– Jesus crucified (publicly humiliated) his enemies first!
– There are eagles soaring above my house! 😃
– I guess we all need to learn how to be happy in whatever situation we
are, and also go after what we really want.
Both approaches in equal, dynamic interaction!
We can find a way to get what we want in any situation, and even if we get
what we want, we will still have to learn contentment, because there is no
perfect paradise on earth……
12.1.18
– Work as worship
Vs.
Worshiping work
– Public bath-houses
huntress
Pantheon of titans
Syncretism as propaganda
Freedmen & clients
coterie
Legalities & practicalities
Social mobility
Judaic religion, Greek culture, Roman law and Christian theology
patronless
Octavian >> Augustus
Leader ~ patron ~ father ~ god
Lying governments
Census & tax
Pax Americana
franchisee
Oppressive peace
Honoring by burying
Religious persecution as an expression of political oppression
Joint reading of disparate passages
Textual parallels
Narrative interpretation
city-state
Noble savage – Adam ~ Tarzan!
The harlot-teacher
steppe
Wild innocence/primitive purity
stinting
marquee
– Near-Eastern kings claimed to be divine – born of a human mother and a
male god!
– Distinguish:
Family
&
Household
– Cricket – what can we (India) learn from the disastrous 1st test in SA?
– Why do we have such bad leaders and such stupid people, in spite of the
modern growth of “democracy” & “education”?
Why are technological advances not enough to create a better world?
– What is your operating system?
– Work:leisure balance
2 days off (freak-out) each week (Thursday & Sunday) – 1:2.5 – weekly
routine
2 months off (from ministry) each year – 1:5 – annual vacation
Take 6 months off every 5 years – 1:9 – self-renewal sabbatical
– Truth > meaning > purpose
Purpose >> meaning >> truth?
Are we living in a moral universe, or……?
– The latest is not always the best, but it ought to be so!
– What is one thing that you’re grateful for, over the last week?
Not being depressed!
– What was going on yesterday, at this time?
I was going to sleep, tired after the shopping. Skipped the night stroll…
– What were the highlights (experiences, insights, developments, etc.) of
the past day (24 hours)?
Why do I tell others that I’m “doing nothing”? How does that feel? Should I
change anything (either what I say or what I’m doing)?
Retrace some of your emotional high & low points in the recent past.
Too flat?!
– Macho, childish, men
– What is it to love oneself unconditionally & unreservedly?
Do I already?? How about you?
Why/why not?
– Self-examination, criticism & evaluation is probably best done in a
spiritually supportive peer group setting.
– The good life
&
The least of these
– Sorry, I have only gold, no currency notes!
Am I poor?
– When analyzing a complex problem (& making your choice), learn to
take all relevant & important factors into consideration, and not get
preoccupied with only one (or two).
Step back & take in the big picture, before jumping into the details.
Deductive over inductive?
14.1.18
– 🍚🙏🏽 உழவர் திருநாள் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்!
GOD BLESS our farmers 👨🏽🌾
How can we contribute to the welfare of the agricultural laborers who are
under severe distress today??
Let’s make it a resolution to put the focus back on our farmers every year,
during this harvest/thanksgiving festival, instead of just going back to
the default mode of celebrating the holidays without even remembering the
reason for it……!
One way is to identify NGOs who are working for farmer welfare and support
them (sponsoring, etc.)
Sending out gratitude to the agricultural laborers before every meal……
Being aware of, honoring, and celebrating the natural/seasonal cycles that
sustain our existence
– Christ University
All the faculty need to come together, discuss, and create a dialogue with
students & management, to come up with ways for continual improvement
of the institution
In relentless pursuit of the ideal of Education!
Move toward a more democratic mode for critical evaluation & creative
progress
15.1.18
– Movies:
“War Dogs”
– There is a man in my neighborhood who walks like the dead (the “walkers”
in “The Walking Dead”)!
– Wonder & doubt
There is a ? implicit in every !, and a ! implicit in every ?
– Movies:
“Professor Marston and the Wonder Women”
Is this one of the best ever movies??
But definitely one of my all-time favorite films!!!
– obviate
16.1.18
– demiurge
unclassifiable
unsavory ~ immoral
molder ~ crumble
calcite
birefringence
Sinn Fein
prefecture
pentagram
Prohibition Era
Epigram ~ quip
Pokey ~ slammer
Entresol ~ mezzanine
gutless
crochet
– “There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.” – Upton Sinclair
– There is no way to the good life, without being devout, upright & charitable.
No amount of cunning or power can compensate for solid character!
– Try disabling screen filter apps (like Twilight) and see if it solves the problem with the working of some apps like SBI Anywhere on Android mobile.
This also removes the inability to install apps from the apk file!
31.12.17
– bildungrosman
1.1.18
– New Year Mass:
Jan. 1 = Mary, mother of God (as opposed to Holy Name – Jesus Christ – in the Protestant high church)
The divine/spirit/revelation/salvation is found within the human/flesh/reason/church!
Compare & contrast:
Catholic (ecclesiastical)
&
Protestant (evangelical)
What about the Orthodox? They are more into mysticism!
– Nature/persons fucked by culture/society.
Time to invert the order! 😡
– Spiritual practices help one to be rooted in ultimate reality, and thereby lead to a virtuous character & beautiful lifestyle.
Do you love life?
Do you seek the good?
Do you believe in (that there is such a thing as) truth?
No experience of divinity, no motivation for humanity!
– “Every holy soul is itself a heaven, in a sense” – Bernard of Clairvaux
Inward ~ spiritual ~ eternal
You know how life is “different” when you’re tripping!?
No virtue, no joy.
Right?
Yes.
But also,
No joy, no virtue!
5.1.18
– “Toward a more safe, healthy, diverse & just world”
“This is not going to go the way you think!”
