Log (page 2)
This is the “blog” bit. All the wanky introspective stuff you’d expect – I’ll even try and throw in the odd post apologising for not blogging regularly. Seriously.
“Money is an anonymous form of energy”
“Money is an anonymous form of energy”:
Money can facilitate exchange among friends and neighbors, but in essence money is an anonymous form of energy—almost by its definition as a universal medium of exchange. Among friends and neighbors, the usual laws of market economics do not apply. You don’t seek to maximize profit. You don’t raise your prices to the maximum just because you can. You are not doing it for the money; you are doing it for your family and for the neighbors. In an economy of reciprocation and social exchange—that is, in an economy that is not primarily a money economy—”economic efficiency” takes on a different meaning.
The more anonymous the customer, the more money stands as the sole motivating force. In today’s multi-level, automated and standardized food production & distribution system, the consumer is almost totally anonymous to the farmer, the commodity buyer, the processing factory and even the grocer. There is no reason to care about the wholesomeness of the product, except to the extent necessary to conform to whatever regulations are enforced, and whatever the public might find out about.
…
You cannot pay someone to care. You can pay someone to act as though they care; you can pay them to follow meticulous guidelines; but you can’t make them really care.
— The Real “Real Thing” (credit to Fraser via Brehaut)
See the fundamental of life hardly anybody notices
See the fundamental of life hardly anybody notices: Everybody on earth gets energy from the sun. Everybody, the just and the unjust. Even the energy running this computer comes from the sun. And the sun demands nothing back. Nothing. All energy is totally, freely given - that is, until it falls into human hands! That’s called Stealing Fire From Heaven, the universal myth describing what separates us from Nature, makes us fall from Balance. Our unique ability to control fire symbolizes our unique control of Credit and Debt. This is the Fire Serpent, the Trickster Seraph who brings consciousness of Credit and Debt. He’s called Promethius (Forethought) with his twin Epimethius (Afterthought). He is Ego, who dwells everywhere but in the Present Mind.
— Suelo at ‘Moneyless World,’ We’re Gods Crap Game
Suelo describes his way of life thus:
I’ve been totally without cents for over 7 years. I don’t use or accept money or barter - don’t take food stamps or any other government dole. I don’t see money as evil or good: how can illusion be evil or good? Attachment to illusion, called idolatry, is certainly tragic. I simply got tired of acknowledging as real this most common world-wide belief called money! It’s one of those intriguing things that’s real because you believe it’s real!
He lives freegan in town (if hospitality isn’t available) and off the land when he’s out in the country, and it sounds like it’s working out for him. I really want to find the guts to attempt something like this.
Tuesday Filler
Tuesday Filler: the ‘ways to live’ edition.
Ran Prieur describes a possible future for the human race in Beyond Civilized and Primitive. (Hint: not back into caves.) It answers a lot of questions some of you people have been raising with the whole ‘I hate oil but I want an iPod and running hot water’ thing.
Life and death of an urban recluse describes the existence of a Finnish loner. I’m not sure what to make of it; on one level it seems like a tragedy that people can live like that, but on another level, he seemed to live the life he wanted. What’s so bad about that?
A.J. Jacobs is my hero. Not only did he live biblically (as literally as possible) for a year, but he also made George Clooney watch ‘2 girls 1 cup’ during an interview. (‘2 girls 1 cup’ should not ever be watched. Seriously. I mean it. Read the Wikipedia page for it first. I’m not even linking it.) UPDATE: A.J. Jacobs is also the radical honesty guy. I am so in man-love with him right now.
Def Poetry Jam is pretty excellent
Def Poetry Jam is pretty excellent; contemporary beat poetry, most with a healthy dollop of humour. I found especially good Rives on deaf students and Taylor Mali on teachers.
For poetry of the more textual kind, try Robert Frost. I like My November Guest and Now Close the Windows.
A number of attempts to express an idea
(I had an epiphany last night, but it was in a dream, and is proving a lot harder to express in the daylight, and outside of my mind.)
Action is just a name for that which moves us from one state of being to another. There is no such thing as action, there is only the change of being.
Being, not Doing
That is the path to the sacred
Doing is an abstraction;
A view of Being through the restricted lens of time.
