Eclecticism Puns

"One approach to resolving this problem that is popular today is the eclectic one: to pick and choose from the various traditions whatever seems amenable to our needs, welding together different practices and techniques into a synthetic whole that is personally satisfying. Thus one may combine Buddhist mindfulness meditation with sessions of Hindu mantra recitation, Christian prayer with Sufi dancing, Jewish Kabbala with Tibetan visualization exercises. Eclecticism, however, though sometimes helpful in making a transition from a predominantly worldly and materialistic way of life to one that takes on a spiritual hue, eventually wears thin. While it makes a comfortable halfway house, it is not comfortable as a final vehicle.

There are two interrelated flaws in eclecticism that account for its ultimate inadequacy. One is that eclecticism compromises the very traditions it draws upon. The great spiritual traditions themselves do not propose their disciplines as independent techniques that may be excised from their setting and freely recombined to enhance the felt quality of our lives. They present them, rather, as parts of an integral whole, of a coherent vision regarding the fundamental nature of reality and the final goal of the spiritual quest. A spiritual tradition is not a shallow stream in which one can wet one's feet and then beat a quick retreat to the shore. It is a mighty, tumultuous river which would rush through the entire landscape of one's life, and if one truly wishes to travel on it, one must be courageous enough to launch one's boat and head out for the depths.

The second defect in eclecticism follows from the first. As spiritual practices are built upon visions regarding the nature of reality and the final good, these visions are not mutually compatible. When we honestly examine the teachings of these traditions, we will find that major differences in perspective reveal themselves to our sight, differences which cannot be easily dismissed as alternative ways of saying the same thing. Rather, they point to very different experiences constituting the supreme goal and the path that must be trodden to reach that goal.

Hence, because of the differences in perspectives and practices that the different spiritual traditions propose, once we decide that we have outgrown eclecticism and feel that we are ready to make a serious commitment to one particular path, we find ourselves confronted with the challenge of choosing a path that will lead us to

I was raised by hoarders; my mom hoards clothes, my grandpa hoards things, and my grandma hoards food/clothes. they all lived in the same house. i grew up stepping over mounds of clothes and washing my hands in a downstairs shower. there’s always a plumbing issue so that i couldn’t flush. i had to keep my dirty dishes in my room because the sink didn’t work. i shared a room with five people and experienced assault, but i also stayed with my dad 50/50 because of this i invite my friends to hang out at my dad’s and they’ve always complemented my “eclectic” room. lately i’ve noticed when i don’t go to my grandparents i just accumulate trash in my nice room, do i hoard? i can never see the ground at my grandparents house so it feels normal to just step through the filth but my room is much smaller there so it interferes with my ability to concentrate on my studies. like i have four bags of trash full that have just been sitting here but in my head i’m just like “it’s fine, that’s dry trash” when my rooms messy at my dads he really starts to resent me, like i can’t keep food in the fridge or put dishes in the sink. i’ve washed my own dishes since age ten and i only keep my oat milk and leftovers in there, so then it makes me want to keep my food under my bed but i try so hard not to. i had a day off of class and work so i cleaned my rooms a bit and they both had a fruit fly infestation that i didn’t even notice! like tons of the little shell things they leave behind all over everything!! am i the problem? am i starting to hoard? am i not just a stereotypically eclectic artist???

summary: i come from a family of hoarders and i have a habit of “collecting” but i found out i had a fruit fly infestation that i didn’t even notice and a load of trash and now i’m worried that i’m starting to hoard

Do you guys think it is possible to be both a pagan and a Thelemite?

I want to tell Céline she doesn’t need a designer, she needs a mental health intervention.

For over fifty years, David Liebman has been at the forefront of musical creativity. From sideman work with Miles Davis and Elvin Jones to his own albums like Lookout Farm, The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner, or his recordings with Quest, Liebman has been incredibly prolific while showing a willingness to take musical risks. He's also been heavily involved in music education. In short, there is a reason why the National Endowment for the Arts named Liebman a Jazz Master in 2011, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a jazz artist. At age 75, he continues to push the music forward, whether with his Expansions quintet, a new recording with longtime collaborator Richie Beirach, or recent trio performances with Adam Rudolph and Tyshawn Sorey. We discuss all of this, and more, in our two-part conversation.

