Nov. 1st, 2011
The Protest
Nov. 1st, 2011 09:29 pmOn my way walking up Moorgate today my eyes became focused on a protest camp in Finsbury Square which is related to the similar anti-capitalist camp set up outside St. Paul’s. Being of the left wing persuasion I gave them a thumbs up, and took a couple of photos with my camera phone. Moorgate is so close to the central banking area of London.
It is a truism that rampant capitalism does not work, and it is a disgrace that the 99 % seem to be powerless against the voracious greedy immoral one per cent.
What the current protests lack though is the political hegemony and the will to change the status quo. It is early days yet, and such leadership could emerge if things get worse.
It is a truism that rampant capitalism does not work, and it is a disgrace that the 99 % seem to be powerless against the voracious greedy immoral one per cent.
What the current protests lack though is the political hegemony and the will to change the status quo. It is early days yet, and such leadership could emerge if things get worse.
I did peruse a few charity shops today after focussing on the events of the day. Picked up a couple of cheap books, plus a handy paperback, and one of them from one of my favourite writers.
Margaret Attwood “Moral Disorder” Bloomsbury)
Margaret Atwood has frequently been cited as one of the foremost writers of our time. Moral Disorder could be seen as a collection of eleven stories that is almost a novel or a novel broken up into eleven stories. It resembles a photograph album - a series of clearly observed moments that trace the course of a life, and the lives intertwined with it - those of parents, siblings, children, friends, enemies, teachers and even animals. And as in a photograph album, times change; every decade is here, from the 1930s through the 50s, 60s and 70s to the present day. The settings are equally varied: large cities, suburbs, farms, northern forests. The first story, 'The Bad News,' is set in the present, as a couple no longer young situate themselves in a larger world no longer safe. Then the narrative switches time, as the central character moves through childhood and adolescence, in 'The Art of Cooking and Serving', 'The Headless Horseman' and 'My Last Duchess'. We follow her into young adulthood in 'The Other Place', and then through a complex relationship, traced in four of the stories - 'Monopoly', 'Moral Disorder', 'White Horse' and 'The Entities'.The last two stories, 'The Labrador Fiasco' and 'The Boys at the Lab', deal with the heartbreaking old age of parents, but circle back to childhood again, to complete the cycle. By turns funny, moving, lyrical, incisive, tragic, earthy, shocking and deeply personal, Moral Disorder displays Atwood's celebrated storytelling gifts and inimitable style to their best advantage. As the New York Times has said, 'Atwood has complete access to her people's emotional histories, complete understanding of their hearts and imaginations.
Ever since “The Blind Assassin” and “The Handmaid's Tale” I have enjoyed her work.
Eldridge Cleaver “Soul On Ice” (Jonathan Cape)
This is what one reviewer from Amazon said -
In the bustling, revolutionary days of the sixties an angry young black man published Soul on Ice. His name was Eldridge Cleaver. Within the pieces among this collection of letters and essay Cleaver tells us that after returning to prison he took a long look at himself and wrote to save himself. But what was Cleaver saving himself from? Well perhaps the brutal ramifications of segregation and a state of false consciousness. Over 45 years later, does Soul on Ice have any relevance, especially to young black men? I would argue that it does but for the young it is a book that must be read with guidance and a critical mind that would prevent the reader from taking the book fully, without questioning its weaknesses.
The book is made up of letters and essays. The pieces are sometimes tender and loving, as in the letters to his solicitor with whom he falls in love, or brutally honest and outrageous. To put across his message about the conditions of black people in the sixties USA, Cleaver covers a range of topics such as: black consciousness, the Watts riots, soul food, the assassination of Malcolm X, Elizah Muhammed and the strife among black Muslins. However, the two most important and seminal essays for both black and white people are On Becoming and the Allegory of Black Eunuchs. The first deals with Cleaver's struggles to overcome his ambivalent feelings towards white people especially white women and the second dwells on the hopeless situation of the black male - effectively Cleaver sees black males as black eunuchs. In this essay relations between black and white males are driven by sexual politics.
One of the predominant themes that keep recurring in the book is the mind body distinction. It occurs in various guises: through issues to do with sexuality, psychology, sociologically, class structures and of course race. In other words, Cleaver appeared obsessed with the intellectual position of African Americans and appeared keen to dispel the myth that black people only succeed through the physical aspects of their being. He was highlighting a situation where whites believed they had a monopoly over the use of the intellect whilst black people could only show and use physical prowess. The message here that is relevant for today is that black people have to and must continue to dispel the stereotype that would say we can only deliver through our physical being.
An example of where a young black person reading Cleaver today must take an objective stance and see things for what they are, is where he links the fate of African Americans to the liberation of third world countries. Instead of liberation, some 45 years on where third world countries, especially in Africa, have made some economic progress they have largely done so by exploiting their people as cheap labour and oppressing their desires for democracy and freedom.
The book charts some of the significant events and disputes between black and white intellectuals of the time. Cleaver's analysis of black personalities in the role they played in placating white America is quite honest and insightful. He also had an interesting take on the political context in which boxers such as Floyd Patterson and Muhammed Ali performed. And leaving no stone unturned, in terms of the cultural events of the sixties, Cleaver turned his attention to disputes between Norman mailer and James Baldwin, and addresses Baldwin's attitude towards Richard Wright. In doing so Cleaver delivers some short but telling essays about some of the intellectual disputes of the time.
