Bullshit Blitz

What is Bullshit Blitz?

It is an exploration into existence.  It seeks to find and eradicate everything which is not 100% true, thus false, in the Absolute Sense.  It is the journey of one person as he encounters various life experiences, books, films, etc. which shed light upon perception, existence, liberation, enlightenment, etc.

Inspiration, Uncertainty and Joy

Or should I say infinite inspiration, gross uncertainty and subtle joy.  These terms seem to define my experience these days.  I receive what I think to be brilliant ideas - a museum to visualize the great aphorisms of philosophy and an academy built up around it populated with the general public and those seeking truth; a comprehensive and immersive learning and discovery engine based upon the work of a great living philosopher.  These ideas are coupled with the urge to take a heavy courseload in the humanities - esp theology, creative writing, poetry, anthropology, psychology, law.  Further I am moved to pursue a doctorate in philosophy, satori in India, wine and women in Argentina (I'll regret having written this especially this last part), a bookstore on the Oregon coast, a barkeep and author in a Mexican fishing village.  I must admit Hemmingway has inspired a good deal of the latter.  I am however mostly inclined to continue with my life as is and become something of a businessman, husband and father.

The gross uncertainty should not require explanation.

However the subtle joy does.  2 minutes of mystic expanse as I cross the Golden Gate each day.  The morning cup of coffee and a great peice of mystical fiction (Murakami, Robbins, etc.).  My home, wife, my surrounding mountains and sea.  Pure blankness and infinite energy of the void.

My Imaginary Kindle

I have some thoughts about what I would love to do with the Kindle.  This is not only my personal wishlist, but an enormous opportunity for Amazon.

Problem: I have diverse and unique interests largely unshared by my immediate social circle.  Specifically, I like to contemplate and discuss God, reality, existence, etc. and pretty much only that (I'd put all other topics a distant second).  The majority of my peer group enjoys other topics (and may indeed have the same problem; perhaps the content of our conversations is merely the lowest common denominator? Gossip, politics, weather, relationships, career?).  I view books as a conversation between the author, previous authors/influences, the current reader, other authors, future authors, etc.  I, like other readers and authors like to check sources/footnotes, do my own research (usually a quick wikipedia search) on unfamiliar terms and people.  I also like to make notes, but they currently sit in the books themselves.

The potential: Turning books into a conversation - allowing commenting, sharing, aggregation of intellectual capital of the readership and authorship, research, local options, etc.  I would pay for this, but would prefer to have all of this feed into the Amazon rec engine so my next book is spot on.

With this backstory, here are all things I want to do.  Now get to work!

1. Import my FB and LI networks.
2. Have them tagged by their interests and be able to sort so I can share book recs, comments, analysis, relevant links.
3. Have every action within this ecosystem count.  Points for reading, commenting, sharing, points for being rated highly, etc.  These points are associated with my tags, the tags of the book, tags of the author, etc. so the a true SME metric can be calculated.
4. Add comments/links inline as a read.  
5. Choose whether I want the activity public or private or to share with a group of SME's, friends, etc.
6. Be able to say agree/disagree in line.
7. Have summary reports available of my own activity.
8. Be able to find SME's and their books, comments, influences, activity, etc.
9. Own this activity and be able to publish to my FB profile, blog, etc.
10. Have a searchable taxonomy ala the Britannica Great Books Synopticon and be able to find all the major advances in the exploration/development of a particular theme/idea, e.g. search "Love" and find all importance references from Dante to Toni Morrison.
11. Be able to just read these advances without buying a full book, e.g. iTunes of Netflix. I'm interested in an all-you can eat model.
12. Full profile of interests, SME's, education, bio, etc. of other readers and authors.
13. Enable the 2 most advance levels of reading - analytical and synoptical.

Amazon - please let me know when the above is ready.  Phase two: Please read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler.  Please read the "Great Conversation" by Adler as well. Ruminate on them and how these ideas can be turned into better products.

Extraction Economy -> Civil Rights -> Gender Equality?

