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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 year ago

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By: Yasmine Mohammed

Published: Oct 24, 2023

In 2016, there was a march in Washington D.C. billed as a "Women's March" during which millions of women paraded down the streets in the name of women's rights—some of them carrying posters of a woman in hijab. As a woman who risked her life to remove that hijab off my head, I was furious at how people could be so ignorant as to appropriate a tool of female oppression as a symbol of women's freedom. The Islamist propaganda was so successful that these well-meaning women, who seemed like bright and educated individuals, actually bought the lie that this tool of misogyny was a symbol of women's empowerment.

More of you now share in my rage—now that you know about Mahsa Amini and have seen the Women Life Freedom protests in Iran. Now that you have seen women burning their hijabs in the streets and protesters being gunned down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, many of you can comprehend how grotesque it was to wave a hijab at a Women's March.

But at the time, you didn't know. You were useful idiots of a very large, very powerful, and very well-funded propaganda machine.

I tried to tell you. For the past seven years, I have been singing the same tune to anyone who would listen. I wrote articles, spoke on countless podcasts, went on the nightly news in countries across Europe, North America, and Asia, my message clear: Beware this alliance between the liberal Left and the Islamists.

In 2019, I published my book Unveiled with a clear subtitle: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam. I used my own story growing up in Canada in an extremist family who married me off to an Al Qaeda terrorist to illustrate this unholy alliance between the radical Left and the radical Muslims. I risked my life to tell you all this. I understood that I could potentially be putting myself and my whole family in danger to get this message to you. I did my best to tell as many kind-hearted, altruistic Westerners that they were being duped and being used as useful idiots.

And duped you have been. A dozen Muslim majority countries execute people for the "crime" of homosexuality under Islamic Law. People are executed for renouncing Islam; there is no religious freedom, no freedom of speech, no freedom of personal expression under Sharia. It is the antithesis of liberal or progressive values.

Hijab is not a choice for the vast majority of women. Girls and women are abused tortured and killed by their families in honor violence and honor killings across the globe over this piece of cloth. Women have been imprisoned in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Perhaps most importantly for today's context, radical Islam is viciously antisemitic.

How can a group of people who bleat about diversity and inclusion be aligning with a religion that claims that even the earth itself hates Jewish people? Which hopes and predicts that a day will come when even the rocks and trees will call out, "Oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me! Come kill him."

I have been shocked and infuriated that I have to explain over and over again that water is wet. How is this not so obvious already? And even though I spend nearly every single day in this endeavor, screaming like Cassandra warning about the Trojan Horse, even I didn't realize how right I was. Even those of us who have been watching this alliance over the years between the radical Left and radical Islam did not see this coming.

It's as if the subtitle of my book leapt off the page and is now walking down the street chanting, "Gas the Jews."

It is now personified in university leaders and politicians who are posting pictures of paragliders and celebrating the mass execution and torture of innocent people.

There could not be a more clear example of western liberals empowering radical Islam.

As Claire Lehmann, founder of Quillette, put it on X, "I have been covering the toxic ideology for years. But if you had told me a month ago that this ideology would lead more than half of Americans under 25 to justify and excuse the torture and mass-murder of a minority group, I would not have believed you."

We are at a very important moment in history. We are at that moment that so many of us have talked about and thought about while studying history or after watching a World War II movie: What would I have done? Would I have been one of those Germans who hid their Jewish neighbors in their attics protecting them from the genocidal Nazis? Or would I have been one of the many Germans who was too scared to do anything but comply? Or worse: Would I have been one of people who was convinced by the hateful propaganda?

Wonder no more, dear reader. Your moment is here.

Plot twist: it turns out the people calling everyone "Nazis" were the real Nazis all along.

#Yasmine Mohammed #israel #palestine #hamas #islam #islamic terrorism #down with hamas #radical islam #islamism #antisemitism #religion #exterminate hamas #free gaza #free gaza from hamas #religion is a mental illness

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educationalcardsgame · 11 months ago

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Final self reflection

At the project's inception, I harbored a profound enthusiasm for the subject matter, as it resonated deeply with my personal convictions. Upon collaboration with my colleagues, it became evident that our diverse backgrounds served as wellsprings of inspiration, despite none of us having undergone primary education in the Netherlands. However, as we progressed beyond the initial ideation phase, we encountered invaluable feedback during our collaborative sessions. This feedback necessitated a significant directional shift in our approach. Consequently, we collectively discerned that our overarching mission was to equip students with the essential skills of self-reflection to mitigate potential errors in their academic and vocational pursuits while instilling in them the confidence and conviction to navigate life's challenges. This realization underscored the project's broader significance beyond mere educational orientation, encompassing broader societal issues such as self-belief and empowerment.

As a team, our collective aim was to imbue students with the capacity for introspection, facilitating not only immediate self-awareness but enduring self-understanding throughout their lifetimes. Drawing from my background as a fashion designer committed to fostering individuals' self-esteem through apparel, I redirected my efforts towards conceptualizing a game that would foster internal empowerment through reflective practices. This endeavor enabled me to develop a nuanced understanding of societal needs, fostering a heightened awareness of the mechanisms that drive productivity and innovation within our communities.

As a pre-master's student, my personal development plan (PDP) underscored my commitment to honing my design and user experience (UX) design skills, emphasizing a radical departure from conventional aesthetic-driven design paradigms toward a focus on functionality and sustainability. While I successfully addressed certain deficiencies in these areas, I acknowledge the existence of missed opportunities, which warrant further discussion. Engaging in extensive research broadened my appreciation for design's potential to positively impact children and adolescents, fostering a profound sense of purpose in my work.

Furthermore, my role within the group extended beyond mere technical contributions; I assumed the mantle of a positive influence, advocating for collaborative harmony amidst the inherent challenges of diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Although confronted with setbacks and interpersonal tensions, I remained resolute in my commitment to fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment, albeit acknowledging room for personal growth.

Reflecting on my performance within the group, I would assign myself a modest rating of 45%. While instrumental in propelling the project forward, I recognize the need for continued improvement, particularly in fostering effective communication and resolving interpersonal conflicts. However, these challenges have provided fertile ground for personal growth, enabling me to cultivate essential leadership and communication skills essential for future endeavors.

In conclusion, the project served as a crucible for personal and professional growth, affording me invaluable insights into the intricacies of collaborative teamwork, effective communication, and adaptive leadership. Moving forward, I am committed to leveraging these experiences to inform my future endeavors, fostering a more inclusive and empathetic approach to collaborative innovation.

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heavyweightheart · 3 years ago

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when i was in recovery, it was peer-support communities that saved my life. it was the cost-free, non-hierarchical, radically fat positive and anti-diet, community-based mutual aid groups that made my recovery and so many others’ possible (messy as our work together sometimes was). now, many years after we created those types of communities out of necessity, i don’t see them anymore. everything is professionally mediated by a clinic or a brand or a program or a nonprofit.

it may be that my experiences were anomalous even at that time, or it may be that as size-inclusive and anti-diet movement has been coopted by the mainstream, they have become entirely the purview of professionals.

i want to encourage you all to create your own recovery communities. make discords, facebook groups, whatsapp groups, in-person meetings, meals together. take a leap and try things. some of our efforts fizzled and some lasted for years. but as food & body support becomes increasingly the domain of profit-driven professional endeavors, we will need more and more to stake out our own territories, and to be radical about what care looks like.

#talk to me about this--i will help as i can

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dustedmagazine · 4 years ago

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Apartment House on Another Timbre: Three Perspectives

If you survey the website of Apartment House, you won’t find an “about” page or any exposition of the ensemble’s history or philosophy. While such reticence is rare these days amongst artistic endeavors of any stripe, the very lack of information tells you something about Apartment House’s raison d’être. It’s all about the work, and the ensemble’s role is to make performances that are about the music, and not Apartment House’s take on the music. This renunciation of ego makes sense when you consider that the ensemble’s name derives from a John Cage composition; one of Cage’s intentions was to envision music that was open to the world and wasn’t about assertions of selfhood. Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze founded the ensemble in 1995, but its recording career didn’t get into gear until 2013.

Since then, the group has released 22 single or double CDs covering work by contemporary composers ranging from Cornelius Cardew to Christian Wolff to Linda Catlin Smith to Ryoko Akama. With a rotating membership, performances range from solos and duos to chamber ensembles. Thirteen were issued by the Another Timbre label, including three titles at once in late 2020, each presenting the music of a single composer — Martin Arnold (b. 1958), Antoine Beuger (b. 1955) and Maya Verlaak (1990). The act of releasing these albums simultaneously affords a chance to consider how Apartment House engages with the different intentions and requirements asserted by each composer. Dusted writers Marc Medwin, Michael Rosenstein and Bill Meyer cover the three recent releases.

Maya Verlaak / Apartment House— All English Music is Greensleeves (Another Timbre)

All English Music is Greensleeves by Maya Verlaak

Múm was an Icelandic group with singers channeling the wisely innocent voices of children while a lush landscape, rife with music boxes and other liquid-crystal sonorities, multihued the adjacent soundspaces. There is something similarly open about this music, something so unpredictably predictable, so comforting, so quietly inclusive! Belgian composer Maya Verlaak delves to the depths of experience’s networks while observing from just far enough to escape the iron grip and rationalizations of memory. This is music in which even the harshest sounds melt into a winning simplicity, a world of sound and sense in symbiosis.

