le blog de willis: une tragé-comé-drame épique

[williszhang]

How Zoning Shaped Islam in North America

"Suburban infrastructure forecloses the low-cost, high-frequency, informal interactions through which religious sensibility was once cultivated as a byproduct of shared daily life rather than delivered as a scheduled intervention.

When the mosque was within walking distance, and the imam was a neighbour whose authority derived from the accumulated weight of daily presence, not a weekend appearance, religious formation operated through habituation. Children absorbed the rhythms of prayer by proximity. The new migrants learned communal norms through constant encounters. The elders’ counsel was sought in passing by the accident of shared streets. None of this can be replicated by programming, however sophisticated it may be, as this ambience was a property of the spatial arrangement itself rather than of any institution operating within it.

In the suburbs, participation becomes intentional and event-based, such as through a drive across the metroplex for Friday prayers, a registration for a weekend school, or an RSVP to a community dinner. The relationship between the individual and the institution is altered. The congregant becomes a consumer of religious services, selecting among competing providers based on programme quality and commute time, mirroring the market logic of the suburban environment in which the mosque is embedded. Moral authority, once distributed horizontally among those who were simply present, consolidates vertically in boards and credentialed speakers, who can justify their authority to dispersed audiences who encounter them episodically. The community is recomposed as an aggregate of individuals who share an institution rather than a neighbourhood, and are bound by membership rather than by the unplanned interdependencies of proximity. It is a community that must be produced through organisational effort rather than one that emerges from the conditions of shared life.

These conditions are not restricted to Muslims, but the constraints of suburban institutional life formulated in North America have been applied to a religious tradition whose formative ecology was radically different. Islam’s institutional vocabulary assumed the spatial conditions that suburban planning has eliminated."

Source: https://kasurian.com/p/zoning-islam-north-america

[williszhang]

2 Israeli Embassy staffers killed in 'act of terror' in Washington, DC

A couple was shot and killed in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, law enforcement officials confirmed.

A nice post I came across by Facebook user Juddson Taube:

Two souls taken in Washington, D.C., seemingly selected at random for death from those gathered outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The shooter reportedly shouted “Free, free Palestine” when arrested. This is the inevitable chaos that results from political violence—violence that does not tell the difference between a government and a people.

The collapsing of all things Jewish onto and into the state of Israel cuts in two directions. If all criticism of Israel is successfully tied to antisemitism, as is advocated, then every act of violence against Jews can be framed as anti-Israel. That is the grotesque logic being encouraged—by bad-faith ideologues, by far-right Israeli actors who happily enjoin chorus with the US far-right, a body that refuses to confront or even acknowledge its own antisemitic pedigree.

Here is the deeper tragedy: because stochastic violence kills arbitrarily—it so often kills those working for peace. It is a virtual certainty that many Jews murdered on October 7th were peace activists, as it is with tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered since. Murdered like Sarah Lynn Milgrim, the woman we just lost in D.C. who had dedicated her life’s work to resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Her master’s thesis investigated how personal ties that span borders can create opportunities for dialogue and peace. In this way, the randomness of violence feels not random at all—as it is so predictably destructive of the hope her work might have brought forward.

Since October 7th, Israel’s violent response has been exactly what Hamas and Netanyahu et al. want: wanton destruction that solidifies ideological entrenchment and—by extension—their political power. Mass death, used by cynical state actors to justify further violence, spinning a wheel forward that adds layer after layer of tragedy and crushes everything in its path, making no one more safe.

This is the logic of viciousness, not justice. If we cannot untangle identities from ideologies, or human lives from the actions of states, we will raze every space where peace might be found. In that wreckage, we will lose any hope of a shared future—whether on a narrow strip of contested land or in the whole of this fragile, spinning blue dot we call home. A home surrounded by an infinite nothingness that lays bare our petty differences.

[williszhang]

son of man

There remain some phrases in the Bible that I'm not sure about. Like Jesus getting baptized "to fulfill all righteousness." And the self-designation "son of man."

