Monday, January 16, 2006
Monday, June 20, 2005
The Beast Assembles.
I surf websites with weird ideas sometimes. I think there is some genius in madness, and perhaps I'm surfing for inspiration, or a hidden bauble of truth, or just an odd worldview to play with. It's fun even when it's scary.
Say, for example, this document which made me think of money, at a very high level, as being an energy system. He's totally right: put money somewhere and stuff begins happening. It is energy to extract materials to trade for energy. Cool stuff!! So THAT'S what it looks like to guys like Bush, and Greenspan, and bankers like that. I can totally envision it. Lump financial energy and hydrocarbon energy and electrical energy together, and it's really all about management of energy systems.
(A note about that linked document. It's entertaining reading but I wouldn't consider it proof of some official diktat from some secret controlling entity. Pretty long document to have been found in a copier.)
In my continuing search of order on different scales I have often wondered about the super-human entity that will emerge. Not as in a better human than any other human. No, a mass collective of humans that functions, for all intents and purposes, as a single organism.
The above view of finance as energy gives me a vision of finance coupled with the transportation industry to form an analogue to the animal circulatory system. Industries are organs (the military is the fists and biceps, ha.) The mass media and personal communication networks create a nervous system. The brain, it would appear, will be the Gubmint. All Hail the Grand Neuron!
It can easily be argued that the federal system of the United States -- that is, the interlinked governmental, economic, commercial and legal entities which conspire to legitimize themselves and each other -- has already become that beast. I don't think so, because all around us are people who are NOT a full-time part of the beast (hobos come to mind.) I think when a subset of this population hops on a spaceship designed to hold half a billion people, THAT'S the organism... to an alien lifeform, us humans would simply be the funny little microbes inside the exoskeleton. Until then, it's test runs, here on earth.
Hah! If that beast really wants to evolve, it definitely needs to put more energy into sustainable systems.
ps. I wonder how many tries it took for the protozoan bundles of cells to form a skin.
Say, for example, this document which made me think of money, at a very high level, as being an energy system. He's totally right: put money somewhere and stuff begins happening. It is energy to extract materials to trade for energy. Cool stuff!! So THAT'S what it looks like to guys like Bush, and Greenspan, and bankers like that. I can totally envision it. Lump financial energy and hydrocarbon energy and electrical energy together, and it's really all about management of energy systems.
(A note about that linked document. It's entertaining reading but I wouldn't consider it proof of some official diktat from some secret controlling entity. Pretty long document to have been found in a copier.)
In my continuing search of order on different scales I have often wondered about the super-human entity that will emerge. Not as in a better human than any other human. No, a mass collective of humans that functions, for all intents and purposes, as a single organism.
The above view of finance as energy gives me a vision of finance coupled with the transportation industry to form an analogue to the animal circulatory system. Industries are organs (the military is the fists and biceps, ha.) The mass media and personal communication networks create a nervous system. The brain, it would appear, will be the Gubmint. All Hail the Grand Neuron!
It can easily be argued that the federal system of the United States -- that is, the interlinked governmental, economic, commercial and legal entities which conspire to legitimize themselves and each other -- has already become that beast. I don't think so, because all around us are people who are NOT a full-time part of the beast (hobos come to mind.) I think when a subset of this population hops on a spaceship designed to hold half a billion people, THAT'S the organism... to an alien lifeform, us humans would simply be the funny little microbes inside the exoskeleton. Until then, it's test runs, here on earth.
Hah! If that beast really wants to evolve, it definitely needs to put more energy into sustainable systems.
ps. I wonder how many tries it took for the protozoan bundles of cells to form a skin.
Friday, December 10, 2004
happy holidays!
'Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la laa, la laa la laaa.
Here's wishing peace upon the people of the world, both singly and in all their groupings.
Here's wishing love to all, and love from all.
Here's wishing for health and humor.
And most of all, here's wishing to be saying the same next Christmas.
Here's wishing peace upon the people of the world, both singly and in all their groupings.
Here's wishing love to all, and love from all.
Here's wishing for health and humor.
And most of all, here's wishing to be saying the same next Christmas.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
liberalism.
My co-worker Bruce, an unapologetic conservative capitalist of roughly 50 years of age, forwarded a somewhat vicious conservatives-on-liberals joke e-mail to me soon after the conclusion of our recent electoral cycle. The last paragraph gave up on the whole joke angle and just went for the jugular. It included this line:
Conservatives hire other Conservatives who wish to work. Liberals produce little or nothing.
My first reaction was one of rage. I am an owner of my company, and in many ways I am an indispensable worker. I am the go-to guy that everyone wants to fix their problem. In fact, Bruce regularly hollers over the cubicle wall to ask the answer to a question. And I am an unashamed Liberal who wants progressive social policies, which I will detail more about later. Bruce, on the other hand, is a sales guy... and sales have been waaaaaay slow. Who produces here? In short, this was my Fuck You moment.
My second reaction was a closer reading of the terms "liberal" and "conservative". I noticed, first, that there are several kinds of both -- fiscal and social come to mind easily -- and second, that the line above refers not to any common "liberals" except the conservative-conjured demons, but rather to Ayn Rand's "looter." In the same breath, they seek to tie the conservative to Rand's "producer." But these labels are incongruous, and it does not take very long to pick them apart.
