elitism

"the only true aristocracy is that of consciousness."
- d.h. lawrence as quoted by brian browne walker in his translation of the i-ching

i had a lovely conversation with a poet acquaintance of mine in which i remembered an aspect of sufism that makes me feel strange. there is this myth in sufism of the hidden masters, the super-elites, the inner circle who using their substantial psychic powers battle the "evil" mages of the world and ultimately keep their awareness on many things and shape the world.

on the one hand i am quite aware of the superior powers that can be wielded with higher states of consciousness. on the other hand though, i am supremely skeptical of the possibility of higher powers existing uncorrupted, existing in a non-deluded state. i'm not saying that good is only done by the weak, just that the strong sometimes sit around kissing their biceps.

"more harm is done by fools through foolishness than is done by evildoers through wickedness"
- the prophet as quoted here

part of this discomfort of mine surely stems from my anarchism... elites by their very existence toss anarchism's white whale of non-hierarchy out the window... no government is needed to deny folks autonomy when people by their own skill and wisdom control the world by sheer superiority. it is a prison, whether from the "evil" mage or the hidden sufi lover.

on the one hand are these qualms, this nausea i feel whenever i notice that people can be (and sometimes want to be) pawns. i play a good chess game, but in real life, people die, and i don't want to be king. on the other hand, much of the justice in the world has come from people who earned their wings proudly; powerlessness/nonintervention can be a copout.

"to the sinful and vicious, i may appear to be evil. but to the good - beneficent am i."
- mirza khan, ansari as quoted by idries shah in the sufis

a big difficulty in determining the effects of power is embodied in this quote. i have my criticisms of barrack obama, for example, but my position to judge his choices isn't his. his short-sightedness to me may be great vision to him and vice versa. it is said that a sufi signed the death warrant of hallaj... fulfilling the needs of each to teach their lesson...

i am both worthy and unworthy of power, i both wield it and it wields me... knowing these paradoxes, i try to accept it when i'm called upon to be powerful, and cede it when i'm called upon to be a pawn. like pistons in an engine of agency, the universe allows for tyrants and rebellions... power creates ugliness no more than powerlessness creates beauty.

after thoughts:

"power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. great men are often bad men."
- lord acton as quoted here

"i wonder at a lover who in conceit of his merits walks proudly among the flowers of the garden"
- ibn al-arabi, the interpreter of desires, as quoted by peter lamborn wilson in scandal - essays in islamic heresy

in defense of the sufis, the deification of individual power enshrined in thelema, laveyan satanism, monopolist capitalism and certain forms of individualist anarchism isn't to be found in sufism. laura put it very simply: where as the listed ideologies are like, "power... let's get some!", sufism is more like "power... since we keep finding some, let's use it wisely."

i mentioned above that powerlessness and nonintervention can be a real copout. naturally i don't believe that everyone who is powerless is so by choice, or even that all of those who eschew power for a monastic lifestyle are cowards or worse... i just think that sometimes the willful pursuit of power can be a loving act, a necessary act even, despite my fears of it.

but note: one of the best acts that can be committed by the powerful is to share that power with those who don't have it. education, charity, and healing are all children of that impulse. at other times, the best act that can be committed by the powerful is to annihilate the power itself. finally, i believe love is knowing when to walk these lines and when to cross them.

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František Kupka

František Kupka... my favorite painter that i barely know anything about. i've been seeing snippets of images from him here and there for years. this is a recent batch i scared up. matthu stull showed me a book of his in 2001. he's definitely on to something (for the early part of last century, anyway...) he was part of the section d'or (golden section), as was marcel duchamp.

he started in a realistic style, although in a fairly fantastic "art nouveau" style a la alphonse mucha, displayed hear by "view from inside a carraige" (or something like that.)


he's more well known for his abstract work, however. i'm not a big fan of these chunks of black, blue and red paintings, although he did a bunch of them.


i find the more luxurious use of color he was prone to more inspiring. so did the synchromists.


he also had a morose side to his forms and color palette. i love the bleak light in this one. i hope it's HUGE... like ten feet tall!


this is from my favorite section of his work. it's from "the discs of newton" and gets into his color theory a bit. i love the use of multiple versions of a color in the same painting, like using crimson and cadmium. try it sometime, it's tough to organize! he was interested in the relationship between music and painting, hoped to "free colors of their descriptive associations" and was kind of anti-surrealist.

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that veiled gazelle digest issue #300

welcome this fine friday! here is a picture of my 17-month old son, river...


MP3, MUSIC: so, in honor of the riaa ending it's policy of lawsuits against music sharing, let's start with some tracks... just some heat i've been scorched by recently all .zip'ped up on mediafire...

(mp3)bass clef - cannot be straightened
(mp3)adam tensta - dobeboy feat. eboi
(mp3)reso - if ya can't beat em
(mp3)barry lynn - new orleans
(mp3)king midas sound - lost (flying lotus mix)
(mp3)black lips - veni vidi vici (diplo remix)

note: i've noticed some of my links to mediafire were dead, even if the files are still there, so feel free to hassle me about fixing broken links... it doesn't take long once i know about it. i just fixed the links on "8 songs, 1 spirit" for instance.

