The Machine

Any part of a machine is equally important. Without the cog, the machine stops working.  Without the linchpin, the machine stops working.  Thoreau said to "Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine."  I guess it comes down to a choice that we each have to make for ourselves: stop the machine or make it bigger?  The default, of course, is to help build it.  But it's still your choice.

Language of the Future

Language is cause.  Language is effect.  Language can be liberating; it can be enthralling.  One thing that language almost never is:

neutral.

We go to war for "Freedom." We call a bureaucratic ploy for control a pretty name like No Child Left Behind, and--suddenly--it's untouchable.  How can you disagree with freedom?  Do you really want to leave children behind?

So, how does a sane adult cut through the rhetorical catchphrases that oversimplify such complex issues as war and education?

Well, language is often used to create positive change.  In "Beyond Civilization," Daniel Quinn argues that instead of trying to steer people away from something (in his case, civilization; in this case war and NCLB), we should create a new meme, a new vision of what is desirable.

Sometimes changing the meme is as simple as changing a word.  Quinn quotes Marshall Sahlins who said, "We are inclined to think of hunters and gatherers as poor because they don't have anything; perhaps better to think of them for that reason as free."  The choice of words is essential to the vision.  Instead of insisting (in our materialistic culture) that being poor is good, we simply find something that our culture values (at least in theory) even more, such as being free from restraints.

Changing the language that surrounds the issue, however big or small it may be, changes the thinking and the values attached to it.  And, of course, once the mind and the heart are pointed in the right direction, we need only get out of our own way as we head to a better future.

Designed to Fail

"The art of design is to make complicated things simple."

--source unknown

The problem with our society is that we're trying to design our world--to manipulate it into simplicity--when it is (or was) already as simple as nature can and should be. Eventually, all of these manipulations boil down to one thing: we're trying to cheat death. We are collectively so afraid of pain and death that we are willing to strip ourselves of the very essence of what makes us human. Nature can't touch me. I have dismantled her and enslaved the many fragments that are left behind. Slowly, I lop away at her until I reach her core. And when I reach it I find that I have scraped away my humanity, my sensuality, my vitality in the process.

I think of Emily in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." One of my favorite parts of the story is how Emily matches her house in her brutal decay. Each step into the house is a metaphor for getting to know the inner Emily.

Our planet and our treatment of it could be seen as a metaphor for the inside of each of us as well. As we tear down our natural environment to build yet another parking lot, highrise, subdivision, we lose a little bit of who we are. Humanity is replaced with laws and processes. Sensuality is replaced with hard core porn. Vitality is replaced with hours of mindless television or internet surfing. So, as the sleek new building is erected (with an energy efficient heating system!), and we watch the biodiversity become fragmented and eventually die, we watch it happen in ourselves as well.

Of course, we managed to sever our collective conscience years ago, so I guess it doesn't really matter anyway.

Living Differently

"There is no right way for people to live." --Daniel Quinn

I love this quote, because it reminds me that, despite the messages that I constantly hear, I can live life any way that I want. If I don't live exactly how I want, it's because I haven't taken the time to think about and establish a life that fits me to a tee.