If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness. For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation.
-Anais Nin
-----------------------------------
What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if in your dream you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? Ah! What then?
- Samuel Coleridge
------------------------------
Slowly, you recognize
The illusions, the delusions
The pain of human limitation.
Then gradually it dawns
What a huge mistake youve made.
- Marion Woodman
------------------------------------
Fear is nothing to be ashamed of, and can actually be a useful ally. Frist Perls, the psychiatrist who founded Gestalt therapy, said that fear was merely excitement without the breath. Take a few breaths, he counseled, and you will feel your fear turn into excitement.
- Gay Hendricks
------------------------------------
I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.
- Tom Hopkins
---------------------------------
Theres something interesting about the rate at which men in prison are raped, its lower than the rate at which women are raped in the culture at large. Most studies suggest that 25 percent of women are raped within their lifetimes I suppose you could say that for womenand not just those in prisonrape is a fact of life. When a man goes to prison, everyone seems to think oh shit, hes going to get raped. But every day, women walk down the streets or stay in their homes, and face that same possibility.
- Derrick Jensen
-------------------------------
Having to acknowledge that drug-induced visionary experiences may be biologically indispensable to our species, so that deprivation from them can be seen as having caused the deformities of late Western civilization, requires a shift in perspective no less radical than those that accompanied the birth pangs of the twentieth century We are discovering that human beings are creatures of chemical habit with the same horrified disbelief as when the Victorians discovered that humans are creatures of sexual fantasy and obsession.
- Stuart Walton
I basically agree with Stuart Walton. Distrust of ones intoxication urge is similar to distrust about ones innate sexual drive. This is how the morally righteous see humanity We suck because we are what we are. Would that we were not. Other people shouldnt be permitted to use drugs, just as other people shouldnt be permitted to fuck, unless their making babies. O woe is me. We must protect the people from the risks associated with following ones natural and god-forsaken cravings. And we must establish a systematic form of punishment to teach them to behave.
-------------------------------------------
Air America is giving me a migraine. They discuss politics in a way that holds my interest. They tell frequent jokes. But the bitchiness and the spitefulness are a little too much for me to endure for three hours. The morning show is unbelievably entertaining and so is Janeanes show. But even justified disgust with the Whitehouse gets a little tiresome by the seventh day. Especially when a person has a stressful job, and would prefer to unwind in the evenings rather than explode. Dear Air America. Youre right. Im happy that youre right. Youre progressive worldview is cohesive and is better than most. But how is me swallowing all your bitterness going to help me overall. Dont stop. Im just saying. Too much entertainment makes me into a zombie. So Im jumping off the tracks. Be well. Dont forget to feed the cats. And water the spider plants. I just realized something. Comedians can be abrasive. This is why comedic sets typically only last about 30 minutes. A three hour comedic set based solidly in political realities is like rubbing ones brain with rocks. But its true! They speak the truth. Yeah ok. Its also true that theres food particles moving through my bowels right now. That doesnt mean that I want to hear all about it. But it affects your life! Yes, it does. Underneath the skin of America lies disgusting right wing capitalist organs. I know this. I dont need to be told this every day. I love me some political truth, its like an addiction, but I think Im approaching overdose levels. I love the lively discussions too but only in a format that doesnt lead to my head cracking open. See this is what Im saying. Truth is not always suitable, especially when the messenger is indignant, self-righteous, abrasive, and long-winded. Sometimes silence, relaxation, having fun, smoking a bowl, being an asshole, going for a walk outside, making love are important. I think Air America can lead to depression and or misdirected angst that doesnt directly help, and does produce stress in a certain type of person. Im glad the morning sedition and the majority report are entertaining and informative. For instance, I had no idea that Mr Cross was gay. That is interesting. In any case, I am thrilled that Air America exists, but Im not going to listen as much. Because I cant survive such an onslaught and still function. Air America is great. I think the fact that it exists is a win. Already several million people are listening and enjoying the product they provide.
------------------------------------------
The following are quotes from the Un-TV and the 10 MPH Car, by Bernard McGrane. Its not sold at book stores cause its not really a book, more like a bunch of class notes combined with student essays, and weird experiments that are supposed to reveal the sort of matrix of consensual reality that inhibits us from floating off into space. The experiments are stupid, and only the truly weird would actually perform them, but theres a lot of interesting ideas in the book. The book goes into other topics besides Television, but the following quotes are all very interesting to me.
The slow fading-in, fading-out technique is used continually with ordinary TV programs. The commercial, in contrast, doesnt fade into the screen smoothly, but rather explodes onto the screen, causing us, as a consequence, to watch this strange event as if it were an emergency. The advertisements are thus experienced as permeated with a kind of mental adrenaline and a highly subtle form of visual violence, violence to ordinary perception for violence like sex, is always attention captivating. And the living room couch now often functions as a meditation cushion in the service of endarkenment and thrilling mental chaos.
