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marissapaul · 1 year

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1/6 day 12: Pop Culture & Spiritual Feminism

our last day! it's only fitting that we end with an anzaluda reading. i enjoyed the discussion of fear in the interview we read today. specifically, the way that fear has been drilled into people growing up today. fear that if we don't or can't work that we won't be able to live anymore, fear that modern medicine has become inaccessible, fear that there is nothing we can do to escape capitalism. yet, as always, we are given actionable feedback. for it is possible to overcome that fear, it is possible to subvert capitalism, maybe not in its entirety, but in important and meaningful ways. from our readings earlier this semester talking about the economic shift to capitalism and the idea that capitalism necessitated a managerial class that was going to be willing to exploit others around them. i grew up with parents who were willing to do just that. and they spent my teenage years training me to do the same to those around me. but as i have wound my way through college and academia i have been able to find the root of those fears that my parents had instilled in me about not making enough money, not being in a lucrative enough career, etc. and now that i understand the economic system i live in, i know what place i want to occupy within or rather, outside of it.

i know that macklemore has an iffy reputation for it was certainly unfair and racially-motivated that he won the grammy over kendrick lamar, but i generally feel that macklemore has been aware of his privilege throughout his career, even if he continues to benefit from being white in a historically black profession. this song is all about unpacking his role as a white rapper and what it means to be privileged. there is one line in particular that goes "but the one thing the american dream fails to mention is i was many steps ahead to begin with" that quote has stuck with me even as i have grown past his liberal politics into leftism and liberationist politics. because that line is true of me as well. i may not have my mom's money anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that i did grow up with it, i went to a nice school, i have a jeep wrangler which is a vehicle that is commonly recognized as a marker of middle/upper-middle class status, and even though i am living paycheck to paycheck now, i have a college education and in four months i will have a masters degree. i may be queer and autistic but above all of that i am white and i grew up rich and that has set me many steps ahead. as i have become aware of my place in the world and how it actually functions and the ways in which the neat and orderly life of the suburbs is only predicated upon the suffering of others, this lyric stays in my mind to both ward away fear, and to remind me that even in my current situation where i am living off of a TA stipend, i have been given so many resources that have put me far ahead of those who weren't able to access those same resources and education that i have been gifted with. i refuse to be a part of that managerial class that abuses the people around me when i will always be far closer to poverty than i will be to the mounds of wealth that capitalism seeks to hoard for like fifty people out of a billion. i refuse to lead with anything other than love and empathy. and for that i have lost the financial support of my parents, but i am no longer afraid of not making enough money to live as they lived. for i do not want to live anywhere near the life they live. the world i envision is a fundamentally and drastically different one from the false comfort they enjoy.

the anzaluda interview also offered some solid closing insights on herbal medicines, this quote from page 224 in particular stood out to me, "if you take medicine for example, the man is always putting down herbal remedies because they're too available to everybody. because if you find out you can heal yourself on your own, without him, he's out of the job" that is such a powerful quote. and it wasn't until this class that i could appreciate the fullness of it. i grew up in and around the medical field (my first two years in college i was doing pre-med to be a pediatrician, and i grew up in and worked in a pediatric practice in houston, which is a city that is lauded for its medical facilities) and while i have found myself unpacking the white supremacist structures i grew up with over these past few years, this was one aspect of my childhood that i had yet to reckon with. so i am really thankful that we have repeatedly taken a look at alternative forms of healing including herbal remedies. i grew up hearing so much about the marvels of modern medicine, as if the people we have been studying haven't been healing each other for hundreds and thousands of years. of course, advancements have been made, but they remain inaccessible to the working class and so what advancements have really been made? healing through white institutions has only grown more and more inaccessible. even just having a baby in a hospital has become a truly tremendous expenditure. so of course people are turning to alternative medicines. medicines that the highly processed medicines we buy at the grocery store are based on, which is all predicated on stealing from indigenous healing knowledge. i am always trying to deconstruct what i grew up with, and i have the large swaths filled in, i am just now on a journey to deconstruct all the little pieces that may not show up in my daily life. i am thankful that this is a piece of that journey that we were able to look at in depth this semester.

there were two quotes from the forewords we read that stood out to me. the first is "I have heard from people that the book has helped change some minds (and hopefully hearts as well), but it has changed no one more than the women who contributed to its existence. It has changed my life so fundamentally…” and this is really how i feel about my thesis. all around me and throughout the past two years i have heard again and again that everybody hates their thesis, and that this is just a stepping stone to the "good" scholarship that you might create ten, fifteen years in the future. but i refuse to think that way about my thesis. i love my thesis. and while i hope that it might be useful to me, it has been useful me and to those that have worked on it with me and for that i am thankful. it has helped me and my friends work through our gender and sexuality and the ways we think about building community, it has introduced one of my advisors, dr. johnson, to transness in a depth that he hasn't studied before, i hope that dr. skidmore has been able to learn from me in the process of mentoring me, i know that she is proud of me and happy that i am here and so at the very least i have that aspect. there are so many people who have contributed to the creation of my thesis, all of whom have been changed by it and for that i am thankful no matter what happens and no matter how many or few people read it or draw strength from it. i, and those around me have benefitted from it and for that i love my thesis and look upon it with kind eyes and a kind heart.

the second quote is, "And yet to act is not enough. Many of us are learning to sit perfectly still, to sense the presence of the Soul and commune with Her. We are beginning to realize that we are not wholly at the mercy of circumstance, nor are our lives completely out of our hands." i think this is a really powerful statement for academics. we get so good at dissecting things and understanding why things shake out the way they do and the historical context of it and etc. etc. but we have to learn to be still. who knows if i will make a field-changing intervention, what i do know is that i am now able to sit still. i am able to commune with my soul and understand her without trying to logic and rationalize her thoughts. i may not make a lot of money, but i am far happier than my mom has ever allowed herself to be. for i grew up in the same economic system, but i have learned to sit still and from sitting still i have gained an optimism that i might live differently and outside of the constraints of capitalism and white supremacists structures. i will certainly always be less financially well-off than her. but i have my soul when she sold hers long ago so she might enjoy the luxuries of hoarded capital. if there is one thing that i have learned from history it is that history has not been a linear march towards liberation and progressivism. things ebb and flow, but people like me have always lived and loved and it is from them that i draw strength to live queerly. i live in a state that actively targets trans folks, yet i am not entirely a victim of circumstance. i have agency. i can live with love, kindness, and empathy and that is perhaps the most radical thing i might do in this life.

i hope that one day my mother can learn to sit still.

#Spotify

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foxghost · 4 years

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Joyful Reunion, Chapter 14

Translator: foxghost @foxghost tumblr/ko-fi1 Beta: meet-me-in-oblivion @meet-me-in-oblivion tumblr Original by 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang Masterpost | Characters, Maps & Other Reference Index

Book 1, Chapter 4 (part 2)

Though he misses Lang Junxia, Duan Ling has gradually understood something: perhaps if his father didn’t come, Lang Junxia wouldn’t have left.

Some will come and some will go — it’s just like how Lang Junxia described it himself. You can’t have all the good things that happen in the world; one will always have regrets, one way or another.

A lot of things feel like they were pre-arranged for him by the heavens itself.

Not without astonishment Duan Ling realises that if he ever has questions about any of the books he’s reading, as long as he brings them up to Li Jianhong, he can almost always answer them. On top of that, while his answers are wholly different than those the headmaster comes up with, they do not contradict his other interpretations, leaving Duan Ling little option but to be persuaded.

“Dad, didn’t you tell me that you didn’t get much schooling?”

“Life is limited, knowledge is limitless.2” Li Jianhong answers, “Who can truly say they’re well-read? All one can learn are bits and pieces. The more you know, the less you understand.”

Duan Ling only half understands, but he nods anyway. Today, he has flipped through his books for a while, and now he asks, “Dad, Confucius said that a gentleman reveres three things. What does that mean?”

“First to revere fate, second to revere the ruling class, third to revere the words of sages. A wretch who does not know the inevitability of fate would not know he should revere it..”

“Revere doesn’t mean fear.” Li Jianhong gives an impromptu explanation as he looks out into the courtyard, “It means to respect. Only by honouring one’s fate can one find shelter.”

“And what does fate mean?” Duan Ling asks.

“Everyone has something that they must accomplish in their lives, and that is decided from the very moment they are born. Some are born to farm, some are born to fight in wars, some are born to be the emperor. There are all kinds of fates, endlessly dissimilar.”

“But how am I supposed to find out what my fate is?” Duan Ling asks another question.

“It makes perfect sense for you not to know,” Li Jianhong puts down his bowl and heaves a sigh. “Dad doesn’t know either. Independent at thirty, confident at forty, knows one’s fate at fifty, said Confucius — we’re not supposed to find out until we’re fifty.”

“Isn’t that too long?” Duan Ling doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Yeah. We spend the first half of our lives bumping about in the dark not knowing what we’re supposed to do — it’s truly a waste of time.”

Li Jianhong gets up and walks away, but Duan Ling is still thinking about what his father told him; he finds him far more interesting than his teachers.

But soon Li Jianhong is walking past his door again. It’s drizzling outside, and Li Jianhong has changed into a cloak. He has a bundle in one hand. “Don’t you need to go to the Illustrious Hall today? Want to keep going to school?”

“Oh!” Duan Ling remembers now — today is the day he’s picking up his papers. He’ll be able to pick up the last essay he wrote at the Illustrious Hall and get it stamped by the headmaster so he can hand it in at Biyong College. He’s nearly forgotten, but Li Jianhong somehow still remembers everything, and takes him out on horseback. They plan to go get the papers, then head to the ink room to register for the exams before heading out of the city for a leisure trip.

Shangjing’s Biyong College is situated in the middle of Zhenghe Street, teeming with pedestrians and carriages that come and go in an endless stream. A line has already formed outside, all from noble and high-ranking functionary households. Standing apart from the crowd, Duan Ling and his father look on, both of whom dressed in plain commoners’ clothing.

“Do you envy their show of wealth in their beautiful carriages?” Li Jianhong asks without much thought.

Duan Ling shakes his head. A lot of these people are his fellow alumni from the Illustrious Hall. They’ve spent years studying with each other, but he never imagined that they came from such eminent families. Duan Ling says to Li Jianhong, “The headmaster taught us that one must be content with poverty and be the ruler of one’s own self.”

Li Jianhong nods. “Even though the headmaster talks a lot of nonsense, in this instance he is correct.”

Duan Ling laughs as he goes to get a number for registration on his own, so Li Jianhong pulls his hood down low until it covers half his face, and he stands in the shadows as he scans the faces of the passersby.

“Duan Ling!” Cai Yan calls his name from a distance. “What are you waiting for? Come over here!”

Though Duan Ling has completed his course of study at the Illustrious Hall, he has made few friends; because Lang Junxia made sure he only lived in the secluded side wing, he had little opportunity to meet with his fellow students. The only people he’s relatively close to are Cai Yan and Borjigin, whom he met on the first day, and Helian Bo who was occasionally given the standing punishment along with him.

Cai Yan came with this older brother as always, and he beckons at Duan Ling. So Li Jianhong walks over to greet them, saluting Cai Wen with one hand wrapped over his fist.

“Thank you for looking after him,” Li Jianhong says.

"I hardly did anything. "Cai Wen smiles, returning the gesture.

Cai Yan rests his arm over Duan Ling’s shoulder, letting him line up in front of himself, and the two of them exchange pleasantries. Duan Ling seldom sees Cai Wen, and he cannot help recalling that one winter where Lang Junxia was injured. In the days following that incident, Duan Ling returned to the Illustrious Hall, and Cai Yan came to see him without prompting; noticing his swollen right eye, Cai Yan thought Duan Ling was beaten by the adults at his house, and talked with him for a while to console him.

Ordinarily the two of them were almost never in the same class together. By the time Duan Ling started school, Cai Yan was already in the literature pavilion learning the four books and five classics ahead of time, as well as writing essays, and by the time Duan Ling advanced to the literature pavilion, they were classmates only for a few brief months before Cai Yan was taken back home, where his brother hired someone to teach him. Therefore the two of them did not see each other often at all.

But Duan Ling did have some idea of Cai Yan’s family situation. He knows that even though Cai Wen is Cai Yan’s older brother, the two did not share the same mother, and Cai Yan’s needs to be taken care of by Cai Wen everyday the same way Lang Junxia looks after Duan Ling. It made Cai Yan and Duan Ling intangibly closer still. Aside from this, Cai Yan and his older brother had also run into Duan Ling and Lang Junxia twice outside of school; once at the Mid-Autumn lantern festival, and the other time at the Double Third festival3 on a spring outing by the water.

However, Ding Zhi seems to like Lang Junxia, but not Cai Wen so much, thus when their respective elders happen to run into each other the atmosphere feels a bit awkward.

