In episode 3 of season two of his "Conspiracy Theory" series, professional wrestler, former Navy SEAL and former Minnesota governor, Jesse Ventura and his team take a look at Wall Street and the role key players there have played in masterminding the economic mess that has befallen the U.S. and the world, while they have grown even more wealthy. Why Goldman Sachs is called "Government Sachs" due to its cozy relationship with the Federal Government. A tie to a secret group in Rome called Legatus, a Catholic networking organization comprised of businessmen from around the world, comparable to the shadowy and villainous "Opus Dei" in The Da Vinci Code thriller novel/movie. Role of the Federal Reserve Bank, who answers to no one. Complicity of the U.S. Fed and Whitehouse. Interview with Ron Paul. In the last half of part three below, he goes head to head with some of the biggest traders / traitors in a room: Mark Patterson, Hank Paulson, Ed Libby, William Dudley; the two previous heads of the Federal Reserve, the head of the NY Stock Exchange, the head of the World Bank, and the heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks, all of whom work for Goldman Sachs. He gives them a verbal body slam. That’s my favorite part. What’s the relation to free energy? Again, the same overall cabal who has been suppressing exotic free energy technologies are of the same ilk and dark brotherhood as the conspirators who wreak havoc on our economy to their benefit.

Katie was always considered heavy and was teased always in school but school is out. As Katie begins to write her novel she comes back home for some research. She ends up going to her reunion and is surprised by the many people who are actually nice and admit they were mean to her expect her nemesis Liz. But that is not all that happened that night because Paul finally noticed her.

Paul, an ex hockey player taken away from the game before it was time. He hated it and settled for coaching but it was not in the league he wanted. Coming back to his home town was not what was expected especially when he finds a much prettier Katie.

The two start dating but it is rocky as he already slept with Liz again and he is the coach for the little league of Katie’s nephew and Liz’s son.

With stories that are about bullying for me they are so much more powerful. It should be discussed because it happens to many. I loved how Martin creates Katie to be stronger but inside she is still hurting.

This story was a roller coaster. There were great highs and the lowest of the lows. I didn’t know how the story would end up but I hoped with a happy ending.

All the characters from bad to good guys were very realistically written and entertaining to read. I loved the story on Tuck, the nephew because it seemed so real.

The Penalty Box will pull at your heart strings and make you believe in second chances.

For a long time, I had been craving to see, feel and partake in significantly shifting our nation’s policy agenda. I had been wanting to shed light on social inequality in order to bring about policy that would bring to disadvantaged groups. This summer, I got nothing less.  Thanks to the generosity of the Office of International Education, the Liberal Arts in
Practice Center and the support of Dean Ann Davies and professor Georgia Duerst-Lahti, I was fortunate enough to engage in producing “real science” alongside Maurice P. During, professor of demographic studies and professor of sociology and public affairs alongside Marta Tienda at Princeton University. I helped her lay the ground work for her new research and upcoming presentation on “broadening the pipelines” to higher education for underrepresented groups. She will present this research at the end of the year to graduate school deans from around the country as a part of the
Council of Graduate studies.

As someone with a sociological imagination and a fervor to make opportunities available for disadvantaged communities, I was becoming disillusioned to learn that historically, very few sociologists have played an influential role in shaping federal policy, and the ones who have, have caused tremendous damage to Black and Brown communities, such as Daniel Moynihan. Interning with Professor Tienda was just the uplift I needed to
see that sociologists can, and do, play an influential role in our nation’s policy agenda. They have the power to generate research that attempts to diminish disparities, and in the case of my summer research, educational disparities. With licks from her spirited
puppy, Malita, I discussed my interests of immigrant incorporation and social inequality with Professor Tienda  — she had a special project in mind and put me to work right away. She had me research seven programs, such as the McNair Scholars Program
and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which attempt to “pipeline” qualified students from underrepresented groups to Ph.D. programs in order to come up with a viable program that could be replicated to scale. I researched each one and met with
the directors of a few of these programs to gather data on their effectiveness. You’d be surprised at how little initiatives get evaluated. A lack of evaluation evinced the need for researchers. How do we really know our programs do what we want them to do if we don’t
accurately evaluate them?

I also engaged in creating a robust literature review on the success of research/mentoring programs and was surprised to find out that I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought about searches or citations! Elana, or “my personal librarian,” taught me how to carry
out in-depth searches, make full use of every database on the library’s website as well as others and make the APA citing manual 6th edition my best friend. I got to play with the statistical software of Stata via finding and merging variables to a longitudinal McNair
database I created in order to compare graduation, enrollment and retention rates across programs. Merely creating a sound database took about a week and a half. Since I interned with Professor Tienda for a only a month and learned that research requires a
lot of initial work, I didn’t get the chance to run cross tabs or regressions. Now I can say that I know, can meet the high standards of and have the tools to carry
out research.

My experience with Professor Tienda reveals that sociologists do have a role to play in federal policy. For example, she serves as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, and she’s been the leading
figure behind creating and evaluating the Texas ten percent rule, a rule that allows any high school student in the top ten percent of their class to be admitted to any university in Texas. Speaking with her every day, seeing her relentless pursuit of excellence and
drive to make educational opportunities available to underrepresented groups, hearing her talk about her role in the policy arena at a federal level, and helping her come up with a framework, an argument and policy recommendations based on data I helped
create. It revitalized my hopes of becoming a sociologist and continues to play an influential role in our nation’s policies. As I look to the near future, there’s no doubt I want to make policy, sociology, Professor Tienda and a puppy of my own, a part of my
years ahead.

trashera:

“the forgotten sociologists”

No, I don’t respond to them, and I certainly don’t post my own. So you might wonder why I bother. Doesn’t a busy college student have better things to do with her life? (The short answer: no. This is college, after all.) Shouldn’t I be studying, downing shots, or eating unhealthy amounts of food?

Yeah, I should be, except the Craigslist guilty pleasure has another purpose besides amusement. At heart, I’m a sociologist obsessed with the stories of those people who I’ll never meet, and people who post desperate personal ads online are likely to fall into that group.

My interest in mostly drawn to the curious “m4w” crowd (“men seeking women”), as I’m both heterosexual and female. For better or for worse, these are a selection of my potential partners. These could be the men I pass on the street, the guy in front of me in class, the nerd playing World of Warcraft in the computer lab. These are the specimen State College, in all its glory, has to offer.

In my unofficial census of recent m4w State College personal ads, I’ve found three essential categories of ads:

The Bot: He doesn’t exist. Someone, a hacker or bored and horny 13-year-old with access to wi-fi, has created this profile for whatever purpose. I can only assume the creator finds his (or her) creation to be attractive to females…but how wrong he would be. These ads are repeated multiple times over a two-day time-span. His pictures consist of either stock photos or a combination of “his” six pack abs and (erect) junk. He tends to emphasize being hung like a horse and his willingness to share this endowment with you– lucky girl!

Fun Times, and Prostitution:  The stereotypical, so-horny-I-can’t-function-in-society, please-some-one-talk-about-my-junk ad-poster. Ever considered performing oral sex for money? Well, there’s certainly a demand for it in lovely State College. That’s just blatant prostitution– couldn’t they at least add a bit of class to it? “I’ll host no-strings attached fun, and then I’ll swipe you into the dining hall for a FREE brunch!” But not every ad offers cash. Some men seem to think they’re taking the high road by admitting the Craiglist hook-up would have no meaning besides sex. At least they’re not trying to trick you– or pay you.

The Emotionally Desperate: This is the most pitiable of the categories, and my sympathies go to each and every man who has written one of these Craigslist ads. These men aren’t just looking for a hook-up; they are searching for the woman of their dreams. They’re not afraid to write a 2000-word novella about themselves, their insecurities, and their hopes for the future to prove their desire for their special “princess.”

I’m not repulsed by any of these types, which says less about the quality of men available at my fingertips than it does about my desensitization to men as a whole. On a college campus, “Fun Times” guys are nearly as common as Natty cans. Of course, most men would never act like a Craigslist ad. Thankfully, I’ve never been approached by a guy who began a conversation about either his schlong or his desire to have enough kids to repopulate the world. Still, I have to wonder who these Craiglist posters are as people– and if the guys I know and love to be complex beings have a little bit of idiotic Craiglist-man in them.

We hear a lot about African, Asian, and Latin American biblical studies/hermeneutics/philosophy/theology as if it is the abberation of the objective, universal approach to the aforementioned subjects. This assumes too much. It speaks of Eurocentric (i.e. white) approaches to various topics as universals when the truth of the matter is that this approach is contextualized as well. While I think it is right to discuss African, Asian, and Latin American (and other categories) forms of thought in order to be more aware of the differences, we must be careful to avoid to assumption the they contrast a fundamental, universal approach (i.e our approach).

It is easy to make this mistake. Often we assume our view is the universal, especially if we are in the majority. For example, my wife recently shared a few paragraphs from a chapter titled “Religious Microagressions in the United States: Mental Health Implications for Religious Minority Groups” in Microaggressions and Marginality: Manifestation, Dynamics, and Impact (ed. Derald Wing Sue) where the following paragraphs grabbed my attention (its from the Kindle edition so excuse the lack of page numbers):

“…another common experience for religious minorities may include asking someone to be a spokesperson for their entire religious or nonreligious groups. Such an act implies that individuals from a specific religious group have had universal experiences and that each person is interchangeable and nondescript. This phenomenon is similar to the theme ‘assumed universal black experience’ in which a Black/African person is asked to speak on behalf of the entire race (Sue, Nadal, et al., 2008). Expecting a person from a religious or nonreligious group  to speak for his or her group can be viewed as unfair and may evoke stress from the recipient. Perpetrators from dominant religious groups are rarely asked to be representatives of their groups. This form of religious microaggression can be similar in literature on race. For example, McIntosh (2003) reveals that one privilege that Whites have is that they may never be asked to represent their entire group, while people of color may be asked to be spokespersons regularly. Similarly, Christians may never have to be spokespersons, while Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and other religious and nonreligious minority groups may be asked recurrently.”"

I have heard from fellow Caucasians/Whites the opening line, “My friend _____ is Black and s/he thinks….” as the beginning of an argument for why one African American/Black’s vantage point suddenly sums up the views of a whole ethnic/racial group. Some examples would be “My Black friend _____ doesn’t like the idea of Affirmative Action, therefore….” or “My Mexican friend _____ says that s/he doesn’t think it is fair for the school in the Latino neighborhood to get a larger portion of government aid, so….” and the African American or Latino who happens to have a view similar to that of the majority is cited as evidence that the minority group either (A) doesn’t necessarily disagree with the majority or (B) since some within the minority group agree with the majority the concerns of the rest of the minority are unjustified.

I am a white, male Protestant/evangelical. This puts me in the majority in the United States. Sometimes I sense the need to defend myself against the demonization of “whiteness” or “maleness” and often one card we white males play is the appeal to our minority or female friend. I know why we do this, but I’m not sure that it is wise, especially when we ignore the views of a minority group in favor of a “spokesperson” who agrees with us.