Dave Liebman Expansion's recent album performing the music of John Coltrane is now available on Dot Time Records.

https://postgenre.org/eclecticism-continued-liebman-i/

The second part of our conversation with NEA Jazz Master David Liebman covers his incredible debut as a leader; Lookout Farm (ECM) and his longtime collaboration with pianist Richie Beirach. It concludes with a lengthy discussion on the influence of another saxophone great, John Coltrane: Liebman’s time as a teenager witnessing the raw power and beauty of the legend’s music firsthand at Birdland, his time with Elvin Jones, and his stunning new recording with his Expansions quintet, Selflessness (Dot Time).

https://postgenre.org/eclecticism-continued-liebman-ii/

Hi everyone,

I am very intrigued about the idea of Eclecticism and its implications in our life. I am looking for both novels that incorporate this theme (in characters or the world), and also philosophical or theoretical works that elaborate on this conceptual framework in great length.

Thank you.

hi all!

first of all, i want to start by making my intentions clear with a couple of statements:

1. i am not here to offend or disrespect any practice whatsoever. i may be an eclectic pagan with a highly personalized practice; but i respect, say, a hellenistic reconstructionist just the same. we are all different and we are all welcome.
2. this is just MY practice and MY opinions. you are entitled to your own. i would just like to start a discussion here in the boundaries of basic decency.

okay, let's get into it shall we?

like i said above, i consider myself an eclectic pagan. i draw from many traditions but don't follow every aspect of them strictly. i am working on creating my own practice and belief system, which includes making my own "rules" (or rather, abolishing all traditional rules entirely).

in my beliefs, the Gods are beings of energy that are interconnected with us and the whole of the universe, which means that we essentially were the ones to give them names and attributes. this could also suggest that they gave themselves these attributes, since we are all the same universe experiencing itself indefinitely... but that is way too difficult to get into in one post.

this is basically why i don't believe in traditions. if we are the spirits and the spirits are us- just manifested in highly different ways, why would they care if i address them in a certain way? why do i have to say "Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt" or something similar every time i pray, when she knows and i know she is the goddess of the hunt?

this also opens up the question of "why do you worship anyway?" well to me; it's a form of giving respect to myself, The Whole and all forms of energy out there. it is saying "i am grateful for being able to experience the universe in all aspects".

TLDR; i do not believe in traditions, and i would love to hear your thoughts on this subject too :)

Aspiring Warlock here. Though I've toyed with the idea for years, I have been studying and practicing in earnest for only a couple of weeks. It has been an absolute whirlwind. I have been inundated in a torrent of books, videos, posts, studying, and introspection.

Through all this I have been pulled towards my own ideas, doing more re-interpretation and loose association than actually mastering existing systems. It's already beginning to feel like my system is moving further and further away from the kind of practices I see on line, even other very eclectic ones. I've only actually practiced sigil crafting, and though I've gotten some very powerful, immediate results, I've been doing more theorycrafting than actual experimentation and I feel like I'm getting way ahead of myself in terms of the depth of my system.

Does anyone else have systems that stray far from the well-trodden paths? Or, experiences straying too far from convention and being pulled back? I never used magic in the past because I've been too skeptical, and it's really important that if I'm learning this I take it really seriously. Letting my imagination get away from me feels good, but it triggers my skepticism and makes me feel very foolish. What should I do?

I never quite understood Bookchin's critique of eclecticism. Largely because I also view his political project as a sort of eclectic project in of itself, merging anarchist, Marxist, and Hegelian approaches into a new dialectical whole.

So could you explain Bookchin's critique of eclecticism? And how is his political project not eclectic?

(Soundtrack: Slint - Breadcrumb Trail)

Have you ever questioned the eclecticism of the man on the corner? The way his hair always seems a bit too fidgety? The dodgy demeanor of his violently speckled shirt? Those weird boots that seem like they’re fighting a war against poverty? The way his nose is always turned upwind? What about that moustache? Isn't it in the wrong place?

I questioned these things, but they also terrified me.

“Hey, boy,” the man on the corner said to me one day. “You know Tilly?”

I nodded. “No,” I said.

