Stop Para-Transpo Booking Policy Changes; Fight for Equal Access to Transit for All

Saturday, September 4, 2015

To whom it may concern:

            First, I would like to express my satisfaction with and gratitude for Para- Transpo. Despite its problems, I am a very satisfied customer. I recognize and appreciate everything every member of the team does to get me where I need to go, and I can honestly say that it is my favourite thing about living in Ottawa. Notwithstanding my praises, I am writing to express concerns in the matter of proposed changes to transit service delivery. There seems to be much confusion and rumour regarding what proposed changes are being considered and the extent to which this may or may not affect regular users. I was grateful to have the opportunity to fill out the customer survey, thanks to the accessibility measures that its designers provided; and it appears as though management is considering a variety of options. I, therefore, being a satisfied customer of goodwill, invite the reader of this letter to consider the following in any just deliberation about changes to the service.

            I am a person with quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy. This means that, among other things, I use a power-wheelchair and have difficulty navigating around the city, owing to an impaired sense of direction. Though I am physically able to take conventional transit (weather permitting), I choose not to because I am unable to secure my wheelchair with the safety belt independently, and bus drivers refused to help me with this task owing to time constraints. Were I to take the bus, therefore, it would not only be dangerous for me, it would also be dangerous for other passengers. In fact, one of the reasons I stopped taking conventional transit is that gravitational force propelled me across the bus several times, even though in all other respects I am properly positioned.

            I moved to Ottawa and have stayed here, against the betterment of my career, on account of is its undeniable accessibility. Though there is much work to be done, Ottawa is a world leader. Alternate forms of transportation are an essential part of that leadership role. I am 25 years old, and I use transit like any other 25-year-old would, regardless of ability. I visit friends; I go to bars; I work, I volunteer; I go to appointments; I attend religious services; and, most importantly for me, I attend school and participate in extracurricular activities. In short, as for anyone else, access to transportation is a crucial tool for the achievement of actualized personhood and participation in society as an equal citizen before the law. Indeed, the reason we have alternate forms of transportation is because courageous persons refused to accept inequality in the provision of public service. And this story is analogous to the example of Rosa Parks, who realized that discrimination in transit directed against African-Americans was not acceptable. Though ability equality requires more effort, in the sense of conscientious governmental action, it is no less laudable or legally mandated. The courts have consistently maintained a commitment to substantive equality in the area of disability rights; and this means that justice should outweigh costs to redress systemic inequality. Second-class citizenship on transportation should not be permitted, even in times of economic hardship. If society were to do this, we would run the risk of trivializing fundamental democratic principles for transitory monetary benefit.

            It is because of my commitment to such values that I am currently pursuing a doctorate, after which I desire to attend law school. To do this effectively I usually reserve a day in advance. It is not always possible to anticipate when I will have to travel to campus in order to attend a meeting and/or execute many of the other functions incumbent upon me as a teaching assistant and the researcher. Hence, any extension of the booking practice from its current form would severely impact my ability to do my job. It would also constitute a disproportionate burden anathema to the original intention of paratransit, which was the emancipation of the disabled.

            While I recognize that the service has grown and many people have difficulty accessing it; and I also recognize that I am just one person, my story is not wholly unique. It is no doubt important to prioritize medical appointments, and I recognize that every one of my desired leisure activities may not be accommodated for the sake of others. But surely a meaningful life such as I want to live, and, with hard work, am entitled to live, encompasses more than medical appointments. I am not a person defined by his physical challenges alone. I have goals which I need help to achieve. If liberalism promises me something to the effect of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” then five-day in-advance bookings or an overly stringent hierarchy of priority could impede this considerably. It is difficult enough to get a booking as it is, even when one has the privilege of calling at seven a.m. A system of advance bookings will likely make it impossible for anyone who requires a small measure of flexibility in scheduling to use the service, which already requires considerable patience and affability of clients in the face of unpredictability

            In a just society there would be greater money for alternate transit; unfortunately, we do not live there. Granting this fact, instead of changing booking policy, there should be greater restrictions placed on those eligible for paratransit, greater efforts to make conventional transit more accessible and an assessment of wages for drivers. It’s not a stretch of imagination to infer that the greater power of the driver’s union has meant the decline in unionized labour being employed by the city. My opinions are liable to accusations of self-interest. Here are, therefore, four reasons why I believe that they are philosophically defensible. In truth, I have no other choice but to take alternate transit, both because of neglectful snow removal practices and refusal of assistance on the part of conventional transit bus drivers. Conversely, some, though not most, riders may have a choice. Second, I am still in the prime of life, and, as such, I bear other responsibilities and aspirations. Many other users have had the enjoyment of regular transit and a regular life for decades, whereas this is my reality now and will continue to be in the future. Third, greater restrictions on alternate transit of whatever sort will inevitably lead to greater difficulty finding and keeping fruitful employment. We should be moving toward the goal of further participation, but what I hear of proposed changes will only mark a further retreat from that goal. Fourth, it is unjust to make either the disabled or the elderly bear the brunt of economic austerity or union politics. We bear enough social injustice as is: our lives do not require any more difficulties. Why should the disabled and the elderly experience these hardships, with ever-increasing transit expansion? There is no equity in that state of affairs.

