Power within: Origin of need for power and search for recognition. What is political radicalism today?

3.1 die Macht
3.3 What makes revolution needed
3.3 Not to trust help of others but one’s own is empowerment.
3.4 Bad example: what makes a totalitarian nation to exist. Bullying tactics tangled and exposed.

What makes us powerful and makes us think we are powerful? Is it always in comparison to someone? Who thinks is powerful all mighty, better than and why: what is the definition and act of power? We take and give power which is basic strategy of being a living person making schemes. We play games of granting and taking, using and possessing power, processing power, how are we in terms of power someone has. Is it over us? It is empowering to create and consider one’s makings worthy personal creations, that you can is one thing needed to feel powerful. Do we need other people to witness and congratulate for it? We eat to get energy and feel powerful, listen to music to be inspired by and belong, live empowerment of different elements like sounds, electricity and sunbeams and we become powerful because we observe, think, make, learn, interact and move. Power is in a moment, physical and mental, knowing and playing, a way to rule a moment, take over, master, share and compare. How is power in time and how are power and time individually used is what one allows oneself, which can be taken away from you and denied from you. It is in taking liberties and how afraid are we in doing so, characterizing ourselves to be individual, labelling to stand for something, manners of talking give power, looking, choosing how to look, conflicting or choosing not to, liking and not, pausing, speeding, feeling power of self, enjoyment of doing or choosing not to.

Power has to be taken as it is also granted within society by society, power appropriated and stated: what we can do with our power. In this way thinking everything is power and we are power animals. When we do not have power it feels like death. The sun and nature are our energy sources, the all-powerful God and Goddess. Power is something to fight for and protect as it can be lost, the power position and source of light and warmth, leadership and recognition, comfort and safety. It has to be known, gained and earned. There is either too little or too much of it which makes it problematic, a question of how much and what to do with it, what do others do with their power, what do they do to me. I am attempting to explain the self­-evident and yet it is one of the most difficult issue for us, the most profound and complex issue there is. Light, radiation, push, movement, figures, numbers, scales, tubes, papers, news, text, an image, flame, a bomb. Is it about particles working together, one star, one individual and how he got made, and about millions and millions of other particles and individuals, selfs, selfless, egos, maniacs, reasoning, greed, jealousy, envy, love, hate, chemistry, physics, making of chain reactions. Everyone has a personal relationship to and with power, one has to be aware of it, yearn for it and know what to do with it. Child has power over his/her parents and power of the parents remain with us the rest of our lives. The emotional bond between is the very basic power relationship in our lives: you came out of me, I made you, you are therefore mine or why didn’t you protect me, in your power you hurt me because you could, I trusted you. I have a say over you but how long?

But as it goes your children are not yours. To own something or think owning someone is a destructive power feeling, feeling of absolute overcoming and knowing what is right and wrong. Possessions are extensions to our ego and we like to expand, clear the way. When people have in their hands solid all-conquering power it is a matter of evaluation, judgment and freedom of choosing what doings can be left not to do and what desires tell one wants to do desperately something. In this scenario we are not so compassionate rational beings in control of ourselves knowing what is best and our desires are very selfish. Ultimate power does something to one’s character, to compassion for those who do not have one’s position, too much empathy is not good for disciplinary reasons and making results, reaching goals, keeping one’s position.

3.1 die Macht

Signe Larssen writes in the blog Critical Legal Thinking http://criticallegalthinking.com Notes on the thought of Walter Benjamin: Critique of Violence is about the difficulty of translating the word Gewalt (so difficulty of understanding violence the concept the same) ”which in German carries the multiple meanings of (public) force, (legitimate) power, domination, authority and violence – with the word in English violence carries few of these senses (particularly, institutional relations of power, force and domination or even non­physical or symbolic violence).” [1.] To translate a text into another tongue and culture of thought is a violent act itself is my thought but so is also not trying: is it possible to understand the meanings in other language and the culture as something will self-evidently be left out or misunderstood, which is the violent part? Am I overreacting here (but on the other hand feelings are there and here very sensitive) and saying violent act, is so close, that it is almost impossible to avoid hurt, when according to Jainism just walking over ants is unforgivable that one must look down constantly and walk carefully wiping one’s way, as there may be our ancestors in new form all over. Just like in everything, a step must be taken towards the unknown to open new paths risking offending and comprehend which is always a place of contemplating, place of high risk and possibilities to go wrong. Mistakes will be made against sensibilities, grammar, ways of thinking, work put in to understanding and respecting but hurt is unavoidable and hurt is what violence is all about. Tricky and triggering as it is to speak, our language and use of it is for many reasons and finding power is one of those reason. Where does it lie and how; to be an expert and know nuances is one good way to power: what kind of gestures people appreciate.

