: winter :

Plato on Internet and illusions

- Next then, I said… Picture people as dwelling in a cavernous underground chamber, with the entrance opening upward to the light, and a long passage-way running down the whole length of the cave. They have been there since childhood, legs and necks fettered so they cannot move: they see only what is in front of them, unable to turn their heads because of the bonds.

- A strange image, he said, and strange prisoners.

- Like ourselves, I replied.

Plato, The Republic, 514A

In plato’s cave, nobody sees what’s really happening. They think they do, but they don’t. Plato says we are like the cave dwellers. We think we see the Truth, but we don’t. The difference is that we can see the Truth is we know how. Plato knew how and wanted to show us. But Plato also knew that we – or at least most of us – are either incapable of or uninterested in coming to grips with the Truth. Philosophers have the way and the will, but the rest of humanity doesn’t. we are quite happy living in our pleasant illusions, far removed from the Truth. This is why we build the imaginary worlds – dramas – that Plato found so disturbing. For what are storytelling, literature, and theater but attempts to escape from reality into some fantasy? The storytellers, writers, and thespians all say we can learn something about ourselves from their productions. But what do we learn, really, if all that is depicted is fiction? Fiction cannot be the Truth, for it is the opposite of the Truth. And even those productions that claim to be something other than fiction – histories and the like – aren’t they simply poor reflections of a reality that is gone and cannot be revisited, and therefore really fictions themselves?

Perhaps they are, and perhaps they aren’t. In any case, Plato was on firm ground in asserting that we naturally see the comfort of illusions. 

The power of today's generation

As a follow up on my previous post on our generation (26.10.11) many coincidences occurred last week as if someone wanted to reassure me and show all the positives about today's world construction and its young generation. What happened had such a big impact on me that I have decided to dedicate more time for its research an write about it as part of my university project. 'Occupy' movement that is. These young boys and girls who went out on the streets on New York first, and then the movement spreading all across the globe makes me rethink about my previous rather spontaneous generalisations about 'hopeless' youth. I do not deny that we all build our assumptions and see the world based on personal experiences and occurrences but when surrounded by an uninspiring crowd it drags one down into pessimistic perspective. But to become overly pessimistic and sad is not a solution here and will not benefit anyone - we have to hold on and try see the best in this world. One has to be rather strong in order not to let the evil' win: ''For evil to flourish, all that is needed is for good people to do nothing'' (E.Burke).

For my future research I will be looking at some striking images and photography of 'Occupy" events and see how it affected media, people's perception of the problems and  most importantly, how it influenced the governmental actions. Will it influence future policies, will it influence the future of our societies? We all know that there is no perfect society, but we as the western humanity will always be reaching for perfection.

Here I would also like to highlight a theory that will probably be the basis of my project research. It reflects perfectly current 'Occupy' events and descibes its causes in a way. The theory of counter-productivity. From the book The Ecological Modernisation Reader (Mol, Sonnenfield, Spaargaren, 2009)

The theory of counter-productivity has many foundations and predecessors, and its central message is: stop growing, start shrinking. A scientific foundation for this was given by the 'thermo-dynamic school of economics' related to N.Georgescu-Roegen, with a transfer of the entropy paradigm from physics to society, which has become the eco-misers' most beloved reference. The idea is that whatever is done uses up energy and resources of a higher order, which unavoidably leads to increased entropy. Each unit of economic value added with each step in the human chain of production equals a step of ecological degradation and destruction of nature. The only conclusion can be : humanity must do away with the existing rationalist, materialist, and outer-wordily oriented pursuits of happiness. We would have to slow down, retire into more spiritual inner worlds, shrinking all the way.

'Risks' by Janet Rand

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool,

To weep is to risk being called sentimental.

To reach out to another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self.

To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naive.

To love is to risk not being loved in return,

To live is to risk dying,

To hope is to risk despair,

To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.

Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom.

Only the person who risks is truly free.

Thinking about our generation

Our generation is well protected and cared for by governments and parents. Parents who lived and worked through dramatic global changes of 60 and 70s, who were brought up by parents who went through the evils of World War, parents who do not want the same painful experience for their kids. They have a house, are able to send their kids to university, and can provide their kids with enough ‘pocket money’ to send them off travelling around the world in hopes they might learn and discover what the real world is. But can kids really appreciate this care without really knowing what pain, fear or struggle means? Many question arise and that I will try to find answers to.

Looking at our western youth makes me wonder if we are going to enter history books of the future as “lost generation”. When lookng around me, I see generation that does not know what pain is, the generation that rely on their governments’ and parents’ support too much, have high expectations of them, a generation that is not willing to fight for a better world, the generation that is rather disconnected from reality.

There are different types of people but I will identify three main streams as a starting point for my future posts: 1) the careless, 2) the ambitious and 3) the wise.

1. The most common type of youth are the mainstream, the ''average'', the type that you see in everyday life. The ignorant type that only cares about creating one perfect bubble of meaningless toys, gadgets and friends around themselves, and then choosing to live in this bubble, ignoring the complexities of live.

