Convergence Culture Quotes

Fandom, after all, is born of a balance between fascination and frustration: if media content didn't fascinate us, there would be no desire to engage with it; but if it didn't frustrate us on some level, there would be no drive to rewrite or remake it.

A NATION'S GREATNESS DEPENDS ON ITS LEADER To vastly improve your country and truly make it great again, start by choosing a better leader. Do not let the media or the establishment make you pick from the people they choose, but instead choose from those they do not pick. Pick a leader from among the people who is heart-driven, one who identifies with the common man on the street and understands what the country needs on every level. Do not pick a leader who is only money-driven and does not understand or identify with the common man, but only what corporations need on every level. Pick a peacemaker. One who unites, not divides. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship. Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist. Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies. Most importantly, a great leader must serve the best interests of the people first, not those of multinational corporations. Human life should never be sacrificed for monetary profit. There are no exceptions. In addition, a leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness. Only a leader who is free from corruption welcomes scrutiny; for scrutiny allows a good leader to be an even greater leader. And lastly, pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.

Build bridges, not walls.

This is how great intellectual breakthroughs usually happen in practice. It is rarely the isolated genius having a eureka moment alone in the lab. Nor is it merely a question of building on precedent, of standing on the shoulders of giants, in Newton's famous phrase. Great breakthroughs are closer to what happens in a flood plain: a dozen separate tributaries converge, and the rising waters lift the genius high enough that he or she can see around the conceptual obstructions of the age.

True culture is in the mind, the mind,” he said, and tapped his head, “the mind.” “It’s in the heart,” she said, “and in how you do things and how you do things is because of who you are.” “Nobody in the damn bus cares who you are.” “I care who I am,” she said icily.

For all the talk about the merging of film and video game, and for all its inevitability, perhaps the secret of true convergence lies not in an external reality , but in an internal truth: What kids seek from video games is what we all seek from our own distractions--be they movies, radio, comic books, literature, or art: an escape from the mundane to the sublime, where our imaginations make of us heroes, lovers, warriors, and gods.

We are returning to the archaic, that is, the eternal condition of mankind, which the brief parenthesis of ‘modernity’ made us forget, in other words, the rivalry of peoples, of ethnic and cultural blocs and of civilisations.

Then all at once our personal and political quarrels were made very abruptly to converge. In the special edition of the London Review of Books published to mark the events of September 11, 2001, Edward painted a picture of an almost fascist America where Arab and Muslim citizens were being daily terrorized by pogroms, these being instigated by men like Paul Wolfowitz who had talked of 'ending' the regimes that sheltered Al Quaeda. Again, I could hardly credit that these sentences were being produced by a cultured person, let alone printed by a civilized publication.

My professor, he reminded us of Kant: to think by oneself, to think in accordance with oneself. Today they say that's logocentric, not politically correct. Streams must flow in the right direction so that they may converge. Why all this cultural bustling? Just to assure oneself that everyone is speaking of the same thing. Of what? Of Otherness.

Today more than ever, the traditional boundaries between politics, culture, technology, finance, national security and ecology are disappearing. You often cannot explain one without referring to the others, and you cannot explain the whole without reference to them all.

Emotions are the complex conjunction of physiological arousal, perceptual mechanisms, and interpretive processes; they are thus situated at the threshold where the noncultural is encoded in culture, where body cognition, and culture converge and merge.

The inevitability of mixing has not been corroborated by the facts. We are not witnessing a ‘mixing of cultures’ in France, but quite frankly the destruction, eradication and ethnocide of European culture in favour of Americanisation and now Afro-Maghrebisation and Islamicisation.

Extolling the assimilation and integration of aliens while wanting to preserve and maintain their special characteristics, their original cultures, their memories and native mores. This is the communitarian illusion, one of the most harmful of all, which is particularly cherished by ‘ethno-pluralist’ intellectuals.

Critical pessimists, such as media critics Mark Crispin Miller, Noam Chomsky, and Robert McChesney, focus primarily on the obstacles to achieving a more democratic society. In the process, they often exaggerate the power of big media in order to frighten readers into taking action. I don't disagree with their concern about media concentration, but the way they frame the debate is self-defeating insofar as it disempowers consumers even as it seeks to mobilize them. Far too much media reform rhetoric rests on melodramatic discourse about victimization and vulnerability, seduction and manipulation, "propaganda machines" and "weapons of mass deception". Again and again, this version of the media reform movement has ignored the complexity of the public's relationship to popular culture and sided with those opposed to a more diverse and participatory culture. The politics of critical utopianism is founded on a notion of empowerment; the politics of critical pessimism on a politics of victimization. One focuses on what we are doing with media, and the other on what media is doing to us. As with previous revolutions, the media reform movement is gaining momentum at a time when people are starting to feel more empowered, not when they are at their weakest.

Aristotle foresaw this situation in his Politics: the struggle of the foreign-born against the native-born, with the former committing acts of injustice to conquer the latter. This is why Aristotle recommended as the first concern of politics maintaining the ethno-cultural homogeneity of the city-state in order to preserve peace and democracy.

Liberal feminism’s ethos converges not only with corporate mores but also with supposedly “transgressive” currents of neoliberal culture. Its love affair with individual advancement equally permeates the world of social-media celebrity, which also confuses feminism with the ascent of individual women. In that world, “feminism” risks becoming a trending hashtag and a vehicle of self-promotion, deployed less to liberate the many than to elevate the few. In general, then, liberal feminism supplies the perfect alibi for neoliberalism. Cloaking regressive policies in an aura of emancipation, it enables the forces supporting global capital to portray themselves as “progressive.” Allied with global finance in the United States, while providing cover for Islamophobia in Europe, this is the feminism of the female power-holders: the corporate gurus who preach “lean in,” the femocrats who push structural adjustment and microcredit on the global South, and the professional politicians in pant suits who collect six-figure fees for speeches to Wall Street.

I hold it perniciously false to teach that all cultural forms are equally probable and that by mere force of will an inspired individual can at any moment alter the trajectory of an entire cultural system in a direction convenient to any philosophy. Convergent and parallel trajectories far outnumber divergent trajectories in cultural evolution. Most people are conformists. History repeats itself in countless acts of individual obedience to cultural rule and pattern, and individual wills seldom prevail in matters requiring radical alterations of deeply conditioned beliefs and practices. At the same time, nothing I have written in this book supports the view that the individual is helpless before the implacable march of history or that resignation and despair are appropriate responses to the concentration of industrial managerial power. The determinism that has governed cultural evolution has never been the equivalent of the determinism that governs a closed physical system. Rather, it resembles the causal sequences that account for the evolution of plant and animal species.

Under the cover of the ideology of cultural and ethnic mixing, which has never succeeded anywhere in the world, the intention is to abolish our ancestral culture, which has been judged guilty of existing and being intrinsically perverse. ‘Ethnic identity’ and its defence have been designated as Evil, as the symbol of aggression, according to Laurent Joffrin. In other words, to defend and affirm oneself is racism.

The mixing of cultures and the abolition of ethnic identities are not on the schedule of the Twenty-first century. India, China, Black Africa, the Muslim world, whether Arab or Turkish, and so on, are affirming their identities and do not tolerate either a colonising immigration or cultural mixing on their own soil. Only the European pseudo-elites are defending the dogma of a ‘multicultural world’, which is a chimera.

In the first case it emerges that the evidence that might refute a theory can often be unearthed only with the help of an incompatible alternative: the advice (which goes back to Newton and which is still popular today) to use alternatives only when refutations have already discredited the orthodox theory puts the cart before the horse. Also, some of the most important formal properties of a theory are found by contrast, and not by analysis. A scientist who wishes to maximize the empirical content of the views he holds and who wants to understand them as clearly as he possibly can must therefore introduce other views; that is, he must adopt a pluralistic methodology. He must compare ideas with other ideas rather than with 'experience' and he must try to improve rather than discard the views that have failed in the competition. Proceeding in this way he will retain the theories of man and cosmos that are found in Genesis, or in the Pimander, he will elaborate them and use them to measure the success of evolution and other 'modern' views. He may then discover that the theory of evolution is not as good as is generally assumed and that it must be supplemented, or entirely replaced, by an improved version of Genesis. Knowledge so conceived is not a series of self-consistent theories that converges towards an ideal view; it is not a gradual approach to truth. It is rather an ever increasing ocean of mutually incompatible alternatives, each single theory, each fairy-tale, each myth that is part of the collection forcing the others in greater articulation and all of them contributing, via this process of competition, to the development of our consciousness. Nothing is ever settled, no view can ever be omitted from a comprehensive account. Plutarch or Diogenes Laertius, and not Dirac or von Neumann, are the models for presenting a knowledge of this kind in which the history of a science becomes an inseparable part of the science itself - it is essential for its further development as well as for giving content to the theories it contains at any particular moment. Experts and laymen, professionals and dilettani, truth-freaks and liars - they all are invited to participate in the contest and to make their contribution to the enrichment of our culture. The task of the scientist, however, is no longer 'to search for the truth', or 'to praise god', or 'to synthesize observations', or 'to improve predictions'. These are but side effects of an activity to which his attention is now mainly directed and which is 'to make the weaker case the stronger' as the sophists said, and thereby to sustain the motion of the whole.

