Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Mixed Review 7-11-12 (protest)

Protest: Occupy protest tosses 5,000$ overboard in protest of the Citizens United ruling.

This is an article about the 5,ooo$ protest of Citizens United, the 2011 land mark supreme court case that ruled that "money is free speech." Protesters tossed money with the words "End Citizens United," in print onto the street below. All the cash came from dominators, fully informed of the use of the funds.

This is the Guardian article by which I learned of this protest, and this is Max Kieszers financial war report where I learned of the article.

Also, make shore to check out the actual Citizens United court case documentation:

 More on Protest: Jesus and Nonviolence (a Third Way) by Walter Wink.

I am a complete flack, down to my vary core, even in times where I seem to be on top of things there is always a hidden slacker lurking in the darkness, it must have been an entire year ago that Debra Loyd, the ex-pastor of the church I attend, the Bridge pdx, lent me this little book, which I only just now finished reading. Jesus and Nonviolence is essentially a hand book written by Walter Wink which announces that Christ teachings on non-violence are a third way out of the faults choice between violence and permissiveness. As Walter Wink presents it, the dominate view held by many Christians today is that Christ would have us be "door mats" and not conscientious resisters of evil. I agree that this could be problematic for the purposes of the gospel, because it implies that we are called to complaisance when evil is being perpetrated against the innocent. Walter Wink points to faults interpretations of Matthew 5:38-41 as the possible root of this commonly held attitude turds violence and authority. Walter Wink wishes to unlock the true political potential of this passage:

"You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you. Do not resist an evil-doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile(matt. 5:38-41 nrsv)."

Wink tells us that "when the court translated working in the hire of the King James chose to translate antistenai as "Resist not evil," they were doing something more than rendering Greek into English. They were translating nonviolent resistance into docility." What Wolter Wink claims is that the truth of what Jesus was saying was so disturbing to the kings men that they couldn’t translate it accurately instead they invented a Jesus that could soot their self-desired purpose to hold power.

Walter Wink explains why this mistranslation took place but also how we can discover the real meaning of the text. The Greek word for anti is still used as an English suffix to mean "against," to this day, and histemi, a verb that in its noun form means violent rebellion, armed revolt, sharp dissention. Wink states that antistenai almost always means for military encounters--44 out of 71 times. This is stunning in the fact that not only would this mean that Matthew 5:38-41 is not a call for complaisance, as he illustrates later in the text, but is actually a condemnation of war. Although I am largely sympathetic to this point I can't help but to point out that Jesus could have been referring to the kind of actions that the antistenai referse to the other 27 times, that is it's possible that he was using it in a less common way. But at last I have to conclude that that would be less likely. After all Wink doesn't seem to include insurrectionary violence, or rioting as acts of war so those could take an even larger chunk out of the 71 one passages containing the word "antistenai," so I'd say his induction that Jesus was referring primarily to war which he only implies anyway is rather strong, but his larger point that it only refers to violence and not peaceful resistance is only slightly stronger than his first point. Sorry if that seems like I'm splitting heirs, it seems important to me right now- no- it is important because people often want to make an exception for state violence, and Jesus chose a word that was often used to describe warfare, that’s really telling, but we should all know that interpretation is always part of any translation. Right!

Anyway, Winks main point isn't that war is bad it's that Jesus is offering a 3ed option that is neither violent nor passive, and I happen to love 3ed options so this has some appeal for me right of the bat.

Wink proposes that a more accurate translation of Jesus' teaching would be, "Don't strike back at evil(or, one who has done you evil) in kind." or "Do not retaliate against violence with violence." Then he goes on to explain how one could resist evil without braking without violence. I think we are all familiar with tactics of non-violent resistance, but the brilliance is in the way Wink points out how each of Jesus directives; turn the check, give your cloak, going the extra mile, are all creative examples of ways to through the power structure back on its self.

The best thing about Wink's writing is the way it seems to effortlessly confront the issue of non-violence from multiple fronts at once, my own description of his work is actually a thousand times more cumbersome then his own style. If you’re not a follower of Jesus, or admirer of the son of man in any way, I doubt you will find this exegetical stuff vary compelling, but Wink includes lots of incredible accounts of successful non-violent resistance movments that I think would be hard to disregard. As for those that consider themselves followers of Christ, but are inclined to consider Matthew 5:38-41 to be a call to complience, than if they fallow Jesus directives of; turn the cheek, go the extra mile, ect. And Wink is correct, then they will be participating in non-violent resistance anyway so in a way it wouldent mattor in the long run. The thing is though, these sorts should listen closely to what Walter Wink is saying because if they fallow Jesus and find themselves to be at odds with the power structure they will probably wish they had taken the time to understand what was really going on, that their actions where ment to disrupt the system.

I’ve included this video in which Wink presents his basic argument,
it includes nearly the entire book, but if this stuff is interesting to you then I suggest reading the book your self, it contains many interesting accounts of successful non-violent campaigns, and is relatively affordable on Amazon.

Philosophy: Diet Soap #150: Bedazzled by Hegel’s Monstrous Reason

Man, Hegel's got to be the most exsotic thinker the world has ever known!: natation, double negation,  " organic life is closer to Frankenstein’s monster then it is to the tradition of marriage or the family," I might never understand Hegel, but Dug Ling is shore fun to lissen to, and you know, maybe thats alright because who said this stuff has to be more then entertainment anyway! ..I'll figuer it out one day.

episode #150.

Literature & freedom: Anarchy & Culture Podcast Episode 5: The Thin Blue Line/Into the Abyss

I am so floored by the Anarchy & Culture blog, it's probably the most logically consistent, idiosyncratic, exotic, commonsensical blog, I've come across, now, I could say the same thing about Daniel Coffeen's blog except his is so relentlessly counter intuitional, in the best way you could imagine, so I don't think commonsense has much to do with his Emphatic Umph. Anyway, this blog post is actually a podcast about capital punishment, and if it's necessarily the prize jewel of the state, of if a stateless society has any means or right to implement such an idea, and how such things relate to our current society, see pretty interesting, wouldn't you say.

((((((((Episode 5)))))))
                                                      Trailer for Herzog's Into the Abyss

As a personal note, I watched this trailer daring some “down time” at my work, two things you should know, 1st I work at a behavioral health facility, and 2ed, there was a hostile situation tonightnight involving another counselor and a client in which the police had to be called, as you could imagine this considerably intensified my viewing of the Werner Herzog's film trailer. Pretty scary stuff.

You know in a way it's weird that this libertarian/anaricist stuff appeals to me so much, givin' that I work for the state (later I thought about this and I don't technical work for the state, I actually work for a non-profit), and in some ways have to enforce the rule of law, but on one hand I did pick my job because I felt like this was a way I could really help people, and on the other hand I can't help but acknowledge that government is the largest perpetrator of violence, and is probably indirectly responsible for most of the poverty in the world via their relation to blood sucking corporations and banks, and bla bla bla, you get the picture. Anyway, it's fun to imagine another world, where freedom of association stands, and houses don't get repossessed by scam artists bankers. So now I guess I'll go on revivaling in my oun self contradictory ways. Peace and Freedom.

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