BUBBLE GO BOOM!

BUBBLE GO BOOM!

We know about The Occupy movement and others like it. We know the middle class is dying and poverty is growing. We know the media and government are full of shit and clearly have their own interest in mind. We know war- killing other humans on a massive scale- is costly and bad. Yet, here we are, right where we’d be if we were just mindless machines who did whatever we were influenced to.

I want you to at least listen to the speech from a U.S. senator (Bernard I believe) around minute 30. THIS IS A U.S. SENATOR! I’ve also seen videos of congressmen like Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul sit in front of Ben Bernanke (federal reserve chairman) and ask him where billions of dollars went and why, with no transparent or understandable response.

This is INSANE folks. If you don’t care about anything money can get, fine, but this extreme wealth that only creates more for that miniscule fraction of Americans, kills America (and real people) at an incredible rate. Imagine that economy is a balloon- you can squeeze a whole lot of the contents into one little area- but it bursts eventually. When that happens, and it will quickly at this rate, it’s not pretty. It’s either a controlled police state or anarchy within an uncontrolled state.

I don’t want either option, but I for one will not live without very basic freedoms.

“If you can’t b…

“If you can’t beat em, join em… then beat em.”

I… along with millions of other humans around the world… have been thinking a lot about, and becoming more involved in, reforming our surroundings. There seems to be a global wave in ‘perceived’ corruption and discomfort.

I remember a podcast called The Speculist, that I used to listen when I worked nights, which once shared a rating of the 20th century’s greatest inventions. The Internet came out on top, and I think civilian uproar and protest supports that decision. I mean just imagine the difference, between a world without the same cheap and accessible ‘web’ of information for everyone, and a world with it. It’s bound to change the game. It’s bound to grow our connection and consciousness as people. Ignorance is a great way to rule over people; what they don’t know hurts them, but who cares, cause they don’t realize it. If you are fair about human nature, and our social constructs, then you realize that power and a lack of transparency does always equate to corruption.

‘Okay… so there’s corruption in the world and people are slowly waking up and challenging it… what’s that have to do with the quote?’

I constantly see and hear an unfortunately very contradictory mistake among people trying to make a change (and everyone else 8))- they create divisions that aren’t genuine- they see and act as though ‘their group’ is unique from another group. It’s human nature to buy in to assumptions, and believe others who are socially different, are actually different. The reality however is that we are all human- we are all related beings that have the option to improve our situation or make it worse- whether that satisfies us or not.

So the point of all this, and the quote, is that in order to really ‘beat em’, you have to realize that you are them and they are you. You have to realize that ‘beating them’ means beating your own impulsive human nature and trying to get others to do the same thing. You have to genuinely take the moral, conscious, human high-ground; and not just the social one. ‘Sure, some groups are way better than others- some save people while others create death and suffering.’ But if we think of ‘beating em’ as beating our own humanity til this point, it gives us a reason to unite, and improve not just a social group but a globe of very connected beings.

So, if you can’t beat humanity, unite… then beat it… cause we will have already won.

 

It Really Is All Relative…

I recently watched a video on YouTube called RELATIVITY ISN’T RELATIVE. It was regarding the scientific definition, in terms of how there are absolutes, or aspects of the universe that are always the same; for example, an apple is still what it is without perceiving it.

I made a comment about how everything is relative in a practical sense, because everything has to go through our filter (perception), so even if we’re right it’s still relative to us. We cannot fairly claim the apple will still exist when nothing perceives it. It’s an oxymoron. So the only way anything isn’t relative ‘in this way’ is if no perception exists- then there is nothing but unknowable absolutes- whatever exists just exists if at all.

I appreciate science and scientists VERY much. It is how we progress as people, ‘externally’. And that is huge- it has and continues to save lives, exponentially increase value, and pretty much prolong our humanity as beings. If it were up to me, the science budget from government would be ten times what it is (It’s really small unfortunately).

But, in terms of individual or self progress, even science or external understanding and manipulation can’t help us. It can’t get you to see you. It can’t get you to deal with your fear, your desire, your consciousness, your weakness, and your potential willpower: greed, vanity, conceit, pride, jealousy, hate, anger, cowardice, depression, carelessness, laziness, etc.

For this, it takes good old, honest self reflection and recognition. It takes looking at something that is right behind your eyes, so something that is purely subjective, and only you can really see and understand. So I don’t try and irk or undermine science. In fact, many of the same mental abilities that allow us to deal with exterior reality, are needed to deal with internal reality: logic, reason, analysis, determination, fairness. I just realize that science, like everything, comes from humans; so they are the logical thing to care for most.

I just don’t want people to use more of their humanity for anything besides that humanity itself. I want people to see their own perception- to see their own limited view- because until we deal with our selves, even prolonging our existence isn’t worth as much as it could be.

My Website

My Website

I’ve linked it before I’m sure, but I’ve recently changed my website, and if you like this blog I think you’ll get something from the site as well.

You can find my FB, Twitter, Youtube, HUG, and podcasts all in one place there, as well as sample my books for free by checking them out on Amazon.

