The mind in its weird way of functioning demands that things are done in its own rhythm and way. The focus for work needs to be cradled out of the perfect alignment of sleep, rest, caffeine and sugar.
Sleeping is no different and the elements that have to align are not dissimilar, tiredness, mental rest, food and drink all contribute to the right process but if the mind refuses to sleep the stars can be aligned that you will not.
Helping in those matters an old hobby of mine came to the rescue. The sounds of what surrounds me are elements of solace are the elements that earth me. Some are of trips others are homely all of them formed part of my life daily or otherwise in the months since my last post.
Enjoy, and sweet dreams.
You can find them all here.
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Friday, May 16, 2014
9 Stances of 1ism
The Last few months have offered a special time to look back and observe life.
Observe it in its most peculiar way and from a very close distance. When that happens little time is left to think or ponder about what is going on. When that happens the aftermath is usually a rich experience in which a lot of things come together fuse and unify. Those moments can take several shapes and usually they have come in the shape of texts, but this time I wanted to do something different.
I made the 9 stances of 1ism, and old crazy project that has been around for a while. You can listen to it here.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Back to an old turf
As of late, owing to certain twists and turns in my existence, I have found myself in anther city having a completely different routine.
It all started with the Telepathic sessions but since all is still ongoing I found myself with the opportunity to go back to an old passion of mine, radio. So I made a small 10 minute segment which aired in the show of a friend of mine over at mycy a Cypriot radio station. The show is in Greek except for my segment which starts around minute 41. You can listen to it here.
And here goes a gratuitous pick of the city I am in. Just for those who wonder where on earth I could be.
It all started with the Telepathic sessions but since all is still ongoing I found myself with the opportunity to go back to an old passion of mine, radio. So I made a small 10 minute segment which aired in the show of a friend of mine over at mycy a Cypriot radio station. The show is in Greek except for my segment which starts around minute 41. You can listen to it here.
And here goes a gratuitous pick of the city I am in. Just for those who wonder where on earth I could be.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Transmission 3
Homo sacer, Lamella, or pure life, devoid of any rights. Those are words and concepts I would much later learn, but right now in my void emptiness something had changed. There was something, and that something felt very unique.
In fact I was feeling myself. I was feeling that there was a dividing boundary, that there was a craving to fill my insides with whatever it was that was in the outside. And that further I could not keep it in, still and quiet, I needed to empty it. One transition giving way to the next, one only being fulfilled by the other, and the other only being possible because of the one.
There was no consciousness of any state, just the transitions. My insides did not feel full or empty, they just needed to be filled or emptied. No awareness of the end result, only of the transition. Only of the action, not of the purpose of it. I did not inhale to fill my insides, I inhaled because I had to. I did not exhale to empty my insides, I exhaled because I had to.
I was being driven, my will, whatever that may be, was of no importance to any of this. I could not stop breathing, I could not stop crying, I could not change the way I did nay of this. I was trapped in something, that though I had no control over was telling me what it was doing. And I could not stop that information from arriving. Who, what or how could I ask for it to stop. There was nothing but me, and I just was.
In fact I was feeling myself. I was feeling that there was a dividing boundary, that there was a craving to fill my insides with whatever it was that was in the outside. And that further I could not keep it in, still and quiet, I needed to empty it. One transition giving way to the next, one only being fulfilled by the other, and the other only being possible because of the one.
There was no consciousness of any state, just the transitions. My insides did not feel full or empty, they just needed to be filled or emptied. No awareness of the end result, only of the transition. Only of the action, not of the purpose of it. I did not inhale to fill my insides, I inhaled because I had to. I did not exhale to empty my insides, I exhaled because I had to.
I was being driven, my will, whatever that may be, was of no importance to any of this. I could not stop breathing, I could not stop crying, I could not change the way I did nay of this. I was trapped in something, that though I had no control over was telling me what it was doing. And I could not stop that information from arriving. Who, what or how could I ask for it to stop. There was nothing but me, and I just was.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Transmission 2
The plate was packed to the rim, steaming hot sitting on top of the table in the small cold room. The day outside was bright, but windy and cold. So cold the humid locked house felt just slightly warmer than the outside. He sat at the chair in front of the plate, and shoveled steaming spoonfuls of chicken rice and fried fish in absolute frenzy. The steam from his breath mixing briefly with the steam coming from the spoonful that he was shoveling in.
He did not flinch at the temperature of the food, as if his mouth, like him, was devoid of any feeling. Shoveling food in as if filling the whole inside. There was no purpose to the eating, he just ate. No attention was paid to the dog that was standing on its hind legs waiting for scraps to fall. The chewing was tough and restless, not hurried nor purposeful. As if in every spoonful from the heaped plate his life depended on.
Bread was then grabbed by the mouthful, barely leaving time for the spoonful of rice to be swallowed. Chewing was being alive, and it could not stop. Any stoppage in that activity was the end of the world, so the split second there was some room in the mouth it was filled with another heaped spoonful, or another mouthful of bread. More steam coming out of the plate mixing with the exhalation, mixing the inside and the outside as a single continuous.
Eating as if the void was never filled.
Eating as tomorrow may never come.
Eating as his life depended on it.
After the plate was emptied, he reached for an apple. Snapped the twig from its top and bit into it with a thunderous crunch. There again mastication was a costly process that could not be interrupted, chewing non stop in the same cadence as if the apple had committed the most horrible sin of existence and needed to be redeemed.
As if death by mastication was the only penalty for the mere crime of existence.
As if he was the only judge, juror and executioner in the world.
All living and formerly living matter left for his perusal and enjoyment.
Life for the sake of life, for the sake of his own existence, all was there to be devoured.
All was there to satisfy his only craving, the filling of his inner void.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Transmission 1
My eyes opened, I opened my mouth and felt a very unique sensation.
I became aware of a hole in the middle of my face, there was nothing underneath and between my eyes, the outside and the inside where connected somehow.
Even those ideas were unclear to me, what was inside, what was outside.
The inside was itching, I became aware that the inside was there, because of how it reacted to the outside that had gotten in.
Then I made a noise louder than anything else.
I was aware, somehow, that I made the noise but I had no control over it.
I had to expel the outside, and that, I somehow knew how to do it.
Then an ocker smell filled my insides.
My insides now filled with that ocker smell where itching even more.
I carried on crying only interrupting my cry to gasp at the outside and try and grab as much of it as possible to fill my inside.
As if my insides where empty and all that I could do was try to fill that void.
As if it was necessary, somehow for my insides to be filled, regardless that they itched.
Regardless that the itch was unbearable and I had to eject the outside that had gotten in.
I gasped again, as my eyes closed, filled my lungs again, the inside was constrained, then I cried again loud as to release my inside from the itch.
As I was gasping for air another sensation appeared, it sat outside me, it was a repetitive unorganised noise, many years later I would recognise it as a thunderous noise, as a noise close to a thing called rain.
Yet through my eyes I only saw bright light. Nothing more that a bright light.
The sound was omnipresent I could only hear it during my gasps, my crying drowning it entirely.
I cried and gasped from what seemed like an eternity, in fact for a whole lifetime.
For the whole of my lifetime so far.
Then I could not hear a thing, I was back where I came from.
What had that all been?
I re-lived the sensations, now with more calm.
As if They where not in the boundary, as if the outside and the inside where just abstract notions.
As if all was a drill, as if all was being told to me without a language, but I was not experiencing it.
Then all became dark and uneventful.
This unbounded continuity was what I was accustomed to, How things had always been.
I had no idea of even what I was, let alone consider the who that I would become later on.
This infinity, was my home, this void was what I was.
No boundary, no sensation, nothing but an awareness of existence.
That was perhaps the weirdest of all, where was that awareness coming from.
What had that ocker smell been?
What was it all about?
What was it in the first place?
How had all of this appeared in the void?
I became aware of a hole in the middle of my face, there was nothing underneath and between my eyes, the outside and the inside where connected somehow.
Even those ideas were unclear to me, what was inside, what was outside.
The inside was itching, I became aware that the inside was there, because of how it reacted to the outside that had gotten in.
Then I made a noise louder than anything else.
I was aware, somehow, that I made the noise but I had no control over it.
I had to expel the outside, and that, I somehow knew how to do it.
Then an ocker smell filled my insides.
My insides now filled with that ocker smell where itching even more.
I carried on crying only interrupting my cry to gasp at the outside and try and grab as much of it as possible to fill my inside.
As if my insides where empty and all that I could do was try to fill that void.
As if it was necessary, somehow for my insides to be filled, regardless that they itched.
Regardless that the itch was unbearable and I had to eject the outside that had gotten in.
I gasped again, as my eyes closed, filled my lungs again, the inside was constrained, then I cried again loud as to release my inside from the itch.
As I was gasping for air another sensation appeared, it sat outside me, it was a repetitive unorganised noise, many years later I would recognise it as a thunderous noise, as a noise close to a thing called rain.
Yet through my eyes I only saw bright light. Nothing more that a bright light.
The sound was omnipresent I could only hear it during my gasps, my crying drowning it entirely.
I cried and gasped from what seemed like an eternity, in fact for a whole lifetime.
For the whole of my lifetime so far.
Then I could not hear a thing, I was back where I came from.
What had that all been?
I re-lived the sensations, now with more calm.
As if They where not in the boundary, as if the outside and the inside where just abstract notions.
As if all was a drill, as if all was being told to me without a language, but I was not experiencing it.
Then all became dark and uneventful.
This unbounded continuity was what I was accustomed to, How things had always been.
I had no idea of even what I was, let alone consider the who that I would become later on.
This infinity, was my home, this void was what I was.
No boundary, no sensation, nothing but an awareness of existence.
That was perhaps the weirdest of all, where was that awareness coming from.
What had that ocker smell been?
What was it all about?
What was it in the first place?
How had all of this appeared in the void?
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Ode to the geek
The true power of the geek is that of being capable of taking ownership of its environment and circumstances, and not be afraid to introduce the changes that may be necessary. This ownership is not exercised in a tyrannical myopic and destructive way, but rather in a comprehensive way. In a way in which the scratch complements the itch, and fulfils it, but does not leave a rash behind. This is due to a profound understanding of the space in which the itch is present.
The myopic decision-making that generally contributes to the destruction out of an over simplification or of a fiduciary drive disregards the itch in order to consider it as an opportunity. This difference from itch to opportunity is what has driven a lot of the big business but it fails to take place in a world in which to be in touch with reality, the reality that incommensurable values bring, is a lot more valuable. It is then to look at the world as a space in which we live, as a place which supplies and environment for our existence, as a vessel that contains us, that feeds us and clothes us, not as a mine from which we extract all that we want without returning its due. As a place from where we can watch the stars, and not count them to impose on them a virtual ownership. As a big roller-coaster ride that provides us with our joys and our sadness and all the experiences that we live. A place in which love comes out of understanding and experience. Out of opening the mind to imagination and itching the way through life fixing one problem at a time. With each problem and each solution, finding a new understanding, a new element that makes us proud of who we are in the space that we have transformed, out of a selfless act of creation. The geek gives more than takes, for the geek understands its environment. It is an intellectual in a modern age in which the language and knowledge are technological, but not devoid of a human component.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The subtle interplay of Information and Immortality.
