...actual distinct voices speaking in my mind? Or is it just the weblog of James Lindenschmidt? Here you can see me wrestle with this and other questions, while spewing forth my writings, opinions, and hallucinations.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

 

The L-Curve

There is a very interesting visual depiction of the great divide between rich and poor at The L-Curve. Check it out. There is also a condensed, one-page summary in PDF form available here.

UPDATE: Well, funnily enough, we got a $400 check from the IRS today. I consider this bribe money. It's a joke, really, sending $400 to poor families, as if that will provide any sort of lasting relief from the economic stratification in our society. My wife and I are talking about how to spend this money in a way that will enact social change most effectively. Hmmm, $400 worth of photocopies of the above flyers? Who knows ...

^ posted at 2:23 PM

 

Scientific Materialism, Capitalist Economy, and ...

I was reading some Alfread North Whitehead and I came across this passage (warning: dense and academic philosophical writing alert):

In regard to the aesthetic needs of civilised society the reactions of science have so far been unfortunate. Its materialistic basis has directed attention to things as opposed to values. The antithesis is false one, if taken in the concrete sense. But it is valid at the abstract level of ordinary thought. This misplaced emphasis coalesced with the abstractions of political economy, which are in fact the abstractions in terms of which commercial affairs are carried on. Thus all thought concerned with social organisation expressed itself in terms of material things and of capital. Ultimate values were excluded. They were politely bowed to, andt hen handed over to the clergy to be kept for Sundays. A creed of competitive business morality was evolved, in some respects curiously high; but entirely devoid of consideration for the value of human life. The workmen were conceived as mere hands, drawn from the pool of labour. To God's question, men gave the answer of Cain--'Am I my brother's keeper?'; and they incurred Cain's guilt. This was the atmosphere in which the industrial revolution was accomplished. (emphasis added).

There are several interesting things in this passage, which was written in 1925. First of all, it describes very succinctly the central argument of Carolyn Merchant's book, The Death of Nature. Many of the problems we face today come from a historical coalescence of several factors: the rise of industrial capitalism, the mechanistic way in which science abstracts the universe in order to understand it, and the loss of organic, holistic views of the cosmos. Synergy was lost; the world was enclosed into small ideas to be understood and owned apart from the whole. Larger questions of value, most importantly the question of how society should be organized, were ignored; their answers were presupposed in terms of self-benefit, greed, and preservation of property.

It is interesting that this was written nearly 80 years ago. The problems Whitehead was seeing have only been made worse as industrial capitalism transitioned to Keynesianism and now, since the 1970s, to neoliberalism.

^ posted at 2:26 PM

 

Greg Palast on Liberia

Has the story in Liberia sort of hovered at the periphery of your attention lately? I know it has mine. Yeah, civil war in Liberia. OK, what does that mean? Not much to me...

This is of course blatant and utter ignorance on my part. On a personal note, it always surprises me the extent to which news from Africa tends to stay in my peripheral vision, if it enters my consciousness at all. And this despite the fact that I've studied Africa seriously in the past. Gotta love those 5 centuries of cultural conditioning ...

Anyway, Greg Palast wrote an article called Liberia: Corpses at our Doorstep that provides a good overview of the current situation and the political environment in which it exists. Check it out.

^ posted at 10:34 AM

 

Ego and forward momentum

It's been a hell of a week. I haven't felt at all like writing; indeed, I'm forcing myself to sit down and write this. The exuberance and exhilaration I had been feeling has definitely waned. I'm tired and drained. Everything seems like a chore. Not coincidentally, I haven't been exercising as often or as passionately as I had been up until last week (NOTE: I wrote this in my notebook yesterday. Much of this has now changed. Today was much better, perhaps as a result of writing this last night).

Last week I was extremely careless, and two friends of mine took the brunt of the shrapnel from my carelessness. I feel bad about the situation, though our friendships will recover and emerge stronger for it, methinks. I think we're all sort of feeling our way around at the moment. I know I am. The energies at work in our relationships have definitely and understandably shifted.

A week from tonight is the first Freakwitch gig. We also have the beginnings of a website up. I believe in this project more than I've believed in any musical project I've ever been involved with. I hung some flyers today around Portland, which was fun. There was an outdoor concert with Martin Sexton in Monument Square, so a lot of people were milling around. It's a good time for music in Portland, and I can definitely feel the steady progress of Freakwitch. We are building slowly and surely. Though with my present state of mind, it's hard to get excited about much of anything.

A psychologist once diagnosed me with anhedonia, which is the opposite of hedonism. It is basically the inability to feel much of anything with any sort of intensity. I remember once feeling the way I do now for months on end. Nowadays I'm much more attuned to the ebbs and flows of my energy levels. Over the next several days I need to take care of myself. I must stay grounded, keep my energy systems clear, and take care of my body. This of course means resuming my good exercise and eating habits. Today was better. I must will myself to continue this, as there is no doubt in my mind that I feel better -- on a daily basis -- when I'm exercising and eating well.

I've also been thinking quite a bit about ego, and how some of the suffering/anhedonia I've been feeling recently can be traced to ego. The Buddhist in me is laughing, a warm, gentle laugh, and he points out to me that if my ego wasn't driving my consciousness, I wouldn't have the unpleasantness I have been feeling.

Some background: after my carelessness of last week, I would occasionally think about what happened and just cringe. This cringing is my ego through and through. And its concerns are misplaced. For one thing, no real or lasting harm seems to have come from the situation -- a fact that is a testament to the exceptional character of my friends, as well as the strength of our friendships. If anything, dealing with that crisis seems to have released some serious energy blockage in me. This is surely why I feel drained; I've released a ton of energy this week. And I'm leaning on Nietzsche's maxim: what does not destroy me makes me stronger. And our relationships should indeed become stronger as a result of all this. So if anything, despite the short-term pain and damage-control, my carelessness may actually benefit our relationships in the long run.

So why cringe? Again, I think it's ego. To do something with such exuberance, perfect love and perfect trust itself requires some suspension of the ego. But when such actions get you into trouble, and cause pain and embarrassment, the ego tends to reassert itself with a relentless chorus of "I told you so! Move over and let me drive, dammit!"

But I cannot. Keep breathing. There is no ego. All are one. Keep breathing. Keep laughing. Forward momentum...

^ posted at 10:30 PM

 

Attention all Mac OSX users...

OpenOffice.org 1.0.3 for Mac OSX is ready, and is out of beta. This is a really good office suite available for Linux (and other forms of Unix), Windows, and now Mac OSX. Good stuff. There is no reason to pay hundreds of dollars for a good word processor anymore.

^ posted at 3:49 PM

 

Mars shines brightly

The planet Mars is shining brightly these days. Apparently, on August 26, Mars will be closer to Earth than at any time in 60,000 years.

I had the privilege of watching Mars last night from the beach in South Portland. It was beautiful. Not coincidentally, I also had a chance to bond with a fiery friend of mine.

^ posted at 11:41 PM