Interpretation of violence, to say it is a concept, makes us see the violence done where there should not be aggression but still is or what is understood as an everyday routine and not a wrongdoing, can be viewed from the perspective of the one who is acted upon but cannot act against, is not allowed to and should take all hits because of the underdog position. To be able to verbalise nonverbal action, a hit, is to fight against violence and create defence. An attack, an act, a play and game where there are interests which are being protected by violence, aggression, seen as a core part of life, which is from where I study the subject violence, as I think it is impossible for us to live separate from and not be affected by it, difficult to be safe from and find justice. We watch violence, brutal murdering for enjoyment, as viewers and players to which theater we do not take part in real-life and are not responsible and somehow we are at least those who can watch, judge the content and by thinking what does watching do, the killing seen do to our minds and morals, how are we affected by it. How we decide how and when we are violent, when we think it is time to be aggressive, against whom, forms of violence there are so many. A judgment call is made all the time and we grow into culture that is brutal against animals and humans all over and somewhere else far away even more than here.

Basic part of us that cannot be completely eliminated away with, with which we struggle a great deal, often not understanding the consequences or ourselves why we are the way we are, and hurt caused or not caring. It is very individual and oftentimes minimized experience. Shouting angrily is too much for many to take, it takes a certain kind of attitude not allow it to happen as such and answer back. The physical violence is the one we tend to register and feel empathy for the victim. It lingers in how we say what happened. What we say and to whom we speak aggressively and about aggression. Speaking past someone is microaggression, ignoring, rude.

To multiply and make progress we invade, as cells, bodies, societies, cultures, corporations and as Peoples. It is the very essence of being alive, wanting more, expanding, producing life and staying alive, securing existence, to know and understand power of oneself is to make it visible, a showcase. Yet it is hard to accept the violent nature of life and nature, of any act that even hints to hurting physically and mentally is disturbing to normal people. To translate is to change something unique into a totally different form trying to preserve the way of thinking and saying and make it understandable in a new place and culture. Culturally bound ideas how something is done and thought in real every day life is how something was thought in a particular place and time before. Learning to think and do otherwise is translating oneself, peeling layers within. To change language of time before is learning a different tongue. It is for example studying religious texts which are full of violence and bigotry but in practice today as word of God. Painfully task of understanding takes a lot of work and effort. Clearly not done by many religious groups as religion is the one primal reason to attack, abuse and oppress. To learn and evolve we have to go through self-torture and achy experiences, demand discipline and have wisdom of the heart.

3.3 What makes revolution needed

Authority and leadership are basic functions and tasks in society to occupy and have for society to work properly. It is part of someone’s personality to lead, show the way. One has to be aggressive to succeed in the task of leading and making decisions. We like to practice freedom of choice under built beliefs of what is right and true, we need something solid as religion to guide. Something which is believed to be right and must have also appeared to be so for many. Something that is right (true, real) does something good for most of us, benefitting, makes feel good, proud, hopeful and satisfied. It has got to do with learned common sense, structures of society that keep our balance and order, righteousness, justice, what is proper to do and what is not. The concrete idea of right is the believed right, true to that particular reality, what is seen fit and in interests of profiting the community. Right and good to have, what is known to be right in general, good to do and is that the good for one or many, we must choose. [3.]

Who makes reality of ours in the end to be reality of mine and how do realities of people meet? Have I learned to see reality through my culture’s eyes or my subjective experience and understanding, which part of my culture is me? My roots and society empower me. There is like and dislike and warmth and cold, all is not well always. There are cracks, unhappiness, malfunction. Culture works as manipulator which is easy to dislike and I am very much a product of my culture. Where one is born works as a powerful emotional and intellectual molder of mind. One is born into the hands of the powerful who promise to take care of you but society’s part is large in this regard. First reality issues we face are bodily needs that need to be fulfilled. To grow is to move away from situation where body rules the ways we need and act. Control of mind over body to realize ideas is a big step which now is and has been helped by machines and inventions to keep us satisfied and our basic needs filled and to create new needs. For us to be more conscious and be able to educate ourselves, have spare time to actually know ourselves instead of thinking how to manage daily.

What is expected of civil servants such as politicians? Do people who have power over economics have moral responsibility for how they handle money flow, stock exchange, banking, buying and selling and how they influence on lives of people all over the globe?

Matter of evolving as humans concerns educating children which nowadays is much softer way than before. Results are a much-discussed topic. What can be asked of a child, how far can education go in demanding and disciplining? It feels bad and uncomfortable to demand a cute innocent child to do anything. What violence, use of power and domination mean and how to find balance of not hurting. Philosophy of unhurt is to think and know what is good for the child, what is their best interest, demanded of them to do for themselves and think about the results of one’s actions without causing pain and ill. It is one of the core issues of mankind, the relationship between adult and child, adults’ relationship to childhoods of their own, assuming what life should be, what one should become and how to reach the ideal. [2.] For some bombing is freedom and just an act of just rebellion. In a culture where aggression, emotions and violence are openly showed and every day happenings, minor mishaps and injuries do not count. Difference is how things are measured, faced, experienced, dealt with, what is life worth and who is to decide, where violence leads, what can be achieved with it. Is power essentially about knowing, invading, taking and receiving or is it just living? Power is about not one but about everyone in the area of an impact. Power is an effect, influence. It requires our limbs to grab and desire to want to grab. What comes to thinking aggression often comes to play without analytical calculation what happens after. Truth has power but is truth overcoming or voice of

