Political Affiliation

For the second time in my life i joined a political movement. The first time was when i just moved to live on my own. I was very attracted to the SP (Socialist Party). I had just walked in anti-war demonstrations in Amsterdam and Leiden, and being very disappointed with the other parties in The Netherlands i decided to join the SP...

For months i received their party spam, i refused to become an active local member when asked to go outside and paint schools, repair bikes, etc..

Once i actually opened up and read their magazine and to my horror i read how the party felt about the European Union's future. This made me feel uncomfortable and i left.

Now i joined Europe United. It seems like an embryonic party, but i am very fond of the federalism they boast. I hope to be able to contribute to their existence and i know now that national politics are less significant.

Edward O. Wilson has spoken

Yesterday I went to my second Tinbergen Lecture, organised by the Natural History Museum, the NRC and Leiden University. Last year Jared Diamond spoke about collapsing societies and the need to acknowledge the need for cooperation if we want to survive.
This time it was Edward O. Wilson. This eminent scholar spoke about the need for unified science. Environmental Policy, Biology, Social Science and Ethics are sectors and the scientist needs to 'jump' in between the fields so that progress can progress.

I am now reading his book "Consilience. The Unity of Knowledge", which is very interesteing. When i let this man sign my book i proposed to him that History needs to feed into this global forwrd-driven science. He said there is a lot of ground to be covered and that doing world history will surely expose the links history, and humanities in a broader view, can make to 'science'.

He made a deep impression on me and the urge to engage in a new study is growing on me like a fungus.

Terrorism by Image

How come that movies such as Saw, Hostel and other Gore flicks are good entertainment, while a realization of true violence makes people sick. People attracted to real violence footage are considered as sick people by society in a comparable manner as pedophiles and snuffophiles.

I recently downloaded Faces of Death and Terrorists, Killers and Middle East Wacko's. I watched Faces of Death for about 10 minutes, scrolling through the footage and avoiding any real build-up of tension. Most of the footage on this movie is fake, says wikipedia, so it was doable. The Terrorist video however starts of with the violent removal of a victims legs by means of a saw. One skip through shows the execution of ten people by means of a gun and yet another skip features the stoning of a female victim.

So what do we do with images taboo as these? I have come to suspect that watching them is a personal choice of morality, buying them is the sick thing to do, spreading them, I don't know. First of all, this footage is real. It is not part of some commercial enterprise, it is serious death. Second of all, exposing inhumanity might be the best catalyst for actual humanism....or is it just sick and as the UK Censor who refused to distribute this shockumentary, obscene

So, any action done to spread violence through images, when real, is to be considered sick? And what about Freedom of Speech? Is Horror the final human taboo? If so, how hypocritical is it to wage war, torture and - make fiction movies on the same theme. If not, who cares and why the punishing society and internal sickness provoking organ?

I can not make up my mind, and I can not watch more of the downloaded footage...Quite a dilemma.

Just and Peaceful

Remarkably important website of a pro-peace person: Just and Peaceful

This man went to a meeting of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (The main US-Israel militant Lobby group keeping conflict and repression alive in the Holy Land), i read on Dennis Fox's Blog

And shit, I forgot Europe Day on the 9th, how un-European of me was that!