#but at the same time. on a broader level. Patterns Do Emerge…

[7fff00]

just thinking again about the difficulty of achieving actual escape velocity from the womenswear standard of Pervasive Negative Ease…

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Herodotus and the Intellegibility of History

"Abstract: Herodotus depicts a world full of puzzles including, but not limited to, oracles and dreams, which require solution: this calls for a range of interpretative strategies and for a constant sceptical mental alertness. Often, understanding is reached in a moment of insight, something to which Herodotus seems peculiarly attentive among writers of history, and it is suggested that, like the perception of parallels and patterns in past events, this reflects some fundamental cognitive processes."

"VII. Conclusion It is becoming clear from contemporary research that the drive to seek for patterns and the desire to perceive order are fundamental to human existence: as Daniel Bor puts it, ‘perhaps what most distinguishes us humans from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ravenous desire to find structure in the information we pick up in the world. We cannot help actively searching for patterns’, to the extent that we create artificial ways of doing so in games such as crossword puzzles ‘that inject pleasure into our lives because of the sense of satisfaction we feel when we spot beautiful structures.’98 We can see that Herodotus’ approach to history reflects this, both in the way that he selects and organises his material and in his presentation of his perceptions to his readers: the concern which he shows to articulate the solutions to apparently obscure and baffling puzzles, his interest in picking out patterns, correspondences and other instances of neatness or tidiness in history, and the way in which the various kinds of puzzle not only conform to a common pattern, but on occasion work together at moments of particular significance, all serve to show that for Herodotus history is not simply one damn thing after another, because in important ways things fit together, and we can make sense of them. This understanding is to a great extent the product of hindsight: we have seen how the solution to particular puzzles is so often only achieved in retrospect, and the logic of events likewise only emerges after some time has elapsed. Such a position is compatible with the idea that for Herodotus history is essentially a kind of ‘prophecy in reverse’,99 but to focus exclusively on fate or the divine is to skew the picture, particularly since the recurrent patterns which Herodotus detects in events at the largest scale such as the rise and fall of empires lend themselves equally to understanding in secular terms.100 While interpretations of this kind tend to recruit supernatural phenomena such as oracles in their support, in so doing they over-privilege the macro level and ‘master narratives’, and miss the point that the search for understanding in the Histories is going on constantly at the micro-level, and is, as I have argued, by no means exclusively theological or moral. Much of the material discussed above has no obvious religious aspect; hence I would want to locate oracles, dreams, and omens in a wider context, and to see the specifically religious and causal aspects of such phenomena as subordinate to a broader sense of history as patterned and coherent. At the same time, if Herodotus has a teleological view of history, it is teleological only in a provisional or qualified sense: he is far too aware of the chronic instability of human existence for any kind of determinism, and his use in the programmatic statement of that principle at 1.5.4 of the prospective imperfect (‘and those cities that in my time were great, were previously small’) signals his awareness that his work will be read in times to come when circumstances have changed.101 Just as the apparent fulfilment of an oracle or solution of a puzzle may turn out not to have been definitive, so we need to recognise that the lessons of history may be contingent, and that future readers may well be led by the Histories to new insights.102"

Roger Brock "Herodotus, Cambyses, and the Crossword Puzzle" (abstract and conclusion), Histos 13 (2019) 1–33 (the whole paper can be found on the link given above).

Dr. Roger Brock,  Senior Lecturer in Classics, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds

[zelda-larsson]

Creating Organizations Where Ideas Flow Freely

Every organization has invisible walls—those unspoken rules and hidden hierarchies that quietly stifle potential. They show up when junior employees hesitate to challenge senior leaders' ideas, when departments guard information instead of sharing it, or when people nod politely in meetings only to voice doubts afterward. These barriers don't just make work frustrating; they cost businesses untapped innovation and unrealized potential.

Eric Hannelius observes: "The healthiest organizations aren't those without barriers. They're the ones that notice them quickly and break them down systematically. It's not about eliminating structure; it's about removing the obstructions that prevent good ideas from surfacing."

Why Barriers Persist.

Most workplace barriers weren't consciously built. They emerge gradually—a well-intentioned policy that creates unintended bureaucracy, a leadership change that shifts cultural norms, or a past failure that makes people risk-averse. Over time, these patterns become ingrained, making collaboration feel like navigating an obstacle course rather than working together naturally.

The most damaging barriers often relate to communication flow. When information gets stuck at certain levels or departments, decision-making suffers. Teams operating with incomplete information waste energy reinventing wheels or pursuing misaligned priorities. The cumulative effect is an organization that moves slower than its people are capable of.

Practical Strategies for Breaking Through.

Progressive companies approach barrier removal as an ongoing practice rather than a one-time initiative. They start by identifying friction points through honest conversations with employees at all levels. What slows people down? Where do good ideas get stuck? Which processes feel unnecessarily difficult?

Eric Hannelius shares: "The barriers people complain about most aren't usually the real ones. Surface-level frustrations about meetings or approvals often point to deeper issues with trust or decision rights. Smart leaders dig until they find the root cause."

One effective approach involves creating temporary "safe zones" where normal rules are suspended. A cross-functional team might be given permission to bypass regular approval channels for a pilot project. The results often surprise everyone—projects finish faster, solutions become more creative, and the success creates momentum for broader change.

The Leadership Mindset Shift.

Breaking down barriers requires leaders comfortable with some discomfort. It means tolerating messy conversations where dissent surfaces, being willing to redistribute power, and accepting that the best ideas might come from unexpected places. Leaders who model vulnerability—admitting when processes aren't working or when they need help—give others permission to do the same.

Eric Hannelius notes: "The most effective barrier-breakers aren't the loudest voices in the room. They're the leaders who ask 'What aren't we hearing?' and then create space for those answers to emerge. That's how you discover the barriers you didn't know existed."

Measuring Progress.

Successful barrier removal shows up in measurable ways—faster decision cycles, increased cross-functional collaboration, more diverse voices contributing in meetings. But the most telling signs are often cultural. Do people speak up when they see problems? Are leaders approached with new ideas rather than just status updates? Does the organization course-correct quickly when something isn't working?

The organizations that excel at this don't just remove existing barriers—they build cultures that prevent new ones from forming. They establish routines for regularly assessing workflow friction and create simple channels for surfacing obstacles before they become entrenched.

As Eric Hannelius says: "An organization without barriers isn't a fantasy. It's a choice. The choice to prioritize results over rituals, to value truth over hierarchy, and to believe that everyone in the room has something necessary to contribute."

In today's fast-moving business environment, the ability to break down barriers may be the ultimate competitive advantage. Companies that master it find their people more engaged, their innovations stronger, and their performance consistently ahead of competitors still wrestling with invisible walls. The path forward isn't about dramatic overhauls, but about creating conditions where good ideas can flow freely—from wherever they originate to where they can make the greatest impact.

[lifesciencesmagazine]

What If Your Doctor Fits in Your Pocket? Exploring Mobile Health Applications

Source: pymnts.com

People can easily access everything on the internet because of digitalisation. This has added convenience to the lifestyle for many. In this era, smartphones have become indispensable companions that help us in every step of the day. With the addition of technological advancements with the support of artificial intelligence, various industries and fields have developed. They are providing their service be physical centres, by offering the same quality of service on the mobile application. One such advancement in the software world has contributed to the medical field, which has resulted in the development of mobile health applications.

Now you can access medical help and seek consultations from medical professionals without the need to visit hospitals and clinics. Now you can have your doctor who fits perfectly in your pocket. With one click, you can get a diagnosis, order medicines, track your health updates, get reports, and much more. The possibilities are endless if you want to try them out. So, let’s find the best mobile apps that will help you with medical help seamlessly with one click.

In this article, we will explore some of the best mobile health applications and find out the benefits, challenges, and trends for the future.

What Are Mobile Health Applications?

Mobile health applications, commonly known as mHealth apps, are software programs that are developed to run on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices to support and improve various aspects of health and healthcare. They are the best combination of mobile technology with healthcare services; they also offer various functionalities for individuals, healthcare professionals, and the broader healthcare ecosystem. Many mHealth apps allow users to monitor and track various health metrics, such as physical activity levels like steps, distance, calories burned, along with sleep patterns, heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and weight.

These apps assist individuals in managing long-term health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and heart disease by providing tools for medication reminders, symptom tracking, logging medical readings, and offering personalized health suggestions. These mobile health applications have features like medication reminders, dosage tracking, and information about medications that help improve adherence and safety. Some apps incorporate telemedicine features, which allow patients to connect with healthcare professionals remotely through video calls, voice calls, or chats. These apps also offer many benefits for patients.

Benefits of Mobile Health Applications:

1. Enhanced Healthcare Accessibility

Telemedicine enables remote consultations, breaking down geographical barriers. Convenience of managing appointments and requesting refills from home. Reduces the need for in-person visits, which saves travel and time.

2. Empowered Self-Management

With personalized tracking, these apps monitor health metrics for better awareness. Chronic Condition Support offers personalized tools to improve engagement. Medication Reminders that promote the timely consumption of prescriptions. EHR Access takes care of transparency and understanding of health. 

3. Greater Control & Cost Savings

They empower patients in their care. The patients can do goal setting & tracking to monitor progress towards health objectives. It helps with early intervention, which can reduce hospitalizations. 

4. Improved Communication & Support

The direct messaging feature helps facilitate communication with providers. Remote patient monitoring ensures timely healthcare interventions in case of emergencies. Some apps offer critical support features, such as emergency help.

Read More: Exploring Healthcare Technology: Innovations Transforming Patient Care

List of Best Mobile Health Applications

1. Fitbit

Tracks fitness and promotes healthy habits. Monitor the activity, sleep, and heart rate. Offers goal setting, progress tracking, and social challenges. May include food logging and guided workouts.

Overview

2. ZocDoc

Finds and books in-person and telemedicine appointments. Allows searching by specialty, location, and insurance. Provides reviews and real-time availability. Facilitates online booking and digital intake forms.

Overview

3. MySugr

Manages diabetes by logging blood sugar, meals, and activity. Connects with glucose meters. Offers a bolus calculator and HbA1c estimation. Generates reports for healthcare providers.

Overview

4. Ovia Health 

Offers apps for women’s health and family planning (Fertility, Pregnancy, and Parenting). Tracks cycles, pregnancy milestones, and baby development. Provides personalized insights and community forums.

Overview

5. Calm

Focuses on mental wellness, meditation, and sleep. Offers guided meditations, sleep stories, and relaxing music. Features content for stress, anxiety, and focus.

Overview

6. Generis

Generis is an amazing app that merges DNA analysis with personalized nutrition to optimize health and wellness. By helping users understand their genes, the app hopes to give users the power to live a better life.

Overview

7. BetterHelp

Provides online therapy via licensed therapists through text, audio, and video. Matches users with therapists based on needs. Offers convenient remote mental health support.

Overview

8. Talkspace

Another online therapy platform connects users with licensed therapists via text, audio, and video. Offers various subscription plans for accessible mental healthcare.

Overview

9. Doctor On Demand

Offers virtual doctor visits with physicians, therapists, and psychiatrists. Provides on-demand and scheduled appointments. Can diagnose, treat, and prescribe medications.

Overview

10. PocketRx

Helps manage prescriptions and communicate with local independent pharmacies. Allows for easy refills and provides reminders. May offer discounts and medication information.

Overview

11. Teladoc

A telehealth company offering online doctor consultations, mental health services (including BetterHelp), and chronic condition management. Provides 24/7 access via video, phone, and app.

Overview

Future Trends

The future of mobile health applications points towards a globally integrated ecosystem using AI for personalized diagnostics and treatment, improved by wearable technology for continuous and remote monitoring. Expect greater emphasis on mental wellness apps and the secure management of health data through advancements like blockchain. Telehealth will become even more continuous and widespread, breaking down geographical barriers, while amplified and virtual reality may introduce immersive healthcare experiences. In the end, mobile health technology will let people worldwide manage their health care more effectively, conveniently, and personally from their mobile devices.

Read More: AI in Healthcare: Revolutionizing Patient Care and Beyond

Conclusion

These past few years have drastically transformed the medical field. The advancement of technology is remarkable for both doctors and patients. Now, anyone can access medical help with just one click. With the help of mobile health applications, it feels like having a tiny doctor who fits in your pocket. The apps like Fitbit, MySugr, Talkspace, and Teladoc, anyone can get help quickly and conveniently in cases of emergency. These applications have made the connections and communication path between the doctors and patients very seamless. I’m sure that most of the individuals have already benefited from these applications. It’s your turn to enjoy the peak of modern medicine.

FAQ

1. What are the applications of mobile health technology?

mHealth apps, or mobile health applications, are smartphone applications that are designed to support and improve various aspects of health and healthcare. 

2. What is a mobile medical application?

Mobile medical apps, also known as medical apps, are applications for mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets that support medical staff or patients in the diagnosis, treatment, or monitoring of illnesses or injuries.

3. What are mobile health devices examples?

Mobile health devices include smartphones, wearable activity trackers, wireless connected scales, blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters, and glucometers.

[weather-usa]

Weather fluctuations like a hot August in 1983 don’t disprove climate change | Fact Check

The claim: August temperature comparison proves CO2-driven global warming is a "hoax" A Sept. 3 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) features temperature maps originally shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Steve Milloy, a known skeptic of human-caused climate change. The screenshotted post claims that the average and maximum temperatures in August 2024 were cooler than those in August 1983.

"I thought they said CO2 emissions cause global warming? #Hoax," the Instagram caption reads.

The post gained over 300 likes within a week.

Our verdict: False Scientists have consistently documented a long-term global warming trend driven by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Year-to-year fluctuations in August temperatures do not contradict the broader warming pattern. Weather variability still causes temperature changes, even on a warming planet.

Climate and Average Weather Year Round in 32219 - Jacksonville FL:

Post overlooks August warming trend and weather patterns While data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that the U.S. average and maximum temperatures in August 2024 were cooler than in 1983, the overall average temperature in August has increased over the same period.

This is possible because a statistically significant warming trend doesn't mean every month or year will be warmer than those before it, NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt previously explained to USA TODAY.

Weather and natural climate variability, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, can lead to temperatures being warmer or cooler than average in a specific timeframe or location, even as the planet continues to warm overall.

NOAA data also reveals a long-term warming trend, both globally and in the U.S., when looking at all months combined, not just August.

"This comparison (in the post) isn’t enough to draw conclusions about climate trends in the U.S. or globally," WeatherBell meteorologist Christopher Dickson told USA TODAY, noting that it appeared to involve "cherry-picking data."

Modern global warming is clearly driven by human-caused emissions Scientists have multiple lines of evidence showing that greenhouse gases from human activities, such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels, are the primary cause of modern climate change.

Research has proven that greenhouse gases like CO2 warm the planet by trapping radiation and preventing it from escaping into space. Studies also show that atmospheric CO2 levels have been rising for decades. The excess CO2 in the atmosphere aligns with the amount humans have emitted, after accounting for natural processes. A significant portion of this CO2 contains the type of carbon associated with fossil fuels.

As greenhouse gas concentrations have increased, global temperatures have risen concurrently, NASA climate scientist Josh Willis previously told USA TODAY.