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reason? It is inevitable within human and animal relations to look for order and through desired constructions and rules make structures to live by and evolve. Some kind of dictating of order is necessary, manners of interacting need to have commonly accepted rules and ways of happening to be successful. Order and usage of power is a livelihood necessity which is either gained or lost based on history, needs, situations, abilities, rivalries, politic making and favoring. Power is in details of doing. It is often forgotten notion that everybody has power to move to act, to speak, to live. Energy is in us and is therefore us. Every act and word are individual power used and passed forward to make an impact, make part of one’s own count, play the part, be part, be active participant even though one may feel passive and not having a voice to be heard. What must one do? One has to believe that power is there in everything one does and we like to use it to benefit ourselves and people close to us. Which characteristics of ours make us leaders, persecutors, rulers, dictators, traitors, tyrants, obedient, unlawful, unfaithful. How we decide for ourselves and for others is a scheme of multiple issues and things to consider that play their roles in anyone being powerful or not and to which extent. Whose power is the most trustworthy?

One part is to succeed in making decisions, to know what to do and executing ideas, dealing with the results and to move forward. To know where to go and what is to be done. Nature of power can be to halt an individual from knowing. It can be punishment of having done something wrong, how we are controlled to do as we are desired by whom ever. Dynamics of human power is bound to what is thought to be intellectual and intelligent, right and wrong, calculating options and what-ifs. It is also evident that self-­ confidence, ability to solve problems, quick decision-making and convincing ways of persuasion and presentation of oneself and ideas of what should be done have an important role in power play. To look powerful is to have a certain kind of posture, habitus and strong view to organizing things in life.

3.3 Not to trust help of others but one’s own is empowerment.

To become is a learning and living experience. In order to be powerful, one has to empower oneself with knowledge. Power has become to mean something of considerable size, knowledge of to which direction to bow and show loyalty, whether to lie or speak the truth. Power associates with arms, hands and men having power by physical force, making war, taking life. Fear is an ultimate power tool. Those who have finance have been and still are the most powerful people whose grace is wanted. Power is an

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extension but still one whole block that either raises respect and fright or both. To be powerful on one’s own is to know what one is capable of, to be able to live without constant assistance, to be master of one’s own, without someone telling what to do and be one has to know oneself. Possibilities to make one’s own life requires survival skills not only a knife and knowledge of what can be eaten, but ideas. To be able to trust one’s own views, abilities and thoughts is something people should learn to do more. Few of us can live battling against every odd, authority and jurisdiction though it happens constantly and requires a lot of energy. Such people who question authority and have doubt are very much-needed for democracy to work best. It is also one characteristics of democracy that it can be criticized and battled without losing life and be terminated.

One way of showing power is to create architecture which states where power lies. Power wants to manifest and impress, show off and be bigger than. It is to reach the skies with high towers, go fast with vehicles. It is an awkward moment when there are hierarchical credits to consider in a room, to talk to someone one has to be introduced, with whom can I shake hands with, when not to say anything but listen respectfully, where to stand, what are the right words to say, who will understand my humor and who will find it distasteful and what to wear to make a right impression. Impressions are power. Power is in details as much as it is with large constructions, appearance, bureaucracy and protocol. It is clever and it can be horribly stupid. Knowing how a staged performance works is to know and accept staged performances which keep power together, continuing and ruling. To accept realities of basic protocol is thought self­-evident and manageable. To move forward in a modern society is to accept rules of play, rules that have a certain meaning of places of people, where one stands and what can one ask for and do. It is usual to hear there are things one cannot do especially when one has ideas of one’s own and wants to try them out. Power is a question of life and death. It is work to live and to have life on earth. Nature of power on social level between people works as natural selective force which is part of survival. We have to fit in. We try to avoid social Darwinism, but survival of the fittest is a ruling element in the world today between people. Our basic ideology is to either live or perish. It is part of a cunning game which one must be able to play and understand. Power is usually something one grows into but how? It is taught empowerment of class, gender and origin, lack or virtue within social classes or dictated virtues. Power as possession grows the older one gets. Children are the least powerful. It follows life experience, respect, relationships, profession, class, money, networks, occupations, education and

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knowledge how power around works.

Authority and leadership are basic functions and tasks in society to occupy and have for society to work properly. It is part of someone’s personality to lead, show the way. We like to practice freedom of choice under built beliefs of what is right and true. Something which is believed to be right and has also appeared to be so for some. Something that is right (true, real) does something good for some of us, benefits, makes feel good, proud and satisfied. It has got to do with learned common sense, structures of society, righteousness, justice, what is proper to do and what is not. The concrete idea of right is the believed right, true to that particular reality, what is seen fit and in someone’s interests. Right, what is known to be right in general, good to do and is that the good of one or many. [3.]

Who makes reality of ours in the end to be reality of mine? Have I learned to see reality through my culture’s eyes or mine, which part of my culture is me? My roots empower me, there is dislike and warmth. Culture works as manipulator which is easy to dislike. In where one is born works as powerful emotional molder of mind. One is born into the hands of the powerful who promise to take care of you. First reality issues we face are bodily needs that need to be fulfilled. To grow is to move away from situation where body rules the ways we act. Control of mind over body to realize ideas is a big step which now is and has been helped by machines and inventions to keep us satisfied and our basic needs filled and to create new needs. For us to be more conscious and be able to educate ourselves, have spare time to actually know ourselves instead of thinking how to manage daily.

