Absolutely Nothing

I type these thoughts in vain before sleep takes me hostage until morning. Perhaps it is overstated at this point. Perhaps it is old, and trite, and insulting, but so is the nature of the problem. Therefore I feel no shame in again pondering the absolute uselessness of war. As I said, I would feel guilty asking such a question if we hadn't so defiantly clung to insane ruin in the face better judgment for so many ages of man. We remain children playing in the shadow of intelligence. Of all the great minds, of all the great civilizations and advancements of the world, none have yet stifled war. It lingers on and grows ever more ruinous and destructive with every dollar stolen from education that goes into it. It is inevitable with ignorance and thrives on intelligence. As it becomes less personal the human loss becomes ever greater. As it becomes more expensive, the cost ever higher. As it becomes safer, so it becomes ever more destructive. Humans must not be accountable for the systems that encompass them. The condition of humanity should trump all. No bomb should threaten a child, and neither should any nation. Everywhere you find war you will find humans. Innocent humans with no hand in the matter of war, save it's repercussions. We must reach a point where the warring among us are forced away from the rest of humanity; to destroy themselves in peace. Where no humanity be annihilated against their will. War is the only thing worth fighting against. No other manifesto, economy, offense, or ideal is worth the loss.

Stopping points

In times of escalating fear, at what point does reversal become possible? How do we turn back the tide between paranoia, fear, and suspicion. On surveillance, spying, snooping, and finger pointing. How do we relax as a society? How do come down from treating LED cartoon characters like bombs and artists like terrorists. Do we exhale and come to the collective realization that living is no more dangerous than it has ever been? Or do we continue to spy on our neighbors, report our friends, lock away our relatives, and dispose of our enemies, so that life fits nicely into a small window of consumer culture and prime time TV, and remains as dangerous as it has always been.

Being alive is a risk. But it's not a terrible risk. It can be worthwhile if we have space to play in. We're all dying, so why are we so afraid of being killed all the time? I would rather my neighbor blow up the entire block in an attempt to produce a cleaner car engine or a water powered electric generator, or that my friends and family may express themselves in the most perverse, lurid, and offensive ways than they be sent away for spooking the cows. EVERYONE does things that would scare the hell out of someone else. EVERYONE. Some people just don't have the fingers pointing at them. Get on with life. You will find that it becomes much more safe when you stop obsessing about security.

Litigations from the future

The idea of having original ideas is unoriginal, and falls under the patent protection of 20th Century Fox Corporation. Any objection is deemed a violation of the United States Copyright Act #32433 and a federal offense. Doing jail time is subject to a further fine in violation of the plots of Cool Hand Luke, the Green Mile, and Ernest Goes to Jail. Attempt to escape before serving the extent of sentencing would result in violation of the film the Great Escape. Popular media has been upheld to be solely authorized, within the bounds of appropriate copyright law, to exercise their claim to human endeavor. All living, or otherwise, citizens of the Earth are held in violation of the Companies right to profit and are hereby sentenced to award the plaintiff the determined sum. But ruling in favor of the prosecution is under copyright of 20th Century Fox, so no sum is be awarded awarded. But...

Savage Republic 2.15.07

Sat down to chat with the future history of drony industrial surf punk band Savage Republic before their show at the Double Door in Chicago on 2.15.07. A related article on the same show can be read in the March issue of Thisty Media.

Sunshine

I just watched the trailer for the new Danny Boyle (whom I like) movie Sunshine. The plot takes place fifty years into the future when our Sun is on it's last legs (or nuclear reactions). A group of daring, rag-tag kids is sent on a mission to get the Sun burning again before it's too late. Now, I concede that I have no idea how they plan on ending this movie, but the concept bugs the hell out of me. I have explored the thematic concept of the assured end of human life on this planet via the Sun expiring. There is nothing we can do in this case. Perhaps that is what the movie explores. To be fair, I can't say, but the fact remains that we will most certainly perish when that case arises. Hurl the entirety of the Earth's nuclear arsenal at it, and the Sun will keep on dying. Humans have no hand in cosmic events. We are at the mercy of the universe. No amount of Hollywood determination or ingenuity is going to be able to convince the universe that we can live in it. The Sun will one day expire, and if we haven't already, or whatever form of life is still around at that point, we will expire with it. I'm not telling you to be scared or sad. I'm saying that human spirit has limits. And I'm saying that we have a very unrealistic view about just what those limits may be.