STATEMENT OF THE UNION’S MANAGEMENT

‘I know’, I’m late and it’s old news by now, but I have an alternate perspective than most on The State Of The Union Address that is given by the American President.

So, not to long ago (a couple months I think) president Obama addressed the nation in standard presidential fashion, telling us all about how great things are and how much better they will soon be… I’ve never been one to buy in to words, whether spoken or written, just because they sound or seem good. It’s a very easy thing for us to do however- thoughtlessly accept or deny ideas- rather  than figure things out and deal with reality. Religions work this way, education works this way, government works this way, ‘heck’ societies work this way, because humans create and run them.

I don’t remember the specifics of the speech and didn’t see the whole thing, but I’ll bet I have a great idea of what was said anyway. Where these speeches often inspire people, and give them hope, they make me question their validity and how much rehearsing it took.

In case you don’t know, these presidential addresses take place (as far as I know) at the U.S. capitol building annually. They are, as the title implies, ‘supposed’ to be a way for the president to share where we are as a country and what they have in store or plan to work on in the near future. If you care enough about this country, your self, and others around the world to look at the evidence however, you find something completely different: charisma, a facade, lies, blatant pandering, and even more blatant acceptance of all that.

Presidents like to talk about things like ending war, protecting the environment, improving education and infrastructure, and providing more jobs and better conditions for the American people. In other words, they like to talk out their asses, because this isn’t what happens…

Instead they do things like go to war based on lies (Bush), go to war without following the constitution (Obama), continue keeping the minimum wage far below where it should be to match inflation, allow the cost of college to continue to skyrocket, not invest real effort and money into education and infrastructure, not pay off our national debt and audit the federal reserve… so basically, allow and promote the destruction of America.

So if you care enough to look at reality, it isn’t even close to what is said in these spunky little fun presidential addresses. Sure it’s nice to feel good and have faith everything will work out. Sure it touches you to see the young injured veteran recovering from brain damage. But it doesn’t deal with reality- the reality that the veteran belongs to the broken nation starting decade+ long wars and instigating more terror with their own- not some nation defending others or itself. The reality that our government feeds us bullshit because we still accept it, not because it has anything to do with what really happens.

We can’t see everything that goes on behind closed doors right now, but we sure as hell can see the effects. We can see that 15% of the richest country on Earth is in poverty. We can see the giant military and their insane budget. We can see that we are in trillions of dollars of debt. We can see that progress in terms of energy and infrastructure is slow to non-existent, yet our reliance on oil is a priority. We can see that our government doesn’t give a shit about America. But as long as we can’t see, that we are the ones allowing them to continue not caring, and we are in control, America won’t last long. It’s only been about 250 years and we’ve messed things up this bad.

It took us most of that just to stop enslaving others and dish out the basic equal rights we are supposedly founded on…

It’s 2014 and our government officials don’t even come close to being a fair representation of America in terms of wealth, race, culture, and gender…

Despite that the government is directly responsible for mismanaging money, we are always the ones paying for it. Taxes are extreme but no one cares because we are comfortable enough and still getting by. Then we hear they ‘say’ that they’ll raise minimum wage and it ‘seems’ great, because getting screwed less always feels better; especially when you’re okay with getting screwed more already…

Whether you’re a climate change denier or not, you can’t deny that we effect life- oil is bad for life in the water, smog is bad for life that breaths air etc- just turn your car on in the garage if you’re that naive or prideful (take a nap-it’ll be fine). Earth is a closed system. And you can’t deny causality. Yet we make virtually no improvements. We don’t make cars better. We don’t get strict on oil and other mass polluters etc.

So, I guess my point is….

FUCK THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES!

FUCK THE ‘IDEA’ THAT THINGS WILL GET BETTER!

FUCK EVERYONE WHO CAN’T EVEN SEE REALITY!

FUCK THE REST OF US WHO DON’T DO ENOUGH ANYWAY!

BUT MOST OF ALL, FUCK THE SYSTEM- THIS GOVERNMENT, WITH THE MOST POWER AND THE LEAST CARE, THE LEAST HONOR, AND THE LEAST MORALITY- THE ONE WE PUT OUR ENTIRE LIVES AND FAITH INTO AND GET SHIT IN RETURN EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Unless we care enough to really start standing up to them by peacefully and morally stop buying so much (paying so much taxes- yes you have some control already), protest, talk, sign petitions, call representatives, share our voice- the giant organization that is supposed to work ‘for us’ will continue to not do so- because they are human and humans are impulsive until they perceive a reason not to be.

So next time you hear a nice little inspirational talk from a politician, or anyone,  don’t worry about what they say, deal with what they have done, and what they do next.

If you stop and…

If you stop and look at anything that wasn’t human-made, you can see this simple, peaceful, and necessary existence- then, when you look back, you see this unnecessarily busy, contradictory, and self-defeating one- and it happens to be the only one you saw only moments before. Maybe it’s time to improve it?

Random thoughts after looking out the window and becoming fixated on the blowing trees in the wind and rain, and ignoring the busy traffic and hub-bub everyone else is constantly so worried about.

