Alan Sokal parody

Link to a parody essay written by Alan Sokal.

Let's all fiddle while Rome burns

Depending on which account you wish to believe the ancient city of Rome was decimated (it was actually more than a tenth of the city that was
destroyed) by fire in July of 64 CE. As legend has it (always disputed,always fluid) the then Emperor, Nero, did little to stop the spread of
the blaze. Nor, for that matter, did the Christians, which is another story all together. The long and the short of the story is that "Nero
fiddled while Rome burned". Whether or not he played a fiddle, and regardless of what he did or didn't do to put out the fire, this short
euphemism is a way of saying that he didn't do enough on his watch. I intend here to make a similar criticism of the those involved in
contributing to climate change policy.

Recent television coverage of the reaction of people to the earth quake in China provide a case in point. I recall a particularly vivid image of
the moment when one of the after-shocks struck in which a mother took immediate action to protect her child from danger. It was an instinctive
response, one that she had no training for, one that came from a knowing deep within. We humans know what to do without the need for thinking and
analysing. We don't need theories and discourses and theories of discourses to know how to respond to an emergency. We simply do what is
needed.

So it was with great annoyance and frustration I read Schipper (2007), a scholar who wants to see something done about the horrible mess of
climate change but who, in my view, simply becomes part of the problem. My agitation comes from the bickering she highlights between scholars
developing theories about adaptation to climate change and climate change policy makers. A preponderance of often conflicting,
self-aggrandising (my words not Schipper's) definitions produced by scholars become too confusing and too complex for those attempting to
put together some form of policy framework to deal with the problem.

Rather than producing a bias for action, as is expected from leaders in a time of crisis, this constant theorising and over-analysis produces
little more than elegant theory. For those watching from the sidelines it's a source of great frustration.

Unlike the mothers protecting their young in China scholars, policy makers, and leaders are only too happy to fiddle while the world, not
the city, burns.

Schipper, E. (2007). Climate change adaptation and development: Exploring the linkages:  Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Retrieved May 20. 2008, from http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/working_papers/

Race, time and the revision of culture |Bhahba

Don't try and make too much of this post. I'm attempting to obtain some clarity about a concept from Derrida and Bhabha.

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How can a "lagged space open up in-between the inter-subjective 'reality of signs...that are deprived of subjectivity' and the historical development of the subject in the order of social symbols" (Bhabha, 1994 p. 242)?

How can signs have subjectivity in the first place of which they can be deprived? What is the nature of a sign that they can be said to be "inter-subjective"? Does this really mean that signs relate to one another? Signs relating to one another across time? What is this intersubjective reality of signs deprived of subjectivity?

This piece refers to Derrida. A structure, at the point of its definition, the point at which it is described as having a unique nature loses access to its history. It breaks with its past and is no longer what it once was. This transformation occurs in the temporal caesura, the break in time, which becomes the "historically transformative moment" the moment at which the old no longer exists and the new becomes.

What is "the historical development of the subject in the order of social symbols"? The historical development of the subject is the development of the subject through progressive historical narrative. Social symbols? Various symbols of status, power, place in society (caste?) providing symbols and signs to historical narrative?

So the lagged space exists between the narrativisation of the subject in history and
I'm thinking this all sounds a bit Deleuzian - flights to freedom? Food for thought.

Bhabha, H. (1994). Conclusion: 'Race', time and the revision of modernity. In The location of culture. London: Routledge.

Structure, sign and play | Derrida

I'm a late bloomer. My birth as a philosopher is yet a long way off. Stay with me for a while longer.

Derrida writes in a way that is inaccessibly beautiful describing the historicity (possibly) of structure, sign, and play. There's an immediacy about his writing that reminds me of Foucault. This writing brings me to life as I bring the writing to life. Free from the weight of the past and the constraints of my history.

I'm glad I don't understand. It would mess it all up if I did.

Victorian Liberals in dissaray over contents of blog

A story on The Australian reports on the problems caused by a blog (hewhostandsfornothing) that saw two Victorian Liberal party staff members sacked for maintaining the blog. Allegedly the blog, now offline, was critical of party policy and direction. What distinguishes this blog from those that are the focus of my thesis is the manner in which they were maintained: hewhostandsfornothing was updated on computers located at Liberal Party HQ in Melbourne.

Whilst there are ample elements within this case that indicate struggles associated with the presence of power relationships, the fact that the blog was maintained on a work computer and was specifically aimed at the author's work, rather than their personal life, places the blog just outside of the field of my inquiry.

Related articles:

Blog betrayal: Libs sack rats: The Age

An archive of one of the blog posts, openly critical of the party leader, can be found here.

As a footnote to this article it's worth noting the permanency of blog posts. Despite attempts made to take the blog offline archives of the blog are still available as the above line shows.

How to survive your PhD

Here's a link to a resource that's simple, yet practical.