In Medias Res

In Medias ResIn Medias Res

Essays, notes, and fragments--personal, political, and philosophical--from the midst of things

"Provocative, yet flawed."--Stephen Schneck

Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Nothingness, I Embrace You!



There is no exit from the Force.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 3:21 PM 0 comments

Monday, May 02, 2011
What Osama's Death Has Accomplished

Matt Yglesias and Ross Douthat, agreeing with each other. First, Ross:

[The years since 9/11 have] taught us...that whatever blunders we make (and we have made many), however many advantages we squander (and there has been much squandering), and whatever quagmires we find ourselves lured into, our civilization is not fundamentally threatened by the utopian fantasy politics embodied by groups like Al Qaeda, or the mix of thugs, fools and pseudointellectuals who rally around their banner. They can strike us, they can wound us, they can kill us. They can goad us into tactical errors and strategic blunders. But they are not, and never will be, an existential threat...We learned the lesson in every day that passed without an attack, in every year that turned, and in the way our eyes turned, gradually but permanently, from the skies and the sky-scrapers back to the ordinary things of life.

Next, Matt:

The threat to the physical security of Americans posed by terrorists needs to be put alongside the threat to physical security posed by “ordinary” criminals, by car accidents, etc. And the foreign policy significance of violent Islamists needs to be put alongside the foreign policy significance of China and India emerging as great powers on the global stage. Homeland security investments ought to meet a plausible cost-benefit test and not just take it for granted that anything done in the name of terrorism-prevention is worth doing. The primary mechanism through which terrorism works as a tactic is fear and panic, and in an ideal world the emotional catharsis we saw around the country last night should be a chance to put things on a more sustainable footing.

Yes and yes. Those of us who tumbled down the rabbit-hole of fear and gave in to the temptation of ideological grand-standing were wrong. This would be a wonderful time for the legacy of those wrong decisions to begin to be slowly put right.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 10:20 AM 5 comments

And Now, Time for Scoring Some Cheap, Completely Unnecessary Political Points

I spent last night and this morning thinking about moral causality and historical significance; I think I can allow myself to be a little bit of a wise-ass now.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 7:56 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 01, 2011
He Deserved It

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]

That's a terribly unChristian thing to say, I know. To speak in moral terms--to speak of "desert"--in matters of war is to invariably invest those actors which participate in war--in other words, to invest states like our own, to say nothing of terrorist cells and other organized bodies such as those Osama bin Laden lead and inspired--with a level of moral significance that is frankly idolatrous. Bin Laden, the enemy of the United States, the enemy of all that the United States stands for, is finally dead! Righteousness wins, evil loses! That's the sort of way of talking which opens up all sorts of abuses, which leads one into all sorts of disturbing equivalencies. There's plenty of room for moral judgment when one looks at the consequences of actions; there's no need to take up those consequences and turn them into game of winners and losers, of deserving and undeserving, of God's favorites and those whom God wouldn't mind being blown apart by an bomb. The moral plane of the universe is not somehow improved by the killing of a man. "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he is overthrown"--the author of Proverbs had it right.

I believe all that....but I still think he deserved it. He deserved it, because he lead and inspired actions whose consequences, in a very real and specific way, not only left nearly 3000 human beings dead, and which gave rise to an occasionally desperate and often mismanaged war which has killed many thousands more (both innocent and guilty), but which have also generated pathologies that have plagued and damaged American politics ever since. He was hardly solely responsible for these results, but neither could he ever escape the blame.

Are you frustrated by the loss of civil liberties which The Patriot Act represents? Blame Osama bin Laden.

Are you disturbed by the bureaucratic mentality which has decided, in the mad pursuit of absolute safety, to treat ordinary citizens as suspects to be manhandled and debased by the TSA every time they get on a plane flight? Blame Osama bin Laden.

Are you embarrassed by the vaguely racist and often paranoid accusations which have haunted our rhetoric and our relations with other states over the past 10 years? Blame Osama bin Laden.

Are you concerned about the expansive complications and enormous costs which the United States has piled up, not only in terms of the blood and treasure expanded (perhaps necessarily...but then again, perhaps not) in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in terms of entanglements with numerous onetime foes, and disagreements with numerous onetime allies? Blame Osama bin Laden.

And are you troubled that the United States, a country founded on revolution and independence, has spent a decade sincerely playing around with the possibility of unapologetically embracing a new role as a "democratic empire," one committed to waging an endless "war on terror"? Well, again, blame Osama bin Laden.

I've not doubt that many millions of people will quite sincerely, and reasonably, see the news this night as pretty straightforward: this is a success, a triumph for soldiers that have suffered too much for much too long, and a richly deserved bit of payback for the horror of September 11th, 2001. I remember the horror of that day well, as do millions of others, and I can remember the slow realization about the challenge which Osama bin Laden's ideology posed to the American way of life which followed in the weeks and months afterwards. All of which was true.

