Dialectic Analytical Man

I am re-organizing my library into a more efficient grouping by author and subject. A friend is also re-ordering his library but is doing so by time – when his books were published. His idea is that with a time-organization one can better track and understand inter-related evolving thought. The motivation is to get as close as one can to “current moments” of unfolding creative thought and listen in. Creativity is central to any project – learning about creativity and how to be creative is through the books on one’s bookcase – they are alive.

My on-going experience with my library is interesting and suggests an approach to being creative. My experience reminds me of the scene from John Kerr’s book and the movie, A dangerous method, when Freud and Jung first meet in Freud’s home library. They discussed psychoanalytical issue for 13 hours straight and the library scene from the movie gives us an indication that their relationship was going to be challenging. In this scene Freud reprimands Jung about the need to uphold the rational tenet of science and toying with the occult or mysticism could not be tolerated. In the midst of this exchange there is a loud “cracking” sound coming from the book case to which Jung says, “See, I felt that something was going to happen, I had a burning feeling in my stomach.” “What?” says Freud. Jung then describes the experience as a catalytic exteriorization ephemeron, to which Freud scoffs at and then Jung says, “It is going to happen again” and it does. “This is nonsense,” says Freud, “we can’t be involved with telepathy, parapsychology, singing bookcases, fairies at the bottom of the garden – it won’t do.” This topic is one what eventually came between them leading to the dissolution of their friendship and collaboration in 1913.

Freud and Jung library scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZNrxn5niyg

I have been experiencing “a singing bookcase phenomenon” of sorts. As I work at writing, moving around the rooms containing my library, a book or paper seem to “push” itself into my vision. So, I pick it up to see what it wants me to notice. I note first when it was published, study its table of contents, then re-read the last chapter, then the first chapter to see how its contents might fit into my project. I am amazed how often the contents are related to what is unfolding in my work.

A library phenomenon appears in the movie Interstellar. Joe Cooper, a NASA pilot is on a mission across galaxies to address apocalyptic issues confronting Earth, has to eject from his damaged space-craft and lands in a Tesseract library, a 5-dimensioal cubic space, with a 3-dimensial space-time area created for him to communicate with is daughter Murphy back on Earth. Cooper sees Murphy in her bedroom facing her library and his first effort to reach her by banging on the book case does produce a “cracking” which knocks a small figurine on the bookcase to the floor. Murphy senses there is “singing” coming from the bookcase and begins to explore what it is. Here are two clips depicting Cooper entering the Tesseract and thinking about how to communicate with Murphy.

Cooper landing in the Tesseract

Make him stay Murph

Cooper needs to discover a way to “quantify a connection” between Murphy’s 3-dimensional space-time world and the 5-dimensnioal space-time universe he occupies. He realizes that he is where he is in order to communicate with Murphy so she can complete the NASA work all are focused on. Cooper realizes that “all” that is needed is in Mruphy’s bedroom, “every moment, infinitely complex, and that They, (We in the future) creators of the Tesseract  Library, have access to infinite space-time. However, They can’t find a specific position in space-time and that is why Cooper has landed in the Tesseract.” Cooper states, “I am going to find a way to communicate with Murph but how – love – my connection with Murph is quantifiable – it is the key.” He realizes that Murphy can be reached through the watch that he gave her, still on Murphy’s bookcase. Cooper has his new understandings of Tesseract quantum data translated into Morse Code which he transmits as sos movements to the watch’s seconds hand.

Murphy, in the time since Cooper left, has become a mathematical physicist leading the effort to save Earth, takes this new information and re-calculates her mathematical equations to address the impending catastrophic end facing Earth. An interesting speculation, can the Tesseract code sent to Murphy also be the code to comprehend love.  The concept of love is at the center of many projects now studying the emphatic civilization.

Interstellar – Quantifiable Connection Scene

In a effort to bring this science fiction film close to current scientific theory, director Christopher Nolan hired Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist to serve as consultant and executive producer. Thorne laid down two guidelines: “First, that nothing would violate established physical laws. Second, that all the wild speculations… would spring from science and not from the fertile mind of a screenwriter.” Nolan accepted these terms as long as they did not get in the way of making the movie. Thorne describes work on the wormhole and black hole travel scenes saying, “we discussed how to go about it, and then I worked on the equations that would enable tracing of light rays as they traveled through a wormhole or around a black hole—so what you see is based on Einstein’s general relativity equations” (Wikipedia). A question for Dr. Thorne, “What are the mathematical equations to create the experience of a Tesseract?”

