Page 10«..9101112..2030..»

Archive for the ‘Enlightenment’ Category

Alejandro Jodorowsky Reflects on ‘The Incal,’ 40 Years Later – Hollywood Reporter

Posted: October 14, 2020 at 6:54 am


without comments

The Hollywood Reporter spoke to the 91-year-old artist about his collaboration with Moebius, the themes to be found in the book and elsewhere in his work and the relationship between his comics work and his movies.

Its the 40th anniversary of The Incal. Do you remember starting to work on the project?

When I made The Incal, here in France, bande dessine the comic was regarded little more artistically than in United States. They were in bigger editions or printed on nice paper, but they were always a continued storyline: you have a hero like Superman, [or] Spider-Man, and at that time, you were always continuing to make this stories. It is without end.

Then I decided I want to make a complete novel: I will make a start, an end, and all this only six books. Only that, one book every year. Then I can tell any story, not a continuation all the time.

I thought, "One day I will have The Incal in only one volume, like a real novel." The years pass, and now people start to understand The Incal is one complete story. That made me happy. My son is growing! He's an adult now.

The Incal, as I understand it, came about in part from your Dune project which is where you first worked with Moebius.

In the beginning, The Incal came out of a dream. I dreamt something like two pyramids, white and black together inside.

Later, when I did make Dune Dune, for me, was the adaptation of a book which is not so visual. The first 100 pages, you don't understand it very well it's complicated, very complicated. For my adaptation, I had invent a lot of visualizations this is the jewel of Jodorowsky. I didnt make the picture, but much of that work, [the material] not in the book, that led to The Incal.

One of the things that is interesting about where The Incal falls in your career though is that it picks up themes from El Topo, from The Holy Mountain. It is again, a story about enlightenment. It's a story about someone realizing their place in a grander scheme.

Yes. I always have this secret. In many of the theater plays and the novels, the character doesn't change a great deal. Hamlet, all the time is doubting! (Laughs.)He says, "I am good, I am bad," and he dies like that. So I said, "I will take a character who is down, down he's a miserable guy, all [of] the defects of the ego, all this kind of thing and, step by step, he grows and he grows. He doesn't want that, but it happens like that. In the end, it's speaking with God! In the end, he's the biggest character possible.

You were talking about how people approach enlightenment as you say, starting as one thing and becoming, maybe not intentionally, something greater. Is this a theme that speaks to you, that you find yourself returning to?

What is enlightenment? I searched for enlightenment in all kind of disciplines, spiritual disciplines. You don't see it, but I live in the library. I am full, full, full of books! I was searching because my father was an atheist, a Communist I was five years old and he said to me, "God doesn't exist. You die, you will perish and they are nothing. Nothing." He took from me, as a child, the metaphysical experience.

I have nothing to love, no faith, no nothing. I needed to construct my spiritual myself in order to survive. I was searching and, for me, enlightenment is how to find yourself. It's the discovery of your innocence. That is enlightenment. There is not one enlightenment. Instead, there is one [unique] enlightenment for every person who lives on the planet: to be what you are and not what the system and the other person want you to be.

John goes through that in The Incal. He, early on, is split into four versions of himself and it feels that your stories and The Incal especially I think, is an exploration into people being themselves and discovering themselves.

Yes. At this time, I was very even now, I am very inspired by the tarot cards. The four characters he becomes are the Minor Arcana: the sword, the wand, the cups, and the money. The four symbols. This money is a symbol of the body. Wand is the symbol of desire or sex. The cup is a symbol of emotionality, and the sword is a symbol of the searching, the mental searching. Intellect, emotion, creative sex, and the body who tries to find his freedom. Constantly, I put in The Incal, certain initiatic things, to initiate the reader and ask, what is the possibility that you could find yourself like that?

One of the things that The Incal, I think, perhaps started or perhaps gave you free reign to do was, to use science fiction as a way of exploring these ideas in a metaphorical way. Is science fiction an interesting genre for you to work in because it allows you to do things that may be outside of the norm in other genres?

I love science fiction. I read a lot of science fiction. You have tragedy, you have science fiction, you have cowboys, you have gangsters I chose science fiction because, in science fiction, I need to imagine all the universe. Cowboys, you need to have a pistol, you need to speak American!

Here was the complete freedom to create a universe. That was fantastic for me. That was fantastic, and I created a mystical universe, in a period ruled by a person who was like my father. John Difool in the beginning doesn't believe in nothing, only in the money. And he's trying to survive in the lower class. He is a little detective. This is constructed in the beginning like a pulp novel: he will be in a trap. He doesn't want to have this adventure. Until the end he doubts, he doubts, he doubts.

You said that The Incal was constructed as a novel. You went into it knowing the end, and it loops it ends where it begins. Was that something that you were very conscious of? You were writing a circle essentially. You're writing a story that echoes itself until it ends where it begins. Did you go into it knowing that?

I will tell you an anecdote. Moebius was, in that time, the genius of the comic book in France the highest artist. His working with me was like a gift! But no one in the comic book industry, French or American, was really attempting this kind of metaphysical story and then, I proposed a setting that was very specific, like a bottle. It's very important but to show at the start of the story, John completely falling through this enormous, enormous town.

For me, it was important because it's the end of the story he falls like this in the beginning, and he finishes like this. Moebius draws the first episode, and he includes everything but forgets to draw that. It's only one page. And then [the editors] say, "You cannot say to Moebius to change something. He's a master." (Laughs)I said, "Listen! You made a little mistake because this is the most important image. You need to do it." I enumerate the page 1, 2, 3, and this is the page number 2. He said, the page number 2? I draw it already! So he made page 1, 2, page 2B. (Laughs.)

