tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16929029.post115869745913893322..comments2023-10-14T06:01:11.514-07:00Comments on Sermons in Stones: another lifechanger. these can get tiring.brehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07980991938571462863noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16929029.post-1159125717376732502006-09-24T12:21:00.000-07:002006-09-24T12:21:00.000-07:00We have an extremely large influence in how the wo...We have an extremely large influence in how the world operates. The average american wage earner makes 85 times more money than the average Chinese worker. The average american has 85 more votes for what our world will be in the future than the average chinese person. EACH of our purchases and decisions GREATLY dictate how our earth's people and resources are treated. What a huge responsibility we have. Who says we can't make a difference.Ernest Martenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11276617692914515850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16929029.post-1158869417933192022006-09-21T13:10:00.000-07:002006-09-21T13:10:00.000-07:00I want to vote for a world like you, Bre (minue th...I want to vote for a world like you, Bre (minue the Johnny Depp thing). My biggest hurdle is that sometimes I feel as if I am inadequate to find a way out of the "old world". I was reminded of this frustration when watching a documentary on a Slovenian Philosopher named, Slavoj Zizek. Here is an excerpt from his book; "Welcome to the desert of the Real".<BR/><BR/>"In an old joke from the German Democratic Republic, a German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: "Let's establish a code: if a letter from me is written in blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false." <BR/><BR/>After a month, his friends get the first letter written in blue ink: <BR/><BR/>"Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theatres show films from the west, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair - the only thing unavailable is red ink..."<BR/><BR/>Zizek goes on: "Is this not how ideology functions? We "feel free", now as then, when we lack the language - "the red ink" - to articulate our unfreedom. It is the basic task of critical art and culture to provide the red ink."<BR/><BR/>I feel in one way or another that this blog and other resources (ie. critical art/culture) are providing me the language and a sense of the path to finding and realizing, in some sense, the new or better world. Thanks, Bre.<BR/><BR/>ZZachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18004622931726551015noreply@blogger.com