Yeah. I’ve been sitting here doing nothing. Nothing at all. Why he’ll see the big board! Or so they thought . . .
. . . anyway, hello to you all once again. All 4 of you. Devin. Adam. Yianni. Judy. It’s Judy on my mind nowadays. I’m gonna stop now. I’m crying.
Judy suggested that I use the leader of the band as a character in blog posts or whatever.
She thought that I was being maudlin bemoaning being the leader of the band. And having to do everything.
She thinks it’s funny. And so do I.
Me. The Leader of the Band..
I hate typing on my Pixel.
Even using swype, typing on my Pixel is a pain.
And I can’t use voice recognition unless I’m alone.
So the other day I was talking to Devin.
I mentioned thinking about considering moving toward creating something.
He suggested that be my working title.
Acid Pro 8 had just come out.
I was reminiscing about the soundtracks to Yianni’s AMC Diary I used to bust out using Acid Pro 7.
Yeah. It’s been 7 for a long time.
But Magix came through in the clutch.
Acid Pro 8 is here!!
So now I’m thinking about considering moving toward creating something.
Again..
Well. What better time to start up again?
My friend and mentor Max Richie died in January of 2012. I couldn’t post here after that. Except for John Lennon’s birthday I guess. Once.
Don’t know. Have no opinion.
Anyway, Happy Fall Equinox!!
72 years old he would have been. And still, I miss him. Happy Birthday John.
I learned from Max Richie a wonderful habit and practice, to read out loud the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America on the fourth of July each year.
This document is thought provoking and principled.
The text follows, from the National Archives at http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
So I read this book called Priority One about climate change and how soil can save the world, or rather does and we fail to note this.
Yes, all life on earth comes from the earth, the dirt, the soil, and all carbon in the air moves back and forth freely and easily. But that’s another story, a true story we can discuss more later.
One subject in the Priority One book is nuclear power and how in fact nuclear power can be as safe or safer than coal, or natural gas, or fossil carbon energy in general. The book made a lot of good points and good suggestions.
One valid point is that we virtually ignore the cost in human life of all the other energy types, such as coal. Fly ash, mining, transporting coal, power plant emissions, and so on are very real and very dangerous and kill thousands upon thousands of human beings every year, especially children.
I still wonder about nuclear power though, look at Fukushima, and the unvarnished stats on Chernobyl. Hundreds of thousands dead due to Chernobyl over 25 years all from one single explosion.
How do we put a value on the cost in human lives whether from coal, oil or nuclear? And of course the true price of fossil carbon fuels appears to be ending life on earth as we know it possibly making the whole debate completely moot in the long run.
French nuclear power notwithstanding, there seems to be no way human beings will have the will to make nuclear chain reactions a useful energy source.
I came across a letter to the editor in the Nation magazine some time back mentioning Thorium as a fuel, and giving the link to the Thorium Energy Alliance.
http://thoriumenergyalliance.com/ThoriumSite/portal.html
And I thought about it again today having read Alexander Cockburn making the bold statement nuclear power is dead and unacceptable.
There seems to be a type of nuclear power that is different, and safer, and just might be workable in the interim.
Right now the world we leave for our children, and Maddie, weighs heavily on my heart and mind. But I still drive my car, run my lights, run this computer.
Do we truly want a world humans can thrive and coexist in perpetually?
Read the Thorium stuff and let me know what you think. Do you think it’s for real?
A special shout out to Head and Jennie and welcome to Maddie!
Head, aka Chuck, is my nephew. They just had their first kid.
Imagine that, another year over, and a new one just begun.
Here’s what I want you to do, imagine peace. Not conceptually, but literally.
Imagine a human world at peace. Imagine a human world where humans do not kill each other, for any reason, ever. Imagine a human world where humans can’t even imagine killing. Imagine what that human world world be like. Imagine how you would feel in that world. Imagine peace on earth.
Which brings me to imagination. When Yoko Ono first floated the “imagine” idea, then taken by her husband John Lennon and turned into the legendary somewhat corny song Imagine, I wasn’t aware of it, barely a toddler probably.
Imagine is not my favorite Lennon, obviously I love “I Found Out” much more, and “Hey Bulldog” from his Beatles era. But the concept is sound, imagine, simply imagine.
And here is where the concept becomes useful, and that is in realizing potentiality, as in becoming aware of potentiality, possiblity.
Imagination is needed to even be aware of what is possible, then the actual practical realization of that potential follows. Today’s dreams are tomorrow’s inventions. Even Einstein went on about imagination.
So of late I’ve been thinking about imagination as a form of suspension of disbelief too.
I’ve been thinking about how as a people, a race of human beings, we could communicate with one another so much better if we had imagination, or used the imagination we have, if we imagined the other perspective, if we suspended disbelief in things, any thing, and simply imagined circumstances with no limits.
People pay to see movies. They know what they see is not real. They suspend their disbelief, intentionally, to have a good time, to go on an imaginary journey, to be entertained.
We could do the same in every day life. We could have discussions instead of arguments where agreed upon suspension of disbelief was the basis of the discussion, the context, the given, and then go from there discussing the imagined circumstances.
My favorite example is, of course, imagine the United States of America quit invading and occupying sovereign nations.
Imagine the United States simply left Afghanistan and Iraq.
Based on that imagination, then we talk about a United States that doesn’t invade other countries, that doesn’t occupy other countries, that stops the pattern of centuries of blood, stretching behind us. Just imagine that.
Imagination gives consciousness, consciousness give reality.
Instead we argue over “shoulds” and “coulds” and “yeah buts”. We can’t facilitate communication. We can’t even start a conversation. Then everyone freaks and starts yelling, violence, anger, hate, division, madness. Just humans, victims of the insane.
If only we had some imagination.
Turn off your mind relax and float downstream.
Happy New Year!
How can a man’s death have such a profound impact on a fifteen year old kid stranger in Arroyo Grande? How can that man’s life have such a profound impact on that same kid’s life, before and after, still, thirty years later?
I’m just a human, a victim of the insane.
Happy Birthday John, I still miss your physical presence being here on earth and always will. Your everlasting magical musical presence continues to inspire me always too.
October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990
It was twenty years ago today when we lost Stevie Ray.
I’m always a bit awed by the passage of time, considering time is an illusion.
We miss you Stevie! And have your frenetic smoking thoughtful riffs, like a blues man on speed kicking it on the front porch of oblivion, to revisit time and time again…
I really dug Walter Mosley’s comments at the Liberty Hill Upton Sinclair award dinner to wit:
My friend, I’ll call him Jack, is getting older. He has a strong mind and a powerful writer’s voice but time is moving on and various parts of his body, especially his lungs, have weakened. In the cold and damp New York winters he was suffering bout after bout of bronchitis; sometimes spending the better part of the season in bed.
Jack’s well-educated, very expensive doctor, in brief half hour visits, prescribed for this recurring ailment ever stronger doses of steroids. Jack asked about the negative effects of the drug and the doctor said, in as many words, this is the lesser of two evils.
Two hundred and twenty-five dollars per half hour plus the cost of travel, drugs, and future ailments due to this radical cure and the healer talks about two evils, becoming a metaphysician rather than a pedestrian GP.
We, Jack and I, have a third friend – Tina. Tina told Jack that there is a man named Tan down in China Town who charges forty dollars a visit and who only prescribes herbs that are to be brewed into bitter tasting teas.
“Dr. Tan will take your pulse and then prescribe the proper herbs,” Tina said.
This was a third position, something outside of the Pandora’s Box containing the two evils. Dr. Tan represented the grass roots, literally. Five thousand years of herbal medicine that comes down to one case of 21st century bronchitis in SoHo.
The notion of two evils is broadly accepted in American culture. Most working people are well aware of the rock and the hard place, damned if you do and damned if you don’t. We accept the inevitability of a losing trade off on the long, declining, slippery slope of working class American life.
Poverty and charity are two evils. The former grinds our bones and souls and children into rubble while the latter weakens and ultimately eliminates our ability to live lives for ourselves – leaving us dependent upon the kindness of bureaucrats. You know the ones – those people who have your life in a manila folder hanging from wires in a green filing cabinet that sits behind a locked door that you don’t have the key for.
The arbiters of philanthropy and good will organizations never prepare us for liberation or revolution; they never question their superior position of humility and selflessness or the rightness of their charity.
Charity is the lesser evil but it is still evil.
The overpaid, over blown doctor kills your kidneys along with the bronchitis while Dr. Tan only seeks to strengthen your natural defense systems and organic immunities. He may fail sometimes, and so might his patients, but in this case he stopped my friend’s bouts with lung disease.
There is almost always a third and fourth and fifth approach to the solution of any predicament – and any one of these methodologies might not be evil. When you find a leader, an activist, a member of the people who are suffering – a woman or a man that is a part of this world and who demands dignity along with relief – then you have left the realms of poverty and its only slightly less evil sibling – charity.
The Liberty Hill Foundation echoes these opinions of mine in its decision to support activists, organizers, and resistors of all kinds. You are here to strengthen the immunity systems of those that are straining under the weight of rampant capitalism and its tax free big named charitable foundations; its misguided acolytes who aggrandize themselves by throwing money at people who are ultimately transformed into bondsmen under the domination of this lesser evil.
I thank you for giving me this Upton Sinclair Award and for the opportunity to chastise the false hierarchy of most charitable organizations while being able to laud the proponents of liberation and, possibly, even revolution.
Thank you.
In 1935, Amos Pinchot wrote that, “Today the nations in the world may be divided into two classes. The nations in which the government fears the people, and the nations in which the people fear the government.”
Have you seen the film V for Vendetta?
Despite the appalling state of the US Government and its penchant for reckless and irresponsible management, its inability to concede to the will of the people in its wholesale derogation of the people’s authority to concentrated selfish profit seeking powers, including transgressions against the autonomy of other peoples, acts not unlike those of King George’s Britain, one can derive great benefit from revisiting the founding principles of the United States of America.
Looking back, we can find a way forward in affirmation of that which can make us whole, the unalienable rights of all peoples.
Presented by the Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
For additional information about the Declaration of Independence, see these sites:
Have you ever made this promise to yourself? Maybe tomorrow you’ll “do” this or “do” that. Have goals that have not been met?
Driven. We here in the “west” are driven. This seems to me to be a result of programming that starts pretty much from infancy. Bigger, better, faster, stronger. Contentment becomes almost unattainable, unless you “reach” these goals. But then, they are not enough, and the drive starts all over.
The concept of “maybe tomorrow” I’ll do this or that reminds me of the very cool David Bowie line from Ashes to Ashes or whatever the tune is called, the sequel to Space Oddity off of Scary Monsters, where the character says “time and again I tell myself, I’ll stay clean tonight…”
Yeah, perfect. We are all junkies. And we are all driven to get our next fix.
Relax.
For those of you not in the know, can ya hear me!?, are you out there?!, this web site is actually named after a song I did in the early aughts, found this recording of one guitar from 2002, posted it here now…
[audio:Nothing-07-30-02.mp3]
This is probably not groundbreaking, but rule one of philosophy is zoom out.
Of course, that is if you accept that philosophy is more than whining about the way things are as is put forth by Devin. He told me that is the essence of philosophy. Having no formal training other than being a human being using the English language, I wouldn’t know, but I do know what philosophy is to me.
Philosophy is zooming out, seeing the whole picture, stripping away context and dealing only with principle, values, concepts. Then one can zoom back in and apply philosophy to daily life if desired.
So zoom out. Look at yourself, and the world, from afar. Get outside yourself. Visualize your self and the world as if you were looking at it from a great distance.
Earth from the moon is a classic example of zooming out. How the earth is really only little a blue planet out in the middle of nowhere.
But practically speaking zooming out can be great in releasing one from getting caught up, getting sucked into the Henny Penny world view of panic and fear.
For in reality, this reality, our reality, our next breath is going to happen with our without panic and fear.
I don’t know about you, really I don’t, but I prefer to be fearless.
Thanks to all US Veterans who’ve defended freedom and justice for all, and to all those here and across the world who actively oppose tyranny, injustice, oppression & corruption…
Happy Veterans Day!
Little known fact, literally ignored.
The #1 human cause of co2 in the atmosphere is degradation of soil, converting it to dirt, little rocks.
Why is this little known?
Stay tuned…
Remember, Remember
The Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason & Plot
I know of No Reason
The Gunpowder Treason
Should Ever Be Forgot
Ideas are bulletproof…
Adam, I know your birthday is today, but I posted yesterday because it was your birthday in Japan.
So, Happy Birthday over here too now! Time is an illusion…
Happy Birthday Quaker Boy!
Today is tomorrow, your birthday!
Keep on jonezing…
Happy Birthday to John Lennon, my idol.
What more can I say? Happy Birthday John!
Les Paul died today.
I’m crying…
Perry Marshall’s Renaissance Club recently did a piece on, tired of losing the game? Change the game, sort of like if you don’t like the rules of the game, change the game. Which got me thinking, there is no game, no just kidding, well, there isn’t, but I think that is not quite a practical reality that bears discussion here at this point in time.
So I was thinking about rules, and I’ve talked about law a little already, but here I mean rules of the game in the context Perry was using it, rules of the arena in which one operates. For example, being polite in social situations is required by the rules. Perry was using the metaphor to refer to business, or a niche market, here I want to expand on the idea of rules of the game into the restrictions we place upon ourselves individually and as a group.
Backing up a bit, freedom is complete release from responsiblity and complete autonomy to do anything. Animals are truly free. They do what they want, whatever, whatever. Rules reign in and restrict freedom to the norms established by society. This is called law in many cases, and in many cases is not enforced, but just having the rules seems to give one a sense of security.
So the rules of the game, restrict and reduce freedom. This is what lawmakers do, reduce freedom. Usually they do this in a “big brother” “I know what’s best for the little people beneath me” attitude, here in the US anyway. So the desire to be a politician has its roots in a desire to restrict the freedom of others, the desire to dictate to others, and the desire to benefit society as a whole by doing thus. Problem is, it rarely works out that way.
I toyed with the idea of a politician who is the anti-politician, entering the realm of reducing freedom but instead making his or her platform one of “I am cleaning out all the old bad rules”. In other words, promising not to make any more rules, but instead, to get rid of the junk. Interesting thought that.
The rules of the game create the framework of operation within which we all operate, if we choose to participate, and even if we choose not to participate. Can we really change the rules of the game? The answer is a resounding yes, we can make them better, we can rid ourselves of bad rules, and we can make game changing modifications to our societies.
Will we? No…
Happy Birthday Kai!
Remember this?
And here’s a shot of you, Asako and Judy’s in the background, at Yosemite, when you were 2 years old.
Kai’s Birthday is July 20 exactly 7 days after mine!
Happy birthday to Cheech Marin, and of course Harrison Ford.
You say it’s your birthday?
Well, it’s my birthday too yeah…
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. 
Sound familiar? Did I mention my middle name is Aristotle?
Ok, admittedly I’m not as eloquent, but I do talk about we are what we do.
I’ve talked a lot about perspective here. This is what creates the “without point of view” half of Nothing Has Meaning.
I wanted to put the Declaration of Independence in just a little more perspective.
These 56 signers were elected officials of the English Colonies. The signing of the Declaration of Independence was an act of treason against the English Government punishable by death.
We do well to remember that. These men were each and every one of them extraordinary. I’m reading more about each of them, and it’s inspiring. We aren’t talking about “great” achievers necessarily, but their lives included one of the greatest acts of righteousness and bravery, which makes them extraordinary in and of itself.
The story behind the Declaration of Independence, and the events leading to the Declaration of Independence are also very interesting.
Would but that we as a People could all evince such extraordinary behavior…
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett , William Whipple , Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock , Samuel Adams , John Adams , Robert Treat Paine , Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins , William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman , Samuel Huntington , William Williams , Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd , Philip Livingston , Francis Lewis , Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton , John Witherspoon , Francis Hopkinson , John Hart , Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris , Benjamin Rush , Benjamin Franklin , John Morton , George Clymer , James Smith , George Taylor , James Wilson , George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney , George Read , Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase , William Paca , Thomas Stone , Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe , Richard Henry Lee , Thomas Jefferson , Benjamin Harrison , Thomas Nelson, Jr. , Francis Lightfoot Lee , Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper , Joseph Hewes , John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge , Thomas Heyward, Jr. , Thomas Lynch, Jr. , Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett , Lyman Hall , George Walton
Have you ever noticed that the rules we make, whatever the motive, are rarely followed, or enforced at random to benefit a few?
Take for example, micro-corporations, in the State of California. I’m using micro-corporations for discussion because I have found that they are a microcosm of bigger entities, such as "democracies" like the United States of America. Let’s discuss a fictitious membership nonprofit membership corporation model because this article is about participatory governing bodies, not profit businesses.
I’ve seen a few, and I’m always flabbergasted at how apathetic the Directors are (meet 6 to 12 times a year, do nothing in between meetings, say aye, go home…), how small the membership (also apathetic) and how disingenuous most of the "corporate activities" are, or how few members the activities benefit. And a serious number of these types of organizations are way past their prime and dying on the vine.
In essence, some are shill fronts for a few people’s efforts to get free money, jobs, leftover useless corps, or simply power over others for the thrill that gives some evidently.
Let’s say our discussion corp was formed to protect and serve the rights and privileges of a group of people, administer CCRs (covenants, conditions and restrictions) and it has a charter thus written and a set of bylaws.
Here’s what one would assume this corporation would do: protect the rights and privileges of its members and enforce the CCRs. What will typically happen in actuality is….nothing, or very little. What if the CCRs then expire? Wouldn’t that surely spell the end of the corp? Not necessarily. If someone benefits from the carcass of the dying corp, yep, it lingers on, and the apathy of the membership likely means there is no end in sight.
As is typical of membership corporations, the bylaws are usually made to protect the members, giving them control of the corporation they own. One way they do that is to require that at least a majority of the members (half plus one) be present at any membership meeting that conducts business, holds elections and etc. This prevents one or two people from controlling the corporation. However, as stated above, apathy kills that from actually being prevented, it happens anyway.
Now what if the membership grows and meetings are regularly held without a half plus one quorum present due to apathy? Only a handful of people now control the corporation, because they will not follow the rules.
Doesn’t it then stand to reason the corporation’s reason to be is over? That in essence the corporation is not serving the interests of the members as they are non-participants? Probably. And maybe not depending on the controlling few.
But what if they keep on going anyway? What if a couple people gain from this? What if it is in their interests to just keep on perpetuating this no longer needed corporation? What if they hold elections without a quorum take nominations from the floor and elect Directors not lawfully elected therefore? Rules mean nothing, proving my point.
And yes, the corp never dies, and never really is effective, though may manage to "serve" the members in some manner.
