Quantum hauntology

Recent IPS posts on quantum electrons led me to Bryant, who references Karen Barad, an advocate of Bohr's QM and who wrote Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement .... Here's one of her articles called "Quantum entanglements and hauntological relations" in Derrida Today 3.2 (2010): 240–268. The abstract:

"How much of philosophical, scientific, and political thought is caught up with the idea of continuity?

More holonics

Continuing this tangent in the IPS religious differences thread a few more of the last posts:

I'd agree that no one methodology can exhaust an object's agency a la OOO. However, how can we coordinate the various methodologies through a meta-paradigm? Isn't that one of the goals of an integral approach? We have AQAL, which does a gigi-glossary comparison, but that doesn't tell us much about how they interrelate, partly due to a lack of the 'you' dimension per Edwards criticisms. And it seems like at least some of these 2nd-person approaches are in fact the 'relational' and 'in-between' meta-methods by which to correlate the 1st and 3rd person. Again they don't exhaust or fully define an object yet they provide a more comprehensive coordination of multiple perspectives. In a less critical mood (like now) I might even suggest that this is one of the attributes of a cross-paradigmatic level of cognitive complexity. Except that (critic returning) such models of complexity themselves are sorely lacking in such 2nd person insights we see in this thread, with consequent gaps (more like gaping holes) in their cross-paradigms.

From Edwards' Ph.D. dissertation:

An holonic tangent

In our IPS discussion of religious differences we've taken a sidebar into holonics as it relates to the topic at hand. Some excerpts:

theurj:


Balder said: "Concerning this union being social rather than mystical, I don't see it in either/or terms.  I don't think there's just one type of "real" union.  I think there is value in both mystical (UL) and sociocultural (LL) experiences and expressions of unitive events, which can be mutually informing but which are also both irreducible objects (in OOO terms) in their own right."

Lady Gaga's Christmas present

Her Christmas present is this formerly unreleased single from Born This Way, Stuck on Fuckin' You.

More on religious difference

Here are a few more excerpts of the discussion I started in this post.

Balder:

In my paper, as you know, I tried to reason from certain principles within recent Integral thought towards a conclusion which really is not embraced by Wilber at this date -- one which is more "pluralist" and less "ontotheological" than the official version of Integral remains.

Arnsperger's back

Christian Arnsperger finally has a new blog post after 5 months. Here are a few excerpts:

"The housing asset-price bubbles was used as a strategic tool. It was encouraged and consciously sustained. It was, in a sense, the ultimate bet: Let a localized inflationary craze generate sufficient bank-account wealth for a sufficient number of people, so that when they start to spend this as yet unbacked monetary wealth, the material wealth that was needed to back it would start getting produced.

The postmetaphysics of religious difference

Balder started a thread at IPS of this name. Here are the first few posts. For the ongoing discussion visit the thread:

Balder:


I just came across an essay on religious pluralism which appears to touch on some of the themes we've explored here in the past (I've read the abstract and conclusion so far, and will dig in to the rest tomorrow.) The Postmetaphysics of Religious Difference.  For those interested, here's the abstract:

Correlation of color and sound

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

Something in the quantum enlightenment thread reminded me of this tract by one of my former mentors, Paul Foster Case's "Correlation of Sound and Color." He reveals heretofore esoteric secrets "so that prepared minds may use color and sound...for the development of a well-rounded consciousness, for the liberation of the profounder powers of subconsciousness in works of that true Magic of Light which from time immemorial has been called theurgy*."

More on critical theory

Another resource, for some of the newer members not familiar to avenues we've already traversed, is eco-transitions. It too is an integral critical theory of where we've been and are going. And from an integrally informed, and previously kennilingus-approved, economist, Christian Arnsperger. I also referenced him in the progressive economics thread. A few quotes from the latter:

What is integral critical theory?

The above article was shortly followed at Integral World by “What is integral critical theory” by Joe Corbett. He too recognized the foundations of critical theory in the Frankfurt School, which in turn was strongly influenced by Marx and Weber. He notes that critical theory's raison d'etre is “human emancipation from oppression,” hence why I chose this particular forum (town hall). As Anderson notes, one must take their 'enlightenment' into the world and help others. Otherwise it is so much narcissism selling product under the guise of emancipation. Moreover, Corbett indicates that a main premise of critical theory, a la Marx, is that the socio-economic sphere must be transformed first for the vast majority of people to even approximate anything vaguely resembling personal liberation. Even Kennilingam recognized as much in Excerpt A.