What is expected of civil servants such as politicians? Do people who have power over economics have moral responsibility for how they handle money flow, stock exchange, banking, buying and selling and how they influence on lives of people all over the globe?

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How sentimental does power make us or is it just business and self-­ interest? It is every citizens’ duty to vote and choose representatives to parliament of the state and EU. Many choose not to use that vote. Who is to blame for economic crisis we are having to deal with at the moment? We look for guilty ones but aren’t we all guilty of not using our personal power enough to make things better? One voter does not have power? That is a lot to ask, to ask people to be more aware and less selfish, see the effort of finding out and be interested. To actually read the texts on products is what is it that you eat. Politics being made of and where it is made, by whom and in what kind of circumstances. Expecting honesty and integrity though having been disappointed several times one begins to doubt the whole idea of giving power to strangers over issues that concern every individual personally. What is it to have mandate of that kind? Isn’t it a huge obligation, freedom and duty to do as well as one possibly can to serve citizens’ rights and well­-being. Politicians work for people not the other way around. Even that does not seem self-evident. To do politics is a sign of strength and message of doing well, getting ahead in life. Unfortunately, there is an awful lot of distrust and things aren’t as transparent as they should be. True power is invisible and unreachable as long as we don’t understand how it works and feel powerless. Power has many characteristics and is negatively associated and toned with ruling over and making of politics of war. It stands outside though it is inside of us. It is given, taken, a prized winning. Power poses and has a meaning of putting people on pedestals to be looked up to, obeyed, worshipped, idolized. There is violence there, domination, hidden or bare, appreciated and not. To be a leader of a country something good is expected of that person. To be a father figure or a mother of a nation, nurturing and smiling kindly is a bit kinky position of trust and holds an obligation to do good. To take the lead and guide after being given mandate, but something that has been gained deceitfully can be taken away deceitfully. Position must be jealously guarded, fought for to keep it. Politics the power game, which is a paradox as politics is mainly supposed to function as field of common general issues and of doing common good not placing individual nor corporal interests first. Repeatedly politics show to be a crooked battle field of interests, gaining position, and status.

3.4 Bad example, what makes a totalitarian nation to exist. Bullying tactics tangled and exposed.

Power is a shield and a weapon. Tool of individual strength and ability. Totalitarian nation uses power in a nondemocratic way and is a good

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example of how power should not be used. In the world there are several countries which can be called totalitarian and which praise their way of handling state affairs. Dealing with cruelty, injustice, persecutions, death sentences, propaganda, censorship, restrictions of freedom of speech and expression. Poverty and organized crime flourish such as Russian Mafia etc. [5.] Notorious example of totalitarian nation and plots is Russia using its power to eliminate opposition in and outside the country. Critics of wars in Chechnya and of Vladimir Putin have been heavily silenced, imprisoned or killed like journalist Anna Politkovskaya (1958­-2006) who was shot in the head near her home. Assassins were and are never to be found but the killed are examples and warning signs. Ways of killing, rumors and doubts are strong evidence themselves of deep corruption. Aleksander Litvinenko who had escaped Russia to Great Britain was poisoned 2006 in London. He was an officer of the Russian secret service who criticized heavily wars in Chechnya and publicly accused (1998) his superiors of ordering assassination of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who also had fled Russia and applied for asylum in Britain 2003. 2013 he committed suicide by hanging. Death also was suspicious but evidence for anything else but suicide was never found.

Investigations started again this year 2013 to find reasons for death of Jasser Arafat (1929­-2004) and were concluded by Russians [7.] that he was not poisoned with the same radioactive substance as Aleksander Litvinenko (1962-­2006). [6.] It is sad history of Russia and international politics of today and it is clear Russia is not a modern democracy and not even trying to be one. How to negotiate with such a nation? State of democracy worldwide is fragile. It has reach a point of capitalist totalitarianism after fall of Soviet Union 1991 when Soviet integrated into fifteen separate countries [3.] still without freedom of speech and its politics is just as brutal and macho as ever. Question is what makes Russia practice militant politics? Is it incapable of doing otherwise? Why does it assume it wins by acting the way it does and what does it win other than horrid scalps?

Cultural difference between Finland and Russia is wide therefore my comprehension does not find logical reasons to abolishing political criticism, marginalizing and criminalizing difference such as LGBTQ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Church has traditionally had strong stand in Russia and its influence on how sexual minorities or any other ’oddities’ distracting social order are treated is immense. Whether leader of the country wishes to be friends with the church he has to have an opinion about LGBTQ people and keep it very traditional. It is a relationship of give and take between the church and the state. Neither is to be trusted (as horrible as it sounds and is).

