Do words matter? If you’re beyond the Zeitgeist, you probably think they do. It may even pain you to read and hear words inflated, deflated, distorted and twisted into their opposites by usage that reflects massive misunderstanding, if not downright incomprehension. In the right-hand column, under Pages and “The Usage Curmudgeon,” you’ll find some of my pet peeves about the ways in which perfectly good words and phrases are undone by usage. (You’ll also find expanded definitions of Zeitgeist under “More on Zeitgeist.”)
Usage Peeves
October 11, 2008It’s Official! Sarah Palin’s Abuse of Power
October 11, 2008From the Branchflower Report on Sarah Palin’s ethics:
Finding Number One
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides
The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.
Read more and download the report on the Alaska Politics Blog. (Thanks to Jerry Weinstein.)
Three Documentary Films
October 5, 2008Patti Smith: Dream of Life
Man on Wire
Encounters at the End of the World
It’s interesting how triangulation creates perspective. I went to see these documentaries in the order listed, was disappointed by the first, enchanted by the second, and found that the third, amazing in its own right, illuminated the first two. (All three will be available on DVD this fall or winter.)
Why do we watch documentaries and docudramas? Aside from sheer voyeurism, we’re always looking for revelation, for understanding, for connection: ‘this is the way it really is; this is what it felt like to be there—or to be this person.’
(Directed by Steven Sebring)
What we find in Patti Smith: Dream of Life isn’t the revelation of a life, but the reenactment of rituals—a performance. The filmmaker, Steven Sebring, followed Smith around for years, apparently filming whatever she chose to present. Read more
Palin Quotes Reagan Against Medicare!
October 4, 2008If you’re beyond the Zeitgeist, you’ll get this: Paul Krugman, in his NY Times blog, reports that Sarah Palin’s closing speech in Thursday night’s debate quoted Ronald Reagan campaigning against Medicare! (See Oct. 3.) There’s a link to an article with Reagan’s original 1962 speech, part of a campaign kit distributed to women who were supposed to help the AMA defeat “socialized medicine.” Reagan’s quote, adapted by Palin: “And if you don’t do this and if I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Socialized medicine is portrayed as the thin edge of the wedge of the dreaded socialism, when not just doctors and patients but everyone under any circumstance would be told what they could and couldn’t do by the government.
Of course, without universal health care, doctors, and their patients not eligible for Medicare, are told what they can and can’t do by the corporate healthcare “providers,” whose only goal is to minimize expenses (patient care) and maximize profits (through denial of care, ever-higher premiums, drug sales, etc.).
NYC Fall for Dance II
September 28, 2008The second Fall for Dance program I saw, last Thursday, prompted reflections on the differences between modern dance and ballet, and why, over the years, I’ve increasingly gravitated toward the latter.
The ballet on the bill was The Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Pithoprakta, “Action by Probabilities”, choreographed by Balanchine in 1968 for Farrell (his last great muse) and Arthur Mitchell. Set to spiky electronic music by Iannis Xenakis, the ballet had a short life—after Farrell left the company the following year, it was dropped from the repertory. Read on
The Scoop on Sara Palin and Censorship
September 23, 2008“My favorite Sarah Palin cartoon circulating on the web is one showing a huge moose, Alaskan no doubt, with a cartoon bubble saying, ‘BE AFRAID…BE VERY AFRAID!'” wrote Francine Fialkoff, editor-in-chief of Library Journal, in a September 18 editorial. Read it and you’ll agree with the moose. (Thanks to my friend Jerry Weinstein for alerting me to this piece.)
Fall for Dance in NYC
September 20, 2008The Fall for Dance Festival at City Center in NYC is a grab-bag of 28 companies in 6 programs over 10 nights. Everybody’s in it, from ABT to The Lombard Twins, and, at $10 a seat, it’s always sold out.
The audience is mostly young—sometimes too young. Thursday night, the Pichet Klunchun Dance Company was making a stunning entrance: Read on…
From Her Lips to Your Ears: the Palin-McCain Administration
September 19, 2008In my last post, I wondered why Sarah Palin was running against Barack Obama. Hear her tell it like she thinks it is: the Palin-McCain administration, courtesy of the Huffington Post.
Why Is Sarah Palin Running against Barack Obama?
September 18, 2008In her September 17 New York Times column, Maureen Dowd quotes a Wasilla “Wal-Mart mom” who said that Obama “gives [her] the creeps” – he “seems snotty and he looks weaselly”, whereas Sarah Palin is “down home”.
This is exactly why the Republicans are once again asserting the politics of identity—in which wealthy candidates pose as down-home types (clearing brush, shooting moose), thus inducing ordinary people to feel comfortable with them. Read the rest…
Welcome to Beyond the Zeitgeist
September 13, 2008Zeitgeist: The spirit of the time.
This is a blog for people who, finding themselves beyond the zeitgeist, nevertheless remain in a dialogue with it.
Beyond the Zeitgeist 