I noticed that in the book.

I will not say that I knew its importance in my consciousness. In some way, I was feeling that in my unconscious, because I am an artist. I don't work with consciousness. I work with my dreams. When I wrote that book, every chapter I put the character in a difficulty. I don't know what's the solution, but whatever the situation, he cannot do it. I have a month to discover how hed do it, always, always. I knew in the end I could do it. I could do it.

How did you work with Moebius or any of the other artists in your comic work? What was your process?

Every artist is different. They will humor me with their own character, their own interdiction, their own pleasures. I need to be in the mind of the artist and to make a story they can follow. With Moebius, he had a facility for incredible drawing. You say, "Make a horse." He will start with the leg of the horse. He has the horse. He illustrated it in four days, every episode. Every episode in four days! He makes [exaggerated working noises] 12 hours a day, but we did it! I dictated the story, but I was a mime, I was an actor.

Is that the same that you have done for every artists or have other artists ... I remember reading an interview with you for Jose Ladronn for Final Incal you worked differently with him.

Different. Every one is different. Final Incal is Jose Ladronn. Jose Ladronn doesn't drawing with his hand. He will do it with a machine.

Oh, with a computer?

A computer. Everything is computer. He needs to make a sketch very quickly with pencil, and then with the machine, he makes the fantastic [artwork] he made. That takes more time. What Moebius takes four days for me, with Ladronn it's six months of work. Moebius makes one page a day.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah.

It was a monster. He did it in 54 pages, 54 days. Less than two months.

I wanted to ask, what was it like moving from cinema to comics? Did you find your ambition changing? Were other things available to you?

Listen, I am not a normal person. Really, I am not a normal person. I have a big imagination. I write as quickly as it took Moebius to make drawings. I have an idea, I do the idea. I am not a movie maker, and I am not a screenwriter, a comic writer. I am everything. I don't prefer [one thing]. I love what I am doing.

I have [lived] now 91 and a half years. I am from the 20th century. Our century is the 21st.

Yes, but you're still creating. You're still making art. You're still alive.

What a difference in the two centuries! In the old century, a telephone was a telephone. But now you take a mobile and a mobile is still a phone but it's a camera, photography, movies, music. It can be everything. A man of this century is not only one thing because that is true of life now. Today, every person is Leonardo Da Vinci. He can make all the art. He can be a multifaceted artist.

You have always been that when I look at your movies, when I look at your comics, when I look at everything you make, it's clearly your voice. Even when you're working with comic artists, when you're working with the people making the movies, you are telling your story and it's recognizable as a story for you. That is why I was curious if you saw a difference in writing or creating for the different mediums. Because it feels like you're just constantly telling your stories.

The only thing is, theyre a different pleasure. Movies always are a collective work. You work with two people, three people, 20 people, 500 people. Growing, growing, growing. It's a big work and a lot of people, a lot of problems. When you make a comic, you are you and the painter, the artist. You are the only two.

In a movie, you are picking the people who are sitting and you create the movement. Everything is "you sit there and watch this," its passive. In comics, no. In comics, you make a person who will receive a punch here. The public needs to create in their mind the movement. Movement is inside the [audience]. It's another way to feel the story. In the movies, I need to see a movement and in comics, I need to see how to create the movement in the head of the reader. It's another world. It's another art.

But you have not only one movie, one type of cinema. You have industrial movies Hollywood. You also have movies made for a creator, artistic movies. In the artistic movies, all that matters is to create the work and the money comes later. For industrial movies, all the focus goes to money, to make a lot of money.

You also have commercial comics, which is a very good industry: Superman, Marvel. That was the industrial comic, where the principle to create a big, big audience, the biggest possible audience. When I made The Incal, I was searching in that time for the special audience who can understand that. I wanted to make an end for this story. In the commercial comic, there is no end.

You brought The Incal to an end. Looking back, what does it mean to leave the story and to finish it for everyone. Are you happy that audiences continue to keep this alive and revisit it and continue it?

I always thought it was a fantastic story. I love the story. Everything I do is like a child. Ask a mother the mother makes a monster and she will love the monster. When you are an artist, you love what you are doing. If not, you will not do it.

I am so happy The Incal has lasted 40 years because the audience understands it now. The good stories are always in advance of the audience: 40, 30, 50 years in advance. But if it is real art, it will travel through the time and come to an audience who understands it.

***

The 40th anniversary edition of The Incal is available now. Humanoids The Seven Lives of Alejandro Jodorowsky, edited by Vincent Bernire, will be released Oct. 13. A preview of both books can be seen below.

See more here:
Alejandro Jodorowsky Reflects on 'The Incal,' 40 Years Later - Hollywood Reporter

Written by admin

October 14th, 2020 at 6:54 am

Posted in Enlightenment

Ethnic studies teach Latino kids to hate the US. It is dangerous for Arizona – The Arizona Republic

Posted: at 6:54 am


without comments

Tom Horne, opinion contributor Published 6:00 a.m. MT Oct. 13, 2020 | Updated 6:45 a.m. MT Oct. 13, 2020

In Jan. 2011, outgoing Arizona schools chief Tom Horne announced in Phoenix that a major school district in Tucson was violating a new state law by continuing an ethnic studies program designed primarily for Hispanics.(Photo: Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)

In an August column, Elvia Diaz criticized me personally for destroying bilingual education in the state, and Mexican American Studies in Tucson, when I was the state superintendent of schools, and later as Arizona attorney general. She called for making ethnic studies a graduation requirement.

