There is a new consciousness crystallising, and  Rushkoff said something which (as usual) was very insightful, in that the mainstream media are having trouble getting to grips with the (r)evolution because they can’t see it, it just looks like a jumble of different causes all mixed together, and the people at the heart of it refuse to discuss it on the mainstream media’s terms, and reduce everything to black and white and soundbites.

Check out the Fox News interview he links to on there and you can see the new and the old paradigm meeting.

Old: binary (right or wrong)
New: inclusive (everyone has a facet of the truth, including the so-called ‘enemy’)

Old: soundbite
New: conversation

Old: Simplified
New: In depth

Old: Judgemental
New: Non-judgemental

Old: sensationalist
New: realistic

Old: dreaming (our actions have no consequences)
New: awake (our actions do have consequences)

Old: newspapers, tv
New: social networks

Old: top-down politics
New: bottom-up organising

Old: secrets, cover-ups
New: open source, transparency

Old: protest (asking for a favour from those ‘above’)
New: occupy (taking what is rightfully ours in a peaceful way)

Old: News of the World
New: Wikileaks

Old: separation, fear
New: inclusion, love

This new paradigm has gradually, almost gently, emerged and it is still in its fragile early stages. But I imagine that reading back this blog post in a year or two’s time, what I am saying here will seem so obvious as to make people wonder why I even bothered to mention it at all; the consciousness will have fully established itself and will have totally changed the ‘conversation’  we are having about any important issue you care to mention in Western industrialised society.

And also to say ‘Thank You’ if you subscribe to the blog or regularly check back here to see what’s new. When I see the subscriber stats or look at the anal-lytics it tells me that I am not just posting stuff into an endless void – interesting as voids can be: see the incredible film ‘Enter the Void’ for an example. I assume that those reading this blog are human beings as I am, and indeed probably share similar tastes. My tastes are very eclectic so I don’t expect anyone to love everything I post, even if I do. In fact that is the only criterion for posting stuff here, that I love it, or it is my own work and thus I at least want to love it.

Most of the things I post here are either shared from Google Reader or YouTube – I just click one button and it appears here. That way I get round my laziness and actually post things rather than just following the road that is paved with good intentions. But from time to time, as now, I actually get off my arse and write something – these posts can be found under the unassuming title of ‘thoughts‘.

Also I do make music – see here – don’t be scared, people have actually expressed surprise that it is quite good, y’know, like ‘proper’ music by someone you have heard of. Or maybe you have heard of me, in which case it is already somewhat ‘proper’. There will be more of this soon, I am working with some friends and family to produce something which I hope you will find interesting.

So, thanks again and if you read this, feel free to leave me a comment, constructive criticism is ok, or just say ‘hi’. I do this stuff to create connections, to let my brainwaves expand into the electronic ether in some small way. If there is an echo from the void, so much the better, if not, I will carry on anyway and the best of luck to all who sail in her.

In this way we are not ‘productive’, we are not caught in the trap of ‘becoming’, we are not placing hope in an illusory ‘future’ which acts as a drug to stop us seeing the reality of how things are right now.

We are defying the corporate mindset that all people have to be efficient cogs in the machine, the machine which will deliver us to our inevitable technological Utopia.

Of course, sometimes we have to be productive, have to be part of the machine, but it helps our soul to forget about all of that just for a few seconds and be whatever we happen to be in that moment, as imperfect as it may be.

If this seems like nonsense to you, maybe you are so embedded in the prevalent corporate mindset that you are unable to see outside of it. Just stop, and gently ask yourself if you really think for yourself or if your mind has been programmed for you by others.

photo credit: cosmonautirussi

What do I mean by ‘the self’? Well, whatever can be meant by that: in trying to justify the existence of a personal self, there have been many theories, ultimately each is as confused and confusing as the last.

To paraphrase Barry Long, there is no self other than the frustrating notion of one, just as the concept of ‘the feathers of an elephant’ does not exist in reality except as a frustrating notion. An elephant just does not have feathers and we just do not have ‘selves’. This fundamental fact is missed by many people, whether doing consciousness research or ‘personal growth’ practices, or whatever it may be- the assumption that there must be a self underlies a lot of the confusion in modern society.

Apparently when the Dalai Lama first heard of the concept of ‘self esteem’ he just could not understand what was meant by it, being brought up in a culture which does not have this concept of a concrete self or individuality as separate from the whole.

If anyone is inclined to disagree with any of this, please just shut your eyes and find ‘the self’- you cannot do it. You can of course point to yourself as having a ‘separate’ physical body and distinct personal character, you can see thoughts arising and disappearing, but a coherent ‘self’ holding all this together cannot be found. You can and probably always have assumed there must be one, but an assumption is not a fact, and the assumption will be found to be false on close examination.

