Just got around to looking at This, haven't read the actual paper, but it seems pretty legit. Scares me, stresses me out, and seems to make sense... if the solutions are really what they say they are, it's gonna be hard if we want to hold things together, 'cause there's no way the Feds can get away with drastic wealth redistribution measures, nor do I think that would be a good idea, really.

If change needs to happen, what needs to change are people's minds. Enlightened, emotionally strong people are the only people who are able and/or willing to give up luxuries for the sake of keeping shit from hitting the fan. I'd say we need to redouble our efforts on education, at the very least.

After getting a new job recently, I've been thinking a lot about wealth, and I've come to the conclusion that once I have enough to live comfortably, I should give ALL the rest away. I'm not quite sure how to do that, or what it will look like, but it seems clear to me that luxury is something none of us can afford right now, given the big picture.

We need to move in this direction, we need to build momentum in this way.

One thing that really frightens me about the collapse of civilization is how much I depend on the high complexity of our modern economy to thrive. I have no illusions about my mental illness; I rely heavily on the miracle of modern psychiatry to stay sane. If society collapses to the point where the knowledge and/or facilities to produce this medication are lost, I don't know what I'd do, except pray that those who call modern mental illness a product of our hyper-distracted times are right.

We are a strong people. I like to think of the United States as a skyscraper designed to be earthquake-proof: in difficult times we must be able to bend without breaking. We must be able to change drastically without having to tear everything down and start over. The founding fathers expected there to be revolutions, although they could not see what revolutions two centuries later would be like. We must find out what it will look like, and take the chance before it's too late. The longer we wait, the more rigid the girders become, the more destructive the change will be. Destruction means loss, loss of life. Suffering, confusion, desperation.

True maturity is to recognize that while sacrifice right now may seem unnecessary and painful, it is small sacrifice to make in order to save what is truly valuable. We must be wise enough to see what is truly valuable, and courageous enough to cling to it, leaving the rest behind. We must see that true strength in ourselves, and in each other, and hang on.

What does revolution look like to you? What do you think about radical wealth distribution, on a personal scale? Maybe I shouldn't buy that new computer. Maybe I should give the money that was going into my pension into a charity.

Dismantling our modern world in an orderly fashion is preferable to burning it down, IMO. Is that really necessary, and how to go about it?

Sharing material wealth is important, because it helps us all have enough. Sharing stories is equally important, because it connects us to each other, helps us see ourselves in others. By seeing ourselves in others, we no longer see each other as quite so foreign. It is the duty of the artist to use their talent to facilitate that connection.

Book Museum

"I have always imagined that heaven would be some kind of library." 

-Jorge Luis Borges

...so LeVar Burton must be God, right? 

So sometimes my brain gets high on life and starts trying to make connections between stuff. This evening, I get home from work, and I see the above quote on my iGoogle. And the first thing that my brain thinks of is example number two from below. And then I keep thinking about it, and the other two examples come up! YAY So good at finding patterns! Even when there are none!!! Anyways... that's why I'm writing it down so YOU can decide! Am I solving a problem like Maria here? Or am I building my house on the rock?

Disclaimer 1: As you may have noticed, I've referenced a Bible verse already. I will be referencing other stuff like that later. I'm not a theologian and this little rant isn't evangelical or spiritual at all. It just so happens that western culture is influenced greatly by Christian theology, and I was really into church when I was young, so I know a lot of Bible stuff. I'm referencing it here as a culturally important tome, not as anything else. And I'm not gonna lie, I do have a guilty pleasure in referencing the Bible because our mostly secular culture strangely still gives stuff like that extra weight (latin-sounding chanting in movie soundtracks, what shows up on TV news, religion-themed magic/fantasy TV shows, books, etc.)

Disclaimer 2: Since this isn't an official paper for school or anything, I'm not tracking down direct citations beyond my own knowledge and Wikipedia. I imagine that there is only enough significance here to warrant a little, "hmm, that's interesting," not to back up a graduate thesis. I found it worth exploring here, hopefully you do as well, and if your "BULLSHIT" alarm starts going off then fine, you don't have to read it.

All righty. Let's get into it. *rolls up sleeves*

Three examples of the idea of heaven as a library, from three different animated TV shows:

First example: Final episode of the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Second example: Episode 47: "Acperience 4" of the anime Eureka Seven. Third example: Episode 10 of Season 2: "The Library" of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Interestingly all could fall under the category of "anime" (even though Avatar: The Last Airbender was made for an American audience and produced in the US, stylistically it is closely related to anime, and in fact the show was produced in close collaboration with a Korean animation studio.)

WARNING!! SPOILERS ABOUND for Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eureka Seven.

First let's go to the final episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. 

 

Mokoto Kusunagi, our heroine, finally tracks down the "villain" of the show, the hacker behind the "Laughing Man" incident. The show is a sci-fi crime drama that takes place in a world where pretty much everyone has a direct connection to the internet through their brain, allowing all sorts of crazy things to happen, including taking control of other people's bodies, directly sharing memories, and writing computer viruses that cause hallucinations. So it's rather significant that the main antagonist, a super-duper amazing savant hacker, hangs out in a library, or rather, a "Book Museum," as the subtitles show the place is called. So Mokoto ends up here chilling with this guy and they talk about all the stuff that went down.

So why is the library heaven? Well first of all it's called a "Book Museum." In the futuristic cyber-world of Ghost in the Shell, books are literally history. So already we're talking about something that's in the past, that's in a sense, "dead." Dead people go to heaven. Second, the events preceding this meeting involved Mokoto having to fake her own death, which caused her to actually "die," in that her mind was simply floating through the internet like a ghost. Not only that, but in order to meet the Laughing Man, she had to share memories with him, which in the world of the show is very dangerous because there is a possibility of entirely losing one's own individual self, dying in another sense. This second aspect also brings up ideas of an afterlife that I've heard of where an individual becomes at one with the spirits of their ancestors, or one with a deity.

Finally, there's a little bit of visual analysis. The library is depicted as circular, and I have heard that the symbol Ensō, a circle, can be said to represent "enlightenment," which is something that in western cultures we equate with "heaven."  The library is also depicted as golden, awash with sunlight, which brings "heaven" to mind for me. One other tidbit- besides the Laughing Man, there seem to be no other people in the library, only book-sorting robots that putter about busily. The dynamic there seems to me not entirely removed from the idea of God in heaven, with legions of angels that offer songs of praise, never ceasing and never tiring.  

The episode is episode 26, you can use your Google-fu to stream semi-legally it various places, or if you have HuluPlus you can watch it there, and it used to pop up on the AdultSwim website sometimes.

All right let's move on...

"Acperience 4" from Eureka Seven

It's been a bit longer since I've seen this anime, so don't expect this to be super accurate, but I think the connection is there.

Eureka Seven could be simply described as a coming of age story, with some aliens, mechs, and romance. Renton, the young protagonist, an avid "boarder" on this rainbow-wave stuff through the sky, runs away from home and gets caught up with the battle for survival of humanity on this weird planet they landed on thousands of  years ago, which is covered in this weird crust that's kind of alive, called "Scub Coral." The story is told partly as a narration he gives in letters to his sister, Diane, who went missing a few years before the show takes place.

Various adventures later, he ends up fighting the bad guys and crashes on this desert/beach thing. Suddenly he sees a figure in the distance, and from what he can tell, it's Diane! He starts running towards her, and this mirage-thing happens, and then he's in this library sort of place, it's all monochrome, and there are people all over reading books. He sees Diane, who explains what's going on.

****MAJOR SPOILER!!****

Turns out that the planet covered in Scub Coral is in fact Earth. What a tweest, right? The Scub Coral is actually a very intelligent alien race that landed on Earth after the colonists left, and absorbed all sentient life there in order to understand it. The library they are in is sort of the "brain" of this planet-sized organism, which is mostly benevolent, and the people inside the library are the people who got absorbed way back when, as well as a few people who recently stumbled across it, like Diane. They are allowed to exist in this little world, not eating or sleeping, but poring over the vast amount of cosmic knowledge the Scub Coral has.

So! What do we have that makes this library "heaven?"

Well, it is the first place where Renton gets to see his sister, which is a tearful reunion because he loves her very much, and hasn't seen her for years, and in fact worried that she was dead. To me, this all sounds reminiscent of the idea that in heaven, when you die, you are reunited with the loved ones who you had lost. It's even more like heaven in the fact that Diane doesn't exist as a person with a human body anymore, she's basically a spirit within this complex system that appears to her as a huge library.

Also, the Scub Coral Library is also not just some random spirit world, it's created by a vastly huge, benevolent creature with knowledge far surpassing that of all learning collected by humanity. Sounds a bit like the western God, yes? Although it isn't infinite or omni-anything, it is at a large enough scale that I can make the connection, especially when combined with the whole millions of people who are "dead" that chill there for a long time and are basically happy.

