#(is fostering desire to be a part of the attachment conscious or is this just how he dresses?)
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invinciblerodent · 1 year ago
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this scene is also pretty much fucking evil if we consider that not only is Iona an emotional mess right now (with a whole bunch of unsolved relationship-y issues as well as uuuuh general Problems(tm)), but that in this version he is also wearing the face of a man she was with for like. literally half her life. Shared his home, his bed, and yeah, it wasn't a great, or even a good relationship, but it's still a point of familiarity. She still can't stop herself from craving his warmth and approval. It's very disorganized as he was both a source of fear and a source of comfort, but she can't help it- she's attached.
Logically, she doesn't trust a word he says, but she still can't stop feeling close to a version of Herric who's kind to her. She still can't see through his manipulation. How could she, she's way too emotionally involved: he makes a sad face, and her very body betrays her, moves in to hold him.
gah, this reveal is going to hurt a lot.
(do I seriously have to fkin do the whole orthon thing in order to get my girl out of this emotional limbo jfc 🥹)
got to the Shadow-Cursed Lands. The boy is sitting pretty at 83 approval. The saves before the last six long rests are called, in this order, "IT'S HAPPENING (i think)", "okay maybe now", "fuck maybe now", "okay that was wyll but fine", "maybe this time he'll do it", and "i fucking give up".
all of them had a rest cutscene, but none the one I was gunning for.
and then I googled what was going on, and apparently in my eagerness I bloody well forgot that I gotta actually go to Moonrise first.
head in my hands I just want these idiots to love each other
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devolvstudio1 · 1 year ago
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"Packaging Trends in Delhi NCR: Keeping Ahead with DEVOLVSTUDIO"
Packaging is an ever-evolving aspect of the business landscape, constantly influenced by changing consumer preferences, technological advancements, and sustainability concerns. In Delhi NCR, businesses must stay abreast of the latest packaging trends to maintain a competitive edge and connect with their target audience effectively. DEVOLVSTUDIO, a leading packaging agency in the region, is at the forefront of these trends, helping brands in Delhi NCR stay ahead in the packaging game. In this blog, we will explore the top packaging trends in Delhi NCR and how DEVOLVSTUDIO leads the way in keeping brands ahead of the curve.
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Packaging trends in Delhi NCR are continually evolving to meet the changing preferences of consumers and the demands of the market. DEVOLVSTUDIO's commitment to staying ahead of these trends has positioned them as a leader in the packaging industry. From sustainable solutions to interactive and smart packaging concepts, their expertise empowers brands to create packaging that not only catches the eye but also connects with consumers on a deeper level. As businesses in Delhi NCR navigate the dynamic landscape of packaging, partnering with DEVOLVSTUDIO ensures they keep ahead and make a lasting impact with their packaging strategies.
Experience the DEVOLVSTUDIO advantage in Delhi NCR and unlock the potential of packaging trends to elevate your brand's image and influence in the market.
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thalianitz · 4 years ago
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Contextual Studies Research Project
In 1948 the City of London faced a fierce threat when Old Father Thames rose up in anger at the treatment of his River. ‘The Great Stink’ was the event that finally forced the government to take action and remedy the dire state of the Thames. Throughout ‘The Great Stink’ the recurring motif of ‘Old Father Thames’ became a powerful means of voicing the dire need for Health Reform, creating controversy and raising public awareness of the issues that was causing the deaths of thousands of citizens in the capital. (Bibby, M). The image of a dishevelled and filthy old man offering up death and disease to the citizens of London was a powerful contrast to the noble figure penned in poetic portraits of the River. It was a contrast that highlighted the juxtaposition between the importance of the river to London’s survival and the importance with which it was being treated. The character begun life as a character in Punch, but his effectiveness as a metaphor for the state of the River soon meant that he was a regular feature in numerous Victorian periodicals, and he became a powerful metaphor of the campaign against ‘The Great Stink’ (Horrocks, C 2009).
Today the Thames no longer functions as a sewage pipe, but the health of London’s central landmark is still precarious. Data from the Water Directive Framework shows that just 16% of UK water bodies were given ‘good’ ecological status in 2018 and 2019, and that the Thames is the second most polluted river in the UK, placing just after the Mersey, which is currently more polluted than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Morrit, D 2014, Greenpeace 2019, Schneiday, L 2021). Whilst in the 19th century the Thames served as a channel for cholera, today it serves as a transport for waste into the North Sea; in 2019 nearly 9000 items of plastic waste were discovered along the foreshore, the large majority of it was single use plastic, meanwhile ‘reefs’ of wet wipes are forming along the course of the river, impacting not only the wildlife but the course of the River itself. (McGoran, A 2019). The disregard for the health of the River showcases a greater disregard for Rivers and freshwater courses not just in London but around the UK.
Part of the problem potentially lies in the way that rivers, particularly industrial rivers like the Thames, are perceived. Rather than being part of a ‘Wilderness’ we feel we have a responsibility to protect, natural features in an industrial landscape are considered to be part of an Urban environment. (Cronon, W 1996) Throughout its history the Thames has been viewed as an important economic resource, something that often eclipses the equally important role it holds as culturally significant landmark (Pinch, P 2015). In this century there has been a push for significant water front redevelopment; stretches of the river that were abandoned as London's docklands were moved to other parts of the country became prime real estate, redeveloped into a “strip of affluence” (Sudjic, D 2003) Disregard for the environmental state of the Thames has potentially deadly consequences; in 1958 350 people were killed as a result of flooding, and the risks are only going to increase with effects of Climate Change; only 10% of UK floodplains still function, and between 2015 and 2018 1 in 5 houses were built in areas at risk of flooding (Taylor, V 2015) (Murray, J 2020). Work by groups such as the Thames Landscape Project attempts to combat this with large scale rewilding projects, but in the fight against Climate Change it is important that rivers are not forgotten in the wider public conscious.
In the battle for wider recognition of the plight of rivers like the Thames, the best weapon might be the same as the one utilised by the Victorian satirists, Old Father Thames. Stories of mythical figures like Old Father Thames have long been used as a way to warn of the power of rivers; characters like Jenny Greenteeth and water wyrms from folk tales highlight the dangers of disrespecting our Rivers (Schneiday, L 2021). There is a long standing tradition of the veneration of waterways, it is likely that Old Father Thames is a modern iteration of an old river God. The current representation of Old Father Thames resembles the Roman deities of the Tiber and the Nile, but it is likely that was a figure attached to the Thames long predating that (Ackroyd, P 2008). Artefacts found in several rivers, including the Battersea shield, suggest a different relationship with rivers in early prehistory; these artefacts are most commonly interpreted as votive offerings that were seen not as “wasting resources, but as an investment, a way of staking a claim in the natural power of the river,” (York, J 2002). Stories of the power and protection of these river deities have endured in to the present day in the form of myths like the Lady in the Lake and Excalibur (Yates, D and Bradley, R 2015). It is also possible to draw similarities between figures like Old Father Thames and the Greenman; the Greenman has remained a figure in popular culture; he serves as a powerful reminder of our connection and responsibilities to the natural world, holding humans to account for their actions, and there are still festivals held that celebrate our links to the Greenman and our links to the natural world (Anderson, W 1990). Mythical figures have also found their way into the popular conscious through the medium of science fiction. In the 21st century there has been a growing genre of Climate Fiction, or ‘Cli-Fi”, which has emerged as a alternative method of bringing ecology and environmental issues to a wider audience. The genre of science fiction allows writers to explore environmental dystopia, utopia and the potential for an ‘ecological apocalypse’ (Milner, A and Murgmann, J R 2020). Many important works of eco-criticisim have had an enduring impact, both in terms of cultural value, and on the ecological movement. One obvious example is Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Tolkien uses Lord of the Rings as a chance to comment on many ecological themes, Treebeard is a good example of a ‘Greenman’ esq figure; he challenges anthropocentric viewpoints and represents an alternative to the utilitarian stance presented by other characters (Brawley, C 2003). The impact of Middle Earth can be seen in the use of ‘Treebeard’ by environmental groups, one of which signed a letter with the characters name, writing in their statement “the Ents are going to war,” (Bregaland, 2006).
The enduring popularity of fictional characters showcases the effect the anthropomorphism of nature has on an audience. Anthropomorphism was first used as a term by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes to describe the similarities found in religious believers and their depiction of their Gods (Waytz, Epley, Cacioppo, 2010). Research into the phenomenon suggests that the desire to anthropomorphise the environment is a “basic human attitude” present from the early stages of childhood to allow us to empathise and interact with “non-humans as if they were human beings” (Airentu, G 2018). The ramifications of anthropomorphism on environmental debate are significant; the anthropomorphism of nature enables people to create a stronger bond with the environment, fostering a more environmentally friendly viewpoint. Pro-environmental views are tied to the feeling of environmental guilt, when nature is anthropomorphised these feelings are exacerbated, often prompting the adoption of more ecologically aware behaviours (Tam, K-P 2019). The use of terms such as ‘Mother Earth’ are good examples of using targeted anthropomorphism to encourage feelings of guilt and empathy in the public (Waytz, Epley, Cacioppo, 2010). Just as with the cartoons of Father Thames during the time of the Great Stink, the use of anthropomorphised representations of nature creates a stronger and more enduring message; for instance, a TV advert highlighting the environmental dangers of palm oil, featuring an anthropomorphised orang-utan was banned from being broadcast on the basis that it was too political (Butler, S and Sweney, M 2018).
Anthropomorphisation is clearly a useful tool in addressing the problems that stem from our increased urbanisation. The empathy for an anthropomorphic version of nature can help us to see ourselves as part of nature, as opposed to ‘the other’. (Daston, L 1995). In a world where we spend an estimated 90% of our lives indoors, it is difficult for environmental groups to rely solely on an individuals experiences in nature to promote an environmentally friendly attitude, anthropomorphism can help people bridge that gap (Tam, KP,. Lee, SL,. Chao, MM,. 2013). Some have suggested that a process of ‘Reenchantment’ is essential to promoting a healthier and more sustainable relationship with the environment; utilising the power of the ‘sublime’ in nature as a motivation to reconnect with the natural world, as well as retuning some of the ‘magic’ and ‘wonder’ to it (Barlett, P 2008). The use of quasi-mythical figures like Old Father Thames can especially help us to reconnect with overlooked areas of ‘Wilderness’ like the River Thames, by drawing on the cultural history of those myths and by using anthropomorphism to remind us of the interconnection and interdependence between us and the natural world.
