Ambitudo a Mortis

What is Existentialism?

2010-11-09T09:11:00.002-05:00

What is Existentialism?
"Existentialism is a term applied to the work of a number of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, generally held that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and his or her emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts."
(via wikipedia )

Simpler enough, existentialism is a philosophical idea and movement which states that "existence precedes essence" (Sartre). This places man in control of his own destiny and strips him bare of any preconceived human nature (essence). Every man has the power within himself to construct his own identity and his own way of being in the world (good faith). For this reason, existentialism places humanity at the center of its philosophical spectrum, which includes first and foremost the importance of human subjectivity (self-consciousness).

Marx on Philosophy

2010-11-09T09:07:00.002-05:00

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."

-Karl Marx, Early Writings

Featured Painting

2010-07-22T11:09:00.001-04:00

-Banksy, Detroit, 2010

Zinn

2010-07-22T11:07:00.000-04:00

"We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas."

-Howard Zinn, 1922-2010

Hesse

2010-06-09T01:26:00.002-04:00

"People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest."

""I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me."

-Herman Hesse

Know Your Food

2010-05-28T12:50:00.000-04:00

Chilean Author Isabel Allende on Haiti, Immigration, and Latin America

2010-05-04T10:38:00.001-04:00

Solidarity in Martinique and America

2010-05-03T20:45:00.001-04:00

"Our solidarity is first with our brothers of the neighboring islands and secondly with the nations of South America."

-The Martinican Creolists: Jean Bernabe, Patrick Chamoiseau, & Raphael Confiant

Featured Painting

2010-05-01T17:39:00.001-04:00

Las Meninas
by: Diego Velazquez

Thinking versus Doing

2010-05-01T16:08:00.002-04:00

Don't spend more time thinking about doing something rather than doing it.

Technology & Civilization

2010-04-25T17:24:00.001-04:00

Technology is not a sign of civilization, even the most barbaric of cultures may have the greatest of technologies.

Creoleness

2010-04-25T17:22:00.001-04:00

"Creoleness is the interactional or transactionnal aggregate of Caribbean, European, African, Asian, and Levantine cultural elements, united on the same soil by the yoke of history."
-Jean Bernabé

The Key to Success

2010-04-24T10:42:00.001-04:00

The key to success, whatever that may entail, is self discipline.

Featured Painting

2010-04-24T00:32:00.001-04:00

Tiger Drinking from a Raging River
by: Kano Sansetu

Wisdom

2010-04-23T11:59:00.002-04:00

Wisdom is gained through the accumulation of experience, of pain.

Future

2010-04-21T17:15:00.001-04:00

Future.
An extreme respect and disregard for tradition
and the past.
An obsession and distrust for novelty
and the future.

Victims, Victors, & Transcendence

2010-04-21T17:07:00.003-04:00

The victors write and control history, and it can be assumed, every other discourse in the history of mankind. The victims are left behind, without a voice, left to fend for themselves in the struggle for victory. Recently there has been more attention given to the victims of history, a subject called history from the ground up. However, this revolutionizing of discourse, while staying within the traditional space opened for the discourse, does not go beyond the cycle of victims becoming victors.

In order for the victim to become the victor, the victim must do whatever was done to them to another people. They must learn to victimize others, and grasp proudly there victory. This is the cycle of violence visible in our history up to the present.

To become victorious means to victimize, this must be transcended.

The Realization of Beauty

2010-04-21T17:03:00.002-04:00

Is the realization of beauty possible? The realization of beauty is without comparison, as beauty is not a measurement.

Featured Painting

2010-04-15T18:11:00.002-04:00

Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre
By: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)

Featured Poem

2010-04-15T18:10:00.000-04:00

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en el mar...

Todo pasa y todo queda,
pero lo nuestro es pasar,
pasar haciendo caminos,
caminos sobre el mar.

-Antonio Machado

Collateral Murder

2010-04-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

Newly leaked video of civilians being killed in Iraq.

Political Language

2010-04-06T20:06:00.002-04:00

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind.
-George Orwell

Featured Painting

2010-04-03T23:45:00.000-04:00

Flower Seller by Diego Rivera

Kant on Race

2010-03-31T12:37:00.002-04:00

"Humanity exists in its greatest perfection in the white race. The yellow Indians have a smaller amount of talent. The Negroes are lower and the lowest are the American peoples."

