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I watched this because Stefan said it was a good film in a recent video. Great plot, beautiful scenery, with good morals.

Dear Dream Analyzers, I usually don't reflect on my dreams for very long. I would often have reoccurring nightmares as a child. I had a very disturbing dream two nights ago, and instead of forgetting it, I decided to examine it more closely. A significant portion of the audio content contains a book review (plot spoilers are minimal in case you are worried), which may have contributed to the dream as I had just finished the book before falling asleep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBs1i-sMdA Any and all of your comments, thoughts, feelings or suggestions are welcome. I am new to dream analysis and self-knowledge. Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvz4nRD131o&feature=youtu.be The Odyssey is one of the oldest literary/oratory works in history and is referenced ubiquitously in literature and everyday culture. Is it any more than ancient propaganda? And what can this epic homecoming story teach us about our societies and our families today? I give you: 'The Philosophy of The Odyssey'.

I'm currently working on a tragic novel and need some help on how best to demonstrate the virtue of the lead. To give a brief synopsis the novel is a tragedy set in modern day Paris about a sculptor, Anton Duarte, a black man from Tunisia who turns to stone. The fantastical device of turning to stone is used to demonstrate his fall from virtue and fame into lies, deceit, and madness. The idea for the motif of lies turning you into stone comes from Pinnochio's nose; but as a whole my two main inspirations are the play Othello and the novel The Picture of Dorian Grey. Tragedy to be effective as a genre must have the right structure. To use Stefan's phrase, "art is an emotional argument for virtue". Tragedy in particular shows what happens when a good person is corrupted and the work acts as a kind of warning sign "don't do this", and is empathetic to people who make mistakes and get drawn into evil deeds by showing the whole context. Othello for example, at the beginning of the play is virtuous and strong (according to Shakespeare's statist values), and it is Iago's manipulation of him into thinking his wife is having an affair that turns him mad. I'm struggling with how to demonstrate Duarte's goodness according to anarchist values in the first half. I like the idea of him being a bootstrapper, building his career as a sculptor of marble from humble origins as a plasterer at the age of 18 on on Parisian building sites. But here's the thing. I've also been playing around with the idea of making him a Muslim (does not drink, is an ascetic bachelor, prays five times a day etc.). From the viewpoint of the structure of tragedy, this would seem to say that Islam is somehow virtuous and represents truth (in counterpoint to his lies turning him into stone), yet I just can't imagine Duarte being an atheist. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas about how to demonstrate his goodness according to anarchist values before the tragic downfall? Any fans of Ayn Rand welcome! **Don't know whether this topic is in the right category but there doesn't seem to be a folder for art on the boards yet.

