Indeed, it should be "I think and therefore I am", but it has been converted to "I look good and therefore I am" or something similar. And after that step it went also to "I don't look good and therefore I am *not*", which makes many too many wanting to gain acknowledgable existence by some kind of look dictated by any currect fashion. There are so many persons brought to us as "VIPS" while they have really nothing to say or to present. Have you seen how many "famous" persons are suddenly presented to us? ;-) Famous persons that are made famous for being famous and nothing else. So the average reaction goes often in the direction: "If he/she can become a VIP I can do that too, or I can match the look/attitudes of my favorite VIP". The nonsense-shows of searching the new superstars are a good example. But it will not last very long, I think. The emptyness remains and some day all "looks" get washed out.
I know what you say about companies. Many "modern" companies do that. I worked for swiss banks and it was the same as you describe about Philips. They also tried to get me "conform" but I turned their lives to hell! They came to me with their silly wishes about business look and the like, then I asked them if they would repeat that in front of the constitution court which guarantees my own choises of anything personal, and they shut up. At the end I decided to quit because the stupidity and analphabetism in banks is something for the Guiness book of records. ;-) When they asked me why I leave, I told them because they have nothing to offer me. ;-)
Humans are indeed social creatures. Still, a lion in solitude doesn't have the need to know about the own identity. It is completely "happy" as it is. A human being, even in isolation, will often pose the identity question. We seem to need the conscious knowledge of the own self.
So here is a good problem of balance too. Individualism doesn't mean that the social life has to be negated, but the bad implementation of individualism did bring a great damage to society. I am confident however that this will get better. At least it seems that there is again that "group formation" that is a good hint for that.
I am very sorry to hear about your injury. Just take time for re-organisation which is necessary. Wishing you all the best, keep it up and don't give up!
Its quite serious my friend. Personality disorder , contusio cerebri which damaged my brain. Black humour I use but it remains hard to cope with. I know you mean well, but its not that simple.
"The days of the "muscle-mounted" are counted everywhere, Harry!"
I hope so. Since the 1990's our society has become one of competition and fighting and individuality. More muscles, more status. Getto rap, gold jewelry and pimped cars in order to hide your "i feel i am nothing" internal thought. I worked for Philips, a renown company for taking care of it employees and families. With "centurion" reorganisation that social face was sold out and employees were expected to do what the boss wanted and report misbehaviour of direct collegues. It reminded me of DDR socialism.
Government has implemented the rule "we do nothing, take care of yourself" to an insane level.
"It seems to be directly connected to the wish of the own identity *embedded* or *as a part* of some *identifiable* society. The need for an identity is perhaps something of universal importance for all human beings in the world. Hard to say why, isn't it Harry? "
Man is a social creature. Where lions and bears may live in solitude, mankind needs attention and a place in the social hierarchy.
Thats why the individualist society has become insane and worships a harmless ruler, van Basten.
