Perhaps this is a waste of brainspace and furthers BMW’s viral ambitions (a common lament on this blog), but I can’t pass on commenting about this horrendous excuse for invasive marketing. As you can see from the video’s presentation, audiences were subjected to the old afterimage trick of burning an image into their retinal cones so as to produce a floating BMW in their vision. This was one of the first experiments conducted by Descartes that led him to formulate his famous aphorism, “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am). He noted that the afterimage proved that all mental images were internal physiological impressions which could only mean that any thoughts we have would be essentially visual representations of reality– the same kind of thinking that dominates a mechanistic view of cognition.

In terms of marketing, it follows, then, that if the advertiser can impress in your mind its brand, it can then program your choices and thoughts. This kind of totalitarian view of humanity should send shivers up our collective spine. But instead, these kinds of tactics are hailed as revolutionary and worthy of awe. In BMW’s own hype-machine voice (“Involve me. And I will understand.”), the campaign wants to “astonish” the viewers, which is supposed to translate as some kind of empowerment. The ad gets even creepier when the motorcyclist says he pursues power because it is his dream, one presumably implanted by BMW like an “inception” (from the movie of the same title). The subtext, if anyone is paying attention, is that the dream of personal power and velocity (never mind the consequences for the environment and our culture of speed) is enabled by BMW’s invasion of our dreamspace. BMW wants its dreams to be ours, while letting us think the dream is our own.

Really? It makes one wonder what BMW means by “understand.” Luckily this vision of how the human mind functions in the environment is actually not what happens. From the view of ecological intelligence and communication, ideas are “disturbances.” They trigger responses, but don’t control them. Such was the case when I saw this video; the ad caused an oppositional response as opposed to the preferred reading that BMW intended (indeed, the anti-BMW responses on the video’s YouTube page are quite funny and telling). This won’t be the case for lots of people, but through education and interventions like this, perhaps the stupid conjuring of over-paid cognitive magicians will end up in the digital dustbins of history.

With that said, I wanted to return to the issue of “other people’s problem.” Due to the recent financial crisis, it appears that Americans are going to join the majority of the world in terms of economic access and privilege. We consume and pollute way too much, so this is a good thing. I’m a fan of Lynne Twist, author of the Soul of Money, who argues that “abundance” is the wrong goal. She says it’s better to be “sufficient.” I find this an aspiration that is in keeping with justice and ecological concerns. Sufficiency suggests we live within our means; that we only consume that which is available in real time. This means that we stop borrowing against the planet’s resource bank by extracting ancient solar energy, and return to using the solar energy that is available to us on a daily basis. This is how our ancestors lived, and this is how the surviving humans of our age will live as well.

But sufficiency is a spiritual issue as well. Are we always aspiring to a better, utopian future rather than being grateful for what we have? This is a core issues for well-being. I once participated in a “prosperity group,” which was a weekly gathering of friends (mostly folks from my yoga class) who wanted to read a “channeled” book, Creating Money, and to do the exercises together (it’s a great book, BTW). I realized rather quickly that most people in the group would never transcend their state of “poverty,” because they were spiritually impoverished. That is, they believed that their lives lacked sufficiency in that moment, and would always be trapped on the treadmill of negative thinking about their present state of being. I read the book closely and discovered something quite useful. It asks readers to imagine what their life would be like if they suddenly received a million dollars (or any large lump sum). Don’t visualize the things you would buy or other material goods, but focus on the feeling. What emotion or sensation wold it be? At the time I was a struggling freelance writer, so my simple goal was that I wanted to be able to write without stress. I deconstructed my desire to find out why I wanted to write in the first place. I realized that it was because it allowed my to connect with a higher, creative force than what I normally experience in daily life, that I liked to solve puzzles and explore ideas, and to lose myself in them. By the end of the exercise I learned something very important: I didn’t need a million dollars to achieve that, all I have to do is to sit down and write. Problem solved. The money would come later.

A final note on context. I’ve become aware of late that everything I believe and say is benefited from my “cultural capital.” That is, I’m the product of an investment of both my family and society in terms of education and cultural privilege. The truth is that everyone operates from the means that are available to them, and the knowledge that it constitutes. I just want to give thanks that I have lived an abundant life and I hope that I can share and spread whatever wisdom this life has afforded me.

For a peak inside what motivates people to submit to “higher” authorities whiles simultaneously degrading others for refusing to do so, I came across this amazing article which paints a painful psychological portrait of those of the authoritarian persuasion. The article, however, doesn’t explain how people get to this point. I’m no psychologist, but as a student of human consciousness, I suspect some kind of abuse– physical, emotional or sexual– is what transforms a beautiful child into such a monstrous personality.