It would be too easy to point toward modality to explain such a beautifully optimistic vision. After all, “All British Music is Greensleeves” tears that increasingly irrelevant construct to shreds in a hurry as two layers of sound, one prerecorded, spin bits of the tune down the dimly lit corridors conjoining memory and reflection. Chord, cluster and motive blur boundaries, even as space ensures a tidy trail of readily identifiable components needling consciousness reluctantly toward recognition. It’s a world with which Ives or Mahler might have made contact, had chamber music been more in their sights, such are the buds and blooms of poly-event amidst distantly lit string writing that refuses to answer Ives’ perennial question. The unfurling harmonies, formed of motives in quasi-counterpoint, are inextricably linked with their kaleidoscopic timbres. Recurrence is both evident and backgrounded but none so blatant as the delicious silences, almost periodic, separating the streamlined multivalences. Fortunately, as with many Apartment House recordings, vibrato is nearly absent.

The “Formation” pieces place a similarly subversive emphasis on relationship so subliminal that a simple listen won’t unlock the door or open the blinds. Any hats doffed toward conventional chord or set are quickly displaced by the gentle but insistent winds of change emanating from a vocal imperative or an intoned repetition. Mark Knoop and Sarah Saviet are in something near dialogue with overlapping technologies guided by a compositional voice whose questions also seek a malleable answer. The openness at the heart of Verlaak’s work stems from the various paths through subversion, re-subversion and integration integral to the majority of these pieces. What, in the case of “Song and Dance,” do performers do when confronted only with the analysis, or justification, for a musical score rather than with the score itself? What happens when the justification becomes the score? How is it possible, practical or desirable to confront musical parameters neither heard nor witnessed? The wonderful thing about such conceptions is that they really form the metanarrative of all artistic endeavor. No art, no matter how explicit, relinquishes all of its secrets, just as no single pitch or sonority, even those as pure as Apartment House offers with staggering consistency, is the actual embodiment of that sound. Composers and performers deal in approximations, and it is to Verlaak’s credit that the processes have been rendered at least partially transparent with such beautifully cooperative forces to give them form and voice.

Marc Medwin

Martin Arnold / Apartment House—Stain Ballads (Another Timbre)

'Stain Ballads' by Martin Arnold

This is the second release on Another Timbre by Canadian composer Martin Arnold, the first being The Spit Veleta a 2017 program of violin and piano solos and duos by Apartment House members Philp Thomas and Mira Benjamin. This time out, Arnold provides the group with a program consisting of a solo, a duo, a quartet, and piece for sextet. Across the four pieces, the composer balances a sense of lyricism with a fascination with the abstracted concept of “formlessness.” In his interview on the Another Timbre site, he puts it this way when asked about the title of the CD. “Stains are… radically specific – always stain-shaped. They might remind one of something – like when one looks at the inkblots of a Rorschach test (though significantly, they don't have Rorschach's added symmetry) – but they don't present a form, a coherent outline, a generic structure that can be abstracted and distilled; with a stain, form and content are the same thing. My work continues to aspire to that condition.” Each of the four pieces here delve in to the way that melodies and themes can be opened up to ride the edges of lyricism and abstraction.

The program opens with “Lutra” for solo cello and humming performed by Anton Lukoszevieze. The piece starts out with arco themes colored with hummed and bowed diaphanous overtones. Hovering at the upper registers of the instrument, threads are introduced, slowly progressing, punctuated occasionally by softly plucked notes. Staying within the same set of registers as well as harmonic and timbral areas, Lukoszevieze lets the notes resonate and serenely decay. In the last section the piece moves to percussively plucked notes with poised slow resolve, fading to hushed resonance in the final moment. “Stain Ballad” follows, orchestrated for cello, piano, viola, two violins, reed organ, and percussion. Arnold voices the various layers in a slow flux, moving in and out of synch with each other. The ensemble does a sterling job of maintaining an overall balance so that no one particular instrument is ever the sole focus. Instead, the various parts wend along as various subsections of the ensemble coalesce and then dissipate in to the mercurial overall flow of the piece. The striated parts adeptly take advantage of the timbral synergies and contrasts of the instruments as one moment, string arco melds with reed organ while in other sections, the percussive attack of Philip Thomas’ piano, the woody retort of Simon Limbrick’s percussion and pizzicato strings shift and shudder across each other.

The pairing of Lukoszevieze’s cello and Mira Benjamin’s violin on “Trousers” dives in to specific techniques like the utilization of multiple mutes, bowing with the wood of the bow, hushed microtones and a sliding sense of harmonics. Arnold talks about it, noting that “the sound of “Trousers” is certainly at odds with a “good” Classical sound: I shut down projection, fullness of tone, resonance, the consistency, stability and predictability of the sound being produced.” Over the course of the 22 minute piece, fragments of melody, muted textures and quavering string overtones play off of each other with measured consideration. Themes play out, get subsumed into the progression of the piece and then resurface. The recording closes out with “Slip,” a quartet for cello, violin, bass clarinet, and piano. The piece takes its name from the Irish slip jig, a jig that is in 9/8 as opposed to the usual 6/8 and a slowed pace accentuates the odd time signature. For the first quarter of the piece, cello, violin and bass clarinet move in woozy unison, lithely navigating the precarious phrasing. Pianist Mark Knoop’s entry, a quarter way in, introduces spare chords that serve to unsettle the phrasing even further, though the quartet never wavers in their assuredly ambling momentum. As the piece proceeds, the four parts veer off from each other, with lines dropping in and out. High-pitched violin arco sounds against crystalline piano chords making way for pizzicato cello and piano. The final section featuring Heather Roche’s dusky bass clarinet playing brings the piece to a transfixing conclusion. On Stain Ballads, Arnold continues to expand on his strategies toward opening up and abstracting melody, balancing compositional form with a sense of “formlessness.” With the members of Apartment House, he has found worthy collaborators.

Michael Rosenstein

Antoine Beuger / Apartment House—Jankélévitch Sextets (Another Timbre)

'jankélévitch sextets' by Antoine Beuger

In 1992, Antoine Beuger cofounded Editions Wandelweiser, the publishing arm of a community of like-minded, post-John Cageian composers. Along the way he has taken on the roles of artistic and managing director. Since Wandelweiser is a collective, his stewardship of the label and publishing arms makes him influential, but not an authoritarian figure. Quite the contrary. On Another Timbre website, there is an interview with Beuger that raises a provocative point about the authority of the score. He compares the current position of a classical composer to a perspective prescribed by Christian theology. The composer hands down rarefied instructions, which he (Beuger emphasizes the masculinity of this approach) best understands, and leaves to others the work of realizing his often very difficult and inscrutable instructions.

With Jankélévitch Sextets, Beuger takes a different approach. It is the fourth in a series of pieces that he wrote for specified numbers of musicians. Each composition deals with relationships implied by that number, and each does so employing mainly quiet, sustained tones. Additionally, each acknowledges a cultural figure; in this case, the Franco-Russian philosopher, Vladimir Jankélévitch. Beuger cites his appreciation for two of Jankélévitch’s ideas. First, music has no itinerary; it flows unpredictably. Second, sounds appear by disappearing. The latter point makes sense if you consider how you notice phenomena only after they stop. One suspects that if Jankélévitch was a fan of mid-20th century American music, he’d have had a lot of time for William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water (Till The Well Runs Dry).”

Beuger’s piece consists of repeated statements of a close bundle of long tones, each followed by a brief silence, with instruments insinuating themselves or dropping out during each pass. While the name is plural, the music is presented as a single, 64:20 long track, which asks the listener to accompany the ensemble through its entirety. The instrumentation consists of accordion, bassoon, bass clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass, which affords many opportunities for similar-sounding pitches to ease shift between close harmony and beating difference tones. This is not music that tugs at your sleeve; neither ingratiating nor imposing, it’s there if you wish to approach it, cycling through changes that reveal sounds by removing them. The music locates the essence of six-ness not in some contrapuntal exchange that draws attention to all the voices, but in the way that a group can persevere over time by allowing its members opportunities for respite. Apartment House’s treatment of this material captures its subtle balance. It takes discipline to blend sounds so patiently, and even more to do so in a way that don’t ask you to admire their restraint.

Bill Meyer

#dusted magazine #albumreview #apartment house #antoine beuger #vladimir jankélévitch #maya verlaak #martin arnold #another timbre #contemporary composition #marc medwin #michael rosenstein #bill meyer

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jellypipemedia · 4 years ago

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Art Industry and Equality

The Artist Industry, an industry that lets self-expression come out in a number of mediums.

As an Artist myself, i can tell you how wonderful it has been to have a creative outlet like my multimedia. To express my ideas and watch the momentum of my work turn into something special. As many other Artists, it’s hard to find that validation and legitimacy in the industry that defines you as a professional and makes your career into more than a ‘hobby’. Some find that struggle more intense than others.

The idea that ‘All Artists have to struggle’ is a common ideology but beyond that- do all artists struggle in the same ways? Of course not. This could be combated with a number of different perspectives based off of different talent levels and different environments but commonly, artists are not given the same opportunities based off of more than just their talent. Different aspects come into play.

The Artist Industry has been known for their inclusive atmosphere and supportive community, but is it set apart from any other industry when it comes to addressing equality issues?

Misogyny/Trans-Misogyny , unequal opportunities based on gender, lack of recognition and the power struggle of legitimacy have all played their part in work industries all over- and the artist industry doesn’t escape that narrative.