Individual vocation + communal solidarity = hope for the world
“Realize your (great) destiny!” – the Dark Lord beckons……
– Social therapy
Community mental health
Cultural psychoanalysis
Antisocial queer theory
Feminism & misogyny
Open-ended, non-objectivist, non-interpretive approach
Subprime mortgage crisis
Predominant, tendentious & damaging assumptions
The politics of (all) theory & practice
Critical psychology & integral psychotherapy
kibitz
grandstand
Pissing in the wind
Hermetic spontaneity
Jungian analyst
The severe limitations of self-critique
Depressive realism
Academic silos
Aetiologies of distress
Distressed & distressing persons
The outcome question
Competing models
cryptomisanthropist
Schizoid outsider
Anaesthetising insistencies
Pure signifier
Fundamental rupture of transcendental tendencies
The prism of sexual desire
Subjugation, commodification & valorisation
Potentially ensnared
Pornography & the money shot
Schizoanalysis
Hyperinsistence of our machinic enslavement
A countervalence to the stifling reproduction
The demands of representation
Oedipal handcuffing & the docile body
Paranoid knowledge
The event of resistance
Freudian politics
The hermeneutics of reason
The ambivalence of unreason
Repetition compulsion
Being-toward-death
The therapy industry
Well-designed placebos
The fashionable belief of magical voluntarism
– Abstract, criticism & application
– Do something you love at the start of each day!
– A beginner’s guide to LSD https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwqja3/a-beginners-guide-to-lsd
The graph is really accurate! 😃
My Lysergic trip (1.1.18) notes:
“It’s just a ride!” – Bill Hicks
“Aruvi” movie jukebox
Midnight Clear – Christmas album by Solid State Records (Christian metal)
Feel the music inside your heart/soul!
Non-identification with the body
Extreme emotional highs & lows (powerful catharsis), as opposed to the mundane blandness!
Euphoria/mania/ecstasy/bliss
Spiritual insights >> lifestyle resolutions
Contemplation = education + entertainment + maintenance
Cosmic/mystic experience
Logorrhea
Reconnecting with repressed memories
Applying Prisma (photo enhancement app) to your entire surroundings – vivid colors!
Absolute freedom, radical peace, immense joy, universal love & unlimited power
Smoking is amazing
Totally in the moment, & loving it! Time expands. You feel like you have all the time in the world to play and enjoy……
Laughing at the futility & vanity of the common culture
Periodic usage might be therapeutic!
Coming down to the normal (next day) is quite depressing.
– Movies:
“The Florida Project”
Children cope with tragedy by escaping into fantasy.
E.g. Chronicles of Narnia
But don’t adults too??
Is the mother really a criminal, worthy of imprisonment?
Notice the Disneyland background sounds & visuals (helicopter, colorful buildings, gaudy hoardings, etc.)
The brutality of capitalism (not just an economic system, but a complete political, legal & cultural ecology) – the dehumanization of both the oppressor and the oppressed
This filmmaker focuses mainly on the lives of the marginalized sections of society – beautiful pain, & hard questions! I’ve seen another movie of his too…
– Profile:
Shane Smith – the founder of Vice magazine/channel
– 3 levels of life/reality:
1. Social roles
2. Individuality
3. Nothingness
In increasing order of depth.
I focus on the second, and balance the other two from there……
– Collage & watermark with Adobe Photoshop Express on Android!
9.1.18
– 5paisa stock trading app
– Mk. 3:1-6
Religiosity/legality/morality
Vs.
Spirituality/humanity/ethics
The sheer audacity of the Man!
Distressed – within himself
Saddened – for the cripple
Furious – at the experts
– News:
Yuva Hunkar rally: Jignesh Mevani says India ‘facing fascism’; Kanhaiya Kumar for ‘saving Constitution’
Govt to Have Final Say on ‘Respect’ for National Anthem After SC Recalls Order
No disruption in lives of Indian H1B visa holders, clarifies US govt (for my brother’s family)
Two party workers (cook & aide) get themselves arrested to land in same jail as Lalu
Indian politicians & the NRI diaspora – why are Modi & Rahul cozying up to them now?
Enough confusion for over two decades, Cauvery verdict in 4 weeks: SC
North Korea agrees to military talks, sending Olympic squad to South
Israeli leader’s son under fire again for strip club banter
Wondering if I looted bank or revealed secrets to India’: Imran Khan on third marriage plan
Oldest supernova found in 5,000-year-old rock carving in Kashmir
New Star Identical To Sun May Help Decode Its Effect On Earth’s Climate
SCIENTISTS FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE MUSCLES FROM SCRATCH
FSSAI urges states to use its book on eating right in schools
Bengaluru:
Do you travel for work often? You are more likely to suffer from anxiety
Anjana Rao – Engineer picks music over circuits and big pay
‘Unsafe practice of staff sleeping in hotels has proved tough to stop’ – Fire Department
Three asphyxiate while cleaning STP (sewage treatment plant) at apartment complex
– hawala
Rosetta stone
“Metta”
– Two approaches to living:
1. Be in the moment and take things as they come. Just be fully present, open & willing!
2. Plan ahead & take control. Direct the situation according to one’s own values.
Each approach critiques and complements the other.
So, use both, equally interacting, for optimum quality of life!
The best antidote to both anxiety & mediocrity……
Saving the world ~ eternal life for each person ~ the revelation of GOD’s love
Catastrophic Grace!
– Do you know why Angelo Mathews did not come out to bat yesterday?
– “By putting forward the hands of the clock, you shall not advance the hour.” – Victor Hugo
But without the clock, how would we know the hour??
Yes, time & tide wait for no man. But chronological time is, in a sense, man-made!
Distinguish:
Actual/reality
&
Popular/perception
“kairos” – from boredom to leisure, via awareness!
There are those who make a lot of noise, but are empty, and there are those who are changing the world quietly……
– Moon phases – waxing/waning crescent/gibbous
24.12.17
– “Cut the cord”
“Bite the hand that feeds”
“Waiting for the sky to fall”
25.12.17
– The festive spirit has infected me too…
And that’s very surprising! 😃
– *Merry Christmas* , dear…! 🌲
GOD showed his *no-holding-back* love, through this baby.
