Pinboard (robertogreco) https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/ recent bookmarks from robertogreco Assimilation and National Identity in the Classroom - JSTOR Daily 2025-09-25T22:59:31+00:00 https://daily.jstor.org/assimilation-and-national-identity-in-the-classroom/ robertogreco immigration children identity nationality diversity culture belonging assimilation 2025 lauraclawson education schools schooling teaching howweteach pedagogy pluralism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b39ebb9609de/ “We Always Knew He Was Different”: The Gay Life of the World to Come 2025-08-21T18:52:33+00:00 https://bayareacurrent.com/gay-life-of-the-world-to-come/ robertogrecoMeanwhile, the conundrum: monasticism or Marxism? On the one hand I feel a nagging attraction toward spirituality and contemplation that often feels like a retreat from the world. On the other hand, I know that our time calls for collective action that disarms the exploiters and empowers the exploited. The real division is not between religion and sexuality, but between the personal and political realms. Or at least that’s how it feels. Perhaps reconciliation between the two is possible, but it must be a long and patient work. Meanwhile, the conundrum: monasticism or Marxism? At the core of these apparently opposite poles, however, is the desire to help bring a new world into being. The pull in either direction is something like a homesickness for a home we haven’t yet found. I recently tracked this same desire in a very Catholic novel that, it just so happens, I read during pride month: Loss and Gain by John Henry Newman. This year I commemorated pride month by reading a very Catholic novel: Loss and Gain by John Henry Newman. At first I had no idea what a timely selection it was. I soon realized that the book I brought to bed with me each night in June was actually quite gay. Take this scene for example. Charles, the protagonist, returns home after his first year at Oxford University. At a family function his mother and a family friend speculate about Charles’ future. At the center of their speculation is the sensitive, shy, and bookish boy’s lack of obvious interest in girls.
“All will come in time, my dear,” said his mother; “a good son makes a good husband.” “And a very loving papa,” said Mr. Malcolm. “Oh, spare me, sir,” said poor Charles; “how have I deserved this?”
For any habitual reader of gay literature, the subtext is clear enough. Only at his peril will poor Charles make a good husband or a loving papa. Instead, we hope that our young student escapes to the big city and finds a community of fellow outcasts. One can almost hear the retrospective appraisal of childhood acquaintances: we always knew he was different. Charles’ eventual escape alienates him from his family, his academic community, and many of his closest friends. The book’s title gives away the plot: Charles gives way to his deepest longings and, as a result, loses security, the comforts of home, and family bonds, but gains comradeship, fulfillment, and meaning. The author, John Henry Newman, was the most famous English-speaking Catholic convert and cleric of the 19th century in Britain. Loss and Gain, published in 1848, was his first major work following his scandalous conversion. Reading the novel today, it sounds very much like a queer coming-of-age story. At least anecdotally, many queer people in the Bay Area and elsewhere seem to have a newfound interest in spirituality and religion. Some of these people even belong to socialist or communist organizations. What underlies this queer-Catholic-communist convergence, and why are the gay resonances in Newman’s novel so perceptible in our time? To be clear, Loss and Gain is not not a gay story. Newman, whose sainthood Pope Leo just upgraded to ”Doctor of the Church,” [https://apnews.com/article/pope-honor-doctor-john-henry-newman-vatican-457b952840a1f979db3c6980ecf0e79e ] was likely a man with same-sex desire. Scholars don’t question his celibacy, but they cannot ignore his intimate friendship with fellow convert Ambrose St. John. The two men were effectively domestic partners. Of his grief at St. John’s death Newman wrote “I have always thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband’s or a wife’s, but I feel it difficult to believe that anyone’s sorry can be greater than mine.” Before his own death Newman indicated his desire to share a grave with his friend. When Newman rejoined St. John fifteen years later his coffin bore the inscription (in Latin) “heart speaks to heart.”
It is a life of poverty and communion that, like the first Christian community, prefigures a new world: one in which the unity and equality hidden beneath the divisions of the present (race, nationality, gender) is realized.