"Nick, I am in a depression, I can sketch you the silly and harmfull things people do, they dont know anything about it. A broken leg is so much more visible "
I am very sorry to hear that, Harry! Come on now buddy, let that frustration be. It's OK with that, or what didi you think? That we come into this world to live with no frustration at all? We must take some of that from time to time, and perhaps this is also a good medicine against too much self-convinction which is exactly the problem oof those guys on Creta ;-)
Allow frustration and observe it from the outside, Harry. You are on the way of Hypervasis with that - the way to overcome the own limits. People, and that's *we*, do indeed "silly and harmfull things", and the same people, also *we*, do sometimes also good things. We keep these good things. For the other things we still search and make terribke mistakes that don't allow us ti sleep at nights. Or what did you think? That we are here in order to be perfect right away? ;-)
A bit more humor, even if it is black, with the world and the own self, can always be of great value for that. As you said: "Don't worry". I don't worry because even if I don't find a way to get better and to help "making a better world" (hahhaaaaa! ;-)), at least I was aware of some things. Or I thought I was aware, whatever that might mean! ;-)
"Security, bread and games. Timeless. Thats why Euclid didnt make it. Security, bread and games for the proletarians and youll be their master. You may be t intellectual to understand. Dont worry. ;-)"
Indeed, the typical attraction for such things is a strong leader, Harry. I am not as sure if they are really timeless. Still they are taken as valid for such a long time that we could also name them almost timeless. And it is also understandable that a human being likes the idea of having a "secured" life in the continuous presence of the plentitude of things for surviving "bread" and things to be happy about "games". But here we can see something quite nice: This kind of "fulfillment" lasts some years or decades and then it converts to "normality". The society starts wanting more. The reason for that is that it was *not* what society was really looking for, but it *thought* that it was what it was looking for. The easy soltuion then: More bread, more security,more fun. Multiply this cycle a couple of times and it simply perverts to the levels of breaking down by itself. This happened many times in history, be it in ancient Greece, Rome, Byzant, the Ottoman empire, the Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, and even in the third Reich. It happens nowadays in the USA but they don't even take a notice. ;-) Well, I don't have any objections agains the basics, since we all need them in order to live. We must eat something. But the question is, how much of that is necessary? And above all, how much security can we demand before we convert life to a completely foreseeable, regulated, robotized something that denies any possible creativistic approach? I myself have my fears of course, but still they didn't prevent me from starting over so many times. And I consider myself to live well also with some amount of uncertainty. I know that you smile now, Harry, since I naively extrapolate from the own experiences, and that's a dangerous thing. Well, put it this way: Let's allow some more insecurity for it can sweaten life too. ;-) Think of when you have a date with a nice girl and you don't know what might come from that! ;-)
- Part 3 and growing, but you really gave me some good points to think about, Harry! -
You will see nowadays in Greece "illegal" immigants (whatever the word illegal migh mean) mixing up with the already available population, bringing the new, adapting the old, introducing new elegant solutions of apparently "unsolvable" problems, taking their place and identity in a completely "insane" society. It is insane because it applies the very typical chaotic attitudes of Greece, but now in a very creative way that makes it possible for life to flourish even in the economical aspects, but in a completely unorthodox way. I am so comfortable with that, that I plan to return to Greece after some years. It's amazing! You want to meet utopia nowadays? Go to Greece and mix up with people. I don't say such things so easily. Greece is now the poorest land with the richest inhabitants, and that not only in a mere economic sence. It's simply amazing. Life explodes in all possible hues from all corners of the streets.
"No, not direct. The human species is more impressed by its qualities as fighting, winning, being strong."
Yes, there is much amazement about such things. How long does it take until they are discovered to be hollow? After some time we must notice that they are empty, I guess.
"In modern times Albert Einstein has discovered such important stuff, yet look at the soccer games and the dutch going mad in their orange outfit, feeling safe in the mass."
Hmmm, but Einstein, as a name, is well known. (Not the work, the name.) Euclid on the contrary is almost completely unknown as a name too. The amazement of people for "fighting, winning" is indeed a good reason for that. It is exactly this context I referred to, since the Greeks themselves were amazed enough by the "fighting, winning" of Alexander in order to boost it to such levels. This is how I understand that. They were amazed by the same hollow things, that many others are amazed too. So they delivered the appropriate stuff.
"People are simple, want basics as security, bread and games. Ceasar understood this well by providing gladiators with fight until death, so did Adolf I guess ( did he ? )."
In some sense he did that indeed! A very original interpretation but it fits the general context very well. He provided the wished "victory of our bravery", and the society responded for a short time but very frenetically. You are onto something here, Harry! I must think of that!
This fears take a direct expression when we all talk about immigrants as some "other" part of our world, though we ourselves are in fact always immigrants too, even when living in the "own" country. Or when we insist on objecting the union of Europe not because of its current complete inconsistency but rather because of its assumed compromises that might affect our ways of living, and because of the very slow process of accepting that the freedom to live whereever we want doesn't mean that we will be drown under a cataclysm of foreigners. Don't get me wrong here, I do have my objections for the current implementation of the Union, but not because of that fear. It is rather because of the (very normal) starting difficulties that *must* appear. More thinking is necessary but we will manage that at the end. Above all we must really put much more focus on propagation of the message: "You don't have to deny your own identity for joining - quite the contrary!".
