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During the recent war in Syria, the city of Palmyra was bombarded and pillaged as part of the battle for territory. Within the walls of this ancient city were several ancient artefacts of priceless value. Sadly, many of these precious items were destroyed and damaged in the fighting. In a bid to rebuild and paint over the mistakes of the past, twenty salvageable pieces were rescued and shipped to Prague for regeneration.
As part of the custody deal, the expert curators and restoration artists of the Czech National Museum in the capital were tasked with making them as smart as they could. The work to bring these objects back to life was undertaken under the watchful eye of the general public. An intriguing process of art and design has been played out in real life over the past few years. Now, the work is complete, and the rare artefacts are able to safely return home. According to the director of Prague’s National Museum, Michal Lukes, (ArtNews) the damage is caused by not only fighting but by deliberate destruction through malice and breaking pieces off to sell. In the chaos and excitement of war, undoubtedly people let their impulsivity get the better of them. According to the museum, the works they were requested to renew were smashed with a hammer. No strangers to the restoration of ancient relics, Prague’s National Museum has previously been tasked with mending works rescued from Sudan and Afghanistan. At the end of May, the museum will close its exhibition and safely return everything they were given in much better condition. Maybe we can learn from this exchange of culture and expertise, with plenty of works out there that might be better with the cleaning and preservation that institutions can provide.
As an author who has made brilliant use of Amazon, for their publishing and distribution service, I am aware of the compromise we sometimes make when doing good business. As empowering as the platform is for sellers and writers, some of us have serious complaints. The way they treat their workers, for example, is often in the news. Excessive targets are not good for self-esteem unless you happen to fit the premium statistic for their purpose. Taxes too are often seen to be unpaid, with the company siphoning profits into low tax international jurisdictions that do not put a fair share back into the economy that employed it.
With healthy and relevant complaints around, it’s a genuine deal to know that there are other options available. For an equally as good service and a fantastic array of new and second-hand books, you can try Alibris. They do sell on the Amazon marketplace but if you want to do your bit for alternative companies, then go directly to them. Their selection is easily comparable to other major bookshops, and even if they don’t have that supermarket feel of Amazon, their niche of reading material can’t be faulted. We all love sifting through a great bookshop and with the way Alibris is presented, it’s as if we are there in person. The only thing between you and that new book aroma is the wait for postage, which you can get free. Find another read and thank yourself when you’ve finished it. Visit Alibris now to get your next book.
There is no such thing as being self-made. Sometimes we hear the claim but if you think about it, doing business involves the exchange of services, time, and money between two or more people. You can’t do business alone, even if you work for yourself. At some point you have to make valuable connections and make them work for you. But people aren’t machines, we can’t simply establish a connection and then expect all the rewards to fall at our feet. To make a connection work for you and valuable for you then it’s important to build trust.
Trust is directly related to likeability and respect. One of them always leads to the other and you can’t build on one if you don’t have the others either. If we want people to take the time and effort to give us a fair hearing, if we want them to believe a word we say, we need to build trust. We need to be respected and liked if we want to be trusted. If we want a person to pass our name along to an established figure in the industry we want then that person needs to feel safe to do so. They have to trust that we will not bring negativity in any form to the person they share our name with. What separates a painting by an unknown office worker from Rotherham from a painting by a celebrated artist that sells for thousands first hand? When someone buys a painting for a serious amount of money, they have put a lot of trust in the artist. They do not want to be the person who paid a huge sum for the silly picture, they want to buy the concept, the name, and the rapport that goes with the art. Being displayed in a high profile auction is often not enough to establish the trust needed to get the big sale. Customers want something else; they want to have heard of you for good reasons. Building networks that resonate with your good intentions involves a lot of work. Some of us are naturally extroverted and gladly soak up social attention all day long. Others are more reserved and build up social energy to be used at only the most appropriate times. No matter how you move forward, there are some essential aspects to networking that must be considered in order to get the trust you deserve. Not many people trust completely without evidence, and this means we have to be the one to provide it. We are all on our own personal journey. Everyone we meet has a plan, a list of goals, and a desire for something they have not yet achieved. We have one too. There are ways of helping other people that result in helping us too. This isn’t about doing a favour in order to get one back, it’s about unifying your cause to align with other people’s in order to benefit both without infringing on each other’s progress. If people ask for favours then by all means ask for one in return, it’s just not a good idea to give them as pre-payment as people can feel pressured and manipulated. People in your field often have similar goals to you and so it makes sense to work together where possible. This builds relationships and shows that you have a good methodology. Working with others so closely can leave us vulnerable. We don’t want them to see that we too are human and sometimes get things wrong. This is counter-intuitive to building trust. The reality is that we all make mistakes and the only difference is in how we deal with them. If we can accept them, correct them, and learn from them, then we can show that our intentions are always for the best result. Being able to see that others are also not perfect and not make a scene about it will also help to build trust. Other people want to feel safe to be themselves.
