domingo, 14 de diciembre de 2008

SIMON RODRIGUEZ....Y LA REVOLUCION DEL PENSAMIENTO...!!!!


Por: J.A. Calzadilla Arreaza Abril 2004


¿Vale la pena tomar en consideración al decimonónico venezolano Simón Rodríguez, en tanto que pensador, pedagogo y escritor, en la constitución de un proyecto de educación nacional que busca nutrirse ampliamente de la filosofía contemporánea?

A nuestra percepción, la respuesta debe ser afirmativa. En apoyo a ella, rápidamente alegaremos sólo tres grandes aspectos del pensamiento robinsoniano:
A. Epistemológico: La ruptura del discurso clásico colonial
B. Filosófico: El pensamiento de lo original. Paradoja e invención
C. Ético: La constitución política del sujeto republicano


A. Epistemológico: La ruptura del discurso clásico colonial
La obra entera de Simón Rodríguez se caracteriza por un esfuerzo constante de ruptura con los recursos expresivos formales del discurso clásico.Rodríguez puede alinearse dentro del gran romanticismo revolucionario que en la literatura mundial se caracterizó por la invención de formas expresivas que rompieran con la categoría y la práctica de la imitación. A la imitación del modelo que define al clasicismo la prosa continua y fragmentaria de Rodríguez opone la invención de un vehículo para la verdadera libertad del pensamiento. Para un pensamiento en movimiento como lo considera Rodríguez, hace falta una escritura rizomática que supere el clásico modelo arborescente: lineal, irreversible, jerárquico, teleológico.Pues Rodríguez ve en el discurso clásico la expresión de la mentalidad colonial, y para él la ruptura con este modelo expresa la revolución del pensamiento que debe acompañar a la revolución política y a la económica.La experiencia política americana es para él una experiencia planetaria novedosa. Como los vanguardistas estéticos un siglo más tarde, considera que una nueva experiencia requiere un nuevo modo de expresión y una nueva imagen del pensamiento. Y esa imagen del pensamiento es la de un río de instantes creativos diferenciales que modifican el cauce central como los meandros originales de la creatividad y la adaptabilidad históricas, dictados por la experimentación constante en que la vida del pensar transcurre, acotando lo múltiple y lo diverso, pero en suma, lo real. Técnicas como la logografía (la graficación tipográfica de los componentes y movimientos del pensamiento), la prosa desgranada en versos, el esquema, que exalta la función pedagógica de la página convirtiéndola en pizarrón de papel, logrando un libre-asociacionismo y un asistematismo empirista y anti-dogmático, dan al pensamiento una corporeidad sensible y viviente, que busca contribuir a la invención de una nueva retórica, una retórica revolucionaria que coincide en su espíritu con la modernidad literaria mundial, haciendo de Rodríguez, en la opinión de muchos especialistas latinoamericanos, el primer pensador y escritor propiamente moderno de nuestro continente y de nuestras letras.


B. Filosófico: El pensamiento de lo original. Paradoja e invención
Tres importantes enunciados robinsonianos nos bastarán para ejemplificar este pensamiento de lo original que rompe con las identidades y las contradicciones clásicas mediante la invención paradojal.
a. Colonicemos el continente con sus propios habitantes (programa político)b. Lo único constante es la variación (principio ontológico)c. Si hemos de imitar a otro imitemos su originalidad (programa metodológico)

Los tres enunciados encierran paradojas:
Colonización intraterritorial
Variación constante
Imitación original

