Monthly Archives: September 2007

On "Sun in an Empty Room," by The Weakerthans

Sun in an Empty Room The Weakerthans (lyrics mainly from here; song available here) Now that the furniture’s returning to its goodwill home With dishes and last week’s papers, rumors and elections, crosswords, our unending war the black in our fingers smear their prints on every door pulled shut Now that the last month’s rent …

September 29, 2007 – 4:08 am | By ashok | Posted in music, weakerthans | Tagged | Comments (5)

Consumed/Consuming

A number of artists I like seem to only focus either on protest against the imperialism of governments, or the torment of chasing after love. The latter is always worked with sensually – we the audience are drawn to think of those times ourselves through a number of images. Each image brings up a moment …

September 28, 2007 – 8:13 pm | By ashok | Posted in music, politics | Comments (0)

On the Phrase ‘The Most Beautiful Thing:’ A Thought Experiment

Why do we use the phrase “this is the most beautiful [insert thing/person/attribute/etc.]” at all?The trouble with using the phrase is that when employed, we have to wonder what we’ve said about every other thing that might not be beautiful in the same way – are they less beautiful because of the existence of that …

September 27, 2007 – 11:50 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy | Tagged | Comments (0)

The Neglected Rethink: A Few Posts You Might Want to Revisit

The poetry posts pull in a nice bit of search engine traffic for a young blog – it’s actually remarkable how consistent that traffic is. Here are some posts on topics that are too often blogged about elsewhere, that will never get any search engine traffic: On Paris Hilton Why Shouting About Being Silenced Isn’t …

September 26, 2007 – 6:47 pm | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (0)

Announcing the "What Neglected Issue Should US Presidential Candidates Address More?" Meme

There are so many issues that are being neglected by the current slate of US Presidential candidates, as well as issues they claim to be addressing that are not being addressed well at all.What I want participants in this meme to do is write on one or two issues that they think a Democratic or …

September 24, 2007 – 6:00 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Tagged | Comments (1)

If Everything Is Just Entertainment, Then All Tastes Are Equally Valuable, Right?

Thoughtful critics seem to confront this problem frequently:“There are times I really like something that’s utterly thoughtless and mind-numbing. So when I put down something else as thoughtless and mind-numbing, am I being a hypocrite?”We can identify other variants of this: “You like to read, I like to party. Same thing if your reading doesn’t …

September 24, 2007 – 2:45 am | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (2)

Links to My Rightist Rants at The Irate Nation

I cringe when I see myself using terms like “the Left” that I’m not clear about in these articles nowadays. Nonetheless, these are some of the best writings I’ve put forth: How Conservatives Can Win the Peace The Future of Conservative Media? The Story of America Can the Internet Consistently Reward Those Who Make the …

September 22, 2007 – 3:39 pm | By ashok | Posted in links, politics | Comments (0)

Can Democratic Accountability Alone Fix A State University (i.e. Rutgers)?

If you’re interested about Rutgers’ governance, this “call to action” is about as thorough as it can getThe deep problem with most state universities is that they are run in such a way as to represent the “interests” of the people.After all, the people want to pay barely anything for tuition, want a top notch …

September 21, 2007 – 3:07 pm | By ashok | Posted in education | Comments (2)

Here At Rethink, It’s Time To Put Forward a Conspiracy Theory and Demand Blind Obedience: On Steven Greenblatt’s "Writing as Performance"

The remarks below depend on this article – take especial note of the anecdote regarding President ClintonThis is purely a suspicion, but I can’t help but think that Professor Greenblatt is up to something. It looks like he means “performance” in a subversive way, not just an innocent “know your audience” routine.The case I’m going …

September 21, 2007 – 1:47 am | By ashok | Posted in politics | Tagged | Comments (0)

How Does One Determine Whether Old Books About Politics Are Applicable Today?

Politics seems to be too closely related to circumstance for any political decision to be grounded in something timeless. A commitment to a principle such as “our roads should be safe” has obvious practical overtones. When other decisions such as alliances with dictators are made, the practical overtones are plain and disturbing, but even a …

September 20, 2007 – 5:20 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Tagged , | Comments (0)