culture is not your friend

El_Kabong
El_Kabong Posts: 4,141
edited March 2007 in A Moving Train
thoughts on culture, individuality, consumerism, conditioning...from Terence McKenna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOy3H4yyocQ&eurl=http%3A

if you have a myspace and maybe even if ya don't, here's some audio that's only 2 min
http://www.myspace.com/terencemckenna
standin above the crowd
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • sponger
    sponger Posts: 3,159
    I hate it when my views are shared by some hippie/drugged out looking guy who speaks through his nose. It's almost discrediting in a way. But, those are my views. I especially agree with the notion that our society is led by the least among us. That is, our leaders are the people who have best demonstrated their ability to conform. Change is a painful experience, and our current rate of progress is designed to minimize that pain.
    reigning champion

    http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
  • bootlegger10
    bootlegger10 Posts: 16,301
    El_Kabong wrote:
    thoughts on culture, individuality, consumerism, conditioning...from Terence McKenna

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOy3H4yyocQ&eurl=http%3A

    if you have a myspace and maybe even if ya don't, here's some audio that's only 2 min
    http://www.myspace.com/terencemckenna

    I think it is ironic that you post links to "MySpace" and "YouTube" when talking about individuality, cultural conditioning and consumerism.
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    bootlegger10 wrote:
    I think it is ironic that you post links to "MySpace" and "YouTube" when talking about individuality, cultural conditioning and consumerism.


    Why? Both are means for information and you don't have to buy anything.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • bootlegger10
    bootlegger10 Posts: 16,301
    Abookamongstthemany wrote:
    Why? Both are means for information and you don't have to buy anything.

    They seem a little trendy to me, but I see your point. I did not mean to discredit the message, I just view MySpace and YouTube as pop items.
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    bootlegger10 wrote:
    They seem a little trendy to me, but I see your point. I did not mean to discredit the message, I just view MySpace and YouTube as pop items.

    they're like mtv spring break and aol chatrooms were in the 90s.
  • Commy
    Commy Posts: 4,984
    soulsinging wrote:
    they're like mtv spring break and aol chatrooms were in the 90s.
    youtube can be a powerful tool. its not completely controlled yet by a corporation, not to the extent that most media is, a rare thing these days.
  • musicismylife78
    musicismylife78 Posts: 6,116
    the whole culture is sick. All of it. I am for tearing up the roads and the concrete and planting flowers and food. I am for destroying civilization, and returning to our roots, a million plus small communes of maybe 20 people each. I am for the destruction of all oil, cars, and modern appliances.

    The only way things will get better is if and when the revolution comes and we all are living in communes with no electricity, no cars, no oil, no tvs or computers, no roads, no wars.

    Its not enough to be against the war or against the current occupant of the white house. Its not just the idea of Iraq that is wrong, its not just the idea of this culture that is wrong. Its the entire idea of civilization that is wrong.

    I will be on the front lines with my rake and shovels, and picks, and axes and will be tearing up concrete when the revolution goes down...

    Progress is a joke. It is impossible to continue at our current rate. Something has to give and will. Most scientists suggest that we have 10 years, yes kids 10 years, until the full effects of global warming take shape. We all must join communes and start growing food in our gardens. Its silly to go to the goddamn store and buy corn that some latino laborer picked, and got 10 cents for, while breaking his or her back in the sun all day. We have to grow our own food.

    It makes complete sense, once you realize oil is running out, salmon are running out, and the world is in danger of killing itself, the appropriate actions can be taken.

    I say, sell the tv and appliances, turn off the tv, and tune in. Tune into the things that dont broadcast in radio or tv waves. The joy of god is the form of his discovery!
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    El_Kabong wrote:
    thoughts on culture, individuality, consumerism, conditioning...from Terence McKenna

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOy3H4yyocQ&eurl=http%3A

    if you have a myspace and maybe even if ya don't, here's some audio that's only 2 min
    http://www.myspace.com/terencemckenna

    finally got to see this... what scares me is im pretty sure you take this crackhead seriously. well, it doesnt scare me. it would if i thought him or anyone in his audience could stop tripping long enough to actually do something. "yeah man, let's all just... like... sit around... and uh... yeah man... do art... cool. we can all just paint or something." nevermind figuring out who will make the paint or feed them while they do so...

    yeah, culture is stupid. tell that to our ancestors that were saved from being eaten in the jungle by the development of culture.
  • musicismylife78
    musicismylife78 Posts: 6,116
    either your for civilization or your not. And I agree with Mckenna. The whole CULTURE and SYSTEM is sick and must be brought down. Either you are for progress or for humans and animals and the planet
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    soulsinging wrote:
    finally got to see this... what scares me is im pretty sure you take this crackhead seriously. well, it doesnt scare me. it would if i thought him or anyone in his audience could stop tripping long enough to actually do something. "yeah man, let's all just... like... sit around... and uh... yeah man... do art... cool. we can all just paint or something." nevermind figuring out who will make the paint or feed them while they do so...

    yeah, culture is stupid. tell that to our ancestors that were saved from being eaten in the jungle by the development of culture.

