CAVEAT DVMPTRVCK

Caveat: You are not Catullus

Be Angry At The Sun

That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.

Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.

You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar. You are far
From Dante's feet, but even farther from his dirty
Political hatreds.

Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.

- Robinson Jeffers (American poet, 1887-1962)

This poem seems stunningly topical, given it was written 75 years ago.

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Baekje Rising

Korea voted for president yesterday. I was quite confident already that the left-leaning candidate, Moon Jae-in (문재인), was sliding to victory. The right has been in disarray since the scandals broke around Park Geun-hye last year, and her impeachment and removal from office a few months ago, leading to this accelerated presidential election schedule, somewhat guaranteed that the electorate would swing leftward.

The main right-leaning candidate for the new Liberty Party (the previous Saenuri Party, trying to rebrand itself in the wake of the scandals), Hong Jun-pyo, didn't help matters by having Trumpesque crude sexist language come to light in his own past, including bragging about a date rape while in college. I had one coworker tell me that she would normally vote Saenuri (i.e. conservative, and probably, I speculate, because of her evangelical religious affiliation), but she couldn't vote for Hong because he was "repugnant and disgusting." I can only wish that US evangelicals could have been more morally upstanding vis-a-vis Trump.

So the conservatives shot themselves repeatedly in both feet, and the normally minority liberals wafted into the presidency, despite almost everyone disliking Moon almost as much as Americans seem to have disliked Hillary Clinton.

If one thinks in terms of policy and ideology, I also suspect Moon's position was strengthed precisely because of Trump's victory in the US. The Koreans deeply distrust Trump because of his being on the record to reevaluate the US "protection" of South Korea. Thus Moon's stated intention to reexamine the relationship with the US probably resonated as well. How all this plays out vis-a-vis North Korea, I can't really say. My instinct is that, to the extent the US and South Korea are NOT getting along, the North Koreans will be pleased and therefore LESS likely to do anything dangerous. So in fact my personal feeling, which is perhaps misplaced optimism, is that Moon's election will be good for lowering tensions with the North.

Having said all that, I want to return to something I looked at during the last election cycle: the ghosts in the electoral map.

Moon's victory map seems to parallel the 900AD "Late 3 Kingdoms Era" (후삼국시대 [husamguk sidae]) in Korea. Look at the two maps: the conservative "rump" in the southeast is later Silla, long past its glory days, while new Baekjae and the ascendant Goryeo dominate the peninsula - see the maps along the right.

I was thinking about this "ghosts in the map" idea because I also ran across someone who mentioned that Macron's support in the recent French presidential election eerily paralleled the Plantagenet lands (i.e. English control) in 12th century France - see the maps below.

[daily log: walking, 6.5 km]

 

Caveat: topical

I invented this tongue-twister. It's not the twistiest possible tongue-twister, but it's twistedly topical. 

The dems don't doubt the Donald's debauched douchebaggery, disregarding his diligent but dubious denials of dinosaurian demogoguery.

[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: a sufficiently obfuscated version of the UBI

I have long thought that the direction we should be going, in terms of social welfare policy, is what is called a "Universal Basic Income." Switzerland recently flirted with the idea, via its referendum process - my recollection is that it didn't pass (but I'm to lazy to find out if I'm wrong about this).

This strikes me as something we need to talk more about, in the context of cultural sustainability and US politics. I saw this on the marginalrevolution blog a while back (great blog, but for your sanity, don't read the comments). The quote that drew my attention:

[Patrick] COLLISON: Do we just need a sufficiently obfuscated version of the UBI [Universal Basic Income] and then we’re fine?

[Tyler] COWEN: We call it "disability insurance."

In fact, this thought had occurred to me, almost exactly as Cowen phrases it, many years ago when I was still living in the US. It is flattering to have a world-class economist validate my idea - not that I would try to take credit - I only have my own memory of thinking this.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Art and the Maintenance of Motorcycle Zen

Someday, I want to create a story or novella with the title, "Art and the Maintenance of Motorcycle Zen." It would be a kind of sincerely felt, but also maybe vaguely comedic tribute, to Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that I was jotting down a few snippets that might pertain to such a story.

I am reminded of this today because I have heard that Pirsig has died. I have to say that Pirsig's book, and even some of his other activities, have had multilayered influences on my life.

I first read his book as a high school senior, I think. And it was a required text in my "freshman seminar," my first year at college. The book is easily in my personal list of "10 most influential books in my life." It might be the most influential book.

Some of this influence and importance derives from the very weird parallels between the book and my life. And it's an eerie set of parallels, because I read (and re-read) the book before many of those parallels occurred (ECT? check. Zen? check. Philosophical road tripping? check.). So the question naturally arises: did I, perhaps, subconsciously "follow" the book?

