#the social need for connection and offer us an illusion of it vs making us go thru the real thing

[megkuna]

booping was fun but also i see a lot of people romanticizing how easy it is to connect to people thru booping etc and like i get it but also i'm horrified by the increasing unwillingness to go thru the ordeal to like ... actually connect to people unless it is in some parasocial form (booping, liking posts, etc.) as opposed to, you know ... actually talking lol. imo that's the biggest shift there's been on this website like idk remember when we used to reblog each other's posts and comment without fear of being cringe

[siriusbunbryist]

In defence of Abed x Annie.

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, I’ve rewatched Community at age 24, and still found Abed and Annie to have hit the heartstrings as much as I did when I was in high school watching the show for the first time.

But watching the series in its entirety just reinforces my thought that Abed and Annie had so much potential that was wasted, and it’s a shame that the writers planted all these seeds to only decide that perhaps this direction was not worth it / too risky / unfavoured by the audience. But I mean, Alison Brie herself (and I’m assuming Danny Pudi as well) endorsed them! Find here and here.

This was a pairing that with all the crumbs scattered throughout the show (I think we are all aware of these crumbs I speak of), could’ve easily played the “oh we’ve been secretly dating this whole time” trope during the last episode and it would’ve still made sense.

Naturally I did some scoping, and of course unsurprisingly the J.eff x Annie pairing takes the cake, while not a lot of love for Abed x Annie. So here are common points of contentions I see surrounding Abed and Annie, and my rationale on them.

Before I start, a note - I fully respect the J.eff x Annie ship and I don’t intend on starting a ship w.ar/debate. I understand where their support comes from! I just needed to vent because no one else in my social circle watches this show. No hate please.

1. Abed doesn’t see Annie romantically

I think on the contrary it’s been set up rather long ago that Abed at the very least is attracted to Annie.

Exhibit A: “What are you making” in Beginner Pottery

Exhibit B: “Flat B.utt and the one Abed wants to nail” in The Art of Discourse

This video basically explains it! The summary: Annie is Pierce’s favourite, Pierce constantly insults Britta, therefore Britta is flat b.utt.

Exhibit C: Not even trying to hide it in Accounting for Lawyers

But, a romantic interest has to be further built upon finding someone attractive right? There has to be intrigue to their character, such as

Exhibit D: “I can only connect to people through... movies” in English as a Second Language

It is pretty obvious here that Annie is a rare someone who has successfully broken the impartial screen that Abed filters everything through. Jeff saw it too which is why he said Annie was the ark of the covenant before Abed fell for her disney face. I can only imagine Abed to be quite struck with Annie’s infiltration.

A romantic interest should also share common interests, such as

Exhibit E: “Which makes Annie is my third favourite show” in Paranormal Parentage

I’ve said before that for Abed, a guy who lives life and communicates through comparing it with television and movies, it’s not unthinkable for him to be attracted to someone who genuinely watches his favourite shows and commits to roles during cosplay. And who, besides Troy, would fit this profile? Annie. 

And finally, the biggest indicator of it all, we also see how Abed views the Jeff and Annie pairing in everyone’s favourite episode Remedial Chaos Theory. Keeping in mind that the timelines are rendered by Abed, out of all the timelines, J.eff and Annie only kis.sed when Abed left the room for pizza. As well, as conjured in Abed’s head, Evil Jeff and Evil Annie only existed as a couple in the Darkest Timeline. To me at least, it’s arguable that this alludes to Abed’s omniscient “director” standpoint that he may be the obstacle in the Jeff and Annie relationship - pointing towards him perhaps harbouring feelings for Annie.

2. Annie doesn’t see Abed romantically The general consensus on this point is that Annie is only attracted to Abed when he’s playing a character. I rather think that being attracted to someone, and being attracted to someone during role play, aren’t mutually exclusive. Let’s take a look at the different characters that Abed played.

Don Draper: serious, sophisticated, and smooth.

Han Solo: immature, flirty and a smarta.ss.

Batman: mysterious, complex, and brave.

Three different personas, yet Annie responded to all of them. Since the common denominator to all three is that they are played by Abed, I would like to offer a counterpoint that perhaps the attraction to Abed has always been there, it’s just emphasized when Abed plays a character. Who knows, role playing might even be Annie’s ki.nk. After all, during For a Few Paintballs More, it is shown that Annie is disappointed when Abed dropped the Han Solo persona after the battle ended.

Annie also loves big romantic gestures. Who’s better than doing that than Abed? Since the beginning, Abed has already been doing big romantic gestures of varying degrees for Annie. With this, it’s not ridiculous for Annie to see Abed as a romantic potential.

Exhibit F: Staying in a room for 26 hours in Social Psychology

Annie: You sat in a room for twenty-six straight hours. Didn’t that bother you?  Abed: Yeah I was livid.  Annie: Then why didn’t you leave?  Abed: Because you asked me to stay and you said we were friends.

Exhibit G: Rescuing her from “captivity” and inviting her to move in in Remedial Chaos Theory and Studies in Modern Movement (even Troy was surprised at Abed’s invitation)

Exhibit H: Tearing down the Dreamatorium in Studies in Modern Movement

Annie: What about the Dreamatorium? Abed: Oh it's staying. The Dreamatorium is more important than any of us. But you're more important than our bedroom so we put the bunk bed in the blanket fort.

Bonus: Confirmed by Alison Brie

3. The show was about Jeff and Annie

Dan Harmon said that Community’s approach is that anything and any pairing is possible. We see this is as the series started with the classic “player vs smart snarky girl” trope with setting up Jeff and Britta as the main pairing. We also see Troy and Annie as the potential B couple in the show. The writers also threw Pierce and Shirley, Annie and Britta, Dean and Jeff, and even Chang and Britta in for a laugh.

And then the show subverted this all by introducing Jeff and Annie, and made Troy and Britta a couple, showing us that Community is a show that intends on breaking these classic sitcom stereotypes by experimenting with different pairings. Abed and Annie was no exception to this, as the writers often pair them up in different shenanigans and hint at possible grounds to explore*.

A few examples: Han and Leia in For a Few Paintballs More, Hector the Well Endowed and the Elf Maiden in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, spy partners in Modern Espionage.

No doubt that the show dabbled in and out of Jeff and Annie throughout the series. However, to say that Jeff and Annie was the primary pairing in the series would mean overlooking Jeff and Britta. Especially when Jeff and Britta have the whole love-hate dynamic, three(?) marriage close-calls, and emotional snippets such as helping Jeff reunite with his father in Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations.

Anyway, not to discredit Jeff and Annie, but knowing that the show explores the possibility of different pairings**, why write off Abed and Annie?

* Not to mention that the cop pairing in The Science of Illusion was originally written with Abed and Annie in mind! ** We also see a stray Abed and Britta during Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps.

4. Annie is in love with Jeff To keep this short and shipper-goggle free, Annie has said on numerous occasions that she’s in love with the idea of Jeff, not Jeff himself. Specifically this scene in Virtual Systems Analysis:

Abed as Annie: "…We love Jeff…" Annie: "No we don’t, we’re just in love with the idea of being loved. And if we can teach a guy like Jeff to do it, we’ll never be unloved, so we keep running the same scenario over and over hoping for a different result."

And this scene in Conventions of Space and Time:

Annie: All right, I may have been play-acting that we were married, and then the staff thought you were cheating, and I had to save face. Jeff: Do I have to worry about this? Annie: No, I was just daydreaming. I mean, I've married you at least a half a dozen times. And Troy. And Zac Efron.

Not to mention that their conversation in the finale says it all.

Jeff: I don't wanna be fine. I wanna be 25 and heading out into the world. I wanna fall asleep on a beach and be able to walk the next day, or stay up all night on accident. I wanna wear a white t-shirt without looking like I forgot to get dressed.* I want to be terrified of AIDS, I want to have an opinion about those, boring a.ss Marvel movies. And I want those opinions to be of any concern to the people making them. Annie: Well I want to live in the same home for more than a year, order wine without feeling nervous, have a resume full of crazy mistakes instead of crazy lies. I want stories and wisdom, perspective. I wanna have so much behind me I'm not a sl.ave to what's in front of me, especially those flavourless unremarkable Marvel movies.

*Shipper-goggle on: Part of me thinks this is a reference to Abed, whose iconic style almost exclusively comprises T-shirts. What Jeff is saying is that he wishes he is 25 again with his future open before him, someone who compatible with Annie, but here he acknowledges that he isn’t, and lets her go in the end.

5. Abed and Annie wouldn’t work as a couple Another point I see is that Abed and Annie are strictly platonic and are more like brother and sister. On the basis that they have made out a couple times and are attracted to each other, I would disagree with the sibling statement.  

Troy, in contrast to Abed, I think actually resembles a more sibling-like relationship with Annie. Although Troy and Annie have the strong friendship of Abed and Annie, when disregarding the high school crush stage of season 1, their storylines never dwelled further down an attraction path, nor was there any specific episode that was dedicated to a deep dive of vulnerabilities and confrontation between them. As a comparison, Troy and Britta had opportunities to explore these setups (Troy admitted to lying about his b.utt stuff story and Troy helped Britta face Blade) - an indication that Troy and Britta were heading into non-platonic territory. Jeff and Britta too, had several opportunities to confront their feelings (up till the very last season), a clear indication of a non-platonic relationship.

For Abed and Annie, what I think pulls their friendship towards actual love interest potential is best pinpointed to Virtual Systems Analysis. Annie’s participation in the Dreamatorium prompted her to not only fully submerge into the way Abed thinks and comprehends his surroundings, but she also got to understand and address Abed’s stubbornness and flaws in a vulnerable way, confronting some of her own flaws as well.

Abed as Shirley: Your hospital school, young lady, is a simulation being run through a filter of other people's needs. Abed's been filtered out because nobody needs him. Annie: I need him!

And to point out this little tidbit in VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing,

Annie: That's why Abed is like a brother to me. You guys are so alike. Abed: I can't accept that based on one time machine story.

This whole episode, instead of establishing Abed is like Annie’s brother, I would argue is rather doing the opposite. Abed and Annie’s hyper antics in the episode were basically matched by Anthony and Rachel’s blatant indifference and confusion. For lots of Abed and Annie supporters, this episode was a major setback. But I think it instead highlights how in-sync they are with each other, which is a good thing.

Another point, despite Annie trying to prove otherwise, Abed and Anthony had different vibes, and each shared different dynamics with Annie. And as Anthony pointed out in the end, who were Abed and Annie trying to replace in the apartment? Troy. The person who they are trying to fill is Troy - their roommate, their brother, their best friend. Troy was the brother role that neither Abed and Annie can fill for each other.

In Basic Sandwich, we get this exchange:

Abed: The point is, this show, Annie, it isn't just their show. This is our show, and it's not over. And the sooner we find that treasure, the faster the Jeff-Britta pilot falls apart. Annie: Got it. Thank you, Abed. Abed: You're welcome. I have a girlfriend. Annie: What? Abed: You were about to start a kiss lean. Annie: I was not.

Not only did Abed saw right through Annie’s anxiety and comforted her in his own uniquely Abed way, but he also felt the need to remind her of his girlfriend. The fact that he broke the fourth wall here is likely the writers’ way to be meta, but simply acknowledging the tension and bond there says a lot in between the lines. If tension does not exist, there would be no need for this line.

Besides, instead of thinking that they’re strictly platonic (which of course is also okay), they would rather work great as a couple. In terms of opposites attract, Annie grounds Abed with just the right amount, while Abed clearly encourages Annie to be her true self and be immature. Such as this scene in Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism,

Annie: I’m following him.  Troy: You moving in here was supposed to tone us down!

Annie also doesn’t just tolerate Abed’s idiosyncrasies, she actually likes them and fully participates as multiple paintball games and cosplays would tell us. Special shoutout to the missing lovers footage in Wedding Videography, which through Britta, actually shows us that Annie is the only one who would go along with Abed’s projects - while Britta found the project extremely weird and unhealthy, Annie thought it was fun and commits well to her role.

And while others may tiptoe around Abed, Annie isn’t afraid to call Abed out when he’s out of line and makes a point to teach him about empathy in Virtual Systems Analysis. Remember that Britta tried teaching him this but it didn’t work as well.

I am Abed Nadir... And I don't know a lot of things everyone else knows. I wander the universe with my friend, Troy, doing whatever I want. Sometimes accidentally hurting innocent unremarkables. This week, however, Troy went to lunch and I adapted. I now have the ability to enter the minds of others using an elusive new technique known as "empathy".

As well as in the entire episode of Cooperative Polygraphy.

They also know each other best. Abed knew her cushion preferences, was the one who spelled out her true pas.sion for forensics, and after living together, Annie knew how to navigate Abed’s peculiarities and to soothe him whenever he had a nervous breakdown. 

Annie also knows him so well that she can predict his reaction.

They are also each other’s exception. Annie was always the one who manages to pull Abed out of a trance and back to reality, usually with touch.

Abed is also very forgiving with her. An example is when Annie seemingly lost all common sense because she broke Abed’s special edition dvd in Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism.

Annie: Well, Batman, on behalf of all of us that aren't perfect, can I just say I'm sorry I broke your DVD? Abed: Apology accepted. But I wouldn't mention it to Abed. That guy's pretty ruthless. And that's coming from Batman.

And in Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas, Annie was the only claymation doll that didn’t have a weird form (except Troy as toy soldier of course). Annie was a ballerina because Abed sees her as a creature of grace. Abed was also the first one who got her “brighter tomorrow” diorama and responded with enthusiasm.

They are also in the same stage in life. As Dan Harmon explains the choice of Abed and Annie being the ones who leave the group, with Troy gone, Abed and Annie symbolize the many possibilities of the future - a possibility that makes them viable. I like to think Annie transfers to the LA FBI office after her internship and they reunite.

And as the Spice Girls said, “if you wanna be my love.r, you gotta get with my friends”. In Paleyfest, Dan Harmon says this about whoever Troy and Abed ends up dating, “I mean a woman that comes into either of their lives is either going to drive them apart or she's going to have to be really accepting of a very special relationship”.

Britta tolerated their friendship but to a point of asking Annie to distract Abed for alone time with Troy, Troy dumped the librarian as she called Abed weird, Robin disappeared, Rachel we never got to see much of, but was pretty quiet and separated from the group. From this, logically speaking, Annie would actually be the perfect match for Abed, as we all know they’re the ultimate trio within the study group and a transition from friends to more will be natural. 

