Freedom's A Two-Way Street: Moral Neutralization

"Freedom's A Two-Way Street" or so goes the moral of the story in an epsiode of South Park. Now, whatever critics might say of the show, it actually goes into more political and topical issues than any other show I know of and not in a subtle way either. The creators manage to slip in their political message and do it in a humourous way which often crosses the line of conventional limits.

In this particular episode Big Gay Al is kicked out of Scouts for being... you guessed it... gay. We then are introduced to the new Scoutleader who is the heterosexual drill sergeant out of Full Metal Jacket (and who later turns to be a child-molester) which points to another good lesson.

The conclusion of the episode has the South Park kids fighting to get Big Gay Al back into Scouts by sueing the organization and winning, at which point BGA refuses to return saying that "freedom is a two way street" and organizations should have the freedom to exclude just as he should have the freedom to be gay or whatnot.

Freedom To & Freedom From

The two-way street analogy is a good one and is often underemphasized in the rhetoric of today. Freedom to and freedom from as Margaret Atwood said. Today we mainly think about "Freedom to" whether its freedom to be gay; freedom to express ourselves; etc. Freedom to is all about our rights; that which is owed us from everyone else as if we were born creditors seeking repayments on loans long overdue.

Freedom from, on the other hand, lies more in the domain of responsibility and is a more ambiguous form of morality. Having rampant freedom to can mean a lot of people "expressing themselves" in your face and in a variety of ways. Freedom from is the protection; limiting their freedom under the guise that too much of it actually impedes someone elses quantity. Its a balancing act that, like everything, isn't perfect and could never be so...

Moral Neutralization

Going back to South Park, Big Gay Al emphasized the Scouts right to "freedom from". Accordingly, they should have the freedom from gay people if they so choose it. This same argument has been made more recently in regards to gay marriage and freedom of religion. Will religion's still have the freedom from marrying homosexuals? Or will the freedom to marry play the trump card?

There isn't really an answer that can fit all situations but I do see a trend, with South Park a particular exemplar, of a sort of nihilistic moral "neutralization". In this instance, the rationale behind Big Gay Al's reasoning guarantees a sort of absolute stalemate between freedom to and freedom from; an equalization of their power relationship. The problem with this arrangement is that it solidifies the present historical formation of power relationships. Things don't change unless one sides a loser and thats what moral neutralization seeks to avoid. It seems to champion the logic of "gays win" "scouts win" but how can that really be possible?

Going back in time, couldn't the US government have claimed a "freedom from" including Blacks with Whites in the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision in the USA. I'm sure it did just that, seperate but equal was the same 'morally neutral' technique that seems fair on the surface but really works to prevent a change in the power system. How can the "freedom to" be gay really be actualized when the rest of society is exerting their "freedom from" gays and everything homosexual?

At the same time this situation has already been exploited in other ways. Men now claim discrimination against women's centres and shelters as exclusionary. I'm sure child molesters might claim discrimination against their "freedom to" molest children. There is no end...

Solution?

There is no real solution to this maze but I think I can firmly say that moral neutralization or equilization is definitely not one of them. Quid pro quo leaves us stagnant as a society and unfortunately for some, times are (always) a changin'.

This process is always going to break a few eggs but I think some bold and well-reasoned adjustments to the freedom balance should be made in light of changing dynamics. Compromises can and should be made - I for one don't feel the need or desire to compel religions to sanctify homosexual unions, just as I wouldn't expect them to admit that hey, God died when he slipped on his toilet seat as he was hanging a picture, and become atheists - but I do support homosexual marriage. Can the two co-exist? I think the present (Canadian) context presents a good mix and it only got there because people boldly challenged the status quo instead of taking a seat on the nihilistic sidelines.

Lastly, organizations should have a responsibility that no individual should have to bear, and thats to evolve with the times to the greatest degree their principles will allow. As organizations like the Scouts have long since diminished their Christian heritage in order to accept boys (and girls!) of all faiths and creeds I think its a bit too late to find a Christian defense to freedom from homosexuality. Permitting these organizations the freedom from accepting minority groups (that pose no threat - ie. gays in scouts) re-inforces those same divisions that freedom is supposed to eliminate or downplay.

In sum, the solution is always a compromise and is always defined by the situation. There is no universal rule to help navigate these rough waters nor a promise of dialectical progression. But I think if people take to heart their own responsibility as the source of freedom to and freedom from, we'll be able to work something out!