Certainly there is one very significant instance, where I think the book might have had a conscious influence. The main character, like Pirsig, is from Minneapolis. And perhaps this raised my awareness about that part of the world sufficiently that it made it possible for me to imagine going there - which is what I did for college. Not many California kids would move to Minnesota, sight-unseen, and so I think the book's presentation of the midwestern landscape embedded it higher up in my awareness, such that I might consider it. I guess it's difficult to say for sure - I remember tracing the route of his motorcycle journey in a road atlas, during my first reading. A line, drawn from Minneapolis to the west coast, that, incidentally passed through my home town on the Pacific, which is actually mentioned in the book (although not as a destination - just in a "passing through" way). That line was effectively reversed when I went to college less than a year later.

The other impact Pirsig had on my life came much later, and was indirect, I suppose - essentially unrelated to the book. He was one of the founders of the Minnesota Zen Center. When I moved back to Minneapolis in 2006 (the year before deciding to come to Korea), I attended the Zen Center a dozen times or so. Its location on Lake Calhoun was within walking distance of where I was living, and since I was working to transform my life and habits, I was walking or jogging past it daily - going around that lake was one of my new habits.

So Robert Pirsig is gone.

But, in the Buddhist spirit, I shall interpretatively paraphrase my friend Curt: "Death is nothing."

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Culture, Delusion, Equilibria

The following is my own thought, but the idea was initially prompted by some points made by Robin Hanson (economist) on an old post at his blog.

Wealth leads to delusional behavior, because the wealth "cushions" us from the consequences of behavior that runs counter to reality. Thus the best cure for a delusional culture is to try to impoverish it. Arguably, if the culture is sufficiently delusional, it will probably end up impoverishing itself. Thus the whole seems to be a kind of self-correcting equilibrium. But a helluva ride for the people involved. Roman Empire, anyone?

[daily log; walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: respect and brotherly love

I learned that the essential character of a nation is determined not by the upper classes, but by the common people, and that the common people of all nations are truly brothers in the great family of mankind. ... And even as I grew to feel more Negro in spirit, or African as a I put it then, I also came to feel a sense of oneness with the white working people whom I came to know and love.

This belief in the oneness of humankind, about which I have often spoken in concerts and elsewhere, has existed within me side by side with my deep attachment to the cause of my own race. Some people have seen a contradiction in this duality. ... I do not think however, that my sentiments are contradictory. ... I learned that there truly is a kinship among us all, a basis for mutual respect and brotherly love.  - Paul Robeson

What I'm listening to right now.

Paul Robeson, "Joe Hill." Song by Phil Ochs.

Lyrics.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me
Says I But Joe, you're ten years dead
I never died said he,
I never died said he.
The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
They shot you Joe says I

Takes more than guns to kill a man
Says Joe I didn't die
Says Joe I didn't die
And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes

Says Joe What they can never kill
Went on to organize,
Went on to organize
From San Diego up to Maine,
In every mine and mill,
Where working-men defend there rights,
It's there you find Joe Hill,
It's there you find Joe Hill
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.

Says I But Joe, you're ten years dead
I never died said he,
I never died said he

I think the Joan Baez rendition of this song is the one I heard in childhood. 

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Peace? Well, purity of essence

/POL/ITE SOCIETY

This is the future that liberals want: a cool
return to norms after the tan excrescence
is excised. Peace? Well, purity of essence.
Articulate. Harvard Law or a comparable school.
Personally dedicated to the rule
of law. A paragon. A recrudescence
in an empire seemingly sunk in convalescence.
Judicious. Stylish. Not a raving fool.
Across an ocean in a dusty town a boy
who’s barely past a cracking voice is set
to marry a girl he’s only recently met.
He vacillates from morbid fear to joy.
He’s droned and bleeds to death at evening prayer.
The liberal president pretends to care.

- Jacob Bacharach (American writer, b?-notdeadyet [i.e. google let me down])

[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: and I say that, and I say that

I guess the Emo Emperor Tangerine is a thing. There not just one but multiple videos made that use "emo" style wailing to interpret the President's utterances, both in tweet and spoken form.

Tremendous!

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: 노동자연대 and other activities

Yesterday after working in the morning, I took the subway into Seoul and met my friend Peter. We hung out for a few hours.

There were a lot of protests going on in downtown Seoul. Along Jong-no (the ancient, main east-west drag in downtown Seoul), we saw these protesters and a very disproportionate number of police.