Son juegos conceptuales, oximorones que bien podrían remontarse al pensamiento de Heráclito de Éfeso (mucho más que al de Sócrates).
La paradoja ha sido definida como “opinión contraria a la opinión”. En la historia de los sistemas de pensamiento ha sido un instrumento de emancipación lógica con relación a los modelos dominantes en la Filosofía y en la Opinión. Los eleáticos la usaron contra el realismo inmediatista; los sofistas contra el dogmatismo religioso y político; los estoicos contra el idealismo platónico-aristotélico; la filosofía moderna y contemporánea contra el academicismo y la metafísica.La paradoja puede entenderse como una operación lógico-literaria que:
a. Utilizando premisas usuales produce una conclusión novedosa, heterodoxa;
b. Afirma simultáneamente dos sentidos contradictorios, empujando al pensamiento más allá de la lógica usual. La Filosofía siempre ha intentado una reforma de la Opinión imperante por medio de una reformulación de la Razón (contra el prejuicio, el dogma, el fanatismo, el desenfreno pasional). Rodríguez filósofo, romántico revolucionario enemigo de la imitación, heredero de la Ilustración, enciclopedista fragmentario, empirista y pragmatista, insurge contra la Opinión colonial que domina y que lastra las nuevas repúblicas, aun luego de las victorias militares y políticas, reclamando la invención de una Razón republicana fundada en la Libertad, el Bien común y la Inmanencia del derecho. Empirista, por el rechazo a toda metafísica, a todo principio o valor trascendente, exterior o superior a la realidad humana, geográfica, social y económica tangible. Los valores y principios se forjan en la experiencia de la realidad mediante el hábito y el modelamiento histórico del instinto social.Pragmatista, porque considera que la imagen teórica hace posible la acción —moral, económica, política—, pero es la acción la que justifica la imagen teórica. Los criterios centrales de este pensamiento creativo, erigido contra la imitación clásico-colonial como paradigma de la dominación del pensamiento, vienen a ser la invención, la variación, la originalidad. Dada una realidad novedosa, como la americana, es preciso crear y ejercer modos de comprensión y programación novedosos e intrínsecos, autóctonos e inmanentes, so riesgo de fracasar, no sólo en la comprensión sino en la realización misma. Inventamos o erramos, es el dilema. Estamos obligados a inventar.


C. Ético: La constitución política del sujeto republicano
Rodríguez pone en duda la constancia de una naturaleza humana que pudiera ser definida de una vez por todas, esencial y eterna, principio metafísico que impediría la modificación del sujeto político que reclaman las nuevas repúblicas. Considera que el sujeto humano —no sólo sujeto psicológico y jurídico sino sujeto de la acción social en general— se conforma y se constituye política e históricamente. Éste es el principio de la posibilidad de una pedagogía republicana, verdadero proyecto para la constitución de ciudadanos libres.Las nuevas repúblicas han heredado un tipo de subjetividad colonial, que desea el premio por su servilismo y obedece por la fuerza del garrote, que burla la ley cuando no rige la amenaza y arrebata para sí solo, cuando puede, lo que no le es garantizado por ningún derecho. El principio, empirista, es que el hábito social se ha hecho instinto, constituyendo el tipo de subjetividad que todavía impera en las poblaciones de las nuevas repúblicas, reproducido a través de las mismas familias que nutren el tejido social. El sujeto colonial se quiebra cuando se modifica, en las nuevas generaciones, el instinto social heredado, cuando se suplanta el deseo de la esclavitud por el ejercicio de la libertad racional, constituyendo un nuevo instinto social, un instinto republicano forjado en las escuelas (en donde se protege a los nuevos sujetos de los vicios coloniales de sus propias familias), que obedezca al derecho, a la ley y a la autoridad, no por la promesa del premio y la amenaza del garrote sino por la conciencia inmanente, hecha instinto mediante la enseñanza, del Bien común, como dicta la Razón con la que estamos colectivamente de acuerdo.Una nueva constitución política del sujeto significa la formación de sujetos dentro de relaciones de poder diferentes, no de obediencia por la fuerza, en función del premio y la amenaza (Monarquía), sino de libre cooperación por el fin colectivo del que somos individualmente beneficiarios (República). Piensa en todos para que todos piensen en ti.

