stargeek
To black hole, or not black hole, that is the questionTo black hole, or not black hole, that
|
 No one who has read The Boondocks has a neutral opinion about its writer, Aaron McGruder. You either love him or hate him, or vacillate between the two extremes. The twenty-something radical leftie is working on a Simpsons-style animated series that will air, ironically, on Fox, probably next year, and as the New Yorker reported last month, he's managed to outrage almost everyone of every political stripe, including other cartoonists who say that he's gotten lazy (the strip is now drawn by Jennifer Seng, though McGruder still does the writing), and that he's relentless to the point of being tedious and unfunny. He is the most banned cartoonist in history, with many of the 300+ papers carrying the strip having cut it at one time or another. But as I think the above strip from last week shows, McGruder's biting wit has lost none of its edge, and demonstrates a fearlessness that goes beyond even what Doonsbury and Bloom County achieved. |
 If
you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I'm
opposed to unregulated 'free' trade, very worried about the
extraterritoriality of the WTO, NAFTA, Davos and other corporatist
captives, strongly opposed to domestic corporations 'offshoring' jobs,
using influence with the Bush regime and other right-wing governments
to circumvent social and environmental laws and responsibilities, and
a
great believer in taking the pledge to buy local, and in community
self-sufficiency.At the same time, I'm a strong supporter of the UN and other multi-lateral NGOs, and I believe that we each have a responsibility for the well-being of all the people and creatures of this world. Some readers have said this view is inconsistent, and I wasn't quite sure how to respond to such charges. Fortunately, Peter Singer, in his recent book on global ethics, I'll have more to say next week about Bush's fraudulent and despicable Earth Day media blitz, and the major media's shameless lack of critical evaluation of the utter nonsense that his propaganda machine has been churning out this week on the environment -- newspeak of Orwellian proportions. The first part of Singer's book deals with environmental responsibility, and his prescription for increasing it -- immediate ratification of Kyoto by the US and other holdout countries, and introduction of an emissions trading mechanism to make the realization of Kyoto feasible (subject to the need for some oversight on the disposition of the proceeds of such trading when it involves autocratic governments). The second part of the book deals with the global economy, and Singer adroitly tears apart the Economist's (and other neocons') naive assertion that economic globalization somehow benefits both rich and poor countries. He then goes on to prescribe a substantial reform of the WTO and the GATT, which could actually lead to more equitable distribution of wealth and more efficient production of economic goods, while safeguarding human rights, labour and the environment. Unfortunately, the multi-national corporations and corporatists who hold sway in the WTO would never tolerate Singer's prescription, since it would entirely divert the benefits of economic globalization from their pockets to those of the world's poor. The third part of the book deals with international law, and Singer lashes out at Bush for his unconscionable refusal to ratify the International Court of Justice, and for the UN's continued hesitancy to accept a duty (not a right) to intervene in situations of genocide and other humanitarian crises, even within a single nation. Singer is sanguine about the limitations and dangers of 'global government', but supports strengthening the UN to enable it to act as a 'protector of last resort', and including in its mandate the responsibility to supervise elections in all member nations. The fourth and final part goes back to ethical principles and proposes that countries must, in this world where national boundaries no longer have any logistic meaning, set aside national interest and embrace, once and for all, global interest, impartially. That does not mean cultural homogenization, but imposes a responsibility for the reduction of inequality, both of economic resources and personal rights and freedoms. Always the pragmatist, Singer concludes by worrying out loud about how the responsibility for a global ethic could be managed: It
is widely believed that a world government would be, at best, an
unchecked bureaucratic behemoth that would make the bureaucracy of the
EU look lean and efficient. At worst, it would become a global
tyranny,
unchecked and unchallengeable. These thoughts have to be taken
seriously. How to prevent global bodies becoming either dangerous
tyrannies or self-aggrandizing bureaucracies, and instead make them
effective and responsive to the people whose lives they affect? It is
a
challenge that should not be beyond the best minds in the fields of
political science and public administration.
I'd like to believe that this was possible, because if it isn't, we're in serious trouble. We cannot expect national governments to set aside parochial interests, especially when this entails accepting a responsibility that would, for the richer nations, inevitably lead to a drastic redistribution of wealth to poorer nations and hence a sudden and sharp reduction in, at least, economic living standards (if not necessarily well-being). But as John Ralston Saul has so eloquently argued, larger organizations and institutions, whether public or private, are almost always, and inherently, less efficient, less agile, more resistant to change, more hierarchic, and less transparent than smaller organizations. So the challenge is to achieve the best of both worlds, having organizations of global scope and authority and responsibility, but broken up into sufficiently small, autonomous and dynamic units that they are sensitive, resilient, responsible and responsive to the people and communities they serve. We can only hope that "the best minds in the fields of political science and public administration", wherever they are, are up to the task. |
I had a wonderful time at my signing in Huntington Beach last night. There were about forty people seated when I started, and by the time I was finished, another fifteen or so had joined us.
Over the years, I've developed a pretty good sense of how the audience is relating to me, and I felt like I connected with this audience immediately, and maintained the connection all the way through. It was awesome. The last few readings I've done have been a hardcore geek conferences, you see, and there's been a very palpable "Okay, prove to us that you deserve to be here, jerk." feeling from at least part of the audience, but last night, I didn't feel any challenge or hostility from the people there, so I was able to relax and just do my thing.
Usually, I just thank people for coming, and get right into reading, but last night I tried something now: I gave a little bit of a "talk" about the internets, and the power of blogs. I talked about how blogs are a powerful communication tool, and how blogs can be used for very positive things, like helping our friend Kris when she had cancer. I also talked about this awesome auction I'm a part of to raise money and awareness for the Alzheimer's Association of Los Angeles (that is going to be so cool, it gets its own entry in the near future.)
I've been thinking a lot about how my life has changed, and I know that none of this would be happening without the examination of my life that happened because of my blog and my books. I talked a little bit about that examination, and how I discovered this thing called "the quarter life crisis," where we hit our mid-to-late twenties and freak out because we don't know what we're doing (or going to do with) our lives as we near thirty. At that time in my life, I recalled, I was struggling not only to be a successful actor, husband, and stepfather, but also to figure out who I was. My mom always told me "just be yourself, and you'll be happy." That's great advice, but it's tough to heed when you don't know who "yourself" is.
Anyway, I talked about all those things as a lead-in to the writing of Just A Geek, and to set up where I was in my life when I experienced the events I wrote about in Chapter Nine of Just A Geek (pdf file), which is what I read last night.
The actual "reading" portion of the . . . uhm . . . reading . . . was great. I felt comfortable with the material, and it is always entertaining (to me, anyway) to edit out the naughty words on the fly when I read. It was extra fun last night because people were following along in their own books, and they'd giggle when I replace "shit" with "crap," or something similar.
When my reading was done, I took a few questions, which gave me another opportunity to talk about how empowering the internet is, and how I used the internet to reassert control over my creative life. Then, I sat down and signed books for everyone there. The people who came out were all friendly and enthusiastic, and the whole experience was just wonderful. I was done about 8:45, and through the power of quantum physics, I made it up to ACME by 9:30 without ever exceeding the posted speed limit.
Shut up. I did.
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
