Freedom!

For many years I deliberately avoided active engagement with the daily news across pretty much all media sources; TV, radio, press, online. I considered, not without reason I still believe, the great majority of its offerings to be nothing more or less than glorified gossip; titbits of titillation to keep the masses suitably amused or outraged, principally for the true purpose of garnering advertising revenue and other profits for the owners and shareholders. My only concession was a daily free local newspaper that did indeed keep me abreast of issues of importance in my immediate community – plus served to wrap my minimal (non compostable or recyclable) household waste, start my winter fires, build my no-dig veggie gardens and provide some small entertainment with a daily crossword. But with the COVID pandemic and the loss of over 100 print newspapers in Australia, I relented and purchased a subscription to The Sydney Morning Herald. (Bizarrely, and greedily, my free daily local paper with all its stock, printing and distribution costs covered by advertising, is only available in its infinitely-cheaper-to-publish-online version though a paid subscription. Not bloody likely!) Despite its not insignificant cost, the printed edition SMH has obvious benefits: choosing which articles to engage with, advertisements are easy to bypass, the ability to suit my own schedule, etc. but, as Alain de Botton states in his book The News, ‘To consult the news is to raise a seashell to our ears and to be overpowered by the roar of humanity.’ Sometimes that roar lingers in my head and gives me no peace until such time as I give vent to my reactions by either ranting to poor, unsuspecting and undeserving family and friends, or sitting at the laptop to write responses such as the following. Please know that I do so principally to regain some personal mental and emotional calm. Still, I hope you might find perhaps a vestige of merit in this or other of my scribbles?

I grow so weary of the constant demands for individual rights and individual freedoms that daily grace our various media. Rights and freedoms do not exist in glorious isolation but are in fact privileges accorded to responsible contributors to a society. Such is even written into the perhaps lesser known Articles of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Indeed, whilst Article 1 states ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.’ which is loudly and arrogantly proclaimed from soapboxes across the world, it also states ‘They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.’ which often seems conveniently overlooked.

Perhaps more significantly, but equally frequently, disregarded is the context provided by such as Article 29 which states ‘1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.’ and ‘2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.’ So we must discard our immature notions of glorying in a hedonistic individualist fantasy and recognise that true personal freedoms and the granting of personal rights to certain behaviours or privileges can only exist within a responsible, mutually supportive, collectivist culture. We must give before we can expect to receive.

What we see occurring and condemn in China and Russia is really no different to what we also see in America and Britain, and what we are experiencing here in Australia. Putin and his ‘oligarch’ cronies are really little different to Australian political parties headed by a ‘boys club’ of well connected private school graduates funded by opaque donations from property developers and business tycoons keen to protect their personal interests, status and wealth. It is the natural consequence of any system wherein the laws are made by people who have gained power through wealth and privilege that they will inherently and principally make laws that protect their positions; it is a self perpetuating and indeed escalating system that only leads to ever greater division between the haves and have nots; the powerful and the powerless; those protected from the worst of COVID by their wealth and privilege and those at the mercy of job loss and poor governance, crying ‘Freedom!’

The promotion of a minority ‘elite’ and the concomitant persecution of the majority ‘oppressed’ can only ever lead to societal division and civil unrest. It is the principal recipe for social collapse and is sustainable only in circumstances of totalitarian control; exactly the situation we witness causing current global conflicts and precisely what was supposedly (or wishfully?) consigned to the dustbin of history by the decline of feudalism and subsequent rise of modern democracy, though it has reared its ugly head on numerous occasions since and seems ever possible, and likely, to do so again.

Seriously people! Put your adolescent acquisitive desires aside and recognise that we are all one – the totality of humanity, to again quote the UN Declaration ‘without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status’ and to which I might add gender identity and sexuality plus no doubt other attributes I currently fail to identify. We each share 99.9% of our genetic make-up with all other modern humans. Even more importantly, our very survival upon this planet requires not only that we need to collectively and collaboratively work toward betterment for all human kind, but that we must do so in concert with the recognition that our survival is intrinsically dependent upon the parallel survival of every aspect and component of our planetary host – every living creature and plant, every natural environment and process, every complex system and cycle. Every single day we destroy more and more of everything that sustains our very existence as a species and every single day we continue to increasingly fragment the potential unity of human experience by vilifying and persecuting anyone who is not one of our 'tribe', whilst simultaneously, ignorantly and vaingloriously proclaiming ‘FREEDOM!’

For fuck’s sake, grow up.

Beauty

 Who was it I wonder, who first voiced the now popular aphorism 'be careful what you wish for'?

Shortly after writing the previous post, three months back, about 'wide achievers', ageism and my lack of success seeking employment, I was offered and obliged to accept a position at a local hardware store. With my available time for reading, thinking and writing thereby dramatically shortened I am resorting once again, as was always my stated intention from the outset I concede, to publishing extracts from works by other voices than my own. I have, for a number of years now, when reading (or viewing) developed a habit of recording passages that particularly resonate for me. I am aware this is an activity rife with potential for the ever-present threat of the perceived ills of confirmation bias, but I like to believe that it is also frequently an exercise in recognising and indeed delighting in the discovery of new or even conflicting viewpoints to one's own; avenues into new potential directions of thought and belief.