Ethnic Studies in Tucson divided students by race. African American students to Classroom 1, Mexican American students to Classroom 2, etc., just like in the old South.

The students were taught critical race theory. This is their quote: Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundation of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.

Thats just what we need: teaching our students to be opposed to Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law.

They referred to the states taken from Mexico in 1848 as Aztlan. Their materials stated,we are slowly taking back Aztlan as our numbers multiply.

They had a table that promulgates racial stereotypes by detailing the differences between white individualism (e.g. white people interrupt a lot) and colored collectivism.

The founders of the program describedthemselves as neo Marxists.Marxism taught that all history is about class struggle, to the exclusion of everything else. Neo Marxists substitute race struggle for class struggle as the only thing worth studying.

One of the textbooks wasOccupied America. It sings the praises of a leader named Jose Angel Gutirrez, one of whose speeches is described in the textbook as follows: Gutirrez called upon Chicanos to kill the gringo, which meant to end white control over Mexicans.

The textbooks translation of what Gutirrez meant contradictshis clear language.

Another textbook gloatedabout the trouble the U.S. is having controlling the border: Apparently the U.S. is having as little success in keeping the Mexicans out of Aztlan [US states taken from Mexico in 1848] as Mexico had when they tried to keep the North Americans out of Texas in 1830. the Latinos are now realizing that the power to control Aztlan may once again be in their hands (page107).

My main source was other teachers in the schools, a number of them Latinos, who were profoundly shocked at what they saw.

Hector Ayala,whowas born in Mexico and an excellent English teacher at Cholla High School in Tucson,told me thatthe director of Raza Studies accused him of being the white mans agent and that when this director was a teacher, he taught a separatist political agenda. His students told Ayalathat they were taught in Raza Studies to not fall for the white mans traps.

One teacher wrote me that he heard students being told they need to go to college so they can gain power to take back the stolen land and return it to Mexico. Another reported to me that Latino students told him that the land is not part of the U.S. but "occupied Mexico."

This teaching wasa betrayal of the students parents. They came to this country as the land of opportunity. They expected their children to be taught that this is the land of opportunity, not that they are oppressed so it is all hopeless, or to hate the country their parents chose to come to.

After I was no longer attorney general, a judge declared our statute unconstitutional. I hope the state Legislature and a new AG will try again.

Ms. Diaz accuses me of destroying bilingual education. I plead guilty:A periodical published by HarvardKennedy School found that students in English Immersion outperformed those in bilingual in every category studied.

Tom Horne served as Arizona's superintendent of public instruction and attorney general. Reach him at tomhorne2824@gmail.com.

Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2020/10/13/ethnic-studies-teaches-latino-kids-to-hate-its-divisive-for-arizona/5943290002/

Continued here:
Ethnic studies teach Latino kids to hate the US. It is dangerous for Arizona - The Arizona Republic

Written by admin

October 14th, 2020 at 6:54 am

Posted in Enlightenment

‘Biden or Trump?’ is a question that signifies the age of decay – GlobalComment.com

Posted: at 6:54 am


without comments

Watching the recent US presidential debate led me to the saddening yet bitterly true conclusion that we live in an age of decay. Two adult men, with past records filled with corruption, take the stage trying to convince you that one of them deserves to decide for you instead of you. The show was nothing more than a laughingstock, and people seem to be aware of that which is the most frightening part. Donald Trump had a temper of an 8-year-old maybe less, while Joe Biden was hardly able to phrase a complete sentence without a cognitive black out.

Many Democrats have come to suggest that this election is the most important one in American History because supposedly democracy is at stake with Donald Trump refusing to give a clear answer as to whether he will leave the Oval Office if he is defeated in November. Well I am sorry to break it to them, but if a choice between a corrupt politician and a multi-billionaire is what democracy looks like I do not think there is much point in saving it, it is already dead.

Most younger people, like myself, realize this. Politics to us seem like a bad anecdote, we laugh at it because we do not know how else to respond. We, being nave to the power of the status quo, believed in the vision of the progressive movements that former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, in Britain, and Senator Bernie Sanders, in the US, represented. We hoped that perhaps we would not have to pay enormous tuition fees in order to get basic education. That maybe we would live in a world where decent healthcare would be provided freely, or that when we grew up we would be able to have a well-paying job and then earn a satisfying pension. Instead of this the great leaders of the world have set out to reverse the clock of history and undo all the great accomplishment that, through the bloody protests and revolutions of the past century, humanity had come to enjoy.

In this war against the many, nobody seems to be doing anything. This is why I call this age the age of decay we sit un-bothered as the decomposers of the world cause us to rot. The Millennials will be the first generation in the history of humankind to be worse off than the generation that preceded it. Here I urge the reader to re-read the previous sentence and let it sink in. This halt of progress is nothing more but the result of a society that can no longer question and oppose its leaders. The revolutionary specters that haunted the ruling classes of the 19th and 20th centuries, forcing them to behave, have been shot down through the well-planned propaganda of the educational system and mass media, or died by suicide due to their own contradictions. Parliamentary Democracy, this child of Aristocratic French Parlements, seems to be the only legitimate and acceptable system of governance. People have stopped seriously doubting it or bothering to find alternatives. Change, now, only comes through elections and in a packet of two.

