/lit/ - Literature

How radical should we be?
Should one concede a bit in order to make one's idea grow?

I recently saw a teacher on local tv saying tv is his worst enemy. The host asked "then why are you here?". "If I can make it better in anyway, I'll come". Do you agree?

How about zen masters writing books and books on how important it is to be silent. A lot of smartasses seem to bring this up to invalidate them and only listen to the stories that tell them nothing, rejecting all theory and intellectualism. But isn't it through those books and those theories that a lot of people get to know about zen? In the long run, aren't those words creating more silence than noise?

Religion seems to be always breaking into smaller and smaller branches with new theological nuances and disagreements. One of the greatest debates are that of iconographic representation vs iconoclasts. Knowing that images can distort one's perception, there was a lot of effort to keep religious figures without representations. Eventually, there were icons, not representing them visually, but as symbols. Then, theatrical representation began to grow and illustrated bibles got popular with the press during the Renaissance. On one hand, images can make everything ordinary, but on the other, it was essential for the spread of religion. One could say the Church conceded with the distortion in order to grow.

After Charlie Hedbo, a lot of people are calling on the "hipocristy of the west" and this debate on religions imagery came back up along with the limits of freedom and radicalism.

I know people that complain about the government even when the news is good. That is, if people were saved here, they bring the attention somewhere else "how about them? do they not deserve it?" Is there a good reason for this attitude or should one be really always point to where it is missing?

People on the right love to criticise the hipocrisy of leftists by what they have, cars, house, computers, phone... Meanwhile, dozens and dozens of pages in facebook seem to be on the opposite direction from facebook. Ecological and spiritual messages on computer screens, anarchist manifestos next to ads.

Can one work from within? Can a system even change from the inside out? Does Bill Gates doing charity makes any sense? Can one defend animal rights or ecology and not be a vegan? Can a real religious person live in a modern liberal capitalist society? Can a religious person defend Marxism? And can a Marxist have an iPhone 6?