Thoughts to stay cool

The Root of Unhappiness or The Confusion Between Need and Want

2012-01-24T11:50:00.001+01:00

“Wealth is above all, an accumulation of possibilities” – Gabriel Zaid

What is mankind here for? If an alien were to observe us as a scientific spectator he would answer that we are here to accumulate and amass material wealth. He would base this observation on our constant pursuit of growth at the corporate, government and individual level. Governments work to encourage spending, corporations enable spending by employing and providing materials to spend on, and individuals wish to acquire goods.

The alien would reason that this is because of our species' social nature and how social creatures always come in hierarchies. Where in nature an animal's genetic composition establishes his position as proven by various rites, rituals and rivalries, in human civilization social position is established by wealth. Like birds of paradise flaunt their feathers and song to attract a mate, we have come to flaunt our property and appearance to get ours. Not only must we keep up with the Joneses, we must also surpass them. The advertising and marketing industry takes advantage of this; we are manipulated into having unhealthy wants driven by unhealthy motives.

Subliminal messages tug at our fundamental subconscious attraction to life (sex) and death. When we see beautiful people surrounded by beautiful things, our minds stop thinking and we are attracted to the status (sex) it promises. Think about video clips, ads for fashion, luxury etc. Any weaker mind would be attracted to this offering, like Abu was attracted to the big ruby inside the Cave of Wonders in Disney's Aladdin.

But we are not monkeys. That which makes us divine is our thinking and conscious nature. We see the negative effects of hyper-consumption, we know that it makes us sadder and that it damages the environment. We are like the drug addict that knows the harmful effects of his habit, but doesn't have the strength to do anything about it. Why don’t we affirm the divine within and control our instincts? Why do we continue to harm ourselves?

To want and to have is a good, healthy and necessary thing but how we are going about the art of indulgence is absolutely wrong. A barebones existence is insufficient. We need to want, but we need to want the right things and be clear in our minds. Any thing that objectively makes us better apt to fulfill the roles we have chosen for ourselves is legitimate to want. As of today, it appears the majority of humanity is confused in that respect.

But why is the promise of status so effective at attracting consumers?

As said before, man is a social creature. We have an innate need to be with and to be in harmony with others. Civilization started off that way, but we have moved from tribes to individual patriarchal large families, to the nuclear family. With time, humanity has grown more divided and isolated. The large groups we once knew no longer exist, and isolation and loneliness induced depression is a major problem for many developed capitalist economies. How does that have anything to do with our unhealthy relationship with our wants?

Subconsciously, we want to be seen and heard in order to have our other confirm to us our existence. I believe this is why so many seek to be the center of attention, strive to be popular and dream of becoming famous. Basically, when we are in a community we feel alive.
The other plays an important role for each one of us. When we have a community, our others serve as a mirror that anchors us to reality, providing feedback as to who we are. An honest, caring and truly loving community helps one discover oneself. When we do not have such a community, we artificially add colors and glitter to ourselves to become more visible and we speak more loudly as we try to be heard, only to collectively create an unbearable cacophony. It is a symptom of a deep malaise and the end result is that we forget how to listen.

It is that simple. Because we are feeling alone, we are vulnerable and the advertising industry takes advantage of it by convincing the weak to buy stuff they don't need for the hope of community and respectability.

For a time, such a strategy works. People will be drawn to the sentiment of safety and security we have been taught to think material possession provides. Yet one must think of the kind of people one attracts by flaunting material goods. These people do not seek to be friends with you for your character and personality. They are friends with you for your stuff. Nonetheless, there is a positive reinforcement as the victim sees his material possessions yielding him influence, friends and a false sense of high self worth. Like the drug addict, he will spend increasingly more and his deeper human values will be replaced by vainglory (an uglier form of vanity): a vaporous impression of achievement and satisfaction.

So how does one find what one truly wants?

As said before, to want and to have are good things; but want must be driven by proper motivation. What is the motivation of want? Considering that the satisfaction of a want is the objective of any person, the question can be put another way: What do you wake up to achieve everyday? Considering that meaningful work is a central element to happiness, the question can further be translated in to "what is the reason for your life?”

One would think that the answer would come from the heavens, that there is a divine reason for everything that escapes the simple human mind etc. but this is not the case.

If you believe in god, consider that he has provided you with a clean slate. Imagine he told you: "go ahead, do what you think is best. I'm going to take a break for a little while, and see what you can do on your own" - truly, like any proper father would. This places responsibility on the individual for one’s life. This is the first step to recognize that we have a margin of control over our destinies and to reject idolatry.

The second step is to experiment. For whatever reason we are all born with different tastes, as such we have different aspirations and interests; different notions of pleasure and beauty. It is the job of the parent, or the nurturing figure in one's life, to detect whatever rouses a mind's curiosity and enforce it. Charlie Chaplin, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Picasso, Einstein, Feynman, Edison, and the list goes on became icons of their fields because their interest was discovered early enough and supported by their environment. They were given the tools and opportunities to dive into their art early enough for them to work long enough towards excellence. Properly used and chosen tools provide the deeper immersion and this enables one to be sufficiently inspired to create things that are in one way or another beautiful, pleasing and pleasurable.

Before I go on, I must specify that all that is pleasurable, pleasant and beautiful must be pursued. Yet, such pursuits must be mitigated by the disciplined practice of self-love. In other words, it is necessary to have an awareness of the dangers such pursuits can represent and a wise management of such risks and the rewards they promise.

The icons mentioned had ideal situations to develop their skills. For most, it does not happen. It is then an obligation individuals have towards themselves as teenagers/adults (the Jewish faith considers an individual to be a responsible adult by the age of 13) to discover themselves. It is the duty of one's parents/government/environment to allow for one to indulge in one's art as much as possible and to become great at it. Once this is done, one will have almost all the reason in the world to wake up everyday. Interest and curiosity will be glazed with passion. But this alone is insufficient for a satisfying life; one must also be driven by love for one's muse(s).
One draws inspiration from his surroundings, be it the environment and/or people. By observing the beautiful, pleasurable and pleasant, we begin to wonder, think, discover, and are hit by a sense of awe that inspires us to create and to make that which we initially saw even better. This is true for all disciplines and it becomes the reason in and of itself for the practice of the discipline: the creation, in one way or another, of beauty. On the condition that basic needs and legitimate wants are satisfied, money no longer becomes the prime motivator. The love for the discipline and the contribution to humanity its practice is are sufficient.

As one practices this cycle one's appreciation and sensibility increase and this is fundamentally what every member of humanity needs. This cycle grows within us the ability to love (patience, respect, understanding and care). As much as we start off by taking, it quickly becomes more about the giving back. This is the foundation of legitimate want, for it also provides legitimate merit (the better sibling of vanity).

The fundamental reason for being here, on which all other reasons are built, is love. The Catholics say it, "God is Love"; it is that much a divine and powerful a force. Fortunately, because we are communal beings, we have an instinct for love. Though we can be irrational and passionate, we are always thinking and conscious.

But I digress. The next question is how do we live this love in relation to that which we consume?

The consumer best knows how to enjoy that which he consumes when pleasure is extracted from consumption. To extract pleasure, one must consume with love, and to extract even more pleasure one must also savor fully. We must remember that to love is the ability to respect, have patience, understand and care: all elements behind the act of savoring.

More concretely, to savor is to take one's time and enjoy whatever it is that is consumed; to truly relish and dive in the delectability of the thing, be it clothes, food, technology, or whatever. One must seek to understand the tastes, the fabrics, the sounds and the science and all that is behind the production of a good. One must seek to sufficiently understand the various components in the good, and the processes underwent to produce it to more fully appreciate it. It is thus that the act of savoring is made automatic. It is thus that a little becomes infinite as we lose ourselves in the experience of appreciating and savoring the culmination of Mother Nature and humanity’s ability. The memory of such an intense experience makes it live on inside one's mind more vividly than if the consumption is quick and unappreciative. Truly, to love and consume as such makes one more grateful and appreciative, and these are some of the central elements of happiness.

The ability to savor and appreciate the consumption of a thing depends on the merit one has in consuming. He who receives easily and incessantly will eventually become numb. Think of the nouveau riche that seek to prove their status, the spoiled brat, or the wealthy and lonely that cannot find satisfaction in all their wealth. To be able to appreciate, one must work towards the acquisition of the object of consumption, because much of the pleasure comes also from the relief of the end of the frustration. The painful climb makes reaching the goal all the more satisfying and memorable.

This style of consumption is optimal for developing a robust sense of self worth that no longer depends on exterior elements. Possession only serves the purpose of enhancing the life experience one chooses for oneself. In doing so, one better defines oneself as one discovers and develops oneself. In this way, property becomes an extension of the self insofar as they are expressions of one's true interests and life activity. The music one listens to, the clothes one wears, the tools one uses, all become part of a customized coat of arms to be known by.
These in turn can become a source of inspiration for others. Human beings are always in search of role models to look up to and aspire to become like. The danger is confusing the person with the material, as do kids when they purchase a famous football player's shoes in the hopes that they will confer overnight superstar professional soccer player abilities. Nothing but hard work, dedication and practice will yield such results. Poor African and Brazilian children have countless times proven how unnecessary shoes are.

All in all it is all about the appreciative consumption of beauty in all its forms, as it provides pleasure and inspiration for the creation of another level of beauty and pleasure.

A Final Note: On Kitsch and Fear

Art collectors are often ready to spend extravagant amounts for pieces by famous artists. Such prices are justified in their minds by the exclusivity behind having a direct and unique link with a deceased master. The association provides a certain thrill, a certain prestige and higher sense of self worth. The unfortunate truth is that indiscernible replicas can be made, as is the case with photography. Thus the true contribution of the artist emerges. It is to make his mental vision real and to share it with the rest of humanity. The purchaser has no association with the artist. The prestige society confers on the owner of the original is only an expensive illusion feeding his sense of vanity. From the moment the creation is completed it matters not if it is a copy. The only thing that does is the appreciation of the piece.

This however places a heavy burden on the consumer, as he becomes a curator of the arts. He must have good taste and not let trends favoring gimmicky-short shelf life goods take over by fueling a demand driven production economy. We must be rigorous in what we choose to consume and appreciate. We must also be our own harshest critique when it comes to sharing our own creations. Any less and we would be doing the rest of humanity a disservice as we distract it from that which is truly worth its time, energy and effort of appreciation. The pride in our work must be legitimate.

As I conclude, I am conscious that many will say that these words are romantic and idealist. People need to work to afford the comforts and delicacies of life; they need the money to aspire to greater social standing and to ensure the future of their kids. To this I only say that we are deluding ourselves. Many of lives’ luxuries are unneeded, nor legitimately wanted, nor understood or appreciated. They are superfluous comforts; elements of reassurance. These are only suitable for the vain, weak, cowardly and lazy; traits that no one would want to be associated with.

Remember Man’s natural state; do not underestimate our innate abilities to face the harshness of nature. Do not weaken yourself to the point of fearing not having and relying on your own devices. Have the courage to embrace the reality of nature full heartedly and to assert and define your self. Do not waste time! You only have one life, live it fully and directly. Do not live through anything else but your direct relationship to existence, do not let materials and expectations stop you or mediate your relationship with reality. Live the kind of life you would look up to. Have courage my friend, courage to live fully, honestly and completely.

True Romance

2012-01-18T15:14:00.001+01:00

You'd think that having been around as a civilization for at least 10,000 years we'd have figured out the dynamic of relationships between men and women. That we'd have come up with the ultimate guidebook for living with a romantic partner. We haven't - and every time two men or two women sit down to talk the topic of romantic interests rise up, and the same conversations take place over and over again. Why? The problems are different are different each time each time and even though its been lived and experienced in the past. We need to make not only our own experience, but the couple's own experience as well. Each pair is different and each person wants to taste the full spectrum of the magic of relations, without leaving a corner uncovered.

With this in mind I want to share with you 3 true stories of the start of some beautiful romances. None of the names used are real.

I heard the first at a party. I met two wonderful people and found out they were a couple; true to my direct and honest nature, I bluntly asked how they met. I thought it is always good to hear others' experiences, for enchantment's sake and to better know the tools in Cupid's arsenal. The boy, Marc, was late for an appointment with a good friend of his. His punctuality ushered him to call so as to warn of his tardiness. His phone was dead and the situation was pressing. In the heart of the emergency he darted towards a girl that happened to be holding a phone. He honestly conveyed the urgency of his situation to her so he may borrow her phone to text his friend. She checked his phone, it was indeed dead and her gentle nature acquiesced. He left, relieved.

It didn't take long before his brain registered how gorgeous the girl looked, and how much of an opportunity he had to get to know her. He missed it completely! Destiny has her ways, the friend he texted had Marie's number. Upon arriving, Marc took the phone and called her; he convinced her and charmed her. It was bold, it was audacious - Marc had what they call "Chutzpah" and it worked. When opportunity knocks on your door, invite her to stay for dinner.

Other times, destiny is more serendipitous. Sam was driving with a friend running a banal errand. He's a good looking man, smart and modest. He never was the type to play with a girl's heart and for most of his life was single. The dedication he gives his would be lucky lady makes his heart very scrupulous for whom it falls. As they drove, Sam's eye caught a sight of a girl in the street, Samantha, accompanied by a friend and he instantly knew she was the one for him. His eyes blanked, his mind sharpened, and he uttered: "I want her". His heart couldn't know anything about the girl's valor, but his intuition channeled something near divine to his mind. Luckily his friend, Tom, knew the person with whom Samantha, was. Stranger yet, at that very same moment, Samantha saw Sam and she too was struck with something that emptied her mind of everything save for the sight and image of Sam. This event happened over 4 years ago; today they are engaged and to be wed in the summer of 2012.

Others can have their stories happen without a specific choice to be with one another. An openness to be wed suffices knowing that married life will be troublesome at first, with happiness requiring many sacrifices and compromises. Aziz asked his friend Khaled if he knew of a woman he could marry and have children with. Their friendship was strong and Khaled immediately announced his recently widowed sister was available. Knowing the stock of Khaled's family Aziz agreed to marry Nora. They never saw each other until the day of the wedding itself. 50 years, 6 children and countless grandchildren later, they were still together and happy, with a fine synergy. Aziz passed away in september 2011 and he is sorely missed by his children; Nora, widowed for the second time does not feel a void. He left in mark in all that is alive, vigorous and happy around her.

