Inspired in part by the book, ‘The Chalice and The Blade’ by Riane Eisler. This video is a collaborative effort between Ife Aziz (http://www.youtube.com/PepperMintLIfe) and Aaron Moritz made possible through the internet, which allowed us to reach out, empathize, and share ideas with one another. On many fronts, the fact that this video exists is a testament to the reality of what it puts forth; ultimately, a challenge to the theory that humans are hardwired for competition and aggression, rather than co-operation, and empathy.

The next step in our collective evolution:

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

http://www.thevenusproject.com

songs:
Saul Williams – Bloodletting
Bonobo – All In Forms
Pretty Lights – Still Rockin’
Dave Matthews Band – Grux
Dave Matthews Band – Shake Me Like a Monkey

How many times have you heard that the top 1% own half of the USA’s wealth? Some people would say that’s because they earned it, that you don’t get anything for free. And I guess they’re right, if you consider trading stocks, stock options, derivatives, futures, future derivatives, manipulating the market, winning, losing, betting; if you consider that ‘earning’ the money, then earn it they certainly did.

But did any of that trading, did any of those money exchanges produce anything of value, in any direct fashion that could not have been achieved to the same degree, or even more effectively, without the existence of high level money exchange and expansion? That’s right, expansion… these people aren’t just **cough** ‘earning’ money, they are creating it. Well, maybe not all of them, not directly, but through their transactions with banks, they feed the on-going fractional reserve lending and money creating policies that do create most of the money, hence causing most of the inflation.

So while these people continue to make more and more money, it becomes worth less and less, especially as they hoard it in bank accounts, or worse, continue the money creation cycle by investing it, essentially gambling, as I say so eloquently in the title. But hey, right now, while it’s still worth something, these people could, feasibly, use some of it to feed the entire world.

So why don’t they? Well, like I said the future is uncertain. Money is constantly devaluing, and when you’re a real hardcore gambler like these guys, you’re always thinking of the next big win. Maybe someday, when they have ‘enough’, they’ll retire, give a few bucks to charity and live a comfortable life. And this essential mentality, of me-first, of capitalism in general, is exactly why me and the people who work on Wall Street aren’t marching down to Africa together, and building desalinization plants or irrigation systems. Or fully automated aquaponic multi-level gardening facilities that can continuously churn out fresh vegetables and operate in almost any weather conditions. The people on Wall Street can’t — and won’t — stop gambling. They are addicts. Money is their heroine, and they will fight just as hard as a crack-head to get their next fix.

Or, to say the exact same thing in more ‘proper’ terms, the people on Wall Street are trying to earn a profit.

And feeding the planet is not profitable. So it doesn’t get done. And whether we’re talking state-sponsored corporatism or laissez-fares free markets, profit is king. It is that thought — that the pursuit of profit will ultimately lead people to actions for the greater social good, because people will only buy things that are good for them, in the end — that wonderful idea that has underpinned our whole society for hundreds of years, that has now shown itself to be completely false.

Look around you. Not just your neighborhood or your country, but at your planet. THIS is the invisible hand, and it does not push people to perform for the greater social good. It simply pushes them to participate in any action by which a profit can be made.

Do I need to provide a list of arena’s of environmental life-support where profit and human well-being are not mutually compatible, often even at odds with each other? Ok fine, industrial waste, animal farm waste, air and water pollution, dirty, scarce energy sources, the systematic destruction of forests, the ‘buying’ of people’s and countries farmland for corporate purposes, depriving them of even more food, air pollution, media-induced consumption creating pollution, planetary health risks associated with the production of nukes, the spraying of pesticides, the injection of growth hormones, the introduction of poorly tested GMO foods, the outright lies and propaganda from the big food corporations on what a ‘healthy’ diet is… anyways, I could go on but I think it’s pretty clear that this de-coupling of profit interests and human interests is quite pervasive.

And that’s why Bill Hicks’ vision of a better ride could never really happen, not exactly. We can’t spend our way out of this problem, as much as the notion might grab our imagination. The people with the money to save the world are crippled, mentally. They are addicted to their money and power, and every dead human is just an externality as far as the profiteer is concerned. The profiteer cannot save the world until they give up that identity. Until we help them understand that the profit motive is not a humane motive, and the invisible hand is pushing us off a cliff.