And, as we kneel in adoration before him, we are inspired to love with *no-holding-back* too!
So, may we all be liberated to experience the *joy of giving* (ourselves freely)……
*GRACE & PEACE* 🎁
– 26.12.17
– “This Is Us” – Kevin & Kate have confused success/career with fulfillment/vocation!
I am experimenting with putting the emphasis on the private/personal as opposed to the public/social, when it comes to work……
– Fictional/cinematic universe
Digmine
28.12.17
– “Superstar (feat. Matthew Santos)” – Lupe Fiasco
“The Fear” – Lily Allen
– Movies:
“அருவி” (Tamil)
She should have contracted HIV via sexual promiscuity, not by an “innocent” accident!
The ending was too melodramatic & dumb – fairy-taleish. Very disappointed, after the rousing & provocative beginning & development.
“அன்பின் கொடி” – awesome song!
Jukebox
Something different & provocative in Tamil cinema, but does not maintain the realism untit the end. Does not live up to the standards set by (similar) movies like இரைவி.
Has the filmmaker borrowed from movies like “God Bless America” and “Ingrid Goes West”?
(10/12/2016) Kelvikkenna Bathil | Exclusive Interview with Lakshmy Ramakrishnan | Thanthi TV
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”
The second half lives up to the expectations nicely built up by the first! The movie goes out with a bang, not a whimper.
I feel somewhat like Luke Skywalker – voluntary retirement & complete isolation, loss of faith in the religious order & conventional warfare.
Watched in IMAX 3D (courtesy Chris Joseph)!
The republic & the empire are not that distinct! It is the spiritual warriors (Jedi/resistance) that needs to do the hard work of figuring out what it means to be & stay faithful in such a situation……
– How can being forgiven cleanse me from my sinfulness??
– I did not like the Christ University Christmas musical very much, maybe because the Christian spirit (faith/devotion) was missing.
But I was already depressed, so maybe I wouldn’t have enjoyed it much, no matter how good it was……
Also, Handel’s Messiah & Santa Claus don’t go well together! 😐😌
– Sometimes, 2 (or more) emojis are required to express how one is feeling!
– Love does not know sacrifice, only passion!
Integrity ~ self-love
Love ~ relational truth
– UC News app
Why use the (irrelevant & stupid) pic of a school girl in skirt, for your ad (in Clean Master)??
Does this mean you will focus on the sleazy news for our daily infotainment?
Fuckers! 😠
– Be who you are.
Do what you are.
Say how you are.
– The closest to an epiphany that I have got in the past year may be the vision of gorgeous gals (some, goddesses) in my neighborhood, & rarely making very brief eye-contact with few of them……!
– amphitheater, racecourse, forum
chamberlain
A tour for the rich
promenades
artisans, manual laborers, merchants
Social status, economic class
Favoritism, discrimination, partiality
excoriate, vituperate, lambast
elitism & patronage
Competition for civic advancement
refounded
Jews as underdogs
Ethnic identity & political influence
The mistake of imprecision
Pseudo-relationships
Family slave
Documentary, literary & technical papyri
Philosophical education, self-improvement & entertainment
Assimilated Jews
Homer (Greek) Vs. The Bible (Hebrew)
Training for public office
Rhetorical affairs
Philo, Josephus, Cicero
Eloquent wisdom Vs. The power of the Cross
2Cor. 10:10 – the Apostle’s “foolish” life-sermon
vixen
– Despising menial labor
Vs.
Glorying in tribulations
16.12.17
– Movies:
Thelma
Gorgeous, in every way! Norway – mmm, yummy……
Just another parable on religious fundamentalism & adolescent repression?
Non-epileptic (psychogenic) seizures
PTSD
The power of our unconscious desires and their subtle, yet significant, impact on our lives
But what about her “murder” of the younger brother?? The religious as (human response to) the demonic!
Is she evil? What is (the meaning of) “evil”? The power within us which we struggle to harness – yes, dangerous, but also vital!
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Connect the first and the last scene – the child/feminine/nature/desire/man/future Vs. the adult/masculine/culture/morality/GOD/past – guess who wins!?
Midpoint ~ 54:00 – the serpent enters her (via the mouth)!
Is the filmmaker a Freudian?
Our faith in/dependence on GOD, cripples and retards us.
– I am slowly becoming someone I would despise and hate!
Better U-turn before it’s too late…… 😶
– Movies:
Bullethead
Baby Driver
– WHY do you like lesbian porn so much??
What does your sexuality, your secrets & your crimes say about your soul?
18.12.17
– My work belongs neither in the church nor in the academy
– Distinguish:
Tradition
&
Culture
– The child & the curriculum
School & society
– Movies:
“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
Tough, heavy, mysterious, disturbing
Why this title??
The hero of the movie is Martin (the boy), not the doctor!
My interpretation is theological – the film is basically a theory of atonement – the surgeon/father is God, his family is the Trinity, Martin is Man (His dead father as Adam), and the son Bob is Christ.
GOD has to pay for his sin by taking full responsibility for the suffering of the world upon himself – and he has no choice – there is no escape!
GOD is judged and Man is vindicated……
Distinguish:
Justice
&
Fairness
Would adopting the boy (& his mom) been another alternative?? If you murder the father, then you become the father. Or, you kill yourself too.
But why kill another member of your family?
No confession & repentance (or rather, restitution), no forgiveness & reconciliation
Martin only knows the meaning of what is going on, or is he actually causing it??
What happens when you go digging where there is no “deeper meaning”?
“That critical moment we both
knew would come some day?
Here it is.
That time is now.
You know what I mean.
– No, I don’t.
Listen, Martin, I don’t have time for this.
– Okay, I’m gonna explain this very quickly so that I don’t hold you up.
Yes, it’s exactly what you think.
Just like you killed a member of my family,
now you’ve gotta kill a member of your family to balance things out, understand?”
– Dream:
Someone has broken into my house. And I end up killing him. Then I tell my dad that there is something terrible inside me that comes out at such times……
I am standing in queue, in an eatery, inside a bus stand. Came to drop someone off. The guy who prepares & packs the food is overloaded, because his co-workers have gone for a break. He says, “human beings!”.
