Blog

From the mind of critic: “If there is a black history month, a women’s history month, a latino history month, and many more for every marginalized group, is it because we’re trying to make them feel better, because we’ve treated them so bad the rest of the year? Is it because we’re trying to give them representation? Is it because we think if they get a month, we don’t have to think about them the rest of the year? Or is it part of a long history of token responses, where instead of dealing with an issue in its entirety, we do the very bare minimum, and kick the can down the road for somebody else to deal with, when the same issue comes back to blow up in their face? Taxation without representation has been a concern since before Declaration of Independence, hell it was one of the main reasons we left England in the first place. When people don’t feel like they’re represented truthfully, theyreither roll over or they fight. Recognizing this, sometimes the powers that be offer small responses,that take minimal effort. Making them look good even though they could actually care less, because they see the political advantages that can be gained from satiating the public. While that satiation of the public isn’t close to good enough, and can actually be detrimental if it’s the only action taken, it can still be seen as going too far. The cries of how we should have a white histroy month and reverse racism, will be decried by those who don’t realize that every month is white history month, and reverse racism is a concept thought up by the same people that think they couldn’t possibpy be racist because of the amount of black friends they have. Once we realize that treating each other like human beings all year instead of at designated times, we’ll see we won’t need these monthly celebrations when the entirety of our history is taught, warts and all. We can stamp out racism with humanity everytime we wave at a stranger, simply because both of us are human. Token responses eject from our toolkit, once one and done is no longer a phrase we live by” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If fear over safety or security rises so high, that we think giving up freedoms for that safety and security is worth it, do we still deserve to be safe? Do we belive the only way we’ll feel safe, is if somebody else isn’t safe? Do we approve of losing some of our inherent American freedom and civil liberties, if it’s only taken from those who are viewed as a threat to that safety, and not personally to us? Do we think that all of us can only be safe, when all of us are safe, whitch can only happen when we respect each other enough, to treat each other like we’d like to be treated? Do we rail against the government controlling what we do or believe, but not against things we don’t? Do we believe we’re an island? The reason the old Ben Franklin quote is so revered, is because it’s timeless. Even after 200 years and war after war, and after incoming immigrant group after incoming immigrant group, we’re still America and we still exist. The reason we still exist as the greatest experiment of melding different cultures and people into an amalgamation of humanity yet to be equaled, is because everybody that’s here is suppossed to get a fair shake. The argument that we’ve neevr fully lived up to our ideals, is a fair one. However, everytime a group of immigrants is generalized, a minority group is marginalized, and humanity is excorcised, the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. Once we realize that none of us are safe until we’re all safe, we’ll see that taking somebody’s dignity and human rights away to give us he illusion of security, puts every single one of us in danger. The true measure of a society is how we treat the least among us, not the paycheck writing elite” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “Are the reasons we can’t unite as numerous as the reasons we can? Are these excuses we tell ourselves so we don’t have to take action? Do we view un-unifying reasons as understandable because they’re fewer, and have been baked into our culture for generations? Do we view unifying reasons also as understandable, but know their numbers reach infinite proportions, which makes it difficult to choose between them, causing an overwhelming sense of hopelessness to be baked in over generations? Or do we feel like the notion of “it is what it is” is a false narrative, because those of us who have seen injustice and atrocities with the way things are, have risen up and made positive change, basically flipping around the way things are? Excuses are like assholes just like politicians are like diapers, they’re not only full of shit, they explode all over people around them, infecting every living soul in some way if they go unchecked. We must constantly ask ourselves why we feel the way we do, and whether we’re purposefully stopping progress because it seems so big and intimidating. The fact is, that new, unknown and unfamiliar concepts can be scary. However, we must also ask ourselves why they’re scary, and would we rather do the same old thing even though we know it’s detrimental, but is comfortable because we know it. Once we realize that the reasons we can unite vastly outnumber the reasons we can’t, we’ll see that we can unite around most things, we just have to allow ourselves to. We need to stop being our own worst enemy, and start being our own biggest cheerleader” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If the highway of life is jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive, is it the person that believes they’re broken, or society? Is it society itself that deems them a hero, or is it themselves? Who praytell determines that the last chance is really the last chance, which guages how much power is used? Or it basically that all our personal struggles are part of the bigger struggle, and is a great example of no matter how much we believe differently from each other which we think divides us, actually proves we’re on the same side of the same collective coin which is the human species? Ultimately we determine our destiny, with varying degrees of influence from the outside world depending on our family, history, environment, culture, ethnicity or time period lived. While being a hero consists of a deed or an event that