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Tinkerers on the Scaffolding: (Or the Recovery of Ecstasy)

2010-02-05T06:25:00Z

The tame and domesticated contours of civilized life have eclipsed our sense of the feral in everyday experience – that irrepressible anchor of human embodiment, our elemental interlacing with nature, “that subtle knot which makes us man.” Neglecting this wild core, we’ve abandoned our original gift of freedom, the inherent power of just being-there, outside the chains of time and the terror of history. Forsaking this primal autonomy, the groundwork was laid for our own entrapment, the beginning of our enslavement. But we might again reawaken that sense of primitive sovereignty, and experience the untamed, ecstatic undercurrent of life.

Ever since discovery of the appearance of Homo habilis approximately two million years ago humankind has been defined as toolmaker, technician, and tinkerer. Whether or not a direct link to Homo sapiens can ever be definitively unearthed is a moot point. Clearly we humans live and die by our tools. But, while necessity may be the “mother of invention,” what manner of need could have led to the never-ending flow of new tools and technologies evidenced today? What of this unyielding pace of technological innovation that seems to be of another, qualitatively different order?

The Greek techne suggests “craft” or “art,” the practical discipline of making things. Technology, then, would refer to the results or products of techne – artifacts, devices, tools, and other handicrafts – the artifices of human culture. This sounds like an old story, about which we can be neutral. But we are not neutral; we adore our modern technologies excessively. Is it because they create nice, clean, artificial surfaces, insulating us from the wild and uncultivated underbelly of life, of nature, of our own embodiment?

With America leading the way, the path charted and engineered by Western civilization has spawned a hegemony that is rapidly overtaking the globe, socially, economically, and culturally. This unheralded ascendancy has unleashed a domination of values, which unlike political hegemonies of the past, is lightning fast, wide ranging, and spreading insidiously, artfully enabled by those very technologies to which it has given birth.

Engineering and technological sophistication now appear to constitute the religion of a new epoch. The foundation stones of a nascent techno-theocracy, they march us, hyper-rationally, to a contrived and perhaps apocalyptic Eschaton. Their dominion is so complete that they have undermined our very enjoyment of a more spontaneous life, lived naturally on Mother Earth. After all, the “virtual reality” they promise seems less messy than the real thing.

With an implacable call for progress in our visually dominated world, it is no wonder we are so enthralled by the steady array of new toys and tools paraded before our eyes. But why do HDTVs, TiVOs, iPhones, iPods, cell phones, Blackberries, electronic notebooks, and a myriad of other digital gadgets hold such sway, and command our rapt attention? Some might call it convenience; others would say it’s just the fulfillment of the American Dream – the Holy Grail of our continuously advancing civilization.

A large part of this digital delight may simply be a function of its visual appeal, the marketing hook that drives our consumerism. Perhaps it really is all about the spectacle. Or maybe it’s the continuous enhancement in microchip effectiveness and processing speed, betraying our “end user” mentality – to accomplish more things more quickly so we can buy more toys and move more rapidly into a brighter future.

More pointedly, perhaps, these technologies serve as valuable tools of social, economic, and cultural control. They encourage and validate our fixation with civilization’s fundamental construct, unilinear time and its underlying implication – the necessity of historical progress. This insures our continued dependency and our unquestioned faith in a certain path or trajectory; let us call it the curriculum of the West.

All the while, these same technologies distract attention from the inchoate, but developing sense of our own anonymity in today’s digitized, urban landscape. They signal the arrival of a new world, the global village, where we all share common values and concerns. But it is an erector set village, artfully crafted from our own infantile dreams of omnipotence – Western domination – now exported around the globe. These technologies claim to “connect us.” But, it is a hollow promise aimed at disarming a potential epidemic of cultural alienation that might otherwise expose the tinkerers on the scaffolding propping up the gloss of our blueprinted lives.

So our suspicions go undetected and our faith in the curriculum remains intact. We continue on, accepting as axiomatic that the paths of technological advancement, happiness, and righteousness coincide; in fact, we take for granted that progress is a good in itself – the only legitimate means of achieving happiness and living the good life. But why can’t we jettison this belief? Why this insatiable need for novelty? Why is it we have so little regard for what is primal and founding? And, why do we attempt to light up every corner of the globe, demystify the naturally chiaroscuro quality of life, making everything one-dimensionally bright? What is it about the curriculum of the West that is so captivating?

It may be that this race for technological innovation is nothing other than the best efforts of our civilization to ensure that we citizens keep producing and consuming, and remain focused on the future. We are being led to the abattoir of our own planned obsolescence by a marketing wizardry that locks us firmly onto a path of never-ending progress. Could this also explain our disproportionate emphasis on free will and unrestrained choice in America? After all, it provides an unassailable platform from which to produce and market an inexhaustible stream of saleable products and commodities that in turn validates our freedom, again keeping us future-oriented and chasing the ever-receding horizon of our Dream.

Who could argue with the shrewdness of such an agenda, or its efficacy in herding us into quiet submission? I was just as susceptible, just as committed to the plan, as were my fellow citizens. But I also sensed that this driving “will” to consume was not part of my natural constitution. It seemed to be the result of a story we had all been told about the future, about “making something of ourselves” and “getting ahead.”

Certainly, no one could deny that America had achieved great distinction for its material advancement and its extravagant pursuit of innovation. Nor did I wish to underestimate the value of specific advances in medical science and biotechnology. But that did not mean all progress was necessarily good, or even necessary.

Could I let go of my MacBook or do without email? No. Not completely. But, I refused to buy the iPhone, the TiVo, or the Blackberry; and I rejected a host of other gadgets and toys. I knew that I was being ensnared in a vicious cycle of work-buy-owe, and that I was partly to blame for the entire arrangement. I was a willing accomplice, collaborating with our clever cultural missionaries. I had become just another spokesperson trying to sell the Dream to the rest of the world, perpetuating the illusion.

Yet, along with most of my fellow citizens, I could not just renounce all the “benefits” of this way of life without consequences. The social covenant our ancestors had entered into long ago guaranteed that each and every one of us would come to rely on these tools as a matter of simple survival. I recalled what Rousseau, perhaps the single most important Enlightenment figure, had written centuries before in his work, On the Social Contract:

[Civil society] must transform each individual into a part of a larger whole … deny man his own [natural] forces in order to give him forces that are alien to him and that he cannot make use of without the help of others.

As I now saw things, we had proceeded too far down this road for anyone to turn back. If I, or anyone else, were to survive in civilized society – and really, one could no longer leave it because our own natural forces had long ago been replaced by civilized ones over generations of indoctrination to the curriculum – then I had little choice but to make use of the tools provided, or perish. I was in a double bind from which I could not easily escape. But at least I understood the game, some of the rules, and the potential consequences of playing it. Such awareness enabled me to develop healthier positioning with respect to the curriculum and its artifices; I no longer permitted them their insidious and unchecked control over my life.