I guess some are protesting about the president's impeachment. Others are protesting the endemic corruption that the president's impeachment seems to represent. There will be elections in about 6 weeks, so some people are protesting just because it seems like a good time to protest. It's part of Korean culture, to a certain extent.

The group above is "leftish" - the red banner with yellow letters, on the right, reads 노동자연대 [nodongjayeondae], which means "Workers' Solidarity." 

[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: A very clever Brexit

A very clever Brexit that would leave everyone happy.

Recently Nicola Sturgeon announced that Scotland would re-vote on the matter of Scotland's independence, given the Brexit context that had not existed during prior vote, in 2014. The motivating factor is that the citizens of Scotland overwhelmingly wish to stay in the EU. I was reading in the comments section on a certain brilliant blog (slatestarcodex) that there is a problem here: the EU might not want to easily welcome a newly independent Scotland as a member - because certain countries, most notably Spain, don't want to encourage their own separatist regions (e.g. Catalonia). Thus a country like Spain might essentially block an independent Scotland's effort to join the EU.

So then this one commenter on that blog reports a very clever solution, which is attributed (without specificity) to Alex Salmond. If Westminster is amenable to a "friendly divorce", then there is a simple legal solution for a Scotland wishing to remain in the EU, and and "Rest-of-the-UK" wishing to exit. The solution not only solves Scotland's problem but also allows Westminster to avoid negotiating with the EU per Article 50.

This solution is, frankly, brilliant. England, Wales, and North Ireland can secede from the UK. The remaining "Rump UK" in this case is Scotland, which thus remains in the EU. England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are at that point de jure independent countries which Spain (among others) would, of course, not want to allow into the EU anyway (on principle, right?). So they're out, and they're out only on the terms of their secession from the UK - essentially an "internal matter" and EU terms don't need to be negotiated. Then they can reunite at their own convenience, the day after their secession from the UK. Then everyone can just "coincidentally" rename their countries, and the problem is solved.

Corporations do things like this all the time. I once worked at a corporation that underwent a "reverse merger," which seems conceptually similar in some ways. So why can't countries?

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Unpresidented

The unpresidenting of Korea is unprecedented. With the constitutional court's confirmation of the impeachment of Park Geun-hye yesterday, I think this is the first time in the country's history in which a ruling president has been removed entirely within the constraints of the rule of law. So it's a positive step for Korean civil society.

Now there will be an election. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

 

Caveat: 98 Years Ago

98 years ago, today, Korea declared independence from Japan, which had imperialistically annexed the country 9 years prior, in 1910. There were also a lot of Koreans in positions of power who felt they benefited from Japanese control, and the Japanese took increasingly draconian measures to maintain their control of the country, eventually attempting complete ethnocide, banning the Korean language and Korean indigenous culture. This effort was cut short by Japan's loss to the Allies in 1945. So the Koreans have an "Independence Day" on March 1st, and a "Liberation Day" on August 15th. 

[daily log: sitting independently]

Caveat: Last Night In Sweden

I'm actually pretty sure that the new Space Emperor's reference to an incident (presumably "terrorist incident") in Sweden last week was just a syntactic mutilation such as routinely emerges from his mouth, rather than any kind of premeditated prevarication.

Nevertheless, the media reaction has been entertaining. One thing I ran across, that was amusing, was this cartoon originally posted at a site called The Postillon (although the cartoon predates the reference made to Sweden at the news conference):

I wonder if the numbers of pieces listed (e.g. 3,772,896 connector screws) is accurate, or if the cartoonist just made the numbers up. 

[daily log: walkig, 7km]

Caveat: Englyn #81

The rampaging orange beast
made his attacks hard and fast.
Angry men used their dull host;
false minds triumphed at last.

- an englyn proest dalgron

Caveat: If they can get here

The topic of immigration periodically looms in my political imagination. I have never done much about it, however. I once tried to build a website on the topic of "open borders," but my own inertia doomed that effort (the site only lived about a year).

I'm pretty sure I wrote somewhere, but I can't find where, that I have sometimes thought that the issue of immigration and open borders will be a new kind of abolition movement. I was gratified to read this post at a blog called spottedtoad, which appears to argue the same idea, more cogently than I ever could. It may fade, but at least at the moment, the issue is becoming more noticeable and more politically polarizing in the US. This is not dissimilar to the way abolitionism took hold of political discourses in the first half of the 19th century. 

In the meantime, I leave with that same Herman Melville quote I've cited before:

"If they can get here, they have God's right to come."

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: A primer on international relations

What I'm listening to right now (NSFW).

Run The Jewels, "Nobody Speak." Anyway I found the video entertaining.

Lyrics (NSFW).

