APA Resolution--Members Do Torture--NOT!!!

The American Psychological Association passed a resolution by vote to bar members from taking part in torture.

I applaud them!

More and more social scientists have, for various reasons, joined with governments to play an active part in programs, projects, and campaigns. It has always seemed to me that the ethical and intellectual risks of such participation are great and grave.

(I am educated as a cultural anthropologist. Back when I was in a Big 10 school, we studied something called applied anthropology, which revolved around what anthropologists did and could do for government and corporate projects. Heleter skelter, I had to mull this stuff over a little.)

Here's how I see it--The optimal relationship with government activities is something on the order of observation from a morally grounded distance. Even when that moral distance may involve non-participation in government activities or resistance to the government activities.

Here's a link from Open Anthropology:

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http://openanthropology.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/apa-votes-to-ban-participation-in-torture/

Musing What A Homeland? Rose,

Pitch

One Reason I Haven't Blogged So Much

One reason that I haven't blogged so much in the past several months--although not the only one--has to do with Blogger/Google. Like others, I've had an ongoing hassle with the sign-on process. I could sign-on to Google Reader, which I use to track about 50 Pagan-themed blogs, but I could not sign on to Blogger, which is the host of this blog.

So no blogging out of sheer frustration at not being able to access the backstage creative area of the app.

For unknown reasons, I can now sign-on to Blogger. More posts to come.

RED & BLUE Pagans

I gotta say that. much as I want to go at politics from a secular foundation, these days the religious affiliations and/or spiritual inclinations of candidates and office holders do interest me, concern me. Some affiliations tend to be less tolerant--even intolerant--of other affiliations. It seems to me that a candidate coming from a spiritual warfare church might well, if she or he came to power, repress Pagan religious freedoms. Or that one coming from a liberal church might promote them.

FWIW, I try not to divide Pagans into red vs. blue or whatever, trusting that our common stake in religious expression overarches these kinds of memberships. Maybe it's just me, but I won't put party loyalty in front of my Paganism.