But, how was I to survive as a citizen in the twenty-first century, yet learn to live again, ecstatically? How was I to recollect my feral core, my elemental intertwining with nature? I was certain only of the most rudimentary aspects of such a return and recovery.

First, I no longer allowed myself to be guided by the cardinal pretense of the curriculum of the West: unilinear time, and its preeminent instrument of domination, the clock. Here was the principal weapon in the arsenal of civilization, relentlessly driving historical progress and innovation, involuntarily internalized by me through countless generations of enculturation. I no longer looked anxiously forward, anticipating or dreading some distant future. Instead my awareness was situated in the present and the proximate moment at hand.

This repositioning was achieved through greater reliance upon senses other than sight. I learned to live more comfortably within my sense of hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These provided a concrete grounding in the visceral immediacy of life – the invisible fabric of my existence. It was much different than the abstract perspectives of a disembodied, mediating consciousness, fabricated by my culture’s isolating and vision driven hyper-rationality.

Limiting my current and ongoing obligations, I ignored the schedules created around me and for me, refusing to give them the controlling authority they sought over my daily experience. Planning no longer played its once dominant role in my thinking. And, while some forethought was still necessary, I lived more spontaneously, attentive to present demands and the eventfulness of just being-there. Such a return to my body – its senses, its natural periodicities, and its rhythms – required a different kind of intelligence, an affective or post-rational wisdom that allowed and encouraged greater input from pre-rational sources and a more instinctual awareness.

Finally, I allowed that everyday events were still enough in doubt to call for ongoing flexibility and openness. My expectations of others and situations naturally became more modest and forgiving. This demanded greater patience, a new tolerance of the world as given. I allowed myself a certain degree of resignation, admitting that I could not and should not try to manage every one of life’s variables. This was most difficult for me. As a modern American, I had been accustomed to making my own choices, executing my own decisions, and insuring that my path was unencumbered by any unplanned intrusions. Until now, I had refused to accept as unalterable any circumstance that I found to be unbearable.

With a now rehabilitated sense of my own facticity, my feral core, came the overwhelming feeling that certain givens in life cannot and should not be changed; that progress is not only not obligatory, but that it is not always necessary. Grasping this viscerally, I was liberated from the primary driver of the curriculum, the terror of historical consciousness and its inescapable demands for unrestrained progress. No longer did I feel compelled to live for some promised future, whether of this world or a transcendent world beyond.

My dread of the future vanished because I refused any longer to forecast or await its arrival. I no longer lived in anticipation, anxious of what the future may hold or what it might require of me; I no longer feared my own death or hoped for some eschatological atonement. I lived spontaneously, unapologetically, artlessly, in the present moment – drinking in life through each pore of my body. I lived… ecstatically!

Full Metal Jacket

2010-01-19T06:23:00Z

Most of us feel that “terrorism” has put some serious constraints upon our freedom here in the “homeland.” But what it may have done is inadvertently expose the pretense of freedom under which we have been laboring for these many years, perhaps centuries. Perhaps it has succeeded in “outing” the underlying motive beneath our politics, its maneuverings and behind-the-scenes deal making, whether with big business, lobbyists or private contractors. Maybe it has betrayed the prime motivation beneath all political systems – power, its control, and aggrandizement.

Well, I imagine we will soon begin to see things more clearly. The full force and impact of the Obama presidency is on its way to the light of day, straight through the corridors of darkness and the possible instantiation of a domestic “thought police.”

Of course, we can thank W and his troupe for starting us down this path, with passage of legislation allowing more flexible wire tapping rules and other “homeland security” measures intended to infringe upon our so-called civil liberties. But Obama is doing more than his fair share in escalating the endeavor.

After having given his nod to fines and jail time for citizen non-compliance with health-care reform legislation, Obama has tipped his hand to the next challenge, making sure all of us citizens believe what we are told by his administration, and do as we are asked by those in power.

I believe it was George Orwell who first raised the specter of the “thought police” in his novel, 1984. In Orwell’s horrifying proleptic vision, it was the job of this agency to uncover and punish thought-crimes using a host of covert psychological and surveillance techniques to find and eliminate members of society whose very thoughts were challenging to the controlling hegemony.

Well, Obama is about to make Orwell’s vision a reality for the homeland in 2010. His pick to head the department of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Cass Sunstein, Harvard Law Professor, proposed such an agency in a recent (2008) article published in the Journal of Political Philosophy.

Professor Sunstein wrote in “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” that such theories pose “real risks to the government’s antiterrorism policies,” stemming as they do from a “crippled epistemology.” What he means by this is that conspiracy theorists have limited or poor information. His cure is to infiltrate these ill-advised groups with independent undercover agents (reporting to and paid by the administration) to correct the knowledge base of these disparate, renegade groups. As the article states:

"Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."[20]

In this manner, he hopes to undermine the credibility and internal coherence of these heterodox groups. Sunstein has already been criticized as a potentate for implementing censorship, online and elsewhere.

Stand aside China, America is in lock step, or is that goose-step, with your sentiments about Google and censorship. The insipient fascism of our state belies the fascist tendencies of all states. Nietzsche was correct; there is no truth and no freedom where there is political society.

State is the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it tells lies…in all tongues of good and evil; …state, where the slow suicide of all is called ‘life.’ [Kaufmann, 160-1]

Politicians have one concern (no matter what they tell the public); and that is protection and expansion of power. Obama is no different than W. And the USA is no different than Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, China, Iran or North Korea.

We are moving slowly, but definitively into a police state. If you refuse to buy health insurance or if you even think the wrong thoughts, you are an enemy of the state. My friends, by writing this article, I am already labeled a heretic. I am already singled out as a potential problem to be solved or silenced.

The siren song is getting louder as we approach the Scylla and Charybdis of our own historic destiny; do not be fooled by its enticements. We are doomed as long as there is someone telling us what to believe and how to live our lives: someone who knows nothing of us personally – our suffering, our longing, our simple pleasures and our needs. This is especially so when all the maneuvering is behind the scenes, part of the scaffolding holding up the spectacle. The time to reflect is over. The time to make your voices heard is at hand. Or should we just retreat to the toilet and put a gun in our mouth?

Only where the state ends, there begins the human being who is not superfluous; there begins the song of necessity, the unique and inimitable tune. Where the state ends – look there, my brothers! [Kaufmann, 163]

Like the Seduction of Religion: Confessions of a Would-Be Anarchist

2009-10-01T05:26:00Z

Have you ever been lulled into compliance by the Siren’s sweet voice like Ulysses was, or seduced by the charms of a ravishing temptress? Perhaps you have felt the rapture of transcendence brought on by endlessly listening to 14^th century Gregorian chants.

Well, just like the ritual seductiveness of religion and the regimented requirement of work, online social networking lulls us into a placid acceptance of the necessity of civilization and its artifices – those carefully constructed distractions that keep us harmlessly in line like domesticated cattle, so that we accept the outcomes of its political machinations as necessary evils.

President Obama and his cronies are expanding a machine that is well oiled and, for generations, has been primed to release toxins that will continue to decimate the people of this nation. And healthcare ‘reform’ is only the latest example of the disease that is spreading. The healthcare ‘debate’ in the US Congress is just the most recent symptom of the illegitimacy of politics in America, revealing the true nature of this ‘kabuki’ theatre called democracy, our servitude to the State, and the meaninglessness of the institutions of government -- democratic or otherwise.

The healthcare tax is real my friends (either by forced premiums or by fines), and it will soon become the law of the land. We will no longer complain about a death tax in our country, for we will have a Life Tax as well. If you are alive in America you must pay, whether or not you work, eat, or drive. As long as you are breathing you must pay! You have no rights in this country, no freedoms... only duties and obligations!! And this illusion of our freedom is further exposed by the light of day.

“... It's bad enough that the [Max] Baucus bill says ‘the consequence for not maintaining [health] insurance would be an excise tax’ and the House bill requires a ‘tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage....’ Now Senator Olympia Snowe is reiterating the position that 13% of income is an acceptable maximum out-of-pocket cost for health premiums. That is financially devastating for families at 400% - 700% of the Federal Poverty Level (and many at higher levels). Since the President has ceded extraordinary power to her, this is likely to become law if she so chooses. It's a windfall to the insurers and a body blow to working Americans.” (From the Huffington Post)

And where is the political activism, the conscience in this country? Where is the outrage, the rebellion? Where are the people calling its government to task for its continued exercise of raw power? It is gone; the will to resist has been dissipated by the distractions and toys of a civilization that would crumble if people could only find their instinct to challenge it. And social media, the newest toy in the arsenal of civilization, is only the latest of distractions; and it distracts surreptitiously, while providing the illusion of engagement, of resistance, of revolt.

Facebook and Twitter create apathy, not action. They are just additional tools of civilization’s ruling elite, to keep us under the thumb of their political hegemony. We remain enslaved to these distractions, which keep us from taking responsibility for our lives – going where we need to go and doing what we need to do. It is like an elixir, a drug, used by the ruling hegemony to keep us enslaved to them and their 'system' forever!

In fact, we do not just accept such obedience; we applaud it, sanctify it, celebrate it and encourage it -- in our selves and our fellow 'citizens'. It is a sad time for us, as ‘we the people’, as humanity sinks deeper into a quagmire of its own making.

Whether it is peaceful assembly in Pittsburgh, H1N1 vaccination refusals in New York, healthcare debate in Washington, US action in Afghanistan, or even election protests in Iran… the battles are already lost. In brief, we have all abdicated our primal autonomy, together with the sanctity of kinship and clan, and the guidance of those who would know us and love us. And we have abdicated such for the feigned comfort of being directed, controlled, imprisoned, enslaved and tortured by the chains of our own acquiescence to political power.

Enjoy your freedom people, as the red carpet is rolled out.

A Zero Sum Game: the Hegemon Speaks

2009-09-21T14:57:00Z

We Americans are slowly, but unmistakably, coming to the unsettling realization that our hegemony keeps seeking its own expansion and empowerment, whether it is run by one party or the other. In the end it is all a matter of power, its accumulation and consolidation. And no matter what Obama said in Moscow earlier this summer about the acquisition of power no longer being a zero sum game, he was just smirking at Putin and us through his pretty teeth.

Refusing to acknowledge that he made a 'cooperative' accommodation on missile defense shields in Poland to demonstrate a 'sharing' of power with the Russian Federation, he and his surrogates offered some sophomoric comments about 'bad intelligence' on Iran and some vague sentiments about doing what is 'best for our national interests.' Not that I am for more defense spending in Eastern Europe (or anywhere else for that matter); of course not. But the least Obama could have done is publicly acknowledge that an important reason for his decision not to pursue Bush's missile defense strategy was because he understands that we live in a multipolar world, and that he (and the USA) cannot continue to act like an implacable imperialist hegemon. Yet, he refused to admit such.

And now Obama wants to prove to us domestically, once again, that power is not to be shared, but hoarded and abused... and that ours is not a government of, by and for the people. Rather, this is a government of the powerful against the peons. He is now asking Congress to renew the Bush-Cheney policy embedded in the "Patriot Act" that will continue the use of numerous questionable domestic surveillance techniques on American citizens, whether or not there is real justification for such 'snooping'.

This self-same hegemony is also going to demand that you and I (and all Americans) are vaccinated for the swine flu or risk being jailed - I mean 'quarantined' - for our refusal; all for the good of the country,of course. And further, if he gets his way under the proposed legislation, we will all be required by law to purchase health insurance or be fined for our decision not to. God is this a great country, or what? ...land of the free, home of the brave!! Is that psycho-talk, or what?

And now we hear further that the HEGEMON is telling us that the free flow of information on the web is bad for us and bad for democracy. Yet, he certainly did not find fault with it during his election cycle run-up. He seems to use whatever tactics and approaches that suit his drive to enlarge and consolidate power... Nietzsche called it the Will to Power!!

As we recently read in The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:

"Obama said that good journalism is 'critical to the health of our democracy,' but expressed concern toward growing trends in reporting --especially on political blogs, from which a ground swell of support for his campaign emerged during the presidential election... 'I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,' he said."

I guess it won't be long now before OBAMA does what the IranianTheocracy did last summer in the wake of fallout from their fake elections... OUTLAW the blogosphere and silence those who don't comply!!! No folks, it is not a zero-sum game anymore... it is now a negative sum game! Let the games begin!!!

A Stricken Empire: The Shadow of Our Hegemony

2009-08-03T03:10:00Z

The shadow of our hegemony, having been cast over the earth for the past two centuries, is growing thin and its pulse, weakening. With its days seemingly numbered, the American empire – this great experiment in freedom and prosperity – is apparently approaching its end. Early indications of this momentous event were foreshadowed in the hard fall of its financial markets and the idling of its economic engines. The road to infinite progress and universal prosperity seems to be nearing a dead end.

Obama’s selection signaled the rising of the curtain for a final act, as the charismatic empire builder struts onstage and promises a new beginning orchestrated around an ever-expanding Federal mandate, with America again “ready to lead the world.” Even the least perceptive among us could read the signs of America’s weariness and the ceaselessly looming archetypal battle between the forces of imperial expansion, those of contraction, and alternatively, those instigating for something whispered only softly – its disintegration.

The signs of such an occasion are the palpable, almost visceral reactions of individual States recoiling from the growing burden of this ever-expanding Federal hegemony. Perhaps they – the governors – also saw the insidiousness of this encroaching empire, relentlessly clawing its way forward, as clearly as others around the globe have seen us for more than a century.