I know that my predictions and ideas are looked upon with horror by Parisian intellectuals, the same people who did not foresee the fall of Communism, who believe that the peaceful ‘assimilation’ of immigrants is possible, who expatiate all page long on abstruse questions, who drone out truisms on ‘democracy’ and pious asininities on the ‘republic’. I am not backing down, however: war is coming and announcing itself with unheard-of violence: war in the streets, civil war, widespread terrorist war, a generalised conflict with Islam and, very probably, nuclear conflicts. This will probably be the face of the first half of the Twenty-first century. And we have never been less prepared: invaded, devirilised, physically and morally disarmed, the prey of a culture of meaninglessness and masochistic culpability. Europeans have never in their history been as weak as at this very moment when the Great Threat appears on the horizon.

Have Candace bring the ball up,” she said urgently. It was totally counterintuitive: Candace was our go-to player, on whom we counted when we needed a score. If Candace brought the ball up the court, that meant she’d have to pass it off. It meant someone else would take the last shot of the game. It meant that if we lost, everyone in the country would want to know why we hadn’t gone to the best player in the game. I nodded. It was a high-stakes decision. But I loved being the trigger puller. Loved it. I went into the huddle—and made the last critical call I would ever make in an NCAA Final Four. I looked at Lex, who would be our inbounder. “Get the ball in to Candace,” I said. I turned to Candace. “They will converge on you. Find the open player.” They all nodded and took their places. What happened next is a credit to the culture of a program in which players are taught to commit, to play all out, to attend to every detail no matter how seemingly unimportant, to never go through the motions, no matter how routine seeming, to finish with as much energy as they started with.

[A propos du faux évolutionnisme] Il s'agit d'une tentative pour supprimer la diversité des cultures tout en feignant de la reconnaître pleinement. Car, si l'on traite les différents états où se trouvent les sociétés humaines, tant anciennes que lointaines, comme des stades ou des étapes d'un développement unique qui, partant du même point, doit les faire converger vers le même but, on voit bien que la diversité n'est plus qu'apparente. L'humanité devient une et identique à elle-même ; seulement, cette unité et cette identité ne peuvent se réaliser que progressivement et la variété des cultures illustre les moments d'un processus qui dissimule une réalité plus profonde ou en retarde la manifestation.

For us, the possibility of kindly use is weighted with problems. In the first place, this is not ultimately an organization or institutional solution. Institutional solutions tend to narrow and simplify as they approach action. A large number of people can act together only by defining the point or the line on which their various interests converge. Organizations tend to move toward single objectives -- a ruling, a vote, a law -- and they find it relatively simple to cohere under acronyms and slogans. But kindly use is a concept that of necessity broadens, becoming more complex and diverse, as it approaches action. The land is too various in its kinds, climates, conditions, declivities, aspects, and histories to conform to any generalized understanding or to prosper under generalized treatment. The use of land cannot be both general and kindly -- just as the forms of good manners, generally applied (applied, that is, without consideration of differences), are experienced as indifference, bad manners. To treat every field, or every part of every field, with the same consideration is not farming but industry. Kindly use depends upon intimate knowledge, the most sensitive responsiveness and responsibility. As knowledge (hence, use) is generalized, essential values are destroyed. As the householder evolves into a consumer, the farm evolves into a factory -- with results that are potentially calamitous for both.

The second solution is communitarianism, also baptised assimilation. It is a question of a compromise, inspired by the United States and rather unclear theories of intellectual ‘ethnopluralism’, Right-wing and Left-wing. People born abroad keep their ‘culture’, but adhere to a common ‘minimum’, a global Social Contract.[140] Society becomes a pacific kaleidoscope, united by a soft and pacifying deus ex machina.[141] This utopian vision, Rousseauian and adolescent, still defended by learned old fogies, who flirt just a little with apartheid (whence its partisans on the extreme Right) has been tried by all the European states. The result has been total failure. There has been no ‘assimilation’ of ‘ethnic communities’ cohabiting peacefully. On the contrary, ethnic civil war is just around the corner.

Europe is forgetting the heritage of its ancestors and the official defence of our cultural ‘patrimony’ disguises an initiative of museification, but not creation. For a cultural identity, like a biological identity, is fundamentally Archeofuturist:[103] it proceeds by a permanent rebirth of forms and generations, which begins with an original germen.[104] Permanent biological and cultural renewal and the constant maintenance of the will-to-power is the law of long-lived peoples. Identity cannot be conceived without the complementary notion of continuity. The war against ethnic and cultural identity is the key watchword of the reigning egalitarian ideology. It is a question of simultaneously abolishing our memory and our origins. The academic curricula bear witness to this. The schools now teach African fairy tales instead of our old French songs.

if you look at Indigenous and traditional healing practices, they do a remarkable job of creating a total mind-body experience that influences multiple brain systems. Remember, trauma “memories” span multiple brain areas. So these traditional practices will have cognitive, relational-based, and sensory elements. You retell the story; create images of the battle, hunt, death; hold each other; massage; dance; sing. You reconnect to loved ones—to community. You celebrate, eat, and share. Aboriginal healing practices are repetitive, rhythmic, relevant, relational, respectful, and rewarding—experiences known to be effective in altering neural systems involved in the stress response. The practices emerged because they worked. People felt better and functioned better, and the core elements of the healing process were reinforced and passed on. Cultures separated by time and space converged on the same principles for healing.

Neo-primitivism’ is an observable process of cultural involution today that consists of a return to the behaviour of primitive masses, a decline of cultural memory and the appearance of social savagery. There are countless signs of this new primitivism: the rise of illiteracy in schools, the explosion of drug use, the Afro-Americanisation of popular music, the collapse of social codes, the retreat of general culture, mastery of knowledge and historical memory among young people, the dilution of contemporary art into the nihilist brutality of less-than-nothing, brutalising the masses and stripping them of culture by audiovisual media (the ‘cathode religion’),[185] the increase in criminal activity and barbarous behaviour (social savagery), the disappearance of a civic sense, the accelerated crumbling of homogeneous social norms and collective disciplines, the impoverishment of language, the reduction of social codes, and so on.

Though the reasons for Israelite “convergence” are not clear, the complex paths from convergence to monolatry and monotheism can be followed. The development of Israelite monolatry and monotheism involved both an “evolution” and a “revolution” in religious conceptualization, to use D. L. Petersen’s categories. It was an “evolution” in two respects. Monolatry grew out of an early, limited Israelite polytheism that was not strictly discontinuous with that of its Iron Age neighbors. Furthermore, adherence to one deity was a changing reality within the periods of the Judges and the monarchy in Israel. While evolutionary in character, Israelite monolatry was also “revolutionary” in a number of respects. The process of differentiation and the eventual displacement of Baal from Israel’s national cult distinguished Israel’s religion from the religions of its neighbors. Furthermore, as P. Machinist has observed, one feature clearly distinguishing Israel from its neighbors was its apologetic claim of religious difference. Israelite insistence on a single deity eventually distinguished Israel from the surrounding cultures, as far as textual data indicate.

The desire for unmediated grace put mystics like Anne Hutchinson in direct conflict with Puritan authorities in Massachusetts Bay, who sought to contain her challenge to ministerial authority. The molten core of conversion needed to be encased in a solid sheath of prohibitions, rules, agendas for self-control—the precisionist morality that we know as the Protestant ethic. An ethos of disciplined achievement counterbalanced what the sociologist Colin Campbell calls an other Protestant ethic, one that sought ecstasy and celebrated free-flowing sentiment, sending frequent revivals across the early American religious landscape. The two ethics converged in a cultural program that was nothing if not capacious: it encompassed spontaneity and discipline, release and control. Indeed, the rigorous practice of piety was supposed to reveal the indwelling of the spirit, the actuality of true conversion. Yet the balance remained unstable, posing challenges to established authority in Virginia as well as Massachusetts. The tension between core and sheath, between grace abounding and moral bookkeeping, arose from the Protestant conviction that true religion was not merely a matter of adherence to outward forms, but was rooted in spontaneous inner feeling.

