Happiness, Love, Joy

From Sollers' "Paradis caché" in Discours Parfait, p.104-5:

«l'enfer et la damnation, dès ici-bas, est le non-accès à la poésie comme telle.
[....]
La grande poésie , elle, transforme la vie, elle pense plus que la philosophie.
[...]
La joie, le bonheur, l'amour sont gratuits. Un amour qui n'est pas gratuit n'est pas de l'amour.
[...]
Le bonheur rend invisible. C'est la grâce qu'il faut souhaiter.»

Quick rough translations:

• Hell and damnation, here and now, is non-access to poetry as such.
• Great poetry transforms life, it thinks more than philosophy.
• Joy, happiness, love are free. Love that is not free is not love.
• Happiness makes you invisible. That's the grace you must wish for.

Worthy thoughts for a Sunday morning before heading out for a trip along the Oder.

FINALLY - Responsible Action for HEALTH !

Thank you, Mr. Obama; thank you, Congressmen and Congresswomen who voted YES!
Thank you for finally guaranteeing EVERY American health care and health insurance coverage in the United States.
Thank you for finally bringing the US into the modern world where solidarity and compassion for all are ever more a necessity to ensure that all may enjoy the benefits of medicine.

Compassion is always better than greed. Solidarity is always better than sneering at those worse off than you. Sharing never hurts those who have more than enough to share. And perhaps even you will benefit from the new regulations when you switch jobs, and are thus compelled to switch insurance companies, and have some chronic disease that you need to continue to have treated, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, or even post-nasal drip. Pre-existing conditions may no longer be excluded! Even YOU have the right to insurance coverage for what ails you! Congratulations!

Yesterday's Delight

Because it's finally gotten warmer but was drizzly, we opted for a museum visit yesterday afternoon. From here to there by bus to reinforce the notion of a leisure activity, we arrived at the Schloss Charlottenburg stress-free and crossed the street to the Western Stüler Building.

A collection of dimensions you can take in and appreciate without visual fatigue, the Museum Berggruen of the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin is a delightful experience of Picasso and contemporaries. Some 100 works by Picasso, from 1897-1972, are complemented by those of Giacometti, Matisse, Klee, and even traditional African artists.

Whenever you have the opportunity to visit, do so!

Widerstehen dem Nichts

The original version of the Hölderlin passage Philippe Sollers places at the front of Discours Parfait:

«Je angefochtener wir sind vom Nichts, das, wie ein Abgrund, um uns her uns angähnt, oder auch vom tausendfachen Etwas der Gesellschaft und der Tätigkeit der Menschen, das gestaltlos, seel- und lieblos uns verfolgt, zerstreut, um so leidenschaftlicher und heftiger und gewaltsamer muß der Widerstand von unsrer Seite werden. Oder muß er es nicht?»

-Hölderlin an den Bruder, 2. November 1797: Sämtliche Werke und Briefe. Hrsg. von Günter Mieth. Berlin und Weimar, 1970. Bd.4, S.283

Word - On the Completion of a Thoughtful Reading

»Wort? Die lautlose Stimme des Seyns.«
»Das Wort nimmt in den Anspruch das Wesen des Menschen dergestalt, daß es ihn für das Da-sein beansprucht.«
«Durch Erdenken der Efahrung des Seyns --> (Ereignis).«

[MH GA71 Das Ereignis, §314, S.283-4]
Word? the soundless tuned-voice of Being.
The word places such a claim on the essence (essential-sway) of man that it claims him for the being-there.
Through the bethinking of the beholding-experience of Beyng --> (Enowning).

[RG trans.]

Enowning: the only event.

Let Writers Travel With Their Words!

CHINA has again violated freedom of expression and freedom of mobility by refusing Liao Yiwu the right to leave the country to attend a literature festival in Cologne.
CHINA must cease endless violations of human rights and no longer maintain that it is subject to some other, "non-western" standards.
CHINA must finally recognize that HUMAN RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL RIGHTS FOR ALL MANKIND!
CHINA must cease expecting us to breathe their pollution, buy their cheap products, and incur ever more unemployment due to their cutrate production prices exploiting their own people.
CHINA must be boycotted until it respects and upholds human rights!