"The greek should be so proud, really." Well... proud is a strong word, Harry. Let's say I am glad that some things happened in Greek that proved to be good and were given free of any cost to humanity. Like for example the convinction that the world *is* understandable without any godly or devlish intervention. For this I can smile in happiness.
Another thing I was so glad to see in Greece last summer: The news didn't say anything about that, but Greece took the main number of refugees during the war in former Yugoslavia. And then a big oart of the refugees from Iraq, Iran, whatever. Didn't the Greek had their problems with that? Of course they did! And how they did! The Greeks were blaiming the Albanians, the Albanians were blaing the Greeks, and so forth. But what happened there after that? In order to understand that you must know that Greece is an extremely overregulated country but only on paper! ;-) Social life is something else. It happens on the streets. So, they had their problems, they argued and fought, and this was *goooood*!!! Because the direct contact enforced the obervation that "the others" have also only two legs and two arms and one head! ;-) This process of direct confrontation is continuing in Greece, where something is going on that I can accept to be pround of.
Hi Wolf, or Harry? :-/ I'll use Harry, if you don't mind, because you signed this way. But tell me if I am wrong, OK?
"In 1987 I visited Crete and found some males from Crete having highly macho behaviour but also being highly sensitive for critisism/insult like words."
Of course we have them! Of course we have that kind of morons hiding their mind-vacuum behind their macho-attitude. To all them we let Homer speak, because one of Iliad's main conclusions is that Troy was not taken by the muscle-power of Achilles but by the mind-power of Odysseus. ;-)
On a more serious note, one of the main reasons for me to argue and get angry against the society in which I grew up myself, was exactly what you describe. This kind of "manhood demonstration" which I observed on many "men" including my own father. (That's also why I quitted any kind of relationship with him.) When I was still in Greece in the cyrcle of my friends we were quite annoyed about those flat-minders, and had endless discussions in school about how to reject that kind of automatic assumption of the man's "superiority" based on the size of a biceps. Well, I was for over 13 years no more in Greece and last summer I spend my vacations there again. There is a very very good development that really excited me and my friends. There is a new generation of kids, that were sick and tired of all that chauvinism and simply rejected it just like that. It was a real (unexpected) delight for me to be able to spend some weeks in a version of Greece that I was dreaming of in the past. I am only glad that Greece in the 2000's is not Greece of the late 80s. The days of the "muscle-mounted" are counted everywhere, Harry! It's a matter of time much like any evolution at all. We wait in hope and with a cynical smile. ;-)
But what the fear I was talking about was a bit different. Not as much a personal and conscious fear, but rather the state of "social Angst". A collective social phenomenon. It seems to be directly connected to the wish of the own identity *embedded* or *as a part* of some *identifiable* society. The need for an identity is perhaps something of universal importance for all human beings in the world. Hard to say why, isn't it Harry? Why do we care that much who we really are? Anyway, we do care. And the latest development over the earth, globalisation, internationalisation, etc, injected many understandable fears into human beins as parts of societies.
"Everybody knows about the "grandiosity of Alexander the Great" but who knows about Euclid? "
Nick, I am in a depression, I can sketch you the silly and harmfull things people do, they dont know anything about it. A broken leg is so much more visible !
"This is what I was thinking about in my other long message. We all seem to either "hide" our own unacceptable actions in history, or camouflage them under the coat of heroism / patriotism. Every country has that. Everybody knows about the "grandiosity of Alexander the Great" but who knows about Euclid? The Spartan militarism evolved to something much more strict in the heads of nowadays people than it really has been at all. What is the reason for that? It has been boosted to that kind of "ideal" that it never was, even in the times of Sparta. Isn't that just because we, the Greeks, have "glorified and advertised" Alexander and ignored the Euclid's Elements in the libraries? "
No, not direct. The human species is more impressed by its qualities as fighting, winning, being strong.
