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Noah Kahan
noise dept.
NASA
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untitled
almost home
Misplaced Lens Cap
Mike Driver
blake kathryn
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oozey mess
Game Changer & Make Some Noise
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
hello vonnie
todays bird
Today's Document
Xuebing Du
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@criticalreligionists
The European University Institute (EUI) in Florence (Italy) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute established by European Union member states to contribute to cultural and scientific development in the social sciences, in a European perspective. By statute, the EUI is an intergovernmental organisation.
This is where Dr. Goldenberg and Cameron attended the conference last week!
“Michael Yellow Bird has created a Conceptual Model of Decolonization in which he defines decolonization as both an event and a process:
Event – As an event, decolonization concerns reaching a level of critical consciousness, an active understanding that you are (or have been) colonized and are thus responding to life circumstances in ways that are limited, destructive, and externally controlled.
Process – As a process, decolonization means engaging in the activities of creating, restoring, and birthing. It means creating and consciously using various strategies to liberate oneself, adapt to or survive oppressive conditions; it means restoring cultural practices, thinking, beliefs, and values that were taken away or abandoned but are still relevant and necessary to survival; and it means the birthing of new ideas, thinking, technologies, and lifestyles that contribute to the advancement and empowerment of Indigenous Peoples.”
David Suzuki in this interview about facing the reality of climate change and other environmental issues from Moyers & Company.
Want a crash course in ignorance and power? Watch the “Economics" episode of Peter Joseph’s "Culture In Decline.”
"Homophobia… has many causes." *only lists one cause*
Umm…
Is everyone clear on what’s going on in Russia with LGBTQ peoples. CAUSE YOU SHOULD BE. What’s going on is absolutely horrifically disgusting and it turns my stomach. Russia is home to people just like you and me except their government is telling them how they can and cannot live and who they can and cannot LOVE. This is heartbreaking. Ask yourself how you can help our Russian brothers and sisters. Lets not be quiet about this. We can all help.
Ways you can help:
VISIT allout.org This website will inform you of the chaos in Russia and other areas of the world where being gay is a crime. Help allout.org by donations and/or signing they’re demands to governments across the world for EQUALITY and PEACE.
BOYCOTT STOLI VODKA!!
LETS DO THIS BY THE MILLIONS.
It is just appalling to see how Russian youth are being brainwashed into a doctrine of hatred! Our gay Tumblr community must know what is happening to our brothers and sisters in Russia. Russia wants to be seen as a progressive country by hosting the Olympics, but with human rights being violated this way, Russia only appears barbaric to the free world and any right thinking person. PLEASE, AT LEAST RE-BLOG THIS.
They also are terrible to trans* people as well, so that’s just another reason
Meta-review of The Book of Mormon
Back in May I got the chance to see The Book of Mormon at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. When I first heard about the show, I felt almost as if this was entertainment created specifically for me, since I am a big fan of South Park and musicals, as well as a student of religion. When I finally got a chance to see the show, it did not disappoint. It's crude and hilarious, it's well-written and well-executed, it's touching and uplifting; it lives up to the hype. I thought about writing a full review, but since the show is so well-structured and all the humour arises so organically from the plot and characters, I think it's best not to give anything away (and I warn you, if you click on any of the links in this text, they'll probably include some spoilers). I'll just tell you to go see it when you get a chance. It will surely be on Broadway and on tour for years and years (it's coming to Ottawa next summer), and it's definitely worth the money. What I would like to talk about, instead, is the range of reactions the show has elicited in the culture of theatre and entertainment.
Some people might ask, "What range of reactions? Everyone loves the show." Okay, yes. The show has received mostly rave reviews, every performance for over two years has been sold out, and the cast, crew, and creators won 9 Tony Awards. What I am more interested in are the reasons why people liked or didn't like the show, specifically in regards to what people thought the show was trying to say about religion. For instance, the few negative reviews I could find seemed to share the opinion that the show was not edgy enough. Quentin Letts' review in the Daily Mail, while full of theatre-snobbish criticisms, is particularly clear about this point when Letts calls the show's creators "cowards" for not making a musical about "militant Islam." Richard Ouzounian in the Toronto Star complains that the satire "was truly toothless," without specifying who he was hoping would get bitten. These reviewers were looking for a show that attacked religion, or at least distinguished "good" religion from "bad" religion before going after the bad guys, and when they didn't see that in The Book of Mormon, they decided it was a bad show.
