So, once in a while i torture myself by watching local news, on the internet of course, because it would just be way too sadistic not to watch with an adblocker.
So here is an incite into my thought process as it is happening..
"friendly rally earlier" - o yes... the second one was just so, mean.
"not prepared for the aggressive torture" - oyeah? what about the undercover cops?
"queens park was supposed to be a designated peaceful protest zone" there is no such thing as a peaceful protest zone, or a designated riot area.
"i had some of my most important rights and fundamental freedoms ripped away from me"
- who gives you these so-called rights?
"talk to the men and women behind the masks, they'll tell you, it was a scary situation"
- those masks and outfits are designed to scare people
here is one that someone else made:
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Partisan Politics, Left/Right dichotomies & Useless generalizations.
I cringe while watching cable news without a filter like Jon Stewart. Pure absurdity. Blind nationalism. Nothing but religiosity. Once in a while someone asks a good question, but overall, its just horrid. This applies to both Canadian and American cable news.
Why?
I could get into a long list, but for now I am going to focus on a particular aspect that is not only found in the news, but in everyday political conversation. Engaging in political dialogue without a theoretical underpinning is absolutely meaningless.
In short, it could be labeled as 'pigeonholing' - "If you are not with us, you are with them"
Here are a few examples:
Gay Marriage Example:
If I were to say, 'I am against the gay marriage bill that recently passed in NYC,' I would immediately be labeled as a traditionalist conservative blah blah republican. Usually I start off with something provocative just to see the response. Then I would need to explain that marriage is entangled within a heteropatriachal understanding of society and should be abolished.. and also, what might be even more provocative.. this bill only ensnares the gay population within this paradigm and ultimately helps to uphold it.
Unions Example:
A couple months back there were teachers unions striking in Wisconsin against the withholding of collective bargaining rights. Right now we are seeing the spread of that loss throughout the US of A.
To put it simply, the modern union is just a player within the political economic game, like corporations and governments. [Most] Unions have lost their potential for being a revolutionary tool and have become merely liberal, reformist entities which help to uphold the status quo. Especially teachers unions.
I will speak more about this in a later web log.
Even the idea of 'having a right' needs to be critically examined.. but this is another huge topic which will need its own limelight as well.
And finally, Net Neutrality:
The point is this:
The options left to us are either governmental rule or corporate rule; with critical thinking, we realize that there are underlying options which are not presented to us because of systematic constrains.
As simple as it may seem, it is very difficult to realize that playing the political-economic game undermines revolutionary efforts. Left/Right dichotomies, unions vs corporations, democrats vs republicans, etc., all these are examples of the idiocy known as partisan politics.
With the absence of critical thinking, comes the absence of options available to us which are not entangled to 'the game.'
Why?
I could get into a long list, but for now I am going to focus on a particular aspect that is not only found in the news, but in everyday political conversation. Engaging in political dialogue without a theoretical underpinning is absolutely meaningless.
In short, it could be labeled as 'pigeonholing' - "If you are not with us, you are with them"
Here are a few examples:
Gay Marriage Example:
If I were to say, 'I am against the gay marriage bill that recently passed in NYC,' I would immediately be labeled as a traditionalist conservative blah blah republican. Usually I start off with something provocative just to see the response. Then I would need to explain that marriage is entangled within a heteropatriachal understanding of society and should be abolished.. and also, what might be even more provocative.. this bill only ensnares the gay population within this paradigm and ultimately helps to uphold it.
Unions Example:
A couple months back there were teachers unions striking in Wisconsin against the withholding of collective bargaining rights. Right now we are seeing the spread of that loss throughout the US of A.
To put it simply, the modern union is just a player within the political economic game, like corporations and governments. [Most] Unions have lost their potential for being a revolutionary tool and have become merely liberal, reformist entities which help to uphold the status quo. Especially teachers unions.
I will speak more about this in a later web log.
Even the idea of 'having a right' needs to be critically examined.. but this is another huge topic which will need its own limelight as well.
And finally, Net Neutrality:
The point is this:
The options left to us are either governmental rule or corporate rule; with critical thinking, we realize that there are underlying options which are not presented to us because of systematic constrains.
As simple as it may seem, it is very difficult to realize that playing the political-economic game undermines revolutionary efforts. Left/Right dichotomies, unions vs corporations, democrats vs republicans, etc., all these are examples of the idiocy known as partisan politics.
With the absence of critical thinking, comes the absence of options available to us which are not entangled to 'the game.'
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Significance of touch:
“Touch is not peripheral to human existence, it is essential to it... touch is the meaning of being human” (38). When touching stops, its “as if the skin of the other had in fact been torn off.”
-Dworkin, Intercourse.
Tactile communication reveals something particularly essential about the other; something that the visual, verbal, and olfactive cannot hope to achieve; and it is something indispensable for sexual interaction.The significance of coitus is in the truths revealed through the seemingly simple act of organ interaction.
If an infant is not touched in an incubator, it will die.
Holding hands, high fives, hand shaking, hugs and kisses, these social norms are not just mere formalities; they are products of something far deeper to the idea of humanity. The nature of human being would be unrecognizable without touch.
So what can we say about the solitary arts of reading and writing?
Something which the electronic universe has certainly expanded on.
A loss of humanity or a sign of something post-human?
-Dworkin, Intercourse.
Tactile communication reveals something particularly essential about the other; something that the visual, verbal, and olfactive cannot hope to achieve; and it is something indispensable for sexual interaction.The significance of coitus is in the truths revealed through the seemingly simple act of organ interaction.
If an infant is not touched in an incubator, it will die.