“How old are you?” he asked, the white of his eyes occasionally occupied by pupils.

“23 and a half,” I said.

“You sound old enough to know Tilly then,” he proposed.

I shook my head. “Yes,” I answered.

“Come with me,” he winked suggestively, before disappearing into a particularly dark alley.

Have you ever questioned the esotericism of a dark alley? They way it opens up as it closes you in? The putrid stench of past mistakes and new experiences? The inconsequential nature of your presence in it -- until your presence in it is all there is and will ever be?

“I want you to meet someone,” the man murmured, sauntering gracefully between piles of garbage shaped like men, and men shaped like piles of garbage, undoubtedly guided by those poverty-fighting boots.

“Is it Tilly?” I asked confusedly.

He laughed like a blood-soaked rag. “No,” he said. “Someone important.”

At the end of the alley there was a door. Not the kind that opens, but the kind that closes behind you.

“Why me?” I queried as the door closed behind me.

“You’re an innocent, ain’t you?” he asked rhetorically.

“Yes,” I said, not understanding the nature of a rhetorical question.

“She’s gonna love you then,” he chuckled.

Have you ever questioned the erraticness of a many-doored hallway? The way each door represents a soft demise brought on by years of despair? The way the yellowing wallpaper smells faintly of the repressed voices of the unborn? What about the flickering fluorescent lights? Why won’t they die?

At the end of the many-doored hallway there was a square hole in the wall. Somehow the existence of a doorless hole seemed important. Important and blasphemous and perverse.

“She’s through there,” the man said.

“What will she do?” I asked.

“Take away your innocence,” he grinned improbably.

“Won’t I miss it?”

“It’s always in the last place you look.”

I nodded internally, and stepped through the hole.

Have you ever questioned the erotocism of a fal

Something I've noticed in a lot of music writing, particularly on the positive side, and especially over the last 20-30 or so years: when an album, artist, or even track could be described as "eclectic," it seems to signify by now that it's of higher quality than what else surrounds it. This kind of music seems to get raved about simply by critics or reviewers listing the multiple different genres, styles, mannerisms, etc. they detect in the music, as if this automatically deems it worthy of praise. Sometimes, I can definitely see why: there have been stunning amalgams in recent years, like Flying Lotus' "Never Catch Me" (jazz piano, fusion-style bass, rapping over a wonky beat). Ween has been deconstructing and reassembling every conceivable (at least rock or rock-adjacent) genre, it seems, since the '90s, to typically very strong (and very funny) effect.

But I don't think eclecticism necessarily denotes quality in itself; I believe it's a symptom of postmodernism, particularly criticism in the postmodern era (which has been an absurdly long era now, but that's a whole other discussion), where art is often scrutinized through both the lens of "has this ever been done before? Does it resemble something of a previous era? If so, pass," and "this resembles a multitude of different things from a previous era, put together in a clever way, or merely displaying a variety of different interesting ingredients, so time to smother it with praise."

At this point, I've become a bit conditioned myself to look at music this way, too, sometimes instinctively being wowed by music that blends together genres, even if it's really not all that beyond a surface level, as opposed to, say, a great straight-up '70s rock album, or a great '60s hard bop album. Another kind of troubling thing stemming from this is that I’ve tended to like the idea of certain genres more when they’re incorporated into others, to the point where I won’t be able to settle for the real deal. Like, for example, if an artist used a few hip-hop beats on a non-hip-hop album (like Dummy), I’d be more intrigued than I would listening to normal hip-hop, or if a hip-hop artist took queues from rock artists (like, I dunno, Kids See Ghosts? Raising Hell?), my interest would be more piqued than if I were just listening to, say, The Rolling Stones, if you catch my drift.

I've seen many, many complaints about new releases not being completely groundbreaking, as well as brushing off of older music

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Website: rastah.co

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That may be a trivial topic and maybe I'm not in the right sub but let's try anyway.

I think eclecticism, whether it be musically speaking or in any other topic is a sign of open-mindedness. Also, it shows how much someone is willing to discover different, unconventional things and to explore new horizons. It also shares a certain idea of independency and nonconformism.

Of course there are more important things than sharing common interests or similar point of views with a partner and it may be superficial or a bit snobbish to see things that way. But in the meantime, it says a lot about someone's personality and it's not just about music tastes, but about a global philosophy of life if that makes sense.