Why is the notion of self so deeply entrenched in modern societal thinking?

Here is Adam Curtis:

“The way power works in the world is: they tell you stories that make sense of the world. That’s what America did after the second world war. It told you wonderful dreamlike stories about the world … And at that same time, you were encouraged to rise up and ‘become an individual’, which also made the whole idea of America attractive to the rest of the world. But then this very individualism began to corrode it. The uncertainties began in people’s minds. Uncertainty about ‘what is the point of being an individual?'”

“The politics of our time are deeply embedded in this idea of individualism,” he continues, “which is far wider than Westminster, consumerism or anything like that. It’s how you feel. People think, ‘Oh, if it’s within me it must be true.’ But it’s not the be-all and end-all. It’s not an absolute. It’s a way of feeling and thinking which is a product of a particular time and power. The notion that you only achieve your true self if your desires, your dreams, are satisfied … It’s a political idea. That’s the central dynamic of our life.”

Because you’re worth it? He nods. “Because you’re worth it.” He gestures out of the window, towards the Westfield Centre, Europe’s biggest and most eerily calming shopping mall. “That’s what Westfield is about. What you desire is the most important thing. But a great paradox of our time is that what you desire may not be coming from within you.

In short, the concept of the self or individual is used by corporations to flatter you, make you feel special, and make you buy stuff. This also cuts you off from the truth that there is no self, nothing to seek for, and separates you (as the illusory idea of a self) from your essential contentment and perfection (despite the undeniable challenges inherent in relative physical reality). Once cut off, you need something like a new iPhone in order to make yourself feel whole again, but because it’s only a substitute for true contentment, the satisfaction does not last for long.

Here is Douglas Rushkoff to explain more about the corporate culture’s use of this concept of ‘the self’:

To solve the problems of poverty (both real indigence and the poverty consciousness of those who always want more) and environmental destruction in this world, we need to change the economic model to a non-debt based one:

Buy the book: Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System And How We Can Break Free

And in order to do that, we need to unhook ourselves from the illusory concept of a self which needs to stay separate and consuming at all times.

Strong medicine can be found here: The Open Secret.

As this is basically an addiction, and the source of all other addictions, we should not expect it to be easy to ‘get clean’, however it is utterly necessary and we can be glad that it is becoming more and more obvious, mostly thanks to the reduction of power in the corporate media sector which has had a vested interest in keeping all this hidden for centuries.

We are born into this world knowing nothing and we accept what we are told as children. For my part I have never really understood what was meant by ‘the self’, I just assumed I should go along with it as if it were a real ‘thing’ as everyone else seemed to give the impression that they knew what ‘it’ was. I am now starting to realise that maybe they were also bluffing, even if that bluff has now become so entrenched that it has almost become real.

As an example, I was just watching the coverage of Glastonbury Festival on the BBC and I realised that pretty much anything goes now- you just pick any style you like and run with it. I saw Spiritualized, fair enough, they have never followed trends and are all the better for it- but also Hot Chip (nerd-electro or whatever you want to call it), Band of Horses (1976 Neil Young template), Groove Armada (dance), The Imagined Village (folk fusion)…etc etc… my basic point is there is no ‘scene’ or movement of bands which could be called a trend.

I think this is down to the fact that before, major labels had a success, then looked for other bands who were more or less part of the same ‘trend’, signed them and made them change to fit in to the trend template, then pushed the whole package as one through the music magazines. Thus it appeared that everyone was making a certain type of music more than any other at any one time, and this inspired other bands to copy that and so perpetuate the ‘trend’. Then everyone got sick of it, especially the knock-off bands who were signed just as a short term attempt to make some money from the trend and were more likely to have been changed and styled to fit into a trend they were perhaps never that into in the first place. For example, Menswear were shoehorned into the ‘Britpop’ package but probably never really shared much with Blur or Oasis or any of the others (of course they were more shit, but that could have been a result of them being forced to follow the trend instead of their own inspiration. Or it could just be that they weren’t any good.) Same thing with Inspiral Carpets and other bands from ‘Madchester’ around the same time, and it’s these ‘lesser’ bands which made everyone sick of ‘the scene’ and eager to find the next ‘scene’.

Also I rejoice in the dwindling influence of music magazines, I think they wielded an unhealthy amount of power and were complicit in creating these trends.

The only trend is see now is ‘do what you want how you want’. Or as someone far greater than me once put it, ‘have a good time all the time’.