Blog entries
Follow us
Elk News - the email newsletter
Subscribe to the Elk RSS feed, including blog posts, pictures and videos.
Titles only
Full content
Comments aren't included in these feeds. For them you can click the RSS icon in the Recent Comments box.
Our videos at
YouTube
Vimeo
Comments
First idea that came to my mind: Columbia Pictures logo xD
http://hahn.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v69/p1354538836-3.jpg
Diogenes of Sinope was a real badass, the king of badasses :)
The story;
It was a long day of work. I returned home, it was dark and I was already bit tired. And I hadn't taken any pictures during the day. For a moment I thought that maybe this is a good day to quit doing the "Picture of They Day" - what if I'm running out of ideas? Then, on the other hand, I felt that it is a good challenge for me, fuelling creativity.
Usually that lamp is hanging near the ceiling, being the only source of electric light indoors. Looking at it, it came to my mind that in a Finnish movie there is a scene where a man grabs such a lamp, pretending it to be a microphone when he sings a piece of tango. I tried to take such a picture, but got inspired to try a Statue of Liberty -pose. Which, thinkin of it, felt rather absurd. I realized that most of all I felt like Diogenes :)
Yup, I guess Diogenes of Sinope has been one of my sources of inspiration. (As a slightly related note, the tiny white figure in my bookshelf, just above the lamp - he is Socrates. Another source of inspiration for me, when I was studying at the university)
It is a good challenge indeed, and it gives a nice touch of up to date to your blog so keep it up :)
Socrates is at the right spot in your bookshelf: at the top. I made 1 year of philosophy at the university and Socrates was a revelation to me, one of my favourites. Delphi Oracle was right - he is the wisest of men. My favourite Philosophers always were the ones that made their own life a living book of their philosophy. You have great inspirational masters :)
When I read "Diogenes" in the img title this realization came to me: of course he likes Diogenes, it makes total sense - you live in harmony with your natural self, close to your natural aspirations and dreams, above social (dis)illusions easy paths - Socrates and Diogenes would be proud :)
One day I need to try this "One day 1 picture" challenge :)
Doing the daily picture has been a nice experiment. Sometimes I take a lot of pictures, and then try to select just one out of the many. And then there are days when it is already late evening and I haven't taken a single picture, so I have to dig into my imagination to invent an idea for a picture. And sometimes the project just gives me inspiration to do funny or silly things in the middle of serious work - which is always nice =)
Yeah, I think I'll do the whole year of daily pictures.
I remember once reading that most (if not all) of the philosophers in the Ancient Greece lived in a different polis than where they were born. The language and the culture is generally speaking the same, but still each polis had their own habits. So, someone from another polis could easily feel being a slightly outsider - not having blood ties to the rest of the society, not being raised up to all the habits which were self-evident for the most of the population. That kind of social background could then contribute the philosophical reflection; questioning things, asking "why", and generally speaking trying to make sense out of the world, instead of simply going with the tradition.
I think this aspect is pretty strong in Diogenes; it seems that he didn't identify himself as a citizen of a spesific City-State, but more as a Human. I've been lately thinking quite often about group-identity and how it affects human thinking. Funnily, this seems to be related to the modern theme of conservatism / liberalism. Conservatism sees behaving according to the tradition as a value in itself, and therefore puts a lot of weight to social rank and status - as everybody is evaluating the others according to the common tradition of the group, it is valuable to aim for a good reputation. But Diogenes didn't. Maybe he was one of the first liberals, refusing to follow tradition just for the sake of tradition, doing things the natural way regardless of what others think =)
That is something I tend to reflect a lot too. How much liberty and individual identity we trade for some comfort and integration, when it comes to culture and tradition. We humans in society are like a bird that lives inside a cage with the door opened. Afraid of the world, predators and hunger, with fear and anxious about future, the bird chooses to live inside the cage, because he finds there food, water and a known world. I imagine conservatism and established culture/tradition as this scenario, where we, afraid of the world and the unknown, trade liberty for some comfort. The greater the social comfort, the greater is the liberty fee we pay these days.
Culture is sometimes also a trap, because it is fast food for the mind (it is easy to follow the same religion of our parents without questioning; the same ambition the society has regarding money and a good job playing the good employee game; the same social standards regarding a relationship and marry even if it is not for love, or having tons of kids because government says that economy needs a baby boom even if there is too much people in the world doing harm to nature and half lives in misery without care, etc...).
I fear becoming a trapped bird, so I despise the cage, try to question it when possible in the limits of my consciousness. Because of that I always felt like an outsider wherever I go, and someone with a mask, working, living in society, but just observing, not integrated. But in the other hand, in the extreme of living in the bird’s cage, wandering trough the woods of life alone, in hunger, thirsty and cold, outside the cage and against it, it is also not much liberty, since we can become prisoners of sadness and misery. Maybe there is a middle term somewhere, where we can be free of pre-determined ideas/norms/culture/society and happy, in harmony with the world at the same time. I think your way of life is an answer to that. You are not inside the cage, but at the same time you're also not in the rainy woods, in hunger and misery. I see great joy in your life. Your way of life is very inspirational for me, because I think you found a middle term I seek for and hope to find :)
I always loved Diogenes, I always thought of him as one of the greatest free man. Your text was a nice reflection. Thinking about Diogenes as one of the first liberals is a refreshing way of looking into this great free man And I didn't know most of them lived in a different polis than where they were born, thanks. Maybe culture (meaning = as society norms and traditions) is like an Opium to the soul, and one must be careful with the doses to not be a prisoner of it.
Diogenes would be proud of you, you're a nice guy that turns Philosophy into something real trough your life, keep it up :)
PS: I confess - I’m a little lazy writing in English, since it is not my main language and it takes an extra effort to use >.< That’s why I take too much time between my answers sometimes :)
No problem - slow paced replies are perfectly fine!
Well, sometimes I'm bit of a conservative, too =) When the mobile phones were booming, I refused to have one. I thought that I can do with a good old land-line phone, and when most of the people already had mobile phones I was still refusing to buy one... And same with facebook, it took me a long time to finally join. But when I did, at some point I was pleasantly surprised of exactly this same phenomenon: you never know if one of the posts is going to start a good conversation. Same here; just doing the daily picture as a daily routine, without spesifically waiting for any bigger user feedback - and then sometimes pictures spark comments and real conversation. That is good!
Yup, I think I pretty much agree with your reflections about comfort / freedom. I think the ideal would be to have a social group with a tradition which is not too limiting - a tradition which would pay more attention to accepting everyone as they are, supporting and lifting persons up. But all too often we have traditions with a lot of social pressure, fear and control to keep the individuals hard-working smooth members of the society...
Well, but all in all, this is a big topic and might be worth a blog entry or two - maybe in the winter to come =)
Your slow adherence to new fashionable technologies at times, in my view, are a good kind of conservatism: there is too much pressure to buy new things, each year there is a lot of competition between companies to releases new fancy things. People tend to buy smartphones like a piece of cloth nowadays, changing frequently (IPhone for instance is an immense marketing machine). Your slow reaction to that is in some way like a liberal act, because in a world where everyone goes in the flow of marketing and planned obsolescence for products, using products consciously of their utility not for their fashion, is a nice conservatism act (or liberal, in the sense that you don't go with the marketing flow) :) As in everything in life, the middle path is the wisest one, conservatism can be good sometimes too in some contexts :)
It is a big topic indeed, in future posts we'll talk more friend :)
Pages
Add new comment