From Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, a (brilliant and witty) story about a man who turns into a woman, this bit is set around 1750:
Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us. For example, when […]
A fantastic example of simulacra.
Perhaps the most powerful and obvious example of simulacra in our lives is that of “make-up”, in the widest possible sense of the word. To change your body and appearance to look like someone else who in turn is a copy, and a distorted copy at that, of someone else. It’s difficult […]
Travelling was quite different to what I had expected.
It was fantastic seeing some new and different cultures, looking at how different groups and nations organised things in different ways and comparing them to what I am used to. One particularly interesting comparison was how different countries treated the environment. For example in Germany they have […]
As mentioned a few posts ago, I've had exams over the past few weeks, hence the short updates; I've been working more or less all day every day for a month and it's had a significant effect on me, changing my outlook and depositing a load of new ideas.
One of the first things that hit me was […]
Adam Curtis' new documentary aired recently on BBC2; it was fantastic, as expected, he has a stunning track record, his previous films have been some of the best programmes ever broadcast. It's called The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom, you can find it through bittorrent, or on google video. In his previous videos he […]
Some quotes on modesty:
With people of only moderate ability modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly overvalued by others. - William Hazlitt
I will not […]
I mentioned a few months ago in this post that I was becoming more "active", in a political/ethical sense. Since that time this has taken over my life in a big way, using up large amounts of energy and throwing me into lots of new ideas. I've been watching lots of documentaries and reading books about […]
Time is moving on again. Christmas is approaching with all its weight; summer is a distant memory and we are right into the depths of winter. This is one of my favourite times of the year, but also one of the most emotional. I often find myself with a lot of time to think, or […]
Having spent a fair amount of my time in the city recently (London to be precise) I have started to realise these subtle, and not so subtle, differences between the city atmosphere and the town or country atmosphere. Apart from the obvious differences in the surrounding environment, I feel differences in the entire life form […]
Well, I can only apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to post, but I have finally got the Internet sorted at home, so updating should be back to normal from here on in. I apologise in advance for the self-orientation of this post, but I feel it's good to set the […]
I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with materialistic culture. Every time I buy something or use something it seems as though I am on a path to the day it breaks and I need to replace it. I buy a bike, it breaks after a year or two; I buy a computer, the graphic card goes […]
I have been away in Wales for the past week or so, hence the even later than usual update. One of the things that struck me while I was there was the “beach/surf culture”, and this made me think about “culture” in general. Or perhaps more specifically, being part of a “group”, either physically as […]
I recently came across this fantastic website called We Feel Fine. It’s a website that crawls blogs and journals all over the Internet looking for the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling”; when it finds one of these phrases it pulls out the whole sentence and stores it on the site. Once it has been stored, you […]
Century of the self
This is an absolutely fantastic BBC series from 2002 about psychology and propaganda over the past hundred years or so. It has been mentioned a lot on Pop Occulture, and other places. The BBC has their own page about it (just text, no video):
Adam Curtis’ acclaimed series examines the rise of the […]
What does it really mean to “experience” something?
I think we can experience events on so many different levels, not just from person to person, but in ourselves as well. Sometimes we might be feeling receptive and get a lot more from an experience than if we were busy or distracted. Similarly, some people skim through […]
Something I dislike about the social “norm” (in this country at least) is the way that, when you are in a group, there always needs to be speech. If nobody speaks for a few seconds, the situation begins to feel uncomfortable.
Why do we feel the need to cram every moment we are with other people […]
Night, So radically different to the day.
For most people, “life” is what happens during the day, at work, at school etc, meeting people, talking, feeling the world around you… So what does that make night?
I personally seem to spend a large chunk of my time “living” at night, I love the quiet, the relative solitude, […]
In an interview with Gilbert in Hermann Göring’s (the Nazi) jail cell during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (18 April 1946)
Göring: “…But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist […]
“Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.” - Søren Kierkegaard
Do you agree? I think I agree to a certain extent, in that we can spend so much time making plans, and keeping busy, because we worry that if we don’t we will miss out on things […]
Brutality is respected. The people need wholesome fear. They want to fear something. They want someone to frighten them and make them shudderingly submissive. Why babble about brutality and get indignant about tortures? The masses want them. They need something that will give them the thrill of horror. - Ernst Röhm
Agree?
In modern society you only […]