– The enlightened man is the one who has fully embraced the nothingness at the core of existence. And he engages in everything else, with the full awareness of this ultimate reality.
All the colors eventually fade to grey.
Or is it black?
The pursuit of greatness is just another failed attempt at immortality!
So, give it up too, along with all the other grandiose delusions & failed strategies – family relationships, religious devotion, social work, material prosperity, psychological health, moral excellence, individual achievement, physical strength, sexual pleasure, cultural refinement, etc., etc.
LIFE, is for those, who are NOT tired of dying!
– The essence of all philosophical endeavor is the struggle with the problem/question/sheer fact of the existence of language.
– Employment as distraction…
From?
– Christ University:
What good are youth, beauty, talent & enthusiasm, in solitude?
– He/she may be remarkable, but I am NOT!
What about you?
– kaivalya
– TV series (limited):
“Wormwood”
22.12.17
– Hygge
My Scandinavian fantasy
Prussia
Radical newsletter
Conservative democratic government
Empire, revolution & republic
Identity structures
Use cases
UX
Trust as currency
Distributed ledger
Digital timestamps
– Blockchain & Bitcoin – could this be the latest (& maybe better) challenge/alternative to capitalism?!
– How can being forgiven cleanse me from my sinfulness??
– I did not like the Christ University Christmas musical very much, maybe because the Christian spirit (faith/devotion) was missing.
But I was already depressed, so maybe I wouldn’t have enjoyed it much, no matter how good it was……
Also, Handel’s Messiah & Santa Claus don’t go well together! 😐😌
– Sometimes, 2 (or more) emojis are required to express how one is feeling!
– Love does not know sacrifice, only passion!
Integrity ~ self-love
Love ~ relational truth
– UC News app
Why use the (irrelevant & stupid) pic of a school girl in skirt, for your ad (in Clean Master)??
Does this mean you will focus on the sleazy news for our daily infotainment?
Fuckers! 😠
– Be who you are.
Do what you are.
Say how you are.
– The closest to an epiphany that I have got in the past year may be the vision of gorgeous gals (some, goddesses) in my neighborhood, & rarely making very brief eye-contact with few of them……!
– amphitheater, racecourse, forum
chamberlain
A tour for the rich
promenades
artisans, manual laborers, merchants
Social status, economic class
Favoritism, discrimination, partiality
excoriate, vituperate, lambast
elitism & patronage
Competition for civic advancement
refounded
Jews as underdogs
Ethnic identity & political influence
The mistake of imprecision
Pseudo-relationships
Family slave
Documentary, literary & technical papyri
Philosophical education, self-improvement & entertainment
Assimilated Jews
Homer (Greek) Vs. The Bible (Hebrew)
Training for public office
Rhetorical affairs
Philo, Josephus, Cicero
Eloquent wisdom Vs. The power of the Cross
2Cor. 10:10 – the Apostle’s “foolish” life-sermon
vixen
– Despising menial labor
Vs.
Glorying in tribulations
16.12.17
– Movies:
Thelma
Gorgeous, in every way! Norway – mmm, yummy……
Just another parable on religious fundamentalism & adolescent repression?
Non-epileptic (psychogenic) seizures
PTSD
The power of our unconscious desires and their subtle, yet significant, impact on our lives
But what about her “murder” of the younger brother?? The religious as (human response to) the demonic!
Is she evil? What is (the meaning of) “evil”? The power within us which we struggle to harness – yes, dangerous, but also vital!
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Connect the first and the last scene – the child/feminine/nature/desire/man/future Vs. the adult/masculine/culture/morality/GOD/past – guess who wins!?
Midpoint ~ 54:00 – the serpent enters her (via the mouth)!
Is the filmmaker a Freudian?
Our faith in/dependence on GOD, cripples and retards us.
– I am slowly becoming someone I would despise and hate!
Better U-turn before it’s too late…… 😶
– Movies:
Bullethead
Baby Driver
– WHY do you like lesbian porn so much??
What does your sexuality, your secrets & your crimes say about your soul?
18.12.17
– My work belongs neither in the church nor in the academy
– Distinguish:
Tradition
&
Culture
– The child & the curriculum
School & society
– Movies:
“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
Tough, heavy, mysterious, disturbing
Why this title??
The hero of the movie is Martin (the boy), not the doctor!
My interpretation is theological – the film is basically a theory of atonement – the surgeon/father is God, his family is the Trinity, Martin is Man (His dead father as Adam), and the son Bob is Christ.
GOD has to pay for his sin by taking full responsibility for the suffering of the world upon himself – and he has no choice – there is no escape!
GOD is judged and Man is vindicated……
Distinguish:
Justice
&
Fairness
Would adopting the boy (& his mom) been another alternative?? If you murder the father, then you become the father. Or, you kill yourself too.
But why kill another member of your family?
No confession & repentance (or rather, restitution), no forgiveness & reconciliation
Martin only knows the meaning of what is going on, or is he actually causing it??
What happens when you go digging where there is no “deeper meaning”?
“That critical moment we both
knew would come some day?
Here it is.
That time is now.
You know what I mean.
– No, I don’t.
Listen, Martin, I don’t have time for this.
– Okay, I’m gonna explain this very quickly so that I don’t hold you up.
Yes, it’s exactly what you think.
Just like you killed a member of my family,
now you’ve gotta kill a member of your family to balance things out, understand?”
– Dream:
Someone has broken into my house. And I end up killing him. Then I tell my dad that there is something terrible inside me that comes out at such times……
I am standing in queue, in an eatery, inside a bus stand. Came to drop someone off. The guy who prepares & packs the food is overloaded, because his co-workers have gone for a break. He says, “human beings!”.
– The enlightened man is the one who has fully embraced the nothingness at the core of existence. And he engages in everything else, with the full awareness of this ultimate reality.
All the colors eventually fade to grey.
Or is it black?
The pursuit of greatness is just another failed attempt at immortality!
