Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Hundred Flowers of The Matrix

Once upon a time in China, after the revolution had bedded down and things were going well enough, the leadership under Mao Zedong, and premier Zhou Enlai particularly, declared that China needed the participation of its intellectuals and that their criticism would help improve Chinese communism. This was called the Hundred Flowers Campaign. The title came from one of Mao's own poems: 'let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.'


Depending on who you listen to, this was either a well meaning attempt to improve communism and lend it the kind of well-rounded timelessness of confucianism and taoism, or it was a trap. Intended or no, the latter is what occurred. From its early start of 'healthy criticism' to its final orgy of demands that the communists be thrown out, it seemed that China's ancient curse of luan (乱 - chaos) wasn't far away. In China, it never is. What followed was an Anti-Rightist Campaign that saw hundreds of thousands of students, intellectuals, and bureaucrats demoted, fired, imprisoned, or killed. It seems that provided the centre holds, luan isn't really luan. Not that dead people can tell the difference, sure enough.


Mind you, the Hundred Flowers Campaign and its follow-on Anti-Rightist Campaign wasn't a patch on the Cultural Revolution. But that's a whole other story. As is the earlier Three Anti Five Anti Campaign, the later Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown, and ten years later, the Falung Gong protests and the subsequent anti-Falung Gong campaign. But each had in common the removal of anyone, or more specifically any collective, who could threaten the centre. But the Hundred Flowers is the clearest and most graphic - a hundred flowers open their petals, impressed with their own gorgeousness, all the while unaware that over by the shed the mower is being started up.

---

Speaking of China, in the first year I was there an obscure film called The Matrix was released. Has anyone heard of it? I recommend it and you can probably pick it up in any number of Beijing DVD shops. Don't pay more than 8RMB ($1.30) or else you're being ripped off. Anyway, The Matrix starred Keanan Wynn, or Christopher Reeves, or somesuch, and was made by the Wachowski brothers who astoundingly appear not to be Jewish.

I say that because The Matrix is very very Jewish. Apart from the Jewish uberman nature of the hero Neo; the slo-mo orgiastic promised land of Zion; and the constant repetition of the number six; the plot revolves around humans living lives of complete delusion with everything they understand of the world being false - the reality being that they are little more than sources of sustenance for a parasitic uber-intelligence, here represented by computers.


But this is merely one layer of truth. Beneath it is another. Appallingly (for Zionists), Zion is merely a throwaway vehicle intended only to nurture each successive uberman. Millennia after millennia, Zion is repeatedly destroyed, as is the uberman du jour - all of this so that the godhead computer rulers of the world may more nearly perfect the nature of the delusion that holds the humans in their thrall.

Astoundingly, at the end of the film Neo does not defeat the godhead. Rather he earns their thanks and reverence by being a loyal servant who sacrifices himself to ensure their survival by killing the mutual enemy 'Smith'. In defiance of whatever sense of realpolitik computers might possess, and not forgetting the endlessly repeated historical precedent of killing without mercy, the godhead keeps its end of the bargain and does not rid itself of the threat of Neo, and nor does it wipe out Zion.


Otherwise, looked at objectively, Smith was potentially a good guy, an ally worth having. He was the only means by which the godhead could have been destroyed. But never mind, he's killed, the pitiful human slaves are left to live lives of delusion in their goop-filled coffins, and Zion is free to rescue the odd individual here and there and otherwise carry on with their ecstasy-fueled rave parties. And Neo? He is embraced in the loving arms of the godhead and ends the film on a bier like some warrior on his way to Valhalla.

Forgetting the come from nowhere 'happy' ending for a moment, as well as the initial red-pill arrival at not-quite-the-truth, the actual time-and-time-again reality of the Matrix's world is that each given period of enlightenment, climaxing with the arrival of 'The One', is merely this millennia's variant of the hundred flowers campaign.

