re-volutions (or, "I tried to be a rabble rouser, but the rabble wouldn't rouse")

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 [rhizomatic reference #101]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Even a pawn can take down a king"

  

 

 

- from The Terminal List: Dark Wolf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People, people, people -

There are a lot of people, you & me

There's more money, more money, more money

Than people, people, people.

But people, with enough money, move

People with less, to do

What they would rather not do themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why money, money, money

Can move people, people, people

is because people have agreed

that money can be turned into anything

That the people have, or can make, or can do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, few people now are set to survive

Without the operations of the tower of what money

Has built: the roads, hospitals, plumbing, etc.

And that machine, like all things, can decay -

just like the cars that drive a large sector

of the economy; upkeep, operation, repair, replacement,

construction, from miniscule scale to macro.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many people are employed (globally), just because

people want to, or have to, use and buy cars? And,

what if, suddenly, people just don't need cars any more?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big factor of why people get out of bed and are forced (?)

To go into a job to "make ends meet" and as much

luxury as possible or desired, would go up

in smoke. And, people would still Want to go places

and cars make that happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUT, if all those people in employed in [X] industry

Decided, hey, you know, i don't like all this rush

and hubbalaboo. I don't need a car that can give me

directions to kalamazoo - I can read a damn map myself.

Then maybe a whole lot of people could take it a little easier.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'd have to take more direct control of food production, however,

since the farmers want something in exchange for the food,

and the truckers want something in exchange for the driving,

and the gasmen want something in exchange for the gas, etc.

AND, all those people, even if they really wanted to do all

those things for free, they really couldn't even if they

wanted to, at least because there would be no trucks if no-one

built any cars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we'd have to cut out trucks to cut out the gasman, which

means that all the food would have to be much closer. Which

means people would be more involved in food production if only

due to proximity and acquaintance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, whatever, people may or may not want to spend more personal

time in the sourcing of their sustenance - the point is,

that if people collectively would like to chill out, we're

still gonna have to work somehow, at least to repair the

machines that do the work we don't care to do any more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And those machines themselves have a tail that 

follows them around through human activity streams 

- ie. lets say we have enough space, and have built some 

mechanical contraption that can do enough farming to feed us, 

one person or whatever, that is solar powered. We

would still need the whole socio-economic machinery to produce

those solar panels and bring them to wherever we happen to be: 

we'd still need a truck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So even if we can somehow get more of our time back and 

collectively take a breather, all those who have built to this point 

did it for us, even if they didn't want to - an apparent karmic debt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We live and Act our stories within the works of dead men 

and women, drive on highways born in the minds of 

dead government workers. Repopulating buildings with human 

activity in our cities that were built centuries ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So thanks, all you eternally great grandpas... 

you made it so we all seem to have to run

on a treadmill, but at least we have neat toys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. wars a racket gonna rachet up more tho ..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. but perhaps the world doesn't end with a bang; 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it could end with a whimper, as T. S. Eliot would say,


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that of old ways of being & doing ending ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. causing changes so definitive as to justify saying, 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"the world of our ancestors no longer exists .." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"See, greatness takes more than talent and hard work. It's about surviving the death of who you used to be"

 

 

 

- from Him 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. shades, thus named because 

 

 

 

 

 

"all writers, all creators, are shadows" 

 

 

 

- Gilles Deleuze, Negotiations 

 

 

 

 

 

, was thinking, '..I can at least partly empathize with those con servatives who yearn for a supposedly "better" yesteryear, or rather I pity them .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. certainly, there were certain aspects of the past that were better than they are now, but it's also the case that there isn't a way to go back to that .. other than in memory, that is ..'

.. & yet, if the past surpassed the present in certain respects, is it still possible to retain or regain these without the 'baggage', the not so great bits ..? .. while that remains an open question, it's possible to explore trajectories for further research ..