In Loss and Gain, Charles responds to a calling and allows that call to change him — much like the real Newman. Two forces bind us to what we do: attraction and obligation. We fall in love; we do not will love into being. Love happens to us. Charles leaves everything he knew — Oxford, his family, his church — and goes to London, hoping to happen upon a misfit Catholic community that will embrace him. He foregoes the obligations he cannot fulfill and surrenders to attraction. Charles first hears his calling as a rejection of the life he had. He rejects the roles available to him in the nuclear family. He also rejects the nascent individualism of his time, in which people choose their preferred combinations of personal dogmas from a wide variety of options, as if at a salad bar. Then there arises a positive attraction to a mysterious and alternative way of life. He seeks — to quote a proto-communist passage from the Acts of the Apostles — a life where all things are “held in common.” Charles joins what we would today call “an intentional community” of priests and seminarians. It is a life of poverty and communion that, like the first Christian community, prefigures a new world: one in which the unity and equality hidden beneath the divisions of the present (race, nationality, gender) is realized.
Attacks on recently acquired rights will mean pain and suffering, especially for trans people and people of color. Once again, living the same kinds of lives as straight people may become less possible. Strange as it may sound, Newman’s very Catholic novel can help us glimpse what might be gained from these losses.
Representation and rights-claims used to define queer politics. Rights to marriage and parenthood made it possible for queer people to form nuclear families like those of our straight counterparts. We also gained acceptance as a distinct consumer group, worthy of our own very special marketing campaigns. This year’s exodus of corporate sponsorship from pride festivals, motivated by the fear of blowback from a fascist government rather than yearly calls for “Raytheon out of pride,” indicates our entry into new territory. Attacks on recently acquired rights will mean pain and suffering, especially for trans people and people of color. Once again, living the same kinds of lives as straight people may become less possible. Strange as it may sound, Newman’s very Catholic novel can help us glimpse what might be gained from these losses. [GIF: "John Henry Newman, author of Loss and Gain (Art by James Thacher)"] Friendship holds a decisive place in the narrative of Loss and Gain. Charles first hears the call of a new life among the outcasts at Oxford. Take, for example, the scene in which Charles parts ways with his friend Willis, who has just himself become a Catholic:
It seemed as if the kiss of his friend had conveyed into his own soul the enthusiasm which his words betokened. He felt himself possessed, he knew not how, by a high superhuman power, which seemed able to push through mountains, and to walk the sea.
Late-night conversations with friends and comrades reshape our sense of the possible and what we are capable of. Living on the periphery of the nuclear family, something that queers and people who dedicate themselves to politics often share, primes us for these kinds of encounters. Charles allows himself to be pulled away from the home he knew and toward a home unknown. He is alienated from his origins. But this alienation is not simply a loss. Charles gains a life that looks like a little piece of the world communists and socialists want to bring into being. The same gain is on the table for queer people under the dark skies of today: a life that privileges solidarity and friendship, and heeds the call of the world to come."]]> catholicism catholicchurch communism marxism socialism queer 2025 nickthacker monasteries church catechism baptism confirmation bayarea johnhenrynewman monasticism comradeship fulfillment meaning meaningmaking 1848 spirituality religion popeleoxiv ambrosestjohn celibacy poverty communion unity equality nationality race gender division christianity priests monks rights fascism pain suffering https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b3f3819cf71b/ Palestine is getting relegated to an impermissible viewpoint with Christine Hong and Theresa Montano - YouTube 2025-08-07T02:29:40+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Jms0yCRV0 robertogreco makdisistreet 2025 christinehong theresamontano palestine gaza california racism zionism zionistmccarthyism mccarthyism antisemitism teaching howweteach schools education censorship suppression freespeech repression ethnicstudies ucsc csu calstatenorthridge curriculum publicschools palestineexception israel ussamamakdisi liberation emancipation solidarity 2016 resistance jerrybrown bds occupation settlercolonialism colonialism colonization 2021 antiimperialism self-determination doloreshuerta insuregency gavinnewsom liberalism liberals crt criticalracetheory internationalism chicanostudies chicanomovement capitalism adl