Those of us from religious groups that are the majority do the same thing. I have heard some fellow evangelicals warn about the dangers of Islam because they heard “a former Muslim, now Christian” outline their own negative experience with Islam and then they assume this describes all Muslims. The same thing can happen when a “former Catholic” explains to Protestants why “Catholicism” is bad. The Protestant appeals to the view of one former Catholic, but does not give other Catholics a speaking platform. (This is one reason why I was hesitant in writing my series on Oneness Pentecostalism, since I know I am only one former adherent.)

I am not saying that this is the type of thing being done of Rachel Held Evans’ blog where she has a series that includes, “Ask an Atheist”; “Ask a Catholic”; “Ask an Orthodox Jew”; “Ask a Humanitarian”; “Ask a Mormon”; “Ask a Mennonite”; and “Ask an Evolutionary Creationist”, but I do think there is a danger that readers of these posts may assume a smug sense of “awareness” now that “a Catholic” or “a Mormon” has spoken on behalf of the religious minority. Rachel’s series does something very positive–it invites evangelicals to dialogue with “the other”. It allows someone from a minority group to speak rather than be spoken for by an outsider. Most importantly, it allows an individual to show that a generalization of a given group ignores that different individuals in that group have different opinions on various matters. If these things are kept in perspective all is well and good. What needs to be avoided is that misconception that the “spokesperson” represents the group or that it is even a “good” thing that they must be a “spokesperson”. It should be seen as the beginning of a conversation including more voices, not a final word spoken by one individual.

For those of us in the majority we must ask ourselves how much we would like to be represented by one voice. One example, as a citizen of the United States it was very concerning to talk to people who thought that because President George W. Bush had a particular foreign policy that he represented the entire American ethos. One person I know from Belgium was quite surprised to hear that all Americans aren’t pro-war!!! Another example is that as a white male I don’t like when it is assumed that I come from a line of slave owners (no evidence of this in my family line) or that I think a good woman is one who washes the dishes and cooks every meal (I cook sometimes and I do many of the house chores). If someone asked my dad what a “white, American male” thinks of a given subject I’d be quite horrified if someone assumed that his views are my own.

So we must avoid the fallacy of assumed universal experience from two angles. First, we must avoid the idea that our own experience is the universal while others are abberations. Second, we must avoid the misconception that the view of one person of a minority race, ethnicity, sub-culture, or religion represents everyone in said group.

What are your thoughts on this issue? 

]]> http://flightyadventure.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/adventure-in-people-are-selfish-little-piglets-for-the-most-part/ Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:47:42 +0000 flightyadventure http://flightyadventure.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/adventure-in-people-are-selfish-little-piglets-for-the-most-part/ Hayley,

Our culture (of course, a sociologist would have to mention that!) encourages us to think that all of our emotional needs will be met and we will live happily ever after if only we find Mr./Ms. Right.  The assumption seems to be that we can’t be normal, happy people unless we are in such relationships.  Of course, even the best of relationships can’t come up to the level of perfection that we expect, so we become disillusioned and go on to other relationships that we hope will be better than the previous ones.  I think women are particularly inclined to seek for those ideal relationships, which may be why women are less satisfied with their marriages (on the average) than men are.  We want to find our “soul mates” who will always understand us, listen to us, and take care of us.  But, maybe if we tried harder to understand, listen to, and take care of the others instead of focusing on ourselves, we would be better off in the long run.  People are selfish little piglets, for the most part.

I think it’s good that you are considering the complexities of relationships.  Different people define love differently, but social scientists generally argue that the passionate/romantic love that is the main basis for dating and marriage in our society tends to fade into companionate love after a few years.  So, if you are good friends and have a lot in common with the significant other, the relationship is much more likely to endure for the long haul.  Folks who have the romantic love without much other base to build on may not stay in the relationship when the excitement starts to decline.  Contrary to popular opinion, romantic love does not conquer all.  As you suggested, lasting love is more of a verb than a giddy feeling.

Mary Ruthi, Ph.D.

The Power of Identity. Vol. 2 The Information Age: Economy, Society & Culture

In this enlightening example of literary prowess, The Power of Identity, Castells draws on the theoretical and philosophical influence of his French academic education, his American academic experience of emphasis on empirical research and his self-proclaimed inherent Spanish interest in social change, in order to articulate a theoretically grounded cross-sectional analysis of the importance of identity in social movements within a world which is witnessing the shift of relevance from a nation state to a network state.

This combination of influences produces a pragmatic understanding of the world and the role of identity in social movements in the current context as opposed to just  another theoretical essay. Castells resolute determination to maintain an objective perspective in his discussion of social movements and their ideological underpinnings is a refreshing approach. His resistance to subjective analysis and refusal to engage in debate over the productive or destructive nature of movements and their ideologies and agenda could be frustrating to some as previous reviews have suggested. The binary mode of thinking of our society dictates that something must be good or bad, enlightened or dillusional, right or wrong, and this is not a part of Castells mode of writing.

Whether it be al-Qaeda, the anti-globalisation movement, the patriot movement or the gay rights movement, Castells understanding is that each has played a role in the transformation of our world, in victory or defeat, as with all social movements and all must be understood within their context as expressions of a desire for change. The judgment of good or bad has been left solely on the individual to decide and it is not possible to predict Castells personal opinion in some areas. What he is clear on though is his hypothesis that identity is a powerful instigator of social change and it is at the root of social movements in this the Information Age.

Rather than delve into the specific intricacies and innumerable variables that can be attributed to identity development and formation as the title may suggest, Castells succinctly and quite early in the book states his hypothesis on the three categories which he believes identity is developed under. He then continues to elaborate on several geographically, ideologically and politically diverse social movements from all over the globe yet all set within the modern globalised information age. The book then introduces the concept of the ‘Network State’ and how this configuration is responsible for the increase in resistance identity and more importantly project identity formation and furthermore the implications of these identities on the phenomena of social movements.
The three forms of identity development which are hypothesized are the legitimizing identity, the resistance identity and the project identity (2004, p. 8).

The legitimizing identity, often acting in favor of the state, which is introduced by dominant institutions, is explained as a means of rationalizing domination. The resistance identity is a form of collective resistance against oppression or alienation, this identity development leads to communes or communities of interest which build ‘trenches of resistance’. This could be resistance to the legitimizing identity if it is perceived as oppressive or more often in the age of the network state, resistance to the loss or irrelevance of one’s identity. When these defensive resistance identities take a pro-active approach to the transformation of the overall social structure, they become project identities. These project identities are seen as the harbingers of societal change and at the forefront of our world’s transformation. All are necessary components of the evolutionary process of our society with judgments of productive or destructive only valid for the individual.

Castells attributes the decline in the relevance and power of the nation-state over its society to the emergence of the ‘Network State’, the global networks of wealth, power and information which bypass the state. As the state places more import on international policy and interconnectedness within the global networks it distances itself from its constituency and opens the door for the reinvention of the city-state as a response to the alienation of the masses from their internationally engaged nation-states. The sovereign economic power of the state has been replaced with a reactive, regulatory capacity in accordance to international economic pressures (2004, p. 316).

Due to the faltering of the sources of legitimizing identity as a result of the decreasing relevance of the state to its constituency, Castells states that the institutions of civil society have become ‘empty shells’ (2004, p. 420) The waning power of legitimizing identity has given rise to resistance identity formation in an attempt to fill the void of connection to ones environment; physical, geographical, cultural or ideological. The resistance is not so much a resistance to the legitimizing identity but rather a resistance to the loss of identity. In order to assert an independent identity within the context of a global network society of wealth, power and information, ‘trenches’ of resistance are dug around distinct ideological principles or geographical boundaries.

“This is why identities are so important…because they build interests, values and projects around experience and refuse to dissolve by establishing a connection between, nature, history, geography and culture.”

In short, good read, great man.

For full article see   http://www.redbubble.com/people/mrbarista

Moments in time

Have you ever arrived at a destination and just felt completely at home?

Or perhaps you instantly felt a deep connection to “the place”. Or maybe you even sensed, on an intuitive level, that something in the landscape was speaking directly to you.

This was my experience the first time I encountered a prairie landscape in Saskatchewan on a glorious day in June.

Alone by the side of the road I gazed at a ripe field of canola; a solitary grain elevator stood like a sentinel on the horizon. A warm breeze seemed to waft through my entire being; it was akin to an out-of-body experience.

The occasional bird came twittering by, not unlike a fanciful Disney cartoon. I felt euphoric.

The sight lines were impeccably “drawn”, enticing me to enter the landscape. Even the infrequent rising and falling crescendo of a passing vehicle gave this latent environment a momentary purpose.

In brief, I was experiencing the deep sense of place which, in Canada, is often the point of departure for literary discourse.

In retrospect, I can imagine how the ultra-left brain of Mr. Spock of Star Trek, would analyze what actually was occurring in my unconscious mind:

“The clear and simple frame of reference that registered on your retina reduced your human unconscious brain to a primal state thus releasing an optimal amount of the hormones serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. In turn, the large, small, and minute muscles of the body also relaxed, reducing blood pressure, increasing blood flow to the brain, and in general producing the sensory effect of a perceived state of calm. In human terms, this is the brain-generated ‘antidote’  to what is known as the stress response, sometimes referred to metaphorically as the ‘fight or flight’ response.”

But with due respect to Mr. Spock, let us not forget that it was the balanced brain of Captain Kirk that commanded the good ship Enterprise.

A world away

In a Mumbai “slum” — the same location in which the film Slum Dog Millionaire was shot — I experienced a different but similar sense of integration, albeit incongruous given my North American mindset.

Because it was my first visit to India, I had dutifully read what the major guidebooks had to say about that incredibly complex nation; and I was led to believe (and therein lies a negative self-fulfilling prophecy) that I would be dismayed by the sights, sounds, smells, and general sensory overload of India.

However when I went for a stroll through this “slum” — paradoxically just a short walk from The Orchid Hotel, a completely self-sustaining, ecological destination within a destination — I was not horrified by the poverty, nor the environmental degradation, nor the pollution.

I felt instead engaged.

I felt welcomed into the intricate lives of those who actually lived there; and it was relatively easy to see all the “systems” that made this complex place function.

For a sociologist, such poor and very overcrowded living conditions are a perfect place to study how human ingenuity and basic survival skills operate.

I realize of course that I was this innocent white guy with a camera meandering far from any reality I was accustomed to; but I felt an interconnectedness in the shy smiles, waves, nods, and smiling faces of the curious children who greeted me.

The guide books, on the other hand, had led me to believe that India would be a faceless nation; but instead I experienced a “normalcy” that was only mildly surprising.

In retrospect, I have often speculated on how my unconscious mind and its “implicit memory” had manage to connect to this place.

I often say that landscape shapes culture. At the same time, I have always been aware that this interaction is always a process and never an event. And this has led me from time to time to muse about how human evolution has developed in us — sentient beings that we are — the ability to experience any environment on many levels.

And this is also where, in my experience cognition and affect shake hands.

Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît pas.

