When I observe John McCain on and off the podium, I see a pain-body and a body in pain.
He seems too strong.
Ultimately his presentation is the condemnable product of torture. I do hope he feels more peace.
That's it. No irony here.
Please join me in wishing him a fuller recovery from the horror of trauma.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Zen Masters for Obama
What if Obama's DNC speech was delivered like this:
The administration set up the main auditorium for him. Hundreds of students and the whole East Asian Studies Dept. was there--the crowd was deep in anticipatory excitement.
The chairperson came onstage and introduced the guest-of-honor: "Welcome D.T. Suzuki, world-class Zen scholar, writer, and master! You're finally here!"
The crowd sat in reverent silence.
Then, a little man, Suzuki, shuffles out to the mike, looks at the chairperson, shakes his head, adjusts a pair of glasses, reaches out and taps the mike.
A hollow ping sounds throughout the hall.
He leans into the mike and says: "Zen Buddhism. Very hard to understand. Thank you," and walks offstage.
The chairperson came onstage and introduced the guest-of-honor: "Welcome D.T. Suzuki, world-class Zen scholar, writer, and master! You're finally here!"
The crowd sat in reverent silence.
Then, a little man, Suzuki, shuffles out to the mike, looks at the chairperson, shakes his head, adjusts a pair of glasses, reaches out and taps the mike.
A hollow ping sounds throughout the hall.
He leans into the mike and says: "Zen Buddhism. Very hard to understand. Thank you," and walks offstage.
---------
P.S. You can purchase the "Zen Masters for Obama" bumper-sticker here:
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Japanese Jews and Krav Maga
I am currently advancing my understanding of swordsmanship in the Japanese styles of "moving Zen".
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IaidÅ
As the late Yogi Bhajan (the premier teacher of Kundalini Yoga) said again and again, the key phrase for our times is: "Don't just tread water. Keep up. Really keep up, and you'll be kept up."
The "inner smile," which we read about in so many traditions, actually finds real expression in this art as it would be impossible to support the weight of the katana for the hours of practice unless ones chest is light and filled with nothing. Far from being abstractions, these principles really get reified in the martial arts if one studies them for the appropriate reasons--whatever they may be. I find that the practice of Kundalini Yoga is also invaluable here.
It's so interesting to be doing this work in Israel with Japanese Jews who are said to descend from Samuari (they call themselves: Hata). They are such a compliment to the Israeli scene. Instead of realpolitik, they teach flexibility and peace as the "way of the sword" = to give the other (opponent/friend) the radical permission to be themselves. To let them be. Without occupation or preoccupation.
My studies in Israel and Japan are, partially, an effort to explore alternatives to the home-grown Israeli system of self-defence called Krav Maga. You may have heard of it. The best way for me to describe it is this: it's like trying to shoot down a mosquito with an anti-aircraft-gun.
It's so interesting to be doing this work in Israel with Japanese Jews who are said to descend from Samuari (they call themselves: Hata). They are such a compliment to the Israeli scene. Instead of realpolitik, they teach flexibility and peace as the "way of the sword" = to give the other (opponent/friend) the radical permission to be themselves. To let them be. Without occupation or preoccupation.
My studies in Israel and Japan are, partially, an effort to explore alternatives to the home-grown Israeli system of self-defence called Krav Maga. You may have heard of it. The best way for me to describe it is this: it's like trying to shoot down a mosquito with an anti-aircraft-gun.
It's inelegant and unnecessarily brutal to the practitioner and the opponent. Most importantly, it runs the same old patterns without any improvisation or imagination. It just doesn't see the target. Because of this rigidity, it's likely to get you killed in a fight. It also screws with ones way of interpreting the world.
It seems that the Israeli defence establishment 's approach to the other is similarly self-defeating and ultimately, well, anti-human. Perhaps they could benefit from time spent studying to really explore the limits of their potential.
It seems that the Israeli defence establishment 's approach to the other is similarly self-defeating and ultimately, well, anti-human. Perhaps they could benefit from time spent studying to really explore the limits of their potential.
As the late Yogi Bhajan (the premier teacher of Kundalini Yoga) said again and again, the key phrase for our times is: "Don't just tread water. Keep up. Really keep up, and you'll be kept up."
One has to be worthy of survival.
Namaste.
PS Here you can see a clip of me performing Kata Juppon Me - Shiho giri (four-directional cutting of four opponents)
Namaste.
PS Here you can see a clip of me performing Kata Juppon Me - Shiho giri (four-directional cutting of four opponents)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Captain Nemo: Zero-Tolerance for War. Enforced by War.
I've been thinking about Jules Verne's Captain Nemo. He really is an anti-war war star. His approach really begs a review of the ethics of "zero-tolerance collective security."
Specifically, this model applies to the following scenario: Country A attacks Country B in a manner which is voted to be "unjust" by a dedicated International Law jurying body.
