Debate, etc.

Liveblog:

Currently talking to Price about a secret!

Yesterday we had a very nice little show. Thank you Brian and Peter. Brian was great as expected. I didn't know what to expect from Peter but I thought he was pretty fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed both sets.

Today is slow and lazy. We watched the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. it was good, except the ugly wasn't really that ugly, which is too bad.

It's cold out.

***

I would like to add a thought about the gun control debate: If we think about soveriegnty, in a democracy, the sovereign power is supposed to rest in the people through their elected representatives. Unfortunately, the truth is that soveriegnty actually rests in the hands of the police, who (in how they choose to enforce or not enforce certain laws) actually are the sovereign force in our society. In any given situation, the non-elected and essentially autonomous organization of the police creates and enforces the law. So, in theory, the reason to allow citizens to have guns is in order to create a genuinely democratic form of sovereignty. As a counterbalance to the force of the police, one could argue, we would be better served if we had an armed population.

However, in terms of the argument earlier advanced on these pages, Price is absolutely correct. The 2nd amendment is absurd as a protection against any kind of army and the last thing this country needs is an uptick in militias. The right to bear arms is one of the remaining relics of a liberalism (in the technical sense) doubting itself. In so far as this doubt is all the more important in the age of late capitalism, it's sad to see that the internalized self-doubt guaranteed by the amendment might be lost.

And yet, even as a safeguard against liberalism, the 2nd amendment is outdated. Guns are defended not out of a distrust of the goverment but out of a distrust of the poor-- (self-defense against thieves and like). Right now we must advance a serious structural critique of the system that produces radical inequality rather than hold onto antiquated and defensive measures.

***

Also, in the world of sports, Hawaii is the only team in major college football that is undefeated and yet they are not going to have an opportunity to play for the national championship. Instead, a 2-loss team (probably LSU) is going to play a thoroughly mediocre Ohio State team. Talk about injustice.

-ben