Stand Alone journalism
Grok Headline matches for Stand Alone journalism
"The standard rap against us
armchair warriors is that we can't stand
the heat of real war, but poor Mary Ann
can't stand the heat of real armchairs."
"The standard rap against us
armchair warriors is that we can't stand
the heat of real war, but poor Mary Ann
can't stand the heat of real armchairs."
05/30/2004 10:18 PMRead Mark Steyn Now ..
rationalizations
telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/200
4/05/30/do3001.xml
track this
site | 7 links
ESP Journalism
ESP Journalism
07/28/2004 09:54 PMAt 8:50 this evening, CJAD, 800 on your AM dial, reported that John
Edwards accepted the party nomination and recounted what he said in
his speech. Only problem: It's now 9:50 and Edwards has yet to give
his speech. Apparently, Canadian Press jumped the gun with the
transcript - explicitly embargoed - circulated by the Democratic PR
folks, and CJAD ran with it. Not surprisingly, it made the top listing
at Google News....
Reverse Journalism
Reverse Journalism
03/23/2005 01:22 PMYesterday I had a long talk about the search competition between
Google and MSN. That competition is interesting, but so was the
conversation, and what I can say about it. I was talking to a journo
from a big-name mag that you see on every newsstand. He’d just been
briefed by one of the search titans and wanted some insight from an
independent search expert. The briefing was along the lines of
“We’re gonna kill ’em dead because of X, Y, and Z” and he
wanted my take on X, Y, and Z. Here’s the problem: X, Y, and Z are
real interesting, and in particular it’s interesting that the vendor
who’d briefed him thought they were important. But you know, I
don’t think I can ethically say who the reporter was and who briefed
him and what X, Y, and Z are, even though these are things that the
vendor was trying to get published; because I didn’t think to ask
the journo. Hmm, looks like I
covered this ground
once already, in August of 2003.
Martyrs for the cause of journalism
Martyrs for the cause of journalism
07/26/2004 07:21 AMThey outraged an advertiser, pissed off the publisher or fell afoul of
right- or left-wing political correctness. Now these articles killed
by major magazines and newspapers have found new life.
Backchannel Journalism
Backchannel Journalism
05/22/2004 12:30 PMJournalists have their sources, but usually have to find new sources
for new stories that don't reveal themselves while on the
investigative trail. One tool they use is Profnet, an expert system
for journalists. I have been on the expert...
"Webl0gs in Journalism"
"Webl0gs in Journalism"
01/26/2004 09:50 PMHurricane Journalism
Hurricane Journalism
09/10/2004 12:43 PM
"Conditions are deteriorating, Dwight!"
Herald writer's comprehensive guide to Hurricane Journalism. Very
important reading for storm-chasing reporters, especially now, as
Ivan the Terrible sets its eye on Jamaica, Cuba, and Florida.
Found via
CapitalWeather.
Also check out
CaribPundit for Ivan updates and reminiscences
of island hurricanes.
(Ivan the Terrible? Eye? Get it?
Eh? Eh? Yeah, I didn't think it was funny on Fox News
either.) Bloggers vs. Journalism
Bloggers vs. Journalism
02/01/2005 09:48 PMMieto Marinadi talks about how a column by
Matt
i Wuori in Iltalehti is asking if blogs could be journalism and
whether they will overrun the traditional media. I think the fact
that the question is being asked now shows clearly how much Finland is
not a front-runner in the information society game. In fact,
this question is not even asked yet by journalists, but a lawyer.
You see, PressThink says the conversation on this subject is already over.
But in order to overrun media, there has to be first a Finnish blog
that has something to say in a way that is interesting and new. I
much enjoy the writings of Sedis, for example, and I am
expecting much from Haltia (and some other political
bloggers), now that the Helsinki City Council is starting its work.
The new Finland for Thought (in
English) keeps also asking important questions, and Kari
Haakana is probably the foremost journalistic blogger in Finland.
At the moment, Sami
Köykkä of Pinseri and Alex Nieminen of sukellus.fi are
arguably the most influential bloggers in Finland.
But this is not enough. I don't know whether it's even a good
start. Most of the "internet discussion" in Finland is done
in the scary, yet boring discussion boards of magazines, such as
Iltalehti, Iltasanomat, Vauva-lehti, etc, and it is pretty much
failing to impact anything. There is little danger to any sort of
professional journalism from these discussion boards, who mostly just
consist of rehashing the same arguments all over again. The USENET has been
in existence for twenty years, and every time I go there, I see the
same discussions but with different people. Or sometimes with the
same people. It makes you wonder whether these discussion boards ever
contributed something to anything, other than in the sense of community creation.