A common theme that i find more than any other is women, queer, non-binary, and Fem artists struggle to find their power behind their art because they are usually dismissed, deemed illegitimate, or seen as ‘just a hobby’, or they could ‘make it a real job someday’. Their work isn’t given the credit it deserves or the recognition of legitimate work. Opportunities are missed quite often as work lays in favor of social stigmas and safe investments in uncomplicated people seem to flourish regularly.

Stewing over my thoughts on this, I reached out to my social media circle looking for more perspective on the situation. I was able to connect with a couple of people, ask them their thoughts on how these aspects of the industry have affected them on a professional level and their influence on the industry . I want to keep the dialogue going about this and would love to hear more about the perspective of women, queer, fem, non-binary artists on the industry that claims to be so inclusive.

With that being said, I had a great opportunity to talk with the Founder of ‘Siren Nation’. *

Diving into ‘Siren Nation’ media, I came across their ‘LinkedIn’ page. Their Mission Statement spoke to me and left me wanting to dig just a bit deeper into the foundation of their cause.

“Siren Nation is a unique arts organization that showcases and creates performance and exhibition opportunities for women throughout the year. We are the only women’s collective that produces an annual festival showcasing the original work of women working in music, film, performance and visual art.

Siren Nation’s mission is to inspire and empower women of all ages to create their own art and to highlight the many achievements of women in the arts.”

When I was connected with Natalia Kay O’brien, I didn’t know much about Siren Nation or where our conversation would lead too. I had an idea of where i wanted to take this project, not having much more than a foundation and urgency to keep learning more about the perspectives of women identifying, queer and non-binary.

So, I asked if she’d be willing to help me out by telling her story and giving us an insight on her perspective of the industry.

Natalia:

I'd be super happy to help! There's an amazingly rich queer music scene in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. That is a big part of the reason I moved out here!

From 1999-2010 i produced a lot of events that centered queer folx -some from out of town, some in town.

Jay:

Awesome! I appreciate that a lot about Portland and the PNW. I've grown up in Portland most of my life.

Natalia:

Lucky you!

Jay:

What are some of the events that you produced?

Natalia:

I started out doing house concerts for a spoken word artist out of NYC, then booking shows for/with traveling queer female artists i got connected with over time. I ended up doing the booking for mississippi pizza for a couple of years and got some more experience there producing shows--generally national folk acts--and booking artists. That helped me begin to get more familiar with the local music scene and get introduced to some amazing artists like Laura Gibson, long before they broke out.

My experience and frustration, with the local music scene's dearth of female and queer presence and opportunities to get the kind of exposure that festivals offer, inspired me to found Siren Nation, an organization dedicated to promoting and empowering women artists.

As a queer woman I made sure that there was a strong queer presence during my tenure. We were supposed to have ‘Gossip’ headline the first festival and 3 weeks beforehand they broke their contract!

The seven years I spent with Siren Nation exposed me to new queer artists. Unfortunately, at that time, there was no such thing (in terms of identity) as nonbinary, and we didn't put enough effort into be trans inclusive. We produced, and they still do, 2 tribute nights, one for dolly parton, one for billie holiday, that have been happening annually for something going on 15 years! and then the annual festival, in november, which i produced from 2007-2010.

Jay:

That's absolutely awesome that you contributed so much to the queer/fem community. I know how intensely hard it can be to demand that recognition and be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the world. It's no small thing. Can you give me an example of a time where you’ve experienced misogyny/trans-misogyny that directly affected your work as an artist?

Natalia:

I was tired of not seeing enough women and women-fronted acts on local festival lineups when there were SO MANY amazing female bands. My work as an artist (visual) has been almost entirely a private endeavor. however i do think there is a correlation between the fact that i considered my drawing 'doodling' and i'm a woman. I made art for years before I took on the identity and claimed it. I still squirm a little.

Jay:

I can totally understand that. I deeply feel like the accomplishments of women are often made out to be 'A nice hobby' or 'could be a job someday.'

Natalia:

Yes, exactly.

I can tell you as a booking agent for queer female artists in an industry that is heavily male, did not make for the most hospitable environment to work in. Getting club bookers to book an artist whose press kit screams 'radical feminist lesbian" let alone that she was doing spoken word which was just emerging...well, ultimately all they cared about was whether we could fill a room. There were some venues that didn't want to deal with us, in more conservative parts of the country, i.e. midwest and southeast.

I think trans-misogyny was unfortunately a little baked into Siren Nation in the sense that trans women have remained almost invisible within that space. Not enough queers involved with siren nation after I left!

So I tackled showcasing as many media as possible--music, film, visual arts and later fashion and comedy.”

Jay:

That's a powerful tool in today's world too. Being someone who is involved in a variety of media ( myself as well) is a powerful weapon to today's world of perspective. We have a lot more influence than people credit us for. Have you been affected by any people that are positive influencers in the queer community/have given inspiration to you personally?

Natalia:

The artists inspire me!! That's part of why I produced events because I truly believe in the artists and want to help them connect with a larger audience and want people to get exposed! Bands like Team Dresch, who really blazed trails for queer women punks, all around the country at a time when there was virtually no queer presence in media. Beth Ditto and Gossip, for being fearlessly brash, unashamedly fat, and a force! Women who were unafraid to be loud when it wasn't the norm yet--Sleater Kinney, Bikini Kill too!--inspired me and they were tackling issues that I cared about as a feminist in ways that I didn't see straight women doing.

I will never ever forget seeing Bikini Kill and Kathleen Hannah telling all the 'boys to go to the back'. It blew my mind having stopped moshing b/c it wasn't safe and she demanded and created that space

Jay:

I can definitely vouch for queer punk artists being a heavy influence in the queer community and causing pressure on 'social norms'! It's very empowering and the women in the scene are not a force to be reckoned with. It's still astonishing how such a positive and empowering movement got met with so much resistance.

Natalia:

Kinda like what I wanted to do with Siren Nation. Yeah, some people can't handle a strong woman especially if she is in any way not gender/hetero conforming.

Jay:

I'm sure Siren Nation impacted a lot of people to be the ferocious and powerful people they knew they were.

Natalia:

I hope so!! I know it was a space where, for example, at the tribute shows, artists got to meet and mingle backstage, and spontaneous collaborations would happen.

Jay:

That's the best part of festivals in general. Bring artists from all over and to create that opportunity for networking and creativity.

Natalia:

Right!??!

Practically every female artist who has broken out nationally performed at Siren Nation at some point and offering free workshops was an important way for us to empower and encourage women to create and make their own art.

Jay:

That's awesome! Does Siren Nation still have a website that I can reference too?

Natalia:

Yup! Sirennation.org

As an audience, I found festivals an amazing opportunity to get exposed to new artists.

Most of the language there that is about the organization, like mission statements and values, is mine.

Jay:

So why have you decided not to produce events for Siren Nation more recently? or does the organization take care of itself nowadays?

Natalia:

I left in 2010 because i was pursuing a masters degree, basically decided to pour all the hours and energy i had put into siren nation into a degree that would get me a salary for doing that kind of work. My co-founder December Carson has stayed at the helm and kept it going all these years. There are some longtime volunteers who help at events.

My dream that someday it could be a salaried job I finally realized was not going to be feasible

Jay:

That's a positive transition out of the organization tho! Did you get your master's degree?

Natalia:

Yes! It helped to know that it would carry on after I left, because it was my baby and I was very attached! It has thrived over the years due to the dedication of the board members who make it happen. New blood comes in, and then they add fashion and comedy. It's been neat to see how it has evolved over the years and yes, I got my Masters, in Public Administration.

Jay:

That's so so so good to hear Thank you so much for talking with me today- you have really been insightful and this is truly very inspirational to hear as a queer woman in the multimedia industry!

With ending our conversation, I felt like I made a breakthrough on what direction I wanted to take this project and found the encouragement to keep pushing through the media and highlight these amazing women, non-binary, and queer people.

We lack recognition for being who we are while we make it in this industry. We struggle and fight back - gaining ground and getting traction.

I’m excited to see where this project takes me and I'm glad to have you all on this journey. Stay alert for more to come!

#Art Industry #art #journalism #punk #punkscene #inequality #queer #trans #woman #women

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crashinglotus · 6 years ago

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The 10 Principles

RADICAL INCLUSION

All kinds are welcome.

I say welcome to people every day.

Inside Willis Tower is a wall that says "WELCOME" 3 feet tall and in 15 languages. People's eyes light up when they recognize their native words. We receive guests from all walks of life, from every country and culture. Learning how to treat all our guests with equal fairness is a constant work in progress.

In our increasingly global-complex-connected society, every single person has work to do on being better at radical inclusion.

Our prejudices fail to define us. They may protect us, help us navigate reality. We define them. Taking opportunity to create something new instead of reinforcing a negative prejudice is a win for the universe.

And when people feel welcome, when they feel free to exist as their true expression of self, they bring warmth and smiles. They are agreeable. They work with you. We work together.

Incredible things happen when we work together with positive intentions.

I felt radically welcomed by my Camp Bisco friends. By the group at the Ten O'clock camp out. By my teachers and peers at Central Crossing. By my Cypress family, spending time together at retreats. By my family, who have tried very hard to understand. By my loves in this life. By strangers and one-chance-encounter friends.

The growing I have done because of people following this principle is invaluable.