            Doubtless, many will say that the needs of the many outweigh those of the few, but such utilitarian arguments are far less palatable when one is a member of the few asked to sacrifice his hard-won, and I hope someday to demonstrate by my betterment of society, properly exercised independence, liberty and equality before the law. As the reader deliberates about change in this sensitive topic, I humbly ask her/him to consider my story and arguments. Every time persons have sacrificed justice for expediency, they have been remembered with sadness and derision. The legacy of disabled people has been one of injustice with constant setbacks, in which able-bodied people and persons with disabilities alike have become apathetic to inequality. I hope my reader as he/she deliberates will be on the side of justice rather than apathy. Justice is everyone’s hope for the best life possible. Regardless of ability, it is everyone’s due. Booking restrictions of too stringent a kind are unjust; ergo, management should not pursue them, instead seeking other avenues for economizing  service

Sincerely,

ΚονῶρΣτῆλε

Connor Steele

Liberalism and the logical suicide of anti-euthanasia politics: a response to Taylor Hiatt

taylor cbc interview

I write to you, as the catechism advises me I ought, as a nonbeliever of goodwill, who is more than willing to engage with those who believe on questions related to the truth and public policy. With great respect for your gentle personality, daring, charm, authenticity and achievement, I am writing to expound you to my position on why abortion and euthanasia are to remain and be made legal, respectively. As the feeble rhetorician, and in the even more bamboozled and bamboozling logician, I would not presume to think I have any chance of persuading a woman of your wit and tenacity with my meager skill. Yet, this was, I think a good exercise, since it has exposed more sharply the points of difference that make our conversations interesting, as well as galvanizing my convictions considerably. I, therefore, bag you to indulge me, particularly at the points where — à la Socrates — my love of the truth is perhaps placed too far above the courtesies dictated by friendship and admiration :-)

We live in a pluralistic society, and if you are as committed to that, in theory and in practice, as I am, then you ought to recognize that the only basis for a criminal law ought to be a form of negative utilitarianism. That is, that is we ought to reduce as much harm as possible. In the famous phrase, my liberty ceases when my fist hits your face. Believe me, as I sure you know, it’s hard enough to get persons, who are far more emotional than rational, to agree on this basic principle, but it’s our best shot at creating a stable society, in the current pluralist context. For, as Isaiah Berlin points out, some values really are incommensurable and moral decisions really do imply moral loss. Any tradition of natural law, allegedly written on the human heart, from the beginning of creation, comes from a historically conditioned setting with intrinsic propositions, which not all cultures share.

Sure, from the perspective of 3000 feet, I’m sure that human values may share similar characteristics, but universal must we make this natural law, before it loses all meaning. In addition, the tradition of natural law has lost much credibility, because it’s so heavily indebted to ideologies of gender, power, class, race, and ability relations, which we, as marginalized persons must not and cannot accept. Consider, for a moment, how much monstrosity figures in the theology of St. Augustine/the New Testament and the negative consequences for persons with disabilities, racialized groups, LGBT people etc. I’m sure we can debate the meanings of these terms within the Western tradition, but the fact is, an increasing number of Canadians, come from different heritages altogether, though they may have been affected by our colonial dominance. This being the case, the foundation for law cannot be religious, unless coincidentally religious precepts benefit public utility. Only then can we have what liberal theory calls “overlapping consensus”. This is not to say that citizens cannot or should not disagree about ethical questions strongly and/or publicly. Indeed, this is the foundation of healthy deliberative democracy. Nor am I saying that persons are not entitled to have religious views, but theology, so long as I live and breathe, shall not serve as the basis for Canadian legislation.

The liberal state can promote values through education, insofar this campaign would reduce specific unsolicited harm toward individual from another human being; or this may apply to can apply to himself, insofar as it is presumed that being a more rational way they would want better for himself. This is the principle Volenti non fit injuria, especially clear in criminal law especially in the case of crime, in which punishment ought to be justified in terms of public utility. The state, with restrictions, may act in the place of a guardian, if the individual has forfeited her right to be considered as a fully rational agent by harming other person, and if her punishment is necessary to prevent further harm. Not every question of moral importance, however, is under the purview of law.

 Undoubtedly, while we ought to eat, how we ought to spend our money, and who we ought to sleep with are very important moral questions, but as Henry David Thoreau says, “law never made man a wit more just”. The best we can do it try doing sure that person have the right to pursue their goals in a way that is not harmful to other persons, even when we might disagree with them strongly. If we were to impose by law a common opinion expressed in law that provided little room for disagreement, on issues of bioethics for example, in which there are many different factors considered for making an ethical judgment, we would run the risk of imposing what is called “a tyranny of the majority”. History has shown that visitors perhaps one of the worst power arrangement for humankind’s intellectual and moral development. It is for this reason that Queen Elizabeth I was right “not to make windows into the souls men”. This is the job of the prelate not a politician, for those responsible for salvation not government administration.

Liberal theory is inseparable from liberal economics. A person’s primary possession is his body, and he therewith has the right to to dispose thereof as he sees fit, as well as the capital he may accrue through labor, so long as he does not injure his fellows, either through direct omission or commission of (potentially) malevolent actions. Liberal theory, therefore, has at its core the rejection of Christian teleology, born of Aristotelian metaphysics, particularly Thomas Aquinas’ theories about law and property ownership. For Aquinas, all law should work toward the common good (human flourishing which has the highest fulfillment in worship of God). Because of their belief human beings do not have the absolute rights over property, least of all their own bodies, because they merely rent what they use from God, who, as the supreme ruler of the universe, has dominion over everything. (See also John Locke’s argument again suicide). It is for this same reason that Augustine has such a problem with suicide; for it constitutes murder and theft. By destroying yourself, you destroy something that you do not own — you are alienated from yourself insofar as you are alternately subject to God. I refused to accept a theology in which human beings are properly or slaves.

