Finding Meaning Saves Lives

This morning i learned of an attack that was made — in a national newspaper — against a former classmate of mine. Robert Fulford of the National Post (unofficial soapbox for Canadian cynicism) wrote a piece called “Lex Luthor hearts Superman: Your tax dollars at work” in which he basically accuses Jes Battis of stealing money — by being awarded a research grant for his work on homoeroticism in popular culture. Jes responded to the attack with more humour and patience than i could have mustered.

Many issues were brought up in the exchange, but for me i was reminded of the article i read some time ago in the Georgia Straight called “Finding meaning in life key to curing addiction”.

Lately i’ve been reading Victor Frankl’s classic Man’s Search for Meaning and when i read Jes Battis’ response to the attack against him i remembered one of Frankl’s lines about life in Auschwitz. Speaking of the psychological torments of the camps and his fellow prisoners’ inevitable contemplation of suicide, he says: “...once lost, the will to live seldom returned.”

New pathways to meaning:

Counter-hegemonic readings of (supremely accessible) iconic cultural texts — such as Battis’ queer reading of young Superman and Lex Luthor — can help to provide an ontological foundation for discursive spaces in which to safely begin the collaborative work of psychological healing (from homophobia, for example).

This is not intellectual wanking. This is completely practical, vital, real-world stuff.

I see this in action every day in my work as a youth counsellor. In fact, one of the strengths i feel i bring to my work is the willingness and ability to help young people see and appreciate the philosophical profundity of the self-healing work they’re doing — and to assure them that there are intellectual and cultural communities in which they would be welcome. Often i have to do a lot of explaining (decoding jargon, paraphrasing, etc.) but the experience has been mutually rewarding and has even occasionally led to therapeutic breakthroughs for the young people i work with.

Incidentally, reading about Jes this morning reminded me of my pivotal experience in early adolescence (about which i have written, in an article published in Adbusters a few years ago), of discovering the historical tradition of anarchism — knowing that generations of people had built a movement based on ideas similar to my own profoundly changed my perception of reality, at a crucial time when despair and alienation were a serious threat to my well-being. As the protagonist of the film Year of the Dog put it (upon discovering veganism) “It’s nice to have a word that describes you. I’ve never had that before.”

The sense of belonging, the meaning of community, obviously saves lives — it is a salient level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And Jes Battis’ significant contributions to the creation of community should be applauded. The fact that so many of the National Post’s readers so eagerly attack him makes me very sad because it strikes me as an example of what people who have no sense of connection to the whole of humanity act like, in the agony of alienation. Again, i think of Victor Frankl.

So many of the comments seem to reverberate with a despairing, fanatical economic adversarialism — as if giving someone money always means stealing it from someone else. I see this reductio ad absurdum as the tragic kernel of prevailing statist (socialist and capitalist) economic theories... A sketch of an anarcho-synergistic economic model is something i might dare to attempt some day. (I’ve heard Michael Albert has interesting ideas along these lines).

Ultimately, i was driven to write this post because both the NP article and many of the comments posted below Battis’ response to it ignorantly and arrogantly dismiss his work and attack him personally — and i felt attacked alongside him. So i wanted to raise my blog’s voice in protest, to assert that i am part of the intellectual community against which these attacks are being made, and to emphasize that we are a community which, beyond being legitimate, actually makes important contributions to society. Even saves lives, and helps to make them worth living.

R.I.P. Demonoid?

Today the ugly rumors were confirmed: Demonoid.com (reportedly one of the world's most popular BitTorrent tracker sites) has been shut down, but only for Canadians.

The group responsible for locking us out of our own collective media library is the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA); but these dinosaurs are enjoying what will inevitably prove to be a short-lived victory. Whether or not Demonoid itself is able to reopen to Canadian file sharers, as one poster recently put it: "We are in an era where the old rules of rights management cannot survive. Pandora's Box is open, the cat is out of the bag, you cannot go back without causing more damage, if you can go back at all. Adapt or die."

In my opinion, such confidence is securely founded on two things.

First, I am certain of the justness of file sharing, which, as another poster pointed out, is in fact the only means of accessing much "obscure" (ie: unprofitable) media: "People don't go to demonoid for Britteny Spears. They go for Jazz and Classical recordings that have not been available for purchase in the US for 20 years. They go for medical textbooks. I got a full Principa Mathmatica there for cripe's sake. It's where Americans get 30 year old BBC productions. I'd been wanting to see The Sweeny for years. I'd have paid for it given the chance. The copyright Nazis don't give a shit about 90% of what's there and 90% of the people using Demonoid don't give a shit about any of the stuff the copyright Nazis give a shit about.")

