23/6/10
The band Tool, one of the most influential bands in my life inspired my thinking once again today. The live version of their Bill Hicks inspired song "Third Eye" came on my speakers today and the words of Maynard James Keenan resonated strongly with me once again.
"Think for yourself. Question authority"
I think when previously considering these words, although they had made good sense and meant something to me, I did not realise their full importance. But I sit here now listening to Tool as I write this and I'm beginning to fully consider the implications of those words. So if your willing to keep on reading I'm gonna try and evolve this idea for you.
Lets start this off with a definition of authority a stereotypical way of doing things I know, but in this case I feel it's relevant. A simple google of "define: authority" produced the following results.
Authority: the power or right to give orders or make decisions.
Authority: (plural) persons who exercise (administrative) control over others.
Authority: The legitimate or socially approved use of power.
Authority: The Authority is a superhero comic book published by DC Comics.
Authority then is power. Power in this case, is having command over another. Authority refers to this power itself, as well as, in it's plural sense, those who hold this power; the authorities. Putting this term in context we can see many institutions as authorities; the state, the police, the church, schools and so on. All these institutions can have power over you. You might just think I'm stating the obvious here, and in many ways I am, but what I'm getting at is how often do we question these authorities? How often do we stop and say, "wait a minute, wait a minute, at what point did I say any of these things can have power over me? At what point did I sign something saying that I hereby recognise and consent to your power."
Now clearly the reasons authoritative institutions are accepted by us on a personal level is because they are accepted by society as a whole. These institutions have always been part of your life, you don't question them because there's nothing to question. They are part of society. They are part of the world. They are necessary. Please note I'm not taking a side on whether or not these institutions are necessary or not, I don't know, I'm just putting the idea up for debate.
On a fundamental, basic, biological, natural level we are free sentient human beings capabale of thought and reason. We can think and dream anything, our imagnination, the capacity of our mind, is limitless and it is a basic fact of nature that we can think for ourselves. We think our own thoughts, our thoughts are unique to us and they are completely our own. We have freedom of thought.
However if someone has authority over us and can tell us what we can and can't do then can we ever really think for ourselves? When we've been told since birth that murder is wrong do we think it's wrong because that is our own, personal moral conclusion? Or because the institutions tell us it is? If we ever want to think for ourselves truly, or at least aim for this goal, we must question authority at every turn. And I'm not saying the police are not necessary, I'm not saying the state is corrupt and doesn't look after us I'm saying instead of them telling you why they are necessary or why they are just you must prove to yourself that that is the case.
In my personal experience, the more you question authority, the more aware you become of what is happening in this world. The more aware you become of yourself and the more you find complete absurdities within the powers we allow the authorities to have over us. I am someone who advocates the idea that a woman or man should be free to do whatever they want as long as that action does not harm another or impinge on their freedoms.
Examples of these absurdities, to me at least, have begun to appear everywhere. The fact that marijuana is against the law, when using it does not harm anyone other than yourself and the harm it does to yourself is not anywhere near as great as alcohol. Surely if marijuana is illegal to protect one from themself then alcohol should be as well, likewise if it's to stop people from behaving how they do whilst intoxicated alcohol should be illegal as well. I won't continue this tangent as I could go on for hours on the subject, perhaps I'll blog about it at some point. But here the hypocrisy is completely evident. We are taught that marijuana is bad, we are taught it shouldn't be touched and yet every other commercial on TV is "Bud...Weis...Er".
A second example of complete absurdity in authority is the case of Stephen Gough. Stephen Gough has been in prison for seven years, under public order offences for refusing to put his clothes on. Seriously. Google it.
The third definition of authority as stated above is the legitimate or socially approved use of power. Is it socially appoved because people have willingly said they will allow someone else to have power over them or is it because they were born into this situation and have never thought differently?
It's not a case of to think for yourself, you should question authority. It's the fact that to think for yourself, you must question authority. The truth is no one can make you do something you don't want to. No one has power over you. You are a free human being who is autonomous over his or herself. To quote Detective Charlie Veitch of the Love Police; "you are born free, you will live free, you will die free". It really is as simple as that.
In love
-Tom-
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
"People’s minds get complacent, it seems like eighty percent of the people are fucking asleep”
30/4/10
So I figured it might be fun for me to write down some of the stuff I’ve been doing in terms of trying to make a difference. So here is my first attempt at writing said things down.
“People’s minds get complacent, it seems like eighty percent of the people are fucking asleep”
The opening sound bite to Sonic Boom Six’s album “A Rough Guide To Genre Terrorism” was something I wanted to hear before I went out simply to remind me that empathy is a fucking disease and by being afraid to stand up and at least try to do something I’d already of compromised my true self.
