Monday, February 28, 2011

"He's Caught Like Sylvester with the Canary in His Mouth"

Alex Jones' interview with Mancow Muller about the revelation that Don Rumsfeld did not know about the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, which I referenced in a previous post.  There's really no way around the fact that Rumsfeld is obviously lying.  Even if he hypothetically did not know about it, he was Secretary of the Department of Defense on 9/11 - how is someone in that position not aware of all the relevant facts about 9/11, an event they then used to launch a state into war?


Alex sums it up, "He's there playing dumb, caught like Sylvester with the canary in his mouth."
"Yeah, he's spittin' out feathers,"  Mancow replies.

It appears zero accountability is perfectly acceptable for some of our highest government officials - or should I say their government officials?

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Up The Ante

What if our wishes comes true?  What if what rely on for the here and now is no longer available?  How do present circumstances dictate our perseverence, our inspiration?  If and when things change, do the things we hold on to become osbolete?  Everyday we form thoughts that we believe necessary for continuing whatever path we might like to set upon. 

Up the ante.  This is changeable.  Convince, persuade, pursue, but do not lie.  We yearn for so much, but what if these things we yearn for manifest themselves?  How does our yearning leave us empty?  If the goal one seeks is obtained, one must be ready to change in the absence of an erstwhile endeavor. 

Clarity of purpose rewards the initiator.  Accept failure and growth the same, for a goal needs both.  Up the ante - you will be rewarded in kind.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Radiohead - Feral


Off Radiohead's brand new album, a track called 'Feral.'  Thought I would post it due to this blog once being named the Feral Continuum.  Download the album here:  Radiohead - King of Limbs

Rumsfeld Doesn't Know About WTC 7

In yet to be aired information, Donald Rumsfeld will apparently claim he has no knowledge of the collapse of World Trade Center 7.  World Trade Center 7 was a third building that was not hit by a plane on 9/11, but also collapsed tidily into its own footprint later that day.  It was brought down by implosion, like towers one and two, and Rumsfeld knows it - how shameful.  9/11 has defined United States foreign policy for at least the last ten years, but if people don't know the truth about it, it is impossible to respond correctly and adequately to geopolitical and cultural events.  I adamantly believe 9/11 is an enormous cover up and that it was an "inside job."  If you don't believe so, I'm sorry.  It's not your fault that you don't know the truth, just as it's not your fault you were attacked.  But, you are able to change your perception.  There is an incredible amount of information available about 9/11 that undeniably crushes any validity the official story seeks to maintain.  From high-tech explosives found in dust from the collapses, to the 9/11-like simulated war games simultaenously taking place that day, to FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds revealing that Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset up until the day of 9/11, to Operation Able Danger, there are too many red flags.  The list really goes on and on.

9/11 is a hot-button issue.  I'd be surprised if you are still reading this if you believe the official story.  Either way, the problems we face today largely stem from 9/11 and its implications.  Bring the troops home, investigate 9/11, and indict the criminals.  This might save the "economy" and restore some cultural dignity.  Until this happens, we'll have to continue slogging through the pain of dealing with this issue and the effects such a monumental lie has on our world.  I think it's appropriate to here thank the people who have woken me up to the truth.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Organizational Theories

I have run across a number of things recently worth sharing.  Some of them I have studied before, like Kondratiev waves, but others, such as entelechy, are new to me;

 --

teleology |ˌtelēˈäləjē; ˌtēlē-|
noun ( pl. -gies) Philosophy
the explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes.
Theology the doctrine of design and purpose in the material world.


entelechy |enˈteləkē|
noun ( pl. -chies) Philosophy
the realization of potential.
• the supposed vital principle that guides the development and functioning of an organism or other system or organization.
Philosophy the soul.

telos |ˈteläs; ˈtē-|
noun ( pl. teloi |ˈteloi; ˈtēloi|) chiefly Philosophy or poetic/literary
an ultimate object or aim.

-- (the following descriptions are pulled from Wikipedia)

Kondratiev waves (also called supercycles, great surges, long waves, K-waves or the long economic cycle) are described as sinusoidal-like cycles in the modern capitalist world economy.[1] Averaging fifty and ranging from approximately forty to sixty years in length, the cycles consist of alternating periods between high sectoral growth and periods of relatively slow growth. Unlike the short-term business cycle, the long wave of this theory is not accepted by current orthodox economics.

Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems in all fields of research. The term does not yet have a well-established, precise meaning, but systems theory can reasonably be considered a specialization of systems thinking and a generalization of systems science. The term originates from Bertalanffy's General System Theory (GST) and is used in later efforts in other fields, such as the structural functionalist sociology of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann.

Organizational studies, sometimes known as organizational science, encompass the systematic study and careful application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. Organizational studies sometimes is considered a sister field for, or overarching designation that includes, the following disciplines: industrial and organizational psychology, organizational behavior, human resources, and management. However, there is no universally accepted classification system for such subfields.

Organizational dissent is the "expression of disagreement or contradictory opinions about organizational practices and policies" (Kassing, 1998). Since dissent involves disagreement it can lead to conflict, which if not resolved, can lead to violence and struggle. As a result, many organizations send the message – verbally or nonverbally – that dissent is discouraged. However, recent studies have shown that dissent serves as an important monitoring force within organizations. Dissent can be a warning sign for employee dissatisfaction or organizational decline. Redding (1985) found that receptiveness to dissent allows for corrective feedback to monitor unethical and immoral behavior, impractical and ineffectual organizational practices and polices, poor and unfavorable decision making, and insensitivity to employees' workplace needs and desires. Furthermore, Eilerman (Jan. 2006) argues that the hidden costs of silencing dissent include: wasted and lost time, reduced decision quality, emotional and relationship costs, and decreased job motivation. Perlow (2003) found that employee resentment can lead to a decrease in productivity and creativity which can result in the organization losing money, time, and resources.

--

There is a book out there titled Enabling Creative Chaos: The Organization Behind the Burning Man Event.  Burning Man's hybrid, alt-economy might be something to focus on to study how people function without money.  Granted, most everything people bring into Burning Man is bought prior with money in the "real economy", there have to be principles underlying Burning Man that point to methods of efficient product creation.  Money is really just a veneer, a hologram.  What happens underneath money, above it, or within and between people is the real source of wealth.

Just wanted to share these blurbs and summaries, I will try to delve deeper into them at a later point.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Banksy Goes to Hollywood






Last, but especially not least, my boy Kyle Fish* in Wewo.  He took the above two photos, the top three were taken from The Guardian (linked below the Micky Mouse tag).  I'm most drawn to the Asian boy with the gun tag; the juxtaposition of imagery serves a nice portion of cognitive dissonance.  Guerilla art speaks truth to power, but maybe more importantly truth to culture.  We need to speak truth to culture, for in this way we make a target out of the socially engineered perspectives, as opposed to the social engineers (who are quite inaccessible, it seems).  Dismantling socially engineered perspectives defeats the social engineering.


Monday, February 14, 2011

ZEITGEIST: MOVING FORWARD


The third installment in the Zeitgeist trilogy.  Lots of important issues discussed, worth the watch.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Driver/Pedestrian Communications

Pedestrians and drivers just can't seem to communicate well.  Take intersections, for example.  Pedestrians want to jay walk and drivers want to roll through the stop signs.  Cars spasm to late stops, with drivers occupied by no less than three gizmoids and hardly noticing the person standing at the corner, you, as you realize a five second inconvenience is a lot to a car.  Then there's the awkward moment walking past their car as they watch you, probably wishing you would cross the street faster and more competently than you are.   Or there's also the overly-courteous drivers that come crashing to a halt much too early, gracing you with an extended period of unneccesary driver/pedestrian awkwardness.  Next time I'm the pedestrian at the crosswalk, I think I will make things extra akward by dropping everything in my possession or something like this as I cross, then gather my things as moronically as possible and wave back to the driver, smiling and fumbling around.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Leaders & Foundations

Where are the leaders today, I've been asking myself?  What dialogues aren't present today, and why?  What foundations are essential to effect change that we might fail to nurture?  In a few of the below images, the most salient imagery is that of dialogue, listening.  In others images, principles that suggest equality and holism.  There are foundational qualities possessed by leaders, like the art of listening, that emerge perhaps more significantly, in turn manifesting impact and effect.  In a pluralist society, we must maintain such foundations - their ability to offer solutions is paramount and continual.





 photo credit: Jordan Schreiber, Egypt 1.11








From The Feral Continuum to The Farcebook

This blog has been called The Feral Continuum since its inception a few weeks ago.  Somewhat conceptual and not terribly accessible, I decided to rename the blog The Farcebook.  So, without further ado, welcome to The Farcebook!

