It's been nearly a year.

In today's post- post-modernist society the human being will at some point, to one degree or another question it's place in the world to one degree or another. It might be anywhere on the spectrum, dependent almost entirely on that particular person's education, social class, upbringing. Taking perhaps a post post modernist approach toward the human being I find it safe, or at the very least comforting to state that aside from genetics whose impact is enormous though not insurmountable the human being is tabula rasa and writes their own story in life-is their own storyteller. We all write our lives down on a piece of paper, second by second, no different than any figure in any literary novel. I can of course hear the protestations, "but I'm real!" to which I respond, for the sake of argument and for right now, you are, but after you're dead and some millennia pass, you won't be and very little to nothing you did will be remembered so no, if you're lucky you'll be a memorable story, if not, which is more likely, you'll be a mediocre one.

In this era which has been analyzed and dissected ad nauseum to perhaps no or little avail I am cheered not by empty words like hope and change. frankly my hope is that hope and change never come. Words like this are complete claptrap, devoid of all meaning, mind numbing statist nationalistic propaganda muttered-No! declared with complete confidence as to their complete and unarguable truth with a capital T!, mind you.

While in prison Antonio Gramsci predicted, "The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters". In "Revolt And Crisis In Greece" Dimitris Dalakoglou and Antonis Vradis write, "We remember Gramsci, but we remember what a "monster" is to begin with: it is a hybrid living being-usually part human-part animal. The fear it induces in humans is precisely due to its resemblance to them. In the film Red Dragon Hannibal Lecter, in a letter to FBI agent Will Graham writes, "We live in a primitive time, don't we, Will? Neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. A rational society would either kill me or put me to some use." These few sentences bring rise the suspicion of some darkness, some savagery, as well as complete unwillingness to confront face to face our own self. We deny the very existence of this prospect, that we are not as civilized as we tell ourselves. We are not as humane as we tell ourselves. We are not as nice as we tell ourselves. In fact most of us hide beneath a thinly self constructed veneer of fibs we construct for ourselves in order to just function as a useful cog in society. Most ancient societies, which we think of savage now, or less just, dealt with this aspect of humanity in a more direct fashion. The ancient greeks had theatre, which were put on during the day, in the open air, sponsored by the state, not at night in a "theatre", and never free. Topics like cannibalism, incest, war, suicide, murder, were brought to light. If a politician, for example, broke the law or just did something the populous disapproved of, they were imprisoned, banished, or killed. In today's society our politicians are tephlon coated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jan/28/human-rights-tarnac-nine

Sopa & Pipa

Hush and blowjob. That's what these acronyms sound like in Greek and I believe this is telling. These bills are another two examples of government overreaching into a realm where they do not belong and should not control. The internet is the most amazing tool invented in our century hands down and government wants to take hold of it and tell you and me and everyone else what they can see. Government want to take that decision away from you and put it in their own hands and in the hands of corporations. It's your decision.

Aristotle and Politics, and Repeat, and Repeat, and Repeat, and . . .

The return of a friend from abroad has re-sparked my desire to write. Some years ago, he was your average american, ie, a deft creation of ignorance and apathy. Today, he is considerably more well informed and, who knows, he may actually give a shit. The reason why I bring him up is because the subject, and the word, friend, has been weighing heavily on my mind for many months. I've been having an existentialist crisis and have been consulting the "experts". I've been doing an enormous amount of reading. "What is Called Thinking? by Heidegger, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Nietzsche, "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Camus. In order to liven it up a little I began to read "The World as Will and Representation" by the greatest optimist (wink)of all time, Schopenhauer. (If you got that joke, good. Hi Lenz. If not, you...um, well, you missed it.) As Whitehead said (I'm paraphrasing)- all philosophy is a footnote to Plato. Because the problems of friendship, life, love, happiness, have been tackled by greater minds than our own when they sat down and thought of these things long ago, I find myself going back to the Ancient Greeks. Aristotle said a friend is one soul in two bodies. This is poignant to me because if one follows this statement through, friends who cease being friends are tearing a soul apart.

It turns out Aristotle was pretty damn smart. He wrote something called Politics which of course has no rival except maybe the Republic (Plato). Aristotle looked at all political systems in his book, and basically comes to the conclusion that he didn't like any of them and they all sucked, which in my eyes begs the question, Aristotle came to this conclusion a long time ago. Aristotle basically defined western civilization (no really) as we know it today, why hasn't anyone ran with this conclusion?



P.S.

The above picture is Heraclitus correctly pronounced EE-RA-KLEE-TOS.
In response to my rhetorical question (which Aristotle literally wrote the book on) my answer is Πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει.
Speaking of responses, in response to Whitehead's quote about Plato, G.E.M. Anscombe said that all philosophy is a footnote to Parmenides. Leave it to a woman to split hairs and play dirty.

The Case of Sagging Pants

Dress is something foremost in the human mind. The human animal wakes and gets dressed. Dressing is protection against weather and simultaneously a form of self expression and these two worlds overlap except for extreme cases. Lady Gaga would not wear one of her couture outfits to her gym for example and would not wear jeans and dirty t shirt to the funeral of a close relative or friend. I use her as an example only.

This entry is about sagging pants. Recently an acquaintance uploaded a YouTube video about really skinny jeans, discussing their effeminacy and even their sexuality. Now I don't mean baggy pants that sag, but pants worn purposely (with a belt!) under the ass with their undergarments in full view. I, don't care a flip about your boxers but if I did, I'd ask so put you damn pants on please. Men just like women like their pants to say something about them but what do sagging pants say beside, "I think this is a fashion statement." Their are many fashion habits I look at confused because of aesthetics but none due to functionality.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Thirty three or When Nietzsche threw up.

The miracle of stupidity. This is the sentence that pronounces itself in my head when I see a film as simple and as false as "When Nietzsche Wept". Anyone with any interest in psychotherapy or Nietzsche should avoid this stench of a film. How such stupid films are made to see the light of day are beyond any rational explanation. If someone recommends that you see this film I suggest you either beat them over the head with something heavy (The Will to Power) or run away and forget you ever knew them. Perhaps pinch yourself as hard as you can and repeat the mantra, "I hate you." (Nietzsche's psychological advice to his doctor on how to get rid of the love for his ex-patient in the film.)

My only genuine question here, is: "How did author of the book, Irvin D. Yalom come up with such an insipid novel, he being an accomplished existentialist and psychotherapist?"

Thirty Two or The World is hiccuping, what do I do?

It is more difficult living in today's world than at any other time in history. In times past, the world was "bigger", but that has been changing since the industrial revolution and today's technological advances have shrunk the world into a small ball.

Earthquakes and tsunamis and radiation in Japan, civil wars in Africa, Orwell's 1984 in North Korea, Canada's government has shut down- not that it's sent shockwaves out into the world- causing me to think that life without the state is quite possible in our times. Then there is the middle east. Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, are just some of the countries where citizens are in an uproar protesting, demanding democracy, justice, and equality in their governments now. The shady dealings of Euro-American imperialistic greed is finally seeing the fruits of it's "labor". With people being shot point blank in the head in Yemen to people to tens of thousands of people feared dead in Japan as citizens of the world, and citizens of the US, a pang in our conscience brings rise to an air of helplessness. The question arises, "What do I do?" or "What CAN I do?"

The answer is simple and uncomplicated. Get involved. There is plenty you can do as Americans, where we still live in one of the freest societies in the world despite the government's efforts to quash those freedoms on a regular basis. Spending your time on Facebook or worshiping at the altar of some sports team, however, will amount to naught, and life that's not fought for is not worth living.