#which likely refers to contemporary social workers

[natandacat]

Ok so the translation on how france used dialectics, debates, and psychosocial intervention as a mean of brainwashing young Algerian students is actually ok so here it is.

[hyperlexichypatia]

As I keep shouting into the void, pathologizers love shifting discussion about material conditions into discussion about emotional states.

I rant approximately once a week about how the brain maturity myth transmuted “Young adults are too poor to move out of their parents’ homes or have children of their own” into “Young adults are too emotionally and neurologically immature to move out of their parents’ homes or have children of their own.”

I’ve also talked about the misuse of “enabling” and “trauma” and “dopamine” .

And this is a pattern – people coin terms and concepts to describe material problems, and pathologization culture shifts them to be about problems in the brain or psyche of the person experiencing them. Now we’re talking about neurochemicals, frontal lobes, and self-esteem instead of talking about wages, wealth distribution, and civil rights. Now we can say that poor, oppressed, and exploited people are suffering from a neurological/emotional defect that makes them not know what’s best for themselves, so they don’t need or deserve rights or money.

Here are some terms that have been so horribly misused by mental health culture that we’ve almost entirely forgotten that they were originally materialist critiques.

Codependency What it originally referred to: A non-addicted person being overly “helpful” to an addicted partner or relative, often out of financial desperation. For example: Making sure your alcoholic husband gets to work in the morning (even though he’s an adult who should be responsible for himself) because if he loses his job, you’ll lose your home. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/opinion/codependency-addiction-recovery.html What it’s been distorted into: Being “clingy,��� being “too emotionally needy,” wanting things like affection and quality time from a partner. A way of pathologizing people, especially young women, for wanting things like love and commitment in a romantic relationship.

Compulsory Heterosexuality What it originally referred to: In the 1980 in essay "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/493756 Adrienne Rich described compulsory heterosexuality as a set of social conditions that coerce women into heterosexual relationships and prioritize those relationships over relationships between women (both romantic and platonic). She also defines “lesbian” much more broadly than current discourse does, encompassing a wide variety of romantic and platonic relationships between women. While she does suggest that women who identify as heterosexual might be doing so out of unquestioned social norms, this is not the primary point she’s making. What it’s been distorted into: The patronizing, biphobic idea that lesbians somehow falsely believe themselves to be attracted to men. Part of the overall “Women don’t really know what they want or what’s good for them” theme of contemporary discourse.

Emotional Labor What it originally referred to: The implicit or explicit requirement that workers (especially women workers, especially workers in female-dominated “pink collar” jobs, especially tipped workers) perform emotional intimacy with customers, coworkers, and bosses above and beyond the actual job being done. Having to smile, be “friendly,” flirt, give the impression of genuine caring, politely accept harassment, etc. https://weld.la.psu.edu/what-is-emotional-labor/ What it’s been distorted into: Everything under the sun. Everything from housework (which we already had a term for), to tolerating the existence of disabled people, to just caring about friends the way friends do. The original intent of the concept was “It’s unreasonable to expect your waitress to care about your problems, because she’s not really your friend,” not “It’s unreasonable to expect your actual friends to care about your problems unless you pay them, because that’s emotional labor,” and certainly not “Disabled people shouldn’t be allowed to be visibly disabled in public, because witnessing a disabled person is emotional labor.” Anything that causes a person emotional distress, even if that emotional distress is rooted in the distress-haver’s bigotry (Many nominally progressive people who would rightfully reject the bigoted logic of “Seeing gay or interracial couples upsets me, which is emotional labor, so they shouldn’t be allowed to exist in public” fully accept the bigoted logic of “Seeing disabled or poor people upsets me, which is emotional labor, so they shouldn’t be allowed to exist in public”).

Battered Wife Syndrome What it originally referred to: The all-encompassing trauma and fear of escalating violence experienced by people suffering ongoing domestic abuse, sometimes resulting in the abuse victim using necessary violence in self-defense. Because domestic abuse often escalates, often to murder, this fear is entirely rational and justified. This is the reasonable, justified belief that someone who beats you, stalks you, and threatens to kill you may actually kill you.

What it’s been distorted into: Like so many of these other items, the idea that women (in this case, women who are victims of domestic violence) don’t know what’s best for themselves. I debated including this one, because “syndrome” was a wrongful framing from the beginning – a justified and rational fear of escalating violence in a situation in which escalating violence is occurring is not a “syndrome.” But the original meaning at least partially acknowledged the material conditions of escalating violence.

I’m not saying the original meanings of these terms are ones I necessarily agree with – as a cognitive liberty absolutist, I’m unsurprisingly not that enamored of either second-wave feminism or 1970s addiction discourse. And as much as I dislike what “emotional labor” has become, I accept that “Women are unfairly expected to care about other people’s feelings more than men are” is a true statement.

What I am saying is that all of these terms originally, at least partly, took material conditions into account in their usage. Subsequent usage has entirely stripped the materialist critique and fully replaced it with emotional pathologization, specifically of women. Acknowledgement that women have their choices constrained by poverty, violence, and oppression has been replaced with the idea that women don’t know what’s best for themselves and need to be coercively “helped” for their own good. Acknowledgement that working-class women experience a gender-and-class-specific form of economic exploitation has been rebranded as yet another variation of “Disabled people are burdensome for wanting to exist.”

Over and over, materialist critiques are reframed as emotional or cognitive defects of marginalized people. The next time you hear a superficially sympathetic (but actually pathologizing) argument for “Marginalized people make bad choices because…” consider stopping and asking: “Wait, who are we to assume that this person’s choices are ‘bad’? And if they are, is there something about their material conditions that constrains their options or makes the ‘bad’ choice the best available option?”

[takemeinyrarmy]

BoyBoy book club⭑.ᐟ

These books have either been mentioned or recommended by the boys, list made to the best of my memory, some notes added for context + little abstract. [(A.) = Aleksa's rec; (L.) = Lucas' rec; (Al.) = Alex's rec] Reply or reblog to add more to update the list thanks! 

⊹ Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation - Silvia Federici  (A.) [Aleksa's commentary: Also 'Caliban and the Witch' by Silvia Federicci is brilliant. It's a great marxist-feminist retelling of the European witch-hunts, it's really really cool. It completely flipped my view of the birth of capitalism... She posits that capitalism is a reaction to a potential peasant revolution in Europe that never succeeded, and situates the witch-hunt as a tool of the capitalist class to break peasant social-ties and discipline women into their new role as reproducers of workers.] || Is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.

⊹ The Age of Surveillance Capitalism - Shoshana Zuboff  (A.) || This book looks at the development of digital companies like Google and Amazon, and suggests that their business models represent a new form of capitalist accumulation that she calls "surveillance capitalism". While industrial capitalism exploited and controlled nature with devastating consequences, surveillance capitalism exploits and controls human nature with a totalitarian order as the endpoint of the development.

⊹ Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia -  Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (L.) || In this book , Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari set forth the following theory: Western society's innate herd instinct has allowed the government, the media, and even the principles of economics to take advantage of each person's unwillingness to be cut off from the group. What's more, those who suffer from mental disorders may not be insane, but could be individuals in the purest sense, because they are by nature isolated from society.

⊹ Open Veins of Latin America - Eduardo Galeano (A.) (Intro to LATAM history, infuriating but good.) (Personal recommendation if you know nothing about LATAM.) || An analysis of the impact that European settlement, imperialism, and slavery have had in Latin America. In the book, Galeano analyzes the history of the Americas as a whole, from the time period of the European settlement of the New World to contemporary Latin America, describing the effects of European and later United States economic exploitation and political dominance over the region. Throughout the book, Galeano analyses notions of colonialism, imperialism, and the dependency theory.

⊹ The Origin of Capitalism - Ellen Wood (A.) || Book on history and political economy, specifically the history of capitalism, written from the perspective of political Marxism.

⊹ If We Burn - Vincent Bevins (L.) || The book concerns the wave of mass protests during the 2010s and examines the question of how the organization and tactics of such protests resulted in a "missing revolution," given that most of these movements appear to have failed in their goals, and even led to a "record of failures, setbacks, and cataclysms".

⊹ The Jakarta Method - Vincent Bevins (A.) [Aleksa’s recommendation for leftists friends] || It concerns U.S. government support for and complicity in anti-communist mass killings around the world and their aggregate consequences from the Cold War until the present era. The title is a reference to Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, during which an estimated one million people were killed in an effort to destroy the political left and movements for government reform in the country.

