Muscovy duck nesting outside my mom’s front door… lot of people think they are ugly but i kind of like them…

For the writers among us…

The novelist who wrote “How to Murder Your Husband” is now on trial for murdering her husband. ‹ Literary Hub

Huh. Imagine that. A few years after Nancy Crampton Brophy—a self-published romance novelist—wrote an essay called “How to Murder Your Husband,” her husband was found shot to death in his classroom at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland. While that essay might have been a little bit of a red flag to investigators, the trial judge has deemed it inadmissible as evidence on the grounds it might prove prejudicial (you think?).

Minx… my new favorite program…

Something to watch if you are an artist that appropriates other’s work under fair use provisions of the law…

Long-Running Andy Warhol Copyright Dispute Reaches Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Warhol copyright infringement case that has been bouncing around the courts since 2017. This high-stakes case, which asks whether Warhol’s appropriation of Lynn Goldsmith’s photograph of Prince in a silkscreen series qualifies as fair use, will have significant implications for artists who utilize copyrighted material in their work.

… and then there is this…

March 30, 2022 - by Heather Cox Richardson

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), who chairs the committee responsible for electing Republican senators, has produced an “11-point plan to rescue America.” It dramatically raises taxes on people who earn less than $100,000, and ends Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize: Gripping Images of “Hidden Truths” | AnOther

First established in 1996, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is one of photography’s most prestigious awards. For over 25 years, the annual event has shone a light on some of the most thought-provoking and revolutionary work in the medium and has included the likes of Susan Meiselas, Juergen Teller, and Rineke Dijkstra among its past winners. The four artists shortlisted for this year’s edition of the award are Deana Lawson, Gilles Peress, Jo Ractliffe and Anastasia Samoylova, and the winner of the $30,000 prize is set to be announced in May.

… i particularly like the images of Deana Lawson…

March 28, 2022 - by Heather Cox Richardson

Eastman and Trump “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history,” Carter wrote. “Their campaign was…a coup in search of a legal theory….  If [the] plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.”

… one of the enduring questions about January 6, 2021, is whether anyone at the top will be held accountable… the Justice Department has been silent on this, other than to say they will pursue their investigations wherever they lead… a federal judge in California seems to be wondering too, and feeling the need to say so…

Our front door has a funky grill on it. At some point in early spring the sun peeks through it into the wall. Spring is here, even though my weather app says in the 20’s…

Weekly Edit 13

About Appetite

In the philosophy of Socrates and Plato three parts of the human “soul” are identified. They are reason, spirit and appetite. Reason is the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom and is the province of the philosopher. Spirit is the pursuit of honor and glory—as in battle—and is the province of the warrior/gladiator. Appetite is the pursuit of wealth and the pleasure it affords and is the province of the oligarch.

“Souls” can be fully dominated by one soul-part or another. More commonly, and desirably, the parts express themselves in a variety of dominance/subservience configurations. Indeed, while Socrates and Plato felt reason was best suited to management of the soul of both individual and state, spirit and appetite have important roles. The best human soul is characterized by reason as the moderator of spirit and appetite.

As a basic model for human psychology, it lacks the scientific foundations and clinical efficacy that modern clinical psychology can claim, but i find it an appealing general model for examining the ways people and societies conduct themselves.

One of the conclusions I come to is that presently the vast majority of populations around the world are ruled by appetite, the lowest and most irresponsible of the three soul-parts. This is demonstrated by obsession with wealth, things obtainable through wealth and the willingness to ruthlessly exploit the planet and each other to gain wealth.

Capitalism is the organization of appetite into a global system of wealth extraction through the exploitation of planet and people. I don’t know that it can be said that the broad flow of history has ever produced a society governed by Philosophers.

Though we like to think of ourselves as being far more civilized than our distant ancestors and more recent indigenous societies, we are very little removed from our primal instincts, that is, from being ruled by our appetites.

It’s not through lack of effort on the part of at least some of us. Indeed, this system of the tripartite soul developed by Socrates and Plato is aimed at understanding how one might govern self and society in a more rational way. As a way of establishing a universal good and conducting affairs according to that good.

A contemporary of Plato’s offered an alternative way of looking at things. Thrasymachus challenged the Socratic-Platonic concept of the good as a universal principle, saying that the good is whatever pursues the interests of the more powerful. According to Bertrand Russell this challenge is swatted away like a bothersome fly and not effectively refuted. It’s been a long time since I have read the Republic, so I will accept Russell’s assessment that it stands as an effective challenge to the Socratic-Platonic vision of the world as it could be. Inspection of history and the present state of the world appears, to me, to support the position of Thrasymachus. Appetite has been and is largely immune from any attempts by reason or faith to subdue it.

Unfortunately, we have reached a place where we either moderate appetite or we are destroyed by it.

