Comments on: Party Like It’s 1954 http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog Wed, 23 May 2012 09:11:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog » Wild Thoughts http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/comment-page-1/#comment-1825 Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog » Wild Thoughts Fri, 21 Oct 2005 22:28:19 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=252#comment-1825 [...] “future post” which never seems to get written.  First, some updates: In Party Like it’s 1954 I described the loyalty oath requirement recently imposed on ad [...] [...] “future post” which never seems to get written.  First, some updates: In Party Like it’s 1954 I described the loyalty oath requirement recently imposed on ad [...]

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]]> By: Vitanuova http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/comment-page-1/#comment-1802 Vitanuova Tue, 18 Oct 2005 13:50:48 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=252#comment-1802 <!--%kramer-ref-pre%-->[...] oyalty.org/NewsBruiser-2.6.1/nb.cgi/view/vitanuova/2005/10/10/0">More loyalty oathHere an anthropologist in Nevada discovers that state's loyalty oath and suggests that it may h [...]<!--%kramer-ref-post%--> [...] oyalty.org/NewsBruiser-2.6.1/nb.cgi/view/vitanuova/2005/10/10/0″>More loyalty oathHere an anthropologist in Nevada discovers that state’s loyalty oath and suggests that it may h [...]

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]]> By: Old Professor http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/comment-page-1/#comment-1722 Old Professor Fri, 07 Oct 2005 17:45:05 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=252#comment-1722 UC Berkeley sprung the same surprise on me in the early '60s, after I had agreed on very short notice to serve as an emergency replacement TA for a summer course offered by the same department in which I had majored for my BA. I agonized over the folly of it in much the same way as you did, but signed the loyalty oath so as not to leave my friends in the lurch. I thought it an act of kindness at the time. However, I find that I have never gotten over the shame of signing that damned oath. Though I was and am very far from being a liberal, I still execrate the memory of the despicable regents and politicians who required it of me. By yielding, even out of kindness, I sold a portion of my birthright as a free citizen for a mess of potage. You may find yourself in the same place. If so, learn from my sorry example, and do not sign -- or having signed, repudiate. UC Berkeley sprung the same surprise on me in the early ’60s, after I had agreed on very short notice to serve as an emergency replacement TA for a summer course offered by the same department in which I had majored for my BA. I agonized over the folly of it in much the same way as you did, but signed the loyalty oath so as not to leave my friends in the lurch. I thought it an act of kindness at the time.

However, I find that I have never gotten over the shame of signing that damned oath. Though I was and am very far from being a liberal, I still execrate the memory of the despicable regents and politicians who required it of me. By yielding, even out of kindness, I sold a portion of my birthright as a free citizen for a mess of potage.

You may find yourself in the same place. If so, learn from my sorry example, and do not sign — or having signed, repudiate.

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]]> By: Pomeister http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/comment-page-1/#comment-1708 Pomeister Wed, 05 Oct 2005 15:49:37 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=252#comment-1708 Nicely said. Maybe I will never aspire to real resistance, but who wants to change society? Yeah, you, me, other fools and idealists, but as one poli sci prof put it too me, "you can only change the little world around you." The fantasy that we can change things, or should I say Change Things, is enslaving in itself. For it prevents us from the little things that are truer forms of resistance, in the interpersonal "transgressions" that offer actual freedom. I too would like to hand the heads of the regime to them but then again, when do I face the regime? I wonder if my failure to stand up against laws like this oath really do contribute to our slide toward banality, but I doubt it. Put it this way, I break enough laws to know I am making a positive difference. I will continue to bide my time and if I ever do get a chance to put the lever in the slot that will change the world, I hope my subaltern position will allow me to "pull the trigger." A crazy hope, no doubt, I will probably stumble and salve myself with a carne asada burrito. But maybe I won't, and the fact that I have always held little hope of changing the system from within might hopefully allow me to set the charges at the bottom of the damn. Fight the good fight. BTW, if Foucault never found the trangression "that would change society" he sure had fun trying. And as you paraphrased it, who would want such power? Me and Jesus I guess. PO Nicely said. Maybe I will never aspire to real resistance, but who wants to change society? Yeah, you, me, other fools and idealists, but as one poli sci prof put it too me, “you can only change the little world around you.” The fantasy that we can change things, or should I say Change Things, is enslaving in itself. For it prevents us from the little things that are truer forms of resistance, in the interpersonal “transgressions” that offer actual freedom. I too would like to hand the heads of the regime to them but then again, when do I face the regime? I wonder if my failure to stand up against laws like this oath really do contribute to our slide toward banality, but I doubt it. Put it this way, I break enough laws to know I am making a positive difference. I will continue to bide my time and if I ever do get a chance to put the lever in the slot that will change the world, I hope my subaltern position will allow me to “pull the trigger.” A crazy hope, no doubt, I will probably stumble and salve myself with a carne asada burrito. But maybe I won’t, and the fact that I have always held little hope of changing the system from within might hopefully allow me to set the charges at the bottom of the damn.

Fight the good fight. BTW, if Foucault never found the trangression “that would change society” he sure had fun trying. And as you paraphrased it, who would want such power? Me and Jesus I guess.

