Friday, December 22, 2006

calcuLUST


Lust is an amazing sensation. To experience this exuberant feeling. To see it in another's eyes as they look straight into yours. That's the stuff poets speak of. It exists for one sole purpose to seek out the physicality from a relationship and explore the possibilities. It's egocentric, it's immediate gratification. It is urgent, it's selfish. It's amazing.

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." [1 John 2, 16]

And it is in this world that we live. So I'd recommend a shot of lust to all of you out there. Just to survive the inevitable facts of life. Now I propose we analyze what, why and when did lust become a psycho-pathological problem to reckon with. I'd presume the problems are primarily entrenched in social control, power and thereby domination. If women are excluded from these equations by steering them away from education, health-care and are left predisposed to excel by virtue of the only edge they have - 'sexuality'. Herein comes reason to curb the desires of men by issuing documents that pronounce: "Neither shall you commit adultery." "Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife." [10 Commandments]

To come up with these laws was pretty ingenious to say the least... but don't blow it out of proportion the politicians of the time were only devising laws and rules similar to what their present day counter parts have done with TADA and the Department of Homeland Security ...

It was their way of keeping the masses enslaved, en shackled and under control. What better way to do that than obscure the very biological context for which we are made. Throw us out of the comfortable realm of mammalian existence and dictate on to us this manifesto of civility and socially accepted behavior.

Jousting moral turpitude and the destructiveness of affairs, we swim the waters of psychopathology. The moral disapprovals that we bring forth when we find that our cup is beginning to runneth over with some innocent tantalizing, promising, exciting uncertainty. Could it have just been efforts to make social occasions less boring; to celebrate the overcoming of one’s former social shyness and sense of social inadequacy.

Endorsing mainstream ideals of fidelity battling ambivalent, contradicting, and alienated personal values amidst it's evolution we try to duke
it out organizing and regulating our social and sexual behavior. We obfuscate infidelity as a right, a privilege, or an entitlement. Do we blame it all on increased access and unfair social sanctions against infidelity skewed against females.

I pose the question is infidelity a sign of changing attitudes towards male sexual entitlement and conquest or is it a sign of depreciating psychological investment in a given relationship. Which brings me to my next question how effective is dissociating sex and love and to seek sexual variety.

So if we have figured out the biological need for sex, the moral proscriptions of lust, tell me where does passion find it's place and how about some psychological intimacy.
Children of Men who among you can answer me. Fly to the skies and find me an answer.

If we are to go by what Shakesphere has to say about lust:

Shakespeare's Sonnet No:129

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell


Saturday, December 09, 2006

Casino Royale

The movie didn't stray away from the original formula to upset the aficionados yet there was a sincere effort on the director's part to breathe life into the franchise. It was kinda awkward to see Bond in this raw state. And since that was the nature of the character we the audience gave into the flaws. And the flaws in many ways added depth in character. We saw James bond with a female associate this time around. A bit more verbal sparring with this Bond Girl this time around. Who got a chance to show off her acting skills along with the usual skin... 007 almost got a chance to emote. It seemed like he did invest into his relationship with the banker. Now shouldn't a man in his line of work know any better. This emotion-business isn't the kind of a thing he should be dabbling with. Can he afford to be swindled him of his pride and hurt his ego. Did he have a choice but to leave it to the spin of the wheel... Alas it was Love,"I've seen this diamond cut through harder men"...Bond should have known better. It was quite the directorial effort to let us see how agent 007 wasn't afforded a sincere relationship and that's what turned him into this suave lady's man that we have grown fond of.

Parkour was a neat add-on to keep the movie hip and cool and cash in on the franchise. Parkour is likely to pickup in the rest of the world after this super endorsement Sebastien Foucan (of Nike and Scion Commercial fame) has done. So was Texas Hold'Em instead of the original Flemingisque Baccarat. The gadgetry and gizmo's were at all time low in this one and I can live that for now. But I must say I almost walked out of the cinema hall when I saw Bond drive a Ford Mondeo. And did anyone else notice how he parked it next to a Range Rover so elegantly. That was a $25 Million deal to have Bond drive a Ford. The Aston Martin was Bond's penis extension. Did everyone in Monte Carlo use only Sony Products. Or was it for the for the world to know that the MGM franchise is owned by Sony Pictures. What's with the Blu-Ray player for security camera footage, the Vaio laptops, the Sony-Ericsson phones...The "Is that a Rolex?" line was a kick in the face...or did it have to be a little more to the left?

This wasn't a movie about the refined dashing debonair super-spy we all so deeply love. We didn't get to see Q and his entourage of über-gadgets, Money Penny didn't giggle at us from behind the desk. It was a bout a rogue-agent who was finding his ways. He wasn't the most beloved agent on the payroll rather he was the most expendable one. Someone somewhere saw that he had in him what it takes to be a super spy but they weren't willing to bail him out when his chips were down. He had to find that himself. So here's a guy who we the audience know will go to the moon, dodge iron jawed & diamond studded villains, will sleep with Pussy Galore et al. But on screen his boss thinks he's a jerk with an attitude so we root for him, kudos to Martin Campell for the direction and Daniel Craig for being so utterly unbondable yet pulling it off with the panache that no one besides he could have.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

This test reflects the ideas of Hans Eysenck a pioneer in the field of personality research. Through research and statistical analysis he determined that personality is composed of three main elements: Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism. Most current researchers agree on the significance of the first two traits, but there is less consensus on the third (so he may be wrong about it's central importance but it clearly plays some role in personality). Most people will score lower on Psychoticism. While Psychoticism implies more negative qualities than the other two traits (typically), a link has been found is several studies between higher creativity and higher scores on Psychoticism.

Eysenck's Test Results
Extraversion (57%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.
Neuroticism (47%) medium which suggests you are moderately worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.
Psychoticism (68%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly selfish, uncooperative, and difficult at the expense of the well being of others
Take Eysenck Personality Test (similar to EPQ-R)
personality tests by similarminds.com


Prior to Eysenck's discovery of Psychoticism, he correlated his original two traits (introversion and neuroticism) with an ancient greek personality system known as the Galen types (Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic). Below is a plotting of your introversion and extraversion scores on that map.

Personality : Choleric Sanguine

Melancholy 15%
Strength:4 Weakness:2

Phlegmatic 8%
Strength:1 Weakness:2

Sanguine 30%
Strength:7 Weakness:5

Choleric 45%
Strength:8 Weakness:10