⊹ The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company - William Dalrymple (L.) [Not read by the boys yet, but wanted to read.] || History book that recounts the rise of the East India Company in the second half of the 18th century, against the backdrop of a crumbling Mughal Empire and the rise of regional powers.

⊹ The Triumph of Evil: The Reality of the USA's Cold War Victory - Austin Murphy (A.) || Contrary to the USA false propaganda, this book documents the fact that the USA triumph in the Cold War has increased economic suffering and wars, which are shown to be endemic to the New World Order under USA capitalist domination.

⊹ Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism - Yanis Varoufakis (L.) || Big tech has replaced capitalism’s twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power.  Welcome to technofeudalism . . .

⊹ The History of the Russian Revolution - Leon Trotsky (A.) [Aleksa's commentary: This might be misconstrued since I'm not a massive fan of Trotsky... but... his book "History of the russian revolution" is amazing. It's so unique to have such a detailed history book compiled by someone who was an active participant in the events, and he's surprisingly hilarious. Makes some great jokes in there and really captures the revolutionary spirit of the time.] || The History of the Russian Revolution offers an unparalleled account of one of the most pivotal and hotly debated events in world history. This book presents, from the perspective of one of its central actors, the profound liberating character of the early Russian Revolution.

⊹ Rise of The Red Engineers - Joel Andreas (A.) [Aleksa's commentary: It's a sick history book, focusing on a single university in China following it's history from imperial china, through the revolution and to the modern day. It documents sincere efforts to revolutionize the education system, but does it from a very detailed, on-the-ground view of how these cataclysmic changes effect individual students and teachers at this institution.] || In a fascinating account, author Joel Andreas chronicles how two mutually hostile groups—the poorly educated peasant revolutionaries who seized power in 1949 and China's old educated elite—coalesced to form a new dominant class.

⊹ Adults in the Room: My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment - Yanis Varoufakis (A.) [Aleksa's commentary: The book I mentioned earlier - "adults in the room" - is amazing. There's a great description of Greece's role in the European economy [as an archetype for other, small European countries] and the Union's successful attempts to discipline smaller countries to keep their monetary policy in line with the interest of central European bankers. I'd definitely reccommend it!] || What happens when you take on the establishment? In Adults in the Room, the renowned economist and former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis gives the full, blistering account of his momentous clash with the mightiest economic and political forces on earth.

Edit: Links added when possible! If they stop working let me know or if you have a link for the ones missing.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Part III: Wage Labor in Northern Europe, or Free Labor

Now part three, wage labor in northern Europe, or free labor as we like to call it. The notion of free wage labor creates, if anything, an even greater conceptual challenge, because in a purely technical sense, in fact, the usual creditor-debtor relation is actually reversed, and we don’t really think about it this way, but Who owes who?’ Unless you have a company store and you intentionally indebt your workers, which was often done, but in the classic scenario where you sign on, you get a good job, you do the work, you get paid at the end of the week – well, most of the time that you’re doing the work, you’re actually the creditor, and the boss is the debtor, because he owes you money for your work. You’ve already done the work, and he’s owing you money, so if anybody’s the debtor, it’s the boss. But in fact during that time, you’re actually subordinated to the will of your debtor. Now this creates a rather confusing situation, which is one reason we don’t even like to think about it that way. Well, what I like to argue is that there was a certain amount of conceptual work that had to be done in order for it not to occur to us that actually the boss is the debtor who owes something to the worker.

And so I want to end by talking a little bit about that and how that happened and the very interesting history of what wage labor actually is in social, legal, and political terms, how it was that in Northern Europe, one area which didn’t have chattel slavery in the late Middle Ages, or very little, and debt peonage was actually fairly limited, was also the place where free labor came to be seen as alienable, and, above all, where it was considered normal for free men and women to place themselves completely under another person’s authority and under their orders. In contemporary law, that principle of subordination is sometimes referred to as the ‘principle of control,’ or another phrase you see a lot is ‘the open-ended duty of obedience’ that a hired laborer owes to their employer. It still provides a profound conceptual challenge for these very reasons. According to the Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations, for example, “The term ‘contract of employment’ or in French ‘contrat de travail,” only entered general usage in the 1880s” — pretty late (290):

The main impetus for its adoption was an argument by employers in larger enterprises that the general duty of obedience should be read into all industrial hirings, and the core of the concept was a notion of subordination, in which the ‘open-ended duty of obedience’ was traded off in return for the acceptance and absorption by the enterprise of a range of social risks. (290)

So, this ‘open-ended duty of obedience’ implied that a hired worker was obliged to do whatever he was told to do by his or her employer, insofar as those orders didn’t involve either violating some other existing law or some specific provisions of their contract, and in exchange the enterprise accepted responsibility for consequences of decisions that the worker could no longer make, for example, if he got injured. In fact, even this formulation was not really accepted in the Anglophone world, that this was just a free contract, until much later.

It’s actually really surprising. In the United Kingdom, employment disputes, at least for industrial and manual work, were not generally treated under contract law until the rise of union power in the welfare state in the 1940s. Before that, they were largely treated under common law traditions governing relations between masters and servants, which traced back to the Middle Ages. In the US, actually, that’s still the case. You’re still dealing with a common-law tradition that’s still master and servant law basically, that governs labor relations. So, in fact the principle of ‘open-ended obedience,’ as legal historians like Simon Deakin emphasize, itself can be traced back to the obedience that medieval servants owed to their masters, which were again tempered only by force of custom, social expectations of reasonable treatment, and any particular arrangements among the parties to a service contract that might have been made.

However, in the Middle Ages and well into the early modern period, the responsibilities involved in such arrangements were assumed to be a lot more mutual. Most notably, service contracts tended to be yearly, and during the year, masters were expected not only to provide agreed-on wages, bed, and board for workers, but to do so whether or not they actually found any work for the guy to do. This is very important. So, if you’re a master craftsman, you get three apprentices, and there’s a bad market, nobody wants to buy your gloves. Maybe you’re just sitting around, but you still have to pay the people. You also had to take care of them if they were sick or injured, became pregnant, whatever might happen. The importance of this medieval concept of service actually in the eventual emergence of capitalist labor regimes I think can [sic: should?] not be underestimated, something I’ve been banging on about for years in various ways, but I think it really should be underlined here.

Even though it’s a topic that’s weirdly neglected by a lot of economic historians, not all, but if you look at all the various Marxist transition debates, starting with Sweezy/Dobb, I guess was the first one, and leading up at least to the Brenner debate, which is all about whether capitalism starts as a top-down or a bottom-up phenomenon (Sweezy, PM; TH Aston and CHE Philpin). Do you have to look at commerce and finance and transformations therein which gradually affected on-the-ground relations, or did it happen from the bottom up? Was it a transformation of rural class relations from below? You’d think that in that argument, you’d set up endless discussions of what the from-below work arrangements actually were. No, there’s almost none. You have these statistical discussions constantly throwing around the word wages, wage rates, but it’s assumed that what the word wage means is self-evident, which is very clearly not the case.

At the same time, detailed studies that have been made of what wages could have meant in the late Middle Ages and early modern period show that it actually could mean a lot of different things. There is an oft-cited statistic that about a third of the population of late medieval England was dependent on wages for at least a large share of their livelihood, and this appears to have been true, but what ‘wages’ meant in that context could be a lot of different things.

If you look at the details of the arrangements, often people would be hired to do a specific job, and they would bring their apprentices or their servants or their kids along with them. They would actually have their own hirelings. So it looks a lot more in many of these cases like the modern equivalent would be hiring a plumber or something like that. He’s not exactly a wage laborer who’s under your direction. They’re people with their own skills, ‘mysteries’ as they were called at the time, which you didn’t know what they were, or even if you did know what they were, they formed their own teams and negotiated with you and were essentially independent contractors, we would now call them, more than anything else. The ones who weren’t were servants or hired for certain periods of time, typically a year.

There are also day laborers. That’s important. Day laborers tended to avoid ongoing contracts and move around from job to job, preferring short-term engagements, but they were famous for being pretty hardcore negotiators in terms of terms and conditions of employment, and often to their great advantage and to the distress of moralists, who were constantly complaining that these guys were overpaid, especially disturbing to moralists because they to some degree overlapped with the murkier population which in Debt, I described as “beggars, harlots, cutpurses, hawkers, peddlers, fortune tellers, minstrels, and other such masterless men and women of ill repute,” like the ones in Java who did the day labor, who merged with the criminal classes, and as a result they could extract quite a bit (Graeber 329). So, you have the independent contractors; then you have actual service contracts.

