Fragmente

The Administration of Things: A Genealogy by Ben Kafka

May 21, 2012

“If men never disagreed about the ends of life, if our ancestors had remained undisturbed in the Garden of Eden, the studies to which the Chichele Chair of Social and Political Theory is dedicated could scarcely have been conceived,” Isaiah Berlin told his audience at Oxford when he assumed that position in 1958. Philosophy was at its best when it was being contentious, especially when it was being contentious about the meaning and purpose of our common existence[...] In Natural Right and History, Leo Strauss argued that “in order to reach his highest stature, man must live in the best kind of society, in the kind of society that is most conducive to human excellence. The classics called the best society the best politeia. By this expression they indicated, first of all, that, in order to be good, society must be civil or political society, a society in which there exists government of men and not merely administration of things.” 3 He reiterated this criticism in a slightly more confused way in The City and Man: “On the basis of the break with Aristotle, one could come to believe in the possibility of a simply rational society, i.e., of a society each member of which would be of necessity perfectly rational so that all would be united by fraternal friendship, and government of men, as distinguished from administration of things, would wither away.” 4 

Fragmente

How Roland Barthes Gave Us the TV Recap   by Sam Anderson

Among the brand-name French theorists of the mid-20th century, Roland Barthes was the fun one. (Foucault was the tough one, Derrida was the dreamy one, Lacan was the mysterious one — I like to imagine them sometimes as a black-turtlenecked, clove-smoking boy band called Hors de Texte, with the hit album “Discipline ’n’ Punish.”) Instead of constructing multivolume monuments of systematic thought, Barthes wrote short books built out of fragments. 

Jazzmen, one, two, three… (24)

Adrean Farrugia, Ricochet: Mourning Star, Live at the Rex   

 

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder 

 

Elvis Costello and Chet Baker – You don’t know what love is 

 

The Gil Evans Orchestra, “La Nevada” (opening)  

 

MICHEL CAMILO con GIOVANNI HIDALGO & ANTHONY JACKSON   

 

 

Începuturi

Două începuturi frumoase.

Cândva, în orașul în care ne aflăm trăia un prinț care descoperise că cea mai însemnată problemă a vieții este putința sau neputința omului de a fi el  însuși. Această descoperire se confundă cu viața sa, iar viața sa se confundă cu această descoperire. Succinta relatare de mai jos, privitoare la scurta-i existență, a fost dictată chiar de Prinț, către sfârșitul vieții, când angajase un secretar care să aștearnă în scris povestea descoperirii pe care o făcuse. Prințul vorbea, iar secretarul scria. Orhan Pamuk- Cartea neagră

Aici se sfârșește marea și începe pământul. Plouă peste orașul livid, apele râului curg tulburi de mâl, luncile sunt inundate. O navă întunecată vine urcând o dată cu fluxul lugubru, e Highland Brigade, care se apropie de cheiul de la Alcântara. Jose Saramago- Anul morții lui Ricardo Reis