-Immanuel Kant, Physical Geography

Walcott on Love

2010-03-05T20:35:00.001-05:00

"The traveller cannot love, since love is stasis and travel is motion."

By Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize winning poet from St. Lucia.

Featured Poem

2010-02-28T09:56:00.002-05:00

The white man killed my father
Because my father was proud
The white man raped my mother
Because my mother was beautiful
The white man wore out my brother in the hot sun of the roads
Because my brother was strong
Then the white man turned to me
His hands red with blood
Spat black his contempt into my face
And in his master's voice:
"Hey boy, a pastis, a towel, some water."

Author: David Diop
Title: Le Temps du martyre

Terrorism

2010-02-28T09:04:00.002-05:00

Groups like Eta, Al Qaeda, FARC, Tamil Tigers, and others around the world are labeled "terrorist groups" by the European Union, the United States, and other countries and governmental organizations. But what qualifies as terrorism? NATO operations in Afghanistan, for example, continue to kill countless civilians, yet is NATO labeled a terrorist organization? China continues its long history of human rights abuses, yet has any nation had the courage to label it a "rogue state" or accused it of terrorism? The answer to both questions is no, and one has to beg the question as to why.

Truth, History, & Hate

2010-02-25T11:38:00.001-05:00

As to the Laws of the New Love Movement, we refuse to hate anyone, proclaim hate for anyone, or assume violence upon anyone. But this does not mean we ignore the truth, are afraid to tell the truth, or have short term memory loss when it comes to human history.

On Communism

2010-02-22T15:24:00.002-05:00

Communism is first and foremost an economic theory. Because of the powerful systems of propaganda in place in the United States, many people do not, and cannot accept this fact. Communism does not dictate political relationships, it does not claim a political system, and it does not seek to create and control government. Communism is solely a theory of capital, an idea for the best system of economics for a nation.

In the United States, we see quite clearly that the government does not mirror the economic system (formally) and vice-versa. If you think of the concepts of Representative Government, voting, Democracy, and Republicanism, it is hard to see this visible in the economic system of the country. Are corporations democratic? Is a C.E.O. elected? Do workers get to vote for their supervisors? The answer to all three of this questions is frankly, no. That is because the system of economics in America, Capitalism, is not the same, and is in fact an entirely different subject from the governmental one, Democracy.

It should be clear, then, that just as in the United States, where an economic system exists apart from the governmental one, the same is true of Communism. Democracy and Communism are not opposed to one another. They can co-exist side by side, one being the effective political process, and one being the economic one.

[A further post on the intertwining of government, politics, and economy will be posted in the future]

Insignificance

2010-02-20T10:06:00.002-05:00

No people are insignificant.
Not because of:
religion
country
place
region
color
creed
race
hair
eyes
politic
strength
weakness
music
or art
or history
or lack.

All people are within love for all live within the warmth of this mother we call earth.

Names?

2010-02-03T08:38:00.001-05:00

What's in a name? Why is the concept of New Love called "new love"?
The concept of New Love is exactly that, to re-define, or re-conceptualize, love, in that sense then, the new definition/conceptualization is a new idea of love, distinct from our former and what has already been asserted, erroneous ideas of love. That love is dead, and if we are ever to try to achieve anything within our conditions as human beings living on this Earth, we need a New Love. But I'd like to be wary with this word "New" as I don't presuppose that this New Love has not existed before, perhaps the mission of the New Love Movement is to re-discover that which has been lost, to re-capture the True Love which our world and existence is in terrible need of...