Incidentally, I also believe that the reason so much media remains unavailable except through file sharing is because of the dinosaur corporate business models that have not kept up with emerging technologies. Thus, we (media users/consumers) are punished doubly: first by having to work our asses off (for example) to digitize media that hasn't been/won't be remastered and/or re-released by it's original producers (instead of simply buying a digital copy of it, like so many of us would clearly be happy to do), and then we're accused of stealing it! Many media artworks (eg: movies available only in VHS; old/obscure publications [of particular interest to me is the library of millions of digital comic books created by readers who scan the often hard-to-find originals, a specialty of Demonoid]; as well as independent/obscure recordings) owe their entire contemporary (digital) existence and/or circulation to dedicated file-sharing fans - but instead of being thanked for enriching and maintaining our collective cultural heritage, we're threatened by bureaucrats and business giants who have no legitimate claim to the artworks we've rescued from oblivion.

The second pillar of my confidence in the inevitable vindication of file sharing is the conviction that media artists themselves will not tolerate the restrictions that the big business copyright-dinosaur lobby is pushing for. Already, a swarm of Canadian musicians have created an antidote to the CRIA, they call it the Canadian Music Creators Coalition. Through spokesperson Steven Paige (of the Barenaked Ladies), they say:

"We, as Canadian music creators, have identified three simple principles that should guide copyright reform and cultural policy.
- ...we do not want to ...coerce fans into conforming to a rigid digital market artificially constructed by the major labels.
- ... Laws should protect artists and consumers, not restrictive technologies [ie: DRM technologies]
- Third, we strongly believe that cultural policy should support actual Canadian artists. We call on the Canadian government to firmly commit to programs that support Canadian music talent. The government should make a long-term commitment to grow support mechanisms such as the Canada Music Fund and FACTOR, invest in music training and education, create limited tax shelters for copyright royalties, protect artists from inequalities in bargaining power and make collecting societies more transparent."

As for Demonoid itself, when i visited the site moments ago it simply said: "The latest changes to the site are giving us some problems - We'll be back soon"

Too good to be true? I certainly hope my favorite community-conduit to completely otherwise unavailable media reopens, or that another one, of equal quality, emerges to fill the crater left by CRIA's assault.

**EDIT [Nov 6]: Well, this has been a highly rewarding learning experience. There is always hope: Praise The Proxy Saviour!

**EDIT [Nov 10]: And sometimes hopes are dashed... The latest from Demonoid:
"The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding."
...La lucha sigue. ¡Venceremos!

some things can't be explained...

(line from Dusan Makavejev's "Sweet Movie")

Too busy, as usual... Even less clarity, even less certainty, even more stress, even less sleep. We (Sara and i) went blackberry picking last weekend - inspired, for my part, by Steve Collis' reading at Under the Volcano two weeks ago (on the heels of our trip to Nova Scotia for my dad's 60th). But i wouldn't usually bother to post such quaint reflections to this blog... not that they're unworthy of commemoration, of course. But, rather, i was moved to update this page because:

I recently received word that there's been a paramilitary attack against the Zapatista municipality of Olga Isabel; the very municipality i visited (with an MSN delegation of human rights observers) in September of 2002. The courage, dignity and humour of the people who hosted our group for that week spurred me on to increased activism upon my return to Vancouver. In particular they prompted me to align myself with indigenous resistance in Canada, and to learn more about my own history... both of which are crucial elements of work i've done since. Here's a link to the details of the recent attacks against them.

And speaking of resistance at home, the recent actions of the Quebec police deserve more outrage than they have elicited.

Oh, and i might be looking for a new job again - just maybe - for a couple of reasons that have basically nothing to do with my current job, which i love in every way except one: the schedule is slowly killing me just as it prevents me from taking so much as a single evening or weekend course... So if you happen to hear about a decent job with regular hours, don't hesitate to let me know... Thanks.

Restore funding for Aboriginal Languages

Greetings cyber-citizens!
As usual, it's been a while... Well, here's a letter i sent this morning to one of the few conspicuously legitimate elected representatives on this continent. I'll post any replies and follow-up... Once again, click here if you want to get a word in also.

