Ideology of Power

Om Mani Padme Hum  is a spiritual onomatopoeia within which hides a mystery. Whether or not there is meaning to be gotten from somewhere deep within the saying, I find it far more interesting to  practice it, to say it and feel it, and become an instrument of focus which the subliminal can utilise to manifest itself . There is in our subconscious a mass of influences and socialisation kept hidden from the Ego. This  unreflected  consciousness , as Sartre refers to it, I take to be the fount of our recursive existence. There are others who take a doxographic approach, content with listing a lexical meaning: “praise to the jewel in the lotus”, some say is the direct English meaning. And by thereby pinning it down with exactitude, its utility as a mantra of focus for the subconscious and subliminal is lost. The hidden influences shy away from the light of language. So say it, sound it out, over and over:  Om Mani Padme Hum, 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 , until the self reflects itself a...

Much political life plays out between the poles of Free Will and Determinism. This is an attempt to specify with some exactitude the means by which Wisdom, as defined below, might be used to navigate the wide sendukha between those hypothetical extremes. Before embarking on the discussion proper, we require a working understanding of free will and wisdom. I would also recognise, as a matter of course, that not all determinists, and not all believers in free will, believe in the same thing. Both beliefs admits of different forms and extent.

In Dostoevsky’s  The Possessed , the son of the Stavrogin serf Shatov grapples with his faith and lingering feelings of devotion to the Stavrogin Scion, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, atheist and philosopher (and possibly socialist).

At core, both of these doubts have to do with the interstice between the sincere thought and the politics of the day. Yes, those people of staunch faith and those who subscribe to the rigidity of gender boundaries will raise another point: objective truth. But the difficulty in the definition of such “objective truth” raises obvious problems. Any attempt to raise “objective truth”, even if raised sincerely , falls to being a political position (in the context of the raging culture war).

The first time I came across this question was in the course of writing my as-yet unpublished book Human Thought as Recursion . In it, I considered the role which was played by rigour in disciplining the thinking process, and as leading it down the long, meandering path of Infinite Recursion. Recently, I came across a question along the lines of "[w]hat is the difference between artistic and scientific thinking?", and my prior musings came back to me; it then occurred to me that it would be helpful to discuss some useful categories on the subject.

I recently came across a question, by no means uncommon, about experience of living, and struggling, with depression and anxiety. How can one cope? This question is important for its tendency to lead to thoughts of suicide, a topic I had commented upon previously .

Picture: A Modern Rendition of the Retiarus (I have not been able to find the owner/creator of the picture; if you are the owner, please email yann@yannideology.com with proof) Corn (maize, not the corn of the Mediterranean, which was wheat) is everywhere, and in this age, makes up much of us . It is as good a starting point as any, giving rise to the first question, so suggestive of a long journey - how did our relationship to agriculture arise? - a journey which leads, in the end, to our questioning the politics of food, which today is played by fitness influencers, states and scientists. But that is getting ahead of oneself, for this article is only about '[c]ereals, vines and olives' (Peter Garnsey,  Food and Society in Classical Antiquity,  pg 13, citing Braudel).

Modern society has over many generations feminised large proportions of men and put them into bonded servitude to the State. An epidemic of mind-poisons rages amongst the dilapidated tenements of civilisation, turning people (to a large extent men: hikikomori, incel, NEET, karyu shakai) victims of their Selves . Many mechanisms work together to create this outcome, and not all of them are coordinated by a centralised authority - thus, the 'matrix' narrative propounded by would-be Andrew Tates have to be mercilessly critiqued. But instead of being critiqued, Tate himself has been strong-armed into oblivion, a mis-step than can only serve to propound his ideology further. What critiques there exist tend to be tawdry misrepresentations of the pressing need which Tate has come to service. Much that Tate says has ancient pedigree, and is reasonably wise; much that Tate says also, is a function of a cynical politics that should be recognised as-such  (this particular critique will ...

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī   was a Persian poet who lived during the 13th Century AD, whose philosophy of transcendence of the Self (a transcendence through annihilation, according to the practice of Itlaq Yolu : (i) zikr , (ii) fasting, (iii) mental suffering and (iv) discussion, (iv) being of least importance) holds some depth. Much has been said about his mysticism, but to my mind his poetic explorations of the meandering human spirit and its capacity to travel through and ultimately transcend the unlimited layers of limited perception (as Nevit O. Ergin puts it in "The Sufi Path of Annihilation") are bound to one direction: the submersion of faculty in multiplicity and convolution. A deep consideration of these ideas is certain to deepen any philosophy; a shallow consideration of these ideas is certain to delude.

