my daughter falls asleep in a warm room rich in ambiance. the hum of an air-conditioner in the window, the whir of a humidifier on the dresser, and the persistent music from an mp3 player are all there to lull her to sleep. i muse to myself about the narcotic life-support systems we create for ourselves. though, i also wonder about the countless, tribal aborigines babies raised, on every continent, naked in the night wind and under the stars, with only their parents to protect them. how far can man go, multiplying in number, devouring resources around him and replacing them with that which he creates? is our species one of gods-in-training? are we only postponing the end of a life-cycle? or are we missing the point entirely? as we become more and more dependent on the synthetic world we learn to create for ourselves, i daydream of a nameless tribe that never existed…
a class of neutrality will inherit the earth.
call them ‘meek’ if you like. i don’t trust thousand-
year-old translations. conscientious objectors will wear
their unsolicited and un-avenged scars like badges of victory when
obsolete ‘parties’ and ‘sides’ have fallen to dust. you cannot force human beings
into biased categories they reject. “…with us or against us!”, only exists in your limited
imagination. we do not support you. and we will not oppose you.
(until you compromise our human rights)
one of his favorite past-times
was making calls on his cell phone
while he smoked a cigarette and ate
packets of artificial sweetener in front
of the microwave, in hopes of a luscious
tumor sprouting in his head which would
grow and grow and grow, slowly crowding
out the rest of his senses and brain function.
until, in its enormity, the ripe, bulbous cyst
would explode in horrific, rapturous form
and then he would comprehend the true
nature of infinity, or understand why
life exists in this universe. though,
really he should be watching his
kids, or voting or something.
but it’s a hard call to make when
you’re instilled with a looming sense
of senseless ineffectuality for the whole
of the species. how does one strengthen
and protect the next generation for its own
trials of futility with credit, crime, war, spam
and all the other predators and tyrants that
we accept as the natural and inevitable
expression of humankind? not that he
was one to think of us as trapped
by our past. but, it wasn’t hard
to study the limitations of man’s
intellect and compassion with so many
examples of its defeat at the hand of instinct
and barbarism. did no hope exist at all, he would
not promote and prolong the lives of those within
his influence. he’s merely reserved in expectation
of positivity. and expresses his fear for others in
cynicism and occasionally conceit. certainly,
he over-esteems his influence with some.
as he under-esteems his influence with
others. but, we none quite know our
-selves as a part of those things
which we are a part of.
it has been said
that each generation
wants and aims for its children
to have a better life than they have had.
in the past that may have been as straightforward
as devoting enough dedication and hard work into elevating
your offspring into the next socio-economic bracket. however, in a time
when our species is reaching its pinnacle in so many ways, i believe that what parents
will be called upon to provide will change. the upcoming generation will not need economic
resources or status quite as much as they will need foresight and guidance. because, when CNN
tells you the US dollar isn’t worth a thing it will be too late. and five miles is farther than
you thought when you have to transport enough water for a family of four
without a car. i won’t go into reiterating conditions and causes
bound to coalesce in our future. by now, most of it
is known to all, unless they are stuck in
the rose-colored 1950’s or 80’s.
one of those post-war booms
where the people’s chauvinistic moral
was stroked by the state, and their mortal fear was
stoked by the media. this is a productive combination. China
uses some variation of it. but, anyway… this theme of role migration isn’t
anything new. with growing knowledge of agriculture humans shifted from nomadic life
to farming. with the industrial revolution the bulk of occupations shifted to production labor.
with the technological revolution the majority of vocations (in the first world) rotated to
the information sciences. so, it only makes sense that as we near the summit
of the curve we can make a choice to take a precipitous fall back to 17th
century technology and population, or we can loosen our grip on
the past and embrace our new role of predicting and preparing
for some reasonable change in a way that is more acceptable.
they don’t believe in objective truth.
all they do believe is in dirt and carrion.
for, from a human perspective those are all
that one can be certain of having permanence.
the inspiring and bewildering magnificence
of our atoms, and glass, our mathematics,
and trans-orbital satellite networks
are all so transient and precarious.
and despite all this they find them
-selves more and more like their parents
each day. not that they don’t love and revere
their elders; they just never wanted to be like them.
with all that strength, prominence, and respectability
they never understood how there was any room for
the looming demands of an uncertain self. the
plan that they had held on to, to be lowly
and invisible, had begun to crumble
when a foot got caught in the cogs.
and after being pulled in and churned up,
it now, more closely, resembled a sorry form of
that which their time and place dictates they should
be. ’cause they’re all more foolish and impressionable
than they’d like to think.
