Garden of Hope part 2

I spend some time bringing some more images of the front yard to me, reminding me of the transformation that took place of a weedy patch in front of a commercial warehouse. I could have edited the first part, and added photos, but I decided to continue in good old blogging fashion, retell the story with maybe repeated, maybe new elements guided by the visual aid.

That's how it looked like when it started, or so I thought before I went back to google maps. So let me interrupt here my own narrative for a second to provide some 'historical' background. According to our lovely neighbour next door, this specific patch used to be a permanent eyesore. 

Google's prying eyes saw this barren patch of unused green strip in November 2007, probably popular with neighbourhood dogs, handy to drive over occasionally to park in front of the warehouse.

Two years later an attempt to utilise the space was made. The fencing suggests guarding something precious, but it certainly prevents uninvited canine friends. It looks like a rosemary bush acted as centre piece. The combination of deteriorating eyesight, low resolution and lack of botanical knowledge make this a pure guess. Never trust anything on the internet, research for yourself.

In January 2014 the fence was gone, only the hardy rosemary remained in an otherwise unexciting stretch of weeds. 

You can't see the rosemary from this perspective, it lurks behind the compost bin. I took this shot in January 2015, using the wild constellation of random objects as backdrop for one of my tensegrity structures. 

Composting was one way of showing how sustainability begins at home, but it took an accidence to get the work started. We reunited two parts of the same branch as an arch, weeding and digging the whole patch, leaving only the rosemary and a healthy parsley bush behind.

The beautiful aloe vera plant had changing luck - after mulching the entire bed it got dug under by some nasty dog for some weeks. It took months to get it back to health, until someone unrequested gave it a new home. 

While some of the succulents grew prolific, it took Adrian to introduce more of the leafy and flowering parts of the garden. 

The sunflowers didn't grow tall, and I don't know whether any of the seeds would germinate. Having about a dozen tiny sunflowers guarding the garden provided a great sprinkle of colour.

I enjoyed watching different parts of the garden grow, but there seemed to be space more. I wanted to experiment with a tensegrity structure as support for ranking plants.  Unfortunately, although I manage to make it relatively wind proof, it was certainly not fool proof. I lost a couple tomato plants when someone stepped onto the structure, breaking a strut.

Comfrey certainly made the biggest attempt to take over. I need to get into the habit of drying and using plants growing in 'wrong' spots, it can't harm to have some supplies of the 'bone-healing' herb.

The compost bin remains in the same place like last year, just like the arc we build. Yet the rosemary bush gained lots of company since then.

Garden Of Hope

For the first time in my life I claimed responsibility for a garden patch, and I enjoyed the experience immensely so far. If I had still access to my facebook profile, I might pinpoint the time when it all began, I guess it started in January or so.

Due to some accident we had a large branch of a tree in front of the warehouse I'm working in. It looked ugly, took up valuable space and invited itself to be upcycled as sculpture for the front yard. The garden bit was overgrown with weeds at the time, with a healthy parsley bush and some rosemary worth keeping.

Together with Jonyo we decided to create an arch out of two large pieces, after we spend a couple of hours digging up the patch and removing everything not wanted. To make it sturdy, we cemented the base of the branches into the ground, and screwed the other ends into an arch.

As his backyard thrives with plants, Jonyo came back with heaps of cuttings ready to go into the ground, as well as some cans planted with succulents. I enjoyed finding a random arrangement for all the plants given, quite oblivious about their names, growth needs and likeliness to spread. As I finished, it started to rain for a good watering in.

I did know at the time that mulching has plenty of advantages, and enjoyed that the local council provides mulch for free. The parsley and rosemary were still thriving, about twenty or thirty other plants fought for initial survival.

A few weeks after the second of mulch, fruiting bodies of mushrooms appeared. For a few weeks, I could trace the mycelium by connecting the mushrooms sticking their head out. Strike! Shrooms provide a plant nutrient internet, essential for recycling carbon based materials. A fertile canvas opened up, ready for careful experimentation with creating a mini eco system.

While most people enjoyed the transformation, Adrian wanted to plant the front yard as well, but didn't get around doing it. With lots of empty space available, I invited him to cooperate. We found some good spots for heaps of sunflowers, some pepino and chamomile.

I treated all the wooden bits (two planter boxes, the arch and the top of the compost bin) with some old vegetable oil I found in the warehouse. It darkened the milled bits of timber, and brought out plenty of colour in the tree branches. I couldn't resist and integrated a small tensegrity structure.

The chaos came in the shape of a big dog named Wolfie. He enjoyed the garden so much that he dug for sticks, ran over succulents and laid some big heaps of poo. It took me a while to find out the culprit, restoring an unspoiled look of the garden project of mine. Some of the artistic components, a broken vase, a mini chair and a mouse shaped piggy bank have vanished as well. Other bits which might be easy enough to nick still remain. The biggest acts of vandalism are done by visitors to the warehouse usually, and have been sufficiently minor not to be disheartening.

Sometimes neighbours helped themselves to some of the edible parts of the garden, especially while the parsley was thriving. Some of the produce ended up in the kitchen - parsley, rosemary, chard, mint - and I used lots of comfrey for a healing creme.

Winter and some accidents acidifying the soil reduced the variety of plants and colours, and brought some new competitors on. The pineapple sage managed to establish itself and grew into a nice bush, currently flowering in shiny red. Mint and comfrey appeared, and currently thrive as well. Some of the succulents grow very prolific, and take over lots of space.

Watering the garden with an old-fashioned watering can has become a contemplative routine, and a great opportunity to notice what happened with to my plant friends. I hope some of the tomatoes will grow tall and have some fruit, and I'm still waiting for the pepino fruit to ripen. The aloe vera plant which got buried for some while, recovered. It got overgrown by a chard leave as well, but it looks like some of the succulents don't mind living in the shade for a while.

Sorry if I stretched your attention span without eye candy to illustrate the process I witness for nearly a year now. The popular concept of abundance becomes palpable when you stick your hands into soil and keep a garden growing. It takes nurturing, sometimes pruning and weeding out for a good harvest. The hours I spend caring for the front yard never felt like work and gave me a good deal of inner peace.

Accidental news exposure

By quite some coincidence,

just don't give it any relevance,

I watched the TV news today,

which lead my mind astray.

I heard the prime minister rant

we in Canberra can do what we want,

within in the law, within the law,

clinging to a desperate straw.

Parliament makes law, nothing else,

yet fascism puts on its hipster belts,

with a leader turned into a dictator,

obvious to the attentive narrator.

Yet I wonder if anyone will care,

or wait for yet another nightmare.

There's no place like home

All that we need exists abundant,

yet I still feel a bit redundant.

Maybe I just shouldn't care

about those unable to share fair.

The universe will be the provider

of the experiences I need to grow,

so I learn to connect into the flow

and cease acting as the decider.

All roads lead to Rome -

as long as I keep travelling

fate continues its unravelling

to find a place called home.

The waiting will find its end,

once I find some helping hand.

Unholy threesome

Divide and conquer

The primary deception

lies in the perception

that we're not really whole,

that our parts play their own role.

So we split body and mind,

our feeling and our thinking,

and turn our soul blind

and send our heart sinking.

We still manage to get by,

living this insidious lie.

Our ego takes over control

and acts as if it was the whole.

Yet it's still our own decision

whether to be whole or in division.

Conquered

Once body and mind have disconnected,

which isn't trivial to be corrected,

we become dependent on outer guidance,

available readily for blind compliance.

Our minds start to rationalise

why it's so good to specialise.

Instead of adapting to any environment

we succumb to any given predicament.

Our bodies slowly deteriorate -

isn't that our only fate?

We get used to the creepy feeling

that we have lost our inner healing.

We can still live a life in glory,

but that's a completely different story.

Reunited

We need a body to think and feel,

yet we choose which one is more real -

Our thinking in its lucid clarity,

or our feeling in its plasticity.

Our emotions reflect the whole picture,

while our minds like a clear structure.

This just seems like opposition,

as reality is a delicate composition.

While our ego prefers one or the other,

our soul doesn't really bother -

with impeccable precision

it uses both for any decision.

From the perspective of the whole

each part plays its indispensable role.

Conformity rulez

Most people would take the blue pill

and say it's a choice of free will.

Most people live a life based on lies,

even though it leads to their own demise.

Most people don't mind water spiced with fluoride,

No worries, mate, she'll be right 

Most people ignore chemtrails in the sky,

what can't exist, can't catch their eye.

Most people won't admit breaking any rule,

coz that's what they've learned in school.

Most people accept illicit government,

it's a scam too big to comprehend.

Most people won't show the bravery

to end the matrix of common slavery.

Some fire from Iceland

Birgitta Jónsdóttir (English)

"...A message from me to everyone protesting today:) Specially my friends in Portugal.

Dear brothers and sisters

I truly wish I could be with you in person, for I miss the protests we used to have in Iceland in the wake of our financial crisis in 2008/2009. I miss the spirit and the sense of unity we all felt together who showed up at the protests. I am with you in spirit and everyone else rising up today. People all over the world are awakening to the fact that our systems are no longer working for us. The systems are self sustainable in defending themselves instead of the people that they should be serving: YOU.

Let us never forget that we are the system, we are the government, and if we want to change it we have to go inside it and create a bridge between the power and the people. I am a poet first, thus I choose to see me either as a poetician or a hacker in Parliament, I went in there in order to understand how to bring more power to the people of Iceland.

It was our brothers and sisters of the revolution in Argentina that started to use pots and pans when revolting against their corrupt president and IMF a few years ago. We were inspired by them. Now you are inspired by us. Let us remember that even the smallest suffering or joy of someone else in our world is indeed ours, for we are one.

The ideologies of the old school of politics, media, monetary systems, corporations , and all known structures are in a state of transformation. They are crumbling. Now is the time for fundamental change on all levels, we have to seize this moment. Because this is THE moment.

It is rare that generations and so many individuals get such an opportunity to transform the world as we know it. The big question is how do we transform it? Lets change the pyramid of power into a circle of power where everyone is valued just as much.

It is obvious that we are running out of planet, many people have lost the vital connection to our environment, most of humanity doesn’t comprehend cause and effect of lack of sustainability anymore and many of us feel lost, displaced and lonely. All the structures we thought would take care of us, be it systems, ideologies, religion, politics or institutions are failing. Big time!

To follow the heart and guts as a poetician makes a lot more sense to me then the rivalry and manipulations of left or right ideology. The right and wrong ideology of the old world has simply outgrown itself. No longer do we have strong parliaments with a direct link between the general public and decision maker. We have so called professional politicians that are far removed from the reality most of us live in.

Parties and politicians are often in an unhealthy marriage with corporations and corruption is thriving in the political arena all over the world. Many governments and politicians talk about transparency yet the process of politics and laws is shredded in secrecy.

We need to change this. We have to know what we want instead of this reality we are confronting.

The 21st century will be the age of us, the common people, where we will understand that in order to live in the reality we dream of, we have to participate and help co-create that reality.

I strongly encourage you to join a movement for change, run for office, be part of this opportunity of change. If I could become an MP in the Icelandic parliament, anyone can become a member of parliament.

Here is our first task: If there is something we have to make sure stays under the guardianship of nations not corporations then it is the following, water companies, energy companies, social welfare, education, the internet and health systems.

We have made everything so complex and grand, perhaps it is time to return to more simple ways, more self sustainable ways, we can do that by learning from each other, by helping each other locally and globally and by remembering that we as individuals can change the world, and now is the time to step forward – take on that challenge and be the change maker. Don’t expect others to do it, your time has arrived to make a difference!"