So, give it up too, along with all the other grandiose delusions & failed strategies – family relationships, religious devotion, social work, material prosperity, psychological health, moral excellence, individual achievement, physical strength, sexual pleasure, cultural refinement, etc., etc.
LIFE, is for those, who are NOT tired of dying!
– The essence of all philosophical endeavor is the struggle with the problem/question/sheer fact of the existence of language.
– Employment as distraction…
From?
– Christ University:
What good are youth, beauty, talent & enthusiasm, in solitude?
– He/she may be remarkable, but I am NOT!
What about you?
– kaivalya
– TV series (limited):
“Wormwood”
22.12.17
– Hygge
My Scandinavian fantasy
Prussia
Radical newsletter
Conservative democratic government
Empire, revolution & republic
Identity structures
Use cases
UX
Trust as currency
Distributed ledger
Digital timestamps
– Blockchain & Bitcoin – could this be the latest (& maybe better) challenge/alternative to capitalism?!
– Equalizing the intellect-will with the body-emotions……!
Putting biology back on an equal footing with culture. No more hierarchical domination, only peer-negotiation.
In fact, I should empower the flesh a little more than the spirit!
Positive regression
Physiological development
– Readings:
“Saving God” by Mark Johnston – Chapter 1
“University & Pedagogy: Critical Theory & Practice” by Monica McLean – Chapter 1
“On Critical Pedagogy” by Henry Giroux – Chapter 1
“Coaching & Mentoring” by Simon Western – Chapter 1
“Beyond Objects, Beyond Subjects: Giorgio Agamben on Animality, Particularity and the End of Onto-theology” by Colby Dickinson (Journal article from Cosmos & History)
– Savvy
Vs.
Intelligent
– The politics of intimacy
Inward culture
The marketization of life
Capital, commodity & spectacle
Google – Kids coding & interactive doodle
– Bios
Vs.
Biology
The revolt of life, against the hegemony of language (ontology & technology)
Naturalizing (adj. & v.) religion
The ethics of the animal
Carnal spirituality
Psychological depression as a symptom of the rape of creation by superimposed knowledge (The Fall)!
– “Hello, what do you do?”
– “Hi… I am trying to live!”
– Arekere, Bengaluru – should we buy an air-purifier for the house?
AIR POLLUTION KILLS TWO INDIANS EVERY MINUTE!
– Distinguish:
Prosperity
&
Productivity
– My goal is to live without goals.
My purpose is to destroy all definitions of purpose.
Sometimes, giving up is not always the easiest, and may also be the wisest, thing to do!
– cram
slotched
Ace the class
Homai Vyarawalla
Lab infection
This day in history
Article, image, idiom, doodle of the day
acerbate
Dingle ~ dell
Flagellation ~ tanning
laundress
Overspill ~ runoff
Ailment ~ complaint
jousts
Independent watchdog
State media
shero
Parallel cinema
– “To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.” – Charlotte Gilman
A female reformer, therefore a great person!
She committed suicide.
What was HER “dominant weakness”?
Chronological snobbery is as bad as blind faith.
STILL – How long, how long……??! Time is running out for us, and we cannot take it for granted, that we will overcome any challenge in the future, just because we have come so far from our humble beginnings……
– “When you pass through the waters, I am with you; when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you.”
You will somehow make it through! That’s how you will know that I am always with you.
The Hindu past
Vs.
The Buddhist present
Vs.
The Christian future
It is “when”, not “if”… then, as you breathe freely, you will really be fully alive!
– News:
4 CRPF personnel shot dead allegedly by colleague
Withdraw ‘autocratic’ order cancelling Max Hospital licence, demands Delhi Medical Association
JNPT SEZ & Nitin Gadkari
Separatist seminar disallowed in J&K – Human Rights Day
Greater Noida twin murder: Teen (hooked to violent videogame) confesses to killing mother and sister, was upset after being scolded
UN rejects U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
Iraq declares final victory over Islamic State
The poll body has appointed Praveen P Nair as the returning pfficer in the place of K Velusamy who was embroiled in controversy over rejection of nomination papers filed by actor Vishal Krishna.
Black holes not as powerful as imagined
PHYSICS BREAKTHROUGH: NEW FORM OF MATTER, EXCITONIUM, FINALLY PROVED TO EXIST AFTER 50-YEAR SEARCH
More minors smoking, chewing tobacco in Maharashtra
Do you know where your Aadhaar has been used? This is how you can find out
Why is adultery an offence for men and not women? Plea in SC
Inadequate infrastructure a bane of dry waste collection centres
Bengaluru woman cheated of Rs 95K by NRI Facebook friend
Bengaluru Signs Up For Cleaner Air With World’s Biggest Cities
Experts tear into Bengaluru’s Revised Master Plan 2031, say it is filled with major errors
At each given moment, allow the equal & free interplay of all the above 3, and then act (respond) accordingly.
(No more fixed periods/places for the exclusive focus on any one!)
Human – neither animal nor machine nor angel, but a unique entity which also includes the other 3!
Inner ~ me
Outer ~ us
Ideal ~ we
Distinguish:
Conscience/reason/will
&
Consciousness/awareness/instinct
Integrate the Sabbath into all 7 days! But can it be done without any dedicated (sacred) clearing?
– The music is the noise
and
the noise is the music!
Distinguish:
Mild background music
&
Loud intense listening
– Image ~ reflection ~ shadow
– Wash your eyes everyday
– Free money
11.12.17
– Movies:
“Mother!”
Exceptional acting by Lawrence! She is the star here, not Bardem. All the horror is seen on her face!
The unremitting nightmare of being feminine, in this world……
Beautiful & terrible Genesis/Fall parable – GOD, earth, the Garden, Adam, Eve, the Fruit, Cain, Abel, etc. They are all there!
Where is the Serpent??
Were you able to identify religion & the church in the story?
What is the book and who is the publisher?
It became too preachy & obvious in certain scenes where violence, war, etc. were depicted too graphically, and it was not shocking either. Could’ve been left out.