Therapy
i would have to dismantle and reconfigure all the philosophical underpinnings upon which my fragile constructions of life and self are built.
well, if they’re fragile then they’ll be even easier to do that to.
are you sure that’s how that works?
no, but it sounds like a good enough theory, and the lab work is too time-consuming and ethically-questionable for us to venture into.
i guess i’m as angry at myself as i am every other shmuck-flawedDNA-sack going about their lives all around me.
angry at yourself for what?
besides being a human, i guess (as sad as it is) i’m angry that i haven’t “done” anything, haven’t “made a difference,” in essence that i feel so inconsequential.
how do you think an ant feels?
what the fuck kind of question is that? did you really just ask me that?
i was just thinking about it.
are you even listening?
ok, ok… so, you feel worthless?
now, don’t go putting fucking words in my mouth.
i didn’t intend to. i was only trying to recap. please, go on.
i don’t know… it’s just that i used to think i was the kind of person who could champion some meaningful cause or something. but, now i don’t even believe in ’causes,’ not even in the most fundamental sense.
which is?
determination, i mean.
if you’ve come to believe that none of us has any significant weight upon what does or does not happen, how are you supposed to live up to your own standards of “significance?”
indeed, a conflict of beliefs. …now, i’d be happy just to be able to care.
yes, a logical prerequisite for the afore and/or a sensible step down.
however, it seems to me that caring is an intrinsic ability or characteristic that one is either endowed with or isn’t. i can’t fathom a way to foster it from nothing.
hmm, try standing up for a moment.
[therapist stands up and swiftly boots the patient in the nut-sack]
tell me, do you care now?
eeerrrrr, nnnoooo.
oh, well that didn’t really go the way i saw it in my head. (but it still felt kinda good.)
maybe you’rrrre right thoooough. perhaps my perceived inability to care to no more than adherence to my general belief set which revolves around mortal impotence and predestination.
i’m not sure how you drew those parallels. but, i guess that’s what i was trying to say.
but then the problem is as stated at first. when dealing with something as vague and uncertain as metaphysical and ontological matters i would imagine it must take a turning point of a certain type and severity.
i think i might have read about that once.
and my life is friggin’ boring, though operable. so, it’ll be a while until i’m pushed to reshape the dysfunctional pieces of my psyche.
would it help if i kicked you in the balls again?
the new messiah will be a bastard
of bio-technology. i’m just calling it
right now, that’s all. as we lean more on
scientific advances, we correspond increasingly
via telecommunications. and so personal interaction
becomes simpler and more regimented. we gradually remove
the aspects of inflection, intonation, facial expression, and figurative
differentiation. we define ourselves as movie and song clips, web links,
borrowed and abused quotes, and touched-up jpegs. on the other hand,
technology is learning to ‘think’ more like a human mind. processors
are being developed to connect more freely and laterally. their
computations are beginning to account for context in a
variety of forms. and machines can build upon
their existing parameters based on past
results. IBM has created a computer
capable of playing Jeopardy, a game
of vast and varied form and proportion.
maybe we’ll all just trade places, who knows?
all that’s certain is we’re getting closer to common ground
every day. actually i believe the progress will be effectively staved off,
if not lost, by crises stemming from humankind’s optimistic mismanagement
of the resources necessary for, not only, innovation and industry, but survival itself.
…but that’s only natural.
he loved people
who said, ‘they didn’t
play games.’ because, he knew
that if it were true, then they would
be an outcast like himself. for all culture,
society, and tradition are but games. they say
college is for elitist snobs who think that
they’re better than the working man.
and blue-collar labor is only for
chumps and dolts with
more testosterone
than brain power. now,
where does that leave the rest
of us? what are we when we see only
what we are not? what do we do when we
know the flaws and faults that we’re destined to
pass on to, or instill in, others? what if we
know the self-invented monster’s life
of painful serenity because we
lived it, and still have no
answers for anyone?
i wish that i could have as
much patience with the majority
of human kind as i do with my daughter.
and i wish that i could have the unwavering
patience with my daughter that i would if granted
boundless selflessness and love. of course,
some would say that helplessness only
exists if you accept it. however,
i’d counter that accepting
helplessness is, in fact,
the route to understanding
and dealing with it. admittedly,
a fool’s paradise is quite enticing, too.
perhaps it is merely a matter of choice, and
one of the few we have. i watched a movie once
about a man who was incapable of feeling
comfortable or at home in any place
that was familiar to him. only
in a completely foreign
environment could
he experience the total
dissociative freedom of being
an outsider, unrestrained by himself
or others to observe, understand, and act
authentically. perhaps, this can bring us clarity
in the midst of (seeming) powerlessness.
when we manage to pare back more
layers and see with the wisdom
-hungry eyes of innocence
we may be reminded
of the most basic common
denominators that connect even
those things we least understand.
the human is a nostalgic beast.
he says the sunset is beautiful because
he knows it is from comparative mnemonic processes.
he will not actually feel much of anything until looking back on
the moment as a memory. in the present his mind is busy in cogitation.