Oh, and, Abed is wrong. They’re not Chandler and Phoebe with little storylines together, they’re Chandler and Monica. 

Anyway, that’s it for my super long rant/analysis. Community the series is done and over, so there isn’t a need for any ship war. All I want to say is, if #andamovie happens, hopefully, the writers will actually take a leap.

[wits-writing]

Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie Review)

Spider-Man: Far From Home, directed by Jon Watts with a screenplay by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, picks up with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) still reeling from the events of Avengers: Endgame. While that movie was widely seen enough that I’m not too worried about spoiling it, I’m still going to play it safe and give anyone reading this a spoiler warning now. Especially since I’m also going to be discussing a couple of the reveals that Far From Home has up its sleeve in its own narrative in detail.

Peter begins this movie trying to navigate what Spider-Man’s place in the world is now that he’s been through something of such cosmic importance. His efforts to take himself back to neighborhood level heroics and advancing his social life with the opportunity presented by an upcoming class summer trip to Europe get sidetracked when he’s drafted by Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) for a new mission. He’s introduced to a new hero, Quinton Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) later dubbed “Mysterio.” Peter’s told he needs to rise to the occasion in order to help Beck fight against the threat of Elemental monsters that followed him from his home universe on an alternate Earth. It’s up to Peter to navigate the dilemma between being the large-scale hero the world wants him to be and the personal connections he’s eager to form for himself.

[Full Review Under the Cut]

Visualization of Peter’s arc takes the form of the costumes he wears as Spider-Man. Peter’s first seen doing hero work by making a public appearance for charity. He’s wearing the Iron-Spider suit from Infinity War and Endgame during this scene, covering himself in the last thing Tony gave him before his death in the latter, demonstrating how he hasn’t been able to let go yet and the pressure to perform in the void Iron Man left behind. The main suit from Civil War and Homecoming doesn’t fit in the pattern because it barely features in Far From Home as a whole. It’s still worth mentioning as representative of what Peter wants to leave behind while he’s on his class trip, but also shows how that responsibility follows him anyway when May packs it for him without asking.

Most distant from the typical idea of Spider-Man out of any of the costumes in the movie is the all black suit Fury provides him with for the missions he’s put on in Europe. It lacks a prominent Spider-symbol and any other recognizable elements of a Spider-Man suit except the eyes. Lacking iconography demonstrates Peter bowing to demands that he be the type of hero the world’s demanding of him rather than forging his own path. As Peter rediscovers his resolve in time for the final battle of the movie, he finally gets to make a sleek Spider-Man outfit for himself. The red and black outfit he comes up with ends up as one of the best costumes the character has had in any of his big screen appearances and tying it into the culmination of Peter’s story gives it a satisfying debut.

Between the big superhero action beats of the story comes my favorite material the movie has to offer as Peter and his classmates are taken across Europe. Sequences of travel and sightseeing give the members of the returning supporting cast from Homecoming more chances to shine. My favorite of these touristy is their first stop in Venice, Italy. Since it’s the only Europe sequence before Peter has been drafted into Mysterio and Fury’s mission, he gets to enjoy himself alongside his friends for a bit. There’s an added comedic bent to the trip with the two teachers chaperoning it, Mr. Dell (J.B. Smoove) and Mr. Harrington (Martin Starr). We witness their oblivious reactions to the detours the trip is taken on by Nick Fury’s team for the sake of keeping Peter on the mission and bewilderment at all the superhero vs Elemental battles they end up coming across. While these vistas are appreciable for what they do for the down-to-earth moments of the movie, they still provide plenty for the action beats when they roll around. Seeing Spider-Man swing around the locations he travels to throughout give ample opportunities to see how he maneuvers and fights around them in signature Spidey-Style.

The time between action beats also provides expansion of the romantic subplots playing out in this movie. Peter’s attempts to tell MJ (Zendaya) how he feels about her becomes the focal point of his efforts to have a normal school trip and do normal high school things like confessing a crush. He has a clear plan in mind of how he’s going to do it, but other factors keep getting in the way even before superhero life catches up with him. He stresses over all this unaware that MJ is trying to process her own feelings, along with her suspicions about his double-life, which she ends up confirming partway through. Where past Spider-Man movies have used Peter’s love life for the sake of melodrama, Far From Home deals in a genuine portrayal of awkward teenagers who don’t know how to navigate communicating their feelings yet.

Peter’s struggle to say anything to MJ gets juxtaposed with what his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) goes through. When Peter’s telling Ned about his plan to confess to MJ, Ned’s upset that it ruins his plan of them being “American Bachelors in Europe.” Things end up taking a turn when he’s sat next to Betty Brant (Angourie Rice) on the flight across the Atlantic and they end up in a relationship by the time the flight’s landed. Their puppy-love contrasting Peter’s awkwardness makes for the best comedy beats in the movie, especially when Ned starts acting like a relationship expert.

Mysterio ends up being the person Peter turns to when the stresses of his personal desires conflicting with superhero life becomes too much. The enigmatic hero tells him to let go of the pressure to be the next Iron Man and go after what he really wants out of life. Peter agrees and hands over equipment he was bequeathed after Tony’s death to Beck, convinced he’s more capable of being the hero the world needs going forward. However, that’s immediately followed by the shocking revelation that Mysterio is (Gasp! Shock!) evil.

Feigned surprise at the reveal aside, once Beck’s true motives are revealed he becomes a fantastic villain. Gyllenhaal gives the characters backstage persona an air of self-righteous smugness, hinted at when he first meets Peter and says he relates to the kid because “It’s not easy being the smartest one in the room.” Everything from the Elementals to his multiverse origin was the product of hologram technology he invented and the efforts of a team he assembled from fellow employees fired from Stark Industries over the years, including some that were in previous MCU movies. They want to create the hero who will fill the void left behind by the Avengers, someone who can apparently handle those threats singlehandedly. Mysterio’s illusions get played to best effect in the sequences where he uses them to mess with Peter’s head, even tying into the costume motif discussed earlier by making Peter see himself in his proto-costume to belittle him as “just a kid in a sweatsuit.” The ultimate motivating factor behind Beck’s actions comes down to why he thinks he can get away with his plan. That in a world like the MCU, where supernatural stuff happens all the time, the truth can be whatever he wants. A point of view that gets taken to its logical endpoint in the first of two jaw-dropping post-credits scenes.

Spider-Man: Far From Home continues the MCU Peter Parker’s arc of figuring out his place in the wider world of superheroes. Watts, McKenna and Sommers using the opportunity of Avengers: Endgame’s fallout to needle Peter with the necessity of figuring it out sooner rather than later makes for strong advancement for this iteration of the Webhead. The international aspect taking Peter out of his element keeps the stresses of the choice at the front of Peter’s mind since it gives him a glimpse of what being a hero for the world, rather than just the Friendly Neighborhood, might be like. The journey of Holland’s Spider-Man is likely far from over and the way it ends here leaves the audience with a promise that any continuation of this journey won’t be like anything we’ve seen before.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome (again) to the Order of the Phoenix, Emmy!

You have been accepted for the role of non-biography character HONORA LYNCH with the faceclaim of Krysten Ritter! We think Honora will bring a lot of interesting dynamics into the roleplay, particularly since she’s fairly against what the Order are doing, but is forced to be semi-involved with them to get her real agenda met. It’ll be so much fun seeing the strife Honora causes and we’re thrilled to have another wolf-based character!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Emmy

AGE: Old

TIMEZONE: Est

ACTIVITY LEVEL:  Active enough for here

ANYTHING ELSE: Nope

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Honora Lynch

AGE: 34  

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Fem, She/Her, Glass-of-scotch-and-a-hard-fuck-sexual

BLOOD STATUS: Halfblood, Half-Breed

HOUSE ALUMNI: None

ANY CHANGES:  –

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY: 

Life for Honora has been predicated on a series of ‘Us vs. Them’ scenarios, and her embracing of that is central to her personality and dictates how she reacts to things. There is always someone she is fighting against, whether is be the British, Anti-werewolf wix, or the damned bastard from a thousand years ago who thought spelling an amulet to make you think spiders were crawling from your eyeballs was a good idea. Her methods of defense are offensive, making her come off as callous, blunt and abrasive given that she is constantly on defense. Behind those defenses, that blunt abrasiveness doesn’t really fade, but there is more warmth and jovility to it. Her methods of showing she cares are to offer to fight for those who need it. Rough-hewn but gregarious, she smiles too much and laughs too loud for most culture standards, especially for a woman. Despite what might come with the perception of someone who is ‘just angry’, Honora is a skilled critical thinker. Being a curse breaker requires those kinds of problem solving abilities. Of course, she isn’t afraid to resort to problem solving with violence. Her typical methodology might pithily be summed up as “Try something, try something else, try another thing, punch it, try different approach.” Just keep in mind that on plenty of subjects she is already perpetually at the third try and completely ready to spill over to punching.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

Tristain Lynch | Father,  61 Bridget Lynch | Mother, deceased Aidan Lynch | Cousin, 15 Once golden boy of a prominent pureblood Irish family, it took one night for Tristain Lynch to crash into depths he’d never fathomed. A moonlit treck across the grounds of the family estate, coming back from a pickup match of Quidditch with his mates, walking the same path he had a thousand times, went wrong when an oversized wolf (a wolf? In Ireland? The first sign that something was dreadfully wrong) took him down. A desperate fight and some quick flying tricks saw him escape, but the damange was done. It took less than a month before Tristain retreated from society, a mysterious ‘illness’ laying him low, as the family said. A small cottage in the Aran Islands, with a cellar carved into the stone foundation, became Tristain’s home; originally it was meant to only be a once-a-month haven, but almost a year after the attack, he’d come to live in the cottage full time, nearly completely withdrawn from his family, with almost as little contact with the other inhabitants of the island. An exception was Bridget, who delivered groceries to the isolated cottage. A young Muggle  widow who had lost her husband in the war, she faced her own fair share of shame and ostracization over her husband having deserted the Irish Army to join the British Army. At first the connection was only physical; it took longer for them to admit their shared loneliness was what had bound them together. Still, it was early and accidental that Bridget became pregnant—before any revelations from Tristain. A bumpy road saw them through a series of confessions, and the pair ultimately married five months before their daughter was born. Things didn’t get any smoother after that, but at least it was a happy bumpy ride.  

OCCUPATION: 

Freelance Curse-Breaker

Honora travels the world in her capacity as a freelance curse-breaker, sometimes hired by clients to pick apart the nasty bit of spellwork they’ve triggered, other times seeking out bits of half-forgotten magic and history on her own. It has exposed her to many kinds and shades of magic, and throughout her travels she’s paid special attention to international varients of the curse that intrigues her most: lycanthropy and other therianthropy legends.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER: 

Honora learned of the Order through the werewolves. While she appreciates that they are attempting to help, she wonders if they at all have a clue that they’re callous, thoughtless assholes about it. 

What started as her hanging about the werewolves at the farm, making sure they were okay (or okay as they can be) has started to morph into her getting involved with their idiotic crusade. There was only so many odd-hour, eccentric drop ins that could happen before Nora caught on that something more than ill intentioned Werewolf Railroad-ing was going on, especially given that none of the werewolves were going anywhere fast. She still lingers on the fringe, not fully in, but very aware. In her mind, it’s a choice between two groups that both don’t really care about her people except as a tool to use against the other. Is that a fight she really wants to get involved in? And yet, with the Dark Lord starting to weaponize those werewolves he has seduced to his side (something she can’t honestly blame them for; between two abusive suppresors, why not chose the one that at least gives you the illusion of being able to do something about it?), it’s becoming clear to her that she has to do something to help protect the rest. Especially since no one else apparently has a clue

SURVIVAL: 

Honora is a Known Entitity. To everyone she is either already Pinned to the Corkboard and thus irrelevant or a potential Assest. That give her a certain amount of immunity from every side of this conflict. And in truth, she has very little skin in this game. Her muggle Mother is gone, her father is still a pureblood, and she’s thoroughly magical herself. If it weren’t for the Werewolf Thing, which plants her firmly between two waring factions, the whole thing could blow over her head without her noticing or caring. That happens when every side is a dick.

RELATIONSHIPS: 

The driving relationship that connects Honora to the Order is with the werewolves— and a full readiness to be offended, angry, and  prepared to fight on their behalf. It was through the interconnected network of contacts that she tracked the ‘disappearing’ werewolves to the Farm, and they’re why she sticks around. Honora’s father, a pureblood werewolf, has been approached by Voldemort’s followers looking to leverage him to pull more werewolves to their side, but his declining has yet to bring any repercussions. Perhaps because his Irishness and Purebloodedness, in combination with his reclusive isolation in the Aran Isles, offers him protections by being too bothersome to deal with. He was Honora’s first step on the path to finding the Order, speaking of werewolf acquaintances he knew who had gone into hiding in the rising atmosphere of war. There is one thing Honora is certain of— if Tristain ever faces a threat to the leve of needing to run, he won’t be ending up at the Farm. She’ll make sure of that. Remus Lupin | She Knows. One can’t be as plugged in to the dispora community of werewolves without knowing when an outsider appears. And Remus Lupin, whatever he might say, is an outsider among werewolves. For her piece, Honora thinks she’s closer to Werewolf Concerns than his privledged ass is. Maybe she’s only a filthy half-breed instead of a full Were, but at least people know what she is. She’s not hiding like he is. And maybe some part of her resents him for that that ability to hide. Cora Chittock | Honora is highly skeptical of this self-percieved Half Breed Warrior. A veela, really? Would they really know discimitation like other Beast-Beings experience if it bit them on their perfectly sculpted nose? Probably not. Oh, sure, the girl means well, but good intentions mis-aimed can do just as much damage as bad. Marlene McKinnon | What a lot of bullshit lipservice this bitch is feeding people. ‘McKinnon Farm is a safe haven’—yeah, if you meant a standard of social acceptability that doesn’t include hairy snounts. Otherwise, enjoy tents and latrines. Honora might have more sympathy to extend to the woman if she’d ever see her once stand up to her family’s decrees, but alas, she’s still waiting. And Nora’s all out of patience.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: Honestly, open for whatever happens

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE? 

