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

5 to 1

Although Americans are docile and tamed, we'd do well to remember that some humans don't take being buggered kindly. These two pictures were taken this last week. The first was in Chile, the second in Korea. I like it when people go out into the streets and tangle with armored authority, reminds me that unlike Americans, large swaths of humanity have yet to be domesticated by the system; maybe they never will be. Now the fact that we are on the winning side of a pretty darn gruesome and protracted war for economic dominance makes it easy, convenient and even logical not to complain in any effective or dangerous way; this I understand. National, racial and class boundaries help the fortunate not feel guilty, but it doesn't change the nature of what is going on globally and that lots of people aren't down with the program.
"Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act."
-The Talmud

Music

"Music is Magic. Magic is Life"- Jimi Hendrix's last lyrics
Our world has become a full blown battlefield for the fate of the human race. Ti's a vicious and complex conflict that is what we live, whether we embrace or hide from it. Thus is it that in said conflict their are many weapons and fronts where the struggle rages. Being but singular vulnerable hominids, this is naturally a very terrifying state of affairs, such is our reality in this unprecedented year of 2008 Anno Domini. As the shots are fired all around us in a dizzying display of passion and power there is one dimension to this conflict in which we can take triumphant refuge and its presence is the inspiration of mankind; it's called music. I would have never made it to this moment to write these words without its transcendent glory to save me from myself. It is the soundtrack that records the tribulations of the human soul as it traverses the sordid madness of history. It allows us to dance in an age of despair, death and desire. It turns words from just commonplace necessities into mind blowing beatitudes that guide us on our different and identical journeys upon Earth. It is the most subversive force in an age of unbridled tyranny and control; constantly reminding us of a deeper vein in the human experience. In this era when they try to tell us how orderly and controlled the world should be, we must forever remember the wild thing that is MUSIC- and the indestructible and inexplicable beauty it incarnates.
"Open are the doors to the Deathless
to those with ears.
Let them show their conviction " -Lord Buddha

The 4th

"America is a mistake, a giant mistake." -Sigmund Freud

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between" -Oscar Wilde

Not having an intellect to match those two geniuses above I can't make such a succinct and emphatic statement about my country, the United State of America, so I'll just do what I do know- writing a rambling rant. One thing is for sure though about Americans, we are a wild and emmotional bunch that really doesn't give a flying fuck what the rest of the world thinks about us or our behavior. We are also unintentionally honest- like the fact that the only logical way for us to celebrate our Country is eating bad food and blowing shit up. If it feels good and doesn't require too much effort do it, pretty much our modus operandi. It looks like hard times ahead for this nation of aggressive adventurers, but such in the forge from which all greatness has always emerged. I personally blame the baby boomers and their incomprehensibly stupid behavior in virtually every single aspect of national affairs. They amazingly managed to mismanage the most unprecedented advantage that any people has ever had, and so successfully soil the American ideal that it is now nothing but an incarnation of hypocrisy. Really reminds me of the last generation of Romans before Alaric sacked Rome and proved just how pathetically far they had fallen. Oh well, Sic transit gloria mundi. Now I'm no nationalist, but damn did we have it all set up so perfectly! We could have done just about anything we wanted with the world from helping and uniting humanity to completely annihilating it- and this lame ass shitstorm of opportunistic greed is all we did. God damn what a bummer! Aside from baby boomers I also blame excessive public education for taking what was once a nation of rabid individualists and turning them into the most self serving servile chauvinistic ignorant mob of maniacs the world has seen; or at least that I can think of right now. Having said all that negative shit, there are still some reasons to not count us out: 1) We have a lot of minorities in this country that seem to be a lot more capable and willing to do something with their lives other than get progressively fatter and stupider (roughly 100 million out of 300 million). 2) Just cause one Generation was a bunch of fuck ups doesn't necessarily mean all subsequent ones are going to be the same way (although that is sort of how it generally works). 3) People are voting less and less which proves that on some level we aren't completely unaware of what's going on. 4) With energy shortages looming ominously on the horizon effective entertainment might become unaffordable and consequently make Americans start using their brains again, if indeed any grey matter worth utilizing remains. 5) The rich might have gone too far this time in their abuse of the American worker, who just might retaliate with a ferocity that no one ever expected as things get progressively worse economically.
Sorry, that's the only positive points I can think of so here's another quote-

"Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea."

A lesson from History

"There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it." -William S. Burroughs
That incandescent quote cuts right to core of the modern quest for freedom. If the international market economy, which is undeniably the only real ruler for all of earths people, has made it impossible to be free, then why do we still insist on thinking it so important? Americans have always loved pretty words, actually living in accordance with the principles they represent- not so much. Hypocrisy took hold in this country to such an extent that we don't know what that word means either; its simply too much of our national character for most Americans to even identify. I find this particularly interesting from a historical perspective because every other successful Empire I can think of embraced the reality of their culture with unabashed pride and enthusiasm. The Mongols and Romans made no secret of their ambition to kick the shit out of anyone who stood in their way; so what's our deal? I think the answer lay buried a few thousand years back in an often discussed but rarely understood place and time- 5th Century Athens. Essentially the Greeks had fought off the massive Persian Army after being almost completely conquered in one of the most epically awesome conflicts in History. At this juncture the Athenians kept pursuing the war to reclaim all Hellenic territories that had been conquered. All the Greek city-states of the Aegean formed the Delian league, under Athenian leadership, to liberate their fellow Greeks. Now, most of the small members couldn't afford to field ships of their own and were often incapable of contributing any significant numbers of troops. So what they ended up doing was just paying Athens to do both, which it happily did because Athens was a hardcore militaristic Democracy with the largest navy and plenty of people to send off to war. Well, eventually the Persian threat was pretty much over and people sort of began to wonder why Athens still insisted on exacted tribute from all the Delian League members, and so some decided to stop paying. Well, the Boule(βουλή)decided that they didn't want to give up their dominate position and thus voted to punish those that tried to secede. Now the Boule was a lot like the House of Representatives, except that the members were randomly selected from the 10 different tribes of Athens. They didn't necessarily think of themselves as Imperialists, but that didn't mean that in essence that wasn't exactly what they were doing. They thought that their democratic ideals and visibly superior culture meant that it was somehow different when they did essentially the same things that they had denounced the Persians for only a short time before. Long story short the Spartans called shenanigans and after a protracted war put them in their place. If you can't see the parallels between this first recorded experiment with democracy and our own circumstance then I'm truly amazed you can bear the smell, because you must have your head firmly and deeply located up your own ass.