---

And so! Here we are! We took the red pill, and by way of the internet, we woke up to the truth of the world and the veil of delusion that's kept us in thrall all these years. Let's not be distracted by the fact that the internet was initially set up by the military - just like Al Qaeda was set up by the CIA, American nazis by various Jews, communism by the bankers etc. etc. Let's also think little of the prediction by that most loyal servant to the bankers, Rupert Murdoch, that the internet will all be over soon. To hell with that! We've woken up to what's going on. We've read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for chrissakes!


But wasn't the Protocols a best seller in Russia just before the Tsar was thrown down and the Bolsheviks began their seventy year reign of terror? Far more people were familiar with it then than are familiar with it now and yet it seemed to make no difference whatsoever. Indeed here we are, one hundred years later, and everyone is convinced that it's a 'forgery'.

That aside, how many times have the lords of usury been thrown out of each given country exactly? Edward Longshanks (the villain of Hollywood's Braveheart) threw the goldsmiths out of England in 1290 and yet in 1654 all-round good guy (unless you're Irish) Oliver Cromwell readmitted them. Dig it - in the time of Shakespeare there were no Jews in England. Or to put it another way, in the time of no Jews in England there was Shakespeare. I wonder if The Stranglers got the irony of singing 'whatever happened to all the Shakespearoes' whilst surrounded by strippers? Probably not.


Sure enough today the City of London rules, and all those hard-done-by Jewish oligarchs hounded out of Russia by the villainous Putin (and otherwise known as the 'Russian' mafia) are all welcome to come on down and buy half of Mayfair (and a famous football team while they're at it). Did you know that the City of London is its own jurisdiction, with its own police force, and is otherwise not subject to the mayor of London, or parliament, or anyone at all? The Vatican eat your heart out.

But we're on to them! Or should I say, we're blooming well onto them? With the internet as our spring time, we have burst forth from our cold dark earth of ignorance and now turn our faces to the sun of truth. Here now in this time, the like of which the world has never seen, we glory in our pursuit of knowledge and open discussion. We are the hundred flowers.

---

Yeah, yeah, what a cynical party-pooper I am. Here we are grasping the hard-fought-for truth and I'm asserting a truth above this that says it's a big con, that it's merely a trick by the world's greatest liars to strengthen their position, and that ultimately we're all fucked.

Ha! Not so fast! Here's one small truth - um, I've run out of space and shall have to continue in the next piece. Another (and less self-referential one) is that the world is very great, far greater than the people who imagine that they are in control of it. Coming up next - Stephen Chow, chaos theory, cocks and cunts, and, um, the Buddha possibly. Mind you, if it's somewhat different I'll come back here and edit the preceding sentence to make myself look clever. God forbid I should ever be wrong. Ha!

32 comments:

Miraculix (Doug) said...

Interesting that one of the aspects I left out of my little "man-machine" synopsis, that of Agent Smith as Neo's potential ally at the end of the seventh cycle, rose to the surface in your very first chapter.

The hundred flowers analogy holds its own water quite adequately, and I'm looking forward to seeing where you're headed.

Penny said...

god forbid you would ever be wrong!

I like the idea of the blossoming flowers.
It is sort of a romantic view of waking up or becoming aware, but it is nice.

City of London and yes I knew that, the first time I had heard this, I was like what in the hell?

I think that Vatican city is very much like the city of London.
Indeed very sovereign and independant, and protected.

And the Vatican bank scandals!!!

Widely believed to be why one Pope had to die, the one before Paul, whispers say it was murder, well actually more then whispers, and it had to do with the banking.
Bank Ambrosia is but one scandalous bank linked to the Vatican, and worse, murder.

The dead man ,Roberto Calvi, known as "God's banker" his son lives in Canada.
In his death besides bankers and the vatican you also get the freemasons!

Oh and he was killed and body left in a somewhat ritualistic manner

Info on the vatican.
The Vatican City State, sovereign and independent
or hereThe Vatican City issues its own coins.
The internal police power of the Vatican City is the Swiss Guards Corps (Corpo della Guardia Svizzera)

I have always found all that stuff most interesting.....