What is a Conservative? According to a dictionary definition, it is one who generally opposes change, for better or for worse, preferring traditions. The entry for liberal, on the other hand, indicates a person who is not limited to traditions, but rather favors reform and is tolerant of the views and ideas of others.
Well, tar and feather my ass, because I am a Liberal. And a damned proud one, at that.
You drink clean water because of Liberals. Women can vote because of Liberals. Cars have safety devices that save the lives of many a drunk, Conservatives included, thanks to the work of some Liberals (including one Ralph Nader.) And workers who have health insurance, a 401k, a profit-sharing plan or ownership in their company owe those things to the work of Liberals. (Imagine, for one moment, the thought of J. Pierpont Morgan willingly instituting a profit-sharing plan. Stop choking, please.)
Blacks were freed into a second-class existence with the War Between the States, and a hundred years of effort by Liberals followed to give them some semblance of equality, and Conservatives have fought this every step of the way. Even today, Liberals push for the improvement of basic schooling for minorities. If a child has a poor elementary education, that child will be at a disadvantage in high school, will have reduced prospects for college, and his employment will net him a lower socioeconomic status over the course of his life than a similar child who had an excellent elementary education. And the fact that Conservatives would stymie these efforts only strengthens the accusation that Conservatives, inside, are merely racist pigs hiding behind an effigy of the world's most famous crucified man.
I don't believe that to be entirely true. There are people from all walks of life that I respect. And in concert with my tolerance for the views of others, I do not give them grief for their opinions on what Government is and should be. But I absolutely refuse to tolerate "Liberal" as an epithet, as so regularly employed by shills like Ann Coulter, when the history of American Liberalism is one that has opened doors of opportunity and worked untiringly to advance the cause of the downtrodden worker.
It is common to hear Liberals accused of wanting to hand out the wealth of the rich to those who would not work. I have often heard "crack whores" or "welfare cases" used to refer to liberals, but that's not accurate: Liberals merely wish to HELP those people. Almost every Liberal I know is college-educated, hardworking, and has a deep sense of morality that comes not from the Old Testament God of fire and brimstone, but from the New Testament God of love, acceptance and forgiveness.
If this is a Liberal, then I am a Proud Liberal.
Conservatives hire other Conservatives who wish to work. Liberals produce little or nothing.
My first reaction was one of rage. I am an owner of my company, and in many ways I am an indispensable worker. I am the go-to guy that everyone wants to fix their problem. In fact, Bruce regularly hollers over the cubicle wall to ask the answer to a question. And I am an unashamed Liberal who wants progressive social policies, which I will detail more about later. Bruce, on the other hand, is a sales guy... and sales have been waaaaaay slow. Who produces here? In short, this was my Fuck You moment.
My second reaction was a closer reading of the terms "liberal" and "conservative". I noticed, first, that there are several kinds of both -- fiscal and social come to mind easily -- and second, that the line above refers not to any common "liberals" except the conservative-conjured demons, but rather to Ayn Rand's "looter." In the same breath, they seek to tie the conservative to Rand's "producer." But these labels are incongruous, and it does not take very long to pick them apart.
What is a Conservative? According to a dictionary definition, it is one who generally opposes change, for better or for worse, preferring traditions. The entry for liberal, on the other hand, indicates a person who is not limited to traditions, but rather favors reform and is tolerant of the views and ideas of others.
Well, tar and feather my ass, because I am a Liberal. And a damned proud one, at that.
You drink clean water because of Liberals. Women can vote because of Liberals. Cars have safety devices that save the lives of many a drunk, Conservatives included, thanks to the work of some Liberals (including one Ralph Nader.) And workers who have health insurance, a 401k, a profit-sharing plan or ownership in their company owe those things to the work of Liberals. (Imagine, for one moment, the thought of J. Pierpont Morgan willingly instituting a profit-sharing plan. Stop choking, please.)
Blacks were freed into a second-class existence with the War Between the States, and a hundred years of effort by Liberals followed to give them some semblance of equality, and Conservatives have fought this every step of the way. Even today, Liberals push for the improvement of basic schooling for minorities. If a child has a poor elementary education, that child will be at a disadvantage in high school, will have reduced prospects for college, and his employment will net him a lower socioeconomic status over the course of his life than a similar child who had an excellent elementary education. And the fact that Conservatives would stymie these efforts only strengthens the accusation that Conservatives, inside, are merely racist pigs hiding behind an effigy of the world's most famous crucified man.
I don't believe that to be entirely true. There are people from all walks of life that I respect. And in concert with my tolerance for the views of others, I do not give them grief for their opinions on what Government is and should be. But I absolutely refuse to tolerate "Liberal" as an epithet, as so regularly employed by shills like Ann Coulter, when the history of American Liberalism is one that has opened doors of opportunity and worked untiringly to advance the cause of the downtrodden worker.
