[-empyre-] forwarding from David Byrne, and the long start of a short boodbye

[Alan Sondheim]

Simon write "Not the monied-up Republican philanthropists--of which there 
is a 'healthy' tradition in the States; not the dressing-down, the 
down-dressing, of the Democratic preference for 'direct' social action: 
but the cutting-off of the arts as a cultural prosthesis--parasitism--the 
common white man can do without, having two white legs and two white 
thumbs-up."

I'm not sure that there is a "common white man," although the phrase is 
engaging; part of the problem of course is overlooking difference which is 
a basic issue. It has to do with listening. I was going to say that for 
many evangelicals, the arts have been replaced by community/religious arts 
- but even here, which community? what religion? what arts? I think of the 
U.S. not only as two countries, but as many countries, and each of them 
having an existential project of totality...

We're very near the end of the month's pereginations - maybe a day or two 
at most. I do want to greatly thank everyone who has participated, either 
actively or by following the posts. I do recognize there are problems with 
email lists, structural problems, and for those intereted in following 
through on this, I again recommend Jon Marshall's Living on Cybermind - a 
detailed anthropological/sociological study of the Cybermind list and the 
problems that accompanied (and still accompany) its community, commons, 
and governance. There are no easy solutions, but I do believe that email 
lists have the potential for mindfulness that isn't really screen-shaped, 
and that can lead to forms of deep reflection and activism. In Rhode 
Island, there are at least two political lists that function like this, 
which is increasingly important, especially since Facebook heads more and 
more towards an overt advertising model and user formation - the Trump 
rules ending the last modicum of Net privacy, will ensure that this trend 
will only increase. Email lists have some protection against this sort of 
thing.

If anyone has parting comments, suggestions for future approaches in 
relation to Trump and the general movement towards the right in so many 
countries, please send them in now, and thank you again, so very much.

And thanks to Renate, for giving us this opportunity as well.

Alan