Comments for Broken Power Lines http://www.brokenpowerlines.com This blog is devoted to how power never functions as intended.  Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:14:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on The Sunday Animal Market in Kasghar by Bill http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=82&cpage=1#comment-125 Bill Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:14:49 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=82#comment-125 What about the urban/rural divide here? What you say seems to be true of city slickers, but read some Walker Percy or Flannery O'Connor and you'll see that death is met eye-to-eye in the country. I am tempted to associate much of what you say with modernity's difficult relation to death, but it is also true that not growing up around animal slaughter is at issue. On a related note, few people in the Irish sports pages ever "die". They usually "go to his rest" or "return to the Lord" or something euphemistic like that. What about the urban/rural divide here? What you say seems to be true of city slickers, but read some Walker Percy or Flannery O’Connor and you’ll see that death is met eye-to-eye in the country. I am tempted to associate much of what you say with modernity’s difficult relation to death, but it is also true that not growing up around animal slaughter is at issue.

On a related note, few people in the Irish sports pages ever “die”. They usually “go to his rest” or “return to the Lord” or something euphemistic like that.

]]> Comment on The Sunday Animal Market in Kasghar by PhiSo http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=82&cpage=1#comment-124 PhiSo Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:13:01 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=82#comment-124 The "marginal others" are usually enemy combatants or their leadership ... but, sometimes not. Therein is a true tragedy, as the jackals hide among the cattle. The “marginal others” are usually enemy combatants or their leadership … but, sometimes not. Therein is a true tragedy, as the jackals hide among the cattle.

]]> Comment on The Sunday Animal Market in Kasghar by EG http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=82&cpage=1#comment-123 EG Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:04:36 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=82#comment-123 Cavell on Eating Animals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uazq9Fm6gg4 Cavell on Eating Animals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uazq9Fm6gg4

]]> Comment on If I Never Saw Another Bus Again….. by Tina http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=78&cpage=1#comment-118 Tina Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:56:02 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=78#comment-118 You know what woul be cool art installation in that desert? A a ridiculously gigantic hour glass that reaches in to the sky...with all that sand in there slowly (painfully slow in an a.d.d. way) sinking to the other side. Then you can sit there buried and restrained in the sand With no other choice but to watch this thing in like some torturing forced meditation. Then after hours of obliteration and contemplating whether it's 10pm or midnight... You reach enlightenment: that whether it's 10 or midnight is completely irrelavant and the fact that you are sitting buried in sand in the middle of nowhere is complete waste of the sands of time. ;) Sounds so good over there christian! This is my favorite post the only one I actually felt like reading all the way through. I think you've made previous Alleged claims to completely surrendering yourself... But I think this was the real thing. Hahaha Stop wondering start living.... I live it! I'm so jealous I wish I was there You know what woul be cool art installation in that desert? A a ridiculously gigantic hour glass that reaches in to the sky…with all that sand in there slowly (painfully slow in an a.d.d. way) sinking to the other side. Then you can sit there buried and restrained in the sand With no other choice but to watch this thing in like some torturing forced meditation. Then after hours of obliteration and contemplating whether it’s 10pm or midnight… You reach enlightenment: that whether it’s 10 or midnight is completely irrelavant and the fact that you are sitting buried in sand in the middle of nowhere is complete waste of the sands of time. ;)

Sounds so good over there christian! This is my favorite post the only one I actually felt like reading all the way through. I think you’ve made previous Alleged claims to completely surrendering yourself… But I think this was the real thing. Hahaha Stop wondering start living…. I live it! I’m so jealous I wish I was there

]]> Comment on If I Never Saw Another Bus Again….. by Marlar http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=78&cpage=1#comment-116 Marlar Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:48:54 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=78#comment-116 You are a" Hero" You are a” Hero”

]]> Comment on Encounters by PhiSo http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=50&cpage=1#comment-100 PhiSo Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:58:01 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=50#comment-100 Dear Two-Pack, Yes, I am biased. make something of it. Your observation and comment might have some force of intellectual merit if you weren't such a jingoistic shit brain. Oh, and by the way, if you are going to make grammatical criticism learn how to spell - any preschooler can bark out D - O - G, unless, of course your pants are falling off your ass you have more gold in your mouth than the vaults at Fort Knox. Dear Two-Pack,
Yes, I am biased. make something of it.
Your observation and comment might have some force of intellectual merit if you weren’t such a jingoistic shit brain.
Oh, and by the way, if you are going to make grammatical criticism learn how to spell – any preschooler can bark out D – O – G, unless, of course your pants are falling off your ass you have more gold in your mouth than the vaults at Fort Knox.

