REPORT FROM PARIS

Paris is cold and rainy.  Parisians are very out of sorts with the weather, calling it “October weather.”  Unfortunately, Susie and I packed for late spring and early summer, so we have been scrambling to pull out the winter clothes we have stored here.  When I took my early morning walk this morning, a model in a strapless wedding dress was leaning against the railing on the little bridge leading to Nôtre Dame on the Île de la Cité, being photographed.  She must have been frozen!

The television doesn’t work, because I need a ten digit client number and a four digit code, and the number and code I have don’t work.  Is it just me?

Yesterday, a man shot himself to death on the altar of Nôtre Dame as a political protest.  The newspapers today identify him as Dominique Venner, a 78 year old veteran of the paratroopers in the Algerian War and an intellectual of the extreme right, well-known in those circles.  Needless to say, shooting yourself on the altar of Nôtre Dame is considered a no-no even among the notoriously secular French.  This is the 850’th anniversary of the construction of the cathedral [which took well over a century to build, so I am not are how they count the years], a big tourist draw.

Every country, it seems, has its characteristic right-wing extremists.  They are alike in their belief that the world they knew is disappearing and being taken over by barbarians, although they differ in the precise way in which they think the world going to hell in a handbasket .  In France, the focal point of this sentiment is the loss of the Algerian War and the influx of North Africans, which is to say Muslims.  However, the trigger for Venner’s act of extreme protest was the new law, just now going into effect, that legalizes same-sex marriage.  Although this is now the law of the land, there is a large backlash, and this Sunday a big “manifestation,” or demonstration is planned in Paris in protest. 

I shall report on it next week.

A simple meal this evening of dorade royale [fish], leeks, and mushrooms.

 

J'ARRIVE

We are here in Paris, after an exhausting but uneventful trip, during which I read John Grisham's novel, THE BRETHREN.  He has a deliciously mordant view of the law.  Paris is cold and rainy, and apparently has been for weeks.  Sigh.

I took my long walk this morning early, in a fortunate one hour gap between rain drops.  I shall report on local developments as soon as I get settled.

a bientot.

SIGNS OF THINGS TO COME

I have now finished work on the second volume of my collected essays, although we are still awaiting some permissions from journals.   This volume will be devoted to published and unpublished essays dealing with the economic theories of Marx and the Classical Political Economists.  The centerpiece of the volume is my essay, "A Critique and Reinterpretation of Marx's Labor Theory of Value."  After I published it, two really, really smart Marxist economists, both super math whizzes, published critiques of what I had done, and in each case I responded in print.  Both of them, John Roemer and David Schweickart, have agreed to let me reprint their critiques, so the volume will feature a little debate.   I am delighted to be able to include their work, and it was also fun getting back in touch with them.  I have learned a great deal from both of them.

Tomorrow, Susie and I fly off to Paris for six weeks, where I shall again be blogging about such arcane subjects as the proper recipe for boeuf bourguignonne.  It will be a relief to flee from the screwed-up problems of this country and spend six weeks reading about the screwed-up problems of someone else's country.  While I am in Paris, I hope to tackle volumes three [Political Theory and Practical Politics] and four [my tutorials, mini-tutorials, micro-tutorials, and appreciations.]

DISMAY

For the past ten days, I have been deeply involved in preparing a series of volumes of my collected papers for e-publication, while also taking care of an endless series of chores attendant upon getting ready for a six week trip to Paris.  But it has been impossible to ignore the appalling incompetence of the Obama White House response to the series of flaps and genuine scandals that have broken over its walls like a tsunami.  The Benghazi matter is no scandal at all, and the attempts by the Republicans to blacken Hillary Clinton's name three and a half years before she obliterates them in the 2016 presidential election will fail.  But the political slant of the IRS investigations of 501(c)(4) applications and the sweeping searches of the phone records of AP reporters are genuine scandals, violating the most fundamental constitutional protections.  Neither of them is exactly surprising, of course.  The Federal Government has been using its power to intimidate, harass, investigate, and prosecute citizens for their legitimate political actions since roughly forever.  The only oddity in the current IRS misbehavior is that, uncharacteristically, it has apparently been directed against those on the right rather than against those on the left.