antidefamationleague aipac jpac tonythurmond apartheid blackstudies canarymission colleges universities highereducation highered academia encampments edwardsaid nationality ethnicity pep progressiveexceptpalestine erasure kennethstern selfdetermination freedomofspeech calstate anti-imperialism californiastateuniversity https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:32e94d875c70/ How could Pope Leo XIV reshape the Catholic Church? | The Take - YouTube 2025-05-14T19:10:48+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q7EbAMtvjE robertogreco catholicism catholicachurch popeleoxiv robertprevost 2025 hodaabdel-hamid popefrancis us politics religion farright rightwing natashadeltoro chicago change reform immigration populism latinamerica giorgiameloni donaldtrump climatechange climate globalwarming economics europe jdvance stevebannon nationality perú argentina internationalism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e9bb91a25a71/ Citizenship as a Service 2025-04-20T21:38:19+00:00 https://www.combinationsmag.com/citizenship-as-a-service/ robertogreco microstates citizenship 2025 tianyufang saintkittsandnevis caribbean markets capitalism globalization antiguaandbarbuda dominica grenada saintlucia vanuatu southpacific malta cyprus saintkitts nevis antigua barbuda economics samoa belize honduras sierraleone marshallislands canada kirstensurak hannaharendt rights yossiharpaz nationality goldenpassports passports leemoore us financialization diaspora hongkong dubai paris berlin eu digitalnomads panamá shipping caymanislands finance taxes taxevasion taxavoidance anguilla tuvalu domains nyc london postcolonialism jholow malaysia embezzelment russia belarus ukraine northamerica wealth donaldtrump geopolitics regulation sovereignty https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:18ff55664e6e/ How the 'Broligarchs' plan to use Trump 2024-12-17T21:22:30+00:00 https://www.thenerdreich.com/how-thebroligarchs-plan-to-use-trump/ robertogreco 2024 gilduran oligarchy elonmusk politics governance government brookeharrington wealth power colonialism taxevasion socialresponsibility gender donaldtrump maga siliconvalley nerdreich billionaires offshoring authoritarianism technocracy fascism johndrockefeller howardhughes philanthropy blologarchs peterthirl marcandreeessen jeffreyepstein jdvance republicans nationality law legal crypto cryptocurrencies bitcoin democracy katieporter deregulation regulation maxinewaters kamalaharris jacobrees-mogg nato brittanygriner militaryindustrialcomplex palantir coldwar mitchmcconnell georgefloyd blacklivesmatter economics gawker us georgefloydprotests georgefloyduprising tescreal singularity singularitarianism extropianism rationalism cosmism longtermism transhumanism extroprianism effectivealtruism capitalism technofascism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:30c44a622830/ What investigating the Iraq War taught me about Gaza | Les Roberts | The Big Picture S4E13 - YouTube 2024-06-24T17:32:56+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dT-coxTZ_s robertogreco lesroberts nationality starvation palestine gaza israel us sudan congo syria iraq iraqwar 2024 inequality inequity famine war death epidemiology compassion rwanda kosovo bosnia deathtolls politics children statehood oppression press media reporting publichealth politicization 2023 2004 bombing un biafra joebiden humanitarianaid healthcare healthproviders https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:78b27af13d4b/ Debunking Zionist Myths #! - YouTube 2024-06-11T18:37:37+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM2PjDxAlg8 robertogreco makdisistreet palestine israel zionism 2024 sareemakdisi ussamamakdisi karimmakdisi altibawi georgeantonius edwardsaid avishlaim abdelrazzaqtakriti rashidkhalidi ilanpappé bennymorris vladimirjabotinsky ellashohat amnestyinternational oritbashkin shirarobinson colonialism colonization apartheid 1947 1948 settlercolonialism arabs un history uk whitesupremacy dispossession displacement iran turkey india partition 1917 nakba ethniccleansing genocide arabjews 1920s us b’tselem humanrightswatch race racism internationallaw warcrimes settlers westbank gaza citizenship nationality rightofreturn birthright denial denialism jimmycarter escwa antisemitism baghdad iraq judaism islam religion abdullatiftibawi icc icw osloaccords eu unocha ocha supremacty hillaryclinton billclinton twostatesolution self-determination selfdetermination plo democracy yasserarafat occupation jerusalem eastjerusalem righttoreturn türkiye yasirarafat https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:77d2e1b356e3/ José Garcia Villa, an American Poet Ahead of His Time - JSTOR Daily 2024-03-04T21:24:21+00:00 https://daily.jstor.org/jose-garcia-villa-an-american-poet-ahead-of-his-time/ robertogreco joségarciavilla poetry us nationality timothyyu hmaleow mariannemoore modernism poems otherness form structure filipinos elizabethbishop tennesseewilliams eecummings emilydickinson gerardmanleyhopkins williamblake style writing racism race orientalism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8f4f3aabc59f/ Roberto Bolaño: La batalla futura (2016) - YouTube 2023-08-02T22:27:48+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX00WXf06xE robertogreco robertobolaño documentary howwewrite literature novels 2016 chile mexico spain españa reading howweread writing barcelona blanes quilpué catalonia books libraries poetry unschooling deschooling language spanish español memory infrarrealismo pedrolemebel exiles nationality identity latinamerica nicanorparra jorgeherralde rodrigofresán ignacioechevarría álvarobisama polidelario jovanaskármeta marcialcortés-monroy carlosfranz malala gonzalocontreras cristiánwarnken alexandraedwards martamatas carmenboullosa ramónméndez daniuskagonzález beatrizberger rodrigoguijada arturofontaine cataluña https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:23f25cbd24d7/ Anarchism as a Nationality - ahuehuete.org 2022-04-06T04:05:49+00:00 https://ahuehuete.substack.com/p/anarchy-grivera?s=r robertogreco guadaluperivera anarchism nationality border borders 2022 2017 ethnicity race zapatismo zapatistas land movement migration mobility libertarianism feminism socialism pierrejosephproudhon pierreproudhon machismo patriarchy indigeneity indigenous ricardofloresmagón praxédisguerrero pln ezln struggle christianity inclusivity exclusivity pagans movements maori mapuche ikoot juliochávezlópez abyayala mexico geography history autonomy freedom liberty mikhailbakunin peterkropotkin mazunte nations marxism west capitalism nationstates perspective directionality homeland chauvinism ethnocentrism insurrection insurrectionalists bourgeois colonialism colonization whiteness politicalcorrectness government governance humanity eurocentrism urbanization industrialization nigeria africa workerism urban urbanism gronganarchism Māori tallerahuehuete emilianozapata maya chiapas https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:20f750629a70/ Seeing Silicon Valley: Life inside a Fraying America, Meehan, Turner 2021-06-01T23:27:29+00:00 https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo90479007.html robertogreco fredturner 2021 siliconvalley marynethmeehan photography race class nationality segregation history https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:21ace3b745bc/ [Letter from The Dominican Republic] | Displaced in the D.R., by Rachel Nolan | Harper's Magazine 2015-06-17T06:48:28+00:00 http://harpers.org/archive/2015/05/displaced-in-the-d-r/?single=1 robertogreco dominicanrepublic haiti nationality citizenship 2015 rachelnolan statelessness race racism history https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:79e8477984d3/ Homo Sacer | booktwo.org 2014-07-10T10:58:05+00:00 http://booktwo.org/notebook/homo-sacer/ robertogreco visibility invisibility legibility illegibility homesacer 2014 jamesbridle holograms surveillance systems systemsthinking technology law nationality citizenship https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d27490bd97ca/ Twitter, NPR’s Morning Edition, and Dreams of Flatland | metaLAB (at) Harvard 2012-02-22T07:24:12+00:00 http://metalab.harvard.edu/2012/02/twitter-nprs-morning-edition-and-dreams-of-flatland/ robertogreco networks hyperlocal flatness connections place language nationality borders barrywellman shankarvidantam andycarvin tejucole communitites thomasfriedman worldisflat 2012 matthewbattles community twitter sociology socialmedia geography horizontality horizontalidad https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3fef5de451aa/ dConstruct2011 videos: The Transformers, Kars Alfrink 2011-12-28T22:29:50+00:00 http://vzaar.com/channels/dconstruct2011_kars_alfrink robertogreco monocultures rulespace self-governance gamification filterbubble scale tinkering urbanism urban simulationfever animalcrossing simulation ludology proceduralrhetoric ianbogost resilience societalresilience division belonging rioting looting socialconventions situationist playfulness rules civildisobedience separation socialseparation nationality fiction dconstruct2011 dconstruct identity cities chinamieville design space place play gaming games volatility hubbub howbuildingslearn adaptability adaptivereuse architecture transformation gentrification society 2011 riots janejacobs karsalfrink simulations chinamiéville https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d6858b5f8262/ Exotic Enemies Remain Married | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com 2009-04-16T04:19:01+00:00 http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/04/exotic-enemies.html robertogreco brucesterling borders nationality globalcitizens global world internations life cv glvo politics bureaucracy immigration migration identity https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:bf408101b3d6/ BLDGBLOG: Baarle-Hertog 2008-07-16T06:56:02+00:00 http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/baarle-hertog.html robertogreco identity maps mapping nationality belgium netherlands place micronations geography borders https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8fd5b479ce10/