look at who stands to benefit

«These are the ones who stand to gain from the whipping up of
chauvinism, from the chatter about "patriotism" (cannon patriotism),
about the defence of culture (with weapons destructive of culture) and
so forth!» -- V. I. Lenin,
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/apr/11.htm

self-agency, reward, and anxiety

Our previous work demonstrated that behavioral inhibition is
associated with perturbations in the appetitive-motivational system.
In this study, we found that these perturbations were specific to the
condition in which participants believed that choice of self-executed
responses determined outcomes, and did not extend to the condition in
which outcomes were independent of subjects' agency. Indeed, a sense
of "responsibility," or self-agency, in a context of uncertainty
(probabilistic outcomes) drives the neural system underlying
appetitive motivation (i.e., nucleus accumbens) more strongly in
temperamentally inhibited than noninhibited adolescents. One important
next step will be to determine how the reward system interacts with
fear circuitry among subjects characterized by behavioral inhibition
and elevated anxiety. --
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2785902/

nerves of the face

«The theory has two important parts. The first is the link between the
nerves of the face and the nerves that regulate the heart and the
lungs. The second is the phylogenetic hierarchy that describes the
evolutionary sequence from a primitive, unmyelinated vagus related to
conservation of metabolic resources, to a sympathetic-adrenal system
involved in mobilization strategies, to a myelinated vagus related to
modulating calm bodily states and social engagement behaviors. The
hierarchy emphasizes that the newer "circuits" inhibit the older ones.
We use the newest circuit to promote calm states, to self-soothe and
to engage. When this doesn't work, we use the sympathetic-adrenal
system to mobilize for fight and flight behaviors. And when that
doesn't work, we use a very old vagal system, the freeze or shutdown
system. So the theory states that our physiological responses are
hierarchically organized in the way we react to challenge, and the
hierarchy of reactions follows the sequence in which the systems
evolved. Additionally, the linkage between the nerves that regulate
the face and the nerves that regulate the heart and lungs implies that
we can use the facial muscles to calm us down. Think about it: when
we're stressed or anxious, we use our facial muscles, which include
the ears. We eat or drink, we listen to music, and we talk to people
to calm down.»

«So we could use dramatic facial expressions to calm down?»

«Absolutely. Think about how pranayama (a yogic breathing technique)
works. When you do these breathing exercises, you're actually
"exercising" both the sensory and motor nerves regulating the facial
muscles; you are controlling breath and maneuvering the oral motor
cavity. It's a very efficient way of working on the system. A lot of
people don't like to teach pranayama because they think it's too
powerful. Polyvagal theory explains how pranayama might work and how
other methods of stimulating the same system, including social
interactions, can result in similar benefits to our health and mental
state. The social engagement system includes the nerves regulating the
face and the myelinated vagus regulating the heart and bronchi. The
power of the social engagement system is amazing both in terms of its
effects on behavior and mental state, but also in terms of the speed
with which it works.»

-- Stephen Porges interviewed by Ravi Dykema,
http://www.nexuspub.com/articles_2006/interview_porges_06_ma.php

A Villanelle for Their Time

"Are you not weary of ardent ways,
Lure of the fallen seraphim?
Tell no more of enchanted days.

Your eyes have set man's heart ablaze
And you have had your will of him.
Are you not weary of ardent ways?

Above the flame the smoke of praise
Goes up from ocean rim to rim.
Tell no more of enchanted days.

Our broken cries and mournful lays
Rise in one eucharistic hymn.
Are you not weary of ardent ways?

While sacrificing hands upraise
The chalice flowing to the brim,
Tell no more of enchanted days.

And still you hold our longing gaze
With languorous look and lavish limb!
Are you not weary of ardent ways?
Tell no more of enchanted days."

-- James Joyce, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"

Don’t be afraid to really want what you desire.

«And so contemporary French theorists remain trapped in
this conceptual cage: Althusser sees theory as a
"production," Deleuze and Guattari give us an unconscious
that is a "producer" of desire, the Tel Quel group refers
to textual "production." But it was political economy
that erected that "phantasm," in Baudrillard's words, of
labor as the human essence. To whatever extent Marx was
able to demystify its liberal usage, to extract it from
the hegemony of bourgeois rule, he still turned it over to
the working class, imposed it on them, as their central
means of self-comprehension. Baudrillard would like to
liberate the workers from their "labor power," to have
them, if they are to represent a radical alternative to
the present system, think themselves under another sign
than that of production.» -- Mark Poster,
http://theearthisdying.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/mark-poster%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Ctranslator%E2%80%99s-introduction%E2%80%9D-1975-to-baudrillard%E2%80%99s-the-mirror-of-production-1973/