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Divinity in service of leadership. God who is the ultimate authority working through and with those who dare to speak his words. Words of God which cannot and must not be questioned but are interpreted and decoded (translations of translation, faith at work in multi­production of men with power and production of political meaning and desires). What comes to Christianity and power it holds in the world of religion and politics it is clearly said thou shallt not kill and the same goes for judging. It is not up to people to make the ultimate decisions over anyone. This I understand is against death penalty, ill-treatment of homosexuals, disabled, dissidents and of anybody who happens to disagree or live differently than you. One who is truly having faith should know this. Especially Russia is an interesting case of hypocrisy and macho-made divine­ culture. Such is the case in many sizable and powerful nations exploiting faith. Faith is power, God is power-ful. Staying and gaining power, to justify and make ill human action have God’s blessing. One side to tyranny is to build a legend and myth over one person and make him second largest in the known world. Who could be bigger than God who is a man himself. Totalitarian power is based on underestimation and anti­-intellectual forceful superiority of chosen ideology and chosen humanity which steps on diversity and difference, which usually are seen as threats. There is a strict pure way to rule and think, which wishes to eliminate all other ways of expression, knowing, living and believing. This is how capitalism functions at the moment with the help of surveillance and the very orthodox goals of only expanding its power and wealth of those who serve this particular God. There is a group of people who stand for power, who seek it, who search for power and those who use that power in a chosen way to benefit from it in a chosen manner. Traditional and concrete way is to use power as a weapon as is the case in many authoritarian countries. Weapon of choice is to keep vast mass of people quiet and oppressed. It is a weird and familiar theater. Power is to secure and make sure things are smooth and stay that way. Power elite has defined what is a good state of things for that particular nation and its people or a particular group in that state which may not be all the people of that state. Power elite made with money has also defined what meanings do inhabitants of that state have for people of power, why people live in that state, what is purpose of a state to those citizens and globally. It has a body and amount of aggression which must be taken into consideration. Power raises emotions. No one wants to be a button to be moved and be pushed, so one has to seek to obtain power in order not to be disadvantaged. Learning to be cunning and deceitful is part of totalitarianism. In this way we are part of nature’s survival of the fittest circle socially, politically and organically. Society’s supposed task is to reduce, soften and possibly remove circumstances that make cruelty and favoring of the ’fittest’ encouragable, self­-evident, lucrative and possible. This happens by

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making society tolerant and open for multiple choices to appear and occur. Power is a position where someone is placed because that someone has specific qualities for that position. What kind of specific qualification and means do people like Aleksander Lukashenko or Vladimir Putin have for them to stay in power and have countries of theirs continuously ruled in authoritarian way? Position which requires abilities, leadership, trust of a nation and loyalty, clearly wealth and friends. Foucault says there is truth in power. Something that has proved false has lost its power. What if all why a nation functions is false and false has become truth and there is no one to trust. Situation where everyone is corrupt the one who has the most power is the most corrupt. To have power is to have responsibility but to whom are Aleksander Lukashenko president of Belarus (1994) and Vladimir Putin current president of Russia (2012) responsible for? Power of a dictator is given and taken and it is a force to make others do organized work for that someone who has the power. [8.][9.]

1.http://criticallegalthinking.com/2013/10/11/notes-thought-walter-benjamin-critique-violence/­ (3.12.2013) by Signe Larssen, Difficulty of translating the word power, Macht, Gewald, authority, how do we understand power.
2.https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/magazine/the-wedding-fix-is-in.html
(8.12.2013), article about detailed organizing of a wedding and creating bourgeois life through buying a theatrical ceremony. Price transparency, the cost of happiness. by Catherine Rampell

3.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2013/dec/03/economic-revolution-environmental-plans (3.12.2013) article by Andrew Simms, what kind of revolution is at hand after financial crisis in Europe, how do we alter power relations in financial world to serve societies instead only the rich and how do we keep the environment unpolluted. 4.http://www.coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the_soviet_union.asp (4.12.2013) Archive with basic info on Cold War and Soviet Union.
5.https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/ukraine-victims-euro-russian-divide-2013122132119927878.html (3.12.2013) by Rosa Balfour analyzing situation in Ukraine after wave of demonstrations and an ongoing revolution for Ukraine to become member of EU.
6.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/polonium-210-poison-alexander-litvinenko 
(3.12.2013) An assassination by Russian secret police? Nobody knows.

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7.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/10538010/Yasser-Arafat-died-of-natural-causes-Russia-says.html (27.12.2013) by Inna Lazareva 8.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_Russia (4.12.2013)
9.http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/12/04/egypt­s­draft­constitution­rewards­military­and­judiciary/gvc8  
(4.12.2013) by Nathan J. Brown, Michelle Dunn, Carnagie endowment for international peace, article about difficulties of making a democratic constitution after Revolution 2013, the problematical Muslim Brotherhood, military rule and making Egypt a democracy.
9. https://chomsky.info/20131208-2/ (8.12.2013) neoliberalism is some misleading concept doctrines of which are not either new nor liberal. Sunday, 08 December 2013 By CJ Polychroniou and Anastasia Giamali, Truthout | Interview, it is working for the rich, the world.

Can you say you are a professional without other people’s approval? Of course, in art.