The evidence is clear and unmistakable: a renewed defense of the 10th amendment – safeguarding States rights, a blatant refusal of Federal stimulus funds, and stirrings of secession from the Union by several State executives, coupled with the self-destructiveness of the Republican Party and the splintering strife haunting the party currently in power. And all of this in apparent response to the Obama administration’s inclination to curtail the 2nd amendment’s right to bear arms, federalize the health insurance industry, nationalize commercial enterprises, loan money to the States, tax energy consumption, as well as continue to expand our financial and military investments globally. Well, you get the picture! More big government! More imperial control! More power! As Obama so eloquently tipped his own hand just this month in Russia, "The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game…” a rather bald admission that the true mission of his (and perhaps all) political leadership is the management of power domestically and its expansion globally.

So what is happening here? Well, the socialists, libertarians and communists, etc., all smell blood in the water. Yet the larger body politic – the ‘proletariat or ‘petite bourgeoisie’ (depending upon your perspective) – is not so quick to jump on any of these tired old bandwagons. In fact, many of those among the masses are beginning to explore alternative solutions to questions about the direction and velocity of change necessary to avert the direst of outcomes. These are voices crying for a retreat or even a termination of the executioner… death to the State, (Federal or otherwise) and its alien authority.

These calls come from the would-be anarchists of today… not because they want chaos to reign; rather, because they feel the archaic pull of a more primal autonomy or self-sufficiency, some memory trace that was lost with the establishment of kingdoms, nations, empires, legislators, and other anonymous, impersonal governing bodies.

Yes, a revolution is coming. But it will not be a soft revolution or one of unification; rather, it will be one of disintegration. And while the secessionist movements may have gained serious momentum with certain non-Republican elements under the ‘second coming’ of George Bush, this revolution of disintegration will not be led by liberals or progressives, but rather by conservatives and independents – those who prefer limited Federal authority and limited government in general. And when the divisions begin, with a few States attempting secession from the Union, these new anarchists will begin to make their own moves, taking advantage of the vulnerability of both the Union and the States.

As heir-apparent of Western civilized progress, with ever-widening circles of social and economic complexity – a ‘beacon of hope and freedom’ to the rest of humanity, the American experience is now a fitting body-politic for a complete reversal of course – the rejection of hierarchy, control and the complexity of the civilized state. It appears more and more to be the unlikely locus for a recovery of the primal, the instinctual, the natural. Our America is a land ripe for cultural, economic and political disintegration in the interests of recovering a lost simplicity. All hinges upon the nature and dynamics of the revolutionary spirit, and to what extent it can overcome the inertia of the standing cultural hegemonic forces.

Will the coming end of the American empire abandon us to a retreat into a world populated by the likes of ‘Mad Max’ – a modern day Leviathan, or will it be the highly anticipated coming of the ‘Kingdom of God’ on earth? Neither I think! If revolutionary forces succeed in mobilizing this passion for disintegration, and if such passion can fuel the anarchist’s vision for community without authority, without a ruler or government, then perhaps we can dismantle this hegemony and establish a new form of kinship-based community with a natural respect for autonomy and appreciation of self-sufficiency. We can only hope!

Field of Dreams

2009-07-08T01:42:00Z

Not too long ago we Americans became quite certain that our lifestyle represented the pinnacle of civilized progress and the best in scientific and technological advancement. What we as a nation had achieved, so we thought, was a dream come true. And it is this ‘American Dream’ that we have held out to (or perhaps thrust upon) the rest of the world as the genuine meaning of the ‘good life’ and the proper goal or end of human existence.

After all, it was our economics, our politics, our science and technology that conceived of and articulated this ‘dream world’ to begin with… a world of personal automobiles in every garage, single family homes with private fenced yards, well designed and manicured suburbs, credit cards on demand, all the latest modern conveniences, electronic gadgets and games galore for children and adults alike.

So now that the world is facing multiple crises of global proportions – environmentally, ecologically, financially, economically, politically, psychologically and spiritually – where do we lay the blame? Where do we look to better understand the roots of such crises? While pursuit of the American Dream may be initially fingered as a proximate cause of our global crisis, we were not alone in our reliance upon certain fundamental assumptions and values that made it all possible. Practically all civilized regimes, from ancient Mesopotamia to modern China, can share in the blame since all share basic presuppositions about the nature and exercise of power, the necessity for nation building, organizing for warfare, directing cultural progress, structuring and regulating economic activity.

Barack Obama’s recent comments in the Russian capital during a two-day summit with President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin only serve confirm my above contention. Speaking to graduates of the New Economic School in Moscow, he states, "The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game… Progress must be shared." To clarify, the real issue is not whether the pursuit of power is a zero sum game; but simply, that it is a game invented by civilized nations for ensuring their (global) influence and measuring their progress. The real import of his remark is in acknowledging pursuit of power as a cornerstone of nation-building, and that the progress of a nation or regime is measured through the exercise, consolidation and enhancement of economic and political influence or control.

Now, expanding the hegemonic power of America and its dream required not just ingenuity, but lots of industrial energy and productivity, a good deal of land-clearing, substantial pollution, gross dissipation of natural resources, incredible amounts of human labor, trillions upon trillions of dollars in public and private financing, political ‘wrangling’ and a good deal of social engineering and international exploitation. In short, the American Dream not only set a new standard for what civilized people expected from life, but it also laid the foundation for exponential exploitation and abuse – of ourselves, our fellow humans, and our planet… a direct consequence of trying to manufacture, market and live the dream. And yet, while we were destroying our planet in this quest, have we really made our personal lives better, more enriched, more satisfying and fulfilling?

Well, of course, the skeptical reader might proclaim, “America has the highest standard of living in the world, and we are an example to the rest of humanity… we are ‘that shining city on a hill’ that Ronald Reagan spoke about. And we have achieved this status because America is the land of the free – the hope of the world!” Since our founding this has been our national calling card. And the beacon of lady liberty at the entrance to the New York harbor has been a symbol of that freedom and that dream around the world.

'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to be free…'

But what exactly have we come to understand by this word ‘freedom’? What does it mean to American’s today? And how has this quest for freedom realized itself in terms of America’s lifestyle and living the American Dream?

Maybe it is free time that we have in such abundance here in America! That must be it! Well, come to think of it, this doesn’t appear to be the case since we seem to work almost 24/7 – more than any other people on the face of the earth. We are slaves to the time clock, the electronic calendar, the blackberry and any other number of mobile devices marketed for our (read: society’s) benefit. With all of this focus on the business of work and schedules, there appears to be very little ‘free time’ to call our own. True, this compulsion – this apparent slavery to the clock – has made us the most productive and efficient people on earth. But this very “efficiency implies the reification of time… a preoccupation with past and future.” So where is there any opportunity for the fleeting present – for freedom from the clock – in which to enjoy the ‘good life’ and the fruits of our labors?