Reading Wikipedia’s entry on the movie and what influenced Nolan provides a peak into the working of this movie director’s mind. One could follow any one of these links to explore its impact. However, the thread we are tracing is that of the Tesseract that Cooper finds himself in and which Wikipedia defines geometrically, “as a four-dimensional analog of the cube; the Tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the Tesseract consists of eight cubical cells. The Tesseract is one of the six convex regular 4-polytopes.” Here is what it looks like to unwrap a Tesseract and how this 4D-world is explained.

Unwrapping a tesseract

4D World Explained

Okay, what really struck me was how a Interstellar Tesseract Library now seems to be “singing” to me as I began thinking about sharing this unfolding experience with you which began with a recent dream I had of examining a cube. Continuing with Wikipedia’s entry for Tesseract, one reads that the word was “coined and first used in 1988 by Charles Howard Hinton in his book A New Era of Thought, from the Greek τέσσερεις ακτίνες (téssereis aktines, “four rays”), referring to the four lines from each vertex to other vertices. Hinton’s table of contents shows that there are two parts, each with 11 chapters, and with 8 appendices – a long book. Chapter 1 begins thus:

It may be thought to be unduly long ; but it must be remembered that in these times there is a twofold process going on—one of discovery about external nature, one of education, by which our minds are brought into harmony with that which we know. In certain respects we find ourselves brought on by the general current of ideas—we feel that matter is permanent and cannot be annihilated, and it is almost an axiom in our minds that energy is persistent, and all its transformations remains the same in amount. But there are other directions in which there is need of definite training if we are to enter into the thoughts of the time.

Then I am surprised by what next pushes forward – it is the recent “High Plain Reader” cover story about the 47th Annual UND Writers Conference “The Art Of Science,” April 6-8, 2016,  which lists the authors and artists presenters who incorporate science into their work. As I read through the presenters bios, I noted Allison Leigh Holt a multimedia artist whose work is “a mixture of science fiction, philosophy, cognitive science, and modern physics.” In reading this, what stood out for me was my library book, that I had just started to re-read, by Herbert A Simon “The science of the artificial”. Simon examines the concepts of cognitive science and psychology the very topic Allison Holt is presenting. The name Holt also attracted me in that I am also studying Richard Holt’s 1973 Spring Jounral article “Jung and Marx”. Holt places these two scholars’ ideas besides each other to see if a “space can be opened” for us to think about how their ideas are interrelated.

My Erich Fromm book, “Marx’s concept of man”, is now clamoring for attention and suggests that one “open space” we might explore is Chapter 4 – “The nature of man”. One quickly realizes that Marx and Jung have almost identical ideas on man’s nature. However, with these similar ideas on man’s nature – they create different methods to analyzing what man is up-to. Integrating these two flows of thought is somewhat like solving several Rubic’s Cube puzzles blind folded and to do this one uses Tesseract logic. We need to engage in “a dialogue between divergent ways of experiencing, comprehending, and describing reality”, this is a wounded researcher’s research with soul in mind.

I am sensing Charles Howard Hinton is shaking hands at UND’s Writers Conference this week.

Interstellar – Handshake

Steven A Scherling

An unexpected and joyful event occurred last Saturday evening. I was watching the evening news, depressing as usual – something about big ears, hands, and dicks, when daughter Annah, soon to graduate from Fargo North High, asked me if wanted to watch a NetFlex documentary. Wow, “yes of course which one”, I asked.  She scrolled through the possibilities on her phone and after reading the description of I Am the documentary – she knew it was the one I would select. How did she know? – I suppose living with someone for 18 years it becomes apparent; and giving her Kerr’s book A dangerous method, watching the movie, and discussing it with her may have revealed my interest in depth psychology. A Most Dangerous Method is a “true” story of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Sabina Spielrein, who was Jung patient, student, lover, analytical psychologist, colleague with Jung and Freud, and shot dead with her two daughters by an SS death squad. Sabina is a very important woman! Fannie another important woman joined us and together we watched the “I Am” documentary directed by Tom Shadyac.

A Dangerous Method – ‘Mistake’

The “I Am” film  poses two questions: what’s wrong with our world and what can we do to make it better? After a serious cycling accident, for Shadyac a near death experience, he awakens to the excesses of his Hollywood life style and sets out to find answers, which he says transformed his life. Confronting mortality, Shadyac asks, “If this is it for me – if I really am going to die – what do I want to say before I go?  What will be my last testament?” The website description of the movie says that “It was Shadyac’s modern day dark night of soul and out of it, I Am was born.

I have modified the following movie description taken from the I Am Website

   Shadyac was very specific about what he was after, wanting “I Am” to identify the underlying cause of the world’s ills – “I didn’t want to hear the usual answers, like war, hunger, poverty, the environmental crisis, or even greed,” he explains.  “These are not the problems, they are the symptoms of a larger endemic problem.  In I AM, I wanted to talk about the root cause of the ills of the world, because if there is a common cause, and we can talk about it, air it out in a public forum, then we have a chance to solve it.”
Ironically, in the process of trying to figure out what’s wrong with the world, Shadyac discovered there’s more right than he ever imagined.  He learned that the heart, not the brain, may be man’s primary organ of intelligence, and that human consciousness and emotions can actually affect the physical world, a point Shadyac makes with great humor by demonstrating the impact of his feelings on a bowl of yogurt. And, as Shadyac’s own story illustrates, money is not a pathway to happiness. In fact, he even learns that in some native cultures, gross materialism is equated with insanity.
Shadyac also discovers that, contrary to conventional thinking, cooperation and not competition, may be nature’s most fundamental operating principle.   Thus, I AM shows consensus decision-making is the norm amongst many species, from insects and birds to deer and primates.  The film further discovers that humans actually function better and remain healthier when expressing positive emotions, such as love, care, compassion, and gratitude, versus their negative counterparts, anxiety, frustration, anger and fear. Charles Darwin may be best known for popularizing the notion that nature is red in tooth and claw, but, as Shadyac points out, he used the word love 95 times in The Descent of Man, while his most famous phrase, survival of the fittest, appears only twice.
“It was a revelation to me that for tens of thousands of years, indigenous cultures taught a very different story about our inherent goodness,” Shadyac marvels.  “Now, following this ancient wisdom, science is discovering a plethora of evidence about our hardwiring for connection and compassion, from the Vagus Nerve which releases oxytocin at simply witnessing a compassionate act, to the Mirror Neuron which causes us to literally feel another person’s pain.  Darwin himself, who was misunderstood to believe exclusively in our competitiveness, actually noted that humankind’s real power comes in their ability to perform complex tasks together, to sympathize and cooperate.”
Shadyac’s enthusiastic depiction of the brighter side of human nature and reality, itself, is what distinguishes I AM from so many well-intentioned, yet ultimately pessimistic, non-fiction films.  And while he does explore what’s wrong with the world, the film’s overwhelming emphasis is focused on what we can do to make it better.
Watching I AM is ultimately, for many, a transformative experience, yet Shadyac is reluctant to give specific steps for viewers who have been energized by the film.  “What can I do?” “I get asked that a lot,” he says.  “But the solution begins with a deeper transformation that must occur in each of us.  I AM isn’t as much about what you can do, as who you can be.  And from that transformation of being, action will naturally follow.”

The I Am Trailer

Shadyac’s enthusiasm and optimism are contagious, it did excite me, however, this has been a path I have been on. After watching the movie the family talked some and then I went online, finding Youtube, Wikipedia, and Google “I Am” very different but related links like this AWOLNation song I Am.

I Am

Lyrics:
These friends of mine will come and go
I’m the first to leave and last to know
I’ll be swimming in a face of flames
For these friends of mine I’ve overpaid
And I guess I wanted, I guess I wanted
I just want you to know

All of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
And I am
Only looking up when my head’s down
All of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
And I Am
Only looking up when my head’s down

Veins are glistening
So thanks a lot for listening
I guess I wanted, I guess I wanted
I just want you to know

All of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
And I am
Only looking up when my head’s down
All of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
And I Am
Only looking up when my head’s down

Well I guess I wanted, I guess I wanted
I just want you to know

Yeah! Yeah! Ooh someone left the lights on
Yeah! Yeah! Ooh someone left the lights on
Yeah! Yeah! Ooh someone left the lights on
Yeah! Yeah! Ooh someone left the lights on

All of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
And I am
Only looking up when my head’s down
All of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
Maybe all of these things made me who I am
And I Am
Only looking up when my head’s down

Well I guess I wanted, I guess I wanted
I just want you to know
Hypnotized from the day you were born
Hypnotized from the day you were born

Then I watched Shadyac’s Talk at Google on his movie.

Tom Shadyac’s “I am” Talk at Google

Shadyac’s movie was shown at the Google Campus and then he appeared for a question and response session. Shadyac begins by pointing out the “good life” that Google has created for its employees and saying “you live in a bubble”, which I think was cutting right to the chase. He then responded to questions basically acknowledging their bubble’s existence and asking how to see and behave toward those outside the fishbowl they live in. We only need to remember that fish can not see the water in the bowl they swim in. In Pinky’s words, living in a capitalistic society, one can not see IT and this is what I took away from this exchange. I also thought Shadyac’s responses were shallow – learn to “love thy neighbor as thy self” without addressing how this is to be accomplished.