Finally, as I mentioned above, the people there don't have to eat or sleep, and they're kind of immortal, having been there for ten thousand years and not seeming to have aged or atrophied.

Unlike Heaven, Renton and the main characters he's with are able to leave and get their bodies back. Then again, Renton and his half-Scub Coral girlfriend Eureka have a pretty messianic role in the whole story, so maybe it fits, since Eureka is sort of lady-alien-jesus.

Now the final example:





"The Library" from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Here's the final example of a library as "heaven." Avatar: The Last Airbender follows the journey of Aang, the messianic boy whose destiny is to bring balance to the world by defeating the rather evil Fire Nation. Along the way, Aang and his companions run into Professor Zei, an archaeologist whose dream and mission is to find the legendary library of Wan Shi Tong, the god of knowledge, said to be curated by the God of knowledge himself. Right away we have a library run by a God, which slightly associates the library with an idea of Heaven. Also, Professor Zei has the zeal and lifestyle of a pilgrim, traveling alone and having singular focus on finding the library.

The library was said to be started by Wan Shi Tong, the god of knowledge, and was accessible to all humans for a time. However, many humans began coming to the library out of a lust for power, using the knowledge to destroy their enemies. At this point Wan Shi Tong shuttered the library and hid it from humans. This story parallels the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden, in which God evicts human beings from paradise because of their misbehavior. Although Eden is not Heaven per se, the idea of Heaven only being accessible to the righteous is somewhat echoed in the attitude displayed by Wan Shi Tong when Aang and the others finally encounter him.

With the help of Appa, Aang's flying bison, they are able to locate the library half-buried in the middle of the desert. They enter it, at which point Wan Shi Tong arrives in the form of an enormous owl, and states that because of his mistrust of humans, they must prove that they are only coming to the library out of the love of knowledge. Although this is true for Professor Zei, Aang and his companions mainly joined him out of the hope that the library would show them a way that they could defeat the Fire Nation. On a sidenote, this is such an excellent morally gray area to bring the protagonists into, especially for a children's show, a genre that often relies on very clear cut "good guys" and "bad guys." It is clear that the Fire Nation are bad guys, but how far are our heroes willing to bend the rules of the Gods in order to defeat them? Such a good show.

Anyways, some smooth talking and a show of good will by Aang, the Avatar, convinces the monstrous owl-god to let them peruse, at which point they sneak off and discover a planetarium, which reveals the date of a future solar eclipse. The sun being the source of the Fire Nation's power, this gives them a great chance to overthrow them. Unfortunately, Wan Shi Tong discovers their betrayal, and lengthens his neck in a terrifying manner while chasing them out. Though Aang and his friends escape, Wan Shi Tong buries the library, never to be seen in the human world again. Professor Zei doesn't even try and get out, being so enraptured with the pursuit of knowledge that he plans to spend the rest of his life in the library. Hopefully him and Owl-beast can be study buddies. Interestingly, this end for Professor Zei brings his pilgrim-ish character arc to completion, having earned his way into a legendary spirit realm through purity of intent and dedication. Although it is unclear if Zei will live forever, thematically it has some similarities to the Christian narrative of followers behaving in a prescribed manner with the goal of transcending into a better place once they die, where they will hang out with God and his Angels.

It also is interesting where in the organization of plot in these stories the libraries are encountered. In Ghost in the Shell, our heroine finds the library after the climax and high stakes have been resolved, and has a very personal conversation with the extremely enigmatic and up until now faceless driving force of the entire 26-episode series. This is third-act, resolution stuff. In Eureka Seven, Renton has been writing letters to his sister every day, and has fought many battles including a rather climactic one with his antagonist immediately preceding his familial reunion and entry to the "library." "Acperience 3" is episode 47 of a 51-episode series, so again we're talking about third-act timing. The pattern kind of falls apart with "Avatar," as "The Library" is almost directly in the middle of the series. But, the story of Aang was never building towards this Library, it was not mentioned until this episode. For Professor Zei, a side character for whom the library is Mecca, it occurs at the end of his journey. To me, all of this is in line with the western theologically-based idea of Heaven, it's somewhere you end up at the end.


So, that was the easy part: convincing you that at least in these three examples, libraries are thematically associated with heaven. Here's the real question: if these examples are more than coincidence, and there is something intrinsic about associating Heaven with a Library, where does that association come from? When you read the quote at the top there, did you relate to it? If so, what do libraries and heaven have in common in your mind? If you do not relate, or perhaps if you think a library is the last place you'd call "heavenly," why?

