reshuffling the tiles > 04/12/06

Have been playing a bit of Mah Jong today and the program I used was slightly different from what I’m used to. Whenever you get stuck - and if you know Mah Jong that’s easy - there is the option to reshuffle the tiles! Thus the morale of the game is that whenever you get stuck, reshuffle the tiles, break out of locked positions! The name of the game will change.

[ read more ]

response (0) tagged: neoliberalism :: the spectacle :: identity :: the unconscious filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other

human poverty > 22/04/05

Everywhere I look I come across, on the one, social narcissism, behaviourism, cognitive therapy, infomania and, on the other, anorexia, bulimia, people being burnt out and other bodies in disorder. That is, I come across both the symptoms and the effects of a society that has rid itself of its humanity. Instead of investing in human potential we rely on quick solutions and material welfare to cover up for the lack of faith in human resources. The result is meagre, poor in spirit, rich in bodily disorders.

response (0) tagged: filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other

The melodrama of Cape Fear > 16/03/05

In Cape Fear, we find “evil” in the character of Robert de Niro threatening the family romance by tempting its teen-age daughter with sin (sexuality, smoking dope etc.). He is the stranger, the threat from the outside that throws the hegemony of the family unit apart or besides itself in a diabolical way (diabolos means “throwing apart/aside”).

[ read more ]

response (0) tagged: patriarchy :: abomination filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other

communities > 28/05/04

What’s a community? is a question I’m asking myself after having spent a few months working at the local community center. The answer I arrive at is that a community by definition is fenced in by common ideals, goals, social structures etc that foreclose the other.

It’s not very different from the American ‘neighbourhood’ mentality - the world is no larger than your immediate surroundings - what goes beyond is a potential threat. God knows what’s waiting around the corner - a sociopath, a serial killer, a member of al-qaida, or simply yourself - and chaos.

response (0) tagged: patriarchy :: the other filed under: the Other :: in the absence of the Other