"Modernity is a qualitative, not a chronological, category."
#218
"Today it is seen as arrogant, alien and improper to engage
in private activity without any evident ulterior motive.
Not to be 'after' something is almost suspect."
#23-24
"Because thought has by now been perverted
into the solving of assigned problems,
even what is not assigned
is processed like a problem."
#196
Theodor Adorno (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969)
from Minima Moralia
Reflections from the damaged life
Part One
1944
Saturday, October 14, 2006
not news
"...and soon there is no relationship which is not seen in terms of other relationships, no impulse which is not subjected to prior censorship, in order not to deviate from approval. The concept of relationships, a category of mediation and circulation, never prospered best in the actual circulation-sphere, in the market, but in closed, monopoly-like hierarchies. Now that the entire society is becoming hierarchal, opaque relationships adhere everywhere, wherever there was still the appearance [Schein] of freedom.
...
Myriads of people make their living out of a condition, which follows the liquidation of occupations. These are the nice people, the popular ones, who are friends with all, the just ones, who excuse every sort of meanness as “human” ...and incorruptibly defame every non-normalized impulse as “sentimental” ....
They are indispensable thanks to their knowledge of all the channels and back doors of power, they guess its most secret judgments and live off the dexterous communication of such. They are to be found in all political camps, even there, where the rejection of the system is taken for granted and for that reason a lax and cunning conformism of its own has developed. Often they win over people through a certain benevolence, through the sympathetic sharing of the life of others: selflessness as speculation. They are clever, witty, sensible and flexible;
...
They are ready for anything, even love, yet always faithlessly. They betray not from instinctual drives, but from principle: they value even themselves as a profit, which they do not wish to share with anyone else. They are bound to the Spirit [Geist] with affinity and hate: they are a temptation for the thoughtful, but also their worst enemies. For they are the ones who subtly apprehend and despoil the last hiding-places of resistance, the hours which remain free from the demands of the machinery. Their belated individualism poisons what still remains of the individuated ....
#3
Theodor Adorno (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969)
from Minima Moralia
Reflections from the damaged life
Part One
1944
...
Myriads of people make their living out of a condition, which follows the liquidation of occupations. These are the nice people, the popular ones, who are friends with all, the just ones, who excuse every sort of meanness as “human” ...and incorruptibly defame every non-normalized impulse as “sentimental” ....
They are indispensable thanks to their knowledge of all the channels and back doors of power, they guess its most secret judgments and live off the dexterous communication of such. They are to be found in all political camps, even there, where the rejection of the system is taken for granted and for that reason a lax and cunning conformism of its own has developed. Often they win over people through a certain benevolence, through the sympathetic sharing of the life of others: selflessness as speculation. They are clever, witty, sensible and flexible;
...
They are ready for anything, even love, yet always faithlessly. They betray not from instinctual drives, but from principle: they value even themselves as a profit, which they do not wish to share with anyone else. They are bound to the Spirit [Geist] with affinity and hate: they are a temptation for the thoughtful, but also their worst enemies. For they are the ones who subtly apprehend and despoil the last hiding-places of resistance, the hours which remain free from the demands of the machinery. Their belated individualism poisons what still remains of the individuated ....
#3
Theodor Adorno (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969)
from Minima Moralia
Reflections from the damaged life
Part One
1944
not news
"Insane sects grow with the same rhythm as big organizations.
It is the rhythm of total destruction."
#163
from Minima Moralia
in Reflections from the damaged life
---Theodor Adorno (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969)
It is the rhythm of total destruction."
#163
from Minima Moralia
in Reflections from the damaged life
---Theodor Adorno (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969)
Friday, September 15, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
women vote
it's less than a hundred years that women could vote;
British and German women in 1918, America probably
in 1920
So my mother, her mother, my father's sisters and his mother
could now vote.
That means my mother was a modern mother;
she even said to me, a modern woman will never marry a man
that cannot cook or sew on buttons
or knit a pullover for colder days.
well, my father could cook and bake, so I learned cooking,
baking, sewing, pullovering...from my mother and father
I wasn't sure anymore why I needed a woman to do these chores;
I knew too many people that were divorced,
and many of my friends lost their father during the war;
even my father was shot when he was 17 during the first world war;
so procreation and marriage contract and breeding
had somehow ulterior motives
that I did not want to get to close to
But these days all this is forgotten,
and I doubt women voting rights will celebrate their 100 anniversary;
just like gay rights, women will be hard pressed to embrace
once more Liberalism and Socialism
that had advanced her liberation
against the demands of a church in the first place.
The Vatican knows nothing about separation of church
and state which could guarantee women votes and rights.
British and German women in 1918, America probably
in 1920
So my mother, her mother, my father's sisters and his mother
could now vote.
