Thursday, April 15, 2004
Today I dedicate a post entirely to our hero, and leader of the UNITED STATES OF OBLIVION Mister PUNK ASS BUSHITE!
This depicts the faces of American soldiers whom have died for their leader. I hope it was worth it guys. In the meantime, if you want to read about the Bush recipe for Hell on Earth check this out..
This depicts the faces of American soldiers whom have died for their leader. I hope it was worth it guys. In the meantime, if you want to read about the Bush recipe for Hell on Earth check this out..
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Happiness is something which defies definition but it may be best thought of as more than one thing, an article in the Observer..
According to Seligman, there are three paths to happiness: the pleasant life, the good life and the meaningful life. The pleasant life is what most of us think of when considering whether we are happy from moment to moment. There are short cuts to this - such as taking drugs or playing mindless computer games - but sooner or later most people look in the mirror and ask: 'Is this all there is?'This really struck a chord with me as I feel that I have not spent enough of my life in rewarding the 'meaningful' aspects of it. On the other hand this may all be a load of pap, but it does explain why one would feel so disillusioned with simply working, and accumulating 'things' for a house, or indeed a new car etc etc. Not that I am at that level of material enlightenment yet either!!!! But there is something about the way one totals one's current account of goodness and badness, when one is looking at their lives. Imagine if you had a surplus of good acts and smiles to work through as memories and feelings. Compare that if when you tot up your life you find it lacking in good acts and memories of joy and instead you remember new cars, plasma screen TVs, the odd binge drinking session, a few romances and a mortgage.... Hrrm maybe there is something is all this after all..
The good life comes through deep engagement in work, family life or other activities. In my case it is writing and playing tennis, but it could be any activity that one finds challenging and rewarding.
But the most underrated of all, says Seligman, is the meaningful life - devoting oneself to an institution or cause greater than oneself. In a now classic exercise Seligman calls 'Philanthropy versus Fun', psychology students in one of his classes undertook to engage in one pleasurable activity and one philanthropic activity, and write about both. The results, he claims, were 'life changing'. The afterglow of the fun activity (watching a film, eating ice cream) paled in comparison with the effects of the kind action (volunteering at a soup kitchen, helping at the school fair). The reason, Seligman suggests, is that kindness is a gratification. 'It calls on your strengths to rise to an occasion and meet a challenge. Kindness is not accompanied by a separate stream of positive emotion, like joy; rather, it consists in [sic] total engagement and in the loss of self-consciousness.'
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
IS Racism the new counter terrorism?
Two things happened to me yesterday that made me feel politically nostalgic. Firstly, as I came out of the tube station I met some Socialist Worker Party members who proceeded to try to sell me a paper. I was about to walk on by, when I thought, "Let's see if they are the same people that I met over ten years ago?". I didn't mean literally, but I have to say that I have some stereo typed notions of the 'classic' SWP members. I remember reading Mark Steel's Reasons to be Cheerful, when he describes how one has to be 'trained' to pronounce class as 'clas' and to be schooled in how to say 'Soocalst Werker'. Anyway I got talking to a chap called Michael and I realised he had the same SWP stare that I had seen in many before him... Its that fixed, dogged and almost serenely detached look. I guess its like he had reached some kind of dialectically material 'nirvana' while he waits for the revolution. One thing that I was keen to find out was whether the SWP still seems to have the same level of patronising anti-racism that it had years before when it established the Anti Nazi League. I'm not against such a movement at all, its just the assumption that all of societies ills including racism can be easily slotted into the 'airfix' political model that SWP appears to offer. Nonetheless I was always in the past torn between feeling that on the one hand I didn't want to be a mere ethnic political figure within a fringe left wing organisation a kind of Marxist Tokenism; but on the other I felt relieved that there were people out there determined to smash a very nasty political trend, namely neo-nazism.
Anyway, as I talked to him I realised that it felt good to be talking politics on the street, even if I was talking to a political drone. However, I think I have developed my views somewhat since my early involvement. So I resolved to join a meeting in the coming weeks. (I shall keep you posted).
The second thing that happened, was that I turned on the TV at about 9pm BBC. I watched England Expects . This was so fascinating that I turned down a cool beer by a warm fireplace in a bar with Dub reggae playing!! So it had to be good. It was about an ex-neonazi thug, who having become disillusioned with the neonazi movement throughout the 70's and 80's gradually becomes frustrated with the reorganisation of the right wing party in his neighbourhood. It demonstrated how the Nick Griffins of this World have courted the oxygen of mainstream politics and respectability. It also showed how race has mutated into Religion, and that our anti race discrimination legislation lacks a category for Religiously motivated racism and in particular: Islamophobia, as it has been coined. Anyway the main character gradually becomes more frustrated as his personal life deteriorates. In all aspects of his life, it appears as though he is loosing power. The picture painted is of a man with the classic 'authoritarian personality', at odds with his economic, social and political position. I.e. classic alienation stuff. The response is for him to turn back to his violent ways, albeit perhaps with more vigour then in his youth. I wondered if this was a metaphor for boom bust economy.. I.e. that during the 70's and 80's this character would have felt the same alienation as now, expect with a worsened global position then before vis-à-vis the collapse of the bipolar world, the age of terrorism.
Anyway the film ended with a sound-bite from the right wing leader on TV talking about a race riot, and murder of one of the Right Wing activists, (who incidentally is stabbed by another right wing thug in error). As the sound bite continues, the camera pans to the face of the murdered activist's daughter, who is watching it on TV and then to another activist who is busy making a nail bomb...Very sinister ending, perhaps not too far fetched.