The Coimbra phenomenon

Lest you think that all my travel experiences have been blissful, let me assure you that this is not the case. There have been numerous destinations I have tumbled into that were far less than perfect, often wretched.

Unfortunately, the city of Coimbra in Portugal was one of them. And ever since — and this is quite unfair to that city — it has stuck in my unconscious as a miserable experience.

We had arrived in this city after a long and arduous (although exhilarating) trip by road through the hot, dusty, and very dramatic landscape of Spain. When we crossed over the border from Spain to Portugal, there was a slight reprieve but fatigue and sensory overload had taken its toll.

By the time we reached Coimbra I was in a state of mild depression, feeling unwashed, and isolated.

Furthermore, when we arrived in Coimbra it was a Sunday, not the best day of the week in which to end up in some European cities. For all intents and purposes, the city was closed. The skies were overcast, as opposed to the brilliant, dramatic, and sunlit landscapes of Spain.

As the pathetic fallacy expressed in Verlaine’s famous poem attests:

Il pleure dans mon coeur

Comme il pleut sur la ville;

Quelle est cette langueur

Qui pénètre mon coeur?

(It is raining in my heart/As it rains on the city; /What is this languidness/That penetrates my heart?)

To make matters worse, the city seemed to have a pervasive odour of urine; and as I have learned since, olfactory memories tend to get stored in our unconscious minds.

So Coimbra became the scapegoat for what in the 1960s we called a bad trip.

It also became a transferred epithet, in which there has occurred a shift from the intended (or unconscious) modifier to a quite different sensory experience.

(A literary device, a transferred epithet transfers the focus from the animate to the inanimate. When one has a “sleepless night,” it is the individual and not the night that suffers sleep deprivation.)

At that moment in time, it felt like a humourless and desolate place.

My apologies Coimbra. If I can re-adjust my unconscious perceptions of your city, I shall return and explore your Middle Ages history.

Romanticism and the brain

Now some have said that I am a Romantic at heart (and that I believe is true), but at the same time I have become aware over my time on the Blue Planet that the human mind is the real final frontier. And because I am always intrigued by neuroscience and how the brain works, I have become somewhat of an amateur adherent of that field of study.

As a result over the years I have attempted to explore how the unconscious mind operates. And by that I mean the “smart mind” as opposed to the “dumb mind” — and therein lies a substantial controversy in the world of psychology and brain science.

But more on that to come shortly.

Unconscious connections

In their book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler explore another dimension of unconscious human behaviour; and how emotional behaviour patterns can actually be “contagious”.

This very well researched and substantiated book also demonstrates how unconscious social networks influence our ideas, feelings, physical and mental health, human relationships, behaviors of various kinds, and even politics.

Their research is a variation on the scientifically validated concept of “six degrees of separation”; only they demonstrate quite clearly why those degrees of separation can actually be much closer to home.

Consider the unconscious impact of the following statement from the book:

“As we studied social networks more deeply, we began to think of them as a kind of human superorganism. They grow and evolve. All sorts of things flow and move within them. This superorganism has its own structure and a function, and we became obsessed with understanding both…. We believe that our connections to other people matter most, and that by linking the study of individuals to the study of groups, the science of social networks can explain a lot about human experience.”

To watch a video of Nicholas Christakis explaining the “hidden” influence of social networks and their intricate beauty,” click here.

An altruism gene?

In a recent study in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, researchers focused on three variations of a gene called the COMT gene by taking saliva samples from 101 men and women.

They subsequently extracted DNA from the cells of the participants in the experiment in order to study how certain neurotransmitters are activated in the brain. In previous experiments these neurotransmitters, including dopamine, had been seen to create positive emotions and social behaviors.

According to one of the researchers, “There must be more genes which influence altruistic behavior whose association has not been discovered yet…. Our future objective will be to identify all of those genes and how they interact with each other to eventually put a pretty complicated puzzle together — with the goal to understand who we are and why we are how we are.”

Unless

In her novel Unless, well-known (and Pulitzer Prize- winning) Canadian author, Carol Shields explores the nature of goodness.

Sadly, this very “psychological” writer is no longer with us.

In an interview she gave to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before her death, she explored with the interviewer how the unconscious plays a role in implicit memory.

In the interview, Shields makes reference to an altruism gene that through human evolution (i.e. DNA) has contributed to our species biological need to collaborate and to behave in an altruistic fashion.

It has been my experience that really good novelists, such as Carol Shields, are often individuals who have the most transferrable skills; and as they are engaged in such crossover fields as philosophy, psychology, sociology, and the list goes on, they are often key communicators of the intricacies of the human mind.

Through their “imagined” characters, character development, plots, and universal narratives — and by virtue of their imaginative powers — they allow their readers to explore the multidimensional brain.

In the novel Unless, Shields explores how people unconsciously recognize goodness; and its parallel concepts and behaviours of benevolence, generosity, good will, grace, humaneness, integrity, mercy, morality, righteousness, and even virtue. And they recognize it “intuitively” as an innate characteristic of higher order-thinking beings.

At the same time, in her novel, she explores the feelings of being shut out or excluded and the need to conduct an analysis of evil. In the novel one of her characters says:

“We will [also] discover the meaning of consciousness … and therefore goodness.”

This anthropological approach to the nature of the unconscious emphasizes also that there is a possible genetic benefit (“return on investment”) to people behaving in such a manner. One can only hope.

Philip Roth and the nature of evil

In his most recent novel Nemesis, Philip Roth also explores the atavistic sense of evil.

The novel is set in his home state of New Jersey and takes place during the 1950s when the polio epidemic was creating a primal response to that disease. His lead character is an elementary school teacher and playground director who all his life has been devoted to being good and to serving up goodness to everyone he meets. However, he struggles with the “evil” of polio and “God the great criminal” who has allowed this latest scourge to target children.

“Was this his Everyman’s version of Gnostic doctrine, complete with an evil Demiurge? The divine as inimical to our being here? Admittedly, the evidence he could cull from his experience was not negligible. Only a fiend could invent polio.”

And here is the primal sense of justice and injustice that is innate in the collective brain and mind of human beings. Why are the gods angry? Was it something I said?

I am also reminded of one of the first full sentences that a young child says: “It’s not fair!” And in Roth’s analysis of the nature of evil through his characters, he also explores how we humans constantly explore the cognitive whys and wherefores of epidemics and other evils.

And as the sentient creatures we are, we are constantly impelled to search for reasons for the existence of evil.

At the same time, Roth has his principal character explore obsessively his self-punishing emotional response to evil. He ultimately assumes “ownership of the issue”; unlike the rest of the “animal world” which can only live for the moment and not question the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

“There is an epidemic and he needs a reason for it. He has to ask why. That it is pointless, contingent, preposterous, and tragic will not satisfy him… Instead he looks desperately for a deeper cause…”

Imagination and the unconscious

As a teacher of adolescents for many years, I strove to encourage them to think critically — and to imagine.

As we all know, storytelling is one of the most important ways to stimulate the key psychological survival skill of imagining.

But the role of imagination, in my experience, is often underestimated.

Because we are a species that can optimize our cognitive and affective skills, we have become extremely adept at imagining. Some might prefer the term “predicting”.Unlike most mammals (as far as we can tell), we can envision outcomes by using our heads as well as our hearts.

As I have suggested above, the heart has its reasons too, which reason itself is unaware of.

Imagining is the ability to visualize images, to feel sensations, and to conceptualize when the actual stimuli are not present.

In his article, “The Biology of Imagination,” Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental psychology at the University of Cambridge UK,  argues that “the content of the imagination is determined by culture,” but that the capacity to imagine owes more to biology than culture.

“[T]he only hardware needed is a visual system that starts with an eye and ends in the visual cortex of the brain… [but] to move beyond imagery to imagination … one needs an extra, special neurological mechanism…. the capacity for meta-representation involves a special module in the brain, which humans have and that possibly no other species possesses. In the vast majority of the population, this module functions well. It can be seen in the normal infant at 14 months old who can introduce pretence into their play; seen in the normal 4 year old child who can employ mind-reading in their relationships and thus appreciate different points of view; or seen in the adult novelist who can imagine all sorts of scenarios that exist nowhere except in her own imagination, and in the imagination of her reader.”

And all the narratives, fantasies, fairy tales, and mythologies that we encourage children to “indulge” in and to express, play an important role in developing the ability to imagine.

I often have wondered about the reasons for telling such tales as Hansel and Gretel, which in my mind is a tale of the fundamental fear of a child, that of abandonment. Are we asking children to prepare themselves psychologically for “loss”?

Archimedes’ holistic bath

I used to teach a poetry unit as the opening apéritif in a French Immersion class.

The students tended to be divided into “right-brainers” and “left-brainers,” although there were occasional lucky souls who represented the “balanced brain” approach to human endeavour.

The left-brainers tended to be Math and Science students who sometimes would advise me that poetry was not their thing. As for the right-brainers in the class, who generally responded intuitively to images, imagery, and literary devices, it was quickly obvious that I was preaching to the converted.

Therefore, I would begin the poetry unit with a reference to Archimedes and his bath-time experience. When this Greek mathematician of classical antiquity “discovered” the principle of buoyancy to displacement (how metaphorical is that!), it was his unconscious and hyper-sensory brain that was actually doing the pre-conscious work.

Although Archimedes articulated the rule, he of course did not really invent the principle.

He is alleged to have shouted Eureka! when all the “elements” (both physical and unconscious) came together at the right moment.

Archimedes felt holistically the scientific principle through an unconscious sensory experience which his cognitive mind (only a splash or two behind) then translated into words.

Ah words! Those feeble attempts to explain universal phenomena — like truth and beauty.

You must have been a beautiful baby

 Why do we use aphorisms like “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?”

Why do words have such a profound and internalized effect on our brains? What actually is happening neuro-chemically when a certain word, phrase, or line of poetry goes deep into the core of our being?

Why do so many the world over relate to and identify with Hamlet’s dilemma “To be or not to be”?

What is the anthropological and existential (mind/body) connect that occurs? Why do we, as higher order-thinking primates, strive to balance our brains in order to fully understand our human condition?

When, in our evolutionary journey, we stood up, leaving our hands freer to be used as tools (or weapons), our sight lines and horizons also changed. We began to migrate; in effect to travel and became omnivores.

We also began to conceptualize our own mortality.

Do our brains edit how we prefer to see the world?

Is beauty indeed in the eye of the beholder or are there formidable unconscious forces at work in the human brain?

Consider the following: The Human Face

Cultural psychotherapy

Consider how Matthew Taylor looks at the collective consciousness; but also how he explores the unconscious elements of the human brain/mind.

In this video he looks at the values, norms, and lifestyles “appropriate” to 21st-century enlightenment. He also suggests that because our species has developed the ability to adapt, to invent, and to engage in critical analysis (especially that relating to “human nature”), we are able to reach a high level of collective self-awareness, despite the fact that as human beings we are better at understanding relative versus absolute values.

Our first response to the world around us tends to be “automatic” and unconscious. Biologically speaking we put our appetites ahead of our real needs.

To watch this video, click on the link below.

