Sacred Order

In memory of Philip Rieff, who died on July 1, 2006:

• An essay from July 16 on Rieff's concept of "the sacred order"
• An example of order-- sacred, since purely mathematical (as was Einstein's "holy geometry book")--  linked to on the date of Rieff's death:

Today is the feast of
St. James McNeill Whistler.

"Nature contains the elements of color and form of all pictures-- as the
keyboard contains the notes of all music-- but the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements,
that the result may be beautiful--  as the musician gathers his notes, and
forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos, glorious harmony."

-- Whistler, "The Ten O'Clock"

Mathematics and Narrative
continued...

"Now, at the urging of the UC Berkeley cognitive linguist George Lakoff,
liberal America's guru of the moment, progressive Democrats are
practicing to get their own reluctant mouths around some magical new
vocabulary, in the hope of surviving and eventually overcoming the age
of Bush."

"... the right's language is now the default language for everyone.
     On the way to proposing a counterstrategy (it
never really arrives), Nunberg pauses to engage in a polite
disagreement with his fellow linguist George Lakoff, who has provided a
rival account of the conservative ascendancy. Lakoff argues that
Republicans have articulated-- first for themselves and then for
others-- a conceptual framework that allows them to unite apparently
disparate issues in a single coherent worldview ...  woven
together not in a philosophically consistent framework but in a
narrative 'that creates an illusion of coherence.'
     Once again, the Republicans have such a
narrative-- 'declining patriotism and moral standards, the out-of-touch
media and the self-righteous liberal elite ... minorities demanding
special privileges ... disrespect for religious faith, a swollen
government'-- but 'Democrats and liberals have not offered compelling
narratives that could compete' with it. Eighty pages later he is still
saying the same thing. 'The Democrats need a compelling narrative of
their own.'"

Lakoff is the co-author of a book on the philosophy of mathematics, Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being.  From Wikipedia's article on Lakoff:

"According to Lakoff, even mathematics itself is subjective to the
human species and its cultures: thus 'any question of math's being
inherent in physical reality is moot, since there is no way to know
whether or not it is.' Lakoff and Rafael E. Nunez (2000) argue at
length that mathematical and philosophical ideas are best understood in
light of the embodied mind. The philosophy of mathematics ought
therefore to look to the current scientific understanding of the human
body as a foundation ontology, and abandon self-referential attempts to
ground the operational components of mathematics in anything other than
'meat.'"

For a long list of related leftist philosophy, see The Thinking Meat Project.

Democrats seeking narratives may also consult The Carlin Code and The Prime Cut Gospel.
 

Today's birthday:
Linda Ronstadt is 60.

"Elegant as a slow blues."
-- Review of a writer
    by Rolling Stone

Just send me black roses

White rhythm and blues

And somebody who cares when you lose

Black roses, white rhythm and blues

Black roses, white rhythm and blues

-- Linda Ronstadt song
   by J. D. Souther, from
   Living in the USA, 1978

Chapter 24

By Syd Barrett,
Dead Poet

A movement is accomplished in six stages
And the seventh brings return.
The seven is the number of the young light
It forms when darkness is increased by one.
Change returns success
Going and coming without error.
Action brings good fortune.
Sunset.

-- From the 1967 album
   "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn"

Longest Day's Journey

BY BOB THOMAS, LOS ANGELES
July 13, 2006 (AP)-- Red Buttons,
the carrot-topped burlesque comedian who became a top star in early
television and then in a dramatic role won the 1957 Oscar as supporting
actor in "Sayonara," died Thursday [July 13, 2006]. He was 87. --San Francisco Chronicle

Sayonara.

Three Worlds,
1955

Today's birthday:
Harrison Ford

"The forest here at the bottom of the canyon is mostly pine, with a
few aspen and broad-leafed shrubs. Steep canyon walls rise way above us
on both sides. Occasionally the trail opens into a patch of sunlight
and grass that edges the canyon stream, but soon it reenters the deep
shade of the pines. The earth of the trail is covered with a soft
springy duff of pine needles. It is very quiet here.
    Mountains like these and travelers in the mountains and events
that happen to them here are found not only in Zen literature but in
the tales of every major religion."-- Robert Pirsig

Band Numbers

"Some friends of mine
are in this band..."
-- David Auburn, Proof

Seven is Heaven,
Eight is a Gate,
Nine is a Vine.

-- The Prime Powers