"The amount of warming we observe matches what we expect from the increased CO2 we've added," Willis explained. Furthermore, "the timing of the warming aligns with the rise in CO2 caused by human activities."

Weather Forecast For 77406-Richmond-TX:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/202052347/Weather-Forecast-For-77406-Richmond-TX

Fact Check: Coal can, indeed, "quit." No energy source is 100% reliable

Scientists have also documented the impacts of long-term global warming, including rising sea levels, melting polar ice sheets, and the reduction of Arctic sea ice.

The U.S. has experienced warming at a faster rate than the global average, with several key effects:

Earlier ice breakup in Alaskan rivers

Shifting ranges of various marine species

Increased frequency of heatwaves

Changes in the timing of leaf and flower emergence in spring

Melting glaciers in Alaska and Washington

Shrinking snowpack in the western U.S.

More frequent flooding events due to sea level rise

Shifts in the winter ranges of certain bird species

The maps featured in the post come from WeatherBell Analytics and are based on data from the PRISM Climate Group, according to meteorologist Christopher Dickson.

PRISM data is not intended for analyzing climate trends because it doesn't account for "temporal changes in station data availability, observation times, equipment, and other factors that can bias results," explained Chris Daly, founder of the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University. NOAA data, on the other hand, adjusts for these factors.

See more:

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-71766

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-71768

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-71770

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-71772

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-71801

When contacted, the Instagram user who posted the claim suggested USA TODAY reach out to Steve Milloy, who sent a video reiterating his original post's claims.

[danceblogisabellarose]

Week 3: Notes (In class Workshop)

Tutor: Lisa Wilson

Note: I was ill this week, so observed from the side-lines.

Task 1. Partnered. Initiator: Massage, waking up the partners body. Partner: lying on the floor in starfish to start. Initiator slowly roles the partner from one side of the room to the other. No moving from partner, Initiator only. Relax and let go into the floor. Begin to feel an awareness of all your body parts.

Task 2 & 2a. Solo exploration. initiate rolling from different body parts (hip, foot, hand, etc.). Relax the head into the ground. Isolate and relax each body part. 2a. Same thing, but rolling from one side of the room to the other, think of making folds through the body, through the hip joints, new pathways each time, discover new ways to move, resist patterns, relax the head.

Task 3. Partnered. Initiator presses across the partners body, providing different impetus, taking weight, pulling, pushing. Partner responds and moves across the floor. Remember: crease and fold through the body, don't leave limbs stiff. Find new folds.

Task 4. Group. "Surfing". Think of giving weight and taking weight. Group lies down like logs, close together. one person begins by lying across the group giving them their weight. Group begins to roll together, transferring the person above down the line.

Task 5. Partnered. Thinking of giving and taking weight, whilst moving in a forwards trajectory across the floor. Soften into each other, roll across body parts, take full body weight. Not leading or following, but both working together.

Task 6. Partnered. Same as above, but standing. Keep things slow so you can maintain awareness. Find counter balances and psuhes if they happen naturally. Give and take each others weight.

Task 7. Trios. Same as above, contact improvisation, standing/flowing, working in threes. If you find yourself without contact, think of moving in reaction to those around you.

Task 8. Trios. Think of 3 static poses of "Counter-push" pushing weight inwards towards each other. Or "Counter-balance" pulling weight away from each other. 1 low, 1 medium, 1 standing.

Task 9. Trios. Building on the task above, create transitions and choreography to move between each of the 3 poses created above. Take weight, manipulate each others bodies, soften.

Task 10. Solo. Explore movements associated with various words. Think about how each movement can shift in texture/quality, throughout the phrase. Also think on shifts on level, dynamic, space. Based on 6 of the following 10 words: drawing, pulling, pressing, throwing, crumpling, tearing, brushing, breaking, supporting, scratching.

Task 11. Group. Same but playing with dynamic and spacing. Combining two individuals phrases together, with opposing or similar dynamics.

Lecture with Lisa:

Concentration & relaxing, tuning into the body. Using improvisation as a tool to let movement impulses happen naturally.

Task-based work: differentiates from pure improvisation, where an external task is set for groups or individuals or body parts to explore.

Words as triggers for movement or images for movement.

When choreographing, don't try and think or pre-imagine a movement. Start with improvisation, let the body select the material, not necessarily the mind.

When working with other people, set tasks for others, rely on your instinct, give instructions and observe how your dancers interpret them and then go through and select what works.

From there, than you can refine, alter, add to, or contrast it with other movement.

Play with space, size, level and focus.

Movement as material. (for the broader purpose of the piece)

Motifs emerge, not through the exact same movements, but by repetitions/variations on a theme.

"how can I take something and only do it with my finger, how can I take this and now do it running from the corner"

When beginning a choreography, find movement, put together phrases, repeat, experiment, alter.

Don't start from beginning to end, let the work evolve erratically and naturally.

Think about the over all structure of how you want the piece to evolve, where does it want to go?

Given the short 2-3min time restriction: might be best to pick a very particular sub-section related to a larger topic. Pick something very specific.

Pick your topic/theme

Find smaller specific sub-interest

Research

Create list of tasks

Explore tasks

Select interesting movement

Put together phrases

Play with variations on phrase, subverting, retrograding, spacing, gaze, speed, size, dynamic.

Piece together, remove, repeat,

Reflections on watching class:

Something that stands out is definitely peoples tendency to stiffen or rely on familiar dance patterns when placed in new and uncomfortable situations. It was apparent that lots of the class was slightly uncomfortable with close contact work and weight baring at first (with lots of laughter), but was great to see how this lessened over the 4 hour period. It was a shame to be unwell for this workshop, as I personally haven't engaged with much contact improvisation tasks before. Would appreciate being able to explore this more in the future. I can definitely see how this sort of practice would benefit my practice in the future.

[redantsunderneath]

DC COMICS: Incoherence as Not-a-Bug-but-a-Feature (Spoilers for Batman 89-100)

Due to the emergence of the new Batman villain character Punchline, I wound up buying the last 12 issues of Batman and reading them in a single sitting. I’ve had trouble following DC comics for a while, constantly feeling that they were in trouble since back in the mid 2000s (with a glimmer of hope here and there). The act of reading DC comics has been a frustrating experience, where individual good stories and runs were laying around in the context of a lot of things that didn’t make sense while the company’s thrust felt chaotic and ideas not well blended. Every status quo change seemed hard to figure out the rules of enough to parse the context.  We’ll get into the background of this, but my reading today of this extended stretch of comics that keeps losing the plot in favor of a fever dream of what’s happening at the moment with specific characters that refuse to cohere, it became obvious that what I had been looking at as subtext or critique was actually the text. I could see the messed up trees but was missing the the forest the universe was trying to describe.

What happens in these issues (Batman current series 89-100, I missed the beginning of the first of 2 arcs) is rolling war between the major Batman villains and the heroes (plus Harley Quinn and Catwoman), which shifts into a Joker and Joker adjacent vs. all as the Joker double crosses everyone then manages to steal Bruce Wayne’s fortune.  We meet 3 new baddies – Underbroker, whose schtick is putting ill-gotten gains beyond the reach of the legal system (with an explicit line to rich globalists drawn), the Designer, who back in the day offered the four A list Batman villains plans to achieve what they most wanted, and Punchline, who is your toxic ex’s new millennial GF who really has it in for you (there is also a new good guy Clownhunter, which is a whole different thing, and a new costumed detective that predates Batman).  This doesn’t convey the chaotic nature of what is happening issue to issue, but there’s more than one Batman hallucinogenic spirit quest, dead characters ostensibly walking around, a plan revolving around the Bat’s origin story that tells some version of it several times, and a no-nonsense declaration that the Joker, as the Devil of the Batman spiritual system, cannot die.   The whole thing has the effect of convincing you there is no definitive sequence of events, only versions.

Alan Moore’s Killing Joke is not a favorite of mine, for a number of reasons.  But the ending holds up.  The Joker has done terrible things there is no antecedent for, and Batman wonders aloud if this never-ending dance they do ends in anything but both of their deaths; can they uncouple from the unhealthy duality the cycle of which simply repeats.  The Joker responds, well, with a joke about two lunatics trying to escape an asylum.  One jumps the roof to the next building, while the other is too scared to try.  The escapee offers to hold a light while the other crosses on a beam but he says no, no you’ll just cut the light while I’m half way across.  This not very funny joke nonetheless has a bunch of resonances – BM and Joker as conspiring co inmates, BM wanting to break out, a commentary about their natures (almost a reversal of the frog and scorpion story where the scorpion won’t go because he knows how this ends), but mostly it implicates BM as the one who is enabling the cycle, the reason why it won’t end.  They both laugh uproariously, and the ambiguous final panels can be read as the fundamental realization of his complicity causing BM to kill J.  A lethal joke indeed… except, next month, we see the both of them again.  In broader context, the ceaseless cycle of the diad is reaffirmed.  This has been hellaciously sticky as an idea in the Batmen universe.

My realization of what DC has been doing is pretty banal in its pieces. Marvel has “ground level” heroes while DC has a mythos, a pantheon.  Their archetypal makeup is strong, the seven JLA members lining up with the pantheon of Greek gods and the Chakras weirdly closely.  DC has big characters that are somewhat flat which they can use tell big bold individual stories that are cool the way legends and fables are cool. But these stories require bold strokes that a bit incompatible with each other. People get attached to these iterations. Meanwhile, Marvel trucks in soap operas where the characters give you an empathetic stand in and are narratively flexible. Marvel events are usually about the writer vs. the company, asking you to sympathize or deconstruct the creative impulse amid efforts to impose control or order.  DC’s events are about editorial vs. the audience, the shapers vs. the forces of the world.  It may seem obvious, given this description, that DC’s focus is on an archetypal tableau though it may be less obvious that this tableau is under extreme pressure from expectations when trying to tell ongoing tales month in, month out (or semi-monthly in some cases). The stories are constantly compared against the big stories that have gone before, and the audience’s ideas of the characters exert pressure to push them in directions that capture “the” version they believe in.  This circle is not possible to square.

DC and Marvel both have a multiverse of sorts.  DC used to tell “Elseworlds” stories which were later tucked into pocket universes.  DC invented crossing over between “realities.”  DC’s continuity is heavy baggage and they began to have “Crises” to resolve the narrative incompatibilities.  These only made things worse as you can’t get rid of the past people have a relationship with – it will come back.  Now you have to explain that away too.  Marvel just lets it lay – forget about the iffy stories, they count, sure, just no one is ever going to talk about them unless they have an angle.  Marvel continuity is all angles and amnesia. This is just easier to do with dating and rent and your ancient aunt’s medical bills than with Gods. Marvel’s multiverse is about sandboxes that you can always dump into the mainframe if they work (and never really mention the sandbox again).

There is a shift that occurred in the industry in the 2004 to 2005 era that is less remarked upon than many upheavals in comic’s history. Marvel had gone through a period of incredible new idea generation in the early 2000s after a late 90s creative cratering but had just fired the pro wrestling inflected soul of that moment (Bill Jemas).  DC was coming off of a period of trying to do moderately updated versions of what they basically been doing all along. The attitude was “yeah we’re under stress from the combined history of these characters, but we got to keep telling the stories.” Geoff Johns was one voice of DC over the 99-04 period that showed potential - he seemed to get how to find the core of characters and push them into a new in sync directions if they over the years have lost a clear identity.  But mostly he had internalized a basic schism between something mean that the audience wanted, and something good and wholesome about the characters themselves, and figured out how to mess around with this in a equilibrating fashion.

Interestingly, the ignition point of the main forces that were going to blow DC over the next decade and a half was a comic that had virtually nothing to do with any of those main forces. Brad Meltzer, a novelist, was hired to do a comic called Infinity Crisis, which sold extremely well and was, justifiably or not, recognized as an event.  At the same time, everyone also kind of hated it because the dark desires of some DC fans were pushed forward just a bit too much for comfort and for a comic with Crisis in the name it didn’t do a whole lot other than “darken” things.  Nonetheless, this lit an “event” fire at both companies.  Marvel chose a shake up the status quo for a year, then do it again, pattern and was off to the races (I have written about this, and more, here) while continuing its Randian framing of beleaguered do-gooders opposed by rule making freedom haters.

As this was playing out, Dan Didio quietly took power in DC Editorial.  His outlook was more Bloomian – he seemed to spark off of writers who exhibited anxiety of influence. He recognized Johns was the one person they had could be promoted into something of a universe architect, starting work on two key projects from which the rest would evolve. The first, was bringing back Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and diffracting the GL universe into its own symbolic system, with parts frisson-ing other parts, and almost a Magic the Gathering color scheme of ideas. The other was to build up to Infinite Crisis, which would become the model for most of their universe changing events until the present day.

The basic frame is this: DC heroes want to be good (in a sense of their inherent nature) but forces outside form a context that makes them fall.  It’s a very gnostic universe, DC.  They  examine reflections of the concepts, invent scapegoats for certain tendencies (see Superboy Prime as entitled fanboy, Dr. Manhattan as editors that try and fail to mend things, etc), make characters violate principles, rehabilitate them, then show that the world if anything is more broken than before.  This is kind of Johns’ thing and it fits Didio’s narrative as historicval tension fetish.  But then came Scott Snyder (not to be confused with Zack) who began to work on Batman in 2011.  Since then, as much as Justice League is pushed as the central title and Lex Luthor has been pimped, Batman has been the core of the universe and the Joker the core villain.

Snyder had the same continuity conflict wavelength but was significantly more meta and able to contain multitudes than Johns.  He was the first to make an explicit mystery of how there could be several Jokers around at one time (who are the same but not, he posited 3 – man, Christians!) that seems prescient given the near future coexistence of filmic Jokers that are not able to be resolved.  I believe he was the first to begin to tease out an idea – that different versions of things in comics are not a diffraction or filter effect, a using the set of things that work best for that story and leaving the rest, but are a matter of the archetypal system of the audience coming apart. From an in story perspective what appears to happen is that multiple versions of incompatible things exist in the collective unconscious of the continuing narrative, and this is something that the characters may become conscious of.  

The run I just read is written by James Tynion IV building on the above trends.  The trick seems to be going all in on the Jungian aspect (at Jung’s most religiously epiphanic).  The Designer was a progenitor and adversary to Batman’s predecessor and his intellectual approach eventually defeated the detective… broke him.  At some point in early Batman history, the Designer brought the top four Bat-baddies together and offered each, in turn, a plan to achieve what they most desired: the Riddler, a way to achieve an empire of the mind; the Penguin, power; and Catwoman, money.  They are all elated as they await the Joker to come out.  The Joker emerges with a furious Designer on his heals and promptly shoots him dead.  He explains that he didn’t like his joke in the form of a fable – the devil offered four people the path to their greatest desire: the three chose earthly things, but the Joker’s wish was to be him, to become the devil.  The story proceeds to suggest that the Joker just exists, he is present as a necessary component in the system.   You can kill him, yet he is alive.

