Jeff Rubard
2010-02-03 19:17:01 UTC
The Fortunes of the Dialectic [May 18 2009]
The School of Flesh
Post-commitment readers may have noticed the blog is drifting into a
sociological metier; given that social analysis is everybody’s game,
this has had a certain cast of rationality to it. In this post I drift
into slightly choppier waters, cultural criticism and the body, and
although there’s a tint of Gesellschafttheorie (ha ha) to it, it may
indeed not be to everyone’s taste. This year women’s clothing has
become more revealing, and walking around the area it is evident to my
research team that young women (18-24 demographic, roughly) have
rather a lot to show of themselves. Although I won’t attempt to
displace Unfogged as the premier destination for pornogenetic
speculation on the Internet, I have a few “Lamarckian” observations to
make.
Over the last decade or so, cosmetic medicine — for those that have
insurance — has improved. I say “cosmetic”, but I mean a general
attention to morphology rather than simply making sure the organs are
checking out OK. Lichtenberg once wrote of the smallpox vaccine
eliminating a visage from the world; looking at unblemished young
faces makes pimply old people feel trapped in a time vortex, and
apparently everybody works out these days to look sharp at their
office job. There have been changes in diet: without making cheap
jokes about food additives, though who really knows, let me suggest
that it was probably secretly really OK for the socially acceptable
caloric intake for girls to be adjusted upward. Finally, though I am
loath to think of the “dimes” of my youth as akin to foot-binding,
it’s hardly a new idea that the “smoke-filled rooms” some of us grew
up in might put a crimp on physical development. (It remains to be
seen whether the political skills we acquired there will put us in
good stead in dealing with the larger and more agile.)
Now, since I eke out a modest living as a hate-filled misogynist
creep, you might think dealing with these young women would be tough
sledding. It is true that those initially wearing the new styles were
under the impression that only attractive and well-dressed men would
be looking at their decolletage, but by this point it’s on a par or
easier than dealing with the previous generation of young Portland
transplants, who though they dressed more modestly were hipper and
better-educated than you and really saw no social role for men they
had no economic or sexual tie to.What does this say? Something about
men and women together, and something about less super structures.
This experiment in dress (though it understandably goes back and
forth, to the point that female refuseniks have adopted the dress
styles of the early 60s as protest) is a learning experience for
society, establishing a new balance between the sexes. Look, and what
happens? Nothing. What would happen? Who knows? Most probably, people
will learn a new set of social skills for defusing a too-keen interest
in the appropriate sex: look at Europe, where people see “the goods”
right off the bat on the beaches — or refrain from going for
sebaceous, spiritual or ethico-political reasons (before celebrating
the “Continental” we should also consider Brazil, which numbers among
its major exports gender-bending pornography but has a strict no-
nudity policy on its beaches).
Of course this regime of biopower is not without its risks; coming off
real social gains by women and minorities during the Bush years (as
opposed to the ’90s, where we talked a good game) a lot of young men
harbor reactively misogynist and sexist attitudes that make them
unable to connect with their female peers. “The school of flesh” might
teach understanding, but it might also teach that no response is as
good as a yes. And looking beyond the facade, what is the cognitive
motive force of this sea-change? The failure of the economy, which is
going to continue for as long as we live. Clinton and Bush hollowed
out the American manufacturing base, and even if every Oregonian got a
degree in Advanced Hydroponics there won’t be the wages or security of
the past.
Though they may be perfectly intelligent, these lovely young things
are in it together with the mass of humanity; “the bourgeois virtues”
celebrated and cultivated by a certain strain of feminism are not for
them. What role, then, for the dirty old man? I certainly think it
would be progressive for my generation to do better than previous ones
(except, perhaps, the Greatest Generation) and accept that age is not
just a number, that ultimately the youth must be allowed to live their
own lives and take a certain priority in some matters. However, I also
think one of the hardest lessons for an unassuming man of any age to
learn is not about the brush-off, easily recoded in sexist language,
but that sometimes the profoundly attractive want one to play a role
in their lives – relative to differences, other commitments, and a
fundamental attitude of respect. But perhaps the matter requires
further consideration.