 While this may be true for Christian, Jews Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, as well as some Hindus and while they may be the opinion of the majority, this does not mean that their position is based on logical argumentation, and/or empirical evidence. The prevalence of an opinion is no guarantee of its validity. What factual evidence can we use in public policy, in order to determine that the universe is in such a hierarchical and harmonious relationship, with God running the show? Empirical observation would seem to suggest the opposite! Moreover, if one examines how we conduct politics, with a few glaring exceptions, things have gotten, as theology has become an irritating backseat driver in political deliberation. We cannot accept the metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas, and his subsequent political theology, because it is not demonstrable from our experience (see David Hume an Inquiry concerning Human Understanding).

We must — you say — then have recourse to the categorical imperative: “act, such that you can will your action become a universal law”. But this again does not hold. Setting aside for a moment problem with end debate within Kantian ethics, remember that my argument is not that euthanasia is moral; rather my burden of proof is merely to show that in on the legally permissible. Undoubtedly impracticability of the society in which legislators tried to enforce the Kantian imperative; Kant himself knew that this was an impossible task for the legislator.

What is also comes down to is the very important issue of “freedom of the person” under the charter and the right of freedom of conscience. If we imagine “an original position” in which disinterested parties are deliberating about the makeup of their future society, I don’t think I’m in partial spectator, as difficult as this is to imagine, a situation in which a person — without theological bias — were content to a possible scenario where he might be compelled to suffer indefinitely, in order to be the discomfort of other people. If John Rawls is correct in suggesting that an ideal state of things is one in which are actual legislation and the “as if” construction of the original position reach a kind of “reflective equilibrium” in which there is a balance between the two positions, it would seem to me our current legislation is not just. It prevents free exercise of autonomy, in many cases promoting unnecessary suffering, and this is born of a false correlation between assisted suicide and the state of disabled people.

 This, by the way, is not supported in countries that have assisted suicide. In fact, it has been shown to alleviate anxiety about disability and illness, and to be an option taken by very few. If, because we are liberal country, suicide itself is not illegal under the criminal code, to not allow persons who require assistance to end their lives to procure assistance it amounts to disability discrimination, prohibited by the charter and other documents. If the attendant model is to work properly, persons with disabilities must be able to procure services, allowing them to execute practices meaningful to their lives, otherwise we run the risk of letting religious and/or moral scruples of the able-bodied restrict our personal liberty. Are the disabled to stop masturbating, lest, for example, dealing with its consequences be offensive to attendants. Heaven forbid we practice BDSM!

The whole “disabled people need protection from the able-bodied majority, in case they kill us for being different discourse” is the wrong way to go about things. By saying over and over again that our lives have meaning, we are, in fact, begging the walking man to affirm that they do, rather than acting as though they do, or ignoring the preposterous notion that they don’t. By resisting assisted suicide from this perspective, we get into the ideological discourse of Jesus’ injured sheep who can serve as objects have compassion and moral exemplars for the rest of humanity that I find absolutely nauseating and tiresome. I have better things to do with my time than provide “the walking man” with the fetish for his narcissistic fantasy of pity and redemption.

No one should have to be an uncle Tom for the walking man, and I think the movement would be better off taking inspiration from Malcolm X rather than the Bible. This is could be one way in which a person if she so chooses, could enact the agency over her own body, liberating it from the oppressor “by any means necessary. My ongoing problem with your anti-euthanasia & antiabortion politics is, therefore, the following: while you are without question, a very admirable person and a competent disability rights advocate, your politics, at least in this respect, seem antithetical to disability liberation. Insofar as you systematically seek legal sanctions which would restrict persons’ abilities to exercise freedoms over their own bodies, are you not seeking to handicap people through the legal system; and, furthermore, does this not contradict the express aim of disability politics. You will rightly point out of course that this is because there are theological, and consequently, higher order values at stake. But then this raises the broader question of whether full liberation can be had within the context of “walking man’s religions”? And to that question I may respond that an analogous situation to Malcolm X, when disillusioned as he was with the “white man’s religions”, he joined the Nation of Islam.

But surely, you will now tell me, you are not making a theological argument, and this is not about religion, I am simply protecting “life”. Clearly, everyone can get on board with endorsing a concept so innocuous and positive? Well, simply put, no. The only reason you make the very fact of existence sacrosanct comes from theology, and it has more frightening implications then you realize. There is more to life than simple existence, and to compel someone to live, who does not want to, and is in pain — purely on the basis of one’s own theological scruples — amounts to sadistic and sanctimonious cruelty. You may say that life is meaningful because every person shares the image of God, but this is the presupposition I do not share, even if you desire to to give it transhistorical & transcultural validity. I’m not denying you have the right to persuade a person not to end her life, I’m not even saying you don’t have the right to protest how disabled people are treated in a contemporary culture vis-à-vis euthanasia and abortion; you, however, don’t not have the right to enforce your personal view by law. It is condemnable! It is the same logic that prevented attempted to prevent sodomy for hundreds of years, and it is the same logic that attempts to prevent women from wearing whatever the hell they want in public today, whether they have particular cultural traditions or not. If given the choice between liberty or death, I would choose death.