Geometry of life

Once we overcome the idea of duality we can experience that is all one. All matter, all movement emerges at the infinite border of space, with the border similarly elusive like a fractal. While we get educated to believe in this existence of matter, our experience provides us with a series of qualities, reflecting various forms of energetic interaction.

The indoctrinated believe in the existence of matter has shaped a language not well suited to describe energetic transaction in easy understandable terms. Our language literally and legally enslaves us - the fiction of a legal person implies we are technically deceased. That's the reality behind the term zombie apocalypse: The identification with the legal person, inculcated by education, tradition and medie, creates an army of human beings which are literally treated as dead meat, and shamefully sucked of their life energy, expressed in the money they received in exchange for labour.

The Oneness of everything remains an elusive concept when our language creates divisions, which according to Aristotelian thinking appear to be mutually exclusive. Believing in Oneness while taking divisions too seriously creates cognitive dissonance. You probably want to avoid building your concept of this universe on swampy foundations.

As balls on a pool table, pushed around by invisible forces in a mechanically universe, we can detect pattern, most of which will not really introduce the idea of choice. When we transform the pool table into a Mandelbrot set, and surf along the borders we can detect many patterns and constellations. The Oneness fills up with Suchness, depending on our specific perspective.

I consider the Mandelbrot set as interface between matter of space. Distinction created by observation brings 'matter' about, which implies that the idea of finding the 'material' core of the creation of matter can never succeed. The Hadron collider proves rather that no matter how small our measurements get, we have to hypothesise the 'existence' of something smaller.

The scientific world currently ventures on a quest to prove Aristotle's idea of 'isness', while more and more people operate on experiencing and manifesting suchness. While the suchness incorporates many self-similar patterns, it lacks real uniformness. Transformation, dynamism and unpredictability of chaos blow minds firmly trained in Newtonian/Aristotelian believes.

The chaos of the Mandelbrot set disrupts the conditioning about a well ordered universe. The 'isness' rather describes the rules of the creation of matter than anything material at all. We just experience the permanent transformation of energy, which in turn manifests the 'material' world of our common sense reality.

We get caught up in the trap on focussing on matter, the source of distinction but not of division. We learned to vibrate with the rhythms of life while acting often just like dead matter. Luckily, life energy provides us with some resilience towards the often toxic of effects of cognitive dissonance.

Life energy resonates within its surroundings, we literally tune into the vibrational fields around us. Our body busies itself in every living moment adjusting the electro-chemical constellation require to deal with a given experience. Chemical reactions, as well as electric flow create fields, which affect similar distinctions which can resonate with them.

Memes determine the base frequency of our signature vibration, which makes us individual. Jung's archetypes reflect a memepool to understand some re-occurring patterns of life. We can only accept those patterns of life as reality which have no cognitive dissonance associated to them. The believe in matter restricts the range of frequencies we can tune into and resonate with.

Language itself comes with 'frequency restrictions'. Our multi-sensorial input needs understanding of composition as much as it needs an understanding of division or distinction. To comprehend the connectedness of the universe our memes need to support thinking linking the transformation of energy towards creation, maintenance and destruction.

These three base processes join transformation itself, establishing the four corners or sides of the tetrahedron. The feedback loop capable of describing the essentials of any energetic process, any 'movement'. The primal distinction describes the direction in which this tetrahedron spins, positive or negative, left or right, up or down, forward or back, inwards or outward, yin or yang.

Simple rules shape a universe with an infinite amount of aspects, based on a geometry describing  building patterns glued together with a fractal, holographic space. Common reality resonates, all along the available octaves and hues of perception. Cutting through the matrix in purely abstract, verbal manner can leave scars, taking a long term to heal. It also closes the open door to the rabbit hole, which will reappear in a new constellation of same basic energy dynamics.

Beauty can and is found in destruction, maintenance and creation. Hollywood glorifies mainly the principat destruction within the 'material' world, producing a latent fear-inducing trauma based on clinging to the solidity and permanence of 'things'.Nature uses geometry to produce beauty, or at least geometry can be found in beauty.

Destruction expresses much of the immediate chaos inherent in fractals, the flower of life represent maintenance the creation of boundaries within the infinite, which in this universe are maintained by al the shapes that can be derived from the flower of life, which in the end creates seemingly random diversity.

Frequency and amplitude determine the reach of any emanation. The amplitude can be increased by synchronisation, maintaining the frequency needs repetition before it 'self-ignites'. Even then, it just means another area of exploration. Anyway, re-programming the mind to let go of 'matter' to grasp more of the liveliness of the universe remains an ongoing challenge, depending on the influence we can 'materialise' in our immediate environment.

On the brink

The middle of the solar year has just gone, winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, summer solstice in the Northern. 2012, the year of many apocalyptic prophecies and even more apocalyptic policies. The empire increases its effort to quench human spirit and enslave the majority of the population.

A glimpse of hope emerged last year with Occupy Wall Street and its many memetic offspring. More and more people world wide not only liberated themselves from the idea that 'government cares for all', but also started caring for each other and get organised.

The wrath of the Empire came fast and vile, filled prisons and thus lined the pockets of the private prison industry like Serco or Wackenhut. The disneyfied news media reported diligently about yet another futile violent protest, elegantly omitting any useful information.

Hundred thousands protest in Mexico against a stolen election, similar numbers protest in Spain against being enslaved to pay for some gambling bankers debt. Japan rises against the use of nuclear power with hundred thousands. Greeks hardly stayed calm since the IMF and Germany took their country over. The middle East is still boiling, hotter than ever.

The traces of the implementation of the New World Order are plenty and wide spread. Without going too far back into conspiratorial history, IMF, WTO and World Bank might be the governance to implement the Agenda 21, an official plan to save the planet.

Cool, not only is there some understanding that this planet needs saving, there's even a masterplan for it. Hold your horses, not everything might be as attractive as it seems in first place. 'Saving the planet from environmental destruction' is only the sales point of a plan that identifies mankind as biggest obstacle towards a 'sustainable planet'.

