Thursday 27 August 2020

You cannot learn from snow: you learn from walking in other men's footsteps in the snow.

 

Alec:  Why is handwriting such an important skill to you? Isn't handwriting almost obsolete?

Eisel Mazard:  Is it better by means of the hand to train the mind, or by means of the mind to train the hand?  People will readily admit that there is no training of the hand without training of the mind; but they are eager to imagine they can train the mind without the training of the hand.  You cannot learn from snow: you learn from walking in other men's footsteps in the snow.  These are the footsteps.

Monday 24 August 2020

A brief Q&A on my (stated) alienation from Canadian culture.

[Question from a viewer:] Why do you feel more connected to a poverty-stricken country like Cambodia, rather than your birthplace, Canada, when you share next to nothing with the inhabitants of said poverty-stricken country? (language, culture, beliefs about a better society etc.)

What makes you think, that you wouldn't develop a kind of resentment towards the people and culture of Cambodia, similar to that, which you have for Canada, if you tried to get involved in their political processes? ————— [My reply.] Switzerland is not built on genocide. Canada is. Canada has a third-rate imitation of European culture, painted over the failure of British Empire colonization —and the "success" of British Empire slavery and genocide. That's not what Switzerland is, that's not remotely comparable to the historical forces (and cultural accumulation) that produced Swiss culture as it now is. You can repeat this paragraph with "Laos" instead of "Switzerland".
[Yes, BTW, I made that graphic and posted it as part of the reply.]

[This Q&A arose in response to the following video that briefly (and bluntly) states that I'm extremely alienated from Canadian culture, political institutions & society:] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GlYcmf6dxU

Sunday 16 August 2020

Love is a way of living with other people, not a way of living FOR other people.


This is the denouement to my old video (that I can't believe anyone finds controversial… it's only two minutes long!), "When your gf dumps you because you're not vegan."  Link: https://youtu.be/KQuhGUuWgLg

Books I'm reading, and books I'm NOT reading…

A peculiar snapshot: I have very little time to read (in English)… and the tension of feeling that I ought to be studying Chinese (if not French, also) with all available time is symbolized, to some extent, in that first image, above.