APOLARITY

• Darwin’s twin track: ‘Evolution and emancipation’ – BBC article about the book Darwin’s Sacred Cause, explaining the role that the horrors of the slave trade had on Darwin’s thinking and motivation.

Why was Darwin’s evolution uniquely defined by common descent, the joining of races and species through shared ancestry? Darwin’s common descent image is so obvious today that we forget to question where it came from.

Common descent in Darwin’s younger day was ubiquitous in anti-slavery tracts. Consider the words of the famous cameo, depicting a kneeling slave asking “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” That cameo was in fact the brainchild of the pottery-dynasty founder, Josiah Wedgwood, Darwin’s grandfather.

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“…’Religion and politics are unnecessary to the culture  -or the individual- that has poetry.’

     ‘You really don’t believe in political solutions, do you?’

     ‘I believe in political solutions to political problems. But man’s primary problems aren’t political; they’re philosophical. Until humans can solve their philosophical problems, they’re condemned to solve their political problems over and over and over again. It’s a cruel, repetitious bore.’

     [She] thought she had the old goat this time … ‘Well, then, what are the philosophical solutions?’

     ‘Ha ha ho ho and hee hee. That’s for you to find out.’ She didn’t have him. ‘I’ll say this and no more: there’s got to be poetry. And magic … At every level. If civilization is ever going to be anything but a grandiose pratfall, anything more than a can of deodorizer in the shithouse of existence, then statesman are going to have to concern themselves with magic and poetry. Bankers are going to have to concern themselves with magic and poetry. Time magazine is going to have to write about magic and poetry. Factory workers and housewives are going to have to get their lives entangled in magic and poetry…’

     If [she] failed to comprehend completely, at least she no longer felt confused. Through a pinhole in the peace that dropped like dusk around them, she squeezed one last question. ‘Do you think such a thing can ever happen?’

     ‘If you understood poetry and magic, you’d know that it doesn’t matter.’

     The moon rose.

     The clockworks struck.

     A crane whooped. 

     She understood.

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     Poetry is nothing more than an intensification or illumination of common objects and everyday events until they shine with their singular nature, until we can experience their power, until we can follow their steps in the dance, until we can discern what parts they play in the Great Order of Love. How is this done? By fucking around with syntax.”

-Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Photos page has been added. Enjoy.

• What Would You Do If? – conversation with Joan Baez challenging her pacifism. I love the way she keeps the conversation playful, and cleverly deflects the hypothetical justifications for violence. Also, there’s this great quote: “The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence.”
• (And, on a lighter note) Free Gmail stickers! And they totally promise not to keep your address for any nefarious purposes.

“I screwed up.”
-Barack Obama

Hilzoy has some great analysis here. I’m just beyond thrilled to see our president take direct responsibility for an error.