Can women's liberation and empowerment, as currently conceived, exist without an extraction economy?  Women's liberation is closely tied to economic power.  Economic power in this instance represents two phenomena:

1. The consolidation of wealth, as a result of our current extraction/globalized economic schema, whereby rich nations extract carbon (wood and oil mostly) and mineral resources from all countries and concentrate the consumption of said resources in the rich countries.  This surplus of wealth, matter and energy enables rich countries to cultivate and manifest human ideals, such as equality, liberty, compassion, etc. and build churches, universities, public buildings and pass laws to enable equal rights to economic opportunities.  Without said extraction, there is no mental and economic bandwidth to allow this cultivation.  Generally speaking, wealth yields the expansion of culture and tolerance (e.g. UK, Scandanavia, Japan, pre-WWI Germany, Roman Empire, British Empire, U.S. metro areas) and economic contraction yields intolerance, genocide and exploitation (e.g. Third Reich, KKK, Darfur/Taliban/Islamic Fundamentalism throughout the Arab world, Rwanda). Virtually all industries in the U.S., U.K., Japan and Scandanavia (CPGs, construction, electronics, defense, telecommunication, IT, energy, etc.) require massive amounts of matter difficult to find in these countries. http://www.storyofstuff.com/
2. In wealthy nations, women are able to earn substantial amounts of money themselves, absolve themselves of the economic/survival need to couple with men, due to both the schools that educate them and the laws that protect women's legal and economic status.  The choice to marry often though not necessarily includes relinquishing or reducing one's commitment to career.

As such, the empowerment and independence of women is correlated with high concentrations of wealth, the extraction of unreplenishable resources from the earth and the unsustainable transport, manufacture, distribution, consumption and disposal of said resources.

The question is - can women's empowerment exist under the context of a local economy whereby the global transfer of goods and services does not occur?  If we were able to switch to a renewable energy economy and agree as a planet to avoid disrupting the natural carbon and nitrogen cycle (nitrogen fixing, fossil fuel extraction and clear cutting are prime examples of this), would we be able to remain as detached from the land and our own food supply as we are now?  Would we have the economic and cultural resources that permit women to economically contribute beyond homemaking and subsistence farming? Could women remain economically independent of men under such a schema?  Would a drastically shrunken global economy degrade women's empowerment, economic capacity/contribution and status?  Would women have reason to fear for their physical safety and therefor need men more than they do now?

Lastly, is sustainability and environmentalism economically antithetical to gender equality?

Cosmos & Psyche

I recently skimmed Cosmos and Psyche, and read the first hundred pages as well as the last few chapters and one in the middle on Moby Dick.  Very interesting book, and does achieve its purpose of convincing the reader to take another look at astrology.  That is not to say, we should believe in astrology, but we should study our environs for patterns.  This has been done since the beginning of man and looking to the skies for patterns and correlations with earthly and human phenomena is only one type of data retrieval for the discernment of patterns.

Tarnas's primary point is that synchronicity exists.  Jung's original coining of the term was result of merely slowing down long enough and examining every thought, situation and observable phenomena to see a pattern.  I predict that one day synchronicity, synonymous with the Chineses understanding of the Tao, Greek conception of cosmic sympathy, Hermetic doctrine of macro/microcosm, midieval concept of unus mundus, will be as commonly accepted and discussed as gravity in the collective culture.  Many choose to go fast and ignore pattern, merely dismissing all unexplainable pattern as coincidence.  Whereas coincidence is merely what is left over after a bad theory.  As such all "coincidence" should be studied and folded into one's worldview.

Synchronicity requires data, and given that all the data mankind has acculumated was observed and derived from earth, representing less than 1/1000th of the cosmos, ought to ignite the curiosity of any sentient being.  More data can yeild new patterns and new conclusions.  I'm not necessarily saying that the traditional field of astrology ought to be accepted wholly, just that it ought to be practiced in its most literal sense (study the stars) and remain open to the possibility of cosmic synchronicity.

Tarnas begins by noting that astrology is like any other field or theory in that in goes in and out of favor over time.  We're currently in a very objectivist, science-driven, phase of humanity and it is only reasonable that it has fallen out of favor.  But like Aristarchus' idea of a sun-centered cosmos, it went out of favor, and experienced a massive resurgence after Copernicus was able to utilize the modern observation techniques and geometry to prove that the earth was not the center of the universe. Even after proving it, it would be hundreds of year before this idea was accepted. 

Also, important to note is that after Copernicus, a worldview that does not consider the cosmos must be totally errant.  ne must resolve the issue that we are apparently the only life form amidst a very cold (literally and perhaps figuratively), violent and centerless universe. 