Holding hands, high fives, hand shaking, hugs and kisses, these social norms are not just mere formalities; they are products of something far deeper to the idea of humanity. The nature of human being would be unrecognizable without touch.
So what can we say about the solitary arts of reading and writing?
Something which the electronic universe has certainly expanded on.
A loss of humanity or a sign of something post-human?
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
personal relationships based on political economic cost benefit analysis
The mechanical processes which operate on the modern public sphere have the corrupted the decision making criterion individuals use in their relations with others. If an action is not one that can reap a benefit which can be spent within 'the game,' it is not worth undertaking.
Sure, at some level this might be helpful. But lets take this scenario into consideration:
Imagine a store clerk that treats the customers at his store better than his own children; that is, he is more responsive and helpful to his customers than his children.
This is a case which I can assume to be the norm in the status quo.
Yet, it is possible to use a political-economic argument to change his ways. We could say something like (a) your children will desert you and treat you the same way you treated them when you are older, (b) the community will not do business with you if word gets around that you neglect your children because of your 'dedication' or any such means of persuasion.
However, this political-economic perspective disregards a crucial aspect of human interaction; in its pure materialism, it disrupts any understanding of an intrinsic good, or treating the other as an end in themselves.
Relationships become a purely mechanical, industrial, non-tactile procedure. A mechanical, post-human love. Almost like the way we, you and I, are interacting right now.
Sure, at some level this might be helpful. But lets take this scenario into consideration:
Imagine a store clerk that treats the customers at his store better than his own children; that is, he is more responsive and helpful to his customers than his children.
This is a case which I can assume to be the norm in the status quo.
Yet, it is possible to use a political-economic argument to change his ways. We could say something like (a) your children will desert you and treat you the same way you treated them when you are older, (b) the community will not do business with you if word gets around that you neglect your children because of your 'dedication' or any such means of persuasion.
However, this political-economic perspective disregards a crucial aspect of human interaction; in its pure materialism, it disrupts any understanding of an intrinsic good, or treating the other as an end in themselves.
Relationships become a purely mechanical, industrial, non-tactile procedure. A mechanical, post-human love. Almost like the way we, you and I, are interacting right now.
Friday, 17 June 2011
The Dodos & Deerhoof - June 16 Concert
The concert, which was originally made for the ear, has become more and more a visual phenomenon in modern western culture. People speak of obtaining passages to 'view' the musicians rather to 'listen' to the intricacies of altering a string or set of mechanical devices in order to make a particular sound.
While my enjoyment is doubled by being aware of the viewer, that is, looking behind to observe the reactions of the crowd, I am sure of cases where people maintain a fixed view, a one way perspective facing the performer.
A concert environment, for me anyway, involves the participation of the crowd not just with the band, but with themselves.
About the music.
I found it disappointing that The Dodos played only a few songs, as well as not having played the song 'Horny Hippies.' The sound quality was also mediocre. It would have been great if this was done on a sunny summer day on grass.
On the other hand, the atmosphere was quite positive and the crowd responsive.
7.8/10
I have never heard of Deerhoof before but their music was mesmerizing, hypnotizing, weird and dare I say, 'post-modern.'
Dearhoof is an exemplar for the amalgamative tendencies of the black hole known as modern hipsterism. Recognizable yet uncategorizable. New categories are created when asking the question, will it blend?
7.9/10
While my enjoyment is doubled by being aware of the viewer, that is, looking behind to observe the reactions of the crowd, I am sure of cases where people maintain a fixed view, a one way perspective facing the performer.
A concert environment, for me anyway, involves the participation of the crowd not just with the band, but with themselves.
About the music.
I found it disappointing that The Dodos played only a few songs, as well as not having played the song 'Horny Hippies.' The sound quality was also mediocre. It would have been great if this was done on a sunny summer day on grass.
On the other hand, the atmosphere was quite positive and the crowd responsive.
7.8/10
I have never heard of Deerhoof before but their music was mesmerizing, hypnotizing, weird and dare I say, 'post-modern.'
Dearhoof is an exemplar for the amalgamative tendencies of the black hole known as modern hipsterism. Recognizable yet uncategorizable. New categories are created when asking the question, will it blend?
7.9/10
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
love starts early
Whereas I am usually consciously desensitized when wondering in the consumerist promenade known as 'the mall,' the discovery of this visual gave me a rush of emotion which I am now compelled to portray for anonymous:
I forget which corporate person is responsible for this advertisement, but I guess that doesn't really matter when operating within the confines of a monogamous, capitalist, statist, white-supremacist, heteropatriarchal excuse we have for a society.
Love for a shoe is a reproducible, artificial and materialistic love; just like the love that white boy will manufacture every time he blows her a kiss.
But this is a love for not just any shoe, its a love for a pair of red, high heels; todays wiki tells us that the high heel creates an 'aesthetic illusion of longer, more slender and more toned legs.' That is a great confidence booster for when she enters next years little miss beauty pageant.
Little girl, welcome to the life of female servitude.
I forget which corporate person is responsible for this advertisement, but I guess that doesn't really matter when operating within the confines of a monogamous, capitalist, statist, white-supremacist, heteropatriarchal excuse we have for a society.
Love for a shoe is a reproducible, artificial and materialistic love; just like the love that white boy will manufacture every time he blows her a kiss.
But this is a love for not just any shoe, its a love for a pair of red, high heels; todays wiki tells us that the high heel creates an 'aesthetic illusion of longer, more slender and more toned legs.' That is a great confidence booster for when she enters next years little miss beauty pageant.
Little girl, welcome to the life of female servitude.
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