View allAll Photos Tagged existential
"They thought they could dispose of me
They tried to make me small
I suffered each indignity
But now rise above it all"
From 'Don't Forget Me' from "Smash"
Photograph published in News Junkie Post on 5/30/2020
newsjunkiepost.com/2020/05/30/climate-crisispandemics-and...
Photograph also published in The Duran on 5/31/2020
theduran.com/climate-crisis-pandemics-and-bad-governance-...
the existential void
we
as humans
all suffer
and are challenged by
March 2020
this image was taken 160 years after and
directly below the spot @
COOPER SQUARE
where ABE LINCOLN gave his
COOPER UNION ADDRESS
in
MANHATTAN
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/cooper.htm
FEB 27 1860
Photography’s new conscience
A black-and-white view of a decaying building in Rijeka, where a vertical mural of primate faces stares out from a crumbling wall. The expressive artwork contrasts with broken staircases and exposed stone, evoking themes of memory, collapse and continuity. A satellite dish stands awkwardly in front, adding a modern echo to the ruin. A moment of urban archaeology and existential commentary.
Liminality (from the Latin meaning "a threshold") is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology (a "liminal state").
I think we can all identify with that.... ;-)
As part of coordinated protest action by tens of thousands of people worldwide, demonstrators took to the streets to demand urgent action to tackle the existential threat of catastrophic climate change. In London, several hundred protesters, many of them students, met in Parliament Square before marching to the Home Office. All part of the Fridays for Future campaign.
Here, a protester carries a placard - "You cannot eat money but you can eat the rich," underlining the extent to which the wealthy, and particularly the top 1%, are not only responsible for most of the emissions but are also consuming and wasting land intensive food products particularly from animal agriculture. At the same time, concentrated corporate power lobbies governments to resist demands for richer nations to subsidize poorer countries to enable them to transform to more sustainable development paths. Higher taxation levels on the rich could help to lower emissions and provide essential support to the victims of climate change.
"You can eat the rich" is a slogan, originally attributed to the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, but now widely used by those opposed to growing income inequality as it has become increasingly extreme in the fifty years since the 1970s, due in part to increased corporate power over government.
Existential Dispositions.
Natur pesimistiaeth ddihysbydd athrawon egnïon cwestiynu postscripts ffug,
plé suthain iomadaíodh foilsithe mínithe ar fad athbhreithnithe ag smaoineamh fealsúna samplaí fiáin,
punti intricati motivi selation epigrammi testi letterature sfumature infinite frasi studenti compromessi,
عدم الإرتباط بالفروق في النمو وعدم الإحباط في تنمية الفرضيات تقريب الأهداف المحددة,
Systemisierungsverwaltungen psychologische universelle gefühle tauchen getroffen metaphysische welt ein,
Realización conceptos interpretación existencia fuentes sin valor medición de las categorías inaplicables significados,
Úvahy Zjednodušení předpoklady hypotézy positing destruktivní hlediskové opatření popření,
ιδανικά ιδεαλισμός απογοητευμένος επιθυμίες τιμές προφανές αποχή αλήθειες κακό κατανοητή σύγχρονη ύπαρξη,
Метафизики нигилизм ценности импатистическая мораль имманентные инстинкты уверенность в далекой воле фатализм,
信念を衰える存在感を失う最大の崩壊非合理的な条件を考慮した最大の崩壊.
Steve.D.Hammond.
The Princess takes the young poet, Cégeste.
Best on Black
Location: The Photographer's Workshop: slurl.com/secondlife/Trapper/86/61/39
A tropical looking house on a street corner in DeLand, Florida shot in digital infrared. The title refers to the "no outlet" street sign.
"This oddly existential question was meant to push the beverage not just as a business, but as a lifestyle". 1910 Advertising slogan for MJB Coffee.....
Sound familiar ??
Within human experience, time and space are inextricably entangled.
Together they form the basis of our everyday life, and moreover, link
it to the very beginning of life and thus existence itself, that is to the
origin of the evolution of the universe from a singularity, the big
bang. It is this interdependence of the two concepts and their initial
genesis that I focus on in my artistic practice.
The expansive installation Perception of the Stendhal Syndrome rep-
resents my conception to approach existential questions through the
means of aesthetic experience. By means of developing a specific set
of techniques, I aim to overcome the limits of the medium of painting
and to expand it by the category of time.
