Culture as an Enabler

Cultures of all kinds enable us to do different things we would be unable to accomplish through our own personal will and physical ability.

The !Kung, of the Kalahari desert in Africa, tribe's culture enables human being to live and thrive in the harsh environment of the Kalahari.  A single human being would have a much harder time scratching out an existence in that environment than the millennia tested and tribally supported !Kung culture.

Cultures, (or sub-cultures), don't have to be beneficial though; there are numerous examples of cultures that permit their members to partake in things that are painful or dangerous to the individual.  A crack-house is a good example.  All the members in a crack-house form up a specific sub-culture, based on, obtaining, dealing, and using crack cocaine.  The users in the house have their desire for crack enabled and put on a pedestal within their own sub-culture.  In a sub-culture like this, even a distracting and life-draining habit like crack is accepted and made as the norm.  Humanity's herd mentality need not always be used beneficially...

On a lesser degree of destructiveness individually, but, more so, globally, Western consumerist culture enables people to feel accepted working 40+ hours a week in order to purchase lots of goods and services that they don't really need.  People accept 5+ hours of mind-numbing TV as normal and wonder little about the effect advertising is having on their life.  These people's workaholism and product fetishism is accepted as the norm even though working most jobs provides little good for the individual or society other than enabling them to partake in being an avid consumer.  

Although the crackhead culture enables individuals to harm themselves; consumer culture enables individuals to piddle their life away in trivial pursuits, while, focusing on distractions or apathy towards the damage their culture is causing to Earth and its biosphere.

Big Ol' Page on Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin

Alexander Shulgin creator of thousands of psychedelic compounds which he compiled in his opuses, PiKHal and TikHAL, is an interesting man to say the least.  He also rediscovered MDMA and popularized its use for psychotherapy leading to it later becoming a popular club drug.  He was truly a visionary and an evolutionary agent for our species.

                                                           young Shulgin in the lab

I have personally tried a few of his novel psychedelic compounds and they are unbelievable to say the least.  It is amazing to think that a man created these substances on purpose. My personal favorites...

4-ACO-DMT
-Similar to psilocybin mushrooms with alot of personal insight and pure absurd fun.  Has a 3 hour peak compared to mushrooms' almost instantaneous peak.  Visuals reminiscent of DMT.

2-CE
-UNBELIEVABLY visual.  The sky was a morphing visualizer, my posters came off the walls and conversed with me, I could see individual bugs upon all the individual blades of grass in my lawn, with eyes closed felt like I was riding a train through alien beings' living rooms, they were not pleased.  Also with eyes closed felt like I was experiencing periods of evolution from the past.(becoming a slug, gorilla, etc.)  Has to be experienced to be understood, changed my life.

Here are some collections of interviews with Sasha Shulgin and sometimes, his wife Anne, on a range of topics.

Shulgin 1995 in LA Times on Psychedelics, Government Interference and his life

Vice Magazine visits Aging Shulgin's House, listens to him Rant

Shulgin, YouTube, "Why I Discover Psychedelic Substances"

and my personal favorite...

Terence McKenna and Sasha Shulgin walk and Converse

MMMMM.....new psychedelics

Who cares how you're doing

In modern America, a popular greeting in business, pleasure, or home life is: "How [are] you doing?"

99% of people will respond "Good. You?"

That other 1% of responses is usually someone telling you that their car broke down, they just got diagnosed with cancer, lost their job, or they're having a psychotic break and telling you the Reptilians have arrived.

So...one usually hopes to just hear, "Good".  No person you're having a formal greeting with at work, while paying for services, or at a club/bar really wants to hear about your personal trials and tribulations.  This greeting has become a sort of vestigial formality from small-town periods when everyone really wanted to know what the rest of their neighbors were up to.

It kind of strikes me as weird in today's fast paced techno-urban society.  People usually just mumble it quickly and continue with their business.  What other humanistic formalities still exist that don't make sense in modernity?

Presidential Accountability

Here's an idea, what if our leaders lives where in our hands just like we put our lives in their hands?  The president makes decisions that effect everyone for better or worse and we think he feels responsible through the gravity of his position but, what if he was held accountable for his actions through regular, "votes of confidence" from the population.

People could vote to punish him in small ways such as taking away his vacation or through mitigating a portion of his power that he had mis-used.  A president that makes a bad foreign policy decision could have his ability to make calls on policy either taken away, or, voted on piecemeal by the population during every decision.

President could have their personal lives watched if they abuse their power ( like Clinton).  Why not? They watch and record all of our lives through surveillance, so, why shouldn't the man at the head of this governing body be highly surveyed as well.

The president needs to feel that there will be penalties for wrong decisions or mis-use of power.  President Bush was a gross example of a man who abused his power and got away with murder.(and more)

The horror, the horror

 Sometimes thats life

Fun Story from Osho

The Donkey's Common Sense

One day a farmer lost his donkey. While searching for the donkey he heard loud cries coming from a well. He looked down the well and found his old donkey crying piteously.
He thought the Old donkey must have received a lot of injuries. Its better to bury the Donkey in the well and close the well to prevent the future calamities.
So the farmer called his neighbors for help and they all started throwing mud inside the well.
As the farmers were throwing Mud into the well, the donkey was shaking the mud from its back and was taking one step up. This way the donkey was gaining height in the well and was coming closer to edge of well and soon it was out from the calamity.
As the farmers were throwing Mud into the well, the donkey was shaking the mud from its back and was taking one step up. This way the donkey was gaining height in the well and was coming closer to edge of well and soon it was out from the calamity.
Initially one could hear the loud cries coming from well but slowly the cries stopped coming. After some time they looked down the well. To their amazement the donkey was still very much alive.
All challenges in our life are like the mud which life throws at us. We just need to shake off the mud and take one step up. All challenges are opportunities to rise high.

Artist Page - Larry Carlson

This guy, Larry Carlson, has some real trippy flash videos and other art.  His sit is definitely worth a visit.

Wonderful World of Larry Carlson

Yup

The plain fact is that if you don't have a problem, you create one. If you don't have a problem you don't feel that you are living.-UG

UG's Books (Guy is quite a mind opener)

Interview with the Rascal Guru Christopher S. Hyatt

Awesome interview with the Author of Undoing Yourself .  If you don't know about that book I think you'll still find this man's ideas and self quite interesting.