Typhoon Cindi Retrospective Pt 1 - Would you like some eggs with that HAM?

Open-Source Religion

G4 - Feature - Open-Source Religion:

"An open source relationship to religion would likewise take advantage of the individual points of view of its many active participants to develop its more resolved picture of the world and our place within it. Instead of seeing blasphemy in the deconstruction of the Torah as a piece of literature, we come to understand that the document's true power is only unleashed when submitted to the simultaneous scrutiny of each member of our entire community. Encouraging people to develop and share their personal perspectives on the Torah in the context of its historically validated evolution does not challenge the testament's authority at all, but confirms it as a living document with an almost infinite supply of unharvested wisdom. "

On Religion - Any God who's first priority is ensuring that all worship him is a needy, juvenile attention-whore.

"God is like the ultimate Bad Date or Bad Boss: a needy, egotistical, rageaholic Deity who needs needs constant adoration and is too fragile to handle the least bit of criticism. So we always had to shut-up, suck up and give God lots of praise. You know, the old Praise Jesus Or He'll Torture You To Death in Hell."

Got a note from a buddy the other day... Hi Gayle!... who had been knocking about on the blog and read some of my thoughts on my upbringing and being raised Catholic and what kind of effect that had on me... And the upshot was that she felt bad about how those experiences shaped me. A bit of comapassionate pity, well intentioned and heartfelt, to be sure.

Of course the first reaction, having been inculcated into the Japanese culture these past few months was to think "Oh, but no. It wasn't so bad for me. Just a little thing." Damn Japanese humility. But really, that's true. It's not as if I was plied with the sacramental wine as the priest touched me in my special place or anything.

But the psychological conditioning that organized religion imparts on you can be just devastating. And I don't see how it can't be. I know that when I'm least aware, I find those same destructive habits of guilt and shame creeping in from the shadows. I've nothing but envy for those who have somehow only managed to extract the love and compassion aspects of Christianity from their respective indoctrinations. But I think those that have, while still espousing the party line doctrine of whatever their organization, are either disingenious, in denial or lacking introspection.

I don't think any genuine spirituality or connection to... god, the source, the Is, the implicate order, the tao, whatever you want to refer to it as... is going to somehow be reliant on the strictures and dogma of some church.

And organizations, by their very nature, despite whatever the best of intentions, after establishment... the first order of business in virtually all cases is the continued existence of that organization.

And to maintain the organization any and all actions are deemed appropriate.

Holy Wars? Sure. Covering up for pedophiles? Of course. Suicide bombings? Yep. Blowing up clinics and shooting doctors in the head? God wills it so. Filling impressionable young minds with visions of a fiery hell of eternal damnation and torture to get them to be life long members of the church... filled with fear and guilt and repressed sexuality and anger? Every. Goddamn. Day.

When I first... drifted... away from the church at about 16, it was an odd mixture of normal teenage rebellion, the illogical inconsistencies of a God - an omnipotent, omniscience entity who's first commandment was to worship him above all others...

[Side note: I love the fact that the 10 commandments don't say he's the ONLY god, only that he should be worshipped above all others. "Do not have any other gods before Me." Not, "There are no other gods." Now why would THE GOD talk about other gods? Kinda blows that monotheism idea all to hell, but I digress...]

Any God who's first priority is ensuring that all worship him is a needy, juvenile, attention-whore. So, there's that.

One of the big reasons though was a sense of dissillusionment. It was probably about 10th, or maybe 11th grade when I had my confirmation. And despite the misgivings I was starting to have about the church, a part of me had the naive impression that when I was confirmed SOMETHING would change. Ostensibly, confirmation is when the Holy Spirit is supposed to descend upon you and touch you. Sounds like a big deal right? And a part of me expected it to be.

But nothing. Nada. Zip. No sense of communion with the Holy Spirit. No grace. Just another empty ritual.

Religion... organized religion... only seems to fulfill two functions. One is the obvious. Control of people. It's no accident that religion forms the basis of much government, and has, over the millenia. Even today, from the obvious religious theocracies to, for example, America, were large groups only WANT to establish a religious theocracy.

