Think....Spot!

The IDW people, Harris, Rogan, Rubin, Peterson, etc. are in firefight mode about "free-speech".  So much so that Peterson, a high visible IDW contributor, has opened an "internet listing/funding website" to host cultural commentators whose view and/or communication strategies might offend the various cyber platforms that have heretofore accommodated their uncensored exposure to the public.  The site, "thinkspot" is a double entendre either identifying a cyber site promoting reasoning, or a subtle challenge to mainstreet, who often play out their life in "spot the dog" mode. 

2020....”A Car Wash 2.0 Story”

     Power says, "Make America Great Again". 

     Truth says, "Rule of Law". 

Judiciary says, "Pay Me Later".

Press says, "Keep Hoping and Keep Watching". 

Main Street says, "I Don't See No Black Swan".

The Intercept* says, "Don't Shoot Me"

Woke says, "It's Been Nice Knowing You".

Global Coin vs. DIF

     Soon, somewhere over all of earth's rainbows, we will be buying and selling stuff, denominated in Facebook's new cryptocurrency, "Libra".  Enabled by the Bitcoin introduced cyber wonder "blockchain", all 10 billion sentient earthlings will be exchanging shit of presumed value without having to bother a bunch of old worn out Mitch McConnell type fed/banker dudes to keep track of our relative wealth.  While Trump, Putin, Jinping, et.al.  are playing their "Who Can Save/Destroy the Planet First" game, the rest of us will be taking consumer ism to a whole new level. 

     Yes, some of the 10 billion, at least the 2% who are "woke", will bitch about how Facebook is undermining our souls by capturing, digitizing and exploiting our pathetic little amygdales for their ever greater profit. Most of us however will be genuinely happy to have Portal order and deliver a new Barbecue Grill Cover..."man, how did they know I needed that"

     The 2% will fight back.  They will keep explaining that we are forgetting to list on our application for installment purchases that one of our most valuable assets is our very own "consumer biography". which we give away for free every day. (We gave it to Facebook, who sold it to Amazon, who used it reveal that we needed and could afford the BQ Grill Cover).  They will tell us that we should get paid for revealing our desires to the world.  After all the makers no longer have to advertise...they just send us what we want, and what we now want is to get paid for our reveal.  Indeed, there are at present large organizations, both for-profit and non-profit, posturing to convince, we the 98%, to port our cyber info through a modern day "enigma machine" that can encrypt our "selves" which can then be auctioned to the highest bidder.....for a small commission.  At present the DIF, Decentralized Identity Foundation, funded by IBM, Mastercard, etc. is the accelerator point for this opposing interest.

     This sounds real cool, if you say it fast.  Otherwise it smacks of "mind slavery" with the bizarre twist that we "gullibles" are now capable of orchestrating our own sale. #Facebook

Identity Perspectives....a Russian Doll metaphor

     How many post-modern illuminating tweets/posts are necessary for us to accept that what we think, say, write and vote is perspectival, based on our history.  Having, I think, fully internalized this "truth", the obvious question is...."so now what"?

     Should we abandon our sense that humans are social creatures.  Should we think only about ourself, live isolated, only write secret journals, and never do politics.  After all, who wants to be berated for allowing their lack of empathy, or assessed faux empathy, to be revealed.  Or should we "mindfully" move our "self-identity" to the most all-encompassing universal sub-set hoping to "just get along".  Perhaps, if we all identified only as "quark collections", we would not need an aisle in Congress.

     Or, rather obvious, we could teach that "identity perspectives" are like musical notes or Russian Dolls.  We should take-up a standpoint as close as possible to the "affinity field" where we do our living.

    We can't undo "I am me and you are not", but we can become more "entangled"....quantum speaking!

Nirvana, Heaven, Paradise, etc....

     For thousands of years the Buddha, and like discerning humans across the globe, have internalized a simple core life-insight....detachment from finite phenomena ends suffering and yields bliss.  The "nirvana" root word means "extinction".  Other cultural "final state" concepts speak to the same beyond/after reorientation.  The idea seems simple enough, yet our species seems increasingly addicted to hedonistic consumer ism.  My sense is that, at both personal and group levels, reciprocal moralities emerge more robustly in information rich yet materially sparse environments.  You can grow a tomato in the shade, but not a very good one, and you can raise a man in a carnival, but not a very good one!