The Priorities of Greatness

The use of the word "great" has slipped into our vernacular through the  back door of propaganda.


Why do we learn about the exploits of say, Alexander the Great ?  


And why was he great ?

Because he was an egotistical, maniacal thug whose thirst for power managed to brutally slaughter so many people who dare be in his path to self glory ?

No.

Then why ?

I suggest it's because mainstream culture has inadvertently usurped our collective sense of reality and subverted our community desire for social justice.

We believe he is great because of the power of death and destruction he could unleash on those around him.

This is nothing new.

Even people living contemporaneously  during Alexander's times admired his so-called "greatness" ...

Think of Julius Caesar..who legend has it , cried when he stumbled across a statue of Alexander in mock jealousy of his "greatness" reputation and swore to leave an even "greater" legacy.

And Julius Caesar did not disappoint in this.

The wholesale butchery of friends and foes alike are well documented.

What exactly am I trying to say here ?


I stumbled across a site that set out to promote the memory of  Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey Hepburn and Unicef 

and then I explored even further....

Audrey Hepburn Web Site 

and further..

and further...

and the word " greatness  " is focussed entirely in my impressions of her and the reality she was trying to promote.  


The connections with her outlook on life and the beauty of her selfless cause stands as a testament to a "great" human being. 

The important, dedicated work of UNICEF is continually highlighting the injustices perpetrated by Western Sovereign nations against the innocent civilians and children who are caught in the cross fire of the modernised version of colonialism in the guise of Western Imperialism.

But this reality has been subverted. 

Our collective humanity is usurped by the games of power and domination.

Like Audrey pointed out  in one of her interviews....


" We have colleges of war, we study war and learn about it....why can't we send our children to study peace? set up colleges of peace ? learn about peace ?

A tribute to a great person....Audrey Hepburn.

The Fun of Dancing !!

Make of it what you will.


I love these  rhythms.


With French Flavour..............


Au Revoir  mon cheri.............

Let's Celebrate!!

Moral Crusaders

Consider the two statements below :

Be wary of those who try to lecture you on proper behaviour.

Guilt is always a tool used by authoritarians to control and manipulate.

The context ?


Social Control.


In Australia at the moment we have a group of fundamentalist Christians attempting to hijack the legal system by a concerted attack on advertising and what they see as the "sexploitation" of females. In their self righteous , self imposed order of thinking , these people are determined to force a change of social attitude through the political agenda to effect a cultural shift in the ways advertisers do business.


http://community.collectiveshout.org/profile/NicoleJameson


So what can be so wrong about this ? Surely advertisers have overstepped their mark on a number of occasions . Look at the way they promoted cigarettes and the cultural embedding of that practice in the modern world, especially after WW1.


 http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1848212,00.html


Look at how the cultural shift has changed on this practice in developed countries.


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1905530,00.html


So what can be so wrong in attempting to effect a cultural shift in attitudes towards a social practice in the form of advertising  targeting and using the theme of sex ?


Well, where do you draw the line ?


What makes something sexual  ?


Isn't it in the eyes of the beholder ?


ALSO.....

Isn't the aim of these social crusaders to enforce an agenda that channels perceptions through the filter of their fundamentalist religious philosophy ?


Have a look at the following :


http://www.endeavourforum.org.au/


http://www.saltshakers.org.au/


Now I have no problem with them expressing their opinions, concerns and brand of life-styles......




But when you try and convert others through the brute force of the law, then I suspect exclusionary tactics will underpin social values and a monocultural dominance will resurface in Australia; the concepts of right and wrong behaviour in the form of attitudes and beliefs will prevail leaving many minority groups grappling with a sense of confusion about what kind of justice system deprives a person of their right to practice their own lifestyle............it's like regressing to the times of intolerance we witnessed in the legal system in the 50's and the 60's in Australia.

Down One Memory Lane

During the 70's these songs used to always pop up on the radio. Or so I thought. I guess these songs carried me into the slipstream of memories and stayed there with me  like the urban landscapes they inhabited. Here they are again being played by the magic of Jose Feliciano and  Daryl Hall.

 

 

Life and Identity

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

In moments of reflection I gather my thoughts and consider the nature of my life as it is.


The way I see it, is always changing and the beauty is in the ways I can define myself through my imagination.


The emotional journey that each day has in stall for me triggers associations and memories that capture a feeling


If I lose that feeling all is well and the patience of my unguarded moments follows another sequence of imaginative thoughts


At times I am led into dismal caves of unpleasantness usually prompted by the manifestations of peoples' social stress conditioned to commodify and compartmentalise my creative self


I rationalise and signify my intentions and enable my journey to continue into areas of personal comfort zones


Not oblivious to the sacrifices I make to buffer the sad tensions of my fellow comrades
But it is I who will die one day and it is I who should live my life in the way I create.

Blogs and Graffiti

Banksy ( Hope he doesn't mind )

Somehow I feel pretty useless writing about things which I know very little about save for my general readings about the dealings of the rich, famous and powerful groups causing misery, mayhem and menace in the world.


I once heard a line which now echoes in my mind that blogging is the newest form of graffiti.


The internet is now  swamped with this new graffiti .


There is nothing wrong with graffiti.


But what type of graffiti will I engage with ?


When I originally started out on my quest for Blogdom there was never a thought about becoming an online political activist.
But it seems the more I dig and search the more I read about the arguments for this or the arguments for that and how the twain can never reach conciliation I get lost in the mire of information            criss -crossing across vast and lengthy interconnecting networks.


It all seems like a bad marriage with irreconcilable differences effecting a very nasty divorce.