To me, blogs are different from the discussion boards because they
are individualistic. A news group is usually referred to by its name,
say "the people in sfnet.keskustelu.ihmissuhteet say
that...". Similarly in a bulletin board: "Hey, I found this
from Vauva-lehti..." On the discussion board, you lose yourself
and become a part of a bigger crowd, all shouting at the same time.
But a blog is attached to a real person (except for some weir
dos who can't seem to be able to decide whether they exist or
not). Therefore, whatever a blog says carries more gravity than a
random rambling on a news board. It is essentially your own
personal publication, and the comments are only a side story -
much like "from the readers" -sections on newspapers.
Therefore, bloggers are not a community, any more than newspapers are.
Some bloggers form communities, yes, but blogs are far too good a
ground for egocentrism for communities to
become prevalent.
The reason that I find blogs interesting is that they might
be the avenue to a real way for individuals (particularly
non-journalists and non-politicians) to influence local and national
decision-making; the real "information society" that
the
...
a primer on how not to do journalism
a primer on how not to do journalism
05/31/2004 02:30 AMscathing self-rebuke .. Editor & Publisher .. this E&P piece ..
credibility
editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vn
u_content_id=1000518753
track this
site | 3 links
When the Journalism Itself Was the Bad
News
When the Journalism Itself Was the Bad
News
12/22/2004 01:06 AMO PIOR do jornalismo americano em
2004
latimes.com/news/columnists/cl-ca-shaw19dec19,1,2122581.column<
br />track this
site | 3 links
Lazy Journalism
Lazy Journalism
12/17/2003 08:29 AMRichard
Forno has done a good job of extolling the virtues of security in
Mac OS X. This comes after PC Magazine columnist Lance Ulanoff
reported a vulnerability in Mac OS X and went on to write
a long and inflammatory
tirade about how Mac OS X is no more secure than the Windows OS,
and anyone who disagreed was a Mac zealot.
Printing stuff like this is guaranteed to cause a stir in the Mac
community, and as sure as eggs are eggs, the Slashdot crowd responded
in
true
acerbic fashion. What really bugs me is the lazy journalists who
print this stuff.
Time after time you get a 'technology' journalist who finds material a
bit thin on the ground (or are too lazy to write anything newsworthy)
and have a go at Apple and/or the Apple community by writing an overly
aggressive or inflammatory article. Why? The primary concern, I guess,
being to draw in huge traffic from the offended Apple community
websites and somehow earn respect of the Windows crowd by bashing one
of their rivals.
Jack Schofield from
Guardian Online is a
prime example. I've no doubt he's a respected 'technology' journalist
for a number of years, but his anti-Apple posts on
onlineblog (a weblog run by the
Guardian Online team) only serve to expose his laziness and spoil an
otherwise good read.
Off the Grid Journalism
Off the Grid Journalism
03/06/2004 01:52 AMWhen a writer dissents from it, or departs from it, the master
narrative is a very real thing. Here are two examples: one from
politics, one from music.
that bad journalism thing
that bad journalism thing
06/15/2004 03:18 PMi think it's the Tribune's way of saying they think nobody read
Choire's NYT piece
Innovations in Journalism
Innovations in Journalism
02/16/2004 01:22 PMMaking the bold leap from merely waiting for Leander Kahney to watch
Blogdex as this link rises, I'm actually going...
New Journalism Panel
New Journalism Panel
02/10/2004 02:51 AMI something going on that is changing the journalist role? How do we
do this better? Dan: On my right, is Jeff Jarvis, but I won't go into
that any further. Jay Rosen Teach-ins should teach us things, the
most...
funding journalism
funding journalism
10/29/2003 12:31 PM Blogger
Joshua Micah
Marshall solicits funding so he can cover the Howard Dean campaign
in New Hampshire.
Readers respond with nearly $5,000 in 24 hours. See? You
CAN buy that kind of coverage.
Jay on whether 9/11 changed journalism
Jay on whether 9/11 changed journalism
08/14/2004 08:22 AMJay has blogged an atypical piece that is typically brilliant. He
asks: Did 9/11 change journalism? Should it have? What story do
journalists tell themselves about their role in the "war on
terrorism"? Are journalists who inform citizens of the most powerful
and influentual nation in the world participants in the war on terror,
in the worldwide struggle for democracy, freedom and markets, because
their country is a participant—the biggest by far—and they
inform it? Don't miss the discussion in the comments. I only have a
simple-minded answer to the question Jay poses in his nuanced post:
9/11 should have...