involves the outside world, it is us who decides whether the challenges and adversity we face has broken us. We also determine whether it’s our last chance, by deciding whether to give up or not when we have no energy left, or to give up and use every ounce of power we feel in our bones, specifically because we think it’s our last chance. Once we realize this struggle we endure makes us think it’s unique and only happening to us, but is really happening to us all, we’ll see that it’s never our last chance, and we’re never broken until we say we are. The highway of life is jammed, but only because we’re searching for joy, fulfillment and truth all at the same time” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If things are really bad and getting progressively worse to the point that we not only expect the worse, but expect to be continually surpised by how much worse things can get, do we set the bar so low, that a knuckle dragging mouth breather who can string coherent sentences together is seen as a success, simply because he isn’t ranting and raving? Does a softer tone indicate a softening of attitude toward other cultures and ethinicities, even if the concepts that are displayed stay the same? Or is it the quintissential element of double speak, where some of can speak in humane tones, specifically so they can speak more inhumanely, because most people will listen to the tone and not the words? One concept that has been introduced lately, is we can’t take the President literally, that sometimes his words don’t represent how he actually feels. That sometimes he gets caught up in the heat of the moment, and appeals to people’s emotions, because he believes that’s what people need to hear. There are leaders in the past that have appealed to emotions. Leaders who warned about the incoming scourge of immigrants, who will take our jobs, our women, and our way of life. Leaders who even went so far as to endorse registries for those immigrants, where all crime information on them is kept, for people to add to whenever they feel the need to rat on their neighbor, or use it as an excuse because they don’t like their neighbor. These leaders were called dictators, stamping out dissent by calling all negative news fake, murdering, dissapearing and discrediting opponents, and building up nationalistic fervor by stating the reason for all our problems, are the dirty foreigners coming into our country. If things are so bad we think we need a strong man dictator to muscle forward the American experiment into the 21st century, maybe we’re simply being lazy and ignorant. In the coming days, weeks and years we can either fight back, or sit idly by. Do we want to forever celebrate mediocrity, or sustainable and longlasting positive change?” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If a bird glides along with the breeze, not needing to flap its wings as it lets itself be carried in whatever direction the wind blows, does its’ life become easier? Does the birds life become less stressful and more enoyable, because it doesn’t have to expend physical energy to get anywhere, or mental energy to even think of where to go, because another entity is so graciously expending it for them? Or does the bird’s life only appear more enjoyable but is actually more ignorant because their thinking has been outsorced to a puppetmaster, who pulls the strings to make the bird sing and dance to its benefit, instead of making the bird choose its own direction by utilizing the thoughts inherent to the bird’s survival? Critical thought and making our own desicions are not only what we were designed for, but it’s how we grow and evolve. We must be vigilantly corageous to stay conscious about what’s in front of us. If we allow ourselves to glide along in the wind, cedeing to whatever pushes us forward, the ignorance that will wash over us will give the aura of a stress-free life. The ones pulling the strings have a much more sinsister motive, to pacify the public so they don’t rise up, and put an end to not only the distractions, but all the things that distractions are meant to cover up. Do we want to be the bird that floats around without a care in the world? Or do we want to be the bird that charts their own course, because we realize there are things in life we do care about? Are bread and circuses all we’re after, or are we after something more? Are we human?” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If the best things in life are free, is it because we’re assigning monetary value to something we can’t fully describe? Do we need to know all the details of an item, so we can assess what aspects will end up in the loss column, and which in the return column? Does a balance sheet need to be drawn up? Does assessing the value of an item, use the same methods as valuing an idea? What about an idea that doesn’t correspond to a actual physical thing? If money only exists because we put our faith in it that it does, do ideas only exist because we put our faith in them? If we put faith in money and faith in ideas, does that inherent concept assign a monetary value to ideas, whether we think about it or not? Or does the fact that we can’t fully describe something doesn’t mean it’s free, but simply means we can’t describe the value we’re paying for it? Love, peace, hate, ignorance, intolerance and joy are all concepts we can’t fully describe. We can describe what they mean to us, but not what it means for others because it changes for everybody. While none of us would admit hate, ignorance and intolerance are the best things in life, and most of us would admit that love, peace and joy are. Definitions of these ideas change from person to person. What’s best for us, might not be the best for somebody else. Life can be very chaotic, where events happen we can never explain. Our minds must have something to cling to, organizing these universally chaotic ideas in a way that doesnt make our mind go spinning out of control. So when we say the best things in life are free, we are simply putting subjective ideas in ways we can begin to understand them. If we know those best things change from person to person, what are we really making less chaotic? For all of us to lead a fulfilling and satisfying life, we need to stop thinking in terms of free and not free, but in terms of building us up and