Sunday,
August 16, 2009 at 4:59am
How
often do you find the opportunity to challenge your various beliefs?
I've been on a relative marathon of Penn and Teller's Bullshit.
Things I thought would be great grounds for running a business on and
for are proving to be good for the wrong reasons. Not least of which
have been a green agenda and recycling. Basically, anything regarding
the environment I have managed to make less convincing to myself. For
example, it isn't a myth that there is global warming, but how
exactly is the impact calculated? There's talk of the holes in the
atmosphere, melting ice, etc. but what studies can you point to that
show more than correlation? When you factor in that the extinction of
species has been close to a hundred percent before carbon emissions,
our atmosphere can handle the highest solar flares and radiation,
and, though when you hear it used in a context of global warming
deniers it sounds ridiculous, there are many natural process, like
cows shitting, that amount to more atmospheric damage than all cars
and buses combined. I'm going to explore more of what I'm taking away
from this series.
A religion can be made out of anything. This is an idea I don't think I've appreciated enough. Every episode has the kind of "stupid" people who do "stupid" things and have "stupid" followers on it's surface. What I see is people who have found an ideology, and stuck with it for good personal reason. And when I say good personal reason, I mean of course within the context of their nominally functioning brain they've managed to recognize and prosper from a source that keeps them alive and presumably happy, not that they can apply reason and facts to support or even articulate why and what it is they're doing. Every industry one of these people is a part of, be it conspiracy theories, green shit, new age medicine and the like, is a multi-billion dollar a year business. These people are the proverbial catholic priest when it comes to the exploiter v the exploited.
So let me try not to get too far ahead of myself. I started with asking about an opportunity to have your beliefs challenged. Had I not watched this show, in about a week I would be home, doing more research and possibly engaging in purchases that helped to document and become apart of the "green" culture. I'd be using meetings to brainstorm about green events and agendas. Now, all of that is thrown into question. Do I think we should take care of the environment, yes, that's no question. Is the information available to us as reliable as previously conceived, are the people in charge of managing places like Bloomingfoods completely informed, and does the impact of generally accepted green practices do what they say they will? At this point, it doesn't seem likely. Considering the time spent already trying to set up meetings and build partnerships, and I don't know if I should feel slightly relieved we haven't gone gung-ho or pissed that it's so hard to find a straight forward and reliable venture. Where is a timeless, trustworthy, easily accessible and activist group that pushes good information all the time and can answer questions without trying to jerk you off?
Could I make money for myself and IU with green agenda things, almost certainly. Is it even remotely moral to have as many questions and doubts about that agenda given what I've learned in the past few days? Can I feel okay with wasting time and effort with the rest of my cohorts as we smile about our "accomplishments" and build lasting examples of how we think the world should run? My whole philosophy gets fucked with when I am running on shitty information. It seems like that's all people are in business for, to propagate their information with utter disregard for whether it is true or not. One of the foundations in the definition of a religion for me. So if I'm relatively keen on finding, picking apart, and bubbling with a resounding frustration and anger towards this practice, how and where can I find myself out of this mess? Why are the other people who at least look like they know and care hidden in ivory towers of academia or ten minute time slots in interviews. Where do the on-the-level mother fuckers congregate and how can they work?
I used to take great solace in TED talks as well. Now, I seem to be watching more talks from people who are simply "famous," in whatever non-specified field their uber-brain is working in, and less from people who can make the kinds of change I agree with. In a conference about technology, entertainment, and design, I don't care nor want to understand your choice to put Rick Warren, Billy Graham, or some mystic talking about how our souls are bound in our creativity and mind of the universe. That's called embarrassing, not entertaining. I wish that more people would find it insulting. We have a culture where people are seemingly so "offended" by stupid shit, but no one gets insulted enough to the point of lifting a finger. I think even the propensity to be offended is when your too heavily grounded in some idea that says otherwise. I say the word fuck loudly and proudly all the time at so many "inappropriate" places, and have yet to see someone burst into flames because of it. If anything, we should all be expressing a torrent of obscenities in the direction of things like incomprehensible and unnecessary taxes, creationists, wall street, Fox, our education system, birthers, and people like Sarah Palin (wait, she just needs a muzzle and pink shot).
