The opposite of killing

Happy Easter!

Son Lux

Son Lux - Break

The lyrics:

Where have all the wicked gone?
Is there no one left to break you down?
Where have all the holy gone?
Is there no one to condemn you?

Where have all the wicked gone?
Is there no one to condemn you?
Where have all the holy gone?
Is there no one left to break you down?

Which reminds me powerfully of John 8:10:

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”

This, of course, comes after the famous line: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." At which point the bloodthirsty, holier-than-thou mob gets very quiet and gradually disintegrates.

It turns out Son Lux has included other religious references in his lyrics. So I think the parallel was intentional.

It's things like this, and this, which always make me roll my eyes when people pontificate about how secular Western society has become (and how that's either great or terrible.) There may be less church-going and more airing of doubt, but the symbols and precepts are still out there in full force. If you're willing to keep your eyes and ears open.

My feelings on the political crisis in Canada

Let's break these feelings down into categories:

Stephen Harper's original political miscalculations = disgust
Stephen Harper's desperate maneuvering and smear campaign = disgust, contempt
Conservative Party's bizarre talking points = disgust, amusement, bewilderment
The possibility of Harper being thrown out of power = approval
The Coalition's overall economic & policy platform = approval
The Coalition's long-term stability = queasiness, doubt
Stephane Dion's leadership capabilities = queasiness, doubt
Jacques Parizeau's interjections = irritation
The prospect of a more representative democracy in Canada through coalitions or proportional representation = hopefulness
The spectacle of politicians viciously shanking each other while the economy crumbles = mild alarm!

And now, a funny panda.


more animals

Husk

"A person, female or male, young or old, is divested of all other qualities, intelligence, spirituality, a sense of humour, athleticism, compassion, talent, and reduced to an outward husk," Sarracino and Scott say in this book.

From a review of a new book, entitled "The Porning of America." The reviewer suggests other titles, such as "Porning in America," "Porn Again," or "High-Fructose Porn Syrup."

Anyways, I'm struck by that phrase, "reduced to an outward husk." I'm generally inclined against "spiritualizing" things, and in favour of valuing material existence: the imagery of physical resurrection as opposed to wafting off to heaven, the importance of giving platters of physical food to the literal poor as opposed to giving platitudes of spirituality to "the poor in spirit," and all that. But if there is a danger in reducing reality to some wispy "spiritual" non-thing, isn't there an equal but opposite danger in reducing reality (and people) to some crudely imagined, over-simplified notion of physicality? Even if we reject overused categories like "material" and "spiritual" or "natural" and "supernatural," we still have to strike a balance between inner and outer, or physicality and mentality, or reductive simplicity and emergent complexity, or... something. I'm not quite sure what I'm reaching for here... Just thinking out loud.

Canadrama

These are interesting times in Canadian politics. The minority Conservatives, after making much noise about peace and inter-party cooperation during the economic crisis, immediately returned to sniping against the other parties. And now the opposition has come out swinging.

Central to this is the fact that the Conservatives have not yet produced an "economic stimulus package" to help Canada stave off a recession. But that by itself might not have been enough of a provocation. Based on events now and events leading up to the election, I get the distinct impression that Harper is something of a political bully who tries to get in cheap shots at opponents who he thinks are not in a position to fight back. I also get the sense that he most frequently blunders by overreaching and micromanaging. He could get away with X, but then he has to get Y and Z too, and that's just too much. He thinks he's more powerful than he actually is. And it's this combination of provocation and overreach that brings the backlash that ends up hurting him. In this situation it's specific economic policies, along with the elimination of campaign subsidies, which all the smaller parties rely on. So they're prepared to put aside their differences, bring down the government, and replace it with a coalition.

You can get detailed analysis here (video), and here (text). The video is best in its last fifteen minutes or so, where you can get the Prime Minister's statement postponing the vote for an extra week, along with the analysis from various experts.

It's important for Canadians to think deeply about all this. In the next week we'll see a Conservative media blitz, trying to rally support and turn public opinion against the opposition parties. Personally I think the opposition parties' concerns are very real and that the Conservatives have only themselves to blame for being too complacent on the economy and too aggressive politically. (The fact that Harper is postponing the issue for a week indicates that he's belatedly realized his precarious position.) On the other hand, maybe this is not the best time for a transfer of power. Anyways, I think citizens should listen very carefully to ALL of the parties and then contact their MP to weigh in.

PS: Elizabeth May has a good blog post arguing in favour of the coalition. She cuts apart Harper's claim that this is some sort of coup d'etat. If his government does fall, he has only himself and his bully-boy tactics to blame.

PPS: Here we have Harper himself from a few years ago, talking about the importance of minority governments cooperating with the opposition, and putting forward the idea of a coalition government. How things change. Also Maclean's has the word-for-word talking points that the Conservatives are already putting out for their supporters to call into talk radio shows. But does anyone beside Conservatives ever listen to commercial talk radio?!

PPPS: Oh-ho! It seems that the Conservatives are backpedalling on the campaign finance issue, and possibly on the economic stimulus package too. We'll see if this stops the train wreck.

Rhymes for a Great Depression

So I discovered two great new Canadian rap acts lately. New to me, anyways; they've been around for awhile. And wouldn't you know it, they both have songs/music videos about being poor and trying to get by on very little.

This video's brilliant, too, if you've ever seen The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
The Old Prince Still Lives at Home

by Shad, aka Shad K the Old Prince, aka Shadrach Kabango. He's from London, Ontario.

You should also check out his I Don't Really Like To and Brother Watching. The first track I heard of his was Compromise, also awesome.

The second video is from a 'rap collective,' Sweatshop Union, and it's called Oh My:


They're from Vancouver. Their name is working-class and their lyrics are too!

Other Canadian rap artists worth checking out: k-os, K'Naan, and Grand Analog.

And in case you're wondering if the economy really is that bad, here's the latest analysis with Joe Nocera on the Bill Moyers Journal. The American economy just goes from one low to another, and the people in charge aren't helping much! Canada's doing better, but we'll feel some effects eventually.

Oh, and I thought this other Moyers show, from back in July, did a great job of explaining the sub-prime mess and showing the human cost too.

Walter Benjamin

I keep coming across references to Walter Benjamin, usually in history books. Most recently in Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms, but before that I encountered him in an X-Men comic, believe it or not. Nightcrawler, wearing his clerical gear and a holographic human face, sits in a diner talking theology and quoting Walter Benjamin to a soulless cloned assassin who's working as a cook... No, really! It's a great story.

Anyways, I just wanted to post this unrelated but iconic quote from Benjamin:

"A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress."