A nice coincidence that this movie would be the next on our Netflix-list after Dirty Harry – this is the movie Dirty Harry should have been (of course that’s somewhat unfair, considering the time gap, but would Harry want me to be fair? There). Where Eastwoods cop sets out to right wrongs in a very private moral (or lack-of-moral) code, this movie unfolds as a giant tragedy, where we can have empathy with everybody, even as they do things that are wrong to begin with, and turn out even worse. “I know you’re a good guy” says the vengeful industrialist in the climactic scene, “so you’ll understand why I have to kill you”. So do we, caught in the same violent logic, and as unable to escape it as any of the characters. Terrific and terrifying.

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It’s a classic among vigilante movies, the best of the series it spawned, and it has Clint Eastwood in it, playing a socially disconnected moralizing force of one, dealing revenge and retribution without restraint. That setup works in Leone’s Man With No Name series, probably in part because of the cool, detached direction and abstraction of the old west setting, but also because we are never supposed to take Eastwood’s side in those. I wanted to rewatch Dirty Harry because it’s set in San Francisco, quickly realized I had never seen it before, and found myself distracted from the sweeping views of bay and bridge by the manipulative moralizing message that weaves through the film. Mores are crumbling, and with a weak justice system unable to keep the depravity in check, men like Harry have to clean up, and get dirty in the process, a dark avenger, protecting us all. Feel reactionary today, punk?

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The Society for Neuroscience announces it’s most prominent speaker at this year’s meeting, plus a few special considerations:

“Special security procedures will be in effect, as directed by the U.S. State Department Office of Diplomatic Security, which provides security for the Dalai Lama when he is in the United States. We have been advised that each registrant attending the lecture will have to be screened by walking through a metal detector prior to entering Hall D, and will have to remove metal objects from their pockets and bags prior to passing through the metal detector.”

“For security reasons, the State Department asks that you not approach the podium or the microphones during the lecture. Those attendees in Hall D will be given cards when passing through the security check.”

“Beginning at 2 p.m., traffic flow within the convention center will change in preparation for the lecture.”

The title of the lecture is “The Neuroscience of Meditation”. Feel calm already?

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