Fractional Reserve Banking: How to describe a Paradox.

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I experience this particular paradox as a nightmare. Hubris sealed into derivatives; the seed of each our unrest, leveraged so far we can now barely name it or claim it... The 'fraction' of this fractional-reserve system has grown thin to the point of transparency: it simply no longer exists. We are not a free culture, but one adept at Insolvency Management. 

Our current understanding of Wealth is now a fiction we drink, a bitter decoction soaking up the human spirit, and with it our sense of truth, coagulating into a seeming and eternal slow-motion clot, winding its way into the heart of our one ecology… Constant Growth, on a finite planet…. We long to escape from the bonds which we ourselves designed - we, our victim - and cannot do anything other than continue submitting to it. We are not just spent: we are over-spent, and spent for years to come.

At the heart of such a philosophy - one which dates back to a time when the Earth by all rational measurement was flat - Fractional Reserve Banking now strikes me as the most bitter refusal to accept that Life is temporary and gentle. A bubble. This age'd business ethic is diamond for its inability to accept the seasonality of things, believing never-ending growth is the cause of happiness, singling out one thrust in human thought amongst a panoply of choice and consideration. This way of bringing forward human-motivation may have been very useful during more tribal times, but no longer holds relevance for an actuated global civility. Its catalyst and follow-through appears more and more of the fallen angel who had grand ideas; who felt the intense and blinding love of this creation - this universe - and desired so greatly to share its power, and to know it by its completeness. A shared demon - a potential, posing inert - who in perfect and unceasing detail has now surrounded the soul of humanity, making slow a silicon museum of something once covered with lush green.

Prohibit once, and double enmity... It is the natural psychological response to a situation which catalyses scarcity. Right at the heart of our currency system - constant growth on a finite planet - resides the key to the problems we mislabel innate to human nature.

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This voice within our psyche - this constant-growth impulse - understands something can be created from the thing which prefers a steady-state, and then offers no Return. Constant Growth economics is arrogant, flying only toward the light, hooked on the idea of the infinite. Such perpetual one-way motion, such youthful and happy-blind thinking, inevitably forces all things toward an ever grand reconcilliation to recognize how amateur we handle Choice. Is this a punishment from above or from the past?.. Mentally ill - manic - forcing the rapture into the face of all grand wishes for peace and unity, muddying the sentiment of a brighter tomorrow, any hope for human social values becomes slave to constant-growth instead: it is the dark heart of a vast  - and-so-then-an-ever-vast -  Shadow.

Such is Our Situation, and not each our personage. It is how Che Guevara winds up on a t-shirt. It is the monetization of yoga. It is deforestation. It is shooting John Lennon. Or Kennedy. Or Ghandi. And then Lee Harvey Oswald. Or barely noticing the Mother Theresa passing in the shadow of a Diana. It is the acidification of the oceans. It is species extinction. It is shitty food served quickly. It IS poison. It is the loss of top-soil. It is GDP versus Happiness. It is the picture of a golden time, and only a picture.

It is a surface, underneath which fall only dead echoes, haunting us in unison 'That was Yesterday, and of course, it didn't matter...'

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Knowing this - feeling the unrest pulsing within our psyche - we stick to a certainly-uncertain future like fly-paper, lamenting the Present in lieu of thriving by the rules of a glorious and BLUE bio-sphere.

It is not something we can take personally. We were born into it, and such rules shape our Psyche. But it is something we can address - reshape -  and purge - if we direct our attention onto the centre of the conundrum. 

The study of metaphysics may make your neurology feel good, but the study of Wealth will allow those feelings to last. Both reveal the physicality of our psyche. One symptom of Our Conundrum lies with Gold. Such a proposition may seem ludicrous, but the feeling of ludicrousness can only come to you from a blind-spot: the fallacy of normalcy. A bias. Today the COMEX and the LIBOR are being systematically killed. The very elements which have always conjoined human energy to that of the planet, are being herded and hoarded, manipulated, discredited, and seemingly drained of that inherently nebulous possession, Wealth. Psychically, it is no less epic than Darth Vader slaying Obi Wan; dreamer of that profound and deliberately-thin diplomacy… Wealth today is being concentrated as the means for future population control.

Peak Oil, peak metals extraction, peak currency creation, peak extinctions... It is a battle contained to a nook within our thoughts, playing out the drama for the rest of our creations to live by. The opulence now available within the species will not travel well for seven billion: and yet we all want to know its taste, and fill our cupboard by it. There is a saying in some think-tank circles across Canada which arose from the universal-health-care debate several years back: 'If you kill it, it will die.' Which surely feels like the solution for an economic situation whose conclusion is invariably falling upon us. It is a terribly optimistic course of action. And I do emphasize terribly. If we look to the future with any anticipation and authenticity, we await the opportunity to forgive ourselves, smelting down every grail in hope of starting-over.