LET Liao Yiwu travel! Release him from the house arrest he has been place under. Allow him to publish his works, and read from them publicly. Support LIAO YIWU !

China Writer Blocked From Going to German Festival
Published: March 2, 2010

BEIJING — Chinese security agents in Sichuan Province detained Liao Yiwu, a prominent author and critic of the government, as he prepared to fly Monday to a literary festival in Germany, human rights activists said.
It was the 13th time Mr. Liao had been prevented from leaving the country. The Associated Press reported that he had been placed under house arrest after being questioned by security agents for four hours.
“How can this happen?” The A.P. quoted him as saying. “It’s a cultural event, nothing political. Such drama!”

----

And while we're at it:

Burma, Myanmar, Birma, whichever name you prefer for that country, has enacted a law which forbids Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in the upcoming elections in that country, because she is under house arrest for expressing her opinions on the situation in that country. She is the great hope of many of that country's population, and if she remains a member of her own opposition party, it will also not be allowed on the ballot. MYANMAR must institute justice and democracy and release Aung San Suu Kyi!

Change or More of the Same

Take a look at the ad and put pressure on Mr. Obama to bring accused terrorist to trial in criminal courts, as he promised in the campaign. Now he must be true to his word and restore American principles of justice and due process. Terrorism can ONLY be effectively fought WITHOUT violating the Constitution of the United States or the UN Charter of Human Rights !

ACLU Ad: What Will it Be, Mr. President? American Civil Liberties Union

Yann Moix interviews Philippe Sollers on Film

Entretien entre Yann Moix et Philippe Sollers - La Règle du Jeu

The above link leads to the four-part video documentation of the interview on the site La Règle du Jeu.

La Règle du Jeu vous propose un entretien exclusif entre Yann Moix et Philippe Sollers à propos du cinéma. Le premier, écrivain réalisateur. Le second, écrivain ô combien amoureux de la littérature, de la beauté, des arts… et néanmoins réfractaire au cinéma. Mais est-ce si sûr ? Et en ce cas, pour quelles raisons ? La guerre du goût doit-elle (devrait-elle ?) passer nécessairement, par celle du verbe contre l’image ?
Objet d’un dialogue étonnant.

International Women's Day

To all the women I know:

This is YOUR day! May you enjoy it and benefit from true equal rights!

International Women's Day

International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. The first IWD was run in 1911. Next year is IWD Global Centenary 1911-2011 ...

The first International Women's Day was in 1911. It followed unanimous agreement at an International Conference of Working Women the previous year. Clara Zetkin proposed that every year in every country there should be one same day when women's solidarity presses for equality ...

Do Not Let It Fail !

The New York Times Editorial
If Reform Fails
Published: March 6, 2010

As the fierce debate on President Obama’s plan for health care reform comes to a head, Americans should be thinking carefully about what happens if Congress fails to enact legislation.

[...]

If reform is defeated, it seems likely that most of the proposed experiments designed to cut costs — first within Medicare and then throughout the rest of the health care system — will die as well. The legislation needs to be passed to establish a structure to force continuing improvement over the years. That is the best chance of restraining soaring medical costs that threaten the solvency of families, businesses and the federal government.
Any change as big as this is bound to cause anxiety. Republicans have happily fanned those fears with talk of “dangerous experiments” on the “best health care system in the world.” The fact is that the health care system is broken for far too many Americans. And the country cannot afford the status quo.

Genocide by any Other Name ...

... remains genocide. Turkey should do put more effort into facing dark sides of its own history than into criticizing those who point out that dark side. The Armenian tragedy should not be swept under the rug. Silence on crimes against humanity is never golden, but instead very close to being a crime itself!

Turkey Criticizes House Committee’s Declaration of Armenian Genocide - NYTimes.com

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that the vote by a Congressional committee in Washington condemning the mass killing of Armenians early in the last century as genocide would damage ties with the Obama administration and set back reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia.
[...]
Historians say as many as 1.5 million Armenians died in a forced migration by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey denies that this was a planned genocide, and the topic had long been taboo in Turkey, with no mention of it in history books. Writers and intellectuals, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced criminal charges for airing the debate.