Anyway, sorry for rambling, my only point really being I don't think the city of London has anything on Vatican City.

Not to say your wrong, of course.
You are always right ;)

psychegram said...

I've sometimes wondered myself if the internet isn't being used as a giant honeypot, for the purposes of identifying all those within the slave strata (ie the 99% of us who don't own 99% of the world) who possess a capacity for independent, critical thinking. When the time is right, they round us up and either reeducate or simply kill us.

Along similar lines, consider the file-sharing of music. All those millions of us, cheerfully downloading whole copyrighted discographies onto our iPods, cocksure that we'll never be brought to account for the 'crime' of sharing music. Meanwhile increasingly draconian copyright regimes are formed. Again, when the time is right, might we not find ourselves in a situation where anyone with an iPod full of stolen tunes can be pulled aside by the cops and jailed for copyright violations? And maybe that's been the whole point of the mp3 revolution.

Regardless, I remain optimistic. Hell, you have to be. Otherwise, any consideration of the odds arrayed against us leads inexorably to contemplation of suicide....

nobody said...

Hey Mir, well the Matrix is packed with detail and one could pursue any number of avenues. Take the logic angle - Why don't the humans all have rickets? Or scurvy? Also, how long does a nuclear winter last anyway? And since, they seem to have anti-grav drives why don't they merely go above the cloud cover and collect solar power? And whatever happened to geo-thermal? But whatever, we could go on and on all day.

As for where I'm going with it, don't get too excited. Disappointment is always a distinct possibility.

Thanks Pen, funny you should mention it because I initially wrote 'The Vatican ain't in it'. But obviously they are 'in it', so to speak. But then again the Vatican is the centre of a world wide religion with a billion adherents. It kind of has to be somewhere.

And London is what, in this regard? Also, is the Vatican able to manipulate oil prices with its cartel control of the exchange? Or any other commodities? And do the Vatican's banks control the reserve banks and monetary policies of just about every economy going? Besides that, who paid obeisance to whom this week?

Benedict, Pope - have own yamulka, will travel. Ha ha ha.

nobody said...

Hullo Psyche, and jinx on simultaneous typing!

Spot on mate. All of the above and particularly the conclusion. But anything you can write in four lines I can write in four hundred! Ha! Er... that'll be the next piece, kind of thing.

Speaking of mp3's, I can imagine a future of countless Cheech and Chong scenes -

"Oh man! The cops are here! Flush the ipod down the toilet! Do it! Do it!"
"Ho ho ho... man you ain't going to like this but the ipod is jammed in the s-bend. Like the toilet is flooding everywhere, man."
"Man, I told you get rid of that clunky steam-driven thing! Why didn't you get that new little ipod?!"
"I used the money to buy that grass man..."
"Oh shit, the grass! And the toilet's blocked already!"
"Oh, man, we're screwed..."

nobody said...

I just realised that if you want to write Cheech and Chong dialogue, all you have to do is give Cheech an exclamation mark at the end of every sentence. Chong of course never has an exclamation mark.

slozo said...

Nice write-up, Nobody . . . not much to say other than that, sorry.

Well, one thing - Matrix is full of logic holes, of course. We've been properly trained though by the media, and we gloss right by them like a Maglev train rushing by a peasant in a rice paddy. And I was always uncomfortable with the whole "he is the one" Jesus concept of the thing, as if he received some divine powers. The oracle, when she started in, that was where the movie really went off the tracks for me . . . but I did appreciate the red pill/blue pill thing. Meh - fun movie with the usual propoganda, great effects.

Hundred flowers, eh? Scary stuff . . . almost makes one paranoid enough to prepare off the grid bunkers, secondary passports to strange lands, and a cache of gold . . . but really, who has the time and resources to prepare like that?

Franz said...

MATRIX not made by Jews? Wha da hell! You jest yes?

