I was just reading something entitled “Enlightenment Fears, Fears of Enlightenment” by Lorraine Daston, a woman who happens to be director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. She was writing of the headiness of the shift from relaxing into the arms of God to independence and assuming godliness, that shift into the Enlightenment.
But the price of detachment was often solitude, and the price of solitude could be madness. Cut loose from the web of sociability, released from the reciprocal accommodations of sympathy and diversion that “busy” us in conversation, the imagination invents a counter-self and a counter-world. Lovelier and livelier than the real self and world, the fata morgana of the imagination draws the solitaire ever farther from reality, both social and natural. To be mad was no longer, as it was in the seventeenth century, to suffer an excess of black bile, or to be possessed by demons; it was to prefer a personal world of the imagination to the shared world of society. It was, in other words, the ultimate form of independence. Hence the terror of madness precisely among Enlightenment intellectuals who hallowed independence, who fled Unmündigkeit [immaturity – the state of being before coming of age]. Their incessant warnings against the seductions of the imagination indicate how loose they gauged the grip of reason and reality to be. Pace its Romantic critics, the doyens of the Enlightenment did not scorn the imagination; they paid it the respectful compliment of honest fear.
I’ve spent the last two days in virtual isolation. Great for reading and thinking. Great for getting the kitchen grease off the metal surfaces and the dried bell pepper slices unstuck off the floor. But not good for the mind.
Too much think-time. Too much reflection on the failure of the body and the lack of will to do anything about it, on the fear of the end of an income. Too much time to think about the limitations of connections with the world around me. A mini touch of madness.
Have been thinking about that time in Argentina when, after eight days mostly in solitude (a dream come true) I found myself squirming with the fear of self and the chagrin of the discovery that I had never faced those fears. And about the conversations with several people who have gone to Kyoto for ten day zazen meditation sessions, who all told me the same experience comes over them about the seventh or eighth day.
It’s an easy place to avoid, this fear of self and of the imagination. So easy to keep busy. Distraction is sanity.
Life has been good to me and granted me time for reflection.
It has also given me clothes. And it’s time to do the laundry.
Oiso
November 2, 2003
Sunday, November 2, 2003
Saturday, July 12, 2003
Japanese Politicos’ Darwin Awards
Japanese politicians deserve their own category of Darwin Awards. The Liberal Democratic Party, which some like to call the Japan Republican Party, has been in power so long it smells like feet enclosed too long in shoes. They have been given a run for their money in recent years, but voter apathy, structural rigidity and lack of an inspired opposition have kept them in power. Virtual certainty of continued control allows for corruption, incompetence and boobery in any country, but the way Japan has managed to funnel some of its dimmer wits into politics is worth a Poli Sci Ph.D. dissertation or two; I’d love to see what a clever analyst might come up with to explain the phenomenon.
Back in the 80s there was Prime Minister Nakasone who let it slip that he felt sorry for America because it had so many blacks and hispanics pulling down their IQ level. When Jesse Jackson said, “Whoa there, pardner,” Nakasone insisted he was only talking to his cronies and the media had no right to take his remarks out of context. Yeah, right. What was that context there, Yasu? (Yasuhiro Nakasone and Ronald Reagan were pals. They called each other “Ron” and “Yasu.”)
There are the usual xenophobes who suck on people’s fear of difference and the unknown, like the Governor of Tokyo who wants to get the police ready so that if there is a natural disaster the city’s fair citizens will not be overrun by foreign criminals. But that kind of pandering is hardly a uniquely Japanese phenomenon.
No, I’m thinking more of the guy recently who announced, after a scandal hit the papers of a club at Waseda University that was into raping their dates, “It just shows the virility of the younger generation.”
And of the guy in the paper today. The country is in shock at the moment, so you might want to give him a little slack. But after the news hit the stands that the four year old found dead last week after being thrown off a building was actually killed by a twelve year old, everybody is doing what they always do with such information, asking how the nation got into such a mess and looking for scapegoats. Anyway, this guy – Konoike is his name – has now come up with a course of action. “Drag his parents through the streets and behead them,” he suggests.
All right, all right, I hear you say. He’s only saying out loud what millions are thinking. But really, folks, this guy is not only a public figure; he’s the (are you ready for this?) Minister for Disaster Prevention and Deputy Head of a government panel on youth problems.