Here is a great passage from Herman Bavinck's The Wondrous Works of God that talks about the label:

All the same the term seems not to have been a common name, and seems not to have had a fixed significance. No such fleshly expectations could be connected with this name as with the name, Son of David, King of Israel. Hence this name was most suitable for Jesus, for it gave expression, on one hand, to the idea that He was the Messiah promised in prophecy, and, on the other, to the idea that He was not this according to the prevailing idea of the Jewish people. This can be proved by the use which Jesus makes of the name. He uses this title in reference to Himself in two series of places, namely in such texts as those in which He speaks of His poverty, suffering, and humiliation, and in those in which He speaks of His might, majesty, and exaltation. Thus, for example, He says in the first kind: The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). In the other kind, He declares before the high court that He is in very fact the Messiah, and He adds to this the statement: Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matt. 26:64). ... And in that name He comprises the whole Old Testament prophecy concerning the Messiah.

[williszhang]

One dimensionalized in the DMs

A phenomena I notice with the friends you chat with online is you kinda get pigeonholed. Like your work friend will send you work-related reels and nothing else. And the person you talked about dancing with will just send you dance stuff, but nothing else.

It's alright, no harm done really, because people making the effort to think about you is a net-positive even if it's low effort [I can't find the paper but I remember seeing it].

I think my novel contribution here is to be aware if I'm starting to do that to someone and then....just send the dankest stuff from left field. So we can form a holistic friendship on the basis of them knowing who I actually am <3

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I hated growing up in Howard County Maryland, and I still hate it

Mom raised me never to say the word hate. But after lab testing words like "loathe", "detest," "abhor"... "hate" is the most precise, respectfully.

tl;dr there is a lack of accessible third places where I grew up that makes life absolutely suffocating

Let me get the subjective points out of the way because, at the core, that is what colors my entire view. I had a very happy childhood in Cockeysville but our family moved to Woodstock next to Ellicott City when I was in middle school. The Baltimore suburbs were both "more suburban" (lots of forests) and lower-middle class than the area we moved into, but I felt so much loss when we moved. My parents, to their credit, were not helicopter parents and left us to figure out what to do, but this probably wasn't the right parenting style for the challenges I would have.

Objective point 1: incentives to live in isolated areas

We moved into a McMansion Lite single family, a decision that singlehandedly made me swear never to buy single family in my lifetime. It wasn't even that bad cuz right outside the subdivision were sidewalks that took you to...idk, friends, Waverly commerce, playgrou- aha! There are literally no playgrounds to walk to unless you're half a mile from the elementary school. This is a planning choice and one that has surprising cascading effects you only realize after you've moved to communities that have the amenity (more kids, more family socializing, more walking, etc.)

Howard County does have places with those amenities, ie., Columbia Association. Except! People who live there would rather be in the more prestigious school districts if they had the choice. CA has very nice amenities: trails to walk anywhere, access to Blandair, Lake Elkhorn, Lakefront, heck lakes everywhere!

But the "desirable" districts are like Clarksville and Marriottsville which are in Bumbleheck™ Nowhere. Back in the day the fastest way to get to my school friends would be to bike on MD-99. I consider myself a trendsetter because many people do this now, but back in 2003 when I did it I was the only one, and my mom was rationally incredibly terrified. People have bad incidents and there are no sidewalks at all. So in actuality, I spent the majority of my middle school hours depressed in front of the computer with the unfettered Internet.

Objective point 2: overrated

"HCPL voted 5-star library system" "Wallethub's top livable community" "Progressive ideals" "Cultural landmarks for diversity and history" "Best schools in Maryland"

I actually don't have a problem with the last assertion: by all accounts the school programs are great (barring recent transportation issues). But let's go through the others.

HCPL should be ashamed. I'm not even talking about the proposed thing next to Whole Foods. Spring Break just passed and during that week, HCPL cancelled and renegged all events. Not a single thing for kids or community members to do that week. MCPL in contrast on any given day had 50-some odd events across the system. There's a likely reason: the staff takes a spring break to coincide with the school schedule. But that just reveals how little robustness there is in the system. The library should provide for the most vulnerable in the community whose families can't afford nice spring break programs. Utter failure.