Here are a few excerpts:

What is critical integral theory?

This is the name of a new article by Daniel Gustav Anderson at Integral World. Following are some excerpts reminiscent of our recent conversations at IPS on OOO. I'm also starting a thread at IPS to see if this will generate some discussion. Excerpts:

"You need to specify an ontology, a set of concepts that account for the stub-your-toe world of experience and limitations.

"I proposed to read Nagarjuna's central concept of dependent origination through the diction of Marxist and post-Marxist categories.

"The world is understood holistically, as a whole and by reference to the relation of the parts to the whole. The category of contradiction is of particular importance here, as it toward ways in which the totality of relations is conflicted.

William Black on financial crime

I recently became aware of William Black's work at the blog New Economic Perspectives. His latest interview with Taryn Hart is a must see if you want to understand the guts of the last financial crisis, why nothing was done to prevent it, why nothing has been done to correct it and why it is inevitable that something like it, or worse, is bound to happen again. The level of this criminal behavior is astounding, and even more so that Obama is an apologist for it. This article at the blog discusses why no one went to jail for these crimes:

Question:

"You played a critical role during the S&L crisis in exposing congressional corruption. During that period of time, a lot of corruption was exposed; a lot of people in the financial sector went to jail, including Charles Keating. I wonder if you would contrast that to the last credit crisis, let us say from 2007 to 2009 where a lot of money was lost, a lot of things went wrong, but nobody went to jail. Instead of going to jail, they walked out instead with multi-million dollar bonuses. What was the difference, what was behind this in your opinion?"

Black:

"[In] the Savings & Loan crisis...our agency filed well over 10,000 criminal referrals that resulted in over 1,000 felony convictions and cases designated as nature.

Spiritual domination of the fittest

This article by Joe Corbett at Integral World is enlightening, adding support to the much vaunted claim that Kennilingam and kennilingus is an apologetics for political conservatism and capitalism. A few excerpts:

"Ken Wilber['s]...model of justice has a peculiar resemblance to the 2500 year old notion of justice found in Plato. At the top of the social pyramid in Plato's utopian Just society sits the philosopher-king (Ken Wilber). Surrounding him are the loyal and obedient warriors who protect and defend him by any means necessary, whether he is right or wrong (the inner circle of Wilber devotees). Next comes the merchant class (Joe Firmage and other wealthy benefactors of the Integral Institute), the lowly but necessary servants who support the needs of the philosopher-king and his warriors with booty that the king and his warriors have helped to secure from the common masses (the clients and patrons of the books, merchandise, and seminar-workshops of Ken Wilber Inc.). And just in case anybody forgets who the beloved philosopher-king is they need only look at the front cover of any given Wilber publication adorned with the face of none other than KW himself.

Your action delayed the destroy the internet Bill!

Update received in my email. See what lateral power to the people can accomplish via the internet? This is just what the corporatocracy cannot stand and want to quash. Keep up the good fight comrades! :


BREAKING NEWS: Because of immense public pressure, the House Judiciary Committee cancelled their vote on the bill that would kill Internet innovation and free speech -- and adjourned for the rest of the year!
Over the last 36 hours, over 97,000 people like you signed our joint petition with reddit against this bill, and thousands more called their representatives. This momentum succeeded in stopping this bill, for now.

Sales data refutes piracy claims

I recently posted on the insidious and speciously named Protect IP Piracy Act. The crux of the claim is that piracy robs sales from the owners of the content. Is that true? Check out this study by Michael D. Smith. (Also see his article here.) An excerpt of the write-up:

"Our results suggest that (1) online 'free' distribution can complement legitimate purchases of media goods, (2) legitimate digital distribution channels can reduce the demand for piracy, and (3) that digital distribution is unlikely to cannibalize sales in physical channels in the short-term"


Recall Bryant noted anecdotally that sales of The Speculative Turn at Amazon went up when the free pdf version of the book was released.

Malad(a)y Greetings

From Cthulhu, patron saint of OOO. Madness and woe to you and your kin.

What the media didn't tell you about arresting Occupy LA

This story is absolutely shocking about how the police arrested the LA protesters. So shocking that I will provide the story in full from one who was arrested. What the flying fuck has the US come to? I'm embarrassed for my country over this.

My Occupy LA Arrest

by Patrick Meighan /  blogspot / December 6, 2011

Quantum OOOrgasm

Once again our IPS OOO discussion returns to the quantum, since the thread kicked off with Morton's interpretations of it in "Here comes everything." Some excerpts:

From this post on nonlocality at Morton's blog, the commenter quoting Morton:

"For example, in relation to nonlocality you say, 'nonlocality. This is definitely metaphorical and not literal, at least as far as we know, since real nonlocality, which is a quantum phenomenon, only occurs (we think) at very small scales.'” 

