Wrong Desire is the Source of Suffering‎

"[...] They shed their sense of responsibility
Long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes; the mob
That used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything,
Curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only,
Bread and circuses."

"So is there nothing worth people praying for? If you'll take
My advice, you'll allow the gods to determine what's right
For us, and what's likely to benefit our situation; for
The gods grant us gifts that are more fitting than nice.
They show more care for us than we do for ourselves. We
Seek marriage and offspring driven by blind emotion, by
Vain desire, while the gods know all about the children
We'll have, and what kind of wife ours will turn out to be.
Still, if you want a reason for prayer, for offering a pretty
White piglet's innards, the sacred sausages, at the shrines,
Then you might pray for a sound mind in a healthy body.
Ask for a heart filled with courage, without fear of death,
That regards long life as among the least of nature's gifts,
That can endure any hardship, to which anger is unknown,
That desires nothing, and gives more credit to all the labours
And cruel sufferings of Hercules, than to all the love-making
All the feasting, and all the downy pillows of Sardanapalus.
The prayer I offer you can grant yourself; without doubt,
The one true path that leads to a tranquil life is that of virtue.
If we were prudent, you'd possess no power, Fortune[!]: it's we
Who make you a goddess, and grant you a place in the sky."

- Juvenal, http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/JuvenalSatires10.htm

the problem of (re)thinking bodies

«Thought is a consequence of the provocation of an encounter. Thought
is what confronts us from the outside, unexpectedly: "Something in the
world forces us to think" (Deleuze, "Difference and Repetition", page
139). What confronts us necessarily from outside the concepts we
already have, from outside the subjectivities we already are, from
outside the material realities we already know is the problem. The
problem provokes thought [...] Thought-events [...] are singularities
that mix with and have effects on other materialities, with other
political [and] cultural [...] events.» Elizabeth Grosz, "Space, Time,
and Perversion", 1995, pp. 128-9, Epigraph to Nicole Dawson's Master's
thesis, "(Re)Thinking bodies: Deleuze and Guattari's becoming-woman"

She (Dawson) continues on page 2: "Becoming-woman is an occurrence in
which the poles constituted of the dualism and enforced by dualistic
thought no longer serve to determine a body's experience of itself."

And on page 3: "It is not unlikely that these transformations will
have political and empirical consequences, but any transformations
that might arise of conceptual shifts inspired by becomings-woman are
to be regarded as open ended -- open, that is, to the endless
possibilities of becoming other (other than what (one) has been, other
than what (one) presently is, other than what (one) *might* come to
be)." (My emphasis.)

creativity and lack thereof

«Kris (cited in Martindale, 1999) proposed that creative individuals
are better able to shift between primary process and secondary process
modes of thinking than uncreative individuals. The primary-secondary
process continuum is assumed by Fromm (cited in Martindale, 1999) to
be the main dimension along which cognition changes. Primary process
can be detected in normal states such as dreams, as well as in deviant
states such as psychosis and hypnosis. It can be characterised as
autistic, free-associative, analogical, and involving concrete images
as opposed to abstract concepts. Secondary process thought can be
described as abstract, logical, reality-oriented thought of waking
consciousness (Martindale, 1999). According to Kris (cited in
Martindale, 1999), creative inspiration includes a regression to a
primary process state of consciousness. This state presumably
facilitates the discovery of new combinations of mental elements.
Creative elaboration, in turn, is marked by a return to secondary
process thought. Uncreative people are assumed to be caught at one
point in the primary-secondary process continuum. Hence, they are not
able to develop creative ideas. Martindale quotes several lines of
research as evidence for this theory, including that creative people
are found to be more easily hypnotised than uncreative people (Lynn &
Rhue, 1986). Wild (cited in Martindale, 1999) found evidence that
highly creative individuals are better able to shift between use of
primary process and secondary process cognition.» -- A cross-cultural
investigation in suggestibility and creative imagination in young
adults, Claudia Trebes, Master thesis presented in partial fulfilment
of the requirements of the degree Master of Arts (Psychology) at the
University of Stellenbosch