A great Prussian philosopher, Immanuel Kant, when set out to write an essay answering the question What is Enlightenment? that puzzled 18th century philosophes, claimed that they did not live in an enlightened age, but they did live in an age of enlightenment. According to him, being in age of enlightenment meant that people had finally begun to doubt the age-old hierarchical structures and authorities that stood above them. Be it religion, monarchy, feudalism (or Parliamentary Democracy, or Presidency) people who wished to be enlightened needed to never accept someones rule without first questioning its purposes. Sounds simple, but apparently it is not. Of course, that was the age when humanity made its leap to the modern world, leaving back the tyrannies of the Middle Ages. Sadly for Kant, and perhaps even sadder for us who are still alive, three centuries later the enlightened age has not arrived, but worse: the age of enlightenment seems to have receded. Humanitys blindfolds are being worn again.

So, in the question Biden or Trump, I answer cake.

Image credit: cbcindustries

More:
'Biden or Trump?' is a question that signifies the age of decay - GlobalComment.com

Written by admin

October 14th, 2020 at 6:54 am

Posted in Enlightenment

The New Enlightenment, and what it means for us – The Daily Princetonian

Posted: September 24, 2020 at 3:56 pm


without comments

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA - JUNE 06: Protesters gather around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue on June 6, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia, amidst protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced plans to remove the statue. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images)

The citizens of Paris awoke one morning in 1792 to find the statue of Louis XV toppled and destroyed, laying in pieces on the ground of its eponymic square. France had been undergoing the early stages of what had been called by the likes of Edmund Burke and many others the most astonishing [revolution] that has hitherto happened in the world, a movement in which ancient social and political truths were challenged. Oppressive institutions that had long masked themselves in benevolence were being re-examined and overturned. Accepted truths about status, religion, and power were rejected. And iconography which had long been a symbol of the greatness of France was smashed to the ground, for its true meaning exalted the elites of an oppressive regime. This was a revolution, and it would give its name to the now reclaimed square, the Place de la Rvolution.

Despite Burkes exaltations, however, the Revolution in France was neither the first of its kind as was shown by the American Revolution in 1776 nor the last. The familiar scenes described above, though changed in setting, have resurfaced in our lives and experiences today. We have found ourselves in what I would call a New Enlightenment. Much like the great thinkers of the age Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire, to name a few we have gradually unearthed, with empirical evidence and the aid of reason, fundamental problems with the way racism and classism are embedded in our national institutions. Much like those before us, we have denounced a seemingly benevolent establishment for perpetuating a status quo that preserves these deplorable biases. In this New Enlightenment we find ourselves in the midst of this renewed revolutionary process, and like Burke, we have regarded it with both awe and criticism. However, there was an important consideration Burke ignored when he published his Reflections in 1790: what would happen next.

Our position today is no different we are entering uncharted territory. As students, many of us have performed our historical duty as sources of activism and education on ideals that challenge the reigning orthodoxy. These processes are not pleasant, and they shouldnt be. As leaders of this new movement, we can only effect meaningful change if we dare challenge those who oppose us directly. This involves recognizing our harmful, prejudiced views, and holding those in power accountable for their role in perpetuating oppressive and discriminatory systems. Once we are comfortable in this role, and exercise it frequently, we are at our most powerful, but also at our most vulnerable. We run the risk of succumbing to destructive factionalism.

And this is what happened after Burkes reflections were published 1790. Two years after Burkes pamphlet came out, the Reign of Terror descended upon France, when radical Jacobins executed many Girondins once their allies for not being revolutionary enough. The former King and Queen soon followed, along with thousands others who died upon the guillotine erected in place of the statue of Louis XV. Throughout France, tens of thousands more suffered their deaths during this unfortunate year, which ended with the demise of the same Jacobins who started it, consumed by the wildfire they had unleashed and tried to tame. The cobblestones of La Rvolution were now stained with blood.

I do not mean to turn the French Revolution into some silly morality play, but to dispel the romanticism that has been built around it, and around the word revolution. We are at a turning point in which we have the potential to make so much change. The ideas we have conceived in this New Enlightenment such as the need to acknowledge and actively combat systemic racism have fueled impressive feats of activism and solidarity that have made it possible for progress to start. The work is not done, but the only way it will be fulfilled is by responsible, principled and peaceful activism. It is tempting to view caution and difference in approach as weakness. However, while caution might seem slow, brashness is outright destructive, not only endangering lives, but the integrity and credibility of our ideals.

Exercising caution does not mean we must stop the revolution. Arguably, revolutions cannot be stopped, and those who try often escalate the violence by doing so. Our sense of urgency, while fueling us, can make us derail the progress we carry in our actions. If we focus our energies on persecuting those who disagree with us on certain points like those who are less comfortable with some stances of the more left-leaning candidates we will descend upon unnecessary tangents that will delay, and eventually defeat the causes we fight for. The Jacobins feverish desire to divorce themselves from the Ancien Rgime led them to not only reject religion, but to fabricate a cult of reason and even go so far as to re-invent calendars and units of time because of their historical origins within the church. We must work to find common ground despite our differences on issues such as who to vote for or whether to vote at all and the levels of reform needed for police forces. For a revolution is not truly equitable if all perspectives within it are not respected. Radicalism within factions can only lead to a deadly circular firing squad, which will surely leave no one left to advocate.

There is no single revolution that will better the world for good. While remarkable, the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries still did not address myriad issues that now are of paramount importance. Human history is a cycle of revolutionary renewal. With every generation, our light shines upon new ideas and measures that allow us to build a happier society. We are entering another of these great cycles, and privileged with the hindsight afforded to us by historiography, we must do all we can to use that knowledge to avoid repeating the blunders of the past. Frances mistake cost it its liberty and stability for the next century, as the country reverted to despotic monarchies at least five times after the Revolution.

