#but would rather put their chosen group or themselves at the top of the oppressive power structures

[thebookworm0001]

everyone is wildly primed to have their anger and fear used against them right now, so while you are advocating and protesting, make sure you’re not falling into shit that is going to cause more harm

The genocide in Gaza is horrific. And it is a genocide. The words coming directly from the mouths of those in charge of Israel’s government are those that demonstrate an intent to utterly erase any Palestinian from Gaza, whether through displacement or death.

Do not let people convince you that this is the fault of Jews. Do not let yourself be swayed into conspiracies that Jews control Hollywood, or the government, or are otherwise collectively conspiring to do harm. It’s bullshit. It causes real, measurable harm and fear. It continues to make rising antisemitism worse. And not only does that antisemitism lead to death, it rightfully increases the fear of more horrors happening.

The attack on Oct 7 was also horrific. As is the rising antisemitism around the world. And the fact that there has been almost no space to honor those dead is a tragedy.

Do not be convinced that the only way to protect the Jewish people is to build a State where only one religious or ethnic group is allowed to live freely. Do not be convinced that safety is dependent upon protecting that State at all costs. When one State is allowed to defend itself by any means necessary, any means will be used and any action will be excused. And do not be convinced that all Arabs or Muslims are responsible for those atrocities. Islamophobia is also on the rise and is also causing real, measurable harm and fear.

Your anger and fear will be used to excuse horrors if you let it.

Don’t let it.

[land-of-classpects-and-analysis]

The Maid Class Analysis

Maids are those who are often thought to only be a servant to those around them, answering to every beck and call that someone higher in authority than them gives. Rarely ever catching a break or being shown much respect, instead tending to play the role of a silent caretaker - a person meant to be seen rather than heard. When whatever job they have been assigned for the time being has been completed, they are often shunted aside, locked away in waiting until the next chore must be done by someone with such a delicate, skittish touch. Oftentimes Maids are those looked down upon - they are the underdogs who no one ever sings about, no one ever makes murals in their memory, rarely given the kindness and respect they so deeply deserve. 

Yet, it is also the Maid who is meant to be the one to keep order in one fashion or another. They are the ones who clean, after all - whether that cleaning is merely tidying up any dust or grime collected over the years, or the mess leftover by those surrounding the Maid. To be rather blunt, the Maid is one who is underappreciated, as well as underestimated in how large of a part they play in the groups they are a part of. Chances are that a Maid is the reason for countless important, largely defining moments for one or even several people they have come across. Maids leave impacts wherever they go, whether they realize this or not. Much like the scrubbing of a cloth against a wall, the bristles of a broom on a dirty floor, or the gentle feathers on a dusty desk - a Maid will always leave a mark wherever they depart from; good and bad alike.

Although some of what has been described may describe that of a typical, non-Classpect related Maid, those who are bound to this creation Class are ones who go through these similar struggles. The life of a Maid is rarely ever an easy one, as they often will face countless challenges along the way of - to be quite honest - their entire existence. One of the biggest defining struggles of a Maid is their Aspect itself. More specifically, the fact that their Aspect is something that has nearly consumed every last piece of the Maid’s world - themself included. While at first it may seem like a play-on-words for a Maid’s Classpect title to be “Maid of Aspect”, there is an unfortunate truth to such a label; one in which the Maid never truly agreed to in the first place. 

The Maid is one who has a seemingly endless supply of their Aspect to the point where it feels almost inescapable to the Maid themself if they ever wished to get away from it. Down to the Maid’s very own decision making - their Aspect is a weight placed on their back and shoulders from the exact moment they were born, and it is one that has rarely ever seemed to become lighter, no matter what they do. As much of their Aspect they have, it is rarely ever something that truly benefits the Maid. In fact, for some Maids, their Aspect is something that is extremely debilitating - an oppressive force that has its claws dug in deeply into the Maid’s heart and soul. Even an Aspect as seemingly beneficial as Space, Life, Breath, Blood, Light, etc. would have their own downsides to someone as unfortunate as the Maid.

They are someone who could be argued to be at constant war with their Aspect, one side always trying to dominate over the other since, if the Maid is not entirely careful, their Aspect could eventually overthrow them entirely - leaving only a lifeless husk of the Aspect to wander around and serve whoever calls their name. However, that is only one of the struggles that the Maid faces, yet there is no doubt that it is still one of the biggest and most difficult obstacles in their way. Unlike the Prince or Bard who seek to destroy their Aspect yet must instead learn how to destroy through it, or the Knight who must learn how to wield their Aspect like a shield or blade, the Maid is one must learn how to put the excessive amount of their Aspect to good use. Although it appears to be a force that only wishes to oppress and perhaps even damage the Maid, it is still up to them to figure out what exactly they wish to do with it. Unfortunately, they won’t ever be able to truly rid themselves of their Aspect, there is no doubting that. That doesn’t entirely mean they have to simply learn to live alongside such a lingering, almost oppressive force, though. There may be some Maids who do find a purpose for their Aspect, one way or another. 

Of course, there are the variety who don’t wish to even associate with it and may even be afraid to become accidentally, completely submissive to it. In these cases, they will most likely go with the option of ignoring or even running away from any and everything that has to do with their Aspect. Whether it is avoiding discussing it, places or locations that are filled with it, people who are linked to it, etc, there will always be the Maids who will merely try to rebel against it as much as they can. In a way, it could be seen as them running away from the duties and responsibilities tied into their Class. Maids are often a crucial part for any group that has been given the privilege of having one amongst them, after all.

Before heading into the powers of a Maid, and just how they can put the excessive amounts of their Aspect to good use, let’s take a moment to reflect on the social life of a Maid, as well as the overall personality this busy and bustling Class are known to have. Starting off, Maids are those who are quite dedicated to doing what is best - at least in when it falls under the light of what they deem to be the most important. If there is one thing Maids dislike, it is having their time and energy wasted on a job, person, or thing, especially if it all turns out to be pointless in the end. This is often because Maids can become extremely dedicated to anything, as well as anyone, that they put their mind to. Maids tend to enjoy working towards some type of goal, fulfilling a promise, making a dream into reality - these are often the things they will deem as far more important than anything else in their life. However, these things that a Maid views as being the most important and deserving of their care and attention will always take the top of their to-do list, pushing aside anything and anyone else closer towards the bottom. 

When a Maid has chosen to commit themself to a belief, individual, cause, group, task, or what have you, then they will do whatever they can to make sure the end product will always be one of perfection. Details are often a large priority for a Maid, especially when it comes to their own private or personal plans, projects, or otherwise creative endeavors. If there is one thing out of place or not exactly perfect, chances are it will be something that will fester and gnaw away at the Maid’s mind and emotional state until one of two things happen. They will either get to fully delve into their project, perfecting every last nook and cranny of it, or they will become fully enraged that their plan or project has not become the best it could be, and may even go as far as to tear apart or throw out whatever it was that they spent so long working on. Oftentimes, when a Maid puts in so much effort, energy, and time into a project, they inevitably begin to associate their very own worth with that project, seeing it as their sole purpose in life. As such, when their project is incapable of reaching such a state of perfection, what does that say about them? That they are not perfect, but rather flawed, and will never, ever be able nor allowed to reach such a state of perfection? 

As eager as Maids can be in regards to dedicating themselves to something, they are often just as quick to begin neglecting themselves if they deem their own health to be not as important as other chores, tasks, or even people. On the other hand, a Maid may be one to seek out ways to live their personal best life; one of luxury, peace, success, and so much more. In order to do so, however, they will often begin neglecting everything and everyone else around them - including their own Aspect. If they believe that their Aspect is truly holding them back, then they will often invite others to come and take their own bits and pieces of it, if only so that it will allow some temporary peace for the Maid. Little does the Maid know that this is one of the biggest, most self-destructive mistakes to make. That is something to be discussed later. As the Maid builds themself up to be a person of grand appearances, wealth, health, and more, they will only truly be able to achieve this by stepping on the toes, backs, and shoulders of other people and places around them. To simply put it, the Maid is one who could either become the most selfless person in the world, or the most selfish. 

No matter how a Maid may present themself towards the world or even the people they meet, it is best to keep in mind that, in life, there is always a weak point to even the grandest, most breath-taking structures. For the Maid, it should come as no surprise that it is their willingness to help anyone they deem worthy or in need of such care. Although some could merely say it is the friendships and relationships in the Maid’s life that is their weak point, that is a point which assumes every Maid has any relationships - real or otherwise - to speak of. In reality, Maids are those who will often have large, open hearts that tend to steer towards being caring souls. Every Maid has their own soft spot for at least one individual, whether they care to admit it or not. While there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to help those who are in need of support, mending, or even love, there is a flaw in being a person so quick and eager to be the one who helps anyone who cries loud enough. Give a wild animal some food, and chances are it will come back. Give a person an inch, and they will eventually ask for another, then another, until they have claimed an entire mile. Allow someone into a section of your heart, showing them unconditional love and support, and chances are that someone will inevitably come around and ask for more than what they are already getting. To simply put, the Maid is one who is often a victim of being used by others - their kind, trusting, loving nature being seen as just another slab of rotting meat for vultures to swoop in and peck away at.

Maids will rarely often do anything about this, as their sympathy - or perhaps even empathy - is that which runs extremely deep; coursing through every vein in their body. The longer the Maid allows for such selfish souls to strip away all that they have and all that they are, hoever, and eventually the Maid will be left with nothing to give but the biggest part of their entire person: their Aspect. Yes, even the Aspect of the Maid can fall victim to being mistreated and even abused by those in the Maid’s life. If these vultures see a chance to have it, then they will stop at nothing to sink their talons into its metaphysical flesh, during which the Maid, too, shall suffer greatly. 

