Fascism as An Aesthetic

The useful way to understand fascism, […] is as an aesthetic - as a particular mix of fetishes and paranoias that always crops up in culture, occasionally seizing some measure of power, essentially always with poor results. It can basically be reduced to a particular sort of story. The fascist narrative comes, in effect, in two parts. The first involves a nostalgic belief in a past golden age - a historical moment in which things were good. In the fascist narrative, this golden age was ended because of an act of disingenuous betrayal - what’s called the “stab in the back myth.” […] Since then, the present and sorry state of affairs has been maintained by the backstabbers, generally through conspiratorial means.

The second part is a vision of what should happen, which centers on a heroic figure who speaks the truth of the conspiracy and leads a populist restoration of the old order. The usual root of this figure is (a bad misreading of) Nietzsche’s idea of the ubermensch - a figure of such strength that morality does not really apply to him. He’s at once a fiercely individualistic figure - a man unencumbered by the degenerate culture in which he lives - and a collectivist figure who is to be followed passionately and absolutely. A great leader, as it were. […] It is not, to be clear, that all cults of personality are fascist, any more than all conspiracy theories are. Rather, it is the combination - the stab-in-the-back conspiracy theory coupled with the great leader that all men must follow - that defines the fascist aesthetic.

Source: Guided by the Beauty of Their Weapons – An Analysis of Theodore Beale and his Supporters by Philip Sandifer.

Astronomy Comparisons, part 2

If the Universe were the size of Earth

  • Earth itself is now 0.1 picometers in size, or about 100 times the radius of a proton.
  • The Sun is now 10.5 picometers in radius, or about half the radius of a hydrogen atom. The Moon is around half that distance away from the Earth.
  • The semi-major axis of Pluto going around the Sun is 90 nanometers, of order the size of a virus.
  • The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, is about half a millimeter away, or about half the thickness of a red blood cell the size of an amoeba.
  • The Galaxy is now about 7 m in radius, so about four people tall.
  • The distance to Andromeda, the nearest large galaxy, is about 350 m, almost a quarter of a mile away.
  • The distance to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the nearest big cluster, is about 7.4 km/4.6 mi away.

Source: u/themeaningofhaste

Part 1 found here.

There is an irresolvable contradiction between viewing religion naturalistically – as a human adaptation to living in the world – and condemning it as a tissue of error and illusion. What if the upshot of scientific inquiry is that a need for illusion is built into in the human mind? If religions are natural for humans and give value to their lives, why spend your life trying to persuade others to give them up?

The answer that will be given is that religion is implicated in many human evils. Of course this is true. Among other things, Christianity brought with it a type of sexual repression unknown in pagan times. Other religions have their own distinctive flaws. But the fault is not with religion, any more than science is to blame for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or medicine and psychology for the refinement of techniques of torture. The fault is in the intractable human animal. Like religion at its worst, contemporary atheism feeds the fantasy that human life can be remade by a conversion experience – in this case, conversion to unbelief.

What scares new atheists

The Bruce Wang Radio Show - 09.09.01, by Bruce Wang.

Playlist:

Stereo Nova - ‘Na Me Thymasa’ from 'Vitamina Tek’ 1997
Digital Jockey - 'Sistersleep’ from '8 Studies in Dub’ (Pottheadz) 2000
Sweetback - 'Gaze’ from 'Sweetback’ 1996
Fauna Flash feat. Sugar B - 'Mother Nature’ from 'Fusion’ (Compost) 2001
The Nomad feat. Farda P - '141’ from 'Second Selection’ 2000
Cibo Matto - 'Clouds’ from 'Stereo Type A’ 1999
Computer Jockeys feat. Tashiwei Kiku - 'It’ from 'Plankton’ 2001
Black Dog feat. Bjork - 'Charlene’

Around 2004-5, I was casually searching online for Stereo Nova and came across this. I was flabbergasted to see them featured in Japan (in hindsight it kinda makes sense though). I’ve kept humming and whistling the show’s opening theme all these years.

Interstellar.

I’ve been waiting so long for a movie like this.

A proper Science Fiction movie: start with the current reality, add a couple of possible what-ifs and explore where those take you. All great Science Fiction is about humanity and Interstellar is all about human nature. What pushes us forward, how do we let go in order to do so, what stories we need to tell and how do we build them to drive us there.

I’ve been waiting so long for a movie like this. Interstellar beautifully binds Science with the human nature. Science that is naturally fueled by human curiosity to push the darkness back. There’s no magic and no messianic syndrome, it’s a story of Science and Faith together pushing us forward. All those people in the story managing to move ahead only after when they understand that they need to let go, face the facts, accept the loses and move on.

It’s a story of transcending our plights by accepting the facts and funneling our “rage for the dying of the light” into overcoming them. Again and again the characters reached a desperate position but managed to pull through by clearly looking around and believing they could overcome their problems through clear thinking.

I see Interstellar as a part of a greater narrative that has started to appear lately. It joins Elon Musk’s faith in colonizing Mars, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s urge for the continuation of our space program and warnings from the U.N. about Earth’s climate. A narrative that has been a long time coming, from Kubrick’s & Clarke’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey to Stephen Baxter’s deep future, extra hard-scifi Manifold Trilogy: “where are we going?”.

We will not reach for the stars because Interstellar was a fine movie. But at least I hope that together with other narratives being built lately we will change our perspective of who we are and where we’re going. A work of art (such as a movie) that shifts your point of view, even if it only hints at a point of view that can change, is something that’s nothing less than great.

Η αποθησαύριση αντικειμένων καθημερινότητας δεν είναι τόσο απλή ή μονάχα ενοχλητική πρακτική. Δεν είναι μόνο θέμα χώρου, που καταλαμβάνουν τα άχρηστα πράγματα μέσα στα συρτάρια, στα ράφια και τις ντουλάπες. Απομυζώντας ζωογόνο έκταση και τμήμα καθώς και επιφάνεια από τον πραγματικό αέρα που έχουν ανάγκη τα ουσιαστικά χρειώδη για την καθημερινότητα, στοιβάζουμε αναμνήσεις και χτίζουμε έναν όμορφα θεμελιωμένο πύργο κάλυψης ψεύτικων προσδοκιών. Το συναισθηματικό κομμάτι της υπόθεσης δείχνει μια ανασφάλεια και ένα χάσιμο, ένα ψυχοράγημα από το τώρα, το είναι και το θα είναι. Αποπροσανατολίζεις τον ίδιο σου τον εαυτό με τις δήθεν αναμνήσεις του παρελθόντος, ενώ η ανάγκη για την ολοσχερή ύπαρξη σου στο παρόν,που θα έπρεπε να ξεπερνά τη βάναυση σχεδόν υπενθύμιση του τότε, στοιχειώνει μια ζωή με αποκόμματα από προβολές ταινιών και ημιτελιωμένης χρηστικότητας πράγματα.
Μια σκισμένη φούστα: μια χρήση και μια κατάχρηση, από την Σιφινιέρα.