A victim of prejudice and biases, it would be easy to say that Honora is openminded and aware of how harmful holding such things can be and thus she doesn’t participate in such things— it would also be total bullshit. With a instinct to punch back against such things, she developes biases in reverse. In general she doesn’t care much for British and European Wix with their rigid ideas of magic and wixhood. She has a particulair venemous spot for the English, having been raised Irish Catholic with all the generations of bloody history soaked into the very land that comes with that. She judges fast and harsh and is hard to move from a position once she’s taken it up. And yet, remove her from being at home, and that falls on the backburner. When it comes to other cultures and peoples, ones she hasn’t be raised in the midst of, she can keep an open and accepting mindset. That ability to shut down fast and hard is still there, but there is more leeway as she isn’t already on the ofensive-defense. For all that she has had to share in the taint of association with werewolves, Honora is privledged in that she doesn’t have to face the legal restrictions as they do. She doesn’t take much advantage of that and is more likely to spit on the offerings on grounds of principles though. The exception is her immense freedom to travel, which she does frequently. Another large privledge that she is keenly aware of is her fiscal stability. While her mother experienced straightened circumstances during the war and in its aftermath, cut off from the pension she should have gotten after her husband’s death, when there were hard times in Honora’s childhood, they weren’t tied to money. There was always that background support of the Lynch family that might not run to extravagence of the likes of so many British pureblood families but was more enough for a comfortable to well off existence. Wide travel around the world has brought to bear on Honora how lucky she is for that simple fact.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? Causing TROUBLE. (IC of course)

PLOT DROP IDEAS (OPTIONAL): Werewolf uprising! Burn McKinnon farm to the GROUND!    

ANYTHING ELSE?

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS:

PAST: 

At thirteen, Honora was expelled from the small Irish magical school she attended on the grounds of having attacked a fellow student. That’s what they said, at least. What they whispered is that her father was a werewolf. It was a devestating exposure of the carefully guarded Lynch family secret, and the ostrazation and abandonment that followed stuck with Honora. And stuck too her—who could know what the daughter of a werewolf would do, how she would turn out. Was anyone really sure she wasn’t a werewolf herself?

PRESENT: 

Time has proven the skeptics wrong; those who care about such things theorize it is her mother’s Muggle blood that somehow saved her from the curse. The stigma lingers, even if Honora is more welcomed in polite society than any full werewolf could hope to be. What time hasn’t done is softened Honor’s anger and outrage that it was okay to let good people be treated so poorly. That empathy for those she viewed as her people has found her tied closely to the secretive, half-hidden communities of werewolves in the islands. When they started to disappear, of course she was curious. Following the trail, the whispers, the breadcumbs of stories brought her to some sort of safe haven. Except she’s realized it doesn’t seem very safe or much of a haven for the werewolves. And just like when she was thirteen, she isn’t going to stand by and let people get away with disparaging her people. Whose dumb idea was this, anyway?

FC CHOICES: Krysten Ritter, Eliza Dushku, Jade Tailor

[personalcoachingcenter]

Powerful Tools: Compassion vs. Ego

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/powerful-tools-compassion-vs-ego/

Powerful Tools: Compassion vs. Ego

A Coaching Power Tool Created by Milena Carruzzo (Relationships Coach, SWITZERLAND)

Introduction

A relationship is defined as “the way two or more people or things are connected” and “the way two or more people regard or behave towards each other”(Lexico, 2020).

Our relationships fill up our lives and shape them. We have relationships with ourselves, with our family members, with our friends, with our colleagues, with our neighbors, with our loved ones, with our enemies, and even with things like with our country, our home, and our belongings.

Two perspectives will motivate our behaviors in our relationships: compassion and ego. The choice of perspective will have an immense impact on the quality and health of our relationships.

What is the Ego?

Literally, “Ego” means “I” in Latin. It is the “self” in the sense of self-esteem, self-confidence, or self-worth.

In the psychoanalytic sense used by Freud’s research, the ego is the part of the mind that mediates between the desires of the id – the primitive and instinctual part of the mind – and the super-ego – the moral conscience part of our mind (Simply Psychology, 2019).

In the modern field of social and personality psychology, the ego is that which creates the self (Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2009). This is the ego that is considered for the perspective.

The ego is the mind’s identity of our construction. The beliefs that we have, will define the structure of our ego. But this identity created by the ego is an illusion (Pathway to happiness, 2019).

The kind of beliefs that construct the ego is:

“I am excellent at communicating”

“I am better”

“My body is ugly”

“Nobody listens to me”

They can be positive or negative. But they are based on a false-self.

The ego will spend a lot of time defending the self and doing whatever it takes to affirm itself. It will get defensive when it gets shaken or threatened. Its primary function is to protect our identity and beliefs. The ego is maintained by the belief that we are separate from others.

The ego can be observed and show up while pursuing some of its needs. Here are the compulsive needs of the ego: (The Polyman, 2010-2020)

  Need to connect

Need for truth

Need to control

Need for identity

Need for certainty

Need to be right

Need to make sense

Need for justice

Need for recognition

Need to defend

What is Compassion?

Compassion is defined as followed: “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” (Merriam Webster, 2020).

I prefer this definition of compassionate: “someone who shows kindness and empathy to others, or is something or some act that expresses kindness or empathy” (yourdictionary, 2020).

It doesn’t focus on the negative feelings of others but rather on the intentions of the person to express kindness or empathy.

How do we recognize compassion?

When we practice compassion, we take into consideration the others. We demonstrate empathy, kindness, and gratitude. With compassion, we realize that there is no separation from others, we let down the barriers that we keep to protect ourselves. The desire to connect with others will come from a place of joy.

Difference between the compassion and ego

The fundamental difference between the ego and compassion is awareness. The ego is a false-self and does not have awareness of the true-self. On the other hand, highly self-compassionate people can acknowledge their imperfections and can see better their true-self. When we choose compassion, we make a conscious choice.

The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. The ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist. –Eckart Tolle (2005)

Another main difference between ego and compassion lies in the inclusion of others. The core of the operating system of the ego is based on the idea of separation. On the other hand, the core of compassion is to feel closer and more connected to everything and everyone else.

Their differences also lie in their purpose, which is the primary issue in our relationships to anything. The purpose of the ego in a relationship is to withhold love, while the purpose of compassion is to extend love. In relationships, the ego will look at fulfilling its needs for approval, acceptance, or control. On the other hand, when we act with compassion in a relationship there is no trace of fear of loss. There is no need to control. There are just love and a true connection.

In a relationship, our ego will fight to defend ourselves and protect our needs but compassion will help us to create a more authentic and fulfilling connection.

A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever. –Eckart Tolle (2005)

How do ego and compassion show up in our behaviors?

It is difficult to notice the ego as it hides behind the “I” and the “me”. It hides behind opinions and thoughts that appear to be true. Here are some behaviors derived from compassion and the ego.

Self applications for coaches

To actively listen to our clients, it is necessary to lower down this constant voice inside our heads. This voice is one of our egos, when it says: “why is she/he doing that”, “I know the solution” or “this is not going to work”. This is our ego tapping on our shoulders reminding us about our beliefs, our opinion, and our needs. When we manage to let those thoughts go, we can offer our full attention to our client. Quietening our ego helps us to be fully present and actively listen. By choosing compassion in our practice, we can show understanding, empathy, and focus on the needs of our clients.

Application in the coaching process

The purpose of the coaching process is to “move the client from where they are now to where they want to be” (ICA, 2019).

Self-awareness and self-reflection are essential for reaching our goals. In this process, it is important to identify the ego as the self that will do anything to decline any responsibility for negative outcomes. When we manage to quiet our ego and focus less on our needs but act with compassion, we are more likely to reach our goals. We have more chances to grow as we will no act out of fear. We will be able to recognize our truth and our true self.

In the coaching process, we support the client to get awareness and understand their behaviors. Being able to recognize the needs of the ego and the emotion derived from it, is a major step in moving forward.

Three realizations can be achieved during the coaching process:

Realize where the ego hides and when it motivates behaviors

Realize that the needs of the ego are never satisfied and are the cause of frustration

Realize how to choose compassion

Powerful questions to detect the ego

The ego lives out of fear. It fears our unworthiness. As a result, the ego pushes us to achieve more. The ego communicates through “musts,” and “shoulds,” persuading us to believe that by achieving more and more, we will earn our worthiness.

What is your belief behind “should”/”must”?

What was your need in this situation?

What is your purpose in this relationship?

What does this behavior serve?

What do you know for sure?

Powerful questions to shift perspective from ego to compassion

The ego is focusing on fulfilling its needs whereas compassion is focusing on helping others.

X: Are the questions that serve the ego– recommended avoiding

V: Are the questions that serve compassion– recommended using

X: What are you looking for in this relationship?

V: What is the greatest gift you feel you can bring to a relationship?

X: What would you like to get from this relationship?

V: What would you like to give in this relationship?

X: What are your expectations?

V: What are your intentions?

Conclusion

By identifying our ego, we can acknowledge our limitations and consider it to develop ourselves. By integrating others in our life, we choose a life with more compassion that can bring immense fulfillment and joy.

Each of our relationships is an opportunity to glorify love. “What I give to others, I give to myself. What I withhold from others, I withhold from myself. Everyone I meet today provides me with an opportunity to increase my joy by bringing greater joy to others” (Best self, 2020).

Original source: https://coachcampus.com/coach-portfolios/power-tools/milena-carruzzo-compassion-vs-ego/

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[theteenagetrickster]

Huachuma Cactus vs. Techno-idolatry|Awaken World

Contributing article writer for Get up Planet

When was actually the final opportunity you saw individuals chat to each other on the way to or from job? Take a moment to think of it. Whether you take a bus or train to reach your work environment, many of the moment you view folks glued to their phones, probably including you. It has become therefore poor that individuals are currently like drunks, walking in to each various other, slamming into walls, road illuminations, cars and trucks, falling into channels and also fountains while texting. Researcher Jack Nasar from Ohio Condition Educational institution states that there may have concerned 2 thousand mundane traumas associated to mobile phone usage in 2010. A Seat Proving ground poll in mid-2012 discovered that fifty% of cell managers mention that they have been slammed right into through one more individual because that individual was actually sidetracked by utilizing their own cell phone. Furthermore the increasing fad of selfie fatalities. If this were not therefore terrible, it would certainly be actually amusing!

Mobile innovation has actually changed coming from being an unit for far-off interaction to a device for mass hypnotism. The iPhone in the Western side globe today plays the function of the groove of the Indian fakir, whose sound hypnotizes the cobra. Your phone is actually that groove as well as you are actually the cobra. It maintains you in a steady trance while nourishing you garbage information, negative thoughts, disinformation and advertising. In modern-day American society, having a latest as well as far better phone is prominent. This form of techno-slavery is now as socially accepted as alcohol, one more hazardous stupefier that, like technology, produces an illusion of happiness. Technological idolatry is incredibly naïve in its assumption that a selection of gizmos suggests liberation as well as flexibility. Techno-idolatry has come to be a modern-day, transnational techno-religion, advertised by media as the methods to happiness. Billions of individuals online have made a cyberspace identification, which is highly susceptible for control as well as abuse. An absence of sort on Facebook or even Instagram posts creates depression in teenagers and young people as well as requires emotional procedure.

Depending on to a latest study, Americans check out their phones a 52 opportunities time, generally. Astonishing! If they would appear inside on their own as typically, along with an intention to find what's within all of them and also self-reflect, their lifestyles would completely transformed. The issue, though, is that Western culture carries out certainly not show individuals this vital method of self-reflection. It is actually simply missing coming from the socio-cultural story. This is actually why Eastern metaphysical heritages are actually helpful, for they point the means inward. Obviously, plant medication is actually a direct technique that leads to clearness and also understanding, of oneself and also the world around. Still, reading the phrases of thinkers of recent is a great beginning. Discovering to appear inside is actually the only means toward healing and improvement.

Probably we can easily recommend a brand-new phrase to be actually included in the psychological guidebooks: social media sites syndrome. The complication is actually that cyberspace, which is a power generator of mass confusion, has actually represented instructor as well as physician of humankind, thereby becoming a resource of understanding to billions of folks and also a location where they acquire their approach permanently. This constant rush for innovation possesses a serious psychological effects: that everything is actually brand new is actually far better than all that is actually aged.

Properly, just before our team go any kind of further, our team can easily take a minute to make fun of this. Merely a week ago, a friend of mine who mosted likely to South Korea on a business vacation created me to discuss his problems leaving the washroom. While on the bathroom, he really did not understand what switch to press to flunk. An electronic commode had actually become a problem for my friend, who merely wished to get performed. 25 different buttons, all in Korean, produced it inconceivable to carry out the easy action of flushing the bathroom. Attempting different ones, he obtained his buttocks blown along with very hot sky, splashed along with warm and comfortable water and also germicide. To create his tale much more credible, he sent me images and video recording as he was actually attempting to leave the droid commode. He said, also to him, an MIT graduate, the innovation was way too much to find out. I giggled therefore difficult that I got up my better half up along with my giggling at this digital tragicomedy. This was actually simply very funny!

The iToilet Dash

I will never mount this "smart" bathroom in my home, to ensure that it could make me look silly. Caught in a South Oriental iToilet, my friend admitted that these individuals have taken it as well far. Personally, I select the outdated hand-operated toilets, equally as I opt for old-fashioned personal interaction with people. Also in this feeling, much older is actually certainly much better. I have actually presently detailed my mindset towards modern technology earlier. I know its worth and I make use of innovation myself. Innovation is my server, certainly not my God. I will definitely certainly never praise a machine, whether it is my cellphone, space capsule or an iToilet.

There is actually a greater issue with the idea of development when it just shrouds the outdated means of lifestyle as well as thinking. It is difficult to uncover in the well-known thinking about our time any tracks of early and great mentors. Cleverness is certainly never understanding. These critical mentors that our company need in order to reside our lives in properly have been just viewed as outdated, unimportant as well as space by the techno-digital lifestyle. But regularly progressing modern technology possesses a massive price of alienation coming from self and also attribute. Technician lifestyle is coming to be the brand new tenacity that can just deliver a replacement for joy yet never ever joy and happiness itself. Our experts present possess the cult of Apple, and also folks take pride in belonging to it. The brand new the lords, such as Google.com, Twitter And Facebook, are worshiped and feared. An electronic heck has right now been actually produced; individuals are sentenced to Facebook prison through getting 30-day restrictions. The story is controlled coming from Silicon Lowland, where social developers have presumed the divine right to control. They strongly believe that this is actually redemption. Substantially wired but deeply detached, our team reside our lifestyles certainly not realizing that this separation from our own selves and also Attributes is the origin of our individual suffering. Huachuma's serious, problem-solving clarity is truly a good thing coming from nature. In much of the world it is outlawed by the electrical powers that should not be actually. The antidote for individual chaos is disallowed. What a saddening, incorrect fact! Individual physical nature consumption is being promoted by a behavioral researcher on TELEVISION.

