Social Hallucinations

"Meditation is a waste of good shopping time"

The next Spring of Nations will be lead by jesters, those who still manage to maintain the common sense and have valuable insights and views on the society. 

 

a few loose thoughts on the results of election in Denmark

Do social democrats know what's their goal? Do they have the vision of the society that is worth fighting for? I doubt it. The many last years social democrats' key rule is "whatever you (the centre-right) do, we (the centre-left) can do better’. But better will never see the light as for the social democrats, the society is more important than an individual. They diminish the role of humans, treating them as helpless beings that need to be supported at the cost of others, those who refuse to be dependant on the state. It leads to the perversion of the system, where it is expected the wealthy are obliged to take care for those who don't have so much (and I am not talking about the really poor and needy people, as they stay poor whichever system has the power), where the work is not respected. People are disgusted with the rich, thanks to whom they don't have to work...simply because they don't respect the work. The work is not needed to survive. The state is needed to survive. Redistribution of goods. Moving money from one box to the other. Growing bureaucracy and complex systems, that diminish the individual even further. 

The social - democrats = the couch socialists, who sometimes get awaken from their consumption trance and in order to calm the pangs of conscience, they preach how we need to do something for "those who need it most", how we need to show more compassion and increase taxes...of course only if they are sure such statements will bring the popularity among the voters...in the name of collective...

but today, we live in times where there it's rather absurd talking about capitalistic or socialistic econony. there is only a good or bad economy...

well, that's enough for me when it goes for politics

 

The value of not knowing

Those words brought me a relief. I've lately relized that the more I know the less I can digest and use. The overload and overconsumption of information gives an illusion of knowing more, but in fact the more becomes the stress. The quest for informaiton expands all the time and seems to be infinite. I've found saying "I don't know" to be a soothing exprience. Not knowing may become the new luxury nowadays. Besides some things are just not worth to know.

"We need to remember the value of nothing. It’s like breathing: you can’t inhale all day. We need to learn to make peace with the information we don’t know, to embrace the zeroes, to relearn the pleasures of hunger, need, interruption, restraint. We need to work up our ignorance muscles. We need to organize our internal absences to create meaning. We are responsible, in other words, now and forever, for our own deletionism."

Sam Anderson in ‘An Accidental, Experimental Masterpiece’

 

Hate

The movements and totalitarian regimes of all kinds need hatred not so much against external enemies and threats, as against its own people. They need it to maintain the readiness to fight but mainly to drive own people to self destruction, spiritual and mental inertia. The main goal is to stop any resistance. Relentless, silent, but quite a clear message says: "You are perfect, the others are utterly rotten. You'v been living a perfect live if not for the anger of  your enemies that stands in the way "

 

The History of Human Thinking

“All the left brain thinking and figuring out, can’t ever replace the shear mystery of being alive”

The history of human thinking from the caveman days forward. In so doing he links more than 4 decades of data driven developmental psychology research (based upon the work of Clare W. Graves) to the dramatic narrative of human evolution.

 

 

60 Seconds - Things That Happen On Internet Every Sixty Seconds

A lot can happen within 60 sec. especially when you are online

 

Never let anyone to define who you are by their terms

Virtual Suicide

Virtual self is increasingly important part of our lives. Internet creates a virtual stage where we can play another role (roles) in the process of creating and inventing ourselves. Virtual identity is equal to the real life identity for many. Some creates new persona, which they don't dare to be in the real life. Virtual space gives more room and possibilities to stage the self...instant and with no limits.

But it takes time.

But it takes you away from the real live.

But it creates false hopes and expectations, which often can't be met where person meets a person.

It doesn't stop the ego...

Full of hope, we dedicate the time to show whom we are or whom we would like to be. impersonating the dreams, becoming the celebrities and paparazzi's of our own lives. Deprived of privacy. 

The mystery is broken.

What would it happen when you would let your Internet life die...would your real life start? Whom would you be? 