Ruination

People are considered idiots if they are dangerous or inefficient. To be dangerous, in a sense, is to be inefficient, so there is only one reason for someone to be labeled an idiot. "If you get in my way or slow me down, you must be stupid." But there are no idiots. There is not insanity. Everyone and everything is stupid and crazy. Inefficient? To what end are we striving that we require efficiency? Give me chaos. Better yet, give me order so that chaos may be inflicted upon it. For what is more "productive" than upsetting order. Disorder is the wellspring of innovation. Ruin everything that works. Everything needs mutation to evolve.

Right? Time.

It is just as futile to wait for the future as it is to dwell in the past. The present is all there is. We have no control over the future or the past. But we can move about freely now, or then, or in a second. No day should be wasted lightly for everyday is the only one you will ever get. Time should not be wasted lightly. Oh it was. And it will be. Every day. For what is a waste of time? I suppose technically everything is a waste of time. Or nothing is. One or the other must be true, and each is proof of the other.

So what then? What are we left with? Is this question a waste of your time because man has asked it since he has been able? Am I wasting my time writing this? Thinking this? Why speak? Why be heard? Why listen? Why influence? Why live? Why die? Try it. Try any of it. See if it makes any difference. I bet it wont. I know it wont. It wont. Nothing will. Right? Live... right?

All that we have to do is anything.

Climate Change

I am now at the point were I feel obliged to write something everyday. This is both good and bad. Good because nothing bad can be said of the discipline of jotting something down everyday, but bad because I feel the quality of the work may begin to suffer. It is a fine line to walk. I suppose since this is my vent into the collective consciousness, I should take care to make sure that I do not merely pollute collaborative thought. I must take great efforts to clean my emissions, and make sure that my mark on the philisophical environment is a positive one. The noticeable difference between these metaphoric utterances and my actual intent is that I desire to bring about a climate change. It will take much more than my musings to have much affect I'm afraid.

low brow

We can no longer prioritize information. There is too much of it for any one of us to handle. The only way for us to continue to function will be to individually specialize and become more of a hive mind. It is coming to a point where you will be lacking in much if you attempt to be a renaissance man. Your versatility will become your specialization however. The nature of dealiing with information is changing as much as the information is changing. How can everyone find time to read Moby Dick when we need learn about entangled particles, HTML and CSS scripting, digital art forms, molecular biology, cyber-punk, and EBM music? We are now afforded the awesome privilege to know what all of these things are now, but we cannot master them. We must be ourselves; now more than ever, for by being ourselves we fill in necessary pieces of the puzzle. The puzzle being composed of arbitrary pieces depicting nothing with now borders, but a puzzle nonetheless. Information is cheap. Who cares if we get it from books, music, or you tube. All of it is just as important in shaping those puzzle pieces as it has ever been. Find what you want to shape you and consume. Leave plenty of waste because all that information has to turn into something, and only parts of it are nutritious.

Mark Hosler of Negativland

I did this interview with Mark back in November. It was supposed to be for ReGen Magazine (sorry guys), but I have yet gotten round to transcribing the beast. It is, in my opinion, a fantastic interview. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Mark. I had taken in Negativland's latest show: It's All in Your Head just prior to this interview. We discuss the show and various other grievances with the current state of affairs.

Teachers

Spend some time with yourself. Analyze your motivations, and be aware of your actions. Everything we do is a by product of our ongoing process of being "in" our environment. Everything we do, see, small, desire, is at the base an extension of survival. Or to be less dramatic, the extension of being an organism. What are motivations? What is sight? What is hunger? Why food, and why sleep?

You may go your whole life an never talk to yourself. This would be a shame for we have much to learn from ourselves. We spend the entirety of our existence in the presence of the greatest teacher at the greatest school we shall ever know, and generally we go to our death without so much as asking a question of it. Take some time to learn. You have plenty to spare.