But they are used to it. That doesn’t make it right, but it makes it easier, for me, mentally to accept. But today. On my walk home I walk past a church, and outside, I saw a kid, pegged him to be about my age, little younger maybe (late teens early twenty’s), clean clothes. I nodded to him and he started talking. As I took one headphone out of my ear I heard ‘…listen to me for a minute?’. I nodded.

He briefly told me that he was 15, that the day before his father had kicked him out of the house, the youth shelters were full so he spent last night outside (it’s already started snowing up here in semi-northern canada). By the time he was done talking I think he could see something in my face, because he immediately looked down and away. He didn’t even ask me for money, but I stammered an explanation ‘I have no money on me… I don’t really know what else I can do for you.’

This was a lie. I had $45 in my wallet. No. I have $45 in my wallet. It’s my last $45 until friday when I get paid again, unless I rack up some more on the credit card. But the look on his face when he knew I was rejecting him — before I even did… fucking tore my heart out. I literally got a little bit teary eyed walking home, because even if I need my money, I have a floor he could sleep on. I could’ve given him some food. Hell, I could’ve at least asked if he wanted to come in from the cold and smoke a joint or something.

These are all the things that were running through my head as I finished my walk home. I didn’t start the music again. I felt, and still feel guilty, with every moment that passes, because this happened less than half an hour ago. I know that if I went back there I could probably find him and do something.

But no, I’m trying to find comfort in an online post.

You know what it is? I think I’m scared. Of that kid. Or anyone, I guess.

I just don’t understand how someone as well meaning as me can lie to and ignore someone like that. If actions speak louder than words than my actions don’t speak well of me, in my eyes. I also don’t understand why I have to be scared of someone asking for help. My fears aren’t completely unfounded, but let’s be honest, I could see in this kids face that he really needed help. That he hated asking for it. He wasn’t used to it like all the other homeless people I meet. That familiar resigned look was not present in his eyes. I think he might have been lying, about his age, maybe the whole story, but it doesn’t matter. Nobody who isn’t desperate does what he did. Looked the way he did.

He didn’t really nod or say anything, just kept looking at the ground, frowning. I felt like I could watch his faith in humanity slipping from his grasp as I became the god knows how many-ith person to tell him ‘no’. I was simultaneously watching the system crush his spirit, and being the perpetuator of the system in this instance.

With everything I talk about egalitarian values and I make stupid videos about capitalism or whateverthefuck to ‘raise awareness’. And I’m not saying I don’t enjoy doing those things, and the fact that people enjoy them is just amazing to me, but when it comes down to it, when a real human being reached out to me for help today, I said no.

And I still feel a catch in the back of my throat, typing that out. Maybe the question I should be asking myself is not ‘who the fuck am I?’ but ‘who the fuck do I want to be?’

The more I learn about the structure of the human mind, about the technicalities of our thinking processes, the more I start to see consciousness as basically an illusion created by the electrical neural impulses in our brain. Basically, I’m reducing the human being to nothing more than an animated flesh and blood bag with a decent computer up top. I lack belief in a soul (this does not mean I don’t believe souls exist, but it does mean that I approach the world through that perspective), or any other ‘agent’ controlling our actions, besides our brains.

So then what makes each person different? Genetics, and Experience. Genetics shape our bodies, our physicality, our organs, our amazing machine of a body, including our brain, which comes into the world a wild neuronical firing mess. This is not to say certain parts of the brain are not genetically mapped for specific functions, but the way those functions manifest is cause by our experience of the world. As we make associations between pictures and sounds, feelings and outside stimuli, some neurological pathways are strengthened while others are weakened. Once we begin to differentiate ourselves from the world around us, the illusion of ‘I’ begins.

‘I’ make decisions. ‘I’ am typing this post on my blog. But what am ‘I’? Unlike many philosophers, ‘I’ think there is an answer to this. ‘I’ am the sum total output of all the informational data that has ever run through my (to a small degree) genetically unique brain, filtered by my current emotional state. This is an idea I read in a paper by Marvin Minsky that very much took hold in my mind. That emotions are nothing more than the suppression or encouragement of certain modes of thought caused by chemicals in our brain reacting to thoughts we have about external stimuli. I hope I didn’t lose anyone in that sentence there. But it makes sense. When we are experiencing the ‘love’ (getting romantic here) emotion, our tendency to think critically seems to lower, while our creative and passionate thinking may be working at high capacity.

