Impact strategies (visual, auditory…) as a form of struggle for some social movements today are not always effective against the system that they are critical of. The danger of these methods is that the epidermal impacts are merely substitutes for profound changes. It is what the popular wisdom would describe […]
In Focus
In Focus
Is ’emptying’ a realistic means of achieving peace?
In his book, A Different Drum, Scott Peck argues that the idea of ’emptying’ is an essential prerequisite to peace in any ‘community’. . Nigel Pocock . With major possible catastrophes, such as global warming and pollution, common cause and open discussion free of power struggles, is absolutely vital. Peck’s […]
Against the criticism of art, or why does the shoemaker judge the tailor
“Those who know music create it, those who know less teach it, those who know less still organise it, and those who know nothing criticise it.” Luciano Pavarotti. Macu Gavilán Rumour has it that critics feel a secret, almost sexual pleasure when they find the work they’re analysing […]
Community : Possible by individuation, destroyed by individualism
Far from being a society of mature people, western culture encourages mass narcissism and infantilisation, in ever-increasing numbers. Nigel Pocock What is ‘community’? It is a noun, and has a verbal form, ‘communication’. This gives us the essence of a ‘community’, for it is nothing more or less […]
I shot a blank, and hit a black
Unlike the shot fired in his heart by the poet José Asunción Silvia on the morning of the 24th of May 1896, that of Candelario Obeso (1849-1884) was heard in his home in Bogotá, the ninth road between Sixth and Seventh Street where, harassed by racial discrimination and due to […]