the general sense of things

I would there are three things that I'm pretty obsessed with:

1. The general state of the world and figuring out ways to change it.

2. Yoga.

3. Cats/animals in general.

This list is not in order of importance as one eclipses the others at different periods in my life. I've been tootling around the blogosphere lately. Reading blogs is something that's a little new to me. I generally do not follow political blogs. Rather, I have been following ashtanga blogs and cat rescue blogs. I got so obsessed with one cat rescue blog that I actually had to block blogger from my computer for stretches at a time so I could get some work done. I was so fascinated by the sheer volume of cats that this woman was rescuing. I couldn't tear myself away. She is also just likable and it was around the time that I was grading a bunch of incoherent tests, so I just enjoyed reading the tremendous backlog of blog posts just to feast my eyes on something that was easy to read, well written, and gave me the feel-goods.

Something that I'm noticing, however, is the crossover in my interests on these blogs. More specifically, all the yogis who are doing animal rescue or are obsessed with the fucked up state of the world. I mean, who isn't noticing the overall feeling that things are falling apart. This is particularly reflective in the posts from people in the US. One yoga-blog post actually said something like, "Things are so messed up, I can't understand why people aren't taking to the streets!" And here's the problem. I can't either. And it ain't as if there have been no protests to go to. But I can't help but feel kind of, well, bored by them. They're sort of ceremonial and rote, like perfectly usual sex that feels kind of good but you could be just as satisfied by a yummy slice of banana cream pie.

What is that? The world is exploding and there is no shortage of things to get pissed off about. Yet, I'm still kind of uninspired by the resistance here in Canada (and maybe the US but I can't say for sure because I haven't lived there for almost three years).* Maybe it's because I'm not actually organizing any of these protests. That probably has a lot to do with it. But I can't help but think about Katsiaficas's 'eros effect'. This is likely because I just wrote a section in my comp yesterday on The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life. In The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968, Katsiaficas defines the eros effect as:

"the eros effect [is] the massive awakening of the instinctual human need for justice and freedom. When the eros effect occurs, it becomes clear that the status quo has been torn, and the forms of social control have been ruptured. This rupture becomes clear when established patterns of interaction are negated, and new and better ones are created."

Katsiaficas recently published an article about Egypt, framing it in terms of the eros effect. And while a structure of feeling cannot be measured, I believe in its power. What I've been noticing in the blogosphere and in facebook posts is that there is a sense that things in the US are profoundly disturbing and infuriating. I hear more and more a collective sense that we have to do something. While the happenings in Wisconsin signal, um, something, I'm not sure we're there yet in terms of the massive, necessary uprisings that will push this current administration into not caving to the neocons.

Long story short, the sentiments are there, but the action isn't. What will it take to build a sustained movement that will rouse those who, for the most part, are outraged? When will "the forms of social control" be ruptured? When will we (we being those who think things are in the shitter) actually think better things are not only necessary, but possible?

*Please do not take this to mean that the very real and amazing campaigns like OCAP and NOII etc. are "uninspiring." I'm not really talking about the grassroots campaigns that do important and radical and effective work. I'm talking about that feeling of being swept up in resistance so that people who might not define themselves as 'activists' might be compelled to participate in uprisings.