The movie promotes the British idea of egalitarianism. This idea is elitist. Instead of resetting the civilisation by bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator, lift everyone up to the best practice of the meritocracy. Cultivate the substance, flirt on the surface.
The movie's incessant violence suggests that any policy decision (or indecision) entails human suffering, and so ethical tradeoffs are unavoidable. These trade-offs are to be resolved to promote the diversity of competing ideas embedded into humanity.
The movie gets away with a lot of violence because it does not expect the viewer to savour it. There is no time. Violence is fast; it kills before it hurts. Nor does the director outsource violence to the audience by building up the anticipation. Violence is unexpected; the focus is on the consequence, not the process.
Colin Firth’s persona—in this and in other pictures—accords with—and here, endorses—Hemingway’s definition of nobility: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Intrapersonal competition is art; interpersonal competition is business.
14 February 2015
23 January 2015
16 January 2015
The Gone Girl (2014)
In the Imitation Game (2014), Alan Turing says: "Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good." Each couple ought to decide whether violence really feels good---not on the spur of the moment, but over the long term---and then commit to it or banish it from the relationship, or separate if agreement cannot be reached.
The prescribed separation may fail to occur if the person who experiences violence empathises with the perpetrator, without enjoying violence directly. Nevertheless, separation is prescribed by the following criterion: Any act---physical or mental---that leads to the obliteration of an individual who does not initiate this act ought to be denounced. The described criterion also denounces murder and the abuse of a hostage with the Stockholm syndrome, but is agnostic about suicide.
Committing violence can be consistent with respect (as when restraining a child who may otherwise inadvertently hurt himself), but deriving enjoyment from committing violence is inconsistent with respect. The enjoyment from committing violence is the enjoyment from the exercise of power, which is the enjoyment from gratuitously neglecting the wishes of another---and that contradicts respect. Because respect is a prerequisite for love, a relationship of consensual mutual violence cannot be a loving one.
Can one ever be sure---about the other, about oneself? One can.
The prescribed separation may fail to occur if the person who experiences violence empathises with the perpetrator, without enjoying violence directly. Nevertheless, separation is prescribed by the following criterion: Any act---physical or mental---that leads to the obliteration of an individual who does not initiate this act ought to be denounced. The described criterion also denounces murder and the abuse of a hostage with the Stockholm syndrome, but is agnostic about suicide.
Committing violence can be consistent with respect (as when restraining a child who may otherwise inadvertently hurt himself), but deriving enjoyment from committing violence is inconsistent with respect. The enjoyment from committing violence is the enjoyment from the exercise of power, which is the enjoyment from gratuitously neglecting the wishes of another---and that contradicts respect. Because respect is a prerequisite for love, a relationship of consensual mutual violence cannot be a loving one.
Can one ever be sure---about the other, about oneself? One can.
5 December 2014
Undressed: 350 Years of Underwear in Fashion
(Queensland Museum, 1 December 2014)
The exhibition’s implicit thesis is that underwear has been shaped by technological advances (nylon, lycra, central heating) and social fads (tango, aerobics), but has shaped nothing but the wearer’s frame. The underwear’s under-appreciated agency undermines the exhibition's artistic legitimacy, thereby relegating the exhibition to an ethnographic display.
An undergarment belongs to an art gallery only to the extend that it has been an element of a vocabulary current in a conversation that has effected social change, which, in turn, has affected the conversation---and with it, the vocabulary. Conversations have protagonists, whose lives intertwine to form a narrative, and who are the ultimate objects of art. Uninhabited, the exhibition is merely an anonymous exhibit of other people's washed laundry.
The exhibition’s implicit thesis is that underwear has been shaped by technological advances (nylon, lycra, central heating) and social fads (tango, aerobics), but has shaped nothing but the wearer’s frame. The underwear’s under-appreciated agency undermines the exhibition's artistic legitimacy, thereby relegating the exhibition to an ethnographic display.
An undergarment belongs to an art gallery only to the extend that it has been an element of a vocabulary current in a conversation that has effected social change, which, in turn, has affected the conversation---and with it, the vocabulary. Conversations have protagonists, whose lives intertwine to form a narrative, and who are the ultimate objects of art. Uninhabited, the exhibition is merely an anonymous exhibit of other people's washed laundry.
20 November 2014
15 November 2014
"The Compass of Pleasure" by David J. Linden (2011)
Individuals differ in their susceptibilities to addiction. An individual with an intense susceptibility will become addicted anyway; his only decision is to choose an addiction. The society can only hope to steer the individual towards a productive addiction by multiplying the choices available to him.
It is unlikely that the technological progress is an aberration that will cease. Individuals have found the same outlet for creativity in technology as used to be available only in art and science. This outlet cannot be lost. It is possible, however, that abundant consumption will subdue the desire to create. It is also possible that technological advances will enable one to administer pleasure directly, without resorting to the exercise of creativity.
The future ushered by such advances would take suburbia to another level. The greatest source of satisfaction is other people. Finding the right kind of other people requires time. Instead of lubricating connexions (e.g., as Facebook does), technology might dispense with connexions altogether. Some (mostly good-looking and intelligent) nonconformists would socialise and work. Others would volunteer to exist in solitude, plugged into machines.
It is unlikely that the technological progress is an aberration that will cease. Individuals have found the same outlet for creativity in technology as used to be available only in art and science. This outlet cannot be lost. It is possible, however, that abundant consumption will subdue the desire to create. It is also possible that technological advances will enable one to administer pleasure directly, without resorting to the exercise of creativity.
The future ushered by such advances would take suburbia to another level. The greatest source of satisfaction is other people. Finding the right kind of other people requires time. Instead of lubricating connexions (e.g., as Facebook does), technology might dispense with connexions altogether. Some (mostly good-looking and intelligent) nonconformists would socialise and work. Others would volunteer to exist in solitude, plugged into machines.
31 October 2014
"10th Anniversary Season" by ProArte Danza
(Harbourfront Centre, 5 October 2014)
Watching a new dance is akin to travelling to a country whose tongue one does not understand. One builds a narrative from one's latent thoughts triggered by the witnessed scenes. One identifies with the detected lives of others. The lack of comprehension prunes the superfluous and deepens the connection.
ProArte Danza celebrate civilisation without diminishing the individual. Civilisation empowers the individual by providing continuity, through conversations and shared beauty.
Watching a new dance is akin to travelling to a country whose tongue one does not understand. One builds a narrative from one's latent thoughts triggered by the witnessed scenes. One identifies with the detected lives of others. The lack of comprehension prunes the superfluous and deepens the connection.
ProArte Danza celebrate civilisation without diminishing the individual. Civilisation empowers the individual by providing continuity, through conversations and shared beauty.
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