The social machine

The world is a strange place. We spend our lives learning how to contribute to a system we are trapped in by it’s own design. Obviously, you need an incentive to slave day in and day out at a job you hate, so we created money, just for that purpose. What do we pay for these flimsy pieces of paper and shards of metal? Our time and our energy. Probably the two most valuable things we have. Without time, we cease to exist and without energy, we cease to make use of our time. The jobs we so desperately sought over strip us of our time and energy. It begins to make you think… Is it really worth it?

Sadly, many people believe it is. And while some work may be fulfilling, when you becoming an anonymous cog in a social machine, that’s when they’ve won.

Who is they, you may ask? Is it the evil bankers? The corrupt politicians? Maybe secret societies? No. When people discuss the ills of society they often try to envision a set of people or beings, consciously calling the shots. What people fail to realise is that many wrongs in our world are not brought upon us by independent thought. Rather, they are created by systems, set in place through our own ignorance and the never-ending thirst for power by all humans.

Near enough everything set in place in our modern times, is consequently designed as means to make us contribute to the economic machine and feeding the beast that never be full.

We work almost like autonomous robots, slaving all our lives as one single entity in separate sectors to keep this machine we call society going. Children in third-world countries are used as the building blocks. Their paid minuscule amounts by the rich elite, to create products for us to consume. We work as cogs keeping the machine together. Then there is money as it’s lubricant. The thing that keeps it’s going on a consistent cycle.

The terrible truth is when we earn this money for our labour we feed it back into the machine, and it goes round full cycle again. Consumerism exists, but it is not an option, we are force-fed it.

You sit at home and gaze solemnly your television screen, bombarded by celebrities and people that are happier than you. It makes you feel more miserable about your own life, so we consume. We buy that overpriced smart phone or fancy car because material items are the only perception of success and happiness we are presented with. We feed the money back into a system that fails us again and again. The system gets stronger, reinforces itself and we become conditioned to believe everything is okay.

Our society breeds unhappiness by it’s own design. It’s okay though we’ve got pills for that. Take these and you’ll be fine. Straight back to work. We don’t need any of them human emotions showing and causing cracks in our system. There’s a lot of money invested in this system. Numb them with drugs before they start catching on.

Every machine need all of it’s parts to work properly. One dysfunctional cog and the system starts very slowly falling to pieces. But it’s okay. We kill them people.

 

Maybe you are one of these dysfunctional cogs. Maybe I am. Then again, that’s too much thinking for one day. I think it’s about time you got back to work reader. The machine isn’t going to feed itself.

The purpose of misery

I hate being happy. I find it near enough impossible, to write anything particularly soulful or thought-provoking. I can sit in front of a computer screen for hours, and be left with nothing more than a half-hearted twitter post. Even picking up the guitar just leads to a few generic open chords and the odd murmur of vocals.

When you create something, you put a little bit of yourself into your art. Ourselves, or as many like to call, the ego, is created from a multitude of experiences throughout our life. Good or bad, it’s all there and sadness seems to bring out the best, most powerful and emotional pieces of work out there.

I mean, were would Hemingway or Bukowski be without their crippling alcohol problems or misanthropic tendencies? How about Ian Curtis or Kurt Cobain without debilitating depressive disorders? The sad thing is, many of the greats end up offing themselves, leaving nothing more than a legacy and eventually, a footnote in a tattered old history book.

Pain and misery brings out the most raw and real representation of the human experience. Something we can all relate to and emphasise with. After all, sadness, loneliness, anxiety and depression are some of the most powerful and overpowering feelings one can experience.

Everything we do is to avoid negative emotions. But the truth is, we need misery.

Sadness and despair gives contrast to the good things in life. If you were happy all of the time, then you would ultimately end up being unhappy. This is because humans always want more, it is in our nature. If everything was euphoric and amazing 24/7, then your original version of happiness would become less satisfying then your ever increasing standard of fulfilment. Your standards would rise. Misery makes us appreciate happiness for what it is, so we don’t become desensitised to good feelings.

The issue is, it feels like a lot of the time artists are stuck between the choice of happiness and doing what they love. Which is to create. It seems that misery always comes around eventually to pay you back for all that undeserved happiness you’ve been getting lately. Still though if you want creation gives you energy, it’s hard when you don’t have the powerful emotions of despair by your side to help you create. Then again, you enjoy being happy. What is there to do?

I still haven’t quite cracked this yet but lately if I’m too happy and content, I try to sprinkle a bit of misery onto my day, just to invoke them powerful emotions. It’s not too hard.

Make your self a really disgusting coffee in the morning. Don’t even think about putting sugar in that thing. Miss the bus to work and walk in the pouring rain instead. Get hit by a car on the way back from work… Okay, maybe not that far, but once you find that nice balance of happiness and misery you’ll have all the tools to finish that novel/screenplay/short-film you’ve been working on. How is that novel going anyway? Oh what’s that. You haven’t started it yet? Never mind.