    Your constant negative attitude towards the people on this board gets so tiresome. Sometimes, it just seems pointless to read, although you make good points from time to time...strong points even, you're neverending need to judge everyone and put down views that don't match your own wreaks of insecurity.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    Abookamongstthemany wrote:
    Your constant negative attitude towards the people on this board gets so tiresome. Sometimes, it just seems pointless to read, although you make good points from time to time...strong points even, you're neverending need to judge everyone and put down views that don't match your own wreaks of insecurity.

    yea, sometimes im a cynical bastard. but sometimes it's spot on, like now. this guy's a fucking burned out deadhead. anyone who takes his "insight" seriously is nuts.
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    soulsinging wrote:
    yea, sometimes im a cynical bastard. but sometimes it's spot on, like now. this guy's a fucking burned out deadhead. anyone who takes his "insight" seriously is nuts.


    I liked a lot of what he had to say. He was very articulate and quite knowledgable. You make it seem like this guy was spouting off like Cheech or some shit.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    Abookamongstthemany wrote:
    I liked a lot of what he had to say. He was very articulate and quite knowledgable. You make it seem like this guy was spouting off like Cheech or some shit.

    he was. the solution to the world's problems is we all need to sit down and fingerpaint?
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Art embodies tensions between conflicting ideologies, residual, dominant and emergent. It very often necessarily depends on print capitalism and patronage, to put forward the heady clash between conservative discourses and radical potentiality.

    Take Shakespeare. In 1601 there was a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I, led by the Earl of Essex. On the eve of the planned uprising, the Earl's supporters/co-conspirators asked Shakespeare's theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (based at the Globe Theatre), to restage their old play about the deposition of a monarch, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (c. 1595). Queen Elizabeth got the point: she said, "I am Richard II, know ye not that?" High profile, establishment artists put on a play about the deposition of a monarch on the eve of a planned deposition: culture is someone's friend, there, and it's not the patron's. (Don't forget that when Elizabeth died, the company became The King's Men, and Macbeth is often argued to have subtle digs at the witch-hunter James I's expense.)

    Think about this: art is a tool of revolution but it is very often ironically licensed by the highest echelons of State. It can simultaneously be an ideological-domination effect of State-controlled "culture", but it can still contain elements of subversion. How does it subvert? By being out there in the public eye, and clever about its ability to subvert the dominant from within.

    I don't think McKenna was thinking clearly here, and I've taken more acid than he ever did. ;)
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    soulsinging wrote:
    he was. the solution to the world's problems is we all need to sit down and fingerpaint?

    It seemed to me he was saying to focus on your craft, your passion, what you're good at instead of becoming mindless workers in boxed in cubicles who feel they have no other options. Do what you love. People seem miserable because they hate their jobs. There is never a shortage of people complaining about their jobs. If people would truly make an effort to make themselves happy in life, I think a lot would change in this world.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • Hoon
    Hoon Posts: 175
    Yeah, well thats a perfect example of "culture not being our friend".

    Its sometimes like were all crouched down between some rails with a train constantly steaming by overhead. DON'T let anything stick out, stay down.

    The main point of the video is "this culture" is not your friend. Thats why people try to make their own, mini-cultures are supportive feedback. Thats what this whole pearl jam world is.

    When he says "Put the art pedal to the metal" that is a solution, make yourself unrecognizable to the machines. Build it up until the gears of the old culture no longer are able to suppress true humanness when they are seen in the light of new reality.

    Its more than just painting, its language, new words, new reality. . . .

    He says (in other lectures), "The world is made up of words, and if you know the words the world is made of you can make of it what you wish."

    The "Archaic Revival" that has been going on is about looking to the past to see what worked, and weave it into your new thread.
    If you keep yourself as the final arbiter you will be less susceptible to infection from cultural illusion.
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    "On February 7, 2007, Terence McKenna's library of rare books and personal notes were destroyed in a fire started in an Quizno's Alvarado Street sandwich shop in Monterey, California. The fire moved onto including Goomba’s Italian Restaurant, a Starbucks, and some storage offices belonging to Big Sur’s Esalen Institute, a human potential movement and upscale New Age resort."
  • justam
    justam Posts: 21,415
    Here's a strange aside, the Esalen Institute used to use brain-washing techniques like not letting people use the bathroom for hours until, well, you know...

    One of my step-dads went with a girlfriend and she told me about it. :D

    Carry on with more serious matters...;)
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    justam wrote:
    Here's a strange aside, the Esalen Institute used to use brain-washing techniques like not letting people use the bathroom for hours until, well, you know...

    Maybe they needed materials for the finger painting. :D
  • justam
    justam Posts: 21,415
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    Maybe they needed materials for the finger painting. :D

    LOL!!!! :D
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&

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