Al-Ma'arri (973-1057), whose full name was Abu 'L'Ala Ahmad ibn 'Abdallah al-Ma'arri, was born in Ma'arra, south of Aleppo. He achieved fame as one of greatest of Arab poets. Al-Ma'arri was stricken with smallpox when four and became blind. As he grew older, he was able to travel to Aleppo, Antioch and other Syrian cities, learning by heart the manuscripts preserved there.

Al-Ma'arri spent 18 months at Baghdad, then the center of learning and poetry, leaving to return to his native town. There he created the Luzumiyyat, a large collection of verses that contrasts from traditional works by its irregular structure and in the opinions it contains. His presence in Ma'arra drew many people, who came to hear him lecture on poetry and rhetoric.

Of himself, al-Ma'arri wrote "Men of acute mind call me an ascetic, but they are wrong in their diagnosis. Although I disciplined my desires, I only abandoned worldly pleasures because the best of these withdrew themselves from me." But his somewhat misanthropic nature appears in another remark: "I was made an abstainer from mankind by my acquaintance with them and my knowledge that created beings are dust."

Al-Ma'arri remarked that monks in their cloisters or devotees in their mosques were blindly following the beliefs of their locality: if they were born among Magians or Sabians they would have become Magians or Sabians. Al-Ma'arri was a rationalist who valued reason above tradition or revelation.

Like Carvaka he saw religion in general as a human institution invented as a source of power and income for its founders and priesthood, who pursued worldly ends with forged documents attributed to divine inspiration. Like Vardhamana and the Jains, al-Ma'arri believed in the sanctity of life, urging that no living creature should be harmed. He became a vegetarian and opposed all killing of animals, and the use of animal skins for clothing. :vegan-edge:

Al-Ma'arri passed judgments with a freedom that must have offended the privileged members of his society. In Reynold Nicholson's words "Amidst his meditations on the human tragedy, a fierce hatred of injustice, hypocrisy, and superstition blazes out." Many of the extracts below are taken from Nicholson's translation.

Question of the day :lenin-cat:

whats your favorite vegetarian/vegan dish :bean-think:

The State and Revolution :flag-su:

:lenin-shining: :unity: :kropotkin-shining:
The Conquest of Bread :ancom:

Remember, sort by new you :LIB:

Yesterday’s megathread :sad-boi:

Follow the ChapoChat twitter account :comrade-birdie:

THEORY; it’s good for what ails you (all kinds of tendencies inside!) :RIchard-D-Wolff:

COMMUNITY CALENDAR - AN EXPERIMENT IN PROMOTING USER ORGANIZING EFFORTS :af:

Join the fresh and beautiful batch of new comms:

!finance@hexbear.net :deng-salute:

!agitprop@hexbear.net :allende-rhetoric:

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Megathread requested by @Lord_ofThe_FLIES :vegan-edge:

  • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
    ·
    3 years ago

    struggle session: i don't like the word "houseless" to refer to the homeless. Maybe it's common in other places but i haven't heard homeless ppl here ever say it in reference to themselves, and it sounds like something a neolib came up with that sounds nicer and masks the harsh connotation of alienation that has been built up around the word "homeless", but doesn't actually DO anything or help at all.

    Also, anyone in an apartment is technically "houseless", which genuinely is it's own problem and i would argue, a sign of the increasingly stratification of wealth in amerikkka. If you can afford an actual house in some cities, you're in a wildly different wealth and class scenario than working class people who are living paycheck to paycheck but can afford to not get evicted from an apartment. This wealth stratification between people who can afford even 1 house vs making the rent on an (often shared) apartment is a huge issue! Any white rando could buy a house on minimum wage money 50 years ago and now we're saying, actually shitbox apartments that you have to share with another person is equivalent to having a house.

    IDK, whatever, definitely open to being wrong about this if homeless people start claiming it and using it. Definitely will use whatever term they want out of respect and solidarity.

    For now tho, to me, "houseless" has that flavor of something a lib thinktank would come up with to make it seem like they're treating them with compassion while bulldozing their camps "for their own safety".

    edit: okay some comrades showed me why some might choose to call themselves "houseless". i will stop bagging on it out of respect. o7

    https://medium.com/warm-hearts/the-word-houseless-made-me-rethink-perceptions-of-homeless-people-31f0707e517d

    • Wmill [he/him,use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I've heard the term the unhoused population. They people like us through circumstances happened not to be housed. Homeless has like weight behind it that implies other. Don't know how to describe it but feel it can be dehumanizing.

      • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
        ·
        3 years ago

        That makes sense to me. "not housed" or "unhoused" seems to be a better descriptor without the baggage.

        • Wmill [he/him,use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Yeah, like admittedly don't know much but kind of reminds me of etiquette here on neurodivergence here on the left. A person's humanity should always be front and center and labeling someone by just their conditions is dehumanizing. Edit kicked my brain together with some water.

      • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I see what you mean. I think that's why i don't like it - it softens what is inherently a complete failure of society. To me, i see the softening as equivalent to the differences between "a man passed away after a confrontation with the police" vs "a man died after being shot by the police"

        This article that someone else posted in support of the word "houseless" actually has some quotes that captures the way i feel. https://medium.com/warm-hearts/the-word-houseless-made-me-rethink-perceptions-of-homeless-people-31f0707e517d

        The word homeless can emphasize the hardship and a sense of lack that exists when you’re seeking housing and don’t have it.

        When your attempts to create shelter are “constantly being torn down and literally thrown in the garbage by police,” one person explained, it doesn’t feel like a home.

        People living on the streets are not PERMITTED to have a permanent home and that is a large part of their oppression imho, and i don't want that be erased. BUT i definitely don't want to use words that evoke a negative stigma for my comrades.

        Idk language sucks and is hard lol, let's just start the revolution already so we can stop dithering about words and give people houses

    • AlexandairBabeuf [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      i didn't think much of it but the apartment angle is a great point. usually these -isms are pretty harmless but i could see people getting actually confused by that language

      • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah, the libs here, they'll say things like "we need to ensure housing is a priority" and 100% of the time they've been referring to apartments, usually either luxury ones or shitbox slumlord ones.

        Then they'll approve new apartment complexes on the condition that they provide 10% of their units as "low-income". Then those units translate into only like 3 units to like 90 "luxury" ones so the city fines them a paltry sum, the landlords continue to make $$$ and squeeze the tenants, and the real estate grift continues while homeless people continue to have no permanent residence. Stonks

    • thelastaxolotl [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      i have only heard the term houseless since like a week ago, and it really sounds like :LIB: speak, like i dont understand the need to replace the word homeless, maybe its like you said and its trying to combine people who dont own houses with people that dont live in houses to make the term less bad

      • fuckwit [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        maybe it’s an attempt to consolidate poorer Americans who don’t own a house with homeless people so they can just ignore the homeless problem entirely.

      • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
        ·
        3 years ago

        BOTH the homeless orgs i donate to here use the word "homeless", including the one run by actual homeless people. I thought someone spiked my vape when i saw someone say to use houseless instead. (on facebook, not here)

        • thelastaxolotl [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          i saw the term on a news article about biden/US housing, so its probably being pushed by a lib think tank

    • VerifiedPoster [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      What do you think of “sleeping rough”? Personally speaking, I how it makes fewer assumptions about why a person is out on the street.

      • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
        ·
        3 years ago

        will read ty :)

        edit: read and was good, made me rethink a few things. Definitely seems like at least SOME homeless/unhoused/housless comrades used the word "unhoused" so i will stop bagging on it (even if i personally still like the word homeless more)