Along with squandered planetary resources, the fleeting reality of the present moment has all but vanished from American consciousness and Western experience in general. Many of us seem to live in a perpetual state of anticipation – waiting for our next promotion, a pink slip, or that vacation, a new car, getting the kids through college, retirement, or just waiting for our scientists and politicians (our specialists) to find solutions to our latest round of crises.

If one looks even cursorily at life in America today, and the direction of technological innovation supporting and directing our lifeways, it becomes clear that freedom for the American psyche is not freedom to live in the present; rather, with respect to time, we are and remain slaves of the future and the past. We seem, rather, to be more concerned with freedom of movement, of place and location. But, trains, planes and automobiles have given way to wireless networks, mobile devices and virtual communities.

Our search for freedom, beginning with our ancestors’ move across the Atlantic from the Old World to the New, has led us to erect a world where we no longer need to be tied to any one place, no longer dependent upon a particular location or home; we are free to roam without anchor, without encumbrance, but also without real kinship or community. And to keep in touch with other freely floating, almost disembodied, newly minted ‘friends’ and family we have virtual networks that give us the illusion of being connected and being stable. But this is a false sense of connection, and a false stability – part of the illusion spun by our engineers and marketers – but it seems to provide a feeling of freedom that many of us have now come to pursue and enjoy today.

But is it really freedom of mobility that we so cherish and believe we have achieved, or is it yet another, more compelling sense of ‘freedom’ that haunts us? Is it perhaps freedom from personal identity, an attempt to escape our own embodiment, an almost pathological yearning for anonymity in an increasingly anonymous world that globalized, urban environments and virtual networks provide us with, so that we can be anyone we want to be or no one at all? Is it perhaps a desire to escape our own flesh, our very selfhood? Is the anonymity of wireless, urban virtuality merely a way of escaping that objectified sense of self, which reified linear historical time has created for us? Interestingly enough, it appears that the anonymity of the Internet and its social networking has provided us with a way to ‘make believe’ we are who we want to be; to be more, better, or other than who or what we actually are; maybe that is the freedom we covet.

The truth of the matter, however, may be quite the opposite. The disembodied virtuality of a wireless and networked world may only provide one with the illusion of anonymity and the promise of an unidentifiable freedom to be. In fact, it may instead lead to a real loss of freedom, to greater public identifiability, and the possibility of being singled out in a wholly networked and connected global village. In this event, not only does it make us slaves to the new media, but it also increases our vulnerability to the state, the perennial political and social forces of manipulation, monitoring and control. Where then is our freedom, and what then of our dream?

The Fertile Crescent and the Dialectics of Freedom

2009-06-22T05:30:00Z

Well, there you have it! Once again we find ourselves back at the origins, where modern politics and religion got their start, back to the birthplace of Western civilization – home to ancient Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Assyria and Persia… or modern day Iran.

From the bosom of these ancient empires emerged an overpowering combination of ruling elites, theocratic and political, who laid the disparate foundations for civilized authority ever since. And, now we see these hegemons playing out their hands in full-color force, surreptitiously displayed before our eyes on virtual communities and social networking portals born in the West, and exported far and wide – portals that themselves have forcefully subverted the authoritarian control attempted by Iranian theocratic and political establishments.

Of course we are shocked, horrified and excited by such scenes of emergent revolutionary chaos; but grateful that this exercise in democratic rebellion is having a chance to let its voice be heard around the world. And, why are we all so engrossed? Of course, we are rooting for the human spirit to overcome the hegemonic power of its overlord. And we yearn for all people to experience freedom from the slavery represented by such repressive regimes. And certainly, we think of what it would mean if the threat of a nuclear Iran could be erased within a few weeks or months, if the protests are successful.

But, it may also be the case that we fear for our own covert enslavement to the selfsame systems of political and religious authority – systems we both love and hate, and continuously fight to moderate. And why are we upset in America that our fearless leader (Barack Obama) is treading so tenderly on the issue of interfering in the Iranian demonstrations? Do we want to be seen as more assertive, more controlling, more manipulative, like our distant cousins – the Iranian hegemons? Perhaps, we ourselves distrust our own assumptions of freedom. Maybe we even long (unconsciously) for more overt control in our own society – be it in the form of nationalized healthcare, financial regulation, government ownership of production, homeland security, etc.

And who are those arguing for greater US intervention in the Iranian situation, the same anointed among us who brought us the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, domestic wiretapping, those who fought for the initial invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq, who sang to us about ‘bombing Iran,’ who suggested banning books from the Anchorage public library, and even now champion the right of domestic militiamen to bear arms (even semi-automatic weapons) against their fellow countrymen and women here in the USA. There appears historically, existentially, to be some moral equivalency between religious extremism and fanatic politics in any statist context, whether in a Machiavelli, a Stalin, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ahmadinejad, Saddam Hussein, our own outspoken domestic defenders of torture, or vice presidential candidates who are religiously-driven to vilify their opposition even to the incitement of domestic terror. In all there seems to be a sense of moral righteousness, of moral indignation, motivating the fanatic to act on their beliefs.

And have we not already intervened forcefully enough in the current strife in Iran? After all, it is our ‘new media’ technologies, born in the USA, that have given voice and color to the Iranian people’s struggle. No matter what we think, our influence is felt around the globe, almost without pause these days. This is the benefit, the legacy, and the challenge of our own hegemonic role in world affairs. The question remains: who is controlling whom? And, how do we understand freedom?

I am not seeking to justify the Persian-Iranian regime, nor defend our own President’s cautiousness abroad or aggressiveness at home. I am just trying to sort through the complex relations that both repel us and attract us to the events now unfolding – globally and domestically – and our own awkward ambivalence about ‘involvement’. I am raising the question about the relationship between freedom and authority, and the proper exercise of power (political or religious) in a ‘civilized’ nation. Have we not seen the dragon’s head of our own religious conservatives this last election, raising the specter of a new era in theocratic rule right here in the land of the free?

Mythmaking In America: The Public-Option

2009-06-20T03:19:01Z

It is no surprise how the usual suspects keep regurgitating the same old myths about implementing a public option for healthcare coverage in America.

The first myth is, of course, that the public option will end up rationing and limiting our access to healthcare services. What are these mythmakers (business and politically conservative elements) kidding us about; our access to healthcare services under the current insurance and other managed-care options is already restricted. Unless you have the ‘Cadillac’ of insurance programs, and pay the substantial premiums that go along with it, your access to healthcare is already rationed, and closely managed.

Who among us can just walk into a specialist these days, without first getting permission from our primary care provider (PCP)? And then, when the PCP finally looks you over and tells you how everything seems fine… ‘just take some more cough syrup and go home’…but leave your $20 co-pay on the way out first.