With this work, I hope to engage the visitor on all levels,
instantaneously: Perception of the Stendhal Syndrome comprises one
of my large-scale white-on-black paintings from the series
Gene&Ethics – Master Prism (1,80 x 2,80 m) and a custom-made,
sculptural magnifying glass, measuring 1,58 m in height, which is
hung from the ceiling at distance to the canvas. Each visitor will
perceive a completely unique series of images when approaching the
work, as every slightest move generates an entirely new impression.
The installation thus aims to provide an experience of my work that
simultaneously allows for a macro perspective and micro perspective
of the painting, thereby revealing my different painting techniques,
which are the result of a long-term synthesizing process of
conceptual practices and technical-chemical explorations.
I have been experimenting with the constitutive elements of painting,
that is the quality of the paint, its support, as well as a range of
unconventional painting techniques, to attain this effect. Through the
interplay between the medium, the timing and my body, physically
moving around a canvas on the floor, I seek to derive a specific fluid
and organic quality in my paintings.
The literally puzzling and elusive nature of the experience of
approaching Gene&Ethics – Master Prism while looking through a
magnifying glass, lies at the center of my interest: each beholder is
forced to reverberate his/her own position in regard to the work and
within the actual space, instinctively. At the beginning of every
philosophical reflection stands the question of the point of view. With
this installation, I would like to take an explicit stance towards this
issue, as it is each individual human being that stands at the center
of the art: My work only exists when being experienced!
However, it not only deals with perception, on the contrary, with the
strategy of providing sensual experiences, I seek to sharpen the
senses for societal and environmental issues. I have drawn inspiration
from sculptors, such as Anish Kapoor and Tony Cragg, but also the
architect Frank Gehry, who are all known for providing unique spatial
experiences that trigger reflections about one’s existence.
The installation thus literally reaches out, in order to encompass the
viewer on a bodily, psychological and self-reflexive level. By way of
providing this engaging experience, I try to raise the viewers’
awareness of space-time, opening up the possibility to relate this
perception to the ‘bigger picture’ of our existence.
Animated Tv's! Choose from Aerobics chicken dance, Loveline, guaranteed to improve your love life, or those that just want to have an existential crisis we've included a static version. 3li! All included
A statement of purpose, an existential proclamation, and, given the tens of thousands crowding the quad, an extremely useful piece of forethought.
Today’s America — at least
as measured by the actions
and inactions of the pariahs
who roam its halls of power
and the people who put them
there —
is insular, cruel and uncaring.
In this America, the House can
— as it did in July — pass a
farm bill that left out the food
stamp program at a time nearly
48 million, are depending on
the benefits.
In today’s America, poverty
and homelessness can easily
seep beneath the wall we
erect in our minds to define
it.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/blow-a-town-without-pi...?
Shelter, From All the Wrong Reasons
Depression isn't triggered by a world filled with sadness. Depression is having blessings in your life, actually acknowledging the fact that they are CONSIDERED blessings, but simply not finding their value. Depression is building a shield. One that’s supposed to protect, but instead keeps all the joys from entering. Depression is seeing your weaknesses better than everyone. Depression is feeling that you’re both too good and too worthless to be in this world.
Depression isn't a feeling. It’s not synonymous with sadness. It’s is knowing that you’re too small to change anything in anybody’s life.
And you’re probably sometimes correct.
And you know it.
And you hate it.
It starts as a little tiny idea in the back of your head. The universe is HUGE. You are one miniscule person, and your odds are most likely scattered around being average. Not everyone who works hard makes it. And ‘making it’ is very relative. You’re too small to make a difference: this toxic mindset starts creeping its way into anything and everything you do. So you start thinking that going to work or school today isn't really going to affect anybody in anyway. Then you think that hanging out with this friend today isn't really going to affect anything. So you start missing important occasions, because yes they seem important to this friend today, but how does it matter 15 years from now? And anyway, are you really that important to make a significant difference with your presence? This feeling that everything including your being is worthless drags on to your family and lover and school and work and hobbies and every little aspect of your life, till you actually become it. Fake it till you make it, or in this case, fake it till you break it. Your friends start noticing that even when you’re present you barely have any contribution. They start valuing you less and less. People you meet for the first time now think you’re just too silent, or shy, or maybe stuck-up or anti-social. You find yourself sitting idle in group discussions thinking ‘what’s the point of even trying to convince anyone about anything?’ You think of a clever joke or comeback but you stop yourself before a word comes out because there’s no point or purpose... Then all you EVER think is ‘what’s the point’.
What’s the point of getting out of bed?
What’s the point of getting a job?
What’s the point of having a friend?
