song of the day: i forget the name of the song, it's by Cibo Matto, where she goes "Shut up my love and eat!!! Shut up my love and eat!!! )
word of the day: sparganosis (distension of the breasts with milk)
monk of the day: jason digges (producer, director of my forth coming DVD, i just saw the rough for Flower of a Zero last night, it rocks)
sorry for the delay in my return to the blogging, yesterday the ceiling collapsed in part of my house, and i spent the day playing detective up on the roof, ultimately pulling all the sheet rock and insulation down from the ceiling. my house was built in 1885 (yes, that an "18" on the front there) and it leaks. we have to re-roof it and do a bunch of other stuff. there is also a lead paint problem on the front porch, so we need to get that taken care of. ara's only 10 months old, and until kids are 7 or 8 they have no membrane protect their brain from the particulates carried in the blood from lead paint, and they get brain damage, and the paint has to be removed and disposed of in a fancy, technical manner, so... but hey, we adults have a membrane, so we can eat all the lead paint we want. growing up has its incentives... by the way, thursday i did an interview with Ottmar Leibert . The interview will air on Integral Naked . sometime soon, in the mean time you can check out Ottmar's blogs, videos, and music on those sites. He's a totally fascinating guy, warm, brilliant, passionate- it was truly one of the high lights of my summer talking with him, we were scheduled for 40 minutes on the phone and it went well over two hours! Can't wait until next time, thanks so much Ottmar!
ok, back to this crazy political topic i brought up in the previoius blog. to be honest i'm conflicted about even entering into this kind of topic, because it's just never clear to me exactly how and when to publicly address such subjects, and how forward to be with my own opinion, etc. you may have noticed that in performances i rarely if ever will directly address anything political, especially in a way that takes sides. i feel clear that the performance space is not about that, whatever your political views, during a show honestly i don't care- that space is expressly to include and involve everyone, regardless of the particulars of their belief system or preferences. however, a BLOG is a different thing. my blog is still every bit a part of the work in the Mystery, but it has totally different parameters than a show, and so i'm willing to be more forward and direct about things like politics, social issues, and some more personal things. the reason i don't take this approach at shows is not because i'm afraid to reveal my views or take a stance, it's because i am in fact taking a stance that includes all of it, every side, every perspective (well, on a good night). the operant awareness at a show includes paradox, contradiction, and supposed or apparent "opposites" intentionally and consciously to illustrate the fact that they are all aspects of the one and same Self, or Reality. and in the political arena, this means striving and unfolding an integral approach to government- one that transcends but includes the assets and strengths from both left and right, while hopefully correcting their shortcomings. and let's be realistic, even if integral government . does establish itself permanently on the scene, things will always be a cluster fuck. people encounter 2nd tier in the World and in themselves and i think initially there's quite a honey moon, a very intoxicating dunk into the upper reaches of humanity, and we think we're going to be living in Eden again sometime in the next few centuries. but the sober anchor to that balloon is that every single human being born must develop through every single stage (or meme). 2nd tier (yellow, turquois, coral, beyond) may unfold more quickly and earlier in human development, but no one is skipping stages. we are always, always going to be dealing with the Red Meme or Green Meme, or Blue, or Beige in one way or another. and on top of that, we also remember that all the memes are inherent aspects of our selves, always. we do not Orange behind, we include it in the flexing / flowing spiral of our being. for a more involved discussion of spiral memetics see Integral Naked . and remember that spiral dynamics is not synonymous with "integral". Integral Naked has some great brief summaries of integral (Quadrants, Levels, Lines, States, Types).
at any rate, my sojourn into the political arena, especially with my bold statement that Bush Must Taken Out Of Office, is my opinion- set inside the above context, and after today's blog i'm doing to drop it and move on to other things, cuz i imagine it's not why everyone tunes into this blog- to hear me rant about politics. that said, i do very much think Bush and Cheney must be pulled from office and replaced, but NOT because they're republicans, or Blue meme (Cheney's Orange, i suspect) but because they are a paroxysm of pathologies. i don't think Kerry / Edwards is a magic answer either. when it comes down to it, before an integral politics emerges i believe the planet will go through a major restructuring of social / political systems, and it won't be the U.N. at the head of the World, and it won't be the U.S. either. who knows when all this will go down, but sometime in the next few centuries (or decades?) i'm guessing. what i find oddly sad is how the pathological conservatives have turned "America is the greatest country in the WORLD" into an arrogant slogan that insures it won't continue to be. who in the World wants to be led by a self-absorbed bully incessantly aggrandizing itself while simultaneously marginalizing those it is ostensibly is charged with leading? it's very embarassing and shameful.
on the flip side of the coin, the liberals just do not have their shit together, and must contend with their own set of illnesses. in the last blog we looked at the patholgical / healthy modes of conservatives, so today here's liberal version:
+ healthy liberal + - pathological liberal -
*champions the rights for all *gets lost in aperspectival madness, so
races, religions, sexes, etc to do their thing. consumed with allowing for all voices and
understands their are many different and perspectives as equal participants in the
perspectives and voices to be heard and game that it becomes unable to take a stand,
that "different" does not mean "wrong"- choose sides, or rank-make value judgements
in fact multiplicity and diversity create depth thereby forfeiting its capacity to lead, take charge
and strength. or provide a clear vision and direction in policy.
*has heart and connection with people, *idiot compassion. incapacity to see that what is
understanding a government by and for the in the highest service may not be immediately
people must struggle and perservere on their soothing or pleasant for the subject, that true
behalf in providing for basic needs (food, compassion often involves making difficult,
shelter, medical care, education, opportunity) uncomfortable choices (in their effect for others) in
and the system cannot abandon those who the short term or immediate picture in order to
are struggling, in need, etc. support their deepest / highest interest in the future.
liberal idiot-compassion is easily manipulated and
exploited by those who know how to milk the system
by playing the Guilt card (race, economic status, etc)
and grift tax / public money.
*strives to participate in and be an esteemed *yields too easily to the wishes and needs of others in
member of the global community of nations foriegn policy- underestimates the necessity of a
strong, autonomous military.
*sincere *no fucking sense of humor or shadow-moxy. self-
satisfied hubris.
*dedicated to keeping corporations, large *over-regulates to the point of inflexibility- strangling
organizations in check with environment, the market / right hand avenues of imagination,
public health, etc. spontanaeity, and innovation.
this is a very brief list, only intended to give a sense of what we might mean by saying that conservative and liberal approaches both have amazing assets and of course flaws and liabilities. to my mind it is not a matter of right / wrong, good / bad, but healthy / pathological. i wouldn't want this nation or any other run in a manner that excludes the insights and influence of either approach, but very much want to live in one that appreciates the value of each in its healthy mode, and cultivates the dialogue between them that allows us to be strong, diverse, and flexible depending on what is called for in any moment, topic, or administration. to think that the answer is purely "left" or "right" is ridiculous. every human being has left and right prefernces, and as Ottmar brought up in our dialogue for Integral Naked, any time we collapse into an either /or absolutism in a search for purity, we are in trouble. here's to the messes, the contradictions, the quagmire of perspectives, views, and approaches that slowly, inexerably makes its way to an integral methodology.
now, let's drop the political stuff and have some fun in the next blog...
love has no opposite
s.d.
