tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-179763512012-01-06T10:34:28.091+11:00"Traveller. There are no ways. The ways are made while walking." (Antonio Machado)remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.comBlogger2571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-11760844373074820202011-06-11T22:04:00.003+10:002011-06-11T22:06:15.202+10:00

Revolt and wage war on all insufferable things!

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-30018201596422627482011-05-23T14:58:00.005+10:002011-05-23T15:05:25.820+10:00

“The mode of being of the new intellectuals can no longer consist in eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but in active participation in practical life, as constructor, organizer, 'permanent persuader' and not just a simple orator...” (Antonio Gramsci)Bob Gould, proprietor of the renowned Gould’s Book Arcade in Newtown, Sydney, has died at age 74. The

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-37396959608036721952011-03-02T08:25:00.005+11:002011-03-02T08:53:02.054+11:00

"Braaaaaaaains..."Hello friends and allies. I have recieved a few kind notes and emails from some of you wondering if I'm ok, still alive, still sane, etc. I'm very grateful for your kind thoughts and concern.I am indeed still alive and ok, though my sanity has always been ambiguous. I'm just at a crucial juncture in my life going "monastic" on my PhD this year. As well, Roland Boer has organised

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-15123322744923360302011-01-28T11:25:00.002+11:002011-01-28T11:28:05.550+11:00

Capital Against Capitalisma conference of new Marxist researchSaturday 25 June 2011Central SydneyIt seems significant, and hardly coincidental, that the impasse that politics fell into after the 1960s and 1970s coincided with the eclipse of Marx and the research project of historical materialism. Social democracy, various left-wing melancholies and/ or the embrace of dead political forms has

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-6723989990155599212011-01-18T21:06:00.012+11:002011-01-26T08:54:07.604+11:00

(...continued from HERE)Having traversed Laclau's critique of Hardt and Negri, I now turn to Laclau's beef with Zizek. Here I have been on record as a sympathiser of both, but on balance I think I'd fall on Laclau's side, if only because the latter has actually produced a viable analytic + alternative for progressives. Zizek is extremely insightful about a great many things, but I've grown tired

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-41194671257843451422011-01-17T14:04:00.006+11:002011-01-17T22:32:13.199+11:00

It is needless to say that the need for identity and meaning is most intense in periods of increased uncertainty, social instability and conflict. As Stavrakakis (1999) points out from a Lacanian frame, when elements of The Real (i.e. the unsymbolisable flux of contingencies and nature) in the form of economic crisis, natural disasters, or even plain old economic pressures subvert the fantasmatic

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-13755602178866832852011-01-10T15:37:00.015+11:002011-01-12T15:18:43.664+11:00

I am a big fan of the work of Ernesto Laclau. I'm aware that he has endured the accusation from Deleuzean-post-anarchists like Richard J.F. Day for being a proto-"Leninist" and paradoxically, from Zizek for being a "liberal". However, I still find his work, especially his use of analytical concepts - e.g. discourse, hegemony, empty and floating signifiers, nodal points, etc. - the most consistent

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-30428493270601006442011-01-04T22:48:00.008+11:002011-01-05T23:36:59.510+11:00

"The point of view of pure knowing is contradictory: there can exist only the point of view of engaged knowing. This implies that knowledge and action are only two abstract sides of an original and concrete relation."(Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1969: 308)Q. The concept of critical consciousness is, of course, central to your theory. There is a "critical thinking" movement in the U.S

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-28674647582542325142010-12-31T12:59:00.007+11:002010-12-31T14:43:51.058+11:00

"In a culture in which the marketing orientation prevails, and in which material success is the outstanding value, there is little reason to be surprised that human love relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity and the labor market." (Erich Fromm)In an era of much cheap + vulgar sentimentality, I (like many others) have often hungered for a thicker account of love

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-53202463194139528612010-12-24T10:51:00.002+11:002010-12-24T10:58:40.317+11:00

"…the priest reads the Song of Mary from Luke's Gospel. The text tells of Mary's surprise that God has chosen to identify with the weak and the poor. Mary sings: "[God] has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away" (Luke 1:51

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-70840947030607675342010-12-16T14:28:00.009+11:002010-12-21T13:33:27.478+11:00

"One seldom recognizes the devil when he has his hand on your shoulder." (Albert Speer)Christmas Island shipwreck kills asylum seekersSo who is homo sacer? The term is borrowed from the Roman period: homo sacer (i.e. sacred man, living dead) means the life that can be killed with impunity, but not sacrificed: "The sacred man is the one whom the people have judged on account of a crime. It is not

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-53510461260429354412010-12-14T11:16:00.012+11:002010-12-16T10:13:15.224+11:00

A few months ago, I engaged in a dialgoue with a moderately prominent "Christian psychologist" in Australia that arose out of the latter's critical review of my unfolding, long-term project on Neo-Calvinism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Amongst his more interesting points was a passionate appeal to one Paul C. Vitz, author of Sigmund Freud's Christian unconscious and articles such as The Father

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-70763966589658108222010-11-30T21:14:00.018+11:002010-12-06T10:23:52.449+11:00

Ok, I'm going to say this straight: Milbank's latest foray into (British) politics and economics via the ABC Religion & Ethics site has showed just how weak his analysis is of both. I think he's seriously suffering from what Pierre Bourdieu would have diagnosed as scholastic fallacy - the tendency for academic who don't get out much to "mistake the things of logic for the logic of things".Milbank

