I defend my thesis in 11 hours

I could not wake up today at all. I finally went out after 7:00 and got some coffee. Now I'm wide awake. Which is just as well as the dog has an upset stomach and keep wanting to go outside. Just to eat more and more and more grass. Lovely standing outside in the cold while my dog grazes so she can induce barfing all over the living room after I finally go to bed.

One of the coffee jerks (what's the male version of "barista"? Can I just modify the term "soda jerk"?) was a Catholic seminarian but is now considering his options. He seems to want to go back, but he's having a crisis of theology. Talked to him about theology until a quarter to midnight. The coffee shop closed at 9:00. (It's funny that I've read more theology than a seminarian, but he wasn't very far in when he dropped out, so it's not really fair of me to say this even as an aside. (I want to post something later about God's status as an alien other (crit theory thoughts from the aptly named Scarry)))

All human institutions become corrupt. They get past some certain size and then they become more about maintaining the organization, maintaining the hierarchy and service to power. It's funny. I was talking to the seminarian who seemed to beleive that the church ought to be an exception. And then a communist I know explained that labor unions are somehow exempt because they're serving the proletariat. (If you're at the top of a union that's been established for a while, you're not the proletariat anymore. You're a bourgeoise bureaucrat. But that's neither here nor there.) It's funny how faith and pseudo-religious ideas make people think they've found an exception to human nature. Power corrupts. This is why I've got anarchist leanings. You can't fight human nature, so you have to find structures that are harder to abuse.

I defend my thesis tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Tag: Celesteh