Even though the Maid may hold grievances towards their Aspect for all the trouble it has brought them, this force is still a fact of their personality that they simply cannot ignore forever nor allow it to be destroyed, stolen away from them, or manipulated into something it is not meant to be. Although Maids are capable of standing up for and taking care of themselves it’s their lack of confidence - or rather the fear of stepping out of line - that is often what holds them back. Rather, it is their submissive, conflict-avoidant nature that so often lands them in situations of mistreatment. When a Maid has had enough of such a thing, however, there is no doubt that the Maid will make quite the show of declaration that not only have they had enough, but that their services are now closed off to anyone; allies and enemies alike.

Within every songbird is a phoenix, waiting for the fires to come and unleash their true, untameable spirits. Within every Maid is a person waiting for the day where someone will repay their kindness and free them of their shackles. The company in which the Maid finds themself within is often wide and extremely diverse, if only because the Maid is someone who attracts people of all walks of life. Yet as many people as the Maid is happy to know, so comes the stress of having to figure out who is truly a friend and who is merely a wolf hiding amidst the shrouded masses of the Maid’s social group. After all, they are someone who is often prone to falling prey to the gnashing teeth and razor claws of monstrous people, and so it might be likely for them to develop a sense of anxiety or underlying trust issues towards the people around them. On the other hand, they may also be just as quick to dismiss all previous negative, toxic relationships as flukes, mistakes, small errors in their own judgement that will never, ever happen again. The Maid is meant to be perfect, are they not? No perfect being would ever allow such a silly thing to happen over, and over, and over, and over again. If there is anything the Maid is, it would be perfect with no flaws to speak of whatsoever. 

People who are aware of the Maid often are those who are either extremely eager to try and befriend, spoil, and care for the Maid, but there may be just as many who are off-putted and unnerved by the Maid, sometimes finding them, their mannerisms, or their ideologies and philosophies on anything to be perturbing or even downright upsetting. Just as well, there are others who are looking to only use them and their trusting, kind-hearted ways for selfish, twisted reasons that rest within such tainted hearts. Despite all of this, though, the Maid will typically, and simply, sit in the center of it all; appreciating and loving every last person to ever show them kindness and care. If there is one thing for certain amongst most, if not all, Maids, it is that they are more often than not complete and utter hopeless romantics in some fashion or another. Whether this means the poetic, literary type of romance; of love for the innocent, tender, far more natural ways of life, or maybe it is the emotional sense of romance that comes with some variation of attraction. Maids wish to dedicate themselves to something, but they will almost always be wanting to dedicate themselves to someone more than anything else.

When it comes to a group setting, Maids are often those who play a far more neutral role in everything that transpires amongst everyone else. Rarely, if ever, are they the ones to ever start something of great importance. If anything, they are the ones meant to see that everything plays out as it is meant to; maintaining order, coherence and appearance in the greater narrative of it all. If life is a play, then the Maid is often the set designer - the one who pushes every set piece, plot device, etc. into place. Whether this is done by their own want to do so, or if their hand is being forced by someone or something else, this is often something that depends on the Maid and whichever predicament they find themself within. No matter what, though, even when it seems that the Maid is the root cause of one plot point, positive, negative, or otherwise, it is quite likely that they were forced into such a position of center-stage-performance. A director, unseen, pulling the curtains back far too early or turning on a stagelight at the wrong moment. Do not take this as Maids being deemed as unimportant or even disposable, however. On the contrary, Maids are one of the most crucial parts for anything, as well as anyone, to function in a world full of plot holes and loose threads. It is merely that due to their title of Maid, others tend to downplay the dire importance in someone such as them. 

The biggest reason for the Maid’s importance is that of their powers - their abilities to affect and leave grand ripples in wherever they go and whoever they meet. There has often been some debate as to a Maid’s true powers for as long as they have been around. The two biggest powers that stand on the top is that of whether a Maid is one who creates their Aspect, or creates through it, or if they are those who heal their Aspect, or heal through it. Their counterpart Class, Sylph, is one that has been noted to have healing properties. As such, would it not make sense for the Maid to have such powers, as well? Well, personally speaking, the powers of the Maid are much like that of a Knight: far more completed when one tries to put them down on paper. The powers of the Maid are that of someone who creates their Aspect while also capable of healing it, or they can create through their Aspect so that they may heal through it. 

Quite a mouthful, as well as seeming quite convoluted, no? If one were to wish to shorten it or make it far easier to read, then the Maid’s powers are that of merely creating their Aspect, or creating through it. Nevertheless, the reason for this extensive conclusion is merely one question that seemed to pop up when personally pondering the powers of this Class: what is, ultimately, the difference between creating and healing? Is healing not the process of creating something better than before, building up from the rubble of what has been soiled and destroyed? Is creating not healing an empty space where something once was, only to be torn out one way or another?

Let’s take a step back and revisit the fact that Maids are ones whose kind, loving natures are often taken advantage of - used and abused by those far more cruel and selfish in this world. When the Maid, or any of their true friends for that matter, is incapable of keeping their Aspect - and therefore themself - safe from the talons and jagged beaks of those who seek to consume all the Maid has to offer, what will ultimately be left of it; of them? Tatters, ragged clothes, bruises, tears - bloodied and forgotten by those who only sought to tear down the Maid and take away all that they are. A broken person in an even more broken world, with their Aspect left in shreds. 

As much as the Maid may hold hesitance and perhaps even ill-feelings towards such an ingrained part of themself, it would be no different to hating one’s own hands, or their legs, or even their lungs or heart. Their Aspect is as big a part of the Maid, as well as everyone else around them. Because of this,  is just as vulnerable as any other part of these mortal, organic coils. Who is to be the one, then, to come forward and mend what has broken? Who is to be the one who takes charge and heals what has been harmed; to create, heal, and restore balance not only within themself but wherever else the Maid’s Aspect may lie? After all, a Maid’s Aspect is something that completely defines them and their actions just as much as it is a fog that lingers upon everything they encounter throughout their life.

Maids are creators first and foremost, whether it is taking their Aspect - or what is left of it - and creating more of it so as to not only benefit themself but the world around them, or they create through their Aspect, honing in on all of its properties, perspectives, and forms so as to build, restore, and configure whatever they wish or need. The idea that Maids are healers is merely an offshoot of their creative powers, which can occasionally have secondary healing effects on those who are touched by the Maid. A Maid may restore the Hope within another person via creating it, but some could see this as the Maid healing that person’s Hope directly. It is an extremely thin line that the powers of the Maid walk upon, always teetering towards one definition over the other. 

This balancing act is why, personally speaking, Maids will be remarked as those who create their Aspect, or create through it, as their primary power. Any possible healing that comes from these acts of creation is uncommonly an accident, though some may try to claim it more as a miracle than anything else. Let’s not forget, as well, the questions brought up before and their core themes: what is truly the difference between creating and healing? Does the difference truly even matter? For some, yes, it does, but for others, they may be just fine accepting this idea that thematically and in regards to action, there truly is very little that separates the two of them.

As for the journey in which the Maid would go about unlocking these powers, that can become quite an elaborate tale to tell. To give a brief summary here, the Maid’s journey to unlocking their powers is often one of great pain, loss, and suffering that will always force the Maid out of their comfort zone - if they even had one to begin with. To further elaborate, the Maid is one whose life is one marked with struggles, internal or otherwise. Ever since the Maid takes their very first breath of air, their Aspect will latch onto and embed itself throughout the entire Maid’s mind, body, and soul. One could argue that the Aspect is like that of a parasite to the Maid, always taking, taking, and taking, yet rarely ever giving anything back to the Maid. What can be said about this argument is how that is only a slightly accurate description of the relationship between a Maid and their Aspect. If the question being begged in one’s mind is ‘well then, what is the relationship’, one might be slightly disappointed to hear that, as is often the case, it simply depends on the Maid and their circumstances. Ultimately, the relationship between them is an extremely complicated one, but there will always be one thread that runs throughout all of these cases; the ever-looming threat of being totally and utterly consumed by one’s Aspect.

Much akin to Heirs, Maids are those whose Aspects are extremely difficult to shake off. Unlike Heirs, however, who simply drift ever closer to the blackhole that is their Aspect, the Maid is one who has already fallen into some sense of servitude to their Aspect. It is already a force that controls almost everything in their life, whether it is seen in a Maid of Void constantly being overlooked or left with countless secrets, or a Maid of Hope being shoved into a box of rules, standards, and laws for them to play by, or surrounded by countless people, places, and things related to faith and beliefs. The Aspect to a Maid is ever-present, almost to a suffocating extent, and it is one that rarely ever benefits the Maid directly. If anything, the Aspect of a Maid is a force that only seeks to bring torment, harm, and perhaps even death to such an unwilling victim of circumstances. 

Yet as much as their Aspect is something that seeks to harm them, and as much as the Maid may come to despise their Aspect, neither of them could truly exist without the other. At the end of the day, though, a Maid’s Aspect is that which seemingly only wishes to envelop the Maid, making them into a vessel only meant to carry out and fulfill tasks related to their Aspect. This is something that often terrifies Maids, and, as such, they may try to seek out ways to handle such a ravenous beast.

Perhaps some Maids subconsciously seek out destructive people; those who will rip and tear and use up all the resources and energy the Maid has to offer, their Aspect included. Maybe it is simply an unfortunate side effect of their naive, far too loving and kind nature. No matter what, though, there will inevitably come a handful of times throughout the Maid’s life where their gentle, near submissive, way of socializing will be taken hold and advantage of. This will come to happen until, finally, the core of their very being has been revealed for all to see, and the Maid’s Aspect will be shown no mercy. The brightest flower, the freshest and most succulent fruit, the most healthy, bountiful soil, and the most tender of meat is that which will always be torn apart and ravaged the most when it comes to those selfish souls. 

Although the Maid may have thought it good that their Aspect will finally be chopped down like an invasive plant entangling them, suffocating them, a horrific discovery would be awaiting them. As their Aspect is savagely and haphazardly used and abused, exhausted and ragged from a never-ending crescendo of everyone wanting to get their own sliver of Breath, or of Mind, or of Light, there would come a point where the Maid would realize that once all their Aspect has gone, they will have nothing left to offer to those around them. If the Maid were to truly allow for all pieces of their Aspect to be ripped away from them and consumed by these wolves and vultures, then what would be their purpose? Who would see any point in keeping the Maid as a companion if they cannot dazzle everyone with their Aspect and what it holds? Moreover, who would the Maid even be without their Aspect? Who is a Maid if not their entire Aspect, flaws and everything?