What’s the point of eating?
What’s the point of working hard?
What’s the point of success?
What’s the point of being alive? … and… is it necessary?
At this point you barely have any friends, and even those few people who are magically still in your life resent you for not being both physically and emotionally present for them. You can’t relate to anybody and no one understands you simply because you don’t let them in. You spend most your days in bed trying to sleep it all off. You fail your courses and you lag behind on everything else.
This makes it worse, because you were right. You’re jobless, friendless, and lonely; you’re a worthless failure. To make it even worse, everybody keeps reminding you of that. They tell you should be more active. You should go out more. You should work harder. You should get yourself together. And the fact is, you don’t have a clue that you’re depressed. You just think ‘This is the way I am, a worthless piece of crap that disappoints everybody’. New acquaintances validate that, because they’ve only seen the vacant skeleton you’ve become. They don’t know you. You sometimes try to follow your few friends’ advice and be more active but it backfires, because you’re in so deep in this vicious whirlwind that you end up hating yourself for not being able to ‘ just snap out of it’.
SNAP OUT OF IT!
SNAP OUT OF IT!
SNAP OUT OF IT!
..the worst thing any depressed soul can hear.
There comes a point –hopefully- where you have the realization that you’re depressed. That this is not really YOU. That this is just a mindset you can shed off. And you feel positive for the first time since what feels like forever, because you finally know what’s wrong! So you hurry and tell the couple of people you still trust. And what a mistake that can be. They go right ahead and list your countless blessings and tell you to just STOP BEING SAD because there’s nothing to be sad about. But you’re not sad! You’re just incapable of happiness, because what’s the point of being happy and is happiness even real? These are just some questions raised that, if answered properly, could start a chain of thoughts that would end all this mess. If you’re strong and fortunate enough, you’d do your research and realize the baby steps to make to get out of this whirlwind. And if you’re lucky enough, you’d have someone trustworthy help in slowly and carefully pulling you out of this disintegrating mindset.
If not,
you’d linger on that last question…
What’s the point of being alive? … and is it necessary?
If not, I pray a miracle happens before you do what you think is the only sensible way out.
Next time you see someone depressed, please don’t assume they’re in a long-term sadness or grief. Don’t assume they’re delusional. And please don’t tell them to just snap out of it.
Next time you see someone depressed, genuinely tell them how valuable they are in your life, which might be all they need.
As we enter a new election cycle, every voter should be asking themselves, what is the Republican platform, not just for the midterms, but for 2024? What exactly does the GOP stand for, and what programs would they like to enact should they carry Congress and even the Presidency?
So far, all we’ve learned is what they don’t want. They don’t want people of color voting. As demographics shift to a more racially and ethnically diverse population, the party’s base is dwindling. So, legislatures in conservative states are passing a record number of voter suppression laws. They don’t want to make it easy to vote for anyone but them.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine presents an interesting parallel to the political and social upheavals in the United States. Both represent existential threats to our countries’ futures. Yet, unlike the united opposition Ukrainians have displayed against Russian aggression, Americans stand more divided than ever before.
The Republicans’ platform lacks any coherent substance to better people’s lives, but they are in lockstep unison with their messaging. In contrast, Democrats are committed to reducing income inequality and ending racial and gender discrimination. But they lack a coherent and united message. We are at an untenable impasse.
President Biden’s State of the Union got several bipartisan standing ovations when speaking out against Putin. The enemy of my enemy is my friend (well, temporarily).
The applause continued when Biden declared the police would not be defunded. But as The Nation’s justice correspondent, Elie Mystral, remarked on The View, the President failed to give his words any context. “Defund the police” was a confusing phrase that didn’t mean what it stated. The backlash was huge and unnecessary. And it didn’t get to the heart of the issue.
It was a call to restructure police departments so that social workers and psychologists, not police patrolling neighborhoods, handled marital disputes, the homeless, and those in psychological distress. These people were being jailed and killed at alarming rates when we should have been treating them for their mental health problems. And, when put that way, the police welcomed that change. Biden’s comment garnered rapturous applause from both sides of the aisle. Yet his message lacked any substance. It was a missed opportunity.
Was this another of his attempts to find common ground with Republicans, something to build on? Or was this a temporary Kumbaya moment? Bipartisanship is far from reality given the Republican’s response to the President’s State of the Union by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. Being an election year, using overly simplistic talking points makes it easier for the electorate to make choices. “On the economy, the contrast couldn’t be more stark,” Reynolds said. “While Democrats in DC are spending trillions, sending inflation soaring, Republican leaders around the country are balancing budgets and cutting taxes.”
