Sunday, 7th of January, 2018

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Let me start to piece together some things. I am a bit behind for various reasons, but let this be a sort of manifesto for 2018 (manifestos should be ever changing and evolving, right?). I want to go back to 2017 for a moment. 2017 was the first time I used reddit beyond a surperficial understanding of what it was, but I quickly realized why it is referred as the front page of the internet. I traveled abroad to Paris, France, and visited one of my longtime friends (a post about this updated soon as well) mid 2017. I returned to meditation in 2017, and started a daily practice around August, that has been challenging and transformative. In 2017, I began to listen more in depth to Sam Harris' podcasts (the podcasts directly as opposed to soundbites, edits elsewhere).

This is really what I'm going to focus on at the moment. Sam Harris (not really good at speaking on aesthetics at all, definitely no expert on the topic, but able to speak on many of my interests – robotics, AI, neuroscience, philosophy, and much more). I am much more liberal, politically than Sam Harris, but I do have many centerist views (a healthy skepticism fits somewhere in the center – I am a skeptic – hopefully healthily). (In a way, this is all about an inadequacy with words and in speaking – in front of a crowd – you know things I need to work on... speaking of, I may need to edit this down before it's done, but bear with me.)

Sam Harris brought up something that very much resonated with me. He mentioned building a culture (art included) based on the combination of the best ideas. More specifically, culture that is developed from a combination of intuition and the spirituality developing from the evolution of humanism (beyond secular humanism, not atheism – but something merging the best of Western and Eastern thought, and all in between). This is no new idea in the history of art and aesthetics, but it was how the information was presented by Sam Harris – a great orator/podcaster/contemporary mind. I am not looking directing to the source of this podcast to refresh my memory, and it may take me a bit longer to explain what/how/why this information made something click in me.

* I would suggest reading Real Spaces: World Art History and the Rise of Western Modernism (by David Summers – a history exploring attributes to art/architecture – and ultimately an attempt to understand the dominance of Western Modernism against other cultures), Altermodern (by Nicolas Bourriaud – an attempt to create a global context of art against the western narrative), and Conversations Before the End of Time (by Suzi Gablik – the best of these recommendations with a deeper reach and scope – and the most honest, imho) if you are interested in more on this from an art historical (maybe even anti-art historical) background. 

** I would add that I am not able to speak for every book published to date, and there are perhaps several other starting points, these are simply my personal references.

I've been very silent in 2017, reseting, observing, and absorbing (but yes, making and acting, but offline – offline is such a great place). In 2017, I changed my opinion on Nietszche. He may have said a few insightful things (ownership of potential, eternal return, breaking cycles, etc), but many others have come to those good conclusions. Aside from a few interesting ramblings, Nietszche was a racist writer (I would argue that American libertarianism is derivative of this – maybe I'll expand on this in the future, maybe not). Just as you cannot erase the past and all pain or suffering, we need to take the lessons of the past and construct a more inclusive and honest narrative for our future generations.

Taking the best of knowledge maybe sounds subjective, but I believe there is something objective (if we use science, intuition, and other means to discern differences) in making a path for the future. Let us face the challenging and complex present with this intent. Maybe I will not succeed in creating a path even for myself to move forward, but at least I will move forward now with that intent.

(*see Kishi Bashi's EP Room For Dream, well at least two songs: Conversations At the End of the World and Evalyn, Summer Has Arrived – yes in that order as time is nonlinear – well, in a universal sense. Just remember to not get sucked in a youtube wormhole or you will feel just how nonlinear it can all be.)

In the post-#BlackLivesMatter / post-#MeToo era, I hold myself accountable (ownership is very important – ownership of mistakes, ownership of responsibilities) for not trying hard enough in the past to do the right thing. I plan to consult and engage in collaboration with the people who will make statements and stories successful (more on storytelling soon). In the same instance, we cannot detract from movements and causes of change and progression. (A friend of mine will appreciate this) Bad seeds and ideas (racism, bigotry, sexual misconduct, abuse of power, conspiracy theories, misinformation, assumptions, stereotypes, etc) are spread everday and we can only hope to counter that with good seeds.

I have been guilty of applying things to a blanket statement as an anecdote to solve these problems in the past. I will hold myself accountable and hopefully continue down a trajectory to find solutions. I am just now getting started. Submit feedback if you think you have something to say that would benefit this effort.

More specificity soon.

A final note, and conclusion to the blog post today. I think there is misinformation and misunderstanding in both directions. I think we need to continue to find shared values and common ground. Charles Murray, the author of The Bell Curve (if you put your bias aside for a moment – also think about how and why we may misinterpret information – aka confirmation bias), said this evening in an interview,

“I think that a great deal of what made America special is lost beyond recall, and I don't have any good policy ideas that I am at all confident will go very far in bringing that back.”

But:

“You know, I'm thinking there aren't that many societies around the world. In fact, we were the one in which people who happened to live in geographic proximity to each other were as capable of solving their problems and dealing with human needs in their communities as American civil society used to be.”

With no solutions at the moment,

“Some of the forces at work here are simply not reversible. I am afraid that what we're looking at is the United States as a rich country, as a powerful country - that's not going to go away - we aren't going to be America, the kind of America that the rest of the world thought was both occasionally exasperating but also awfully cool and a place that they wanted to be like or wanted to go to. I think that's going to fade."

And finally,:

“Do I think that Donald Trump represents a huge danger - both existential danger in terms of immediate disasters, but also, he's kind of the embodiment of everything that the founders told us would characterize the demise of the experiment that they set in motion.” (that is an affirmative.)

We are the solution, we who stand together, extend ourselves to communicate, and to build a new social fabric. Artists, activists, hackers, software developers, and inventors, we need to speak out and build a solution. Let us step up to these impossible challenges surrounding us.

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-JCS