While the young men stand in line, the adults around them have a friendly chat. Duan Ling has forgotten to introduce Cai Wen to his father; Cai Wen is dressed in sky blue casuals today, looking quite dashing with a fighter’s bearing, like a sharp, newly forged sword. What they talk about is nothing more than the two children’s studies. Compared to the respectful distance Lang Junxia tends to keep, Li Jianhong comes off as far more cordial.

When Lang Junxia is mentioned, Li Jianhong merely brushes off the subject with a simple, “He’s my servant, and I wasn’t going to let him interfere too much in my son’s studies. Once I finished work and came to Shangjing, I sent him back to the south to take care of the business.”

Cai Wen nods. “I’ve been told you’re a merchant, Duanxiong?”

Li jianhong nods. “It’s not going so well. I was just thinking about finding some other way to make a living. Ambition I’ve plenty, but with all this war going on it’s hard to find a foothold anywhere, so what can I do but eat away at my savings while sitting idly on my hands. I’ll worry about that when I’m done watching over my son and he’s grown.”

Cai Wen laughs. “Judging by your bearing, Duanxiong, surely you wouldn’t have to eat away at your savings. You’re just being overly modest.”

Though Li Jianhong’s clothes and ornaments are not extravagant, his every movement and every word carries a particular aura, far from anything like a nouveau riche. In recent years Shangjing is filled with all kinds of folk, rich and poor alike; many nobles have also taken their entire families to shelter beneath the Liao celestial emperor’s feet. Though Cai Wen thinks Li Jianhong is no ordinary man, he has already met Duan Ling, and so he does not think too much of it.

Cai Yan sees a youth walking towards them and says, surprised, “Helian Bo!”

Duan Ling says smilingly, “Helian Bo!”

“You’ve come too!” Cai Yan greets him, “Come over here.”

Helian Bo has grown as well; he often got sent to stand out in the hallway alongside Duan Ling as punishment, and at fourteen he’s already rather tall, with dusky skin. He’s dressed in the Xiqiang fashion, with high brows, deep-set eyes, and chiselled features. Ordinarily he looks rather imposing simply standing there without saying a word, but in fact, he stutters.

Helian Bo is with his steward, so he nods at Duan Ling and Cai Yan, then tells his steward to leave before going to stand behind the two of them silently.

“Did you see Borjigin?” Cai Yan says offhandedly.

Helian Bo shakes his head. He looks at Li Jianhong, obviously the first time he’s ever seen him.

“My dad,” Daun Ling finally remembers to introduce him.

Helian Bo puts one palm on top of another, so Li Jianhong nods at him and returns the salute. Duan Ling looks behind him to find a carriage stopped on the road. Helian Bo points over that way and explains to Duan Ling. “My mom.”

His mother’s the one who brought Helian Bo here to register. Shangjing custom does not allow female family members to appear in public, so Helian Bo has come to line up by himself. He cups a hand over his fist to Cai Wen and the others in an apology.

The young men chat casually with each other for a while, and when it’s their turn, Duan Ling wants to let the others go first, but Helian Bo makes a gesture palm up at Duan Ling, please go ahead, and along with Cai Yan the two let the youngest among them go first.

“Duan Ling can come over whenever he’s free.” Caii Wen says, “I hired a teacher from the south. He can choose some of the easier material to teach him for now.”

“It’s wonderful of you to offer, thank you,” Li Jianhong says.

Cai Wen waves it off, don’t mention it, while Duan Ling has already gone inside with his answers, handed it in, and got it stamped. Li Jianhong says goodbye to Cai Wen, and he steps away with Duan Ling to pay the exam fee.

By the time Duan Ling is done, his friends are already gone. Noticing that Duan Ling is still looking back to search the crowd repeatedly, Li Jianhong asks, “You have friends that didn’t come?”

“Batu didn’t come.” Duan Ling replies, “We said we’d come today to register for the exams.”

Li Jianhong thinks to himself for a little while before asking Duan Ling, “Did you make any other friends?”

“Those are the one that are good to me. But I don’t know why their families are so strict with them.”

“Well, I forgot to ask, actually. Was Lang Junxia strict with you?”

Duan Ling shakes his head. It’s already been a while since he parted from Lang Junxia, but when he thinks about the past, he cherishes the comfortable years he spent with Lang Junxia very much still. Not that he didn’t want to play around, but Duan Ling was terrified of disappointing him. However, he can tell that Cai Yan, Helian Bo, as well as his other fellow classmates seem to have been having a hard time, as though there was a constant gloom pressing down on their heads.

“Helian Bo and the others … I don’t know how to say it, but they always looked like … looked like … um …”

Li Jianhong says, “Like there’s a ghost trailing them, forcing them to study so they can’t even laugh out loud.”

Duan Ling smiles. “That’s it.”

“They’re all mature beyond their years. They’re not like you.”

Duan Ling heaves a sigh.

Li Jianhong says, “They’re all heirs of politcal hostages, so naturally ever since they were little they understood more than those around them.”

“Well, I know that. But is it all that scary?” Duan Ling asks.

Li Jianhong holds Duan Ling’s hand as they walk down the street. “Helian Bo is the son of the Xiqiang royal family’s Helian Luan. Borjigin is a descendent of the Yuan Jiwowen line. As for the brothers Cai Wen and Cai Yan, they’re the offspring of the Cai family who moved north to work as officials in Shangjing. They’re children from mixed marriages with Khitan women.”

“In other words,” Li Jianhong explains, “Their dads are all foreigners, and most of them are royal kin. They’re here as hostages in exchange for peace between their home country and the Liao empire. If war breaks out between them, the Khitans will kill them.”

Duan Ling falls quiet for a moment before he asks, “Who is Southern Chen’s hostage?”

“The Southern Chen imperial family doesn’t have a hostage here — because the Han refuses to yield.”

“A lot of people who went to school with you in the Illustrious Hall are the descendents of the Liao empire’s south-side bureaucrats. If they ever defect, the Liao emperor would kill their sons.” Li Jianhong asks, “Do you know a child with the last name Han?”

“I do!” Duan Ling immediately thinks of that Mister Han.

“He’s actually Khitan. His dad is the imperial tutor of the southern administration.”

Duan Ling nods. He’s standing at the intersection with Li Jianhong; Dayu’er Lane is right next to them. Duan Ling stands there, and peers in for a while. “I want to check Batu’s house.”

And so Li Jianhong steps into Dayu’er Lane with Duan Ling, but they discover that many Khitan soldiers are inside, questioning everyone they see.

“Who’s there?” They’re immediately on guard.

“I’m …” Duan Ling has just started speaking when Li Jianhong’s hand on his shoulder lightly presses down.

“When I was taking my son to register earlier I ran into General Cai outside Biyong College.” Li Jianhong says smoothly, “He noticed that Borjigin was absent so he asked me to come check on him.”

“It has got nothing to do with Cai Wen.” The officer says, “Return and tell him to mind his own business.”

Li Jianhong nods at him and leaves with Duan Ling, a slight furrow between his brows.

“Why are they …”

Li Jianhong puts a finger over Duan Ling’s lips, letting him know not to ask. By the time they get home, Duan Ling has already forgotten all about it, and goes to work in his flowerbed. After a while, Duan Ling finds Li Jianhong getting some sun on the recliner in the courtyard, his eyes narrowed as though lost in thought.

“Dad.” Duan Ling is going to ask him to go sleep inside, but Li Jianhong’s eyes open and he beckons Duan Ling closer.

So Duan Ling goes and sprawls all over Li Jianhong. Li Jianhong holds Duan Ling close to him with one hand, and takes his hand with another.

“What’s this? Your hands are covered in mud, just wiping it on your dad’s face all day long.”

Duan Ling wipes both hands on Li Jianhong’s clothes and says, “I’m hungry.”

“What do you want to eat? Let’s go get something at a restaurant …”

Duan Ling is about to wash his hands, but Li Jianhong doesn’t loosen his hold; he carefully examines Duan Ling’s expression while looking at his eyes. “Tell me this before you go. Are you good friends with Borjigin Batu?”

There’s gravitas in Li Jianhong’s expression, and Duan Ling gets a bit worried, thinking Li Jianhong must disapprove of him making friends with Batu, so he starts thinking about how he should answer. And yet after just this short pause of hesitation, Li Jianhong is saying to him, “If he is then say he is, if he isn’t then say he isn’t. What’d you think I’d do to you?”

Duan Ling answers, “He is.”

“Life is long, and you must have a few friends. Go wash your hands.”

I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

It’s by Zhuangzi. The full quote is Life is limited, knowledge is limitless; the pursuit of the limitless with the limited can only end in failure. ↩︎

The double third festival happens on 3-3, on the third day of the third lunar month. ↩︎

#相見歡 #fei tian ye xiang #joyful reunion #xiang jian huan #fox translates things

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moro-nokimi · 4 years

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why light��s class matters

and no, i’m not talking about light’s political science or english classes, i mean the ones we’re sorted into by how much money we or our parents make per year. buckle up

socio-economic class is three tiers: the working class, middle class, and upper class. between that, there’s also the “-collar” designations -- blue collar (manual labor), white collar (office labor), pink collar (“women’s work” typical jobs like nursing, teaching, childcare), grey collar (not white or blue collar, or sometimes post-age of retirement workers), and green collar (environmental labor, like environmental consultants).

income equity in japan is fair (nippon.com), with a Gini coefficient of .5594 in 2017. the Gini coefficient measures an amount between 0 and 1. the closer to one, the higher amount of income inequality. fairly middle of the road compared to the area between .61 and .68 in the rest of the world.

equity in japan is still there: compared to the US and UK, CEO pay is considerably less; JP firm CEOs with revenue over a trillion yen take home less than 100 million yen (715,000 pounds, or 917,838.35 USD), which is literally less than a tenth of US competitors, and less than a fifth of UK competitors.

however, according to another article from the guardian,

Japan now has some of the worst wealth inequality and highest rates of child poverty in the developed world, according to a Unicef report released in April that ranked Japan 34th out of 41 industrialised countries.

to be clear, poverty across the board is. 16%. in comparison, the poverty rate for the US and UK is 11.8% and 20%.

we don’t learn a whole lot about the sheer amount of money that soichiro (a white or grey collar worker) brings home but based on the house and that the yagamis comfortably have a stay at home mother, we can say that he’s middle class (upper middle class, imo). if the stats i got are correct, soichiro's annual salary in 2003 would be around 82,558 USD - 115,669 USD in 2020 money.

however, the motive behind crimes being committed isn’t as cut and dry as them Refusing To Be Better Than Their Circumstances or Just For Shits And Giggles; many commit crimes like petty theft of formula so their child can eat, or steal tampons because they ran out last month. children in particularly impoverished areas (read: heavily Black)* join gangs for some sense of belonging. cops will straight up fudge charges for quotas (adrian schoolcraft and the NYPD tapes) for ticketing people or plant illegal substances on detainees.

light is not only removed from the people being killed by virtue of his socioeconomic status, but because his dad is a cop. not only has he had no exposure to crime, he also sees people who commit crimes as people who are helpless to continue the cycle of shittiness they’re in.

crime is, frankly, relative. not only because laws being written are unjust (see: marital rape was completely legal in all 50 states until 1993), but because the enforcement of these laws disproportionately targets anyone who isn’t white, and especially Black, in the US. i shouldn’t even have to provide sources for this shit, it’s been news since may.

Kira is a worldwide death penalty, which i have talked ab before as being unjust and disproportionately racist in the US. but since we’re not talking ab the US and many states have a moratorium on capital punishment, let’s talk about japan.

there were no statistics i could find that were from a trustworthy source about how often the death penalty is used, but according to CNN, the most recent executions were carried out in august 2019. japan and the US are the only countries who (semi-) regularly carry out capital punishment. considering the 99% conviction rate in japan, it’s not a stretch to say that there are at least a few people who are innocent on death row.

light’s entire POV is informed by his father’s job, his environment in japan’s criminal justice system, and how sheltered he is bc of his class. if you’re pro-Kira, not only are you seeing that POV and not realizing how fucked up it is, it implies that you don’t see incarcerated individuals as deserving of life.

* i say heavily Black because in the US, there’s this funky thing called redlining. banks would deny mortgages to BIPOC and shoehorn them into underdeveloped areas near industrial plants (google cancer alley at some point), houses with lead paint, poorly funded schools, etc; and in combination with White Flight (the term where loads of Black families move into a formerly white neighborhood and all the white people haul ass out), we end up with low income nbhds where it isn’t unusual to hear police sirens everyday

TLDR of that point, Black people are systemically poorer than white people bc of redlining and white flight, so poor areas end up being heavily policed regardless of race.