DC has been using physics metaphors for the nature of their reality since Flash of Two Worlds in 1963.  The multiverse as a continuity concept was their idea and the holographic universe of the hypertime was a thing.  It seems like since Dan Didio took over, they’ve been heading towards a concept of broad superimposition, of measurement effect being weak, of the universe being like a quantum computer with all possibilities coexisting and the story instantiating not one reality but a path through all the possible ones.  By making Batman trip balls through quite a few issues and relive his origin from different angles, the story is one of its own instability and the heroic task that confronts our hero is attempting to actualize the world.  The Joker is the Devil in the sense of lack of fixed meaning, of relativistic chaos, of the world not making sense because it’s unmoored nature with ultimately no knowability.  Batman, in this story, functions as a postmodern knight crusading against the impossibility of epistemological grounding.

There’s more going on, sure.  One plot is, literally, defund Batman.  There is rioting, people brainwashed by being exposed to toxic ether, people paid to go to theaters even though they will die as a result, and questions about neoliberalism similar to that one Joker movie. Punchline has no personality yet (Tynion’s not the best at that) but she serves well as a generational foil for Harley – a rudderless ideological vacuum susceptible to Joker-as-idea-virus rather than an unfulfilled MD who felt alienated due to the structures of her life and was seeking escape into structureless possibility.  The Designer stuff is both continuity play (See why they changed from goofy villains to more “realistic” ones! Look how pulp heroes informed superheroes!), a comment on the nature of a longstanding narrative (strong intentions die out as Brownian motion overwhelms momentum), and a lawful evil/chaotic evil setup of the dualism of apocalypses (overdetermined authoritarian vs. center does not hold barbarism).  But the thing that ties this to the past decade and a half of DC is the sense that the reality is fluid and susceptible to change or outright s’cool incompatibility.

This is different than other flavors of meta in superhero comics.  Grant Morrison believes the archetypes are stronger than the forces that seek to bend them.  Alan Moore wants you to deconstruct your sacred cows and probably hates you personally.  Marvel might play with self-awareness, but effortlessly resolves inconsistencies after it’s finished playing.  DC, at this point, allows you to watch the waves solidfy into symbols and dissolve, and the constant confusion and lack of grounding is more of a choice then I thought this time yesterday.  The conflict theory of DC reality has been in full swing but this looks to be turning towards a kind of Zen historicism, holding contradictory things in your mind at once. Warren Ellis’ JLA/Authority book is the nearest comparable text I can think of. I need to call this, but I didn’t even talk about Death Metal, DC character multiplicity as meta-psychosis event extraordinaire.  Comics just keep getting weirder.

[themissingmarvel]

Kind Regards, Detective [Part 8]

(I am going to prompt this with first, an apology for how long it’s been. I blame Animal Crossing as well as the apocalypse. That said, and this is a TW/CW there is a major death. So be advised.)

CATCH UP: [Part 1] // [Part 2] // [Drabble] // [Part 3] // [Part 4] // [Drabble 2] // [Part 5] // [Part 6] // [Part 7]

Pairing: Detective Loki x fbi!Reader

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: Language, descriptions of violence, major character death

They didn’t fall asleep right away. Which made sense on many levels. She was still shaken and he was still quite taken with the woman in his arms, who he had dreamed of namelessly for so long. She was already a dream. But that was dangerous, and he knew it.

She told him stories of training in the bureau, and what she had encountered. Being a woman and an agent was never easy. He told her stories about when he started off as a beat cop and his first time arresting someone back when he worked in Philadelphia. He talked about having seen so much and knowing what he did, he wanted to bring his work to an area that didn’t always get attention. That needed good cops. Conyers had been that place.

Her words were shaky when she discussed the loss of her sister, and that was what the CD had been in reference to. David had lost so much in his life so young he supposed he didn’t really understand that kind of pain the way he wanted to. He hadn’t ever loved something like that before. He had felt adrift, a ship without an anchor. Love was a memory to him and he dreamed of it sometimes so hard he could taste it. 

When they did finally fall asleep, David had buried himself against her and they had managed to look disgustingly adorable in a way neither would ever admit to, even in a court of law. Y/N had prided herself on her ability to keep work separate. It helped that at least once a month she’d spend a couple days out of town. Sometimes longer. Meant she had good excuses for staying settled. David had no such excuse save for his own emotional damage as a child and teen. 

Her phone was what stirred her from sleep, sleep that rarely came so deeply. The phone was by her bed, the issued FBI one she was sure was being tracked but didn’t much care. Breaking away from the warm embrace of the man who had no business being as wonderful as he was, she fumbled for it before answering, not registering the emergency ring, “Agent Y/L/N. Yes, that’s what I said. Wait, what?” 

Loki had stirred when she woke, though more so as he watched her suddenly sit up, pushing back her hair that had become quite a mess. He was almost hurt he didn’t get a chance to see her as she woke. A soft waking. Not this.

Already she was on her feet, “No. That’s incorrect. I’m still in New York, the drive was a nightmare so I decided to stay at a hotel and- it doesn’t matter. Check my phone records, I never-!”

She was silent, David sitting up as he watched her, a frantic look suddenly dissipating from her delicate features, her skin pale, eyes wide, looking like a deer in headlights. So far he had found that answering the phone was not ending well for either of them.

He was adjusting his own hair, standing and going for his shirt and belt, watching as she pulled the phone away to look at the screen. 

By now she had adjusted to this sort of new normal. Henry Best was not a shy man and she suspected that for a long time he had been killing people. For whatever reason, it had escalated the past few months and she was certain when they looked at patterns statewide, they would find a broader, less direct pattern. No roses, but perhaps notes. Ones discarded. A disappearance and a body found days or weeks later would be easily dismissed by an overworked department. 

Closing her eyes tightly, she took a breath before lifting the phone back to her ear, “When was he found? Yeah, check the hotel records I don’t give a fuck. You think I seriously killed my own coworker?! Tell Kendrick to call me himself, then!” She pulled the phone back and hung it up.

It was six in the morning, and she supposed the few hours of sleep they had gotten was a blessing, but one she would regret. She would speak at the funeral later and try not to loudly blame herself, but it would be hard not to. She hadn’t pulled the trigger but she had left a loaded gun on the table just the same. She had let David in and in turn let other parts of herself go.

David was quiet before he spoke, “What happened?”

What a stupid question. It was met by a look of anger he didn’t recognize immediately but knew as rage. It was a powerful kind of rage that clouded judgment and made people do stupid things. He hoped it was the kind of rage Y/N could reign in and use as fuel but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know enough. He knew fragments and pieces and he hoped she could keep herself together. Keller Dover had let that rage nearly destroy him and almost got himself killed. It was personal.

“Adrian is dead. They found his body in the parking lot of an empty office building, two shots to the chest. They found texts on his phone from me, though we both know it wasn’t. It was ‘me’, asking to meet him with important information I was ‘too scared’ to speak over the phone. Adrian died alone, bleeding to death in a parking lot because of me.” 

Her face was stoic, eyes cold and echoing of something akin to heartbreak. She didn’t love Adrian. Not really. But she liked him. She liked how he flirted and made her feel cute, how he called her ‘ladybug’ and would grin even through the phone. Even when he was such a fucking asshole, blowing off her requests for meeting up or talking about his dates… she knew. He wasn’t a bad man, he was kind of a dick, but he sure as hell didn’t deserve to die. But she had killed him, hadn’t she? Maybe she didn’t pull the trigger but she left the gun on the table.

When her sister died, long ago, rage had taken the place of sadness and grief. She had felt anger like no other that the world would have reached out and taken her sister from her. It wasn’t fair. Life wasn’t fair. Sadness was so hard to manage but rage and anger was always so much more reasonable, in an odd way. Sadness you had to cope with but rage you could channel elsewhere. It also made you stupid as hell. 

Loki was walking to where Y/N was, reaching for her arm before she snatched it away, “Hey, this isn’t your fault, we both know-”

“But it is!” She stared at him, eyes wide and deadly cool, “It is my fault, David. I thought that this,” she gestured between the two of them, “was a good idea. And it wasn’t. Henry got my phone credentials somehow and he got to Adrian.”

David stepped back, absorbing the blow that hit him right in the chest. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but when a wounded cat is cornered and injured it will always lash out, even at what it loves the most. She was defending herself. Somewhere he knew that, in the same way he knew he would be doing the same, were he in her position. But he allowed it to sink, instead stepping away and getting himself dressed.

He was cautious as he watched her solemnly get dressed, do her hair as best she could before silently stepping into the bathroom to use the crappy-but-acceptable toothbrush and toothpaste provided. Her brain was trying to process what just happened, but so was David’s. He was reeling from the pain of being told he was a mistake, and because he knew that she didn’t mean it. He hoped she didn’t. He felt responsible as well, that he had distracted her from the case. Perhaps, he thought, it might give him clarity to have the step back that she didn’t. 

If Henry had reached out to Adrian, it was because he knew a few things. First, he knew that Adrian provided Y/N with information frequently enough that he had access to quite a bit of data. He probably knew more than he even realized he knew, and he was a risk. Also, Henry knew that Adrian trusted Y/N completely. Enough that he’d simply drive in the middle of the night to meet up with her over a simple text. But doesn’t the FBI train better?

Suddenly it was David working like a profiler, and perhaps it was the brain of the woman he had slept next to that was rubbing off on him. 

It didn’t make sense that Adrian would just trust a text message from Y/N, did it? 

Looking down at his own phone, he scanned through a few missed calls and voicemails, a text or two from guys at the precinct. Opening his work mail, he noted a few important forensic items and tabbed them for later. One that stood out was the email that the PAM shots had come in.

When Y/N came out she was silent, her words feeling like pain, should she utter them. Instead, she grabbed her things, hardly looking at David as she felt the weight of the boulder she had decided to shoulder pressing down on her before breathing out the words, “Let’s go.”

___

The drive itself hadn’t taken long, all things considered. Y/N had insisted she drive her own car, the reliable car that felt reliably foreign, making her feel like an alien in a world she was supposed to be part of. Adrian didn’t deserve to die. Arguably, most folks didn’t, really. He was a good guy, though. He did the stuff you were supposed to do. Being an asshole wasn’t a reason to off someone and yet Henry (and she was sure it was Henry) had chosen him specifically. Whether or not it was because he ‘knew’ something, it was calculated. Gunshots, however, meant this was not as planned as he had wanted it to be. Something had been off. Emotions had been involved. This had been a crime of passion and not a single note was left behind. Not a single rose.

He wasn’t the pattern, though. So it made sense.

Pulling up to the precinct, she got out and made her way to the door, aware of Detective Loki only steps behind her, protective in a way he didn’t like, even for himself. Henry was bold, however. Further forensics on the phone had shown Y/N’s phone had been cloned, of course. She supposed handing the man her jacket in his office where he had defense level technology hadn’t been her smartest move. 

She had to play chess and make him think she was still playing checkers.

“Agent? This was delivered about an hour ago, one of the DC Agents dropped it himself. Credentials checked out. It’s for you.” A young man was behind the precinct desk, looking a little tired but otherwise unbothered, handing her a small package. She was curious, though not concerned this time, able to spot the small sticker on the bottom left of a glittering ladybug. 

Taking the box she glanced at David and nodded her head towards the long hallway that led towards the interrogation rooms. She was silent, moving like a whisper over the ugly rug in the dingy department that desperately needed an upgrade. Opening the door to the other side of the one-way mirror, she removed her jacket and her phone, David following suit. It was eerie, how silent she was, even her movements noiseless as she fiddled with the microphone settings and turned off all recording devices. She went so far as to power them off entirely, making the room dark. 

Shutting the door, the young woman gently opened the box and withdrew a sleek, silver Samsung Galaxy, definitely not government issue. Squinting, she pressed the power button and turned it on, the phone booting up with no problem, the background a picture of a ladybug. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes and smirk through the pain, “Subtle, as always.”

Sitting down, David took a seat by her, watching as the phone appeared to begin on its own, the woman taking the cue to prop it up and sit back, the two close by once more as they watched a video begin.

“I know. This isn’t subtle, right? I mean, if you’re watching it then it’s not supposed to be. After what Henry did, I didn’t want you getting another package and being scared again.” 

It was Adrian, his face, brown scruff over his handsome features, sharp jawline and broad shoulders visible, stunning hazel eyes that were arguably more green than hazel visible. His hair was dark brown as well, normally gelled down and styled, though a bit more tussled now. He was sitting in his apartment, what looked to be his apartment. Pictures of his family were behind him and he was sitting on his couch, beige… funny the things we choose to see.

“He texted me tonight. I mean, you did, from what police records will show, but it’s him. He’s gotta think I’m some next-level idiot, you know? He tried to get your tone down but he can’t get that icy exterior quite right,” he smirked, looking into the camera, Y/N’s eyes softened as she knew she was watching the final moments of a man’s life. You don’t turn away from something like that.

“It’s my fault… I’m sorry.” She whispered as she watched the video, her body caving in on itself as she felt herself tense.

“And before you apologize, don’t! Hey, for all I know, things turned out just fine and you’re gonna make fun of me for this video and I’ll get the credit for catching The Black Rose! I won’t let you live it down,” he smirked.

Tears burned at her eyes, holding a hand over her mouth to stop herself from speaking again, almost wounded by how eerie it was how well he knew her. It fucking hurt.

“I can’t call you on your phone because it’ll route to his. He has authority over it by now, so don’t trust it, whatever you read on it. It’s useless. I used this because I knew I could jailbreak it and install the firmware to keep him out. But yeah, this’ll be pretty useless too if he gets wind of it.

“Anyway. He wants to meet me. I figure if I can get some recordings of him in the parking lot, maybe clone his phone myself without him knowing, maybe I can get something off him for you. If not, if you’re watching this and feeling like shit… it means it’s a good thing I sent the phone. Because if you’re watching this, much like those tropes I know you hate, then I’m dead, Ladybug. And I’m sorry for that one. But it sure as hell isn’t your responsibility and you need to know I’m doing this because I chose to. You’ve always been the brave one, Y/N. I’ve watched you take hits from assholes, get threatened, travel across the country, work yourself through hell on earth… you’re brave. You’re good at your job. And you always deserved better than me. Doesn’t make much sense to tell you I always loved you, so I won’t. But I’m doing this not for you, but because of you. Catch the asshole.”

The video closed, another taking its place, this one far grainier and from within a spot on the dash of Adrian’s car. It was a shitty camera, one that would be found, quite obviously, and that was broadcasting a recording. Later they’d find out not even Henry could trace the broadcast, but Y/N knew. David knew. Both knew as they sat in the dark interview room in the Conyers precinct.

The audio was muffled and quiet, which made sense. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. But it showed Adrian getting out of the car, jacket on, walking over with his hands up. He was speaking, softly, and staying still as another man entered view.

Henry.

He had his hands in his pockets, though he was visible. His head. Face. Hair. Unmistakably Henry Best. It was like watching a horror movie, though, and she hadn’t even realized that David had wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled himself to her, ready to stop the video at any moment. 

Shouts were exchanged suddenly, Henry barking at Adrian who stepped back, his hands still up, shaking his head and looking almost quizzical as he tilted his head to the side, “-her…-?” It was barely audible, though Henry’s face contorted into anger, rage, pulling a gun out of his pocket suddenly and screaming, “You could never understand my love for her!”  

One shot. Two shots. Three shots. 

Each made Y/N jump, tears in her eyes as she watched her friend, one of her closest friends, the man she trusted, shot dead in front of her, the feed suddenly cutting out. 

