Ooooohhhh the wretchedness, the indignity...OH! Hello, I didn't see you come in. Welcome back to the blog o' gentle reader, we have much missed you. You caught me reminiscing on my weekend, it's base venality, the general submission to my lesser angels. It seems impossible, but I find myself
again surprised at the endless reservoirs of indecency housed within our species. In summary: don't go to the Meatpacking District on a Saturday night. There, there be dragons.
Anyways, I'm posting today a page from the second issue of
EGO's, my comic project with Stuart Moore. You'll be seeing it places sometime in the distant future, but that is all I may say on
that. As a lil' baby bonus, let me direct you to two pieces of recent culture that made on me a very lasting impression:
The first is a Fresh Air interview with the prominent Criminologist Adrian Raine. He's got a new must-read book out,
Anatomy of Violence, wherein he studies the catholicity of contributing factors forming the criminal brain. Let me tell you, this interview is a thing of power. Raine discusses at length his profound ambivalence when heading up a field of criminal apologism, terrified as he is fascinated by the implications of pathologizing acts of horror and violence.
Living as we do in a time of "passing the psychological buck", these questions have never seemed more essential. Less and less we are to blame for our own indiscretions, but where is the line drawn? When does the victim of abuse, brain-chemistry, even lead poising become autonomous of terrible context? When do we pass from victim to predator? It's the goddamned Predestination vs Free Will debacle all over again, we can never seem to shake this guy. Such complex issues abound and it's super refreshing to hear that someone, particularly someone of Raine's distinction, is as mixed up about it as we are. It's honest, moving, even a little funny. So, so good.
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Fresh Air Adrian Raine
The second, and this one is really important, is an interview with the intrepid reporter Jeremy Sachill on his new book/documentary
Dirty Wars. His last work covered the U.S.'s utilization of the zealot mercenaries Blackwater during the Iraq War. Whooboy, that was dark one, and
Dirty Wars sounds even better (if that's the appropriate adjective). It's about Obama's bloody campaign of Drone warfare, the truth behind so-called "targeted killings", the realities of the new, "cleaner" way of waging war. We learn,
surprisingly, it's anything but. Let me say the interview alone is revelatory in the extreme. Seriously, it's a big deal.
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Democracy Now! Jeremy Scahill
Good listening people, be well.