Now, for one, I like the word feral.  The idea relates to people very easily:  schooling, jobs, parents, laws, culture, government, etc. - there are many domesticating factors in our lives that we seek to free ourselves of.  In trying to write about these issues, I haven't thought the name has done justice to the energy I perceive in today's world.  Playing on The Facebook's monumentally popular name, The Farcebook came up.  Now, why name this blog The Farcebook?  In looking at the cultural and social gaps in our society that I might like to make my focus here, things often take on an absurd, farcical light.  How far the spreads of cultural and institutional notions of reality diverge with true reality and how we bumble through the absurdity.  From government policy reverberations to little situations we encounter in our everyday lives, it seems the farces continue, unabated in their boisterousness.  In attempting to understand what's happening around me in this modern world, I'll choose to forgo disbelief.  

What I would like to address here, though, are serious subjects.  To do this, let me endeavor back into the feral continuum idea.  The most domesticating things for people might be the least apparent.  You can't necessarily see the future or past of any object or situation, person of movement.  For example, you can't see that a widget made in China has lead in it, but it does either way.  Or, you might not know that you experience traffic jams with such regularity because the price of gas is low.  People create situations.  We create history.  The situations and things we create have lives of their own, histories of their own.  How everything adds up is important to understanding the whole, for it is possible to change things if we know how a situation develops initially.

One of the domesticating forces that I believe we need to break is the Federal Reserve.  The reality that they create with their policies is an interesting area to observe how people are affected by far removed or undisclosed events.  With the bailouts and quantitative easing programs i.e. printing money, they are creating circumstances for prolonged debt slavery, food inflation, oil inflation, even hyperinflation.  There is a large contingent of people that have been in agreement that the Federal Reserve needs to go, among them previous presidents Jefferson, Jackson, and Wilson, Congressman Ron Paul, and millions more.  An almost mainstream primer on the issue might be the film Zeitgeist.  The Federal Reserve makes its' decisions in private and is not audited, something Ron Paul has and is attempting to force upon the bank.  The Federal Reserve has the singular, unique position of printing the world's reserve currency, thus affecting other populations just as much as it does the United States.  This is a distinct privilege that has reverberations all over the world, affecting people in far flung countries with tiny GDP's to you and your purchasing power. 

The Federal Reserve is a relatively transparent institution, as well; the rabbit hole goes deep.  In 2009, the United States' Department of Defense black budget was $50 billion, funding programs shrouded in high level classifications.  Who knows, and is speaking about what the NSA and CIA are really doing?  Imagine the levels of classifications obscuring truth and cultural concepts of reality.  The trickle down effect is significant, and those with the classifying power like to hold the cards.  Classifications bring darkness to our culture and discreet policies are affecting people more than disclosed policies.  At this point in history, it's farcical to accept what the government says, at all.  If this idea is redundant, good.

The historical narrative of distrust of the powerful has fallen through the cracks of the common psyche, leaving those in power unjustly in their positions while the people flounder about in lies that go largely unquestioned.  The mainstream media has assumed a remarkably hypocritical, enabling role in the face of cultural confusion over perceptions of reality; thus the gap.  With exception to Dylan Ratigan, the mainstream media offers nothing.  They act more like matadors, distracting a bull with intentions to kill.  On the other hand, blogs have been arraigned for lack of credibility by espousers of the status quo, when in reality the blogs are expressing the exact amount of discontent with the dearth of quality product offered by the traditional, mainstream media.  A tree's roots mirror the size of the tree.

Another domesticating force, the internet.  Ahhhh, the internet.  What it has done for us, what we can do with it!  But, our relationship is young and there is much to learn about us.  The level of social germination it allows is huge, but people are still more creative; the freedom of speech it offers is great, but we must exercise real freedom of speech.  We must bring our activity in cyber space into real space, for consuming internet content is no replacement for our physical action, movement, and progress.  The internet has allowed us a certain mode of social progress unavailable not long ago, but we must realize that the internet is a platform.  It is not going to act.  Computers don't get up and walk to the store, people do; computers don't go to rallies, people do.  Without action, we are just consuming the internet, constituting only half of our relationship with it.

I will further look into the internet's role in our society, for there is much to learn about how we can better use it to become more productive and effective.  For me, this is paramount.  We have come so far with the internet, but we have to learn why we aren't accomplishing what we think possible with it.

In conclusion to this, yes, random assortment of ideas, I will reiterate that I would like to focus on how to close the gaps in our society into which fall so many good efforts, ideas, and potentialities.  As we watch history unfold, let us not think of ourselves as doomed.  Things may seem hopeless and absurd, but a farce usually has a happy ending.  Sit back, and join me as I attempt to chronicle these times on The Farcebook.