RSA Animate: Shifting Paradigms

The Unconscious Mind

In their article “The Unconscious Mind” by John A. Bargh and Ezequiel Morsella of Yale University, the authors explore a number of key issues relating to neuroscience and the unconscious mind.

These include: the unlimited powers of the unconscious mind; how social psychologists have influenced the study of the unconscious; an examination of the language of the unconscious, clarifying terms such as “unconscious”, “preconscious”, “subconscious”, “nonconscious”; the different “flavours” of the unconscious mind; and whether the unconscious mind “is capable only of highly routinized activities and perceives little without the aid of consciousness” or whether in fact the unconscious mind is “highly intelligent and adaptive.”

Herein lies the “smart” or “dumb” unconscious mind debate.

The authors also explore the “gleaning of cultural knowledge,” and suggest that “[a]ny human infant born today can be relocated immediately to any place and any culture in the world and will then adapt to and speak the language of the culture just as well as any child born there.”

They also point out that “Many recent studies have now shown that unconscious goal pursuit produces the same outcomes that conscious goal pursuit does… [g]iven the late evolutionary arrival of conscious modes of thought and behaviour.”

What readers may find most most intriguing is how Bargh and Morsella suggest that social behaviour is unconsciously guided by what they refer to as the “current context” and that “We are often guided by our feelings, intuitions, and gut reactions, which prioritize the things that are important to do or attend to.”

Their statement that “psychological science remains wedded to a conscious-centric model of higher mental processes” may also raise eyebrows. And finally, a statement from their article that amused me was, “It is nice to know that the unconscious is minding the store when the owner is absent.”

David Brooks

In his very enlightening book, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, David Brooks also lends support to the complex unconscious mind.

In the introduction to his book, he says:

“We are living in the middle of a revolution in consciousness. Over the past few years, geneticists, neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists, anthropologists, and others have made great strides in understanding the building blocks of human flourishing. And a core finding of their work is that we are not primarily the products of our conscious thinking. We are primarily the products of thinking that happens below the level of awareness.”

Brooks is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, and has been senior editor at The Weekly Standard. He is also a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly. In addition, he is a weekly commentator on PBS NewsHour.

A self-described non “touchy-feely” person, Brooks is primarily a political journalist and commentator. And yet, I find it interesting that this book explores the nature of the unconscious mind, a realm that initially seems to challenge conventional “rational” thinking.

But as has been said many times, “The heart has its reasons too.”

Afterword

What is the difference between the mind and the brain? And for that matter, how does the mind/brain play role in the evolution of the psyche and the self?

As one source I found put it so aptly, “The mind is the software of the brain.”

Mumbai

Gandhi Corner in downtown Regina, Saskatchewan

    The direct reason of making this coverage is Mrs.Li has been offering the proposal for same-sex marriage in China to Nation Council for 10 years. Although she’s heterosexual and had a beloved husband before (he passed away), she suggests many “subversive” ideas. Besides homosexual, her attitudes toward sado-masochism, ONS, sex- traffic, etc. always shock public. Despite she is such a bold specialist, her appearance seems out of many people’s imagination. She is nearly 60 years old now and looks mild and self-effacing, nothing makes others relate to the features of a pioneer in feminism. Apparently, her studies totally proceed from her preference, not her traits or behaviors. But I also believe her unusual style had already formed when she was young. A typical fact about that is: Li and her husband are DINK, they had chosen this life style before getting married. It was an undoubtedly uncommon decision in their generation; people without physical problem rarely had such will. Regardless of others’ views, the couple thought the dink’s world was interesting enough and they didn’t need a baby to be the link between them. This could be a proof of her notion—everybody has the right to decide how to live, so long as nobody else suffers from it; breaking customs is not crime.

    Mrs.Li is enthusiastic to her study; nevertheless she’s not so positive to how much a sole person can affect the society. She pointed feminism in China is still considered sensitive or unpleasant somewhat. In my understanding, she implied there were always a part of people attach aggressive and vindictive to the character of feminists. In traditional theories, the concept of feminism is weird and feminist must be abnormal. It’s difficult to totally erase this prejudice during the changing of eras. Therefore few people frankly claim they are feminists even they only pursue the equality between genders. It’s a kind of stereotype to the appellation.

    Anyway, it seems necessary that making public recognize the proper definition of feminism and feminist. Moreover, with the words, “Holding the rights of choice and freedom is my key principle”, announce by Mrs.Li, people should understand she is actually a liberal.

Photo by Chris Bertsos

By Harry van Versendaal

It’s past midnight in Syntagma Square, the epicenter of Greece’s month-long anti-austerity demonstrations, and Stathis Marinos is sitting at a corner cafe overlooking the colorful tent city under the trees. Flipping a string of worry beads while sipping a frappe, the 37-year-old software engineer muses about Greece’s financial crisis.

“The memorandum is unsustainable,” he says of the loan deal signed last year between the socialist government of George Papandreou and Greece’s foreign creditors to avert default. He thinks the debt-choked country is being stifled by a mix of brutally rigid measures — and that they must be resisted. “But you cannot use the system to fight the system. You must not get caught up in this process,” he says, criticizing calls among protesters and pundits to declare the bailout agreement unconstitutional.

A few yards away, in the heart of the white marble square, a loudspeaker crackles with rhetorical din from the ongoing session at the makeshift assembly meeting. Modeled after Spain’s “Indignados” who took over Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and other public squares earlier this year, Athens’s “aganaktismenoi” (Indignants) have camped in the capital’s main square since May 25. A month after the first call on Facebook and other social media, Syntagma, or Constitution square, the starting point to the capital’s main commercial street, is playing host to a postmodern incarnation of the ancient Athenian agora.

Every evening, hundreds of people gather here to discuss anything and everything about the crisis. Speakers, who are chosen by lot, are given a two-minute time limit so as to allow for the greatest possible number of contributions. There is little of the typical booing and hissing, and audiences react mostly with hand gestures: waving their hands in the air for approval or giving a thumbs down when they disagree. Interpretations of what is happening in the square range from the groundbreaking to the delusional or just plain silly.

“This is not a movement — and it will by no means evolve into a political party. It’s more like a trend,” says Marinos, who has joined in every evening after work since day one. He has often taken part in street demos, but points out that he has never belonged to a political party. “It’s great that people familiarize themselves with the political process; they learn how to engage in dialogue with each other; how to participate in civic life,” he says of the meetings.

In the beginning, the Indignants were mostly portrayed as a non-political grouping. It was in the wake of a mass demonstration earlier this month that Greece’s mainstream parties, PASOK and the right-of-center New Democracy, came close to clinching a unity coalition deal. Talks eventually fell through and Papandreou went on to conduct a cabinet reshuffle designed to galvanize his base. He also proposed a referendum in the fall on a proposal to revise the Greek Constitution. The fact that the Indignants have put pressure on the government and the politicians, some argue, means that they have now become political.

Political animals

In fact, some analysts maintain, the movement has been political from the start. Costas Douzinas, a law professor at Birkbeck, University of London, recently penned one of the most flattering profiles of the Indignants in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, after being invited to speak in Syntagma. For him “this is the most political movement we have had in Greece, and perhaps in Europe for the past 20 years. It is totally political and in a way it changes our understanding of what politics means,” he says.

He is not alone. Vassiliki Georgiadou, a political science professor at Panteion University in Athens, has kept a close eye on the demographics of the square. All findings so far, she says, indicate that we are dealing with a “politically active” audience. “These people are deeply disaffected and disillusioned with politicians, with the political parties and with the institutions at large,” she explains. Their reaction was not a bolt out of the historical blue. Most research shows that people’s disaffection with Greece’s social and political institutions dates back to the early 1990s. A public survey published last year found that nearly nine out of 10 Greeks are “dissatisfied with how democracy works.” The local media, which have suffered their own barrage of criticism (some of it fair) as sycophants of the status quo, like to describe the movement in emotional rather than ideological terms. “But frustration is not merely an emotional reaction. Frustration is the preamble of political protest,” says Georgiadou.

“Any kind of politics of resistance starts from a refusal. Refusal is the first step in any process of eventual political confrontation,” Douzinas says. The phenomenon seems to have a dream-come-true quality for some, and Douzinas is certainly happy to connect the dots. “Without people being in a space, taking it over and declaring their refusal of whatever it is that they want to reject, no radical change has ever taken place in history,” he says.

Skeptics, on the other hand, maintain that the memorandum is not at the root of the problem, but only a symptom. Culminating to the memorandum, they say, the trail has been one of dysfunction, waste and corruption. Writing in The Guardian last week, author Apostolos Doxiadis attacked the “charlatans” who blame the evil foreigners for our own ills and failures. Some soul-searching would instead be more appropriate, he reckons. “I know that the heart of our problem is a huge, parasitic and inefficient public sector, which EU funds, unwisely and often corruptly distributed by our politicians over the past two decades, made even bigger and less productive,” he writes.

When it comes to self-criticism and proposals to overcome the crisis, detractors say, the Syntagma folk are uncomfortably laconic. “Far form being the frontline of any kind of solid movement, the Syntagma camp-in is a confused, depoliticized, borderline-petulant response to the economic crisis,” writes Brendan O’Neill, editor of spiked website, in The Australian. He is annoyed at the absence of any serious debate about the hard stuff. Save their vociferous opposition to austerity measures, “absolutely nothing of substance is proposed,” he writes.

What virtually everyone agrees on is that Greece is a mess. Faced with bankruptcy, the country received a 110-billion-euro rescue package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in May 2010 but now needs a second bailout of a similar size to meet its financial obligations until the end of 2014, when it hopes for a return to capital markets for funding. International creditors have set the introduction of a painful raft of belt-tightening measures — including tax hikes, spending cuts and privatizations — as a condition for releasing more aid. A critical vote is to be held in Parliament on June 29 and 30. Meanwhile, unemployment has soared to 16 percent and crime, in what used to be one of the safest states in Europe, is on the rise. Anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly in the poorer neighborhoods of the capital, is spreading as once-marginal xenophobic groups are establishing a mainstream presence.

Square feat

Nicos Mouzelis, an emeritus sociology professor at the London School of Economics, goes as far as to draw parallels between the Indignants and the anti-globalization demonstrations in Seattle and Genoa — and, in a more far-fetched comparison, the events of May 1968. Mouzelis, a former adviser to reformist Prime Minister Costas Simitis, praises the movement’s “great dynamism, spontaneity and the rapid, widespread diffusion across all social strata.” The protests have truly brought together a very diverse crowd — but one that is not always pulling in exactly the same direction.

Browsing through the crowd massed in the square, you encounter a motley crew of leftists railing against global capitalism and neoliberalism. Posters of Che Guevara hang next to used tear gas canisters (with “Made in USA” labels) launched by police during the recent riots. The spicy fumes wafting from the assorted stands of hot-dog vendors occasionally mixes with the pungent odor of marijuana. At the assembly, people discuss the negative effects of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy on Greek farmers before talking through some organizational issues. With time, the discourse at the meetings has become more progressive and assertive. A recent resolution called for activist-style interventions like the occupation of television stations and public buildings. For Marinos, some degree of radicalization is a “natural evolution.” “You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs,” he says.