You protest again: it is never a rational to choose death, so the state is acting appropriately, when it prevents an individual from committing suicide, since no rational person would choose death over life, but this argument is so obviously absurd, it’s almost not worth refuting! I will do it anyway. If it were true, there would be no legitimate reason to go to war, since human beings under bad conditions would have no reason to risk their lives. All forms of life would be preferable. There would be no there would be no need to have virtues, because there would be no qualitative differences between types of lies live. This is the absolute paradox of crypto-Christian pro-life and anti-euthanasia politics. On the one hand, you endeavor to protect bare life as such, while on the other, Christianity has at its core of the tradition of bastardized virtue ethics based on the myth of martyrdom, which clearly implies a separation between living well and existence as such. I don’t understand. Perhaps just a paradox?

If I were Christian, or, perhaps better, when I was Christian, I would have found it an extreme insult to my personal dignity, if anything communist regime took over Canada and forcefully to deny Jesus at gunpoint. Expecting to be martyred upon my refusal, instead, they locked me in a mental institution and put me on all kinds of drugs, until I learned to comply. I ask you, which of these scenarios is more totalitarian? And yet, it does not the same logic apply? Surely, there is equal, if not more, evidence for preferring death to life, in some circumstances, than subscribing to the doctrinal claims of the Catholic Church, some of whose teaching is mysterious by definition. By using this example is clear that in certain cases a person can determine her life is not worth living, to her, at least, any more, if we also accept that it is perfectly rational, at least in some circumstances, for a person to sacrifice his life, based on the truth claims of Christianity, or any number of causes, which might not have nearly as much intersubjective validity, if one were to ask an impartial spectator..

           
No doubt, we can agree that the disabled need extra care to live meaningful lives. Moreover, we can agree that the contemporary response to disability-impairment is most unjust, and the fear of becoming disabled and/or ill is caused by inadequate healthcare and an ideology of health and youth, which are both caused by consumerism, and a general term toward narcissistic personality disorder. We can also agree that there needs to be extraordinarily better palliative care, and that we could have the resources to achieve it. By no means should a disabled person or any other person feel that her should or must end her life. Given the level of opulence we have achieved, this state of affairs is simply unacceptable, but if she has a desire to do so, it is not your place to stop her. Nor is it anyone else’s. By trying to stop euthanasia, or whatever you want to call it, you are not defending the rights of disabled people; you are taking away an opportunity for those who want to make choices. Even if they may be disagreeable, cowardly, or, in the case is Steven Fletcher, poorly argued and blatantly discriminatory towards people with intellectual disabilities, and, thereby, disgusting. It’s true that decision is not reversible, but so are many surgical procedures, many of the more complicated varieties of which have higher mortality rates then we realize. People do crazy things, when they want to live meaningful lives, and the great thing about life is yours the only one that gets to write your story.

To be clear, Taylor, you are fantastic person, and I commend you for being politically active. Your commitment to the truth is exemplary. And I truly have tried to be, as the catechism says, a nonbeliever of goodwill , always ready to engage in dialogue. I have no absolute answers; I only have suppositions with varying degrees of probability. Catholicism is a beautiful ideological system and the aesthetic consequences of Christendom, for me at least, are unparalleled. Human beings can believe whatever they want, and even tried to persuade others of what they believe and why they believe it. Otherwise, human existence would be rather boring. I will you been conceded that there is more of an ethical argument to be had over abortion, but you can’t use religion to force another person what to do  what you want with his body, if it does not affect you directly, and that is what you’re doing when you actively try to prevent euthanasia.

 Moreover, think it somewhat problematic that first, at least on Facebook, you get near universal positive feedback because no one takes the time or is too scared to disagree with you. And, understandably, most of your friends, as is natural, share your views. Second, having and disability, as such, does not give you extra credibility on issues and ethics, at least I have some formal training in ethics and political theory. Third, these are not disability issues in themselves, and furthermore, there are much more complex versions than the ones you and, Steven Fletcher would suggest within the disability community, if that means anything. Fourth, your portrayal of able-bodied normativity was extreme even for me, who disability politics are quite far to the left. We will never get ambulatory persons on our side with such invective. Last but not least, while you spread fears of a resurgent Holocaust (by the way, kudos on your “everything culminates in Hitler argument”; that is always very rhetorically effective), it is almost impossible to find a washroom that is adequately accessible, the vast majority of disabled people living absolute poverty, access to services dwindle constantly, and hate crime are on the rise. So congratulations on the effort, but without reason your rhetoric will become “a whirl of sound and fury signifying nothing”.

Sheep or Wolf: Natural Law and the Latest Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

I am ashamed by Canada's stands on the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and call on everyone to lobby for a better Canada and a more peaceful world!

This is not about being pro-Israel are pro-Palestine. I've always maintained the right for an independent Jewish nation, but the Palestinians also have a right to self-determination. This kind of "two sides to every story" relativism is by far the worst cultural consequence of the Enlightenment: the authentic end of this relativism is Heidegger's endorsement of national socialism. We must make ethical decisions based on some concept of natural law, which preserves the priority of intersubjective reason and human dignity. There are ethical decisions, whose validity, not only relies on contextual realities and will, but also comes from apodictic reasoning. No one with a conscience can condone the indiscriminate use of force against civilians, which violates numerous sections of the Geneva Convention. No one can condone unjust imprisonment for personal gain, or retribution which does not match the offense. This violates the form of international jurisprudence in effect since the Middle Ages.

