Month: December 2011
It is a mistake to consider any belief more liberated than another. It is the possibility of change which is important. Every new form of liberation is destined to eventually become another form of enslavement for most of its adherents. There is no freedom from duality on this plane of existence, but one may at least aspire to the choice of duality.
Peter Carroll (via lazyyogi)
Hades (Pluto) and Persephone, king and queen of the underworld.
I already talked about Persephone and probably will talk about Hades when I draw a portrait of him alone. But these two have always been my favourite couple of the many (manymany) Greek mythology ones. It is said that Persephone was abducted (of course) and that she’s really sad the months she has to be with her husband in the underworld, but I prefer to think that they are kinda happy together. Hades has always been one of my favs: rarely depicted in arts, always gloomy, he’s usually even considered wicked and evil… but that’s not true. He just has to deal with the least desirable of the realms (Zeus and Poseidon took the earth and sky, and the seas and oceans), even when he was the oldest of the brothers. That’s so unfair, but I love Hades even more for that 🙂
Anarchism covers lots of different things— If there’s one leading principle which unifies them, it’s a simple one. It’s based on the assumption that any structure of authority and domination has to justify itself – none of them are self-justifying. Whether they’re in individual relations, or international affairs, or the workplace, or whatever- they have a burden of proof to bear, and if they can’t bear that burden (which they usually can’t), they’re illegitimate and should be dismantled and replaced by alternative structures which are free and participatory and are not based on authoritarian systems.
Sometimes they can be justified, so it’s not that it’s always impossible. Like if I’m walking down the street with my 3-year old granddaughter and she races into traffic, and I grab her arm and pull her back that’s an authoritarian relationship. But if challenged, I don’t think it would be hard to give a justification for that relation of authority.
In parallel, the cost of elections skyrocketed, driving both parties even deeper into corporate pockets. What remains of political democracy has been undermined further as both parties have turned to auctioning congressional leadership positions. Political economist Thomas Ferguson observes that “uniquely among legislatures in the developed world, U.S. congressional parties now post prices for key slots in the lawmaking process.” The legislators who fund the party get the posts, virtually compelling them to become servants of private capital even beyond the norm. The result, Ferguson continues, is that debates “rely heavily on the endless repetition of a handful of slogans that have been battle tested for their appeal to national investor blocs and interest groups that the leadership relies on for resources.
Noam Chomsky, American Decline: Causes and Consequences (via rooftopsedge)