It's not all about you. Other people are just as keen to progress on their agenda as you are with yours. It’s a good idea to show active interest in other people’s projects and journeys. Be a good friend, find out how things are going on and be able to make useful suggestions. Even if you can’t think of something particularly helpful or useful then you help to build trust by nature of your intentions. Make it your business to support other people’s business, what ever that happens to be. It’s not always about making a living; some are just looking to make something useful or interesting. Make sure you can identify the goals a person is working towards, or you may lead them in the wrong direction.
It’s a natural relationship and not a forced one. Imposing yourself on people because you think they’ll be useful is only going to push them away. We need to take our time and look for valid openings that bridge the gaps. Boastful or domineering conversations will not put you in a good light. In professional circles, everyone is exceptionally good at what they do. It’s a standard that you just must accept. If you come across as full of yourself or over-confident then people will find it hard to trust you with anything important. If just being talented or highly trained goes to your head then a bit of responsibility might be too much to handle. When it comes to asking for help, which is only natural and perfectly normal much in the way this website asks for your kind contributions on every page, be clear as to what it’s for. Your aim is the reason you want the job done or the help needed and this makes a difference as to whether others will want to provide this. Make it clear that you have a task to complete or a target to reach and you could do with some kind of support towards this. It’s up to others to decide if they want to give support or do a favour, and to what extent or not. If you can be trusted then it’s more likely that people will be happy to assist you. This makes transparency highly valuable. Only the untrustworthy find the need to cover things up and so by being transparent in your activity others can see that you are legitimate. Always explain your purpose and method to the best of your ability in communications and make sure that the work is done to follow up on the idea. A good idea isn’t worth anything until it is implemented. Make it available to see that the idea is good and that it is being actively pursued. Be an open door that others can walk through and find out all about you and your integrity. Looking for a good network starts at the beginning and within time it’s a good possibility you’ll have made some useful contacts. Although you want to keep these to yourself as a part of your plan, the act of connecting others is a useful way of fortifying these relationships and building trust between them. By being open about who you know and willing to connect them with new clients and other businesses or ventures we become professionally connected as a hub rather than just a node. This ultimately helps others learn that you are a genuine influence for the benefit of everyone. To be a fluid connection in your network, it’s important to remember to not be one-sided. Some of us naturally give and give without asking for anything in return. If we can’t align our efforts to work to a shared goal, then there should be an exchange of effort or energy involved that benefits both parties. Finding the balance in this situation is a task that is achieved over time. Being of value gets you so far so don’t forget to see the value in others too. Shared values bring better results. There will always be less glamorous work to do that involves the nuts and bolts of your project. Don’t be afraid to spend time on this work and to be available to help others do theirs. Fair weather friends can sometimes only be trusted to show up when things are going well. We get to grips with what other people are working on, what their needs are, and what they aim to achieve by talking to them. Relaxed and friendly conversation is the best way to build a sense of genuine rapport. Time will tell if there’s anything you can work with them on or anything they can do for you or your contacts. If you just make a friend and nothing more you are still up from where you were before. When we talk to people, we learn about them and their methods. By listening intently and visualising what they say in an active manner we can create a good picture of their direction and needs. This way we can also learn how others go about solving the problems that you might have in your own life. When talking with others and building connections, we should show a passion for our own work. When people can see that we have an emotional involvement with our purpose and direction they will feel able to trust that we mean what we say. To be trusted with our direction, we need to demonstrate that we care about it and that the end result really matters to us. It’s a necessary step to take in order to imprint the idea that you work on a certain thing for a certain reason and that others can empathise with this reason for themselves. This way we offer proof that any energy sent in our direction will not be wasted. They say it’s not what you know but who you know. Getting to know people can sometimes take time and a keen eye for opportunity. It goes further than this, it’s not who you know but how you treat them. If we treat those we know with the respect and trust they deserve and make ourselves available to them as a service and an individual then these qualities will be reciprocated in time. Everyone is doing their best to get on and make their targets and it might take a while for others to fully acknowledge you or your usefulness in their story. It’s vital not to rush and just let things flow in a natural way. By working hard and staying in touch everyone will see that you’re worth their time and energy.
