BrandSoul

Me & Tom

I spent a wonderful, impossible-to-forget evening with Tom Asacker and Shawnie, his agent. Thanks for all, both.

The lobster and me

I shared a wonderful time in Boston along with my friend Michael Read, of the NASA. He took the picture. We were enjoying the moment, that's for sure.

The way of the intellectual

At times, some friends have told me my personality is very intellectual like. I have never thought of me as that. I connect intellectual with a very thoughtful and less emotional person. On the contrary, I see myself as very emotional and even sensitive. But the last weeks I have realized it could be true that I have an intellectual personality. I will explain you why. The fact is that, more and more, I tend to think in terms of the reasons why things happen, and that means going from one theory to another. Even when some fact disturbs me or affects me emotionnally I try to make sense by finding a psychological explanation or trying to find a solution by aplying certain sociological model. All this is true. So I have realized that my thinking is like a chain of theories one connected to the other. And the funny thing is that I have realized most people don't think like that. If you read my posts you will find lots of references to authors. They are because my thought flows like that.

Rationalism

Rationalism=rati-onanism

Surrealist definitons

Ortíz Osés, the spanish philosopher, is an specialist in finding hidden connections between words. In his last work, this is how he defines truth and lies.

Truth: what we see.

Lie: what others see.

The sameness of the contraries

It was Aristotle who wrote very wise words on the birth of opposites. This is what he says in his Metaphysics:

"There´s no opposition between the beings that do not belong to the same genre"

It makes think about the many problems we face daily and have to do with aggression, with violence and with extreme oppositions. In our companies, in our lives, in the world...

Is there a common ground for the enemies? I think it makes sense somehow.

The contrary of opposition would be indifference. That´s why Aristotle keeps saying:

"Those things that differ most within the same genre are opposite, for their perfect difference is the biggest difference"

This is an interesting point of view for when there´s a strong opposition between two parts we always try to find who is legitimated to condemn the other, and Aristotle makes us think that there could be a common ground between them.

Classic arcades

Here you are a collection of classic arcades.

"Sunday" already knew it

One of my all time favorite novels is Gilbert K. Chesterton´s "The man who was Thursday". In that amazing book the main character Gabriel Syme, was an anarchist. He defined himself as the artist of anarchy and the anarchist of art. He belonged to a band of anarchists that took the name of the days of the week to preserve their anonymity. One was monday, the other tuesday and so on. Our hero Syme happened to be thursday and that explained the title of the book.

This band of anarchists was led by Sunday, a very intelligent man. Sunday´s personality was highly paradoxical. For example, when he wanted to have a meeting with the whole of the band members, all the anarchist crusaders, his strategy was to meet in a very popular place and talk as if nothing was secret in their discussions. The more public was the place the safer was for their interests. The people who heard their plans about bombing the state never took them seriously. They just thought it was a bunch of crazy guys.

I was thinking about Sunday´s strategy because i think it reflects the strategy the terrorist attacks are following (with obvious differences, just as a litterary comparison).

Now attacks on strong nations are pursued by groups of men or women who are living in a state of normality in our cities. You can perhaps talk to them in the bus stop and perhaps never would imagine about their purposes. Apparently, they are well adapted citizens, but they keep a life in secret. A life that threatens other lifes.

Make poverty history

I´ve been listening to U2 sing in London at the Live Aid festival. Geldof´s work started twenty years ago and it seems like things haven´t changed much in this time.

I have felt deep emotions when Bono has started to sing and he has asked the leaders of the G8 to involve in the construction of a new world. To make poverty history.

I think we are too used to talking about progress and advances and it is a shame to think like that when every minute children are dying of hunger somewhere in Africa.

Libidinal problems in Singapore

In Singapore the government is facing a somehow unexpected problem. The births rate has decreased so much that they have started to take political decisions to change the trend.

An study conducted by Durex, says couples in Singapore have a very dull sexual life. In fact they "make it" just 39 times / year. A very low rate indeed...

According to Durex the reason for such low frequencies can be found in the distress Singaporeans feel for achieving their objectives at work. "We have been educated to succeed at work and that has become our last aim in life", says a Government official. As a result, marital life has become an exceptional activity and less and less children are born every year in Singapore.

This is a quite unusual situation, an obsession for work taken to it´s limit. I think it´s a pity to be unable to make a soft transition from work to home. And it has finnally become a major problem for the nation.