Will Smith finds his balls, makes sense.
Topic: police state
from New York Daily News:

"No. Absolutely not," Smith replied when reporter Johanna Adorjan asked if the events of 9/11 had personally changed him. "When you grow up black in America you have a completely different view of the world than white Americans. We blacks live with a constant feeling of unease.

"And whether you are wounded in an attack by a racist cop or in a terrorist attack, I'm sorry, it makes no difference."

...In the interview, in which Smith accused President Bush of lying to justify war in Iraq, the actor went on:

"In the '60s, blacks were continuously the victims of terrorist attacks. It was civil terrorism, but terrorism nonetheless. We are used to being attacked. That constant state of vigilance - a sort of defensive state - that hasn't changed at all. For me, nothing has changed at all."

Smith's PR rep, Stan Rosenfield, didn't respond to repeated phone calls and a detailed E-mail yesterday.

Lowdown was unable to reach interviewer Adorjan to verify the accuracy of the quotes. But I'm told by a mutual friend that Adorjan is a solid journalist who speaks fluent English.

"...unlocking the vast unused power of the human brain."
Topic: Evolution
"The Japanese macaques raised in Atsushi Iriki's lab are not particularly gifted. But intriguingly, he expects them soon to be communicating with him vocally, using simple linguistic rules. This isn't just an elegant Dr Dolittle curiosity: it holds the real possibility of understanding autism in humans and unlocking the vast unused power of the human brain.

"Iriki, head of the laboratory for symbolic cognitive development at the Riken Brain Science Institute, says his experiment will tap into neural systems monkeys always had, but have never been activated. He hopes to learn something about monkey thought, but more dramatically, about how language emerged in humans -and what happens when it breaks down in autistic children, for example."

Guardian (UK) article here.

RE: reinventing capitalism
Topic: by Lenny
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Malec [mailto:root@scottmalec.info]
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 2:51 PM
To: Lenny
Subject: RE: reinventing capitalism

> Good point, Brother. So what you are speaking
> about here is a Synthesis between Bloom and
> Crowley (and Marx)?

I think if you reread bloom's stuff you'll see that marx has nothing to do with anything.

He (Bloom) is talking about humanity as an organism, capitalism as being the way to harness all of man's innate predisposition towards competition, violence, territoriality, etc. etc. and consciously channeling it for everybody's benefit. Making people "at the top" realise that they will make more money and be happier if what they do benefits the ENTIRE organism -- down to every last cell (worker), in a very real way.

This shift will require people to have the kind of shrewd insight into themselves and each other that is verboten with organized religion, etc etc.

But can capitalism be "fixed" or is he reaching for something else entirely and calling it "capitalism" so as to not scare the corporations?

What about the school of thought that says capitalism, socialism, etc is all BS -- that it is information and technology that determines the living conditions of a people?

> I'm with ya, brother!
> How do we do it? Beyond mind and matter ...

don't ask me! If Jesus couldn't do it how the hell should I know?

Eight Fundamental Questions
Topic: Philosophy
The philosopher's role is to ignite wonder, raise the burning issues, inspire the pursuit of answers. It is science that produces the ever-changing, improving answers to the haunting questions that religious wonder poses. There are eight questions that any fair survey of our philosophic history would agree are most fundamental to our existential condition.

Category (type of questions): Examples.

1. Origins (Genesis): How, when, where did life come from? How did it evolve?

2. Politics (Security): Why do humans fight and compete destructively? What are the territorial laws that explain human conflict? How can humans live in relative peace and harmony? How, when, where and why do humans differ (among each other and from other mammalian species) in aggression, control, cooperation, affiliation?

3. Epistemology (Truth, fact, knowledge, language, communications, manufacture of objects, artifacts and symbol systems): How, when, where and why does the mind emerge (in the individual and species)? And how, when, where and why do humans differ in their ability to process information, learn, communicate, think, plan and manufacture?

4. Ethics (Good and evil, right and wrong): How, when, where and why do humans differ in their moral beliefs and rituals? Who decides what is good and right?

5. Esthetics (Beauty, pleasure, luxury, sensory reward): How, when, where and why do humans devote their energies to decoration, hedonism, art, music, entertainment? And how, when, where and why do they differ in modes of pleasure?

6. Ontology (Reality and it's/their definition): How, when, where and why do humans differ in the realities they construct and inhabit? How are realities formed and changed?