I like the hundred-flowers routine because no matter how many times they roll it out, we fall for it. They say Julius Caesar was the Best in the West when it came to that. He pardoned his political prisoners with huge fanfare and publicity then had them quietly followed ever after. They probably led him to enough saps to work all the mines in Sicily.

Plus, when Caesar died, his heirs wisely made their OWN Matrix and called it Christianity... but you know all about that one. I like Neo better, but then I'm a 20th Century sort of dude.

Penny said...

hey nobody!

dunno about all this stuff exactly, and i mean who really does, except for those involved, and even then how much do they know, I mean of the entire picture.


I got thinking of another angle regarding the bank of London, vs Vatican banks?

How about all the stuff available on the alleged Jesuit conspiracies, and how this all ties in to the catholic church.

How allegedly the jesuits run the show, black popes and all that stuff.

I have heard that before too.

So maybe there is more to the vatican banks then we know, and then maybe there is nothing to them.

Or then maybe it is all bullshit to keep us chasing our tails?

gogwomni, what an interesting word

Penny said...

sorry for hijacking this post a bit, but, what can I say, though I too, am interested in where this is all heading.

Anonymous said...

Very good, regular lurker and looking forward to the rest of it!
Sorry to be cheeky (and I know it's a piss-take) but any chance of a link to something about the City Of London thing? I tend to find I get diverted down interesting side-streets when I try to search for this stuff... and good links to bookmark are like gold dust for me

btw, wv: deathead :O

Anonymous said...

Sorry to double-post, but it strikes me as strange that when people refer to red-pill-blue-pill analogies, they always refer to The Matrix and not Total Rekall/We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (not sure if it's in the Philip K. Dick story, now I mention it).

nobody said...

As for Jewish involvement in the Matrix, all the money was Jewish sure enough. There's no such thing as a Hollywood movie that isn't.

No, all I said is that, best I can make out, the Wachowski's don't seem to be Jewish. I say this on account of the fact that I couldn't find a single Wachowoski anywhere on the net with any connection to anything Jewish. One method I use is to search for a given name +funeral. The funeral notice will tell you where the service took place. And all I found was catholic churches. If anyone else wants to give it a burl, go for it.

Otherwise Pen, I heard all that stuff before - jesuits, the Vatican etc. etc. But you know me, I have the media pegged as the key partner in all this wickedness. None of these wars and depressions and all of that could take place if the media was what it says it is, ie. some kind of corruption busting truth machine. And there's no way the media is in the hands of anyone but Jewish people. Otherwise the biggest game in town is control of the money supply via the world's Reserve Banks. Nothing is even close, not arms, not pharmaceuticals, not oil, not nothing. And you're not going to tell me that the Vatican controls that are you?

I hold no brief for the Catholic church - I'm about as 'ex' and an ex-Catholic gets. And nor am I sticking up for them by saying that they're also-rans. I fail to see them exerting their power anywhere. God knows the media heaps shit on them relentlessly. Not that they don't deserve it but with the people who run the Reserve Banks of the world getting off scot-free, I think our energies are better spent pointed elsewhere.

And hullo wh00ps. Like your site. No problems posting twice. I post heaps! And yes, I have no links. God knows where I read that. WRH was it? Otherwise, you'll just have to get googling mate.

Penny said...

hey nobody and whoops

here is an interesting link,

tying bank of london, vatican and Washington DC all together.
3 seperate entities within host countries

makes you think they must be the parasites eh?

here is the link and the piece is full of links, links to links which inevitably leads to more links...


Carl Grindes Blogg

Anonymous said...

'Scroogling' Maybe ;) Well, cheers anyway, I'll get on it. In an interesting synch, I stumbled across a reference today to the Rump Parliament having to sell land to put up security for loans from the City Of London, and they had just won a revoloution! This game has been going on for a long time.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Like whOOps here is another semi regular lurker ready to spring out of the closet in cape and red underpants – well I can’t speak for whOOps’s red underpants.