Zero-tolerance collective security dictates that Country(ies) C who voted on this decision are compelled to go to war as peacekeepers in the scenario. Ideally, they halt the aggression from Country A to Country B.
Let's leave aside, for the sake of argument, the logistical nightmare and political aftershocks of such a policy.
What say you to the ethical implications?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Thoughts on Tisha B'Av 2008
Seeing as how it's Tisha B'av today (a day to mourn how we Jews have destroyed each other with hatred), I've been thinking about how we often attempt to deal with our trauma by integrating the characteristics of our abusers.
This is neither a novel idea or a particularly insightful one--that the body politic acts like any body in crisis.
However, if you look to Jewish History for clues about what happens during that process of integration, of the abused becoming the abuser, something singular reveals itself: we cast ourselves as other in really, really literal terms! In other words, we actually act out fascist roles and symbols somewhat consciously!
For example, see this article from the BBC:
However, if you look to Jewish History for clues about what happens during that process of integration, of the abused becoming the abuser, something singular reveals itself: we cast ourselves as other in really, really literal terms! In other words, we actually act out fascist roles and symbols somewhat consciously!
For example, see this article from the BBC:
It points to recent rhetoric from the Israeli Deputy Defence Minister as he deployed the word "Shoah" against Palestinians.
Or this article, which points to the alarming trend of JEWISH NEO-NAZIS (!) in Israel:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979508.html
Also, I can tell you that the above article is actually just the tip-of-the-iceberg--when I was in Israel in April, I read several articles which noted that this was becoming a popular fad among twenty-somethings.
But I think there is a way out: end our preoccupation with separation. Separation theology insists that "we are over here" and "god is over there".
Or this article, which points to the alarming trend of JEWISH NEO-NAZIS (!) in Israel:
For more on this, I highly recommend the film: The Believer
http://www.palmpictures.com/film/the-believer.php
And then there's this mind-warping report on Israelis tattooing themselves with Auschwitz-inspired numbers on their forearms:
And then there's this mind-warping report on Israelis tattooing themselves with Auschwitz-inspired numbers on their forearms:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979508.html
Also, I can tell you that the above article is actually just the tip-of-the-iceberg--when I was in Israel in April, I read several articles which noted that this was becoming a popular fad among twenty-somethings.
I sincerely doubt that the motive to put a number on ones arm is merely a clean and simple statement of defiance against genocide. It comes out of a much, much deeper impulse.
Some might point to the unsettling counterpoint between Fascism and Zionism--how these philosophies come from very similar intellectual world-views.
Some might point to the unsettling counterpoint between Fascism and Zionism--how these philosophies come from very similar intellectual world-views.
At the very least, Israel was founded with the help of Revisionist approaches.
See:
The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 1940-49. (Frank Cass Publishers, 2005)
&
Muscular Judaism: The Jewish Body and the Politics of Regeneration (Routledge Curzon, 2007).
But one could even say that a rigorous historical contextualization of Fascist roots in Zionism does not necessarily indict Zionism today... indeed, most modernist movements (even Feminism) were touched by this stream of thought.
What is desperately indicting is how Israeli policy has lost sight of the post-Holocaust responsibility of Israel: to be a counter-example to hatred and racism. To show how a national body can have a global vision by becoming the change it wishes to see in the world.
We're failing at this. Miserably. Israel views itself as "alone" in a crowd and it is therefore lonely and traumatized/traumatizing.
To expand on this, here is an excerpt from an article by Rabbi Yaacov Haber:
...as the Kotzker Rebbe said, “There is no place lonelier than a room full of people.”
Loneliness is possibly one of the most painful human experiences. Loneliness is not the same as being alone. Many people have times when they are alone through circumstances or choice. Being alone can be experienced as positive, pleasurable, and even emotionally refreshing if it is under the individual’s control. When Moshe received his prophecies, he was alone in solitude. Loneliness is unwilling solitude that is forced upon a person.
We always read Parshat Devarim on the Shabbos preceding Tisha B’Av, in part because of the connection between our Parsha and Tisha B’ Av signaled by the word “Eicha”. Moses asked, “How [Eicha] can I carry your burdens alone?” (1:12) and in the Book of Lamentations that we read on Tisha B ‘Av, Jeremiah asks in astonishment, “How [Eicha] could Jerusalem sit alone?”
But it’s not just the word “Eicha”! The Vilna Gaon explains that Moses said, “How can I carry your burdens alone?” and Jeremiah asked, “How can the city (of Jerusalem) sit alone?” Feeling alone, explains the GR”A (a Talmudist), is the essence of our national tragedy.
Moses and Jerusalem were reflections of the condition of the Jewish people. Moses was a lonely person and Jerusalem was a lonely city. Our people became isolated — not just from the world, but from each other. There was polarization, elitism, and arrogance. Moses felt isolated and so did Jerusalem, and they both exclaimed: “Eicha?!”