We don't though. We are programmed to forget and trivialize those things that would be too taxing on our thoughts. Our throats are massaged until the whole load of bullshit from any ideologue is swallowed. We've given up before we've began, and I don't know the best way to react to that. How we've survived so long only able to discern the basic emotions in peoples' faces, all the while somehow missing all the stupid, is beyond me. Life shouldn't have to be about squeezing what fun, money, and prosperity you can get out of it and other people, it should be a free exchange and tolerance of valuable beings. Instead, we escape into these false worlds and extortionist behaviors, sometimes even without our own volition of what is really going on. And that's not an excuse, it's just a very depressing and demoralizing fact.
I have this perhaps naive idea that there was a time when there were people who stood out for reasons not so easily explained. A usual comment is something like, "he walks into a room and everyone notices" type of thing. Their being. Charisma, honesty, effort, intelligence where just understood in who they were and people knew it. Today, it seems like anybody with a guide book at a crappy store is taught how imitate that for the sake of something without any inherent value. The fact that people ever fall for it undermines that my example is even credible in the first place. I'd like to just think there are other reasons like a general tendency to make bad personal decisions and deafness are what truly plague these people. With so much bullshit, imitation, and distortion, what hope is there? At what point is the only logical thing to do join in the crowd? Well, never, I just figured I'd ask and have on record that despite how shitty I can and will feel about all this, I can't subject myself to the level of despicable fuck it takes to act and think like the people I endlessly ridicule. If I'm the last person that tries to be like the person in my example, so be it, though I'm still "hopeful" the situation isn't that dire.
There's just so much bad information, so many bad people, and so many ways to get lost and disenfranchised. It would take a Google-esc (by way of how big and everywhere it is), undertaking to push good information for good reasons. You'd have to infiltrate everywhere, everyone, and be willing to fight constantly against people who don't deserve their own lives, let alone to engage with yours. If I could even have a chance at being a mere foot soldier in that kind of army...though Supreme Commander wouldn't be bad either. Hmm, time will tell what actually happens.
A religion can be made out of anything. This is an idea I don't think I've appreciated enough. Every episode has the kind of "stupid" people who do "stupid" things and have "stupid" followers on it's surface. What I see is people who have found an ideology, and stuck with it for good personal reason. And when I say good personal reason, I mean of course within the context of their nominally functioning brain they've managed to recognize and prosper from a source that keeps them alive and presumably happy, not that they can apply reason and facts to support or even articulate why and what it is they're doing. Every industry one of these people is a part of, be it conspiracy theories, green shit, new age medicine and the like, is a multi-billion dollar a year business. These people are the proverbial catholic priest when it comes to the exploiter v the exploited.
So let me try not to get too far ahead of myself. I started with asking about an opportunity to have your beliefs challenged. Had I not watched this show, in about a week I would be home, doing more research and possibly engaging in purchases that helped to document and become apart of the "green" culture. I'd be using meetings to brainstorm about green events and agendas. Now, all of that is thrown into question. Do I think we should take care of the environment, yes, that's no question. Is the information available to us as reliable as previously conceived, are the people in charge of managing places like Bloomingfoods completely informed, and does the impact of generally accepted green practices do what they say they will? At this point, it doesn't seem likely. Considering the time spent already trying to set up meetings and build partnerships, and I don't know if I should feel slightly relieved we haven't gone gung-ho or pissed that it's so hard to find a straight forward and reliable venture. Where is a timeless, trustworthy, easily accessible and activist group that pushes good information all the time and can answer questions without trying to jerk you off?
