Well, I’m back, again. I disappeared this last time for a simple reason; was sick of my own, sub-standard art. I can keep a basic drum beat; I am a decent but shallow writer, a semi-decent abstract artist, by majority a terrible poet, and an armature photographer. I have a lot of things I am almost good at but can’t quite seem to find proper artistic talent in myself, nor any form I enjoy enough to really try to cultivate, considering my derth of natural skill for it.

You may notice that in several of my new pieces I have been using words in conjunction with the imagery. If you will excuse me, and you must as it is my journal, I would like to rant for a moment. I have been playing with the idea of imagery and language for a while now. Language is a method to convey ideas or facts. Things like, “watch your step, there’s a cliff there,” seem like obvious and simple statements. However one’s mind has to break apart and analyze each word to realize what it is they are being warned about. If our evolution had taken a drastically different path can you not imagine projecting imagery as a method of communication? We have letters that make up words that make up sentences that make up paragraphs, right? Well, can’t you imagine patterns on an overall figure representing the same basic elements as letters to present a unique idea in conjunction with the overall shape, or word, all part of a scene or sentence, and overshadowed by an expansive landscape or paragraph? And this is just for simple communication. We humans have moved on to metaphor, basically using the principle I was just discussing, but with another level of complexity. In metaphor one uses words to; basically, create their own unique image-based language that they themselves tend not to fully understand. The reader must decode the words, turning them into imagery, then, since all humans rely on a word-based language system, turn it BACK into words, trying to decode what messages are tucked into the imagery.

One thing that should be noted is that when using metaphor or any kind of imagery based communication, emotion seems to be conveyed with much more potency. Perhaps because we have become accustomed to our words, our thoughts, being completely private, hidden from all around us and therefore we are given the luxury of not examining them to closely, the constant stream of consciousness let to slip by with no analysis. We do not have to consider how the rest of the world around us would react, how those around us would feel, if they could hear what goes on in our heads. On the other hand we have learned over our lives that imagery is usually observable for all those present, therefore we tend to pick it apart more and to not only appraise it with our own sense of emotion and thought, but with a more epithetic viewpoint, trying to imagine what it makes others think and feel.

Backtracking to the portion concerning self-examination; I think this is one of the most major flaws in our current society. I believe that much of the close-mindedness in this world stems from peoples lack of self-awareness. As I said before, thoughts come in a horridly rapid succession. It is easy to just let them slip by and not ask questions. But, next time you think about God in heaven or some person you want dead, think about why you thought that. Dig into your past, find the root of that bias or belief. If people could learn to do this I think allot of the less pleasant human behaviors would occur much less frequently. However, there is another type of person permeated with these unpleasant traits, a much more insidious creature, the intelligent idiot. These people rationalize, and are good at it. “I don’t think he should be kicked out of the country for having brown skin, I think he needs to go cause’ he’s stealing my job.” Now, I know this is a controversial example as illegal immigration and the loss of American jobs is a legitimate issue, but I am convinced that, by a vast majority, people who support widespread deportation are making judgments steered by a much deeper bias. If this were not the case, a compromise would have had to have been reached by now. But back to the intelligent idiot; what these people need is another level of self examination, coupled with acceptance of the bounds and limitations of their own intelligence. This is nearly impossible to pinpoint for any person, but a general idea can be reached. So when these people think, “it’s because their stealing my job,” they need to dig a level deeper. Find where the idea that they are stealing jobs came from; who told you, is the source credible and what goals was the person who told you working toward? Think about reasonable and realistic solutions instead of holding onto some archaic zealotry. We need to abandon these foolish ideals holding morality above logic. We, as a species, must learn that morality is subjective and completely unique within every person’s perception of reality, therefore moral standards are impossible to enforce without becoming some terrible thing akin to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. I am not saying basic laws shouldn’t be enforced, within any society basic rules of conduct are required, but as long as you are not harming another person, you should have to answer only to yourself.

Now, as long as we are on the subject of society and how it is flawed and could be bettered. This is a completely new rant, by the way. I would apologize for boring you, but if you read this far you must have some interest in my thoughts. I agreed that in a society there must be some basic rules that everyone involved must follow. This opens several issues. What is acceptable and not acceptable? Who should decide what is and isn’t acceptable? How should standards be enforced? My answer to all these questions starts with tearing down our society’s structure from the highest strata to the foundation. We need to rebuild our world’s social structure from the ground up. The basic form I present for a more effective method is tribalism. We need a plethora of small societies in place of every large one active in the world today. If you look to the natural kingdom the only creatures that function on a massive scale like we do have a base of mindless, obedient workers. I could go into how our government is trying to create this out of the blue collar working class through television, radio and fear tactics, but that is yet another rant. Now, if you look at animals of higher brain function you find smaller groups. Dog packs, dolphin pods and groups of monkeys. (I’m sure there’s a word for it, I just don’t know it.) Usually based around family to some level these groups function with, usually, between ten and thirty members. So, while I will not deny our higher brain functions would let us effectively organize in numbers greater than this we should not have a society surpassing one or maybe a couple hundred members. These should be groups in which everyone knows everyone else, not a single person is glossed over. There is a famous quote, “the death of one is a tragedy, the death of a million is just a statistic.” We could eliminate this problem, making any conflict on a small enough level that it could most likely be solved through non-violent communication; seeing as war is so much more daunting when your whole society could, potentially, be destroyed and I guarantee leaders would be much more sparing in their use of force if they and their families would be on the front line with everyone else. If someone harmed another member of the society they could be judged and punished by the whole, or those who have watched the conflict evolve, not a selection of random citizens completely removed from the case and under the influence of their own unique set of biases they have acquired over their lifetimes. It seems to me that this basic system for government would eliminate much of our strife. Anyway, I’m done, go look at my new art, bow unto me as a new god amongst men and prostrate yourself at my feet baring gifts of overwhelming beauty. Or just give me some feedback, whatever.