Suspension of Disbelief

"Racial authenticity is typically understood to be the idea that individuals have some moral or political imperative to behave in conformation with some racial ideal or standard. This dominant view of authenticity is unquestionably essentialist. If there are racial essences, then racial authenticity demands that one behave in conformity with their particular racial essence. Racial inauthenticity , in this view, is the intentional or unintentional failure to behave in conformity with that racial essence. Thus, there are "real" blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, and so on, and then there are Uncle Toms, sell-outs, and race-traitors" ( Monahan , 38-39). In every society people are stereotyped into groups based on specific characteristics such as the color of their skin, their nationality, or their religion, to name a few. These stereotypes are based around a central root of racism, classism , or whichever other -ism is applicable in that particular instance. In the Unite...

I would like to, for a brief moment, talk logically about the act of abortion. Do we mass exterminate billions of insects and vermin with vicious poisons? Do we kill millions of cows and chickens a year for food? Have hundreds of thousands of people not been killed in Darfur and the Congo? Have 64.000 people not died as a result of our actions in Iraq? Does the United States not kill hundreds of people a year under the premise of "capital punishment" even if any number of them are innocent? Don't we kill a whole lot of things? But not the children. Oh hell no not the children! But, wait, wait, there are millions of starving children in this country and billions more across the globe. Aren't we, by not helping them, also killing them indirectly just as laws allowing abortion are allowing fetuses to be killed? It's all semantics isn't it. We don't REALLY mind killing each other so long as we can justify or ignore it. So what are a few more. Serious...

The following is a conversation I've had with a Professor of Commonwealth College (Com-Col) at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst following my rather, that is completely in every sense of the word, harsh end of the year review of the Dean's Book course (DBC). Quoting their email: Dear [Me], If you would like to meet with me to discuss your dissatisfaction with the Dean's Book Course and Commonwealth College, please let me know. Though I have classes and meetings scheduled next week, I do have some open times next Thursday and Friday. Yours, (Dr. X), Ph.D. *************************************** And my early morning response... Good early morning Dr. X, Please let me say two things at the outset. First, I am happy that someone actually looked at the response forms for all those people who believe that their comments will actually be taken to heart and I will indulge you with a response which you will undoubtedly find very unsatisfactory. Second, for a few reasons of wh...

I love springtime. It reminds you that the world's still turning.

Everyone should have a place to (pardon the pun) call there own. An ancient mechanism of the human mind that dictates possession, hearkening back to a time when man had to scrounge for roots and berries and hunt for food. "Mine" was a survival tactic. But we must realize that civilization is now able to move beyond the "mine" mentality when it comes to food and survival. Thus, evolution in the human psyche manifests personal possession a vestigial impulse. It is no longer necessary , in the most highly advanced parts of our society, to maintain this impulse because these lucky people don't have to worry about finding food or true survival in it's original sense. (The evolution of man is all around us. Yet because it happens so slowly, and so progressively, that we rarely realize it for what it is.) In this case, we have two choices. Either we scrap the idea of personal property or we reassign the impulse to something else. It is the latter that I beli...

How many people have died in Iraq since the beginning of combat operations? .................................................................. ........................................................................ ...................................................................................... .............................................................................. .......................................................................... ................................................................ ......................................................................... ......................................................................... ................................................................................... ................................................................................... ................................................................................... .................................................................................