Culture

Avatar — It's Not Just about Whiteness

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Yesterday I posted some ecofeminist reflections on Avatar. Today I want to take on the racism issue that several Goddess Scholars as well as bloggers here at Tikkun Daily have raised. Originally I thought this movie was carefully crafted to bring the (mostly) white audience into an understanding that indigenous people already have — the importance, even sacredness, of their world ecology. The hero is Jake Sully, a human who becomes a Na’vi, thereby moving from one world to the other. He begins by betraying the people who ultimately become his own, so it’s not like his first actions are laudable — he’s actually an anti-hero in the beginning, not meant to be liked.

Culture

Avatar — an Ecofeminist Response

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I’ve really been enjoying the Avatar discussion, both here on Tikkun Daily and on the Goddess Scholars List I belong to. I waited until I’d seen the film to read any of the posts, because I didn’t want to prejudice my reaction to it. The GoddessScholars’ discussion reminded me a lot of a Women and Science Fiction class I taught in the 1980s. In my classes I always had a check-in before we began (despite the fact that they were university courses), because then we had deeper discussions. One of the odd things about the Women and Science Fiction class that semester was that there was a sizable minority (about 7 women out of 24) who were big football fans.

Culture

What does reason feel like to you?

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A rightwinger at a netroots conference has been emphasizing the importance of reason in his work. The videographer unexpectedly asks him what reason feels like. It feels like security, the conservative replies. He had a tough childhood, and embracing reason helped him to get out of the chaos of his life. The videographer is Edwin Rutsch, whose website on progressive values and empathy is an enticing place I hope to explore.

Culture

Positive Outlook: Art and HIV

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“I hope that there is a change in consciousness, but how could it ever be claimed that it came from me? Any change will do, even if it just pisses the person off! That could be a beginning to something great. Right?” — John Neilson
It is the gift and the burden of each of us to live the life we are given.

Culture

BayNVC's Miki Kashtan: How to Take the "Must Have" out of Wanting

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I want to encourage people to read Miki Kashtan’s piece in the current issue of Tikkun, and then if you can to come to our February 15 daylong conference “Support Obama to be Obama!” in San Francisco where she — among several outstanding others — will be one of the presenters. I woke up this morning thinking of Miki’s piece “Wanting Fully Without Attachment,” and an old credit card slogan wafted into my head, which promised us that “It Takes the Waiting out of Wanting.” If the entire downside of consumerism and Wall Street greed and irresponsibility could be captured in a phrase it might as well be that one. It was used by Access (now part of MasterCard) way back in the 1970s (in the UK, I’m not sure about the States) when the banks were first trying to put credit cards — which until then had been a convenience of the wealthy — into every wallet and purse.

Culture

Finding Hope in the Newspaper?

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My newspaper this morning gave me hope. And brothers and sisters, that doesn’t happen very often. On the front page, taking up about one third of the sheet, there was an article entitled “Trying to open the ‘inner eye.'” It was a piece that described the new Center for Conscious Living, an offshoot of the Church of Religious Science, which the pastor said is “reinventing the idea of church, with ‘stand you up music,’ meditation, singing, chanting and ‘an inclusive message of self-empowerment.'” Above this article, the top story was about our governor’s clean energy plan, in which 25 percent of the Wisconsin’s energy must come from wind, solar, biomass, or other renewable sources by 2025. My friend Jack Kisslinger, whose website is called Planet for Life, tells me that 25% might be a good number, but it has to be 25% of reduced overall energy consumption. So the governor’s goal is at least a step in the right direction.

Culture

How Scientism Endangers Science, and the Entire Planet

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“The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.” — Claude Lévi-Strauss
But are scientists asking themselves enough questions about scientism? We have asked a science graduate (of MIT) who is interning with us, Sarah Ackley, to write a series of posts on this question, not straightforwardly channeling Tikkun’s editorial stance but wrestling with it from her own point of view. I told her I would try to set the scene. I should say up front that I have come to think that this is one of the two or three most critical intellectual issues of our time.

Culture

Pagans at the Parliament (1)

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In 1993 representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church publicly pulled out of the Parliament of World Religions (PWR) to protest the inclusion of “godless” Pagans. They haven’t come back. But that may change if Angie Buchanan has her way. Angie, as well as two other Pagans — Andras Corban Arthen and Phyllis Curott — are on the 35-member Board of Trustees of the Council of the Parliament of World Religions. They’ve worked diligently to build bridges to other faith traditions since they were elected to the Board — Angie in 2002, Andras in 2006, and Phyllis just this year.

Culture

What's Hot in the January/February Tikkun?

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Read the new print edition of Tikkun:
An unnatural economic and psychological disaster has struck America
If you just thought it was about you, or your boss, or Bush or Obama, read psychotherapist Harriet Fraad’s diagnosis of what ails us. Fraad identifies five major social trends that transcend our personal lives and our Washington administrations. Celebrity as Idolatry
Pulitzer journalist Chris Hedges, in his incisive, uncompromising style, eviscerates the celebrity culture of our day, and asks what our global celebrity President has done for us. Michael Lerner says that Obama’s Afghan War policy will not work. Wake Up!

Culture

Awestruck

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On Learning on the Clearest Night Only 6000 Stars Are Visible to the Naked Eye
If seeing only 6000 stars with the naked eye
awestrucks us to topple
in drunken ecstasy
Or piss looking up in devout praise of being,
What would happen if we could truly perceive,
comprehend and experience
the zillions
of stars galaxies universes
pastpresentfuture? And if, as scientists agree, we only use
10% of our brain’s potential,
Then the astonishment we sense
is only 10% of the astonishment
we could sense,
And so it would seem that what seems
like dots of light twinkling
in pretty patterns
moving across the black
is really enough to shatter us
like goblets when the soprano
hits the highest note. And if the 10% of the brainpower we do use
is ignorant of 99.9% of the totality
of the Universe,
perhaps a li’l vino in our goblet
ain’t a bad idea—
Perhaps a flask of wine
in deep wilderness night
is more powerful
than the largest telescope. —Antler
From “Verse & Universe: Poems About Science and Mathematics” edited by Kurt Brown.