Rogueish
Bartleby in the University of California: The Social Life of Disobedience – The New Inquiry→
05/03/13
This is not only bureaucratic obfuscation, however. In such a situation, we find ourselves confronted by a power that does not justify itself by recourse to truth, does not attempt rationalize its actions. The reverse, in fact, is the case: authority constantly and compulsively disavows its power, refusing to admit or acknowledge that it has acted. It therefore has no reason to justify itself.
The perverse result is that because no actions were taken, no accountability is possible. Chancellors will acknowledge that “mistakes were made,” but by enshrouding the decision-making process in a kind of fog of war—in which everyone is acting on imperfect information in response a time-sensitive crisis—it can be possible, even praiseworthy, for actions to take place without any agency in doing so.
Dutiful Servant of Money and Power, Niall Ferguson
08/21/12
My favorite prescription was offered by Brad DeLong:
Fire his ass. Fire his ass from Newsweek, and the Daily Beast. Convene a committee at Harvard to examine whether he has the moral character to teach at a university. There is a limit, somewhere. And Ferguson has gone beyond it.
I don’t disagree, but I think perhaps people who are affiliated with UC Berkeley (as both DeLong and me are) are required to point out that, as long as John Yoo is employed, there are evidently no limits on moral character which would disqualify a university professor.
Behavior at council meeting prevented positive discussion over Civil Sidewalks Ordinance - The Daily Californian→
07/25/12
When I made up a story that one of my good friends, a woman who has traveled the world as a solo traveler, told me she won’t go to the movies in Downtown Berkeley because of groups of young adults with dogs camped on the sidewalk, I knew I had come up with just the right bullshit to sell my regressive, repressive policies.
Tom Bates really is the worst of Berkeley, the representative of the wealthy boomers who think their liberal reputation means that anti-poor, pro-business policies are somehow not right wing.
Speaking of baton thrusts
06/09/12
This paragraph seems particularly revealing:
A number of UCPD regulations also govern the specific use of batons. As a threshold matter, “[o]nly impact weapons issued or authorized by the Department may be carried,” and published departmental regulations do not authorize the use of 36-inch straight batons, but designate the 26-inch baton as the appropriate “crowd control impact weapon.” In fact, UCPD changed from the 26-inch baton to the 36-inch baton in 2011. UCPD officers were trained for the change in early June 2011. General Order F-6 has not yet been updated to reflect this.
So we have here a clear violation of written campus policies, but the only problem the review board notices is that the policies have not yet been re-written to retroactively make this not a violation.
“The vigor of these baton thrusts is most distressing and should not be repeated” « zunguzungu→
06/09/12
It isn’t even that some people think it’s okay to do so, in other words; it’s that when some people think its fine and some people don’t, the end result is: the police will do whatever they want. If they want to grab a non-resisting protester by her hair and throw her to the ground — this time, next time, every time — they will.
The Review Board’s report opens with the strange claim that “there is no obvious standard against which to judge these actions.” This is used to introduce the notion of “campus norms,” which the report suggests involve a greater respect for free speech than legal requirements or written policies. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single point in the report where “each committee member’s own understanding and interpretation” of campus norms leads to an unambiguous criticism of the police or administration. “Campus norms,” that is, turns out to be the name of the lack of standards which allows the board to refuse to judge the administration.
Report on November 9, 2011 (PDF)→
06/07/12
Some members of the committee do not think that pulling protestors by their hair is consistent with campus norms.
It’s kind of fascinating to imagine the context and mindset in which someone would write this sentence in the middle of a bureaucratic report, without stopping and thinking, “is something wrong here?”
Fredric Jameson - Berkeley Avenali Lecture Series→
02/25/12
“The Aesthetics of Singularity”
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
6 p.m. | International House, Chevron AuditoriumFollow-up Panel Discussion with Fredric Jameson
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
12–2 p.m. | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler HallPanel Discussants: Whitney Davis (History of Art), Martin Jay (History), and Colleen Lye (English)
Moderator: Robert Kaufman (Comparative Literature)
FAO Bay Area theory people (Jameson is also going to be discussing an extract from his forthcoming book on realism on Monday).
11/20/11
After the unprovoked police assault on the pink papier-mâché dinosaur, I think Occupy Cal needs to escalate and deploy a real dinosaur to stand guard over protests. Hopefully the comrades in the division of Genetics, Genomics and Development are on that.
Philosophiae Naturalis: A Brief Update→
09/27/11
I engaged and debated for two hours. I’m sweaty and my voice is gone. To those of you who recognized me from this blog and offered their support, thank you! I learned a lot today and it seems that those who spoke with me did too. I’m just disappointed that this received as much national attention as it did, it was evident from the conversations that the BCR was completely on the defensive. I felt a little bad because most weren’t even aware of the literature or great minds that have made a career of discussing these issues. Ergo everyone that I spoke with left with book recommendations and was shown The LA Times racial diversity map as additional food for thought.
In addition, all of the people I spoke with mentioned Morgan Freeman’s statement about “forgetting race.” The BCR used this quote to validate their position which is fine but for every Morgan Freeman you have many more Cornel West’s or bell hooks or Wendy Brown’s or Manning Marable’s and yes even a Tim Wise. Morgan Freeman doesn’t speak for every one and he sure as hell doesn’t speak for me.
-a longer update will maybe show up later-
(Check thenoobyorker’s tumblr for more great coverage of this event)
Ward Connerly Joins UC Berkeley’s Republican ‘Diversity Bake Sale’ - COLORLINES→
09/27/11
The College Republicans started selling baked goods at 10am PT this morning. Their first customer was UC Berkeley Professor of Political Science Wendy Brown, who tried to buy all the baked goods but wasn’t allowed. “I thought the Republicans were free enterprise, but they won’t let me buy all the cupcakes.”