maybe he’s trying to keep their craft on course, keep up a conversation with his
ship-mates, and appreciate the bouquet of the Italian cabernet in his glass while not
letting it spill above the rim of his glass with the rolling of the waves. that album in his
cassette player for his morning commute in the better part of ’98-’99 constitutes the
physical embodiment of his mean emotional range for that era, broken down
into twelve, silly, predictable (in hindsight) tracks. perhaps this partly
explains our affinity for botching things up and cutting off our
own noses. if we’re unable to appreciate our condition
until it’s in our past, perhaps we’re more likely
to usher ourselves out of one stage of
existence and into another. though,
whether our advanced adaptability
is an effect, or another contributing
factor of this is too far for even my nut-job
speculation.
i have blue balls
made of plastic hanging
from a half-dead, electrified,
evergreen conifer taking up half
of my dining-room. it makes me think;
(yes i still do that sometimes) what makes
us do the things we do? if i were alone i would
probably just put a yule log and some chestnuts on
the same skeleton that i pulled out of my closet
for halloween… or thanksgiving. but, i like
to do things that make the few people
i give a shit about in life happy.
i can’t blame it all on them,
besides. in the end, acting
average and conformable tends
to invite far less attention and scrutiny
than the alternative.
the american dream is the chicken IN the egg… that will never hatch. and if it did it would probably eat itself alive. the theory of class mobility and self-made-men fail with the general trends in means and status; specifically that they both preclude one another. not that meteoric rise is impossible, clearly. but, that such cases are not as much a reflection of work ethic and a nod to universal opportunity, as they are the exploitation of dialectic loopholes and/or the erratic power structure of our fashion-based culture. the mere existence of investing, the fact that “money makes money” ensures the reality of an economic gap. either one is so without means that they are never able to get ahead, or they are ahead and always getting more ahead. either: you have a beat-up 15 year-old truck that you can’t afford to inspect, register, or insure, and can barely put gas in, but need to drive it if you want to work and get a check. or you drive a new high-end vehicle that you have the means to pay people to fix and maintain perfectly so that it will retain its value for when you upgrade two years later. i’m digressing -but not, because what we’re really talking about is not directly finance or status, but image. self-image, image to others, these are the true players in how our position all sorts out. it’s an ambiguous system, at best. and whatever your place in life, rationalization tends to be key to sanity because, let’s face it, we all do bad shit. at one end, there is a certain romance in being a bottom feeder, be it capital, ethical, or what have you. there’s a feeling that you are somehow stronger or wiser than others stemming from the fact that you can and/or do live without some of the crutches or superficialities in their lives. at the other end, the highest up are generally held to be more intelligent, refined, resilient, important, or of more worth in one form or another. the in-between is only a messy, splotched, gradient of mediocrity. it’s like a cute, little, microcosm of our species’ progress. the poorest are stereotypically the strongest and most adapted to survive in a natural sense, but ignorant to modern science or culture. the richest are stereotypically the most knowledgeable of, and skilled in, specialized fields relating to human production or inquiry, but are weak out of their milieu and have lost touch with their larger sphere. and obviously, the middle-class vaguely engenders some of the pros and cons of both in less drastic degree. now, i know, you’re thinking; all this generalizing and judgment, this is deplorable!! however, i only simplify things to appreciate their true richness. to an extent i believe these assertions, though i recognize them as partial truths. from a distance, earth looks blue and white and green… but it is much more. the best part about these observations is the realization that our species is so varied and complex that the exceptions, the misfits, are innumerable. there are so many individuals out there that defy this reduction and categorization, people who sculpt their own place with a patchwork of influences from different strands of life –these are the ones will survive.
he presented a small, grey, box with a square bow on the top.
it promised nothing.
he opened it. a great volume of sand spilled out, and he said,
to know it is to count it.
and i thought i understood.
everything you ‘know’ (ie: believe) is attributable to an estimation of your own perception, or someone else’s authoritative (sounding) presentation of theirs. once you recognize the inconsistency and relativity of this, the world takes on another shape. for life’s generalities, this may work fine. but the more specific the point in question, the more complicating factors there are to compromise the calculation or evaluation of increasingly specific evidence.
perhaps we are lucky that there are those who are willing to dedicate lifetimes to the study of one receptor on one type of neuron under one set of particular conditions. …or perhaps we’re not. for, even if something is to be learned, our social pathways of disseminating information -though advanced in areas- amounts to little more than privatized games of telephone across nations and ages.
did mention i have ants? i kill a lot of them. and i found myself wondering how and/or by what/whom the decision is made to distribute the colony’s resources between harvesting potential food sources, scouting for other sources, and attending the hive. if i keep stepping on the suckers, at what point do their losses become unacceptable? is it determined by chance? do the ants know math? are they instilled with another sense? is there a program, or is it situational? these are things i will never know. and thusly, perhaps am never meant to know. it would take many years of studying thousands of laboratory-bred control ants to even approach an acceptable conclusion. maybe, it’s nature’s way of attempting to make us focus our interest and effort on those things that it wants us to attend to. i don’t know.
END