.. surely there should be a prize for transposing theses & laws from physics into the fields of psychology & sociology, & Cory Doctorow should win it .. we've often argued here that the physical & mental spheres aren't clearly separated but rather porous & inter-con nected in @LL sorts of interesting ways; as above, so below & all that ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. Doctorow outlined the idea of Enshittification, the seemingly inexorable deterioration & degeneration of internet services & platforms with time, & what is that if not a restatement of the second law of thermodynamics (that order in a system similarly degenerates with time) ..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the Strauss–Howe generational theory describes a sequence of generations in US & Western history that go through cycles, rising then deteriorating with time .. according to this thesis, we're currently in what the theorists call the fourth turning, which started in 2008, & is supposed to end around 2033 .. assuming we last that long ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the theorists understand the fourth turning as one of 'crisis', & surely we can agree that the current 'state' of the world, such as it is, couldn't possibly warrant a more apropos designation .. the fourth turning is understood to be marked by degeneration in a wide range of fields, including wars, revolutions, & a degree of societal collapse, to list just some of the more notable characteristics ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  it's also important to emphasize that each past fourth turning was followed by a cyclic historical recurrence of a new 'first turning', a new high distinguished by strong institutions, an overall optimistic society, & notable achievements in all fields ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. indeed, there is no reason to assume this will not eventually come to pass in the next decade .. & surely we should @LL look forward to the end of this infamous, iniquitous, ignominious trajectory we're on currently, & the beginning of something new .. that is, if we fail to destroy the world & everyone & everything in it in the interim ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

an agentic afterword 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. it's important to keep in mind that all theories & models are just that; reifications of an ever shifting reality into images of thought that reflect it more or less accurately, but never perfectly .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. still, anyone who claims that what transpires over the next decade will not determine humanity's fate has a lot of heavy intellectual lifting ahead of them to demonstrate why this isn't the case .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  the battle for humanity's very soul will be waged by people acting in the world today, & not by models that have already determined the outcome, the latter being not so much the nature of the future, but rather whether or not we will have one .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. we should count ourselves lucky to live in such interesting times ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"They think the coming disaster is going to be ecological; that the problem is political, but no, no, the great war is psychological"

 

 

 

- from The Prisoner 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & maybe origin stories don't "sell" any more cuz somehow, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

everybody knows we're closer to the end .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

e(po)c(ha)lypse (death feigning)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. the distance between the finite & the infinite is infinity ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. so learn to think laterally ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. @LL of the Masters do this ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  linear thinking only works for accounting ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. & yet, there is no authority higher than the human imagination ..  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Back from the bellows of hell
Back from the back of a jail in the cell
Back from the gun and the priest to the con and the creed
Back to the streets from the East
Back to the belly of beast
Back to the place of my peace
Back to me holding my piece
Anything working disturbing that peace
Will certainly meet the deceased, capiche?"

 

 

- Run the Jewels, Let's Go (The Royal We)

.. many will live to see the collapse of modern human civilization .. or so, in any case, has been theorized by a number of researchers, such as Graham Turner, Dr Luke Kemp & Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, among a disturbingly long list of others .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  Ahmed is, perhaps, the optimist among them; he argues that it's still possible to avert such a global catastrophe if we collectively make the right choices .. this both makes sense logically & is just as it should be energetically .. who else would have the capability & the authority to choose between humanity's triumph or tragedy but us..?

.. no one is coming to save us .. but, by the same token, if we fall, it's our response ability; our liability ..

.. so the zombies are us (or at least metaphors for those among us who unthinkingly endorse & promote outmoded ways of thinking, or technologies); the hostile aliens are us (or a way to depict those of us who prioritize destructive tendencies, such as domination & malice) .. the demons from deepest hell .. are none other than us (or a symbol that stands for submission to our most myopic & base desires) .. 

.. but if we look at these symbols from that perspective, what are we to make of the gods..?

We have our zero-point of reference in both our lives' and cultural trajectories, in birth or founding, as well as in geometry and counting. But would that be a quiet zero or an active zero? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first push, so to speak, and the ball starts rolling downhill, gathering up people and languages, sciences and arts, as it continue to spin, turning down whatever local slippery slope space-time hills to slide down that it comes across. Still calm lakes of time or raging rivers crossing ways.

