May 14, 2009

The Age of Duplicity



The cultural industry defined by Adorno and Horkmeir is the thorn of pain in society today. And that same industrialized culture is however embraced by Benjamin. Therefore, if the same topic is treated by two parties on a different scale that means that now we can insert Roland Barthes and his theory about the edge of duplicity.
So far, after the many readings about theories and critical theories, I’ve come to realized that everything in this world is a double faced coin. Duplicity can be applied to all words and all works. Thusly, cultural industry has double edges. One edge which is conformist and obedient as Barthes defines it and another one which is mobile and blank.
Take for example the movies, movies can be tools for emancipation or can be as void and blank as a white page. Theatre, novels, talk shows, internet sites, articles and many others acquired this double faced coin to fit into life’s critical heritage. Even critical theory can sometimes be devoid of its content to suit the purpose of colonization of the mind for higher targets whether political, socio-economical and even personal ones.
I, hereby, am not trying to allude that our world is perfect.
Perfection is a state of mind.
Perfection is an excuse from the chaos the mind loves but the conscious abhors.
Perfection is a key word for living in illusion and lies.
Hidden karmas, lost paths, noisy and brutal circumstances make up a life, a life the wayit should be lived.
Tear off your clothes and walk naked in the sun,
Speak what’s on your mind and never be afraid of tomorrow,
For tomorrow is another day just like the one that preceded it!

May 11, 2009

notice the small font of the encrypted message above the wheel of the car(click ont he photo to enlarge)
I’ve been lately reading a lot about Marxist theory. And I must admit that I may be more into the subject than I should be. But this happens so considering my progressing rebellion against the social and economical hierarchy of society since I started growing my own awareness of my medium.
Therefore, one of the things I find myself doing lately is questioning almost all that grabs my newly formed critical eye. The other day, I was watching a movie and a sentence written on a police car hit my eye and the questions and notes started running in my head like a river of cold water.
The sentence said: “To punish and enslave”. The power to punish and the power to enslave belong only to that type of people who hold the ideas of powers; the great warriors of the world who are always there to watch you and guide your steps into their planning of your path.
Michel Foucault was one of his kind to gently, subtly and genuinely arrange and publish “Discipline and Punish”. In this book, he recounts the various ways in which human kind was restricted in his thought or actions. He studies the development and evolution of punishment from physical pain to an economy of discipline.
It is important to keep life ordered and bound to certain limits which validates the individual liberty but not freedom. However, considering the discussed matters in Foucault’s book, it is interesting enough to see the control and the manipulation over the mind and the soul. People have become trained – tamed in some ways- to follow the norms and the rules blindly and without questioning the status quo of their manipulated lives.
It is important to me to spread a kind of awareness against the power that governs our daily moves. From traffic lights to TV programs, it’s a unique manner to keep us down and move us fast. One can make a list of these surveillances and this list has no end.
Back to our case study, which involves the police motto “To punish and enslave”.
Isn’t that just the truth? The fake identity of police forces is to protect and serve but reality is not what it seems but quite the opposite. So in the mean time, we’ll have to realize that police force is just another deceptive reality, an illusion of modernism and social development. However, it has always been the same lie since it all started. Each country shows their best of evolution by annual displays of force like in Lebanon for instance although it is not qualified as a developed country.
But who has the right to assign such titles worldwide? What are the due criteria to do that? Is it the percentage of literacy? The rates of death ratios to birth ones?
This subliminal power has taken over the world over many centuries, but I call it my duty to talk about it. I have no intent to search for it, or to start a quest and pursue the reasons or causes of it. It is of no significance to do so. But my main concern is to emancipate the thought of confinement in a critical manner. No other equal force can stand in the face of the big power. But, I believe in the awareness. It is true that even the world united cannot stop the control, the surveillance, the damage that’s being done... but apprehending this calamity is a defence course that all of us, readers, writers, and workers must learn to better discern our lives and our lies.

May 6, 2009

The illusion of NOSTALGIA


Just the other day, I was at my mechanics fixing my car. The man was talking to his client telling him about this big dream of his. He'd really want to quit his job, buy a couple of cows and goats and go live far away form people, all alone. He dreams of never talking or communicating with people again.

Hence, it occured to me"What a pitiful world!"


It tooks human beings several centuries to urbanize themselves, to make ll the discoveries and all the progress but they are so sellfish and greedy. why would someone with a relatively nice job, quit it and go back to nature (as he puts it). Nature is a big lie, nothing is perfect there. eventhough this un-perfectness of nature or the old times, even if man could go back; he's d only want again to come back...


what is this indecision of the mind?'

where does this instability come from?

Do we always have to yearn for wat we had or dont have?


Reality itself is an illusion.

Nostalgia then is the greater deception in human lives....


Apr 15, 2009

Discipline & Punish - A proven theory of the fear of death


Discipline and punish, by Michel Foucault:




an intresting, intriguing, sickly, horror-ful, and whatever paradoxical adjectives can be put to describe this book. it is gruesome as a friend said.




however, after the first shocking story in the first few lines of the book, one gets excited to read more, to delve into the world of justice and the balance of power. while reading, i couldn't stop thinking that the governor, prince or any holder of pwer can with one word, one desire and even one wish stop the scaffold or continue the torture of men, workers... they have the power to brainwash the fear of death... isn't that intresting how the fear of death is consumed by society and produced by POWER... now my theory about the fear of nothing and everything comes crystal clear. Yes, death is no longer than another mental disorder in the minds of people.