Service contracts were typically young people, not always. Manorial estates would have yearly servants who were adults, but all over Northern Europe, at least since the Middle Ages, what’s been called the ‘North European marriage pattern’ was characterized by what’s been called ‘life cycle service.’ The majority of the population, male and female, not just craftspeople, but peasants, even nobles, were expected to spend most of their adolescence laboring as a servant in another family’s household, typically in a household just slightly wealthier than their own. As Ann Kussmaul writes about Servants and Husbandry:

Master and servant customarily sealed their agreement with the offering and taking of a token payment: the earnest, hiring penny, fastening penny, or God’s penny. (Kussmaul et al. 32)

I always like that phrase ‘God’s penny.’

The contract implicitly bound the servant to serve the master for a year and to obey his reasonable commands, and it bound the master to maintain the servant for the year and to pay the wages agreed upon, whether or not there was daily work for the servant, and whether or not the servant remained fit to work. Masters’ authority was thus tempered by custom. (Kussmaul et al. 32)

The word reasonable appears a lot in these things. Servants are expected to obey reasonable orders in exchange for a reasonable wages, so communal standards was held to settle these matters in much the way of Jim Scott’s idea of a moral economy. There was ongoing communal feeling about what’s a reasonable lifestyle. During this time, of course, servants were literally considered members of the master’s family, since family was conceived not as a kinship unit, so much as a household unit of authority under the aegis of a single head of household. They’re also of course learning their future trades and how to comport themselves as proper adults and finally trying to accumulate enough of a nest egg so they could eventually marry and create their own farm, shop, or household.

As a result, for the bulk of the medieval English population (this is I think critical, and it really hasn’t been thought about enough), wage labor under the supervision of an employer was something one does for the first ten or fifteen years of one’s working life and has little to do with the way adults were expected to treat one another. Remember, most of these other wage laborers are not really being supervised.

I think one must be careful, because the concept of service was used in a lot of different ways. You think about it. It’s a very conceptually rich term, and it was already a very conceptually rich term with a lot of different meanings already by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. I’ve spent a lot of time poring over the O.E.D. and looking at different ways the words ‘serve,’ ‘service,’ ‘servant’ were used. Basically, all hierarchical arrangements were imagined as forms of service, starting with divine service, of course directed at God, but continuing through feudal service, which is the basic framework of the political order — vassals owed various carefully specified services, typically the provision of a certain number of service knights, but also nonmilitary sergeants, in exchange for tenure. Peasants were poor, so they owed a variety of services to their own lords. But the interesting thing about all those forms of service is the exact nature of feudal and manorial services tended to be really, really carefully specified. They weren’t really open-ended. They’re often exactly as custom set them down to the exact detail.

In other words, feudal arrangements tended to be the very opposite of this ‘open-ended duty of obedience’ characteristic of lifestyle servants, and later of employees in commercial or industrial enterprises. But the fact that even highborn families were expected to send their teenage sons and daughters to serve at court, so that even the powerful all had some experience of domestic service, must have ensured that that’s what remained the paradigm for all other forms of service.

The word was used really broadly, but the conceptual center of it was domestic service, and this is why common usage at the time (again calling on the O.E.D.) includes, if you look at the verb ‘to serve’ and medieval examples: “to be a servant, to perform the duties of a servant, to attend upon, to render habitual obedience to, to become the extension of another’s will or purposes,” but also “to wait upon a person at table, hence to set food before, or to help a person to food.” There’s a million different variations of serving as in “giving food to,” the latter of which is already by at least 1362 extended to “to attend to the request of a customer in a shop,” so to serve a customer actually comes before, say, “serving one’s country, becoming a public servant, serving in the armed forces,” which come later, with the absolutist state.

So the paradigmatic sense is of active services, [such as] serving food. You look at the history of the word waiter. It is actually really telling. It’s one common term for a domestic servant, but particularly among the elite servant circles, you have ladies-in-waiting and gentlemen waiters, who not only waited at their lord or lady’s table, but were really waiting for their inheritance, so they didn’t have to do it any more, to acquire the means to marry and become a master or a mistress of their own household and get servants of their own.

So, I think what’s important here is that it brings together three key features that I think are intrinsic to the notion of service as it existed at the time, which is still kind of lingering in the background of the term used now when we use the terms like ‘goods and services.’ First of all, it involved an ‘open-ended duty of obedience,’ second, it was educational (at least in the sense of being formative of character), and third, it was conceived in terms of what we would now call caring labor. The servant attended to the physical needs of his or her master or mistress, fed him or her, who in turn was expected to care for the servant as required, as they would any other member of their family.

So, the transition from a system like that to one marked by permanent wage labor, which began to happen with the breakdown of the guild system in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, meant that a very large number of servants, particularly apprentices and journeymen, suddenly found themselves in a position where they could never become masters and thus found themselves trapped in permanent social adolescence. This had a number of really profound social effects, some of which I’ve written about elsewhere. For example, I point out that it’s almost certainly no coincidence that it’s exactly the period where employment could no longer be conceived as a process of character formation, education leading to one’s eventual full moral personhood, when one gets a household of one’s own. This is exactly the time when the employing classes, who have essentially shut the proletariat out of such social adulthood, suddenly develop an intense interest in the moral reformation of the poor. So, they’re basically trying to do the same thing through other means. When you look at medieval texts, middle-class people really couldn’t care less about the moral behavior of the poor. But suddenly it becomes an obsession right around the period when the old service system breaks down.

Legal historians have gradually been able to reconstruct how the terms and conditions were transformed in the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution. Government played a key role here, and it’s actually very much analogous to what happened with debt. In the Debt book, I observed, and I was basically following the research here of Craig Muldrew, that in most English communities in the late Middle Ages, cash was very rarely deployed in everyday transactions. Villagers and townsfolk alike preferred to rely on complex credit systems, which meant that it was considered normal for everybody to be at least a little bit in debt to everybody else. Debt was seen as the lifeblood of sociability and a material, and immaterial, aspect of community itself, or of communal love (Muldrew).

And, at the same time, starting in at least Elizabethan times, more and more members of the emerging middle classes began to turn to the courts to enforce debts. People used to lodge the debts in the courts, but they wouldn’t actually go to the courts to enforce them. One reason for that was simply because the law was really harsh. In fact, a truly persistent creditor could have debtors imprisoned or even executed. Starting in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, a lot of people started doing that, which had this crazy paradoxical effect of something that had been considered the very substance of sociality itself, was suddenly effectively criminalized.

Now around that same time, local courts also became really interested in regulating labor, which there had been some interest in by the government in the wake of the Black Death, but it only really starts kicking in with the Statute of Artificers. But as Deakin points out, for example, the initial impulse to do so had to do with the peculiar nature of the English welfare system at the time. The Settlement Act essentially insisted that elderly, incapacitated laborers, anyone in need of relief, had to go to their own parish. They couldn’t demand relief in someone else’s parish. Exceptions were granted only for those who could demonstrate they’d undertaken yearly contracts as servants in the parish in which they currently resided. Now obviously that meant that it was up to the courts to decide who had a real contract and who didn’t, which is interesting, because previous to that, as Kussmaul and others have pointed out, and Cooper, the whole domain of service, which was basically the entire adolescent population, were essentially off the books as far as the government was concerned. They had almost nothing to do with it. There was some occasional interference in apprentices’ contracts and things like that, but basically they didn’t even know who these people were.

Suddenly, with welfare legislation being what it was, government, local courts, and magistrates had to decide who was really employed. The conditions of employment were put under the microscope, in effect. And this was happening at the same time as the famous Enclosure movements, and in all this, as endless Marxist scholars have documented, cottagers are being driven from their natal villages, the existing floating semi-criminal population, casual laborers, swollen by those guys, was being suppressed by ever harsher vagrancy laws, which are essentially trying to force as many people as possible into these one-year household servant contracts.

At the same time, since welfare responsibilities were being shifted to the parish, the service relation came to be defined in a much more one-sided fashion, as being defined around the master’s unconditional authority. Here’s a quote:

In this way the settlement laws helped to initiate the ‘open-ended duty of obedience’ which later came to characterize the contract of service. Although a servant could not be made to work quote ‘unreasonable hours of the night,’ and he is punished if he profanes the Sabbath day… [it was determined that] a right of control and authority, at least so far as it relates to the general discipline and government of the servant, must reside in the master at all times during the continuance of the service. (Deakin 16)

This was one of the criteria for who actually was a servant and actually lived where. So this was the primary criterion for judging whether a relationship of employment existed. It meant that this element of unconditional obedience became both extremely important and enforced by the state, and this increased dramatically over time. By the eighteenth century, when households and workplaces increasingly separated, and owners of mills, mines, and similar enterprises began employing large numbers of wage laborers working regular hours, that was the criterion they chose for who’s really working for who: control, authority.

