Inaugural Post!

I am starting this blog because I spend way too much time on the internet and my mind wanders, and I figured a blog would be a good way to get all my thoughts down and hopefully focus them in the process. I found myself posting things on Facebook, which would go into my friends' news feeds, and I would much rather not bother everyone with things I find interesting. This way, only people who are actually interested in what I think about things (which may be no one!) will be burdened. This will really be less of a "what's happening in my real life" blog than "what's happening in my dilettante life." For the most part, I imagine I'll talk about TV shows and movies, books and music, but also politics and perhaps even some more philosophical musings. Haha! Reader beware!

Right now I'm trying to write the second chapter of my thesis, and because I'm such a scatter-brain, it's taking quite a bit longer than I anticipated. I've been re-watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and it's still really good and relevant. I started again because I was thinking about how John McCain said that the US could be in Iraq for another hundred years, and on the surface that doesn't seem like such an unreasonable thing to say. There are still American troops in Korea, Japan, Germany, and other places, but not in combat roles. However, it does seem that the conflicts that led to those long-term deployments were quaititatively different than what's going on in the Middle East right now. What's good about DS9 (and other STs too, but this one does it best) is isolate certain elements of different cultures and then explore them in depth, over many episodes. Indeed, most of the series is the same war, and the bad guys aren't totally bad, the good guys often do unethical things.

The other thing I've been thinking about, not extensively though, is what's going on in Zimbabwe. I saw an episode of DS9 in which a former Federation officer turned terrorist/freedom fighter tells Captain Sisko that the Federation is worse than the Borg, because at least the Borg tell you up front that you're going to be assimilated and that resistance is futile. The Federation makes you think that you're advancing the cause of liberal democracy and egalitarianism, but they're really incorporating you into their ideology. Whatever you think of that (the Federation utopia seems pretty good), it's an interesting thing to consider. Isn't that what Zizek is always going on about? His new book (In Defense of Lost Causes) seems to be about that, at least in part, in terms of the perils of liberal democracies. Mugabe holding elections, and forcing people to vote, seems to be an extreme version of this: I'm not going to be your run-of-the-mill dictator, I'm going to make you endorse me. Of course, if you don't have a purple finger to show you've voted (really only one name is available), you'll be punished. Does it somehow make you nostalgic for the good old days when dictators didn't need such validation?

Why am I writing this blog instead of my thesis? Well, sometimes everyone needs a break. Though mine seems to have lasted 3 days. I ought to do some research tonight at least...anticipate the next chapter!