Dissent

"Power concedes nothing without demand."
- Frederick Douglass

Spinoza

“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.
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Slajov Žižek

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

Apathy

"Apathy is always the impediment to progress."

- Shepard Fairey

Ethics, Aesthetics, and A Presidential Election

"Ethics is aesthetics." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

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

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20th Cenutry Socialism

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

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

Justice is Balance.

Leo Tolstoy

On Politics:

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

Revolutionary Art

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

La Liberté guidant le people
by: Eugène Delacroix

Returning

Returning in September.
E-mail.

Featured Poem

"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

In the Car
Roy Lichtenstein

America

"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

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

Governments

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

Life

"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

I featured Koons without one of his works.



Stacked

The Importance of Art

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

Luxury Degradation

"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

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

Decadence

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

Featured Painting

The Second of May 1808
by Francisco de Goya

Fanon

"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

"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

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

"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

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

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

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".