I wonder if there is any autobiographical elements from Darren & Jennifer’s relationship……
The relational life of a great artist – in short – fucked up!
The wife, as assistant, & muse
Religious ~ motherless!
Ecology as religion
The baby, of course, is Christ!
“Who are (all) these people?!”
“I’ll just get started on the apocalypse.”
“Where is he?
Where’s my baby?
– He’s not dead.
– What? Where is he?
– A voice still cries out to be heard, loud and strong.
“Guffaw (belly laugh) at that old & mighty bully, the world!
Renaissance lore
scapegrace
penniless
Pantagruelist
The Modern Library
– Church/mass review! 😉
Instead of just paying attention to every word, try to sense & imbibe the flavor/mood of the occasion.
Zeroing as heroism! Ego-death or self-transcendence as GOD-realization.
The baptist pointed to the Messiah. So, who/what did the Messiah point to? Obviously himself, right?
That’s how it seems at first, but if you look more carefully, he is then canceling himself out. So, what’s the point of the Cross??
Is religion pointing us to a really existent GOD, or is GOD fully present in & through religion?!
No religion, no GOD.
True.
But also,
No GOD, no religion!
– I must start to enjoy dressing up.
For whose sake?
12.12.17
– Encounter groups
halter
Central paranoia
– orphic
– Unnamed
Famous for being unknown
The author is always anonymous!
– Mute certain WhatsApp status updates 👍
– If (my being) explicit is obscene (for you), then so be it!
Cricket – test match highlights
– Because experiencing your loyal love is better than life itself, my lips will praise you. For this reason I will praise you while I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.
How can anything (or anyone) be better (or greater) than life?!
Maybe it is a hyperbolic way of saying that life is worth nothing without GOD’s love……
My life < Your name
Praising GOD with my hands (actions) & praying to GOD with my lips (words)
– “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Groucho Marx, http://www.bquot.es/s/2113
The vital importance of (learning from) history (includes current affairs) & literature (especially fiction)
TV series – education through entertainment!
Vicarious experience via narrative exposure & ritual immersion
– News:
CWC clears decks and dates for Rahul Gandhi’s road ahead: Will be Congress chief in Dec, PM face in 2019
Padmavati row – Mamata criticizes protests; Amarinder says they are valid
India’s WhatsApp arrests: When speech regulation goes “overboard”
Drunk men harass woman IndiGo staffer, fall at her feet and apologise after police intervention
Zimbabwe coup: The house of Mugabe crumbles, but it’s soon to celebrate
Myanmar’s institutional subversion of the Rohingya identity makes repatriation problematic
Confident of making a game out of it: Cheteshwar Pujara.
India vs Sri Lanka: Cheteshwar Pujara Becomes 3rd Indian To Bat On All Five Days Of A Test Match
Doomsday: Has NASA confirmed the possibility of Earth getting hit by an asteroid?
Deadly earthquakes could hit a billion people next year because of Earth’s slowing rotation
Scientists send message to contact alien life
Dengue prevention begins with respect for environment
Doing Daily Household Chores May Increase Longevity of Life: Study
Study reveals Bengaluru residents spend 7% of life commuting
More Youngsters in Bengaluru have back pain
Stop axing trees, promote electric vehicles: citizens
– Open elective course:
The challenge of striking the balance between familiar/acceptable and new/remarkable
21.11.17
– Distinguish:
Restore,
Reset &
Recover
(Windows PC)
– Sitting Zen
Lying Zen
Standing Zen
Walking Zen
– Pessimism/nihilism/cynicism
I love!
– Venting:
What the fuck is wrong with me?!
Why am I so miserable most of the time?
Maybe life just sucks.
Or maybe I need to be hooked on some drug or the other to feel alright.
Could this be genetic?
Or maybe this is because of my negative beliefs and unconventional lifestyle……
I want to be free of the need to feel well. Should I be rid of this need for freedom from emotional health too??
All my knowledge is in vain when it comes to my mental state/spiritual predicament!
I have lost my drive to achieve anything, whether inward or outward.
I just want to give up and relax. Let go, and slide……
I am sick & tired of living as this listless and pathetic son of a bitch.
But I don’t know of any alternative to this life.
If I could only die, and get this all over with.
I wish I could be strong enough to overcome, and flourish in spite of, this thorn in the flesh.
– I watched Stranger Things Season 1.
It started with a bang, but then lost its way, and became predictable, even silly!
I don’t think it’s worth writing a proper review.
How would it have been if the Coen Brothers did it instead of the Duffers?
22.11.17
– Today, I got the news that my open elective course (“The Joy of Learning”) in Christ University would not run this semester, because only 2-4 students had chosen it!
I was more relieved, than disappointed…….
I had been feeling very depressed the last 2 days.
Maybe I should’ve stuck to my original decision to not do anything (like this) for 1 year (June 2017 to June 2018)
– I want to go around, shooting and fucking people randomly!
– Dream:
I am in a school, with Dovina and Vijayalaya. We are being attacked by a mob of hooligans, and are fleeing to a place of safety.
Chellam is helping me with finding a way out……
– What would happen if I stopped following any rule of life and just let my natural instincts dictate everyday behavior?
– iMyfone Umate Pro
Rigorous theorizing without scientific reductionism
Exposing the prevailing assumptions underneath dominant norms
The fetish of the new
Self-integration & self-critique
Contextual discourses and relevant rhetoric
Metaphorical imagination as explanatory theory
Theory – interpret experience, oversee practice and maintain critical self-awareness
Education – orientation + training = development
Letting myself be read by the text
Greed for simplicity
– “Psychoanalysis turns neurosis into ordinary unhappiness”
– Generative education
Vs.
Control mechanisms
– TV series:
Black Mirror (Season 1)
The common theme is the impact of technological/digital lifestyle on human existence – plainly negative!
Every realm – politics, economics, relationships, etc. – is affected – sparing nothing.
Why “black mirror”?? Is it the nihilistic image of man which is reflected by his own creations?