Participatory journalism
Participatory journalism
08/16/2004 11:52 AMParticipatory (or citizen) journalism is getting a lot of
coverage at the moment, thanks in part to Dan Gillmor's new book We the Media. For a great
example of participatory journalism in action, check out Wikipedia's
outstanding coverage of the 2004
Summer Olympics. It's already a serious competitor to the official
site in terms of content, and its wiki nature means it will only
get better as the games continue. Hat tip: Gadgetopia.
I've been a fan of Wikipedia's current affairs
coverage for quite a while. The site is especially useful in
catching up with ongoing stories, in particular for detailed profiles
of people and groups currently making the news (random example: Muqtada
al-Sadr). Despite the site's open nature (or maybe because of it),
they generally do an excellent job of keeping to a ne
utral point of view.
Citizen journalism is unlikely to ever replace traditional
journalism completely, but it can certainly enhance it. Then again,
with OhMyNews now one of the
most influential media outlets in Korea (see this interview for details) this is
one trend that's not going to go away.
Fairness in journalism
Fairness in journalism
06/05/2005 11:47 PMThere's an
interview with author Michael Pollan (he wrote the highly regarded
The Botany of Desire, which I have yet to read) on AlterNet.
The teaser indicates the piece is all about food and the environment,
but most of it ends up being about journalism, including this good
bit:
I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal;
fairness, however, is not. Fairness forces you -- even when you're
writing a piece highly critical of, say, genetically modified food, as
I have done -- to make sure you represent the other side as
extensively and as accurately as you possibly can.
Many blog evangelists point to the success of blogs, many of which
are about as far from objective as you can get, as evidence that
objectivity isn't required in telling a story, sharing a viewpoint, or
in the search for truth. But it's important to keep Pollan's thoughts
about fairness in mind before we throw the fairness baby out with the
objectivity bath-water. So be subjective, but be fair also...you'll
find you may get more mileage out of your arguments that way.
A Journalism Giant Retires
A Journalism Giant Retires
12/19/2004 03:18 PM
Bill Moyers
has
completed his last episode of
NOW with Bill Moyers, a PBS program
that looked in depth at critical issues.
Moyers is a hero in journalism. He's not always right, but he's been
asking the tough questions.
He's been especially tough on the press, which in many ways has
abdicated its public trust in recent years. We need more voices like
his, not fewer.
Participatory, Partisan Journalism
Participatory, Partisan Journalism
01/16/2004 01:00 PMBloggerStorm
is one of the more interesting developments in participatory
journalism in a long time. It's an aggregation of weblogs covering the
Iowa presidential caucuses, kind of a human-operated equivalent of
Google News capturing a narrow topic.
Journalism Net Picks of 2003
Journalism Net Picks of 2003
12/31/2003 12:23 AM JNet's Top
Picks of 2003 :
a random selection of some of the best, most
topical or just plain fun sites for journalists. "Online Journalism Review"
"Online Journalism Review"
09/16/2004 03:30 AMDead trees = journalism
Dead trees = journalism
04/19/2004 01:46 PMCongrats to Richard! Until your words go onto dead trees -
you are not a journalist. But now you are!
I guess
this makes me a journalist.
Today I got my first article in print. My interview with Marc Canter made it into
Computerworld New Zealand (pg 16, April 19 edition -
right over the page from Jon Udell). It was one
of my goals at the start of this year to get my writing published in
the print world, so I'm chuffed to have achieved it! I'll upload a
scanned version of the article tomorrow, because it isn't on the Computerworld NZ website at
this point in time.
For those of you who may have arrived at my personal website via
Computerworld, you may be interested in reading the extended
version of the Marc Canter interview. Or perhaps pay his company
website Broadband
Mechanics a visit (newly re-designed, with my interview
linked on the homepage too. Excellent!). Or you could stick around,
make yourself at home, put your feet up and browse through my
archive of weblog writings - by date or by topic.
What the heck is Blogging?
Some of you may be wondering what all this "blogging" business is
about. The best way I can explain it is invite you to participate in
the personal publishing revolution. Firstly, to read and subscribe to
weblogs - try out Bloglines as
an easy-to-use "newsreader". You can start by subscribing to this
weblog ;-) Click here to subscribe to Read/Write Web in Bloglines. Or, see
that orange button with RSS on it - to your
left? RSS means "Really Simple Syndication". Right-click that and
copy it directly into Bloglines.
The second part of the blogging equation is the writing and
publishing. There are a variety of tools out there, including Radio Userland, Movable Type and TypePad. I currently use Radio
Userland to publish this weblog and Movable Type for my linklog (daily list of
links).
