PostClassic, a weblog by Kyle Gann, self-described “composer (since I was 13), music critic (since I was 27), musicologist (since I was 32), and music professor (since I was 39)….”, joins a growing roster of ArtsJournal blogs. About PostClassic: “So classical music is dead, they say. Well, well. This blog will set out to consider that questionable factoid with equanimity, if not downright enthusiasm. After all, classical music has died before, several times, and always manages to grow back…”

Many many thanks to acb for pointing me to this — I hesitate to call it a rant because that might sound like dismissing it for being insane — reflection by John Shirley on our collective mental health. Indeed, he leads off with a candid admission of his own history of mental health difficulties, segueing into a reflection on how easy it is for the ‘sane’ to shrug off the suffering of the mentally ill, to make fun of it, to romanticize it, certainly to lack the empathic, compassionate embrace of it to which he wants to get us with his suggestion that we are all closer to mental illness than we would like to think. Clinicians, of course, know this; that in electing to join the helping profession we must, to the extent that we are going to be helpful to others, encounter ourselves as similarly defective, ‘walking wounded’. But in this brief thoughtful meditation, non-clinician Shirley manages at least to touch upon most of the crucial issues — from neurotoxins and the gutting of social services for the mentally ill to the conditions of modernity such as alienated labor, political oppression, the erosion of social cohesion and community, the deterioration of privacy, information overload, and the devolution of meaning — with which I attempt to grapple daily. (Come to think about it, not surprising from a ‘cyberpunk’ writer…)

Awhile ago, I would have maintained that an essay of this sort is itself romanticizing and trivializing the mentally ill; that likening the suffering of the chronically psychotic or neuropsychiatrically damaged patients I treat to the suggested pervasive mental illness of our entire society is comparing apples and oranges. But we know alot more than we did even five years ago about the transduction of stressful experience into brain changes and we undestand that ‘reactive’ conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress conditions, perhaps attention deficit problems, begin to look much less like isolated episodes and more like entrained and ingrained chronic conditions, little different from the bipolar or schizophrenic psychoses. So there may be more identity to the two categories than one would like to admit. And, too, there is the perspective of evolutionary psychology which elucidates how adaptive traits become pathological under conditions of modernity. Shirley highlights, for example, our evolutionary ill-preparedness for the number of interactions we must needs have in modern life, a point that has always struck me as profound. He ends with his truest, simplest point, suggesting that by truly taking care of the psychiatrically ill we would be taking care of ourselves… and vice versa.

Naomi Klein argues that

“(t)he spectre of terrorism – real and exaggerated – has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses.” Guardian/UK

For those who are old enough to remember the Cold War, it is clear that the WoT® functions in precisely the same way, demonizing opponents with little rhyme or reason as a pretext for whatever the geopolitical aspiration of the moment was.

Klein is actually optimistic in a funny way:

“Many have argued that the War on Terror is the US government’s thinly veiled excuse for constructing a classic empire, in the model of Rome or Britain. Two years into the crusade, it’s clear this is a mistake: the Bush gang doesn’t have the stick-to-it-ness to successfully occupy one country, let alone a dozen. Bush and the gang do, however, have the hustle of good marketers, and they know how to contract out. What Bush has created in the WoT is less a ‘doctrine’ for world domination than an easy-to-assemble toolkit for any mini-empire looking to get rid of the opposition and expand its power.”

But the utility of the doctrine should not be judged by the ineptitude of its current practitioners any more than McCarthy’s downfall took the legs out from under the doctrinaire if more subtle anti-Communism that continued to dominate American foreign policy for four further decades and still seems like a gospel to the less sophisticated of the American masses. Klein’s argument in likening the WoT® to a marketing campaign resonates with my own practice of branding it as a trade name; it was clear from the outset that it was crying out for that little ®. True, our proxies of all political stripes can use the brand in the manner of a franchise to justify their own petty repressions (and Klein gives us plenty of persuasive examples), that is no more the ultimate significance of the WoT® brand than the profits of some small Mexican or Indonesian entrepreneur opening a Golden Arches franchise are the measure of corporate McDonald’s globalized reach (as Klein should know). A pandemic brand is no more than a particularly efficient tool of late-capitalism for psychic colonization and rape. The neo-con junta — inept or not, an unopposed superpower of unassailable military might unparalleled in world history — is branding an imperial reign, make no bones about it.

Several weeks ago, I mused about the time-traveller spam I’d been receiving. So, it seems, has a writer at Wired. Recall that the coordinates he gives for those wishing to meet with him to provide him with needed parts are in Woburn, Massachusetts, within several miles of me. The time traveller has been tracked down to that town, in fact. If the story is to be believed, he is a former commercial spammer against whom the Commmonwealth of Massachusetts in 2001 took its first ever antispam legal action and whom they are in fact still watching to monitor his compliance with his settlement agreement with the state. His time travel spam, rife with persecutory overtones of being under surveillance, began shortly thereafter.

Just now I’m glad my family and I drove instead of flying on our just-completed vacation travels.