The other role religion seems to fulfill is the understandable, and somewhat healthier need for community and connection amongst people. A good motivation, and a reasonably healthy one - the need that is - not the embrace of religion. Because virtually all religion, and certainly all mainstream religion, develop this sense of religious community through an exclusion of others and the idea of the elect. The Pope, when pressed, says that anyone not a Catholic is going to hell. For large swathes of the American populace, if you haven't "accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior" - same deal. Radical Islam - Jesus, you don't even need that one spelled out, do you?

Religion - Making People Feel Better by Damning Everyone Else™

Given the wealth and variety of religious dogma throughout history, the idea that any one collective has happened upon the "one, true religion", that has somehow survived unto the present day... it's just laughable. It flies in the face of everything we know about human nature, the willingness to alter data - holy books included - the sheer inability to any degree to transfer the subjectiveness of human experience into "objective" truth, the eminently subjective nature of religion and consciousness experience... the list goes on and on and on...

The human needs for certainty, comfort, special"ness" - being part of the "elect" - the desire for control and authority, the pitfalls and fallacies of any hierarchal organizational structure... wrapped up in a tidy package of a needy, vengeful God whose purpose in creating the world, if you look at the eveidence, seems to have been so he can damn the vast majority of its population to the tortures of fire and suffering.

Sorry. I deny that religion and I deny those ideas.

The closest I've come to religious ideas that I'm comfortable with are religions that at least don't vacillate on their nature. Which is to say that they own up to the fact that religious experience is completely personal. The sheer number of people I've known who have said "I'm Catholic but I don't follow *this specific* teaching of the Church" is just mind boggling. You know what, you're not really Catholic then. You may want to be Catholic [or Jewish, or Muslim, or what have you] but if you deny what the organization considers fundamental teachings, you don't make the grade.

But people are needy and dependent and crave a sense of community, no matter how false. So instead of just nutting up and saying "No, I'm not" this or that or what have you, they go to Church every Sunday and bask in the contentment that even if they don't believe the stories they're surrounded by, at least they're not alone.

You're not really a member of that Church, you're making up your own religous theology, predicated on nothing more than your own comfort levels and personal preferences. At least own up to it.

Religious experience is, at best, a process and not a dogma.

I try to be a decent person. Try to have compassion and not hurt others. Try to be aware and conscientious and kind. And I think most people do too.

And if that isn't good enough for some patriarchal law-giver hell-bent on appeasing his sense of need and ego and condemning billions upon billions of souls.... well, then...

Fuck Him.

And if that is the "one, true God" let him strike me dead as I type this.

Nope. Nothing. Not even a tingle.

Fundies and Arch Conseratives: "It's really closed- loop, reinforcing kind of culture."

HaloScan.com - Comments:

"...agree with the comments that these folks are totally driven by fear and rage. But fear is their first and deepest emotion.

...I may have posted about this before, but about eight years ago, my Baptist minister cousin sent me a letter saying he was praying that all liberals like me be eliminated but a few left alive and put in cages on the Capital Mall, so that people could walk by the few caged survivors and point at them and say they never want to allow those people to "return" to America.

I don't know what set my cousin off. He was fund-raising for a Bible college at the time, so I suspect he had just spent long hours driving around in a car, listening to Rush Limbaugh and working himself into a rage. (Which is pretty much like masturbating while driving all day.) Got to the hotel at night and needed to pound his way to his glorious release. I'm probably the only liberal he actually knows, so I got the letter even though I barely know him. I've only see him every few years at family reunions or weddings when we were always friendly to each other.

My cousin is about 60, so he wrote me this piece of hate mail in his mid- 50s. In many ways, his bio fits what you’ve all been saying about right-wingers: he was a sensitive, pudgy kid who was often teased, he didn't do well in school, went to Bible college, became a Baptist minister, always serving at small rural congregations. He was not a great success as a pastor, so he switched over to fund-raising and has done okay. Not super. Just okay.