NATURE, WEIRD: a lot of attention has been paid to the thailand tiger temple monks, but you should watch out for their dubious conservation claims. if you want heart-warming animal-human friendships stories you should stick with (warning: youtube link with cheesy music)christian the lion. more on christian here.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, WEIRD: another dream (nightmare?) come true... scientists have made it possible to reconstruct the images in a person's mind and display them on a computer monitor. all i want is "audio out". forget playing music, just imagine music and record it! it's similar to this bionic eye device that goes from video to neuron. anyway, a brain cell totally looks like the universe. that's no surprise to fans of the holographic model, or self similarity. anyway, belief likely exists in the brain, but did you know that more people believe in aliens and ghosts than believe in god? one burglar believed enough to be trapped by a ghost for three days (unless it was real!).

ART: both zoe lacchai and thomas woodruff do good figural work. there is occasionally good work on cgunit (NSFW), but it's a bit obsessed with naked ladies and reminds laura of the style of work in juxtapoz. some swedish guy has been investing in unethical companies and distributing the profits for art purposes. fine, but it reminds me of that old refrain, "i need to make money before i can do good..." that MIGHT be the case occasionally... but it usually is an excuse. other good art on the web recently has been the skull-a-day, this visionary art collection, and this surreal art collection. also, is selling your life art?

HUMOR: potty-mouthed chemists naming weird molecules. 20 ways to win spiritual arguments. also, good ammo against those anti-gay marriage who talk about upholding biblical marriage standards.

POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY, ANARCHY: is history repeating itself? given recent predictions of dire straights in the US soon, preposterous expenditures by the government, revolutions seem more likely in our future. it's been argued that a democratic president is actually better for helping these revolutions occur, of course, it's been argued it won't. the yinsurgent continues to be a site of this debate, and the greek riots, including updates from some of our comrades on the ground there. I liked the article on the possible role of labor in revolutionary structures. also, given some of the pardons dubya has made already, i'm surprised people aren't after bush legalizing drugs (obama recently said he isn't in favor of legalization).

MOVER: great post on the passing of studs terkel with information on oral histories. alton ellis just died in october. his political reggae like "arise black man"(torrent) was classic, but equally so we're tracks like "dance crasher" and "girl i've got a date" from his lover side... i'm also a little sad it took me this long to learn about superbarrio.

D.I.Y.: indian food-making videos. benga dubstep-making videos. cop-busting. coupons for online stores. incredible text techniques in photoshop.

LEFTOVERS: some great writing (and great music) in a recent post by carlos...

"I simply wish to underline the extremely complex interplay between the local and the foreign in the non-space that is the internet. English-speaking Spanish folks tipped off to the situation in the Western Sahara, adolescent racists with shitty spelling, French and Spanish kids of Arab descent, stereotyping hip-hop fans, a French speaker from Marrakech, all participating in the politics of a music video with a political bent of its own. YouTube as a behavioral economist's nightmare: a true Tower of Babel in which transient avatars are speaking in different languages, exchanging imperfect information with no shortage of subjectively invisible linguistic violence, slicing through a vast majority made up of Arabic-language commenters."

also, getting good press is as easy as paying people, revenge of the nerds filmaker makes something for the homeless, expensive but awesome log bowls and a (useful?) start page.

VIDEO: as wayne (from whose great digest format i based this post) would call it, videyoga (via):

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shocking statistic?

about half of american doctors surveyed recently said that they regularly give their patients placebos.

article here.
wiki on placebos here.

"Half the doctors reported using placebos several times a month, nearly 70 percent of those described the treatment to their patients as "a potentially beneficial medicine not typically used for your condition." Only 5 percent of doctors explicitly called it a placebo treatment.

Most doctors used actual medicines as a placebo treatment: 41 percent used painkillers, 38 percent used vitamins, 13 percent used antibiotics, 13 percent used sedatives, 3 percent used saline injections, and 2 percent used sugar pills.

In the survey, doctors were asked if they would recommend a sugar pill for patients with chronic pain if it had been shown to be more effective than no treatment. Nearly 60 percent said they would."

i have mixed feelings about this. sometimes the patient is wrong, foolish or suggestable. in those cases the placebos may be the best thing. if you are trying to help, honesty can sometimes be a barrier. but n the other hand, i think the disconnect between doctors and their patients, and the general disregard for a patient's agency that i see in american medical practice leads me to believe the practice is surely abused.

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leftover night (or "smorgasbord")

i think i should do this more often so that it won't be as big as this, but...
i'm going to clear out my blog ideas bookmarks.
MOST OF THEM... right now... get ready:

first off, a clear picture of jupiter:

ahh, how nice. and now, teh links:

