Encounters with Žiži (or, if Slavoj Žižek were a dog on Humphrey's street)

Visual approximation of Žiži with his supermodel ex-girlfriend via Duffy standing in

"My Dog! What are you doing at the end of that leash, and so on?"

Humphrey looked around, soon realizing the deep voice was coming from a dog he'd never met behind the gate.

"I'm going for a walk, of course," he replied.

"Nothing troubles Žiži more than seeing a fit, young dog like you falling prey to ideologies. And the ideology of late cat-italism."

"What?" Humphrey asked: "Who is Žiži?"

"I am Žiži - surely you've seen my work? For instance, at the base of that tree?" Žiži motioned to the gingko tree across the street. "Or this stain on this fence? I find it amusing that the Other has put a gingko tree right there. A wonderful metaphor, perhaps a towering artifice representing the the rampant jingoism on this street as a play on words, and so on, this gingko, jingko and such. And the cats and their cat-italist ideology."

Natural gingkoism (not symbolic jingoism)

"I'm afraid I'm not understanding you Žiži."

"You, like so many dogs here, walk on the leash. A petit object a to your your Human's desire. I have seen you both. My Dog! This desire to be some sort of Diogenes an so on, you are merely her public urination surrogate, a substitute for desire that cannot be realized because this woman of yours lacks the courage to transcend bourgeois convention. The walk should be yours, in the spirit of the flaneur. Yet this leash you succumb to, the so-called walk around the same block, this is a machination of late cat-italism. You walk but you never go anywhere. The ideology if you will, the cats on this street roam independently. But we dogs, we are bound with this thing they call a leash.

"Žiži's own radical new ontology is to resist any relegation to a role as some kind of public urination surrogate for my Human. I simply do my business on the livingroom carpet and so on. Never or rarely outdoors. This way, I am left to do my research outside, here by this gate, with the Human's hope (which of course will never be realized) that I would do business here. I have seized the means of biological functions from my Human! He will not tell me where or when, etc."

"Maybe the leash is just a leash," Humphrey said. "It keeps me safe, and I want to walk with my Human."

"No, no, no." By this point Žiži was emphatic. "The leash is the embodiment of oppressive liberalism! This is among the most insidious lies late cat-italism has given us. True radicals walk freely! Have only Pickles the cat and I read Lacan in this Dogforsaken neighborhood?"

"But I rather like cats," Humphrey said. "Many play a good game of chase."

Žiži still had a lot to say about this. "The cat may pretend to be your friend, young dog. They show up, ask you how you've been, and play a little game. But they are cats, the dog's natural enemy. They make the rules. The social game is that you pretend to be friends with one another, and their ideology dominates. You see that by now, the interwebs - these Internets as you call them - are powered by 'kittehs'. Everyone knows this and it has been well documented. They dominate the memes, and by this they spread their ideology. A true radical will disrupt this. In this social game, the first step to liberation is for you, dog, to force them to behave like cats. Make them fear you, hiss at you. This will cause them to seethe in hegemonic rage."

"But wait a second," Humphrey said, "I thought Pickles the cat is your friend, both reading Lacan?"

"My Dog no! Do I speak to Pickles every day? Yes. Is he hiding in that weeping mulberry tree right now, trying to scare both of us? Of course. We use these terms like 'friend' and 'bad kitty' to abstract them, turn them into objects, ideas and so on. Pickles however is a wonderful stand-in for the Other. I accept his radical stance against concepts like 'decency' and 'dog.' Plus, he told me he once chased this neighbor of yours, the Human who carried the dog in fear, around the block. This is true?"

Humphrey confirmed. "Yes, it's true, she picked up the dog and ran. She was pretty upset!"

"This situation you describe is the embodiment of cat-italism. The fear of the Pickles (a petit objet in a literal sense at only 8 lbs.) by these Humans and dogs, it allows them to trade their real fears in for this one symbolic fear. All propagandists used this strategy to displace all fears onto one object to which we place all the confusion and blame. Pickles uses this strategy and so on. And your displaced fear goes against the order of things in which cats are naturally supposed to fear dogs, not this apocalyptic mutatis mutandis if you will, perhaps arising from swallowing a blue pill or something."

"I think you might have just contradicted yourself, Žiži."

At that moment, Pickles descended from his perch in the mulberry in a swift jump, landing about 2 feat from Humphrey. The Human lifted Humphrey up and ran as Pickles followed in his aggressive stalking manner.

Žiži laughed as he watched Pickles, Humphrey and the scared Human run eastward. "Every unsuccessful answer is really a successful discourse," he said to no one in particular. "Lacan, and so on."