And if you do get the chance to see the specialist, you are lucky if insurance covers the visit; and god-forbid if that specialist suggests further tests, higher-priced drugs or surgery. Now the care-manager assigned to your case from the insurance company begins to monitor your care, and moderate between you and your provider – reviewing your charts, history, and determining the limits of the company’s liability for covered services. Remember, these folks are motivated by maximizing profits and, thus, reducing operating costs. So you are at the mercy of the typical short-term thinking and corporate greed that goes into managing for quarterly or monthly performance.

Myth two. The Government option will drive the other commercial insurers out of business. Hardly! Big yawn! Those buyers who are well-paid and well-heeled will always opt for the more expensive plan. There may be fewer insurers in the market, with smaller ones falling by the wayside. And cost competition should bring some of the profitability margins down with the bigger ones. But, a government option will not lead to the annihilation of commercial options. Especially in the USA, there are just too many rich-folk who will always pay for the expensive alternative, whether or not the service is significantly better.

The final myth is that the delivery of healthcare services will deteriorate across the board, especially in the public-option. But, the logic does not follow. The public-option is financed by the taxpayer; and so the focus would seem to be on servicing those who are ‘capitalizing’ the venture (the taxpayers), and not lining the pockets of corporate managers or profit-hungry capitalist investors.

Twits in the Persian Gulf: The Real War Begins

2009-05-15T15:04:00Z

Yes my friends! It is true! The American-engineered, virtual, digitally globalizing hegemony just keeps moving forward, unabated. We want to make sure that, while most Iraqis still have no reliable phone service, electricity, sanitation or clean water, like it or not we will take them out of the “Saddam dark ages” and bring them into the bright light of a new American future to “help them be more themselves.”

What kind of deranged thinking is this? Well who else would have thought to send such a stellar delegation to Iraq for “home improvement” discussions than a 27-year-old ‘wunderkind’ from Stanford who is the youngest member of the State Department planning staff – a newbie who no doubt believes that the world can be made ‘whole’ again through the virulent, virtual community of twitter-heads and other new-media community-building-technologies?

Such a new-media, ‘second-coming’ mindset is even hailed by other presumed experts from the USA, who claim that this is an opportunity to create an open society, where Iraqis will become “different kinds of citizens,” blah, blah, blah… Oh this is classic cultural imperialism. We have discovered the Holy Grail, and now we will dispense its healing powers to the stupid, the deaf and the dumb of the world. Cultural imperialism knows no bounds when the self-assumption of manifest destiny infects every centimeter of one’s self image.

And with our own economy in tatters, our government thought it a worthwhile investment of tax dollars to send the wealthy executives of YouTube, Twitter, Google, Meetup.com, Howcast, AT&T, Blue State Digital and WordPress to Iraq in order to convince these people that they should be tweeting, googling, blogging, posting videos and ‘connecting with people’.

Let us be honest with one another. This is not at all about what the Iraqis need; it is about us Americans. Why else would we make the investment? I mean we are getting serious here. Pull out the army and send in the marketers. Goddamn, we are going to open up new markets for our products, and our values, if it kills them. After all, ‘we are the champions of the world’, my friends; and so it is our god-given right to insure that the rest of the globe adheres to our program, accepts our values and lives our life style. As one of our delegation, Twitter’s very own Jack Dorsey, articulated: “Our whole purpose here is to listen and try to understand the way they kind of are looking at the possibility of investing in Internet infrastructure.” Well, despite all the attempted moderation (see italics), I guess we know what the real mission was! Investment!!

We don’t care if there is a “cultural disconnect” with the Iraqis when we tell them ‘thou shalt twitter’ – because we seem to think that they have the wrong cultural baggage; and the sooner they adopt our cultural framework, the better for all involved. And yes, we even admitted, “this is what could make a major change in the Middle East.” That is what we really want, to make them all like us; and to create more markets for our products. Even one of the delegation from Meetup.com, said, “Wow, so this is just America doing some sort of cultural imperialism on this country.” To which the Meetup executive retorted, no “it is just to help them be more themselves.” Again, where does such thinking find its meaningful foundation? So, by changing the Middle East and making Iraqis into new kinds of citizens, we will be helping them to become more themselves. Again, what kind of self-delusional lunacy is this?

God knows we have been sent several messages that we should stop meddling in the affairs of the Middle East; yet, we fail to have ears to hear. Or else, hearing, we just refuse to believe, and so we plow ahead with the assurance of our own self-righteousness. God bless America?

(Materials for this article were quoted from “Microblogging in Baghdad,” by Gillian Reagan, New York Observer, May 4, 2009)

Pirates and Pigs: The Nightmare

2009-05-02T01:53:00Z

Who would have ‘thunk’ before he took office, that at the top of Obama’s to do list would be fighting pirates and pigs. Well that is the case. Not one hundred days into his fairytale presidency, Barack Obama is dealing with two issues that were not even on the radar screen last fall. But why are pirates and pigs so important, and how did the issues they present, holding sailors and the world’s populations hostage, come to occupy center stage in our efficiently run, and digitally globalized economy? The answers may be simpler and more frightening then we first suspect.

It has been a long time since Captain Hook once sailed the waters off the coast of Neverland. And, the Pirates of the Caribbean: why that was just a movie that kept repeating itself. But those young boys in speedboats taking sailors and ships hostage off the coast of Somalia…that is real. And it all began two decades ago as young Somali fishermen no longer had safe and plentiful waters in which to fish for their villages’ own survival. Their livelihood had been destroyed. How, you might ask? By the illegal and often clandestine encroachment by fishing fleets from more ‘developed’ nations like South Korea, Japan and Spain, among others. The pillaging of the Somali coastline began shortly after the dismantling of Somalia’s last government in the early 90’s. A 2006 United Nations report noted that,

"in the absence of the country's at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international ‘free for all,’ with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country's own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen."

And according to another U.N. report, approximately $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the Somali coastal waters each year. It appears that initially it was these young fishermen who turned to piracy in order to protect their own waters against larger, and more sophisticated trespassers, whose equipment, technology and firepower outpaced the ability of small local Somali fishermen. In addition, several European nations found that it was convenient and “more cost effective” to use these same waters as a toxic waste dump for years. And now the bills are becoming due. We more ‘developed’ nations of the world have created, it seems, the conditions leading to the piracy we are now desperately fighting to control. Our policies and practices, driven by motives of profit and economic expansion, have led to this current crisis.