Whenever I hear this Christian suggestion, I ask “so, first one needs to love thyself” – tell me, how does one to that?” Shadyac’s responses did not address this deep issue but were broad in that he presented the same thesis as Erich Fromm in his book “To Have or To Be” – society needs to move away form its preoccupation with “having stuff” towards “being a person”. I felt Shadyac left the deep aspects of  “being” on developed, however, after his recovery from his accident, he moved away from “having” stuff – he moved from his $2 million Hollywood home to a $100,000 trailer park home, sold his cars, and now rides a bike. I do think making this movie is about this Being dimension , even if the deep specifics are fuzzy.  No one asked him what is current net worth is and what is he doing with it. We do know what Christ would say, “give your positions and money way then follow me.”

The last question is important: “What is your current relations to the Hollywood industry?” Shadyac’s response was lame, “I love them and let them live their own life as I live mine.” Shadyac seem not to have accepted that we are living in what Fromm has also written about in The Sane Society – its thesis that the US society in “insane”. Unless the insanity of “global corporate capitalism”, the military/industrial/political/media complex, is addressed, Shadyac’s message is not going resonate. After 2000 years of Christianity some suggest that the World is getting worse – what has and is Christianity getting wrong? Christ suggested an answer to the issue of “loving thy self” in saying “Don’t be concerned about your neighbor, until you first take the beam out of your own eye.” Again, ask a pastor what this means and see what the response is. This is Jung’s  “shadow work” suggesting that Christ is the first analytical psychologist 1900 years before Freud and Jung but going there takes a real effort – and more are to busy “having”. (See The Sane Society US?)

It is now 11pm before Easter Sunday and in my browser is the Christian progressive death metal band Becoming the Archetype  (Archetype is a Jungian concept and how used here needs study) with their album I Am – the first single from the album is The Time Bender. The video was released on the band’s You Tube channel and says it “makes references to Frank Miller’s comic book Sin City, which contains dialogue as a comic book as the band looks for their instruments hidden in a castle in order to keep playing.”

The Time Bender

After listening to this, sleep was disturbing but never mind in the morning, Easter morning, I continued watching depressing World news about killing, remembering “Kill your heros” music from AWOLNation. How appropriate, on this day celebrating the killing and resurrection of the Christ hero – his blood and body are ingested, how time bending is that.

Kill Your Heros

Lyrics:
Well I met an old man dying on a train
No more destination no more pain
Well he said one thing, before I graduate
Never let your fear decide your fate

I say you kill your heroes and fly fly baby don’t cry
No need to worry cause everybody will die
Everyday we just go go baby don’t go
Don’t you worry we love you more than you know

Well the sun one day will leave us all behind
Unexplainable sightings in the sky
Well I hate to be the one to ruin the night
Right before your, right before you eyes

I say you kill your heroes and fly fly baby don’t cry
No need to worry cause everybody will die
Everyday we just go go baby don’t go
Don’t you worry we love you more than you know

Well I met an old man dying on a train
No more destination no more pain
Well he said one thing, before I graduate
Never let your fear decide your fate

I say you kill your heroes and fly fly baby don’t cry
No need to worry cause everybody will die
Everyday we just go go baby don’t go
Don’t you worry we love you more than you know

Finally, this experience comes together in realizing it is all about Woman! Shadyac’s main point is realizing that matter also “lives”, all beings are interconnected and carrying for ALL especially Mother Earth is the collective awakening now unfolding! We are not only worthless without “woman”, we are dead! A spectre is haunting the land!

Woman Woman

Lyrics:
Last night I fell apart, broke from my swollen heart
Born in a simple time, raised with a simple mind

You may be a natural, woman
You may be a natural, woman
You may be a natural, woman
You may be a natural, woman

I may be worthless without you
I’ll never decide to replace you
Amen, the worst is behind us now
Woman woman

I may be worthless without you
I’ll never decide to replace you
Amen the worst is behind us now
Woman woman

You may be a natural woman
You may be a natural woman
You may be a natural woman
You may be a natural woman

Last night I fell apart, choked on my drunken heart
I may be worthless without you
I’ll never decide to replace you
Amen, the worst is behind us now
Woman woman

I may be worthless without you
I’ll never decide to replace you
Amen, the worst is behind us now
Woman woman

You may be a natural, woman
You may be a natural, woman
You ah ah ah ah

Who’s that woman woman
There’s that woman woman
Be my woman woman
Won’t you see me in the dark

Who’s that woman woman
There’s that woman woman
Be my woman woman
Won’t you see me in the dark

I may be worthless without
I’ll never decide to replace you
Amen, the worst is behind us now
Woman woman

I may be worthless without
I’ll never decide to replace you
Amen, the worst is behind us now
Woman woman

You may be a natural, woman
You may be a natural, woman
You may be a natural, woman
You may be a natural, woman

I Am an old man dying on a train and beside me is a natural, woman! Yeah ….