Este pensamiento que aquí hemos esbozado e intentado describir, empleando categorías de filosofías posteriores a él, nos parece contener un alto potencial de contemporaneidad, de interés teórico y práctico. Percibimos resonancias heracliteanas (en el devenir, el flujo y el azar); espinozistas (en la importacia del derecho natural y la libertad de la Razón); nietzscheanas (en la irreverencia ante los ídolos y la reversión de los valores). Pero presenta aun vinculabilidades con pensamientos más recientes como los de los franceses Gilles Deleuze (en la inmanencia, la desterritorialización y la rizomática) y Michel Foucault (en la política de la verdad y la historicidad del sujeto).
EL AUTOR
J.A. Calzadilla Arreaza

CHRISTMAS IN LATIN AMERICA



VENEZUELA


In Venezuela on December 16th families bring out their pesebres (mangers) which is a specially designed and thought out depiction of the nativity scene. Venezuelans attend an early morning church service daily between December 16th and 24th. This is called Misa de Aguinaldo (Early Morning Mass). In Caracas, the capital city, it is customary to roller-skate to this service and many neighborhoods close the streets to cars until 8 a.m.It is a tradition to attend at one of nine carol services which most Venezuelans observe. Firecrackers explode and bells ring to call worshippers from bed in the predawn hours. The last of the masses takes place on Nochebuena (Christmas Eve). Families attend a mass on this night and then return home to a huge and fancy dinner.Before bedtime children tie one end of a piece of string to their big tow and hang the other out the window. The next morning, roller skaters give a tug to any string they see hanging. On January 6th when the children are awaken they will discover that the straw that they had left beside their bed the night before has gone, and in its place they can find gifts. The children know that the Magi and their camels have been at home. When they look themselves in the mirror and see a black smudge on their cheek they know that Balthazar, King of the Ethiopians has kissed them whilst they slept.
SOURCE: The Holiday Spot Website - Santas Website - Christmas.com Website

HAPPY WORKING YEAR FOR EVERYONE!!!!



We wish all good people we know that next year they have all the strength and give the best of themselves without caring for rewards for working for a better world, in which peace is possible, with justice and equity and where wonders survive even if they appear to be (and are) impossible. Because working for a better world is the most possible happiness:

HAPPY WORKING YEAR FOR EVERYONE !!

Les deseamos a todas las buenas personas que conocemos que el próximo año tengan toda la fuerza y den lo mejor de sí mismos sin importarles que les recompensen sus esfuerzos para trabajar por un mundo mejor, en el que la paz sea posible, con justicia y equidad y en el que sobrevivan las utopías aunque parezcan (y sean) imposibles. Porque trabajar para construir un mundo mejor es la felicidad más posible:

¡¡ FELIZ AÑO DE TRABAJO PARA TODOS !!

OM PERSONAL thanks Ms Susan McGarvie, Journalist (UWA), for her contribution.

DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES!!!



Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor, née Spencer) (1 July 1961–31 August 1997) was the first wife of HRH The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. From her marriage in 1981 to her divorce in 1996 she was styled Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales.
She was generally called Princess Diana by the media despite having no right to that particular honorific, as it is reserved for a princess by birthright rather than marriage.
Though she was noted for her pioneering charity work, the Princess's philanthropic endeavours were overshadowed by a scandal-plagued marriage. Her bitter accusations of adultery, mental cruelty and emotional distress visited upon her by her husband riveted the world for much of the 1990s, spawning biographies, magazine articles and television movies.Diana's family, the Spencers, had been close to the British Royal Family for decades. Her maternal grandmother, the Dowager Lady Fermoy, was a longtime friend of, and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.The Prince's love life had always been the subject of press speculation, and he was linked to numerous women.
Nearing his mid-thirties, he was under increasing pressure to marry. In order to gain the approval of his family and their advisors, including his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten of Burma, any potential bride had to have an aristocratic background, could not have been previously married, should be Protestant and, preferably, a virgin. Diana fulfilled all of these qualifications.
Reportedly, the Prince's former girlfriend (and, eventually, his second wife) Camilla Parker Bowles helped him select the 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer as a potential bride, who was working as an assistant at the Young England kindergarten in Pimlico.
Buckingham Palace announced the engagement on 24 February 1981. Mrs. Parker Bowles had been dismissed by Lord Mountbatten of Burma as a potential spouse for the heir to throne some years before, reportedly due to her age (16 months the Prince's senior), her sexual experience, and her lack of suitably aristocratic lineage.
The wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral in London on Wednesday 29 July 1981 before 3,500 invited guests (including Mrs. Parker Bowles and her husband, a godson of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) and an estimated 1 billion television viewers around the world. Diana was the first Englishwoman to marry an heir-apparent to the throne since 1659, when Lady Anne Hyde married the Duke of York and Albany, the future King James II.
Upon her marriage, Diana became Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales and was ranked as the most senior royal woman in the United Kingdom after the Queen and the Queen Mother.
The Prince and Princess of Wales had two children, Prince William of Wales on 21 June 1982 and Prince Henry of Wales (commonly called Prince Harry) on 15 September 1984.After the birth of Prince William, the Princess of Wales suffered from post-natal depression.
She had previously suffered from bulimia nervosa, which recurred, and she made a number of suicide attempts. In one interview, released after her death, she claimed that, while pregnant with Prince William, she threw herself down a set of stairs and was discovered by her mother-in-law (that is, Queen Elizabeth II). It has been suggested she did not, in fact, intend to end her life (or that the suicide attempts never even took place) and that she was merely making a 'cry for help'. In the same interview in which she told of the suicide attempt while pregnant with Prince William, she said her husband had accused her of crying wolf when she threatened to kill herself. It has also been suggested that she suffered from borderline personality disorder.
In the mid 1980s her marriage fell apart, an event at first suppressed, but then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess of Wales spoke to the press through friends, accusing each other of blame for the marriage's demise. Charles resumed his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, whilst Diana became involved with James Hewitt and possibly later with James Gilbey, with whom she was involved in the so-called Squidgygate affair. She later confirmed (in a television interview with Martin Bashir) the affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. (Theoretically, such an affair constituted high treason by both parties.)
Another alleged lover was a bodyguard assigned to the Princess's security detail, although the Princess adamantly denied a sexual relationship with him. After her separation from Prince Charles, Diana was involved with married art dealer Oliver Hoare and, lastly, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on 9 December 1992; their divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.
The Princess lost the style Her Royal Highness, and became Diana, Princess of Wales, a titular distinction befitting a divorced peeress. However, at that time, and to this day, Buckingham Palace maintains it; since the Princess was the mother of the second and third in line to The Throne, she remained a member of the Royal Family.In 2004, the American TV network NBC broadcast tapes of Diana discussing her marriage to the Prince of Wales, including her description of her suicide attempts. The tapes were in the possession of the Princess during her lifetime; however, after her death, her butler took possession, and after numerous legal wranglings, they were given to the Princess's voice coach, who had originally filmed them. These tapes have not been broadcast in the United Kingdom. (Tomado de: WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES NEWSPAPER)

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes......


