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words around the world
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23 Things they don’t tell you about Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang

I give it: 7/10

Length: 252 pages

Written by a professional Korean economist, this book offers an often hushed critique of free market capitalism’s myths and failures to humanity. 

Chang considers many claims by free market economists and counters with well-researched yet easy to digest statistics, facts and anecdotes—each chapter just a couple of pages each. For example, the chapter about how, “The Washing Machine Changed the World more than the internet,” (31) echos how, “In perceiving changes, we tend to regard the most recent...as the most revolutionary” (185). Chang goes on to debunk this with evidence of how the washing machine revolutionized house/women’s work around the world.

I particularly enjoyed the speculation on the role of education in preparing people for the workforce, and at what cost.

In the face of our current climate, with many complaints about the current economic/political system yet few propositions for how to do better, Chang’s conclusion of “How to rebuild the world economy” (252) offers a bold plan for moving forward together.

#capitalism#economics
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This Is IT by Alan Watts (and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experiences)

I give it: 7/10

Length: 153 pages

My Spiritual Awakening took place in Los Angeles, summer of 2014. At the same time, I read this text—and now, nearly six years later, want to synthesize the take-aways as I practice minimalism in reducing my extensive books collection to just 125 books. 

In this text, Alan Watts defines this as, “Spiritual awakening is the difficult process whereby the increasing realization that everything is as wrong as it can be flips suddenly into the realization that everything is as right as it can be. Or better, everything is as It can be” (13).

Essays include:

  • This Is IT
  • Instinct, Intelligence, and Anxiety
  • Zen and the Problem of Control
  • Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen
  • Spirituality and Sensuality
  • The New Alchemy

The title essay, This Is IT focuses on current consciousness—the continually moving moment of NOW and on the necessity to let go of control in order to be open to all emotions and the “cosmic experience.”

“I believe that if this state of consciousness could become more universal, the pretentious nonsense which passes for the serious business of the world would dissolve in laughter” (12).

This essay slightly contradicts Abraham Hicks’ (Law of Attraction) assertion that your emotions matter most of all, as the indicator of your vibrational alignment (or disharmony) with all that is. Many Hicks’ listeners confuse this to me POSITIVE VIBES ONLY, when instead, Hicks affirms that negative emotions are not “wrong” or in need or control but instead act to move you towards what you do want and what feels good. 

Watts echos Hicks by affirming that negative emotions are not wrong, but co-exist on the spectrum of emotions, and we should not try to control these feelings away/separate from us. In fact, Watts points out, enlightenment often arises in moments of despair. Contrasting emotions guide us towards what we want. However, Watts contradicts the idea that joy matters most, as he distinctly states that feelings of ecstasy are often confused for enlightenment. 

“...[T]he immediate now is complete even when it is not ecstatic. For ecstasy is a necessarily impermanent contrast in the constant fluctuation of our feelings. But insight, when clear enough, persists; having once understood a particular skill, the facility tends to remain” (18-19). 

Instead, Nirvana includes any/all emotions present and changing. Watts and Hicks alike encourage selfishness, while Hicks considers this a path to joy and Watts sees this humanness as a path to transcend the self to the “cosmic” whole or oneness, which he claims is purposeless and instead playful.

He points out that people mistakenly look for spiritual leaders to exhibit perfection over humanity:

“...[W]hether he shows anxiety or not, whether he depends upon ‘material crutches’ such as wine or tobacco, whether he loses his temper, or gets depressed, or falls in love when he shouldn’t, or sometimes looks a bit tired or frayed at the edges. All these criteria might be valid if the philosopher were preaching freedom from being human, or if he were trying to make himself or others radically better.... But the limits within which such improvements may be made are small in comparison with the vast aspects of our nature and our circumstances which remain the same.... I am saying...that while there is a place for bettering oneself and others, solving problems...this is by no means the only or even the chief principal of life....” (31-32).

Instead of prioritizing joy as an end-goal, Watts encourages purposelessness (as opposed to goal-setting and focus on improvement) and letting go of control as key to enlightenment:

“Nature is much more playful than purposeful, and the probability that it has no specific goals for the future need not strike one as a defect.... much more like art than business, politics, or religion. They are especially like the arts of music and dancing.... No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it” (32-33).
“...[I]f we are unduly absorbed in improving...we may forget altogether to live....” (33).

He goes onto say that if we believe that everything in the world is right just as it is, then we may perceive “our normal anxieties” as “ludicrous,” or a wrong response. Really, though, each emotion exists along a spectrum of all emotions, connected and contrasting one another in relation.

