More Cornell West Notes

He talked about having a tragic-comic blues sensibility towards the world. He named a couple of names, the only one's I knew were Bessie Smith and John Coltrane. The idea is to be able to smile and laugh in the face of tragedy rather than allow ourselves to get wrapped up in hate and revenge. He talked about blues artists as individual practitioners of democracy. We talked about comedy in directing class the other day, and our brilliant professor, Eugene talked about how great comedy often becomes tragic, pointing to Charlie Chaplin's movies, when you are laughing at him, laughing with him, and then crying because it's funny and moving and tragic all at the same time. I felt similar about the film Sideways - so painful and sad and funny all at the same time. If I can make movies or anything in this model, well, I'd be happy.

He also talked about not being a pacifist and about fighting what he calls gangsterizm everywhere. He talked about WWII, in which he would have fought with the allies against the evil Hitler, despite the US Army being racist and segregated. He talked about how he would have fought with George Washington against Britain, and George III, an imperial power...but then he would also have fought with his "Red" brothers against the United States as we massacred the Indian people. I don't necessarily agree with him on who I would fight in each specific case(I wish someone would have asked where he stood on Iraq), but I love his logic and reasoning and completely agree with fighting for the lesser of two evils. He understands democracy as the best solution to insoluble problems - and it is this logic that ought to permeate our public debate.