Apr 2, 2009

Paradise Lost

The smell of the fresh wet soil hovered inside my nose, and triggered desires that lay beneath my eruptive calmness...The wind was howling, tearing the dead leaves apart from home to the cold ground underneath.a still sentation ravished my heart as i set my eyes unto these silent grey and faded skies that resembled the darkness inside.The clatter of rain against the window pane, taping so strong, tapping so fast, cut through my veins, like the knife I found drenched in blood, on the floor, next my door. The black mistiness of dusk started to take over what was left of my last lit days.“Thy hour has come”World of hunger prepare thyself to be sacrificed. World of lost honour, thy smiles are soon to become lasting cries.As I paved my way through the shadows of the moors that surrounded my life, I realized that the storm was only getting stronger band wilder. It was the worst tempest I’ve ever seen.[....]But still to come was the storm of my aching heart.As the lights grew dimmer, the weeping sounds afar faded away amidst the night; and all I could hear now was the beat of my heart, throbbing against my chest, pounding thunderously inside my head.I raised my hands upon my ears to silence these screams that drummed within. My world rocked to the beat, I swirled and twirled in my place till I went numb. Blackout....The next morning I woke up to the cry of the wind. That same howling from yesterday was still around. The drizzles of rain were still pouring down on my window pane. A dreary figure lay next my bed, holding my hands, resting its head upon my quilt. I breathed heavily and sighed. This hair I know, so soft and fair.This warmth of hands I reckoned their shape. Sharing my corpse with moments of despair, the hold was firm.I, then, realized the danger ahead!My mind was pulling tricks on me. I shook myself and shivered inside. A chilling breath upon my skin brought me back to life again!I opened my eyes to see him still as ice.What feelings dwelled inside, I could not say. It was painful to just sit there and stare. The beating of my core had stopped. The spirit in my soul ceased to spell words of wisdom, and thoughts of hell.My daze grew stronger as never before. The door suddenly flung open and some old lady came in floating on air. She stood behind the corpse and spoke sweetly to wake him up.[Dressed in black firm head to toe....]Just them I drew near my death bed. I was eager to find who lay within this body. As he lifted his head towards the dim light, I heard a faint scream, a cry so far, so lean. And all sank in black again.It’s been years now since my last awakening. The world I once woke up to was strange and cold, weird and bold.Heavy footsteps on the floor were followed by a knock on my door. Through the weariness of my eyes, I had a glimpse on what was on the other side. His gentle hands caressed my cheek and I heard him say in words oblique:“wake up angel to the sound of me,Prepare your wings to flee.”I dressed myself straight in bed. I looked at him. I was afraid of that touch, that gentleness in his words. His words.... familiar though...A sweet remembrance of the past held my thoughts into one piece again. He and I were together bound once upon a time. He and I once vowed loyalty to fate. We once laid our memories in the hands of life itself.But now, life is dead to us. We are now compelled to live in praise of recollections that once shaped our lives. Now, people will summon us and we shall be ready to reap the void of souls and dreary thoughts that lost appraisal in paradise.Though many sins are still alive deep inside of me, I turned out to become an angel... an angel of the dark.'' I come to thee, to rest thy soulI rescue thyself and open you the doorStraight to the place where you belong,Thy life will have set thy choice of fall...”
This pledge of fear many will fear but with Him so near, I’d never leave myself alone again.
An angel of the dark must never fall in love,An angel of the dark must never get involved,An angel of the dark shall remain a pure ghost,An angel of the dark I became tonight!
His voice echoed everywhere, as He kept on reciting my vows for me and I raised my hands to these commands:“Thou art powerful beyond any reach, my heart shall lead and pave you the way, my heart will listen and you shall follow his voice well...”I took these words as kept them like a prayer, I worshiped the man who put me insight of many betrayals, I prayed the gods to keep him sane, to keep him safe from the world above.
I raised my head and stared into the sky. The sky was white not grey or blue, the clouds were white, the birds were gone and no one’s anew but far away I glanced a shape, so black, so dark that it made my heart shake. So feathery and marked with silver stripes that every time it flocked its wings a bright light shined straight in my eyes.“The Crow, the legend is alive again!”
Indeed my queen, replied a voice.I looked behind towards that sound, to only find a small child with dark blue eyes and a faded smile.“I shall be thy faithful servant, that has come to guide thee from this land into the Crow’s domain: its majesty’s empire, the Crow’s temple of fire.”My legs crippled and I felt weak. If that’s my victim, my heart shall weep. This mission has worried my soul that over few nights I became troubled and soon became bleak. My wonders let me far away but my servant never let me astray. Holding me tight with hands so small, I felt obliged to recall my fall. Before today I’ve been so light and free. Yet comes today I am a chained soul, tainted and cold.The journey I led was peculiar and odd. Many strangers served my vows. A harvest of souls I soon declared and soon all men under my feet proclaimed their allegiance to me.
My servant and I stepped in the temple of scars, marking our footsteps on the marbled floor, smashing some pebbles under our feet and damaged the fences that protected the Crow – the living legend of human thought.
Proudly, he was sitting on the throne, all mighty, all alone.A face of gold stained his face and kept him safe from the harm of the Fallen.