What is disapproved professionalism? I highly recommend a kind of disapproval which goes strongly against the establishment and status quo, against those who repeat old truths, truths of theirs. Something out of the ordinary is scary and fear is instant, out of the cult of professionalism, out of the book of solid truths, something to believe in strongly must be put under scrutiny. I strongly disapprove professionalism which sees through corruption, misconduct, sloppiness, carelessness, ignorance, arrogance, unwillingness to make progress, unwillingness to see oneself as student forever such outrage and lack of humility should be disapproved in larger scale there where power to make professionals is and people who can’t take criticism and learn from it. Pedestals oh pedestals, too much respected and feared, way too much.

Disapproved professionalism is something which has moved away from something known, corrupt and repetitious, away from something which sees itself as perfection that can’t be overshadowed, critiqued, put under microscope and be revealed as it is. Unprofessional is to behave badly against other professionals, without a good reason other than those feelings. To look down on and think you are so much better than is highly normal. You want to feel empowered and demonstrate this power position of yours with violence. Maturing is tough, admitting falsehood, doing wrong and failure is difficult, almost impossible. We all have met these kinds of people. They are the menace and sign of ruin of the power structure and themselves. Such thinking costs you, you narrow-minded fools. So never fall into the trap of arrogance and false pride. There is always someone better and other ways of doing. To find out which one’s are the best is a competition where there almost never are winners. To win is what professional competition is all about unfortunately.

To be proud of one’s work is what we should feel, be unashamed, whatever the work. For artist it is a battle especially when the most often thing to come by is rejection, contempt and hate. Art community should by default understand that artists face a lot of discrimination and negative positioning like the artist was the ultimate loser and threat. All you need is family which does not approve what you do. This can’t be too much emphasised. Be empowered and privileged is something many aren’t entitled to. Quality of work is another thing and what is it is the contents not how much your camera cost you and where you are BASED. Those who have reached position which gives them right to look down on do more harm than good. No wonder they are easily hurt, professional emotions are so vulnerable. Most damage they do is at schools. Which I have wondered why assholes and idiots get to teach.

Something which does different from the approved form of status professional? A connoisseur of practise, of thought, ideas and craft, how much does this have to do with feelings? We must feel satisfaction of doing something well and be rewarded for this. We need collective acceptance to be uplifted, respected and valued. This image and game, play or how should I call it, rivalry, fight for right to be a professional, is of course passionate and exclusionary, shutting out those who do not match credentials of the profession. Which is understandable. Sometimes, especially in art, such game of who can and who can’t get interesting proportions and this has got to do with gender a lot and where you come from.

Let’s dig deeper into professionalism, shall we. The credentials for professional vary and the idea is understood in different ways.

Is there something such as professional pride? Pride of doing one’s job as well as possible, as well as one is able and knowing what it means to do job at hand well, any job? I have come to learn that such pride is not what it used to be, when work was your signature, pride and measure of worthiness in the eyes of those who enjoy fruits of one’s labor. Are we so spoiled already that work is not who we are in the meaning that it only makes it possible for us to live and express ourselves outside work? Is that what being spoiled is, to have free time to express oneself and feel free? I think it is. How does this effect the way we work and do our work and most importantly appreciate as work? Work must make a decent living, be valued as craft and expertise, worker be valued as someone whose effort is noticed and appreciated. Someone who just has a job is not enough, we want more than that because we are fully what we do for work. Job must be something which can be valued as modern and an achievement, an extension to one’s personality, fulfilling ambition, one being able to show talent, capability, proof of all this existing in this one person.

Fair enough, we are entitled to this luxury, aren’t we. Be appreciated and be paid for what we are worth, what our work is worth, our labor input. What other things follow hopefully are plusses. We are entitled to search for fulfilment via work and be tormented when this does not happen. It is unfortunate when work does not involve exchange of money, it is possibly not considered work but something else, a service. Naming is important, exchange is too, interaction. Is what you feel important in this matter? Money is there in one form or the other, work as money possibly. To work and make can be seen as means of exchange, value is in what was made and done and how the exchange happened. Our values are largely bound to money as is our way of living, making money is valuable as such, having money, looking like you have money. How is that the biggest one value there is and why there does not seem to be enough ever? Money gives value to people and money only? Is how much the most used question and basis for understanding value? Value of work done where does it lie? Important seems to be who does the work: gender has an important role in creating value.

My quest is to understand professionalism and how we understand what it is. For most the pay check is proof enough, the title, education, network and being busy, accomplishing and achieving, making progress such as getting more money and more fancy titles, getting ahead on career path. I have been wondering this issue because there seems to be a huge misunderstanding or collective mind-set, one-way path, what it takes to do one’s job well, what is achieving something, having a path, pursuing goals and why this pursuing goals which self-evidently belongs to choosing careers is important to take up and obey, choosing up one’s career. What is a career, who validates it, is it given or taken?

Interestingly rules for professional in business are tightly tangled with art which makes it curious to be an artist when to create something new constantly and being one’s own boss, at least for me, are at risk of becoming something else. Artist should be a brand, a product to sell her art. Ways of becoming a brand and product is very business culture obedient more and more. That is not good news for art. Something goes missing easily which is personality, uniqueness and following path of one’s own despite what happens, doing what I want to do contradicts the business savvy heavily for a reason. What is expected of you is to obey.