I admit, I want to save the planet. Not singlehandedly, as mythical hero archetype, rather in cooperation with like-minded people. I don't believe in the Messiah myth, which keeps our fixation to leaders alive. Self-organising groups of people have shaped the face of this planet, and this eternal principle of (human) life cannot be broken.

Yet a weird game determines the amount of resources available to any specific group of people on this planet. Since the invention of the magic scheme called 'legislation' a large part of the global population is forcefully put under its evil spell. The historic empires eradicated custodians of their lands, and replaced them with lesser wizards with the responsibility to maintain the magic spell of law.

Domestication of conquered people followed usually similar patterns, if they survived at all. Their cultural identity was subverted to subdue to the rules of the conqueror, from total ban to replacing just the top of the hierarchy.

The latest threat to the hierarchy comes ostensibly from machines. The creation myth of most contemporary societies portraits strict hierarchy as a given, and inevitable. Somebody's got to do the nasty job of bossing the rest around, and many societies regard this as a family affair. Soon, we can retire them, and have some machines bossing mankind around.

It's all for the best of all. My synapses scream and sigh simultaneously while writing something so wickedly Orwellian. While science still largely shies away from the exploration of consciousness, and has only ill-defined concepts of 'intelligence', Artificial Intelligence will blow us away. Or a comet. Or an alien attack. Or global warming. Or the sun exploding. Or the Oil Crisis. Or the Food Crisis. Or the Water Crisis.

When some people think about the future, they often see their biggest fears magnified. While contemplating plans about my individual future these 'globally accepted threats' want some attention. But they don't get it in their designed ways. I can choose whether to subscribe to the idea of humans as helpless, inferior beings needing a guiding hand for anything or whether to accept the challenge of free will.

Depending on the circumstances, we have been programmed to prefer everything 'just like it is', including a self-perception as unimportant and replaceable cog in a much, much larger wheel. Many lack the imagination required to consider a world without the big wheel government as desirable. Media provides us with a plethora of dystopian memes, which clutter our ideas about a potential future.

Assuming that most people on this planet are harmless, a cooperative society emerges easily. The biggest mistake in perceiving a future society lies in taking every bit of the now and converting it into a better working equivalent. Most of the jobs done today are entirely redundant, to keep people busy and reinforce their conditioning on a daily basis.

One essential area for human survival has already largely moved into the hands of the corporate Empire: food. Other omnivores on this planet require about twenty hours per week caring about food, it makes us look quite stupid in comparison if we aim for 40 hours a week. At least in most industrialised countries, homelessness reflects just economic inequality, not a scarcity of resources.

Although a lot of damage to the environment needs active repairing/healing, in average we would do much less in terms of 'job'. If essentials like water, electricity, heating, shelter, communication infrastructure come for free (and there is no compelling reason why it can't be so), the jobs for 'competing for the best offer in these services' go away.

We have developed more than enough technology and products to ensure a comfortable life for every human being on this planet. As of yet, this comfortable life would hardly be sustainable, as most economic processes have been optimised for 'profit', while neglecting efficient (economic) solutions. Transforming the industries we need and want as mankind towards sustainability, that means conscious of the interdependence of mankind to this ecosphere we call planet Earth, sounds like an insurmountable task.

Yet since the idea of ecology became more popular in the 70s of the last century, it raised already the general awareness about environmental concerns, and led to some positive steps towards sustainability. However, this environmental awareness gets now hijacked by the proponents of the Agenda 21, which want to save the ecosystem by culling the majority of humans.

The future remains unpredictable, although some consequences of maintaining the current status quo become very apparent. Especially the contamination with radioactivity, in combination with the exposure to dangerous chemicals erodes life expectation and general health, not only in humans, but in the entire chain of life.

Liberating this planet from its parasitic leadership only begins the next step of evolution. A memetic shift needs to prepare the majority of people not to panic once the emperors without clothes have gone.

Making the world a sadder place with shoes

In a lot of parts of the world walking barefoot was the norm for millennia. I love the sensation of walking barefoot, and while the 'civilised' environment isn't the nicest to walk on, using barefoot shoes is the next best thing. I happily confess wearing shoes for the last three years or so that provide a similar amount of feedback from the ground like walking barefoot, while providing a lot of protection from things you might step on.

As bodyworker, I advocate freedom for the feet, although it might remove my client's necessity for treatment. Evolution provided us with the a thick skin under our feet, which moved us through all sort of terrains. But then, all I have is my personal experience, my own understanding of the evolutionary process and potentially the support of a minority of like-minded people. I obviously lack the impulse to do good by preventing harm at all costs.

The One on One Movement is a different kettle of fish. Blake Mycoskie went to Argentina and saw not only barefoot people (o shock, o horror!), he also saw the terrors of a shoeless existence:

Why shoes?

Many children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or going to school, these children are at risk:

•A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.

•Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.

•Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.

Oh my god, disease and infection lurk in the soil, and children miss out in their conditioning to become a worker bee. And, for fornication's sake, it's children AT RISK! Would somebody pleeeeeeeeeease think about the kids!

So let's imagine a small Argentinian village, subsiding on agriculture, and engaging a bit in crafts and trade. What kind of problems might a place like that face, after the reign of US supported dictators, a total economic crashes in the 80s of the last century?

Good Man: Hello, villager, I came here to help the children.

Villager: Hello, wow, that's fantastic! Welcome!

( Friendly hug follows)

V: We can need some help....

GM: That's what I thought as well

V: Access to clean water would be great

GM: Sure.

V: And with the high taxes we struggle to bring food onto the table

GM: That's bad.

V: There's no hospital and no doctors around.

GM: Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I can't really help you directly with any of this, but indirectly.

V: What do you mean?

GM: I got shoes.

V: ???

GM: With shoes your kids can walk to the water supply, and keep their feet sheltered on the long way a doctor. 

V: We have shoe makers, but not all of us want and can afford to wear shoes all the time.

GM: Shoes protect your children from harm.

V: Why not a wind generator?