Oh and before pointing to HoCo rec as the alternative, you pay out the nose for membership. MoCo rec is free with better facilities (but this is punching down).

Livable. Progressive. Anecdote: I was shocked when we had coed physical education in middle school. In Baltimore, I'll just say it, we had real physical education. Boys did pushups regularly. There were wrestling units. Weight lifting. Gymnastics. I just didn't think I could handle the pretentiousness of coed archery and wiffleball when I landed in Howard County, I just wasn't ready. Yes, gender distinction is a pretty sensitive topic now but the need for boys to be challenged...I felt was a miss.

The progressivism seems like such a hypocritical veneer when the slogan at the time was "Choose Civility." Such a dog whistle. Howard County is decidedly upward middle class or adjacent. If you don't own a car you don't have an existence.

In terms of culture and landmarks, the literal landmark in our district was the snowball stand. I just .... please just go visit a real mixed use lot and then come talk to me.

There was an attempt to put on an "Asian Night Market" event at the Fairgrounds and it was so awful it was on every news outlet: people stuck on Interstate 70 for hours, and vendors not prepared to distribution. There is clearly demand for the bored masses to want to have fun things but the infrastructure isn't there to support it.

Here are what the county thinks are the culture areas: downtown EC and lakefront. Historic EC... could be so much better!! There is so little room for people to congregate and yet the cars cut through endangering anyone who might want to space out. I'd rather hang out in Kentlands (whose road network is decidedly tempered) during a hurricane than suffer through downtown EC on a perfect day.

Oh and let's talk about lakefront. Recall my BS-meter raging when the society only endorses its version of progressivism or diversity. It seems like the county actively wants to punch young people in the dick: you're not allowed to dance at the lakefront, and you're not allowed to be at the mall after 6 without an adult.

The lakefront is so lamentably sad now, which I'll explain in another point below.

Objective point 3: Route 40 is the ugliest ugly to ever ugly on this side of ugly

And recently designated a new cultural landmark!

Route 40 deserves its own hate section. It's possible most locals would agree with the statement that the Route 40 corridor is the heart and soul of Ellicott City.

And yet if you told a naive tourist that and dropped them there, what reaction would you expect? I think you'd get a resounding "double you tee eff."

what's the difference?

This is just such a perfect specimen of American commercial sprawl, way too perfect <🤌chef's kiss>. This area espouses what creed? "To be here, you must consume."

Where do you hang out? Like where can you kick it with friends? When I hung out with bethel kids it was in front of McD or Checkers, which were fun and affordable, but overall it did seem like in order to socialize you need to spend money, consume, and drive. I'm being completely serious when I unironically think the best third place option is the center with Sprouts Market. There's sidewalks you can walk between smoothie, gamestop, wingstop, and some chipotle.

You may have thought, "Oh! Not the center with Honeypig and trendy Cafe June?" Well to get between those places you need to first get run over by 3 minor arterials, and yea none of these businesses (even Roggenart) bother with outdoor seating cuz....... freaking Route 40.

Objective point 4: things have gotten worse

I'm lying, things have gotten so much better since I've been a kid. So many more fun places to eat and hang out.

But some bulwarks of why Howard County is "worth it" are starting to shake. Buses are failing to pick up kids so kids end up missing school. What? Turf Valley home invasion and kids mugged at Waverly pool in broad daylight. Excuse me? What's even the point of living in this desolate suburb then if we dealing with "city" problems 🤣🤣

The lakefront is a shell of what it was and can be. This past Sunday was the most amazing weather and... absolutely no one was at the lakefront. The "coolest" thing there is Whole Foods where the whole point is to get in and out with your food. The pub on the corner has no outdoor seating. No one patronizing any of the (checks notes) four businesses. I won't explicitly punch down with the infinite examples of peer counties proactively stimulating cultural life, but I've already ranted in the above points about how everything reeks of proactive suppression of life and frankly NIMBYism of folks probably just not allowing more business and development.