7. Teleology (Evolution and de-evolution of life): What are the stages and mechanisms of evolution? How, when, where and why has evolution occurred? Chance? Natural selection? Natural election? Creation? Is life created and evolution blueprinted, who did it? Where is life going?

8. Cosmology (Galactic evolution, of ultimate and basic structure): How, when, where and why was matter-energy formed? What are the basic units and patterns of matter/energy? What are the basic forces, energies and plans that hold the universe together (or don't) and determined evolution? Where are we going?

from Timothy Leary, Changing My Mind Among Others.

The Relatives Of Man
Topic: Philosophy
The last one hundred years has brought us the theory of relativity - ironically interpreted and used as an absolute... [Einstein's theory is invoked] as a defense for their most stupid and ignorant theories and mis-representations of facts. Their logic... goes something like this. "I invoke the theory of relativity, by the authority of Einstein, to prove that my authority, (and ideas) are as equally valid as anyone else's." Most of them never heard of testing their ideas in the lab... All opinions are not equal. All tunnel realities are not equal, for equality would obviate the necessity for our diversity.

Christopher Hyatt, Ph.D., from Undoing Yourself, 9th ed.

Of course, we are speaking in generalities here.
Topic: by Lenny
-----------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Malec [mailto:root@scottmalec.info]
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 2:28 PM
To: Lenny
Subject: Re: reinventing capitalism

Yes, yes to the moon, then to the stars. Ra ra. Horay, horay. Sounds like more crapitalist, social darwinist propaganda to me. Passion, but no compassion.

In short, I am the butt of this thinking, on the verge of extinction. I am aware of it of the boot coming down upon me, so cannot and will not praise my oppressor, the Man.

--------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny [mailto:lennyflatley@thefantastics.net]
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 2:37 PM
To: 'root@scottmalec.info'
Subject: RE: reinventing capitalism

Bloom has an important POV -- he sees things (inc. human culture, humanity itself, the world) systemically. I wonder how he feels about PEOPLE.

Regardie, Buddha, Occultists and mystics understand human consciousness (and the flawed nature of being a humanimal) and how to personally transcend it but offer no answers as to the real world dilemma (so, you've become Jesus H. Christ... then what about the rest of us, buddy?)

What is needed is a synthesis.

Of course, I am speaking in generalities here.

Ireland: Shannon Banchees Invade Airport & Make Shrine for US/Coalition & Iraqi Dead
Topic: war in Iraq
          

10,000+ US Soldiers travel through Shannon Airport
to Iraq every month - a majority of US Dead probably
traveled through Shannon, in violation of the Irish
Constitution and will of the Irish people

audio: MP3 at 26.2 mebibytes

read the Indymedia Ireland feature at http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67254

more info about the Dublin Catholic Worker at http://geocities.com/dublincatholicworker

also see http://PloughsharesIreland.org

William S. Burroughs.

Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

from A Thanksgiving Prayer, Burroughs (1986)

Human (bio) evolution walks hand in hand with behavioral/societal evolution.
Topic: Evolution
It appears that wealth was shuttled massively toward those who specialized in the perpetuation and regeneration of large‑scale social dynamics. Priests, for example, are specialists in social cohesion. The work of anthropologist Mary Douglas hints that religious rituals may be practice for the routines which pin together a society. Rituals inculcate obedience to authority, and act as calisthenics for the sort of simultaneous, coordinated activities--complete with selfless sacrifice-which make massive social structures tick... try thinking of it this way: civility is a set of habits, habits of cooperation and habits of self-restraint. To attain these civilized disciplines, one needs a strong prefrontal cortex-home of the executive functions that rein our more chaotic impulses in. One also needs practice-practice repeated nearly every day. Regular rehearsal keeps the habits of self-control vigorously alive. Religious rituals are calisthenics for the habits indispensable to large-scale social enterprise.

-- Howard Bloom, "Instant Evolution"

Intelligent Design vs. Common Sense.
Topic: by Lenny
Intelligent Design breaks from Creationism in the sense that classically Creationism sets some very narrow parameters for the origin of humanity -- the earth is only 6000 years old, it was created in seven days (including lunch breaks), etc -- while ID seems to be more inclusive of the science of evolution.

ID is being pushed because it can bill itself as "science" even though it's very core is religious. Instead of being agnostic it requires belief in something ultimately unprovable (God). This is the trojan horse where the religious sneak God into the classroom.




Evolution is almost universally accepted by science, yet 48% of Americans believe in Creationism.

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