 The issues are real. We are talking about murder, wholesale destruction of people, nations and the  menacing duplicity of persons and ideas who we were led to believe are fighting for our honour, peace and freedom.


But do I want to participate in this inter - dynamic , quasi-farcical debate on human affairs ?


I do not take the urgency or the seriousness of the horrific situation of world affairs lightly.




It's just that I want to find a voice out here in cyberspace not focused entirely on my conscience to do something about the injustices of the world or the discoveries of corporate greed.


I want to create a little corner of inspiration for some like minded persons who love to share moments of solitude and the discoveries we make with ourselves in times of thoughtful inventiveness.


Here's keeping my fingers crossed that I can find that voice.........and eventually an audience...........

 

DownTown Paradise

I am always on the look out for that special impulse that separates personal baggage from public surroundings.


Over the last few days I have been mesmerised by the tropics and hypnotised by its alluring warmth.


My memories flow like a fountain of reinvigorated youth

At the same time I am alerted to the news of the world.


Have things changed  at all ?


Reading a fellow blogger outlining the thrust of American Imperialism , firstly in Libya and now in Syria , and presumably soon in Iran left a familiar taste in my mouth.


I turned to revisit The USA vs John Lennon and then onto some of John Pilger's documentaries and the gnawing polemic of politics , especially the powermongers , who, through their sheer brute force of monopoly of information and perceptions of reality obscure our sense of global humanity in this world.


But have things really changed ?


WW2 polarised the world, and then the Iron Curtain, followed by the Cold War that helped maintain the continued divisiveness. Add to it the mix of religion and ethnic relations and the recipe for today's political realities is an outcome of the power struggles of the 20th century.


I reassure myself that people as a whole are like that to each other. History is riddled with the exploits of power and domination. From the local to the global , conflict, barbarism and dehumanisation of others in states of vulnerability are the patterns of documented historical behaviour.


A famous scientist (source unknown) is quoted as saying after years of studying nature that :


" Death is the Rule ; Life the Exception "


So to get away from the polemics of Politics I turn to the polemics of Nature.


Why does death occur in such a functional fashion ?


It seems to be all about food.


In nature everything feeds off everything else.

I have no idea where I am going with this thought, but as I attempt to rationalise death and the injustices of political realities I strike a chord  with an image of the blue planet suspended in its local neighborhood in the Milky Way Galaxy floating through the endless corridors of eternity and somehow I suspect that the purpose in life just as in death plays out a game that feeds the synapses linking all life in some ways throughout the universe.


I hate the way people and societies are so callous and so cruel towards each other.


But what I hate also is my ineptitude to effect any change in world affairs..........

Hi From Sunny Thailand !!

I love it here ! The food is like an explosion of taste sensations erupting from a tropical state of mind !


The people are always smiling and if not smiling they are busy tending to themselves, even when they are sleeping on hammocks.

Politics and Prisoners

I was drawn to watch a documentary outlining the art of tattooing in Russian prisons and its implications for the prisoners and the prison system in Russia. I found it on an excellent website entitled , Documentary Heaven.com. The documentary was called , "The Mark of Cain".


What struck me profoundly was how the culture of tattooing and its power in the world of Russian prisons is waning and becoming a symbol of shame as opposed to its earlier influence in the prison hierarchy. What also struck me was how some believed that conditions were actually better under the Stalinist regime.

" A film composer is the dictator of reality"

I realise that documentaries are biased in their own personal ways through the selection of their material.


But what also left me pondering was the suggestion of how prison life reflects a microcosm of the broader society.


It seems the brutal realities of survival and change in a prison mirror the game play of the outside world.




Similarly, the realities of American society and its exploitation of its prisoners - usually from the most vulnerable sections - are depicted with a bitter sweet irony in the following clip, to explore the implications of the land of freedom and opportunity .

Now where is all of this leading ?


Just a couple of thoughts to reflect on captured by these quotes........

“Many of us who walk to and fro upon our usual tasks are prisoners drawing mental maps of escape”

  Loren Eiseley quote

and

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the   other stars.”

Frederick Langbridge quote

 

What To Believe and What Not To Believe , That is the Question...

The existential dilemma facing Hamlet in Shakespeare's play is not too dissimilar to my predicament. Ofcourse, Hamlet's choice to act or not act is more intensely personal and its urgency is more immediately relevant to his historical context.

My choice is to believe or not to believe what I see and what I read. Let me give an example......

Here is  one example of a depiction of Gaddaffi's rule.

 Regardless of the man's personality and suggested maniacal tendencies offered by many sources the policies themselves would tend to convince anyone that Libya was enjoying many rights and privileges that many other nations would envy.


Here is another example of a depiction of Gaddaffi's rule.

Now have a look at these depictions of his rule.....

and this one ......

The question is, what to believe ?

I could have an opinion on this issue but as a wise spokesperson once said,

"Opinions are like arseholes ; everybody has one ."

I know propaganda is at work here but how to unravel what people living in Libya actually thought of the man  and the general consensus of him ?  And why should this matter to me ? Living on the other side of the planet ?

And how is my dilemma linked to Hamlet's " To be or not to be " ?

Well, I have to function in my every day life as a citizen  and I need to make certain internal judgements about what I see or hear or understand in my world. 

To believe or not to believe what I am exposed to is the challenge I face in my own world of, to be or not to be.

The metaphor that comes to mind is ;

I can be a mushroom living  in the dark and being fed bullshit and be comfortable with the state of affairs; or, 

I can be a tree cultivating my own growth  and feeding  off the sun  with the wild, unpredictable rhythms of nature.

I can't be both.

What do you think ?