Could I make money for myself and IU with green agenda things, almost certainly. Is it even remotely moral to have as many questions and doubts about that agenda given what I've learned in the past few days? Can I feel okay with wasting time and effort with the rest of my cohorts as we smile about our "accomplishments" and build lasting examples of how we think the world should run? My whole philosophy gets fucked with when I am running on shitty information. It seems like that's all people are in business for, to propagate their information with utter disregard for whether it is true or not. One of the foundations in the definition of a religion for me. So if I'm relatively keen on finding, picking apart, and bubbling with a resounding frustration and anger towards this practice, how and where can I find myself out of this mess? Why are the other people who at least look like they know and care hidden in ivory towers of academia or ten minute time slots in interviews. Where do the on-the-level mother fuckers congregate and how can they work?
I used to take great solace in TED talks as well. Now, I seem to be watching more talks from people who are simply "famous," in whatever non-specified field their uber-brain is working in, and less from people who can make the kinds of change I agree with. In a conference about technology, entertainment, and design, I don't care nor want to understand your choice to put Rick Warren, Billy Graham, or some mystic talking about how our souls are bound in our creativity and mind of the universe. That's called embarrassing, not entertaining. I wish that more people would find it insulting. We have a culture where people are seemingly so "offended" by stupid shit, but no one gets insulted enough to the point of lifting a finger. I think even the propensity to be offended is when your too heavily grounded in some idea that says otherwise. I say the word fuck loudly and proudly all the time at so many "inappropriate" places, and have yet to see someone burst into flames because of it. If anything, we should all be expressing a torrent of obscenities in the direction of things like incomprehensible and unnecessary taxes, creationists, wall street, Fox, our education system, birthers, and people like Sarah Palin (wait, she just needs a muzzle and pink shot).
We don't though. We are programmed to forget and trivialize those things that would be too taxing on our thoughts. Our throats are massaged until the whole load of bullshit from any ideologue is swallowed. We've given up before we've began, and I don't know the best way to react to that. How we've survived so long only able to discern the basic emotions in peoples' faces, all the while somehow missing all the stupid, is beyond me. Life shouldn't have to be about squeezing what fun, money, and prosperity you can get out of it and other people, it should be a free exchange and tolerance of valuable beings. Instead, we escape into these false worlds and extortionist behaviors, sometimes even without our own volition of what is really going on. And that's not an excuse, it's just a very depressing and demoralizing fact.
I have this perhaps naive idea that there was a time when there were people who stood out for reasons not so easily explained. A usual comment is something like, "he walks into a room and everyone notices" type of thing. Their being. Charisma, honesty, effort, intelligence where just understood in who they were and people knew it. Today, it seems like anybody with a guide book at a crappy store is taught how imitate that for the sake of something without any inherent value. The fact that people ever fall for it undermines that my example is even credible in the first place. I'd like to just think there are other reasons like a general tendency to make bad personal decisions and deafness are what truly plague these people. With so much bullshit, imitation, and distortion, what hope is there? At what point is the only logical thing to do join in the crowd? Well, never, I just figured I'd ask and have on record that despite how shitty I can and will feel about all this, I can't subject myself to the level of despicable fuck it takes to act and think like the people I endlessly ridicule. If I'm the last person that tries to be like the person in my example, so be it, though I'm still "hopeful" the situation isn't that dire.
There's just so much bad information, so many bad people, and so many ways to get lost and disenfranchised. It would take a Google-esc (by way of how big and everywhere it is), undertaking to push good information for good reasons. You'd have to infiltrate everywhere, everyone, and be willing to fight constantly against people who don't deserve their own lives, let alone to engage with yours. If I could even have a chance at being a mere foot soldier in that kind of army...though Supreme Commander wouldn't be bad either. Hmm, time will tell what actually happens.
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Written
about 7 months ago · Comment · LikeUnlike
I
like your semi-call to action at the end. Well, I guess it's time to
raise a army and head off to war, but if your the Supreme Commander
then I want to be the Chancellor of War.
August
16, 2009 at 11:52am ·
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