Soon enough, their expanding empire brought them into contact with another “technology” they’d never experienced before: walled cities. In the Tangut raids, Khan first learned the ins and outs of war against fortified cities and the strategies critical to laying siege, and quickly became an expert. Later, with help from Chinese engineers, he taught his soldiers how to build siege machines that could knock down city walls. In his campaigns against the Jurched, Khan learned the importance of winning hearts and minds. By working with the scholars and royal family of the lands he conquered, Khan was able to hold on to and manage these territories in ways that most empires could not. Afterward, in every country or city he held, Khan would call for the smartest astrologers, scribes, doctors, thinkers, and advisers—anyone who could aid his troops and their efforts. His troops traveled with interrogators and translators for precisely this purpose. It was a habit that would survive his death. While the Mongols themselves seemed dedicated almost solely to the art of war, they put to good use every craftsman, merchant, scholar, entertainer, cook, and skilled worker they came in contact with. The Mongol Empire was remarkable for its religious freedoms, and most of all, for its love of ideas and convergence of cultures.

Quoting page 85: The OCR [Office for Civil Rights] in the early 1970s in effect experienced an internal capture shift. The black agenda activists who had dominated the office between 1965 and 1970 were joined and to some extend displaced by a new cadre of Latino activists. Not content with the transitional model of bilingual education, which used native-language instruction as a bridge to English language proficiency, the Latino nationalists called for Spanish-based cultural maintenance programs of indefinite duration. La Raza Unida’s 1967 founding statement captured the Chicano spirit of cultural nationalism and linguistic ethnocentrism: “The time of subjugation, exploitation, and abuse of human rights of La Raza in the United States is hereby ended forever,” the manifesto proclaimed. “[We] affirm the magnificence of La Raza, the greatness of our heritage, our history, our language, our traditions, our contributions to humanity and culture.

Uncontrolled immigration from abroad, which is composed of welfare recipients (many more ‘refugees’ and illegal immigrants than workers) and not of wealth creators who pay for benefits, constitutes a tidal wave that will not be sustainable in the middle term. The ‘integration’ or ‘assimilation’ in which we pretend to believe cannot work because the populations to be integrated and assimilated are too numerous and there is no control over the human deluge. Europe is in the process of undergoing — without the consent of its indigenous peoples — a massive substitution of populations, which is taking place for the first time in its history. The new populations that are settling here are importing a ‘Third World culture’, that is, they are impoverishing Europe. It is politically incorrect to mention these facts, but we must talk about them all the same.

A prosperous economy rests on a high level of research and investment in order to preserve the environment, develop tourism and state of the art industries, maintain the national patrimony, transmit its cultural traditions and identity, innovate, and so on. Especially in France, the trend is quite the opposite.

Mathematical calculations cannot demonstrate the existence and career of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE. But converging historical evidence would make it absurd to deny that he lived and changed the political and cultural face of the Middle East.

Sometimes religion fails to serve its meaning-making function at moments of catastrophic disruption or cultural change. For example, many elite and middle class Christian adherents were shaken by a Victorian spiritual crisis as intellectual challenges converged. Between 1840 and 1900 some lost faith in the face of Darwinian biology and the new geology, which challenged biblical claims about the origin and age of the universe; the new historical and literary study of the Bible, called Higher Criticism, which challenged the claim that scripture was divinely inspired; and the new comparative study of religions, which challenged the uniqueness and superiority of Christianity. Those doubters now looked out on a different ocean, as does the narrator in Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach," who once found comfort as waves in "the sea of faith" drew near, but who now hears only "its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.

Number of Ingroups If only one ingroup is present, it dominates social life. It provides the only source of norms, identity, and social support. Collectivists may have relatively few ingroups, but they identify very strongly with them. The ingroups of collectivists provide social insurance, protection, and a relaxing atmosphere. The presence of many ingroups encourages individualism. For example, the separation of church and state in the United States automatically creates more than one ingroup and is a premise upon which multiculturalism and democracy are based. It is also the foundation for social movements because each ingroup can potentially become a social movement. Multiple ingroups are especially important in large urban centers, where the social controls of small ingroups are often weak. The social structures of these communities are loose, and several of the factors we have discussed converge to put more emphasis on personal responsibility and less on norms. With more ingroups and looseness there is an increase in social diversity, tolerance for deviance, and multiculturalism. Thus the factors that make cultures loose and allow many choices favor individualism. Conversely, collectivism is maximal in tight cultures, where there are few choices.

Foster a culture of exploration and experimentation where diverse perspective and ideas can converge.

Capital burns off the nuance in a culture. Foreign investment, global markets, corporate acquisitions, the flow of information through transnational media, the attenuating influence of money that’s electronic and sex that’s cyberspaced, untouched money and computer-safe sex, the convergence of consumer desire—not that people want the same things, necessarily, but that they want the same range of choices.

Ces oppositions épidermiques montrent que les deux parties en présence se méconnaissent et caricaturent leur adversaire. C'est compliqué et douloureux. Par tempérament, par pragmatisme (l'union fait la force), par méfiance aussi à l'égard d'une culture politique française très marquée par la conflictualité, féminisme inclus, je n'ai pas envie de faire l'éloge de la querelle, je ne veux pas l'entretenir. L'une des caractéristiques contemporaines est la fin du paradigme universaliste. Les recherches sur l'histoire des femmes y ont contribué, en montrant l'exclusion des femmes de l'universel, un universel qui se réduit donc à une minorité s'octroyant des droits refusés à la majorité de la population. [...] Vous insistez sur les "querelles" et c'est ainsi que le féminisme est approché par les médias, toujours. Cette insistance n'est-elle pas suspecte? Ne fait-elle pas le jeu des adversaires? Pour contribuer à la convergence des luttes, il faudrait peut-être aussi penser à ce qui réunit. Sur la notion d'importation, il faudrait aussi un peu réfléchir car c'est en tant que produit d'origine étrangère que le féminisme a été combattu en France dès le XIXe siècle. C'est une méthode commode pour disqualifier des idées et des pratiques que l'on veut combattre.

The introduction of gay sexuality into national debate about AIDS thus converged with two new ways of imagining citizenship as a mode of national belonging. In the context of AIDS hysteria, political & cultural conservatives, including those within the Christian Right, could declare gay men and lesbians as not fully American.

In the course of the 1960s, the left adopted almost wholesale the arguments of the right,” observed Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a domestic policy adviser to all three of the decade’s presidents. “This was not a rude act of usurpation, but rather a symmetrical, almost elegant, process of transfer.” Exaggerating for effect—but not to the point of inaccuracy—Moynihan remembered that by decade’s end, “an advanced student at an elite eastern college could be depended on to avow many of the more striking views of the Liberty League and its equivalents in the hate-Roosevelt era; for example that the growth of federal power was the greatest threat to democracy, that foreign entanglements were the work of demented plutocrats, that government snooping (by the Social Security Administration or the United States Continental Army Command) was destroying freedom, that the largest number of functions should be entrusted to the smallest jurisdictions, and so across the spectrum of this viewpoint.”2 Driven primarily by the expanding war in Vietnam, this new current on the left took up individualistic and anti-statist themes that were once the province of the right. Another part of this convergence was the rise of the economics profession. The new economics appeared a success on its own terms; growth had picked up across the Kennedy years. By 1965, GNP had increased for five straight years. Unemployment was down to 4.9 percent, and would soon drop below the 4 percent goal of full employment. As James Tobin reflected, “economists were riding the crest of a wave of enthusiasm and self-confidence. They seemed, after all, to have some tools of analysis and policy other people didn’t have, and their policy seemed to be working.”3 With institutional economics a vanquished force, most economists accepted the tenets of the neoclassical revolution: individuals making rational choices subject to the incentives created by supply and demand. Approaching policy with an economic lens cut across established political lines, which were often the creation of brokered coalitions, habit, or historical precedent. Economic analysis was at once disruptive, since it failed to honor these accidental accretions, and familiar, since it spoke a market language resonant with business-friendly political culture.4 Amid this ideological confluence, Friedman continued his dour rumblings and warnings. Ignoring the positive trends in basic indicators of economic health, from inflation to unemployment to GDP, he argued fiscal demand management was misguided, warned Bretton Woods was about to collapse, predicted imminent inflation, and castigated the Federal Reserve’s basic approach. Friedman’s quixotic quest—and the media attention it generated—infuriated many of his peers. Friedman, it seemed, was bent on fixing economic theories and institutions that were not broken.