The New Love Movement

2010-01-17T08:09:00.002-05:00

I have been involved in this movement for sometime, along with close friends, at least for some years now. It involved replaced anger with sadness, hatred with love, and the ability to enter wholeheartedly the realm of Non-Judgment.
Over my, the author's, stay in Europe over the past 5 months, along with some visionary insights from the writer Friedrich Nietzsche, I have impulsively come up with a list of 10 principles for the New Love Movement.
I believe many can benefit from these Principles, but I admit they are Principles most assuredly from my mind, and therefore may be only applicable to me, my lived experience, and the associations with people I now have.
Here are the Principles:

New Love Movement
1. accept your weakness, only then can you become strong, and accept the weakness of others, so you can help them become strong

2. never judge

3. accept pain as a side effect of love and close relationship, if you only want to be made to feel good, you are only loving yourself, but if you can love another even if they cause you pain, you show that you love them for who they are

4. it is not natural to be isolated, isolation only exists in isolation, without friendship, our minds weaken, as does our heart and soul

5. deny the self's longing for self-love, learn balance and reciprocation, recognize we yearn for pleasure and for ourselves to be happy, but also recognize seeking these things is not our destiny.

6. respect yourself, then respect others, come to terms with yourself, then you can accept others

7. be rid of childish things, to crave attention is natural, recognize this impulse, and funnel it in a positive way. do not stoop to losing yourself to gain it or anything else, such as pleasure.

8. love asks nothing in return, so ask for nothing. but respect and honesty asks for something in return, and thats to be respected and given honesty.

9. be free, and allow others to be free, never try to possess another, never allow yourself to be possessed. but to give yourself to another, and for another to give their-self to you, is a different matter.

10. true love is for the Other to be free, and still to Love Them.

Featured Painting

2009-10-27T05:46:00.002-04:00

The Garden of Earthly Delights (or The Millennium), is a triptych painted by the early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516), housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. Dating between 1503 and 1504, when Bosch was about 50 years old, it is his best-known and most ambitious work. The masterpiece reveals the artist at the height of his powers; in no other painting does he achieve such complexity of meaning or such vivid imagery. The triptych depicts several Biblical scenes on a grand scale and as a "true triptych", as defined by Hans Belting, was probably intended to illustrate the history of mankind according to medieval Christian doctrine.

Gabriel García Márquez

2009-10-27T05:42:00.002-04:00

A Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, affectionately known as "Gabo" throughout Latin America, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in his leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on, he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married Mercedes Barcha; they have two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.

He started as a journalist, and has written many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best-known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as magical realism, which uses magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo, and most of them express the theme of solitude.

Dokkōdō

2009-08-12T12:14:00.001-04:00

The precepts

1. Accept everything just the way it is.
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
7. Never be jealous.
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
11. In all things have no preferences.
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
17. Do not fear death.
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
21. Never stray from the Way.

Resentment

2009-08-12T12:11:00.002-04:00

Resentment against others is always resentment against oneself.

Search

2009-08-12T12:10:00.000-04:00

Look before asking. If you look, you are likely to find, but if you ask, you find nothing yourself.

BachxDalixYoYo Ma

2009-08-03T11:35:00.001-04:00

Featured Painting: Haydn

2009-08-02T22:27:00.002-04:00

Joseph Haydn Playing String Quartets.

Chopin Ballade No 1 in G Minor

2009-08-02T21:48:00.000-04:00

The Rich and the Poor

2009-08-02T20:44:00.001-04:00

A rich man is hated, a poor man is despised.

Self Love

2009-08-02T03:22:00.000-04:00

Attachment to life is usually attachment to ego.

Self Help

2009-08-02T02:39:00.002-04:00

If you're in a self help aisle, you can't help yourself, that's why you're looking for help.

New Featured Paintings Series

2009-06-28T13:17:00.002-04:00

This series will include some of the great painting I've seen at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. These paintings succeed in expressing the great virtues of the working people not only in Puerto Rico, but all over Latin America. The first painter is the greatest of the contemporary artists from the Island, Luis Hernández Cruz.

Danza Ritual [1989]

The First Question of Philosophy

2009-04-12T21:26:00.001-04:00

Is it love, or death? The stimulus could be, why has this person disappeared, or is it rather, what is this feeling I have for another? Perhaps it is both.