If they are to survive, then the Maid cannot allow their hatred and rivalry with their Aspect to persist. As much as it has tried to destroy them - to overtake them and make into a husk - such a similar fate is what awaits the Maid if they are to have every last part of their Aspect picked clean from their soul. The two of them are one in the same - two forces who oppose yet must continue to coexist with one another; especially if neither wishes to be left with a longing sense of emptiness. Because of this, the Maid must not only learn how they and their Aspect can coexist with another, but also how to save both forces from being destroyed for good.

Although some of the Maid’s friends played a part in this act of self defamation, it will also be the Maid’s friends who will help them and their Aspect not only become whole again, but, ultimately, become one. Indeed, the Maid must first learn how they can help to restore their Aspect - create it so as to help fill in the gaping spaces that lack its presence - before learning how to create through it. There are many Maids who see such a long-winded journey as far too daunting, and so they often abide by the ways of only ever creating and restoring their Aspect. For as powerful as it may sound, there still lies that underlying tension and fear of losing themself in their very own Aspect. After all, in order for them to create through their Aspect, they essentially have to swear themself over to its whims, ways, and wires, becoming synchronized and aligned with one another to allow peak performance of power to occur. 

However, those who hide and run away from such power will never be able to truly unlock their full potential, even when it comes to their base powers of creating their Aspect. Never will they be able to fully heal, create, or restore what has been lost of their Aspect, not if they don’t fully submit to it. Even the Maids who know this and still choose not to are often content as is when it comes to their powers. Perhaps it is because they still hold a grudge to those who hurt them, and as such see no reason as to why they should make such a grand sacrifice for a few saps who most likely would never do the same in return. Who is to say other than the Maid themself? Who is to say even the Maid knows the reason for this defiance.

At the end of the day, the base power to create their Aspect is one meant to heal their Aspect. Oftentimes, though, they do end up playing the role of a healer to those around them, as well. The longer the Maid creates and heals their Aspect, the more they will come to realize how truly important they are to not only the people around them, but in the grander schemes of everything, as well. 

By creating their Aspect, the Maid is one who manages to maintain the balance needed for everything, and everyone, to function and grow. They are the ones who make certain every last domino falls, exactly as it needs to be. Whenever there is a hole to be filled, chances are that the Maid will do that job well, if only in a rather arbitrary and seemingly convoluted way of doing so. Such a thing is not uncommon for Maids, though, as they do often show themselves to be either victims of outside forces - often ones far out of their own control - or they are ones who orchestrate such a thing; going against the grain as they see fit. 

Their minds are ones of grand creativity, and their powers are ones most certainly meant to accentuate such a trait. Even if a Maid never ventures further on their path of creation, even the base power of creating their Aspect is one that can surely evolve into something extremely grandiose. A Maid of Doom capable of wiping out or rooting away a hundred mile radius of any life with a wave of their hand, a Maid of Breath creating a storm so disastrous it could rip away entire mountains, or even a Maid of Hope who can bring back a lawful and justified balance; soothing whatever rageful beasts may be surrounding them. The Maid and their Aspect have always meant to work side by side, beneficiaries to one another; when such synchrony has even been partially fulfilled, the Maid is one who can prove themself to be quite the daunting force to behold.

Once the Maid has proven themself well equipped in their power of creation, so will come the moment where they can decide whether they wish to further their power or not. To become one with their Aspect, to create through it, is a power not many Maids may wish to partake in as spoken of before. However, for the ones who do take up this challenge, knowing the risks that may come in their possible failure, they are the ones who will not only truly know their Aspect, but will act as a type of ambassador for it. They will represent all that their Aspect is - the good, and the bad - in order to become one of the finest creators of their time.

By creating their Aspect, there may come a time where the Maid finds themself to once again have an excessive amount of it. It is through this excess that the Maid will find their power of creating through it; honing in on what has bubbled over the brim of the pot, the Maid will be able to create whatever they wish from such concentrated amounts of their Aspect. Through stardust itself, a Maid of Space could create what they wish - or what they need, a Maid of Mind could use their ability to foresee consequences of actions to create the ultimate battle strategy, or a Maid of Time could create a perfectly synced series of events across countless timelines; dominoes falling until they make the final push that allows for the Alpha Timeline to continue pushing forward.

To create through one’s Aspect is to use all that is, was, and ever will be to one’s advantage. However, much like their base power of simply creating their Aspect, these actions tend to have an odd offshoot, or rather side effect, of healing to them. When a Maid creates their Aspect, they may unknowingly be healing someone that they never even considered to be in need of such a service. The same goes for the Maids who create through their Aspect, though this can be one on a far broader, or perhaps even more personal, scale. After all, when creating through one’s Aspect, it is often an action that requires a more direct approach from the Maid. No longer do they sweep the halls or dust the artifacts of a castle, but they now have a far better say as to what happens in the castle; they have more control over it. Although they will never reach the levels of control that a Muse or Lord holds over the castle that is their Aspect, they most certainly are ones who hold the ability to come close to such power.

The role of a Maid is one of great importance, yet also one often looked over. They are the ones who help to bring and maintain balance in a group, no matter how many conflicts seem to threaten the stability of it all. Although such a task is one that often calls upon their powers of creation to be used, and still be given very little reward for their efforts, such a fact is one that the Maid can learn to live with. Of course, there may be moments of hot-headedness from the Maid when it comes to their efforts of healing and creating being unacknowledged, but so is often the life of the Creative Classes. After all, some of the best creators are those who were rarely truly appreciated during their time of life.

A Maid is a healer, creator, and a cleaner. They are meant to fix what has been broken, polish what has become rusted, grimy, or smudged, and, most importantly, love what has been neglected. Their Aspect was once left in such a state of disrepair, and the Maid is not one afraid to admit that it was by their own hand. Becoming lost in pettiness, hatred, and fear is often problem the Maid is known to have. It is only when they enter such a state of mind that not only themself, but other things and peoples around them will begin to truly suffer and descend into a state of disarray. After all, when the bringer of balance no longer does their job, who is going to be the one to look after the castle and the people who reside in its kingdom? Perhaps the Knight, though they are most certainly not ones meant to clean things up.

No, a group without a Maid, or at least one who does not play their part, is most certainly a group destined to be filled with many moments of internal and external strife, complications, and struggles. Considering the nature of the Maid, and how people are often drawn towards them, chances are that the Maid will most likely find at least one or a few people within the group worth the time and energy in healing whatever they lack of the Maid’s Aspect. After all, even the most stubborn Maids will always have their weak points - those bleeding hearts inside of their chests - and there will always be the people they simply cannot say no to, for better or for worse.

Ultimately, though, a Maid is someone who merely looks towards doing the right thing - even if that “right thing” holds questionable morals in order to achieve it. Maids can be excellent friends and allies to have, primarily due to their dedicated nature. While at first they may have been more than ready to put someone in front of themself and their Aspect, the Maid has learned through all of the hardships and trauma from such self-destructive actions that, truly, if one wishes to be the change in other people’s lives, or even the world, they must first change how they treat themself, flaws and everything. They have learned that in order to see the true value and worth in everything and everyone, they must first value themself and their Aspect.

Once they manage to climb over this obstacle that is their hatred and/or fear of their Aspect, they will manage to see the good in not only it, but also themself. When they achieve this state of realization will they be allowed to begin their own journey of personal healing. Such a journey will be long, and at times seemingly treacherous. As long as the Maid keeps to the path that they set forth themself, then it will be their true self that will be there to greet them. When they shake hands, they will finally become the mystical, magical mender they were born to be. For it is not the Witch who sews the clothes and relationships when they have become torn and ragged, it is not the Bard who keeps everything in order and equally distributed, and it is not the Thief who is capable of restoring what once seemed lost and forgotten. No, it is the Maid who does this, and it is why they are one of the most important players out of any of them.

[arcticdementor]

Can you believe ...?

Perhaps no question has been repeated more times in reaction to more events this year than that one.

The most recent major outrage in the Jewish community, now several news cycles behind us, came on the Shabbat before Yom Kippur—the holiest day in the Jewish calendar—when many American Jews seemed dumbfounded by what was to me predictable news: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, progressive superstar, had pulled out of an event honoring Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister assassinated because of his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians. Rabin was, as Bill Clinton said at his funeral, “a martyr for his nation’s peace.”

…

But it wasn’t AOC who was mixed up. The savvy politician had read the room and was sending a clear signal about who belongs in the new progressive coalition and who does not. The confusion—and there seems to be a good deal of it these days—is among American Jews who think that by submitting to ever-changing loyalty tests they can somehow maintain the old status quo and their place inside of it.

Did you see that the Ethical Culture Fieldston School hosted a speaker that equated Israelis with Nazis? Did you know that Brearley is now asking families to write a statement demonstrating their commitment to “anti-racism”? Did you see that Chelsea Handler tweeted a clip of Louis Farrakhan? Did you see that protesters tagged a synagogue in Kenosha with “Free Palestine” graffiti? Did you hear about the march in D.C. where they chanted “Israel, we know you, you murder children too”? Did you hear that the Biden campaign apologized to Linda Sarsour after initially disavowing her? Did you see that Twitter suspended Bret Weinstein’s civic organization but still allows the Iranian ayatollah to openly promote genocide of the Jewish people? Did you see that Mayor Bill de Blasio scapegoated “the Jewish community” for the spread of COVID in New York, while defending mass protests on the grounds that this is a “historic moment of change”?

Listen, it’s been a hell of a year. We all have a lot going on, much of it unnerving and some of it dire. Moreover, many of these stories only surface on places like Twitter; they don’t make it into the pages of The New York Times or your friends’ Facebook feeds, which is where most Americans get their news these days. Reporters don’t cover these stories adequately, contextualizing them, telling readers which ones are true and which ones aren’t, which ones matter and which ones don't.