Fortunately is that this horrible fact is actually just one means to interact along with lifestyle. Individuals in early times prized Attributes for its own recuperation powers. The plant empire is astounding and also is easily available to use. There are actually organic methods for recovery that have actually verified to persuade manies thousand of years. All true connections are actually rooted in our hearts, and also sacred vegetations are actually listed below to reveal our team what is actually in all of them. As if on a display screen, our team may view our interior web content and create the necessary adjustments in our life, so as to irritate our interior ability permanently as well as guarantee the circulation of the recuperation power offered to our company. Rewired and also totally reset due to the electrical power and also intellect of spiritual vegetations, our team have the capacity to open our greater abilities for creativity and also aware residing. Our company possess to create room within our own selves for religious relationship. Greater conditions of awareness are actually the important food for our hearts, which are mainly malnourished and also deficient coming from staying in the present day world. The desire in the direction of unity is arising from the depths of our spirit, which belongs of the Entire. Huachuma medicine is this Global port.

Benjamim Whichcote stated that "really good men spiritualize their body systems. Bad guys incarnate their soul." This declaration will make much more sense if our company simply substitute "excellent" and "bad" with "self-aware" and also "unfamiliar." Incarnated in modern technology, our character has dropped ill and also is moving in the direction of the urgent space. I located Huachuma medicine to be actually the solution to numerous concerns and also religious ailments, which acquire resolved in the more significant clarity of the thoughts. This, naturally, irritates the powerless reductionistic researchers, that have actually ended up being an idolaters of clinical view and also the atheistic sight of lifestyle. To all of them, the spiritual realm is an aberration, a spot in some dark corner of the human mind where only delusional and psychologically ill folks go. To their restricted spiritual belief as well as understanding, the intellect of a vegetation is entitled to no attention, for, in their very own thoughts, it doesn't exist. Thereby each scientific research and also modern technology are relocating back while maintaining an illusion of progression.

All this penetrates when you welcome Huachuma medication in the correct technique and also enable on your own to observe along with your soul and also mind. It is actually by the harmony of the mind that our company can easily transmute the false realities and pseudo-religions of the here and now and afterlife salvation of the future. Right here and right now is the only place and opportunity where redemption is actually feasible. Coming from a lifetime religious hunt, I have discovered plant-based shamanism, Sufism as well as Zen Buddhism to be the methods that most anxiety the significance of living in the here and now moment. Huachuma medicine, especially, is actually that messenger whose clear and also direct notification connects with the midsts of one's center.

There are actually lots of perceptions of salvation, and also many of all of them are actually only recognized in a posthumous condition. The wide-spread idea in an external broker or agency must be actually deserted, for it is actually the primary block in taking our lives and also destiny in our hands. From the Messiah of the historical opportunities to the unusual ambassadors of the Alternative, humankind has actually been actually and still is waiting for a God-like figure to come down coming from somewhere and spare all of us coming from our very own unawareness and also wreck. This immature and irresponsible perspective in the direction of life is perhaps the best hurdle to personal as well as cumulative improvement. All externalized forms of salvation must be internalized. Sparing our own selves from our very own ignorance is an excellent start.

The final taped words of Buddha were these: "Degeneration is actually intrinsic in all element things. Exercise your own salvation along with carefulness." Perhaps the best present of Huachuma medication is this incredibly advice toward yourself and your personal redemption. It is the self-realization of the inner authority that Eastern literature conspicuously communicates of. Any time of individual history, this powerful ally would be actually a benefit. But today, with the growth of psychological health problem worldwide, this kind of adventure and also link is actually critically important. Buddha is. You are your own savior.

As Mahayana Buddhism's Sutralamkara states: "Indeed, the saving honest truth has actually never been actually addressed by the Buddha, finding that a person needs to realize it within oneself." And also this is actually maybe the absolute most significant present of Huachuma medication. It allows you to carry out that, amongst others factors. It merely opens your inner dream so you may view the imaginary attributes of enjoying pseudo-salvations like materialism, modern technology, scientific research and also religion: The worship of rational cause on one hand and also old wives' tales and dogmas on the other. Huachuma can plainly show you that organized religious beliefs is actually simply a selection of convictions as well as is actually certainly not a secure ship to board on a trip all over the ocean of life. Very same holds true for medical materialism. Each boats have holes in all of them as well as both will definitely kitchen sink on the way. All-time low line is that waking up is absolutely no longer an opportunity of minority but an essential need of the lots of, and it is actually achievable under specific conditions.

Huachuma is a delicate veil-lifter you can easily rely on. It activates the illumination in your area, where you can easily find perfectly what is actually within. In its own intense, dynamic lighting, what was obscure today may be observed precisely. And just like you can observe the condition in your area when the lighting gets on, so too in the lighting of Huachuma medicine you can see the condition in your life. Viewing leads to recovery and also improvement. Self-realization is the information of the unaware Self. Become your personal illumination. Do not try to find an external sanctuary. This is a mentor you find in Huachuma exotic. And these are not merely terms. It's what you experience, it's what you experience. And this take in is louder and more clear than any words.

I have devoted my 2nd publication,, to the Huachuma cactus.

This publication is the light dose of my medication. If you sound along with my terms, you prepare to take the following step and expertise Huachuma medication with our team in Peru. There is actually just say goodbye to opportunity for prejudices. The only opportunity we have is actually for recuperation as well as regrowth. Of course, it comes just along with discovering, deep, sincere pondering and also brave diving inside your own self.

Plant medication shamanism is the method to go coming from listed here ahead. Phrases like Heaven, Nirvana, Samadhi and Knowledge will not take us far. If our company do not find our religious roots, our team will just ruin ourselves as well as every thing around our team. What our team need is actually a straight religious knowledge of Divine Union to change our lifestyles. This transcendent expertise is actually the unifier that makes certain common growing. No volume of political as well as financial organizing are going to do the job till our company discover the hookup along with our own selves as well as attributes.

Please view our brand new film Divine Exotic, which reveals just how our team deal with the Huachuma exotic in Peru.

Sergey Baranov is the founder of Huachuma Wasi, a healing center in The Spiritual Lowland of the Incas, Peru. He is actually the writer of Pathway: Looking For Reality In a Globe of Lies, The Mescaline Admission: Breaking By Means Of the Walls of Deception and also Create Your Zen in one month. Sergey's interest permanently in the world and its own conservation is actually the steering force behind his job.

You may speak to Sergey at www.huachumawasi.com

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Part 2...

Jean Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulation

Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorists. He is most famous for his work on post-structuralism, early post modernism and his ideas help shaping the idea of hyperreality. In his book Simulacra and Simulation (1981) he talks about the idea of us living in the age of simulation. In our postmodern culture society, we are servant to maps, symbols and models, making us lose all contact with the real world outside of the map. We wouldn’t be able to distinguish from the what is real and what is simulated, the map becomes what’s real "The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory—precession of simulacra—that engenders the territory" ("The Precession of Simulacra" 1). He stated when it comes to postmodern simulation and simulacra, “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real” ("The Precession of Simulacra" 2). We have lost all ability to make of the distinction between nature and artifice.

Image from https://baudrillardstudies.com/baudrillard-scrapbook/

Photo by Richard Avedon

jean Baudrillard and The Matrix  

The matrix is about a computer hacker Thomas Anderson, learns about the true nature of his reality and the role he plays in the war against it’s controllers. (Kenneth Chisholm). In one the scenes of the movie Thomas picks up a book: Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and simulation. The inclusion of the book holds great meaning as the movie takes a lot of influence from his idea of hyperreality, and hyperreal. Thomas learns about him living in a hyperreality, a simulation- everything he knew wasn’t really real. The Matrx itself is used as a virtual realty medium to illustrate the concept of hyperreal. The Matrx is an illusion created by the AI for a purpose.

image from https://mikesyear2uni.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/authenticity-baudrillard-wilde-and-benjamin/

A shot from a scene in The Matrx

Hyperreality

‘Hyperreality’ was coined by Baudrillard, meaning a social reality in which a reality is created or simulated from models of reality that is generated from ideas. (Robinson, 2012). Our reality gets simulated and heightened and which causes us to be in a hyperreality. With technology like AR and VR and the growing MR, we can now truly enter a simulated world at any moment, with apps, game or headset.  

image from Google images

The headset: 2018

New developments of apps for the VR, has added to the real life real to the headset. Now you can watch YouTube with the YouTube VR, receive messages, meditate, check emails, watch Netflix. Interact with other user’s avatars, communicating through the headset in a game called VR chat.  

A man named Jack Wilmot did an experiment where he ‘lived’ in a VR headset for a week. He always made sure to have a headset on, blacking out his windows blocking the outside world, switching headsets for different activities. On his experience he says “...this headset allows anyone to create their own environment”.  If you’re feeling stressed, you can switch to being submerged into a natural environment. “Everything is in the headset”. With the incorporate of everyday activity in the Virtual world, our generation can spend more time in a simulated reality than our actual reality. His experiment shows how we could live a sustainable life in the simulacra that is the headset as it still allows us to function normally.  

Video from Youtube - I spent a week in a VR headset, here’s what happened

Will VR replace real life?  

According to Jean Baudrillard’s theory, reality is a simulacra. He argues in the age of media we already are living in a virtual reality. His theories stand correct precisely in today’s society. I believe that there are and always have been simulants in the world that proved the experience of a hyperreality. From natural things outside of our control, like our brain hallucinating to meditation. To more man-made simulants like books, movies, social media, Disneyland.  

And now AR, VR and MR.  

A fair critic of Jean Baudrillar was from N. Katherine Hayles in her book ‘The Borders of madness’, she argues  

“Every existing simulation has boundaries that distinguish it from the surrounding environment. Disneyland sports a fence, dense hedges, and acres of parking lots. Virtual reality environments are limited by the length of the cables attaching the body apparatus to the computer.”  (1991)

This is true. We have the option to disconnect.  

But what if the technology develops to perfection, and it give us everything we need in it’s virtual world?  

And we truly are not capable of distinguishing VR from realty.  

AR vs and MR are ‘escapes from reality’, but what if they become reality?

Image from https://uploadvr.com/high-end-vr-future/

Imagine …in the distant future...

A SONY super high-tech headset that lets you experience anything you want. And it feels real. Life like.

- It takes away all your worries  

- Brings all pleasure  

Once you plug in, you won’t know that you’re plugged in.  

Would you plug in?  

This idea is based on Robert Nozick 1974 book: Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Where he proposes the experience machine. He stated “Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience that you desired... All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain.” …A VR headset... Nozick assumes that most people would not plug in.  

With the advancements in today’s technology, the machine isn’t hard to imagine for the distant future...  

Most people would argue that we would be able to plug in and out (if there was that option) like the stimuli from video games. But with the game being able to give you every desire, returning to the ‘real world’ where you can’t be given everything you want, could cause a feeling of sadness - would people be able to control and self-discipline to not spend to not plug in once and never plug back out. What if all their friends and family are already plugged in too?

Why wouldn’t you plug in?  

There are some issues with posing this question, one being that it’s a big generalization to make, even with all the pleasures that would be provided inside the headset, we wouldn’t be able to truly experience it because we wouldn’t be able to feel it. The virtual experiences that we would have can only be replicated to a certain extent. Playing in the world cup and scoring the winning goal is an experience that cannot be replicated because of the emotions.  

Another issue is assuming that we would pick the pleasure offered to us over the issues the real-life experience of the real world. Maybe it we would miss the feeling of living, that again cannot be replicated.  

The influence of social media

I think VR technology has the capability to cause a societal shift. If the technology was developed enough to offer us a better reality to our own. It is capable of a causing a shift. However, I don’t believe that it could cause it alone. Social media would play a big part. Social media is new age technology, but it would play its own sperate part.  

Social media has taken over our world. It is inescapable in my generation, generation Z. My generation live our lives on social media, people post about every detail of their lives everyday on a platform such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook... but they only show us what they want us to see, social media allows you to have no filter and use filters at the same time. People can present their best image to you and you won’t be able to tell the difference. This is problematic as it could lead to depression and anxiety. There are inconclusive research on weather social media is a direct cause of depression and anxiety, but it does seems to be a cause. The chair of the psychology department at Stanford University, Anthony Wagner states “... our media use behavior is actually altering our cognition and underlying neurological function or neurobiological processes? The answer is we have no idea.” (Resnick, 2019)  

Although, we don’t know if the official cause, our obsession with it does play a major part in the cause of depression and anxiety. According to experts “almost 20% of people with social media accounts cannot go more than three hours without checking them” (Fader, 2018). It is not hard to miss the amount of people walking around with their heads in their phones, we’ve all been guilty of doing it. But (for the most part) my generation are able to distinguish from social media and real life. But what about the generation after us?  

Children are using social media just as much as adults are causing growing concerns on its effects on their development. “One of the biggest differences in...current teenagers and young adults... is that they spend much less time connecting with their peers in person and more time connecting ...through social media.’ Recent studies show that teenagers and young adult who spend the most time on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and other platforms “...were shown to have a substantially (from 13 to 66 percent) higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time” (Miller, 2017).  

I think Social media has become too problematic itself, with people not having the consciousness to distinguish reality from the simulation of reality that is social media. Social media is a hyperreality.  

To conclude, I think that the in this moment in time the technology isn’t powerful enough to cause a societal shift, but with the rate in which it is enhancing, it isn’t so wacky to think that one day AR, VR and MR replace reality, therefore changing our cultural and societal values. Technology (and social media) could be the main deciding determinism for the shift.   

[viditure]

Catching up: detox, livestreaming and poetry

This week, Catching Up is all about detox, health and poetry. Let’s go!

Detox

Goodbye Big Five is a six-part series which explores how journalist Kashmir Hill blocked the services of tech’s biggest giants from her life, first one after the other, and then all 5 simultaneously. This undertaking represents a real technical challenge, considering that the Big Five’s systems are capable of circumventing firewalls and blocking solutions. Experimenting with a tech-giant-free lifestyle reveals just how omnipresent these companies are on our devices, even when we take the smallest digital actions. But it also shows how difficult it is to do without them. The series not only highlights addiction to the tech giants, it also demonstrates how the Big Five’s strategies are aimed at selling us a better, easier, more attractive daily life: an illusion that has prevented us from really reflecting on the effects these monopolies have on our society, and which impairs our ability to establish real human relationships (vs. virtual ones) and appreciate their value. In another study published in the MIT Technology Review, researchers from Stanford compared the effects on users who withdrew from Facebook for one month. Most ended up spending more time with their friends and family. Their mood improved compared to those from the control group, who spent at least one hour per day on the app. What are we waiting for to be happy?!