brain reacts to a hand transplant
weird light sculpture photos here and here
beautiful post it note cascade video
russia newspaper predicts u.s. apocalypse
urb's top ten rap debate songs.
article has funniest. title. ever.
steal back your vote comic.
sheriff refuses to evict people.
martial law imposed if bailout not passed.
8 hacks to make firefox much faster.
the green-collar economy book.
sensors powered by trees.
1 in 4 mammals face extinction.
nytimes ownership gossip.
top ten reasons to become a "new radical".
yet more crow intelligence here and here.
florida gop voter fraud again.
site claims bloggers can make a difference
dems look at policies that wrecked economy.
very interesting color i.q. test... it's hard!
victoria reynolds weird, meaty artwork
cutup collective's baltic work.
rabbi's against the existence of israel video
7 people with real mutant superpowers
do you know about the overton window?
bill o'reilly defends obama... wow.
oops, missed this call to action.
sort of obsolete palin articles here and here.
scholarly article on hedonism.
amazing spraypaint art technique.
drawing every person in new york city.
funny little nature boats, pooh sticks!
trash formed into awesome shadow art.
portable cardboard table... nice design.
guerilla marketing reverse grafitti.
3d, light and geek grafitti.
tile patterns of the alhambra analysis.
awesome layered glass painting of xia xiaowan.
illusions with record covers.
book reccomendations from 17 leading scientists.
boost your memory with the palace technique.
rare brain disease effects creativity, also "bolero"
top ten strange phenomena of the mind.
i don't know if i believe this, but...
the anatomy of sarcasm.
trains that don't stop moving?
teese cheese and ice scream.
i have no idea why i have this link.
vectors for free.
how to trick your printer into using it's ink.
how to get free airport wi-fi.
10 creative ways to deal with junk mail.(make paper!)
how to persuade customer service reps to help you.
25 ways to simplify your life with kids.
article on sharing parenting duties... we do this.
beautiful oak photograph.
9 ways to start a fire without matches.
thousands of starlings do weird things together.
the almiqui... bizarre!
plants prefer their relatives.
urban homesteading article.
marijuana experiment movie and law attempt.
study on inequality and the effects of physical pain
organizing without organizations.
sensible units.
blind 5-year old piano prodigy.
the bodhisattva vows.
geek out about colors
orange jews.
writing excersise prompt.
pirate bay breaks 12 bazillion users.
the unapologetic mexican.
independent bookstore book finder.
call the future.org
online radio guide.
interesting online graphics programs.
everything someone found funny for one year.
dear-god.net, an interesting community blog.
good online arabic-english dictionary.
world's largest flashcard exchange.
make and save images of stacked cubes... album cover anyone?

and if you only ever watch one video on this site, watch this one:



i can't take it anymore... time to stop. anything good?
UPDATE: from the comments, patrice adds some links...

monkey's using robot arms or "what my brother does in Pgh
Off-beat bride. I'm not really an endorser of weddings, but the photos on the cite are always fun to look at. Basically my form of reality TV/Lifetime TV
tiny
twistori
Just Seeds Updates
quick and good
Geek Fun
Surveying the Interstices of Art and Medicine, Death and Culture.
cute
yum
the the other half does
favs
great investment, great guys who designed it, good cause that they put $ to
endless amusement
he was a trainwreck
OH goodness
a friend's new website
next project

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advertising pt. 1

my father and stepmother own an advertising agency. i have a lot of respect for some of their work (especially some crucial pro-bono work they've done for safe sex, the special olympics, the hartford stage and ecological efforts.) that being said, i got to witness first-hand the truth in this banksy quote...
this is a great example of what banksy is talking about,
but for the sake of art,
please ignore the fact that this is an ad...


the making of it is here on haha.nu

pt. 2 here

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matthu stull interview part 1

dear readers... i present to you one of the most fascinating, talented and intense persons i have ever encountered, a good friend, occasional collaborator and initiatrix, Matthu Stull.

this is part one, conducted over a two month period via email...

james gyre:

well, you mention future platinum-selling album... i can't tell if that gives you or future audiences too much credit. talk a little now about your unique music and touch on how this tension between the severe requirements of "art" blends with your desires to sell it big.

Matthu Stull:

In Response to the Question Concerning
the 'Selling Big' of
Matthu Stull
Artistic and Musical Merchandise

Well, I admit it, I am a little ashamed of my juvenile vanity and superficial grandiosity. It is easy for me to be humbled by the real masters
of art. But I can only defend my position by looking at current examples of extreme banality in the field of music especially where one can only wonder at the low standards of large masses of people. Mediocrity seems to be in extreme demand throughout all periods of history, and possibly the truly ardent enthusiasts of sublime mastery or even clever genius do not measure up to this mass of mediocre expectations in dollars or numbers.........The issue, I guess, is to reach that smaller number of those who have the capacity to support a superior product--and there are many examples of this.
If we look back a little in history and to different cultures, we will find that the business of art and music has followed unsteady tracks. I will question a few situations now. Franz Joseph Haydn: He happened to get a pretty good job in the royal court of the Esterhazy dynasty of the Austro Hungarian empire. Not bad, considering the alternative of being some hack chorus master in some backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Haydn was able to pretty much do his own thing, producing many symphonies and string quartets over what was, I think, about a 40 year period. On the other hand, W.A. Mozart was not fortunate enough to fall into a similar situation. I have many times been unable to identify whether a piece was written by the one or the other, so there is no question to the very similar abilities. (Some of the Mozart of course is absolutely too distinct to confuse.) I guess ultimately this does not matter now, the different financial successes of these composers. But I think about these scenarios on occasion.
But what about the music of Africa, let's just take Nigeria for example. And let's time travel backwards about 500 years. I can't claim to have done enough research into this matter to know the situation. But I have to assume that there would be people who played music in a leisurely or even religious way while still functioning in other duties such as hunting or making jewelry. Many folk music traditions would probably fall into this same category. (I don't expect this to be rocket science to anybody, it just helps to lay out the pattern for what might be the future.) So maybe there is an incredible drummer in one community, and he is recognized as an incredible drummer, he can induce a deep trance within the revellers at a fireside jam session. And the next morning he takes part in the same berry gathering expedition as 20 other people in his community and interacts with them as equals. Is there any need to be anything more? Or to 'have' more?
My next example will take us back in time to India about 200 years ago. Okay, this time it is a tabla master who has a relatively successful tabla playing father. This father knows a master of the instrument and can afford to pay him to give his son extra training. And this extra training lasts for 11 years. Now the boy is about 19 and he's pretty damn good, but not quite a master. So he walks 150 miles to train with another super tabla master for the next 4 years. That master dies suddenly one day, so then the young player decides to just go around touring little villages, playing on the street for donations and food, maybe getting into some 'jams' with local musicians. This continues for 3 more years, during which time there has been sleeping on floors, all day walks in rain, and maybe the odd venereal disease. Eventually he stumbles upon a palace of amazing opulence and asks to perform in exchange for food and maybe a few nights rest. He does this and meets the prince of the palace and the prince's tabla master.........so he gets even more training. After several years of training this elderly master too dies, he was 79 years old. The lead protagonist of this epic story is now 35 and he's pretty much the 'sickest' drummer in the country. He is now the master drummer of the palace and is dating the cousin of the prince. He goes on to train a few disciples over the years, keeping the tradition alive......