Many of these notations of mine, in a small collection of hand-written notebooks, are brief phrases or short sentences that perhaps fail to stand alone in a forum such as this, removed from the context in which they were originally published. Therefore, I shall endeavour to focus instead upon longer passages and, where possible, bring together disparate sources which nonetheless share a commonality of theme. My first such theme, one which is of great importance in my life and to which I suspect I shall return, is beauty.

The following extracts are from three sources and move from reflections upon our built, physical, environment, through perceptual occurrences and responses, to some final lyrical and metaphysical observations.

Firstly, some passages from The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton.

Note: Points of ellipsis and square brackets indicate my own edits, for brevity and clarity.

'Yet if someone was to ask us what was the matter, we might not know how to elaborate on the malign features of our environment … However, these can in the end always be traced back to nothing more occult than a failure of empathy, to architects who forgot to pay homage to the quirks of the human mind, who allowed themselves to be seduced by a simplistic vision of who we might be, rather than attending to the labyrinthine reality of who we are.' (p. 248)

'In medieval Japan, poets and Zen priests directed the Japanese towards aspects of the world to which Westerners have seldom publicly accorded more than negligible or casual attention: cherry blossoms, deformed pieces of pottery, raked gravel, moss, rain falling on leaves, autumn skies, roof tiles and unvarnished wood. A word emerged, wabi, of which no Western language, tellingly, has a direct equivalent, which identified beauty with unpretentious, simple, unfinished, transient things … [By embracing it] we will have learnt to appreciate a beauty that we were not born seeing. And, in the process, we will puncture the simplistic notion, heavily promoted by purveyors of plastic mansions, that what a person currently finds beautiful should be taken as the limit of all that he or she can ever love.' (p. 260)

'It is books, poems and paintings which often give us the confidence to take seriously feelings in ourselves that we might otherwise never have thought to acknowledge … Likewise, there must have been little beauty in old stones before Japanese priests and poets began writing about them … The property developer's reflexive defence of existing tastes constitutes, at base, a denial that human beings can ever come to love anything they have not yet noticed. But even as it plays with the language of freedom, this assertion suppresses the truth that in order to choose properly, one must know what there is to choose from.' (p. 262)

'We owe it to the fields that our houses will not be the inferiors of the virgin land they have replaced. We owe it to the worms and the trees that the buildings we cover them with will stand as promises of the highest and most intelligent kinds of happiness.' (p. 267)

Next, two brief extracts from the wonderful In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki.

'The quality that we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty's ends.'

'If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.'

Finally, the following two short monologues are from the cinema release version of the film American Beauty, written by Alan Ball. The first is voiced by the character Ricky Fitts as he shares with his neighbour, Jane Burnham, a video he recorded of a plastic bag caught in a small whirlwind on an urban street. It is perhaps, for me, the most beautiful and memorable scene in the film.

'It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there was this electricity in the air. You could almost hear it. Right? And this bag was just - dancing - with me. Like a little kid, begging me to play with it - for fifteen minutes. That's the day I realised that there was this entire life, behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know that there was no reason to be afraid - ever. The video's a poor excuse, I know, but it helps me remember. I need to remember. Sometimes there's so much - beauty - in the world I feel like I can't take it and my heart is just going to - cave in.'

The second, which contains an almost identical phrase concerning beauty, is a voice-over by the character Lester Burnham at the conclusion of the film, seemingly during or after his death.

'I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes, the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all. It stretches on forever like an ocean of time. For me it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars. And yellow leaves from the maple trees that lined our street. Or my grandmother's hands and the way her skin seemed like paper. And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's new Firebird. And Janey - and Janey - and Carolyn.

I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold onto it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about I'm sure, but don't worry, you will someday.'

Unwanted

 Like so very many others across the globe at present, one year into the viral pandemic finds me also one year into unwanted unemployment. Unemployed, but alive and largely otherwise unaffected means I am indeed one of the very lucky. We in Australia have been, by and large, very fortunate compared to the deaths and suffering we continue to witness on a daily basis elsewhere on our fragile and benighted planet. It has however allowed me opportunity to think and write once again for the first time in some while. The thrust of what follows may seem overly selfish in its focus as it is clearly driven by my own current circumstances, yet I hope its wider applicability may be seen and valued; perhaps even acted upon?

I think I may have touched upon this previously when mentioning Roman Krznaric's inspiring book The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live. In chapter four 'Work' he proposes 'that many people eventually seek jobs that provide a more profound sense of purpose; work which is an end in itself rather than a means to an end, and which helps them feel that they're not wasting their lives'. This of course overlooks the very, very many among humanity that have not the privilege of such luxury, living as they might in a desperate day-to-day struggle for their very continued existence, but for now I too am going to acknowledge yet, with apologies, pass over this aspect of lived reality.

Roman identifies and discusses four purposes that 'stand out in the history of work: being driven by our values; pursuing meaningful goals; obtaining respect; and using the full array of our talents'. The last of these four he discusses in the section 'Talents: high achiever - or wide achiever?' and it is this particular topic I will expand upon. Partly I wish to discuss the language we have employed around these two options but more so I wish to draw attention to the value judgements inherent in our language choices - the semantic history and connotations our words and phrases come burdened with and which can actually be to the detriment of an individual's self-image, self-worth and employment prospects.

Poor Adam Smith gets blamed for a great deal and whilst it is true he recognised the 'torpor of the mind' threatening 'the man whose life is spent in performing a few simple operations' and who 'has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention', the fact remains that his seminal work The Wealth of Nations and its promotion of the concept of division of labour has at least in part driven our contemporary obsession with specialisation. Yes, there are benefits, both personal and cultural, to be gained from individuals pursuing a topic of study to its apogee, plus it has frequently been observed that the extent of humanity's knowledge is now so vast that even greatly sub-divided fields of study might contain single strands of interest that yet remain too large and complex for one person to master. But is this in itself sufficient justification for the apparent devaluing of those for whom such a singular focus holds no appeal?

My focus will be upon the language around Roman's 'wide achiever' but let's first make a simple list of some of the words we associate with the high achievers. A quick scan of entries for 'expert' in a thesaurus or two throws up synonyms such as master, adept, authority, professional, specialist, virtuoso, ace, giant, maestro, whiz, gun, hot-shot, prodigy, wunderkind, genius, boffin, scholar, old hand, veteran, connoisseur, elder, sage, oracle, philosopher, guru, dab hand, doyen and savant. Words that I think we might all imbue with principally positive connotations? In earlier times I feel perhaps we held a similar regard for those we believed excelled in a broad range of disciplines or occupations? I believe it was with respect or even awe that we employed expressions such as Renaissance man, universal man and polymath, but our language seems now to have slipped to the perhaps lesser regard we accord the current multi-disciplinarian, many-sided man or all-rounder. And does anyone really want to be considered, or referred to, simply as a generalist, jack-of-all-trades or Roman's cleverly positivised wide-achiever?

The simple truth remains however that many among us are just not 'wired' for an enduring interest in, and prolonged pursuit of, a single passion or obsession. Their interests are many and widely varied. Some, it is true, may do no more than dabble in disparate fields whilst others might excel in many and even here our natural tendency is to value the latter over the former. Excellence is seemingly always regarded as a superior goal than that of 'mere' competence? What is it within our societies and cultures, indeed perhaps within human nature itself, that promotes a disregard for those among us whose accomplishments are 'good', preferring instead to always seek the 'better' and only truly value the 'best'? Surely within a global populace approaching eight billion, for the vast majority attainment of 'good' in one area of endeavour is commendable and to be 'good' within multiple disciplines equals or surpasses 'better' or even 'best' in a singular pursuit? I should like to be a 'good' partner, parent, friend, draftsman, cook, brewer, handyman, driver, designer, photographer, cyclist, swimmer, writer, artist, curator, consultant, builder, first-aider, gardener, teacher, salesman, manager, mentor, youth worker, lover, reader, researcher, printer, singer, student, surfer, philosopher … and so much more, before I would desire to be the 'best' at anything. Indeed, I have been 'good' at all the above listed occupations, though no doubt I could be 'better' at many.

And yet, in our culture's default determinant of individual worth, as evinced in the commonly accepted first question asked of newly met acquaintances, 'What do you do?', we're frequently encouraged to judge or rank their response according to their preferably high level of attainment in a singular occupation. Nowhere is this more evident than within the employment market. The entire ethos is one of seeking individuals who are the very best within the narrow confines of a highly specialised role or position description. Rare indeed is the stated intent that of finding a rounded and balanced individual, competent across a wide range of diverse skills, with understandings of and attributes applicable to multiple areas of a business's structure and undertakings. Today, even managers, directors and CEOs are appointed if they are perceived to be the best of their 'kind' that applied, though they may have little or no experience or skills beyond those attained in a management degree and frequently no knowledge whatsoever of the actual business of the company or agency.

Which leaves those of us, like myself, who have pursued a life wherein each new opportunity to broaden our range of knowledge, skills, experience and competence is embraced with wholehearted delight and enthusiasm, perceived as little more than ne'er-do-wells with limited focus or staying power and a complete lack of ambition. Rather than 'wide-achievers, we are labelled 'under-achievers'! Often this is far from the truth. Rather, it is simply that our ambition, focus and perseverance is not limited to, or constrained by, an almost obsessive compulsion to be the 'best' at a highly specialised pursuit. Just perhaps it might be argued that our very flexibility - of curiosity, capability and adaptability - is our greatest strength. Not constrained within the rigid confines of specialist dogma, we might bring new ideas and fresh insights to all we embark upon.

Certainly, over the past decade there has been an increased cultural curiosity in, and valuing of, multi-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary working modes (see below for definitions) but these are still often seen as collaborative pursuits involving numerous specialists. Surely there is value also in finding this flexibility of thought, this neurological plasticity, within individuals also? But I fear such a desire is little more than a quixotic dream. The pace of change across an entire society is slow indeed, even when change is desired, and I for one perhaps no longer have the time to truly benefit from such a cultural shift. Whilst once we valued the wisdom of our elders - which was deemed of even greater value because indeed it was gained across, and applicable to, many aspects of life and living - the contemporary mindset values almost exclusively the perceived dynamism and potential of youthful exuberance and innovation; fresh ideas and constant 'progress'. Those, like myself, who have passed the half-century mark, are often judged principally by our age alone; falsely seen as being out-of-date and rigidly stuck in a rut of preconceived notions. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Despite all we have to offer, especially those among us who embrace our 'wide-achievements', we are indeed largely, and oh-so-wastefully, relegated to the employment scrap-heap. We are seen as un-employable. We are the unwanted.

 

Disciplinarities - Definitions by Alexander Refsum Jensenius

Intra-disciplinary: working within a single discipline.

Cross-disciplinary: viewing one discipline from the perspective of another.

Multi-disciplinary: people from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their disciplinary knowledge.

Inter-disciplinary: integrating knowledge and methods from different disciplines, using a real synthesis of approaches.

Trans-disciplinary: creating a unity of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives.

Kung Fu

 Way back in the early 1970s I was, like many others, very taken with the TV series Kung Fu about the adventures and travails of an American/Chinese, Shaolin Monastery-trained monk and martial arts master in the often violent world of the 19th century American West. Utilising the classic dramatic device of a 'clash of cultures', the central character Kwai Chang Caine, played by David Carradine, attempted to live by and promote the essentially Daoist teachings he had acquired from his Chinese Masters.

Over many years, I often recalled my fondness for the show, it's central character and general ethos. I sometimes found myself wondering about its potentially formative influence on my own philosophical leanings. So earlier this year I decided to re-watch some of the episodes to see what 'lessons' they contained. To date I've only completed the entire first series but there are still some wonderful quotations to be found in its scripts. Following are those of which I made particular note. I hope you might enjoy them as I still do?

Kung Fu: Season 1

Pilot
'If one's words are no better than silence, one should keep silent.'

 

Episode 1 - King of the Mountain
'Only acknowledge [needs], and satisfaction will follow. To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance.'

 

Episode 4 - An Eye for an Eye
'He who knows how to live, need not fear death. Because a man who knows how to live, has no place for death to enter.'

'To hate is like drinking salt water [your] thirst gets worse.'

'Hate is the tomb you weave. It will not save you from suffering '

'What kind of man are you?'
'A man. Like other men.'

 

Episode 5 - The Tide
'If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present. But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future. The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past.'

'Where's your horse?'
'I have no horse.'
'How do you get around?
'I walk.'

'Those who value freedom most, must sometimes choose to lose it.'

 

Episode 6 - The Soul is the Warrior
'A tree falling in the forest without ears to hear, makes no sound. Yet, it falls.'

 

Episode 7 - Nine Lives
'To go anywhere, begin by taking a first step.'

'Is it not sad master, that the hands of a man may strike a blow, as well as caress?'
'Pain and pleasure are like two bells, side by side, and the voice of each makes a trembling in the other.'

'In his own time, each man finds a place to stand.'

 

Episode 8 - Sun and Cloud Shadow
'I have three treasures which I hold and keep. The first is mercy, for from mercy comes courage. The second is frugality, from which comes generosity to others. The third is humility, for from it comes leadership.'
'Strange treasures. How shall I hold them and keep them? In memory?'
'No, not in memory, but in your deeds.'

 

Episode 9 - Chains
'We are one, yet we are not the same. Ten million living things, have as many different worlds.'

'Do not see yourself as the centre of the universe, wise and good and beautiful. Seek rather wisdom, goodness and beauty, that you may honour them everywhere.'

 

Episode 10 - Alethea
'To say and to listen. To teach what we know truly to those who do not know. To send peaceful thoughts over the bridge of words.'

'Reach out, but be wary of what you allow yourself to grasp.'

 

Episode 11 - The Praying Mantis Kills
'I do not do it. It is not done … It is only experienced. It happens … The pole [target], the arrow, the bow, are one. Not many things. Not different things. One.'

'It is good, it remains a puzzle. When you cease to strive to understand, then you will know, without understanding.'

 

Episode 13 - The Stone
'So is truth, hard to understand, except that which cannot be spoken.'
'But should I not always speak the truth, no matter what the consequences?'
'Recognise that all words are part false, and part true, limited by our imperfect understanding. But strive always for honesty within yourself.'

'What is cowardice, but the body's wisdom of its weakness. What is bravery, but the body's wisdom of its strength. The coward and the hero march together within every man. So to call one man coward and another brave, merely serves to indicate the possibilities of their achieving the opposite.'

'To fight injustice anywhere, is to fight it everywhere.'

 

Episode 14 - The Third Man
'What's your name?'
'Caine.'
'What do you do Caine?'
'I work, eat, learn.'

'In every loss there is gain, as in every gain there is loss.'

'It is a fact, it is not the truth. Truth is often hidden, like a shadow in darkness.'

'Love cannot measure itself until the hour of parting.'

'Is not to trust, to rely on someone of whom you know nothing?'

'You've learned to trust people, but doesn't it hurt you?'
'And you, not trusting, are you not hurt more?'

'I seek, not to know all the answers, but to understand the questions.'

 

Episode 15 - The Ancient Warrior
'Can't I be of help?'
'Any man can be of help to another man. What have you to offer?'

'Master, what is the best way to meet the loss of one we love?'
'By knowing that when we truly love, it is never lost. It is only after death that the depth of a bond is truly felt, and our loved one becomes more a part of us than was possible in life.'
'Are we only able to feel this toward those whom we have known and loved a long time?'
'Sometimes a stranger known to us for moments can spark our souls to kinship for eternity.'
'How can strangers take on such importance to our souls?'
'Because our soul does not keep time, but merely records growth.'

'It is better to cover the land with love than to let it cover you with hate.'

Betterment

 I have spoken before in this blog (Beyond the Ends of the Rainbow, June 2018) about Brian Eno's 1993 essay 'Axis Thinking' (A Year with Swollen Appendices, Faber & Faber, 1996) and the concept of continuums as a handy visualisation tool to assist in our comprehension of complex entangled multi-dimensional meshes of potentiality. I'm going to propose a continuum that we might encounter in our engagement with data as we struggle toward ideation for betterment of our flourishing upon and with this planet. A global eudaimonia perhaps?