At the same time, though, magistrates were being granted ever more powers to intervene in different types of employer-employee relationships. Under the Statute of Artificers, it was pretty limited, and courts had been given the right to set up maximum wages and regulate relations between masters and servants in husbandry since Elizabethan times. But it was really just right before the Industrial Revolution that it was extended to everyone else with the Masters and Servants Law of 1747 and a series of other laws that followed in the decade or two afterwards. So that same supervisory function was extended to “artificers, handicraftsmen, miners, colliers, kiln-men, pitmen, glass-men, potters, and other laborers employed from any certain time or in any other manner” (Deakin 19). Not only did this extend the principle of open-ended obedience to skilled craftsmen, who had previously been more of the independent contractors, but it also allowed the courts to intervene on the employer’s behalf by imposing fines, and even up to three months imprisonment, on any workers found to have absconded from their yearly contractual responsibilities (Deakin 19).

So suddenly these people, who had been hired because they had certain skills that you didn’t have on a part-time basis, were being forced by courts to take on these year-long contracts, where the employer no longer really had any responsibilities to them, but they were expected to have an absolute right [sic: duty?] of obedience to their employer.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Over the last decade, trans civil rights claims (particularly those of trans women, and especially those of trans women who love women) have become the scapegoat for an increasingly pervasive anxiety: that young people, or social media, or young people on social media, are incapable of rational thought, and their modes of reasoning need to be radically suppressed for the good of their blameless victims, which are sometimes figured as “women,” sometimes as “the university,” sometimes as “children,” and sometimes as “lesbians.” In order to defend this facially rather improbable account of the world, the gender critical movement must maintain a constant state of battle-readiness: always ready to swarm some graduate student on Twitter, to circulate some collection of memes that prove that trans teenagers are more likely to detransition than is widely believed, or to smear anyone who contradicts any of their positions as a rapist, a pedophile, an apologist for rapists or pedophiles, a misogynist, a wife-beater, a homophobe, or all of the above. These interventions, which are daily occurrences, have intensified a climate of mistrust and paranoia in British universities, but what is most striking to me is that they resemble maximally punitive pedagogical interventions: claiming to speak against dogma, and in favor of complexity and independence of thought, a class of teachers aims to intimidate, belittle, humiliate, and silence a class of students, instead of—as might have otherwise been expected of them—doing their job and actually teaching.

[...]

Ironic, too, is the fact that “gender critical,” laughable as it is as a designation of an intellectual position, displaced a term that was, at least in principle, defensible on its merits: trans-exclusionary radical feminism, or “terf.” That term, which is now only spoken on the BBC or in the Guardian in hushed tones and with the proviso that it is apparently “a slur,” identified a strand of radical feminism (not a ubiquitous radfem position, through probably at present the dominant one, at least in the UK) that wants to exclude trans women from the category of “woman,” and therefore to exclude actual trans women from women’s spaces. Yet because that position was easily identified among those that opposed it, those who were hailed as “terfs” demanded to be referred to by another name, and the demand was largely met. The broad censorship of the word “terf” is part of a worrying dimension of contemporary British culture in which the bearers of an idea being criticized are to be deferred to in respect of the language used to designate the position. My invitation onto Andrew Doyle’s GB News program was rescinded after I referred to Ann Coulter as a fascist, an observation that Andrew claimed revealed I was “not serious” about open discussion. But I am relentlessly serious about Ann Coulter’s fascism. One might also consider the fate of the term “eugenics,” the subject of a powerful recent apology authored by UCL workers: the term “eugenics,” inflected by histories of genocide, cannot be heard today except as negatively valued, yet it was not so for the figures who espoused those positions, and must not be abandoned as a term of historical analysis. Anyone who has not yet done so is encouraged to read the website “terf is a slur,” to see a number of anonymous Twitter accounts, many of whom seem to be teenagers, and most of which took place several years ago, saying cruel and obnoxious things about terfs. They might also wonder why “Tory” is not a slur, since it is so often followed by the word “scum.”

Only one other brief comment on the term “gender critical movement” is necessary before advancing: the group often refers to itself as, simply, “women,” as in the hashtag Women Won’t Wheesht, or the writer J. K. Rowling’s claim that “women are organizing.” But this isn’t a good name for the movement, because the core advocacy group contains a number of men—Graham Linehan, Jesse Singal, Alan Sokal, Colin Wight, Colin Wright, Milo Yiannopoulos—all of whom are white—and because polls suggests that while, on the whole, UK men are receptive to GC talking points, UK women aren’t persuaded by them. These findings have been affirmed in a recent report by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, even as the EHRC has been increasingly subject to GC capture in the last two years.

[mariacallous]

For this year’s International Women’s Day, the United Nations calls on us to “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.” The theme highlights how, amid a global polycrisis, achieving gender equality is vital for the collective well-being of communities worldwide. It calls attention to the significant challenges that persist in ensuring gender-equitable outcomes: in particular, evidence from the 2023 Gender Snapshot projecting that 340 million women and girls will still be living in poverty by 2030 and highlighting a significant funding shortfall—an additional $360 billion investment needed to achieve SDG goals of gender equality.

As global calls for financing for gender equality continue, it is vital to center care in these conversations. Over the past few decades, while programs focusing on women’s inclusion into the formal economy have made promising strides, much of the labor traditionally performed by girls and women, such as domestic and care work, is unpaid and not accounted for in conventional economic models. Globally, women perform an estimated 76 percent of unpaid care work. Even when paid, care work is often characterized by low wages and inadequate working conditions, especially for the most marginalized workers.

This International Women’s Day, as we reflect upon the advances made in the struggle for gender equality and justice in the previous decades, policy and program design would also be strengthened from addressing the relative invisibility of women’s labor across informal and care economies.

Situating women in global development

Globally, women’s inclusion as stakeholders in development processes emerged in the 1970s as part of a transnational “Women in Development” movement, which sought to position women as central to development—both as agents and beneficiaries. The movement’s advocacy translated into significant policy shifts, beginning with the 1973 Percy Amendment to the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, requiring that “U.S. foreign aid programs encourage and promote the integration of women into the national economies in the developing countries.”

In the following decade, a broad array of global actors began championing women’s role in development. For example, the OECD instituted the Guiding Principles for Supporting the Role of Women in Development in 1983, and the World Bank established a Women in Development division in 1987. Galvanized by the U.N. Decade for Women (1975), along with decades of feminist research and organizing across the Global South and North, such programs ranged from women workers’ rights to small scale social enterprise, the latter of which were contemporaneous with the ascendancy of neoliberal policies in the 1980s and the faith in increasingly market-based solutions toward development.

But much like the biologically deterministic category of “woman” itself, actors working in the women in development space were far from homogenous. Over the intervening decades, their work has pushed theory and practice in new directions, introducing debates over whether women’s economic inclusion should be separated from advocating structural transformations in the political economy and asking what the roles of gender, race, caste, class, ability, and geopolitics are in women’s development programs. This has led to new frameworks, including those emphasizing gender relations, intersectionality, and global redistributive politics, which continue to shape contemporary debates in the broader field of gender and development.

In many of these debates, the gendered division of labor has been at the center. For example, feminist research on social reproduction—which broadly refers to the paid and unpaid labor necessary to sustain human life, such as care work—highlights not only that such labor has historically been seen as “women’s work” but also how its devaluation is fundamental in reproducing inequality and patriarchy.

Building care infrastructures for a gender-equal future

So, while today’s calls to invest in gender equality can fuel transformative initiatives, there are also perils associated with focusing solely on women’s inclusion in the formal labor market. Evaluating progress through this lens can not only render women who perform domestic or care work as “unworthy, disposable others,” but can also erase how race, class, and geopolitics shape labor across all gender identities. A broader view of the economy, which encompasses concepts of care, is fundamental in creating a more gender-equal future. In fact, Sustainable Development Goal 5.4 underscores the importance of valuing unpaid work by providing essential public services and promoting shared household responsibilities.

Building care infrastructures that recognize, fairly compensate, and redistribute the care work performed predominately by the working class, migrants, and women of color can lead to a multitude of benefits, including ensuring better educational outcomes for children, improving women’s mental well-being, and expanding women’s access to economic opportunities. One example of how the redistribution of care work can lead to gender equality is adequate and well-incentivized paternity leave, which can increase mothers’ probability of reemployment, promote maternal health, and advance gender and economic equality. Additionally, recognizing unpaid care and domestic work can help promote the elimination of discriminatory social norms and deep-rooted stereotypes around ideas of gender and labor–ultimately contributing to building more inclusive societies for all gender identities.