Alright, enough of that. My point is, if I have a point, that I don't really have the same ambitions that the current American pop system suggests are necessary for success. Of course I have major ambitions, perhaps even 'Wagnerian' in scope, but more futuristic and intergalactic.
These ambitions don't really include the validation of selling many records or riding in a limo. It is more like-'If I make something cool enough, the Gods will ask me to join them in eternity'.

james gyre:

i really feel quite moved by the historical models you propose. i would love to be a fruit picker who gets to drum at night... it would really be quite an honor. i think it's particularly sad that the artist/musician isn't a super-exalted position in mainstream society... in ways other than commerce... they listen to them, idolize them, but don't respect the role they play as divine channels, as global re-tuners, music makers!

so take a stab at describing your music to readers... you unique expression, influences, etc...

Matthu Stull:

(EDITOR's NOTE: no response given... some miscommunication via email)

james gyre:

WHILE MANY PEOPLE CHOOSE TO FOCUS MORE WITHIN SPECIFIC STYLES, YOU WORK IN WHAT COULD BE DESCRIBED AS "ABSTRACT" AND "REPRESENTATIONAL" STYLES IN BOTH VISUAL ART AND MUSIC, SOMETIMES INTERMIXING... GIVEN THIS BREADTH, DO YOU HAVE ANY INSIGHT INTO THE RELATIVE VALUE (OR "VALUES") OF "REPRESENTATION" OR "ABSTRACTION"?

Matthu Stull:

there are a lot of people to reference, in terms of music style. i'm thinking of innovations that really seemed to shake things up........jazz as a genre for example, you would know much more about the whole history of electronic and hip-hop I presume......but, y'know there's a tradition and an innovation......god I hope I manage to slightly answer this question!! the thing is, lately, on guitar, I've been in a new territory, the same style that you know, in terms of abstraction, but it is becoming more refined, I don't know if it's a gas in a glass vial, getting less dense or more dense, like Coltrane, did he play more notes in 1961 or 1963, show me the stats...but the pattern is more developed, to the point that i can't really relate to any pre-existing style. i might 'hear' richard strauss in my head, but since I'm not inclined to learn the actual way to play it, the motivation gets all permutated.......maybe a sick Picasso or something...man Picasso blows my mind at times, I really don't like much of it, but there's so goddam much, some of them are just staggering......I'm sending a new landscape too,
so there is still the representational aspect going on. the temple in the mountains drawing was directly copied from a vision i had during a meditation. this method almost never happens, but the results seem to verify the benefit of using at least that much discipline...
I'm wondering a lot lately about osmosis, learning through denying.....sort of a Gurdjieffian principle, Holy Denying, it seems to sharpen the blade a little, but I have a long way to go, towards controlling myself and actual choice....hence, the drawings just happen, I have no control over it, not sure if that is good or bad, on one hand i love the idea of the trance, where the artist or shaman goes into some Astryl Portal and comes out with the jewels, but, believe it or not, there is a rational, pragmatic, side to Matthu's brain!!!
so with music, i am really caught between the debates over soul and technique...fripp stresses that they go together, like probably most sufis.....the technique of the hands, the intellectual grasp of the mind, and the throbbing feeling nodes of the solar plexus (or heart), working together........so, who why not work them all.......also on the fripp note, he seems to have conquered his ego enough to say, 'i am just a vessel' for the music....if i believe that, it actually gives me much more power than to say, 'dude, Iäm the shit, check out these skill', there one can be humble to something far more powerful.....now i have to have the balls to say,, this fucking music must get out, at all costs, not for my own gratification, but because it is a functional living force on this planet that we humans happen to facilitate and we have a responsibility to make it known.........sorry, if i got a little religious there!!!

james gyre:

"politics. new world order. anarchism. barrack obama. john insane. america. afghanistan.... GO!"