Meeting God In The Middle
By Rowan B. Colver. The first book to be published under the Homunculus Media label, Meeting God In The Middle explores this human subject with a respectful and thought-provoking commentary. Meeting God In The Middle by Rowan B. Colver is available from Amazon The electronic version can be found on the following Kindle stores UK - US - DE - FR - ES - IT - NL - PL - SE - JP - CA - AU - BR - MX - IN and from Smashwords Apple store Barnes and Noble Everand Gardners Kobo Odilo From the back of the book: When Nietzsche proclaimed “God Is Dead” with his seminal philosophical work, he had a point. The “God of the gaps” theory was being dismantled with every new discovery. Automatic laws determined the ways things were, no God was necessary. When Soviet propaganda boasted that their man went to space and did not encounter God, they were drawing on images of heaven being in the sky. When God was not there, this idea too lost all of its weight. Several philosophers, scientists, and comedians have rightfully poked many holes in the cultural phenomenon that God inhabits. And yet, no matter how many times you throw God out of the door, God reappears right behind you. Are all these valid thinkers missing the point? Is there something about God or a divine force in the universe that is being forgotten when we look under the bed and into the rainbow? The idea that we are here and there is somewhere for us to look is fascinating enough to indulge further inquiry. Is it possible for a mechanical universe to be perpetual, and if so, how? Is it possible that an awareness like our own can be built from the ground up from seemingly random interactions in a strange bubble of time? Clearly, these things are possible, or we’d not experience them. What makes them possible, however, is something that is discussed and divulged in this in-depth and thorough examination. Book Introduction: Introduction This is not the word of God. It is the word of one man. This word is based on the life-long journey of over forty years so far. Having been brought up in a Christian family and exposed to religious thinking through-out my life, my views naturally were westernised in some form and indoctrinated to a certain degree. As I grew older, and mortality came into view, I naturally began questioning the whole story of eternal life in heaven. Since I was young I had been told that if I was a good Christian, I’d live forever. It sounded like a good deal to me as Christian values happened to align with my own. I had a maturity about me that began to doubt the story, as it became ever more far-fetched with each passing day. A process of Socratic questioning took place within my mind that truly examined the idea of God and the purpose of religion. It became clear to me that God was all or nothing and since I am surrounded by all, there must be something higher than myself, more fundamental in this vast complexity than myself, and something out there that brought material existence and time with awareness into being. What we think about God and what there actually is, however, is yet to be fully realised. Whether you believe in God or not, or any form of deity or not, the concept of divinity and divine will is prevalent in all our lives. The world we live in has been built on firm beliefs in a natural order to the universe that transcends physical processes. A moral and right order that causes things to flourish within the chaos of potential is something we have all grown up around. Rather than a dubious story about an invisible man, understanding God begins with understanding the world, ourselves, and our evident place in it. I hope this book helps to bring you closer to the idea of God, and if not, closer to those who are. “It is not enough to be nice; you have to be good. We are attracted by nice people; but only on the assumption that their niceness is a sign of goodness.” Roger Scruton This is not a book about God, nor is it a book about humankind. It is, in essence, a book about the space in between. Many sense this is always there and there have always been those who have dedicated their lives to understanding it. We cannot in all reasonability fully understand something so far outside of our world of comprehension that could be a source of all material, space, time, and the laws that govern them all. What we can understand is how the world we live in responds to our presence. The world bites back, it is a living organism that manifests as many separate entities and phenomena as possible that serve and hinder human life. There are forces at work in the world that cannot be manipulated or changed. The nature of reality itself is held together by a mysterious force and we, as a part of this reality, are also held together by this same mystery. The source of the world, the reason for all things, and the drive to make it happen were and are of significant interest to people. The only connection we have with the source of everything and the reason behind it was in the way reality behaved. Reality, in its extent, is the experience of being alive and the information we can record about it. Through the experience of being alive and understanding the natural order of the world according to our actions we can begin to understand the place humankind has in the universe. The universe came from a place where our time and space were yet to be created and yet nothing can come from a source that was not already present in some form. Understanding the will or natural psychology of this source of material existence, and the awareness it has evolved to harness, is how we begin to bridge that infinite space between here and there. The idea of God in some form has been prevalent since the time of recorded history, and probably for much longer than that. These ideas probably didn’t just spring into being upon the advent of written and pictorial language. They undoubtedly formed and blossomed then fruited across a long line of thinkers and generations. So, with this concept and idea system available for input for so long, we can be assured that modern society is based on this evolving idea-set at its most primal core. The laws we uphold and the social rules we instinctively follow can all be rooted in religious belief. The way we view ourselves in society and the things we aspire to achieve are based on inset systems of morals and ethics which are directly related to the idea of divinity or creative will in the