Did anyone ever listen to the reading of the Wasteland by T.S. Eliot?

Fanzt Fanons diagnosis of the violence of decolonization. “Decolonization never takes place unnoticed, for it influences individuals and modifies them fundamentally. It transforms spectators crushed with their inessentiality into privileged actors, with the grandiose glare of history’s flood light upon them”.  (Fanon 1) I think that taking and attacking someone culture, religion or any personal belief or value that person has is a very violent matter. To take away or diminish the importance of such things is destructive to the soul of that individual. In brought me back to when the pilgrims came to America. Eventually the grew and populated and took over and destroyed a civilization. My history teach identified this pattern that can be seen all through out history as the "white man burden". These European countries seeing the need to colonize other parts of the world to supposedly help the tribe and people who are living in the area when the real reason is the greedy desire to attain there natural resources and control the sea trade market.

I was looking at The Grand Inquisitor by Dostoyevsky and trying to relate it to the same reading that was assigned during that week. The poem that Ivan tells his brother Alyosha about the return of Christ during the times of the Spanish Inquisition seem to resemble the parable like structures that we read in the Gospel of Matthew. Honestly I thought that the Inquisitor who kept criticizing Jesus action from him previous visit to earth would never stop speaking as Ivan told the poem that seemed to be more like a short story within itself, "'Receiving bread from us, they will see clearly that we take the bread made by their hands from them, to give it to them, without any miracle. They will see that we do not change the stones to bread, but in truth they will be more thankful for taking it from our hands than for the bread itself! For they will remember only too well that in old days, without our help, even the bread they made turned to stones in their hands, while since they have come back to us, the very stones have turned to bread in their hands. Too, too well will they know the value of complete submission! And until men know that, they will be unhappy. Who is most to blame for their not knowing it?-speak! Who scattered the flock and sent it astray on unknown paths?" (Dostoyevsky 14)


In the next reading, The Gospel of Matthew I focused on more of the guideline Jesus gave on "violence" when he delivered his Sermon on the Mount. My favorite guideline that he gave was,   “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right check, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have they cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and ray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;.” Jesus method of teaching by use of the parable is nonviolent in nature itself because it really is only suggestive and has no force behind the teachings.
 

Reviewing the Precarious life of Judith Butler.....

Judith Butler made many good point in her book that we read. When I initially read this reading i think that I misunderstood the point that she was trying to make and was to quick to judge her. I just focus on her argument of the 9/11 Israeli/Palestinian conflict that she discusses at the beginning.“The articulation of this hegemony takes place in part through producing a consensus on what certain terms will mean, how they can be used, and what lines of solidarity and implicitly drawn through this use.  We reserve “acts of terror” for events such as the September 11 attack on the United States, distinguishing these acts of violence from those that might be justified through foreign policy decisions or public declarations of war”. (Butler 4) I think that Giuliani was being somewhat foolish in his explanation as to why he did not accept the money from the Saudi prince. We have to be careful and more open minded to other individual that come from different culture and a different country. We should strive to relate were and are the same and understand our difference so that we can unite together in a peaceful nonviolent fashion.

Video of Judith discussing in depth some of her ideas from Precarious Life.

 

Camu, Letters to a German friend

I guess Camu is willing to jump the train of nonviolence if need be to suit the situation. Camus tone in this essay has a sense of finality with his expression to Germany.“Today I am still close to you in spirit your enemy, to be sure, but still a little your friend because I am with holding nothing from yon here. Tomorrow all will be over. What your victory could not penetrate, your defeat will bring to an end”. (Camu 1) When Camu joined the French Resistance during a time when France was Nazi occupied he could see that the Germans could not be reasoned with a nonviolent attempt but rather they needed to use a brand of violence that would resist the occupancy of the Nazis in France at the time.
 

This first clip is from a movie titled
"An exceedingly dangerous woman" that document the life of Emma Goldman. Very interesting to watch and learn about her background and how she was as a person.

Here is a clip on an interview that Emma did when she was allowed back into the USA after deportation. I think her curtness is due to a dislike of the social media especially because they never displayed her or her cause in a good light.

My favorite quote from Emma Goldman's The Psychology of Political Violence:

"The most noted writers and poets, discussing the psychology of political offenders, have paid them the highest tribute. Could anyone assume that these men had advised violence, or even approved of the acts? Certainly not. Theirs was the attitude of the social student, of the man who knows that beyond every violent act there is a vital cause". (Goldman 2) To Emma violence was necessary during her time when there were injustice in the political system. If violence was going to be used to achieve a political cause that one believed in that could change people lives for the better than she condoned the use. I cant disagree with her there, if it truly is going to benefit lives and nonviolence in not working or would not work in the situation then a small scale of violence could be tried.

The Burmese people protest non-violently against the rise of fuel prices

This picture caught my eye because there are children in the front line of this non-violent protest. Should children be allowed to participate in protests whether violent or non-violent?