As I sat on the bus slowly approaching where I was going to be for the next couple of hours I found myself drifting into a strange state where I was very focused, focusing intently on people, how they looked, acted, behaved and how I’d seen it a thousand times before. Everyone extremely similar; tired, withdrawn, pissed off, all of them inside their own little bubble and refusing to step outside it, myself included. I wanted so badly to sit up next to someone and say “hey what’s up, you ever heard of Hollie Greig? Or that our troops are farming opium? Ever given 9/11 a second thought? Ever thought things could be MUCH FUCKING BETTER?” But I didn’t, I sat quietly. How hypocritical of me.
I’m too poor to hit a place of any real significance, so I just hit the local shopping haven, in this case Croydon town centre. So I’m walking towards where I intend to perform/shout/ agitate/project ideas (the last one is what I like to think I’m doing) and what more perfect an omen could befall me but two Metropolitan Police officers standing right in front of me. Seems like the agents had got to the people before me; they proceeded to talk to passers - by for a quarter of an hour. Quietly I sit down and wait. The agents disappear into a nearby temple of materialism and I proceed.
I pull the megaphone out my bag, flick the volume up high and proceed as such “Ladies and Gentlemen, a message from the official electoral commission; thank you very much for voting in the recent election, it definitely made a difference, thank you for blinding supporting the democracy that definitely exists in this country.” Across the next 2 hours I continued, trying to express ideas about politics, philosophy, spirituality and anything I feel is worth thinking about. To many people just passing by I was probably the crazy guy with a megaphone, some lunatic being loud or that twat who was giving out free hugs the other week.
For the few who came up and asked questions, the few who said keep it up, the few who said “I dig your vibe man” the endeavour was certainly worth it.
(This is the bit where I get all pretentious and up my own ass about what happened so feel free to stop reading at this point.)
Something I think about frequently is “reality” and what is and isn’t real. How much of what I experience actually happens and how much is a result of me thinking a certain thing. Here is an interpretation of reality from my strange little head, which is probably simple and not so profound, but one that I find rings true none the less.
The way I see it there are two realities. One is the true reality; the other is the collective reality. The true reality is you, in your rawest, purest most honest form. The person who talks to them self, the person who says what they think, the person who is separated from society and as such happily believes what they want and explores the ideas that interest them. This is the true you. This is who you really are and ultimately you’re most comfortable when you can be this.
The collective reality is what we enter every time we enter a collective social situation. The collective reality could come in the form of school or work or just being in a public location. The collective reality is where laws and social boundaries come into effect, when we step into it general protocol is for us to abide by these laws and social boundaries. However by doing this we end up compromising our own reality, the true reality of who we are. Slowly as the collective reality dominates where we spend the majority of our conscious time it breaks down and erodes away our true reality. Leaving us, to quote Bill Hicks, “a mere shell of our former shadow”. We become another number on a screen, another sheep in the herd, an empty vessel ready to be made complete with material wealth.
There is a very significant difference between the two realities. The true reality, is controlled entirely by your mind, the collective reality is controlled only slightly by your mind. With this being the case we can change our true reality just by thinking it. Think change and change occurs. This is the power of our mind. The collective reality however cannot simply be changed by thinking it. The structure of the collective reality is complex; it consists of deep rooted cultural and psychological divisions and practises that have been put into us since birth. We have been conditioned to conform. We take what our institutions tell us as truth to be truth, at least to a certain age and this provides sufficient boundaries and separation within the collective reality to keep people apart and to slowly push away their true reality.
To create change in the collective reality requires two things, a strong sense of your true reality. What you think, regardless of what anyone else thinks, for you in that moment is correct. The second thing the collective reality requires for change is physical action. To change the collective reality we must physically go into it and exert out true reality outward from ourselves. A small light in expansive darkness, which expresses simply an idea, an idea of your true self, if enough lights go on we start to see more and more of what individual’s think is true and by exploring this light we can expand and evolve our own ideas and perceptions.
Going out and speaking on a megaphone is my meditation. A stupid and simple act. It is an exercise in truth to myself, I leave my comfort zone, I leave my computer screen or my little group of friends where my true self comes out and I try to breach the collective reality. And by doing this, my true self, my true reality becomes stronger and stronger as I slowly become governed only by my true reality even when the incredible force of the collective reality is bearing down on me. The beauty of this simple act is that you can physically see the reality changing around you, you see people get angry, you see people smile, you see people laugh, you have people ask you questions and in the brief time you project your true reality in the collective reality you change the collective for all who walk by. Whether or not they’ll remember the change is another matter but the point is no matter how strong the collective reality may seem, it can be changed by one individual.
In love.
- Tom -
So I figured it might be fun for me to write down some of the stuff I’ve been doing in terms of trying to make a difference. So here is my first attempt at writing said things down.