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-84549837112481667952010-11-22T18:36:00.003+11:002010-11-22T18:43:32.473+11:00

"People saying you could have delivered the same message without violence. F*ck them! Of course you can deliver the message. But nobody would hear the message. This is what they like, that 100 people gather and write a message and then you don’t even get the bottom note in the day's paper… You have to break some windows to get the message through."from Zizek's latest lecture at Birkbeck,

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-68224523614819388162010-11-19T08:51:00.012+11:002010-11-20T16:25:07.235+11:00

Ok, most people will be sucked in by the title (perverts!), but actually this is a technical-ish post. It stems mainly from an exhange over at the Women in Theology (WIT) blog - a new and fantastic set-up by an emergent gang of female (Catholic-feminist) theologians. Over there, on a post was thrown up by one of the authors - Megan - on Hauerwas (and friends) and the latter's notion that one

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-37058513338110804752010-11-15T17:44:00.023+11:002010-11-15T22:22:22.480+11:00

Fellow blogger, PhD candidate at Durham, and ally in the struggle Andrew Brower Latz threw up some really good questions in response to my previous post on [Anglo-]Foucauldians and politics that I want to spend some time working through.For those of you who have no interest in any of the following areas can probably ignore this post: Foucault; Lacan; Laclau and Mouffe; Hegemony; Governmentality;

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-8532407633843812552010-11-09T21:15:00.024+11:002010-11-14T18:59:53.448+11:00

The People Power Monument, Quezon City, Philippines Thanks to Jeremy, I was made aware of Milbank's latest "offering" - provocatively titled 'Power is necessary for peace: In defence of Constantine' - on the ABC religion and ethics website. As many have since become aware, Milbank has been invited to proffer his ideas on the Australian public broadcaster's website, which he gladly done on

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-48733343928653115612010-11-06T14:37:00.015+11:002010-11-06T15:12:22.866+11:00

2009 El Savador Memorial for the Martyrs of 1989 (image from LiberationTheology.org)"It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation." (Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed)Over at AUFS, the inestimable

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-21533174338611857122010-10-29T07:49:00.012+11:002010-10-29T09:10:59.276+11:00

Have we finally got a politician who's got the guts to fight the banks' ruthless profiteering and Labor's 'Third Way' neoliberalism?I'm a little skeptical... but at this rate, if he becomes the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and plays this hard populist line "like Chavez" (to quote ANZ Bank boss), I think I'd rather vote for him than the pink-bourgeoisie of the Labor Party.Hockey

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-29111227723857826172010-10-28T20:13:00.013+11:002010-10-29T09:16:34.665+11:00

drawing of Foucault from heart attack grill - greasy feminist comics I don't believe it took me this long to realise it, but there I was, sitting by myself in an awful shopping mall eating a lunch at 4pm like a dero when it struck me. I was literally staring into my sushi roll that I had just bitten into when it clicked: I finally apprehend (not comprehend) Foucauldians and their preference for '

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-78717742603313570892010-10-24T11:03:00.006+11:002010-10-24T11:36:58.864+11:00

This is one of the more compelling segments on work under capitalism I've read in a while. It resonates with a dimension of contemporary exploitation and work that must be addressed - i.e. the perverse double-bind of (1) self-destruction through stress and anxiety due to the relentless extraction of oneself at work, and (2) the perverse enjoyment (jouissance) and attachment of ourselves to being

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-77624315307815079542010-10-20T21:48:00.007+11:002010-10-20T22:05:32.113+11:00

"The term 'apologetic,' which had such a high standing in the early church, has fallen into disrepute because of the methods employed in the abortive attempts to defend Christianity against attacks from modern humanism, naturalism, and historicism. An especially weak and disgusting form of apologetics used the argumentum ex ignorantia; that is, it tried to discover gaps in our scientific and

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-32583495772718620432010-10-18T12:21:00.023+11:002010-10-21T06:50:45.232+11:00

Dear Dr. ______,I want to begin by thanking you for your critical and insightful comments on my essay on ‘Lacan and Neo-Calvinist subject formation'. It was extremely productive for me to slowly digest the critical commentary and to consider more deeply my key arguments. I acknowledged your contribution to my thinking process at the beginning of the printed copy. I thought I would write this

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-84454229887614095402010-10-12T18:17:00.009+11:002010-10-12T20:34:25.339+11:00

I am surprised how many people diss Paul Tillich nowadays. Maybe it's like 'Ice Ice Baby' by Vanilla Ice, that one-hit wonder-white-rapper that everyone is embaressed about once being in love with. However, Tillich is not equivalent to Vanilla Ice. If one were to measure both of them on a single plane, then the latter is plastic spoon while the former is an AK47.From what I've read, Tillich was

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-87119663161675080362010-10-01T23:31:00.008+10:002010-10-01T23:47:47.289+10:00

"A preliminary clarification of the significance and implications of the term ‘secularization’... That this concept has taken on a strategic function in modern culture – that it would be, in this sense, a concept of the ‘politics of ideas,’ that is something which "in the reign of ideas has always already found an adversary to battle for domination" (Lübbe) – is perfectly well-known. And this

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-40906658764605377362010-09-30T19:27:00.006+10:002010-09-30T19:45:54.863+10:00