universe. Thou Shalt Not Kill as a commandment to the early Judaic tribe of Moses is such a prevalent idea that it is echoed across the entire globe. We all agree on it, and it takes a great bureaucratic effort to negate this law. Death warrants and declarations of war are decisions only taken right from the top. The idea of a divine will in the universe has been available and therefore has been a formative part of our global culture since the earliest days. Our traditions and processes are all concepts based on ideas that have roots in this ancient understanding of the world, with the most fitting and most successful ideas making it this far by nature of intellectual evolution. It makes sense then to appreciate the absolute necessity to understand this set of psychologies and theologies if we want to understand the world in general. With billions of people around the planet who openly believe in divinity or an ideal state in some form or forms, it’s naïve to simply shut ourselves off from this way of thinking. As the presence of religious and theological thought can be traced back to the origins of all aspects of modern life, we can understand that a comprehension of this particular vein is imperative to our ability to bridge gaps and refine ethics for our future time now and tomorrow. Communicating in a way that is conscious of this element of life that exists within every known structure in some aspect can help us to make better choices and have a better appreciation for the reasoning within inevitable cultural differences. “Each generation has to create the image of God that works for it.” Karen Armstrong, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam Think you know people who'd like this book? You can earn a 40% referral commission by selling this title on Smashwords. Find out more. Meeting God In The Middle by Rowan B. Colver is available from Amazon The electronic version can be found on the following Kindle stores UK - US - DE - FR - ES - IT - NL - PL - SE - JP - CA - AU - BR - MX - IN and from Smashwords Apple store Barnes and Noble Everand Gardners Kobo Odilo
Most people have some kind of hobby, an activity they do for fun and nothing else. Many amateur artists and musicians flood the scene with their valiant efforts at fitting in. Homemade creativity is one particular pastime that many enjoy. Even things that might not seem creative at first hand, like sports or watching films, involve all kinds of creative decision making. What do I do next, why, and what have I learned? There is a reason why so many of us love to get creative, use our imagination, and bring new ideas and objects into the world. It’s beneficial to us on many levels. Here are some well-known examples of what creativity at home can do for you.
Growth When we begin to be creative, we are entering unknown territory. The psychology of this is deep. Unknowns are naturally frightening to us and even if it is on paper, we can experience a sense of apprehension. Overcoming this initial block is an exercise that can take a lot of practice. When we do it, we strengthen our resolve and experience the unknown. Doing this regularly can provide a serious forum for personal growth. Taking the plunge in our creative life can help us to do this in other ways too. Bridge Mind And Body Your body knows a lot. It’s a miracle of evolution that has taken millions of years to achieve its current state. The chemical and biological learning that has been applied to your body is vastly longer and more extensive than anything you can learn in a lifetime. The mind knows a lot too. A lot of life is based around human invention and human devised systems. The way we live our lives is mainly dictated by things that we have created ourselves for our own benefit. From governments to supermarkets, the whole modern lifestyle is a human invention. Our minds are necessary for this. We can also use our mind to learn skills and techniques. When we combine what we know about the world, artistic technique, and intuitive creativity, we can begin to let these aspects of our personality communicate. Courage The more we practice, the better we get. This natural equation gives rise to a sense of confidence. We may not be good now, but we know we can be if we work at it. That’s what real confidence looks like. Once we are good at something and have had success with it, our confidence can climb as high as we like. Sometimes it might get clipped down a bit, we all make mistakes, but in knowing that your efforts pay off in the end, nothing seems impossible anymore. Develop Purpose The act of creation can be transcendental. When we make something new from bits and pieces or various thoughts, we can discover that we can make ourselves and other people happier. For some it can be a spiritual experience, and other find that being creative gives their life a sense of belonging that reaches beyond the everyday. Having something to do that you enjoy and are getting good at is a healing and invigorating experience. Declutter The Mind We often have repeating images, notions, and memories floating around. They all compete with plans, desires, and concerns and we try to navigate life in the midst of all this. Creative output can give our mind a chance to drop this and concentrate on one or two things alone. Because we enjoy it and we find it absorbing, the escape from the many stressors of the mind can be a necessary respite. Like many echoes, these stressors can often lose their power and ability after only a few minutes of shutting them out. We find that the elastic has lost its stretch and they no longer cling to us. Shop Arts and Crafts on eBay to support Alternative Fruit
Creativity is the art of having good ideas. Life is an art form once we understand the process. Of course, life is made of many processes and we each are newcomers to some and veterans of others. It is in the process that creativity is found. When we change the process or the ingredients, we are able to produce new concepts and products that work differently. Whether you are solving a problem in the real world or forming a fictional universe that people want to read about, the process and the product are where the creativity is found. Often we only see the product and the work that goes in to produce it is hidden. We can see what is presented and make guesses but if we really want to understand, and therefore turn it into an art, then we need to ask questions and do some learning.
