#zap surf shop

[plushyraptor]

Jellowshipping week 2024!

Day 7 - Free Day! 🥳

I continue feeling unwell and tired, and I'm afraid I can't finish this piece in time - heck, I'm yet to even give it a title. 🙃

However, that won't stop me from putting the ~1,200 words I'd already scribbled up riiiight here in this post on my Tumblr dot com. Since I couldn't participate in jellowshipping week as much as I had wanted to, for the last day I wanted to put together a bigger piece using some of the prompts I couldn't get to.

Alas, with health issues continuing to plague me, I find it difficult to properly participate even in the last day. I don't want to abandon this story, though; I've got plenty of notes scribbled down with a fairly solid idea of where I wanna take it, but for now, for the last day of jellowshipping 2024, I can only upload the aforementioned ~1,200 words. I appreciate this li'l event being hosted, either way!

Once finished, I'll post a link on my Tumblr dot com. 😊 Here we go!

A restless Ledian was getting desperate trying to find a better resting spot; all the searching yielded no fruit! Every spot so far had ended up being too loud or busy because of other Pokémon, or having a lot of sunshine making it too warm, or not having enough sunshine making it too cold. If only the Ledian wasn’t such a shallow sleeper in the first place!

It got distracted for a moment when a Raichu zoomed by, surfing in the air on its tail. For the Raichu, it was the perfect time to indulge in afternoon zoomies, even if its trainer had vocally disagreed with it flying away so fast.

The Raichu zoomed past all the trees and shrubs until it reached a park, where children’s joyful laughter could be heard alongside the cries of their Pokémon. At their age, an inflated rubber ball provides endless possibilities for play, and little Pokémon like Happiny and Munchlax were not going to miss out on that, either.

They sure looked like they were having fun with that bouncy sphere thingy! The Raichu briefly considered joining their game, but maybe it should return to its trainer, instead; they must’ve been miles apart by the time the Raichu stopped.

Back to zooming! The Raichu decided to give itself a challenge by surfing on the sidewalk, weaving between people, startling some more than others – including Lillie, whose side it brushed against. And since surfing through the air builds up some electricity in a Raichu’s body despite mostly using psychic energy, such a brief contact was enough for that electricity to give Lillie a loud and snappy introduction. She yelped and flinched.

“Lillie! Are you hurt?” Mallow asked, immediately dropping her shopping bag.

The blonde looked to her left and to her right, amused by the ends of her hair bending and pointing upward. She giggled.

“I was just startled, is all. I’m not in any pain.”

Mallow couldn’t help herself and poked some of Lillie’s floating strands of hair – until she herself got a taste of that static zap.

“Oh! I-is it my turn to ask if you’re hurt?”

“Hee hee, you can! But I’m in no pain, either. I’m just made of silly! I don’t know what I was expecting to happen.”

“Now your pigtails are doing the same thing,” Lillie pointed out, “but admittedly I’m scared to touch them.”

“Oh, no! How are we going to hug at this rate? This truly is a tale of tragic proportions, two princesses separated by the wretched curse of a berserk Raichu~!” Mallow said in a playfully dramatic tone, accompanying her words with equally exaggerated posing.

“What a terrible fate has befallen us,” the blonde replied with a chuckle, then handed Mallow’s bag back to her.

It was a paper bag containing a sole shoe box; Mallow needed a new pair of sneakers since she’d worn her last out to the point of it falling apart, and with only a single back-up pair at home, she simply considered it reasonable to have a safety net even in the form of footwear.

The purchase didn’t go without its struggles, though; first she found a cute floral pair they didn’t have in her size. Then there was a neat red pair that would’ve been a great match for her tube top if it hadn’t been the least comfortable pair of shoes she’d ever set foot in. And the cute pair that was modelled after Steenee had quite the poutworthy price tag.

She had eventually settled on the pair in said box – comfy white sneakers that wouldn’t look out of place in a video game about fresh cephalokids.

Mallow took the bag from her. “Thank you, milady. I’m glad you agree with being a princess,” she said with a smile.

Lillie’s head sunk a bit. “As long as I get to be your princess specifically,” she said, bashfulness lacing her voice.

“Sure, I… you just, ugh, who authorised you to make me blush? I don’t think I did!” Mallow replied, visibly flustered but still playful.

“Oh, am I in trouble?” Lillie asked, wiggling innocently.

“Yes, I think you are. My fingers haven’t touched your sides in a while,” said Mallow in response without holding her mischievous intents back. Sensing her antics, Lillie flinched.

“Indeed! Perhaps we could arrange it to stay that way for longer!”

Mallow stepped closer, looking at her smugly. But then her expression shifted from mischievous to simply smiling.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t turn you into a squeaky toy in front of everyone.”

Lillie pouted. “Squeaky toy?!” She repeated, squeaking indeed. Mallow couldn’t help bursting into giggles. The blonde put her hands on her hips. “Unbelievable,” she added as a soft blush appeared on her face.

As the girls continued on their way, they eventually reached the park with the children and Pokémon playing, though instead of a ball they were all joyfully occupied with massive bubbles coming from a large bubble wand. The Happiny in particular had its itty-bitty mind blown by the floating shiny spheres; she simply sat in the grass, eyes and mouth wide open.

“Aww, this makes me wanna have Lana’s Popplio blow us bubbles too!” Mallow exclaimed. “I feel so jealous of those kids right now.”

“Her bubbles are quite strong, aren’t you scared of flying away in one?”

“I’m not,” she replied simply.

“...well, now I feel jealous.”

Mallow giggled. “You know I’d come and save you if anything were to happen to you.”

What a blush-inducing thing to say! Lillie looked away, definitely not imagining Mallow carrying her like a princess.

The direction she looked into happened to have a shop with something eye-catching in its display. She slowed down, but only briefly, picking her pace back up so Mallow wouldn’t notice the-

“Lillie! Do you see that Bellossom plushie?!”

There was so much joy in her voice, Lillie felt a little bad speaking up.

“...oh, no. You spoiled the surprise.”

Mallow looked at her, the supposedly spoilt surprise very much actually on her face. When the surprise faded, though, Lillie could see it was a touching moment for her.

“Lillie, you don’t have to buy it for me. I’m perfectly fine without one,” she said, nervously rubbing her lower arm; and Lillie knew she wasn’t quite sincere about the stuffed toy, with how fond she was of Bellossom to begin with. But Palentine's was approaching fast, and Lillie was yet to buy anything as a gift for her.

“I don’t consider it an obligation. It’s my desire to gift it to you, as a means of showing appreciation for everything you do for me. A-and that I… love you.”

A few tears welled up in Mallow’s eyes. But she didn’t want to drag the mood down, so she quickly wiped them off.

“Well, fine, but in exchange you’ll let me get you something too!”

Lillie folded her lips, unsure how to handle such a quick change of moods.

“Giving gifts is a pleasure, and I don’t want to deprive you of that,” she said, admittedly feeling somewhat apprehensive over Mallow spending money on her.

Mallow didn’t hesitate tackling the blonde with a hug.

“You with your fancy words! You’re such a nerd, Lillie!”

Again, being called a nerd – how was Lillie supposed to interpret this? Mallow’s gleefully affectionate voice was in such contrast with what nerd as a word felt like to the blonde.

“I love that about you,” Mallow added, softer. The message became clear.

[nomanwalksalone]

BRIGHT GREEN, BRIGHT YELLOW

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

A romantic restaurant six years ago. Thin and nervous, recovering from the worst illness of my life. On one side of us, a fireplace roars and crackles, making up for the bunch of lawbros talking structured finance to our other side.  And then suddenly, I hear it, faux-naively touching my heartstrings like its own accordion keys, slow wistful notes common to 1960s and early 1970s French films, the kind that I would stumble on in late-night zapping through cable… So common as to be almost anonymous and thus exotic. The sort of channel-surfing that felt like waking dreams and alcohol-fuelled glimpses of other realities, where other mores applied.

I knew this would stay with me in my ears and in my head, so was glad the staff were able to tell me what I was hearing, the theme to Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris lightly reworked by Gotan Project.

Last Tango in Paris, infamous now not for its eroticism but for the exploitation of its star Maria Schneider at the hands, and other body parts and a stick of butter, of director Bernardo Bertolucci and costar Marlon Brando.

Is it ever acceptable to separate what charms us from the otherwise problematic? I’ve been thinking about that again reading that Banana Republic is now marketing vintage items from its very different 1980s incarnation, back before its longtime owners, Gap, decided to rein it in. Back when its name, Banana Republic, had any relevance to its image and its merchandise.

Launched in Mill Valley, California in the late 1970s,Banana Republic once called itself a “travel and safari clothing company,” using a wonderfully constructed catalog narrative of exploration and exoticism to sell Brady fishing bags, so-called expatriate jackets and trousers, and arrays of travel books. It was closer to Seinfeld’s J. Peterman than J. Peterman itself, which started around the same time. Like Peterman, that old Banana Republic circulated thousands of catalogs with hand-drawn illustrations, rather than photographs, of its merchandise, accompanied by the seductive imagery of persuasive, whimsical prose recounting the founders’ exploits in Burma, Australia and elsewhere. The early Banana Republic shops featured life-size plastic megafauna like giraffes and staff whose jackets called them “guides”, with the shop logo of double bananas flanking a decidedly developing-nation-style star: the national seal, as it were, of Banana Republic.

To judge by small ads in old New Yorkers, many odd little ventures tried to sell clothes with atmosphere and wordy descriptions. But none did it more successfully than Banana Republic, which even launched (and quickly folded) its own high-powered travel magazine with serious contributions from international journalists famous not for fluff but insightful writing and photography.

In recent years, a devoted Instagram account, Abandoned Republic, has tracked down merchandise, memorabilia and personal memories from that era. And now, at least momentarily, so does Banana Republic corporate, in search of a more interesting brand identity than its last 30 years of “Gap, but a bit more upscale.”

Banana Republic corporate reconnecting with its past means current passing through a name, an attitude and a choice of merchandise that are necessarily differently freighted in today’s context. For the last three decades the name Banana Republic has been divorced from any signifier, a handful of syllables that might as well be an ideogram for “somewhat nicer khakis.” But what was a banana republic? In 1979, it must have sounded like a quirky choice of name, connoting quaint, backward, exotic autocracy – an elsewhere demarcated from the reader’s presumed safe, rule-of-law-governed, developed Northern Hemisphere, Western homeland. But this consciously chosen corporate name ignores the horrific, nearly incomprehensible political and ecological domination American corporations exerted on and in various South American countries to create and exploit enormous fruit plantations. O. Henry coining the term was one effect of such circumstances. This was by no means a forgivably distant phenomenon: barely two decades before Banana Republic’s own founding, one American fruit company lobbied the U.S. government into overturning a democratically elected government in Guatemala in favor of an unstable, bloodthirsty tyrant who safeguarded the company’s gigantic profits.

A similar lack of awareness stains those cute catalogs, which uncritically quote (for example) Henry Stanley, inarguably one of history’s greatest monsters, for the commercialization of safari fashions influenced by colonial nostalgia. Which was quite fashionable in the 1980s: Out of Africa, White Mischief, even claptrap like King Solomon’s Mines all came out in Banana Republic’s heyday, popular at least as much for their elegant, dashing depictions of ruling-classes as for their narratives. It’s rather surprising that the early Banana Republic didn’t sell the deeply freighted pith helmet, although it did sell – and the new BR vintage shop has briskly resold  –many, many surplus Israeli Defense Force shoulder bags.

Safari fashions, particularly against the narrative and cultural context of early Banana Republic media and marketing, risk not just whitewashing but bleaching and sanitizing centuries of exploitation in all its forms. That conjunction of imagery localizes readers in the shoes of the privileged and the heavily armed, gives those forerunners all the benefits of a reputation laundered and lightened of venality, predation, bloodthirstiness without connection to any agency, risking turning the wearers into walking unironic homages to them. Context refracts resonance.

And with the resale shop an homage to that homage, what are we to make of this? It seeks a rebrand, to stand for something more interesting, now that it’s been reminded that retail, like the daydreamed safari landscape of BR’s old marketing, too is red in tooth and claw.

Like my consternation thinking about Last Tango in Paris, perhaps we can reproportion concern. The Banana Republic resale shop, although much heralded in fashion media, can only be a limited phenomenon (dedicated to the exploitation of the #basic consumer, rather than the Global South), limited by the relative rarity of existing 1980s BR clothing and by the marketing needs of maintaining exclusivity. And marketed identity lasts until the next thing. We, consumers, must exit comforting and entertaining dreamworlds and be aware, of what we are wearing, of its significance, whether we are shopping at Banana Republic or elsewhere, whether the song playing in the background will haunt us romantically or psychically.

