virtus in media stat

“he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land.”

[mooresque-blog]

A great deal of what I say just leaves me open, I suppose, to a vast amount of misunderstanding. A great deal of what I say is based on an assumption which I hold and don’t always state. You know my fury about people is based precisely on the fact that I consider them to be responsible, moral creatures who so often do not act that way. But I am not surprised when they do. I am not that wretched a pessimist, and I wouldn’t sound the way I sound if I did not expect what I expect from human beings, if I didn’t have some ultimate faith and love, faith in them and love for them. You see, I am a human being too, and I have no right to stand in judgment of the world as though I am not a part of it. What I am demanding of other people is what I am demanding of myself. - James Baldwin

[infamoussayings]

To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.

Raymond Williams  (via tamarrud)

[rendezvousofvictory-deactivated]

Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

Arundhati Roy, Confronting Empire (via tamarrud)

[organicsomethings]

I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.

toni morrison | no place for self-pity, no room for fear in times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent  (via afkar-9am6a)

[mooresque-blog]

What we seek at the deepest level is to inwardly resemble, rather than to physically possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty. - Alain de Botton

[mooresque-blog]

The sun of my Perfection is a Glass Wherein from Seeing into Being pass All who, reflecting as reflected see Themselves in Me, and Me in them, not Me, But all of Me that a contracted Eye Is comprehensive of Infinity. Not yet Themselves; no Selves, but of the All Fractions, from which they split and whither fall. As Water lifted from the Deep, again Falls back in individual Drops of Rain-- Then melts into the Universal Main. All you have been, and seen, and done, and thought, Not You but I, have seen and been and wrought; I was the Sin that from Myself rebell’d, I the Remorse that tow’rd Myself compelled: Sin and Contrition--Retribution owed And cancelled--Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, and Road, Was but Myself toward Myself: and your Arrival but Myself at my own Door: Rays that have wander’d into Darkness wide Return, and back into your Sun subside

"Face in the Mirror" - Fariduddin Attar (c. 1145 - 1221)

[mooresque-blog]

I can't get over how beautiful this is.

to wrestle with whether identity is a word to defend against or embrace, whether there is any language that allows me to locate myself within these borders, then cross them. To be informed by place, but not beholden. To fail, but with beauty, in my crossing. To be unafraid as I carry the newness of myself forward with its distinct histories—to honor the shine of each of the selves which make me, to honor the seams between.

[jeevermadnessarchive]

[pipercarter]

Empire Line (2005) series by British photographer Gavin Fernandes.

Fernandes describes the series in British Asian Style: Fashion & Textiles / Past and Present:

By subverting representations of British “memsahibs” and their indigenous Indian servants, and through the interaction of period British costume and native Indian dress, Empire Line explores the politics of clothing and its relationship with class and caste in 19th-century colonial India.

Though so rooted in colonial imagery, I love how Fernandes’s work also speaks to the complex and often problematic cultural exchanges of the contemporary fashion industry.

[mooresque-blog]

"Muslim Americans, for example, are always asked about condemning evil in some foreign land which is largely beyond their control and sphere of influence, but rarely thought of as equal partners for building coalitions against injustices right here at home.

A lot of this is the fault of Muslims. We constantly buy into the narrative rather than producing our own narrative. And, we are often quick to condemn injustice “over there” and act like we don’t give a damn care in the world when injustices happen at home. Just think of the Trayvon Martin tragedy and the painful silence of too many Muslim organizations and public figures. Think of the gross injustices of the prison industrial complex and how rarely that becomes a point of concern in Muslim circles. And, the list can go on. Too many Muslims have accepted their social categorization as the “other” despite a lot of talk about being American and proud of it. It’s time for us to own issues domestically as much as we do internationally if we are serious and want to be taken seriously.

The Prophet Muhammad said that when you encounter an injustice you must try to prevent it with your own actions; if you cannot, then with your words; and if you cannot, then to at least to hate it within your heart.

In part, when Muslims are asked to constantly condemn or do something about what’s happening abroad, it is an attempt, consciously or subconsciously, for us (Americans) as a society to shift our focus from some of the ugliness we have to confront when we look into our own mirror. It’s much easier, especially in this age of globalization, to spend our waking hours following the latest news on the kidnapped girls in Nigeria than it is to confront our own problems with sex slavery, rape, and pornofication of women right here at home. It’s more convenient to ask why Muslims are killing each other in places like Iraq and Afghanistan than to admit that we’ve completely failed generations of young Americans whose lives are scarred by inner-city gang violence everyday in this country. And, it’s more comforting to shake our heads at terrorists who kill at random than to condemn our own government for the use of drones that have killed innocents – including children – and have taken it in their own hands to be judge, jury, and executioner in this elusive war on terrorism.