Freedom of Art

With thanks to Rachel's Joey and greetings to her and to you all with glee as art frames music:

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

No, the Government MAY NOT Collect Data on Telecommunications in General

Today, the German Supreme Court ruled that a law mandating all telecommunications firms to store data on ALL connections (telephone, mobile, internet, email) of ALL users for 6 months to be available to government agencies at their will is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, violates the rights to privacy of the individual, stands in no proper relationship to efforts to combat crime &/or terrorism because too general, and is therefore NULL AND VOID. All data that has been collected and stored must be destroyed IMMEDIATELY. A proper law detailing who has access to whose information for what specific purposes of law enforcement and terrorism prevention may be permissible, in accordance with EU guidelines, the court added, but the current law is sloppy, too general, and does not properly balance individual rights against security concerns. There was NO transition period allowed; the law has been stricken from the books and may not be used. Only with passage of a new and proper law is any such collection of data perhaps possible, but the court has made clear that this must properly weigh the individual's right to privacy of his data. Below, a short video of the Justices announcing the decision, in itself interesting for the formality of such a procedure here.

Rap français alsacien contre le Front National !

Hoorah for this French Alsatian rap against the Front National (fascistic neo-nazi party) using images of their village Ammerschwihr for the campaign posters of Patrick Binder, the head of the party list for the regional elections coming up in Alsace. This is true antifascist work by the kids in the town! They deserve high praise for mobilizing their town against racism and hatred! Let us all hope that the Front National receives as few votes as possible!

Allow ALL Americans Health Care !

It is past time to enact comprehensive health care reform in the United States to enable ALL its citizens to have access to affordable health care, no matter how ill they may be, no matter what their job is, no matter where they live. Going to the doctor when you're ill, receiving treatment in a hospital for major illness should not result in personal bankrupcy. Stop protecting the rich against the poor: the rich can pay for whatever they want anyway; society is responsible for its weakest members, need not be concerned with those "above" it.

Editorial - After the Health Care Summit - NYTimes.com

Here is a basic fact: If the House Democrats voted tomorrow to approve the Senate bill, health care reform would become the law of the land.
The president and Speaker Nancy Pelosi should push the House to accept the fundamentally sound Senate bill. If they still cannot garner enough votes from their own caucus, they should alter the Senate bill slightly with parallel legislation that could be passed with budget reconciliation.
Mr. Obama needs to keep explaining to Americans that this health care reform is critical — to give them security, to hold down costs and ease the strain on federal budgets. His main challenge, and his best chance, for passing it is to get his own party in line.

Obama's plan spells hope for those suffering disease with no hope of treatment, and you could become one of them if you lose your job and thus your insurance or if your insurance decides to cancel your policy when the treatment of your disease becomes too expensive! Of course, hospice measures, palleative only, are available to all. Not even D.A.F. de Sade could have dreamed of something as cynical as that: promise to die within a year and we'll pay to eliminate pain for you...

At summit, Republicans prove they aren't putting America's health first - Washington Post

The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can't afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that's their problem -- there's nothing the government or the rest of us should do about it. [...]
That was their clear message Thursday. It was their message during all those years when their party controlled Congress and the White House and they did nothing and said nothing about the plight of the uninsured. And it is clear that they would continue to do nothing if, by some miracle, Democrats were to drop their plan or embark on a more modest approach. For Republicans, the uninsured remain invisible Americans, out of sight and out of mind.

All the All of Life

Shakespeare, according to Salmon Rushdie, with whom I here modestly agree, provides a daunting model of juggling everything at once in a literary work.


Or, as in the concluding line to one of his sonnets: And thou, all they, hast all the all of me!

Could This Be Their Credo?

For the arrogant attitude of the Fully Dum Party polemicists only concerned with sitting in a "cool" office (geil!) and wallowing in unearned wealth and luxury (Strandbar, Presseball), for the Republicans who would rather see people suffer and/or go bankrupt than have a chance to be cured from serious illness (insurance company tea party!), for all those who obnoxiously envy those who have less than they do for having anything at all that they themselves are ineligible for (shit, too rich for welfare!), I may well have stumbled onto the principle on which they operate.

It is included in D.A.F. de Sade's Les infortunes de la vertu [Paris: Gallimard 1970/folio 1977, p.95]. When asked if his refusal to assist the unfortunate in any way - either personally or with state aid - ultimately means they should simply perish, M.Dubourg blithely replies:

«Qu'importe? il y a plus de sujets qu'il n'en faut en France; le gouvernement qui voit tout en grand s'embarrasse fort peu des individus, pourvu que la machine se conserve.»

