politics

because in this fucked up and shitty life filled with depression and guns and death and disaster and suffering and struggle and toil and repetitive, mind-numbing, stupefying routine, we’ve forgotten what it is to have meaning.  because we’ve been so innundated with reports about secret prisons, extraordinary rendition, guatanamo bay, afghanistan, abu gharib and al qaeda, we’ve forgotten how to imagine peace.  because in a world of population and consumption explosions, of slums, industrial agricultural, overmedication, and addiction, in a world lacking environmental awareness, realism, honesty, and basic trust, in a world with so much opportunity, what we’ve ended up with is too much wasted potential.  and because deep down inside what we all really want is to be loved and to give love: the universe has conspired to give us our chance.  it is terrifying to believe, but this is our generation’s chance.  it means trusting and embracing something uncertain - it means risking failure.  but it inspires hope.  and what drives us to get out of bed every morning is hope.

today like so many other people around the world i remember what it’s like to touch that part of me that creates hope.  today i can honestly envision a time when love, respect, responsibility, service, and citizenship rise to the forefront of public discussion.  and today i can feel as if those things can be ultimately achievable.  in this man so clearly distinguishable from all other presidents, i can see the love and excitement and energy and hope that makes us all human.  today i feel like i can conquer the world; if you do too, obama has already been the best president of our lifetime.

“One voice can change a room; and if a voice can change a room, it can change a city; and if it can change a city it can change a state; and if change a state, it can change a nation; and if it can change a nation, it can change the world!”

“To those who seek peace and security – we support you.  And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.”

america, we share those ideals with you.  thank you, from all of us, for making this moment come true.

do you know your rights?  in 1948, shortly after the war ended, the global community established the universal declaration of human rights.  according to wikipedia, the UDHR is the world’s most translated document! the 60th anniversary of the signing of this document is december 10th of this year.  check out this great video illustrating the contents of the document.

do you think we’re progressing towards this goal? or is the message of the UDHR too idealistic to achieve?

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 1

i spend a lot of time thinking about how the design of social rules and institutions can work together to produce a more loving, fairer society.  people have an inherent capacity for good (or so i tend to believe in my better moments), but drawing good out of people often requires some sort of external catalyst.  properly designed rules and institutions, then, should consistently reference what i’ll call inspirational touchpoints, but which truthfully could be referred to in economic terms as incentives.

looking at life through an economic prism often convinces us that incentives are best utilized when expressed economically (i.e., if you work longer hours this week, i’ll pay you a lucrative bonus).  stepping away from that prism, however, unearths all sorts of non-economic incentives.  sometimes those incentives are expressed in time recaptured (i.e. an extra day off) or in time repackaged (i.e. a day spent compiling a mix tape a friend will love).  sometimes they’re expressible only in ineffable emotional terms (i.e. those people who find reward when following their heart for love, joy, or adventure).  coming to understand someone properly inevitably means comprehending which incentives inspire them.

and the truth is that we’re at our best when we’re achieving Read the rest of this entry »

some of these are just wonderful.

this one’s my favourite, taken on his way to make a victory speech on the evening he won the nomination.  which is yours?

required reading for sarah palin?

The Future of the American Idea
November 2007
Atlantic Monthly
by David Foster Wallace
Just Asking

Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea* one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, “sacrifices on the altar of freedom”?* In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life—sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?

In still other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?

Is this thought experiment monstrous? Would it be monstrous to refer to the 40,000-plus domestic highway deaths we accept each year because the mobility and autonomy of the car are evidently worth that high price? Is monstrousness why no serious public figure now will speak of the delusory trade-off of liberty for safety that Ben Franklin warned about more than 200 years ago? What exactly has changed between Franklin’s time and ours? Why now can we not have a serious national conversation about sacrifice, the inevitability of sacrifice—either of (a) some portion of safety or (b) some portion of the rights and protections that make the American idea so incalculably precious?

In the absence of such a conversation, can we trust our elected leaders to value and protect the American idea as they act to secure the homeland? What are the effects on the American idea of Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Patriot Acts I and II, warrantless surveillance, Executive Order 13233, corporate contractors performing military functions, the Military Commissions Act, NSPD 51, etc., etc.? Assume for a moment that some of these measures really have helped make our persons and property safer—are they worth it? Where and when was the public debate on whether they’re worth it? Was there no such debate because we’re not capable of having or demanding one? Why not? Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety? What kind of future does that augur?

FOOTNOTES:
1. Given the strict Gramm-Rudmanewque space limit here, let’s just please all agree that we generally know what this term connotes—an open society, consent of the governed, enumerated powers, Federalist 10, pluralism, due process, transparency … the whole democratic roil.

2. (This phrase is Lincoln’s, more or less)

David Foster Wallace is the author of several books, including Infinite Jest (1996), A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (1997), and Consider the Lobster (2005).