GM: Shoes. Everyone is better off with a pair of shoes.

V: Or some solar panels?

GM: Shoes. Step into the new world.

V: A new communal well?

GM: Shoes is what I got, shoes is what you get.

V: Shoes?

GM: Shoes. Your kids will just love them, trust me.

V: O my, I get the shoes blues... (walks away barefoot)

Donating and sharing seem and sound similar, yet they are worlds apart. By donating a specific good, one subverts the existing local market and creates a dependency. That way, much of African food production was undermined and heavily damaged, just to be picked for cheap by foreign companies. 

The shoe economy might be less essential for survival than food production, yet mankind has evolved far from being instinctively driven food processors (although some revert for shorter or longer periods of time into such a state). A free and just world won't be poor, only the promoters of the status quo insist on austerity as primary survival strategy. 

If I share life-sustaining knowledge (how to cook, grow food, heal, arts, crafts) I empower the receiver, If I share life-sustaining resources (food, shelter, attention) I also empower the receiver, by assisting and easing his/her survival needs. Donations don't empower, and might contribute to more problems than were helped initially.

So while it's honourable to engage in a good cause, it's much easier to help your own community. Not that it doesn't matter how well off our remote brothers and sisters are, without a personal connection we wouldn't know anyway. Unless, of course, unless everyone is better off with a pair of shoes.

Evolutionary mathematics

How can a group of people bring about a fundamental shift in society? Can we analyse civil movements with mathematical metrics to improve the efficiency of strategies and the definition of goals?

The occupation in Melbourne is still in its Early Adaptor stage, although it seems to resonate enough with a potentially 'critical' mass that can bring things to a tipping point. Allow me to set out some hypothetical numbers while forgetting about ideological bullshit. Melbourne has roughly 4 million citizens, which means if 5% of the population constitute a 'critical mass', it would take 200.000 Melbournians to liberate this city from its oppressors (if the same thing happens globally).

200.000 sounds like a lot, it's probably more than the 'alternative' parties count as members in whole Australia. But occupy isn't a political party, it's more like a life style choice. So metrics from other areas of life might better reflect such a number can be achieved or not. For simplicity's sake and inspired by sometimes shaky optimism, I assume that theoretically 200,000 could be convinced to commit their alliance to the idea of leaderless, consensual direct democracy.

Between now and 200,000 Melbourne occupiers lies the growth of the movement. Growth happens cyclical, linear or exponential. Although most systems and structures based on exponential growth constitute a big part of the problem, a phase of exponential growth is required to save this planet before the greedy few have wrecked it entirely.

Time for some calculations. Let's take 100 people, committed to contribute to the growth of the movement. The goal for each of them is to find a single ally per week. Even for people with a daytime job this sounds like an achievable target. In a linear model, it takes 2,000 weeks (roughly 38 years) to get our magical 200,000 together. A job for a lifetime, a Sisyphus task. Farewell, Mother Earth, will be late for your rescue as we got sidetracked supporting the system of destruction.

Now let's bring some magic in, exponential growth. Our 100 people win allies, not consumers or subscribers, and show their alliance by doing the same. After a week there will 200 'members', after two weeks 400, and so on. Now guess how many weeks it'll take with this growth rate to get to 200,000. Don't peer ahead and spoil your fun. I happily distract you for a while - isn't distraction the real opium for the masses, be it sport, politics, porn, drugs, drama and media?

Already after two months the barrier to 10,000 allies is broken, and the numbers will jump within the next month (after 12 weeks) over the 200,000 mark. Even with only 10 people as starting point it would take a mere 19 weeks to grow to a number where even a 10% mobilisation rate would exceed the size of most rallyes that took place in recent history in Melbourne.

While this might sound like a pyramide scheme, there's an essential difference. In a flat hierarchy, everybody is allowed to take their share from the gains of the operation. The idea of property, especially of land, contradicts the common interest, especially in highly populated world. And alliance (or membership) wouldn't necessarily mean membership fees (do we really need money on an abundant planet?).

Before we can agree how to heal the planet and to evolve mankind the system of madness needs to be stopped. Dr. ABC, first of all, remove the danger. 200,000 people in Melbourne's streets would certainly bring many things to a stop, and initiate a wave of civil disobedience that potentially brings back justice into society.

In between

Since all phenomena (or phenomenally appearing things) which arise, present no reality in themselves, they are said to be of noumena (in other words, they are of the Voidness, regarded as the noumenal background or Source of the physical universe of the phenomena). Though not formed into anything, yet they give shape to everything. Thus it is that phenomena and noumena are in unison, and said to be of one nature. They are, like ice and water, reflection and mirror, two aspects of a single thing.

Antidote to weltschmerz

We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

We are in an age that assumes the narrowing trends of specialization to be logical, natural, and desirable. Consequently, society expects all earnestly responsible communication to be crisply brief. . . . In the meantime, humanity has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others. Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to war.

Modern History

Many areas of human investigations suffered and still suffer from hybris, especially history. 'We live in the best times ever' describes a short-cut towards the gathering of knowledge that inevitably leads to misconceptions, and it seems like the 21st century is especially prone to foster this myth.

What can we learn from history if we assume a beginner's mind towards the mystery of life? What attitudes might change if we don't take for granted that the current society doesn't reflect the most advanced human civilisation that ever stepped on this planet? Can we advance the evolution of mankind if we let go of the cultural arrogance that seems so normal in contemporary times? What do really know about our ancestors?

The name we give our species is 'homo sapiens', and exists as a genetically distinct race for about 60,000  years. We have only little evidence for most of that time, until the invention of written language, which is considered to be the birth of civilisation, about 6000 years ago. I hesitate a bit using these numbers, which indicate quite a lot of certainty about facts reaching that far back, I just consider them as reasonable hypothesis worth of some more scrutiny.