So by almost all cultural standards of success, he’s pretty mediocre. But he married a good, smart fundie woman and raised three nice kids who are now adults---albeit adults who went to Bible colleges, got married, attend conservative megachurches and are now homeschooling their kids or sending them to Christian "academies." etc. It's really closed- loop, reinforcing kind of culture.

In short, I think my cousin is a right-wing conservative because i it appeals to all his rage and fear. But also because right-wing Republican stufff is emotionally engaging in a way that liberal stuff is mostly not. My cousin is not a thinker. He's all emotion.--especially darker untapped emotions.

Both fundies and Republicans know how to directly appeal to people’s emotions. In fact, that’s their main appeal, since their actual policies and theology aren’t particularly sane or even attractive.

I come from a fundie family. I'm convinced a lot of fundies struggle with undiagnosed clinical depression. Fundies talk obsessively about Joy and Victory Through Christ and praising God. But God is not to be questioned and any anger at God is immediately shut-down. God is like the ultimate Bad Date or Bad Boss: a needy, egotistical, rageaholic Deity who needs needs constant adoration and is too fragile to handle the least bit of criticism. So we always had shut-up, suck up and give God lots of praise. You know, the old Praise Jesus Or He'll Torture You To Death in Hell.

As a fundie, once you've accepted Christ as you personal saviour and Lord, you're saved. You're a new person who puts on a happy face and talks about the joy, joy, joy, joy down in your heart.

But of course, all your old rage, fears and loathings don't go away. They just lie there in the dark. Which is why it's so easy to get fundies whipped up about liberals and gays and brown hordes coming across the border. It’s just redirected rage."

Comments on Freeper Conservative Thought

HaloScan.com - Comments:

"Often they are vigorous proponents of 'free enterprise' who take pride in working for large corporations because it gives them a vicarious sense of winning in a Darwinian competition.

Within their organizations, they are not innovators, leaders or solid hard workers -- usually ass-kissing, parasitic bureaucrats, as useless and obstructionist as the worst paper-pusher in the civil service that they so disdain.

Powerless and continually fucked over dozens of ways every day by the corporations they idolize, they redirect their rage at those who threaten their carefully-constructed mental edifice -- people who don't conform politically or socially to their constricted way of life, those who refuse to partake in infantile, unquestioning adoration of empty symbols like Party, flag, military and religion.

--

...I think the main difference between the two groups is that while both share a history of hurt from having been picked on in their younger days, by and large the liberal nerds rechannelled their persecution into a sympathy for the underdog, while the ones who became freepers, LGFers, or Jonah Goldberg decided they'd salve their wounds by making themselves over in the image of their former oppressors.

--

...They're all so scared. They're scared of everything. I mean, yeah, life is full of bad shit that can get you hurt or killed, but the rest of us manage to function without the nagging fear that a brigade of scary scary 'Islamofascists' are going to suddenly appear and launch a human wave attack on our local Target while we're there, pricing the holiday-print paper towels.

...They are your informers. They are your collaborators. They are the ones who would turn your ass in in a heartbeat, if they thought it would ingratiate them with whoever holds the power. This is why they're OK with wiretapping, rendition, torture and other creepy police-state powers. It's what the guys at the top -- the (currently) successful versions of themselves -- want and that's just fine with them. They think the guys at the top will protect them, and to hell with everybody else.

Just keep suckin' up to the boss, wingnuts, and maybe the axe will fall on somebody else."

Land of the Free! Except, you know, not...

Daily Kos: Bush to criminalize protesters under Patriot Act as "disruptors":

"...A 'little-noticed provision' in the latest version of the Patriot Act will empower Secret Service to charge protesters with a new crime of 'disrupting major events including political conventions and the Olympics.' Secret Service would also be empowered to charge persons with 'breaching security' and to charge for 'entering a restricted area' which is 'where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting.' In short, be sure to stay in those wired, fenced containments or free speech zones.

Who is the "disruptor"? Bush Team history tells us the disruptor is an American citizen with the audacity to attend Bush events wearing a T-shirt that criticizes Bush; or a member of civil rights, environmental, anti-war or counter-recruiting groups who protest Bush policies; or a person who invades Bush's bubble by criticizing his policies. A disruptor is also a person who interferes in someone else's activity, such as interrupting Bush when he is speaking at a press conference or during an interview.