Hegel

2009-03-26T08:41:00.002-04:00

The Kantian-Hegelian-Marxist tradition has proved extremely influential up to our present time. This post will focus on the middle of these titans of German philosophy, G.W.F. Hegel. Here are Hegel's thoughts on "Universal History":
"The German spirit is the Spirit of the New World. Its aim is the realization of absolute Truth as the unlimited self-determination of Freedom....The destiny of the German peoples is to be the bearers of the Christian principle...of Spiritual Freedom."
[Hegel, Philosophy of History]
Hegel views history as the "development of the idea of freedom." Here, he is intertwining his idea of history with the destiny of the German people.

Featured Painting

2009-03-11T13:02:00.002-04:00

I apologize for my neglect of this blog of late. Here is the featured painting, and painter, of the week:

Transfiguration
by: Raphael [1520]

Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello; April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520) was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. [courtesy Wikipedia.]

Goethe

2009-03-11T12:55:00.003-04:00

"There is nothing more terrible than the succession of fair days."

Is unhappiness a necessary part of the human condition? Is it our nature? Maybe, it is the exterior forces around us.

Pain

2009-03-11T12:53:00.001-04:00

What is pain? Rather, what does it mean to say, "I feel pain." Does anyone actually understand when we make these statements? I don't know, but I think, understanding could be the wrong approach. Perhaps, only by accepting our inability to understand the pain of others, or even the word "pain", can we then begin to understand.

Virtues

2009-01-27T14:37:00.001-05:00

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
-Leo Tolstoy

Status Quo

2009-01-10T00:44:00.000-05:00

"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it."
-Niccolo Machiavelli

The Gaza Conflict

2008-12-30T15:16:00.002-05:00

In this time, it is important to say some words about the current situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Recently, Hamas militants began to fire rockets into Israel, some striking as far as 40 kilometers away. In response, Israel has begun a bombing campaign that has left over 300 people dead. The idea of all of these people being militants is illogical, as one needs only to look at history to know that civilians die at a much higher rate in any sort of armed conflict. Unfortunately, we, outside of the Conflict, have no reliable sources to inform us as to what is really happening in Gaza. Why has Hamas began firing rockets into Israel? It appears to be madness, but is actually a calculated step by Hamas leaders to gain an Ideological Victory against Israel, just as Hezbollah did in 2006. Because of this, it seems a ground campaign into Gaza by the IDF seems imminent. Who is and will be paying the price in this conflict? It most assuredly will be the civilians of Gaza, but also the people of Israel and throughout the Arab World. On each side, the people are trapped in an Ideological Conflict which they themselves had no hand in creating. There has been one Israeli man killed. In response Israel has killed at least 300 men. Ambitudo a Mortis declares both Israel and Hamas to be wrong, as each are killing in the name of Ideology at the expense of its civilians. Ambitudo a Mortis and the Revolution it advocates stands only for the People, throughout the world, and dismisses all Ideology, and damns all Conflict created for and because of it.

-AAM

Living Without a Why

2008-12-13T19:03:00.001-05:00

"He who lives in the goodness of his nature lives in God's love, and love has no why."

- Meister Echart

Ideology

2008-12-07T16:44:00.001-05:00

They do not know it, but they are doing it.
-Karl Marx on Ideology in Das Kapital

Dissent

2008-11-30T09:48:00.002-05:00

"Power concedes nothing without demand."
- Frederick Douglass

Spinoza

2008-11-09T17:36:00.002-05:00

“The purpose of the state is freedom”.

Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza, (November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677), was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death.
-source

Slajov Žižek

2008-11-06T22:44:00.001-05:00

A recent lecture by one of the greatest minds in our world today.

Apathy

2008-11-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

"Apathy is always the impediment to progress."

- Shepard Fairey

Ethics, Aesthetics, and A Presidential Election

2008-11-06T10:23:00.003-05:00

"Ethics is aesthetics." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Here is an article on artist Shepard Fairey and the Obama campaign Aesthetic.

CLICK

20th Cenutry Socialism

2008-11-05T23:09:00.002-05:00

The fear of economic crisis, i.e. the loss of jobs, is most effectively being used by capitalists to keep workers' demands within limits.

-1971, New German Critique, The German New Left

John Locke

2008-09-26T00:30:00.002-04:00

When a government is no longer serving its people, it must be dissolved.
At times, the dissolution of governments is necessary, to delay only results in further bloodshed.

Virtu

2008-08-28T19:41:00.001-04:00

Justice is Balance.