Apathy causes this to happen, and the members of this fictitious corporation would have only themselves to blame. The reality is that in all likelihood it’s more trouble than it’s worth to end it, depending on the size of the corp, the damage to the members, the loss. If the cost of status quo perpetuation is low, apathy wins, principle loses. However, simply following the rules would end it rather painlessly as no elections could ever take place due to a lack of a quorum.
I sometimes wonder what there is to combat apathy other than pain, and I realize the answer is again…nothing. Enough pain, and action is inevitable.
The micro-corporate microcosm of "democracy" is but a symptom of a greater ill, the apathetic masses.
Bring on the pain…and hopefully spur action.
Have you ever noticed how some people are simply brokers of ill will? They always manipulate and polarize those around them. They do this for their own benefit, and typically polarize, manipulate and pit against one another the people from whom they directly benefit.
Reminds me of the killer in Agatha Christie’s Curtain, Hercule Poirot’s final appearance.
The killer in Curtain didn’t actually kill anyone. In fact, Poirot wound up killing the killer and then killing himself leaving behind an explanation because he saw no other way to stop this killer lawfully, as there was no crime under the law in the story, and under most laws.
This killer was a broker of ill will. He would psychologically manipulate others into committing murder, even against the dear and near. He would do this maliciously for no apparent reason other than satisfaction of creating and spreading his malice.
Brokers of, and in, ill will seem to be mean spirited people, not entirely without merit as is common among human beings, but simply bent on achieving what I can only assume is the satisfaction of creating and preserving chasms between people, factions pitted against one another, usually so the broker feels benefited in some way.
There are varying degrees of this affliction as well. In some cases, it’s more of a bad character trait, a part of the whole, than it is their entire identity. In these cases you’ll only see the manifestation of the affliction intermittently while some are just constant downers. The really evil ones do it without you even knowing it’s happening, then suddenly, we see people behaving in unprecedented ways.
Brokering ill will has its roots in pure malice, and some appear to do it to preserve a perceived self interest on their part, to prevent what they think would be a catastrophic change from the status quo.
Brokering ill will stems from fear. Fear of the truth being known and thus causing some sort of damage to the fearful party. The truth is so feared in some quarters that life is a pitiful and painful existence.
In fact, most evil comes from fear. Fear is probably the real root of all bizarre and uniquely human evil behavior. It’s that ill juxtaposition of animal behavior and higher human intelligence.
So what can we do about these brokers of ill will? You can only change you so all you have to do is not allow these brokers to manipulate your thinking, your feeling, your understanding.
The bottom line is that our minds are windows, the window we look through, and any time you allow another person to influence your mind, without careful consideration and self referral on your part, you’ve given away a part of yourself and made that part of yourself something foreign, essentially into what the manipulator wanted.
Really, your mind is your universe, and the content of your mind is yours to mold. Why let others make you into something you are not?
Seize your mind and think for yourself.
When the going gets tough the tough get going. You have probably heard this saying before, and on the face of it is quite humorous, however, also quite telling.
The point here is that being "tough" implies a certain set of, yes, principles and values. (I have a category for principle now…)
So the tough, implicitly then, adhere to a set of principles along the lines of standing up for principle, not backing down, fighting for truth and justice, keeping on keeping on, not meekly fading in the face of adversity, carrying on when the chips are down, persistence, trebuchet, hammering the point, persistence…and did I mention persistence?
Of course tough could have other meanings depending on your point of view, something as mundane as "hard to kill". But I think we all can agree that collectively we refer to "tough" as being someone with backbone, and that means adherence to a set of principles and values. Of course a lot of tough people may be evil and wrongdoers, and still adhere to a set of principles.
Have you ever noticed, then, that this saying is essentially true?
On the flip side, the meek and the flaccid lay down when the going gets tough. Those without principle, or principle without opposition , lay down. Those "fair weather" types who talk big and walk small lay down. In fact, when the going gets tough, you learn what people are really made of. Fair weather is easy, bad weather can be hard, challenging, and require taking on a lot of demonizing and criticism, usually from those without backbone.
So we learn much from the actions of people in tough circumstances. And reveal the truth.
Only the tough keep on keeping on in the face of adversity. Are you tough?
In our ongoing discussion of principles and values occasionally we end up addressing the topic of adherence to one’s principles and values.
This is of great interest to me because here in the United States of America one finds that principles of convenience are rife. This is revealed through action, or lack of action. The actions one takes tells the true story of principle and value.
When one trumpets adhering to a principle, but then fails to uphold that principle through action, then one is practicing principle of convenience. That is to say that this is not principle at all but a fawning of value upon concepts one has no intent to uphold. Worthless really, pointless, and in some circumstances damaging.
Which brings me to this post, principle without opposition. These core values built on shared principles are tested at times, and our choice is to uphold or fold. The USA chose to uphold in the face of tyranny at its birth. This was not convenient, unlawful, certainly was heavily opposed, and punishable by death. Yet they carried on…
Principle without opposition is easy, and not principle at all.
Since nothing has meaning then how can meaning be erratic and whimsical? Set that aside…
Meaning is evidently highly personal, and uniquely human. With the advent of intelligence, human beings have gone from one bizarre and inexplicable vagary to the next. A seeming dichotomy of actions and outcomes. A reckless abandon toward oblivion taking every living thing with ’em.
Leaving us only with perception and the personal import of that perception.
A specific example is exemplified by the saying “there’s no accounting for taste”, amazingly true. I like rock and roll, others don’t. I make rock and roll I like, and don’t like. Some like the music I make that I don’t like. My favorite line is a mystery to others. Their favorite line is a mystery to me. We try to communicate these different perceptions and wind up crucifying the opposition minority. Or in my case being correct, while everybody else is wrong. Everybody…yee everybody.
The wonderful thing about the vagaries of meaning is that there is always some other human out there with a unique and specific outlook that will fit with or share common attributes with others’ perceptions. So in other words, we are not 100% different to the point of finding no shared values. We form niches. Good thing too, because if there are enough shared values communities spring up with all the incumbent marketing possibilities for the entrepreneurs.
Bad thing too because if there are enough shared values religions spring up and begin to repress, attack and kill every other viewpoint, literally.
But still, what an inconsistent mess from the local street to the chambers of “power”. The truth of the matter, the facts of the matter are entirely lost on humans and their meanings are all they see. Humans have little or no perspective.
Perspective? Didn’t I just say we all have different perspectives? Yeah, but having perspective is a different context. Learn English! Having no perspective is a reference to the inability to take the holistic view of any given context, or outside the bounds of the context to a universal holistic view.
And that is why nothing has meaning.
Strip away the vagaries of meaning and you are left with nothing but the facts, truth.
Yes, philosophers like to think truth is a concept whereas facts are solid information or events, but the truth is, the fact is, (puns intended) that there is the IS and it is true. Depending on what your definition of is is. (I can’t believe the Bill Clinton’s crazy rationalizing has made the fabric of metaphor.)
Strip away your vagaries and all that is left is peace…
A little known fact of the higher human order, living the voodoo lives of economics.
Everyone is in sales.
Yes, life is one big pitch.
This is one of the larger ironies of human kind, that they get jobs and work and think that they are not selling anything but are respectably “working” and “making a living”.
Sure that happens for real sometimes, subsistence farming is probably pretty close to survival like the animals, you grow or hunt what you eat or you don’t eat. Much like indigenous populations did and do.
But I’m talking about so called enlightened Westerners here. Us folks who somehow think that working at a job isn’t sales and we degrade those actually in sales. Those of us completely blindsided and unable to cope when said job is lost. Those of us with the entitlement attitude that seems to say “I showed up, where’s my money” with no real comprehension of what running a business is all about.
Bottom line, everyone is selling themselves, either pretty well or not so well.
Life’s a Pitch.
I had to finish the Do It Now, Do It Fast slogan.
Yes, Do It Now, Do It Fast, You’ll be Glad You Did!
The meaning of life? Meaningless, without a perspective. Much like the universe.
Nothing really exists without the apparatus that defines it.
I love you,
Mark
A buddy of mine, Jerry Howe, once said to me something along the lines that if I could do something I said I could do, and did not do it, then that amounts to the same thing as not being able to do it. Now, that was not meant literally, but rather philosophically.
So, we are not talking about martial artists who can kill with one blow not having that ability because they don’t kill with one blow. No, we are talking about the self imposed limitations of the human spirit, the downer attitudes that keep us from doing, whatever, whatever, we want.
The kind of thinking that states, I would if I could but I can’t, when in reality we could but we just don’t.
See, Do It Now.
On a somewhat related note I’ve decided to talk a little bit about time. Time is on my side, yes it is.
One philosophy is that time is an illusion, the fact is, there is no time. The truth is, there is no time, no time to do anything at all, any time at all.
But back to the point, in our product based societies we rarely look at the alternative results in time based productivity. What if you could achieve more in less time? Did you lose that productivity?
In other words, is unrealized potential the same as losing that potential?
In productivity terms yes. Take that elusive mass delusion known as money. If I earn dollars, in a given amount of time, but could have earned more dollars, in the same amount of time, I actually lost dollars. The same goes for non-monetary matters.
For example: If I could sit under an oak tree, and ponder the lack of meaning in the universe without a point of view or apparatus with which to measure meaning, for 4 hours, but could have sat there for 8 hours, I lost 4 hours of pondering time.
So there is something to be said for not only realizing we are in the now, and now is the only time (pun intended) to do it, but to do it fast as well. To maximize….whatever it is.
Whatever, whatever, I do what I want.
Philosophy tends to be somewhat dry and prone to inaction.
Not that philosophy isn’t the actual seat of all action, for values spring from philosophy consciously and subconsciously, however we typically think of philosophers as cerebral people who don’t really do much.
Philosophers deal with such concepts as truth, not facts. To paraphrase Indiana Jones “we deal in facts, if you want to debate the truth head down the hall to the philosophy department”. Or as Dad said to Young Einstein of scientists “what do they grow son?”
Sitting here in North Fork and thinking, constantly thinking (if only you’d been a man of action!) I had a revelation today. Or any day really.
Philosophy gets old because our brains seem unlimited in the thought process but really simply rehash the thoughts of those who have thought before, if not numbed into oblivion.
Do it now. I was thinking about how almost constantly we put things off, the smallest things even, and they pile up. Much like the junk we pile up.
Do it now. So if you have something to file file it. If you have some great idea write it down, then execute. Keep the crap from piling up.
Do it now, for now is truly the only time it will get done.
Standing on principle the United States of America gave a sweeping mandate to the one man in a position to affect meaningful change despite what the song says. See No Change by Off Every Day.
I was disappointed at times by Obama’s apparent lack of conviction, lack of consistency, lack of principle, but ultimately I found that he, the man, as a whole, is genuine and seriously championing equality, freedom, justice, democracy, the heart and soul of the USA. Like Andrew Jackson.
I called this election to be a land slide because I knew that US principles could no longer stand idly by and watch our country being destroyed, fragmented and shattered into ideological camps of lunatics because the effects were coming home and because some people became aware of the fact that business as usual was not sustainable.
11 trillion in the hole, 1 trillion expected in deficit spending, the US is in heaps of trouble, but our captain to be, is a steady hand in turbulent seas.
I recall thinking out loud when Obama was nominated how fucking unbelievably great this nation is.
Despite all that had happened, all the global sentiment against us, all of the dolt president’s bungling crimes, all the hatred and jealousy, all the dying human beings in useless conflict, all the US erosion of responsibility and leadership, all the apparent results of the end of US economic dominance, all the US imperialist mandates, despite this erosion of the US the Dems nominate Barack Hussein Obama to run for President of the United States of America.
We the People of the United States of America then elect him.
Has the US sent a message to the world? Fucking aye!
What a fucking great Country this is. It’s a matter of principle.
There’s something to be said for principle.
As we peel away the layers of humanity and come to the realization that humans are a part of this earth and not on this earth and that our own vanity inflates our self worth to the point of believing there must be more to us, we can see that principle, or principles are the underlying basis of what makes a human…human.
Here in the United States we have an opportunity to voice our principles in a big way tomorrow, if one is of voting age.
Barack Obama will become the first President of the United States that symbolizes the principles of equality, honesty, justice and freedom.
Are these principles that we value? Do our actions evince these principles?
My vote is for Barack Obama as a matter of principle.
In Loving Memory of Chewy
Is that all there is? That’s all there is. What is? Whatever is, is. But anyway. . . .
Nothing that is except for wanting to move this web philosophy blog to a domain more relevant to the stories told here, the thoughts told here, the truths observed here.
insanityisnoexcuse Says:
July 14th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Happy birthday (plus one day) to the person closest to the goal of being OED (at least that I know).
I would have written yesterday, but I WAS OFF – ha ha!
(Ok, so in honor of Insane Boy I posted this under July for July 2008 whilst I was OED.)
I’m awaiting moderation, no actually I’m not. But the thing is is that the thing is and the irony here is my favorite double meaning situation, where the true meaning lies in the perception of the meaning, as in all meaning, or lack of meaning as nothing has meaning. So the phrase makes me laugh. I’m awaiting moderation, to be moderate, not to be moderated.
Nived inspired me to write this up after a sweet conversation about the differences between self consciousness and insecurity.
First the definitions: self conscious and insecurity.
The answer is pretty obvious. But I’d like to clarify one thing, our discussion of self conscious referred to awareness of others observing one, not awareness of self. I see myself, and my life, as something else. . . . .Off Every Day
As for lack of confidence, is that a part of being aware of others observing one? No. More than ever, despite my own insecurities (pun intended) about the topic, I know that, no, being self conscious does not in and of itself indicate a lack of confidence.
What it could indicate, is vanity, not necessarily but there is a chance. Of course, being self referral, did I say that? nope, yeah, so being self referral I wouldn’t agree that self conscious people are also automatically to be assumed to be insecure, this can occur simultaneously, in fact I would say that insecure people are self conscious, but not a given the other way around.
Where does this all lead?
Nowhere
Do you ever feel pain when listening to John Lennon? How weird is that? What kind of phenomena is this when an unknown human being, personally, creates music (freaky enough as it is), dies at 40 and then I feel pain when I listen to this music?
As Dingo boy would say, get over it.
But still. Even after all these years, I miss John Lennon.
The human condition is such a pain. Pathetic.
April has been a lean month for expostulating on the meaninglessness of reality, or lack thereof.
I dig movies, why, I don’t know.
Acting has been freaking me out lately however, because as Marlon Brando pointed out, it is professional lying. Actors don’t act real at all, they act like people act in movies. Wow, they were good, I really believed. However, if you study the thing, real life is never like a movie, and I don’t mean the suspension of disbelief angle, I mean just how people behave.
Acting is surreal and freaky, and very entertaining. We can live vicariously through our famous actors who sacrifice so much to entertain, their identities, their sense of self and their sense of proportion.
I would be a really crappy actor.
My idea inspired by Michael Freemire.
Quantum physics or mechanics. Atomic level reality. Interconnectedness. Nothing really exists without the apparatus that defines it. Things aren’t real, no thing is real. (And nothing to get hung about. John Lennon, Strawberry Fields Forever) The nature of reality.
As I ponder some of the revelatory modern thinking coming out of the physics arena I still can’t help but look out my door and see the world. There it is, solid, real, and apparently consistent.
The irony of this is that physically speaking there is no physical, philosophically speaking the is is what you want it to be yet we all agree the sky is blue and the sun is yellow. I dealt with that quandary in the classic Devin Castles favorite Is the sun green? by Off Every Day. Yes, we all perceive differently. Yes, the sun may in fact be green, or are we all color blind?
Here is what I am getting at, if we all create our own reality, yet we are all interconnected, yet we are all individual, yet we all agree on the same reality, yet we all create our own reality, you see where I am going, the dichotomy of that thinking becomes nearly hypocritical and rationalistic. Get on with it. Live life. Ponder later.
I look up, raindrop in my eye.
Ah yes. The greatest country in the history of the world.
Built on freedom, tolerance and self governing through agitation and opposition to tyranny.
How far we have come.
As we tenuously cling to all of the above and the people are lulled ever deeper into a sense of helplessness the cycle prepares to repeat. Will the US survive? Absolutely.
The very core of our identity (I am a natural born US Citizen, literally not just constitutionally) gives us the tools, the power, to renew ourselves, our country, our identity and wash ourselves clean of corruption and plutocracy.
Why mobilize?
Why not?
I came up with this phrase in a context entirely not of its making. So to speak, write. So let’s leave that out and move to what I liked about the saying in the first place.
Prudence and the People sort of evokes an interesting combination looking at prudence as what I consider a constraint notwithstanding John Lennon’s wonderful tribute to some chick he was enamored with in his incredible Dear Prudence. Yeah, he was married at the time and I doubt there was anything more than a certain “lighten up” in his tune.
So I am gonna have to reference the dictionary definition of prudence here. Should I say a dictionary rather? I can’t think of this word without thinking about my buddy Greg Borden’s mock quoting of George H. W. Bush saying “wouldn’t be prudent at this juncture” about some US interests that have long faded into history. George knew his English apparently.
So let’s go with self interest for prudence, or self interest and caution with discretion. So I guess, really, it’s the sound of Prudence and the People that get’s me going, not the meaning. But once the words roll off the tongue or mind then the meanings one gives them can begin to coalesce, of course with point of view, and humor and irony typically abound. Prudence and the people. I suppose the irony I see is that people are typically not very prudent, at this juncture, and though we have animal instincts to preserve our self interests we in fact are destroying the same on a daily basis. I also like to think of Prudence as an entity, now, here they are, Prudence and the People. Nice band name.
Let me introduce you two Mr. Wild Abandon’s playground long in the works and at last manifested by a need to upload massive files, Freedom Philosophy, where one can digress with great eloquence and meet Adam’s dad Jared. Or is Adam Jared’s son? Who belongs to whom?
I’ve spoken about this a lot. And I’ve found the rhetoric to be mind maddeningly deafening at the same time as being pointless.
A paradigm is a function of perception. Mass perception.
As with everything there are going to be agreed upon definitions and boundaries of any given circumstance or thing, so do let’s dispense with the formalities of paradigms and simply agree that a paradigm shift is a large change in the way human beings think usually taking place over a generation or two.
The shift we are now in the grips of is the shift toward quantum thinking, the interconnectedness of everything and that everything plays a role in the nature of reality. The observer largely chooses the nature of reality, in essence. And one cannot exist without having a relationship with all existence, and affect that existence.
This brings me to nationalism and globalism. Only one can address this new way of thinking, and only one can survive.
We are one people on one earth and this new way of thinking will create the circumstance of thought we need as a people to continue to achieve and exist within the quality of life we all desire.
Well let’s see. Eat. Breath. Sleep.
Create. Recreate. Okay, those don’t necessarily make a living depending on your point of view but hey, we’re philosophical here.
The reality and the perception are two different things as insanity and nived seem to have grasped.
Just another example. Shall I reiterate?