In reality, both GOP and Democrat governors are cutting taxes. A booming economy and COVID relief have built huge tax surpluses across the country. However, there are fundamental differences between each party’s strategy for distributing those surpluses to its citizens. Republicans want to create tax cuts that benefit the rich, believing the already discredited “trickle-down economics” theory creates more jobs. Democrat-led states want to tailor amounts more to the middle class. In Iowa, Reynolds wants to do away with the state’s nine-tiered tax rate. She wants to replace it with a flat rate of 4%. That would put a more significant tax burden on the middle class and poor.
While politicians like Governor Reynolds would like voters to think Democrats are to blame, inflation is soaring for many reasons. The prolonged pandemic changed our lives virtually overnight. We stayed home. We didn’t eat out, go to the movies, or use our cars. Instead of spending, we saved. And the federal government helped millions in need with financial assistance. Oil prices plummeted, and OPEC reduced output to compensate. And, now that the pandemic might be easing up, we’re ready to spend that cash. We’re driving again, and with the greater demand for gas, oil production has yet to match our increased needs (and with higher profits, OPEC is taking its time). That’s one of the main reasons for the high cost of gas. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has only added to this volatility. Chaos breeds unpredictability. Not surprisingly, the Governor failed to mention this.
COVID caused a lot of supply chain issues. Not only did sick and absent workers slow the production of many goods, but, like oil, the demand outstripped inventory. And let’s not forget the price-gouging shipping companies. The cost of shipping a cargo container from Shanghai to Rotterdam rose 547% compared to the seasonal high during the previous five years! So there are many reasons we’re encountering inflation right now. It’s a problem, but not a partisan one.
We are experiencing one of the most turbulent times since World War II. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have all the answers. Nor can either party fix it all. Unlike Ukrainians, we are far from united in our efforts to save our country. This stalemate will be the death of us.
Build Me a Wedge Issue
Without actual plans to help struggling Americans, Republicans create cultural wedge issues to ignite their base and bring out the vote. Not only did Donald Trump’s disdain for taking commonsense health precautions prolong the pandemic, but it also turned us against each other. That’s the Republicans’ plan right now.
We don’t teach critical race theory (CRT) in our children’s schools. So why are GOP-led states trying to ban it in K-12? Why are parents so whipped up about it, attacking school boards and threatening their members? Because anger brings out voters. Republicans accuse liberals of blaming Whites today for the sins of the past, and it’s incendiary. But that isn’t happening. Only current bigots are called to task. This is just one example of a bogus Republican ploy to divide us.
Teaching age-appropriate social-emotional skills in K-12, such as cooperation and empathy, can lead to more specific discussions about our history as children grow into adults. But if we continue to politicize everything, how will we learn to live together—how will we teach our children to live together? Parents have a right to know what their children are learning and why. But conservative attempts to embrace discord at school board meetings, install cameras in classrooms, and ban books are symbolic of Republicans’ desire to stir outrage, not embrace common goals. How can we acknowledge the past while making opportunities for all Americans in the present?
Politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (who chastised high school students for wearing masks) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (who recently issued a legal opinion defining gender-affirming health care for transgender kids as “child abuse”) are just two examples of Republican attempts to create theatrics for political gain.
Partisan grandstanding also has a dangerous side. Florida’s legislature just passed the “Parental Rights in Education” bill (termed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by its detractors). It bans lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade. But these subjects aren’t even taught in these grades. So why even propose such legislation? But additional language in the bill (§8(c)3) also bans any discussions “not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” This could broaden the range of grades affected.
The law allows parents to sue teachers and schools who teach it. Teachers often provide safe havens for children in crises. And this would put both them and their students in jeopardy. It sends a message to already at-risk LGBTQ youth and children of same-sex parents that these subjects are taboo and their lives are marginalized.
Forging a More Unified Nation
If the GOP is unwilling to work with Democrats to address these economic and social issues, the Democrats must go it alone. (In a recent essay, I outlined The Washington Post’s Perry Bacon, Jr.’s three suggestions on how Biden can do this.) Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin also has some ideas. In his recent New York Times essay, he says the Democrats’ problem is that they lack a social movement that can turn much of the working class into active supporters of sustainable social change. We need to create a powerful message that is class rather than racially based. Political elites, Kazin states, have never initiated essential policy changes on their own.