And now to the pigs! Despite how much we might try, this too is not traceable back to the small farms and underdeveloped village areas of the world, like those in rural Mexico, Thailand or China. No, it is a direct result of large-scale domestication, live stocking and agribusiness farming that has created our current crisis. Again, it is the developed nations and their corporations that have created the dilemma. While in the earlier part of the 20th century most pig farming was conducted by small farmers in backyards and small family plots, agribusiness eventually bought up the smaller players (who could no longer afford to compete) and harvested these farms into large colonies or ‘pig cities’ of tens of thousands of pigs, with a commensurate increase in the potential for squalor, waste and disease.

Moreover, the IMF and World Bank further complicated matters by requiring smaller ‘developing’ countries to open their economies to outside corporations if they wanted IMF loans. So agribusiness moved in and, without the same oversight and regulation, closed down the smaller indigenous players, and created “cities of pigs that stretch around the world,” hotbeds of disease. And it is big American-based agribusinesses like Holly Farms, Tyson and Perdue, holding large pig (and poultry: remember the bird flu) farms that are at the center of the latest flu pandemic scare.

Now, what is the common denominator among these pigs and pirates? And why am I forced to view these twin challenges together, as the result of a common cause? Could it have to do with the tendency of modern industrial society towards economic and political expansionism, operating with a competitive, zero sum-game rationale? Could it have to do with the fact that such ‘civilized’ games necessarily create winners and losers? Perhaps there is just something about the values underlying our civilized societies, with our commitment to hierarchy, divisiveness, and control, that mechanically negates those who are different, the strangers, and systemically creates victors and victims, masters and slaves. When will the developed world of ‘civilized’ nations realize that they have been living in a dream, imagining their own omnipotence, and that now the dream is ending and we must admit finally that we have given birth to a nightmare? But, perhaps the nightmare is only just begun!

The Closing of the American Mind: Redux

2009-04-27T19:28:00Z

With America leading the charge, Western civilization has engineered a hegemony that has rapidly overtaken the globe, politically, economically, and culturally. This has unleashed a domination of values that, unlike hegemonies of the past, is lightning fast, wide ranging, and spreading insidiously, enabled by those very technologies it has created and which it seeks to market to the world. All the while America has touted its singularity and its greatness, its manifest destiny, offering refuge – nay salvation – to all who would learn how to partake of its many benefits, comforts and ideologies. But, is there trouble in paradise?

Let’s begin with American-style democracy. Having been forcibly ‘peddled’ around the globe, pushed into the most unlikeliest of places, including the Middle East, Eastern Europe and elsewhere, such democratization has provided, ironically, yet greater credence to groups we consider well, how should I say this, non-democratic’ – elements like Hamas and Hezbollah; and we have supported questionable leaders who are anything but a ‘paragon of democracy’, leaders like Saakashvilli in Georgia and Yushchenko in Ukraine. Oh, but how democracy is a wonderful tool for propagandists!

Capitalism as well has taken wing and exported itself to the farthest reaches of the globe, creating an economic and financial hegemony unparalleled in history, with a preponderance of American cultural artifacts popping up in the oddest of places to prove it. Our cultural seeds have been cast wide upon the waters for all of posterity. It is amazing, however, how the boldest efforts of democratic capitalism have run up against its own worst instincts. It is as if the underbelly of the beast has been laid bare, and it does not look all that attractive from this new vantage point.

Another interesting wrinkle in our current predicament: as specialization in every profession increases at exponential rates with the advance of scientific and technological knowledge, we are finding in the healthcare realm alone that we have run into a shortage of primary care physicians here in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’. Why this dilemma? Because in the greatest, richest and most advanced (read: specialized) country in the world, doctors want to be specialists as well, in order to benefit from the additional prestige and money that goes along with that specialization. Otherwise they just appear to be another part of the expanding, or is it shrinking, proletariat.

And as the great moral fiber of our country seems now to be proliferating cases of schoolyard bullying, mass murder and extreme cases of domestic and random homicide on our streets, we ask why. Yet we never want to acknowledge that our own society, our culture and our politics have advanced bullying and aggressiveness as the keys to success in both business and international affairs. And, lately we have even resorted to the worst kind of bullying behavior, including torture and the murder of innocents (Iraq) at every turn… just look at our performance on the world stage over the past several decades.

Finally, Lou Dobbs and other minor pundits, engaged in their own bullying techniques, began whining on TV four years ago about how most middle class Americans (the ‘proles’) were being cut out of the American Dream, loudly demanding that home ownership and access to other middle class perks be made more easily available to the common citizen. Now we find that this whining and bullying reached the financial markets and federal regulators and has helped precipitate a housing bubble and crash the likes of which has never been seen before, and a financial crisis of global proportions as Americans one-and-all reached out for the golden rings passed out by lenders who were only too pleased to give in to the bullying and look the other way as they collected their ill-gotten revenues, spinning them out into credit default swaps. Indeed, the bullying began with the pundits and talk show hosts, and trickled down to the legislators, regulators, mortgage brokers and banks, one bullying the next until the poor populace was well housed and fed. Now the chickens have come home to roost; and we are looking for the bullies to punish…but they are US.

Perhaps Obama can change our ways, lower our expectations about lifestyle, transform our self-perception and our perception of the natural world, reduce our dependency on oil, provide universal healthcare to all Americans… well these are some interesting daydreams. But, just maybe it is not the problem of American exceptionalism per se.

Perhaps American exceptionalism itself is rooted in a much broader challenge, rooted somewhere at the beginnings of Western civilization, along the alluvial banks of the Fertile Crescent, at the intersection of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in, of all places, Iraq. I say it again, have the chickens come home to roost? Would not that be poetic justice! Is our hegemony, tracing its own manifest destiny back, just the culmination of an historical process that began millennia ago, a process that perhaps cannot be undone by simple political maneuvering or other commercial trickery… like getting the people to just go out and spend more money or vote.

The Future of Humankind

2009-04-15T02:12:00Z

Many people around the developed world speak today about “envisioning a real, sustainable, post-industrial future.” Like them, I too prefer conditions of greater reciprocity among peoples and with the earth. A ‘post-industrial’ economic platform certainly sounds tempting, but it seems somewhat difficult to imagine given the history of human consciousness and how the transformation of consciousness has significantly impacted our globe – socially, politically, economically and ecologically.

Certainly, it is not impossible to visualize a world with electric cars, windfarms, and less-destructive, more earth-friendly agricultural methods. It may even be possible to dream of a world with little, if any, nuclear threats and fewer wars. However, even these alterations in behavior will require a deeper transformation of human self-understanding and of our place in the world.

As a species, we have made a series of perhaps unalterable choices beginning approximately 10,000 years ago with the birth of civilization, the effects of which have positioned us as we now find ourselves in the world; and these choices have molded our expectations and our requirements about what life should be like – in short, the purpose or ends towards which we feel human life and culture should be directed.

