Quixotic Perspectives

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times is one of my favorite columnists. He is one of their “Premium” columnists behind their firewall, which I know many refuse to pay for. But for columnists like Kristof, Krugman, and Rich, I’m willing to pay.

In his Sunday column, Kristof returns to the subject of violence in the Darfur region of Sudan, which is now spilling over into Chad. Kristof had invited Bill O’Reilly to join him on a trip to Darfur, and even received over $700,000 in pledges from readers to sponsor O’Reilly’s trip (a round trip – I imagine the pledges might have been even more to leave O’Reilly there).

Bill O’Reilly refused to join me on this trip, passing up the $727,000 that my readers had pledged to sponsor his trip to Darfur. But Ann Curry of the “Today” show and a top-notch NBC crew did travel with me on this trip. Unlike Bill, Ann didn’t flinch at traveling in janjaweed-infested areas or at staying in a primitive $4-a-night “hotel” with no plumbing. (O.K., she did shudder just a little at the wildlife in the hotel’s outhouse.) If you want to break your heart, watch her reports beginning tomorrow – and ABC and CBS, where are you?

This trip took Kristof and Curry to Koloy, Chad.

Politely but insistently, the people in this town explained that they were about to be massacred.

President Bush is showing signs that he may be ready to stand up to the thugs in Sudan, but China is protecting Sudan, Europe is inert, and the African Union can’t even muster the courage to call for immediate U.N. peacekeepers. So the people here are probably right to resign themselves to be slaughtered – if not sooner, then later.

This entire area gets no visits from diplomats and no help from the U.N. or aid groups, because it is too risky. Only one organization, Doctors Without Borders, sticks it out, sending in a convoy of intrepid doctors three days a week to pull bullets out of victims.

The people of Koloy are still waiting to be massacred. Think for a moment what it would be like to huddle with your family every day, paralyzed by fear, waiting for the end.

And then remember that all this can be stopped. You can go to www.millionvoicesfordarfur.org and send a postcard to President Bush, encouraging him to do more. At www.genocideintervention.net, you can find a list of “10 things you can do right now.”

Maybe it seems that you have no real power to change anything in Koloy, but, frankly, right now you’re the only hope that the people in Koloy have.

There are many things happening in the world around us that make us feel powerless, and stories like those that trickle out of Darfur can top the list. At times it seems like Kristof’s is a lonely voice in a dark and hostile wilderness. But I have read his work and I have seen people respond to his calls for action. Sometimes it is a collection of thousands of little actions that are necessary to make the difference.

For those that subscribe to Times Select, you can read Kristof’s full column here.

Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be!
- Don Quixote via Wikiquote

I have a friend who thinks I have misnamed this site. I don’t think she understands the reference and thinks its too obscure.

From the musical Man of la Mancha , “To dream an impossible dream,” and “Dulcinea ” are beautiful pieces of music. I’ve been able to see the whole musical once and have come across bits and pieces of it several times. I have also read a significant portion of the first book in Tobias Smollett’s translation, but haven’t gotten to the second book.

The thing I most admire about the story is its simultaneous simplicity and complexity. Much of Don Quixote’s actions are utter folly, but even so, he succeeds in changing the world around him. Over the course of the story, there is incredible movement in the characters, particularly in how the roles of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza flip.

Reality can change based on our perceptions. Sometimes by stretching our perceptions, we can achieve previously unimagined acts of beauty. I think some of the most rewarding times in our lives will be spent tilting at windmills.

If you’re not familiar with the story, you can read more about it at Wikipedia. If you’d like to go further, you can read the story online here. If you’re interested, I would definitely recommend seeing a musical version of the story.

In another life it seems, I majored in philosophy as an undergrad. In particular. I was drawn to 19th and 20th century continental existential and phenomenological thinkers. While there are many notable philosophers here, for me, Soren Kierkegaard stands out.

Before going further, let me note that I will make no claim to any great depth of philosophical study. In the course of my undergraduate work, rarely did we read texts cover-to-cover. Instead, we would read fragments, chapters or segments that would bring up key points, and then we would explore those thoughts.

I bring up Kierkegaard at this time for a couple of reasons: first for his use of pseudonymous authorship, and second for his rigorous pursuit of a self-defined authenticity toward his understanding of his own identity. Most scholars view each pseudonym to have a unique voice. Further, most do not believe that the aggregation of pseudonymous views could be compiled somehow to arrive at Kierkegaard’s personal views.

Regarding authenticity, Kierkegaard was a Christian who didn’t want his identity as Christian to be defined by church authorities with whom he disagreed. This desire went so far that he famously declared that he did not want to be buried in a church cemetery.

Johannes Climacus was the pseudonymous name Kierkegaard used in one of the texts I studied. As I recall from my studies of so long ago, Kierkegaard admonished others that his was a personal journey and we should not follow him. While I admire and would like to emulate the style, I do not want to duplicate his steps or reinterpret the meaning of his work for eternity. It evolves with the changing relationship of author and reader to the work over time through different experiences.

To represent personal changes in authorship perspectives, I will sometimes use the handle Impossible Dreamer, and other times J.C., in deference to Kierkegaard. Though I have a notion what each will represent, I expect that may also change over time.

J.C.