So it makes sense that many smart, well-intentioned people are confused. Or rather: Looking for someone to explain why an emerging movement that purports to advance the ideals they have always supported—fairness, justice, righting historical wrongs—feels like it is doing the opposite.

…

To understand the enormity of the change we are now living through, take a moment to understand America as the overwhelming majority of its Jews believed it was—and perhaps as we always assumed it would be.

It was liberal.

Not liberal in the narrow, partisan sense, but liberal in the most capacious and distinctly American sense of that word: the belief that everyone is equal because everyone is created in the image of God. The belief in the sacredness of the individual over the group or the tribe. The belief that the rule of law—and equality under that law—is the foundation of a free society. The belief that due process and the presumption of innocence are good and that mob violence is bad. The belief that pluralism is a source of our strength; that tolerance is a reason for pride; and that liberty of thought, faith, and speech are the bedrocks of democracy.

The liberal worldview was one that recognized that there were things—indeed, the most important things—in life that were located outside of the realm of politics: friendships, art, music, family, love. This was a world in which Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg could be close friends. Because, as Scalia once said, some things are more important than votes.

Crucially, this liberalism relied on the view that the Enlightenment tools of reason and the scientific method might have been designed by dead white guys, but they belonged to everyone, and they were the best tools for human progress that have ever been devised.

Racism was evil because it contradicted the foundations of this worldview, since it judged people not based on the content of their character, but on the color of their skin. And while America’s founders were guilty of undeniable hypocrisy, their own moral failings did not invalidate their transformational project. The founding documents were not evil to the core but “magnificent,” as Martin Luther King Jr. put it, because they were “a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” In other words: The founders themselves planted the seeds of slavery’s destruction. And our second founding fathers—abolitionists like Frederick Douglass—made it so. America would never be perfect, but we could always strive toward building a more perfect union.

I didn’t even know that this worldview had a name because it was baked into everything I came into contact with—my parents’ worldviews, the schools they sent me to, the synagogues we attended, the magazines and newspapers we read, and so on.

…

No longer. American liberalism is under siege. There is a new ideology vying to replace it.

No one has yet decided on the name for the force that has come to unseat liberalism. Some say it’s “Social Justice.” The author Rod Dreher has called it “therapeutic totalitarianism.” The writer Wesley Yang refers to it as “the successor ideology”—as in, the successor to liberalism.

…

The new creed’s premise goes something like this: We are in a war in which the forces of justice and progress are arrayed against the forces of backwardness and oppression. And in a war, the normal rules of the game—due process; political compromise; the presumption of innocence; free speech; even reason itself—must be suspended. Indeed, those rules themselves were corrupt to begin with—designed, as they were, by dead white males in order to uphold their own power.

…

Critical race theory says there is no such thing as neutrality, not even in the law, which is why the very notion of colorblindness—the Kingian dream of judging people not based on the color of their skin but by the content of their character—must itself be deemed racist. Racism is no longer about individual discrimination. It is about systems that allow for disparate outcomes among racial groups. If everyone doesn’t finish the race at the same time, then the course must have been flawed and should be dismantled.

…

In fact, any feature of human existence that creates disparity of outcomes must be eradicated: The nuclear family, politeness, even rationality itself can be defined as inherently racist or evidence of white supremacy, as a Smithsonian institution suggested this summer. The KIPP charter schools recently eliminated the phrase “work hard” from its famous motto “Work Hard. Be Nice.” because the idea of working hard “supports the illusion of meritocracy.” Denise Young Smith, one of the first Black people to reach Apple’s executive team, left her job in the wake of asserting that skin color wasn’t the only legitimate marker of diversity—the victim of a “diversity culture” that, as the writer Zaid Jilani has noted, is spreading “across the entire corporate world and is enforced by a highly educated activist class.”

The most powerful exponent of this worldview is Ibram X. Kendi. His book “How to Be an Antiracist” is on the top of every bestseller list; his photograph graces GQ; he is on Time’s most influential people of the year; and his outfit at Boston University was recently awarded $10 million from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

…

And just in case moral suasion is ineffective, Kendi has backup: Use the power of the federal government to make it so. “To fix the original sin of racism,” he wrote in Politico, “Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principals [sic]: Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy and the different racial groups are equals.” To back up the amendment, he proposes a Department of Anti-Racism. This department would have the power to investigate not just local governments but private businesses and would punish those “who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas.” Imagine how such a department would view a Jewish day school, which suggests that the Jews are God’s chosen people, let alone one that teaches Zionism.

Kendi—who, it should be noted, now holds Elie Wiesel’s old chair at Boston University—believes that “to be antiracist is to see all cultures in their differences as on the same level, as equals.” He writes: “When we see cultural difference we are seeing cultural difference—nothing more, nothing less.” It’s hard to imagine that anyone could believe that cultures that condone honor killings of unchaste young women are “nothing more, nothing less” than culturally different from our own. But whether he believes it or not, it’s obvious that embracing such relativism is a highly effective tool for ascension and seizing power.

It should go without saying that, for Jews, an ideology that contends that there are no meaningful differences between cultures is not simply ridiculous—we have an obviously distinct history, tradition and religion that has been the source of both enormous tragedy as well as boundless gifts—but is also, as history has shown, lethal.

By simply existing as ourselves, Jews undermine the vision of a world without difference. And so the things about us that make us different must be demonized, so that they can be erased or destroyed: Zionism is refashioned as colonialism; government officials justify the murder of innocent Jews in Jersey City; Jewish businesses can be looted because Jews “are the face of capital.” Jews are flattened into “white people,” our living history obliterated, so that someone with a straight face can suggest that the Holocaust was merely “white on white crime.”

This is no longer a fringe view. As the philosopher Peter Boghossian has noted: “This ideology is the dominant moral orthodoxy in our universities, and has seeped out and spread to every facet of American life— publishing houses, tech, arts, theater, newspapers, media,” and, increasingly, corporations. It has not grabbed power by dictates from above, but by seizing the means of sense-making from below.

Over the past few decades and with increasing velocity over the last several years, a determined young cohort has captured nearly all of the institutions that produce American cultural and intellectual life. Rather than the institutions shaping them, they have reshaped the institutions. You don’t need the majority inside an institution to espouse these views. You only need them to remain silent, cowed by a fearless and zealous minority who can smear them as racists if they dare disagree.

It is why California attempted to pass an ethnic studies curriculum whose only mention of Jews was to explain how they, along with Irish immigrants, were invited into whiteness.

It is why those who claim to care about diversity and inclusion don’t seem to care about the deep-seated racism against Asian Americans at schools like Harvard.

It is why a young Jewish woman named Rose Ritch was recently run out of the USC student government. Ms. Ritch stood accused of complicity in racism because, following the Soviet lie, to be a Zionist is to be nothing less than a racist. Her fellow students waged a campaign to hound her out of her position: “Impeach her Zionist ass,” they insisted.

It is why the Democratic Socialists of America, the emerging power center of the Democratic Party in New York, sent a questionnaire to New York City Council candidates that included a pledge not to travel to Israel.

It is why Tamika Mallory, an outspoken fan of Louis Farrakhan, gets the glamour treatment in a photoshoot for Vogue.

And this is why AOC, the standard bearer of America’s new left, didn’t think Yitzhak Rabin was worth the political capital, but goes out of her way, a few days later, to praise the Black Panthers. She is the harbinger of a political reality in which Jews will have little power.

It does not matter how progressive you are, how vegan or how gay, how much you want universal health care and pre-K and to end the drug war. To believe in the justness of the existence of the Jewish state—to believe in Jewish particularism at all—is to make yourself an enemy of this movement.

…

If you’re nearing the end of the essay wondering why this hasn’t been explained to you before, the answer is because, yet again, we find ourselves in another moment in Jewish history at a time of great need and urgency with communal leadership who, with rare exception, will not address the danger.

I understand why people have been blind to this. Life has been good—exceedingly good—for American Jews for half a century. Many older communal leaders seem to lack the moral imagination to see this threat. It’s also hard for anyone to hear the words: They’re just not that into you.

So when I try to discuss this with many Jews in leadership positions, what I face is either boomer-esque entitlement—a sense that the way the world worked for them must be the way it will always work—or outright resistance. Oh please, wokeness isn’t important anywhere but in silly Twitter microclimates. When you explain that no, in fact, this ideology has taken over universities, publishing houses, the media, museums and is now making quick work of corporate America, you hit another roadblock: Isn’t this just righting some historical injustices? What could go wrong? You then have to explain what could go wrong—what is already going wrong—is that it is ruining the lives of regular, good people, and the more institutions and companies fall prey to it, the more lives it will ruin.

…

Last month, I participated in a Zoom event attended by several major Jewish philanthropists. After briefly talking about my experience at The New York Times, I noted that if they wanted to understand what happened to me, they needed to appreciate the power of that new, still-nameless creed that has hijacked the paper and so many other institutions essential to American life. I’ve been thinking about what happened next ever since.

One of the funders on the call launched into me, explaining that Ibram X. Kendi’s work was vital, and portrayed me as retrograde and uncool for opposing the ideology du jour. Because this person is prominent and powerful enough to send signals that others in the Jewish world follow, the comments managed to both sideline me and stun almost everyone else into silence.

These people may be the most enraging: those with the financial security to oppose this ideology and demur, so desperate to be seen as hip; for their children to keep their spots at the right prep schools; so that they can be seated at the right tables at the right benefits; so that they are honored at Brown or Harvard; so that business does well enough that they can renovate their house in Aspen or East Hampton. Desperate to remain in good odor with the right people, they are willing to close their eyes to what is coming for the rest of us.

Young Jews who grasp the scope of this problem and want to fight it thus find themselves up against two fronts: their ideological enemies and their own communal leadership. But it is among this group—people with no social or political capital to hoard, some of them not even out of college—that I find our community’s seers. The dynamic reminds me of the one Theodor Herzl faced: The communal establishment of his time was deeply opposed to his Zionist project. It was the poorer, younger Jews—especially those from Russia—who first saw the necessity of Zionism’s lifesaving vision.