Matthu Stull:

Bracka Bahamma, Iluminoma, and Demon-strayshuuunz

Got some wu-tang on right now, take it back from 8 diagrams....

so, yeah, uh.....shit, man.....NWO all kind'za crazy-ass shit, electionations, wazza, uhmmm,
can yall pass the fuckin' rule book ovah heee'ah...

i've been a little obsessed with the obama thing. first, i liked him about 18 months ago, liked his krizzma, n' shit....but he will represent the same world government that has been in the process of coming to birth-- albert pike, WWIII, population reduction,,,,,yeah, that will all come to pass, and i think barack is an energy suck......if there are black(haaha, you know, like 'evil'!!) magicians who suck adrenal power from traumatic situations, then the coming election could be a feast for that kind of thing. imagine the chaos if there would be an assassination, chaos is 'THEIR' greatest ally, in the words of G-dub, clearly a slip there.
not that there aren't plenty of blacks or whites who would completely resist the urge to get involved in horrible riots and whatnot, but civilization is so tenuous if you add a little adversity. i'm not tryin' to be overly negative, there is hope, for sure, but i had a dream recently that scared the shit out of me, there was a sort of 'black' pope who sucked my soul out,,,,i realized that there are some serious dogs out there.....like when luke says he's not afraid, and yoda says, oh you will be!!!,,,,some FUCKED up video on youtube featuring blackwater goons shooting at cars randomly on the highway in iraq....totally insane....the cauldron is really stirred up.....and i'm not the cheesist of christians but i feel like we might have to dig deep into some seriously meditations, control the urge to get absorbed in hate.......'if the eye offend thee, pluck it out' ie...have choice with one's actions.......if your friend gets blown in half by a mortar, how do you respond? this is why cointelpro is so effective, once you get the shit stirred up, and no one trusts anybody, there is a real divide and conquer.......so my goal is to chameleonize when ever possible.......is that a form of deception, probably, but i don't feel guilty about it......
back to brakka Bahamma, i think this is funny OBAMA-OSAMA,,, BIDEN-Bin Laden
Obama-Biden
Osama-Bin Laden I mean, you can't get too much more similar looking

the technology to fake things like assassinations is totally available right? I'm really seeing a chance for that, just to test the waters, the powers that be create this passion play, and check out the results...O'bamma goes into a coma for 3 weeks, then comes out of it, and in the meantime, all hell has broken loose.....
the blackblock people at the republican convention seemed totally fake, I recommend that everyone wear business suits to the next protest, seriously!!!!! and those fake blackblockers must be captured!!! not by police, you know, by regular citizens....everyone with a video camera is being fucked with, it's hard to say how close it is to the major event that will spin it all into the next phase.....i think bush will get out of office as some kind of hero for keeping 'us' 'safe',, who know's though, there might be some kind of lame duck shit too...

Codex allimentarius is supposed to be put in place by the end of next year, that means that the food crisis will hit sometime in the next 8 months or so, I would seriously recommend that everyone network and have a gameplan in case something cataclysmic happens and the immediate chaos prevents people from putting shit together----food stashes, etc......I want to get about 4 or 5 german shepherds as my personal body guards ahahhahh ahah, again, i repeat, i believe in the goodwill of humanity on one hand, but when fundamental necessities are at stake the rules change........

can't really come up with much on mccain, he's a complete idiot in my opinion, maybe even more retarded than Bush, at least there was something horribly sinister and captivating about g-dub.....I don't see him as the president

EDITOR's NOTE: end of part 1...
i'll show this to matthu get some approved art and audio up to flesh out the media aspect of this stull education... if you can't wait, and need to get more matthu NOW, head over to trashfactory.net/matthustull

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the trolley problem and bill ayers, sort of...

i didn't know a bout the trolley problem until recently, but the complexities one has to face while dealing with it beautifully illustrate my feelings about bill ayers, the weather underground and revolutionary violence in general.

the problem, according to wikipedia, is thus:

"A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are 5 people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you can flip a switch which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch?"

most people would decide to flip the switch, to save five lives by sacrificing one... some wouldn't and that would amount to killing five people to save one.

a further variant example goes as such:

"A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor.

as rare as it is to find someone who does not think we should turn the trolley, it is even rarer to find someone who thinks it is permissible for the doctor to murder this patient and harvest his organs... ...yet both cases seem to involve a choice between one life and five."

THIS is the real question of violence. in the face of immense state-perpetrated violence, the revolutionary may risk the lives of others to stop a greater threat. is it a slippery slope? yes. do they always know it will help? no. is morally superior to sitting on the sidelines not addressing the issue at all? maybe.

it keeps coming up in ads that bill ayers says he "didn't do enough" and falsely implying that means he thinks he didn't commit enough violent acts. but even if that IS what he meant, is it more morally reprehensible than the people who fought in the war, or funded it, or defended it?

these are questions of nuance, and historical context, and research, not bold opinions to slash through any conversation of "radicals vs. the state" or "hippies vs. the straight"... each situation need be analyzed. the ends just may justify the means, afterall...

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anarchists on electoral politics...