I offer this wisdom for the sake of compassion, because as things get tough and us weirdoes go pro, the fascists will smell blood (remember that Palin and her sudden rise is an important weathervane of where a lot of Americans are at these days). We need to watch our backs.

MyDD :: Rightwing Authoritarianism and Conservative Identity Politics (Pt 3 in the series):

* Authoritarian submission: A high degree of submission to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives.

* Authoritarian aggression: A general aggressiveness, directed against various persons, that is perceived to be sanctioned by established authorities.

* Conventionalism: A high degree of adherence to the social conventions that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities.

OK, I think this is taking niche marketing way too far!

The Worst Horse / How do I love thee, Bizarro Thai Ronald McDonald? Let me count the ways….:

I love that you offer your hands to me in a Buddhist expression of gratefulness and reconciliation. It’s so surprising. Almost as if I’ve never seen you before.

Against The Stream: Connecting Punk with Buddhism

Was Buddhism the first DIY spiritual path? According to Noah Levine, “Sid” (Siddhartha Gautama AKA Buddha) was history’s earliest punk. He went against the prevailing guruism of his day, eschewing the caste system by inviting women, criminals and the poor into the enlightenment camp. Like punk, Buddhism’s user interface is decidedly personal and open source. Akin to the proverbial Sniffin’ Glue punk dictum—”Here’s a chord, here’s another, now go start a band”—Buddha said, here’s the Dharma, now go get enlightened.

Levine’s new book, Against the Stream, is DIY boot camp for the spiritual revolutionary. Unlike his biography, Dharma Punx, Against… is a practical hands-on guide to getting your dharma on. I give Levine tremendous credit for branding the Dharma Punx idea. I don’t mean that cynically, but in a zeitgeist kind of way, because when I first encountered Dharma Punx, and subsequently Noah in person, I found a kindred spirit who grokked the suffering of fellow punks and other social outcasts. I didn’t know there were other spiritually oriented old school punkers like myself; in doing so it was like finding a lost brother. Many apparently share the feeling because Dharma Punx and its ever-expanding community of sanghas (“communities”) have taken a life of their own. Noah gladly has let the inmates take over the asylum.

The attraction of Dharma Punx goes far beyond the Noah personality cult, something we half-joke about, but his charisma is definitely attractive to many—and a total turnoff to some. Admittedly it’s a bit strange to hear a bald guy with tattoos on his neck and hands espouse a philosophy based on love, not fear. But I think he strikes the right tone, which is balanced delicately with the practical applications of Buddhism with the desire to radically change the world.

Like hardcore punk, which I consider to be the monochrome canvas of music, Theravada‘s mindfulness approach is a more minimalist approach to Buddhism, i.e. no shamanic renderings of the Dharma that were added later by other branches. Periodically Noah held debates at the NYC sangha with Shambhala practitioner Ethan Nichtern (author of another great book, One City: A Declaration of Interdependence), who also teaches at the same Bowery space across the street from the now-defunct CBGBs. It’s fun to hear Noah slash and burn with three-chord Dharma to get to the essential: no astral glamour or speculative metaphysics. It’s all about the here-and-now, literally, between you and the cushion or you and the skateboard, as the case may be. What makes Noah’s take on Buddhism essential is that it’s streetwise, partly from his experience from teaching in prisons, also in part because he’s from the streets. You get a lot of that in Against the Stream, with doses of “homie” sprinkled about in his discussions of the suttas. In the Dharma Punx sangha, the language in his talks is far more colorful.

In the sangha I have observed a really diverse demographic (young and old, multiethnic, assorted subcultural styles, etc.), but at the core I am attracted by a particular Gen X sensibility that’s pissed off, ironic, and yes, highly dysfunctional and addicted. Having been there and done that, my theory is this: back in the old punk days we had created a tribe and surrogate family as a means for dealing with our alienation, both from the fucked-up system, but also from badly broken homes. Many of us who grew up in the ’70s were dealing with a very bad ’60s hangover. Divorce, drugs, free love, experimental therapy, cults, and abuse were common among us. Sadly, punk never overcame its nihilism and generally internalized to the extreme all the social dysfunction we railed against. This is why I found the documentary American Hardcore so depressing. Before seeing it, I had high expectations of seeing my youth displayed and documented authentically; I wanted to re-live the excitement and vibrant energy that I remember about punk. Instead I left the theater depressed. I had blocked out the violence, and the scene in which Henry Rollins, who was singing for Black Flag at the time, sucker-punched an audience member recalled the ugly side of our youth movement. It was a depressing reminder of the dark side of our generational aesthetic.