Do you remember seeing your own face on that dark screen?
“The ghost in the machine is your own soul!”
Another powerful argument for the necessity of philosophy/spirituality/religion, to maintain and nurture our core humanity……
But how will we keep them from being digitized?!
A TV series about the evils of the all-pervading media, watched online – how ironic!
There’s no going back now, to a romantic/pristine past. The only way is forward. We need a new vision or the human future to inspire the strategies of our soul-survival.
“Hive mind”
“Horror lark”
lapidary
Totalitarianism and vigilantism
Episode 3 was hitting too close to home!
Review: ‘Black Mirror’ Finds Terror, and Soul, in the Machine
Thanks for the honest question about “What I do all day”…
I didn’t mind it at all 😌”
“I have chosen a contemplative lifestyle, because I want to focus on living in the moment & on self-education.
– I usually have a weekly routine that I make for myself, which includes household chores & spiritual disciplines.
– I also prepare for an annual seminar & retreat, for others, to promote personal growth……”
– Learning Kannada – from English via Tamil
25.11.17
– The experts
Vs.
The Outsider
The kings, priests and judges
Vs.
The Prophet
The Pharisees, scribes and lawyers
Vs.
Jesus
The elders, clerics and academics
Vs.
Me
– Widening Participation in Post-Compulsory Education
Universities and the Global Knowledge Economy
– Official knowledge
The structure/agency problem
– Yes, I read Critical Theory for entertainment!
And I don’t like those who can’t, or wouldn’t care to, think for themselves……
I need to spend more time on devotional Bible meditation and also just be with ordinary (non-intellectual!) folk.
– What can, or should, the veteran learn from the novice?
– Luk. 20:27-40
There are those who are physically dead, but are alive to GOD, and those that are physically alive, but dead to GOD……
Those who are children of this (evil/passing) age and those who belong to the world to come.
The spiritual life is eternal!
“Children of the resurrection”
Simply dismissing all possibility of “afterlife” today, based on rational/empirical grounds, would be just as foolish as the Sadducees denying the resurrection based on the Law of Moses.
What really matters is not whether you believe there is a future resurrection of the dead or not, but whether you have faith in the unlimited power of GOD (spiritual reality/ultimate destiny of all things, especially humans) which inspires the hope that can drive a radical life in the here and now.
Faith as projection
Vs.
Faith as adventure
Faith as a higher (or deeper!) level of knowledge that is comfortable with doubt and uncertainty – knowing without understanding – yes, I believe it is true, but cannot explain why or how!
Lord, I question, but you help my faith to sustain that questioning, without giving up (on the hope of finding GOD).
– Catherine of Alexandria – patron saint of female philosophers!
– Part-time job with full-time salary 😉
– PC – switched from Chrome (proxy tunnel issue) to Firefox, finally!
Got too tired to tolerate any more bullshit.
– Start preparing for annual retreat & seminar, instead of the open elective course.
– Meditation:
From doing to being
From thinking to breathing
From feeling to observing
– Recollection + reflection >> insight & development!
27.11.17
– From now onwards, my contribution toward others in the form of formal/prepared presentations is over!
– TV series:
Fleabag (Season 1)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge – somewhat like our own Kalki Coechlin
The actress is also the writer! She does look nerdy and artistic……
Why “fleabag”? “an inferior hotel or rooming house”
Is her name really Fleabag in the series?! What did the others call her??
Angst = anxiety (existential) + grief (psychosocial) + guilt (moral/theological) – a summary of the human predicament!
Philosophical aptitude, personal spiritual discipline and relational skills – uniquely essential for survival as a human being
No remorse, no repentance,
No repentance, no responsibility,
No responsibility, no redemption.
All non-theological/amoral spiritualities are just different forms of escapism/self-deception!
Should I try to identify the 6 students who chose my course?
The pattern among the courses which have qualified to run shows that students choose a course either for its direct career value (a useful addition to their resume when applying for a hifi job) or if they find it immediately relevant or interesting, like “Gender in Popular Culture”. Only courses which are focused in their subject matter are usually preferred.
I am quite disappointed that there is not much of curiosity about what education itself is (or can/should be) among so-called full-time scholars!My course raises such fundamental (and uncomfortable?) questions!No other course seemed to have such a broad (philosophical or spiritual) perspective/approach.
But actually, I am relieved that I don’t have to sit and prepare for hours, to deliver lectures……!
I don’t believe in that mode/format of learning anymore.
28.11.17
– harbinger
Can one be both critical & individualistic, and also be socially responsible?
Compare & contrast:
Relational loyalty
&
Social responsibility
– 1Chron. 16:8,34
Praise the LORD for his unfailing love,
And give thanks for his great deeds.
Unfailing love –> great deeds
Once you experience this, you can go and tell everyone else about (the greatness of) your GOD!
– “Have you begun to stop trying to defend your sins? Then you have made a beginning of righteousness.”
–Augustine of Hippo
Confession >> penance >> reform
Giving up >> new beginning
Either you start righteous and become a sinner, or you start sinful and become righteous!
How you see yourself now will determine where you go next, and ultimately where you end up.
This applies to both individual persons and social groups.
“If so, then…” and “If not, then…”
Self-justification & stagnation
Or
Self-criticism & development
Your attitude to GOD, others & the world, is nothing but an outward expression of your intrapersonal dynamic. – News:
Master Plan 2031 gives public transport a boost, proposes Metro on Bengaluru periphery.
BENGALURU: ACP MISBEHAVED WITH SEXUAL HARASSMENT VICTIM?
‘Incarcerated’ donkeys released from Uttar Pradesh jail on BJP leader’s recommendation.
Gujarat polls 2017 is all about community votebank: Here’s what BJP, Congress candidate lists tell us.
