Some Food For Thought

Diana Christensen: ...Well, in a nutshell, it said: "The American people are turning sullen. They've been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam, Watergate, the inflation, the depression; they've turned off, shot up, and they've fucked themselves limp, and nothing helps." So, this concept analysis report concludes, "The American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them."


Funny thing is this seems to be very true right now. I think this may have a lot to do with the current Republican strategy, the Tea Party has become the white articulation of rage. However misguided they may be this certainly seems to be their angry voice. Who is your voice? How is your anger, rage, and unhappiness articulated? Are we just content to sit back and complain to each other in private? Are we allowing years of complacency continue just because Barrack Obama is our President? Think about it. If you are unhappy what will you do about it? I hope you will at least make yourselves heard.




Howard Beale: [arms outstretched to the heavens] Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems, and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition, and woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble!

Howard Beale: [calmly strolling toward the audience] So. A rich little man with white hair died. What has that got to do with the price of rice, right? And *why* is that woe to us? Because you people, and sixty-two million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers... This tube is the most awesome God-damned force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls in to the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA - the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new Chairman of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome God-damned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?

Howard Beale: [ascending the stage] So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth... Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth.

Share this quote

Howard Beale: [laughing to himself] But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he's going to win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in *illusions*, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds... We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even *think* like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! *WE* are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF...


Programming is powerful. Ideas are more powerful. Ideas can never die, so think. All of us need to think for ourselves. Try turning off the TV and do something. I'm not talking riot, or fight, or log on Facebook, or tweet about how you turned your TV and computer off. Just go outside and really take in reality. Or sit at home and do something for yourself. Cook a meal, talk face to face to a person, meditate, it doesn't really matter just live. Really take some time to live.



Arthur Jensen: [bellowing] You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE!

Arthur Jensen: [calmly] Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those *are* the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Howard Beale: Why me?

Arthur Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday. Howard Beale: I have seen the face of God.

Arthur Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.


This quote really seems to accurately describe the world today don't you think? We are constantly reminded about our differences. Different races, religions, countries, sexualities, beliefs, education. We are made to believe these differences are reason to fight, reasons to die, but as Arthur suggests. There are no nations anymore. Everyone is used and controlled by money, power is attained through money. This world we live in is controlled by those with the most money and those outside of the top 2% are fooled to believe that we fight for anything else so they can sit back and continue to get more money from our work, blood, sweat, tears, and deaths. Think about it. It doesn't matter if you deny the inevitable control that is derived from that wealth because it still influences our lives. It influences where we live, what we get depressed about, where our children go to school, what they can learn in school, what we eat and drink, what causes anger and grief. People are kept in these patterns by those who benefit most from our misery. If you don't believe it look at your daily life activities and look at those of the wealthy. Think of what makes a bad day for you and what makes a bad day for the Koch brothers. Look at how impossible it seems to get a good education for your kids and then look at the education system in Beverley Hills, San Mateo, Cherry Hill, or any other affluent area around you. Think about some of these things and realize where your anger should be directed. Realize the people who are "different" than you have so much more in common with you than you know, and if you want to get mad get mad at the right people. Just my random thoughts/rant today.

Till next time
~Au revoir

I'M AS MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!

Bonjour vagrant souls out there! As you all may know, there comes points in your life that you feel action is required. You don't know what said action is, but you know it's not what you've been doing. We have a struggling economy, a crazy job"less" market, a failing education system, a political landscape that mimics television wrestling, and that's not even getting into the nitty gritty of our everyday lives. There are so many issues that many of us feel like we can't do anything about. Sure you can vote, but the impact of your vote (your opinion) on the U.S. stage is little more than a gag. Let's face the ugly reality of America. This country is no longer the admirable idealists it once was seen to be. We are a corporately influenced, imperialist nation. The market rises and falls by the design of people who manage public knowledge and interest through media, and financial schemes. It crashes when they have taken as much as they desired, and in that crash even more money is made. The television and radio squabbles you hear these politicians get into are not much different than Triple H arguing with Vince McMahon. The general conversation and conflict has been scripted so the actors can ad-lib and embellish the delivery. Unfortunately what happens in this "game" actually effects us. Our school systems are terrible as a whole. Teachers are told to perform a job with two hands tied behind their backs. Children that aren't apart of the wealthy class are under-served, undereducated, and set up for failure by a system that appears to be designed to make the divide between the rich and the rest of America even more massive. This sick twisted game continues while most of this nation sits behind a television getting fatter (and in no shape mentally or physically to fight) waiting to see how the story ends. Come on people wake up!