I am up early this morning determined to continue thinking-in-writing about the phenomenon being discussed over the weekend – the disintegration of the Republican Party with the foolishness of Donald Trump.  The processes of disintegration have been unfolding for the past year and I question the depth of analysis and understanding that so far has emerged. Listening to Fox, CNN, and MSNBC’s talking-heads does not give one any assurance that they understand the historical dynamics of what is going on. What we have been getting are  references back to 1964 Barry Goldwater’s bid and back to the 1968 Democratic Convention riots. However Zizek’s reference to Italy’s past Trickster president Silvio Berlusconi and comparing him to the Fool Donald Trump is interesting and suggests the idea of examining what the Tarot Cards can offer in understanding what is unfolding.

I have had my Tarot cards read many times in the past by my dear high school friend, Kenny Pier, who had MS for 40 years and died two years ago. I now have both of his Rider Tarot Card Decks and one of my own he encouraged me to buy. There are different  ways to consult the Tarot Oracle and I remember Kenny asking me how I saw myself each time  I returned from China for a visit and a reading. Over the years my responses changed as I grew in my profession from seeing myself as a Knight, then a King, then an Emperor, and finally as a Magician.

I remember walking into Kenny’s nursing home to get my cards read and in the open lounge performing for the residents was a magician. I was startled, stopped to watch, and saw over a chair was the magician’s overcoat – the exact color and style I was wearing. I realize then that I am a magician. I have Kenny’s readings type-recorded and will soon be re-playing them – back to the future!

In re-arranging my hard drive last week, I came across two photos of Kenny as a young man and with “The Fool” on my mind, I thought back to the many Tarot sessions we had had. However, I am not interested in getting a reading for Trump and have been informed that we would need to get Trump involved in order to properly do that. So, it occurred to me why not begin understanding the Trump experience by looking into what The Fool has to say about himself. With what is going on in the US’s election processes, many are dismissing Trump as a Fool.  So, what is this archetype about and can we gain any insight into what is unfolding?

In seeking insight from The Tarot without Trump being involved, I uncovered an idea in this clip Tarot Cards use in history.

Tarot Cards use in History

It explains how The Fool is the zero card and is guided by The Magician on his journey through the Major Arcana (greater secrets) or of all names the trump cards. So, here we have The Fool, Trump, being guided by A Magician moving systematically through the Arcana Cards on a Fool’s journey toward enlightenment, individuation, to The World – or in our investigation Trump’s journey to the presidency of the United States.

May I suggest to really test our doors of perception, that we now lay-down the Major Arcana cards, then identify where Trump is on his Arcana Card journey, and then see if we can anticipate what is unfolding for The Donald, a Fool on his journey? It is important to remind ourselves that we are all Fools on a Journey guided by The Magician.

The Major Arcana Cards

Thanks Kenny for guiding this Magician’s Journey! Steve

See you at Woody’s for beers!

It’s You!

As you watch this Terence Mckenna clip, besides listening to Terence’s message, reading the Chinese hexagrams has a message. Both of these are “doors of perception” we must see into!

The End
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUIQgEVDM4

Riders on the Storm

Riders on the Storm its creation by Ray Manzarek

Ray Manzarek Solo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XzHotB5-To

The other day I read Ed Raymond’s HPR1.com column “The Gadfly” titled Of elephants and Men. Ed leads off his essay stating, “When 2,500 billionaires and global leaders met in Davos, Switzerland, …to discuss who was going to get the largest slices of the economic pies baking in the ovens of capitalism, the dominant topic in both daily discussion panels and nightly bar rooms was TRANSITION to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Ed then asks, “What makes billionaires think they know what is best for society? Could it be lots of money?” Later in the essay he mockingly asks this, “Is it because making lots of money equals making lots of sound decisions about problem-solving and the improvement of societies?” I posted this and a link to Ed’s essay to Facebook and Steve Wroe asked these interesting questions: “Is a track record of success irrelevant? Do the less successful know better? Do total losers know more yet?” At the center of these questions and the “transition” into the next phase of the Industrial Revolution is the very definition of success. Is our society’s definition of success sane?

Economic historians since the day of Adam Smith’s famous book “The Wealth of Nations” (1776) have been studying “the transitional phases of capitalism.” At the center of these discussions is the “definition of success”. In a recent news interview someone was asked why he supported Trump, the response was, “I want to be like him, to have money to spend on stuff.” This predominantly held definition of success is no longer sustainable – for 6 billion individuals to aspire to this definition of success is suicidal. So, the answer to this first question is “Yes,” the track record of success defined as “Trump-success” is now irrelevant and dangerous to life. Just imagine a billion Chinese and another billion Indians dreaming of a two-car garage in the suburbs. Just disposing of all their garbage would to be a huge problem for global warming!