Bibliography
Ackroyd, P (2008) “Thames: Sacred River”, Vintage Books, London
Airenti, G (2018) “The development of Anthropomorphism in Interaction: Intersubjectivity, Imagination and Theory of Mind”, Frontiers in Psychology
Anderson, W (1990) “Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth”, HarperCollins, London
Barlett, P (2008) “Reason and Reenchantment in Cultural Change: Sustainability in Higher Education”, Anthropology, Vol. 49, No. 6, pg. 1077-1098, Chicago, USA
Bibby, M (accessed 2021) “London’s Great Stink”, History Magazine, Historic UK, (https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Londons-Great-Stink/)
Brawley, C (2008), “The Fading of the World: Tolkien’s ecology and loss in The Lord of the Rings”, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, USA
Bregaland (2006), ‘“The Ents are going to war”; Earth Liberation Front Strikes Maryland”, Earth First!, Vol. 26, No. 2, pg. 8, Daily Planet Publishing, Tuscon, United States
Butler, S and Sweney, M (2018) “Iceland’s Christmas TV advert rejected for being too political”, The Guardian, London, UK
Cronon, W (1996) ‘The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature”, Environmental History, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 7-28, Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental History, USA
Daston L, (1995) “How Nature Became the Other: Anthropocentrism in Early Modern Natural Philosophy”, Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors. Sociology of the Sciences - A Yearbook 1994 (Maasen, S., Mendelson, E,. Weingart, P,. ed.), vol. 18, Springer, Netherlands
Davis, JL,. Green, JD,. Reed, A (2009) “Interdependence with the environment: Commitment, interconnectedness and environmental behaviour”, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol.29, No. 2, pp. 173-180
Gleeson-White, J (2018) “It’s only natural: the push to give rivers, mountains and forests legal rights”, The Guardian, London, UK
Greenpeace, (2019) “UK river more polluted than Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” Greenpeace Press Release
Horrocks, C (2009) “Father Thames Revenge: visualising reform through the characterisation of a social problem”, Popular Narrative Media, Vol. 2, no.1, p.23, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool
Horrocks, C (2003), “The Personification of “Father Thames”: Reconsidering the Role of the Victorian Periodical Press in the “Verbal and Visual Campaign” for Public Heath Reform, Victorian Periodicals Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, p.2 -19, John Hopkins University Press
McGoran, A (2019) “Microplastic pollution and wet wipe ‘reefs’ are changing the River Thames ecosystem”, The Conversation, London
Milner, A,. Burgmann, J R,. (2020) “Science Fiction and Climate Change: A sociological Approach”, Liverpool Science Fiction Texts and Studies, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, UK
Mishra, S K, (2016) “Ecocriticism: A Study of Environmental Issues in Literature”, BRICS Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 168 - 170,
Morrit, D (2014) “Plastic in the Thames: A River Runs through it”, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 1-2, pg. 196-200, UK
Murray, J (2020) “Rewilding Project aims to give Thames its floodplain back”, The Guardian, London, UK
Pinch, P (2015) “Waterspace Planning and the River Thames in London”, The London Journal, Vol. 40, No. 3, pg. 272-292, London, UK
Schneidau, L (2021) “Understanding the Current”, Resurgence and Ecologist, Vol. 325, pp. 34 - 36, Devon, England
Shtulman, A (2008) “Variation in the anthropomorphization of supernatural beings and its implications for cognitive theories of religion”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, Vol. 35, no. 5, pg, 1123 - 1138
Sudjic, D (2003) “Sold Down the River”, The Observer, London UK
Tam, K-P (2019) “Anthropomorphism of Nature, Environmental Guilt and Pro-Environmental Behaviour”, Sustainability, Vol. 11, No. 19
Tam, K-P,. Lee, S-L,. Chao, MM,. (2013) “Saving Mr. Nature: Anthropomorphism enhances connectedness to and protectiveness toward nature,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 49, No. 3
Taylor, V (2015) “London’s River? The Thames as a Contested Environmental Space”, The London Journal, Vol. 40, No. 3, pg. 183-195, London, UK
Urquiza-Haas, E and Kotrschal, K (2015) “The mind behind anthropomorphic thinking: attribution of mental states to other species”, Animal Behaviour, Vol. 109, pg. 167-176,
Waytz, A., Epley, N., Cacioppo, J-T, (2010) “Social Cognition Unbound: Insights into Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization”, Current directions in psychological science, Vol. 12, no. 1, pg. 58-62
Wilson, E (1993) “Biophilia and the Conservation Ethic”, The Biophilia Hypothesis, pg. 31-42, Washington, USA
Yates, D,. Bradley, R,. (2015) “Still water, hidden depths, the deposition of Bronze Age metalwork in the English Fenland”, Antiquity, Vol. 84, No. 324, Cambridge, UK
York, J (2002), “The life cycle of Bronze Age metalwork from the Thames”, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 21, No. 1, pg. 77-92, Oxford, UK
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kajahealer · 4 years ago
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☆ ☆ ☆  ☆ ☆ ☆  ☆ ☆ ☆
📍 TIMESTAMP
🌳 Introduction 00:11
🌳 Sound Therapy 06:22
🌳 Overall Guidance 10:14
>>> to be continued...
Early access|https://www.patreon.com/posts/47233909
🌳 You may be out of balance and embroiled in some difficult situation that has caused you to lose clarity and even power. This could indicate stressful legal matter - or a situation that seems unjust to you. You may feel all tied up in red tape, but you need to be proactive. Take the action needed to unite the situation bit by bit. Acquire good counsel and advice to see this situation through and help you get all the details straight. The outcome may not go exactly as desired, but remember to keep your balance. Seek only justice; release revenge and anger. You don't want your urgent attachment to create more difficult karma in this matter.
🌳 On a personal level, this is warning you to get centered and balanced once again. Bring balance back to your diet, your physical exercise, and your mind. Consider how your choices and thoughts are going to impact your future in this life and in lifetime to come.
🌳 Take the actions that will set the scales back in balance - not just between you and others, but within your life as well. There may be components of your daily schedule that have thrown you off your center. It's time for you to set things right again. When all things are balanced, the good energy you send out will attract great energy back to you.
🌳 Something disruptive in your life may have thrown you off balance. Or you have gotten very busy, and the personal self has focused on the little details of life instead of the inner priorities of spiritual truth. You have put the Higher Self behind you and may turn to it only occasionally - and sometimes only when a personal need arises. Understand that as long as you ignore the highest part of who you are, you turn away from the greatest source of your power and joy. The Light of Eternal Wisdom is knocking. Open the door. And keep opening it until you hold it within you absolutely.
🌳 The Higher Power reminds you that you are more than a person trying to get ahead and make things happen for yourself and others. You have an immortal soul and are gifted with a human life through which a Higher Power can express itself. At this time, you need to be conscious of your connection to Spirit and foster it through prayer and meditation. Ask: What is the highest good for all? How can I serve? Then get out of your own way and trust that there is a plan for your life more wondrous than you can ever know. You are always protected and divinely directed.
🌳 Regocnize that your partnership with Spirit is your number one priority. When you enter agreements, begin projects, and negotiate deals with Spirit as your partner, you will always succeed. Let your Higher Power lead. The synchronicities and intuitive nudges you feel will help you see which way you are being pointed, giving you confidence to move forward in the right direction. Don't forget to give credit where it is due. You wouldn't be a success without Spirit's guidance. Humility will serve you well when this symbol appears.
🌳 There are conditions brewing in your life you have no control over. Don't fight them. Change is inevitable and is for the best, for the higher good. Even if this storm blows away the structures you think you've built your dreams on, all will turn out as it should. You will have a renewed clarity and strength to do something even better. Spirit is your ally.
🌳 Temperance doesn't jump to excess. Instead, she is a mosaic of parts, and she melts it all together in a way that spins the best of the best of the best into one. She weaves purpose and harmony into the lives of others. And her greatest alchemical gift is the treasure of healing. She reminds you to turn despair into the gift of patience, and blend the need to thrive with the need to enjoy. When you walk the middle path that is available to you, what areas find greater balance?
🌳 When the flame/the spark is lit, we are connected to our purpose and sense that life is a sacred gift. It is said that those who cannot see the sacred around them have let their inner flame go out. Think of this as a call to reignite that fire, to cup your hands gently around those things you've forgotten and protect the flame, no matter how harshly the winds around you blow.
🌳 I release all fears and doubts. I accept myself and create peace in my mind and heart. I now choose to free myself from all destructive fears and doubts. I am loved and I am safe.
☆ ☆ ☆  ☆ ☆ ☆  ☆ ☆ ☆
Related Videos 相關視頻
🌌 Cosmic Pulses 宇宙脈動|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzrLXvAi9pc&list=PLeKbiZM5ZiLsfPozUyBtOJjQujZiRHxjo
🌳 Collective Wisdom 集體智慧|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_qT1HFCmag&list=PLeKbiZM5ZiLsFxJh_7iLMgDIY-LVxgAWc
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jontrayner · 5 years ago
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Mechanised Dreams and Peasant Imaginaries
As I have been teaching undergraduates on an Illustration degree, I have been paying even more attention to concept art and sci-fi/fantasy illustration than I usually do.  In the past this attention has generally been unfocused and un-theorised, my enjoyment of these images being that of purely visual entertainment.  However, a series of images by the Polish artist Jakub Rozalski recently grabbed my attention more than usual and prompted me to think a bit more about a couple of entwined topics:  The role of the image of the peasant in the formation of national identity, and the fabrication of history.  I have a particular interest in this, from an anarchist position, considering the rural poor’s involvement both in pre-modern revolt and in non-authoritarian leftist revolution.  The narratives of “history” tend however to write the peasant in the role of defender of the nation and promoter of conservative values.
Rozalski’s series 1920+ consists of a number of diesel-punk digital paintings focussing on an alternate history of the brief Polish-Soviet War of that year.  In these paintings the war is imagined as a science fiction conflict between giant war-mecha similar to that found in the Warhammer 40K universe.  The imagery takes on the dark and oppressive feeling and the combination of high-tech war machines and primitive civilian subsistence of 40K, but instead of focussing on battle, the images rather present the pauses, or pre-battle manoeuvres of the machines in the countryside.  Bringing to mind the Martian war machines striding across the English pastoral of The War of the Worlds – or the description of a jet engine loaded onto a horse and cart to be taken from the factory to the train depot in John Timberlake's Landscape and the Science Fiction Imaginary (2018 p.75). In Rozalski’s paintings it is true that “the future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed” (Gibson, 2018).
What makes these paintings interesting for me is that alongside these fantasy stylings they present a depiction of rural peasant life in pre-industrial Poland.  A world where sheep are herded, and crops are scythed by hand by figures in traditional Polish dress – the world of 19th century Romantic and Realist nationalist painting.  This is heightened by the similarity between Rozalski’s loose mark-making and that of the Polish Romantic Piotr Michałowski.  This connection to the painting of the late 1800s is not coincidental; this was the period when the ideas of realism were put into the service of various nationalist projects.  Cultural forms were deployed to bolster the credentials of both large states, but also subaltern and colonised populations; like the Poles.   This search for a national identity through reference to the peasantry is traced by Margaret Carroll back to the northern Renaissance and the work of artists like Sebald Beham and Pieter Bruegel:
The growing assertiveness over native rights in the political sphere in the 1550s and 1560s was matched by ethnic self-consciousness in the cultural sphere […] the defense of native culture and customs promoted a benign attitude towards and even a sense of identification with the country's rural inhabitants. (1987 p.296)
The re-emergence of this identification with the peasant class in the 19th century is linked by T.J. Clark to the desire by the industrial bourgeoisie to reconnect with their recent rural past (1973 p.124).  These viewers wanted to see the countryside, that they only now saw from trains, or on daytrips, and that their parents or maybe even themselves, had so recently escaped from, not as a place of poverty, ignorance, and grinding subsistence in the face of ever present famine, but rather one of plenty, relaxation, and harmony with the seasons and the earth.  As Clark points out the initial realism of Gustave Courbet was met with anger from the Paris Salon because it refused to take part in this fiction; presenting the rural inhabitants of Ornans as individuals rather than as idealisations of a type (ibid. p.85).  Later Realists did not have these scruples and were happy to idealise the rural poor, as can be seen in the work of Jean-François Millet and Jules Bastien-Lepage.  A similar exercise was undertaken with regards to national identity with the Slavic Realists; Russian artists such as Ilya Repin used paintings such as Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV (1891) to foster a sense of Russian-ness or, in a Polish context, Jan Matejko’s history paintings and Zygmunt Ajdukiewicz’s depictions of national dress.  These works drew attention to Poland’s past glories and current cultural distinctiveness as part of the push for an independent Polish state. This subversion of Realism and of history is a product of an understanding of the fictional nature of history post-Hegel where “writing history and writing stories come under the same regime of truth” (Rancière, 2004 p.38).
The idea that peasant dress is an unadulterated expression of identity is by and large a 19th century fabrication – most famously expressed through the invention of the kilt as Scottish national dress (Green, 2017).  Griselda Pollock and Fred Orton examination of this in relation to the depictions of Breton peasant women by Parisian artists pointing out that these “traditional” forms were the result of the increased prosperity of (some) peasants during the previous century – “costume came to signify region, locality, class, wealth and marital status within a nouveau-riche peasantry” (1980 p.327).  Ulinka Rublack argues that the assumption that peasant costume was “virtually immobile for centuries” (2010 p.262) is inaccurate – it is rather a product of this desire to see the peasant as an unchanging model for the national spirit.  This links together:
A certain idea of history as common destiny, with an idea of those who ‘make history’, and that this interpenetration of the logic of facts and the logic of stories is specific to an age when anyone and everyone is considered to be participating in the task of ‘making’ history.  (Rancière, 2004 p.39)
This can obviously serve to give the peasants a sense of their own agency as a political and cultural force, but that requires the peasant to identify with the image of themselves with which they are presented.  If the identification only happens amongst the urban petit-bourgeoise who are looking for a hook to hang their nationhood on, then that can lead to a sense of “false” history of the type we are currently witnessing in right-wing populist discourse.