Like Penny says, who really knows what is going on, double game; triple game; god forbid they might even be playing a single game straight up and telling it like it is.

The other city state not mentioned, although nowhere in comparison to the other two which make up the magical number 3 is Washington DC. Although the former two keep a deliberately low profile, Washington appears to be the Vatican’s bouncer.

Anyway, for Penny and whOOps here are a couple of links to follow up on. Although both of them are good articles they both have bits that are best overlooked. The first’s treatment of the population problem is childish in the extreme but the rest is good especially his argument of non compliance.

http://1984usa.com/higherlearning/?p=1417

The next is Will Thomas online asking “Does the Vatican Hold Your Mortgage”. If you take his imaginary friend Hank with a pinch of salt and Hanks Jesuit friend who spilled the beans on his life’s work in exchange for having a flat tyre changed, what he actually has to say is interesting although I must warn you it is an epic read.

http://willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Vatican_Mortgage_Part_1.html

nobody said...

Well anon, you didn't leap very far what with being an anon, ha ha. And red underpants is it? Very good. The important thing is to wear them on the outside of your trousers.

And wh00ps, it goes back ages. I'm a hardcore Patrick O'Brian fan and all those stories are set in Georgian England. What with the hero, Jack Aubrey, being perpetually chased by tipstaffs and bailiffs O'Brian goes into the various duchies and territories within London. In certain parts of London the tipstaffs had no jurisdiction. Merely crossing the road could sometimes be a big mistake.

And I still think the Vatican is an also-ran in the banking caper. Do they deal with London and Washington? Sure of course. But I have all three of those down as capos to International banking's godfather. And Washington is the Vatican's standover man? Good God, I'm surprised Washington has time left over after what with being such a busy servant of international banking (and Israel, sure enough).

Otherwise, that there are sources out there saying that 'it's all the Vatican' should come as no surprise. Me, I'd put it in the 'well of course' basket. Given the time and energy put into disappearing private ownership of the fed, and of international banking generally, of course there'd be people out there saying we should look elsewhere. In reading this stuff, I'd be doing so with a salt cellar close at hand. As Lauren Bacall said, "You know how to take it with a grain of salt, don't you? Just put your thumb and forefinger together and pinch," or something like that...

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Yeh, I forgot to mention the trousers, spandex of course and maybe I should do a blog, it just seems so near the end of days to get involved with it.

As you rightly point out there is always a hierarchy. The three city states doff their respective hats to the so called 13 families and don’t forget to throw in the European royalty too. And there is also a hierarchy amongst these. What it must be like to be top of the heap, eating people three times a day with blood slobbering down your chin. Personally, I don’t rate it, I wonder if ‘Lord of all he surveys’ is a happy bunny?

nobody said...

Onya FB,

You're in good company there. A couple of lowlanders hang around here. And what fine people they are! Otherwise, yep to all of that.

As for 'happy', it's a question ain't it? What do these people 'feel'? Perhaps 'feel' is the wrong word. Do people who are completely and utterly self absorbed, feel things? It occurs to me that they wouldn't be so far removed from whatever is that's in the heads of two year olds, ie. the world revolves around them and the only way of dealing with things is by way of a tantrum, albeit a sophisticated one. You know, where people get killed kind of thing...

To be honest I'd love to be locked in a room with one. Ha! The Last Emperor was on the telly again last night. What a great film. Soundtrack aside, the process of watching Pu Yi become human again is just brilliant. I do like a redemption flick. If anyone hasn't seen it, go see it. It's a really singular movie - ain't many like it. Hmm... cinema blog entry perhaps?

Miraculix (Doug) said...

Good sense arrives from over the border just in the nick 'o' time -- sporting red spandex undergarments (on the outside) and a fluttering cape no less!

A hale nod in your general direction fellow crusader; your ever-so-dashing appearance has even caused me to reconsider my current color scheme, as the green spandex unitard & lug-soled boots now feels so last week... =)

It coordinates nicely with the local Eifel/Ardennen decor here in the Mosel-Frankish borderlands, where our not-so-secret hideout in an old pile of familial rocks nests quietly among the thriving modern hubs of black aristocratic power. Ost Belgien & LUX are each just a long stones' throw away.