So am I really a Journalist?
Not really, but my interview with Marc Canter was an example of
journalism. The reason I bring this topic up is that there's been a
lot of talk lately about whether blogging is journalism. Jay Rosen wrote an excellent essay on this a
couple of days ago. His conclusion was that "Blogging is not
automatically journalism." There's a lot more to the debate than just
this statement, but it's all philosophical. Read Jay's post and all
the great comments others made on his weblog, if you
want the full picture.
For what it's worth, I think journalism is a craft
that must be learnt and practised constantly - much like being a Web Designer or
Producer is a craft. I can occasionally practise the craft of
journalism, and perhaps I'm even good enough to "turn pro". But the
reality is I'm an amateur Journo (sometimes) and a professional Web
Craftsman (all the time).
Tom Coates wrote an essay last year called (Weblogs and) The Mass
Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... that outlines how
weblogs make it easy for "amateurs" to publish. Nowadays anyone
can create original content and distribute it to the
world. If it gets picked up by a professional publishing outfit, all
the better for both writer and readers. It's a win-win two-way web world!
[
Read/Write Web]
Introduction to Online Journalism
Introduction to Online Journalism
07/01/2004 05:26 AMIntroduction to Online Journalismhttp://www.abacon.com/dewolk/
This site, accompanying the Allyn & Bacon textbook
"Introduction to Online Journalism", is designed to enhance the
textbook, and in particular, to make it easy for students and teachers
to get the most out of each chapter. The original subtitle to the
textbook was to have been "How to Use the Power of the Internet for
News and Information in the 21st Century." If not for running out of
space on the cover, that subtitle would have stood. A full collection
of links in the book are here as are extra tips and assignments to
help conquer the important mission before us: creating quality
journalism in a true multimedia environment on the World Wide Web.
This in-depth accompaniment and workbook is expressly to maximize the
textbook experience.
Digital Journalism: Readings for 2/17
Digital Journalism: Readings for 2/17
02/18/2004 09:15 AMNYU's digital journalism class analyzes popular blogs .. critiques of
blogs by Chris Albritton's students .. NYU Digital Journalism course,
Spring '04 .. assigned the class to read a few blogs .. Joi Ito is a
woman
again
journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/cta1/archives/000609.htmltrack
this site | 5 links
reader-supported journalism
reader-supported journalism
07/08/2004 12:29 PMgen explains how sam whitmore did the right thing
Offshoring Hits Journalism
Offshoring Hits Journalism
08/10/2004 10:24 AMWashington Post: Reuters to Move Editorial Jobs From U.S. and Europe to India.
Financial news service Reuters Group PLC said yesterday it will
eliminate up to 20 editorial positions in the United States and Europe
and hire up to 60 replacements in India in a move aimed at cutting
costs.
Internet, Journalism and Ethics
Internet, Journalism and Ethics
08/11/2004 05:08 PMMark Glaser (Online Journalism Review): . On the Wild,
Woolly Internet, Old Ethics Rules Do
Apply
Welcome to my bl0g NYU Digital
Journalism course
Welcome to my bl0g NYU Digital
Journalism course
02/17/2004 06:38 PMWelcome to my blog NYU Digital Journalism course, Spring '04. ;-)
via Radio Free Blogistan
Tough Guy Journalism More in Vogue in LA
Tough Guy Journalism More in Vogue in LA
01/07/2004 03:12 PMTim Rutten of the LA Times has big problems with the new ombudsman at
the New York Times. Rutten's objections put public editor Daniel
Okrent on the couch. "Narcissism" is the charge.
Interactive Tele-Journalism
Interactive Tele-Journalism
07/19/2004 04:40 PMDirect and Related Links for 'Interactive
Tele-Journalism'
Wouldn’t be cool if technology was more interactive with the
audience of a journalist’s work? Shawn Van Every, a researcher
at New York University, seems to think so. He has taken it upon
himself to show each of us how it can be done with a little ingenuity,
spare parts and a whole lot of imagination. His work involves a video
rig interconnected with Internet chat which enables his audience to
make suggestions to him…
What Time is it in Political Journalism?
What Time is it in Political Journalism?