Looking forward

As global stakeholders respond to this year’s International Women’s Day call, determining who, how, and what to invest in can facilitate progress toward more equitable and sustainable development goals.

Who: Using an intersectional lens can enable stakeholders to identify how different systems of oppression—and the particularities between them—marginalize individuals and communities across all gender identities, and who should be centered in policy and programs.

How: The root causes of marginalization may then be addressed through a critical reflection of power dynamics across and within development contexts, and empowering local communities to chart their paths toward justice and equality, which can also inform recent “localization” efforts championed by development actors such as the U.S. Agency for International Development.

What: Finally, such shifts toward intersectionality and localization may also benefit from directly addressing inequities at the household, community, and national levels—in particular, both domestic work at home and in paid sectors such as education and health care—by developing concrete tools and infrastructures that value and redistribute care burdens.

As we craft new strategies to carry forward the decades-long fight to transform systems that sustain inequality and patriarchy, reimagining the relationships between gender, labor, and the economy is essential to building a more just future for all.

[somfte-on-main-and-mizzen]

In the mid-19th century, socialism and communism were largely synonymous, and as often as not they referred to the dream of a future without all the institutions at the service of bankers, landlords, and factory owners; a future without the State. Since Marxism crowded out the utopian variations of socialism, however, the term has come to refer to the authoritarian shift in the international anticapitalist movement.

[...] This brings us to their primary weaknesses, which, ironically, are also interrelated and also connected to their class and subjective relationships to the workers’ movements that they did more to weaken and destroy than the police agencies of most contemporary governments.

All of their hypotheses about causation and order—where these oppressions come from, how they will change, how to change them—are worse than trash. They are either phrased in a way that is pseudo-scientific and untestable, which helps explain why Marxism has held increasing appeal among leftwing cults the more Marxist experiments proved to be real life failures (cults thrive on pseudo-sciences). Or, their affirmations about the future of capitalism and how to change it that were phrased in a falsifiable, testable way have all proven dreadfully wrong. Exactly as their anarchist contemporaries predicted.

[...] Many of us, perhaps most of us, will not get another chance for a revolution, for creating a world meant for life and not for the extraction of profit and power. We had a real shot a century ago, and we blew it. Since then, the hour has grown very late. Despite this, or likely intoxicated by the sense of urgency, many of us have forgotten our history and are turning again to the false promises of the State, in the forms of progressive, charismatic politicians, ecosocialism or eco-Leninism, the Trotskyist or Stalinist sects that have begun proliferating again, or the crypto-authoritarianism of the latest new cult of grad students who think they know better."

[...] It’s not too late, though. To recover our memory of generations of struggle. To learn from our recent setbacks. To discover ways to help as many of us as possible to survive the inferno that capitalism has become. The State is a machine for controlling and exploiting a society. It has no other function, any more than a car can grow strawberries or make milkshakes.

But communities of living beings acting in solidarity? No one is better positioned to define survival and to achieve it. Survival, and life, and joy, and healing.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

What do you think about that they found wheels and horse bones at the bottom of the red sea, and that some are claiming that thats proof of Exodus bring true

LOL. It's like saying that we found a piece of the door frame of the RMS Titanic, therefore the movie Titanic is true. Or if I find a large footprint-shaped impression in the ground, that's proof Bigfoot exists.

Which is to say, that isn't how proof works. To "prove" something, you have to account for all the other possible explanations, and why they are either untrue or less likely. Than what is, let's face it, literal magic. Have the items been dated? Have they identified their origin? How did they figure out how long they've been down there? Where are the rest of the parts? What are they the parts to? Why did they survive? Shouldn't there be more of them for the story?

Even Jewish scholars say the Exodus didn't happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus#Origins_and_historicity

Most mainstream scholars do not accept the biblical Exodus account as history for a number of reasons.

[..]

The Book of Numbers further states that the number of Israelite males aged 20 years and older in the desert during the wandering were 603,550, including 22,273 first-borns, which modern estimates put at 2.5-3 million total Israelites, a number that could not be supported by the Sinai Desert through natural means. The geography is vague with regions such as Goshen unidentified, and there are internal problems with dating in the Pentateuch. No modern attempt to identify an historical Egyptian prototype for Moses has found wide acceptance, and no period in Egyptian history matches the biblical accounts of the Exodus.

[..]

While ancient Egyptian texts from the New Kingdom mention "Asiatics" living in Egypt as slaves and workers, these people cannot be securely connected to the Israelites, and no contemporary Egyptian text mentions a large-scale exodus of slaves like that described in the Bible.

The reasons include that there would have been 2,000,000 Israelites wandering around a patch of land that you can walk across in a week, which would have also meant that, walking 10 abreast (200,000 rows of people) with a comfortable walking distance between each row (e.g. 2m), those at the head of the procession would have reached beyond the halfway point before the last people departed (2,000,000 people / 10 abreast x 2m row spacing = 400,000m = 400km).

Egypt losing 2,000,000 residents, including a slave workforce of at least 600,000 (if we count only males), would have been recorded somewhere, and would have dramatically affected the economics, the social dynamics and other factors of the area. Nobody seems to have noticed. And Egypt was notorious for its record keeping, even the unsavory parts.

As with the myth of the flood, it's possible some small-scale event was the origin of this myth. Localized flooding can easily be mythologized up into a global flood that killed everybody... except the Chinese, Aztecs, Australian Aborigines, Native Americans, tribes of Africa, etc, etc, who never noticed they were all apparently drowned but never knew it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus#Potential_historical_origins

Despite the absence of any archaeological evidence, most scholars nonetheless hold the view that the Exodus probably has some sort of historical basis, with Kenton Sparks referring to it as "mythologized history". Scholars posit that a small group of people of Egyptian origin may have joined the early Israelites, and then contributed their own Egyptian Exodus story to all of Israel.

So, we can accept that an exodus occurred, while rejecting the notion that The Exodus, as described in the bible, actually occurred.

Anyone wishing to propose this discovery is proof of the bible will need to disprove more mundane explanations.

Because the Exodus describes specific magical events. There's a very long distance between the mundane story of three dozen Egyptian outcasts leaving town and joining the Israelites, and the magical epic saga of plagues, death of the firstborn, two million people walking across the desert for 40 years, magical, physics-defying fluid dynamics, and all the other shenanigans that is the Exodus mythology of the bible.

As someone once pointed out, even the characters in Exodus act like they live in a storybook land. The Pharaoh is just like, sure, we live in a land where magic is real and I have people who work for me who can do it. The Israelites are like, sure, a divine being from on high freed us with his hand and held back the waters of the sea, but we're going to worship this golden calf we made because we live in a world where magic and gods are everywhere, so that kind of shit isn't going to impress us into thinking a single uniquely divine creature exists, because why would we?

[nicklloydnow]

“Morning always seems too stale to justify

Lament blossoms, hours, minutes of our lives

Broken thoughts run through your empty mind

At least a beaten dog knows how to lie”

Sleepflower - Manic Street Preachers

“The world will not be changed by millions of people voting for change, or demonstrating for change, because capitalist power is not constituted with reference to human feelings: political desires and demonstrations, which are the social forms consciousness takes, cannot touch capitalist domination but are merely determined by it. We have no place for consciousness in our scheme, we see no need for a generalised formulated desire for revolution. Revolution belongs to the mute body and its resistance to, and its giving out to, the imposition of work. What is needed in the revolutionary struggle is precedence given to the needs of the body (consumer culture is a contemporary echo of this. The slogans are not inspiring or romantic: more rest, more pay, less work, no deals on productivity. However, once this demand-regime is set in motion it cannot be side-tracked except by counterfeit political demands, or formulations of radical consciousness made by those who seek to lead it. Once the body tends toward rest, it cannot rid itself of that inclination unless it is roused again to work for some political vision. In short the struggle of industrial workers against capital will be conducted entirely in selfish terms, which in the end describes itself as the struggle against work in the interest of highly paid sleep. In the present nothing has significance but the desire to extend half-hour lunch breaks into hour lunch breaks. If all pro-revolutionaries grasp this they will stop worrying about the precondition of consciousness. It is within the political-economic figure of the imposition of work and its negation (which is comfort), that pro-revolutionaries could make a contribution to their workplace struggles. The struggle is against the maximisation of productivity and for the maximisation of rest. If workers could win their struggle in these terms then they will have broken up the basic mechanism of the capitalist system.