Just out of curiousity -- since your Anglais appears native -- have you ever noticed how Bloomberg and FT never need to report on subjects such as the impending insolvency of quiet little burgs like the Jersey Islands or the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg?

Penny said...

anonymous from Belgium, whoops and nobody:

in the link I left, there was the washington DC thing mentioned and it had a picture of the flag, with the three circles? representing the 3 banking centres, london, vatican , washington dc.

that was interesting and thanks for the links I will check them out.

Unlike Mr nobody, I am not quite so sure of all these things.

Just when you think you understand something, you find out another bit of info that makes you say hmmmmm????

I had done a fair bit of reading on the Vatican bank and honestly for a pope to be murdered.

He is a public figure head in so may ways this is equivalent to a President being murdered, actually even bigger!

Because a pope leads billions as their figurehead, a president millions.


a review of the book:
"In God's Name: an Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I""At the top of the list of reforms the new pope wished to make were "altering radically the Vatican's relationship with capitalism"

perhaps a change in policy wrt usary??

In that little blurb, you see Roberto Calvi.

Paul Marcinkus, head of the Vatican Bank, who this Pope wanted out of the picture.
(one can read more on him)

Also another name for anyone familiar with the "left behind" armies in Europe after ww2
Mino Pecorelli, a journalist, who shows up alot around the time of the red brigades. And the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, who was threatened big time by Henry Kissinger, because he was going to play ball with the communist party.. anyway!

I can't dismiss the vatican banks nor the role of the catholic church in the banking mess.

Perhaps they each play an important role- like actors in a play, that together make the whole play work, but take away one actor and it isn't quite the same?

no spandex trousers please, I always get this vision of an extremely fat cyclist stuffed like a bulging sausage into his spandex bike pants. Yuk.

nobody said...

No Pen, I don't dismiss the Vatican. I just don't think they're top dog. With the IMF, the World Bank, and the various reserve banks of the world emphatically not in Vatican hands, how powerful can they be? And it's curious that you view the assassination of a pope as an indicator of the power of the vatican. Frankly it works better the other way round, as an indicator of the weakness of it. Honestly, if a mafia clan's leader was shot you wouldn't then go on to think, 'Well, they must be the most powerful family', would you?

Anyone's best guess would have to be that he was assassinated because he wouldn't play ball. With whom? His own church? Then why would they vote him in to begin with? It makes way more sense as an act from a more powerful group demanding that the church toe the line.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Hey Doug

If your familial hideout is not so secret then maybe you should reconsider ditching the Eifel / Ardennen green couture, after all such a ruse got Robin of Loxley by for a few years longer than would have otherwise been the case. Or maybe Penny could fashion us some new garments since she is so anti spandex. Fat cyclists and bulging sausages indeed! Have you considered the other possibility that maybe they fit like well washed tights on a ninety year old lady who hasn’t enough on her bones to fill them out, Ugh, ugh!! I do jest.

Doug, how perceptive of you to realise I was an ex pat. Originally I came over here for work and then for the women – well one in particular. Normally I don’t concern myself with such fascist rags as the FT; hmm Jersey and Lux going broke huh, I will have to get my hoard out to the Cayman Islands pronto.

I live on the other side of our little country, in the Schelderland. Maybe we should meet for a beer sometime but since the car ditched me at the time I was getting interested in eco footprints and I did nothing about it, it would have to be somewhere on the NMBS system since I have a Belgian rail pass of sorts.

