Confidential to Mark Zuckerberg

June 26, 2018 by Bob Redmond in res publica, this is now

Dear Mark:

First, I hope you haven't missed me these past three months. I haven't missed you, I must admit. I've been doing more real, rather than virtual things; among the real I count reading. Here are some excerpts from a delightful, even breathtaking, book by Kay Larson—Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists. I found it in Powell's Books in Oregon several years ago, when Amy and I got a delicious weekend day to roam the city while Grandma Grace spent time with Japhy.

On Violence

April 14, 2018 by Bob Redmond in poetry, res publica

Here's another pome also from the manuscript for Dante's Internal Combustion Engine, circa 2005. One reason for reconsideration is our current national debate on guns, and also, considering Hannah Arendt's essay "On Violence," the question of origins of violence: is it bureaucracy and the faceless "rule by Nobody" (as she would have it)? Or is is more personal, in which powerful actors exercise tyranny? Arendt said that the latter, the more identifiable they are, should tend against violence (and towards power), because one could appeal directly, attempt to redress wrongs, and if necessary, rebel.

Klaatu barada nikto

January 21, 2017 by Bob Redmond in res publica

A blog, wow! So 1990's! Why and what for?

Three reasons: first, the dynamics of Facebook, with its binary like/dislike discourse and time-wasting attractiveness, is no longer merely distasteful. It's truly harmful: narrowing friend communities to hysterical echo chambers, facilitating fake news, creating destructive and expensive feedback loops for small businesses. It's a two-dimensional reality that allows for no quietude (I exist only if I click), no nuance, no reflection or meditation, no evolution of our human-ness…