Tag: politics

by jad

Nuclear History is in the Present Tense

In “By the Bomb’s Early Light,” Paul Boyer writes about the ebbs and flows of nuclear criticism as atomic dreams and radioactive nightmares danced across this nation’s psyche throughout the Cold War. He wrote his book during such a peak and prefaced his second edition with a question about the next peak to come, as the Cold War had been called off by then. In the intervening years, there have been blips of renewed interest, especially around the time of the radioactive catastrophe at Fukushima, but with rising geopolitical tensions and increased climate emergency, it seems like we’re re-entering another … Continue reading “Nuclear History is in the Present Tense” →

by jad

The Dream of Palestine

I shared yesterday how I’m seeing more people talking about Palestine for the first time, and I thought about posting those thoughts in a way that might facilitate further sharing. But as I was thinking about doing that, I started reflecting on how I started talking about Palestine myself. About the people I met along the way, the voices I’ve centered, and the faces I’ve left outside the frame. I’m still going to share what I intended, but I want you to read the rest of this with that interior eye wide open: how did you come to think what … Continue reading “The Dream of Palestine” →

by jad

Nuclear Specters

It struck me as morbid irony to read about justifications in diplomatic circles of the current carnage in Gaza that apparently make reference to the atomic bomb. Apparently, these references have shocked the sensibilities of the American interlocuters who leaked those conversations. Apparently, they’d forgotten who unleashed this moral stain on the history of mankind in the first place. A shocking reference point and a mirror to blink back at. We are still living in the long shadow of WWII. These claims of self-preservation; this righteous indignation; these dying and dead — they are a legacy of that monstrous era. … Continue reading “Nuclear Specters” →

by jad

Media Zap

In the 90s, it was trendy in media studies to think very deeply about the phenomenology of “zapping” between channels. You might recall that this was the era when the last of the single-station nations gave way to satellite television. Some predicted “a state of confusion and cultural shock” as the public lost its metronome. Others saw it “as characteristically postmodern in breaking up linearity, or subversively anti-capitalist.” I remember reading these texts about a decade later and finding them hilarious; how could what we did with our remotes have caused so much alarm? And yet, that’s the image I … Continue reading “Media Zap” →

by jad

The Compass Still Points to Palestine

Have you heard of Handala? He’s a little cartoon boy with his back turned and his hands clasped behind his back, a posture I find myself instinctually taking at protests like these. Handala turned his back to the audience in 1973 and became a symbol of refusal and more – in the words of the man who drew him, Handala was “the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its humanitarian sense—the symbol of a just cause, whether it is located in Egypt, Vietnam or South Africa.” I say “was” … Continue reading “The Compass Still Points to Palestine” →

by jad

Media & the Opiate of Despair

It’s about that time in the news cycle when the amphetamine of outrage begins to fade into the opiate of despair. And I say “news cycle” not to diminish events, but to relay them more accurately; because that is where you and I and virtually everyone who may ever stumble on these words resides: in the cycle of news consumption, a position we sometimes forget in our proverbial cave of projections, believing ourselves to be in the actual thick of things. We are in something, that’s for sure, just not in that. I’m thinking about Günther Anders, the Jewish philosopher … Continue reading “Media & the Opiate of Despair” →

by jad

In the Shadow of Hiroshima…

In the shadow of Hiroshima, Günther Anders argued for a renaissance of the imagination over mere perception: “Not only has imagination ceased to live up to production, but feeling has ceased to live up to responsibility. It may still be possible to imagine or to repent the murdering of one fellow man, or even to shoulder responsibility for it; but to picture the liquidation of one hundred thousand fellow men definitely surpasses our power of imagination. The greater the possible effect of our actions, the less are we able to visualize it, to repent of it or to feel responsible … Continue reading “In the Shadow of Hiroshima…” →

by jad

Either we have hope within us or we don’t…

“Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but, rather, an ability to work for … Continue reading “Either we have hope within us or we don’t…” →

by jad

Nuclear Culture & Photography

“The first bomb, set to go off at a height of some five hundred metres, produced a nuclear flash which lasted one fifteenth-millionth of a second, and whose brightness penetrated every building down to the cellars. It left its imprint on stone walls, changing their apparent colour through the fusion of certain minerals, although protected surfaces remained curiously un-altered. The same was the case with clothing and bodies, where kimono patterns were tattooed on the victims’ flesh. If photography, according to its inventor Nicéphore Niepce, was simply a method of engraving with light, where bodies inscribed their traces by virtue … Continue reading “Nuclear Culture & Photography” →

by jad

“Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture

I’ve been interested in the history of the atom bomb and nuclear technology ever since I read about Hanford in a book on the Columbia River called “The Organic Machine” almost two years ago. This book inspired me to visit the region last summer for my first serious foray into film photography, and soon after, I would fortuitously meet a photographer at the PCNW fair who had published a whole book on that area I had just been to. I was hooked and I kept telling myself I’d visit again. I immersed myself in the history of that godawful decision … Continue reading ““Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture” →