Check it Out

After reflecting upon my last blog, I realized that the alternative to being cornered in our society is not as clear for most as it is for me; so I shall elaborate. Beholding the world of the humans in its expansive insanity and brutality requires a complete commitment to reality and what it stands for- survival. It has gone totally out of fashion lately to admit that the survival of our species, and the world that provides everything it consumes, is our primary concern and operates totally independent of any petty morality. We've inherited many antiquated concepts that accumulated over the course of our journey to the present that are utterly useless in terms of our present condition. I firmly believe that if mankind is going to accomplish anything beyond what we have thus far it is going to require a streamlined version of what is presently called humanity. All the self indulgent megalomaniac nonsense that we expend so much of our energy on will very soon become a luxury we can no longer afford. My advice is simple, learn as much as you can and make the most of your time here. Life is a canvas upon which our actions paint pictures. The thoughtful and committed human living up to his or her full glory is a beautiful thing, and the only path worth walking in my opinion. If such is how you choose to roll, when your present manifestation is over you will have left behind a piece of inspirational art that furthers the cause of life in the infinite expanse of the universe.
"It's impossible to awaken a man who is pretending to be asleep."
"You cannot see the future with tears in your eyes."
Navajo Proverbs

Cornered

"To protest in the name of morality against 'excesses' or 'abuses' is an error that hints at active complicity. There are no 'abuses' or 'excesses' here, simply an all pervasive system." -Simone de Beauvoir
As my knowledge of the system increases with my careful study the scale, scope and organization becomes intoxicating in its complexity. People spend whole lifetimes absorbed in the minutest aspects of our complicated world, still not even exhausting that one field of study. This leads to a sectarian society in which many people are on completely different but parallel paths, all under the umbrella of the system. We all find our little corner to inhabit and operate within; which in order to do so we must tacitly embrace the order which permits and facilitates it. The reality of this situation is in no way more clearly demonstrated than in the fact that the political and corporate powers that rule this land need never justify their actions in any rational format. We all know, on some level, where this fantastic wealth that creates our little corners comes from, and thus can only criticize individual aspects that we consider 'immoral' and never the system which neccesitates it. This allows people to not take that virtually impossible mental jump from 'I want change' to 'I will change'. Especially when one realizes in horror that any direct action to oppose the beast which you have found ruling your life makes you the enemy of virtually everyone you know. Their is a way out, but not through ideology or compromise. In a compromise between good and evil only evil can ever benefit. What is 'evil' you might ask- that which destroys life. Don't be afraid when confronted with the monolithic power of the herd, for it is always ready to change course, but the prerequisite is to come out of our little corners and forsake them.
"There are no chains of houses; there are no crowds of men. The colossal diagram of streets and houses is an illusion, the opium dream of a speculative builder. Each of these men is supremely solitary and supremely important to himself. Each of these houses stands in the centre of the world." --G. K. Chesterton

Reality

It has become remarkably popular lately to deny the existence of an objective reality independent of individual human perspective. This is probably the result of academia and politics, both of which have been so self centered that they find it possible to postulate just about anything. They certainly can't be entirely to blame, because they merely create the path, it is the rest of humanity that must tacitly accept it. Reality is not something that can be denied ad infinitum however. The current trend of consuming more than you produce and polluting to an extent that makes our existence untenable are rather glaring testaments to realities uncompromising nature. Science does its best to deal in terms of objective reality, and the testing of theories through the crucible of what is real has made it advance. The social sciences (a hilarious oxymoron) and political thought (another) has operated in a mental void in which reality need not apply. Politicians make incredibly absurd claims that are so inherently contradictory that even questioning their logic requires one to enter that void in which reality and the human facility that detects it, logic, simply can't exist. The fallacies that belch out of the brain factories are a little more difficult to detect, not because they are any less ridiculous, merely because they use more words and arguments so daft that it takes years of expensive training to even consider them as conceivably true. The people of the world seem to have been caught hook, line and sinker in this imbecilic charade. When a person drowns it is because they are forced underwater so long that in panic their brain forces them to breath the water in the desperate assumption that it is in fact air; with the predictable result of death. Much in the same fashion when people are surrounded by an endless ocean of falsities they eventually, out of desperation or depravity, begin to swallow, with the predictable result. I personally am a lifelong fan of reality because it is the only path to any solution to a problem. Trying to solve anything when you fail to perceive the intrinsic nature of the problem is impossible, and yet that is how we are currently going about it. All the ideology, faith and ambition in the world won't cure a single significant problem facing us humans. It's scary out here in reality, no hiding that fact, but things are only going to get worse if people remain willfully ignorant or delusional. Here are some of my favorite quotes on reality by some other humans-
"I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal."
-Groucho Marx
"How hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one's senses! How reluctantly the mind consents to reality."
-Norman Douglas
"Humankind cannot stand very much reality."
-T. S. Eliot
"When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality."
-Henry David Thoreau
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Traveling

"Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag." Alexander Solzhenitsyn
As I return from my travels in Brazil I feel as though my mind has been gorged after near starvation. The capacity of the human mind to perceive and the heart to love are never so fully exercised as when one leaves all familiarity behind and ventures forth into the unknown. It's almost as if one can transcend your earthly coil through the nirvana of a reality separate from the one you've grown accustomed to. When one goes down the path of the wanderer you are taking a course in life taught by the world, and it is a teacher that never fails. That which I learned on this trip is difficult to corner with words. The immensity of the experience makes one drunk with thought and as a result fills the mind with more than can be processed. It is a series of moments that have fused together and yet maintain a particular place in ones memories. I'm thinking of the kites flying high above favelas held by children whose existence is painful and precarious, yet they smile. I remember dancing in new ways and having people relish my attempts and laughingly tell me "you dance well for a gringo" (which is like telling a deaf man he hears well). Images of the endless skyline of Sao Paulo, an impenetrably deep jungle, rolling hills in Minas Gerais and the perfect beaches of Rio de Janeiro are all separate things held by my mind in one special thought. As much as I like to study the world academically, it is this personal perception that makes it all real and breathtaking. The individual human experience is nothing but a journey through space and time, thus does travel fulfill so much of our being.
"Who lives sees much. Who travels sees more." ~ Arab proverb