#death note #tw rape #tw cancer #this isn't to like. beat kira supporters over the head. i just came to this realization late last night and spent hours writing this.#vd.writing #.mp3

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thegreatsharkleve · 4 years

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Elijah Post LFRP - Crystal data center

The Basics ––– –

Name: Elijah Post

Age: 28

Race: Midlander/Highlander

Gender: Cis Male

Sexuality: Gay (but flirts with pretty much everyone)

Relationship Status: Sort of involved? (He will neither confirm nor deny there being a presence of embarrassingly soft feelings...)

Languages: Common, a rudimentary grasp of Doman

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Honey Blond and could definitely use a cut or a style… or a brush most days, to be perfectly honest.

Eyes: Amber – more a reddish-orange hue than yellow

Height: 5’6”

Appearance: He is an attractive enough guy: excellent jaw line, straight nose, striking eyes, long limbs, trim figure, and a charming smile. Unfortunately (for anyone who has to look at him) his fashion sense is … questionable at best. Most of his outfits consist of brightly colored, egregiously wrinkled shirts and pants that rarely make it past his ankles. He wears a lot of tacky jewelry, sunglasses inside buildings and most certainly at night, and there is a very real possibility that the only footwear he owns, besides a pair of fluffy pink slippers, are sandals – which he has, in fact, been known to wear with socks. Still, he carries himself with a lazy confidence that somehow makes his perpetual “I have just woke up in the middle of the afternoon” look seem more of an artful affectation rather than a cry for help.

One of the more notable things about him are his plethora of scars, with the most prominent being the one that runs diagonal across his face and the two sets of whorling burns along both shoulders – one creeping down over his right pectoral and the other running over the upper part of his left arm. His ring finger on his left hand is missing after the first knuckle (don’t ask about this one if you’re eating), and a long surgical scar runs vertically along his outer right forearm. Underneath his clothes are a smattering of healed bullet wounds and a few others of less identifiable origin, but you’re gonna have to buy him a couple drinks if you want to take a closer look.

Personal ––– –

Profession: Journalist – specifically a freelance field correspondent who specializes in conflict journalism and investigative reporting. When he’s between field work, he often picks up puff pieces with local papers, writing about the arts, sports, culture, etc.

Residence: No permanent listed address – currently renting a room at the Hidden Pearl in the Mists. He can usually be found sitting at the bar after he’s just rolled out of bed, having bacon twists and sake for breakfast (at 2pm).

Birthplace: Ul’Dah

Religion: Meh

Likes: Day drinking, people watching, writing, sleeping, animals, (tall men)

Dislikes: Bureaucracy, wealth disparity, national pride, bullies, snobs, being cold

Fears: Commitment, being emotionally vulnerable, people in mascot costumes

Personality: Elijah seems like a pretty easy going, even tempered guy for the most part. He has a languorous, lackadaisical disposition – meandering through life as though he never really has a place to be, and if he did, he isn’t in any particular rush to get there. With friends or with strangers he’s quick to smile or laugh or tell a joke, affable enough that people tend to trust him with pieces of themselves without noticing he offers very little of himself in return. He can come across as flippant or indifferent in conversation, and while he is rarely intentionally cruel, he has a habit of jamming his thumbs into people’s buttons. It’s very possible he is just incidentally annoying rather than consciously so. He likes to maintain plausible deniability on that front.

When working in the field Elijah becomes much more focused – he stands taller, moves with purpose, exchanging his usual countenance of a rumpled layabout for that of a seasoned professional. He has on more than one occasion put his own body on the line (and in the hospital) in combat situations, or when pursuing a lead. He will recount each scar, and his half missing finger, with a joviality that some folks find off putting given some of the more grisly details. This disregard for his own safety is likely one of the (many) reasons he has never gotten a full time reporting gig with any of Eorza’s major newspapers – that, and he has a habit of leaving journalistic impartiality at the door. It’s clear from his writing that he has a deep well of empathy for other people and admires underdogs who fight uphill battles for high minded idealism, even if he ultimately believes their sentimentality to be a little bit naive..

Relationships ––– -

Parents: His Mother has passed, but his Father is still kicking and perpetually disappointed in his son! Their relationship is… strained by not estranged?

Pets: His Chocobo Bixley – but really, that’s more of a buddy and stalwart feathered compatriot than a pet.

traits ––– -

bold your character’s answer.

extroverted / in between / introverted

disorganized / in between / organized

close minded / in between / open minded

calm / in between / anxious

disagreeable / in between / agreeable

cautious / in between / reckless

patient / in between / impatient

outspoken / in between / reserved

leader / in between / follower

empathetic / in between / apathetic

optimistic / in between / pessimistic

traditional / in between / modern

hard-working / in between / lazy

cultured / in between / uncultured

loyal / in between / disloyal

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: Has been known to chain smoke.

Drugs: The spice of life is trying anything and everything twice!

Alcohol: Probably too often on that front too..

Background information/ Potential RP Hooks? ––– –

UL’DAH BORN AND RAISED: He lived most of his youth in Ul’Dah, haunting the less affluent areas of Eorzea’s grandest pile of rocks in the desert. His mother was an Ala Mhigan immigrant and his father just a simple Ul’Dah native who ran a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. His parents were very “hard work and sacrifice” types when he was growing up, giving away free meals to refugees and anyone who was hungry. They were well liked by those who knew them, veritable pillars of the community, for whatever that was worth in what was hardly a half step above a slum. His mother died a few years ago but his father still works in his run down little restaurant – lots of folks still recognize Elijah as his parent’s kid rather than for his own work. He has mixed feelings about it.

FREELANCE JOURNALIST WITH AN AXE TO GRIND: Elijah’s had work published in The Mythril Eye, The Harbor Herald, and The Raven. Because he has a reasonably good standing at these newspapers (and friendly relationships with some of the editors) he’s able to pick up the odd puff piece, op-ed, or political coverage gig in order to cover his expenses when he’s between larger assignments. In the past he has written some pretty incendiary pieces about Ul’Dah’s treatment of Ala Mhigan refugees, as well as a few pieces lambasting the noble houses of Ishgard and their complacency in the Dragonsong War and their collaboration with the corrupt Holy See, which has earned him a bit of a “reputation”. On the other hand, he is just as willing to throw himself upon the altar of journalistic tripe for a quick gil. If you have any tips or story leads you want investigated, Elijah just might be your man. If your character is involved at any of the major Eorzean papers, they might be acquainted.

CONFLICT REPORTING: Elijah has spent time in the middle of political unrest in Ishgard, covering Garlean incursions and skirmishes across the continent, and until recently he has been covering the ongoing issues in Othard. In fact, he’s only just returned from spending an extended period living with the resistance forces in Gyr Abania; and, he has some very strong opinions regarding the absolutely hacking edits The Mythril Eye made to his work before publication (without his permission). If your character was part of the fighting in Gyr Abania, Elijah might have spoken to them or went out into the field with them on occasion.

TRAVELING FOR WORK: Given the nature of his job, Elijah has visited most major cities while on assignment and has been known to interview common folks, political figures, travelers, military types -- anyone who will talk to him. If you've spoken to him in the past, your words might have ended up in print, for better or for worse (he has been punched in the face on more than one occasion, and he regrets nothing); however, he has never once burned an informant or lead that has come to him for help. He has enough of a reputation that folks (government and law enforcement sorts) might take to actively avoiding him.

OOC/Contact Information ––– –

The Player: Becks | They/Them | 30+ | Atlantic Timezone | Canadian

Looking for: Long term rp connections, short term adventures, friendship, rivalry, romance, I’m open to pretty much anything!

I’m a 30+ year old player who is a little anxious and shy when it comes to meeting new people on the internet (hence playing an extrovert to drag me out of my shell) but I’m really excited to make new friends and rp connections!! As I said, I am up for anything, including walk ups when I am out and about, and this character is on the surface level a very chill and friendly dude! I am, however, also someone who engages with a lot of mature themes -- not just swearing, drugs and alcohol, but also heavier themes (the realities of class disparity and poverty, the human cost of war, trauma, etc etc) that might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But!! I wouldn’t just throw it out there willy nilly, and I believe firmly in communication between players -- discussing boundaries and limits is very important, as well as trusting each other enough to speak up if either party is uncomfortable! I am cool with my character being injured, but please check in with me before doing anything drastic that will result in something permanent (like maiming or... y’know, death). Also I am open to rping romance (or lack of romance but the bits that go with it) though this character is currently not up for shipping adventures. Just to be clear, I am not comfortable doing that type of role play with anyone that’s under 25, sorry! I'm in my early thirties, and it would just be weird for me. We can still be pals, I promise! Please only reach out to me if you are 18+ and your character is 18+ -- I am not comfortable interacting with minors.

All art on this tumblr is probably mine unless stated otherwise! <3 Contact: Message me here on tumblr, /tell Elijah Post on Balmung, and if we become friends I am up for discord handle sharing! :D

I am open to cross-world rp and rp outside of the game as well!!

Now that I’ve got this edited how I want it... Boosts appreciated! Always looking for more active blogs to follow/be friends with!!

#lfrp balmung #lfrp crystal #ffxiv balmung #ffxiv crystal #Elijah Post #Character bio for a hot mess

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emersonmanandnature · 3 years

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January 10, 2021

The Rising Sun

we have a world of misrepresentation, a lack of honest words deepening our conscious paranoia of traders accumulating under the guise of friendly intimidation, our baby savior born in a stable, the son of god given to mankind by a father unworthy for what godly father would send his only son to this debased planet of greed, power, killing for pleasure and not make the journey himself in his full bodiless voice as he showed his power in the old testament but never showed his physical human face or was it a god like face, handsome lord showing off his prowess to give his underlings pain and suffering when he wasn’t being adored every second of their days in squalor, for one must obey the rightful heirs to the throne of earthly ruthlessness even if they are like all human faces without earned power instead killing everything in their way to become an earthly god and when jesus’s face showed up on a sacred cloth a handsome face in agony and after his tortured self was nailed to a cross forgiving us our corrupted faithless sins, the churches got bigger, the minister slicker in his stylish brioni-narrow stripe suits fitted to the man’s ego of self importance all a cover image of caring for others but the caring is depended on the flow of money to their godly nature to their bank account and not yours and their savior not yours and god’s hell is waiting for you not them these gluttons of greed worshiping wealth over a god unknown but love the phrase, ‘everything money can buy,’ with their stolen cash deposited in off shore accounts, can I get a ‘praise the lord.’

his sacrifice for others a necessary response a bait and switch hustle for we are told by god to obey the laws of his created reality, his forceful infinite power imagined yet without substance and authenticity what purpose exposed religion of its sinful nature, to strike fear into the souls of humans conditioning them to be present and accepting their godly induced pain without sympathy for the poor who were taken without mercy to do the dirty work in building edifices to honor the already present gods ruling over their begotten flock seeking someway to escape the controlling force of powerful forces eating away at their dreams, for soon they will rise into the heavens of a godly imagination for you are nothing here on this planet for the real rulers seek the graceful killings of men, women and children for all are sinners in god’s ghostly presence, a story understood immediately to be the climax of illusions needed to placate the people to suffer now but soon when killed from slavery will rise from the grave as the rightful son of god did and be born again in darkness for the scam was hope as they are slaughtered by the ego’s of selfish brutality determined to keep their power through history at all costs for after all we are just human beings grasping for something real, something good, that allows us a breath of fresh air knowing that we are doing someone worthwhile, a good deed silent without praise for why do we need praise for our invisible god still gets the majority of praise when it was human beings understanding someones needs and giving without a need to be worshiped, we live a dual life of hypocrisy praising a god never scene and ignoring poverty and hunger as if that didn’t exist either,

we are not god’s my darling child said the wealthy man to his daughter but father, why then do all our servants bow in your presence, well my daughter it is because I own them but papa aren’t they people just like us with hopes and desires and goals, no my darling girl we are better than all of them put together, the middle class now inching closer to being poor, amongst the already poor, those living out on the cold hardened streets, but what would god say to you about your ownership of these people papa, for you are not a god, he would praise me for I built my wealth from the ground up on the backs of the workers, I didn’t preach or praise if anyone wasn’t doing his/her best then they were let go, but how would they feed their family, oh my darling child if he worked himself to death he still couldn’t save his family from poverty and starvation, doesn’t that make you want to help them even more, of course I want to help them and that is why I own them to make them work harder and harder for our beautiful mansion for then they will see what they have accomplished and feel proud before they parish, oh papa don’t you feel sad to blame the poor that starve to death or just collapse from exhaustion because their wages are so low, you will understand soon enough my daughter for we are above the fray, it is our solemn duty to make money and only money to support our lavish lifestyle for their lifestyles are meager at best and they can’t be trusted to be anything else but exploited, herded animals to be put to work, but father we could give them a better chance, no, no, no, I must stop you my darling for in my lifetime and my father’s before me and his father before him they don’t deserve our gifts, it is I that made the money off them, off mother earth by raping the landscape destroying its beauty for my own purpose, for us to be in our own paradise away from the havoc of despair, who needs a god to judge us we will judge him and his inability to take care of all his children, good night princess and don’t worry about the lower class for they are here to serve our needs not theirs, that is god’s will to obey the powers that be, god’s power given in his announcement through the apostles that we obey the masters of this world until we die and then we go to paradise to obey our true master.

