Travels in an Insane world.

For those of you not blessed by the ability to correctly guess the meaning of a given, unfamiliar acronym (or at least invent something funny or otherwise disgusting and lewd out of it), this stands for Same Shit, Different Day.

I’m not referring to my life, though.  I am talking about the venue of self-expression that is my blog.

Honestly, it was fun setting it up, getting a host, figuring it out, and kind of initially tweaking it.  But the party seems to have died down.

In thinking about looking back at a given blog entry, I decided that there is a collection of bits I’d like to have accompany each post I do.  I just have to figure out the best (read: simplest) way to go about it.

I’d like each post to be a full page, laid out with the usual blog entry, but optionally with a photo accompanying it, and possibly some other time capsule bit of the day.

Anyboday have any good tips on how to make wordpress do this?

I’ve been unimpressed by my last several months of sharing.  From my “blog” to my tweets, I’ve had some good moments, but lately I’ve not been feeling all that great about it.

According to my mother, most people, and even I tend to agree, I’ve always had the tendency to wait to participate until I felt some degree of confidence about participating.

I think a lot of people feel this way.

And I’ve been reading some interesting blog entries on social media, and how much sharing is critical to them — I’ve even mentioned the idea myself.  But until tonight, something just never clicked.

I have one self-perceived disadvantage, however: I’m not blogging for any particular purpose.  I’m not a professional social media consultant (although I could play one on TV!).  I’m not in it for the money, fame, or sex.  In all humility, I just want to participate in all the sharing that’s going on across the Internet.

But tonight, I eased off of my concern that I’m doing it right — that I might look like a fool.

I followed the music link, to a cool hypno-country Brian Eno song, of an Internet friend.  And I realized, this person just shared something simple and beautiful with me, just to share it.

And that’s when I found the love.

Think about what you might have that someone else might find valuable…..

For me, I came up initially with music.  I’m a singer, and have a fairly good collection of music, though I started fairly late, so it was an easy thing.  It’s what I share with people I call friends in my day-to-day life.

It’s the kind of stuff you would like to share with someone you were interested in getting to know.

I’d never mention work stuff, because what I actually do for a job, while rewarding in its own way, is not something that fires me up.  If I did work in such a context, you’d bet that I’d be sharing about it all the time.

Music. Systems that could solve complex problems on a global scale. Theatre. Things mystical. Past experiences. Stories…  Ah, yes… stories.

The pressure is getting intense.

Tomorrow I will cast my ballot for Obama to be the next president of the United States.

Most of me right now is afraid, and could be described as an upset waiting to happen.  I don’t trust polls.  There are too many people around who actually believe McCain would be a better president.

Personally, I want transparency. And I want this transparency not in the candidates personal lives, but in the process of making the world where the artifice and illusion of scarcity has been replaced by a reality of abundance.  I would rather be voting on actual inclusive, effective solutions to actual existing (physically measurable)  problems, rather than voting on politicians.  I’m voting for Obama because he represents the strongest possibility of seeing this world realized.

If McCain wins tomorrow’s election, I will be seriously deflated.

But, having trust in evolution at both physical, cognitive and spititual levels, I will take note of the numbers, and there will still be in existence an amazing grassroots movement for real change that is, if nothing else, Obama’s gift to the world.

Whatever happens in this election, we will be sure to see more change coming.

The following quote is from a live Bill Hicks performance:

“Get this, I actually asked one of these guys, OK, Dinosaurs fossils - how does that fit into you scheme of life? Let me sit down and strap in. He said, “Dinosaur fossils? God put those there to test our faith.” I think God put you here to test my faith, Dude. You believe that? “uh huh.” Does that trouble anyone here? The idea that God.. might be.. fuckin’ with our heads? I have trouble sleeping with that knowledge. Some prankster God running around: “Hu hu ho. We will see who believes in me now, ha ha.” [mimes God burying fossils] “I am God, I am a prankster.” “I am killing Me.”

Sorry, I ran across that looking for the actual quote I was supposed to post, and couldn’t resist.  Here’s the really quote I you to see:

“Folks, it’s time to evolve ideas. We . . . . You know, evolution did not end with us growing thumbs. You do know that, right? It didn’t end there. We’re at the point now where we . . . we’re going to have to evolve ideas. The reason the world is so fucked up is because we’re undergoing evolution, and the reason our institutions, our traditional religions are all crumbling is because . . . they’re no longer relevant.”

Bill Hicks dies in 1994, of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 32.  He is one of those people you don’t typically hear of, except by word-of-mouth.  Oral tradition.  It’s still alive and well, and now spreading to the Internet.  Some of the most subversive ideas in regard to our existing paradigms.

*                          *                         *

Today the Dow Jones index dropped another 700-something points.  This, after a continual slide despite the news of the Bail-out bill passing.

Nobody knows exactly what to think.  But in the back of each of our heads is our own, fearful interpretation of The End of the World.  If you’re a tribalist, it’s the realization of primitive prophecies.  If you’re a Christian Fundamentalist, it’s all in the Book of Revelations, another myth, but more widespread in the modern world.  If you’re a rationalist, it’s global economic collapse into crises and anarchy.  It could be global natural disaster caused by global warming.

Of noticably curious timing, at this point, is the sudden rise in the popularity and understanding of the Internet: the one global media conduit that is relatively unfettered, globally, by the powers that be.  And the big stink for businesses is the whole notion of social media.  Naturally, Big Business wants in, but the paradigm is not theirs, and they have trouble seeing how to survive.