And then to the question “Do the less successful know better?” If our definition of success changes, then we have a very different type of individual with a different Maslow Need Structure – owning many cars, planes, and homes is no long defined as successful. So, then again Yes, “less successful” people actually now know better. What is it that they know and how did they come to know it, is what we are interested in?

The final question “Do total losers know more yet?” is also tied to the prevailing definition of success – owning stuff. I am not sure how one describes a “total loser.” I think a student of psychology and any serious person running for US President would never define a person as a “loser?” It is not a psycho-analytical concept. However, one often hears this from Trump so, I assume it means someone who is not able to support him/herself – all today on minimum wage and those on welfare.

These issues being raised are addressed by Erich Fromm’s book “The Sane Society” – his thesis, the American Society is not sane! The “total loser” is Society not its individuals and the question for us is, what is causing societal insanity? Ironically both Sanders and Trump seems to be “addressing” this insanity. However, I question “How ‘deep’ are their respective analytical methods?” It seems none in the media can yet penetrate the fog Trump spews and most American are simple ignorant and thus frightened of the concept of a “democratic socialism”. I am wondering if any of our “think-tanks” are addressing these issues, since we do not hear of this on the news. I began a deeper response to U.S. insanity in this Blog “The Sane Society – US?” that I suspect Sanders is most in-tune with. Viewing this post lays a foundation for a deeper  probe into the challenges of Globalization 4.0.

The Sane Society – US?

So, what does it mean to adopt the deeper analytical method of analysis”? We begin with Raymond’s observation of what Trump and his fellow billionaires, all 2,500 of them, were discussing at the World Economic Forum in Davos – “who was going to get the largest slices of the economic pies baking in the ovens of capitalism” and the key issue for us is to understand analytically the “transition” now happening in what is called the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ or Industry 4.0 (Wikipedia). Youtube is full of clips of what took place at Davos that we can tune into what the “military-industrial-media complex” controlled by these billionaires are planning. Understanding this “transition” should give one the knowledge to understand “what it means to be a real revolutionary”. This blog post addresses the deeper analysis needed to understand what happens when the Davos billionaires’ voices all-of-a sudden rise an octave. What Slavoj Zizek foresees when Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Donald Trump voices go up an octave is that when they look down they will notice that their balls have been snipped– no blood just a change in their voices. Bring off such a bloodless revolution is doubtful but one should imagine – this is what we are doing.

What it means to be a real revolutionary

When teaching a course on Globalization 4.0, my class visited the World Economic Forum at Davos online, attended and participated in many of the steaming presentations. It is a very slick operation when you have the captains of industry, the political/military elite, and Hollywood mega stars talking mostly in support of the logic of capitalism. So, to begin we need to briefly identify what WEF is thinking and proposing in Industry 4.0 which is defined as “a collective term embracing a number of contemporary automation, data exchange, and manufacturing technologies. It had been defined as ‘a collective term for technologies and concepts of value chain organization’ which draws together Cyber-Physical Systems, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Services (Wikipedia). This further elaboration is then added:

Industry 4.0 facilitates the vision and execution of a ‘Smart Factory’. Within the modular structured Smart Factories of Industry 4.0, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions. Over the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time, and via the Internet of Services, both internal and cross-organizational services are offered and utilized by participants of the value chain.

This very impressive PBS documentary “The Human Face of Big Data” give us another vivid peak at where Industry 4.0 is headed.

The Human Face of Big Data

Okay, as these resources begin to fuel our “imagination” of where “Globalization 4.0” is headed, we can begin our analysis always mindful to be open to the dynamism of globalization and its unfolding evolution. Erich Fromm’s book To have or to be, presents a beginning and addresses society’s definition of “success”, which is at the center of the change that is needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzpT1mZf718

Our society’s definition of “success” is “to have Stuff”, which Fromm suggests needs to move in the direction of “to be a Self”. Fromm suggests that people focused on “being” – that is Maslow’s self-actualization and Jung’s individuation, alters the behavior of Selves away from planetary violation that owning stuff causes. The individuating individual Trump seems to define as “total losers”. However, change Fromm speaks of is the next game changing “transition” global capitalism needs to move into. I agree with Raymond’s observation that Davos capitalist-billionaires were busy scheming to squeeze as many dollars out of their workers and the system as they can. Now Trump’s-got-his-gun and many are concerned. It is not the purpose of these recent blog entries to focus on Trumpism, it seems a side show, however, the election of Trump has implications for globalization that we need to investigate.

