Its strange when someone says something monumentally intense to you. I don't think its hit me yet, since im still trying to make sure if i actually read what i read. Right now though, i just don't feel like whats been said has made an impact yet - its a slow going one. I thought i might try something different today; instead of writing so haphazardly i might try and focus my writing a bit more.
You know, whenever i look up at the sky, i see the shackles of responsibility being released and a certain sense of freedom. Not only that, but the sky represents a canvas of different feelings; from the blue skies of tranquility to the brooding London skies that bring about the blues. I feel....like im flying through those irregularly shaped pieces of condensation hanging on the cobalt ceiling, into the blueness of sky itself. That penumbra between earth's atomsphere and space just seems so intriguing, like a boundary that merges into both sides; it epitomises going with the flow....
Monday 7 April 2008
Friday 4 April 2008
Mind Ecology
If there's something influencing my thoughts right now, it's these two things: Malcolm X's autobiography and Ghost in the shell stand alone complex.
Well firstly, what is deindividuation? psychologically speaking it's the idea of a loss of individuality in large groups - therefore because of this loss of individuality, you also lose your inhibitions, some of your morality and you feel less emotionally anchored by your surroundings. The best examples of deindividuation is in football hooligan crowds, where riots occur through masses that wouldn't normally commit atrocious acts normally. Now although football hooliganism and humbleness are oceans apart, i think the idea of losing something is important. What's lost is where the two differ, and differ they do!
Well, i think in a setting such as on Hajj, where everyone is dressed in the same attire, going to the same places, but are of different colours, races but are all united by Islam, is a setting for humbleness because you lose your ego in the process of gaining brotherhood and appreciating the sheer scale of the muslim ummah around you. By contrast, in a hooliganistic setting you only lose your morality and instead gain a boost in ego.
So when talking about deindividuation, you could ask; what is controlling or leading those crowds to think as a collectively and act with emergent behaviour? well the context is obviously the most important thing - where you are seriously affects how you act: or in other words reciprocal determinism (you are influenced by your environment but you can also influence your environment), however, in crowd situations where you are more deindividuated (and i emphasise MORE rather than a full deindividuation) i believe that this form of reciprocal determinism is more of a social psychological mind rather than an individual mind.
The best example of what i mean by that is emergent behaviour in termites - who can build large complex structures through simpler tasks - like a hive mind. If anyone has seen Ghost in the shell 2: innocence, i think what Batou says beautifully sums up what im trying to say about emergent behaviour: Our buildings represent the inner working of our mental structure...society's backbone idiosyncracies built on mortar and brick.
What he demonstrates here is the social psychological mind is constructed by the collective input of all those individuals within - so all these complex behaviours are the result of a complex social customs. However, unlike ghost in the shell, i disagree that emergent behaviour can have no origin or source, because if we think about the sociological and political changes brought about via religion they originate through prophets or messengers. Certain individuals can influence and bring about changes, but these changes evolve not through majority influence, rather a change in minority influence that slowly builds up into a zeitgeist.
I think though, that ideas originate from a source but as they evolve they can change over time, a bit like chinese whispers if you will.
So this is where the idea of demagogues come into play: i think you can bring about those changes and you can lead masses of people if you can evolve with the context those masses are in: With that you have to be able to feel your audiences reactions if you are to be sucessful, because if you don't follow the line of thought of the crowd than you cannot bring changes or bring about leadership. So to be a good leader what you need most of all is to be able to know your members feelings and to know how to address these issues, where you have indisputably done what you can to rectify anything or bring change that the social mind is thinking of. So in reality, to be a leader you need to know the social mind to a certain extent. So in order to bring social complexes to play you need to add simple adjustments which have a domino effect to creating something new.
One of the most important things regarding humanity as a whole, is the need for unity beyond the physical and we need spiritual or psychological links between Man. This is something i really do believe in, because we are so divided over race, money and insubstantial factors that don't conclude to anything productive for humanity as a whole.