That means my mother was a modern mother;
she even said to me, a modern woman will never marry a man
that cannot cook or sew on buttons
or knit a pullover for colder days.
well, my father could cook and bake, so I learned cooking,
baking, sewing, pullovering...from my mother and father
I wasn't sure anymore why I needed a woman to do these chores;
I knew too many people that were divorced,
and many of my friends lost their father during the war;
even my father was shot when he was 17 during the first world war;
so procreation and marriage contract and breeding
had somehow ulterior motives
that I did not want to get to close to
But these days all this is forgotten,
and I doubt women voting rights will celebrate their 100 anniversary;
just like gay rights, women will be hard pressed to embrace
once more Liberalism and Socialism
that had advanced her liberation
against the demands of a church in the first place.
The Vatican knows nothing about separation of church
and state which could guarantee women votes and rights.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
we boys
knew only language and another language and another language;
all force beyond it, force applied to language driving ideas...
we were surrounded by its very results
you either doubt what you see
or question language you hear;
sometimes you don't see yet,
but you can take the temperature of the language
you're surrounded with
what we saw everywhere was an outcome:
words we spoke in turn questioned those who taught and trained us
NOT 'us' - but you and me and him and him and her
we were not yet a group,
everybody's voice was different:
we were not made to believe
while we tried to understand the ghosts within language
all force beyond it, force applied to language driving ideas...
we were surrounded by its very results
you either doubt what you see
or question language you hear;
sometimes you don't see yet,
but you can take the temperature of the language
you're surrounded with
what we saw everywhere was an outcome:
words we spoke in turn questioned those who taught and trained us
NOT 'us' - but you and me and him and him and her
we were not yet a group,
everybody's voice was different:
we were not made to believe
while we tried to understand the ghosts within language
Saturday, June 10, 2006
no word
can describe you:
I can't describe you with my teacher's words
his feelings spoke in obedience of some proscribed curriculum
words of approved production
to put you into words
to put you grammatically in place
I would have to turn myself into a narrative
with words of lies that would freeze your liveliness
I can't describe you with my teacher's words
his feelings spoke in obedience of some proscribed curriculum
words of approved production
to put you into words
to put you grammatically in place
I would have to turn myself into a narrative
with words of lies that would freeze your liveliness
Friday, June 09, 2006
today's invention:
drain canned tuna,
empty into a bowl
squeeze one lemon,
mix juice into tuna
while the kitchen is free from music and noise
warm up a can of cream of chicken soup
or cream of mushroom soup
to which I added today thin pre-cooked slices of rutabaga
mix the works
add chives or parsley
if too thin mix in some oats
Get a spoon
eat !
don't answer the phone
nor listen to radio or watch tv
Then eat a green Granny Smith apple
empty into a bowl
squeeze one lemon,
mix juice into tuna
while the kitchen is free from music and noise
warm up a can of cream of chicken soup
or cream of mushroom soup
to which I added today thin pre-cooked slices of rutabaga
mix the works
add chives or parsley
if too thin mix in some oats
Get a spoon
eat !
don't answer the phone
nor listen to radio or watch tv
Then eat a green Granny Smith apple
Saturday, June 03, 2006
nature deceived
how long in retreat?
deceived by words made into law
a boy's tear drowned in wordy ridicule
a touch misperceived in language's maze
culture deceived by language serving fear
deceived by words made into law
a boy's tear drowned in wordy ridicule
a touch misperceived in language's maze
culture deceived by language serving fear
inadvertently
much world is made from words
to make nature speak
and decide against your body
thus words act like colonies
create small surroundings
fenced in by big frames,
substitutes for responsibility
words are lonely now,
aggressiveness rests in muscles
erectors of more law
but moral's gain is ethic's failure
history cheated via a language game
where diverse gods fabulate
to make nature speak
and decide against your body
thus words act like colonies
create small surroundings
fenced in by big frames,
substitutes for responsibility
words are lonely now,
aggressiveness rests in muscles
erectors of more law
but moral's gain is ethic's failure
history cheated via a language game
where diverse gods fabulate
not the world not the cosmos
not all this surplus,
but the words that endlessly go there
words faster than a wind's cold breath
snow flakes syllables colder than ice
these they trade among each other
words and reversals and promises again
piece by piece by many words
as if by piecework they climb
towards undeceived meanings
yet in the end nothing remains
no echo follows laughter
no river reaches as far as tears
all song struck dead by an order of language
but the words that endlessly go there
words faster than a wind's cold breath
snow flakes syllables colder than ice
these they trade among each other
words and reversals and promises again
piece by piece by many words
as if by piecework they climb
towards undeceived meanings
yet in the end nothing remains
no echo follows laughter
no river reaches as far as tears
all song struck dead by an order of language
Sunday, May 28, 2006
yellow lemon
you say,
is much to0 sour
but a lemon's shape and form
its yellow colour,
I say,
is as sweet as it is sour -
agrees with me
makes me think: how am I in harmony with nature?
