eudaimonia

Of course, there’s happiness and then there’s happiness. Most of us hold in high esteem the hedonic variety of happiness: experiences of pleasure and, often, amassing material goods and wealth. But there’s another kind, called eudaimonia, that rests on the realization of personal goals and potential. The ideal runs in a ragged line from Aristotle to Maslow to Sartre, paralleling Buddhism somewhere along the way. Buddhism asserts that lasting happiness is your birthright. But it doesn’t come from having; it comes from freeing ourselves of mental blindness and afflictive emotions.

Surrealists and Homophobia

It is strange that surrealism which was one of the most avant-guard and experimental movements had a strong undercurrent of homophobia that tore through its ranks. While the group had an openly gay member, René Crevel, this did not influence the views of other members, and most pointedly the main founder of surrealism, André Breton. Breton was unabashedly homophobic and openly condemned it. Upon review of many of the surrealists works, it is clear that their revolutionary tone has a compulsive tendency towards heterosexuality and reiterated conventions of male domination and sexual domination.

Surrealists adamantly documented all of their discussions and their homophobia is superbly documented accordingly.

On January 27, 1928 they met in Paris for the first session of the “Researches sur la Sexualite”. The tone of the gathering resembled , “those excited gatherings of public-schoolboys, masturbating over their collective sexual experiences and fantasies.” Contrary to popular thought that sees surrealism’s views of sexuality as progressive and revolutionary, it becomes clear that most of the surrealist’s beliefs reiterated conventions of the time that objectified woman and her body as the central and concentrated object of lust and masculine desire. Masturbation and sodomy (of the female body) were acceptable but homosexuality was condemned.

At the “Researches” session the following conversation took place:

Pierre Unik: From a physical point of view I find homosexuality as disgusting as excrements and from a moral point of view I condemn it.
Raymond Queneau: It is evident to me that there is an extraordinary prejudice against homosexuality among the surrealists.
André Breton: I accuse homosexuals of confronting human tolerance with a mental and moral deficiency which tends to turn itself into a system and to paralyze every enterprise I respect.

The debate continues until Breton makes a final threat of leaving:

André Breton: Do people want me to abandon this discussion? I am quite happy to demonstrate my obscurantism on this subject.

Although there were protests from some members of the group.

Bejamin Peret: What do you think of homosexuality ?
Raymond Queneau: From what point of view? Moral?
Bejamin Peret: If you like?
Raymond Queneau: If two men love each other, I have no moral objections to their physical relations.

The session and the resulting document for surrealist records was signed by fifteen male members of the group; women and gay men associated with surrealism were absent from the proceedings. It is possible that they intentionally excluded.

“Andre Breton exemplifies the pervasive social attitude towards homosexuality in our culture, an attitude which violently suppresses and effaces homosexuals. He was obsessively anti-homosexual, and refused to include the subject of homosexuality in surrealist research, on the grounds of its moral incorrectness.”

Excerpts from Canonical Criminalizations: Homosexuality, Art History, Surrealism, and Abjection

8 - Tao Te Ching - Like Water

The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence
of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying,
without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men
dislike. Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the Tao.

The excellence of a residence is in (the suitability of) the place;
that of the mind is in abysmal stillness; that of associations is in
their being with the virtuous; that of government is in its securing
good order; that of (the conduct of) affairs is in its ability; and
that of (the initiation of) any movement is in its timeliness.

And when (one with the highest excellence) does not wrangle (about
his low position), no one finds fault with him.

Excerpt from translated Tao Te Ching