CONSERVATIVES, LIBERALS, AND THE PHENOMENON OF ‘HUMAN’ EXTREMISM

 

I don’t know a lot about politics, but I know quite a bit about people, since I happen to be one. And one of the things we’re really good at is picking sides. Do you remember when you were in school and the teacher would say things like, “Okay, get into groups of three.”, or “Shirts and skins.”? Do you remember how certain kids bonded while others stayed away from each other? Now do you remember how this sort of segregation between us came so naturally that we didn’t even realize we were doing it? We absolutely love to assimilate- And we absolutely love blaming others and assuming they’re different for the same reason- it keeps us from dealing with conflict or what isn’t comforting.

Does painting a huge flag make you a patriot? Does loving god make you a good person? Is there any good reason to believe a god would specifically bless one country? ‘No. No. And no.’ The image in this post screams ‘extremism’. It screams exterior overcompensation for the human fear of dealing with reality. It doesn’t have to be religion or nationalism that we cling to in order to ‘feel’ comfortable, but those are two biggies, so I’ll give you a great example regarding myself…

The other day I was watching a video clip of Bill Maher and guests on his show. In the clip, and others, he impulsively gets upset and argues with the Republican guest seemingly just because they’re Republican. In this case, she (the guest) was talking about how government is too big and money gets lost in these giant bureaucracies; something I completely agree with. But he argued with her nonetheless. I like Maher, at the very least in comparison to other ‘personalities’ on TV (even though I don’t own one). He often tries to stay non-partisan and seems to see that taking sides is part of our problem in politics.

But whether you’re a conservative christian or a liberal atheist, you have to admit his bias if you’re honest. He clearly is more keen to Republican bashing than Democrat bashing. He clearly prefers picking on religion and believers over atheists. He is human. I don’t think it’s wrong for him to speak his mind per say. He, like Jon Stewart or Rush Limbaugh, is obviously not objective in the same way a newscast ‘should be’. ‘Speaking of newscasts real quickly, we even see their political sides.’ But the point is that we subconsciously take sides, even when we consciously realize it’s a mistake. I have to admit that part of the reason I like Bill Maher is because it feels good to believe we’re part of the same atheist, woman-loving (just not in practice like him) government bashing camp overall.

We, as people, are always going to succumb to ‘an amount’ of subconsciously driven comfort. We are always going to take sides and be bias ‘to a degree’. It’s not just me. It’s not just the person who owns that house in the picture. It’s not just people on TV. It’s all of us. We buy into the ideas, fashions, politics, religions, culture, music, sex, country, city, race, and activities we like, and no matter what it will automatically affect our perception of the ones we don’t. The more we ‘feel’ safe from one thing, the more we ‘feel’ unsafe from something different. The good news is that, ‘that degree’ to which we are bias, is alterable. We can catch our selves from impulsively being unfair to other groups. We can make our conscious realization that we are all human and all in the same boat more prominent than that impulse. We can be bigoted assholes one second, and find the internal fortitude to get over our pride and conceit, and try and correct our mistakes the next second; or ‘maybe’ day, or year, or decade… (but the sooner the better).

NEW WEBSITE!

NEW WEBSITE!

Hi humans,

I recently transferred my website to a new host. It’s much simpler and straightforward. You can jump to my podcasts, HUG (my group), this blog, or buy or sample books of course.

I changed my settings here on WordPress so they email me about writing more blogs. ‘Hey a shameless plug is a start.’

FILLING UP ON EMPTINESS

This is the last poem in the first volume of my poetry books (A RHYTHMIC VIEW).

This picture is mine as well. I took it from the roof of my job.

The poem is not the last one in the book by accident. It sums up how we… at least how I discovered the rest… how, or why, I actually changed my life by really connecting to more reality than before.
The ‘clouds’ represent all of our exterior influences, which pretty much means absolutely every real thing you can think of outside of our mentality: TV, books, poems, movies, clouds, trees, people, ideas, beliefs, culture, society, food, drinks, dancing, singing, walking, talking, sex, driving, working, money… the list goes on.
All of these outside things to sense block us from the one genuine, all-important, and obvious truth of our lives… us… who we are, how we function, why we do it, our ability to change, etc.

The next lines about “an empty body, on an empty world, in an empty time” refer to how we live in ignorance of that one thing that means everything and even allows us to falsely assume the outside does instead. Most of us live our entire lives not even considering our own mentality/humanity. There is an emptiness about us and everything we do because of this tunnel-vision.

The line, “create a bond between the ends of our eyes”, means that if we do end up looking through all this outside influence, back to our selves, than it creates a connection between you and the outside like never before. It allows you to sense in a totally different way- without instant assumption and satisfaction. When you don’t live as though you are already settled into life, it gives you a reason to figure it out, to question and answer. This new, and recognizably ignorant perspective, can be scary. But it, and it alone, can be progressive as well. It can lead to new challenges, confrontations, questions, solutions, satisfaction, and actions.

We simply cannot change until we see a reason to. And when we automatically buy in to the world around us, we have no reason to look for anything else… but we are still there despite us.

Blog#2

Blog#2

This is another blog of mine. I mainly fill it with poetry and poetry over images.

Check it out and stuff.