A Thought for the Day
Resilience, especially in an overall situation that blends carnage and chaos, on the one hand, with deception and duplicity and downright delusion, on the other hand, requires more than anything else a willingness, despite all evidence to the contrary, to believe in oneself and one’s fellow travelers on life’s magnificent and yet all-too-perilous journey, a trust in self and others that at once necessitates a fulsome Eros of community even as it paradoxically fits seamlessly with the narcissism and nonsensical self-aggrandizement that those in charge of this lunatic system relentlessly promote, a contextualization of things that in turn invites the reflection and calm that lie at the core of all hopes of realizing a capacity to manifest a robust rebound or anything even vaguely as resilient as such a capability implies.
Today marks Teacher’s Day in Bolivia and Engineering Day in Argentina, while the United Nations commemorates Russian Language Day on June sixth, and the United States and other ‘allied’ nations remember the invasion of France in 1944; in the Northeast part of Florida’s peninsula, meanwhile, four hundred thirty-one years ago, forces of the British privateer Francis Drake extended the English’s free-for-all with the Spanish with a raid at St. Augustine; fifty-eight years subsequent to that conjunction, in 1644, nascent Qing Dynasty Manchu troops completed their capture of Beijing as the Ming Dynasty’s long reign fell to pieces; just shy of four decades later, in 1683,Oxford University opened the Ashmolean Museum, the first such collegiate institution on Earth;
Doc of the Day
"mass media" OR "monopoly media" OR "corporate media" OR "mainstream media" decontextualized OR "lacking in historical context" OR "missing historical context" OR "deficient in historical context" propaganda OR distortion OR bias manipulation OR mislead OR hegemony critique OR criticism OR deconstruction radical OR marxist OR revolutionary = 48,500 results
Nearly Naked Links
From Monday’s Files
Draconian Pot Sentence – http://www.activistpost.com/20
NATO American INvention – http://fortunascorner.com/2017
Manchester Bombing – http://mailchi.mp/globalresear
Interesting People Places Things of Note
A Truth Dig useful framework from an always relevant correspondent as to the purpose of seeking to creatively express, especially in hard times: “The deep malaise, rage and feelings of betrayal that have enveloped American society are rarely captured and almost never are explained coherently by the press. To grasp the savage economic and emotional cost of deindustrialization, the destruction of our democratic institutions, the dark undercurrent of nihilistic violence that sees us beset with mass shootings, the attraction of opioids, the rise of the militarized state and the concentration of national wealth in a tiny cabal of corrupt bankers and corporations, it is necessary to turn to a handful of poets, writers and other artists. These artists, who often exist on the margins of mass culture, are our unheeded prophets.”
Cut It Out With the Essays Already
A Lit Hub jewel from our literary past that puts a doubt to the utility of the ubiquity of the personal essay as a genre: “But just because a lot of personal essays are getting written doesn’t mean that they’re particularly good as literature. She admits that the essay’s “peculiar form” lends itself to a wide variety of writing, although it is characterized primarily by its “egoism.”
“Almost all essays begin with a capital I—‘I think,’ ‘I feel,’—and when you have said that, it is clear that you are not writing history or philosophy or biography or anything but an essay, which may be brilliant or profound, which may deal with the immortality of the soul, or the rheumatism in your left shoulder, but is primarily an expression of personal opinion.””
General Media & ‘Intellectual Property’ Issues
A Slate look at the new realities facing the web: “On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission took a major, controversial step: In a 2–1 vote, the FCC—under the leadership of Chairman Ajit Pai, who was appointed chairman by President Donald Trump in January—voted to approve a proposal that may undo the existing net neutrality regulations. The brewing discussion could simply echo the heated debates of 2014 and 2015. But it’s also possible that the new proposal will open the door to more nuanced discussion of how big a role the FCC (and the government in general) should play in regulating the internet.”
Recent Events
Saudi Plan: Win Hearts, Line Pockets
A Consortium News look at plans for foreign policy in regards to the rogue state of Saudi Arabia: “By achieving an odd-couple alliance with Israel, Saudi Arabia has cleared away U.S. political resistance to the massive arms build-up that President Trump just embraced, reports Jonathan Marshall.”
General Past & Present Issues
An INformation Clearing House look at selective memory, especially in regards to the current administrations and relations with Israel: “Desperately seeking some praise, President Trump surely won’t remind Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the USS Liberty, which Israel nearly sank a half century ago killing 34 sailors, as ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern recalls.”