God’s power is my power, I am a conduit to him our lord, my reasons for being alive in his presence and his heaven waiting us all.

What presence? What heaven?

I am afraid Jesus left this earthly hell centuries ago and decided to move on to bigger and better worlds than this crackpot world of greed, wars and humiliation of his commandments. For mankind is caught in a dual existence of matter and thought. Matter is just there to be manipulated and I believe we constituent matter to be exploited.

But ideas move us further away from a godly symbol and applauds the ego of human nature. For we have the power to change this reality into our own paradise, accepting all into the circle of caring love. In other words we become for the rich their private cash machine!

The mind conditioned with triggers that easily fill the fools inadequacy to rely not on themselves to find truth but to believe in anothers truth that pushes one to selfish hatred of humans that don’t look like them, the white racists.

The mind triggered, easily fooled always looking for the new scam to succeed over the little people, taking their hard earned dollars.

Amen, praise the lord for he is our truth of injustice for all. Except the true criminals getting away with murder, hallelujah!

Lord god what was your purpose in making us. Were you lonely, in a silent universe and you needed something to save, in order to feel powerful, to feel godly in order to be worshiped.

That seems pretty close to the elites that now rule our world.

God you are the ultimate power and why would you need us lowly humans to be your independent puppets. A forced march to our deaths through the hell of earthly criminals taking from us our humanity.

Why would you ask us to follow the powerful leaders of your creation, the warriors of our beginning, the vicious murders taking place since our evolution of power, the taking of someones independence for their pleasure!

If god exists why would he postpone the garden of eden, our mother earth and love of his children with all his heart and not through a trilogy of powers that seem to be on their own biblical page.

For us our lord, your suffering in loneliness created these men and now you expect us to cow down to the ugliness of their greedy sins. As they the powerful laugh all the way to their hidden banks.

If you were sincere in your actions of love by creating us then why wouldn’t you have checked up on us to see how we are progressing in your hypocrisy of using the word savior. For we are living in the pit of hell with corruption always present and hate feeds the masses to exploit each other for profit and wars escalate as bigger and better weapons are made and you sit on your throne doing what?

Get off your ass and get down here and truly save us not from hell for we are in hell but to at least strike fears in the wealthys lifestyle of worshiping money over people.

Please give us a clue on why you have been absent from us. Do you fear we would be a bad influence on your heavenly angels. Are you that appalled at our action of desires, power and hate. What are you waiting for?

Are you waiting for the last days of insanity? I got news for you almighty knower of everything, we are living it now!

Your time has always been now, so explain yourself, why are you hiding from your people. Are you ashamed of your creations? I can see why you should be ashamed of yourself for throwing Adam and Eve out of paradise by introducing them to satan.

What a great surprise you pulled, happy birthday and your out of this earthly paradise to toil and fight for you existence!

That sounds very familiar your highness for we are those people, adams and eves fighting for our lives!

What are you waiting for the end of days? They are closer than you know. We are soon to be under siege not by our governments military for that is already present but by climate change that is increasing the need for people to migrate to find water and food.

And it seems all knowing master you have ignored the cruelty of our lives in silence. Creating a void of communication so the people are forced to rely on human beings that have the character of lucifer.

Wake up god get real and give us your verbal words and not an ancient book made to make us complacent of our station in life.

Are you waiting for something to happen but aren’t you all seeing, all knowing so you know what is coming and yet you sit back and refuse to interfere with the constant pollution sickening innocent people. Look at our leaders all bought and sold to the highest bidder. Criminals and murders have taken over your planet you named paradise, bull shit it is about your ego and the mess you left without returning to help your congregation. We are dying in military madness, racism, poverty and pandemics. I hope you have good seats to watch your sinners die a slow painful death!

The parade of wealthy hypocrites all through our evolution, their propaganda cunning to keep the people focused on death rather than life to find their paradise!

Living in pain and suffering, a useful tool for if christ could suffer for our sinful nature then our lives too must suffer for we are the guilty sinners of god’s all knowing wrath but our holy savior brought to us in a heavenly disguise, made an appearance on broadway in a play called, jesus christ super star,’ these new gods of institutionalized corruption take from the poor to give to the cult of evil wealth, their minds joined to partake in the dismantling of peace, happiness and love and replace it with raping every inch of this planet for their own personal needs, the murdering of innocent people all through our viscous centuries, placating the population with an afterlife ruse that made their lives painfully lived seeking a paradise that the wealthy own and destroyed here on mother earth, god’s gift to his children here on planet earth which he abandoned for other creations, I guess?

#creation #earth #poverty #hope #end of days #satan #god #wealth #climate #hell #cjcorwinoriginal

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arcticdementor · 3 years

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Today the richest 40 Americans have more wealth than the poorest 185 million Americans. The leading 100 landowners now own 40 million acres of American land, an area the size of New England. There has been a vast increase in American inequality since the mid-20th century, and Europe — though some way behind — is on a similar course.

These are among the alarming stats cited by Joel Kotkin’s The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, published earlier this year just as lockdown sped up some of the trends he chronicled: increased tech dominance, rising inequality between rich and poor, not just in wealth but in health, and record levels of loneliness (4,000 Japanese people die alone each week, he cheerfully informs us).

Kotkin is among a handful of thinkers warning about a cluster of related trends, including not just inequality but declining social mobility, rising levels of celibacy and a shrinking arena of political debate controlled by a small number of like-minded people.

The one commonality is that all of these things, along with the polarisation of politics along quasi-religious lines, the decline of nationalism and the role of universities in enforcing orthodoxy, were the norm in pre-modern societies. In our economic structure, our politics, our identity and our sex lives we are moving away from the trends that were common between the first railway and first email. But what if the modern age was the anomaly, and we’re simply returning to life as it has always been?

…

Most of the medieval left-behinds would have worked at home or nearby, the term “commuter” only being coined in the 1840s as going to an office or factory became the norm, a trend that only began to reverse in the 21st century (accelerating sharply this year).

…

Along with income stratification, another pre-modern trend is the decline of social mobility, which almost everywhere is slowing (with the exception of immigrant communities, many of whom come from the middle class back home).

Social mobility in the US has fallen by 20% since the early 1980s, according to Kotkin, and the Californian-based Antonio Garcia Martinez has talked of an informal caste system in the state, with huge wage differences between rich and poor and housing restrictions removing any hope of rising up. California now has among the most dystopian of income inequality, with vast numbers of multimillionaires but also a homeless underclass now suffering from “medieval” diseases.

Unfortunately, where California leads, America and then Europe follows.

…

Patronage has made a comeback, especially among artists, who have largely returned to their pre-modern financial norm: desperate poverty. Whereas musicians and writers have always struggled, the combination of housing costs, reduced government support and the internet has ended what was until then an unappreciated golden age; instead they turn once again to patrons, although today it is digital patronage rather than aristocratic benevolence.

A caste system creates caste interests, and some liken today’s economy to medieval Europe’s tripartite system, in which society was divided between those who pray, those who fight and those who work. Just as the medieval clergy and nobility had a common interest in the system set against the laborers, so it is today, with what Thomas Piketty calls the Merchant Right and Brahmin Left — two sections of the elite with different worldviews but a common interest in the liberal order, and a common fear of the third estate.

…

Tech is by nature anti-egalitarian, creating natural monopolies that wield vastly more power than any of the great industrial barons of the modern age, and have cultural power far greater than newspapers of the past, closer to that of the Church in Kotkin’s view; their algorithms and search engines shape our worldview and our thoughts, and they can, and do, censor people with heretical views.

Rising inequality and stratification is linked to the decline of modern sexual habits. The nuclear family is something of a western oddity, developing as a result of Catholic Church marriage laws and reaching its zenith in the 19th and 20th centuries with the Victorian cult of family and mid-20th century “hi honey I’m home” Americana. Today, however, the nuclear household is in decline, with 32 million American adults living with their parents or grandparents, a growing trend in pretty much all western countries except Scandinavia (which may partly explain the region’s relative success with Covid-19).

This is a return to the norm, as with the rise of the involuntarily celibate. Celibacy was common in medieval Europe, where between 15-25% of men and women would have joined holy orders. In the early modern period, with rising incomes and Protestantism, celibacy rates plunged but they have now returned to the medieval level.

The first estate of this neo-feudal age is centred on academia, which has likewise returned to its pre-modern norm. At the time of the 1968 student protests university faculty in both the US and Britain slightly leaned left, as one would expect of the profession. By the time of Donald Trump’s election many university departments had Democrat: Republican ratios of 20, 50 or even 100:1. Some had no conservative academics, or none prepared to admit it. Similar trends are found in Britain.

Around 900 years ago Oxford evolved out of communities of monks and priests; for centuries it was run by “clerics”, although that word had a slightly wider meaning, and such was the legacy that the celibacy rule was not fully dropped until 1882.

This was only a decade after non-Anglicans were allowed to take degrees for the first time, Communion having been a condition until then. A similar pattern existed in the United States, where each university was associated with a different church: Yale and Harvard with the Congregationalists, Princeton with Presbyterians, Columbia with Episcopalians. The increasingly narrow focus on what can be taught at these institutions is not new.

Similarly, politics has returned to its pre-modern role of religion. The internet has often been compared to the printing press, and when printing was introduced it didn’t lead to a world of contemplative philosophy; books of high-minded inquiry were vastly outsold by tracts about evil witches and heretics.

The word “medieval” is almost always pejorative but the post-printing early modern period was the golden age of religious hatred and torture; the major witch hunts occurred in an age of rising literacy, because what people wanted to read about was a lot of the time complete garbage. Likewise, with the internet, and in particular the iPhone, which has unleashed the fires of faith again, helping spread half-truths and creating a new caste of firebrand preachers (or, as they used to be called, journalists).

…

English politics from the 16th to the 19th century was “a branch of theology” in Robert Tombs’s words; Anglicans and rural landowners formed the Conservative Party, and Nonconformists and the merchant elite the core of the Liberal Party. It was only with industrialisation that political focus turned to class and economics, but the identity-based conflict between Conservatives and Labour in the 2020s seems closer to the division of Tories and Whigs than to the political split of 50 years ago; it’s about worldview and identity rather than economic status.

Post-modern politics have also shaped pre-modern attitudes to class. In medieval society the poor were despised, and numerous words stem from names for the lower orders, among them ignoble, churlish, villain and boor (in contrast “generous” comes from generosus, and “gentle” from gentilis, terms for the aristocracy). Medieval poems and fables depict peasant as credulous, greedy and insolent — and when they get punched, as they inevitably do, they deserve it.

Compare this to the evolution of comedy in the post-industrial west, where the butt of the joke is the rube from the small town, laughed at for being out of touch with modern political sensibilities. The most recent Borat film epitomises this form of modern comedy that, while meticulously avoiding any offence towards the sacred ideas of the elite, relentlessly humiliates the churls.

The third estate are mocked for still clinging to that other outmoded modern idea, the nation-state. Nation-states rose with the technology of the modern day — printing, the telegraph and railways — and they have been undone by the technology of the post-modern era. A liberal in England now has more in common with a liberal in Germany than with his conservative neighbour, in a way that was not possible before the internet.

Nations were semi-imagined communities, and what follows is a return to the norm — tribalism, on a micro scale, but tribalism nonetheless, whether along racial, religious or most likely political-sectarian tribes. Indeed, in some ways we’re seeing a return to empire.

…

The middle-class age meant the triumph of bourgeoise values and the decline of the middle class has led to their downfall, widely despised and mocked by believers in the higher-status bohemian attitudes. Now the age of the average man is over, and the age of the global aristocrat has arrived.

#ed west #unherd

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an-ambivalent · 5 years

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World Of Sloth [Yandere! Emperor! Min Yoongi] [Reader-Insert]

Warning: As this story contains yandere themes, the characters display behaviors that can be triggering or uncomfortable to read. Read at your own risk. This work is purely fiction. I do not believe any of the mentioned members would display any sort of this behaviour irl.

Word Count: 3.3K (okay I kept deleting this because I hated it lmao but I won’t anymore I promise)

They lived in an empire that was reigned by a ruler who could not create balance. It was an empire where the harder a person worked, the worse their life was. The poor scraped and lived off dirts left over on the ground from the soles of rich people’s feet; and the rich lavished in their endless privileged. They were consumed by their materials, and each day, they gained more and more for the things they never worked for. Majority of the people who did not belong to the upper class, lived in atrociously ahorrent conditions.

See, it was not always like this in your kingdom, nor were the inhabitants’ life this miserable. Prior to the reign of the current sovereignty, difference in wealth amongst lower, middle, and upper class existed but the lower class still had a decent life. Mostly, their needs for survival such as food, water, shelter, the chance to have some education, and work opportunities which allowed them to improve themselves, existed. Now, under the current ruler and the society he had created, breaking out of the poverty cycle was almost an impossible task.