Humans make a living in the most fundamental way, yet believe a profession or job or career is how they make a living. This is out of touch with reality, the way of things.
Get in touch.
Define defining. Something that sets a trend? Something that indicates a paradigm shift?
Here in the US we are on our way.
Check it.
Yes indeed.
The thought of many things is not necessarily the way of things, in fact, rarely. The way of things is what one comes to grip with or not. When one does get a grip on the way of things, then, one can move in other directions and change the way of things, albeit slowly, but surely, or not.
Is this contradictory? Does achievement as identified by the individual come at the expense of the way of things? Or is achievement the way of things?
Still, hope springs eternal, that one will become what one is not, or do what one does not, until the day when one can let it all go.
You have to let it all go, Neo.
Moving forward walking on my own two feet. . .
That is the start of a song by Off Every Day, not recorded, not released, never heard in fact.
What this reminds me of is the philosophy of motion, or the illusion of motion, or the idea of motion. As we move through history we endlessly repeat human folly yet somehow manage to not only destroy our earth, the earth of which we were a part and can still be, but also evolve beyond the animal instincts that create violence, greed, repression, suppression, discrimination, and on. Reaching eventually neutrality, balance, the middle way, evenness. Yet, we will never effect change, another OED line, seems to also be strongly in place.
So moving forward is the idea that we change, that we move away from things that don’t sustain us and move toward new and different ideas.
Moving forward walking on my own two feet.
John Lennon hasn’t made me cry in freaking ages. Well, not John Lennon per se, but rather the lack thereof. Freaks me out how one can care about complete strangers so deeply, strangers afflicted with this bizarre phenomena aka fame. Then dies. Shot dead by a freak. So after reeling with pain and sorrow for years, not listening to any Lennon without choking up, time passes and as all things must pass, the pain goes away and Lennon becomes another human being with all the usual human characteristics and afflictions, I can listen again, dissect, criticize, enjoy, marvel, laugh and altogether remember why I love his work so much on top of the childhood awe and joy of wild abandon The Beatles held like magic. I age past him. I am older than he was at death. I stop crying. Until today. Whoa. Listened to Nobody Told Me and Nobody Sees Me Like You Do (Yoko Ono) and, dang if it didn’t happen again.
I’m crying.
Imagine this. Human beings feeling a part of the earth, aware of the earth, sensitive to our place in the earth ecosystem.
We are so completely out of touch with our biological roots that we seem to live “on” the earth, not with it, or within it.
I flashed on the scene of when little kids see a deer or some other animal and get so excited “look! a deer!” and are genuinely thrilled to see another resident of this earth, and are in awe and wonder of how they live. Even some adults do this.
So I got to thinking about what it would be like to see human beings this way, imagine them this way, wonder about them, feel like that about ourselves.
I many times ponder what animals do as they cruise their habitat, where they sleep, where they eat, how they live and mostly how they can never be disconnected from their earth, our earth. So I wondered that about me, and the rest of us.
We don’t see our homes as habitat, or automobiles as a metal box flying over the surface of the earth, or television as the most bizarre thing ever (staring at a box, grinning or crying like idiots, hell, I’m doing it now) and so on.
I’ll be in touch.
Uh. Yeah. One more thing, said Columbo.
One must actually take action. Take Action. Better than Just Do It don’t ya think? Nike locked that up so tight you can’t think of just do it without ’em coming to mind. How about “do something”? Maybe.
Take Action, Get on With It
You want to make a living writing? Sharing information? Selling information? Advertising other products?
You must write, share, sell, advertise. That is work. That isn’t being Off Every Day. That is however being in control and not punching a freaking time clock.
Joined Technorati Today
As I read the Dalai Lama discussing physics and spirituality and their similarities quoting physicists he’d met with he described quantum mechanics and physics thus:
Nothing Really Exists Without the Apparatus that Defines It
What I say? See, NHM is really about quantum mechanics of philosophy. Seems obvious, but so many human beings live in fear of insignificance that they look for answers to questions that don’t exist. Reminds one of John Lennon’s “well I tell them there’s no problems, only solutions” a cheesy but somewhat similar concept, much better was “and nothing to get hung about” but that was from the Beatles days.
At any rate, Nothing Has Meaning Without Point of View
Yeah, well it is still January 1, 2008 here on the Pacific Coast in beautiful North Fork California located in corrupt Madera County.
Just writing to tell that this year will mark a completely dull and listless reality, depending on your point of view.
Took up some interesting reading by the Dalai Lama. For a religious type he seems to be very philosophical and certainly open to empirical evidence, in fact requires it, to determine the nature of reality, seeking, my favorite subject, truth.
Let’s talk about truth some more this year. Really, let’s talk about everything over and over again this year, maybe by the 120th version the knife will cut.
Last post of the year I suppose. In summary let me just say that the year has been like any other, unremarkable and completely meaningless.
Fitting, don’t you think?
Power, unrealized power. We all hold the power to affect massive change, but fail to use this power.
Or rather, we use the power blindly and without thought or consideration. Do I mean democracy and voting? Nope. Go to Fit To Print for scoffing galore on that front, along with various degrees of modern whining and hilarious insight.
But consumption and spending, there lies the real power. The power of the dollar.
Consumers drive all economies, or, consumption drives economics. The whole shebang is agreed upon delusion that functions for us in a playful, unpredictable and often devastating way. Despite all that, we love it, embrace it, can’t live without it.
So if you think about it (how many times can I use it?), every time you spend a dollar, spend any amount on anything, you are making a statement of endorsement. Fill your tank, pro oil industry. Turn up the heat, pro oil industry or utilities or whatever. Turn on the lights, pro coal burning, pro oil industry, pro nuclear power. Buy a feel good prius, pro wasteful embodied consumption in exchange for feeling good. Buy electronics, pro china, or japan, or where ever. Get my drift.
You are voting with your dollars, how you vote is up to you, and your dollars tell no lies.
The honest dollar, you gotta love it.
I can’t get it through my head.
Though it’s been so many years,
John Lennon’s dead.
We only control ourselves.
Diverging from meaning, and looking at control, again, yes, again is an interesting study.
There will always be victims, and perpetrators, however in the course of our pampered meaningless American lives we generally are not faced with such vagaries. So taking this to luxurious philosophical discourse I am talking about manipulation and control of our decisions.
We make all of our decisions, no matter how contrived or rationalized, no matter what external forces may affect us. This is also literally true, physically and biologically in terms of the origins of physical action only occurring within each of us, but we’ll leave out true violence and persecution for the moment.
I am always struck by the alacrity for blaming in this country, or in this modernized meaningless western life style. Excuses. Everyone makes excuses. No decision seems to be made based on inner desire or motivation but rather is blamed on circumstance beyond our control.
The truth underneath everything is my relentless mantra, that our actions reveal values, values motivated into action, and that a choice has occurred underpinning the motivation for the action. Blah, blah, blah. Not recognizing this truth and making excuses is tantamount to preaching tolerance and non-violence while murdering innocent living beings. That is an extreme used here only as a metaphor. Like a government persecuting other autonomous nations through death and violence in the name of freedom or some other wonderful value or concept purporting to honor and value life.
Peeling away the layers of external forces and turning inward to ourselves, frees us from the abdication of responsibility and the bearing of a burden of guilt for other’s actions, while in fact making letting it all go possible.
Let go of having control over anyone other than yourself, deeply considering one’s choices, always asking yourself for advice, being completely true to yourself, standing up for your values, relentlessly, is true freedom, and responsibility.
And don’t think this applies to the helpless in the sense that those in need, still need help and possibly cannot, literally, take action. Like small children. Take great care of your children and all children, teach them the same responsibility for themselves, and maybe someday we will have an enlightened society that can watch the earth cease to support life as we value it, together in harmony.
Tools. Useful. Steady. Irritating. Not to blame.
Been thinking about the old quandary, the old excuse really, if only I had this or that to do this or that, or I can’t do this or that because I don’t have this or that, and so on. Touched on it before, but I always had a real affinity for digging, literally. You want to jonez the flow? Dig. A lot. Hit the second wind. Hit base brain. See each small step. Lose site of the big picture. Be in flow. Reach that pinnacle.
So when thinking about tools, what better example than a shovel?
And when thinking about causes of lack of reaching some ridiculous goal, some material goal, some societal goal, some admired Western achievement, the shovel becomes a metaphor for the means, the hole is the end.
You get the obvious then, I expect.
No matter what equipment one has, or doesn’t, motivation is the ultimate means.
Happy Birthday John Lennon,
I miss you, and I never knew you personally,
what a world
If you are a musician and play for the music, not fame, glory, or women, then you will recall listening to a tune or piece of music and dismissing it out of hand as “commercial”. I remember.
My buddy Victor Moreno loaned us Jazz by Ken Burns and I was pleased to see that this practice goes back many decades.
Real musicians versus profiteers.
Which isn’t to say that commercial music is always without musical merit, but mostly is.
When I was jamming back in the eighties the commercial music scene was far more wholesome than today’s, and yet we true musician’s still puked at the thought of producing such crap. So we don’t.
And are happy musicians. But out there somewhere, is someone who will say, when listening to our tunage. . . “commercial”.
Final analysis and Off Every Day’s reason to be, it’s the music.
Well, promised to address this.
Be whatever you want to be.
Now really, defining oneself is not as simple as it seems. If I were a mechanic, or carpenter, or musician, or beautician, no wait, I am, well, suspend that for a second, if I were a physicist, is that what I am?
No, literally I am whatever I, or the group defines. Say, human being. Take it out of the biologically literal and we usually wind up at craft, or career, or work of choice, or work of force as the victims would proclaim, so we are Doctors and Lawyers and so on.
Be whatever you want to be? Another touchstone of the insane, we measure ourselves by our daily work, and yet, any given meaning (where there is none inherently of course) usually has an underpinning of emotional, ethical, values, love, joy, contentment, peace. So what am I?
I am honest.
opportunityisnowhere
I think I touched on this before, funny how that is, we repeat ourselves endlessly, for the well of creativity is finite, and the obsessions of vision appear limited when faced with a blank computer screen, so much to say, so little time, so. . .hey, I’m drawing a blank.
What do you see? Came across this in a Kirby sales training, about mind set, the entrepreneur versus the employee type of attitude.
OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE
Probably not a fair question as the human brain is so conditioned to put things together but the point is very illuminating
OPPORTUNITY IS NOWHERE and OPPORTUNITY IS NOW HERE
Which did you see? If you are at all like me, and the rest of us, your brain picked out the first. But if you think different, or let’s just say you have an open mind that is without boundary, you probably saw both, deciphered the point of the lesson, and gave the right answer to the insane trainer, opportunity is now here.
What appeals to me in this little exercise is the affirmation of our conditioned thinking. Our concepts of time. Our concepts of opportunity. How we limit our windows of opportunity, how we constantly accept a fate of mediocrity as a convenience based on the down attitude of lack of opportunity, or missed opportunity, how we see these windows as ending, and how we fail to recognize the we live in the moment, and this moment, this very moment holds all the wonder of newness and peace and everything else, as any other moment.
Moving forward. Thinking forward. Really amounts to being here now, being here now within that unfortunate construct that creates the illusion of time, and the illusion therefore of future, and planning, and goal setting and blah, blah, blah.
Within that construct, shedding the limits of our phobias, will set you free, to be, whatever you want to be. And what is being? Another topic for another day.
Moving forward is all we do, and we do it backwards most of the time.
Opportunity Is Now Here
Directly related to truth. Recently I observed the US Congress and President meddling in freedom of expression issues, diverting their attention, as always, from issues, and I observed a complete lack of conviction, yet again, on the part of any representatives.
Public trust is dead. There is no person, or few, willing to stand up for truth, speak truth, observe truth, show some common sense, and act accordingly.
To act without political fear, without posturing, without concern about retribution and retaliation, without a calculated disingenuousness, from the self, from personal values, from the heart, from conviction, with integrity, with ethics, takes a type of person long absent from government. There is risk involved in any action, calculated or not.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and we here in the US are presiding over the greatest fall in history.
We got what we deserve.
Nived’s deal about living better choices. Pretty funny actually. The man mocks me constantly. I love it.
So what’s it all about? The NHM adage that we live our values, adage and truth. Despite any conceptual misgivings, or proselytizing, or so called beliefs, what it all boils down to is what we do is what we value, literally.
So what Devin was somewhat flippantly referring to, then, is that if our actions display, reveal, affirm values we don’t particularly like or want to acknowledge then make better choices, hence, have better values.
Have Better Values, love that too.
As Yianni would say, or quote depending on your readness, be true to yourself.
Which brings us to the topic of the moment. Not the topic in the moment, but the topic about the moment. . .for the moment.
I’ll say it again, we exist only now. We exist only in this moment. We exist only in the present. We experience only now. We see only now. We hear only now. We are now here. Or is that nowhere?
Off Every Day did a number about this one, Here and Now. The title sums it up. The interesting thing is that though we intellectually know this, we spend, actually waste, the moment by ignoring it. This moment is all we will ever have.
All the rest is a diversion to drive you insane.
Maybe tomorrow I will be a rock star. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get on that. Maybe tomorrow I am a rock star. Maybe tomorrow I will be what I am not. Maybe tomorrow I will seem like I did yesterday. Maybe tomorrow I’ll remember what I meant by maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow will be today and yesterday the day after.
Maybe tomorrow isn’t real. But then again, tomorrow never knows.
The player doesn’t like this file Why I Don’t Know
[audio:2007_08_16_why_I_don’t_know.mp3]
“Oh, if there’s an original thought out there I could sure use it now” Bob Dylan’s Knocked Out Loaded Album
Ever feel that way? Ever feel that your thoughts are endlessly repeating? Girl, girl, rock and roll, bike, gun, girl, the meaning of the universe, girl, soil health, girl, math, girl, responsibility, girl, music, rock and roll, girl, rock and roll, girl, rock and roll, rock and roll, rock and roll, rock and roll, girl, you get it, rock and roll.
So it goes with my brain. (Love “and so it goes” by Kenneth Patchen. Judy is a big fan. I never have read much but what I have is all that and more. . . and so it goes. Gotta read that junk soon.)
Now that I realize that my readers need really concise language that cuts right to the point, with no brain exercise required, no thought, no effort, instant comprehension. . instant comprehension’s gonna get you. . . gonna knock you off your feet, I will make no effort whatsoever to accommodate that ridiculous request or implication or contradiction or criticism.
What does it mean? It means a lot. Keith Richards – funny tune about. . girls, rock and roll, girls, rock and roll
So lets stop pointing fingers for a second and talk a little bit about responsibility.
What is that? What is taking responsibility. I just read a Carol Burnett quote, of all people, Carol the great philosopher, in Ecological Home Ideas, along the lines that only she can change herself, no one else can. Just thought of it. It didn’t inspire this post, Insanity did, of course, but now that I am off and running on the responsibility gig again I remembered the quote. Somebody out there likes me – David Bowie
Taking responsibility is to realize the truth that all our thoughts and actions derive from us, intentionally, by us and due to us. I know, I know, who wants that? How can I go on if I can’t say “it’s not my fault”. Easy, actually. No subconscious, no unintentional, no accidental.
If you accept that for a moment, think about it, reflect upon it, there comes the idea of freedom from manipulation and pain, by recognizing control of us is ours.
We can control ourselves if but we would. Manipulation, derivation, obfuscation, lazination, crazy Nation, will cause reactions, but, we can also learn to act, only act, never react. Each movement carefully and instantly produced from a life time of disciplined study and inward visits.
Yuck.
Pun intended.
Wellp. Some of my readers can’t comprehend what I am saying or understand the words coming out of my mouth.
Too bad, so much to miss, so little comprehended.
So let me spell it out. Don’t Question Mark is a pun, a reference to my name and a reference to the question mark. Now to take that further into the realm of this diary, this web log, this whatever, into the realm of philosophy we look at Question Mark as an action.
To question mark? What is that? To question me, the pun obviously, so don’t and also to question in general, and also to use the question mark. So don’t question mark can mean don’t ask questions, and don’t punctuate, as well as don’t always question or in one philosophical sense immediately reject.
Strangely enough, not question marking can be seen as keeping an open mind.
For those of you comprehension challenged, now that you are completely lost, I will elucidate.
Don’t Question Mark means Keep An Open Mind.
Why didn’t I just say that? Don’t question Mark!
Sometimes I jot down ideas as titles and am left with no clue as to what the hell I meant.
But probably on this one, well, I would guess that this philosophy, the philosophy of letting it all go is the key reference.
So the problem solved deal is obviously a reference to this wonderful diary.
The diary of problem solving.
No Problem.
Buddy of mine just picked up a 2006 Buell Ulysses.
For those not in the know this is a motorcycle, designed specifically for jonezing the flow. More on jonezing the flow some other time.
In discussing his decision to purchase this this thing, he mentioned letting go, and the phrase was born when I uttered it.
If you wanna jonez the flow, you gotta let go.
Went to a funeral yesterday.
jesus.
When the rain stops soil will suffer.
When the rain stops rivers will dry.
When the rain stops groundwater will deplete.
When the rain stops springs will dry up.
When the rain stops plants will die.
When the rain stops dams will be useless.
When the rain stops life ends.
Once again this is about perception. Our perception changes, not time.
In fact, time is an illusion.
So be here now, and forget the time.
What? Notwithstanding what?
Meaning, without meaning, that despite being self aware we are who we are, love whom we do and so on.
Having got past that, what of the fact that self improvement is a myth? Or rather, self improvement refers to one’s own assessment of what one is and what one wants to be.
The irony is, nothing changes, only our point of view. The joke is on us.
The idea of reaching an end while still adhering to principle and law, is the opposite of the common usage of this slogan itself. Typically means to an end refers either to a convenient mean, or an unethical mean, but rarely to a valid common mean, like a hammer for instance, a mean to driving a nail. 6/29/07.
That is the idea I present here. The means to an end does not literally have to mean (pun intended) a bad method, unscrupulous method or immoral method though we do usually reserve the phrase for at least a sort of blasé nonchalant attitude toward the means if not when considering the means to be unscrupulous.
So what I am floating here is a means to an end literally, nothing groundbreaking or original of course, but simply food for thought regarding the “what” versus the “how” and how (pun again intended) we get hung up on the means or how and base the what or end on ridiculous limitations.
Well, the means to an end is a necessary evil, or in this case normal every day occurrence, the end however is ours to make.
Dang I am going to quote Harrison again. Gain the world and lose their souls. This post is about the price of material success, meaning of course the agreed upon notion that success means having a material existence of affluence and wealth.
Typically, Harrison is right, people of great material wealth tend to be soulless stress maniacs. Of course, this isn’t universal, but hey, we gotta complain about something.
Then again, those of you who are NHM fans probably don’t adhere to the wonderful notion of material success.
Success is measured one investor at a time.
This is an animal subject, with amazing and compounding results when coupled with sentience.