So, let’s remember, the next time we want to point our finger and ask why someone else isn’t doing something to condemn or stop evil in the world, there are four fingers pointing right back at us. And, the next time we want to shake our head and condemn Muslims for not condemning other Muslims, let’s pause and ask a different question: “What can I do to work with Muslims against all of the injustices in the world I live in?”” - Sohaib Sultan

[kawrage-deactivated20160618]

The nightmare lasted so long and the distances traversed were so vast that communication was breached between home and diaspora; even memory lapsed, and the two sides lost each other; they forgot who they were, their proper name. One side earned the name of slaves, and the other of savages. Oppression renames its victims, brands them as a farmer brands his cattle with a common signature. It always aims to subvert the individual spirit and the humanity of the victim; and the victim will more or less struggle to remove oppression and be free. Unfortunately, oppression does not automatically produce only meaningful struggle. It has the ability to call into being a wide range of responses between partial acceptance and violent rebellion. In between you can have, for instance, a vague, unfocused dissatisfaction; or worst of all, savage infighting among the oppressed, a fierce love-hate entanglement with one another like crabs inside the fisherman’s bucket, which ensures that no crab gets away. This is a serious issue for African-American deliberation. To answer oppression with appropriate resistance requires knowledge of two kinds: in the first place, self-knowledge by the victim, which means an awareness that oppression exists, an awareness that the victim has fallen from a great height of glory or promise into the present depths; secondly, the victim must know who the enemy is. He must know his oppressor’s real name, not an alias, a pseudonym, or a nom de plume!

Chinua Achebe on the ‘African/American connection’ (via kawrage)

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

Writers and filmakers, that is, people who describe the world, suffer from an occupational disease. They never experience moments in life quite spontaneously. You always look at yourself from the outside. Even as a child I always observed myself and the world. I believe that everyone who chooses this path in any way, who chooses to be a describer of life, suffers from this condition. It’s like a mental obsession. It can be a great pity too. It robs you of a certain joy in spontaneity.

Michael Haneke, from My Life (2009)

[mooresque-blog]

"One night, I simply went on and on, walking all the way down to Houston Street, a distance of some seven miles, and found myself in a state of disorienting fatigue, laboring to remain on my feet. That night I took the subway home, and instead of falling asleep immediately, I lay in bed, too tired to release myself from wakefulness, and I rehearsed in the dark the numerous incidents and sights I had encountered while roaming, sorting each encounter like a child playing with wooden blocks, trying to figure out which belonged where, which responded to which. ... I covered the city blocks as though measuring them with my stride, and the subway stations served as recurring motives in my aimless progress. The sight of large masses of people hurrying down into underground chambers was perpetually strange to me, and I felt that all of the human race were rushing, pushed by a counterinstinctive death drive, into movable catacombs. Above ground I was with thousands of others in their solitude, but in the subway, standing close to strangers, jostling them and being jostled by them for space and breathing room, all of us reenacting unacknowledged traumas, the solitude intensified." Open City, Teju Cole

[humansofnewyork]

I went to Ireland a couple weeks ago to give a speech at University College Dublin. The students sent me a video clip from the portion of my speech where I took a member of the audience and demonstrated my approach and interview process. For those of you who are curious about such things, it’s a fun video and provides a pretty nice summation:

[hellanne]

We look up at the same stars, and see such different things.

George R. R. Martin (via sawtheoptimist)

[cindymayweather-deactivated2019]

"I come from Malaysia which is a muslim country but at the same time we embrace Art. It’s in our culture, we embrace music and food and theatre and we love expressing ourselves artistically."

[simhasanam-deactivated20140822]

The Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, says: That is a well-governed state where a woman adorned with all dress and ornaments, and unaccompanied by men, can move freely and fearlessly in its roads and lanes. Looking pretty, my mother said. Looking pretty is the least you can do. Looking pretty is the least you can do, Shailja, to make up – for not being a boy. You’re not safe as a girl, my mother said. If you had a brother to protect you, you could go out at night. If you had a brother, we’d let you do it. How would I run if a man attacked me, and I was wearing a sari? How would I fight? Don’t stride, Shailja – your stride is so unfeminine! How can you ever walk in a sari if you stride like that? As a child, I knew of women strangled in their saris. Women doused in paraffin and burned in their saris. Saris made you vulnerable. A walking target. Saris made you weak. And no one told me of women who went into battle in their saris. Worked the fields in their saris. Laboured on construction sites in their saris. All I heard was: You have to be careful in a sari. You’re exposing the body. Don’t let the pallav slip under the breast – that’s obscene. Don’t let the petticoat show the panties – that’s obscene. Allure without being sexual. Be beautiful without being aware of it. Attract without meeting anyone’s eyes. Do not act as if you own your body. It’s draped, displayed, for the edification of others. Watch the women in Bollywood movies. Combine coy virginality with hip-swinging sex appeal. As a child, I swore I would never wear clothes I couldn’t run or fight in. My legs would never be hobbled.

Shailja Patel, Swore I’d Never Wear Clothes I Couldn’t Run or Fight In (via doriansennui)

[missedinhistory]

Visit Original Link

The stereotypical high-school gripe about algebra is something along the lines of, “When will I ever use this in real life?” But algebra has completely real-world origins: When Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote his famous text, “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing,” his examples came from things like inheritance law and canal-building. Al-Khwarizmi wrote books on geography, astrology and numerals as well. Today’s episode talks about his achievements and how they fit in to the greater world of mathematical discovery.

Here’s a link to our notes and research.