The video closed, leaving only the phone with its basic desktop icons before them, Y/N reaching out and gently picking up the phone, “You fucking idiot, Adrian.” Tears were falling down her cheeks, not that she cared. And even Adrian’s promise that his death was not on her was not enough. The guilt was tremendous and suddenly she felt like she was the one speeding down the highway and popping a tire. She felt everything spinning out of control and she wondered if this was the same kind of end her sister had met. Chaos. Loss. Helplessness. Blame. 

It was the icon in the bottom of the screen, however, that snapped her back, looking down at the icon that was only black but was titled all she needed:

“EVIDENCE”. 

His last gift was not a video of his death, but rather, Adrian had ensured, was a gift of life and a promise of revenge against the man who had done so much. And, perhaps, a warning of something more sinister.

(Tagging: @escapingthoughtsandsecrets​ @is-it-madness​ @detecellie​ @doritosandavocados​ @oscarflysaac​ @peccobagnaia​ @miss-missing-patd​ @hockeyandheroes​ )

[dukemassetti]

@evcravens​ said: u know... Wildcard babey just remember you did this to yourself...................

Orion is 25 years old and thinks he’s a golden fucking god. Maybe he is. He hasn’t slept a night alone since he moved to Paris, and the most work he has to do is a few meetings and lessons before setting up somewhere and drawing, painting, hell, even sculpting. In a city like this, none of it seems odd; even the chain smoking fits. He’s enjoying that now, window open to the breeze and two people having shuffled out not five minutes previous, when a knock sounds so loudly on the door that it could be la police. 

He stamps the cigarette out in the ashtray on the sill and moves, not with any urgency despite the pounding starting again. Robe, robe, where is — ah, yes, he pulls the blue silk over his shoulders and knots it well enough to be decent. Running a hand through his hair, still wet from the shower, he sighs and considers that’s the best the stronzo outside will get. Split level penthouses just can’t offer the same security as one level and your own security key in the elevator.

He takes a moment to roll his eyes at the lack of a peephole on the door before he opens it, wide enough to stand there, blinking, at the confusion before him. He opens his mouth to say something, because what, but Everett Craven, young CEO extraordinaire and 30 under 30 media darling, beats him to the punch. ❝ Would you please — ❞ he starts in frustrated Italian before remembering where he is and course correcting. Should Orion tell him he is Italian? Maybe, but it’s funnier to watch him struggle through nascent French. ❝ You stop. ❞ He finally manages to get out. Orion raises a brow.

❝ That’s the best you’ve got ? ❞ he asks in rapid French, shaking his head. ❝ Abysmal, ❞ he continues in Italian. ❝ Seriously, if I were Parisian I’d have you thrown out for that. Of the country, I mean. ❞ 

Craven stands befuddled for a moment, as if the thought of another man in Paris speaking Italian was simply unheard of. Orion takes the moment to study him. He’s remarkably dull, upon first glance, apart from his tie being slightly eschew. It’s largely not even visible beneath the tan sweater-vest, and the crisp white shirt rolled up to the elbows is the only other indication that he ever unwinds at all. Finally he gets his voice back in working order.

❝ Well, ❞ he says, like the word is too common for his mouth, or perhaps it’s been poisoned, ❝ Well. This should be easy, then. ❞ Craven clears his throat at the exact time that Orion’s robe falls a little off his shoulder. He doesn’t straighten it; he can feel it’s covering everything else fairly well, and he enjoys watching this new toy squirm a little. ❝ I need you to keep it down. You’ve interrupted three conference calls, and I only got in two days ago. ❞ 

Orion waits for a follow-up, but none come. ❝ You’re the neighbor, ❞ he states, not a hint of a question in his voice.

❝ Yes, and I’d appreciate a quiet night. ❞

That gets a smirk. ❝ You would ? You see, I’ve been appreciating — ❞       

Everett holds up a hand, but his eyes say he’s uncomfortable, not demanding. Orion grins. ❝ I don’t want to hear it. Just, once ? I’m about to take a call from America tomorrow. Surely you can wait it out one night. ❞ 

Now he’s leaning against the door-frame, amused. Can he make this uptight ridiculous man say stop fucking so loudly every night? Unclear, but he’s certainly going to try. ❝ Wait out what ? ❞ he asks, tilting his head. ❝ I’m certain I can deduce your meaning, but you really haven’t been clear... ❞ He waits, watching the muscles in Craven’s jaw tighten. He looks better in person. There’s a magnetism that just isn’t there in the photo shoots he’s had done since his father stepped down as CEO. He watches him swallow hard, clearly not sure what to do with someone so comfortably outside Craven’s boundaries.

❝ Whatever... dalliances you have lined up, just stop them for a night. I assume I can’t bribe you into it, considering your living situation, but — ❞

❝ You can bribe me, Craven. ❞ He almost jumps at the sound of his own name, which makes Orion laugh outright. ❝ My name’s Orion. Obviously, I know yours, with all the magazines and that. Now... for the bribe. ❞ He rakes his eyes over Craven’s lanky frame one more time. It has promise. He can’t really tell what’s going on with this many layers, though. ❝ Take off the vest. ❞

❝ What ? ❞ The outright offense in his tone makes Orion smile harder.

❝ Lose the sweater and I won’t have any ‘dalliances’ tomorrow night, ❞ he promises, using air quotes to really seal the deal. Craven has lost that boss-man presence rather quickly, and now looks quite intimidated, though he tries to recover.

Spluttering, he stands up a little too straight, narrowing his eyes at Orion. ❝ That’s it ? Just take it off, here, in the middle of the hall ? ❞

He’s reacting like Orion asked him to bare his ankles in Victorian England. One brow raised, he opens the door a little further. ❝ Unless you’d like to come inside and do so, which is on the table. ❞

Everett Craven whips the sweater vest over his head like he’s about to use it to put out a house-fire. Orion well and truly cackles, watching the flush spread down his cheeks and under the collar of his shirt. ❝ You are a lunatic, ❞ he hisses, arms still partially in the vest. A for effort, though. 

He takes a moment to evaluate Craven’s shoulders — broader than he would’ve guessed, narrower than his own — before relenting. ❝ Alright, alright, ❞ he says, shaking with laughter against the doorframe, ❝ Go, I swear, I’ll be quiet as a mouse. ❞ He mimes turning a key in his mouth, and he’s still laughing when Craven shuts the door to his own half of the penthouse, nearly half a minute before Orion remembers to go back inside.

Everett really should know better by now, Orion thinks to himself as a familiar knock sounds. They’ve played this game for weeks, and over the course of those, he’s managed to learn a thing or thirty about his snobbish neighbor. He always wears matching socks, for one; Orion made him take off his shoes the second time he came to request his silence, and the vest. They’ve established a pattern of sorts. Everett probably is trying to figure out whether or not it’s extortion, but Orion knows he’s in the clear. Everett doesn’t have to keep showing up barefoot, asking for silence. He could simply deal with the embarrassment of listening to Orion bringing someone to orgasm, or hearing the dull thud of the headboard in the background. 

He’s repressed, that much is clear. Otherwise he’d simply tell his fellow cronies, half of whom probably have some teenager sucking their cock under the desk, that he had an annoying neighbor. As it stands, Everett would rather die, it seems. When did he start calling him by his first name?

Ah, well, it doesn’t matter. His fellowship is ending soon, just as Everett’s business trip. It’s strange, how close their schedules align. All of this runs through his head as he makes his way to the door, lackadaisical now because this time, he’s just fucking with Everett. He opens the door with safety glasses on, and he swears that Everett’s eyes bug cartoonishly out of his skull.

❝ What on earth could you possibly be doing at an hour like this ? ❞ It’s 3 in the morning. Orion debates on telling Everett that 3 in the morning is an acceptable time to have sex before deciding to pick his battles.

Instead, he opens the door wide, and Everett seems to realize he’s fully dressed for the first time.  He follows a little warily, but Orion doesn’t pay it any mind, barefoot in jeans and a henley that are now covered in dust. ❝ Wasn’t sleeping, ❞ he says, which isn’t the same as being unable to sleep, but Craven doesn’t have to know that if his assumptions suggest otherwise. ❝ Thought I’d try my hand at this one more time. ❞ He’s got a hammer and a chisel laid out on the work bench, the overhead light illuminating a statue in the center of the open room. It’s a fawn, half-emerging from the stone, wide-eyed and with a hint of wisdom in its eyes. 

Everett slides his hands into his pockets. Orion knows he’s kept weird hours due to all his calls, so he’s not surprised to note that he’s fully dressed, not a hint of pajama pants in sight. He sighs, but Everett isn’t paying him attention any longer. He’s walking around the sculpture with something like awe in his eyes.

That’s not good. It’s actually bad for him, and Orion takes it in decadently, relishing in every tiny detail of his expression. ❝ You did all of this ? ❞ Everett asks. He’s mentioned he was an artist before, but someone who views Orion as he does probably thought he made a bunch of nude portraits or something. Orion shrugs.

❝ Sculpture isn’t my thing, but it kind of reminds me of you. ❞ He’s unabashed in his compliments, uncaring of whether he comes across as weird or overly invested. Orion’s feelings are always right there for you to see, if you’re looking hard enough. Right now, it feels like Everett’s looking.

They stand there, staring at each other, Orion waiting for Everett to respond. It takes a minute or so, looking from Orion back to the sculpture again and moving around it. ❝ I’d at least consider myself a stag, ❞ he says, that dry, acerbic humor of his coming out with a faint bite. Orion laughs.

❝ If anyone’s the stag, it’s me, ❞ he argues, ❝ But that probably gets a little Electra complex. Try not to think about it so hard. ❞

There’s a moment of stunned silence before Everett Craven laughs. It’s astonishing in that he hasn’t ever heard it before, and he feels a bit proud, to have earned it after so long waiting. He shakes his head, and looks at Orion with cheeks stained red again. Orion himself hasn’t blushed in years. It’s more charming than it aught to be.

❝ Were you really... having sex, every night I came ? ❞ It seems like he’s been working up to the question for a while. 

Orion shrugs. ❝ Yeah. That bother you ? ❞

Now it’s Everett’s turn to gesture noncommittally. ❝ Not as much as it did. Do you ever lie ? You can be so... ❞

❝ Nope. ❞ Orion pops the ‘p’ and grins. ❝ You gonna admit my art is impressive yet ? ❞

❝ Working on it, ❞ Everett says, falling right back into that dryness now that the hint of sincerity has passed. ❝ Maybe not now that you’ve said it for me. ❞

❝ I’ll make you a deal, ❞ Orion offers, stepping closer. The statue casts weird shadows on the room, and on Everett’s face. It’s only up close that he sees it properly. They’re the exact same height, which makes eye contact uncomfortably intimate somehow, but he keeps it.

❝ Alright. What’s the deal ? ❞

❝ Either you dissect my work in detail... ❞ Orion reaches out, thumb tracing that impossible cheekbone he’s been staring at for almost a month. ❝ Either that, or you give me a kiss. ❞

In spite of how far he’s come, the offer still gets a rise out of Everett. ❝ A — a what ? ❞

❝ A kiss. You know, you and another person, you push your lips together, sounds a lot less appealing than it feels — ❞

❝ I’ve been kissed before, ❞ Everett snaps, and Orion can’t help laughing, because it sounds so much like it’s been inflicted upon him. 

He shakes his head, noting that Everett hasn’t pushed his hand away from his face, though now he’s only gently holding onto him. ❝ Well it’s either a kiss or an in-depth art critique in the next ten minutes, ❞ he says, grinning. ❝ What’s it going to be ? ❞

Everett looks at him as though he’s insane. Then he looks irritated, before it crosses into fond, and then again into a blend of the two. ❝ You’re ridiculous. You aren’t even a real human being, I’m convinced — ❞

❝ Choose, Craven. ❞ 

❝ — some villain. You’re kind of insufferable, a menace to society, really — ❞

❝ And ? ❞         

They stand looking at each other for a moment before Everett grasps Orion’s wrist, still near his face. Even his ears are red, now. ❝ And I — I will take a kiss. ❞

Orion is moving before he finishes the sentence, shutting him up as quickly and efficiently as possible. Everett misses three calls the next morning, but a strange man claiming to be his assistant calls each to apologize personally. Something in the tone of his voice suggests neither him nor his employer are all that sorry.                    

[dysphoric-affect]

The Art Of Companionship

          As Booker Dewitt in BioShock: Infinite, you look on as an idling Elizabeth stops over a dead body, clasps her hands to her mouth and stares, eyes wide with remorse, and it seems like to you an increasingly - and tragically - sense of innocence lost. It’s just a dead body, and you’re playing a first-person shooter. You’ve seen this sight hundreds of times. Under other circumstances, you’d think almost nothing of it, so familiar are you with the sight. Yet suddenly, in a way you never have before, you appreciate the gravity of it. That inert form is a dead human being. They had a life and feelings. People that cared. Elizabeth’s reaction forces you to think of this, even if only on some small level. Still, it is more than what you would ever think normally, which makes such a quite, small moment able to feel so profound.

          As Joel in The Last Of Us, you listen to an enthusiastic Ellie express her optimism about your survival chances, or confusion about what could lead people to commit the horrors of something you’re witnessing. Joel, annoyed, tells her off with a harsh rebuke of how naïve she is and how grim human nature is, sometimes more subtle in manner and sometimes as overt as can be. Given Joel’s past, you understand there’s another reason why he’s so hostile that makes him less of an asshole than he seems: these moments of Ellie’s remind him of the innocence of who he lost, a reminder of a pain he wants to forget and isn’t allowed to because of those circumstances. Underlying his terseness is something more than annoyance as well, you understand coming from this past of his: a sort of paternalism. He doesn’t want to see this person meet the same fate. He wants her to learn so she can survive where someone else didn’t, even if it takes tough love...but love, understated.

          As Kratos in God Of War, your son asks a question about his mother - your wife - whose death drives you both forward. Being so gruff of a person, at times these questions are met with anger and annoyance and a demand to quit prying and focus. At times they are met with quiet, with an eventual answer being short and elusive, avoiding greater detail; perhaps it is in his nature to not talk at length, but an understanding is there that it’s also because feelings are involved in the subject at hand for the love lost, feelings being one thing the character, for all his power, has almost no skill in dealing with well. And at times, Kratos’ voice goes unusually soft for him, and a heartfelt admission about who his wife was as a person and what she liked is made, in part for the boy’s sake, to give him a larger piece of her to have in the absence of her living, as well as in part, you realize, for Kratos himself, a reminder of the peace he had and that violence isn’t all there is to life, a reminder that there are other forms of strength in the world than his own, kinds of strength that he needs to find now in himself in her absence in order to honor her memory as well as to fully give the boy the love he was intended to have. The hard exterior of this man, you realize, belies a great depth of emotion and thought...even if something his enemies will never see.

          What do all these moments have in common? They all demonstrate a potent element games can possess that we’ve seen emerge more and more in recent years: that of the singular, constant companion. While certainly credit must be given to the writers and others behind creating these characters that makes the specific examples referenced so well executed, I do think that there is something inherently special about this type of element that makes any game that incorporates it with purpose and puts thought into it a game that is much more liable to be well received, or even celebrated. Why is this so?

