“Public Opinion” is the political equalivent of a “Free Market”

28°- it’s already one week beyond the solstice – Joe said that he and Leo had a discussion about how much longer the day already was. Leo had thought that it might be as much as half an hour already. Joe thought that it was no more than half of that. A few minutes, I claimed and certainly no more than 15. It starts up slow and gains momentum as the equinox approaches and then the rate of changes begins to slow down again. A graph of the derivative of rate of change (the tangent) would have a maximums at the equinoxes and a minimum at solstices


Knowledge has a point of enhanced return. There is an information overload but there is no such thing as a knowledge overload.

These critics show me more credit than I want. In fact, I care nothing about such praise especially coming from people who in my judgment have neither wit nor learning nor eloquence – Erasmus – In Praise of Folly p145

One of the aspects of power is its ability to turn polyphonic narrative into monologic histories

From the standpoint of the State, individuals who were rejected by the law of alliances became a source of danger… Inevitable causalities of this family regime: the unmarried men and women and the abandoned children – Jacques Donzelot – The Policing of Families, 1979 p24

I’m affixed to this
     Chair by my super-
     Glued derriere
Life is a better than
     Average with a large screen
     That is ceaselessly watched
I’m bored, channel
     Surfing can become
     Monotonous too
All the songs that they
Play remind me of girls
      That got away
This is not the wistful
       Nostalgia that I desire

When I sleep
I can escape
I hate it
When I’m awake

Hello! Is there anyone
Out there?

What does it matter if I doze
Off in front of the big screen
I’ve got to get hold of a thread
Did anything happen while I
      Was gone?

And I want to see women’s naked breasts! // and grace fullness returned to faces – Michael McClure – Star poems, 1970 p55

It is always the conservative who is first in the reformulation of political theory, as they merely recycle old solutions to new problems – first out of the starting gate and leading the pack but they are quarter horses and this is a mile track.

I don’t want to say that the State isn’t important; what I want to say is that relations of power, and hence the analysis that must be made of them, necessarily extends beyond the limits of the State – Michel Foucault – Power/Knowledge, 1979 p122

The radical solution of yesterday becomes the conservative solution of tomorrow

In a world where no violence can be legitimated, all violence can potentially be called terrorism – Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri – Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire, 2004 p27

One of the contributing factors to the success of the unionization of service works especially in Southern California was the fact that many of the janitors had been former members of the FMLN in El Salvador

Only poetry of the highest order [converts]… the arbitrary into the provisionally significant – Rosana Warren – Dark Knowledge, Meville’s Poems of the Civil War

The bulwark against democracy became the model for modern definition of democracy itself – representative government was invented as a way to prevent democratic rule and is now definition of what we mean by the word democracy.

The network form [means that] the organization becomes less a means and more an end in itself – Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri – Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire, 2004 p83

Having more humans and having numerically large numbers (but not necessarily a larger percentage) of people significantly better off materially material is not a proof of progress. But having more and more humans getting worse and worse off is a counter proof to progress.

The ambiguity of the notion of the sovereign people turns out to be a kind of duplicity since the legitimating relationship always tends to privilege authority and not the population as a whole – Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri – Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire, 2004 p79

Art replaces nature

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure –Samuel Johnson

Not all monsters are the same

And I say / if the last vast natural philosopher / vanishes – the grizzly bear from the peak - / or the soft hallucination moth / from the cactus blossom… // WATCH OUT! / They are not replaceable / by robots – Michael McClure – Star poems, 1970 p27

“Public Opinion” is the political equalivent of a “Free Market”