It might feel good to think about ourself as representatives of the smartest band of humans ever lived, the most civilised, somehow the end of linear development towards amazing engineering achievements we witness today, with computers, cars, planes, rockets, satellites, skyscrapers and the lot. Yet this attitude might be much older, just replace our current technology with state of the art achievement known at a given period of time and our ancestors might have fallen for similar misconceptions.

Life, as we understand it nowadays, contradicts the Second Law of Thermodynamics, one of the essential axioms of modern physics. Okay, I went a bit far here, however, the theory talks mainly about 'systems in isolation' than tend towards entropy (disorderly chaos) without the input of 'external' energy. Although conceptual space (language, scientific theories) allows to state this, and although this idea helped advanced concepts to develop with tangible effects on our perceptual reality, it doesn't necessarily reflect we universe we live in.

It seems to me like the hapless attempt to separate order from chaos. implying that order is 'good' and chaos is 'bad', and that we wonderful human beings can create order of out chaos. Yet chaos and order are already conceptual categories that depend on our perspective, and our ability to factualise our experience. Art often transcended this assumed dichotomy, as does modern science in some areas.

Life means always transformation, as well as movement, and creates order, even without intention. An amoeba needs food and avoid danger, which indicates that even the most 'primitive' forms of life create order out of chaos. The accumulation of carbon in living cells on this planet, which started billions of years ago, provides the basis for our current civilisation, which is addicted to ancient forms of carbon as basis for 'external' energy generation.

Life needs energy in some shape or form. Plant life transforms the thermal energy of our sun into chemical energy, this chemical energy can be consumed by animals, which use this energy to move around much more than plant based life, and humans came up with with symbol systems that transferred the knowledge how to utilise all that chemically bound energy from plants, animals and other dynamic environmental processes for their own survival.

Let's take the question whether an amoeba 'knows' or has awareness for its need for food and the existence of danger in its environments aside for a second. The modern homo sapiens knows about the need for food and about the avoidance of dangers, we consider ourself to be aware of this probably in a different way from the other forms of life on this planet. We are a special species on this planet, much more capable of shaping our environments in ways that serves our needs to keep alive.

Yet although humans can shape the environments to better serve our needs, as a species we might have started just relatively recently do to so. Hunter-gatherer societies have less of an environmental impact than modern man, their survival depended more on applicable knowledge about it than on shaping it to their liking. In some remote places these societies survived until now, indicating that 'civilisation' is a potential for our species, yet not a necessity.

Again, it depends just on the perspective to claim that 'culture' came with civilisation. The genocide of many indigenous societies in order to 'civilise' them has destroyed many cultures. The way 'Australian history' is portrayed offers a good example of the common misconception that the most violent culture is the best, ignoring the fact that transference of knowledge doesn't need highly abstract symbol systems manifested in written language.

As we haven't got a time machine, we can only guess from what remains over time what happened in our ancient past. Yet many artefacts of culture deteriorate extremely fast, most materials to store symbolic information follow the Second Law of Thermodynamics, lose the order imposed by man and transform back into the randomness of chaos. Stone provides a platform to preserve information for thousands of years, yet seems highly impractical from a modern perspective.

In other words, an ancient civilisation 20,000 years ago that would have used similar information storage like we do today, wouldn't have left too many marks that could survive until today. Atlantis, if it ever existed, might simply evade rediscovery by insufficient methods to maintain information that can survive periods of history which most people can't imagine anyway.

One myth of the 'linear' development of human technology describes their preferred tools, from the Stone Age via the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. While humans aren't the only life form on this planet deploying tools, most other species that use tools haven't generalised this principle for all areas of life. Yet even in the stone age humans created artefacts that defy the idea of 'primitive' societies - a lot of 'brain power' has gone into the construction of Stonehenge, and maybe even the Sphinx.

While a spearhead made of stone was exceeded by more clever technology to hunt, it shows already a lot of ingenuity. Unlike the modern approach of 'one size fits all', it combined know-how from different areas. A stone-age spear is composite of a wooden shaft with a stone tip, most likely tied to it to keep it in place. People were already dressed, which means there was knowledge of making clothes from natural materials. Natural fabrics deteriorate much faster than stone and metal, yet even the Neandertals dressed and embellished themselves with jewellery.

So plainly said, if we consider covering up ourselves out of shame and/or need, making ourselves look better by jewellery and mostly having some common yarn and maybe song as an indication of culture humans did so maybe even hundred thousands of years ago. The simple act of cooking accomplishes already some chemical transformation, as does the production of leather, so even our prehistoric relatives deserve to be considered quite smart.

Considering that even Neandertals showed signs of what I happily call culture (tool use, burials and thus most likely language), we cannot surely say how much their use of symbols went. A lot of natural surfaces can easily be scratched by a stick, and all sort chemistry happens when we use fire. Any symbol system not manifested in stone, and older than about 3,000 years would have a hard time surviving. Clay tablets might have been the earliest form of written language, but they could as well just be just remnants of the idea to make information last a very long time.

One most important fact about human nature finds only little consideration, especially in science and likewise often in history, our existence as social being. I find it hard to imagine that being hostile towards other human beings come natural, basing a society on hostility might be just a quite recent development. Independent of the language we use, emotional expressions are universal, and empathy most likely played quite a big role in tribal societies.

We have to literally dig deep to get an impression what happened in our past, and once things get buried for a while, nature starts recycling. Although it seems popular to create history by transporting the mechanism of contemporary society into the past, I don't think it's a legit way to understand our ancestry. If Atlantis existed just 6000 years ago, only stone remnants would have survived.

Our contemporary fondness of 'keeping records' still doesn't come very natural to most humans, and so there's little trustworthy information about earlier cultures. Only relative liberal societies offer an insight of their culture, conservative cultures prescribe official interpretations of their 'values'.

Once we stop seeing contemporary mankind as precipice of evolution, we can start a conscious evolution.

ago chaos civilisation culture energy form history humans information knowledge language life lot modern natural order seems societies species stone survive towards years

created at TagCrowd.com

Peaceful warriors

The battle has already started,

human rights have been thwarted,

many people are born into slavery,

others lulled in by epic hypocrisy.