Across both understandings of convergence, bodies are placed in new relations with one another via the circulation of capital. In the instance of urban centers, patterns of use and exchange orient people in space: crowds coalesce on city streets, communities concentrate in neighborhoods, and strangers bump into each other on sidewalks and public transit.2 Urbanization is a corporeal experience that has enabled the development of public cultures among sexual minorities.

English is my work language, Turkish is my love language, Spanish is my play language, Telugu is my leisure language. This would probably be different for you - perhaps for you, it all happens in one language - English, and that's perfectly fine. Different people are inspired in different ways - it's alright - as long as all our inspirations converge into one result - a better world for all - where there is no interracial dialogue, there is no intercultural communication, there is no interreligious relations - because - there is but one race, humanity - there is but one culture, humanity - there is but one religion, humanity.

Having grown up in such a rich Catholic culture as Poland, John Paul knew that the enrichment of faith usually comes through a convergence of various avenues, channels, and influences. We might understand this idea through a water analogy: A little country brook meandering through a meadow isn’t so impressive. But when a thousand little brooks converge and pour into a mighty river, well, then, we’re dealing with something substantial! Or, to use one of Newman’s own descriptions, an accumulation of influences are “like a bundle of sticks, each of which … you could snap in two, if taken separately from the rest,”112 but as a bundle, they’re virtually unbreakable.

DevOps and its resulting technical, architectural, and cultural practices represent a convergence of many philosophical and management movements (including): Lean, Theory of Constraints, Toyota production system, resilience engineering, learning organizations, safety culture, Human factors, high-trust management cultures, servant leadership, organizational change management, and Agile methods.

Since hip hop emerged from the South Bronx in the 1970s, it has become an international, multi-billion-dollar phenomenon. It has grown to encompass more than just rap music. Hip hop has created a culture that incorporates ethnicity, art, politics, fashion, technology and urban life.” This debunks the widely accepted argument that the genre is inherently divisive. With so many factors converging to create such an intricate, informative and multi-faceted genre, whose history and impact have bridged barriers between artist and society, it is not too complicated an endeavor to understand that its relevance repudiates its notorious reputation.

There must be other leaps in life - as momentous as the "mirror stage" - that Lacan didn't mention. Some are universal; others, culturally particular. To understand that your parents are human (and not an element of the natural world), that they're separate from you, that they were children once, that they were born and came into the world, is another leap. It's as if you hadn't seen who they were earlier - just as, before you were ten months old, you didn't know it was you in the mirror. This happens when you're sixteen or seventeen. Not long after - maybe a year - you find out your parents will die. It's not as if you haven't encountered death already. But, before now, your precocious mind can't accommodate your parents' death except as an academic nicety - to be dismissed gently as too literary and sentimental. After that day, your parents' dying suddenly becomes simple. It grows clear that you're alone and always have been, though certain convergences start to look miraculous - for instance, between your father, mother, and yourself. Though your parents don't die immediately - what you've had is a realisation, not a premonition - you'll carry around this knowledge for their remaining decades or years. You won't think, looking at them, "You're going to die". It'll be an unspoken fact of existence. Nothing about them will surprise you anymore.

Many interpreters place John’s baptismal ministry at a point on the middle reaches of the Jordan River, where trade routes converge at a natural ford not far from the modern site of Tel Shalem.

Liberal democracy and capitalism remain the essential, indeed the only, framework for the political and economic organization of modern societies. Rapid economic modernization is closing the gap between many former Third World countries and the industrialized North. With European integration and North American free trade, the web of economic ties within each region will thicken, and sharp cultural boundaries will become increasingly fuzzy. Implementation of the free trade regime of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) will further erode interregional boundaries. Increased global competition has forced companies across cultural boundaries to try to adopt “best-practice” techniques like lean manufacturing from whatever source they come from. The worldwide recession of the 1990s has put great pressure on Japanese and German companies to scale back their culturally distinctive and paternalistic labor policies in favor of a more purely liberal model. The modern communications revolution abets this convergence by facilitating economic globalization and by propagating the spread of ideas at enormous speed. But in our age, there can be substantial pressures for cultural differentiation even as the world homogenizes in other respects. Modern liberal political and economic institutions not only coexist with religion and other traditional elements of culture but many actually work better in conjunction with them. If many of the most important remaining social problems are essentially cultural in nature and if the chief differences among societies are not political, ideological, or even institutional but rather cultural, it stands to reason that societies will hang on to these areas of cultural distinctiveness and that the latter will become all the more salient and important in the years to come. Awareness of cultural difference will be abetted, paradoxically, by the same communications technology that has made the global village possible. There is a strong liberal faith that people around the world are basically similar under the surface and that greater communications will bring deeper understanding and cooperation. In many instances, unfortunately, that familiarity breeds contempt rather than sympathy. Something like this process has been going on between the United States and Asia in the past decade. Americans have come to realize that Japan is not simply a fellow capitalist democracy but has rather different ways of practicing both capitalism and democracy. One result, among others, is sthe emergence of the revisionist school among specialists on Japan, who are less sympathetic to Tokyo and argue for tougher trade policies. And Asians are made vividly aware through the media of crime, drugs, family breakdown, and other American social problems, and many have decided that the United States is not such an attractive model after all. Lee Kwan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore, has emerged as a spokesman for a kind of Asian revisionism on the United States, which argues that liberal democracy is not an appropriate political model for the Confucian societies.10 The very convergence of major institutions makes peoples all the more intent on preserving those elements of distinctiveness they continue to possess.

The striking thing is that the transatlantic divergence in working patterns has coincided almost exactly with a comparable convergence in religiosity. Europeans not only work less; they also pray less – and believe less.

This city-and-corporate-led “pro-arts” agenda runs the risk of not only driving out present art-making residents out via a combination of gate-keeping and escalating living costs (including but not limited to rent), it also prevents people who co-habitated with or preceded underground artists – frequently communities of color and poor/working class people overall – from returning. Even leading up to periods of economic decline (which frequently include an influx of artists, due to the increase in more affordable housing), the potential of keeping people out when the gentrification cycle eventually reverses, and housing becomes affordable again – typically when middle-class and up whites leave the city, developers abandon future projects, and things start to decay – is real. In other words, the pro-arts agenda provides the convergence of moneyed, powerful interests that drive gentrification with an additional cultural and economic weapon against keeping undesirables out, if they so choose, by labeling them as “the bad sort of creatives” or otherwise less-than, while keeping the semblance of being pro-artist intact, to be utilized as needed. This utilization may include implementation during periods of decline, depending on the plans, interests and future needs of capital, in a local/global context. – The solution to this is for communities to organize for the sorts of transformative conditions that allow people the practical and life-altering means to make all kinds of art, not for artists to be played by corporate arts entities that collude with downtown interests – while collectively resisting gentrification as soon as it starts to happen. The Right To The City is real. We are not your puppets!

Approaching it, the one from the south and the other from the north, two great river valleys traverse this desert; in Asia, the Tigro-Euphrates valley; in Africa that of the Nile. It is in these two valleys that the career of man may be traced from the rise of European civilization back to a remoter age than anywhere else on earth; and it is from these two cradles of the human race that the influences which emanated from their highly developed but differing cultures, can now be more and more clearly traced as we discern them converging upon the early civilization of Asia Minor and southern Europe.

The belief that we stand at the centre of a reality in which, in some way, past, present and future all converge, is common to many Native American cultures.

In surrendering unconditionally to the power system, with its 'automation of automation,' modern man has forfeited some of the inner resources necessary to keep him alive: above all, animal faith in his own capacity to survive and to reproduce his kind, biologically, historically, and culturally. In the act of dismissing the past he has undermined his faith in the future; for it is only by their convergence in his present consciousness that he can preserve continuity through change and embrace change without forfeiting continuity. This and nothing less is the 'way of life.

Human survival requires that nation-states give up the institution of war and replace it with a cooperatively-functioning global peace system - for the well-being and security of all people everywhere.

The error is always to reason within categories of ‘difference’ when the root of all conflicts is rather ‘competition’, mimetic rivalry between persons, countries, cultures. Competition is the desire to imitate the other in order to obtain the same thing he or she has, by violence if need be. No doubt terrorism is bound to a world ‘different’ from ours, but what gives rise to terrorism does not lie in that ‘difference’ that removes it further from us and makes it inconceivable to us. On the contrary, it lies in the desire for convergence and resemblance. Human relations are essentially relations of imitation, of rivalry. What is experienced now is a form of mimetic rivalry on a planetary scale. When I read the first documents of Bin Laden and verified his allusions to the American bombing of Japan, I felt at first that I was in a dimension that transcends Islam, a dimension of the entire planet. Under the label of Islam we find a will to rally and mobilize an entire third world of those frustrated and of victims in their relations of mimetic rivalry with the West. But the towers destroyed had as many foreigners as Americans. But their effectiveness, the sophistication of the means they employed, the knowledge that they had of the United States and their training, were not the authors of the attack in a sense at least partly American? Here we are in the middle of mimetic contagion.