For the past few days, the name - and face of - 'Ilhan Omar' has been plastered all over the news. Apparently she has unequivocally apologised - for invoking anti-semitic tropes in controversial tweets. It is interesting to note here that much of the pressure for her to apologise came not from the Right, but from US House Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi . It seems that Speaker Pelosi is having a difficult time reining in these newer additions to House Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib (most famous for characterising Trump as a 'Motherfucker') and Ilhan Omar herself.

For some time I have been interested in the way Singaporean courts construe of the role of judges. Singapore is a common law country, that is, a country which, inter alia , applies the doctrine of binding precedent (in Latin, the doctrine of s tare decisis ), as opposed to civil law countries (say, of the Franco-German variety) which do not follow the same doctrine. Of course, it is another argument altogether as to whether precedent in civil law countries are in fact accorded de facto authority.

The American moralist may know Emer Vattel as the source of that storied line in the United States Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness .” Vattel's influence came primarily from his magnum opus , The Law of Nations . Who was he, and what was it about his ideas that inspired a global philosophical crusade which took as its object the search for the meaning of life ? What does  Vattelian happiness , and what about that conception is applicable in the modern world?

We've all heard of the blockchain technology allegedly 'disrupting' all kinds of industries.  Blockchain had promised to introduce a key 'digital' element in disparate fields, from finance to tech, and even to that conservative beast called 'the Law' - but so far such promises have not borne fruit. The question is, what is blockchain? Essentially, it can be considered as a form of Distributed Ledger Technology ("DLT").

Steps: 1. Setup CNAME www to provided DNS target by hosting org (for example, google. Check with the hosting org what to include in the 'points to' section). 2. ping www.[yourdomain].com and copy the IP. (Check this article to find out how to do this) 3. Add A record with @ point to IP copied from step 2.

Pinging is a useful tool to find out the IP address of targeted websites. Do note, however, that website IP addresses may be hidden in a variety of ways.

William I, William the Conqueror, William the Bastard, first Norman King of England, lived from AD 1028 to 1087. He reigned as King from 1066 until his death, and brought the Common Law to what is now Britain. Here was the illegitimate son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy. Here was a man who ascended to the height of power by a combination of charisma, intrigue and strategy. For he who was stricken by the uncertainty of illegitimacy, his greatness was vindicated by his crowning as King at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. Here is what we can learn from him.

Amos Tversky was not known as a hoarder. He was the very opposite. He threw away things that didn't matter, and many things which might have. He eschewed social norms. But of his past he did keep a single scrap of paper. On it was written:

Good Criticism – no bullshit euphemisms Here’s a wild thought – if you thought through how to deal with criticisms, you might handle it better. Modern social organisations are so complex and crowded that anyone must give and take criticism – good or ill intentions notwithstanding – on a daily basis. There are different types of criticisms and different kinds of people which give criticism. The latter affects the former, though it is not always determinative. But one has limited capacity to take criticism – there is a cognitive cost to feeling inadequate, and one must be aware of the danger of becoming deaf to all criticism.

Bloomberg has provided a helpful compilation of projections for 2019. America's unstable Presidency and/or divided government has already caused global financial turmoil (most notably in China), and it is clear that a period of discomfort may be in the works.

One can hardly forget Lindsey Graham's angry defense of Brett Kavanaugh. It was a kind of righteous anger, a kind of cathartic release of pent-up rage - a reflection of what anybody would feel when faced with what would seem like a politically motivated allegation against a good man. Of course, one has no evidence either way. Who knows what really happened to Christine Blasey Ford? It is entirely possible that she was merely mistaken as to the identity of the perpetrator, or worse, that Brett Kavanaugh was lying. A mere possibility does not elevate an allegation into a guilty verdict. This is no mere platitude. It is something deeply felt by the common man living in a society which has its foundation in due process. It is unfortunate that Ford has no real evidence. Uncorroborated evidence is merely a bare assertion. It can and should never result in a guilty verdict in law. However, Ford's accusations have repeatedly been taken at face value by common citizens and...

Pay attention to the following paragraph, written in a CNN article : "Less than two weeks ago, foreign diplomats at the United Nations laughed at Trump when he boasted about the historic sweep of his presidency -- and there was no doubt that he was, as usual, exaggerating." This was juxtaposed against Trump's recent 'wins' in the political and economic departments, that is, in the Kavanaugh scandal and his proclamation of having presided over the "best jobs data in 49 years". This adds to his already impressive achievements in foreign policy (see North Korea-South Korea conciliation , among others). Stephen Collinson goes on to opine in that article that one can no longer deny that "something significant" is taking place to change the country. I agree with the Collinson's latter pronouncement. There is no doubt at all that President Trump has been a 'President of consequence'. It is another question altogether (and it...