Morton responded to this commenter in this post. But honestly it sounds like jibberish to me. This is where I prefer Bryant's clear writing style. Morton is so obtuse here under the guise of aesthetic rhetoric that his tropes have no traction, for me.

Lakoff responds to Luntz

In his Huff Post article today he chastises the progressives for once again dumbfoundedly accepting Luntz's framing, not realizing its importance. "It's a trap," he says. If progressives merely frame their agenda as opposite to Luntz's suggestions they maintain the frame. This is a must read for a more effective way to step outside the wrong frame and into the right one. For example:

OOO, Buddhism & penis size

Our IPS discussion has returned to the relation of OOO and Buddhism. Here are a few snippets of that discussion:

Balder:

What is the status of the self in OOO?  Does it lead back to conceptions of an independent, isolated nuclear self?

theurj:

I don't think so. My sense is that an object's autonomy is not devoid of its (inter)dependent origination. And that its withdrawn nature is akin to the emptiness of the self (or any object). Bryant might be more aligned with this interpretation, being Buddhist.

Sachs: 5 steps to fix our economy

Jeffrey Sachs' 11/28/11 Huff Post article is clear and concise on how to fix our broken system.

"First, restore the Glass-Steagall Act's separation of commercial banking and investment banking, and strongly regulate derivatives trading. The financial casino continues to infect the core of the banking system and the real economy.

Lakoff preempts Luntz

I look forward to George Lakoff's response to Luntz's recent comments. However Lakoff has already offered advice to OWS on how to frame itself. From this 10/20/11 AlterNet article:

"It seems to me that the OWS movement is moral in nature, that occupiers want the country to change its moral focus. It is easy to find useful policies; hundreds have been suggested. It is harder to find a moral focus and stick to it. If the movement is to frame itself, it should be on the basis of its moral focus, not a particular agenda or list of policy demands. If the moral focus of America changes, new people will be elected and the policies will follow. 

Frank Luntz scared of OWS

When the chief conservative spin meister is worried about OWS you know the movement is having a significant impact. According to this post Luntz spoke at the Republican Governors Association this week and said he's “scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death” and acknowledging that it is “having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.” He then proceeded to offer advice on how to reframe the message in the hope of neutralizing it, as follows from the linked article. I look forward to Lakoff's re-frame of this frame.

– Don’t Mention Capitalism: Luntz said that his polling research found that “The public…still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we’re seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we’ve got a problem.”

Daily Kos call to action against internet bill

	Please take a moment to email your senators and ask them to oppose the so-called "Protect IP Act." Protect IP is legislation that would -- no exaggeration -- destroy the social web as we know it. In short, this proposed law would allow corporate copyright holders the ability to cut off funding and compel the government to shut down websites they deem infringing, without the need of a court order. (See here for more information on this devastating bill.) This poorly conceived piece of legislation has been rushed through Congress without proper debate, with only Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon standing between it and the president's desk. Pro-censorship forces have spent over $90 million to get this bill passed, we have, well, social media to fight back. If you value Daily Kos, or Facebook, or Twitter, or any website which invites your participation, please take a moment to contact your senator. Thanks, Markos Moulitsas Publisher, Daily Kos

Gregory Desilet

In this IPS thread I am re-opening some previous discussions we've had with and about Greg in the previous forum, as well as this one. (See it for ongoing discussion.) Here are the links to the prior Gaia threads on Derrida and synergist spirituality. In this post from the OOO thread I introduced his new book, Radical Atheism and New Spirituality. Therein I linked to an Integral World article that highlights a few excerpts of the book. I will include the referenced passage from that post below in some more lengthy excerpts:

"The nature of being may be such that it can only reveal itself partially...there are alternative economies of order, economies that see partiality and limited perspective as a consequence of the nature of being itself.