A couple thoughts from me:

• Libraries are full of books, many which were written by people now passed on. It being now impossible to see these people face to face, these books are essential in shaping our idea of the authors in our minds and in our culture. So in a sense, each book is the "soul" of the author. 
• Libraries are quiet
• Through the incredible power of written language, libraries are a place where it is easy to feel as if you are transcending time and place, able to explore worlds that are impossible to create in reality
• For academic/literary/introspective/extra-sensitive people, (the kinds of people who are often poets, artists, culture-makers) a library can be an oasis from the stress and perceived danger of social situations, a refuge, much like heaven is a refuge from the mortal burdens of illness and aging.  

Thanks for reading!

" !!! Doctors don't want you to know these easy tips to (help you love and accept yourself) !!!"

Marketing techniques heavily rely on of the power of social pressure to manipulate consumption. The effects of this abuse are far reaching and devastating. The fact is that socializing and culture are natural, beautiful things that human beings have evolved to help us survive and adapt. We literally can't survive without each other. Abusing the ability to make individuals feel left out and disconnected, is in a sense no different than abusing the natural biological attraction to sugar and fat to cause people to crave your product.

When things like this are pervasive, in certain cases it can induce an unhealthy level of "left-outedness" that in some individuals is so insidious that it impairs their brains from functioning properly. They are never able to escape the feeling that something is wrong with them.

What's tricky, however, is that social pressure, when used responsibly, is also a force for good. It keeps people from acting out in ways that are horribly damaging. It allows the strength and knowledge of one individual be shared to hundreds, even thousands of individuals through technology like writing and music. Social pressure has two forces: a negative force that promotes separation for damaging acts, and a positive force that promotes acceptance and admiration for helpful acts.

Drastic change may not be needed, as long as we listen to the warnings that pop up. Personally, I think that we are very good at diagnosing a disease of the individual, but poor at diagnosing a disease of the conglomerate. Culture is how we know ourselves. Self-expression in cultural ways is immensely healthy and beneficial to everyone, yet opportunity and education to do so effectively is increasingly given disincentive. There is a huge difference between being excellent at art and using it to sell a product, and being excellent at art and using it to say something close to your heart. The first will sell products, which allows people to make money, to afford shelter and nourishment. The second will keep the our minds healthy, nourishing them with insight and knowledge. We need both to survive.

To be honest, there are already signs that the economy is naturally changing as we collectively realize that we need both kinds of nourishment to be healthy. Public outcry is giving corporations and other companies incentives to make their cultural contributions more positive and balanced. It is a difficult task, because the economy is in a sense "addicted" to the profits that come from the use of psychological pressure to get people to be brand loyal and buy certain products. I want to emphasize that it is NOT the profit-seeking that is the issue. Seeking prosperity is a natural thing to value. The system will fix itself if it is given the opportunity to understand what is going on. That's what I think at least. However, these are difficult problems and we are bound to make mistakes. The question is not whether we as a people will learn what we need to know, and implement it, the question is how much will we suffer along the way. To minimize the suffering, we must abandon hate and embrace love. Others have shown the way to use love and courage in the past, to force societal change. However, the way that love and courage emerges to change our society at this point in time may look entirely different. This is because our society has changed, so the way we influence it may change. However, the underlying precepts are the same. Personal courage, non-violence, steadfast determination. Nothing is more challenging than stepping outside the boundaries of the beaten path, and standing strong there. But as past events have shown, it is not impossible, and the rewards are great. 

In addition to all this, in a huge social group like the ones that exist now due to communication technology, it is more and more difficult to get your voice heard. Not only do we need artists who are skilled at expression and communication, we need artists who are knowledgeable enough to get our lazy asses to listen for two seconds. The reason we have such "short" attention spans, is that we biologically evolved to process information from much smaller social groups than the ones we now have access to. We are animals fighting for survival over basic resources like food and water. And we have given birth to a meta-economy where ideas fight for survival over the only thing that sustains them: attention.

Peace love and understanding.

Re: this*
I think what highlights the hatred is the singling out of "generations" and setting them against each other like opposing teams when analyzing them, just like this article does. Once you stop doing that, the hatred disappears.

As a "millenial" myself I think if there is any real "hatred" towards baby boomers, it is misguided and has more to do with resentment that bubbles up when comparing the job markets that recent college grads face now coming out of college, versus the job markets that earlier generations apparently found themselves in. The fact is that we're all in the same job market NOW, we all have to deal with it.