          The key here I think is the inherently limited nature of perspective you get from the player character: on events, on the world, on themselves and even any broader moral or philosophical themes that might be a part of the larger narrative. Our world and any fictional one includes a host of people with differing perspectives about it, yet we often only get to perceive these fictional worlds through the very limited scope of the player character’s viewpoint, or with no perspective at all in the case of the many silent FPS protagonists. Having a critical companion throughout the story of a game ensures a layer of depth unattainable for the narrative otherwise.

          This can be in reacting to events, offering opinions and sharing lore we otherwise wouldn’t know, but it also provides the chance to create more depth for the player character as well: when the companion reacts to what they do, it creates more of sense of that protagonist’s existence in that world, fleshing them out, as well as providing something for the player character to react to, directly revealing more of their personality and opinions in the process where they otherwise simply wouldn’t have a chance to do so. In the course of all this, there is an understated but powerful sense of connection to the player character that players can come to have from this relationship which bolsters a sense of ownership of and care for what’s happening in the game. This occurs because the player character and players themselves both develop a sense of attachment for these companions in tandem. When this connection has been established, everything going on with the experience takes on a greater significance, and since the ostensible goal with narrative-based games is to have players care about the story, about the world and these characters and what happens to them all, then fostering this kind of regard from players is certainly an important step toward achieving that goal of creating a meaningful experience.

          The trick, of course, is that while being a game provides a sense of being there with these companion characters that makes moments with them potentially so profound, that same format poses a unique challenge: how to incorporate them into the gameplay mechanics of the experience. When we look at the examples given at the start of this piece and comparing them, given they all succeeded extraordinarily well with their companion elements, certain patterns emerge on how best to do this effectively.

          One, which I think overall is most important, is to not have game progression failure tied to their actions. Part of this is ensuring no actions that deviate from player intentionality in a scenario. In other words, they don’t take an action that can cause something undesired to happen, particularly as concerns enemies where the player is attempting to strategize in their approach. The most salient example of this would be in stealth scenarios, where the companion taking more overt action or just being scene would cause a break from the stealth mechanics of the game against the players will, frustrating them in their lack of culpability in that having occurred.

The Last Of Us presents a great example of this, where Ellie is literally incapable of alerting enemies to her presence when moving in stealth. While her pathfinding is pretty strong about positioning her to where she gets into cover with realistic timing, at times she doesn’t. I remember watching a design talk done by Naughty Dog where it was explained this was deliberate, because it was seen as worth it to potentially have the odd immersion-breaking moment where an enemy doesn’t see Ellie when she’s clearly in view in order to guarantee she could never trigger enemies’ alert status and garner negative feedback from the player for her actions. I personally experienced a few of these moments playing the game and have to admit it was the right call: more than I was put off by any sense of “Really? You idiots didn’t see her right in front of you?” I was just relieved to not have an alert status triggered, leaving me free to keep attempting the checkpoint rather than initiate a manual restart of it because the element of surprise was gone against my will. This made it clear that having your companion unable to cause any failure of your attempted approach as a smart way to design their performance, as the suspension of disbelief for it to occur is outweighed by the benefits in progression.

          Another means to avoid progression failure is simply ensuring they can’t die. It is always critical in good game design when it comes to the difficulty aspects to ensure that player action is the determining factor in successful progression, not that of an external party beyond their control. Since these companions by definition have a great deal of their own agency, then if they could die there is always a chance that event would occur due to factors that weren’t necessarily the player’s fault. That just leads to player frustration that puts them off the gameplay experience, as well as weakening the companion’s narrative strength by having such player frustration be directed toward them, which is of course counterproductive to the empathy and love for them players are intended to have. As far as why they always escape a grim fate, this can be explained away easily enough with them being stealthy or nimble enough to avoid efforts to hurt them, seen manifested in their gameplay behavior, or simply with the “bigger target” philosophy: the enemies focus far more on you because you are the bigger threat offensively. This leads nicely into the next point...

          Two, have the player character be the star offensively. Players want who they are in the story to be the dominant offensive force, so having the companion dwarf you be killing more effectively than you do would only generate resentment on the player’s part. In gameplay terms, this doesn’t mean that they can’t be capable of killing, just that the ceiling for their potential kill rate can never surpass what the average killing rate for the player character is. So that they don’t feel like an escort that steals a few kills, however, the crucial dynamic for those companions is to have them be useful in other ways, such as using their size or other skills to bypass obstacles and deal with puzzles. Having them find useful items or indicate points of interest can also serve this purpose really well. In the examples mentioned before, Elizabeth, Ellie and Atreus all have their focus as companions be in these areas, to great effect.

          Third and finally, have their useful capabilities grow as you progress, right along with you. Your character will always have to deal with increasingly more difficult enemies and obstacles over the course of the game, so having the companion’s own abilities increase accordingly sustains their sense of viability as you deal with those greater challenges. In the noted examples, Elizabeth progresses to opening extremely useful tears, Ellie starts getting kills of her own that minimize the threat to you (noteworthy because of how high the sense of vulnerability is for you throughout the game) and Atreus can better weaken and kill enemies of his own. This plays back into the last point I made, which is to ensure that they only get better offensively in a way that makes them more supportive, but never deadly on the scale the player character is.

          With these criteria met, from there it is simply up to the writers to make them strong characters in the emotion they express and story they create as they interplay with the player character. Done right, this type of companion relationship stands to be one of the most satisfying experiences you can have in modern games. Fortunately, the special quality these have is something that’s been noticed, as we can see it in more games all the times in modern gaming. Sony in particular has been seemingly focused on producing these narrative-focused experiences with companion interactions.

          It’s worth noting that while the singular, main companion experience is generally which seems to have the greatest potential, there’s something to be said for deviations that at least have interactions with a core set of companions as the key, or a more dynamic narrative relationship with what companions one has. Speaking of Sony titles, the recent Spider-Man game is a strong example of this: while you don’t have gameplay companions generally, you do have constant interactions with a few key allies remotely, who you understand to be conceptually driving the narrative forward and also providing a chance to see more layers of Peter Parker’s personality.

          In other cases, we can see where embracing more dimensions of the critical companion dynamic has occurred. Halo, for instance, had Cortana as a beloved character for its’ entire history as a franchise with her useful intel on the world and events, comic relief and the conceptual help she provided in opening doors and enabling you to pursue certain objectives. With Halo 4, though, that dynamic evolved in a great way as the Master Chief started talking back to Cortana, with her talk now being used to draw out and show an emotional depth to the Master Chief that made an already loved character even deeper and more worth loving, which was a victory for fans of the franchise and for fans of deeper storytelling in games; in fact, their dynamic was I believe that title’s standout element over all others.

          All these cases go to show that while there may be a place for the titular solo hero in games, there is certainly a place for the hero who gets by with a little help from his or her friends, or at least, a friend. As the potential has grown for realism in games, the capability has grown to tell more meaningful stories through the presentation of more believable characters, and with that capability I believe there is an impetus that should be felt by more developers to create more games with these kind of dynamic critical companions. They can immerse us more in the worlds of games and create opportunities for fresh new gameplay elements in the process, making their continued and ever broader incorporation into new games we have yet to experience be something that will be a boon to all who are entertained by the medium.

          And Ellie, we’ll see you soon. ;)

[gojonstonego]

Modding the Waste Land: Intertextual Mutation Between Games and Poems

I’m presenting an extended abstract at the DiGRA 2019 conference in Kyoto this coming week, based on my practical PhD research. This is the final introduction/summary text:

In Ludic Mutation: The Player’s Power to Change the Game (2012), Anne-Marie Schleiner describes how artists and players alike resist the mechanically and culturally imposed rules of digital games by finding unconventional, expressive ways to interact with game content. In doing so, they reclaim play environments from commercial games publishers, treating games as sources of “play material” that can be endlessly appropriated, hacked, remolded and recontextualised. Fan art, fan fiction and other kinds of creative adaptation inevitably exert a transformative effect upon the material they adapt. Thinking of this activity in the light of Julia Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality – the understanding that all texts absorb, transform, and are in dialogue with other texts – we arrive at the idea of intertextual mutation: conscious alteration of a text or texts by creative reconfigurement through another text. This can be thought of as an extension of play, akin to the work performed by modding communities when they change the code or otherwise tamper with a piece of software directly.

Intertextual mutation taking place between games and poems is one dimension of a broader, emergent field of ludic-poetic interplay that includes games behaving like poems (poetic games), poems behaving like games (ludokinetic poems) and poem-game hybrids. In this sense, intertextual mutation might mean the reconfigurement of poems by their inclusion, partial or total, in a game, or it might mean using poetry as a means to play with and alter the content of an existing game. Since authors have always engaged in the activity of reworking other texts, and poetry in particular works on the basis of finding symbolism and meaning in artefacts both textual and non-textual, as well as in creative iteration of established patterns, it is not surprising that a number of volumes of poetry have already been published that use material from computer games and computer game franchises. These include The Mario Kart 64 Poems by August Smith (Cool Skull Press, 2015), But Our Princess is in Another Castle by B.J. Best (Rose Metal Press, 2013) and Level End by Brian Oliu (Origami Zoo Press, 2012). Myself and Kirsten Irving co-edited an anthology of computer game poems by UK poets in 2013, at a time when we sensed that a generation of younger poets were beginning to look to games for fresh poetic material. A number of the poets we published in this volume have gone on to win major awards, and among the books shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection in the UK this year is Stephen Sexton’s If All the World and Love Were Young (Penguin, 2019), which borrows its structure and much of its imagery from Super Mario World.

The position of the poet engaging with the content of games is unique. Since there is little crossover between the audience for commercial games and the audience for poetry, they cannot easily rely on reader familiarity with the text they are reconfiguring. On the other hand, they do not face the same legal restrictions that fan artists, fan fiction writers and modders do with regard to copyright law. This is because fair use and fair dealing exemptions generally permit the use of copyrighted material both where there is a substantial “transformative” effect, and where it is being selectively quoted for the purposes of comment or criticism. Poets are very much in the business of metaphor, and metaphor is a process that is fundamentally both transformative and selective. As phrased by Philip Wheelwright, metaphor is marked by “the double imaginative act of outreaching and combining” (1968, p.72), an act that changes what it uses. The poet who works with the play material of digital games wields it as the semantic vehicle for something “more obscurely known” (Wheelwright, p.73), and in so doing articulates and expands on the symbolic properties of that material. 

A typical strategy in the volumes of poetry I have mentioned above, therefore, is to redeploy characters, items and specific ludic situations from games as elements of a poetic conceit directed at broader themes of identity, intimacy and modernity. Oliu’s poems in Level End, for example, are staged as “boss battles” or “save points”, but each frames an account of events occurring outside the world of the computer game, mixing details we recognise as being derived from real-life experience with other elements imported from the unreality of games. The latter are invariably put to work as metaphor, enhancing both the immediacy and the polysemantic essence of the poetry.

As a poetry practitioner myself, I have found that characters from games can be used as personae, as imaginary interlocutors and as rich sources of imagery in exploring personal, interpersonal and sociopolitical issues, as well as simply inventing new unrealities. I consider this exploration to be both a form of play, connected to and extending out of the play engendered by the games themselves, and a kind of critical intervention. Furthermore, I would argue that the flexibility of metaphor allows the resulting poems to lead a double-life, both independently of the texts on which they draw, and as paratextual add-ons or modifications to them. In the full talk, I will develop these claims with examples from my own practice, giving particular attention to intertextual mutation as a creative-critical act related to both play and theory.

Best, B.J. 2013. But Our Princess is in Another Castle. Brookline, MA: Rose Metal Press.

Kristeva, J. 1980. ‘Word, Dialogue and Novel’. In L. S. Roudiez (ed.), Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art (pp. 64-91). New York, NY: Colombia University Press.

Nintendo Entertainment. 1990. Super Mario World. Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo.

Oliu, B. 2012. Level End. Origami Zoo Press.

Schleiner, A-M. 2012. Ludic Mutation: The Player’s Power to Change the Game.  Accessed 19 January 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.378401 (published in print in 2017 as as The Player’s Power to Change the Game: Ludic Mutation. Amsterdam University Press).

Sexton, S. 2019. If All the World and Love Were Young. London, England: Penguin.

Smith, A. 2015. The Mario Kart 64 Poems. Somervilla, M.A, USA: Cool Skull Press.

Stone, J. and Irving, K. Coin Opera 2: Fulminare’s Revenge. London, England: Sidekick Books.

Wheelwright, P. 1968. Metaphor and Reality. Bloomington, USA; London, England: Indiana University Press.

[exhaled-spirals]

« Omni: Your key concept is something you call enfoldment. Could you explain it?

Bohm: Everybody has seen an image of enfoldment: You fold up a sheet of paper, turn it into a small packet, make cuts in it, and then unfold it into a pattern. The parts that were close in the cuts unfold to be far away. This is like what happens in a hologram. Enfoldment is really very common in our experience. [...] [But] in a photograph any part of an object is imaged into a point. This point-to-point correspondence emphasizes the notion of point as fundamental in sense of order. Cameras now photograph things too big or too small, too fast or too slow to be seen by the naked eye. This has reinforced our belief that everything can ultimately be seen that way. [...] Now what instrument would illustrate wholeness? Perhaps the holograph. Waves from the whole object come into each part of the hologram. This makes the hologram a kind of knowledge of the whole object. If you examine it with a very narrow beam of laser light, it's as if you were looking through a window the size of that laser beam. If you expand the beam, it's as though you are looking through a broader window that sees the object more precisely and from more angles. But you are always getting information about the whole object, no matter how much or little of it you take.

[...] Physics is more like quantum organism than quantum mechanics. I think physicists have a tremendous reluctance to admit this. [...] Classical physics says that reality is actually little particles that separate the world into its independent elements. Now I'm proposing the reverse, that the fundamental reality is the enfoldment and unfoldment, and these particles are abstractions from that. We could picture the electron not as a particle that exists continuously but as something coming in and going out and then coming in again. If these various condensations are close together, they approximate a track. 

[...] I propose something like this: Imagine an infinite sea of energy filling empty space, with waves moving around in there, occasionally coming together and producing an intense pulse. Let's say one particular pulse comes together and expands, creating our universe of space-time and matter. But there could well be other such pulses. To us, that pulse looks like a big bang; In a greater context, it's a little ripple. Everything emerges by unfoldment from the holomovement, then enfolds back into the implicate order. I call the enfolding process "implicating," and the unfolding "explicating." The implicate and explicate together are a flowing, undivided wholeness. Every part of the universe is related to every other part but in different degrees. [...]

Omni: What do you think that says about consciousness?

Bohm: [...] Consciousness is unfolded in each individual. Clearly, it's shared between people as they look at one object and verify that it's the same. So any high level of consciousness is a social process. There may be some level of sensorimotor perception that is purely individual, but any abstract level depends on language, which is social. The word, which is outside, evokes the meaning, which is inside each person.

Meaning is the bridge between consciousness and matter. Any given array of matter has for any particular mind a significance. The other side of this is the relationship in which meaning is immediately effective in matter. Suppose you see a shadow on a dark night. If it means "assailant," your adrenaline flows, your heart beats faster, blood pressure rises, and muscles tense. The body and all your thoughts are affected; everything about you has changed. If you see that it's only a shadow, there's an abrupt change again.

