Return of the Dirty Hippie

It's not that I think I can change the world. I'm not that full of myself. What I think is that regardless of whether i can or not, I should damn well try.

About a week ago i was drunk. Now let's be clear - if you qualify all states of sobriety as a kind of continuum, with sober on one end, tipsy in the middle, and drunk on the end, i was somewhere off the continuum in what i like to call "WTF was i thinking" land.

Somewhere on the way home, as i was riding in the passenger seat and watching the world fly by, I had a thought that shook me pretty badly: "The world is the way it made itself." Trying to change the way the world works is as futile as trying to change the way a person thinks or acts. It doesn't work. The change needs to come from within.

Have you ever quit an addiction? Most people don't know this, but I used to smoke. Granted, it's not like I smoked my whole life, but I did smoke about a pack a day for almost 3 years. I say almost because I quit about 3 or four times in there - always for a week or even a month at the most.

One day I got sick. Not a real bad sick, mind you, but sick enough that I decided that since I could barely breathe as it was, I should maybe lay off the cigarettes until i got better.

About one week later I was feeling better, and I practically hopped and skipped (as much as one can do so while driving) to the gas station to buy my first pack of "post crud" cigarettes. Camel Lights. (yeah, get the laughs out now you Marlboro smokers)

I lit up my cigarette (not sure that doing it while at the pump was so genius) and took my first drag ... which turned into my first gag.

I don't know if it was a stale pack. I don't know if I was still a little sick. What i know is that i can't remember having ever tasted something so foul, and i threw the whole pack away. Now, all you smokers out there know what an effort it usually is to throw a whole pack of smokes away ... trust me - it's usually harder than cutting off a finger. (maybe your pinkie)

Somewhere within that last week, my body and/or my mind had done without my conscious interaction what I had been unable to do for 3 years. I had no reason to quit. No desire to quit. I had simply stopped wanting to smoke.

I think there are a lot of stories like that out there. People who didn't decide to change - they just did.

I think the world is like that. I think maybe all we need is an event, or a movement, or a single thought that gives us a chance to give up our current way of living for a better one.

More importantly, i think that we have the tools and technology to end our need for societal stratification. We have the resources to give everyone everything they want without them having to step on someone else to get it.

Bull, right? No way can i convince someone to work in a factory to make me my new iPod if they've got everything they need, right?

Well ... yeah. Absolutely right. But why does that person need to work in a factory at all? We have computers and robots that can do practically EVERYTHING in that factory.

Uh oh - we've hit the first stumbling points right there, haven't we? First off - computers and robots aren't free! Second, what will those unskilled laborers do instead?!

Free? Of course not! Not in terms of money. But what good does money do? All it does is provide a medium with which people can trade and barter on equal footing. What if it was taken for granted that you got out what you put in?

I actually heard your eyes rolling there, but bear with me. Just assume that it's possible for now, ok? We won't get anywhere if you're not willing to stretch your imagination! As i said fairly recently on a conference call "OK, i've heard all the reasons why we can't and shouldn't do this. Now let's re-focus and try to think of ways that it COULD work..."

So let's pretend that the world would keep turning without money. Who makes the computers and robots that produce the iPods instead of the workers? Well, more robots and computers! At first we'd have to build the builders, so to speak, but after that they keep running with maintenance and programming.

So who designs the robots? The computer systems? Who maintains all these things?

People who like doing those things, of course! There will always be people who like to tinker and fix, and people who like to program and design. In a system where everyone has what they want, everyone can do what they want. This of course raises the question of laziness. Why do anything if you don't need to? Let me ask you - after you've been on vacation for a week, or maybe two, do you want to keep doing nothing? Or do you wish you were doing something you loved? Maybe that something is your job - maybe it's a different job. But you want to do SOMETHING.

Humans aren't lazy, we fill the time we have with the things we want to do. When we're on vacation or the weekend, the last thing we want to do is work, but if all we had was weekends and vacation, all we would be able to think about would be to do SOMETHING. Preferably something we love to do!

So those robots and computers came from a place that made them. Simple as that. And yes, they were free. The were built using raw materials that were gathered by people who like working with their hands. Don't bother son, it's turtles all the way down.

I was going to answer the question about "unskilled" laborers, but I think I already have. They'll be busy doing something they love, and something they're "skilled" at. Because no one is unskilled.

This idea that everyone can have everything and no one needs to be hungry or poor may sound extreme, i know. But it's not ridiculous, and it's not unfathomable. It's not communism, and it's not insanity. It's what we're capable of.

It is what humanity is capable of.

I don't know if we'll ever get there. I don't know if anything i ever do could help us get there. What i do know is that i've thrown away the pack of BS beliefs, and if i can help start that change everywhere else, you can bet your bottom denomination that I'll try. If i can't? If it's hopeless? Nothing's hopeless. And at least I'll be able to say i tried.

