Porn, Columbus and Ignorance

"Our own images have been stolen from us and licensed back in socially-approved and disapproved versions. The approved version appears as glamour, fashion, and privileged promiscuity. The disapproved version appears as pornography. This is a difference in marketing style, not a moral distinction."

Last night, my friend K. and I went to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Atlanta, Nuevo Laredo Cantina. Their mole sauce is to die for. Afterwards, I turned on The Daily Show and who do I see as the evening's guest? Why, none other than my old college political science professor, Howard Zinn! Zinn has written several books, including A People's History of the United States, and was on the show plugging his newest book, Voices of a People's History . . . etc. On the show, he talked about Las Casas' narrative of Columbus' exploits. Las Casas was a priest on Columbus' voyages, and later had moral misgivings about the enslavement, exploitation and genocide that Columbus brought upon the Indians. A good description of what Columbus really had done is provided in A People's History, and can be found here.

Anyway, tonight is the start of the January sesshin, with the theme this month of ignorance (avidya), a subject with which readers of this blog should now be quite familiar.

Sorry about such a disjointed blog entry today, but it's the best that I can do right now. I guess it's the mind that's disjointed.