Leo Tolstoy

2008-08-21T21:53:00.001-04:00

On Politics:

Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.

Revolutionary Art

2008-08-21T21:48:00.001-04:00

When art inspires, or is inspired by, the Will of the People.

La Liberté guidant le people
by: Eugène Delacroix

Returning

2008-07-29T09:17:00.001-04:00

Returning in September.
E-mail.

Featured Poem

2008-05-25T00:08:00.001-04:00

"If you should ask me where I've been all this time
I have to say "Things happen."
I have to dwell on stones darkening the earth,
on the river ruined in its own duration:
I know nothing save things the birds have lost,
the sea I left behind, or my sister crying.
Why this abundance of places? Why does day lock
with day? Why the dark night swilling round
in our mouths? And why the dead?"
-Pablo Neruda

Featured Painting

2008-05-17T20:22:00.001-04:00

In the Car
Roy Lichtenstein

America

2008-05-17T20:19:00.001-04:00

"America is the most captive nation of slaves that ever came along. The moral timidity of the average American is quite noticeable. Everybody's afraid to be thought in any way different from everyone else."
-Gore Vidal

Peace Without Freedom

2008-05-16T14:58:00.000-04:00

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."
-Malcolm X

Governments

2008-05-14T23:20:00.001-04:00

The most important crime for any political system to avoid is hypocrisy.

Life

2008-05-10T11:21:00.002-04:00

"There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue."

-Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Koons

2008-05-02T15:18:00.003-04:00

I featured Koons without one of his works.

Stacked

The Importance of Art

2008-05-02T15:16:00.001-04:00

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."
-Leonardo

Luxury Degradation

2008-05-01T23:42:00.004-04:00

"The advertising industry uses abstraction and luxury to, eventually bring in degradation to whoever they're targeting in this life; you take their economical and political power from them."
-Jeff Koons

May

2008-05-01T12:51:00.002-04:00

It's May. Live what you say.
-AMBITUDO A MORTIS-

Decadence

2008-04-29T23:21:00.001-04:00

"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent."
- Jacque Barzun

Featured Painting

2008-04-29T13:49:00.002-04:00

The Second of May 1808
by Francisco de Goya

Fanon

2008-04-26T14:42:00.002-04:00

"I ascribe a basic importance to the phenomenon of language. To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization."

- Frantz Fanon

Teaism

2008-04-26T14:40:00.000-04:00

"Teaism is a cult founded on the

adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday

existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual

charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a

worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish

something possible in this impossible thing we know as life."

-The Book of Tea, Kakuzo Okakura

Sun Tzu

2008-04-26T14:35:00.000-04:00

All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity. When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that you are near. Offer the enemy a bait to lure him; feign disorder and strike him... Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.

—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Foco

2008-04-25T19:54:00.001-04:00

"The foco theory of revolution by way of guerrilla warfare, also known as focalism (Spanish language: foquismo), was inspired by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, based upon his experiences surrounding the rebel army's victory in the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and formalized as such by Régis Debray. Its central principle is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus (in Spanish, foco) for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection. Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements by the late 1960s."

Hegel

2008-04-25T19:46:00.003-04:00

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a 19th Century German Philosopher and one of the creators of German Idealism. Hegel was also known for his interest in History and was key in the development of the philosophy of history. Hegel viewed history as driven by negatives, as one large, long clash of thesis opposing antithesis.
"History is the study of the successive follies of mankind."

Attitude

2008-04-15T14:10:00.002-04:00

There are many different Attitudes. The creative attitude, the logical attitude, the calm attitude, the introspective attitude, the compassionate attitude, the reckless attitude. Do not allow one Attitude to become dominant over another.

Design

2008-04-08T19:54:00.001-04:00

Design, usually considered in the context of applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other creative endeavors, is used both as a noun and a verb. As a verb, "to design" refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component. As a noun, "a design" is used for either the final (solution) plan (e.g. proposal, drawing, model, description) or the result of implementing that plan (e.g. object produced, result of the process). More recently, processes (in general) have also been treated as products of design, giving new meaning to the term "process design".