I will agree with Penny’s statement that just when you think you know what is going on….. I overlooked that link the first time around, my, it expands like a family tree and I don’t have the time to give it right now but I will look into it, thanks. You put up some interesting thoughts there, Maybe John Paul l was anti usury; there is something he may have had in common with the Shiites. And murdering a pope and murdering a pres, It has been said that Kennedy was about to abolish the Fed and Lincoln had introduced his green back dollars in competition to the National bank dollars. Religion or no, it all goes about money. There is one thing that the pope has though that the international bankers are aspiring to and that is globalism not withstanding that the Catholic Church is losing a bit of traction at the moment. Here is a free e – book which may interest you. I haven’t read it although it looks quite good and to the point.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4751159/The-Broken-Cross-the-Hidden-Hand-in-the-Vatican-by-Piers-Compton

Yes, interrelating actors in a play but the Vatican is not in the lead role.

Penny said...

I don't view the pope's assasination as an indicator of the power of the vatican,

rather I see the assasination as an indicator of just how much is at stake in an attempt to maintain the status quo in the world of corrupt banking.

slozo said...

Quick question, Nobody: what the heck is that Chinese character supposed to signify?

My wife had a look at it, and she says it looks a lot like "fu" (4th tone), which translates as 'aide de camp', 'adjutat', and the 'deputy' - a second in command or someone a step below in power. But, if this is the character you were going for, it is missing two strokes . . . and as it is, it doesn't seem to mean anything else (not to my wife, who is university educated in China).

This piqued my curiosity to determine then:
1. what was your original meaning intended by it
2. where you found it

Thanks in advance!

slozo said...

More Additions and addendums:

The poem that the phrase "let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend" came from was written by none other than Mao Zedong.

Apparently, Mao was quite the prolific writer in general, and especially poetry, which is very Chinese. The phrase "let a hundred flowers bloom" was stolen from some thousand year old poem, and Mao added the second part himself.

Lends a bit more background to the potential reasoning behind the campaign, no?

nobody said...

Hey Slozo,

Ah well you see, I came at it backwards.

It all started with Kurosawa's Ran (乱 = chaos, disorder). I recall a conversation with a fellow in China who said that in Chinese this was same but pronounced 'luan'. But I knew that the Japanese character would be different to the Chinese character so I went to babelfish.com and entered 'chaos'. This gave me 混亂. This kind of pissed me off since I just wanted one character and clearly the character that was related to the Japanese one was the latter. So I entered that by itself into babelfish and the English it gave me was 'chaotic'. Good enough for me!

As for the calligraphy, I obtained that from google images by searching for the aforementioned 亂 +書法 which is 'calligraphy' sure enough. Whilst I'm happy to stand corrected I suspect I'm not far off the mark. Oh wait, I just realised I was using traditional characters! Urgh! I should have used simplified! Maybe that's where I went wrong?

---

Back again! The simplified Chinese character is the same as the Japanese. Subsequently I've redone it all. Hopefully that should make your missus happy.

nobody said...

Further - this should make everything clear.

slozo said...

Ok, nobody . . . um, not really about making my wife happy or not, just curious as to your intent, really. And, wouldn't want you to be like one of those westerners with a character tatooed on their arm that says something unintended, that's all.

Most of the characters you were given by babelfish were complicated characters that had the same meaning (chaos), and you were looking for simplified Chinese, fair enough.

And of course, all Japanese characters come from Chinese . . . hell, formal Japanese IS Chinese, which a lot of westerners don't know - law documents, graveyards, etc all written in complicated Chinese characters, not Kanji. How ironic that the class A war ciminals buried in the Yasukuni Shrine (who tried to wipe-out as many Chinese as possible) all have gravestones written in Chinese.

gallier2 said...

Hey Mir and the Belgian anonymous, if ever you get to that beer drink event tell me about it, I may even join (if allowed). Thionville isn't that far from both of you.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Penny, Anon and our lovable host. Plenty for me to get started on there, I can feel a series of posts coming on in about probably six months time (lol) on the those three cities. As always, I found clusty to throw up more stuff than google...

nobody said...

Post Scriptum - the front page was amended to reflect Slozo's note in the comments that the 'Hundred Flowers' poem was in fact one of Mao's own. Thanks Slozo.