I really appreciate the work of Paul du Gay, but how the heck does implying someone's theory "derives many of its characteristics from Christian theology" qualify as a devestating shake-down? And, in the case of Alasdair MacIntyre, isn't that like knocking on an open door?[see abstract below]Alasdair MacIntyre and the Christian genealogy of management critiquePublished in: Journal for Cultural

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-79121442760688648622010-09-29T21:48:00.005+10:002010-09-29T22:07:03.837+10:00

"It may be that only when theology makes the same-sex couple its paradigm of sexual difference, will it be able to think sexual difference not in crudely biologistic terms, as in so much of Balthasar, but in more properly theological ones. This thinking of sexual difference is indeed already begun in Balthasar as the relationship of donation, reception and return; but it needs to be thought more

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-37106300307077505862010-09-28T21:17:00.005+10:002010-09-29T11:30:52.899+10:00

Yesterday, I checked to see if the collection of essays from the Grandeur of Reason conference in Rome (2008).Three words: What-The-Hell?!?!Yes, that's seventy pounds...70.00 GBP=114.519 AUD

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-70165661251870355132010-09-24T20:06:00.022+10:002010-09-26T20:58:14.073+10:00

[ Mentioning my PhD topic often brings up this issue... so here goes] I have been asked by many people on both sides of the debate over whether "ethics" classes (designed by St. James Ethics Centre) should be run alongside the present weekly slot reserved for "Special Religious Education" (SRE). For info on both camps in this debate, see the 'SRE on Trial' and 'Save Our Scripture' website for the

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-1380443400105532172010-09-04T18:30:00.013+10:002010-09-04T19:18:07.093+10:00

Being an obessional-neurotic researcher, I've spent the past few months building a 'genealogy of Western and post-protestant Christianity and government' (in the broad Foucauldian mode as well as its more specific sense) to give some historical flesh to my PhD on 'theological discourse and neoliberal government' in faith-based institutions. 35 or so books and about 50 journal articles later, I

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-85542798483846653052010-08-25T18:01:00.005+10:002010-08-25T19:04:31.825+10:00

Tomislav Sunic is an Croatian-American political commentator associated with the New Right who has written some acerbic, yet rather insightful commentaries on the politics of Carl Schmitt. While I personally don't feel comfortable in such company (to say the least), Schmitt and Schmittians like Sunic are always important to listen to in my opinion. Their gift (as with most conservatives) lies in

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-23915250921406194582010-08-12T15:19:00.005+10:002010-08-12T15:39:05.488+10:00

I have spent a few blog posts deconstructing the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the rhetoric of Julia Gillard, which shows very little substantive difference on matters of policy and institutional change to the conservative Liberal-National Party (LNP). Yet I haven't spent much time critiquing the latter.So for the past few days, with the election clock ticking, I thought it would be a good

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-56583550657046513422010-08-08T20:55:00.014+10:002010-08-08T23:17:14.968+10:00

As a scatty ADHD doctoral student with a book fetish, I tend to read a little too much literature that ends up being irrelevant to the core of my research. I would say (conservatively) that about 50% of what I read ends up being archived into the 'irrelevant' filing cabinet in my brain.Of that 50%, I think I actually regret wasting my time on around 30% of them - either because they were

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-29340437140543191112010-08-02T20:48:00.006+10:002010-08-02T21:44:05.217+10:00

I am presently going through an intense Carl Schmitt phase (possibly due to the farce that has become Australian liberal democracy), so here are some little bite sized provocations from the man himself: "All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts not only because of their historical development – in which they were transferred from theology to

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-31078779633590465222010-07-29T16:05:00.002+10:002010-07-29T16:17:38.687+10:00

Fraser's perceptive commentary centres on three big questions:Are we talking too much about religion?Why are so many claims and social struggles articulated and waged in the language of religion?Where are the secular views that could be a rival to religion today?[RL: It's not very high quality and loads rather slowly, but it's worth the time]

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-7825787906336952172010-07-22T15:14:00.012+10:002010-07-22T20:57:57.306+10:00

I've just read Ernesto Laclau's tightly constructed book On Populist Reason (2005, Verso) for the second time. I've always appreciated Laclau's analytical strength, and this week as Australia launched full swing into election mode, his theoretical work on populism was perpetually on my mind.The Australia Labor Party (ALP) led by Julia Gillard has become case-in-point of many of Laclau's ideas

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-74602318888140915802010-07-20T13:19:00.004+10:002010-07-20T13:26:49.581+10:00

Headscarves and guns not a problem in the USA A blog post I wrote on the USyd GCS blog on the banning of the burqa and niqab in public by the French Assemblée nationale in the wake of similar legislation in Belgium. "...It neither intends (in a blog post!) to justify or condemn the ban, premised as such dichotomies often are on unexamined presuppositions of what constitutes “freedom” and “

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-71165573000220069052010-07-11T22:02:00.008+10:002010-07-11T22:46:28.991+10:00

Boris Frankel roasts his Anglo-Foucauldian compatriot, Ian HunterThis is actually one of the more damning critiques of the Ango-Foucauldian "governmentality" approach floating around. The first part is also an extensive attack on "post-Marxist populism" (though Ernesto Laclau's more sophisticated approach- one that I hold in high regard- is not directly implicated). Enjoy the pwnage:"There is a

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-66421410705268069332010-07-11T15:25:00.017+10:002010-07-11T19:34:36.557+10:00