When art is an investment what are the expectations and when art pursues not fulfil expectations but move further what happens? When the interest lies in ways of presentation, what and how expensive one’s equipment is, who do you know and where you live, are based, as it is said nowadays, where are we based exactly, where do we base our priorities? What is lost in this kind of interest in showing off and thinking the tools make the art more than you ever can, professional emerges when one possesses the right kind of kit? Yuk. Freedom of making out of scratch, out of nothing without need to impress by things, places and domains, play a role in making something worthy nowadays. Sure to look nice even presentable is what you are looking for go for it, but to expect that be the professional way is corporal setting and harnessing, waste of something good and turning into mass product, likeable and following instructions for professional outlook to impress as professional. Who is the artist in this picture and why the need for grandiose and expensiveness is so important to make an awe, an effect, spectacle and produce value which is bloated ready to explode? Is it business as usual we should have?

Size of one’s studio, sizes of cameras, how does an artist look like, what is the street credible look for an artist, in which city to dwell, where to show one’s art and what kind of art to make? Large prints, monumental paintings, what is the it thing, if it interests anyone? Maybe the contents will tell the value??
I also ask because to come across people who consider themselves professionals due to positions they have been granted, things they deliver and give back do not often strike as well done, having done one’s homework kind of thing at all, quite on the contrary. Professionalism is one issue where trickle down effect goes wrong, something gets in the way, like lack of will to share and contribute. So where is the professionalism when you have to put yourself on the line, your career and what does it mean to do one’s job so that there is pride, ability there in the right way, not in the way that the work serves only you and interests of yours but something larger and as we do not live alone in the world, our work affects others too pretty profoundly.

Truth, difficult to believe. Terrifying truth is always pointing at you.

Truth, difficult to accept, difficult to write open. Is it in front of us? Can we find it? It can be unbearable, definitely hidden. We so much like to believe the good and the beautiful talk, pictures, that there will be better future for us. Unbearable because it will make us see ourselves as we are, our chances if we have them or not and where we stand. Grim nature of truth is human. Hard to say out loud and hard to stop and listen. Truth of animals is very clear, life is about survival, eating, killing, breeding, over and over. People want to be kings, they want to rule and win, be head of all, say the last word, silence those who say the unbearable and dirty. To just survive is what it still is, kill or be killed, be admired or forgotten. It is as scary and bloody as any survival battle. To be scared is to be alert constantly and to know that there is always a threat or two to watch out. You cannot trust anyone. When you do you make a mistake. How does that sound? Something like trust and faith may be unthinkable but we most have them in something, there is no time to trust and have faith for some. In this picture we rather take the lie because it is more pretty and we like to believe the pretty, it makes us look better than we are, a tale of something better and something to belong to. Choose to live a lie is to think that there is something better than this, that you deserve what you have got. To know what is the truth we must see the effort to find it out which task also is very often hard to do. Truth for humans is there aren’t many things to count on but betrayal and pain. Many like the easy way out of this fact, the unbearable life, unbearable you, unbearable everybody else, cold weather, cold world and endless cruelty.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a46918/heroin-mexico-el-chapo-cartels-don-winslow/ ”Guzmán had worked and killed his way up to the big leagues by the time he first went to prison, in 1993. While he was running his business from his suite inside Puente Grande federal prison, I was working on a book called The Power of the Dog,the first of three novels I’ve written about the evolution of the Mexican drug scene.”

 
 
 

El Chapo and Buddy

Prisoners of Tradition: Women in Afghanistan All the things we should do but do not. Following progress.

Reality hits those who like to cherish illusions.

Reality of another person can be extremely hard to grasp and see, even though it is right in front of you. It is the impossibility of understanding feelings of the other, seeing the position where one may be and how one got there. Value of the other, feelings of the other can be denied, belittled and despised just because you can. Reality of someone who is despised as such. Christians like to repeat we are born equal, somehow it does not resonate in true life. Christianity, the religion, is an excuse to put people down since God is on side of those who have the right god. Even though people don’t practice faith they are born in to culture which 100% has roots to some religion and practices of religious ideas, stories, beliefs and traditions. We are as cultural beings bound to religion, faith, mysticism, rules, which tell us how to live and how we see our place in the world and among other people.
What are realities now that religious people see in society which is more open to difference but still is very violent towards many people. Society is sexually more open, at least in theory, in entertainment and in advertising, demanding equality, equal treatment of the sexes, open discussion is available demanding tolerance and freedom of expression and speech. Religions are not the most tolerant. Religious entities are not demanding end of violence quite the contrary. Religions make war possible. Hypocrisy flourishes. How easy it is to not look. When religion demands hiding of our nature, hiding of beauty because it is seen evil and corrupt, how divine and godly that religion actually is. In societies where sexual intercourse is a sin, a taboo which makes all sexual topics shameful, all which is banned happens in hiding. We are punished for our sins which usually are of sexual nature. We are punished for wanting, desiring, lusting, having dirty ideas and doing filthy acts. Touching can become illegal and scary. Touching is too much to take, not to speak of kissing.
As an artist I am used to seeing nudity and I think it is the most natural thing as is sex. Just to depict and see nakedness is not porn, female and male sexual organs as such are not pornography to me, sexual yes but anything can be sexual. Asshole is holy as Allen Ginsberg stated in his poem Howl. What a scandal that became, all what he wrote was against the comfort and mediocre American society held dear. Dear hypocrisy, dear silence, dear oblivion, dear order which cannot be broken because it is not proper. Violence is more tolerated than sex. Violence is normal, so normal people don’t necessarily see when they are being violent and accept bullying when someone is to be put in order, be punished for what one is, dares to be in public. Order which cannot be torn apart because it is too frightening, too much to handle.

