Beauty Bear

A Wisconsin Farm in a Gainsborough Light

As seen with a friend in early September, a farm in central Wisconsin.
But here in the winter season where everything is dormant and white,
I recall that there was upon the farm this shaft of Gainsborough light.

Arne Naess, Ecophilosopher, dies at 96

Norwegian philosopher and founder of the deep ecology movement Arne Naess (27 January 1912 – 12 January 2009) died at age 96. Naess was trained in logical positivism and assumed the chairmanship of the philosophy department at the University of Oslo at age 27. His early retirement from the philosophy ratrace was accomplished at age 57 allowing him to devote himself to political activism and a deeper critique of industrial society and its relation to the natural world that he called 'Deep Ecology'. His own version of that philosophy--Ecosophy T--was developed from a syncretism of Spinoza, Gandhi, and his own earlier work on communication theory. Central to his philosophical view was the idea of nature having an 'intrinsic value' and therefore being worthy of moral concern and respect. Equally important was his notion of self as capable of expansion beyond the narrow ego to encompass (contingent upon spiritual maturity) the whole of nature. On only one occassion did I meet Arne. It was at UC Santa Cruz at a talk he gave on deep ecology. Afterward, as he was leaving the lecture hall I asked him what to do when persons do not share basic intuitions about the intrinsic value of nature. He was old then and with a twinkle in his eye reached down and picked a flower and smiled at me saying softly, "you must show them." Long live the spirit of Arne Naess!

Dowd on Disgorgement; Feng on Decapitation

The above link is to today's NY Times editorial by Maureen Dowd in which she argues that any bank that both received federal dollars and issued bonuses to its staff ought to be forced to give the bonus money back. Amen. 18+ billion dollars in bonuses? These fuckers should be in jail right now. Thats our money lining their pockets. These are the fuckers who created the credit derivative bubble. I'd be all for jailing them for that alone, but this too? The argument that if they don't pay out these bonuses why they (the executives and staff receiving bonuses) will go elsewhere is not only wrong, its immoral: that shit just won't flush. Where else are they going to go? Higher education? Public service? The restaurant business? IT? What? These fuckers don't know the value of money. They're too close to where it is made out of thin air to understand the nature of a productive economy. No, no, I'll tell you what: bring out the guillotines and decimate their ranks, displaying prominently their heads on wrought iron pikes around Wall Street. That would send a message.