[reseau-actu]

Connaissez-vous le «phubbing», cette attitude qui consiste à ignorer une personne en consultant son téléphone? Comme lui, des dizaines de mots hybrides ont vu le jour dans la langue française. Le Figaro revient, grâce aux éclairages de Linda Giguère, sur ces termes bizarroïdes.

«Soyez cool et laissez-vous tenter par le juicing.» Cette phrase pourrait être une blague. La réplique d’un film parodique ou bien la citation d’un auteur français en mal d’amour anglais. Mais non. Cette nouvelle tendance, tout droit venue de nos voisins anglophones, n’est ni une «infox» - le mot français pour «fake news»- ni une plaisanterie - un autre mot français pour «gag». Elle existe vraiment et désigne l’art de «consommer des jus de légumes ou de fruits». Vous trouvez cela ridicule? Il y a pire encore: le «souping». Ce qui caractérise ni plus ni moins le fait... de se faire de la soupe.

En même temps, éplucher des légumes, pour les faire cuire dans l’eau, les préparer et les gober, ça devient tout de suite plus «cool» si on ajoute un «-ing», non? Cette faculté à ajouter des terminaisons anglophones est une tendance qui se généralise depuis quelques années, ainsi que le rapporte Linda Giguère dans L’humeur de Linda, diffusé sur TV5 Monde. Un exemple très concret: «On ne va plus au bureau mais on se rend dans un espace de co-working.» On ne fait plus de «remue-méninges», mais des «brainstormings». À prononcer sans le «s», au risque de dire «brainstorminx»...

Shopping!

À l’origine, rappelle la journaliste qui cite Le Monde, «les premiers mots en ‘‘-ing’’, sont apparus il y a une vingtaine d’années dans le monde de l’entreprise, du marketing et de la communication: coworking, colunching...». C’est le cas aussi des termes camping, parking, zapping... qui, en entrant dans la langue française, ont pris un sens différent de leurs homonymes anglophones. On parle ainsi de «camp site», «car park» et «channel surfing» pour ce qui est de l’équivalent du mot «zapping».

Jusque-là tout va bien. La langue française, comme toute langue moderne, vit et se nourrit donc d’emprunts. «Mais on en a créé d’autres», note avec pertinence Linda Giguère. «On a pris des mots français auxquels on a ajouté le suffixe -ing.» Et c’est alors que les choses se compliquent. Ainsi, on a donné naissance à des mots hybrides tels que «forcing», «listing»... Des termes qui possèdent bien pourtant leurs équivalents en français. Ceux-là rejoignent alors la liste des anglicismes qui pourraient être évités. Pourquoi ne pas dire, par exemple, «penderie» ou «garde-robe» à la place de «dressing», «faire les magasins» plutôt que «shopping»? Les formulations sont certes plus longues, mais elles ont le don de la précision...

Soyons snobs et parlons français!

En réalité, ce phénomène a deux explications, continue Linda Giguère: l’évolution de nos modes de vie et le besoin de montrer que l’on est de son temps. C’est un fait. L’anglais est la langue du numérique. Le français se modernise donc au gré des nouveautés, ici technologiques. Comme souvent, la révolution langagière se fait alors le reflet de la révolution sociétale. Le terme «phubbing» qui est la contraction du mot phone (téléphone) et snubbing (snober) a été créé pour caractériser l’attitude de celui ou de celle qui ignore autrui en consultant son téléphone».

L’«-ingisation» est aussi et soi-disant une manière d’être «hype». Linda Giguère l’explique très bien. Le «batch-cooking» désigne le fait de se préparer des plats pour la semaine. «En français, c’est la corvée du dimanche soir, mais avec le -ing, ça devient un moment de plaisir, de détente et de partage.» Idem pour les fooding, brunching et topping.

Mais allons, ce qui est à la mode est déjà dépassé. Alors soyons snobs, et parlons français!

[jessekerr-blog1]

Summary about Buying Breyer Horse Toys

Originally, people bought model horses because they were fun. What started as horse toys has now become a massive collector's hobby. A similar thing happened with baseball cards, comics and many other toys. Question #1: Why are you collecting? This must be the first question answered for the reason that response to this determine the reply to another question that follows. I think, there exists only one right response to this query. Collect horses since it is fun! Just because something may be worth a lot of money does not imply it should stop being fun. Money includes a supply of things bent in poor condition. When it comes to collecting anything, there will always be individuals who have their eyes so dedicated to the cash they've overpassed the thrill. Now that we've got answered this key question, we can begin other questions.

Question #2: Which horses should I collect? Should you answered the initial question correctly this you are easy. Collect the horses you like one of the most! You can collect your preferred breed maybe favorite colors or another type which you like. There are a variety of sizes from large horses from the 1:9 scale, like the Breyer Traditional line that happen to be about 9 inches tall, to small horses in the 1:24 scale, for example Schleich horses which are about 3.5 inches tall. If you like developing a rare model horse, it's likely you have to pay for more to have one but you will find discontinued and limited editions available. Breyer publishes a yearly collector's guidebook which lists the market values of many model horses. However, even though these dollar values are printed inside a book doesn't imply you can sell your horses for the people prices. The so-called value is just real if you possibly could hire a roofer who is willing to pay that amount. With the Internet, collectible hobbies have become buyer's markets because even rare products are now quicker to find. Consequently, the specific prices in the pub tend to be lower than what could be listed in a novel. If you're looking at collectible toys as a possible investment, I suggest finding elsewhere to invest your cash. Collectible products are a bad investment. Even when your horses hold their value, wanting to liquidate them into cash is not so simple and often more trouble than worth. Plus the process of marketing your horses is filled with pitfalls because it carries a method of zapping each of the fun right out of the hobby. Question #3: Where should i read more information? There are several methods to find out about model horses along with the hobby of collecting them. First, you can enroll in hobby magazines like 'Just About Horses' from Breyer. Another magazine is 'Model Horse Showers Journal'. Second, you are able to join clubs to fulfill other collectors. Clubs offer newsletters and demonstrates to you can attend. Club fees usually are minimal considering what you'll get. Some clubs are specific to a horse breed although some are focused on a specific region. Third, you may get loads additional information by simply surfing the Internet. Simply do a Search engine for model horses or horse toys. Question #4: Where must i buy model horses? There's 2 markets, one for new horses and one for previously-owned horses. You will discover new horses accessible in most toy stores, however the biggest selection and easiest spot to shop is online. Many retailers provide large images in order to clearly see what you're getting. For previously-owned horses, the best place to shop could be online, at hobby shows or by registering to hobby newsletters where other hobbyists are allowed to list their horses on the market. There is lots to discover this hobby. The key point out remember is always to enjoy your horses and like the ride! More information about igrushki Breyer see this popular web site.

[orbitbrain]

Your Android Phone's Cookies and Cache Build Up Fast. How to Clean Them Out A few taps can zap away a lot of junk files.

Your Android Phone's Cookies and Cache Build Up Fast. How to Clean Them Out A few taps can zap away a lot of junk files.

Clearing out the cookies and cache in your Android cellphone‘s net browser can do away with loads of extra knowledge, which can have constructed up over the course of visiting many alternative web sites. Whether or not your cellphone makes use of Google Chrome, Firefox or Samsung Web, your browser collects and shops knowledge each time you surf the online. This data makes up your cookies and…

[surfinglombok]

Best Place For Beginner Surfers In Indonesia | Surfing Lombok

For some voyagers, the way into an astounding occasion is a spot that is both pleasant just as unwinding. Regardless of whether it's a climb up a wilderness trail to search for shrouded characteristic ponders or jump the most profound ranges of the sea for a look at The compelling force of nature's magnificent manifestations, explorers in this advanced age are spoilt for decision. Some educated explorers, nonetheless, make explicit occasion objections as to their fantasy occasion. Want to know about the best Surf Camp in Kuta Lombok? Surfinglombok.com is a top platform that provides vast knowledge about secrets surf retreats and the best time to surf in Lombok.  

 One such spot, situated in the archipelago of Indonesia, is the little island of Bali. However, don't be tricked by the little size that is Bali. Bali offers many energizing exercises, nearly ensuring that any voyager would make numerous resulting trips back! With its white, sandy seashores, energizing nightlife, and a functioning well of lava, there is certainly something for everybody in Bali.  

Individuals express that an outing to Bali is never finished without visiting the popular seashores and encountering the zapping nightlife of Kuta, a town situated on the southern compasses of the island. Numerous voyagers plan their vacation in Kuta Bali first before proceeding onward to either different pieces of Indonesia or different pieces of Bali Island. For some making their first outing to Indonesia, beginning their vacation in Kuta Bali will be a brilliant decision.  

As a result of the heap blend of explorers from all pieces of the globe, Bali combines the best among East and West making an excursion to this occasion island both outlandish yet natural. The first thing any explorer would see is the friendliness of local people in Bali. Benevolent and warm, these local people cause every explorer to feel comfortable while presenting the numerous rich social parts of Bali's set of experiences.  

With Kuta being the ideal objective for vacationers from everywhere the world, numerous lodgings, resorts, and private manors are promptly accessible, with additional in transit! From explorers to tasteful voyagers and love birds to enormous families, voyagers are spoilt for decision with regards to picking the correct convenience in Kuta. Exercises shrewd, Kuta offers a great spot to get the hang of surfing! Fledglings hoping to get surfing may do well here in Kuta given its long seashores, liberated from risky rocks and corals. There are surf schools and private "coaches" along the seashore for any individual who is hoping to encounter surfing. For those searching for a shopping experience in Bali, Kuta is the smartest option. Taking into account a high volume of voyagers, the shopping centers here offer top global brands at deal costs, not found in different regions of Bali. At the point when the sun has set, carry yourself to Jalan Legian and experience the gathering zone of Bali, even stalwart wild partiers would affirm!  

To many, making a trip intends to investigate and see new things. After encountering what Kuta has to bring to the table, it makes one wonder: what's next? Indeed, Indonesia has many, a lot more things to offer to voyagers. An occasion in Indonesia could mean visiting the numerous effectively available dynamic spring of gushing lava locales, for example, in East Java or Bali's neighboring island, Lombok. Visit bunches are effortlessly masterminded through lodgings and resorts yet some lean toward journeying independently from gatherings to appreciate a portion of the beautiful perspectives these destinations have to bring to the table.  

For plunge aficionado, the gathering of the island called Wakatobi must be THE movement objective. Referred to all through the world as a standout amongst other jump locales, Wakatobi offers educational knowledge to the assorted marine life, immaculate by advancement. Voyagers looking to encounter a tad of history and culture would locate Indonesia's rich social legacy a fascinating draw. A portion of the world's most seasoned sanctuaries and landmarks are found in Indonesia and most are so all-around protected that explorers would think that it's difficult to accept that it was constructed many years prior!

For more info:- Easiest Barrels in Lombok

[galegomultimarcas-blog]

- Nike dos Novos 🔥 nO DIRECT 📥 🔊ATURA OU SURTAA😜 @langr🏄Eficiência Honestidade e Qualidade Nós somos a @galegoficial ofc.. . 📲Zap(11) 94896-9436 👨🏻‍💻Somos Loja Física e Virtual 🚚Enviamos via correio 🏦Pagamentos via depósito 💸Transferência bancária 💳Aceitamos Cartões 💰 🤴🏻Mais informações DIRECT📥 SIGAM👉🏼 @galegoficial ✅ #loja #shopping #vendas #moda #surf #fashion #segue #sdv #model #grife #vendasonline #shoping #luxo #modelos #lojaonline #store #linda #lindo #fitness #page #cute #followme #like4like #awesomeness #sport #marketing #pub #bomdia #boanoite (em São Paulo, Brazil)

[altaf443-blog]

Gift Cards - Everything You Need to Know For those who need help completing their holiday or special occasion shopping on time, there is a convenient alternative to consider. Gift cards make great stocking stuffers for Christmas and also convey your love, good tidings or best wishes when you are unable to purchase a physical gift. Though some people decry the impersonality of a gift card, they do have the distinct advantage of empowering loved ones and friends to choose the items they desire or like the most.

Before Buying a Gift Card

While purchasing and giving a gift card may seem easy, there is a wide-range of factors that could make or break the success of this transaction. Below are a few considerations to pay attention to when selecting gift cards:

1) Gift Card Starting Point: After you've decided to purchase a gift card, you should think long and hard about the individual that the card is for. The value and type of card should match the style, character and tastes of the recipient. One of the reasons retailers like gift cards is that users often buy more than the gift card's value, so make sure you activate the card with enough value to buy a decent present.

2) Type of Gift Card: There are two main types of gift cards to choose from: store-specific or general-purpose. The purchase of a store-specific gift card is a more personal, heartfelt approach because it says, "Hey, I know what you like and where you like to shop!" Does Aunt Vera have a sweet tooth? Select a gourmet chocolate gift card from the likes of Ghirardelli or Fanny Farmer. Is your nephew very picky when it comes to clothes? Choose a gift card he can use at his favorite store located within a specific mall.

With a general-purpose gift card, the recipient can use the monetary allowance to purchase whatever they wish, wherever a credit card like Visa, MasterCard or American Express is accepted. Before buying, be sure to ask about exceptions or restrictions on the use of the card. For example, you probably won't be able to purchase an airline ticket with a general-purpose gift card.

3) Read the Fine Print: When giving a gift card, never ignore the fine print. Unreasonable service fees or activation fees, as well as shipping and handling charges, certainly put a damper on giving or receiving this type of present. Generally speaking, store-specific gift cards have fewer fees than general-purpose cards from companies like Mastercard or Visa.

4) Internet vs. Store Gift Cards: While some gift cards permit you to make purchases from both local and online stores, many do not. Before buying a gift card, ask about how it can be used, and think about who this present is for. What type of card would they be most likely to use? Do they spend a lot of time surfing the Internet and feel comfortable ordering online? Or would they rather visit a store in their neighborhood? Be sure to buy a gift card that matches.

5) E-Gift Cards or Certificates: When time is of the essence, you can often purchase a gift certificate at an online retailer and have it emailed directly to the recipient. The emails contain a verification code of some sort that must be entered into an online order form when a purchase in made in order to activate the gift. Such "e-gift" cards are certainly convenient but since they almost invariably must be redeemed online, keep that in mind before buying.

5) Gift Card Scams: It is possible for gift cards to be tampered with, and it's amazing how ingenious thieves can be. For example, in one con, thieves make note of the identifying information displayed on gift cards being offered for sale, then periodically call to check if they've been activated. When they are, they use the order code/PINS to shop online, thereby draining these cards of value before you get them. Protect yourself by examining both sides of cards yourself before purchase, keeping an eye out for signs of tampering and/or the exposure of the cards' PINs. Immediately after buying a gift card in a store, ask the cashier to scan the card itself to ensure the plastic you bought is valid and bears the proper value. (This will protect you against the card's having been swapped out of its packaging for a zero-balance one.) Never buy them from auction sites - according to the National Retail Federation, many of these cards are stolen or counterfeit.

Using a Gift Card

If you have received a gift card, the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of your present. Knowing the details and limitations of the card will allow you to make the most of your purchases, as well as avoid unnecessary deductions from your funds.

1) Expiration Date: Some gift cards expire within six months to a year, while others a bit longer. You should check for an expiration date on your card to avoid a loss of funds. Once you exceed the expiration date, you will no longer be able to use the gift card. This limitation can be found either on the front or back of your card and often requires reading the small print.

2) Monthly Fees: Depending on the gift card you have received, you might get zapped with a monthly fee for "maintenance." It could be less than a dollar or more, but depending on the original or remaining amount, this may prompt you to act quickly when making purchases for fear of losing a chunk of your gift.

3) Gift Card Balance: Checking your gift card balance is as easy as calling a toll-free number or reviewing your account online. This is a great way to keep track of what you've spent and what you have left. Depending on the amount of money left on your gift card, you may have to carry extra cash when shopping, in case you see an item that exceeds your remaining balance. Click the link below to get the card for free..... http://landpage.co/giftcard365

[charissekenion]

Yeah pretty much over the consistently grey days of rain right now. Did anyone else have a crappy weekend? I felt like my hormones were on 100 and that SAD was officially back on my schedule. The weirdest thing is, several people have told me the same thing; that they’re in a funk, that they could easily stay at home in their apartment if it wasn’t for taxis taking them from one location to the next. I’m familiar with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), but just in case you’re not; it’s a form of depression brought on by the change of season. You’ll most likely feel zapped of energy and pretty moody. It’s not that I hate autumn - I actually love it - but I always refer to myself as a sun worshipper or beach lover; I love being outdoors and I guess these colder months put a dampener on that - literally! I find regular trips to the gym help massively, and also, especially if you work from home - getting OUT. Go to a coffee shop for an hour, get a massage, interact with people. Do you ever get SAD? . . . . . #seasonalaffectivedisorder #SAD #feelingsad #sosadtoday #mood #fullmoon #horoscopes #mentalhealth #dailymentalhealth #sun #sea #sand #surf #fuerteventura #holidayblues #vacation #wanderlust (at Fuerteventura, Canarias, Spain) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3tdQ4cpIKQ/?igshid=1wfq2wsu8r9dk

[robertshugartca]

The New Year may be upon us, but that doesn’t mean your...

The New Year may be upon us, but that doesn’t mean your go-to denim is going anywhere. If you, like dozens of fashion girls, plan on wearing your skinny jeans well through 2020, you’ve come to the right place. Chances are you’re feeling zapped of outfit inspiration for the jeans or have found yourself in a rut of wearing the same combos over and over. Fret not. We’re here to fill up your tank of ideas, so to speak, with a fresh batch of trends that will have you dreaming up how to wear skinny jeans in 2019.

Five of the season’s biggest trends just so happen to play extremely well with the denim. Enter the coziest trend of the year, fuzzy teddy coats , which just so happen to be the bulky outerwear your skinny jeans were made for. Then there’s the wave of tough combat boots the fashion crowd is all loving right now. Tuck your skinnies into the leather lace-up boots and never deal with that awkward ankle bunching again.

Keep reading to discover and shop the five new 2019 trends that are perfect to wear with skinny jeans.

The coziest trend of winter 2019? Without a doubt, all the faux-shearling and teddy coats floating around our Instagram feeds and favorite retailers. It was love at first sight with this outerwear trend, but it also happens that the extra volume the coat provides is just begging to be offset with streamlined skinny jeans. We’re keeping a close eye on this buzzy outerwear brand. An outfit idea and a coat. So cozy you won’t want to take it off indoors. Combat boots seem to have been made just for skinny jeans. While wearing skinny jeans with other boot styles can quickly result in awkward bunching around the ankles, combat boots with a slightly higher rise offer the ideal tucking ability for the jeans. Oh, and they happen to be a favorite among the fashion crowd right now. What’s not to love? Caroline Daur wears her The Row pair on repeat, as seen above. It’s official: Everyone and their mother owns this pair (including this editor).  These don't just go with skinny jeans. Skirts, dresses, and other pant styles all play well with the boot style. I’m not sure who decided that cardigans were going to be cool again, but I’d like to give them a hug. The traditional sweater never really went away, but suddenly it’s become one of the It items of the season. Tuck one into high-waisted skinny jeans or leave the bottom few buttons undone like our editor Nicole did here for a fresh sweater outfit idea. The Instagram-famous top in all its glory. Marc Jacobs just relaunched its grunge collection from 1993, and this cardigan is one of the standout pieces. Those ruffles, though. Skinny jeans and ballet flats… Now that’s a combo we’ve heard before. Unlike how everyone wore the pairing back in the noughties, ballet flat–style pumps are being reinvented for 2019 thanks to the styles from buzzy shoe brands like By Far and Reike Nen. And yes, we highly recommend them for all your skinny-jean needs. By Far’s slingback pumps feel classic and new all at the same time. This pair’s all in the details. Classic shoes for an accessible price tag. You heard it here first: The next wave of athleisure is all about surf culture. But you don’t need to slip into an actual wetsuit to participate in the trend. Thin, quarter-zip tops hit on the sport-tech trend and play quite well with skinny jeans, too, if we do say so ourselves. It’s all about the contrasting zipper. Paging all your black skinny jeans. I just picked up this top and have a million styling ideas for it already. Speaking of jeans and trends, see which new denim trends our readers are already wearing on Instagram .

source https://gothify1.tumblr.com/post/181997266130

[gothify1]

The New Year may be upon us, but that doesn't mean your go-to denim is going anywhere. If you, like dozens of fashion girls, plan on wearing your skinny jeans well through 2020, you've come to the right place. Chances are you're feeling zapped of outfit inspiration for the jeans or have found yourself in a rut of wearing the same combos over and over. Fret not. We're here to fill up your tank of ideas, so to speak, with a fresh batch of trends that will have you dreaming up how to wear skinny jeans in 2019. Five of the season's biggest trends just so happen to play extremely well with the denim. Enter the coziest trend of the year, fuzzy teddy coats , which just so happen to be the bulky outerwear your skinny jeans were made for. Then there's the wave of tough combat boots the fashion crowd is all loving right now. Tuck your skinnies into the leather lace-up boots and never deal with that awkward ankle bunching again. Keep reading to discover and shop the five new 2019 trends that are perfect to wear with skinny jeans. The coziest trend of winter 2019? Without a doubt, all the faux-shearling and teddy coats floating around our Instagram feeds and favorite retailers. It was love at first sight with this outerwear trend, but it also happens that the extra volume the coat provides is just begging to be offset with streamlined skinny jeans. We're keeping a close eye on this buzzy outerwear brand. An outfit idea and a coat. So cozy you won't want to take it off indoors. Combat boots seem to have been made just for skinny jeans. While wearing skinny jeans with other boot styles can quickly result in awkward bunching around the ankles, combat boots with a slightly higher rise offer the ideal tucking ability for the jeans. Oh, and they happen to be a favorite among the fashion crowd right now. What's not to love? Caroline Daur wears her The Row pair on repeat, as seen above. It's official: Everyone and their mother owns this pair (including this editor).  These don't just go with skinny jeans. Skirts, dresses, and other pant styles all play well with the boot style. I'm not sure who decided that cardigans were going to be cool again, but I'd like to give them a hug. The traditional sweater never really went away, but suddenly it's become one of the It items of the season. Tuck one into high-waisted skinny jeans or leave the bottom few buttons undone like our editor Nicole did here for a fresh sweater outfit idea. The Instagram-famous top in all its glory. Marc Jacobs just relaunched its grunge collection from 1993, and this cardigan is one of the standout pieces. Those ruffles, though. Skinny jeans and ballet flats… Now that's a combo we've heard before. Unlike how everyone wore the pairing back in the noughties, ballet flat–style pumps are being reinvented for 2019 thanks to the styles from buzzy shoe brands like By Far and Reike Nen. And yes, we highly recommend them for all your skinny-jean needs. By Far's slingback pumps feel classic and new all at the same time. This pair's all in the details. Classic shoes for an accessible price tag. You heard it here first: The next wave of athleisure is all about surf culture. But you don't need to slip into an actual wetsuit to participate in the trend. Thin, quarter-zip tops hit on the sport-tech trend and play quite well with skinny jeans, too, if we do say so ourselves. It's all about the contrasting zipper. Paging all your black skinny jeans. I just picked up this top and have a million styling ideas for it already. Speaking of jeans and trends, see which new denim trends our readers are already wearing on Instagram .

[travel-blog-incitysearch]

Portugal

Portugal is a country for hedonists with a long history. Wandering the cozy streets of its cities, you can feel for a moment somewhere in Spain or southern France. With one fundamental difference: there are almost no ubiquitous tourists format "galloping across Europe", this place - rather for wealthy travelers who prefer a special, elitist vacation. Here they value tradition, honor the rich historical heritage, know how to enjoy life and not stingy on comfort, creating it for themselves and for dear in every sense of the word guests. Breathing in the smell of oranges and eucalyptus, strolling along the waterfront, enjoying wine to the sad songs of Fado in picturesque cafes, you can get to know the real Europe - the one that is too proud and beautiful to participate in the tourist race.

Regions and resorts of Portugal

Photo by nextvoyage on Pixabay The capital is Lisbon, which became the center of the country in the 13th century and 5 centuries later was destroyed by an earthquake, but quickly regained its greatness. The most famous attraction is St. George's Castle: a formidable fortress on a hill which once belonged to a Moorish emir and later to the Portuguese kings. The Lisbon Cathedral, which has survived the earthquake and shows traces of Rococo, Baroque, Gothic and Neoclassical architecture, is also a survivor. There are beaches in the vicinity of the capital - a succession of fashionable resorts called the Lisbon Riviera. The main attraction of Lisbon are the winding streets of the old neighborhoods: meandering between the neat houses with a azulejos tile decor, you can not help but feel the mood of the city. The second most visited city is Porto, which leads its history since the 4th century. The best place to start in the capital of Porto - no, not the bar - is the historic center, protected by UNESCO. Here are both the fortress-like cathedral and the impressively sized Church of São Francisco.

Photo by BernardoUPloud on Pixabay Tired of being monumental, head to the Ribeira neighborhood, with its colorful little houses that overlap each other to create a charming atmosphere. And after the tour, it's time to relax on any of the fine or sandy beaches in the city. Fifty kilometers north of Porto is Braga, the center of Portuguese Catholicism with the residence of the Archbishop. Not surprisingly, the main tourist attractions here are cathedrals and churches built in Gothic, Romanesque and other styles. Coimbra's main attraction is the oldest university in the country - a complex of smart baroque buildings, including even the former royal palace. It's also a great shopping experience with plenty of bookstores, boutiques and antique shops. Évora is also an ideal place for gastronomic pleasures: its cheeses, desserts and wines are over the top. Nourish your appetite by exploring the architectural beauty of the surrounding countryside, some beautifully preserved Neolithic monuments, and the ruins of a Roman temple and medieval cathedrals in the city itself. For the tastiest seafood, head to Faro, which is usually the starting point of excursions to the south of Portugal. The port restaurants are a handy place to stop by, right from the Blue Flag beach. Obidos - a small town and very cozy: snow-white villas, paved walkways, bright flowerbeds, as if came off a beautiful postcard. Found a place here and the sights: worth just a medieval castle, where if you want - and enough thickness of the purse - you can even spend the night. Setúbal is also known for its beautiful scenery and ancient architecture - the forts and cathedrals are a sight to behold in the mountains. See the full list of Portugal's cities and resorts on our page. Portugal is in two time zones: UTC-1 and UTC. The Azores are in UTC-1. The rest of the country (e.g. the cities of Porto and Faro) is in UTC time zone. In summer, the clocks in Portugal are changed.

Portugal's climate

Photo by Leslin_Liu on Pixabay Portugal has a subtropical Mediterranean climate: mild, without sharp fluctuations in temperature. In the north, due to the Gulf Stream, the maritime climate prevails. Summers are dry and sunny, but not hot (average temperature about +20 ° C, in the mountains - about +18 ° C), winter is cool (from +4 ° to +10 ° C) and rainy. In the south of the country is warm and dry. Average January temperature is +5 … +10 ° C, July +20 … +27 ° C. The water in summer warms up to +20 … +23 ° C. The best way to get acquainted with Portugal from May to October, the weather at this time is almost always warm and sunny, the rain is a rarity, and you'll feel comfortable on the beach and on foot. But be careful about swimming: because of the ocean currents the water on the Portuguese coast is cool. Swimming is better to the south of Lisbon, where the Atlantic is warmer by 2-3 ° C, and the difference is noticeable. North of the capital, most vacationers prefer to sunbathe and enjoy the scenery. Spring is the best time for surfing, but in winter it's rainy, although the sun often returns to the south.

Visa and customs

Portugal is a Schengen country, and Russian citizens need a visa and insurance to visit the country. Import and export of foreign currency is not limited. When entering from non-EU countries, amounts over 10,000 EUR are subject to mandatory declaration. The prices on this page are for September 2018. You can import duty-free 200 cigarettes (alternatively, 250 g of tobacco or 50 cigars), 1 liter of spirits and 2 liters of wine. Allowed 500 g of coffee and 100 g of tea, 50 ml of perfume and 250 ml of toilet water. Importing and exporting drugs, items of historical value, weapons and ammunition, as well as animals and plants listed as endangered species are prohibited. Potatoes produced outside the European Union, any meat and milk products and chocolate are also banned. Tax free Prices in Portugal are quite high, so the Tax free system is very useful here. You can save up to 10-14%, the tax is returned on purchases worth 61 EUR and more in stores participating in the program. You will get two receipts: a regular cash register receipt and a special tax-free receipt, which you can fill out on your own or delegate this task to a salesperson with a foreign passport. The second part of the challenge is at the airport. Arriving at the airport at least 4 hours before departure you have to show the customs agent the unpacked goods, both receipts and your passport, get a special stamp and go to the Global Blue desk for the issuance of VAT. Information on check-in points Tax-Free - on the map of the airport or at the information desk. Those leaving the country by car will have to go through the same procedures at the EU border.

Transport

Photo by Nudio on Pixabay There are four types of buses in Portugal: expressos, rapidas, carreiras marked "CR" (stop at every intersection), and alta qualidade (luxury). The ticket Lisbon - Faro by express bus costs about 17-35 EUR (4 hours of travel time). The bus Lisbon - Porto takes 3,5 hours and the journey costs from 19-29 EUR. During the high season is better to book tickets in advance. Prices on local routes are affordable, and in the summer - even more so. There are often discounts for passengers under 26 years. The railroad connects Lisbon with the south of Portugal. Travelling by train is longer than by express bus, but cheaper. There are regional trains that stop at all stops, fast inter-regional trains and express trains. Learn the schedule and ticket prices on the official website of railroads. Public transport in cities A well-developed, well-organised transport network makes it possible to travel comfortably within Portuguese cities. Buses are available in every town and cost 1,40 EUR (1,80 EUR from the driver). There are night buses in Lisbon. To stop the bus, you must wave to the driver from the bus stop. Entrance is through the front door only. The capital and Porto have a metro: the first consists of 4 lines and runs from 6:00 to 1:00, the second consists of 6 lines and closes at 1:30. You can pay only with plastic cards. One trip in the capital subway costs 1,40 EUR, in Porto - from 1,30 EUR, depending on the zone. The cost of the Metro and Bus card in Lisbon is EUR 6,30 per day. The Zapping card is also available at the price of EUR 1,30 and is rechargeable for any amount from 3 to 40 EUR. In Porto, all public transport tickets cost 15 EUR for 24 hours and 26 EUR for 48 hours. Points of sale are located in stations and metro stations. For holders of the Lisboa Card (price from 15 EUR per day) travel on public transport is free. Another popular form of transportation in major cities - streetcars. In Lisbon there are both modern trains (route number 15, going to the area of Belem), and charming old cars, which take tourists to sights. The most famous is the route № 28, which runs along the main sightseeing points: from the castle of St. George to Augusta Street with the Arc de Triomphe. The cost is 2,90 EUR. Enjoy also a trip in a retro streetcar through the streets of Porto (tickets 2,50 EUR). A double-decker sightseeing bus is an alternative to the streetcar: a one-day trip to the capital city costs from 20 EUR, to Porto - from 10 EUR. There are audio guides in 7 languages on board and you can get on and off at any stop. Portuguese cabs are black and green or beige, equipped with indicators (green signal means "busy") and meters. The average fare per ride is 3,90 EUR, for each km - 0,56 EUR. Out-of-town trips are paid not by the meter, but by the kilometer (the cost includes return trip back to the city). It is no use to catch a cab in the street: you will have to look for a special parking or to call for a car by phone (plus 0,80 EUR to the cost of transfer). A trip around Lisbon costs 15 - 20 EUR on average and getting to the airport - 25 EUR. At nighttime prices go up by 20%, cab drivers are usually given a tip of 10%. An option for the sportiest is a bike rental: a day of skiing will cost from 20 EUR, rental stations are available in all major cities. But calculate your strength soberly: the Portuguese streets are fraught with sharp turns, steep climbs and descents.

Hotels in Portugal

Photo by z0man on Pixabay Portugal is dominated by high-level hotels. Most of them operate on a breakfast basis, half-board is rare, there is no all-inclusive system. This is due to the fact that the country has a very tasty and diverse cuisine: tourists prefer to try everything in different places rather than eat at the hotel buffet. The best hotels - old hotels (pousadas), corresponding to the level of 4-5 "stars". Historic pousadas are old castles and fortresses, reconstructed and turned into luxury hotels (there are about 50 in total). Staying in them is considered prestigious. There are also regional "pouzades", which are manor houses or houses built in the typical architectural style for this area. Here guests are served mostly local specialties. There are accommodations for budget tourists in Portugal as well. For example, local hostels are recognized as one of the best in Europe: they regularly top the prestigious world ratings and please their guests with hospitality, cleanliness and decent level of service. The cost of a bed in a shared room in Lisbon, Porto or Algarve starts from 16 EUR per night. Prices in the capital's hotels 2 * - from 55 EUR, in the hotels above - from 65 EUR per night. The mains voltage is 220 V, 50 Hz, the sockets are standard European.

Safety

Photo by nuno_lopes on Pixabay In Portugal it is not terrible to walk along the street at any time of the day, but it is better not to leave valuables in the car or on the beach completely unattended. Do not carry a purse in your pocket, photo and video cameras are better to hang around the neck. Cars in the country almost never stolen, there are no dangerous diseases, no need for special vaccinations. In major cities you can drink tap water, but in some areas - for example, in the Algarve - it is too salty. Portugal is located in a seismically active area, about twice a year earthquakes occur here. Another natural hazard - forest fires, so campfires on beaches, parks and forest belts are strictly forbidden: if you are lucky you get a fine, if not - jail. Besides, the local government toughened a ban on smoking: it is possible to light a cigarette only in specially allocated zones on streets and in establishments of public catering, the charge for disobedience - 50-750 EUR. But to the light drugs, as it seems strange, the guards of the order are more or less loyal. You can buy "weed" right in the center, but 90% of the cases it will be low-quality fake. And loyalty is loyalty, but you should not be cheeky and demonstratively smoke a joint in the middle of the avenue.

Beaches in Portugal

Photo by makunin on Pixabay In Portugal all beaches are municipal. For two sun beds and an umbrella you will have to pay from 8 EUR per day. However, wealthy tourists (and others in the country almost do not go) is not afraid of this. On the Lisbon Riviera and the Algarve - fine white sand, Madeira beaches are pebbly or artificial. Flags warn about the state of the ocean: red - the sea is rough and swimming is strictly forbidden, yellow - you must be very careful, green - safe. The season officially kicks off June 15 and runs until September 15. The closest beach to Lisbon is in the town of Carcavelos, which never stops for the day or night. The coast is wide and sandy and has a gently sloping entrance to the water while the sun shines. It's a great spot for surfing, picnics, and leisurely meandering between bars. At night, Carcavelos becomes a trendy party spot, making the nightclubbing and sandy beach party all the rage until dawn. The most famous sporting beach is Guincho in Cascais, not far from the capital. There are always impressive waves and wind here, so surfers, windsurfers and kite surfers are magnetically attracted to the area. The coast is wide, the approach is easy, and there are cafes and picnic grounds nearby. Adherents of a more relaxed holiday suit the nearby "Torre" or "Riberia". Another famous spot for wave conquerors - the picturesque beach "Ribeira da Illas" in the town of Erisheira, which has won the unofficial title of "world reserve surfing". The coastline of the south of Portugal is dotted with beaches, one of the most popular resorts in the Algarve - Lagos: here and the rocky tunnels, and secluded corners for nudists, and equipped areas for recreation. One of the oldest nudist beaches is nearby, on the island of Tavira, with its serene atmosphere, clear waters and the eloquent title of "Nude Beach". For seclusion, the tiny island of Porto Santo, for example, has a 9-kilometer-long stretch of stunning sandy beaches. Sunbathing and swimming is possible not only on the ocean: in the town of Macedo de Cavaleiroos a recreation area is equipped with a reservoir at Albufeira do Azibu. The water here is clean, the river sand is snow-white, the beauty of sunsets is breathtaking, and the safety is guaranteed by the Blue Flag.

Diving

Photo by joakant on Pixabay Divers love Portugal because of the amazing beauty of the underwater world, excellent visibility at different depths, mild climate and developed infrastructure, so that even the cool ocean is not an obstacle. Read the full article

[orbitbrain]

Cleaning Your Android Phone's Cookies and Cache Can Get Rid of Excess Junk Files Your Android phone's web browser picks up a lot of data. A few taps can zap it away.

Cleaning Your Android Phone's Cookies and Cache Can Get Rid of Excess Junk Files Your Android phone's web browser picks up a lot of data. A few taps can zap it away.

Clearing out the cookies and cache in your Android cellphone‘s net browser is an effective option to do away with plenty of extra knowledge, which is more likely to have constructed up over the course of visiting many various web sites on daily basis. Whether or not your cellphone makes use of Google Chrome, Firefox or Samsung Web, your browser collects and shops knowledge each time you surf the…

[bluewatsons]

Mark Taylor, Madness of Choice, 8 Capitalism & Society 3 (2013)

Abstract

This paper is divided into two parts. The first part traces the genesis of the modern interpretation of individual selfhood back to the Protestant Reformation. By privatizing, deregulating, and decentralizing religion, Luther prepared the way for what would eventually become the modern notion of the market. Educated in the Calvinist atmosphere of Scotland, Adam Smith translates Calvin’s notion of divine providence and the fortunate fall into the notion of the invisible hand and machinations of the market through which pursuit of personal ends serve the good of the whole.

The second part of the paper presents an analysis of the dynamics of individual decision through a consideration of theories of emergent complex adaptive systems. In this model, individuals function as something like nodes in intersecting social, cultural, technological and natural webs. The economy as a whole is a complex network that functions as a self-regulating, non-equilibrium system in which individuals must be understood as integral members of all-encompassing wholes. In this way, complexity theory counterbalances the excessive individualism of much recent economic theory. The Protestant interpretation of the individual subject informs the understanding of individual choice and decision that lies at the heart of contemporary capitalism.

I spent the 1971-72 academic year in Copenhagen writing my doctoral dissertation on Søren Kierkegaard. I focused my analysis on the relationship between time and the self in the moment of decision. I was particularly intrigued by Kierkegaard’s insistence that “the instant of decision is madness.” Many years later Jacques Derrida made this phrase famous in his magisterial essay “Before the Law” but as was so often the case, his argument only made matters more obscure. After forty years, I would like to return to the interplay between decision and madness.

The early seventies was an interesting but not always easy time for Americans to be in Europe. Over the course of that year, we traveled to Moscow and what was then Leningrad and drove throughout much of Eastern Europe – East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. In the fall of 1971 we drove from Denmark to East Berlin on a back transit route. It was harvest time and people were working in the fields. The differences between Denmark and East Germany could not have been more stark – as we wound our way along deteriorating roads, it was as if we had gone back to 1945. Though I had read Marx and studied Marxism, that day trip made me realize that my education had been incomplete.

One of my colleagues at the Kierkegaard Institute was a young German scholar, Herman Deuser, who was married to a Romanian woman, Krista. We became good friends and they eventually told us that they were involved in an intricate scheme to get Krista’s mother out of Romania. They had arranged to pay a German man $10,000 – needless to say, an enormous sum for graduate students in the 1970s – to travel to Romania, marry her mother and bring her to Germany, where they would immediately divorce. This was not uncommon at the time and there was always some danger involved. A few months after we returned to the States and they returned to Germany, we received a letter telling us that their plan had been successful and Krista’s mother was living with them in Wuppertal. Their relief proved to be short lived.

A few years later, we met once again in Copenhagen. When I asked Krista how her mother was doing, she responded, much to my surprise, “not so well.” Adjusting to life in the West had proved much more difficult than they had expected. Though many factors were involved, I have always remembered the way that Krista’s story about taking her mother shopping for dresses captured the essence of the dilemma. Rather than excited, her mother was terrified, even paralyzed, by the range of choices she faced. Her reaction was the same when they went to the grocery store. Having had virtually no choice of what to buy for most of her life, this woman was simply overwhelmed by the plethora of seemingly senseless possibilities consumer culture presented to her. Krista sadly admitted that there were moments when her mother said she wanted to return to Romania.

On December 18, 2010, The Economist ran an article, datelined Paris, entitled “You Choose” with the subtitle “If you can have everything in 57 varieties, making decisions becomes hard work.”

Wheel a trolley down the aisle of any modern Western hypermarket, and the choice of all sorts is dazzling. The average American supermarket now carries 48,750 items, according to the Food Marketing Institute, more than  ve times the number in 1975. Britain’s Tesco stocks 91 different shampoos, 93 varieties of toothpaste and 115 of household cleaner. Carrefour’s hypermarket in the Paris suburb of Montesson, a hangar-like place is filled with everything from mountain bikes to foie gras, is so fast that the staff circulate on rollerblades.1

The madness of choice, indeed. Choice has become excessive. What drives this madness? The madness of choice is a symptom of the economic logic of markets. There are three primary ways markets can expand: spatially, temporally and differentially. When markets reach the limit of spatial expansion, they can expand temporally by accelerating the product cycle. To keep the wheels of production turning, it is necessary to create desire where there is no need. Planned obsolescence is, in effect, a strategy designed to create revenue by increasing the churn rate. A third way for markets to expand is through product differentiation and proliferation. The more the products the more the choices and the more the choices the grater the possibility for profit.

The explosion of choices is not, of course, limited to consumer goods but extends to all aspects of life. The Economist article continues:

Teenagers can choose to surf, chat, tweet, zap or poke in ways that their parents can barely fathom. Moving pictures and music can be viewed, recorded, downloaded or stream on all manner of screens or devices. The internet has handed huge power to the consumer to research options, whether of medical procedures or weekend breaks. Even the choice of price-comparison sites to help people choose is expanding.

Off-line choices have multiplied too. European Union citizens can move, study, work and live wherever they like within the union. Vouchers and other school reforms in many countries give parents increasing choice over where to send their children. Modern university courses offer students endless combinations. The University of California, Berkeley, has over 350 degree programs....1

With these developments, an important cultural shift has taken place: for many people, choice as such has become an unquestionable good. This excessive veneration of choice is the foundation of much neoliberal economic theory as well as a liberal democracy.

But is choice as such really an unquestionable good? Are many of the choices we face actually choices or do they constitute a limited menu of differences that make no difference? Should the content of choice be a factor in determining its value?

Even The Economist expresses doubt. “But amid all the dizzying possibilities, a nagging question lurks: is so much extra choice unambiguously a good thing?” The article explains:

As options multiply, there may be a point at which the effort required to obtain enough information to be able to distinguish sensibly between alternatives outweighs the bene t to the consumer of extra choice. “At that point,” writes Barry Schwartz, in The Paradox of Choice, “choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.” In other words, as Mr. Schwartz puts it, “the fact that some choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that more choice is better.”

It would seem, then, that society as a whole is approaching the point Krista’s mother reached forty years ago. While the freedom of choice can be liberating, when it becomes excessive, it can become debilitating. Instead of increasing satisfaction and contentment, too many choices can engender a sense of dissatisfaction and discontent. The symptom of this discontent is anxiety – as choices proliferate, anxiety increases. With the interplay between choice and anxiety, we return to Kierkegaard, whom we have never left.

In 1844, Kierkegaard published The Concept of Anxiety, which remains the classic treatment of the subject. His understanding of anxiety or dread (Angst) depends on an interpretation of human selfhood that can be traced to Martin Luther’s Reformation theology, which implicitly and explicitly influenced political and economic theory ever since the eighteenth century. For Kierkegaard, the self is a radically free individual and self- becoming is a lifelong process in which a person constitutes himself or herself through individual decisions. Decision, as we will see below, differs significantly from choice. Human beings are isolated individuals who, in the moment of decision, must assume responsibility for becoming themselves. The freedom of decision is more profound than the freedom of choice. This existential freedom engenders anxiety, which is the apprehension of possibility as such. In contrast to fear, which always has a specific object, anxiety is indeterminate – it is nothing other than the awareness of the unavoidable freedom to define oneself in the absence of any certain or secure norms to criteria to provide support or guidance. There is a madness involved in decision that is more profound and disconcerting than the madness of choice.

This understanding of selfhood has implications that extend far beyond philosophy and theology. Luther’s fellow reformer, John Calvin, begins his magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion by writing, “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”2 Throughout the western tradition, the understanding of the self (anthropology) is implicitly or explicitly reflected in the interpretation of god (theology) and vice versa. More important in this context, the notions of self and god first de ned in the Protestant Reformation form the foundation of the classical theory of markets that emerged in 18th century Scotland. In the following pages, I will offer a brief theological genealogy of this modern interpretation of the self and the market. I will then proceed to develop the implications of this theological anthropology for the complexity of decision making. Finally, I will conclude by suggesting the implications of decision and choice for self-realization and how alternative models of the self shape the understanding of the good life.

Invisible Hands

It was, of course, Max Weber who first identified the close relationship between Protestantism and capitalism. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he argues that the Protestant emphasis on individual responsibility and the disciplined exercise of the will on the one hand, and on the other the aversion to idleness and luxury led to an “inner worldly asceticism whose values coincide with the needs of early capitalism.” The virtues of prudence and frugality led to disciplined saving, which created reserves for pro table investment in emerging mercantile ventures and speculative markets. He writes:

The summum bonum of this ethic, the earning of more and more money, combined with the strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life, is above all completely devoid of any eudemonistic, not to say hedonistic, admixture. It is thought of so purely as an end in itself, that from the point of view of the happiness of, or utility to, the single individual, it appears entirely transcendental and absolutely irrational. Man is dominated by making money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of his life.3

Weber’s comment points to an inherent contradiction in capitalism that lies at the heart of our current economic crisis – capitalism presupposes both excessive accumulation and excessive expenditure. On the one hand, capitalism requires discipline and frugality for the accumulation of resources for investment and speculation, and on the other hand it requires excessive expenditure to keep capital  owing. While Weber’s analysis of Protestantism and capitalism exposes some of the contradictions of capitalism, he is insufficiently attentive to the depth of the influence of theological doctrines on the classical account of Homo economicus and the market.

When considering the importance of Protestantism for capitalism, it is essential to distinguish Lutheranism from Calvinism. Although the Reformation is an extraordinarily complex social, economic, political and religious phenomenon, it was sparked by controversy over a relatively simple theological issue. The cornerstone of Reformation theology is Luther’s appropriation and radicalization of Paul’s doctrine of justi cation by faith alone, which he opposed to the medieval Catholic belief that man becomes acceptable to God by accumulating merit through doing good works or the purchase of indulgences. For Luther, redemption occurs by means of a completely personal relation between the individual and God. This doctrine had devastating consequences for the power and authority of the Catholic Church. In medieval Catholic theology, the relation to God is never direct but is always mediated by participation in the Church universal. The authority of the church hierarchy depends upon the control of “the key to the Kingdom” – Holy Communion. Redemption is impossible apart from membership in the church universal, which is confirmed by the Eucharistic ritual. In this scheme, redemption is an economic relationship – the believer pays deference to God and in return receives eternal salvation. Not a bad investment! Throughout the Middle Ages, this economic relationship was directly acknowledged in the ritual. The communion wafer often took the form of a stamped coin, which was something like  at money backed by the priest, whose word magically transformed worthless bread into the priceless body of Christ. Though such communion tokens are no longer used, today’s currency continues to bear the stamp of its religious origin. The dollar sign ($) is derived from the insignia in hoc signo (by this sign) inscribed on Christian coins.

Figure 1. Communion token, 1613, American Journal of Numismatics and Bulletin of American Numismatic and Communion token, 1613, American Journal of Numismatics and Bulletin of Archaeological Studies 22, no. 1 (1887). American Numismatic Society, New York American Numismatic and Archaeological Studies 22, no. 1 (1887). American Numismatic Society, New York

Luther’s doctrine of salvation by faith alone and not by works shattered the soteriological foundation of Catholicism and prepared the way for the social, political and economic transformation that created the modern world. By insisting that each individual has a private relationship to God, Luther, in the language of current economic and financial theory, disintermediates the church. Luther, in effect, privatizes, deregulates and decentralizes religion. By the latter half of the twentieth century, this theological reformation had become an economic revolution. For many true believers, the market has effectively become God in more than a trivial sense – it is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. To see how this belief arose, it is necessary to return to Calvin.

The problems Calvin confronted as a second-generation reformer differed from those Luther had encountered. Luther’s temperament and the exigencies of his struggle with the Catholic Church left him little time to develop a coherent statement of his theological principles. Calvin faced the task of working out the systematic implications of the Protestant doctrine of salvation. In the years between Luther’s break with Rome and Calvin’s rise to power, Protestantism expanded from the country to cities in Northern Europe. A gifted politician, Calvin managed to move beyond the agrarianism of Luther’s peasant roots by working out an accommodation between the new religion and the rapidly expanding urban commercial bourgeoisie. In order to accomplish this end, Calvin modi ed some of Luther’s basic theological principles.

One of Calvin’s most important departures for the history of Protestantism and capitalism was his acceptance of loans and interest. “What reason is there,” he asks, “why income from business should not be larger than that from land-owing? Whence do the merchant’s profuts come, except from his own diligence and industry?”4 With this change in attitude, the major obstacle preventing Christians from entering business and commerce was removed and the marriage of Protestantism and capitalism could be consummated. Far from the kingdom of darkness, as Luther had preached, the commercial world now appears to be an important part of God’s created order.

Calvinism not only underwrote the expansion of capitalism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but also inspired the most sophisticated and influential theoretical analysis of money and markets in the eighteenth century. When Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, it marked the culmination of developments that had been unfolding in Scottish moral philosophy through the eighteenth century. It is no accident that classical political economy emerged in Scotland. The version of Calvinism characteristic of Scottish Presbyterianism and the moral philosophy promoted at the University of Glasgow combined to form an interpretation of markets that is deeply indebted to theology and aesthetics. In the work of Smith and his Scottish precursors, god, art, and economics intersect in an account of capitalism whose implications do not become clear for two centuries. To understand the distinctive form of Calvinism that shaped the intellectual climate during Smith’s formative years, it is necessary to return to the seminal work of the thinker whose insights were decisive for the emergence of Protestantism – William of Ockham (born between 1290 and 1300). In the western tradition, theologies tend to fall into one of two categories: those that give priority to word (reason) over deed (will), or those that give priority to deed over word. The choice is between the Gospel of John – “In the beginning was the word” – and Goethe’s Faust or Freud’s Totem and Taboo – “In the beginning was the deed.” In a theistic model of God, if reason always guides will, human beings are reasonable and the world is both orderly and intelligible. If, however, God’s will is antecedent to reason, the world as well as reason is radically contingent and human life is wrapped in mystery and haunted by uncertainty. In anticipation of issues considered below, theologies based on the priority of the word lead to closed equilibrium systems and theologies based on the priority of the will lead to open disequilibrium systems.

During the High Middle Ages, Scholastic theologians elaborated a view of the world as hierarchically ordered and transparently rational. Thomas Aquinas developed the most comprehensive formulation of this vision in his extensive theological treatises. Compared to the turmoil of the Dark Ages, Aquinas’s time was an era of revival; a sense of order and confidence gradually replaced confusion and anxiety. For Aquinas, the rational order of the world derives from God’s creative power and intelligent government. God is always reasonable and never arbitrary; in Aquinas’s own terms, “There is will in God, just as there is intellect: since will follows upon intellect.” After creating the world, God established the rational laws through which He manages His creation. “Providence,” Aquinas insists, “is the divine reason itself, which, seated in the Supreme Ruler, disposes all things” (emphasis original).5 The order of the world and rationale for life reflect God’s rational will.

By the late Middle Ages, the world did not seem so orderly and God did not seem so reasonable. The social calamities during the first half of the fourteenth century brought radical change throughout much of Western Europe. The human tragedy wrought by the Black Death weakened the hierarchical structure of feudalism and hastened the spread of the use of cash and the market economy. Freed from lord and land, individuals were thrown back on their own resources in both daily economic matters and their quest for religious assurance in a world that seemed enigmatic, mysterious, and often cruel. William of Ockham’s revolutionary theology reflected this strange new world. In contrast to Aquinas, for whom God’s will is always guided by His reason, Ockham gives absolute priority to God’s omnipotent will. God is bound by absolutely nothing – not even His own reason – and thus is free to act in ways that sometimes seem arbitrary and often are incomprehensible. From this theological perspective, the ground of the universe is the productive will of God, which is the condition of the possibility of reason and unreason and therefore is neither precisely rational nor irrational. Since the divine will is unknowable, faith cannot be a matter of knowledge; one believes in spite of, not because of, reason. Though not immediately evident, Ockham’s theological reversal of Scholasticism harbors cosmological and anthropological implications that play a critical role in the emergence of Protestantism and the development of capitalism.

If the universe is the product of God’s productive will, unguided by the divine Logos, then the order of things is contingent or even arbitrary, rather than necessary. As a result of the constant activity of the divine will, there can be no certainty about the continuation or stability of the cosmic order and life inevitably involves risk. What God does He can always undo. To blunt the unsettling implications of this argument, Ockham distinguished God’s potentia absoluta (absolute power) from his potentia ordinata (ordained power). While God has the absolute power to do anything that is not self-contradictory, He freely chooses to limit Himself by ordaining a particular order for the world. It is crucial to note that this system is constituted from without and even when seeming to be stable is always subject to unanticipated disruptions. The alternative theological visions developed by medieval Scholastics and their heirs on the one hand and by Ockham and his Protestant followers on the other indirectly inform the contrasting models of systems (i.e., intrinsically stable systems vs. complex adaptive systems) that play a critical role in economic theory and financial markets during the last half of the twentieth century.

Ockham’s anthropology is a mirror image of his theology and accordingly has two fundamental tenets: the anteriority and priority of the singular individual over the social group, and human freedom as well as responsibility. His position on these issues led to his most devastating critique of medieval theology and ecclesiology. The issue over which Ockham split with his predecessors is the seemingly inconsequential status of universal terms. For Scholastic theology, the universal term, idea, or essence is ontologically more real than the individual and epistemologically truer than empirical experience. This doctrine was known as Realism. For the realist, humanity as a whole and by extension the socio-political group, for example, is essential, and individual human beings exist only by virtue of their participation in the antecedent universal. Exercising his fabled razor, Ockham rejects realism and insists that universal terms are merely names that might serve as useful heuristic fictions to order the world and organize experience but are not real in any ontological sense. This position eventually came to be known as Nominalism (from nom, which means name). For the nominalist, only individuals are real. In the case of human beings, individuals are not de ned by any universal idea or atemporal essence but constitute themselves historically through their own free decisions. The defining characteristics of human selfhood are individuality, freedom, and responsibility. This interpretation of the self informs much eighteenth-century Scottish economic and political theory and eventually culminates in Kierkegaardian existentialism.

The implications of Ockham’s theology are nothing less than revolutionary. Luther’s reformation would have been impossible without Ockham’s account of both God’s omnipotent will and the freedom and responsibility of the individual person. As I have already suggested, Calvin elaborates Luther’s soteriology to form the first systematic Protestant theology. According to Calvin, belief in salvation by grace rather than works presupposes an all-powerful Creator God who is radically free and completely unconstrained by external circumstances. Rather than a one-time event, creation is an ongoing process in which God constantly governs the universe. The doctrine of creation, therefore, necessarily entails the doctrine of providence. According to Calvin, providence is not merely general but extends to each event and every individual. Within this theological framework, everything “is directed by God’s ever-present hand,” which, of course, is never visible as such; on the contrary, since God’s plan is “secret,” “the true causes of events are hidden to us.”6 The hand of providence, in other words, is invisible. Calvin, then, is the first to suggest the image of the invisible hand, which Smith makes famous.

Calvin’s doctrine of providence leads to an understanding of the world and life in it that differs significantly from Lutheranism. In contrast to Luther, for whom the world, sunk in sin, is irredeemably corrupt and capitalism is a pact with the Devil that draws people away from God, Calvin sees the world as the theater of God’s glory, where “divine power shines brightly.” The world and our activity in it reveal the power and grandeur of the Lord. Contrary to the usual view of Puritanism as austerely anti-aesthetic, Calvin maintains that the beauty of creation reveals the glory of the Creator. This often-overlooked intersection of theology and aesthetics is very important in Scottish Calvinism.

Rejecting Lutheranism’s identification of mercantilism and capitalism with the work of the Devil, Calvinism views economic success as a sign, though never the cause, of redemption. Worldly vocation is not only religiously validated but actually extends God’s providential governance. This point must be carefully understood because it implies a dialectical reversal of the divine-human relation with far-reaching consequences. By emphasizing God’s omnipotence so strongly, Calvin inadvertently collapses transcendence into immanence. If all acts and events are ultimately the result of God’s providence, then divine and human wills are finally indistinguishable even if they are not precisely identical. No longer imposed from without, divine purpose now emerges within the play of worldly events. With this aestheticization of creation and the immanentization of purpose, the way is prepared for Scottish moral philosophy and the birth of modern political economy.

In his introduction to The Wealth of Nations, Robert Reich notes that the invisible hand is “perhaps the most famous, or infamous, bodily metaphor in all of social science.”7 What Reich and others do not realize is that before it is a social scientific metaphor, the invisible hand is first a theological and then an aesthetic metaphor. Nor do most commentators know that seventeen years before he described the market through the operation of the invisible hand, Smith used the image in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). The passage in which the invisible hand appears falls under the heading, “Of the beauty which the appearance of UTILITY bestows upon all productions of art, and the extensive influence of this species of Beauty.”8 Explaining the unintended consequences of the actions of the wealthy, Smith writes:

They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford the means to the multiplication of the species. When Providence divided the earth among a few lordly masters, it neither forgot nor abandoned those who seemed to have been left out in the partition.... The same principle, the love of system, the same regard to beauty of order, of art and contrivance, frequently serves to recommend those institutions which tend to promote the public welfare.9

Recasting the theological doctrine of providence in terms of aesthetic sensibility, Smith describes the “beauty of order” in which individuals are harmoniously related even when their intentions seem to be confllcting. This vision shapes Smith’s understanding of the economic order.

The Scottish moral philosophy on which Smith was nourished is marked by its consistent effort to interpret morality through aesthetics. Within this framework, the good is beautiful and the beautiful is good. During the first half of the eighteenth century, leading Scottish philosophers developed a critical response to Hobbes’s philosophy in which they proposed an alternative to his egoistic anthropology and authoritarian morality. Far from completely self-centered, they argued, human beings are also social creatures. This sociality gives them a natural moral sense, which frees them from the necessity of external moral dictates promulgated by priests and princes. The two most important figures in this philosophical movement were Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), and Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746). Returning to the Greek ideal of balance and harmony, as the romantics would a century later, Shaftesbury maintained that human beings are part of an intricate order in which individual good must be balanced and harmonized with the social whole. Self-interest and the interests of the group do not necessarily clash but can actually be mutually reinforcing. The guiding principle of harmony is grasped through the sense of beauty. “My inclinations,” Shaftesbury confessed, “lead me strongly this way, for I am ready enough to yield that there is no real good besides the enjoyment of beauty.”10 At this point, moral sense and aesthetic sensibility become one and the same.

It was left for Hutcheson to organize and elaborate Shaftesbury’s insights. Smith attended Hutcheson’s lectures and after his death assumed his chair in moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow. In An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725), Hutcheson de ned beauty as “uniformity amidst variety.”11 In classical philosophical terms, beauty is unity-in-multiplicity. When this aesthetic sensibility is translated into moral sense, the primary virtue becomes benevolence, which is the apprehension of and responsiveness to the harmonious order of things. If generalized to form a moral maxim, the principle of benevolence promotes the greatest good for the greatest number. Once again, self-love and altruism are not necessarily antithetical; for, as Hume would argue some years later, “’tis evident that the passion is much better satis ed by its restraint, than by its liberty, and that in preserving society, we make much greater advances in acquiring of possessions, than in the solitary and forlorn condition.”12 The reason Smith maintained that beauty is “the appearance of utility” here becomes clear. The greatest good for the greatest number is an expression of benevolence, which reflects and promotes “uniformity amidst variety.”

At first glance, it might appear that a significant shift occurs between The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. In one of the best known passages in the history of economic theory, Smith writes, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love.”13 It is, however, a mistake to set up a simple opposition between benevolence and self-love. To see why this is so, it is necessary to examine more closely the precise meaning of moral sense. From Shaftesbury and Hutcheson to Hume and Smith, Scottish philosophers assume that reason alone cannot govern the passions. If social order is to be maintained without authoritarian control, the passions must control themselves. In his influential study, The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph, Albert Hirschman argues that for eighteenth-century moral philosophy, the passion of self-interest could be checked only by a “countervailing passion.” Though he had been introduced to this idea in lectures and readings, Smith encountered a powerful formulation of it in his conversations with the Physiocrat Helvetius during his sojourn in France (1764-66). In De l’esprit, Helvetius argues:

There are few moralists who know how to arm our passions against one another ... for the purpose of having their counsel adopted. Most of the time their advice would inflict too much injury if followed. Yet they should realize that this sort of injury cannot win out over feeling; that only a passion can triumph over a passion. ... The moralist might succeed in having their maxims observed if they substituted in this manner the language of interest for that of injury.14

Before proceeding to a consideration of the distinction between passion and interest, it is important to note that the Physiocrats extend the notion of countervailing passions to form a laissez-faire economic policy, which rests upon a “harmony-of-interests doctrine according to which the public good is the outcome of the free pursuit by everyone of his own self-interest.” Unable to leave Hobbes completely behind, however, they “advocate both freedom from governmental interference with the market and the enforcement of this freedom by an all-powerful ruler whose self-interest is tied up with the ‘right’ economic system.”15

In the writings of Scottish moral philosophers, the distinction between passions and interests is equivalent to the difference between private concerns (passions) and public good (interests). Initially framed in terms of moral aestheticism, the analysis of the interplay between passions and interests was quickly extended to economic relations. Shaftesbury had already moved in this direction when he wrote, “If the regard toward [acquisition of wealth] be moderate, and in a reasonable degree; if it occasions no passionate pursuit – there is nothing in this case which is not compatible with virtue, and even suitable and bene cial to society.”16 Later thinkers moved beyond Shaftesbury when they not only argued that private gain can be beneficial to society, but contended that self-interest is, in effect, a virtue. As Mandeville had said in The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits,

Thus every part was full of Vice, Yet the whole Mass a Paradise.17

This position has a further consequence – instead of fueling the war of all against all, the pursuit of economic self-interests can actually check destructive sel sh passions. Extending this argument, some analysts have maintained that the market in general and capitalism in particular can actually civilize society. As economic interests become more integrated, they argue, the likelihood of personal and political conflict decreases.

According to the notion of countervailing passions, human beings are not merely sel sh but are inwardly divided between private and public concerns. Social control, therefore, need not be imposed from without but can also arise from within. Though not immediately apparent, this account of passions and interests involves a subtle yet important shift. Alexander Pope glimpsed this insight when he wrote,

Thus God and Nature formed the general frame And bade self-love and social be the same.18

If “self-love and social be the same,” passion and interest are inseparably interrelated and inherently dialectical. In other words, each implicitly includes the other within itself and, through its own expression or self-development, turns into what appears to be its opposite. This dialectical reversal, which is fraught with theological significance, becomes vital to the classical theory of markets: the sin of avarice becomes virtually indistinguishable from the virtue of benevolence. This point is, of course, thoroughly Protestant. For both Luther and Calvin, sin and redemption are dialectically related – redemption can only occur in and through sin. Within the overall economy of salvation, therefore, sin and the fall, though painful, are always fortunate.

Throughout the modern period, theology has often unwittingly been rewritten as economic theory. In his highly influential book, The Road to Serfdom: The Errors of Socialism, F. A. Hayek not only credits Adam Smith with the invention of cybernetics but also maintains that Scottish philosophers anticipated many of the theories underlying the most sophisticated contemporary interpretations of money and markets: “Thus from the Scottish moral philosophers of the eighteenth century stem the chief impulses towards a theory of evolution, the variety of disciplines known as cybernetics, general systems theory, synergetics, autopoiesis, as well as the understanding of the superior self-ordering power of the market system, and of the evolution also of language, morals and law.”19 In spite of this remarkable insight, Hayek, like most other commentators, fails to note that both Scottish moral philosophy and Smith’s understanding of the market in particular are ultimately rooted in theology and aesthetics. A few pages before introducing the notion of the invisible hand in his moral theory, Smith offers a remarkably rich comment.

We are then charmed with the beauty of that accommodation, which reigns in the palaces and economy of the great; and admire how every thing is adapted to promote their ease, to prevent their wants, to gratify their wishes, and to amuse and entertain their most frivolous desires. If we consider the real satisfaction which all these things are capable of affording, by itself and separated from the beauty of that arrangement which is fitted to promote it, it will always appear in the highest degree contemptible and trifling. But we rarely view it in this abstract and philosophical light. We naturally confound it in our imagination with the order, the regular and harmonious movement of the system, the machine or economy by means of which it is produced.20

In this passage, Smith expands his understanding of beauty and utility to argue that the economy is a well-oiled machine that effectively regulates private con icts to maintain a balanced and harmonious system. The metaphor of the world as a machine was, of course, very popular throughout the eighteenth century. Attempting to preserve a role for God in a Newtonian universe, Deists imagined the world as a giant clock, which God creates and then allows to run according to laws He establishes. Smith modifies this metaphor in two important ways. First, by interpreting the machine in terms of beauty, he obscures the line that usually separates machines and organisms. As if anticipating artificial intelligence and digital life, Smith implies that machines are organic and organisms are in some sense machines. Second, purpose in the economic system is internal rather than external. The machine of the economy and the beautiful system it generates are characterized by what Kant will describe fourteen years later as “inner teleology.” It is therefore self-regulating and thus is autotelic, autopoietic, or autoaffective. Rather than imposed from without, the invisible hand emerges in and through the free interplay of individual agents. Insofar as God is what God does, we might go so far as to say that the market is God and the activity of the market is always a hand job. The market, in other words, is a theological notion and as such is a matter of faith. But what is faith?

Faith is the conscious or subconscious apprehension of schemata that provide the principles, codes and rules that inform thinking and acting. I have borrowed the notion of schemata from the physicist Murray Gell-Mann’s analysis of complex adaptive systems.21 “In complex adaptive systems,” he argues, “information about the environment...is not merely listed in what computer scientists would call a look-up table. Instead, the regularities of the experience are encapsulated in highly compressed form as a model or theory or schema. Such a schema is usually approximate, sometimes wrong, but it may be adaptive if it can make useful predictions including interpretation and extrapolation and sometimes generalization to situations very different from those previously encountered.”22 Schemata enable complex adaptive systems to fulfill five critical functions. First, the system must be able to identify regularities in its environment. Every system is embedded in multiple networks that provide streams of data that must be processed. For a system to function effectively, it must be able to identify regularities, patterns and redundancies in surrounding flows. Second, once a regularity has been identified, the system must generate schemata that enable it to recognize the pattern if it occurs again. For a schema to work well, it must compress as much data as possible. Third, schemata in complex adaptive systems must be able to modify themselves in relation to changing circumstances. Fourth, schemata cannot be merely reactive but must be capable of being deployed to anticipate surrounding activities in a way that guides responsive action. The effectiveness of a schema is a function of the accuracy of its descriptions and the reliability of its predictions of relevant events in the environment and the effectiveness of the actions it prescribes. Finally, different schemata within a system and schemata in different systems must be able to compete effectively with other schemata. Those that prove to be best adapted to the environment survive and the others eventually disappear. Gell-Mann offers a concise summary of these points:

In studying any complex adaptive system, we follow what happens to the information. We examine how it reaches the system in the form of a stream of data....We notice how the complex adaptive system perceives regularities in the data stream, sorting them out from features treated as incidental or arbitrary and condensing them into a schema, which is subject to variation... We observe how each of the resulting schemata is then combined with additional information, of the same kind as the incidental information that was put aside in abstracting regularities from the data stream, to generate a result with applications to the real world: a description of an observed system, a prediction of events, or a prescription for behavior for the complex adaptive system itself.... Finally, we see how the description, prediction, or behavior has consequences in the real world that feed back to exert ‘selection pressures’ on the competition among various schemata.

Gell-Mann’s interpretation of schemata can be expanded to include not only social, political and economic theories but also cultural phenomena ranging from religious symbols, myths and rituals, philosophical systems and so-called secular worldviews. Far more than theoretical constructs effective schemata function to shape the actual lives of individuals and communities.

To clarify the structure and operation of schemata I have adapted a diagram from Gell-Mann’s The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex.

Figure 2. Schemata in Coadaptive Complex Systems

Schemata operate both theoretically and practically, first to screen data in order to detect, form and reform patterns that simultaneously describe, prefigure and predict entities and events, and second to model adaptive actions in the real world. The viability of schemata depends upon their theoretical accuracy and practical efficacy. New data can lead to the modi cation or even the destruction of schemata. It is important to stress that the rules and norms used for assessment are internal to each particular schema. Neither simply a priori nor a posteriori, schemata arise within a specific context, which establishes the parameters of constraint that are the conditions of activity through which new entities and events. Once having emerged, they continue to develop through a competitive coevolutionary process with other schemata. As I have suggested, it is important to recognize that schemata are neither necessarily conscious nor deliberately constructed and, thus, are not limited to conscious or self-conscious systems. When fully deployed, schemata self-organize and operate in physical, chemical, biological as well as social, political and economic systems. For example, the market, the immune system and even the process of evolution itself would be impossible without schemata to process information.

To understand how schemata function to lend life meaning and purpose, it is helpful to begin with a consideration of their role in cognitive activity. Theory and praxis or thinking and acting are inextricably interrelated: descriptive representations provide models of the world that serve as models for activity in the world.23 Schemata process data in such a way that information, knowledge and meaning are woven together to create patterns for thought and action and these, in turn, necessitate revisions and adaptations in the schemata. The patterning of data creates information, which, then, is fashioned into knowledge that can be rendered meaningful. This complex process entails the coordination of different cognitive activities: intuition, perception, consciousness, self-consciousness, and reason.

Figure 3. Process of Schematization

The relationship among these activities as well as their products is hierarchical yet non-linear. Each higher level simultaneously emerges from and acts back upon lower levels. Through the process of schematization, subject-object as well as self-world mutually emerge and, therefore, are codependent. It is a mistake to privilege object over subject (empiricism or realism) or subject over object (idealism or social constructivism). Elements in the data stream are intuited as sense perceptions and then fashioned into the objects of consciousness. Taken together, these objects form the physical world. With the emergence of the world, it becomes possible for the subject first to become conscious and eventually to turn back on itself to become self-conscious (Figure 3). Self-consciousness, however, presupposes not only differentiation from the world but also the relation to the world as well as other self-conscious agents. Subjectivity, in other words, is necessarily intersubjective. This is a crucial corrective to the notion of the subject understood as an isolated individual. Subjects are bound together in complex physical, social, political networks that constitute their determinate identities and form the boundaries of constraint within which decisions and choices are made. Reason doubles self-reflection by joining consciousness and self- consciousness in strange loops that never completely close. The gap in the structure of self-reflexivity creates the opening for the indeterminacy without which creativity is impossible and the future is closed. At the highest level, schemata integrate sense experience, information and knowledge into patterns that provide meaning and purpose. Since the relation among these different levels and operations is simultaneous rather than sequential, different, cognitive operations mutually condition each other. The images, symbols, concepts and theories through which the world is organized emerge from and change with the data of experience, which they simultaneously shape. The non-linearity of these operations creates an interactive cognitive network.

It is important to stress that since the process of schematization is nonlinear, all modes of reductive analysis are inadequate. Ideational and cultural constructs inform bodily processes as much as bodily process condition higher level cognition. The growing sophistication of neuroscience and branches of cognitive and behavioral science has recently led some investigators to deploy overly reductive methods of analysis. While there is much to be learned from work going on in these areas, it is important to realize that schematization cannot be understood by reducing it to natural, social and economic processes.

With this understanding of schemata and schematization in mind, let us return to the problem with which we began – choice. As I have noted, it is necessary to draw a distinction between choice and decision. Schemata, which provide the framework within which individuals think and act, can be either subconscious or self-conscious. During the early stages of development, an individual is socialized into a particular schema but remains unaware of the conditioning process and, thus, is insensitive to the socio-cultural specificity and limitation of his or her perspective. It is as if the person were being programmed for later life and once the codes are inscribed the software operates with little or no reflection on the part of the subject (i.e., the hardware). Unfortunately, many people never rise above this limited level of awareness. The lack of self-knowledge engenders a false sense of security and self-certainty that all too often leads to personal, social, political and religious conflict.

If and when conflict emerges, a person is forced to turn back on him or herself and become self-reflective. Such self-reflection creates the possibility of self-criticism. There are, of course, different levels of self-awareness ranging from the mere recognition of competing worldviews to the sophisticated understanding of the historical, psychological and social genealogy of alternative schemata. The greater the self-awareness, the more possibility there is for change.

The self-reflective subject discovers that he or she is not simply an isolated or autonomous individual but is embedded in complex networks that shape his or her distinctive identity. These networks form the parameters of constraint within which individuals are free to act. There are two primary forms of action: choice and decision. While not completely determinative of an individual’s actions, schemata provide rules and norms that guide conduct. Rules and norms simultaneously influence and are influenced by instincts, inclinations and affections that reflect bodily biases that can sway the will. Choice is the application of a particular rule, principle or norm to a specific situation. When schemata are effective they allow a person to discriminate among different alternatives in ways that fulfill desire and lend life meaning and purpose. However, as alternatives proliferate, criteria often become ineffective and alternatives begin to seem arbitrary and finally meaningless. Choices that once seemed to create welcome opportunities become an oppressive burden. This is what happened to Krista’s mother – when she was liberated from the schema that had dominated her life for decades, she had no way to assess the choices she faced. In a very different way, this is what is happening to many people today. Faced with 48,750 items when they do their weekly grocery shopping, they begin to question the system that promotes excessive choice. When schemata break down, individuals as well as societies approach a crisis that marks a moment of decision.