Taken in this sense one cannot help but see Rozalski’s paintings as a reactionary expression of nationalism – of the sort that is becoming grimly familiar across Europe, as borders are closed, and minorities hounded.  The depictions of military hardware and agricultural labour could certainly be seen as part the blood and soil traditions of mid-20th century fascism, but is this necessarily the case?  In his description of Kosciuszko Squadron on his website he refers to the 1920 war as being fought to preserve “Polish independence” which suggests, at least, an anti-communist position.  However, looking at Rozalski’s other paintings outside this series there is no indication of any particular attachment to the contemporary Polish national project, and the celebrations of pagan traditions certainly demonstrate no love of Catholicism.  Though this could be argued to be an alignment with fascist neo-folk paganism of the type discussed by Anton Shekhovtsov (2009).  While Rozalski’s more traditional fantasy works do not escape from the characterisation of all fantasy as essentially backward looking and reactionary (see Michael Moorcock's 1978 essay; Epic Pooh), they do have a healthy anti-authoritarianism that it is difficult to square with any sense of national superiority or ethnic supremacy.
The 1920+ images themselves are relatively neutral, the Soviet and Polish forces are not depicted in moral terms, and the peasants are largely indifferent spectators to the conflict – an exception being The Youngest Sister, though the implication here is that it is the familial relationship that causes the connection between soldier and peasant.  This brings to mind John Berger's quotation of a Russian peasant proverb: “Don't run away from anything, but don't do anything” (1978 p.346).  It is this peasant tradition that I want to turn to now. Rozalski might be accused of valorising his peasantry, at a point when post-communist Polish society is undergoing a second “modernisation” (Tymiński and Koryś, 2015), but these peasant values can point towards a site of resistance of the mechanisms of both the state and capital.
It could be that Rozalski's peasants are indifferent because they know that it does not matter if either the nationalists or the communists win – because neither side truly cares about the peasants, the only people the peasants can trust is each other. “Unlike any other working and exploited class the peasantry has always supported itself and this has made it to some degree a class apart.” (Berger, 1978 p.346).  The fact that the peasants have always been conscious of themselves as both producers and consumers of their own labour whose primary enemies have not just been the current ruling class (be that the bourgeoise or the industrial proletariat) who will extract their “surplus” before it is a surplus, but also both natural disaster but also the vagaries of war (ibid. p.347).  It is this situation that in the ideological conflicts of the mid-20th century led the revolutionary elements of the European peasantry to cast their lot in with the Anarchist cause, rather than the Marxist communists.  It was not until the emergence of Mao Tse-Tung that Marxism found a leader who could convince the peasantry of the value of communism.  He did this by “embracing and enhancing, local tradition permitting rooted people to turn to the distant national leader into that saviour their legends, emotions and situations had long demanded.” (Friedman, 1976 p.120).  Similarly, in Vietnam in the 1930s “the [Communist] party adopted the program of the peasantry not the other way around” – indicating that the peasantry could become a revolutionary political force, if convinced that the revolution would serve their interests (Scott, 1976 p.148).   The supposed inward- and backward-looking peasant conservatism is not therefore to be confused with the conservatism of national chauvinism – though it is often exploited by it.
Peasant conservatism, within the context of peasant experience, has nothing in common with the conservatism of a privileged ruling class or the conservatism of a sycophantic petty-bourgeoisie.  The first is an attempt, however vain, to make their privilege absolute; the second is a way of siding with the powerful in exchange for a little delegated power over the working classes.  Peasant conservatism scarcely defends any privilege.  Which is why, much to the surprise of urban political and social theorists, small peasants have so often rallied to the defence of richer peasants.  It is the conservatism not of power but of meaning.  It represents a depository (a granary) of meaning preserved from lives and generations threatened by continual and inexorable change. (Berger, 1978, pp.355-6)
This conservatism and indifference to the concerns that exist outside of those of communal survival is a vital mechanism for both the peasant’s security and their independence, the two being linking in the peasant’s mind.  It tends to manifest as an accumulated knowledge – mētis – that is opaque to the external viewer and is therefore dismissed as reactionary or unscientific by progressive political theorists whose worldview is grounded in the (post)industrialised proletariat (Scott 1998 pp.324-5).
With Rozalski’s paintings we are therefore presented with a number of interlocking and potentially contradictory themes.  Regardless of intention – there is unarguably a possibility that these paintings can be used to bolster nationalist rhetoric.  Their science-fiction-ness is of a type that plays with dark authoritarian themes, and the peasants can be taken as unreconstructed symbols of nationhood. But I have argued that this straightforward reading is not necessarily the only one available and that the shepherds and reapers with their, by and large, indifference to the war can be viewed in the tradition of the peasant as distrustful of external forces and their disagreements.  This argument fits in with a historical libertarian communist position that has been dismissed by orthodox Marxism – a dismissal that damages universalist pretentions of Marxism and makes the rural proletariat susceptible to conservative rhetoric.
 ***
Images:
ROZALSKI J., 1920 - The Youngest Sister.  [viewed 8 April 2020].  Available from: https://jrozalski.com/projects/gJ39yQ
ROZALSKI J., 1920 - Kosciuszko Squadron. [viewed 8 April 2020].  Available from: https://jrozalski.com/projects/aYq8J
ROZALSKI J., 1920 - Harvest. [viewed 8 April 2020].  Available from: https://jrozalski.com/projects/lV92e
Bibliography:
BERGER J., 1978. Towards Understanding Peasant Experience. Race and Class, 19(4), 345-359
CARROLL M.D., 1987.  Peasant Festivity and Political Identity in the Sixteen Century. Art History, 10(3), 289-302
CLARK T.J., 1973.  Image of the People; Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution.  London: Thames and Hudson
FRIEDMAN E., 1976. ‘The Peasant War in Germany’ by Friedrich Engels – 125 Years After.  In: J. Bak. The German Peasant War of 1525, London: Frank Cass, pp. 89-135
GIBSON W., 2018. The Science in Science Fiction [viewed 4 April 2020]. Available from: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/22/1067220/the-science-in-science-fiction?t=1586007308697
GREEN C., 2017. How Highlanders Came to Wear Kilts. In: Jstor Daily. 25 December 2017 [viewed 4 April 2020].  Available from: https://daily.jstor.org/how-scottish-highlanders-came-to-wear-kilts/
MOORCOCK M., 1978. Epic Pooh [viewed 4 April 2020].  Available from https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/en361fantastika/bibliography/2.7moorcock_m.1978epic_pooh.pdf
ORTON F. and G. POLLOCK, 1980.  Les Donneés Bretonnantes: La Prairie De Répresentation.  Art History, 3(3), 314-346
RANCIÈRE J., 2004.  The Politics of Aesthetics. London: Continuum
ROZALSKI J., Jakub Rozalski; howling at the moon. [viewed 8 April 2020] Available from https://jrozalski.com
RUBLACK U., 2010. Dressing Up; Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe.  Oxford: Oxford University Press
SCOTT J.C., 1976.  The Moral Economy of the Peasant, New Haven: Yale University Press
SCOTT J.C., 1998.  Seeing Like a State, New Haven: Yale University Press
SHEKHOVTSOV A., 2009. Apoliteic music: Neo-Folk, Martial Industrial and “metapolitical fascism”.  Patterns of Prejudice, 43(5), 431-457
TIMBERLAKE J., 2018. Landscape and the Science Fiction Imaginary. Bristol: Intellect
TYMIŃSKI M. and P. KORYŚ, 2015.  An Escape from Backwardness?  The Polish Transformation as a Modernization Project. The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, volume 75
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eclairsts · 5 years ago
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meowdy to one and all, step right up to be intrigued by the audacity of this dumb b-word. for intro purposes I’m ambie ! a 22 year old moron who has a reliance on tequila and loves to make reckless decisions that affect my social life later on ! i work for child and family services full-time and im, in school part time.  i’m a libra, i love to daydream and i’m really really nice and love talking to new people. anyway on to the main event !
is that sire eclair ordering a sugar free vanilla iced coffee at mocha ? i heard they’re a twenty three year old security guard. rumour has it he can be a little aloof, but also heartening. i guess that comes with being a gemini. they always make me think of bomber jackets & black jeans, lightning striking in the distance , music playing softly while you drive at 3 am.
sire éclair was born in rockford.  the mother was pretty much in and out of the hospital hours before and after his birth and the nurses and doctor never saw her again. a middle aged nurse present for his birth took on the role of being his care provider those first few days he was in the hospital.
sire is a type 1 diabetic. the medical bills attached to this child were insane therefore he was undesirable to prospective adoptive parents. sire requires insulin injects four times a day and must be extremely mindful of what he eats. sire is prone to hypoglycemic episodes.  
sire was in the foster system for the majority of his developmental years. he had no real attachments and the group homes he was brought up in were just there to support his basic needs.
he wasn’t brought into a genuine, real foster home in neighboring chicago until he was twelve. a woman named roxanne. they were meant to be. roxanne took him in and raised him as her own, and she made it feel like sire had been with her for years. at first he was extremely guarded and nervous to be around her with the fear of being abandoned, but roxanne worked with him and proved that she would not give up on him and that sire would be her son.
roxanne holds an extremely special place in sire’s heart, so much so that when he was old enough he took roxanne’s last name.
in his teen years, sire excelled in school and was actually very bright. he caught on quickly to concepts and ideas and sat at a 4.0 gpa. he did have friends, though no one he was particularly close with. his social status was pretty non-existent and he didn’t really care to engage in that high-school mentality.
he does enjoy music, loves to discover new songs and bands and would drive around with his mom or by himself to listen to albums. he does sing! but is like….pretty self-conscious about it.
when sire graduated he wasn’t exactly…keen on what he wanted to do. there was no dream; no desire to achieve one particular thing and roxanne would never push that on him.
he didn’t go to university, didn’t want to waste money on something to do just because the high school was pressuring him.
he does eventually want to go back, just not at this very moment and is taking some years to enjoy making it to adulthood.
sire became a security guard because he saw this security guard agency type thing post an ad and figured ‘why not’. the pay is really good and hours aren’t bad. he works in a few bars and clubs, rotates them every few weeks.
sire in animal form would be a cat, he’s very on-guard and prickly when he’s around unfamiliar people though eases up once he gets to know them.
sire would never say this but he’s got an incredibly deep rooted issue with touch? Not necessarily touch deprivation but…symptoms of it.
sire doesn’t drink due to his diabetes and if he does ever cave in it would have to be with food and could never get drunk.
sire wears a silver chain medical i.d, it looks very fashionable but  serves its purpose!
he’s been coming to mocha since he turned 18 because he loves the coffee and the syrup they use to flavor his coffee.
sire is always cold and cannot really handle heat. kind of like a reptile.
sire’s daily schedule looks like wake up, sugar check, eat & insulin, sugar check, wash-up, dress up, work out, eat & insulin & sugar check, coffee & read, then proceeds to go home to prepare his dinner, sugar check and have a snack then off to work. nothing really changes and there’s no one to engage with him besides his mom who he has a daily call-in with. (she’s out travelling the world right now)
he really needs more social interaction but he won’t say it, people need to like, kind of force themselves into his life for him to realize like ‘oh…this person wants to be my friend’
sire’s…definitely probably a virgin (he is) not that he never wanted to it’s just, he never had an opportunity and like…people and romance and feelings and sex are so scary.
he has a pet fish ? that is his live-in companion. sire calls him his son? his name is digit.
Mocha is probably like…one of his sole hang-outs besides work and the gym. He loves to go there on days off to sit in the corner and read.
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kiyabujayniah1996 · 4 years ago
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lunamanar · 7 years ago
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dare I inquire how your opinion of Squall, Rinoa and/or Seifer might have changed due to recent external influence? :D
[PLEASE NOTE: There is ableist mental health language in this post. It was not intentional, and I do plan to edit/clarify it later. I have to go to work now, though, so for now, just be aware of one thing–people diagnose with sociopathy/psychopathy are NOT default dangerous/criminal/nonfunctional people. I don’t want to demonize that word, and while that wasn’t my aim in this, because I spoke in generalizations, that’s what ended up happening. I’m sorry, and I’ll do what I can to fix it as soon as I have time.]
If I’m right about who this is, you probably know darn well, haha. Sure, I’ll throw myself to the wolves bite, though. 