It's time. A day of "destiny" (see CNN ) for embattled Supreme Court nominee. As I've implied in a previous post on this matter, not much can be done on the part of the faceless masses. Rather, much depends on the senators, and especially the three swing votes that will be forced. In light of the evidence, and as I've very much concluded, the evidence that we have (much from the media) weighs in favor of Kavanaugh. Only a misguided opinion that "all women should be believed" stands in his way; yet this belief is strong, so much so that a " Pussy Protest " materialized in the Hart Senate Office Building atrium. A span of hours decides the ideology of the apex court in the US. Beyond that, it decides whether due process and the emphasis on evidence trumps the flimsy, tortured feelings of some Leftist women.

Justice is politicized in America. When accusations fly, public discourse frequently devolves into a shouting match where truth is put in service of a broader, political goal. So it is in the latest situation boring its way through the foundations of a purportedly 'democratic' society built upon notions of due process. Your immediate question is: "What's your angle? Who do you support? What's the  politics  behind your answer?" There are two points to consider: (1)Is Kavanaugh guilty of sexual misconduct; and (2)How would this influence social politics in the country?

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faces a no-confidence vote today. The forex market once again slips into a short lull, coming off of anxiety over Italy's political crisis; but all signs suggest Rajoy nears the end of his reign, as the Basque Nationalist Party which holds the crucial five votes has said that it will support the motion tabled by the Socialist Party - which may propel Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez into office. It seems Rajoy had his chance to resign as PM, but an official from Rajoy's People's Party has insisted no such thing will happen. Difficulties for the EU (and by extension its common currency the Euro) looks to be extended and while the currency seems like it might be on the rebound, this episode might augur further weakness.

North Korea – South Korea relations have historically been fraught with tensions. This is unsurprising, given that both countries have been embroiled in a 68-year long conflict beginning with the Korean War in 1950. The Korean War has never been formally ended (no peace treaty has been signed), with the actual fighting ceasing only by virtue of an armistice signed on 27 July 1953. This agreement created the famous Demilitarised Zone at the 38 th parallel (separating North and South Korea), a symbol of the bygone Cold War and a reminder of a conflict frozen in time. It is at this border that North Korean soldiers occasionally stage their defections ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq3CXm9zCy0 ), periodically putting the Demilitarised Zone at the centre of international tensions.

Star Wars continues its line of SJW movies with the most recent Solo: A Star Wars Story, riding on a purported wave of success starting from The Force Awakens. All signs point however to the fact that this wave is flagging, as the novelty of a “rejuvenated” Star Wars franchise wears off and weary fans lament the lack of faithfulness to the source material. Hardly surprising, given rumours of Kathleen Kennedy’s pronouncements dismissing the support of male fans. While it is unclear just how true these rumours might be, the fact of the matter is that these rumours have gained traction and caused a fan backlash. The first Star Wars movie in 10 years – The Force Awakens – might have been buoyed by fan anticipation and nostalgia, but that repository of potential sales has been progressively sapped by consecutive movies ham-fistedly pushing the well-worn narrative of inclusiveness and diversity. As I have discussed in previous articles, this is reflective of insidious politically correct...

In this third part to the series of articles on political correctness, I discuss what may be done to reverse its tide and its accompanying symptoms. I understand that this might be wishful thinking, but the preliminary to action is planning. In any case, there is much to be said for excising political correctness from one’s life – anyone willing to take the first, personal, steps to become more frank and assertive, rather than wallow in a culture of self-pity and victimhood, will reap dividends in terms of social capital. What I mean with respect to the individual is simply: let others take care of themselves; you should be independent and a little selfish, even if it risks offending others. This culture of personal responsibility is no doubt antithetical to the dictates of communal values, but it is most consistent with progress and personal advancement.

In a previous article (see https://ideationstartshere.blogspot.sg/2018/03/purely-speculating-influence-of.html ), I discussed the possible connections between the pushing of politically correct agendas and certain events (the Florida and Maryland school shootings, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s belated recognition of no-go zone areas and the wave of #metoo harassment accusations). In this follow-up, I will scope out more broadly why political correctness is detrimental on balance – ie, when one weighs up the potential and actual pros and cons, the stark conclusion is that political correctness enfeebles the minds of the population and bring out their destructive tendencies.

The brash 45 th president of the United States has been given many unflattering names in the time since he announced his running for the Presidency; but the fact of the matter is that Trump is president, which begs the question – what can one learn from him? If the reader feels that this very question is ridiculous, I venture to say that he is not alone. This reaction would be, however, a manifestation of pride, which proclaims that there is “nothing to learn”; open your eyes to the fact of Trump’s achievements and the importance with which the world holds his words (whether positively or negatively, it matters not – it is the degree of impact which matters).