That is an example of the implicate order: Meaning enfolds the whole world into me, and vice versa—that enfolded meaning is unfolded as action, through my body and then through the world. The word hormone means "messenger," that is, a substance carrying some meaning. Neurotransmitters carry meaning, and that meaning profoundly affects the immune system. This understanding could be the beginning of a different attitude to mind and to life. »

— Interview with David Bohm published in Omni, January 1987

[cryptodailysun]

Waves’ price has rallied to a historically significant level of resistance, raising death cross fears. A major rally in Waves’ price this week that saw it nearly double risks faltering in the coming sessions due to a “death cross” technical pattern.Waves’ price crashed 85% after ‘death cross’ in 2018A death cross measure appears when an asset’s long-term moving average closes above its short-term moving average. Notably, on the Waves’ weekly chart, its 50-week exponential moving average (50-week EMA; the red wave) jumped above its 20-week exponential moving average (20-week EMA; the green wave) in the week ending Feb. 21 — a bearish crossover.WAVES/USD weekly price chart featuring “death cross.” Source: TradingViewThat has been Waves’ first “death cross” occurrence on a weekly chart since June 2018. In both cases, the correction in the Waves market appeared due to sell-offs across the broader crypto market following a massive bull run. As it happened, Waves fell by up to 85% after the 2018 death cross formation despite briefly closing above both its 20-week and 50-week EMAs in impressive but fake bullish rebound moves.Therefore, Waves’ latest upside retracement, albeit its best weekly performance since April 2018, still treads under long-term bearish risks. As a result, a price drop below the 20-week and 50-week EMA could spell another selling round in the market.That Waves sell-off levelTo recap, Waves, the native token of a blockchain platform of the same name, rallied by as much as 88% week-to-date to reach over $21 apiece during the weekend. As Cointelegraph covered earlier, migrating to Waves 2.0, a partnership with interoperable blockchain service provider Allbridge, and an upcoming $150-million fund to boost Waves’ growth in the United States served as tailwinds to Waves upside boom.Related: 3 reasons why Waves price gained 100%+ in the last weekBut signs of correction have emerged as Waves falls nearly 10% from its local top near $21 this Saturday. Interestingly, the inflection point coincides with the 1.00 Fib line of the Fibonacci retracement graph made from the 21.60-swing high to 0.54-swing low, which served as key resistance during January 2018, April 2021 and November 2021 corrections — as shown in the chart below.WAVES/USD weekly price chart featuring its “critical resistance.” Source: TradingViewFor instance, in April 2021 and November 2021, bulls attempted to flip $21.60 as support but failed. As a result, Waves has spent most of its time under the said 1.00 Fib level than above it, suggesting an unstable upside sentiment around it.The Fibonacci fractal suggests that Waves would undergo a pullback move toward its next lines of support near $17, $13.50 and $11. Conversely, a decisive move above $21.60 could have bulls retest levels above $34.50.The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. Go to Source

[didanawisgi]

Archetypal Cosmology Nine Essential Features

By Glenn Perry

So far as I can discern, the term ‘archetypal cosmology’ originated with Archai: the Journal of Archetypal Cosmology, which was the brainchild of Richard Tarnas, Keiron Le Grice, and a group of scholars associated with the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. The inaugural issue was released online in late 2009. According to the editors of Archai, “Archetypal cosmology includes the study of correlations between cyclical alignments of the planets and archetypal patterns in human experience, but goes beyond this to address the theoretical basis of these correlations and their implications for a wider world view.”1

In November of 2009 and prior to discovering the Archai journal, I had begun developing a Certificate and Master’s Degree program at The Graduate Institute (TGI) in Bethany, Connecticut. The main focus of the program was on archetypal astrology but also drew upon diverse traditions in science, philosophy, and religion to examine the nature and development of human consciousness from a cosmological perspective.

At the heart of the program was a question: If astrology works, what does this imply about the nature of the Universe? How can correlations between psyche and cosmos best be explained? A variety of models formed the foundation of the study, ranging from the Neoplatonic philosophy of ancient Greece to chaos and complexity theories of post-modern science. Human change processes were  to be examined from multiple perspectives, including developmental theory, transpersonal psychology, and archetypal astrology.

Students would identify incremental stages of growth and explore how consciousness evolves through stages and crises that correlate with planetary cycles. Most importantly, emphasis was placed on traditional wisdom that depicts the Universe as a great chain of Being—a living, conscious, purposive whole in which lower levels reflect by virtue of their internal constitution the greater Being of which they are a component part. This, of course, is the ancient doctrine of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, which purports that human consciousness is both an extension and reflection of a transcendent intelligence that is immanent within all natural processes.

In Search of a Name After the courses and general framework of the TGI program were established, the only question was what to call it. We wanted a name that would honor the astrological content of the program and reflect its cross-disciplinary status as an emerging field—yet, not wave a red flag that could jeopardize its authorization by state agencies.

Upon reading the Archai journal and its definition of archetypal cosmology, it was obvious we were talking about the same thing. Synchronistically, both Archai and The Graduate Institute were describing a new, multi-disciplinary field of study that combined archetypal astrology with multiple other disciplines—depth psychology, history, philosophy, consciousness studies, mythology, cultural studies, the arts, biography, and the new sciences. In the inaugural issue of Archai, the opening article by Keiron Le Grice announced, “The Birth of a New Discipline”. Indeed, this was exactly what we were doing at The Graduate Institute: participating in the birth of a new discipline, heralding an emerging field.

The pairing of ‘archetypal’ and ‘cosmology’ is significant. Archetypes are akin to Ideas in the mind of a divine Being, universal patterns of meaning that serve as templates for phenomena at every level of the Universe. They not only inform and animate the psyche, but are operative in planetary movements, biological processes, everyday events, societal institutions, and virtually anything we can experience as human beings.

Archetypes are metaphysical principles that constitute the hidden, generative matrix of life, the within of things, the interiority of the Universe. As such, the word ‘archetypal’ alludes to the imaginal, symbolic capacity of the mind to make meaning by constructing stories that serve as metaphors for deeper, underlying principles that exist beyond our senses or rational intellect. Archetypal language harkens back to earlier periods in human history when myth and story were our primary means for making sense of the Universe.

Conversely, the word ‘cosmology’ refers to the scientific study of the origins and structure of the Universe, and relies upon an objective, empirical way of knowing to gain a more precise, material understanding of that which unifies and is fundamental. For most of human history, cosmological thought was formulated in mythological, religious or philosophical language, but more recently has become a science that combines astronomy, physics, and biology into a grand, all-encompassing account of the Universe as a whole.

Cosmology is the big picture, the mighty frame that pulls together all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle into a comprehensive model. It is important to understand that cosmology is not simply astronomy; it is the study of cosmic forces and processes such as space, time, and evolution; it examines the evolution of energy into matter and matter into consciousness. It investigates the physical constituents of that which is infinite and eternal—the constants of Nature, laws that endure over long periods of time, non-local forces that extend over large regions of space.

Whereas cosmology is the rational study of all that is, archetypology is the imaginative study of the Universe. One deals with the without of things, the other with the within. As an emerging field, archetypal cosmology bridges these two styles of reasoning—the objective/rational with the imaginal/symbolic—in a kind of sacred marriage that yields a fuller, non-dual, panpsychic understanding of the relationship between psyche and cosmos.

Archetypal cosmology directly implies that all objective bodies in the Universe—from planets to subatomic particles—possess an interior, subjective reality. Nature has a within and a without; it consists of external bodies with internal experiences analogous to feelings, ideals, and intentions. The very words ‘archetypal cosmology’ suggest that the Universe has an inner and outer dimension, mirror images of the one reality that is both Psyche and Cosmos.

Clearly, archetypal cosmology covers a lot of ground. It provides a model of the Universe; yet, is a personality theory, too. It has philosophical ramifications, but also constitutes a research methodology. As a way of understanding people and working with clients, it extends to the practice of counseling. Given the complexity of archetypal cosmology, it might be useful to summarize some of its main features.

Nine Essential Features

1. Correlates planetary cycles with archetypal patterns in human experience.

2. Aspires to methodological rigor and epistemological humility in knowledge claims—thus, is research oriented, evidenced based, and value-neutral

3. Extends psychological astrology’s growth oriented perspective and renders more precise its explication of the intrapsychic realm

4. Situates astrology within an archetypal ground, defining archetypes as cosmological principles that are both transcendent and immanent, and which shape, inform, and animate Nature at every level, within and without

5. Recognizes the multidimensionality, intra-dimensional variability, and polyvalence of astrological archetypes, which underscores their inherent indeterminism

6 Emphasizes the co-creative, participatory role of the psyche in shaping behavior and attracting formative experiences, thus highlighting the self’s responsibility for its continually evolving fate

7. Establishes synchronicity as the key to understanding feedback relations between internal and external reality (as symbolized by the horoscope); and for overcoming the modern dichotomy of a living, purposive, evolving self embedded in a dead, random, mechanistic universe

8. Draws upon science, philosophy, and religion in formulating a theoretical basis for the observed correlations between psyche and cosmos, thus paving the way for a broader world view

9. Focuses on the interiority (ensouled nature) of the cosmos—its consciousness, intelligence, and apparent teleology—and how this interiority is both the ground of psyche and the basis for an interconnected, evolving cosmos that is hierarchically structured and holonomically organized

While these nine essential features could be fleshed out and more fully explained, I trust they suffice to provide a quick glimpse into the general nature of archetypal cosmology.

Conscious Evolution While conscious evolution is not a formal feature of archetypal cosmology, it constitutes a natural complementation. Conscious evolution can be defined as the intent to cooperate with an evolutionary process inherent in nature. Since archetypal cosmology recognizes that evolution is a key feature of the Universe, an implicit goal is to facilitate the evolution of consciousness through archetypal pattern analysis. This involves analysis of the central archetypal dynamics operating in an individual’s life as symbolized by the birthchart and as manifest in their character and everyday experiences. Archetypal pattern analysis also addresses individual responses to personal transits as well as collective human responses to world transit.

As the art of prognosis, astrology utilizes planetary movements for predicting the quality, meaning, and duration of specific time periods. Rather than simply describing event-outcomes, however, planetary movements can be depicted as windows of opportunity for the actualization of natal potentials. Concrete events both reflect and serve as catalysts for changes in awareness; thus, planetary movements can provide insight into the precise timing of developmental processes, allowing us to appreciate how inner and outer reality coincide, reflect, and transform each other.

In 2012, the TGI program in Archetypal Cosmology morphed into a Certificate and Diploma Program at the Academy of AstroPsychology (AAP). Courses at AAP include not only the history and theory of astrology, but also how astrology can best be utilized in a counseling setting. Students learn astrology as a psychological language, diagnostic tool, and developmental model.

Again, astrology’s value as an aid to conscious evolution is especially emphasized, most notably through experiential work that combines archetypal pattern analysis with personal mythology. Support for conscious evolution is built into every course, encouraging students to collaborate with planetary cycles toward the unfoldment of their highest potential. Such an approach infuses the learning of astrology with tremendous, personal significance.

Notes

1 http://www.archaijournal.org/about.html

2 See Rod O’Neal’s “Archetypal Historiography: A New Historical Approach,” Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology, I, no. 1 (Summer 2009): 71.

3 During application for regional accreditation in 2011, the Graduate Institute was informed by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC – their accrediting agency), that accreditation would not be possible so long as they were offering an MA program in astrology. Accordingly, the program at the Graduate Institute was transferred to the Academy of AstroPsychology as a non-degree Certificate and Diploma program that began in September, 2012. For more information, go to: www.astropsychology.org

[personalcoachingcenter]

Research Paper: Complex Dynamic Systems Coaching Theory

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/research-paper-complex-dynamic-systems-coaching-theory/

Research Paper: Complex Dynamic Systems Coaching Theory

Research Paper By Bianca Prodescu (Systems Coach, NETHERLANDS)

Systems coaching is becoming a popular trend, due to the need of pursuing long-lasting changes in the behavior that do not negatively impact other parts of the client’s life. The aim is to look beyond quick solutions that only target symptoms and scarce attempts to change aimed to the edge of the comfort zone which is immediately absorbed.

In systems coaching, the approach is moving from seeing the coaching relationship as a one-to-one cause-effect solution exploration, towards understanding the client’s relationships system: the team, the department, the family, etc. with the intent of creating awareness and visibility of the impact the environment has on the client.

There is still the risk of a simplistic view approach: that the individual is seen as an independent agent within a system that can be fully defined and contained. Thus giving the client the impression that they can engineer any desired change.

This paper aims to present the reader with an understanding of the systems theory and how complex is the nature of human behavior, followed by a specific example to illustrate how it can be applied to coaching individuals.

Complex adaptive systems

A complex system consists of multiple active different parts known as elements, distributed out without centralized control, connected. At some critical level of connectivity, the system stops being just a set of elements and becomes a network of connections. As the information flows through the network, the parts influence each other and they start to function together as an entity. A global pattern of organization emerges.

The interactions between the elements are non-trivial or non-linear. For example, if all the parts in a car are arranged in a specific way, then we will have the global functionality of a vehicle. A system’s behavior is caused by its structure, not its individual parts.

For example, a colony of ants – each ant on its own has a very simple, observable behavior, while the colony can work together to accomplish very complex tasks without any central control. They can organize themselves to produce outputs that are significantly greater than any individual can produce alone.

As a system at a new level is being developed, it starts to interact with other systems in its environment. People form part of social groups that form part of broader society which in turn forms part of humanity. A business is part of a local economy, which is part of a national economy, which in turn is part of the global economy.

These elements are nested inside of subsystems which in turn can form larger systems, where each subsystem is interconnected and interdependent with the others. This is a primary source of complexity.

Complex systems emerge to serve specific purposes, and the journey towards achieving that drives their behavior. The systems adapt based on whether they are reaching their goals, which makes them dynamic.

In complex dynamic systems, causality goes both ways: the environment can affect their behavior and the system’s behavior change can affect the environment. Due to these feedback loops, the system may decay or grow at an exponential rate.

There is no formal definition of what a complex system is, but it can be described by properties:

Made out of elements that are considered simple relative to the whole;

Interdependence and non-linearity;

Connectivity: the nature and structure of these connections define the system as opposed to the individual properties of its elements. “What is connected to what?” and “How are things connected?” become the main questions. As the number of connections between elements can grow exponentially, complexity grows.

Autonomy and self-organization: no top-down, central control, the system can organize itself in a decentralized way. As the system accepts information from the environment, it uses the information to make decisions about what actions to take. The components don’t gain the information or make the decisions individually; the whole system is responsible for this type of information processing. Self-organizing systems rely on the short feedback loops to generate enough states that can be tested to find out the appropriate response to a perturbation. A downside of this is that these feedback loops reduce diversity, and all elements of the system can become susceptible to the same perturbation results in a large shock that can lead to the destruction of the system. Therefore variation and diversity are requisite to the health of the system. [Kaisler and Madey, 2009].

Adaptiveness: how the system changes in its patterns in space and time to either maintain or improve its function depending on the goal.

Emergent behavior: coordination in such systems is formed out of the local interactions that give rise to the overall organization. This general process is called emergence.