Seven days of the week, seven planets - Monday starts the working week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another start to a cycle: a school year, a harvest season, the descent into colder temperatures. I think it's safe to say that (|some|) things repeat. Some cycles turn with a leverage outside of our ability to make an effect, and others seem to only be there because some human somewhere designed to set a date for an event. Which could even be in the future of some undetermined apocalypse that [every|many] seem|s] to want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fortelling of an event, its preshadow, all the time energy a la Kozyrev pent up, bending things out of its way in order to make room for what MUST occur, as we know where the sun will be at any moment. Events break in like water through a bursting dam; but, the pressure is always there - - - going somewhere else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We celebrate recurrences of events as they lie in circles of repetition; my birthday, the solstice and equinox. Something the same as the entrance of the natal happens at each year's turning, same as with the moon and other celestial bodies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much, much more is different - the surroundings have changed, the natal's response as an embodied mind has changed - but at least that one something, where the sun is in the sky, is the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet it is so difficult to see all the other recurrences, except occasionally. For me, the best approach I've found it to look for the similarities between all things. Where are the yellow, blue and red things? All the plants or animals - how is the tree of life very much like a real tree?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still, although the epochalypse is always upon us, these times seem to be cycling back through apocalyptic trajectories - yet but I wonder, if these are not (wholly) naturally timed cycles, but that there are people who aim to have their machinations combine and amplify any effect due to "natural" recurrence.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. misfits on the LL pirate ship .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & a yo ho ho & a bottle of fun ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
.. perhaps we should take such predictions with a grain of salt .. after all, how many times has the end of the world been "foreseen" .. ? .. doesn't appear to have ended, though, for all that ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. it's not hard to argue that that's a superficial reading .. for one thing, it depends how we define "the end of the world" .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. are we talking a ball of barren desert, the obliteration of everything that exists, the revelation of some extraterrestrial or extradimensional entity or entities that will change life in such a fundamental way that it would indeed be most accurate to describe it as an ending, essentially different from a (resulting) new beginning that would be heretofore unrecognizable in some fundamental manner..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. in fact, none of the referenced researchers so much as mention "the end of the world" .. rather, as scholars tend to be, they're precise in their use of language .. "the collapse of human civilization" .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. but wait, hasn't human civilization collapsed years, decades or centuries ago, as certain con servative elements boldly proclaim .. !? .. honestly, doesn't look like it, & the vast majority of humans seem to enjoy living standards undreamed of in their ancestors' most decadent fantasies, though it sure would be nice if this could be extended to plants, animals & the earth itself ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. in any case, doesn't human civilization collapse daily, in a manner of speaking, in sleep .. ? .. still, over the long term, deeper habits & routines, which correlate with abiding & interconnected energetic structures, persist .. indeed, it is precisely these very webs of interrelation which would deteriorate or even cease to function, or even to exist, in a collapse of human civilization scenario ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the resulting changes in how we live, & indeed the extent to which life itself remains a viable option, are perhaps impossible to overstate .. come to think of it, maybe reading this (apparently possible & indeed likely) scenario as the end of the world (as we've hitherto known it), isn't such a stretch, after all ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  .. the body also speaks ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" .. thus sayeth the bored: for if the foundation be bullshit, & the very roots be bullshit, then shall the entire edifice, yea, the very fruit thereof, be bullshit of bullshit .."

 

 

 

 - from the revealed (yet somehow still somewhat con cealed) sayings of shades

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. to go to battle against reason is literally sheer folly; diffoccult, even .. why not ally with it instead .. & when every billionaire is building a bunker, then surely it's not so far-fetched to seriously con sider the possibility that the epochalypse is at hand .. better yet, now might be the best possible time to prepare for such a circumstance, in any way that u can .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. keep Working till u win, & then, Work again..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & if u know another Way to succeed, you've been deceived ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

re:claim your Self (or, the gilded grifters)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Water has no enemies .. only friends"

- from Washington Black 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. shades (.. thus named because he was a lifelong wanderer, ever seeking the shade ..) reflected thus(ly): I'm a restless person who gets bored easily; & good luck satisfying someone like that ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & how, in any case, do you become who you've always wanted to be ..? .. it's easy; you decide to .. it's sticking with it that's the real challenge .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. needless to say, perhaps, that you'll meet with many diversions, not to mention distractions, on the Way to becoming who you are, but I'm stubborn, & I'm just not good at surrendering ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. William S Burroughs, a real dyed in the wool psychonaut, writing in Naked Lunch, said "Hustlers of the world, there is one Mark you cannot beat: The Mark Inside" ..  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. without a strong con nection to an inner Guide, things can veer off track fairly fast .. the Self whispers in moments of inner quiet, & listening is a skill that can be honed like any other; with patient, yet persistent, practice ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. more Mysteries exist than time to study them, is the magician's real curse .. so choices & priorities are inevitable .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. to take just one example, tho surely a con temporary one that's arguably increasingly pertinent: is there a deeper, esoteric meaning to so-called artificial intelligence (a better term for which might be "synthetic intelligence" ..?