233.4 lbs

… not enough steps… Chinese food for dinner… skipped lunch, snacked instead… so maybe i had lunch, but not a proper one… no weight gain or loss…

… depressed most of the day… tried to share my thinking on leisure and wisdom with H yesterday… that i thought a constructive way to fill the “leisure” of “retirement” would be to read and study in ways that could lead to wisdom… their response was underwhelming as they imagined i would cloister myself in my studio more than i do now… they hoped i would have time to work on the house all they could say… i got so angry… bad on me for trying to share thoughts about something that was significant to me… i have been looking for “purpose” or at least a pursuit that could be beneficial to someone, somewhere… the truth is, i have been intermittently pursuing something like this for most of my life, but only in fits and starts, as i could work it around the demands of supplying practical necessities for myself and any partner i was with at the time…

… we went to see the new Batman movie… not my favorite iteration… the story doesn’t progress much from movie to movie… the city is lost to corruption, crime is everywhere… there is a benevolent guardian… wealthy, strong, maybe heroic… he seeks to restore order… he battles pervasive corruption and evil actors, defining himself in opposition to them… he struggles with the anger and hatred that threaten to make him no better than the criminals he brings to justice… indeed, the public and honest police are not sure of him… the power of the state is still needed, but first it must be cleaned up… is a benevolent extralegal actor the way to do it?… is selflessness another word for selfish?… how to retain humanity, already hanging by a thread, when confronted with inhumanity?…

… NATO is discussing what to do if Russia deploys, chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine… are we reaching the moment of finding out if the bully will use the nuclear club?… i am happier not watching the news at this moment… i try to forget my fears of death and carry on… fear of death limits us… Ted Lasso hit on this point in season 2… soccer is life, soccer is death… soccer is soccer… Tony Rojas… really like Ted Lasso… a respite from all the darkness hovering…

… didn’t get many photographs yesterday… rain this morning… not sure what i will get today…

… a Paris Review article by Stephen Shore, talking about what inspired him… i tried to think what my list would be… its not close to being as glamorous as his… but i can think of things… there were a few photographs in the article made by Shore… i remember thinking, what is special about these and how are they better than the ones i make… they weren’t that special, to my eyes, and i make lots of photos as good, to my eyes…

… the arborist came and repaired the driveway yesterday… the result was better than i thought it would be… we’ll see how it stands up…

20220324-02

… as i read about Plato in Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy the idea that one needs “leisure” to acquire wisdom… setting aside the idea that life experience of any sort supplies an important foundational element for wisdom, it occurs to me that if one attains the space for “leisure” as many do in retirement, then perhaps one should apply that space to studies and contemplation that might lead to wisdom… this seems to me to be what i am up to with my art, readings and contemplative practice… whether this has or will produce wisdom is not for me to say, but it does seem to be my intent… to understand… to be wise… what i would do with that should it arrive is another question too… as with my art work, so with my studies… make/do the work… something will come of it…

233.4 lbs

… some snacking last night… alcohol… only 13K steps… no weight gain or loss…

… HCR meter distressing this AM… a report from years ago that the Republican party has moved so far right that it wasn’t possible to govern… it is worse now… there is a real chance 45 will become 47, even as the Biden/Harris administration attempts to rescue Ukrainian Democracy from the Russian fires of hell…

… the first Black woman will be appointed to the Supreme Court… the news pundits act as if she will make a difference… i am pessimistic about that… if things go the way i believe them capable of going, we may arrive at a place where she is removed from the Supreme Court… it is hard to imagine an authoritarian government allowing her to stay…

… my foundational thesis remains as it has been for at least a decade… the mostly white patriarchy is attempting to make sure it has the reigns of power forever… Democracy is not convenient so they will get rid of it… what the majority of citizens want does not matter, just as facts don’t matter… the mostly white oligarchs want something else… how to hold on to self and principles regardless of what the patriarchy does…

… i keep looking for a lever of understanding to pull, that anyone could pull… or at least a “don’t worry be happy lever”… such an insipid sentiment… i read philosophy looking for that lever, that revelation that will let me understand how it can be better or at least help me be at peace when it gets worse… i am learning that these things happen in cycles and one does what one does… Socrates chose a principled position… it didn’t stop the cycle… he was executed… his legend continues to this day… how has that legend helped anyone?… has it stopped or even appreciably altered the cycles?… a far as i can see, what he railed against in his day continues to come back in cyclical waves of human misery…

… i think of myself a feeble imitation of Socrates… as if his blood line diminished in Socratic intensity to the point of barely flavored tea or coffee in me… the cycle is at a place that won’t be to my liking for a good long time… long past my death… one needs to cope as best they can… to have horizons… to bequeath something positive to the future…

… how am i to be happy with my remaining years?… will i contribute something meaningful with them?… i continue to make the work i have always made… images from walks… a refined selection of those images… these journal entries…

Weekly Edit #11

sign, Don’t Worry, Be Hoppy

the sun in a cloudy sky

landscape with utility poles

paper strewn along roadside

september 11 front page new york times

taxidermy venomous snake striking

fire hose on the ground

ribbon strewn across the floor

stickers

vase looking a little angry

Love and Strife

Buy, Buy says the sign in the shop window,

why, why says the junk in the yard.