Bad quality of life, and barely having their needs for survival met, meant higher increase in crime, hatred, and divide amongst people in a kingdom that should actually be united together. People were beginning to become whelmed by the idea of justice they thought they deserved, and were starting to lose their fear for the corrupted authority. They kept their heads low for the most part, but acts of rebellion -- small and secretive big ones -- were starting.

Living a somewhat lavish life, and then being hurt by people who were from the lower class, or living through poverty and being hurt by those from the higher class, being at the end of the spectrum in each situation had it cons and complications. But for you, it was even worse because you were from both worlds in some way, but seem to belong to neither.

You were born to a single mother, who raised you, and then passed away a few years after your birth from a life-threatening disease. At that time, your kingdom was not in shambles like the way it was currently. So despite ending up as an orphan, and without much financial aid, you were lucky enough to enroll in the local training school. You learned everything there was to know about becoming a guard, and after graduating as the top student amongst your peers, you landed a well paying job at the royal castle. Throughout your four years of working life, you had rotated with your job and taken several roles. Currently, you were in the outskirts of the town in order to pick up a small delivery, and were supposed to bring it to back to the royal castle safely.

The outskirts were quite a while away from the central and were a desert. It was incredibly dusty and hot. As you waited outside the person’s home whom you were supposed to pick up the delivery from, you could feel sweat forming at various parts of your body, and your mouth becoming dry. You decided to unhook your water bottle pad, and opened the lid. You brought the bottle up to your lips. As you began to drink, the cool water felt refreshing and was already helping you feel better.

As you continued to drink, you heard a mockery scoff in the distance which caused you to turn towards the sound. They were hiding, but you could still see an outline of a child, and a woman, who you guessed was the child’s mother.

You felt her cold glare, and saw how she cuddled her child closer to her.

“Filthy soldiers, they take everything away from us and then come here and shove it in our faces as if we don’t struggle enough. Disgusting,” She stated icily, and you winced at the undeniable truth in her words. Although many soldiers contributed to the corruption that existed, you were not one of them. You stayed content with your pay, and your needs being met for survival. Anything spare, or more you had which you did not need, you always delivered it at night anonymously to someone you had seen in need. For that reason, her words stung and hurt you.

You were going to walk up to her and defend yourself. However, you never received the chance to because the door of the house you were waiting in front of was opened. A man with his entire face covered with bandages poked his head through. You were not able to see or guess anything about his appearance other than his strange and bright amber eyes. With suspicion etched in them, he glanced around to make sure you were not being watched. Then, he finally looked at you, and the haunting emptiness in his eyes caused you to still momentarily.

“Is there someone else with you?” He asked. You could not help but notice how deep his voice sounded, and question his odd behaviour. He was acting suspicious of you, and any other possible onlookers, when he was the suspicious one. You almost sighed at the irony, but decided against it, and responded to the question you were asked.

“No, I came alone. I was told to pick up a secretive package that needs to be delivered to the King’s personal guard and am ‘not suppose to see,’” You replied, not aware of the secret message that existed in your words. The man nodded in approval. Then, he opened the door a bit more and placed a raggy looking bag in your hand.

“Hide it somewhere where its not expected,” He said, and his eyes shifted towards your chest for mere seconds, then back to your face. Your eyes followed the direction of his gaze, and when you realized what he meant, a blush appeared on your cheeks. Your eyebrow twitched in anger, and you were going to give him a piece of your mind. But by the time you looked up, you saw that the man had already shut the door on you. You growled in anger, before you huffed, and then stomped away.

“Thank you [Name],” Jimin said smiling, as he took the bag from you, and tucked it in the pocket that was inside his uniform jacket, before he patted it. You could not help but ponder on the miniscule moment when he had taken the bag from you, and how his skin contacted yours. His touch felt warm, and your cheeks redden at the thought.

The way Jimin always smiled at you, with his plump lips stretched into a small and adorable smile, and the way his eyes squinted when he did so, always flustered you. He was always so sweet to you. Jimin’s caring personality, combined with his irresistible and attractive features, numerous talents, and every other perfection he had, made you develop feelings for him in no time. You wanted to become someone who was confident and good enough for Jimin. However, in his presence, you generally ended up being reserved and shy, because you liked him so much.

Since you were zoned out in your thoughts, you did not realize that Jimin was trying to talk to you. You only returned to reality once he started to shake you gently.

“H-Huh? W-What? What happened?” You asked frantically, with wide eyes, while snapping out of your thoughts. You audibly gasped when you saw how close Jimin was leaning towards your face, and the concern he held for you.

It took all of your self control to not implode and scream when Jimin put his hand against your forehead to check your temperature. Your face was burning hot and red but it was not for the reasons he thought of.

“Are you okay? You feel really hot and your face is all flushed. Did going to the desert area affected you this much? I should call the doctor—“ The rest of his words fell on your deaf ears. This was because you had mentally grasped on how dotting he was being over you, and realizing how much he cared for you. One thought of what an angel he was lead to another, and you drifted into your thoughts of how much you loved him.

You missed on how the doors of the room which both you and Jimin were in were opened, and the stoned-faced King that had walked in. You were also oblivious to the momentarily grimace and disgust that was etched on Jimin’s face when he saw the Emperor.

When you felt Jimin grab your hand, and tighten his grip on it possessively, you were no longer lost daydreaming, and focused on your reality. You saw that Jimin’s back was facing you, and realized that he had pushed you behind himself to hide you away from the eyes of the Emperor he was facing.

“Jimin, you’re late. You know that if you make me wait for too long, there will be consequences. You better have a good reason,” Min Yoongi said, as walked towards Jimin, and greeted him with an icy stare. Just like his eyes, his voice sounded cold too. The lack of human emotion and expression in them caused shivers to run through your spine.

The matter of the fact was that although you had heard many things about him, you had never actually seen the Emperor himself. From the time he had started his rule, and till this point, Yoongi had never made a public appearance for any speeches or conferences. All of your knowledge about him came from the discourse surrounding him and other people’s opinions of him. You suddenly realized how you worked for the King, but had never met him. As a result, you knew little to nothing about him from himself, and you felt strange about that.

Yoongi’s threat to Jimin did not seem like empty words, and you did not want Jimin to get in trouble because of you. After all, you were only supposed to make a delivery, get approval and then move onto your next job. But you thought that due to your incompetency to behave appropriately around Jimin, and making him worry over you for nothing, simply because you desired his attention, caused him to waste his time on you. You knew that you had to be the one to take responsibility for this situation.

Not knowing the terrible future that laid ahead of you because of the choices you were going to make, and being clueless of how Jimin was hiding you because he wanted to protect you, you acted without thinking.

You removed your hand from Jimin’s grip, and stepped out from behind him. Without wasting any time, you were instantly bowed to Yoongi, unaware of the baffled gaze Jimin was looking at you with.

“I sincerely apologize for his delay and any inconveniences it may have caused you, my King. I was merely delivering a package as Mr. Park had assigned me to do, and it was my fault he was held up. I will take any punishments on his behalf that you see fit,” You said, keeping your head low. As a result, you did not see the ravening glint that had appeared in Yoongi’s eyes when he saw you.

“A delivery, huh? That’s strange because I wasn’t told of any deliveries that we were suppose to receive. Everything that comes and goes in and out of the castle, needs to be run through me first as protocol. Mr. Park, out of all people, knows that,” Yoongi said stoically, and narrowed his eyes at Jimin, who looked like a deer caught in headlights. Then, he averted his eyes back to you again.

“Raise your head, Miss. [Surname]. I believe that Jimin has enough experience and authority to be responsible for his own actions and not let his underlyings take the blame for him. It’s awful when the innocent pay the price for something that another in power refuses to take responsibility for. Wouldn’t you agree, [Name]?” Yoongi asked, and he looked at you with a predatory gaze that was etched with emotions and intentions you could not decipher. You thought it was ironic, and you were in slight disbelief that out of everyone, Yoongi had said those words. But as mentioned before, what you knew of Yoongi was presumptions. So, maybe there was something deeper to the crisis of your Kingdom then just a lazy King? You furrowed your eyebrows, but nonetheless, responded with a nod.

Yoongi’s lips twitched into a forced smile.

“I like to be answered verbally [Name], and spoken to only when asked. Be mindful, and remember that for our future conversations. Now, I am promoting you. Since Park Jimin will be facing execution for his betrayal, I now assign you, as my next personal bodyguard.”

Your nerves were on edge, and heavy tears fell down your cheeks due to the things you were forced to endure. You wanted to move, fidget, cry out loud in pain, and were even willing put aside your dignity and beg for mercy if it meant your current torment would stop. But you could do neither of those things, or anything else. Without Yoongi’s permission, you were not allowed to move in anyway, speak, or respond in any other way which may convey your displeasure for his actions.

Your bottom lip quivered as Yoongi softly rubbed salt into your bloody gashes that he had cut into your skin not too long ago. The stinginess of it burned. It was terrifying; Yoongi was terrifying because despite the fact that he was literally torturing you right now, he was very precise and gentle with his actions. Even when he was hurting you, he looked at you with a soft fondness in his eyes.

It was sickening.

“I don’t like to hurt my favourite toy,” Yoongi began, and he gently ran his fingers through your locks with his other hand. His words, especially his term ‘favourite toy’ that was specifically for you, were always laced with obsession. He objectified you because he loved the idea of you as his personal plaything that he owned, and refused you to think of you as a human. From experience, you knew that evidently his words were insincere, and realistically, he would take whatever chance he got to hurt you.

“But you won’t stop bringing up Jimin, and why I had him executed. You don’t say it, but I can see it in your eyes. I can see everything in your eyes — the disgust and hatred you have for me, and the love you had — still have for Jimin and how much you miss him. You hold love for him that you should have for me,” He hissed, and the hand which was running through your hair gently before, had now made its way to your roots, and clenched your hair strands tightly, causing you to hiss out in pain.

“Well [Name], since I love you so much, I’ll tell you so you can stop wasting your time on grieving for a traitor and move onto me. That package you delivered to Jimin was red sand poison he was planning on slipping in my food to kill me so that he could become the King and fix this country. Not only that, prior to that slip up which led to his definite punishment, he had made numerous attempts to kill me. Can you believe how disgusting that it is? Or the fact that you actually felt love for such a scumbag?” Yoongi said, and his words struck a nerve in you.

See, so far, you’ve handled all of his antics well enough since they were all directed towards you, personally. Additionally, once or twice, he would criticize you about how he thought he was too generous and good for you. Seemingly, his criticism towards Jimin was the catalyst you needed to finally stand your ground, and set Yoongi in his place.

You snapped.

“He probably planned to do that because you deserve it. Honestly, I can’t blame him for wanting to get rid off you. After being in your presence and realizing that you truly are the heartless monster people say you to be, getting rid off someone as pathetic as you; someone who hurts more than he cares for his people, your death would be a blessing. Jimin’s disgusting? Don’t kid yourself. What’s truly disgusting is how you ignore the needs of your people and waste your time on trying to make me love you when I never will—“ You ranted, but were cut off with a harsh slap to your cheek. You did not get time to react to the pain or the stinginess of the slap, because instantly, Yoongi had gripped your chin harshly in between his index finger and thumb. They dug into your skin painfully, and you yelped in pain.

He forced you to meet his eyes, which were narrowed in an infuriated glare.

“Let me remind you that you were the one who delivered the red poisonous sand to Jimin, so by extension, were aiding him with the crime and I can easily have your head off too. But I didn’t. I took pity on your pathetic self just like the King before me did when he let you enrol in the academy. So, really, without the royal’s pity, you would be dead meat by now, or selling yourself to disgusting and MUCH older man just to afford food and water. You better learn to be grateful for the life I have given you,” He hissed, and as you tried to pull your face away from him, his grip on your chin only tightened, and his nails dug painfully in your skin.

It wasn’t long before your anger blinded you, and you growled. Caught in the heat of the moment and not thinking about the consequences your actions were going to have, you spat on Yoongi’s face as an act of defiance.

“At least it would be MY choice to sell myself to whoever I chose to. With you, its literal hell. Fuck off with your bullshit Yoongi,” You snapped. Subsequently to your momentarily rebellion, it went extremely quiet. Your spit that had landed on Yoongi’s cheeks trailed down his cheek. He looked at you with bewilderment in his widened eyes because he was unable to fathom that you had just done that. However, it did not take long for the realization to sink in, and for his widened eyes to turn into a seething glare.

Then, instead of hurting your jaw with his fingers, Yoongi’s entire hand wrapped around your neck. He clutched it tightly and painfully, and you gasped as you felt your air circulation being cut off. Then, he took out a very familiar small dagger from his pocket -- it was the very dagger that he always cut you with, the one that turned your reality into a nightmare.