The Indignants’ decision to cordon off the Parliament building on June 15 to prevent lawmakers from reviewing the controversial midterm fiscal plan was widely regarded as the first break with the movement’s non-violent stance. The rally, which was also attended by thousands of union members, degenerated into violence as riot police battled with self-styled anarchists for hours. Then came the usual finger-pointing squabble over who deserves the blame for the violence. A decision to give the movement a more activist orientation, some analysts say, would most likely alienate the big mass of supporters. “Some people would like to see a fallback to traditional practices. But I am not sure that many people will want to follow,” Georgiadou says.

Interestingly, however, developments in and around Syntagma Square have thrown left-wing parties — like the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) — into disarray. Early skepticism — the more sclerotic KKE went as far as to condemn the movement for not being class-driven — gradually gave way to, some say, cynical attempts to hijack the movement. They are unlikely to succeed, as most protesters view them as part of the problem. “If KKE changes, it will destroy itself,” Marinos says.

Dogs of war

Just up the steps from the assembly, in front of the illuminated Parliament building, a different group is chanting slogans and hurling insults against the “thieving politicians who destroyed Greece,” calling them to “give the money back and get the f*** out of the country.” Demonstrators make the disparaging open-palm “moutza” gesture against the House and point green laser beams — sold here by immigrant street vendors — at television crews conveniently positioned on the balconies of the Grande Bretagne luxury hotel. Mock gallows and banners taunting Papandreou as being “Goldman Sachs’s employee of the year” decorate this part of the square. Most of the acid is flung at Theodoros Pangalos, the corpulent deputy prime minister and father of the infamous “we-all-ate-the-money-together” comment. Here, in this more colorful part of the new agora, is where you are most likely to bump into Loukanikos, the famous riot dog, and manic street preacher and cult TV personality Eleni Louka yelling “repent” into a megaphone as bystanders take snapshots with their cell phones.

The rowdy behavior and nationalist overtones of the people stationed in front of the House have caused occasional spats with their left-leaning counterparts down the steps. “I don’t understand what is going on down there,” Giorgos, a young man in blue jeans and a polo t-shirt, tells me while rolling a cigarette. “I don’t have a solution to the crisis. All I know is that I am angry with all this,” he says. The blanket rejectionism and often xenophobic posturing of those upstairs conveys a sense of uncertainty, of lost bearings perhaps, in a world swept up by rapid social change.

Elias Maglinis, a writer and journalist in his early 40s who lives in the nearby Mets area, is put off by some of the crass behavior. “The gallows, the comparisons to the 1967 military coup and the slogans that the dictatorship did not end in 1973 make me angry. These people have no memory or do not know what a dictatorship or firing squad means,” he says.

At 1 a.m., the protest has petered out. About 50 people remain scattered on the sidewalk of Amalias Avenue in front of the House. Some lean over the newly installed railings to taunt the baton-wielding policemen. Two middle-aged men, beer cans in hand, chat with a police chief. A towering figure with a white mustache, the soft-spoken chief expresses his sympathy for the demonstrators. “We also are suffering,” he says pointing at his men. “My salary was slashed; I am the father of three. We are here to protect the House, not them [the deputies],” he says. Police officers, currently paid between 800 and 1,500 euros, are in for wage cuts like all civil servants. As he speaks, fireworks explode overhead as the Panathenaic stadium, the venue that hosted the first modern Olympic Games, prepares to host the Special Olympics opening ceremony.

What next?

Most analysts predict that the Indignant movement will fizzle out. “Because these movements reject any linkages to political parties, trade unions and other well-established organizations, they do not last long,” says Mouzelis. But the long-term impact on Greece’s political culture must not be discounted. “Politicians will not be able to operate ‘as usual’ anymore,” he says. And even if the hype about direct democracy in action is exaggerated, recent developments have made people realize that they can be active citizens without belonging to any particular party or trade union. “A democracy should welcome the existence of active citizens; it’s not something to be afraid of. After all, it’s better if people get together in public squares than becoming numbed couch potatoes,” Georgiadou says.

Back in the square, the assembly is voting on the resolutions proposed over the course of the day. Attendants vote in favor of organizing concerts on a daily basis, but reject a proposal to invite the country’s premier for talks. Decisions will soon be posted on the real-democracy website. Most of them dictate actions to be taken during the two-day general strike on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ambling over to the crowd, Marinos says that what happens during the strike may well determine the future of the movement. He ponders the Marfin bank tragedy in May last year. Three employees died when the premises were firebombed during an anti-austerity rally. “Should there be human losses like then, the whole thing will die.”

PARIS – A French sociologist has concluded that the smurfs are racist.

French sociologist and author Antoine Buéno asserts in “Le Petit Livre Bleu,” or, “The Little Blue Book,” that the seemingly friendly little blue creatures living a mostly idyllic existence are actually packed with racial propaganda and are, “the embodiment of a totalitarian utopia, steeped in Stalinism and Nazism”.

The comics, created by Belgian artist Peyo, were first introduced in a Belgian newspaper in 1958; by 1960, they had their own comic strip, and it was off to the races. The animated series, produced by Hanna Barbera, was launched in 1981.

As relayed by Todaysxm.com, Buéno says that Papa Smurf, the leader of the village, is an authoritarian figure, and that their lack of private property and collective-style economy is a clear nod to socialism. Meanwhile, their enemy seems Jewish: Gargamel, the monster that haunts the village, matches negative Jewish caricatures and his cat’s name is Azrael, the French author writes, while Smurfette, for a long time the only female in the village, is a vision of aryan perfection.

Buéno, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, touched on what he perceives as their blue racism.

“The first comic strip, ‘The Black Smurfs,’ was intimately concerned with what you might classify as a racial threat,” he said. “Because in that album, the smurfs are sick. And when they’re sick, they don’t turn purple or red or anything like that, they become black. And when they become black, they lose all trace of intelligence. They become completely moronic. And further more, they can no longer speak, they just go ‘nyap nyap nyap.’”

The black part is indeed true; US publishers refused to publish the first Smurfs book for that reason, and years later, the sick Smurfs were recolored to purple.

who'da thunk it??

This convinces me there are people in the world who really don’t have enough to do with their time, and maybe should seek counselin’ and/or  medication.

Antoine Bueno is one of them.  The French sociologist has written a whole book, “Le Petit Livre Bleu” (“The Little Blue Book”) on the subject of ‘Smurf Racism’ (new term coined here!)

In it, he claims the lil innocent blue people are livin’ in a blue world packed with racial propaganda, a “totalitarian utopia, steeped in Stalinism and Nazism”.

Not the lil *blue* people???

Per Mr. Bueno, Papa Smurf is the dictator of the village; an authoritarian figure, and that their lack of private property and collective-style economy is a clear nod to socialism.   Meanwhile, their enemy seems Jewish: Gargamel, the monster that haunts the village, matches negative Jewish caricatures and his cat’s  name (the monster has a cat?)  is Azrael (and that means what?), the French author writes, while Smurfette, for a long time the only female in the village, is a blonde vision of Aryan perfection.

Get the f*ck outta here!

Actually, there were Black Smurfs. They were the sick ones; when the lil blue purple and red ones got stung by a fly (black at that!) they got sick, turned Black, and lost all trace of intelligence-went crazy.  ‘Completely moronic’ , in his words….they didnt even talk;  just made some crazy ‘gnap‘ sound.   US publishers refused to publish the first books for this reason.  Years later,  but before the animated series was developed in 1981, they were re-colored to purple.    The Purple Smurfs (original French title Les Schtroumpfs Noirs, literally The Black Smurfs) is the first album of the original French-language  ‘Smurfs’ comic series created by Belgian artist Peyo, first published in 1963.

The lil Black mofo’s do appear in the Black Forest level of “The Smurfs“  game for the Super Nintendo.  Just so you know…

And here I thought they were just innocent lil blue blockheads,  dancin’ in their innocent lil blue world…

Hollywood is not too happy about all this.  They are plannin’ a big budget 3D film about the Smurfs due for release in August.  Wonder how this will affect the bottom line…

*smh*

Ain’t life just grand?

This is one of many such scenarios that I have been a part of time and time again. This time, however, it made me ask myself: what is it that makes good conversation, in which a dialogue is shared and we take turns to talk, listen, comment, question and reflect, such a hard thing to do? Why didn’t my old friend ask me questions? Why wasn’t I more proactive and tell him about myself?

Most would agree, I’m sure, that having a good conversation leaves us feeling exhilarated and stimulated, yet I’m also sure the majority of us feel a sense of disappointment more often than not after a conversation, feeling that we haven’t been able to express ourselves well, haven’t got our point across, haven’t been listened to, have been interrupted or, as in my example, have been effectively left out of the dialogue.

It can come down to manners and our characters, of course, but I wonder if it doesn’t also come down to the possibility that we humans just aren’t social animals by nature, or at least not where conversation is concerned. Consequently most of us just aren’t that good at it because it doesn’t come naturally. Philosopher, sociologist and historian Theodore Zeldin appears to share the same opinion in his fascinating book An Intimate History of Humanity. He argues that throughout history it’s been feats of action that have been important, making names of generals historically important rather than those of conversationalists, and blames this on the fact that people didn’t speak as much in the past as they do today. However, throughout history there have been significant efforts made to give conversation the importance it deserves.

Socrates, the first known conversationalist, encouraged individuals to converse, arguing that through dialogue people could be more intelligent. He believed that if two people didn’t have all the answers but were open to questioning each other, examining their prejudices, finding the flaws without attack or insult, focusing on what they agreed on, eventually they would discover the answers. However, as Zeldin points out, there’s more to conversation then simply asking questions, and I would add that only those who have already recognised their limitations will get the most from Socrates’ technique.

Another approach came with the Renaissance and society hostess Madame de Rambouillet establishing a renowned literary salon in her hotel in Paris in the 17^th century. French aristocracy and literary personalities would meet and converse both for amusement and to increase personal knowledge, while also refining conversation into something of a fine art. Such ‘salons’ had originated in Italy in the previous century and became popular throughout Europe during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Run by women, a dozen or so guests were chosen on the basis of having something interesting to say. It didn’t matter who they were, their gender, what social position they held or what nationality, as long as they were able to express their thoughts elegantly.

However, neither of these examples of how conversation was encouraged in society take into account the difficulties people had, and still have today, when talking to strangers or those from different backgrounds, and I would add the difficulties with everyday conversation between acquaintances, work colleagues, friends and family. Shyness, inhibitions, intimidation, lack of confidence, too much confidence, lack of interest, defensiveness, an inability to listen, amongst many other traits, can all create barriers between us and so block conversation.

We can be left feeling hurt, misunderstood, frustrated, isolated, angry. Arguably such feelings are behind why we have taken so eagerly to technology that makes it easy to stay in touch with people through email, text messages and social networking sites without committing ourselves to direct and more prolonged interaction. While such communication has its place, does it leave us feeling as stimulated as a well-balanced conversation? For me not, and that’s why I think it’s important to ask what we can do to make conversation easier between us, in all situations and between all people.

