The Fool.

Speaking of quotes, I came across this quote which struck me with happiness and sorrow in a single blow; it took me 31 years to realize this....

Theodore Rubin: "I must learn to love the fool in me—the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool."

Contemporary Culture and Environmentalism

So, inspired partially by Mike’s Making Change Happen project, Laurent’s culture post, Yo’s IQ post and Turaj’s Van Morrison song (I still think it was more about emotional enlightenment rather than Smith and Rousseau), I decided to delve into the murky world of politically-charged songs and message music... In general, popular music has struggled to combine political issues with universal themes that can appeal directly to the human heart. Furthermore, in a liberal democracy, it is generally assumed that there are two sides to every story, and it can be easy to alienate half your audience if you “pick a side”...

However, “The Pioneers” by Bloc Party seems to be an exception that proves the rule. This song works because it picks a theme – human hubris and the rational detachment from society and evironment inherent to enlightenment scientific attitudes – that doesn’t attack any one person, nationality or social class in particular. And as we all know, the concern it expresses for the implications of these attitudes is very contemporary.

Here are the lyrics - I think they are pretty self-explanatory after Turaj’s course:

If it can be broke then it can be fixed,
if it can be fused then it can be split
It's all under control
If it can be lost then it can be won,
if it can be touched then it can be turned
All you need is time

We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?

A sense of purpose and a sense of skill, a sense of function but a disregard
We will not be the first, we won't
You said you were going to conquer new frontiers,
Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast

We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?
Breathe in, breathe out

So here we are reinventing the wheel
I'm shaking hands with a hurricane
It's a colour that I can't describe,
It's a language I can't understand
Ambition, tearing out the heart of you
Carving lines into you
Dripping down the sides of you

We will not be the last.

The lyrical structure is a subtle progression from absolute certainty in scientific methodology in the first verse, to increasing self-reflection on the dynamics of a competitive system of knowledge in the second, and ultimately despair and confusion once the limits of human capacity have been acknowledged in the third.

Beyond the message, what makes this song particularly striking is the use of the singer’s voice to convey urgency through the short, sharp, staccato phrasing of every sentence. This urgency is also conveyed in the gradual build up of instruments. The first verse commences with sparse, angular riffs from two electric guitars before a martial drum-beat kicks in on “all you need is time”. Eventually, the bass-line appears as the first verse is repeated. In addition, the repetition of the scientific mantras “it’s under control”, “all you need is time”, and “we will not be the last” reinforces the irony of the statements themselves as the urgency of the vocal delivery undermines the listener’s faith in the “pioneers’” certitude. It sounds like the singer is reassuring himself, and not doing a good job of it. Indeed, the song can be read as an endorsement of “strong ecological modernization” or fundamental structural reform as it implicitly asserts the futility in trying to “solve problems with the thinking that created them”.

Anyway, if you are crazy enough to have read this far, you might want to listen to the song on youtube. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8N_n5npm7I

But be warned, music that tries to convey tension and confusion is not necessarily easy on the ear the first time you listen to it. But it rewards multiple listens. And I am sure you will agree that the video explores several interesting interrelated themes in the space of three minutes...

Aah, only 139 days to the concert… just around the corner... the anticipation!!!

Becoming a LUMESian in 4 quotes

At my university, I was struck by how many of the other environmental students had had transformative, almost quasi-religious, experiences in nature when they were younger. I've been wondering if this was unique to my culture or more universal. I really want to know Why do we all care? Why are we all spending two years of our lives here in Lund trying to figure out how to change the world? Because maybe if we knew why us, we could spread whatever pushed us here to others.

"We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no child-hood in it..."
--Georg Eliot (The Mill on the Floss)

This is why I became an environmentalist. I would never have loved the earth this much if it weren't for the idle times as a child climbing trees, building snow forts, racing margarine cups down the rivuleting floods of spring, jumping into leaf piles and floating in the ocean. I would not have loved this earth so much if I had not spent so many hours wandering the woods with my mom, as she asked me, What do you think that is? Why do you think it does that? Where is it going? Where does it live? The woods seemed full of stories and magic, and in the end, I loved the earth.

"Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent."
-- Rachel Carson (on why she wrote Silent Spring)

I started out as one of those serious kids who hears about the rainforests being cut down and the whales being endangered in school and demands it all to just stop! When I started taking classes on "environmental issues" and it all became so much more complicated, I felt like Carson, that I couldn't look away.

"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."
-- Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac)

So often it seems like it would be easier to look away, to not know the things they're telling us about global warming and desertification and poverty and biodiversity loss and on and on - to be able to have the future peace Carson knows she can't have because she knows so much. This, ultimately, is how I think I ended up here in Lund with y'all: to not live alone with this. To not become one of the burned-out American activists who are stuck and given up with the world. Sometimes it means so much just to see you all in class each day.

This brings me to another of my favorite quotes:

"To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts unexpressed, that can make this life a garden."
-- Goethe

Not to get completely mushy on y'all, but I think it means you are all flowers.

My two favorite quotes

Hmm, may I share not just one but two of my most favorite quotes: one short and one very long? As you probably already know, I’m a big fan of ‘all things Apple’, like fruits, trees, orchards, Apple Macintosh, and many others… And both favorite quotations of mine are somehow related to this passion.

The first comes from a girl whose words from her high school essay were used for one of the Greenpeace International Annual Reports:

“even if I knew the world was coming to an end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree”

I think it’s one of the most beautiful lines of text I’ve ever come across…

And the second quote inspires me very much as well, it comes from my favorite author Kim Stanley Robinson and his wonderful book ‘The Years of Rice and Salt’:

“We will go out into the world and plant gardens and orchards to the horizons, we will build roads through the mountains and across the deserts, and terrace the mountains and irrigate the deserts until there will be garden everywhere, and plenty for all, and there will be no more empires or kingdoms, no more caliphs, sultans, emirs, khans, or zamindars, no more kings or queens or princes, no more qadis or mullahs or ulema, no more slavery and no more usury, no more property and no more taxes, no more rich and no more poor, no killing or maiming or torture or execution, no more jailers and no more prisoners, no more generals, soldiers, armies or navies, no more patriarchy, no more clans, no more caste, no more hunger, no more suffering than what life brings us for being born and having to die, and then we will see for the first time what kind of creatures we really are.”

IQ stands for...

My friends,

I was impressed by Reshmi's story and her quote on Dec 5, and thought we could all share our 'Inspirational Quotes.' Coming from all over the world, from such a diverse backgrounds and interests, LUMES must have the ever-deep-and-inspiring sea of words.
So, here's my favorite...

"I'd like to remember that during the daylight hours, the stars are still shining above us."
Sarah E. Reynolds

Mind the invisibles, and feel connected.
That's how I interpreted, and that's something that I want to exercise in my life.
I believe in the power of imagination and positive verbs,
so if you're motivated, please add your 'Inspirational Quotes.'

yo