Martin Niemöller once famously said,
"They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

What are you waiting for? They have come for the Indians, the Blacks, the Jews, the Italians, the Irish, the Japanese, and now they've gotten exhausted singling out so many groups. Now they just want all the poor. You've seen this show before. You know how it ends. Go on strike, demand new programming! I will leave you with this clip from the movie "Network" I want you to get MAD!

Mad As Hell! Kinetic Typography from Aaron Leming on Vimeo.

Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

[shouting]
You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,

[shouting]
'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:

[screaming at the top of his lungs]
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"


Till next time
~Au revoir

My Schizophrenic Insanity

Sometimes I feel crazy, much more often the last few years, when I consider my actions and thoughts when compared to my feelings and desires. Maybe I am crazy, you tell me. I was randomly looking for some inspiration through thoughtful quotes when I came across one in particular that really hit home.

“I try to talk to you, but I don't know what to say. I am afraid you don't want me to say anything. So I don't. But inside of me there are words waiting to come out. And tell you how I feel-like how I miss you. And how I love you despite my broken heart. And how I need you in my life. And especially how much I want you. But those words may forever stay in my heart-locked inside. Sometimes I wonder if there are words locked inside you too... but I'll never know.”

It’s like my spirit was speaking to me through someone else’s keystrokes. Love can create such a frustrating dilemma. At first it was so easy to open up. It was effortless to spend hours and hours of “free minutes” sharing everything I knew about me and learning everything you shared about you. It was sublime, you were an angel with wings spread, shielding us from the world around us. You allowed me to be your knight armor shining and all. From that foundation grew a love so beautiful, so precious, I would fight to my last breath to protect it, to protect you. There came a moment about 92 months ago (but who’s counting) when I realized this love was genuine. It was also genuinely scary. When I knew that my love for you didn’t depend on that love being returned. Once I realized that I cared more for your happiness than I cared for our union it was a moment of bitter sweetness like none I have ever felt.

It is that desire to please you as much as I possibly can that led to my dilemma. Perhaps the source of my insanity comes from the same place. There are times I have forsaken the bigger logical picture for this dichotomy of logical equations. You are the one person I chose to confide all of what makes me, me. Yet because of my desire to keep you from unhappiness, from hurt feelings, from sadness, those moments of sharing good and bad have been tilted. I began to hold more and more of the bad in. Like a clumsy animal trying to protect you but hurting you in the process with lies, with silence, with an expressionless face while inside I’m screaming out. Hoping that you would only see the attempts to protect you; because of my love for you. Wishing you would always see the knight in shining armor, and not see how that armor has been tarnished, and your knight has been scarred from the many battles that have come through the years. For so long I have tried to be perfect for you. Afraid that my hideous imperfections would force you to no longer desire me. That to see such things would cause pain. But this act, this flawed precession of logic conflicts, directly, with what bonded us so closely together in the first place. This insanity pushes you further away no matter how hard I attempt to pull you closer.

Our foundation of love, honesty, faithfulness, and openness has held us together for years. This essential foundation still remains but, our home has seen it’s share of storms. Small thunderstorms, of jealousy and misunderstandings, that come and go in a flash. Storms of lies, secrets, and deceptions have ripped through our windows and doors. Sending shattered glass searing through our halls. These storms have ripped the roof off of our heads exposing us to all the elements of the world. The weather has brought such destruction into this beautiful home we built together. Many storms of my own ignorant creation. Yet the strength of our foundation has held up. Windows have been replaced, the roof repaired and we remain strong in our love, in our home.

The Beatles say all you need is love. Most times I feel like all I need is your love. The funny thing about love and relationships is, it requires regular maintenance just like everything else in life. Armor must be oiled and polished, scars must be attended to, spread wings must at some point rest. Secrets must be shared, lies must stop, deception can not be an option. What I want is to allow the world to do as it may and provide a shoulder to lean and cry on. To fight and protect you when you want it instead of trying to create this fantasy utopian world that does not exist. To show strength in truly understanding and listening to what you need and acting consistently like your loving partner I have always wanted to be. I must break from this insanity, these schizophrenic tendencies that cause such a conflict with what my heart desires. I understand the Swedish Wiseman that very eloquently said

“Love me when I least deserve it, because that’s when I really need it.”

