Tony Campolo on Politics and Faith

Christians, or anyone, really, should check this article out. I won't say any more on it than this.

Reflectivity and Certainty

As I write, I listening to Orbital's The Altogether again. Seriously people, if you buy music, check out this album. It'll challenge your imagination and make you knod your head at the same time. It's techno, but if this puts you off, don't let it. This is just my philosophy: All music is basically the same - sound frequencies and timing. Only the sounds are different. Don't get me wrong, I love the sound of acoustic instruments, but the sound spectrum of electronic music is literally out of this world (see how far you wanna go with that...). Electronic instruments can tell amazing stories. Anyhow, I digress...

Well..., so, I'm in this crazy role shift thing. I'm going back to school. At one point, I had sworn off school. Who needs it, really? Especially now, when you can get so much information for free in society. All you gotta do is figure out how to apply it to your life. No one NEEDS school, but for perhaps obvious reasons, society requires it from an indiviual wanting to "plug in." The institution truly sucks... and now, here I am back in it. Nothing has changed, save one thing...

I'm going to spare you the suspension of thought cliche and confirm your cynicism... ME!
Ain't that a relief?

So now, school becomes the game and the victory is success as acknowldeged by society. Got to get the degree! On a real personal note, I'm shooting for a masters in anthropology, but that's a more long term thing. Baby steps... as they say. My world will soon consist of algebra problems, essays, and history reports. I'll try to make them fun...

This has been on my mind alot lately. It's an idea that I love because it makes so much sense in light of world affairs. The idea is that our world is illusory at it's very nature. You can read RA Wilson's book, Prometheus Rising and he spells it our for ya in a quasi-scientific fashion. You can also read many books on the modern philosophical theories of consciousness, such as Consciousness Explained by Daniel C Dennet. I think this basic theory grew from the early discoveries of quantum physics, I'm not certain of this, but it makes sense to me. In the quantum world, which represents the very foundation of our material universe, there is no certainty. Probability rules. It knocked the wind out of certainty. Hey, know one knows the future, this is even Biblical. In this regard, ultimately all we have is faith. But then, there are also those random "surprises" in life, like 9/11.

Notice how our "war on terrorism" is basically a war between civilizations. This isn't the first of it's kind in history, oh no, we gotta do what everyone's else is doing! Now think about the state of current global politics, and slide the "illusory world" paradigm over your perspective. Anybody hear of cultural relativism? How about post modernism? These are only words; they are symbolic reflections of a much larger concept: the "universe" provides the matter and energy, and we provide the meaning and, therefore, the labels. Thus, reality is born and defined through the words we use. There is research coming out of linguistics which suggests that language shapes our understanding of the world around us, and this perception varies from culture to culture. Remember our "war on terrorism?" We fight because we don't see the world the same way, and we're not willing to realize this. In an "illusory" world, our world makes sense.

But this is just a thought. I find it fascinating. As I scan the news and science journals, I see reports from research of all disciplines which support the idea. I'll probably write some more on it, as there's so much more going on with it...

Good Morning America

the sourmonkey has landed...

As I type, I'm listening to the album The Altogether by Orbital. I definitely recommend it. Buy it, and check out the first track (Tension) next time your in the car. Turn it up loud. Make sure your on the highway.

I noticed on my page counter that many people have stopped by during my move blackout, but few have left comments. I'm curious... who are you people? Why thou speaketh not? Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm boring. Oh well, I'm going to continue to post my thoughts on life regardless of what the world thinks. This whole blog thing provides a rare outlet for me. On top of that, since I've started "surfacing" the web (don't I sound cool), I've realized that the internet is a beautiful tool for enhancing open and diverse communication. So, let's go people. let's communicate.

Back to the rare outlet comment. I've had a lot on my mind lately, so I've got this gush of thoughts waiting to be unleashed. I'll try to make it easy on ya...

TOP 11 GUSHES OF THOUGHT
(other people's list go to ten, mine goes to eleven).

11-Rush Limbaugh is a moron.

10-AM talk radio is a joke. It's only an "art" if the conservative shock jocks are engaging the American public in an ideological practical joke. Then they'd all comic geniuses. Otherwise, they'll basically evil.

9-I haven't listened personally, but I hear Air America is also a joke. The liberal shock jocks are probably trying to out "shocky jock" the opposing conservative shock jocks oh, I'll stop...

8-The "liberal media" should give me a radio program. I'll keep it real...

7-I can't believe Republicans support Bush.

6-I can't believe Conservatives and Liberals can't accept Ralph Nader into the Presidential campaign. I've heard BOTH sides say they like him and they "idealistically" support him. Come on people. All you have to do is vote your heart!

5-Another topic the conservatives and liberals agree on is climate change. The conservatives hestitate to say it, and the liberals jump at the chance, but our environment is changing. Of course, it always has changed. ENTROPY- wears the world away! At some level, everyone agrees that climate change is a natural part of planetary evolution. No one really know how it will effect our world or when, but for me, the point of emphasis rests in the fact that our economic stability is directly tied to our environmental stability. At best, human society will adapt to climate change as long as it occurs slowly over time following "patterns" of history. Worse case senario, it happens rapidly. Wouldn't it be good to find out which is more likely to happen?

4-On my sourmonkey home page you can find a link to an academic site focused on "anthropoetics". Somewhere on the site I read an article on the anthropological "origin" of human thought. At one point, there is a quote that reads something like, "social (scientific) progress blossoms during times of peace, and stagnates during times of war."

3-We went to Iraq for oil. Isn't this obvious by now? Once they admit this, conservatives say, "okay, but Iraqi oil will only be GOOD for global economy AND the Iraqi people." Of course, the issue is bigger than this, and growing, but this is a fact, and one worth remembering. It basically implies that we chose to go to war, as permitted by the Bush doctrine, for arbitrary reasons disguised within the illusion of a threat to national security.

2-The problem with perception is that it is subjective. Words are only a symbollic reflection of reality. They are a limiting factor to understanding reality on Earth. Society is complex. Why do Liberals think differently than Conservatives? They don't, they just think they do. That's why we Americans have the lesser of two evils to choose from. We polarize our politics because our perception of reality is limited. Because we experience much of our "reality" through semantic information, like words... we only see "part" of the story. We take sides, usually the "good" side, and oppose and stigmatize the "bad" side.

1-The problem with understanding the reality of Iraq (among other niches) is that we're excerising violence under limited intelligence, seriously. Human lives are lost because other people sending them to death can't think outside of the box.

0- I really like the little picture of Earth below. It reminds me that life is miraculous, and we should take care of it. I've been called all kinds of names for saying crap like this, but honestly, if feeling this way makes one "offensive" then one should decapitate one's head. One isn't using it anyway.

-1-Anarchy is stupid. So is economic imperialism. Anarchy is social entropy. Economic imperialism yields cancerous consumption. Both are blind. Every human life depends on other human lives. (everyone likes to compare liberals and conservatives, I thought I'd do something different...).

-2- for every proton, their is an anti-proton; for every electron, their is an anti-electron; for every bad, their is a good; for every Einstein, there's a Dubya.

-3- but then, there's: ENTROPY- WEARS THE WORLD AWAY!

-4-*this post brought to you by

ENTROPY- WEARS THE WORLD AWAY!