Democracy, Rhetoric and Performance: October 2004 Archives

Micheal shares this wisdom from a friend:

"In the previous 17 Presidential election cycles, if the Washington Reskins won their game the weekend before the election, the incumbent party won on Tuesday. If they lost, the incumbents lost. The Skins looked pretty awful on offense today, as they have all season, but suddenly went ahead with only about 2 minutes left. Except that they didn't; the refs called the play back with an extremely questionable penalty call and the Green Bay Packers pulled it out."

This could be interesting:

"here in seattle, we've organized a pretty interesting series of events that
will take place across the university of washington campus on the day before
the election (http://www.thedaybefore.org). what is interesting, to me at
least, is the diversity of supporters and the number of supporters (80 and
growing!). the idea is simple: there are 55,000 students, staff, and
faculty at UW and we think they should all vote. we expect some public
spectacles, so be sure to tune in on our web cam"

From David Silver of the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

This one really bothered me. Maybe cuz of Lisa's class and a resultant heightened awareness. First, there was forcing all the Hispanics in Atlanta to prove - for the second time - that they were U.S. citizens and therefore eligble to vote. Now comes this:

It occurs to me that I have never, ever, really paid attention to gender dynamics very much. Seems like such a het thing. I know I've been paid less than men for some work (asst. mgr. Taco Bell), but the same for other work (cable tv, interpreting, teaching)....and the discrimination that has affected me directly has always been a variant of homophobia. Anyway, I think I'm starting to see more of it around me, and wondering about what my historically subjective disengagement "means" in terms of contributions to its continuation...

I've been getting clearer about some of the academic impulses (indoctrination?) that I've been resisting. This, from Paul Claudel on Bourdieu's principle of aesthetic distance, sums it up:

"This typically intellectualist theory of artistic perception directly contradicts the experience of the art-lovers closest to the legitimate definition; acquisition of legitimate culture by insensible familiarization within the family circle tends to favour an enchanted experience of culture which implies forgetting the acquisition. The 'eye' is a product of history reproduced by education."

Stephen said something provocative last night about a realization he and Leda had come to about some tensions between their respective trainings....I've come to question most of what I learned in my formal social justice education training (I think it tended to paradoxically play into the reification of isms rather than their dissolution), yet I'm wary of more deeply-embedded biases that seem, from the non-domestic point-of-view, to characterize U.S. perceptions of how to solve/resolve questions of difference. For instance, Aihwa Ong, in the introduction to Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality, argues that

All I can say is I hope Bryan is wrong! Here's his prediction:

"... friends, you heard it here first. If you thought 2000 was divisive, you ain't seen nothin' yet.... I think when all is said and done we're going to have a tie of 269-269. I know that a while back I mentioned that several analysts had noted the possibility of a tie scenario (everything from 2000 stays the same with the exception of WV and NH). This is actually quite a bit different than that....

This is hilarious! Thanks Becky!

Florida election ballot.

Jon Stewart's excoriation of Crossfire hosts and the whole genre of so-called political talk shows continues to generate interest. I guess I might have to start watching him! (I confess, bad comm major that I am, that the first time I saw him was when Stephen was here for the last presidential debate.)

The Red Sox trump class....this IS democracy! Now, where will the action be watching the game tonight? I have to say, I'm not sure its a night I want to be out in public.

Jon Stewart takes on the hosts of Crossfire....charging "news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity."

Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America

~ thanks Sreela! via Leda. :-)

The Times endorsement of Kerry includes a withering critique of Bush. Finally!

I think the Times is now pitching for Kerry. They offer quite a critique on the Bush campaign's miscalculations in the first debate, comparing it with Nixon-Kennedy.

And then there's the long feature in the Sunday magazine, Kerry's Undeclared War:

"Kerry, a former prosecutor, was suggesting that the war, if one could call it that, was, if not winnable, then at least controllable. If mobsters could be chased into the back rooms of seedy clubs, then so, too, could terrorists be sent scurrying for their lives into remote caves where they wouldn't harm us. Bush had continually cast himself as the optimist in the race, asserting that he alone saw the liberating potential of American might, and yet his dark vision of unending war suddenly seemed far less hopeful than Kerry's notion that all of this horror -- planes flying into buildings, anxiety about suicide bombers and chemicals in the subway -- could somehow be made to recede until it was barely in our thoughts."