This does not have to be us. With every step we take toward progress, we need to ask ourselves: will this help our cause? Most of the time, as many students and activists have shown both in Princeton and beyond the answer will be yes. But it is never excessive to be cautious, for caution is the best measure against excess. Momentum is a sacred flame that can die by gradual decay, but also by rapid, uncontrollable burning, in which case it can take all of us with it. It is our duty to keep that flame burning constantly, but at a level that does not consume everything weve built, and everything we are yet to build.

The French soon realized this. In the aftermath of the revolution, the old Place Louis XV later Place de la Rvolution which had seen the advent of a world without autocrats, and borne the bloody sacrifice of revolutionaries, received a new name. The Place de la Concorde, Square of Harmony, exchanged its guillotine for a fine obelisk, a ray of light frozen in stone, that reminds us how in revolutions the path of harmony is the most enlightened.

Juan Jos Lpez Haddad is a junior in the School of Public and International Affairs from Caracas, Venezuela. He can be reached at jhaddad@princeton.edu.

Go here to see the original:
The New Enlightenment, and what it means for us - The Daily Princetonian

Written by admin

September 24th, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Posted in Enlightenment

Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution review, British Museum: this serious-minded show proves it’s time we stopped tittering – Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: at 3:56 pm


without comments

Well, this could get embarrassing. In the West, the word Tantra has, ahem, certain connotations. Sexual rites play a prominent role in Tantric practice, and, since the Sixties, the philosophical movement has been championed as a kind of guide to free love. The sensational subtitle of the last big Tantra exhibition, at the Hayward Gallery in 1971, gives a flavour of what I mean: The Indian Cult of Ecstasy.

Even Mick Jagger was a fan. In 1969, he asked a designer to come up with a logo for the Rolling Stones inspired by the Tantric goddess Kali. Usually, Kali appears with a bright red protruding tongue. In India, this is understood to represent her bloodthirsty appetite on the battlefield. For Jagger and the Stones, however, her lolling tongue had other, suggestive possibilities.

Nor is Jagger the only devotee of Tantra among British rock royalty. Sting has yet to live down a notorious boast about seven-hour Tantric sex sessions. Thanks to him, even mentioning the word Tantra is still likely to elicit a raised eyebrow, a snigger.

Poor old Sting: while Jagger makes the catalogue for Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution, a conscientious new exhibition featuring around 130 artefacts at the British Museum, he doesnt get a look-in. I suppose thats no surprise. Its curator, Imma Ramos, wants to scrape away all the clichs that surround Tantra. (Another, still prevalent in India, is that it is a form of black magic.) Her show does contain erotic imagery: a few exhibits near the start, for instance, focus on the Tantric ritual of yoni puja (veneration of the vulva). An 11th-century sandstone temple frieze represents a man performing oral sex on an impossibly acrobatic woman. In general, though, the X-rated material is kept to a minimum. This is a serious-minded show with zero interest in titillating giggles or cheap thrills.

The opening section outlines Tantras mysterious origins. It would be a mistake to think of it as an independent religion. Rather, Tantra first emerged in India around AD 500 as a set of radical beliefs and practices communicated by sacred instructional texts. At its heart is the affirmation that all aspects of the world are manifestations of Shakti, all-pervasive divine feminine power. While adherents of other Eastern philosophies understand the world as illusory, Tantrikas (Tantric practitioners) believe that it is real, and seek enlightenment by engaging with, rather than transcending, the physical realm.

See more here:
Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution review, British Museum: this serious-minded show proves it's time we stopped tittering - Telegraph.co.uk

Written by admin

September 24th, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Posted in Enlightenment

Car Buying is Changing and All It Took Was a Pandemic: The Enlightenment – Car and Driver

Posted: at 3:56 pm


without comments

For ages, car dealers have stacked the deck against buyers. They've squelched competition with state laws that their lobbyists helped craft. They've fought attempts to share financial information with buyers, making negotiating unpleasant and difficult. Many of them won't even answer a simple email.

In the past decade, car dealers have haltingly, begrudgingly embraced changes in the retail landscape brought on by the internet. And that slow play would have continued but for a fat little microorganism that traveled the globe earlier this year and disrupted everything. The COVID-19 shutdowns this spring forced dealers to do something they'd been putting off: embrace technology and put buyers first.

"People's expectations changed overnight," said Larry Dominique, chairman and CEO of PSA North America, which is in the process of relaunching the Peugeot brand in the U.S. and Canada after a 30-year hiatus. People began online shopping en masse, ordering groceries, pet food, exercise gear, electronics, and even new cars. The coronavirus crisis raised awareness of what could be done remotely. "People have realized they can use these tools," Dominique said. "They know they exist, they know they work, and they know they're convenient."

Car Buying: Keeping the Dealers at a Distance

Car Buying Stories: Return to Sender

How Does Carvana Work?

Although buying a car and making a large investment will always carry some level of stress, the changing way of doing business promises to make car sales lower-pressure events compared with the past, with prices negotiated online, test drives taken alone without a pushy salesman in the passenger's seat, and financing and insurance sales taking place on the web. This new dynamic has the potential to benefit everyone, but especially women and people of color.

Car sales are steeped in decades of traditions, regulations, and hard-sell tactics. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) was founded in 1917, just nine years after Henry Ford's Model T became available to the masses. NADA's first mission was to convince lawmakers that cars were as vital to the economy as horses and should be taxed accordingly. Since then, NADA and statewide dealer lobbying groups have influenced countless laws protecting the dealers' business interests.