Christian A-theism

In Bryant's blog post on a-theism he mentions that by his definition there can be such a chimera as a-theistic religion. As example he gives Episcopal minister Jack Spong. (Also see the IPS thread on this for ongoing discussion.) Bryant says:

"Episcopal minister Jack Spong’s theology, for example, would fit very well with a-theism in this sense. It is not Bishop Spong’s siding with science that makes his theology consistent with a-theism (though kudos for him!), but rather his thesis that transcendent God (the myth) literally dies with Jesus. The Jesus-event, under this reading, becomes the assertion of a theology of immanence, a rejection of transcendence, and the resurrection and ascension refer not to something literal, but rather to the emergence of a new kind of community no longer based on an essence stemming from kinship relations and without identity: a queer community not unlike the show Heroes. Jesus’s 'resurrection' would lie in the work of this purely immanent community with no criteria for membership and no signifier or membership that could define it. It would be a community of fragments without law, kinship, or national guarantee. Paradoxically, the least Christian thing one could do under this reading would be to call oneself a Christian or join a Christian community as that would immediately set up a logic of membership defining an in-group and an out-group."

From the wikipedia entry on Spong:

Taibbi on what the pepper spraying reveals

The UC Davis pepper-spraying is a symptom of a long line of erosions to the people's rights. Taibbi with usual aplomb explores how we came to this. Some excerpts:

"When we militarized our society in response to the global terrorist threat, we created a new psychological atmosphere in which the use of force and military technology became a favored method for dealing with dissent of any kind.

Because of the countless decisions we made in years past to undermine our own attitudes toward the rule of law and individual rights. Every time we looked the other way when the president asked for the right to detain people without trials, to engage in warrantless searches, to eavesdrop on private citizens without even a judge knowing about it, we made it harder to answer the question: What is it we’re actually defending?

Sachs on the Super Committee's big lie

Jeffrey Sachs once again speaks truth to power as the deadline for the Super Committee approaches without a glimmer of hope that it will resolve anything. One reason is that it assumes the answer lies in cutting those evil government programs that help people while leaving off the table increasing tax revenues just a pinch more on the top 1%. That's the big lie, that raising those taxes even a couple of points will destroy the economy. In case anyone is still living under a rock, the economy has already been destroyed for the 99%. Sure, it's still doing fine for the 1%, and the likes of the Super Committee is dedicated to keeping it that way, since their pockets are lined by those taskmasters. Following are excerpts from Sachs' article today.

"The big political lie of the Super Committee is that the deficit must be closed mainly by cutting government spending rather than by raising taxes on corporations and the super-rich. Both parties are complicit. The Republicans want to close the deficit entirely by cutting spending; Obama has brandished the formula of $3 of cuts for every $1 of tax revenues. On either approach, the poor and middle class would suffer grievously while the rich and powerful would win yet again.

Steve Jobs, and those who buy his products, are assholes

Matt Taibbi satirizes our complicity in enabling child labor abuse by making consumer choices to buy the products of the asshole who created them. Here are some excerpts from his 11/16/11 blog post:

“Steve Jobs...was undeniably a pathologically driven and totally ruthless corporate competitor who would have screwed his own mother out of her last penny, who took credit for inventions that were not entirely his own, and engaged in serial underhanded mistreatment of colleagues and employees alike, all in the name of bringing us handy gadgets at cheap prices.

AQAL objects & Tom Murray

The IPS OOO thread turned back to how AQAL might view objects, which let to a new thread on the work of Tom Murray. Following are the initial posts:

Balder:

Speaking of OOO and AQAL, Morton addresses AQAL in this post.  I will return to this -- for now, I just want to observe that I think he misreads the meaning of 'object' in AQAL.  His list of objects (the Pope, flapjacks, etc) could also be classified as objects in AQAL-speak.

theurj:

A couple of quick points. Yes, AQAL could classify such as holons. But If I'm not mistaken (and I might be, not keeping up with the kenndashians) kennilingus still adheres to the distinction between sentient and insentient holons. Not only does OOO challenge this form of correlationism but Edwards' critique of how kennilingus reduces the objective quadrant to exterior material stuff without the same developmental complexity as interior 'objects.' Granted there are places in kennilingus that say the material is just as complex, with the higher categories of subtle and causal 'exterior' objects, but this contention is neither consistent or coherent as we've examined before in this forum (probably the old one at Gaia). Also granted with the 'zones' there is an inside and outside to both interior and exterior quadrants but again Edwards breaks down the inconsistency in that AQAL concept and offers a way forward within the AQAL system. does so as well, with similar sounding arguments from his AQAL perspective. Morton gets at this bias in his comments. 

Hail Cthulhu

A quick comment on Sam Mickey's article on object oriented theology. He speculates that God might resemble Cthulhu, which reminds me of previous IPS forum threads here and here. Perhaps in some twisted and horrific way we might find some clues there to our inquires here on OOO?