]]> Comment on Encounters by Tupac S。 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=50&cpage=1#comment-74 Tupac S。 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:03:21 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=50#comment-74 whats up dogg, So would unexpectedly hiking Kiliminjaro count as insipid? Maybe not, if when you unexpectedly got to the top of Kiliminjaro, you unexpectedly met a really hot girl and you ended up getting swept up in the passion of the moment and fucking in the bushes. Given the thrust of your post, the sentence "And, unfortunately, it was raining on the days when I climbed the volcanos so I couldn’t see much of the surrounding landscapes," should probably be replaced with "But, fortunately, it was raining on the days when I climbed the volcanoes so I couldn't see much of the surrounding landscapes, providing me with the type of unplanned space and unexpected encounter with nature that I crave when traveling." Also, I detected you were trying to fold in a little commie symp sentimentality into the traffic jam story. I was just driving outside Tucson and there was a two mile traffic backup on the other side of the highway, and everyone was out talking, hanging out, etc. etc. So yes, transient sociality arises out of traffic jam culture even in imperialist countries, you anti-American slut. whats up dogg,
So would unexpectedly hiking Kiliminjaro count as insipid? Maybe not, if when you unexpectedly got to the top of Kiliminjaro, you unexpectedly met a really hot girl and you ended up getting swept up in the passion of the moment and fucking in the bushes. Given the thrust of your post, the sentence “And, unfortunately, it was raining on the days when I climbed the volcanos so I couldn’t see much of the surrounding landscapes,” should probably be replaced with “But, fortunately, it was raining on the days when I climbed the volcanoes so I couldn’t see much of the surrounding landscapes, providing me with the type of unplanned space and unexpected encounter with nature that I crave when traveling.” Also, I detected you were trying to fold in a little commie symp sentimentality into the traffic jam story. I was just driving outside Tucson and there was a two mile traffic backup on the other side of the highway, and everyone was out talking, hanging out, etc. etc. So yes, transient sociality arises out of traffic jam culture even in imperialist countries, you anti-American slut.

]]> Comment on Encounters by Wang Wei http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=50&cpage=1#comment-67 Wang Wei Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:53:02 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=50#comment-67 我想住在一个偏远的村子里，有山、有水、有歌，有姑娘、有小伙子、有老人、有孩子，有水牛、有稻田，足矣。 我想住在一个偏远的村子里，有山、有水、有歌，有姑娘、有小伙子、有老人、有孩子，有水牛、有稻田，足矣。