03/06/2004 01:52 AMAdam Gopnik argued ten years ago that the press did not know who it
was within politics, or what it stood for. There was a vacuum in
journalism where political argument and imagination should be. Now
there are signs that this absence of thought is ending. The view from
nowhere is being challenged.
mcdonald's and brand journalism
mcdonald's and brand journalism
07/26/2004 07:23 PMit's interesting that both mcdonald's and coke are rethinking core
marketing strategies
Citizen Journalism: A Newspaper Goes for
It
Citizen Journalism: A Newspaper Goes for
It
12/19/2004 03:18 PMAs Jay Rosen explains in his latest
PressThink article, the local paper in Greensboro,
N.C., is turning its online self into a community square. Bravo. This
is a big deal.
And as Ed Cone
observes
-- Ed is a blogger of note and columnist for the paper -- this isn't
exactly rocket science. Anyone can do it. Almost every newspaper
should try.
American Journalism Review
American Journalism Review
05/31/2004 03:28 PMThe Expanding Blogosphere .. article this month .. Rachel
Smolkin
ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3682
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site | 5 links
On Protecting Journalism And Democracy
On Protecting Journalism And Democracy
03/14/2005 05:50 PM By Donna Wentworth, Corante
'Bloggers' are rewriting journalism
'Bloggers' are rewriting journalism
12/30/2003 03:51 AMUSA Today Dec 30 2003 2:34AM ET
Sun lauded for online journalism
Sun lauded for online journalism
03/22/2005 05:01 PMSbsun.com - Tue Mar 22, 10:30 am GMT
Grok Description matches for Stand Alone journalism
GrokA matches for Stand Alone journalism
Loft Cube
Loft Cube
04/17/2004 03:21 PMWerner Aisslinger - Loft
Cube: Dumbest site navigation I've ever seen, but still a
very cool little house project.
Click here to comment on this entry
Lapvantage stand now goes better with
PowerBooks
Lapvantage stand now goes better with
PowerBooks
05/18/2004 04:22 PMThe Plasticsmith Inc. has introduced a new
Lapvantage laptop stand that is
molded in grey to complement Apple's PowerBook line, according to the
company. Black and white models of the height-adjustable laptop stand
are already available. The Lapvantage stands are available for
US$59.95. Silicone feet and cord clips are included; other accessories
are also available.
New Lapvantage laptop stand unveiled
New Lapvantage laptop stand unveiled
06/08/2004 03:36 PMThe Plasticsmith has released a new, and less expensive, Lapvantage
laptop stand...
PlasticSmith MiniShack
PlasticSmith MiniShack
04/15/2005 09:59 AM
Plasticsmith, the makers of some of the previous Mac
mini stands, is now selling the 'MiniShack,' a 7-port USB 2.0 hub that
fits right underneath your mini. Three models are available, including
a model with a built-in undercarriage LED for taking your Mac mini to
the auto show, a clear model, and a model with no built-in hub, but
space to add your own. Prices range from $70 to $100.
Plasticsmith launches the MiniShack [HTmini]
The Plasticsmith intros Mac mini Shack
The Plasticsmith intros Mac mini Shack
04/15/2005 09:52 AMThe Plasticsmith today announced the release of its newest Mac mini
accessory, the mini Shack...
The Plasticsmith intros new products for
Mac mini
The Plasticsmith intros new products for
Mac mini
02/01/2005 09:55 PMSan Carlos, Calif.-based The Plasticsmith on Monday released a new
line of accessories aimed at Mac mini owners. The company's mini
Grandstand (US$34.95) comes in acrylic or steel and offers a way to
place an LCD or CRT monitor over the computer. Both versions can
support up to 60 pounds and come with non-skid pads. They're both 11
inches wide and nine inches deep, but the acrylic model is 2.5 inches
high while the steel version is 2-3/8 inches high.
Plasticsmith announces Mac mini
accessories
Plasticsmith announces Mac mini
accessories
02/01/2005 09:21 PMThe Plasticsmith today announced a line of products for Apple's new
Mac mini...
Plasticsmith intros new laptop stand;
reduces pricing
Plasticsmith intros new laptop stand;
reduces pricing
05/13/2004 02:26 AMThe Plasticsmith today announced the release of its newest Lapvantage
laptop stand, a height adjustable stand that places the laptop's
screen at eye level...
News: The Plasticsmith offers mini Shack
stand
News: The Plasticsmith offers mini Shack
stand
04/15/2005 10:13 AMThe Plasticsmith on Friday introduced the mini Shack, a stand for
Apple's Mac mini that incorporates a 7-port USB 2.0 hub. The US$99.95
device has its own AC adapter to power peripherals and also features a
glowing blue LED base that you can turn on and off. Space underneath
lets you wrap cords to keep them out of the way.