“You had the choice to avoid this if you had only submit to me. But since you choose not to and want me to actually make your life a living hell, then I will. I’ll cut you and torture you as many times it takes to get you to love me. ME, NOT Jimin, or anyone else!! ONLY ME!!” Yoongi screamed in your face, and the fear he had inflicted in you with a dagger, rushed to your head all at once. You screeched, and tried to move away and shove him off of you, but all of your efforts remained useless.

“Open wide [Name]. Since you don’t smile at me at all like the way you did for Jimin, I’m just going to have to carve one on your face. Be a good girl for you Emperor, keep still and don’t scream,” He ordered, and your eyes widened in terror. Then, the last thing that you remembered was the tip of his dagger glinting before you passed out.

BAD ENDING

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okay so if I have links in this post it doesn’t show in the tags. To take the next quiz simply search up ‘world of pride’ the search button of my blog :^)

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revlyncox · 5 years

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Onward and Upward Forever?

Expectations of endless expansion and the reality of climate crisis

Preached to the UU Church of Silver Spring, September 15, 2019

Once upon a time, when Unitarian congregations in America were coming to terms with a post-Civil War society, when they were both overwhelmed by the social impact of industrialization and intrigued the modern conveniences made possible by it, there arose a new way of describing their faith. It was nicknamed the Unitarian covenant, and was drawn from a sermon by James Freeman Clarke in 1886. You can still find it carved into the stone walls of many of our congregations. This covenant proclaimed faith in “the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by character, and the continuity of human development in all worlds, or, the progress of mankind onward and upward forever.”

Looking back, this covenant does seem overly optimistic. Forever? Really? No limits? Straight to the top with no setbacks? Hmmm. Perhaps we can see how that optimism came to pass in our Unitarian ancestors, at least in those who were white and middle class. I have preached before and will again about African American Unitarian and Universalist ancestors of the 19th century, whose insightful theological statements were more realistic. But among the people in Unitarian national and congregational leadership, Clarke’s statement really caught on.

For people of means in the late 1800’s, history might have seemed like a continuous march of progress toward ease and intellectual accomplishment. There were goods from around the world being served in their art and literature salons. There were factories and trains. Surely, as society advanced, people would have the time to perfect their character and draw closer to God through personal growth and development. What was less obvious to many was that this whole system of expansion was built on exploitation: exploitation of labor, and extraction of natural resources beyond what was sustainable. Because the people who were doing the preaching and the thinking and the policy making benefited from this economic system, its flaws were more difficult to see.

In her book, After the Good News: Progressive Faith Beyond Optimism, my colleague the Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd talks about the heritage of 19th century utopian communities and intellectual movements, and how we need to sing a new song if we are to be truthful and useful in the world as it is. She writes:

The great modernist churches of the mid-twentieth century were tied to the concept of unending societal progress birthed after the industrial revolution. That vision of unending societal potential was in turn tied to patriarchal and racially unjust systems that benefited from the oppression they decried.

The prevailing cultural and socioeconomic ethos of this gospel of unending progress was built by and for white men with significant power. They exercised that power through seemingly benevolent dominion over the earth, its peoples, and its mysteries alike. So, that explains a lot of things. (p. 35) (So ends the quote)

Everything is connected here: gender oppression, racism, economic injustice, exploitation, and, most pressingly as we approach the Climate Strike this Friday, the future of our planet.

The economic systems that led us to where we are in the current climate crisis, the systems that viewed our living planet and exploited labor as raw materials for the gain of a few, are tangled up with some of the theological ideas that were foundational to our faith movement at the end of the nineteenth century.

McDonald Ladd goes on to say that a movement that recognizes the world as it is must follow the leadership of people rooted in marginalized communities. We must listen to those who know that the myth of unending progress is not a universal truth. We cannot stick with the narrative that things will get better if we just hang in there.

Our theological heritage of “onward and upward forever” has had some good points. It has helped us to see the positive potential of humanity and not just the depravity. It has encouraged our curiosity and our development of the very science that helps us describe where we are with truth and data. It has affirmed character traits like generosity and kindness. Yet the pursuit of endless expansion, either for personal gain or in the growth of industrial corporations, comes at a price. The story we have been telling ourselves for the last hundred years about inevitable, linear, and upward human progress has gotten us into trouble.

Disentangling our life-saving, humanity-affirming, earth-respecting faith from economic inequality and environmental destruction is possible, but it won’t be easy. We need to rethink our expectations about what our lives will be like, how our congregations should operate, and what it means to search for spiritual grounding.

With some understanding of how the economic, social, and spiritual thinking of the past led to our current crisis, the next project is imagining how to re-order our lives, our congregations, and our society for long-term resilience. An economic system that sees human capital and natural resources as inert things that can be fed into a machine of wealth expansion has been good for a few and disastrous for many.

As Sophia Geiger (local youth leader from Fridays for Future) has reminded us many times, our work for climate justice must be inclusive of the leadership of people who are most at risk from the impact of climate change. Hurricanes, droughts, wars over limited natural resources, and the dangers caused by melting glaciers and rising sea levels are devastating to all of us, yet it is the poorest and most vulnerable who will bear the worst of the impact. To start figuring out how to live differently, we can listen to the people who experience some of the most severe effects of the climate crisis.

The demands of the Climate Strike this Friday, September 20, include respect for indigenous land and sovereignty. We’ve seen vicious government and corporate attacks against the Standing Rock Water Protectors protesting the Dakota Access (oil) Pipeline in our own country; and similar attacks against indigenous activists trying to protect their home in the Amazon. We have seen the injustice against Aboriginal people in Australia, whose treaty rights are being ignored in order to sell their tribal lands to a coal mining corporation. All over the world, respect for indigenous people is set against resource extraction that degrades our planet. Indigenous people are among those whose survival is most affected by the changes to our planet, among those whose human rights are most threatened by the exploitative systems that got us in this mess, and among those who are most organized for resistance. The strike demands respect for their sovereignty.

The Climate Strike also demands “A transition that invests in prosperity for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution,” and “Welcoming those displaced by the ... effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, violence, and lack of opportunity.”

Again, those who are marginalized by disinvestment in their neighborhoods, by environmental racism, by working class jobs that expose them to toxins -- leaders of these communities have been organizing for years, and have direct experience to share about what our society could do differently.

Refugees and migrants, people whose livelihoods or safety have been interrupted by climate crisis and by the operations of global capitalism that sees them as easy to sacrifice, their humanity and worth must be centered as we enter this new world of disruption and disaster.

Naomi Klein, in an interview with the Guardian newspaper, links the fear of environmental refugees with the resurgence of white supremacy and anti-immigrant nationalism, calling it “climate barbarism.”

Klein goes on to say that individual choices will not solve the climate crisis. She says we’ve been trained to think of ourselves as consumers before thinking of ourselves as humans. As humans, we need a chance to grieve together, to notice our feelings and process our experience, to connect face-to-face, to experience ourselves as living beings who are part of the natural world, and to band together for winnable struggles.

Now we are talking theological language again. How are we to relate to one another and to the living ecosystem of which we are a part? That is a spiritual question. How do we lament, make amends, and turn again toward right relationship? That is a religious question. How do we stay committed to our understanding of ourselves in community, not as isolated beings or lonely fighters against the world, but as responsible and responsive to that which is larger than ourselves? That is an eternal question.

It is time to reorganize our congregations, our communities, our governments so that right relationship with our planet and with human beings, starting with the most vulnerable among us, is more important than the values that underpin colonialism, extractivism, and endless consumption. I don’t have all the answers for how we do that, but I am planning to listen to the people who have been organizing for a long time across lines of geography, race, and class; to listen to people who build communities that take care of each other and move in solidarity with each other rather than trying to live single-issue lives (which Audre Lorde told us a long time ago was impossible); to listen to youth leaders, who will be dealing with this mess long after I am gone, and who are past ready to stop engaging in business as usual.

I don’t believe we can put our planet back to the way it was. I do believe that everything we do to mitigate the effects of climate change even a fraction of a percent matters, and that we have to move forward in a way that helps us care for and follow the lead of the people who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate crisis. I believe we can change how we understand what it means to be human.

For some of us, that is going to include participating in the Climate Strike, and in other direct actions. Others of us might organize to disrupt business as usual in other ways. We might sustain urban cooperative farms, or community canning kitchens, or networks of neighbors who check in when the for-profit healthcare system leaves people behind. We might participate in clothes closets or food gleaning projects or resource centers for reclaimed building materials. We are humans, not mere market units. Whatever we are doing to re-orient our society toward climate justice, whether that is advocacy or care giving or developing new ideas, let us do it in community, remembering that to be human is to be in relationship. The challenge facing us is vast. Our response must be on the same scale, and it must be infused with compassion and humility. We are called to transformation. Let’s follow this calling together. So be it. Blessed be. Amen.

#strikewithus #climate justice

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fallynephemeron · 5 years

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I was tagged by @angrymagicgirlmarsette . Thank you for tagging me!

What genre(s) you write

Betwixt would be difficult to really pinpoint into a typical genre, and considering it’s not going to be printed in book format, I feel it’s not as necessary to try to conform to one.

Breaking new ground here with some combination of web series, episodic fiction, fantasy novel series, with a nod to the long-running format TV soap opera but in written form.

If we’re really talking genre though, I’m drawing heavily from Urban Fantasy, Gothic Romance, Supernatural Horror, with an adequate dose of High Fantasy Epic and Dystopian Adventure for good measure.

What’s on your reading wish list

One thing that’s caught my eye is the Raven Cycle. I’ve loved other things Maggie Stiefvater has written. I’ve read Lament probably 6 times, the imagery draws me in every single time.

Finding the Terry Pratchett Discworld series books I’m missing is kind of high on the list. I’ve read all of them, but some were read over 20 years ago and I want to revisit them. I used to be a voracious reader, but kids happened, trauma happened and my ADHD diagnosis showed me why I have to be really careful getting sucked into novel world because the real world stuff really truly suffers when I do. So unfortunately reading has taken a back burner for far too long.

Your favorite character from your current WIP

This is the hardest question, but it’s all about the character arcs, baby. I simply cannot choose between these four. (edit: i got really carried away, but I was on a roll, and ... well...) (edit 2: i use too many adjectives, i’m aware of the problem)

Rivet ... my brown force of nature with too many tattoos, vacillating between boundless rage and weary sarcasm, doing her best to keep the ones she swears she doesn’t give a shit about on the correct path with her fractured clairvoyance and haphazard approach to magic. She’s been more and more aware of some kind of upheaval on the outskirts of the mundane world. She’s had run-ins with the unpredictable Fae in the past, A rune covered baseball bat, a dog eared tarot deck, and an intimate knowledge of the secret paths of The Nowhere have been the tools that have kept her alive so far.... but will they be enough now that she’s somehow become responsible for the safety of one boy-crazy half faerie that just might be the answer to all the questions?

Xavier ... my precious one, batting his long lashes, swooning all over anyone he has half a hope might love him, if only for a night? He’s been abandoned, used and abused, pulled back from the brink of destruction. He wants to put all that behind him and move on, exploring the glittering, gritty, rainbow oil slicked nooks and crannies of the city he’s fallen in love with. But between the men that see him as nothing more than a plaything or a possession, the darkness in the surrounding woods that seems to want to devour him whole, the eerie figure he can’t quite see at the edges of his vision that seems to be spying on him, and the dark eyed, sharp tongued woman built like a cage fighter that definitely is spying on him “for his own fucking good”, what is this too pretty, pale, little, gay, shimmer goth, faerie halfling, supposed to do? Stay home? Not on your life

Wynter…my innocent, red cheeked, much too tall, awkward, nearly mute from anxiety, loyal to a fault, doormat. He should be a fully matured werewolf by now, so why hasn’t he had his first change? But that’s the furthest thing from his mind, if only for this moment. What’s the difference between childhood best friends and boyfriends and does love always have to hurt so much? And does it always have to include the awkward sex stuff that always makes him feel like he’s going to vomit? And now he has another problem. A terrifyingly alluring faerie problem with big green eyes that he keeps catching staring at him. What is he doing here and why is Rivet being so secretive about it?

Jaq ... my brilliantly talented fuck-up. How can someone be that innocently naive, and that criminally minded stupid at the same time? His lack of impulse control, a filter, any sense of self preservation, his messed up backwards sense of right and wrong... at what point do the people that love you say “enough” and refuse to be hurt by you anymore? But he’s lost in the battle between his realities, the shit he sees that isn’t real and the shit he sees that is real but no one else can see, it’s a wonder he’s survived this long in a world he can’t make sense of, filled with people that often can’t make sense of him. His art is his way of sorting out the mess inside his head. Wynter has always been by his side, like the welcome mat you wipe your feet on without thinking about it too hard, so why is he hanging out with her so much? He hasn’t been able to trust her, since.... the incident when they were children. Maybe he’s just paranoid, but he’s pretty sure they’re hiding something from him.