As humans we aim for the only thing that we truly cannot have, immortality. The only thing that remains after our existence is information. But information needs a support. The only place in which it is truly alive is in our heads. Computers have gone along way, they are good at storing and transmitting but true inference and creativity through intuition is still miles away.
As it stands the only shot at attaining immortality that humans have is information on two different supports genes and memes. Or ideas if you prefer the old fashioned term. Those are the only ways of leaving a imprint past our existence. In Milan Kundera's novel Immortality the main character seeks immortality in the media using it a as a tool to spread his ideas, yet being caught in the frenzy he is just a fad, and the true pain starts when he realises. It is always painful to realise its own mortality, forcing us to seek other ways of achieving the same goal through alternative routes.
The information represented as both genes and memes make for very different legacies. Each one of them fulfills very different roles. Genes shape our bodies, vehicles of our physical existence. What they perpetuate are our physical traits. Through much of the last century after the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick. And later the genetic code we have some understanding of how our bodies are made and how the information that drives the process is stored interpreted and propagated through time. Also much understanding has gone into the role that genes play in certain illnesses. Besides giving us a shot at immortality it has also allowed us to improve our standards of living and to better diagnose certain illnesses.
On the other side Memes are stored in language which may itself be persisted in another form of representation. But it is only inside peoples minds that they are manipulated, and that new ideas can be created. Their spreading and storage is greatly helped by technology. A considerable amount of effort has gone into developing such technologies. Making more and more patent our drive for immortality. Memes are exchanged, traded and valued in our civilisation with great repercussions, the next evolution of mankind will be driven by how we deal with public or common knowledge. On how we share the ideas and on how we benefit from their implementations.
We have then that the two ways of passing on information that makes us, hence perpetuating ourselves, are in two completely different realms ruled by different rules. In Espinoza's ethics the restrictions between the two realms are made quite clear. An idea can only be bound by another idea, and a physical object can only be bound by another physical object. Once we start implementing an idea it creates artefacts that obey to the restrictions of the physical world. This does not apply to the representation of the idea, just to the artefact originating from its implementation. So if we apply this restriction to us, unless our minds can modify the genes, and the genes our minds the two ways of passing on our legacy are completely independent and can not interfere with each other. This is not so black and white, obviously, we know from science that there are interactions between the two. And more and more is know about those, but we will deal with those later. For know it will suffice to say that the body and soul duality still holds to scrutiny if we look at things as Spinoza did.
But why did we come to develop such an idea, why has that problem plagued philosophy for such a long time. Duality appears as a natural consequence of our perception.
At the end of the day we have no awareness of the internals of our bodies. There are few sensations that transcend that barrier. Most of them are hard to describe in the form of a discomfort or pain.
Further we do not have a blueprint or a mechanism to consciously alter our bodies. We can not do things like re-route nerves after an injury, slow our heart or breathing rates to a determined pace. We can, through controlling our ideas, relax our bodies, but that is a capacity which requires practice. If not our bodies are mostly in auto-pilot serving the desires of our minds. The mind driving at a very distant level. It is this lack of awareness and rational control which builds in our perception the fact that our ideas are separate from our physical bodies.
As it stands the only shot at attaining immortality that humans have is information on two different supports genes and memes. Or ideas if you prefer the old fashioned term. Those are the only ways of leaving a imprint past our existence. In Milan Kundera's novel Immortality the main character seeks immortality in the media using it a as a tool to spread his ideas, yet being caught in the frenzy he is just a fad, and the true pain starts when he realises. It is always painful to realise its own mortality, forcing us to seek other ways of achieving the same goal through alternative routes.
The information represented as both genes and memes make for very different legacies. Each one of them fulfills very different roles. Genes shape our bodies, vehicles of our physical existence. What they perpetuate are our physical traits. Through much of the last century after the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick. And later the genetic code we have some understanding of how our bodies are made and how the information that drives the process is stored interpreted and propagated through time. Also much understanding has gone into the role that genes play in certain illnesses. Besides giving us a shot at immortality it has also allowed us to improve our standards of living and to better diagnose certain illnesses.
On the other side Memes are stored in language which may itself be persisted in another form of representation. But it is only inside peoples minds that they are manipulated, and that new ideas can be created. Their spreading and storage is greatly helped by technology. A considerable amount of effort has gone into developing such technologies. Making more and more patent our drive for immortality. Memes are exchanged, traded and valued in our civilisation with great repercussions, the next evolution of mankind will be driven by how we deal with public or common knowledge. On how we share the ideas and on how we benefit from their implementations.
We have then that the two ways of passing on information that makes us, hence perpetuating ourselves, are in two completely different realms ruled by different rules. In Espinoza's ethics the restrictions between the two realms are made quite clear. An idea can only be bound by another idea, and a physical object can only be bound by another physical object. Once we start implementing an idea it creates artefacts that obey to the restrictions of the physical world. This does not apply to the representation of the idea, just to the artefact originating from its implementation. So if we apply this restriction to us, unless our minds can modify the genes, and the genes our minds the two ways of passing on our legacy are completely independent and can not interfere with each other. This is not so black and white, obviously, we know from science that there are interactions between the two. And more and more is know about those, but we will deal with those later. For know it will suffice to say that the body and soul duality still holds to scrutiny if we look at things as Spinoza did.
But why did we come to develop such an idea, why has that problem plagued philosophy for such a long time. Duality appears as a natural consequence of our perception.
At the end of the day we have no awareness of the internals of our bodies. There are few sensations that transcend that barrier. Most of them are hard to describe in the form of a discomfort or pain.
Further we do not have a blueprint or a mechanism to consciously alter our bodies. We can not do things like re-route nerves after an injury, slow our heart or breathing rates to a determined pace. We can, through controlling our ideas, relax our bodies, but that is a capacity which requires practice. If not our bodies are mostly in auto-pilot serving the desires of our minds. The mind driving at a very distant level. It is this lack of awareness and rational control which builds in our perception the fact that our ideas are separate from our physical bodies.
In reality our existence is traumatic, we displace the world around us but inside the physical shell we have a void of perception. This emptiness is due to how we perceive. We only perceive the out not the in. Leading us to believe that the world of ideas can not filtrate into the physical world. Since that is not possible in the thing that we are the most used to, our bodies. Hence setting up a frontier demarcating two worlds. But it is not impermeable as Espinoza would have it.
The same way that an artefact can be the implementation of an idea, in the human body a mood can affect the health and a chemical imbalance create a depression. These crossings of world boundaries are due to causal relationships in the functioning of the physical world. That is, ideas are an epiphenomenon of the functioning of the brain. This creates a one way causal relationship. However from the perspective of the ideas the transition implies a change of rules between the elements on each side of the boundary. Ideas are restricted by ideas and physical bodies are restricted by physical bodies or so was the idea of Espinoza. The boundary is broken in the other direction, or at least it appears so, when an artefact is created. For this the constraints of the physical world are internalised, to make sure that the artefact is possible. This is generally called thinking ahead. This is possible due to capability of abstracting away from the real world in order to manipulate ideas according to the physical reality. This of course requires practice, but it is where Espinoza stops or at least the simplistic understanding we had of his postulates for his ethics.
This capacity for abstraction that the mind is capable off, that is of abstracting and making symbols out of the perceived reality, is the core of the premise of I am a Strange Loop by Hofstadter. The world of ideas being more flexible can incorporate the physical world and can help manipulate it. We do not have control over which of our genes we pass on. At least not naturally though we have developed technologies to do so. Again following this drive of becoming if not immortals passing on the best of us. But we do have a big saying into what are the ideas that we pass on. For that it suffices to publish them or to act according to them. The former being less likely to leave an imprint but much easier to control.
Of course the only way to strive for immortality is to believe that we are immortal. To ignore our mortal condition in a truly decadent way and go through our existence as if nothing happened. But that is of course unreal, it is part of dealing with the trauma of existence that we forge such mechanism. Illness or death puts things into perspective and points towards the only true immortality, that of information.
Illness also bears a close relation to the information that we pass on. Illness is implicitly and explicitly genetic. In that illness is a reaction of the body to an internal or external stimulus being the expression of the genes, in an environment. It hence the genes or their mechanisms of expression, also described in the genes, that bring about the illness. Illness can also prevent the passing on of the genes, hence our impossibility to be immortal.
The role of memes in illness more subtle. There is mental illnesses which can be due to a physical problem. A chemical imbalance in the brain generates or fosters certain kinds of thoughts which are then recognised as symptoms. Certain medications have effects of cognitive nature, euphoria, mood swings etc. The one way boundary crossing from physical problem to mental symptom is clearly established. The other direction presents more and more evidence. It is now known that a good mood helps the recovery. However the ideas of mentally ill person, unless of ground breaking nature, think Nietzsche, will also be regarded with caution. Much like knowing that a partner has a genetic condition.
So where does this leave us, or to be more correct where does this leave our existence. We are nothing but the interplay of information. Information in the shape of ideas and genes which we only get to be aware off when they do not work. When we realise in our decadent approach that we are not immortal. Realising that our only shot at immortality is to ensure that our true nature, information, in one way or the other is what will remain. This is obviously painful if not traumatic to realise. This pain lying inside the world of ideas can only be addressed by coming to grasp what reality is. And this can only be done through the interaction with others. Through the realisation that indeed all we are is the emerging property of the interplay of information in different forms. One in the physical world, the other amongst other human beings based on language, and ideas.
The same way that an artefact can be the implementation of an idea, in the human body a mood can affect the health and a chemical imbalance create a depression. These crossings of world boundaries are due to causal relationships in the functioning of the physical world. That is, ideas are an epiphenomenon of the functioning of the brain. This creates a one way causal relationship. However from the perspective of the ideas the transition implies a change of rules between the elements on each side of the boundary. Ideas are restricted by ideas and physical bodies are restricted by physical bodies or so was the idea of Espinoza. The boundary is broken in the other direction, or at least it appears so, when an artefact is created. For this the constraints of the physical world are internalised, to make sure that the artefact is possible. This is generally called thinking ahead. This is possible due to capability of abstracting away from the real world in order to manipulate ideas according to the physical reality. This of course requires practice, but it is where Espinoza stops or at least the simplistic understanding we had of his postulates for his ethics.
This capacity for abstraction that the mind is capable off, that is of abstracting and making symbols out of the perceived reality, is the core of the premise of I am a Strange Loop by Hofstadter. The world of ideas being more flexible can incorporate the physical world and can help manipulate it. We do not have control over which of our genes we pass on. At least not naturally though we have developed technologies to do so. Again following this drive of becoming if not immortals passing on the best of us. But we do have a big saying into what are the ideas that we pass on. For that it suffices to publish them or to act according to them. The former being less likely to leave an imprint but much easier to control.
Of course the only way to strive for immortality is to believe that we are immortal. To ignore our mortal condition in a truly decadent way and go through our existence as if nothing happened. But that is of course unreal, it is part of dealing with the trauma of existence that we forge such mechanism. Illness or death puts things into perspective and points towards the only true immortality, that of information.
Illness also bears a close relation to the information that we pass on. Illness is implicitly and explicitly genetic. In that illness is a reaction of the body to an internal or external stimulus being the expression of the genes, in an environment. It hence the genes or their mechanisms of expression, also described in the genes, that bring about the illness. Illness can also prevent the passing on of the genes, hence our impossibility to be immortal.
The role of memes in illness more subtle. There is mental illnesses which can be due to a physical problem. A chemical imbalance in the brain generates or fosters certain kinds of thoughts which are then recognised as symptoms. Certain medications have effects of cognitive nature, euphoria, mood swings etc. The one way boundary crossing from physical problem to mental symptom is clearly established. The other direction presents more and more evidence. It is now known that a good mood helps the recovery. However the ideas of mentally ill person, unless of ground breaking nature, think Nietzsche, will also be regarded with caution. Much like knowing that a partner has a genetic condition.
So where does this leave us, or to be more correct where does this leave our existence. We are nothing but the interplay of information. Information in the shape of ideas and genes which we only get to be aware off when they do not work. When we realise in our decadent approach that we are not immortal. Realising that our only shot at immortality is to ensure that our true nature, information, in one way or the other is what will remain. This is obviously painful if not traumatic to realise. This pain lying inside the world of ideas can only be addressed by coming to grasp what reality is. And this can only be done through the interaction with others. Through the realisation that indeed all we are is the emerging property of the interplay of information in different forms. One in the physical world, the other amongst other human beings based on language, and ideas.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Its early in Valencia for fallas
I mentioned last week that several schools of the region where without heating because they simply lacked the funds to pay the bill. Well last Friday students from one of those secondary schools called "Lluis Vives", after a local humanist of the 16th century, decided to go outside and protest about the fact that they are cold in the classroom and that further educational cuts are planned. The police charged, and that against students aged 12 to 17. Several students where arrested, and the overal strength of the charge was deemed disproportionate (Even the police union wants to investigate the use of disproportionate force). The students arrested remained in custody without charge for over 24h. Their parents outside the police station waiting for them to be processed. As Mònica Oltra, local politician and lawyer, puts it in this video "In a democracy we should be rewarding these kids that instead of being at home playing on their game consoles, are protesting for the right to a decent education [...] We have students that are protesting for the future of their country and the authorities do not know how to handle the situation".
At the heart of all this lies the incapability of the local government authority Paula Sánchez de León who did not handle with sufficient importance the early onset of the portest. She was quoted that all of this was expected to be an "anecdote". The latest news of today are that Paula Sánchez de León has opened and instruction on the police forces in order to determine if there was abusive force, and the responsible people will be held accountable.
The change of heart is due amongst others to the largest concentration of people ever seen in valencia to date. The whole city was this afternoon collapsed. Images of such large amounts of people blocking the city are not uncommon in Valencia. They happen, every year, during las fallas, traditional festivity during which fireworks are the key ingredient. We even have a firework display that happens daily on the town hall square at midday. Since its during daylight there is no use for colours, what matters is the sound. We call this firework display the "Mascleta". A masclet is the name in Valencian for a firework, but it translates to the diminutive of male. The streets you see in the youtube video are the same ones that where filled today by peaceful people protesting for the lack of funds in education. And the sentence the two girls, the queens of the fallas, the same one depicted in the image that goes with this blog post. "Fireworks master, the Mascleta can begin."
Another tradition in fallas is that out of the fallas, which are also the structures of papier mache that are burnt on the night of Saint Joseph, two of the characters, called "ninots", are saved from the flames.
"Ninot" could be translated as male doll, but when you use it towards someone it has a negative connotation which is better conveyed in English as muppet.
The two indulged "Ninots" are chosen by the queens of the party, the same you see shouting in the youtube video. Well this year fallas came early and the two muppets that got indulged where Francisco Camps, which last week got a doctoral title in Law, and Ricardo Costa, both local politicians with a lot to say about the fact that local secondary schools are without funds.
As you can see in a city in which the highlight of the parties is torching sculptures, and doing firework displays in broad daylight, the people decided to relate to their festivities when the reality has become truly Kafkian. It is indeed early in Valencia for fallas, Saint Joseph is on the 19th or March.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Spain is hurting
I would have to start this post by asking forgiveness from all the people I have lied to in the last few years.
I have repeatedly told people that I was only Spanish by passport. Well I guess I was trying to convince myself of that.
I have also told on occasion that I had no country, because of the political and historical make up of the region I was born in. The rest of my cultural identity having been conformed by the places that I have lived since I was born.
The recent developments in Spanish politics have made Spain hurt, so if home is where the heart is, home is hurting a lot right now.
The first cut is the deepest. It was nearly a year ago when ACPV, (Acció Cultural del Paìs Valencia) cultural association of the region, was forced to shut down a signal repeater that was broadcasting TV3, the Catalan regional television, in Valencia. I grew up watching TV3 since they started the broadcast, in an illegal pirate way ,in the late 80s. The cultural and political aim of such an initiative was to start bringing culturally and linguistically both regions together. It comes from a long removed part of the history in which both regions where part of the same kingdom, which allowed for the common language to be spread between the two regions. The history of that repeater is symptomatic of the situation. When in the mid 90s Valencia got its own regional television Canal 9 it started broadcasting on exactly the same frequency as TV3. We are talking analogue TV broadcast at the time there where only 4 channels, so hardly an overcrowded spectrum. It was a political decision to broadcast on the same frequency. More than 20 years later Francisco Camps got finally for the repeater to be shut down, after having modified the legislation of Valencia, in order to have grounds for fining ACPV for the illegal broadcasting to the extent that they had to shut down the broadcast or file for bankruptcy.
Then recently the same Francisco Camps, was acquitted by a popular jury from a whole collection of corruption and public fund mismanagement charges. In the middle of this charges was the case of 3 suits which he received as presents paid for from a company involved in a national corruption network nicknamed Gürtel. Hold onto that name it will come back. Two weeks before he was acquitted when the evidence was more than compelling to convict. This is not my opinion much of the press coverage surrounding the court case. Camps regional government, among other cases, set up a water purification plant for the city of Valencia in which the 5th out of 3 water treatment basins gets regularly serviced. No, I did not forget my maths, that is how the invoicing is done. Meanwhile F1 races where being done in Valencia, the Americas cup held, and the pope visited Valencia, public money was being splurged all over and into the pockets of a select few. As a brief example it shall suffice to say that there was several bills amounting to more than half a million euros for cleaning up Valencia after the papal visit.
It is funny then that most of the cleaning was done by voluntaries and organised by local charities, which did not see a single cent.
In the few weeks that Camps was in court several secondary schools had to shut down the heating due to lack of funds to play for the fuel or gas. This was all happening last January. So we have money for F1 races and servicing non-existing water treatment basins, but not for the heating of public schools.
If these where only a local thing people may laugh, at the end of the day the Sicilians still blame the Borbon's for the creation of the Cosa Nostra. I will skip another local case, the one of Marina D'or and the airport of Castellón. Suffice it to say that Carlos Fabra regional politician, never got indicted because the judges in the instructed tribunal kept on changing every few years. This case I leave as an exercise to the reader. It is easily googleable and google translate can give you an idea. If interested further I am happy to supply links in replies to any comment.
The trouble gets worse when going inland. At the end of the day my great-grandmother use to say. "Thief the one that was, thief the one that is, and thief the one that will be" [in power].
I mentioned earlier a corruption case being built at a national level, the Gürtel case. Camps was the first person to be trialed from that body of evidence. All of the other indicted people admitted guilt and paid a fine. But not Camps, he got acquitted. Well the judge that built the case Baltasar Garzón has now been trialed and found guilty of perjury. At the core of this there are several elements. Garzón is a progressive judge, he was the one that built the case for the detention and extradition of Pinochet out of the UK and back to Chile. He has also been one of the most active judges in the fight against terrorism. Terrorism from both sides, both the Basque separatist group ETA and the publicly funded GAL. The GAL case was instrumental in getting the socialists out of power. Felipe Gonzalez had by then been president of the Spanish government for 14 years. The GAL case was effectively a case of dirty war against terrorism. The Spanish intelligence services where passing on evidence to a group of military and Guardia Civil that would then kidnap, kill and threaten alleged terrorists or their families all without trial nor due process. This all occurred during the 80s. Well Garzón, no rookie at this stage, was building up a corruption case against members of the Partido Popular. Instrumental to building that case where the wire-tapping of conversation between detainees and their lawyers in prison. Such conversations according to the Spanish legislation can be recorded and used as evidence in a court of law, if a judge deems it appropriate. But as with all laws they are open to interpretation, and on the basis of the interpretation of an "and" to be conjunctive or disjunctive there are two possible course of action. A group of extreme right decided to bring denounce such wiretapping as illegal, based on one of the interpretations. Well A judge accepted the case, and since its a case against a judge it has to be trialled at the highest instance. The sentence was reached, following the same line of reasoning as the instructing case, and sending a signal that if you do not think like us you are committing perjury.
One would think that in a democracy judges ought to do their work, and the judiciary be an independent power. Well in this case the control from a certain spectrum of the Spanish politics has been so internalised in the institution that there is no need for the party in power to say anything. Judges just fall, and convictions are not made. The newly elected Partido Popular has a lot of the people now in public positions being indicted out of the corruption that occurred in the last time they where in power, the Gürtel case. So if you want to see some drama, and see what happens when the conflict of a civil war is never resolved, tune into Spain and its recent politics. You will not be disappointed. I would even dare say that Berlusconi's Italy had a certain aura of magical realism, since there was one strong figure. In Spain now its an old ghost that never rested in peace and that rises its ugly head incarnated in different people. This ghost just rubs the salt in the wounds that where never closed. I guess that's why Spain in hurting so much.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Modernity and the internet
Being truly modern the way Voltaire was in his philosophical letters, is to not consider ones traditions or norms as the only referent.The whole uniqueness of a tribe or folk just flies out the window with modernity. Then what is more modern than the Internet?
Where can one encounter the most varied information about culture and the way other people think and act. What is youtube if not a living repository of cultural activity? What is the blogosphere if not a repository of memes and ideas?