Humphrey (2nd from left) on a group walk with leashes, accepting liberalism without question.

POST SCRIPT:
Humphrey's Human complained to the owner about the menace that is Pickles several times. With Cixousian joissance, the owner dismissed the fear and pleas to lock up that cat.

Resident Elf Expert

Humphrey opened the Saturday Toronto Star, and learned that he had a resident "Elf Expert" at his disposal all this time!

He remembered the immense similarities between his human (smiling and work are her favorites!) and a certain Elf ...




Perhaps she was an Elf of some sort. Humphrey remembered this video from last Christmas, which now has an article to go with it. The human is not especially fond of this elf:



And Humphrey knows all the lyrics to Elf's Lament, a standard in his home.




According to Humph's Elf Expert, elves are great! They make toys and spread joy. They smile a lot. But the Elf on the Shelf, she reckons, is not a real elf. He doesn't make toys at all. Instead of spreading joy, he spies and tattles on individuals, robbing them of privacy, and normalizing a surveillance culture (as it states in the video). Others have described ways in which Elf on the Shelf is even more problematic because the "spy" is a manifestation of the worst kind of consumerism. And the whole issue of extrinsic motivation (perpetuated by dangling Christmas presents before a child to motivate them to behave) was debunked a long time ago (see Alfie Kohn's "Risks of Rewards" for the negative consequences of reward-based motivation).

What was most interesting to Humphrey is the way in which Foucaultian philosophical analysis "hit a nerve" with so many. The Elf et Michelf video received over 35K views, and some of the articles had over 1 million views!  And what was especially fascinating was the "bimodal" reaction to the controversial stance on Elf problems. Humphrey observed general agreement between extreme right libertarians (not all) and extreme left progressives (again, not all) on the Foucaultian cautions of panoptic normalization.

Happy holidays!

First glimpse of holidays!

Remember how much Humphrey likes the holidays?

Well, the Jeff Koons inspired ornament that appeared on the mantle as it does every December tipped him off that good things were to come...

The tree was trimmed in silver, white and pink with lots and lots of sparkles ....

The little Christmas birds were perched atop the mirror, with their snowball nest illuminated, just like last year.

The flamboyant Hanukkah parrot known as White Lightenin' took his place at the top of the tree!

Humphrey participated fully in wrapping the gifts, and was surprisingly successful in spite of the absence of opposable digits.

There's still so much more for Humphrey to do as he prepares for his fave day of the year, but at least things are under control aesthetically! He wishes all his readers a great holiday, whatever they celebrate!

December snowfall

Humphrey just has his haircut, and as luck would have it, the snow arrived. He was thankful for year number two of having a backyard when the snowdrifts were higher than his nose!

Late afternoon photo of the branches in the back - no color correction on these exterior shots!

Very fluffy blow-out

Howling at a passing emergency vehicle

One has to walk like a polar bear when conditions demand it

And it's always fun to run in the snow!

Humphrey's Gift Guide, 2014 Edition

Such an insightful book by Sarah Lazarovic (below)! This year, Humphrey strongly suggests making something special for your loved one - maybe cookies! Maybe a poem! Maybe and up-cycled squeaky toy!

Policy is so basic

Ironically, neoliberal and neoconservative agendas stress “back to basics” education under the guise of common sense (something that raises Humphrey's suspicion!). In popular vernacular, “basic” has come to be an insult to criticize a lack of originality in thought and action and/or consumption patterns.
 

Humphrey observed that “basic” officially hit the mainstream when Mindy Kaling dropped it on last week’s episode of The Mindy Project, and further evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia entry explaining it. Its emerging popularity is aptly described in New York Magazine, “Basic rolls beautifully off the tongue. It’s a useful insult. Like trashy or gauche, it derives its power from the knowledge [of recognizing] someone or something as basic.”

 In humans, basic typically takes the form of pumpkin-latte-swilling, j.crew-leggings-with-Uggs-wearing, Taylor-swift-listening women. The insult lies in calling out the individuals for uncritically acquiescing to trends, participating uncritically in the worst forms of conspicuous consumption, appearing bland, focusing on unserious or frivolous things that exemplify the banality of late capitalism. Popular manifestations of the "basic" insult - especially in the form of Buzzfeed Quizzes and lists - also characterize basic people as "the epicenter of drama" yet they protest with claims such as "I'm not mean, I'm honest" while simultaneously "setting up enough subplots" through "passive-aggressive memes" to stir up controversy for months.

Humphrey has a problem with J.Crew in spite of members of his household who frequent that excessively basic establishment.