I have always thought that good conversation is the result of a blend of openness, interest, empathy and flexibility, while Zeldin puts it all down to equality: ‘conversation… demands equality between participants. Indeed, it is one of the most important ways of establishing equality.’ And he goes on to conclude that ‘only when people learn to converse will they begin to be equal’. And that does make sense. When you consider once again those traits that put obstacles in the way of good conversation, the one thing that would control all of these feelings and attitudes is to think that you are equal to anyone you are talking to, that you have as much to say as the other, that what they have to say counts as much as what you have to say, and then a conversation can grow, and consequently give rise to the opportunity for prejudices to disappear.

That easy! No, I know it’s not but I just really want to put the case forward for some conversation awareness. I for my part am looking forward to taking on Zeldin’s ‘equality’ theory and putting it into practice the next time I feel I’m struggling to converse. If I could, I’d get along to one of the conversation dinners organized by Zeldin’s foundation The Oxford Muse (www.oxfordmuse.com) and see how I do at making conversation with a complete stranger while dining, taking it in turns to choose themes from a menu card. Instead I’m going to look into whether something similar already exists in Barcelona, and if it doesn’t…

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A Forbes chief marketing officer survey shows search engine optimization e mail and e mail newsletter marketing are by far the most popular digital marketing methods But who s reading it The survey revealed e mail came in relatively low in the area of meeting or exceeding marketers expectations I read on average 5 percent of the advertising mail I receive and that s

Kyriacos C. Markides is a sociologist and a professor at the University of Maine. He was trained in Western universities and accepted an anti-supernatural viewpoint. Eventually he began to do research into the para-normal and mysticism. He says: “it increasingly became clear to me that the secular assumptions about reality, dominant during my university training, were in fact a grand illusion, a materialist superstition that had kept Western thought stranded and imprisoned for the last three hundred years.” He also says: The realization of the phoniness of scientific materialism had a tremendously liberating effect on my mind.”

Dr. Markides grew up on Cyprus in a Greek Orthodox Christian family. As an adult he had rejected all religion, but his research into the supernatural eventually led him to explore the mystical traditions of the Orthodox faith. He spent some time on Mount Athos, a Greek peninsula that has been a haven for monks for more than 1,000 years. There he met and was befriended by a monk named Father Maximos who began to teach him the spiritual techniques of the ancient Orthodox monks.

The Mountain Of Silence begins after Father Maximos was asked to lead a monastery in Cyprus. Dr. Markides goes to Cyprus and spends several months living with Father Maximos and other monks. In the book he describes the way the monks lived and interacted with the people of Cyprus. He also writes many chapters about his experiences as Father Maximos instructed him about the rich spiritual heritage and teaching of the Orthodox Church.

I was inspired and encouraged by the wisdom of Father Maximos. He says things like:

“The ideal and ultimate form of true faith means having direct experience of God as a living reality.”

“Those who wish to investigate whether God exists must employ the appropriate methodology which is none other than the purification of the heart from egotistical passions and impurities.”

“When putrid thoughts get cultivated within the heart then the heart becomes accustomed to them. In fact it relishes them.”

“Whenever we absolutize something, be it an ideology, money or even scientific knowledge, we are into idolatry.”

Father Maximos also shares with Dr. Markides several amazing supernatural experiences that he and other monks from Mount Athos have had.

I may never get to meet and know a deeply spiritual Orthodox monk. However, after reading The Mountain Of Silence I feel like I know Father Maximos. Though I have never met him, he taught me a lot. I greatly appreciate Dr. Markides for writing this book and making this wisdom and these experiences available to those of us who have only known Western Christianity and Western secularism.

The Mountain Of Silence is non-fiction that reads like inspirational fiction. I highly recommend it.

The Second Sophomore Slump of Emerging Adulthood Males:

The Identity Issues, Emotion Instability, and Vulnerabilities of Breaking Up.

The Blackberry’s incessant chime on my nightstand woke me from my evening slumber. A good friend, Jane–a 26-year-old marketing manager for a men’s magazine–was upset that her newly acquainted boyfriend of two months, Paul–a 25-year-old investment banker—did not provide enough communication for her. Sensing Paul’s reticent distance frustrated Jane. The silent nature of her boyfriend led to a garrulous rant of a digital kind—a continuous “bing” from my phone with every resounding text from Jane.

My strained fingers tried to assuage her fear of his distance with passive–half asleep—affirmation to comfort her. The typical, “It’s him, not you…you can do better…etc,” ceased with her last text messages:

D            Why can’t he get over his last relationship? I remember dealing with this sophomore year in college.

D            Remember when Rick and I started dating a few months after he had recently broken up with his high school girlfriend.  He was such a mess and we didn’t last very long.

D            What is the deal…Do guys experience some sort of SECOND SOPHMORE SLUMP in the real world?

The questions struck me on a more personal level, changing my reminiscent simper of college past into a pensive, shocked realization.  I remember having slumped in dating after past breakups from serious relationships, especially in the years following college. Other friends of mine experienced similar dispositions after going separate ways from a girlfriend they invested much into and it occurred during the second or third year after we graduated. But aren’t men supposed to be the strong, invulnerable stoics? We are not supposed to be affected by a relationship that much–we are our own person…right? So why does Paul —and other men in their twenties–experience this second slump?

Paul’s past relationship and life stage helps understand his current predicament and begins to explain this “second sophomore slump” phenomenon. His background includes a five-year stint with his college sweetheart that aggrandized into a wedding proposal. Upon graduating the couple moved from their hometown in Texas to NYC. An investment firm hired Paul, and his fiancé worked in retail. Six months into their jobs, his fiancé became indolent with NYC. She quit her job, moved back to Texas, and called off the engagement. Not even 24, Paul was in unfamiliar territory—single—struggled with spats of increased use of alcohol, and became manic about his work.  As for a new relationship with Jane—clearly the closer they got the more apathetic he became. Jane wrote, “Sometimes things are good, then they get real bad…I don’t even know who he is sometimes.”

The identity questions after a breakup for males and females are some that many sociologists have begun to investigate in a novel way. An underlining theme they are taking notice of is the theme of Emerging Adulthood–the idea of individuals in their twenties defining who they are. This almost-but-not-quite adult stage has changed the perspective and expectations that encompasses many facets of males and females, starting at age 18 and extending into the late 20s as they meander through all of life’s many facets. It is also beginning to change the roles of male and females in relationships and post-breakups.

Sociologists have longed assumed that females rely on relationships more for mental stability than men. One researcher, Robin Simon of Wake Forest, focused her study of intimate relationship aspects between emerging adult males and females, and her findings are changing that notion and hints as to why men, like Paul, experience a slump.

Simon explains that males and females’ mental stability after a breakup holds “no difference between the damage in mental health amongst females and males. But, males realize greater emotional benefits from the positive aspects of an ongoing romantic relationship.” This suggests Paul and other slumpers are not immune to the mental wounds of a breakup, and that women don’t hurt more than men after a breakup. Men have a harder time to date after a breakup because they have invested much into a relationship. The investment is more than men even know and is not realized until after the breakup occurs. Developmental sociologist Ann Meirer of the University of Minnesota suspects “an emotional connection to a romantic partner provides an important social identity, contributes to a positive self-conception, and is a source of social integration during this period (Emerging Adulthood) of life course.”  In short, without his fiancé, Paul has no idea who he is now, mentally he questions his role in society, and he slumps into the drinking, depression, and work obsession cycle.

So Jane and other women wonder why can’t Paul just get over it? Simon’s study helps here too: “Young men are more affected emotionally by the quality of their current relationships, while young women are more emotionally affected by whether or not they are in a relationship.” Men take longer to enter into a new relationship after a breakup–especially after a long-term relationship–because they are uneasy to commit to a relationship due the vulnerabilities, identity questions, and emotional damage they harbor. So Paul can’t simply date someone new because he is emotionally bruised and his primary source of intimacy is no longer there. Without that commitment with his previous girlfriend, a new relationship will be worthless because she won’t define his old identity.

As for women, they do not experience such reliance on their partners. This implies that women have a tendency to rebound quickly after a breakup, albeit they will experience a depressed emotional state momentarily. Once emotional security returns in the form of a new relationship, things return back to normal for women. We can infer they move on, creating a new identity, and usually never look back.

What happened with Jane and Paul? They ended things within the following weeks of Jane’s late night text rant. Jane: “He just stopped calling, and so I just started dating someone new. He clearly needs to recover some more over his fiancé.” Where does that leave Paul? For men in a second slump, the duration of the past relationship will dictate how long one needs to cope before dating again. Most need 5-6 months, for others such as Paul, he may need a year.

Article Credits:

Henig, Robing Marantz, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” The New York Times.      August 18, 2010 Online Link to Article

Meirer, Ann. “Intimate Relationship Development during the Transition to          Adulthood: Differences by Social Class.” New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 119:25-39. 2008.

Simon, Robin W. Wake Forest University. “Nonmarital Romantic Relationships and    Mental Health in Early Adulthood: Does the Association Differ for Women and Men?” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51(2) 168 –182. 2010. Online Link to Article

Wake Forest University. "Young men more vulnerable to relationship ups and downs  than women." ScienceDaily 14 June 2010. 2 April 2011 Online Link to Article

Jason Statham, emerging from the "Sea of Fucking"

In other words, Statham is the pinnacle of Stahamnosity.

Thanks to the combined efforts of archaeologists and relics of Variety magazine, we have pieced together accounts of That Which is Statham — translated from stick figures engaging in strongly suggestive content by Stathanmian sociologist “Arran,” himself bold in the boudoir and jet ski arts.

Excerpts from Book XVI:

New York Times Arts Critic Ben Brantly once said of Statham: “That guy makes Charlie Sheen look like the cast of Will and Grace.” Leaving out the fact that Brantly’s comment was in a review of the 2011 theater performance of Macbeth,  Statham’s legendary masculinity was the stuff of love nectar legend.

Statham has had sex with many men, but it was not gay because he was Statham. The world is infinitely pliable to his whims. If he says it ain’t gay, it ain’t gay. When Statham said that being gay wasn’t gay, his words reinterpreted history: the Bible no longer says that a man could not lay with another man, but that man could lay with Statham; history books touted Nazi Germany as the “Sausage Nigels” party; “the gay condition” was known as “Statham Fever”; and actor Tom Cruise rented out his house for Craigslist sex parties.

Statham didn’t really like being subject to regular human labels, but if pushed (something you don’t want to do, of course), he acquiesced to the following:

Gender: Statham
Sexuality: Stahosexual
Religion: Statheism

The one reported case of someone mocking Statham was a teenage internet user that ironically claimed to be a Statosexual. Statham, sensing someone using his name in vain, reached through the user’s smartphone [an ancient form of wireless communication -- Ed.], grabbed him by the neck, punched his penis off (through the kid’s pants) and said “Next time, I’ll deflate all your balls, friend.”