Let me end this blog entry with Mike Wallace’s interesting interview of Eric Fromm on April 25, 1958. This interview was 58 years ago when Fromm made the observation that “There has never been a better society than in the United States in 1958”. Looking at today’s global statistics on well-being, one can only ask how much lower will United States sink.

The Mike Wallace Interview: Erich Fromm (1958-05-25)

To be continued…

I recently re-watched The Buddy Holly Story and usually afterwards one sees deeper into the movie and one’s Self. What stood out in seeing this movie again was Buddy’s demand that he be given creative control over his music’s production – he stood up to “Corporate Hollywood,” long before Occupy Wall Street or Bernie Sander’s Matrix Generation. He was a path-setter in challenging the control exercised by Hollywood’s recording industry. When the band went to play its first gig at New York’s Apollo Theater, the owner thought they were a back band testifying to the uniqueness of their music. Buddy and the Crickets’ performance immediately won over Apollo’s black audience and they became friends with the black musicians they toured with – this was years ahead of the civil rights movement.

A few days later on January 28, 2016 The High Plains Reader published Rock’n Roll Music and You, which is an interview with Robby Vee, Bobby’s son on “why the early days of rock’n roll music still captivates us.” The questions Robby was asked were: what is so appealing about this time, why do you think February 3, 1959 hit America so hard, has your dad talk about that “fateful night”, and about Fargo’s rock’n roll subculture? Re-watching the movie brought new insight to these questions and some tears remembering that the music lost, was the music FCHS ‘62 rocked to.

Winter Dance Party Tribute 3rd February 1959

The day the music died is like remembering where you were on the day John Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot or the day John Glenn landed on the Moon. I have searched my memory and cannot remember the day the music died, however, I bet Kenny Pier, Marc Wroe, and Dick Knutson remember since they seem the most likely to have had tickets to that Winter Dance Party. Ground Control to Majors Ken, Marc, Dick and David come in – can you hear us? What do you remember about the day the music died?

In regards to the Fargo’s 1950-60s subculture, I think Julie Dunkirk and David Stillman with older brothers Dick and Jimmy deeply into that subculture must have some interesting stories. On my way to Agassiz Jr. High School, I stopped to pick up David and often listened to Jimmy practice drums in the basement. Many of us can also remember listening to The Shadows practice there. And of course how can one forget dancing to their music at the Crystal Ball Room and the DL Pavilion. This drum solo by Marc Wroe, Roamin Around, is wow!

The Furys Live Minor Chaos – Roamin Around

My first vivid memory of a Bobby Vee & The Shadows was in September 1959, sitting on the east side, half way up Fargo Central High School’s Auditorium, when I was nudged and pointed to someone walking in from the east side door and saying, “There he is, that is Bobby Vee.” I know sitting with me in the FCHS Auditorium were others that can still testify to this music because they were the music culture in Fargo at that time – Steve Wroe, Mike Coby, Dick Dunkirk, Ken Harvey, and others you will see named in one clip below. I found this clip on Youtube and it is precious – its description states: “Steve Wroe and Marc Wroe were the driving force behind the Furys in the early 60s. Take a moment to re-live this evening at the Fargo National Guard Armory.” Put your headphones on, sit back, relax, and “get-in-Fury-ated”.

The Furys Vocals

Steve Rowe & the Furys – Minor Chaos

Okay, I am now into the music the day IT died. Enjoy….

American Pie – Don McLean – Full Length 1989 Video from Original 1971/72 Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih7N9_VUU4U
The Day the Music Died: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper

Buddy Holly’s Greatest Hits Full Album – Best Songs Of Buddy Holly

Ritchie Valens – We belong together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1hU2I2KlhU&list=PLAfQ4tj7lP92d83Hvz8pD1g_NO2n_d95d
The Big Bopper White Lightnin’

Bobby Vee & The Shadows / Flyin’ High / Lonely Love

I was up at 4am today, way too early, to watch MSNBC’s Way Too Early Program in order to learn if Bernie Sanders’s Matrix Revolutionary Generation had done a good job beginning the revolution in Iowa. We are slowly acquiring an understanding of what Sanders is proposing and being called a democratic socialist is a beginning. This Wikipedia entry says that “The Democratic Socialists of America defines democratic socialism as a movement to eliminate capitalism by evolving a ‘social order based on popular control of resources and production…’, however, the definition of ‘popular’ remain elusive.” I can only assume that the definition of ‘popular’ is less elusive now. I am not going to address the other interesting aspects of this Wikipedia definition but cut to the chase and address “What does it mean to be a revolutionary in facing today’s crisis?”