To this opportunity flock the growing array of social media consultants.  Seems like everybody’s getting into this game.  There’s a relatively low level of technical expertise involved, and the game is fun!

Social Media is of, by, and for the people.  The spirit is one of reciprocity; of mutual sharing. This is not the profit-based mentality handed down by our ancestors.  It’s a spirit of creating authentic community, not of focus groups, manipulation and money-lust.  Most of the people I come across in Social Media are decent-seeming people.  And this is quite a new thing for traditionalist businesspersons.

Hicks on the advertising industry:

“By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing… kill yourself. No, no, no it’s just a little thought. I’m just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they’ll take root - I don’t know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. Aaah, no really, there’s no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan’s little helpers, Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you’re going, “there’s going to be a joke coming,” there’s no fucking joke coming. You are Satan’s spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It’s the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself. Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, “he’s doing a joke… there’s no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend - I don’t care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking machinations. I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, “Oh, you know what Bill’s doing, he’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market, he’s very smart.” Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags! “Ooh, you know what Bill’s doing now, he’s going for the righteous indignation dollar. That’s a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We’ve done research - huge market. He’s doing a good thing.” Godammit, I’m not doing that, you scum-bags!Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!

“Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill’s very bright to do that.” God, I’m just caught in a fucking web! “Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar…” How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don’t you?”

Our traditional systems are failing in the face of change.  We need to imagine new, better possibilities. Ones that work for all people, not just the lucky few at the top.  There is no existing social institution that isn’t quantitatively showing some signs of failure.  Education. Banking. Government.  Law.  Medicine.  Economics. Law Enforcement. Energy.  Agriculture. Transportation. And these are external ones.  Our internal systems are also failing.  Our very understanding of our selves is inadequate to the task.

*                          *                         *

“The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “Hey - don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride…” And we… kill those people.”We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real.” Just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter because: It’s just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you’ve been great.”

A breif post:

From Wikipedia:

A maverick is an unbranded range animal, especially a motherless calf; 

John McCain is a maverick?

Sarah Palin is a maverick?

Range animal, maybe.  But branded ones.

it can also mean a person who thinks independently; a lone dissenter; a non-conformist or rebel. The word first arose in mid-19th century America from Samuel Augustus Maverick, a Texas politician with a large ranch full of unbranded cattle.^[1]

In my personal take on the meaning of maverick, however, it smacks to me distinctly of dualism.  The apparent maverick (pretense) .  There is a difference between rebelling inside the prison for better conditions, and inward revolution.

The East-meets-West phenomenon that began immediately after the U.S. dropped two Atomic Bombs, one on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki.  This event affected Americans, and the enitre world, at an incredibly deep level.  These feelings composted, eventually broiling to the surface somewhere around 1969, the summer of love, in an orgy of self expression.

The more insightful among us saw a positive new blend of the inward and the outward, the individual and the social self.  This heralded the way of Integrity; of walking your talk.  Bringing the inner revolution outward; actually manifesting one’s inner vision externally, to its fullest potential, however short-lived.

Inner revolution becomes external revolution though the vehicle of communication and participation.

We need authentic leaders who can understand how to inspire and unite people across their chaotic inconsistencies.

Politicians ought to be these leaders; instead, they’ve become panderers.  In this capacity these people we call leaders have committed the cardinal atrocity: interfering with the full expression of human development.  By being sellers of a vote, those with money get to battle it out for the opportunity to interfere, however they see fit, with the rights of children to freely evolve.

Evolution happens, anyway, as many have pointed out.  And even in this system, someone like me can recognize the illusion of the flatland we are told is reality: the matrix.  Life is ever so much more complex and filled with potential!

We should make education amazing.  People should be given an engagin, immediate, and compelling education, totally for free, and they should be made to feel safe to be and express themselves inside of it, both at home, at school, and in life.  It’s the ideal of Mr. Rogers, or Sesame Street, or Fraggle Rock.  Children should be listened to, and respected, not inhibited and limited under the name of “protection.”

Watch for a future entry on my educational vision…  Enough for this evening.

If you haven’t heard of the idea of the Technological Singularity, you should follow the link to a good Wikipedia entry.

Things are speeding up.  I you haven’t noticed, it probably either because you’re too young or on account of your Amish lifestyle.  But even there, change is accelerating.  It’s happening on a unconscious level in our selves.  We are not so disconnected as it may appear.

If the future has in store for us a bottom(s)-up alternative to the “trickle down” economic model we been become enmired in like so many prehistoric beasts, then we, each of us, will be called to become players in a new game.

And it’s already happening.  I feel it in my dissatisfaction with employer-employee models of business.  I know it when I watch my daughter struggle with understanding her math problems — not because she’s bad at math — because dealing with numbers only in themselves seems so inane as to be out of the question in the mind of a multi-dimensional child who sees and is trying to understand her world.

I experience it when I consider my family and marriage in light of my natural sexual and social impulses and wonder if, maybe, there could be a world without divorce the poisonous tail it drags behind.

Even the earth systems are evolving, as we see and hear.  And we’ve got Obama leading in the polls thirty-odd days before a presidential election where the old order seem desperate to clinging to what even they see as their waning power.

(-777.68)

Sure, it’s up a bit now, but now you’ve got to be a seer to cast your dice with any real hope.

I’m no doomsdayer.  I have high hopes for our species.

But nobody’s saying it’s gonna be easy….