I suggest a starting point (though, on a continuum, obviously the start is almost arbitrary and is liable to shift with time and circumstance) at 'Event'. Event is any unobserved occurrence. There are all sorts of nonsense arguments, largely to do with word-play, along the lines that Events only occur if they are observed. I say bollocks, quantum physics notwithstanding. The tree still fell in the forest whether or not we were there to witness it doing so and is now busily being converted back to a less ordered state by innumerable insects, fungi and micro-organisms. So let's not get stuck in a philosophical bog but leave the tree to suffer its noble fate and instead move ourselves along. Next on our continuum comes therefore, quite logically, 'Observation' in whatever manner as best suits the Event and the Observer; sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and more, in isolation or combination. Observation is simple witnessing, an engagement with our perceptual senses alone. I'm going to temporarily overlook biological, social, intellectual and other biases and influences upon this and subsequent steps along our continuum for now, though I will highlight their import shortly.

Observation is then potentially, but not necessarily - as the Observer may simply internalise their perception of the Event and move on - followed by 'Recording' in all its many forms - textual, audio, visual and more again, across numerous media. I am using Recording as a verb, an active process, not a resultant product but it is still an important step to isolate for our purposes of understanding this proposed model. The end result of the process of Recording, the product, is 'Data' - pages of text, tables of numbers, graphs and charts, drawings and musical notation, etc. Up to this point, a solitary individual has engaged with or Observed the Event and the Data produced by their Recording exists in relative isolation. In earlier times, sitting perhaps in a hand written notebook (though it could of course take numerous forms), it might never go further and could remain dormant for eternity or be destroyed by fire or other means of neglect and eventual destruction. I will now briefly highlight, as promised, that of course every step after the initial Event is of necessity imbued with the inevitability of biological, social, intellectual and other biases and influences. How we Observe Events, Record Data, and more, is a factor of who we are, how we were raised, the culture and environment within which and alongside whom we live, etc. Every person is unique, and therefore uniquely experiences and 'understands' their world. This very uniqueness is vital to the proposition of Betterment. Also, for our proposed model of the continuum existing as just one slim strand of possibility, these biological, social, intellectual etc. variabilities exist on their own intersecting continuums and are precisely what contributes to the complex, entangled multi-dimensional mesh of potential being explored.

The Data - the content of the 'notebook' needs further intervention through reading, or even publication, to progress to the next level on our continuum - 'Information', wherein the Data can be accessed by other persons. Data can only be Information if someone is Informed - they are not synonymous. Information is consumed by the recipient, but not at this point actually assimilated into their active memory. This is, if you like, a surface engagement only. Until relatively recently, broad circulation of Data to enable it becoming Information was time consuming, expensive and frequently thwarted by the vagaries of the publishing world, or the socio-economic status, literacy etc. of its potential audience. Data can of course also be progressed to Information via word of mouth, but we all know the dangers of verbal chains of Information dissemination as highlighted by such as the Telephone Game. Though just maybe we should see such possibility of distortion as simply another intersecting continuum in our mesh?

The internet changed this situation. Suddenly one person among millions, from many walks of life across manifold geographical locations and raised within numerous cultures, could place their Data on a multiplicity of subjects into a location accessible by all the others with access to the resource, enabling relatively cheap and easy creation of an almost horizonless sea of Information. This was the Information Revolution. It was proposed it would, inevitably, change our world - for the Better.

But. You heard that coming I think? But, Information is still just consumed Data. It has a few more steps to take along our continuum before it starts to make improvements. Information is no more than that which we rapidly access with a simple Google search to answer a crossword clue or settle an argument at the pub. For Information to progress further it first of all needs, as implied earlier, to become assimilated into active memory - able to be utilised at will in future. This is 'Knowledge'. I want to make a qualitative distinction at this point to hopefully clarify a possible confusion in our use of language. I am using here a 'high-value' understanding of the word Knowledge which is different from the oft encountered conversational phrases 'I know!' or 'I just want to know!' For the purpose of this post I judge these latter two phrases to be examples of no more than a social, surface engagement with Information that could perhaps be termed idle chat or even gossip, that is not necessarily likely to further progress along our continuum. Since I used earlier the gustatory metaphor of Information being consumed, perhaps I can here suggest this 'low-value' use of 'know' to be a form of chewing the cud wherein it is worked over and over but produces principally excrement and very little of nutritional benefit?

Our (high-value) Knowledge can now exist in remove from the Information source and, most importantly, it can be mentally mixed with other acquired Knowledge in new and unique combinations, either in a single person's mind or through discussion with other persons. This is our next step, 'Ideation'. This is a word not frequently encountered for an activity perpetually engaged upon. It is the source of creativity and a vital component of the design process. We all potentially Ideate many times on an average day as a critical part of otherwise routine tasks - selecting an unusual combination of garments to wear when our usual preferences are in the wash, concocting a dish or menu from a random assortment of ingredients left in the refrigerator and pantry, improvising a fix for a broken item with the tools and materials we have to hand rather than trek to the hardware store. Creativity is not the special reserve of a social elite of artists, designers, authors,  scientists, mathematicians, composers and the like who are inaccurately said to be 'gifted' with 'genius' but a skill we all possess and all have the capability to improve through learning, practice and application. Creativity - Ideation - is critical to avoid stagnation in all its forms and one of our most vital tools. We would all do well to explore to a much greater extent our boundless capacity to creatively and productively Ideate.