{ source: from a contrary point of view }

Certainly we would all have our cake and eat it too: we would have unending riches and comfort pinned to ever-less work, but that truly involves cooperation. Even with the cosmos. And especially with the seasonality of the given things before us... Insider-Trading is a form of cooperation, but more so it is a confession of bitterness and childishness, as if Cake were not a thing for sharing - let alone gratitude. And those-without-cake(!) must have inherently never deserved to experience cake in the first place. Not a crumb. But such thinking is again Our Situation - when given a voice. Such is the inevitability of classism, which is the inevitability of constant-growth.

Which brings then four levels of confidence to mind, of which Growth Economics speak to these lower and lesser expressions: supplicant, combative, competitive, and finally, Cooperative. Each creates the next as we mature, and, given our Situation, we either progress through these stages toward the pinnacle of cooperation, or we stagnate or stalemate-ourselves within one of these steps. Those fine-and-good with this system grow comfortable into their competitions and their combats; happy to find supplicants, ridiculing the Cooperative.

The thing I find most curious about human Life is that we can observe from deep-down when we can be doing better. There is something about the inherent stubbornness tucked inside a bitter gesture which tells me so, and I believe growth-economics to be a very large, and very bitter, gesture. Hence its appeal: it does satisfy many an amazing thing - landing on Mars, say, or the will to conquer having known what it is to be divided - but again, the overall system offers no Return. Our investments offer a return (on paper), but rarely to the ecology which issues forth our current level of prosperity (not to mention the paper). It would be akin to selfish love-making, the supplanting of an exercise which might otherwise reveal much more beauty and soul. And so this way of living is condensing the pleasures we might also and otherwise find in the future.

Is such a system Creative? Quite possibly. Divine: definitely no. In spite of its architects. It is busy work, and not our Best. If we have the audacity to label our own human lives sentient and the endless black matters standing between one another and up to the planets not-so: what grants us that authority? Where does this power to self-author come from? It strikes me that matter itself is intelligent - that the light which passes through a thing, holding a thing together is where the ingredients for an idea discover themselves thriving - and our good chances are to have had us born with some fine sense to see them(!) Will we monetize this too? Moreover: have we not already..?

Courage, is simply to do the right thing then. True and authentic growth is to see that One is not alone; that any thought new-to-you came from circumstance, and from the same set of circumstances which float through the ages and the cosmos. Growth economics truly skew and dampen our inner, best, and authentic sense of what-is-right and what-is-possible. It assumes a win-loose outcome within a garden where All, thrives ever by Win-Win.

Constant growth on a finite planet pits us against anything we experience as holy: our time, firstly, our creativity, our social values, and of course Nature herself... Our basic needs, rather than moving in tandem with the natural abundance of this ripe planet, are sought out against those who surround us. We assume distrust is natural and good... How contrary to the human heart(!) Bound to the system which organizes us, we are simultaneously divided by it. By such is war made inevitable, and all the peace protests in the world spell out  m-i-s-d-i-r-e-c-t-e-d   e-n-e-r-g-y.

Our focus would serve such "lofty" goals better if focused instead on monetary policy and not the missiles… as money gets a thing done… The rules to our wealth are simply out-dated and in need of reckoning. "The Russians Love Their Children Too," so let us get on with it. Let us sharpen our focus onto the root causation of our many issues; let us learn the current set of rules to the currency which binds us, and let us play afterwards quite differently. You and I, are overdue for a Return to the Garden.

Welcome to:

www.thebookofgardens.com

~ A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth ~

Conscious Decisions - A RANT.

Those of you well familiar with this process may well wish to pass this article along to those... less familiar with conscious-based decision making, and read on for pure enjoyment. I do think we are passing through a time, though, where self-centeredness is up for question, and those who would prefer their personal pain are being left out to the open to dry. They feel the change upon them acutely, as the rest of us move into Change.

What do I mean by that? Well...

We're at a time when the idea of economic security is changing rapidly. How the balance of power swings is already interesting, and I think it is going to get a lot more interesting very soon. As Victor Frankyl said: "The best of us didn't come back," and I can't help but wonder what aspects of culture are going to thrive, and which other ones will not. We can observe Change on all its levels, hermeneutically if you will: personally, interpersonally, and societally, simultaneous to any given juncture in our experience.

North America has been 'on top' for quite some time. Mark Carney only last month said something akin to "We need to get used to the idea that our neighbours to the South may not recover for a very long time." To translate: the US$ is no long the reserve currency of the world. It just needs to be made official. Somehow.

