Count your privileges

Down on the Bowery - Damian Lewis
World Outside - The Devlins
Sinnerman - Nina Simone
Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

If we start counting our privileges, where do we start ? 

The above question in part arose when I came upon "Pedagogy of the Oppressed". One thing led to another and I happened to read this. While I don't really follow politics, I gravitate more towards the philosophical foundations upon which the modern world lies on. The author mentions about "Ideological dualities" and I sort of understand and now see it almost everywhere. Including me! I constantly flip the metaphorical switch to keep things on an even keel. Its a powerful feeling to know and feel the conflicting ideas residing in our mind, constantly battling and waging internal wars. It also reminds me of Mark Fisher's "Capitalist Realism" which I also now see everywhere. I'm intentionally leaving out the specifics of what "everywhere" means, just so I can circle back at some point and see how it forces me to (re)evaluate what it signifies.

"I file against myself, I represent myself, I convict myself, hereby expanding the full scope of the legal desert, because the judgment's built in. The only thing left is forgiveness and I grant that to myself." - Roman J Israel

Inventing on Principle

Song for Zula - Phosphorescent
Broken Horses - Brandi Carlile
Disintegration - The Cure
Good Luck - Broken Bells
The Veil - Peter Gabriel

A dear brother said along these lines - "If the collective conscience of all humanity were to be squeezed and bottled, do you think you have something to add to it ?"

I didn't have a proper answer then, but just to temper the conversation I said - "Maybe. Maybe not. But since I'm an optimist, I feel there is something brewing inside me and I can feel it coming."

Its been a few months since that came up on a hot summer afternoon. I didn't let the question recede into the background noise of every day busyness. I gave it a life to see how it grows over time. But since growth can be a slow process, I gave it wings with an aerodynamic edge. It rammed into a wall of impatience.

Is the mere act of existence not adding anything ?
Are modern societal arrangements conducive to the acts of search, creation and discovery ?
Are we distracted always and not paying attention to the decaying rhythm of life ?

More thoughts will follow soon.

Inventing on Principle

Freedom and tyranny

Little Giant - Roo Panes
Pennies in the Fountain - Glen Hansard
Zombie - The Cranberries
Ith Naheen - Sanam Marvi

What is the basis of freedom.? It is a non-binary concept like many other aspects or activities.

This article talks about untethered freedom and self-determination which leads to tyranny.

It is self-determination within significant constraints - within rules of some sort - that leads to well-being, to optimal functioning. The task for a future psychology of optimal functioning is to identify which constraints on self-determination are the crucial ones.

I'm trying to see a merit here. Unconstrained freedom, while liberating, can sort of lead to being in a constant state of figuring that puts a massive burden and cognitive dissonance - which evolution has done a meticulous job of making sure such a state is to be discarded as soon as possible. At best we make sub-optimal choices and at worst blind faith. Both of which prevail.

More analysis needed.

Slogans and the romance of the frontier

DLZ - TV On The Radio

What is the role of work in a person's life ?

Can we push away drudgery and strive to seek asylum in the romance of the frontier ? What does frontier even mean these days ? I'm sure a lot of hardworking folks are at this very moment experiencing and creating things that are incomprehensible to everyone. 

I'm now trying to understand what makes a life livable and fulfilled ? I think 35 is a sweet spot to sit on this question for a while and see what comes out. To be less judgmental of others is a good start.

There are enough slogans on the interwebs. Not every slogan is actionable. We must retain the power to choose which ones make sense and follow its lead.

Craft and Quality

Lucky You - Joyner Lucas/Eminem
Sing for the moment - Eminem
In Control - Baker Boy
Charkha Nolakha - Atif Aslam and Qayaas
Thagyan - Qurat-ul-Ain Balouch and Zain Zohaib

As you approach 40, the most mundane aspects of everyday life become treasures to cherish. After a while, it makes sense to optimize for things that are in control. This means a vast majority of events are not worth optimizing for. But this also means, our distorted perception of control and the illusory pompousness of it all will eventually throw all rationality out the window. We continually make mistakes and poor choices hinder our growth.

Our infinitesimal presence in an infinite cosmos should ideally bring forth humility above anything else. And yet, we succumb to the jolts and quandaries of instantaneous moments. Such movements leave behind unwritten legacies in its wake. What may become of us is unknown.

What I mean by the above is (total tangential trip :-)) - to try putting craft and quality in everything we do. See that how works out. Adjust. Calculate our delta V budget. Refuel. Course correct & repeat.

Still until it becomes. And becomes it will. 

Visions of the future is really cool. Heading to the counter to book tickets!

Fleabag

A Thousand Ages From The Sun - The Electric Banana
Sedona - Houndmouth
This Feeling - Alabama Shakes

Flames of youth untold
Fight for the heart so bold - A random tagline I came up with and sent it to a cousin. Maybe 10 years ago. He likes it and I won't complain :-)

Fleabag is really good. Fresh and original.

Spirals and stars
Greens and trees
Our youth burns and becomes what ?
Our children grow and teach us what ?
Reflections of a barking past tells us what ?

Thrust forward

Unison - Gang of Youths
Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn - The White Stripes
Fetch The Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple
I - Kendrick Lamar

"In many ways, writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. It’s an aggressive, even a hostile act. You can disguise its aggressiveness all you want with veils of subordinate clauses and qualifiers and tentative subjunctives, with ellipses and evasions—with the whole manner of intimating rather than claiming, of alluding rather than stating—but there’s no getting around the fact that setting words on paper is the tactic of a secret bully, an invasion, an imposition of the writer’s sensibility on the reader’s most private space." -- Joan Didion

How convenient it is to let our minds indulge in the follies of modern pleasures. How convenient it is to catch 100 winks amidst a sea of disorder. There is no escape from the 2nd law of thermodynamics. We fall short, yet not lose sight of the distant lighthouse. Our perception is forcefully limited to the markers of yesterday's experiences. Thrust forward!