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Spring 2012:
Logic (PHL 105
001: TR 4:30 - 5:45, DP 1457)
Ethics (PHL 106
0G6 - Tandem w/ HUM 122-001, MW 9:30 - 12:15, DP 1457)
World Religions (PHL 205
009: MW 12:30 - 1:45, DP 3619)
Asian Philosophy (PHL 215
001: TR 9:30 - 10:45, DP 2609)
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Department
of Philosophy and Humanities
Oakton’s Credit Course
Schedule
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Daily Philosophical Reflection
1/31/12
Our _ucked-up Prison System
I usually don’t like to employ extended quotes, but when someone says something perfectly, I want to keep it intact. In the second essay of On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche writes: “It is not unthinkable that a society might attain such a consciousness of power that it could allow itself the noblest luxury possible to it—letting those who harm it go unpunished. `What are my parasites to me?’ it might say. `May they live and prosper: I am strong enough for that!’ The justice which began with, `everything is dischargeable, everything must be discharged,’ ends by winking and letting those incapable of discharging their debt go free: it ends, as does every good thing on earth, by overcoming itself. This self-overcoming of justice: one knows the beautiful name it has given itself—mercy; it goes without saying that mercy remains the privilege of the most powerful man, or better, his—beyond the law.” This state of affairs has obviously yet to materialize in the United States (or anywhere else, for that matter), as we have honed a system in which the strongest and proudest black and brown men are punished to the point that they must either capitulate or be incarcerated. In either case, they are emasculated (i.e. made ugly).
1/24/12
Islands of Capitalism
The sustaining force of capitalism is desire. If it is exhausted, it must be artificially resuscitated. And the most effective way of doing so is separating human beings from one another. In terms of physical space, the most telling indicator of human isolation is the suburban archipelago, which middle-class property owners consider to be the promised-land (downtown condos serve as the equivalent for the 1%). As people fortify themselves in their gated communities, there are less and less physical places where we can meet. This trend is exacerbated by technological innovations like television and the internet, which offer opportunities for entertainment and artificial human contact. And the myth of “progress” through technology is perpetuated by events like the Arab Spring, which commentators have assessed as fueled by Facebook, Twitter, etc.—conveniently forgetting that it takes the actual assembly of human beings to generate a political movement. Social media may help, but there is no substitute for face-to-fact interaction. What Levinas interpreted as “Autrui”, the totally Other, is in truth parallel communication. But modern life is all about minimizing this contact. In the spirit of Baudrillard’s simulacrum, I offer internet gambling through the Cayman Islands as the distilled essence of capitalism: there is no human contact, there are only electrical impulses connecting a world of numbers and the ludic. Which is ludicrous. |
