Weird party, nice din din
The IBM event was just about a complete smash hit. Which event? The one that made the front page of just about every newspaper in the world. Here's a good write up in Businessweek.
I'm going to write more about it, but for the moment I'll just post a picture and a few words. I am completely exhausted. We had a bit of a party last night (at which numerous high-level execs were on the dance floor -- what good sports!) and todayI worked, but I took it kind of easy. But tomorrow I'll be back in the office. The great news is that I've booked a flight to Delhi so that I can meet my colleagues up there as well as get a chance to see another Indian city. I'm planning on doing a bit of sight seeing on the weekends. This weekend I'm headed to Mysore -- which is a city, not a dermatological condition.
The photo is from dinner tonight. Very good food, but I was so tired I probably wasn't the best conversationalist. Not to mention that I spent a couple hours reading Chomsky today, which put me in a very anti-imperialist mood. It's hard to be here of all places and read politically charged stuff like that. It's like having your eyes forcibly opened while you're already having an eye-opening experience.
If anything Imperial Ambitions just makes me want to delve into some more poli-sci classes at the New School. So it's motivating...not just frustrating. Though flipping through Time magazine after reading Chomsky just about made me want to puke.
posted by Ethan at 1:40 PM
3 Comments:
After reading this, I feel far too removed from my academic roots and feel compelled to go ponder post-colonialism now.
Hands down, without a doubt, completely, totally, and forevermore, the best Chomsky that blood-soaked American dollars can buy is Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (2002). In it you will find 400 pages of Chomsky riffing on every conceivable topic (with another 500 pages of footnotes available online to support his claims) during informal chats with concerned citizens. The depth of Chomsky's insights are astounding. And yet Chomsky is that rarest of academicians who is so articulate (i.e. clear, concise, and disyllabic) that any fifth grader can understand him. He doesn't try to impress his readers (or listeners) with nonsensical jargon, but gets really profound points across in the simplest of terms. It's a shame that no one today has the balls to debate him face to face. Instead, he receives only ad hominem attacks from corporate propagandists and academic flunkies who make lucrative careers out of misrepresenting brilliant people. Chomsky, gifted with a photographic memory for historical detail, blessed with a holy man's compassion, and courageous enough to stand alone against a society of thieves, murderers, and liars -- the likes of which the world has never known -- is probably too good for this shitty, stinking planet of ours. When you consider for a moment what people of conscience are up against today (conformity and complacency on an industrial scale), it's a wonder that Chomsky hasn't been silenced by a stray bullet. Think about it: bullets cost pennies. What the corporate statists stand to lose in the coming revolt is worth trillions. Every single day, in the "pathological pursuit of profit," CEOs make decisions that are more evil than murdering one intellectual. Clearly, the only reason that Chomsky is still alive is because the corporate media has successfully marginalized him . . . and lobotomized us.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to read more of his stuff...and I was really moved by "Manufacturing Consent," pretty ironic considering my line of work. Looking at chalenging work like Chomsky's doesn't necessarily make me any happier, but life isn't about happiness. Or at least not all the time. And even if it is, then maybe some action I take as a result of reading this stuff will up the global happiness quotient to some degree. I dunno! But it tickles my brain in the right way and I fond it compelling.
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