Temp industry leaders were just a few of the many to capitalize on this cultural convergence of gender, consumerism, and psychology.

Lyotard addresses... in Postmodern Fables... [that] ideas of difference, alterity and multiculturalism have become nothing more than streams of cultural capital, streams which themselves fashion, and are fashioned by, the demands of the global market. Hence, the following irony: 'What cultural capitalism has found is the marketplace of singularities'. The result of this discovery, which even reduces the 'postmodern' celebration of difference or otherness to a marketable strategy, is that ideas are stripped of their intrinsic value (value-rationality) and are judged by their value as commodities. This leads to the production of thought that is itself devoid of difference, for streams of cultural capital 'must all go in the right direction' and 'must converge'. Global capitalism, while appearing to affirm the potentiality of cultural differentiation, in fact subordinates difference and alterity to an instrumental logic of exchange, performance and control.

Among primitive peoples we often find that closely connected groups living under exactly similar conditions develop sharply differentiated fashions, by means of which each group establishes uniformity within, as well as difference without the prescribed set. On the other hand, there exists a wide-spread predilection for importing fashions from without, and such foreign fashions assume a greater value within the circle, simply because they did not originate there. [...] Because of their external origin, these imported fashions create a special and significant form of socialization, which arises through mutual relation to a point without the circle. It sometimes appears as though social elements, just like the axes of vision, converge best at a point that is not too near. The currency, or more precisely the medium of exchange among primitive races, often consists of objects that are brought in from without. [...] Paris modes are frequently created with the sole intention of setting a fashion elsewhere. This motive of foreignness, which fashion employs in its socializing endeavors, is restricted to higher civilization, because novelty, which foreign origin guarantees in extreme form, is often regarded by primitive races as an evil. [...] The savage is afraid of strange appearances; the difficulties and dangers that beset his career cause him to scent danger in anything new which he does not understand and which he cannot assign to a familiar category. Civilization, however, transforms this affectation into its very opposite. Whatever is exceptional, bizarre, or conspicuous, or whatever departs from the customary norm, exercises a peculiar charm upon the man of culture, entirely independent of its material justification. The removal of the feelings of insecurity with reference to all things new was accomplished by the progress of civilization.

Quoting Page 87: In 1978 a four-year study by the American Institutes for Research, sponsored by the USOE [U.S. Office of Education], concluded that most of the Hispanic students involved [in bilingual/bicultural programs[ were native speakers of English, that those who needed to learn English competence were not in fact acquiring it, that most bilingual programs were aimed at linguistic and cultural maintenance rather than learning English, and that the segregated Hispanic students who were already alienated from school simply remained so.

What Beitman is suggesting presupposes either “superpowers” that go well beyond even the unconscious mental feats Freud and his predecessors had posited or, alternatively, some omniscient higher knower capable of aligning our intentions with the infinitely complex webs of material causation governing objectively unfolding events. Once again, the fact that we live in a world of information—including cultural information like books and symbols—does not mean the universe speaks our mental language. At best, both the archetypal and intentional explanations lack parsimony. Fortunately, a causal (with a big asterisk beside the word) explanation for meaningful coincidences is no longer nearly as unthinkable as it was in Jung’s day, thanks to advances in several fields that, as we saw earlier, seem to be converging on a plausible (and indeed even materialistic) answer to how experiences from our future may reflux into our past and inform our dreams, thoughts, and actions. It remains to test these hypotheses, deepen our understanding of physical laws and the brain with new methods and technologies, and persist in our inquiries into psychology and nature with the healthy presumption that we don’t yet know everything about the physical world or how the mind/brain works. We cannot simply reject anomalous phenomena that don’t fit into the current materialist paradigm, but it is also too soon to appeal to explanatory factors beyond physical causation, as the latter is turning out to be far more rich, varied, and interesting than once believed. Causation really seems to go both directions in time.

Civilization is born when all our sentience converge. Puny minds make puny-verse, uni-minds make universe.

My own beliefs should not concern you. What should concern you is that this prophecy of a coming enlightenment is echoed in virtually every faith and philosophical tradition on earth. Hindus call it the Krita Age, astrologers call it the Age of Aquarius, the Jews describe the coming of the Messiah, theosophists call it the New Age, cosmologists call it Harmonic Convergence and predict the actual date.” “December 21, 2012!” someone called. “Yes, unnervingly soon . . . if you’re a believer in Mayan math.” Langdon chuckled, recalling how Solomon, ten years ago, had correctly predicted the current spate of television specials predicting that the year 2012 would mark the End of the World. “Timing aside,” Solomon said, “I find it wondrous to note that throughout history, all of mankind’s disparate philosophies have all concurred on one thing—that a great enlightenment is coming. In every culture, in every era, in every corner of the world, the human dream has focused on the same exact concept—the coming apotheosis of man . . . the impending transformation of our human minds into their true potentiality.” He smiled. “What could possibly explain such a synchronicity of beliefs?” “Truth,” said a quiet voice in the crowd. Solomon wheeled. “Who said that?” The hand that went up belonged to a tiny Asian boy whose soft features suggested he might be Nepalese or Tibetan. “Maybe there is a universal truth embedded in everyone’s soul. Maybe we all have the same story hiding inside, like a shared constant in our DNA. Maybe this collective truth is responsible for the similarity in all of our stories.” Solomon was beaming as he pressed his hands together and bowed reverently to the boy. “Thank you.” Everyone was quiet. “Truth,” Solomon said, addressing the room. “Truth has power. And if we all gravitate toward similar ideas, maybe we do so because those ideas are true . . . written deep within us. And when we hear the truth, even if we don’t understand it, we feel that truth resonate within us . . . vibrating with our unconscious wisdom. Perhaps the truth is not learned by us, but rather, the truth is re-called . . . re-membered . . . re-cognized . . . as that which is already inside us.” The silence in the hall was complete. Solomon let it sit for a long moment, then quietly said, “In closing, I should warn you that unveiling the truth is never easy. Throughout history, every period of enlightenment has been accompanied by darkness, pushing in opposition. Such are the laws of nature and balance. And if we look at the darkness growing in the world today, we have to realize that this means there is equal light growing. We are on the verge of a truly great period of illumination, and all of us—all of you—are profoundly blessed to be living through this pivotal moment of history.

These three stories of awe—the scientific, the cultural, and the personal—converge on an understanding of how we can find awe. Where do we find it? In response to what I will call the eight wonders of life, which include the strength, courage, and kindness of others; collective movement in actions like dance and sports; nature; music; art and visual design; mystical encounters; encountering life and death; and big ideas or epiphanies. These wonders are all around us, if we only pause for a moment and open our minds. There are so many opportunities for everyday awe.

If you are not prepared to regard a world-wide synthesis of all cultures and polities and races into one World State as the desirable end upon which all civilising efforts converge, what do you regard as the desirable end ? Synthesis, one may remark in passing, does not necessarily mean fusion, nor does it mean uniformity.

If you are not prepared to regard a world-wide synthesis of all cultures and polities and races into one World State as the desirable end upon which all civilising efforts converge, what do you regard as the desirable end ? Synthesis, one may remark in passing, does not necessarily mean fusion, nor does it mean uniformity. The alternatives fall roughly under three headings. The first is to assume there is a best race, to define as well as one can that best race, and to regard all other races as material for extermination. This has a fine, modern, biological air (“Survival of the Fittest”).

As members of the same species, human beings broadly share notions and precepts of morality, of what is socially regarded as a proper conduct. But again, there is no reason to think that these notions and precepts should fully converge and cohere between different people and different communities, or even in the minds of the individuals themselves.

Mixed neighborhoods create public simultaneous thinking, many perspectives converging on the same moment at the same time, in front of each other. Many languages, many cultures, many racial and class experiences take place on the same block, in the same buildings. Homogenous neighborhoods erase this dynamic, and are much more vulnerable to enforcement of conformity.

The key is not to theologically enshrine our temporal church culture but to admit that our current iteration is only a model that can and must change.