But what I didn't realize until much later was that the pre-occupation we had with that threat was itself a perhaps even deeper threat to the American way of life...a way that, whatever else we all disagree upon, really shouldn't be a life conditioned by endless low-level wars, and the costly divides in American life they give rise to. We did that to ourselves, but Osama gave us the pretext for doing so, and for that, I suppose he deserved what he finally, finally, got. If only I could believe that a well-executed firefight could rid us of all the civic and international damage he has left in his wake.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 10:08 PM 7 comments

Friday, April 29, 2011
Friday Morning Videos: "A Forest"

Last year, old-school music by The Cure. This year? Really old-school Cure. Dig it, man.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 7:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, April 28, 2011
As If Anything Could Keep Me Away



If there is any justice, Alan Rickman will be allowed--playing as he does, in the context of a film which is plainly intending to tell a story far more "adult" than the books did, the most interesting character in the whole tale--to walk away with the movie. We can only hope. And watch, of course.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 5:22 PM 1 comments

Saturday, April 23, 2011
A Little Civil Religion On Holy Saturday

This is the sort of thing I like:



And this, from the always insightful Fred Clark, I like even better:

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.--Reinhold Niebuhr


This is my favorite day in Holy Week, this Saturday, this unrestful Sabbath, my favorite day in the whole of the liturgical calendar.

Well, actually, “favorite” is the wrong word. It’s not that I like this day so much as that I understand it. It’s recognizable, familiar, lived-in. This day, the Saturday that can’t know if there will ever be a Sunday, is the day we live in, you and I, today and every day for the whole of our lives. This is all we are given to know.

Easter Sunday? That’s tomorrow, the day after today. We’ll never get there in time. We can believe in Easter Sunday, but we can’t be sure. We can’t know for sure. We can’t know until we’re out of time. Here, in time, there’s just this day, this dreadful Saturday of not knowing.

There are some things we can know on this Saturday. Jesus is dead, to begin with, dead and buried. He said the world was upside-down and needed a revolution to turn it right-way-round and so he was executed for disturbing the peace. He came and said love was greater than power, and so power killed him.

And now it’s Saturday and Jesus is dead and we’re all going to die and everything I’ve told you about him turns out to be in vain and everything I’ve staked my life on turns out to be in vain. Our faith is futile and we’re still hopeless in our sins. Jesus is dead and we are of all people most to be pitied.

That last paragraph is a paraphrase from St. Paul. What he actually says there, in his letter to the Christians in Corinth, is "if." What he says, specifically, is:

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain....If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead...


But that’s Sunday language and Sunday certainty and it doesn’t make much sense here on Saturday. Here on Saturday, we can hope it’s true and we may even try to believe it’s true, but we can’t know “in fact” one way or another. Not now. Not on Saturday. And to be honest, it doesn’t seem terribly likely, because Saturday, this Saturday, is all we’ve ever known. Yesterday was this same Saturday, and so was the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that.

Why should we expect that tomorrow will be any different? Seriously, just look around. Does it look like the meek are inheriting the earth? Does it look like those who hunger and thirst for justice are being filled? Does it look like the merciful are being shown mercy?

Jesus was meek and merciful and hungry for justice and look where that got him. They killed him. We killed him. Power won. That’s what this everyday Saturday shows us--power always wins. “If you want a picture of the future,” George Orwell wrote, “imagine a boot stomping on a human face--forever.”

“But in fact,” St. Paul says, everything changes on Sunday. Come Sunday power loses. Come Sunday, love wins, the meek shall inherit, the merciful will receive mercy and no one will ever go hungry for justice again. Come Sunday, everything changes.

If there ever is a Sunday.

And but so, this is why we hope for Sunday and why we live for the hope of Sunday. Even though we can’t know for sure that Sunday will ever come and even if Saturday is all we ever get to see.

Sunday, Easter, comes tomorrow. Around our house, we'll be blessed to be spending the day with one of my brothers and his wife and family, from a long ways away; the house will be bursting (they have six kids), and I'll be worried whether I bought a large enough ham. But we'll also go to church, and joke and laugh and talk, and pray. And be thankful, and hopeful. Because it's spring, and it'll be Easter Sunday. Again. Have a blessed one, everybody.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 9:23 AM 0 comments

Friday, April 22, 2011
Friday Morning Videos: "Pop Goes the World"

I seem to recall Scott Lemieux, or perhaps some other Canadian blogger, once commenting that those of us who enjoy a little Men Without Hats nostalgia every once in a while ought to be thankful that we missed this band's "punk" phase. I'll take his word for it.