Looking at America’s past successes to create significant policy shifts, Kazin sees two lessons we can use now. First, a social movement must be large and powerful enough to force Democrat leaders to listen and grant some of our demands. Second, progressive programs that were successful and long-lasting, like social security, helped Americans no matter their race. And most importantly, they were perceived as helping everyone. During the New Deal, the Congress of Industrial Organizations welcomed African Americans as equals and pushed the Democrats to focus on civil rights. A movement based on the working class would be inclusive, with Whites and people of color united for common causes.
The pandemic has forced major social shifts in our society, something Democrats can take advantage of. There is a resurgent interest in unions—people cooperating to forge change at their workplaces. With “The Great Resignation,” people are quitting their jobs en masse to look for better pay, working conditions, and a more balanced life. Small businesses and large companies can’t find enough workers and offer signing bonuses, even for fast-food jobs. Suddenly, it’s a seller’s market we haven’t seen for decades. From Starbucks to Google and Apple, workers are looking for a more democratic workplace by unionizing for the greater good. The results could reduce economic inequality and racial animus.
Historically, it’s been workers’ rights and working conditions versus corporate interests. One crucial difference now is that some corporate and financial leaders realize the danger of income inequality. Billionaire and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has said, “The most intolerable situation is how our system fails to take good care of so many of our children. Low incomes, poorly funded schools, and weak family support for children lead to poor academic achievement, which leads to low productivity and low incomes of people who become economic burdens on the society.” This cements the poor in their place for generations. Another billionaire, Mark Cuban, has just launched CostPlus Drug Company, a low-cost pharmacy to make medications more affordable to Americans (something the federal government has failed to do).
While corporations reward their CEOs and stockholders for profitable quarters, companies should also reward their workers for companies’ successes. A large class-based movement can accelerate this change. JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has said, “Capitalism enables competition, innovation, and choice. This is not to say that capitalism does not have flaws, that it isn’t leaving people behind, and that it shouldn’t be improved.”
Dr. Kazin points out that progressive politicians in red states can win elections. He points to Ohio’s Senator Sherrod Brown and Montana’s Senator Jon Tester, who speak about class inequality. Brown talks about the “dignity of work,” and Tester has proposed a bill to bar corporations who lock out their employees during labor disputes from receiving tax breaks and deductions.
Like Bacon, Kazin suggests paths President Biden can take to build this coalition of working people. Talk often and forcibly about how legislation in his Build Back Better program, like child credit and lower health care costs, could improve most Americans' lives. Promote the Protect the Right to Organize Act, which the House passed a year ago, but the filibuster has stalled it in the Senate. In a poll, 80% of West Virginia’s working-class backs these programs, even Republicans. But the state’s Joe Manchin has continued to block their passage. Time to go around him. A large and vocal working-class movement could transcend party politics. The President’s messaging needs to emphasize this coalition strategy every single day.
Kazin states, “Last fall, a liberal polling firm conducted a survey in swing states and battleground districts to test how voters would react to a Democratic candidate who articulated such an aggressive pro-worker, anti-corporate message.” After hearing the pitch, support for Democrat candidates rose five points, enough to win elections in these contested districts.
It’s time to call out the GOP for its feckless We Got Nada strategy to win elections. When asked to reveal the Republican platform if they take back the Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “That’s a very good question. And I’ll let you know when we take it back.” Their goal is to distract us with canards like Florida’s law outlawing mask mandates while they ignore our actual problems. Their politics are divisive and deaf to our critical needs. Democrats can effectively do an end-around this political standoff by honing their message: one that encourages massive support that transcends race and politics for programs that improve Americans’ lives.
We’re all mentally and physically exhausted by our hostile and suspicious neighbors. I’m sick of American politicians who revel in this discord. To sustain economic growth and political stability in the face of more turbulent times, we must create a fairer society. Let’s be more like Ukraine. They’re in a fight for their lives. So are we.
Feel free to pass this poster on. It's free to download here (click on the down arrow just to the lower right of the image).
See the rest of the posters from the Chamomile Tea Party! Digital high res downloads are free here (click the down arrow on the lower right side of the image). Other options are available. And join our Facebook group.
Follow the history of our country's political intransigence from 2010-2020 through a seven-part exhibit of these posters on Google Arts & Culture.
18. The less man has views and the more he has personal interests, the more he is inclined to regard his interests as views.
19. The »ideal« of dark tendencies is the person without world-views.
20. Man lives a lie because he cannot bear intellectually what he quite easily tolerates existentially: that he is so unworthy that he does not even have views. But the time is coming when he will be able to coexist even intellectually with his own unworthiness.