So, if I state that ‘I’ am the sum total output of all the informational data that has ever run through my (to a small degree) genetically unique brain, filtered by my current emotional state, I am saying, basically, that all of my actions are determined by my environment. But this realization allows me the opportunity to change my environment. Whether, or rather I should say, to what extent, I do this is entirely dependent on my developed cognitive abilities to accomplish such a thing, and of course, by other outside factors.

So I guess what I’m saying is that we are who we are because of our lives. That’s what makes each of us special. Not a thing nobody can find called a soul. At least that’s what makes the most sense to me, right now. And just because I don’t believe we have a ‘will’ per se, I do believe that we have the ability to change the environment, and hence the ‘will’ of not only ourselves, but of others as well.

note: Just to be clear I am not speaking of any type of coercion or gross media-consumerism-type propaganda campaigns. I am speaking only of open discussion and free exchange of ideas. The more information our computer-brains are exposed to, the better computer conclusions they can reach. :)

The Infinit Yes is in full support of, but claims no support from the Zeitgeist Movement… or Martin Luthor King, Jr.

This is my new year. The middle of the summer is my birthday, and it used to be the divider between grades, so this time of year has always felt that way to me. This has always been my new year.

From tomorrow until next Monday I’ll have barely any cellphone service, definitely no internet access, and probably some chemicals flowing through my system, though I’ll admit, I’m not really the type of person who ‘parties’ very hard. This ‘retreat’ gives me the most of both socialization (there are people everywhere, friends, friends of friends, stranger friends) and contemplation, because inside the solitude of my tent, and even with the distant beat of four or five different stages at nearly 24 hours of the day, my mind is rarely so calm and clear.

Shambhala is a vibrant, and I’ll admit, sometimes overwhelming display of the human spirit. People there are rarely afraid to talk to strangers, they’ll make eye contact, we don’t know what it is, but when we’re there, we all understand it (anyone who’s ever done mushrooms or acid knows that feeling…), even if that understanding is sometimes fleeting, forever striving for it allows each new experience to teach me something. And shambhala is an experience I look forward to every year.

peace. be back on monday :)

and while I’m away don’t be scared to share any of these video’s and posts with your friends.

when I saw that people in Edmonton were shopping and not smiling, I got on whyte ave and (remember when I said “I Refuse To Be Terrified”…. bullshit) had some fun. This is literally all the footage I took before running back home scared.

visit the OG love police at http://cvietch.org.

visit my youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/saydaysago2008

i decided i’d bury it on some blog somewhere too.

from the zeitgeist movement forums, obviously on the subject of child abuse / discipline.  link to thread:

IDMclean wrote:
My question for you and any other person who sees a distinction between discipline and abuse, what is the distinction? Where is the line drawn? I draw it at the application of mental, physical, and social violence. Which excludes the majority of types of discipline commonly cited. In my experience as a nomadic child, living between two different parents in different places with different schools, discipline is synonymous with abuse as you can see by reading through this thread.

If you take punitive measures, you are behaving abusively. When you yell at a kid, you teach them yelling at people to get what they want is okay. If you hit a kid, you teach them hitting people to get what they want is okay. If you hold their possessions hostage, you teach them that holding the possessions of others hostage is okay. In many cases, the ancestor generations discuss what amounts to techniques of social and psychological terrorism forgetting that the use of such techniques teach the child that such techniques are okay to use.

This isn’t to say that I’m saying you can’t structure your child’s life and correct behaviors. If discipline is to be held as separate from abuse then discipline is the correction of dysfunctional behavior by example and restraint both yours and theirs. You can not correct dysfunctional behavior with dysfunctional behavior. Additionally, you can not correct dysfunctional behavior in another if you, yourself, are engaging in that dysfunctional behavior regularly; especially, if you are engaging in the behavior in practicing discipline. To do so, exacerbates the behavior and creates a double standard.

One thing to consider is that most often when a person is behaving poorly it is because that person needs or wants something. In many cases, it is because they want attention and can not get positive attention. It is a simple truth that people seek to avoid the absence of stimulation preferring positive or negative stimulation, pleasure or pain, over nothing.

If you watch the Zeitgeist Movement videos, it is a common theme that the dysfunctional behavior of the society itself comes about due to its dysfunctional structure. Remove the impetus for dysfunctional behavior, and the dysfunctional behavior itself should abate.

This principle is extensively discussed in the writings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Specifically, it is addressed in Three Ways of Meeting Oppression. Additionally, you can find more about the application of Satyagraha here.

iI really have nothing to add I just thought that was fantastically put. wish I’d wrote it.