Clubbing Celebrities

Edit: Discussion on this continues in the comments section and at this blog.

Kind of a mini-rant, I'm not really irritated enough with the issue to discourse at length but I wanted to discuss the annual seal outcry that puts Canada in the headlines once a year and allows all those people that don't like us to point a finger and say "they're hypocrite just like us".

But first, I'll start with a personal anecdote: A year or so ago I had the opportunity to enjoy a vegetarian meal with some of the brightest student activists in the country. Upon meeting some great Newfoundland chums who wanted to know I was doing on the upcoming weeknight I made some ill-advised quip about "clubbing baby seals." Now, little did they know that at heart I was no moral crusader; but by that time it was too late. I was ostracized from most of the meeting and received sinister glares from the Newfoundland delegation for the next few days. It goes to show that even among vegetarians in that province, the issue is not so cut and dried.


Now back to us being "hypocrites." That statement I definitely won't deny, but this whole seal thing is a little bit blown out of proportion. Starting with Sir McCartney's photograph with the cutest of seal pups (the ones that aren't being hunted) to the line-up of brainy celebrities (Pam Anderson just added herself to the queue) to criticize the murder of these defenseless animals.

Now its not exactly unsurprising that killing cute animals is morally wrong. Cuteness goes along way whether you're the type of animal that walks upright or paddles through the sea. But the point remains, how pervasive is the killing of seals? How many seal burgers have you eaten or seen for sale? How many seal-lined coats or hats or scarves or mittens or whatever fashion accessory those dastardly designers can dream up? Now quantity doesn't and shouldn't dictate morals but it does provide perspective. The upcoming cull (which provides most of the world with whatever sick seal fetishes they have) is expected to leave as many as 350,000 dead seals. Now comparing that to the 3 million animals that die per hour in the US alone for just food... That's 72 million per day... I don't have nearly the math skills to compute that to a season or a year, suffice it to say its large.

So why care about the seals besides the good chance to kick a holier-than-thou-art country in the balls for old times sake? Are they endangered? As far as I can tell science doesn't seem to say so, although with global warming and these culls I'm sure its a possibility growing stronger by the year. But again, does the extinction factor dictate morals? Would it be OK to kill seals off by the millions if we cooked up the recipe to bake a new batch for the next year?

I for one am tired of the cute animal brigades. I can respect a few celebrities, Sir Paul and Ms. Pamela are both vegetarians - vegans I think. And their claims are legitimate against the slaughter, even if they try sneaky tricks like picking the non-hunted cute seals instead of the slimy ugly ones we'd all like to club. But what I'd really like to see, not just from celebrities but from the rest of the world chanting alongside them as they chow down on their chicken nuggets or veal cutlets is recognition that its time to put-up or shut-up. You want seals off the clubbing list, stop torturing your breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or maybe I could just lead a "Cows are Cute Too!" campaign. Nah, I'm not an animal rights crusader... Maybe just deep down I know that if I were an animal, I know which side of the electrified fence I'd be thrust into - and Pam & Paul wouldn't be there to save me! 

Dejeneur Sur L'Herbe

Dejeneur Sur L'Herbe
Les Breastfeeders
March 20 - 26

I was introduced to Les Breastfeeders semi-formally through the CBC Radio3 podcast (highly recommended: visit here) and fully initiated on Saturday, March 11 at the Lamplighter Pub where the Quebecois sextet headlined.

The Breastfeeders introduced themselves as a french-speaking band with an English name and proceeded to play an exceptionally exuberant show with their retro-infused sixties/seventies-esque dance-pop melodies and lyrics (from what I could tell) heavily girded over with rock and punk guitar.

The "Les Breastfeeders" had two lead vocalists and a la the Arcade Fire have utilized the dramatic differences of having a female and male vocals to create a wider range of songs.

Lastly, the addition of a "beast" to the mix - see the shifty character on the far-left with the darkened eyes. The beast rolled, danced and hopped around the stage half-naked for the entire show - spewing forth clouds of water and playing himself with the tambourine. The encore issued forth with the full monty from the beast himself.

I highly recommend the album. I was concerned that the music wouldn't translate from a live show to listening alone but it does and the french barrier is hardly noticable. Of course, the album would make an excellent disc for a party. Its definitely worth investigating.