Everything that works seems obvious at the time, and yet before we knew about it many of us had no idea. Our minds are good at seeing right things when they’re given but we’re not so good at coming up with right things without a lot of inspiration. The inspiration is the act of having new ideas based on what we already know. The new obvious solution that is so far unheard of is only a thought away. Finding the leaf and the root of this thought is where we have to do the work. We can start by looking at the leaves and roots of all the thoughts we already have and why the metaphorical rose continues to flower and grow. The mechanics of our successful processes, whether a business model or a story-telling method, a painting form or a poetry form, are available to us. We need to apply ourselves to learn them by studying the work and the workers with both eyes. When we begin to have an intuitive appreciation for the process and the reasons behind it, we can use these as our starting points. Creativity can then be taken in two directions. We can either assess whether any of the processes could be better, because what we think about it is not what the end results say, or we can use what works in one situation to improve or create another. When data driven improvements are made we can fall into the trap of being one dimensional. Numbers might look better on a screen but if the human part of the equation is not taken into account then we will not get an accurate projection. In fact, data must be used holistically across several fields of influence in order to gain a good idea of the best thing to do. What looks like productivity and progress might actually be a waste of new potential and sustainability. The methods people use to get the job done are thinking tools that can fit many appliances. If you’ve ever used a pliers to knock in a small nail because you didn’t have a hammer, you can see how one process can be transferred. Of course, you really want a hammer but sometimes the pliers can be useful for something else other than pulling pieces of wire. They make a decent paperweight, for example. When we can apply a method or idea from one field into another one, we can improve the harvest. The way we do this is by spending time to think deeply about what we know and the problem we are tasked with solving. How do other people solve similar problems and how have these similar problems been navigated in the past? We have our own unique view on the world and we know slightly different things, so with our toolset we can apply a unique and creative approach to novel situations.
Putting one idea into another perspective is often called reframing. When politicians put a spin on their work, they colour they language with positives that make their position seem reasonable and negatives to make detractors seem unreasonable. We can do this with ideas when it comes to looking at them in positive ways. Look for the positive spin in the idea that can make our motor start. Often we need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what it is we are trying to achieve and decide if our plan of action is appropriate or necessary. Ask for honest critique, take the opinions of others into account. The more experience a person has in the field you are active in then the more they will have an intuitive feel for the value of new ideas. They can help you to refine your thinking to make things more realistic and relevant.
Try to experience the thinking style and method of as many veterans and intelligent people as you can. When we are surrounded by valuable action and exposed to professional quality thinking then we learn everyday about how to improve our own direction. The perspectives of other people can be limited to their particular personality and so we need to make sure we listen to a range of different people with their own unique view on the world and the job at hand. When we can assimilate the wisdom from this broad leaf selection of people, we can begin to colour our own thinking with this varied and multiplied palette. In order to fully realise your ability to be creative, you need to start with curiosity. Find out what’s really going on behind the things we observe. We need to use a combination of empathy and imagination to truly get to the bottom of why things are as they are and whether they can be effectively changed. It is in our changes that creativity takes place. The potential all around us is rich and diverse with ideas reinventing themselves via new technologies and fashions. The fundamental principles of making life easier and sustained in comfort are ever-present. Applying the world of ideas to our own concept is like taking the fundamental building blocks of other well-built ideas in order to create a new vision that not only compliments what came before but improves on it. Life changing and world changing ideas are rare, but the ingredients are all around us. It takes a dedicated mind to observe and define problems and then grow solutions from the fundamentals of what we already know. Recommended read: The Story of Our Lives: Homo Sapiens' Secrets of Success
Ancient manuscripts are an art form. The most well made and cared for specimens are the ones that have survived since the times when they were popular media. Before printing presses made books and pamphlets commonplace among us, the hand-written and artistically designed one-of-a-kind editions were all we had. Clearly with only the rich able to buy them, many people had to go from word of mouth and memorable story. Is it any wonder that stories with layers of meaning were used to pass information through the generations when books were so difficult to produce?
The Getty Museum in California is currently exhibiting a sizable collection of preserved books from pre-printing days. A Passion For Collecting Manuscripts aims to excite and inspire visitors with the wonders of the medieval technique and product. Known for regularly displaying a handful of their vast collection of Middle-Age and Renaissance manuscripts, their specialist curator Elizabeth Morrison worked alongside chief curator Aleia McDaniel to uncover a much more intensive spread of the available work to explore. The museum have been collating information and documenting their collection of around 225 individual manuscripts from between 500 and 1500 AD in order to put the archive online. By verifying the lineage of ownership and the origin of the original works and highlighting the expert curatorship at the museum, Getty hopes to validate their rightful ownership as well as make everything publicly available for everyone. The exhibition coincides with the project and aims to attract everyone with an interest in such marvellous things. By highlighting not only the manuscripts themselves, books written by hand and individually bound by skilled artisans, the process of collecting and preserving these precious items is also brought to our attention. Because of the dedicated work of capable individuals who can afford to acquire and preserve the specimens to institutions and museums who can provide public information along with the objects on display, the manuscripts that still survive are being kept as safe as possible. Perhaps it’s necessary for more people to adopt this hobby, or aspire to one day, if we want to ensure future generations can find out about how our ancestors used to think and communicate. Visit the Getty Museum Manuscripts online Recommended read: Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Illuminated Manuscripts Via - Fine Books Magazine
For his premiere solo exhibition, Ghanian painter Seth Fiifi Afful embarks on a US adventure with an exhibition in Aspen. The Pitkin County municipality in Colorado sits within the Rocky Mountains and boasts 2400 meters above sea-level. A sought-after destination for travellers the world over, Seth Fiifi Afful must feel extremely privileged to be able to showcase his work in this picturesque location.
