Conversations of the well-bred and highly educated...

The following is a quote from a paper I wrote at the end of last semester for my feminist philosophy class, directed specifically at an author named Stoltenberg who was arguing for the destruction of the concept of gender. Its applications reach a bit further.

"Fundamentalism, in any of its infinite and idealized incarnations, is a plague upon rational thought that has the rather unfortunate, and usually inescapable, effect of turning otherwise intelligent, well-intentioned people into one trick automatons blinded by and betrothed to the singular goal of enlightening the great unwashed masses of the self-professed Truth with which they have been (all but divinely) endowed. Fundamentalist thought is an insurmountable obstacle that arrests logic and makes reasoned discourse entirely irrelevant, negating the possibility of, and even the desire for, meaningful communicative dialogue between individuals and groups with different ideas about the world around them. Its truths are self-contained and self-fulfilling ideals that function as a tool for handcuffing a particular perceived reality to an overarching ‘objective’ understanding of the world that services the egotistical notion that one’s own personal account of reality is equally applicable to the whole of the human experience. It is a perverse potential side effect of the natural human tendency to want to arrange the bits and pieces of experience that give constancy to life in such a way as to form a cogent argument for defining the inherently inexplicable. The world we inhabit is rife with ambiguity and confusion, and fundamentalism offers a comfortable escape to a state of mind in which there are clearly expressed antithetical concepts of good and bad, true and false, and right and wrong. It is appealing because of the safe haven from further difficult questions about the nature of reality it provides for those who have grown tired of, or never had any interest in, assembling the world themselves–it is malignant because it spawns the belief in people that their Truth is the only truth, and the unbelievers have simply not yet recognized the fact of reality."

That is as succinct a description of fundamentalism as I have ever been able to construct. I bring it up not because of its aesthetic appeal (though considerable), but because of a conversation I heard going on between two twenty-somethings on the steps outside the philosophy building this morning. The girl was raised with a catholic mother and a jewish father, the guy raised totally catholic. She chose, when she was thirteen or so, to go the jewish route, and got bat-mitzfahed and all that jazz. The girl was talking about her boyfriend, who was raised Catholic, and the fact that her potential mother-in-law, a "hardcore catholic", found it impossible to recognize her as a moral person on her way to heaven due to her judaism. The girl is insisting on a jewish wedding, her boyfriend is caught in the middle, and mom can't stomach the notion of little jewish grandchildren.

The guy she was talking to went to catholic high school and is seeing a catholic girl now. He was sympathetic, but also identified with the mother in the scenario, as he himself couldn't fathom the idea of marrying someone who "didn't share the same convictions about jesus." Needless to say, I was deeply depressed by the conversation.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that I am right about the religion thing. The hypocrisy of such a statement is not lost on me. My anti-fundie bend is surely as strong as any fundamentalist's own core belief system, perhaps even more rabidly so. But the notion that a family can be torn apart by such a trivial thing as religion is horrifying. The fact that great masses of people believe so sincerely in their truth that they are willing to kill great masses of other people for it is equally horrifying. The difference between those two statements is not in kind, but merely degree, a fact that far too few people recognize. It seems to be a question of economics more than anything. If the Muslim world had progressed as steadily as the west has, if they had their industrial revolution and come into the information age before we did, is it unfathomable to believe that 9/11 would have happened in Iran and not New York? Is it possible that the only thing separating a broken family with a jewish daughter-in-law in America from a suicide bomber in the West Bank is the two car garage and broadband internet? I think so. Fundamentalist thought breeds hatred, regardless of nationality or religion. The difference is simply one of degree.

The counter-point will be come as follows: "MY fundamentalism is the right one, and MINE doesn't breed hatred." I offer the following: if you believe that any person who does not believe in what you believe is entitled to something less than you are, be it here on this earth or in some sort of non-physical afterlife, than you are disrespectful of humanity and driven by a self-fulfilling separatism that will leave you ultimately lonely and devoid of true love. Welcome to my fundamentalism.

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It has been a while since I had a good rant, and it feels good to peel one off for the first time in a while. Perhaps this one will generate a little bit of discussion.

Off to class I go. Talk to you soon.

Just another argument for strict fascism...

