The Desire to Create

The Philoblogger *

...who asks:
What is it that drives a person to create? Where does the desire for originality, and beauty, arise from? Is it out of vanity or selfishness, or, is it out a deeper humanism?


*ThePhiloblogger, author of "On Paraconsistency: the Philosophical Utility Behind a Logic of Inconsistency", and "Foucault on Discourse and the Re-evaluation of Truths" was recently graduated Magna Cum Laude from UNC-Charlotte in Philosophy.

The Philoblogger was at Mardi Gras, and was unable to attend the Triangle Blogger Conference. It is my hope that he will give a brief speech on the philosophy of blogospheric octogony and its role in the paradevelopment of bicranial preferentiation (hominoidal), during the upcoming confluence of bloggerati, and gather his wily kindred for the meeting of souls, as they are of sublime substance and style, thus meshing well with what I have found in the two previous conclaves.

To create? Don't know if it's true, but it has been said that the greatest innovations of the 20th century were social innovations. Transportation systems, Internets, governments. And now, in the 21st century, we are seeing that yet another social system is fast becoming one of the major social innovations. And You Are There!

As Martin Buber correctly perceived, the relationships are more important than the nodes. The blogosphere is that ethereal web of relationship that serves as food for bloggers -- an experience lost on those with only one-way channels, such as was the earmark of the 20th century dictation. But as the journalists and bloggers in Greensboro are teaching us, there is nourishment in creating a breathing system that directly involves citizen participation. It is a plus for freedom, a plus for community, and a plus for democracy.

And this is taking place before your eyes. Social Innovation. Evolution.

Sharon the Bully is doing a disservice to Jews

Sharon the Bully is doing a disservice to Jews




All my life, I have felt a deep sympathy for the Jewish people for having to suffer the evil deeds of that bastard and misanthrope, Adolph Hitler. In fact, I have had a hard time forgiving the German people for having hatched such a monster.

But Ariel Sharon is doing his level best to squander the goodwill and sympathy of much of the world, by his bullying, his throat-slitting past, his own murderous deeds, and his cowboy swagger.

Mr. Perez, Mr. Barak, and Mr. Rabin are far more worthy representatives than the adipose and threatening Mr. Sharon, for they conjure to mind people like Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, Hillel, and the life. Not, sadly to say, Mike Tyson.

But we have a sort of pussilanimous Mike Tyson in the Oval Office ourselves, and yet we all know he is a paper tiger and a wuss...and will be replaced by a much better human being very soon indeed. You fellers ought to consider getting rid of your own monsters. After all...Peace is better than War. And killing is declasse and rude.

Admittedly, Arafat is no better. But why lower yourselves? Think with the top of your intelligence, as you have done for millennia. But never forget your heart...which all people have. Even your supposed enemies. And maybe, hopefully, they will consider your hearts as well.

I pray that Peace will come to the Middle East and to the World. But it first has to exist in your hearts, our hearts. All our hearts.

Fear not. Rather love...with all your might, and all your heart. Pray for your enemy as well.

Remember David and Goliath. And don't side with Goliath.

May Peace, alas, descend to all peoples.

Anonymoses Presents: People I think I'd like.

Anonymoses Presents: People I think I'd like.

This will be an exercise in free association...

Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, John Malkovich, Gary Sinese, Beck, Jeff Beck, David Beckham, Colin Firth, Peter Gabriel, Peter Brook, Peter Pan, Patty Pan, Patter Poon, Prune Tang (no, that's a drink I'd like to see), Gary Tang, Mel Brooks, Louise Brooks, David Brooks, Clara Bow, David Bowie, David Boies, David Byrne, David Brancaccio, David Bianculli, Spalding Gray, Chadwick Gray, Wilson!, Robert Wilson, Robert Anton Wilson, Phillip Glass, Tim Robbins, Ton Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut, Gore Vidal, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Rep. Jim Leach, Cary Grant, Grant Tinker, Tinker Bell, Lee Grant, Robert E. Lee, Lao T'se, Gautama, Jesus, Mohammed, Mohammed Ali, Socrates, King Wen, The Duke of Chou, Paramahansa Yogananda, Jon Anderson, Robert Fripp, Gurdjieff, Simone Weil, Martin Buber, Idries Shah, Jallaluddin Rumi, Coleman Barks, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Al Franken, Michael Moore, Rep. Lincoln Chaffee, Senator John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, John Kerry, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Truthaddict Louis, Zhoodah, Zarah, Zarathustra, Neitzsche, Schopenhauer, Willard Quine, Sophie Freud Lowenstein, Alexander Theroux, Olivia DeHaviland, Audrey Hepburn, Juliet Binoche, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Whoopie Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Jim Beckwourth, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Jerry Brown, Linda Ronstadt, Roberta Flack, Joan Armatrading, Joan Shenendoah, Norah Jones, Woody Allen, Ravi Shankar, Steve Reich, Robert Reich, Jeremiah, Baruch, Tia Tephi, William Shakespeare, Taliesin, Mary Magdalene, Mary Tyler Moore, Sherri Lewis, Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Orson Welles, Orson Bean, Mr. Bean, Dziga Vertov, Tristan Tsara, Salvadore Dali, Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Sergei Eisenstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Baruch Spinoza, Henri Bergson, Fyodor Dostoyevskii, Yevtushenko, Steven Biko, Desmond Tutu, Kafe Annan, Dag Hamerskold, John, John-John, Jackie Kennedy, Robert Benchley, Red Skelton, Drew Barrymore, John Barrymore, The Beatles, Diane Rehm, Jim Lehrer, Bill Moyers, Daniel Schorr, Howard Rheingold, Stewart Brand, David Holtzman, Bob Dobbs, Moby K. Dick, Martha Loofa, Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp, John Cage, Bucky Fuller, Thom Yorke, Clare Short, Mayor Livingston, Tamara Beckwith, John Barth, T.C. Boyle, Pagan Kennedy, Johnny Depp, Walter Cronkhite, Edward R. Murrow

"We bomb the world. We bomb the children..."

Another hundred points for Dubya!

Rules of Engagement


Videotape Shows U.S. Helicopter Crew Firing on Suspected Iraqi Insurgents

Peter Jennings, Martha Radditz and ABC News are to be commended for showing us this astonishing video of the nonchalance of life and death in at least some of the minds, sadly our minds, in Iraq. I am appalled at this kind of activity, and can't help but think that we have been pulled into a tit-for-tat of evil deeds. It is a strange twist of fate, I suppose, that after presenting this awful scene, Mr. Jennings introduces the next segment with "Mars dramatically infected, um, affected, by Bush policies..." Maybe Mr. Jennings could not sit and take the fact that we have been driven to such horrible acts of nonchalant murder. Is this micropreemption? Where does preemption stop?

With a new president?

Well...if we must, we must. And not only Christians, but Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, Taoists, Presbyterians, atheists, agnostics, and Baptists are disturbed by such things as we have witnessed today. And we know that it is not what Jesus would do. It is also not what Buddha, Gandhi, Muhammed, Lao Tse, Martin Luther King, or Martin Buber, for that matter, would do. It is supremely impolite if nothing else.
But it is something else. And there absolutely has to be a better way. If this is the best Bush can do...we need to demand better, and vote him from office. An office he seized in the first place.

What is it with Texans, anyway?

Will Mars be the sharks and Condit of 9-10? We need to demand more of our News organs. The happy news comes on after the real news. Demand tough reporting from that which shares a mere 18 minutes or so with us. We are on to "junk-food news". Who's up and who's down, recurring weather phenomena, bla bla bla.
Maybe Mr. Jennings and his wondrous crew can earn their keep by rising to the highest standards of their trade, as they have done lately. And then maybe others will then have to follow.

That is how to achieve leadership. Be the best at doing what you are supposed to be doing. You're good enough. You're smart enough. And doggone it...people like you!

Again, my thanks to ABC News.