These three stories of awe—the scientific, the cultural, and the personal—converge on an understanding of how we can find awe. Where do we find it? In response to what I will call the eight wonders of life, which include the strength, courage, and kindness of others; collective movement in actions like dance and sports; nature; music; art and visual design; mystical encounters; encountering life and death; and big ideas or epiphanies.

Learning Plan Template Before Entry Find out whatever you can about the organization’s strategy, structure, performance, and people. Look for external assessments of the performance of the organization. You will learn how knowledgeable, fairly unbiased people view it. If you are a manager at a lower level, talk to people who deal with your new group as suppliers or customers. Find external observers who know the organization well, including former employees, recent retirees, and people who have transacted business with the organization. Ask these people open-ended questions about history, politics, and culture. Talk with your predecessor if possible. Talk to your new boss. As you begin to learn about the organization, write down your first impressions and eventually some hypotheses. Compile an initial set of questions to guide your structured inquiry after you arrive. Soon After Entry Review detailed operating plans, performance data, and personnel data. Meet one-on-one with your direct reports and ask them the questions you compiled. You will learn about convergent and divergent views and about your reports as people. Assess how things are going at key interfaces. You will hear how salespeople, purchasing agents, customer service representatives, and others perceive your organization’s dealings with external constituencies. You will also learn about problems they see that others do not. Test strategic alignment from the top down. Ask people at the top what the company’s vision and strategy are. Then see how far down into the organizational hierarchy those beliefs penetrate. You will learn how well the previous leader drove vision and strategy down through the organization. Test awareness of challenges and opportunities from the bottom up. Start by asking frontline people how they view the company’s challenges and opportunities. Then work your way up. You will learn how well the people at the top check the pulse of the organization. Update your questions and hypotheses. Meet with your boss to discuss your hypotheses and findings. By the End of the First Month Gather your team to feed back to them your preliminary findings. You will elicit confirmation and challenges of your assessments and will learn more about the group and its dynamics. Now analyze key interfaces from the outside in. You will learn how people on the outside (suppliers, customers, distributors, and others) perceive your organization and its strengths and weaknesses. Analyze a couple of key processes. Convene representatives of the responsible groups to map out and evaluate the processes you selected. You will learn about productivity, quality, and reliability. Meet with key integrators. You will learn how things work at interfaces among functional areas. What problems do they perceive that others do not? Seek out the natural historians. They can fill you in on the history, culture, and politics of the organization, and they are also potential allies and influencers. Update your questions and hypotheses. Meet with your boss again to discuss your observations.

Do not all attempts, in our own cultural sphere at least, at escaping from the Judeo-Christian compound by means of a unilateral call to return to what it has repressed (rhythm, drive, the feminine, etc.), converge on the same Celinian anti-Semitic fantasy? And this is so because, as I have tried to explain earlier the writings of the chosen people have selected a place, in the most determined manner, on that untenable crest of manness seen as symbolic fact—which constitutes abjection.

In a world obsessed with borders, I found my home not in places, but in the spaces between them, where cultures converge and identities blur.

this is the epitome of what communications scholar Henry Jenkins calls “convergence culture”—the melding of old and new media that the telecom giants have long been looking forward to, for it portends a future where all activity flows through their pipes. But it also represents a broader blurring of boundaries: communal spirit and capitalist spunk, play and work, production and consumption, making and marketing, editorializing and advertising, participation and publicity, the commons and commerce.

that the two key factors converge. Assimilation, understood in the idiosyncratic sense above, ensured ongoing cultural vitality, allowing Jews to survive for millennia in a variety of settings beyond their homeland. Antisemitism, meanwhile, guaranteed that the path of Jews to full integration was frequently blocked. Unlikely as it may seem, these two forces have interacted, allowing Jews to persist, when many other groups faded.

It is at this point that the two key factors converge. Assimilation, understood in the idiosyncratic sense above, ensured ongoing cultural vitality, allowing Jews to survive for millennia in a variety of settings beyond their homeland. Antisemitism, meanwhile, guaranteed that the path of Jews to full integration was frequently blocked. Unlikely as it may seem, these two forces have interacted, allowing Jews to persist, when many other groups faded.

The term has been used to situate the articulation of the mythic within painting, theatre and cinema, and could be conceived of as cultural work which seeks to bind a multiply layered dynamic into a unitary image. In Geeta Kapur's definition the iconic is `an image into which symbolic meanings converge and in which moreover they achieve stasis.' This concept of the iconic needs to be grounded within a conception of mise-en-scene, and it is here that the question of frontal address surfaces.

summer of 1967, an ecstatic, Dionysia mini-world sprang up like a mushroom, dividing American culture into a Before and After unparalleled since World War II.27

Your food will converge with my food Your clothes will stitch with my clothes Your culture will merge with my culture We'll create something beautiful Something new We'll call it our culture

Solotol is a city of arches and bridges, where steps and pavements wind past tall buildings and lance out over steep rivers and gullies on slender suspension bridges and fragile stone arches. Roadways flow along the banks of water courses, looping and twisting over and under them; railways splay out in a tangle of lines and levels, swirling through a network of tunnels and caverns where underground reservoirs and roads converge, and from a speeding train passengers can look out to see galaxies of lights reflecting on stretches of dark water crossed by the slants of underground funiculars and the piers and ways of subterranean roads.

Neither Sanskrit nor classical Tibetan has a word for “emotion” as the concept is used in modern languages and cultures.

If geography and time are the warp and weft structuring (art) history, perceptual culture is like the pile of a velvet cloth that, without altering the warp or weft of the fabric, reenchants its texture and depth. It treats Islam as the Simurgh, and objects as its feathers. Like the galleries in China full of representations futilely and obsessively trying to reconstruct the bird from its feathers, the museum is a monument to our inability to feel what we are trying to represent. And yet like the three princes seeking the hand of the Chinese princess in the gallery of creation, we can also discover through objects the spirit we can never expect to pin down in our hands. With these hopes tucked in between the warp of evidence and the weft of interpretation, this book would like to quote a certain textile from a very long time ago: I exist for pleasure; Welcome! For pleasure am I; he who beholds me sees joy and well-being. This book offers complex more than simple pleasures: its many questions diverge and converge, offering iridescence to our certainties. It puts forth the pleasure of using thought as steel wool polishing our mental acumen, enabling perception beyond predetermined realities. It may be that a barzakh exists somewhere between the secular and the sacred, a peninsula of understanding in which we enter the cave of our ghurba and become in the world but not of it. If we tread lightly with a pure heart cleansed in the mirror of curiosity and wonder, it may just open its doors a bit and let us explore the glory it holds inside.

From the beginning most of history was a story of divergence: humans’ biological and cultural differentiation as they evolved and dispersed across the planet. For the past millennium, history has been dominated by convergent forces, of which globalization is the latest phase. During this era that I call the Great Convergence, human interaction, trade, and intercommunication have increased at a rapid rate.

Find the best kannada novels that captivate readers with their rich narratives, cultural depth, and timeless themes. The ideal choices for readers! Explore the Finest Kannada Novels: An Adventure in Storytelling Kannada literature boasts a colorful history that mirrors the culture, heritage, and varied tales of the Kannada-speaking community in India. As literary trends evolve, numerous novels shine for their engaging narratives, cultural richness, and enduring themes. For literature lovers and those eager to delve into the best kannada novels , here’s a thoughtfully selected list of must-read works. 1. 'Mandra' by Chandrasekar Kambar Renowned author and playwright, Chandrasekar Kambar’s 'Mandra' is an insightful examination of the intricacies of human experience intertwined with folklore. The novel weaves together themes of love, betrayal, and the ongoing conflict between tradition and modernity, all set against Karnataka's picturesque landscapes. Kambar’s skill in creating complex characters and vivid imagery makes this a gripping read for anyone interested in the convergence of culture and narrative. 2. 'Akkayya' by K.P. Poornachandra Tejaswi K.P. Poornachandra Tejaswi is celebrated for his connections to nature and the rural life of Karnataka. In 'Akkayya,' he narrates a story centered on the struggles of rural communities amidst modernization. His use of earthy humor and folklore, coupled with profound insights on life, positions 'Akkayya' as a vital work in Kannada literature. Readers will find a deep connection with both the characters and the vibrant settings depicted. 3. 'Chennabasavanna' by G. S. Shivarudrappa This brilliant work by G. S. Shivarudrappa draws inspiration from the life of the 12th-century philosopher and poet, Basavanna. The novel explores themes such as spirituality, social change, and philosophical reflection. Shivarudrappa's lyrical yet accessible writing invites readers to ponder significant questions about existence and ethics, turning 'Chennabasavanna' into a profound philosophical journey. 4. 'The Last Wish' by K. S. Narasimhaswamy K. S. Narasimhaswamy’s 'The Last Wish' provides insight into the minds of its characters, presenting a nuanced depiction of human feelings, dreams, and regrets. The novel’s unconventional structure, which shifts between different narratives and timelines, encourages readers to contemplate the fragility of life and the importance of one’s final aspirations. Narasimhaswamy's compelling storytelling and character development create a timeless read that speaks to audiences across ages. 5. 'Bhagya Daatri' by Indra S. Rao In 'Bhagya Daatri', Indra S. Rao crafts a modern tale that addresses social issues, gender, and the expectations placed on women. The protagonist's path to self-discovery and empowerment is portrayed with sincerity and empathy. Rao's writing vividly captures the challenges faced by contemporary women while celebrating their strength. This novel resonates with those who appreciate stories that illuminate social issues and personal transformation. FINDS US ONLINE KEYWORDS: best kannada novels best kannada novels of all time best kannada novels for students best kannada novels for adults top 10 best novels in kannada kannada novels pdf best kannada novels pdf pdf best kannada novels pdf free download best kannada novels pdf free download best kannada novels for beginners best kannada novels pdf best kannada novels translated to english best kannada novels by saisuthe free download pdf best kannada novels quora best kannada novels for adults best love story novels in kannada best kannada thriller novels best selling kannada novels best romantic kannada novels pdf free download