Sadly, some have “sold out” to market this lifestyle, best symbolized by the disembodied, postironic tone of advertising voiceovers. But not Noah. When he sits on the cushion with you it’s because he’s been through the shit; it’s not some highfalutin gimmick espousing phony guru crap. If there is one thing you will glean from Against the Stream, it’s the practicality of his approach and how it remains true to the spirit of rebellion. And if there is one bit of sage advice that springs from it, it’s something that Noah repeats often: don’t believe a word he says. Try it for yourself and see if it works for you. Because that’s all that really matters. The rest is bullshit.

Admittedly before reading the book I had fallen of the Dharma wagon. This could mean a lot of things. Some might object to some of the precepts, in particular the ones against harmful sexuality or no intoxicants. The definitions are somewhat flexible, because we are lay people and these teachings are meant for householders, not monks. A lot of Dharma Punx are AA-ers. Some are uncomfortable with that aspect of the sangha, but like all punk communities (I use the term loosely here to describe an attitude, not a look), the slam pit is fairly large. In the years that I participated, everyone one of us blew it a few times, picked up old habits, fell of the wagon, etc, but we all supported each other when the time was right and returned to the cushion. This is not a scene where people are judged for their weaknesses or failings.

I realize that not all will share the same feelings I had when I first sat in the Dharma Punx sangha, but for me there was an intense feeling of coming home. Maybe Against the Stream will also offer you that sense of welcome.

Technorati Tags: DharmaPunx, NoahLevine, Buddhism

The secret of mind-control is simple–so simple that Rushkoff can sum it up in one sentence: “In whatever milieu coercion is practiced, the routine follows the same basic steps: Generate disorientation, induce regression, and then become the target’s transferred parent figure” (64). Hard-sell car salesmen, CIA interrogators and psychwar ops, and cult leaders have long used this technique. Under coercion, millions of otherwise rational people can be persuaded to act against their own interests–whether by shelling out big bucks for an overpriced lemon, betraying a comrade and a cause, or allowing a gang of criminals to destroy their nation’s Constitution and launch criminal wars of aggression.

I think the above statement (in bold) is generally valid. The paragraphs is from an article in response to why people so quickly believe the official version of 9-11. I’m still not convinced that it was an inside job– a) because focusing on the past doesn’t help us deal with the situation as it exists right now, and b) the government is run by bureaucrats (i.e. people) who make lots of mistakes. With that said, I still believe it was deployed quite effectively as a kind of mega-spectacle slight-of-hand trick. Regardless of who was behind it, they were successful at unleashing a massive wave of paranoia that is eating America alive. If you visit the WTC site and you’re sensitive enough, then you will understand that 9-11 was most certainly one of the most explosive acts of black magic in the history of humanity.

“Generate disorientation, induce regression, and then become the target’s transferred parent figure”:

In a typical Evangelical megachurch ritual you will see people blasted with multimedia in such a way that their nervous systems are over-stimulated (see my post on BattleCry) causing group hysteria and disorientation.* But I want to go back to my basic premise, which is that manipulation is more effective when people have low self-esteem or a lack of a strong center. These techniques don’t impact all people the same way. We need to move from generalizing the “pubic” as if they are a mass of playable clay. I think if you talk to any person one-to-one you will find their view of the world is generally nuanced and complex (with the exception of the Neocons, of course). From an ecological perspective, this means we need to reinforce the psychic immune system through education, proper nutrition, critical pedagogy, and strong doses of place, i.e. nature when available.

* Note: with my critiques of religious spectacles, some have accused me of being anti-Christian and intolerant. That is not the case. I am anti-manipulation. I fully support people having the choice to believe what they want as long as it doesn’t involve killing or controlling people who disagree with them.

