worldsystema

mayer hillman came to an ecological architecture conference at kiad and i walked into hospitality with him as we were agreeing that all this green architecture stuff was a sideshow. he had come to tell us to stop flying and i gave him an alexander article

his great little book lists 10 excuses that people use to ignore the problem

i don't believe in climate change (denial/repression/suppression)

technology will be able to halt climate change

i blame the government/the americans/...

shooting the messenger

it's not my problem

there's nothing i can do about it. (helplessness - a manifestation of the psychological response of dissociation)

how i run my life is my business

there are more important and urgent problems to tackle

at least i am doing something

we are already making a lot of progress on climate change

and i have now come across people who say things like "i've had three lovely holidays abroad this year and i don't give a shit about what happens in the future because i'll be dead"

Posted by sajjad afzal-woodward at 06:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

in reviewing richard feynman's book freeman dyson suggests that scientists who become icons must not only be geniuses but also performers playing to the crowd and enjoying public acclaim

what's needed are sharp and witty remarks that make good headlines

besides being a famous joker and a famous genius the third quality needed to become a public icon is wisdom

i think christopher alexander has neither the wish to be an icon nor the talent for entertaining the public

Posted by sajjad afzal-woodward at 09:38 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

mohammed shahid and i shared the human societal attraction to unconditional eroticism and the will to power but i'm glad our folies a deux remained works of pornographic imagination

i finally caught up with Gordon Burn's "Happy Like Murderers" about fred and rosemary west. the account paints him as the evil sun reader always talking of people being "starkers". they murdered some of their own children and the rituals they evolved were both complex and kitch. fred blabbed after he was caught and hanged himself in jail where rosemary continues her silence

ian brady in "The Gates Of Janus" quotes the psychologist Henry James, "Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spiderweb of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of conciousness." it was not until i scanned it that i saw the face in the cover. spooky

in "Beyond Belief" emlyn williams states that nothing that is humanly possible is unworthy of our study. brady's head was turned by de sade and after he and myra hindley were caught they remained silent about their crimes

hindley has died and brady has been on hunger strike since 1999 but the authotrities can continue to keep him alive by force feeding because he is considered insane

Posted by sajjad afzal-woodward at 06:02 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)