"Freedom," of course, is a wonderful thing. We love ours, other people hate ours but like theirs, and on and on. But how far can we let this freedom thing go? Because I have seen more than my fair share of overbloated redneck chicks walking around in painted-on denim short-shorts and belly-shirts picking at long lost stretches of fabric between their crotch with their legs stuck together almost all the way to the knees rubbing together like two sticks trying to make fire but ultimately failing due to a constant flow of sweat that begins around the back of the neck and pools in salty reservoirs behind them as they take on the challenge of staying upright as they penguin-step towards class. How about a dress code? Everyone has to wear upside-down burlap sacks with a hole cut out for the head and arms. If people can't dress without inducing naseau upon the general public, perhaps the imperial federal government should step in with a little helpful legislation and regulation. Just a thought.

Also, who said the hippies were allowed to have cell phones? If you have dredlocks and no shoes and ankle jewelry, isn't the cell phone a bit of a personal hypocrisy?

In a move apparently designed to get the Athens-area homeless population smelling a little less foul, the University cleaned out and chlorinated the various fountains around North campus over the summer. Instead of a nice collection of natural looking monuments to the aqua god, we now have an assortment of kiddie pools around campus. Word on the street is that the Homeless Union threatened to go on strike if they couldn't dive for quarters in a sanitary environment. Another victory for organized labor!

I am now 95% sure that the lawnmower man cutting the grass in front of me has passed over the same spot four times. Updates at the top of the hour.

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School is going well. I'm back to getting my judicial system fix, something I haven't been able to do since the Philosophy of Law class a couple years back. I'm taking a history class on the American legal system, with a focus on specific court cases through history. Should be fun. And I'm in another class that is sure to piss me right off--environmental ethics. Should have a similar effect on me as the feminist class, as we'll be reading articles arguing that plants are on equal moral grounds with human beings.

As it is now at least 143 degrees out here and I have class in a little bit, I am off to conquer more of the academic world.

In the words of the immortal Skip Caray...

So long, everybody.

News from the Front....

If there is anything cooler than sitting on a bench next to a fountain on UGA's North Campus and surfing the web and checking e-mail and all of that, I haven't yet discovered it. And blogging about it, no less! Isn't technology amazing when it works properly?

It's back to school day today. In order to graduate this December, I have to get into a French class that is full at the moment. I've already talked to my advisor about it, and apparently if the class stays full, the only thing I can do is try to convince the professor to take on one more. Hopefully said professor, or, more likely, said graduate student, will be a reasonable human being. If not, I may have to extend the tour de UGA another extra semester...for one lousy class. I would be in Athens anyway, applying for grad school and the like, but it would be highly preferable to get it done as soon as possible. May the gods of graduation shine upon me.

Chris was in town this week, hanging out for a few days. Our difference in priorities is staggering, given the fact that we were brought into this world by the same two people. I'm a philosophy major. He's a business major. He nears the point of obsession when it comes to grades. I have trouble seeing the point of such things. He wants to make loads of money in the hotel world. I want to write and have people read--and possibly make loads of money in the process. Admittedly, mine is a considerably higher-risk venture than his. To say that he likes to party would be a bit of an understatement. I like to drink my Jack Daniel's with relatively little fanfare and play trivial pursuit. And he is my favorite person on this earth to spend time with.

Speaking of trivial pursuits, Chris would say that of a philosophy degree. I wouldn't really argue with him very much, though I do maintain that everyone in college should be required to take at least one or two philosophy classes. More than knowing or identifying with any particular philosophers or their positions, philosophy has taught me how to find the holes in any argument and, more importantly, find and correct the inconsistencies in my own. So far as I can tell, there is not a single more critical ability to possess, and it is applicable in every avenue of life. We all have opinions--it is those people who are best able to articulate and defend those opinions who rise to the top of any given field. Its not just knowing the facts--its the synthesis of thought, idea, and application that matters.

It is hot and humid and there is no wind in Athens, today. Across the field from me, someone is smoking and you can see their exhaust hanging in the air--they exhale, the smoke tries to make its way through the muck for a few feet and gives up. If it doesn't get any better, we will all be swimming through the blue-gray cancer. They've kicked the smokers out of the bars and restaurants, but at least there are fans in there.

I've said this before, but now that I am back on a regular school schedule I should be updating this thing on a much more frequent basis, and hopefully not at four in the morning like last year. For now it is off to class, to get a syllabus and a first-day-of-class speech from some professor or another.

Talk to you soon.