John Davidson

Tonight I was hungry.

I wasn’t at home, so I couldn’t go to the kitchen and make myself a healthy meal. I looked around and saw only McDonald’s across the street. Do I eat crappy food now and satisfy that hunger? Or do I stay hungry for a little longer and eat a healthy meal back at home?

Do I go for the quick fix or do I wait until I get home and take the time to create a decent meal.

Now that I understand the short and long-term effects of McDonald’s on my body I avoid it all costs. I try to avoid pre-processed foods in general . This has been a journey for me. Deciding to change your eating habits is more than a one-day process and healthy eating is a continuum.

Don’t forget that every meal is new. It’s easy to get in the habit of saying I had McDonalds last night so I might as well have it again toniight. And your nights become a long sequence of Big Macs.

Guilt versus Embarassment Cultures
Guilt cultures are rooted in Christianity. Since God is everywhere and all-seeing he’s impossible to escape. Guilt Cultures: Canada, Western Europe, …

Embarassment Cultures are based on the idea that if your neighbour doesn’t see it it didn’t happen. Morallity is based on obeying the norms of the group.

Craftman versus Business Cultures
Craftsman cultures – Japan, France, Spain and Italy
Craftman cultures value art, literacy over money and power

Business (Money and Power) Cultures – America, China
Irony that the culture that talks the most of equality is the most power-oriented.

Edward D Hall – High Context versus Low Context Cultures

Marcuse’s analysis of capitalism derives from one of Karl Marx’s main concepts: Objectification,

Marx believed that capitalism reduced humans to being object makers and object consumers. Objects or Goods themselves are the ultimate reality. Humans merely a necessary machine for making and displaying the goods. Humans are dehumanized into functional objects necessary for the production of manufactured goods.

Marcuse took this belief and expanded it. He argued that capitalism and industrialization pushed laborers so hard that they began to see themselves as extensions of the objects they were producing. I’m not human, but a watch maker a software developer. The watch and the software are what’s real. I’m an extension of these objects.

In their non-working hours Marcuse writes, “The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment.” People think of themselves purely in terms of what they consume.

Under capitalism (in consumer society) humans become extensions of the commodities that they create and consume.

In the Grand Inquisitor (Book 6 of The Brothers Karazamatov), Jesus returns to Seville during the inquisition. His teaching quickly bring his to the attention of the Church and he finds himself in a conversation with the inquisitor (a parallel to the Trial by Pontius Pilate).

The inquisitor reviews Jesus responses to the temptations of the Devil in the desert. The devil had tempted Jesus asking him to turn the stones into bread. Jesus responded by saying that “Man does not live by bread but by the word of God.”  The inquisitor rebukes Jesus saying that only a man with a full stomach can act morally. Especially if it’s not you that’s hungry but your children.

The devil tempted Jesus to throw himself from the mountain to prove that the angels would rescue him from dying. Jesus responded, “Do not test the Lord your God.” The inquisitor said if only he had trhown himself down, the miracle of seeing the angel rescue him would have convinced people that he was truly the son of god.

In the final temptation, the devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world which Jesus refused. The inquisitor said that as leader of the world, Jesus could have influenced mankind to follow his teachings.

Who was right, Jesus or the Inquisitor?

I love listening to music everything from the chicken dance to Mahler. Music is one example of art.  Is art something that can go on creating infinitely new pieces or is there a limit. Is there an end to art.

Quite a few people would say, “Who cares?” I care because in some way each human life can be seen as a work of art. Is there infinite possibility in human life or are we constrained to variations on a theme?