Revolutionary Words

2008-03-31T23:14:00.001-04:00

"Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs, and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds, and endeavor to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do just the opposite: It must meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field and use the new ideas, culture, customs, and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and crush those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic "authorities" and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and to transform education, literature and art, and all other parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system."
-GPCR 1966

The Good Republic

2008-03-27T11:20:00.002-04:00

"No well ordered republic allows the demerits of its citizens to be canceled out by their merits; but, having prescribed rewards for a good deed and punishments for a bad one, and having rewarded someone for doing well, if that same person afterwards does wrong, it punishes him, regardless of any of the good deeds he has done. And, when such ordinances are duly observed, the city long enjoys freedom, but otherwise will always be ruined. Because if a citizen who has rendered some signal service to the state, acquire thereby not merely the repute which the affair has brought him, but is emboldened to expect that he can do wrong with impunity, he will soon become so insolent that civic life in such a state will disappear."
-Machiavelli, The Discourses

Perception

2008-03-27T11:17:00.001-04:00

Men in general are as much affected by what a thing appears to be as by what it is, indeed they are frequently influenced more by appearances than by reality.

Vegetius

2008-03-24T01:34:00.001-04:00

Few men are born brave. Many become so through training and force of discipline.
Vegetius

Featured Painting

2008-03-21T14:52:00.001-04:00

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha
by: Vermeer

Musashi

2008-03-16T23:33:00.003-04:00

The Book of Five Rings
Miyamoto Musashi wrote Go Rin No Sho in 1645 before his death at the age of 61 from natural causes. In it are his views on war, swordsmanship, philosophy, and life. He never lost a duel and refused the leisurely lifestyle under the Tokugawan Shogunate. Musashi died a hermit in his cave, writing. Here is one of his most important writings, The Book of the Void.

"The Ni To Ichi Way of strategy is recorded in this the Book of the Void.

What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man's knowledge. Of course the void is nothingness. By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist. That is the void.

People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment.

In the Way of strategy, also, those who study as warriors think that whatever they cannot understand in their craft is the void. This is not the true void.

To attain the Way of strategy as a warrior you must study fully other martial arts and not deviate even a little from the Way of the warrior. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.

Until you realise the true Way, whether in Buddhism or in common sense, you may think that things are correct and in order. However, if we look at things objectively, from the viewpoint of laws of the world, we see various doctrines departing from the true Way. Know well this spirit, and with forthrightness as the foundation and the true spirit as the Way. Enact strategy broadly, correctly and openly.

Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void.

In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.

Twelfth day of the fifth month, second year of Shoho (1645)

Teruo Magonojo for SHINMEN MUSASHI"

Giuseppe Garibaldi

2008-03-14T21:00:00.003-04:00

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian patriot and general in the 19th century. He is well known for personally leading military campaigns that brought about the unification of Italy. He also assisted in military campaigns in South America and was offered a commission by Abraham Lincoln personally. In 1833, Garibaldi joined the Carbonari revolutionary organization in its attempted insurrection in Piedmont, Italy. After the failed attempt he was captured, sentenced to death, and fled to Marseilles, France. Garibaldi then headed to Brazil, and assisted the southern gauchos against Imperial Forces in the War of the Tatters. The Republican Revolution failed and the Italian went on to Uruguay where he founded the Italian Legion. Garibaldi fought on behalf of the Colorados (red-skins) against the Blancos (whites) in the Uruguayan Civil War. There, Garibaldi mastered guerrilla war tactics and won substantial victories in Cerro and San Antonio del Santo.
In 1848 Garibaldi returned to Italy and participated in the unsuccessful First Italian War of Independence and attained some minor military victories. In 1849, Garibaldi was sent to Rome in order to defend the new Republic just begun there. The Papal States, however, urged Napoleon III of France to intervene. In April, 1849, Garibaldi took command of the defense of Rome and defeated a substantially numerically superior French army. In 1860, Garibaldi, with an army of 8000, crossed into and conquered the whole of Sicily, defeating many of Napoleon's strongest garrisons on the island. In September of the same year, he went on to Naples and took the city. Despite his military successes, Garibaldi had not yet faced and withstood the whole of the French Army. On September 30th, with a volunteer army of 24,000, Garibaldi personally led his forces to victory over the French Army in the Battle of Volturno.
On March 17th, 1861 Italy was officially unified.
Giuseppe Garibaldi died on June 2nd, 1882.