The function of TV is to create, maintain and constantly reinforce what in the Zen tradition is often called monkey-mind. What is the good of a jumpy, volatile, scattered and hyper, monkey-mind? The creation of this type of mind is believed to be optimal in generating the consuming type of life style. To reinforce this type of mind helps to generate a buying-mood among the audience which is believed to generate actual buying-behavior as a long term way of life. The good life is the life of consumption not production, not action, not creation. The good life is the life of electronic reverie, of passive watching under the illusion of imaginary action: spectatingTV changes the way we experience reality. Because we become so conditioned and in tune with believing what is shown on TV as real, we become skeptical of that which we only personally experience. Our experiences in the real world turn into secondary experiences, while that which is experienced through TV becomes primary.
Our culture and education conspire to condition us to need reassurance from the media to reinforce our actions and feelings, our self-perceptions. When we seek media confirmation we both acknowledge and assume that our personal experiences are not qualified as reality.
The role of advertising, after establishing a monopoly on our minds, is to create a world of mirrors in which people can obtain new images of themselves that fit and support the purposes of the overall corporate capitalistic system. Who we are and how we look right now is inferior to who we could be and how we could look. One must grudgingly admire the subtlety with which the advertising media took control of our thoughts and let us think that those thoughts were entirely our own. Through this mirror and by its expropriation of our inner experience, advertising tends to make the human into a spectator of his or her own life.
Why must we always be doing something in order to legitimate our presence? To stop for a moment the labor of accomplishing society, is to throw into bold relief the fact that without our knowing it we are always ongoingly engaged in the labor and work of accomplishing society -- as well as accomplishing a sense of accomplishment in what TS Eliot has called the ongoing struggle to think well of ourselves. One of the great clauses buried deep in our social contract is the unquestionable proviso, It is better to do something than nothing.
(End of Bernard McGrane quotes)
-----------------------------------------
On one level, monkey mind is bad. On another level, if properly handled, it can open doors. An expert in the technique can theoretically jump out of the world, and back again at will. It just sort of depends on who is in control. I think the very thing that enslaves us, also readies us for a life-altering breakthrough that would have otherwise not been possible. Monkey mind is the skeleton key of the western mind. It is at once the cage and the open field. For Westerners it is a quixotic pre-cursor to enlightenment. Eastern types have their dull meditation techniques. They dont need monkey mind. But what works for them, does not, and will never work for me.
-Anais Nin
-----------------------------------
What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if in your dream you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? Ah! What then?
- Samuel Coleridge
------------------------------
Slowly, you recognize
The illusions, the delusions
The pain of human limitation.
Then gradually it dawns
What a huge mistake youve made.
- Marion Woodman
------------------------------------
Fear is nothing to be ashamed of, and can actually be a useful ally. Frist Perls, the psychiatrist who founded Gestalt therapy, said that fear was merely excitement without the breath. Take a few breaths, he counseled, and you will feel your fear turn into excitement.
- Gay Hendricks
------------------------------------
I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.
- Tom Hopkins
---------------------------------
Theres something interesting about the rate at which men in prison are raped, its lower than the rate at which women are raped in the culture at large. Most studies suggest that 25 percent of women are raped within their lifetimes I suppose you could say that for womenand not just those in prisonrape is a fact of life. When a man goes to prison, everyone seems to think oh shit, hes going to get raped. But every day, women walk down the streets or stay in their homes, and face that same possibility.
- Derrick Jensen
-------------------------------
Having to acknowledge that drug-induced visionary experiences may be biologically indispensable to our species, so that deprivation from them can be seen as having caused the deformities of late Western civilization, requires a shift in perspective no less radical than those that accompanied the birth pangs of the twentieth century We are discovering that human beings are creatures of chemical habit with the same horrified disbelief as when the Victorians discovered that humans are creatures of sexual fantasy and obsession.
- Stuart Walton
I basically agree with Stuart Walton. Distrust of ones intoxication urge is similar to distrust about ones innate sexual drive. This is how the morally righteous see humanity We suck because we are what we are. Would that we were not. Other people shouldnt be permitted to use drugs, just as other people shouldnt be permitted to fuck, unless their making babies. O woe is me. We must protect the people from the risks associated with following ones natural and god-forsaken cravings. And we must establish a systematic form of punishment to teach them to behave.