The Marxism 2009 Conference sponsored by Counterfire was held after the financial crisis of 2008 and some of the Socialist/Marxist big guns debated and discussed another crisis of capitalism. There were two presentations on “What does it mean to be a revolutionary today?” Alex Callinicos led off by presenting a general view about what implementing a revolutionary strategy requires – I found myself seeing Sanders often being described. Slavoj Zizek then continues with an analytical presentation of the thinking processes involved. A question I have coming from the end of Zizek’s very stimulating presentation is “Bernie are you only interested in dusting the ball of the Capitalists? Or are you preparing to cut them off?” David Harvey presents a dynamic 7-point framework for understanding the change process required to manage the evolution of capitalism to one possibility, the empathic civilization, that Jeremy Rifkin outlines. As a democratic socialist, Bernie, are you thinking along these lines?

What does it mean to be a revolutionary today? – Alex Callinicos

What does it mean to be a revolutionary today? – Slovoj Zizek

The Crisis Today – David Harvey

The Empathic Civilization – Jeremy Rifkin

Just when we thought the Trump phenomenon’s defiance of reason was about to end, we read Trump and Palin joined forces in the war against reason! MSNBC’s evening shows on January 19th presented numerous videos of John McCain being asked if picking Palin as his VP was a poor decision and he always responded, “I respect her and husband Todd” – never once stating what most think – their election was lost because of her. MSNBC next showed the clip of Trump saying “John McCain is not war hero – heroes do not get captured”. It is always painful watching Trump but next up was this clip of Palin endorsing Trump for president followed by analysis of the event – I hung my head down having to listen to Palin – now I am in real pain.

Semi-recovered, the next clip was of Trump visiting The John Wayne Museum with Wayne’s daughter saying, If The Duke were alive he would endorse The Donald. This next clip shows Trump at Iowa’s John Wayne Museum and addresses How John Wayne and Donald Trump are alike. It presents an interesting scene from the new movie Trumbo about Dalton Trumbo’s Hollywood blacklisted screenwriting career. In one scene Trumbo confronts Marian Morrison aka John Wayne about what he did during WWII. Trumbo mentions being a war correspondent, asks Wayne what he did during the War, then tells him – “you were on a movie set, shooting planks, and wearing make-up.” Wayne was involved in Hollywood’s Blacklist period and in this clip we hear in person Wayne’s logic in support of Lawrence@The Last Word conclusion that The Duke and The Duck are not authentic tough guys.

Watching these John Wayne movie quotes, one sees and hears the likeness of The Duke & The Duck. Will the US ever realize that its Wild West Days are over thus requiring leadership based on intellect not on emotion which is the theme of Trumbo’s Johnny got his gun movie and an issue separating the Democratic and Republican Parties.

The Duke’s movie quotes (Compare these to the bluster of The Duck.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVJR7n2RXqc

The Duck Got His Gun

I did not know the Dalton Trumbo story, went in search of it, and watched several Trumbo Movie Reviews, which have convinced me to see the movie. I then watched this Dalton Trumbo interviewed by Stan Bohrman conducted in 1972 and began to realize the creative talent of Dalton Trumbo.

Dalton Trumbo interviewed by Stan Bohrman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxDUAoatnU

Bohrman’s interview addresses Trumbo’s movie Johnny got his gun, which is about “Joe Bonham a young American soldier hit by an artillery shell during World War I, and lies in a hospital bed. He is a quadruple amputee who has also lost his eyes, ears, mouth and nose. He remains conscious and able to reason, but his wounds render him a prisoner in his own body. As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend. He also forms a bond, of sorts, with a young nurse who senses his plight. At the end of the film, Joe tries to communicate to his doctors, via Morse code by nodding his head, saying “help”. He wishes for the Army to put him in a glass coffin in a freak show as a demonstration of the horrors of war. When told that his wish may be impossible to grant, he responds begging to be euthanized, repeatedly saying ‘kill me’. In the end, however, he realizes that the Army can grant neither wish, and will leave him in a state of living death. In the film’s climax, his sympathetic nurse attempts to euthanize him by clamping his breathing tube, but her supervisor stops her before Joe can succumb. Joe realizes that he will never be released of his state of entrapment and he is left alone, weakly chanting, ‘S.O.S. Help me’” (Wikipedia).

Here is a clip of the movie Johnny Got His Gun (1971) that Jimmy Carter required all his staff to watch when elected the Governor of Georgia. It seems all candidates running for elected office should be required to read, watch Johnny Got His Gun, and then discuss it! If we required medial doctors to be certified every few years, we ought to certify our elected representatives!

Johnny Got His Gun.Movie

Johnny Got His Gun.pdf
By Dalton Trumbo
A Bantam Book
Copy Right © 1939, 1959
eBook scanned & proofed by Binwiped 11-22-02 [v1.0]

Metallica – One (Metallica bought the movie rights to Johnny Got His Gun so as not to pay royalties each time they played this song).