This is the last of the Ten Principles of Burning Man (told in cat memes) I will reflect on. It is my intention to continue focusing on Burning Man as the festival completes, and begin looking ahead to attending the event next year for Burning Man's 30th anniversary.

Experiencing Burning Man would be the penultimate moment of learning and understanding my humanity, which I realize more and more, is my calling in life.

I hope you will all find your own ways to support me in this endeavor, whether sending out a few words of positive intention to the universe, or giving me guidance and emotional support as I work with all my being to make the event my reality.

Some of us take different paths. When I dream, my path leads me to Burning Man. So I'm taking steps to start getting there.

Be light. Be love. Believe. 💚

PARTICIPATION

Yes, life is a participatory act. No room for spectators. Especially at Burning Man.

Certain events in my life turned me from a spectator to a participant. This change was gradual, subtle, and also spurred on by instant moments of huge transformative power.

I've tried brain change entheogens. I have fallen in love. In fact, I constantly remark to myself on how surprising it is to feel so many different kinds of love. Agape, brotherly love, spiritual kinship, amorous love, the Greek loves, the Spanish loves. These things put you back in the centre of your own universe. I radiate love every day.

And I swear, sometimes when I look at people I can see the energy flowing from their hearts. Maybe too many entheogens.

I began adopting the ethic: Work smart, play hard. Have a reason to sleep when you crawl into bed.

And I have chosen these past few days to reflect on Burning Man principles because I feel how strongly this festival has affected culture and consciousness. For 29 years, humans have participated in perhaps the most evolved event in our history. Each creating ten thousand ripples out into the rest of the world.

Mark Zuckerberg has been to Burning Man, Lady Gaga, Anne Hathaway, Diddy (Puff Daddy). Politicians, too, and cultural gatekeepers from nearly every sphere of influence.

And when 70,000 people get together and throw a one of a kind party in the desert, strange things happen to space time.

There's a saying about drug culture. In the 60's, the hippies took acid and made the world weird. In the 90's, the whineys took Xanax to make it normal again.

But no pharmaceutical brain tranquilizers can undo the universal implications of a young brain exploring itself on acid. That's just too big of an event for the universe.

So whether you support me, or you find yourself reading these posts with an attitude of cynical interest, at least know that your life on this earth is made different because of events like Burning Man, and other events where millions of people get together to do incredible things with their nervous systems.

We are creating a new culture, or as Timothy Leary calls us, a New Breed of human being more advanced than any to come before us. I know I have met a few of you already. I know, not everyone in their lifetime, will evolve with us.

Even so, every single living hominid creature can benefit from knowing the principles I have shared over the past few days.

I have saved what I consider the most important for last. Stay tuned.

RADICAL SELF EXPRESSION

Different strokes for different folks. Different scenes for different genes.

We deal with a concept called brain castes. In every social group, not just human, but in many organisms, species-identical groups will have variations within the group.

Flocks of birds will have a few that cry out in danger. Some that fly faster. Some that fly slower, get eaten, support the food chain.

Gorillas and lions have alpha males, who express different physical characteristics.

And in humans, we have a huge number of different brain castes.

According to your genetic predisposition, and the environment creating the social order you participate in, your brain is circuited to see things in a certain way. You have a unique type of intelligence that moves our species into the future.

For better or worse. If you drive a car to work, then you are moving our species into the future for the worse. But that's a part of your understanding.

Some people understand computer science. Some study biology. Some feel religious or spiritual.

Some carry around anger and negativity. They make others reject them. They provide examples.

Notice how much we love extreme examples. Like the tattooed lizard guy, or the world's fattest man. The bearded lady. These people are important to our survival, sometimes by showing us what we don't want to be, how we don't want to evolve.

Your job is to be you! Your brain works in a certain way, and that way is integral to the whole of our species.

Sandi West Henson told me how she saw it: Your feelings are valid.

And she's so right. The impulses of your nervous system are valid. They work beyond your simple mammal brain to create the full expression of "you."

So allow the universe to be itself through you!

Feel everything you need to feel!

The spiritual people call it our "calling." The things we were brought into this world to understand. For everyone, what you are meant to understand is different.

I have to laugh when I see people trying ruthlessly to get other people to see what they see.

Others are not meant to see what you see! No one sees through your synergetic-eye-brain system. No one knows your thoughts and memories.

These are all parts of your unique being.

And you can feel good about that! You are here because you are important, for something, and maybe it's as small as giving someone a hug when they need it, or as big as helping our species into the age of space migration.

Who knows? You determine the form of your expression.

IMMEDIACY

Life is a participatory act, no room for spectators. Even the act of watching is a form of participation.

My whole life I have been watched by people. Small people who judge whether I am attractive or unattractive. Whether what I'm doing is agreeable or disagreeable. It gets so distracting! Small people think small thoughts about me, I pick up on them, and they trip me up.

Small people read my status updates but don't 'like' them. They are too busy in their heads, spectating and judging.

Small minds zone out in front of television screens until drool falls down their chins. I refuse to do that anymore. I love cinema and television, but if a show makes me feel like going slackjawed instead of engaged and like I am learning something, I can't put in the effort for it.

My life is a series of time-sensitive investments. I refuse to waste what I'm given on 45 consecutive minutes of action shots. On garish sex scenes that destroy my individual notions about intimacy. On scripted reality shows. On bright flashing colors void of information about how to succeed at being human.

Lately, I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It made me laugh and I felt it was a good representation of culture. Everything I watch is about learning and growing.

Talking with one of my incredible coworkers one day, he said that people all over the world are full of intelligent ideas and incredible perspectives, but all they do is sit in their rooms and fail to make a change in the world.

I feel many of us are like this, full of great ideas but having never learned how to participate in our own lives.

CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

As the sun begins to set on day 3 of Burning Man, I reflect on the principle of Civic Responsibility.

As a tour guide, I am an Event Organizer, and being on the blunt end of Civic Responsibility comes with the territory.

For example, when I load elevators, people fit the best, and feel the least awkward, when everyone faces the same direction. I had a gentleman, when I asked him to turn around in the elevator, say: "You mean I'm not allowed to face the group I'm with?" (which would have made him the only person facing everyone else in the elevator.) At that point, it became my civic responsibility to explain how everyone fits more comfortably facing the same direction.

As a participant, who also knows what it means to be an organizer, the best thing I can do while participating in group events is lead by example. Every individual has the power to set the mood and tone of their own reality tunnel. When you start working with groups and tribes, you see how the interdependence of "having a good time" relies on the nature of each individual.

Bonnaroo had a "rule" this year. Don't be that guy.

People get dicey about having rules told to them, but on a basic human level, there exist certain ways, and certain levels of tension, that work more effectively for group settings. Tribes do not have tolerance for disruption to the social systems necessary for their survival.

But sometimes, disruption is necessary for survival.

COMMUNAL EFFORT

Some of mankind's greatest achievements, and the current highly advanced level of our society, stem from the most complex and interconnected community structures ever to form on this planet.

Community has never looked like this before. We are physically more isolated, but also, thanks to electronic communication, remain in close personal contact with highly specialized groups of friends and peers. We don't walk down the street to spend time with our one friend in the neighborhood. We snapchat our best friends. We express via status update to our unique friend lists. We communicate with people who get us, and who are willing to support and work with us.

Camus said "To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others."

And he knew a thing or two. When we get around other people, our tribal instincts kick in, and we get judgemental, emotional. We carry strong opinions. We feel, deeply, it's important others see what we see. This is a biological psycho-mechanism that is slowly losing its importance for our species.

I feel strongly that working with others always demands a sacrifice. People, in their unconsciousness, steal your energy, they waste your time and demand your attention when they aren't entitled to it. People trap you in their mind games. They attempt to bring you down to low-vibration frequencies. This is the cost of working with others. This is why, if you want to be happy, you shouldn't get too concerned about people.

I feel, ultimately, this sacrifice of energy and time is worth it. Working with human beings is worth it. When we get together and focus our energy, we build the world's tallest buildings, the world's most progressive festivals, and, just by thinking and being together, we create new realities that affect the flexible fabric of space-time.

Often I think back on when I attended a Christian music event, Winterfest, with Dakota and his parents Jeff and Carrie. At one point, the 15,000 attendees were asked to be together silently in prayer. The magnitude of that silence absolutely moved me, and I reflect on it still today, as I see news of millions of people around the world meditating collectively for global consciousness change.

Something unique happens when individuals work together with positive intentions. Incredible outcomes occur.

DECOMMODIFICATION

Imagine what people could accomplish with their energy and time in a culture free from "having."

Have you ever considered what you would do with your day if you were free from working, to earn the money, to buy the stuff?

We interact differently with each other when we stop constantly exploiting our peers for cash and resources. Almost every "job" in America is a form of exploitation. Even my job exploits people, considering my company turns a profit, and the CEO makes a hell of a lot more than I do even though I unquestionably work harder. I have no need to convince you of the pitfalls in our economic system. They are self-evident.

GIFTING

Imagine what people could accomplish with their energy and time in a culture free from "having."

Have you ever considered what you would do with your day if you were free from working, to earn the money, to buy the stuff?