I now know not to expect knowing or learning of Cupid's arsenal. It is a pointless endeavor akin to trying to catalogue each individual planet, star and galaxy in the cosmos. The variety of ways is so great they might as well be infinite to our simple minds. I know not how my love will come, but I know my heart is open to her like Marc's and Sam's were. I have a deep conviction that one should not look for love. Rather, one must find one's vocation, what one loves to do. Only then will lovers unknowingly run as fast as they can towards one another.

When one actively seeks a lover, Cupid's uglier form, Over-Zealousness, strikes rampantly leaving one to place unreasonable hope in the strangers met. Then, the grains of self-delusion are planted and like a time bomb start ticking away to explode when one realizes reality is not what one hoped, what one imagined.

Advice From a Seasoned Voice

2012-01-04T12:11:00.001+01:00

This is one of my favorite inspirational videos. I discovered it when i was confused and feeling a bit lost, it was a welcome blessing. Wise advice from an experienced and seasoned voice. The transcription is below. Enjoy.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering
experience…I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you
imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you Sing Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with
people who are reckless with yours. Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes
you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with
yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you
succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe
you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t
congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your
choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body,
use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever
own.. Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for
good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and
lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you
knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund,
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one
might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will
look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen…

Let This Video and Speech Inspire and Guide Your 2012

2012-01-02T09:19:00.001+01:00

This is a speech made by Charlie Chaplin at the end of his "The Great Dictator". It is powerful, it is moving, and it is thoroughly True and Universal.

The speech is below

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

On Information, its management and evolution.

2011-09-27T15:18:00.002+02:00

“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.”- Thoreau

I. Introduction

Properly structured information is sacred because it strengthens our relatedness to the elements of our environment, and precious because it is rare and powerful. It allows for one to easily consume an others’ stories, thoughts, discoveries and other life experiences. When one consumes information in whatever form it may come, one accepts an invitation to penetrate the others’ world and to be guided through it. During this journey one absorbs the experiences and life lessons that emerge from it and makes them his own. In this way one lives the life of the other and thickens his life capital.

It is thus that the members of humanity effectively enrich the source and ingredient of their wisdom, individuality, and divinity: their reason, intellect, and consciousness. This is how education is passed on. Indeed, each generation builds on top of the lessons of the previous generations.

The mediums of information, and thus the rate of information consumption, have evolved greatly. Before the era of fast transportation and the democratization of education, an average person would receive as much information in one year as we do in one day if not less. The incremental steps in information technology have been nothing far from miraculous to each receiving generation. These advances must not be taken for granted. It was only a few decades ago that the world marveled at color television, wondering where the little people were. It was only a few decades ago that kings marveled at the wonder of the fax machine. Each evolution in the way we carry information was infinitely beneficial to us. Let us not forget it, let us appreciate this reality as it deserves to be.

II. On The Evolution of the Means of Information Creation and Consumption

The first human beings transmitted their knowledge of tradition and language verbally. But the memory of information is diluted with every generation it is passed down to. With time, we learnt to draw on walls allowing information to be recorded, stored and transmitted by learning. The cryptic nature of this information made the presence of a teacher crucial. As of today we don’t know what many of the cave paintings mean and the purpose they served. Yet despite the inadequacies of cave walls, the information was stored long enough for us to see thousands and thousands of years later.

After cave walls came the painstaking communication of texts on hard-to-carry, slow and difficult to engrave stone tablets. We used picture letters, such as the Mesopotamian Cuneiform, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs to write. Because the shapes of each letter was intricate; for a large period, writing took great amounts of skill, time and energy. The scribes were a class of educated administrators that served to run a civilization.

Nonetheless, information could now be packed in sentences and pictures making it clearer than cryptic images; most importantly, it could now move. The spreading of knowledge came with the ability to physically carry it, and teach it. Paper emerged in the far east and in Ancient Egypt. Being lighter, thinner and more malleable, information on paper was more easily transportable in great quantities. Ink made it possible to record more information faster. Universities and roads opened, information was exchanged verbally and on paper. The Gutenberg press came and ushered in an era of knowledge democratization. The telegram, radio, TV, satellite TV, cable, more efficient printing presses etc. were adopted at dazzling speeds and have sped the rate at which information could come to users.

As people learned to read, so too they began to learn how to write. Many are those of today that are nostalgic for hand written letters that would arrive by surprise after long and perilous journeys. As means of transportation became faster, so did communication. Unfortunately, the rate of evolution of information production and consumption is so fast that the youngest generation cannot imagine a world without e-mail. Indeed, if one looks at the average evolutions of information over humanity’s history, thousands of years of evolution have taken place in the last 60 years. It is important that one fully grasps the implications of such rapid evolution.

Technology evolved in leaps and bounds in terms of information consumption, but with it so did our tools to create and manage information. Instant voice communication became possible over increasingly greater distances. Soon after, entire texts could be communicated instantly from one point of the globe to another via the now defunct fax machine. As the means of communication evolved they also become increasingly democratized. Think of the one-lap-top per child program and how it has helped connect the poorest students of the world to the Library of Alexandria that is the Internet. Think of how Indian farmers depend on the SMS texts they receive on their cell phones (not Smartphones) for weather forecasts, commodity prices and other important bits of relevant information.

When the Internet emerged the evolution of knowledge and communication accelerated dramatically. Though it was initially cryptic and challenging to use, it has become an extremely user-friendly tool. All types of information can now be communicated to anyone anywhere. All information in the physical realm became part of an omnipresent digital network that makes everywhere here all the time. Where once information was extremely rare, the Internet provided an avenue for its abundance.

An avalanche of information ensued. Social networks, blogs, videos, audio clips, music, pictures, vlogs, newspapers, magazines, radio, messaging… all part of the tidal wave that has overwhelmed and drowned many minds. Where information was once costly to produce and transmit in terms of time, skill, and energy, it has now become as easy as a tweet.

The diversity of the platforms is a blessing; the curse is how they have been used. Much of the information is repeated from one medium to the other, and in the race to hold on to consumers' attention, information has become shorter and easier to consume. Overwhelmingly, people choose to focus their minds on less challenging, more entertaining small bits of information rather than truly enriching and engaging information. This is not a conscious choice; it is an unconscious gravitation created by our nature and market forces. All living things strive to save energy for they know how difficult it is to come by.

The great diversity of information pushes individuals to consume information superficially as they dart from one source to another. The end result is a society that is forgetting how to sit still and concentrate; this is alarming considering that children have been shown to spend considerably less time reading books than they once used to. This is all the more alarming when one considers that this drop in reading has a correlation with the decreasing rates of empathy humanity is experiencing. I suspect that the addiction to information, like any other addiction, is a symptom of our alienation from self, other, nature and our own product.

Yet, the harder a creature works to collect energy, the stronger it will be. Just the same the more challenging a source of information, the more intellectual energy it will require and the stronger its consumption will make the intellect. The rational being will strive for strength if he can guarantee a steady supply of energy, but our instincts rely on that which millions of years of evolution has taught it: that energy is rare and precious and for this reason must be preserved. The information market players do nothing but indulge our instinct so as to ensure their own survival by appealing to the greatest number. There is also the problem of people not having enough time to consume such information. This inadvertently creates a system with an unhealthy dynamic of redundant information creation and exchange.

III. The Importance of knowing how to choose which information to take the time to digest

By engaging in this frenetic information bunny hopping we rob ourselves of the time any mind needs to digest information and produce thoughts. In the same way that "one is what one eats", the information we consume helps draw and refine the individual self by feeding the thought process that creates the individual, the "I".

One must not be extreme, just like eating the occasional candy bar can be greatly satisfying and beneficial, so too can be the consumption of silly information. But as one must be diligent with food to avoid becoming obese, so too one must be diligent with information so as to prevent becoming stupid. The poorer the way by which we consume information, the poorer the information we produce and the poorer our intellects become. We must strive to avoid and/or exist this vicious cycle. As such, we must assume the responsibility we have towards our Greater Self to nurture and defend our intellect. Truly, the optimization of learning and thought generation stresses the need for a finely refined and balanced method of information consumption.

The danger of over-indulgence of information, though easier to succumb to with poor information, is just as real with quality information. One must focus his attention so that it is not too thinly spread across various topics. To do so would prevent one from having depth of thought and from building any sort of coherent understanding. This is frustrating, because behind every open door of knowledge lies a thousand more that are closed: the mystery is greater than the knowledge. Our thirst for knowledge is insatiable, tempering it is divine.

There is no way to define what is too much for each individual has his own capacities and interest. A rare help emerges from the restriction that the 24 hours of a day impose and the requirements that the other Elements of the Self be balanced. Information absorption satisfies the Mind, but one must not forget to cater to the Soul by thinking, the Body by exercising, and the Other by yielding to the instinct of community.

IV. On Information and the Defining of the Self

Along with balance, one must have a sense of what fields one has curiosity for. To many, this sounds daunting, but we must realize that at any one moment, one’s identity and being are established by the sum of all of one’s inner and outer experiences. As such, inside each one of us is sufficient material for honest introspection and a conversation with the Self. This is how the individual self becomes defined and is sharpened as new areas of curiosity continue to emerge for one to focus on. This is nothing but the developing of Self-knowledge, which is another aspect of self-love and self-respect.

As new layers of complexity are added to the leviathan that is the internet. Information no longer needs to be sought out for it is directly delivered and tailored to individual interests. RSS feeds, The Pulse reader, twitter and facebook are but a few of the platforms that provide streams of information from chosen and appreciated sources. One must not be fooled for here too the danger of information over-indulgence looms. Nothing but balance, scrutiny and self-discipline in the selection of the sources can protect one from the deluge.

Indeed, the web allows for individuals to amass great numbers of knowledge. Users have abused the Instapaper program, which allows for articles to be saved in text format to be read at a later point in time, to the point of the service crashing. It is reported that many of the saved articles aren’t even read. The same is done with youtube’s “watch it later” service, and many pirates compulsively download all forms of media that they never consume. The question then arises as to how to manage such vast amounts of information so as to optimally use them and feed our thinking process without being overwhelmed and with enough time to do everything else? The solution proposed is a filter, something to automatically clear the way all the while preventing information insulation from arising.

Man is not immortal and thus cannot consume everything. This underlines the importance of efficient use of time; it must not be wasted sifting and searching through vast amounts of data for that ONE article, video, song, whatever. But organizing takes time; an automated system would be welcome.

Such technology exists. Stumbleupon.com and hunch.com are services that learn tastes. Stumbleupon takes you to random sites that have proven interesting to others and as you tell it what you like and dislike, it knows better what to serve you next time. Hunch.com asks you questions in a game manner and ends up telling you more about yourself once you answer a few questions. These answers are correlated with masses and masses of information provided by users similar and different to you to produce a good enough approximation of your tastes. We are effectively being escorted through the cacophony of information towards the discovery of what we like.

Zite is an automatic curator, merging taste learning and centralized information feeding methods. The application lets one customize your own magazine by sections you like, and it learns what it is that you like as a reader. From there it can continue feeding you articles about your interests, and suggesting new ones you can like.

One must remember to strive to diversify the sources of knowledge so as to have multiple perspectives that will make more robust one’s own and avoid one’s to be locked in to one’s own sphere of knowledge and reality.

V. The danger of becoming blasé or of losing the power to focus :

If one watches enough movies, reads enough books, listen to enough people’s stories, they all start sounding and looking the same. Emotions are important but after a while, the sheer volume gives the illusion of a standard answer. It is what seems to happen with the daily news. Why not focus on something more worthwhile that is awe inspiring? To do so, one must know what is relevant to one’s own interests and How do we learn to ask the questions that matter, the questions that are at the root of everything? How do we discover them?

VI. Conclusion : We Are Not Gods

In my humble opinion the answer revolves around the necessary humility of man. The importance of living life and accepting that nothing is to be kept, and that we are not immortal; we cannot know everything there is to know. Man must not try to acquire but to master and understand the elements of his existence. The cycle is simple : observe, understand, be amazed and in awe, be inspired, and create.

We must admit that all outcomes are possible, that nothing sounds silly or easily dismissive. Follow the Socrates idea that “The only thing that I Know is that I do not know anything” : man must recognize that one’s own preconceptions can be wrong, and this mistake goes without reprimand. This is the essence of the scientific method : to be skeptical, never taking anything for granted. As Bertrand Russel put it “Opinion is not fact, stick to the facts”.

It is only thus that one can truly understand and appreciate the truth to the different dimensions and aspects of reality one discovers. Failure is welcome for it paves the path towards innovation. Everything has the potential of being true. The key is to think about it and see what is best according to the best of our capacity.

In line with humility, man must have the courage to admit ignorance, to understand what it means not to know, and to embrace the uncertainty of knowing.

Bertrand Russell’s Message to the future, as given in 1959 on the BBC program Face-to-Face

2011-08-19T14:15:00.001+02:00

Interviewer :

“One Last question, suppose this film were to be looked at by our descendants, like a dead see scroll in 1000 years time, what do you think would be worth telling that generation about the life you lived and the lessons you’ve learned from it?”

Bertrand Russel:

“I should like to say two things. One intellectual and one moral. The intellectual thing I should want to say to them is this: when you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe or by what you think could have been efficient socially if it were to be believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts. This is the intellectual thing I should wish to say. The moral thing I should like to say is very simple. I should say love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way. If we are to live and not die together we must learn the kind of charity and kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.”

This is the link to the video.

The Internet Helps us Know Ourselves Better

2011-08-02T18:40:00.186+02:00

Before the era of fast transportation and the democratization of education, an average person would receive as much information in one year as we do in one day. Each evolution in the way we carry information was infinitely beneficial to us. The first human beings transmitted their knowledge verbally. The mind is a powerful sponge that will retain information it is fed and impressed by.

But the memory of information is diluted with every generation it is passed down to. With time, we learnt to draw on walls allowing information to be recorded, stored and transmitted by learning. Because this information was so cryptic, the presence of a teacher was important. As of today we don’t know what many of the cave paintings mean and the purpose they served. Yet despite the inadequacies of cave walls, the information was stored long enough for us to see thousands and thousands of years later.