The failure of some, particularly on the left, to approach this crisis wisely is symptomatic of our inability to articulate moral questions with inappropriate language. Alastair McIntyre likened this to this situation of flowers for Algernon, in which the characters only have bits of science but not a coherent system. Without this language, it is impossible to conduct science. Without an analogous language, it is impossible to conduct ethics. Thankfully, we have such a language, articulated  by those who worked on the universal declaration of human rights. It is time we use that language in righteous condemnation of Israeli actions.

 The international community should not and must not be a war of all against all!  By such actions, Israel forfeits the friendship of the international community and proves itself to be willfully defiant of both positive and natural law, and it is worthy of the strongest censure. I am not pro-Israel. I am by no means pro-Palestine; I do, however, decry detestable offenses to human dignity, which harm perpetrator and subject alike. Punishment , as such, looks to the moral good of the person being punished. This is pure vengeance and Israel has no claims to moral superiority or legitimacy, nor does anyone who supports it. Coincidentally, it violates the norms of rabbinic law. I implore my well-meaning "postmodern" colleagues: Rfject relativism and denounce murderess tyranny. I ask those on the left, to put aside deconstruction and the ethics of the inaccessible other for just a little while, and to consider that in this case, Aristotelian-Thomism may be the better option. Who is more revolutionary, someone who defends the weak or someone who beats on the starving for personal gain? History has given the answer. Be revolutionary! Fight for ethics; be constructive not deconstructive!

Interpolating desire

I

Excuse me, I say, repeatedly

(how presumptuous to call you out like that)!

You turn, aborted from your womb.

I can’t see and I can’t find my glasses;

I can’t hear and I can’t find headphones…

can you help me… No?

You’re too busy… Texting.

I cannot find my life either;

not to mention my death.

Have you found yours?

I’m authentically unexamined.

I’m a virtual nowhere man.

You like the Beatles?

Everyone is supposed to respect what they did,

but who honestly does?

Truth be told, I’m an aesthetic heretic.

Are you going to burn me?

It is important to be earnest .

Can I be with you?

Can I even call you… To action?

(What is that these days: can you Google it for me?)

 Or am I being like a telemarketer… Worse?

This isn’t the usual time for a call!

(You don’t have to tell me twice!)

‘cause there will be no enjoyment;

That’s the one thing I can promise.

These are untimely meditations…

 II

…I know: there are so many things I don’t know

am I philosophic?… Ingenious?… Average?… Crazy?

I’m sure I have a disorder — I hope it is a new one…

maybe I have syphilis… Profound people used to have that.   

 I’m not profound, and don’t get laid enough anymore

what do you think… Do I look intellectual?

I watch TED Talks? I support all the causes.

I love the Other… and I will love her difference,

(by my last statement I  acknowledge feminism)

as soon as I know what difference is.

 These are questions we can defer!

My ideas are, indeed, worth spreading,

even if you don’t think so…

You’re always unsatisfied…

What do you want from me?

 I’m only ideological!

You could have refused;

I didn’t make you turn, around!.

hopefully?      

III

Silent? And you look so amiable!

And you’re hot too.…

 Damn… And I’m not that bad looking?

We could have fucked, once , twice… Three times?

I’m just lying to you and myself;

we probably would have humiliated each other,

and maybe we would have both gotten off,

but fortune controls half of what we do,

and she is a woman, so who knows.

I would have tried to make sure you enjoyed it.

(I think I know what I’m doing…

 You would have told me otherwise?)

I may have even slept with you,

I get very warm though, and I kick…

And I get up early in the morning.

(Oh the dreaded morning!)

I could’ve made you fried eggs and toast,

and I could’ve given them a smile of a child.

It  would’ve been like the movies,

except with all the parts you don’t see —

a virtual encounter more real than the dreams we live,

sleeping together in the world day to day.

We could have made it a more permanent thing,

keeping it casual , of course.

I mean if it developed into something else…

I guess I would be all right with that

but I’m just super busy …

So I thought maybe…

No. You’re not the one.

After I had so much investment!

We were going to be Facebook friends (with benefits?)

I’m sure we know some of the same people,

I think I’ve seen you before?

Have you seen me?

IV

It’s a shame really; absolutely tiresome.

I had plans; we were going to network.

Love at first use…

Is it me? Am I less than nothing?

Are you the void?

Can we create a harmonious antithesis?

Is anybody anything anymore?

What is a man? What is a woman? What is a thing?

You still don’t want to define them together?

Have courage to experience perversion virtually.

Are you : a symptom? A fetish? A commodity?

Or am I experiencing commodity fetishism?

Don’t you know it’s Valentine’s Day?

Fine ! I will sit by myself.

 My mood is black, apparently,

like the coffee we steal from poor children,

in order to save them from poverty.

I guess narcissism really is idle talk.

I drink my opaque coffee, in our evening land.

Looking at our digital image in a Styrofoam cup.

Together we make a reflection beyond binary.

I have doubts, naturally, you have yours too,

because fantasies are the real shit of life.

But, of course YOLO! And so I am alive. For now.

Happy Mother's Day; or the best philosopher!

The best philosopher I know

So it’s Mother’s Day. And I thought I would explain why my mother is the best philosopher I know, but I hope my readers will permit me an important excursus, which will shed light, I hope, on the principle argument

.