Are You a Perpetual Bad Relationship
Magnet? Nobody's Unlucky in Love:
Learning Core Causes for Lousy Love
Relationships
Are You a Perpetual Bad Relationship
Magnet? Nobody's Unlucky in Love:
Learning Core Causes for Lousy Love
Relationships
06/18/2004 03:10 AMRelationship advisor and author Nancy Pina dispenses free relationship
advice to adults struggling with individual, couples and marriage
issues. She advises teens and young adults in recognizing healthy,
loving relationships. [PRWEB Jun 18, 2004]
Boys love games, girls love ringtones
Boys love games, girls love ringtones
06/02/2004 10:08 AMBut neither gives a hoot for 3G
Chris Abraham: Liberals Find Mad Love at
Act For Love
Chris Abraham: Liberals Find Mad Love at
Act For Love
06/22/2005 02:45 AMLiberals Find Mad Love at Act For Love ..
Permalink
chrisabraham.com/2005/06/liberals_find_m.html
track this
site | 4 links
"Wait... they don't love you like I love
you" [sorry, got stuck in my head]
"Wait... they don't love you like I love
you" [sorry, got stuck in my head]
03/25/2005 04:09 PM
Social
Explorer. "Social Explorer is dedicated to providing
demographic information in an easily understood format, data maps. We
serve hundreds of interactive data maps of United States. Here, you
can visually analyze and understand the demography of the U.S.,
explore your neighborhood and learn about the people that live around
you."
Love Macs? Then Learn To Love Macsurfer
Love Macs? Then Learn To Love Macsurfer
05/19/2004 08:55 AMIt does a bang up job of providing the Apple community with
interesting reads day in day out. By Hadley Stern, O'Reilly Network
(via MyAppleMenu)
I love women...no, wait, apparently I
love men
I love women...no, wait, apparently I
love men
01/04/2004 04:59 AMmirror.co.uk
mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13773600_met
hod=full_siteid=50143_headline=-WO-IS-ME--name_page.html
track this
site | 4 links
The Plasticsmith Debuts Mini Shack For
Mac Mini
The Plasticsmith Debuts Mini Shack For
Mac Mini
04/15/2005 09:47 AM By MacNN
The Irish Have a New Jackass: If You
Like Dumb, Stupid and Funny Stuff, Then
You Will Love This New Site From a Group
of Crazy Mental Irish guys Who Just Love
to Party
The Irish Have a New Jackass: If You
Like Dumb, Stupid and Funny Stuff, Then
You Will Love This New Site From a Group
of Crazy Mental Irish guys Who Just Love
to Party
03/22/2005 04:47 PMThe Americans have Jackass while the Irish have the Crazy mental team.
These guys film all their stupid and funny stuff for our enjoyment,
from driving a Ferrari 355 at breakneck speeds around the Hollywood
hills in Los Angeles to drilling a hole in one of their arms with a
hammer drill, these guys are really crazy. [PRWEB Mar 21, 2005]
Against Love: Love Politics Revisited
Against Love: Love Politics Revisited
03/22/2005 04:54 PM
 The
Idea: Author
Laura Kipnis argues that monogamy is unnatural and unhealthy, and
possibly complicit in our emotional detachment from political life and
our ecosystem as well.
Laura Kipnis, despite the title
of of her 200-page "polemic", is not Against Love. Rather,
she's against the trappings, the rules, the rituals that our culture
imposes on love relationships. She goes even further -- she sees
marriage, the institution, as every bit as repressive, suffocating and
unnatural as our mind-numbing employment in modern hierarchical
organizations, and draws strong parallels between the slavery of the
workplace and the slavery of the matrimonial home. These two canons of
civilization: our need and responsibility to devote our daytime hours
to meaningless subordinate labour, and our need and responsibility to
devote the rest of our hours to boring, stifling and unsatisfying
monogamy, work together diabolically to keep us suppressed, and in our
'place' in society. Small wonder, she says, that one of our most
enduring conventional wisdoms is that "a good marriage takes work".
If this protestation against the rigours of monogamy, fidelity and
marriage-slavery as the complement to wage-slavery sounds familiar,
it's because it's very similar to the argument that Glenn Parton made
in his essay posted first on these pages last year entitled "Love Politics".
Glenn's argument is that we have become so emotionally numbed by our
twin bondage to job and marriage that it has made our hearts cold and
hard, uncaring of the plight of our planet and of others, and that
this
is a direct cause of the destruction of our world. "If I'm miserable,
why should I care about anyone else?" Dare to love more than one
person, he suggests, and the shackles of this self-imposed
imprisonment
are broken, and the inrush of emotion will shock us into awareness of,
and eagerness to heal, the massive emotional and physical illness of
our entire planet.
