Existential Fireworks and Urban Planning

Last night was a blast, literally. Headed into New Orleans around dusk to meet up with my good friend Jacob. Before the trip, I stopped at one of the fireworks tents that has popped up around La Place and invested in a nice little arsenal of black cats, parachutes, and roman candles. Finding a place to set them off without drawing attention proved to be tenuous, but we trekked over to the barren neighborhood where I my old apartment stands and set up shop. After realizing the precarious postioning of power lines that gridded the street, we picked a relatively safe spot, placed our wine bottle/ launching pad on the ground and lit up the night sky. All in all, it was a good time.

When we returned to Jacob's house in mid-city, we spent an hour engaging in beautiful conversation. I've been feeling quite intellectual lately and thus have jumped at any opportunity to initiate philosophical and political dialouge. He told me about his adventures in Morocco and Egypt studying anthropology in the Middle East and the surrounding areas. I can't admit being surprised when he explained the intense hatred that accosted him from the local citizens regarding his membership to the mailgned country the good old U S of A. I'd assume that most people who travel these days would find themselves embarrassed by their association with our country. We are greatly detested and deservedly so. Jacob and I had fun running wild with the School/World analogy for a bit. It was another one of those infrequent conversations where the vulnerability of intimacy is deglected for the greater value of getting to know someone on a deeply personal level. Jacob's friendship is becoming increasingly important to me. After our discussion we retired into his house to watch the movie I Heart Huckabees. I've been really burying myself in the philosophies of existentialism lately. The basic tenets being:

-People are inherently not good, sharing and generous, but are conditioned to be these things through societal conditioning.

-Mankind has free will.

-Life is a series of choices, creating stress.

-Few decisions are without any negative consequences.

-Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation.

-If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through.

Therefore, we are at our best when we struggle against the contraints of existence and not allow ourselves to be complacent with our lot in life. We are responsible for our choices whether they have good or bad consequences. If we detatch from our problems, we are attempting to avoid responsibility which is impossible. All of our experiences and decisions are subjective based on personal experience. Even though there are moral and ethical guides that influence our choices , we have the freedom not to follow them. Since we are free to make our own subjective choices, resposibility is thrust upon us. This ideological pathway leads some existentialists to claim that we are "condemned to be free." I Heart Huckabees struggles between the ideas that everything is connected and nothing is connected. The dialectic between pure being (existence without thinking) and the unescapable draw of human drama forces us to rally like a ping pong ball back and forth. The movie resolves with a resolution between the two trains of thought. I personally believe everything is connected, but find it near impossible to be aware of this idea in the day-to-day. I'll leave this thought as an ellipsis...

A recent article in the Times Picayune detailed a few of the ideas that are floating around the local government that would begin to revive the city. A light rail service that would travel from the Louis Armstrong Airport to downtown New Orleans seems to be the most riveting. I was enthralled by the education proposals. Mainly, since the population seems to be hovering around 200,000 people and will not increase dramatically in the next three to four years, politicians want to make huge changes in the education system that transform New Orleans public schools from a boon of the city to a draw. The architect of the Philadelphia school system recently spoke to lawmakers expounding how they had their pick of any superintendent in the country, because the opportunity of a fresh slate could not be overlooked. One plan flowing through the veins of the rebuilding committee involves the construction of mini school campus facilities that would be utilized by the community. Four schools would be placed on a campus and would include, medical, entertainment, community centers and a variety of other buildings. These mini communities would increase parental and community involvement. Studies have show that parental involvement positively impacts education. Such communities have already been founded in Wisconsin with incredible success. I want to be a part of this! I think that after I've been teaching for another year or two, I could dedicate my efforts full-time to the future planning of New Orleans education. Once the actual plans take shape and the process begins, I need to find out how I can get involved and help steer the direction of the future of the New Orleans public school system. I get excited just thinking about it...time will tell. And I'll do my research.

Comments

[Mamina]

Hey Garrett! I've been itching for some good philosophical convos. Glad to hear you had a good time in New Orleans. Also glad to hear about your enthusiasm for its future in education. I really hope N.O. will be normal (was it ever normal, though?) again.

[Anne]

great post! the stuff on existentialism is very helpful and timely for me. i'm going through some deep stuff lately, trying to figure out how i fit in with a number of systems, people, and beliefs, and feeling really frustrated with my lack of agency in my life of late. and lack of personal responsibility and focus on choice. i'm really good at trying to do the right thing... i'm good at being *a* moral agent; i'm just really bad at identifying myself *as that moral agent*. if that makes sense. i take responsibility for the consequences of my life, but i don't actually do the choosing from a position of freedom. so i make increasingly constrained choices, becoming more and more involved in social networks.

as i write this, i'm in a coffee shop in lexington, kentucky trying to finish up a weekend course on negotiation that i took this fall. i got an extension on the schoolwork because i suddenly got this bad case of the blues and had to figure out what was going on with me and take care of that. but did i really have to? what if i'd just pushed through it and finished the freakin' work then? wouldn't that have gotten me through the blues, and possibly into the insights i got other ways? i feel like i was really defeatist about my choices there.

anyway, part of the assignment for this was to keep this negotiation journal, which i'm now typing into the computer. it's so frustrating to do it, because i notice again and again how much passivity and self-absence is a part of my style. i always feel like i'm being spiritual and good at the time, but really i'm just being not-here. i'm pissed off at myself about this right now, and the existentialism formulation you make is like a shot of jagermeister. thanks.

the new orleans education stuff sounds totally fantastic. way to go. that's just wonderful.

vocab things: boon means a gift -- as in, 'the discovery of copper in the western hills was a boon to the local economy.' i'm guessing you meant 'bane.'

also, 'deglected'? what an awesome neologism! it's intuitive, so i bet other people use it, but i don't think it's an official word yet....

okay. back to work, from the back table of http://www.commongroundsoflexington.com . thanks for the existential shot!