tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post218978071251544333..comments2023-09-29T02:49:02.989-07:00Comments on An Emphatic Umph: On this whole inauguration thingDaniel Coffeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-48674837147809902752009-03-20T14:49:00.000-07:002009-03-20T14:49:00.000-07:00hope may be viewed from opposite sides: as the cyn...hope may be viewed from opposite sides: as the cynic (contemporary sense not Diogenes), taking pleasure in correctly foretelling disaster, or as the hedonist (also contemp sense), immersing his spirit and psyche in all the pleasures that hope can provide. those who learn from their mistakes are not condemned. what suits you best?lucentiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10034596784683562588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-19171197574473281552009-03-20T11:40:00.000-07:002009-03-20T11:40:00.000-07:00Well, the dictum against hope comes from Nietzsche...Well, the dictum against hope comes from Nietzsche. Hope is nihilistic as it wishes things other than as they are.<BR/><BR/>That wisdom aside, I do hope. But I fear what the Marxists call "false consciousness"—we believe there is change when in fact things are very much the same. To wit, the "stimulus" package which seeks a return to business as usual when there is great opportunity for radical change.<BR/><BR/>But, between me and you and everyone reading this (all four of you), what do I know? Not very much.Daniel Coffeenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-26359043166531672902009-03-20T10:29:00.000-07:002009-03-20T10:29:00.000-07:00he is a god by comparison... but a tiny god, a bre...he is a god by comparison... but a tiny god, a breath of force from the hill to shift the gait of the blundering behemoth...maybe...he knows he needs first to educate a sleepwalking monster on some anti-psychotic...not too easy, maybe impossible, but not to hope? what wisdom dictates that?lucentiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10034596784683562588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-39152929506556741662009-03-15T19:28:00.000-07:002009-03-15T19:28:00.000-07:00Can't we be both hopeful and skeptical? Both expec...Can't we be both hopeful and skeptical? Both expectant of significant differences from Bush and prepared for huge disappointments? I'm usually the only one I know who is willing to express serious skepticism about Obama, for which I receive complete resistance form my friends. But I see no more reason to think that Obama is Jesus, than to think that his election means nothing at all.cb474https://www.blogger.com/profile/06415866217338647127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-73399509820165693082009-01-23T00:50:00.000-08:002009-01-23T00:50:00.000-08:00As penance, you must now watch 3 "Debbie Down...As penance, you must now watch 3 "Debbie Downer" YouTube videos and laugh at yourself Coffeen.<BR/><BR/>I mean c'mon it's not every election that you get to feel like you're living through a historic transition of eras. I feel like we just made it through the Medieval period and now we're on to the Englightenment...again. It's like being born again, but this time evidence, reason, and conversation count for something. Enjoy it!<BR/><BR/>Here's you Debbie Downer penance:<BR/>http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=debbie%20downer&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DMUS&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#Vernon J. Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10094200487999994160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-41272234410862178642009-01-21T16:39:00.000-08:002009-01-21T16:39:00.000-08:00I'm with you--and it's a relief to know I'm not th...I'm with you--and it's a relief to know I'm not the only killjoy on the block. A friend in DC said the inauguration made him question his dis-belief in god. Statements like these make me question my faith in humanity.Lindsay Meiselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17250501133788792507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-23434796691687887552009-01-21T04:33:00.000-08:002009-01-21T04:33:00.000-08:00We are a country that traffics in cant and receive...We are a country that traffics in cant and received pieties, and we think we are civilized because we back them with social marginalization rather than the auto-da-fe. September 11 was the worst day in human history, a "War on Terror" is not only logical but necessary, Obama heralds a paradigm shift, and woe betide you if you see it otherwise.<BR/><BR/>All discourse of course bounds what's within the true, but contemporary, popular American politics is such a singularity it doesn't have bounds anymore.<BR/><BR/>The actual ceremonies themselves had that inevitable lifeless weight that all state-sponsored theater has (brought all the sharper into relief by the attempts to (can I say this?) negrify it). This is why New York and New Orleans and San Francisco rock while Albany, Baton Rouge and Sacromento are so limp: in capital cities, it's like dad is always home.Vhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13632514764471339300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-90070902233779277382009-01-20T19:12:00.000-08:002009-01-20T19:12:00.000-08:00bloggin up a storm over here, DC!you're not alone,...bloggin up a storm over here, DC!<BR/><BR/>you're not alone, no, but at this stage it's just a relief, really. a day. it's a day. a day of "thanks!" a day of "so long, dumbface!" a day of, "my president is BLACK!" that's the thing that gets me the most. that and all the idiots who sat angry at their TVs this AM, red in the face and dumb in their hearts for reasons other than blood and "lefty" bleeding. i mean, it's kinda gross, yes, all this hosannah stuff, but, fuck, it feels kinda awesome. for today. cuz tomorrow i'll still be unemployed and scared, if slightly more hopeful that there's an upswing started.Ryland Walker Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09233954424885027837noreply@blogger.com