I've been doing writing for the Zentastic site over the afternoon (it's not posted yet) to explain what I want to try and achieve and why… Sort of like a very long statement of purpose. Below is an excerpt (please note that this from a very weak first draft):
Stay informed, but understand that producing news is very expensive and that news agencies support their actions solely by the support of corporate and governmental sponsors. As such, they are unable to tell you anything that would endanger that relationship.Understand also that succeeding in national and state/provincial politics is extremely expensive. As a result, politicians are put in power solely by the support of corporate sponsors. As such, their first responsibility is always to those sponsors, then to those who elected them, and then to their represented region. When the interests of the sponsors and the public are contradictory — as they almost always are — the sponsors will be represented, not the public.
To hide the obvious contradictions to liberty the above, the state, the media, and the corporation provide you with soma of all kinds — a holy date rape drug so they can abuse you indefinitely. Be omniscient. Absorb everything, and reject that which is not true. By absorbing everything and eliminating all which is not true, you will be left with truth. Truth leads to vision, and vision leads to victory.
Whatever you do, don't trust only your TV.
The more I think about goverment systems the more it becomes clear that we made a horrible mistake by choosing to grow culturally/socially by expansion rather than by mitosis (mitosis is when a cell splits, leaving two “identical” copies, whereas expansion would leave a larger and larger cell rather than a healthy multitude)… That is, we need to move to smaller, distributed systems of (everything).
A percentage of all systems fail, and given enough time, all systems fail, without exception. Larger systems fail in larger ways. If a system is allowed to grow to universal size, it will cause universal failure when it ends.When a small system fails its damage is localized. If that system is surrounded by good, then it can be rebuilt with minimal damage to the people involved.
We must work to make all systems we use — systems of government, communication, power generation, and so on — small, distributed, and independently controlled. If we achieve that we take a step at a system that allows all to live a rich life full of liberty.
When one really thinks about the way we do things, and look at them in both the light of logic and the light of history, it's clear that in the long run we must aim to destroy Russia, China, the United States, and the other giagantic nations. Not because they are wrong per se in their actions, but because they are precursors to giagantic catastrophe.
Anyway, back to the point I'd originally intended to start on… Quite a few people have forwarded me this article, “The News We Kept to Ourselves”, written by CNN chief news Eason Jordon describing how when CNN was in Iraq under Saddam they were unable to report truthfully on anything that was going on…
As quite a number of New York Times readers pointed out this has rather obvious implications as to the quality of the news CNN produces — at its simplest it says without doubt that CNN is willing to radically alter the news in accordance with the wishes of ruling powers… That in order to keep the advertising money flowing, it will issue false news and hide the truth.
Do not blindly believe what others say. See for yourself what brings contentment, clarity and peace. That is the path for you to follow.
- Buddha
…and let me just say that driving a snowmobile on mud, while probably outrageously bad for the machine, is an aweful lot of fun… I've been fantasizing about modifying the snowmobile to act as a kind of mud/swamp buggy since doing that!
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
- Henry David Thoreau
