25 December 2012
19 December 2012
18 December 2012
What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_saunders_why_bother_leaving_the_house.html
22 September 2012
11 May 2012
10 May 2012
05 May 2012
13 April 2012
12 April 2012
10 April 2012
Homo homini lupus
Homo homini lupus est is a Latin phrase meaning "man is a wolf to [his fellow] man." First attested in Plautus' Asinaria (495, "lupus est homo homini"), the phrase is sometimes translated as "man is man's wolf", which can be interpreted to mean that man preys upon man. It is widely referenced when discussing the horrors of which humans are capable.
As an opposition, Seneca wrote that "man is something sacred for man."[1] Both aphorisms were drawn on by Thomas Hobbes in the dedication of his work De Cive (1651): "To speak impartially, both sayings are very true; That Man to Man is a kind of God; and that Man to Man is an arrant Wolfe. The first is true, if we compare Citizens amongst themselves; and the second, if we compare Cities." Hobbes's observation in turn echoes a line from Plautus claiming that man is inherently selfish.
09 April 2012
A Time Comes When Silence Is Betrayal
what a powerful voice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlM87dwYPjg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlM87dwYPjg
03 April 2012
30 March 2012
17 March 2012
"After me, the flood" -Lovely Phrase?
The phrase “Après moi, le déluge” (“After me, the deluge") is attributed to the King of FranceLouis XV (1710-1774):
Capital that has such good reasons for denying the sufferings of the legions of workers that surround it, is in practice moved as much and as little by the sight of the coming degradation and final depopulation of the human race, as by the probable fall of the earth into the sun. In every stockjobbing swindle every one knows that some time or other the crash must come, but every one hopes that it may fall on the head of his neighbour, after he himself has caught the shower of gold and placed it in safety. Après moi le déluge! [After me, the flood] is the watchword of every capitalist and of every capitalist nation. Hence Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the labourer, unless under compulsion from society. [81] To the out-cry as to the physical and mental degradation, the premature death, the torture of over-work, it answers: Ought these to trouble us since they increase our profits?"
According to another interpretation, the phrase may have been coined not by the king himself, but by his most famous lover, Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764)
(Also phrase used in hebrew, "אחרי המבול", which translates similarly to "After me, the storm/flood"
The verb could be understood as a subjunctive concession: After me, let the deluge come (it can come, but it makes no difference to me). In this case, the speaker asserts that nothing that happens after his disappearance matters to him.
It seems that there existed in Greece an expression or proverbial saying which is preserved in verse in a fragment of a tragedy whose author has not been identified (Tragicorum Fragmenta Adespota, 513 Nauck):
ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί·
οὐδὲν μέλει μοι· τἀμὰ γὰρ καλῶς ἔχει.
When I die, let earth and fire mix:
οὐδὲν μέλει μοι· τἀμὰ γὰρ καλῶς ἔχει.
When I die, let earth and fire mix:
It matters not to me, for my affairs will be unaffected.
Karl Marx also relates the phrase to Capitalism:
"If you read Karl Marx, the Capital (Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter Ten, Section 5)07 March 2012
Elizabeth Gilbert...
“Because—in the end it’s like this—centuries ago, people used to gather for these moonlight dances of sacred dance and music that would go on for hours and hours, until dawn. And they were always magnificent, because the dancers were professionals and they were terrific, right?
But every once in a while, very rarely, something would happen, and one of these performers would actually become transcendent. And I know you know what I’m talking about, because I know you’ve all seen, at some point in your life, a performance like this. It was like time would stop, and the dancer would sort of step through some kind of portal and he wasn’t doing anything different than he had ever done, 1,000 nights before, but everything would align. And all of a sudden, he would no longer appear to be merely human. He would be lit from within, and lit from below and all lit up on fire with divinity.
“And when this happened, back then, people knew it for what it was, you know, they called it by its name. They would put their hands together and they would start to chant, ‘Allah, Allah, Allah, God, God, God.’ That’s God, you know...
“Because—in the end it’s like this—centuries ago, people used to gather for these moonlight dances of sacred dance and music that would go on for hours and hours, until dawn. And they were always magnificent, because the dancers were professionals and they were terrific, right?
But every once in a while, very rarely, something would happen, and one of these performers would actually become transcendent. And I know you know what I’m talking about, because I know you’ve all seen, at some point in your life, a performance like this. It was like time would stop, and the dancer would sort of step through some kind of portal and he wasn’t doing anything different than he had ever done, 1,000 nights before, but everything would align. And all of a sudden, he would no longer appear to be merely human. He would be lit from within, and lit from below and all lit up on fire with divinity.
“And when this happened, back then, people knew it for what it was, you know, they called it by its name. They would put their hands together and they would start to chant, ‘Allah, Allah, Allah, God, God, God.’ That’s God, you know...
24 February 2012
15 February 2012
Idan Raichel - Mom, Dad and all the Rest - Links and Lyrics
A beautiful Israeli song by the Idan Raichel Project. The song portrays the true and deep pain of soldiers returning home from war. It also questions whether a soldier's family even knows the experience they have been through. It firmly states there is no glamour and pride associated with a soldier's work.
The song was actually written by a fallen soldier of the Yom Kippur War.
The song was actually written by a fallen soldier of the Yom Kippur War.
Lyrics
And when the night is over and the sun shines
Will you know Mom, what our eyes have seen?
Tall tree-tops around, yet with scorched stems
Big houses around, but ruined and matte colored
I walk on ruins, Mom
And believe me, there is no pear and there is no flower
We are not heroes because our labour is dark (black)
The sun will set, the darkness will come
And we will sleep with our clothes in the bed
Yes mother, it's important, it's hard and it's terrible
I swear that it is hard, but I am staying
The ground is gray and the horizon is black
And the blue of the sky lingers and waits
And does not touch, it does not touch the black horizon
A space between them, nothing to do with all the rest
And it is very hard, but I am staying
There is a wired fence, and beyond it a drawn sword
Mom, Dad and all the rest
We are not heroes because our labour is dark (black)
The sun will set, the darkness will come
And we will sleep with our clothes in the bed
Yes mother, it's important, it's hard and it's terrible
And when the night is over and the sun shines
Will you know Mom, what our eyes have seen?
06 February 2012
Michel Cohen - Links and Lyrics
Young vocal-genius Michel Cohen covers a song which is based on a Psalm from Tehilim, Chapter 71.
"My mouth shall be filled with Thy praise, and with Thy glory all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age; when my strength faileth, forsake me not"
Lyrics
My mouth shall be filled with Thy praise
And with Thy glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in time of old age;
do not forsake me when my strength fails.
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