On a side note, I think it is quite possible that this is the first song I ever heard played on a "compact disc." I'm remembering an argument over just what the name of the band that Johnny and Jenny formed actually was, but not much else.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 7:00 AM 0 comments

Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Living Habits of the 21st-Century Academic Philosopher, Explained

If I have to give this wonderful new blog a blurb, it would be: "This blog saved our marriage!" But of course, our marriage hasn't actually ever failed, so that wouldn't be quite accurate. Better to say that, at certain times when Melissa's and my relationship could have used some assistance, this blog's wise advice--providing a "a guide to living with your philosopher"--would have saved both of us a good of time and energy. Especially this bit, about gifts:

Let’s just simplify: Unless you are willing to follow your philosopher around a bookstore or ask them to send you links online to books they want, purchasing a book for your philosopher is a very bad idea....Some of you may be thinking, “This list of acceptable gifts is so impersonal. I want to give my philosopher something that they will treasure for a lifetime and always remember me by.” I’m sorry. Get them a gift card to buy a book. Philosophers are not like normal people. If you want to give your philosopher something they will treasure, then give them the resources to buy some books.

Exactly.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 5:01 PM 0 comments

Friday, April 15, 2011
Friday Morning Videos: "The Look of Love"

Last year ago on this date (give or take a week), I put up ABC's "When Smokey Sings"--a great song, but the wrong video choice, according to a couple of my friends. So I'm trying to make it up to them today.

Posted by Russell Arben Fox at 7:00 AM 0 comments

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I also blog occasionally at Front Porch Republic and By Common Consent

I used to blog at Wäldchen vom Philosophenweg and Times and Seasons
Recent Comments

Nate Oman on he deserved it
"It seems rather close to saying that any attempt to respond to an injustice is by definition...(more)
Jacob S. on what osamas death has accomplished
I wish I was smart enough to answer that question. As I understand it, on some level, much Islamic...(more)
Russell Arben Fox on he deserved it
Nate,My unease comes from the fact that you referred to the other ills of which you see OSB as the...(more)
djredundant on what osamas death has accomplished
Jacob, I share your concern about 'violence begetting more violence', but with a...(more)
Nate Oman on he deserved it
My unease comes from the fact that you referred to the other ills of which you see OSB as the...(more)

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Quotes
"Mailer was a Left Conservative. So he had his own point of view. To himself he would suggest that he tried to think in the style of [Karl] Marx in order to attain certain values suggested by Edmund Burke."

(Norman Mailer, The Armies of the Night [The New American Library, 1968], 185)

"The tendency, which is too common in these days, for young men to get a smattering of education and then think themselves unsuited for mechanical or other laborious pursuits is one that should not be allowed to grow up among us...Every one should make it a matter of pride to be a producer, and not a consumer alone."

(Wilford Woodruff, Millennial Star [November 14, 1887], 773)

"'Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. 'Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!'"

(Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol [Candlewick Press, 2006], 35)

"The Master said, 'At fifteen, I set my mind upon learning; at thirty, I took my place in society; at forty, I became free of doubts; at fifty, I understood Heaven's Mandate; at sixty, my ear was attuned; and at seventy, I could follow my heart's desires without overstepping the bounds of propriety.'"

(Confucius, Analects [translated by Edward Slingerland, Hackett, 2003], 2.4)

"Lack of experience diminishes our power of taking a comprehensive view of the admitted facts. Hence those who dwell in intimate association with nature and its phenomena grow more and more able to formulate, as the foundations of their theories, principles which admit a wide and coherent development: while those whom devotion to abstract discussions has rendered unobservant of the facts are too ready to dogmatize on the basis of a few observations."

(Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption [translated by H.H. Joachim, Oxford, 1922], lines 316a5-9)

"The man who has gone through college or university easily becomes psychically unemployable in manual occupations without necessarily acquiring employability in, say, professional work."

(Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy [Harper Perennial, 1975], 152)

"[God] does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. . . . His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him."

(C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, revised paperback edition [Macmillan, 1982], 69)

"[O]ur culture has been held hostage a form of organization by domination that fails to honor our living systems, where 'he who holds the gold makes the rules'....Radical Homemakers use life skills and relationships as a replacement for gold, on the premise that he or she who doesn't need the gold can change the rules. The greater our domestic skills, be they to plant a garden, grow tomatoes on our apartment balcony, mend a shirt, repair an appliance, provide for our own entertainment, cook and preserve a local harvest or care for our children and loved ones, the less dependent we are on the gold."

(Shannon Hayes, Radical Homemakers, [Left to Write, 2010], 13)

"What from your fathers you received as heir, / Acquire [anew] if you would possess it. / What is not used is but a load to bear; / But if today creates it, we can use and bless it."

(Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust [translated by Walter Kaufmann, Anchor Books, 1963], lines 682-685)

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