The work of Pierre Levy is then seminal in the definition of the anthropomorphic space that the Internet represents. It is a space in which ideas are detached from their human creators and can be shared freely. But it is only a repository which can be mined and harvested. It does not derive or deduce new ideas out by itself. There again the work of Pierre Levy with IEML may open some new perspectives for expanding the reasoning capabilities of mankind. If these are the capabilities of the most modern creation or making what are its issues. The issues are not inherent to the Internet, we have a quasi infinite firmament of ideas. The issues then appear when trying to find models in which to capitalise from that firmament. Well it makes sense that we are having trouble making money from the stars no?
The novelty of the anthropomorphic space that the Internet represents is so big that most of the models that we approach it with seem to break. It could be seen as a tool of communication between people.
Much like the standard press or billboards. As such it is easy to capitalise on it as a trade channel.
What have humans been doing since the origins of time if not trade? Trade can be conducted across all barriers (geographical, linguistic, temporal) and has generated wealth and stability in many regions of the planet. So it makes sense that when confronted with a new space what we do is trade.
But to trade you need objects.
Ideas until very recently have not been free, they where always attached to a support. The support was bought, sold, traded as the objectification of the idea. Books where paid for, journals and magazines too. So for centuries the support paid for the ideas that it contained.
This object idea relationship is now fading away as the digital support in which ideas are now developed, stored and communicated changes its properties. It is no longer a tangible object.
Ideas are now stored as what they are, patterns. Patterns on a digital medium which can no longer be objectified. Out of the breaking of that relationship the whole model of trade breaks. And when such a basic relationship as trade disappears from the space, people panic. Out of this panic people have been trying to revert to the old object idea relation. What is a patent, if not just that, the tradeable objectification of an idea.
The current importance of copyright and copyright law is nothing more that an attempt at bringing a useless legacy into a new environment. Holding on to a past and preventing mankind from flourishing.
It is as if when Voltaire was in London and writing his letters back to France he would be telling that in the London stock exchange people where segregated by religion. That a Christian could only trade with a Christian. That the Jew would only accept "Tov" as his contract word, and that the money of the one was not receivable by the other. It is now time to become truly modern and move on from this narrow mindedness. To embrace in the same way the new anthropomorphic space that is enabling us to reach a newer level of togetherness. Trade and finance have brought us so far, and they will not disappear, but the introduction of the collective intelligence should not be held back by stale models. The same way that refusing to trade with someone based on a difference of creed sounds backwards. Years from now paying for an idea based on its support will be inconceivable.
The struggle for modernity is well set, and it is now the struggle to free ideas from their medium.
The current SOPA, PIPA and ACTA struggles are clumsy attempts to objectify ideas based on deprecated models. However, these struggles are indicative of on which side the current social structures are leaning towards. If power is not at the forefront of modernity it may have the control of the resources but not the agreement of the many and in a new and uncharted territory as the Internet is people get very creative.
Ideas should be the stars that guide the evolution of our civilisation, towards rewards which are fare greater than what we can imagine now. Not objectified slaves of the accumulation of trade.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Enough with star counting.
The basic idea behind enoughism, is that since we have now evolved in the western world technologies to feed clothe ourselves there is not longer need to amass things beyond what is necessary. We can estimate what is necessary for our daily living achieve that point, plus minus some contingencies, obtain it, and consume it.
As part of that many practical elements can be brought. Jonh Naish in his book Enough coins the term, introduces the motivation and offers practical alternatives.
For example there is no need for an over the board holiday in which most of our savings go every year. A mini break, of a commute out on Friday, commute back in on Monday morning ought to be more than enough. If you posses a high paid skill all that is needed is indeed to work enough to sustain yourself for the year, and spend the rest of the time homing that skill to the next level. It all makes perfect sense, but the elements at stake here are larger than that. It is indeed an evolutionary coping mechanism that has brought around this hogging or amassing behaviour that is best identified in the start counter, the business man, of The Little Prince.
The analogy is indeed very powerful as it makes the amassing of wealth appear, as what it is, stupid. The little prince in his travels among little planets encounters a businessman who is busy counting.
When asked by the little prince as to why he does it. The man replies that he is counting because then there are his and he can put the number in a piece of paper in the drawer for safe keeping. The little prince inquires then as to what he is counting. The businessman does not really care as to what he counts, he barely remembers the name. He is counting stars.
Like the stars in The Little Prince resources are there for all. Who are we to put a name on them and on the basis of that fake ownership amass more of them. Just like counting stars, that is all we are doing in our modern society, putting a name behind something that is common. Enoughism in this respect does not go far enough, it only states that you have to share, and its much easier to share by letting other people use what you do not consider yours than to retroactively give what has already been yours. Charity, as Zizek puts it, has become the redeeming force of capitalism, you can now buy a coffee ethic at Starbucks and even Lidl has fair trade instant coffee. But again this only helps redeem the fact that we are amassing wealth, in a way which is depriving others.
Our planet is finite, no matter how big the resources are. This finiteness of the resources has not been taken into account in many models and in many studies. As for the business man all that matters is the count, right? It is true that when tackling a complex problem certain simplifications have to be introduced, without abstraction and reduction the problem may not be solvable. But the awareness that the solution at hand is indeed only a partial solution with certain validity bounds and certain constraints is what is missing. The joke of Jaimito reminds me of this.
The teacher asks the students during the lesson:
- We have an electricity cable, with 5 birds on it. We take a shotgun and shoot two of them. How many birds are left on the cable?
To which Jaimito replies:
- None, miss.
- Jaimito, you must be joking. Think again. We have 5 birds, and we shoot two.
How many are there left?
- Miss, I do not know how well you shoot but after the first shot, even if you hit them both, all the other three would have flown away.
That is indeed the problem, through the simplification, and the application of abstractions to solve problems the track has been lost back to the original set-up of the problem. If we abstract away in the joke of Jaimito that they are birds on a cable, and only focus on the maths, the answer that the teacher demands is indeed the correct. But in reality the answer that Jaimito gives is the one that matters.
If we extrapolate this to a very complex derivative or other financial artefact, any relation to the real world is gone by the time it is applied. The businessman only counts, and as he counts he forgets what he is counting. Regulation or regulatory bodies could take on that role, but even then, are they really doing that?
Enoughism is a good start, but it is indeed a sort of charitable drive which prevents you from putting on your name things that you do not really need. But the stars being counted and being put under each one of our names is something that really brings about the stupidity of the system we live in. How that stupidity came about is very simple, we rely on abstraction without an understanding of what is beneath it. That is what allows us to advance, to progress as a society, but when dealing with the world a better global understanding is necessary.
For example there is no need for an over the board holiday in which most of our savings go every year. A mini break, of a commute out on Friday, commute back in on Monday morning ought to be more than enough. If you posses a high paid skill all that is needed is indeed to work enough to sustain yourself for the year, and spend the rest of the time homing that skill to the next level. It all makes perfect sense, but the elements at stake here are larger than that. It is indeed an evolutionary coping mechanism that has brought around this hogging or amassing behaviour that is best identified in the start counter, the business man, of The Little Prince.
The analogy is indeed very powerful as it makes the amassing of wealth appear, as what it is, stupid. The little prince in his travels among little planets encounters a businessman who is busy counting.
When asked by the little prince as to why he does it. The man replies that he is counting because then there are his and he can put the number in a piece of paper in the drawer for safe keeping. The little prince inquires then as to what he is counting. The businessman does not really care as to what he counts, he barely remembers the name. He is counting stars.
Like the stars in The Little Prince resources are there for all. Who are we to put a name on them and on the basis of that fake ownership amass more of them. Just like counting stars, that is all we are doing in our modern society, putting a name behind something that is common. Enoughism in this respect does not go far enough, it only states that you have to share, and its much easier to share by letting other people use what you do not consider yours than to retroactively give what has already been yours. Charity, as Zizek puts it, has become the redeeming force of capitalism, you can now buy a coffee ethic at Starbucks and even Lidl has fair trade instant coffee. But again this only helps redeem the fact that we are amassing wealth, in a way which is depriving others.
Our planet is finite, no matter how big the resources are. This finiteness of the resources has not been taken into account in many models and in many studies. As for the business man all that matters is the count, right? It is true that when tackling a complex problem certain simplifications have to be introduced, without abstraction and reduction the problem may not be solvable. But the awareness that the solution at hand is indeed only a partial solution with certain validity bounds and certain constraints is what is missing. The joke of Jaimito reminds me of this.
The teacher asks the students during the lesson:
- We have an electricity cable, with 5 birds on it. We take a shotgun and shoot two of them. How many birds are left on the cable?
To which Jaimito replies:
- None, miss.
- Jaimito, you must be joking. Think again. We have 5 birds, and we shoot two.
How many are there left?
- Miss, I do not know how well you shoot but after the first shot, even if you hit them both, all the other three would have flown away.
That is indeed the problem, through the simplification, and the application of abstractions to solve problems the track has been lost back to the original set-up of the problem. If we abstract away in the joke of Jaimito that they are birds on a cable, and only focus on the maths, the answer that the teacher demands is indeed the correct. But in reality the answer that Jaimito gives is the one that matters.
If we extrapolate this to a very complex derivative or other financial artefact, any relation to the real world is gone by the time it is applied. The businessman only counts, and as he counts he forgets what he is counting. Regulation or regulatory bodies could take on that role, but even then, are they really doing that?
Enoughism is a good start, but it is indeed a sort of charitable drive which prevents you from putting on your name things that you do not really need. But the stars being counted and being put under each one of our names is something that really brings about the stupidity of the system we live in. How that stupidity came about is very simple, we rely on abstraction without an understanding of what is beneath it. That is what allows us to advance, to progress as a society, but when dealing with the world a better global understanding is necessary.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Reflections on finance
A fiend of mine has started illustrating over at his blog with quite a lot of cleverness the concepts of modern life.
This illustration of the mortgage is indeed very reflective of the times in which we live in.
Finance being a technology, like many other technologies, being applied for the first time in a way which hinders humanity. Nuclear power was first put to use as an weapon and out of the general understanding of the damage that it caused it was decided to try better ways of putting it to use.
Finance is now being put to use for gathering and concentrating wealth and we have seen the damage that it has done to our planet, and our well-being. However I do not see any of the people involved acknowledging that "Now we are all sons of bitches" like Kenneth Bainbridge commented to Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer, shortly after the first nuclear bomb exploded.
Without such a recognition of guilt the drive to use finance to purely profiteer will continue. What worries me most is that in the current case there is also a denial of the power that finance really has. If such an awareness was really present in the community de-regulation would not have been so thorough and the situation we are now in would have not been so bad.
The drive to use atomic energy as a weapon still persists today, and will for many years, so will the drive to use finance for egotistical means. However the admission of guilt and of the causes of the crises, whether through malevolence or incompetence needs to be acknowledged as a step to consider the greater picture and start doing what we can to heal the planet and our relationship with it.
If we learn our lesson, admit our guilt, from recent events and move towards applying distributing wealth the technology can be put to good use and benefit everyone. Much like a nuclear power plant powers homes and industries. It is not without risk of course, but if care is taken to mitigate it through regulation it is a great force.