Walden Two and the Rantings of a Self-Made Lunatic

For a long time now you've all heard me mention my hippie commune occasionally and with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Those of you who've known me for a few years know that i didn't start talking about utopias and communal living only after LuAnne and I got married - it's been an idea i've had for a few years that crystallized into an actual dream (as opposed to an undefined fantasy) once I read Walden Two on our honeymoon.

Walden Two is the fictional description of a theoretically plausible utopia which exists by adopting behavioral psychology as a means of sustaining and controlling a modern society.

In other words: It's a great place to live ... you would like it there.

Walden Two essentially offers everyone who lives there everything they would ever need to survive, as well as all the things which we desire to make our lives happy and fulfilling. The only thing that it doesn't do is give us something which all humans seem to crave above all else:

The potential for more.

The potential for more is a pretty powerful thing. I was just talking to one of my friends the other day and asked "Why would you not want to live in this community i've described?" She answered that not having her own car might be an example of how she would be limited living there. Not that she would need to leave to go do something specific, but that she might want to go somewhere. She needed that freedom.

Certainly this is a small example of a larger need. The need to be able to do something different than what is "prescribed" to us is part of what makes us human! Think about the old "better to have loved and lost" adage. Logically, it is better to have never loved at all - you would be more emotionally stable, and if love didn't exist anywhere else in the world you'd never be any worse off for not knowing how it felt.

Remember that i'm just talking "logically" here. Love brings people together, yes, but think of how many it drives apart. It's unstable at best. (wonderful, sure, but unstable)

Now what about money? Why would anyone need such a crazy thing? If we're all doing our part in the community, we should all get our share of life and happiness. No one should ever be thought of as doing more than someone else ... what would be the point? If they're doing what they love and what they're interested in, then why should their job be considered more valuable than someone else's? Take the reverse: if it's a job that no one wants to do, why shouldn't everyone have to do that job a little and move back to what they love?

But here's where it gets sticky, isn't it? I mean, that whole paragraph could be years of unresolvable debate in and of itself. What i'm trying to get to though, is this: If we all got the same, we would all be the same. If we were all the same, then where would be the chance for any one of us to have "the potential for more"?

I've heard this a lot: "I don't want to survive - i want to live." (if you haven't heard that one lately, watch Wall-E)

Does it need to be one or the other? Do we have to have a world where some people have everything and most have little or nothing so that we can have "the potential for more"?

Couldn't we find some way to have "the potential for more" without taking away the ability for everyone to live at or near the same level? Happily? With their basic human needs fulfilled?

I know i can't change the world, but how can i accept it as it is? Does that make me crazy? Possibly.

Just Random - Prepare for Excess Verbiage

Now playing: Darling Nikki - Foo Fighters

I was originally going to make this post about the nostalgia that hit me while i was categorizing my friends on Facebook, but now that i've had a moment or three to cast my eye about and let it happen upon what it will, i find myself wanting to condense my original thoughts into one succinct phrase:

"Holy shit. It's been almost 14 years since i graduated from grade school."

Now playing: Living Dead Girl (Naked Exorcism Mix) - Rob Zombie

It's really odd seeing people on FB and almost getting the feeling like they're some strange apparition from the ghost of education past. I can remember going through grade school, but i'm sure you know what i'm talking about when i say that it essentially seems like a distant dream that may have happened in some alternate reality for all i can tell.

Now playing: Dance With the Devil - Breaking Benjamin

Lolz, i have like fifty songs showing in the last ten minutes because i spent a bunch of time formatting. I swear, i type more than 2 words per minute! Though admittedly i *read* much slower than that.

There's a lot of things going on in my life but i don't know that there's anything i can make a really good story out of. So i guess i'll start with two quick reviews of games i've played:

Assassin's Creed is one hell of a ride. It may not be as "Oh, so THIS is the next generation ..." as i would have hoped, but the gameplay and storyline are solid. A very good experience overall. I like how they felt like they had to have a disclaimer at the beginning that said "This game was developed by many people of different nationalities and religious beliefs." Something like that anyways. The game itself is far from offensive to anyone (i think) and plays off of both sides of religious fanaticism with equal fervor. I just feel like the disclaimer shouldn't matter - someone who would get offended by the game wouldn't even take the time to play it, let alone read that disclaimer. No offense to the idiots out there who claim that videogames are have usurped mammon's throne and claimed the title of "Root of All Evil", but it pisses me off that the biggest vocal opponents of video games are those least likely to play one.

I won't get into that whole argument further, though - there are valid points on both side, to be sure.