Till next time
~Au revoir

Of Dreams

My dreams are those of a personal Utopian quality.
Where, economic disparity is as mysterious as apocalyptic meteors.
The possibility is there
But the witnesses are missing.
In this world I awake to samples of my love's nectar,
Anointing our union daily as the sun begins to bathe the earth in golden radiance.
So when I say “Good morning”
It is merely a statement of fact
Hours are spent during the day facilitating the dreams of many
Showcasing creativity to all of those ready to receive.
This is my work, mutually beneficial
Beauty blissfully sustains my spirit
In my dreams thunderstorms are no less beautiful than blue skies
A place where we understand ourselves and the value of our love.
Where misunderstandings are irrelevant
Because you hear not what I say but what I imply
Where your body feels tension because my thoughts are of you
Mentally pulling you back to me, my tractor beam returns your temple to my touch.
Relief is my fingers returning stones to their place
Joy found in the subtle tones of “I love you”
Every day consisting of perfect moments of now where then and later is of no importance
Blissful memories are all that fall from our eyes into down pillows
We were made to fit each other perfectly
Every contour caressed in my dreams
Each day washed away, as Castles in the Sand, there is something striking in destruction
To be constructed again out of the emotions of now, the beauty of the moment
In this place the world is ever-changing
Like thoughts, consistency found in the strongest connections
Time is just a word; really it is just a word, a concoction, a farce, aiding that peculiar institution
Such barriers do not exist here, as limitations do not exist.
Manifest your own destiny
Create your own happiness

nosce te ipsum


Till next time...



~Au revoir

Thoughts on Honesty

Honesty is like the first bite of fruit
You want it to be cold and sweet.
Have the juices to refresh your exhausted body,
At the height of a scorching summer’s day.

Just like the fruit you never know
How sweet it will be, if it’s sweet at all.
It could be sour leaving your face unrecognizable,
So painful to your body that you’re left clenching your chest.

You feel betrayed by the fruit
And think you were better off without it.
You curse the fruit because like a fool you believed
So sure that it would bring relief to your tired spirit.

Truth is like that, sometimes mysterious and strange.
You’re taught that it is good for you, full of delicious nutrients
How odd it is that that repugnant sour fruit has a hint of appeal.
In all honesty I’d still chose to take a bite of your truth.


To those Vagrant Souls out there always eat the fruit, because sweet or sour you will be better for having eaten ;) I thank you for the fruit.

-Au Revoir

Que Sera Sera

Greetings to you Vagrant Souls out there. After a recent conversation with an Itchy Soul I feel bound to share this topic with you. As usual what I’m going to say will probably be pretty scrambled to most, but enjoy nonetheless.

Is there really a right or wrong? A simple question, I know, but it is very intriguing to think about. I’ll share with you my thoughts on the topic; perhaps my brother will explain his own view later. It is my belief that there is certainly a right and wrong decision or action a person can take. However, what is considered to be right or wrong, I believe, has to be directly associated with an individual’s core values or belief system.

I do not believe that right and wrong are values that can truly be determined by society. Such acquiescence to standards set for you by peers will always be flawed. This is not to say that all the ideas or rules that society or group implements or suggests are bad. Quite the contrary, many of the ideas and values that are widely accepted are for good reason, but are not universally relevant. Anyway, I say all of that to get this point across. Good and bad should be based on an individual’s personal value system. Once those values are established the easiest way to tell if something is right or wrong, is to consult your system.

Example
It is commonly taught and believed that killing is bad, evil, one of THE terrible sins. We have laws against killing another human being, and even animals in some areas. So the social stance on killing is obviously its wrong, right? But that same society will strap you with a gun to go out in to a foreign land and shoot to kill complete strangers for…? Okay let me take it down a few levels and bring it back to the individual. If someone were to come up to you or someone important to you and threaten to kill you would you feel justified in killing that person? Based on the moral value and laws set by society it’s wrong, which, technically, makes (lawful) capital punishment wrong.

Another random example
Monogamy is the socially accepted way of expressing your love. Most people will either subtly or overtly condemn any form of polygamy, yet it can be argued that those same people will agree that commitment to a single partner is sometimes made difficult because of a natural attraction to another. Your partner may have the qualities that you require for a companion to travel this journey of life, and you may claim them as your own. So if that is the case what do you think is reason some stranger draws your attention, or brings out desire from within you? Are your natural desires/curiosity wrong? If personally you believe that once you make a commitment to one person, that any stimulation brought on, or encouraged, by another person is wrong then for you it is certainly wrong. My question would be where did that value come from? Did you come up with those guidelines on your own or were they handed down to a child who blindly accepted this as being correct?

To the wanderers out there, set your own standards. Define for yourself what is right and wrong and avoid the mindlessness that could find you in the Third Reich, in the police department, in the armed services doing what your spirit is telling you is wrong. Remember “Nobody built like you. You design yourself.” I leave you with this delightful little number by Wax Tailor.


“We are the masters of our own destiny. We are the makers of our own fate.”

Never take life too seriously, no one gets out alive anyway.
-Au Revoir

Quickie

“When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on--series polygamy--until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimensions to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.”