118. In the highest degree and as a first step man creates his incarnation; then - descending lower - he chooses it; descending even lower he freely accepts it; descending even lower than this he involuntarily takes notice of it: maybe he would like to but cannot avoid it; descending even lower than before he meets it; and finally he unconsciously falls into his incarnation - into that which originally was freely created by him.
119. Regarding especially its lowest degree - corresponding to the creatio factiva - and even its most external state, createdness means that I neither experience myself as the creator of myself nor as the creator of my own functions nor as the creator of my own world. Strictly speaking, creatureness means that my own being as creator becomes obscure.
121. The cherub who expelled man from Eden is the former rank of man, which keeps guard over the state of Eden of existence. And from this point of view man by man was expelled from Paradise, which essentially means that I myself expelled myself from myself.
122. Contemporary man - and the man of any age altogether - is nothing other than an identification.
142. The one who is not able to live his life as a constant ascension, which attains its perfection in the period right before death, but from a certain age starts to descend, in reality abuses his life.
143. He who does not strive upwards, descends.
144. He who lets himself be taken by the current, is certain to follow the wrong path.
151. Most people are infantile until about the midpoint of their lives, that is until the age of thirty-six, and immediately after that from one day to another grow senile.
218. He who wants the Goal, should also want the means that lead to the Goal. For if he does not want the means leading to the Goal, he certainly does not want the Goal.
220. The more a creature is a creature, the frailer he is, the more he is subject to attacks, the more he is subject to circumstances, the more he lives in the realm of attractions and repulsions.
224. Man should not ensure reservations of darkness in his life.
162. In the final analysis, man is not subjected to external factors but to his inner psychological states.
163. That which manifests itself as democracy in the world, appears as automatism, whirling associations, distractions and lack of (self)control in consciousness.
164. Every individual-personal mania is a usurper, and every mania represents the terroristic feature of the usurped power.
165. The really negative thing in someone’s raving is not that he is raving, but that in fact it is not him who is raving but something/someone within him.
166. Not only he commits a crime who by losing his self-control commits something, but also he who following from his lack of self-control does nothing.
137. The case when someone ignores essentiality involves not only that the most important thing starts missing but that there can be found something else in its place.
138. Sticking to the only-human leads not to remaining in the human sphere but to becoming sub-human. For persisting in something is to loose it: to loose that which was intended to be retained.
140. If superhuman principles does not stand behind man’s intention of changing himself then he will not remain in the human state but descend to a subhuman condition.
105. The fundamental alienation, the fundamental decline is the personality itself: when I myself am alienated from myself.
250. There is hardly a better chance for man to exempt himself from the requirements of realisation than by setting himself such high norms which he surely cannot attain.
251. Making haste is from the the devil, as well as delaying.
303. Since the offensive form of antitraditionality appeared, the slightest compromise between traditionality and antitraditionality has been an enormous antitraditional triumph.
[An example: »Catholic-Marxist dialogues always implied the defensiveness of the Church and the success of Marxism - regardless of the fact that in the course of these dialogues it was invariably the Marxists whose performance was weaker than that of the Catholics. Since the very fact that in religious circles the question was not whether to send Marxists to the stake but to find the common ground among the opposing views, demonstrated the defensiveness of the Church. For Marxists it was not the outcome of the dialogues which was important but that the Church started to »court« them.« (András László)]
305. Antitraditionality is nothing other than the creating of confusion in the relationship between the existent world and the centre of the existent world so as to make it impossible to find the way back to the centre.
653. Emotion is feeling become sick.
[scil. feeling is originally not a displaced state, because man is not the object of feeling, like that of emotion, but he is its subject.]
654. Each emotional state is a kind of obsession.
696. When man turns more and more to the quantitative world rather than himself, then he practically turns to nothing. By losing spirit man kept his soul, which still had some spiritual properties. After this he kept only the body, which still has some pneumatic properties; and slowly he will come to the nothing, which will only have some somatic properties.
707. Death inevitably pertains to life as its complement. Man experiences death to the degree he indulges himself in life, because life contains death.
708. When life is lacking what is beyond life then death, the complement of life, overcomes life.
717. If my identification tends toward the engendered world, I will pass away with the engendered world.
739. An extraneous force dominates all that has a beginning.
740. The loss of beginning is the loss of dominion, the loss of dominion is the loss of the consciousness of beginning and that of origin, i.e. the loss of my ultimate reality as a consciousness.
751. Originally, it was volition that is now instinct in man.