This is part of the great dichotomy of humanity, the vanity of humanity coupled with carnal emotion.
Frank Herbert in this Dune series referred to fear as the mind killer. Yeah, never liked that rhythm or feel of the words, but the point is true, logic goes out the window with fear. Logic being a higher thought or non-animal process.
Calm and cool under pressure really refers to having no fear, keeping common sense and logic in play when the typical human is freaking out and succumbing to animal behavior. Panic. Fight or flight. These are all indications of the mammalian carnal existence.
Would but that we could all be Spock.
Or something in between. Buddha smiling peacefully is one thing but I sure do love visceral rock and roll.
The deadly combination of carnal and cerebral. Who needs drugs?
Bad English. Another slogan topic here for you.
Now if this was true, if your product produced results, results you can count on that slogan would be pretty good. Yeah, I would use it. In fact, I think I will, along with don’t settle for less.
The thing that I wonder about, and this holds true for a lot of advertising, aka communicating to sell, is are those the desired results? Or, what exactly are we talking about? 25% more? More what? Wouldn’t the slogan speak to the consumer, prospect, reader, target better by saying desired results you can count on?
Desired results you can count on. Doesn’t have the ring. And then there is the problem of most people not knowing what they desire, even when purchasing the obvious, like promotion for example. They want promotion but what constitutes desirable promotion? Sales go up? Ultimately yes, but practically no. The desired result in any promotion is to communicate the product or service’s unique identity to a specific audience, those with a desire for the product or service.
I once asked a guy who his target audience was and he replied people who want those things. Very true. But the point is, who are these people? Young, old, white, black, affluent, poor, western, eastern, third world? You can’t hone a promotion with vague generalities but you can sell one if it produces. . . .
results you can count on.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
This is the day for all of us to really think about what the United States was founded upon, is and will be into the future. This is the day to read and reread the Declaration of Independence, a document heard round the world, and an excellent guideline for all citizens to take responsibility for their governing. Reading the works of John Locke can shed even more light on why and how the United States of America came into being.
Today is the day to be reminded and to educate ourselves.
And to think about freedom.
What make this country great is its birth from an inherent opposition to imperialism.
What makes this country great is tolerance and understanding.
What makes this country great is its ownership by the people.
What makes this country great is a balance between social policy and free markets.
What makes this country great is personal responsibility to our country and ourselves.
What makes this country great is the opportunity to grow, or not grow.
What makes this country great is remembering what makes this country great.
Let’s make sure our United States stays true to itself.
You know, we all talk about problems, issues, challenges and so on, and usually there is someone or something at fault in our descriptions and tirades. Almost without fail this blame goes to an external force. Much like the blame game of life played on a personal level, the blame game of politics extends to society and governments. We the people point our fingers and continue our apathetic bloated lives. I don’t extend this globally, just to our so called first world. (Get ready to revisit the Declaration of Independence tomorrow.)
As I insist on personal responsibility so do I insist on cultural responsibility.
Anything human and human affected you see in this world you don’t like, don’t value, don’t believe to be healthy, blame on yourself, blame on us. Personally and as a group. And the blame extends way beyond what most of us can see. For example, most of us value clean fresh water while at the same time destroying such sources on a global level.
This idea of blaming ourselves reminds me a bit of the famous Walt Kelly quote from Pogo.
This is a play on the word deluded. If your integrity is diluted do you become deluded? Or is being deluded a sign of a diluted morality? A diluted sense of reality?
Or would deluded be an enriched sense of reality?
Mass delusion is a sign of religion. Mass dilution is a sign of moral decay.
Old concept. Old overused phrase, maybe. But I do ponder on this one all the time, momentarily, both puns intended.
We can only be here now. We are only here now. We exist instantaneously at all times, literally. Yet, the past and the future haunt us. We spend our lives striving to be something we are not, to have something we have not, to understand something we do not, to conceive of purpose we do not have. Everybody, yeah everybody.
We are cursed by the vanity of humanity and the pain and suffering of self awareness and self pity.
Only the enlightened will realize the truth, we are in this moment for good.
The other day I had occasion to visit with a man who appeared to be under a lot of stress. Made me think about zen and letting it all go. Made me think about how being under stress is an externalization of an internal process. Made me think about how all the spiritual study in the world falls flat if one let’s the little stuff dominate.
Stress. Pain. Emotion. All created by us as a reaction.
But what is this reaction really? An action that reflects our core. Here we go again. I am getting tired of using this word but I have to say it again, it comes down to what you value. Values aren’t only positives, they are also negative. So those of us who stress, value stress or we wouldn’t do it. Before Hazel goes off on being at the whim of reality I do want to acknowledge that these philosophies are dealing with concepts, not absolutes in the practical sense, but absolutes in the literal sense. Only I control me. How I do that and to what affect comes down to how well I know myself, physically and mentally.
So letting it all go reflects our values really. Values are the core of everything human beyond physical hard wired reactions. Those too are values but mastering the physical body is probably a greater challenge than mastering the mental body. Someday maybe. And yes it has been done.
The strange conclusion reached here is that stress like all perception is a self imposed pain that we are either addicted to, or we don’t have the vision to see that we are making our own pain. John Lennon once said “no one can harm you, feel you own pain” in his absolutely fantastic song I Found Out off of Plastic Ono Band, his first solo album. That nails this topic perfectly.
We really are our own worst enemies, would but that we would just focus on ourselves we could become Off Every Day.
Letting it all go will lead you to a way of being that can be frightening in its detachment but very cool in its calm.
The last music posts that were rough recordings of My Favorite Subject by Off Every Day is something new I am trying out, largely as a motivator I must confess, but should prove to be interesting.
Before I forget I did want to point out one of the most incredibly consistent observations I’ve made about musicians and how the public relates to them. Any aspiring musician is the subject of criticism from virtually anyone. The interesting thing here is that the general public will not criticize, in general, a published artist or more importantly a well known artist. What would have been “you should do this and you should do that” becomes “not my bag, but I respect what they are doing”. Not everyone is like this, least of all me and my favorite subject, I’ll relentlessly criticize anything, music most of all. I am not an aspiring musician, I am one.
Back to the topic though.
What I am doing here, is to publish, after each session hopefully, a rough mix of that night’s work.
These first two are actually writing sessions, where I play the song over and over experimenting with lyrics and melodies. Since they are solo performances they take on certain characteristics that will be nothing like the finished product. Of course I will publish solo versions of everything as well, but the interesting thing here should be for all the OED fans to see the evolution first hand. Probably stupid to do in that one gets to see all the weak performances as well but fun nevertheless.
The goal of phase one is what I call a pilot track. Normally I wouldn’t do this, I would repeat until I had the final arrangement, write the drums, record the drums and go from there. Problem being that you can’t drum to a guitar track after the fact and since I never used a click track or metronome I always laid down the drums first. But now. . . I am using a metronome in Acid Pro 6.0 so I can do the opposite. Giving it a go anyway.
Pilot track in the works.
Wellp. After updating to Acid Pro 6.0d because of repeated exception errors I blew my time, which is an illusion. So I whipped out Vegas 7.0 mistakenly referred to as 6.0 and laid what I hope to be the final arrangement in a decent performance.
One of the things that will become evident to fans is that these performances are not in fact performances in the sense that a live performance would be. You mix it up when playing solo to help kill the repetition doldrums. But a pilot track, that can be really boring. If you want to try out harmonies and such the melody has to be exacting, no mixing up. This is unfortunately more like a live performance. Anyway. Probably the last pilot post.
[audio:2007_06_28_My_Favorite_Subject.mp3]
Me.
[audio:NHM_My_Favorite_Subject_06_27_2007_Take_3.mp3]
Now that I am in the arena of slogans I find myself analyzing the deeper meanings, or rather the other interpretations of such slogans.
Don’t Settle For Less, I like it, if you see life as an accumulation of stuff, materialism, or in the case of an advertising slogan don’t settle for anything but us.
But then again, what if don’t settle for less is a reference to the realization of the meaning of life? Or spiritual enlightenment? Or philosophizing truth? Finding truth?
As all of the oblique approaches to a phrase begin to congeal, I start to really settle. . . for less.
For all you Off Every Day fans here is a rare opportunity to hear a work in progress.
Very in progress.
Take a hear.
[audio:My_Favorite_Subject.mp3]
Working through a public agency I ran into a County Counsel who seemed on the face of it to be ethical and genuinely concerned about serving and protecting the public as pursuant to their duty.
This is an ongoing case with a few twists and turns but is really very simple.
A public road that was built in 1879 and used from then on by the public was disputed by a property lying along this road. Yes, there is ample evidence and documentation supporting the road, including its express exclusion from this property, but evidence is only useful in a court of law when faced with corrupt individuals.
The local County affirmed the road for a while and then did a complete reversal and began a process of negotiation and accommodation serving the interests of the disputing property, and the personal interests of the County Counsel. Why? The County was sued by this property, and as I have learned, lawsuits aren’t about justice, principal, law or truth, but about negotiating an agreement between the parties, whether or not it conforms with law, whether or not it protects the public, whether or not it complies with codes, whether or not it is just.
Between private individuals this process may be good, may resolve issues, may save the courts time and money, but with public agencies, this process is corrupt. The publics’ rights are non-negotiable and are rapidly being given away throughout our great nation, given away being a relative term meaning lost, dissipated like the inexorable rot of a bloated corpse having overeaten to the point of death.
A public agency secretly reaching a private agreement attempting to affect and terminate public rights and safety is an egregious affront to everything this Country was built upon.
At one time, the man mentioned above appeared to be teetering on the brink of morality, only to step back into the realm of servicing special interests with its inherent disdain for law and order and justice, or maybe he simply appeared to be almost ethical and moral followed by a display of his true nature.
Thomas Jefferson once said that all humans have a duty to oppose and rise up against tyranny, not the luxury, the duty. He said this in a famous incendiary document meant to incite the people to rise up and fight for justice, righteously and correctly. He said this with the intent that all future generations would adhere to this principle guaranteeing a process of renewal and cleansing.
This very document today is nominally revered and all but ignored. What was it?
The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
Read It, every word.
A lot of Happy going on here.
This is the longest day in the northern hemisphere. Marks the beginning of summer. Many who value cultist belief systems give it spiritual and magical significance. I on the other hand give it no meaning at all. Surprise.
Dig the long day though.
Happy Birthday Sister. Have a great one and keep on keeping on. Say hello to Tarzan.
As usual, my inspiration comes from within me, and without me.
In this case, Devin once again nails the essence of all that is.
[10:35:53 AM] Mark Stamas says: since all you want is bogus wow factor
[10:36:02 AM] Devin Castles says: hahaha
[10:36:02 AM] Mark Stamas says: you can make a cool little movie with a built in skin
[10:36:10 AM] Mark Stamas says: in about 3 minutes tops
[10:36:10 AM] Devin Castles says: slide shows are not bogus wow factor
[10:36:18 AM] Mark Stamas says: well check it out
[10:36:20 AM] Mark Stamas says: way cool
[10:36:21 AM] Mark Stamas says: and easy
[10:36:27 AM] Devin Castles says: my grandpa gave slide shows
[10:36:36 AM] Mark Stamas says: oh, how sweet
[10:36:41 AM] Mark Stamas says: grand pappy’s dream
[10:36:53 AM] Mark Stamas says: so it runs in the family
[10:36:54 AM] Mark Stamas says: hahahahaha
[10:37:00 AM] Devin Castles says: hahahaha
[10:37:01 AM] Devin Castles says: man
[10:37:10 AM] Devin Castles says: no wonder i used to think you were a scary bitter old man
[10:37:18 AM] Mark Stamas says: but now you know better
[10:37:22 AM] Mark Stamas says: besides
[10:37:27 AM] Mark Stamas says: I am a brilliant musician
[10:37:34 AM] Mark Stamas says: with no self respect
[10:37:36 AM] Mark Stamas says: haha
[10:37:38 AM] Devin Castles says: with no self
[10:37:47 AM] Mark Stamas says: ooh
[10:37:50 AM] Mark Stamas says: I like that
[10:37:54 AM] Devin Castles says: me too
[10:37:58 AM] Mark Stamas says: Nothing Has Me
[10:38:02 AM] Mark Stamas says: With No Self
[10:38:19 AM] Devin Castles says: i guess i can be badass in writing as well
[10:38:20 AM] Devin Castles says: who knew
[10:38:38 AM] Mark Stamas says: why, I did
[10:38:42 AM] Mark Stamas says: as per my comments
[10:38:55 AM] Devin Castles says: as per my rhetorical question i knew you were bound to answer
Wondering. Pondering. Wandering.
One of the ironies of higher thought is that thinking is utterly useless, as is life.
Once upon a time there was a time, or a place, when self awareness developed followed by the vanity of humanity. This led inexorably to thinking for the sake of thinking. Philosophy is the result. What do philosophers do? In the words of Einstein’s dad in Young Einstein “what do they grow son?” in reference to Einstein’s desire to be a physicist illustrates the same conundrum that philosophers face.
Thinking has led humankind to great achievements, from their perspective, and to the end of a life supporting globe.
Ah the irony. Thinking our way to oblivion. Fitting, I think.
Yeah I like to pretend I am worldly. Yeah, I do what I want, say so, and speak the truth.
I like to pretend I am worldly to my nephew, he needs advice, if not me than who?
Yeah. I have been fighting my destiny. Find and fulfill your destiny Zeus once said in the Clash of the Titans. Of course, Zeus was referring to Perseus.
I don’t really mean to fight my destiny, it’s just that I am lazy. Well, not lazy, just lackadaisical. Not invested. Carefree. In fact, there is not destiny. In fact, there is only truth. Oh darn, here I go again.
The term in fact really doesn’t mean in fact, in the sense of residing within fact. It means truthfully. But what if we think of it meaning residing within fact? Residing within fact, is truth, always present, always consistent, rarely observed. So inside of fact, there is no destiny, there is nothing, only truth.
So to think I have a destiny is foolhardy and fraudulent, and I know it.
I was just thinking, only thinking. Fantasizing. Proselytizing.
The wanna be writer mouths the words while writing. The wanna be writer can’t really write. The wanna be writer writes anyway ignorant of any shortcoming. The wanna be writer gets published. The wanna be writer makes bank.
The genius writer, goes unheeded and unheralded while suffering in pain.
The visionary enlightened writer, doesn’t write. Or do they?
Joe Middleton inspired this one. In fact, Joe said this.
The line of discussion was a facetious rant about how the men are never the problem, it’s the women. This was in reference to a divorce nearby where they have small children and are building a new home and the wife up and left, so to speak. I was calling Joe’s recent wife leaving cake in reference to this divorce. Then I mentioned that it’s never the men who cause this stuff, only the women. And the quote was born.
The joke is that the men are perfect and the woman are problematic.
We are never the problem, to us.
The shallow minded people who hold on to things so far removed from being one with the earth are absolutely astounding. Out of touch, out of time, out of reality, yet. . . blissfully ignorant.
This is the painfully correct assertion of the age old saying. Yes, what you don’t know, you don’t know. Will it hurt you? If you don’t care what difference does it make?
So in observing shallow people in their shallow lives living their shallow values and over using the word shallow one can only be left not only astounded, but a touch envious too. Well, not really. I’d rather be a visionary suffering the angst of existence or the peace of enlightenment than worrying about shallow things. Of course, if you are shallow you can’t drown.
Ignorance truly is bliss for those in that space, without vision and awareness you have. . . blissful ignorance.
Nothing, on the other hand, you will gain with vision and enlightenment.
An ancient repetitious theme here. Worthy of yet another visit.
One’s actions display one’s values. Disregard any stated values, purported values, promised values and watch the action and all will be revealed. The truth will be revealed.
And will set you free.
Well. I can’t really say that I know what the heck this one is to be about but I have plenty to not say about what I am not saying.
Truth versus fact. See, there is no difference. Jerry Howe refers to truth as each person’s perception of things, events for example. I differ in that I see his definition of truth for what it is, opinion. Jerry says facts are the solid indisputable things such as gravity, I say facts are the truth.
For example, using my favorite metaphor, trees, if I believe the tree standing 10 feet from me is not a tree, that is untrue. I mean, believe it is, say, a dog. Jerry would call that belief the truth, for Mark or whoever. I would call that opinion. Now, the tree exists, true. I call that a true fact, Jerry calls that a fact. Semantics, I know, point being that perception of things doesn’t change things. They are what they are. What you see, what you can see, seeing the truth is what this entire diary is about.
Obviously, Jerry is wrong and I am right. Haha.
Ain’t that the truth.
Big difference. Only time is an illusion. Only time is subjective. Only time keeps counting. I have no concept of time.
Well, in practical reality this is a reference to the old excuse one makes about not having the time, is that real? Is that true? Likely, no, it’s about priorities. Not making the time to do whatever it is. So not having time is really not making time, hence not finding the time.
How does one find time? If time is an illusion, can you find an illusion? Not really.
So you are actually in effect, affecting the making of time, time you will take, time to take to make the time, to take time out to see that you have and want the time, to give to the taking of time and making good time in taking the time to make time for taking time out in a timely fashion.
A sort of play on words here. Be Off Every Day, Off Every Day and computer practices.
So if we leave the arena of computers, we then look at the words in wonder. Back up? Every day? Turn back? Why?
The answer if of course, why not. But where do you go? Back to where?
Obviously, you ain’t going nowhere. Just a little thought. Think before you leap. Or suffer the consequences. On the other hand, react naturally, fluidly, like water, and fear nothing. Take your pick. I prefer water mixed with ponder.
Wanted. Highly educated individual, proficient in computer use, can do anything and everything, must be able to multi-task, willing to work for free with an outside chance of someday advancing to a paid position.
Ah yes. The miracle employee who can do it all, simultaneousy.
This of course is just an illustration serving as an introduction to the topic here. In reality, there is not only no such thing as multi-tasking, it is not possible.
Now I can acknowledge that this argument, and in reality all arguments, are largely semantical. Put that aside, start looking at the truth of it and we will see that literally one can only perform one task at a time. Which is better? Make small steps toward several goals that are in essence never completed, or focus, and complete.
Clearly, in the humdrum bogus world of production actually achieving a goal is much more satisfying than being really “busy” and getting nowhere but putting out loads of sound and fury signifying absolutely squat, to paraphrase Shakey.
Back on topic then we eventually realize, in the pursuit of efficiency, that task management is the best we can do, and that focus is not only good, but highly desirable. Distractions serve only to reduce the probability of completion, yeah, we can get small tasks finished at the expense of the larger holistic goal and one day look around and realize not only did we squander our time but we didn’t get to kick back under the oak while we were at it.
Focus and complete, don’t cheat.
Devin’s post on Living Your Choices dealt with reacting to events as our only area of choice. So of course I was reminded of the truth about comfort zones and control of ourselves.