So apparently, substituting the country name Germany, believes Mr. Westernwave, who quite clearly sees the big picture and is only concerned with operation of the machine sufficient to ensure himself and his dum party friends well-paid governmental positions for which they have neither aptitude nor interest. Why should he be concerned with individual plights outside his party membership rosters?

Republicans against health insurance for all in the US substitute another country's name as they consider the big picture of donation from insurance lobbyists, bonus payments, and stock dividends as opposed to those poor individual subjects suffering catastrophic illness. There are too many of them anyway, and their demise would relieve the economy.

Another diatribe by one of Sade's heroes of vice, Dalville, provides the script Westernwave uses in claiming that recipients of Hartz IV are forbodings of socialism and are in fact simply lazy do-nothings who want money without working, when he explains why any assistance to them is anathema:

«C'est travailler à une égalité dangereuse pour la société, c'est encourager l'indolence et la fainéantise, c'est apprendre au pauvre à voler l'homme riche, quand il plaira à celui-ci de lui refuser son secours, et cela par l'habitude où ce secours aura mis le pauvre de l'obtenir sans travail.» [ibid., p.218]
"It would mean striving for equality which would be fatal to society and encouraging idleness and sloth. It would teach the poor to pick the pocket of any rich man who chose not to give them charity, a lesson the more easily learnt from the habit they would acquire of expecting to have money without working for it." [translation from Wordsworth Classic Erotica edtion]

Perhaps it is not even ironic to find the core philosophy of these beasts in an utterance of one of the "villains" of a more than 200-year-old work by the Marquis de Sade. It could simply be that these so-called politicians are sadists in a sense far worse than the old marquis could have ever imagined.

Roman Decadence and Modern Poverty

Oh, dear, Mr. Westernwave! Are you simply determined to prove how hardheaded and dum your FullyDumParty really is? Roman decadence, which you claim Germany will follow into the late version of, should recipients of social welfare support continue to get as much money as some of the poorly paid workers, who receive so little because your party is opposed to any and all form of minimum wage legislation, resulting in them having to run to the dole for help, a subsidy for cheapskate employers placed on the shoulders of those you like to criticize... But anyway, Roman decadence was the overly luxurious behavior of the elite there, fiddling as Rome burned, enjoying luxury as the borders were stormed, ignoring the calls to help from those in all forms of need. It seems the Roman-style decadents are rather the clients and beneficiaries of your policies: hoteliers with reduced VAT, those opting out of the solidarity-based health insurance system for cheaper premiums for the well and young and healthy and beautiful, not even to mention those shipping their money out of the country into the banks of Switzerland etc. to avoid paying any taxes on it where they "earned" it. And yes, one indication of Roman decadence was Caesars's appointment of an ASS to the position of consul, something Heiner Geißler quite correctly correlated with your appointment to the position of Foreign Minister. And, Mr. Westernwave, there is NOTHING MORE DECADENT than envying people who have LESS than you.
May the video remind you, too, of who the real ass is!

BHL vs Botulism

Because I love the French in all of their philosophical playfulness!

L'hommage des Amis de Botul à BHL (Mediapart)
Uploaded by Mediapart. - Watch the latest news videos.

Charles Bremner - Times Online - WBLG: Bernard-Henri Lévy comes a cropper with fake philosopher

Frédéric Pagès (born 1950) is a French journalist noted for his work with the satirical weekly, Le Canard enchaîné. He wrote two books of spoof philosophy under the name Jean-Baptiste Botul:

• La Vie sexuelle d'Emmanuel Kant. Éditions Mille et une nuits. 1999.
• Nietzsche ou le démon de midi. Éditions Mille et une nuits. 2004.

He founded the "Association of Friends of Jean-Baptiste Botul" to promote this fictious philosopher and his school of "Botulism". In 2010, the hoax caught out the well-known philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, whose book De la guerre en philosophie used Botul as the primary source for his attack on Kant.

Waiting for it go online...

But in the States you can watch the broadcast tomorrow evening, a White House Performance in homage to the music of the Civil Rights Movement:
In Performance at the White House PBS