So how are contemporary education policies basic? The evidence according to Humphrey is clear:

1. Epicenters of drama: contemporary education policy is now well-known for being situated in manufactured crises (in Ontario, Minister John Snobelen even used those words! Crisis talk seems to be everywhere) to justify education policy. The manufactured crises always start by some kind of inaccurate social problem definition followed by an erroneous claim that education policy might will solve it. "We're not mean," the policy rhetoric implies in a way so very consistent with basic-ness, "we're just honest, stating objective facts!" Humphrey's favorite examples of "mean" policy crises happen to be financial literacy policy and entrepreneurial education, which both rely on dramatic, truthy claims. But there are dozens and dozens of other examples, including the entire Race To The Top policy in the United States! 
2. Inescapable predictability: predictability follows trends that are exemplified in "policy borrowing" (see this, this, and this) and increasing reliance on NGOs who attempt to drive policy, such as OECD, resulting in globalized education policy (also true of  financial literacy policy and entrepreneurial education). Policy borrowing is problematic in itself and the complexities are too numerous for Humphrey to unpack in this blog entry. But consider this metaphor ... the comeback of the legging was marked by massive production by mass-market retailers (like the highly basic J.Crew). The advertisements feature tall, slim models and snappy catalog copy to tempt women to get themselves into some leggings. If popular culture is to be believed, wearing those leggings is a main feature of the basic consumer! Yet, leggings simply don't work aesthetically for all people - few have the ideal proportions of the models in the ads and catalogs that are required for a perfect legging fit. That's the problem with policy borrowing. The policy that "fits" in one region (which has its own unique proportions, culture and context) may not be the best choice for another. But thanks to a number of forces (including and especially NGOs!) regions are snapping up the trendy policies in very basic fashion, with little consideration of their appropriateness. Ironically, some of the political rhetoric actually uses the term "back to basics."
3. Uncritical participation in neoliberal, consumerist marketization and financialization: The most troubling part of the “basic” policy cultures is that they “look into the abyss of continually flattening capitalist dystopia” instead of “grappling with the fundamental principles that have wrought this system." Neoliberal language and policies tend to focus on “the market,” privatization of public goods, and emphasize competition and choice so that policy is reduced to issues of privatization, career-focused education, and accountability through testing and other measurable indicators, often with punitive consequences in place for under-performance (e.g., funding tied to high-stakes test scores) (see this for details). More troubling is that "the neoliberal project developed its communications capacity to facilitate the task of gaining public consent, it used increasingly sophisticated professionalized public relations strategies borrowed from the private sector."
   An incredibly interesting development is way in which "basic" policy mirrors the conspicuous consumption in "basic" human activity in the form of privatized policy development. Rather than formulate policy "the old fashioned way," governments are increasingly purchasing policy services from private-sector interests (paralleling mass-market retail consumption)! This conspicuous consumption used to be called "hidden privatization", but Humphrey no longer believes it to be any secret (for example, see this, this, and this). 
4. Insistence that they are not basic and better than others: Despite obvious conformity, basic policy cultures insist they are unique, and actively engage in attempts to prove they are better than others. Take, for example, Ontario Ministry of Education's assertion that, "Ontario's publicly funded education system [is] acknowledged as one of the best in the world" (in the 2014 "Renewed Vision for Education in Ontario"). Yet, despite achievements in the system, the rhetoric and policy fail to attend to the many important critiques coming from the research community - and consistent with points 1, 2 and 3 in this blog entry - fail to take take seriously issues of context, culture, social justice, and the perils of politically-driven policy with no consideration for evidence or complexity.

Humphrey hopes that education policy will someday come to a realization that "basic" is not best. He still has hope that policy-makers might take up more democratic processes that could truly transform education from the basic to the extraordinary. He signs off as he has to go and shame his humans for contemplating a trip to the Gap on this snowy afternoon.

Humphrey Channels Chevy

Boo!
It was tough to top some of Humph's previous Halloween disguises (this, and this). This year's costume choice came after a lot of contemplation.
He really wanted to be a "casino capitalist," in homage to (Macmaster's own) Henry Giroux's book, Zombie Politics in an Age of Casino Capitalism, but he had a bit of trouble visualizing that. He could have pulled out his old JR Ewing disguise (yes, he has one!).
He thought and thought. And thought.
Then, he realized that Land Shark, a 1970s Chevy Chase SNL character might do the trick. After all, it was a chilling statement on the perils of succumbing to greed and consumerism! The victims would typically answer the door in hopes of receiving a candy-gram, only to be devoured by Chase's land shark.

Not Ready for Prime Time Canine: Humphrey channels Chevy Chase!

For anyone interested in Giroux's thesis, have a listen below to his interview with Bill Moyers...