I think it is time to understand really what finance is and what it can do to be put to the benefit of the world instead of crushing us and destroying our planet.
This illustration of the mortgage is indeed very reflective of the times in which we live in.
Finance being a technology, like many other technologies, being applied for the first time in a way which hinders humanity. Nuclear power was first put to use as an weapon and out of the general understanding of the damage that it caused it was decided to try better ways of putting it to use.
Finance is now being put to use for gathering and concentrating wealth and we have seen the damage that it has done to our planet, and our well-being. However I do not see any of the people involved acknowledging that "Now we are all sons of bitches" like Kenneth Bainbridge commented to Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer, shortly after the first nuclear bomb exploded.
Without such a recognition of guilt the drive to use finance to purely profiteer will continue. What worries me most is that in the current case there is also a denial of the power that finance really has. If such an awareness was really present in the community de-regulation would not have been so thorough and the situation we are now in would have not been so bad.
The drive to use atomic energy as a weapon still persists today, and will for many years, so will the drive to use finance for egotistical means. However the admission of guilt and of the causes of the crises, whether through malevolence or incompetence needs to be acknowledged as a step to consider the greater picture and start doing what we can to heal the planet and our relationship with it.
If we learn our lesson, admit our guilt, from recent events and move towards applying distributing wealth the technology can be put to good use and benefit everyone. Much like a nuclear power plant powers homes and industries. It is not without risk of course, but if care is taken to mitigate it through regulation it is a great force.
I think it is time to understand really what finance is and what it can do to be put to the benefit of the world instead of crushing us and destroying our planet.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Empire avenue blog verification
{EAV_BLOG_VER:d1b3eed901283708}
If you like me have found social media a chore, there is the possibility of turning it into something more fun. Empire avenue allows you to benefit, although in a virtual manner, from your social activity and interaction. I have found that having a meta process above my social media interaction helps me be more regular at it. Join if you will and buy shares in me. Looking at the content of this blog it may well appear to be hypocritical, but I say know your environment. Know the system you are part in in order to change it.
If you have no understanding of how something works, yet it is broken, how do you fix it.
If you like me have found social media a chore, there is the possibility of turning it into something more fun. Empire avenue allows you to benefit, although in a virtual manner, from your social activity and interaction. I have found that having a meta process above my social media interaction helps me be more regular at it. Join if you will and buy shares in me. Looking at the content of this blog it may well appear to be hypocritical, but I say know your environment. Know the system you are part in in order to change it.
If you have no understanding of how something works, yet it is broken, how do you fix it.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Seven Sins: Sloth
So far all the sins we have covered in these posts have been active sins.
That is that by an action originating in the freewill of the person a wrong act is made.
The person is then left to feel bad about it and has to seek pittance.
Whatever wrong, freewill and pittance may mean to you in this context.
So you can not stay still, you have to act because even through inaction you can not avoid sin.
This is a major point of disagreement with other more contemplative models of faith in which the search for the self is more important.
Yet in this troubled times Sloth is indeed a sin.
The system under which we live has been abused. The mechanism that as a society we have evolved in order to manage wealth has been turned against the people that it served. The people that work. By luring us with promises of a more comfortable materialistic life. By valuing money as the unique form of wealth.
Our instincts abused through advertising tricking us into consuming.
Making us believe that consuming is the only way we can interact with each other. That it is our money that matters and not our presence in this planet or in society.
That we have have to not fall pray to Sloth and join the rat race that this society has imposed on us.
For many a time I used to be one of those rats. Taking the Waterloo and City line in London. Sharing a tin can of an underground carriage with fellow human beings, from which I knew nothing.
Yet they all fell into diverse stereotypes, and so much could be know about them by just looking at their clothes, their electronics, and the way they behaved.
I will always remember the smile of a lady dressed exactly like in a photograph in Metro under the headline, "City Chique, are you in?". My questions where then, Why put so much effort into becoming the cliché? Why is it so bad to grab the first thing you have in your cupboard? Why is it so bad to just look at clothes as protection from the weather? Which is what they are.
But above all why surrender our identity to blend into a collective in which we all can be replaced for one another?
Sloth, or rather the integration of that notion into the personal ethics forces people to go towards an interchangeability of beings. That lady could have very well been any of her style clones in the landscape of that underground carriage, and nothing would have changed for any of the passengers.
Yet The only person for which it would have changed would have been the lady itself. She factored herself out of the equation by putting so much effort into belonging to that class.
If she had just been wearing jeans and a t-shirt she would have not blend in, and most likely people would have noticed the lack of effort. She would have committed in public the unspeakable Sin of Sloth.
So in today's system the ideal of behaviour is so far away, from the natural, that you have to make an real effort to erase yourself into the homogenized mass. Yet because we are individuals deep down we need to feel like we make choices. In this consumerist model of self, the only choice that is left is that one of consumption. With the Machiavellian twist that the more options you want to have the more you will pay. Perfumes, cosmetics and many more of those, make us replaceable. Plastic surgery makes us replaceable, styles and trends make us replaceable. Our education, and the values introduced, notably in the business world make us replaceable. With the only valid excuse for not reaching the standard being laziness, and even that got made into a sin.
So we are only left with one choice, to all look, smell and taste alike or to admit confess our sin of laziness.
There is however another kind of Sloth which has not been played as a sin in the current system.
That of thought. The number one way of making sure we are all interchangeable parts of the machine is by making sure that we all think alike. Switch the brain off, introduce and endless bombardement of simple ideas, and we are ready for advertising and media to prey on us like if we where little lambs. We let them tell us what to think, we opened our wallets wide and splashed the fruit of all our efforts in order to melt into a continuum. But not thinking which is the real Sin, that no one told us about. Preserving our individuality, and our own criteria, for making our own decisions, that was the true danger. Being independent, being unique.
Under this new light it is clear that Sloth is a sin. The inertia has let things go so far as to reach a situation which has become more than untenable for a lot of people in the planet. It was already so, only now the people in the first world are also feeling it. I refuse, however frail the social system was, and for the little time in history that it lasted to have it written down as an aberration. It is a sign of progress to consider caring for the other and that requires action. So lets start caring for each other in a truly meaningful way. By turning around and thinking what it is that we all collectively need. By looking at the big picture and fix things in the big picture, by tackling the true Sloth, the Sloth of thought, and not the one that pulls us away from the rat race.
That is that by an action originating in the freewill of the person a wrong act is made.
The person is then left to feel bad about it and has to seek pittance.
Whatever wrong, freewill and pittance may mean to you in this context.
So you can not stay still, you have to act because even through inaction you can not avoid sin.
This is a major point of disagreement with other more contemplative models of faith in which the search for the self is more important.
Yet in this troubled times Sloth is indeed a sin.
The system under which we live has been abused. The mechanism that as a society we have evolved in order to manage wealth has been turned against the people that it served. The people that work. By luring us with promises of a more comfortable materialistic life. By valuing money as the unique form of wealth.
Our instincts abused through advertising tricking us into consuming.
Making us believe that consuming is the only way we can interact with each other. That it is our money that matters and not our presence in this planet or in society.
That we have have to not fall pray to Sloth and join the rat race that this society has imposed on us.
For many a time I used to be one of those rats. Taking the Waterloo and City line in London. Sharing a tin can of an underground carriage with fellow human beings, from which I knew nothing.
Yet they all fell into diverse stereotypes, and so much could be know about them by just looking at their clothes, their electronics, and the way they behaved.
I will always remember the smile of a lady dressed exactly like in a photograph in Metro under the headline, "City Chique, are you in?". My questions where then, Why put so much effort into becoming the cliché? Why is it so bad to grab the first thing you have in your cupboard? Why is it so bad to just look at clothes as protection from the weather? Which is what they are.
But above all why surrender our identity to blend into a collective in which we all can be replaced for one another?
Sloth, or rather the integration of that notion into the personal ethics forces people to go towards an interchangeability of beings. That lady could have very well been any of her style clones in the landscape of that underground carriage, and nothing would have changed for any of the passengers.
Yet The only person for which it would have changed would have been the lady itself. She factored herself out of the equation by putting so much effort into belonging to that class.
If she had just been wearing jeans and a t-shirt she would have not blend in, and most likely people would have noticed the lack of effort. She would have committed in public the unspeakable Sin of Sloth.
So in today's system the ideal of behaviour is so far away, from the natural, that you have to make an real effort to erase yourself into the homogenized mass. Yet because we are individuals deep down we need to feel like we make choices. In this consumerist model of self, the only choice that is left is that one of consumption. With the Machiavellian twist that the more options you want to have the more you will pay. Perfumes, cosmetics and many more of those, make us replaceable. Plastic surgery makes us replaceable, styles and trends make us replaceable. Our education, and the values introduced, notably in the business world make us replaceable. With the only valid excuse for not reaching the standard being laziness, and even that got made into a sin.
So we are only left with one choice, to all look, smell and taste alike or to admit confess our sin of laziness.
There is however another kind of Sloth which has not been played as a sin in the current system.
That of thought. The number one way of making sure we are all interchangeable parts of the machine is by making sure that we all think alike. Switch the brain off, introduce and endless bombardement of simple ideas, and we are ready for advertising and media to prey on us like if we where little lambs. We let them tell us what to think, we opened our wallets wide and splashed the fruit of all our efforts in order to melt into a continuum. But not thinking which is the real Sin, that no one told us about. Preserving our individuality, and our own criteria, for making our own decisions, that was the true danger. Being independent, being unique.
Under this new light it is clear that Sloth is a sin. The inertia has let things go so far as to reach a situation which has become more than untenable for a lot of people in the planet. It was already so, only now the people in the first world are also feeling it. I refuse, however frail the social system was, and for the little time in history that it lasted to have it written down as an aberration. It is a sign of progress to consider caring for the other and that requires action. So lets start caring for each other in a truly meaningful way. By turning around and thinking what it is that we all collectively need. By looking at the big picture and fix things in the big picture, by tackling the true Sloth, the Sloth of thought, and not the one that pulls us away from the rat race.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Technologies of the self
Very few times have I found a book to resonate so much that I have to share it even as I am reading it.
Technologies of the self is the collection of texts and an interview with Michel Foucault all compiled during his visit to Vermont university in the early 1980s. The snippets of wisdom are just too poignant to be left unshared. Here are the ones I have found so far and that are too large to twitter.
The twittered ones you will be able to find by tag #juanism
The political and social processes by which the Western European societies were put in order are not very apparent, have been forgotten, or have become habitual. They are part of our most familiar landscape, and we don't perceive them any more. But most of them once scandilised people [ or have now become scandalous]. It is one of my targets to show people that a lot of things that are part of their landscape - and that people think are universal- are the result of some very precise historical changes. All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence. They show the arbitrariness of institutions and show which space of freedom we can still enjoy and how many changes can still be made. -- Michel Foucault.