One aspect of Cthulhu that comes immediately to mind is that s/he/it is radically other, cannot be comprehended, let alone barely imagined is the most vague of ways.

Objects & elements, endo and exo-relations

Since OOO is still the mainstay of my philosophical investigations these days, I offer a few more excerpts from the IPS discussion on the topic below.


Balder:

I had something of an OOO weekend -- reading The Quadruple Object, reading three chapters from The Speculative Turn, and waking up at 4 am on Saturday and going downstairs to write out about four pages of notes on the interrelations between, and mutual challenges posed by, OOO, Integral, quantum, and SpinbitZ-ian perspectives.  I may turn those notes into a post or blog at some point.

Jim Wallis on political morality and jobs

Wallis is one of my favorite Christian writers because he fights for the people against corrupt corporate greed and avarice. His latest article in Huff Post, as usual, nails it for me. Some excerpts:

"While God cannot be said to support a particular piece of legislation, it is imperative that we ask how our moral values influence policy decisions and priorities. The country's major religious traditions have significant areas of disagreement, but one area that unites them all is concern about inequality.

A survey released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that majorities in every major religious category -- as well as the religiously unaffiliated -- all believe that the country would be better off if the distribution of wealth was more equal.

Integral Objects

Following are more excerpts from out ongoing discussion of OOO at IPS, from the most recent posts:

theurj:

Recall this post on Varela and teleology. An autopoeitic object might increase its complexity in response to a perturbation in order to adapt, yet is it necessary to ascribe teleos to this increase in complexity? It seems Bryant would agree with Varela on this point.

Unions win in Ohio

Yesterday a referendum to reverse Ohio Senate Bill 2 won handily with 61% of the vote, thereby reinstating collective bargaining rights previously stripped by the Bill. Once again the people have spoken out against the 1% determined to strip the rest of us of all our rights. Remember, this all began with the protests in Wisconsin. It was the first time demonstrators took to the streets in the US in a long time. That began the movement and with Ohio and Occupy Wall Street it is gaining momentum daily. The 99% will no longer be denied.

Facts vs. conservative lies about the financial crisis

Barry Ritholz gets is right in today's Washington Post on the conservative spin, citing for example NYC Mayor Bloomberg echoing the canard that it wasn't the banks' fault but those who irresponsibly bought homes they could not afford. And all because of government policies that allowed such behavior. Following are excerpts highlighting the real reasons for the problem and the lies conservatives hide behind by blaming, as usual, the government and the lower to middle class for their own heinous crimes.

"Fed Chair Alan Greenspan dropped rates to 1 percent — levels not seen for half a century — and kept them there for an unprecedentedly long period. This caused a spiral in anything priced in dollars (i.e., oil, gold) or credit (i.e., housing) or liquidity driven (i.e., stocks).

The Age of Asymmetry

From the opening of Timothy Morton's recent talk on The Age of Asymmetry:

"Modern life presents us with a choice. 1) The essence of life is elsewhere...evolution, the cosmic order [etc.].... 2) There is no essence.... Yet there is a third option. There is an essence and it is right here in the object...yet withdrawn.... Thinking past the meta-mode will bring us up to speed with the weirdness of things."

You're not in Kansas (kennilingus) anymore Dorothy (or Toto).

Some more excerpts:

John Perkis on globalization

This video is enlightening. It highlights that poverty is created and maintained by the wealthy. The poor are needed to provide slave labor, and control of 3rd world countries is necessary to rape their resources, all to maintain the wealth of a few. And these few are what he calls the empire of the corporatocracy. He says: "Without a doubt this economic system is a failure." Please listen. Here's a brief bio of Perkins from wikipedia:

"John Perkins (b. January 28, 1945 in Hanover, New Hampshire) is an economist and author. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 1968–1970 and this experience launched him in the world of economics and writing. His best known book is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004), an insider's account of the exploitation or neo-colonization of Third World countries by what Perkins describes as a cabal of corporations, banks, and the United States government. His 2007 book, The Secret History of the American Empire, provides more evidence of the negative impact of global corporations on the economies and ecologies of poor countries, as well as offering suggestions for making corporations behave more like good citizens."

Unthink, the anti-Facebook alternative

Have you seen this? Tired of having your privacy violated? (I know some of you actually enjoy that; see a therapist.) Check out the link for details and see you at the next wave in social networking. That is, if you're part of the burgeoning 3rd tier? Ha!

Open access is profitable too!