Funders and communal leaders who are falling over themselves to make alliances with fashionable activists and ideas enjoy a decadent indulgence that these young proud Jews cannot afford. They live far from the violence that affects Jews in places like Crown Heights and Borough Park. If things go south in one city, they can take refuge in a second home. It may be cost-free for the wealthy to flirt with an ideology that suggests abolishing the police or the nuclear family or capitalism. But for most Jews and most Americans, losing those ideas comes with a heavy price.

[alexsmitposts]

"Volyn massacre": the worst crime of Bandera July 11, 1943 will forever remain in the memory of poles as a black date. On this day, Ukrainian nationalists attacked Polish settlements located on the territory of Western Ukraine in order to completely destroy "hostile elements". A hundred and fifty villages and villages were literally covered in blood. The nationalists did not spare anyone.

Attempts at reconciliation Last summer, on the eve of the 73rd anniversary of the terrible tragedy, representatives of Ukraine and Poland exchanged messages. The first tried to smooth over the sharp corners, asked for forgiveness and said that "as long as our peoples are alive, the wounds of history continue to bring pain. But our peoples will live only when, despite the past, we learn to treat each other as brothers." The second, in principle, do not mind making contact, but there is only one problem. This was the response of the members of the Parliament of the ruling Law and Justice party»: "The difference between us concerns not the future, but the General policy of historical memory. The problem is the current Ukrainian attitude to the perpetrators of the genocide of poles during the Second world war. In Poland, at the state and local levels, we do not honor people who have the blood of innocent civilians on their hands. We are concerned about the selectivity of historical memory, in which an open Declaration of sympathy for Poland is paired with the glorification of those who have on their hands the blood of our countrymen — defenseless women and children." Therefore, attempts at reconciliation once again ended in nothing.

Destroy in the fight In the 20th century, the confrontation between poles and Ukrainians flowed into another channel. If before that the first massively oppressed the second, then at that moment the situation changed. Ukrainian nationalists began to pursue a policy of terror against poles even before the second World war. That is, when Western Ukraine belonged to Poland. Cooperation with the Nazis added courage and strength to the nationalists. The Nazis, by the way, thought that in this way they would be able to create an independent, but puppet Ukrainian state. And most importantly, this new "power" had to be ethnically pure. Stepan Bandera, like all the other leaders of the nationalists, zealously supported this idea.

In the spring of 1941, the Organization of Ukrainian nationalists gave birth to an instruction called " Fighting the activities of the OUN* during the war." It described in detail the tasks of the" BEZPEKA service " (security) during the armed conflict with the USSR. Simply put, this document stated that elements hostile to Ukraine must be destroyed by any means. And in 1943, the dogs were released from the chain. The head of the "BEZPEKA service" Nikolay Lebed took the initiative to clear the territory of poles. The top OUN (banned in Russia) approved this. Although the oppression of the Polish population both in Volyn and throughout Western Ukraine began much earlier.

Peter Nesterovich was the first to venture. With a subordinate nationalist group, he decided to carve out the Polish village of Parosle (near Vladimirets, Rivne region). And in order to minimize losses among their own, Nesterovich ordered the soldiers to change into the uniforms of Soviet partisans. The fact that the residents of Parola actively cooperate with them, so the trick is not noticed…

Before killing the women, the nationalists raped them, then cut off their noses, ears and Breasts. Men were killed with axes. Two teenage brothers named Gorshkevich, who tried to escape and call for help from the Soviet partisans, were mocked with special cruelty. Their arms and legs were cut off, their stomachs were cut open, and their wounds were covered with salt. Then they were thrown into a field to die. A total of 173 poles were killed in the village, including 43 children. They did not spare even a one-year-old baby. He was pinned to the table with a bayonet… Such a horrible picture I saw of these partisans when he came to Parole. The elite in the UPA detachments* "Rezun" - people whose hobby was cruel executions. Most often, they used saws, knives and axes to execute them. Behind Parole came under attack another Polish village Lipniki. Ivan Litvinchuk's group, better known as Dubovoi, dealt with the local residents. They completely massacred the village, killing 179 poles (51 of them children). By the way, in that locality, was born in the future, the first Polish cosmonaut Miroslav Hermaszewski. At the time of the Ukrainian attack, he was only 2 years old. The fact that Miroslav survived the massacre is a miracle. His mother, trying to escape from his pursuers, hid him in a field among the corpses… Then the population of the village of Kuta and the village of Katarinovka was slaughtered… Moreover, Ukrainian nationalists killed not only poles. But also, as they themselves called them "nedukraintsev", that is, people from mixed marriages. Nationalists treated "apostates" with special cruelty.

And so the black date for the Polish people approached-July 11, 1943. On this day, UPA combat troops simultaneously attacked several dozen villages inhabited mainly by poles (data differ, according to some, there were about a hundred of them, according to others – about 150). They were all killed indiscriminately, because only in this way, according to the nationalists, it was possible to "clear the Ukrainian land".

Polish historians, who were closely engaged in restoring the chronological events in the "Volyn massacre", reported that the UPA fighters, or rather those" Rezun", used 125 ways to kill civilians.

The terror did not stop there. Nationalists began to conduct mass sweeps among the already Ukrainian population. Any person who refused to cooperate or help the UPA was automatically equated with the enemy and executed. As, for example, Ivan Csuchico from the village Klevets'k. Aksyuchits condemned the nationalists ' brutal methods, and paid for it with his life. "Rezun" executed him in public and demonstratively cruelly-sawed in half. And such a death for him was chosen by a tribesman who was a member of the UPA.

The Ukrainian people were outraged. And in order not to aggravate the situation, the nationalists began to exterminate only Ukrainians. As in the village Paltrow. There they "sorted" the population and shot more than three hundred poles with machine guns, while not touching the Ukrainians.

Revenge There is no point in telling about all the atrocities of Ukrainian nationalists. "Volyn massacre" is confirmed by several thousand witnesses and a huge number of photos. Polish researchers talk about more than 36 thousand of their fellow citizens who died then. And these are only those whose identities have been established. Several thousand or even tens of thousands remain unknown. Polish historians mention a figure of 100,000 people, 60,000 of whom are poles (the rest are "apostates"). However, Ukrainian historians and researchers do not agree with this. According to their data, the poles overestimated the real numbers several times. It is clear that such a terror could not remain unanswered. And the poles responded in 1944 with the home Army. They went through Ukrainian settlements scattered across the Eastern part of Poland with fire and sword. But the scale of retribution is not comparable to the"Volyn massacre". In total, about 2-3 thousand Ukrainians died at the hands of Polish soldiers. However, Ukrainian researchers say that in fact, several times more of their fellow citizens were killed than the poles claim. In General, the parties are still unable to agree and reconcile on this issue.

[happythexceed]

Summary of K SEVEN STORIES Episode 1 「R：B ～BLAZE～」

Repost as I need ALL spoiler under the cut for edit later. The tumblr app isn’t helping exposing everything after I done a bit of text editing. Deleted the previous post. 

It’s finally here in cinema. The Idol K was shown as an appetizer and R:B ～BLAZE～ the main course after that.

Spoilers ahead. Pardon me for any errors. I tried to put in whatever I remembered.

The Idol K

Around 6 min. The scenes interchanged with normal (zoom in) and chibi (zoom out) forms of the characters throughout the mini episode.  

The setting was the same as K Project except that the characters are idols under Kokujouji Daikaku’s jurisdiction. The Silver Record was having a meeting about rice. Shiro decided to organise a charity event. Kuroh reminded him that they knew nothing about rice and agriculture and THEY ARE IDOLS. They are not suppose to deal with that. Shiro responded with “can’t they do that?” much to Kuroh’s dismay. Worse still, it was not kept among the Silver Record. Shiro wanted to involve the other entertainment companies much to Kuroh’s horror. Shiro would approach HOMRA Entertainment first and Kuroh warned him it would be very difficult to get them to agree to collaborate with them considering their passion. Neko claimed to be close with Anna (she would be easier to talk to). Kuroh highlighted that Anna and Totsuka Tatara were exception but it would be difficult to get the other HOMRA idols such as the one who just returned from America and that he is a walking furnace (hottest looking with his hair down) and an idol who was calculative (can’t remember the actual word used to describe Kusanagi).

But still since Shiro had decided, Kuroh would lend him a land and the scene ended with the three of them leaving for HOMRA.

Kiss kiss kiss was played as the ED.

R:B ～BLAZE～

Started off with a fighting between mafia and HOMRA.

Too much firepower. Bullets flying everywhere. Kamamoto must be an idiot to be running to the open and yelping over the bullets which missed him.

The Red King Suoh Mikoto melted it down. His Sword of Damocles appeared. It appeared to be in better condition obviously. He started to lose control and the sword started to crack like Shiro’s in S2. It was stopped when he heard someone called him, “King”. Totsuka made his appearance and Mikoto regained his sense.  

Discussion about the new Blue King who quickly rebuilt Scepter 4 and how impressive he is to be taking command at scene.

HOMRA has been expanding very fast since Scepter 4 disbanded. The newbies had been acting irresponsibly causing chaos under the name of HOMRA which was an issue. They will accept anyone who can pass Mikoto’s test.

The newbies had been causing troubles enough to gain Scepter 4 attention.

Kagustu Genji looks like this.

Habari Jin obviously will gain more fangirls. ^^

Mikoto had a dream of the previous Red King, Kagutsu Genji losing control and the former Blue King, Habari Jin trying to stop him and the scene of Damocles Down happened. Mikoto saw himself transforming into Berserker a monster and losing control before awakening in the room behind the bar. The HOMRA trio discussed about the newbies of HOMRA starting the fight with the mafia as someone wanted to deal with drugs. Mikoto started HOMRA as he wanted to oppose those who oppressed them.