----
No Way to Run a Railroad
[That Is, So I Can’t Ride It]
July 10, 2009
I leave Washington County, where I have lived “on and off” for twenty-
two years, today; I’m a little bummed out, since I haven’t even gotten
a chance to ride the Westside Express Service, the westside suburbs’
new commuter rail line. Running on short-line trackage originally
built by the old Oregon Electric interurban company, the line uses DMU
(Diesel Multiple Unit) cars between Beaverton and Wilsonville from 6
to 10 in the morning and 4 to 8 in the evening; as with the Portland
Streetcar, a valid Tri-Met fare will cover the ride.
There are three stops in between: at the Cascade Plaza “big-box”
stores opposite Washington Square, the Tigard Transit Center, and
downtown Tualatin. If service is eventually ramped-up (though getting
people out of their motorcars and into the railcars manufactured by
Tri-Met’s bankrupt supplier may be tricky), WES could very well
provide an environmentally friendly “arterial” for Washington County –
in lieu of the much-debated and often-shelved “Western Bypass” freeway
from Wilsonville to Hillsboro.
[The portion of the MAX Green Line being built from Gateway to
Clackamas Town Center along I-205 may do the same for the Eastside,
but in my opinion the "viewsheds" are decidedly superior out here; as
"Penn Central" riders once knew, rail only works if people care, and
sometimes it's too hard to.]
----
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/no-way-to-run-a-railroad/
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/the-school-of-flesh/
----
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/los-angeles-morals-and-values/
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/subway-serials-on-extending-the-seattle-metro-tunnel/
----
Unwound "Repetition"
Atlas Sound "Quick Canal" [feat. Lætitia Sadier]
----
Add: Users just can't see the horror/tell one if you want to bore her
Inf: ---- /means/ "LA":
The School of Flesh
Post-commitment readers may have noticed the blog is drifting into a
sociological metier; given that social analysis is everybody’s game,
this has had a certain cast of rationality to it. In this post I drift
into slightly choppier waters, cultural criticism and the body, and
although there’s a tint of Gesellschafttheorie (ha ha) to it, it may
indeed not be to everyone’s taste. This year women’s clothing has
become more revealing, and walking around the area it is evident to my
research team that young women (18-24 demographic, roughly) have
rather a lot to show of themselves. Although I won’t attempt to
displace Unfogged as the premier destination for pornogenetic
speculation on the Internet, I have a few “Lamarckian” observations to
make.
Over the last decade or so, cosmetic medicine — for those that have
insurance — has improved. I say “cosmetic”, but I mean a general
attention to morphology rather than simply making sure the organs are
checking out OK. Lichtenberg once wrote of the smallpox vaccine
eliminating a visage from the world; looking at unblemished young
faces makes pimply old people feel trapped in a time vortex, and
apparently everybody works out these days to look sharp at their
office job. There have been changes in diet: without making cheap
jokes about food additives, though who really knows, let me suggest
that it was probably secretly really OK for the socially acceptable
caloric intake for girls to be adjusted upward. Finally, though I am
loath to think of the “dimes” of my youth as akin to foot-binding,
it’s hardly a new idea that the “smoke-filled rooms” some of us grew
up in might put a crimp on physical development. (It remains to be
seen whether the political skills we acquired there will put us in
good stead in dealing with the larger and more agile.)
Now, since I eke out a modest living as a hate-filled misogynist
creep, you might think dealing with these young women would be tough
sledding. It is true that those initially wearing the new styles were
under the impression that only attractive and well-dressed men would
be looking at their decolletage, but by this point it’s on a par or
easier than dealing with the previous generation of young Portland
transplants, who though they dressed more modestly were hipper and
better-educated than you and really saw no social role for men they
had no economic or sexual tie to.What does this say? Something about
men and women together, and something about less super structures.