The doors are open to the exhibition that will run until March 1st. The Casterline/Goodman Gallery is a premium spot for even the most famous name, and there’s no reason why Fiifi Afful can’t rise among them. 17 works of the highest quality are on display right now that have been created by the Accra resident. The first time his work has been exhibited in the United States, what began as a childhood hobby has flourished into a successful arts career. It was on Instagram where Afful’s work began to be noticed. As a professional, he used the medium to promote his talents and services to a global audience. As the likes and comments flowed in, the algorithm naturally showed his creations to even more people until the effect snowballed into his world-wide acclaim of today. The vibrant and exciting style with pop-art inspired colours and depictions of the human image offers a fresh and inventive perspective on the modern face of Africa. A clearly defined schema is used in variations and avenues that form a multiplicity of tangents which guide us to one clear focus. Ghana is fresh, up-and-coming, and ready for anything. A stylised elegance embraces hard-working patterns that work to mesmerise in conjunction with vivid and eye-catching colour. Rather than standoffish or something to feel challenged by, the work does the opposite. A clear sense of family and familiarity flows from the expressionism within his work. These paintings are our friends and colleagues. We’ve nothing to fear, and we are much stronger now. The title of the exhibition being Beauty In Unity truly takes this concept home to the centre of the showcase. Now in a partnership with the gallery, Seth Fiifi Afful is working on another selection of paintings. These are destined to be on display at the world-famous EXPO CHICAGO International Art Fair this April. This fantastic opportunity and direction can truly work together and enable many more like-minded painters to find their calling. Via Aspen Daily News Militant ideology causes people to act in harmful ways. Radical beliefs cause people to believe militant ideology is necessary. People acting in harmful ways are treated poorly by others. People who are treated poorly by others find militant ideology necessary. This self-perpetuating circle of self-identification can occur in many ways. Some of the most common, or most talked about, forms of radical and militant behaviour are racism, misogyny, terrorism, and advocates for brutality. To boil the social equation down to its most basic principles, we can assume a certain dynamic. The person does not like you, and they have reasons that they believe are true. The natural response to the reasons, if true, would be to dislike, and so because the person wants to make the world a better place, they decide you must be stopped or harmed. The key factor is that if the reasons were true, the action would be understandable even if not reasonable. Recommended read: Extremism: A Philosophical Analysis by Quassim Cassam Before we ascribe criminal acts to the mentality of the act, it is vital to acknowledge human beings as sensitive and thoughtful beings. We can think and feel all manner of ways without breaking the law. It is only in action and the process of manifesting our wrong thoughts and hurtful feelings that we cross the line. To get an understanding of what this means, people who find themselves attracted to children and act on this attraction are criminals. Other people may become very angry and hold a desire to cause harm to this person. We have criminal thoughts, but only a true criminal would act on their thoughts to take revenge. The police system only works because we consent to it, and that means you have to stay within the framework. Recommended read: Rethinking Social Media and Extremism A radicalised person has to be given the information that makes the radical idea make sense. To their knowledge, a list of grievances and opinions can be layered into their perceptions of the target until the level of dislike boils over into hatred. This can be done with religious overtones thus making a person an enemy of God, political overtones thus making a person your polar opposite, comedic overtones thus making a fool of someone, or any number of other ways that create a dynamic of otherness and less than. We need to wait a minute here because it could be easy to protest innocence. It is a fact of life that you will be treated differently because of who you are. The law in modern nations prevents this from being professional behaviour but in the real world we all have our preferences, assumptions, and personal walls to climb. Recommended read: American Extremist: The Psychology of Political Extremism (2nd edition) - Imperium Press The modern world is also not as perfect as you might wish it to be. Especially for the white European nations, history is littered with wrong-doing harm, and reasons to dislike. The slave trade, the crusades, the colonisations, the looting and pillaging, and many more acts have given these countries a bad name. Now with the modern economic world where money is the new sword and shield, those with money have the ability to completely dominate those who do not. Rather than helping the world to catch up and find their own way in today’s century, many organisations deliberately refuse to let this happen. It is understandable that some people find this hard to tolerate in the developing world and those who identify with them in the developed world. Like FIFA boss Gianni Infantino said “We should be apologising for the next 3000 years”. Recommended read: Terrorism, Radicalisation & Countering Violent Extremism: Practical Considerations & Concerns by Shashi Jayakumar As mentioned, acting on our dislikes and issues can lead to criminal acts, but you can appreciate that we are all fallible human beings. We have good reasons to mistrust the governments if we take history as our example, we have reasons to mistrust the west in general if we take the history books as example. To appreciate the