I’m too lazy to think of anything worth calling an actual title
So yesterday, the full shutdown had been un-shut-downed. The chairs were still largely there, just shoved somewhat out of the way to clear room so the doorways could open:
And so people could climb the stairs:
Still, you have to hand it to the students, Tuesday was quite effective in the area of school-shutty-downy-ness.
Spotted this in the entrance hall — it’s a lot easier to notice stuff when it’s not full of students:
3 strikes, you’re out?
Also:
“Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen: Article 35: When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is, for the people and for every part of the people, the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.”
My, but don’t they take themselves seriously? It’s always interesting to compare things like revolutions, bills of rights, declarations, constitutions, etc. Seems the French stick rather closely to John Locke’s stuff, what with the explicit rights to property and revolution. For my lit. class (and, to a lesser extent, the MICEFA writing class), I’ve had to do lots of fun research into the Négritude movement of the early-mid 20th century. Why, yes, linking to Wikipedia is what I do when I don’t feel like explaining something at length. My point being, I found some interesting parallels between the American Revolution and the movement in French colonies such as Senegal. Seems both of them had, initially, the idea of remaining part of the colonizing country’s territory, just on more equal footing with the people back in The Good Old Mother Country. Of course, empires being what they are, The Good Old Mother Country tends to have other ideas.
Which is a perfect segue to mentioning that the reason I didn’t post yesterday, even though I kinda-sorta said I would, is that I found myself having more work than I expected writing an analysis on “Départ” by Léopold Senghor (wow, I’m really overdoing the links, aren’t I?). I ended up with 4 pages double-spaced, in what may have even been half-intelligible French. Then I had to prepare for my grammar-class test on the subjunctive. Spent a while going over when to use it, when to use the indicative, etc. Of course, it turned out this morning that the test was simply on knowing the subjunctive forms of various verbs in various contexts; we didn’t actually have to know whether to use subjunctive or indicative. So I managed to be studious and waste time. Multitasking!
[have you noticed how much chattier this blog has gotten since the beginning of the semester? My theory is that as I run out of actual things to say, I start gravitating towards less formal, id est more idiosyncratic and possibly even interesting, ways of saying them. More form, less content].
Anyway, I’d said I had some thought on contact lens solution and graffiti, apparently. Well, this is the graffiti:
“Suicided cops – halfway forgiven?”
This has been up since the beginning of the semester or thereabouts, and it’s so hyperbolic that at first I assumed it was meant ironically. Now I’m not so sure; it’s hyperbole, definitely, but what irks me is now I sort of get the impression that the general sentiment may be genuine. Which is just immature. It seems to me that if you want to be all revolutionary-like, you can have one of two basic attitudes towards those who serve in (to lapse into poli-sci talk) the coercive apparatus of the state. Either you can treat them as essentially instruments of the execution of government policy–people who are just going to do their jobs, who are to be engaged primarily with the goal of forcing changes relatively high up the chain of command; or you can treat them as individuals who are acting of their own free will within a certain set of organizational constraints, who might be appealed to and dealt with on a more basic human-to-human level. Each approach, naturally, has its merits from a strategic point of view. One might also bring in philosophical ideas of individual moral culpability, but — and this would be the important part — such ideas are really only useful when directed to those who are viewed primarily as allies or potential allies. If you view someone solely as an enemy, then it is utterly useless to bring guilt-talk into the equation. The combination of a moral-culpability mindset and an enemies-only mindset is, inevitably, the conclusion that everyone on the opposing side is individually committed to EvilWithACapitalE. This can hardly be considered a productive or accurate mindset. If you’re going to designate broad swathes of people as The Enemy, unless there’s a strong, clear ideological motive behind that status, it’s probably best to acknowledge that that role is their defining characteristic only within the context of the conflict at hand (this would be the attitude of treating cops, soldiers, bureaucrats, etc as people who can be expected to carry out whatever policy is in place). The attitude expressed by this graffiti, essentially, implies that the opponent in a particular conflict is composed entirely of individuals who consciously and maliciously choose Evil. Again, it’s clearly an intentionally provocative bit of hyperbole, but it speaks to a very lazy, self-centered, and thoroughly counterproductive outlook. And that irks me.
And on the same wall we find:
“Cops or hoodlums…”
[well, voyoux doesn’t sound, I believe, nearly as silly and old-fashioned as hoodlums does in English, but I’m not about to spend twenty minutes deciding on the best way to translate this stuff]
“…you have to choose.”
[well, not literally “you have to choose” in the second person; literally, “it is necessary to choose,” I’d say the attitude is something like “pick one or the other.”]
Which is another classic provocation, of course, of the sort really best left to heads of state and nascent Sith lords. Less irksome because, while infantile, it’s such a cliché that it cannot really be taken seriously anymore. Can it? At least not without a lot of supporting arguments. And even then, it’s the sort of phrase to avoid because it generally just serves to rev up one’s supporters and make everyone else’s eyes glaze over.
Oh, and speaking of eyes (I am good on the segues today, aren’t I?), yeah, I actually don’t know what I was going to say about the contact lens solution. Bought a bottle at one of them lovely French pharmacies:
Was struck by how translucent the whole thing is. A much more utilitarian/medical feel than the American packaging. Also, note the little “Think eyegiene” thingy–an English pun on a bottle intended for the French market. Okay.
At the Franprix yesterday, the checker asked me what I was going to do with the stick of marzipan I’d purchased. She seemed somewhat bemused when I said I was going to eat it. Hey, it makes sense to me. Franprix, you see, has these lovely sticks of marzipan in the baking section (pictured below only upon arrival at dorm room):
They’re quite nice to snack on. They also make for lovely fried sandwiches, especially with Nutella.
