The above
monstrosity was designed by a so-called 'award-winning' swiss firm and chinese
architect Li Xinggang.
I don't know...hmmm....perhaps it is a
subconscious illustration of the bondage within which chinese civilisation
thrives. To me, it looks like a 'bound foot' - crippling the chinese perspectivally since the time of Shih Huang Ti (211b.c.). Just remember, culture is not independent of socio-political reality. It, over time, either conflicts with it, or accomodates, then bolsters it. What do you think would be the state of a culture after 2000 years of bondage eh.
Just for the sake of argument....
So the ruling church in Venezuela has criticised this breakaway group for dividing the church. Well, are they dividing the church or are they claiming it for the proles, or working towards a clear distinction between a bourgeois socialistic church and a proletarian one. I think what the church has to do to put this matter to rest is to determine if the Christ was a bourgeois or a socialist in inclination. Till that is done, for all you know, it is the ruling church that is the 'breakaway' faction from the original one. Think about it.
A 'conspiracy
theory' is a 'theory' and not a 'science'. Not because it cannot be a
'science', but because the lack of transparency disables its 'theorists' from
putting their respective theories to the scientific test. This doesn't
invalidate it, but just gives us a good reason to strive for total transparency. Of
course there are dissenters who laugh at 'conspiracy theorists', but these are
the real fools who actually believe that all that they see and hear must be true simply
because they see and hear it. They become the puppets of the media, MNCs, governments, etc. That is nothing more than a medieval mentality and
such people should be denied the right to vote - as are children and the mentally challenged.
If you think about it further, once there is total transparency, 'conspiracy
theory' will cease to exist as such and become one of the modules within
political science.
Let's put it another way - should the Church of England appoint bishops without penises?
...which makes me immediately wonder what the relevance of what's-between-my-legs is to the Word of God.
There is no doubt that windows is quite the dodgy software. I've been using it since win95 through to winXP and am hesitant to fork out money for what will certainly be the latest DBI version of Vista (dodgy-but-improved). But one of the reasons why it is such a 'crap' OS compared to, say, MacOS - according to reports - is that Mac is competing with Windows whilst Windows is competing with previous versions of itself.
Here is where I apply what I call, 'the principle of relative relief', to understand this. In
other words, so long as what we experience is better than what we are used to,
we can potentially mistake it for 'good' simply because it provides us with
greater relief than what we are accustomed to - that's why political systems, cultures, the human condition, etc, can remain is such a sorry state year after year.
But hey, who cares, that's capitalism for you - selling screwed up goods so
that we can sell you upgrades for the future and depend on the Principle of
Relative Relief to help the fat bast*rds rake it in. Anyway, I'm waiting
for a Win version of the MacOS that enables software written for the windows environment to be used within a MacOS environment. All that Mac has to do is to write up a software compatible with software written for windows. Of course that's not going to happen anytime soon as the fangirls and boys waving flags under the loins of each company are too busy forking out money to maintain either camp without pushing for an amalgamative strategy. So long as Mac can keep their software attached to the hip of their hardware, they can rake in money for their hardware as well. That's 'progress' for you.
'Fake tans' coming
under scrutiny by the fashion police of 'Royal Ascot'? What are they trying to say? 'Come as you
are'? Doesn't that contradict the fake upper-classish standard of the 'Royal' 'dress code'? Fakes bashing fakes. What a laugh. Personally, I think good ole Liz would look great in a tan - fake or otherwise.
So a piece of advice, keep your fake tans for Glastonbury mate, the Royal Ascot ain't no prole event!
What I have
observed amongst quite a few chinese from the 'mainland' and some communal diasporas is the tendency to equate
'conformity' and 'uniformity' to 'civility' and 'stability' - to the point of fascism. Well, as I’m
often inclined to say, there is 'stability' in a cemetary as well...just that
there isn't much (imaginative) life there.
“
A committee official said the simple chants and gestures were designed to help spectators cheer for their favourite athletes in a smooth, civilized manner.
The Ministry of Education is also arranging special training sessions in schools for the 800,000 students who are expected to attend the Games. ”
Well, let me put it this way,
where mindless conformity and stability is associated with 'civility' (which, in
its extreme form leads to bigotries of various sorts and the fetishisation of tradition), there is a greater need
to import 'foreign talent' as opposed to producing original ones. HK and
Taiwan are quite the
exception though. One lived within the democratic and relatively intellectually unfettered auspices of Britain for
more than 100 years, and the latter broke away and was forced to redefine
itself to some degree for the sake of individuation. No wonder that Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, amongst others, proved the worth of their cultures when innovation and invention was required. Japan is an interesting case. Whilst it had a history of severe regimentation, a self-initiated tweak in their culture in the course of, and following the colonial period, gave rise to the imaginative giant that they are today.
“ Li Ning, president of the Beijing Etiquette Institute, told the Beijing News that the cheer was in line with general international principles for cheering, while at the same time possessing characteristics of Chinese culture. ”
An 'Etiquette Institute'? That might indicate what the main 'characteristic of (china's) Chinese culture' is - conformity...something i'd term as 'a goose-step of a culture'. Not a good thing in globalised world as it inhibits imagination and integration.
I call such
'studies' 'reinforcement studies' in that they reinforce existing biases learnt
consciously and subconsciously through a host of socio-cultural and economic
means. I would complement such studies with an inquiry into the factors determining what people of different times and places learn to view as a 'perfect voice'. If we don't, we risk mistaking the learnt for the immutable and severely compromise our mastery over our perspectival evolution - and that's exactly what's been going on for sometime now.
If you think about it, there is no such thing as a 'perfect voice' in the face of a 'perfect ear' that is located within the soul of the human heart as opposed to the sides of your head.
ed
...you want others to be unto you?
That seems to be the principle underlying the above campaign. Most
interesting. Unlike in America,
where the evil of the other is assumed and thus the 'right to keep and bear arms', it seems that to a significant degree,
that the goodness of the other is assumed to be dependent on the goodness of
oneself. Nice principle. No sarcasm insinuated. That must be the principle underlying why 'bobbies' don't carry guns in the UK. People might ridicule such faith by pointing out instances where it may have helped. However, I cannot ignore the possibility that violence in British society might have seen a significant rise if they did.
On another, but perhaps related note, I wonder if this principle indicts us in
the case of 'terrorism'. Hmmm.....
ed
From a theocracy/monarcracy to a bourgeoiscracy. Some call it a 'republic'. I call it a load of ....
'Approximations to democracy' is not 'arrival at democracy' mate. The exodus to the promised land continues....just have to await the people's realising that an 'oasis' is not the 'promised land' just because it provides relatively greater relief after a lengthy and sweltering stint in the desert - what i call the distracting impact of the 'Principle of Relative Relief' (mistaking a bad condition for a good one because of a prior lengthy exposure to a worse condition).
I wish news sites would place such words as 'democracy' and 'republic', amongst others, within inverted commas instead of promoting the notion that these are unquestionable by excluding them.
ed
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[this is good]It was really frustrating to think that i'm not far from the truth Jack. I didn't like it when my... read more
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