eschatronic
Slept surprisingly well, other than some odd dreams. I did wake up convinced that the world was ending, so it was a genuine surprise to see sunlight streaming through the window, but after a quick check on the mountains etc. everything seems to be where it was yesterday.
My father, who is probably the one being I personally know who never checks this site, comes into town today. So I'll get to explain everything to him. Then we'll go to the car show, or something.
A link from Grant some time ago: this couple is looking to corporate-sponsor the name of their baby. If we knew enough wealthy counterculture-type people, we could conceivably get a fund together to outbid the corporations and force them to name the kid "Blackula" or "Leprechaun in Space" or something. That would teach 'em.
Noreena Hertz, author of The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy, talks about what she saw in Genoa.
The demonstrators see protest as the only means of grabbing the attention of the public, corporations and government—the necessary precursor to change. I'm sympathetic with those views—I've written about them, after all—but I recognize that protest does not offer the ultimate solution. It is no substitute for democratic decision making, and it is an ineffective context for negotiations. If political institutions are failing, it is on those institutions that the protesters should focus their anger.
But the main gripe about Hertz's book in the amazon.co.uk reviews is that she offers no real solutions either. The problems are manifest, but what do we do? Of course! We attack sprawling multinational corporations with sprawling multinational novels! Ugh. Okay, I'm going to scramble some eggs.
