Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe (C.D Broad). Language and social constructivism turn the brain into a filter of reality, one that inhibits us from understanding the collective totality of our reality and turns society into herd animals incapable of independent reasoning. Coincides with Nietzche's position on man being born into and limited by his contructs.
Collective delinquency. This is what marketing, branding, collective religion (i.e. as opposed to individual religion), family structures and the general consensus in our imbalanced societies preach. No wonder the banks, Republicans, elitists, fashion firms, media houses and politicians got so wealthy ! Milking comformity is profitable business !
A letter from Scarlet Ricochet to the wandering flickers of her youth.
When the moment is gone and faded with the passing wind, mourn not for it for I am with you still and I will forever linger upon your shoulder as long as the sun shines upon this beautiful world.
Fear nothing, stop at nothing, take nothing less than the most beautiful flower of fate in your dainty hands.
Life passes people by as they find themselves scheming the grandest plots and stringing the wittiest tales of self betterment. My friend, be wise and dance in the shadows of the moment you live in presently.
Do not fret nor fumble about the ways of the future for they will avail themselves to you as surely as the day avails itself to the dark and wandering night.
Many a time, I fear I have lost all faith in humanity, melancholic as it may sound. The world around me is falling apart and the air is heavy with the fumes of exploded glass-shards and the decaying scent of recently extinct species.
Consider this:
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. We live in a world in which we have somehow prioritised the ability to blow our entire universe up an indefinite amount of times over feeding the poor and the needy within our global society. Still, we arrogantly presume that we are the most intelligent species on this planet, yet how intelligent is a species that willingly and consciously brings about its own extinction ? How intelligent is a species that has the ability to co-exist in perfect harmony with itself and its natural environment yet that somehow manages to do neither ?
I feel desperate and disconsolate and i'm consigned to writing about mere facts that everyone is already aware of to quell my frustration as I continue to live amongst the wasteland of materialism and consumerism within which I find myself, a wasteland that plunders the rest of the world for its resources so that we, the West can prosper whilst a modern day Holocaust of poor people the world over suffer and die in abject poverty.
My generation and the one before it remain passive and cool-headed, too unconcerned to care about the fate of the generations after us. The youth of my day waste their time talking animatedly about orchestrating systemic change before assimilating into the flaws of the same very system and dropping all their lofty, idealistic rhetoric. That's all we do, you, me and everyone else of this generation that could have changed the world- we talk, we draft plans and lofty resolutions just like the U.N do and we hope some deus ex machina will fall from the heavens to do our job for us. If talking about all we could do could cure the world's ills, we'd long since have rid this earth of its inequalities and injustice. The fact is however, talking cures nothing and recognising that there is a problem and a need to act is an amateur step in solving it that we should have gotten past hundreds of years ago.
What is hence the solution to our plight ?
Politicians need to be held accountable for their actions, democracy needs to be completely overhauled, world debt needs to be scrapped, grain and meat surpluses from the developed world need to cease to exist, so do import tariffs. The religious institutions of the world need to have their power annullled. More people have died pursuing religious crusades in the history of the earth than have been killed in all the plagues and natural disasters that we've seen. Schooling needs to reformed- people need to be taught how to be human first, how to love their brothers and sisters from all walks of life first before loving the sciences, math and other disciplines. Humanities as a subject need to be prioritized within the schooling system. Economics need to become resource based and financial institutions need to be under the control of the people, not family-run cash cows as they are currently. Political leadership needs to be a peer to peer process. No one man or woman should be held accountable for the leadership of any nation, why not have one constitutionally elected leader per every x number of inhabitants, all of whom are to have equal rights and should ideally hail from different backgrounds and social classes ? Peer to peer sharing and peer to peer politics, the possibilities are endless. It's too late to be a pessimist ! Source
For the wind that lies still, in waiting The misty evening promise compensating The dim hue of the amplified light Far out, hazed and out of sight
For the sun that's gone and departed The fallen stranger, benevolent and bold-hearted The cold glare of the arriving plight Vanished, vacant vapid and contrite
Danish electro pop darlings When Saints Go Machine caused something of a divine mayhem at their concert at Stor Vega a couple of weeks back. I managed to make it to the concert and write an article for the Copenhagen Post about them :
Their music is a cross between Andy and the Johnsons and Hercules and Love Affair with a witty twist: Give them a listen below (You can also check out "Kenton Slash Demon", the second of the two videos below. KSD is The WSGM's sister project composed of 2 of the members of the band and represents the wilder, more erratic sound that's fitted so seamlessly with Jonas Kenton's rich falsetto renditions in his capacity as the Saints lead singer.
It's mid-November and the nights are long and laden with a tar-esque abyss of blackness that seeps through the ether with a sharp and decadent vengeance. I long for the warm, sweeping days of summer and for the winter's swift passing as I prance around restlessly indoors where it's warm and calm. I'm reminiscent, nostalgic for the memories of the laughs and smiles of times gone by as I glide through my psyche on my chariot of thoughts.