Hear a track from Dejeneur Sur L'Herbe at New Music Canada

****/5

Music & Memory - The Dionysian Experience

I'm intrigued by how the body remembers, increasingly so as my 'mental' memory dissipates into the great unknown. Alas, for the past two or three years I have found it becoming more and more difficult to remember names and faces and more importantly, my own recent past activities. Minutes after walking out the door I'll wonder if I locked it; after shampooing my hair I'll wonder if I had done it. I even lose track of arguments midtrack (thus the permanence of the written form comes to my aid). Despite these dire warnings of a sinking senility surreptiously guiding me to the old folk's home I have found new memories resonating in my soul. Like the deaf Beethoven who experienced music through the sensations of the reverberations of the floor, walls and ceiling as they quivered under his masterful key strokes, I find that my affection and very 'understanding' of music is a more bodily experience than a mental one.

Of course, this musical experience can only occur with good, nay, excellent tunes, but the effect is truly spectacular and equivalent to any drug rush I can recall. I recall songs through the tingling in my nerves that can transport me, mind & body, to the first listen no matter how insignificant. Before song titles and artists and other formal linkages materialize I feel connected to similar sounds, albums, genres, styles and phases, each playing my nerves, stimulating muscles in a unique arrangement whose imprint lies dormant in my flesh, waiting to be reawakened upon a second hearing.

I believe this is the key reason why Nietzsche celebrates music as the ultimate artistic form - its subversive passion that operates on the level of instinct, passion and will rather than through our cognitive functions that require thinking, introspection, analysis. Music immediately operates on a more primal and base level - the Dionysian experience - the subversion of the individual amidst the sea of forces.

It is because of this passionate experience of music that I'm going to start blogging about my favourite music picks of the week. I've got a warehouse of past recommendations that will come flooding forth first and I'll invite you to experience a new independent artist every week with my "music club"!

Announcements!

I have some great news to post! Firstly, I have splurged on a new digital SLR camera (see my modified urban sunset above). Its a Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP with the standard 18-55mm lens. I hope to be able to document some NorthWestern beauty over the next few months and will link this blog to my Flickr account to share some of these photos with you.

In other news, which has managed to overshadow my camera lust, I finally received word from York Unversity in Toronto. I'll let their letter do the talking:

      March 20, 2006

Dear Mr. Harman,

   I am delighted to inform you that the Social and Political Thought Admissions committee  has recommended to the Faculty of Graduate Studies that you be admitted as a full time candidate in the Masters programme  Formal approval rests with the Faculty of Graduate Studies and you should receive a letter of admission from them shortly.

   We were all very impressed with your application, and honoured that you chose to apply to our programme.  Financial support for graduate students at York University is made up from a variety of sources such as external and internal scholarships, and assistantships.  Taking all the sources of funding into account, I am pleased to offer you a minimum guaranteed level of funding of $8,000 for the 2006/2007 academic year.  Please note that external awards held at the time of registration will be included within this guaranteed minimum.  The components of your funding and the type of assistantship (if any) that you will be required to undertake will be communicated to you at the beginning of the term.

As you can appreciate, entrance into our programme is highly competitive and we now have a waiting list. We ask that you let us know if you will accept our offer of admissions by April 5th  2006.  You may call or email your reply directly to my attention..

We are including an application form for an assistantship position.  This helps us match your skills and abilities to an appropriate assistantship. At a maximum the assistantship requires 10 hours per week of work during the two teaching terms (September through April) In early September, you will learn the details of your assistantship.   We encourage you to send in this form quickly.  I will also need a blank VOID cheque for the account that you wish to have your payroll paid into.  If you do not have an account already, it is strongly recommended that you set one up so that you can provide our office with the bank, the transit and the account number needed to set up the direct deposit.  Please include this information attached to your Assistantship form.  We request this paperwork be submitted to the Social and Political Thought office, (S717 Ross) before May 1st. In addition, if you have not submitted a curriculum vitae, please include one with the Assistantship form.

   Details concerning courses offered in 2006/2007 and registration information will be sent in the summer if you have accepted admission to the Programme.