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Whether the BRIC makes this official, or the US, or the complete collapse of paper currency, isn't really of concern here. Propping up Greece's debt with more debt, creates, well, debt. The end. The question I'm pursuing is: what does this mean for you? and, are you preparing?

Parallel to this, is that nasty Peak Oil thing, playing itself out in the background for the last forty years. That we are only just beginning to make the Green Collar Economy at the height of peak oil production, is probably a strong indicator of how well prepared we are to alter which currency we refer to as a benchmark in the coming years, ie: we'll probably wait until we have to panic, cry foul play, and then indulge in victimhood stories for decades.

Not pretty.

For my money, it comes back to a question of VALUE. What, do you value - intrinsically - and have you actually examined this? Or, are you sway to unconscious swings and "surprise" motivations? I call such impulsivity no less than personal pain. That unsightly 'forgetting' which our consumer culture encourages.

For example, one person I recently met, by her own words, sat idle in a marriage of 16 years until she accepted that her husband was most likely homosexual and that her needs were deeply mis-satisfied. My question for anyone in a similar situation is: do you really need to commit adultery before you acknowledge your own needs? Is this best-strategy of self-discovery, and bringing new people - new information - into your life? ... Obviously not: however, the example illustrates the lengths a person can go in allowing less than conscious decisions to be at the helm of ones thinking.

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The emasculation of men is by no means an end-goal of self esteem; rather, I think it a terrific route to full blown sex addiction. ... But perhaps, dear feminists, these points deserve posts unto themselves: I am not making a gender claim here, as the social contract between men and women is of great concern to me. And that said... I would love to meet a Babe In Total Control of Herself... but am not convinced I have yet.

Under All Things Indigo, what is disturbing me greatly in our predicament today, is the over-abundant availability of spiritual teaching. Some of it is good, and, naturally, I rely upon select authors myself. Though I am not Christian, I believe there is a prophecy or two about "false teachers arising in abundance near The End," which I respect and even admire. What exactly we're at the end of is up for debate, but I think there is something in such prophecy to the abundance of watered-down-crap out there on the subject of spirituality (especially Taoism!!) which, frankly, is used as a way to further mask an authentic dialogue with oneself and others, rather than uncover and deepen. Hence this posting here: Mindfulness as Action

Let's just say, Oblivion is Not Enlightenment, and it strikes me that the current bulk of economic activity would much rather keep us seemingly happy on the oblivion side of this equation.

"Education appears to be the thing
 that enables a man to get along
 without the use of his intelligence."
GB. Shaw.

Our minds are like sponges all through the life span - not just as children. We constantly model. By being wary of "education," (how and what we learn) you may have a chance at finding intelligence - whatever your educational goals happen to be. Our underlying needs - our dialogue with our self - is a really difficult thing for North Americans. I am speculating that we are just so used to 'being on top,' that attending to our needs hasn't really been of dire concern. But we've ran out of land: We've ran out of indigenous territory (and peoples) to exploit. (Damn hey, if only the Earth was flat!) And our paper currency had best get on with putting a green stripe into its legislation, or otherwise tear itself up and move out of the way for mother nature to take back all of her crusted-up, paved-over body: And as individuals, we are either making daily choices to move back into an accord with Her, or we're lost in our heads trying to live some other man's dream.

Which brings me back to this person I met recently. Given the rising economic transition we are in, given peak oil is at its height, and given also the baby boom trying to retire... given all these massive pressures upon the way we have been organising ourselves, I believe that using ones inner values as a compass to be best-method: Actual embodiment of ones ideas is going to cost something. ...Continuing to hide out in a pre-fab tool shed of products made cheaply in China is no way to forge ones future... China, always a fine subject unto itself, is in such an enviable spot: they have the means of production - period - they have the willing labour - period - they've been buying up American gold - period - and they work @$#!ing hard... economically I say: well played China! (See my profile to the right;)

A bourgeois ethic, on the other hand, is a bourgeois ethic. Chick-flik libertarianism is but a doe in the headlights. And anyone who has played 'Buck Hunter' even once... well... you know what comes next.

Cheers.
- P.

Please visit my other blogs for interesting articles and how-to videos:

http://phils-natural-building.blogspot.ca/

http://i-ching-guidance.blogspot.ca/

www.sta-sis-arts.com

Troubled?

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The washing machine switches to "Tumble" when inspiration strikes this morning. I was thinking back to all the different spiritual communities I've wandered through, remembering the steps along the way in coming to terms with just how 'troubled' people seemed to appear in these communities.

