martedì, agosto 31, 2004

The Natural Course Of Things

at this conjuncture, i am intent on makin the best possible move.

the game is chess, it isn't checkers. but how i have always played checkers like chess. oh these games people play. so violently do we allow our games to poison the minds of others. why can't we just burn them? -no, we cannot grant such privileged expedience to the death! we must poison violently, but slowly and like cancerous vines they will grow, onto the next, into the next, surroundin the mess we already live in, eclipsin it even. hear the social laughter of the bourgeoisie resoundin through these evil vines we weave! what a beautiful infection!

once we have them all, we let it bake. we incubate their minds and it is no coincidence i say incubate because the mind is truly embryonic and we give it the warmth a hen would do her eggs. bake, bake, bake. when is it will my little darlings hatch, she asks? joyfully we see them formin, an eye, a heart, a brain in part. exactly how we wanted them. to see, to feel, to think -exactly how we wanted them.

who can be free from the poison? who can be free from the incubation? who can escape a sense of belongin so compellin, so deep, like sailors to their ship? ordained, prescribed and inescapable. teach me to sail, captain! i will sail exactly as you wish! -what good be a sailor if not to sail the seas? aye capt'n t'is me destiny -and when you tire, sailor what do you do then? i will never cease to sail capt'n! -and what will you tell your son, will you tell him you are a sailor? aye capt'n, his father sails and so shall he!

but it was not i who first asked to be a sailor.

but we poisoned you! -no, i am the taintless virgin vine! but we baked you! -no, i baked myself in more eggs than one!

capt'n, man overboard!

was he the one who said he didn't ask to be sailor?
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Word Of The Wolf today is bon vivant \bon-vee-VONT\,

noun: A person with refined and sociable tastes, especially one who enjoys fine food and drink.

"In direct contrast to myself, the connoisseur of cheap kebabs and two-for-one pizzas, I married a woman who was more of a bon vivant than I would suppose the queen!"
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Bon vivant comes from French bon, "good" (from Latin bonus) + vivant, present participle of vivre, "to live," from Latin vivere.


venerdì, agosto 27, 2004

The Case Of The Cat

and in the spirit of further self-pity, i'd like to vent my frustration on my continual benevolence to the good denizens of this earth and how it always ends up bein rewarded in treason, apathy and even suspicion. i will first establish how very genuine my benevolence is indeed and then how even this self-proclaimed level of virtuousity is met with disappointment.

you see, an act of virtue is de facto almost always selfish. for even if you didn't expressly hope for a positive monetary reward or any other thing materially favourable, there are reasons why one does good which cannot be completely altruistic.

if you saved a cat from bein run over by a truck, a few 'benevolent' reasons may underpin the construction of the act. suppose you did it out of compassion -praise you, such a nice, kind fellow. however, can you accept the possibility that this compassion for a defenseless animal may have risen from the need to appear compassionate, if not to others, especially to yourself? sure you might not have done it to impress your girlfriend or show your in-law what a kind soul you are, but could it not be that even if no one was lookin, or if there was no one there even, you had to do it because of your naggin conscience? if you drove on, you'd dream of kitten pancakes for the next ten years. or your daughter could home home the next day with an adopted cat yellin "look dad! meet Pancake, my new pet!" thus it becomes possible that it wasn't important whether the cat survived, but merely that you performed an act of rescue, to please the conscience in you!

so now let's suppose you saved the cat because you really, really wanted to save the cat. you wanted the cat to live. you didn't care if no one was goin to acknowledge you for it, or that anyone would give you a medal of honour for it, or that the damn cat would give a faint meow and die in your car soon thereafter. you really, really just wanted to save an animal from certain death. pleased with yourself that you did the best you could, you drove on, knowin that you've done good.

what if the damn cat scratched your bollocks to bits in a state of shock? would you feel as if the cat had been ungrateful, vasectomisin its saviour like that in the most unconventional operation possible? would you feel betrayed?

or what if the cat just got out of your car when you got home and disappeared? and suppose this was a talkin cat with human intelligence, would you have expected a thank you? or a month's free rat-extermination service maybe? would not gettin these things disappoint you? that the cat just didn't care?

and let's go one step further with the talkin cat -what if the cat thinks you saved it because you wanted stir-fried kitten for dinner, meowed some feline vulgarities at you and left you in disgust? and the next day you come home to 'cat-eater!' scratched across the door of your new beamer. your genuine act of kindness now greeted with suspicion and contempt, would you feel short-changed maybe?