Although, I personally consider eclecticism in music tastes above eclecticism in any other field pretty attractive, because music is my greatest passion (as a listener). And there may be other reasons why it is so important for me. But I can't seem to spot them right now, so if you can relate to it, feel free to add some to the list.

Edit: all three cubes are full. Looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

So I've been wanting to build a cube and/or develop a list using a non-traditional method.

So my though process was this:

360 cube.

10 color pairs.

10 designers with each person responsible for 36 cards.

Bring them all together and then see what kind of monstrous cube comes out! Anyone interested in joining in?

Edit: as far as power level is concerned let's say no power 9. And a more mid tier power level. Modern Cube might be a good power level example. That said do what you'd like since the variance between color pairs is part of the fun.

I'll start it off an pick RW as my color pair.

Edit: Whoops. So this blew up and I was making edits and managed to destroy my updated op. Spots will stay the same and I'll get it fixed right now.

As for construction we will say anytime Friday for the deadline. PM me what color pair and what cube you're making it for. And I'll put them all together on cube cobra for us to draft.

1. RW - Sniffygull
2. WG - NWmba
3. GU - land_of_Mordor
4. UR - gabrosin
5. RB - Retarded Moderation
6. BU - Malky
7. UW - k0r3an
8. WB - Miryafa
9. BG - ekg1
10. GR - fleish_dawg

Cube 2...

1. RW - WhiskEY 39

2. WG - agamemaker

3. UG - SeaLard22

4. UR - nipplessphage

5. RB - mykenae

6. UB - APrettyOkayGuy

7. WU - SniperElGato

8. WB - likewise45

9. BG - TRK27

10. RG - SirFunchalot

Cube 3....

1. RW - tryptonius

2. WG - cebolabro

3. UG - WordsHugsandTea

4. UR - mtg_player_zach

5. RB - Boqu_

6. UB - Kinseki

7. WU - two_tin_soldier

8. WB - SonofOnett

9. BG - The_Lhurgoyf

10. RG - tower07

Hola ya'll. I'm here with some very exciting cube list, and a few notes and comparisons. In the end we ended up with enough submissions to build two full cubes, and a third 321 card cube. I'll be posting all three for you to look at and the first two will be the ones I compare more directly. In the case of the first two cubes I had to take a few color sections from the third to finish them out. The third cube, as a result, has a few "doubles" but also a few last minute adds and covers. Anyways let's get to it. As a note I do believe I managed to correctly credit all the sections in the blog of each cube.

List 3: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/2qb

This is our super hacky cube. Draft, enjoy, ect. Thank you to everyone who helped fill this one out.

Now for the two cubes that we actually got 360 for: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/frankencube

https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/mashmonster

And here's the cube comparison: https://cubecobra.com/cube/compare/frankencube/to/mashmonster

We saw a total of 78 cards that overlapped between cubes. A number I'm fairly surprised at being so low. The most overlap was naturally in the land section. With White and Green being tied for second with 12 each. Gold and colorless tied for the least overlap with 6 cards each.

In cube 1 the cards we saw the most copies of are as follows:

W: Place Jailer - 3

U: Man-O'-War/Venser, Shaper Savant - 3 each

B: Blood Artist - 3

R: Faithless Looting, Lightning Bolt, Goblin Rabblemaster, Bonecrusher Giant, Kari Zev, Skyship Raider - 2 copies each.

G: Regrowth, Hornet Queen, Tireless Tracker, Eternal Witness, Birds of Paradise - 2 copies each.

M: The only double gold card we had was Kitchen Finks.

C: Scroll of Fate - 2

L: Prismatic Vista - 3

Overall a very interesting spread and a cube I'd be interested to draft.

In cube 2 the cards we saw the most copies of are as follows:

W: Armageddon, Raise the Alarm, Secure the Waste, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Doomed Traveler - 2 copies each.

U: No U doubles in this cube.

B: Bloodsoaked Champion, Carrion Feeder - 2 each.

R: Bomat Courier, Goblin Welder, Bonecrusher Giant, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Galvanic Blast, Goblin Bombardment. 2 each.

G: Noble Hier