Then we started to painstakingly communicate texts on hard-to-carry, slow and difficult to engrave stone tablets. We used picture letters, such as the Mesopotamian Cuneiform, and Egyptian Hyerogliphs to write. Becuase the shapes of each letter was intricate; for a large period, writing took great amounts of skill, time and energy.

Nonetheless, information could now be packed in sentences and pictures making it clearer than cryptic images; most importantly, it could now move. The spreading of knowledge came with the ability to physically carry it, and teach it. Paper emerged in the far east and in Ancient Egypt. Being lighter, thinner and more maleable, information on paper was more easily transportable in great quantities. Because of its nature, more information could be recorded faster thanks to ink. Universities and roads opened, information was exchanged verbally and on paper. The Gutenberg press came and ushered in an era of democratizing of knowledge. The telegram, radio, TV, satellite TV, cable, more efficient printing presses etc. were adopted at dazzling speeds and have sped the rate at which information could come to users.

These are all ways to receive information. It's creation and communication has followed a similarly fast evolution. As people learned to read, so too they began to learn how to write. Many are those of today that are nostalgic for hand written letters that would arrive by surprise after long and perilous journeys. As means of transportation became faster, so did communication.

Technology evolved in leaps and bounds, and with it so did our tools to manage knowledge. Instant voice communication became possible over increasingly greater distances. Soon afte, entire texts could be communicated instantly from one point of the globe to another via the now defunct fax machine. As the means of communication evolved they also become increasingly democratized. Think of the one-lap-top per child program and how it has helped connect the poorest students of the world to the Library of Alexandria that is the internet. Think of how indian farmers depend on the SMS texts they receive on their cell phones (not smartphones) for weather forecasts, commodity prices and other important bits of relevant information.

When the internet emerged the evolution of knowledge and communication accelerated dramatically. Though it was initially cryptic and challenging to use, it has become an extremely user friendly tool. All types of information can now be communicated to anyone anywhere. Even the poorest of the world have access to the internet thanks to programs such as One Laptop Per Child. All information in the physical realm became part of an omnipresent digital network that makes everywhere here all the time. Where once information was extremely rare, the internet provided an avenue for its abundance.

An avalanche of information ensued. Social networks, blogs, videos, audio clips, music, pictures, vlogs, newspapers, magazines, radio, messaging… are part of the tidal wave that has overwhelmed and drowned many minds. Where information was once costly to produce and transmit in terms of time, skill, and energy, it has now become as easy as a tweet.

The diversity of the platforms is a blessing; the curse is how they have been used. Much of the information is repeated from one medium to the other, and in the race to hold on to consumers' attention, information has become shorter and easier to consume. Overwhelmingly, people choose to focus their minds on less challenging, more entertaining small bits of information rather than truly enriching and engaging information. This is not a conscious choice; it is an unconscious gravitation created by our nature and market forces. All living things strive to save energy; the more challenging a source of information, the more intellectual energy it will require. It is our instinct and the market players do nothing but indulge it. They inadvertently create an unhealthy dynamic of information creation and exchange.

Suffice it to say that rates of novel reading have dropped significantly amongst youths across the western hemisphere.

This puts a strain on attention that makes people consume information superficially as they dart from one source to another. We effectively rob ourselves of the necessary time for a mind to digest information and produce thoughts. In the same way that "one is what one eats", the information we consume helps draw and refine the individual self. The information we consume feeds the thought process that creates the individual, the "I" ; it is why Descartes said "I think therefore I am". As such, We must defend ourselves against the parasite that is excessive poor information. The poorer the information we consume, the poorer the information we produce and the poorer our intellects become. We must strive to avoid and/or exist this vicious cycle.

Descartes said "I think therefore I am" individuals cannot possibly be truly and deeply interested and engaged in every topic out there. In our building of our identities, we have an obligation to our Greater Self to be diligent with what we choose to consume. This is crucial so as to more effectively allow for our own thoughts and thinking processes to emerge so that we may start to build and discover our opinions, our thoughts, our independent individuality.

The plethora of information carries an advantage for us. If we do not know them, the internet provides a context of experimentation that complements the real world. We try and see what we like and what we don’t until we stumble on something fascinating and consume the heck out of it.

Here’s the beauty of how this sort of information is pushing us towards our own divinity. Once that first step of interest discovery is made, one knows oneself better. Self-knowledge is another aspect of self-love and self-respect. It is imperative for a well lived, healthy and wisdom seeking life. The Internet is only a double-edged sword that can help or harm the process. The trick is to know how to use it.

RSS feeds, The Pulse reader, twitter and facebook provide us with streams of information from sources we like. This is a great move because information comes to us instead of us going to it, saving us enormous amounts of time. Everything is in one place and we don’t have to read different articles about the same thing – we can read just one. This is not all; the efficiency in consuming information increased when we started receiving suggestions as to what we might like.

Stumbleupon.com and hunch.com are services that learn your tastes. Stumbleupon takes you to random sites that have proven interesting to others and as you tell it what you like and dislike, it knows better what to serve you next time. Hunch.com asks you questions in a game manner and ends up telling you more about yourself once you answer a few questions. These answers are correlated with masses and masses of information provided by users similar and different to you to produce a good enough approximation of your tastes. We are effectively being guided towards discovering what we like and discovering ourselves.

People can object and protest against such a service because fearing it might categorize and commoditize people. Screw it, so what if it does? We are human beings and it is expected that we will resemble one another to a certain extent. Of the many variables that compose our being and personality, we make our own cocktails, and some people end up choosing roughly similar ones from time to time. Types exist. It’s a fact. Besides, each one of us is special, like everyone else. Our existence is not less valued by this truth.

Now Zite has come and merges the taste learning with the centralized information feeding. The application lets you customize your own magazine by sections you like, and it learns what it is that you like as a reader. From there, it can continue feeding you articles about your interests, and suggesting new ones you can like.

Information has become liquid, with a greater ease of management of information through technology; we can rationalize it and become even more knowledgeable about the fields of interest to us. We can solidify our being. The danger is that we be locked in to our own sphere of knowledge.

We can hope that a system will adapt to this hurdle and let us discover what people different to us are reading and how they are thinking. Maybe it will take the form of a forum where people will physically meet to speak. For now, we can hail the technological advancements in increasing the speed at which we are discovering and becoming knowledgeable about the fields we are passionate about.

Little Rant of Despair

2011-07-27T12:16:00.002+02:00

I was reading the news in the WSJ today. I come away feeling disgusted with our form of capitalism. Everyone is talking about competitiveness, like we’re set up one against the other, be it in terms of countries attracting investments, companies attracting talent, selling a product or other. This is what I saw when I read , for instance, that Microsoft had 4500 jobs for computer scientists, but that the red tape around visa acquiring in the USA is so tough the company has to set up shop outside the country. The only worry was that Americans were not going to benefit from the jobs but foreigners. This is kind of thinking insulates man from his brother and forces us to be individualistic animals instead of social animals. This kind of thinking forces us to be relatively petty, barring us from collaborating and thinking of the bigger longer term picture.

Our system is all the more abhorrent considering how well we know that man is a social animal. The system we are in forces us to focus on our own selfish survival and doesn’t allow us to trust our brother with our own survival. This kind of capitalism has forced talent to go unemployed! Precious human resources and talent are being wasted as they despair watching their companies fail (think of RIM).

Yet, happiness doesn’t come from taking but from giving (this has actually been proven, read the Dragonfly Effect for more info on it). Yet we take and we take; we take time from our employees’ lives as we force them to perform meaningless tasks, we take the lives of our stars as we push them into an emotional pain that will (hopefully) generate enough inspiration to write a new hit (think Michael Jackson and the recently departed Amy Winehouse). This doesn’t help us trust one another! Just think about planned obsolescence and how it betrays the very sacred trust between merchant and consumer… All of this individualistic drive for survival is absolutely counter-productive to the True Nature of Man.

I dream of the day where companies get less greedy, become more honest, and more long term oriented. I dream of equality for all, where no job is under-appreciated. Where no job is too great or too small because they all have purpose and meaning behind them to those performing them. I dream of the day where man realizes his only job is to make this place a better one for the next generation, while making his and his fellows’ existence all the more pleasant.

God help us. I feel like we live in Sodom and Gomorrah.

My Two Cents Worth for Artists On The Web

2011-07-22T13:33:00.001+02:00

I’ve been a fervent believer in the power of the Internet to bring people together for quite some time. History has proven my hopes true and we are now on the cusp of a new era. Crowdfunding has taken off quite strongly since the term was first coined in a 2006 Wired Magazine article. As of today, there’s over 65 sites dedicated to it from all around the world! They all serve the same purpose; helping people help one another to materialize projects.

What Flattr does is slightly different. We’re not exactly into Crowdfunding, but more into crowd rewarding. It fits in the continuation of the Crowdfunding logic; after completing a Crowdfunding campaign, one creates his project then shows it off to the world online. That end result is what Flattr works on. We provide a button that lets fans of the created work tangibly reward it with little amounts of money. It’s similar to the street artist’s hat, except the hat, the street, and the performance are not limited in space nor time. They get to live forever on the web. When forever meets little amounts of money, over time, little amounts transform in to large amounts. In this way we hope to empower budding and established creators to devote themselves more fully to perfecting their art.

There are plenty of tools available on the net to help optimize revenue streams for artists, but like any tool one must know how to use them to benefit from them. This is why I am writing this article – to give you advice on generating more revenue from the content you’ve already created.

Though Flattr and Crowdfunding are different, there are some common points they share when it comes to optimizing revenue. The first thing is to let your audience know you so you can start developing a real relationship with them. Use the common social networks to express and show yourself so people can get to know you more easily. If your likeable, this should work great for you! Heck, Jenna Marbles is awesome, and I love her, and I want to give her a lot of stuff, just because she’s so awesome! That’s because she invests great amounts of time in communicating with her fan base. She succeeds in making them feel like they actually know her, all thanks to social networks. It takes time, but the rewards are worth it.

YouTube; keep in mind that videos that are longer than 5 minutes are difficult on the attention span of the modern web surfer. Make two dedicated channels if you must, one for your vlog (details details and more details about your daily life) and another (the more important channel) directly about your art. The second one would be for the more relevant and thought out content about your activity/creativity/creations.

Before video, there were pictures; except on the Internet where Flickr came after YouTube. Make it a habit to take pictures of cool stuff your doing so that you can show it to your fans. You can tweet about it and facebook it as well. The idea is to maximize your online presence. Just the same as below, make sure you follow the sharing balance principle (as in, don’t overshare)

Twitter : use it to update your fans about what you are doing in regards to your art. Don’t overshare; make sure its something relevant and significant enough that they would care about it too! 3-4 well timed tweets a day are largely enough. You’ve got to leave time between tweets so that your tweet has more likelihood of being picked up and retweeted. If you don’t have anything interesting to share about your work, share a link to an article, video, photo or whatever else that you found online that you found inspiring, real nice or other that you deem worthy of sharing. Unfortunately there is no secret to twitter, you must follow people to gain visibility and be followed! Make sure you follow people that actually are interesting to you either because of who they are, or what they do. It’ll make it easier to amass a large following.

Facebook is basically going to be a combination of your YouTube flickr, and twitter, but it’ll be easier to engage in conversation with them through it’s wall function.

These are not the only social networks out there. There’s a bunch that are dedicated to various arts. You must make sure that you are on the ones that are relevant to you and join them with the same goal as above:

“Get your audience to know you by continually inspiring them by showing them, not telling them, about the passion and dedication you have for your art. Use these tools to convey to the world as clearly as possible the meaning and motivation you find in your work”.

But that’s not all; the internet is a double edged sword! The fans are now empowered and will expect to be able to be heard and responded to. How do you do that? Engage in conversation with them! Asides from facebook and twitter, Disqus and Quora are great tools for Q&As where you can directly interact with your fans. It works a bit like a forum but more lively and streamlined. It will be your job to pay attention to what is being said. In this way you will be extract the bits of precious feedback that can allow you to enhance your work.

Cross the boarder between the net and the real world; listen to your fans and satisfy them! Organize meet-ups with them – really try to engage with them as much as you can. Ultimately, it will be all to your benefit.

Of course, you’ve absolutely GOT TO MAKE SURE that the social networks’ buttons are easily findable on your site! This is how people will find out more about you! The next stage is where Flattr comes in.

As I said before, it is a tool for people to express a tangible financial show of appreciation. Now that you got yourself a nice following, you make sure that they know they can actually show their appreciation by supporting you (and other creators for that matter) through Flattr. As a side note, the Flattr platform can serve as a forum for discussion between you and your fans for each piece you make Flattr-able. We provide a “micro-patrons” type of forum.

But before you can do that your fans have to know what Flattr is about, and for that you will have to announce it. You will definitely be doing us a great service, but our number 1 interest is you. If you help us, it makes it much easier for us to help you and we enter an amazing virtuous cycle!

As you are thinking about adopting/integrating/announcing Flattr to your fans, you must keep the idea that you are seeking donations or begging out of your and their mind! Flattr is about reward; it is a tool to express “Hooray” or “Huzzah!” in digital terms. Be bold, joke about it if you must, but tell them you have found a way for them to express recognition that’s more “ingratiating”, or more in your favor. Not only will you have to announce the button delicately, but you will also have to be delicate with how you place it on your site.

You won’t want to make it too present; multiple Flattr buttons for one piece will make it look like you are effectively forcing people to hand you a micro-payment by guilt-tripping them… that’s no good. You want to make it present once on the page of the content in question in such a way that it appears clearly as optional and not required at all. I find that for pictures, having the button at the bottom center or left of the picture attracts my eye more than if it were anywhere else. Maybe its because that’s where my mind has learned social network buttons are typically set. You must be creative with how you use it; maybe you can wittily imbed it in your content, like such? Get to know all the options you have (like this google chrome widget and these different Flattr buttons), and really leverage them so they can best fit your style, audience and page.