Now is perhaps a good opportunity to point out that our continuum is not of necessity restricted to a single direction of flow. Newly arranged and combined Knowledge - Ideas - holding the potential for further progression, can instead become new Knowledge, shared Information or recorded Data and so on. However another and more desirable outcome of Ideas may be their application to addressing an issue. Futhermore, if the issue being addressed is the resolution of a dilemma - be it physical, mental, emotional, ethical or what-have-you - with a successful outcome, then it may be deemed to have progressed along our continuum and become 'Wisdom'. Wisdom is the quality to which we all perhaps aspire? It is frequently portrayed as being the reserve of Wise old sages and beyond the reach of the common people as they negotiate their routine daily tasks, but I hope I have shown this to be a fallacy as it is nothing more than two simple steps further after Knowledge, which we all uniquely hold. Some of our Knowledge might of course be considered to be what we term common Knowledge, but the greater part of our individual quotient is indeed truly unique and therefore uniquely powerful in its potential for Ideation and Wisdom.

Some Wisdom when shared is simply an evening-out of distribution of benefits - bringing one or more persons to a point of understanding or quality of life that is already broadly accepted, embraced and enjoyed by an alternative majority (or, sadly, perhaps a privileged minority). But other Wisdom is newly minted and deliberately, or through fortuitous circumstance, produces the possibility of yet a further advance on our continuum and produces 'Betterment'.

Betterment (the word) is no more than my choice of term for what has perhaps been known for countless generations among those of philosophical bent as Eudaimonia. The 'flourishing' promoted as the highest good - the ultimate aim of practical philosophy - by such as Aristotle, Epicurus and others before and since. However, whilst Epicureanism sought to promote flourishing for its immediate communities, I propose Betterment as a seeking and working toward much broader, greater, perhaps global and even potentially universal application.  It is, I feel, also somewhat akin to the Dynamic Quality proposed in the frankly extraordinary (though seemingly little known or regarded?) book Lila: An Enquiry into Morals by Robert M. Pirsig (Bantam Press, 1991). Lila is the sequel, written under a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, to his earlier and highly acclaimed Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (William Morrow & Co., 1974).

Importantly, if indeed Betterment equates to or approaches Pirsig's concept of Dynamic Quality, it means that not only can it produce Better, but it actually IS Better. It possesses the unassailable value of Better. Better, however, not simply for humanity (for that in isolation is surely not inherently Better) but Better for all existence. A Betterment that recognises and creates the possibility and eventual realisation of true unity of understanding and existence. And this is precisely why I have chosen, for an English speaking audience only admittedly, this particular word. For me at least, it has semantically less baggage or connotation to falsely weigh it down. Prosperity, happiness, blessedness and welfare all carry connotations that can suggest evanescent financial, emotional, religious or charitable gains but which are not of themselves wholly and universally Better. This is not 'self-satisfaction'. This is most certainly not 'progress'. This is an altogether 'higher' form of advancement. It perhaps cannot be fully contained by a simple word in any language?

But what I hope I have proposed with clarity and conviction, is that this possibility of contribution toward Betterment is available to us all. It is little more than another step along our continuum from Wisdom as outlined in all I've proposed above and which perhaps would here benefit from a simple linear representation: (Though shown of course in isolation from the truly wonderful and complex mesh of which it forms a single, though vital, strand of potential as it wends its way through engagement with different races, cultures, beliefs, understandings and more.)

Event - Observation - Recording - Data - Information - Knowledge - Ideation - Wisdom - Betterment

Finally we reached the Betterment that I mentioned was proposed to be the inevitable outcome of the Information Revolution as it changed our world almost beyond recognition. But as I've suggested, there are a few very important steps between and I don't believe we can jump over them so lightly. Hopscotch this is not. To truly attain Betterment I think we first need to engender and navigate the Knowledge Revolution, the Ideation Revolution and the Wisdom Revolution. Strong evidence for any of which I have not as yet broadly witnessed in recent global affairs. There are occasional faint glimmers of hope and opportunity but we perhaps unfortunately largely see possibility for true change at a falsely perceived remove from our own potential. Until we all, humanity at large, embrace the true possibility of advancing, individually and collectively, the extra few steps along our continuum toward Betterment, I fear perhaps we may doom ourselves to forever oscillate at a lower range on our continuum of potential, if not perhaps to reduce our 'forever' to an unnecessarily short count of our planetary years?

Betterment is possible and perhaps now we have the small beginnings of a map to follow toward it? Are you prepared to add your unique contribution to a potentially global investment in its attainment?

December 2020

Humans

Another 'contribution' from an alternative author. The following is from a 'list' which forms an entire chapter in Matt Haig's quite wonderful observation of the species - around which he has constructed a delightful narrative. Like so many other volumes, it is a great mistake to dismiss it as 'just a children's book'.

All the advice is sound, despite some entries being more specifically related to the narrative itself. I have only selected 72 from the full count of 97, plus I've made minor edits on some for the purpose of this post. As a consequence, my numbering differs from that in the book. I find (my numbering) 49, 50 & 51 a nice trio. 55 always makes me smile. And, among others, 3 & 71 are particularly suited to my Daoist outlook.