«What do we perceive today as possible? Just follow the
media. On the one hand, in technology and sexuality,
everything seems to be possible. You can travel to the
moon, you can become immortal by biogenetics, you can have
sex with animals or whatever, but look at the field of
society and economy. There, almost everything is
considered impossible. You want to raise taxes by little
bit for the rich. They tell you it's impossible. We lose
competitivity. You want more money for health care, they
tell you, "Impossible, this means totalitarian state."
[...] The only sense in which we are Communists is that we
care for the commons. The commons of nature. The commons
[not] privatized by intellectual property. The commons of
biogenetics. For this, and only for this, we should
fight. [...] The only thing I'm afraid of is that we will
someday just go home and then we will meet once a year,
drinking beer, and nostaligically remembering "What a nice
time we had here." Promise yourselves that this will not
be the case. We know that people often desire something
but do not really want it. Don't be afraid to really want
what you desire. Thank you very much.» -- Slavoj Zizek,
http://www.thenewsignificance.com/2011/10/11/slavoj-zizek-we-are-the-awaking-occupy-wall-street-talk/

the much awaited venus in gold (reed vs young, circa 2005)

I want to live,
I want to give
comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

It's these expressions
I never give:
ermine furs adorn the imperious
severin, severin awaits you there

i am tired, i am weary
i could sleep for a thousand years
You keep me searching
for a heart of gold

I've been to Hollywood
I've been to Redwood
tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

I've been in my mind,
it's such a fine line
taste the whip, in love not given lightly
taste the whip, now plead for me

i am tired, i am weary
i could sleep for a thousand years
You keep me searching
And I'm getting old

shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
whiplash girlchild in the dark
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold

mother of exiles

"The scarcity of copyright cannot compete against the abundance of
gifts." -- Richard Barbrook, "Cyber-Communism: How the Americans are
Superceding Capitalism in Cyberspace",
http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/cyber-communism-how-the-americans-are-superseding-capitalism-in-cyberspace/

"Nothing can intensify my passion more than tyranny, cruelty, and
especially the faithlessness of a beautiful woman." -- Leopold von
Sacher-Masoch, "Venus in Furs"

"As the seventeen-year-old Karl Rossmann, who had been sent to America
by his unfortunate parents because a maid had seduced him and had a
child by him, sailed slowly into New York harbour, he suddenly saw the
Statue of Liberty, which had already been in view for some time, as
though in an intenser sunlight. The sword in her hand seemed only just
to have been raised aloft, and the unchained winds blew about her
form." -- Franz Kafka, "Amerika"

agorism

"The state is the primary source of violence, oppression, theft and
all forms of coercion. Stop funding the state with your tax dollars
and direct your productive energies into the black market." -- Silk
Road, quoted at
http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imaginable

applied catastrophe theory

"The key, then, to dealing with organisms in highly accumulated
'stasis' states is the application of finely timed sequences of
autonomically acting stimuli coupled with the evocation of appropriate
behavior in terms of mobilization. It is this sequential patterning
of autonomic and somatic behavior which is central to the resolution
of accumulated stress as well as to its regulation in general." --
Peter Levine, "Accumulated Stress, Reserve Capacity, and Disease",
1976 Doctoral dissertation,
http://www.somaticexperiencing.com/images/stories/Peter_A_Levine-Thesis.pdf

i know you'll take care of all my needs

«Below are provisional lists of [...] emotional skill needs, and
experiential needs.

Emotional skill needs are the need for basic skills and abilities for
handling emotions:

* Emotional self-awareness: a need to learn to appraise and express
what one is feeling;
* Managing emotions: the need to handle and regulate feelings so that
they are appropriate;
* Self-motivation: a need to learn to harness one's emotions in the
service of a goal, for example by delaying gratification.
* Affect perception: a need to accurately appraise what others are
feeling as they are feeling and expressing it;
* Empathy: a need to learn to appreciate what others are feeling
(closely linked in the literature to emotional self-awareness);
* Handling relationships, primarily via managing the emotions of
others. This skill is a necessary component of friendship, intimacy,
popularity, and leadership.

Experiential emotional needs [...] are mostly inherently social needs,
and are therefore usually only met with the assistance or presence of
others.

These include a need

* for attention -- strong and constant in children, fading to varying
degrees in adulthood;
* to feel that one's current emotional state is understood by others
(particularly during strong emotional response);
* to love and feel reciprocity of love;
* to express affection, and feel reciprocated affection expressed;
* for reciprocity of sharing personal disclosure information;
* to feel connected to others;
* to belong to a larger group;
* for intimacy;
* to feel that one's emotional responses are acceptable by others;
* to feel accepted by others;
* to feel that emotional experience and responses are "normal";
* for touch, to be touched;
* for security.»

-- Jonathan Klein, Rosalind W. Picard and Jocelyn Riseberg, "Support
for Human Emotional Needs in Human-Computer Interaction",
http://affect.media.mit.edu/pdfs/97.klein-picard-riseberg.pdf

socrates

"Socrates says three important things with regard to his invitation to
others to occupy themselves with themselves: (1) His mission was
conferred on him by the gods, and he won't abandon it except with his
last breath. (2) For this task he demands no reward; he is
disinterested; he performs it out of benevolence. (3) His mission is
useful for the city, more useful than the Athenians military victory
at Olympia - because in teaching people too occupy themselves with
themselves, he teaches them to occupy themselves with the city." --
Michel Foucault,
http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.technologiesOfSelf.en.html