The drama is all too pertinent given the debates about immigration, terrorism, Islam and indeed Le Pen's visit as guests of the BNP.
I guess having thought about these two political movements - in flow again it seems or at least more visibly then before - it appears as though we are struggling to respond politically to the challenges of 21st Century life. We appear to be throwing all our 20th Century political dummies at a large asymmetrical demonic enemy in sheer desperation as it approaches us. I wonder if Socialism is more applicable now, then it was before as at least some of the Socialist movements focussed on the necessity to 'globalise' its resistance, i.e. in the form of international socialism. However I can't help thinking that the vigour and political dynamism of New Islamic Movements have stolen the show somewhat from the radical socialists. Its almost acceptable to be seen on the streets talking about revolution, gone are the days when you would be worried that having SWP friends would get you a 'file' with Special Branch. In fact as a banglosaxon cultural Muslim, it almost feel safer identifying with Marx, more then with Mohammad as at least Marx was 'defeated' in the later stages of the 20th Century... But 'Mohammad' in the guise of the hijackers of Islam stands proud invoking almost medieval and primeval fear..But I suspect that the time for Marx is closer then I previously thought..
Two things happened to me yesterday that made me feel politically nostalgic. Firstly, as I came out of the tube station I met some Socialist Worker Party members who proceeded to try to sell me a paper. I was about to walk on by, when I thought, "Let's see if they are the same people that I met over ten years ago?". I didn't mean literally, but I have to say that I have some stereo typed notions of the 'classic' SWP members. I remember reading Mark Steel's Reasons to be Cheerful, when he describes how one has to be 'trained' to pronounce class as 'clas' and to be schooled in how to say 'Soocalst Werker'. Anyway I got talking to a chap called Michael and I realised he had the same SWP stare that I had seen in many before him... Its that fixed, dogged and almost serenely detached look. I guess its like he had reached some kind of dialectically material 'nirvana' while he waits for the revolution. One thing that I was keen to find out was whether the SWP still seems to have the same level of patronising anti-racism that it had years before when it established the Anti Nazi League. I'm not against such a movement at all, its just the assumption that all of societies ills including racism can be easily slotted into the 'airfix' political model that SWP appears to offer. Nonetheless I was always in the past torn between feeling that on the one hand I didn't want to be a mere ethnic political figure within a fringe left wing organisation a kind of Marxist Tokenism; but on the other I felt relieved that there were people out there determined to smash a very nasty political trend, namely neo-nazism.
Anyway, as I talked to him I realised that it felt good to be talking politics on the street, even if I was talking to a political drone. However, I think I have developed my views somewhat since my early involvement. So I resolved to join a meeting in the coming weeks. (I shall keep you posted).
The second thing that happened, was that I turned on the TV at about 9pm BBC. I watched England Expects . This was so fascinating that I turned down a cool beer by a warm fireplace in a bar with Dub reggae playing!! So it had to be good. It was about an ex-neonazi thug, who having become disillusioned with the neonazi movement throughout the 70's and 80's gradually becomes frustrated with the reorganisation of the right wing party in his neighbourhood. It demonstrated how the Nick Griffins of this World have courted the oxygen of mainstream politics and respectability. It also showed how race has mutated into Religion, and that our anti race discrimination legislation lacks a category for Religiously motivated racism and in particular: Islamophobia, as it has been coined. Anyway the main character gradually becomes more frustrated as his personal life deteriorates. In all aspects of his life, it appears as though he is loosing power. The picture painted is of a man with the classic 'authoritarian personality', at odds with his economic, social and political position. I.e. classic alienation stuff. The response is for him to turn back to his violent ways, albeit perhaps with more vigour then in his youth. I wondered if this was a metaphor for boom bust economy.. I.e. that during the 70's and 80's this character would have felt the same alienation as now, expect with a worsened global position then before vis-à-vis the collapse of the bipolar world, the age of terrorism.
Anyway the film ended with a sound-bite from the right wing leader on TV talking about a race riot, and murder of one of the Right Wing activists, (who incidentally is stabbed by another right wing thug in error). As the sound bite continues, the camera pans to the face of the murdered activist's daughter, who is watching it on TV and then to another activist who is busy making a nail bomb...Very sinister ending, perhaps not too far fetched.
The drama is all too pertinent given the debates about immigration, terrorism, Islam and indeed Le Pen's visit as guests of the BNP.
I guess having thought about these two political movements - in flow again it seems or at least more visibly then before - it appears as though we are struggling to respond politically to the challenges of 21st Century life. We appear to be throwing all our 20th Century political dummies at a large asymmetrical demonic enemy in sheer desperation as it approaches us. I wonder if Socialism is more applicable now, then it was before as at least some of the Socialist movements focussed on the necessity to 'globalise' its resistance, i.e. in the form of international socialism. However I can't help thinking that the vigour and political dynamism of New Islamic Movements have stolen the show somewhat from the radical socialists. Its almost acceptable to be seen on the streets talking about revolution, gone are the days when you would be worried that having SWP friends would get you a 'file' with Special Branch. In fact as a banglosaxon cultural Muslim, it almost feel safer identifying with Marx, more then with Mohammad as at least Marx was 'defeated' in the later stages of the 20th Century... But 'Mohammad' in the guise of the hijackers of Islam stands proud invoking almost medieval and primeval fear..But I suspect that the time for Marx is closer then I previously thought..