We've explored the recalcitrant attachment to capitalism of supposed 2nd-tier change agents, like here. And that real developmental progress is being made with a movement of which open access is a part, like here and here. With this in mind I like to direct you to Levi Bryant's blog post of the topic with a few snips below. This is an example of the kind of real leading edge socio-economic model transitioning away from capitalism, whereas those that cling to their intellectual property for a profit are miles behind this developmental advance. And if sales above are indicative, they'd actually make more money by giving it away!

Greenwald on the Occupy movement

Glenn Greenwald was interviewed by Democracy Now last Wednesday, in part promoting his new book, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. Following are some excerpts from the interview highlighting what the Occupy movement is about. It is a sad, sad time in American history to see what this "land of the free" has become, the land of the rich and powerful enslaving the rest of us. It is ludicrous and criminal that conservatives call the progressive fight against injustice pitting American against American, when this is exactly what the conservative system has done.

"I think most Americans realize—and I think you see this driving the Occupy protest movement that you covered at the beginning of the show and that everyone is aware of now—that there wasn’t just economic—poor decisions that precipitated the financial crisis, but massive, system- and industry-wide fraud on the part of Wall Street and the banking industry. And yet, there has been virtually no criminal investigations of any kind, let alone prosecutions or accountability.

Occupy onticology

More ontocological ruminations from the IPS OOO thread, starting on p. 19:

Balder:

I'm reviewing Chapter 5 again, and am seeing more clearly here that Bryant is defining 'substance' as an object's endo-relations, which at this point is not at all objectionable to me (and I don't really see how this is significantly different from or contrary to a holonic, autopoietically informed relational view, i.e. an Integral mereology).  To be consistent, in a holonic view, there can be no 'smallest' (foundational, atomic) holon, nor can there be a single 'super-holon' that encompasses all holons.  Both the imagined base-level objects or the ultimate super-object would be non-holons (since the former would not contain any constitutive smaller units, and the latter would not be included within anything else -- e.g., neither would be a part-whole).  Thus, there is no single-entity foundationalism, nor can there be a final 'over-mastering' super-entity (ass-holon, in Theurj's language).  Bryant's -- and OOO's -- emphases on the (relative) system-independence and closure of objects (agency), and on the tendency of objects to 'withdraw' from any totalizing embrace or identification or apprehension, are I think important and useful reminders (not fully recognized or developed in IT to date).  The transcendental deduction of the necessity of objects is also significant for IT, to the extent that it has sometimes leaned more heavily in the direction of an epistemic-first orientation.  But as I said above, I do not think the 'features' of objects identified by OOO are fundamentally at odds (or even very different from) an autopoietically informed holonic model, which presumably is the guiding 'ontic' orientation of Integral Theory.  In SpinbitZ, Joel makes the case that Integral Theory veers towards epistemic absolutism when Wilber sometimes states that ultimately "All is perspective," and argues that Integral should not be ontic-shy about also asserting, as Wilber also sometimes does, that embodiment and boundary are fundamental to perspectives -- e.g., that perspectives are always embodied.  Such a move honors both epistemology (perspective) and ontology (holon) equally and non-reductively.

Bonnitta Roy's report from the critical realism/integral theory conference

Bonnitta was kind enough to write a detailed report at IPS about her attendance at this conference, which will be of interest to both integralists and speculative realists of various sorts. Here are a few select excerpts but please see the post for a full story:

"When we applied this type of analysis to Integral Theory (IT) , we got the following key problem areas:

IT commits the epistemic fallacy: IT confuses the “known world” from the “real world”, resulting in a “many worlds” view.... IT describes all these “worlds” that are enacted at different altitudes across different methodologies. This is problematic, because all those worlds are actually world*views – or known worlds. This is the epistemic fallacy. On the other hand, CR must account for separate world*views, and it does this through the notion of the stratification of the actual world. (CR makes a distinction between the actual and the real).

Olbermann on Oakland police violence

Keith Olbermann’s special comment last night was, as usual, spot on point. The police violence against the peaceful Occupy Oakland demonstrators is inexcusable and the Mayor’s rationalizations make her complicit in enabling further violence. Ironically, the demonstrators are fighting for among other things that the likes of Oakland police officers be treated with dignity and respect, something they are not getting by budget-cutting governments looking first to downsizing it workforce and eliminating worker protections, i.e., police officers. And the cause of such downsizing? The financial crisis, and created by whom? It certainly wasn’t the demonstrators.

Lakoff's tips for framing the occupy movement

From his Huff Post post dated today:

"Frame yourselves before others frame you.