Silver Blaze
"I am afraid, Watson, that I shall have to go," said Holmes, as we sat down together to our breakfast one morning.
"Go! Where to?"
"To Dartmoor; to King's Pyland."
I was not surprised. Indeed, my only wonder was that he had not already been mixed upon this extraordinary case, which was the one topic of conversation through the length and breadth of England. For a whole day my companion had rambled about the room with his chin upon his chest and his brows knitted, charging and recharging his pipe with the strongest black tobacco, and absolutely deaf to any of my questions or remarks.
Fresh editions of every paper had been sent up by our news agent, only to be glanced over and tossed down into a corner. Yet, silent as he was, I knew perfectly well what it was over which he was brooding. There was but one problem before the public which could challenge his powers of analysis, and that was the singular disappearance of the favourite for the Wessex Cup, and the tragic murder of its trainer.
When, therefore, he suddenly announced his intention of setting out for the scene of the drama it was only what I had both expected and hoped for.
"I should be most happy to go down with you if I should not be in the way," said I.
"My dear Watson, you would confer a great favor upon me by coming. And I think that your time will not be misspent, for there are points about the case which promise to make it an absolutely unique one. We have, I think, just time to catch our train at Paddington, and I will go further into the matter upon our journey. You would oblige me by bringing with you your very excellent field-glass."
And so it happened that an hour or so later I found myself in the corner of a first-class carriage flying along en route for Exeter, while Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp, eager face framed in his ear-flapped travelling-cap, dipped rapidly into the bundle of fresh papers which he had procured at Paddington. We had left Reading far behind us before he thrust the last one of them under the seat, and offered me his cigar-case.
"We are going well," said he, looking out the window and glancing at his watch. "Our rate at present is fifty-three and a half miles an hour."
"I have not observed the quarter-mile posts," said I.
"Nor have I. But the telegraph posts upon this line are sixty yards apart, and the calculation is a simple one. I presume that you have looked into this matter of the murder of John Straker and the disappearance of Silver Blaze?"
"I have seen what the Telegraph and the Chronicle have to say."
"It is one of those cases where the art of the reasoner should be used rather for the sifting of details than for the acquiring of fresh evidence. The tragedy has been so uncommon, so complete and of such personal importance to so many people, that we are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture, and hypothesis. The difficulty is to detach the framework of fact--of absolute undeniable fact--from the embellishments of theorists and reporters. Then, having established ourselves upon this sound basis, it is our duty to see what inferences may be drawn and what are the special points upon which the whole mystery turns. On Tuesday evening I received telegrams from both Colonel Ross, the owner of the horse, and from Inspector Gregory, who is looking after the case, inviting my cooperation. (Tomado de Lamansiondelingles.com)

domingo, 7 de diciembre de 2008

THE BEATLES......!!!!


The Beatles were one of the most influential music groups of the rock era, and many consider them the best musical group on Earth. Initially they affected the post-war baby boom generation of Britain and the U.S. during the 1960s, and later the rest of the world. Certainly they were the most successful group, with global sales exceeding 1.1 billion records.While they were originally famous for light-weight pop music (and the extreme hysterical reaction they received from young women), their later works achieved a combination of popular and critical acclaim perhaps unequaled in the 20th century.Eventually, they became more than recording artists, branching out into film and — particularly in the case of John Lennon — political activism. They achieved an iconic status beyond mere celebrity, with far reaching effects difficult to exaggerate.The members of the group were John Lennon, (James) Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), all from Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Original drummer Pete Best was asked to leave the group just before it started recording. Stuart Sutcliffe was with them in Hamburg but also left.Beatlemania began in the UK and exploded following the appearance of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States, on February 9, 1964. The pop-music band became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans, hysterical adulation, and denunciations by culture commentators and others such as Frank Sinatra.Some of this was confusion over the sources of their music (a similar confusion was evinced in 1956 over Elvis Presley by commentators who were unaware of the tradition of blues, R&B and gospel out of which Presley emerged), and some of it was simply an incredulous reaction to the length of their hair. At any rate, it was regarded by the band members with both awe and resentment.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE...SOMEONE SPECIAL!!!



William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. His ability to capture and convey the most profound aspects of human nature is regarded by many as unequalled and the English Renaissance has often been called "the age of Shakespeare".He was among the few playwrights who have excelled in both tragedy and comedy and several of his plays contain songs that are among the finest lyric poems in English.He also wrote 154 sonnets, two narrative poems, and a handful of shorter poems. Shakespeare wrote his works between 1588 and 1613, although the exact dates and chronology of the plays attributed to him are often uncertain.Shakespeare's influence on the English-speaking world shows in the widespread use of quotations from Shakespearean plays, the titles of works based on Shakespearean phrases, and the many adaptations of his plays.Other signs of his continuing influence include his appearance in the top ten of the "100 Greatest Britons" poll sponsored by the BBC, the frequent productions based on his work, such as the BBC Television Shakespeare, and the success of the fictional account of his life in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.Some of his famous plays are "Romeo and Juliet", "Macbeth", "Hamlet", "Othello", "Antony and Cleopatra", "The Comedy of Errors", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", among others. (TEXT 4TH ACTIVITY)

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