Before I continue I want to make it clear to you that as you work to maximize your revenue, you won’t have to worry about Flattr eating up your PayPal donate button revenues. Multiple times we have received feedback from creators saying that their PayPal revenue was not cannibalized because donations through it are of bigger proportions than they are through Flattr. It makes sense; Flattr is more impulsive, easier to complete a process and is less of a pinch on the users wallet because the sums are so small!

On a final note let me say that I can’t stress enough how important it is that you get your fans to know you and your work by engaging with them. You will owe it to your fans, for all the support, feedback and money they have provided you with, to give them some account of how you are bettering yourself at your art thanks to their support. Heck, you can tell thank them for the vacation they allowed you to take (and show them some great moments from it through Flickr, facebook and YouTube), thank them for the great feedback they gave you and tell them about how your incorporating it, show them the new materials you bought and what you hope to do with it etc.

In that way, your fans will feel engaged in your creative process. They will feel close to you and they will support you out of love for you. Really, they will love you at the truest sense of the word because they know you. Consequently, their appreciation for your art will be stronger and their feedback of greater quality. Throughout this process, as long as you keep transparent, grateful and humble, you will strengthen the bond you have with them, and we’ll all come out winners.

The Speech at Joe Taylor's Funeral

2011-07-09T11:26:00.004+02:00

Death is natural and expected. We must accept it if only for the sake of our sanity. Why then do we feel such a deep sorrow? Do we think that because Joe is not here anymore he must be in a worse place? Because his body no longer exists his soul has vanished as well?

Be it true or not, let us indulge Joe’s memory. As many of you remember he loved George Carlin’s idea that in death, “people go wherever they believe they’re going to go”. If that is true, then it is wonderful to know how strongly Joe believed in the pure bliss that comes in death when we return to god. Of course you also know that he didn’t have the traditional understanding of heaven, hell and god – heaven and god were one, a return to everything. Hell is eternal regret that comes when we realize the full potential of the life we could’ve lived that we chose not to live. We all know Joe had no regrets. If life were measured by the number of moments that take your breath away, then Joe should’ve been an immortal!

Joe was a good man. He was sensitive, sensible, appreciative, loving and respectful of life in all its forms. Many of us, I am sure, will often go back to our memory of his expression, wide eyed, mouth gaped and excited at the wonder he saw in the beauty of nature. Each time he was awe struck the child within him lived stronger, louder and appeared on his face only to inspire our own inner child to emerge.

He understood the miracle of life and how it depended on a delicate balance. He was careful to consume only that which he needed to and ate with a deep gratitude for the animals and plants that nourished him. Joe always said that the present generation’s responsibility is to ensure the next generation’s existence. “The fire needs to be carried on” he used to say. He also said that the giant’s shoulders on which our children stand need to continue growing so our children can see further. He never asked of people anything; instead he chose to show the example, radiating positive energy wherever he went.

His involvement with nature and life was deep enough for him to prefer “sporting in nature”. He was a fair swimmer, rock climber and river sports man – but what he loved most was caring for his land. He loved to work it arduously to the point where his muscles would burn and he’d sweat bucket loads. He’d explain that he endured this pain as a tribute to the land for the life it provides us with.

Needless to say, Joe tried to avoid cities. Not only was there not enough nature there, but the isolation and loneliness he saw inflicted on citizens of cities saddened and repulsed him. His work depended on others, on cities and their complexity, but the Internet protected him from thet megapolises. Still he tried to bring people as close together as he could. We’d repeat “man is a social animal; when he’s alone he gets depressed and dies inside. Man’s happiness not only depends on being with people, but on the quality of his bond with other people”.

And so his whole life he tried to unite man; he always used to ask : “what is man’s mission statement?”. He was often too deep, and we’d have no answers, but he’d always reply: “to become as divine as we can be! That can only be done if we come together!” To come closer to unity his first action was to enable people to show appreciation for one another’s creativity and creations. He then stimulated people to be more creative and an avalanch of contributions followed.

He opened a school on his land where students would learn to respect life, the land, and knowledge. He would cultivate a passion for love and righteousness in youth and many found success thanks to him. His work in education didn’t stop at the boundaries of his farm. He loved technology and used every avenue it offered to teach and empower the people of the world, and so much more. In everything Joe did, he took into account the unity of man. He believed in a the debt that each generation owes to the past and future generations of humanity and he tried his best to honor it.m

Joe was a good man; he knew how privileged he was growing up and living, he knew how much he learned from his education and experiences compared to many othershe convinced him he had a responsibility to help upgrade humanity spiritually, mentally and physically. As much of a teacher and father he was to us, he always saw the potential of others to be teachers and recognized them as such when moments of brilliance would grace them. He listened to others’ criticisms and was always ready to review himself. He saw the unity of man when he referred to his teachers as his other mothers and fathers.

We were one big family to him. He adopted as many kids as he could raise and had some of his own. He always promised to his future wife (even before he knew her!) that he would be the best possible husband and father. That he would make her a queen; today, she can attest to his success.

Joe always said he wanted to be a hero, and everyday he lived he tried to be at least one person’s hero. Hercules and Superman were his favorite and he aspired to have their courage and integrity. Today, we can rejoice, sing and dance in Joe’s honor, for he has lived a rich life and succeeded in being a hero and teaching us how to be heroes! The man truly had the heart of a king; as kind as he was, he was never afraid to be severe, stern or harsh when circumstance required it of him.

let us remember and be inspired by his constant devotion, enthusiasm and passion for life. Joe is dead, but he lives on within us. Long live Joe!

The Amazing Night We Almost Were VIPs at a Kings of Leon Concert

2011-06-24T10:53:00.004+02:00

The workday was over. It was long, strenuous and full of accomplishments. A few now-irrelevant incidents happened towards the end of the day. They unfortunately had the power to make my enthusiasm vanish. The void it left behind filled up with disappointment.

I needed to do something outside of the house to evacuate the energy my expectations generated. Tarek, the friend with whom I am staying with, didn’t want to go out but it didn’t take much for him to indulge me. We went for a walk to remember in Hyde Park. Nature and quality conversation quickly pushed away my negative energy. After some time we were ready to go home and call it an uneventful night. Little did we know it was far from being the end of the evening.

On our way back we passed one of the entrances of the Park and saw an amazingly beautiful lady climb in to a cab with her daughter. She immediately started yelling to get the attention of a woman that had just gotten out of the same cab. She was determined with an astounding and contagious care-fueled urgency in her eyes and movements. She wasn’t crazy; she was elegant and strong. It was that the cab was obstructing the road, and that the forgetful lady was distancing herself by the second that pressed her! You could say she was more worried about the fare but I am sure it was the last thing on her mind. Her genuine care for her other was obvious.

The driver, Tarek and I were infected with her passion and dedication; I immediately rushed to grab and deliver the bag to its rightful owner. The first person I spoke to was the wrong one. The cab driver rushed to tell me which lady was the right one. She was far, so I ran to catch her. When I caught her, I expected she would be happy and relieved to retrieve her lost good. She wasn’t. It turned out that she had left the bag behind on purpose and didn’t care for it at all. I laughed at the sad irony: as much as we cared, she didn’t.

Still, she and the bystanders were caught by surprise by our collective energetic kindness. Some mocked us and said that nice guys finished last etc. We weren’t fazed. A snug feeling of satisfaction, trust and connectedness with the other came over us. That was reward enough when nothing was expected in return. It even looked like bits of admiration transpiredfrom the bystanders eyes: that was the icing on the cake. It was amazing that so little could do so much in terms of impressions… but even then the goodness didn’t stop there.

The driver and I walked back towards the cab and the beautiful blond lady opened the door to speak to Tarek and I. With the same care and urgency she showed for the bag and with pride and reassurance in her voice, she said:

“You are very kind, you must know that! Would you like two VIP tickets for the Kings of Leon concert?”

They were playing that very night at Hyde Park. We full heartedly accepted and were supremely happy that such fortune would come upon us! More importantly, we were extremely pleasantly surprised to see such a show of kindness and confidence. It felt like that lady trusted; we were touched and honored.
But she was in a cab in the middle of the street – the pressure from the whizzing cars around the cab and her rising fare was on and I didn’t want to increase it either. She gave us her tickets very quickly and tried to bite her wristbands off to give to us. I didn’t see why they were necessary, so I urged the driver to go thinking the tickets were enough.

We were ecstatic and proud – karma exists and it chose to reward us! We gloated and showed off the tickets to those that mocked us as we rushed to the concert with expectations for an awesome evening. Moments before arriving to the VIP entrance, we looked at the ticket and realized the wristbands were in fact necessary. Our excitement was shaken but didn’t wane and we decided to try getting in anyways with an elaborate story.

We told the guard at the entrance our bit of fiction and he was kind enough to let us speak to his superior:
“Where are your tickets then?”
“Funny story; we were called with an emergency and had to leave the concert. We tore off and threw the wristbands away because they were uncomfortable.”
“So why are you back here then?”
“The emergency got called off just as we set foot in the taxi. You can’t imagine how annoyed we wer!”
“I understand but that doesn’t tell me where your tickets are”
“Well we threw them away with the wrist bands… We thought keeping the passes was souvenir enough”.

That didn’t convince her. The tickets were a mandatory condition for entrance, but she was of good faith. She tried everything to get us in, asking for the name of the person that purchased the ticket for us, asking where we sat, etc. We lied and said it was purchased by an unknown friend of a friend, and neither Tarek nor myself knew anything about the layout of the concert zone. Even if we knew anything about the layout we knew no one in there. Our chances didn’t look too good; if the questions were pushed any further we would’ve been caught red handed. We yielded and left bitter and disappointed again.

We sat down for sometime and let the upset annoyance fade. Tarek yelled at me a bit for rushing without taking the wristband from the lady. He was right and I was very unhappy with myself. I let the lesson of the importance of patience and letting processes end sink in. Moments later I had a moment of genius, got up and walked back towards the VIP entrance with a strong confidence and determination. My baby brother’s voice inspired me: “He who doesn’t try doesn’t get”.

I wanted to get and I was going to use every card in my hands. I passionately and urgently told them the whole truth: I had a crappy day, we helped someone out, we got rewarded and the night that started out so badly had the potential of ending amazingly. The guard wasn’t happy we lied but his big smile showed he appreciated the honesty and passion in my voice. The lady we spoke to was sympathetic and her boss heard everything. That didn’t change anything though; we still needed the tickets.

The guard saw we were determined and thought we’d insist some more. He decided to make his tone more severe with us to avoid any mishap and relieve the attending ladies from our annoying persistence. I smiled and warmly made it clear that we weren’t going to resist leaving; his severity instantly disappeared. We tried everything and it failed. It was time to quit, and so we did. We exchanged a few laughs and smiles, and left feeling like greater winners. After all, we weren’t the biggest fans of the Kings of Leon – we just thought the concert would be cool. The adventure and interactions we had along the way were more than awesome for us.

Our mutual honesty, attention, empathy and appreciation was warmly felt. Our exchange showed a reciprocal respect, patience, care and understanding. It was testament of the potential kindness of man, its effect and the real interconnectedness of man. It may seem mundane and banal to you, but the warmth, surprise and thrill of the moment left us full of gratitude and wonder.

The evening was special because it gave us deep life lessons. As much as enthusiasm can be great, the disappointment from the unmet great expectations it can create is dangerous. The energy that emanates from us has a great impact on the people around us and ourselves. I will never forget the mother that inspired us with her care, nor will i forget how inspired I became because she cared. She started the entire sequence of events i described. I'll always remember that care and affection are contagious.

We are responsible for our energy and must manage ourselves to maximize our positive energy. Because disappointment is a strong negative emotion, it must be avoided. To do so, expectations must be managed – live with your head in the clouds and with both feet firmly on the ground.

Patience and respect for the integrity of a process are supremely important too. Had I waited for the lady to finish taking off her bracelet we would’ve made it in. I don’t think we were meant to go to the concert that evening. I think we were meant to live what we lived to more deeply appreciate life and the other.
We saw the power of kindness and honesty. It disarms and infuses warmth in the hearts of man. It inspired trust from those who saw it from us it and earned us a strong sense of respect from them. We felt good and the good karma is the icing on the cake.

EPILOGUE

We stood at the bar silently reminiscing about the gentility of the day.
“What do you think the difference between being kind and being nice is?”
We thought about it. Everyone is nice. We say someone is nice when they are “chill/cool/polite” but the word “kind” is more solemn.
“I think nice is a passive form of goodness. Nice people are more neutral; they don't do harm and do good when they are asked. Kind people on the other hand are proactive, they too don't do any harm but they do good without being asked - out of their own initiative.”
“Yeah that sounds about right”. We were silent again.

From the corner of my eye I saw a 10 pound note on the floor next to the bar. I couldn’t believe my luck; I get something for nothing twice in one day! I rushed to pick up the money so quickly Tarek thought I was insane. I show him the money and he says “aren’t you going to return it?” I didn’t want to, but it was the right thing to do.

I ask the only man standing at the bar if he could check his pockets for missing money without telling him I think he might’ve dropped some money. I spoke in my trademark direct fashion. He was put off guard and was made uncomfortable. I felt he was an Arab so I adjusted my being to his. I explained the situation to him. He assured me the money wasn’t his, thanked me, shook my hand and I left.

Once in the street, I opened the 10 pound note to place it in my wallet. Inside it was a 5 pound note. Karma was sweet again.

What Is Flattr?

2011-05-29T17:26:00.001+02:00

What is Flattr?

Flattr is a social micropayment service founded by Linus Olsson and Peter Sunde, the latter who was one of the founders of The Pirate Bay, and a strong activist for a free and open internet. Flattr enables online content consumers to financially reward creators of content they consume. The idea is to incentivize higher quality production from content creators through a collaborative initiative.

The system works by having content creators place a Flattr button on the content they create and post online. The button essentially works like the Facebook Llike button, but with money.

What makes Flattr different from other crowdfunding sites is that it is focused on micropayments and is seamless. A user adds money to his or her account once a month. The amount in this account is divided at the end of the month by the number of Flattr button clicks made throughout the month. This is true no matter how much money is involved and no matter how many clicks in a month.