The thief left it behind: the moon at my window.

Haiku by Ryōkan

Fear of the void

Asian livestreamers sing, eat, and dance in front of their webcams to counter the loneliness of users who are eager for performance and often devoid of social lives. This photo essay by Jérôme Gence captures these internet idols during their live sequences, which range from the banal to the extreme and are consistently popular among Taiwanese and Chinese Internet users. Through these striking portraits, the photojournalist offers complete immersion in the reality of an industry that alienates its protagonists both in front of the screen and behind it. On the one hand, the performers are caught in a spiral that is virtual but essential to their survival. And on the other, we see individuals who seem to want to fill an emotional void that has itself been created by excessive digitisation and virtualisation. It is a portrait of a hyper-connected society in which social networks, pushed to the extreme, have almost completely wiped out human relationships in the name of business growth.

Dietary concerns

Quantity at any cost inevitably leads to “infobesity”. The oversupply and overuse of data are doubly problematic. They undermine the decision-making process and erode user trust. Our CEO draws an enlightening parallel with the agro-food industry and explains why we need a “data ecology”. An excerpt:

In the landscape of data-driven decisions, there’s no shortage of appealing interfaces, dynamic visualisations, and promises of quick and automated optimisation, but with what degree of certainty regarding data reliability and robustness? Data can be as toxic and harmful to your company as junk food is to your body.

Poetry

Even though the Internet can be a world of falseness, loneliness and hatred, it can also encourage poetic expression. A case in point: the Instagram account Amours Solitaires. It’s a collection of poetic messages (in French) delivered via text message or WhatsApp. Poetry isn’t dead. It has simply found a new home.

Creative coding

Kjetil Golid has made a collection of open source algorithms available to all. They range from the serious to the not-so-serious, but all generate amazing visuals that are sometimes interactive. Here is half noisify, a soundscape generated from half of a photo. Good stuff for your wallpapers.

See you next time on the Internets!

Article Catching up: detox, livestreaming and poetry first appeared on Digital Analytics Blog.

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[ifuckekureto]

ch 56

I should probably wait until I have more energy to write this so that it’s coherent, but whatever, let’s just dive in!

First of all: AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Second of all: Seishiro still hasn’t appeared yet. #freeseishiro2k17

Moving on...

So Guren and Yuu are reunited!! Tbh after waiting a month for each chapter to come out (which is totally fine, I understand that writing/drawing manga takes a lot of work!), the reunion wasn’t a big deal for me. And Guren of course did the classic “let me just drop in and say hi casually after being gone for a really long time under concerning circumstances.” 

Speaking of Guren... Well, I mentioned in an earlier post that I think Mahiru was using literal language when saying that Guren’s squad would fall apart if they found out they had died and been resurrected. With that being the case, that’s probably why Guren knocked them out. But I will say, I am a teensy bit tired of that constantly happening to them because they’re really cool fighters and they get shortchanged a lot by getting knocked out all the time in the LNs and now here. I don’t think I can complain too much since they’re only minor characters, and Shinoa’s squad is definitely supposed to be the focus of the manga. I think my greater interest in Guren’s squad is due to the fact that I’m closer in age to them and can relate a bit more, if that makes sense. And their character designs are just 👌 👌 👌 amazing. I’m also probably just salty that they only have 2 years left to live... The only things that could help them are probably just as bad as the Seraph of the End. RIP minor characters.

AND MAHIRU ASKLASJASAKSKAS There was a lot of interesting stuff about her in chapters 54 & 55, but ngl I don’t feel like recapping what is probably already obvious to you. Anyways, I LOVE that Byakkomaru is looking out for Shinya because that was one of my headcanons and :’) Because it’s a demon, the concern is probably more related to Byakkomaru’s own well-being but :’) It’s nice to see something I can extrapolate from... lol... BUT MAHIRU! Okay, I’m not really in touch with the ONS fandom, but I get the impression that the MikaYuu vs YuuNoa ship war is a particularly vicious one... I honestly think both are fun, and I don’t really like to talk about ships on this blog anyway. But since I’m talking about chapter 56 in particular, I will say that the parallels between GureMahi and YuuNoa are very interesting, especially when Mahiru talks about lust and demons because I’m like YES I’M THIRSTY TOO BINCH!! Boy oh boy oh boy oh boy, if Mahiru somehow influences Shikama Doji (Shinoa’s demon) to awaken and capitalize on Shinoa’s apparent desire for Yuu... That would be very interesting! Of course, everyone is in love with Yuu and each other so who knows what will happen ;)

AND NOW KURETO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA So what was interesting to me was that Guren said that someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes for the entire Hiiragi family, and not just Kureto... So Tenri might be under the influence of something too. Based on the emphasis in the LNs of Kureto thinking about the legends of the founder of the Hiiragi clan, I can’t help but think it’s related. But also shoutout to  @borntobeafangirlxd because they literally called the Saito-Tenri connection a longggggggg time ago!! I don’t remember if Saito’s chains have been shown in the manga in any of his brief appearances, but they were definitely there in the LNs. And it seems to me that the chains that came out of Tenri are the same kind of thing. On a sidenote, remember the weird chains that burst from the truck to pierce the soldiers for the activation of the Seraph of the End? I wonder if they are related, but I’m not sure that they would be. I guess we’ll find out. But wowie wow wow Kureto said Tenri is no longer human... and he’s worried that he doesn’t have the strength to beat him... Which reminds me, that moment with Aoi was so sweet :3c And his expressions of worry made for some very good manga screencaps (though I’m hesitant to do anything with them at the moment until I get some permissions). Anyways, Saito and Tenri at the very least are aware of the other’s existence because if Tenri was manipulating Mahiru to interact with Saito, then he would definitely know who Saito is. Not to mention that they literally said that Tenri has confirmed connections with the vampires which is just crazy since he engineered the Seraph of the End!! Maybe he has contact with Krul though Mahiru since they are both interested in it. Or Saito. So is Saito the one that Guren was referring to when he said that someone is pulling the strings? Or is it someone like the 1st progenitor? Or the Hiiragi ancestor? Or some demon? If I knew more about Tenri, I could probably come up with something better than aimless speculation. I think Kagami will write an 8th LN, and that may answer some questions about Tenri’s cybernetics.

But also I’m genuinely afraid Kureto could die. I didn’t really ever think that both Kureto and Guren would make it to the end of the manga with a happy ending, but this scary. If Tenri is like Saito, then I’m not sure if Kureto stands a chance unless he obtains more power from his demon... which is always risky... not to mention that the LNs revealed that using Raimeiki literally destroys his muscles (which must be absolutely excruciating). Of course, the curse allows them to regenerate quickly... only to be destroyed again... Anyways, in the LNs, sometimes Guren was able to get the jump on Saito even before he obtained Mahiru/Noya, but there seems to be an implication that Saito’s current state is beyond even the vampires. I know the vampire LNs don’t really talk about Saito, but I still want to read them for any scrap of information they can offer about this. Anyways, if Saito is beyond a vampire and Tenri is like Saito... Kureto may not really stand a chance if he wants a fight to the death. Maybe if he let Seishiro out, he could get some help!!!! Not even sure what Seishiro could do here, but he needs to let out soon :’( Or maybe Kureto locked him up to protect Seishiro from this battle... but... that’s probably a bit too altruistic haha rip... Interestingly, Kureto isn’t really an impulsive guy, but he consistently throws himself into these life-or-death situations. In the LNs, he goaded Guren to strike him even though he knew Guren’s demon could drive him to deliver a fatal blow, he stepped up to negotiate with a group of vampires for the lives of 200 soldiers he was leading when a raid on the Hyakuya Sect went wrong, he fought Mahiru even though she was way way way way way more powerful (part of this attack was an illusion, but he did attempt to directly confront her). In the anime, after Yuu destroyed Abaddon, he charged at Yuu and crossed blades with him... like, dude... what makes you think you can win... though because this didn’t happen in the manga, I’m a bit hesitant to consider it as an example of the behavior I’m talking about. But the point is, Kureto is constantly doing stuff like this, and out of all the situations he’s been in, this one is by far the deadliest... Like I would not be surprised if he’s killed or severely maimed in the coming chapters. Then again, maybe he’ll retreat? Which... he doesn’t seem like he wants to do since it sounds like he thinks this is the best opportunity to take down Tenri. Kureto... :’( Seeing as he’s important to the plot, he may very well make it out alive. But I’m still nervous for him :’( And I know that the ending of the anime showed Kureto and Guren wearing the same kind of coat that Tenri has which implies a successful coup, but I wonder if it really is that simple... I don’t know much about military uniforms (especially Japanese military dress uniforms imbued with protective talismans lol), but maybe the coat just signifies who the presiding commanders are? Like I think Guren and Kureto were in Sanguinem in that scene, so that could just be a reference to the successful invasion of Sanguinem (which I hope they talk about a little more). I just don’t think the coup would be that simple since Tenri appears to have connections to whoever might be the real bad guy of the series. I hope they don’t mind me mentioning them, but I saw @lightmaycry say on another social media website that it would be really sad if Tenri was under the influence of this malevolent force and dies in the confrontation with Kureto, but is finally freed of it and says something nice to Kureto :’l That would be pretty sad :’l And it goes along with theories proposed by both @borntobeafangirlxd and@ @aph-tokyo-london (idk why the tag isn’t working for your url). I hope they don’t mind me mentioning them... Let me know if you do mind, and I will remove these parts. I will totally admit that I’m a bit biased against Tenri, but I’m open to something like this happening. Bring me the angst :’l

But where is Seishiro??? I feel like he should be appearing soon since focus is being drawn back to the JIDA... It would be really nice to know what he thinks about all of these things... I think he has been kept in the dark when it comes to some of the Seraph stuff, but I also think he can put a few of the pieces together himself. He simply may not want to because the truth would be really hard to deal with, and I think Seishiro lived in denial for as long as he could until he got a nasty wake-up call from Kureto that said yes, there is something really crazy going on here and yes, it has to do with our family!

#freeseishiro2k17

[sutrodigital-blog]

9 Social Media Marketing Trends That Could Make or Break Your Business in 2017

Social media is always evolving, so what’s next?

That’s the question I was asked in an interview recently. This kind of question can be really easy since there are so many easy candidates – IoT, VR, and just about anything to do with Facebook.

But if you don’t want to rely on the cliches of future social technology, it can be a challenge to pick out what will matter and why. I suppose this post is somewhere in the middle and I hope it helps you think about where the substance breaks away from the shiny social media objects.

The most important thing about social media marketing isn’t always the tech. It’s the people.7

A lot of what draws marketers’ attention to social media is technology: new apps, networks and the latest features on major platforms. But the most important thing about social media marketing isn’t always the technology. It’s the people and how they use that technology to create, publish, share, interact and transact.1

Social media is a dynamic of consumer behaviors driving new social technology development while at the same time, new technologies that affect consumer behaviors. It’s important for brands looking at what’s next in social media to understand this dynamic amongst their own customers and broader community.

With that dynamic cycle of people and technology in mind, here are a few directions for social media evolution I think are worth paying attention to:

1. The Facebook Internet

Facebook is dominating social media usage, video and advertising and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Along with WhatsApp messaging and predictions that Instagram will soon become the second biggest social network, many Facebook users don’t really need to leave, do they? Think about that customer expectation when developing your Facebook marketing strategy and how much you can accomplish with customer engagement before they ever even think of visiting your boring corporate website.

2. Converged Social

The combination of Microsoft and LinkedIn will create innovations that will benefit marketers in some interesting ways, especially if professional social profiles become accessible and integrated within Microsoft 365 apps. There’s more convergence to come and guesses are hot as to whether Facebook, Google or Apple will buy Twitter or if Twitter will go the way of Friendster and MySpace.

Imagine what it could mean to your content co-creation and influencer marketing efforts with the integration of the LinkedIn network to Office 365. Need an expert quote for a blog post, ebook or article? Right click.

3. Hot Video

Real-time video is the hot shot on the block right now with Snapchat, Facebook Live and Periscope leading the way towards social engagement with customers in ways many brands haven’t explored before. Facebook’s own Nicola Mendelsohn says in five years, Facebook will “probably” be “all video”.

Like live TV, live video presents brands some opportunities for things to go differently than planned1, like Mark Zuckerberg’s inevitably comedic Q/A with Jerry Seinfeld on Facebook live that has reached over 9 million views. On the other hand, who wouldn’t trade some awkward for the reach and exposure (159m views) of a Chewbacca Mom event?

If real-time video isn’t in your comfort zone, find someone who is comfortable with that kind of exposure and media creation. Then train them to be your social champion.

4. Paying to Play Social

Social Advertising will continue to rise with even more options for advertisers. Social media advertising is projected to generate $11 billion in revenue by 2017, up from just $6.1 billion in 2013. More social networks and apps will expand their advertising offerings, just look at Snapchat now inserting ads in between users’ “Stories” and Snapchat Partners, API access that will provide access to creating custom buying and management tools.

There’s no getting around the requirement for paid amplification with content on social networks. More importantly, with Facebook’s continued efforts at putting the focus on individuals over brands, companies need to think about the collective social wisdom of their employees and community for distribution vs. simply publishing on the brand social home base.

5. Dark Social

With 84% of global social shares dark to social media analytics, there’s a growing importance, but brands are challenged to measure its effectiveness in ways that synch with other social media measurement. There’s no shortage of recommendations on how to  measure dark social, but we all need more concrete direction on this and collaboration between apps, networks and platforms to make it meaningful.

6. Social Chat Bots

Again, Facebook has opened doors for a new kind of engagement and with customers’ expectation of real-time engagement, bots may be able to satisfy basic customer service and information needs for brands. Will bots be a service or communications solution for your brand? Maybe.

At a minimum, brands will need to invest in more interactive social experiences for their community and what better what to that than an neural network and some AI?