This experiment in dress (though it understandably goes back and
forth, to the point that female refuseniks have adopted the dress
styles of the early 60s as protest) is a learning experience for
society, establishing a new balance between the sexes. Look, and what
happens? Nothing. What would happen? Who knows? Most probably, people
will learn a new set of social skills for defusing a too-keen interest
in the appropriate sex: look at Europe, where people see “the goods”
right off the bat on the beaches — or refrain from going for
sebaceous, spiritual or ethico-political reasons (before celebrating
the “Continental” we should also consider Brazil, which numbers among
its major exports gender-bending pornography but has a strict no-
nudity policy on its beaches).
Of course this regime of biopower is not without its risks; coming off
real social gains by women and minorities during the Bush years (as
opposed to the ’90s, where we talked a good game) a lot of young men
harbor reactively misogynist and sexist attitudes that make them
unable to connect with their female peers. “The school of flesh” might
teach understanding, but it might also teach that no response is as
good as a yes. And looking beyond the facade, what is the cognitive
motive force of this sea-change? The failure of the economy, which is
going to continue for as long as we live. Clinton and Bush hollowed
out the American manufacturing base, and even if every Oregonian got a
degree in Advanced Hydroponics there won’t be the wages or security of
the past.
Though they may be perfectly intelligent, these lovely young things
are in it together with the mass of humanity; “the bourgeois virtues”
celebrated and cultivated by a certain strain of feminism are not for
them. What role, then, for the dirty old man? I certainly think it
would be progressive for my generation to do better than previous ones
(except, perhaps, the Greatest Generation) and accept that age is not
just a number, that ultimately the youth must be allowed to live their
own lives and take a certain priority in some matters. However, I also
think one of the hardest lessons for an unassuming man of any age to
learn is not about the brush-off, easily recoded in sexist language,
but that sometimes the profoundly attractive want one to play a role
in their lives – relative to differences, other commitments, and a
fundamental attitude of respect. But perhaps the matter requires
further consideration.
----
No Way to Run a Railroad
[That Is, So I Can’t Ride It]
July 10, 2009
I leave Washington County, where I have lived “on and off” for twenty-
two years, today; I’m a little bummed out, since I haven’t even gotten
a chance to ride the Westside Express Service, the westside suburbs’
new commuter rail line. Running on short-line trackage originally
built by the old Oregon Electric interurban company, the line uses DMU
(Diesel Multiple Unit) cars between Beaverton and Wilsonville from 6
to 10 in the morning and 4 to 8 in the evening; as with the Portland
Streetcar, a valid Tri-Met fare will cover the ride.
There are three stops in between: at the Cascade Plaza “big-box”
stores opposite Washington Square, the Tigard Transit Center, and
downtown Tualatin. If service is eventually ramped-up (though getting
people out of their motorcars and into the railcars manufactured by
Tri-Met’s bankrupt supplier may be tricky), WES could very well
provide an environmentally friendly “arterial” for Washington County –
in lieu of the much-debated and often-shelved “Western Bypass” freeway
from Wilsonville to Hillsboro.
[The portion of the MAX Green Line being built from Gateway to
Clackamas Town Center along I-205 may do the same for the Eastside,
but in my opinion the "viewsheds" are decidedly superior out here; as
"Penn Central" riders once knew, rail only works if people care, and
sometimes it's too hard to.]
----
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/no-way-to-run-a-railroad/
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/the-school-of-flesh/
----
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/los-angeles-morals-and-values/
http://jeffrubard.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/subway-serials-on-extending-the-seattle-metro-tunnel/
----
Unwound "Repetition"
Atlas Sound "Quick Canal" [feat. Lætitia Sadier]
----
Add: Users just can't see the horror/tell one if you want to bore her
Inf: ---- /means/ "LA":