A user can put up to 100 Euros in his or her account every month. Therefore if a 100 euro monthly allocation clicks 100 times, each click is worth 1 euro. This also means that one who places 2 euros in their purse and clicks 100 times hands out 2 cents per flattr click. A Flattr user can also choose to donate more money directly to the content creator if they deem their micro-donation under-representative of their appreciation. The idea is that such micropayments would add up to something quite considerable with sufficient volume. The money is deposited in a Flattr account from which the content creator can withdraw funds.

The company takes a 10% cut of revenues earned at the moment so as to finance itself in its startup phase. It has vowed to decrease this fee once critical mass is reached.
Flattr-able content can be of any nature: a website, software, audio (music, podcasts etc.), articles, short stories, photography, video, etc. There is no limit to what can be “flattred”. The company has even made it possible for live performers, venues, merchants or any creator with physical presence to print QR codes that are linked to their Flattr accounts. These QR codes are then physically displayed for consumers to scan with their smartphone and an application then sends a micropayment to the performer, merchant, host, etc.

Flattr has the potential to be a disruptive force in reshaping socially accepted payment conventions by heralding an era of subjective pricing.

Music Review : Shut Up Antoine

2011-05-14T16:04:00.005+02:00

I am not a typical fan of hard rock. Metal wasn’t what I liked. Notice I am speaking in the past tense, and there is a reason for it. I have recently been exposed to a friend of mine’s band “Shut Up Antoine”, and they have succeeded in fusing styles together to make a new, very enjoyable sound. It is not as hard as metal, not as soft as rock, but just right in the middle where it needs to be. They have found the defining goldilocks balance of what I expect to be (if it isn’t already) a new trend in rock. Suffice it to say that they keep their audience engaged in every song by switching styles in mid song but just enough and correctly to add the right spice to the mix to give a new depth to the song.

The first song on their E.P. AWOL has a certain trance inducing steadiness with its humming base.It globally embodies what the artists are going for and their style. Nuanced melodies, amusing vocals and words, in their songs, and in particular in AWOL all manage to express the desires of today’s somewhat suppressed, stressed dazed and confused teenagers and young adults. One needs only to think of “what’s wrong with these 20 something’s”. AWOL is sung like a story expressing desires to “sing a song a song out loud”, “climb a mountain” and “run a marathon”. What does all this say? The voice wants to be free to explore and accomplish things in its existence! The fact that the guitar and beat just pull you in to a soft trance, makes the message come through all the clearer.

All in all, I am sure this review didn’t help much. What I hope it manages to convince you of is that this band is worth listening to at least once. With their recent admission to the highly sought out Montreux Jazz Festival, their potential is starting to be recognized and appreciated, and hopefully it will flower in to something even greater.

The True Nature of Flattr : Micropayment & Social Patronage,

2011-05-14T14:58:00.003+02:00

For those of you who do not know yet, Flattr is being referred to as a micropayment solution service. It allows web surfing content consumers to reward content creators with small amounts ranging from 1 cent to 100 Euros. If you want to know more about it, i strongly urge you to read up on it. The web is crawling with articles, videos, podcasts etc. about it. What I want to talk about is what it represents for the future; something that hasn’t been showing up in the blogosphere or any decent magazine/newspaper (online or off).

My first remark is about whether it is right to call flattr a micropayment solution. This is the term that Flattr and a bunch of commentators online have chosen to describe the service it offers. Yet I can’t help but feel that something is wrong with that qualification.

Those that suscribe to Flattr’s service voluntarily choose to financially reward the original content they deem worthy. The term payment on the other hand implies a preexisting debt : an obligation to pay. This is not the case. With Flattr users are not obligated to pay for the content they like; they give money, yes, but not out of obligation. In this sense, I am afraid Flattr cannot be called a micropayment service.

One would be more akin to call it a microdonations service. Yet the term “donation” has a more charity oriented connotation. The content creators are not looking for charity, they simply want to contribute to humanity with their creative capacity, regardless of financial reward. Content creators in that sense are devoted artists of their craft, whatever it maybe. They do not want to be marked with a word that implies a weakness of sorts. Content creators are not asking for money with the same vehemence of a typical charity organization. For this reason, Flattr shouldn’t be called a microdonations service. That term is not exact enough.

What remains? Flattr is a voluntary reward system. Content consumers inadvertently incentivize creativity with the little bits of money they give. Yes, it is not much, I concede that; but content that receives enough flattrs can be financially rewarding if there is enough volume. One user manages to receive an average of 2000 euros a month from the service! By having a source of revenue to live off of from their creative work, content creators can devote more time to make quality works.

Does this remind you of anything? This is patronage in the classic term. Under patronage, as it used to be practiced in the past (think renaissance) an artist is supported by a rich patron. The patron in return receives a prestigious social standing for aiding in adding man made beauty to the world. Today, flattr allows anyone to be a patron. One doesn’t need to be rich. The exclusivity and prestigious social standing of supporting creativity is gone. All that remains is the honor of doing so.

Just the same any content creator can be patroned. The exclusivity and social prestige is gone here as well. What remains is the honor of being appreciated by one’s fellows.

So what is flattr? Considering all that I’ve said, it can only be called a “Social Patronage” service; or Patronage 2,0. Anyways, it truly allows for the power to go to the people – to us.

Why Muslims Do Not Eat Pork

2011-04-20T11:36:00.003+02:00

When asked this question, muslims typically reply that the pig is a filthy creature that eats it's own waste and sometimes even its children. Some muslims respond with the "you are what you eat" idea, claiming they do not want to assimilate such a hideous beast in to their being. More outlandish, I have heard imams say that those who eat pig lose all jealousy and let their wives sleep around without minding being cheated on at all. Pig meat transforms us into swingers... right. Another reason i heard was that pig meat is very close in color, texture and taste to human meat; to eat it would be far too close to cannibalism. This all felt like too much BS, so i went ahead and did my own research.

It turns out that pigs are actually super smart and very clean by nature. They live in their filth only because they are confined to small areas and are looked after poorly. When looked after propperly and with sufficient space, they are clean. As to eating their own waste and children? Hamsters, mice, etc. do just that, insects too and many human beings eat those very creatures! Besides, i've seen goats (an animal that is indeed eaten by muslims) drink their own piss and eat their own poop!

The pig's digestive system maybe fast as it only takes 4 hours for food to exit. Yet digestion means absorption of nutrients in food. in 4 hours, theres no time for any absorption, most of it is pooped right back out! This probably explains why they go back and eat their waste anyways, a bit like how a cow has 4 stomachs and ruminates, but instead of the food going out the back door it goes back out the mouth and is swallowed again.

Don't get me wrong, i am not for eating pig, i think its gross but i admit that its because i was taught that it is since the first day i lived! Back in the days of the prophet (pbuh), pork was banned from being eaten because the intense sun and heat would rot pig meat very fast and that meat was fatal if eaten rotten. Okay, so today we have fridges, but we don't want to run the risk of depending on pig meat in case our fridges go bad?...No that's not why muslims don't eat pork.

IT has been found that pig meat is the meat that costs the LEAST to produce! Even less than chicken! BUT THE PROBLEM, and this is why I'd hate to eat pig meat, is that:
1. in the wealthier parts of the world are eating too much meat for their own health and that of the world/ecosystem.
2. Pig meat is the FATTEST of all the meats; we're so fat already we don't need more shit to give us high cholesterol and heart attacks.
3.the swine immune system is the closest to the human one in the animal kingdom. Deseases can therefore be shared between pigs and humans much easier than any other animal.
4. Secondly, they eat anything. Anything. Anything. Including meat. In Islam, we are not supposed to eat animals with incisor/canine teeth; you know, the sharp tooth designed to rip appart meat. Why? Because carnivorous and omnivorous creatures provide less energy than herbivores. Because life is precious one shouldn't kill beasts uselessly. If you extend this reasoning to pigs, then that's another reason not to eat them.

The second, third and fourth reasons are the real reasons, or at least the only legitimate science based reasons, that we do not eat pork.

The Impending Micro-Donations Revolution

2011-01-20T11:50:00.012+01:00

A few years ago Mohammed Yunus became the darling of development agencies as he uncovered a financing method that proved very promising: Microcredit. Despite the high interest rates, many studies showed that poor people banded together to pay back loans and were more likely to reimburse banks than wealthier people. The problem arose several years after the concept became popular. Banks needed to charge extremely high interest rates to be profitable on such low loans. Sometimes the poor couldn't pay back and accrued interest make the loan unbearably expensive.

In India many reports describe cases where a sense of strong shame befalls the borrowers that cannot pay back as they are harassed by bank representatives. The community members payback the loan for the shamed and indebted and the relentlessly pressure them to payback the community. The shamed as a response, sometimes are pushed as far as to commit suicide for the unbearable ostracizing and shame brought to the family and community. But what is one to expect; this is how money and banks work - wealth is created in the debt of others.

Kiva then arose and became a popular Peer 2 Peer microcredit platform, where westerners can chose to support entrepreneurs in developing countries by lending them a certain amount of money. Yet what happens when the borrower can't pay back? Kiva partners with existing micro-finance institutions which are called field partners. According to the Kiva "about" page :

"The Field Partner collects repayments from Kiva entrepreneurs as well as any interest due and lets Kiva know if a repayment was not made as scheduled. Interest rates are set by the Field Partner, and that interest is used to cover the Field Partner's operating costs. Kiva doesn't charge interest to its Field Partners and does not provide interest to lenders. Kiva also gives Field Partners the option to cover currency losses."

The same problem appears again in case a loan cannot be paid back - interest accrues and field partners (not Kiva) are responsible for recovering the loan. This is not a charity, and failure cannot be accepted as part of the system. There is no forgiveness mechanism. Then comes a crowd-funding platform like kick-starter that allows for funds to be raised for various types of projects, without expecting repayment. In effect, this is web based patronage. The problem is that Kick starter and the like fund projects that have yet to exist, and require participations that are quite large, of at least 5-10 dollars.

There's no point rereading that last sentence. I did imply that 5-10 dollars is a high amount to pay online for the sake of charitable support. I understand that to get a project up and running, higher amounts are needed than would be necessary to write a blog article (i should know), podcast or vlog etc. But for the creators of original content that doesn't require important investments, it is dificult and very rare for them to find revenue from their creations.

Let me explain. During the renaissance, affluent people would feel refined and classy by supporting the arts. They would take under their wing an artist they appreciated (think of Michelangelo or Don Juan) and have him only worry about creating his next masterpiece. Today, there are 50,000 new blogs are created every day, 24 hours of video are uploaded on youtube every minute, a day, and there is no need for me to expand on how the opportunities for various kinds of artists that exist online are being taken care of. But all this is FREE. The creators most often receive nothing. Sometimes, they have sponsors and can make a living at the cost of their neutrality as they accept gifts from sponsors. Yet, in effect they have no patrons.

Enter the Micro-Donation concept. More precisely, a redefining of the threshold constituting a "micro-donation". The idea is simple: instead of having one person donate 1 million dollars, have one million donate 1 dollar. Barrack Obama after all managed to raise 6 million dollars from micro-donations ranging from 5 to 10 dollars. Micro-Donations, as proven with M. Obama, will be the future tool of patronage. Street performers have lay out a piece of cloth, a box, or a hat etc. where the public can show support by placing a few cents, a few dollars or euros if lucky. Micro-donation is that recipient for the online "performer" or provider of original content.

The difference is that this online performer doesn't have a sidewalk and a crowd to limit his exposure potential. Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video was seen over 180 million times on youtube; i doubt you could fit that many people in the biggest concert hall in the world!. Now, imagine that this youtube button had a donation service, where viewers could give out as low as 5 cents and up to however much they chose to give, and that roughly 5% of the viewers paid out something. Approximately 8 million people would have paid on average 10 cents which translates in 800,000 dollars in revenue, from a video that is supposed to be free. Lady Gaga's video is also the video that has been most seen on youtube; so this case would be extremely unusual. She also makes a LOT of money with her other venues, MP3 sales, and cd sales etc.

None the less, the more popular vloggers, podcasters, bloggers and other original content producers out there have a dedicated fanbase. These fans are looking for ways to support their chosen unknown and humble artists, but until recently there was no way to do so in a manner allowing for high volume of small donations to be given out. What was needed is essentially a facebook "like" button that would both like the content in question, and patron it with a small sum of money.

The patron in us needs to come out, and in an overcrowded field of content creators, we aspiring patrons, need to mark our difference by rewarding the works we find better. Not only does this strengthen a sense of individuality, but it also strengthens a sense of belonging and community. Though having a fanbase to please serves as a strong motivation for artists of all kinds, money is a tangible source of motivation and can be very appreciated.

Platforms for micro donations have started to bud and flower since 2010. It is a recent phenomenon and is only likely to gain more traction. In the next article I will expose the current developments of micro-donation platforms along with their strong and weak points.

On Noise, Tranquility, Solitude and Meditation

2010-12-07T19:51:00.002+01:00

The average person in the 18th century received as much information in one year as we do in one day. Technology has sped the rate at which we receive information enough to far-too often overwhelm our minds. We aren’t programmed to take in so much. Behind each door of knowledge lies a thousand others, and too many doors are being opened at once. Instead of becoming wiser, we are becoming more confused. There is too much knowledge bringing with it too many options and too much choice kills choice.

Vast libraries of information (media) can be carried around and consumed anywhere. Advertisement and the noisy bustle of cities are omnipresent. We are constantly connected to one another be it through BBM, face book, texting, chatting, cell phones, e-mail or other.

This noise saturation isn’t only happening in the virtual world of information, but also in the real world. The world population’s constant growth causes for an increasing need for urbanization. By 2050, 80% of humanity will be living in denser cities rather than in the vast and open countryside. Studies have shown that so much “noise” has a vast array of negative consequences on one’s being.

- higher rates of stress (and consequently heart related issues)
- decreased happiness
- increased blood pressure
- reduced IQ,
- retardation in children’s learning,
- higher rates of aggressive behavior
- causes for a prone to ADD, disparate mind
- Confined spaces are correlated with cancer in animals

After a hard day’s work, many people dream of tranquility and peace, but few people take it for themselves. Most, after work, feel an anxiety that pushes them to consume (shopping, media or other). But why do people repudiate tranquility? I’ve known people that couldn’t stand being by themelves, to the point of coming to tears. Maybe we society teaches that aloneness is a form of failure. It could it be that people are addicted to stress and the sense of purpose and action that so often accompany it. Have people forgotten how to make the most of boredom. Could it be that noise is addictive, that it makes an anxiety arise whenever there is silence?