“...[T]he superior truth of the ‘cosmic’ experience... [C]ontrol must always be subordinate to motion if there is to be motion at all. In human terms, total restraint of movement is the equivalent of total doubt, of refusal to trust one’s senses or feelings.... On the other hand, movement and the release of restraint are the equivalent of faith, of committing oneself to the uncontrolled and the unknown..... An essential part of the ‘cosmic’ experience is, however that the normal restriction of consciousness to the ego-feeling is also right, but only and always because it is subordinate to absence of restriction, to movement and faith.... [T]here must be total affirmation and acceptance.... [F]or man to make himself mad by trying to bring everything under his control. We become insane, unsound, and without foundation when we lose consciousness of and faith in the uncontrolled and ungraspable...world which is ultimately what we ourselves are. And there is a very slight distinction, if any, between complete, conscious faith and love” (38-39).

One critique that I have with this essay is Watt’s meager attempt to assure that such acceptance of all as-is need not perpetuate injustice: 

With little supporting evidence, he state that, “[E]ven though it may be exploited for this purpose, the experience itself is in no sense a philosophy designed to justify or desensitize oneself to the inequalities of life,” (26). He goes onto say, “...the holocaust of the biological world, where every living creatures lives by feeding off others.... is reversed so that every victim is seen as offering itself in sacrifice” (37), going onto argue that all is relative. 

For me, this stretch contradicts experiences of the oppressed who fight against such an “offering” of themselves to a system that goes against their free will.

Overall, I think the message —to let go of control and constant striving for perfection, to accept all of our emotions as part of all that is— ironically offers an anecdote for an unbalanced culture to improve, through acceptance over action.

The other essays in this collection:

Instinct, Intelligence, and Anxiety looks at how humans differ from animals in our ability to analyze, predict, and decide—and at what cost.

Zen and the Problem of Control asks if, “man is a self-conscious and therefore self-controlling organism, how is he to control the aspect of himself which does the controlling?” Watts using judo as an example, of working with the blows delivered versus resisting. As it turns out—cooperation is key. 

Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen opens pandora’s box of true Zen, traditional Zen, and cultural interpretations—including Jack Kerouac’s. Watts argues that in order to don a true Zen lifestyle, one must overcome any fear or rebellion of their own culture. “Lacking this, his Zen will either be ‘beat’ or ‘square,’ either a revolt...or a form of stuffiness.... Zen is above all the liberation of the mind from conventional though...utterly different from rebellion against convention, on one hand, or adapting foreign conventions on the other” (90).

Spirituality and Sensuality begins with how, “It has often been said that the human being is a combination of animal and angel....” and further explores the illusion of duality as a true unity that cannot exist without an opposite.

The New Alchemy is an acid test that starts off with talking about immortality. Watts discusses the high points and recurrent themes of his experiences on LSD, including facing the ultimate illusion: fear of death.

#minimalism#minimal#marie kondo#alan watts#buddhism#enlightenment#nirvana#abraham hicks#law of attraction#meditation#letting go#los angeles#venice beach#spirituality#books#reader#book review#zen#acid#acid test#lsd#Michael Pollan#psychadelic#mushrooms
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Book Review: Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

I give it: 9/10

Length: 251 pages

A historical-fantasy novel in verse form, Blood Water Paint (2018) retells the experiences of 17 year-old Italian Baroque painter Artesmisia Gentileschi—who showed promising artistic talent as a young woman, yet lived under the rule of  patriarchy in 17th century Rome.

Told primarily through poetry, this intergenerational narrative explores Artesmisia’s creative passion, strife, and incredible strength as she practices the painting technique of perspective. As the story progresses amidst her father’s dictation of her training and credit for her work, she falls victim to sexual violence and must ask her father for permission and support for representation in court.

Artesmisia astonishingly finds the strength to tell her story—although women were far more likely to be blamed, shamed, and believed to be at fault for attracting the violence onto themselves.... 

Author Joy McCullough paints the leading protagonist and supporting female characters, not as objects to gaze upon, but as heroines who decide to use their voice and creative storytelling to liberate themselves. Their creations reveal that these ladies know they are more than who they have been allowed to become. The book explore female roles and relationships: the power of sisterhood, motherhood, and solidarity in friendships, and of the often unbalanced power dynamics between men and young women.

For educators of Young Adult literature, this book would powerfully serve secondary classroom settings—especially in students’ exploring themes of perseverance, representation in (art) history, and the individual power of one’s voice in an unjust system of governance. Teachers may engage students in this text through its relevance to current events, including the #BelieveWomen and #MeToo movement. The protagonist chooses to stand up for herself to voice her experiences of sexual violence. 

#believewomen#metoo#me too movement#bloodwaterpaint#bookreview#YAlit#ya literature#ya lit#book review#female artists#sexual violence#patriarchy#resist#read#English teacher
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