i Mmoveable Feet: Coffee Without Truth

I'm wondering if there's anyone who's currently satisfied with his professional life? So many ppl on meds for depression. Bipolar, anxiety, panic.

Is it a mistake to put it in these terms? Professional life vs Life full stop? Maybe that's where the mistake lies. "Herein lies the truth." Is Truth like Coffee? In the Zizekian sense, meaning that it always needs a supplement? "The full truth." "Plain coffee." "The unadulterated truth." "Coffee with milk." "Black coffee." "God's honest Truth." "Decaff." The truth vs A truth. "Coffee without cream." @Ruth. A half truth. Truth with Half&Half.

The only ppl I've been observing who seem to have a good time doing what they do at the moment are journalists. Of course, there's never a shortage of things going terribly wrong for them to talk about! Not to mention they're usually always knocking back a bit of the old sauce.

It strikes me how journalists talk to politicians, actually. And I don't mean The President or a Prime Minister (though PMs are closer in status to what I mean.) Because... politicians take So Much Shit. LOL Everything bad that happens is blamed on them, and they spend entire days shaking hands and attempting to persuade ppl who so often have to unlearn things and relearn them to know what's going on! Explaining... swallowing insults, smiling when they don't want to, being physically attacked. (There are also those who let their tempers rip, pungently and often, like Jean-Luc Melenchon.)

And Nigel Farage... but Farage does it with humour. He is relentless and seems to be one of the few who has a good time. I think he has fun as a politician more than any other politician currently active. And I suspect it has to do with the fact that he started from a position of utter political weakness, an underdog who kept barking at the gates of power not really expecting to enter the castle. He talks like a free man. If it's an act, it's a damn fine one, to the point where he could teach acting to theater students!

Politicians are actors, in the end. Yah. They are. No wonder Reagan became President of the US. I don't know if he was any good on the screen in a film.

The British shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer until Cameron's reelection is called Ed Balls. Where do these ppl come from? Mr Balls used to be Secretary of State for Children, Schools, and Families!

I don't trust ppl with bulging eyes. I've not usually cared for analyses of personality based on physiognomy but I'm starting to reassess this now. I prefer to analyze their names instead. But appearances do matter, not in any superficial sense, but in the sense that it is the only way ppl's essence appears in the world to others. And of course, in the superficial sense it can also tell us a great deal about ppl--- how they treat themselves and care for their appearance. Clothes, makeup. Shoes. Hair. Accessories. I'm v suspicious now about an obsession with makeup and clothes past the age of 25. I've thought about it... my conclusion is there's something about it which is at the same time selfish and insecure.

In the film Iranien Tamadon talks about how women in Western countries wear far less makeup than Iranian women, and he linked it with freedom -- of speech, to work, etc etc. These two things, he reckons, seem to be diametrically linked. The more freedom a woman has the less makeup she'll wear, and the less competitive she'll be with other women.

Iranian and Lebanese women wear a hell of a lot of makeup, right up there with Mexicanas. Brazilian women don't but they wear a lot of accessories. The Christmas Tree Syndrome. Earrings necklaces rings bracelets. Shiny things, jewellry, heels, handbags, perfume. Lots and lots of timenergy is spent on that. French women spend money on clothes handbags and shoes, but the more sophisticated the woman, the less flashy her clothes will be, which here is a sure sign they were expensive. The rich woman I saw recently for work for example couldn't be wearing anything less show-offy. Plain (coffee) navy skirt, (without) cream cashmere cardigan. V small pearl earrings, no makeup, no perfume.

I wonder if we can unlearn something. I so much want to forget what I know about Politics. Poly Tics.

I understand what Zizek says when he says a little alienation is good for ppl. He's correct. A little alienation is the space where satisfaction appears. Is Chomsky happy? Is Finkelstein? Melenchon? Zizek even? But then, in Z's own words, "why be happy when we can be interesting?"

Then, a woman screaming insults at another woman in the metro. It was shocking and impressive. V vulgar, v loud, v insistent. I wondered if she felt better or worse for it. Either way she didn't seem to give a toss. I've not seen anyone angrier in public than that woman.

It was also striking how so few ppl even turned to look at her. I think they were all a little scared she might lose it even more and physically attack someone.

Then, I wondered: would she have had the same effect in the Paris metro had she been ranting about 'The System' instead of insulting a person?

News & Gossip

Macro & Micro

Liberty & Freedom