7. Mobile First

Mobile traffic now exceeds desktop traffic and 2 billion consumers worldwide are expected to own a smartphone in 2016. There’s nothing new about the importance of mobile friendliness or having apps, but the cost of ignoring mobile social media experiences for brands dragging their feet will rise dramatically. At a minimum, make sure Google thinks your site is mobile friendly and maybe, most of your customers will too.

8. Social Media Automation

“Martech Shock” extends to social media as brands look to automate and scale. The use of social media automation tools and platform features will grow to help brands with prospecting, delivering content to the right customers at the right time and engagement – all integrated with a marketing dashboard for end to end reporting of the impact social media has across the customer journey. Just don’t think this kind of solution is “plug and play”. As with CRM, analytics and marketing automation, you will need human expertise and a strategy to make the most out of your automation software investment.

9. Social Content Participation

People are empowered and motivated more than ever to co-create social content with brands. If a brand makes that possible, I think consumers wi1ll be incredibly interested in partnering with companies in ways that serve mutual interests.

In a way, this kind of consumer and brand collaboration is tapping into the whole user-generated content phenomenon. There are so many ways to do it, especially because of mobile devices allowing people to participate at all times with brands on topics they’re passionate about. Content can easily become an outcome of this type of participation, whether it’s a video, image or even text.

Activating passionate people within a social network environment where they can co-create and participate is an exciting opportunity to scale reach, content quantity and connect with social influencers.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes social media marketing often seems doomed to become nothing more than another advertising channel, with artificial automation schemes for brands to scale the illusion of customer engagement.

While that seems a bit cynical, I also think the collective power of individuals on social networks has never been greater – for content, engagement and influence. When brands and marketers can marry the wisdom and action of the crowd with technology that actually solves a real problem, I think the future of social media is brighter than ever.

Source

[tak4hir0]

“Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.” Alan Kay This quote is meaningful to me as I’ve often struggled with a problem until an insight from a user test “changed my perspective”. I had this intuition that video games would also change my perspective. They seemed so much edgier, playing with deeper and more experimental UX techniques. I wanted to go well beyond classic “gamification”. That was all the rage a decade ago where apps used toys like “achievements” to encourage app use. Of course, given what we’ve learned in the last few years about the overuse of mobile phones and social media, it also seems irresponsible to make our apps “sticky” or “addictive”. I was looking for something deeper. Games felt more visceral to me and I wanted to understand them better and see where it took me. I’m an avid gamer but they felt a bit foreign to me as a UX designer. For example, one of the first game terms I learned was “juicy”, which refers to the amount of video effect you get for any action. Juicy games feel just a bit overwhelming but in a good way. This might be fun but likely counter productive. I wasn’t looking to overwhelm the user. My other concern was that games create tension. When you approach a fight in a game, you need to master a range of skills or your character will loose. If you were to ask any competent UX designer to design the perfect flow to beat a monster they would simply have a single button “Beat Monster”. That’s the paradox I was facing. Games felt like they were about sparkles and tension. Great app UX is about minimalism and simplicity. Fortunately, I found Raph Koster, the author of A Theory of Fun. Raph is known as a “Game Grammarian” and deeply deconstructs how games are made. His book is a very game-like exploration of how games work. Much like how Understanding Comics is a comic about how comics work. I met with Raph several times over 8 weeks where we took his book apart, applying it to my world of UX design. He was energetic and excited to find a parallel world that could benefit from his work. I’ve been in UX design for over 30 years and I was a bit, well, set in my ways. Raph was patient and in a good-natured way enjoyed skewering my misconceptions. This article is my journey fighting through these misconceptions. Misunderstanding 1: Just copy cool tricks The game Horizon: Zero Dawn has an amazing heads-up-display UI. It just seemed obvious to me that there was potential for mobile apps. Raph’s point was that video games create these new UIs all the time. It would be a never ending list if I just copied what games are currently doing. His advice was to go a bit deeper and first understand how games create these types of UI. Misunderstanding 2: Games are linear and plot driven Games have the ability to force situations, such as running into a canyon and having nowhere to go but up a ladder. Apps on the other hand, usually have the opposite, offering a broad toolkit of choices. Games, I thought, can exploit narrative to force situations which made their life easier. Raph said yes, games do use plot (they are a form of entertainment after all) but his point was that great games go so much deeper than just plot, usually working on low level mechanics first. You only have to appreciate the 12 ways to jump in Super Mario Odyssey to appreciate his point. Misunderstanding 3: Gamers practice over and over. Games have it easy Raph laughed when I said this. “You realize”, he said patiently, “that most games fail?” This made perfect sense the moment he said it. Of course, only the best games reward practice. You have to design a great game to get people to have the confidence that practicing is worthwhile. The upshot is that the Raph convinced me to forgo any quick and easy ‘cookbook of tricks’ approach to this problem and go deeper and understand better how games are built, from the bottom up. His book covers a wealth of material and I encourage you to read A Theory of Fun for more detail. But we came up with six “lenses” that cover the transition of his book to UX design. The six ‘lenses” of Video Game UXI want to be clear that video games are not exactly like applications. The goal here isn’t to copy games but instead be inspired by them. Many UX designers devour Edward Tufte’s books on information design not because they expect to visualize complex data sets themselves but more by the joyful intellectual insight that comes from understanding data patterns he describes so well. Lens 1: Story vs Narrative The first point Raph made felt a bit overly specific, calling out the difference between the words “Story” and “Narrative”. They felt quite similar to me but his point was that “Story” is author generated while “Narrative” is user generated. Game designers create a series of events (A-B-C) you have to pass through but what users actually do is often a surprising pattern of: staying on on step A for a very long timeskipping step B entirelycircling around step C multiple times. At first I thought he was just describing classic user testing. Of course users go through your design in ways you didn’t expect, all experienced UX designers know this. But his point was deeper: it’s not the journey, but how users recall the experience. Users will always create narrative. It’s just human nature, they will go through any experience and remember it by constructing a narrative. This is what game designers understand deeply. If your story has huge gaps and doesn’t lead the user carefully then users can’t help themselves, they will create their own narrative that fills in the gap. Most apps today will just “throw” 5 new features into an app with little connection between them. Users however, will create a narrative to help them understand what they are seeing, even if none exist. What narrative could they construct? They are likely making up stories that would frighten you. Anyone who has done user testing appreciates this. Users ‘connect the dots’ in ways that will astound, often creating mythologies that were never intended. APPS Just throw in a bunch of features into a pot. GAMES Understand everything is a journey. Work hard to make everything a closely connected arc of events that help the user create a narrative that matches the overall story. EXAMPLE 1: The best example of this is the original 1984 Macintosh boot sequence. Every PC of it’s day had a simple power switch which just ‘beeped’ when turned on, followed by a bunch of streaming and confusing text. The Mac booted into a startup screen showing only a pattern with a smiling Mac. Nothing more, no text, no gibberish. Eventually the desktop appeared but it was just a tiny variation, the same desktop but with an added menu bar, a disk icon and a trash can. The boot sequence started with a promise that resolved into a working desktop. The Promise The Delivery Not only that, but the corners of the display were rounded which made it look more like a desktop ‘blotter’ which were popular back then. Even more, the trash can added depth to the illusion by getting ‘stuffed’ when you put something into it. The Mac took a very hardware driven concept, turning on your computer, and turned it into theater. Yes it had the boot sound, but it then showed a promise, a compromise of the final desktop and as it booted, ‘inflated’ that promise with the final working model. Why people loved the Mac is often misunderstood. I’d claim that it’s this dedication to taking people on a carefully crafted story, one which allowed users to craft a compatible narrative, that is at the heart of this devotion. EXAMPLE 2: Another more modern example is this landing page for Paypal. Notice how the page clearly invites you to choose. Are you a “Personal” user or a “Business” user? As you mouse over each section, the story unfolds, expanding your choices, offering you things you can easily understand and identify with. Each branch has a clear call to action. This is a beautiful story telling sequence that pulls you in and gets you to become an active part of the on-boarding process. Lens 2: Games are fractal Raph uses the game Frogger to explain what he means by “Games are fractal”. This single screen is composed of several levels. At first you are in a safe starter area at the bottom where you can move back and forth freely with no risk. Second is the street, where you have to dodge cars followed by a river which is a bit trickier as both the road and the ‘cars’ are moving. Finally you get into a ‘parking’ area where it’s easy to get into the first one but progressively harder as they fill up. But he literally means ‘fractal’ in that the game isn’t a simple linear “cross the road, cross, the river, and park your frog sequence. Of course, at the surface level, that’s true but his point is that it’s a nesting cascade of discoveries.  To win the level you must first cross the street. To cross the street requires that you move the frog. To move the frog requires that you understand joystick timing. Each of these sub levels have their own feedback considerations: Street: the cars movementFrog: How it moves, how far it jumps each timeJoystick: Direction and speed of movement (it’s quite slow actually) Games understand that each of these levels has their own set of feedback, motivation and learning that must take place. This level of deconstruction, in a 30 year old game no less, blew my mind. Games were complex! They really paid attention to detail. There was a lot here to understand. Compare this to app designs. For very good reasons, we try very hard to fall back on guidelines. We work very hard NOT to reinvent the wheel. While this makes sense, we can’t just fall back on guidelines forever now can we? Maybe this is a bit obvious, but we’re not going to be using today’s phone UI designs 30 years from now. How do we evolve and create new UX patterns? What’s inspiring about games is that they are trying to evolve all… the… time. While clearly this would be a chaotic with commercial software, I still find it inspiring that games are built on this core belief that they rigorously unpack each action. Everything you do is multi-layered and must be unpacked, improved, and most importantly, taught to the user. While we may not want to emulate the speed of how games change UX patterns, we can certainly learn from their deep commitment and dedication to detail. APPS Follow your guidelines, be consistent, don’t rock the boat. GAMES Rigorously unpack everything, don’t worry if you sink the boat. EXAMPLE The computer example here is desktop menus. “Selecting a menu item” is actually a fractal cascade of skills where you first start horizontally browsing the menu bar, with a click, you shift into a vertical mode but keep the same basic highlight approach. For hierarchical menus, you need to understand the graphic hint that there is something deeper and then navigate over to reveal and then select that menu. Anyone who has taught beginning computer users the menu system knows how hard it is to master hierarchical menus. It’s takes practice to find, reveal and track over to that menu. There is a fractal cascade of skills required. Lens 3: Learning Loop The Learning Loop is a basic concept in psychology for acquiring any skill. You start with an intent such as “shoot the laser”, you take an action, such as pushing a button, and you see the result, the canon powering up and shooting a beam of energy. This loop is fundamental to learning as you have a model of how things work, then interact with the affordance in front of you and the resulting feedback then loops back and updates your mental model. Far from being a dry academic model, this is the foundation of how learning happens in games. Raph has a great quote in his book for this: “Fun is just another word for learning”. In order to have fun, you must learn. I find this inspiring as app design wants your users to learn but we’ve rarely appreciated this could be fun. Games understand that in order to learn you must start thinking in layers. Begin with a basic skill and slowly add more, getting better one layer at a time. But the key insight is that these layers are built one on top of the other. The classic example is Super Mario brothers.  You start off locked behind a pipe, in a safe zone much like Frogger. Here you move and jump, getting nowhere until you figure out how to jump on top of the pipe. You’ve just learned the first basic ‘Loop”: jumping. As you move to the right, a low ceiling appears and it’s very easy to jump into the ceiling, which hits one of those “?” bricks and a prize drops. You’ve learned your second variation of the loop: Hitting. Finally, when you encounter your first monster, it’s not a far stretch to assume you can jump onto them, and “Tada!” you just zapped your first monster. Loop 3 is attacking. There are clearly 3 distinct versions of jumping going on here: Initial jump. Simple button pressLong jump. Long button pressLanding jump. Timed jumpWhat’s so interesting here is that there is only one ‘thing’ you’re learning: jumping. But by stressing subtle aspects of how to jump, the game builds up variations of it. A basic jump gets you over things, a long jump can “open” and landing a jump can “attack”. A boring app designer like me would assume you’d need 3 different verbs/buttons for this but Super Mario does this with a single “Jump” action. Each jump has their own triggers but to the user “it’s just jumping”. Crafting a careful learning loop enables people to learn a range of tasks under a single concept. Nintendo is the master of this, doing it not only for Super Mario Bros but for all of it’s games from Super Mario Odyssey, to Splatoon, to even Luigi’s Mansion (which I doubt any of you have played). Shigeru Miyamoto, the esteemed director of Nintendo games has this amazing quote: “That’s how we make games at Nintendo: we get the fundamentals solid first, then do as much with that core concept as our time and ambition will allow. As for the courses and enemies, those actually came at the very end. They were done in a single burst of energy, just thrown together, almost.” Shigeru Miyamoto(Nintendo Games Director) This blew my mind when I first read it. What do you mean both the game levels and course were just ‘thrown together’! That’s insane. But it shows how much Nintendo focuses on the core building blocks. It’s what makes games work. I think there is a huge lesson for us here. APPS Each feature is in isolation, how it is done usually has little relation to other features (other that using a style guide). GAMES Build a game through a single, mechanic that grows in expressive power by adding modifiers like time, special keys, or timing. EXAMPLE 1: In a somewhat ironic twist, when the Mac first shipped in 1984, it used games to teach users how to get started!  The goal was to start simply and teach the first loop: moving the mouse. It then progressed to clicking, menus, dragging, and even shift clicking. What struck me was how deep and varied the loops are for desktop. This rich input model allows for much more sophisticated positioning of the cursor, better text selection, and input control. While we all agree that the Desktop UI can be overly complicated for some users, it’s important to appreciate how rich and detailed it’s loops were. In our discussions, Raph specifically called this out, saying that mobile has a lot to learn from desktop. EXAMPLE 2: But mobile does have a few tricks. People often think of “tap” and “pinch” as separate gestures but they really are just variations on the same loop. Here is an example showing both in Google Maps: Notice how when the user pinch zooms in, they can still drag the map around like they do with single tap dragging? Pinch is just a high order loop on top of drag.  Lens 4: Affordances Affordances has a classic definition in UX, popularized by Don Norman in his book the Design of Everyday Things. Games have a subtle spin on this: affordances prompt the things you already know. Let me use a few examples from “Breath of the Wild”, one of my very favorite games. Like many exploration games, you’ll get a clear and obvious prompt when you stand next to something: This “Take” prompt will occur thousands of times throughout the game. You clearly learn how to pick up an item fairly quickly but this prompt also gives you a clear indicator when you can pick it up as well. There is a more subtle version of this when fighting. In this case, the robot will always swing wide before it attacks from the side, signaling when to dodge. This is something that you need to learn in order to get good at fighting robots. But once you learn it, it’s a very regular pattern you can count on. But my favorite example was one of the core innovations in Breath of the Wild: the stamina wheel. It is a simple circular gauge indicator of how much ‘stamina’ you have. When you start climbing, the gauge starts to empty. If you don’t get to the top before the wheel runs out, you fall. What’s amazing here is how the wheel was implemented. At a simple level it’s “just a gauge” but it’s far more sneaky than that. If you climb, you’ll notice a range of feedback on this affordance: The character leans in when climbingWhen stopped they lean out and the wheel stopsDuring a steep section, beads of sweat appear and the stamina drains faster. In addition, they lean in and appear to be ‘trying harder’This basic example of ‘just climbing’ shows how subtle game affordances can be and how clever they are at using varying types of feedback. At a basic level, they really aren’t that complex, showing a simple resource: stamina. However, it’s by having the next level of detail, showing, in effect, the second derivative of stamina usage, the game is teaching you to take the less steep route. That extra bit of feedback, the leaning in and the sweat, helps you understand that you’re using up stamina faster. I had played this game for over 100 hours, and had clearly learned to take the less steep sections when climbing but here’s the key point: I had no idea I was doing it! The game taught me without me knowing I was learning. This is serious Jedi mind trickery.  This level of detail is what makes games so intriguing. Raph talks about the many types of affordances in his book, but I’d just like to focus on five types of affordance feedback that apply to app UX: Multi-variantRealityMultiples MixedGrace-notesMulti-variant Games work hard to give you lots of feedback hidden in the action. From the sand particles flying out when Mario runs, to the cloud trail he leaves behind, to when his arms fly out at certain speeds, Super Mario Odyssey works hard to give you all sorts of variables in subtle ways. This was exactly what happened with the stamina wheel above. By encoding things cleverly, the user can pick up on multiple aspects of the game. Reality Games work hard to map the right actions to the correct aspect of the controller, which has a rich selection of triggers, analog and digital joysticks, to simple buttons. Like Desktop, games consoles have a rich set of input loops to use. Mobile in contrast just has tap, drag and pinch. Mobile is impoverished compared to games and even desktop: we are a prisoner of our flat slab of glass. And don’t get me started on long-press, it’s very existence is proof that mobile has an expression problem (making me feel like old-man Simpson). Multiples  Games work really hard at using visual, audio and haptic feedback in games. Why don’t we? The obvious answer is that users often don’t like it but we have to ask ourselves, how can games get away with it and we can’t? Yes, games have it a BIT easier as the volume is turned up but it’s worth asking, what is it about games and how they do it that it feels obvious and fun whereas we do it and everyone hates it. It’s arguable that we’re being a bit too heavy handed. We need to be a bit more subtle and nuanced. Mixed Styles Games work very hard to mix graphic styles. The good guys in Mario are soft and rounded while the bad guys are sharp and pointy. In the game Horizon Zero Dawn there are two very different graphic styles: The more ‘cave painting’ style represented the main character, which came from a primitive tribe, and the sharper more technological style was for the items in the environment she could ‘see’ with her heads up display. It works well to give you a “me vs the world’ feel to things on the screen. How could we use this? Here is simple web page example: Use “Mixed Styles” to better separate navigation from contentThe title bar is clearly visually distinct from the body but stops there. There should ALSO be a visual difference from the left nav and the actual body content. The left nav should be a lighter blue so it ties into the title bar. It would give a clear visual style about the title being most important, the nav next, and finally the content. Grace-notes This is the last and most playful example. Games create small light moments to add ambiance to a game but also to drive learning. In Breath of the wild, grasshoppers fly out of the grass when you run through it. This is just atmospheric but later when you learn to ‘cut the grass’ you can actually find those grasshoppers before they fly. In Half Life, you can flush the toilets. It doesn’t do a damn thing, there is zero value to do it but it does make the world feel more interactive. That way when you walk up to a closed door, you’re more likely to try opening it, I mean the toilets flush, why not try? This is clearly a very subtle but powerful tool that games use to not only give you a better ‘sense of place’ but offers you ‘baby interactions’ that prepare you for other parts of the game. I’d love to find some examples of Apps doing this but I honestly can’t find any. If anyone does think of one, please let me know! APPS Prompt as little as possible. GAMES Prompt all the damn time (they’re just really subtle and sneaky about it). Lens 5: Hintiness Hintiness is something completely unique to games. Unlike affordances, which reinforce the current Learning Loop you’re on, the whole point of hintiness is to move you to new loops. Not moving to new loops is a critical problem for games and they have a specific term for it, “Bottom Feeding”. This screenshot is from World of Warcraft. If you’re a level 3 character and really good at killing spiders that’s great, but when you try to kill something bigger like a crocodile and get killed immediately, most players have a predictable response: go back to killing spiders. This is “bottom feeding”, just taking the easy route and remain at the same level over and never progressing. It’s comfortable, but it’s also boring. It also kills games. Game designers really want you to learn and get better so you stay engaged. There are all sorts of ways to do this. In Super Mario Odyssey there is a type of navigational hintiness called “Moon Chains”. You’re encouraged to collect these Moon objects in the game but every time you collect one, you can ALWAYS see another one. It hints at where you need to go.  In Breath of the Wild, the walls are usually smooth stone so when you see one with a broken pattern, it’s a clear sign that something interesting is behind that wall. But for App UX, hints are exactly the opposite, usually dialog box prompts in your face that stop you dead in your tracks! Games on the other hand, are subtle and usually seen over and over before you finally get it. They are the exact opposite of Microsoft Clippy. That’s part of the discovery and delight.  The video game approach is just so different from Apps. So many of our users “Bottom Feed” getting stuck in a current simple level of using our apps. If you’ve ever done user testing on your app, you often find that some users will write critical steps down on post-it notes as they keep getting lost. This is a UX tragedy as they don’t understand the Learning Loops well enough so they write down the exact steps every time they need to do something. How can we use hintiness to keep our users from Bottom Feeding? APPS Assume users are at a constant skill level. GAMES Use hints constantly and patiently to move users to the next level. EXAMPLE As there aren’t any good examples in App UX, let me make one up: creating a guide in a drawing app. I’ll use Photoshop, but Sketch or Figma could just as easily use this. There is a “Beginner level” way to create a guide just by using a menu and dialog box: It’s simple and it works. But most power users know to just drag it out from the bar. How could we use hintiness to help users discover it? One way would be to add a quick, lightweight animation. When the user try the dialog box to add the guide, instead of simply appearing, add an animation ‘sparkle’ in the ruler area and then animate out the guide to the position they asked for. Fast, quick and subtle. The user might not even notice it but after they see it a few times, they might just wonder what was going on and try it themselves. That is what games try to do, get you pulled in and copy what they are showing you. Lens 6: Pacing Pacing is critical to the overall story in games but a specific aspect of pacing for games that applies to App UX is “where to start?”. Remember the “Narrative vs Story” section? It was about games creating a tight coupling between experiences in the game to help users create their own narrative: Games know that a journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. It’s critical that users know how to get going, get into the flow well before they understand everything. The classic example here would be World of Warcraft, a very complex game that ultimately has dozens of commands for you to learn. But you start with just 1 attack spell. There isn’t much to learn and it starts off pretty easy. As you level up, things are gradually added so you grow into the interface. What do most Apps do? They show you EVERYTHING at the very beginning hoping you’ll get it all in this one shot. Of course, we all know what happens: skip, skip, skip…. A colleague of mine at Google, Luke Wroblewski, discussed this at Conversions@Google 2018 where he talked about a finance app that instead of a “help overlay” they offered one single clue: how to create an expense item. Of course, the app could do much more but once the user knew how that, they were on their way.   Of course, the difficult part is for you to figure out what your “first thing to do” is. This is why games are so interesting, they spend so much time figuring out what we think of as a small, trivial point. APPS Tend to offer users a large toolbox and let them figure out how to get started. GAMES Have a clear understanding of the journey and say “Start here first”. Bringing it all home The six lenses we’ve talked about: Each provides a window into how games think and design. But it’s not just a simple linear list. The first three lenses are about breaking down your game (or App) into much more concrete chunks: Story vs Narrative (Think in terms of story arcs)Games are fractal (Break up the journey from big to small to tiny)Learning loop (figure out your core mechanic)And then the following three lenses build things back up: Affordances (Prompt for known loops)Hintiness (Move to new loops)Pacing (Be sure to start here)It’s really shaped more like this: These games lenses have been eye opening to me. I feel some of those 80 IQ points Alan Kay promised as I’m thinking about UX design in fundamentally different ways. In this post, I’ve given examples throughout on how this can provide valuable insights in ordinary, every day apps. It’s certainly helped me. Much of my work at Google uses these lenses to break things down fractally, look for loops, and figure out ways to hint at new loops. I’m not building games, but I’m being inspired by them. I hope they inspire you as well.