Once we learn the whole set of circumstances and have a clearer idea of the degree to which mom and pop are responsible for this tragic figure, who knows? We might actually be persuaded to go along with this punishment.
But only if the twits that put Konoike in this position are subjected to the same punishment.
July 12, 2003
Back in the 80s there was Prime Minister Nakasone who let it slip that he felt sorry for America because it had so many blacks and hispanics pulling down their IQ level. When Jesse Jackson said, “Whoa there, pardner,” Nakasone insisted he was only talking to his cronies and the media had no right to take his remarks out of context. Yeah, right. What was that context there, Yasu? (Yasuhiro Nakasone and Ronald Reagan were pals. They called each other “Ron” and “Yasu.”)
There are the usual xenophobes who suck on people’s fear of difference and the unknown, like the Governor of Tokyo who wants to get the police ready so that if there is a natural disaster the city’s fair citizens will not be overrun by foreign criminals. But that kind of pandering is hardly a uniquely Japanese phenomenon.
No, I’m thinking more of the guy recently who announced, after a scandal hit the papers of a club at Waseda University that was into raping their dates, “It just shows the virility of the younger generation.”
And of the guy in the paper today. The country is in shock at the moment, so you might want to give him a little slack. But after the news hit the stands that the four year old found dead last week after being thrown off a building was actually killed by a twelve year old, everybody is doing what they always do with such information, asking how the nation got into such a mess and looking for scapegoats. Anyway, this guy – Konoike is his name – has now come up with a course of action. “Drag his parents through the streets and behead them,” he suggests.
All right, all right, I hear you say. He’s only saying out loud what millions are thinking. But really, folks, this guy is not only a public figure; he’s the (are you ready for this?) Minister for Disaster Prevention and Deputy Head of a government panel on youth problems.
Once we learn the whole set of circumstances and have a clearer idea of the degree to which mom and pop are responsible for this tragic figure, who knows? We might actually be persuaded to go along with this punishment.
But only if the twits that put Konoike in this position are subjected to the same punishment.
July 12, 2003
Friday, June 27, 2003
Reflections on Stonewall 2003
Thirty-four years now – where does the time go to – since the guys in makeup and heels fought back at Stonewall. It’s once again the gay Fourth of July, Christmas and Easter, Pesach and Yom Kippur rolled into one. It’s time to be gay for all of us old farts who don’t make that much of a big deal about being gay anymore. Time to look around and celebrate. Oh yes, and you young folk who think it’s always been this good, you go ahead and party too.
This year, with all the bad news of war and viral terror, it’s been hard to sing and dance. But Stonewall has rolled around and the gods have decided to be kind this week. There’s much to be thankful for.
On the political front, there are some remarkable differences between now and only a few years ago. In 1992, the Republican convention released its pitbulls against gays. W’s people, however, kept the dogs on the leash in 2000, and after Rick Santorum compared homosexuality with bestiality the White House couldn’t try hard enough to distance itself. When John Ashcroft’s “compassionate conservative” Justice Department went back on its word to allow its employees the usual courtesy of marking this month as Gay Pride month, and was forced to eat its words and give in, W kept silent. Six years ago Republicans savaged the appointment of a gay man as ambassador to Luxembourg; W. just appointed a gay man with a live-in partner as ambassador to Romania. All this from an aggressively conservative government.
In the world of entertainment, CBS is putting out a new sitcom starring Nathan Lane as a gay Congressman, and Scott Wittman plants a kiss on the lips of his partner of 25-years (and fellow songwriter for “Hairspray”) Marc Shaiman at The Tony Awards this year, right out there in front of God and everybody. Ellen DeGeneres’s coming out six years ago was the biggest news on television. These days, Frank Rich of the New York Times reports, the boycott of Disney for its pro-gay stance is a total flop and Richard Chamberlain “declared he was gay to widespread yawns.”
That lovely country up north where “the Mountie always gets his man” has just taken step three for gay marriage. Step one was all the Scandinavian countries, who allowed their own gay citizens to marry but no non-citizens and without adoption rights; step two was Holland and Belgium, who allowed marriage for its own citizens and anybody from countries like Scandinavia where it was allowed – and accepted adoption rights. Canada says there is no reason to deny the right of citizens and non-citizens alike to determine for themselves what they will call a marriage, and of course they should be able to raise kids in a loving family.