OKAY. you say you don't. you excuse the cat for mutilatin your member because it's a fuckin animal in shock. and if the cat talked, you excuse the cat's apathy because it was probably a ghetto cat with no proper upbringin in a rough neighbourhood. bad cat parents, whatever. you also excuse the cat for thinkin you had ulterior motives for savin it because hey, the world's a rough place, and cynicism saves lives.

you were just happy you did what you could to save the cat, irrespective of the unfavourable consequences.

NOW, imagine you go through this EVERY FUCKIN DAY.

yes, every fuckin day there is a cat chewin on your balls right after you saved it from a chargin truck. every fuckin day, there is an old lady who looks at you weird and guards her handbag extra closely right after you helped her cross the road. every fuckin day, you talk to friends who systematically forget the unconditional friendship you showed them only to come crawlin back to you when they need a favour. and imagine every fuckin day, you give and you give your bleedin heart away, and people (and animals, too) take turns breakin it. to microscopic pieces. and then the next day, a further nuclear fission to decimate those cardiac cells proper. just to make sure.

man you've gotta show me someone who can do this every day, and i'll show you mother teresa. and she's a canonised saint.

one should do good because one wants to. but no one should be tested so vigourously on one's virtues. if i'm better than the non-bitter, forgive-and-forget average joe and i ain't no saint, bein in the middle is truly, truly tirin.

and so i conclude ; it's no wonder why people turn bad -because bein good, even if you ain't askin anythin in return for it, is truly fuckin tirin.

ciao.


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Word Of The Wolf today is connubial \kuh-NOO-bee-ul; -NYOO-\,

adjective: Of or pertaining to marriage, or the marriage state; conjugal; nuptial.

"Wed as teenagers in Kuala Lumpur, my parents' connubial collaboration had a second result: me and, a year after my birth, a spectacularly suspicious sequel, my sister, Zamrud."

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Connubial comes from Latin conubialis, from conubium, "marriage, intermarriage," from con-, "with, together" + nubere, "to veil, to marry." It is related to nubile, "of an age suitable for marriage; hence, sexually mature and attractive."


lunedì, agosto 16, 2004

What Is Constant?


"make like you are to die. unlearn everythin you know and give all your money away. don't talk to anyone or do anythin social. live in your room for a week by stockin up on dried footstuffs and pee out the window. unhook the internet connection, shut your cellular and shit on the rooftop if you have to. on the seventh day, examine who you are and why you are the way you are. it works -you can see it so clearly. soon thereafter, resume normal life. all the false prophets will pontificate no more because in this new level of consciousness, they will sound like beggars askin for change. the false friends will reveal themselves as well, along with all the circumstantial people you have been acquainted with. material wealth will bear new meanin to you, either reaffirmed or disintegrated. emotional or spiritual wealth will also be redefined. what you really, really want becomes apparent, for you have removed most of the external factors which governed all your decisions in life. the purpose of your life if there is one, will be clear. everythin will be clear. "

i didn't have the discipline (or enough biscuits and poo-bags) to complete this exercise but i believe i had achieved some of its objectives. i can see things better now, in fuller perspective, contrasted against established history and probable expectations.

you see, in science, the same external stimuli subjected to the same objects will produce similar results. extrapolate this to the social scenario -if you were born and lived somewhere else, with different parentage, different friends, different schools and ultimately difference cultures and experiences, would you still possess the same opinions as you do now? you are a product of your past experiences, true. however, would any other individual react the same way you did to a certain event, if he/she had the same predispositions you do?