Hello Mr Siksay,
first, thanks and congratulations for all of your good work keeping human rights on the federal agenda.
i'm writing to ask you if you have yet received any response from Bev Oda to your January letter calling for the reinstatement of the 160 million dollars of funding for Aboriginal Languages: Has the Minister responded (favourably)? If not, will you be raising the issue again? It has been brought to my attention by friends and colleagues from coastal First Nations that now is an appropriate time to increase pressure for this funding, with the AFN's National Day of Action approaching.
please let me know if there have been any developments in this area recently, and as a voter who is passionate about the revitalization of First Nations languages, thank you for your work on this important issue - as you know, it is an extremely time-sensitive one.
sincerely,
ryan andrew murphy

Cordón Blog / al cumpleaños

In the final hours of my 28th year, i contemplate my paltry blog and feel vaguely obligated to make a new post. The long pauses between postings speak volumes about unresolved conflicts:

As i divide my time between the banal interrogation of falsely modest personal demons, my "careers" (paid work plus largely unpaid creative and intellectual work), the ongoing recalculation of viable & sustainable degrees of involvement in activist/solidarity work and attending to my individual and relational well-being, it seems the same kinds of questions come up in all spheres:

What am i doing? (What is the nature of the projects i'm engaged in?)
Why am i doing it? (What is the purpose: for whom and/or what parts of myself am i doing it?)

What is this blog for/about?

Its inconsistencies, the shifts in style and content are a surprisingly accurate reflection of the tensions in my mind between different needs, desires, goals, visions, whatever. Between different ideas of who i am (and/or who i wish to become / again).

Thinking of Bridget Jones' Diary (to me, a film - though i'm sure the usual caveats about transmediation apply; maybe if i finish all these, i'll get around to reading the original) as well as having seen it done by friends in their admirable blogs, it occurred to me to infuse this entry with some data that might serve as a representative sample of my year:

Bachelor's Degrees earned: 1
Grad school applications rejected: 1
Concerts attended: lots
Concerts performed: 0
Songs included in compilations: 1
Poems published: 1
Visits with my Grandad in Florida: 1
Old friends rediscovered: several
Funerals attended: 1
Weddings attended: 2
Car accidents: 1
Collage parties thrown: 2
Lobsters eaten: 2.5
Brief bilingual speeches at protests outside the Mexican consulate: 1
Tattoos: 1
New languages studied: 1
Episodes of Star Trek TNG watched: all

Happy Birthday to me!
And to all of the blogosphere: yeehaw!

Colonial Art...

My friend Jerry sent this letter to the Sun (and me) yesterday. Enjoy.

..............................................
Steven Hume’s complaint (Vancouver Sun, 22 Feb 2007, pg. A.17) about “political correctness” in regard to what he terms “censoring art from our past” trivializes the issues by labeling the First Nations complaint with the catch-all term “political correctness”. By innuendo he insinuates that the First Nations’ concerns about the Southwell Mural entitled “Courage” in the legislature building are similar to Fascist and dictatorial regimes that destroyed paintings, burned and censored literature, banned and exiled authors, intellectuals and dissidents, and in the recent past destroyed statues, or pillaged libraries and archives. He refers to the “degenerate art” exhibitions as displays of artists who “offended” the German sensibility. He refers to the Taliban’s destruction of religious icons. His comparisons are cheap and historically false. The paintings from the “degenerate art” exhibits were confiscated, housed and held for ransom - that is stolen. Books were burned. Artists and authors were persecuted, imprisoned or murdered, and many were herded into reservations otherwise known as concentration camps. Political opponents likewise. The logic that the First Nations’ concern has any relationship to these events is guilt by association. It would be far more fitting of him to explain to readers why a people whose land has been confiscated, whose children were incarcerated in residential schools, whose households were turned into subsistence economies, and whose culture and languages were rendered obsolete might be “offended” by the art work in an official building representing them as subservient in a land where they are citizens. While stupidities have been committed in the name of ‘political correctness’ this concern about the painting goes much deeper. A more correct analogy would be if Jewish survivors of the holocaust were asked to accept as an official representation of their legacies and their lives the very stereotypes that were pervasive in the society that decimated their culture and their families because of phobias against Jews and non-Aryans. Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, the sick and crippled were the “natives” of the time. Yes teach the next generation and this one too about the causes, and find ways to do that. Keep the painting as illustration of a historical perspective. Consult many about how to do that. Don’t trust all art historians. Don’t trust all journalists. Don’t trivialize the issue by meaningless comparisons. By the way, Paul Klee is not a cubist.

Jerry Zaslove
Professor Emeritus
Simon Fraser University