I personally very much hope that you will accept our offer to join our Graduate Programme in the fall.  I look forward to hearing from you within the very near future. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.  We can be reached by telephone at either 416 736 5320 or 416 736 2100 ext. 77402. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Best wishes,




Lesley Jacobs, Professor
Graduate Programme Director
Social and Political Thought

Cheating: Chapter II

This past week has proven to be an interesting one since I accepted the assignment mentioned earlier. A colleague at work who had read my blog made note that he did not see the classist aspects especially for the price of the essay and also pointed out that there may be an ethnic factor - something I hadn't considered.

When my friend brought-over the assigment - completely bagged with instructions, an outline and a handful of research materials - I raised some of the questions I had about the assigment. Most interestingly, the structure of whatever organization I had become a part of was based on a cellular model. I only had contact with the friend who'd offered me the job (mainly because he had no time to do the project himself) and he received his offers from someone else who may or may not have originally 'solicited' the client. In Sopranos-speak, I'm getting my marching orders from a wiseguy who probably reports to a capo somewhere up the line and each receives a taste of the proceeds. My friend (or should I use the family "our") told me he started doing papers at $12 a page and knew that at least $8 was being kicked upstairs. Taking this into consideration with the classist argument from before, I think that $150 paper might well have retailed at $250 to my struggling wanna-be historian of a client. At this price I think I can definitely re-assert my original argument!

The second element I brought up had to do with ethnicity. I asked my friend if he had any idea of who the people whose work he was doing were. He replied that they were all Asian, at least in his experience of a dozen or two assignments. So how does race / ethnicity play into the cheating game? Many, but definitely not all, Asians who come to Vancouver are wealthy, so is it just a class arrangement or are poor but hardworking Asians compensating for certain handicapps (poor English skills; cumbersome family and work obligations) by seeking outside assistance; or indeed is it cultural, a realization that people should do what they can to get by, a rejection of WASPy guilt-complexes and mildewy do-it-yourself manuals. Certainly history has shown that money has allowed their White competitors get an unfair advantage...

I couldn't guess an answer but some new facts do weaken my original argument. For instance, student 'clients' request most often that the assigments reflect their grade average in the classroom (or perhaps only minorly improve it). I was instructed not to use "big words" and definitely not to ace the assigment. An anonymous B would be prefered. Good but not great; not poor either. Not the aspirations of a student that wants to get ahead. Is it caution or simply the fact that this assignment is being outsourced to save time in a pinch and not part of a strategic attempt to slip through school with minimal effort and good marks? An understanding that Karma might kick their teeth in later???

Too many questions. The only fact I know is that I thought writing it would be easy but instead its like I'm back in university. I guess the difference between being paid and paying to write a paper isn't that big after all. I should go and start it; but maybe I'll find another way to procrastinate. I still have a few more days until the deadline!

PS. I love how I'm being paid to write essays for UBC students five years after graduating high school with grades that wouldn't even have elicited the time and money of printing a rejection notice for my application to UBC.

technorati tags: cheating, university, class, ethnicity, honesty, strategy

Moral-Ethical Questions and The Like

In my search for some extra spending money, I've been approached by a friend to write an essay for a 3rd year university student at UBC. Now, obviously, this isn't some groundbreaking moral dilemma, however I found it does raise some interesting questions.

Firstly, this kind of cheating has a class-dimension. Unlike your regular peeping-tom style which any hack can do, especially those of with long necks and laser-eye surgery or doing some cut-and-copy off the Internet, this method provides a brand new original essay tailored to the course and material for a decent fee ($15 / page). With the increasing surveillance of students' works through enterprising profit-driven startups like www.turnitin.com the tailor-made approach can (counting on the integrity of the writer) help the 'client' slip by undetected, and with top marks. In fact, one of the factors that have made software like turnitin.com a supposed necessity is the fact that professors can no longer personally tend to their students - learning their strengths, weaknesses and style. The ambuigity of large class sizes and the incorporation of accurate yet mechanistic forms of counter-plagarism anticipates this more costly form of cheating. In the end, as usual, the rich find a way to get by while the poor will likely get nabbed.

