Extraordinary Discourse Podcast

Cuts Against The Grain Scholars get their knowledge with conscientious thoroughness along projected lines of logic; poets theirs cavalierly and as it happens in and out of books. They stick to nothing deliberately, but let what will stick to them like burrs where they walk in the fields. Robert Frost This podcast is bullshit! This podcast series is really one long seriously playful associational documentary, like a circus train of thought with (so far) 123 one-hour packed boxcars, or showcars. A train that both wanders and stays on track. That affirms the sound-bite as a vehicle of in-depth social analysis ("analysis" = loosening). That presents both individual voices and a strange chorus. That grows from the "neoliberal years", 1980s to the present/future, the years of money-greed (scarcity mentality) in dominance. Therefore it is not asking for money: no fare to be paid for this ride. To jump metaphors, it is, to the project(s) of the progressives, a ...

Narrative Shmarrative No branded content! I shall talk about the matter which for the moment interests me, and cast it aside and talk about something else the moment its interest for me is exhausted; . . . a complete and purposed jumble. Autobiography of Mark Twain … the misery was not the result of some 'act of God' like flood or the potato famine in Ireland - no - it was the product of social organization including its " organising narrative ". Sharon Robertson [emphasis JS]

Rocking The Narrative From Jesus the economist to naughty little monkeys. Chinese Art and Greek Art Rumi/Barks The Prophet said, “There are some who see me by the same light in which I am seeing them. Our natures are one. Without reference to any strands of lineage, without reference to texts or traditions, we drink the life-water together.” Here’s a story about that hidden mystery: The Chinese and the Greeks were arguing as to who were the better artists. The king said, “We’ll settle this matter with a debate.” The Chinese began talking, but the Greeks wouldn’t say anything. They left. The Chinese suggested then that they each be given a room to work on with their artistry, two rooms facing each other and divided by a curtain. The Chinese asked the king for a hundred colors, all the variations, and each morning they came to where the dyes were kept and took them all. The Greeks took no colors. “They’re not part of our work.” They wen...

Elephants In The School System The theme of schooling has played a part in this mural since the beginning: here it surfaces as the dominant theme for the duration of this associational documentary. So here are the great educational mavericks, those powerful defenders of children who saw and named the elephants in the school system. Links: The Ultimate History Lesson, five hours with John Taylor Gatto School Sucks Podcast John Holt on YouTube A. S. Neill on YouTube 1 What did you learn in school today, Dear little boy of mine?  What did you learn in school today, Dear little boy of mine?  I learned that Washington never told a lie, I learned that soldiers seldom die, I learned that everybody's free, That's what the teacher said to me, And that's what I learned in school today, That's what I learned in school. 2 What did you learn in school today, Dear little boy of mine? What did you learn in school today, Dear little boy of...

High-value flotsam on the rising tide That rocks all boats I think it's [the Occupy movement] thrown open an almost kaleidoscopic sense of possibility... We have no idea yet where it all might lead if the democratic culture we're trying to build really does take root. The main thing Occupy did was to throw open the imagination, to get us to start thinking on a scale and grandeur appropriate to the times. David Graeber 'A Kaleidoscopic Sense of Possibility': Interview with David Graeber on Democracy in America Lynn Stuart Parramore AlterNet

Chopped Chautauqua There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. J. R. R. Tolkien in The Hobbit Sometimes game-changing, immensely lucrative epiphanies lie on the far side of seemingly esoteric inquiries. Questioning the Mission of College New York Times By FRANK BRUNI Published: April 20, 2013

Freedom Dossier Fun with fear, death, slavery, and much else! I know of no other manner of dealing with great tasks than as play. Nietzsche In the world to come, each of us will be called to account for all the good things God put on earth which we refused to enjoy. The Talmud In the language of enchantment, there is this sense of a living continuum that cannot be cut up or divided because of the symbiotic interactions and interpenetrations of everything within it. The lexicon is enormously wide, its spheres of reference global. Everywhere, categories overlap. Surprise synchronistic connections lead us into spell-binding ecstasy. Things configure in their own way, woven together as if in some divine aesthetic kaleidoscope. This is not doctrinal religious practice, but an aspect of "opening to shakti"-the dynamic life force that animates everything. One could say that these works are beautiful, except that the word itself all but vanishes in the glit...