As I was reading that the ban on smoking in public places, which started in the classroom, and the current debate about the TSAs back scatter scanner came to mind. Both topics are due to conscientious decisions taking in the current political and historical climate. And will introduce change in our lives and perceptions so that when you now watch Les 400 coups made by François Truffaut in 1959 you cringe at the teacher smoking in the class room. What are the benefits and drawback of both alternatives are being assessed now, by us, but we are changing the world for future generations not giving them the chance to re-visit our decisions, nor our rationales. Will we need someone of the calibre of Foucault again in a few hundred years to remove the blind folds we are putting on our grand kids. Do we really want to deprive them of control over their own lives?
Technologies of the self is the collection of texts and an interview with Michel Foucault all compiled during his visit to Vermont university in the early 1980s. The snippets of wisdom are just too poignant to be left unshared. Here are the ones I have found so far and that are too large to twitter.
The twittered ones you will be able to find by tag #juanism
The political and social processes by which the Western European societies were put in order are not very apparent, have been forgotten, or have become habitual. They are part of our most familiar landscape, and we don't perceive them any more. But most of them once scandilised people [ or have now become scandalous]. It is one of my targets to show people that a lot of things that are part of their landscape - and that people think are universal- are the result of some very precise historical changes. All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence. They show the arbitrariness of institutions and show which space of freedom we can still enjoy and how many changes can still be made. -- Michel Foucault.
As I was reading that the ban on smoking in public places, which started in the classroom, and the current debate about the TSAs back scatter scanner came to mind. Both topics are due to conscientious decisions taking in the current political and historical climate. And will introduce change in our lives and perceptions so that when you now watch Les 400 coups made by François Truffaut in 1959 you cringe at the teacher smoking in the class room. What are the benefits and drawback of both alternatives are being assessed now, by us, but we are changing the world for future generations not giving them the chance to re-visit our decisions, nor our rationales. Will we need someone of the calibre of Foucault again in a few hundred years to remove the blind folds we are putting on our grand kids. Do we really want to deprive them of control over their own lives?
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Seven Sins: Gluttony
Everyone should now be entitled, in this day and age to their own opinion, and they own faith.
Anything short of that is just preventing the most basic sort of freedom which in a lot of places is taken for granted.
Everyone can think what they want about religion. And specially of the catholic one, that although its one of the most criticised it is still holding strong.
Without going into technical details of similarities between faiths, there is one common point.
Over eating is always bad.
Each faith deals with it in a specific manner, yet all faiths address it.
That fact makes me think that there must be a certain common element.
If all the religions agree on that one as much as they have fought each other over their differences, there must be some sort of truth there.
Now, truth is a big word that is really unwieldy for me to use. I do not believe there is one truth but that I will tackle after this series of articles.
In the mean time if the same idea has originated in several places or has been perceived as being valid through time, there must be something valid about that idea.
Take it as a proof by fact, the weakest kind of proof but still some sort of proof.
In the Qur'an it is mentioned that the stomach should be 1/3 full of food, another 1/3 full of water and the 1/3 full of air, in order for it to function properly, and not cloud the mind or feel drowsy.
Surely a banning on food during daylight, helps remember that one can go without food and besides the evident hardship one can still live. All of this helps put food into perspective, and that is a healthy exercise, for the mind, the body, and the soul.
The catholic religion makes over eating a deadly sin.
Back then it was not know that over eating would be dangerous, in the same way as it is now.
Now we know about cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, which can lead to a long and painful death of the body. If we where to follow the catholic prescription that faith would also be of the soul.
So that would make an all you can eat restaurant technically as dangerous, as a brothel for the soul.
So why is this sin so present in multiple faiths, and why is it still so easy to fall into it.
It must have to do something with the hardware. With the way our brains are wired.
Enough By John Naish offers a simple yet very well backed up explanation as to why this is.
Our brains where developed in times of scarcity, so now in times of plenty they have trouble adapting.
Religions jumped in to help evolve the brain further, to develop mechanisms in the brain that help control what is going on in our primal brains. The problem is that all of that got shifted out as faith and integral inner life became out of fashion.
As producing became more important than living. As time became a commodity and not just something we inhabit. Our modern society has reverted back, thought with a technological difference, to tap into our basic more archaic brain. This is done through evolved symbols but that is just the encoding of them.
The core message is still the same, go alpha. Become the top monkey in the heard by working more, consuming more and eating more.
Out of all the excesses the first one that got pruned from our current role models was over-eating.
Yet is it really done for the good reasons. To help you illustrate this here is a little example.
If you do not have dessert, is it because:
Which is the motivation to go without dessert will make it easier for you to accept better the outcome.Easier to accept also means it will be easier for you to share your motivation.The sort of exercise that focuses on changing the motivation, is seldom practised. Just the behaviour is looked at, but that is just for show, just for the others. The motivation is what really has to change to overcome the temptation. That sort of mechanism, is not even practised as part of religions in the western world.
The relationship to food which sets the basis for gluttony being a sin, can also be extended to the whole of our consumption. Only back in the day when all this ideas where developed consumption was only associated with food, but not the the rest of all the other material goods that we can now enjoy the possession off.
The same way we relate to our food we relate to our planet, and that is what pushes us to deplete it because we never learned to have enough, and the few mechanisms which where developed to helps us evolve that, have been bypassed through the use of more high level symbols conveyed to us through advertisement and the media.
So it is in a sorry state of affairs, that we have to look at all of our intake, specially the spiritual one, in order to make sure that we consume what we should and not more.That means in other terms aiming for quality and not quantity, and this applied also to our thoughts.
Anything short of that is just preventing the most basic sort of freedom which in a lot of places is taken for granted.
Everyone can think what they want about religion. And specially of the catholic one, that although its one of the most criticised it is still holding strong.
Without going into technical details of similarities between faiths, there is one common point.
Over eating is always bad.
Each faith deals with it in a specific manner, yet all faiths address it.
That fact makes me think that there must be a certain common element.
If all the religions agree on that one as much as they have fought each other over their differences, there must be some sort of truth there.
Now, truth is a big word that is really unwieldy for me to use. I do not believe there is one truth but that I will tackle after this series of articles.
In the mean time if the same idea has originated in several places or has been perceived as being valid through time, there must be something valid about that idea.
Take it as a proof by fact, the weakest kind of proof but still some sort of proof.
In the Qur'an it is mentioned that the stomach should be 1/3 full of food, another 1/3 full of water and the 1/3 full of air, in order for it to function properly, and not cloud the mind or feel drowsy.
Surely a banning on food during daylight, helps remember that one can go without food and besides the evident hardship one can still live. All of this helps put food into perspective, and that is a healthy exercise, for the mind, the body, and the soul.
The catholic religion makes over eating a deadly sin.
Back then it was not know that over eating would be dangerous, in the same way as it is now.
Now we know about cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, which can lead to a long and painful death of the body. If we where to follow the catholic prescription that faith would also be of the soul.
So that would make an all you can eat restaurant technically as dangerous, as a brothel for the soul.
So why is this sin so present in multiple faiths, and why is it still so easy to fall into it.
It must have to do something with the hardware. With the way our brains are wired.
Enough By John Naish offers a simple yet very well backed up explanation as to why this is.
Our brains where developed in times of scarcity, so now in times of plenty they have trouble adapting.
Religions jumped in to help evolve the brain further, to develop mechanisms in the brain that help control what is going on in our primal brains. The problem is that all of that got shifted out as faith and integral inner life became out of fashion.
As producing became more important than living. As time became a commodity and not just something we inhabit. Our modern society has reverted back, thought with a technological difference, to tap into our basic more archaic brain. This is done through evolved symbols but that is just the encoding of them.
The core message is still the same, go alpha. Become the top monkey in the heard by working more, consuming more and eating more.
Out of all the excesses the first one that got pruned from our current role models was over-eating.
Yet is it really done for the good reasons. To help you illustrate this here is a little example.
If you do not have dessert, is it because:
- Do not want to end up with your arteries clogged?
- Do not want to run an extra mile at the Gym?
- Do not want your mother(-in-law) to tell you you are fat?
- Do not have more money?
- Don't feel like it?
Which is the motivation to go without dessert will make it easier for you to accept better the outcome.Easier to accept also means it will be easier for you to share your motivation.The sort of exercise that focuses on changing the motivation, is seldom practised. Just the behaviour is looked at, but that is just for show, just for the others. The motivation is what really has to change to overcome the temptation. That sort of mechanism, is not even practised as part of religions in the western world.
The relationship to food which sets the basis for gluttony being a sin, can also be extended to the whole of our consumption. Only back in the day when all this ideas where developed consumption was only associated with food, but not the the rest of all the other material goods that we can now enjoy the possession off.
The same way we relate to our food we relate to our planet, and that is what pushes us to deplete it because we never learned to have enough, and the few mechanisms which where developed to helps us evolve that, have been bypassed through the use of more high level symbols conveyed to us through advertisement and the media.
So it is in a sorry state of affairs, that we have to look at all of our intake, specially the spiritual one, in order to make sure that we consume what we should and not more.That means in other terms aiming for quality and not quantity, and this applied also to our thoughts.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Seven Sins: Wrath
With the current airspace situation in central Europe. Lots of people being stranded all over the place. Web pages and call centers of the airlines being saturated, it is hard not to lend one self to the sin of Wrath.
Wrath:
Since a friend of mine, or rather two of them where getting married together, and the Monday before it was San Vicent, big party in my fathers town. I decided to pay a visit, my girlfriend was not impressed by the fact that I was heading south alone. She had work to tend to, specially a whole course to look after. Domestic matters aside, she generally does not handle well me being away. Life is made in such a way. So I flew to Spain after spending the Saturday in Amsterdam and attending a concert of Explosions in the Sky, until then all good of course.
The Monday was the party day, if any one has attended a daytime party in my region it usually starts by having brunch at around 9:30. It is not really a brunch its more like eat a nice sandwich so that you have something in the stomach, because you will need it. Then its drugs and rock and roll all day. So from one beer to the next, with only a gin & tonic after the compulsory paella. You eat you drink you talk, you smoke. You try to enjoy the weather, and then you forget about anything that is outside of what is in your line of sight. Life scales down in complexity, and all you care about is the next sip of beer or the conversation you are involved.
Well this years San Vicent was rainy, so in the evening we took refuge in a bar. El Raco del Pou
well know for its underground ambiance, and its amateur and semi pro flamenco jams.
Did I mention my girlfriend as part of the whole description of the day, no. So that was the first instance of Wrath, since I did not even send a message. I will not justify my-self. Suffice it to say for now that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.
So after that I went on enjoying my holidays as my beloved girlfriend was undergoing pain and agony at work. Busy schedule plus trips plus me not being there. Yes I can be an insensitive clod and that creates Wrath understandably. The rest of the week was spent going out at night, sleeping by day and doing all sorts of things like writing the previous seven sins article in this series.