We actually had a very focused and serious discussion in DRP last week, reminiscent of a class with Briankle. ;-) However, Joanna was plagued by a fly for most of the session, Donna brough donuts - we agreed to save the only plain one for Bryan - who Stephen surmised did not have a crisis at work but either a) simply didn't want to miss Game 2 (Congrats, by the way, for winning the playoffs!) of b) was afraid of radical feminism. Stephen complained about having to work with "any moron who walks through the door" and Scott played spin-the-bottle to identify the moron in the class. Later, Scott was pegged as "a fertile void." Leda (in all seriousness) confided "the question of [her] life": how one can reconcile the interaction aspect of communication (in making meaning, enacting democracy) with attempts at creativity ~ because when one is creative people often react as if you're a freak. Or, I'd modify, have the plague. Makes me wonder about forms of xenophobia...

Bush's personability definitely came out tonight, he got a handful of laughs. Kerry didn't smile once while giving responses, did he? :-( and his Red Sox joke fell flat.

The CNN commentators seem rather evenly divided in support of Kerry and Bush; I note it as a difference from before, when Stephen argued that the media wouldn't let Kerry win. Perhaps its "just" rhetoric (!), but the conviction is not mediated by doubt (as it was last time).

I was really disturbed by the frequent use of the word, "kill." It's presence at all is a concern, but to be deployed so deliberately....an ideology of violence? It's hard to see a better future under these premises.

Split-screen effects from the first debate....

Split Decision discusses spatial and perceptual effects of attending to multiple features of interaction.

Stephen suggested that the debate rules for the vice-preseidential slugfest required seated performances because Cheney on his feet would have looked even more stolid and inanimate compared to a freely moving, uncontained Edwards. (My paraphrase.)

Cheney the Grim vs Edwards the Snide (so Matt pegged Edwards on the split screen reactions).

OUCH! That's my first reaction. If that wasn't hatred and vitriole from Cheney and disdain from Edwards......plenty of substance too, eh?

These poll results show significant gains for Kerry, some steady-state, and some drops fro Mr. Bush. It concludes that it's "too early to tell" whether Kerry's victory in the first debate is a "turning point" or not.

This piece by Burton J. Bledstein, The Culture of Professionalism, is amazing. My mind was spinning with thoughts about Critical Link 4 and Mette Rudvin's presentation and paper (that I referenced in my submission to the Proceedings). (Many links cite him; here's one of interest.)

He says professionalization is the penultimate triumph of the "Mid-Victorians" exerting control over personal and social life, by circumscribing specific areas of knowledge which bestowed the knowers with a kind of magical power in a vertically-oriented society, always looking up for self-advancement. "The autonomy of a professional person derived from a claim upon powers existing beyond the reach or understanding of ordinary humans" (p. 93-94).

~ from ros to the air-l listserv:

"PoliticsMatters is a collective blog launching October 5th on PoliticaOnline.it

The approaching US elections seem to promise a new push for political
attention and participation as an affirmative answer to a polarized
ideological battle. Not only because of its worldwide effects and high
stakes, but also due to a resurgence of grassroots activism using new
collaborative technologies."

~ from Camille's email in response to Stephen's challenge:

"Can't a differend be how
the central dems try and erase the differences between progressive dems and/or
greens from dems. What do people think about the tactic by dems to keep Nader
off the ballot (and I want to mention that many greens support that as well.)
((I understand that these aren't the differends that she is talking about but
my argument would be that in addition to the racialized and sexualized body, I
would argue for a green differend.))

Also as a structural reform for democracy I believe we need a third party. I of
course believe it should be a green party since many peace, green & anti-
capitalist voices aren't represented with the current dems and repubs.
Bryan are you and if so why are you against a third party and/or what about
representation by third party candidates?"

Per Stephen:

"Raz contributed recently with a blog from one of his students that, among other things, raises interesting questions about democratic ways of communicating. I.e., is it merely raising one's voice/ opinion or might we also have to consider audience? The student challenges all of us how to respond to a case study, and one where many of our instincts would be to dismiss him."

Dang! I could have seen Bonnie Raitt last night!

"Bruce Springsteen began stumping the swing states [in Philadelphia] tonight to support Senator John Kerry. "We're here tonight to fight for a government that is open, rational, forward-looking and humane, and we plan to rock the joint while doing so," he said at the beginning of the concert he was headlining at the Wachovia Center. The concert, which also featured R.E.M., was one of six simultaneous concerts in Pennsylvania for the Vote for Change tour, a week of benefit concerts in battleground states."

The whole story is in the NYTimes.