Yesterday, I had the misfortune to learn that several of the older residents of the apartment building in which I live, who also have disabilities, grew up in institutions. As a disabled person who is very young, one hears of institutions, but one cannot imagine them. For better or worse, right or wrong, they are socially constructed, though with considerable evidence, as horrible instances of oppression, injustice and abuse. To me, they have always been the unspeakable nightmare — the ineffable yet ever present perdition, against which I have been, albeit with considerable help, crafting the salvation of a' ‘normal' life’. Though I knew of'' institutions' as some perverse and daemonic Platonic form of social discrimination, the notion that someone I knew, however remotely, could have been subjected to that, in the far too recent past, made me nothing short of physically ill. I cannot presume to imagine the full extent of   this experience, but I imagined being African-American and seeing a museum exhibit of that odious trade which  is a salutary scourge for anyone tacitly or explicitly espousing the moral superiority of the' benevolent white race'. I imagined those shackles rubbing my joints raw, the hot sun burning my flesh, as though I actually were the raw meat people treated me like, and the poison of the whip's teeth that ripped my back to shreds, as well as renting my self-respect into countless miniscule pieces.

As fanciful or, indeed, disrespectful such similes may seem to some, metaphors often have an uncomfortable truth. It is a monstrously ironic fact that those institutionalized for the alleged  reason that they could not contribute to the labor market, often engaged in slave labor within the context of institutionalized life; and in many cases, they provided exemplary, though fetishized and exotic, case studies for the evolving logic of capitalism. And this was, of course, in a time when the barbarity of slavery had long since been abolished, while politicians and social engineers sang the siren call of enlightenment. At the same time persons of color, women and gay people were gaining long-overdue rights, many disabled people were unnecessarily confined to institutions against their will. Regrettably, many still are, or many live in conditions far worse, even in self-proclaimed progressive and multicultural societies.

I expressed repugnance to an older disabled person, against cowardly parents who opted for institutionalization. She, fortunately, was not raised in an institution because of her courageous parents, who chose not to surrender her to the care of the state. She advised me not to judge. “That’s just what was done”, she said, “and the great majority of people thought they were doing a kindness”, by abandoning and renouncing their children. How could they have the knowledge required to raise a child with a disability? Who would want or deserve such a burden? This task requires state efforts and expert knowledges.

While I'm not denying the difficulty of making decisions regarding your child's future or the power of social coercion, there are right decisions and there are wrong ones. She compared it to the south, and said that the vast majority of people supported slavery, as the morally justified discourse & practice. Without an arrogant overestimation of my moral judgment, I would consider my life not worth living, if I relented, for one instant, on being an abolitionist, and my entire life has been about trying to stay just ever so slightly ahead of the warm winds of change and peace. The Good and the Right must be the final arbiters of history, otherwise humanity becomes, not the goal of philosophers, but the gossip of the relativist. One may feel the breath of life, when listening to the soft and often muted voice of reason within our hearts. So I think those parents should feel great shame at what they did. Moreover, just as I must remember, as a' white man,' that all of my privilege rests on the beaten backs of''' colored races',’ the walking man’ must remember institutions as one of the often forgotten malignancies of the dialectic of Enlightenment.

Also, this is why a have little patience, for those who have internalized their oppression, and so advocate and accommodating politics toward the able-bodied majority. I refuse to be involuntarily disabled, and so those who wish to capitulate to the able-bodied majority can be a uncle Toms, if they want, but freedom has never arisen from acquiescence. I have no truck with resignation, since it is only by following the example of Rosa Parks that we now have, in Ottawa at least, fully accessible transit. It is only by being’ out’ as disabled persons that we have gained the right to be out in public without shame or fear. For this reason I both desire and demand liberation by any means necessary, and I would gladly join the ‘Crippled Panthers’, if there were such an organization.

Thankfully, though institutions were waning considerably, my mom said no! She said no, even when many of my relatives thought institutionalization was still something that you did. So the first thing I owe to my mom is freedom in a literal sense, and for that alone I have inexpressible gratitude. More broadly, however, growing up my mom ceaselessly rejected the notion of an institutionalized life, while still working tirelessly to accommodate my physical needs, in a way that is both extremely effective and caring, demonstrating her fantastic skills as a mother and exemplary professional skills as a nurse. I swear sometimes I think that my mom believes, rather than presenting a handicap, my disability gives me some kind of super power; I was never prevented from doing anything, or expected to do any less. Consequently, our home remained a loving family, and I never felt like I turned my family into a micro institution; for if anything, I was expected to do more. So thank you, mom, for the more abstract freedom to not be subject to the "subtle racism of lowered expectations”.

More broadly still, there is one last freedom for which I must thank my mom and that is the freedom to learn how to be great, a large part of which I learned from her. My mom is the best philosopher I know. She is immensely courageous, wise, caring, just and truthful, dare I say to a fault. She fights for all people and is a mother too many, proving that motherhood is a subject position, rather than a biological role. She is authentic, dare I say to a fault, and I have learned just as much from her weaknesses as I have from her strengths, since she’s always insisted that parenting is a dialogical process of mutual learning and improvement. She strives for excellence in all things, and she rarely gives up on her own dreams or the ones of those she loves.

So I guess what I’m most thankful for is that my mom made sure I was pragmatic yet, unlike so many disabled people, not severely touched by the scars of cynicism. The best freedom she gave me out of all of them was the freedom to imagine. I can know that a better world is possible, both for myself and for others, because together my mother and I work to make that dream a reality. My mom is my best friend, since she is many things to many people, and she remains an ageless lover of wisdom and a true citizen of the world. Happy Mother’s Day to, my mom and all moms.

