Maybe lou reed was right
Understanding Facebook
How compelled we are to buy little things, needless things, useless things even, just for a change. A new thing, anything different, a coffee from Colombia to save us from the routine of home-supermarket-home. Like an impulse, a death wish: sacrifice it, kill it, spend it! And the electric aura lasts for a few hours, just enough to land safely in the couch, it’s all fine - traceless poison.
The landscape in Finland is a sacred one: the country had to fight for the territory numerous times. That makes the soil a sacred one: don’t litter it, don’t harm it, don’t destroy it. The respect paid to it was build, most certainly, as a reminiscence of war. In my home country we have never had wars. People take our land for granted, as a responsibility of the governments, that never do enough. A history of territoriality disputes cast the care of the land over the land itself (and not over property, not over the owned land).
I was watching through the window a middle age man and a woman in front of my apartment. The gestures subtly denounced an intense courtship, disguised as trivial conversation. Without hearing the words I could stick to what mattered: gestures, smiles, body language. His stronger attitudes were replied with avoidance, just so that she could state the pace of the flirt. Her avoidance would then be dissolved to the initial stage where she attracts him, but not too much. His gestures with hands, taking more space, stating how strong animal he is, were followed by her (she is also strong), who would always end up pointing to him, the dominant part. As I approached them passing by, there was a need for me to be acknowledged into the conversation: not as a leading, but as supporting role; I should not cast a shadow on the male that was courting the female, but I should be present enough to see them — I had to see them, or else the courtship would lose its importance, its beauty: the world was not impressed by it, they were not in the spotlight even when performing the timeless ritual, therefore their reproduction was not admirable, it was not desired by the world. I had to briefly admire them, in the least, see their faces for a second (or when I would leave the scene the power would leave with me, and in a couple the dominant part has always to be the strongest part in the whole world: if not the strongest, at least respected). A court is always a happy thing, an inspiring ritual, it is the promise of perpetuation.
There is something incredibly perverse, and thus it is what makes some people feel especially powerful, in spending a great deal of time, effort and money in extremely superficial matters — the art, science and craft of perfecting it to the limit, of finding the proper balance, matching the right color and, finally, comparing the achievements and compositions with peers that are interested in the same. All this, of course, should come with sprezzatura (a forgotten concept of the XVI Century created by Baldassare Castiglione): everything should look effortless, everything should come easy, in order to look smart, wise, strong. Anything that demands too much effort is simply a task for a professional, not for the noble man).
From the Facebook profile pic of a friend.
I’ve always thought of boredom as one of two essential positions in life: nothing is interesting against everything is interesting. Like Blur x Oasis: upper class versus working class.
Beyond class conflicts, to me it has always been impossible to think that nothing is interesting. At least until we figure out what is the origin of the Universe (the meaning of life is less important than that question, at least in theoretical basis). Until that is answered, to me there is little space for being bored. Furthermore: the chance of being hit by an airplane at any given moment, the chance of a nuclear war, the chance, chance. Very little space or time for being bored.
But then, again, here is the counterpart: we cannot know the origin of the Universe and you are not researching it — you can be bored. If you are hit by a truck, that was it — nothing else, nothing much. If the world is blown away, so be it — at least it is a change. Now, a lot of time and space for being bored: except that there is so much going on (the arts, the culture, science? no — a lot going on Facebook, for instance). TV after TV, status update after status update — how chilling, riveting is to know about my friend’s lives! So there is very little space or time for being bored — and that’s exactly the boring part.
Being bored used to be the alienation of those who had everything and wanted to do nothing. Nowadays, people do nothing all the time — they are busy with a lot of nothings! No spacecrafts being build, no rockets to new planets — the billions are in social networks and little photographs we call friends. So being bored is counter-revolutionary: being bored may be the best one can do.
A constellation in a bottle / macro iPhone lens