Anthony O'Heat “What Philosophy Is” (Penguin).
What sorts of things really exist in the world or out of it? What can we know about them and what do freedom and consciousness amount to? These are a few of the perennial problems of philosophy that have been examined and debated for thousands of years and are still confronted by philosophers today. This book provides an introduction to contemporary philosophy with discussions of the questions leading up to different concepts of ourselves and the world.
I am no on the last two chapters of “Stuart, A Life Backwards”. It has been a thrilling read.
Margaret Attwood “Moral Disorder” Bloomsbury)
Margaret Atwood has frequently been cited as one of the foremost writers of our time. Moral Disorder could be seen as a collection of eleven stories that is almost a novel or a novel broken up into eleven stories. It resembles a photograph album - a series of clearly observed moments that trace the course of a life, and the lives intertwined with it - those of parents, siblings, children, friends, enemies, teachers and even animals. And as in a photograph album, times change; every decade is here, from the 1930s through the 50s, 60s and 70s to the present day. The settings are equally varied: large cities, suburbs, farms, northern forests. The first story, 'The Bad News,' is set in the present, as a couple no longer young situate themselves in a larger world no longer safe. Then the narrative switches time, as the central character moves through childhood and adolescence, in 'The Art of Cooking and Serving', 'The Headless Horseman' and 'My Last Duchess'. We follow her into young adulthood in 'The Other Place', and then through a complex relationship, traced in four of the stories - 'Monopoly', 'Moral Disorder', 'White Horse' and 'The Entities'.The last two stories, 'The Labrador Fiasco' and 'The Boys at the Lab', deal with the heartbreaking old age of parents, but circle back to childhood again, to complete the cycle. By turns funny, moving, lyrical, incisive, tragic, earthy, shocking and deeply personal, Moral Disorder displays Atwood's celebrated storytelling gifts and inimitable style to their best advantage. As the New York Times has said, 'Atwood has complete access to her people's emotional histories, complete understanding of their hearts and imaginations.
Ever since “The Blind Assassin” and “The Handmaid's Tale” I have enjoyed her work.
Eldridge Cleaver “Soul On Ice” (Jonathan Cape)
This is what one reviewer from Amazon said -
In the bustling, revolutionary days of the sixties an angry young black man published Soul on Ice. His name was Eldridge Cleaver. Within the pieces among this collection of letters and essay Cleaver tells us that after returning to prison he took a long look at himself and wrote to save himself. But what was Cleaver saving himself from? Well perhaps the brutal ramifications of segregation and a state of false consciousness. Over 45 years later, does Soul on Ice have any relevance, especially to young black men? I would argue that it does but for the young it is a book that must be read with guidance and a critical mind that would prevent the reader from taking the book fully, without questioning its weaknesses.
The book is made up of letters and essays. The pieces are sometimes tender and loving, as in the letters to his solicitor with whom he falls in love, or brutally honest and outrageous. To put across his message about the conditions of black people in the sixties USA, Cleaver covers a range of topics such as: black consciousness, the Watts riots, soul food, the assassination of Malcolm X, Elizah Muhammed and the strife among black Muslins. However, the two most important and seminal essays for both black and white people are On Becoming and the Allegory of Black Eunuchs. The first deals with Cleaver's struggles to overcome his ambivalent feelings towards white people especially white women and the second dwells on the hopeless situation of the black male - effectively Cleaver sees black males as black eunuchs. In this essay relations between black and white males are driven by sexual politics.
One of the predominant themes that keep recurring in the book is the mind body distinction. It occurs in various guises: through issues to do with sexuality, psychology, sociologically, class structures and of course race. In other words, Cleaver appeared obsessed with the intellectual position of African Americans and appeared keen to dispel the myth that black people only succeed through the physical aspects of their being. He was highlighting a situation where whites believed they had a monopoly over the use of the intellect whilst black people could only show and use physical prowess. The message here that is relevant for today is that black people have to and must continue to dispel the stereotype that would say we can only deliver through our physical being.
An example of where a young black person reading Cleaver today must take an objective stance and see things for what they are, is where he links the fate of African Americans to the liberation of third world countries. Instead of liberation, some 45 years on where third world countries, especially in Africa, have made some economic progress they have largely done so by exploiting their people as cheap labour and oppressing their desires for democracy and freedom.
The book charts some of the significant events and disputes between black and white intellectuals of the time. Cleaver's analysis of black personalities in the role they played in placating white America is quite honest and insightful. He also had an interesting take on the political context in which boxers such as Floyd Patterson and Muhammed Ali performed. And leaving no stone unturned, in terms of the cultural events of the sixties, Cleaver turned his attention to disputes between Norman mailer and James Baldwin, and addresses Baldwin's attitude towards Richard Wright. In doing so Cleaver delivers some short but telling essays about some of the intellectual disputes of the time.
Anthony O'Heat “What Philosophy Is” (Penguin).
What sorts of things really exist in the world or out of it? What can we know about them and what do freedom and consciousness amount to? These are a few of the perennial problems of philosophy that have been examined and debated for thousands of years and are still confronted by philosophers today. This book provides an introduction to contemporary philosophy with discussions of the questions leading up to different concepts of ourselves and the world.
I am no on the last two chapters of “Stuart, A Life Backwards”. It has been a thrilling read.
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