Mikoto was frustrated as he was finding hard to suppress his power. He felt he was hopeless and want to go all out to have a blast and destroy himself.

He was in the park smoking when another person stood beside him for sometime (quietly) startling Mikoto.

Mikoto kept muttering he felt very hot.

Mikoto was feeling very hot (it was summer) and to see someone dressing in full uniform suit was unimaginable. He instantly realized he was the law abiding new Blue King, Munakata Reisi.

Mikoto was provoking him calling him newbie and he had come to greet him as a respect since he was a senior who became a King before him.

There was a short scene on the awakening of the new Blue King in a plane on fire with Awashima Seri onboard. They used to be ordinary civilians who didn’t know anything. Awashima has become his clansman since then and was helping him to train the new clansman to prepare for any clash with HOMRA. Munakata was wondering who he was and he only got it when he awakened as a King.

He came to Mikoto to ask for collaboration and Mikoto rejected as he didn’t want to follow anybody’s order. Mikoto wanted power to fight against those who oppressed them. Since when his power became a restriction.

Before Munakata left, he asked Mikoto his opinion about Kagutsu Genji. Mikoto merely replied he had not met him.

Mikoto and Munakata decided that they don’t see eye to eye with each other.

The slate kid had made an appearance.

Kusanagi leave Totsuka out to handle the newbie, Yamato Taichi (not Digimon) Yamata Daichi who just joined three months ago who was the source of the trouble.

Yata beaten a newbie up demanding for Yamata’s location. Fushimi was being sadistic. He threatened the newbie not to do anything and live like a corpse if not he would turn him into a corpse right there. Yata decided to take this on himself to find Yamata to teach him a lesson behind Kusanagi’s back. Fushimi agreed to be part of it. They did a knuckle bump.

They intended this movie to be a 2-part episode having the opening theme twice in the movie.

Next half of the movie started out with Yamata reminiscing on his past on his first encounter with HOMRA and Mikoto like Sarumi during their Middle School days. Think it was a reused scene of Mikoto and group walking in the street (Fushimi included).  

Mikoto spotted Totsuka in the street. Totsuka was looking for Yamata and Mikoto decided to stalk follow him.

Yata barged into a cafe (I think) where Yamata was and Scepter 4 arrived in the scene and Yamata escaped. Yamata didn’t understand why it turned out like that.

He was stopped by a butterfly flame and Totsuka appeared before him. He wanted to talk.

The newbies of HOMRA joined for the wrong reason. Mikoto reasoned this out with Yamata Daichi when he showed up behind Totsuka. Yamata was happy that Mikoto actually remembered him (how will you react if your idol remembers you?). A lot of trouble was caused under the name of HOMRA by this group of newbie. There was nothing wrong to bully people so he would not be bullied, to snatch people’s things so his would not be snatched but still, things he had taken from other would be taken from him one day for sure. Mikoto concluded that Yamata and the newbies joined HOMRA merely because of pride.

Mikoto wanted to disband HOMRA and Totsuka told him NO! His King who could not control his power need somewhere to dwell, somewhere to eat and sleep. Mikoto obviously couldn’t say no to him.

Scepter 4 arrived in the scene with Munakata Reisi. Munakara wanted Mikoto to hand Yamata custody over to ask some questions. Mikoto wouldn't budge in the name of he won’t follow anyone’s order. Mikoto decided to buy some time while Totsuka took Yamata and ran.

Munakata ordered Awashima to take the troop and run after Totsuka and Yamata while he would take Mikoto on.

Both Mikoto and Munakata underestimated each other’s ability or rather they were overconfident about themselves. It was a fight between two children granted with toys they shouldn’t have received.

Mikoto was thrown against a wall and he melted the wall down. Munakata insisted he would not unsheathe his sword and took him on. Mikoto stepped on Munakata’s sword which he used as a shield to block his kick declaring he would be on top. Munakata dodged and Mikoto was impressed by his movement.

Munakata noticed the damage their battle had caused and he “rationally” decided to retreat. He declared he would concede defeat to Mikoto leaving Yamata Daichi’s custody to him and thought he would like it. Mikoto was like “huh?”, “wtf?” and he got really pissed. They clashed again and Mikoto sent Munakata flying... Yes he went blasting off like a shooting star 😂😂😂. Awashima saw shooting star aka a man flying past up in the sky (it’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s her King. The whole cinema burst into laughter. Sorry, fans of Munakata) She came to Munakata who picked himself up leaving a dent on the wall of a building acting as though nothing happened when she asked him about the Red King. Munakata decided that he “would finish him off” with an straight face.

Yata and Fushimi had a run in with the alphabet boys of S4. They were saved from being arrested by Kusanagi as Totsuka called him. The alphabet boys retreated.

He made his way back to Mikoto by walking as though nothing happened to continue their battles. Mikoto wanted to make Munakata cry while Munakata wanted to make Mikoto grovel on the ground. This time they released both their Sword of Damocles and decided to go all out. Totsuka said he believed in his King. The fight went on until someone dropped a sword and stood on it to stop them. The man was Miwa Ichigen, the Colourless King. He was the mediator sent by Kokujouji Daikaku and he should have come to meet them earlier. Mikoto did not want to follow anybody’s order and expanded his sanctum but it was dispelled instantly by Ichigen and that gave him a shock. Munakata being a good boy put away his sword.

Mikoto and Munakata with their second-in-command had a family meeting with Kokujouji Daikaku and Miwa Ichigen. Kokujouji let them off this time. They were the chosen ones by the Slate and he would leave them to do what they wished as long as they abide to protocol 120 (he did not come up with that). Munakata asked him if they would be punished since they released their Sword of Damocles. Kokujouji suddenly clapped his hands and laughed to lighten up the mood much to Mikoto and Munakata’s surprise. (They did not expect the no-nonsense old man will make that kind of face a silly old man would make). They should make peace with each other.

Comment: When the two young kings met, it became a fight between two kids granted with powers they shouldn’t be receiving. Mikoto clashing on walls, Munataka blasting off into the sky *facepalm*. 

Mikoto’s facial expression can be more amusing.

Kokujouji clapped his hand laughing sheepishly like a certain younger Silver King to lighten the mood. Ok, Reisi is not getting any punishment from fighting with Mikoto today.

Ok they are all “OOC”.

I wish they could expand more on the incident with Kagutsu Genji. Perhaps we will get more insight about it in Episode 2 「SIDE-BLUE ～天狼の如く～」when it gets released.

[straykatfish]

‘Podcast’ tour via collage.

The internal geography of the Grand Parade campus has changed since I was last there (1967-68) and so, inevitably, has the premise upon which art is made. At that time we were being psychedelic, free spirited, and often quite intensively introspective but to little purpose. Politics didn’t enter into our thinking.  But in this show, politics permeated everything that made its purpose clear; some of that personal, some social, and some encompassing global issues. Some gave us clues as to the raison d’etre of the work, the artist’s motivation or inspiration, their process and how it got there in the way that it did. But many didn’t; I’m a psychologist and that intrigues me. Communication feels central and while the art may be a communicatory channel in itself, if the message isn’t received by the viewer, or fails to spark something in the viewer, then I wonder if it can be said to have succeeded. I was there with a friend; we talked about finding ourselves looking at the last frame in the film, the last paragraph of the story, but with no idea of what led up to it.

The show covered three floors; the gallery area at ground level housing the Fine Art exhibits, a room behind this and part of the first floor was occupied by the Inclusive Arts students, and then on the second floor were the Digital Arts installations. In between, on the walls around a landing, were images from photography and fashion. They seemed displaced, temporarily put up in bed and breakfast rather than being allocated hotel rooms.

Fine Art

I think it’s an unavoidable fact that positioning a piece in elegant and purpose-built surroundings adds a kind of value and confers a dignity and gravitas it would find harder to accrue in less accommodating circumstances. Separating this out from the work itself is quite demanding – does this piece have an impact because of its inherent quality or simply because of where it is? Some pieces were certainly impactful: ‘The Tables are Turning’ for instance showed us paintings on the undersides of small tables that point to emerging restoration of political balance – what was beneath is finally coming to the top, a commentary on the people’s response to oppression. More bafflingly impactful – in terms of the space it took up and the voices played on loop – was a long row of cones wrapped in tights, each with a lipstick on top. This was designated a performance piece but as the artist was not there at the time of our visit, there was no dialogue to provide context. Two artists were on site and one of them came over to see what we had made of this piece. She tried to describe its origins and message but neither of us really understood. She herself was showing a very large abstract painting which occupied both physical and mental space in that its title did not give much clue as to its derivation. When I asked, the artist talked about being in the moment rather than having an end in mind.

The other artist on site was exhibiting a radiator piece which, when we found it, similarly gave away little as to its reason for being there. When we asked him though, he spoke fluently and eloquently about the how, why, and what of his exhibit and set it in a wholly understandable context. The radiator’s back story is one reflecting the horrors of war and represents a documented political assassination in Nazi Germany[1]. Knowing this immediately added the story to this final paragraph and I wondered why something of it did not accompany the piece since it made such a difference to our experience of it.

Some of the pieces were cheeky – ‘People Who Piss Me off’ for instance, an installation comprising a filing cabinet with ticker tape printed with the names, presumably, of those people, spilling out. I can sympathise, many of them piss me off too, and I had a quiet chuckle. Other pieces managed to distance themselves from us by being dull-coloured, abstract, and untitled which made us question ‘what it was for’ – what were we supposed to take away from this artist’s work? In the end, we took very little beyond wondering how long these pieces had taken to make and what had driven the artist to reach these solutions.

Another piece – small wedges of dark wood with collaged images on them attached to a large piece of wood and rising from the floor – was so well executed and had an aesthetic appeal with its colours and surfaces that there was an inherent impact. What it was saying was not so clear – were the two wedges on the floor lost or left behind, or were they are the first of a tumbling avalanche with the rest poised to follow? The label gave no clue and I would have liked a clue.