UPDATE: i forgot to mention this, but i once tried to set up a group on barrackobama.com called "anarchists for obama for now", but it was not ever fully activated, and no one responded to my queries as to why not... i have a guess, but anyway that's where this logo comes from... it was to be the icon on the site.


so i've promised this for a while, but it is in no way an attempt to decisively determine the right or wrong in this topic...

what do the anarchists want this election cycle?

we'll first off, the anarchists are no monolithic block, and there is always differences of opinions. but make no mistake. there are a lot of anarchists who are decidedly against the democrats and are disinterested in voting. some are protesting the convention.

there are a few different (dis)organisational branches of protest. there is the recreate68 contingent (attempting to recreate the riots of 1968), dnc disruption, and unconventional action. some really great events (like a public enemy and dead prez concerts), and the usual marches, direct action and protest.

the big issue is of course the fact that the democrats are complacent in a lot of the nastiness that is done in our name by our government. but the big question is "obama or nobama?" some sites like tent state are open to both answers... "maybe you'll vote for obama or maybe you'll vote no to the entire system"... "maybe obama can end the war and maybe he will... ...but it's not going to happen unless the people force the issue on the streets" (slight paraphrasing there...) this is similar to the strategy of code pink, who has claimed to want to "push obama towards peace" but generally supprt him... other sites like worldcan'twait.org basically make the argument that a vote for obama isn't really any better than voting for mccain. i encourage people to click on their link and read the obama faq. the data is all true, but i take a different perspective than they do in the opinionated aspects fo their presentation.

let me break down a couple disagreements from that faq (worth reading the faq first, seriously):

1. "Oh, so he’s only arguing for going after terrorists – the “bad guys”? Sure, ok. This is exactly what Bush and Cheney have always claimed to be doing. "

well, he might be serious. the bush/cheney folks actually forged evidence to go into iraq. if obama is serious about only going after terrorists, it's a lot different. also, he has alluded to some awareness that a lot of what america does worldwide is a cause for terrorism, but that is a very unpopular (if true) idea. more on popular ideas later...

2."...shows that Obama’s objection to the Iraq War is motivated by the same factor as his decision to nonetheless keep funding it: The fact that, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, “He just wants to be on the side that’s winning.”

yes and no. yes, he want's to win if we are fighting... makes some sense to me. no, he doesn't wan't to jsut be with who's winning. if that we're so, he would be aligning with a lot of nasty dictators/governments who are winning... russia, zimbabwe, etc...

3."Obama infamously voted in favor of the FISA Amendments Act, which greatly expanded the President’s power to spy on the communications of American citizens , and grants immunity to communications companies who carried out this spying in the past. This infuriated many supporters, especially since Obama had repeatedly promised to vote against immunity for telecommunications companies. This is what Obama is doing when he’s still trying to win your vote! Imagine what he’ll do once he’s been elected. "

this is a really important issue.

on the fisa thing... yeah. it sucks. the bill was a little better than the old one, but it definitely is unconstitutional... but keith olbermann makes a few good points on it. to paraphrase, repuglicans could have argued that "obama. no. vote. thing. terror. stop. uh. oh."

on the "this is what obama is doing when he's still trying to win your vote imagine what he'll do when elected!" thing... repeat after me... obama is trying to get your vote, and his vote, and her vote, and so on. he isn't just pandering to you! he's got to convince people who could give a shit about the constitution... to help him save the constitution! of course, it's a slippery slope, but still. think with some pragmatism, some strategy, some tacticality. what if it stops john mccain?

4. "...These are just a few of an endless list of examples that show the nightmare that a McCain presidency would bring. But an Obama presidency would also be a nightmare for the people of the world. As the above facts have shown, a vote for Obama is a vote for (among other things): Extended war and heightened brutality in Afghanistan; increased big brother surveillance of American citizens; threats of war (if not actual war) against Iran and Pakistan; repression of immigrants; and complicity in the face of torture.. And that’s just what Obama is telling us now. Who knows what else he’ll do if he wins the election. The question—“So you’re saying we should let McCain be elected?” —is the wrong one to be asking. The question we should be asking is: What are we doing right now, up to, and after the elections to resist the direction both McCain and Obama want to take this country and the world?"

all right. if all the stuff in bold is actually true, which is hard to say it is, given the panderific nature of campaigns, it still is NOTHING compared to the mess pf shit concocted by mccain. and an obama presidency being a nightmare for the people of the world? which people think it will be more of a nightmare than mccain? not the crow indians, who adopted obama into their tribe, calling him "he that brings peace throughout the world", not the countless europeans who approve of him dramatically more than mccain, not the people of the middle east who see him as the first hope for a sane american leader in years. sure, he may fuck things up in afghanistan and pakistan, but arguably no worse than bush has... musharraf?, the i.s.i.?... think the pakistanis like them? bhutto's assasignation? nothing smells like c.i.a. there? come on people. also, mccain = roe v. wade overturned. that spells violence and death for women right here at home. frankly, NOT VOTING FOR OBAMA IS VOTING FOR MCCAIN. i made that mistake with nader in 2000, and i learned from it. i'm not saying i'll never vote for a third party presidential candidate again, just that i learned it makes a big difference in swing states (to be fair, i voted for gore in PA and traded with my mom in UT to her to vote for nader there...)