The overarching vision, with its underlying assumptions and expectations, has peaked and crystalized itself in the now-taken-for-granted concept of ‘American exceptionalism’, our self-proclaimed political, economic, and moral superiority, and the apparent hegemony of our cultural values. It is these expectations and values that have been spread across the globe like wildfire, as we have pursued a policy of global dominance and cultural transformation or occupation. Some groups, nation-states and countries find these values desireable, others abhorent. Some try to mold themselves to the vision ennunciated by such expectations, while others arm themselves to the teeth to fight-off its insidious occupiers.

Having planted our flag at the foreftront of western civilization and declared our own ‘manifest destiny,’ we Americans continue to believe that we have set the right example for mankind to follow, and that we are justified leading the rest of the human race to fulfill its proper role in our civilization. We set ourselves up long ago as protectors of moral virtue, cultural innovation, political power, economic progress, and human rights. And much of the western world has followed our lead in this myopic belief, unchallenged until very recently.

Do not misunderstand me, we have indeed achieved a great deal, especially in terms of medical treatment, communication and other advanced technologies. But, can our unflinching drive for innovation and progress, for complete dominion over the uncertainities of our natural environment and animal natures – a drive that began ages ago with specialization, spurred on by investment capital and individual risk taking, motivated by the acquisition of private property and wealth – can this rocketship of science and technology, fueled by the resources of capitalistic expansion, be brought to a stop; can it be slowed down, can we alter or reverse its trajectory?

I believe the answer to this question is not simply an economic nor even a political one; and this is because the question that it begs is deeply philosophical. Can human consciousness and human self-understanding be changed significantly enough to alter the social, political and economic trajectory of modern society? That is the more fundamental question. But, if we seek an affirmative answer to this question; then further questions must be asked of modern man, if the future is to be transformed in the manner we hope.

Can we reintegrate the nuclear and the extended family within the framework of a worldview that is overtly driven by radical individualism? Can we rebuild social networks based upon consanguinity, personal relations and mutual respect, rather than upon the authoritarian forces of an anonymous political power elite, whether elected or otherwise?

Can we learn to live without the expectation of highspeed worldwide travel on demand, and instead be more content to live a peaceful life in proximity to where we were born, with those we know and love close to us?

Can we restructure our spatial expectations about towns, villages and communities so that we do not need individual transportation vehicles (cars) just to live normal everyday lives? Can we ever become comfortable again with the idea of walking places, or using reliable public transportation when necessary?

Can we adjust our expectations about money, wealth and comfort, and be content to live more simply, more modestly on the earth? Can we adjust how we understand ‘work’, and learn to accept less productivity, perhaps zero economic growth, and begin to enjoy life more on a daily and hourly basis? And, can those countries that are finally beginning to taste the apple of American capitalism that has been shoved down their throats be convinced that it was all a mistake, that tasting this will really be the root of their destruction?

Can we learn to sing and dance, and to feel our bodies again, without shame or embarrassment? Can we stop ‘tweeting’ for virtual friends, while demanding ever new gadgets and technologies of ourselves and our technical masters, and just be content with fewer ‘prosthetic’ parts, and try not to be superheroes?

Can we be honest with ourselves and with one another, that we have in fact been arrogant and devisive, and not just American’s with their ‘exceptionalism’, but all who partake in the special traditions of our civilizations, past and present, that have culminated in this unique story that we call human history?

Can we step back enough to reclaim a more natural place within the animal kingdom, and recover from our early civilized need to dominate nature, and the substantial hangover that really came in to its own with Francis Bacon and the scientific method, and our transition into the modern era of infinite progress?

These are some of the hard questions that must be asked. The answers are still uncertain, as we seek to simplify our own lives and our households, to better reflect the realities we find immanent and already beginning to imping upon us.

A Virtual Vacuum: Twittering in Silence

2009-04-11T14:19:00Z

Pathos has become a crippling disease of the soul of western civilization. Particularly in America, our obsessive pursuit of individual excellence – the ‘lone ranger’ embarking on the rigid and strenuous path of advancement – has led to the slow but certain destruction of real community and family, as the final bell tolls for their imminent demise. And what are the symptoms of this disease?

Having fought so hard to realize our nonspecific quest for individual freedom at any cost, we have inadvertently created a ‘virtual’ world enabling us to remain unfettered and unscathed by the fleshiness of real personal contact and relations. The real world gone, self-directed and self-enclosed, we safeguard our lunacy, our anonymity, our unspoken weaknesses and our unsightly blemishes. Our longing has created its perfect match; a pathetic, substitute world in which we call unseen strangers ‘friends’ and collect electronic ‘followers’ to ‘tweet’ while we engage in highly cultivated and dissembling displays of ‘honesty’ and self-disclosure.

And all of this activity is generated with the sole purpose (unbeknownst to us) of giving our lives a sense of importance, of sharing, of community, of the relationality that is genuinely missing from our real world experience. We have achieved the ultimate in self-possessed independence, so much so that we now yearn unconsciously for the ‘connection’ that we worked so diligently to “free” ourselves of in the first instance.

We share our daily goings-on, our clumsy missteps and our secret intimacies with those who would be watching us – our friends and followers. We are all voyeurs and exhibitionists seeking the thrill of connectivity without the weighty consequences of real life community.

We are pathetic in our desperate outreach, our selfish grasping for attention, for recognition, for acceptance (you have more friends/followers than me!). And yet, at the same time these ‘tweets’ (or more appropriately - twerps) have the nerve, the gall, to speak about the lack of human communication in life. Imagine, they cannot communicate with others in their world, so they invent a world of co-communicators to complain about the lack of communication.

And all of this is then followed by various dispensations of folk wisdom and other idiocies – proverbs and anecdotes about correct behavior, how to be happy and successful, to how communicate, how to love, and how to get more followers; as well as loftier topics like the good, the right, the true and, of course, the Tao. They welcome one another with good morning wishes and good nights.

Then again, perhaps this betrays a deeper pathos, our discomfort with the natural silence that surrounds us. And so, rather than abide such silence, we prefer to fill it up with any noise just to hide our distress. And while it may provide us with an illusion of meaningful discourse, and the vague comfort of fitting-in, it really does nothing of the kind. In fact, such ‘communication’ becomes a malicious sham – to keep us from focusing on our own disaffection and loneliness – so that we fail to appreciate the pleasure of silence in recovering ourselves from this culturally-imposed estrangement, and hearkening again to that authentic, faintly, wild voice within.

Finally, all of these friends and followers of ours have very clever names or descriptions of themselves: ‘philosopher on the loose,’ ‘geniusartistic,’ ‘biomodern magician,’ ‘intuitioneer,’ ‘discerner of archetypes,’ ‘racialicious,’ ‘americansatori,’ ‘cardiotonic psychedelia.’ Oh! You who believe you are free and free-associating as you please. You are just following the protocols of those manufacturers of post-modern experience who pull the strings and make you dance. All I have to say is good night 'tweets' – sleep tight.