-------------------------------------------
Air America is giving me a migraine. They discuss politics in a way that holds my interest. They tell frequent jokes. But the bitchiness and the spitefulness are a little too much for me to endure for three hours. The morning show is unbelievably entertaining and so is Janeanes show. But even justified disgust with the Whitehouse gets a little tiresome by the seventh day. Especially when a person has a stressful job, and would prefer to unwind in the evenings rather than explode. Dear Air America. Youre right. Im happy that youre right. Youre progressive worldview is cohesive and is better than most. But how is me swallowing all your bitterness going to help me overall. Dont stop. Im just saying. Too much entertainment makes me into a zombie. So Im jumping off the tracks. Be well. Dont forget to feed the cats. And water the spider plants. I just realized something. Comedians can be abrasive. This is why comedic sets typically only last about 30 minutes. A three hour comedic set based solidly in political realities is like rubbing ones brain with rocks. But its true! They speak the truth. Yeah ok. Its also true that theres food particles moving through my bowels right now. That doesnt mean that I want to hear all about it. But it affects your life! Yes, it does. Underneath the skin of America lies disgusting right wing capitalist organs. I know this. I dont need to be told this every day. I love me some political truth, its like an addiction, but I think Im approaching overdose levels. I love the lively discussions too but only in a format that doesnt lead to my head cracking open. See this is what Im saying. Truth is not always suitable, especially when the messenger is indignant, self-righteous, abrasive, and long-winded. Sometimes silence, relaxation, having fun, smoking a bowl, being an asshole, going for a walk outside, making love are important. I think Air America can lead to depression and or misdirected angst that doesnt directly help, and does produce stress in a certain type of person. Im glad the morning sedition and the majority report are entertaining and informative. For instance, I had no idea that Mr Cross was gay. That is interesting. In any case, I am thrilled that Air America exists, but Im not going to listen as much. Because I cant survive such an onslaught and still function. Air America is great. I think the fact that it exists is a win. Already several million people are listening and enjoying the product they provide.
------------------------------------------
The following are quotes from the Un-TV and the 10 MPH Car, by Bernard McGrane. Its not sold at book stores cause its not really a book, more like a bunch of class notes combined with student essays, and weird experiments that are supposed to reveal the sort of matrix of consensual reality that inhibits us from floating off into space. The experiments are stupid, and only the truly weird would actually perform them, but theres a lot of interesting ideas in the book. The book goes into other topics besides Television, but the following quotes are all very interesting to me.
The slow fading-in, fading-out technique is used continually with ordinary TV programs. The commercial, in contrast, doesnt fade into the screen smoothly, but rather explodes onto the screen, causing us, as a consequence, to watch this strange event as if it were an emergency. The advertisements are thus experienced as permeated with a kind of mental adrenaline and a highly subtle form of visual violence, violence to ordinary perception for violence like sex, is always attention captivating. And the living room couch now often functions as a meditation cushion in the service of endarkenment and thrilling mental chaos.
The function of TV is to create, maintain and constantly reinforce what in the Zen tradition is often called monkey-mind. What is the good of a jumpy, volatile, scattered and hyper, monkey-mind? The creation of this type of mind is believed to be optimal in generating the consuming type of life style. To reinforce this type of mind helps to generate a buying-mood among the audience which is believed to generate actual buying-behavior as a long term way of life. The good life is the life of consumption not production, not action, not creation. The good life is the life of electronic reverie, of passive watching under the illusion of imaginary action: spectatingTV changes the way we experience reality. Because we become so conditioned and in tune with believing what is shown on TV as real, we become skeptical of that which we only personally experience. Our experiences in the real world turn into secondary experiences, while that which is experienced through TV becomes primary.
Our culture and education conspire to condition us to need reassurance from the media to reinforce our actions and feelings, our self-perceptions. When we seek media confirmation we both acknowledge and assume that our personal experiences are not qualified as reality.
The role of advertising, after establishing a monopoly on our minds, is to create a world of mirrors in which people can obtain new images of themselves that fit and support the purposes of the overall corporate capitalistic system. Who we are and how we look right now is inferior to who we could be and how we could look. One must grudgingly admire the subtlety with which the advertising media took control of our thoughts and let us think that those thoughts were entirely our own. Through this mirror and by its expropriation of our inner experience, advertising tends to make the human into a spectator of his or her own life.
Why must we always be doing something in order to legitimate our presence? To stop for a moment the labor of accomplishing society, is to throw into bold relief the fact that without our knowing it we are always ongoingly engaged in the labor and work of accomplishing society -- as well as accomplishing a sense of accomplishment in what TS Eliot has called the ongoing struggle to think well of ourselves. One of the great clauses buried deep in our social contract is the unquestionable proviso, It is better to do something than nothing.
(End of Bernard McGrane quotes)
-----------------------------------------
On one level, monkey mind is bad. On another level, if properly handled, it can open doors. An expert in the technique can theoretically jump out of the world, and back again at will. It just sort of depends on who is in control. I think the very thing that enslaves us, also readies us for a life-altering breakthrough that would have otherwise not been possible. Monkey mind is the skeleton key of the western mind. It is at once the cage and the open field. For Westerners it is a quixotic pre-cursor to enlightenment. Eastern types have their dull meditation techniques. They dont need monkey mind. But what works for them, does not, and will never work for me.