Behavior cannot be derived from the individual components but the collective outcome of the system. Emergent behaviors have to be observed and understood at the system level rather than at the individual level.  Within a complex system, we do not search for global rules that govern the whole system, but instead how local rules give rise to the emergent organization.[Johnson et al., 2011]

You cannot understand a complex system by examining each part and adding it all up. To understand a system you need to understand the goal and the structure underlying it and the interactions with other systems and agents.

Application to coaching

When to apply systems thinking in coaching

A significant change is either happening or needs to take place.

It’s not a one-off event.

Multiple perspectives become apparent when observing the situation.

The client has tried addressing it before, without finding a way to keep it from recurring.

There is no obvious solution.

A previous attempt to address it has created problems elsewhere.

The growth experienced by focusing on one area leads to a decline in another area.

There is more than one impediment to growth in the desired area.

Growth slows down over time.

Over time there is a tendency to settle for less than the initial starting position.

The same solution is used repeatedly with decreased effectiveness over time.

But human beings are not ants, all acting according to standard rules. They are emotional, erratic, spontaneous, and conscious, capable of observing the pattern of interactions that they are contributing towards.

Therefore, when coaching an individual you cannot classify them as a collection of independent behaviors and actions and approach them as an isolated system in which you can control and predict the behavior.

Stacey and Mowles (2016) suggest that it is better to focus on the process of human interaction and how to develop the approach towards change.

As a coach, it is important to look beyond their behavior to understand the events and how the nature of interpersonal dynamics impacts the client. Help the client recognize and accept that change occurs in situations of ambiguity and high uncertainty.

As seen above, emergence plays an important role in a complex system. Due to this property, knowing the starting state does not allow you to predict the mature form of the system, and knowing the mature form does not allow you to identify the initial state. The only way to figure it out is to go through the whole development process step by step, understand the goal and the structure underlying it, and the interactions with other systems and agents.

In coaching, this translates to supporting the client during the self-awareness process that a goal is not a plan but a hypothesis in progress that can change anytime under the influence of their own actions or the environment they are part of.

An emergent property of organic complex adaptive systems is resilience, the ability to react to perturbations and environmental events by absorbing, adapting to, and recovering from disruptions.

According to Holling’s seminal study, “resilience determines the persistence of relationships within a system and is a measure of the ability of these systems to absorb changes of state variables, driving variables, and parameters, and persist”.

In a coaching context, we define resilience as the ability to emotionally cope with adversity, recover, adapt, or persevere.

If the disturbance is minor, the system can absorb it and recover. To drive substantial change, the system has to receive an impact big enough to disturb the capacity of the system to return to an equilibrium state. That’s why major life events that disturb our daily routines and our values system can give the best opportunity for making long term changes.

The coach should also be aware of the observer effect and understand they are now part of the client’s system and their own behavior, choice of wording, inflection and intonation will have an impact. As well as that the coach themselves is not a free independent agent and may suffer changes in their own behavior as a response to the interaction with the client.

Small changes can produce big results—but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious (Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, 2006). Also in the quest of supporting the client to embrace change, the small steps approach has proven to give sustainable results. In the following section, we will explore the impact a small-step approach to change has on the human brain.

Why small steps?

Our behavior is shaped by experiences and the environment around us.

Any small experience can reinforce or challenge our beliefs. Our beliefs determine how we act to get the most motivating result. The outcome of our actions is used as feedback for our brain to categorize the initial experience as a positive or negative one.

Our brains learn early on what works and what doesn’t. While in infancy the brain is malleable, as we become adults our brain creates routines and frameworks aimed at survival. As our habits become embedded in neural pathways, introducing new behaviors becomes challenging.

When change occurs it introduces a deviation from the plan created by learning from the past, and the uncertainty created by it sends our brain into stress.

The default response is to be on guard for potential risks and the main question our brain is now trying to answer is “How do I minimize the threat?”

The bigger the goal – the bigger the change – the bigger the risk – the more our brain opposes the change.

Thus the key to making the brain get used to change and maintain self-awareness is to recognize upfront when a task is too big. Then focus on a smaller initial step and map out the knowledge you want to gather by executing that step.

This works two-fold: it minimizes the impact of the failure and helps identify the value failure can bring.

It doesn’t mean that the changes should happen slowly, but to recognize that continuous and incremental improvement adds up to bigger changes in the future that have a positive impact.

Small steps that reward the effort with learning become perceived as a success. A couple of small successes slowly challenge our beliefs, our values, and slowly our behavior.

Therefore when a big life-changing event happens, having a small steps approach helps with minimizing the perceived risk.

Case study

From senior to the leader

The client had been in his current position for several years, struggling to get recognition for his seniority and advance in a leadership position. The lack of visible recognition not only inhibited him from showing the expected behavior but also triggered other behavior that detracted from his growth.

This case is an example of negative reinforcing loops between the behavior and the environment.

The approach was to first encourage the coachee to seek out different perspectives to further understand the situation, by engaging first in a self-reflective session and then with others in other reflective practices (personal review, 360-degree feedback sessions, and shadowing the coachee to provide an objective view).

Taking a collaborative approach helps the coachee steer away from a single source of truth and have a better understanding of the social tensions in the relationships with others.

The trigger for change was in the end the result of this collaborative exploration, where the input from all respondents converged around the same points. The outcome of the first coaching session was acknowledging the feedback received, understanding their own limits, and how much more they were willing to persist in the current situation. This led to making a time-bound resolution: operate from within a leadership position within 6 months.

From a complex systems point of view it meant that if either one of the reinforcing loops could be tampered with, the change in behavior or the change in environment, the client would benefit. The client considered two extreme solutions that could be fully within their control, but with big side implications: giving up the leadership role or take on the role in a different company. As we have seen in the theoretical analysis, big changes can impair a person from persevering in their set resolution, so they were marked as last resort actions at the end of the 6 months journey.

The intermediate approach was to address both loops at the same time to identify the weakest link. Therefore a high-level mapping aimed at the behavior the client wanted to address, the current social interactions, and their respective outcomes in terms of thoughts, feelings, and reactions would help identify the smallest step to take. The main role of the coach here was to create awareness that human nature is too complex and unpredictable to be able to fully model it and to spend just enough time at this step to provide a first self-awareness moment.

The insights gained at this point were that the main detractors were: hierarchy and lack of clarity in expectations, as seen in the map below.

The coachee drew the insight that the hierarchical nature of a relationship created a barrier that impeded him from proactively approaching those specific people, even when the frustration levels were high. Thinking about what those people should provide for him because of position, how they should behave towards him, how they viewed him, how much their time he was worth etc. made the client feel that if his situation was important, the responsibility to address it was on the other person.

When this insight was put in balance with the goal stated at the beginning, the client decided to switch the responsibility of triggering the process towards him and to share the solution with the key stakeholders in his systems’ network.

To understand how this would be a feasible consistent approach, the main motivators were identified: tangible, observable results in respect to the efforts made, which would then enable external recognition.

The main supporting structures were identified as: people in leadership positions with which a good rapport was already built, taking small actions directed towards clarifying the expectations, and external and recurring accountability for the actions.

The exploration of the supporting structures also gave way to identifying the first opportunity in weakening the detracting loops: clarifying the expectations with leaders that the coachee already had a trusting rapport built, where the perceived hierarchy load was low.

This action had multiple effects:

Since the barrier to approach someone was lower, the coachee had the opportunity to address it quickly, which gave fast results;

As some of the expectations were clarified, the results had a positive value/effort ratio and increased the coachee’s confidence both in showing the expected behavior and in the approach;

The coachee identified the prerequisites of the smallest step they were most likely to complete, and that the most important of them was the kind of rapport they had with the other person.

As they kept exploring the social relationships with other key stakeholders, the need of addressing the change in the environment to support consistent growth became apparent.

In line with the learnings from the previous actions, the coachee took a small step together with a manager that both had a trusting rapport with the client and the authority to trigger a change in the environment.

By formalizing the clarified expectations and having them shared with the other stakeholders in the client’s network a change in the dynamics of the environment took place.

The most impactful one being that now other agents within the system would trigger the process. This lowered the threshold of starting the conversation about clarifying expectations with some people and created more opportunities where he could showcase the desired behavior, offering an increase in self-confidence and the external recognition became noticeable.

By the end of the 6 months journey, the client had managed to successfully challenge both loops and significantly loosen the cause-effect relationship between them. The client identified that similar situations were now visible within the personal environment, which is proof that you cannot treat a case in isolation. Recognizing the impact triggered an exploration of their social identity and helped the client make explicit the attributes of the environment in which they can be at their best.

He summarized the following learnings about his approach to change:

How to recognize that change is either happening or needs to happen: when the build-up of frustration is visible to the outside and taking a moment every two weeks to reflect if a frustration showed up several times;

How to approach the change: “If I am not doing it, then it means it’s too big” translated to small, bite-sized actions that loosen the pressure from having the right solutions from the beginning;

What is the so-called safe environment for exploration and learning: a network of people with a low hierarchical load that can provide valuable, judgment-free feedback and opportunities for exploring solutions;

The type of actions that would qualify as low risk but valuable: What’s the worst that could happen? What’s the learning I am aiming to get from this step?

As a coach, at the request of the client, I played, in the beginning, the role of keeping external accountability for the actions. I noticed that my presence during the shadow-coaching sessions reinforced the specific actions discussed during the individual coaching sessions. Here I could observe firsthand the impact I had on the client’s system and brought me the realization that I was creating a dependency relationship.

Overall this experience was in line with the small steps theory for change, where we saw that a small change in an input value to the system can, through feedback loops, trigger a large systemic effect.

When applying complex dynamic systems theory as a coach, you can support your client to acknowledge that they are part of a network system of a multitude of dynamic and continuously evolving relationships. To identify their own patterns for thinking, to identify assumptions and perceptions. To clarify their role as an individual and as part of a bigger context. To support them in getting comfortable with uncertainty by understanding that their role is not to try and direct events, but to participate with intent and purpose in relationships in service of learning how to navigate the power dynamics so they can be at their best.

References

Beer, S. (1975). A Platform for Change. New York: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Clemson, B. (1991). Cybernetics: A New Management Tool. Philadelphia: Gordon and Breach.

Davidson, M. (1996). The Transformation of Management. Boston. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Imagine That Inc

Goodman, M. & Karash, R. & Lannon, C. & O’Reilly, K. W., & Seville, D. (1997). Designing a Systems Thinking Intervention. Waltham, MA. Pegasus Communications, Inc.

isee Systems (Previously High-Performance Systems).

Strategy Dynamics Inc.

O’Connor, J. (1997). The Art of Systems Thinking: Essential Skills for Creativity and Problem Solving. London: Thorsons, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Richmond, B. (2001). An Introduction to Systems Thinking. Hanover, NH. High-Performance Systems.

Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday Currency.

Vensim PLE & Vensim. Ventana Systems.

Warren, K. (2002). Competitive Strategy Dynamics. West Sussex, England. John Wiley & Sons.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337574336_What_is_Systemic_Coaching

Resilience in Complex Systems: An Agent‐Based Approach

Original source: https://coachcampus.com/coach-portfolios/research-papers/bianca-prodescu-complex-dynamic-systems-theory-applied-to-coaching/

[patriotsnet]

What Do Republicans Believe About Taxes

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-do-republicans-believe-about-taxes/

What Do Republicans Believe About Taxes

What Is A Republican

As you can see, the dictionary definition of a Republican is very brief. And since a Republican is simply defined as a member of the Republican party of the U.S. it is important to understand what the Republican Party stands for. To understand what a Republican is you have to understand the Republican Party. And that is what the rest of this article examines.

Views Of Stricter Environmental Laws Climate Change

On environmental issues, 65% of adults say that stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost, compared with 33% who say they cost too many jobs and hurt the economy.

A large majority of Democrats and Democratic leaners say stricter environmental laws are worth the cost, including 92% of liberal Democrats and 79% of conservative and moderate Democrats.

Republicans and Republican leaners are more likely to say stricter environmental laws cost jobs and hurt the economy than that they are worth the cost . However, there is a wide divide in views among Republicans by ideology. Two-thirds of conservative Republicans say stricter environmental laws hurt the economy. Views among moderate and liberal Republicans are nearly the reverse: 60% say stricter environmental laws are worth the cost.

Majorities across age groups and levels of educational attainment say stricter environmental laws are worth the cost. Adults younger than 30 and those with a postgraduate degree are among the most likely to say this.

As other surveys have found, there also continue to be wide partisan differences in opinions about climate change. Among the public overall, 52% say the Earth is getting warmer mostly because of human activity, while 17% say it is getting warmer mostly due to natural patterns in the environment. About two-in-ten say there is no solid evidence that the Earth is getting warmer, and 9% say they are not sure.

Gop Must Stop Believing In Magic

Im not making a plea for larger government just a plea for economic sanity. If Congress in its all-seeing wisdom wants to spend $700 billion on the military, billions of dollars on farm subsidies and so on, it must either raise enough money in taxes to pay for the programs it authorizes or reduce the size of government. 

Instead, although Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate and the House from 2017 to 2019, they chose not to make any substantial cuts to government programs that would balance the revenue lost by their series of massive unfunded tax cuts.

Unquestioning and unsubstantiated belief in the magical power of tax cuts isnt a viable economic policy. The GOP is putting America on an unsustainable path that is disastrous both for its fiscal future and for the hopes of people trying to get ahead. 

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Corporations Will Bring Back Profits Stashed Overseas

Republicans did their best to include as many corporate giveaways as possible in their tax cut, but spun them as a benefit to the greater economy. Take repatriated earnings. American multinational corporations like to keep their overseas profits away from the IRS, and the Republican tax plan aimed to change this by offering companies a temporary tax holiday. Earnings kept overseas would be subject to a one-time tax at a very low rate that could be paid over the course of eight years. President Trump promised that this would produce a flood of repatriated earnings amounting to $4$5 trillionnearly twice the amount that corporations were actually storing overseas.

This was just another lie, one that no serious economist believed for a moment. And indeed, after a brief boom in repatriated earnings after the tax cut passed, there was a bust. Repatriations to date have amounted to only $840 billion above normal, and the total amount of repatriations in the last quarter of 2019 is only $60 billion higher than it was before the tax cut passed. The total will never come anywhere close to $4$5 trillion.

    But maybe foreign investors responded more positively to the tax cut than domestic investors did? Nope. Foreign investment increased briefly but then plunged. Apparently they didnt take Republican promises any more seriously than Americans did.

  What Do Republicans Believe In

Do all Republicans believe the same things? Of course not. Rarely do members of a single political group agree on all issues. Even among Republicans, there are differences of opinion. As a group, they do not agree on every issue.

Some folks vote Republican because of fiscal concerns. Often, that trumps concerns they may have about social issues. Others are less interested in the fiscal position of the party. They vote they way they do because of religion. They believe Republicans are the party of morality. Some simply want less government. They believe only Republicans can solve the problem of big government. Republicans spend less . They lower taxes: some people vote for that alone.

However, the Republican Party does stand for certain things. So I’m answering with regard to the party as a whole. Call it a platform. Call them core beliefs. The vast majority of Republicans adhere to certain ideas.