reasons for radicalisation in the anti-west sense, we need to be aware of this valid perspective but not to tolerate criminal action. The fact that the social world is made of human individuals with their own minds and ability to see the world as it is can show us how extremism can arise and how we can show it is misplaced. Recommended read: Digital Extremisms: Readings in Violence, Radicalisation and Extremism in the Online Space (Palgrave Studies in Cybercrime and Cybersecurity) Young people are especially vulnerable to extremist grooming because they are less able to mentally defend themselves. Without a broad knowledge of the real world and a text-book only education, it can be easy to show lines of best fit that lead to just anger. This just anger can lead to harmful hatred. Teenagers have a specific part of the mind that looks for alternatives. The mind of a teenager is wired to rebel, not to get on their parent’s nerves, but because adaptation is how human beings advance in culture. The curiosity of the teenage mind and the adhesiveness to anti-authoritarian sentiment can be a lure too much to refuse. When led down the path of harsh judgement, assumption, and excited consequence, the power of the story and its moral structure can overwhelm the actual reality. Recommended read: Insurgency And Terrorism (13 book series) Being given a place or a group to belong in, a higher purpose outside of them, an anger-inspiring narrative, and lies about the scale and scope of the issue, young and older people can be drawn into hate groups and gangs. No one of these elements is responsible for the extreme action, however in partnership an individual can be drawn into hate. The source of the individual foundations need not be the same, relatively harmless narratives can coalesce to create a much more powerful and harmful story. A place to belong is attractive to people who feel isolated and separate from the wider world. Young people often find themselves looking for another group or family that will help them find their identity. They want another layer of life that can give them stability in a continually changing world. Arts and culture offer this and so do fraternities. A sense of something outside and bigger than the self draws people in as to feel connected personally with something bigger than you is a way to inspire positive self affirmation. People adhere to their nationality, to their religion, to an ethic of taste, or to many other things. Often, if the higher purpose is strong enough, people are prepared to take great risks and even die in order to strengthen the greater purpose. Laying down your life for your country in war is still today seen as a valiant thing to do, even though it creates sadness and suffering for many - often including the one who pulled the trigger. An angry narrative is primal and reaches into our core being. If we agree with the story, or even in part agree, we can quickly be conducted into a sense of anger and desire to take action. The arts offer a wide array of proper actions and politics can too, if democratic process is given a chance. Minds are changed by books and paintings more than leaflets and speeches. A lot of art draws on the angry narrative to make people pay attention. The majority of this is for a good reason too. A twisted sense of reality is what draws all these items together to form the opposite of right action. A sense of hate and the desire to act on it comes from a combination of the three things mentioned plus a deceptive and testing element. This is where people stumble, because they do not want to give up the other three things. Recommended read: Extremism, Free Speech and Counter-Terrorism Law and Policy (Routledge Studies in Extremism and Democracy) An extremist is therefore dangerous to you because they do not like you and they are prepared to act on that. These people are human beings, all the same, and their method is reasonable just like your own. The passion that causes their hatred and desire to act on it is the barrier we must break down. We can only do this by offering a genuine and understandable sense of the actual reality. By explaining in passive terms and demonstrating the ways things are and why, and by showing that we too are made of individuals who cannot be summed up by history, the idea of acting on the hatred can be whittled down. Without taking anything for granted, after-all, a strong mental signal to act on heroic or religious stimuli can be much stronger than conversation and inclusion. Risks must be assessed, and the individual cases need to be addressed considering everything we know. The idea is to prevent harm being done and to prevent young people from being drawn into hateful ways by demonstrating that there is more to the world than its previous crimes and the things that make you uneasy. In a nutshell, the idea is to be as likeable as you can. Isn't that what we do anyway? If we can offer a sense of belonging, a genuine and truthful story, and a connection to higher purpose, the hateful narrative will lose all of its power. Will They Love It Or Not? New products and techniques are appearing every day. Not all of them catch on, though, and this is what separates the success from the failures. Often the idea itself is good however the way it is implemented is not. If the process involved with implementing your idea is not intuitive and easy to use or understand then less people will be willing to put in the effort to learn. Intuition is the process of finding the path of least resistance for human behaviour. It is when the body and mind seem to already know what to do. It’s not easy to produce things that intuitively work, especially if we already understand and have designed the process ourselves. Just because we have spent a long time working on a project and have understood every branch of its structure, other people are completely in the dark to this. We need to make sure that a newcomer can walk into our idea and already have a good idea about what to do next. What Makes Us