[El-P]
Picture this
I'm a bag of dicks
Put me to your lips
I am sick
I will punch a baby bear in his shit
Give me lip
I'ma send you to the yard, get a stick
Make a switch
I can end a conversation real quick

[Killer Mike]
I am crack
I ain't lyin', kick a lion in his crack
I'm the shit, I will fall off in your crib, take a shit
Pinch your momma on the booty
Kick your dog, fuck your bitch
Fat boy dressed up like he's Santa
And took pictures with your kids

[El-P]
We the best
We will cut a frowny face in your chest, little wench
I'm unmentionably fresh, I'm a mensch, get correct
I will walk into a court while erect, screaming "Yes!
I am guilty motherfuckers, I am death"

Hey, you wanna hear a good joke?

[Refrain]
Nobody speak, nobody get choked

[El-P]
Get running
Start pumping your bunions, I'm coming
I'm the dumbest, who flamethrow your function to Funyuns
Flame your crew quicker than Trump fucks his youngest
Now face the flame, fuckers, your fame and fate's done with

[Killer Mike]
I rob Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Linus and Lucy
Put coke in the doobie, roll woolies to smoke with Snoopy
I still remain that dick grabbin' slacker that spit a loogie
Cause the toter of the toolie'll murder you friggin' Moolies
Fuck outta here, yeah

[Refrain]
Nobody speak, nobody get choked, hey
Nobody speak, nobody get choked, hey, hey
Nobody speak
Nobody speak

[El-P]
Only facts I will shoot a
Baby duck if it quacks, with a Luger
Top billin', come cops some villainous shots is blocked, shipped out, and bought, and y'all feeling it
El-P killin' it, Killer Mike killin' shit

[Killer Mike]
What more can I say? We top billin' it
Valiant without villainy
Viciously foul victory
Burn towns and villages
Burning looting and pillaging

[El-P]
Murderers try to hurt us we curse them and all their children
I just want the bread and bologna bundles to tuck away
I don't work for free, I am barely giving a fuck away

[Killer Mike]
So tell beggin' Johnny and Mommy to get the fuck away
Heyyo here's a gun, son, now run, get it the gutterway
Live to shoot another day

[Refrain]
Nobody speak, nobody get choked, hey
Nobody speak, nobody get choked, hey
Nobody speak
Nobody speak
Nobody speak, nobody get choked

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Con permiso; tengo trabajo que hacer

Aeromexico's new advertising campaign mocks the new Space Emperor's wall. There is some pretty complex messaging going on. 

The final line could be the voice of the typical, hard-working, entirely law-abiding (except for immigration law) Mexican in the US, "al otro lado" for his or her almost culturally obligatory decade of remittances and wealth-building.

No additional comment required.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Broke(n) Cities

Urban planning has always fascinated me. I think if I'd felt more confident and more motivated during my college years, I'd have pursued that as a career.

Perhaps it can be attributed to my somewhat countercultural background, but I have always harbored a great deal of skepticism about what might be termed the US's "typical suburban development model." Recently I ran across a rather stunning indictment of this development model, concluding that not only does it produce fragmented and/or insular communities and excessive energy consumption, but it also is, in strictly financial terms, something like a publicly-sponsored pyramid scheme and utterly unsustainable. 

[daily log: walking, 5km]

Caveat: Great again? Great idea...

A nation which makes greatness its polestar can never be free; beneath national greatness sink individual greatness, honor, wealth and freedom. But though history, experience and reasoning confirm these ideas; yet all-powerful delusion has been able to make the people of every nation lend a helping hand in putting on their own fetters and rivetting their own chains, and in this service delusion always employs men too great to speak the truth, and yet too powerful to be doubted. Their statements are believed – their projects adopted – their ends answered and the deluded subjects of all this artifice are left to passive obedience through life, and to entail a condition of unqualified non-resistance to a ruined posterity. [emphasis added] - Abraham Bishop.

Bishop was an American Jeffersonian politician (called "Republican" in that Era), abolitionist and orator, who lived 1763-1844. He apparently advocated for gender equality, too. Oddly, the wikithing lacks an article about Bishop, but I found this with some biographical information.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: An inspirational message, with dark irony but without comment

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Englyn #31

They hate the establishment,
their vote's against government,
so a man whose soul's frozen
is chosen for president.

- an englyn cyrch

Caveat: Park Geun-hye, Hiya!

Yesterday, an impeachment process was started against the president of Korea, Park Geun-hye (박근혜). 

