Plasma Pool

a set of sharp and cogent notes

drink deep

Jul 26, 2009 2

The Virtues of Rational Religious Belief

Science works Though fundamentally irrational, religion both acts as a moralizing force for the non-rational and reinforces the morality of those who came to their beliefs through rigorous discourse and reflection by providing symbols and figures who set powerful and useful examples often lacking in a modern pluralistic society. Religion can both inculcate us with the basic moral rules of idealized polite society (such as being a good Samaritan) and, for the rational contemplative, provide entire philosophies for progressive social change. Take that of Jesus Christ, whose emphasis on charity is undeniable and yet today goes largely unspoken in American public discourse. Religion, in acting as both a source of simple but crucial rules for societal interaction and a (potential; today largely untapped) source of progressive philosophical inspiration, also provides the devout literalist Christian and the rational Christian—provides the strictly faithful and the scientifically faithful—with a common popular vocabulary with which to articulate mutual hopes, fears, dreams, and desires.

Jan 10, 2009 7

I Am a Militant Atheist

Culture

Elliott Callahan

Unlike other animals, who only know they are going to die when only death is manifestly imminent, we must find a way to cope with our mortality. This is of the highest priority to the perpetuity of our species, because if we couldn’t cope, we might well spend our entire (short) lives in a state of mortal fear. Human consciousness evolved quickly, as evidenced by the poor fit between crania and hips, but so did our coping mechanism. It arose from pre-existing instincts for superstition and it stuck. It began to manipulate sentience in order to perpetuate its own existence, and it came to hold dominion over the rationality it evolved to facilitate.

The Plasma Spring

You Are Drowning

Christopher Hitchens is dead.
Jerk Pork

Several members of the NYPD are under investigation for racist Facebook messages pertaining to working the city's West Indian American Day Parade in over Labor Day. Great job, guys!
Does Your Memory Stray?

Glenn Kenny on Edward Yang's amazing, just-now-getting-a-proper-release 1991 epic A Brighter Summer Day and the critical compulsion to stump for the underseen.
The One Who Knocks

Like something out of Breaking Bad, a math professor in Boston has been arrested for running a meth lab with her son. Hopefully she doesn't also own a car wash.
Dissatisfaction

With OWS wearily dwindling and the American administration unable to so much as slow the immolation of the middle class, Malcolm Harris and Ezra Klein offer assessments of the waning power of social democracy and the illusory promise of change a second time around.
Like a Sociological Experiment

Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Richard Linklater are working on a third movie in their series that includes Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Given the strength of the first two, this news qualifies as something of a blockbuster for fans of small movies with little more than two people conversing the whole time.
The Golden Age

Noel Murray thinks there should be a TCM for TV. He is extremely correct.
All the Great Things You're Gonna Do

David Gordon Green is returning to dramas with the new film Q, which also happens to be the title of a long-gestating project by Terence Malick. Apparently DGG's going to force those Malick comparisons that met his first few films, no matter what it takes.
Let Them Pitch Tents

Rather than end things, has Michael Bloomberg's disgusting, shameful, and police-state decision to evict Occupy Wall Street in the middle of the night actually given the movement a second and more effective life?
Kindness Is the New Surrealism

"When," asks Randy Lewis, "was the last time you saw an act of charity on TV? In the strictly for-profit world of corporate media that dominates our nightly viewing, caring for strangers has lost out to macho indifference, consumerist narcissism, and paranoid stranger-danger. Except in rare circumstances, we are not permitted to witness ongoing suffering nor those who tend to it. This omission is one of the defining facts of our contemporary mediascape."
Occupation Is So October

Occupy Wall Street has been a surprising success. But Hendrik Hertzberg thinks it's time for the occupation to transition to something new and no less creative.
Jazz Is Dead

The vastly underrated series Treme will end after two more seasons. Which frankly seems like as good a plan as any for a show that's at it best when it doesn't even have much in the way of plot.
Life Becomes Art

Axe Body Spray decided to market aggressively to guys who needed the most help getting girls. Then it worked too well, and their brand suffered because of it.
Public Trust

Independent film icon Hal Hartley has started a Kickstarter drive to raise the money to finish his new movie. We are truly in a new world when it comes to funding for creative projects.
Whalecatcher

Lynne Ramsay, the always-interesting director of Morvern Callar and the forthcoming We Need to Talk About Kevin, is planning a sci-fi adaptation of Moby-Dick. This news is exciting primarily because Ramsay is one of the few filmmakers who may choose to adapt the entire novel, not just the first and last 100 pages.
Limit to Your Love

Nitsuh Abebe explains the modern state of adult contemporary music, in which genuine artists like Wilco and Feist put out songs that are just good enough but lacking an extra kick of inspiration.
Moderately Dirty Business

"No writer owned the arena of toilet reading more than Henry Miller. He read truly great books on the lavatory, and maintained that some, Ulysses for instance, could not be fully appreciated elsewhere." But is it safe and sanitary? Probably.
Taming the Mottle

"But really, to me," George Saunders tells The New Yorker's Deborah Treisman, "the writer’s main job is to just make the story unscroll in such a way that the reader is snared—she’s right there, seeing things happen and caring about them. And if you dedicate yourself to this job, the meanings more or less take care of themselves."
This Is Not Hard to Decode

"In a dispiriting time," writes Todd Gitlin, Occupy Wall Street has "put some new facts on the ground. This is no small thing, especially when initiatives come so substantially from the right. It’s a huge thing, in fact, in a twisted political system busy debating the shape of the earth."

Hey Mitch,"

Thought you might find this interesting.

(I'm a student in your Friday afternoon class.)

Best,

K
Tread On

"Rather than the constant state of hyper-vigilance that comes from the Tea Party’s psychology of exclusion, OWS inclusion carries with it a sadness that no repair is ever perfect, that even the most exceptional America possible will still and always fall short of our aspirational ideals," writes Todd Essig for Forbes.
He Made People Uncomfortable

There used to be a thing called a public intellectual, Lewis Beale reminds us, and Paul Goodman, a queer leftist polymath who died in 1972, "was practically its template." Miller-McCune reports on a new film by Jonathan Lee that aims to revive him.
The Catbird Seat

David Milch and Stephen Bochco are working together again for the first time since NYPD Blue. Looks like NBC will have at least one pilot worth checking out next fall.

Grid Focus by Derek Punsalan 5thirtyone.com.