With that safety net in place, many dealers have done a lot of talking about evolving, but very little has happened that Darwin would recognize as progress. We've seen baby steps, like putting inventory online so people can search to see which dealership has the actual car they want. But many dealers still refuse to answer emails. Often, shoppers are punished for emailing a dealer by being relentlessly spammed. Few dealers have figured out how to make negotiating painless, except for those that do no-haggle pricing. And then there's the agony of having to meet with the back-office finance and insurance salesperson, who can eat up an hour of time trying to sell you extended warranties, anti-theft devices, and paint and fabric protection.

But earlier this year, when dealers were forced to shut everything down, they proved they could adapt quickly. Here's what changed and how it could change car buying for good.

"Many dealers have done a lot of talking about evolving, but very little has happened that Darwin would recognize as progress."

Lauren Starks has purchased three cars since the coronavirus outbreak slowed the world downtwo used and one new. For the new car, a 2020 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro, she opted to go with a dealer she already had a relationship with, because many dealers she'd emailed ignored her. Or her emails would go to an automated service and she couldn't get a real person to help. "I'm not sure which was worse," said the Greenville, South Carolina, resident. But once she connected with the dealer she'd already worked with, she was able to complete most of the process online, even the price negotiation.

This kind of buying process has been happening at upstart used-car chains for a few years. Unshackled by franchise regulations, used-car dealers have innovated quicker than new-car dealers. Carvana, for example, can sell a car online using very little human interaction. Customers can reach a sales associate if they need help, but they don't have to talk to anyone if they don't want to. No one works on commission, either, which keeps the pressure off.

Illustration by Marcos ChinCar and Driver

"Buying a car is this tremendously exciting moment in people's lives," said Ernie Garcia, CEO of Carvana. "Unfortunately, the experience of buying it sours that experience."

Dealers have often argued that they are different from other business models because they deal with trade-ins, and other retail operations don't. That process of putting a value on your trade-in is trickythe dealer is making an educated guess about what he or she can sell your car for either at auction or, more rarely, to another customer at the dealership. But for several years, it has been possible to give trade-in estimates online. The pandemic will hopefully push more dealers to embrace those tools.

When Chris Rivers of Burbank, Ohio, was buying a Jeep Cherokee this summer, all the salespeople in the showroom stayed six feet away from him, wore masks, and refused to shake hands. When it was time to go for the test drive, they tossed him the keys and let him drive off on his own. He returned and bought the SUV.

A survey by Cox Automotive showed that car buyers are craving time with vehicles but not time with pushy salespeople. Six in 10 survey respondents said they'd prefer help from dealership staff but don't want to deal with salespeople. And a Google survey conducted this spring showed that consumers ranked at-home test drives their number-one alternative to visiting a dealership.

With more sales conducted online, there's hope that discrimination in car buying will begin to fade. In 2018, the National Fair Housing Alliance released a study on car buying, comparing the experience of white people with that of non-white people. White people were given more favorable financing options, with non-white car buyers paying an average of $2663 more over the course of their loans than less qualified white people.

Trei Ceril, a Raleigh, North Carolina, resident and co-founder of a car club called Black Auto Enthusiasts, said he finds solace talking to other Black car enthusiasts about the discrimination they've faced buying cars. "But it's also depressing," he said. To help its members escape prejudice, Black Auto Enthusiasts maintains a list of dealerships owned by Black people. But, Ceril says, some folks are finding online tools just as helpful. His mom just bought a used car through CarMax, and the only interaction she had with someone in person was when she dropped off her trade-in and picked up her new vehicle. Since she did all the research on her own, there was no need to question someone else's motivation or whether they'd given her the best deal. "You take that part out of the equation; so in a way, it makes it less racist," Ceril said.

For all the change that is possible, it is also likely dealers will fall back into old habits quickly. We talked to a dozen car buyers for this story, and many who'd purchased cars since dealerships began reopening in May said it was business as usual. William Heacox of Albany, New York, bought a 2021 Kia K5 in July. "It was pretty much the same as always," he said. "The only issue I had was that they preferred you make an appointment to see a salesperson."

Dominique says he's hopeful the economic impact from the crisis will push the auto industry to reinvent itself the way he's trying to reinvent Peugeot in North America, but he's skeptical. "Our industry is like a giant black hole; there's a lot of gravity pulling you toward these business decisions that don't make sense anymore," he said.

Colin Beresford contributed to this report.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Read this article:
Car Buying is Changing and All It Took Was a Pandemic: The Enlightenment - Car and Driver

Written by admin

September 24th, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Posted in Enlightenment

‘Electric Jesus’ will take you on a metal-fueled journey towards enlightenment – Document Journal

Posted: at 3:56 pm


without comments

Electric Jesus will take you on a metal-fueled journey towards enlightenment By Noah Berlatsky Share Facebook Instagram Facebook Shop POPULAR RESEARCH

Text by Noah Berlatsky

Posted September 22, 2020

Why does God want us to make art? A film about the 80s Christian rock scene reveals fundamental truths about joy

I want to make Jesus famous! So says eager born-again teen narrator Erik (Andrew Eakle) in the new film Electric Jesus. The movie is a half-loving, half-parodic tribute to the Christian rock and metal scene of the 1980s. As such it spends a good bit of time thinking about the question of why (or whether) God wants you to make music and art. For Erik, and for many people in the scene, the answer is obvious: you make music to try to bring the word to as many people as possible. The filmmakers, though, ultimately see a different relationship between God and creativityone thats less about evangelizing, and more about joy.