I feel compelled to add the usual disclaimer concerning advice, as originally penned by Mary Schmich for the Chicago Tribune in 1997:

'Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.'

Enjoy ... And read the book!

My selections from 'Advice for a human', The Humans, Matt Haig, 2013 

1. Shame is a shackle. Free yourself.
2. Don't worry about your abilities. You have the ability to love. That is enough.
3. Be nice to other people. At the universal level, they are you.
4. Technology won't save humankind. Humans will.
5. Laugh. It suits you.
6. Be curious. Question everything. A present fact is just a future fiction.
7. Peanut butter sandwiches go perfectly well with a glass of white wine. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
8. Sometimes, to be yourself you will have to forget yourself and become something else. Your character is not a fixed thing. You will sometimes have to move to keep up with it.
9. Sex can damage love but love can't damage sex.
10. You shouldn't have been born. Your existence is as close to impossible as can be. To dismiss the impossible is to dismiss yourself.
11. Your life will have 25,000 days in it. Make sure you remember some of them.
12. The road to snobbery is the road to misery.
13. Tragedy is just comedy that hasn't come to fruition. One day we will laugh at this. We will laugh at everything.
14. Wear clothes, by all means, but remember: they are clothes.
15. One life form's gold is another life form's tin can.
16. If you become an architect, remember this: The square is nice. So is the rectangle. But you can overdo it.
17. Don't worry about being angry. Worry when being angry becomes impossible. Because then you have been consumed.
18. Happiness is not out here. It is in there.
19. New technology, on Earth, just means something you will laugh at in five years. Value the stuff you won't laugh at in five years. Like love. Or a good poem. Or a song. Or the sky.
20. There is only one genre in fiction. The genre is called 'book'.
21. Dogs are geniuses of loyalty. And that is a good kind of genius to have.
22. If there is a sunset, stop and look at it. Knowledge is finite. Wonder is infinite.
23. Don't aim for perfection. Evolution, and life, only happens through mistakes.
24. Failure is a trick of the light.
25. You are human. You will care about money. But realise it can't make you happy because happiness is not for sale.
26. You are not the most intelligent creature in the universe. You are not even the most intelligent creature on your planet. The tonal language in the song of a humpback whale displays more complexity than the entire works of Shakespeare. It is not a competition. Well, it is. But don't worry about it.
27. One day humans will live on Mars. But nothing there will be more exciting than a single overcast morning on Earth.
28. Don't always try and be cool. The whole universe is cool. It's the warm bits that matter.
29. You will contradict yourself. You are large. You contain multitudes.
30. No one is ever completely right about anything. Anywhere.
31. Everyone is a comedy. If people are laughing at you, they just don't quite understand the joke that is themselves.
32. Your brain is open. Never let it be closed.
33. In a thousand years, if humans survive that long, everything you know will have been disproved. And replaced by even bigger myths.
34. Everything matters.
35. You have the power to stop time. You do it by kissing. Or listening to music. Music, by the way, is how you see things you can't otherwise see. It is the most advanced thing you have. It is a superpower.
36. A paradox. The things you don't need to live - books, art, cinema, wine and so on - are the things you need to live.
37. A cow is a cow even if you call it beef.
38. No two moralities match. Accept different shapes, so long as they aren't sharp enough to hurt.
39. Don't be scared of anyone.
40. At some point, bad things are going to happen. Have someone to hold on to.
41. Alcohol in the evening is very enjoyable. Hangovers in the morning are very unpleasant. At some point you have to choose: Evenings, or mornings.
42. If you are laughing, check that you don't really want to cry. And vice versa.
43. Don't ever be afraid of telling someone you love them. There are things wrong with your world, but an excess of love is not one.
44. You are not the only species on Earth with technology. Look at ants. Really. Look. What they do with twigs and leaves is quite amazing.
45. It is not the length of life that matters. It's the depth. But while burrowing, keep the sun above you.
46. Obey your head. Obey your heart. Obey your gut. In fact, obey everything except commands.
47. One day, if you get into a position of power, tell people this: Just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. There is a power and a beauty in unproved conjectures, unkissed lips and unpicked flowers.
48. Start fires. But only metaphorically. Unless you are cold and it's a safe setting. In which case: Start fires.
49. Be alive. That is your supreme duty to the world.
50. Don't think you know. Know you think.
51. As a black hole forms it creates an immense gamma-ray burst, blinding whole galaxies with light and destroying millions of worlds. You could disappear at any second. This one. Or this one. Or this one. Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you'd be happy to die doing.
52. War is the answer. To the wrong question.
53. Physical attraction is, primarily, glandular.
54. No one will understand you. It is not, ultimately, that important. What is important is that you understand you.
55. A quark is not the smallest thing. The smallest thing is the regret you will feel on your deathbed for not having worked more.
56. Politeness is often fear. Kindness is always courage. But caring is what makes you human. Care more, become more human.
57. In your mind, change the name of every day to Saturday. And change the name of work to play.
58. When you watch the news and see members of your species in turmoil, do not think there is nothing you can do. But know it is not done by watching news.
59. You get up. You put on your clothes. And then you put on your personality. Choose wisely.
60. Language is euphemism. Love is truth.
61. You can't find happiness looking for the meaning of life. Meaning is only the third most important thing. It comes after loving and being.
62. If you think something is ugly, look harder. Ugliness is just a failure of seeing.
63. A watched pot never boils. That is all you need to know about quantum physics.
64. You are more than the sum of your particles. And that is quite a sum.
65. To like something is to insult it. Love it or hate it. Be passionate. As civilisation advances, so does indifference. It is a disease. Immunise yourself with art. And love.
66. Dark matter is needed to hold galaxies together. Your mind is a galaxy. More dark than light. But the light makes it worthwhile.
67. Which is to say: Always know that life is not still. Even when the darkness is total. Time is space. You are moving through that galaxy. Wait for the stars.
68. At the sub-atomic level, everything is complex. But do not live at the sub-atomic level. You have the right to simplify. If you don't you will go insane.
69. But know this. Men are not from Mars. Women are not from Venus. Do not fall for categories. Everyone is everything. Every ingredient inside a star is inside you, and every personality that every existed competes in the theatre of your mind for the main role.
70. You are lucky to be alive. Inhale and take in life's wonders. Never take so much as a single petal of a single flower for granted.
71. You don't have to be anything. Don't force it. Feel your way, and don't stop feeling your way until something fits. Maybe nothing will. Maybe you are a road, not a destination. That is fine. Be a road. But make sure it's one with something to look at out of the window.
72. Be kind to your mother. And try to make her happy.

