Jim Johnson “summarizes the argument”:http://politicstheoryphotography.blogspot.com/2006/07/architecture-of-authority.html of one of his more provocative papers on the way to making some points about photography, architecture and Guantanamo.
First, I’d just like to say that this post about Leo Strauss and fascism at Balkinization is interesting. Scott Horton has translated an odd letter, written by Strauss on the occasion of his emigration under anti-semitic pressure: "the fact that the new right-wing Germany does not tolerate us says nothing against the principles of the right. To the contrary: only from the principles of the right, that is from fascist, authoritarian and imperial principles, is it possible with seemliness, that is, without resort to the ludicrous and despicable appeal to the droits imprescriptibles de l’homme to protest against the shabby abomination."
Moving right along, I just read Carl Schmitt, Political Romanticism [amazon]. And now I’m telling you I had the slightly unusual experience of coming to a work by a familiar author, on a (fairly) familiar topic, with really no strong sense whether he would be for or against.
I am here in Palo Alto at the “Center for Advanced Study”:http://www.casbs.org/, for a Summer Camp Institute, and am drowning in readings on global convergence, divergence and trajectories of global capitalism, while trying to punch above my weight with a bunch of smart people. (World Cup mixed metaphors have infected my writing: not “Not waving but drowning” but “Drowning and Punching”. Hmm.) Palo Alto is like Princeton West, only somewhat larger. Meeting my co-campers has added significantly to the list of books and articles I need to read, let alone write. For instance, there’s Len Seabrooke’s “The Social Sources of Financial Power”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801443806/ref=nosim/kieranhealysw-20, Josh Whitford’s “The New Old Economy”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0199286019/ref=nosim/kieranhealysw-20, and Monica Prasad’s “The Politics of Free Markets”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226679020/ref=nosim/kieranhealysw-20. Fortunately I have no internet access where I’m staying to distract me.
Meanwhile, “Omar Lizardo”:http://www.nd.edu/~olizardo/index.html is “blogging”:http://wordpress.com/tag/guest-bloggers/ at “OrgTheory”:http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/. Go read him. I’m on Omar’s dissertation committee so I take full credit for all the good stuff he says, including the title of this post.