[96thdayofrage]

The best thing that can happen in 2020 is for Bernie Sanders to do fantastically in the primaries and be cheated out of the nomination, once again, thus giving millions of leftish Democrats a chance to do something useful with their lives: leave the party.

“Kamala Harris is by far the most dangerous corporate threat to a revival of the Sandernistas.”

Early this century, the oligarchy of filthy-rich white men that rule the United States reached a consensus among themselves on the necessity of maintaining a regime of endless war and austerity. In truth, there was no other policy choice available to the Lords of Capital. The financial oligarchy’s success in consolidating virtually all political and economic power in an ever-shrinking cabal of the super-wealthy has all but eliminated the last refuges and hideaways of democracy in the U.S., while condemning most of the population to eternal insecurity amidst falling living standards. Late stage western capitalism has nothing to offer its own citizens but austerity, and no way to compete with the dynamic societies of Asia except through war. Yet, the rulers must maintain the charade of domestic social progress and mass upward mobility, although no such possibilities exist under this system.

“The provocateur in the White House shattered the façade of racial harmony that had been carefully cultivated over decades by corporate media.”

It is a ruling class political dilemma made far more complex by the disruption wreaked on the two-capitalist party system by Donald Trump, the orange-tinted huckster and mega-opportunist. Trump captured the Republican Party apparatus by throwing red racist meat to the hordes of white supremacists that are still the most decisive force in the U.S. electorate. The polite White Man’s Party of Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes was suddenly stripped to the waist and showing its Aryan tattoos. The provocateur in the White House shattered the façade of racial harmony that had been carefully cultivated over decades by corporate media, while at the same time calling into question the corporate consensus on so-called “free trade,” “humanitarian” military intervention (regime change) and increasing hostility to capitalist Russia.

The bulk of the ruling class and their operatives in the national security services and media sprang into (often hysterical) action to neutralize and expunge Trump, the disruptive element. In the mad process, however, they have done incalculable damage to the very national institutions that give legitimacy to the bourgeois political order -- that is, the institutions that justify the rule of the rich in a supposedly democratic state. When the CIA, the FBI, the corporate media and most of the Democratic Party are howling that the occupant of the White House is illegitimate, they strip the office, itself, and the electoral process for achieving that office, of its legitimacy. And when they claim that a few Russians with a hundred thousand dollars were able to set Americans at each others’ throats and decisively swing a national election, they paint a picture of extreme instability and political fragility -- not a superpower, but a weak society on the brink of disaster and dissolution.

“Sanders’ proposals on health care, livable wages and free college education awakened expectations and thirst for a better life among masses of Americans.”

The legitimacy of the corporate regime was simultaneously challenged from leftish quarters, by Bernie Sanders, whose 2016 primary campaign failed to stop the warmongering corporatist Hillary Clinton, but succeeded in proving that super-majorities of Americans (including Republicans) want Medicare for All. Sanders’ proposals on health care, livable wages and free college education awakened expectations and thirst for a better life among masses of Americans. Sanders’ proposals are not transformative, revolutionary or “socialist.” However, the mere raising of expectations among the masses of people is dangerously destabilizing in a society where the corporate rulers have decreed endless austerity and war.

The oligarchy cannot tolerate or accommodate a New Deal, Green or otherwise. Their model of development is embodied in Jeff Bezos’ demand that New York City fork over billions for the pleasure of his corporate presence. Austerity is not really a policy at all, but a recognition that late stage capitalism is incapable of investing in productive enterprises that create good jobs for masses of people, or to provide security and adequate social services for the rearing of healthy, happy families. Instead, capital exports jobs to the Global South, where workers can be super-exploited; feasts on the bones of the public sector in the home country, privatizing every public good that holds the prospect of private profit; gorges on war production and diverts trillions to the virtual casinos of the derivatives markets.

“Austerity is not really a policy at all, but a recognition that late stage capitalism is incapable of investing in productive enterprises that create good jobs for masses of people.”

Similarly, endless war is less a policy than an acknowledgement that the U.S. cannot compete with China in fostering infrastructure development in Africa, Latin America and Asia -- for the same reason that the U.S. cannot connect its own cities with high-speed rail: the system is moribund and cannibalistic, and has already stripped the home country of productive capacity. War is the only game the oligarchy thinks it can win.

In the years following 9/11, both corporate parties began to speak of the “War on Terror” as a “twilight” struggle that would last “generations.” The message to U.S. society was: this is wartime forever; lower your expectations; don’t demand upward mobility under these perpetual martial circumstances -- it’s unpatriotic.

Trump’s racialist coup in the Republican Party and Bernie Sanders’ breakout among the Democrats threatened to disrupt the “twilight” predations of the Lords of Capital. Trump told white workers the lie, that he would claw back the jobs that were exported to China and elsewhere, while Bernie evoked a revived New Deal. The ruling class blitzkrieg against Trump is now entering its third year, and has spawned a New Cold War that is methodically targeting dissent on the internet. The Democratic half of the rich man’s duopoly has moved frantically to pre-empt a second Sanders bid for the party’s presidential nomination, deploying reliable corporate chameleons like Cory Booker and Kamala Harris to nail down the all-important Black vote and subvert ”New Deal” sentiment from the inside by pretending to be Medicare for All supporters.

“The system is moribund and cannibalistic, and has already stripped the home country of productive capacity.”