Of course, $150 for a ten-page paper isn't exactly a staggering sum, considering the cost of tuition fees these days at universities such as UBC. I'm sure that as most of the poorer students are already being weeded out at the gate the classist aspects of cheating and counter-plagiarism strategies isn't exactly a priority for them. Nevertheless, interesting: high tuition bars access to education; low funding increases class sizes, decreasing quality; university administrations flame the fires of the "growing crisis" of plagiarism (which has always existed and only been exasperated by the quality and access issues mentioned above) and advocate for cracking down on students through mandatory electronic surveillance of their works by a for-profit company that, as part of its service retains indefinitely the students' work to increase its database and thus further its accuracy (and future profitability). The wealthy students turn to poor but smart graduates who have the ability but not the connections (or lack of morals?) to be successful. The wealthy students make it through, often times at the expense of smarter but poorer students who spend time too much time working to pay their tuition fees and living costs to make it through the course. The wealthy students find jobs made available by the connections money makes in the first place (and credentials bought-and-paid-for for appearances sake!).

Now, whether or not to accept it. I'm not someone that would consider himself a moral person - at least not in any strict sense. Not only do I do immoral things, I advocate on their behalf. But aiding some, obviously wealthy, kid stroll through university does affect a certain sense of pride and integrity (see my previous rant). Do I really want to grad more idiots into this world? Analogies abound but I'll let them pass, I'm being too wordy as is. Regardless, it seems the consequence of this action is more intruiging to me than its inherent immorality.

So I've tentatively accepted the assignment. If only to experience how it will feel to create something that is my own and have it consensually usurped from me like a labourer's surplus value. Maybe I'll provide an update. In the meantime that $120 will go to something good, perhaps a new camera in order to start adding some art to all this surplus truth!

technorati tags: moral, ethical, plagiarism, cheating, class, university, education, tuition

All Or None: Skepticism Long Gone

I read my friends blogs regularly and I stumbled upon one that helps define the ideology you must likely subscribe to (see it here:http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=6916 ). Now the friend whose blog I found the link had taken the test and scored 100% in the far-left categories (Green, Communist, Socialist, Anarchist) and 0% in the far-right categories of Republican, Nazi or Fascist with Democrat being somewhere in the middle. I took the test myself and didn't receive any marks nearly as black and white although anarchist seemed to win out in the end.

And this is at the heart of so many of my questions nowadays. Left / Right / Middle-of-the-Road? You know what word I never heard in school: truth. Now I'm likely exaggerating but my point is simple: school (and the rest of our lives) doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about truth anymore. Its sign-up time for your favourite ideology and that's that. No one seems to care about whether its correct or not; true or false. Everything's got a paradigmatic response. Human nature is twisted to solve any riddle: humans are greedy; humans are cooperative; humans are social beings; humans are destructive. Whatever fills in the ideological puzzle.

I'm even shocked at the pervasiveness of political party clubs on campuses; not to mention their cadres of zealots and partisans. I've perused some former colleagues blog's who are now attending Master's programs in Political Science and the like and their opinions read like they're straight off the teleprompter at X party's HQ. Its one thing to support a political party but the amount of blind obedience to ideology and partisanship produced at the university level is as astonishing as it is irritating.

I guess I'm out of touch; maybe stuck in an ivory tower? But I'm not advocating living in a commune in the woods nor abstaining from voting. I'm not against supporting your party of choice or taking a stand on issues. I guess what I'd like to see is more skepticism and the acknowledgement that truth and ideology (no matter what flavour) are mutually exclusive items.

technorati tags: truth, ideology, politics, paradigm, partisanship, university, education

A Truant Finds Home: Introduction

I was going to start with some sort of general introduction about myself; why I'm writing a blog or what not. That'd be the appropriate way to start - sticking to the linear formula and to be honest sometimes I'm a bit OCD about such formalities but fuck-it, today I'm just going to start with what's on my mind and maybe that'll be more revealing than any generalizations and pretty descriptions could ever muster.

So I started this blog after denying whatever impulse in me that has prevented me from writing. Now, since I was a kid I always wanted to be a writer; but when opportunities knock I generally look the other way. Some kind of shyness? Fear of criticism? I'm not sure. Mostly I've always been waiting for something to say. I guess I find that the old saying "opinions are like assholes" seems even more relevant today with the Internet than ever and just when I think its time to weigh in with my 2 cents I realize a thousand other Joe's have already commented on whatever it is in one way or another. Each touting themself as an expert, parading themselves as a philospher or as some agent of truth, much like I must be right now! So this sort of perpetual self-criticism has kept me under lock and key and I'm not sure why the break. Maybe I'm just finally realizing who gives a fuck - this is more for me than any audience anyway. I'll probably be the only one who manages to read this (unless I can sucker a friend into doing it - this means you).

Truth & Art

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

-Fredrich Nietzsche