Silence is key for concentration, and the inability to concentrate is a sign of unhappiness. Present happiness indicators have never been lower. There is no doubt that being able to face and enjoy this silence is key to a healthy mind. The first step in getting there is to understand the concept of solitude. Indeed, to be able to bear silence is to be able to bear the Self.

Being physically alone is the first dimension of solitude. Yet being alone can also have negative associations. Alienation, loneliness and isolation are forms of aloneness, but they are neither the same as one another nor the same as solitude. Solitude is not tolerated but desired and accepted; it is not a sufferance but a form of bliss.

To be comfortable with aloneness is a key condition of solitude. Solitude is primarily a thing of the mind; one need not be alone to be solitary. Think of the times when you are disengaged from your surroundings in thought. As long as you are thusly disengaged, you are in a moment of solitude. The philosophy professor Koch calls this the social disengagement.

Koch draws a very strict image of solitude where one’s mind is completely disengaged from others in “thought, action, perception and emotion”. This means that to be considered in solitude, one should not be preoccupied with the memory of others, nor act in consideration of others, nor anthropomorphize (make animate the inanimate, like Wilson in Cast Away) or contain oneself implicitly in the rules of society.
Koch extends solitude not only to the physical realm but also to the mind and to time. One, in solitude, aims to be as self oriented as possible, peering in to and lighting the undiscovered creeks of the infinite inner cave of Self. To engage in a deeper dimension of solitude, the mind must be unfettered by either external stimuli or internal distractions. That is to say, the mind must be fully engrossed in the “now” as Eckhart Toll would put it, silencing the parasitic thoughts that would distract the mind from focusing on the task of solitude. In doing so, one becomes free at an entirely different level.

Many are the people I know that, in their solitude, sang their hearts out, danced their feet off, aired in their houses naked, or just ran through an open field and felt their power as they let it out in a scream. In solitude, one can disregard the rules of society and dare to do the things one would otherwise wouldn’t with people. In solitude, there is a greater freedom of physical being. It is not to say that one is to become mentally destitute.

A third dimension, and in my opinion the most important one, is reflection. It is when we are in tranquility that we can look inwards and start to shape ourselves. This tranquility requires us to also disengage from the creations of others. To be alone and watching a movie, listening to a song, reading a book, or consuming any other form of media is not solitude in the strictest sense according to Koch. If attention is spread too thin by too many stimuli, it prevents the attention from being sufficiently concentrated and targeted to provide for a fruitful examination of the self.

Life is a series of interactions between the self and the external environment, be it with people, events, or information. In reflective solitude we digest these interactions and assimilate them in to our self and our understanding of reality. Thus consuming media alone does not allow for this process to happen.
A metaphor can help explain. We are like meteorites floating in space, colliding with other cosmic projectiles. With each collision our person takes a certain shape. In solitude, a cosmic sculptor (our consciousness) comes out and gives shape to the meteor, smoothening the dents of interactions with the outer world. The sculptor uses these shaping elements with his own tools to give his creation a clearer and stronger individuality. With time, the collisions make smaller dents as the sculptor makes his creation stronger, with a more robust sense of self. Thus the mind is clarified and individuality is more clearly defined and fortified. Reflective Solitude prevents one from becoming a simple other, protecting us from being corroded away by the invasive influence of others. It fosters and leverages that which makes an individual special; that is, his very own unique and shaping experience. Instead of being another white sheep, solitude adds colors to our fleece.

This kind of solitude is not easy. It is an active work upon the self to come to peace with negative emotions towards others and the self. This is done through a process of understanding of the other, the self and the events around the self. It is a work of critical analysis that leads to an appreciation of one’s existence, his place in existence, and the context of his existence. A prerequisite for such work is the ability to be truly honest with oneself. This is a difficult task by itself; to be humble and sufficiently courageous to see and admit to oneself the things that one would rather not, to objectively weigh the good and the bad (for the self) of one’s psyche is a daunting task that is at the heart of the practice of solitude.

By practicing such an honest and as objective as can be reflection/solitude, one can fosters a sense of self love and brotherly love towards humanity and a solemn appreciation for nature. From this love, appreciation, and respect stems a feeling of at oneness with the world, an attunement to nature. This is the bliss that differentiates solitude from alienation, isolation and loneliness.

Yet I must reiterate the difficulty that self-love represents. It is much easier to love others than to love oneself, I naively think it is because we have higher standards towards ourselves than towards others. When these standards are not met we are disappointed with ourselves and deem ourselves unworthy of such love. When in this situation it is easy to desire an escape from the self with all sorts of external stimuli. Yet this challenge must be confronted and overcome for nothing worth having comes easily. A mixture of faith, courage, persistence and patience must be used against self-neglect to foster a sense of self love. This will ignite the self-reinforcing virtuous cycle of reflective solitude as insights thus found help one continually enhance oneself.

Such solitude greatly resembles meditation and even prayer. After all, the great prophets of all religions came about the messages they spread to their followers in solitude. Wisdom seems to be the fruit of this meditative, reflective state. So too does creativity become richer from such an exercise; many are the artists of all sorts that will seclude themselves whilst they generate their masterpiece as they foster an acute and unique appreciation of their subject of study. These include actors, painters, authors, singers, sculptors, and the list goes on. In solitude, one experiences another level of creative and intellectual freedom.

The advantages of such an exercise of meditative/reflective solitude are many. It has been proven to increase attention spans, increase IQ, strengthen memory, relieve stress, generate a greater sense of well-being and happiness. These benefits have economic repercussions, as individuals become more balanced and productive members of society. These are the reasons that should be used when religious leaders prescribe prayers to their followers.

There are no absolutes in life. In my humble opinion solitude must not be delved in to in excess. Humans are social animals, neglecting that instinct can quickly become as unhealthy as neglecting the self. Though we shape our vision of reality in solitude, leaving that vision unchecked by the appreciation of others can quickly lead one to become insane and disconnected from reality. Too much solitude can transform in to the sufferance of loneliness. Even though solitude can bring one contact a higher level of creativity, nothing can match the exhilaration of succeeding in collaborative creativity. The choir, the orchestra, the theater group, the architect feel an intense elation and power in their number at seeing the fruit of their work come to life.
In solitude we work on digesting that which our brethren feed us in and through their being. We are never completely alone and we should never be. After all, when we acknowledge, respect and experience the being of those around us, they become a part of us. This is true for those that are alive and dead. Newton for instance, in reference to the works of past minds that inspired him, said that he felt like he was standing on the shoulders of giants. The others are what help us stand higher on the shoulders of giants; we need each other to become greater.

Therefore the ability for solitude is as much a sign of maturity as is maintaining healthy relationships. Often, solitude is perceived as a form of strength of those who can live it. This can help explain why those that are able to be solitary are often so attractive; they are balanced, defined and strong individuals that are able to clearly hear their inner voice. Maybe the psyche picks up on that. Those that can be solitary are those that have found the recipe to block out all the information that is irrelevant to them and thus have managed to build a shield to resist the clamors of modern society only letting through that which is relevant to enhancing their existence.

To dive deeper in to the subject of Solitude, read Philip J Koch’s article entitled “Solitude”, Erich Fromm’s “The Art of Loving” and, Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”

On the loss of Imagination and Genius in Childhood

2010-11-13T10:27:00.004+01:00

I am an enormous fan of Michael Jackson and i believe his death was indirectly caused by his lack of a childhood. After all not having had the chance to live one was his greatest regret. It's why he stayed a child for so long, and I believe that his eternal "peter pan" childishness was the secret to his musical and dance genius.
In a relatively healthy environment childhood is the sweetest age during which our brains still have the potential to outshine Einstein's "star neuron" filled mind. It is the age during which one is freest, safest and with the least worry. It's when we see wonder and awe in everything; the new and exciting is everywhere. We are free to explore the wonders and see further with the third eye of our imagination.
Imagination and the ability to see with it are crucial to our intelligence. It is not for nothing that Einstein, Disney and many other geniuses give so much importance to imagination and intuition. They illuminate the darkness of the world and provide us with suggestions as to reality. The hard work of science is in proving what we see with them. Einstein came up with the theory of relativity by visualizing an experiment. He imagined he was on a rocket going at the speed of light, and he "saw" what happened. Time slowed down for him, and while he was the same age, everyone that wasn't a passenger was older. This suggests that If we can't see the reality of our minds, not only are we blind to the wonder of the unseen, but it also means that we cannot change the world we live in. We stay stuck at the same level of development.
Charlie Chaplin was a child throughout his whole life. He never lost the ability and desire to play despite a particularly rough childhood. His imagination gave him enough light to feel wonder. This fueled a passionate inspiration to overcome most challenges. In this way a virtuous cycle was created: the passionate inspiration made his imagination stronger, which made his light of wonder shine brighter and in turn strengthened his passionate inspiration. It is thanks to this virtuous cycle that he could present the world a form of the third art that was game changing enough to make him a legend. His secret was keeping his childhood. If you ask me, it was MJ's and Einstein's as well. They saw the wonder through their inner child's imagination, and that lit their way to inspiration and passion.
This brings me to heart of the matter. I am alarmed. At the risk of sounding like an old man, my youth is very different from today's youth and we are only 15 years apart. My alarm comes from the fact that children are being made to grow up faster.
I recently read an article in the WSJ about doll makers dilemma with girls and how they are playing far less with dolls then they once used to. Where children once played with their dolls up to the age of 15 (on average) up until the mid-late 90s, they now have stopped playing with their dolls by the age of 7. That's first grade.
Doll makers are responding to this drastically decreased demand by making bigger dolls that look more like their users and by making them more trendy. We're talking Bratz dolls and barbie dolls with added joints to strike fashion poses. The Bratz dolls are what any man wouldn't want his daughter to turn out like; essentially questionably dressed clubbers. They could come off as prostitute dolls with big eyes. These methods are working, and its not all bad.
The WSJ quotes Susan J. Schwartz, the senior director of the child mind institute in New York. She says that it is good to keep children playing longer, "for children, play is the equivalent of work... doll play helps try out social situations, develop relationships and manage conflicts in a safe way. The longer they do it, the better". The problem is that today's venal society has let its deviant values creep and tarnish children's relative innocence.
They have stopped playing with dolls sooner because it is now a reason for shame in the eyes of their peers. Children don't want to be embarrassed, and playing with dolls is embarrassing. This is in part the reason why the new dolls are the children's equivalent of social status property; at 95$ for some of them, having one makes you definitely a lot cooler. Gone are the days where it was cool to make and play with your own toys. Some of my best friends did that as children; today, they are some of the brightest and most humane people i know.
Childhood was an age that adults would reminisce about, thinking about the simplicity and beauty that reigned in that age. Where they once they dreamt up wonderful stories and realities in their mind, today they are increasingly preoccupied with adult thematics: sex, fame and ostensible signs of power and fortune.
My little brother started talking to me about sex when he was 12, and today I read and hear about children speaking about it and foreplay like it was common currency. I can see where that is coming from.
Up until the mid-late nineties, cartoons didn't give prominent roles to girls and the focus was more on boys. There usually one girl for a huge cast of boys. Think of the Smurfs and Ninja Turtles. Girls still watched TV, but they weren't targeted as much as they are today by Media Corporations. Girls were left with fewer distractions, enough to play with dolls and work their imagination. Today girls have channels devoted to girl power TV and video games are increasingly being tailored to cater to them. These channels and cartoons are giving girls more value than older media, making them equal to boys and less secondary/passive.
This made watching TV more frequent for girls, and provided a bridge towards other programs. Consider reality TV. It is lush with sex, plays in the daytime and gives children a model of adult reality. Reality TV does not do adult reality justice and often provides a terrible model for children to emulate. Yes, children do what adults do; and if they start doing what they see on TV.. god help us all.
Over all, the negative consequence of more TV for girls is that they are bombarded with distractions that prevent imagination and the dynamic I described above from happening. I do not mean that girls are less able than boys to handle TV. TV can be good in small doses, to relax, teach, and even stimulate imagination. What I worry about is that girls, and boys a like, give far too much importance to television risking the loss of an important part of childhood: play. Television is not the only culprit.
Music is rich with not-so-subtle sexual connotations. If you listen to what children typically like, you can get a generous sample of shock. Lady Gaga sings "this beat is sick, i wanna take a ride on your disco stick", or Ke$ha "meet me in the back with the jukebox... don't be a little bitch, just show me where your dick's at", Katie Perry (whom was invited on Sesame Street to do a number with Elmo) sings : "I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock... come on baby let me see, what your hiding underneath... you got the finest architecture, the finest sight to see, and it's all for me", Taio Cruz : "send me a dirty picture"... britney spears "all the boys and all the girls wanna If You Seek Amy (pronounced F U C K M E)"...and the list of examples of music children like with strong sexual connotations goes on. The worst is that these songs are very catchy. They are easy to listen to on repeat and, I cannot help but think that this has a subliminal brainwashing effect on children.
It's not the music industry's fault. They have their share of the blame, but they only respond to what the market wants in order to make a profit. Something is happening that is making people, children and adults alike, less appreciative of the more sensible facts of life. Still sex sells well, and it makes the purchaser lose sight of what's more honorable.
Don't get me wrong. There's no problem with these songs being made. In the contrary, they excite me and make me want to dance. Still, sex is on the lowest level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If humanity is being hardwired to stay slave to its animal instincts from the youngest age, we'll have a harder time reaching wisdom and self-actualization in the more adult-age.
The first solution that comes to mind is for parents to be more devoted to their children and for adults to seize themselves and always try to be wiser. I am not saying all children are bad off, or that all parents are bad; but the problem is real and there's an increase in what a decent human being must reject for children. Parents must see and apply what makes a successful and good person and it seems that in this day and age, a lot more effort is required than before to do so.
I am conscious of most of what i am writing here is targeting younger girls. I am a Saudi Arabian man, and it can be considered natural for me to be so jealous and overprotective of girls. Still, girls are much more precious - they control much more then men think. For one, sooner or later at a certain age, boys will do anything to get a certain girl. If these girls don't put the barrier the boys need to jump over high enough, girls will be too easy and boys will be lazier and stupider. Boys won't feel the need to be a Knight, a true cavalier, a galant gentleman and the vicious cycle of promiscuity and idiocy will enforce itself. Again, i know this is a gross generalization, but it is what's happening in a big chunk of the western society.
Part of what makes a successful person successful is intelligence. Intelligence is fostered and grown by encouraging movement, discovery of the world through exploration, by imagining and playing. It is not brought forth with sex songs, whore look-a-like dolls, fancy bling toys, fake jewelry, or other pre-teen venal purchases and habits. Parents must protect their children from what they read, hear, see, and do. Their imagination must be fostered and their innocence protected.
It is in youth that the brain has the most neurons and is most influenceable. Children are programmed to emulate adults because it is from them that they know how to survive and what is right or wrong in the world. This mass of neurons, material biological wealth in its own right, must be taken care of valued and leveraged. The brain loses that which it doesn't use. If children spend their time being passive, unengaged and consuming, emulating what they see sub-par adults do on TV, a crime will be committed. Their lives will not reach half the brightness they have the potential for, and they will not glow or illuminate their world as much as they could. They will grow to be consumers, pawns in a machine bigger than themselves.
But let us hope otherwise. May our children have a vivid, rich and strong imagination with a disciplined confrontation of reality and imagination with the arms of reason. As Bruce Lee said, the greatest power comes when one finds balance between the animal instinct (imagination) and the human control (reason). This is the secret of genius.
My children will be taught in the Einstein way. He believed that everything, however complicated, could and should be taught so that even a child can be enthusiastic and curious about the subject. I can only hope that I will succeed in lighting their inner light to be curious and hungry for the world. I pray that they will not feel the hunger to be vain and venal, but will see the beauty in modesty and creativity.