One of the things that I’ve observed is the massively divergent apparent comfort each person embodies in any given space or situation. Beyond confidence alone, there are people who just don’t apologize for existing, on any level, and the reason appears to be two fold. One, that they are confident in general, and two that they don’t care about other’s perception of them in particular. This isn’t planned or practiced, they just are, what I would call, casual.
I am not one of those, really, I am a verbose opinionated truthist with a penchant for avoiding situations I don’t like, logically enough. I also won’t keep my mouth shut when the truth will do so much better. I do know, though, along the lines of the inspiration or reminder for this post, that I am the one controlling my mood, or behavior, always, in any given situation.
Now, that doesn’t mean I am elated to know that if I am uncomfortable, gee whiz, I just ain’t comfortable in my own skin, no, on the contrary, I can study my reactions and use that technique I told Yianni about where you visualize yourself from without and are taken out of your emotions by so doing. Better yet, flee the situation. Or give myself enough time to flee by visualizing. Or drink alcohol.
Anyway, we all control how we react ultimately, just like choosing values, roads, pathways, friends and so on. So our reactions are once again on us. We aren’t pissed off by others, we are pissed of by ourselves. We aren’t enlightened, freed, comforted, loved, pushed and so on by anyone but ourselves. Sort of a bizarre can’t be done to you thing.
How you react is your choice. But not your only choice as Devin implied.
This is redundant of course, but original thoughts are so rare.
Redundant I say because the themes I establish here are all interconnected, to a truth based accountability and responsibility approach or observation of fact way of life. Like I said, all evolutions end in the same place, truth.
So here I am talking about not only that living how we live is in fact living our choices, but we are making those choices based on our true values. Sometimes it’s surprising how much we do without thought but with a little consideration we can say that that is what we really wanted, or as the whiners are wont to do, claim that we are feathers in the wind, leaves floating on water, at the mercy of fate, at the mercy of others, victims, and so on.
The theme here is that, yes, we are choosing. You’ve heard not making a choice doesn’t mean you didn’t make a choice, rather that you may have made a bad choice. Or accidentally a good choice, which really isn’t an accident.
The toughest part, truly, is being true to yourself. And I say this lightly because I wouldn’t be philosophizing if I had this difficulty, but I see others constantly doing what they claim they want but they don’t and they won’t fess up and head down that road calling to them.
Oh well, whatever, never mind.
This isn’t a reference to that book about the unraveling of the United States economy and the beginning of the end of Imperial America.
This is a reference to the perceived out of control feeling one can get when one is mythically multi-tasking and attempting to do things that one does not really desire.
Inspired by Devin Castles during a conversation I decided to write a piece about making a plan and not sticking to it, or the feeling of unraveling we experience when things go awry. But I never really have that problem. So I can only observe and base some comments on experiencing something similar but not to any real extent. When you see that nothing has meaning the difficulty is in giving a crap about anything not losing your mind when you lose control because you always have control, are always in control, and above all, always see yourself from outside yourself so what are you to do? What are you to do to while away the days? Why? Why not?
So when all unravels, come back to the mind and take a break and realize, you are in control, real, not imagined, and you can and are doing whatever, whatever, whatever you want.
You’re so vain you think you’re nobody.
This is probably as old as dirt. No, wait, this is an original thought. Yeah. Very original.
Couple of things. One is that to think you are inferior you must have ego. Two is that to think you are superior you must have ego. To think you are nothing you must have vision.
Back to the point, both inferiority complexes and superiority complexes are two sides of the same affliction, vanity. Some see this as an asset, a plus, a positive attribute. What do I think? All evolutions lead to the same place. Truth. Holism. Big picture thinking. What do I think of the above metaphor about being up or down on oneself? I think that vanity is not good, and not bad, only not true. I prefer truth. So I prefer not being vain. So I am not.
To think oneself is anything at all other than a human is to enter the realm of vanity. The truth is, you are who you are, and once you become honest and true to yourself, you can let go of all preconceived expectations of yourself and you are now able to pilot your ship, dang that is dumb, how about begin to make real decisions based on real truths you know about yourself? So see the truth and get over it. We are all velvet, harsh velvet. OED 1980.
Funny to liken big picture thinking to finding the answer within. There it is.
I was chatting with Adam Clark the other day when he brought up his new instrument, the dulcimer. I’ve been giving him crap over such a lame instrument for some time now and admonish him for not taking up guitar. Dulcimer? Cheess. Who the heck plays dulcimer?
So during this particular conversation Adam mentioned that Kai, his 5 year old kid, wants to play guitar. Oh blessed sanity! At least someone in the family has some sense. So Adam asks me about guitars and I recommend that he go ahead and get Kai a 3/4 size axe for to start with so as to fit his size better. And I also recommend that he get him a steel string guitar, though more difficult to play in some regards, more painful for the tender fingertips, why defer the pain? Funny idea that, having to face pain at some point and choosing to defer it by selecting a nylon string guitar, or gut string as we say in reference to the pre-petroleum cat gut strings, on which to learn.
So as an expansion of the old saying we now have, no pain, no pain.
But then again, its inevitable.
This concept is an extension of my typical thoughts along the line of goal setting. I wrote down this inspiration on 4/10/07 so as not to forget and to help guarantee the article would get written. Why that is no accident.
You’ve read, or haven’t, some of the ideas here about goals and reaching goals through work or taking steps. The tallest mountain may be climbed in the smallest steps.
So I am having a conversation with Joe Middleton and I am telling him about how in this life, mine actually, very little that I have achieved did I achieve with a plan, with a purpose, with a goal. Still don’t.
As is with all of my articles there is no point, however, if I had a point, the point would be that most of what all of us achieve, measurable in terms of our cultures, are default achievements, not planned or pursued. This blatant generalization notwithstanding there are those of us that do plan and do achieve specific goals. I am not one of those.
I am the King of Accidental Achievement.
This is a pretty simple idea, or shall I say fact. The fact is. . . you are who you are or should that be you are whom you are but that doesn’t have nearly the ring to it.
In essence this fact states that we are all fixed, static, solid, set, unmoving or in another way we are all complete beings with a set of tools, our minds and bodies, that are already in place and unmovable. Provocative because this opens the whole not so appealing nature vs. nurture debate, a debate we aren’t having here.
Accepting that we are who we are is difficult for most people I have ever observed, especially in this western United States of America culture where contentment is not present and success is based on a set of external values that few ever achieve where we are typically led to believe negative views of ourselves, not led literally, as we are all responsible for ourselves, but led by circumstance to tend toward seeing ourselves in a negative light. This is an illusion produced by mass delusion.
So this is really a repeat of my bit on seeing yourself. Seeing yourself is step one and is tantamount to accepting yourself. I ain’t talking about some crazy break down crying love thyself bogus crap, I am talking about simply seeing the truth.
This reminds me of The Matix scene where the boy, one of the hopefuls, is bending spoons and Neo has a chat with him. The kid has a British accent which of course lends a nice flavor to his philosophical discussion of reality. Do not try to bend the spoon; that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you will see, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. That is one side of the conversation probably not verbatim but you get the gist. This opens yet another great topic for Nothing Has Meaning but lets stick to our discussion here.
Peeling back the layers of polarity and illusion to reveal self, accept self, and understand that the self exists, as it is, begins the inexorable journey to contentment.
This is really about letting go, letting go of everything, then deciding what you want to hold on to, with point of view and values. Seems like a dichotomy, and it is, suffice to say we humans generally get involved with reality. And Letting Go has such a crappy connotation but there isn’t really a better way to put it, or a more effective way. Letting go of emotion, letting go of attachment, letting go of reality, letting go of meaning.
The Matrix has the letting go bit too, but instead using the Matrix metaphor, the digital virtual reality.
So expose the core and you’ll see more, and relax for a change.
Part of what illumination means, other than nothing inherently, is that vision clears and extremes fade. By this I mean that finding neutrality becomes possible. All too often, in fact almost universally, we are polarized, have an extreme opinion, one way or no way. Now I am not referring to living extremely, for example, drinking alcohol in mass quantities or not drinking alcohol at all, that merely reflects a lust for life, I am referring to modes of thought, paradigms, concepts and relating these ideas to each other.
Polarization can be a real drag if you want to have a conversation that involves meaningful exchange. (Remember Twin Peaks? When Bobby’s father referred to meaningful exchange? Hilarious!) Basically you are not communicating but listen to twin diatribes, or you wind up nodding your head while thinking. . . what an idiot.
So I am pondering this place of contentment that is reached when you are willing to acknowledge the truth, that meaning is not objective, and that peace is in fact the absence of extremes, or poles, or polarization. That is when the ride can become almost so serene as to be pointless, which of course it is, anyway, pointless.
The point I am making (pun intended folks) is that on the teeter totter of life the middle is where contentment lies, the middle is where true thoughtfulness can be achieved, and the middle is also where one would appear to be less passionate, but in fact, ever more passionate. Because then the desire to communicate can actually be increased due to the revelation that there is a place, where I can go, when I feel. . . no, not a Beatles quote but, there is a place of peace that doesn’t involve anything at all.
Peace out.
Yianni Stamas is my brother, in both senses of the word.
Remarkably enough he is also my friend.
Happy Birthday Bro, love Markos.
Do you see yourself? Do I?
Look in the mirror. OK. Yeah. There you are, I am.
Now look inward. How?
Probably the toughest question. In our minds we exist in a verbal way, in a visual way, and no way.
So in actuality to look inward is much like meaning, a personal subjective point of view.
When I look inward I am aware of certainties.
Certainties of fact, feeling, thought and opinion.
Leads me to a my way or the highway type of mentality though I am really the most open minded person I know, too open minded.
So there you have it. Nothing.
The result of seeing yourself is that you can then know yourself. Sometimes some people find the facts about themselves to be surprising. Sometimes they are expected. I would say that most times most of us really don’t see ourselves. When we do, its a problem for the most part for then the ego slips away. . .
I know some who are always down on themselves. I think that is really a way to avoid an appearance of vanity, which results in revealing. . . vanity. This is not an ego free mode of being. On the contrary.
So why are they down on themselves? Michael Freemire suggests there is an unconscious element to free will.
Then there are those who are completely vain. As you may have supposed that is the same as being down on yourself. So we have inferiority complexes and superiority complexes, two sides of the same coin, and we have. . . . truth. That is the goal.
How can you see yourself, then, without subjectivity? The tough question referenced above, for our own awareness comes from the chemical dance going on in our physical bodies, a dance that must by definition filter all of our perceptions rendering them subjective, however, if we think of our awareness like a window, or camera, and we then point that view back on ourselves objectivity is obtainable.
So step on out and see yourself.
The truth will follow.
So I was having this conversation with Devin Castles the other day when the topic of directness and honesty being construed as rude or insulting came up. More to the point was that people perceive this as a put down, or somehow a reflection on them, most people being so self involved that everything is about them.
So I mentioned that wonderful old saying the truth hurts. And yes it does. Mostly due to what I just described above, where people perceive honesty about them, others, whatever as a slight. But I’m looking inward now, tying this with the underlying theme of this web site on the meaning of life, that we only have us, that we only control us, that we only know us, that we can only affect us ultimately, and that we are responsible for us. So looking inward as trite as the saying is and as trite and stupid sounding the term is means, if you give it value, just to see oneself, a topic of another post here and many more to come.
So the truth can not only hurt others, it can hurt yourself.
If you aren’t where you want to be, cognitively, or in your mind, for real then you see this and either deny or hurt yourself or feel bad as it were. Feel pain. Feel melancholy or call it depression if you want the pharmaceuticals to sell you drugs.
But really as you have learned if you aren’t where you want to be you are lying to yourself because you are where you want to be or you wouldn’t be there. So how does the truth hurt then? It shouldn’t. Only being blind to fact hurts but what you don’t know can’t hurt you. Haha.
Is there a point here? Not really. Just recognize that the truth may hurt emotionally but it will set your free in reality.
Fear.
Fear is the mind killer, Frank Herbert, Dune.
Lot of validity to that thought, fear being a very basic animal instinct, thought being anything but.
Afraid. Afraid of what? The unknown? The imagined? The real? Is there a difference?
I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. Mark Twain
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. Mark Twain.
I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. Mark Twain.
I’ve lived a long life and seen a lot of hard times…most of which never happened. Mark Twain.
OK. You get the point.
What I like about this quote, and its various generic permutations, is the obvious implication that what we fear most, invariably doesn’t happen, or hasn’t happened. There are other versions out there, with different wordings to the effect that life as we experience it is largely imagined.
The reason I am tying this fear topic to the freedom of will and actuality of the freedom of will is due to the fact that fear is the ultimate absence of freedom. Fear is paralyzing. Fear is blinding. Fear is complicating. Fear is not real. Fear is imagined. Fear is the mind killer. Dune.
Now let us not get into all of the animal levels of fear that are incredibly useful to protect our beings from physical harm by getting our blood and hormones flowing when needed, physically. This is a philosophy site. We deal in imagination only. No. . . wait . . . I meant to say truth only. Yeah, only the truth. I want the truth and nothing more. Yoko Ono. Moving On. Double Fantasy. (Yoko’s portion of that album actually smoked Lennon’s, to this day, but when you have I Found Out under your belt what’s the difference?)
So why is it that we experience so much fear? The ongoing struggle between animal humans and enlightened reasoning humans. Logic. Cold, hard, logic. The cool and calm never flinch under fire, under stress. This is because they have no fear. Time is a factor. Fear will take away many opportunities to make decisions much more effectively to meet one’s goals and values. So part of the enlightenment of full responsibility and recognition of true desire and the revealing nature of action is freedom from fear. Next we can address fear. We can see that fear is our imagination playing tricks on us as we make excuses for not being true to ourselves, or actually, being true to ourselves and not realizing that the selves we are being are not all that.
Let go of fear, take responsibility, make reasoned calm decisions, be at one with the universe and all is peace.
Peace, contentment, calm.
Goals or states of being? Both.
A recurring theme here at Nothing Has Meaning is that your actions reveal your values. Simply put, you do what you want.
Whatever, whatever, I do what I waaauuuaaant! Cartman from Southpark on Maury Povich.
This is a difficult idea for many to take as our society is largely based on placing blame or claiming that actions are mandatory or rather involuntary. Involuntary action? Ridiculous. By action I am not talking about swatting a fly or closing your eyes as a reflex I am talking about life moves, choices made, avenues followed or not, the path taken.
Two roads diverged in a wood and I took neither, I blazed my own.
So for the sake of actually illuminating this idea, and the underlying freedom of realization that we are in control, further explanation may be necessary.
Strip away all of the outer forces and all of the outer influences and all of the outer external crap and you are left with yourself. See yourself. Understand that you live within yourself and that only you can see yourself clearly, only you have that potential. No one else can impinge on your world. From there, you act. Voodoo is voodoo, not real.
So the idea, the reality, the fact, is that once you realize that all choices you make are yours to make no matter the appearance of being forced or coerced or pushed, freedom, true freedom looms.
Once you let go of all external input as being relevant at all, freedom looms.
Once you become aware that nothing matters, but you, then you are free. This is the dichotomy of freedom because this appears selfish. Giving however is a logical extension of freeing yourself from the bonds of influence. Once you know that you are free, you can then give cleanly, knowing you aren’t reacting but rather acting, from the being, the internal being.
More on this dichotomy at another time.
Suffice to say, awareness of self will set you free, however, you will also get really irritated at yourself for not being true when you make decisions based on fear only to find they weren’t all that, and then you know that still, that was what you wanted, so you ask yourself good questions like am I really such a wimp? When the answer is shown by your action to be yes, well then, you can hone your true being, truly sharpen the image, the internal image of yourself.
So fear is the next thing to go.
Afraid.
Of course this assumes such a thing as reality. Philosophizing is a real pain when one agrees that nothing exists. However, we all can assume certain givens, and then proceed happily.
So there is reality. I certainly don’t agree with that scenario but how am I going to do a piece on mirrors of something that doesn’t exist? Hold on, I’m having a thought. (Yahoo Serious, Young Einstein).
So the mirrors would have to fit nicely in the category of things that aren’t real but reflect real things.
Dream are a shadow, of something real. (Gulpilil’s character in The Last Wave.)
So how did I wind up on dreams?
Free association. Dreams are made up of the brain’s interpretation of reality in a reflective way despite being largely construed as meaningful information being perceived by the sensitive types.
Dream time is real, a real reflection.
Having occasion to peruse an old letter from a father to a daughter I happened upon a litany of excuses for parenting behaviors.
There was talk of voluntary poverty, a sort of activism spirit, and a comment about being nearly artists.
What the?
Nearly an artist?
Hilarious.
Listening to a friend of mine going on about how he could spend 365 days a year under an oak or he could spend 365 days a year working his butt off and either way wind up with nothing prompted a response.
I said, yes, but you forget the huge sense of satisfaction derived from. . . .
Sitting under the oak.
He was pleased.
Not as easy as it appears.
This is typically construed as a downer, a negative, something lacking.
The essence of achieving nothing is anything but.
Of course, as is the problem with all beer (Young Einstein, Yahoo Serious), one needs to define terminology to be speaking in the same context as everyone else.
So define achieving.
Reaching a goal maybe? Creating something? Earning some dollars? “He achieved greatness” for example would mean he became great. So lets agree that achieving means to reach something tangible or intangible but definable.
So define nothing. (Fine, end of story.)
No, I will.
Nothing is the ultimate subject of this site on the meaning of life perspectives and values and as such is much more than the lack of something, or the absence of all.
Nothing can be a state of peace, contentment, enlightenment, rest, ease, calm and emptiness.
Nothing has meaning without point of view.
Nothing is being.
Being nothing.
So achieving nothing in one context is equated to spiritual and all being enlightenment. In another may be achieving the ability to let go of productivity and begin to value nothing in particular.
In this context, the context of this web site on the meaning of life, achieving nothing is highly respected and a goal of the enlightened ones.
The biggest problem, or challenge, or “issue”, with guitar is making time to play.
If that is an issue then you aren’t committed. You may be committed to an asylum but not to guitar.
So I play frequently but not for enough time. What is that telling me? The lack of commitment is palpable and the result is telling.
So what is the solution to this problem?
Time Management.
Another topic for another day.
Focusing on anything is a challenge when you have a holistic world view.
Actually there is no meaning. But if there were. . . .
If there were meaning to no meaning then the meaning would be that not having meaning isn’t necessarily meaningful or meaningless but that the intrinsic meaning has within it the hidden meaning that isn’t visible to the meaning blind or meaning impaired or those who choose not to grant meaning without meaning to.
Cutting to the core issue, keeping to the core issue, without being drawn into tangential issues and effects is difficult.
You will find more and more that the truly brilliant human minds have the uncanny ability to see beyond and through the smoke surrounding an issue to identify the core issue of anything at all. Then they keep this clarity of vision relentlessly without compromise.