tearing us down. It’s the only barometer that truly matters” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If we’re walking down the road minding our own business, and a bird shits on our shoulder, is it a sign of good luck for us, or the person that laughs at us when it happens? Is it a positive sign for us because something that doesn’t usually happen, and might have been a one in a million shit did? Is it positive for the person who got a cheap laugh, because it’s more than a cheap laugh, it’s the funniest damn thing they’ve ever seen, allowing them to view something they never thought they’d see face to face? Or is it positive for both the person shit on, and the witness because both were privy to an event that happens so rarely, it’s like some greater force looking right at them, and saying there’s a lot more to the world than meets the eye? The world is so big, so chaotic, and so filled with wonder, but at the same time it’s so small, so ordered, and so filled with routine. We can seem to be so grounded, yet still float around. Maybe we’re trying to find the right balance, so we discover what’s good, what’s bad, what’s real, what’s fake, what will tear us down, and what will build us up. Which makes finding that balance infinitely more difficult, because all those balance points, what’s good and builds us up won’t necessarily build somebody else up, and vice versa. The trial and error nature of life, ensures we live the evolutionary experience as we learn it. If we learn it without experiencing it, we’ll set ourselves back, and will have to work twice as hard to get back where we should be. It can be done, but it makes us not want to put the work in because we have the knowledge, so why do we have to go through the motions? This can cause us to feel lost, because we understand our actions before we take them, and are only able to stop them sometimes when they’re detrimental. This can make us feel like we have no control and have no say, where we walk along amidst the chaos, fully aware it’s chaos. Then a bird comes along and shits on our shoulder, making us realize in no uncertain terms, we might be further ahead or behind in our journey, we might even be so open to it we feel feel every second, but there is always a big beautiful world out there that will continually surprise us. Good luck and positivity will find us and lift us up if we’re open, but only when we realize how it effects everyone around us as well” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? Does it make a sound so loud and thunderous, that it’s heard around the world? Or does the sound indeed happen, but doesn’t effect anything around it, causing life to continue moving forward as if no sound was made at all? The old cliche of a tree falling in the woods is something all of us heard a thousand times, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Sounds happen all the time whether we hear them or not. Sometimes we’re just out enjoying the day, and are surprised by a sound we’ve never heard before. Does the fact that we’ve never heard make it fake? Do we instantly feel uneasy, like there could be many more unknown sounds out there, that would flip our world upside down if we analyzed them for more than 2 seconds? Or do we feel excited and eager specifically because there are more unknowns out there, that will drive us forward to heights we never thought possible, basically suprising ourselves because we went into the situation completely without pre-concieved notions? While we can be startled and shocked by things we’ve never heard before, we can also be motivated and driven. Granted if more people are around to hear something, it will have much more effect, and could cause more people to be shocked and/or motivated. The same fallacy of one person can’t change the world, is the same as a tree falling in the woods. Both have sounds and effects, which are greatly effected by how many people hear them. The fallacy of these phrases is that the more poeple hear them, the more believe them. One lone person can’t change the world, but many “one persons” can, just like if many trees fell at the same time, people would hear them everywhere. As we journey, there will be people who tell us we can’t make change, That we could scream from the rooftops at the top of our lungs, and nobody will hear us. Once we realize that the people who tell us that are those who don’t want us to heard, we’ll see that singing loudly and proudly is not only our right, but our duty. We will be heard, as long as we don’t allow anybody to shut us up” 🙂

From the mind of critic: “If we feel like we’re floating around in life, clinging to things in a miniscule amount compared to the barrage that flys by our face on a 24-7 basis, do we feel alone because we don’t have a grip on everything, while everybody else seems to be gripping tight? Do we feel our struggle is unique, and that there must be something wrong with us because we’re the only ones going through it? Or do we see that our struggle isn’t unique, and that we aren’t alone because nobody has a grip on everything, no matter how much they portray the image that they do? The Doors might have said that faces come out of the rain when you’re strange, but Jim Morrison didn’t take into account that we’re all strange, and that when it rains, it falls on all of us. We’re all part of the same struggle, where we’re all scratching and clawing to find our place. Some of us might be at different stages of our journey, but we’re all trying to get past the same obstacles, and all trying to succeed because we want to be needed, and we want to matter. What can keep us down, is the thought that all other people know what they’re talking about because they’re better than us, smarter and more successful. Once we realize that just because somebody is more successful or are portraying that they’re smarter or more satisfied with their life, doesn’t mean they actually are, we’ll see that we’re all floating around amidst the chaos, trying to soak in as much good stuff as we can, fwhile iguring things out along the way. Will we all figure it out, maybe, we’ll never know until we try. However, we never need to feel alone because we’re floating around, we need to feel part of the crowd specifically because we’re all floating around. We’re all unique, and somehow we’re all the same” 🙂