Now playing: Shame - Stabbing Westward

Second on the list is PixelJunk Monsters, which is truly demonstrative of the PS3 incredible Multi-Cell Dimensional Rift Worm Hole technology. You'll see what i mean after the jump ;-)

The game itself is VERY low on rewards and has an incredibly steep learning curve. This game should be on the virtual shelf of every sadomasochist out there - it's way cheaper than all that melted candle wax, boys and girls, and let me tell you ... it burns.

Not saying not to buy it, mind you, but if you have a PS3 and you want a 10-dollar game, try this instead.

Now playing: The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead - XTC

Oh man, this song has perfect timing. Let me tell you a little something about Peter Pumpkin head: He came to town, spreading wisdom and cash around. He fed the starving and housed the poor - really showed the Vatican what gold's for. But he made to many enemies of the people who would keep us on our knees. Hooray for Peter Pumpkin! We pray for Peter Pumpkin Head!

If there is one thing i have to say i've always wanted to be, it's Peter. The guy who tells the tells the truth and makes enemies of the people who would oppress us. It's the guy who would make a difference in the society that he's living in ... no, the whole world. I think we all feel like we're meant to do something. I think we all realize that within every person lies the potential to change the world.

I've often thought about how to do it - how's it possible? How can you make people act towards each other as humans, not as animals? Because that's all we are in a world where possessions are valued above anything else. Animals. Except for the fact that animals know when to let well enough alone - you don't see a lion out there with a hoard of carcasses hanging out behind him and his bitches in the pool.

Now playing: My Name Is Jonas - Weezer

We've managed to convince ourselves that the only way to achieve the kind of "progress" that we have is to promote the ideal of "He who has the most toys wins." The reality of it is that we could still achieve everything we have today without sacrificing the majority to a life of servitude to the few.

I count myself lucky. I do. LuAnne and i don't have to worry about whether we'll have enough food to eat. About whether we'll have a place to sleep. Hell, we don't even have to worry about whether we could afford a second car. At the same time, i know that because she and i are fortunate, someone else is not. It's immature and ultimately irresponsible to believe that you could live the life you lead without someone else suffering for it. We live in a zero sum world - if you have more money than you need to survive, someone else has less than they need.

I've happened upon two books in the last few months that have really clicked many ideas together for me. Walden-Two by B.F. Skinner, and prior to that (but i'm still working on it) The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.

Now playing: Breath - Breaking Benjamin

Now before you say anything: No, i'm not joining some weird cult. But as a student of religion and, by extension, humanity, i find it intriguing to hear my own thoughts and observations echoed in the voices of people i've never met. In the case of Skinner, by someone who wrote about those very thoughts over 60 years ago. The two books tie into each other in the way that everything does when you're willing to let them. What's perhaps the most astonishing thing about Walden-Two is the ease with which it comprehensively applies to the world today. There are, of course, things which need to be factored in having to do with technology and the advent of the global village.

Now playing: Zombie Me - No More Kings

But realistically all those things have done is made it easier to attain the goal and maintain the lifestyle of a utopian society based on and groomed by an understanding of the human condition. It's possible to give everyone everything they need, it's just a question of how to convince them that that's all that they want. Just as it's perceived as better to have loved and lost, we seem to believe that it's better to have watched HD in your living room and lost the TV in bankruptcy.

Now playing: Walk on By - Cake

As to The Celestine Prophecy, it's an entertaining book which offers an interesting explanation or two for things that students of life and humanity probably have noticed themselves at one time or another. Whether you believe in energy or not, it's hard to deny the psychological realities and applications of many of the things which are "observed" and suggested in the book.

When taken together, these two books make it almost impossible not to see the possibilities. More importantly, i feel like they make it impossible for a person with even slightly healthy mental faculties to say "We need Peter Pumpkinhead." Maybe what we really need is someone to say "Screw it - call me Peter from now on."

All music info provided via FoxyTunes.

The Hero Myth

I think we're all waiting for someone to show up and tell us that we're destined for greater things. According to Joseph Campbell, the basic hero myth starts off with the hero longing to do or be something else. But doesn't everyone reach an age or a point in their lives where they wish there were more? Or that they were living an almost entirely different life? Or maybe feel that there is something else they're destined for?
Maybe that's what the hero myth really does: provides us a story that we can relate to, and feel like we get sympathy, compassion, and self-motivation from it. In essence, it's telling us "You're not alone! This happened to someone else! This is that person's story ..."
So where do we find our mentor? Our change agent? Where is our Obi-Wan to lead us from Tatooine? Our Jack Sparrow to bungle us forward? Our coachman to show us death, poverty, and infermity? Our Morpheus to provide us with a red pill? Are we to provide our own impetus for change instead? What about the catalyst which occurs that jars the hero from the grooved path and throws him onto a path of trials and tribulations which will lead him to his destiny? Are we to create that as well? Is that what these stories are for? What happens when there is no mentor? No change? No trials? No destiny?
What happens when the hero has no story?