For the longest time I had a fairly static impression of Seifer, in particular. And, don’t get me wrong, I still love (and to an extent, prefer) my original interpretation. But it felt solid enough to me that I was fairly sure I’d have trouble viewing him any other way, and that way is…well, it makes any pairing with him extremely difficult, let’s say that. Nothing made sense to me about him being intimate with anyone, main cast or otherwise. 
That’s…changed, a lot, over the last year. It’s really hard for me to explain how, though, without first explaining what my perspective has been, ever since I first played the game. So, here is what I will do. I’mma hang myself out to dry by posting the entirety of an explanation I gave to @strane-stelle​ about a year ago in a private answer to her ask about Seifer. And then I will explain what changed.
So, below is the unaltered text I sent in answer to her ask last year:
Hrm. I flail and spit about Seifer in private discussions with friends because I feel very strongly about his character, but my perception is that I have a minority view on him, and I absolutely don’t want to start fights because I know a lot of people love Seifer and have ideas about him they’re very attached to. A lot of people like him, and there are a ton of different and popular “versions” of him floating around out there. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he is at once a very strong character while also having relatively little face time in the game, so we’re left to fill in a lot of blanks. There are many ways you can take the behavior he presents, just because there’s a dearth of detail explaining it. I don’t talk about him openly a lot because I think the way I see him tends to fly in the face of how the majority does. I was thinking of doing a similar essay as I did for Squall but the fact is I don’t think my take on Squall is actually that far from the norm, so that wasn’t a very risky post by comparison.
So I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to answer this privately because frankly I am afraid of people getting defensive at me. I’m probably overreacting, but I worry a lot about hurting people’s feelings or making them feel they need to displace my ideas to defend their own. That’s not the sort of environment I want to foster and the way I feel about this, I’m afraid my tone could be problematic in a public post.
I have no issues whatever with people viewing Seifer as a damaged but ultimately redeemable dreamer who fell prey to Ultimecia’s power and was led around by his nose before being dumped on FH’s front doorstep. Or some variation thereof that lets him have connections and relationships.
My interpretation of him, however–and the interpretation I’ve had since the beginning–doesn’t allow for that. The key point is that most people seem to assume Seifer even desires meaningful human connection of any kind; and honestly, just based on how I view his dialogue and his actions, I don’t think he does. I’m not sure he’s capable of it. Love and friendship isn’t really in the cards for him: no Quistis, no Zell, no Rinoa, no Squall, no nothing. Despite claiming a romantic dream, Seifer wouldn’t know romance if it ran him over.
My base assumption is this: I do not think Ultimecia was ever, at any point, actually controlling Seifer. Showing him what he wanted to see, yes, manipulating, sure, but beyond that–it was all him. Right down to torturing Squall, casting off his two loyalists the moment they didn’t serve his purposes, and throwing Rinoa to Adel. He wasn’t insane with sorceress-muck in his head. Everything he said, thought and did was his own.
He has all the earmarks of a textbook high-functioning psychopath. Not a stabbity homicidal maniac, but more simply a total absence of what we’d traditionally understand as empathy. In his world, everything is either about him, or it's in the way. Unless someone can further his personal glory, they’re irrelevant. That’s the context of every social interaction he has. He is the end, and everyone else, without exception, is the means.
He doesn't think about things this way. He doesn’t think, “I don’t care about other people, I’m just going to use them to get what I want.” In fact, he’s not conscious of his own disconnect at all. He’s too focused on his ambitions, the next immediate step toward his dream, too wrapped up his own sense of greatness to waste time with introspection.
His romantic (read: heroic, epic, magnificent) dream solidified for him at a very early age, triggered if not defined by that ridiculous movie Laguna starred in (you’ll note, Seifer holds Hyperion the same way Laguna handles the Shear Trigger he was given on set). Seifer continued to self-insert himself into that role, eating up any and all variants of that story, including the book he regularly stole checked out from the library. But it wasn’t the romance of the story that interested him, per se; it was the fantastic victory of the knight, and the way he was (ha) lionized for the purposes of the legend. Yes, he served his sorceress, but the way the story told it, she didn’t really get the glory.
His dream does evolve as he gets older, but its premise remains basically the same. He gauges the worth of everyone he meets by how they fit into this story of his. Ultimecia was the only person who fit into the part of the sorceress he would champion. It wasn’t so much respect for her that made him willing to follow her as it was the allure of finally living out his own personal epic. Ultimecia, for her part, could see the unquestioning devotion to this ideal in his mind, and so was able to pull his strings with ease, both because he was not difficult to persuade and she saw some of her own grandiosity in him. I think she was later disappointed, but I digress.
Throughout it all, Seifer truly believes himself to be “the good guy,” without possessing enough of a moral compass to have any idea what “good” might be. He’s the good guy because he’s the hero. He’s the hero because he’s the Sorceress Knight. He was part of the disciplinary committee because heroes lay down the law. Nearly everything Seifer does is in pursuit of/acting out this ideal. Anyone who gets in his way is ruthlessly plowed down. (If you want to follow, that’s fine, as long as you don’t get in the way.)
To that end, Seifer doesn’t see tormenting people who are smaller or weaker than him as bullying. Again, it’s not a conscious thought process, “I’m gonna fuck with this person because it’s fun,” so much as he needs to constantly reassert his dominance in every situation. For all his undying belief in his own greatness, he cannot brook any suggestion that he is not the center of attention. That doesn’t mean he’s seeking leadership, specifically, but he’s not going to let anyone else have the spotlight, either.
This in mind, the “rivalry” take on Seifer and Squall’s relationship is, by my estimation, a gross misunderstanding of the actual situation. Even other characters in the game are guilty of misunderstanding it, and I think it's very evident that this is the case. I think it’s supposed to be clear that they’re not getting it, and it annoys Squall quite a bit, though by now he’s kind of used to it.
From where Squall stands, Seifer is not a bully, or a rival; he’s a monolith. He exists for Squall to test himself against, and he’s a consistent enough challenge that their “fights” continuously benefit Squall in his ongoing pursuit of skill-improvement. In addition, Seifer’s general blindness to the feelings of other people helped to encourage Squall’s distance from his own emotions. Where Seifer was concerned, they were irrelevant, and for Squall, that was actually quite a comfortable arrangement.
On Seifer’s end, Squall is probably the closest thing to human connection that exists for him, and only because of the major character role he plays in Seifer’s epic. A combination of the regular attention Squall pays him and the fact he takes Seifer seriously and gives him his full effort when they face off, not to mention the fact Squall can keep up, make him the perfect “counterpart” figure. I don’t think it is any accident that it is Gilgamesh who interrupts their final fight in the game. If you are familiar with the original Epic of Gilgamesh, there are just so many parallels between Gilgamesh and Seifer, and, conversely, Squall and Enkidu, it’s hard to imagine it’s coincidence. This “companion in his travels” motif is the sort of role I think Seifer originally envisioned for Squall, and having internalized that, even though ultimately the story was still about Seifer, it made it very difficult–if not impossible–for him to write Squall off when things started going south.
At the beginning of the game, Squall and Seifer clearly have an understanding, and Seifer is, if not friendly with him, excited by the prospect of Squall accompanying him to glory (only in his shadow, of course). Later, we watch Seifer scramble to rewrite the terms of his story, recasting Squall in various roles across from him, from villainous black knight to leader of a corrupt establishment (at least that one was somewhat correct). To everyone on the outside looking in, Seifer seems like he must be bitter or jealous of Squall (“Mr. Leader” and “I’ll show you who’s the better man”), and misinterpret this as part of an ongoing rivalry, but in my view it’s more simple frustration born from the fact Seifer is losing, and Squall is always there to challenge him at the apex of his grand summit.
(Squall, for his part, is pretty done with Seifer by the end of the game, feeling more disappointment, disgust, and yes, hurt than any sort of need to one-up him. Although I would not for a second call Squall’s connection to Seifer affectionate, the fact remains that up until Ultimecia, Seifer was, for all his unpredictability, reliable and familiar and, perhaps most importantly, there.
Without an ounce of fondness between them, Squall had gotten used to Seifer, and that made this subsequent downward spiral just one more example of someone Squall had come to count on leaving him high and dry.)
As for Rinoa, she’s no different to Seifer than anyone else. His interest in her had more to do with the potential for heroics as a SeeD returning triumphantly to take up the Forest Owls’ noble cause. In the entire game, his only mention of their “relationship” is in Galbadia Garden, if you happen to have Rinoa in your party when you fight him, and even then, it seems more aimed to taunting her as an enemy. Rinoa, SeeD, even Fujin and Raijin–Seifer’s dream takes precedence over all.
[Note: the following was in direct response to a post that had been going around about the orphanage kids having pets, which I had to bow out from because Seifer came up in discussion.] For this reason, the idea of Seifer having a pet makes me physically ill; as a child he would know no better but to do things to the animal just to see what would happen and what kind of reaction he could illicit. It’s not even strictly his fault, but when that came up in the thread I had to bow out. I just can’t. He’d torture it to death, not really having a clue he was doing so. Case in point: I don’t think he even imagined that what he was doing to Squall as torturing him, in D-district. Seifer was playing his role, and when Squall pointed out the role he was playing was torturer, he left, because his answer to any proof he’s anything other than the hero is to stop paying attention. He can’t stand to hear anything about himself that doesn’t directly support his worthiness for the role of the Sorceress’s Knight.
That’s the tragedy, of course: in the end, the only thing remotely “knightly” about Seifer is how noble he is–that is, as Helium. He can’t bond with anything.
That’s my Seifer: The Noble Psychopath. It’s not how most people see him, I know, and it’s probably terribly unsatisfying for a lot of Seifer fans because an incapacity for human connection precludes any chance for real romance with anyone, but at least to me, it makes sense and presents very interesting setup for character growth.
…Now that I’ve pinioned myself. 
I think all of this is sound.I still hold pretty strongly that Seifer is borderline if not patently a sociopath…and let me be as clear as I possibly can be: I’m not saying he’s evil, “crazy,” or even malicious…when I use the word “sociopath” or “psychopath” here, I’m not at all precluding him from being a good guy. Yes, I know what the word sociopath means. I also know what it does not mean, and it doesn’t actually mean you become a horrible, cruel person. It means you have an emotional handicap. That handicap can facilitate behavior we’d call “evil,” but there is so much research at this point showing that it does not have to and I don’t think Seifer is doomed to it, in fact I think he has a unique character path towards avoiding it, post-game. And I love that about him. I will still write him that way, in any stories of my own.
However…since this above response, my perspective on what makes sense for Seifer has indeed broadened. I’ve been moved to think that there is another explanation for Seifer’s behavior in-game that doesn’t just involve Ultimecia controlling his mind and making him do things, although it does assume that she manipulates him quite heavily. Making him hallucinate, for one; in the Timber TV station, for instance, when Edea appears and begins speaking to him: who is he waving to? Not his former comrades, certainly. It’s the same motion he exhibits during the parade in Deling City, as if he can already see the adoration of the populace greeting him. 
And, okay, but just because she’s making him hallucinate doesn’t mean the sociopath theory isn’t still in play. You can hallucinate and still have zero human empathy.
But…but. The other aspect of his behavior that I had not considered in this light, was his spiral. Yes, I still think it makes sense for Seifer to show greater and greater levels of desperation, denialism and self-delusion because of a sheer inability to concede that he is anything other than the center of the meaningful universe. But, taken in the context of hallucinogenic magic, it’s also the behavior of an addict. And the suggestion given to me for his spiral that I found fascinating, was that the ‘fix’ he was looking for wasn’t just glory…it was whatever euphoria Ultimecia was feeding him. 
It was rather clear about halfway through the game, Ultimecia was rather…done with Seifer. She gave him one last task, to find the Lunatic Pandora, with the promise that she would provide him with “dreams” again. Hmm. Can you imagine, what sort of “dreams” those might be? Ultimecia oozes sultry seduction. And I kind of love how the idea of her literally drugging Seifer with magic…which would fit nicely as a cautionary theme with Guardian Forces and para-magic adversely affecting the minds of those who “use” them…changes the narrative. It turns his sociopathy into an addictive personality. Which also neatly explains a lot of his compulsive, thrill-seeking, seemingly careless behavior. 