In Australia, everybody has social concerns. Among the so-called friends of the "ordinary Australian", there are politicians from every party. Even the right-wing politicians prefer to refer to themselves as supporters of a social-liberalism. The great majority of the other forces, from center to left-wing, claims to be social-democrat. Social-democracy would be the commitments to representative

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-63483543978553375562010-07-06T09:49:00.006+10:002010-07-06T10:29:10.772+10:00

Recognition or Revolution? No contradictions here! (Chinese poster, 1964: "Vigorously support the anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America")I am about to go on an enforced 3 day break away from all the marking/thesis/work/paper-writing and indeed blogging, but I thought I'd propagate a nice + chewy piece before I leave.Over the last few days, I've been having

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-26987826355803649632010-07-04T22:36:00.006+10:002010-07-04T22:57:20.648+10:00

As a cat fanatic, may I highly recommend Chicago artist Jeffrey Brown's collection of postcard sketches The Cutest Sneeze in the World. For those of you who love cats and know their mannerisms well, these cards will bring you much joy. (See! I can do a positive post once in a while)Also, check out the Cat Protection Society (NSW) website if you are looking to adopt one of these sophisticated and

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-66356918341868534382010-07-02T21:57:00.003+10:002010-07-02T22:11:12.964+10:00

This must be a thinking person's version of a wild fantasy, but once in a while, one stages a conversation between two giants of the intellectual (and political + spiritual) world in the mind, imagining the dialogue, debates and improvisations that transpire.So it was one of those weird realisations of fantasy this afternoon when I was sent the link to this video of a conversation between two

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-24976678651027189322010-07-02T10:44:00.012+10:002010-07-02T11:24:07.941+10:00

Australian mining profits in comparison to public royalties(Tax Review 2010, Commonwealth of Australia Treasury, s8.5)I'm not sure how many people realise the precedent this type of politics sets for the future - i.e. the capitulation to big TNC's with lots of advertising dollars, but heck, maybe I'm just old-fashioned. I am not an ardent ideological supporter of social democratic '

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-30244959539855582392010-07-01T18:04:00.009+10:002010-07-01T19:35:42.092+10:00

As many of you will know, I am currently undertaking some PhD research on the 'effects of neoliberal governance on "parent-controlled" Christian schools' as an inroad into examining the complex relation between capitalism, state and religion.Annoyingly, I spent the first 6 months last year utterly bum-steered by the propaganda of neoliberal free-marketers and their direct critics like the

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-26408730115845008722010-06-25T21:05:00.019+10:002010-06-27T06:53:48.489+10:00

"First woman - maybe first redhead - we’ll allow others to delve into the history and I’ll allow you to contemplate which was more unlikely in the modern age."- Julia Gillard, 24 June 2010Julia Gillard's rise to power has brought to the fore an issue I am critically re-thinking, especially with regards to the direction(s) that critical theories and liberation theology have taken: the so-called '

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-76310461524718619162010-06-20T21:25:00.008+10:002010-06-20T22:01:19.252+10:00

I have officially spent the past 5 days more or less bedridden with various ailments after accepting the Australian Federal Government's kind offer to get the H1N1 (Swine) Flu vaccine for free on Tuesday night.So on Saturday, when I was finally well enough to move from my bed to the computer just outside the bedroom door, I tracked down the vaccine maker (but haven't found out where the CEO lives

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-66146743890865686932010-06-20T12:09:00.005+10:002010-06-20T12:24:40.963+10:00

Allegory of Gluttony and Lust by Hieronymus Bosch"Lust may ... pose a radical challenge to the imaginative foundations of social life. It may do so by diminishing our ability to imagine the otherness of other people. The more we deny the originality of other people, the more impoverished and rigid our conception of society becomes. We see one another as the compulsive products of our forms of

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-70026768581088011212010-06-14T22:01:00.003+10:002010-06-14T22:05:25.252+10:00

Postmodernism, Culture and Religion 4"The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion"Syracuse UniversityApril 7-9, 2011Plenary Speakers:JOHN D. CAPUTOWatson Professor of Religion and PhilosophySyracuse University (http://religion.syr.edu/Caputo.html)PHILIP GOODCHILDProfessor of Theology and Religious StudiesUniversity of Nottingham (UK) (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/Theology/People/

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-8766479422496967182010-06-13T15:27:00.007+10:002010-06-13T16:11:29.982+10:00

University of Queensland - with many brutalist treats to enjoyI just got back from a thoroughly stimulating and enjoyable conference in Bribane - Challenging Politics: New Critical Voices - organised by a highly competent collective of PhD candidates and ECRs at UQ's Politics and International Relations program.Apart from the many contacts, conversations and ideas exchanged at the conference (and

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-2593366737671262022010-06-07T22:18:00.006+10:002010-06-07T22:29:27.166+10:00

"How do you find the presence of God in the despised? And you know there is a saying of the Prophet Mahomet that we have an equivalent for in the Gospels also that on the day of judgment you will appear in front of Allah, you will appear in front of God and God will tell you, ‘I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was naked you did not clothe me. I was sick and you did not come to visit me.’

