MASTER OF DAYDREAMING: Joy of reading randomly without obligation to write something out of it!

Sunday, August 9

Joy of reading randomly without obligation to write something out of it!

No admission fees to visit CMU library eventhough you are not the university staffs or students, unlike ones at CU. Without obligation to write something out of what I read; I currently feel this joy.

Same as traveling without a map, I let go expectations for a certain destination, but browse the shelfs here and there aimlessly, allowing books to lead me drifting on unfamiliar ocean of ideas.

The Philosophy book shelf brought me travel back in time, for me to breed the air of Republic of Geneva when Rousseau presenting his essays on 'A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Science' to the Academy of Dijon as to answer whether the restoration of the arts and science had purifying effect upon morals? and another one on 'The origin and foundation of the inequality of mankind' which gave me another picture of human being in 'state of nature', in contrast to conception in Hobbes's Leviathan.

Another stride passing the illustrated references book section, I am introduced to the movement of 'Universal Rights to a Beautiful and Functional Home' that set precedent for the integration of local craft design with industrial production, which promote the growth of swedish interior design that benefited both local consumers and the production complex. I surprisingly learnt how the global reputation of IKEA had roots in the 200-year-old of social-astetic propaganda that its catalysts such as Ellen Key strongly believed that art and beauty would produce happier human beings and better citizen.

Sometime when entering the library, I stop by at stop-over desk of the returned books, I accidentally saw so many diverse topics of books I can pick for new exploration, I realised this precious opportunity and freedom. Yet there remains limitation of time and my own capability to extend this mind-travelling through books to be never ending. Key is I need to accelerate my reading speed! Or should I find a goal to really get to somewhere ?

As of iddleness in travelling, I am in praise of this joy of reading randomly, at least for the moment I take a break from working on the ground. One painful consequence of such joy I should not be omited to aware however is Superficiality !

1 comment:

Anonymous1 September 2009 at 09:21
Jharas,
I haven't touched Rousseau for years but I can relate to the happiness brought to me by Ikea furniture--in particular my new Poang chair.
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I quote

The "city", as both a built environment and lived space, cannot be conceived merely as a neutral and empty container of social, economic, and political activities. Instead, the "city" should be viewed as the domain where episodes of the hegemonic expansion and capitalist drama are being played out . More specifically, capitalism has survived largely because it is the spatialization of modernity and the strategic planning of everyday life that has allowed its essential relations of production to be reproduced. In the organization of the built environment then, space is commodified. In other words, space becomes a social and political product.
- Henri Lefevre. The Production of Space. (1991)

'I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organised dimunitive of work...The conception of duty, speaking hostorically, has been a means used by the holders of power to induce others to live for the interests of their masters rather than for their own.'
- Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness

There is no single area of UN activity that is not in some way shaped or touched by this relationship. Interactions between the world institution and the variegated torch-bearers and stakeholders of civil society express themselves in a multitude of ways. Not surprisingly, it is the informal interactions rather than the formal variety that are the most interesting; the outside world has been changing much faster than the official rule book can record. In fact, an increasing number of protagonists are ignoring the rule book altogether or have never even heard of its existence.
- Antonio Donnini. The Bureaucracy and the Free Spirits. (1995)

However, and contrary to the influential liberal view, civil society is not the natural opposite to the oppressive state, nor separate from capitalist relations of exploitation and domination. Hence, the existence of activist organisations does not guarantee parliamentary democracy. Rather, as has been shown for Eastern Europe, and SoutheastAsia.., civil society can in fact co-exist with an authoritaria regime. Nevertheless, it is clear that the existence of such organisations can widen political contestation beyond the narrow base in parties and parliaments. This possibility is contingent upon class power.., where 'powerful and cohesive upper classes' dominate the organisations of civil society, they may 'serve as conduits of authoritarian ideologies, thus weakening democracy'.
- Kevin Hewison and Garry Rodan. The Decline of the Left in Souteast Asia. (1994)

MASTER OF DAYDREAMING

Sunday, August 9

Joy of reading randomly without obligation to write something out of it!

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MASTER OF DAYDREAMING

Sunday, August 9

Joy of reading randomly without obligation to write something out of it!

1 comment:

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I quote

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