]]> Comment on The Fantasy of China’s Collapse by Bruce http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=37&cpage=1#comment-47 Bruce Sat, 22 May 2010 09:17:05 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=37#comment-47 Here, you're pointing at an emanating Western/American/liberal democracies' desire to see China collapse, or more specifically, its Communist "utopia" (in but not limited to the Western eyes ) and the political regimen that has ensued. What you have described as "a teleological fantasy" of the collapse for the West, as it seems to me, shares the same teat as what was "the enduring fantasy of the twentieth century, the pseudoreligion-cum-pseudoscience of Marxism-Leninism" described by historian Martin Malia until its own emblematic collapse in the Soviet Union. I want to stray, however, from perhaps the more interesting discussion about the validity of socialist or democratic principles as they pertain to our understandings of human nature which then inform our beliefs of what the ideal construction of the social, economic and political apparatus ought to be. Instead, I want to suggest why this watch or hunt for communist-turned-democratic success stories are not just fantasies in pragmatic, calculating policy. Let's say, the notion of "a democratic peace"? It helps--kind of--when you can expect--kind of--that others play by the same rules--kind of. An irrelevant sidenote: It is the same babbling talk when it comes to development. There is an institutional structure and world order dominated by power-players who have set out to define countries' agenda to be "developed" and exactly how. Expectantly, it may also be that the same institutional structure and dominant players who harp on [fill in the blank] are those who provide the same mechanisms to maintain the status-quo. Similarly, in other words, the "fantasy" is actually less about promoting the freedom to choose, opportunity, or capacity for democracy for China and the values that the people of China may identify and desire in a democracy, but instead more about the grasp of control, recruit, in some extreme cases, to colonize, imperialize for a democratic project for unrealized interests? This ought to not necessarily raise questions about the values of democratic principles, but rather the maladies of institutions and politics that no regime has ever been immune to. (Really? Wow, good news.) Here, you’re pointing at an emanating Western/American/liberal democracies’ desire to see China collapse, or more specifically, its Communist “utopia” (in but not limited to the Western eyes ) and the political regimen that has ensued. What you have described as “a teleological fantasy” of the collapse for the West, as it seems to me, shares the same teat as what was “the enduring fantasy of the twentieth century, the pseudoreligion-cum-pseudoscience of Marxism-Leninism” described by historian Martin Malia until its own emblematic collapse in the Soviet Union.

I want to stray, however, from perhaps the more interesting discussion about the validity of socialist or democratic principles as they pertain to our understandings of human nature which then inform our beliefs of what the ideal construction of the social, economic and political apparatus ought to be. Instead, I want to suggest why this watch or hunt for communist-turned-democratic success stories are not just fantasies in pragmatic, calculating policy. Let’s say, the notion of “a democratic peace”? It helps–kind of–when you can expect–kind of–that others play by the same rules–kind of.

An irrelevant sidenote: It is the same babbling talk when it comes to development. There is an institutional structure and world order dominated by power-players who have set out to define countries’ agenda to be “developed” and exactly how. Expectantly, it may also be that the same institutional structure and dominant players who harp on [fill in the blank] are those who provide the same mechanisms to maintain the status-quo. Similarly, in other words, the “fantasy” is actually less about promoting the freedom to choose, opportunity, or capacity for democracy for China and the values that the people of China may identify and desire in a democracy, but instead more about the grasp of control, recruit, in some extreme cases, to colonize, imperialize for a democratic project for unrealized interests? This ought to not necessarily raise questions about the values of democratic principles, but rather the maladies of institutions and politics that no regime has ever been immune to. (Really? Wow, good news.)

]]> Comment on The Fantasy of China’s Collapse by Bruce http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=37&cpage=1#comment-46 Bruce Fri, 21 May 2010 08:19:06 +0000 http://www.brokenpowerlines.com/?p=37#comment-46 Beneath all lies "The Fantasy" upon which is constructed all that is. Why is it unnatural for societies, governments, political scientists, and philosophers to measure the other as moving toward or away from their fantasy? "We lost China" because "we lost" Poland, Hungary Czechoslovakia , all of East Europe, and half of Germany to an openly anti-democratic and despotic regime. It was partisan political propaganda and extreme in its intensity, particularly in the United States. Whether or to what degree China will democratize or rather should democratize is up to the Chinese - obviously. But, if I understand, your point is well taken. The question that comes to my mind is this: Is the question "why China has failed to democratize" descriptive or a wish, or a validation of an underlying fantasy. Beneath all lies “The Fantasy” upon which is constructed all that is. Why is it unnatural for societies, governments, political scientists, and philosophers to measure the other as moving toward or away from their fantasy?

“We lost China” because “we lost” Poland, Hungary Czechoslovakia , all of East Europe, and half of Germany to an openly anti-democratic and despotic regime. It was partisan political propaganda and extreme in its intensity, particularly in the United States. Whether or to what degree China will democratize or rather should democratize is up to the Chinese – obviously. But, if I understand, your point is well taken. The question that comes to my mind is this: Is the question “why China has failed to democratize” descriptive or a wish, or a validation of an underlying fantasy.

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