For gay people in America, however, it was yesterday when the Berlin Wall finally came down. For seventeen ugly years since police walked into a house and caught two guys in flagrante and the Supreme Court of the day, in Bowers v. Hardwick, said gays had no right to have sex even in their own home, gays have dreamt of the freedom people have in other countries to love and be loved and have that love recognized and accepted. Not in the U.S.A. Until yesterday.
Yesterday, the Court, with a majority of 6 to 3, declared that “Bowers was not correct when it was decided, is not correct today, and is hereby overruled.” The new ruling, in Lawrence et al v. Texas, might have been merely a resounding victory, but the decision of the court to base their decision on a critique of separate laws for gays and straights, which Bowers upheld, makes it a stunning victory, opening the possibility of full civil rights for gays once and for all.
I remember some thrilling moments over the years, the election of Harvey Milk and the defeat of the Briggs Initiative in California, the election of gay mayors in Berlin and Paris. But seldom have I wished I might have been in and up close on something as much as this. The New York Times report had the information tucked in with the details of the case that “by the time [Justice Kennedy] referred to the dignity and respect to which he said gays were entitled, several were weeping, silently but openly.”
Me too. Except when I’m dancing in every room in my house.
Happy Stonewall Anniversary everybody!
Oiso
June 27, 2003
This year, with all the bad news of war and viral terror, it’s been hard to sing and dance. But Stonewall has rolled around and the gods have decided to be kind this week. There’s much to be thankful for.
On the political front, there are some remarkable differences between now and only a few years ago. In 1992, the Republican convention released its pitbulls against gays. W’s people, however, kept the dogs on the leash in 2000, and after Rick Santorum compared homosexuality with bestiality the White House couldn’t try hard enough to distance itself. When John Ashcroft’s “compassionate conservative” Justice Department went back on its word to allow its employees the usual courtesy of marking this month as Gay Pride month, and was forced to eat its words and give in, W kept silent. Six years ago Republicans savaged the appointment of a gay man as ambassador to Luxembourg; W. just appointed a gay man with a live-in partner as ambassador to Romania. All this from an aggressively conservative government.
In the world of entertainment, CBS is putting out a new sitcom starring Nathan Lane as a gay Congressman, and Scott Wittman plants a kiss on the lips of his partner of 25-years (and fellow songwriter for “Hairspray”) Marc Shaiman at The Tony Awards this year, right out there in front of God and everybody. Ellen DeGeneres’s coming out six years ago was the biggest news on television. These days, Frank Rich of the New York Times reports, the boycott of Disney for its pro-gay stance is a total flop and Richard Chamberlain “declared he was gay to widespread yawns.”
That lovely country up north where “the Mountie always gets his man” has just taken step three for gay marriage. Step one was all the Scandinavian countries, who allowed their own gay citizens to marry but no non-citizens and without adoption rights; step two was Holland and Belgium, who allowed marriage for its own citizens and anybody from countries like Scandinavia where it was allowed – and accepted adoption rights. Canada says there is no reason to deny the right of citizens and non-citizens alike to determine for themselves what they will call a marriage, and of course they should be able to raise kids in a loving family.
For gay people in America, however, it was yesterday when the Berlin Wall finally came down. For seventeen ugly years since police walked into a house and caught two guys in flagrante and the Supreme Court of the day, in Bowers v. Hardwick, said gays had no right to have sex even in their own home, gays have dreamt of the freedom people have in other countries to love and be loved and have that love recognized and accepted. Not in the U.S.A. Until yesterday.
Yesterday, the Court, with a majority of 6 to 3, declared that “Bowers was not correct when it was decided, is not correct today, and is hereby overruled.” The new ruling, in Lawrence et al v. Texas, might have been merely a resounding victory, but the decision of the court to base their decision on a critique of separate laws for gays and straights, which Bowers upheld, makes it a stunning victory, opening the possibility of full civil rights for gays once and for all.
I remember some thrilling moments over the years, the election of Harvey Milk and the defeat of the Briggs Initiative in California, the election of gay mayors in Berlin and Paris. But seldom have I wished I might have been in and up close on something as much as this. The New York Times report had the information tucked in with the details of the case that “by the time [Justice Kennedy] referred to the dignity and respect to which he said gays were entitled, several were weeping, silently but openly.”
Me too. Except when I’m dancing in every room in my house.
Happy Stonewall Anniversary everybody!
Oiso
June 27, 2003
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