Perhaps not coincidentally, during my Newton1-M cohort class (4th and 4th graders), after allowing several students to use the Korean-English dictionary on my phone, I found the following message written on the dictionary's search window:

박근혜하야하라 [pak.geun.hye ha.ya.ha.ra]

This means "Park Geun-hye, resign!" (in a very informal register, as used in the recent public demonstrations against the president). 

Note that we were not, in any way, discussing the political events - I tend to confine my political class discussions to my middle schoolers. This was essentially a kind of surreptitious message entered for no particular reason. 

I asked the kids, "who wrote this on my phone?"

Eric raised his hand, sheepishly. "Park Geun-hye, hiya," he said, waving a hand and exaggerating an "English" pronunciation of the name, making it sound like he was "just saying hi." 

I had to laugh. 

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Neoknownothingist Tokenism

One area where I had been willing to give some benefit of the doubt to the new Space Emperor-elect was in whether or not he was actually a racist. I had preferred to imagine that he was cynically manipulating racists by rhetorical means, without himself having strong opinions on the matter. However, blogger Paul Campos makes a point at the Lawyers, Guns & Money blog about the Ben Carson appointment to HUD:

Appointing someone who admits to being completely unqualified for a job, and who also happens to be black, to that very job is exactly what one would expect a racist to do, since that’s a racist’s definition of “affirmative action” in action.

I am no longer able to give benefit of the doubt. This is pure reaction: post Obama, everything swings outrageously the other way. Sad!

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: America, You're Fired

Worth noting: apparently the Canadian government's "immigrate to Canada" website has been crashed by excess web traffic. I am definitely going to be working on my Korean language skills - I see a TOPIK (Korean language skills test) test in my future.

What more should I say? This is an awkward morning for the USA.

I have this germ of an idea that I'm going to try to avoid mentioning the victor's name on this here blog.

---

In personal news, I stayed at my friend Bob's house last night. Curt and Mr Jin stayed at a B&B a block or so away (since Bob's house is a bit small to accommodate so many guests). I'm not clear what exactly our plans are for today, but they might involve Chicago. 

I'll post more later, I guess. 

[daily log: walking, but how far?]

Caveat: Don't Vote Your "Unconscience"

I awoke before dawn today - but it's not clear to me if this is a sign of a continued jetlagged state or if, alternatively, in fact it is proof of my adaptation to the time zone, since pre-dawn wakings with subsequent insomnia are a very typical part of my day-to-day existence. 

Today is election day, in the US, where I happen to be. With some admitted guilt, I will come out openly and say that I do not intend to vote.

I can justify this in several ways, although I will introduce these justifications with the caveat that I am deeply aware that they are merely that: justifications. 

My first justification is that although I am, de jure, a US citizen, in the de facto sense I have become an emigrant. This may be reversed someday - indeed, it's easy for me to imagine various futures where I return, but at the current moment, taking the broadest possible definition democracy and with a notion in mind of whether or not I am a "stakeholder" in the 230 year old US social experiment, I am definitely a fringe case. If offered the opportunity to vote in South Korea, I would be more likely to consider it.

My second justification is that for most of my life I was a third-party voter. I only broke with that tendency when I voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. I had a lot of optimism about what Obama might represent, in terms of somehow breaking with the old, terrible habits of the US executive. I have been deeply, gravely disappointed. I don't believe Obama is a bad person, but he clearly was unable to break those old habits, due to systemic inertia and his own conciliatory disposition. As a result, I suffer voter's regret, which is an unpleasant if weirdly abstract emotion. In a rather selfish spirit, I do not wish to experience voter's regret with respect to Clinton, and the "main" third party candidates are quite distasteful this round - Jill Stein is dangerously ignorant about the principals of science and fiscal management, and Gary Johnson is just simply dangerously ignorant about just about everything, as far as I can tell. And it's too painful to even comment on Trump.

My third justification is that the places where I am registered to vote (yes, there are multiple places, which is itself uncomfortable and disconcerting, but where, exactly, should I be registered anyway, given my long non-residency and scattered roots?) are not really "in play" with respect to the national election. Both California and Minnesota are "safely blue" and thus there is hardly a scenario under which a Trump victory could be "my fault." I feel I can abstain, following my conscience, with a clear conscience, so to speak.

So there I am. I am not apathetic - I am deeply interested in and engaged with US politics. Rather, I am not voting on various principles, despite the fact that Minnesota, where I sit right now, would undoubtedly let me vote (it is a same-day registration state). Nevertheless I remain curious as to the outcome, and I urge everyone to vote (or not vote) their consciences. 

But try not to vote your "unconscience." That may be the problem that got us to this crossroads. 