So what do Republicans believe? Here are their basic tenets:

Republicans Can’t Handle The Truth About Taxes

Congressional Republicans are channeling one of my favorite political hacks, the late Massachusetts Congressman Jimmy Burke, who boasted he voted for spending bills, tax cuts and against any increase in the debt ceiling.

House and Senate Republicans voted against the COVID-stimulus bill and oppose the Biden infrastructure and tax measures. Yet, despite the votes, more than a few cite their support for popular provisions in each spending initiative, rail against deficits, and oppose tax increases.

Republicans complain the $2 trillion Biden initiative is full of stuff that really isn’t infrastructure. Sen. Roy BluntRoy Dean BluntA tale of two chambers: Trump’s power holds in House, wanes in Senate46 GOP senators warn they will not vote to raise debt ceiling says all that should be taken out and reduce the size to $600 billion.

The biggest, $400 billion over eight years, is to provide more personnel and resources for in-home care for the elderly or people with disabilities. We have a son with disabilities, and we can afford expensive good care; we have encountered many families who cannot. If you know anyone with a loved one with Alzheimer’s, you’ll look more kindly on this provision. Does Sen. Blunt believe this isn’t an urgent need?

But what really gets the conservative juices going is opposing the proposed tax increases; since the fall of the Berlin Wall, tax cuts have been the only glue that holds increasingly disparate Republicans together.

Poverty Must Solve Itself

Republicans believe that poor people are usually poor for a reason, be it laziness, choice or whatever. Unless we demand that people pull themselves up by the bootstraps and solve their own problems, people will not be motivated to do things. Therefore, the issue of poverty cannot be solved by the government. Charity should be the choice of individuals.

Gop Real Estate Owners Make Out Big

Besides the laws benefits to real estate pass-throughs, real estate in general was hugely favored by the tax law, allowing property exchanges to avoid taxation, the deduction of new capital expenses in just one year versus longer depreciation schedules, and an exemption from limits on interest deductions. 

If you are a real estate developer, you never pay tax, said Ed Kleinbard, a former head of Congresss Joint Committee on Taxation. 

Members of Congress own a lot of real estate. Public Integritys review of financial disclosures found that 29 of the 47 GOP members of the committees responsible for the tax bill hold interests in real estate, including small rental businesses, LLCs, and massive real estate investment trusts , which pay dividends to investors. The tax bill allows REIT investors to deduct 20 percent from their dividends for tax purposes. 

Who We Are

The Center for Public Integrity is an independent, investigative newsroom that exposes betrayals of the public trust by powerful interests.

Republicans Invented Progressive Income Taxes Will They Turn Left Again

Rendering of a red elephant in a spotlight representing the Republican Political Party in front of … the American Flag.

getty

President Trumps sagging poll numbers have prompted some eager speculation about the future of the Republican Party.

If Trump loses, will the GOP rethink its political strategy? Recast its policy agenda? Or will it double down on both on Trumpism, whatever that might mean?

Whether Trump wins or loses in November wont settle these questions.

The future of the Republican Party belongs to him, Matthew Walther  in a recent analysis for The Week. His legacy arguments about its true value and how it should be understood, its relationship with previous right-wing insurgent movements such as the Tea Party will determine the course of the GOPs fortunes for the next decade.

Indeed, Trumps legacy will almost certainly endure for over a decade because its about more than just him. Trumpism is part of the Republican Partys broader historical evolution. It began to emerge long before Trump took his famous ride down the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy in 2015; it will persist long after he vacates the Oval Office, whether thats in January 2021 or January 2025.

American presidents even the transformational, disruptive ones exist as part of a process. They dont emerge from nowhere to upend and recast political institutions single-handedly. They channel and give expression to changes already underway in American society.

Inequality Poverty Divide Republicans More Than Democrats

Juliana Menasce Horowitz

In recent weeks, many political observers have described a rift between liberals and centrists in the Democratic Party over how to tackle poverty, income inequality, and broader issues of economic fairness. Some have framed the discussion around Elizabeth Warren vs. Hillary Clinton. Others have focused on between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has proposed raising taxes on the rich to pay for a citywide prekindergarten program, and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has vowed to lower taxes.

But a new Pew Research Center/USA TODAY survey suggests that, at least for the moment, the issue of how best to deal with poverty and income inequality and whether the government should address these issues at all divides Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican Party more than it does Democrats and leaners.

To be sure, majorities of 60% or more among Republicans and Democrats across the ideological spectrum agree that inequality is on the rise, and about 90% of liberal and centrist Democrats say the government should do something about it. But while a 61%-majority of moderate and liberal Republicans say the government should do something to reduce the gap between the rich and everyone else, 55% of conservative Republicans dont want the government to do much or anything at all about inequality.

Most Welfare Recipients Are Makers Not Takers

The first myth, that people who receive public benefits are takers rather than makers, is flatly untrue for the vast majority of working-age recipients.

Consider Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps, which currently serve about 42 million Americans. At least one adult in more than half of SNAP-recipient households are working. And the average SNAP subsidy is $125 per month, or $1.40 per meal hardly enough to justify quitting a job.

As for Medicaid, nearly 80 percent of adults receiving Medicaid live in families where someone works, and more than half are working themselves.

In early December, House Speaker Paul Ryan said, We have a welfare system thats trapping people in poverty and effectively paying people not to work.

Not true. Welfare officially called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families has required work as a condition of eligibility since then-President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law in 1996. And the earned income tax credit, a tax credit for low- and moderate-income workers, by definition, supports only people who work.

Workers apply for public benefits because they need assistance to make ends meet. American workers are among the most productive in the world, but over the last 40 years the bottom half of income earners have seen no income growth. As a result, since 1973, worker productivity has grown almost six times faster than wages.

What Is A Republican Republican Definition

April 11, 2014 By

This article fully answers what a Republican is and gives the definition of a Republican in a fair, unbiased, and well-researched way. To start the article we list out the definition of a Republican, then we cover the Republican Partys core beliefs, then we list out the Republican Partys beliefs on all the major issues.

The Definition of a Republican: a member of the Republican party of the U.S.

The Economy Will Be Supercharged

If an investment boom was the big lie that drove everything, the arguments made to the general public in support of the tax cut mostly revolved around a better-known metric: economic growth. The usual way of measuring this is by looking at gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced in the United States. In the decade since the end of the Great Recession, GDP growth has averaged 2.3 percent per year.

Republicans claimed that the investment growth spurred by the tax cut would drive GDP growth higher. predicted growth rates of 3 to 4 percent. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin went with a more modest 2.9 percent. Trump himself told reporters at his Cabinet meeting that he was holding out for 6 percent growth. These projections were mostly just spun out of thin air.

So how did we do? Since the investment boom never materialized, its hardly a shock to learn that GDP growth didnt boom either. The growth rate increased modestly for two quarters and then dropped steadily. In the last quarter unaffected by the coronavirus crisis, it was barely above 2 percent. Not only didnt the tax cut usher in the growth that Republicans predicted, but growth rates started dropping soon after.

  History Of The Republican Party

The Republican Party came into existence just prior to the Civil War due to their long-time stance in favor of abolition of slavery. They were a small third-party who nominated John C. Freemont for President in 1856. In 1860 they became an established political party when their nominee Abraham Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. Lincolns Presidency throughout the war, including his policies to end slavery for good helped solidify the Republican Party as a major force in American politics. The elephant was chosen as their symbol in 1874 based on a cartoon in Harpers Weekly that depicted the new party as an elephant.

Energy Issues And The Environment

There have always been clashes between the parties on the issues of energy and the environment. Democrats believe in restricting drilling for oil or other avenues of fossil fuels to protect the environment while Republicans favor expanded drilling to produce more energy at a lower cost to consumers. Democrats will push and support with tax dollars alternative energy solutions while the Republicans favor allowing the market to decide which forms of energy are practical.

Majority Of Americans Say Government Has Responsibility To Ensure Health Coverage

A majority of the public says that the federal government has a responsibility to make sure that all Americans have health care coverage, while 41% say this is not the governments responsibility.

However, most of those who say the government does not have a responsibility to provide health coverage nonetheless favor continuing programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Roughly a third of the public holds this view. Just 6% say the government should not be involved in providing health insurance at all.

Among those who say it is the governments responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage, there are differences over how to achieve this goal.

Overall, 30% of adults say government is responsible for ensuring that all Americans have health care coverage and that health insurance should be provided through a single national health insurance system run by the government. A similar share of the public thinks health care for all Americans is a government responsibility but supports providing health insurance through a mix of private companies and government programs.

Seven-in-ten Republicans and Republican leaners say it is not the governments responsibility to make sure all Americans have health insurance. Among Republicans, conservatives are much more likely than moderates and liberals to take this view. Still, just 12% of conservative Republicans say the government should not be involved in health care at all.

Crime And Capital Punishment

Republicans generally believe in harsher penalties when someone has committed a crime, including for selling illegal drugs. They also generally favor capital punishment and back a system with many layers to ensure the proper punishment has been meted out. Democrats are more progressive in their views, believing that crimes do not involve violence, such as selling drugs, should have lighter penalties and rehabilitation. They are also against capital punishment in any form.

Trump Keeps Pretending To Want To Tax The Rich

Trump as a candidate promised to raise taxes on the rich, and after taking office he again promised to raise taxes on the rich. Trump said he believed in raising taxes on the wealthy, including myself and later promised that his administrations tax reform would not benefit the wealthy at all.

None of this was true, of course instead he backed a plan from congressional Republicans for a large regressive tax cut. Once that was enacted, House Republicans began to queue up a program they called Tax Reform 2.0 that would be an even larger and only modestly less regressive tax cut. Trump, again aware that this is not popular, tried to make up a fake middle-class tax cut during the waning days of the midterms, but as soon as the election was over .

This is all nonsense, but its telling nonsense.

Even very dishonest politicians dont routinely pretend to hold the opposite of their partys position on key issues. Trump isnt out there pretending to champion abortion rights, clean energy, or humane treatment of refugees. Hes trying to muddy the waters on taxes because he knows the standard Republican position on tax policy is unpopular.

Yet this is rarely covered as a striking, daring, or even noteworthy stance.

Most Americans Favor Expanding Renewable Energy Sources But Divides Remain Over Expanding Offshore Drilling Nuclear Power

Most Americans favor expanding solar power or wind power , including strong majorities of both Republicans and Democrats. The public, however, is evenly divided over whether to expand nuclear power . Fewer than half of Americans support more offshore oil and gas drilling , hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas, known as fracking or coal mining .

These findings are broadly in line with previous Center surveys, which found strong majorities in favor of increasing solar or wind power and more mixed views about expanding other energy sources. Support for more nuclear power plants has inched up 6 percentage points since 2016 . Support for coal mining has declined from 41% to 35% in the same period.

Sizable majorities of both Republicans and Democrats including those who lean to each party favor more solar panel farms or wind turbine farms . More Republicans than Democrats support expanding nuclear power plants; support for nuclear power is stronger among conservative Republicans than among moderate or liberal Republicans .

Conservative Republicans also stand out as more inclined to support expansion of hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas as well as coal mining . By comparison, fewer than half of moderate or liberal Republicans favor expanding these energy sources .

Foreign Policy And National Defense

Republicans supported Woodrow Wilson‘s call for American entry into World War I in 1917, complaining only that he was too slow to go to war. Republicans in 1919 opposed his call for entry into the League of Nations. A majority supported the League with reservations; a minority opposed membership on any terms. Republicans sponsored world disarmament in the 1920s, and isolationism in the 1930s. Most Republicans staunchly opposed intervention in World War II until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. By 1945, however, internationalists became dominant in the party which supported the Cold War policies such as the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO.

Americans Want To Tax The Rich

Theres no polling on specific brackets or exactly who counts as rich that I can find, but surveys are very consistent that for some definition of rich the voters would like to see higher taxes:

The most recent poll on this I can find is an April 2018 Gallup survey which had 62 percent of respondents saying the wealthy do not pay their fair share in taxes, a number thats been consistently in the high 50s or low 60s in the 21st century.

Pew found in 2017 that said it was bothered a lot by the fact that rich people dont pay their fair share.

A 2017 CBS poll found that 56 percent of voters said wealthy people should pay higher taxes.

One person who gets this, incidentally, is President Donald Trump.

Political Positions Of The Republican Party

Republicanism in the United States

The platform of the Republican Party of the United States is generally based on American conservatism, contrasting with the modern liberalism of the Democratic Party. The positions of the Republican Party have evolved over time. Currently, the party’s fiscal conservatism includes support for lower taxes, free market, of corporations, and restrictions on labor unions. The party’s social conservatism includes support for gun rights and other traditional values, often with a foundation, including restrictions on abortion. In foreign policy, Republicans usually favor increased military spending and action. Other Republican positions include restrictions on immigration, opposition to drug legalization, and support for school choice.

Regulating The Economy Republican Style

The Republican Party is generally considered business-friendly and in favor of limited government regulation of the economy. This means favoring policies that put business interests ahead of environmental concerns, labor union interests, healthcare benefits and retirement benefits. Given this more pro-business bias, Republicans tend to receive support from business owners and capitalists, as opposed to support from labor.

Republicans Economic Views And How They Work In The Real World

Kimberly Amadeo is an expert on U.S. and world economies and investing, with over 20 years of experience in economic analysis and business strategy. She is the President of the economic website World Money Watch. As a writer for The Balance, Kimberly provides insight on the state of the present-day economy, as well as past events that have had a lasting impact.

Robert C. Kelly

Republican economic policies focus on what’s good for businesses and investors. Republicans say that prosperous companies will boost economic growth for everyone. 

Republicans promote supply-side economics. That theory says reducing costs for business, trade, and investment is the best way to increase growth. Investors buy more companies or stocks. Banks increase business lending. Owners invest in their operations and hire workers. These workers spend their wages, driving both demand and economic growth. 

Republicans define the American Dream as the right to pursue prosperity without government interference. That’s achieved by self-discipline, enterprise, saving, and investment by individuals. Warren Harding said, “Less government in business and more business in government.” Calvin Coolidge said, The chief business of the American people is business.

Here is a short list of the pros and cons of some Republican economic policies.

Compare And Contrast: How Do The Republican And Democratic Tax Plans Differ

Brown EdwardsLatest News

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

With the presidential election only weeks away, many people are beginning to pay closer attention to each candidates positions on such issues as the COVID-19 pandemic, health care, the environment and taxes.

Among their many differences, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have widely divergent tax proposals. Their stances could have a major impact on the amount of taxes youll owe in the future. Heres an overview of each candidates tax proposals for both individuals and businesses.

Trumps tax proposals for individuals

The GOP-backed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law in December 2017. It included a number of temporary federal tax cuts and breaks for individuals and families for 2018 through 2025. President Trump has indicated support for preserving tax reforms under the TCJA and possibly providing additional breaks for individuals and families.

The White House budget document for the governments 2021 fiscal year indicates support for extending these TCJA individual tax provisions beyond 2025:

The current federal income tax and estate tax regimes,

The expanded child and dependent tax credits ,

Increased standard deduction amounts ,

More favorable alternative minimum tax rules, and

Continued limitations on itemized deductions for home mortgage interest and state and local taxes .

Bidens tax proposals for individuals

Other elements of Bidens plan that would affect individual taxpayers include: