This powerful leadership tool is vital for big-picture planning

The winter months are the perfect time to shift from urgent and short-term thinking to important and long-range goals. This transition is not easy.

In agriculture, there is a work ethic and sense of urgency that can be both a blessing and a curse, says Mark Faust, business author and president of Echelon Management. Because of the pressures of weather and markets and the importance of timing, we can get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent.

To help you focus consider a powerful business tool: leadership meditations. Before you write it off as a fluffy and time-wasting exercise, consider the benefits.

The point is to organize your thoughts, value systems and imagination, Faust says. The practice readies the most valuable asset on the farm or in any business for your highest of responsibilities. Those are problem-solving, decision-making, innovation and planning.

The Power of Silence

Business leaders need regular time away from our everyday hectic lives and schedule specific time to just sit and think, explains Matt Mayberry, former NFL linebacker for the Chicago Bears and business coach.

Some of the greatest achievers to ever step a foot on this earth all spent time in solitude every day, he says. It can be easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life. We think if were sitting in silence not doing anything, that were not being productive. But thats the farthest thing from the truth.

If you think about the best breakthroughs on your farm, they probably hit you in the shower, on a walk or while leaning back midafternoon with a drink in your hand. Let your mind wander, Faust says. Odds are you will stumble on some gold in a matter of days, not weeks, and results in months, not years.

A leadership meditation is simple, says Mark Faust, president of Echelon Management. Grab your drink of choice. Sit down, relax, read the questions and just think for three to five minutes about ideas relating to each question. After youve invested that three to five minutes, consider writing down your best ideas and thoughts, he says.

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Leadership Meditations: Stop Working, Start Thinking - Agweb Powered by Farm Journal

Thecanvas brings out his innermost thoughts in myriad colours. But before the physical act of creating, the artwork takes shape in his mind during his early morning meditations. Thats not entirely unexpected though as the artist is a spiritualist who ventured into knowing the unknown while still in his teens. At 56, both his art and spiritualism have matured.

Meet Neeraj Goswami, artist and resident of IP Extension in East Delhi. His solo show, Meditative Moorings, by Sanchit Art is currently on at DLF South Court Mall, Saket (till December 31). For me, painting and meditation are the same thing. I depict the bliss I achieve while meditating on canvas so that viewers can experience these positive vibrations as well. Goswami lost his father when he was in class 10, after which the family faced a lot of hardship and strife.

Since he was good at art, he started contributing to the family income by taking up commercial art works, like designing book covers, charts, etc. The loss of my dad was a jolt to my inner core. I used to be very disturbed, had anxiety issues, was always stressed and tensed. Then, on the advice of a relative, I joined Shri Poornanand Ajapa Yog Sansthan, and began attending their meditation classes.

It completely changed my life. After finshing school from Summer Fields School (Kailash Colony), Goswami joined the College of Art (Delhi University) and studied till PG level, before joining as guest faculty. He taught for 10 years and then quit to pursue art full-time. Goswamis palette consists of rich blues and gold. He works with oil, tempera, pastels, charcoal but it is oil that he loves dabbling with the most. Since oil dries very slowly, it gives you the option of making changes.

Oil paints have a particular kind of luminosity which lends a beautiful look to the work. He also makes sculptures and murals, but I love painting the most as it transports me to another level. The artist held his first solo in early 1980 while still in school, and has since held a number of shows across India and in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, UK, among others.

He also holds workshops and camps on meditation. I want to share this knowledge so that others can experience the same bliss as I did, he says, adding that meditation is a scientific way of living, not some bunkum. During the lockdown, we did a number of online mediation works in which people from various countries participated. Meditation helps you connect to the inner atman, and all creativity and knowledge comes from there. I feel meditation is very important, especially in times of strife, he adds.

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An artist and a spiritualist - The New Indian Express

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Dec 14, 2020, 6:02pm EST

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Created by top meditation teachers and neuroscientists, this app helps you stay mindful with open eyes, so you can recharge wherever and whenever you want. It suggests four different mindfulness modes based on your local time of day, and allows you to track your progress with research-backed exercises.

This app is designed to help you work more efficiently, so you can get more done in less time and capitalize on the tasks you complete. Prioritize tasks, auto-schedule them in your calendar, utilize smart reminders, track your progress, and eliminate distractions.

This smart eye mask uses orange ambient light, along with synchronized audio content to help users relax. Thanks to 3D facial mapping technology, it can fit comfortably on all different face shapes without any light leakage. Plus, you can stream your own music using a Bluetooth connection.

This app combines soothing sounds, bedtime stories, breathing techniques, and body-mind exercises to create your own perfect sleep ambiance. Recommended by leading doctors and neuropsychologists, its content is aimed to help you overcome insomnia, tinnitus, night-time anxiety, and lower everyday stress.

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This week, "Art and Soul" is about the art of well being. Lisa Barry talks withDr. Frank Anderson, a Michigan Medicine physician and professor bringing mindfulness techniques to the Ann Arbor area and medical community.

Listen to the full interview.

There are so many things that happen out in the world that may not make sense to people. Mindfulness and meditation provides another way to make sense of many of the things going on.

Dr. Anderson is an OBGYN physician and also teaches at theU-M Medical SchoolandSchool of Public Health. He is one of the founders of"Open Mindfulness Meditation"that provides weekly (online right now due to the pandemic) group meditations.

He offers suggestionsfor using mindfulness techniques as a way to deal with all the chaos and confusion in the world, including the current pandemic. He says mindfulness techniques allow us to find a place of peace and joy within ourselves. He suggests just becomingaware of your breath--mindfulness of the breath that can help settle and soothe you, and that is your ability to be mindful and can bring relief from what might currently be happening.

Dr. Anderson has been part of"Mindfulness Mondays"at the faculty development center at the University of Michigan Medical School, teaching mindfulness techniques and leading meditations for fellow faculty members. He also was part of a one-day seminar called"Becoming a Mindful Provider/Physician"to equip physicians with more tools to stay centered and emotionally balanced.

Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support.Make your donation to WEMU todayto keep your community NPR station thriving.

Like 89.1 WEMU onFacebookand follow us onTwitter

Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter@LisaWEMU, or email her atlbarryma@emich.edu

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Art & Soul: The Art Of Well Being - Why Mindfulness Matters - WEMU

Global Meditation Software Market Report available at MarketStudyReport.com gives an industry overview of the Meditation Software which covers product scope, market revenue, opportunities, Gross Margin, sales Revenue and figures, the report also explores the worldwide players of the market and is segmented by region, type and application with forecast to 2025.

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Sitting behind bars facing assault charges, which he denies, and convicted of cocaine possession, Deborah Huttons boyfriend, Bondi meditation guru Andrew Marsh, 50, certainly has plenty of time to reflect on his lot.

Two years ago Marsh had finally conquered his drinking and was a contented and happily married family man with a successful business and wide circle of interesting and influential friends.

Deborah Hutton and Bondi meditation guru Andrew Marsh in May.Credit:Backgrid

But the alarming events of the past few days, which resulted in police taking out an interim AVO for the protection of his estranged wife Holly, have shocked even his most loyal devotees.

Not in the least his beautiful, famous and wealthy girlfriend Hutton, 58, who maintained this week that despite media reports and multiple accounts from friends to the contrary, Marsh had not been living with her.

Apparently he just visited a lot.

Andrew Marsh and Deborah Hutton in India last year after swimming in the Ganges.

But Hutton and Marsh have been coy about their relationship from the start, which in itself is a point of some conjecture given their refusal to say when it actually began.

Schooled in the black arts of image management decades ago by her former boyfriend, the late celebrity agent Harry M. Miller, Hutton has always been wary of media scrutiny of her private life. This week she bunkered down, declining to answer specific questions about her time with Marsh, and confiding in friends she hoped this latest media storm would soon blow over.

On Wednesday she issued a statement to PS: I consider him [Marsh] a very dear friend and in what has been an incredibly challenging year for Andrew, I offered him my full support during the breakdown of his marriage as he had nowhere to go. This is totally out of character for him and Im shocked at what has unfolded over the last few days and hope that Andrew is able to receive the help he clearly needs.

Hutton and Marsh grew noticeably close during a group meditation pilgrimage to India last year, which had been organised by Marshs wife Holly, who remained in Sydney.

Other members of the group told PS this week that Marsh and Huttons connection was so strong Hutton had declared in front of them she and her mediation guru had been lovers in a past life.

Deborah Hutton during a religious ritual in India last year.

But not everyone was impressed, especially those close with Marshs wife back in Sydney. While Hutton herself denied allegations from group members of emotional outbursts in temples, tensions within the group over Hutton and Marsh soon boiled over, with Hutton wanting to quit the pilgrimage early.

I have and always will respect sacred sites and holy places of worship and deny the allegations being made against me, Hutton said in a statement after being asked about a trip to Varanasi and an argument that erupted between Hutton and former Real Housewives of Sydney star Victoria Rees, an old friend of Huttons and another long-term follower of Marshs meditation classes.

While Rees did not dispute the account of what had happened, including Hutton throwing a shoe at her and shouting Walk a mile in my shoes, Rees told PS this week: I really cant talk about it.

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Shortly after returning from India last October, Marsh moved out of the family home. Before long he became a regular feature on Huttons social media feeds at various gatherings hosted in her Bronte home.

They were also photographed holding hands, sipping wine on Huttons balcony and kissing, though following this weeks scandalous headlines, Hutton was only referring to him as a dear friend.

For a while, Hutton and Marsh appeared to be on solid ground. Hutton even organised and paid for a refurbishment of Marshs meditation rooms. Marsh told friends he was hopeful Hutton could help raise his profile given her media savvy.

But friends of Marsh say he recently moved out of Huttons home and had been sleeping in his car for the past few weeks leading up to Mondays events.

Waverley Local Court heard on Tuesday there was a very strong prosecution case against Marsh, who allegedly entered a home in Sydney on Monday morning scaring the two occupants and putting one victim in a choke-hold; she states to police this makes her think she is going to die.

Marshs court papers listed Huttons Bronte home as his address. However, the prosecution told Magistrate Jacqueline Trad he was homeless and sleeping in his car.

Marsh pleaded not guilty to two counts of common assault and one count of intentionally choking a person.

The matter is due back in court in January.

Things have gone from bad to worse for former high-flying barrister Charles Waterstreet, who says he intends to appeal an NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling that found he must pay his former landlord Con Kalpakidis $4512 after moving out of his executive apartment on William Street. It had been Waterstreets home for a decade.

Charles Waterstreet in Darlinghurst last month.Credit:Janie Barrett

Banned from practising last year, Waterstreet, who is recovering from a double hip replacement in November and says he is dependent on Meals On Wheels and home-carers to bathe him and clean his Darlinghurst bed-sit, told PS he had no idea the tribunal hearing was happening on December 9.

They sent the notices to an email address I have never used, he said.

However in her findings Tribunal Member Deborah Ziegler said a notice of the hearing had been duly served on Waterstreets last known address for service. The tribunal also made several attempts to contact Waterstreet by telephone at the commencement of the hearing but received no response and the matter was dealt with in his absence.

Back in 2012 Texan billionaire Jim Clark, husband of Aussie glamazon Kristy Hinze, said after 28 years of owning boats, Im over it, then proceeded to put his two prized tinnies the sailing yachts Hanuman and Athena on the market for a combined $113 million.

Billionaire Jim Clark and wife Kristy have a new boat, Atlantide.

Turns out he wasnt that over it, as it has now emerged he and Kristy have purchased a new boat, a slightly downsized 90-year old vessel called Atlantide, which had been recruited to Operation Dynamo in World War II to help evacuate English and Allied troops from Dunkirk. Given Athena alone was worth $100 million, the new tub is a comparative bargain at just over $7.2 million.

James Packer went to great lengths a few years ago to assure me that his then fiancee Mariah Carey was an incredibly smart woman.

While their relationship did not last the distance, Careys business smarts certainly have, and this year she can thank the City of Sydneys ratepayers for helping out her bottom line just that little bit more.

The Christmas tree in Martin Place.Credit:Getty Images

Careys All I Want For Christmas is the finale track played on high rotation each night for this years fabulous towering disco Christmas tree at Martin Place. And each time it plays - every 15 minutes from sunset to midnight - Carey pockets a royalty fee.

Last December The Economist estimated Carey had earned more than $US60 million from that one song since its release in 1994, thanks to it being constantly played on radio, marketing campaigns, movie soundtracks, music streaming services and in TV specials.

Speaking of which, Careys Magical Christmas Special now playing on the Apple TV service is quite a spectacle. Forgiving her miming skills (those quivering glossy lips were not terribly convincing), its the collection of gowns she (almost) wears that is definitely worth watching for.

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From her little drummer girl get-up to the human snowflake number, complete with fishtail bottom, and giant hair flicks sprayed into position seemingly mid-blizzard, La Carey also does a brilliant impersonation of a singing glazed ham, given her penchant for dangerously plunging neck-lines.

For a slightly more traditional way to mark this holy holiday, top marks this year should go to the light show at St Marys Cathedral, which in PSs opinion are the best yet and enhance the dignity of the architectural splendour that towers over Hyde Park, rather than those cheesy kids cartoons of previous years, which have gone by the wayside along with the hot dog stands. Go see it before it finishes on Christmas night.

Andrew Hornery is a senior journalist and Private Sydney columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Boyfriend or dear friend? The inside story on Deborah Huttons relationship with Andrew Marsh - Sydney Morning Herald

Calm app that was named as iPhone app of the year in 2019 by Apple inc. is an online meditation application that was co-founded by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew in the year 2012. In 2019 Calm joined the billion-dollar club by being valued at $1 Billion by raising $116 million. The app features meditation tools as well as sleep aids. The top investors in the company are Creative Artists Agency, Sound Ventures owned by Ashton Kutcher, and Venture Partners.

The app is free for the first 7 days and then asks for a medium ranged subscription price. It has a Calm Blog that offers tips related to meditation and wellbeing. The most popular feature of the app is the Daily Calm where thousands of people from all around the world come together and start their days with a 10-minutes session with different themes and topics every day. It has a collection of more than 100 Sleep Stories that helps people sleep at night peacefully. The genres for the sleep stories vary from childrens tales, scientific articles, literature, essays, and more. The app also has a collection of Sleep Music which is soothing.

About the founders

Michael Acton Smith

Currently residing in San Francisco, California, The US he graduated from the University of Birmingham in the year 1996. Before co-founding Calm, he was the CEO of Firebox.com for 6 years which he also founded, and he was the founder, Creative Director, and Chairman of Mind Candy for 16 years.

Alex Tew

Alex currently resides in San Francisco, California, The US. Before co-founding Calm, he founded Million Dollar Homepage, was the founder and CEO of Pixelotto for 1 year, Co-founder and CEO of PopJam for 3 years, and Project Manager at Monkey Inferno for 11 months.

How Calm came into being

The app at this stage has an excruciatingly high amount of positive reviews on both the App Store and Play Store. Michael who founded Mind Candy was focused on online gaming. After its release in the year 2003, the venture raised $10 million in funding. After Moshi Monsters, a game made for kids, upsurged and then down surged as mobile phones and tablets became common, Michael thought it was the end of the world for him. He suffered from constant headaches, insomnia, and exhaustion. He was dealing with self-worth issues and took the failure of Moshi Monsters entirely upon himself.

Acton and Alex met each other on a boat for the first time. Alex Tew needed to raise money for college and to do so he created a website called million dollar homepage and sold each pixel on the website for $1 for advertisement. Genius. Aston knew about Alex from all the news articles floating around about him and they eventually ended up friends and then housemates.

Alex Tew introduced Aston to the world of meditation and they shared a taste for business ideas, neuroscience, and philosophy. They purchased calm.com in the year 2012 so that they can create products that help people relax. They put in ideas like relaxing sound effects and soothing videos on the table but they knew something was missing. As Moshi Monsters revenue fell, Acton took a solo trip to the Australian Alps to collect his thoughts. Acton practiced meditation and that is when it clicked. Acton came to an agreement with the fact that meditation need not be an elaborate event as it was merely about neuroscience. He realized how much it can benefit people and be relevant to everybody.

Acton and Tew found a group of developers and started to work on the Calm app. The early years and journey were long, they didnt do very well in the early years and a lot of investors abstained from investing in the company. This shook their firm ground and forced them to question if they were on the right track until Venture capitalists decided to back their decisions. After spending from their own pockets and finally making the business profitable, the app broke out in 2016 as people started taking mental health more seriously.

The company that worked in a one-bedroom apartment has now expanded and has grown to 40 employees and they start their day by meditating for 10 minutes. Acton beautifully said that this is the closest he has come to find an instruction manual of the human brain.

Calm Team

Calms business model

Calm was initially labeled as a tool for Developers in the Silicon Valley who were hyperactive. It had relaxation classes from Maggie Richards, who is a meditation teacher from the UK, in its initial days. It eventually expanded and started including classes that were specifically designed for work performance, stress, and poor sleeping. Calm offers introductory lessons for free and then has a concept of a monthly subscription for accessing the entire archive. Calm struggled and had to cut off staff in the early years. 2018 was the year when the meditation app started making serious money. The app even received a certain amount of backlash for monetizing meditation.

Calm introduced Sleep Stories and drew in celebrities like Harry Styles, Matthew McConaughey, Lebron James, and Stephen Fry to narrate fictional or original stories. Calm also announced a workplace service similar to its competing app Headspace. Calm has also started publishing stories in languages like German, French, and Spanish. In the year 2013, Calm garnered revenue of $0.1 million.

Calms Valuation

Calm in the year 2018 had a valuation of $250 million and in 2019 it shot up to $1 billion making it enter the unicorn club. Calm has 0.03 million paid subscribers in 2013 and it subsequently increased to 0.75 in2017, 1 million in 2018, and 2 million in 2019. The Calm app had a total of 0.2 million downloads in 2014 on the application stores like App Store and Play store, which increased to 35 million in 2018, 40 million in 2019, and 60 million in 2020.

Calms future goals

Headspace that rolled out in 2018 became the leader of the mediation applications but Calm managed to fight its way to the top. There is a lot of competition in the meditation and wellness business. So calms next strategy is simple: multiplying down on building a select library of content voiced by famous people and striking new sorts of organizations to carry this substance to millions of additional users in the disconnected and offline world. To set themselves apart they are focusing on increasing the celebrity content. Calm marked a selective three-year deal with b-ball genius LeBron James, who will be highlighted in a forthcoming arrangement of 10-minute inspirational wisdom sessions on subjects including overseeing feelings and looking after equilibrium, as per the organization in the month of December.

Calm struck an association and procured a minority stake in XpresSpa which is a spa lounge that expands its business to 52 locations across 25 air terminals, giving Calm endorsers a free 10-minute back rub and a spot to purchase Calm-marked products. Calms content can already be streamed on America Airlines flights and from January 2020, it will also be available inside Novotel hotel across 60 countries.

Calms Competitors in the Market

Headspace is hands down one of the best meditation applications out there in the market. It has more than 60 million members after its release in the year 2010 and is used across 190 countries. It offers a 10-part basics course which is free and helps the individual to get into the practice of meditating regularly. The application offers different techniques like body scanning noting, etc. that an individual can practice even outside meditation. The co-founder Andy Puddicome who narrates these meditations is probably one of the reasons why it garners so many users. He has a very soothing, warm, and assuring voice. There are also mini and focused meditations that are suitable for situations like when you are anxious, flustered, stressed, etc.

This app helps users chill and relax using natures relaxing sounds. It has different sounds that help people differently along with guided meditations. Portals audio can also be mixed with other apps so that you continue relaxing while listening to a podcast or reading your favorite book.

The app offers meditation as short as five minutes and is focused on reducing stress and calming the mind. The app offers personalization as it asks the users to choose topics that are interesting to them. The application is absolutely easy to use, modern and clean, and has a lot of free content.

The most unique feature of this application is that asks how you are feeling before you start meditating both physically and mentally. This information is then used to recommend yoga or meditation to the user.

The guided reflections are definitely no-nonsense, which we discovered unbelievably invigorating. Just as being asked how frequently youve contemplated previously, why you need to reflect and how youve been feeling recently, you can likewise set suggestions to guarantee you never miss a meeting. Pay the membership and youll get more than 500 guided contemplations just as various bundles, from the nuts and bolts to programs focused on execution, and connections.

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Calm: Taking Mindfulness to the next level - Techstory

Certain truths seem inimitable, like: Age is just a number.

Wrong! Age is a word.

Friedrich Nietzsche helpfully explains in Human, All too Human (1878), Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

Postmodernist, post structuralist, post Life Jim, but not as we know it. 2020 has been a year where many grand narratives have weakened, waned and died. A year when that which many never imagined came to pass, and brought a friend with it. Summers in the armpit heat of the Tropics, separation from loved ones over space, and often too, over time, prolonged exposure to those same loved ones in quarantine. Some lighter losses- The Guardian reports that women have ditched the iVenus and the hot wax, going au-natural in the body hair department- Yes kids, Mummy is doing Movember Some harder losses- many lives have been taken by the virus. For those its touched, its been tough. This is life.

COVID has changed the way many of us view life. 2020 has been a year of re-evaluations. Like some horrible, inverse countdown, the uncertainty rises with the years of the fledgling century. What does it mean to be an expat in the middle of a global pandemic? What does it mean to be grounded, literally, to a breed of wanderlusts? What does it mean to be good in a world gone mad?

Thankfully, there is a whole field of thought which suggests that this may be a move towards an honest appraisal of life, rather than away from it. The idea that telling someone what we want and how we feel is easy seems pretty straightforward. This is at the heart of many stories, a hero pursuing a goal at all costs- the goal ever present and unwavering, like a mosquito in the bedroom in the depths of night. But simply opening the mouth and declaring the feeling or intention may be more difficult in practice than in theory.

Culture and nurture play a huge role in determining the things people feel able to speak openly about, and those which must be hidden away behind the skeletons in the closet. Missteps in communication of an authentic and honest truth begin early, when children are not allowed to speak openly about their feelings, or to express them in the authentic ways known only to the young- screaming, hissing, biting, punching, tearing, crying and whining. Angry retaliations, or fragile pleas for quiet by parents similarly quietened in their own childhoods quickly teach children to hide or modify natural impulses to chew on each other or explore their full lung capacity at a supersonic pitch. Slowly, slowly, educational and childhood theories promote positive emotional nurturing for apprentice humans.

Bad communication has its roots in the feeling that you cant be truthful, and tolerated, and loved. Alain de Botton, philosopher and author writes in The School of Life; An Emotional Education, (2019). Habits formed in infancy and early childhood, can and do become hardwired into the cognitive operating system, however, and as with so much in life, it is harder to unlearn something than it is to learn it, just the same as you cant un-fry an egg. Worldviews are nurtured in the womb, their roots reach far deeper than most are willing to believe.

So whats all this got to do with truth, and with me, you might well ask? What have these dishonest babies got to do with anything?

As 2021 draws near, certain inequalities still exist in our global societies of which we are all aware. And yet, as a species, we are quite unable to stop ourselves from tripping over the same rock twice. Your average, garden human is hardwired to believe certain versions of reality by around five years of age. Implicit biases and ways of being form the basis for all future understanding. There are no facts, only interpretations, adds Nietzsche in On Truth and Lies in the Nonmoral Sense, (1873), calling this tendency to pan the happenings in the physical world through subjective knowledge sieves perspectivism.

Culture is the non-biologicalor social aspects of human life.Itrefers to the way we understand ourselves as individuals and as members of society, including stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself. This demonstrated itself amply in 2020 when more collective cultures enjoyed relatively shorter lockdown times than their more individualistic counterparts, valuing the greater good over individual rights.

Unfortunately, extensive levels of individual freedom also allow for the corresponding degree of poor choices and freedom to indulge in misguided behaviour.

And yet, surely if there is any truth, it is that there is good inside all people. And everyone considers themselves to be good. So what then, are the narratives that sustain practices of hate and prejudice in our global human culture? It can only be a story that is held to be as true as your name, your hair, your mother tongue? The very words that allow us to articulate our experience in the world? A story that paints other groups at bad, or less or wrong in some unpardonable way.

2020 has taught me some things about truth.

Step 1. Think.

Step 2. Think about what you thought about.

Bad information leads to bad choices. In the information age, it has never been easier to seek out knowledge, to update the cerebral software. Culture encapsulates and engenders all that we know. Lack of a proper awareness of this fact leaves us lost in a sea of interpretations.

In the face of an increasingly unpredictable world, its comforting to cling to that which we know to be true. Rioters and voters and people suffocating under the weight of these truths have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers in 2020. They reclaim the right to mandate over their own bodies, the right to breathe, the right to be.

Hegemony, political or cultural dominance and authority over others, means that the ones who walk among us with souls that shine a different light from the dominant culture spectrum are subordinate to the mainstream.

Diversity is dangerous. Different is deadly. Back with Ug The Caveman in the Palaeolithic era, this made sense. Evolution had no space on the bus for dead weight.

It still doesnt. Diversity is the spark that makes the human race electric. Understanding that the old ways may not be the best ways can be liberating.

There are plenty of stories weve outgrown, stories like women being denied the vote on account of sex. Its 100 years ago this year since universal suffrage was granted in the U.S. Little has been made of this monumental shift in worldview in the media. Women in Saudi Arabia were granted the right to drive a car in June, 2018 and its been just 1 year since abortion was legalised in Ireland.

If we are to look at how the dominant narrative about women and womens rights has evolved over a century, its clear that once the hegemony absorbs new knowledge, change is possible.

Taking a deep breath and admitting that this has been a batplop crazy year, that life is sometimes blind jump into the abyss, that no one really knows their ass from their armpit- this can liberate all of us. Or thats my interpretation. Nietzsche would warm again making absolute judgements either way.

As Jeremy Goldberg said, Courage is knowing it may hurt and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. Thats why life is hard.

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Asking Ourselves What is truth in a Post-COVID World? - The Nanjinger

There are two mind-blowing moments in Jean-Paul Sartres 1944 play No Exit (Huis clos). The first is when we realise that the three well-dressed, well-mannered people, conversing in a living room in the style of the Second Empire are dead souls gathered in hell. The second is the famous line lenfer, cest les Autres or hell is other people.

I dont believe that man is, by nature, a social animal. To be honest, I believe the opposite. Not my quote Albert Camus. Heres another: All existing societal structures are artificial and inadequate for an individual being. Also not me, but the remarkable Russian philologist Mikhail Bakhtin, the forefather of intertextuality. I agree with both views, however, and I believe that society, even the most liberal and advanced, restricts our individuality to such an extent that we can only ever hope to realise a tiny fraction of our authentic selves.

Lets consider one of the most important decisions of our lives: choosing a profession. This is how the process is supposed to work. First, I look deep into my heart and decide what my dream is. Once Ive identified this dream, I set out to find a job that represents its perfect embodiment. Then I look hard and I persevere and, unfailingly, there comes a day when I find it. If this sounds like rubbish, thats because it is. Anyone who has looked for a job knows that the process is exactly the reverse: I dont start with a dream, I start with a list of available options. I see what jobs are out there, how much they pay, what their prospects are, and where my limited abilities might realistically fit in.

Now, for arguments sake, lets consider a scenario where I do have a dream and a talent to go with it. I am a prodigious orator: I have a gift for rhetoric, I can rouse the crowd to fever pitch and I have the power to convince. I am determined to make a living out of this gift, and so resolve to become a trial lawyer. I feel elated: from now on, my life will be one long, uninterrupted realisation of a dream.

So what are my next steps? Oh, a minor matter of seven years of studies, more years of junior legal work, nights in the archives, meetings, admin, office politics. All worth it, you might argue, as, one day, I will get to stand in court and stun the jury with the power of my word. Except that, by the time I do this, my original passion would have been trimmed and moulded to a barely recognisable shape. The consummate trial lawyer I may one day become will no longer be me, but a product of extensive compromise between me and the societal structures in which I operate.

In The Ego and its Own the German philosopher Max Stirner writes that thousands of years of civilization have obscured to us what we are. If you think thats pessimistic, wait until you read Mikhail Bakhtin, who posits that society was built without the knowledge of the fact that I exist, and, as such, it annihilates me.

Although annihilates may be too strong a word, society certainly restricts me most obviously through its laws. The laws that, I hasten to add, I did not vote for. But the country voted for these laws, you might retort. Yes, but I didnt, so how does this help? Law is the product of peoples will, you might go on. But is there really such a thing? As people, we are just an assortment of contradictory consciousnesses, each pursuing her own interests and beliefs.

If laws restrict me, morality does it more. Be good, be kind, save the world, work hard, love your family, your neighbours and your fellow human beings. Through the imperative to comply with moral codes Stirner referred to these as higher essences, absolute ideas, bigger truths society creates an artificial we and forces us to act (and think, and feel) in ways that are not our own. Because do I really owe anyone my love? And does love work through obligation?

Unlike the laws, I dont have to abide by moral codes: they wont lock me up for not loving my fellow men. But God forbid that I should admit it! Because can you imagine what they will say? They, other people, les Autres.

I cannot think of an influence more malevolent, more poisonous, more corrupt than the influence of other people. Our need for their approval, our wish to look good in their eyes is the single most powerful instrument of distortion of personality. Bakhtin writes that another is a source of infinite violation of my own I. Each day, l live in anticipation of her criticism, her mockery, her contempt and so my actions, my thinking, my whole presentation to the world bear the painful marks of her opinion. Eventually, I stop being myself and I become other peoples definition of me.

And if only these were the people who mattered. But no, when it comes to external validation, anyone is fair game. After meeting death by the firing squad, on his first day in hell, war deserter Joseph Garcin (No Exit) looks down on earth and sees his old newsroom, his comrades pulling on their cigars and talking about him. They call him a coward and they smirk with contempt. He cannot live with this, Garcin, not even in hell. So he turns to Estelle. He asks her to believe in him, to tell him that he is good and brave. He begs her, he implores her, he promises her his love. Thats right, Garcin turns to Estelle, the woman who tied a stone around her newborn babys neck and drowned it in the lake. Trust in me! Garcin implores her. Estelle refuses, and his hell begins.

Is there a solution? A way to resist societys evisceration of my authentic I? Not according to Bakhtin who, towards the end of his life, became resigned to the hopelessness of our situation. Max Stirner was more optimistic, however, as he thought he had found the answer in egoism.

I do nothing for Gods sake, I do nothing for Mans sake, but what I do I do for my sake, Stirner writes. Love, virtue, common good, family, patriotism, kindness, respect for fellow men an egoist does not care. For him, these are abstract ideas, distant theories invented by someone else. What have they got to do with him? The only power that motivates an egoist is himself: he is his own guide, his own justification, his own truth.

This is a fascinating proposition through sheer provocation, if nothing else (The Ego and its Own was published in 1844). But it has problems. For example, how do several billion egoistic truths interact in reality? Who decides which truth is right and which is wrong? Stirner has no answer to that, simply saying: take whats yours if you cant, you are weak.

Another problem is Stirners blanket egalitarianism. Everyone is unique, even the born shallow-pates, who, he happily concedes, form the most numerous class of men. The shallow-plates should also be left to do as they please, according to Stirner and it is easy to see just how bad this idea is. Then its the general feel of his prose. Stirners depiction of an egoist is not without literary talent, and the image he creates on the pages of The Ego and its Own is, frankly, that of an asshole whereas most of us would much rather deal with a nice guy.

The problem with nice guys, however, is that you never know at what point they will crack. Soaked in moral codes and doctrines, the nice guy tries hard to be good. I can always count on him to buy my raffle ticket, and to cover up for me when I mess up at work. But the raffle ticket costs two quid. What if it cost fifty? Would he be still committed to the cause? And would he still protect me if his own career were at risk? Its easy to be nice when nothing is at stake, we can all do it. But as soon as the nice guys own interests are threatened, watch his niceness quickly vanish and crude egoism take its place. As a source of motivation, egoism is really hard to beat.

If it looks like I have painted a gloomy picture of a world without decency, honour, kindness and compassion, this is not the case. Stirner writes: I love men too, but I love them with the consciousness of egoism; I love them because love makes me happy.

There is a passage in For Whom the Bell Tolls in which Ernest Hemingway explains Robert Jordans decision to fight for the Spanish Republic by his desire to join something bigger than himself. I always found this line surprisingly weak, as it comes in sharp contrast to everything else we learn about this masterfully developed character. Namely, that whatever Robert Jordan did, he did for himself.

And this finally brings me to Nietzsche, who picked up where Stirner left off in elevating egoism to the level of philosophy. In a welcome departure from his predecessors egalitarianism, however, Nietzsche writes that the value of egoism depends on the value of him who possesses it. It can be very valuable, it can be worthless and contemptible. In other words, there is egoism and there is egoism. There is the basic selfishness of everyday man whose fumbles are directed at getting a nicer job and a bigger house and there is the egoism of Robert Jordan, who lives with courage and honour, who fights for a cause and dies for a cause not out of respect for the concept of virtue but because doing so gives him joy.

For Nietzsche, egoism is an exceptional instinct of an exceptional individual, of the noble spirit strong enough and wise enough to devise his own rules, of the man who can rightly say: I serve the higher interest of mankind not for its sake, but for my sake.

Although the idea of living a decent life through inner compulsion, rather than a nod to morality, is strong and viable, the rest, I am afraid, is a fantasy. In my entire life, I met two people whom I would trust to devise their own rules. Two. The rest would quickly descend into Lord of the Flies. There are certain societal frameworks we simply cannot live without: laws, systems, standards, procedures. Nietzsche would argue that these are only required if man cannot know himself what is good for him and what is evil. Well, to be honest, many men dont. And even if we did, would we really want to live in complete, unbridled freedom, with no guidance, no benchmarks, devising our path from scratch every single day?

Does this mean that our only option is to side with Bakhtin and watch, in mournful resignation, how, year after year, society chips away at an ever larger chunk of our personality? Society lets us realise only a tiny fraction of our authentic selves: I said this before, and I maintain it.

At this point, however, I should probably add that this problem is largely theoretical simply because most selves do not possess much by way of authenticity, and, on a day-to-day basis, there is not a large pool of uniqueness for society to suppress. And for the majority who look at life and wish for a nice job, a nice family and a nice weekend hobby, the frameworks and structures that society provides can play a good organising role. Furthermore, if we take advantage of societys intellectual and creative heritage, we might not realise our authenticity but we could realise something better. Cicero would not need seven years of university studies to win cases in court: such is the nature of genius that it flourishes on its own but for everyone else, a top law degree could enhance their abilities in ways they could never manage alone.

For better or worse, we are stuck with society, its standards and rules, its collective les Autres (otherwise known as public opinion), and its general resentment of anarchy. So perhaps the wise thing to do is forget about Stirner and Nietzsche and limit our displays of egoism to basic day-to-day stuff. After all, we wouldnt want to get on the wrong side of other people.

And yet I find Nietzsches utopia of high egoism breathtakingly splendid. A spirit thus emancipated stands in the midst of the universe with a joyful and trusting fatalism. Nietzsche wrote this about Goethe. He might have written this about himself. Because he was, in fact, the perfect egoist, his own Dionysus, his own Zarathustra and there he stood, and there he fought, intrepid, unrelenting, oblivious to consequences, unheeding to any voice that was not his own, that fiercest of creatures, that rarest of men. A man with the courage to be himself.

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In defence of egoism - TheArticle

In todays episode of the Telos Press Podcast, Camelia Raghinaru talks with Robert Miner about his article Human Joy and the Subversion of Work/Play Distinctions: A Note on Adornos Minima Moralia2.84, from Telos191 (Summer 2020). An excerpt of the article appears below. If your university has an online subscription to Telos, you can read the full article at the Telos Online website. For non-subscribers, learn how your university can begin a subscription to Telos at our library recommendation page. Purchase a print copy of Telos191 in our online store.

From Telos 191 (Summer 2020):

Robert Miner

For those intrigued by the notion of joy and its place within a human life, Theodor Adorno is unlikely to be the first thinker that comes to mind. For many, he will not come to mind at all. This is unfortunate because Adorno was keenly sensitive to the importance of joy and its dialectical relation to both suffering and joylessness. Like any brilliant aphorism, Minima Moralia 2.84 demands that its reader explicate what it contains in highly compressed form. The following note will do just this, illuminating the aphorisms claim that joy and mind have been expelled equally from both work and amusement, so that blank-faced seriousness and pseudo-activity hold sway.

The aphorism begins with a single word: Timetablea reminder of the sign under which we tend to live. It proceeds as follows:

Few things separate more profoundly the mode of life befitting an intellectual from that of the bourgeois than the fact that the former acknowledges no alternative between work and recreation.

The proposed contrast between bourgeois and intellectual will not strike todays reader as an obvious one. Many of those whom contemporary culture regards as intellectuals or thought leadersto use a particularly noxious term that has acquired currencyseem entirely bourgeois in their mode of life. Some thinkers in Adornos own time saw the point clearly. Leo Strauss, for example, uses intellectual as a term of abuse. For him it names neither the philosopher who embraces the radicalism proper to free thought nor the statesman who, however limited as a theorist, has the practical wisdom required for governing. The intellectual in Strausss usage tends to be either a sophist, notable for his verbal cleverness, or a theorist who is reasonably adept at conceptual manipulation, but blind to the unacknowledged assumptions that direct his thinking. He is not a philosopher, statesman, or scholar.

To avoid misunderstanding Adornos proposal, we must put aside the pejorative sense of the term intellectual. Adorno is well aware that many of those regarded as intellectuals are bourgeois, precisely because they operate with a strict dichotomy between work and play. But such intellectuals are counterfeits, pale imitations of the higher type: One could no more imagine Nietzsche in an office, with a secretary minding the telephone in an anteroom, at his desk until five oclock, than playing golf after the days work was done. For intellectual to be more than an abstract label, it must be reserved for those who live a certain mode of life, one befitting an intellectual. What is this mode of life? The aphorism supplies a negative description: it acknowledges no alternative between work and recreation.

In order to understand this denial more clearly, we might compare it with aphorism 94 of Beyond Good and Evil, which supplies its positive correlate. There Nietzsche writes: A mans maturityconsists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child, at play. The bourgeois bifurcation of work and play, far from being grown-up, is essentially immature, a case of arrested development. The alternative to the dichotomy between work and recreation is the integration of seriousness and play, an integration that Adorno takes Nietzsche to exemplify. Without some such integration, our prospects for anything worth calling joyas distinct from an assortment of pleasuresseem dim.

If particular intellectuals fail to live in the manner that befits them, it is often because they have been too quick to accommodate themselves to the conditions of late capitalism, taking for granted the dominant oppositions between work and play. The case of the genuine intellectual proves the possibility of living in a manner that is not determined by these oppositions. Adornos point, however, is not that only the intellectual can live such a life. The possibility of overcoming strong work/play distinctions extends to any form of life in which work conforms to a negative criterion: Work that need not, to satisfy reality, first inflict on the subject all the evil that it is afterwards to inflict on others, is pleasure even in its despairing effort. By this somewhat paradoxical formulation, the aphorism intends to suggest the possibility of work that is at the same time pleasurableand so retains an essential element of play. When work is painful, it is typically because it is work conceived as labor, whose etymological connection to suffering should always be kept in mind. So long as work is meaningless, involving little more than the exploitation of laborers who have nothing to show for their suffering, it will be experienced as painful. Work, however, that is not labor in that sense always carries with it the possibility of being pleasurable, even in its despairing effort. To the extent that it is not judged by the criterion of success or failure at producing something external to itself, such work is simultaneously play. It is enjoyable in itself, regardless of whether or not it succeeds in accomplishing some objective imposed from without.

Such autotelic activity, undertaken for its own sake, is the natural home of joy. Moreover, it suggests the possibility of a certain type of freedom. Its freedom is the same as that which bourgeois society reserves exclusively for relaxation and, by this regimentation, at once revokes. It follows that bourgeois souls are perfectly capable of recognizing the kind of freedom characteristic of the mode of work that is not opposed to play. They have had some taste of such freedom in their leisure activities. What they cannot see is that some things that are correctly described as work can also possess the freedom of play. For the bourgeois conception, the strict opposition between work and play is an unalterable fact, not some questionable idea with a particular genealogy. Just as bad interpretations think they are the only interpretation, or regard themselves as something other than interpretations, the bourgeois conception of the work/play relation supposes itself to be the only possible conception. For those to whom the bourgeois conception is self-evident, nearly every human activity is classified either as done for work or done for pleasure. Consider one example: that of reading. If someone in the grip of the bourgeois conception catches you in the act of reading a text that seems demandingone that requires attention and is not obviously amusingshe will assume that you are reading for work. In the most earnest of tones, she will ask if you ever read for pleasure.

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The Telos Press Podcast: Robert Miner on the Division of Work and Play in Adorno's Minima Moralia - Telos Press