I had the grace fairly early in life to have walked through some interesting social circles in the theatre world, and strangely, I often came across a distaste for spiritual pursuits there. Certainly the theatre is a sect unto its own, and I respect fully how each person has the power of choice in finding their own brand of wisdom.

Truly, I do.

What fascinated me most were the tinges of hostility in people's voices on subjects of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and religion. Since the 90's we've grown considerably in our cultural predisposition, but I find this hostility persistent, and, given the natural tenaciousness with which the average person pursues a career in theatre and art, I find this a little, well, let's say... confusing. On one hand, the pursuit of theatre art is the holy grail to drink from and transform our culture's woes; and on the other, any curiosity toward something outside of ones preferred control becomes an influence dangerous, and almost demonic.

Certainly one can exhaust oneself quickly chasing every health fad, fabrication, or fact which tumbles onto the market. One can create more problems inside oneself than what may actually exist, and I think it is this self-haggared-ness which those outside of spiritual circles react to in a negative way - naturally - faulting a person's 'personality,' prior to investigating the person's pursuit.

I think the 'troubled' factor which appears in spiritual community would be more properly named as disillusionment. At some point - and of this I do have complete, er, faith - every person will experience a total and complete rift with their way of life. The entry point will be completely unique for everyone: economy, physical health, the death of a loved one, social habituation, a memory... or just plain-ole-curiosity for what may lay elsewhere.

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In the presence of such a person in throws of disillusionment, naturally, the arising discomfort becomes shared. Each to their own, and each to their own success, I say. But what fascinates me to no end is that hostility... I find this no different than the unfortunate chicken who started to bleed amongst her fellow chickens, for which panic and mayhem abound at the sight of blood. Humans, thinking ourselves civilised, likewise compound the shame of the questioning mind when one of us should touch upon a little (naturally occurring) pain.

I am not an advocate for needless suffering. I am, however, an advocate of finding facts, and if this hostility is in actual fact a frustration of not knowing how to best help - let's call it that, lest we appear - and become - prejudiced. I have yet to find a person who can tell me exactly what the heck is going on here on this fine planet, what we're doing, why blue is blue, why we breathe, why are the planets zipping around in circles, or why a squirrel chirps and the robin sings(!) ... I enjoy all these things. But the notion of 'expertise' is to me a thing anyone can purchase.

photo credit here... :)

Yes we've made all kinds of wonderous technological gadgets, interesting shelters, bizarre agricultural methods, have landed on the moon, and circulated MacBooks across the globe and put one into my lap... That all took ingenuity, patience, and skill. Yet I do not find our busyness to be bringing us any closer to pulling back the face of this thing called Life, that we may finally see its true face.

This... consequently... makes me a poet.

All the way into the centre of my heart, I speak a different language. I see differently, and have always seen differently. If I did not have seventeen questions behind my eyes at all times, maybe I would have gone into today's professional sciences, earned a high paying salary, got that picket-fence-and-spouse combo, and just not have worried about any of this... but I didn't. And with every passing day, I accept further:

I couldn't.

The Chinese have a saying that, once you are thirty, "you are ready to walk." And once you are forty, "no one can fool you anymore." ... This week, I turn 39.

Rudolf Steiner predicted we would need spiritual scientists one day here in the West. He also predicted that a new religion would begin in the western provinces of Canada. I do not claim myself to have any standing to initiate such, yet I believe that day is here upon us - Ekhart Tolle being a fine example. Yes, we have had monks and nuns, and Henry David Thoreau's. Yes, we have had Einsteins and Glenn Goulds and Mother Teresas... But what about the everyday... What about you and I?

Jasper National Park, Canada. www.sta-sis-arts.com

I have never been naturally dazzled by Things. Trees however, strike me as a complete puzzle. Sunlight after rain. Wind upon the Lake. Fire underneath the mountain. The idea of dragons... Fog hanging low in a valley. ... I count myself lucky to be single, unhinged, and as of today unemployed(!) Divorce is 70%. I have met more single parents and lost divorcees than parenting couples. I have been dreadfully unhappy chasing the dollar, and I know full well I am far from alone... I have entered all of these conventional avenues with absolute full cooperation, but pleasurably, I still question, question, question... What, on earth, is going on here?! :)

As the only conclusion that has come back to me thus far, is that we're all just making it up as we go along... well then... I choose poetry(!) I choose the phenomenal shared radiance from gazing upon something until I know and feel the thing to be my brother, my ancestor, and my future. And I ask only of one thing: time to put this into words - to make "my agony sing" as Arthur Miller once said...

Outside the hills
birch-wood awaiting
the splitter, I wish you
much love to your mind
and heart.