Five Things I Wish I Knew When I First Became Politically Active

How to Be a Stuffed Animal, on the early days of the American Museum of Natural History, high class taxidermy in America, and obsession with fake nature and fake realness.

An invitation to lead or join an expedition for the museum, thus cashing in the most desirable tag in the hunting world, was indeed flattering. The mammologist Roy Chapman Andrews, famous for his “intensive exploration” methods and, from 1934, director of the museum, was fond of reminding people that “thousands of men have applied for places on my own expeditions, saying that they are ‘good outdoor men’ but have no special training. They would be expensive luxuries. Every…man must do either a technical or a scientific job.” Newly bestowed with the gravitas of “specialists,” armed with large-bore guns made by Holland & Holland and permits obtained for them by the museum, outfitted in Abercrombie Camp, the blue bloods of American capitalism set off into the wilderness to atone for their fortunes (which had played a prominent part in endangering it) and find their inner Crocketts and Boones.

Presiding over the whole enterprise was the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt, an ardent supporter of the museum until his death in 1919, and a major donor of specimens, including the large cow elephant displayed in “The Alarm” (Kermit, his son, shot the calf). Roosevelt self-consciously positioned himself in the tradition of Daniel Boone, the buckskin-clad hunter and frontiersman who helped settle Kentucky in the late eighteenth century, revering him as an indigenous (white) American who, like Davy Crockett, thrived in a free, egalitarian wilderness. These were “nature’s noblemen,” rugged libertarians and premier symbols of democratic manhood. Their descendants were the guides who accompanied the president—or general or railroad baron—and taught him the codes of the wilderness. Sharing a blanket with one of these guides was to enter an unrestrained, “uncontaminated” state where the social order was leveled. Roosevelt seriously believed that “no Americans of the outdoor type, fond of nature and the habitants of the wilds, will ever develop Bolshevik tendencies.” The wilderness experience was offered as a direct allegory of social peace, the guarantee of a negotiated tranquility. No matter that behind their backs the guides often mocked the men of fortune as “tenderfoots” or “dudes,” or that they had to defer to them when it came to bagging a trophy. There was equality in theory. In practice, it was a “teddy-bear patriarchy” in which droit du seigneur prevailed.

One of Us, discussing some Western concepts of animal consciousness through the ages. Simon was right that I would like Spinoza.

Apart from the general point—horses feel horse joy, cats feel cat joy, etc.—Spinoza makes two less familiar but equally significant claims. The first is his lovely definition of the soul: that it is in some way wrapped up with, coextensive with, the “essence” of the creature possessing it. The particular nature in which every creature is able to rejoice precisely by being most entirely itself is the soul. That settles the matter of whether animals have souls. Of course they do. The horse has a horse soul, the fish has a fish soul. The second claim is Spinoza’s radical—but instantly persuasive— statement that one human being’s essence could be unintelligible to another. The drunkard is a different type of human being than the philosopher, but he is also a different creature, full stop. Are we so sure that species identification is proof against the canyons of misapprehension that separate us from, say, the monkey spider? This could be a frightening thought: accepting that no two consciousnesses can ever have transparency, or at any rate can never have certainty about it, leaves us on some level cosmically alone. Spinoza takes the notion in stride. He’d be more prone to say, Well, no doubt we sometimes understand each other.

Suprisingly, perhaps, these thoughts did not lead Spinoza to a recommendation of total empathy with the animal kingdom, as the animal-rights activist in us would hope. He is fairly cold-eyed, even cold-hearted, writing,

It is plain that the law against the slaughtering of animals is founded rather on vain superstition and womanish pity than on sound reason. The rational quest of what is useful to us further teaches us the necessity of associating ourselves with our fellow men, but not with beasts, or things, whose nature is different from our own; we have the same rights in respect to them as they have in respect to us. Nay, as everyone’s right is defined by his virtue, or power, men have far greater rights over beasts than beasts have over men. Still I do not deny that beasts feel: what I deny is that we may not consult our own advantage and use them as we please, treating them in the way which best suits us; for their nature is not like ours.

In order to understand this, we have to know something about Spinoza’s definition of fundamental or natural right, which comes very close to meaning, simply, power. We have the right to do with them “as we please,” just as they have the “right” to eat us, if the meeting happens on ground more favorable to them. Spinoza isn’t trying to argue that we shouldn’t act kindly toward them, when we can, but he does imply that we needn’t feel guilty about it, when we treat them violently. It’s our right. It suits us.