Conciling Religion and Darwin

2010-11-06T09:59:00.001+01:00

During my travels in Saudi Arabia, I saw that Muslims give their religion a material, defining importance, to the point where science is doubted over religion. This is a generalization that applies wherever a scientific rule or discovery contradicts Islamic teachings. In that respect, and In USA terms, the Saudi Arabian population is overwhelmingly Creationist.

For those who do not know, creationist theory originates from religious texts, such as the Koran and the Bible. It postulates that life came on earth by the only will of God, whom spontaneously and instantly created all life on earth in one go.

On the other side of the debate stands the Darwinian theory of evolution. This theory doesn’t pretend to know how life started at all. Instead, it states that life evolved over millions of years from the most basic life forms (prokaryotic cells) to the most complex life forms that abound the earth today. As life spreads from the sea to land and its various environments, it adapts to its different environments by having the survivors of the harsh environment of nature pass on their genes. How do the genes change to adapt to the environment?

The answer is: by random genetic mutations. They often fail, and rarely make a member of a species more apt to survive. In human terms today, think of webbed feet and hands that could serve very well in an aquatic environment, height that can help in a savannah environment (for a greater range of sight), and all the handicaps that the unfortunate are born with. These mutations are very small and have almost no advantage on their own. It’s their accumulation over generations that produce drastic change. This is why we see gradual change in fossils of various species, rather than one sudden change.

The theory of evolution is clearly incompatible with a literal interpretation of the religious texts. American comedians, such as Bill Maher have often pointed ridiculed religion by mocking the idea that prehistoric cave men were living at the same time as dinosaurs. Still, whenever confronted to Darwin’s theory, people of strong religious background reject and rebel vehemently against the idea, despite the rigorous and various proofs present in different fields of science.

This is understandable. In an environment that ignores and rejects Darwinian theory, sourcing most answers to the fundamental questions of life in religious texts, one’s construct of reality becomes meshed with one’s literal religious understanding. To defy their reality is to defy their understanding of the world, and their existence. It makes the source of their security lose in credibility, giving way to great instability, uncertainty, and fear.

Yet this is not only about the theory of evolution, but the relationship between science and religion. The rigorous, objective, quantitative, and empirical experiments that give us deeper insights in to the constitution of our environments give us Truth. These truths are, I repeat, incompatible with a literal interpretation of a religious text. Yet, Allah is a god that loves knowledge, wisdom and science. They are encouraged.

As such, our interpretation and understanding of religion must adapt to scientific reality, for the sake of our own religion. In a world where scientific discovery and research are key to the successful economies, as witnessed by the huge investment the KAUST University represents, an evolution of Islamic thinking is required.

We have no choice but to have a renaissance of the Islamic Golden Age, by enlarging our understanding of religion to make the greatest use of science and build an even greater name for Islam. To do so, we must no longer be passive members of a religion, but inquisitive, curious and of a drive that seeks to conciliate religion with science; never making one trump over the other, but making both as close to being one and the same as possible. By blindly, stubbornly and strictly sticking to our traditional literal beliefs, we risk making Islam ridiculous to the eye of the world, inefficient and hurtful to our own Islamic societies and eventually forgotten.

To succeed, we must admit that everything changes, and so to must our minds and our understanding. I suggest considering religion to be a poem, a philosophy and a way of life, whose images and metaphors must be interpreted to extract from it the greatest wisdom and truth that is most helpful in one’s precise time and context. Let me suggest then, that Adam is the first life form, a cell, that by splitting was given Eve as a partner, and life evolved from there guided by the invisible and overwhelming machinations of God.

Is it not suitable to consider that the Garden of Eden is a pure state of mind, of oneness and transcendental beyond human cognition? That Adam and Eve, were also the seeds of human consciousness and human nature. That because human nature is so curious, tempted and individualistic, that sense of oneness was broken, and thus unsuitable for the Garden of Eden. Can we not consider the Islamic references to our ancestors whom were as tall as towers, to mean that the ancestors were of a far greater wisdom and closer to a state of unity and respect with their environment and spirituality?

Science and religion are not incompatible. The belief in god was claimed by many millionaires to be the first reason for their success, followed by a supporting spouse. Yogic meditation, focusing on breath and presence of mind, strongly resembles Islamic prayer, and has been proven to reduce the risks of multiple psychological disorders (such as depression, Alzheimer’s), and increase intellectual capacity (concentration, memory etc.). The benefits of fasting, of empathy and many other aspects of religion are far too many to mention in detail, but they exist. They were derived esoterically by our prophets, and today they are quantitatively proven true. To ensure that the benefits of Islam and of other religions continue to be passed on we must update our theological understandings.

What is Boredom?

2010-10-27T15:13:00.004+02:00

At the start of october, I complained to a friend, Lilly, that I felt like there was far too much time on my hands. I felt like i was not being as useful as I could be, and like i was missing out on something greater. In my humble opinion, Lilly is a great literary mind, and she knew that i like to write and think. She used her talent to suggest some themes for me to write about. At first there was Nostalgia, then Melancholy and now Boredom. "What is boredom Bakor". My mind darted to work.

Boredom that feeling of something like frustration and anxiety that often arises from inactivity and lack of inspiration to do and learn... this stagnation, this stillness of the moment that makes you wonder... "What do i do with myself?!"... But really, boredom, or at least what causes it - is not a bad thing.

Boredom is, in part, the anxiety/frustration from the stillness of one's environment and self. The boredom then is a symptom of the inability to cope with the stillness. Boredom happens when you have to, but don't want to look inside of yourself and outside of yourself; that is, what the world and existence have to offer you as a new experience. It is a feeling that pops up to indicate that now is the time to "invest your energy to develop a new skill or enhance an existing one"; if your bored, its time to learn about something inside or outside of yourself.

Still, seeing what self disocvery and the environment have to offer you is extremely difficult. In that stillness, in the quiet of one's environment, one sees/feels himself more. It sounds beautiful, but its hard because that quiet makes you see your demons more clearly as well; it's ugly when one has to face his inner beasts and fails to conquer them.

So, following this harrang, boredom is the soul's calling to battle it's demons. Like that horn that would sound before the armies of the middle ages would confront one another. Boredom says...'it's time'.

Sadly not many have fostered within them the courage, curiosity, intellect, love, wisdom etc. necessary to win the demons over over. They don't have the skill to beat them, and get in a positive, virtuous cycle of perpetual self enhancement, of wisdom and self discovery.

Those that cannot face their demons indulge in excessive escapism. Constant moving, constant receiving and sending of information (think twitter, facebook, and news addicts); constant consuming, defining themselves too much by that which is outside of them (appearance and satus etc.) and not internal...too much food, too much sex (porn addicts), drugs, alcohol, tv, clubbing... you stay shallow so as to avoid diving too deep in to yourself where you might meet those monsters that keep bigger the longer you ignore them.

It is much more difficult for people to be in sufficient contact with themselves. With the ever constant and ubiquitous stimuli - from the media, and mediatised social life (facebook etc.) - it is hard to get to a point where you are bored. You might get enough, you might saturate from all this superficial mind stimuli and realize you don't want it, and when you're at that point you realize that there must be something else, more interesting, and you start searching for it, or developing it. On the other hand, one might saturate from over doing an activity he/she may love, in which case you move on to something else or you just rest.

All this excessive stimuli is designed to make life more exciting, to make life more... sensational. Bad news sells better than good news, gossip is poison but it's in all the people magazines, don't get me started on the quality of music, film and TV... it's all unnatural and somewhat unwarranted excitement in its excess...

But just like unhealthy boredom can arise from an addicted to stimuli life, it can also come from excessive inactivity in relation to other people and other objects/elements of the environment. There's a lack of desire to move, to do; a melancholic apathy that grows when we're alone and unnapreciated, unloved.

But which causes which? Is inactivity a symptom or cause of boredom? I think at first it's a cause of boredom, and then becomes a symptom after not remedying it for a long enough time. This unhealthy boredom, like melancholy in the end, can be associated with an unhealthy mind state - be it depression, or other. To break the negative vicious cycle of this unhealthy boredom, one must take the most difficult and most resistant of steps: the first step.

Josy, my landlord/local granpa (he's the awesomest - taught me how to build furniture and appreciate wine... he's so sweet! As an older man, i want to be like him) was telling me that he lives a very busy life. He loves his life, but its very busy - there's always something to be done or to be tended to. Once a year, he likes to go up in the mountains and be the man that takes care of a little hut where hikers can stay for a night or 2.

He stays there for a week, and there usually is a day or two where it gets really calm; there's nothing to take care of. Up there, there's no cell phone reception, there's no internet, no roads, no stores - its just a hut in the middle of no where up in the mountains. When he faces that calmness, he gets bored, and he's happy. He gets to experience life for what it is - he gets to experience existence, and he's happy with boredom because he can feel himself differently from the usual feeling he has of himself as he's engaged in activity. In these times, he's engaged only with himself and his existence, with nothing in between. This i call meditation, it's a welcome and/or voluntary stasis.

This voluntary stasis is boring in the sense that it is not exciting, but it is exciting in the sense that is not usual, or in the sense that it provides such a pure experience of existence. When you confront that itch to do something, but there's nothing else to be done, you resign yourself to sit back and appreciate... and if not, you go crazy and your unhappy.

I find that the unhealthy boredom is unnatural. Josy's boredom is good - society's at large's boredom is just a manifestation of an addiction to excitement and sensationalism. It is not rooted in the fundamental principles of man : the principles of Love.

Erich Fromm (my favorite thinker with Marx) says love in theory is the feeling of care towards an object, respect (in teh sense of acceptance of differences), desire to know in order to understand the difference, and the patience needed to feel the other three. Those four are love. In practice, love is the desire to master something (care), with tolerance (patience) to overcome the difficulty encountered in the art, to have discipline, and curiosity... love is compassion and the desire to better everything... The pecularity is that one is only able to love the world as much as one loves himself, and that initial self love comes from how much one is appreciated and loved as a child and in life. When we're alone and unnapreciated its easier to be bored and sad, apathetic, melancholic and depressed. To go deeper in to that, i suggest you read his book "The Art of Loving", but hear me out for now.

Now taking this definition of love and its necessity in to account, what is the mission of Man on earth? I believe we are the physical and conscious manifestations of god, and that as such, it is our duty to be as virtuous and cooperative as we can be. It maybe too great a responsibility for most of us at the moment, but i am sure we'll get to the point in our evolutionary future where we'll more easily be enlightened beings. Anyways, as such representatives of God, we must live lives of love. We must be and live love as much as we can, as one.

This life is anti-unhealthy boredom because boredom doesn't consider the adjectives of love i described above... curiosity, discipline, respect... it ignores the mechanism whereby one observes, feels awe and admiration (which are just respect/love growing exponentially in one's mind) , tries to understand, understands, and advances himself - modifying his environment with his new knowledge, and restarts the process by observing a new aspect of his environment. Unhealthy boredom doesn't see this cycle, and causes for no inspiration in life. As divine beings, we live with each breath an inspiration who's fruit we give to the world. This process needs that healthy boredom, that meditative state...

As Love Beings, we want everything to be the best, or better always... there's always something to do even if it is to just sit back and enjoy nothing.

unreachable goals of mastery

2008-01-15T13:28:00.000+01:00

We all have wishes and aspirations to become a greater version of ourselves. Practicing what we love until we reach a level of mastery that can be compared to that of the Olympian athletes in their fields. This is true for most activities, but when it comes to life and certain others - the master will always go back to his books.

Consider life. As conscientious beings we move through it trying to understand what it is we are here for. Whatever reason one finds satisfying will inspire him/her to have a certain code of life - a set of unmovable, unshakable principles and values. Yet we are all bound to slip and make a mistake every now and then. Some values we never forget and are intrinsique to our being - other, lesser rules, such as never losing one's temper, can easily slip and be forgotten. This is not to say that one never reaches mastery of life - it is just to say that it shouldn't be considered discouraging to slip once in a while.

This is true with emotions management. The prior example of losing your cool for the wrong reasons is a classic. Far too often we come back home, tired, stressed, hungry and worried when someone comes and starts to bother you with a legitimate and innocent issue. At this point we lose our temper and react violently towards the innocent questioner. So - what does this mean? Well without a doubt the wiser will go and think twice of what had just happened and seek to remedy the situation. This in itself is a reminder of how to behave correctly.

This is the same for the lawyer. One of the lawyer ladies i was working with this last summer was telling me that one should never expect to become a master. This is true for more than one reason. For argument's sake, here are a couple.