Art as process, The Wikipedia article on Thomas Kinkade claims that one of his pieces hangs in 1 out of 20 US homes. I vaguely remember a 60 Minutes episode not of a lonely artist creating in a garret, but a  factory of painters churning out art in which each piece would receive a final few strokes from Kinkade – enough to fulfill the legal obligations to be a Kinkade original. The whole act of creation had been rationalized into an assembly line like Model T production. Art as process. The assembly line turns out every variation on the cabin in the woods. The viewer is outside looking in on a warm bright cottage. Why the image of a isolated viewer looking in on a warm bright log house resonate with the American mind. Is it because most people feel isolated an alone and want to have a warm bright place that feels like home. Who cares. It sells. Art as process. For human trying to create a piece of art out of his life follow the process and do what makes money.

Art as Rorschach blot. Another painter, a modern artist said he feels more like he is creating Rorschach blots than art. Modern art needs to be ambiguous so the viewer can read what he wants into it. Instead of the goal being for the artist to try  to convey his own meaning, his mission is to allow the other (the viewer) to create meaning. Make a rorschach plot out of your life – something that others can read meaning into.

Other artists using sampling. Take slices of popular art from the past and recombine it in as many ways as possible. For example, William Burroughs used a cut-up technique in his Nova Express novels.

Another technique is to be self-referential. A painting of a pipe by Rene Magritte with the title “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” This is not a pipe. Before art made a reference to something outside the painting itself. In this art it is self-referential.

Turning to nature. Cycling past Jericho Beach I see dozens of rabbits hopping about the field. The rabbits are shades of white, black and brown. How much variety is there possible in the rabbit’s lives. In the lives of all the rabbits through all eternity.

…. anyway hopefully this gets you thinking a bit about art.

James Altucher is a blogger that I catch up on regularly. Sometimes he reminds me of myself. As a teenager he wanted to be a writer. He wanted it enough that he wrote 5 novels all rejected by form letters to the agents and oublishers he sent them to. He was desperate just to get someone he respected to respond to his writing.

So he wrote to his favorite writer William Vollman telling him that he was dying of AIDS hoping the writer would respond at least out of sympathy. A few weeks later the phone rang while he was writing and he heard the writer’s voice leaving a comforting message that there were people he could reach out to for support and leaving his telephone number.

James felt too guilty to pick up the phone. After all he had lied. But then he felt good that he had finally been able to get a response from someone. Then he felt horrible about the missed opportunity. Because he had lied he never contacted the writer.

In my early twenties, I was desperate to get a girlfriend. Desperate to show that I wasn’t a dull nerd. The words of my Grade 6 teacher, Miss French echoed in the back of my head. All study and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

I looked at the guys who were popular with girls and tried to dress like them, act like them. Basically I figured that I was unloveable and the best thing to do was to try to pretend to be someone else who was loveable.

It worked but I  ended up living a lie. I felt like I couldn’t be myself around women because they didn’t like me personally. They liked the image I had created. Not a great way to start a satisfying relationship.

Inevitably at every bar mitzvah and wedding someone wants the  Chicken Dance or Mustang Sally. My musician buddy hates that. He wants to play something experimental like jazz. You could say he is inner-directed.

Psychologists tell us there  are three personality types; traditionalists, inner-directed and outer-directed. Traditionalists  dislike change. They are political conservatives who value family and religion. The outer directed people gain esteem from being in fashion, buying what everyone else is buying. They are flexible. Inner-directed people value exploration and self-growth.

Michio Kaku is a physicist at New York University. He rates civilizations as Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 basically on how many resources they use. Type 1 has achieved mastery over the resources of their home planet; fossil fuels, fission and fusion. Type 2 has achieved mastery over the resources of their solar system, And type 3 has achieved mastery over the resources of a galaxy. Type 1 can be wiped out by a meteor hit or the death of their home star. Type 2 is safe from meteor, but could be scorched by the sypernova of a nearby star. Type 3 is safe even from supernovas. They can use tera-forming to create new worlds. Type 3 are the master of the universe.

What’s this got to do with the chicken dance? Well what motivates the journey from a Type 1 civilization to a Type 3 civilization; I would suggest the spirit of exploration and discovery or the inner motivation.