RADICAL SELF RELIANCE

If you want to have a good time, avoid putting that time in someone else’s hands. Radical self reliance is a celebration of all things you can do for yourself! By being radically self reliant, you lift the burden of taking care of you off your neighbor and lift up the kinds of interactions we can have with one another into a higher realm. When all our needs are met, especially self met, we can begin to give back and engage with others from a place of fulfillment, not a place of lack or need. Radical Self Reliance allows for high quality interactions to take place at Burning Man and beyond, it helps prevent anyone from taking away your good time, because you provide the good time no matter what! I love Radical Self Reliance it is useful and life saving among the 10 principles.

Meditating on these 10 concepts has completely changed my mind and the direction I’m headed. The benefits of integrating these principles into your life are HUGE and have lasting ripples that go out out out into the world. Honoring even one of these principles can have a positive impact and I’m super thankful to have found them and the opportunities they lead me toward. Burn on!!

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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South L.A. Wine Club’s Lindsay Williams Is Addressing Social Justice With Wine

Lindsay Williams, a registered nurse (Ph.D.) based in Los Angeles, is at the forefront of two national crises: Covid-19, and an industry-wide reckoning of BIPOC issues in wine. As the founder of South L.A. Wine Club (SLAWC), she organizes wine tasting events that bring together and commemorate BIPOC and other marginalized people in wine. What began as a personal passion pursuit to learn more about viticulture has morphed into a robust platform. SLAWC’s overarching philosophy is to cultivate a community culture around wine tasting that includes enjoyment, education, and engaging dialogue, as well as facilitating connections with winemakers in South L.A., Inglewood, and other neighborhoods.

Williams’ welcoming demeanor and thoughtfully curated events (happening virtually, for now) provide inclusive, accessible spaces for those who are “wine-curious” and haven’t had access to wine education and culture. She recently launched the South L.A. Speaks series pairing local leaders and winemakers, and donated half the proceeds from wine sales to Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. This year, she also co-founded Our Glasses Full, an ongoing non-profit collaborative series that celebrates Black Joy, a collective jubilation, compassion, and call to action for bettering the lives of BIPOC individuals. She believes that Black Joy is at once pleasure and a powerful tool, and an act of resistance to social unrest; and that the act of savoring and sipping (wine) can not only be celebratory, but radically transformative.

“The business and culture of wine cannot be separated from the people that make it on one end, and consume it on the other,” Williams says. “Our Glasses Full and South L.A. Speaks are meant to reconcile this spectrum, and acknowledge the fullness that comes from celebrating all these aspects.”

1. What are you doing right now to shake up the industry to propel it forward?

Working in collaboration with my colleagues and friends in wine, and also focusing on my audience as a significant source of content and guidance in planning wine content. This year, I co-founded Our Glasses Full with some of my closest sisters in wine: Chevonne Ball of Dirty Radish, Alisha Sommer of Somersalt, and Roxy Narvaez. We hosted Juneteenth Saber Celebration this year, our inaugural event celebrating Black Joy through wine and user-submitted sabering videos as a way for wine professionals to contribute to the success of the event. Following this event, we want to commemorate other historic events and commemorations for BIPOC and other marginalized persons in American history through wine — which include Indigenous Peoples’ Day for October, Kwanzaa for December, and Women’s History Month for March.

In addition to this, South L.A. Wine Club celebrates and educates members of the South Los Angeles and Inglewood communities, so I started the South L.A. Speaks series to highlight the contributions of the South L.A. Community and pair our discussions with wine! So far, I have featured community therapists, social justice advocates, and natural healers, and paired our conversations with wines from local winemakers. Moreover, the wines were available for pickup and drop-off in South Los Angeles, and we donated half the proceeds of sales to Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.

Lastly, to celebrate and highlight voices within my community, I recently started the South L.A. Speaks series to connect with South L.A. and Inglewood residents about their work, how we are staying safe and sane, and celebrating each other with wine. I recently featured community therapists and social justice advocates with wine available for purchase from Serenity Farm and Vineyard and Final Girl Wines, both who are local winemakers in Los Alamos. We then donated 50 percent of the profits from the event to Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. It is truly exciting to see how wine can be a venue to connect with people, share our struggles and triumphs, and then support causes that benefit us all.

2. Is there any personal or professional introspection you’d like to share in light of what’s been going on with Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus crisis?

Personally and professionally, I think this is a time of great change and upheaval — and with that, what emerges is the importance of the relationships we’ve cultivated and the interconnectedness of systems. The toxicity of capitalism and the disparities it creates were already an issue (within the U.S. in general), but Covid-19 and the ongoing civil unrest has made it so these issues cannot be ignored. It will be interesting to see, this time next year, if the reckoning that is happening right now in wine continues for lasting and systemic change. As a Black woman, I encounter these issues every day, and as both a nurse and wine professional, I face these issues professionally. The fear that I once had to speak up on these issues has dissipated, so our industry will need to get used to being uncomfortable, empathetic, and recognizing and highlighting marginalized voices that typically have not been heard.

3. Tell me about your journey and involvement with the wine industry.

I developed a curiosity for wine in 2013 as a function of professional networking and social mobility. At the time, I was in graduate school and on the path to receive my Ph.D. in Nursing at UCLA (which I received in 2015). This represented a new social sphere of ivory tower academics, where I did not fit because of my ethnicity and age (I was in my mid-20s; and I observed that the average age of nursing Ph.D. students here were in their mid-50s). I found myself at conferences, mixers, and in classes where people were talking about wine, and I had no idea what they were talking about. Wine was not on my dining room table growing up, so I had no base of knowledge to build on. After a handful of occasions of sheepishly ordering whatever “red” was available, I started googling different wine labels and developed a small lexicon of wine terms that would help me break the ice and have substantive conversations with peers and colleagues.

In 2015, I went on a wine trip to Temecula and tried Leoness Cellars wines. It finally clicked why people loved wine so much. After that “Eureka!” moment, I started asking more and more questions, visiting wine shops and going to wine festivals to try more and more types of wine, which ultimately turned into a hobby, then a passion. I am a person driven by curiosity, harmony, and continuous improvement through acquiring new knowledge, so wine represented all these facets.

In 2016, I moved to South L.A., and sought to have the same growth and experiences with wine, but found there was nothing. In September, I started SLAWC on Meetup as a casual way to connect with like-minded people in my neighborhood. I was delighted to find not only similar minds, but an entire community. In the three years since starting South L.A. Wine Club, I have grown from hosting casual Meetups to offering curated events that bring in winemakers and distributors to this rapt audience.

4. What is the mission you envision for South L.A. Wine Club, and how are you achieving it?

The mission of South L,A, Wine Club is to create community among wine enthusiasts in South L.A. and Inglewood through accessible and affordable wine events, wine tastings, and wine education. I achieve this by building meaningful and substantive relationships with winemakers, distributors, wine brands, and curating events specifically in [these] areas. My events are not just for residents of South L.A., but for everyone who wants to celebrate this community.

Additionally, my community historically only had access to varietals and winemakers that were in grocery stores and liquor stores. Considering food insecurity and the pejorative connotation between liquor stores and communities of color, there are very few ways to access and enjoy wine in the neighborhood without driving across town. Our communities deserve to taste and enjoy these wines right in our areas, and that’s what I endeavor to do.

5. What’s the coolest thing you get to do in your job?

The best part of my work is meeting with new audiences and seeing the delight that comes with them trying something new and loving it! Even when they don’t like something, I use that as an opportunity and teachable moment; and at the end of the experience, they now know more about their palate and tastes than they did before.

6. Due to the pandemic, many individuals have had to pivot to survive and thrive. How has your business and role changed in the last six months?

The transition to virtual events was very difficult for me, particularly because I am also a doctorally-prepared registered nurse working on the frontlines of Covid-19 response. I went radio silent the first few months because I was overwhelmed with this seismic change.

With that challenge came the great opportunity to think strategically about what events could be in the future. For one thing, I wanted to keep virtual content short and digestible — that is, what could keep peoples’ attention and still be educational? Moreover, I had to consider, what is a potential format that holds space for the myriad of thoughts and experiences that we are all having right now? We are all struggling in some way, so for me, there was no point in hiding that from my audience. In my Instagram Live series and interviews, we talk about wine, but also social justice, creating harmony in our lives, self-care, and many other things.

7. What’s a significant shift your business has made in the last six months that you had never considered before?

How SLAWC can connect to other wine professionals nationally, through features in Black Wine Professionals, Our Glasses Full, and other collaborations with other wine professionals. I recently co-hosted an event with Amy Atwood Selections, Pinkies Up L.A., Zafa Wines, and Swift Cafe, a local Black-owned restaurant in the Crenshaw District. We collaborated to bring Zafa Wines to South L.A. paired with dinner, and an Instagram Live conversation with Krista Scruggs (the owner and winemaker) and I. It was an incredible event that brought these wines and the spirit of the event close to home and benefitted Black-owned businesses.

8. What about [changes that] you had thought were not possible before, but have become “standard” in this “new normal”?

That a virtual conversation can feel as enriching and fulfilling as an in-person tasting or visit. After months of attending virtual classes and tastings, I find I am now able to connect to more people than before.

9. How are you using your position to push forward on racial equity and respective issues in the industry?

I don’t take the name South L.A. Wine Club lightly — I know that with this name, I not only represent [myself], but also my community and its residents. Wine culture and the systems that maintain it are inextricably linked to systemic racism, injustice, and harm. So I am constantly questioning these practices in the work I do.

In addition, I bring my 10-plus years of health care experience into this work, and I see the startling disparity in health care access in hospitality workers. I am developing projects as an advocate for hospitality workers that no longer have access to health care or are underinsured with costly healthcare plans like COBRA.

