February 2012
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Music and gratefulness
painting by Ian Buchbinder (2012)
How easily we take music for granted. It can seem so natural, like mountains or life-giving water.
But to hear sweetness like we taste sweetness in chocolate or fruit, to hear beauty like we see it — this is a marvelous invention. All music is the meticulous labor of human beings, the product of millions upon millions of wriggling ancestors, each emerging...
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“A religious war is basically a fight over who has the best imaginary friend”
– Yasser Arafat
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Adopt! Adopt! Adopt! Millions of pets homeless,...
A redditor defending the employees of animal shelters summarizes the dismal problem with pets in the US; it is prevailing social attitudes that lead to a huge amount of suffering and euthanasia for animals in the country. I looked it up, and at last count, two thirds of animals that end up in shelters are euthenized — that’s at least a few million animals a year.
While most of us...
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“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails,...”
– Frederick Douglass
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WatchThe media is ‘grossly deceiving people’ on Iran
— an illustrative example of how the mainstream media becomes easily complicit in war-mongering, whether they intend it or not.
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“I keep thinking about the extraordinary conservatism of the people running the...”
– What We Owe to Each Other – provocative Boston Review interview with David Graeber, “anti-leader of Occupy Wall Street” and author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years. (via curiositycounts)
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“The astonishing thing is not that some people steal or that others occasionally...”
– Wilhelm Reich (The Mass Psychology of Fascism)
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LABOR MARKET. LABOR MARKET. LABOR MARKET. LABOR...
How will we serve each other? How will we make this money thing work? New jobs for a new time. What will we desire, if we shed our addiction to things? I hope we’ll serve each other’s adventures and arts more. Fuck getting rich.
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“So it is the duty of the artist to discourage all traces of shame
To extend all...”
– “The Artist’s Duty” by Kenneth Patchen
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“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just...”
– Will Rogers
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“I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable...”
– Pascal
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“We’re the Wickersham Brothers. We’re vigilant spotters.
Hotshot spotters of...”
– The Wickersham brothers in Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who, representing the unfortunate human tendency towards conservative isolationism. (via tingalingmofo)
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State of the Art →
A slightly dated overview of the evolution of the wild and crazy world of contemporary art — fascinating and slightly reeking of essentialism!
“We live at a moment when artists have been asking the kinds of questions children ask - What is art? What is it good for? - and critics have for the most part been giving answers not even an adult can understand. ‘Mommy, why have we...
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“People always make the mistake of thinking art is created for them. But really,...”
– Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes on the hollow soul of contemporary art.
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“Calvin: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humour? When...”
– Hobbes: I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.
Calvin: (after a long pause) I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.
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“As you can see, I have memorized this utterly useless piece of information long...”
– Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes on the education system.
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“Everybody seeks happiness! Not me, though! That’s the difference between me and...”
– Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes on expectations.
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