On Thursday it was deemed by the air space authorities that flying over Europe was to dangerous due to the ash being spewed out from Eyjafjallajoekull, an Icelandic volcano, with a name I can not pronounce.
On Thursday night I managed to be home and brought up with my parents the uneasy topic of the guest list for our wedding. It was also the only night I was available to Skype, so I had to interrupt the conversation with my parents to talk with my better half. Then Wrath spewed out from me as I grew tired of listening to everyone tell me the same thing: Invite who you want for your wedding, yet all of them where having an opinion on who should or should not make it to my side of the list. I think something resonated inside the from my friend Eyjafjallajoekull and I just went all out. Wrath in its purest form turns you into a jackal and everything spews out, in all directions, in all matters. On my parents side it was a sincere lack of commitment, and they where not ready for that discussion. On my girlfriends side it must have been the frustration of me having delayed the making of the list, plus the guarding off any over influence of my parents on the list. I felt trapped in the middle of it and like the magma in the volcano it all came out.
Is there some sort of geological connection, that makes me be in sync with a volcano?
The matter got resolved as my girlfriend understood that I was obviously out of patience with the whole situation, and was very conciliating. She managed to put out the flames, well the ashes are still up in the air.
The day after Friday, I tried to keep in touch, through some small messages, and got it all obviously wrong. I also managed to catch up with an old friend. He now runs the kitchen in one of the most luxurious restaurants of the region. It was good to see him again, and to know that he is doing well. The afternoon was just time for a coffee with a friend and home to diagnose my fathers computer. After that I went out with my cousin and all his friends, nice bunch of people, it was nice for once being out on a budget. Under the current economic situation, people find ways of going out on the cheap. I mean if half of your friends are unemployed you share the drinks by the bottle, and just grab a sandwich, if you do not bring one from home.
Wrath is no longer present in the people, the situation has been accepted, and not much else happens, people adapt and that is it.
Saturday was the wedding, but before that a quick trip to the local mall to get the spare parts that where necessary. Then the ceremony, and the party, all good fun until late. Decided to behave and not carry on in the local disco the party at 5 am. Went to bed expecting the mother of all hangovers, but it was simply not there.
No morning wrath, just being woken up by my girlfriend that even phoned the house asking me to check what was the status of my flight. Phoned the company, checked the web page of the airline, even pried into eurocontrols' web site to see what the situation was. My flight was still being operated until 22:30 on Sunday. Then a single sms and an email warned that it had been cancelled. The stage was set, the fear became the truth and I was officially stranded. At that stage, we got in touch, and I then tried to get in touch with the airline but to no avail.
We spoke 5 minutes later and decided that the best course of action was to take a bus. My hemorrhoids will remember the trip for a while. They are pulsating with the anticipation of being noticed for those 20 hours, and the few days after. I will have to endure hemorrhoid wrath, is that the worse kind of wrath?
At that moment all was flowing fine amongst the turmoil there was a solution. One that would take some time to be implemented but solved nevertheless. The wrath was subdued, or so did I think, until the next morning. Then when contacting the university where I work, the secretary told that perhaps I should try to get back home by train, good thinking to try and mitigate both kinds of Wrath, hemorrhoid, and girlfriend one. No luck as expected, all trains being fully booked. The situation was helpless, but the back up plan is there, and active.
Then on Monday night there where two outburst of wrath, one when I phoned to check on the day, as I was obviously not welcome in her mental state at the time, and the second after the news broke the AMS was reopening for restricted flights. A few minutes later I check again with the airline but to no avail. The helplessness of the situation on my side is mirrored by an ever growing Wrath, being fueled most likely by divine motherly intervention.
The worse of the whole situation, is that Wrath when taken as a pastime for the soul prevents all other parts to function correctly. The battles have to be picked, and fighting a volcano does not seem to be one that is easily won. I prefer to battle the Wrath that is present in me against the situation, and to make the most of it. To do otherwise would be to force oneself to be unhappy out of own choice. That is something I decided to give up a long time ago.
Wrath is indeed a sin, because it makes us and the others around us unhappy. There is a brief period of time between perception to action. Filtering and reacting there out of our own agreement, is hard at best. For all the times I have failed to do so accordingly I ask to be forgiven. For the others I will not hold it against.
It is indeed ironic that it takes a volcano for us to learn such lessons, and a life time to apply the knowledge.
Eyjafjallajoekull we will remember you, for a long time.
Wrath:
Since a friend of mine, or rather two of them where getting married together, and the Monday before it was San Vicent, big party in my fathers town. I decided to pay a visit, my girlfriend was not impressed by the fact that I was heading south alone. She had work to tend to, specially a whole course to look after. Domestic matters aside, she generally does not handle well me being away. Life is made in such a way. So I flew to Spain after spending the Saturday in Amsterdam and attending a concert of Explosions in the Sky, until then all good of course.
The Monday was the party day, if any one has attended a daytime party in my region it usually starts by having brunch at around 9:30. It is not really a brunch its more like eat a nice sandwich so that you have something in the stomach, because you will need it. Then its drugs and rock and roll all day. So from one beer to the next, with only a gin & tonic after the compulsory paella. You eat you drink you talk, you smoke. You try to enjoy the weather, and then you forget about anything that is outside of what is in your line of sight. Life scales down in complexity, and all you care about is the next sip of beer or the conversation you are involved.
Well this years San Vicent was rainy, so in the evening we took refuge in a bar. El Raco del Pou
well know for its underground ambiance, and its amateur and semi pro flamenco jams.
Did I mention my girlfriend as part of the whole description of the day, no. So that was the first instance of Wrath, since I did not even send a message. I will not justify my-self. Suffice it to say for now that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.
So after that I went on enjoying my holidays as my beloved girlfriend was undergoing pain and agony at work. Busy schedule plus trips plus me not being there. Yes I can be an insensitive clod and that creates Wrath understandably. The rest of the week was spent going out at night, sleeping by day and doing all sorts of things like writing the previous seven sins article in this series.
On Thursday it was deemed by the air space authorities that flying over Europe was to dangerous due to the ash being spewed out from Eyjafjallajoekull, an Icelandic volcano, with a name I can not pronounce.
On Thursday night I managed to be home and brought up with my parents the uneasy topic of the guest list for our wedding. It was also the only night I was available to Skype, so I had to interrupt the conversation with my parents to talk with my better half. Then Wrath spewed out from me as I grew tired of listening to everyone tell me the same thing: Invite who you want for your wedding, yet all of them where having an opinion on who should or should not make it to my side of the list. I think something resonated inside the from my friend Eyjafjallajoekull and I just went all out. Wrath in its purest form turns you into a jackal and everything spews out, in all directions, in all matters. On my parents side it was a sincere lack of commitment, and they where not ready for that discussion. On my girlfriends side it must have been the frustration of me having delayed the making of the list, plus the guarding off any over influence of my parents on the list. I felt trapped in the middle of it and like the magma in the volcano it all came out.
Is there some sort of geological connection, that makes me be in sync with a volcano?
The matter got resolved as my girlfriend understood that I was obviously out of patience with the whole situation, and was very conciliating. She managed to put out the flames, well the ashes are still up in the air.
The day after Friday, I tried to keep in touch, through some small messages, and got it all obviously wrong. I also managed to catch up with an old friend. He now runs the kitchen in one of the most luxurious restaurants of the region. It was good to see him again, and to know that he is doing well. The afternoon was just time for a coffee with a friend and home to diagnose my fathers computer. After that I went out with my cousin and all his friends, nice bunch of people, it was nice for once being out on a budget. Under the current economic situation, people find ways of going out on the cheap. I mean if half of your friends are unemployed you share the drinks by the bottle, and just grab a sandwich, if you do not bring one from home.
Wrath is no longer present in the people, the situation has been accepted, and not much else happens, people adapt and that is it.
Saturday was the wedding, but before that a quick trip to the local mall to get the spare parts that where necessary. Then the ceremony, and the party, all good fun until late. Decided to behave and not carry on in the local disco the party at 5 am. Went to bed expecting the mother of all hangovers, but it was simply not there.
No morning wrath, just being woken up by my girlfriend that even phoned the house asking me to check what was the status of my flight. Phoned the company, checked the web page of the airline, even pried into eurocontrols' web site to see what the situation was. My flight was still being operated until 22:30 on Sunday. Then a single sms and an email warned that it had been cancelled. The stage was set, the fear became the truth and I was officially stranded. At that stage, we got in touch, and I then tried to get in touch with the airline but to no avail.
We spoke 5 minutes later and decided that the best course of action was to take a bus. My hemorrhoids will remember the trip for a while. They are pulsating with the anticipation of being noticed for those 20 hours, and the few days after. I will have to endure hemorrhoid wrath, is that the worse kind of wrath?
At that moment all was flowing fine amongst the turmoil there was a solution. One that would take some time to be implemented but solved nevertheless. The wrath was subdued, or so did I think, until the next morning. Then when contacting the university where I work, the secretary told that perhaps I should try to get back home by train, good thinking to try and mitigate both kinds of Wrath, hemorrhoid, and girlfriend one. No luck as expected, all trains being fully booked. The situation was helpless, but the back up plan is there, and active.
Then on Monday night there where two outburst of wrath, one when I phoned to check on the day, as I was obviously not welcome in her mental state at the time, and the second after the news broke the AMS was reopening for restricted flights. A few minutes later I check again with the airline but to no avail. The helplessness of the situation on my side is mirrored by an ever growing Wrath, being fueled most likely by divine motherly intervention.
The worse of the whole situation, is that Wrath when taken as a pastime for the soul prevents all other parts to function correctly. The battles have to be picked, and fighting a volcano does not seem to be one that is easily won. I prefer to battle the Wrath that is present in me against the situation, and to make the most of it. To do otherwise would be to force oneself to be unhappy out of own choice. That is something I decided to give up a long time ago.
Wrath is indeed a sin, because it makes us and the others around us unhappy. There is a brief period of time between perception to action. Filtering and reacting there out of our own agreement, is hard at best. For all the times I have failed to do so accordingly I ask to be forgiven. For the others I will not hold it against.
It is indeed ironic that it takes a volcano for us to learn such lessons, and a life time to apply the knowledge.
Eyjafjallajoekull we will remember you, for a long time.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Seven Sins: Pride
A cultural sponge that bathes itself on many different fluids can not help itself from absorving every culture that it gets in touch with.
When submerged if squized to make room for the new environment new things will be be brought to its attention.
A bit late after holy week and since that is one of my oldest fluids, lets examine in turn each one of the 7 deadly sins.
At the end of the day Kieślowski did the 10 commandments, he was far more of a catholic than I am.
Pride:
As I try to make a habit I take a trip to my fathers home town around Easter.
Traditionally its one of the most important dates of the christian callendar, it also is when the weather gets better.
In Valencia, my first region, the smell of the air with the orange blossom is just magic, and just one week after easter, there is the day of San Vicent, or Saint Vincent if we insist in translating.
His life and works may make for an interesting piece, later on but lets not diverge.