10. What do you envision is next for yourself and South L.A. Wine Club?

Continuing to craft a caring and uplifting culture through our virtual content and collaborations with people nationwide. South L.A. Wine Club endeavors to be a pillar of strength within our community and a catalyst for positive change. With this in mind, I hope to have an operational base to host classes and curate more virtual events which speak to important issues that affect marginalized people/communities. Historically, much of our understanding of wine practices stems from elitist European “traditions.” SLAWC challenges these social constructs and offers insightful discussions that welcome all people into the fold, where they can feel a part of the wine-culture tapestry. Since it’s fluid and ever-evolving, we also ask what and how that looks and feels; wine sparks these vital discussions.

Additionally, with all of my initiatives and in being a small business (owner), I’m applying for grant funding as well as constantly seeking out new ways and opportunities to partner with like-minded wine professionals and brands that serve my community’s best interests. Lastly, I’m excited to be working on creating a wine club box; and although operational details haven’t been finalized yet, it will include curated varieties from local winemakers I want to spotlight. For instance, just last week I had an event that showcased 2018 Brut Rosé from Loubud Winery and the 2019 Passetoutgrain from Blue Ox winery that I would want included. The idea is that pickup of these wine boxes would be from my home (for the time being) and/or from South Los Angeles restaurants and businesses, such as with Swift Cafe where I did an event with them a few months ago.

The article South L.A. Wine Club’s Lindsay Williams Is Addressing Social Justice With Wine appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/south-la-wine-club-lindsay-williams/

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johnboothus · 4 years ago

Text

South L.A. Wine Clubs Lindsay Williams Is Addressing Social Justice With Wine

1. What are you doing right now to shake up the industry to propel it forward?

2. Is there any personal or professional introspection you’d like to share in light of what’s been going on with Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus crisis?

3. Tell me about your journey and involvement with the wine industry.

4. What is the mission you envision for South L.A. Wine Club, and how are you achieving it?

5. What’s the coolest thing you get to do in your job?

6. Due to the pandemic, many individuals have had to pivot to survive and thrive. How has your business and role changed in the last six months?

7. What’s a significant shift your business has made in the last six months that you had never considered before?

8. What about [changes that] you had thought were not possible before, but have become “standard” in this “new normal”?

9. How are you using your position to push forward on racial equity and respective issues in the industry?

10. What do you envision is next for yourself and South L.A. Wine Club?

The article South L.A. Wine Club’s Lindsay Williams Is Addressing Social Justice With Wine appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/south-la-wine-club-lindsay-williams/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/south-la-wine-clubs-lindsay-williams-is-addressing-social-justice-with-wine

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khalilhumam · 4 years ago

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Ghana’s leapfrog experiment: Free senior secondary school for all youth

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/ghanas-leapfrog-experiment-free-senior-secondary-school-for-all-youth/

Ghana’s leapfrog experiment: Free senior secondary school for all youth

By Rebecca Winthrop Africa is a young continent and getting younger by the year. By 2050, half of all the people in Africa will be under the age of 25 and it will be home to a full 25 percent of all the world’s working-age population. But this tremendous asset—a continent full of energetic, bright, and creative young people—will only be the “demographic dividend” that the African Union aspires to if countries invest in the education and skills of all their children and youth. This task is much more difficult today given the economic downturn on the continent in the wake of COVID-19. Luckily, there are experiments taking place in African education systems that started before the pandemic hit that can provide inspiration for today’s challenges. For example, Ghana’s initiative to radically expand access to senior secondary schooling, especially to the highest quality schools in the country, can shed light on how to increase inclusion without investing in the costly endeavor of building new schools. As countries in the region struggle to address the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic—from public health needs to rising poverty to increasing social instability—finding more cost-efficient ways to help the regions’ aspiring youth enter or finish secondary school is important in the short and long term. But what has been Ghana’s approach and how was it done?

A Leapfrog experiment: Rapidly expanding access to top quality schools

In 2017, Ghana started nationwide implementation of its Free Senior High School policy. The initiative was spearheaded by President Nana Addo Akuffo who was deeply concerned about the one-third of students that the government estimated passed the exam to attend senior secondary school but could not afford to attend. In a recent conversation, Dr. Matthew Prempeh, Ghana’s minister of education, describes the process of finding a pathway to deliver on the president’s promise of free senior secondary school for all youth.

You don’t develop a country based off only elitism. You develop a country where the masses of the populations are trained and educated to a level that they can all lead productive lives in the country.

“When I came into my position, I had seven months to figure out how to deliver free senior secondary education before the start of the next school year,” says Dr. Prempeh. To access senior secondary school in Ghana, students need to pass the Basic Certificate of Education Examination (BECE) and choose a school they wish to attend, which could be anywhere in the country. With 85 percent of children enrolled in the nine years of required basic education that runs through junior secondary school, the prospect of free senior secondary was hugely popular with the country’s youth. The largest problem Minister Prempeh faced in realizing this vision was that there simply were not enough seats in the schools that students wanted to attend, and it would take too long to build the infrastructure needed. While Ghana currently has 700 public senior secondary schools, 55 are widely recognized as the top schools in the country. These are the schools from which top universities fill their ranks and businesses and government agencies fill their leadership positions. In the first year of free secondary education, 362,000 qualified students were enrolled, which included 80,000 more children who otherwise could not have afforded it. In the second year, over 490,000 students passed their BECE exams, but there were only 290,000 classroom seats. What was to be done with the extra 182,000 students? One option was simply to change the rules mid-stream and only accept those students with the highest exam grades to match the number of seats available. Advocates of this approach argued that it would give the government time to build classrooms, and over time all of Ghana’s young people who passed the BECE exam could enroll. This approach would likely have been acceptable to the families of the top-scoring students, but these students would most likely have come from the wealthy families and private schools. But what about the poor student from a rural area whose family sacrificed everything to help her pass the BECE? “You don’t develop a country based off only elitism. You develop a country where the masses of the populations are trained and educated to a level that they can all lead productive lives in the country,” says Minister Prempeh. With this commitment to equity, the Ministry took up the challenge of finding a way for all eligible students to attend senior secondary. “I wanted to embrace the leapfrog mentality and see how we could tackle access and quality at the same time. It is not so complex. We just had to know how to count and measure, and if we did that correctly, we could get it right,” says the Minister. The solution? Year-round schooling for schools with fewer seats than students interested in attending. Inspired by the experience of his deputy minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, who earlier in his career had led year-round schooling initiatives in the U.S., Minister Prempeh and his team got to work measuring and counting. For the most popular—and highest quality—schools in the country, students were assigned to either the “green” or “gold” track and alternated attending school 11 weeks at a time with vacation breaks in between. This way, by adjusting the length of the school day and the school calendar and even increasing teaching hours from 1,080 to 1,140 per year, Ghana plunged into free universal secondary education. Today, the ministry is beginning to build more schools to ease congestion and ultimately sees year-round school as a temporary measure. The rollout of year-round schooling was less than smooth. Parents and students alike expressed a range of concerns: caring for children during the many school breaks, frustration with siblings in different tracks—making family calendars difficult—and concern about how the frequent breaks would affect learning. Admitting that there could have been better communication to families and students, Minister Prempeh defends the decision nonetheless: “Whose child was supposed to wait to enroll in top senior secondary schools?” He argues that most of the concerns came from families whose children traditionally attended the top schools.

The need to continue investing in young people

While the verdict is still out on how this has impacted student learning, the ministry has partnered with ID Insights and others to document and evaluate the program, and this innovative approach is likely to be a good one with lessons for today when all education systems are struggling to do more with less. In addition, any strategy that provides for more inclusive and equitable access to education across elite and marginalized groups, especially at the secondary level, helps fend off social unrest. In fact, researchers argue that equitably expanding access to educational opportunities can “breed peace” and in some cases reduce the risk of conflict by two-thirds. This is something many leaders across the continent who are worried today about mounting instability, especially among frustrated youth, would do well to take note. According to Minister Prempeh, Ghana’s top senior secondary schools, many of which are long-standing boarding schools, have long played a special role in helping build social cohesion in the country. Over the decades, these schools became the place where the best and brightest of Ghana—from all over the country and from different tribes and traditions—would come and spend their formative years. Citing his own experience as a student, Minister Prempeh describes the strong bonds developed in these schools, “We feel a strong affiliation to our school that rises above tribal differences and we learned to work together and contribute to Ghana the country.” Perhaps this has played a crucial role in Ghana’s long record of peace and stability across over 100 tribes while each of its neighboring countries has struggled with civil war. Indeed, now is not the time to back off from investing in Africa’s young people. “The current president believes that it is not resources that make a nation but human beings,” says Minister Prempeh. Ghana’s youth would agree with him.