What are the parameters of the crime of "disruptive behavior"? The dictionary defines "disruptive" as "characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination." The American Medical Association defines disruptive behavior as a "style of interaction" with people that interferes with patient care, and can include behavior such as "foul language; rude, loud or offensive comments; and intimidation of patients and family members."

What are the rules of engagement for "disruptors"? Some Bush Team history of their treatment of disruptors provide some clues on how this administration will treat disruptors in the future.

(1) People perceived as disruptors may be preemptively ejected from events before engaging in any disruptive conduct.

In the beginning of this war against disruptors, Americans were ejected from taxpayer funded events where Bush was speaking. At first the events were campaign rallies during the election, and then the disruptor ejectment policy was expanded to include Bush's post election campaign-style events on public policy issues on his agenda, such as informing the public on medicare reform and the like. If people drove to the event in a car with a bumper sticker that criticized Bush's policies or wore T-shirts with similar criticism, they were disruptors who could be ejected from the taxpayer event even before they engaged in any disruptive behavior. White House press secretary McClellan defended such ejectments as a proper preemptive strike against persons who may disrupt an event: "If we think people are coming to the event to disrupt it, obviously, they're going to be asked to leave."

...So now the Patriot Act, which was argued before enactment as a measure to fight foreign terrorists, is being amended to make clear that it also applies to American citizens who have the audacity to disrupt President Bush wherever his bubble may travel. If this provision is enacted into law, then Bush will have a law upon which to expand the type of people who constitute disruptors and the type of activities that constitute disruptive activities. And, then throw them all in jail."

Coffee and Donuts

You Are a Soy Latte

At your best, you are: free spirited, down to earth, and relaxed At your worst, you are: dogmatic and picky You drink coffee when: you need a pick me up, and green tea isn't cutting it Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are You?

Personally, I think Fu Manchu did it.

Chinese cartography | China beat Columbus to it, perhaps | Economist.com:

"...Columbus found the New World in 1492; Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488; and Magellan set off to circumnavigate the world in 1519. However, there is one difficulty with this confident assertion of European mastery: it may not be true.

It seems more likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called “The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft”."

Taoist in old age

Robert Anton Wilson | Santa Cruz Metro Article:

"OK, so at what point is Wilson kidding and at what point is he serious?

'The older I get, the less seriously I take anything,' says Wilson. 'The Chinese say the wise become Confucian in good times, Buddhist in bad times and Taoist in old age. I'm old enough to be a Taoist. I don't see anything very seriously.' Not even, as it turns out, mortality.

'I know I'm going to die sometime soon: five weeks, five months, five years,' says Wilson. 'I don't know, maybe 50 years if stem cell research moves along. But I don't know and I don't care. And I can't take it seriously anymore. If George Bush is president of the free world, who can take anything seriously?' "

Intelligence

Robert Anton Wilson | Santa Cruz Metro Article:

"'Intelligence is function of feedback. The more feedback you get, the more intelligent you become. The less feedback you get, the stupider you become.' "

"Faith is a reason to become stupid"

Robert Anton Wilson | Santa Cruz Metro Article:

"'Faith-based organizations say we don't need any more research, we know enough now, we can be dogmatic, whereas researchers say we don't know enough now, investigate, research,' argues Wilson. 'Faith is a reason to become stupid: 'From this point forward, I will remain stupid.' To me, faith-based organizations are responsible for everything I see wrong with this planet. Research-based organizations are responsible for everything I like about it. Before the French Revolution, the average life expectancy was 37 years. Now it's 78 years. All due to research-based organizations. Not at all due to faith-based organizations. All faith-based organizations give you is George Bush. Research-based organizations give you cures for disease.'