The corporate media -- the same folks that buttressed Trump’s campaign with billions in free air time, in expectation that Hillary would knock him flat like a straw man on Election Day – are busy constructing a whole roster of corporate alternatives to Sanders, hoping to head off the kind of popular movement-style politics that Bernie thrived on in 2016. Kamala Harris is by far the most dangerous corporate threat to a revival of the Sandernistas, for obvious reasons of race and gender. However, as a career prosecutor, Harris is a lifelong operative in the mass incarceration machine. She is so wedded to the beast, she opposed compliance with a court order to dramatically reduce California prison overcrowding, because it would shrink the number of inmates available for work in the prison system. Harris can be effectively neutralized from the Left, as being even more pro-mass Black incarceration than Hillary Clinton, who never personally put anyone in prison.

It is critical that mass incarceration loom large in the unfolding campaign season. Austerity means freezing unequal and oppressive social relationships in place, and policing the resultant misery, anger and frustration. Therefore, an austerity regime requires the revving up of the state coercive and carceral machinery. In the Age of Austerity, the Lords of Capital need a Jailer in the White House. A Black female jailer like Harris is ideal for the ruling class.

“As a career prosecutor, Harris is a lifelong operative in the mass incarceration machine.”

Most importantly, the rulers need to give people something to feel good about -- the illusion that progress is being made, despite their own frozen or worsening economic realities. The trick is to promote racial and gender “firsts” and market them as socially transformative, in the midst of actual social and economic decay. Kamala Harris fits the bill, perfectly – which is why she is the most dangerous to a Sanders project, and why Sanders should jump into the race right away, before the corporate media declare a “front-runner” and otherwise make him appear irrelevant.

You don’t have to be a Democrat to root for Sanders in the primaries. What there is of a mass Left – and virtually all Black political activity -- is locked up in the Democratic half of the corporate duopoly. The tens of millions of social democrats that are effectively neutered within the Democratic Party must leave, if there is to be a mass resistance to late capitalist austerity, war and mass incarceration. Although Bernie Sanders is probably the most popular politician in the nation, with the most favored political program, the billionaires that control the Democratic Party will move heaven and earth to prevent him from getting the nomination -- as was done in 2016. The best scenario for the Left is for Sanders to do so well in the primaries that corporate party leadership is forced to resort to dirty tricks and transparently undemocratic means to steal the nomination from him in the clear light of day. At that point, progressives would have yet another chance to escape their subordination, humiliation and ultimate irrelevance in a corporate-owned party, and to create or join a social democratic formation.

“The tens of millions of social democrats that are effectively neutered within the Democratic Party must leave, if there is to be a mass resistance to late capitalist austerity, war and mass incarceration.”

People of the Left like me, who are not social democrats, would cheer an exodus from the Democratic Party as a huge historical development in itself, freeing millions from the corporate political machine -- a kind of emancipation.

So, start running again, Bernie -- and force the Party’s corporate operatives to rig the game, like last time. In righteous defeat, you could change the course of history.

[fall2017ugc111]

China Notes

- Source of political power and authority? How shall we live? - Why these 2 questions? Coz we are entering a period called axial age where central and foundation thinkers (excluding Judaism) comes from. Many major thinkers are confined within this 200 years, asking the same question and answering them in very similar ways. - Shang dynasty: - End about 200 years before Greek ends their dark age. - Also, first recorded dynasty. - Feudal society -> hierarchical, peasants ruled by nobles, nobles governed by overlords and overlords governed by king. - Bronze vessels given by king as a transfer of power. - Vessels used for offerings and ancestors are intermediaries between the high god and people. - Appealing to ancestors help garner favour from the high god allowing for peace and success of people. - Divination techniques: oracle bones: - Asking about really pragmatic questions -> carved on the bones. - Question is written on bone of animals, bones then superheated till it cracks then experts come in and see what your ancestors have to say. - Their power and authority to rule comes from their religion and ablity to communicate to their ancestors. - Zhou -> bronze vessels still used. - Took over Shang through conquest and justify it by similarly to others. - Claimed that this happened due to moral failures of last kings and getting favours from 2 Gods: both their gods and the other side’s god. - Also known as mandate of haven. - You can only get the favour of high gods BECAUSE of your great moral character. - Last period of Zhou dynasty was chaos and known as the warring state. - Zhou was not over thrown and remained the rulers in name only. - Other states were constantly at war with each other for about 500 years. - How to live in these conditions? - Confucius: came from a poor but respected family. - Learnt about past kings when educated leading to orientation. - Believes society has lost it’s path but this can be changed for the better – very optimistic for a person living under warring conditions. 

- Concept of “Ren” (internal). 

- An abstract concept that works together with Li (external). - Connect to virtue and children. - Seems like a moral compass to guide people’s lives. - Human are good -> as in we have the capacity of goodness that we are born with. - The more you act well, the more your Ren grows. - Propriety: is the core of government. Do what you want your ppl to do. - Follow it and everything will fall into place on its own. - The noble man will always triumph in life. - God behaviour need not lead to wealth and prosperity. - He untangles “nobility” from “status” -> to be noble, you just need to be virtuous. No need to be a king to do good deeds. - If individuals can act on their Ren, the world will change -> ppl can affect social changes just by living well. - If kings do this, impact will be greater but even normal ppl can do it. - *** - Ren and Li -> works together, aim is to be a noble man/ exemplary person. - Imperial China: - Strong pattern in history -> the more society is in chaos, there is more philosophical answers and movements. - Warring states was so chaotic -> it led to hundred schools of thought. - *** - Daoism: - Not sure who is the author of the text. - Written about the same times as Confucius -> about 6th Century, 500 BCE. - Tao = path to live life/ way to live. - Difficult to get proper translation. - Text is unsystematic in core, more on guidelines, mystery and feelings. - Social ideals -> similar to Confucius, believed in going back to past principles. - But definition of “past” is different -> believed urbanization was bad from the start. - Best to look into nature and have small agricultural communities. - Intuition over social order. - Do their best to pretend social status does not matter. - Certainty and knowledge are similar to illusions and cannot be completely achieved. - Comfortable to intuition and mystery coz believe in the unity of everything. - Chaos came from categorizing and differentiating things. Eg. Man vs Nature, Teacher vs Students, etc. - Can be for hierarchy -> separation from unity of Tao. - Concept of non-interference (or not action or not doing) -> avoid messing with the natural order and try to be like water. - Basic idea: act in a way that don’t impose des or control over other ppl or things. - Daoist -> simultaneously idealistic and practical. - Key themes: Knowledge and wisdom, non-interference, desire, the master (who is it? Role? Teaching strategies?), ambition, wealth and power, morality and right behaviour, withdrawal and engagement, role of paradoxes/ opposites. - *** - Opposite ideas can be complementary or contrasting -> similar to Yin and Yang. - Definitions give rise to contrast or contrast gives rise to definitions. - Tao -> intangible essence of life that cannot be explained else the essence is lost. - Idea of balance, original is 4 words each -> there is a rhythm. - Chinese -> need for harmony and balance, even in name pronunciations. - Non-interference =/= balance. - Dao -> wants to look at recognition btw things. No difference btw things, everything is in unity. - Vs. belief in balance. - We label things which results in our desire for them. - Don’t want harmony or balance, wants recognition that we have human constructs/ categories for things and ppl. - Idea is similar to living like a plant -> not doing anything. - Keep trying to do things and you will never get there -> somethings are just out of our control. - Do our work but step back -> be okay with human, good enough. No need for perfection. - If powerful ppl live like that, war would cease and ppl can live naturally. - Openness to potential. - Ethical behaviour can transform society -> similarities in Daoism and Confucius. - But these ideas did not unify China -> it was Legalism that unified China. - Qin dynasty took up legalism. - Self-interest is not over turned by changing mindsets, it is rid of by strict laws and punishments. - There is collective responsibility -> leads to ppl spying on each other and reporting each other. - Legalism -> more of control and conformity. - Don’t care about making ppl good and/or morality. - Legalism created strong incentives to not go against the government. BUT must have strong rulers to be in charge. - Two farmers caught in rain -> would be late and punished but decided to go home and start a revolt. - Confucianism worked well after unification.

[personalcoachingcenter]

Powerful Tools: Compassion vs. Ego

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/powerful-tools-compassion-vs-ego/

Powerful Tools: Compassion vs. Ego

A Coaching Power Tool Created by Milena Carruzzo (Relationships Coach, SWITZERLAND)

Introduction

A relationship is defined as “the way two or more people or things are connected” and “the way two or more people regard or behave towards each other”(Lexico, 2020).

Our relationships fill up our lives and shape them. We have relationships with ourselves, with our family members, with our friends, with our colleagues, with our neighbors, with our loved ones, with our enemies, and even with things like with our country, our home, and our belongings.

Two perspectives will motivate our behaviors in our relationships: compassion and ego. The choice of perspective will have an immense impact on the quality and health of our relationships.

What is the Ego?

Literally, “Ego” means “I” in Latin. It is the “self” in the sense of self-esteem, self-confidence, or self-worth.

In the psychoanalytic sense used by Freud’s research, the ego is the part of the mind that mediates between the desires of the id – the primitive and instinctual part of the mind – and the super-ego – the moral conscience part of our mind (Simply Psychology, 2019).

In the modern field of social and personality psychology, the ego is that which creates the self (Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2009). This is the ego that is considered for the perspective.

The ego is the mind’s identity of our construction. The beliefs that we have, will define the structure of our ego. But this identity created by the ego is an illusion (Pathway to happiness, 2019).

The kind of beliefs that construct the ego is:

“I am excellent at communicating”

“I am better”

“My body is ugly”

“Nobody listens to me”

They can be positive or negative. But they are based on a false-self.

The ego will spend a lot of time defending the self and doing whatever it takes to affirm itself. It will get defensive when it gets shaken or threatened. Its primary function is to protect our identity and beliefs. The ego is maintained by the belief that we are separate from others.

The ego can be observed and show up while pursuing some of its needs. Here are the compulsive needs of the ego: (The Polyman, 2010-2020)

  Need to connect

Need for truth

Need to control

Need for identity

Need for certainty

Need to be right

Need to make sense

Need for justice

Need for recognition

Need to defend

What is Compassion?

Compassion is defined as followed: “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” (Merriam Webster, 2020).

I prefer this definition of compassionate: “someone who shows kindness and empathy to others, or is something or some act that expresses kindness or empathy” (yourdictionary, 2020).

It doesn’t focus on the negative feelings of others but rather on the intentions of the person to express kindness or empathy.

How do we recognize compassion?

When we practice compassion, we take into consideration the others. We demonstrate empathy, kindness, and gratitude. With compassion, we realize that there is no separation from others, we let down the barriers that we keep to protect ourselves. The desire to connect with others will come from a place of joy.

Difference between the compassion and ego

The fundamental difference between the ego and compassion is awareness. The ego is a false-self and does not have awareness of the true-self. On the other hand, highly self-compassionate people can acknowledge their imperfections and can see better their true-self. When we choose compassion, we make a conscious choice.

The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. The ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist. –Eckart Tolle (2005)

Another main difference between ego and compassion lies in the inclusion of others. The core of the operating system of the ego is based on the idea of separation. On the other hand, the core of compassion is to feel closer and more connected to everything and everyone else.

Their differences also lie in their purpose, which is the primary issue in our relationships to anything. The purpose of the ego in a relationship is to withhold love, while the purpose of compassion is to extend love. In relationships, the ego will look at fulfilling its needs for approval, acceptance, or control. On the other hand, when we act with compassion in a relationship there is no trace of fear of loss. There is no need to control. There are just love and a true connection.

In a relationship, our ego will fight to defend ourselves and protect our needs but compassion will help us to create a more authentic and fulfilling connection.

A genuine relationship is one that is not dominated by the ego with its image-making and self-seeking. In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever. –Eckart Tolle (2005)

How do ego and compassion show up in our behaviors?

It is difficult to notice the ego as it hides behind the “I” and the “me”. It hides behind opinions and thoughts that appear to be true. Here are some behaviors derived from compassion and the ego.

Self applications for coaches

To actively listen to our clients, it is necessary to lower down this constant voice inside our heads. This voice is one of our egos, when it says: “why is she/he doing that”, “I know the solution” or “this is not going to work”. This is our ego tapping on our shoulders reminding us about our beliefs, our opinion, and our needs. When we manage to let those thoughts go, we can offer our full attention to our client. Quietening our ego helps us to be fully present and actively listen. By choosing compassion in our practice, we can show understanding, empathy, and focus on the needs of our clients.

Application in the coaching process

The purpose of the coaching process is to “move the client from where they are now to where they want to be” (ICA, 2019).

Self-awareness and self-reflection are essential for reaching our goals. In this process, it is important to identify the ego as the self that will do anything to decline any responsibility for negative outcomes. When we manage to quiet our ego and focus less on our needs but act with compassion, we are more likely to reach our goals. We have more chances to grow as we will no act out of fear. We will be able to recognize our truth and our true self.

In the coaching process, we support the client to get awareness and understand their behaviors. Being able to recognize the needs of the ego and the emotion derived from it, is a major step in moving forward.

Three realizations can be achieved during the coaching process:

Realize where the ego hides and when it motivates behaviors

Realize that the needs of the ego are never satisfied and are the cause of frustration

Realize how to choose compassion

Powerful questions to detect the ego

The ego lives out of fear. It fears our unworthiness. As a result, the ego pushes us to achieve more. The ego communicates through “musts,” and “shoulds,” persuading us to believe that by achieving more and more, we will earn our worthiness.

What is your belief behind “should”/”must”?

What was your need in this situation?

What is your purpose in this relationship?

What does this behavior serve?

What do you know for sure?

Powerful questions to shift perspective from ego to compassion

The ego is focusing on fulfilling its needs whereas compassion is focusing on helping others.

X: Are the questions that serve the ego– recommended avoiding

V: Are the questions that serve compassion– recommended using

X: What are you looking for in this relationship?

V: What is the greatest gift you feel you can bring to a relationship?

X: What would you like to get from this relationship?

V: What would you like to give in this relationship?

X: What are your expectations?

V: What are your intentions?

Conclusion

By identifying our ego, we can acknowledge our limitations and consider it to develop ourselves. By integrating others in our life, we choose a life with more compassion that can bring immense fulfillment and joy.

Each of our relationships is an opportunity to glorify love. “What I give to others, I give to myself. What I withhold from others, I withhold from myself. Everyone I meet today provides me with an opportunity to increase my joy by bringing greater joy to others” (Best self, 2020).

Original source: https://coachcampus.com/coach-portfolios/power-tools/milena-carruzzo-compassion-vs-ego/

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