Technorati Tags: DouglasRushkoff

In case you haven’t seen Sci-Fi network’s Battlestar Galactica (I highly recommend that you do), the premise of the story is that a race of robots created by humans decides to destroy their creators. The cyborgs, called Cylons, have developed a theistic construct of the universe, believing in a single God (the humans are polytheists who warship something akin to the the Greek pantheon). It’s one of the more interesting twists in the series plot lines. The Cylons eventually believe they are doing “God’s” work, so instead of simply destroying the fleshy heathens they decide to invade and occupy a human colony in order to convert them to their cybernetic lord (sound familiar?). In the process of the occupation the Cylons torture, detain and kill the humans without a hint of irony (again, sound familiar?). The hint that perhaps the Cylons are stand-ins for fundamentalists comes with their ability to “resurrect” their consciousness into cloned bodies whenever one of their advanced humanoid models is killed. The “resurrection ship” (pictured above) contains fresh cyborgs that can be downloaded with the consciousness of terminated or killed Cylons.

The religious pursuits of the Cylons obviously have their real world analog, and is a sophisticated commentary on the nature of fundamentalist religion. In it I find echoes of my own sense that monotheism is a bit like a dangerous thought virus that has no logical basis in reality, yet has a way of repeating and transferring itself from one generation to another. Thus I was intrigued to discover the similarities of the Air Force Academy chapel (the first image) with the resurrection ship. Since we know Cylons are not modernists (as the chapel was made in the 1960s and is clearly inspired by modernist architecture), it’s probably a clue that Battlestar Galactica’s writers do in fact view the Cylons as a type of fundamentalist culture which is militaristic, dogmatic and homogeneous. After all, one of the key reasons the Cylons initially attack the human race is that they are viewed as sinful and impure. All these elements happen to be aspects of what is transpiring at the Air Force Academy– and the US military in general– which has become a fierce fundamentalist conversion center, thereby combining high tech with militancy and intense faith. Things get a little loopy, however, when it turns out that it’s tied to the ministry of Ted Haggard (you know, the preacher guy who apparently loved speed and hard (male) bodies).

According to David Antoon, who writes about the academy in a scary article about Christina fundamentalism in the US military:

The Christian supremacist fascism first reported at the Air Force Academy is endemic throughout the military. From the top down, there has been a complete repudiation of constitutional values and time-honored codes of ethics and honor codes in favor of religious ideology. And we now have a revolving door between Blackwater USA, which is Bush’s Praetorian Guard, and the U.S. military at every level. The citizen-soldier military dictated by our founding fathers has been replaced with professional and mercenary right-wing Christian crusaders in control of the world’s most powerful military. The risks to our democratic form of government cannot be overstated.

It’s expedient for the warmongering neocons to encourage fundamentalist militancy in the armed forces because it gives them a hardcore base to execute their goals for economic domination of Muslim controlled oil fields. But like the Cylons, the danger of cultivating such a class of “theo-cons” is that they ultimately may not be controllable and will put forward their own agenda of apocalypse and rapture, something Bush apparently believes in, although I find that to be an excuse at best, and a deadly ruse to hide more nefarious goals. The connection between the mercenary army, Blackwater, and Christian supremacy is an example of the kinds of bad things that happen when you let the tiger out of the cage. In the end, by deploying its private fundamentalist army in the heart of Iraq, the White House may have ultimately undermined its mission. It’s hard to put a smily face mask on extremists in the age of transparent global media. So we may be saved from a Cylon attack after all.

Ram Dass once said this of gurus: G-U-R-U, aka Gee You Are You.

Ode Magazine : Fire your gurus:

More than 1,000 years ago, the Chinese Zen master Lin Chi underlined the danger of gurus. He saw that many of his contemporaries in the 9th century transferred responsibility for their spiritual well-being to others. He said this meant they gave away their power and authenticity. This inspired Lin Chi’s oft-quoted statement: “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” In other words, if you think you can find enlightenment outside yourself, you’re on the wrong track. After all, the essence of Buddha’s teachings is that everyone carries the Buddha nature inside, or—put another way—we are all Buddha. Lin Chi’s warning is still relevant today. Despite the far-reaching individualization in the modern Western world, people continue to seek handholds. Nowadays, there are more gurus than ever, despite the change in titles: mental coach, therapist, social worker.

Throughout the protests, the monks have used the symbols and practices of Buddhism to express their discontent and rally public support. At first only a few monks demonstrated in towns such as Pakokku, where the authorities used hired thugs, now called Swan Arr Shin (Possessors of Strength) to lasso and catch the fleeing monks with lariats. Then the thugs threw the monks in prison where they forced them to disrobe and tortured them. In Pakokku, the monks kept some army officers captive for a few hours, but since then, they have walked through cities and towns silently, observing the Theravada monks’ traditional discipline of silence and downcast eyes. They have also been chanting the Metta Thoke or Loving Kindness Sutra, which sends and shares merit to all living beings.

Technorati Tags: Burma