–THE LONELY PROCRASTINATING WEST–

Technology as a weapon

There have been many predictions of the future all throughout history. Many ridiculous, others terrifyingly accurate. What I don’t think anybody could have predicted, is the alarming rate in which technology has progressed in the past decade or so.

If you told somebody in the 1920’s that you can connect to somebody on the other side of the planet, through an imaginary space called the internet, they’d probably lock you away. Damn, if you told them that mental illness was real and people weren’t locked away for it, they’d probably think you were crazy.

Technology is a catalyst in an ever-changing world were we are evolving and seeing large amounts of worldwide, economic and societal change. However, the sheer speed this technology has progressed has left us all dumbfounded, with not enough time to face the potential and unknown repercussions of these changes

George Orwell predicted a world were this seamless connectivity backfired on us and created a hellish reality of corrupt aristocracy and constant government surveillance.

This is frightening when you think about recent controversy with the NSA. A huge government agency using technology as a weapon for relentless surveillance.

Oh but it’s okay “You shouldn’t worry if you have nothing to hide.” Like the slogan in Orwell’s novel for Big Brother…

Ignorance is surrender. When you ignore the fact that we are heading towards a dystopian society where we are simply cogs in the ever turning economic machine, you can rest easy. You can just ignore the fact that our freedom of expression is being taken from us by the likes of net neutrality and censorship.

The technology which initially was meant to benefit our society is slowly being contaminated by a dogmatic government who use it negatively, to reap the benefits in our very primitive economic system.

Any use of this technology that takes you away from government control and helps you be free is often attempted to be destroyed. Bitcoin, Tor even the internet in general. The powers above don’t like it when they don’t have control over what we do with these powerful new digital aids.

Technology has pierced through the very seams of our society at a speed we couldn’t even fathom. We had no time to understand the potential dangers. It can be used for good. Or it can be used for evil. It can level cities to a pile of dust and update twitter, all at the same time.

What we do with this technology is up to us. It is time NOW for discussion. We need to work out exactly how we can use it  beneficially, and what adverse affects it can cause when in the wrong hands. Otherwise, we may end up living in a world were privacy, freedom and happiness are just fictional concepts, on your watered down and censored television set.

How close are we to reaching George Orwell or Aldous Huxley’s brave new world?

Well, the FBI have recently finished their facial recognition system. A system holding a database of at least 52 million faces, making it even more easy to infringe privacy and find the identity of every human on the planet. How far away from dystopia are we? This happened last week So I’ll let you be the judge.

If we stand up against the powers above, like Orwell, I predict we will be looking at astronomic social change. The abandonment of  hierarchical government, a better thought out economic system and the evolution and disembodiment of the mind, body and soul.

–THE LONELY WEST–

What is god? Consciousness and the observer effect

I’m an atheist. As an atheist there is nothing worse than a Christian who relentlessly tries to force their beliefs upon you. As someone who prides himself in (hopefully) not being an asshole, there’s nothing worse than an atheist doing the same thing.

It’s easy to discredit someone beliefs just because they seem ludicrous to you. But, you’ll never learn anything if you stay stuck in the mental prison of your own stubborn ideology. Truth be told, I used to be one of those atheist who preached about the narrow-mindedness of religious types which ironically makes you more narrow minded. This is because, like I said, you get trapped in your own beliefs and don’t accept any other opinions. Well, I’ve been given this some thought and although I remain an atheist you really can’t blame people for believing in a higher power.

I mean the universe makes no sense but complete sense at the same time. Back in the day, we didn’t have science. A higher being or deity seemed the only logical explanation for the reality in which we perceive. Of cause, as we evolved we began finding patterns. That’s all science is. The study of regularly occurring patterns. Humans like patterns because they help us make sense of seemingly chaotic events beyond our control. We like control. It eats away at us when we can’t categorise, analyse and neatly label things in the world. This is what science is for. Science found that our universe is governed by certain laws. These laws neatly fit into various equations and calculations which when worked out again and again always give the same result. Gravity, velocity or density it can all be calculated. It’s almost like a computer program with physics equations as it’s code.

With all this seamlessly perfect data we can extract from our universe, it becomes apparent that it is very possible there could well be a creator. Our world is intelligently designed as if someone meant it all to fit together and consistently work again and again. It’s insane when you think that, every small calculation of these laws is so neatly perfect that out universe just works. I mean, take one piece of the code away and it all just falls apart. So, if there is a creator or what us humans refer to as “God” what is it. What is god?

Well, when people think of god I personally think that they are going about the completely wrong way. When you envision God you will normally picture some almighty deity in the sky that must be worshipped. In my opinion, this approach is lazy and disregards science. A way of simply filling in the gaps we don’t understand. The idea that we have to worship this creator also seems silly. A fallacy I personally think has been carried through the ages. A way of invoking fear in large populations so they don’t “Sin.” So what is the other way of looking at God? Well first lets take away the label of God as that already puts an image of a deity in peoples mind. The belief that we have a creator dictates that something is consciously aware of the universe in which it creates. The idea that our reality was created by conscious thought rather than pure randomness.