Electric Jesus is directed and written by Chris White, who also provided song lyrics, and features original music from Daniel Smith, the force behind venerable indie rock collective Danielson. The fictional biopic tells the story of the quick rise and quicker fall of the teen hair metal band 316, which tours during the summer of 1986 behind its (inadvertently R-rated) single Commandos for Christ. 316 is joined on tour by young runaway bluegrass gospel singer Sarah (Shannon Hutchinson). Erik, the films narrator and the bands soundman, and a true believer in both rock and Christ.

I kind of grew up in evangelical Christian youth group culture in the 80s, White told me by phone when I interviewed him and Smith. There was a lot of encouragement to listen to Christian pop music. CPM would be the shorthand. Smith, whose father is the well-known Christian singer-songwriter Leonard Smith, grew up in a similar milieu. I think there was one year my dad made me listen to Christian music as a kind of policy. But hes a musician himself and so after taking us to Christian concerts for a year he said, Enough! This stuffs terrible.

Smith himself has made a career of performing not-terrible music, with Christian themes, that doesnt fit easily into the category of Christian rock. I didnt even want to be on a Christian label, Smith says of his first records. Danielson Famile music is idiosyncratic orchestral indie pop, with weird falsetto vocal yips and intricate Brian Wilson-esque songwriting. I would always insist that Danielson is not Christian music, he says. Its for everybody.

For Electric Jesus, though, White asked Smith to write more straightforward Christian hair metal, with power pop chord changes and catchy hooks. If you watch the movie and think, This is the worst Christian metal song Ive ever heard, but I cant stop singing it, then weve succeeded, White laughs.

Smith is eager to point out that he also got to write the music for made-up black metal band Satans Clutcha group which wears corpse paint and purportedly bites the heads off ferrets onstage. White says Satans Clutch was inspired by Jack Chicks infamous evangelical comics, which warned of the evils of sex, drugs, rock and roll, witchcraft, and secular humanism, and inevitably ended with infidels and sinners dumped into hellfire.

Smith takes as much pleasure in penning faux devils music as faux Christian music, in part because he sees all creativity as Gods work. Creativity to me is a spiritual journey, he says. A lot of times, if Im writing songs, Ill just be alone doing that and I very much feel like theres a mystical process there. So yeah, the one who creates all is still creating.

White adds that creativity is not just a connection to God, but a connection to others. Artmaking, for me, has always been the activity of friendship building and community, he tells me. Collaborating with and befriending Daniel has been part of the joy of making the movie. Its all over Christian culture, you knowthe joy of the Lord. This is, like, a three-year collaboration with Daniel, writing songs and just listening to music together and back and forth. And its complete joy.

The kids in the movie are so obsessed with evangelizing, they forgot that the gift was they got to be friends for a summer and go on the road on this strange trip. You know, thats pretty great. It might be enough for a lifetime, for some people.

Its not like Erik and 316 never have any fun though. Part of whats great about the movie is the way the kids often forget their evangelical mission, and their dreams of hitting it big and are swept up in just being teens with friends and a lot of loud music.

One of the high points of the film is an extended sequence where the teens turn on Strypers To Hell With the Devil and bounce around the room lip-syncing and air-guitaring and generally being silly. The lyrics are hair metal godly (We speak of the devil/Hes no friend of mine/To turn from him is what we have in mind!) but the point isnt to convert anyone or to make Jesus (more) famous. Its just to rock out with your buddiesthose buddies including, in this case, Sarah, 316, White, Smith, the audience, and God himself. Electric Jesus doesnt want to save you. But it does want to prove that Christian rock can have soul.

Continue reading here:
'Electric Jesus' will take you on a metal-fueled journey towards enlightenment - Document Journal

Written by admin

September 24th, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Posted in Enlightenment

Yom Kippur in recovery | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle – thejewishchronicle.net

Posted: at 3:56 pm


without comments

As September creeps on, the High Holidays remind us of the sweet taste of a new year and the chance to improve ourselves for the future. Many people begin to dread the annual Yom Kippur fast 25 hours without food or water marking the promise to be a better person in the coming year. Yet I prepare for a different sort of promise a covenant with myself to begin feeding my soul and my body, to recover from the disordered eating Ive struggled with the past six years.

Since high school, Ive been lost in a cycle of bingeing and restricting, eventually leading to a year of self-correction by counting less than a thousand calories a day. I went from eating too much to eating not enough, from one side of the spectrum to the other. I was only ever too full or too empty; if I was merely satiated, I was not content. Fasting on Yom Kippur is traditionally intended to be an act of self-punishment as repentance for past sins or a quest for clear-headedness leading to enlightenment. For me, fasting on Yom Kippur will never again be about asking for repentance or seeking enlightenment, but will rather become a preparation for my real act of penitence and healing: choosing to break the fast safely.

Two years ago, I would have broken my fast by eating too much at the break fast, mentally justifying it by thinking of how I hadnt eaten all day. I would have lost all sense of control, only stopping when the embarrassment of eating so much in front of others overpowered my desire to have it all. Then I would have come home and eaten still more because I would not have felt whole until every crevice within me was filled, leaving no room for self-doubt or shame to dwell within. And thats exactly what I did for five years.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

If I had broken my fast two months ago, I would have eaten nothing at the break fast, giving in to the voice in my head telling me that if I only made it a little longer without food it would be a perfect day, with zeros on all the registers and nothing to feel guilty for. I would have reveled in the worried looks and accusatory questions of Arent you hungry? Then I would have come home and eaten still nothing because I would not have felt whole until there was too much empty space within me, opening an abyss to swallow the self-doubt and shame. And thats exactly why I lost 15 pounds this past summer.

