also if so one wants to click around on the website itself and explore some of the awesome videos and repost them on the blog that would be great too!!!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Impacts and Influences 4YG
so to facilitate the first step of the fouryearsgo contest i think it would be great if we started to amass a reference list. let us just post all of the great educational tools, sites, videos, people, books, that we know that have influenced us in regards to this concept of redefining our culture, in regards to what you think would be applicable to this contest. have you watched any tedtalks that may relate, any random youtube videos that are inciteful, any podcasts, any books. If you could when posting the book or site please provide a quick description of what it is and why...( i don't want this to be forced ) but it would be successful if every one (that means YOU) posted four references that you felt could be helpful
also if so one wants to click around on the website itself and explore some of the awesome videos and repost them on the blog that would be great too!!!
also if so one wants to click around on the website itself and explore some of the awesome videos and repost them on the blog that would be great too!!!
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KEN WILBER:
A Brief History of Everything
Integral Psychology
Sex, Ecology Spirituality (SES)
- A Brief History of Everything is a condensed version of SES. SES is a comprehensive overview of Ken Wilber's integral theory, which seeks to honor the truth inherent in every viewpoint and lay out a methodology for making determinations about validity claims in every aspect of life. Wilber walks you through a history of humanity through the lens of evolution and development, talks about major transformations of human culture and consciousness up to this point in history, and describes possible higher stages of development. A big focus of Wilber's is spirituality, and he describes spiritual and cognitive (generally, personal individual interior) development and the further reaches that are available to us. Wilber the is most creative, fair, all-encompassing and life-affirming author I have ever come across. He founded the Integral Institue (http://integralinstitute.org/) and has authored tons of books and articles. Associated with the Institute is integrallife.com, which is also worth checking out. I firmly believe that the integral model is the best hope for our world in the near and far future.
You can also find lots of videos of Wilber in youtube; the coolest one is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFFMtq5g8N4. The video is of Wilber stopping his brain wave activity and going into different transpersonal states. It may be hard to believe if you aren't open to the idea of trans-rational states of consciousness, but Wilber has been meditating and practicing for decades and this gives you an idea of the potentials that await those who are willing to put in the time. This video blew my fucking mind.
food for thought ...
how can you possibly apply or create a critique of culture if you are embedded in it? Don't you have a standpoint in accordance to that culture, even if that stance is only anti-X? Is there any dialogue we can engage in that be completely disconnected from cultural conditioning, context?
Does it need to be? What if you acknowledge those biases? If no critique is valid because there's an inherent biased viewpoint, then why should we even try? Besides being inherently evil, cultural biases can also serve to set a common ground of conceptual understanding so that we can even communicate in the first place; language has a cultural bias as well, but its pretty practical, despite its limitations. Should we not read books or critique other understandings of reality or culture or literature because a biased opinion automatically disqualifies it? That point of view, too, has a cultural bias because of its linguistic base, so we arrive at paradox (or, less kindly, hypocrisy).
Sorry if that sounds angry. Just stirring the pot :-)
yes we have a stand point in accordance to culture--yes it heavily colours our understandings of cultural shifts. Ben: is your last question rhetorical or are you going to facilitate it?
when it comes to getting into this game i always keep what mike(mike has cancer now and is not doing well) and ruth taught me from FOR: if your going to revolt--your going to have to replace it. it is a two step process. simply being mad is the difference between empathy and compassion.
are you a maker or a destroyer?
(this goes out to everyone becuase i know ben has been doing way more than most of us)
in response to Ben's query, culture bias is indeed impossible to suspend completely. echoing Matt, an attempt to acknowledge/compensate for culture biases is the best we an do. I believe in empathy and imagination as techniques that get us closer to overcoming our ethnocentric outlooks, making them emotional states worth cultivating. i also believe that there is common ground in all humanity that goes deeper than culture (instinct, intuition, somatic microexpressions, creativity, spirit) and if we can connect in these realms our cultural biases are made irrelevant. thoughts?
oh and to respond to dante are you a maker or a destroyer? They are inseparable. In order to create one must first destroy that which came before. We are constantly recycling and creating waste in order to bring into being new ideas/goods/services. This process is inevitable, we must recognize it for what it is and honor the sacrifice of the destructed so that life may continue. It is the manner in which this creative destruction occurs that is paramount. we must strive to create beautiful, ingenious, useful thought and physical manifestations of thought. How do we create waste that we want to have? (question from sustainable design lecture today)
sorry my either or of: maker or destroyer was to be implied in the context of activism--of social engagements--cultural shifting--social capital--are we building the communities we want or are we allowing them to deteriorate through our in action or little of it--a lot of people have given up or are numb to or are unaware of their abilities
yeah i realize i interpreted your question in the most general philosophical sense. my response wasn't meant to contradict your thoughts on activism - i agree wholeheartedly that too many of us are desensitized to the violence/poverty/fear that surrounds our daily lives, driving us to apathy. My respon se is applicable in this arena as well. for us to create a new social paradigm, or a new consciousness within ourselves, we need to destroy (dismantle, if the word destroy carries violent/negative connotations) our old ways of thinking/being/engaging with the world.
Good Books -
GYORGY LUCAKS
Reification and the Proletariat
RAOUL VANEIGEM
The Revolution of Everyday Life
NAOMI KLEIN
The Shock Doctrine
KARL MARX
The German Ideology, Capital, Crisis Theory
DAVID HARVEY
The New Imperialism
News sources I use -
democracynow.org
earthfirstnews.wordpress.org
submedia.tv/stimulator
endgame.org
Youtube -
Zizek
Chomsky
Max Rameu
END:CIV
Never ever doubt the value of critique. If it can't be rationally deduced to be sure, the alternative is nihilism in which your trapped. So assume positively.
But as you must act as well acknowledge, what should the goal of critique be?
------
Complacency is violent. Failure to act is violent. It is a privilege to have the option to escape in today's world ... another casual conversation butchered by politics ....
Concepts I am excited to discuss with you all
-Reification
-USA as empire
-People as commodities
Hey Ben I've been going over and exploring your suggestions--and am enjoying them all-- --it would be great if that when-- you read or find a great article/media source that you post it on the blog so that we here can see what your absorbing and to pull others into wanting to check them out more (giving us something specific to jump into)--i could certainly begin to do that but feel that you have an affinity to them--i want to keep the blog's posts distributed to everyone as much as possible--i'm tempted to just start posting stuff from them but feel you could do a better job at it.
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