Will committing the virtual suicide impact you and your life? Is it immoral to encourage people to commit virtual suicide? Is a virtual identity just another shiny object of XXI century destined to extinct or is it something to last? or is it the extension of our personality? 

so many questions...less answers. We see the new things being created in front of our eyes. This may get us scared and seek the refuge in the seemingly safe past. This may lead us to radical actions...like this oneWeb2.0 Suicide Machine. 

“Web 2.0 Suicide Machine”  allows users to permanently delete their accounts from social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Is something bad that encourages us to partially destroy our lives or is it just a funny gimmick, helping us to distance ourselves from our virtual self? 

Would you dare to take the step and sign out forever?

 

 

The Douche

Interesting documentary by BBC Human Planet of the species of hunters - the douche

 

Office nomads

The office. Walls, ceiling, windows (if you are lucky), tables, machines, people and noise. A place where you go to work. The church of work. Do we actually need the physical office as we know today?  How do office actually contributes to our performance and output of our work?

Don't get me wrong, I love my office and my colleagues. It is a great place to be, but like with most things in life, sometimes you need to get out to grasp a bit of fresh air, try something new and get inspired. People to collaborate with and machines to work on are to be found everywhere. Todays easiness of access allows us to create our office wherever we feel like, fuel our potential and can make us work in a new ways.

I am a big fan of working different places than your office but I hope Seth Godin isn't entirely right when saying "I think in ten years the TV show 'the Office' will be seen as a quaint antique.".

I believe the office and the community you build there are also very important part of your work life. Face time and the relationships you create contribute to your overall satisfaction, motivate and inspire you. So please, don't kill offices, just give people opportunities for being the office nomads and sit with laptop different and unexpected places. Make them go out. Changing the environment can fire some different neurons and bring astonishing results and discoveries. 

 

I am the Orson Welles of PowerPoint 2010

Next slide.

"I don't use PowerPoint to spew hollow facts and meaningless statistics. I aim to deliver revolutionary corporate poetry into the hearts and minds of marketing vice presidents across this country.

I believe that sometimes a PowerPoint demands five consecutive pages of full bleed abstract images. Just to make people feel. To get mid-level managers to loosen their ties and take off their name card necklaces. Too much logic is the death knell of any PowerPoint pursuit."

McSweeney

Excellent!

 

Giving people opportunity to help themselves

Getting people out of poverty is not just about giving them money, it is about giving them opportunity to help themselves. Seeing the need, fulfilling it at creating the movement is what happened when Pedals for Progress and founder David Schweidenback have shipped over 20.000 used American bicycles to Rivas, Nicaragua. Amazing transformation caused by giving the people opportunity to be mobile.

 

The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo.

Rules of Life

Does life has any rules? Or is it just a subject to unpredictable events? I've been always fascinated by people setting clear rules or resolutions and wondered how far can you go to stick to them? When you decide to change and adapt? 

Today I've stumbled upon Tolstoy's 10 Rules of Life. Seems like tough rules for live...he broke them many times but it is amazing how we do strive for the clear guidance and map for our lives. Does having rules make us happier?

Could you imagine living by his rules? Do you? 

1. Get up early (five o’clock) 
2. Go to bed early (nine to ten o’clock)
3. Eat little and avoid sweets
4. Try to do everything by yourself
5. Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for one section of your life, a goal for a shorter period and a goal for the year; a goal for every month, a goal for every week, a goal for every day, a goal for every hour and for evry minute, and sacrifice the lesser goal to the greater
6. Keep away from women
7. Kill desire by work
8. Be good, but try to let no one know it
9. Always live less expensively than you might
10. Change nothing in your style of living even if you become ten times richer.

"What thing about humanity surprises you the most?"

"Man…. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived." (Dalai Lama)

I've been giving it a thought lately, trying to reverse the course of twisted thinking. 

HT Neil

TED Books

TED - the bottomless source of inspiration and feast for the curiosity extends its offer into books publishing with TED books. TED books are short (less than 20.000 words each) nonfiction publications distributed digitally with Kindle. 

Price starts at $2.99 each.

At the moment there are 4 books available:

Homo Evolutis by J. Enriquez & S. Gullans

The Happiness Manifesto by Nic Marks

Beware Dangerism by Gever Tulley

Make Love Not Porn by Cindy Gallop

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