However, i have to be realistic about the notion of humanity uniting beyond race or materialism since we humans are very in tune to our own habitual natures which are built upon immediate materialism and immediate physical appearances. What i want to say is that people enjoy their quirks and habits and if someone or something new tries to enter can break that habit. So trying to bring in unity will be difficult because it will involve treading on people's habits and toes to get them firstly motivated to a cause and secondly not afraid of new things. Even in today's society we are still seperated by these racial boundaries, but only now it's not so explicit, it's alot more implicit and privately kept in order to maintain a falacy of "political correctness".
We need to go beyond these racial boundaries and be united as Man. I can understand why alot of people enter islam - purely because there are no prejudices on what race you are - you can join without being intimidated and feel loved by brothers and sisters from all over.
"The creator has a master plan - peace and love for every man"
Peace.
Well firstly, what is deindividuation? psychologically speaking it's the idea of a loss of individuality in large groups - therefore because of this loss of individuality, you also lose your inhibitions, some of your morality and you feel less emotionally anchored by your surroundings. The best examples of deindividuation is in football hooligan crowds, where riots occur through masses that wouldn't normally commit atrocious acts normally. Now although football hooliganism and humbleness are oceans apart, i think the idea of losing something is important. What's lost is where the two differ, and differ they do!
Well, i think in a setting such as on Hajj, where everyone is dressed in the same attire, going to the same places, but are of different colours, races but are all united by Islam, is a setting for humbleness because you lose your ego in the process of gaining brotherhood and appreciating the sheer scale of the muslim ummah around you. By contrast, in a hooliganistic setting you only lose your morality and instead gain a boost in ego.
So when talking about deindividuation, you could ask; what is controlling or leading those crowds to think as a collectively and act with emergent behaviour? well the context is obviously the most important thing - where you are seriously affects how you act: or in other words reciprocal determinism (you are influenced by your environment but you can also influence your environment), however, in crowd situations where you are more deindividuated (and i emphasise MORE rather than a full deindividuation) i believe that this form of reciprocal determinism is more of a social psychological mind rather than an individual mind.
The best example of what i mean by that is emergent behaviour in termites - who can build large complex structures through simpler tasks - like a hive mind. If anyone has seen Ghost in the shell 2: innocence, i think what Batou says beautifully sums up what im trying to say about emergent behaviour: Our buildings represent the inner working of our mental structure...society's backbone idiosyncracies built on mortar and brick.
What he demonstrates here is the social psychological mind is constructed by the collective input of all those individuals within - so all these complex behaviours are the result of a complex social customs. However, unlike ghost in the shell, i disagree that emergent behaviour can have no origin or source, because if we think about the sociological and political changes brought about via religion they originate through prophets or messengers. Certain individuals can influence and bring about changes, but these changes evolve not through majority influence, rather a change in minority influence that slowly builds up into a zeitgeist.
I think though, that ideas originate from a source but as they evolve they can change over time, a bit like chinese whispers if you will.
So this is where the idea of demagogues come into play: i think you can bring about those changes and you can lead masses of people if you can evolve with the context those masses are in: With that you have to be able to feel your audiences reactions if you are to be sucessful, because if you don't follow the line of thought of the crowd than you cannot bring changes or bring about leadership. So to be a good leader what you need most of all is to be able to know your members feelings and to know how to address these issues, where you have indisputably done what you can to rectify anything or bring change that the social mind is thinking of. So in reality, to be a leader you need to know the social mind to a certain extent. So in order to bring social complexes to play you need to add simple adjustments which have a domino effect to creating something new.
One of the most important things regarding humanity as a whole, is the need for unity beyond the physical and we need spiritual or psychological links between Man. This is something i really do believe in, because we are so divided over race, money and insubstantial factors that don't conclude to anything productive for humanity as a whole.
However, i have to be realistic about the notion of humanity uniting beyond race or materialism since we humans are very in tune to our own habitual natures which are built upon immediate materialism and immediate physical appearances. What i want to say is that people enjoy their quirks and habits and if someone or something new tries to enter can break that habit. So trying to bring in unity will be difficult because it will involve treading on people's habits and toes to get them firstly motivated to a cause and secondly not afraid of new things. Even in today's society we are still seperated by these racial boundaries, but only now it's not so explicit, it's alot more implicit and privately kept in order to maintain a falacy of "political correctness".