Throughout [this] book, I have drawn upon the insights and experiences of over three-hundred feminist fans to explicate how fannish and feminist modes of cultural consumption, production, and critique are increasingly converging, opening up informal, ordinary, and everyday spaces for young people, in particular although not exclusively, to engage with feminism. In doing so, I have emphasized that media fandom does not exist in a vacuum but is constituted by the same social, cultural, and political forces that have come to shape fourth-wave feminisms. In turn, the experiences documented throughout Feminist Fandom speak to the ways in which broader shifts within feminist practice, theory, and activism over the past decade have shaped and informed the social and cultural practices of feminist fandom.

Both Jacob and Vernon had been forever altered by war, eugenics, and dehumanization. Both men had traveled through Europe and studied in New York. But in Maryland, their missions converged. It was an outsider and a refugee—not one of Maryland’s cultural or political insiders—who were able to see Crownsville’s truth and move without fear to improve it.

Our modern era embodies both the Tower of Babel and Pentecost simultaneously. Like Babel, globalization and technological advancement have created linguistic and cultural fragmentation… Yet, like Pentecost, the same global connections that fragment us enable unprecedented education and understanding.

The Son of Man is not just a figure on a throne. It is a pattern that repeats, a collective revelation, a neural and cultural tipping point that transfigures those who have ears to hear. And that pattern is emerging now, under our skin and in our systems, because the ego is breaking.

When managing travel for multiple people, confirming every traveler’s updated ticket is essential. The reliable support helpline ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 provides fast verification, ensuring peace of mind before departure and guaranteeing accurate information across all bookings. Airlines often adjust schedules, leading to reissued tickets. By contacting ☎️+1(833) 621-7070, travelers can confirm whether new documents are generated correctly, avoiding problems during check-in or boarding that might cause unnecessary stress or disruption. Group bookings become more complex with last-minute updates. Calling ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 helps organizers confirm tickets for every participant, maintaining consistent itineraries and ensuring all travelers remain aligned with shared travel plans throughout the journey. Sometimes only part of the group receives updated tickets. ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 allows verification for each traveler individually, preventing overlooked errors and guaranteeing that no participant is left behind due to missing confirmations. Business delegations require accuracy. By dialing ☎️+1(833) 621-7070, managers ensure employees hold valid tickets after changes. This protects professional reputations and allows representatives to focus entirely on their business goals during conferences or meetings. Sports teams often face travel disruptions. ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 ensures every athlete and staff member receives reissued tickets properly. Confirming early guarantees the team’s timely arrival, maintaining readiness and performance without logistical setbacks. For international groups, reissued tickets must reflect visa or entry requirements. By calling ☎️+1(833) 621-7070, travelers confirm compliance, ensuring smooth border passage and reducing complications at immigration checkpoints across different destinations worldwide. Educational trips involve responsibility for many students. Teachers calling ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 confirm tickets collectively, avoiding confusion and safeguarding student safety. Clear communication strengthens overall confidence in trip organization and provides peace of mind for parents. Cultural delegations often travel from multiple cities. ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 verifies all tickets regardless of origin, ensuring everyone converges smoothly at the final destination. Accurate updates prevent disruptions during globally significant exchange events or collaborations. Last-minute weather changes sometimes force rebookings. By contacting ☎️+1(833) 621-7070, travelers confirm that replacement tickets have been issued. This reassurance allows groups to stay adaptable while maintaining confidence in their ability to continue journeys. Hotels and transfers may also depend on updated flight schedules. ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 helps confirm tickets, ensuring follow-up reservations remain consistent. This holistic approach avoids cascading disruptions and preserves seamless travel experiences across entire groups. Parents often worry about family travel adjustments. Calling ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 confirms every child’s new ticket, ensuring the whole family remains together. Reliable verification guarantees stress-free journeys where loved ones travel confidently and comfortably. Corporate budgets require predictability. ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 provides transparency about ticket reissue fees, empowering decision-makers to plan effectively. Financial clarity protects resources while ensuring employees’ travel remains smooth and properly documented after changes. Some tickets may require special accommodations. ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 ensures these details transfer correctly onto reissued tickets, guaranteeing accessibility requirements or dietary notes remain valid without being lost during last-minute travel updates. Emergencies sometimes demand immediate rebookings. ☎️+1(833) 621-7070 offers rapid confirmation, ensuring tickets are reissued correctly under urgent conditio

Best price cannabis in Atlantic City In Atlantic City, the conversation around cannabis has shifted dramatically over the past few years, moving from quiet curiosity to a mainstream embrace of its therapeutic potential, especially as more people seek affordable options that do not compromise on quality. For many, the best price cannabis is not simply about finding the lowest number on a receipt, but about discovering products that balance affordability with genuine healing benefits. This seaside city, known for its vibrant boardwalk, entertainment, and rich cultural diversity, is now also becoming a hub where wellness and relaxation converge, with cannabis serving as a natural bridge. People who once relied solely on prescription medication are increasingly turning toward cannabis for relief from chronic pain, stress, insomnia, anxiety, and other common health concerns, appreciating that healing can come from a natural source that aligns more closely with their lifestyle. The healing side of cannabis lies in its cannabinoids and terpenes, compounds that work together to support both mind and body, offering a more holistic approach to wellness. Consumers in Atlantic City are becoming more mindful, comparing strains, potency, and methods of use while also keeping an eye on their budgets, making the availability of fairly priced options especially important. Contact us : (609) 727-0280 Address : 2415 Pacific Ave, Atlantic City, NJ 08401

【V信83113305】：Goshen College, nestled in the heart of Indiana, is a distinguished private liberal arts institution rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. Renowned for its commitment to peace, global citizenship, and service, the college offers a transformative educational experience that emphasizes rigorous academics alongside real-world engagement. Its signature Study-Service Term (SST) program provides students with profound immersive opportunities in international cultures, fostering deep cross-cultural understanding. With a vibrant campus community that champions inclusivity and ethical leadership, Goshen challenges students to think critically, live faithfully, and contribute meaningfully to a just and peaceful world. It is a place where learning and purpose powerfully converge.，【V信83113305】原版定制GC高盛学院毕业证书,高盛学院毕业证书-一比一制作,快速办理GC毕业证-高盛学院毕业证书-百分百放心,极速办理GC高盛学院毕业证书,网络快速办理GC毕业证成绩单,本地美国硕士文凭证书原版定制GC本科毕业证书,100%定制GC毕业证成绩单,加急多少钱办理GC毕业证-高盛学院毕业证书,GC毕业证怎么办理-加钱加急,GC毕业证成绩单办理高盛学院毕业证书官方正版