I think Tarnas' primary contribution is in exposing the fallacy of the prevailing objective worldview, as objects absolutely cannot be percieved without the subjective framework of the observer.  That is, we have a massive disconnect occurring between our objective understanding of physics and our subjective understanding of psychology.  The result of which is that we project patterns and do not earnestly observe them.  Failure to understand this removes the mystery from the cosmos, as each scientific advance only furthers the utter lack of meaning in the vast void of space.  Keeping in mind the subjectivity of observation allows us to ask questions regarding why we see a particular pattern.  Failure to do so yields a robotic and incomplete understanding of reality.

This "objective" worldview that seek to de-anthropomorphize the cosmos is itself of anthropomorphism (conforming space to just another human idea of objectivism).  It is dangerous to employ massive amounts of data, that we now have thanks to the Hubble and others, utilizing a limited, self-isolating set of assumptions (i.e. that the objective physics/subjective psychology doesn't need to be resolved).

In this regard, Tarnas agrees with Jung in stating that depth psychology is the direct successor to philosophy (and science, I believe), in that it seeks to extend the rational mastery of the cosmos to the inner world of psychology.  It extends the range of inquiry dramatically, if not infinitely.

Lastly, Tarnas did a great job of saying that astrology is not prescriptive, but descriptive.  There are patterns in the sky that correlate with personal and cultural events.  Many attempt to use these patterns to predict, but ultimately astrology fails at this in a specific sense, but succeeds in a more general achetypal sense.

There is Nothing Wrong

Never was. All ideas to the contrary ignore basic existential questions, which are currently unresolved.  Our best efforts as a species have led to an overpopulated, uneducated, all-consuming phenomenon known as humanity. That anyone could contend that human values have any merit whatever exhibits a deficiency in integrity or comprehension.  To quote a -shirt, "Don't ask me for shit", for ther is no merit in any argument.

A Letter to My Unborn Child

You sit there in my testes prepping for the big show.  Like boxer getting his knuckles wrapped or a rock star lining a fatty before amazing a packed arena, you are fully prepped ready to go, just waiting for your cue to unleash hell.  I want to let you know my intention for the next 2 decades.  While your mother and I will come together and parent you, each of us is unique and comes from a difference set of experiences and understanding of reality.  Regarding human life, there are a number of ends humans choose to align their actions, thoughts and words with.  There is no definitive manual, and as such all these ends are arbitrary.  The ends I seek for myself are the same I seek for you.  That is I'm doing my best to understand the human experience in abstract, such that I can embody this understanding and help you achieve the same ends.  I do not want you to become me, however I have a 3-decade head start on you, and the way I currently see it is as follows:

Fulfillment and autonomy represent the fullest expression of human life.  Now this personal understanding will change overtime, but this is the initial stake in the ground.  In order for you to achieve fulfillment and autonomy numerous things needs to happen.  You'll need a variety of life experiences.  You'll need to test yourself in every activity, experiencing a broad spectrum of pleasure and pain.  You'll need a well-cultivated intellect and faculty of reason.  We'll force you to read and hone your powers of reason through algebra and Socratic dialogue.  You'll need to experience timeless, selfless states of flow/fulfillment and to know its opposite - the desire/aversion trap of gratification and addiction (chemical, emotional, etc.).

While I will do my best to nurture you, there will be many times I will function more like a hot poker, than fleece blanket.  You will go through periods of affinity and disgust with regard to the role I play in your life.  We will play, read, travel, eat, goof off, do chores and walk together.  There will be structure, rewards and punishments and eventually responsibility, autonomy and if you're satisfied with you efforts, fulfillment.  I'm not your friend, but your steward.  You are my ward.  If you choose to evolve this relationship into a friendship in your third decade, that is your choice and I would be elated.

Dancing Bear

The Dancing Bear is a technique employed by a reasonable person when dealing with an unreasonable person (an unreasonable person is one who has identified with a negative emotion and is acting accordingly).  As Sydney Smith said, "Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out.”  As such, one only has three choices when dealing with an unreasonable person - violence, escape and appeasement.  Violence and escape are self-explanatory and tend to produce undesirable consequences.  Thusfar, the only appeasment technique I've found that has worked is the Dancing Bear.

I learned about the Dancing Bear from a friend at my wedding, when I asked him for advice.  A circus bear stands erect on his hind legs amusing the audience, giving them what they want, dancing around like a moron, with full knowledge that he could destroy them or rid himself of this situation at any moment.  He does so because that is what the audience wants. It is because he loves the audience that he doesn't maul them and wear their skin as a cape.