(Martindale, 1999) is Martindale, C. 1999. "7 Biological Bases of
Creativity.", in Robert J. Sternberg, ed., Handbook of creativity,
Cambridge University Press, pp. 137-152 (mostly available on Google
Books, at http://bit.ly/qFBwhS).

love grows

I think love needs to grow in a context of visceral conflict
either involving eating really greasy food and drinking a lot
or playing sports
or both

think about families
Thanksgiving, we go toss the football around
and eat til we're sick
then start over again
OK, maybe not every family
OK, maybe not even my family
but it's close

Four Freedoms of Free Wetware (draft)

(0) the freedom to use your body and mind how you see fit
(1) the freedom to compare one situation to another honestly and to
act on these judgments
(2) the freedom to engage with whomever you'd like in the pursuit of
pleasure or power
(3) the freedom to fill your time with the things you find important,
and to change what you're doing to suit circumstances

comic book psychology

«Batman. His deductive talents seem highly overrated. It doesn't take
great intellect to tackle street crime. Luck and timing are the
operative skills. No, what interests me . . . is the fact that he
functions as a lightning rod for a certain breed of psychotic.
[pictures of the Joker, the Riddler, and Two-Face are shown
successively] They specialize in absurdly grandiose schemes, and
whatever the ostensible rationale -- greed, revenge, the seizure of
power . . . their true agenda is always the same: to cast Batman in
the role of nemesis. Hence the puns, the riddles, the flagrant clues
in their collective wake -- daring their foe to penetrate the obvious.
He always triumphs. If he failed, they'd be bereft. The pas de deux
would have no point. Like naughty children, who tempt the wrath of a
stern, demanding father . . . They seek only to shock him by the
enormity of their transgressions. It's the moment of acknowledgement
they crave. Thus "good" conquers "evil." True evil seldom announces
itself so loudly. The dangerous ones set their subversive goals, and
achieve them, bit by bit . . . invisibly, inevitably. They have no
taste for theater. While Batman busies himself with petty thieves and
gaudy madmen, an abyss of rot yawns ever wider at his feet. He's a
band-aid on a cancer patient. I am of course no moralist, but this
Batman, I think, has a very poor understanding of the world.» --
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Batman.html

Marvin Minsky vs Lou Reed

"You can't blame teachers for trying to make numbers interesting. But
-- let's face it -- numbers by themselves don't have much character.
That's why mathematicians like them so much! They find something
magical about things which have no interesting qualities at all. That
sounds like a paradox. Yet, when you think about it, that's exactly
why we can use numbers so many different ways! Why is it that we get
the same kind of result when we count different kinds of things --
whether we're counting flowers or trees or cars or dinosaurs? Why do
we always end up the same -- with a number? That's the magic of
arithmetic. It wipes away all fine details. It strips things of their
character. The qualities of what you count just disappear without a
trace. Programs do the opposite. They make things come to be, where
nothing ever was before. Some people find a new experience in this, a
feeling of freedom, a power to do anything you want. Not just a lot --
but anything. I don't mean like getting what you want by just wishing.
I don't mean like having a faster-than-light spaceship, or a time
machine. I mean like giving a child enough kindergarten-blocks to
build a full-sized city without ever running out of them. You still
have to decide what to do with the blocks. But there aren't any
outside obstacles. The only limits are the ones inside you." -- Marvin
Minsky, "Introduction to LogoWorks"

"I have made very big decision
I'm goin' to try to nullify my life
'Cause when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the dropper's neck
When I'm closing in on death

You can't help me not you guys
Or all you sweet girls with all your sweet talk
You can all go take a walk
And I guess I just don't know
And I guess I just don't know

I wish that I was born a thousand years ago
I wish that I'd sailed the darkened seas
On a great big clipper ship
Going from this land here to that
I put on a sailor's suit and cap

Away from the big city
Where a man cannot be free
Of all the evils of this town
And of himself and those around
Oh, and I guess I just don't know
Oh, and I guess I just don't know"

-- Lou Reed, "Heroin"