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-8152026738598581982010-06-07T15:03:00.009+10:002010-06-07T22:29:12.860+10:00

One of Lacan's most innovate theoretical instruments is his graph of desire, and in particular the concept of the point de capiton (or quilting point). When considered along the diachronic (sequential/historic) vector, the point de capiton "quilts" the elements that are prior to it with meaning. Now consider the overlap between the logic of this idea and that of Calvin's doctrine of

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-91802789090602012412010-06-05T20:26:00.005+10:002010-06-05T21:10:10.305+10:00

I heard about this on the grapevine today... FROM EMPIRE TO COMMONWEALTH: COMMUNIST THEORY AND CONTEMPORARY PRAXISCall for PapersConference to be held at the University of Wollongong, 25-26 November 2010With the publication of Commonwealth in 2009 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s three part series (which started with Empire and continued with Multitude) is complete. The series constitutes an

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-46676545655279114222010-06-04T23:33:00.017+10:002010-06-05T13:01:25.985+10:00

Walking the kilometre from the University of Sydney to Gleebooks is usually one of the most pleasurable things in life... except when it's bucketing down with rain! I ended up spending half the day walking around in saturated trousers, socks and shoes (with that obscene squishy sound from waterlogged shoes included).Bitching aside, I had a good evening spent chatting with colleagues from GCS @

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-71323270473869016822010-06-02T18:13:00.007+10:002010-06-05T12:48:31.882+10:00

"Laying claim to and denying the human condition at the same time: the contradiction is explosive. For that matter it does explode, you know as well as I do, that we are living at the moment when the match is put to the fuse."(Sartre, Preface to Fanon's Wretched of The Earth)If you are anything like me, you will be sick to death by now of the pathetic platitude "there are two sides to every story

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-55545664654648054832010-05-31T07:45:00.004+10:002010-05-31T07:55:57.490+10:00

"If the strength of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the strength of popular government in revolution is both virtue and terror; terror without virtue is disastrous, virtue without terror is powerless. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a particular principle than a consequence of the general principle of of

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-79292687796311176702010-05-29T19:49:00.003+10:002010-05-30T10:06:14.006+10:00

Artwork by Emory Douglas"Love of neighbor is an essential component of Christian life. But as long as I apply that term only to the people who cross my path and come asking me for help, my world will remain pretty much the same. Individual almsgiving and social reformism is a type of love that never leaves its own front porch...On the other hand my world will change greatly if I go out to meet

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-30932237869143534952010-05-27T18:07:00.008+10:002010-05-28T12:01:40.487+10:00

This morning, I has the pleasure of reading a good, early-1970's dissing of Deleuze and Guattari's (rather masturbatory) theory of "movements and flows" and the once-trendy "libidinal economy" idea. I immediately felt very fond of the mystery critic with a razor pen, which turned out to be the Maoist philosopher-king Alain Badiou. He compares D&G's work to that of egoist-anarchist Max Stirner:"[

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-16472222889404573172010-05-25T18:15:00.007+10:002010-05-25T19:12:59.081+10:00

Most of the rage about Jean-Paul Sartre centres on his mid-career work: the novel Nausea, his collection of plays contained in the No Exit collection and his magnum opus Being and Nothingness come to mind. Sadly, the two books that most often get forgotten are his early work The Imaginary and his late-life treatise Critique of Dialectical Reason. While I have yet to journey deep enough into the

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-71108838840254355072010-05-20T18:02:00.007+10:002010-05-21T09:22:15.047+10:00

This is a good example of how a post-Foucauldian 'genealogy of the present' should be conducted. Agamben traces words and concepts through their parentage, incestuous relations, partial solutions to dilemmas and deployment for political purposes. The first essay on 'What is an Apparatus?' is alone worth the price I think: Agamben traces clearly and succinctly where Foucault's idea of the

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-55640243459224887242010-05-17T20:44:00.013+10:002010-05-17T21:48:37.533+10:00

As a bookworm and in many ways an ascete, one of my few sources of enjoment is going to my 'local' bookshop Gleebooks to spend a portion of my wages on a new book. I do this so often that every six months or so (as a Gleeclub member), I get a voucher with store credit (10% of all purchases) that is enough to buy a few books.This time around, I was tempted by a couple of usual suspects:

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-36792566955144470772010-05-15T00:13:00.013+10:002010-05-15T22:34:41.679+10:00

After a long day at work teaching, marking, writing a paper and/or working on your thesis, what better way to spend the evening than to play a nice game?! One of my favourites is to count how many condemnation points there are against one's name according to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum - the Vatican's once famous 'Index of Prohibited Books' (sadly abolished in 1966).This is how you keep

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-75348850856432501642010-05-10T08:41:00.009+10:002010-05-11T13:01:05.474+10:00

Dear ________,When you asked me to write a few words of reflection on your passage from sixth to seventh grade, not for you alone but for all your class, I felt disoriented. We should, whenever possible, speak to what matters and speak from the heart. But how to do so, on an occasion that is neither private nor public, and that invites the discussion of personal truth while repelling the

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-62992351756275219742010-05-09T20:54:00.018+10:002010-05-10T21:14:17.580+10:00

I've always found Jean Baudrillard both interesting and annoying, exhilarating and exasperating, good in small doses while always seducing one to binge. I was reading through Cool Memories 1 while sick in bed with a virus in the past few days. As often happens, reading Baudrillard always brings many surprises, especially as words once read and ignored as idiosyncracies of the man himself become,

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-87401557851169299892010-05-08T17:49:00.005+10:002010-05-09T00:33:40.411+10:00