Latest double-think from the airheads in Washington, a pretext for a giveaway to their friends in Detroit. They won’t enforce pollution controls on auto manufacturers because they don’t believe that the exhaust emissions fall under the strictures of the Clean Air Act. Seattle Times

Taliban Finds New Strength in Pakistan LA Times

and Al Qaeda Behind the Najaf Bombing: Report Nouvel Observateur [in French; translation here via Truthout]. Was Iraq War Worth It? Nearly half in CBS poll say no.

“The word lootocracy was originally coined to describe the corrupt cartels that have ruled and plundered countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and some of the former Soviet Republics. But with an amazingly small amount of national debate, George Bush is installing a more global and sophisticated version — one where those on top can do whatever they choose without the slightest constraints. ” — Paul Rogat Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time CommonDreams [via Adam] As Craig comments, “Finally, compassionate conservatism explained.”

“…Consumers — many of whom have complained for years about climbing ticket prices and Ticketmaster service charges — may be less eager for the next phase of Ticketmaster’s Internet evolution.

Late this year the company plans to begin auctioning the best seats to concerts through ticketmaster.com.

With no official price ceiling on such tickets, Ticketmaster will be able to compete with brokers and scalpers for the highest price a market will bear.” NY Times

“Marijuana went on sale Monday at Dutch pharmacies to help bring relief to thousands of patients suffering from cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis.

Around 7,000 patients will be eligible for prescription marijuana, sold in containers of .16 ounces at most pharmacies. Labeled ‘Cannabis’ and tested by the Ministry of Health, the drug will be covered by health insurance for the first time under a new law that went into effect in March.” AP

“You have to hand it to the Bush generation of neo-conservatives. They are nothing if not optimistic. Even in the rubble of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, they saw reason for hope.

The White House apparently believed that the atrocity would prove to be a tipping point that would persuade nations like India and Pakistan to send their divisions to help police Iraq, without no more of all that earlier talk about shared authority.

Colin Powell was dispatched to the UN once more to sell this dubious idea only to find that those nations that were reluctant to send their soldiers to a dangerous and volatile place to serve in a US-led occupation force before, still felt that way, only more strongly.

This stand has been portrayed by some in Washington as the typical manoeuvring of a morally bankrupt international community aimed at extracting political gain from a tragedy. Washington’s critics, according to this view of the world, will stop at nothing to clip America’s wings.

In truth, most UN members would happily put their troops under the command of an American general in the event of a justified war. No other military comes close in efficiency or technology, apart from residual concerns from the latest war that the friendly fire issue has clearly not been entirely solved.” Guardian/UK

“General Wesley Clark, the former Nato commander in Bosnia, and a probable presidential contender, has accused White House officials of trying to get him sacked as a CNN military analyst because they feared he would criticise the Iraq war.” Telegraph/UK

“It used to be that the pre-wedding ritual for men was the bachelor party, while the women’s equivalent was the bridal shower. Well, the times they have been a-changing for many years now, and women can have just as much silly, no-holds-barred fun as the men nowadays, according to a Penn State researcher.

Dr. Beth Montemurro, assistant professor of sociology at Penn State’s Abington Campus, has interviewed more than 50 women and personally attended many bachelorette parties in an attempt to determine what significance that bachelorette parties — especially those containing sexually charged themes — have for them.

In her study titled, ‘Sex Symbols: The Bachelorette Party as a Window to Change in Women’s Sexual Expression,’ published in a recent issue of the journal, Sexuality and Culture, Montemurro said the rise of bachelorette parties over the years signifies a shift in how women and their sexuality are viewed in society.” EurekAlert!

Do we need men?

The Y-chromosome – the ultimate symbol of machismo – is in a bad way. But…, apart from breeding, what real use is the male to the human race? Guardian/UK

“Commonly made claims about changes in family and other intimate relations are not supported by actual research, according to a new working paper sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council.

In a review of existing written works on the subject, Val Gillies, a senior research fellow at South Bank University, argues that there are two dominant accounts of present-day personal relations, each reflecting a particular ideological stance.

Today’s theorists tend to emphasise either family breakdown and moral decline, or transformation and democratisation. The more negative account of family change appeals to traditionalist, conservative interpretations, while liberals favour the more positive version.

A third perspective, claiming that there has been little substantial change in the way people relate to one another, is rarely heard, despite research evidence suggesting that individuals continue to place great importance on personal ties and obligations.” EurekAlert!

“‘Thousands of languages have come and gone, and we’ve studied that process for years,’ said Brigham Young University archaeologist Stephen D. Houston, the study’s Maya specialist. ‘But throughout history, maybe 100 writing systems have ever existed. We should know more about why they disappear.'” Washington Post

Increasingly, Americans Won’t and Don’t: “Labor Day in the United States should be one of the gastronomic high points of the year. By the time it comes around, most parts of the country are entering their fourth full month of frost-free weather, which means that there is an unparalleled bounty of fresh, local ingredients available. Yet, when it comes to bringing these ingredients together into a meal, be it on Labor day or any other day, Americans are increasingly saying ‘the less labor, the better’.” Utne Reader