Groups ‘use’ the leader sometimes with little regard for him personally, but always with regard for fulfilling their own needs and urges – Ernest Becker – The Denial of Death, 1973 p136
Asymmetrical hairstyles seem to be the fashion for women. Men’s styles are symmetrical (left and right as opposed to front and back). At least that’s the way they dress for the Academy Awards. Everyone just looks so serious. They are actors, you know.
It is hard for us to believe in a world before the evolution of individual taste, when possessions simply demonstrated your rank, and said noting about what you liked – Hiram Mantel (New York Review of Books – Oct 22, 2009) p10
Parasocial: one-sided social relationships – i.e. fan to celebrity – we know everything about them; they don’t know we exist
Getting colder, will get colder yet
Crows gathering on the lawn
Discarded paper flutters past
Conversation levels rise above
The ambiance
Porcelain cups tingle in the washer
When you set up your perception-action world to eliminate what is basic to it (anxiety), then you fundamentally falsify it – Ernest Becker – The Denial of Death, 1973 p142
Factoid: 81% of Los Vegas homes are worth less than their mortgages
Rand’s particular intellectual contribution, the thing that makes her so popular and so American, is the way she manages to mass market elitism – to convince so many people, especially young people, that they could be geniuses without being in any concrete way distinguished – Adam Kirsh – New York Times Book Review (Nov 1, 2009) p8
Factoid: 93% US states that ban texting while driving also offer Twitter traffic updates
Walk the dog, walk the dog
Morning noon and night
A tug on the leash as it sniffs
A yank on the string makes it
Return
The shape of the hills is now visible
Once obscured by leaves
Rising early with a jump upon
The bed
Catching the first vermilion glow
Of the sun
Its no fun to be woken by
A wet nose
But the exercise is good for one
I am told
It’s anxious to re-mark
Sniff and detect
I am not in charge
Never was
Fascination is in the one who experiences it – Ernest Becker – The Denial of Death, 1973 p128
Farts usually come in threes of diminishing volume but this time I manage four, although the last was only a little bleep. A tight ass queer strolls by saying something like “Paulter” as he passes. I have no idea what he is referring to if anything. An old man with coffee cup raises his left arm in a ‘hi there’. I nod back and continue to wait. Another #12 goes by. A young white woman in a black coat is leaning against the building and sucking on a cigarette.
Factoid: Estimated number of Al Queda members now operating in Afghanistan, according to the US National Security Advisor: 100
To consume means to burn, to use up – and therefore, to need to be replenished – Susan Sontag – On Photography, 1977 p179
Happiness’s importance is a result of its use to model the Velben hypothesis in economics. It is Homo Economicus’ happiness that really matters – not your happiness, not my happiness – it is happiness in the abstract, unattached to anything real – the willingness of the masses to work harder in order to engage in conspicuous consumption – it is a yellow smiley face – have a nice day! My Yuck is a symbol lack of consumer confidence.
The real world is simply too terrible to admit; it tells man that he is a small trembling animal who will decay and die. Illusion changes all this, makes man seem important, vital to the universe, immortal in some way – Ernest Becker – The Denial of Death, 1973 p133
Her left leg is bent so that the sole of her foot rests against the wall of the facade. Her weight is placed squarely on her right leg. A #47 arrives. I get on. The woman puts out her cigarette and gets on too. She has long skinny legs with big feet. She gets off at Eleventh Street. I am now the only passenger on the bus. We pass the Stud and I wonder what it would be like to hang out in a gay bar. Would any explanation be necessary? I once went into a gay bar in Del Mar and said “I’m not gay” and the man said, “Oh, come on – don’t spoil it for me!” The alternative was the cowboy bar across the street overlooking the beach.
We started it off
Introduced democracy
Cut down the forests
Now we must sit back
And let those who did not
Participate
Finish it off
Tis only fair
That we all die
Together
Is this not the democratic
Way, not to deny
The presence of 7 billion people aiming for first world comforts… is clearly incompatible with homeostasis of climate but also with chemistry, biological diversity and the economy of the system – James Lovelock
Factoid: Projected earnings of lawyers and advisors from the bankruptcy proceedings of Lehman Brothers: $1.4 billion
The more eminent the master, the more self-satisfied his man – Hiram Mantel (New York Review of Books – Oct 22, 2009) p10
Tell all, show all, all the time to everyone – to somebody, to anybody! Hello, is there anyone there?
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