In the face of these matters, the White House, which is to say the president, has been so feckless and ineffective as to be guilty of genuine malpractice.  All of this I find utterly incomprehensible.  Obama twice ran the best presidential political campaigns of modern times, exhibiting a level of efficiency, intelligence, and ruthless concentration that was truly unprecedented.  How the very same man can manage to handle routine political flaps so badly is a mystery to me.

SOCIAL NOTES FROM THE GALAXY

I do not customarily attend to the news from the social pages, but certain events simply demand that notice be taken.  I have just learned that Captain Picard of the Enterprise will be married, and the ceremony will be presided over by Gandalf.  The reports did not indicate whether Counselor Troi would offer prenuptial advice, or whether Frodo would be the ring bearer.

Those who are sticklers for the literary formalities will of course protest that Captain Picard and Gandalf inhabit two entirely different fictional worlds, and can therefore no more meet than can Phineas Fogg and Sherlock Holmes, or Samuel Pickwick and the aging Elizabeth Bennett.  But it really is true, apparently, that Patrick Stewart will marry his long time partner, and Ian McKellan will officiate.  One of the charming quirks of Massachusetts is that anybody can preside over a marriage, just once, simply by applying for permission -- no clerical collar required.  I know because one of my sons did precisely that.

These are dark days for those of a progressive bent, and I think we need any little emotional lift we can come by.  I for one will lift a glass in silent toast to the happy couple this evening.

PROGRESS

Today, I finished proofreading Volume I of my collected papers.  This volume contains my writings on Hume and Kant and on higher education, including education i South Africa.  It will be available on Amazon as soon as we get the permissions, which as usual are slow in coming.

Tomorrow, I will start Volume II, my writings on Marx and Classical Political Economy.

The volume containing the Use and Abuse of Formal Methods in Political Economy, and a series of applications, is done but is awaiting a cover.

All in all, there will be six volumes of material, including my Memoir, some of it never before seen by anyone but me.

This is a very large project, but I rather suspect it may be completed by the end of the summer.  Then I will have to find something to occupy myself with.

Any suggestions?

CATCHING UP

I have been so deeply involved in preparing the first volume of my collected papers for e-publication that I have been neglecting this blog.  [I am now proof-reading the final version of volume I, and when all the permissions are in and a cover is produced, it will go up on Amazon.]  I will simply note with sadness that Mark Sanford won his by-election.  Oh well.  It was a good try.  As for the simply incredible story of the escape and rescue of three women held captive for ten years, there is obviously nothing I can add to the breathless rapportage of the cable news commentators.

On a very much more serious note, the escalation of calls for American military intervention in Syria frightens me, but it scarcely surprises me.  There is no question that the slaughter under way in that country is appalling, but to my uninformed eye, there is no plausible intervention that would have any hope of success, however one defines that.  Too many powerful and influential people in this country are eager for us to go to war anywhere, at any time, for any purpose whatsoever.

Since I am by nature a cheerful soul, my attention naturally turns to the most delightful conspiracy fantasy conjured up by the loonies of the right in quite some time.  I refer to the theory, now being urged on the floor of the Senate and the House, that the U. S. government is deliberately buying up all the bullets in America in order to deprive gun owners of the ammunition they need for their constitutionally protected guns.  This really is precious.  Can it possibly be an advertising ploy by the ammunition manufacturers?  Perhaps, but that would introduce far more rationality into the story than it deserves or can support.

I leave for Paris in ten days, and advance reports from that lovely city indicate that my sunny hopes for the new Socialist government of Francsois Hollande have already been dashed.  Intellectual honesty compels me to acknowledge that in many respects this really is an awful world.  Sigh.  At least there is a new Tom cruise/Morgan Freeman action movie.  Maybe I should try that.