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queermediastudies · 7 years ago

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You Can(not) “Live!”: The Banquet of White Queer Life and the Poor Suckers Who are Starving to Death

by Matthew Bonne

(Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/434175220300642486/)

Queer representations in film have been notably sparse, especially in the early 20th century. As the term “homosexual” became integrated into American social discourse in the mid 1900s, nuances of queerness began to be seen in Hollywood films, (Benshoff & Griffin, 2004, p. 2-8). Morton Dacosta’s film Auntie Mame has become a reputable example of queerness in early Hollywood. The 1958 film starring Rosalind Russell depicts the story of Mame Dennis, an eccentric, flamboyant woman living in Manhattan in the 1920s. Auntie Mame is the chronology of Mame as she takes in Patrick, her only living relative and the son of her late brother, faces adversity, falls in love, travels the world, and ultimately pens her memoir. Following the death of his father, Patrick transitions from Chicago to New York City to live with Mame and is thrown into her free-spirited way of life and encouraged to undermine his conservative upbringing. The film details Mame’s chaotic life as her avant-garde doings conflict with social expectation. Through occupation endeavors, marriage, and family relations, Mame’s radical ways constantly offer a fresh perspective to those in her presence. The film concludes a as Patrick and his wife consent to Mame’s request to take their son on a trip to India and “open doors [he] never dreamed existed,” a distinct affirmation of Mame’s extravagancies and, what I will argue, queerness, (Dacosta, 1958).

Auntie Mame is framed as a queer visual text through its sharp dismissal of normative societal ideologies and challenging of stable gender norms. While Mame never claims queerness, the film functions as an allegorization of queer liberation based on the non-conformist narrative of the film in conjunction with Yvonne Andersson’s (2002) denotation of queer as a “cultural construction” that encompasses anything that deviates from the accepted cultural ideas, practices, and social frameworks, (p. 2-3). Dacosta’s Auntie Mame has established itself as an illustrious film amongst the queer community through its employment of non-conforming gender performativity, rejection of heteronormative ideologies, and celebration of eccentricities. While Auntie Mame is seen as a cult classic amongst some white gay men due to its embracement of difference – or queerness – the film positions white queerness at the apex of the queer population and ignores additional intersections that make it increasingly difficult to live in ones’ own queerness with the flagrancy Mame Dennis champions.

(Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/07/tilda-swinton-remaking-auntie-mame-darling/)

The 1958 character of Mame Dennis has served as a subversive portrayal of queerness in Hollywood through her performance of gender that denies many of the heteronormative ideologies that dictate societal identification of gender. Judith Butler (1988) describes the act of gender as the reproduction of culturally specific gendered mechanisms that reinforce heteronormative ideas of kinship that functions through a rehearsed societal and cultural script, (p. 524). Mame’s deviation from these heterosexual idealizations in her performance of gender is therefore queer by definition. Example of Mame’s departure from heteronormative expectations of gender are most evident in her role as a mother-figure and a woman in society. Many of Mame’s characteristics are unconventional for a being assuming the role of a mother. She is loud, opinionated, and self-sufficient, all qualities that reject the cultural role of women. Mame positions herself as capable without a man and attempts to reclaim the power in being a woman, at one point claiming that she cannot be a wife as she is “too busy being a mother,” (Dacosta, 1958). Not only is Mame challenging gender roles, her gender performance challenges the hierarchy of gender in which masculinity is superior, (Butler, 1993, p. 21). By doing so, Mame disrupts the heteronormative binary of two gendered categories, queering her own gender performance, and positioning Mame as a behavioral social outcast.

(Source: http://worldofwonder.net/bornthisday-actor-rosalind-russell/)

Making the connection between Mame and queerness through performance of gender – and the associated disruption of conservativism and denial of heteronormative practices – further reinforces her marginal position within society. Queerness, therefore, is also systematized as subordinate when Mame’s eccentricities are referred to as “idiotic, cockeyed nincompooery,” (DaCosta, 1958). Mame’s avant-garde lifestyle is on full display from the moment her character is introduced. The ringing of Mame’s doorbell prompts the sounding of a gong and smoke emitting from the intricate design of the door. Mame Dennis is not only outlandish through her offbeat behaviors, she also encapsulates extravagance and wealth, qualities that may give her the privilege to behavior with such disregard to social stigmas. As the film progresses, Mame struggles to exist in the conservative institutions of employment and marriage due to the idiosyncratic mannerisms that make her a captivating character. Mame however embraces the oddities and encourages those around her to do the same. The message of the book she is writing is simple to “live!” (Dacosta, 1958). Mame’s eccentricities and her advocacy for them are what makes her character captivating to a queer audience. Her performance not only of gender, but of life itself is unabashed and full of pride. She relishes in her desire to live with such opulence, exclaiming that “life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death,” (Dacosta, 1958).

(Source: http://imoviequotes.com/comedy-and-romance-movieauntie-mame-quotesauntie-mame-1958.html)

My fascination with all things opulent stems from the modern media’s promulgation of people of genuine existence on an impressionable youth culture. The Y2K pop stars I have idolized, the noughties socialites I have imitated, and the “real” housewives and Kardashians with whom I have fatuously kept up have all perpetuated my fixation with ostentatious displays of wealth. Like many of these cultural icons have provide myself with a window into what luxuries existed for societies’ elites, Rosalind Russell’s Mame Dennis has done the same for prior generations. Eric Myers (2000), biographer of Patrick Dennis, who authored the 1955 Auntie Mame novel that inspired Dacosta’s film, credited Dennis’ work as providing “a road map for studying what people wore, how they decorated their homes, where they shopped, what they ate and whose dinner party they felt they should have been invited to,” (p. 109). While I see myself and my desires of prosperity in the story of Mame Dennis, I must recognize how my positionality is unique in my privilege as a white, cisgender queer individual to see other white, cisgender queer individuals in modern media representations. Auntie Mame exhibits the privileged positionality of white queerness as it is presented at the core of prevailing queerness in film. Mame, as well as every character in the film with any importance, is white, cisgender, financially stable, and able. Her queerness is performed without complication of race, social class, or ability and is therefore performed in the most acceptable and privileged manner.

(Source: http://www.montanaroue.com/2015/11/the-south-shall-rise-again.html)

Not only does this reproduction of white queer dominance in Auntie Mame prove to be problematic in providing a comprehensive representation of queer bodies and practices, it negates the resounding theme of advocacy of queer approbation seen throughout the film. Audiences of Auntie Mame who diverge from the white queer body must then ask: how can Auntie Mame be seen as an important queer visual text while overlooking the inclusivity of the queer movement? What power structures exist within the queer community? What intersectional queer identities face deprivations in response to hegemonic queer social sanctions, and, importantly, how can portrayals of queerness be more comprehensive to incorporate and venerate more intersections of queer identities? This line of questioning focuses on the qualitative measurements of queer representations in the media and, as Karen Tongson (2017) argues, can serve as a moment of queer engagement through resistance of dominant ideological practices that have served as devices that construct appropriate and inappropriate queer identifications within the media, (p. 158-159). Tongson’s claim of queer presentation can be augmented by Butler (1993), who offers an approach to the reading of queer performativity in which “queer” is “never fully owned, but always and only redeployed, twisted, queered from a prior usage and in the direction of urgent and expanding political purposes,” (p. 19). Employing a parallel reading of Tongson’s discussion of queer media, Butler’s theorization of queer performativity, and Auntie Mame’s reproduction of queerness is critical to analyzing Mame as a queer film. In doing so, it becomes evident that Mame’s performance of queer reflects the historicities of the early 20th century, but struggles to hold legitimacy in the present-day queer sociopolitical media climate, which may provide an objective rationale to why Auntie Mame has achieved cult classic status, but has never graduated to the more exclusive rank of, simply, “a classic.” The achievements of Auntie Mame in portraying qualities recognizable to and esteemed by queer audiences are important, and while the film’s limited exhibition of the broad spectrum that makes something or someone queer is evident, if for nothing more, Mame should maintain relevance for its function in the discourse of queer media representation.

Bibliography

Andersson, Y. M. (2002). Queer media? Or; What has queer theory to do with media studies? Retrieved from http://www.portalcomunicacion.com/bcn2002/n_eng/programme/prog_ind/asp4.asp?i d_pre=856

Benshoff, H. & Griffin, S. (2004). Queer cinema, The film reader. In S. Cohan & I. R. Hark (Eds.), In focus: Routledge film readers (1-15). New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519-531. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3207893

Butler, J. (1993). Critically queer. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies, 1(1), 17-32. DOI: 10.1215/10642684-1-1-17

Dacosta, M. (Producer) & Dacosta, M. (Director). (1958). Auntie Mame (Motion Picture). United States: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Moore, M. (2012). Tina theory: Notes on fierceness. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 24(1), 71- 86. DOI: 10.1111/j.1533-1598.2011.01317.x

Myers, E. (2000). Uncle Mame: The life of Patrick Dennis. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Tongson, K. (2017). Queer. In L. Ouellette & J. Gray (Eds.), Keywords for media studies (157- 160). New York, NY: New York University Press.

#Queer Media #Auntie Mame #Mame Dennis #Gender Performance #Intersectionality #Patrick Dennis #Judith Butler #Race #Social Class #Gender #Queer #Rosalind Russell

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agritecture · 7 years ago

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Bringing It All Together: Blue Planet Consulting Rebrands as Agritecture Consulting

I’m elated to announce that Agritecture and Blue Planet Consulting will formally merge into one company, Agritecture LLC. Since 2011, when I first founded Agritecture.com, I’ve had big dreams for how agriculture could be integrated into the built environment. Now, with this merger, our team will be more equipped than ever before to master the art, science, and practice of our trade.

I’m now writing to you all to address the how, what, and why of this merger:

How: Two things got me to this point: persistent hard work and surrounding myself with phenomenal people.