 

 .. in engaging with it, it's important to keep in mind the epistemic uncertainly of AI, what with 'hallucinations' etc .. but one could also think of it as an infestation which, eventually, will cause an inoculation against this particular flaw ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  it might even result in people being more picky about defining facts & figures .. or so one might hope ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't it all a little odd? You can't quite put your word on it, irreducible. Man vs man vs woman vs dog. The spectacle of it all - and then what? The glory carnival of souls turns on (and on), for some reason. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe we're unwilling to admit that there could be some kind of biological / energetic structures above us in the food chain, but we should at least be able to admit as obvious that there are people who are further up the economic pyramid or intra-species food chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All it takes is a dollar to buy some humans' souls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems like this has all happened before... It has, but it was different back then. The major signposts along the way mark out similar segments in time and the macrocosmic orbits are crisper and more constant than the more varied minutiae of the meso-cosm. Great batteries of motion ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[There's no point in trying to tie these forces into those set aside for use in technological apparatus (for the moment) {and i bet someone already has, but its use is not at my disposal and I must figure it out for myself}. You can just start with the geometry. Euclid is a guide to the location and construction of forms in the environment, right?]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roaring 20s, appeasement, brutality against "the other": every nation sitting in a different chair. If World War II didn't end, what better time for a reunion than right about now? Remember the national socialists' concern with eugenics way back then, and now the ghastly recurrence shown in Maxwell / Epstein conspiracy that turned out to be real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If my memory serves correctly, the UFO phenomena cropped up more seriously WWII days and not so long ago there'd been a whole push for transparency on the US Government's knowledge regarding such whacked out shit as flying saucers and little green men. But, hey, if the elite are running sex rings & at the same time giving speeches to the UN, who's to say ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, then there's Antarctica too. Piri Reis map, etc. Atlantis, whatever...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give me bigfoot any old day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember that magic, science, religion, statecraft, art and music were all once united. They did serve to subject and control populations to build out the visions of priestly kings and their courts, though. So there's that, and let me ask you a question: do you like where things seem to be currently headed these days?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe your personal life is cozy enough, I hope, but what about the trajectories of those tectonic masses of people that seem to be implied by all the current goings on? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn man, what does a trajectory of that sort even look like at a scale that could be remotely possible to deal with? Little bitty unit there, little human, I'll represent you by X and you start going over this way, then that way, etc. Now start punching that guy over there, ok great.

 

I mean, how long ago was it that Obama had been elected? The whole tenor was different. Honestly, what could change the psycho-emotional gestalt to such a degree?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did anything ACTUALLY happen? Or are some orbs swinging around?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[[Loath as I am to say it: ChatGPT (et al.) could probably help me figure it out. worth mentioning that local LLMs can function as totally private search?]]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. it's only a "con spiracy theory" if it's wrong ..

.. remember that ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. but if it's true, then it's a fact .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(w)hol(e)istic(k) (days/daze/dais)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If you wanna talk about reputations, and if by some fuckin' miracle long shot you haven't heard of my reputation, let me tell you who the fuck I am. I am the fuckin' sultan of slick, Sadie. I am the rule of fuckin' cool. You wanna be a gangster? You wanna be a thug? You sit at my fuckin' feet. Gather the pearls that emanate forth from me. Because I'm the fuckin' original, straight-first-foremost, pimp-mack fuckin' hustler, original gangster's gangster"

 

- from Gigli

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" .. morality is unethical. To always be told what to do and when to do it, even if only through an internalized moral code or religious law, is to be denied even the condition of possibility for ever becoming an ethical person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethics is a question of developing one’s own character – in terms of attitudes, habits, and inclinations conditioned by various experiences that afford one an opportunity to act in ways that determine and express a certain telos or aim in one’s life.

Only a free spirit is ethical. Anyone who needs a moral code handed to him or her, with a specific set of commandments and prohibitions, does not even have the possibility of being ethical. Such a person is not consulting his own conscience or cultivating her own character"

 

 

 

- Jason Reza Jorjani, The Philosophy of Zarathustra

 

Store current texture

Load spectral data

repeat...

process, react

next frame

data incoming ->

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

receipt acknowledged

forward to recipient:

-- . -- . - .. -.-.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information overload

too much to hash

 

revert commit / migrate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

shutdown \ restart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

acid flush repair body

Up and At'em (Ra)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time spent in transit

there and back again...