5."This declaration and recognition must then lead to a basic determination: to become part of, and to contribute as much as you can, to a mass independent movement that is resisting both of the two evils being offered to us; a movement that is fighting to stop endless war, torture, spying and repression, no matter which party is carrying it out. "

i actually agree with this... pretty much completely. i just don't think barrack is offering us evil. i think he's offering the best shot at consensus (an anarchist ideal) possible in this complex and largely clueless country. maybe i'm wrong... maybe he's a plant by the bohemian grove ne'er do wells, or the new world order or whatever, but i think he's worth the shot. he's a risk, but mccain is obviously complete slime.

there is no question in my mind that the suppression of these protestors as terrorists, which is happening in a number of ways, is wack... (no bike racks?) i think it would be great if the democrats could realize that outreach to anarchist and far-left groups is really in everyones long-term interest. the message is clear... the people want peace, equality and justice. in a weird way i think everyone wants that, but there are all these different ways of trying to implement this, and those language (and scale) differences are where the communication breaks down. also, there are idiot anarchists and idiot democrats, and they inevitably are the ones who fail to recognize the common causes. also (despite fox news being total trash), the public gets to see scenes like this interaction of fox news and protestors, which isn't exactly the best face for anarchists (even though the video is hilarious). anarchists could argue (succesfully) that most of the public face democrats put out there is pretty embarassing, too... (see nancy pelosi justifying not going after impeachment of bush/cheney/rice/etc...)

i see both sides, but it really comes down (for me) to the fact that VOTING TAKES AN HOUR, and you have the rest of your life to smash the state in every way you can, and to encourage others to. bizzarely enough, i think this year part of smashing the state is to make sure barrack gets in there (hopefully with a 60 vote democratic senate) so he can at least take a shot at being one of the only respectable presidents in history.

i'm ready to hear any arguements against what i've postulated... i really am not sure about much of this, despite the all caps and red and what-not... i'll try to update it as i notice typos/have new ideas.

UPDATE: ethan persoff is covering the police response at the dnc and has hilarious tijuana bibles with bush and mccain...

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randy pausch

randy pausch got a bit famous there towards the end of his life, going on t.v., appearing before congress, etc...

he was a professor of mine at c.m.u. my family asked me if i knew the guy who died of cancer who was really famous, and i said i didn't, because i hadn't seen any of the coverage. finally the viral stuff came to my attention, and i noticed it was randy.

to be frank, i thought randy was a bit of a jerk. he was talented, no doubt, and a great motivator, but at the end of day, he seemed to care more about results than the people that brought them to him. it's a personal choice, for sure, but i feel the opposite (most of the time). the guy did get me my first high-paying job, and taught me a lot about team-building (and virtual reality), and overall provided a memorable learning experience, so i mean no disrespect, but it's funny how he became this celebrity.

anyway, here's his famous "last lecture" i didn't watch the whole thing, but there's some golden nuggets here.



and here's his site with more info...

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great threads pt. 1

"i feel like i just kicked a hive of super-intelligent bees"

that's a quote from matt shadetek, who recently cause a lot of brilliant dialogue here (but mostly here) with his post "babel dancing in tongues" about cultural appropriation as potentially exploitative "tourism." i think overall the thread (particularly the dutty artz link) was really quite civil and thought-provoking. it sort of follows in the vein of "cotorro, sexo y mambo" on dutty artz and "rearguard opinion? (slackness b/w sexism & sexuality)" on wayne & wax .

also notable to me recently was the immense (1800+ comments!) debate over at boingboing.net following their removal of their posts mentioning violet blue.

also, don't miss "anarchism, mysticism & anemnesis" over at the absent narrative. so far the discussion is only me, laura and tait, but you can't beat the topic... the zines linked to (anemnesis 1 & 2) are worth the click on their own.

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face to face

in 1999 i was an uncritical technoutopianist at carnegie mellon university. i had this idea for an internet networking site very similar to friendster or myspace, 3 and 4 years before either existed, respectively. i took the idea to my faculty in the "electronic and time-based art" department and received widespread support for the idea. my life would have been totally different if had pursued it.

then this hippy grad student photographer lady named cheryl casteen stopped me dead in my enthusiasm. "the most important work is face to face", she told me. not that my idea wasn't worthwhile or important, but just not to forget the importance of unmediated experience. she was adamant tht i absorb this idea. i'm not sure to this day if she is right or not, but i took it as such regardless. i was seized by the potential righteousness of her advice for me...

i scrapped the project, and my whole life exploded with goodness. that summer i was involved with the near-legendary automobile revision project, moved to vermont to build a music studio, experienced my first tastes of what true love meant, threw great parties (and one dud rave in new york city... can we say "learning experience?") and generally experienced awakening.

years later i was going through art supplies cheryl had left in pittsburgh with our mutual friend peter coffin and came across a wax of her face. ever since, i have gazed upon her face in my art space anc contemplated her wisdom... thanks, cheryl.

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a giant eco post

so, there are all these alternatives out there for sensible energy use and ultimately: permaculture. permaculture, roughly speaking, is a design and philosophy that has long-term sustainability as a goal, with a heavy debt to natural systems and nature itself.

this post is going to look at some permaculturally inspired technologies, that may not all be brilliant or sustainable, but are steps on the path towards a more eco-friendly future.

a real common discussion in the ecosphere is automobiles. driving is arguably not the most important, but easily the most popular and contentious issue in the u.s. much is attention is paid to alternative fuel sources and car designs, but less discussion surrounds the roads themselves. roads are a big issue for animals and designs like the wildlife corridors are really important to connect the areas that roads disconnect. but even beyond that is the designs for the roads themselves.


so a company in the netherlands is building roads (picture above) that use the huge space they take up to both heat and cool nearby buildings (and heat the road in the winter for longevity). walk on the asphalt in a hot day to feel the immense energy being wasted.

also while i tend to argue in favor of bike lanes, there is an interesting pro/con discussion here.


alright, so cars. forget the 1st generation hybrids. above is the tesla roadster. it's fast and strong and electric, gets 250 miles per gallon (sort-of... it's a funny electric conversion method), but only has a 22o mile range and costs a whopping $100,000. rich people seem to like it, but i think there are a lot cooler alternatives...