Ethics

2008-03-12T19:32:00.001-04:00

"What cannot be said must be passed over in Silence."
-Wittgenstein

Featured Poem

2008-03-08T12:05:00.001-05:00

If I walk the noisy streets,
Or enter a many thronged church,
Or sit among the wild young generation,
I give way to my thoughts.

I say to myself: the years are fleeting,
And however many there seem to be,
We must all go under the eternal vault,
And someone's hour is already at hand.

When I look at a solitary oak
I think: the patriarch of the woods.
It will outlive my forgotten age
As it outlived that of my grandfathers'.

If I caress a young child,
Immediately I think: farewell!
I will yield my place to you,
For I must fade while your flower blooms.

Each day, every hour
I habitually follow in my thoughts,
Trying to guess from their number
The year which brings my death.

And where will fate send death to me?
In battle, in my travels, or on the seas?
Or will the neighbouring valley
Receive my chilled ashes?

And although to the senseless body
It is indifferent wherever it rots,
Yet close to my beloved countryside
I still would prefer to rest.

And let it be, beside the grave's vault
That young life forever will be playing,
And impartial, indifferent nature
Eternally be shining in beauty.

-Alexander Pushkin, 1829

Featured Painting

2008-03-06T11:25:00.003-05:00

This featured painting entry is not a painting at all, but a statue by artist Ron Mueck.

Limitations of Language

2008-03-04T19:06:00.003-05:00

One of the foremost concepts to understand is that language is a limitation. One must remember that learning as a concept is an impossibility, and the correct approach is recollection and discovery. One must not assume that they can somehow teach someone with words; many times an audience does not understand the words since they do not understand how the speaker is using them, or what he really means by them. This is called reference. The answer to this difficulty is that one must learn to inhabit the language of the speaker and discover its meaning and sense for themselves. The speakers of language must show what they mean by constructing pictures in language, thereby allowing the listener to see for themselves what the speaker means. The beauty of language must be seen. When one reads a book, even if it be over two thousand years old, one may see, by grasping the meaning intuitively, the same thing the author had seen.

The Bourgeoisie

2008-03-04T14:22:00.002-05:00

"The bourgeoisie has played in history a most revolutionary part.
The bourgeoisie, where it has conquered power, has destroyed all feudal, patriarchal, and idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder all the many-coloured feudal bonds which united men to their 'natural superiors,' and has left no other tie between man and man but naked self interest and callous cash payment. It has drowned religious ecstasy, chivalrous enthusiasm, and middle class sentimentality in the ice-cold water of egotistical calculation. It has transformed personal worth into mere exchange value, and substituted for dearly bought chartered Freedoms the one and only unconscionable freedom of Free Trade. It has, in one word, replaced an exploitation veiled by religious and political illusions by exploitation open, direct, and brutal.
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every profession previously venerated and regarded as honourable. It has turned doctor, lawyer, priest, poet, and philosopher into paid wage workers.
The bourgeoisie has torn away the veil of sentiment from the family relation, and reduced it to a mere money relation."
-Marx and Engels

Belief

2008-03-03T00:17:00.002-05:00

Why allow knowledge to outweigh beliefs? Knowledge is ever changing, belief is everlasting.

Recommended Film

2008-03-01T23:25:00.002-05:00

Ambitudo a Mortis is not in the business of endorsements. However, a very well made documentary, titled A Map for Saturday, has proved itself worthy of one. The film is a documentary, by Brook Silva-Braga, on leaving his bourgeois job to journey across the world. You can find out more on the website: amapforsaturday.com

Democracy, Republics

2008-02-29T18:57:00.002-05:00

The United States of America federal government breakdown:
100 Senators
435 Congressmen
9 Supreme Court Justices
1 President
TOTAL: 545
The United States of America Population:
300,000,000
(The President is indirectly elected, he in turn appoints Justices.)

Göring

2008-02-27T08:35:00.000-05:00

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."