I ran across the most amazing thing earlier, as I surfed online a little bit in my predawn insomniac state. I discovered that my friend and former work colleague, Jay Neuman, has a blog. Somehow, I had neglected to notice this before. Jay is a committed Christian, yet he has written what in my opinion is one of the best ethically-oriented evaluations that I have seen of the Faustian choices presented by the current situation. I recommend reading it - even if you are not Christian.

Happy voting.

Today we drive to southern Wisconsin. We can listen to the elections on the radio or something. 

Caveat: giving witch-doctors a bad name

As the evolving scandal around President Park Geun-hye and her "spiritual advisor" Choi Soon-sil continues to dominate the media, I have ambivalent feelings.

On the one hand, this reminds me a little bit of the potential scandal that never really took root around Nancy Reagan's reliance on astrologers. Imagine if it had turned out that there was documented evidence that Nancy's astrologers had been writing policy speeches for Ronald Reagan (and maybe this was true, but there was never any "smoking gun"), and that said astrologers had made billions of dollars through extortion and influence peddling to business leaders. 

On the other hand, there is an element of "moral panic" about this scandal that is quite distasteful to me. My concern lies at the intersection between certain very conservative social forces in Korean society (linked to both Evangelical Christianity and traditional, Joseon-Era Neoconfucianism) and the long-standing cultural habit of condemning and persecuting the ancient shamanistic practices which are the substrate of Korean culture. These practices go under the rubric of "Muism" and have been persecuted and suppressed for at least 1500 years, since Buddhism became the state religion in the Three Kingdoms Era. Yet they remain quite strong, and they have always been connected to a kind of Korean "counterculture" that seems have an almost hippie-pagan flavor (in the sense familiar to westerners) yet is also deeply traditional. It helps to imagine Korean hillbillies.

I despise that this scandal is serving to reinforce the "superstition against superstition" that especially Evangelicals use to condemn nonbelievers. Yet the behavior of the President and her friend, in this context, has been self-evidently reprehensible. This is the sort of thing that could serve to increase the Christian right's stranglehold on South Korea's polity, if carefully spun.  

As I've said before, there are positive ways that Christianity's weird, unprecedented takeover of South Korea during the last 50 years has enabled the culture to leapfrog out of its most xenophobic and caste-driven tendencies that were its premodern heritage, but I have always seen Muism and Buddhism, as well as Korea's many vibrant, unconventional syncretistic cults, such as they remain, as important counterweights to the excessive "holier-than-thou" moralizing and intolerance emanating from the mostly American-influenced, Pentecostal churches. 

Actually, I find the odd links between one of those bizarre cults, 영세교 ([yeongsegyo], called "Church of Eternity" in English) and the Park dynasty (father dictator and daughter current president) fascinating. They might lend some insight into the Parks' odd relationship with the Korean establishment. That "church," founded by a former Buddhist monk, seems to be equal parts Christianity, Buddhism, and Muism. The daughter of the founder is the one at the center of the current scandal.

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: the Choi Soon-sil thing

I was so pleased with my HS2B cohort last night.

We are basically finished with our current Speaking class textbook. We can't bother ordering a new book, since in December they'll be transitioning to the next year-level (i.e. HS3), which will involve a new book - getting a new book for just a month and a half is impractical. Obviously, I didn't do very well budgeting out the progress in the book, which was meant to last a full year.

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked.

Most classes of 8th graders would desultorily propose something in the vein of "play" or"nothing" - and it would be left up to me to come up with something more academic.

These kids, however, proposed, "Let's have debate class." Most them had me for debate in prior years, but the 8th grade curriculum as currently defined doesn't include much debate.

"Wow, so you guys like debate?" I asked.

They did.

"So what should we debate about?" I asked.

Most classes of 8th graders, presented with this choice, would immediately suggest debating something pretty banal: who is the best current pop idol on the k-pop scene, or something in the vein of my absurd debate topics.

One girl, however, proposed, "Let's debate about president Park and the Choi Soon-sil thing." I was, in fact, pretty ignorant about this. I was vaguely aware that some new scandal was exploding around the South Korean President, but I didn't know the details. So we spent some time with them filling me in on what was going on. 

Once I understood what was going on, I offered some possible debate propositions. 

The one we settled on was: "President Park's recently revealed behavior is impeachable." We had to make a digression while I tried to explain the concept of impeachment, but, to my surprise, they knew what this was - I guess it's something they cover in civics class in their public school.

They're pretty sharp 8th graders - I already knew this. But what I like most about those kids is that they are so interested in learning stuff and thinking about their world. This is what I strive for when I talk about student-driven learning. 

