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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: October 9, 2004
Latest Update: October 9, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Differing Perceptions of the Social Issues Agenda and the WarThis morning I finally got a chance to read my new issue of New York Review of Books. It features "Politics in the 'New Normal' America," by Joan Didion. She asks at one point in the article if we've all forgotten our culture, our recollection of the past. Did we not recall "Manucher Ghorbanifar" of the Iran-Contra scandal? Gee, I already feel guilty enough, Joan Didion. No, I did not recall his name or his persona. Some of my kids weren't even born yet. And they didn't all have that in history class.We forget that issues such as those Joan Didion is discussing need to be brought up over and over again until they become a part of our dominant discourse, in which "everyone knows." We can't be continually "aware," in the fast track lives we live today, we desperately seek interpassivity, a little time off, to sit and think, or just to sit. I'm glad Didion reminded me of the Iran-Contra connection to all this, whether I ever knew it or not. This kind of memory, which should be institutional memory, but is not because our minimal forums for governance discourse, needs to be kept alive by those of us who do remember. That's one of the roles of culture, keeping our shared memories alive. Cornell West says it's about one of the only paths left open to progressives in a time of deep conservatism.
Didion's article is long, but important. I've got lots to say about it - more lecture notes tomorrow. I'm outta here today, my daughter and her husband are coming up. Oh, and Talking Cat, the black and white cat who moved in with us two suits at a time from across the canyon, has been following Arnold around constantly, sitting on him, "WOW"ing at him (he seems to say Wow instead of meow), and even lets me pet him now and then. He's so different from Tut, who never said anthing more than an occasional soft "Yip," yet somehow he seems to have taken us on as a project. Even jumped up in bed with us this morning. Maybe that explains how I forgot all about "Ghorbanifar." Life moves so swiftly.