The overriding impression of this part of the exhibition was that, where context was provided – even just an idea of the developmental process – works became immediately more interesting and held value as a communication. We wondered, along with the artists themselves, what the people who visited made of the work when there was no one to ask; how the thousands of people who had not chosen to visit saw art when they were challenged to ‘experience it’ in a vacuum and whether this was why so many were not there. Are people afraid of looking foolish for not ‘getting it’, or do they see the whole business as an exclusive (and excluding) side show that isn’t for the likes of them?

Inclusive Arts

The next floor – fronted by a display in the area beneath the stairs that introduced the focus – was given over to the Inclusive Arts programme. This course is the only one in the UK offering artists the opportunity to express their work in collaboration with disadvantaged or ‘othered’ groups, and so works with people on the autistic spectrum, with women isolated by fear, with parents similarly isolated by the weight of caring for a disabled child, with voiceless people lacking connection with art and its positive effects. A sculpture constantly being remade illustrated the ways in which people, as I interpreted it, remake themselves in order to meet expectations; a closed hut with spy holes in it told us how much is hidden from us by so many; knots in fishermen’s rope was the entanglement many people experience in trying to escape or belong. The art on this floor was keen to talk and tell us about itself with postcards, printed sheets, labels and conversation. It wanted us to know and to understand.

  *************************************************************

Somewhere between this and the second floor was a small photography and fashion display. It felt like an afterthought, sitting there on the walls in a corridor between spaces.

        **************************************************************

Digital Arts

Finally, we found Digital Arts where not only did the artists want us to see and know but also participate and make the art, albeit temporarily. That we missed the literature was due not to their negligence but to the darkness of the rooms and our own inattention on entering. There was information on the doors; we slipped past it into the fascinating areas beyond and I had to chase people down later to find out who they were and the titles of their work.

Alberto Sande was unfortunately absent when we visited but very quickly came back with the thinking behind his stunning piece involving deep rhythms, and coloured images given a 3D effect by projecting them through a gauze curtain. A sofa gave us a front row seat and a keyboard – the musical sort – as a way to affect the visual display. Seeded by thinking around a number of ideas drawn from Alice in Wonderland, Deprez’s Drolatic Dreams of Pantaguel, and a Chinese essay on the Thirty Six Stratagems, this installation would have been a challenge to interpret right off the bat. The artist kindly sent me his abstract by email but I would have loved a conversation with him to explore the roads he took in making this piece. It was interactive and projected some deep dark sounds alongside the images and low frequency notes always speak to me of something profound.

Moshref’s Phoenix showed us the cyclical rise and fall of ideas and philosophies, emphasising the place of the phoenix as a positive influence. Using a range of equipment, this installation permitted participants to become the phoenix itself and change digital representations on a number of screens. Its particular focus though was resistance to the oppressive regimes that are systematically brutalising women, and we talked about the wings representing expansiveness; women taking up their space in the world by right and not by permission, and our world seeking collaboration as the antithesis to nationalistic insularity. As a visiting maker of the art in this context I could not help expressing my own views but as it was visually but not auditorily reactive, neither ‘Fuck Trump’ nor ‘and while we’re here, fuck Boris’ had any effect on the display.

Summary

Fine Art had a catalogue containing some but not all of the works, and works from a previous show which were not on display. It did not seem to see in its mission any reason to assist visitors in understanding the work but when we asked, those present gave eloquent and valuable responses. Fine Art occupies the best position in the show. Quite often I hear that art is something to appreciate without explanation, and this seemed to be the position taken here too. Sean Scully, in his recent documentary, appears not to be a subscriber to this view saying that there is an inherent arrogance in expecting people to do this, with the implied assumption that, if they fail, then they must be stupid [link to my blog post on art and meaning]. This goes back to the question I started to address with the two artists on site – that of their audience. Visitors were most likely self-selecting art aficionados and there is nothing wrong with that, but what of all those others who were not there, self-excluded because art is ‘not for them’ or they fear not understanding it? At the very least, this misses a marketing trick and one assumes these graduates are hoping to make a living from their work. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that Fine Art occupies the main space and has the catalogue.

In contrast, Inclusive Art had all manner of explanatory leaflets, printouts on the walls, and postcards but no catalogue. Nor was their work in the first catalogue. These artists appeared very keen to talk about their motivations, the media they used, the collaborations with disadvantaged groups and individuals, and had produced work that spoke directly to those issues by involving the people affected in producing that work. I wondered later if any of them had been present at the show in the role of artist as they seemed not to have a presence when we visited.

Digital Art was a little harder to find and had only two exhibitors, but they made up for this with sheer enthusiasm and technical and artistic skill. Their ideas were expansive and the means of expression wide ranging. While one artist, Sande, was not present when we visited, his subsequent response to an email suggests he would have been as keen to involve us as participants in his interactive installation as was Moshref. The Digital Arts show was not just collaborative but also allowed us as visitors to influence the art itself.

[1] I lost the actual reference but a search using keywords Nazi Car Assassination brings up the heroic act of Jan Kubis who ran out in front of the open top car of high ranking SS officer Reinhardt Heydrich with the intention of shooting him. The gun jammed but he was able to throw a bomb which eventually killed Heydrich, probably saving hundreds if not thousands of lives. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18183099

Images from the day

        Slideshow

  This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Collage with pastels

University of Brighton MA Show 'Podcast' tour via collage. The internal geography of the Grand Parade campus has changed since I was last there (1967-68) and so, inevitably, has the premise upon which art is made.

[republicstandard]

Harvard’s Hatred of Asian Meritocracy Reveals the Left’s Racist Underbelly

Come fly with me. I’ve launched a new airline called Diversifly. We’ve got a woke motto: “We put diversity first.” We’re headhunting Black and Hispanic pilots and aeronautical engineers to meet our diversity targets. We’ve too many Asian and White applicants with blue-chip credentials, so if you are from a minority that is underrepresented we’ll give you a job even if you’ve failed every aviation or engineering test. We don’t buy into the myth of meritocracy.

(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:10817585113717094,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7788-6480"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.lockerdomecdn.com/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

We’ve crashed a few 737s, but don’t let this minor matter distract you from our bigger goal of reversing centuries of discrimination. We’ve got a special offer: if you crash while flying with us we will emblazon your full name with your chosen gender on our Diversifly Martyrs Memorial. So fly Diversifly and become a real woke social justice warrior.

I got my idea of a non-meritocratic airline from Harvard University’s affirmative action policy. I almost ended up doing my doctorate at Harvard. I had three colleagues who had just returned from Princeton, Harvard and Yale. The Harvard chappie insisted I follow in his footsteps. I filled in the forms. Then, John Stott, England’s pre-eminent 20th century Anglican author and preacher, nudged me in the direction of Cambridge (England not Massachusetts) and I gladly consented.

I’m glad I didn’t go to Harvard. I don’t like separate drinking fountains for Blacks. Harvard hasn’t yet installed these segregated dispensers, but last year it hosted a graduation ceremony exclusively for Black students. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day go to a university where they will not be judged by the content of their character or the grade on their SAT scorecard, but by the colour of their skin,” Martin Luther King might have thundered in his speech if he were the keynote speaker at this historic graduation ceremony.

“I have a dream that one day we will have safe spaces, transgender bathrooms, gender fluidity, preferred pronouns, micro-aggression lists, fewer hetero-White males and Asian-Americans on campus and then all God’s LGBTIQ+ children will be able to sing, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’” Dr King would declaim to rapturous applause. Yeah!

The leftwing goons running Harvard would love this dream, wouldn’t they? They’ve festooned Harvard’s portals with “Whites and Asians Not Welcome” signs. Ever since Lefties made reverse discrimination fashionable in academia, they’ve been performing contortionist tricks to ‘manage diversity’ by increasing the intake of African Americans and Hispanics and ethnically cleansing campuses overpopulated with Asians and Whites.

A 2009 Princeton study showed Asians had to score 140 points higher on their SATs than Whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than Blacks to have the same chance of admission to leading universities. At Harvard, Asians not only have to score hundreds of points higher on their SATs to get in, but admissions officers consistently score Asian applicants lower on personal traits like “positive personality,” “likability,” “kindness,” and “humour”.

If admissions were based strictly on academic performance, Asians would make up more than 51 percent of the average admitted class, according to Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). A 2013 Harvard report found Asian applicants performed significantly better on test scores, academics, and overall scores. Of 10 total characteristics, White students performed significantly better in only one—rankings of personal qualities.

Following a 2014 lawsuit accusing Harvard of capping the number of Asian students, this week SFFA is suing Harvard in the federal district court in Boston in what has been called the “Harvard affirmative-action case”. The court will decide if Harvard has gone beyond what the Supreme Court has said are permissible ways to consider race in admissions—and, specifically, if it has shown bias against Asian American applicants.

We know the Left detests Whites (even though the Left is a juggernaut comprised of mostly guilt-ridden Whites) but why do progressives hate Asians? The answer lies in inequality of outcomes, which is bound to happen in any meritocracy.

In a race-blind merit-based admissions system like New York City’s Stuyvesant High School, the admission outcome is 74 percent Asian, 18 percent White, 3 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Black, and 4 percent multiracial. In California, which eliminated race-based affirmative action in 1996, 42 percent Asians are admitted to University of California at Berkeley.

“INEQUALITY!” shrieks the Left, prophesying the doom and death of diversity like Shakespeare’s three witches in Macbeth.

Tell that to Vijay Chokal-Ingam who pretended to be Black to get into med school. Chokal-Ingam, an Asian American, shaved his head, trimmed his long Indian eyelashes, and interchanged his middle name with his first name. He became Jojo, the African American, and was admitted to St. Louis University School of Medicine. Jojo dropped out of med school but was bright enough to get into UCLA Anderson, a business school that doesn’t practice affirmative action.

Asians are toppling the Left’s equality applecart, but despite Jojo’s Black skin having nearly the same degree of melanin as an African American, why would Leftist affirmative action policies so cruelly exclude him? Is it possible that progressive academics are terrified that the controversial “Bell Curve” theory proposed by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray is true and because Asian Americans have a higher mean IQ than White Americans, who in turn outscore Black Americans, the equality utopia of the Left will never be realised even in their bastion of academe?

