An article that caught my attention a few months ago titled "Use Your Illusions " (yes, a cheap knock off of the G'nR album ) by Slavoj Zizek in the Nov./Dec., 2008 edition of London Review of Books interestingly shows how the international left views the political landscape in the United States.

We often discuss the issue of ‘Climate Change’ on this site, but I for one always felt slightly intimidated by the science. The problem of where to find primers and reports I found to be one of the biggest obstacles in furthering my own understanding of this topic.

I have gathered in this diary some of the necessary studies for not only discussing this issue, but to comprehend the basics of the problem we are faced with. This diary will serve as a ‘wiki’ for our future debates and perhaps some fun recreational reading for that Fall vacation.

Feel free to add any other resources you discover in the comments below.

Proust in his epic, In Search of Lost Time , discusses the idea of identity. One of the themes that becomes apparent while reading Proust is that identity often emerges not from some self-creation, but from what others construct about you. In other words, your identity is not so much about what you think of yourself, but of what others think about you. Your identity is built upon the construction of details, qualities, and characterizations others impose upon you. (Kundera also explores this issue in his novels Identity and Immortality .) This idea is shown more clearly in biographies of historical figures. Biographers must pick and choose events in another’s life they feel are most pertinent and frame the identity of the person around these specific events. Often times there will be contradictory accounts. For example, Napoleon was often condemned shortly after his exile and death by many biographers for ravaging the greater European continent. More recent biographers tend to focus only on his military strategies and view him in a more positive light. Napoleon did not have as much input about his own life compared to what others said about him after his death.

(Due to the recent debate regarding the use and abuse of the term ‘political correctness,’ I thought I would write a diary rather than answer the multitude of points I thought needed addressing from the comments.)

“The interdependence of thought and speech makes it clear that languages are not so much a means of expressing truth that has already been established, but are a means of discovering truth that was previously unknown. Their diversity is a diversity not of sounds and signs but of ways of looking at the world.” ~ Karl Kerenyi

Referential Language