Dead Sea Scrolls reveal
Jesus takes coffee with cream.
Milk sales up ten-fold.
Reality March 18, 2009
Some things to return to:
OOPArts
Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger series
Subjective Reality, The Archetypal Enemies and how they apply to The Last Capitalization – Man’s infinite struggle to attain a lasting freedom – philosophical anarchism and Sauyet’s Life Library
Belief and Will and how they relate to an individual’s Subjective Reality
What It All Means… March 18, 2009
Being a fond adherent to circular theories of time and existence, let me start in the middle and work my forward to the end and, thusly, forward to the beginning.
I got stuck in the wiksand today, delving further and further, clicking on link after enticing link, into a stimulating morass of intrigue and information. Here’s what sparked the fire:
Reading The Divine Invasion, by Philip K. Dick (you know him as the author whose ideas and stories spawned Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly), I keyed in on one of the character’s mentions of Jakob Bohme, a Christian mystic and philosopher whose name has continued to pop up in my life over the past two or so years (after a conversation – insert link here – at Baby Summit ’06). Soon thereafter, Martin Buber was mentioned within the text and, upon googling Jakob Bohme for a quick rehashing of his life and views, I discovered a mention of said Buber. Naturally, the wiksand saga followed.
After quickly skimming the philosophical anarchism entry, I branched off onto religious existentialism and found myself engrossed in an argument I had first learned of a few years back, having to do with Blaise Pascal’s rationale for believing in God.
Here it is, what fueled the fire:
In 1670, Blaise Pascal‘s unfinished notes were published under the title of Pensées (“Thoughts”). He described many fundamental themes common to what would be known as existentialism two and three centuries later.[26] Pascal argued that without a god, life would be meaningless and miserable. People would only be able to create obstacles and overcome them in an attempt to escape boredom. These token-victories would ultimately become meaningless, since people would eventually die. This was good enough reason not to choose to become an atheist, according to Pascal.
Appropriate. This was the first word that came to mind. For the past 12 years or so, I’ve been grappling with the notion of purpose and how it not only relates to all of us – the vast washed and unwashed masses of humanity – but to myself as an individual, a man who once considered himself the proverbial island, alone, untouchable, imperturbable, implacable.
When I met my wife I was quickly disabused of these notions. I am not an island. I am connected, in myriad intricate ways, to family, friends, and strangers alike. Chaos Theory and all that jazz – I sneeze and China becomes a democracy. Moreover, throughout the first 2 1/2 years of my daughter’s life, I have been reminded several times over that I cannot afford to be an island – no matter how deeply reclusive my desires run at times, this is not an option as the health (mental, physical, social) of my child depends on me.
So back to purpose. It would seem that purpose is a web we construct throughout our lives, sometimes consciously, sometimes sending out tendrils through thoughtless actions. Somes strands are thicker than others, and some strands branch off and develop their own node of sentience and motivations, stringing up their own web of purpose (this would be my child).
Mine was always the creative realm – reading, writing, music, thinking – all of these things were mine, and it was always my assumption that I would somehow make a fortune doing something strictly within that realm. But in the past 6 months to a year, my viewpoint has begun to shift. You see, if I must be honest, I have always wanted to be wealthy. The problem is that in the past I’ve approached it from a perspective of entitlement. No longer. In the past few years, my opinions on this have changed greatly. I asked myself: “What good is the prize if you haven’t earned it?”
(Tangent Alert) This is why I avoid the lottery. Just look at the trues story reality shows A&E (not sure which network, but one like A&E) airs on these people. They win the lottery, lifestyles quickly devolve into those of addiction, crime and despair, then end badly. What’s missing? Purpose. At least the perception of purpose. Without that, they have no daily action, nothing to keep them on the straight and narrow, nothing to maintain focus as to what it is they want out of life. Oh sure, their initial pre-lottery purpose could be entirely philistine – and it likely is, considering the way the majority of them turn out – but the delay of attainment of said purpose typically means they’ll behave themselves.
What if the realm of creativity isn’t a binding thing with walls and rules and mandates that must be followed? What if it isn’t necessarily a career-path, but a skill I needed to develop in my life as a means of achieving my end goals? This was revolutionary thinking. Well, for me it was. But it makes more and more sense to me. It also addresses Pascal’s fabricated obstacles and “token-victories” – with a modicum of success in business, I can be enabled to pursue a prolific body of work in the areas I find so deeply fascinating, those I might deem connected to my ‘purpose’. Whether through direct action or passive means (i.e. funding), I believe that the path I’ve chosen is the right one. It might even be the historical one.
Broader Perspective February 19, 2009
Some good stuff from today:
Found this blog (Broader Perspective) by a one Melanie Swan:
http://futurememes.blogspot.com/
In the most recent post, she reviews the underlying elements that make the new reality of Daniel Suarez’s new book, Daemon, a reality.
Also, this article on the universal language of mathematics:
This got me thinking on several fronts:
What if some savant, like Daniel Tammet, comes around and is able to physically visualize the most advanced equations, functions, etc. as works of art? How does that get translated and, at this point, if more people begin to visually interpret in this way, will this change our language?
I’ve thought about quantum physics off and on in very general terms – I like to imagine that the rules are simply inverted at the infinitesimal level, meaning that will or intent exerts its force on the particles, showing an elegant side as opposed to the laws of brute force we see on a macro scale.
A Thing to Contemplate – Societal Breakdown February 18, 2009
I suppose the proper way to phrase the question isn’t with an “if”, it’s with a “when”, so here goes:
What will our world look like, what will be the most immediate repercussions, when our government(s) break down?
I’ve composed a list of a few things that I feel like are pretty much sure bets:
- Corporate monoliths will fill the power void, consolidate to become corporate megaliths. Gangs will also do the same thing to a certain extent, except on a much more local and limited level. This comment has more to do with control and power over how people live their lives, so I feel its necessary to give the nod to other, smaller, less-centrally focused groups, such as religious groups, social groups – perhaps even those focused on their own social ideal, such as Anarchy or, to tip the hat in Neal Stephenson’s direction, Victorian societies or others based on historical examples…perhaps even examples seen in books, especially those revolving around Utopian models.
- Some if not most of the very real structures our government tended to will erode, crumble and fall. Roads, codes, zoning (think of crumbling, leaning buildings cobbled together with cheap materials and erected with cheap tools, not to code and certainly without an architectural plan). The system through which taxes and tariffs are paid breaks down and, by extension, the agencies that are charged with the responsibility of quality assurance and safety (i.e. lead paint in the kids’ toys and poison in their milk and medicine – wait, does this bring a certain Asian country to mind?).
- Everything will be driven by survival, and thus directly linked to gain. Whether this is exhibited in a commercial/monetary fashion or through bartering, the end result will always be: What do I get out of it? Not to say that we don’t largely work this way in the first place, but, with our every action directly linked to survival, and with that reality being acted out day-to-day on a razor’s margin – well, we should see the bonds of family, friendship and fraternity grow thinner by the day, or in direct proportion to how bad the situation is and how scarce resources are.
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