What is humanity: The love that moves the sun and all the other stars

What is humanity?: The love that moves the sun and all the other stars

dedicated to Benjamin Booi, a future philosopher

To my beloved parents, friends, care workers, colleagues and teachers, who have helped, either in the past or in the present, to make this one of the best and most curious days of my life, having completed my MA thesis with distinction, let me extend my sincerest thanks and gratitude; for contented as I am, I have received quite enough praise. If it is, indeed, true that I have done well, despite often succumbing to vice, it is only because I have been properly supported, taught and loved by the many diverse people in my life, who have enriched it with their innumerable virtues and beauty in all its senses. I would be nothing without the extraordinary persons and marvelous things that make up my world.

All the talk of’ negativity’ in philosophy often makes us forget that contingency ought to ignite an inextinguishable fire of gratitude within the hearts of the women and men, who are fortunate enough to dwell on this earth for all too short a time, and whose capacities are often unnecessarily limited by chains of  injustice. Though my flame often waivers, almost to the point of oblivion, it never truly goes out, since I always have access to the twin illuminations afforded by both reason and love. I see this in books and art, perhaps too often, it’s true, but I also have tremendous resources, as I engage in open dialogue with the persons around me. For every person is a library, the extent of whose catalog one can only begin to understand, and at that, with tremendous interpretive effort and humility. Every sentient being, as an epistemological resource, is to be treated with the same respect that we lovers of wisdom treat canonical texts; both have resources we can only begin to understand, and both require extreme patience and care.

As I move forward, hoping to teach, but knowing that is unlikely, I feel obliged to give thanks for my tremendous education (formal and informal, undergraduate and graduate. I see the pursuit of reason and beauty as a tremendous gift, since my parents were told that it was likely I would not speak. This rather dire scenario aside, it genuinely horrifies me to think about what my life may have been like without constant attempts to engage in dialogue with being, in order to question concepts of beauty and truth, historically conditioned though these questions are.  As Plato knew well, knowledge cannot be separated from virtue. Our thoughts about the world must  cause us to act with love, contentment, humility, patience, constancy, and bravery within it. Only then will we commit to caring and justice, which can have extraordinary and unforeseen consequences. In my education, I have found this, and I can only hope to improve the world from what I have been fortunate enough to learn. It’s not an exaggeration to say that, were it not for the humanities, and those interested to teach them, I probably would have ended my life in a manner far less poetic than that of Socrates. So I owe to my education, my life in general, as well as what little beauty and wisdom I have gained. Being gay, I find it comically ironic that Sophia is my most constant, though admittedly not physically satisfying, lover and beloved. And she will never desert you, for as long as you live and, perhaps, after you die.

And so, Benjamin, you rightly tell me that the history of political thought is boring. Okay. I’ll concede that the first time it often is. And you make the somewhat more dubious claim that, you simply will not like classical music, as aesthetic preferences are simply a matter of choice. God knows, just like you in second year, my initial erotic liaison with Lady philosophy amounted to the worst kind of sexual encounter imaginable; I was equally and simultaneously, bored, frightened, confused, tearful, indignant, and wrathful, as well as many of the other vices about which I had to read. And as you know all too well, from being my colloquially Platonic friend, my second encounter with Plato, though Grecian in inspiration, was anything but Platonic, in both senses. But as time passes, a thoughtful life, in my youthful yet considered estimation, is one full of innumerable consolations and pleasures beyond the transitory. This is to say that a thoughtful life need not be and, indeed, must not be, austere, tiresome or lugubrious; on the contrary, we ought to derive great pleasure from it. It is from my sheer love of pleasure and, thus, sheer love of love, for all things and all humankind, that I pursue wisdom. I hope this is not, primarily, for my own satisfaction, but out of devotion to the quest for truth and the challenge to understand others, as a committed, though temporary, citizen of the world.

I am not here to tyrannize or judge anyone, knowing all too well that approach to education and friendship is extremely ineffective, unhealthy and painful. Everyone is a miracle, while having to do very little, in order to deserve love, grace and forgiveness, whether one believes in Christianity or not. I simply think that everyone’s life could be more still, having beauty and truth, if we find unique and ever-changing ways to serve its manifestations. Whether, for you, this involves reading Plato and listening to classical music, I cannot say. Yet I do urge you to give both a sincere try; for we are both highly erotic men, in the broad sense, so I can only presume that, as I was, in time, you will be drawn to the beauty you may find contained in these things, and so many others, as we both hope to live different lives, which, though they may diverge are, united in the pursuit of justice, excellence and caring.

You’re already so far on the way to being perfect, just by being the authentic, compassionate and engaging person that you are. Yet here is some humble advice from an aspiring philosopher, who, as a lover of wisdom, must acknowledge that he knows nothing. I am not much older than you, nor much wiser, so we are both bound to make comic and tragic errors until we die — such things comprise the wonderful drama of life, which is far greater than any of the classics you will read. Yet always be sure that you are the author of your own life. For when you seek approval from the many, surrendering the copyright of your narrative to convention, you become a slave to vices, particularly narcissistic inadequacy and capital accumulation. So take time to pen your own pros with thoughtful precision, since then you will begin to possess more peace. This is why I truly believe the unexamined life to be not worth living. And why you should never stop being an enthusiastic, though reasonable, optimist. “Be in the world but not of the world”.