PO

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]]> By: oneman http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/comment-page-1/#comment-1700 oneman Wed, 05 Oct 2005 01:11:52 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=252#comment-1700 The point of my post wasn't really about poor old me, but rather about the way that loyalty oaths interact with academic freedom, which is a topic of concern for academics. I had also meant to draw attention to the fact that, given that people who are opposed to the Constitution and/or govt. of the US are, as you note, more likely to sign a loyalty oath than people who are committed to either, that the imposition of such oaths must carry a symbolic load that we, as anthropologists, might find worth looking into. That said, allow me to paraphrase one of the greatest political philosophers of our day, Utah Phillips: <blockquote>The state can't give you [freedom], and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free...</blockquote>Speaking as a political actor and not as an anthropologist per se, there comes a point when conformity based on a promise of future resistance has to give way to actual resistance. For someone like myself who actually values his word, facing the prospect of taking an extorted oath sticks in the craw, and I could not live with myself if I just did what was ordered and gave up my absolute right to determine my own loyalties. This is not much of an act of bravery, nor even particularly admirable, simply a matter of living up to my own expectations for myself as a member of my community. While I'm somewhat sympathetic to the Foucauldian view of transgression as resistance, it remains the fact that for all his efforts, Foucault himself never managed to find the transgressive act that would make him free to transform society. The point of my post wasn’t really about poor old me, but rather about the way that loyalty oaths interact with academic freedom, which is a topic of concern for academics. I had also meant to draw attention to the fact that, given that people who are opposed to the Constitution and/or govt. of the US are, as you note, more likely to sign a loyalty oath than people who are committed to either, that the imposition of such oaths must carry a symbolic load that we, as anthropologists, might find worth looking into.

That said, allow me to paraphrase one of the greatest political philosophers of our day, Utah Phillips:

The state can’t give you [freedom], and the state can’t take it away. You’re born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free…

Speaking as a political actor and not as an anthropologist per se, there comes a point when conformity based on a promise of future resistance has to give way to actual resistance. For someone like myself who actually values his word, facing the prospect of taking an extorted oath sticks in the craw, and I could not live with myself if I just did what was ordered and gave up my absolute right to determine my own loyalties. This is not much of an act of bravery, nor even particularly admirable, simply a matter of living up to my own expectations for myself as a member of my community. While I’m somewhat sympathetic to the Foucauldian view of transgression as resistance, it remains the fact that for all his efforts, Foucault himself never managed to find the transgressive act that would make him free to transform society.

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]]> By: Pomeister http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/comment-page-1/#comment-1697 Pomeister Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:44:38 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=252#comment-1697 Oneman, The absurdity of the oath certainly does not surprise you, and your pedantic meanderings (a blog necessity?) have not been fully digested by my finer concentration, so I may be full of it when I say: so what? I too teach at a CC and while it is my second job, and I harbor no illusions of full-time teaching nirvana nor does the job essentially provide for anything other than my basest desires of materialist lust, I have always sorta found it amusing that anyone thinks that freedom is our birthright in this country. Anthropology being a real science, unlike the fondest musings of my historical brethren, maybe your standards are higher, but it seems to me that freedom exists only in the bravery that individuals act out in defiance of law. Our laws are not, it would seem to me, even in the main about rationality. That centuries of logic and battle have gone into them, and that their finer moments make us feel somewhat good about our ability to conquer injustice and bigotry should not blind us to the fact that most are crap and most serve devils of the most prurient virtue. I say this only to point out that you should be HONORED to have to sign such a loyalty oath because it is WORTHLESS and only has meaning when you break its imagined boundaries. For you are only as free as you are willing to break the laws that bind you to the virtues of the slaveholders. You need not turn this affront into a sublime defense of rationality to know what is wrong and know as well that you (for you are not god) will not live long enough to change the stupefying laws of those who suck at the teats of certainty. You are not on that juice now, are you? Respectfully, Po Oneman,

The absurdity of the oath certainly does not surprise you, and your pedantic meanderings (a blog necessity?) have not been fully digested by my finer concentration, so I may be full of it when I say: so what? I too teach at a CC and while it is my second job, and I harbor no illusions of full-time teaching nirvana nor does the job essentially provide for anything other than my basest desires of materialist lust, I have always sorta found it amusing that anyone thinks that freedom is our birthright in this country. Anthropology being a real science, unlike the fondest musings of my historical brethren, maybe your standards are higher, but it seems to me that freedom exists only in the bravery that individuals act out in defiance of law. Our laws are not, it would seem to me, even in the main about rationality. That centuries of logic and battle have gone into them, and that their finer moments make us feel somewhat good about our ability to conquer injustice and bigotry should not blind us to the fact that most are crap and most serve devils of the most prurient virtue. I say this only to point out that you should be HONORED to have to sign such a loyalty oath because it is WORTHLESS and only has meaning when you break its imagined boundaries. For you are only as free as you are willing to break the laws that bind you to the virtues of the slaveholders. You need not turn this affront into a sublime defense of rationality to know what is wrong and know as well that you (for you are not god) will not live long enough to change the stupefying laws of those who suck at the teats of certainty. You are not on that juice now, are you?

Respectfully,

Po

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]]> By: Pragmatic Terror Systems of Discourse http://savageminds.org/2005/10/03/party-like-its-1954/comment-page-1/#comment-1721 Pragmatic Terror Systems of Discourse Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=252#comment-1721 <!--%kramer-pre%--> This is like something out of Catch-22. And scary. Party Like It's 1954 Yes, I also have an opinion about the new Supreme Court nomination. No, I'm not going to rant about it here.<!--%kramer-post--> This is like something out of Catch-22. And scary. Party Like It’s 1954 Yes, I also have an opinion about the new Supreme Court nomination. No, I’m not going to rant about it here.

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