Paul McCartney

I had two revelations from my reading of A History of Western Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell this week.

The first is that at the heart of (almost?) all scientific, philosophical and religious effort is a desire that something, anything, be eternal. We want our lives to mean something even if only that they were a necessary, albeit, tiny part of something grand and purposeful.

The second is that when we ask the question why, we either ask it teleologically, seeking first cause, or we ask it mechanistically, seeking to understand the mechanics of what we observe. The first is a process of induction of universal truths from experience. The second is a process of deduction of rules from experience. Regardless of path chosen, it is impossible to know anything in an absolute way. Consequently, certainty that there is something eternal is beyond grasp.

My wife loves to ask why and then tell me she doesn’t understand when I offer an explanation. Why would anyone like Putin exist (because absolute power makes absolute assholes)? Why would he invade Ukraine (because absolute assholes are assholes)? Why do conservatives want to destroy democracy (because absolute power is worth it)? Why do white supremacists exist (because we are primally disposed to enslave the other)? Why can’t we all just get along (because humans have never just gotten along and there are always power hungry assholes)?

“I don’t understand” she continues to say to any explanation I offer. I love her for being this way. She still has faith in humanity and it doesn’t compute when humanity is not faith-worthy.

When we were young we asked about the sign in the shop window and the junk in the yard. We also asked about the Vietnam war. These days liberals like ourselves ask why as we witness the Enlightenment Liberalist world order we have been comfortably ensconced in decomposing. We are pretty sure we won’t like it if it does decompose fully, any more than Ukrainians are enjoying bombs and displacement.

The ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles believed everything was composed of earth, air, fire and water which were moved into vortices of physical manifestation by love and strife in a cyclical manner.

Love and strife have been playing themselves out in humans since the time before memory. We are lucky if our lives contain plenty of love and strife is rarely life threatening. But it’s a crap shoot. We could as easily be Ukrainian as American. We could as easily have brown skin as white skin. And we could as easily live in an authoritarian form of government as a democratic one.

The struggle between some form of Oligarchic/Authoritarian rule and Democracy has been going on in the west for most, if not all, of recorded history. A prime example is the struggle between oligarchic Troy and democratic Athens, a contest the Trojans won, marking the end of the Athenian Golden Age. It would not be until the Renaissance that anything like that golden age (The Enlightenment) appeared again in the West.

We may eventually turn Putin back in Ukraine. But will we turn back Oligarchic Authoritarianism in the US? It’s not clear and on my bad days I despair. If Authoritarianism wins, it would be in no small measure because of Vladimir Putin. Are we going to win the battle but loose the war?

The United States has been in this place multiple times in the past. The Civil War was the manifestation of one particularly harsh turn in the cycle. So far, the people have rallied to push back the slave holders, the oligarchs and the would be despots to preserve the promise, if not execute the ideal of democracy. If Greek history teaches anything though, it’s that the only thing pre-ordained are the cycles, not the winners and losers.

Some photo notes from yesterday…

In other words, ultimate knowledge is not humanly attainable regardless of how one looks for it…

… in A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell distinguishes two possible intents to asking the question why… we seek “an explanation by final cause,” which he labels a teleological inquiry… or we seek an explanation by mechanistic cause and effect… he goes on to point out that the question why cannot “be asked intelligibly about reality as a whole (including god), but only about parts of it."

A ground breaking photo documentary project… Revisiting Susan Meiselas’ Riveting 1970s “Carnival Strippers” Series | AnOther

In the summers of 1972 until 1975, Susan Meiselas travelled across New England, photographing “carnival strippers”: girls and women between the ages of 17 to 35 who worked out of a “travelling box” – a truck that opened onto the public or private areas of rural state fairs. Beyond the agricultural facade of the carnivals, these women – and their bodies – were the main attraction.

Very significant if true… Australian Firm Claims “Giant Leap” Toward Clean, Cheap Hydrogen Power – Mother Jones

Hyasta, a company using technology at the University of Wollongong, said its patented capillary-fed electrolysis cells achieve 95 percent efficiency, meaning little wastage, beating by about one-quarter the levels of current technology.

Weekly Edit, WK 10

A thorough and good article about the blame game…

Blaming America for Russian Aggression, Then and Now - The Bulwark

Though many of these intellectuals have rejected the “who started it” paradigm altogether, viewing a Cold War between two ideologically opposed superpowers as essentially inevitable, their work still sheds light on Soviet hegemonic aspirations in Europe and the developing world—a glaring omission in revisionist works. Not only have the post-revisionists convincingly refuted the New Left argument that the Sovietization of Eastern Europe was “not predetermined,” but they also illustrate that Stalin and other Soviet leaders expected a “crisis of capitalism” in Western Europe to eventually trigger Communist revolutions and opportunities for Soviet subversion in the American sphere of influence (though they felt that assisting such revolutions could wait until after the USSR had fully recovered from the war).

Sign of the season…

We finished watching “River, Season 1” last night. We are grieving that there were no more seasons. Brilliant series.