Some writing tropes you like

Pretty much anything involving two people that don’t know each other or don’t like each other, forced into the same space with no way out. Arranged marriages, elevator breakdowns, etc. etc.

The story behind your WIP’s name

Betwixt feels like magic and hexed and I like X’s. Hence why Xave’s full name is Xavier Alexander Maxwell. And it means between, and that is everything my work is exploring. What it means to be between. Between a rock and a hard place, having a grey morality, living on the edge of the mundane world, with a foot in the magical realm. It’s going to explore the vacuous chasm between wealth and poverty (not talking about the middle class suburbs lol, though that is a between) Right and wrong. And the thin line between salvation and destruction.

Are you a pantser or plotter?

Naturally? I’m a pantser. For Betwixt I’ve had to become a plotter. It’s too big and too complicated to just freewheel it.

Do you post your work somewhere?

I’m going to. The plan is to publish on WordPress on a regular release schedule. Hopefully weekly. But we’ll see how well that plan holds up as we get closer to publication.

Do you also read/write fanfic? If yes, for the same genres as what you write?

I’ve had a really hard time writing fanfic, but there are some I really enjoy reading.

Your favorite dessert. Because why not.

Also Pie! Pie is the best. Seriously.

Tagging @emdop cause you’re the only other writeblr I really have talked to besides the one that tagged me.

#writeblr #ask thing

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redrighthanded-blog1 · 5 years

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19, 26, 27, 42 !!

What were your character’s deepest disillusions? In life? What are they now?

ETA: as per usual, turns out I can't fucking read and spent about an hour putting this reply together thinking the question said delusions and not disillusions. I'm too lazy to change it now, so I'm keeping the original reply. Plus, I guess it kinda still answers the original question regardless.

This is going to sound so emo, but the only proper answer I can come up with is: Levi’s deepest delusion is that he can handle everything, life, himself, etc., on his own.

It isn’t that it’s that grand a delusion as much as Levi is, for the most part, fiercely practical and realistic; has to be as a means of survival; so whatever delusions he does have are fairly insignificant ones that he can certainly live with, even if they do get in his way sometimes.

I’ve gotten to discuss his relationship with his sister with @asilverjackal these past few days and I’m really feeling the way their shared experiences have affected them so differently. While Rachel tends to put family and a sense of community above all, trying to make up for the family she lacked as a child and young adult; Levi, on the other hand, has had the exact opposite reaction. He’s not standoffish nor does he go out of his way to try to push people away from him, and he does feel intense love and loyalty to those who are a part of his life – but that circle is fairly small and he has every intention of keeping it that way. He hates being dependent and/or vulnerable and he’d rather keep people at arm’s length rather than allow them any closer.

In a big sort of way, it is working for him. It isn’t that he doesn’t miss companionship as much as he’s been able to find it in people he knows he can trust, even if in slightly unusual ways. This, for one, can be seen in his relationship with Eden, which allows for both physical and emotional intimacy on the one hand while, on the other, still doesn’t confine them within a romantic relationship; they’re close and know everything there is to know about one another but, at the same time, they’re not constantly up in each other’s business.

Another good example of this is his relationship with Marco which, on the one hand, is entirely familial but, on the other, at the same time is strictly a business arrangement. Marco treats him like a son and Levi views him, in a way, as a parental figure but, at the same time, this relationship stemming from Levi’s involvement in Marco’s business makes it so that it isn’t as personal as it might have been otherwise. It allows him to get what he needs out of those relationships without feeling as though he’s putting himself too far out there (which is another way of saying: it’s a good way for him to deny needing similar relationships, a real parental relationship or a real romantic relationship, because he has these arrangements and they work better for him than he thinks anything else would).

What does your character’s home look like? Personal taste? Clothing? Hair? Appearance?

I would call Levi’s taste in anything middle-class-casual? He isn’t rich, but economically-speaking, he is pretty cushy and though Levi isn’t a showoff, he does like to enjoy the comforts that come with being a mob boss’ right hand man, if only because he’s never had this kind of luxury before. He went straight from living in poverty to serving in the military, which meant he hardly had any use for whatever wealth he did accumulate (which wasn’t much, considering most of it was funneled back to Rachel), considering he was hardly ever let out on leave during those six years; then, it was alcoholism and depression and not being able to keep a steady job, meaning he was living part at Rachel’s expense and part off his discharge grant; did get a small taste of the good life at Marco’s expense before he were sent to prison (where, again, whatever relative wealth he might have accumulated wasn’t anything he could’ve put to use) – and then, only after his discharge, did he finally get to actually… err, run his life properly, if that makes sense.

Unprompted and unnecessary foreword aside, Levi’s taste is simple but elegant. He doesn’t need much and his taste is fairly minimalistic, but whatever he does own is usually of good quality and taste. His apartment is fairly large and was fully furnished when he rented it so, on the one hand, not a lot of stuff that are in there are his but, on the other – he made sure to rent something that accommodated to his taste. There’s wooden floors, the living room is lavish with a large L shaped couch and a black cast-iron coffee table, all fairly neutrally-colored and distantly Japanese-inspired; the kitchen is wide enough to accommodate a small isle in the middle fit for two people; the main bedroom features large floor-to-ceiling windows. Bear has his own corner in the living room with his bed and toys but even that is usually kept tidy. There is one spare bedroom/office that’s largely out of use (naturally, Levi doesn’t entertain often, let alone let anybody spend the night) and has become Levi’s dumping place for all his military crap that he doesn’t want to unpack and go through – but even those few boxes are neatly stored in that room’s closet; out of sight, out of mind.

Regarding clothing and appearance, as mentioned above, he likes to keep it casual and elegant. Everything plain, no interesting patterns or designs or whatever, all muted colors, not a lot of layers if he can help it (though this is Chicago we’re talking about). It’s a compromise between looking respectable and being comfortable, seeing as to how he does most of Marco’s legwork. Same goes for his personal appearance – it’s the first time in a long while he’s been able to grow out his hair and beard and he’s kind of digging the patches of grey that are slowly coming in in both (thinks it gives him an air of respectability) but, on the other hand, still keeps them short and sharp looking – because what kind of long-haired buffoon expects to be taken seriously?

Long story short: minimalistic, casual elegance.

How do they relate to their appearance? How do they wear their clothing? Style? Quality?

For clothing, see the above answer.

To answer the first bit of this question: on the one hand, as previously mentioned in this ask reply, Levi isn’t entirely comfortable with his own body. Understandably: a significant portion of it is taut scar tissue which, other than being ugly on its own, often constricts his movements (i.e. the limp) and, under certain circumstances of physical labor, can induce hyperventilation and a general inability to bend at the stomach or the knee of his injured leg – all in all, a very embarrassing experience to occur when he’s being intimate with anyone.

That being said, on the other hand: Levi isn’t entirely blind nor is he too self-deprecating to recognize that he does have some sort of… I want to say boyish charm? Though that isn’t exactly the term I’m looking for. He recognizes that he is, to some extent, handsome, at least in the face, and that the ~*~dangerous criminal~*~ and/or ~*~seasoned veteran~*~ aura and certain gruffness of his look certainly helps, and he will use it in his favor if he thinks he can, both for work and on the rare occasion that he’s trying to pick someone up.

What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

Loss of control, dependency and helplessness have been reoccurring themes in Levi’s life (his childhood, his military service, his pursuant PTSD, depression and and alcoholism, his jail sentence) and as a result of that, his need to maintain control over both himself and his surroundings at any given moment has continuously increased to the point that he’s somewhat alienated himself from most personal relationships (see answer to question no. 19 at the top of this post) and developed unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with certain situations. This, naturally, always brings him to the point in which the pressure becomes too great and he needs to lose control in a supervised and controlled environment (oh, the irony) – hence his excessive vaping habit and occasional relapse with alcohol.

It isn’t that Levi is entirely unaware of this. He’s old enough and has observed his own behavior on enough occasions to know very well that he has both trust and control issues. Rather, the way he sees it, this is more of a means to an end: he needs to keep his head above water, needs never to go back to the same awful place he were in after his discharge (it absolutely terrifies him to be that needy and that utterly depressed ever again) and maintaining control is simply a means of assuring that. Short of his loved ones (and, yes, this also includes Marco and his family), he’s willing to sacrifice anything and everything to ensure his own happiness, no questions asked. Don’t get me wrong: on a personal level, he’s a nice guy; clever, funny, kind; but don’t let his charm fool you. The switch will flip and he will become selfishly ruthless in a matter of seconds if need be.

@holyrots / character solidifying questions.

#holyrots #( answered )#( ooc )#( headcanon )#you're always so sweet about sending me asks <3 #thank u #u r a good fren

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pussydeluxe · 2 years

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like the short version is, no amount of money i can make off of doing art is going to significantly change my life, so while having more money doesnt hurt me, like... i dont actually really benefit from it enough to matter.

the long version is, um, like,

picture the difference between 5 euro, 50 euro, 500 euro, 5,000 euro, and 50,000.

if this was a week grocery budget, for 5 euros, you could buy a bread and peanut butter, or a bag of rice. probably not both. if you wanted other necessities, like dish soap or painkillers or tampons (expensive!!), youd have to shoplift them or not eat. its not enough to live comfortably off. with 50 euros however, you can comfortably buy enough food and necessities for one or two people. its not a lot, but its plenty, and by far not frugal. with a 500 euro budget, you could buy whatever you want at the grocery store without paying attention to pricetags, worry about wasting food, and have money to spare to go to a restaurant that week. with 5,000, you dont have to do groceries at all. you could eat at a really expensive restaurant every day of the week. with 50,000, fuck, idk, maybe you could hire a personal chef.

every example there describes a person in a different tier of financial comfort and stability, but every step up is ten times as much as the last one. a person with a 5,000 grocery budget is ten times closer in terms of wealth to someone with 5 euros than they are to someone with 50,000, because each jump in financial comfort is exponentially more than the last.

i have about a 50 euro grocery budget each week, with little money for extras. i buy clothes secondhand, get furniture from dumps, live with a housemate in a two room apartment to offset costs - im in the minimum income tier, right above dogshit full on poverty. its just enough, im financially stable, i can afford a pretty decent quality of life. i have housing and health insurance. im poor, and i could have a much better quality of life if i was in a higher income tier, but doing commissions or opening a patreon will not make me middle class. i will not be able to buy a house and a car or go on a trip to japan on a whim. so anything extra i earn from creating content... is extra. i could order pizzas more often, buy a nice dress or steak of tuna. if i really earned a lot, maybe i could finance an expensive hobby, like competitive mtg or collecting anime figurines. or id buy a new oven. but i still wouldnt become middle class! even if i saved all that money up, i couldnt! id just have extra money!

and like... what would i do with it...? i dont actually *want* to collect figurines or play magic. i dont really need a better oven. i like tuna, but im OK without. so when i do end up with extra money, i just end up paypaling it to my friends, because i can do that and it wont change my quality of life. like it just doesnt matter enough, it doesnt have enough value to move my financial position even an inch upwards. i dont want to work my ass off and turn everything i make and do into a product to be sold to hundreds or thousands of consumers and spectators of my life for that. it just aint worth it. do you get me

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ua-kins · 6 years

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Canon Call

Please tag my blog @terminally-c-apricious

I have three Todoroki canons, one Fumikage canon, one Shigaraki canon, and a fictive of Kota. This is a canon call for all of those, sorry if it’s lengthy.

—–

Canon Todoroki timeline:

I have already found my Bakugou, my Izuku, and possibly my sister Fuyumi. I am mostly looking for my Momo but also anyone else, including anyone in my family. (Yes, including my father). Along with my noncanon children.

The events of my life were like canon for the most part. I had a mental hospital visit when I was 14 for a suicide attempt, my father was obligated to send me due to it being bad publicity if he didn’t. When I was 13 I started dating Momo because our parents pressured us into it because we were childhood friends and they hoped it would end in a quirk marriage. We were very close, but there was no actual romantic feelings there. We broke up and agreed to just be friends just before entering UA. During my second year of UA I started dating Izuku. During my third year, he asked if he could date Bakugou as well. I was uncomfortable with it at first, but after a month or so of thought, I decided to give it a try. I tried to back off and spent a lot of time alone, but usually texting Momo about it. After a few weeks of isolating myself, Deku started inviting me along with him and Bakugou to hang out and we all three became close before I started dating Bakugou as well. Some time during second year, Denki ended up committing suicide and we didn’t find out until a couple of days later. Aizawa was the one who announced it and gave us a week off to cope. Kirishima had a breakdown in the classroom, the classroom had to be evacuated and it took Aizawa erasing his quirk and All Might to hold him down until he stop trying to break things. He was put on surveilance for a week for his own safety. After I became a pro hero, I made plenty of money. Not only did I have money due to my family’s wealth, I also had money due to being one of the top pro heroes. I had enough money for a large house and I adopted two children. One was Hitomi Todoroki, she had reality warping powers and was adopted when she was 5. The other was Daisuke Todoroki, he had shark-like features like a tail, a fin on his back, and two rows of sharp teeth. He had a power of aquakinesis. he was a year older than Hitomi and adopted a few months before her. They were both from very abusive households. I ended up having another hospital visit as an adult because I would be gone for months at a time and was getting wreckless with my work on purpose to sustain injuries as a form of self harm.