But one could even say that a rigorous historical contextualization of Fascist roots in Zionism does not necessarily indict Zionism today... indeed, most modernist movements (even Feminism) were touched by this stream of thought.
What is desperately indicting is how Israeli policy has lost sight of the post-Holocaust responsibility of Israel: to be a counter-example to hatred and racism. To show how a national body can have a global vision by becoming the change it wishes to see in the world.
We're failing at this. Miserably. Israel views itself as "alone" in a crowd and it is therefore lonely and traumatized/traumatizing.
To expand on this, here is an excerpt from an article by Rabbi Yaacov Haber:
...as the Kotzker Rebbe said, “There is no place lonelier than a room full of people.”
Loneliness is possibly one of the most painful human experiences. Loneliness is not the same as being alone. Many people have times when they are alone through circumstances or choice. Being alone can be experienced as positive, pleasurable, and even emotionally refreshing if it is under the individual’s control. When Moshe received his prophecies, he was alone in solitude. Loneliness is unwilling solitude that is forced upon a person.
We always read Parshat Devarim on the Shabbos preceding Tisha B’Av, in part because of the connection between our Parsha and Tisha B’ Av signaled by the word “Eicha”. Moses asked, “How [Eicha] can I carry your burdens alone?” (1:12) and in the Book of Lamentations that we read on Tisha B ‘Av, Jeremiah asks in astonishment, “How [Eicha] could Jerusalem sit alone?”
But it’s not just the word “Eicha”! The Vilna Gaon explains that Moses said, “How can I carry your burdens alone?” and Jeremiah asked, “How can the city (of Jerusalem) sit alone?” Feeling alone, explains the GR”A (a Talmudist), is the essence of our national tragedy.
Moses and Jerusalem were reflections of the condition of the Jewish people. Moses was a lonely person and Jerusalem was a lonely city. Our people became isolated — not just from the world, but from each other. There was polarization, elitism, and arrogance. Moses felt isolated and so did Jerusalem, and they both exclaimed: “Eicha?!”
Eicha? How?
I'm not sure.
But I think there is a way out: end our preoccupation with separation. Separation theology insists that "we are over here" and "god is over there".
What a lonely origin myth.
From this comes almost all our human difficulties: apartheid against others and self. We've got to stop.
What would love do?
What would love do?
Friday, August 8, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Dark Knight, Derrida, and a failure of autoimmunity...
After watching The Dark Knight, a columnist recently wondered about the ferry passengers in the Joker's "social experiment" (if you live in America and have a pulse, you'll know what I'm talking about):
Hmmm. Now there's a predicament that sounds politically familiar: our situation is a failure of autoimmunity. In other words, the patient is killing itself by deploying too high a fever. An hysterical response.
Here's a summary of the concept: It comes from Jacques Derrida, a philosopher deeply influenced by historical trauma, specifically colonialism in Algeria. His work originated the school of deconstruction: a method of reading text which seeks to disassemble any discourse standing as a "construction". Deconstruction demonstrates how if you read a thing against its own grain, it reveals something about itself which undercuts itself (this concept is sometimes called up as an "always, already").
How does it work?
Take 9/11 for example. Derrida deconstructs the "event" of 9/11 and problematizes the concept of terrorism. As always, he is interested in the question of language and how it is powerless to identify and label the attacks of September 11. The "event" is reduced to an "intuition without a concept", an "incantation" repeated continuously, by which the date "9/11" becomes more real to us than the actual event. Therefore, as we repeat the term "9/11" endlessly (in a traumatic "repetition compulsion") we become the continuing agents of our own trauma. We terrorize ourselves.
In this perspective, repeating the phrase "9/11" and compulsively attaching images of the towers falling, "spectacularize" September 11, and make it a "major event" in our psyches.
Even if we weren't there!
Derrida thus explores the suicidal temptation of "being there, as if." This could be called a "failure of autoimmunity" in contemporary American politics. For Derrida, "9/11 is the symptom of an autoimmune crisis occurring within the system that should have predicted it. Autoimmune conditions consist in the spontaneous suicide of the very defensive mechanism supposed to protect the organism from external aggression."
Fox News much?
This is how Derrida reads the stories which we tell ourselves about ourselves. He also calls up the heritage of the Cold War, during which the United States provided weapons and training in Afghanistan, and to the hijackers that actually perpetrated the September 11 attacks and contends that the 9/11 attacks were the manifestation of this suicidal paradox.
He observes the same failure of autoimmunity regarding the problematic expression of a "war on terrorism," because it tends to generate a "vicious circle of repression". In other words, by evoking a "war against terror," the United States terrorizes itself.
So too, the Joker tried to activate this psycho-logic in the passengers of the two ferries.
It didn't work. They stopped the cycle.
They grasped that the only way was a third way: throwing the detonators out the window. They'd have only been blowing themselves up anyway.
Yay for Hollywood naivete! Sometimes it's kinda wise. Never tell an entertainer to shut up and sing--they'll invariably surprise you.
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