pecunium: (Default)
pecunium ([personal profile] pecunium) wrote2009-11-03 09:50 am

The Torture Tour Continues

I'll be speaking on the topic again, at the 4th Quit Torture Teach-In & Vigil, in Monterey.

I am the keynote speaker; Nov. 21, at the Irving Auditorium, Monterey Institute of International Studies, just down the road from DLI.

It's going to be an interesting homecoming. I've not been to Monterey in about eight years. I wonder if the St. John's Episcopal has the same pastor. I wonder if Peter will still remember when I come in for supper.

I wonder who might come down from the Presidio to see the presentation. I wonder how well I'll hold the crowd for 2 hours (and if I ought to try making a more formal presentation, instead of my usual off the cuff structuring).

I don't wonder what I intend to say. I'll be saying the same things. The problems it causes to the information stream, that any system which uses it is hopelessly corrputed, that it debases those who use it.

That the ticking bomb is a forced falsh choice; which is, like the Lernean Hydra, almost impossible to kill because it resides in the part of the psyche where lives story, and narrative. It so strongly taps into those aspects of the mind that it seems it has to work, and that we (as members of a state with a tradition rooted in liberalism, and based on the idea of the stalwart individual) are easily seduced by the implicit corrolaries to the aspects of the story which go unstated.

Everything else will be elaboration, explanation and giving a face to the abstractions which are interrogation.

If you can make it, I'd be glad to see you.

[identity profile] rednikki.livejournal.com 2009-11-04 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
Need a place to crash? I live a mile away.

[identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com 2009-11-04 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
I/we might want to take advantage of it. It really depends on whether Marna is coming into town too.

But I'd certainly like to see you. How do you feel about sardines?

[identity profile] rednikki.livejournal.com 2009-11-04 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
I'm a vegetarian, actually. But I'm happy to look at them! (Especially when they're swimming in the sardine tank at the Aquarium!)