It takes two parties for a fight,

both insisting they are right,

sticking in their favorite roles

pushing opposing magnetic poles.

Once we become aware,

we can start to care,

yet it needs strength to dare

noticing what's really there.

By gently tuning into the cosmic flow,

we can stop the fight and start to grow.

Twitchings of a dying system

More and more people realise that money has no more value attached to it, and about its role to maintain a system of domination that enslaves the majority of mankind. Many still believe in the myth of money though, and happily accept imposed austerity by a bunch of wealthy crooks, who most likely prefer to be called banker or politician or journalist.

2012 has just begun, and real life manages to exceed some of the doomsday scenarios believers in the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar subscribe to. As last act in the old year, Obama signed off the NDAA, converting US citizens into property of the state. Any US citizen can now be taken by the military for indefinite detention.

The Stanford Prison Experiment provides enough evidence to rethink the idea of prisons at all, instead Alex Jones visions of a prisonplanet become reality. However, as world leader in the private prison industry, lobbying for more crime makes just perfect sense. NDAA doesn't even require crimes to be committed anymore - the government knows best, and doesn't need to tell anything.

So I can only hope that the brave people trying to employ the people's mic in Grand Central Station will resurface, and not end up in an infamous FEMA camp, most likely run by Serco or Wackenhut. NDAA retroactively 'legalised' the abhorrent treatment Bradley Manning received for shining a light on shameless human rights abuses conducted in the name of American people.

The wrath of inane governments doesn't end here. Julian Assange is now for more than 400 days in house arrest, a form of punishment Galileo received for daring to claim that the Earth spins around the Sun. Even before the American entertainment industry is granted extraordinary rights to force anyone on the planet to prove their innocence from 'piracy', the FBI took down megaupload, most likely the biggest file-sharing (cloud-storage) site on the internet.

Even more, the FBI convicted New Zealand's police to raid the mansion of the owners of megaupload, and seized their asset in a foreign country. Meanwhile, illegal assassination of Pakistanis (and most likely Iranians) with drones continues, not to mention the eternal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Within the US, civilians have now lost any human rights. Similar to Eastern Germany, the number of people employed by intelligence agencies exploded out of control, so now a sufficient number of criminals can be produced for the interest of shareholders in the private prison industry.

As computer processing and storage capacity also increases exponentially, the totalitarian dream of knowing everything about everyone comes closer to reality. Sharing counteracts the racketeering methods of corporatist fund raising, and thus becomes the target. Whether its information about personal interactions in public interest (Wikileaks), media (megaupload) or even chocolate (Occupy Melbourne's free chocolate stall was removed by the council guarded by ten police or so), sharing for free doesn't feed into the greed of those who want to dominate us.

Right now, the next official war (against Iran) is talked up, to distract from the last massive bailout Obama granted the banking mafia, and the massive debt crisis Europe experiences. How stupid of a population has been indoctrinated by state schools quenching creativity at its core? With about 17% illiteracy among the OECD nations it's safe to assume that current education fails essential targets.

When I grew up in Germany, my country wasn't involved in any war, and our 'laws' seemed to prevent us from engaging in first place. Without 'external' enemy, we could focus more on how we wanted our community to be. In peace, we could consider the future, the world we wanted to leave behind for our children. Worker's right and environmentalism were the main areas of activism - people occupied the site of planned nuclear reactors, were striking for better wages.

Any country involved in war needs to increase the average level of general fear to maintain their strategy of temporary insanity. Otherwise they might get called out on their blatant disrespect for human life and the murders committed in the name of freedom and democracy. Eleven years after 911 the business plan for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan becomes apparent, innocent blood spilled massively for corporate profits.

Most governments in the western world are nothing but a Muppet Show nowadays, legally souvereignity has been outsourced a long time ago. Only people can stop the corporate take-over of this planet.

Occupations of the occupy movement

It's long after the 'get a job' phase of the occupation of public space. For more than three months now, the local occupation had its ups and downs, yet is still swinging. 'Job' is quite a terrible word, and 'work' is mostly simiarly ill reputed. Gen Y and Z just love to chill and watch the world go by.



Of course, generalisations are generally wrong, and before I get accused of ageism I want to point out that I met revolutionary work horses of all ages, as well as incapable people. The level of engagement reflects personal attitudes, motivations and skills, and the proficiency of any task done depends on the right mix of those.

Before I get philosophical, I want to describe the 'roles' within occupy that seem special. To avoid people how do nothing else but decision making (also nown as leaders) this process is outsourced to the entire community effected. To allow this transition, the dominance of leadership is replaced by facilitation by the moderator team.



Facilitation is nothing new, the process of non-violent conflict resolution as described, implemented and exemplified by Marshall Rosenberg existed most likely in many society that considered themselves civilised. Humans need social contact to better organise the daily survival requirements, and if we were like wolves to each other, we would have extinguished our species long ago.

Facilitation describes the process of helping people to communicate better. It has the power to connect parties that used to kill and hate each other, and I think it even has the power to end the political economical domination that endangers the health of Mother Earth and of mankind. It's a simple process, yet requires individual skill and/or talent.



I've seen many different people in their 'role' as facilitator, with highly differing qualities. It takes only little for a 'weak' moderation team to be derailed, and many blame 'the process' for this outcome. Unless the facilitators embody the process, we cannot really decide whether the process works or not. In a way, it's their personal responsibility to be a shining example of respect and compassion for everyone, combined with good listening and communication skills.



Luckily, people get mostly inspired by example. As long as a team of five facilitators gets their act together, the magic of group flow to find consent in a GA happens easily. Dissenters can get heard, without having the impression of being forced to conform. I have experienced some fabulous examples of facilitation, and many dreadful ones. Those exposed to less inspiring examples often call for the process to be improved.

