Neanderthal

“Ano ba ang broadband? Can somebody explain this in layman’s terms?”

- Senator Nene Pimentel, ZTE senate hearing

half of what I say is meaningless

Ok, I'm being a child. I should be doing something else. . .but I'm enjoying my tea too much that I was reminded that I hadn't played the White Album for a long time.Nietz can wait.I told someone many months ago and he agreed,as many would, that the Beatles are beyond space and time (even dali-esque time) and it's like listening to them for the first time all over again. I always get this feeling of remembering an imperfectly perfect lifetime that I never had the pleasure of enjoying. It's stepping in one of Lewis Carroll's books,only less darker.

Sloth

I want to make paper airplanes out of the pages of this book I'm reading. Set every leaf on fire as I throw them out the window. Watch each one glide until they disappear. Ashes wait for the wounded sky to complain.

How can we get out of Bourdieu's game?

I was haunted for weeks... had long debate last Sunday with B and his Pakistani friend,W,who's an Ex-priest/activist/NGO worker. I've always admired the two. Especially when they are together and hear them talk about their school days and how passionate they were (still are).W's wife served baked mac and I brought the cookies I baked that morning. After the meal,we talked about our frustrations in the discipline and then it seemed like it's the right time to explain my problem with Bourdieu, so I did. I was not too surprised to hear two opposing views. W agreed on everything while B was very aggressive about all of it, it was almost hilarious.We ended up agreeing on nothing.W's very kind to give me 3 boxes of tea to take home.So, after all the trouble, I was only able to come up with two, weak(for now) critiques and presented it early this evening in class.

Immediate Response to Stimuli (Instinct)

Bourdieu argues that human beings are rational economic entities and his acts and habitus directly or indirectly rooted on economic gains. Following this assumption, Bourdieu’s theory seems to negate basic human responses like anger and hate and favors rational economic consistency but in most cases I would like to argue that human beliefs, desires, and actions are most of the time an immediate response to the stimuli. The individual may respond differently when given the same situation on a different space and time. The sophistication and refinement of his responses defeat the instinct. These clever responses may seem unnatural when performed under difficult conditions, but this startling cleverness naturally impresses the outsiders because of the hard task of overcoming the instinct.

In the past, social scientists argued that it is possible to predict human behavior (positivist) but this was attacked by another paradigm stressing a fluid definition of situations and responses arising from human interactions (subjective reality). Recent trends in the social sciences affirm collective and individuals behave according to their subjective realities conscious of time and space. e.g temporary form of madness/insanity or Nag-dilim ang paningin. I accept, as an actor, or if you may, a player can misuse noble characters of human interactions such a love, loyalty, and faith, but if we're faced with shocking conditions that can temporarily blur our judgments of things, our intentions (consciously or not) in gaining capital in any form seemed to be ruled over by our instinct. If I worked as a house keeper in Iraq and was about to be raped by my amo and the kitchen knife's a foot away from me, I would not think about how much capital I invested in migrating,but grab the knife and stab the bastard --nagdilim ang paningin. Should I had the refined responses in that same incident and in my worst social condition, I would probably think about my capital more. I don't know, it's tricky.

Abraham Maslow’s Self-Actualized actors and those who desire Foucault’s Limit Experience

Maslow define "Self-Actualization as the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for him [the individual] to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming” and go beyond the rules of the game e.g. Mother Theresa, Gandhi, probably Ninoy.

If we define Economics as the grand exchange in all its forms and appearances and not simply an exchange of (misrecognized or clear) material wealth, we then can say, well in my opinion, that people like Gandhi, suicide bombers are also playing the game and in the field. The return of their investment are that of higher Ideals e.g. life after death, paradise, etc. However,should the definition of economics require the exchange of material capital, they probably are purely anomalies in the system.

Madaya si Bourdieu

Probably,like other readers, I too thought that Bourdieu’s Capital, misrecognized or not, consciously or unconsciously acted or embodied (Habitus), tried to get too much theoretical mileage. Whenever I try to look for gaps, I tend to over justify his capital when applying it to every possible conditions of social life. I thought that his formulation was too grandiose and that there should be something wrong in his game. Is it just my oversimplification of Bourdieu’s Capital that it seems to discount natural human capabilities such as love, instincts, faith, higher ideals and altruistic actions that are not disguised economics? Is his Capital the end and all of the 21^st century sociology? As a student of sociology, I become aware of how the social dynamics operate me(us), or if you may, how I(we) operate the social dynamics; I am constantly presented to the disenchantments of life as well as and more importantly, its beauty. As I tediously attempt to understand Capital, it is disappointing and difficult to accept that my being is all rooted to my economic needs, thus feeling that human existence is purely mundane. This threatening realization appears to be a harsh reality that words almost failed to negate.

Pierre Bourdieu

You win!

pop pop pop

I smell buttery popcorns popping in the popcorn popper. Hello Sir Karl Popper!Have you inhaled some poppers lately?

Tingi: A Filipino Response to Postmodern Global Economy

The Philippine consumption bundle evolved into retailing and repackaging (tingi) in order to adapt to the consumer patterns of the economic superpowers such as Japan and the U.S whose economic base are on mass production of information and electronics goods. An agueably unique consumption behavior, we see Philippines' resiliency to the present economy, and her eagerness to join the technological race and global pop culture. A repackaging design which started in the Philippines, as the producers claim,has spread to the neighboring third-world countries, like Indonesia and Malaysia. The recent example of this is the use of sachets and pillow packs,among others, in repackaging leave-on conditioners and fabric softeners, even deodorant sticks,cooking oil,or cloves of garlic. I saw on TV once - this old lady crying in a precinct because she was accused of selling illegal drugs in her sari-sari store in one barangay in Cavite -- because rumors reached the authorities that she's selling 8x8 inches foil, the Reynolds type, instead of rolls of Reynolds to the neighborhood. Apparently, they equate selling small cuts of foil into selling drugs.

These products that we use daily are now awkawrdly packed in tiny, rarely cute sachets for single use. In a unique manner, in order to continuously occupy a virtual space in texting society the Filipinos have developed the P 15 to P 60 electronic load for cellular phones. We see vendors knock on our car windows selling their PhP 50 cellphone chargers and cellphone casings. This is a very interesting display of Filipino ingenuity as well as resiliency in a postmodern globalized economy.