We need to go beyond these racial boundaries and be united as Man. I can understand why alot of people enter islam - purely because there are no prejudices on what race you are - you can join without being intimidated and feel loved by brothers and sisters from all over.
"The creator has a master plan - peace and love for every man"
Peace.
Wednesday 2 April 2008
Variations Op. 41
It's been strange recently; hearing of all this bad news recently - first my aunt breaking her leg , then my uncle in pakistan who's had to have surgery for a weakened heart, followed by a family friend who's having renal problems and now tehreem's uncle passing away...it's almost as if bad karma or something beyond the palpable is at work. What's worse is the deepened uncertainty of what my future ahead holds in store, university is sort of a no go right now and im not sure what to do or where to go.
The idea of formality and responsibility is really scary for me, i don't know particularly why, but i just feel the need to procrastinate my childhood out alot more longer than should be. Everything is very scrambled and irresponsible to say the least :P. All i can say on the matter (since it's one i dilligently evade alot since im a lazy turd) is needs sorting (ah i love the oxymoronic view point).
Man, if there's one thing i've been doing this holiday and doing well is being a hermit. Hell if there was a PhD available i'd be signed up for it :P. There's two reasons for it: firstly, in the holidays at this time of the year, i usually only talk to people on msn, but that's gotten to a point where it's just stale and mundane. Because of it its almost like being stuck here in this house has made me bit brain dead, where thinking and communicating was something i've not done in a long time....i suppose that's why im writing now, since this seems more like a last resort than anything, besides im not really interested in making small talk because i don't feel it makes you feel you're particularly evolving with the person - which is why i probably hate going on msn since alot of people just do that. But saying that though, im a hypocrite because i never can instigate anything that's more substantial than small talk (mainly because i can't think of anything that really begs me to ask people about it) so i just help the cycle. With the hermiting, i feel im a bit more crazier, a bit more unstructured and disorganised with my writing, my sense of speech and mannerisms. Im confused with alot of things to say the least, but most of all im confused with what to do or where to go.
If there's one thing i'd say about myself is that im a irresponsible, useless individual alot of the time, who has a certain lack of intuition or common sense. I don't say that lightly or comically, but bitterly. I know it's the truth and i SHOULD do something about it, but i feel that because i SHOULD i feel im being pressed into it because it's what is expected and not what i expect - out of my control, in an external locus. So once again, the jagged disc revolves back around to the idea of a lack of control and the question of what it takes to accept responsibility. There's something in me saying "yes you should do something about it rather than conjecturing" but how can you just do it....breaking old habits of insecurities is hard to do, and like the title of the post suggests, doing it leads to variations (the ups of momentarily defeating it only to come around - old habits die hard).
Anyways, this pointless rant about lack of responsibility doesn't feel potent enough to make me want to do something about it, but it's just nice to have something written down and communicated to whoever. It's not even thoughts...it's just random squabble coming out....lemme see if i can think of anything occupying my mind.
well thinking about it for a minute, it's just weird images of colours contorting than evolving into a swirl and spiral of a plethora of colours that look shiny and metallic. Actually what's strange is the bout of dreams that i've had either involving epic battles in places in between something out of Tron or The Matrix....i remember this one dream where the whole place was in black with neon colours all over the place but there was normality as well with surburbia greenery mixed in with that dark black. We (a group of resistence fighters) were running from authority figures, through the houses until we came to some sort of cable car structure but was made out of bricks. The fighters decided in order to finish the war we'd have to blow the core - which could be seen anywhere in this city (? i think that's what it was - the places where this dream took place reminds me of something of the hills around hollywood, with the random scattering of lights in a sea of black which the roads and houses occupy). The core looked like a large white structure, though brilliantly white, there was something malicious about it, something that just gave you the idea of hostility and a bleak coldness to morality and the right thing to do. So we went on this cable car to the core, but what really struck me was this idea of "The One" that's present in the matrix - usually in these types of dreams im usually that sort of figure, but in this one i helped "The One" get to the goal he needed. Oh yeah with these dreams, im never in first person either - it's always third person. Maybe i just have no faith in myself that i've settled for third person....damn that's bad and needs recifying.