The Double Slit Experiment

This is where it gets mind-bendingly difficult to fully comprehend, so I will try and break it down into it’s simplest and most relevant form. In a nutshell, the double slit experiment was a study conducted in which scientist fired electrons through two tiny slits. Quantum physics dictates that the particle should act as… Well, a particle and when they collide with the wall, land as two bands in correspondence with the slits. The issue was, this did not happen. As you can see above the particles did not create two bands, rather they acted as a wave would. Completely unlike how we know particles to work, which obviously completely BAFFLED scientists. To get a better idea of what was happening they decided to use a small device to examine exactly which slits the electrons went through. Keep in mind this is on a quantum level, so up until this point nobody was observing the electrons. Rather, they were just seeing the end result. When they actually observed these particles. Well… this is when things got really strange. When scientists observed the particles, they began acting like particles again and produced two bands based of their collision with the wall. They tried again and again, observing and not observing, each time producing the same results. What does this mean? Well, it basically means the particles may be aware that they were being watched. As if they acted as we expect them too when we actually observed them. This is crazy when you think that our whole universe is made up of matter. Various particles that make up EVERYTHING we perceive, those of which their number we couldn’t even fathom. So if the variables of particles change based on our observations… Could this mean we are architects of our own reality?

When the electrons were unaware of observation they acted as a wave. Does this not dictate that the model of a wave could be their true form? If you begin reading about string theory, you will start to realise it is becoming apparent that the fundamental form of matter in our universe is countless amounts of vibrational waves.

It’s getting pretty deep now but hear me out.

Every thought you create produces a wave. That’s why they are called brain waves. Observation is formed by thought. You perceive something and your mind acknowledges it’s existence. If this is the case, than could it not be possible that we are creating our own reality whilst we live it. Our collective perception is dictating how the universe plays out and how the laws are set. Darting back to the initial question, what is God ?

Well… Maybe WE are God.

I’ll let you all collect your blown minds and you can be on your way.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Generic, over personal, drunk and angry post

I have a tendency of going through phases of motivation, confidence and general happiness. These are however ultimately followed by long stretches of depression, hopelessness and procrastination. When I started this blog I was in one of the motivated and happy phases. However, if you observe my posting throughout time you will notice a slow, yet progressive and noticeable downwards trend. I am a cynic at heart but the early posts still convey a sense of optimism. Some sort of solution to the problems I present. However, as time goes by… My articles have gotten a little darker, bland and are just generally, starting to consist of me moaning about things. The motivational touch I add is getting so generic that I stop believing it myself. Overall, just sounding like an angry teenager who doesn’t know life outside of his parent house, an Xbox controller and last nights greasy, rotting kebab.

Well guys, I’m sorry.

When I started my blog, I made a personal oath. An oath that I am currently breaking as I write this. I completely devoted myself to posting regularly REGARDLESS of the circumstances. I wanted to keep a steady audience despite the dark depths of Google search in which you currently find this blog in. I promised I wouldn’t get lazy and this site wouldn’t become another digital graveyard. A waste of internet space along with all the other “Did you know I write a blog” bloggers.

Even if I failed all of this, there is one thing I swore I would never EVER do. The ultimate cliché that just sets aside the lazy underachieving pieces of shit from successful writers, vloggers and bloggers alike… I swore I would never make this post.

You know the one. It starts a little something like this.

Hey guys! I know I haven’t posted in a while but…

Yes, That one.

Well… here it is. My manifesto. My descent into failed, vain and inane blogging with the rest of you fuckers.

For that… I am sorry.

Hey guys! I know I haven’t posted in a while but… The truth is, I feel like shit.

I feel like shit for feeling like shit.

I feel like shit for being drunk AGAIN.

I feel like shit for not being able to wake up until noon.

I feel like shit for all the pretentious shit I pretend to give a shit about.

I feel like shit for writing this stupid post like a 15 year old girl posting shitty poems on her shit tumblr.

There’s a lot of things I feel shit about, but most of all… I feel shit for giving up. I feel shit for laying in bed all day not being able to write because I feel so dead. It’s hard. My head is a wreck. It seems like a lifetime of bad habits and poor decision making is taking a toll on my mental and cognitive abilities. Maybe my brain is just disaggregating into a fried and over stimulated puddle of mush. Maybe I’m dead?

I don’t know what’s going on but I just want to apologise for publishing this rambling of self indulgent and egomaniacal tripe. If you are still reading, then you are a stronger man than I.

The truth is, I’ve had my fun of being a hedonistic waster and now I want out. I want to be that guy that wakes up everyday at 5.am and does something productive. Someone who makes a positive impact on this world. The truth is though, this deep pit of self loathing and pity only feeds an ongoing and perpetual cycle of more and more misery. Wake up, feel like shit then repeat until you feel like so much like utter shit you can’t even get out of bed.

Maybe one day, I can get up and do something useful that will actual impact society rather than just rambling on behind a computer screen. Maybe one day I can get up before noon and do stuff that normal people do for once. Yes, being a normal functioning member of society sounds nice…

Who am I kidding, I’m just drunk… Pour me another one.

–THE LONELY DRUNK–