In modern times Albert Einstein has discovered such important stuff, yet look at the soccer games and the dutch going mad in their orange outfit, feeling safe in the mass.
People are simple, want basics as security, bread and games. Ceasar understood this well by providing gladiators with fight until death, so did Adolf I guess ( did he ? ).
Security, bread and games. Timeless. Thats why Euclid didnt make it.
Security, bread and games for the proletarians and youll be their master.
You may be t intellectual to understand. Dont worry. ;-)
"and above all Greece. The people are afraid! They are afraid of losing their identities - not only the national identities but *any* identity at all"
Strange you say this. In 1987 I visited Crete and found some males from Crete having highly macho behaviour but also being highly sensitive for critisism/insult like words.
As about the dark parts of history against other lands, this is not a priviledge of the Netherlands. It was other times, different people, different "Grundwerte". Or do you want a list of the sins of Greece?
This is what I was thinking about in my other long message. We all seem to either "hide" our own unacceptable actions in history, or camouflage them under the coat of heroism / patriotism. Every country has that. Everybody knows about the "grandiosity of Alexander the Great" but who knows about Euclid? The Spartan militarism evolved to something much more strict in the heads of nowadays people than it really has been at all. What is the reason for that? It has been boosted to that kind of "ideal" that it never was, even in the times of Sparta. Isn't that just because we, the Greeks, have "glorified and advertised" Alexander and ignored the Euclid's Elements in the libraries?
So, turning back to the Dutch, of course there have been many such crimes like everybody else did too, but what could one expect other than that? At those times the schools teached about such "heroism and glory" much more than they do today. They were conditioning minds in that direction. What can then somebody do other than that, when he/she has been conditioned this way?
Today you will find a page in the history book about Spinoza, about de la Court, van Riessen, Dooyeweerd. It seems that for some period the pride of "heroic deeds" (which includes winning soccer games ;-)) is more important, but at the end this kind of pride vanishes. We just start understanding that we don't need that kind of mythology. So indeed we still cure the symptoms most of the time but we also start recognizing that there is illness behind the symptoms, the worse of which is the false weighting of what any given country can be glad to have offered to humanity.
Thanks a lot for the in depth going information, Wolf!
So, that must be why I had that impression from my own small travel in the Netherlands back in the '70s. I thought that this is the Dutch way of life. A pity of this has been lost, but perhaps it is mot really lost but only "forgotten" during the general chaos of changes on the whole world nowadays?
The German people indeed had a big too big respect for authorities of any kind, but this is about to change too from what I see there. (I am quite often in Germany.) I have the impression of an understandable disappointment about all those who were held as "untouchable". That kind of disappointment and anger when you were believening the bosses for so long and you were doing all what you were told to do. Maybe this brings a total overreaction against *all* authority, which would be an exaggeration, but also a good first step in the direction of not necessarily believing each and everybody that comes to you with the attitudes of a king? Let's see.
But I really never experienced the Dutch as rude. For me they only argue very strongly for their points of view, but still the ones I know are always ready to change their minds *if* they are presented some ther reasonable arguments. This is of course only my partial view based on some few people I know.
About that "Dutch feel small so they yell and fight.". Well, this is the same in many smaller countries in Europe, Wolf! It is clear. It is not easy for smaller countries and their people to find a way of being in front of the much bigger ones. Look, Switzerland does the same "yell and fight", Austria too but in the typical heart-softening way ;-), Ireland, Kosovo, and above all Greece. The people are afraid! They are afraid of losing their identities - not only the national identities but *any* identity at all. It is not a conscious fear, but it is there. They think that the big ones will "swallow" them, and that's indeed no piece of cake to deal with. Somebody has to re-introduce the idea that Europe will not exist in uniformity but in its intrinsic colorful character.
"If you stand in front of a house series in Amsterdam, and you look into a window of the first house, you can look at the same time through the whole series of houses down to the end of the street, in clarity and transparence of what you are looking to at all."
That applied especially to the years 1960-1980. After the chaos of war one was pleased to have it clean, and in a structure.