The struggle of the body for rest is not the revolution, it is merely the crisis of capital. A crisis because it brings the massed, accumulated, fossilised acts of the past and the sedimenting/accumulating dead acts of the present, along with the possible conditions for the future, together in collision and in this standstill all value ceases to be enforced, leaving the world in a kind of zero hour/zero place where everything is contestable. (When the traffic stopped last September during the Fuel Protests, a man on a bicycle passed me and said, "I can hear the birds singing." We have heard what economic collapse sounds like.) When industry stops everything in society, otherwise absolutely determined by it, floats free from its gravity. In this particular crisis of capital all hell breaks loose; then comes the time for organisation. You can call that consciousness if you want, we don't care.” - Monsieur Dupont, ‘Nihilist Communism: A Critique of Optimism in the Far Left’ (2009) [p. 26 - 27]

[kimdoyeon03]

CTS-B | Week12 Compulsory Question 2

Beyond aesthetics, I believe design has the ability to influence societal change.

"Let my designs inspire change, not just aesthetics." encapsulates the notion that design should have a beneficial influence and inspire social change in addition to being aesthetic. As a designer seeking social involvement, this menifesto represents the responsibility to develop design that benefits society rather than only emphasising aesthetic qualities.

Based on these objectives, I will use two case studies—the modified Hanbok and Tony's Chocolonely—to analyse the significance of design for social responsibility and positive transformation. Using these two examples, I will examine how design satisfies social duty and has a beneficial effect in this piece.

The first example is the modified Hanbok, which takes a contemporary approach to reinterpreting the classic Hanbok.

However, there are also some people who disagree with this. They contend that the modified hanbok loses its traditional charm due to its gaudy exterior. Some respond by saying that it is a "Hanbok of unknown nationality from the materials," that modern hanboks are strange, and that traditional hanboks from the past are better.

Rejecting change outright and reacting negatively to it is not a good idea. At the same time, though, it is unacceptable to change hanbok drastically that even the nation's own citizens are unable to comprehend its original customs and heritage. With this viewpoint, designers should be more accountable and look for paths that can result in constructive change rather than just producing attractive designs.

The second one is Tony's Chocolonely, which addresses the unfair problems in the chocolate industry through social responsibility. This company wants to end unfair trade practices and slave labour in the chocolate sector and wants that all workers are treated fairly and upholds fair trade principles. The company unevenly divided chocolate pieces represent unfairness in the industry, and the packaging design's message promotes ethical consumption and social responsibility.

Furthermore, this brand reminds customers of the value of ethical consumption by using eco-friendly packaging and adhering to sustainable design principles.

The modified hanbok adds sophistication and functionality while modernising traditional Korean attire. By honouring Korea's cultural legacy and developing into a modern style, the modern hanbok contributes to the sustainability of tradition, maintains their customs and promotes involvement.

Tony's Chocolonely focusses on paying producers a fair price in order to fulfil its social responsibility through fair trade. In keeping with what the brand upholds, this sends a message to customers encouraging ethical consumption and constructive change for a better society.

I created this Hyundai decal to highlight how crucial environmental preservation is. In keeping with Hyundai's environmentally conscious principles, I want to encourage people to appreciate and ponder about nature.

These give me a clear understanding of how design can be more than just a beautiful aesthetic; it can also be a tool that actually affects change. In the future, I would like to continue to contribute to driving social participation and change through design.

-

(483 words)

-

References:

Jeon, Ji hyeon. “Will You Improve ‘Fusion Hanbok’?···The ‘Hanbok Rental Controversy’ Ignited by the Head of the National Heritage Administration.” Kyeonhyang Newspaper, 19 May 2024, https://www.khan.co.kr/national/national-general/article/202405191709011.

Kagan, Julia. “Price Sensitivity: What It Is, How Prices Affect Buying Behavior.” Investopedia, edited by Michale Boyle, 1 Sept. 2023, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-sensitivity.asp#toc-influences-on-price-sensitivity.

Kim, Byeong yong. “[Catching up on the News] Is the Transformation of Hanbok Innocent?… ‘Reform vs. Tradition.’” KBS, 24 Sept. 2018, https://news.kbs.co.kr/news/pc/view/view.do?ncd=4042198.

“New Prices .. to Keep Our Commitment to Cocoa Farmers on Track.” Tonyschocolonely, 1 July 2024, https://nl.tonyschocolonely.com/en/blogs/news/new-prices.

“What Is Modern Hanbok? A Guide.” The Korean in Me, https://thekoreaninme.com/blogs/modern-hanbok/what-is-modern-hanbok-a-guide/.

Image References:

NewJeans greet fans for the Chuseok holiday with stunning Hanbok pictorial from: Sophie-Ha, 13 September 2024 https://www.allkpop.com/article/2024/09/newjeans-greet-fans-for-the-chuseok-holiday-with-stunning-hanbok-pictorial

The woman cutting a hanging banner to make a Freitag bag from: Mara Budgen, 13 April 2017 https://www.lifegate.com/freitag-brothers-interview

Tony's Milk Almond Chocolate from: Tony's Chocolonely https://uk.tonyschocolonely.com/products/milk-almond-honey-nougat-32-180g

Traditional Hanbok Looks Re-Vamped by K-pop Idols (Black Pink BTS, and Oh My Girl) from: ean1994, 27 June, 2022 https://www.allkpop.com/article/2022/06/6-traditional-hanbok-looks-re-vamped

Upcycling paper hand towel by used sterilization pack from: Maeil, 26 October 2023 https://www.instagram.com/freshmaeil/p/Cy17XUNP7Pr/?img_index=1

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 00, 14th of September, 2024

Memorising the landscape

Lately I have been trying to use some quick setting sediments like plaster, mortar, and soils to create artist ‘bricks’ of the landscape. Recently I have learnt of my family heritage being brick and tile workers in industrial wales in the early 1800’s so I am aiming to reference the mahi of my ancestors while combining the vegetal world of my current residence in Tāmaki.

(Left brick is made using Doris Plum Blossoming imprints, and the right is Manuka flower and seedpod imprints).

Below I have added some screenshots of the parish and landmarks near my ancestors homes.

The Usk Parish where my ancestors were born in Cymru (Wales).

The Usk Parish where my ancestors where born.

The Church that is shown outside from the Garden's, including the tale of the princess that lived in this spiritual area. This location was built upon a Druidic ruin and the church sits upon the prehistoric site.

This is how the building looks today, it is located in South West Wales.

Inside the building, the older romanesque design can be seen, these tendrils and loops greatly inspire the motifs in my works.

Using my many resources for finding esoteric knowledge I have added two new sources to the upcoming exhibition that spans across the projection alcove in form gallery and the triangular gallery space in the main building.

Referencing the druid path, I have taken an expect from the text which I think aligns with the context of the video I am hoping to show.

HADRAIG, son of Nihil of the Ua Dinan, held silent his white hound on the hill of Cromm Cru, and looked down the far valley of blue mists where the sea of the west rolled in.

Back beyond the sweet-smelling reaches of the heather he could hear the bay of the hounds of his uncle Kieran, Tiern over North Tormond. He could no longer hear the clink of their silver bridles, nor the laughter of their ladies, nor the scream of hawk on dove.

But the hill of the ancient god was a sweet place in the silence, and he rested there, and made him a pillow of fern--and listened to the soft breath of the wind in the rowan tree. Its sigh of love for the green earth was a sweet song, and he slept there to that music, while the sun rushed beyond the wide seas of the west, and soft-footed dusk crept after, filling all the hollows with the gray web in which the night is held.

This is a collection of short stories set in ancient and modern Ireland, by a now-forgotten popular author of the early twentieth century, Marah Ellis Ryan. Ryan was a novelist, actress and activist for Native American rights. This was her only book about Ireland, as far as I can tell. She tapped a huge body of tales, lore and song which was being rediscovered at the time by the 'Celtic Twilight' movement. Her social consciousness is in evidence here, particularly in the latter part of the book which is set in modern (i.e. 1917) Ireland.

Ryan's books are now out of print, although easy to obtain used. Her sentimental prose, which appealed to contemporary audiences, is now out of style in our cynical age. However, I'm sure that some will find much to enjoy in this book.

I also reference a small quote from the first book I was enjoying reading in 'the wind bloweth' by donn byre.

