The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.
quote by Georg Simmel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sometimes It Feels As If I Am Not Really Living
Sometimes it feels
as if I am not really living,
as I am just marking time,
being trapped in a body
where no choices
but destiny determines the way
that my life is going,
while I am not fit
to become part of the social structure
where everyone else is loosing individuality
and by design I am
not made to cringe, to be servile
or obsequious
and to no man I bend my knees.
I do not fit in the social mould
where language, culture, heritage
and religion has to be sacrificed
for what is seen as the common good
and no one will force me into conformity.
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the social context. Even a god could not formulate a proposition on historical subjects like 2 x 2 = 4, for what is intelligible in history can be formulated only with reference to problems and conceptual constructions which themselves arise in the flux of historical experience.
quote by Karl Mannheim
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Social Life
Nervous you need a drink
Tired you need a lift
You feel on the brink
Maybe you need new tits
Vulnerable as a ship
But you re not on the sea
Can you talk to anyone here?
No, not really
And the crowd stays on your back
And the girls are all s0 stacked
And the stress it lines your face
And you realy need a place
Its just that social life
Its got you on the run
That goddamn social life
Its torture dressed as fun
Its just that social life
They got you seein things
That goddamn social life
And now you re chasin strings
That goddamn social life
God-awful art and clothes
Plenty of money, though
You guess it must be worth somethin
What that would be you don t know
In your imagination
Theres a face of love
Someone who will come along
Instead of comin on
Anp the forces ebb and flow
And the money goes and goes
And something makes you
Want to throw a brick
Through the window
Its iust that social life
Its got you on the run
That goddamn social life
Its torture dressed as fun
Its iust that social life
They got you chasin strings
That goddamn social life
And you are seeing things
song performed by by Iggy Pop
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When I want to dissect a modern problem, I actually find many similar problems in ancient days. In fact, without the many outer layers of so-called modern civilization, the themes I find in old stories are more clear-cut. They are so visible and extreme. I am not saying that all historical eras are similar to today. But by using a comprehensible social structure such as we had in the past, it is much easier for me to convey or re-create modern situations.
Kaneto Shindo in Voices from the Japanese Cinema (1975)
Submitted by Simona Enache
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Whores of a Disposal Culture
Why would a people willfully give away
Bits and pieces of a heritage so rich and timeless...
Or become isolated and indifferent
As to not prepare for their own survival?
Why would a people playfully disregard,
Foundations of strength those unrelated
Claim as their own?
Even prostitutes have a price,
For services not rendered!
Can it be no one sees,
The whores of a disposable culture?
Uniting to release idle pleasures,
Giving away treasures...
Ancestors from the cradle of life,
Sought to keep within the family? !
Why would a people willfully give away
Bits and pieces of a heritage so rich and timeless...
Or become isolated and so indifferent
As to not prepare for their own survival?
Hiding behind the social ills of desperate times,
Masked and hard to find...
And yet not regretting signs that warn of quicksand,
Are the whores of a disposable culture.
Hip hopped,
And drugged out...
As a fading society,
Supplies upon demand!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Unending Life
People often consider life after life.
Maybe because they think there was no life before life
Or maybe they don't care about the life before life.
Yet if there were life before life, it's quite logical
There must be life after life;
If we were here before we were born,
We will be here after we are dead,
But if there was no individuality before,
Why would it exist afterwards?
It seems that this problem is not one of life
Or death, but an issue of ego
Which doesn't accept disappearance
Of individuality in the sea or the disappearance
Of unending life, of all in all.
poem by Dejan Stojanovic
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.
quote by Beverly Sills
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It's too simplistic to advance the notion of the autonomy of art as a reason for turning away from the public. You can have autonomy and simultaneously have connections with the social and political world.
quote by Thom Mayne
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The idea that men are created free and equal is both true and misleading: men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other.