The same approach can be seen in many of the positive responses to the show as well. They may not agree with each other on what religion is or how we should talk about it, but a big part of why they like the show is because they see in it an affirmation of their prior notions about religion. Penn Jillette, the famous atheist magician, repeatedly calls The Book of Mormon "the best thing [he has] ever seen," and the main reason he gives for that title is that the show follows one of his favourite slogans: "hate religion, don't hate people." Unlike Letts, Jillette thought the show did contain a vicious attack on religion, but not on the people who form or follow religions, and that is why Jillette loved the show. Kurt Loder of Reason.com sees a slightly different message about religion in the show: he understands it as a take-down of "brand-name religion" while acknowledging how the supposedly good forms of religion "can be a force for good in the world, bringing comfort and hope to millions, and impelling them toward a higher moral plane." Andrew Sullivan and Maureen Dowd see the show as an outright "celebration of religious faith," teaching us that "the real purpose of religion is to give us a higher purpose and a sense of compassion in the universe," and that "religion is both insane and necessary at the same time."
I may be mistaken, but I don't remember the word "religion" coming up very many times in the show, if it was ever mentioned at all. The ideas that Mormonism is compared to and conflated with in the show are rarely ideas that are normally understood as "religious" or "religions." So for me, the most striking aspect of these reviews is how many of them assume that the show has a message about "religion" in general. I can only assume that because the reviewers take for granted that Mormonism is a religion, then they also take for granted that the show must be about religion more broadly. The famously glowing review from Ben Brantley in the New York Times is one of the few reviews that resists this type of analysis, preferring to talk about "all the forms of mythology and ritual," with a focus on "the religion of the musical." One of the reasons I liked the show so much is because I think the things we classify as religious are not necessarily different from the things we classify as secular, and I found support for that idea within the show. Perhaps we can learn more about religion from the reviews of The Book of Mormon than we can from the show itself. That is, religion is not a thing out there in the world, but people see it where they have already decided it is, and as they have already decided it is.
Tenzan Eaghll, Ph.D. candidate at the U of T, wrote this frustrated letter to Richard Dawkins. It sounds a lot like the sorts of things we've all been saying.
literaryreference:
You know how it is, right, ladies? You know a guy for a while. You hang out with him. You do fun things with him—play video games, watch movies, go hiking, go to concerts. You invite him to your parties. You listen to his problems. You do all this because you think he wants to be your friend. But...
(After our conversations about masculinities last night, I thought some of you might enjoy these reflections. Click on the text to read the rest.)
Wealth Inequality in America: Perception and Reality
Here's an interesting podcast with Craig Martin (St. Thomas Aquinas College), talking about his new introductory textbook for the study of religion. The interview is a bit awkward, but it's interesting to hear about ways to teach intro courses that try to avoid the "world religions" model.
Danish TV Show Features Men Judging Naked Women's Bodies
Just when we thought we'd heard of every conceivable means of humiliating a woman on TV, along came "Blachman."
Here's the premise of this Danish prime-time TV show: a woman enters a room and silently strips in front of the male host and a male guest, who then critique the woman's body out loud in front of her.
Danish X-Factor judge Thomas Blachman, who hosts the new, eponymous show, claims he doesn't consider the content problematic. He told the Daily Mail, "[T]he entire idea of the show is to let men talk about the bodies of naked women while the woman is standing right in front of them. The female body thirsts for words. The words of a man."
Read full article here (Link).
Here's part 1 of a blog post by Russell McCutcheon, talking about his new book that he co-wrote with my old buddy Bill Arnal. Part 2 is here.
"You Deserve Rape." Student in Arizona invokes "God's law" to support his pro-rape activism.