In this emerging movement many roles exist only for a short time, depending on the requirements for specific projects. Many tasks don't require special skills, or some that can be learned quite fast. We have to accept the obsolescence of most 'jobs' that exist today. Crafts and their related skills will never come out of fashion, but talking a hapless victim on the phone into a new energy supplier contract, or defending the same person against the energy corporation's 'ownership fee' when transferring a contract might not be needed in the long run.

Evolutionary creation myth

The planet asks for help. Lady Gaia fell sick, because a tiny part of mankind turned us into the greediest species nourished by her. Good news: The species that threatens Lady Gaia can also save her. If we walk together to help her, mankind as a whole can stop the madness of the global corporate state that grew into a psychopathic killer. The next step of evolution requires us to relinquish ownership of this planet and return to our function as custodians for the eco-systems we utilise, and the planet as whole.

Phase 0: The need for to care for every human being remains unanswered by the systems of society in control of the resources of planet. The abundance of this planet combined with accumulated knowledge is applied to fulfil egoistic wants of a tiny minority disconnected from the source of life.

Planning, Phase 1: Fire. It's time to act, this consciousness serves as inspiration and motivation for taking action to stop the system.

Presence, Phase 2: Earth. Fire creates Earth, the occupation as materialisation of the beginning of the resistance emanates.

Process, Phase 3: Metal. Communication and interaction forge the primary tools of the occupation: Respect, love and non-violence.

People, Phase 4: Water. Tools need an operator. Cooperation among different skills and backgrounds allows the application of these tools. All those tuned into the ego-less flow.

Products, Phase 5: Wood. Applied knowledge nurtures the products of the occupation, projects, direct action, physical structures, work groups, art, care and healing.

The lived experience feeds back into Phase 1, for further refinement.

Simultaneously, the phases counteract (control, destroy) each other.

Fire melts Metal. Our imagination limits the tools we specifically use. If fear motivates us, our tools will be blunt, love creates the nurturance to grow a balanced system.

Metal cuts Wood. When we apply we wrong set of tools, our projects will not contribute to growth.

Wood restricts Earth. What people can see of the occupation depends on the projects happening and materialising.

Earth dams Water. Although the organism 'occupation' can exist in separation, it wants to live in community and open space. It thrives by immediate interaction.

Water extinguishes Fire. Without cooperation, the inspiration remains limited. The diversity provides the wealth of ideas from which to harvest the best solution for the next challenge.

As super-organism, all phases are active in any moment, in different balances in each cell (ie occupier). The more balanced and aware about their function individual cells become, the more balanced the occupation as a whole can grow.

We're nurturing a global brain to heal Lady Gaia, we better become familiar with sustainable approaches to describe and think about life. OM lived through many cycles of this ancient map of life, and has already shown resilience to adversity. The antibiotic of a corporate regime failed, we already mutate fast. Evolution goes on, and it's increasing in speed.

Sprouting seeds


Day 6 of the New Era of Humanity shows positive signs. Non-violent resistance appears in dead-end situations, usually without much more than the call for justice and equality.

The failure of the systems of society to provide justice and equality became overtly apparent after the so-called Global Financial Crisis. However, it remains mainly a question of believe whether you trust in the current systems of society to fulfil a useful functions, or not.

Obviously, the occupants can't answer this question either. Politics finds its justification by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. Politicians stopped promising a brighter future, they just promise to prevent everything not to get worse. And no matter how much worse any local situation gets, they can point the finger at some other country where it's much, much, mucho-macho more worse.

At the moment, there are some 'talking points' which could be understood as 'demands'. Transparency in politics, abolishment of the legal status as 'person' for corporations. Basically, it's is a re-negotiation of power structures on a global scale.

Finding consent in a large, diverse group proves difficult. Finding a common ground means a simplification of the rules in order to allow them to be flexible. So far, 'common ground' was rather enforced by law - in Victoria public swearing can be fined on the spot.

In an interesting chat with Dillon I heard some concerns about the penalising system. How should aberrant behaviour be dealt with, don't we have a 'natural need' to be policed. Yet even with an abundance of legislation defining what a society considers 'legal' or 'illegal', crime occurs as exemption from the average daily life.

Unless, of course, the crime is institutionalised. The cops beating up occupants 'just did their jobs', protecting an outdated system violently. Historically, police got away with a lot of violence, although Australian police won't get the nomination of the Biggest Beater in Uniform for October's reality-internet coverage of global affairs.

I hope the Melbourne police doesn't change their ambitions to make Melbourne 'Queen-friendly'. The royal wedding in London showed the disrespect for democracy quite clearly. I don't mind so-called royal families providing some spectacle for their fans. But they still can force everyone to finance their follies, not only those you wish to support them.

I consider human beings generally quite supportive. Especially Australia lives to an amazingly large extend its stereotype to 'give generously for a good cause'. I can even discover something positive in the outrage about free-loaders, I simply disagree about who the 'free-loaders' are.

An escalation of violence would only attract more people to join this peaceful way to resist to be transformed into a piece of corporately owned life-stock. The internet helps to bring abuse of power into the public sphere, and undecided citizens can judge for themselves whether they want to pay with their taxes for a violent and oppressive government in bed with the corporate world, or whether to find new systems of cooperation to organise co-existence of 7 billion people in peaceful ways.

Our legal systems, our religions, our educational systems are all deeply concerned with controlling pleasure. We have created detailed rules and customs surrounding sex, drugs, food, alcohol, and even gambling. Jails are bursting with people who have violated laws that proscribe certain forms of pleasure or who profit by encouraging others to do so.

Most experiences in our lives that we find transcendent - whether illicit vices or socially sanctioned ritual and social practices as diverse as exercise, meditative prayer, dancing 'til you drop, and playing on the internet: They all evoke neural signals that converge on a small group of interconnected brain areas called the medial forebrain pleasure circuit. Evolution has, in effect, hardwired us to catch a pleasure buzz from a wide variety of experiences from crack to cannabis, from meditation to masturbation, from Bordeau to beef.