Messages From a Box - by Vincent J. Tomeo

Last Friday, before the onslaught of a three-day Occupied weekend, a man came to visit the i Think Outside My Box project on The Highline here in New York City. Click the link to read the poem he was inspired to write. The reference to Paul Klee is more than welcome:)

S e p t e m b e r  1 6 ,  2 0 1 2

M e s s a g e s  F r o m  A  B o x

 

On the eve of the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, Han Fei Tzu remains as relevent as ever

"In particular it (the Legalist Philosophy) emphasized the encouragement of agriculture to provide a steady food supply and of warfare to expand the borders of the state and insure a tough, alert and well disciplined population. It called for the suppression of all ideas and ways of life that impeded the realization of these aims. Vagabonds and draft dodgers, merchants and artisians who deal in nonessential goods, scholars who spread doctrines at variance with Legalist teaching, cavaliers who take the law into their own hands - all were to be unmercifully quashed and the people to be kept in a state of ignorance and awe."

On the eve of the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, 09.17.12, I find this passage from Chinese philosopher Han Fei Tzu written over 200 years before the birth of Christ. Han Fei Tzu was a prince in the ruling house of the state of Han. A representative of the Fa-Chia or Legalist school of philosophy he produced a handbook for the ruling King of Han. Ironically the King did not heed his advice yet his adversary the King of Ch'in took Han Fei Tsu's writings to heart and defeated the ruling king (Fei Tzu's cousin), ascending to the throne in 246 B.C.

In this modern translation of Han Fei's basic writings, Burton Watson of Columbia University treads dangerously close to what many feel is the state of our American government today - an administration that spens half of the citizen's tax dollar on the war machine whilst occupying 50% of the entire world's military spending as 28-33 million Americans find themselves out of work. Plans for Occupy's anniversary span over 3 days in lower Manhattan beginning September 15th and ending on the 17th in a grand general assembly in Zuccotti park. We can only hope that revellers, the media and the public in general take this opportunity to refocus America towars a peaceful and profitable future - not the prophecy of a  more than two thousand year old failed oriental philosophy.

Now Anyone Can Sit Outside My Box and Think Outside Their Box

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Beginning last month, I Think Outside My Box (iTOMB) has gone Interactive - enabling anyone to sit outside my box and think outside their box, painting their thought of the moment. Given that each person works with exactly the same materials, paint and a 3"X3" piece of cardboard, I find it enlightening just how different each person's interpretation is. What makes up your box and how do you think outside of it?