When one considers oneself a master, there is an increased likelihood that there will be a false sense of total control, arrogance, and underestimating of challenges in one's field. This is where modesty plays a wonderful role. When arrogant and over confident, one will not pay complete attention to the challenges at hand. Yet when diligent, thoughtful, paced and patient - one will study every nook and cranny of the challenge to give the greatest solution.

Mastery is real, but it has no place in the consideration of the master of himself.

I am tempted to think that Mastery can be achieved when it comes to professional careers a lot more easily then when it comes to personal/life/emotional careers. The examples of Mother Teresa and Ghandi are enough by themselves to inspire many to reach mastery in life. Yet it is a difficult task.

So because we forget we repeat mistakes, but with each time we repeat a mistake we remember the past experience with the mistake and we become more efficient in reacting, and learning. The trick must be to think about it, and forget that I, you, we, he, one, is a master. The narcissist has no place in mastery, only the modest.

Virtual unity

2007-12-11T13:29:00.000+01:00

First and foremost I would like to reiterate that my belief in the holy texts are not litteray but metaphoric.

The Bible speaks of a story concerning the Tower of Babel where humanity is unified, speaking a single language. In this story, humanity wishes to build a tower going to the heavens where all cultures would be confused. The religious story goes that God intervened and destroyed this tower for he resempted the arrogance of humanity, to rival god.

The way I see it, the tower of Babel was prevented from being built not because Nimrod, the Babelionian arrogant tyrant, wished to rival god, but simply because there is no place for unity through conformity. Indeed, the tower wished to unite all humans to live the same way. The bible explains that such a context would provide humanity for a reason to defy god, i believe that such unity would take away from the prosperity of the human mind.

In today's world we see amazing bridges being built between cultures through the education the internet provides. It is without a doubt that one can state affirmatively that the internet has given a window of international knowledge accessible by all. The internet also paves the way for a more accentuated globalisation process, with similarities between all cultures found. Similarities that help people see how they are similar to one another.

Does this mean that we are evolving towards a unified human world nation? I cannot answer this question for the simple reason that I cannot foresee the future. What i can say is that this hypothesis is extremely dangerous, in the same way that the Tower of Babel would've been. How? Let's take France as an example.

France is a state that prides itself in it's secular tradition. It is very keen on keeping all public life separate from religion or any affiliation of belief. Public schools are the perfect symbol for this. Indeed they do not allow for students to come wearing any conspicuous signs of their religious (or other) affiliations. Sikhs cannot wear their headscarfs, nor can muslim women - christians and jews cannot wear necklaces that show a cross or a Star of David that can be seen. This is good in the sense that many religious people have, for instance, forbidden their pregnant wives whom are about to give birth, to be tended to by a male doctor. Despite of that, this secular tradition will have more negative than positive consequences. How? Let me explain.

Every person is to some extent defined by the tradition and people he/she belongs to. Yes we are all human, and we all have similar principles (incest and murder are frowned upon universally), yet each nation/people have their own window as a mean of expression to reach wisdom. I theorize that all religions are the same in the end because they aim for the same objective. That is to say, inner peace and good social living ; but just as different languages are used by different people to understand identical ideas; different religions/traditions are used to transmit identical principles necessary to "good living". One language or religion cannot be imposed without severe consequences.

France has seen many turbulant uprisals by the minorities, mainly from parisian suburbs. I believe this is in part because these people feel suffocated. The secular tradition forces them to shed their traditions, their means of identification and understanding, in order to better fit in. This results in a backfiring of the goal of the secular state. Instead of having a unity through teachings of common principles, we have a retaliation to what is considered a frontal offensive against their sense of belonging. By being forced in to a unique pot, people react violently in order to preserve their uniqueness, and so, their individuality. France is one of the only nations where it is considered racist to objectively consider racial differences, to the extent where it has been forbidden to make polls using racial and religious belonging, thus denying an absolute reality.

Another extreme effect of this forced secularism, is an accentuated impermeability between social groups. We see Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Sikhs, etc - close themselves off more, by only interacting with members of their own group. This closes off the doors to understanding, respect, and tollerance paving the way for further conflict between different groupings, fueled by ignorance of one another. I have seen this effect in none other than French universities, where education is supposed to unite all. Instead I was dissapointed to witness the formation of many groups, and caution that has dominated each group's action's with another. The situation is very different in England (amongst other countries) where differences are praised, respected, and accepted.

England has 1.4 million muslims, France has more than 6 million ; yet England to the contrary of France, has sanctionned the idea of islamic banking. France, in the name of secularity has shunned the idea most frivulously. The result is that many French muslims go to England in order to find financial solutions that respond to their needs. The islamic banking institutions are thriving and is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the troubled world of banking, yet the French aren't doing much about it. If they one day decide to approve it, commerce and development in France would unfurl with great strides. Yet, the disaproval of individuality for the sake of mass conformity has sunken France to considerable levels.

On a social level, France is one of the nations where I have seen people complain the most about racism. This is because differences aren't celebrated, but feared, because they are not taught of them well enough at schools. Instead of deeply studying muslim, jewish, christian, hindu, budhist, etc. beliefs in order to accept and respect them, the job is done only in superficial ways, in the name of secularity. In the Anglo-Saxxon world, each celebration is taken in to account, Ramadan, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, etc.

Feeling one's individuality being praised, respected, and accepted gives one a feeling of love, and further inclines one to be more open and accepting of other's differences. This kind of context provides for a truly well oiled social machine giving great economic results. To conclude, a forced secularism will only hurt one's individuality. This will in turn transform in to a violent reaction to safeguard one's tradition, identity and indivuality, leaving much room for closed communities to become protective of themselves, and ignorant of other groups. This ignorance will then evolve (as is usualy the case) in to a form of racism which will only clunk up the social machine, and leave it to rust.

Unity is important, but only to a certain extent - preserving one's means of staying in touch with him/herself is necessary, and this will pave the way for an openness, and so a certain unity, with others. Respect, and acceptance is key. Not tollerance, for tollerance is a term employed to politely say: "you annoy me, but i have to stand you in order for our world to function", and no way shows acceptance and respect.

Patience

2007-11-21T20:52:00.000+01:00

I have always wanted to study law. My father's pictures in a French lawyer's gown, shows, videos, news articles and media coverage of lawyer's works - all have influenced my desire to study law. After all studying the rules behind society's functioning is quite intriguing and interesting. The problem is that law is a science unlike all the others.

For one - solutions to problems in law are unimportant if the logic that supports them is weak. One cannot take X, Y, or Z way to reach the aforementioned solution, but must think in an organized, ordered, controlled fashion.

This seems easy at first sight, because most of the procedure appears to be controlled. The problem is that without any creative original thought, one cannot complete a legal assignment. Thus, one must merge instinctual creation with thought out mechanical procedure to attain a great, full proof solution.

This at least holds true in French legal theory. The French jurists are notorious around the world to be very keen on a methodological approach to legal work. Often, an American, Japanese, or Russian counterpart will be left dazzled and the seemingly unnecessary formalism and methodology. It also happens that the American lawyers make on average, at least ten times what a French lawyer makes.

That is because, the French are the only ones (so far as my knowledge goes) to focus so much, not on the solution but the method to reach the solution. It doesnt leave room for free thought and original ideas. Solutions are made in a closed, formalist way that doesn't permit for new revolutionary ideas.

Though it holds true that the French jurists whom have managed to master the method and formalism have been able to easily convey their avant garde ideas.

This goes to show that one needs to be patient in order to succeed in anything. The problem is that today, most of our jobs and missions have a deadline that must be respected. Time is money, and money is everything. This doesn't leave much room to take the time necessary to perfect an art (whichever it is) through practice.

This is even more astonishing when we consider that in absolute reality, physically speaking time doesn't exist. It is an imaginary dimension human minds have made up in order to better function as a society. So how can we allow ourselves to be so pressed by something that really doesnt exist? It is further dazzling to notice that those who are stressed are those that are very aware of time, and the lack of it they have - thus, they age faster and look like they are much older than they really are. Paradoxically those that are the most laid back, no worried about time yet still productive doing the most out of every second and enjoying it as well, are those that look the youngest at the oldest age.

Patience is golden, especially in today's world. In the domain where time is most definetly money, the stock market, studies have shown that the investors that take their time after buying a stock, and wait at least 3 years are more likely to make a profit than those who trade their stocks constantly, without waiting more than 6 months.

So take the time necessary to do what you do well, do not stress, and know that there is no need to worry about time, there's none of it anyways. So, as the egyptians say: "if its fucked, its fucked", and as the jews say : "its better to laugh than cry" - so laugh and enjoy the infinite time you'll find in knowing there isn't none.

Music in the 21st Century

2007-11-12T23:48:00.000+01:00

It has been almost a year since I last wrote here. I am sorry to myself for having prolonged my absence for so long. To write, even if no one is reading, is a good way to express positive ideas. Though sadly, today i have a sad observation i would like to communicate.

Music has lost a lot of the prestige it used to have. When one compares the music from the 80s to that of today, there is a lot to say.

For one the internet having eased communication has become a high way allowing people to be much more easily exposed to the media, taking away from the rarity and mystic of the music world. There was a time where Michael Jackson was a living legend, now he is nothing more than a washed up old pervert (to the eyes of many, not to mine).

The internet most notably has allowed people to obtain their music with much greater ease with P2P software. Music is easy to access and obtain, long gone are the days when one would have to run the risk of buying an album because of ONE song he/she truly liked, and see if the rest of the album was as good. Now people download them fully (for free more often then not) and enjoy having them on their computer or MP3 player.

This is not a problem in itself. It is more of an oportunity to save money by only buying the tracks one loves, and getting the chance to preview other tracks to see if yes or no one would like them or not before buying. This is good.

The main problem is not so much in the amassing of songs by individuals, but rather in the quality of popular music. Money has replaced the art. It doesn't take much for one to realize this, listening to the words alone of the more popular songs makes one think twice. Fifty cent, Jay-z, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Timberland. The music is made to make people move in the clubs. Nothing is wrong with that, dancing and letting go from time to time is healthy. The problem is that these songs have simple melodies and shallow words. Poetry and harmony have been replaced by repetitiveness and vulgarity.

The video clips aren't helping much either. Most often they show women in close to nothing dancing around men, or people in clubs with a lot of alcohol and "bling" - cars with rims etc. These videos do not promote anything good.

Now the mind would naturaly be bored with this kind of music very quickly. The danger is that today's society sees technologies that do not allow for that. Indeed, the portable jukeboxes such as the Zune or the Ipod (nano, classic, touch, phone) ALLOW for people to carry as many of these songs as they wish. When such a machine can carry 2000 songs (on an 8 GB Ipod nano) it is easy to put many mindless songs, exposing the mind to many mindless songs, in such a way to create the illusion of diversity and only allowing for a shallow study of a song. In this way people are not bored with their music and keep their efforts of musical knowledge at a superficial level. This feels like ADD is being promoted.

This is made more dangerous by the fact that this kind of music is easy to produce, as it doesn't take much of a mind to write words about vulgar sexual relations, or cliche heart throb songs. The beats are easy to make considering the same sound plays over and over again for 3 and a half minutes. The pool of stupid music is permanently made larger.

What is one to do when facing so much trashy music? Block it all out. Give it a try from time to time, it's not a shame to be seduced by a beat with a good melody every now and then - but this shouldnt be a reason to be permanently subdued in the silly mind rotting music that is so popular today. One must take advantage of the capacities that the portable jukeboxes offer and only add songs of great lyrical and musical skill.

RAP is not a low art. Rap is modern poetry at its highest, Immortal technique is an impressive lyricist. It is a shame the modern media only promotes such silly music.

BUT why is that? Is it because the people like it? That would mean that people are silly by nature (for the most part). Or is it because the media controls the minds by feeding them nonsense for the brain? Most people are followers and not leaders, and have a hard time having truly independant thought. Being taught from a young age to consider that having "hot bitches", making women out to be materialist beings, cars, rims, bling etc. is cool surely pushes a mind to have a severely flawed moral compass.

Schools and parents must expose the children to quality music from a young age in order to fight the dumbing media. The media in itself has failed its the people by having allowed for such mind numbing material to be released and made so popular. Gangsta rap has been a horrible influence - detracting many from their greatest potential. So - let's be careful not to ask women where they got their body from, god forbid they say : "I got it from my mama" (reference to Will I Am's song) and let's focus on the more worthwhile, moving music that creativity and genius have to offer and let's stay far from the idiot gear (Louis Logic).

Justifying racial slurs

2007-01-12T19:35:00.000+01:00

Let me begin with this : they're not what they seem. Let me explain through a quote, taken from the show, Boondocks in a scene where two black men bump in to each other and start "getting all up in each other's faces".

"Watch closely, your about to experience a nigger moment. Webster defines a nigger moment as a moment in which ignorance overwhelmes the mind of an otherwise rational and wise man, causing him to act in an illogical, self destructive manner. I.E. like a nigger. Nigger moments are unpredictable but they always end up badly."

So here we see that a racial slur is used as a slur against a category of people within a category of people; in this specific scenario we have niggers in the category of black men. The black man himself is not insulted with the slur, it is the recipient of the slur himself that is insulted directly by the significance of its meaning. What is the meaning? Ignorance.

When one is called a spick, nigger, sand nigger, chink, cracker or any kind of racial slur - even sexual, bimbo, it is not because of the belonging to that particular category; but it is because of showing a trait of ignorance.

In today's world where conectivity is a reflex and curiosity, albeit may it be insatiable can see each of its caprices satifisfied. To be ignorant in today's world goes aginst our responsibility as human beings to be informed, educated, and wise. If people happen to not be any of these adjectives, at least in first world countries, it is because they havent taken the time to read, about the world, history, people, and international global world culture.

It is the case, i am sad to say, of many americans. Citizens of what is thought to be the greatest nation on earth. The paradox is that citizens are what make a nation, yet we see a great nation of fools.

the sad part is that the case isnt limited only to the USA... But most of the masses seem to be foolish. A good indicator of that is what is shown on tv, precisely for those masses to watch. Tv will only show that which is considered mass market material... and so far its only dumbass shit. Sad.