[onenettvchannel]

#OneNETnewsEXCLUSIVE: Former Yes! FM Dumaguete DJ, Digital Veteran Multimedia Journalist and SCMP Editor 'Raffy Cabristante' meets American rock band 'Lifehouse' at the Playback Music Festival in QC

(Written by Rhayniel Saldasal Calimpong / Freelanced News Writer, Online Media Reporter and News Presenter of OneNETnews)

QUEZON, MANILA -- The iconic American alternative rock band 'Lifehouse' made an acoustic surprise appearance during 'Playback Music Festival' in Quezon City, Metro Manila at the New Frontier Theater. The band, known for their chart-topping hits and soulful sound, took time to meet fans backstage, including local media personalities outside Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental; and the entire National Capital Region (NCR).

Former 'Yes! FM: Dumaguete' Radio DJ & Negros Oriental correspondent of ABS-CBN News, Digital Multimedia Journalist and current Production Editor of South China Morning Post named Raffy Iphraim T. Cabristante, was among the lucky few who got up close and personal with the band.

Mr. Cabristante shared his excitement right at the spot on social media, posting a selfie photo with lead vocalist 'Mr. Jason Michael Wade' and the rest of the band. He was lauding their classic music and grateful for the up-close concert experience back in the days from his former high school in Dumaguete City into a reality of acoustic concert. Not only as that, he creates music in the new local musician production for the Negrosanon people. This needs no introduction, before the technologic era of internet here in this said province of Negros Oriental and around the Philippine archipelago.

Founded in 1999 by singer-songwriter-guitarist 'Jason Michael Wade', Lifehouse hails from suburban Los Angeles, California, United States of America (U.S.A.). What started in the form of the band 'Blyss' was actually Mr. Wade using his songwriting as therapy to help him get through his parents' divorce. The year 2000, saw them adopting the name 'Lifehouse' and saw the release of their first major label album, which they titled 'No Name Face'. The album's breakout single "Hanging by a Moment", catapulted them to mainstream prominence. Although this single did not hit #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, it was still the best single of 2001; spent 4 and half months in the top 10.

The style of Lifehouse really defied definitions between alternative rock, post-grunge and pop rock. Their succeeding albums, which included 'Stanley Climbfall', 'Who We Are', and 'Smoke and Mirrors', never failed to become worldwide hits. Hits like "You and Me", "First Time" and "Whatever It Takes" sealed their adult contemporary genre style and basically made them one of the staples in family-oriented venues.

Playback Music Festival is the country's first throwback music festival, celebrating timeless hits that never go out of style. It features artists like David James Archuleta and Lifehouse, who perform live in an acoustic concert at the New Frontier Theater. The term "playback" in concerts refers to using pre-recorded audio tracks synchronized with the artist's onstage performance, adding vocals, instrumentals, backing vocals or entire song sections.

Reality came true as a former DJ name of 'Frankie Labot' becomes now, an annual tradition as a holy week radio announcer in Dumaguete City, following previously the local Siete Palabras simulcast at the Dumaguete Cathedral. As alt-rock fans eagerly await more from Lifehouse, their Manila concert remains a memorable chapter in their storied career.

The New Frontier Theater echoed with their soulful melodies, leaving an indelible mark on Filipino music enthusiasts, especially still from ka-Beshie into Yespren. Except if you're an Overseas Filipino Workers in China as a news reader in traditional press paper, read a newspaper at South China Morning Post, all are made and edited by 'Frankie Labot' himself.

PHOTO COURTESY: Raffy Cabristante via FB PHOTO BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://www.facebook.com/100044331164675/posts/1002119234609106 [Referenced FB Captioned Post via PMF] *https://www.facebook.com/1037420454/posts/10227780319066921 [Referenced FB Captioned Post via Raffy Cabristante] *https://audiolover.com/events-info/playback/what-is-playback-in-concerts/ and *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehouse_%28band%29

-- OneNETnews Online Publication Team

[dustedmagazine]

Fin — Cleats (Hausu Mountain)

Photo by Mark Sommerfeld

New York based Canadian artist Fin Simonetti brings inspiration from art history and her own practice as a sculptor into her highly detailed music. Looking at examples of her work you are struck by the discrepancy between form and material. A bear trap intricately sculpted from Tiffany like glass panes, the fragility of which renders it useless. Stained glass laid over barbershop model charts, is she sanctifying the mundane or ironizing the sacred? Her music has the same sense of detached mystery albeit her voice, at once tremulous and composed, provides emotionally powerful admission to her songs. Those songs take the forms of pop, R’n’B and triphop but the material elements are warped and filtered in ways that create subtle but interesting subversions. On one level one can listen to Cleats as a well-executed album of trippy dream pop. But look closer and all sorts of dissonances lay beneath.

With titles referencing art movements and lyrics that use visual art as metaphors for perception, surveillance and control, Fin accretes musical details in a painterly fashion and gives her songs the three-dimensional feel of sculpture. The juxtaposition of liturgical atmospheres and the recognizable sounds of contemporary pop production mirror shifting moods of reverence and scorn, joy and dread. “Feudal Reader” for instance opens in the cloister. Bells chime, harp and celeste shimmer before voice enters over a chunky beat, “When I read it/I feel so like/I could live a million years of murder.” The implied violence is more despair than threat and as Fin harmonizes with herself it feels like a hedge against erasure. On the surface “Histamine” sounds thoroughly modern with references to tetracycline, pattern recognition and social expectations, a stumbling trip-hop beat, droning organ and melismatic vocal. A closer listen reveals a grumbling demon bubbling up under a harpsichord like riff in the background. “The Known World” feels like the opposite as Fin, her voice measured over polyrhythms and tempo changes, jams big Linn drum fills over collapsing dance beats, chains and breaking glass.

She closes the album with the aptly named “Egress”, three minute 40 second degaussing of distortion and bass tones which erases all that went before. As a statement on the transience of artistic endeavor it’s a strange move from a worker in stone but with Fin nothing is ever completely as it seems.

Andrew Forell

[esgagile]

What Advantages Does Sustainability Offer Businesses?

We as a Sustainability Reporting Consultant In Dubai, A sustainable company plan aims to positively impact one or both of these areas, addressing some of the world's most pressing concerns. Contrary to widespread assumption, sustainability in business is not purely altruistic. The company can only be used for good if you are financially successful. Effective business plans consider performing and doing well because they are intrinsically related. The triple bottom line, which emphasizes that companies should take into account more than simply profits or the "bottom line" and their influence on the environment and society, has been embraced by many contemporary firms. "The three Ps" refers to these priorities: profit, the planet, and people. This long-term strategy for business usually results in better corporate performance. Sustainability efforts can improve an organization's performance and bring about social and environmental change. While it may seem counterintuitive to invest more in sustainable business practices to boost a company's profitability, research indicates that the most successful companies also tend to be the most sustainable.

As an expert Sustainability Reporting Consultant In UAE, A company's ethical and sustainable business operations are frequently assessed using social, governance, and environmental metrics. According to McKinsey, companies with high ESG ratings outperform the market over the medium and long term. Although there may be a short-term cost associated with sustainability methods, there are long-term benefits. The worst thing a CEO can hope for is to find themselves at the center of a scandal. In addition to damaging an organization's brand and costing customers, improper actions can divert significant financial and human resources from the core business to handle a public relations issue. You don't want to have a reputation for permitting an oil spill or making employees work in dangerous settings. By putting into practice, a long-term plan that safeguards the environment and your workers, you also shield yourself from potentially harmful mishaps.

We are renowned Sustainability Report Consultant In Dubai, Sustainability exists regardless of financial goals, and giving your business purpose can draw in a capable, driven workforce that produces profits. An organization with a shared purpose would have happier employees, according to 89% of CEOs in a recent study conducted through Facebook Live. Additionally, 85% of respondents think they are more likely to recommend a business with a solid mission to others. Hiring excellent talent may give you a competitive edge if your company is known for doing good in the world instead of just making money. Mainly, millennials are more willing to spend more for products that claim to be socially responsible or employ sustainable ingredients. If it adopts sustainable processes and goods, your business may increase sales and win market share by converting eco-aware consumers. It seems unattainable, alienating, or intimidating to make a significant adjustment.

In our opinion as Sustainability Report Consultant In UAE, Public goods challenges are complex for governments, but purpose-driven businesses that work together to manage these issues have significantly succeeded. For instance, palm oil is cheap and multipurpose in more than half of packaged goods, such as ice cream, lipstick, and soap. However, palm oil production has led to hitherto unheard-of emissions of greenhouse gases, which exacerbate climate change. The group worked with governments, non-governmental organizations, and groups representing indigenous peoples to promote the use of sustainable palm oil in the industry. Because of this, Unilever continues to grow, and the environmental advantages of sustainable palm oil harvesting processes have benefited everyone. Things become different when the world's most inventive, prosperous, and influential companies collaborate to address some of the most pressing global problems.