2. There are others who do try to make something of their lives, but they concentrate on their education, future, well-being, careers, i.e.material well-being, and perfectioninng their own lives and spiritual strength to the extent when they forget about simplicities and joys that life offers, but most importantly they forget about people who truly and unconditionally love and care about them. As Leo Tolstoy perfectly put into words : “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves”

3. And the third type are the young who are the closest to the reality, they are confused about the world, they have many questions that they want answers to but have nobody out there who can understand and relate to them. Their best friends are their thoughts, books sometimes- they feel they have more in common with them then their peers. The problem with these individuals is that they find it difficult to start acting, to tell the world about their confused minds, they don’t want to interfere or don’t think they can succeed and win over the wickedness of humanity.

Naturally, it is wrong to generalise but these are my personal observations, based on my personal experiences, feelings and cultural background. Coming from a family where spirituality, love and care were always most important, but where the struggle for peace, material and political stability constantly kept on challenging personal values and belonging. Moving across cultures helps one to find the inner self, but it is often when they find the inner self they lose connection or will to connect to the external world. Sometimes being an individual and, to some extent an outsider for some years, becomes overly exhausting practice and makes you want to go back in time, back to simplicity, where your mind stops wondering, stops asking questions, where one is capable to blend in with the crowd and able to connect and have mindless conversations with people around. But this is another story.. Back to generations now..

The challenge now is to create a balance within our generation - inspire the ignorant, remind of simplicities life can offer to the ambitious, and reassure the wise that everything is in their hands and actions, and actions only is the way to make a difference and make our lives worth living.

Russia Competitiveness Report

Very detailed report on sustainable prospects of Russia. Looks good on paper, but is it implementable in the real world? My views of Russian global perspective are still rather pessimistic, but this is something worth researching into, as Russia seems to start getting involved in many 'green' projects in collaboration with Scandinavian countries, so it could have a positive impact on Russian politics? - big question mark.
The Russia Competitiveness Report 2011

THE FUTURE LABORATORY

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Something worth going to: Trend Briefing by Future Laboratory

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DATE : Wednesday 9th March 2011
VENUE : Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8EH
PRICE : £495 per seat

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A FEW EXTRACTS FROM THEIR PROGRAM:

At the spring/summer Trend Briefing in 2010 we named the decade the Turbulent Teens, predicting how it would be a period of highs, lows and revolution. Now, we reveal the decade’s first revolution – the anarconomy – a shift from passive acceptance to affirmative, anarchic collaboration in politics, culture, business, retail and leisure, even in how we generate ideas for these industries. Against this backdrop, open-source, open-book policies are set to become the norm in the new punkonomic era.

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Instead of withholding information, the new winners are sharing their information and knowledge first. Instead of Betapreneurs trying things out, today’s change-makers are laying down new rules and producing manifestos that describe and define the new ways in which they want the world to work. More than anything, however, disruption has become their new mantra, dissonance their new way to market. We look at the tools, techniques and ‘unlearning habits’ you will need to acquire to survive in the Transformation Economy.

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‘Not everybody wants revolution,’ says The Future Laboratory co-founder Martin Raymond. ‘For many, the recession has been a stress too far. Hence, we are witnessing the rise of Revivalist thinking, a nostalgic yearning for all things past and comforting. Folk themes, folklore, folk fashions and the re-appearance of furniture and products with a quasi-nostalgic theme and a rose-tinted nostalgic viewpoint are all becoming more prominent.’

OUR PLANET'S FUTURE DEPENDS ON SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Our planet cannot hold its waste forever. We have to rethink the way we use materials and the way we dispose waste. Sustainability - studying the ways nature solves problems will provide a lot of solutions.

‘If you want to build a fleet of ships you don’t sit around talking about carpentry, but you rather need to set people souls ablaze with visions of exploring distant shores’

HESSE

Goodbye, small farmhouse and my native country. I leave you as a young man leaves his mother: he knows it is time for him to leave her, and he knows, too, he can never leave her completely, even though he wants to.

SMALL TOWN

Here the true life of wandering begins, the life I love, wandering without any specific direction, taking it easy in sunlight, the life of a vagabond wholly free.

We wanderers are very much cunning - we develop those feelings which are impossible to fulfill; and the love which actually should belong to a woman, we lightly scatter among small towns and mountains, lakes and valleys, children by the side of the road, beggars on the bridge, cows in the pasture, birds and butterflies. We separate love from its object, love alone is enough for us, in the same way that, in wandering, we don’t look for a goal, we only look for the happiness of wandering, only the wandering.

RECTORY

I feel life trembling within me, in my tongue, on the soles of my feet, in my desire or my suffering, I want my soul to be a wandering thing, able to move back into a hundred forms, I want to dream myself into priests and wanderers, female cooks and murderers, children and animals, and, more than anything else, birds and trees; that is necessary, I want it, I need it so I can go on living, and if something I were to lose these possibilities and be caught in so-called reality, then I would rather die.