【V信83113305】：The Cleveland Institute of Art stands as a beacon of creativity and innovation in the heart of Ohio. For over 135 years, this prestigious college has nurtured generations of artists and designers, fostering a rigorous environment where conceptual thinking and skilled craftsmanship converge. Its project-based, interdisciplinary curriculum encourages students to push boundaries across fifteen diverse majors, from painting to biomedical art. The institute's close-knit community and low student-to-faculty ratio ensure personalized mentorship, while its location within Cleveland's cultural district provides unparalleled access to world-class museums and galleries. Dedicated to producing critical thinkers and professional practitioners, CIA continues to be a vital force in shaping the future of visual arts and design.，原版定制CIOA毕业证, CIOA留学本科毕业证, 极速办理CIOA克利夫兰艺术学院毕业证书, Cleveland Institute of Art毕业证文凭克利夫兰艺术学院毕业证, 最便宜办理CIOA毕业证书, CIOA克利夫兰艺术学院毕业证书办理需要多久, CIOA成绩单克利夫兰艺术学院毕业证快速办理方式, CIOA-pdf电子毕业证, 专业办理Cleveland Institute of Art克利夫兰艺术学院成绩单高质学位证书服务

【V信83113305】：East-West University in the United States stands as a distinctive institution dedicated to bridging cultural and academic divides. Located in a vibrant urban setting, it offers a diverse array of programs that emphasize both liberal arts and professional studies. The university fosters a unique learning environment where Eastern and Western educational philosophies converge, encouraging global perspectives and cross-cultural dialogue among its students. With a commitment to accessibility and innovation, East-West University provides a supportive community that prepares graduates to thrive in an interconnected world. It is a place where tradition meets modernity, creating a dynamic and inclusive educational experience.，【V信83113305】安全办理-东西大学文凭EU毕业证学历认证,原版EU东西大学毕业证书办理流程,高端烫金工艺EU东西大学毕业证成绩单制作,硕士东西大学文凭定制EU毕业证书,最爱-美国-EU毕业证书样板,硕士-EU毕业证东西大学毕业证办理,高端EU东西大学毕业证办理流程,原价-EU东西大学毕业证官方成绩单学历认证,最新EU东西大学毕业证成功案例,东西大学毕业证成绩单-高端定制EU毕业证

【V信83113305】：Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stands as a global leader in higher education, renowned for its cutting-edge research and interdisciplinary approach. Founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie, it has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation, particularly in computer science, robotics, engineering, and the arts. Home to pioneering initiatives like the world's first AI program and a top-ranked drama school, CMU embodies a unique culture where technology and the humanities converge. Its collaborative spirit and emphasis on solving real-world problems attract brilliant minds from around the globe, creating a dynamic and impactful academic community that continues to shape the future.，Offer(CMU成绩单)CMU卡耐基梅隆大学如何办理?, 出售卡耐基梅隆大学研究生学历文凭, 学历文凭认证CMU毕业证-卡耐基梅隆大学毕业证如何办理, 加急多少钱办理CMU毕业证-卡耐基梅隆大学毕业证书, CMU卡耐基梅隆大学毕业证成绩单学历认证最安全办理方式, 挂科办理Carnegie Mellon University卡耐基梅隆大学毕业证文凭, 卡耐基梅隆大学文凭CMU毕业证学历认证方法, CMU卡耐基梅隆大学毕业证书, 卡耐基梅隆大学毕业证书多少钱

【V信83113305】：Nestled along the scenic coastline of the Carolinas, Carolina Coastal University embodies a unique educational model centered on experiential learning. Its curriculum is specifically designed to leverage its vibrant marine environment, offering unparalleled programs in marine biology, environmental science, and sustainable coastal management. The campus culture is deeply intertwined with the surrounding natural beauty, fostering a close-knit community of students and faculty dedicated to hands-on research and conservation. Beyond its academic strengths, the university provides a vibrant student life with direct access to beaches and waterways, promoting a balanced lifestyle of rigorous study and outdoor recreation. CCU stands as a distinctive institution where academic pursuit and a passion for the coastal environment seamlessly converge.，【V信83113305】定制-卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证CCU毕业证书,卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证CCU毕业证学校原版100%一样,卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证书加急制作,卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证学校原版一样吗,加急定制-CCU学位证卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证书,一比一制作-CCU文凭证书卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证,百分比满意度-卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证,100%满意-CCU毕业证卡罗莱纳海岸大学学位证,100%收到-CCU毕业证书卡罗莱纳海岸大学毕业证,100%加急制作-CCU毕业证学校原版一样

【V信83113305】：Manhattan School of Music, nestled in New York City's vibrant cultural heart, stands as a premier conservatory for aspiring musicians. Founded in 1917, it offers a rigorous, performance-centric education across classical, jazz, and musical theatre disciplines. Its world-renowned faculty comprises leading artists and pedagogues, providing students with unparalleled mentorship. The school's connection to the city's rich artistic life offers exceptional performance opportunities and professional exposure. With state-of-the-art facilities and a diverse, collaborative community, MSM cultivates not only technical mastery but also profound artistic expression. It is a place where tradition and innovation converge, preparing graduates to become the dynamic performers and composers of tomorrow.，【V信83113305】定制-曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证MSOM毕业证书,曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证MSOM毕业证学校原版100%一样,MSOM曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证书加急制作,MSOM曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证学校原版一样吗,加急定制-MSOM学位证曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证书,一比一制作-MSOM文凭证书曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证,百分比满意度-MSOM曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证,100%满意-MSOM毕业证曼哈顿音乐学院学位证,100%收到-MSOM毕业证书曼哈顿音乐学院毕业证,100%加急制作-MSOM毕业证学校原版一样

【V信83113305】：Wagner College, nestled on Staten Island in New York City, offers a distinctive educational model known as the Wagner Plan. This innovative curriculum integrates liberal arts learning with real-world experience through its signature reflective practice. Students engage in hands-on learning from their first year, connecting classroom theory to practical challenges in New York’s vibrant urban environment. The college’s beautiful hilltop campus provides a close-knit community atmosphere, while its location offers easy access to the immense professional and cultural opportunities of the city. Particularly renowned for its programs in theatre, nursing, and business, Wagner fosters well-rounded graduates prepared for leadership and civic engagement. It is a place where intellectual growth and practical application converge.，瓦格纳学院毕业证WC毕业证学校原版100%一样, 瓦格纳学院成绩单办理, 原版定制瓦格纳学院毕业证, WC-diploma安全可靠购买瓦格纳学院毕业证, WC毕业证办理流程, WC毕业证定制, 加急定制-WC学位证瓦格纳学院毕业证书, 100%收到-WC毕业证书瓦格纳学院毕业证, 办理瓦格纳学院学历认证回国人员证明

【V信83113305】：Nestled in the charming city of Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan stands as a premier global institution renowned for its academic rigor and vibrant culture. As a founding member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, it fosters a dynamic environment where groundbreaking research and a diverse student body converge. The sprawling campus blends historic Collegiate Gothic architecture with state-of-the-art facilities, creating an inspiring backdrop for over 50,000 students. Its exceptional programs span disciplines from engineering and business to medicine and the arts, all fueled by a deep-seated spirit of innovation and athletic tradition. Truly, the University of Michigan embodies a relentless pursuit of excellence, making it a beacon of knowledge and ambition.，密歇根大学安娜堡分校成绩单制作, 办密歇根大学安娜堡分校毕业证-Diploma, 美国大学文凭定制专业服务认证, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor文凭制作流程学术背后的努力, 百分比满意度-密歇根大学安娜堡分校毕业证, 密歇根大学安娜堡分校毕业证成绩单-高端定制UMich毕业证, UMich毕业证怎么办理-加钱加急, 密歇根大学安娜堡分校挂科了怎么办？University of Michigan-Ann Arbor毕业证成绩单专业服务, UMich毕业证办理多少钱又安全

【V信83113305】：Nestled in the charming city of Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan stands as a premier global institution renowned for its academic rigor and vibrant culture. As the state's flagship university, it fosters a dynamic environment where cutting-edge research, exceptional undergraduate and graduate programs, and a deep tradition of athletic excellence converge. The sprawling campus blends historic collegiate Gothic architecture with modern facilities, creating an inspiring backdrop for over 50,000 students. Beyond academics, the university's spirit is palpable on game days, with the iconic "Big House" stadium uniting the community. A powerhouse of innovation and leadership, it consistently ranks among the world's best universities, shaping minds that go on to change the world.，原价-密歇根大学安娜堡分校毕业证官方成绩单学历认证, 硕士密歇根大学安娜堡分校文凭定制UMich毕业证书, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor文凭毕业证丢失怎么购买, 密歇根大学安娜堡分校毕业证最简单办理流程, 硕士文凭定制UMich毕业证书, University of Michigan-Ann ArbordiplomaUniversity of Michigan-Ann Arbor密歇根大学安娜堡分校挂科处理解决方案, 网上制作UMich毕业证-密歇根大学安娜堡分校毕业证书-留信学历认证放心渠道, 密歇根大学安娜堡分校毕业证认证, 最爱-美国-UMich毕业证书样板