Never let anyone tell you to not have fun or that they have a right to judge you, since they don’t. You probably don’t need my advice on this, but it’s always good to hear, as well as great to put on paper, that no one is more perfect than she who loves with a sincere heart and is curious with the same. Run from needless conventions, as you would a fatal disease. Always take time to listen to your conscience and consider the advice of other people seriously. This requires that you take time to get to know them, and most importantly, yourself. Put down your cell phone. Smell flowers. This is what I’ve learned in school.

Love yourself, whenever people won’t; love truth wherever people don’t. For in doing these two things we experience the full extent of humanity and the humanities. For as St. Paul says, “if I speak with the tongues of men and Angels and have not love, I am nothing. And, as Jesus says in the gospel, “the truth shall set you free”; so the greatest gift you get from a humanistic education is brief moments in which you experience peace, having felt “the love that moves the sun and all the other stars”. Why Plato chose the sun to represent the concept of The Good is that it doesn’t discriminate, no one can deplete its power, and it never tires of shedding light or giving us a sense of peace, when we feel the warmth of its illumination.

The Smokescreen of Ideology: Huffing and Puffing about Health and Choice.

Now that, divorce, homosexuality, transgendered identities, and even  to some extent sadomasochistic behavior and other "sexual perversions" are becoming increasingly mainstream, and thus under the purview of heteronormative neoliberalism, there are few acts that remain legal that can be called deviant. Before there were more symbolic prohibitions, which could incorporate a measure of transgression and, thereby, enjoyment, but now that pleasure seeking is built into the symbolic regulation  of the neoliberal culture itself, in an effort to create, increasingly singular identities, to which products can be marketed (i.e. running shoes for the specialized athlete, LGBT vacations, disability culture, self help books for the Caribbean Canadian, visually impaired, transgendered lesbian, who can't find a man, because she has bipolar two and an eating disorder), it is increasingly difficult to find pleasure in anything, because this is a desire and satisfaction, which further our alienation from ourselves, each other and our bodies is so totalizing. Smoking is interesting, and I must stress that I smoke and for that matter drink about once every four months, because it is wholly within the capitalist order, while being one of the last legal actions, apparently worthy of approbation, the extent of moral evil grows every day. Meanwhile, often people who sanctimoniously decry smoking as perhaps the last and greatest of our common postmodern transgressions, and secondhand smoke as illuminating the unethical disregard of “smokers” for their fellow human beings health, forget the catastrophic devastation we cause to our fellow human beings, at home and abroad daily, to maintain an average Weston person in the lifestyle to which she has been accustomed  cause, probably, at least five people in the global self TO DIE, if not more, not to mention the horrendous suffering we cause to our fellow species. And the devastation people continue to cause in the world by irresponsible sexual choices, including, sometimes, abortion, but the sexual choices, of whatever sort, are framed in the rhetoric of choice; for those are considered acceptable choices, whereas smoking is framed in the rhetoric of an agent responsibility to others, because it’s not deemed an acceptable choice. I’m probably more likely to get injured by people drinking excessively around me than around people who are smoking.

I know the health implications, but the event scenario of the addict does not always hold true. But it is largely a mechanism to control, with Christian undertones, that’s with one taste of the of the forbidden fruit, whatever that it happens to be, one will fall into perdition never to return. The smoker is also interesting because he is one of the last openly discriminated identities, which is fascinating because most of modern prejudice happens at the level of disavowal. “I know very well that new Canadians are immigrants just like I was, but, nonetheless they are stealing my job. I know very well that persons with disabilities should have the same opportunities by right, but to provide them with opportunities is too expensive, in times of economic austerity, when we increase military spending” the ironic thing is that the ideology of health and wellness has made very few people more well. It produces a dialectical opposite, obesity, as we pursue enjoyment not only by acquisition of capital, but particularly by one of its related outgrowths in increased regulation, domination and desire to perfect our own bodies\minds which has led to an increasingly oppressive normative standard with two primary goals, insofar as it is also ever adaptable to particular subjectivities. Not only do we have to aspire to achieve a global norm, we also have to choose particular norms for our kind of human being. Not only this, but according to Dove’s most recent commercial we ought to love ourselves, in our singularity, and if we don’t enjoy this pleasurable narcissism, there is something wrong with us, for after all, everyone is special, and every life worth living. We must do this for as long as you can! Apparently it does not matter whether you enjoy your life or live an excellent one; all that matters is that you live, or more precisely that you live while appearing to enjoy your life, lest you disturb others’ faith in the belief that believing in the pursuit of enjoyment is beneficial. This is really quite pointless, since as we prolong our lives the prospect of aging, on account of rampant social neglect of the elderly, is looking more and more grim with each passing day.

The fact is that health and wellness is a neoliberal marketing scheme that puts extreme pressure on persons with disabilities to conform to their own standard of well-being, while excluding them from the ideal normative standard. There is very little government funding for me to obtain the health desired of the neoliberal subject, and as such you could argue that my body is always “criminalized”. By smoking, very occasionally I take on the criminal subjectivity of disability, born of the confrontation with death that it represents, because I make people deal with the supposed horror of an innocent disabled person being assisted in “perverse” activity. Therefore, through this perversion I can subvert this consumptive ideology through consumption itself, thereby effecting a negation of negation, transcending the dialectic of desire, and thereby carving out for myself a space of sexual and political freedom, which I longed for when I came out of the closet, but perhaps I was born too late for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGDMXvdwN5c