“..Look at these tears, tears of a clown
Look at these tears, oh they keep rolling down
Look at these tears, tears of a clown…” by Frankie J
Just some Inchoate musings on various things.
1. I was thinking about a hadith. In a narration from Amr Ibn Akhwas he relates that the Prophet(saws) commanded:
“Be kind towards your women. Take heed! You have rights over your women and your women also have rights over you.”
One notes that the command came first, before the justification of mutual reciprocity between men and women in terms of rights each has from the other, which of course suggests mutual reciprocity of duties. I think this is something that many of us men get sensitive about, the whole “nice guys get kicked to the curb” Line of thought. “Why be kind or nice, girls will just use you and step over you..”
I think Kindness and Niceness are somewhat different things, in English.
The connotations are different. I suspect it’s a different matter in some other languages. Maybe the French origin of genteel had shades of meaning now lost in our English equivalents; gentle, nice, kind.. form a constellation of related and similar meanings, but differing somewhat. Nice has evolved into a somewhat palpably negative way, nice and boring.
Kind, however, is a strength. For one needs strength in order to chose to be kind. Once can make a choice to be kind or unkind, and kindness to someone who one can possibly oppress or bear down upon with power, this is surely a virtue isn’t it? And virtue comes from the Latin word designating not only a Power, but also masculinity, virility.
Kindness doesn’t and needn’t imply being weak, or hardcore out of defensiveness. In fact the older I get the more I see that there is a kind of kindness that actually takes great strength and restraint to possess. Perhaps many things wrong in the world could be solved by consistently, frm a very young age, to old age, simply being kind.
2. I discovered the Vigilant Citizen blog and forum several weeks ago. It is interesting reading in the sort of “This may or may not be plausible, but it’s more interesting than reading about shape-shifting lizard-men” sort of way. It’s a perfect train-wreck of mildly Protestant evangelical Xtian paranoia over Entertainment Industry satanic symbolism and the spectre of MK Ultra Mind Control, and purportedly at the behest of the globalist New World Order. That said there are interesting facts and data-points one can dredge up from forum and blog conversations. At best this can lead to a state Charles Upton once termed “transcendental paranoia” at worst it can lead to, well, just paranoia. But it’s interesting. I believe in investigating and being open to plausible intrigues, following chains of logic, induction, and deduction, and evidences however solid, or slim, that may allude to intrigue, conspiracy
But not running around like chicken little.
But it makes me wonder, and think… Now I have no doubt that the rich and powerful Managerial Classes have some funny beliefs and practices, and this latest scandal over Jimmy Saville and the BBC in the UK, and Sandusky in the USA, and pedophile child-rape circles really does seem to have substantive fact to it. But jumping and crying “Satan” whenever some strange symbol is seen in a movie, and obsessing over “Monarch Mind-Control” as if it was a proven fact, when it isn’t rather it’s unsubstantiated interpretations on top of a bed of facts, which is that wealthy and worldly powerful people can and do rape and molest children and teens, sometimes in groups and circles (which seems amply documented)
On that note, I stumbled on some things about former fashion models, Louise Gagnon and Carré Otis on the dirty underside of the fashion industry, from drugs, rape, sexual and physical abuse, and coerced (or at times consensual) prostitution. It and some articles about photographer Terry Richardson made me realize how frail the fabric of respectability can be. How throughly sordid and hurtful things can go on underneath one’s noses and how appearances are sometimes only just appearances.
In a sense I’ve considered the idea that the entertainment industry and prostitution are not only co-terminal but also different modalities of the same complex. From the almost non existent veil between aspects of the porn/adult entertainment industry and Hollywood, to the historical linkage between acting and prostitution that went back practically to Shakespeare’s day, and how entertainment was once considered a thoroughly sordid business.
Perhaps in this way entertainers take on the dirty job of satisfying society’s desires, and thus in a way become disposable receptacles of hopes, dreams, and desires. The talent of the entertainer, on whatever level, musical, dramatic, sexual, from circus or county faire to LA Tinsel Town studios, seems part of a demi-monde that allows society to dream and fantasize, but produces as output tears on clowns’ cheeks. The Amy Winehouse, the Marlyn Monroe, the Lindsay Lohan..
Just some thoughts, and problematic ones at that. Things floating in my head that are solidifying and gelling into something else