The complete lack of clarity is prevalent when issues are brought before the courts and debated by governments. The core concept becomes obscured and the scene becomes a negotiation of everyone’s separate and disparate values.
Even in debates or lively discussions this happens.
There is a complete lack of adherence to a concept or principle, also known as values, and everyone seems to have negotiated values for the moment.
This topic is something I referenced once in a song called Nobody’s Home.
The context in the song was that seeing the truth come out and then promptly spun to indicate falsehoods succeeds in making everyone think that they know the truth.
Not a perfect example, point being that any concept or event can be obscured by a clouding issue.
Public rights violations would be a better example. These typically happen by apathetic and corrupt governments.
A right need not be exercised to be important yet rights are eroded on the basis of just such an argument. The core issue of having rights, or the rights existence, is ignored and missed by debating the purpose of the rights, or the current use of the rights, or the extent to which the rights are needed and so on. The right to have a right, used or not, is lost.
Stick to the underlying issue and the rest will sort itself out.
A not too original and interesting topic.
So many thoughts and perceptions, so little comprehension outside the walls of my mind.
Success and failure are a long and sordid set of definitions. Due to the fact that a value set of some agreed upon meaningful accomplishment must be present to define these things the potential for misunderstanding in discussing these things is great.
But in practice here in the United States we all tend to agree that success means money and failure means not having money.
Money is a symbol here too. Symbolizing material wealth. Things. Houses, cars, the best of everything. Money is no object. Money is not an issue.
Love is rarely measured in the success definition.
What matters more than money? Love, friendship and understanding. (Stingray. See my favorite shows.)
Now lets examine those two statements about money, money is no object and money is not an issue.
In the real world, where I live, all things are based on truth. The fabrication that is money doesn’t hold a particular interest or meaning. Not to say that money isn’t relevant to life in the US and most of the Western world but only to say that money isn’t real, money is a construct, an agreed upon construct.
So those statements are true for everyone, not just those with money. The difference is in their mind, and ours, or yours, or whoevers.
If you want it, go get it, if you don’t, don’t.
The real danger of understanding all this, that all meaning is given from within, is not having the urge to give anything value at all and hence wind up sitting and staring at the sky watching the wheels, with a big smile upon your face.
So we see that money is a construct and isn’t real then why bother working or playing into that at all? Because you have to as a practical matter, at least in the US.
Otherwise, you have a challenge far greater than that of going along with the material paradigm.
So if money or material wealth equals success than the lack thereof is indeed failure.
But if you examine the basis of success and agree the basis is a construct of no intrinsic value then failure must not exist at all.
If it does, you decided what it was.
And made it so.
Don’t.
Nived and I discussed this at length once, verbally and in writing.
I have to admit his arguments are compelling, though in the theme of the post on core issues are just a bit outside the concept here.
The more I ponder, the more I see the truth of the idea that our actions, how we live, what we do, display our true intents and desires and ultimately values.
Of course I had reached this conclusion before I ever considered anything at all to do with anything to do with actions speak louder than words. The idea is obvious.
When an idea stands up to scrutiny, then you have something.
Nived points out that just because we may or may not do something to achieve something we desire does not mean we do not value that thing.
Agreed.
Again, that is a little off the track of the core concept, that what we truly desire we seek and achieve. That a failure or a perceived failure to achieve a desired goal is in fact not a failure at all but a complete lack of true commitment to that goal. That what we want we get. That the what of the equation can be unlimited and that the how actually defines the what in actuality, actually.
We are all successful at achieving what we want in the how we do it.
So where is the bottom line? What about starving abused children? What about the holocaust?
All good questions. Remember this is a concept, philosophy, philosophizing.
Concepts are big, not detailed.
The result is the title, you are getting what you want.
But are you getting what you need? The Stones were wrong.
Glass. It’s all in the glass.
Ever wonder why that killer zoom doesn’t take great pictures?
Two reasons. Crappy glass and low light.
Now, you need good optics to capture reality, at all close to what the eye can see, and at all aesthetically pleasing.
Without good optics, the best camera in the world won’t shoot diddley.
Second, you need sufficient light to hit the film or sensor. Else you wind up with not so good shots and maybe even need artificial light which typically is another source of bad shots.
So, first things first.
Good optics can compensate for not the best camera and make the great cameras what they are meant to be.
Glass. Its the glass.
Did I mention quality optics allow more light?
Today we lost Barbaro.
Today the world lost Barbaro.
What was it that made this horse so different?
Our perception?
The symbol of unbelievable greatness coupled with a great heart?
Whatever it was he is gone and we are all the less for it.
Barbaro is free.
Ah the wonders of new strings.
Been reading the premier issue of Premier Guitar and find myself somewhat jacked up, or as they say inspired.
So I broke the third string on my Les Paul and decided to go ahead and replace them all.
Yeah its obvious, but the guitar just sounds so unbelievable.
Hey, I can play too!
So I did the acoustic also. The one that had been sitting there cause I broke a strang. (That poor Gibson is losing its bridge so other than the low E buzzing also sounds great.)
I agree with Nived.
Sometimes you have to share your enthusiasm.
And replace those strings, frequently.
There are times I think the instrument is beyond what anyone can comprehend as an influence on society and culture. Or what I can comprehend. Postured stupid heavy statement but there it is.
Piano would be the other contender but the real weakness with piano is simply that the mechanics are automatic, the sound generating mechanics.
With a guitar the player is the mechanical actuation. The player has to make the sound.
Nuance is still very much a part of piano, but, piano v guitar, no contest, guitar is the more human.
So what of the other stringed instruments?
They didn’t do rock and roll.
Tough break but I sure am glad we have guitar.
Guitar, the opiate of the enlightened few.
Yeah. The thought is provocative. And the implication is clear. But I do, at times, believe anything is possible. Bummer. Really. For truth is, it is, you don’t choose to make it, or not. You see it or don’t.
I can see!
Believe it or not this was a reference to digital camera resolution.
Then I tripped on the not so hidden double meaning.
Then I tripped and fell, not really.
But think about this, we aren’t super high, we aren’t all that, we are not there yet.
We are on our way.
Wanna get there?
One thing that is clear, desire and action are separated.
You look at what people say they desire and you look at what they do and more often than not there is almost no connnection at all.
Conventional desire is a measure of everything one is not, rather than a goal one moves toward.
Action on the other hand is ultimately the truth of anyone’s desires displayed for all to see. Look at what they do and you see the true person.
Turn that inward and look at what you are doing, or not doing, or how you are acting, or not acting, or behaving, or not behaving and if you have the brass you may just find out what you really are, what you really value.
Which brings us to values.
Values are the root of all action. Yikes. Scary thought. But if you really observe yourself, and others, a clarity of being emerges and you can see what you, and others, really value and hence what they really are.
This can be a painful experience as the realization of the connections and nature of relationships are evident in truth, and we realize we aren’t all that, we aren’t close to some people, and we are close to others.
This also can evince what we value in terms of materialism and spirituality. Again, potentially painful for those of us who purport spirituality and serenity while chasing down the American dream with a vengeance.
Actions speak louder than words.
True that.
Mine and Insanity’s favorite topic.
Reflecting on many things, the way of knowing things, the nature of things the realization becomes ever more present that the characterization of things and the true nature of things are mostly far apart.
Enter the visionaries, the ones who have the dubious ability to see what is without filtration and spin. Vision in the literal sense.
Seeing the way of things.
Seeing the truth.
Visionaries also have an ability to see human potentials and likelihoods but here we are discussing the ability to see what is, what exists.
Looking about us we can see all the lonely people living under various illusions and allusions seasoned with delusion and listen to the blame game and allegations flying and be struck by the absolute incredible inability for the truth to be recognized, and then logically, respected.
When truth is recognized, it is ignored to serve a fraudulent desire to make reality in one’s own delusional model.
This is known as lying.
This is known as rationalization.
Lying to serve oneself.
Lying to deny and disrespect reality.
Lying for no reason other than habit and mimicry of those around us most.
The lies become so prevalent that humans begin to live under the apparition that truth is an opinion. Soon, the word gives way to meaning “one’s opinion” of events or facts.
Yet fact remains, and truth is fact, no matter our best efforts to obfuscate.
The paradigm of deceipt seems to be a permanent aspect of human nature, despite so many brilliant visionaries displaying a selfless ability to see the way of things as they are outside the human point of view and within the human condition as well.
So I am sitting here watching and listening and I am astounded but not surprised.
You’ve heard the saying that perception is 90 percent of reality, and that is true in terms of a society and culture, and is commonly present in its inhabitant’s actions, but the real truth is that perception is 100 percent false 99 percent of the time.
In the end, all I’ve got is the truth.
Ah the joy of calendars. Welcome to 2007. Great achievements await us all, depending on your paradigm and point of view.
Yes, we mark time, and time keeps counting. Yet, as the years roll away, we are less and less in awe and less aware of the passing and more caught up, maybe.
Some of us are enlightened and ever static, and hence dynamic in a way, the beatified smile and serenity of the unaffected residing upon our lips.
Some of us are dead.
Some of us are shallow blind apparitions of animal instinct perfumed into oblivion.
Some of us are unconcerned.
Some of us are tired and waiting.
Some of us are suffering constantly and wondering why.
Some of us have knowledge that we share and then discard and start all over again.
Most of us are unaware of anything at all to do with anything.
This is a Frank Zappa title. I think it was, yes indeed, guitar performances.
The thing is, is that the thing is. My philosophy.
I never have heard this work, or really can say whether it is an album, I think it is, but what caught my eye and mind the day I saw this in the record store was the attitude.
Tools of the trade this, can’t do this without that, don’t have the right guitar, don’t have a studio, don’t have a record deal, don’t have the right strings, aren’t good enough, suck badly, can’t sing, can’t play, can’t, can’t, can’t, well, yeah, all of these objections and excuses are pointless so why don’t you just shut up and play yer guitar? Love the concept. Love the truth. This was long before Nike and their Just Do It slogan.
The biggest lesson in life, is that there is no lesson. Very simple. Those motivated and obsessed are simply being what they are, play the guitar or whatever without apology and without a buttload or requirements. And they may suck. And they may not. But they are what they are.
I have a recording of OED from 1979 somewhere. Nope, I didn’t make it. My buddy Moby Bristow pulled out his little portable cassette during practice, the ones used for dictation originally, and hit record. Now I would never have done that because that would result in an inferior recording with inferior equipment performed by an inferior band playing inferior songs. And I don’t have a bunch of recordings for this reason. Now we have a window into that practice session thanks to Moby. If I can find the tape.
What Moby knew was what Frank knew. What the hell difference does it make just get on with it. Play to play, not to be superior or pure or whatever.
The purists lose and the passionate win.
Speaking of tools.
Just perusing a piece in emusician on cd sweetening by some dude who gets paid by the major labels to tighten up performances. Great junk.
Amazing tools, that allow you to pretty much meticulously completely re-perform a performance in a sense. Now, yes, crappy singers with star quality can be made stars after all.
Not really down on the notion but if you spend any time recording at all it only takes a small amount of studio sweetening, necessary usually, to realize that if you had just learned your instrument and performed worth a damn in the first place there wouldn’t be half as much work fixing the junk. The other angle on that of course is to say you did it on purpose a la Nirvana.
Still, these tools allow the art of recording, and mixing and producing a CD to reach new artificials heights, furthering the road braved and paved by the Beatles.
The rest of the issue really focuses on software and hardware tools of the trade. You begin to realize that this industry is more and more focused on the studio side and less and less on the skill and performance side. Of course, that is what an emusician does, still, the lack of organic people is pretty clear. I sure don’t miss it though.
What comes through today more than ever is the complete lack of skill in the modern pop musician at performing an instrument. You don’t see the virtuosos as readily, though, yeah they are out there, mostly not in pop. More and more, mediocrity is not only acceptable but popular. Then take out the creativity and what you have are some really well produced and doctored recordings.
I came to the realization not too long ago that the only ones pushing the envelope were the rappers. I don’t know why I would say this having really only listened to Brotha Lynch Hung’s Season of Da Siccness but this was honest art. Now, I guess they too got sucked into the glossy commercial machine that is so much fun to punish and purchase. Girl sings, dude raps, repeat. But the Brotha, he was honest back then.
So back to the tools of the trade. I suppose I just wonder what happened to music for the sake of music, the bard earning his dinner and giving the folks hope and diversion. Music was free, you didn’t charge per se and you sure as hell didn’t expect to be paid forever if you happened to make a recording.
Another topic, the advent of recording, the piano roll and the droll end of open music.
There is no substitute for flat out virtuosity.
Shut up and play yer guitar.
And there you have it.
Merry Christmas everyone and lest we forget, Jesus Christ, was, and lives on in our minds.
Thank you Jesus for setting an example with some virtue that we can all continue to strive to uphold and emulate.
Mark.
Speaking of which, where is it?
One time, not long ago, I made a statement, an accurate statement, “there is no honesty in the world anymore. . . . . except for rock and roll” and I still feel, in my gut, that this could be true.
But a problem rears its ugly head. Where is rock and roll?
Yeah, I know, the heavily distorted guitars playing “power chords” with vocals absent of melody and a somewhat rhythmic staccato double bass drum delivery is now considered rock. I know that pop is considered a different animal than rock. I know that rap and hip hop are considered different, and I know that there are so many genres now that one is boggled.
No wonder the music industry is going down the drain.
And that is the key. It is an industry.
No art, no creativity, no heart, no feeling, no meaning?
Well, no meaning aside, the point here is that rock and roll as an expression of wild abandon and a lust for life has been reduced to a sort of punctuated reflection of what once was.
No sentimental attachment here, but I wonder about life after Cobain. At least we have OED.
Talk about no meaning. Here I am talking with Nived and we hit on a fact. A simple fact.
I ask him why he is such a mean guy.
And the answer lies within, him, and the answer is that if you had a mind mirror for the lad, he is just being honest, these are just his thoughts, in fact what he thinks goes straight to his mouth so his thought dreams are seen and his head will be put in a guillotine.
His mouth is a mirror of his mind.
Well. OK. This is a pretty common theme, and we all know and love the hook.
You don’t have to have a hook of course, but they sure are a fun goal to be reached as the lyrics progress.
The journey to the hook, or refrain, is where creativity can really be a blast.
Using lyrics and context the most enjoyable twist is bringing the meaning back to the refrain in the new context of the line.
Ultimately the song itself works the circle and completes a cycle ending where it started.
Musically the same thing happens.
Rock and Roll.
I am not.
But I’m a decent mimic. And I have a pretty decent ear. I also don’t really dig emulation which gives one the vain attitude of only really being into doing one’s own thing.
Yeah.
One’s own thing.
The way of knowing things.
My favorite line from The Last Wave starring Gulpilil.
Dreams are a shadow, of something real.
So my buddy, Adam Clark, gets a hold of me cause he’s taken up guitar and can’t figure a chord from a tune he wanted to play. After I mocked him sufficiently for even wanting to play someone else’s tune I took a listen, and couldn’t tell him the chord.
Like I say, a musical genius I am not.
Jack of all trades, Master of Known.
Sometimes I reflect on the concept of ignorance is bliss as applied to the creative process.
Ignorance of how its done or how it should be and so on can open the door for very creative and unusual compositions. Think Paul McCartney not wanting to learn to read music to stay pure.
Dumb. Actually.
The reality of the situation is that a tool is just a tool and creativity is a mindset and way of being, the way of knowing things, the way of arranging things, the way of expressing things.
The tools used, such as knowledge of music theory, knowledge of song structure, a hammer, make no difference to the truly creative mind.
Create, by any means necessary.
Rhythm is part of the addiction and desire for repetition.
This is known as meter or timing. Drummers used to have to be good at it, to lay down a foundation the rest of us could follow. Ended up doing it myself most times.
The human heart beat is the cliche metaphor to explain the need to drum.
When a drummer lags, the world is put on hold, but like the locomotive with momentum eventually you cross that bar.
Ever wonder how much you know yourself?
Ever wonder why what other’s say or observe about you never agrees with what you see of yourself?
Ever avoided the truth?
Now you don’t have to!
The “I Know it all and You Can Too for a Small Fee Foundation”. Membership reasonable. Conclusions available.
Seriously though, knowing yourself may seem obvious but the reality is usually all of us humans don’t really spend any effort or thought on getting to know ourselves.
Some of us recognize that only ourselves have the potential to be known, by us, so not doing so is wasting the only chance one has to know anyone, to really know anyone.
The next obvious statement is that what one sees and what those outside see depends on what you reveal. Know thyself, reveal what you will.
I see myself, and no one else does.
A buddy of mine once made a comment about a specific case with “how much justice can we buy”.
I was thinking that this was a pretty shrewd summation of our legal system here in the States. Yes, the underpinnings are historically noble and good but have slipped into the abyss of ridiculous over arduous, costly, processes.
So I’m in the mood for reality and can’t seem to find any.
Justice is a concept, probably based on our favorite culture and values as a whole. Really doesn’t have anything to do with law in the USA anymore. Justice is rare and precious here.
Ask any American Indian about justice and they will likely know the truth.
Ask any white boy with cash about justice and he will likely know that its a question of money.
99 out of 100 questions have one answer.
Money.
Its money, man, money.
Middle Eight. Chorus verse chorus chorus. My favorite. A fool if you do, a fool if you don’t.
Progressions that pay.
Listening to the radio today, one of those very rare occasions, in the car of course, waiting for Judy, I heard once again a common 1,4,5 progression. Money. Its money. Funny.
Got to thinking about how some progressions keep on keeping on, they get used over and over and over and pretty much are money, in the bank. So you wonder about originality. You hear the latest and the pride and joy in those creations that aren’t creations but renditions and think that originality all but doesn’t exist.
So arrangement seems to be what composing is, really. So Acid Pro creations are composing? No.
But as the title of this post indicates, conventions are familiar and usually quite enjoyable. As we carve these paths of familiarity are we creating them or finding them? Are some progressions just right and we discover them or are we all color blind?
The diatonic scale is like that. Pythagoras discovered it yes? Or did he invent it?
No matter. These are comfortable comforting sounds. The real challenge is doing them in a way that is original after all but keeps that happy recognition alive.
Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.
Today is the day I wore all black at school in 1980.
My idol had been shot and killed the night before, John Lennon.
I cried all night long I think, and many times thereafter. What an emotional wimp. When my friend Dave Koch called and told me about his death the day of, I was hopefully dubious and asked him repeatedly if he was joking. Judy came by too. What a drag to have your idol gunned down. Strange too how not one kid at school seemed to give a crap, and none of the teachers either. I must have been out of it and missed something I hope. I had my guitar with me for some unrelated reason, to perform in class, nice company for the occasion. Got a lot of very strange looks.
I wanted to visit Lennon when we went through up state New York back in the seventies. I was not entirely suprised that wasn’t gonna happen. A standard kid fanatic.