At age 17, Wilson was planning a career in electrical engineering when he came across a copy of Alfred Korzybski's Science and Sanity while perusing the library bookshelves at Brooklyn Technical High School. Korzbyski -- who will be featured in the 'Tale of the Tribe' class along with other seminal thinkers like Giordano Bruno, Giambatista Vico, Friederich Nietzsche, Ernest Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Buckminster Fuller, Claude Shannon and Marshall McLuhan had as profound an influence on Wilson's young mind as his work would have on that of later generations.

Wilson was particularly taken with the Polish semanticist's critique of newer European languages. 'Korzybski suggested dozens of reforms in our speech and our writings, most of which I try to follow. One of them is if people said 'maybe' more often, the world would suddenly become stark, staring sane. Can you see Jerry Falwell saying: 'Maybe God hates gay people. Maybe Jesus is the son of God.' Every muezzin in Islam resounding at night in booming voices: 'There is no God except maybe Allah. And maybe Mohammed is his papa. Think about how sane the world would become after a while.'

Maybe it would.

'Well, yeah,' says Wilson. 'Maybe. "

Sexual Identity, sexual fluidity and The Matrix

Rolling Stone : The Mystery of Larry Wachowski:

"One night in January 2001, Larry Wachowski, co-director of the blockbuster Matrix movies, walked into a dark club in West Hollywood, where the rules of identity easily blurred, just like in his films. The Dungeon served the devoted BDSM -- bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism -- community in Los Angeles.

...In the weeks following their first encounter, Larry Wachowski returned to the Dungeon to see Mistress Strix. Boundaries fell swiftly, stunning the Los Angeles bondage community, which prides itself on the fact that mistresses keep their submissives at arm's length. The relationship between Larry and Ilsa, both in their thirties, would eventually destroy two marriages and possibly alter the creative course of one of the most influential movie trilogies of the past quarter-century...

..."Larry is a cross-dresser, and his wife was not comfortable with him dressing as a woman. I trusted Larry to be just a client, and Ilsa to be just a dominatrix." Sources in the Los Angeles BDSM community say Ilsa Strix was not the first "pro dom" that Larry Wachowski visited.

Psychiatrists disagree about what forces are at work in men who cross-dress and take the ultimate step of having gender-reassignment surgery. One camp considers men of this type to have a "gender-identity disorder," to be "women trapped in men's bodies." In recent years, another group of doctors labeled some men who demonstrate these tendencies to be autogynephiles -- straight men who are essentially sexual fetishists, aroused by the thought or image of themselves as women.

...At the Cannes Film Festival that year, when Larry and Ilsa appeared together on the red carpet, Ilsa looked stunning, like a movie star -- perfect skin, blond hair falling to her shoulders, white teeth gleaming. Larry Wachowski did not look like Larry Wachowski. His face looked feminized; his eyebrows were plucked, he wore large teardrop earrings, and a knit cap covered his head. His fingernails were manicured. Both Larry and Ilsa seemed ecstatic. The press, including columnist Liz Smith, reported that Larry might be taking female hormones, in anticipation of sex-change surgery."

CounterCulture

The Most Succesful CounterCulture Ever - Hypnocrisis.com:

"Many attempts are made to counter the dominant mainstream powerbase. Whether you call it counterculture, subculture or countermovement or whatever, the idea is the same. Let’s organise a group of people so we can brand together and stop being part of the system and build our own world.

Our own world where we can be free and live as we want. Such initiatives are doomed to fail. All the big legendary movements failed horrendously. The beat generation disappeared before most people noted it existed. The hippies now all drive middle of the road cars and live with their wife in a suburb. The punks are dead for quiet some time now. All failures, except one …

House music is still very much alive and still expanding ever more so.

...Now I know that techno is not big in the US. And this is another sign how viable this movement is. R&B and Hip Hop are assimilated by the Borg Recording Industry of America. Resistance is Futile, you will be assimilated. That’s why the mainstream outlets push R&B and Hip Hop. It fits their business-model of having a famous artist to whom fans come bring all their earnings as soon as their pay-check arrives.