For all the Bris-vegas residents and other comrades who are interested, here's a politics conference for noobs like me: Challenging Politics: New Critical VoicesA Conference for Postgraduates and Early Career ResearchersUniversity of Queensland10 - 11 June 2010My paper title: Juan Luis Segundo vis-à-vis contemporary politico-religious movementsAbstract:Juan Luis Segundo, SJ (1925 – 1996) belonged

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-65356496682434014202010-05-05T11:38:00.018+10:002010-05-09T23:15:45.403+10:00

"The Rudd Government is committed to taking action on all fronts: law enforcement; international cooperation; source country stabilisation and investment; a strong humanitarian programme; effective border management; fair and robust asylum determination processes....The Rudd Labor Government will continue to adjust policy settings and respond to changing circumstances." (Chris Evans, Minister

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-18262597672223651132010-05-02T13:40:00.017+10:002010-05-05T10:55:32.396+10:00

***New! Response by Jeremy Crampton at Foucault blog***This post is going to make sound like a cranky old Trotskyite like the late Chris Harman, but oh well... (in any case, the picture of Foucault just below will end any such thoughts)Two things triggered this post: firstly, I am at the part of my thesis where I am doing lots of reading about this amorphous beast that goes by the name of "

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-6683483246151080972010-04-18T19:40:00.018+10:002010-04-19T09:07:58.445+10:00

We are all familiar by now with the child sex abuse scandal surrounding the Catholic Church. Now I've never been a big fan of political and media spin, but it really seems like the Vatican is badly in need some PR management. The more they open their mouths, the deeper down the ditch they seem to dig themselves. And with all the pain and hurt coming into the open, I think the RC really needs to

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-72110029840706040852010-04-15T09:42:00.006+10:002010-04-15T10:26:38.935+10:00

What does it mean to write in a world of many words but not much to show for it?Sometimes to pick up the pen (or nowadays, to open that Word document) is like reaching for the One Ring - it lures us and repulses us, strengthens and weakens us all at once. So when I get a little forlorn about the purpose and indeed futility of writing, whether it's my thesis or just scribbling thoughts and

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-71712961065046221912010-04-12T17:33:00.004+10:002010-04-12T17:44:26.011+10:00

"The film Borat is at its most subversive not when the hero is simply rude and offensive (for our Western eyes and ears, at least) but, on the contrary, when he desperately tries to display civility. During a dinner in an upper class house, he asks where the toilet is, goes there and then returns with his shit carefully wrapped in a plastic bag, asking the hostess in a hushed voice where he

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-71822524542357534802010-04-10T19:25:00.020+10:002010-04-11T08:31:51.983+10:00

"Bio" has been a cool prefix in theory circles ever since Foucault popularised the term in his 1979 lectures at the Collège de France.Personally, I find the term more useful primarily for strictly analytical purposes and not so much for constructing entire worldview systems. Because of this, I've long questioned the analytical acuity of Hardt and Negri's definition of "Biopower" in their

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-91086976890013336912010-04-09T20:11:00.010+10:002010-04-09T20:41:43.200+10:00

The enigmatic VN Voloshinov (no, Bakhtin didn't do it!)After a nice break in the Southern Highlands, I'm charged up and ready to go in my doctoral research on 'Neoliberal Discourse and Christian Instruction'. Some headspace and cold air was good for the brain. In my thesis, I become reasonably promiscuous in my use of different theories of discourse and semiotics - falling close to Raymond

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-19184945946213412702010-04-05T10:57:00.006+10:002010-04-05T11:06:09.201+10:00

"In the spectacle’s basic practice of incorporating into itself all the fluid aspects of human activity so as to possess them in a congealed form, and of inverting living values into purely abstract values, we recognize our old enemy the commodity, which seems at first glance so trivial and obvious, yet which is actually so complex and full of metaphysical subtleties." "The world at once present

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-52891690346326499612010-04-04T17:21:00.019+10:002010-04-04T22:06:15.054+10:00

As a follow-up to a previous post and insightful comments by Andrew and Roland (as well as in response to intense discussions I've had at uni surrounding the use of the term 'ideology' and the practice of 'ideology critique'... geez it's hard to fight Foucauldians/Deleuzians when one feels so much affinity), I thought it might be good for me to outline how I understand the term.Lazy as I am to

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-76053888990864698982010-04-03T21:20:00.012+11:002010-04-03T22:11:31.930+11:00

"As hysterics, you demand a new master. You will get one!"(Jacques Lacan, Seminar XVII)Over at his blog, Jeremy Ridenour has brought to my attention John Milbank's evaluation of psychoanalysis: “Of course Lacanian psychoanalysis, and even psychoanalysis in general, claims to have “shown” that objects of desire are illusory. But in principle, since the desirable is both subjectively judged to be

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-74954058704788990082010-04-02T14:43:00.005+11:002010-04-02T16:16:10.369+11:00

An incisive message from the great James H Cone for Australian Christians this Good Friday. A reminder to remember the crucified:" The cross and the [colonial genocide] need each other: the lynching tree can liberate the cross from the false pieties of well-meaning Christians. The crucifixion was a first-century lynching. The cross can redeem the lynching tree, and thereby bestow upon lynched

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-61341150415057532162010-03-30T17:31:00.007+11:002010-03-31T11:03:38.408+11:00

I'm preparing a conference paper on 'the pertinence of Juan Luis Segundo's theological method for the analysis of politico-religious movements', so I thought I'd bang off a few reflections on the ever-contested relation between faith and ideologies.After the 2010 Global Atheist Convention and the whirlwind visit from Professor Dawkins, it is likely that the term “ideology” will gain new usage.

