Being human
There was an excellent interview in the Guardian on Saturday that really got me thinking. It was with the historian Tony Judt who is suffering from Motor neurone disease which has him quadriplegic and has forced him to think about what it really means to be human as he is effectively, as the tag line says ‘Just a bunch of dead muscles thinking’
there were a couple of things that jumped out at me when I read it, the first one was this “His current intellectual preoccupation is with the role of the state in western societies - the subject matter of his NYU lecture. His thesis is that over the past 40 years, western democracies have forgotten the positive virtues of collective action. "What has gone catastrophically wrong in England and the States is that for 30 years we've lost the ability to talk about the state in positive terms," he says. "We've raised a generation or two of young people who don't think to ask, what can the state do that is good?"
At the end of the lecture he was struck by how many young people came up to him expressing amazement at ideas they had never heard before. "This is the second generation of people who can't imagine change except in their own lives, who have no sense of social collective public goods or services, who are just isolated individuals desperately striving to better themselves above everybody else."
Judt now intends, in the time he has left, to devote himself to writing a book to help young people think collectively again. "It could really have an impact if I get it right. Something that will get the next generation to see there is a way to think about politics that is not just the way we've been habituated to do it. I care about that and I think I can do it."
I found this an amazing statement. I have always been interested in the counter culture movement, the ideals, theories and the use of culture to effect change and well, how it all fizzled out. I remember being surprised when I went to university how apolitical everyone was. Having said that a lot of the books I read before going were about the student movements in the late 60’s and underground political magazines and of bands with a political message. My expectations were too high and when I finally got to halls of residence i was greeted by fellow students who won’t even interested in talking about the newly introduced student fees and were listening to ‘Toploader’ and ‘Gay Dad’ Anyway despite all this I am, to use a phrase I coined before - a depressed optimist about the future. I really can’t wait for Tony Judt’s book - if he can complete it before he passes away or becomes to incapacitated.
The second thing he said in the interview which I found fascinating, though on a completely different level was the fact that because he can’t make notes when he is thinking and has to rely on his memory - he gave a 2 hour lecture last year completely from memory, this in itself could cause problems and I was interested in how he coped with this and could train his mind;
“Judt is already working on the book, using the same memory technique that he deployed for his New York Review of Books essays. During the night he builds in his mind a Chinese memory palace - or in his case a modest Swiss house - and into each of its rooms he imagines placing a paragraph or theme of the piece he is composing. The next day he recalls each room in sequence, unloading its contents by dictating it to his assistant.”
I am always amazed at the abilities of the mind, it makes you wonder what we can really achieve, anyway I I highly recommend the interview, you can read it here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/09/tony-judt-motor-neurone-disease) Very poignant, inspiring, thought provoking and humbling.
Right I need to go, I have eaten far too many Maltesers and if that’s not bad enough Loulou is watching something called ‘Glee’ which is an abomination and hurting my ears.
there were a couple of things that jumped out at me when I read it, the first one was this “His current intellectual preoccupation is with the role of the state in western societies - the subject matter of his NYU lecture. His thesis is that over the past 40 years, western democracies have forgotten the positive virtues of collective action. "What has gone catastrophically wrong in England and the States is that for 30 years we've lost the ability to talk about the state in positive terms," he says. "We've raised a generation or two of young people who don't think to ask, what can the state do that is good?"
At the end of the lecture he was struck by how many young people came up to him expressing amazement at ideas they had never heard before. "This is the second generation of people who can't imagine change except in their own lives, who have no sense of social collective public goods or services, who are just isolated individuals desperately striving to better themselves above everybody else."
Judt now intends, in the time he has left, to devote himself to writing a book to help young people think collectively again. "It could really have an impact if I get it right. Something that will get the next generation to see there is a way to think about politics that is not just the way we've been habituated to do it. I care about that and I think I can do it."
I found this an amazing statement. I have always been interested in the counter culture movement, the ideals, theories and the use of culture to effect change and well, how it all fizzled out. I remember being surprised when I went to university how apolitical everyone was. Having said that a lot of the books I read before going were about the student movements in the late 60’s and underground political magazines and of bands with a political message. My expectations were too high and when I finally got to halls of residence i was greeted by fellow students who won’t even interested in talking about the newly introduced student fees and were listening to ‘Toploader’ and ‘Gay Dad’ Anyway despite all this I am, to use a phrase I coined before - a depressed optimist about the future. I really can’t wait for Tony Judt’s book - if he can complete it before he passes away or becomes to incapacitated.
The second thing he said in the interview which I found fascinating, though on a completely different level was the fact that because he can’t make notes when he is thinking and has to rely on his memory - he gave a 2 hour lecture last year completely from memory, this in itself could cause problems and I was interested in how he coped with this and could train his mind;
“Judt is already working on the book, using the same memory technique that he deployed for his New York Review of Books essays. During the night he builds in his mind a Chinese memory palace - or in his case a modest Swiss house - and into each of its rooms he imagines placing a paragraph or theme of the piece he is composing. The next day he recalls each room in sequence, unloading its contents by dictating it to his assistant.”
I am always amazed at the abilities of the mind, it makes you wonder what we can really achieve, anyway I I highly recommend the interview, you can read it here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/09/tony-judt-motor-neurone-disease) Very poignant, inspiring, thought provoking and humbling.
Right I need to go, I have eaten far too many Maltesers and if that’s not bad enough Loulou is watching something called ‘Glee’ which is an abomination and hurting my ears.