quote by David Riesman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Modern Day
I stand up for my pride
I dont wanna be just like anyone
In this world I cannot hide
I must finish what I have begun
Thats the way I play
In the modern day
cause I wanna stay
In the modern day
Got a picture in my mind
Of the way that I wanna be
So I search until I find
The power inside of me
Its another phase
Of the modern day
Gotta face up to this life
Cant let it get the best of me
So I make a sacrifice
If thats the way it has to be
Im doin what I feel is right
Im ready if I need to fight
In the modern way
In the modern day
Gotta face up to this life
Cant let it get the best of me
If I make a sacrifice
Thats the way it has to be
Like a motor in overdrive
I feel good and I feel alive
I got no need to beg or borrow
Got a shortcut to tomorrow
And Im on my way
To the modern day
Got a lot to say
In the modern day
cause I need to stay
In the modern day
In the modern day
song performed by by Foreigner
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I'm for absolute autonomy of the individual, and an adult, competent woman has absolute autonomy. It's her choice.
quote by Jack Kevorkian
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Culture Of Stupidity
Open your naive eyes…..,
To the Culture Of Stupidity….,
It’s all around you….,
The Culture Of Stupidity ….! !
No way to escape….,
From the Culture Of Stupidity ….,
It haunts and stalks you…,
The Culture Of Stupidity ….! !
It’s hard to believe it….,
The Culture Of Stupidity ….,
That so many can’t see it….,
The Culture Of Stupidity …! !
As liberals keep shying away…..,
From the overwhelming threat…..,
Of radical terrorism today…..,
How long will The Culture Of Stupidity go on….? ?
My answer is as simple as this….,
The Culture Of Stupidity shall live on…..,
As long as humankind and liberalism will exist…! !
poem by Trade Martin
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The old man, of whom we know how he has become what he is, is more of an individual than the young man; for it is only in the course of an eventful life that men are differentiated into full individuality.
quote by Erich Auerbach
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Poetry In The Mature 21st Century
ဧရာ၀တီ:
hand is a hand.poetry is poetry.poems have titles or untitled titled but poems are poems; a problems of not being to conceptualize the differentiate name or genre is a problems of technique and subtance of a poem which itself has no substance; a paradoxical depths of simplicity on being-becoming-doing- process- product pradym of contemporary culture.
The thought of every group is seen as arising out of its life conditions. Thus, it becomes the task of the sociological history of thought to analyse without regard for party biases all the factors in the actually existing social situation which may influence thought. This sociologically oriented history of ideas is destined to provide modern men with a revised view of the whole historical process.
quote by Karl Mannheim
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Ceate a spirit
As you go through life you create a spirit, a force of attraction, as an adult a great deal of what you do in the process of individuation (and in therapy) is weed out the bad programming, the no longer useful attractor patterns of your past, while at the same time you expand on the attractor patterns that are beneficial for your expansion and for the emergence as well as the cultivation of latent forces in you, the more actively you engage in this, the more you make a path of least resistance for others, that is you positively influence others while you ad to the culture. The best results of this is that you give the children of your and future generations a better start, they go through life more free from outdated and destructive forces and more able to recognize as well as express the life affirming forces in themselves.
poem by Michael Kavuoti
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Whats is Your Life?
Life is
Repetition or revelation
Inspiration or imitation
Originality, individuality
Purpose, duality
Re-iteration of justification
Empty headed, brain dead
Individual representation
Copied, borrowed, re-worded
Or real
What is your life?
poem by Kat Mercado
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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In life there are no problems, that is, objective and external choices; there is only the life which we do not resolve as a problem but which we live as an experience, whatever the final result may be.
quote by Alberto Moravia
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Life is.....
Life is a chance
Make use out of it
Life is beautiful
Admire it
Life is happiness
Enjoy it
Life is a dream
Make it reality
Life is a challenge
Take it
Life is a responsibility
Do it
Life is a game
Play with it
Life is a promise
Keep it
Life is sadness
Overcome it
Life is a song
Sing it
Life is a tragedy
Face it
Life is an adventure
Go through it
Life is a luck
Take it
Life is so precious
Preserve it
Life is life
So
STRIVE FOR IT
poem by Sarah Ally
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I look at modern life and I see people not taking responsibility for their lives. The temptation to blame, to find external causes to one's own issues is something that is particularly modern. I know that personally I find that sense of responsibility interesting.
quote by Edward Zwick
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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