I couldn’t listen to the Beatles or Lennon for a long time without serious pain. Funny considering I never knew John Lennon. I feel really strange about this fame thing that he had and how us fans somehow identify with Lennon and feel we have a clue when clearly we do not. Or any famous person for that matter. Fame, bully for you, chilly for me, got to get a raincheck on, pain. David Bowie, John Lennon.
Time counts and keeps counting and the pain went away, and the awareness of Lennon being human dawned and the lustre of his magic started to fade. I still feel the magic, Hey Bulldog, I Found Out, I Am The Walrus, Come Together and on and on.
But the magic, the wild abandon, is so easily forgotten, so easily let go, unwittingly banished. Hold on. Living isn’t only loneliness. Off Every Day.
Lennon sang he didn’t believe in magic once, but he was magic, and a person, just like us all.
Remember. . . . the 8ee8th . . . of December. And the day after.
Thank god I’m an atheist.
I said that once, thinking it was pretty funny. I asked Kevin Sanders if he thought it was pretty funny. He kind of paused for a bit, looking maybe a bit not getting it, and I said come on man think about it and then the light of comprehension dawned and he did think it was pretty funny. Oxymoronic in fact.
Not his word.
Still, atheism by definition and common use is not believing in supreme beings or a being. Really though it has more to do with not adhering to simplistic supernatural suspension of disbelief and blind faith.
Deism is also interesting.
Neither have anything to do with what I am on about. Truth. Fact. The Is.
A new term is needed.
Truthist. Truthism. Hey Colbert I was here long ago so don’t get all bent about originality.
Drifting. A drifter. Aimless. Meandering. Going with the flow. Blowing in the wind.
This is a state that one may find oneself in at times. Or permanently.
Not unlike floundering in its incarnation drifting is quite different.
A drifter moves without purpose, without a goal, without compunction to a degree.
A drifter can be like any person really, so ethics and integrity are present to the extent they are present in anyone. The idea of no compunction would mean not dictated by a specific objective.
Drifting aimlessly toward nothing looking forward to nothing being nothing.
Just noticing that the red text in front of the header looks like seeing red.
Reminds me of a Wishbone Ash tune, You See Red.
Don’t remember much about the song, just the chorus, and presumably title.
I do not see red of course, just truth.
Very irritating.
I’ve been awaiting moderation and yet is it to come.
One extreme or the other.
Though my Greek ancestors were known for moderation as of now I have none.
No hurry.
As of yet, I have no comment.
When I do, I will not hesitate to make clear the view that I see.
If this remains unclear, than the fault is clearly yours.
Haha.
Happy Thanksgiving World
a pledge or promise; obligation
Using definition #4, probably the most common in terms of daily usage, I think about desire and goals and what that really means. I think about actions speaking louder than words, really means that actions contain truth of motivation and words contain truth of contemplation.
We watched a movie the other night. Something about the Fastest Indian about a man who raced his 1920 Indian motorcycle for the simple purpose of going faster than anyone else in his class.
The film stars Anthony Hopkins, and though not a great film, certainly provocative in some sense. We were watching a DVD. We checked out the special features. Therein was the real great part of the movie, the man himself, Burt Munro.
Unbelievable.
Amongst the fabulous time we got to spend with Burt we got to see people speaking about Burt. The one that really resonated was the young man describing Burt as one of the few free people. Why was he free? Because he did what he wanted and wants to do.
That, of course, got me to thinking. I’ve always seen that truth, truth like Devin talks about it, the truth of feelings and opinions, is displayed by what we do. Our actions belie our true belief, feeling, intent. Joe Middleton the other day scoffed at the idea that someone wants to be doing something they aren’t, when they aren’t shows that they really don’t want to do that other something.
So Burt shows us that what we truly desire can easily be achieved.
All it takes is commitment.
Look it up.
I’m fresh out.
Happy Birthday Judy!
Sometimes the idea of hitting a target seems appropriate to those not taking aim.
By this one can think of the possibility that one will not hit a target without aiming for it, though literally a false statement, practically true. In terms of likelihoods, hitting the target is highly unlikely.
Substitute target for goal and one can begin to understand a simple but sometimes overlooked paradigm of movement, that movement forward should be dedicated to reaching a certain point.
All the its not the destination its the journey slogans aside it is easier to get somewhere specific when you know where you are going.
Though I highly recommend drifting, this earth, a place where we evolved from star dust or appeared spontaneously from the mind of an all powerful being with faked evidence to test our faith, is soon to become inhospitable to us, and most living things we value or are accustomed to being around and eating.
Soon is relative. But soon enough for humanity.
If humans decided to maintain this earth in a state that would facilitate our continued lives, with a quality of life as we desire, this would be a goal, and the odds of reaching this goal would no longer be random but focused. Ain’t gonna happen. Still.
Where are you going?
Me? Nowhere fast with nothing to say, but its ok. It’s ok.
Food for thought. Or maybe food for nothing.
Believing implies that the nature of things is a decision. There is no recognition of what is, or that anything is, when one “believes”.
Now, I may see a tree, and believe I don’t. I may believe I am intelligent when I am stupid. I may believe in dreams, when dreams are an illusion. I may believe in gravity, when gravity is without me. I may believe just about anything I want, when those things are not real, definable, or apparent.
Seeing the truth is a state of recognition, not belief. Seeing what is, is a rare ability, to be debunked by the believers.
Truth exists. Within you and without you.
Well as many of you don’t know, composing music is kind of like breathing. You do it without really being aware, always, and you sometimes mess it up and lose you breath.
Dumb metaphor.
Let’s try composing music is like meditating. Yeah. Better. Sometimes you can die happy, sometimes you can’t.
So sometimes when I listen to my songs, music not usually words, sometimes the music hits me in a way that reminds me of life, the perpetual motion of life, the stillness of life, in essence the law of inertia.
And sometimes my music reminds me of a locomotive, very difficult to move, very difficult to stop.
When I listen to music, I look for the riff that is to die for, like a lot a Jimmy Page’s early work, Lennon has some, DiMeola and others.
When I hear those, I understand that an achievement such as that, leaves one little need to ever achieve anything else.
A die happy performance.
And then, inevitably, the opinion changes, about oneself, and the quest continues.
Have you ever heard “its the principle” before?
You won’t hear that in matters of law.
Law is based on cultural values, principles, agreed upon standards of behavior and then incredibly enforced by negotiated agreement due to logistical constraints.
A very strange situation this is, because everything we are taught regarding “do the right thing” and “be honest” and “stand up for what is right” and “call a spade a spade” and “protect your rights” and “do unto others” goes out the window when you enter this strange world of adrenalin junky legal types who have no real grasp of any of that any more and the highest bidder wins.
Its the principle of the matter that gets me.
Ach nein
If you can’t see the forest for the trees, then decision making becomes all but pointless.
For example, hydro-electric power generating plants.
Once, on a small stream near my home there was a proposal to build a micro hydro facility on the stream just downstream. I was opposed, and remain opposed though the proposal is long dead.
Upon recently examining my motives, I realized that at the time I simply didn’t want to see the damage to the stream, and the permanent aesthetic damage, for the construction and maintenance of the facility.
What I didn’t consider was the holistic view, one that encounters energy costs, local and external, energy types, dependencies on non-renewable energy and so on.
Hydro power is ugly, very ugly in the short term and long term. Hydro power is very renewable, very clean and very reliable, in the long term. Here in North Fork CA in fact we derive 80 percent of our power from hydro.
Luckily, the decision I made was correct even when filtered by reality, holistic reality.
Gives one leave, though, to shut up and listen, consider, weigh, move back, way back and look again, then decide.
And ya better have a goal in there somewhere or you are moving towards oblivion.
Reading my favorite blog (last time I want to use that word as a noun, a verb, or anything else) Fit To Print I am reminded of the upcoming US midterm elections.
What little I have seen makes me wonder.
When did we stop talking about relevant issues? Why do we fixate on ridiculous irrelevant personal behaviors? Criminal, lecherous and unethical behavior is one thing, to be exposed, but one’s taste in entertainment? Cheess. Really.
Why don’t we start talking about survival? Why don’t we introduce ourselves to the truth? Why don’t we do unto others as we would have them do unto us? Why don’t we start reading and stop watching like brain dead zombies out of Dawn of the Dead 41? Why do humans have such a penchant for the miscreant behaviors of pedestal posted celebrity politicians to be knocked off like ten pins?
Focusing the conversation onto the truly relevant issues is something which will not likely occur in our existence. Humans will pander to the base lusts of the formidable power of greed and then once the earth is spent, cease to exist.
Good riddance.
The earth however, has until the sun goes red giant.
My favorite concept from my perspective. Haha.
One perspective viewing the world, reality, and discussing this with another perspective completely different, completely and utterly in another realm, makes for difficult communication.
Sometimes seeing the forest for the trees leaves the trees unobserved.
I live in the forest.
Is nothing the absence of everything?
Is nothing sacred?
Is nothing real?
Is nothing something?
Nothing is everything, everything is nothing.
And nothing to get hung about. (John Lennon.)
This is a rare condition that by that virtue rarely afflicts anyone, ever.
When one comes down with a case of this affliction one will be severely at odds with society.
This society frowns upon a consistent and definite code of ethics because you cannot pack on the pounds, win the applause and gain the world with such a code. Or cut deals.
In essence, one must let go of principles, concepts, meaning, righteousness, correctness, truth or any other concrete principles or ideas to participate in our society.
Unless you want to be a troublemaker.
There isn’t any.
Think about it.
The only reality is the moment, now, here, right now.
There isn’t any future, only the moment.
Are you awake?
A healthy ecosystem is a subjective topic as is everything because we now know that Nothing Has Meaning without point of view.
Balance is one concept touted in any discussion of ecosystems.
Assuming that the earth is an ecosystem we can also assume that the degree to which the earth can sustain any given state would be an indicator of balance. The earth is out of balance due to human beings.
Then again, balance is subjective so who is to say what is in balance? See my article on the earth’s attitude.
Still, we have to make assumptions here so let us define balance as an earth that will sustain life as we humans desire, generally, a life that is also good for other living things.
The earth is out of balance.
The solution to this problem?
Vote no on the human race.
Happy Birthday John!
Yeah he’s dead, but the perspective lives.
What of the mind of the man? Nothing is real? And nothing to get hung about?
My kind of guy.
Miss you Mr. Lennon, selfish yes, but the truth.
So we were driving to Chuck and Jennie Castles’ place in Denver and stopped on Interstate 15 out of St. George at Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park, Utah.
Very cool little jaunt directly east of Interstate 15 that encompasses a visitor center and a five mile dead end drive into the canyons.
The weather was unsettled with showers so the lighting was fantastic.
The road is chip and sealed with what appears to be native crushed red rock so the road matches the phenomenal views of geologic massiveness, all with a red hue.
We took the 3/4 mile hike at the end of the 5 mile drive and got caught in a medium downpour. Not enough to get soaked but enough to add some mud to the feet and moisture in the clothes.
Breathtaking and worth the visit.
I’ve always wondered.
Economics being a phenomenon that is inexplicable (though that hasn’t stopped anyone) is scientific enough, maybe. Agreed upon mayhem, mass delusion, yet still somehow functions.
But the distance from actual on the ground production and trading of goods is so great when sitting in the corner office looking at the view punching keys and making calls that the question arises.
What does business do?
This question makes me curious enough to want to delve deeper even though obviously the corner office guys are managers and or speculators so the answer seems simple enough. However, there are entire high rise buildings full of these business folks all producing absolutely nothing while pulling down a salary and contributing to the mass delusion that is our economy.
I’ll get back to you.
So is there justice irrespective of perspective?
Is the ruthless killing of prey to eat just? This is more a question of integrity, another article for another day.
What is the meaning of justice?
As you can see the meaning runs the gamut roughly based on righteousness and being just but can also mean upholding the law.
There’s the rub.
Laws aren’t necessarily just, and upholding them isn’t necessarily justice therefore. Semantics too I know but there is an overall principle here, truth.
Really what this article has to say is that there is rarely justice in a legal system based on laws so arcane and prolific deciphering righteousness is all but impossible. This legal system is a high bidder system that delivers outcomes based on who can afford to take the ball to the hoop. Dealmaking and posturing. (The law says, bust a deal and face the wheel. Beyond Thunderdome, Made Max.
Justice comes not from law, or successful prosecution or defense, but from an internal commitment to a quality of being guided by truth. Motivation to fight for justice is commensurate with this commitment.
Amazingly enough deciphering these meanings comes back to my favorite tree, the truth.
One finds that within this legal system haggling over a result leaves the concept, the principle of truth out of the process. The truth becomes irrelevant.
The Truth Will Set You Free
Sometimes your nephew makes you laugh.
Finding the flow of life and all that, saying things, having opinions, opining and going on about things that really have no meaning outside a rarefied world of indifference.
A rarefied world of indifference.
The meaning of life summed up in one rarefied world of indifference.
Get real.
Reality.
Being.
All seeing.
All feeling.
The problem, as is with the problem with all beer (Young Einstein) is that it lacks bubbles.
I really am convinced that there is something existing that exists outside us all, within us all as well, that exists without permission, without apology, without influence from, without question.
This is truth.
Not unlike a tree in the forest.
The forest is often used in metaphor, and I can see why.
There is in a forest a calm, peaceful, steady, unyielding, unforgiving, incorruptible being so I like trees as an example of truth.
They just exist, whether or not I choose to see them, am capable of seeing them, or define and rationalize them. They are there anyway.
Truth exists, with or without an observer.
So, Insanity, the truth is that you can accept the truth or not but it doesn’t change to suit your mood.
Be True
Well meaning. No meaning. Nothing has meaning.
The meaning of life.
Sounds like a broken record, an old analog recording done on a wire spool and played back through ancient equipment repeating over and over. Meaning is subjective, inherently personal, non-existent without a consciousness to create meaning.
Let go of this strange attachment to feeling that there is something more than that and you are free.
Be free.
A Whole New Perspective.
Devin has one. Nice.
Well this isn’t really a white paper.
In fact, I really shouldn’t have a white paper section cause I am technically very organic which means I am not about to discourse on science and engineering.
But I did want to say a very small bit about petroleum.
Most of us don’t realize that this incredible carbon chain is not dinosaurs but organic matter compressed in the correct conditions and then locked into the correct strata at the correct depth in the correct kind of rocks to become a semi-liquid or liquid greasy black stinky substance that can be made into just about anything.
We just fill up and bitch about the cost and then some of us lament our dependence on “foreign oil”.
The answer is to stop burning petroleum and start finding solutions outside the petro paradigm.
All of us should learn more.
I was thinking out loud. Talking to myself. The Band.
Well, I am beginning to wonder if anyone is really copping to the concepts and truths discussed here, other than Yianni.
This isn’t meant to be provocative but rather a journey to a place over there by the trees that grow in the shade shading the pond containing small fish that have no awareness and don’t think about anything.
Algae may produce oil and save us from petroleum woes but what you won’t be able to see if you can’t free yourself from perspectives of limitation and resistance to openness is that we are all really rather small and life goes on within you and without you. George Harrison’s greatest tune if you ask me. Bored me to tears for years until I listened to the lyrics.
So why not talk to yourself?
Cause its nuts.
How can we not be attached? After all, we are only human. Van Morrison
You’re just a human, a victim of the insane. John Lennon
Wellp, actually, we can not be attached but that is one heck of a difficult place to be in a society built on stereotypes, intolerance and religion.
This is also a tough place to be in a society based on freedom, tolerance and justice.
So we are all attached in some manner to something. What do I hold dear? What do you hold dear?
Not as easy a question as apparent. Not so simple to answer. What do you want from life? The Tubes
Why even talk about attachment? Why not?
The underpinnings of attachment are our old favorite, values. Values come from subjective point of view pre-seasoned with genetics and environment.
Unattach yourself.
Royalty. The term comes from payment to the king. Got nothing to do with the post but rhymes.
Thinking about perspective and values now, and again. Seems like thats the topic of this diary. Nothing has meaning without point of view and then all I talk about is point of view. Cool.
So Loyalty is kind of like blind faith. Believing in someone, or something, standing up for them or that, backing up, supporting without question.
Now you can’t be loyal without point of view either, cause those without any preference, or care, cannot find themselves in a position to back a position or a person, really or genuinely. These thoughts are present but difficult to relate. Almost like images and feelings behind the eyes and speaking or writing them doesn’t communicate fully the meaning, or lack thereof.
So the loyal party sets aside potentially conflicting values to support this person or cause unconditionally, many times at their own peril.
Like the chain of command in any military situation where one is presumed to act without question and with loyalty when commanded by higher authority.
True loyalty is rare, good or bad.
When times get tough you want loyal friends and family at your back.
I got your back.
You know I always loved that line from John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth.
The idea of burning a fatty and then hanging yourself is definitely thought provoking but what got me was the bringing of money and corruption to drugs and suicide in a way that was freaking hilarious and as always open to interpretation.
Money corrupts. . . and can provide very useful rope.
All I want is the truth.
Who’s got answers?
Who’s looking for answers?
The “I Know It All and You Can Learn It for a Small Fee Foundation” does.
And membership is reasonable.
Get over it fools.
Every human on this earth originates somewhere.
The question is when? Apparently, if your culture was recently overthrown by an invading culture then you become aboriginal and they become occupiers.
I bring this up because I’ve been thinking about myself, my favorite topic.
My parents are both US Citizens, one blue blood going back to the beginning of the invasion, one the son of immigrant Greek folks who came over just after the turn of the 20th century.
So I am a native American. Born in Redwood City CA USA. But I am not aboriginal with evidence. The Penobscot blood can’t be proven. But I could say I am aboriginal to Greece probably.
When does the merging of two cultures blur to the point that we no longer distinguish between the invaders and the original, at least recently, inhabitants?
We are all original human beings.
What motivates me?
What motivate you?
What do you want from life?
Easy questions, hard answers. Rhetorical really.
Sometimes one gets to the point where one is basically a whore. Or shall I say, a less direct and less honest whore. Or shall I say, we are all whores all along the way.
We fancy that we are just and true while driving toward one goal, more, more of everything, more life, more stuff, more. . .
Caution and fear then dictate our actions since we might lose that chance. Fear of losing sight of the material dream, or fear of losing all that stuff we have worked so hard to think we have.
A prostitute provides a service for a fee and that is that.
We all do the same but somehow along the way we find that, name the number, and bam, you own the man (Stingray). Principles don’t count, only dollars.
Materialism is such a shallow and meaningless concept when one factors in the fact that no matter what, no matter how far from real biological life you go, no matter how many plastic houses with plastic toys in a plastic insulated world you have, you are still just a mammal or as Lennon would say “just a human”.
Who wants to be reminded of that?
Who wants to know that all the trappings are just a bunch of pointless and useless junk?
So I find myself wondering what my price is, if I have one.
