December 2008
8 posts
Categories Of All Known Animals
Those that belong to the Emperor;
Embalmed ones;
Those that are trained;
Suckling pigs;
Mermaids;
Fabulous ones;
Stray dogs;
Those that are included in this classification;
Those that tremble as if they were mad;
Innumerable ones;
Those drawn with a very fine camel’s-hair brush;
Those that have just broken the flower vase;
Those that from a distance resemble flies.
from the...
Bathroom Preacher
A conversation started in the downstairs Concordia men’s room between myself and a neatly dressed man. We were washing out hands, and he commented on the weather. We had a few laughs, and then as I was about to leave, he leaned in, although he was about to tell me a secret:
“Everything you are learning here, you already know.”
Myself, having an interest in a similar position...
ChangeThis collection of .pdf files →
Adapting to shifting paradigms; new and important ideas for networked societies. I came accross this collection while searching for Chris Andersons (Editor-in-Chief of Wired) article on the ‘long tail’ business model, an essential read for any entrepreneur.
Politic / Police [Foucault]
I’d like to take this opportunity to write about the expanding role of the police in relation to the emergence of the modern state. I think it’s interesting that ‘police’ and ‘politics’ share a common root, “polis.” I suppose this isn’t surprising, since they both pertain to the administration of a city. But apparently, and perhaps surprising, the institution of the police, as...
Origin and Destination [Foucault]
I’ve often wondered what separated certain great thinkers from the academic disciplines of which they came. I’m thinking specifically of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Heidegger, although I suppose there are many more. I’m curious over what causes a break from tradition, and how a new framework for philosophy comes to be. It seems an incredible feat – and unfortunate, for such...
Concern of the Self as a Practice of Freedom...
In my adolescence, I had a dislike for popular culture. The ideals represented in its imagery did not correspond to my experience, and I felt insulted that my experience was expected to be something so altogether difference. I developed a cynicism towards society, and was hard pressed to find its merit. Perhaps it simply evaded me while I grew up in the suburbs of Vancouver. If someone had...
Rendered Rational [Foucault]
I’d like to take a moment to speculate on neoliberalism vis-a-vis Foucault. Biopower can be understood as the force of government to affect the population as a whole. Biopolitics is administration at the level of population. The governing of individuals as the level of population emerged from a liberal rationale in the eighteenth century.
Liberalism is an ideology, but moreover, Foucault...
Mediating the Public Sphere: Habermas and Net...
“If it is to be truly relevant to our world today, the theory of the public sphere must not content itself with being a theory of communication: it must also become a theory of mediation.”
In a 1963 dictionary article, Habermas described the public sphere as “a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed .” The idea was that citizens could gather as equals...