...and then there again

 

 

 

 

 

 

homebase, supply chains, food

salt, salaries: paper dolls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a crane ducking under

a stream to captcha frog

 

 

 

 

 

 

human or not? we'll need

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

your blood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to prove it: sign on

[the dotted line]



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

blink, don't blink

can you adjust your frame rate?

and, what about those power surges

where the lights go dark 

quickling, then on; but,

digital equipment continues in operation


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a wave of night

material shadow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Distance between the straight John and the wise guy is not good or evil. It's just knowing what's going on"

- from Henry Johnson

.. you really wanna be a master, learn everything there is to know about yourself .. but not at second hand; from your own experience .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. 'know yourself' is an idea often attributed to Socrates, the father of Western philosophy, but he learned it from the Delphic Oracle, a much older tradition .. other scholars attribute it to the Chinese strategist Sun Tsu, and to African schools of thought ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. in any case, it isn't a stretch by any means to say that anyone who's seriously undertaken esoteric research has been guided by this idea, in some Way ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. this isn't a selfish, self-indulgent or solipsistic undertaking .. on the con trary, it is only through attuning & engaging with our own subjective reality that we can form correlations & con nections to the "simulation", the shared hallucination that is the "real" world .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. the master is thus called because they've mastered themselves, having studied & learned its secrets .. at that point, some are satisfied, having real eyes-ed that nature's own code is in everything, including us .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. others, having reached the same crossroads, reason that to master oneself is to master the world, & subsequently set out to demonstrate that thesis in practical terms ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

".. someone has to watch the watchmen .. "

 

- from Ballard 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. there are listeners & those who know .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the former have peace but lack wisdom,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

whereas the latter have wisdom, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but no peace .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. so choose well ..

.. I have friends everywhere ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle"

 

 

 

- George Orwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. even in first class, there's turbulence ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"success breeds complacency .. complacency breeds hubris .. hubris breeds arrogance"
 

 

 

- from MobLand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was dada particularly philosophical other than just the starting point that everything is absurd?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took it more as an attempt at showing a miniaturized representation of the underlying "insane / meaningless / absurd" incongruities of modern living for human organisms at that point in historical time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But also that that art which is displayed on walls is not all that different from the experienced life of a people, and that the boundary between art, or fiction, and reality becomes blurred when viewed through the lens of the absurd as a personal experience of the imposing, impersonal, piece of art that is the civilization and culture created by our long dead ancestors, or not even that, but the civilization of some conquering people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The absurd is still “art”, even if there was a controversy at the time. It was, is, maybe the art we are forced into confronting - and if our way of living is absurd, and the absurd is a form of art, maybe our way of life needs a very intentional remodeling along some different aesthetic thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t have to be the experience we are all forced to live through, but also, a sufficiently large number of people have to agree to give the living piece of art that is a civilization and culture the vital force to sustain it over some timespan. Which requires a very high degree of collaboration on a set of minimum values.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, people got to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet, now in particular, it is obvious that that boundary between the real and unreal, illusory, or at best possibly real, is deteriorating. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simulation is cheaper that the real thing, or, will hifi word-churns replace the real, fleah-and-blood, deal?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"When did our lives get so empty that we have to constantly stuff them full of this shit?"

 

- from Your Friends & Neighbors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. if life is absurd, both generally & especially in the world of today, we can still give it our own meaning .. people find meaning in work, in family & their children, in larger organizations that make them feel part of something important ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. but then what happens when one or more of these disappoints them in some way, & they lose that sense of meaning ..? .. well, they often spiral into nihilism or give into self- or other-destructive tendencies .. maybe there's a firmer foundation on which to base & from which to derive one's meaning ..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the esoteric practitioner is the center, the very heart of their own magickal universe ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. now, in thinking thrugh this point & its implications, it's important to be careful to avoid hyperbole & especially reflexive & oppressive either/or binaries.. it's not about choosing between self & others .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & yet, all of our experiences, decisions & actions are from our own perspective, so it's phenomenologically accurate to ground one's sense of meaning within ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  to seek & find meaning esoterically, in this Way, is thus accurate to experience & more sincere; deeper, because it doesn't depend on, nor is it subject to, other people & organizations .. but this doesn't mean that others are somehow unimportant or expendable .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  if one is the center of one's magickal universe, then the response ability for their actions & their con sequences are also their own .. in actual fact, it's not possible to build a functional, let alone a fruitful society unless this is the case .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. what does it mean to seek & find meaning within ..? .. well, it isn't something that can be pointed to, like an object; inner meaning being literally subjective .. nor is it an inner state, like an emotion ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. finding one's inner meaning would entail a search to seek it out, & moreover, it may well change over time .. but once it is actually gnown, it becomes like a center from which one's decisions & actions emerge, a foundation for one's position & effects in the world ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the magician is the center of their own magickal universe, & they are response able for its outcome; whether it flowers & flourishes, or degenerates & devolves ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"No, truth is not a mirror. Truth is a Promethean torch burning amidst the darkness of predominating occultation. This is why I say that every ‘truth’ has the violence of a Promethean act of theft"

 

 

 

- Jason Reza Jorjani, Aletheion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. we run it like a business, we run it like an op; 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we run it like a Workshop ..