| tools |
[May. 3rd, 2009|07:37 pm] |
why do you think you reach out to pick up things? do you think about it? do you think you are controlling your own actions? do you think about your actions? do you think about what it is you are trying to do? do you ask yourself -- is this the right tool for the job?
(a word can be a tool)
stop and stop thinking and go slow and maybe you'll find the right tool |
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| on proportion |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|04:29 pm] |
The man asked, "Is the glass half-empty, or is the glass half-full?"
and got the answer -- "Mmm, juice!" |
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| on nobility |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|02:28 pm] |
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and who first imagined perfection, anyway? |
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| on value |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|12:36 pm] |
I am valuable because everybody is valuable.
(that is the only real reason.) |
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| on needs |
[Apr. 18th, 2009|03:43 pm] |
WHY DO YOU THINK YOU NEED WHAT YOU THINK YOU NEED?
I don’t mean only to say WHY DO YOU NEED THOSE NIKES
I mean also to say
WHY DO YOU NEED TO EAT RIGHT NOW?
WHY DO YOU NEED TO SLEEP WITH YOUR DOOR OPEN?
WHY DO YOU NEED TO TRAVEL TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY TO HELP OTHERS?
WHY DO YOU NEED TO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS?
What NEED are you fulfilling when you eat? What part of you NEEDS an escape route? Are there not people you could help right here and now? Are you telling me who you are or are you on your way to becoming somebody else?
YOU DO NOT NEED THE THINGS YOU THINK YOU NEED FOR THE REASONS YOU THINK YOU NEED THEM
(perhaps need is more simple and more complicated than that.) |
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| on feelings |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|02:22 pm] |
MY HEART IS HEAVY.
(but where is it heavy? is there something which holds it up?)
When I tell you -- "I am tired" -- am I describing my "tiredness"? Do I look at it and observe it, and then explain that to you as best I see fit? WHERE do I look? at my limbs? at my brain as it is functioning? how does a brain look at itself?
When I say "I am tired" -- am I not helping you to predict my behaviour? Helping you to react to my behaviour? I ask of you: do not expect too much.
When I say, "MY HEART IS HEAVY" -- what am I helping you to predict?
(Perhaps I do not know what this "heaviness" means.)
Am I explaining myself to you or looking to you for an explanation?
(an explanation -- "How to proceed?" or -- an affirmation -- "Yes, you are capable of proceeding.") |
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| on freedom |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|12:24 pm] |
Here I am, I am free, I freely choose to believe in my freedom.
Here I am, I am free, I am free because of privilege, I am free at your expense, what would you want I do with freedom shall I throw it away and spit on your desires?
Here I am, I am free, I am free because you are unfree, I have everything, I fulfill my needs, everybody has needs, needs are everything, you have everything, you are free, who is unfree?
Here I am, I am free, I am free because I desire nothing, you are not free because you have desires, your desires make you unfree so you find freedom in your desire to be free.
Here I am, I am free, I am free because I desire nothing, because I desire nothing I have no desire to be free.
Here I am, I am not free, I cannot believe in my freedom. |
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| EXPERIMENTS IN POST-POMO ROMANTICISM |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|04:13 pm] |
ARE YOU TERRIFIED PEOPLE WILL FIND YOU OUT
FOR NOT BEING WHAT OTHERS SAY YOU ARE
OR WHAT YOU CLAIM TO BE?
GIVE UP YOUR FROZEN AND DEAD VIEW OF THE HUMAN BEING
as something which can ever be stuck fast to a fixed-plane
of flattened existence and embrace the BROILING AND INTEMPERATE
GORGEOUS MISERY OF UNFIXED POTENTIALITY!!!
Grow your armpit hair not because you are a feminist but
because you REEK A MUSK OF ETERNAL MYSTERY!!
Count calories not because of a diet but because each one is a
measure of the BURNING FIRE WHICH WILL BE UNLEASHED
INTO YOUR SUPER-CONDUCTING NERVE-ENDINGS
VIA THE SACRED TURBINE OF YOUR GUT!!!
YOUR BODY IS A WET AND HEAVING CATHEDRAL
FLOATING ALONG ON A BARGE OF
CHANCE AND CIRCUMSTANCE!!!
Rush to the windows and lick back the silk-screens and scream downriver!!
Give up your worship of dim clay figures which REVEAL NOTHING and throw yourself on the mercy of your OWN WAILING LUNGWIND-POWER!!! |
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| on middle-class desire |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|03:05 am] |
LET'S BE HONEST HERE --
THE ONLY THING YOU REALLY WANT THAT YOU DON'T HAVE IS
DISCIPLINE |
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| Slavoj Zizek |
[Apr. 9th, 2009|12:54 pm] |
"Subjects are literally holes, gaps, in the positive order of being: they dwell only in the interstices of being, in those places where the job of creation is not done to the end: the very existence of a subject is a proof that God was an idiot who bungled the job of Creation. Far from being the Crown of Creation, a subject bears witness to the fact that there are spots of unfinished reality in the order of things: the objective correlate of a subject is a proto-real spectral object-stain which is not yet fully actualized as part of positive reality."