That is a common ex-vegetarian place to end up. Animals are amazing, individual, worthy beings, and also we find their bodies delicious and useful.

via Sikkest Nativez on fb.

Markéta Luskacová, Woman in a Cat Mask, 2000, from the series On Death and Horses and Other People, 1988-2013

Why I would go to jail for my journalistic beliefs. Kostas Vaxevanis has a great definition of journalism and a journalist’s ideal point of view. Not objective, but decent. I like it!

Journalism is often either invested with magic powers or blamed for all that is wrong in the world. Both positions are wrong. Journalism is the way, lonely most of the times, of truth. Often colleagues discuss journalistic objectivity as a mausoleum where we kneel down. There is no objectivity. What matters is the decency of our subjectivity: how decent, honest and professional we stay in a world where everything is relative. How determined we are to fight against set-ups in this world of overloaded information.

It is often said: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want to print. Everything else is public relations.” This has to be done with respect for human rights and people’s dignity. Nevertheless it has to be done.

BOMB Magazine: Rebecca Solnit by Astra Taylor

Collecting some talks to watch later:

* danah boyd
* Lauren Beukes
* Merlin Mann
* Annalee Newitz
* Nicole Sullivan
* Bruce Sterling
* Biella Coleman

ACM Classic: Reflections on Trusting Trust. Ken Thompson’s acceptance speech for his Turing award, where he introduced a major idea in computer security. In an award speech.

Sleight | Coffee House Press.

A daring novel about families, artistic responsibility, and tragedy.

The Glass Bead Game meets Black Swan.

Sisters Lark and Clef have spent their lives honing their bodies for sleight, an interdisciplinary art form that combines elements of dance, architecture, acrobatics, and spoken word. After being estranged for several years, the sisters are reunited by a deceptive and ambitious sleight troupe director named West who needs the sisters’ opposing approaches to the form— Lark is tormented and fragile, frightened by the art she is compelled to make; Clef is driven to excel.

But when a disturbing mass murder makes national headlines, West seizes on the event as inspiration for his new performance, one that threatens to destroy the very artists performing it.

In language that is at once unsettling and hypnotic, Sleight explores ideas of performance, gender, and family to ask the question: what is the role of art in the face of unthinkable tragedy?

Mindblowing SF by Women and People of Color | Tor.com.

50 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Works Every Socialist Should Read by China Mieville.

I recommend Mieville’s recommendations because he is himself a fantastic science fiction author. There is a fantastic interview with him at the website of the International Socialist Review. He is the author of such fantastic works as The City & the City, Kraken and his new book that I’m holding in my hand in eager anticipation, Embassytown. Enjoy!

“Fantastic!”

Smallest Federated Wiki Videos

Stanford Online – A Conversation with John Lilly.

Stanford Online – Securing the Web: Clients, servers, and 3rd-party content.

Stanford Online – Mining Online Data Across Social Networks.

Professor Jure Leskovec will discuss a set of approaches for tracking and predicting how information travels and mutates in online networks…

Stanford Online – Key Issues in Distributed Systems.

Stanford Online – Current Trends in Computer Security.

I wish these had dates on them.

Stanford Online – STATS290 – Paradigms for Computing with Data.

This course provides a practical introduction to modern techniques for computing with data, teaching advanced use of the R system…

Stanford Online – CS246 – Mining Massive Data Sets.

Jure Leskovec again.

Stanford Online – CS224W – Social and Information Network Analysis.

This course will focus on how to analyze the structure and dynamics of large networks, how to model links, and how design algorithms that work with such large networks.

Stanford Online – CS224N – Natural Language Processing.

Students develop an in-depth understanding of both the algorithms available for the processing of linguistic information and the underlying computational properties of natural languages. The focus is on modern quantitative techniques in NLP: using large corpora, statistical models for acquisition, disambiguation, and parsing. Word-level, syntactic, and semantic processing from both a linguistic and an algorithmic perspective are considered…

Engelbart Colloquium at Stanford | Stanford University Online.

Computer Musings by Professor Donald E. Knuth | Stanford University Online.

Security reporter tells Ars about hacked 911 call that sent SWAT team to his house