It may still be true in certains socially controlled neighbourhoods . In general, no.
Germans are in a hierarchich structure, the boss is the boss. The dutch are a bunch of radicals, asskicking and in general pretty rude. They dont work structured like the germans but mainly solve the symptoms. With rudeness that can bring quick results ( VOC expoit of east indies, slavery, settlement or fighting in south africa, australia, USA, west indies )
Football is just like religion and has a revival because people like to joun winners to gain self empowerment.
Oh, the earth trembles quite so often in Greece, Wolf. Greece wakes up in front of a mirror too! ;-) Seriously now, it's a seismogenous region. The prognosis says that the earthquake frequency and strength will be raising in the next decades.
But let that mirror be. It might show us what we are, it might show us our errors, and we might make a humble step ahead with less of that kind of absolute self-convinction in future.
Much like that unrepeatable Dutch team against France yesterday. One could see much more than "plain soccer" there. I saw dedication but also direct and sincere knowledge of the own self. That Ruud van Nistelrooy knew about the own strengths but exactly as well about the own weaknesses!
Some years ago, while I was living in Germany, I watched the one and only Herman van Veen commenting the differences between Germany and the Netherlands during an excellent TV-exposé about the similarities and the differences of the tho lands. He said something like:
"If you stand in front of a house series in Amsterdam, and you look into a window of the first house, you can look at the same time through the whole series of houses down to the end of the street, in clarity and transparence of what you are looking to at all." Is that true, Wolf? Can we say in general, that the Dutch understanding of life itself is governed by that clarity and sincerity that Herman van Veen described?
If so.. I must say, hat off, since this is what the self-awareness can be applied to, in order to convert us all to some kind of reasonable thinking individuals in the frane of a reasonable society. Not "perfect" but *reasonable*!!!
Fear for spiders? Come on now, Jungermann! Who fears ol' friendly spidey? ;-)
I forget about that big friendly spider for a moment. What I find so good here is the consistency of color and contrast. It's a monochrome thought in the very best sense of the word. And the overall placing of the elements is quite tastefully chosen. Much like a good song that doesn't live from the brilliance of some guitar solo but from compactness and economy of composition. And here I must stay a little bit. Your general tendency seems to be (to me) the straightness and avoidance of overload. A very good thing to happen!
In this sense, the spider is too big, too prominent to me. A much smaller version of it, say at the lower right, would be in consistency with the subject and also in consistency with the visual impression. Should those magnetic eyes be the eyes of the spider as some "personified evil", then lemme see them straight, directly, without any obstacle inbetween. (And who wouldn't like to be eaten alive by a spider with such magnetic eyes, ey? ;-)) A smaller version of her alterego at the lower right would also balance the image in the sense of coloring.
Still a good one, but definitely not one for fear. Fear is when I see myself in the mirror in the morning! ;-) But about this one... I'd only put my finger on that nose and ask her, if she would have a whisky with me. Only one scotch while she keeps on looking me that way! At least the coloring is similar to that of scotch! ;-)
Joggie, I was frustrated, I posted a few good images but i learned that the thum has to be attractive to obtain viewers, This imagem although good but not excellent , proved that.
This is an oldie JD, I made this piece last year. Well shape, maybe the images, i feel like i am in hell, especially coming sunny days will drain my energy.
WOW...what an amazing work of art, Wolf! I agree with Joggie...she looks more fascinated than scared. However, I am scared...lol!;) But this goes into my Favorites. 7+++++
Impactfull image Wolf - stands out between the other thumbnails. Very interesting concept - not so sure if the lady looks scared though. I would follow this up with a wide-eyed and/or screaming shot. Regards. Joggie
that is original... already a great image about that spider, with very good details (even on the hairy feets) and after that you give a transperacity on the spider so looks like being in... X-ray shot! unique composition with the background portrait... lol... I don't think there are lot of people that afread spiders... even the tiny spiders and so I! :-) even I took photos from them too! best regards!
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But this goes into my Favorites. 7+++++ 
