“The transformation of silence into language and action is an act of
self-revelation, and that always seems fraught with danger. But that
visibility which makes us most vulnerable also is the source of our greatest
strength.”
– Audre Lorde.
“In the garden of gentle sanity
May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness… ”
Chogyam Trungpa
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
James Madison
a useful commentary on anarchism,
which means,
after all,
‘without rule’.
anarchism,
which is something like an ideal state,
where people would need no rulers
(the relationship of ‘anarchy’ to ‘chaos’ is an expression of our fear of genuine responsibility),
is contingent on enlightened individuals.
we aren’t enlightened.
and the system of rules and regulations and taboos (taboos being the security system around wounds) that we’ve been raised in,
is much like the way women’s feet, once upon a time, used to be wrapped to keep them tiny tiny.
given that the bones in their feet are, by the time they are adults, broken,
their capacity to walk is actually dependent on the wrapping.
pure anarchism would like to strip away all the wrapping,
and what you’d have is a society of folks who are completely crippled,
unable to walk at all.
i suppose there needs to be a lengthy system of rehabilitation:
a gentle and gradual removal of the bindings,
enabling the muscles, and the fascia, and the bones of the cripplingly constrained feet,
to touch the ground, and feel it, and find a way, through much training, to support the outrageous weight of the mad biped, called human.
I collaborated with Lyla on the audio for:
Topsy-Turvy by Lyla Rye
Friday, March 13, 6 - 10pm
March 14 - May 3
Project Room
York Quay Gallery
Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West, Toronto
Presented In conjunction with Images Festival of Film and Video
Topsy-Turvy
Topsy-Turvy is a mixed media installation that explores the playground as an architecture of fantasy. Investigating play as a phenomena that is parallel to creativity in adults, Topsy-Turvy looks at playground structures a synthesis of utopian architecture, abstract sculpture & engineering. Entered via a slide, and incorporating rope ladders and mirrored buttons the installation creates spatial shifts and perceptual incongruities. Topsy-Turvy encourages an active engagement with the space, allowing this playground to exist in the realm of the imagination as much as in reality.
Lyla Rye is an installation artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1989. Her exhibitions include showing at the Power Plant, Toronto; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax; Esplanade Gallery, Medicine Hat; Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston; Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon and the Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto. Rye has had international exhibitions in San Francisco, New York, Adelaide, Australia, Paris, France and Berlin. Her work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, York University and Robert McLaughlin Gallery.
Consciousness procreates doubt.
“Music is a means of rapid transportation.”
Cage/Ramakrishnan
I wrote the following comment to CBC’s ‘The Current’ after listening to an interview with Hara Marano on her book A Nation of Wimps.
—————–
Found the interview this morning on ‘Raising Wimps’ pretty compelling. I’m a Dad of nine and four year old boys and I agree with much that was said. In the schoolyard every aspect of their play is managed microscopically: no climbing trees, no wrestling, no snowballs, no pushing or tumbling in any way. There is, no kidding, a sighn on the gate to the toddlers playground that says “No Running”. Can any of us imagine a playground of three to five year olds where all the children ‘walk’!!? The current generation of child rearers have created what I call a tyranny of safety’.
Unquestionably, the anxiety of contemporary parents around their children’s well-being has transferred to the children themselves, who have come to beleive that the world must be a very scary place indeed, otherwise their parents wouldn’t be so worried about them all the time.
All that said, do we live in more dangerous times?
In my neighborhood, in a deeply tragic case a few years back, a small child was abducted and brutally murdered only a block from her own home. This incident was followed by a series of unsuccesful attempted abductions in the same neighborhood. No parent I know can stomach even the thought of such an incident and so yes, I believe we have become quite vigilant.
The author spoke of the ultimate goal of child-rearing as being to create ‘independant’, ‘autonomous’ adults who, obviously don’t live at home. I think these ‘ideals’ are very culturally specific. The thought of children leaving home is completely foriegn in many parts of the world, and is also dependant on significant wealth. Further, the philosophical view of the superiority of ‘autonomy’ and ‘independance’ is highly debatable: how about ‘communal’ and ‘interdependant’ as goals of rearing?
“I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, increased self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness, and a sense of humour.”
~ Brian Eno
From the article ‘Freestyling’ in Resurgence Magazine
http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article2548.html
- Steve Jobs
Addiction is freedom from choice.
cf. Sartre’s “You are condemned to be free.” + Dostoyevsky’s ‘Grand Inquisitor’
"I hope this helps. But if not, please just forget about what I said" - Dalai Lama