Bali paradise turns to tourist nightmare as Mount Agung rumbles
SC Dismisses Plea Against ‘Padmavati’, Says Final Call Job of CBFC
Pope Francis urges respect for rights and ethnic diversity, sidesteps Rohingya crisis
Why shouldn’t the public get to know how BCCI is functioning? – Vinod Rai
World Air Pollution Day: 5 ways in which air pollution affects your mental health
Consumer should decide what is good and what is bad: TRAI chief on net neutrality
No loan waiver for capitalists, says Jaitley
29.11.17
– complaisance
Spectacle of animality
Animal interiority
comportment
incontestible
Entomology & philosophy
The insinuations of poetry
The irrational roots of all (including human!) life
The daydreams of our hidden life
The animal, the primitive, the child and the insane
The anthropological machine
Onto-theological critique
Deconstruction of traditional significations
Constructed distinctions & arbitrary boundaries
Beyond representation, toward pure encounter
The discourse of being
Redefining (divine) revelation as the unveiling of our (human) animality
Pardigmatic singularity
Vs.
Sovereign representations
Moving from particularity to particularity, resisting the temptation of universalization
Thingness
Safeguarding precarity
Messianic intervention
The appearance of a justifiable political discourse out of political nihilism
Christianity as the end of theology
Religiously inflected terminology
Canonical moment
Transition from Judaic law to Christian forms of life
Form & content; object & subject; universal & particular
The inevitability of theology
Violent condensation into semblances
– Fully embracing determinism is ultimate freedom!
– Buddha – dropping into the metaphysical, by burrowing into the psychological……!
– Life is suffering (sorrow) >> suffering is life (passion)!
– In the world, it seems that everything at the highest & deepest level is fucked up, and only in the middle is there something good going on……
Getting out of this good/bad mindset is my greatest challenge.
Why is sadness bad, and happiness good?
– My primary goal is to become nothing.
But that is exactly what I am avoiding most vehemently!
– Beyond faith, hope & love
Suffering, death & glory!
– We are just self-deluded animals!
30.11.17
– Lower class immorality
Middle class morality
Upper class amorality
1.12.17
– “Aadharam” Tamil short film
(Referred by Chris Joseph)
My interpretation:
I think it’s about the question of personhood. And the point made is that, the affection (of & for another) (ஆதரம்) is what *creates* personhood.
So, Inba is a person, because of the affection of the protagonist *bestowed* upon “it” (a doll)!
And his son is NOT a person (although a human) because he does not express affection toward his aged & sick father……
– The theologies of cultural intelligibility
Hidden work/secret agents
Forgotten histories
– Theology as ideology
Vs.
Theology as critical theory
The heretic as double agent
De-authorized/uncapitalized truth
Survival & testimony
Dangerous memories
The legal force of cultural forms
The constitution of identity through narrative repetition
Ontology as normative injunction & not original foundation
Masking the ruses
Fleeing game
Weak messianic forces
Deconstruction as a challenge to the sovereign powers
Manufacturing the necessary ground
Signification/representation as the state of original sin
From being to existence
The pure functionality of separating & dividing
The limits of language
Essences, without content
The historic fabrication & institutional authorization of humanity
Pure potentiality ~ zone of indistinguishability
Fractured sense of self ~ caesura
Self-posited uniqueness
Metaphysico-political project
The divine, as an invention, to render the human thinkable
Suspension of all sovereign decisions that underlie the general construction of representations
The revocation of every vocation & dwelling in the indescernibility of our situatedness – our only ethical option.
Risking the emptiness
Central hiatus
A regression beyond
Freed from all indebtedness to the anthropological
The dissolution of politics as the beginning of the ethical task
Poverty of being/world
The movement of openness
The easy perpetuation of violent representations
Immanence ~ materialism ~ pantheism ~ animality
A hidden theology – potential re-enchantment of our post-religious world
Dichotomous logics
Irreducible particularities/absolute singularity
Pre-linguistic paradigms
– Who does the double-agent serve?
Well, himself, of course!
(Or is it the greater ideal of – non-partisan – justice?)
Maybe he’s the only sane one among the lot, of patriots & criminals……
Reality is indefinite!
An unmediated opportunity to encounter the O/other
Conceptual & social indeterminacy
– Effectively challenging any attempt to foreclose critique, resistance & hope
The politicization of education
Developing a language of hope
Power, conformity & reproduction
Organized collective struggles
Civic courage
Productive, deliberative & directive practice
Moral identity & political agency
Popular culture as a teaching machine
Public pedagogy
A democratic perspective
Market fundamentalism
Standardized competition
Deskilling of school faculty
Economic Darwinism
Accused of “Un-American behavior”
– My life:
1. To become nothing (in the eyes of the world & myself). To be liberated from the need to “be someone/do something”.
2. To live intensely & entirely in the moment, and learn to enjoy spontaneity.
3. To participate in the subtle movement of the weak messianic forces that subvert the powers that be.
4.12.17
– gander
5.12.17
– http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter/
So, I have decided to buy a 43″ (Full HD) LED TV
– Society of the spectacle ~ spectacular life!
2.12.17
– Conscientious dissent
Public values
Democratic spaces
Social responsibility
Confronting power
Analyzing trends
The moral imperative of political agency
Dialogue & accountability
Neoliberal education
Self-leadership
Citizen power
Questioning common-sense views
A constant re-examination of the boundaries between the sensible & the subversive
Changing the forms of self & social recognition
Diversity, compassion & dialogue
Vital interrogations
Knowledge as a power-relation
The forces that influence & determine self-definition
The construction of experience
The multiplication & dissipation of desire
Shared vision
Ethical intervention
Justifiable policies
Assigned meanings, official knowledge, established modes of authority
Necessary risks
Energizing traditions & transformative skills
Prophetic interpretation
Unlimiting possibility
Inspiring responsiveness
The promises & perils of the future
Legitimation of certain social forms
Imagining a more perfect democracy
Ideals >> questions
Challenges >> struggles
Zombie politics & today’s youth
Against schooling
After-hope
The military-industrial-academic complex
Training in idolatry
Patriotic correctness & academic freedom
Common dreams
Managerialism
Inverted totalitarianism
The professor as public intellectual
Pedagogy as cultural politics
The death (not end) of history
Immanuel Joseph's Blog 