Being in each moment results in action.
Action flows through Being as effortlessly as water in a stream.
The stream does not move,
Yet there is constant movement.
If one were to focus fully on Being in each moment, with no thought spared for Doing, one’s actions would become effortless, flowing, simply an expression of transitions in one’s state of Being.
Can actions be things? How can they be? They exist only as changes in another thing. But Being – that is its own thing in every moment.
In the moment, I focused only on Being. I was mindful of my surroundings, my self, my inner thoughts. I did not act, choosing only to be fully present and aware in each moment.
Yet I found myself moving. I responded to each moment as if it were a brand new situation, and I were a brand new person. I acted as if nothing had come before, and nothing would come after; there was only now.
And I found my actions to be in tune with everything around me; I found plans and expectations unnecessary, irrelevant; simply Being in each moment was enough to maintain harmony with all around me. I had found the path of the sacred.
#239
Addressing a few apparent misconceptions and concerns from the sex post:
All of this should assume “…given the full agreement and consent and participation of my partner, with whom I have fully discussed all the potential issues, pitfalls, and dangers, and who is still keen.” Manipulation, coercion, exploitation, use and abuse are all completely uncool. Look, I’m not a selfish person, I would want what’s best for my partner too. Principle of least harm, okay?
This isn’t attempting to be a “should I have sex with X?” flowchart, this is just my attempt to think through some of the more glaring moral issues I can see. There are quite obviously whole swathes of things I haven’t even considered, and which I would consider in that situation. (Or which I have been considering, but didn’t fit easily in the original piece.)
I’m not saying everyone is incomplete without sex – Greg is correct, some people seem to do just fine without. All I’m saying is (in an intentionally vague manner), I feel incomplete without some way to (healthily) express my sexuality. Come on, I thought we were post-moderns? Subjective personal experience is all that matters, right?
There’s another whole question in there; that of how we relate to our (supposedly God-given) genetic heritage – the “animal bits.” Traditionally, Christianity says “spirit good, flesh bad,” but I think that’s pretty destructive and (here it is again) gnostic.
Jim raises an interesting point in asking: what should we expect to get out of sex? Is it about me getting my rocks off, or two people sharing a moment, or both, or something else? I set up a physical/spiritual dichotomy, but I really did completely leave out the emotional and mental, both of which need to be considered. These were outside the scope of the piece, but are important questions nonetheless.
I discuss extra-marital sex with my other self
An imaginary conversation between two sides of my self. The voices can be distinguished by the differing indentation. The Bible seems to have a clear ideal of sex and marriage… [895 words]
#236
If Stuff White People Like is to be believed, I am very, very white. I shouldn’t be surprised, but it always stings a little when you get pegged so accurately by a complete stranger. I’m not as unique as I thought I was :(.
#235
I don’t intend to belittle the tragedy at all, but another campus shooting in the States has got to be a symptom of something. One? Maybe a freak occurrence. Two? Could just be copycats, or coincidence. The number of seemingly-random, public mass-killings since Columbine? It has to be considered a pattern. The only question is: if that’s a symptom, what lies underneath it? (I missed it at first, but the above article says that this was the fourth shooting at an American school within a single week. Holy crap.)
Knots
Knots:
They are playing a game. They are playing at not
playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I
shall break the rules and they will punish me.
I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.
Knots is a book of R.D. Laing‘s cryptic psychological poetry. At least, I think that’s the best way to describe it. Some of it is pretty dark, other bits get more existential:
Hearing that dharmas, and still more so, no-dharmas
should be forsaken
some are of the opinion that there is no gate
that is their opinion
there is no way of knowing except to go
through it
(via Mind Hacks.)
It's pronounced homm-uh-seck-shallity
It’s pronounced homm-uh-seck-shallity: if you don’t already read his blog, Andrew has posted a pretty good overview on homosexuality as it is[n’t] in the New Testament. The more I read and think about it, the more I think ‘Jody, you go right ahead and do civil unions.’
On Rebellion
On Rebellion:
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist.— Beelzebub speaking in John Milton’s Paradise Lost
It seems to me that to be defined by the will of another, whether contrarily or not, is just another form of slavery. As long as one tries to act solely in rebellion, one is as much a slave as the one who is wholly obedient.