[smallnetbusiness]

Freezenova Unblocked: Unlocking the Internet Gaming Universe

The popularity of unblocked games has increased since gaming material is becoming more and more restricted in locations like offices and schools. FreezeNova's unblocked games are one option for people who want to play games without having to worry about access restrictions. Since its start, online gaming has seen a tremendous transformation. The business has expanded rapidly from the first text-based games to the immersive, graphic-rich experiences of today. The rise of platforms like Freezenova Unblocked, which seek to provide a varied and entertaining gaming experience, has been facilitated by this progression. Freezenova unblocked Streaming and cloud gaming services are a major turning point in the history of internet gaming. These developments have been tapped into by platforms like FreezeNova, which provide gamers access to a huge game library without requiring expensive hardware.  This move away from conventional ownership models toward cloud-based gaming gives users the freedom to play on several devices with low hardware requirements. By adopting this trend, FreezeNova is keeping up with the evolving ways that games are accessible and played in the contemporary period.  Accessibility and Inclusive Gaming Accessibility and inclusive gameplay have gained more importance as internet gaming has developed. FreezeNova understands how important it is to provide a wide range of customers with different degrees of gaming experience. The platform offers a diverse range of games with varying degrees of complexity, catering to the needs of both new and seasoned gamers.  The industry has also made progress in providing features like customizable controls and subtitles for players with impairments. With FreezeNova's dedication to inclusion, the gaming industry is following broader trends and opening up gaming to a larger audience than previously. Technological progress Technological developments, such as faster internet access and more powerful hardware, have significantly influenced the online gaming industry. These advancements have improved gaming in general and made it easier to create platforms like FreezeNova, where users can access and play games without needless limitations. Online games that may be played without running into the typical limitations that may be placed in locations like offices or schools are referred to as unblocked games. As a platform, FreezeNova places a strong emphasis on offering readily accessible unblocked games, making sure users can play their preferred games without any difficulties.  Popularity and demographics of users The wide range of user demographics on FreezeNova attests to the popularity of unblocked games. Unblocked games are popular because they amuse people in a variety of settings, including workers searching for a fast lunchtime gaming session, students looking for entertainment during breaks, and those in restricted circumstances.  FreezeNova offers a large selection of games appropriate for various age groups and tastes to satisfy this diversified clientele. The Appeal and Benefits of Education Unblocked games, like those available on FreezeNova, have made a name for themselves as both instructive and entertaining resources. A lot of teachers are aware of how certain games may improve students' cognitive, problem-solving, and strategic thinking capabilities.  FreezeNova is a good platform for students who want to mix study and fun because of its wide selection of games, many of which support academic objectives. People of all ages find these games' cognitive demands to be appealing, therefore the attraction goes beyond conventional learning settings. Many of FreezeNova's games have social and multiplayer elements, which promote social interaction. The platform offers a social area inside the game experience, whether it's for casual banter, teamwork on a plan, or competition against friends.  This feature adds to the platform's appeal to gamers who want a feeling of community in addition to solo gaming sessions. FreezeNova's social connectedness adds to the allure of unblocked games by drawing in players who like the social and interactive elements of online gaming. Pioneering Unblocked Gaming with FreezeNova FreezeNova, a pioneer in the unblocked gaming space, has an impressive corporate history. FreezeNova was founded to give users unrestricted access to a variety of gaming experiences, and it has since grown to be a popular website for those looking for unblocked games.  The business has risen to the top of the online gaming market thanks to its dedication to dismantling obstacles and providing a flawless gaming experience.  Specialty Features and Products FreezeNova sets itself apart with a variety of exclusive features and products. Players may easily browse through the platform's vast game collection thanks to its user-friendly layout.  FreezeNova stands out for its concentration on premium unblocked material, which offers dependable and entertaining gameplay. The addition of social and multiplayer capabilities broadens the platform's appeal and helps its varied user base feel more connected to one another. Examining the Game Collection With a diverse range of game genres, FreezeNova's collection appeals to a wide range of gaming tastes. The platform makes sure that there is something for every player, offering everything from light puzzles and instructional games to action-packed adventures and strategic simulations.  This variety demonstrates FreezeNova's dedication to providing a whole gaming experience that is beyond just amusement by combining components that appeal to players of all ages and interests. Among the many games in FreezeNova's vast collection, a few stand out as user favorites. These games demonstrate the platform's dedication to excellence as well as its capacity to choose material that appeals to a broad audience.  Innovative mechanisms, intriguing storytelling, and engrossing gameplay are often cited as user favorites. Because FreezeNova is committed to upgrading its portfolio regularly, users can always find fresh and fascinating games, which adds to the platform's ongoing appeal. Conclusion To sum up, FreezeNova is a prominent participant in the unblocked game market, offering a platform where players can enjoy a variety of games without the typical limitations. Advancements in technology and the development of online gaming have led to the emergence of platforms such as FreezeNova, which provide accessible and entertaining gaming experiences to a wide range of users. Read the full article

[publishing-pitaara]

Social Activist, Literary Genius and Reformer Mayaa SH Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Suicide Prevention and Women Related Violence

Attempting suicide is a serious problem that requires mental health interventions. Factors that impact stress related to mental health include childhood adversities such as sexual/physical abuse, alcohol or drug abuse, stressful life events. Death of a loved one, loss of a job or relationship, financial bankruptcy, impending criminal prosecution, and being diagnosed with, or recently diagnosed with, a terminal illness can also leave behind a deep scar on one's mind.

Essentially, people who attempt suicide require help in connection with high psychiatric or psychological morbidity. Philosophical dilemmas involving a person's right to life and death have been debated, inconclusively, in many disciplines with different viewpoints and approaches. Many are ostracised by the societal doctrine of "being weak" and fear being either shamed or eliminated from participation in social activities. If we do not have preventive measures in effective highlights of reformative approaches in place, there is a risk of losing a human life. Estimates published by WHO indicate that globally about 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.

Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Violence can negatively affect women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, and may increase the risk of acquiring HIV in some settings.

Violence against women is preventable. The health sector has an important role to play to provide comprehensive health care to women subjected to violence, and as an entry point for referring women to other support services they may need.

Many women have reiterated and expressed before me, that a ‘woman’ is not an object of delight. ‘Woman’ is not a perfect notion of a 'good wife' in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not to be a female Einstein brain always, 'Woman' is not a liking for Louboutin shoes meant to be idealised as the most expensive because of their craftsmanship, luxury materials, and brand name. Besides, an emphasis or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive is not fair to be called 'gender neutral' . Moreover, the ‘diversity inclusive causes’ that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning. Those who’ve had degrading slurs spat at many by violent people, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating.

My interest in women related issues is pre-dated by a matter of a girl almost a year and a half ago , during which I followed the debate around the concept of gender neutrality closely. I’ve interacted with trans people, and read sundry books, blogs and articles by trans people, gender specialists, psychologists, safeguarding experts, social workers and doctors, and followed the discourse online and in traditional media. On one level, my interest in this issue has been professional, because I feel I can understand the emotions that many people bear in their mind latently of non being able to communicate freely. This is due to being judged harshly and eliminated and humiliated by many in the society. All this is truly presented and set in the present day, and my contemporary female detective is of an age to be interested in, and affected by, when we lose a human life, but on another, it’s intensely personal, as I have seen the negative impact on many as social and economic impacts have increased the exposure of women to abusive partners and known risk factorswhile limiting their access to services. Situations of humanitarian crises and displacement may exacerbate existing violence, such as by intimate partners, as well as non-partner sexual violence, and may also lead to new forms of violence against women. All one can ask and wish is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.People may not be judged harshly on any stress they are trying to cope with both mentally and physically. Life is long and there is so much to celebrate about. Community norms that privilege or ascribe higher status to men and lower status to women; low levels of women’s access to paid employment; and low level of gender equality (discriminatory laws, etc.) can all contribute to fatal outcomes like homicide or suicide.

We should live a life that is useful to others. A person should give up his or her selfishness and live for others. One should have kindness, compassion and benevolence, not pride. If we live for others then even our death can become a good depart and if we can touch lives, there is nothing bigger than that.

About the Author

Mayaa SH is a known name in contemporary literature. She is a multi-national and state award winner, a ten-time world record holder, an artist, a podcaster, and a chart-topping international fastest anthology co-authoress. Mayaa SH is an Indian author, writer, thinker, essayist, and women's empowerment culturist. Her contemporary prose work has highlighted and broken so many stereotypes about women and their power of self-belief.