“People’s minds get complacent, it seems like eighty percent of the people are fucking asleep”
The opening sound bite to Sonic Boom Six’s album “A Rough Guide To Genre Terrorism” was something I wanted to hear before I went out simply to remind me that empathy is a fucking disease and by being afraid to stand up and at least try to do something I’d already of compromised my true self.
As I sat on the bus slowly approaching where I was going to be for the next couple of hours I found myself drifting into a strange state where I was very focused, focusing intently on people, how they looked, acted, behaved and how I’d seen it a thousand times before. Everyone extremely similar; tired, withdrawn, pissed off, all of them inside their own little bubble and refusing to step outside it, myself included. I wanted so badly to sit up next to someone and say “hey what’s up, you ever heard of Hollie Greig? Or that our troops are farming opium? Ever given 9/11 a second thought? Ever thought things could be MUCH FUCKING BETTER?” But I didn’t, I sat quietly. How hypocritical of me.
I’m too poor to hit a place of any real significance, so I just hit the local shopping haven, in this case Croydon town centre. So I’m walking towards where I intend to perform/shout/ agitate/project ideas (the last one is what I like to think I’m doing) and what more perfect an omen could befall me but two Metropolitan Police officers standing right in front of me. Seems like the agents had got to the people before me; they proceeded to talk to passers - by for a quarter of an hour. Quietly I sit down and wait. The agents disappear into a nearby temple of materialism and I proceed.
I pull the megaphone out my bag, flick the volume up high and proceed as such “Ladies and Gentlemen, a message from the official electoral commission; thank you very much for voting in the recent election, it definitely made a difference, thank you for blinding supporting the democracy that definitely exists in this country.” Across the next 2 hours I continued, trying to express ideas about politics, philosophy, spirituality and anything I feel is worth thinking about. To many people just passing by I was probably the crazy guy with a megaphone, some lunatic being loud or that twat who was giving out free hugs the other week.
For the few who came up and asked questions, the few who said keep it up, the few who said “I dig your vibe man” the endeavour was certainly worth it.
(This is the bit where I get all pretentious and up my own ass about what happened so feel free to stop reading at this point.)
Something I think about frequently is “reality” and what is and isn’t real. How much of what I experience actually happens and how much is a result of me thinking a certain thing. Here is an interpretation of reality from my strange little head, which is probably simple and not so profound, but one that I find rings true none the less.
The way I see it there are two realities. One is the true reality; the other is the collective reality. The true reality is you, in your rawest, purest most honest form. The person who talks to them self, the person who says what they think, the person who is separated from society and as such happily believes what they want and explores the ideas that interest them. This is the true you. This is who you really are and ultimately you’re most comfortable when you can be this.
The collective reality is what we enter every time we enter a collective social situation. The collective reality could come in the form of school or work or just being in a public location. The collective reality is where laws and social boundaries come into effect, when we step into it general protocol is for us to abide by these laws and social boundaries. However by doing this we end up compromising our own reality, the true reality of who we are. Slowly as the collective reality dominates where we spend the majority of our conscious time it breaks down and erodes away our true reality. Leaving us, to quote Bill Hicks, “a mere shell of our former shadow”. We become another number on a screen, another sheep in the herd, an empty vessel ready to be made complete with material wealth.
There is a very significant difference between the two realities. The true reality, is controlled entirely by your mind, the collective reality is controlled only slightly by your mind. With this being the case we can change our true reality just by thinking it. Think change and change occurs. This is the power of our mind. The collective reality however cannot simply be changed by thinking it. The structure of the collective reality is complex; it consists of deep rooted cultural and psychological divisions and practises that have been put into us since birth. We have been conditioned to conform. We take what our institutions tell us as truth to be truth, at least to a certain age and this provides sufficient boundaries and separation within the collective reality to keep people apart and to slowly push away their true reality.
To create change in the collective reality requires two things, a strong sense of your true reality. What you think, regardless of what anyone else thinks, for you in that moment is correct. The second thing the collective reality requires for change is physical action. To change the collective reality we must physically go into it and exert out true reality outward from ourselves. A small light in expansive darkness, which expresses simply an idea, an idea of your true self, if enough lights go on we start to see more and more of what individual’s think is true and by exploring this light we can expand and evolve our own ideas and perceptions.
Going out and speaking on a megaphone is my meditation. A stupid and simple act. It is an exercise in truth to myself, I leave my comfort zone, I leave my computer screen or my little group of friends where my true self comes out and I try to breach the collective reality. And by doing this, my true self, my true reality becomes stronger and stronger as I slowly become governed only by my true reality even when the incredible force of the collective reality is bearing down on me. The beauty of this simple act is that you can physically see the reality changing around you, you see people get angry, you see people smile, you see people laugh, you have people ask you questions and in the brief time you project your true reality in the collective reality you change the collective for all who walk by. Whether or not they’ll remember the change is another matter but the point is no matter how strong the collective reality may seem, it can be changed by one individual.
In love.
- Tom -
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