What is Existentialism?

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

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

-Karl Marx, Early Writings

Featured Painting

-Banksy, Detroit, 2010

Zinn

"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

"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

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

Solidarity in Martinique and America

"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

Las Meninas
by: Diego Velazquez

Thinking versus Doing

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

Technology & Civilization

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

Creoleness

"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

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

Featured Painting

Tiger Drinking from a Raging River
by: Kano Sansetu

Wisdom

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

Future

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

Victims, Victors, & Transcendence

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

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

Featured Painting

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

Featured Poem

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

Newly leaked video of civilians being killed in Iraq.

Political Language

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

Flower Seller by Diego Rivera

Kant on Race

"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

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

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

Featured Poem

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

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

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

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

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.