Democracy starts with citizens caring about one another and acting responsibly on that sense of care, taking responsibility both for oneself and for one's family, community, country, people in general, and the planet. The role of government is to protect and empower all citizens equally via The Public: public infrastructure, laws and enforcement, health, education, scientific research, protection, public lands, transportation, resources, art and culture, trade policies, safety nets, and on and on. Nobody makes it one their own. If you got wealthy, you depended on The Public, and you have a responsibility to contribute significantly to The Public so that others can benefit in the future. Moreover, the wealthy depend on those who work, and who deserve a fair return for their contribution to our national life. Corporations exist to make life better for most people. Their reason for existing is as public as it is private.

Scientific evidence for corporate world dominance

The following excerpts are from a 10/19/11 New Scientist article. The proof is in the pudding and the pudding feeds only a select few:

"An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy....the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).

Sachs' message to Wall Street

Jeffrey Sachs does it again, answering the obvious to the apparent bewilderment conservatives have about the Occupy  Wall Street movement. From Sachs' Huff Post article today:

"The protesters are annoyed with JP Morgan because it, like its fellow institutions on the street, helped to bring the world economy to its knees through unprincipled and illegal actions. The Journal editorial board apparently missed the news carried in the Journal's own business pages that JP Morgan recently paid $153.6 million in fines for violating securities laws in the lead-up to the 2008 financial collapse. JP Morgan, like other Wall Street institutions, connived with hedge funds to peddle toxic assets to unsuspecting investors, allowing the hedge funds to make a killing at the expense of their 'mark,' and the world economy.

More on Bryant's OOO

Here is more from our ongoing IPS discussion of OOO and Bryant, from p. 11 of that thread:

theurj:

Given several discussions of late about contradiction and complimentarity the following from chapter 2.2 is interesting:

“It is a peculiar characteristic of substances that they are non-dialectical. As Aristotle remarks, '[a]nother characteristic of substances is that there is nothing contrary to them'. [60] Beginning with Hegel, dialectic takes on two meanings that are distinct but often conflated with one another. First, and especially in a Marxist context, dialectic can be taken to refer to thinking that is specifically relational in character. Marx, for example, shows how commodities can only exist in certain social formations characterized by wage labor and capitalism. Later, in our discussion of regimes of attraction and exo-relations we will see how some notion of dialectic in this relational sense can be retained with respect to local manifestations. Second, dialectic can be taken to mean a thinking of relation in terms of contraries and contradictions that are sublated in ever greater wholes or totalities. While onticology readily recognizes the existence of antagonisms, it sees no reason to see antagonisms as the equivalent to contraries or contradictions.

Harvey (a short story)

I went back to finish college at the age of 40. In the course of so doing I took 3 separate creative writing classes for fun, beginning, intermediate and advanced. One of my better stories was about the attack dog that trained me to be a dog handler in the US Army. I decided to share it here. Keep in mind that I'm intentionally writing this from the first-person point of view of an uneducated 18 year old, using the type of language and grammar he would as the narrator. My academic writing is obviously not so lax (or creative).

Take action to get $ out of politics

Please take a few moments to read these short, proposed Amendments to the US Constitution and if you agree add your signature to the petition at www.getmoneyout.com. The proposals follow:

What caused the wealth gap?

And how do we fix it? This Salon interview with Jeffrey Sachs explains the causes and some possible remedies. Here are a few excerpts:

“The income distribution in this country has gotten out of whack to a historically unprecedented extent and it has come with a very serious derangement of our political processes.

Beginning in the 1970s – this is crucial – the U.S. began to globalize, as did every other economy in the world…. The main effect of globalization, which is known but somehow weirdly separated from our politics, has been that those who have products, or services, or celebrity, or other things that they can sell to world markets, have found a boon in globalization. But for most of American society, and certainly for the majority of Americans who don’t have a bachelor’s degree, globalization has meant facing much lower-wage workers abroad and increasingly powerful competitive pressures.

7 conservative economic lies

And how to counter them, by Robert Reich. The lies are as follows. See the link and video for the counters.

Zizek on Wall Street

Slavoj Zizek spoke at the Occupy Wall Street rally 10/9/11. Following are a few excerpts:

"They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is tuning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself.

"We are not communists. If communism means the system which collapsed in 1990, remember that today those communists are the most efficient ruthless capitalists. In China today we have capitalism which is even more dynamic than your American capitalism but doesn’t need democracy. Which means when you criticize capitalism, don’t allow yourselves to be blackmailed that you are against democracy. The marriage between democracy and capitalism is over.