It is common to hear Liberals accused of wanting to hand out the wealth of the rich to those who would not work. I have often heard "crack whores" or "welfare cases" used to refer to liberals, but that's not accurate: Liberals merely wish to HELP those people. Almost every Liberal I know is college-educated, hardworking, and has a deep sense of morality that comes not from the Old Testament God of fire and brimstone, but from the New Testament God of love, acceptance and forgiveness.
If this is a Liberal, then I am a Proud Liberal.
music.
I love music. It has enormous sway over me. I am constantly tuned in to some sort of musical source, even if it's my inner mind tuning into the universe.
Humans are harmonic creatures. The entire universe around us is constantly in flux, and we shimmer with the uncountable interactions that make us up. For we are not so much 'solid' as a close approximation of 'solid'. At least on the quantum level, anyway. The strongest frequency in us is our heartbeat. And its frequency goes at the basic beats we use in music: from a stuporous 60 beats per minute, up to a racing 160 beats per minute which is uncomfortably fast both in person and in music.
I believe that there is a frequency somewhere in our shimmer, a dimension, if you will, that carries some sort of vast universal radio station. Oftentimes if I let my mind go slack, some new and unknown piece of music will flood in. I've also noticed that places seem to have their own local flavor to it, too. It's so entertaining going to a new place and "sensing" the musical energy there. And I don't mean a new club, I'm talking about places where people move about, a busy shopping district perhaps.
The expressive ability of music is truly profound. You can make your music march along; you can make your music ooze along like someone drugged; you can make your music smile, cry or rage, just by manipulating the relationship between the musical notes and the rhythmic notes. It is, in all essences, a language with dialects, accents, and both eloquent and simple works of art.
Some of the places where music has struck me in a profoundly touching way: The swimming pier in Galway, Ireland. The Spui, a plaza in Amsterdam. Little Five Points, a funky neighborhood in Atlanta. And the amount of blues coursing through the Mighty Mississip', from Memphis south, brought tears to my eyes when I first set eyes on it.
Music, and its appreciation, is the universe's greatest gift to me.
Humans are harmonic creatures. The entire universe around us is constantly in flux, and we shimmer with the uncountable interactions that make us up. For we are not so much 'solid' as a close approximation of 'solid'. At least on the quantum level, anyway. The strongest frequency in us is our heartbeat. And its frequency goes at the basic beats we use in music: from a stuporous 60 beats per minute, up to a racing 160 beats per minute which is uncomfortably fast both in person and in music.
I believe that there is a frequency somewhere in our shimmer, a dimension, if you will, that carries some sort of vast universal radio station. Oftentimes if I let my mind go slack, some new and unknown piece of music will flood in. I've also noticed that places seem to have their own local flavor to it, too. It's so entertaining going to a new place and "sensing" the musical energy there. And I don't mean a new club, I'm talking about places where people move about, a busy shopping district perhaps.
The expressive ability of music is truly profound. You can make your music march along; you can make your music ooze along like someone drugged; you can make your music smile, cry or rage, just by manipulating the relationship between the musical notes and the rhythmic notes. It is, in all essences, a language with dialects, accents, and both eloquent and simple works of art.
Some of the places where music has struck me in a profoundly touching way: The swimming pier in Galway, Ireland. The Spui, a plaza in Amsterdam. Little Five Points, a funky neighborhood in Atlanta. And the amount of blues coursing through the Mighty Mississip', from Memphis south, brought tears to my eyes when I first set eyes on it.
Music, and its appreciation, is the universe's greatest gift to me.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
the scale of things.
It's really wild how we can perceive things far larger than us and far smaller than us. I mean, I'm one of billions of humans, inhabiting a rock rotating around one of billions of suns. On the other hand, we're made up of trillions of cells, each made of millions of atoms.
What grand scope!!
It tells you of the magnitude of your acts, how the simple act of following these words across the page with your eyes requires the coordinated movement of uncountable quarks. It should bring to mind what a miraculous creature you are. And it also reminds you of your importance, or lack thereof: as the stars move, so they will move on long after we're all gone.
If you had the option to leave an imprint on humanity, would you? Would you prefer to be an observer to history or a player? Are you the type of person who would be remembered like Nelson Mandela, or like Vladimir Putin?
These are the days where we must choose what we are. I am a force for peace, for understanding, and for enlightenment. Mine is an aquarian mind: I believe in the nobility of humans, of the importance of change and progress and improvement throughout the life of humans and their organizations, and of the power of one person to stand astride History and change its path.
What grand scope!!
It tells you of the magnitude of your acts, how the simple act of following these words across the page with your eyes requires the coordinated movement of uncountable quarks. It should bring to mind what a miraculous creature you are. And it also reminds you of your importance, or lack thereof: as the stars move, so they will move on long after we're all gone.
If you had the option to leave an imprint on humanity, would you? Would you prefer to be an observer to history or a player? Are you the type of person who would be remembered like Nelson Mandela, or like Vladimir Putin?
These are the days where we must choose what we are. I am a force for peace, for understanding, and for enlightenment. Mine is an aquarian mind: I believe in the nobility of humans, of the importance of change and progress and improvement throughout the life of humans and their organizations, and of the power of one person to stand astride History and change its path.