And yeah, it also means, instead of him being incapable of human connection, he more than likely craves it. But he craves it his way and most people just…don’t have what he needs, frankly. Not to mention, he just doesn’t really have a taste for subtlety, and so actually approaching someone to ask for anything is…bleh. Not his style. And that isolates him, which makes him want to get more attention, to show off more, get louder. Do anything to make sure people see him. 
There are two people in the game who do see him, and take note. One is Rinoa. The other is Squall. Squall I’ve already explained. Rinoa has a bit less structure behind her connection with him, but the basic framework of a relationship is there (whether you believe it to be romantic or not, on which the game is pretty unclear, in my opinion). She and Seifer have a lot in common: they thing big. They often act before they think. They are human wrenches in eeeeveryone’s plans. They are dreamers, first and foremost, unbridled, and this very needful version of Seifer, those commonalities have great potential for connection, given a second chance. Meanwhile, Seifer and Squall have their History. They understand each other, and in an ideal situation, each serves a very important purpose for the other that cannot be replicated anywhere else. More than rivals, or even counterparts, in this scenario, they are brothers. 
Therefore…I see no reason you can’t write a redemption/addiction recovery story for Seifer that involves Squall, Rinoa, or even both as potential friendship or even romantic options. “Both” is the most complicated, and the most interesting, so I like it the best. I won’t tell you it’s my OT3. It’s…not. But I like it. I like it a lot, if you can write it and write it well (and I know at least one person who can, ho ho). 
This is actually an…oddly personal response for me, and the perspective one that’s important, I think, because this is the first day I have felt…semi-normal, after a long, hard week of detoxing from prescription pain meds. It sucked, haha. I’m glad to be rid of them, but god damn, sorry, that stuff is hard to ditch even when you’re taking it as prescribed. It makes me imagine just how messed up you could potentially get on either sorceress magic or heavy duty para-magic. Makes even more sense that there’s a class of para-magic that is simply called Forbidden. Not even because of its destructive effects, oh no…but because of its enhancing qualities. Could you imagine “para-magic detox”? Getting royally screwed up on Meteor and Death and Pain and Metldown and dear god Aura. Ultima? Apocolypse? That stuff’ll kill you, haha. 
If I assume Hyne’s touch is like the world’s purest magical high, it rewrites 80% of what I see in Seifer’s actions, and opens up a very different set of possibilities between him and the other characters, for me. 
That’s one of the reasons I’m here…the more perspectives I’m exposed to, the bigger this game’s universe becomes for me, and that’s so important to me. Coming across a game-changer like this is rare for me, but if I let my theories be the end-all-be-all, I will miss so many equally good ideas and I’ll have less, in the end, of this game to enjoy. 
That’s not to say that any of this has to sit well with you. You can think both these theories are full of it, and that’s fine, haha. But…that’s my answer, to your question, “Anonymous,” (and one older one). I hope that at least as an explanation, it suffices, if not a pair of theories you particularly like, yourself. 
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moonlitgleek · 8 years ago
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Say Joanna lives and Tywin dies instead, how does that change things? Would Joanna as regent for the twins go with the double betrothal? Would the twins grow up healthy and happy? Tyrion? Elia?
Note that all of our knowledge about the double betrothal comes from Oberyn who certainly was not privy to whatever correspondence actually happened between Joanna and the Princess of Dorne. The Princess told Oberyn some parts and he filled in the blanks of the story with his observations and deductions, making him not the most accurate source of info. Here’s what Oberyn said about the double betrothal:
“Such a clever dwarf. Elia and I were older, to be sure. Your brother and sister could not have been more than eight or nine. Still, a difference of five or six years is little enough. And there was an empty cabin on our ship, a very nice cabin, such as might be kept for a person of high birth. As if it were intended that we take someone back to Sunspear. A young page, perhaps. Or a companion for Elia. Your lady mother meant to betroth Jaime to my sister, or Cersei to me. Perhaps both.”
Perhaps both. The wording makes it clear that this part is Oberyn’s conclusion and not something his mother explicitly told him. The fact that he was speaking of Joanna’s intentions is an enough tell of how accurate this information is, because Oberyn is not an authority on Joanna Lannister, neither was he privy to what she might or might not wanted.
Personally, I think Oberyn is wrong and that a double betrothal was never in the works. The idea of a double betrothal makes absolutely no sense from a dynastic standpoint, and I refuse to believe that the Joanna simply did not care about dynastic advantages. The political atmosphere of Westeros had been turbulent for years at the time and we’ve seen how the reign of Aegon V and the War of the Ninepenny Kings heavily influenced the political landscape and bred awareness of the power the lords of the realm have and how it could be consolidated into a power bloc against the crown. Joanna was not a political novice; she spent some years at court as lady-in-waiting to then-Princess, later Queen Rhaella and was the trusted confidante of the Hand of the King. She was well aware of the shifting landscape and conscious of the need for alliances, especially as Tywin’s relationship with Aerys was becoming increasingly frazzled. Joanna also lived through the misrule of Lord Tytos and knew how attentive Tywin was to asserting and consolidating the power of House Lannister. In that context, it’s hard to see Joanna planning for a double betrothal to the Martell siblings considering it unnecessarily wastes the potential of a marriage alliance with another powerful family. Besides, Joanna knew Tywin and so she certainly knew how difficult it would be to convince him of one betrothal to the Martells considering Dorne’s significant economic and military disadvantage compared to other more politically powerful families. To think she thought that she could convince him of two does not ring true to me at all. No, I sincerely doubt that a double betrothal was ever in the works, regardless of what Oberyn might think.
But that raises the question of which betrothal Joanna had in mind, which is relevant to the answer of your question. While the order in which Oberyn told Tyrion the betrothals were proposed in OTL (Cersei\Oberyn then Elia\Jaime) could indicate her preference, we simply have no way of knowing if this was the actual order the Princess proposed them in. Indeed Oberyns flipped the order around over the course of the conversation with Tyrion as seen in the above quote. It could be argued that that was the correct order of the suggested betrothals because the rejection of Elia as a bride for Jaime came with the “insult” of offering Tyrion instead, which certainly would make the Princess of Dorne far less prone to suggest another match to the man who just insulted her, whereas the refusal of Oberyn as a husband to Cersei did not come with an insult, despite how brusque Tywin was. But even if that was the correct order, was that the Princess’ own initiative? Or did she and Joanna previously agree on Cersei\Oberyn as the preferable or the more-likely-for-Joanna-to-convince-Tywin-of option? We just don’t know. We have no idea what the extent of Joanna’s involvement in how things played out was or even if she and the Princess agreed on a match rather it being a general idea of betrothing a Lannister to a Martell. Whatever theory anyone has is only conjecture based on minimal information but I fell down the rabbit hole thinking about this so why not make you suffer through it? Under a cut because no one has ever accused me of being brief.
The main point that we need to examine before we come up with any theory is Joanna’s motivation to arrange the betrothal. Here’s what we know: a maid at Casterly Rock caught Jaime and Cersei experimenting sexually sometime before Tyrion’s birth and the Martells’ visit. She notified Joanna who took measures to separate the twins by changing the location of Jaime’s room and appointing a guard on Cersei’s, and threatened the twins that she’d tell Tywin if they repeat whatever they were doing. If Oberyn’s info is accurate, there was some form of correspondence between Joanna and the Princess of Dorne around that time in which they plotted to have one of the twins betrothed to one of the Martell siblings. Oberyn noted the presence of a nice cabin meant for someone of high birth prepared on their ship, meaning that the plan was for whichever Lannister was getting betrothed to a Martell to return with them to Sunspear to foster as part of the betrothal agreement, which falls in line with Joanna’s attempt to separate the twins and ensure they cease their sexual contact.
If we accept that the betrothal is linked to one of the twins being sent away, this could suggest that the twin in question was Cersei. Girls don’t get fostered in Westeros unless it is a part of a betrothal agreement or a hostage situation\attempt to settle bad blood between two families, as evidenced by the low number of fostered girls we hear about compared to the boys, and how pretty much all of them were either sent away as a part of a betrothal agreement, or as a hostage for their family’s good behavior, or a mix of the two. Comparatively, in the case of Jaime, there was simply no reason for Joanna to go to the trouble of arranging a betrothal so she could send him away. Fosterage is a common practice for boys and so Joanna did not need a betrothal as a pretext for sending Jaime to serve as a page in Dorne. In fact, if a betrothal to Elia was to happen, it’d be more common for Elia to foster at Casterly Rock instead of Jaime going to Dorne. Actually, a betrothal to Elia would make it extremely unlikely for Jaime to be fostered in Dorne since this runs the chance of him becoming too attached and sympathetic to his wife’s family and later lavishing offices and honors on them, something that neither Tywin nor Joanna would be willing to risk, especially in light of recent history. The ghost of Ellyn Reyne and how she “made it rain inside the Rock all year” by filling the Rock with her kin, and later used House Lannister’s gold to elevate her house, had not yet left the Rock, and it definitely had not left Tywin or Joanna.
A deeper examination of what Jaime being fostered in Dorne would mean further proves how improbable it is that it was him that Joanna planned to send away. First of all, it’s hard to think that Joanna was under any illusion that Tywin would agree to sending his heir, the future of his house and a main part of his vision for the legacy and future of House Lannister, to Dorne of all places. Second, Joanna was no novice when it came to politics, she knew the importance of political image and the possible consequences of it deteriorating as she lived through the dwindling of Lannister name and power under Lord Tytos. She definitely knew that a boy’s fosterage could influence his image in the eyes of his future vassals (hence Aegon V being considered “half a peasant” because he spent time with the smallfolk over the course of his squiring for Ser Duncan the Tall). Jaime being fostered in Dorne runsthe risk of him being dubbed too-Dornish by his future vassals, especially if he showed favor to House Martell or picked up the Dornish fighting style. And that’s without talking about how choosing House Martell of all the noble houses in the Westerlands and Westeros would raise more than a few eye brows considering the limited political advantages Dorne could offer, the difference in culture, and how deep the prejudice against Dorne runs.
And if Jaime could not be fostered in Dorne but the betrothal was for the purpose of sending one of the twins to foster there to ensure their separation and the end of their sexual experimentation, that means Cersei was the one meant for the betrothal.
But Cersei was meant for Rhaegar, as per Tywin. Joanna must have known that considering how close she and Tywin was, and she surely recognized that a Martell second son can not compare to the crown prince of the Seven Kingdoms. But maybe Joanna was not on board with Tywin’s plans for Cersei? Joanna suffered from public humiliation and repeated brazen sexual assault at Aerys’ hand, something that neither she nor Tywin could do anything about or had any way to stop except by avoiding being around Aerys completely. Indeed Joanna stayed the fuck away from the capital once she was dismissed from Queen Rhaella’s service because of Aerys’ sexual advances. Aerys had made his desire and obsession with Joanna quite clear, and it’s telling that the biggest rift between Tywin and Aerys was reported after Aerys resided in Casterly Rock for the better part of a year, in close proximity to Joanna. Since wedding Rhaegar puts Cersei, who inherited her mother’s beauty, in close proximity to that sexual predator, Joanna could very well have feared that Aerys would use her daughter as surrogate for her or that his obsession would transfer to Cersei, putting her in a horrifying and dangerous position. So perhaps she was not dead-set on Rhaegar as Cersei’s spouse as Tywin was and just wanted to keep her daughter away from Aerys.
(Though this still raises the question: why the Martells? Yes, Joanna and the Princess of Dorne were friends, but Joanna must have known that she’d have an uphill battle with Tywin to convince him of either betrothal. Dorne is not the best political match there is, and there were plenty of available heirs to Great Houses who made a far greater prize than Oberyn. Perhaps the answer lies with Aerys? His relationship with Tywin was on the rocks by 273 and he had taken measures to undermine his Hand and curb his power. His madness and paranoia were also growing in tandem with Rhaella’s miscarriages and cradle deaths. Aerys had the power to refuse any match Joanna and Tywin made for their children, and perhaps Joanna was concerned that they’d invite his paranoia if they went to one of the more powerful houses? Or that he’d refuse to allow the match if he felt it offered his Hand additional power? House Martell is a prestigious Great House but they have limited military and economic power and so they would not tempt the king into opposing a match between them and the Lannister just for the sake of denying Tywin power. Maybe?)
Holy wall of circumstantial evidence, huh? I know, but we simply have very limited knowledge of Joanna (*shakes fist at GRRM*) and only bits and pieces about the betrothal attempt so I’m basically throwing darts in the dark here.