Back to the primordial.
The Promise of tepid nights on the savannah.
Oh how I linger and long,
For the promise of a tepid night
The smile on your face upon your delight
For the clasp of your hand in mine
For the witticism of a split moment stolen from time
For the flickers of your blue eyes
The rose blush on your cheeks as you sigh
For the bond of your happiness to mine
For the silence of an isolated insurgence, riddled with rhyme.
We are larger, smaller and equal to the universe simultaneously. Atom democracy is governed by equality unlike our own far-fetched political doctrines. It follows that the inequalities of the world must have arisen from our interpretation of the relative nature of the universe. Reality must be relative for everyone, how can it possibly be standardised to solicit the collective conscience of all 7 billion plus of us ?
A poem I wrote last year:
I never did see the lie that the others saw, Through fiery earth and pouring rain, the spring’s thaw I did wish to envisage this poignant transgression Subtle in its vengeance, rabid in its regression
I never did bear witness to the simple sinfulness of conformity Alone and maladroit, devoid of the slightest dignity I did hope to embrace this delicate, derided passion Subdued by her wit, mighty in her right
I never did pay homage to the wilfulness of indignity Acrid and putrid, a horse tail hair short of insanity I never did smooch this imbued pilgrimage Eroded, exhausted and enshrined in the wispy plumage of this adage
I did bear witness to this ship sinking And rallied with the decadent masses, and their malevolent manners I did watch the slipstream slip beneath my feet. And into the wilderness we wandered, meek, minute and mild
The social inequalities that characterise the modern day world within which we live are, for lack of a better word, appalling. 1 out of every 6 individuals lives below the poverty line in abject starvation and social malaise. In fact, two thirds of the planet slaves away for the benefit of the remaining third, who live in comparitive luxury. Colonisalism and Post-Colonialism continue to hamper efforts at reversing such odds, as do corrupt political systems in the very countries in need of help. By and large the efforts of governments in tackling the issue of social inequality and worldwide poverty are nothing short of a total failure for they only succeed in either providing short term, spur-of-the moment solutions or, more commonly, in reproducing the repressive elements of the class system that defines the majority of political regimes of our age.
Private organisations such as Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, Denmarks oldest and largest aid organisation is a private NGO that's supported in part by the Danish Institute for Aid Abroad, DANIDA and for the better part by private donors, are the way forward in aid-related matters. MS works with established local and civil organisations in numerous nations in Africa, Central America and Asia, with the aim of providing help to self-help to citizens of these countries who find themselves faced with poverty-related problems. The solutions to such challenges are by no means simple and straightforward. MS works towards sustainable, long-term relief to issues such as corruption, unfair trade and illegal land use. Emphasis here is on working with local residents and not dictating terms as has been the case with numerous aid models hitherto; help to self-help as it were.
A clear example of the working model of MS would be the horn of Africa, a region that is currently home to over 10 million starving citizens in what is possibly the worst drought experienced in the area. MS is currently involved in the donation of immediate food and medical aid to those afflicted due to the acute nature of the problem at hand. However, longer term solutions are also in motion; these include the construction of water containers that will be used in collecting rainwater that can be stored up for periods of future drought and working together with local farmers to establish better cultivation techniques that will improve harvest yields. Improved harvests allow for the storing up of food supplies that can also be turned to in times of future drought.
Monthly donations of 70, 100, 150 and 200 Kroner respectively can be made through MS' webpage or via the team of fundraisers that scour Copenhagen's streets in search of potential members. These donations get multiplied tenfold by the Danish Institute for Aid Abroad, DANIDA who also monitor the way in which the funds get used and publish statistics germane to the above.
For tonight we have seen and dreamed and danced, with more intensity than in all of my wandering days in this bewildering maze of life. I love every minute of it, every second, every passing particle that is part of the ballad of sensory bombardment that pelters my conscience. The air is heavy with the thick scent of campfire smoke, of wet wood that's told its story to the voracious dark. There's a hanging intermittence over it all, it's as if it never happened.
Tonight's story will live on, in pictures, in colour, in tapestry, in words, in dance, in the lofty grandeur of a memory set in stone, cast in the continuity of the winds, today, tomorrow, forever and yesterday.
Pics by Allan Mutuku Kortbæk and Monsieur Jason Moisio
TED is one of the few television shows left that has some sort of educational and moral value in the wasteland of popular television of the age in which we live.
Here's a particularly interesting excerpt from TED, Dr Paul Zak's position on the release of oxytocin, the molecule that gets released by humans in times of empathy.
Oxytocin, a.ka. the moral molecule is the chemical that's released in the brain as a result of empathy with and trust in other human beings, strangers included. Dr Zak maintains that oxytocin can be released through amongst other things, hugs, random acts of kindness and wait for it... the use of social media.
Check out the full video below. It's all quite logical, wouldn't you agree?