(TO AGREE TO EXIST SYMBOLICALLY/SIGN-IFICANTLY
IS TO AGREE TO USE WORDS AS TOOLS
WITHIN A POLITICS AND AN ECONOMICS)
(THE ONLY WAY TO BE HONEST SPEAK TRUTH
IS TO WANDER AROUND ASKING CRYPTIC QUESTIONS) |
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| EXPERIMENTS IN POST-POMO DETERMINISM |
[Apr. 9th, 2009|12:40 pm] |
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There is nothing I can do so I can do nothing but be morose about doing nothing while doing something to maintain my ability to continue to do nothing. |
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| EXPERIMENTS IN POST-POMO CATHOLICISM/LIBERAL HUMANISM |
[Apr. 5th, 2009|02:43 pm] |
There is no knowledge on this earth – that is, knowledge which is not merely a tool for some purpose but has some sort of truth in itself – that is not entirely human, fleeting, and eternal.
You are skeptical, I know.
But tell me this --
Do you not despair when you think there is no purpose to it all?
Do you not grasp at hope for meaning when you see it?
Have you never washed up, petrified, onto the shores of a hot meal prepared by someone who cares and who desires only to share that with you, expecting nothing in return, and find yourself melting into a sense of undeserved benevolence and transcendent meaning?
You do not believe me. You say,
How can someone ever do something without expecting to get something out of it?
You suspect people always have some ulterior motive – that they are always trying to use you.
I am telling you this right now:
I AM NOT TRYING TO USE YOU AND I DO NOT EXPECT TO GET ANYTHING OUT OF THIS.
And what could I get out of this? How do I know who you are?
I simply want you to know:
that with no need for a greater purpose, without you being a part of some cause,
that YOU ARE VALUABLE IN AND OF YOURSELF.
Whatever you are fighting for --
that is all well and good --
but at the end of the day
far more enduring and beautiful and important
are simple, ever-passing and temporary, daily expressions of love and care and selflessness.
You are already part of something far greater and further-reaching than any great purpose --
and this is the human condition.
If reading these words simply bolsters a sense of self-importance that was already there,
if you feel as if you have won one over on me,
if you dismiss these words as simple naivete,
then – I pity you – and THIS MESSAGE IS NOT FOR YOU.
I hope that you may at some point wrest yourself from the egocentric desires which drive your day to day existence – but I will not spend my energy wrestling them with you. |
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| if you dismiss this entry then it was not meant for you |
[Apr. 3rd, 2009|06:23 am] |
what is that tickling, itching and niggling, that seems to sit somewhere at the back of your mind?
is it a question? what is the question? why is it there? what is it for?
WHY and I'll ask you, WHY do you think
WHY DO YOU NOT FEEL AT REST?
could it be that you are on a quest?
WHAT KIND OF QUEST? WHAT IS IT FOR?
if you are questing (I hope you are questing)
WHAT ARE YOU QUESTING FOR?
WHAT ARE YOU SCARED OF?
what do you KNOW?
WHY do you think you know it?
WHY and I ask you WHY do you think
DID YOU EVER KNOW ANYTHING AT ALL?
have you TESTED your knows? and what you DON'T know?
have you tested how far you can fall?
TEST YOUR BELIEFS
if you think that you NEED them
TEST THEM or else you won't know
TEST THE BELIEFS THAT YOU THINK YOU NEED MOST
and maybe you'll find you knew nothing at all.
SINCERELY
THE SMILING CAT IN POINT-ST-CHARLES |
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| let it be determined whether or not |
[Mar. 28th, 2009|06:55 am] |
CAPITALISM IS EVIL?
(capital = fixed value)
(fixed value = a straight line)
(evil = inaction)
(inaction = a straight line)
SO
let it be determined whether
(evil = a downward slope)
or
(evil = a straight line)
WHAT IS A SLOPE?
(what keeps things from staying flat and still?) |
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| let it be determined whether or not |
[Mar. 27th, 2009|03:28 pm] |
CAPITALISM IS EVIL?
(capital = fixed value)
(evil = ill will)
(ill will = a downward slope)
(fixed value ≠ a downward slope)
(capital ≠ evil)
CAPITALISM IS NOT EVIL |
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| on revelation |
[Mar. 26th, 2009|12:10 pm] |
remember :
structural integrity v.s critical engagement
is the new
classical v.s romantic
the revelation is :
structural integrity which IS critical engagement
(personal integrity)
(a revelation which does not come from anywhere but is an action: not a revealing, unmasking, peeling away, but an unfolding, a growing, a doing) |
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| change |
[Mar. 26th, 2009|11:56 am] |
there are things that need to be changed, and
i am changing them
(when i see opportunities to do so i take them)
(it is this taking that is the changing)
(change is small and everyday and it is not a struggle but a continual celebration, and a sharing, of an incrementally better way of doing things)
(it is a wink)
everything is always already beautiful, can't you see? |
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| instrumental reason |
[Mar. 18th, 2009|07:03 pm] |
being self-serving and practical can be difficult for me to just-ify
(BEING SELF-SERVING AND PRACTICAL IS THE EASIEST THING TO 'JUSTIFY') |
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