In conclusion

Please do not read "Howard county is the worst." It is not. It is a very decent place to live. Which just speaks to American standards of living tbh. This is squarely a personal write-up of why I hate Howard County. Over the years I got NUMTOTed to high heaven and finally have the vocabulary to identify the childhood dissonance.

My happiest memories are here. Would I have gotten into bboying without the boredom? Would I have become a Christian without the quirky friends and desolation? Would I have crumbled in the face of crazier competition of high-achieving Chinese kids in Montgomery County? How much of the neurosis is simply a function of my family culture regardless of where I lived? Did the gentle and stable environment allow me to ultimately thrive and succeed? The answer to these counterfactuals could fall on either side.

[williszhang]

[Empty references] are a part of the wider memeification of our culture in which recognizability equals entertainment... where it becomes increasingly difficult to engage stories with commitment and sincerity.

-From The Marvelization of Cinema. A great follow up to Memes* cause depression

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Hidden Brain: The Paradox of Pleasure

According to this two-part program (1, 2) basically if you're getting the constant dopamine that a modern person receives, our homeostasis will naturally baseline us in a state of depression. So if you want to not be depressed, you have to pretty actively not live like a modern person (e.g., no internet at home).

 There are so many good nuggets but here were two that I remember:

"In our narcissistic culture, you'll find people want to escape themselves and into something else. We are so inundated with thinking and worrying about ourselves that our escapism shows we want relief from that." "I thought I was unhappy because my life was hard. It turns out I was unhappy because my life was too easy."

I'm rethinking my relationship with the internet and consumerism, down to things that we typically think are mundane and basic like "listening" to music (and podcast consumption!) I'm already cranky thinking about the withdrawal that will happen without my Youtube crutch, but the program convinced me there is no end to the manufactured infinite quantity of novelty, and each hit digs deeper into the dopamine cache that cannot be satisfied.

[williszhang]

Anti-book bans

You may have heard of book bans, but some states and counties like our local school system have proactively enacted an "anti-book ban." This is a ban on bans, and within the school system, this means parents cannot opt their children out of curriculum with LGBTQ-inclusive texts.

Personality-wise, I love the idea of anti-book bans. Instead of libraries and BOEs being on the defensive from relentless conservative networks, they flip the story and assert the authority and leverage they've had all along. "If you don't like it, tough nuts, we're gonna give kids the opportunity to be more open-minded than you."

From the school board's perspective, I think it is appropriate, if not understandable, to equate this moment to school integration. Back then schools faced the wrath of angry parents, but the right thing to do was to keep letting the schools integrate. 

The message that kids see when they see parents openly protesting is "I am not okay with gay people." People of course have religious convictions against homosexuality. But parents should do well to tread carefully in the manner of how they discuss sexual identity, with LGBT youths from religious family backgrounds having higher risk of suicide. Sayings like "your identity is in Christ and not in being gay" are trite in the same way of "your identity is in Christ and not in being Chinese," because things like race and sex are so profound to our lived experiences that, yes, in theory Christian identity is rooted in Christ, but we minimize the beauty of imago dei by minimizing our particularities.

If we take the evangelical position that being gay is a distortion of the Christian sex ethic, there is still beauty in the distortion. For every gay or gender disphoric person who calls to Jesus, in evangelical lexicon, God is glorified to an even greater extent than a comfortably cis gendered person, because the weakness of man is the boasting in Christ. 

My personality does run contrarian, and that was one of the main appeals of being a Christian in the first place. "Society seems to be fluid or contradictory in gauging what's right and wrong, but God has a clear standard." So for religious parents, they could see this as a discipleship opportunity to have engaging and close conversations with their kids while gaining credibility that they aren't scared and are open to hearing and loving all people.

I am biased to the public school system. The hands-off approach of my parents wouldn't have served me well in areas like sex, drugs, and other sensitive health topics, but thankfully the schools were the safety net to give me really positive and practical information on how to navigate those things. In their message to parents, they cite research showing that "inclusive materials are a key component of a safe and supportive environment for LGBTQ+ students and increase positive psychosocial and educational outcomes." This honestly should be a shared goal across the community and I appreciate the system for the good faith effort.