before any sweet text can reach me
punishing on a scale between sweet and sour
is much to0 sour
but a lemon's shape and form
its yellow colour,
I say,
is as sweet as it is sour -
agrees with me
makes me think: how am I in harmony with nature?
before any sweet text can reach me
punishing on a scale between sweet and sour
eat simplicity
squeeze a new lemon each new day;
nature repeats nothing, everything is new her way
only same words are drummed into your ears
and texts are repeated and pictures are summoned
each new generation does it the same old way
eat a red reddish or two, each are different
each new day
make sure you don't repeat yourself each day
and be the same as yesterday
nature repeats nothing, everything is new her way
only same words are drummed into your ears
and texts are repeated and pictures are summoned
each new generation does it the same old way
eat a red reddish or two, each are different
each new day
make sure you don't repeat yourself each day
and be the same as yesterday
Friday, May 26, 2006
puzzle of ignorance
how do they get old or stay younger
without ever getting invited for a philosophical conversation?
in a village without a pub, dance hall or anything else to hang around in?
is every invitation an intrusion, a sexual sport?
a sexualized perception of both attack and seduction?
language enclosed, a ghetto?
language as self-enclosure,
where the self is designed as community property,
as defense against others:
outsiders ? the learned to be shunned?
the educated to be expelled?
Community: the already always new fiction?
the one-minded community,
barbariens marching off their community fiction
barking away at the outsiders?
there are no trains ( a few) accross country,
do we behave like passing trains,
stuck in compartments in love with desktops and tv sets?
culture's volunteers stuck in cars?
do people pass by?
is the landscape disappearing?
flat minds ask for nothing...
no radio, no tv, no poetry
for what then words? what are humans for?
to suffer punishment and speactacles of passing cultures?
and lies that paint all meanings
follow as sure as green leaves cover up
all that is beneath and below
or do green leaves fall into yellowness
proving our perpetual nakedness
always under this cover of fictions?
without ever getting invited for a philosophical conversation?
in a village without a pub, dance hall or anything else to hang around in?
is every invitation an intrusion, a sexual sport?
a sexualized perception of both attack and seduction?
language enclosed, a ghetto?
language as self-enclosure,
where the self is designed as community property,
as defense against others:
outsiders ? the learned to be shunned?
the educated to be expelled?
Community: the already always new fiction?
the one-minded community,
barbariens marching off their community fiction
barking away at the outsiders?
there are no trains ( a few) accross country,
do we behave like passing trains,
stuck in compartments in love with desktops and tv sets?
culture's volunteers stuck in cars?
do people pass by?
is the landscape disappearing?
flat minds ask for nothing...
no radio, no tv, no poetry
for what then words? what are humans for?
to suffer punishment and speactacles of passing cultures?
and lies that paint all meanings
follow as sure as green leaves cover up
all that is beneath and below
or do green leaves fall into yellowness
proving our perpetual nakedness
always under this cover of fictions?
Monday, May 22, 2006
etc's
where there is no practical philosophy
there's an abundance of policing, thoughtless incarceration
religious sensibility:
antagonist of freedom
beauty is worthless
against the demands of more law
having friends is a matter of philosophy free from politics;
religious politics praises sexuality, not humanity
there's an abundance of policing, thoughtless incarceration
religious sensibility:
antagonist of freedom
beauty is worthless
against the demands of more law
having friends is a matter of philosophy free from politics;
religious politics praises sexuality, not humanity
Thursday, May 18, 2006
digest texts
the more words to believe in
the more your body moves between procedural lines
texts constrain the human organism,
conform it to brainless rules constructed from words
and this goes as far as
devouring all other -harmless or peaceful- animalistic organisms,
a peculiar rage against all that lives
by use of simple formula.
Study history and all transformations
praised as change towards something better
turns out to be nothing but an ongoing destruction
Now some say this or that culture advances humanity,
in reality, a huge circle reshapes the language
that each word turns into its opposite
Not to write "against" texts
not to write to enhance texts,
texts never humanize
the birds keep on singing, laughing, migrating
shying away from textually raised humans
one word against the other
like sand, all of equal value
and in the course of time of value to none
the more your body moves between procedural lines
texts constrain the human organism,
conform it to brainless rules constructed from words
and this goes as far as
devouring all other -harmless or peaceful- animalistic organisms,
a peculiar rage against all that lives
by use of simple formula.
Study history and all transformations
praised as change towards something better
turns out to be nothing but an ongoing destruction
Now some say this or that culture advances humanity,
in reality, a huge circle reshapes the language
that each word turns into its opposite
Not to write "against" texts
not to write to enhance texts,
texts never humanize
the birds keep on singing, laughing, migrating
shying away from textually raised humans
one word against the other
like sand, all of equal value
and in the course of time of value to none
Monday, January 30, 2006
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