The incident resulted in a change to the Obama Administration’s much-vaunted net neturality rules – ISPs do not have the legal right to filter content through their service, however the Statham Amendment to the bill allows providers to voluntarily block access to anything Statham related in order to protect customers’ safety. Apple was ahead of the curve – Steve Jobs personally blocked the Statham App from the iTunes App Store in order to avoid complaints of iOS devices overloading due to sheer machisimo, while the iOS autocorrect facility automatically changes “Statham” to “state of ham” to avoid the possibility of arousing Statham’s ire.

Excerpts from Book XVIII:

The Statham Amendment would become its own amendment in the Constitution in 2014 after a Senate meeting incident to vote on the changes to the Net Neutrality bill. On the Senate floor, after John Boehner rolled his eyes when reading the motion of the bill to pass, Statham crashed his Land Rover — otherwise known as his “Fuck Truck” — into the U.S. Capitol building, hurtled himself through the windshield at full screen and tackled Boehner, beating him with his gavel until the orange skin tone was removed from his face.

A real-life event filmed for Crank 2.

The Statham Amendment incident was the start of Statham’s involvement in bureaucratic service. Statham immediately removed the Senate and Congress from Washington, leaving the Legislative Branch in the hands of Statham. The Supreme Court, fearing hostile takeover, vacated their spots. President Obama promised to relegate himself to Vice President. (Joe Biden was kept on as Statham’s White House jester.)

The national tragedy was immediately challenged by Statham as a “National Correction.” Fearing similar government incidents, foreign countries enacted similar measures of Statham-blocked internet information to prevent his wrath.

Just fucking with you; he totally boned Nancy Pelosi.

Excerpts from Book XIX:

The magnificent bonetude of Pelosi gave Statham an immediate dosage of political savvy and knowledge — partially from absorbing Pelosi’s chi and literally blowing her back out. (Pelosi’s spinal fluid worked as a stem cell-like supplement that also gave Statham Pelosi’s past memories and feminine attitudes, which he mentally eradicated from his brain with the thought “I’ll give you five seconds to remove your pussy thoughts.”)

Statham, emerging from the "Fuckorghini"

With decades of political knowledge, Statham managed to uproot all America knew of democracy, running afoul of political friends and foes alike. Political pundits fell into step, praising his name in reverent tones like Gregorian chants.

FOX News [a former broadcast television network for Conservative political propaganda, hosted by retired strippers -- Ed.] was the first, with the cable news leader changing their name to “FOX Statham” and the slogan to “Statham and Balanced.” Glenn Beck, fearing not getting a ratings boost by not having him on his show, offered himself up as a Stahosexual conquest. Statham took that as a challenge, strapping Beck to the hood of his Fuck Truck and driving it around Australian prisons while having a seven-way with the female anchors.

Excerpts from Book XXIX:

After conquering FOX News, Statham took over every single cable news and television network in similar fashion. Americans could not turn the channel without seeing Statham riding his jet ski in Fuck City, yelling and pointing at the sky, or having graphic sex with the WNBA league while shouting “You know you won’t understand it, but it’ll be good practice for me!” CNN became known as Statham News Network. MSNBC changed the meaning of its initials to be “Motherfucking Statham National Broadcasting Company”. Even the Onion News Network changed to “Statham Statham Statham!”

The former country of the United States of America wondered how its airwaves became a haven for Statham porn programming so quickly. Once-professional networks such as CSPAN and MTV4 were reduced to clearinghouses for Statham’s “Fucking from the Fuck Palace” recordings. His bedroom trysts with models and supermodels were top stories on televised news; his bonings of super-duper models were prime-time shows on NBC’s “Must Fuck TV” lineup.

Statham’s book-publishing companies — Statham Books, Lil’ Statham Kids’ Books and Statham’s Adult-Time Monographs — celebrated Statham’s sexual exploits in printed form, with his biography, 20,000 Fucks: Tales from the Set of Crank 2, winning the Mark Twain Award. Statham’s reach extended itself to the internet, with academic and carnal material re-purposed for shrines in his honor.

His reach over all communication channels went unmet for 12 years. Meanwhile, a small group of counterculture radicals, calling themselves “Alarmists to Subvert Statham,” plotted to overthrow their ruler. And the time for revolution was nigh.

Third year high school nang una kong sinubukang sumulat ng isang tula. Isang tula na personal na trip. Ilang beses na kasi ako sumulat ng tula dahil required sa klase. Ang tulang iyon ay sa Ingles pa, isang Shakespearean sonnet. Nakataon kasi na mga sonnets ni Shakespeare ang pinag-aaralan namin sa mga panahon na yon. Sinulat ko yon para ibigay sa isa sa mga matatalik kong kaibigan sa panahon na yon. Ewan. Mas nauna akong sumulat sa prose kesa sa mga tula. Mas makabuluhan para sa akin ang pagsulat ng mga tula dahil mas grabe ang disiplinang kailangan. Parang nag level up ako. Ang tagal na pala nun. Basta alam ko mula noon, tuloy-tuloy na papunta kung saan man ako ngayon.

Tulad sa marami kong ka-henerasyon, minsan din akong na adik sa computer games. Buong maghapon, uuwi lang pag kakain ng hapunan. Unti-unti yon nagbago nang mahilig ako sa libro. Noon, nagbabasa lang akon kung kailangan sa klase. Nagbago lang noong nadiskubre ko kung gano nakakalibang ang magbasa ng mga ‘bestseller’ o ‘pop fiction’ na mga novels; Dan Brown, Micheal Crichton, Clive Cussler, Stephen King, John Grisham. Pati ang barkada ko ay nahihilig na rin sa mga libro. Nagiging normal na usapan na ang mga libro o ang bersyon nito sa pelikula pag-recess. Second year nang naisip ko, paano kaya kung gumawa ako ng sariling nobela, sariling kwento?

Adventure novel ang birada ko, sa Ingles. Mga kinseng paniha lang, di ko na alam ang nangyari. Tapos sinubukan ko ang short story. Nakatapos ako ng ilan, pero walang signipikanto. Tapos na diskubre ko si Bob Ong at ang kanyang Filipino. Hindi yung tipo na nababasa ko sa mga libro sa panitikan sa klase. Yung tipong hindi nya layunin ang makilala bilang primyadong manunulat. Yung estilo ni Bob Ong ay yung tipong ‘bahala kayo sa buhay nyo, mga literary critics, basta ako gusto ko magkukwento ako’. Tapos ang usapan. Mula noon ay tumatak na sa akin ganitong konsepto pag nagsusulat. Bahala kayo sa buhay nyo, basta ako may sasabihin akong kwento. Wala namang pinipilit. Sumusulat ako, kasi gusto ko eh. At syempre, na diskubre ko rin kung gaano ka mas madali at mas mahirap mag sulat sa Filipino. Mahirap kasi hindi sanay sa grammar, spelling, atbp. Pero madali kasi maskaka-express ka ng mga ideya at damdamin mo.
Nakalikha ako ng ilang kwento, kwentong hayskul nga tawag ko. Ano ba mga pinag iisip ng mga estudyanteng hayskul? Pag ibig. Melodramatikong pag ibig na kuwa nila sa mga pelikula at tele nobela. Tulad din ni Bob Ong, satire ang trip ko. Lahat naman kami sa barkada mahilig talaga sa mga biro. So parang sinulat ko lang mga reserve na jokes ko. Pinabasa ko ang mga kwento ko sa ilang kaklase ko, at nagtagumpay ako. Nakapag kwento ako, nalibang pa sila.
Pinabasa ko rin ang mga kwento ko sa Prof ko sa Filipino na isa ring manunulat. Wala palang pakialam sa critics ha. Di na man, gusto ko lang malaman kung tama o may saysay man lang ba ang mga sinulat ko. Kasi pag okay, pwede ma publish, mas marami akong maiikwentohan. Una nyang sinabi sa akin na ang mga likha ko ay postmodernist. Hindi ko pa maintindihan nang husto ano ibig sabihin nya nun. Basta daw kasi merong traditional, tapos may nag react, naging modern na, tapos may nag react ulit, postmodern na. Mula noon ay naging malapit na kami nang Prof kong yon. Hangang ngayon ay pinagtyatyagaan pa rin nyang basahin ang mga likha ko.

Tuloy-tuloy din ang pagbasa ko nang mga panahon na yon. Nagsimula din ako magbasa nang ‘serious literature’. Paborito ko noon ang Tale of Two Cities ni Charles Dickens. Pero ang libro na talagang nagbago sa akin ay ang Sophie’s World ni Jostein Gaarder. Nobela ito tungkol sa kasaysayan ng pilisopiya. Syempre, hindi ko ito na intidhinan agad. Sa ikalawang basahan ko pa ito talagang na absorb. Pero sa una pa lang, malakas na ang tama nang sinabi ni Socrates bago sya mamatay, “An unexamined life is not worth living. Know thyself.” Umpisa noon, sinimulan ko nang suriin ang sarili ko. Tinatanong kung ano ba talaga ang gusto ko sa buhay. Ang una kong sagot ay gusto kong mag aral ng history. Mahilig ako magkwento dahil mahilig din ako makinig sa mga kwento. Hindi lang sa history kundi pati na rin sa ibang social science tulad ng economics at psychology. Sinimulan ko na ring seryosohin ang pag aaral. Hindi naman yung tipong honor student, pero mas mabuti kesa sa asta ko noon. Nagplano na rin ako para sa college ko. Hindi ko akalaing ganun kabilis matatapos ang hayskul.

Photo credit: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wcSZ3bwIdpY/S-v9zaA6HcI/AAAAAAAAAao/qgZcwQ5hPSs/s1600/imgsophies+world3.jpg

Hindi ako nakapasa sa UP, kaya kumuha ako ng Political Science sa West Visayas State University. Dito din nag-aral ang ate ko sa parehong kurso. Nahilig ako sa pulitika, hindi lang dahil ito ang laman ng balita gabi-gabi kundi dahil sa mga libro ni John Grishman. Second year high school ko unang nakahawak ng ‘legal thriller’, The Chamber. Natural hindi ko na intindihan agad. Kaya maya-maya ang tanong ko sa ate ko kung ano ibig sabihin ng ‘plaintiff’, ‘pro bono’, ‘jury’, atbp. Mula noon, inukay ko na ang mga Pol Sci na mga libro ng ate ako. Natural konti lang naintindihan ko, pero dun na nagsimulang ang hilig ko sa Pol Sci. Ayos din sa pamilya ko, gusto kasi nilang akong maging abogado balang araw.

Nang nag aaral sa West, talagang ‘voracious reader’ na ako. Hindi ako mapakali kong hindi makapag basa ng kahit ano, newspaper man o fiction. Medyo marami na rin ang nasulat ko. Ang ilan nga na publish pa sa paper nung hayskul. Nagsusulat na rin ako ng poems sa Filipino. At hindi puro na lang pag ibig ang mga tinatalakay ko sa mga pagsusulat. Sa West naging myembro na ako ng college paper, sa unang pagkakataon sa buong buhay ko. Masaya kasi, puro kayo mga writer, at natural, lahat kayo mahilig sa libro.

