Reasons for Joy #144: Arundhati Roy

A few months ago, I got to sit on a panal and discuss the merits of Carbon Trading verses Carbon Taxes. I think I botched the job, being poorly prepared, unrehearsed and far too logical, so logical infact that the majority of my speaking time was in establishing the decision rule, and leaving no time to discuss the decision itself.
Fortunately, my fellow youth panal speakers weren't that moving anyway either dropping the appointed topic or reading straight from a printout sheet.
But one of them was hot, and my good friend Kirk remarked that the english language is lacking a specific word for hot girls that are also environmentally/socially conscious. I'm inclined to agree, and recognise that it is an intergender issue, as hot can be liberrally applied to both man and woman, so should any subcategory.
But I think there is a point there, a joyous point, labradorian in nature.
Whilst I recognised Kirk's point and had no counter for it, nor could I thinkk up an appropriate word to fill the said diffeciency. Even now my best attempt would be 'sustainably hot' which I feel far too misleading for one, and horribly cliched for another.
But Kirk and I share another point of view, from the same organisation that we both donate time too, I was introduced through the documentary 'drowned out' to what I believe to be the love of my life. My ultimate, the mould from which all women should be cast: Arundhati Roy.
Immeadiately after seeing the documentary, like some fanboy of jessica alba I went out and bought her book the next day. Which I have recounted here in the past.
What I didn't recount was that at some later engagement the name got mentioned and Kirk being a man of impeccable taste remarked 'she's going to be my wife, I have it all planned' or some such, and then related more or less the exact same story as my own.
Now ironically I have realised that most of the positive people in this world I hold up here in my blog for the average 5 people a day to read about and learn, are infact people who are among the best in the world at criticising something or other. And I guess the lesson is that criticism can be an incredibly positive thing, if it is the lever that moves the stones of ignorance in our hearts, and the beaver that gnaws through the forrest of hate in our minds.
Take for example this excerpt from 'Come September' an article I recommend reading in full:

Recently, those who have criticized the actions of the U.S. government (myself included) have been called "anti-American." Anti-Americanism is in the process of being consecrated into an ideology.

The term "anti-American" is usually used by the American establishment to discredit and, not falsely - but shall we say inaccurately - define its critics. Once someone is branded anti-American, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they are heard, and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride.

But what does the term "anti-American" mean? Does it mean you are anti-jazz? Or that you're opposed to freedom of speech? That you don't delight in Toni Morrison or John Updike? That you have a quarrel with giant sequoias? Does it mean that you don't admire the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who marched against nuclear weapons, or the thousands of war resisters who forced their government to withdraw from Vietnam? Does it mean that you hate all Americans?

This sly conflation of America's culture, music, literature, the breathtaking physical beauty of the land, the ordinary pleasures of ordinary people with criticism of the U.S. government's foreign policy (about which, thanks to America's "free press", sadly most Americans know very little) is a deliberate and extremely effective strategy. It's like a retreating army taking cover in a heavily populated city, hoping that the prospect of hitting civilian targets will deter enemy fire.

But there are many Americans who would be mortified to be associated with their government's policies. The most scholarly, scathing, incisive, hilarious critiques of the hypocrisy and the contradictions in U.S. government policy come from American citizens. When the rest of the world wants to know what the U.S. government is up to, we turn to Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Howard Zinn, Ed Herman, Amy Goodman, Michael Albert, Chalmers Johnson, William Blum and Anthony Amove to tell us what's really going on.

At the moment I am studying the phenomena of nihonjinron which infact has been in vogue in Japan much longer than the use of Unamerican or unaustralian. If Arundhati Roy where to dedicate her life to the study of this linguistic phenomena, or psychoanalytic manifestation of group theory whence by you come up with a term that in itself is impossible to define except by exception.
eg.
tohm: 'I like to play basketball.'
other: 'I like basketball too, whose your favorite player?'
tohm: 'I got lot's but Jordan is the best, I'm kind of partial to Kobe though'
other: 'Kobe is good but he's no Jordan, he's nothing without Shaq'
tohm: 'But to be fair, Jordan more or less proved in his physical prime that he alone was not enough to win a championship, he needed scotty pippen in that supporting role'
other: 'you're not a real Jordan fan.'

The above is the basketball equivalent arguement of 'what's the matter tohm, don't you love freedom?' it is probably true that Kobe is no Jordan. Kobe may infact be more talented than Jordan but mentally weaker. Jordan by contrast may just be the complete package, of genes, talent and mental fortitude.
But the point is that Arundhati Roy beats both, I often am so overwhelmed with righteous joy at her writings, scathing though they may be that often I find it hard to finish reading them in one sitting. And she's hot too.
She is the sort of consciousness raising individual that makes you feel more comfortable in the world, not alone or isolated, when you feel insane in the face of popular opinion, her words reassure you that you are infact quite sane.
Having such a person open her mouth, not to sing soothing candy* pop shite, but to stimulate the mind to greater ambition is incredibly fortuitous to the human race at large.
And being fortunate is something to be joyful about. That is my joy offering for the day. (who am I kidding I can't keep this up)

*I refer also to reasons for Joy #71: Phife Dawg who so wisely critiqued -
Straight from the heart, I represent hip hop
I be three albums deep, but I don't wanna go pop
Too many candy rappers seem to be at the top
Too much candy is no good, so now I'm closin the shop