Odious comparisons IX – Rule of the People

This is what democracy means, etymologically at least. I do not want to debate whether it actually happens so in practice, because we could spend months to reach any conclusion in this regard.

But I wanted to comment on democracy. Although it is taboo to speak critically of democracy, because we all know the alternative systems that have proved most unfair and even cruel, I think it is useful to note the things that could be improved.

 

Transmeme XXV

At some point in life, you have to revise everything you have been taught and deconstruct yourself.

The World Theatre X - The Time Machine

As I get older, I notice that the days go by without hardly noticing. If I have to listen to those who are older than me, this effect will worsen more and more. So I find myself in a painful situation where I not only feel the days, weeks, months, go by like a quick dream, but they do increasingly faster. I see myself in a state of senile prostration in just a couple of blinks.

 Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have been documenting and reflecting on the phenomenon, to try to remedy it. But I have not yet found a satisfactory explanation. I am pondering some assumptions, namely:

• The perception of time accelerates as we stop our learning: all these eons of waiting when you're a kid (minutes actually) appear only because our infant heads are hungry of stimuli all the time
• The lack of a Zen attitude, causes us alienation and we live a present moment stolen by our headaches, lack of attention and undisciplined mind that wanders to and fro, over twenty topics at once
• Our lives become more and more routine, always doing the same thing the same way, without the ability to surprise or anticipate

In any case I have no doubt that this problem, so to speak, is found only in our heads, and that only we have the key, if not to stop, at least to slow this machine that rapidly consumes the moments of our short lives. I still have not found that key. Have you?

Transmeme XXIV

Every once in a while, I'm ashamed of my selfishness, and not doing anything about it.

The World Theatre IX – Headless dog

When technology surprises us, something within us is shaking. I do not mean intellectual surprise when, after all, scientific speculation and science fiction allow us to imagine possible futures, but something more primal, more animal. It's as if our minds had certain atavisms that go beyond our present culture.

This is what happened to me with the headless dog.

Some time ago I was truly amazed to see a video of a product from the U.S. company called Boston Dynamics (http://www.bostondynamics.com/). Robotics and biomechanics experts who are creating prototypes of robots that can navigate different terrains with payloads. Forget the humanoid that salutes with its hand, or even plays the violin. The effect was stunning. I had a dog without its head before me, powered with distressing organic movements (more distressing still if we add the audio to the film). Helplessly, I doubted whether it was a hoax, some images composition or alike, and sought the head of the poor animal everywhere.

It's funny when something like an organic movement, when not associated with the living being we expect, creates such a paradox. Frankly, I do not know why something like this has not had much more resonance because it is bound to affect our collective unconscious. Here is the video for you to enjoy and check if you get surprised as well.



I also leave a humorous video, with which I was laughing for a time. Enough said. It is up to you to discover. Just note that humor helps us to assimilate culturally conceptual shocks that our society encounters, proof of what I have been saying about the headless dog.

Transmeme XXIII

Some would be more spiritual, if "official religions" were not capitalizing on it.

The World Theatre VIII - Somaticizing stress in an original way

Over the years I've done (I think) interesting discoveries about myself. This was based on carefully listening to me, both psychological and physiological. Although this practice led me to some unpleasant hypochondriac episode in my young age, has generally proven to be of some use. After all, no doctor spends so much time with me as myself, so although I lack knowledge to remedy my woes, at least I am a good judge of my symptoms.

It is said that one of the greatest diseases in the last century (and this, by extension) is stress. I do not know who, maybe you could remind me, stated that a person is now subject to the same stress in one day as a person did in the Middle Ages during one year, or was it ten years? I'm not sure of this claim. I guess that to expect to be assaulted by wolves in the middle of a dark forest or to receive a raid by foreign invaders should not be negligible. Well, I care little for the headaches of medieval peasants. I have suffered, suffer from time to time, stress. I guess you too.

Image: Stefano Valle / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Transmeme XXII

Being in love, has not always made a better person out of me.

The World Theatre VII - Another MetaPost

How does this post thing work? Those blogs that are updated more often are in a better position? Are the ones with more followers? Followers for what? Oh, yes, for the advertising business.

Certainly there are many kinds of blogs and this one in particular looks a bit like an opinion column of a newspaper, but the difference is that I am not paid to write in it, nor am forced to make entries at specified intervals, although try to do them regularly. I state this with some resentment, because my opinion of the opinionated is not very good in general. Let's be honest, we all have our opinions on something, even if not needed. Of what use is the opinion of a celebrity, whether a writer’s, politician, filmmaker or media personality? Being a good writer provides someone better judgement? I do not know, but I suspect that when one is forced to write about many topics so often, either one of the two: his/her documentary repository and inspiration are endless, or the quality and interest of what he/she says dilute over time (which eventually is the case).

This blog is going to go through the same process, I am afraid (if that initial interest ever existed at some point in time).

Transmeme XXI

If 99% say A, that does not mean they are right. Truth is not a matter of conventions.

The World Theatre VI - Choreography and sensitivity

Nutcracker, Swan Lake, or contemporary dance. I can not stand them. I could never go more than three minutes watching them on TV, no need to tell you that I have never gone to see a ballet. Well, I lie; I went to see Sara Baras and liked it. But that was the exception; can I go on, or have I already lost all my credibility?

And what's remarkable about this preference (or lack thereof, in this case) you will think, well, the truth is that being aware of my lack of taste for dance in general, led me to doubt of my sensibility for the arts. I always liked music, drawing and painting, theater, literature, sculpture and architecture, including photography, comics and cinema to set out the beautiful old and new arts. Not that I like everything, but I could see in these works that interest me, and that I liked more than others. So, why was not the case with the dance?

It would be a childhood trauma, some atrophy in my brain, or a profound ignorance, but I can not see anything inspiring in the dancers moving to the beat of the music. Is the secret in the pirouettes, the timing, the speed and harmony of the turns and movements? All I see are bodies moving without much meaning, running, spinning, often not completely in sync and I can only think of the suffering of tendons and muscles when I see some positions forced by traditional rules of ballet. Nor do I see anything interesting in the spasms of the modern dancers, who often remind me of swimmers warming up the muscles of the shoulder blades before jumping into the pool.

Until one day I saw that my sensitivity for the choreography was not completely castrated. Because I found one that I love: Kung-fu. What kung-fu has to do with this? Well... a lot. Even considering myself only a fan of the subject, seeing Kung-fu plasticity of movement, the beauty and the cadence I am thrilled, if I tell you the truth, I get goose bumps. I can not help it when I see someone practicing martial arts, especially kung-fu, I get emotional. Attack, defense, jumps and spins, hitting, tripping, waiting time, grabs and swings, threatening or derogatory glances, shouts and rapid jumps. My eyes are wet with the reached excitement, no kidding. I suppose it is a dance most akin to my sensibilities. This, at least, allows me to consider the quota of affinity to dance fulfilled. I'm not castrated.

What is Kung Fu?

Transmeme XX

"Sometimes" I can "see" the hidden language of women.