Nope, sure don’t, and that is my fault.
“I have a thought, you want to know, you can’t be bought, neither can I” is really a stupid line from a stupid Off Every Day song that smacks of none other than stupidity unless you delve into the concept underneath that, essentially that all choices are conscious and that we can’t be bought, really, literally.
So do we compromise? Or is the action based on conscious choices?
How does this tie with ambition?
Well lets just say that ambition is the compromising expression of a desire to possess the world and win the war against deprecatory peers.
I don’t have any.
My brother Yianni once said this to me.
He then proceeded to travel a path that took him to many strange and fantastic places, sometimes losing sight of this. Actually, this wise comment came during the particularly strange or remarkable portion of his ongoing journey.
I later reminded him that he told me that no matter what, be true to yourself. To this he said “Really?”
I bring this up because I observe that in a value set, with a value set, one is always finding challenges to these values, compromises, disregardings, ignorings (lovely nouns aren’t they?) and basically a wanton failure to uphold our own personal values.
Why have values if they are to be sold to the highest bidder?
Be true to yourself and the rest is easy.
Wanna Die
If I ain’t dead already, girl you know the reason why.
John Lennon
You know its such a drag, to face another day. John Lennon.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Category: Whatever
Today was the day that Nived booked to Boston.
The man has an insatiable desire to conquer the world and damn if he won’t do it.
Best of luck brother man.
Creative outlets are somewhat like water behind a dam finally breaking out, or not.
I have seen playing guitar, composing music and recording as sort of the rain falling.
Man, its been raining a long time.
Then I see the dam or levee breaking as sharing all that with others. I certainly haven’t wanted to but. . .
If the rain don’t stop the levee’s gonna break.
In the 2002 film starring David Gulpilil called The Tracker we see many questions posed by the film, and answered by the viewer. Typical of a film I suppose but what isn’t typical are the powerful close-ups, overwhelming soundtrack, context and David Gulpilil.
Also on the DVD is a documentary of David Gulpilil by Gulpilil. The title is One Red Blood.
Gulpilil narrates and after being taken on a snapshot of his life he sums up that we are all brothers and sisters, with one red blood.
I dug that idea, despite leaving out some of the bloodless beings, because the concept uses color to unify rather than divide.
Sunday 8/27/06
Category: Global Health
I’ve always thought of this as the plight of being a human, or joy, or whatever grabs your fancy.
Then I realized that this is not the truth of it.
The human condition is a disease that the earth has.
We humans are like a virus (The Matrix) that the earth has caught and there ain’t no getting over it, or is there.
Quite possibly, the earth will outlast humans, actually it will, though the face of the earth will be different than it was before the advent of intelligence of humans and hence, the vanity of humanity. But then the earth has always been a dynamic evolving flowing fluid rock.
Get well soon.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Category: Culture and Values
What is vertical integration? The short answer is controlling everything in a process from the beginning to the end.
I came across this term recently while continuing to read the history of the oil industry, The Prize, in reference to John D. Rockefeller and his plan to control the world oil industry. Rockefeller isn’t credited with using the term but is credited with being the first real world example of using vertical integration on a massive scale.
So I’m thinking about how this can impact our lives. I’m thinking that controlling everything from the top down in one’s own life would lend a sort of ability to reach a satisfactory end. I’m thinking, yes, but we are particles in the breeze, we can’t control anything.
Then I think, no, my contention is that the individual is ultimately responsible for themselves so control is in fact always present. We control our decisions based on conditions we may not control. We can however move to a place where the conditions are right, mentally and physically. This reminds me of holistic management.
Holistic management is a reference to seeing the big picture, acknowledging the big picture, when making decisions. Coined by Allan Savory of Holistic Management International the process simply refers to being aware of all implications before making a decision.
Our ability to make informed decisions affords us vertical integration of our lives.
Now use it.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Much ado about nothing. Matters of and pertaining to absolutely nothing.
Let us handle these matters directly.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Category: The Meaning of Life
Came across this in the book The Prize all about the petroleum industry history.
A Wise Old Owl Lived in an Oak
The More He Saw the Less He Spoke
The Less He Spoke the More He Heard
Why can’t we all be like that old bird?
This recalls to me an old saying (presumably) I read in a long forgotten work of fiction.
Least Said Soonest Mended
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Category: Whatever
I purchased this way back in the eighties. I had been wanting this year model with the walk through feature and lucked onto a lead that panned out. Drove it until 1997.
Been parked in the weeds.
Took it out.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Category: Law, Nothing But A Human Institution
Well, well, well, oh well. John Lennon.
This topic is probably way too intense, volatile, provocative and controversial to sum up in a classic four paragraph derivative.
No, actually.
I can do it in one.
Law is like values, an expression of values in fact, like culture, law is the glue that binds. In the US, the glue is rotting and thus the framework is failing soon to disintegrate.
There are a couple of films that really impact this topic in an enlightening way, The Last Wave by Peter Weir and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Cohen Brothers.
In the former there is a culture that believes laws are more important than man. In the latter we see the devil mocking and scoffing at the suggestion the law matters by dismissing it as “a human institutionâ€.
Both these are valid truthful displays of the subjective, of the fact that humans create their culture and sometimes enforce their culture.
Law is only as powerful as its enforcement.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Category: Culture and Values
For a long, long time I’ve used humour as a way to speak the truth. Unwittingly, ironically, intentionally, curiously, and shrewdly.
Without a sense of humour life is meaningless. No. . . wait . . nothing has meaning anyway.
Don’t we all use humour? Don’t we all have a sense of humour? Don’t we all sense irony and humor (US spelling) in the human condition? Don’t we all see the truth? Nope.
You know how they say the truth is hard to take, and yeah, truth can be hard to take, but lies are harder to take.
The truth is really what this web site is all about. Finding truth, recognizing truth, allowing truth, thinking truth, being truth, letting go of the truth.
Is Dave Chappelle perpetuating racist stereotypes? Jon Stewart? Stephen Colbert? Monty Python? Richard Simmons?
Using the Chappelle example, the truth is that Dave is simply observing reality and in so doing raising our awareness of the cultural issues and stereotypes we are all hung up on. (Not European, should be “upon which we are hung upâ€.)
Humour is our only real hope as humour is a visionary perspective that is required to recognize that nothing has meaning without point of view.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Category: Culture and Values
Now that we have established a basis for perception we can move forward to the definition of our agreed upon frameworks within which to live.
This is known as values, or in the sum of group values, culture.
An interesting phenomena is culture, and as we break down the basis of all things we can see more clearly the what, why and how of culture and the what, why and how of evolving culture.
The foundation of culture is our values.
Our values come from what appears at first blush to be a complex set of variables but in truth derive from our basic needs and then by extension our basic desires, the electives so to speak, the pleasure affecting pastimes.
We all need clean air, food, water and shelter, the most basic physical needs. (Hazel would probably add companionship to that as well, hard wiring and all, for now let us start with the physical needs literally.)
Why then are these needs still lacking in so many cultures?
Lack of commitment.
by Devin Castles
Just as there are universal truths regarding the laws of nature and not to be redundant, but the universe, there are also universal truths about the human condition.
Our brains our wired to benefit from interaction with other people.
Our bodies heal faster around human contact.
Man is not a solitary creature. Solitude can help reflection, but is not a necessary ingredient all the time.
Nothing matters, but truth exists.
Nothing’s really something because nothing ever changes
It just takes a little while to realize what same is
But it’s all the same to me
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Category: The Meaning Of Life
This gets back to the underlying concept of nothing.
Rather than talking or thinking or writing or speaking in circles by attempting to define “nothing†simply think of nothing as “somethingâ€. Like a dream. A shadow of something real. (The Last Wave.)
So nothing motivates me. That can mean I am unmotivated by anything or that can mean that I am motivated by nothing.
So by now you can see that I am motivated by nothing or this site wouldn’t exist.
What is the meaning of all this?
Nothing Has Meaning.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Category: Whatever
So the point was and is that “doing†is defined as “producing†and “nothing†is defined as “not producing†so the goal of doing nothing ever is to not have a job, to not work at a job, to not buy in to the daily grind of a job, to not participate in the job mentality.
Work of course is ok. So is breathing and etc. Holistic minimization of negative impact on ecology is not considered.
Like Frank Zappa said, “Free is when you don’t have to do nothing or pay for nothing, We want to be free.â€
Be free.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Category: Whatever
Goals. Really can’t move toward anything without anything to move toward.
Can’t get anywhere intentionally without anywhere to go.
Unintentional communalities are rife with idiots pretending to give in to the perpetual discourse on sustainable living in a non-sustainable environment.
So what I am saying is saying what I am and meaning what I say while saying nothing.
So my goal is to do nothing ever. Not realistic eh Hazel? Not possible eh Insanity?
Yeah, we can’t do nothing unless you define “do†as participating in this relentless illusion of an economy, aka production of product of use to consumers.
Exhaling doesn’t count.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Category: Whatever
Well anyway I decided I would have to have a meeting with myself before I could have an opinion about that.
Hazel reminded me that this would be a meeting of the mind.
Hazel is actually Nived of Fit To Print fame and infamy. He will be contributing scintillating mind provoking articles here in a short lengthy while.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Category: Whatever
Interestingly enough, small steps make big changes. Sort of like the concept of time. Lots of it can affect huge change, relatively speaking.
As we sit here within our context we create patterns, within which we become comfortable or habitually inhabit. Habit and inhabit. I like that.
So, the rut we are in results in our lives being like the tire of a car forced to follow that rut.
Changing the way we think is a start at changing those patterns.
Time to change.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Category: The Meaning of Life
So next we move to the subjective. First, we accept that we exist, or not, irrespective of any intent or perception on our part. (If you cannot accept that, hit the home button on your browser.)
Next we can, or will, look at the context in which we find ourselves.
Context is a tricky word.
Much used by Adam Clark of Freedom Philosophy and sk8evangelist fame, the meaning (pun intended, permanently, consider the use of the word meaning here a permanent pun as the lack thereof is the premise of the site) of the word in its simplest form is, of course, meaning.
The meaning other than meaning is setting. The setting in which something occurs.
Do you remember Alice in Wonderland by Charles Dodgeson aka Lewis Carroll? The part about meaning what you say versus saying what you mean brought up by the Mad Hatter? (I hope. Been a long time since I read that passage.) Very cool mind workout there.
Context is relevant in that passage because obviously you can say what you mean and not be meaning what you say or vice versa. So context can mean, meaning, or intended point of view.
Values. The foundation of meaning.
Totally subjective, totally arbitrary, totally cultural.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Category: The Meaning of Life
I am getting the impression that many do not quite get that the title of this web diary, and the meaning (haha) of the concept of the web diary is that nothing has meaning intrinsically, inherently, automatically, in and of itself, built in, supposedly, without point of view.
So that is to say, that truth and the is exist whether or not observed, in a definable state, but that in defining we now have placed upon that is a subjective perspective that filters, possibly, the actual existence.
Values are a result of this perspective.
Got any?
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Category: Whatever
Speaking of perspective I find myself speaking of perspective.
So I’m doing a dishwasher install and find myself under the kitchen sink doing a spot of plumbing. One is lying there, essentially on one’s back, half the body under the sink, relatively comfortable, with a whole different worldview. Not at all bad.
You ever hang upside down from your knees when climbing trees?
Same thing, only different.
So there I am and I’m thinking how sweet under the sink is. A whole world by itself. Peaceful. A certain kind of smell and feel.
We should all spend more time under the kitchen sink.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Category: The Meaning of Life
Been using the truth a lot lately, in describing these simple lessons on the nature of things, so I thought . . . . . .
Seeing the truth, hearing the truth, being the truth, all for naught.
Is truth subjective? No.
Is truth conceptual? No.
Is truth something? Yes.
Is truth nothing? Yes.
So which is it? Both.
Think of truth as something physical and you will begin to get my drift.
If a monolithic wall of granite, say, is standing there, there it stands.
What I call it, or what you call it, or how we see, hear, feel, taste or sense doesn’t change the granite.
There it stands.
Just like the truth.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Category: The Meaning of Life
Apparently there are those unwilling or unable to ponder. Philosophy being what it is makes us humans not too prone to philosophizing. Philosophy is pondering. Meaningless pondering resulting in recognition of . . . . . . . . meaninglessness.
The concepts here are simple, and not provocative, and not original.
Perception is reality. Reality is perception. Truth, on the other hand, is not reality. When one confuses the two, one ends up missing the point, again and again and again.
If I use the word “reality†here to mean perception forgive me. Words have many meanings, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective (haha) so try to glean the context. I also use reality to mean “true existence†or “the nature of things†problem being of course that reality is filtered. Then dreams show up and throw a spanner in the works.
The point being, there is no point. This shouldn’t be hard to grasp but all too often is because people simply don’t want to acknowledge or observe their own insignificance.
The truth stands all by itself, usually alone, unobserved and unrecognized. Now the world (reality, space, consciousness, whatever) we live in is created by our perspective, values, mindset, intelligence, history, environment and, again, whatever influences us.
See the difference?
Yeah. Not too original.
The idea being, pun intended, to be present in all awareness. Sit still and listen, see, feel and suddenly the world is a universe of realities that surround our beings.
Here and now, we have nothing else.
Testing this freaky thing with jonezingtheflow.
copyright 2005 Mark Stamas
[audio:jonezingtheflow.mp3]
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Category: The Meaning of Life
I got to thinking about something Hazelrah said. This was in a comment regarding plans, and how life did turn out the way we had it planned, always. Hazel was not too hip with that one.
Hazel was on about realistic goals. This is self-defeating. No one would ever amount to squat, in his or her view, or any view, if they only allowed themselves to seek that which they thought was possible or realistic. Nothing wrong with just being alive either. That goal isn’t as easy to attain as it appears.
This Fourth of July 4, 2006 is a perfect day to talk about seeking what one desires, without limits, before figuring out how. (Perfect spot for a link to Off Every Day’s Figure Out How.)
The Declaration of Independence talked about in essence the right and duty to stand up for justice, stand up against tyranny regardless of the costs. Now if they had the mentality of “realistic†the United States of America would not exist. Those dudes were my kind of people on the whole.
So first and foremost we need to know what we want. We need to figure out exactly what, not some vague “a million dollars†or “freedom†or “love, friendship and understandingâ€. Those are all good starts. Yeah. But refine the baby a bit. What, precisely, do you want?
Then realize what you have. As John Lennon quoted you don’t know what you got, until you lose it. Possibly you are more where you want to be then you realize.
After an assessment of what you desire, then, and only then, figure out how. Don’t let anything stop you. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t play by the rules but there are ways, with perseverance, to achieve just about anything.
First there’s the what
Then there’s the how
Don’t limit the what
Figure out how
Thank you United States of America for being a perfect example of this. Now don’t become 18th Century England.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Category: Whatever
Reality.
Some say that this is a completely subjective personal existence that is different for all though somehow cohesive for all at the same time. You know, “You create your own realityâ€. False.
There is truth.
Without us, there is truth. With us, there is truth. Without life, there is truth. Within and without you there is truth. Everywhere there is truth. Nowhere there is truth.
Conceptually speaking this is not entirely correct because of the conundrum that states without perception nothing exists. Like the tree falling in the forest making a sound without human ears to hear the falling. Well, nothing exists, yes, but so does absolute truth.
The classic every witness to a crime sees something different example seems to bear this out. But what is actually happening is the inability of human individuals to see the truth without adding their own flavor.
So back to the title.
What becomes eminently clearer every moment is that politics is a complete fabrication built on lying in a manner that does the least damage to an objective that is entirely surreal.
This is against nature, and against truth and ought to be against the law. But then the law is usually meaningless anyway.
Truth is all that is real. See it, believe it or not.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Here’s a thought. What if everyone on earth, of the human persuasion, were to acknowledge and know that the earth inherently has not the least bit of attachment to the human race.
Simply put, we are killing an ecosystem that will support us, and other living things, possibly to be known as collateral damage.
One time I told an acquaintance that whether or not the earth was hospitable to humans had no intrinsic value or necessary desirability. I was told that anyone who felt that way was value challenged. I obviously thought better and knew that values are, again, exactly based on desires, perspectives, contexts and intelligence.
Intrinsic, inherent meaning or value simply doesn’t exist. Step back and look at reality in the cold hard light of logic and you find the IS. What IS. No meaning, no spin, no win, no sway, no way, no play, no fray.
You know, so I thought, why the hell is this idea of perspective and existence free of us so provocative? Why the hell are people so caught up they can’t see themselves and their place in the ecosystem? Why aren’t we all aware of the tenuous, random and arbitrary values we assign to our cultures?
Amazingly enough I caught an episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart where he laid out in comedic fashion that the earth will go on. Reminds me of the Matrix when Mr. Smith refers to the human race as a virus. Reminds me of George Harrison’s line in Within and Without You, just that, life goes on within you and without you.
Wise up and agree on a set of common goals and we can save our world. The earth doesn’t care.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Testing one two three.
Ever heard that before? Nope.
Truth is, that.
I have heard “life didn’t turn out the way I had it planned†from whiners and considered the source first, and then gave it some thought.
One is responsible for one’s actions, there is no other conclusion than one is where one wants to be.
Life did turn out the way you had it planned.
You have a really bad plan.
Consider planning with goals you actually desire.
Unless you enforce the law, the law is meaningless.
Does this mean the law is the same as nothing?
Of course not.
The typical civil lawsuit, and to a large extent criminal, simply is a court sanctioned therapy session designed to cut deals where the highest bidder wins.
Not a good setup.
There is no relevance placed on right and wrong, truth or justice, or any semblance of reality.
No wonder attorneys are out of touch with the real world.
They live in a fantasy world ruled by attorneys “enforcing†and arguing law created by attorneys for attorneys designed for maximum profit.
Peasants with pitchforks time.
Crossing the line.
What line?
The line between right and wrong, left and right, good and bad, smart and stupid, up and down, over and under, through and around, across into the next lane.
Today I would like to take the opportunity to reflect on original music.
There seems to be some sort of misunderstanding regarding originality.
From my perspective music is a bizarre controlled conglomeration of sonic vibrations that can elicit a trained response in humans.
Or is it trained?
We’ve all heard the infamous classical music study where plants died under the influence of rock and roll and thrived under the influence of classical.
The researcher must have been under the influence.
Sometimes there isn’t any motivation to do anything.
What exactly is doing something anyway?
You may find that there are more questions than there are answers until such time as you realize that they are the same thing.
Productivity is quantifying valuable contribution to a greater common consciousness. For clarity’s sake lets just say that there are agreed upon values that indicate what is productive.
Exhaling is productive.
The point of life is that there is no point.
Provocative in some circles this is of course not a particularly original truth. The truth is in fact entirely unoriginal though rarely seen.
The entire meaning of life is derived from perspective. The perspective of the viewer or entity.
What is perspective?