Decision, in contrast to choice, is the self-conscious appropriation of a schema that provides the framework for thinking and acting. In other words, decision takes place at a different level than choice – it is the appropriation of the schema within which choices are made. This interpretation of decision is an extension of the theological anthropology Ockham and Luther de ned and Kierkegaard re ned. In the beginning is the deed – decision institutes, both thinking (rationality) and acting (axiology). Two important aspects of this account of decision must be stressed in this context. First, there are no rules to choose the rules by which a person chooses. Decision determines the rules, norms and codes by which choices are made and, therefore, cannot be grounded or guided by those principles or any other. Second, the criteria by which the efficacy of a particular schema is judged are internal to the schema itself. What counts as evidence in one schema can be dismissed as irrational an irrelevant in another. There are no meta-criteria by which to adjudicate among competing schemata.

The decision through which the self becomes itself by appropriating a schema provokes a level of dread that far exceeds the anxiety created by specific choices. The freedom to decide which rules govern one’s life in the absence of any guidelines represents an absolute risk that is dreadful. This originary decision has no rationale because it cannot be explained in terms of anything other than itself. This does not mean that decision is self-grounding; to the contrary, it is the groundless ground that subverts every ground of reason as well as morality. Dread is the symptom of the madness haunting this decision. Since the stakes are considerably greater, the madness of decision far exceeds the madness of choice. Even if choices can be explained, they are not completely rational because they presuppose the unprincipled madness of decision. Kierkegaard describes the madness of decision as a leap of faith. Faith is the deliberate apprehension of a schema that provides the principles, codes and rules that inform a person and/or community’s thinking and acting. This view of faith runs counter to most of the caricatures circulating today. Far from providing a secure foundation that provides certainty and security, faith sensufistrictissimo undermines every foundation and thereby exposes the unavoidable risk uncertainty and insecurity of human experience. So understood, faith is not limited to what is traditionally regarded as religion but extends to forms of life that usually understood to be secular.

I would like to underscore an important implication of this understanding of selfhood and decision for theoretical interpretations of human thought and action. Reason, I am arguing, always presupposes and thus is limited by faith. Contrary to common opinion, faith and reason are not antithetical but are inseparably interrelated. As Anselm of Canterbury famously declared in the eleventh century, Credo ut intelligam – I believe in order to understand. The significance of this insight extends far beyond the medieval theological context in which Anselm was writing. The ostensibly foundational principles of reason are not self-grounding but assume faith, which is the function of an incalculable decision that can never be rationally understood. Decision, therefore, is the boundary of reason; in different terms, faith marks the constitutive limit that makes reason possible yet inevitably leaves it incomplete. As a result of this limit, every theory, model and program devised to comprehend thought and guide activity remains deficient. Far from a problem to be overcome, this apparent inadequacy is actually the condition of the possibility of creativity.

If I were to offer a maxim that emerges from this analysis, it would be: cultivate uncertainty. Certainty is the symptom of death, uncertainty the pulse of life. Death is, of course, possible before the end of life; living death occurs when possibilities seem exhausted because the future is predictable. This condition is despair (Latin desperare: de- (reversal) + sperare, to hope) – to suffer despair is to be without hope. Apart from uncertainty, there is no future and without a future, there is no hope. The nourishment of uncertainty serves as a therapeutic corrective to every truth that claims to be secure. Since knowledge inevitably includes as a condition of its own possibility that which remains incomprehensible, it is always incomplete. The acknowledgment of this incompletion issues in the learned ignorance that keeps us open to the unexpected, which is the gift of the future.

References

Aquinas, Thomas, Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. A. C. Pegis (New York: Random House, 1948).

Calvin, John, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Battles (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960).

Gell-Mann, Murray, “Complexity and Complex Adaptive Systems,” in The Evolution of Human Languages, eds. John A. Hawkins and Murray Gell-Mann (New York: Addison Wesley, 1992).

Hayek, F. A., The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism, ed. W. W. Bradley (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1989).

Herman, Arthur, How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It (New York: Crown, 2001).

Hirschman, Albert, The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).

Hume, David, A Treatise of Human Nature (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1886).

Hutchinson, Francis, An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (New York: Olms Verlag, 1990).

Mandeville, Bernard, The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vice, Publick Benefits (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924).

Pope, Alexander, “Essay on Man,” in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, eds. M. H. Abrams, et al. (New York: Norton, 1964), vol. 1.

Reich, Robert, “Introduction” to Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (New York: Modern Library, 2000).

Shaftesbury, Anthony, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, Etc., ed. John Robertson (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1995).

Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, eds. D. D. Raphael and A. L. Mac e (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976).

Tawney, R. H., Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1926).

Taylor, Mark C., After God (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).

Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (New York Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958).

“You Choose,” The Economist, December 18, 2010, p. 123-125.

[spiritsongreiki]

February 24 - Empathic Oracle Deck Card 30 - Crowd Surfing The world is filled with noise of thoughts and the emotions of those who gather, and like quicksand, it’s soon suffocates my experience. Experiencing the energy of being with one person can be very challenging and in itself for an empath. Being around several people may manifest a myriad of energies that can be even more overwhelming. Parties, concerts, malls and other highly populated areas are often avoided by the empath for fear of losing oneself in the energy of the crowd. The empath’s system overloads quickly causing them to experience anxiety or panic and zapping any possibility of normal fun. Energetic focus becomes the tool to navigate these overwhelming situations. Sticking to the task at hand while shopping can keep your intended focus, therefore, easing the intrusion of outside energy. The use of a small crystal or stone for grounding and a word to focus on at parties can quickly lessen scattered energy from the projections of others. Well attending a concert, aligning with the vibration of the music allows your own emotional experience to be liberated from the overwhelming energy of others. This practice of focus teaches you that you are capable of rising above and surfing on an energetic wave, not being impacted by the noise of others thoughts and their emotional projections. Do I feel safe to venture out into the world and experience all that it has to offer, free from absorbing all the divergent energies of the crowd, are outside energies and my experience of them colouring my view of this situation? Would I benefit from grounding and focusing my energy so I can navigate this in the highest possible way? Hoping your Monday vibes are awesome... #dailyreading #reikilife👐🏻 #sunshinecoastbc (at Gibsons, British Columbia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B89RjPaBiAS/?igshid=45zilkwaldwz

[luiscarmelo]

Os novos misticismos

Tentar explicar uma realidade que não caiba nas palavras (ou nas possibilidades mais vastas da linguagem humana) pode conduzir a dizer, não o que ela é, mas aquilo que ela não é. Por outras palavras: em vez de o raciocínio avançar com as características que seriam próprias dessa realidade (e com analogias várias que a sugerissem), prefere antes enumerar o que ela certamente não é (negando e interrogando, ao mesmo tempo). Aplicado a deus, este método denomina-se teologia negativa; na retórica recebeu a feliz designação de apófase.

O ‘Cântico Negro’ de José Régio popularizou a fórmula com versos que se tornaram famosos, o que não deixa de ter a sua graça: “Não sei para onde vou/ Sei que não vou por aí!”. São Tomás de Aquino também recorreu abundantemente a esta prática, mas ela acabou sobretudo por ficar conotada com a tradição mística, caso de Johannes Scheffler (1624-1677), por exemplo.

O Verão, redundantemente apelidado de “silly season”, é um período associado a uma menor densidade de carga informativa. Trata-se de um fenómeno recente que não se adequaria, com toda a certeza, à era de quase ininterrupta devastação que ligou duas das datas fundamentais do século passado: 1918 a 1945. Antes do assassinato de Sarajevo, a alegada “agenda informativa” não tinha o peso, nem o significado de pedra angular que adquiriu dos anos sessenta para cá. De forma que o tráfico comunicacional da expressão “silly season” é filha do presente imediato e seria incompreensível fora das fronteiras da nossa época.

Por vezes, penso na sorte tremenda que é ter vivido, até hoje, sem me ter cruzado com uma guerra (ou com os seus efeitos directos na pele). Por vezes, penso como é frágil pronunciar e comunicar expressões como é o caso dessa idiota “silly season”.

Uma tal expressão quer essencialmente dizer que, entre Julho e Agosto, o mundo deve ser esquecido, removido, desclassificado. A anestesia a que os veraneantes são convidados coloca as greves como um pano de fundo divertido, as mortes no Mediterrâneo como lance para extraterrestres e as quedas nas bolsas enquanto episódios para esquecer a meio do hipnótico ‘zapping’ diário. Por outras palavras: a “silly season” é uma teologia negativa, porque é um modo prático e chão de dizer o mundo pelo que ele não é.

Há contudo algo que não bate certo. A teologia negativa só existe na medida em que os humanos se encontram face a uma realidade que não conseguem traduzir (que não cabe nas possibilidades da linguagem). Quando se traduz, intenta-se uma aproximação entre dois registos, pratica-se amizade. Quando nem se consegue traduzir, é porque estamos face a qualquer coisa de que não sentimos proximidade e que se torna, portanto, inexplicável, distante. A pergunta é: qual é ‘essa coisa’ que os veraneantes não conseguem entender e que os leva em massa para esta espécie de profana e elementar teologia negativa?

A resposta parece-me clara: a turba afirma claramente e sem complexos que não entende, nem pretende entender o mundo e por isso o apaga neste recente ritual dos meses de verão.

Na larga maior parte da história dos humanos, sempre houve grandes perguntas e grandes respostas, isto é: valores óbvios, referenciais. Foi por isso que surgiu a filosofia e foi por isso que surgiram mil e um mandamentos religiosos ou ideológicos, pelo menos desde que, no alvor do mundo moderno, o homem (e não a transcendência) se colocou como objecto por excelência a ser investigado pelos saberes. O nosso tempo saiu dessa fornada de aflições carregadas de sentimento de dever. Os veraneantes querem é que não os chateiem, querem é que os deixem em paz a arrastarem os carros pelas auto-estradas, querem é que os deixem em paz nas procissões pelo deus-património, querem é que os deixem em paz entre o iphone, o fato de banho e o shopping.

Este dissociar do mundo, que se tornou crónico, passou a ter o seu clímax massificado nesta altura do ano (enfim, no hemisfério norte do planeta). Duvido que seja um período de franca realização, é-o muito mais de fluxo, de repetição, de reconstrução das rotinas diárias num novo contexto em que a irracionalidade – como acontecia nas antigas tradições do carnaval – pode dar-se ao luxo de dar uns passos de dança em falso, mas, desta feita, sem temer atropelar o outro. Os meios esquecem-se e os fins cingem-se amiúde às gargalhadas frugais do indígena (a amizade e a ideia de ‘outro’ escapam-se facilmente à voragem).

Para explicar uma realidade que não cabe nas possibilidades das expressões humanas, bastará, pois, colocar à solta um leme negativo. Repetir o que ela não é. Se os místicos o faziam com poemas particularmente elaborados (e muitas vezes foram conotados com ateísmo, refira-se), os humanos de hoje escrevem-nos através das indústrias do lúdico como se elas fossem a redenção de uma qualquer divindade ausente, irremissível e jamais superável.

O misticismo está a renovar-se, como se vê. Para o provar, deixo em baixo dois poemas: o primeiro é um original de Johannes Scheffler, o segundo é de minha autoria, embora literalmente baseado na rescrita do primeiro:

“O Deus Desconhecido. O que é Deus, não o sabemos: ele não é luz. Não é espírito. Não é verdade, nem unidade, nem um, ele não é Aquilo que chamamos divindade: Não é sabedoria, não é intelecto, não é amor nem Querer nem bondade. Nem uma coisa, muito menos uma não-coisa. Não é Uma essência, não é um coração: Ele é aquilo que nem eu, nem tu, nem nenhuma Criatura Antes de ter-se tornado naquilo que Ele é, jamais Conhecemos.”*

O Mundo Desconhecido. O que �� o mundo, não o sabemos: ele não é uma prancha de surf. Não é hora de ponta. Não é androide, nem sindicato das matérias perigosas, nem CGTP, ele não é Aquilo que chamamos ginásio ou solário: Não é charter, não é low cost, não é bandeira verde nem Vilamoura nem festival no passeio marítimo de Algés. Nem uma coisa, muito menos uma não-coisa. Não é Um fio dental, não é um alojamento local: Ele é aquilo que nem eu, nem tu, nem nenhuma criatura Antes de ter-se tornado aquilo que o mundo é, jamais Conhecemos.

*Tradução Nícia Bonnati em Derrida J, Salvo o nome, Papirus Editora, Campinas, 1995, pp.32/33.