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-42532877882940742602010-03-27T23:11:00.009+11:002010-03-28T08:53:24.512+11:00

I just got home from watching this film. It's getting late so here's a quick review: - Quite well done cinematically and the score is good, though the storyline is probably a little bit done and limp.- It's worth a watch because paints a relatively more realistic picture of France beyond the romantic image that many of us have from watching Amelie and fantasising about Mai 68, especially when we

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-46529336608487316232010-03-26T07:46:00.005+11:002010-03-26T07:58:14.069+11:00

Hoderer: "Purity is a idea for a yogi or a monk. You intellectuals and bourgeois anarchists use it as a pretext for doing nothing. To do nothing, to remain motionless, wearing kid gloves. Well, I have dirty hands. Right up to the elbows. I have plunged them in filth and blood."Jean-Paul Sartre, Dirty Hands (in No Exit, and three other plays)

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-32428246703703909292010-03-24T21:19:00.008+11:002010-03-24T21:51:54.770+11:00

'Christopher' from the film District 9. Will he return to deal with the oppressors?I got nice copy of Erich Fromm's The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture tonight and I'm really enjoying reading it. In Fromm's reading of history, the early Christians' interpretation of Jesus as ruler whose Kingdom was not of this world but another. Christ was expected to return

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-29563473926267097192010-03-23T22:37:00.022+11:002010-03-25T06:40:43.207+11:00

I'm a little surprised at the interest generated from people in various places at my mini-project on Lacan and Reformational thought in the context of education. As a product of a fortnight of high temperature and intense boredom, it is likely to be a little vague at points, but this is something that is in the process of being ironed out (that is, as much as it is possible to 'clarify' these

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-11443091675626656872010-03-21T17:13:00.038+11:002010-03-22T19:24:02.547+11:00

"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7.15)"In many ways, my exploratory monograph arrives late to the Lacanian party, like the dopey kid who finds out about the party last and turns up when most of the cool kids have either gone home or are already drunk and regurgitating in the bushes next to the swimming pool. Yet the primary

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-67875013499428988892010-03-19T18:50:00.027+11:002010-03-20T06:55:26.792+11:00

The Block, Redfern, SydneyI remember speaking to one of my Christian elders and good friend Father Mick from Wontulp-Bi-Buya College in Yarrabah, Qld, about this issue more than 3 years ago. Lo and behold, we're still here!A rearguard battle has emerged in Australia over the significance of publicly recognising Traditional Owners and/or Historic Peoples at events. This practice has recently come

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-80340924904308428002010-03-18T15:20:00.012+11:002010-03-19T07:20:21.532+11:00

"I dream of the intellectual destroyer of evidence and universalities, the one who, in the inertias and constraints of the present, locates and marks the weak points, the openings, the lines of power, who incessantly displaces himself, doesn't know exactly where he is heading nor what he'll think tomorrow because he is too attentive to the present." (Michel Foucault)One of the biggest influences

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-85281536873585320882010-03-17T19:21:00.017+11:002010-03-18T21:40:06.962+11:00

I read this lecture by Ashis Nandy today and thought it was an articulate and fitting description of what many of us are trying to do (despite the whinging on the wings):"Why then should we study religion? Why should we learn the language of religion or enter the cosmology of religion. Frankly, the honest answer is that we do not have to. At one time it must have been different, but now millions

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-38876252956991213132010-03-16T20:47:00.015+11:002010-03-17T20:25:10.693+11:00

This afternoon, I picked up Waleed Aly's newly released Quarterly Essay 37 - What's Right? The Future of Conservatism in Australia - and it is proving to be an interesting and provocative anomaly in the banal liberal media. I watched him on Q and A yesterday night shaming the rest of the panelists (like the clueless Peter Dutton, ice queen Miranda Devine, bureaucratic Bill Shorten and vacuous

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-91791206260938889482010-03-11T12:58:00.006+11:002010-03-11T15:31:47.289+11:00

Atheists that have shaped my world: Sartre and de BeauvoirThe ABC Religion program is covering the 2010 Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia on 12-14 March.The lineup for the conference includes Richard Dawkins, Catherine Deveny, Phillip Adams, Taslima Nasrin, Peter Singer, Tamas Pataki, Max Wallace, Russell Blackford, Ian Robinson, AC Grayling, Robyn Williams, Craig Reucassel and

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-66424845501577762002010-03-09T06:28:00.019+11:002010-03-10T10:44:56.327+11:00

I spent a good part of last night watching ABC's Q and A program last night featuring renowned atheist Richard Dawkins alongside a panel that consisted of a progressive rabbi, a psychiatrist and three politicians. Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion centred around the credibility, place and purposes of 'religion' vis-a-vis 'atheism'. For my money, it was a pretty boring discussion that was

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-77833595381402406982010-03-04T21:38:00.016+11:002010-03-06T22:13:03.733+11:00

"The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images." (Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, no.4)A perfect storm is brewing (and indeed has been brewing for some time now) over the issue of 'sexualisation' of young ppl, which is meant to be a shorthand for the imbuing/making/enhancing the representation of a person or peoples in

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-92218794387878193982010-03-02T06:33:00.004+11:002010-03-02T06:53:06.299+11:00

I don't know why I didn't do this earlier, but check out the blog Vulgar Marxism (now on my Blogroll list, which is like making it onto the Svalbard community radio Top 10 hits alongside new releases on cassette tape like Roxette, MC Hammer and Rod Stewart).VM is cynical, ruthless and refreshingly straightforward. I like!

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-20072875656113171262010-03-01T18:10:00.008+11:002010-03-25T06:47:20.237+11:00

Ah yes, now I can see that the prime of my life was at age 7 when I got 100% for my spelling test...Imagine a society where everybody is identified by numbers; where your spelling and maths scores are tracked and graphed from the age of 8 onwards; where this information about your 'performance' in education through life is available online; where you are ranked against all your friends from the

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-26127587773464702832010-02-26T15:28:00.009+11:002010-03-02T21:45:54.987+11:00

Every revolutionary needs fetish objects while living in a society that is decidedly un-revolutionary. I fetishise all the time; how could I not?! At the moment politics in Australia is caged within a narrow range - the most exciting thing on the agenda is the blame-game over a government-endorsed-then-ditched housing insulation program.So, much like the manner in which Western liberals fantasise

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-91907421411535779662010-02-24T19:17:00.017+11:002010-02-26T16:13:42.663+11:00

Roland Boer and Adam Kotsko have recently posted on the woeful prospects of graduate students (like myself), universities and the desire to live the 'life of the mind'. They join the chorus of concern (see blogs by Mel Gregg and George Morgan) and personal stories of sad fates (especially the regular stream of tragedies recounted on the Chronicle of Higher Education). As the insightful comment

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-22154791045197883332010-02-20T10:17:00.017+11:002010-02-20T23:32:31.519+11:00

Trench warfare: a fair sucky way to fightI've posted before very briefly and not very analytically on the recent kerfuffle in Australia over schools and league tables (here and here). Amidst the present trench warfare being fought over the ranking of schools and publicising information on standardised tests, etc. my doktorvater Guy Redden, drawing from his Queensland connections and the critical

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-13478393937559325162010-02-18T16:59:00.009+11:002010-02-20T23:31:00.950+11:00

I finally got around to picking up my copy of the recently translated The Labor of Job: The Biblical Text as a Parable of Human Labor by Antonio Negri, which also features a commentary/afterword by none other than the el comandante of Marxist Bible criticism - Roland Boer (Having met and chatted with him recently, I can testify that he is a nice, gentlemanly sort of guy by day and

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-78219677116029208122010-02-16T19:34:00.006+11:002010-02-16T19:44:24.784+11:00

This post on Twelve theses on libraries and librarians from Ben Myers' Faith and Theology blog is utterly sublime.I've included an excerpt (Theses 1 and 5):1. The library is the most solid and enduring item in the whole apparatus of intellectual life. In time our academic fads and fashions, our schools of thought and indeed entire disciplines, will pass soundlessly into the abyss of history. But

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-84135983271602503692010-02-14T18:05:00.009+11:002010-02-18T18:07:52.732+11:00

We all need to leave my blog, go to a good online DVD retailer, punch in your credit card number and get this movie now:"Set in the fictional African state of Judea, where violence, poverty and sectarianism are endemic, Son of Man is an adventurous and ambitious new interpretation of the Gospels by the South African theatre and film ensemble, Dimpho Di Kopane, who also produced U-Carmen

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-53546628908546115342010-02-12T16:02:00.015+11:002010-02-15T11:24:40.812+11:00

On second thoughts, Jesus decides to kick Judas' assI am in the process of writing an article on the resurgence of 'rugged masculinity' discourses within reformed evangelicalism, focusing particularly on the wildly popular Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I plan to use a Lacanian discourse theory, demonstrating how the rise of 'hip' and aggressive masculinist fantasies in

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-72043617306121589902010-02-10T15:18:00.010+11:002010-02-12T17:43:59.253+11:00

Students as revolutionaries: A screenshot of Jean-Luc Godard's brilliant film from 1967, La Chinoise, which explores the intersection of passion, naivete and sincerity with a healthy dose of good humour.As a teacher and tutor in the field of education studies, one is often confronted with the familiar call of students after passionate discussions over serious issues (e.g. socioeconomic inequality

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-22978487783841502012010-02-09T18:18:00.011+11:002010-02-12T17:44:32.529+11:00

After much thought and reflection through discussion around the traps at uni, with some anarchist allies at Jura and at the BCTS 2010 in Dunedin, I think this quote is a winner for me because of its grasp of the zeitgeist, as well as use of sophisticated and politically-charged metaphor:"In our societies, critical Leftists have hitherto only succeeded in soiling those in power, whereas the real

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17976351.post-62466469958884046692010-02-08T18:57:00.021+11:002010-02-18T18:37:06.224+11:00

I am really rueing having to return to Sydney for work on Tuesday, thereby missing the Monday sessions of the BCTS 2010. Sad, but true, I have to return to sell my cognitive surplus labour (not that I've got that much to spare in all honesty).Below are some crappy snaps from my trip that I took on my iPhone. I'm looking forward to following up many of the conversations and relationships that

remylowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10660739512103079989noreply@blogger.com5