Of course, once we'd settled the debate proposition and I assigned some speeches for the next speaking class, they wanted to play. So I let them do that for the last 15 minutes. They're clever - they know if they please me with showing interest in academic topics, they'll get latitude on free time during class, too.

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

 

 

Caveat: Global warming fearmongering since 1912

Those newfangled "climate scientists" keep fearmongering about anthropogenic global warming (screenshot at right).

That's from a snippet published in a New Zealand newspaper, RODNEY AND OTAMATEA TIMES, WAITEMATA AND KAIPARA GAZETTE, 14 AUGUST 1912.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: I'm with Goethe on this one

I find most conspiracy theories - whether left, right, center, or way-out-there - implausible. My own response to most conspiracy theories can be summarized by the old quote from Goethe, "misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent." This idea has circulated more recently as "Hanlon's Razor": "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Mostly, I have given up trying to explain why conspiracy theories are implausible to those who espouse them, however. It seems a fruitless exercise, and anyway it's a lot of work.

I ran across an excellent debunking of the recently emergent conspiracy theory (being propagated by Trump et al.)  that Democrats are rigging the upcoming US election. Written by a commenter who goes by "CrunchyFrog" on the Clintonist left-of-center blog "Lawyers, Guns & Money," it is so well reasoned I felt like sharing it. Not that I have the mistaken belief that someone who believes Trump's voter-fraud theory would be persuaded by this to change their minds, but I cite it just because I admire this kind of reasoning. I think the author would not mind having most of it reproduced here (I clipped off the gratuitous insults and Trumpist-baiting at either end as detracting from the clarity of argument). 

Regarding the black voter busing scheme. Let’s think about this logically (not possible for the GOP, I know, but bear with me). If I were running such a scheme what would I have to do to make an effective dent in the results? As a starting point, a lot of Colorado wingnuts think that Obama won there in 2012 by cheating. He won by 138k votes, so let’s use 140k votes as a starting point. So let’s say I have a bus full of black voters – say 66 people (common capacity limit on school buses). So if every bus is filled to near capacity that’s about 2200 bus-visits to the polling stations. How many polling stations can a given bus hit in a day? Well, your typical precinct has 2-3 people checking voters in and each one processes about 2 per minute, so that’s over 30 minutes just to check in (of course there will be other voters, too), plus time to drive between precincts. Seriously, if you are counting on more than 10 precincts per bus per day you’re going to be disappointed. So that’s 220 buses chartered for the day, and a total of about 14k fraudulent voters.

Holy freaking crap. The logistical problems of arranging that many fraudulent voters, ALL of whom are risking felony sentences and NONE of whom have ever talked about it to anyone. Now plan to arrange for 140k fake registrations using the matching photos for each person and arrange it so that the manager of each bus makes sure that every voter gets the exact fake ID for each precinct. And NO MISTAKES – remember no one has ever been caught doing this because Democrats, who are inept in government, are utter geniuses when it comes to vote fraud. So that means there NEVER can be a situation where a fake voter encounters a registrar who says “Hey, I live on that street, I’ve never seen you” or similar.

By the way, the absolutely easiest logistical part of this scheme is arranging for photo ID. Assuming you have that many people willing to commit felonies for whatever you are paying them and have arranged everything else in detail, getting fake photo IDs for them is simple and routine. So photo ID laws do absolutely jack shit to stop massive vote fraud – but of course that wasn’t their real intention, was it?

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: A Bad Trip

This is a fascinating article: a German historian has demonstrated incontrovertibly that Hitler was a serious drug addict. I actually had never heard about this before, but it looks like it has been one of those "open secrets" among historians.

I find it very compelling. The idea that Hitler was a coke-head junkie in his last years has a lot of explanatory power. And not just Hitler - the whole damn Nazi military apparatus was apparently high on meth and coke, with the pushers being the government. A bad trip, indeed.

What other 20th century insanities might be better understood as drug-related issues?

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: On Neoliberalism

Recently, the term "neoliberalism" seems to be undergoing a kind of evolution. In the past half century (i.e. during my lifetime), "neoliberalism" seems to have been a negative term used by people, mostly on the left, to define an opposition they don't like. Lately, however, some people have been trying to "reclaim" the term as defining their own position. Interestingly, I find this redefinition somewhat appealing. It seems to be a kind of "liberalism with libertarian tendencies" and/or "libertarianism with liberal tendencies" which actually hoves somewhat to where I am, politically, myself. 

One recent self-identified "neoliberal" that I ran across is Sam Bowman (I don't really know who that is - some economist maybe?). For the most part I am close to that defintion. Interestingly, I think Hillary Clinton is, too. Many Bernie Sandersites have called Clinton "neoliberal" despectively, but in fact, she might call herself neoliberal if identifying with Bowman's definition. 