In 2011, persistent hard work meant publishing on Agritecture.com as often as possible. It meant voraciously reading every bit of published material out there, synthesizing the information, and sharing it on the blog. It meant weeks learning CAD, plant science, and systems design just so that I could create the rendering for the BXVF, my thesis project at Columbia University.

Persistent hard work also meant getting hands-on experience by volunteering at Sky Vegetables. I learned a lot that summer about horticulture and design, and eventually applied what I learned in signing a lease to manage that facility.

However, one person’s hard work won’t go very far, so I surrounded myself with comrades who shared my vision for a future full of green and productive cities. In 2013, I co-founded the Association for Vertical Farming with Max Loessl and with guidance from my mentor, Dr. Dickson Despommier. Together we began building a network of organizations who can communicate and collaborate as a unified movement.

In 2014, an opportunity arrived to converge what I was learning and who I was meeting, and thus I founded Blue Planet Consulting with angel investor Jeffrey Tucker. Jeffrey took a big chance on me when he decided to back BPC, and he continued to believe in me as I navigated the high seas of small business leadership. I will be forever grateful for that trust and support.

Things weren't always easy, but slowly we began to hire more of the exceptional folks who power our company. We’re now at 9 full-time consultants including horticulturists, engineers, designers, business managers, sustainability managers, and operations directors.

I’m so proud of my dream team for their skills and work ethic, their vision and their perseverance, their commitment to sustainability and community. Our staff has a tendency to go above and beyond, providing legendary service to our clients. We’ve developed an efficient and jovial team dynamic that improves our careers and our quality of life. This can be evidenced in the team loyalty – I’m grateful to say we haven’t had a single full-time staff member leave the company to date. People matter more than technology or business model. My mother, and HR guru, Rostya Gordon-Smith taught me that from a young age.

In addition to developing our team and data, we’ve mastered our methodology. Everything from lead vetting, to client onboarding, to conducting feasibility studies has been iterated on. We’ve honed in on our processes, which is why now it is again time to push ourselves beyond our collective comfort zone. I’m confident that this merger will help bring about new clients who will expand our impact to more cities and people across the globe.

FInally, everything we’ve worked for physically comes together at our glowing new Brooklyn office. While I have fond memories of our cozy former office, the new larger space allows us to explore our creativity and learn from our industry colleagues. For example, this year at NYC AgTech Week we’re displaying LED’s from 8 lighting vendors, four +Farms, a giant custom farm, a living wall, an augmented reality solution, sensors, controllers, and dosers. This innovative equipment makes our industry tick, and we’re thankful to all the vendors who have sent us their equipment to display. Thanks to you all, we’ve built a one-of-a-kind ‘agritecture’ showcase that attracts new entrants to the sector in ways a standard conference or networking event never could.

What: So what will change and what does this merger mean?

Well, previously, Agritecture was just a blog, while Blue Planet Consulting was just a consultancy. While the two always operated as sister companies, the family of companies will now converge to create a greater positive impact`.

That means that the blog, the workshops, the conferences, +Farm, and the consulting practice will all be under one unified roof. This will radically streamline the structuring of new partnerships for our various endeavors moving forward, and will help simplify our branding and communications.

Why: Blue Planet’s primary consulting service has been feasibility studies for indoor vertical farms and greenhouses.

We’ve learned a lot working with over 30 clients including Farm.One, Sky Vegetables, Project Farmhouse, and Square Roots. We’ve helped these companies avoid common mistakes, we’ve challenged their assumptions, and we’ve brought years of data to their projects.

The work we did with these clients incubated our ideas and abilities, but they were all primarily focused on efficiency, ie: growing as much as we could with as few resources as possible. However, not all urban farms are solely about profit or efficiency ― many are established with equal or greater goals of social cohesion, environmental restoration, or food justice. Others are created simply to inspire. The term ‘agritecture’ inclusively allows for many possibilities, which is why it was important for us to brand the new entity as Agritecture Consulting.

With this new brand, we’ll be better equipped to design high-performing agriculture amenities for new types of clients. Clients who are just opening their eyes to agritecture concepts: architecture firms, real estate developers, universities, grocery stores, hotels, and utilities companies to name a few. Bringing our two companies together further reinforces our commitment to an innovative yet practical approach to urban agriculture.

Conclusion: I’m incredibly lucky to have so many extraordinary people helping me realize my dream.

Together we are developing the art, science, and practice of integrating agriculture into the built environment. Now, we invite you to engage with us and work together to transform our cities into the sustainable ecosystems we believe they can become.

Want to learn more? Visit the new Agritecture.com

#announcement #hydroponics #vertical farming #urban agriculture #consulting

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festfashions · 7 years ago

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With Burning Man off to a kicking stat this year, I though it might be interesting for my followers to learn a little bit more about the event. I’ve loved the idea of Burning Man for years, and I’ve promised myself I’ll go next year for the 2018 Burn. For just a taste of what Burning Man is about, here are the 10 Principles of Burning Man, directly from their website.

There’s also a really good documentary called “Spark: A Burning Man Story” on Netflix for those interested in more. I really liked watching that one. I can’t wait to someday take photos at this amazing event.

The 10 Principles of Burning Man

Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the Ten Principles in 2004 as guidelines for the newly-formed Regional Network. They were crafted not as a dictate of how people should be and act, but as a reflection of the community’s ethos and culture as it had organically developed since the event’s inception.

Radical Inclusion Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

#words #text #burning man 2017 #burning man 2018 #burning man #a burning man story #The 10 Principles of Burning Man #principles of burning man #burners #festival life #black rock city #)'(

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chrisengel · 8 years ago

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...subjective freedom implies a form of self-determination which begins with the thwarting intervention of drive followed by the redefinition of my causality: it corresponds to ‘my ability to choose/determine which causes will determine me. “Ethics”, at its most elementary, stands for the courage to accept this responsibility’ (Žižek 2006b: 203). This “positing the presuppositions” (Hegel) is the minimal but crucial power of the subject, through which we can retroactively assume a new causal link. Put differently, the causal link in which we are embedded creates an effect it cannot contain and threatens to subvert the cause itself. This is why freedom, for Žižek, has the form of a loop: we have a chance to disconnect and opt for a different cause, i.e. choose a process of subjectivation with a different content. The whole point is that while I cannot choose directly what I will be in the future (as that would entail bypassing the process of subjectivation through the other), I can nevertheless embrace change by transforming my past, identifying with one of my past history’s un-actualized causal chains. The key move towards liberation thus begins with perceiving my cause as virtual. From a political angle, the Žižekian “defence of lost causes” (such as communism) is precisely the attempt to actualize an opportunity that was missed at a given historical conjuncture – and that, if actualized, could change the future.11 This is why Žižek endorses Hegel’s claim that infinity is not to be conceived as endless expansion but ‘active selflimitation (self-determination)’ (Žižek 2006b: 205). Why? Once again, because nothing escapes necessity, including its own excess: The question of freedom is, at its most radical, the question of how this closed circle of fate can be broken. The answer, of course, is that it can be broken not because “it is not truly closed”, because there are cracks in the texture, but, on the contrary, because it is overclosed, that is, because the subject’s very endeavor to break out of it is included in advance. That is to say: since our attempts to assert our freedom and escape fate are themselves instruments of fate, the only real way to escape fate is to renounce these attempts, to accept fate as inexorable. [. . .] accept fate as inevitable, and you will break its grasp on you. (207) What this means is not that we should simply accept the current state of things as fate, as something we cannot change,12 but rather that we should change it by recognizing its nullity, the fact that, precisely as necessity, its foundations are void. If we agree with this understanding of freedom as overidentification with the causal chain inclusive of its un-actualized causes, perhaps the key political questions, simple as they may sound, can be put along these lines: what is it that brings about the dimension of drive? How can drive be connected to a specific political project that actualizes our lost causes? The starting point must be that every authentic political decision, for Žižek, is ultimately marked by its radical contingency, its abyssal trans-strategic value – which not only guarantees that we are acting freely, but also makes it impossible for us to establish a priori what will happen after the act. However, we could still legitimately argue that a politics of the Real, that is to say a politics founded upon (as opposed to “bewitched by”) the axiom of the irreducible amalgamation of Symbolic and Real, needs to find ways of strategically conceiving a given project as “driven”, i.e. as an intervention in the Real, rather than activate itself after the (f)act. More precisely, we should claim that drive itself – the intrusion of traumatic negativity opening up the potential for change – can take place as the (unexpected, excessive, pervasively unconscious) result of our concrete political engagement with a lost cause, no matter how such engagement is pre-empted by its ideological context. What if the problem that lies ahead concerns the necessity to become aware of how the gap between our inevitably limited strategy towards “promoting change” and change itself is already immanent to our strategy? The wager here is that the conscious definition of, and engagement with, an authentically subversive political strategy already necessarily includes drive and the dimension of the act, for although the act brought about by drive is by definition incommensurable, it can be conceived as synchronous with the attempt to disturb the core of the hegemonic ideological constellation. If the act emerges ex nihilo, its incommensurability and unpredictability must nevertheless be conceived as an integral part of the strategy that targets the inconsistency of the ideological edifice – which means that the real question has to do with the strategic definition of the feasibility of an intervention that successfully politicizes class struggle.13 ..... what I am suggesting here is that the disruptive dimension of the act be conceived not only as the explosion of unstoppable revolutionary urge at the level of ontic reality, but also as the vital component of that surplus of thought which typifies the psychoanalytic approach.

2010 - Vighi - On Zizek's Dialectics

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