in essence, this is like a question about the/a matrix. to what extent are things you do a natural and consistent response to external stimuli? conversely, to what extent are the things you do entirely your own, incorruptible by dictations of society and its various agents?

if you were born to amish parents, you will most likely not have muslim convictions. however, if you made only muslim friends in your life or fell in love with a muslim, this might change. if you didn't leave town or was home-schooled by your anti-establishment parents, it wouldn't. the crux of the exercise is; what would be constant throughout? if homosexuality was proven to be pathological, and you were gay as christmas, could this change? can society make you change? a brother told me there ain't a single faggot in kenya, so is evolution of mankind a factor?

once you have established at which point of the scale do you stand, you can comfortably distinguish as to which of your decisions and attributes are unchangingly intrinsic and which are inherently automated by subconscious patterns.

therefore, i now know that i am educated and spoilt because my parents are rich. if i were a brother in rwanda, i'd be one illiterate bad mofo carryin an uzi since age nine, tryin to keep my family alive. i now know that i have psychiatric problems because i can afford it. if i were a fisherman in china, i'd be crackin my brains tryin to put food on the table, nevermind visit NHS shrinks to ascertain my emotional distress.

all my life i've been tryin to isolate myself from the external factors which predisposed me to behave in a certain way. and i have learnt that there are a few things which i feel would've been constant.

i know i am good with words instead of numbers since young. i learnt how to talk way faster than other kids did (my mum's good diet a possible determinant) so i'd be one mouthy son of a bitch even if i were born to a quiet tibetan family. you might argue that this may be a quality which was honed and improved due to my education and upbringin, but i think that talent in its rawest form cannot be learnt. like how i believe my brother johan can never kick straight let alone play football like maradona.

i also now know that i am pathologically violent, and it was recently discovered that i liked to destroy toys and burn things since young. so i'd bet i'm still gonna be an eminem wannabe with my knives and weapons if i were born to a family of tree-huggin, peace-lovin hippies in america's 70s. but how strong are these external factors to pervert you from your natural course? is there a natural course in the first place?

if we accept this approach, we have fatally resigned ourselves to a life of pure powerlessness, since everythin you do, and everythin you are, are merely taught and learned, and even the anomalous qualities are known counter-culture responses. all the friends you have and the religion you profess would be reduced to geographical probabilities later ossified into societal fact.

however, i also discovered a thing or two which i dare say was constant. i loved the woman i loved because it felt and probably was a connectivity thing, and i would've progressed with a relationship with her even if she were an african bitch who couldn't speak english and i met her on the market street standin by a cow. i believe my brotherhood with my closest friend, bob the blob was founded on and strengtened by the various trials and tribulations we faced together in school life but i would've been good friends with him anyway if he was some orphan i befriended on a social visit because he and i can understand each other beyond social contexts and even through silence i bet he can tell if i was in despair or joy and i sure as hell can tell if he's very hungry or just hungry. lastly, i feel as if i still would've been called to christ be it wherever the fuck i was born because beyond the socio-political factors which expanded christianity as a religion i do unexplainable things like cry to a choir. if i were a brother in rwanda, i believe jesus wouldda dropped a bible right onto my uzi (but not without attachin a porno mag to get my attention first) and i also believe if i were an illiterate fuckwit i'd still cry to a choir.

it's called faith and it's the one thing that doesn't need to be disproved or substantiated, the reason bein self-defeatist. you must prove science but you can't fuck faith because while people can be sure (and change their minds) about which planets revolve around which, they cannot be sure if god does or doesn't exist. the very point of faith is not bein sure. it's about believin when you got nothin to be sure of.

i believe.

ciao.

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Word Of The Wolf today is militate \MIL-ih-tayt\,

intransitive verb: To have force or influence.

"Many forces militate against the way we turn out in life but genuine stupidity I believe, is assigned."
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Militate comes from Latin militatus, past participle of militare, "to serve as a soldier," from miles, milit-, "a soldier."