I think what Bowman leaves out entirely, but which is critical to my understanding of both the historical conception of "neoliberalism" as well as why I think I don't quite match the concept, is on the issue of militarism and/or interventionism. I am not a pacifist, but I am not really in favor of militarism, even the "trying to save the failed-state-du-jour" variety common nowadays.

My biggest disappointment with Obama and biggest ambivalence about Hillary Clinton is in this realm. I think that this lacuna with respect to militarism in historical neoliberalism is its overlap with what was called "neocolonialism" when I was vaguely marxist, in college. And just as then, when it comes to such things, I am very much anti-interventionist. 

If I stick only with Bowman's defnition, I could be a neoliberal. But I refuse the term because of that unmentioned neocolonial affiliation. Both traditional liberals and traditional libertarians would also be unconfortable with it, I think.

[daily log: sweating]

Caveat: Ich Bin Ein Ausländer

What I'm listening to right now.

Pop Will Eat Itself, "Ich Bin Ein 

The song is 22 years old, by the British group Pop Will Eat Itself. Yet it seems eerily contemporary, vis-a-vis recent developments like the European response to the refugee crisis, Brexit, and Trump. The zeitgeist.

Lyrics.

Listen to the victim, abused by the system
The basis is racist, you know that we must face this.
"It can't happen here". Oh yeah?
"Take a look around at the cities and the towns."

See them hunting, creeping, sneaking
Breeding fear and loathing with the lies they're speaking
The knife, the gun, broken bottle, petrol bomb
There is no future when the past soon come.

And when they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Or laugh through a glass eye as they rape our lives
Trampled underfoot by the right on the rise

[CHORUS}
"You call us..." ...Ich Bin Ein Ausländer
"You call us..." ...Ich Bin Ein Ausländer
"You call us..." ...Ich Bin Ein Ausländer
"You call us..." ...Ich Bin Ein Ausländer

Welcome to a state where the politics of hate
Shout loud in the crowd "Watch them beat us all down"
There's a rising tide in the rivers of blood
But if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence

If they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
Trampled underfoot by the rise of the right

[CHORUS]

Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.
Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.
Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.
Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.
Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.
Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.
Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.
Ich Bin Ein Ausländer.

 [daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: In for a Trumping

As you may know, sometimes I read politics blogs somewhat obsessively. I generally don't feel particularly passionate about it - for me it's a strange sort of entertainment, as I just observe what is happening in the world.

The Trump thing disturbs me, as I've commented before.

Michael Moore - a political persona whom I normally abhor - makes a set of salient points to support his prediction that Trump will win in the fall. I actually believe he's on target, and will be curious to see if his idea pans out. My caveat must be, as Moore's is, that predicting a Trumping in the fall is not the same as supporting the man. He is a frightening narcissist. If America is Rome, then Trump can be her Nero. 

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Cthulu is running for president

In case you didn't know, Cthulu is running for president. This is great news. This is the candidacy that will trump the others.

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: happy to just fall down

The Korean TV news is full of bits on the North Koreans' Party Congress, the first in 36 years. KJU is consolidating his power, repossessing the military, and showing savvier leadership than had been expected, it appears. Not that that's a good thing. 

 Perhaps relatedly, what I'm listening to right now.

Communist Daughter, "Not the Kid."

Lyrics.

When we were younger
we had nothing to do
so we'd close our eyes
and spin around in circles
happy to hit the ground
or happy to just fall down

When we were younger
we'd go down to the park
we'd catch all the fireflies
we'd put 'em in jars
we never knew that they'd die
we never really thought that far

I'm not the kid you knew
im not the kid you remember

When we were younger
we were scared of the dark
so we closed our eyes
we pulled the sheets over our heads
we didn't want to see what's there
like the shadows under the bed

And now that I'm older
I look back on those days
I wish I had them back
cuz the shadows are gone
or at least they're not that strong
as the shadows in my head

I'm not the kid you knew
I'm not the kid you remember

I'm not the kid you knew
I'm not the kid you remember

In 1985
well there was a picture taken with my name on it
climbin' an apple tree with blue shoes
You'd think it was me
I could swear it was you

I'm not the kid you knew
i'm not the kid you remember

I'm not the kid you knew
i'm not the kid you remember

I'm not the kid you knew
i'm not the kid you remember

I'm not the kid you knew
i'm not the kid you remember

Notes for Korean (finding meaning)

• 병진 = advancing side-by-side - this is the label for the new, not-military-first policy initiative by NK's KJU

[daily log: walking, 1km]