 

Finding honor

When we find honor via other people through what they are and mean to us we see other people as extensions to us, parts of us that are elementary but controllable ones. When what other people represent as wholes or just parts that fill the whole of you how whole are you?  When to bring honor is master-subject relationship, tyranny, ownership of slaves kind of relationship, what kind of honor is there and how easily it can be put to dirt. Honor which is taken away and put to dirt must be cleaned, revenged, suffered for and for many people honor is found only through suffering, hurt and pain. To have no honor is a stigma and people with no honor for whom that state is given which is strongly dictated by society and community are usually lost people. When property is source of honor and that property does everything that is expected of it honor is very short-lived and easily lost, pride is to have that relationship with property unchanged, property following plan that is given for it because there is no other way to live. To dishonor is to break something that should not be broken all happening in life must happen within rules that are deemed codes for living unchangeable, solid and holy. When there is an institution which has all power to give life and take it, it has taken place of god, doing work that has been taken from god, thinking this position is given by god for a reason and this power cannot be questioned, taken away or rebelled against because it is good and righteousness. When children rebel against their parents it is mostly seen as dishonoring and bad behavior, bad judgement and wrong against an institution. Our relationship to our parents is juggling between whether to do what they want or what we want, when we become aware of power we have over our own lives and bodies and often parents see those bodies they have given life to as their possessions.
Family and parents are those who in many parts of the world have absolute authority over their children especially girls. Though it is common still everywhere that parents guide their children in the direction chosen by the parents themselves pressuring career choice in making money, status and name, having grandchildren, making money to buy a standard of living, doing things that parents see proper to do in life and as honorable things to do continuing ready-made paths of living and way of life in which certain objects and signs of success belong. To fail is to do the opposite. It is to disagree, disapprove and that alone can be disrespect too much to take. To honor is to be honorable in the eyes of the rest, of those who are comparing and to whom we compare, why else honor would exist as strongly as it does. We feel deeply ashamed and can be shamed in front of other people when we do what is seen shameful, disrespectful in a community braking rules and traditions, hierarchy and authority jeopardized. To disrespect is to take power and find power of oneself, to understand that there is no honor in doing only what is expected of you. Of course there is disrespect which has no honor and that is disrespecting human rights, disrespecting dignity, disrespecting authority to self and anyone’s autonomy to know what one can do in life. How to find dignity when it is almost undignified and a burden to be born a girl? When dignity is to do what you are told to do and nothing else.

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/02/29/3754753/pakistan-honor/ ”Rafia Asim of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan told ThinkProgress last year that her organization receives information about an average of 30 “honor killings” a month across just over one third of the country’s districts.”

University is a place where you find out the truth no matter what the truth is, that is where you must head, evidence is what you believe.

No matter what the truth is, the sentence means it is not our duty to make up truth but be open to it. We do not define truth, we examine it. We can even change our opinion and be pleased someone opened our eyes. It would not be the truth if we would manipulate the information we have. Whatever it is we scientifically find out is the most relevant truth at the moment which can be argued as it should. Absolute truth is hard to come by the further we proceed on any field, somethings are absolutely true. It is unbelievable in the age of science we having proof over how we have become to be what we are now there are people who want to believe ancient texts as absolutes, rule people by centuries old knowledge and laws. Worries over religious feelings being hurt at university is ludicrous. Those with faith getting offended in a place where faith and religion do not have a say over is as an idea outrageously stupid. Such people do not deserve to be in university. Why are people afraid of offense is a case of fear over losing funds and friends, fear of violence. Universities that are afraid of losing funds and friends have lost touch in making science. The more commercial universities get the more they care for emotions and sentiments of those who are the paying customers, also those who fund research. People who have money to pay high tuition fees are middle class people who are scared of conflict, afraid of conflicting ideas, debate and arguing which is something that normally happens between thinking people who make serious conversation to understand each other and the world. People who attend universities obviously do it in hopes for large salary jobs. It is clear corporal policy has attended university in a big way, avoiding offence and critical points of views are punished, banned and outlawed. That is corporations dictating what is useful and what is not, what is allowed to say, how we know and what we know, how we can think.
It has been sad to witness that university is not a place where truth is appreciated and looked for but overlooked and despised.

 

She was called a slut, she was stoned to death.