Who We Are? When we are born into the world, it is in its given state. Progress has reached so far on every level of our understanding. The moral and social structure is defined by the laws of the land, the rules given at home, and the ideals presented by our stories. The enemy in our stories serves as an example of what is wrong in behaviour and the hero is an example of what is right. Right action and wrong action are defined in the guise of fictional and religious characters who get the results their behaviour deserves. This is why we prefer it when the hero wins, and the villain is stopped. Human beings are a mixture of hero and villain in varying amounts. We are all capable of evil and of goodness. This is because of our psychology. It’s important to remember that the structure of our brain is much more ancient than the human being design. Our brains are built on the foundations of a wild animal with predators and danger. As animal kind is unaware of the passage of time and the cause and effect of build-up phenomena, it was very important for reactionary emotion to be powerful enough to save lives. Our reactional emotions have a hierarchy of activity, the more basic and primordial the activity, the less thought and the less power we have to intellectually intervene. What makes us human therefore is a compliment of biological and evolutionary design based on the truth about the world plus the input of our human language and conceptual idea building that helps us to understand the time dimension in the way we behave in order to manage social society. If you behave in the way of the villain, you we be treated by the world and other people in the way we have learned through stories. As we learn more about the world and the way the universe actually works, as we learn about the way people behave and think, we adapt and evolve culturally and biologically to ensure the best chance of survival. In one point in time, it is difficult to see this progression of understanding and structure, however a study in biology or the history of power will identify this process with a clear growth in the right direction.
What Is Intuition?
When a person is able to intuitively navigate a new product or process, it is because they instinctively know the right course of action. Like knowing a ball will fall when dropped, we automatically put our hands in the right place to catch it. This intuitive approach uses both the laws of the world and the laws of human behaviour to navigate the next step. If catching a ball was not part of our human behaviour, we might not put our hands out. If we did not understand gravity, we might not catch it either. Animals understand gravity, and some social animals understand catching, humans can turn this into a game with clear rules and a score. The way the rules manifest fall into intuition quite easily as they all serve a purpose to keep the game fair. This cultural adaptation is able to become as automatic as the physical function. As method and reality meet in the middle, human beings are able to go ahead and behave appropriately. The two sides of the truth of life are rooted in the natural world, which is unforgiving, often harsh and cruel, and the human world which is striving for balance, safety, longevity, and peace. The two world views are alive in all of us and our intuition is the path that runs through the middle. The Way Things Are We’re all pretty much veterans of the world. The processes and products available to us have particular ways of working. When you cross from one product to another or one service to another, the method of use remains similar. That design of human interactivity is almost the same for all things, provided they have relevance to one another. A television works the same way with buttons and wires no matter what brand it is or what country you are in. We have things in our culture that are ancient such as language itself or religious ceremony and in this case the cultural thread is highly established. These cultural phenomena are much older than us and have been designed and perpetuated by long lines of individuals through time. To decide to change this in any way is therefore controversial because we are just one individual trying to change the work of many. This principle is called the schema. The schema of a thing is the way it is thought about and used in stories to bring about certain results. It relies on the universal properties of the object and of human behaviour to create life-like thoughts and associations that match. Heuristic processing is the action of using what we already know to define and use something we do not know. We rely on the schemas and stories that we remember to find positive function in new things.
Put This To Good Use
The idea of designing something for intuitive use therefore rests on our ability to appreciate the way people think and the way the world actually works. If we can mirror this truth about the universe in our product by utilising the natural psychology of human beings that stems from prehistorical times with the modern and make-sense ideas of the era we live in, the end result will seem a natural fit for those who use it. It is not easy to design intuitively, we struggle to guess and estimate without first gaining the appropriate knowledge. We need experience and understanding in the areas we want to affect before we can pose a useful speculation or creation. Often a lot of tests and trials are needed alongside wholesome research into the areas we want to be part of. We need to appreciate the way those who came before us went about the job at hand so we can follow in their steps. The steps walked by our ancestors are the same steps that instructed everyone alive now so we need to provide a path that can be walked. To create something that can be used easily and naturally, the individual user must have a good idea about what they’re doing before they begin. |
AuthorAlternative Fruit by Rowan B. Colver Archives
April 2024
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