Rejection is, I think, a similar thing. When we reject something, we admit that it still holds some thrall over us; if it did not, rejection would not be needed, and we could just move on.
Russell's Teapot is a comic of religious sorts
Russell’s Teapot is a comic of religious sorts. There’s musings on the rapture, the return, Christmas, atheism in Norway, and plenty more. Also, the best cartoon Jesus ever. Enjoy!
True Story
True Story:
Black Sabbath wanted a full-size replica of Stonehenge for their 1983–1984 Born Again tour, including a huge backdrop, and lights simulating a sunrise behind the replica. However, there was a miscommunication during construction, and the original dimensions – specified in feet – were interpreted as meters. The resulting replica was three times the size of the original, and was too large to fit in most venues.
This story was, of course, parodied in This is Spinal Tap. (Origin story thanks to Heavy: the Story of Metal, on a C4 near you.)
This is pretty awesome
This is pretty awesome:
Here you are, KT
Here you are, KT:
Clearly, Facebook is another uber-capitalist experiment: can you make money out of friendship? Can you create communities free of national boundaries - and then sell Coca-Cola to them? Facebook is profoundly uncreative. It makes nothing at all. It simply mediates in relationships that were happening anyway.
We are seeing the commodification of human relationships, the extraction of capitalistic value from friendships.
— Tom Hodgkinson, With friends like these…
Also, note the CIA connections: use Facebook and help the US to spy on you.
This one's for you, Telfer
This one’s for you, Telfer:
How many full human persons do you know without a well developed belief in God. Obviously none, because if they were full human person they would have a well developed belief in God.
Now some people might object to killing atheists for there (and obviously it is there and not thier as they are not whos but whats ) organs but think of all the full human persons that would benifit from the organs and the medical research that could be done on these non-persons.
Or maybe this:
I am a bit troubled. I believe my son has a girlfriend, because she left a dirty magazine with men in it under his bed. My son is only 16 and I really don’t think he’s ready to date yet. What’s worse is that he’s sneaking some girl to his room behind my back. I need help, God! I want my son to stop being so secretive!
How about:
[One Christian speaking to another]
You are banned. You are not a Christian for Christians don’t accuse brothers and sisters in Christ of being non-Christian.
It’s so simple:
[Replying to ‘as for not seeing evolution it takes several million years… incase you missed that memo…’]
several million years for a monkey to turn into a man. oh wait thats right. monkeys dont live several million years.
We know this, because it’s in the Bible. The real Bible:
If your original Hebrew disagrees with my original King James – your original Hebrew is wrong. If your original Hebrew agrees with my original King James, your original Hebrew is right.
There’s plenty more, but be warned: some of them will make you want to throw up.
Beans, wha-pish
Beans, wha-pish:
Are you aware that nearly half of all the water usage, 1/3 of all fossil fuels, and 80% of all agricultural land in the USA goes to the production of animal products? It’s an incredibly wasteful industry, especially considering that we have to grow most of our crops just to feed those animals. You actually save more water by not eating a pound of beef than by not showering for an entire year, not to mention all the other resources consumed and the pollution and waste production. Consequently, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that a non-vegan environmentalist is an oxymoron. (If you want to peruse a good source for such stats and details, The Food Revolution is a great place to start.)
I did not realise just how bad it was.
They're gonna be pissed
They’re gonna be pissed:
What happens when we pay everybody in the world a living wage, and give ‘em all a chance to own an SUV and a house in the suburbs? How many worlds would it take to float that boat? How pissed are they going to be when they realize “lifestyles of the rich and famous don’t scale,” in fact the lifestyle of the typical middle-class American is not sustainable.
— Jon Lebowski, State of the World 2008
Natural selection related to climate change
Natural selection related to climate change:
Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics — you name it — is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what Man is — not what do gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be.
The universe will let us know — later — whether or not Man has any “right” to expand through it.
— Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
The trouble is, it looks like our planet is beginning to let us know now. We have two options: we can change, or we can die. I don’t think the ecosphere is going to tolerate our current way of life much longer.