Anyways, it only took me nearly 2000 words to get here but… now to your question.
If we assume that Tywin died sometime before Tyrion’s birth and the Princess of Dorne’s arrival (erm, some freak accident while he was coming down from King’s Landing to the Rock?), I reckon Joanna would make a betrothal between Cersei and Oberyn, though perhaps after more time have passed after Tywin’s death, as she’d still want to get the twins away from one another since continually having a guard on Cersei’s room is not practical and would eventually raise questions. She would also want to keep Jaime close so he could know his land and people and so he could be present when court is held and train under his uncles. I don’t think there is much of a chance that Joanna would agree to a betrothal between Elia and Jaime, even if we strip the fosterage element and everything else away, because in the wake of Tyrion’s birth and Tywin’s death, Joanna would be overly conscious of her choice in bride for Jaime. We can safely assume that she would not want to risk Jaime’s chances of having plenty of healthy (and able-bodied) children to carry on the family name and secure the inheritance. Elia’s health and age would be seen as a detriment to that considering that the mother’s health affects her chances in carrying a healthy baby to term.
Now if Joanna betroths Cersei to Oberyn and sends her to Dorne as a companion to Elia, how does that affect Cersei? Jaime, Tyrion, the political plot? It’s difficult to say because there are too many shifting pieces, and endless possibilities. For example, how would Cersei fare in Dorne under the tutelage of the Princess of Dorne? She was only 6 or 7 when Tyrion was born and so it’s the Princess who would control her education and largely shape her personality. She would not suffer the emotional abuse and the constant dismissal due to her gender that she suffered at Tywin’s hand and so she’d be remarkably more well-adjusted. Of course it’s not all sunshine and rainbows because she might resent the Princess for taking her away from her home, and Oberyn for being the reason it happened. And what about Oberyn? He was a teenager at the time of the visit to the Rock so would he be content to wait for his child bride to grow up or would he seek other women in the meantime?
Now the good new is: no valonqar prophecy hanging over Cersei. She would not live with the expectation that Tyrion will kill her and so she wouldn’t make it her personal mission to destroy him. And then we’d be talking about a completely different Cersei and a completely different plot.
Those changes also probably butterflies away the Lannister incest and so Jaime does not join the Kingsguard. Does he get betrothed to Lysa? If Elia marries Rhaegar in this timeline, do the Lannisters still stay out of the Rebellion since they’d be stuck between the royalists and the rebels, or would they choose a side? Now if the Battle of the Trident happens in this timeline and the royalists are defeated, chances are King’s Landing goes kaboom.
And Tyrion. I doubt he’d have the childhood he deserves even with Joanna surviving, though he would not be as horrifically abused as he was under Tywin. But the extent of what Joanna would allow him or how exactly she’d treat him is unknown. As is how the incident of Tysha would get exactly handled by Lord Jaime. Tyrion wouldn’t go through the brutal experience of Tysha’s and his rape in this timeline but Joanna would definitely still want Tysha punished but in what way? And what would Jaime allow? We just don’t know.
Possible ripple effects also include Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia. One of the main reasons Aerys chose Elia for Rhaegar in OTL was to limit Rhaegar’s power by ensuring he did not gain the support of a militarily powerful family that could support him against Aerys. But if Elia has the Lord of the Westerlands for a goodbrother, that means that wedding her would give Rhaegar the support of both Dorne and Casterly Rock. Would Aerys’ paranoia and suspicion of the Lannister cool off by Tywin’s death so that he allows it? What would his relationship with Joanna be like anyway? Would he try to force her to return to court? Could he ever reach the point of putting Rhaella aside and making Joanna marry him? Would he use Jaime against her by “honoring” him with the position of royal page or cupbearer to hold him as a hostage against Joanna?
We. Just. Don’t. Know. Pick your favorite fic idea, I guess.
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reticexce · 7 years ago
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RETICEXCE’S RP PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET
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Mun name: birdie OOC Contact: instant messenger and asks ( bc im always on mobile ) or sky.pe and k.ik, if we’re close mutuals 
Who the heck is are my muse muses anyway:
alison clair: a fashion designer who used to be a prostitute and has experienced various toxic relationships in her life and still feels the effects of them even now ( self-hate, think she’s inadequate, thinks the toxic relationships are her fault in a way ). has lots of love to give, very creative and artsy, wears a lot of pastel colors and can probably make you an entire outfit if you ask her nicely. 
emile clair: ali’s twin brother ( he’s older! ) who is an overgrown boy scout but can’t go outside as much as he wants because he has an office job ( legal aid ). has a soft spot for plants, hates the other two male muses on this blog, awkward af around attractive people, hella gay but has been hiding this fact about himself for years and has only recently come to terms with it ( sort of ).
cedric privett: alison’s first boyfriend in high school; wealthy and sort of bratty but lives more humbly than people might think. is best friends with nate and teased emile for being gay in high school. verbally abusive to alison in high school. is currently a bartender who reads a lot and has to deal with drunken fights at his bar more often than he likes. will probably flirt with you muse a lot.
nate cain: a terrible person. ali’s second “boyfriend” in high school. took advantage of her in high school and her virginity. physically abused her and verbally abused emile for being gay. hates his parents because they treated him like shit and was in foster homes all of his childhood and early teen years. has bipolar II disorder. is currently djing for money and has a fucked up sleep cycle. 
Points of interest:
alison: is super nice and bubbly, loves cats and flowers, wears mostly pink, will scrapbook and take a lot of photos, will probably love your muse or grow really attached , can be super self conscious about silly things, pls take care of her.
emile: will probably invite your muse to go hiking or bird watching, loves the rain and succulents, stutters a lot when talking to strangers and does embarrassing things, is tol and can help your muse reach stuff. 
cedric: sarcastic, speaks in a proper manner, dresses like he’s all that because he can afford nice clothes, has read lots of books, will judge you on your drink choices, always looks like he’s making bedroom eyes at you probably, is fake af 
nate: looks done 97% of the time with life, replies in short sentences and in a monotonous tone, looks tired, probably never awake when you are, makes great music though and will call you out if he thinks you listen to trash, curses a lot 
What they’ve been up to recently:
alison: living day to day and trying to recover from her past. picking up a lot of hobbies and trying to keep herself busy and healthy ( though she could always use some extra help with the healthy part ). has just been assigned to work on a new fashion line with her aunt ( who owns the company ali works for ) so that’s been keeping her real busy.
emile: trying to not hate his job but it’s not working but at least his cat keeps him happy. trying to also come out of his shell more and get into the dating scene but that’s also not working as well. he’s learned a few new knots though so that’s pretty cool. 
cedric: not on the best terms with his parents but he’s gotta deal with them anyway, is co-owner of a popular bar, is trying not to remember alison and had to deal with nate’s bullshit even more now since he’s back in town 
nate: finally freed from high school and has taken a few college classes online but nothing to get a degree. really focused on making music with other collaborators and is hella enjoying the launchpad he got himself a few years ago. internally denies everything that’s happened with alison and is skipping out on therapy that he’s suppose to be going to for his condition 
Where to find them:
alison: at her office, at cafes, at fashion shows or charity events, the bar, her apartment, the park
emile: in his office at his father’s law firm, outside in park, at the farmer’s market, in his apartment, at a cafe, rarely at the bar but you can try, at marathons bc this boy likes to run, at the train station bc this boy hates to drive and cares too much about the environment 
cedric: at his bar ( the best place ), a bookstore, a restaurant or cafe, at his parents’ place, at a party his parents’ are throwing, at an office party he didn’t want to go to but got dragged into
nate: in bed, at a fast food place, at a night club or a strip club, at a bar probably getting into a fight, in an alley probably finishing that fight
Current plans:
alison: looking for more models for her clothes or for her photography hobby, sketching, trying to not skip meals, and trying to find her prince charming ( or someone to hook up with and make her feel useful and safe ). is thinking about going to school one day to become a nurse but that’ll have to wait when she has more money saved up.
emile: is also thinking about going back to school bc law is now the path for him but who knows what he’ll do ( he’s thinking history ). really determined to get back into the dating scene and meet cute people but social anxiety is an awful thing and he needs lots of patience to overcome it. really wants to get back into hiking 
cedric: taking care of nate, trying to please his parents but also trying to piss them off at the same time by having more hookups, is pretty happy with where he is in life though taking care of nate can be real draining
nate: live through the self hatred and make music to keep himself sane, currently in a stable relationship with someone so that’s always exciting. he doesn’t really do much, but he’s living so that’s good for him 
Desired interactions:
alison: more toxic relationships bc she always seems to attract people that aren’t so good for her, and i like to cause her pain, old clients or new ones since she does have a harlot verse, gal pals are the best, and ?? really difficult people?? i’ve always wanted to see how alison handles difficult people. oh and one night stands bc a girl has needs
emile: more dates, emile crushing really hard on a male muse and it’s possibly unrequited or emile just hasn’t had the guts to tell your muse yet and one day he just blurts it out, someone teaching emile how to kiss or hike up his flirting game 
cedric: be his friend and bitch about things with him, try to be his sugar baby and see how far it takes you, call him out for being so fake
nate: former one night stand coming back and trying to get involved in nate’s life even though he has a gf, someone nate got in a fight with recognizing him and trying to get a rematch, roommates au tbh 
Offered interactions:
alison: is super helpful and nice so she’s always willing to help your muse out or keep them company at like a bus stop or something. known to strike up random conversations. will offer to help fix a hole in your muse’s clothes if it ever happens ( like a wardrobe malfunction ). likes to try new foods and see new things so invite her out and have fun!!
emile: will tell you lots of stuff about his plants if you ask ( or just nature in general ), is really good at painting and wouldn’t mind helping you impress someone you like by painting you a picture and selling it to you, has really good taste in coffee and can help you find the right brew, will let you pet his cat if you’re sad. 
cedric: he’s pretty good at telling when people have had too much so he’ll shut you down real quick if you ask and he’s certain you’re shitfaced, he has a lot of good recommendations when it comes to books, he probably won’t remember you if you told him you guys slept together but you can always remind him 
nate: lmao nate never wants to come out but if you’re looking for a fight or wants someone to play video games with nate is your man 
Current open post/s:
open tag is here!! mutuals only please.
Anything else?:
hi a shy bean in central time zone. i love multiple thread with the same person and i dont mind if you send me ten memes, love me 
Tagged by: @tiivadvabadust ( indirectly! ) Tagging: idk man this was a long thing to fill out bc i had so many muses if you wanna do it then go for it and lemme see!! i would love to see!!
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thesimplyluxuriouslife · 8 years ago
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Learn How to Love: 26 Ways to Love Fully
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #136
~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate: iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio
"It's never too late to learn anything for which you have a potential . . . and the limitless potential of love within each person [is] eager to be recognized, waiting to be developed, yearning to grow . . . If you want to learn to love, then you must start the process of finding out what it is, what qualities make up a loving person and how these are developed. Each person has the potential for love. But potential is never realized without work. This does not mean pain. Love, especially, is learned best in wonder, in joy, in peace, in living." —Leo Buscaglia, in Love: What Life is All About
Nurture or nature. Acquired or known. A natural or skilled. There are some capabilities we each have that come more naturally to us: the ability to sing like a songbird or swim like a fish. This is not to say that practice and expert coaching won't help, but in each of these instances, there is an innate ability that advances the individuals that apply themselves to such great lengths others may not reach. On the flip-side, there are skills that anyone can learn if they choose to, and here is the good news. One of these skills is how to love. We are not born knowing how to love well. We learn by observing those who raise us, observing the world we are born into and by what we read, view and absorb. The catch is not all of us are watching how to love well. Some of us will have a distorted view, some of us will be limited by what we see while others will observe healthy, kind, thoughtful ways of loving. While there are many wonderful ways to express love, there are essential components, and that is what we'll be discussing today. And if as an adult you have come to discover the models you observed were not healthy, you can absolutely change and become a student again learning how to love well, and thereby enriching your life moving forward. Life, a well-lived and savored life, is a life asking of each of us to acquire skills to be successful. As I mentioned yesterday in the first post of 2017, often those of us who make mistakes along the way as we travel through life are not trying to make mistakes or incapable of improving. Instead, we are doing what we were taught, what we know. We are less skilled. But we can absolutely improve. Take a look at 26 ways you can learn to love well: ~A more detailed discussion is shared on today's episode of the podcast, so be sure to download and take a listen for further explanation on each point. 