Well I have gone ahead and commited myself to writing an idea that has been bouncing around my head for about three years now. I have been an avid student of history, philosphy, and a veteran of the most recent incursions in the middle east, and the three have lent me a great deal of experience and perspective I would be remiss not to bestow to the world at some point or another. The problem has always been how. But I feel like, in the influx of distopian novels and successful series about the future, I may find a niche as an author with a great deal of (if contraversial) reality intertwined with the visions of the future. Where stories like Divergent, Hunger Games, the upcoming Maze Runner series, and others are purely based on future scenarios without much reference to actual current world events or how we got from here to there. This series serves to bridge that gap, and add to the possible futures of this seemingly hellbent global community with more realistic and educational foundation. Such topics as elite mulit-centurian family lineages, secret societies, and an underground resistance will all play factor, as is a common theme in all these types of stories, but there will be very accurate (as best as can be gathered) ties back to real world events and scenarios. Names and faces may or may not be changed, I haven't really decided yet, but I will commit the prologue to revealing in plain english the parallels between our "real" world and the story portrayed. The introduction (so far): There is a vast difference between the perception video games and movies give of the life and experience of soldiers and the reality of the same. I suppose it can be said that since time immemorial, the chasm between the accounts of historians and the experiences of combatants they wrote about has been such, as well. Maybe that is a small instance of history repeating itself, as it always tends to do. Likewise what we are seeing the world today is an occasion of historical repetition. We are at a time of unnecessary war; inexperienced leadership directing acts of war and international diplomacy as if that is all that matters. Decisions are made and actions taken without a consideration or pause for all of those affected, all the lives inevitably to be lost, and the entire worlds destroyed. The problem with our current situation is a profound lack of understanding of those people amongst which we conduct these operations of foreign policy. Perhaps the most disgusting aspect of this entire scenario is the Commander in Chief, while inexperienced in war and combat, comes from an international background. His family--whether you want to believe he was born in the USA or not--comes from Kenya, an impoverished and often unstable part of Africa. His childhood was spent globetrotting from country to country, albeit under the umbrella of Islam, which I suppose introduces stability to recompense the shuffling about. But because of this, he should understand, perhaps better than most Americans ever could, the intimate details of the places we have so thoroughly injected ourselves and our policies, and thus he has no excuse for the severe and indiscriminate bombing campaigns that have comprised most of his foreign policy as President. In the end, it is the flag of the United States of America that is on every plane, every bomb, and the shoulder of every soldier, and it is a perception of terror in the minds of every noncombatant that sees that flag in correlation with these campaigns. The people of these nations do not have CNN, Fox, or whatever network you choose to subscribe to, they only see their homes and neighborhoods destroyed and American soldiers with guns associated with it. It is said that one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. This statement is not one of subjection, but of reality. When I was in Afghanistan for the first many months the people of Afghanistan thought we were Russians. They knew nothing of 9/11, Osama Bin Ladin, or al-Qaeda. When you deal with countries such as these, they have no understanding of geography and flags and politics. They have no access to international news and current events. They only know what they know, and what has been taught to them by their elders. And all of them only know what is empirical, what they can see and prove through demonstrated reality. As Americans and anyone else in a developed nation, we take advantage of our access to international news and aggregate sources like Drudge Report, and forget that we are involved in nations that have no access to that information. That said, those people tend to be exposed to more reality, because there is an absence of politics and bias, because they actually live in…wait for it… The Real World. Our foreign policy is hinged on intelligence that is gathered without international verification and is often responded to with unilateral actions by a President who doesn’t have the power or the wisdom enough to belay an act of war in an effort to achieve a more diplomatic solution. He gives in to the war powers of his generals without any consultation with Congress or the American people, who are supposed to have the exclusive power to conduct acts of war. It is the duty of the American people to come together to defund this greatest act of terrorism on the world, and stop emboldening those labelled terrorists by conducting ourselves in a way more extreme than they ever could. I suppose it is only to be expected from a nation who responds to murder with murder (death penalty), and rape with enabling rape (men are statistically raped astronomically more than women, if you include prison populations, of which the US has the highest population in the world), and poverty with forced continuation of the same (pick any one of the 80+ welfare programs in America), but that is for another article. We must as the people of this nation, the people that the flag our neighboring nations see conducting all these bombing campaigns destroying their towns and lives represents, stop worrying about our personal self-image and come together to stop allowing the government to tarnish our collective national image for the sake of only their and their constituents (and controllers) self-interest. We The People gain nothing from war. Our homes, our jobs, and our livelihoods are taken to pay for these expensive multi-thousand dollar bombs that are dropped on mud huts and children. The lives of our children and grandchildren are used as collateral to get loans from foreign bankers to finance this war, as has been done since they dropped the gold standard. The power is still with the people if only through majority. And if it takes cutting off the cable television and internet to get people to wake the fuck up and do something about it, then maybe we need to look at that as a means to an end. This is an introduction to my vision of the future from here. This is everything I believe and the foundation for everything you will read hereto forth. I firmly believe that history repeats itself, or at least humanity is limited to certain duration before it reverts to the same old shit. Enjoy, or be horrified, but know that I have to the best of my ability maintained truth and integrity in everything this is based on. ---from the author, Jesse Lohse, veteran and citizen of the Old AmericaDonate BTC: 1BJFJdMyy5ASC6uA4SZ9qEgsSNsGLg6RET The New America series

This a an excellent book so far & it is very informative of the origins of Arab culture & how it is affecting the world today. Although I am not finished I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about foreign policy, culture & international politics.