Clueless conservatives on occupy Wall Street

It's fun to watch conservatives squirm about this growing phenomenon, for it challenges their denial to its greedy and inhumane core. This fine article by Douglass Rushkoff gets it: Think Occupy Wall St. Is a Phase? You Don't Get It. Also see this clip from Real Time with Bill Maher. P. J. O'Rourke is flummoxed by those dirty hippies with their bongo drums when Alan Grayson sets him straight in under a minute. It is ludicrous to claim that this is pitting Americans against fellow Americans. It is 99% of Americans asking that the 1% of criminal Americans be held accountable for their crimes.

Mereology without assholons, aka infinitive lemniscations

Here are some excerpts from pp. 7 – 8 of the ongoing IPS thread on object oriented ontology. We brought up Bryant's The Democracy of Objects as well as his article “The time of the object.”

theurj:

I'm very much enjoying Bryant's article and learning a new twist (fold?) in my infinitive lemniscations. As one quick example, this comment on differance:

"Différance is a non-concept that both makes an argument...and performs and enacts the argument it is making" (6).

As usual I play with language, make up words or use them in a different way in an attempt, much like one of my mentors, to "both make an argument...and perform and enact the argument it is making."

Here is a dictionary definition of infinitive:

Occupy Austin

You may have heard of or seen what's happening on Wall Street (http://occupywallst.org). It's now also happening in Austin (http://occupyaustin.org/). Please pass the word, thanks.

Declaration from Occupy Wall Street

Oct. 1 the NY General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street issued the following statement:


As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

Jeffrey Sachs on the economy

Economist Jeffrey Sachs has a couple new posts of interest at the Huff Post. The first is a response to Congressman Paul Ryan’s critical review of Sachs’ new book, The Price of Civilization. Ryan claims Sachs has un-American values, meaning "the ideals of individual liberty" without "an intrusive, unlimited government." Sachs rips Ryan a new assholon by arguing that democracy is the prime American value, and what Ryan proposes is counter to that democracy. In Ryan’s eyes protecting the environment, regulating the criminal behavior of banks, promoting science, having a fair tax system and limiting the power of corporations is “unlimited government.”

Punny joke

What kind of clothes have both grass and milk stains?

Say no to immunity for Wall Street

On 8/25/11 I blogged on Matt Taibbi's story on the bullshit deal the US Attorney General is trying to ram through with the States Attorneys General to give amnesty to the banks from any future prosecution, among other things. Fight back by signing this petition to your State Attorney General asking them to not sign on to this travesty. If these bankers are guilty of criminal conduct they should be prosecuted and punished just like any other criminal. Giving them amnesty enables them to keep on raping our economy and destroying our lives for their own enrichment.

The People's Revolution

This video at Rachel Maddow’s page highlights the stark differences in how liberals and conservatives see things. As one example she plays a tape of Elizabeth Warren’s (candidate for US Senate in MA) now infamous internet rant against the spurious conservative charge of class warfare. Progressives see her comments as accurate about shared social responsibility while conservatives see it as already stated above or worse. The interesting thing is that polls of the average American Joe or Jane are overwhelmingly on her side. For example, the recent tax the rich poll noted around 70% are for it.

It is not however what the average Joe or Jane wants that matters, at least to conservatives. What matters is who is footing the bills and that is the rich people and corporations (who are people too according to their bought Supreme Court Justices). In Elizabeth Warren’s Senate bid against incumbent Scott Brown she has so far raised $915,000 in grass roots fund raising. Brown on the other hand has about $10.9 million in his war chest. And where is that money coming from? In the entire Senate he rates #1 in receiving contributions from hedge funds and venture capitalists, and #2 from private equity and securities investment firms.

Occupy Wall Street

Finally the people have had enough. It's time to join the effort and make your voices heard. See the website for more info and let the top 1% know what the other 99% of us think and feel. The revolution has begun.

Here's what Noam Chomsky says:

Evolutionary Enlightenment

Andrew Cohen has a new book by the above title that has kennilinguists afroth with superlative circle jerking, as it supports their worldview and notions of spirituality. The Kennilingam fawns in typical hyperbolic fervor (fever?): “Evolutionary Enlightenment is one of the most significant books on spirituality written in the postmodern world." He is joined by Steve McIntosh: “Reflect[s] the leading edge of spiritual evolution in our society...a modern-day masterpiece.” See the more accurate cartoon depiction of Cohen here. And this IPS post by Joseph (and ensuing discussion) gives much more perspective than you can get inside the ironically narcissistic EE (and II) Bubble.