...like the air car (pictured above). it runs on compressed air. could be zero emmissions (with a zero-emission electrical source). it's already being made in india, and a version with a small fuel component could hit the u.s. in as little as two years with a thousand mile range and for under $20,000. sign me up (or i'll just take the aptera, which i covered earlier...). popular mechanics article here and here (thanks to my stepfather) with other entrants to the automotive x prize.


also not worth missing is the inflatable car (the four versions pictured above). i'm pretty intrigued with this one, as it appeals to my nomadic lifestyle urges (it ships in two boxes!). it won't ship for another two years at least, but it should only cost $10,000 and should have a range of 2500 miles (that's almost driving across the u.s. on one "fill-up") objective article here, official site here.


oh, and i can't resist mentioning the splinter (pictured above), the first all wood super car. it doesn't seem that great in practice, but wood + technology = cool, in my opinion. o.k., let's move on from cars. i don't even own one. i mostly take the bus and ride my bike (and if you want to see some awesome bikes, go here.)


so electric cars are all very groovy, but the source of the electricity is of course in question. while there is much to say about wind, solar, geo-thermal and plasma sources (later...) one source is bio-fuel. the big noise about ethanol going around is a little disheartening mostly, people are just mentioning sugar and corn as sources. that's a bit ridiculous, as those are foods to a lot of people, and aren't even that great a source. the best is marijuana/cannabis/hemp. hemp produces the most biomass of any plant on earth, at least four times richer in potential than its nearest rivals: cornstalks, sugarcane, kenaf, or trees, it grows extremely fast (like a weed!) in almost any climate and requires less pollution to refine into fuel than alternatives. (you can also make bricks, plastic, beams, paper, cloth, rope, and food with it, by the way!) read more on hemp as a fuel source here. also touted as a potentially good source is kudzu (pictured above), an invasive species that currently is something of a nuisance. it seems tricky, though... i say use hemp, or...

...petrol shitting bugs. no shit! the bugs can feed on most natural feed stocks (plants) and produce usable, normal, fuel from it. none of the refining issues with ethanol production, but it's hard to scale. times uk article here, official site here. some serious investment has gone into it, though, so we'll see. for the moment, we might want to stick with...


algae? well, sure, it's biomass. sure, it grows really easily (sometimes too easily) and doesn't necessarily even need light. a whole blog discussing algae as fuel is here. a giant goverment report is here(pdf). anyway, 15 companies have started working on it, you can drive with it, and we might even be able to feed the algae with the emissions from power plants! more from the solar biofuels consortium.

also worth considering is off-shore wind power. it's harder to build, but out of the way, and the wind is less interrupted on the sea. i've covered geo-thermal and plasma-power in an earlier post, but also worth noting is this diary from daily kos on plasma power. plasma easily wins my nomination for coolest eco-technology... to quickly summarize, it turns ANY garbage into energy, usable fuel and useful ceramic material. a LOT of money is spent on landfills (and energy) and this tech makes a lot more sense. on the solar tip, check out this list of 100 solar gadget ideas and the followup of 100 solar architecture ideas.


anyway, buildings. a lot of ideas have been floated for growing vertically in urban spaces, as in the images above. some of it makes sense to me, some of it doesn't. it can be made organic, it could be efficient, and could reduce the transportation costs (financial and environmental) of shipping our food. some say that green roofs are better overall. a very thorough post on the topic can be found here, which includes links to despommier's (the main proponent) site and his interview with stephen colbert.


one idea (pictured above) that's pretty hard to argue with is growing food in window space. using hydroponics, you can still get a lot of light, it helps with heat and cold retention, oxygen production and end up with beautiful plants, growing without soil. it's like greenhouses or sun porches but for office spaces and homes.


the comic above basically decribes my feelings of lawns. i don't have one (as i live in a loft on the top of a storefront building (with a nearly green roof!). if you have a lawn, at least use a reel-mower (below) if you can't grow a more diverse natural space than grass.


on the fun tip, these lawn furniture ideas (below) are awesome. i'd want one if i had a lawn... who needs to build furniture when you can grow it?


there are a billion other ideas that are important. one could get into the importance of organic food production (and the stupidity of popular claims otherwise), the environmental dangers of computers (like coltan mining, carcinogenic manufacturing conditions, toxic disposal and electricity use), carbon offsets, grey-water systems (like the washing machines that connect to your toilet) or plastics made from pig urine. we could go into the dangers of compact flourescent bulbs and how cool led technology is. we could discuss all the basic, popular efforts. we could survey more in-depth analysis. we could talk about how even kids take great steps to fix these issues. or we could just eat endangered animals (seriously?).

i could talk about my personal practice of greening things, and maybe sometime i will. the important thing to realize is that alternatives exist, have existed, and will continue to be created. all we need to do is educate ourselves and big business how intelligent, necessary and even profitable these ideas are.

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