Comments on: This Pariah-to-Messiah Moment: John Comaroff

By: rushay

rushay — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:15:48 +0000

its been amazing the response from the viewers outside of america and finally it seems that america is on a road of building instead of the destructive path thats been laid by Bush and his co-horts before him

By: nother

nother — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:20:25 +0000

Yes our man will bring back competence from the Bush Whitehouse.
BUT it’s also true that he will bring back morality from the Clinton Whitehouse.
He will not cheat on his wife.
And I don’t just say that because Michelle would cut his youkalayees off. I say it because they truly love each other. I saw it for my own eyes in NH.
Love I say,
Love.

And I met an older man from Ghana (the day after the election) who kept saying, “what a country.” And I replied yea, what a country. When I witnessed the joy in this “foreigner,” all at once I understood something for the first time, and I told him as much…America belongs to the world! – not just to Americans. The yearning for us to fulfill our creed is visceral.

Our President tells us: “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

By: nother

nother — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:18:12 +0000

And I met an older man from Ghana (the day after the election) who kept saying, “what a country.” And I replied yea, what a country. When I witnessed the joy in this “foreigner’ all at once I understood something for the first time…and I told him as much…America belongs to the world! – not just to Americans. The yearning for us to fulfill our creed is visceral.

As our President says: “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

By: olivercranglesparrot

olivercranglesparrot — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:58:18 +0000

From April 4, 2003, A Letter to America by Margaret Atwood. Haunts me still.

By: olivercranglesparrot

olivercranglesparrot — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:45:08 +0000

I picked this up off Crooked Timber. 42 Writers for Liberty

By: potter

potter — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:49:57 +0000

The NYTimes had a story about Obama’s mother, the anthropologist. There is here also a picture of little Barack ( also his father’s name) in her arms. A Free Spirited Wanderer.

It was said ( not here) that Obama has no feeling or understanding for what was happening in the 60’s. Whether this is so or not, he appears to be the son of a woman who was very much of the spirit of the time. It was in the 60’s that the divisions we have now formed- what this country is about, about war.

Let’s not forget as we pat ourselves on the back and rake in the that almost half of the population did not vote for Obama. Many did not vote for him for not very admirable reasons. The voted McCain for “Nobama”.

You can still hear echoes of the poison injected into minds from the McCain campaign- the “country first” campaign.

There was a segment on the news about how, as the economy tanks, the gun business is good. They fear their right to bear arms (such arms!) will be taken away by our new “socialist” President even as he is for their right to bear arms which proves yet again that many do not know the basics of how our government works, what a president can and cannot do.

Yes outrage at the trashing of Rashid Khalidi. Josh Marshall calls it “McCainism” ( McCarthyism, guilt by association, association with those designated as guilty of having certain views which are “un-American” or rather threatening to a certain voting constituency). This was an desperate despicable attempt to scare already misguided Jews ( Florida?) into voting McCain against Obama.

I have not read his book “The Iron Cage” but have listened to Khalidi interviews and read his articles. Of all people, of all Palestinians, he is one of the few on that side of the conflict, maybe the only one brave and honest and fair enough to criticize his own side, willing to admit that Palestinians have made mistakes. He is is in favor of passive resistance. He is a moderate. So clueless McCain, billed as strong on foreign affairs ( where was the press on that one???) who said Obama would rather lose a war in order to win an election.

Thank you for another good interview, jam-packed with ideas.

By: enkerli

enkerli — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:38:02 +0000

“Strategic optimism” helps define a series of approaches which have recently been gaining a lot of traction, especially with the financial crisis. Some financiers are even mentioning happiness in ways which would have been scoffed at, just a few months ago. The notion seems to be related to a kind of eudemonic version of Pascal’s wager: we know how to be realists but we’re emphasizing the positive side so as to at least be open to it.
In anthropology, the personal experience of cultural relativism gives us as much. Not that we go about saying that “everything is fine.” But we get so used to putting things in context that we can change our thinking mode fairly easily and synthesize optimism internally (like psychologists say we synthesize happiness).

Speaking of anthropology…
Not to shamelessly plug myself but I do enjoy the fact that, a few hours before this conversation was recorded, I did blog about some related issues about Barack Obama’s “organic anthropology.”
http://enkerli.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/son-of-an-anthropologist/
Of course, my take was less formal and more idiosyncratic. But it might be that this is a defining moment for anthropology. A moment at which anthropology is defined socially, through interactions.

Thanks again.