In fact, I've heard from some friends of mine that are closer to retirement age that although they keep their jobs for a long time, they face a steep uphill battle if they happen to get laid off, because in most places, especially in the tech industry, recruiters are much more likely to hire one of the thousands of applicants in their 20's and 30's than someone in their 50's or 60's. This isn't necessarily because the young people are better at the jobs, but simply that the companies don't want to invest too much in human resources that may retire very soon. I guess. I dunno about the reasons, but the fact is that "baby boomers" do face them these difficulties.

Articles like this are held together by trying to highlight a trend. The trends they come up with are supported by studies, but of course only the studies that support the trend/thesis of the article are included, because that strengthens the thesis. They must imply a generational war in that sense, even if one doesn't exist, if they want people to click on the article. This is narrative-driven news, and it is the norm, not the exception.

It's not necessarily a bad thing, because at least it gets people talking. But it also has a tendency towards highlighting things that sell papers/get site visits, which sometimes are less than productive. Especially when articles reinforce or even create societal conflicts or "fights" in the minds of readers, fights that may not even exist. With people constantly inundated with this kind of news, they start to lose the ability to debate in terms of facts, and only are able to have fighting narratives. Suddenly each political issue, be it climate change, abortion, or economics,  is exacerbated almost to the extent that it's more like "Team Jacob vs Team Edward" than it is about public policy and problem solving.

As long as "us vs. them" is more interesting than "we're in this together," that's what media companies have the most incentive to publish. Personally I think "us vs. them" is best left to baseball and fictional TV shows. Still, I confess that I have the luxury of not being in dire straits financially, so I don't have a lot of hatred for older generations, I have the space to look at this one from a distance. I know not everybody has that luxury and I'm not trying to diminish their feelings of hatred, nor the feelings of hatred in response to perceived injury by other parties. I'm just stating my view of things.

So enough understanding and diplomacy. Let's move on to something that really pisses me off... (next post.)

*Once the link is dead, here's what it went to: Yahoo.com article "How Baby Boomers Take Jobs From Younger Workers" by Rick Newman, Posted May 20 2013.

excerpt from a conversation

I get kind of juiced when I think about telling stories that are cutting edge

maybe I'm just young and hyper and want the hype

maybe I have a semi-obsession with video games because they are so immersive to me

I get addicted real fast to video games sometimes

I have to be a bit careful

but anyways

I want to tell stories in new ways, sometimes

and the newest way to tell stories these days is in a game

The difficult thing though, is that people get desensitized.

although hyper-stimulating visually and auditorially and even viscerally through rumble game pads and interactivity,

video games are just as dumb as books, when compared to interacting with a human being

that's why multiplayer games are so successful

BUT

when you are able to calm the visuals down enough to create a peaceful sense,

THEN you can get story in there

heck, you can even get story in there in a fast paced game

More and more, video games are trying to create digital places where the socially stimulating and nourishing experiences we have in the real world all the time, can happen

the excitement of collaboration, of spontaneous or "serendipitous" connection

the cameraderie of shared sufferingt

the fullfillment of sharing a goal or value with another person

***** RE: This Twenty years from now, the CEO of the next "Pixar" may be discussing the seminal chat he had with his artist friends... in a chat room. Unlikely, possibly, because person-to-person communication is so much more efficient and stimulating when you're in the same room, especially sharing a meal. But that's only because of the sensory data that is not transmitted with the telecommunication tech we have at this point.

a little update

16th and S. Van Ness, looking South West. This is on my walk to my new job at MetaSwitch Networks, which I got through my awesome temp agency. My job is working in their warehouse, assembling, testing, and packing the telecommunications hardware they sell. Pretty cool people, neat place- I have to admit that when I first came into the office/warehouse and saw their lab and the ESD safety protocols, the first thing that jumped into my head was that it was a place where something unexpected and supernatural would happen in a sci-fi movie.

Public art on the walls of the 16th and Mission BART station. Walking from work to BART tonight, all of the conversations I overheard were in Spanish.

Here are a couple sketches I did on my phone on the ride home: 

I'm super stoked about life right now, a load of awesome things are going on. I have a steady, well-paying and not mind-numbingly boring day job, I'm back involved in Theater (working backstage for The Farnsworth Invention at Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, CA), Dad helped me fix my bed frame, so now it doesn't sink in the middle anymore, and I'm starting to do a bit of dating.

The Niners lost the Super Bowl, which is sad. But on the bright side, I found friends to watch it with and cheer and boo and everything, instead of having to watch it at the bar like I did for the World Series.