Not so in house music. Producers and DJ’s take their fair share of the loot, but only through party-organisers and club-owners. There are hotspots in the US like Miami, New York or Detroit. But it’s not any near the situation in Europe. England is sold on house music, Germany has crossed over, France is crazy about it. Eastern Europe is totally bonanza. We even got a complete island owned by the house-revolutionist.

Here in the Netherlands we have one million people going to raves, clubs and parties every single weekend. We have a couple of nationwide radio stations that are owned by conspirators. But there is more.

More important than the financial buying power this movement has generated, are the neurological consequences. House music is linked to drugs use everywhere. Positive, mind changing & growth enhancing drugs like MDMA, mushrooms and GHB. After a couple of parties most people can’t revert back to being normal. Ever again!

There is a big difference between house music and rock music. Rock music is a descendant of the blues. It is about being miserable and negative. House music is about feeling good, about looking at the bright side of life and finding the positive more important.

One of the famous Dutch house saying is “Lekker belangrijk” which roughly translates to “Like we care”. It’s said whenever someone starts about his job, his income or the success he has had. Everyone is equal when people are celebrating (high as kites).

...It even gets better. Even the most braindead, rightwing factory worker changes his behaviour after some good partying. No longer he is interested in working his way up the social ladder, making a career and following instructions as left by mom & dad, the state and church. O no, this new born rebel has a new cause to fight. To party the next weekend.

One of the looming crises the establishment faces today is that our generation don’t want to work as hard as they used to. Job security isn’t as important any more. Any job that will pay for next weekend’s party will do.

To sum up: this is a life changing counterculture that is raking in money. There is so much money involved that it will never die."

Karma and the Isolation of Facts - Hypnocrisis.com

Karma and the Isolation of Facts - Hypnocrisis.com:

"The popular view of karma is that if you do good you will be rewarded with even more good later on in your life. If you do bad, bad things will happen to you. We see that this is ostensible untrue: so many bad people have great fortunes and even more good people have great misfortunes.

This is what forces adherents of karma to adopt either, heaven and hell (yes, Christians have some kind of karmic belief), or start believing in reincarnation. Otherwise karma would be unfair.

But that is the whole point of karma. Karma is a blind force that only states that whatever you do, it has consequences. You cannot avoid getting karma. Everything you do either gives you good karma, or bad karma. And you will face the consequences no matter what you do.

So how do you make karma part of your daily life? Well, you don’t and here’s why:

There is an old problem called the isolation of facts. The idea of karma is that due to some facts you did, you will face some factual consequences. Lucky for us one cannot isolate facts. Even though facts means the opposite, in reality facts do not exist.

Facts are a fabrication, an abstraction. The problem is this: what do you count to be part of a fact and what not. Facts cannot be isolated. Everything is connected to everything else...

This means that even though one accepts karma in ones life, you cannot know which deed is good and which one is evil. Hence you can ignore karma completely. Your most benign act might have the most evil consequences. Not only for you, but for the whole world. Imagine the loveliest couple giving birth to the next Hitler.

Fact is that you have no way of knowing what is good or evil, and given karma as it is, it’s best and most safe to ignore it completely."

Ubermensch

Puking on Paroketh - Hypnocrisis.com:

"I love Nietzsche. I can't recommend reading Nietzsche enough, but hey, that just might be me. My Nietzsche explains things like this (remember this is Nietzsche, not me. I would never take such an irresponsible viewpoint):

You have the Ubermensch and the Untermensch (don't you just love this right after not caring about fascism?). What makes the difference? The Untermensch needs a story to justify his actions. Where as the Ubermensch doesn't.

This is why I think it’s important to learn storytelling and go beyond it. People feel that they have to account for their behaviour. That they have to give “Good Reasons” why they did such or so. Not the Ubermensch. He just answers 'Why? Because it was my will.'... Where as the Untermensch comes along with an elaborate story trying to justify his action as not being insane...

By the way this is not fascism at all. Within fascism the Untermensch tells each other these stories to b(r)and together and exert power over the Ubermensch and other groups of Untermenschen. Fascism is just another Untermensch label."

"...the world is too big and too small at the same time."