Photo credit:http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1255244675709&set=t.100000340245867

Ang karanasan ko sa West ay puno ng mga pagmumulat. Medyo mahirap kasi ako lang mag isa sa amin mag babarkada ang sa school na to. From scratch ba. Natutunan kong makihalubilo sa mga taong iba-iba ang mga ugali at pananaw. Sa mga kwentohan ko sa bawat isa sa kanila ay puno ng mga aral. Habang natutunan ko kung sino sila, natutuklasan ko rin kung sino ako. Normal lang ang hindi pagkakasundo ng mga classmates ko, kanya-kanyang paninindigan. Pero ang importante ay patuloy silang nag uusap kung pano mareresolba ang mga partikular na suliranin na kinakaharap ng klase namin noon. At eventually, nagiging ayos din ang lahat, para sa lahat. Dito ko unang nakita ang kagandahan sa pagkakaiba.

Ang klimang pulitikal sa bansa noong unang first year ko (2009) ay hindi basta-basta. Dito naglabasan ang mga issue ng charter change, problema sa National Artist Award, ang pagreponde sa mga bagyong Ondoy at Peping at syempre ang Maguindanao Massacre. Sabi ng karamihan, ito na ang pinaka-climax ng administasyong Arroyo. At dahil ang bawat katapusan ay simula, dito napapasok ang usaping eleksyon sa 2010. Bilang mga estudyante ng Political Science nasa sentro kami ng mga issue at aktibismo. Ganito kami bininyagan. Kung nakikisangot kami sa mga isyung nasyonal, lalo na sa mga isyu sa loob ng pamantasaan mismo.

Photo credit: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5wRxEhBJMaU/TFLSN9YTpMI/AAAAAAAAAAw/sfMHNMcXKKk/s1600/_MG_2636.jpg

Photo credit: http://media.portland.indymedia.org/images/2006/12/350538.jpg

Pinalitan ng admin namin ang aming Student Regent sa BOR. Ang SR ay upperclass ko sa Pol Sci at kaibigan ko rin. Nanguna kami sa isang mobilisyasyon sa loob mismo ng campus. Nag ingay kami sa harap ng admin at nagkaroon ng isang diyalogo. Maraming estudyante ang hindi pumasok para sumama sa kilusang yon. Marami din ang konti lang ang nalalaman kung ano talaga ang isyu. Doon ko lalong naintidihan kung ano ang ibig sabihin ng isang Pol Sci student sa West. Sabi ng Prof ko, dito sa university ang mga Pol Sci ang mga pinika-misunderstood sa lahat. Ang Pol Sci kasi maingay, maraming reklamo. Sabi ng Prof ko, maingay at mareklamo ang Pol Sci dahil silang ang lubos na nakakaintindi. Pag may nakitang mali, agad itong isisiwalat at hahanapan ng solusyon. Ang sitwasyon sa loob ng pamantasan ay representasyon ng buong lipunan. Kung sino ang lubos na nakakaunawa, sila ang maingay, at sila ang pinaka-misunderstood.

Pero sa lahat ng itinuro ng West sa akin ang pinakapasasalamatan ko ay ang Sociology. Parte ito ng aming curriculum, at kung binuksan ng pulitika ang aking mga mata, sociology ang nagbigay nag liwanag sa paligid. Sa pinaka-payak na depinisyon, ang Sociology ay ang sistematikong at sayantipikong pag-aaral ng lipunan; ang kanyang pagunlad, straktura, at pag-function. Kung ang psychology ay pinagaaralan ang ugali ng indibiduwal, ang sociology ay ugali ng indibiduwal sa mga grupo. Ito ang hindi ko pa nakasalubong na social science. Buong lipunan na ang pinag-uusap, hindi lang pamahalaan at pulitika o ekonomiya. Sa Sociology pinag-aaral ang kultura, ang interaction sapagitan sa mga lalaki at mga babae, ang mga institusyon sosyal tulad ng pamahalaan at simbahan, at marami pang iba. Matagal nang magulo ang pulitika sa bansa. Ilang beses na rin sinubukang palitan ang sistema, bakit wala pa rin? Sabi ko sa sarili ko, kung di ko maintindihan ang sistema, bakit di ko pag aralan ang mga bumubuo nito, mga tao. Para sa marami, mahirap ang buhay. Maraming problema at pagsubok na kinakaharap sa pang araw-araw na antas. Kung mahina lang ang loob mo, madali kang susuko sa buhay. Dapat tignan at pag-aralan ang lipunan sa pangkabuohan. Sociology ang tuturo sa atin, bakit may pamahalaan at pulitika, may simbahan at reheliyon, bakit kailangan natin mag-aral, bakit kailangan natin ng trabaho, bakit may kultura, atbp. Pagnaunawaan natin ang paggana ng lipunan, hindi na magiging negatibo ang tingin natin dito. Malalaman natin na may dahilan para sa bawat bagay o pangyayari sa ating paligid. Kailangan pag aralan ang sociology at kung paano ito makakaapekto sa mga buhay sa mga indibiduwal, binansagan ni C. Wright Mills ito bilang ‘sociological imagination’. Kung maintidihan natin ang lipunan, malalaman natin kung ano ang mga deperensya nito, at malalaman natin kung paano ito lulutasin.

Sabi ko, ito na ang matagal na hinahanap ko. Sersoyohin ko na. Nang sinabi ko sa mga magulang ko na gusto kung mag-transfer pabalik sa UP, tinanong ako kung Political Science pa rin ang kukunin ko. Sabi ko Sociology. Sa inaasahan, sabi nila, “Ano yan?” Pero di na ako mapigilan. Ayoko ko maging abogado dahil, para sa akin, monotonous ang trabaho. Marami ang pera at mataas ang pagtingin ng mga tao, pero di ko naman habol ang mga yon. Sabi ni Papa ay bagay ako maging abogado dahil matalino naman daw ako. Isip ko hindi naman sapat ang talino lang sa abogasya. Kung iisipin, hindi naman lahat ng mga abogado matatalino eh, pero lahat sila masisipag. Wala ako nun. Kalian man hinding-hindi ako masisipagang magmemorya ng mga batas. Boring, monotonous. Hindi ginagamit ang pagkamalikhain mo, o konti lang. Hindi bagay sa akin yun kasi sinasamba ko ang pagkamalikhain.

Syempre kung iisipin, napamahal na rin ako sa West at sa mga classmates ko. Sabi nga nang iba, ginamit ko lang ang West para mabalik sa UP. Hindi ko naman sila masisisi kung ganon ang iniisip nila. Pero sa huli, nangibabaw parin ang pagkakaibigan at pagbabasakali nila na manatili ako sa West. Pero sabi ko sa kanila, kailangan ko tong gawin. Mas may ibibigay ako sa lipunan kong tatahakin ko ang ganito karera. Sabay pa rin naming iaahon ang Pilipinas. Naks, nakaka-high talaga ang idiyalismong kabataan.

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Photo credit:http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=118010764889107&set=t.100000340245867

Hangang ngayon humahanap pa rin ako nang panahon para makabisita sa West. Nung una, mag process ng papeles, sa huli pag tambay lang tagala. Sabi nga ng classmates ko, pag ma stress ako sa Miag-ao, punta lang ako sa West. Mga munting bagay para lalo kong mahalin ang West at ang mga tao na nakasama dito. Mula sa puso ng Syodad ng Iloilo, napadpad ako ng mga apatnapung kilometro pa timog sa Munisipalidad ng Miag-ao. Kung kailan nasanay na ako makipagsabayan sa mga pasikot-sikot ng syodad, saka naman ako tumira sa mga bundok. Naulit lang ang proseso sa West. Wala pa rin akong kabarkada, pero di na ako ganong nahirapan. Magkakaibang mga ugali at pananaw. Talagang bumalik ako sa pagka-first year dahil iilan lang sa mga subjects ko ang na credit. Nakakatuwa pa kasi dalawa lang kami ang first year sa Sociology. Isang freshman talaga, at ako, isang transferee. Maraming nagtatanong kung bakit Sociology ang kinuha ko (Pagkatapos nila tanungin kung ano ang Sociology). Inuulit ko lang ang kwento ko. Tinanong ko ang course-mate ko kung bakit Sociology ang pinili nyang course. Sabi nya, hindi kasi quota course. Pero ngayon, napapamahal na rin sya sa course. Masaya ako sa Sociology, pero delayed na ako sa college. Sakripiso? Marahil.

Sa byaheng kong to, patuloy ang pagsulat ko. Kung ikukumpara ko ang mga likha ko ngayon kesa nung hayskul, grabe na ang pagbabago. Hindi ko alam kung gumanda o pumangit, hindi naman importante. Ang mahalaga, patuloy ang pag ‘evolve’ bilang manunulat, bilang tao. Kadalasan napapangiti na lang ako mag isa kung maisip kung gano ka dami ang pinagdaan ko. Lalo na kung gano ka bilis.

Ngayon ay iilang araw nalang ang pananatili ko dito sa Balay Kanlaon, isang freshmen dorm. Ngayon ko lang naisipan na subukang ilatag talaga ang mga pinagdaanan ko. Patapos na naman ang isa pang school year. Parang kalian lang nang tila di ko mabitawan ang hayskul. Siguro isa sa mga pinakamahalang leksyon sa aking kabataan ang pag bitaw sa mga bagay, sa mga panahon. Kailangan dumaan sa maraming eksena, minsan madali pero madalas mahirap, para tuluyang makilala ang sarili. Ngayon tuloy pa rin ang pag tanong ko sa sarili, minsan iba na ang nagiging sagot ko. Ewan, madalas kong naalala si Stepen Dedalus sa libro ni James Joyce na A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Ito ang kwento nya mula bata sya hangang sa pagkabinatilyo. Natapos ang libro sa kanyang pagtahak sa ibang daan taliwas sa inaasahan ng mga tao sa paligid nya. Ulit, ang wakas ay simula. Sa tingin ko, ito ang pinaka-angkop ng depenisyon ng isang artist. Isang tao na hindi takot na hamunin ang mga nakasanayan. Isang tao na kilala ang sarili. Sabi nga ni Henrik Ibsen, “To be a poet is to see.” Gusto ko itong dagdagan. Hindi lang nakakakita, kundi may gingawa din. To see and to act.

Maiihambing ko ang sarili kay Stepen dahil pareho kami ng mga layunin, pareho din naming natuklasan ang buhay. “Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of soul the uncreated consciousness of my race.”

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Habang binabasa ko ang first draft ng sanaysay na to, inisip ko; dyan na ang ‘sociologist’, saan ang ‘artist’? Wala, o kulang sa emphasis? Tapos napuna ko, para kahit kaninong artist, o manunulat, ang pinakamataas na sining ay ang sining ng buhay. Sa tingin ko, sa pagdanas ng dawalang first year sa college,maayos na kahit papano ang ‘outline’ ng obra maestra ko.

Tuloy ang byahe para sa ating lahat, kung saan patungo, tayo rin lang ang makapagsasabi.