This kind of exploration takes massive investment and organization. You can’t build a rocket ship in your back-yard that will take you to Aloha Centauri. You need a society with lots of specialized knowledge to handle the physics, chemistry and engineering. It’s like the modern version of building the pyramids, Notre Dame Cathedral or the Hagia Sophia.

All those people dancing to the chicken dance and rushing out to buy the latest Justin Bieber DVD are what finance the journey to space.

http://www.documentarywire.com/

Frank sent me a link to a documentary about fractals narrated by Arthur C. Clark. The site is wonderful -  hundreds of documentaries. This past week I’ve watched a different documentary each evening.

Here’s a link to the original documentary – Fractals The Colours  of Infinity: http://www.documentarywire.com/?s=fractals&x=0&y=0

Another highly recommended video The Trap – What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom narrated by Adam Curtis: http://www.documentarywire.com/?s=Adam+Curtis&x=0&y=0

One of my favorite philosophy writers is Alain de Botton. He wrote a book called “Philosophy – Guide to Happiness”. To my surprise he also wrote a documentary to go with the book, Here’s the link: http://www.documentarywire.com/?s=Alain+de+Botton&x=0&y=0

An unforgettable nature video – “The Cove” http://www.documentarywire.com/?s=The+Cove&x=0&y=0

What’s happened to my ambition? I certainly started out ambitious. In school I always wanted to be top of the class. At university after goofing off for a year, I settled down and got two degrees – a degree in Arts and a degree in Electrical Engineering. Then I scrambled to get a job in the Federal government and scrambled up the ladder to be network engineering supervisor, married, had two woderful children and quickly paid off the mortgage. But at 33, I felt, is this all there is? Is the point of life to just keep climbing higher in the tree.

Maybe I had the wrong heroes .  I grew up on reading Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn,  John Steinbeck, Thoreau’s Walden, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Jack London’s Call of the Wild. Books about man nature and rugged individualism.

But modern life is more about climbing slippery greased  poles in large institutions. Rewards are for urban conformism and consumerism. I see success in big institutions as incredibly empty. Fighting with the other monkeys to be the alpha male so we can get the biggest slice of the kill and mate with the most females in the tribe. More Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov than Robinson Crusoe.

Much of succeeding at life is climbing greasy poles. Join a workplace and compete your way to the top. Social groups can be about climbing greasy poles – getting on the executive and maybe becoming President of the group.

Joining a group and trying to get the approval of the group. There are not many groups that I feel are worth the effort involved in gaining approval.

Guy Debord writes about the degradation of modern life from being to having. And then from having into merely appearing to have. There is a lack authenticity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle.

Being for me means doing the things I enjoy -  cycling, cross-country skiing, conversation, cooking, collecting and chopping wood for the fireplace on the beach. What’s wrong with me I wonder? Why don’t I want to be leader of the troop anymore?

I guess I realize that the position leader of the troop can only be maintained by constantly fighting and scheming. This constant fighting means that the leader is always in a dangerous position and is actually on a short leash.

Riesman in his book “The Lonely Crowd” talks about 3 types of people – traditionally directed, inner-directed and other-directed. Traditionally directed are the people who cling to the past and hate change. My Dad, for example, refuses to use anything with a keyboard, because he feels it’s beneath him – secretaries use keyboards.  Each summer he returns to New Brunswick where he grew up.  Traditionalists value religion, family  and conservative politics.

Other-directed are the  greased pole climbers par excellence. They value other peoples views. They want to have the latest fashions and gadgets. They are also flexible. What’s good today can be what’s bad tomorrow – no problem. As long as it’s what they see as socially approved. These people are particularly open to advertising and propaganda..

Inner-directed people are a different kind of bird. They value exploration, trying new things and personal growth. .

If the three personality types went to a pub; the traditionalist would want the same beer he always drank, inner-directed would like the exotic sounding micro-brew and the other directed the beer his friend all ordered.