Or is it because “Asian privilege” is becoming the new “White privilege” in America? A recent Pew study describes Asian Americans as “the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States”. Needless to say, there are differences within Asian Americas.

The Indian population’s average annual earnings of $75,000 exceed the U.S. average of $46,000, largely due to high-paying science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. Forty percent of Indians age 25 or over have degrees higher than a bachelor’s, compared with 11 percent for the U.S. population age 25 or over.

Asian Americans exceed all other U.S. adults also in median annual household income ($66,000 vs. $49,800) and median household wealth ($83,500 vs. $68,529). They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives overall (82% vs. 75%), their personal finances (51% vs. 35%) and the general direction of the country (43% vs. 21%).

They are socially conservative and stand out for their strong emphasis on family. More than half (54%) say that having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in life; just 34% of all American adults agree. They are more likely than all American adults to be married (59% vs. 51%); their newborns are less likely than all U.S. newborns to have an unmarried mother (16% vs. 41%); and their children are more likely than all U.S. children to be raised in a household with two married parents (80% vs. 63%).

Asian Americans hold strongly to a work ethic and believe in the rewards of hard work. Nearly seven-in-ten (69%) say people can get ahead if they are willing to work hard, compared to 58% of the American public. So they don’t need to go begging to the Welfare State for handouts.

And they love America! Only 12% say that if they had to do it all over again, they would remain in their country of origin. They prefer the U.S. to their country of origin in such realms as providing economic opportunity, political and religious freedoms, and good conditions for raising children by lopsided margins.

The success of the Asian experiment completely debunks the Marxist hypothesis of structural oppression. The Left cannot get Asians to gripe about slavery or colonialism or racism because the Asians are too busy building a new American dream. “This country doesn’t owe us anything,” says Uma, mother of stand-up comic Hari Kondabolu, in a National Geographic interview.

It’s all about power, for the Left. Their task is to create victim groups and classify them in a hierarchy of intersectionality. The more oppressed a group, the better for the Left, because it has a cause to fight for—a raison d’être in an otherwise pointless world. Asians don’t give the left much of a reason for existence! They don’t see themselves as victims, but as victors. If you are successful, you don’t need the Left! Rather, the Left is an impediment to even greater success.

(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:10817587730962790,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-5979-7226"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.lockerdomecdn.com/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

This is both incomprehensible and intolerable to progressives because the Left loves to carry the White Man’s Burden and the White Man’s Guilt and the Asian looks askance and patronisingly pats the leftie saying, “Hey pal! Chill out and stop the self-flagellation. We’re doing great without your help, but thank you anyway!”

At heart the Left is deeply racist. For decades, the Democrats were the party of slavery, segregation, lynching, Jim Crow, forced sterilisation, and the KKK. By admitting Blacks and Hispanics with rock-bottom grades to top universities and by segregating them in separate dorms, progressives can continue the racial caste system. So every time you meet a Black with a PhD from Harvard or Stanford you won’t think Clarence Thomas or Ben Carson or Thomas Sowell. What you’ll think is: “Poor bugger! Got in on the Black quota! Three cheers for the bigotry of low expectations!”

Meanwhile, Vijay Chokal-Ingam may have dropped a bomb on the progressive playground. If a man can self-identify as a woman and join a women’s sports team or sleep in women’s dorms or shower in women’s bathrooms, why can’t an Asian American self-identify as an African American and get into Harvard? As a leftwing variant of Professor Higgins would sing: “Why can’t an Asian American be more like an African American?”

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine https://ift.tt/2EN1Z8s via IFTTT

[hoood-princess]

Letter to the Editor: Dance Marathon is a biodome of oppressive systems

Every year, Dance Marathon committee members take over The Rock, Norris University Center and other spaces throughout campus to encourage members of the Northwestern student body to fundraise a minimum of $400 dollars to dance for 30 hours in a tent. This tent, this event, this culture of Dance Marathon is a biodome that self-produces systems of oppression, colonial undertones and elitist exclusiveness. A biodome is a self-sustaining ecosystem, and the culture surrounding Dance Marathon continues to perpetuate these harmful systems under the guise of “promoting impactful change,” but allows those who participate to continue to ignore the harmful impact that Dance Marathon actually has. If this comes as a surprise to you in anyway, then please check your privilege at the door and read on.

Dance Marathon perpetuates systems of oppression through the many instances of exclusivity in all forms — many of the dancers are white, Greek-affiliated, able-bodied and affluent. The majority of dancers in Dance Marathon are involved in Greek life and that should not be shocking, but the most important thing is to question why.

The price of Dance Marathon thus excludes low-income students, as well as students that cannot afford the time or emotional energy to fundraise. While there are many resources, including the SES One Form, Trivia events and other programming available to students who are unable to raise the money, this does not take away from the fact it costs $400 dollars to dance in the first place. The gap of wealth is even more apparent as you hear the list of students and student groups who raise more than the $400 amount. These individuals and teams are announced on the Dance Marathon stage and have their photos posted online on the Dance Marathon website. Currently, the top individual fundraiser has raised $13,916 dollars, or rather the price of 34 dancers to dance. The top team (with 158 members) has raised $101,460 — the price of 253 dancers to dance.

Dance Marathon is a way that Greek members can flaunt their wealth and privilege. Naturally, the ease of fundraising comes along with the Greek-centered teams who participate. When an individual is a part of a team, fundraising becomes a lot easier because the funds of one individual can be easily distributed to all dancers. Meaning, an individual who is not a part of a team has a harder time finding resources and pulling together money for the $400 price; this in itself can be an isolating experience.

The ways in which individuals talk about money makes me frustrated — a few thousand dollars is often talked about as if it were Monopoly money. From personal experience, I have seen firsthand a dancer casually express joy when someone else on her team raised $6,000 in under an hour to meet the minimum threshold for all dancers of that team to dance. Furthermore, that dancer continued to actively ignore the fact that amount of money alone can be the yearly income of a family. To this dancer, everything about Dance Marathon is OK because “now everyone has the opportunity to dance in the tent!” Ignorant comments like this response show how there is seemingly nothing more to Dance Marathon except for Dance Marathon; as consequence, the systems of oppressions continue to perpetuate in the biodome culture of Dance Marathon.

The capitalist overtones of Dance Marathon dominate the culture and the actions of the event. While Dance Marathon occurs for one weekend, the publicity, social media posts, hype and advertisement consume the campus the month prior to the event. Dance Marathon works on having more: Having more dancers, having more money, having more exposure. The exec team reaches out during the recruitment period to have as many individuals registered at once, and then continues to push dancers to dance. From personal experience, while registered for Dance Marathon I have received many emails, phone calls and even texts asking me if I am still planning on dancing. This constant badgering proves that expansion and growth are the only ways to measure success. There is no other option: Dance Marathon must sustain and expand, and do so exponentially within the biodome.

This capitalist mentality carries over to the ways in which the dancers are treated as property and as a data point. Dancing for 30 hours is physically unhealthy. Additionally, a close friend of mine who was on the the Dancer Beneficiary Relations committee for two years experienced and saw the poor treatment of dancers first hand. In fact, they noted that — at times — their jobs included policing the movement of people from stopping too long during dance blocks, preventing individuals from receiving sleep and controlling the amount of time spent in bathrooms. This leads me to believe some of these people policing the space may prioritize the aesthetic of Dance Marathon over the physical and mental well-being of participants. Dance Marathon promotes a culture that prioritizes able-bodied and mentally-well individuals while excluding those who are on the opposite side of that spectrum. To promote able-bodies and minds showcases the ways in how those who participate in this difficult feat are privileged in our society.

The culture of Dance Marathon is dissociative in the ways that it produces a harmful impact to the community at large. This dissociation branches from the interaction (or the lack thereof) with the beneficiary. I’ve spoken with dancers who could not name the beneficiary, let alone state the purpose or the community they impact.

Moreover, as time progresses, social media timelines are flooded with various Facebook and Instagram posts that are carbon copies of rehearsed responses. Majority of the posts include the same, tired message: “This year, I am participating in one of the largest student-run philanthropies in the country – Northwestern University Dance Marathon. In the fall, more than 1,000 students will register to dance for an incredible cause, and I am excited to be a part of it …” The constant bombardment of the same, constructed, rehearsed message demonstrates the ways in which some dancers have no personal connection to the cause or the mission.

Dance Marathon has implemented a program that encourages volunteering for individuals who cannot fundraise the $400, but does not require every dancer to volunteer their own time. There is minimal connection between the nonprofit and the dancers unless the individual wishes to get involved. Therefore, Dance Marathon brands itself as self-congratulatory. After Dance Marathon there are a myriad of Instagram posts and Facebook statuses reminiscent of the “saviors” who go on voluntourism trips. Dance Marathon is self-congratulatory in the sense that it draws attention to the $400 raised and the 30 hours danced rather than the work that the beneficiary accomplishes. A pat on the back is given and the cause is forgotten until the next beneficiary is chosen for the following year. The last moments of Dance Marathon feature the exec team standing arm-in-arm as they reveal the final amount raised. Cheers, applause, screams and tears are heard and seen among the dancers, and their work is done. The self-rehearsed posts, the lack of knowledge of the beneficiary and the lack of interaction between the dancers and the nonprofit points to how some dancers disassociate themselves from doing actual impactful work.

So what are dancers and Dance Marathon supposed to do? I would suggest being more critical of the social impact you are making not only on this campus, but in this world. Money cannot be thrown on organizations in order to fix systemic issues that are deeply entrenched in our society. That is similar to putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. We must address the wound first through education, critical thought and dialogue. With these steps in mind, we can then push for a more positive and impactful way to give to the world.

Toni Akunebu, Weinberg junior

Source

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2018/03/09/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-dance-marathon-is-a-biodome-of-oppressive-systems/