Why should we, why do we
subject ourselves to this one-love-partner-slavery as easily and as
passively as we do to wage-slavery? This is the subject of much of Ms.
Kipnis' book. Her prose is so adept and so powerful I won't attempt to
paraphrase her arguments. Here are a few teasers:
Is it the persistence of the
work
ethic that ties us to the compassionate couple and its workaday
regimes, or is it the ethos of compassionate coupledom that ties us to
sould-deadening work regimes...Resenting the boss? Feeling bored or
overworked or dissatisfied? Getting complaints about your attitude?
Whether it's "on the relationship" or "on the job" get yourself right
to the therapist's office, pronto. There are only two possible
diagnoses for all such modern ailments: it's going to be either
"intimacy issues" or "authority issues". You'll soon discover that the
disease doubles as the prescription at this clinic: You're just going
to have to "work harder on yourself"...
Take the modern consumer. Clearly, routing desire into consumption
would be necessary to sustain a consumer society -- a citizenry who
fucked in lieu of shopping would soon bring the entire economy
grinding
to a standstill. Or better still, take the modern depressive. What a
boon to both the modern pharmaceutical and the social-harmony
industries that such a social type would be. These are merely
hypotheticals of course, since it's not as if we live in a society of
consumers and depressives, or as if the best strategy for the latter
weren't widely held to be strategically indulging in the former --
"retail therapy"...Love's proper denouement, matrimony, is also of
course the social form regulated by the state, which refashions itself
as a benevolent pharmacist, doling out the addictive substance in
licensed doses...What about re-envisioning [marriage] or... insisting
that social resources and privileges not be allocated on the basis of
marital status? No. let's demand regulation! Not that it's easy to
re-envision anything when these intersections of love and acquiescence
are the very backbone of the modern self, when every iota of
self-worth
and identity hinge on them...Domestic
coupledom is the boot camp for compliant citizenship, a training
ground for gluey resignation and immobility...
Ms. Kipnis suggests the same lack of innovation that permeates the
workplace in the 21st century also permeates domestic
institutions:
Different social norms could
entail something entirely different: yearly renewable contracts for
example. And if we weren't so emotionally yoked to the social forms
we've inherited that trying to envision different ways of having a
love
life seems intellectually impossible and even absurd, who knows what
other options might present themselves?...It behooves [our] society to
convince its citizenry that wanting change means personal failure,
starting over is shameful, and wanting more satisfaction than you have
is illegitimate...As love has increasingly become the center of all
emotional expression in the modern imagination -- the quantity without
which life seems forlorn -- anxiety about obtaining it in sufficient
quantities and for sufficient duration has increased to the point that
that anxiety suffuses the population, and most of our cultural
forms...Uncoupling [then] can only be experienced as ego-crushing
crisis and inadequacy...[and] the grief of failed love is exacerbated
by inevitable feelings of personal failure...
Much of the latter part of the book is focused on the psychological
gymnastics of all three (or more) parties in the polygon of adultery,
from the rationalization that hiding the affair is to protect the
feelings of the cuckold, to the feelings of self-hatred and
self-flagellation of the 'sinner(s)'. She also discusses the awkward
mechanics of the ultimate break-up of either the marriage or the
affair
(or both), and the degree to which children of the relationship become
hostages, or excuses for deception, or excuses for the boredom that
gave rise to the deception. Of course the book also talks about famous
infidelities in high political circles, and the twisted hypocrisy of
conservatives' opposition to same-sex marriage, as well as the
equal-opportunity-for-misery desire of lesbians and gays to gain
access
to the sad and repressive regulation of 'official' marriage rather
than
'settling for' merely the legal and resource rights that come with
equivalent-to-married status. And there's also a discussion of the
pragmatic phenomenon of "serial monogamy" -- the fall-back that
there's
nothing wrong with marriage per
se, it's just that we were all married to the wrong person.
All of this is complicated (even more) by the emergence of the Two-Income
Trap, which imposes a financial prison on top of the emotional one
in marriage. We have to stay
together because we can't afford to live apart.
I am convinced that this one factor is overwhelmingly responsible for
keeping the rate of divorce from reaching astronomical levels. It is
also probably helpful in keeping birth rates in the West below
replacement levels -- Not only can we not afford children, we
certainly
don't want any (or any more) with the spouse we're economically
shackled to. And having one with the secret love is just too messy. In
my recent article predicting a baby boom, perhaps I underestimated the
sheer perverseness of a socioeconomic system that not only makes
parenthood financially reckless, it also suppresses fertility rates by
its expressed moral repugnance for having a child by someone other
than
your boring spouse.