Fasting is no longer a challenge when youve been willingly training for starvation, when being hungry has become your hobby. Hunger pangs have alternatively been white flags in the battle for my self-control and victory trumpets in a war of friendly fire. I have used them as permission to eat everything I had been restricting and I have used them as a source of twisted pride in just how much I could restrict. They have simultaneously been my salvation and my damnation, both the life vest keeping me barely buoyant and the waves calmingly pulling me under.

This year, Yom Kippur for me is about revitalization and rebirth. Our fates are sealed in the Book of Life and it is decided who will live and who will die in the new year, but I know a part of me has already died over the past six years as I have abused my body and dimmed my soul. This coming year, as I step gently into recovery, I hope the rest of me may be reborn a renaissance of body, spirit and soul, my most holy, most personal, most worthy temples.

When I break my fast this year, I will eat to satiety, sealing my promise to properly nourish my body and soul in the new year. I will enjoy the company of those around me and be thankful that I have fresh, nutritious food to eat every day. Then I will come home and maybe eat more, or maybe not, because I trust my mind and my body and I know that I have no reason to doubt myself and nothing to be ashamed of.

I have spent enough time fasting over the past six years to fill decades of Yom Kippurs. It is time for me to break my fast, once and for all.PJC

Dionna Dash, originally from Philadelphia, attends the University of Pittsburgh, where she studies communications and linguistics and serves as the vice president of Pitt Hillels student board.

View original post here:
Yom Kippur in recovery | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net

Written by admin

September 24th, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Posted in Enlightenment

Phil Jackson Sent Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss A Photo Of Him In A Team Sweatshirt To Cheer Her Up – Sports Illustrated

Posted: at 3:56 pm


without comments

After the Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday, 114-106, Phil Jackson reached out to Jeanie Buss.

Jackson led the Lakers to five NBA championships when he coached the team from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2011.

He knew Buss, the Lakers' governor, needed some words of encouragement to cheer her up. So he texted her a photo of him wearing a team sweatshirt with some words of wisdom.

"Knowing I was feeling a little down today Phil texted me this picture and some words of inspiration to lift my spirits," Buss wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. "He said it was ok to share the photo. 'Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.' His point is stay focused on the task at hand rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. He said it many times over the years."

The Lakers, who have a 2-1 series lead over the Nuggets, are competing for their first championship since 2010, when Jackson led the team to their last title. Game 4 is Thursday at 6 p.m. PST on TNT.

Buss, who dated Jackson for 17 years, called the 11-time champion coach the "most influential man (outside of my family) in my life" on his 75th birthday on Sept. 17.

After receiving his note, Buss went on to try and inspire Lakers fans.

Even though the Lakers are playing inside the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World, she encouraged fans to stay just as engaged as if they were cheering for the team in person.

"But what can I do to help?" Buss asked. "Be there for the team. So Laker fans, lets bring our energy for tomorrows game, like we always do but lets be a little bit louder, a little bit more focused. Light a candle at game time. Wear something purple or gold or both. Lets be present together but socially distanced. This we can do. "

See the rest here:
Phil Jackson Sent Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss A Photo Of Him In A Team Sweatshirt To Cheer Her Up - Sports Illustrated

Written by admin

September 24th, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Posted in Enlightenment

PLU French professor receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities – The Suburban Times

Posted: at 3:56 pm


without comments

By Rosemary Bennett 21, Marketing & Communications

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently awarded Pacific Lutheran University Professor of French Rebecca Wilkin, a $133,333 grant under the Scholarly Editions and Translations interest area.

Wilkin and her collaborator Angela Hunter, an English professor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, received the grant for their ongoing project titled An Edition and Translation of Selections from Louise Dupins Philosophical Treatise, The Work on Women.

The project aims to present the work of Enlightenment French Feminist, author, and philosopher Louise Dupin to a wide audience for the first time by translating and editing a selection of her most important political and philosophical ideas in an approachable anthology.

We are confident that our editionLouise Dupin, Work on Women: Selections will appeal to students and scholars of history, philosophy, literature, and feminist and gender studies, said Wilkin.

Wilkin became interested in Dupin in 2012 while working on a student-faculty collaborative research project with Sonja Ruud 12 who is assisting the ongoing project as a r esearch associate and is currently completing her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the Graduate Institute of Geneva.

In the Humanities, we educate students to engagecreatively, critically, and empatheticallywith what it means to be human across the sweep of history, in diverse cultures and environments.

Pacific Lutheran Universitys Departments of English, Languages & Literatures, Philosophy, and Religion comprise the Division of Humanities.

Wilkin and Ruud began assembling the Work on Women by obtaining copies of manuscript from the Municipal Library of Geneva; the Houghton Library (Harvard); the Beinecke Library (Yale); the University of Illinois Rare Books library; and from the Clark Library (UCLA). The two were joined on the project by Hunter in 2017 after Hunter and Wilkin met through their shared research subject, as the two professors were among very few scholars researching the long-neglected work of Dupin.

Making Dupins work more accessible to a new generation of students and scholars is a fantastic feeling! said Wilkin. In the humanities, we deal with subjects of universal human import, so we need to be able to explain to people what our scholarship is about and why it matters. Yet that can be hard, especially when we work on historical material or contexts people have little familiarity with.

The project, when completed, is to be published in an upcoming volume with the New Histories of Philosophy series at Oxford University Press.

The Edition and Translation of Selections from Louise Dupins Philosophical Treatise, The Work on Women has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

The post PLU French professor receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities was first publishing on the Pacific Lutheran University website.

Continue reading here:
PLU French professor receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities - The Suburban Times

Written by admin

September 24th, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Posted in Enlightenment


Page 10«..9101112..2030..»



matomo tracker