Poetry

Context

The following small selection of works are the greater bulk of my paltry efforts at poetry in my life; or certainly the only ones I ever bothered to keep. They were written during my late teens/early twenties in a few of the many share houses I occupied over this period. I had left school at fifteen and the family home at seventeen. Like most young people, I was in the process of discovering and forging my identity, and struggling with loneliness, poor social skills, discrimination and perhaps at times, creative frustration; the seemingly typical floundering of our poorly educated and largely socially ignored youth.

They are arranged quite simply in chronological order. The first is perhaps particularly bleak but, importantly, I am still here and living a full life forty years later. The low troughs and high crests on this roller-coaster we call life are the yin and yang that give it flavour and balance; they don't sit in conflict or even so much cancel each other out, as provide, in combination, a varied yet complete unity. They invite us, as suggested in the Tao Te Ching, to 'blunt the sharp thing and untangle the knot'.

Please always remember … If you are feeling distressed or in need of support, help is as close as your phone or laptop … Or simply ask a passing stranger … 'Could you please help me?'

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Poems

Sunday

Blaring sax, from the speakers.

The washing's inside, it's raining.

Counting heartbeats, out of time.

How long have I been staring at that spider?

 

Five days work, two days nothing.

Feel like a shower, it's cold.

I'll turn the record over.

My fingers don't stop moving, they're nervous.

 

The phone rings, for me.

'Oh hi, how've you been, oh.

Oh yeah, if you like, yeah sure.

No, it's just that I'm down, no okay, bye.'

 

Looking at the movie lists.

They're lonely on your own.

Get some milk from the fridge.

They say it's hard to do, kill yourself.

 

Ha! I wouldn't have the guts.

It's stopped raining, but it's late.

Don't feel like cooking tea.

Maybe I'll write a letter. No, a poem.

 

Annandale, 1980

 

Curves

In a room with three corners and a curve

in the air, so the music's never the way it was

and your fingers stroll lost over the strings.

 

In a room with three corners and a curve

in the road outside the window, downstairs,

so the cars brake, your train of thoughts, lost.

 

In a room with three corners and a curve

in the time and the second hand falls quicker than it climbs,

your hand turns it anti-clockwise.

 

In a room with three corners and a curve

in your mind and the bats outside cry

as they plummet to their death three models old.

 

In a room with three corners and a curve

in the wall, and a floor below the ceiling which is white,

right where they're meant to be.

 

Double Bay, 1981

Escape #1

Melancholy is a beautiful thing

Standing

Staring

In the doorway

 

Music is a beautiful thing

Flitting

Floating

On the airwaves

 

Mountains are beautiful things

Majestic

Magnificent

In the sunset

 

Memories are beautiful things

Memories of mountains

Music

And melancholy

 

Memories of being with you

And wanting to escape

 

Paddington, 1982

 

Escape #2

Trapped, in a void

Free, in a cage

A city

 

Quiet, taxi's horn

Screaming, always silent

A street

 

Sad, speaking gaily

Happy, drunken depression

A house

 

An empty house

Mountains

Sunsets

Rain

 

Paddington, 1982

 

Surroundings

Out the window

Grey sky

Eye pot chimneys

Cool breeze

 

Through the doorway

Wet clothes

Photo ripped paper

Cockroach

 

In the kitchen

Dirty pans

Spray dead Mortein

Croissants

 

On the player

Black disc

Sad white sugar

Rodriguez

 

Of the mind

NMR scan

Old house songs

Images

 

Paddington, 1982

 

Bi Blues

Old or new born

Brings their scorn

On you

 

You didn't want it to be this way

You know it just turned out this way

 

See them so young

And feel it burn

Your heart

 

The gods play with the youths

The gods play with you too

 

What is this longing

This not belonging

You hope it will just go away

One day

Some day

 

Brief happiness

New found friend

It's him

 

You just wish it would last

But you feel it go fast

 

Older new girl

Feeling secure

Is it her

 

But then the arguments start

And again it's your heart

 

And so it burns

The calendar turns

You know it's going to be this way

For days

Some days

 

Surry Hills, (1983-6?)