A lot of people, some of their own free will, and many more who have
been pushed, have recently broken free of wage slavery and are now
working, mostly for much less income, for themselves. That's probably
a
good thing in many ways -- it reduces the supply of the remaining wage
slaves, which might actually, in time, allow them to bargain from a
position of at least a bit of power. It increases self-sufficiency. It
reduces excessive consumption. What if there were a similar revolution
against marriage slavery?
What if a whole generation just refused to define themselves (in more
ways than one) as married, or to live with the constraints of
monogamy,
and instead opted for a polyamory life-style?
Paternity 'rights' and responsibilities would both probably suffer, as
the new family unit would be a woman (or possibly, and more logically,
a group of women, in self-selected community) and their children. They would have the
power, and could strike whatever contract they chose with males who
wanted
the responsibilities and privileges of fatherhood. The nuclear family
and the 'single-family dwelling' would disappear. Conjugal relations
would not attach to parental responsibility, and could be negotiated
between any two people as individuals on a one-shot basis, with no
responsibility other than the responsibility to prevent unwanted
pregnancy and disease. This would probably be bad for the oldest
profession, as the supply/demand ratio for quick couplings would soar.
Jealousy and the consequent domestic violence that is the scourge of
our nuclear spouse-as-property society would, slowly (old habits die
hard), disappear. I think the vast majority of men, driven by
million-year-old biological imperatives, once they reached a certain
age, would choose to attach themselves to one of the matriarchal
communities (if so invited), and would do their share to provide for
its well-being, in return for the company and sense of purpose that
would bring.
We are told it takes a village, a community, to raise a child. Perhaps
the community is necessary, and sufficient, for far more: To break us
all free from both the emotionally numbing subjugation of wage-slavery
and the misery and boredom of marriage-slavery. The community would
then become truly self-sufficient in every respect, and we would be
happier and freer than we can, or dare, imagine.
Cartoon: By Peter Steiner from The New Yorker, in the Cartoon Bank
|
I love Ferrari stuff. Got all stuff from
cap/jackets/T-shirts etc. Would love to
go for Ferrari Laptop. What's
I love Ferrari stuff. Got all stuff from
cap/jackets/T-shirts etc. Would love to
go for Ferrari Laptop. What's
07/14/2004 08:09 AMTechTree Jul 14 2004 12:21PM GMT
Laptops for all
Laptops for all
07/23/2004 02:35 AMUSA Today Jul 23 2004 6:26AM GMT
Could laptops run on spinach?
Could laptops run on spinach?
06/29/2004 03:17 PMnature
nature.com/nsu/040621/040621-9.html
track this
site | 4 links
Other News: New Mac Laptops?
Other News: New Mac Laptops?
04/15/2004 09:00 AMAppleInsider says new PowerBooks and iBooks are due next Monday.
Ten Worst Laptops, Ever
Ten Worst Laptops, Ever
08/03/2004 09:29 PMThe original Apple iBook (the toilet seat edition) got into
John Dvorak's top ten worst of the laptops. "I
described it as a 'girly' computer... This got me into a heap of
trouble with politically correct Apple users."
"Could laptops run on spinach?"
"Could laptops run on spinach?"
06/29/2004 08:19 PM$100 laptops for the masses
$100 laptops for the masses
04/04/2005 07:03 PMHouston Chronicle Apr 4 2005 11:12PM GMT
ForceWare 62.20 for Laptops
ForceWare 62.20 for Laptops
07/25/2004 05:34 PMForceWare 56.77, 56.87, 61.32, 61.40 for
all Laptops
ForceWare 56.77, 56.87, 61.32, 61.40 for
all Laptops
06/13/2004 07:27 AMForceWare 61.34 & 61.36 for Laptops
ForceWare 61.34 & 61.36 for Laptops
07/04/2004 07:05 AMForceWare 62.01 & 61.72 for Laptops
ForceWare 62.01 & 61.72 for Laptops
07/14/2004 04:55 AMMIT developing $100 laptops
MIT developing $100 laptops
04/04/2005 09:42 PM Stand Alone journalism
So I did. In January 1995 I took a week's
vacation time from my job at the SF Examiner and published a site. I
focused on what was then quaintly known as "multimedia"; I called it
Kludge, as a nod to its essential clumsiness and improvised nature,
and I posted an issue. This was years before personal content
management software, needless to say; it's all just cruddy hand-coded
HTML and crude self-designed graphics. But the articles weren't so bad
(hey, here's an