The debate we have just witnessed has shown Washington, D.C. not just to be broken, but corrupt. The American people are disgusted watching politicians play political chicken with the nation’s economy and future. In such a bitter and unprincipled atmosphere, whoever has the political clout to enforce their self-interest and retain their privileges wins the…
Category
Theory
I wish I could read faster
These books are all on my Amazon wish list. I promised myself I wouldn’t order anymore books until I finish the four I’m currently reading–I wish I could read faster :-/
Aggression, Authority and Obedience: Stanley Milgram’s Theory of Obedience
“It is ironic that virtues of loyalty, discipline, and self-sacrifice that we value so highly in the individual are the very properties that create destructive organizational engines of war and bind men to malevolent systems of authority. The aftermath of the Holocaust and the events leading up to World War II, the world was stunned…
Paul Sahre’s Tense Graphic Design
Q: How do you know when something you’ve designed is successful? A: It’s a little thing, a little Spark that makes something memorable or beautiful or unforgettable. It’s very hard to describe and people have very different ways of describing it. [Alexander] Gilman once came into my class at the school of visual arts,…
Robert Henri on Good Composition
Good composition is like a suspension bridge; each line adds strength and takes none away…Making lines run into each other is not composition. There must be motive for the connection. Get the art of controlling the observer – that is composition. Quote and painting above from Robert Henri, prominent founder of the Ashcan School in…
Aliens Haven’t Invaded Because They’re Busy Playing Video Games
In a movie theater we all stare straight ahead And wait for something to happen. Some need to be fulfilled, Others just want to be accepted. I think we’ve all seen this one before. It stars that insatiable hunger for what is yet to come, Directed by that unintelligible twitch in our brain Which says…
The futility of everything that comes to us from the media is…
The futility of everything that comes to us from the media is the inescapable consequence of the absolute inability of that particular stage to remain silent. Music, commercial breaks, news flashes, adverts, news broadcasts, movies, presenters—there is no alternative but to fill the screen; otherwise there would be an irremediable void…. That’s why the slightest…
This Is Not A Pipe: Rene Magritte & Michel Foucault Tag Team
The mystical, Platonic identification of words with the essence of things is what many of Magritte’s canvases vigorously assault. Just as in Saussurean linguistics words do not “refer” to things, in Magritte’s Surrealism the painter’s images do not really “resemble” anything whose sovereign presence would lend it the aspect of a model or origin. When…
The Impossibility of Happienss
But what if we are just stuck with our purchase or decision? What if the sale is final? Well, recognizing that nothing can be done about it we tend to get on with enjoying our life. And humans are remarkable at this. When the chips finally fall we tend to make the best of it….
Christianity as a ‘slave-morality’
The best individual, as conceived by Aristotle, is a very different person from the Christan saint. He should have proper pride, and not underestimate his own merits. He should despise whoever deserves to be despised. The description of the proud or magnanimous man is very interesting as showing the difference between pagan and Christian ethics,…