1.Experiment with your own life
"Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life." —Herbert Otto
2. Forever be a student
One cannot give what they do not possess. To give love you must possess love. One cannot know what they do not study. To study love you must live in love. One cannot appreciate what they do not recognize. To recognize love you must be receptive to love. One cannot have doubt about that which they wish to trust. To trust love you must be convinced of love. One cannot admit what they do not yield to. To yield to love you must be vulnerable to love. One cannot live what they do not dedicate themselves to. To dedicate yourself to love you must be forever growing in love. —Leo F. Bascaglia
3. Cultivate your own contentment
"When we feed and support our own happiness, we are nourishing our ability to love."
4. Find, unearth, your true self
"Be able to love, heal and accept yourself, so you can then offer these gifts to others."
Many times we seek out love in order to alleviate our own suffering, and the suffering is due to a conscious or unconscious refusal to take the time to get to know ourselves.
5. Be mindful
Coming to understand how to create moments of joy for yourself enables you to give that joy, thus the love, to others.
6. Be kind
7. Practice love
One must live love. Take action.
8. Stop objectifying love
Love is not a thing to possess. You already have it, love, within you, now you just need to tap into it, foster it, practice it and then live in love.
9. Build within yourself trust, self-respect and confidence
10. Become a good listener
Learn your partner's "love language".
"To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love. To know how to love someone, we have to understand them" and that begins with listening well. —Thich Nhat Hanh
11. Stop labeling
Stop making assumptions, stop jumping to conclusions. Let go of stereotypes about cultures, groups, etc.
12. Let go of being perfect, and just be human
"A base for love and the potential for growth in love is also present in each man. Love is then a process of 'building upon' what is already there. Love is never complete in any person. There is always room for growth."
"If you know, accept and appreciate yourself and your uniqueness, you will permit others to do so. If you value and appreciate the discovery of yourself, you will encourage others to engage in self-discovery."
13. Be vulnerable
"Man may know that only by being vulnerable can he truly offer and accept love." —Leo Buscaglia
14. Open your palm
"And then, the lover, to learn and to change and to become, also needs freedom. Thoreau said a wonderful thing: 'Birds never sing in caves.' And neither do people. You've got to be free in order to learn." —Leo Buscaglia
15. Let go of expectations, but have clear boundaries
16. Cease placing conditions
"Others can and will only give what they are able, not what you desire they give. When you cease placing conditions on your love you have taken a giant step toward learning to love."
17. Be patient
"The human seeking love will find that love is patient. The lover knows that each person can enhance [their] knowledge of love and bring them closer to themselves . . . each person will grow at their own rate, in their own manner, at their own time, by way of their unique self. Therefore, it's helpless to berate, judge, predict, demand or assume. Love must be patient. Love waits. This doesn't mean that love sits passively forever, if necessary, for the person to grow. Love is active, not passive. It is continually engaged in the process of opening new doors and windows so that fresh ideas and questions can be admitted."
18. Learn how to communicate well
19. Become an expert of understanding your own emotions
20. Meet your emotional as well as your physical needs
"A human's basic psychological needs are these. She requires to be seen, recognized, appreciated, heard, fondled, sexually satisfied. She must be allowed the freedom to choose her own way, to grow at her own rate and to make her own mistakes, to learn. She needs to accept himself and other human beings and be accepted by them. She desires to e an 'I' as well as a 'we.' She strives to grow into the unique individual that she is."
21. Be present 
"Love lives in the moment."
22. Believe the world is good because it is 
23. Help others reach their full potential
"As soon as the love relationship does not lead me to me, As soon as I, in a love relationship, do not lead the other person to themselves, this love, even if it seems to be the most secure and ecstatic attachment I have ever experienced, it is not true love."
24. Create an everyday life to savor
"Another responsibility of love is to create joy. Joy is always an integral part of loving. There is joy in every act of live, no matter how menial or repetitive . . . you can make the day a chore; dull, nerve-wracking, frustrating, a waste of time. Or the same day can be taken on with energy, enthusiasm and a determination to make it one of the best days of your life, for yourself and those about you."
25. Stand in your strength
"It is the weak who are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong." —Leo Rosten
26. Become love
"For to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the dedicated, the knowledge of the scholar, and the fortitude of the certain."
  Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, the allegory of true love" https://youtu.be/MCmZ2jrQooE ~Books mentioned in the episode: ~Love: What Life Is All About by Leo F. Buscaglia ~How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Petit Plaisir
~Books for Living by Will Schwalbe
   </p> <h5>~Subscribe to<em> The Simple Sophisticate</em>: <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/simple-sophisticate-intelligent/id910273945?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-simple-sophisticate" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> | <a href="http://www.iheart.com/show/263-The-Simple-Sophisticate-In/" target="_blank">iHeartRadio</a></h5> <p>
Tune in to the latest episode of The Simple Sophisticate podcast
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ap-trash-compactor · 3 years ago
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“So? What’s so bad about leaving the J/e/d/i?” Discourse really misses the boat by ignoring like............... all of human nature. Tbh while I get that it all comes from a good place, a lot of the defenses of the order I see miss that boat pretty hard.
Human beings raised in the kind of setting the order provides typically display a range of attachment deficits. The kind of letting go Lu//cas posits as a central tenet of the order is indeed extremely healthy as a conscious, mindful practice undertaken by mentally healthy and emotionally stable adults, although honestly it seems a bit extreme even there, unless a person really knows why it’s right for them personally to go that extreme, but the kind of group home setting the order provides via the crèche typically does not provide the best environment or best advantages to human children in terms of growing up to become those adults. It’s not the environment we’re meant to grow up in, it’s not healthy. It doesn’t mean kids who grow up in group home settings are reprobate psychopaths, or even remotely bad people, just that there’s a range of research indicating that this setting is associated with a pretty predictable set of personal struggles throughout the rest of a person’s life.
Secure attachment and the stability it creates is the only real basis upon which Lu//cas’ vision of healthy detachment can actually be built, and the order’s methods of child rearing by definition can not foster it. Group home settings predictably and consistently fail to do so, not out of malice, but because the format simply does not permit it to happen. In Ana//kin’s case, he’s got a secure attachment to one person, sure, but it’s developed in a profoundly unhealthy environment, and the pressures, demands, mores, and expectations of the environment he transitions into can’t be doing him any favors.
What’s the pressure to stay, then? People want to belong! People want to have a place they belong, and it’s very hard, often prohibitively hard, to conceptualize the light at the end of the tunnel when you leave the place you’re in to find or make a new one. That’s why so many people in the real world stay for so long in so many toxic situations. When you have a place and sense of your belonging in that place, it is very, very, very hard to leave, unless people who love and support you are actively encouraging and helping you to do so. And if you fear a negative response to your desire to leave, asking for that support is incredibly, immeasurably difficult. That’s just human nature.
How do you think that works for a kid in Ana//kin’s position, when his new “family” has shrines to people who left as if they’re fucking dead? Sure he could still have left... but what’s the message he’s actually receiving about leaving? What’s the message he receives from this group about forming strong bonds to people who are t part of that group? Frankly it seems like the Je//di aren’t all that good at distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy attachment, or at fostering the healthy ones in order to make it easier to avoid the unhealthy ones. If they were, the ~lost 20~ wouldn’t be statues in a shrine. They’d be guests at order picnics every weekend. And if the order were better at understanding healthy vs unhealthy attachment especially in young human beings who are still developing mentally and emotionally, Ob//i-Wa//n’s answer to Ana//kin’s dreams about his mother wouldn’t be “you have to learn to let go.” It would be “well why don’t you give her a call?” and if that goes poorly, then it would become “do you need some time off to go check on her?” That’s meeting a human need. That’s balancing the human need for healthy attachment against the human propensity to become obsessive (ie — unhealthy attachment) as a result of uncertainty, insecurity, pain, and powerlessness. And that’s something that frankly we don’t see the order do well. We know we don’t see the order do that well specifically because we have the example of how they handle Ana//kin, objectively, onscreen. And the fact that any criticism remotely in this vein is leapt on, shredded, and shouted down as mean spirited anti-Je//di agitprop is pretty fucking crazy to me.
Like if you see this critique and you think “this means OP thinks the Je//di are directly personally responsible for Va//der and OP thinks they deserved to all be killed,” instead of thinking “OP recognizes that the order had some failings that were probably contributing factors to parts of this mess, because that’s how tragedies work, and tragedy is the dramatic genre to which the PT belongs, and also OP thinks fandom discourse ought to have room for a more detailed discussion of what the order’s shortcomings might be,” like... that’s a you problem.
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capitalfitness · 7 years ago
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5 Concrete Ways to Develop a Healthier Relationship With Your Phone (No Blocking or Deleting Apps Required!)
For many of us, our smartphones have come to feel like another appendage. We carry them wherever we go, fondle them during meals and conversations, and sleep with them next to our pillows. Wherever one is, so is the other.
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However, unlike our typically unabashed appreciation for our physical limbs (arms and legs ftw!), our feelings about our smartphones tend to be quite a bit more mixed, if not downright negative. We bemoan the ever-present desire to check and toggle their screens and the way they fragment our thoughts, prevent us from doing any deep work, and make it difficult to focus on the friends and loved ones around us. This is likely especially true for those who are old enough to remember a time in which you went about your daily activities — to class, work, the gym, dinner — without this constant companion in tow; who are old enough to remember a state that didn’t feel deficient but wonderfully unencumbered and simple. A time when boredom had to be faced nakedly, with only the inner resources of the mind, and a friend’s face was the most engaging thing in the room. A time before the itch.
There are things you can do to loosen your attachment to this technological appendage, which include deleting or blocking certain apps on your phone, and which we detail here. I can say from experience that these methods are extremely effective in reducing your phone’s attraction and thus how often you check it.
But installing apps to block other apps can seem a bit like a hair-of-the-dog kind of cure, and relying on external blockers doesn’t fundamentally change your relationship with your phone.
To modify that relationship, it’s helpful to develop some concrete habits — a set of more embodied behaviors — that tangibly shift the place of your phone away from the center of your life.
Here are 5 we have field-tested and heartily recommend:
1. Don’t check your phone first thing in the morning.
It’s been said that how you start something is how you’ll finish it, and nothing could be truer when it comes to what you do immediately upon rising. If you check your phone first thing in the morning, you are absolutely, positively setting yourself up for a day of distraction.
For many people, their phone’s alarm wakes them up in the morning, and the very first thing they do when they open their eyes is to unlock its screen. You become dependent on the glow of this artificial sunrise — and the way it switches on the drip-drip-drip of dopamine release — to feel aroused and get going. But in giving your brain that hit as its very first reward of the morning, you prime it to look for more of the same throughout the day.
If you want to set yourself up for a day of focus instead of distraction, then try to keep yourself from looking at your phone for at least 15 minutes — the longer the better — after you get up. Even better if you kickstart the day with the very opposite of smartphone surfing — an activity that actually requires concentration — like prayer or meditation.
In keeping this habit, it’s obviously hugely helpful to not keep your phone by your bed, or even in your room, so, as we’ll mention below, don’t go to sleep with it at night. Instead, you’ll need to get yourself a regular “old school” alarm clock. There are plenty that offer noises beyond the annoying beep-beep-beep you may associate with these devices, even some which simulate a sunrise, silently waking you with a bright glow of light, but without an attendant urge to immediately check Instagram.  
This habit makes a huge difference in how your day goes, so if you implement nothing else from this article, DON’T CHECK YOUR PHONE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!
2. Don’t take your phone in the car/on errands.
Here’s what happens when you take your phone with you on the go: you check it at red lights in the car; you check it while standing in line at the grocery store; you may even check it while you’re driving, even though you know this is horrendously dangerous.
Even if you leave the phone in the car while you do some activity, like, say, going for a run, you’ll check it right before you start and right after you return — bookending that mind-clearing experience, whose effects could have started sooner and lingered longer, with a dive into noise and distraction.