Puking on Paroketh - Hypnocrisis.com:

"Because well, you see, one of the many problems is that the world is too big and too small at the same time. Media and marketing are making the world smaller and smaller by bombarding us with more and more images throughout the day. On the one hand we are powerless because the world is too big. On the other hand you are held responsible for all the horrible things you see. Once a year I go out and celebrate the day I met my lovely girlfriend in a three Michelin star restaurant (together of course, not alone). Sensational food. But at a price where you can feed someone in Africa for at least a month. How can you do that?

How can you go on living like you do while other people in the world are dying in droves? Well the answer is: very easy. Reject equalitarian notions and become elitist. Or better yet: be honest and accept your elite position. Don’t tell me tall tales about how you are making the world a better place because you ain’t.

Make your world smaller. Realise that your world is limited to the people that you care for and love. Why not limit your responsibility as well to just the well being of those people.

Who cares that the US is more and more fascist? That Europe is a modern day vassal state? How does it impact your personal life and the ones you love? Probably not much. In fact you profit from it big time. Ask anyone in Africa or in North Korea. Why are people nowadays more and more against the war Iraq? Not because they think injustice has be done. But because it hurts the ones they love. Friends dying in Iraq. Price of gas going up. Not because they think it's unfair for the Iraqi's. Only a little more than 100.000 Iraqi’s died since the war started. That’s a lot less than the one million who died during the sanction years. It would be hypocritical to complain now."

The New Slavery

Money Management - Hypnocrisis.com:

"Some time ago, the world abolished that wonderful trade the Dutch invented: slavery. But those who have, had to come up with some new trick to keep the masses slaving in their factories and plantations.

So the invented “your own home” and the mortgage. Nowadays people slave away in sick buildings with imbeciles as co-workers because they have to pay the rent. They sell hours of their lives away in order to be the same as the guy next door.

No, to do better, you have to quit your job and slack off, superior mutant! Start your own business. Be your own boss. Learn some kind of skill that actually sells itself."

Disbelief and Deconstruction

The Free Rider - Hypnocrisis.com:

"The first master of disbelief was Karl Marx. He opened our eyes and showed us that the history of the world wasn’t some Geist’s march, but the struggle between those who have and those who don’t.

Then Nietzsche, the second master of disbelief. He opened our eyes even more. Class struggle was nothing more than everyone’s personal Will to Power. The weak banded together to defeat the strong. No high morals behind socialism and its communist followers at all. Only the decadency of the anti-life morals of the Christians repackaged with the people as the new Christ.

And finally Freud appeared and tried to show us that it wasn’t even our own Will to Power at work, but our subconscious. The great actor unmasked as a simple biological automaton.

The path to trance-end this biological automaton I call magic."

Following Bliss

Aliveness 101: Honoring the process. . .:

"... the rush of joy that the athlete experienced at that moment didn’t just come because of a success on the mat, but instead that the success on the mat had served as a vehicle for a different understanding, and that this understanding was actually a certain kind of pleasure that only comes in moments where you learn something new about yourself. Where you have discovered it, through trials and risk, and made it through to another side.

..."Joseph Campbell described this kind of journey really well when he said that each individual must follow their own bliss.

I have heard people interpret that as selfish. But it only appears selfish from a particularly restricted point of view. The restriction is that what you feel may bring you bliss, may also be potentially unhealthy for you, and others around you. And, I do think that can often be true.

However, should we see past that stage, and perhaps no longer find those potentially dangerous habits as ‘healthy’, and therefore lacking in joy. . . .when we have fully realized the areas, shadows, and spaces where suffering was involved for all kinds of people, I believe we grow tired of it. . .that happening may very well come to you as the thought, “this does not make me happy, this cannot be following my bliss!”

After all, BLISS is a huge word. It’s loaded with all kinds of very cool sensory implications. So it spurs that idea, “hey, it must be more then this!” . . .and that brings about changes in the entire scene.

Changes for the good, spaces for the happiness. . . . . ..and much - much more."

Truth

"The old games will always be with us;
Spontaneity vs. Control
Freedom vs. Structure
Love vs. Isolation
-Tim Leary"