Anyways it's getting late and im tired. Nice writing this stuff out though, at least some of my thoughts managed to get transcribed. Next time i'll try and mention Malcolm X's autobio and GITS SAC. til then - ciao!
The idea of formality and responsibility is really scary for me, i don't know particularly why, but i just feel the need to procrastinate my childhood out alot more longer than should be. Everything is very scrambled and irresponsible to say the least :P. All i can say on the matter (since it's one i dilligently evade alot since im a lazy turd) is needs sorting (ah i love the oxymoronic view point).
Man, if there's one thing i've been doing this holiday and doing well is being a hermit. Hell if there was a PhD available i'd be signed up for it :P. There's two reasons for it: firstly, in the holidays at this time of the year, i usually only talk to people on msn, but that's gotten to a point where it's just stale and mundane. Because of it its almost like being stuck here in this house has made me bit brain dead, where thinking and communicating was something i've not done in a long time....i suppose that's why im writing now, since this seems more like a last resort than anything, besides im not really interested in making small talk because i don't feel it makes you feel you're particularly evolving with the person - which is why i probably hate going on msn since alot of people just do that. But saying that though, im a hypocrite because i never can instigate anything that's more substantial than small talk (mainly because i can't think of anything that really begs me to ask people about it) so i just help the cycle. With the hermiting, i feel im a bit more crazier, a bit more unstructured and disorganised with my writing, my sense of speech and mannerisms. Im confused with alot of things to say the least, but most of all im confused with what to do or where to go.
If there's one thing i'd say about myself is that im a irresponsible, useless individual alot of the time, who has a certain lack of intuition or common sense. I don't say that lightly or comically, but bitterly. I know it's the truth and i SHOULD do something about it, but i feel that because i SHOULD i feel im being pressed into it because it's what is expected and not what i expect - out of my control, in an external locus. So once again, the jagged disc revolves back around to the idea of a lack of control and the question of what it takes to accept responsibility. There's something in me saying "yes you should do something about it rather than conjecturing" but how can you just do it....breaking old habits of insecurities is hard to do, and like the title of the post suggests, doing it leads to variations (the ups of momentarily defeating it only to come around - old habits die hard).
Anyways, this pointless rant about lack of responsibility doesn't feel potent enough to make me want to do something about it, but it's just nice to have something written down and communicated to whoever. It's not even thoughts...it's just random squabble coming out....lemme see if i can think of anything occupying my mind.
well thinking about it for a minute, it's just weird images of colours contorting than evolving into a swirl and spiral of a plethora of colours that look shiny and metallic. Actually what's strange is the bout of dreams that i've had either involving epic battles in places in between something out of Tron or The Matrix....i remember this one dream where the whole place was in black with neon colours all over the place but there was normality as well with surburbia greenery mixed in with that dark black. We (a group of resistence fighters) were running from authority figures, through the houses until we came to some sort of cable car structure but was made out of bricks. The fighters decided in order to finish the war we'd have to blow the core - which could be seen anywhere in this city (? i think that's what it was - the places where this dream took place reminds me of something of the hills around hollywood, with the random scattering of lights in a sea of black which the roads and houses occupy). The core looked like a large white structure, though brilliantly white, there was something malicious about it, something that just gave you the idea of hostility and a bleak coldness to morality and the right thing to do. So we went on this cable car to the core, but what really struck me was this idea of "The One" that's present in the matrix - usually in these types of dreams im usually that sort of figure, but in this one i helped "The One" get to the goal he needed. Oh yeah with these dreams, im never in first person either - it's always third person. Maybe i just have no faith in myself that i've settled for third person....damn that's bad and needs recifying.
Anyways it's getting late and im tired. Nice writing this stuff out though, at least some of my thoughts managed to get transcribed. Next time i'll try and mention Malcolm X's autobio and GITS SAC. til then - ciao!
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