Many will express or experience the Dancing Bear as "Yes, dear." or "I was wrong, dear." In essence the Dancing Bear is akin to shining glowsticks in front of an x'd out raver, or buying a toy for a whining toddler. If this sounds patronizing, it is.

Mind Rape

Mind Rape
Def. To assault the experience of one's life via exploitative audio and visual efforts upon the consciousness, whereby party A does so without the consent or against the will of party B.

There are two widespread epidemics of mind rape coursing throughout humanity.  The first is advertising, which slithers past the critical reasoning capacity of the neocortex with about a 60-80% success rate.  That is, 60-80% of images, brands, messages, etc. are not first categorized as advertising and further categorizes as useful or useless.  "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" provides plenty of research in this regard, suggesting that over the 30 frames per second on TV, only about 50% are registered by the neo-cortex, the remaining enter the mind unmolested and influence our norms, values, etc. which eventually influence purchase decisions.

The second one is more interpersonal, whereby person B has made the case clear that he/she is not interested in topic X, and person A continues to talk about topic X.  I've seen this most often in heterosexual relationships whereby the female, not only exceeds the daily word count of the male by 5x, but feels it important to mind rape the male with topics the male finds no interest in, e.g. gossip, fashion, emotions/venting, thinking out loud, worrying about the future, etc.  Yet even knowing the conversational proclivities and intellectual interests of the male, the female continues to rape his brain on a daily basis, prioritizing her need to talk, process emotion, feel connected to the male, etc.  Whereas, if left unmolested the male could be free to think about things that interested him, such as sports, machines, books, boobs, etc.  Alas, he finds himself engaged in matters of absolutely no importance to him, as a unfavorable deal term, offset by other more favorable ones - sex, children, food, domestic services, companionship, etc.

Open Letter Amazon re: Kindle

You might guess that I'm anti-kindle curmudgeon luddite, given the nature of my rants, and seek to keep books alive.  I am, but I also see something way cooler. 

Dear Amazon,

Make books a conversation.  Doing so turns the world's readers into a meritocratic global classroom/salon, and gives books a new life, allowing them to be the nexus of where the semantic and social web meet.  Here's how:

Amazon needs to buy LivingSocial, GoodReads or something of the ilk as well as integrate with FB connect - at minimum do a deep integration with the social bookshelves, whereby I can add notes and links as I read, see the notes of others reading the same book at the same time, perhaps even the same page for some popular books, chat with them via meebo, sort people by expertise, closeness to me geographically (loopt integration), by friends, etc., rate comments, allow for the aggregation of intellectual capital (which feeds expertise).

This is no simple task, but possesses such a large opportunity that it should be considered.  I'm happy to flush out the vision more.

Yours,
Bullshitblitz.com

Awakening Within vs. From

I feel like a coward sometimes, like I'm doing everything wrong.  In the context of awakening, I feel like I've made some great progress awakening WITHIN the human experience.  Though I have emotions and an socially constructed ego, I don't feel a particular attachment to them.  I don't have much emotional charge around my parents, and generally can appreciate them and everyone else for who they are - quirks, challenges and all.  When emotions arise, I take space watch them, root out their sources, which is always some ignorance/unreasonable expectation, register them and let them pass.  If I have any attachments, they are to ideals, specifically reason, truth, efficiency, beauty, unity, etc. and these attachments manifest as psychological aversions towards their opposites.  Drives me batshit to see someone shun reason, or lie, or take the long way, or be so helplessly caught up in their own ignorance and the human drama so as not to see the beauty and unity of each moment of existence.  Paradoxically, that it drives me batshit, is such an example.

However, when I read folks like Plotinus, Nisargadatta and Augustine, I feel like I have made such little progress with respect to awakening FROM the human experience.  Though I've had more than my share of peak states of no-self mystical union, I'm not even close.  I've worked with a proven teacher who has brought through a handful of folks to the otherside, but not me.  I think we both failed to realize how unprepared I was for it.  I'm not sure how prepared I am now, only that it would be really cool.  I haven't suffered from the human drama to the extent that I see my only option as a way out/up.  However, I feel that I for whatever reason will feel the desire at some point.  Maybe I do already and am just making excuses to stay in the dream