So just leave your phone at home when you’re out and about (or if you’re driving to work where you’ll need your phone, put it in your briefcase in the backseat or in your glove compartment). I know this may sound extreme — don’t people need to be able to get ahold of you? But as someone who came of age pre-cellphones, people used to be completely, utterly fine without being reachable 24/7. When’s the last time you really, truly got a message while you were doing an errand or working out that had to really, truly be answered right then and there? Unless you’re in some kind of high-pressure job, it happens very, very infrequently. Instead, you typically check your messages and emails while out . . . and then wait until later to answer them! If you’re honest with yourself, the need you feel to take your phone everywhere isn’t about staying in touch with others, but the itch to remain in contact with the stimuli they send you.
Of course, I realize that people use their phones to play music/podcasts in the car and while working out, so this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule; rather, it’s an encouragement to treat as many of your little trips as possible like pockets of tech detox, where you can recalibrate your itch for your device and better keep it under control. I’d mention though that you might consider using something like Sirius XM in your car as an occasional alternative to phone-generated music, and trying a quiet workout every once in a while; it’s a good opportunity to practice the spiritual discipline of silence.
3. Leave your phone in your pocket during meals/conversations.
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Studies show that even the visible presence of a phone that’s turned off inhibits people’s conversations; subconsciously worried they’ll be interrupted by the device, folks stick to shallower topics. So don’t put your phone on the table during a meal, nor hold it in your hand when talking to other people, even if you don’t actively check it. Keep it tucked away in your pocket or a bag, and be completely present and focused on those around you.
4. Keep your phone hidden away when you’re working/reading/watching television.
In a study done on diets and food intake, researchers found that participants ate more candy when it was placed in a clear jar on their desks, but less when candy was stored in a opaque jar, and even less still when the opaque jar was placed six feet away from them. The result makes simple intuitive sense: the more directly something is in your line of sight, and the more easily accessible it is, the more you’ll think about it, and the more you think about it, the greater the temptation becomes, and the greater the temptation becomes, the greater the chance you’ll eventually give in to it (it’s hard to say no over and over again).
As with candy, so with smartphones. Even if your phone is turned off, if it’s sitting in sight on your desk, your brain will be thinking about its desire to check it. Even if you’re not conscious of this desire, it will still be niggling in your mind, continuously colliding with your impulse control, and back and forth the two forces will fight. Eventually your willpower will be worn down, and you’ll give up; even if you do manage to hold out for a while, the battle raging between check/don’t-check will invisibly suck up your mental bandwidth and weaken your focus.
To eliminate the Pavlovian prompts that will induce you to check your phone, keep it completely hidden when you’re working, reading, or watching television — when it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. If all you can do at the moment is hide your phone behind your laptop, even that helps. But the farther away it is, the better: if you can put it across the room or on the other side of the house, do it; your mind kind of files it away as “unavailable,” doesn’t want to bother with the energy required to retrieve it, and stops thinking much about it so you can concentrate on other things. I find that when I put my phone in a different part of the house, it even helps to go a step further and put it inside a drawer; that may sound silly, but it seems to prompt the brain to deep-six the idea of checking it even more.
5. Don’t keep your phone by your bed.
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71% of Americans (that number rises to 90% among 18-29-year-olds) sleep with their phones in or near their beds. You’ve probably heard how bad this habit is for your sleep, what with the emittance of all that blue light and the potential urge to check a notification that arrives in the middle of the night. But it’s also terrible for fostering a dependent relationship with your phone; it is strange to ponder that a glowing screen is the last thing millions of people see before they close their eyes at night. That which we bring into our bedrooms and beds are the things most intimate to us — do you want your phone to be one of those things? To cuddle up to those cold circuits as a security blanket?
Instead of training your brain to think of your phone as an appendage that even nestles down between your sheets, let your relationship with it end at the threshold of your bedroom door; leave it to charge in the kitchen or living room, and instead take a good paperbound book into bed with you to close out the day.
Then, when you wake up in the morning, your phone won’t be there when you roll over, and you can begin the day without it, naked, but not afraid.
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Abortion
spontaneous miscarriage is ane of the most controversial topics of each(prenominal) metres. It has ca apply countless deaths and s ever soal baseless confrontations amongst the two sev whilelize parties of ruling. The fight between pro- life historyspan and pro-choice supporters has been long and brutal. This is because, patronage what several people whitethorn believe, still digest is neither in force(p) nor wrong. It is the function of a face-to-face opinion, where, each side afterward part say with certainty that the opposite geniusness is wrong. \n\n The question remains, should spontaneous spontaneous miscarriage be legal? though some may protest on this point, the f act as is that legalized abortion is the tho mode to nourish the moves of women around the world. If you look into American history to see the results of prohibiting abortions to women, you exit see that no abortion designates a good buy women dead. The violence, which occurs straightaway because of the pro-choice/pro-life conflicts is stripped- mint in comparison to the thousands of dim women who solveed to illegal abortions--either ego-inflicted or preformed by the backroom professionals-- which resulted in infection, broad blood loss, and death. It is straightaway since the abortion is legal bankrupt for women, because they feed a place to go to where abortions can be performed in a clean purlieu and with minimum risks. The legalization of abortion is the just straight choice, no guinea pig what side one takes in the debate. Women bequeath try to do what they think is necessary to proceed as they wish, no topic what the risks atomic number 18. In order to harp as she chooses a adult female may shake off up her freedom, her morals, her beliefs, her family, or as yet her life. \n\n spontaneous abortion has been around for some age in all inhabit corner of the world. It has always been true as a mean(a) to prevent the suffe ring of two the charr and her potential tyke. Abortion has been practiced widely in every society for many an(prenominal) a(prenominal) reasons including famine, war, poverty, overpopulation, or simply because a cleaning woman felt she was not ready for a small fry (Whitney 40). No one ever questioned a womans proper to this procedure. aft(prenominal) every(prenominal), who tho God had the right to judge what a woman did with her own body? This eyeshot process lasted till the 1800s. During the era of change people began to turn their attention in a current direction, the foetus. They began to protest abortion as cruel, inhumane, and dischargeous. Filled with a refreshed ace of solve and the glory of a fresh, worthy cause to uphold this impertinently morality swept the countryside enclose everyone in its wake. Abortionists who were erst adore and dep revokeed upon were now scorned and threatened. though abortions still happened with regularity, they were kept mum and seen as a matter of pity. Over the next nose candy years, public sen clock timent for the foetus continued to rise until the fatal happened in America during the too soon 40s; Abortion was made illegal. (Cohen 17). on that point was much back patting and kudos among the pro-life supporters. And why wouldnt in that respect be? They had succeeded in saving the drop deads of the hundreds of innocent babies who would grant been senselessly slaughtered for the convenience of selfish, ignorant, and commanding women. Because of this new virtue, women would settle down and raise families or give these beautiful children over into the pass on of the hundreds of loving couples who were equitable postponement for a baby to rallying cry their own. It seemed that the perfect law had expert been passed. Or had it? \n\n It has been proven time after time passim history that the human touch sensation will not get out forbidding. Some intimacy inside us feels the sho ot to strike out at that, which restrains us and holds us from the life we penury. Just as prohibition of alcohol made a black market for spirits a virtual inferno was immediately erected to fulfill the new unavoidableness for abortions. Government, by regulation, had once again created a need that would be fulfilled by the lawless. more or less doctors, fearing incarceration, refused to treat the women who so dreadedly extremityed abortions. Women, visual perception no separate response to their problems, were practically heroical tolerable to turn to these Back inhabit clinics. These clinics were located in poverty-ridden sections of the metropolis and their conditions were deplorable. The places themselves were layered in disgustful dirt and diseases. Inexperienced butchers victimisation dirty and crude equipment interact the girls. As if these backroom clinics were not kindly ill enough, at that place was an even more appalling stopping point a woman talent bedevil faced. If a woman wasnt able to pay the overprice price for the illegal surgery, she would frequently perform the act herself. knit needles, coat hangers, antiseptic douches and poisons were used most often (Welton, 123). soupcon rooms primarily in the more urban aras were coverage higher numbers of obstinate bleeding to the point of death. pelvic inflammatory disease and other forms of life threatening sepsis were on the rise. Self startd inebriety was another complication. (Boyer, 98). \n\n One function most people do not think near is the foetus. If, as some say, life and the sense of self set most at conception, how many atrocities fetch been caused by the incompetence shown during this time? Some may query what drove these women to such extremes ripe to keep back and abortion. Why didnt they righteous work the baby? \n\n The respond lies in our most prefatorial human instinct: to stomach as beaver as the woman can. These women wanted to live their lives as they chose, not the way it was chosen for them to live. Being strained to bear a child could mean having to support it and big(p) up dreams of a better life. Also they might consecrate been pressured into a shotgun nuptials to save their reputations. In the check Back Rooms, by Ellen Messer, a woman named Liz, explains her reasons for having an abortion. People surrender said to me, How can you be in favor of abortion? If youd had one, you wouldnt capture these beautiful children. solely I would cast had them. It just would pick out been later when I was better prepared to trouble for them. And maybe they would have a nicer man for their father. I would have been more prepared and all our lives would have been so much easier. Even though I love my children dearly, I ruefulness that I did not have an abortion when I was attached the option. I should never have let others influence my decision. (29) \n\n For many women, being forced to deal with a c hild would mean placing it into the dust. It is comm only when thought that every orphan is just temporary, that on that point is a family out there waiting for the child with surface arms. The truth of the matter is that many families do not want children unless they are white, healthy and pretty. near of the others are either dragged through the system until they are 18 or sent to live with foster families who are sometimes uncaring or even abusive (187). All women are aware of these realities, and many, refused to bring a child into the world and have it live such a way of life, which makes abortion their only way out. \n\n Also there is the fact that many women want to hide their present distinguish from families or employers. They know that they could be disowned or fired for their calamitous state. They are desperate to keep their secrets, so desperate in fact that they are willing to risk their lives. This is a risk a woman shouldnt have to take. In the book Abortio n: A Positive Decision, Mrs. Lunneborg states that The desire not to have a child is by far the best reason for an abortion. There are enough unwanted children in the world already.(18) And so these women risked, and often lost, their lives in these illegal abortions. If they were caught afterwards, they were supercharged with murder. But is abortion murder? \n\n Abortion is defined as The induced termination of maternalism before it is capable of survival of the fittest as an individual (Frohock 186). Considering this definition, at the time of most abortions, the fetus is not an individual. The definition is far too unsophisticated. One postulate to take into consideration the developmental stages of the fetal life span. \n\n Most abortions occur soon after the confirmation of pregnancy, which is usually earlier to the 12th week. The rootage 12 weeks are known as the first trimester or the embryotic phase. At this time the fetus is most 3-3.5 inches long and has a w eight of 15-20 grams. The neurological system is primitive at best, demonstrating only vague swimming motions (Rosenblatt 37). The scrap trimester heralds a time of quick growth. At about four months the mother usually first perceives fetal movement. At 24 weeks the brain resembles that of a mount up somebody. The fetal weight is about 650 grams. (39) The third trimester is from 24 weeks to birth (approximately 40 weeks.). At 26 weeks the nervous system begins to mould some body processes. (40) When fashioning the conscious decision to stamp out the life of the fetus one must take into deem the development of the fetus. One of the approaches might be assessing the neurological development. It is only logical that the more composite plant the neurological system is the more likely you are to induce pain or end a sense of self if in fact that sense exists prior to birth (Frohock 28). In many ways it is akin to the decision to pull the spark plug on a individual laying in c oma. Here, one must decide whether or not to withdraw that which the person needs to survive. Yet the decision to terminate the life is not considered murder but an act of the deepest humanity, an opinion that contrasts greatly to the shame and impatience faced by an aborted mother during the time of the crowd together anti-abortion attitude. How long would women suffer this mental anguish? (Haddok 132) \n\n Based on the information, presented in the Roe vs. wade case, the Supreme Court govern that a woman was allowed by the Constitutions 14th amendment to receive an abortion before the first trimester. It now appears that the pro-choice advocates had won the governmental tug-o-war at last. However, violence continues between the two groups as the animosity and resentment has grown to new heights. Now, more than ever, research articles are coming out about a womans right to concealing vs. a fetuss right to life. The law may have been passed, but the war goes on. \n\n In cultivation no matter what a persons opinion on abortion is, women have always had abortions, they have them now and most probably will always have them. It shouldnt be for anyone but the significant woman having the actual abortion to decide on whether or not it is the best thing for her. 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