As part of this trip I persevered with another old habit that I had given up on, going to church with my parents.
My spirituality has been a bit of a roller-coaster in the last few months, but I have recently decided that intellectual honesty is more important.
Since I happened to become briefly in touch with Nietzche, my outlook on religion has not been the same.
I have to confess many sins to him, the first of all is my liking for beer, but I dare to mention him as a core reference in what intellectual honesty is.
The man, not without his flaws, did dive at depths of what was the establishment at his time and tore down a whole chunk of what was the predominant culture.
It is a pitty is not better understood by most people.
Going back to my little church visit.
I found myself in the same church where I took my holy comunion for the first time, with much changed in terms of decoration.
Such as archangels carying the shield of the town.
And listening to the Gospel of Saint Mark in which after Jesus has resureected and appears to the disciples, there is Thomas which is left without seeing him.
All the other disciples tell him what they saw, and Thomas, clearly states that he needs to see for himslef.
Thomas could have been a scientist, and I am thankful for his presence in the scriptures, but not for the use and interpretation of this account by the priest of my fathers town.
Thomas refused to believe without seeing, was depicted as a restricted man, as one that can not comprehend from the account of the other disciples that Jesus is God re-incarnate and is alive.
Well sorry, all the others did see him, and hence they believed. Why could Thomas not ask for the same chance, which is, to have access to your own facts.
When data or information is transmitted, we all are aware that certain channels can deform and twist the content of that data.
Knowing ourseleves the channel we trust the least are other people, so when information comes from other people we look and who and what they are saying with the same care that we would look at a scientific instrument.
Now, that is not being restricted, that is just being curious and aware of ones situation is.
So the person that thinks and wants to know is punished, if surrounded by morons.
Hold on to that thougth.
Of course if we all demanded, now more than 2000 years later, to see the proof of resurection the church would have a problem.
Since that proof is long gone.
Also looking for such proof started in the middle age one of the most cruel virulent and mindless periods of the Western civilasation.
Lets just not go there again, there is enough trouble in the middle east.
My fathers town priest, followed then on one knotch further, and there is where I was having serious trouble paying credit to my ears.
Not only was Thomas restricted in his brain cpacity, as we where all for not believing without seeing, but it was our pride that prevented us from embracing the mistery that was presented to us.
This is where I want to kill. Not in the literary sense of the term of course, in the figurative one.
So first having access to your own facts is something that derives from being restricted, from wanting to know more about something and make your own decision, and then as if that was not bad enough pride is the deadly sin that takes us there.
Well I must certainly be on my way to a slow and painful afterlife.
If this way of thinking and operating which goes against the teachings of the church itself.
I mean, Are we not supossed to use all of our tallents?
If my talent is to be an iquisitive idiot, I will be a bit less of an idiot after a while, if people let me of course.
The worst part of it all is when the meme gets extended to the rest of the society.
A friend of a friend has recently joined one of the local news papers, she has a lot of experience in communication and has even run her own communications company in the past.
She now finds herslef being employed by a absolute group of morons that consider her to be unworthy the information that she requires to do her job.
Believe without seeing, work without knowing, and what ever happens make sure that that pride of yours stays well down otherwise you will have a serious problem, you will roast in hell, or even spend time in the purgatory of unemployment before you make it there.
It was one of my principles, to always do your work well, and as part of that to take pride in what you do.
Now if pride is a bad thing things get started on a slow lippery slope of not doing a thing, of not caring, and of having whole countries grind to a halt.
I believe that is call Sloth, and is also a deadly sin.
I refuse for that to happen, or at least for that to happen to me, that is why I stay out of my country, that is why I exile myself, because I am a siner, and the first of the sins I confess is pride.
When submerged if squized to make room for the new environment new things will be be brought to its attention.
A bit late after holy week and since that is one of my oldest fluids, lets examine in turn each one of the 7 deadly sins.
At the end of the day Kieślowski did the 10 commandments, he was far more of a catholic than I am.
Pride:
As I try to make a habit I take a trip to my fathers home town around Easter.
Traditionally its one of the most important dates of the christian callendar, it also is when the weather gets better.
In Valencia, my first region, the smell of the air with the orange blossom is just magic, and just one week after easter, there is the day of San Vicent, or Saint Vincent if we insist in translating.
His life and works may make for an interesting piece, later on but lets not diverge.
As part of this trip I persevered with another old habit that I had given up on, going to church with my parents.
My spirituality has been a bit of a roller-coaster in the last few months, but I have recently decided that intellectual honesty is more important.
Since I happened to become briefly in touch with Nietzche, my outlook on religion has not been the same.
I have to confess many sins to him, the first of all is my liking for beer, but I dare to mention him as a core reference in what intellectual honesty is.
The man, not without his flaws, did dive at depths of what was the establishment at his time and tore down a whole chunk of what was the predominant culture.
It is a pitty is not better understood by most people.
Going back to my little church visit.
I found myself in the same church where I took my holy comunion for the first time, with much changed in terms of decoration.
Such as archangels carying the shield of the town.
And listening to the Gospel of Saint Mark in which after Jesus has resureected and appears to the disciples, there is Thomas which is left without seeing him.
All the other disciples tell him what they saw, and Thomas, clearly states that he needs to see for himslef.
Thomas could have been a scientist, and I am thankful for his presence in the scriptures, but not for the use and interpretation of this account by the priest of my fathers town.
Thomas refused to believe without seeing, was depicted as a restricted man, as one that can not comprehend from the account of the other disciples that Jesus is God re-incarnate and is alive.
Well sorry, all the others did see him, and hence they believed. Why could Thomas not ask for the same chance, which is, to have access to your own facts.
When data or information is transmitted, we all are aware that certain channels can deform and twist the content of that data.
Knowing ourseleves the channel we trust the least are other people, so when information comes from other people we look and who and what they are saying with the same care that we would look at a scientific instrument.
Now, that is not being restricted, that is just being curious and aware of ones situation is.
So the person that thinks and wants to know is punished, if surrounded by morons.
Hold on to that thougth.
Of course if we all demanded, now more than 2000 years later, to see the proof of resurection the church would have a problem.
Since that proof is long gone.
Also looking for such proof started in the middle age one of the most cruel virulent and mindless periods of the Western civilasation.
Lets just not go there again, there is enough trouble in the middle east.
My fathers town priest, followed then on one knotch further, and there is where I was having serious trouble paying credit to my ears.
Not only was Thomas restricted in his brain cpacity, as we where all for not believing without seeing, but it was our pride that prevented us from embracing the mistery that was presented to us.
This is where I want to kill. Not in the literary sense of the term of course, in the figurative one.
So first having access to your own facts is something that derives from being restricted, from wanting to know more about something and make your own decision, and then as if that was not bad enough pride is the deadly sin that takes us there.
Well I must certainly be on my way to a slow and painful afterlife.
If this way of thinking and operating which goes against the teachings of the church itself.
I mean, Are we not supossed to use all of our tallents?
If my talent is to be an iquisitive idiot, I will be a bit less of an idiot after a while, if people let me of course.
The worst part of it all is when the meme gets extended to the rest of the society.
A friend of a friend has recently joined one of the local news papers, she has a lot of experience in communication and has even run her own communications company in the past.
She now finds herslef being employed by a absolute group of morons that consider her to be unworthy the information that she requires to do her job.
Believe without seeing, work without knowing, and what ever happens make sure that that pride of yours stays well down otherwise you will have a serious problem, you will roast in hell, or even spend time in the purgatory of unemployment before you make it there.
It was one of my principles, to always do your work well, and as part of that to take pride in what you do.
Now if pride is a bad thing things get started on a slow lippery slope of not doing a thing, of not caring, and of having whole countries grind to a halt.
I believe that is call Sloth, and is also a deadly sin.
I refuse for that to happen, or at least for that to happen to me, that is why I stay out of my country, that is why I exile myself, because I am a siner, and the first of the sins I confess is pride.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Boominizer 2 a Modern Day Ascii Tale
Dolphin submariners hack their radar in order to see some porn, since the screen is in monochrome the only kind of porn they can play is ascii porn. From there on a lot of things go wrong.
What happened to them and who will be able to help them?
Boominizer 2 is the opera prima of Kevin Sandom, self confessed geek that on the back of his hacking blog funny hacks has decided to release his first short film. Like in recent cinematographic ventures like Schrek and Ice Age Kevin cuts out one part of the cinematographic equation by having a cast completely conformed of cuddly beings.
That way of working may make for a smoothly run filming schedule, but I am not to sure it will be trouble free. Smiles, that guy looks like a party animal no matter what. One that was very present in the happy house scene.
Smiles playing Eric looks a former drug from the happy house scene.
The filming style is quite unique due to the impressive green screen work. In absolute Kubrick style the attention to detail is impressive. The scenes flow as the story line unfolds in classical 80s film style. Karate kid was trained like a sissy girl compared to the training Jody has to undergo before embarking on her dangerous mission.
Looks cuddly, but she means business.
Will Jody prevent more trouble in the planet before other people get hurt like the submariners?
Well, this does not have a spoiler alert so as such contains no spoilers. So go quickly to http://funnyhacks.com/movie/index.php and watch and or download the film.
Pass it on, its so cuddly its un-rateable. Guaranteed family entertainment. There is also a version which mentions ascii art if you want to watch it with a sensitive audience.
Don't forget to vote. Kevin is asking his audience to decide what the next film would be the prequel or the sequel.
You choose, but this is what creative commons enables and the new web cinema has to offer at its best.
What happened to them and who will be able to help them?
Boominizer 2 is the opera prima of Kevin Sandom, self confessed geek that on the back of his hacking blog funny hacks has decided to release his first short film. Like in recent cinematographic ventures like Schrek and Ice Age Kevin cuts out one part of the cinematographic equation by having a cast completely conformed of cuddly beings.
That way of working may make for a smoothly run filming schedule, but I am not to sure it will be trouble free. Smiles, that guy looks like a party animal no matter what. One that was very present in the happy house scene.
Smiles playing Eric looks a former drug from the happy house scene.
The filming style is quite unique due to the impressive green screen work. In absolute Kubrick style the attention to detail is impressive. The scenes flow as the story line unfolds in classical 80s film style. Karate kid was trained like a sissy girl compared to the training Jody has to undergo before embarking on her dangerous mission.
Looks cuddly, but she means business.
Will Jody prevent more trouble in the planet before other people get hurt like the submariners?
Well, this does not have a spoiler alert so as such contains no spoilers. So go quickly to http://funnyhacks.com/movie/index.php and watch and or download the film.
Pass it on, its so cuddly its un-rateable. Guaranteed family entertainment. There is also a version which mentions ascii art if you want to watch it with a sensitive audience.
Don't forget to vote. Kevin is asking his audience to decide what the next film would be the prequel or the sequel.
You choose, but this is what creative commons enables and the new web cinema has to offer at its best.
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