—–

Villain Todoroki timeline

I have found no one from this timeline yet. I am especially looking for Hero Killer Stain, but anyone will do. I am not looking for Endeavor in this timeline.

I killed my father when I was 14 and almost killed my mother, who was still home at the time. I stopped myself and ran away. I spent about a week hiding out and stealing to get food because I was a wanted criminal for murdering Endeavor. Hero Killer Stain found me and took me on as his apprentice. He became a father figure to me and I followed in his footsteps, killing heroes who were heroes for the wrong reason and killing abusive parents before calling the police on their parent’s phone to inform them there was an abandoned child there and that the parents were dead. All of the other UA students were still students, Shinsou was in class 1-A. I joined the League of Villains for about a week, aquiring a gun that concentrated my quirk as a bribe to join. After a week I decided they were all childish idiots and quit, but was hired by them on occasion when they desperately needed someone strong. I dated Toga on and off for a couple of years.

—–

Fantasy AU Todoroki

I have found my Izuku. I am looking for everyone, but especially Ochako and Iida.

I was a prince being trained to take over my father’s kingdom as king, also being prepared for an arranged marriage with Momo, who was the princess of a nearby also wealthy and prospering kingdom. I met Izuku when I had snuck out of the palace for a walk, like I often did. He was only traveling with Ochako at the time. We talked every night until a week later he asked if I wanted to travel with him because he had to leave town and continue travelling. I was hesitant at first, but agreed by the end of the night, leaving with them without packing anything. We travelled a lot, mainly travelling for the purpose of filling Izuku’s notebook with our experiences and notes of different creatures and people we met and saw. He wanted to fill the notebook for his mother, who wished she could travel but couldn’t due to running a small farm and a bakery in their home town. We had some bigger plot that I don’t remember that urged us to keep travelling. When our journy took us closer to Izuku’s home town he wanted to stop by there, but when we got there we found out that she had died while he was gone. I comforted him and took his filled notebook to her grave for him because he couldn’t bear to see the grave himself. I visited the grave with him and sat with him in the pouring rain at the grave. We kept travelling and then later in our life, the four of us moved into the small town that Izuku grew up in, starting up the farm again with seeds of plants that we had collected from around the nation while Ochako ran the bakery and Iida started a blacksmithing career.

—–

Fumikage timeline

This was in a canon setting. I’m looking for everyone but especially Tsuyu.

My parents were especially negligent and never home. I raised myself basically and went to UA to break the cycle of poverty that we lived in and to give myself a fighting chance in life and to gain life experience that I knew they wouldn’t give me. I started smoking cigarettes when I was 14 and quit them when I was 17 with Tsuyu’s help. I had problems with self harm, depression, PTSD, and schizophrenia. I had episodes of paranoia and hallucinations in class and occasionally would have to leave to hide in the bathroom until it passed and on rare occasions, had breakdowns in the middle of class to which Aizawa would tend to me if he had the time, even going as far as calling another teacher to substitute so he could go talk me down from my episode. I ended up attempting suicide in my dorm during second year, having taken an entire bottle of my antipsychotics and slitting my wrists. Tsuyu found me, handled the situation calmly as far as I know until I blacked out rather soon. I woke up in the infirmary at school, Recovery Girl having taken care of me. I started dating Tsuyu in the first year of being at UA and we would often sit outside to have lunch. We did things like make flower crowns for each other and catch baby frogs and at night we would catch fireflies. We were very close. The rest of the class all trusted me and when they needed someone to talk to about dark and heavy stuff, they came to me to talk. I talked Kirishima through his depression a lot, Izuku through his anxiety, Todoroki through his PTSD, Momo through her lack of confidence, and many others came to me.

—-

Shigaraki canon

I have no canonmates from this timeline and limited memories. I am looking for everyone.

I remember being very lonely despite being surrounded by people I cared about in the League of Villains. I was very close to Kurogiri. I was abused as a child, physically, emotionally, and sexually. I lived with my stepfather, my biological father having left my mother before I was born and my mother having died when I was very young. I was like a father figure to Toga and was very close to Dabi, possibly dating him.

#fumikage tokoyami #fumikage tokoyami kin #todoroki shouto #shouto todoroki #shouto todoroki kin #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #shigaraki kin #my hero academia #my hero academia kin #boku no hero academia #boku no hero academia kin #bnha #bnha kin #mha #mha kin #mod mirio #submission #canon call

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pastelroyalty · 3 years

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About your post about GSAs, do you think the lower rates of drug use/suicidal ideation is as a result of like if the school has a GSA its probably in a relatively progressive area which usually means its closer to middle class and therefore things like therapy is more accessible and there is less poverty? Like GSA=more progressive area usually= more wealth=less consequences of poverty like drug abuse, addiction, and suicide? I hope that makes sense, its just something I'm curious about.

Oh this is actually an EXCELLENT question and definitely made me think!

I absolutely agree that that is a part of it. Schools in better Socioeconomic Status areas are way more likely to have resources for their students- this is due both in part to higher levels of funding and as you said, more progressive ideals. Of course, there are extremely wealthy schools in incredibly conservative areas, but it is true that middle class schools are often situated in liberal areas.

Race and culture also play a part in this (race and culture play a part in everything). Black and Latinx communities generally are less likely to seek mental health help- this is due partially to cultural ideals such as shame (its shameful to share when you are struggling, issues should stay inside the family, etc) and also the aspect of black and latinx individuals being more likely to have lower SES. They’re less likely to have disposable income to spend on mental health services. This is why community outreach programs are so important. Anyway. So, these communities of color are more likely to not seek help AND their schools are more likely to be in disadvantaged areas that dont have the funding for those programs. Theyre hit from all sides.

I think another piece of it is self medicating, right? So schools that don't have a GSA and don't offer that support to their students- what are those kids to do about all of the bullying, the anxiety and the suicidal thoughts? They self medicate, because it's available and it's easy. The same goes for those in lower SES, drugs are more available and often cheaper than therapy, so they do that.

I hope that all made sense. I could talk about this for hours- I’m currently getting my masters in Counseling with an emphasis on culture. Please let me know if you have any more questions or need sources or clarification for anything I said above.

And thank you so much for engaging! These conversations are so important to have.

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oculis-grp · 3 years

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Rhea’s Work II

Title: The Population Problem

Date: Oct. 16, 2020

Subject: Philippine Politics and Governance + Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century Culture

Type of Artifact: School output / Essay

The nature of the problem in the community

Overpopulation and the lack of sexual education are two of the many problems here in the country, as well as family planning being a sensitive issue in the community. The Philippines has the largest annual population growth in Southeast Asia due to families and the birth rates, which are expected to grow higher and higher by the year 2030.

More than two-thirds of married women use less effective methods such as condoms and pills, this resulted in two million pregnancies in 2016 alone. The total fertility rate of the Philippines is 2.8 and the number of births per 1,000 population is 23, which is the highest amongst all the countries in Southeast Asian region.

A 2018 survey was conducted and it was shown that women in the lowest class have the highest fertility rate of 5.2 while the wanted rate is 3.3. Meanwhile, women in the other classes, particularly in the highest class, have a total fertility rate of 1.7 with their wanted fertility rate is only at 1.4, meaning that they have a closer number of the desired family size, while those from the lower class have 2 more children than they initially desired.

This only increases the poverty rate in the Philippines because at least one-third or 16.6% have been living below the poverty line since 2018. The population is poor and twenty-eight million had been surviving on less than $1 or 48.68 pesos per day. This allows a dependency ratio of 58.2 per 100 working adults. Nearly a third are children at 32%, while elders are less than 5%. With the average population growth rate being 1.72%, it is estimated that the Philippines would reach 142 million by 2045.

The lack of sex education in the Philippines is also a large issue. As the result of many unwanted pregnancies. This causes a threat to the economy and the quality of life, As many of the young parents were not able to graduate from college or even high school, they may not be able to get a stable job to support their family, thus spreading the dependency ratio even wider.

The cause of the problem

One of the causes of the country’s overpopulation problem is that the Philippines has one of the highest adolescent fertility rates, with at least 57 births per 1,000 girls from ages 15-19 with the average age of early motherhood being 17.8. Most of the females who are sexually active and are not using any method of contraception are likely to have an unwanted pregnancy, and are more likely to be unaware of other methods.

In the perspective in the account of Conservatism, there is a powerful contender known as the Catholic Church, which already runs on a system of hierarchy and tradition, the institution finds The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, also known as the RH Bill, is a law that guarantees access to contraception, fertility control, sexual education, and maternal access,

to be controversial because they believe that the true purpose of this law is to limit the population, alongside with their reason that poverty is caused by corruption rather than overpopulation.

The lack of sex education in the Philippines is in effect because of the powerful influence of the Church. The belief that sexual education introduces topic such as LGBTQ, abortion, and gender identity. Despite studies claiming that sexual education programs that address both gender and power even once, are more effective and reduce pregnancy rates and STDs.

In the case of Socialism, this goes against one of their core values, which is to have a more equitable solution and have a classless society. There is already a great divide in terms of wealth and access to health-related treatments between the upper, middle, and lower class due to the different standards of living.

It already goes against the main points of socialism, which is to have an equal society. Due to the situation of the Philippines, there are now more less educated citizens when it comes to subject matters such as this and are more likely to believe the misconceptions about overpopulation and contraception and much more leading to a seemingly never ending cycle with dire consequences.

The effects of the problem

The effects of the overpopulation growth in the country will be the misallocation and distribution of goods and an unequal society, which is a polar opposite to the Socialist’s point of view. Since it is not in equal terms, people would experience difficulties in necessities and basic needs such as water, disease, and control.

Another principle that goes against the concepts of socialism, is that there will be competition instead of the promotion of cooperation, of those said goods, services, and wealth, over cooperation, which may lead into conflict within the society.

In terms of the conservative side, there is a way of thinking that the more children one has, the more social security, which is itself, an old mindset.

There is a lack of sexual education in the educational system and the negative thinking of abortion and contraceptives instilled by the notions of the Catholic Church’s traditions and testaments, it has become a source of controversy and a heated debate and have been more misinformation about family planning and protection, leading to many to become hesitant or even unaware of the methods.

The lack of knowledge also goes hand in hand with the perspective that contrasts the Socialist’s point of view, an equal distribution. Children from the upper class families are more likely to be educated and have a general understanding when it comes to sex and reproductive health due to their resources such as books, internet, and programs instituted by an organization or the school itself, but the opposite goes to the lower class families, who have lesser access to it and continue to be deprived of it.

The possible solution to address/solve the problem

Using a SWOT analysis, one could find the attributes and resources for a strong and impactful consequence and the factors that work against it. Problems can be solved more effectively due to exploration of possibilities, decision-making for the best intentions, and the flexibility when changes have to be made.

Listing down the internal factors, which are the following strengths: Gives benefits to the family and lessens health-related risks for women. Together with their weaknesses: There will be side effects in using contraceptives and the knowledge that contraceptives do not immune one from sexually transmitted diseases.

As well as listing down the external factors of opportunity: Improvement of maternal health and a way to abolish hunger and poverty; and the threats that follow which are: incorrect methods of family planning and the increase in mortality rates among women and infants.

Using the method of PEST, it helps us understand the operating factors and conditions surrounding the topics of overpopulation and family planning. Especially because this topic is a sensitive in the Philippines, it not only tackles the religious aspects, but also the political (laws and bills surrounding it), economical (budgets and spendings for the practices and programs), social (stigmas and misconceptions spread around the community), and the technological (advancements in science and medicine in terms of gadgets) views as well.

By using this, we can find out which factors are doing well and which ones are in need of improvement, in order to avoid spending too much time and resources that prevent it from being accepted and successful. One of the examples being, is letting the youth be educated in sexual education without fear of being irreligious and encouraging family planning to reduce poverty and overpopulation.

In terms of the money being used in the budget and spendings, using the Cost-Benefit Analysis, this can be used when we calculate the benefits of using family planning to prevent overpopulation. This way, the best option to be taken will be used with the ones that offer the greatest beneficiary value in terms of cost.

Finally, using the Cost-Effectiveness analysis, we can weigh out the alternatives and the advantages of using family planning as well as in other sectors. Effectiveness will be taken into high consideration because it will be measured by it in value, especially when the circumstances are vague to estimate should that be the case.

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