We The People

Imperfection

Ignorance Is Bliss

Hello World.

Been a while since my last post... 

So I guess I'll kick it off with a small drawing I made a couple of months ago.

Sorry about the quality, the original size was around 3400 x 2500 or something like that and I had to re-size it with a program since none of the default options on Blogger suited the blog... so i suppose it came out a little blurry but ah well you'll get the point! 

While a few of you have already seen this, some of my readers asked me to put this photo up with sort of an explanation to it, so here it is:

Nos Autem Populus

Alright where do I start... The main body of the pyramid represents our society, "the world we have built" so to say... 

As you might have figured already, the man who's kneeling in the fire trying to climb the pyramid represents man kind and our planet earth as one, I suppose by portraying us in such a form I tried to convey the point that whatever we do to ourselves, in the aftermath is also reflected upon our planet... and vice versa.

In the drawing, we (The Man) are reaching towards the eye, this eye is NOT god, what the eye represents is our "Higher Self", It's the ultimate state of being, the absolute apex of our existence, but this state of being is being kept away from us...

It is being kept away by the distractions which are consuming our lives (which is represented by the barbed wire of course)... the media, money, music, etc... Please note that there is good music, good TV shows, good movies and so on... but common face it people, most of the shit you see on TV now or hear on the radio is purely stupefying trash. 

Now for those of you who couldn't make it out, the stripe on the man's head is representing an eye-patch, I think this is the most important point of my sketch because it tells us that one eye is open.. one is closed. 

What I was trying to put across was that the eye that is open sees only the distractions, it only sees the "Want", where the closed eye represents our ignorance... This eye is also the key to our higher selves, by representing our closed eye as the eye inside the triangle I'm trying to say that we KNOW we are ignorant, we KNOW that we should be doing something better with our lives, we KNOW that these distractions are exactly what they are... distractions. Yet we chose to ignore this knowledge. 

The upsetting part is that this is OUR fault. 

The fire, skeleton bones, and some religious items represent the foundation on which we have built our society on... how on earth could we build paradise when the elementary component of the cornerstone is made up of hundreds and thousands of years worth of hatred, conflict, war & lies... To show this point I've drawn the pyramid (the world we've built) broken & in the process of falling apart.

So yeah I think that covered the main idea... Hope you enjoyed it & I hope I will be posting more often from now on :S 

I'll just leave you guys with this:

"Creation seems to come out of imperfection. It seems to come out of striving & frustration"     - Kim Krizan

The Root of All Evil

Money

If it's broke, Don't fix it

Hello World.

The more posts I make, the more i start to realize that they are becoming less and less "Me" & more and more what I imagine others expect from my blog because of the previous posts everyone seemed to have enjoyed so much...

So I guess i'll take a break from stating "researched" materials and try to include more of some original thinking... Well as original as it gets since, no doubt, all of us had such thoughts.

I guess this post can be seen as a extension or addition or whatever, to my previous post:
"Slaves in White Collars"

Enjoy! 

The Giants who formed this world into its sensual existence and now seem to live in it in chains.

-  William Blake

 Money... Strange thing isn't it?

A small piece of paper that originally was designed to set us free from the burdens such as carrying our merchandise and all sorts of riches on us, has now turned into a material control system which literally governs everyone's lives.

well first of all i'd like to agree that yes, the concept of "money" was a great idea!

why would we bother carrying tons of potential trades material with us, if we could simply put it into a bank and get a paper which approves that we truly own that much "stuff"

The problem now is that "money" has completely taken the wrong turn from its original purpose... in fact... it doesn't represent anything!, think about it... if you have $10 or $100... literally all it proves is that you have a piece of paper...

For example, if you were to see something you liked.. like maybe a hat! that a person is wearing, and you were to offer them $100,
yet the person would say that they'd rather trade something that has actual value in return... you'd quickly realize that you're a guy who offered a piece of paper for a hat...












of course that scenario is taken to a minimal extreme, yet in a post apocalyptic world I'd like to see a guy who would trade ya a piece of paper for a life-essential item.

Money itself doesn't have any essential value to it... it's simply us which gave it its purpose a long time ago...

In my opinion, the problem with our world today is that a LOT of us live by the motto:

"If it ain't broke, Don't fix it"

(Lets elaborate on that real quick... So this means, if it's not broken, don't fix it or improve it or do anything to it.. i mean why should you? still working right?...)

Sure this was quite a useful piece of philosophy a couple of decades ago but not anymore.
Now we are coming to a stage of change...

Think about it!!! apply that phrase to each of these scenarios! and then see where it has brought us...


Production of Paper
"Insert Quote"
= Enormous Deforestation




Methods of Easy Transport
"Insert Quote"
= Enormous Pollution




Education
"Insert Quote"
= Outdated Thinking / Mindset



Money System
"Insert Quote"
= Enslaved to the Material




Even Bruce Lee knew that we always have to keep on moving forward.. keep on flowing.. he knew that all the old traditional martial arts were becoming out-dated and to adjust to the future he must create new ways, improved ways of fighting...

I guess here i come full circle ...

My point is that; way too many of us give up our hopes and dreams simply to be imprisoned by our own creation...

I'm sure many of us ask ourselves.. "If I do what i love, will that bring me a good income?" and if the answer is "No"...

At the passing of a second we drop what we love and pursue the path of money... A path which is paved with bricks of misery and sadness, just hoping that one day the pieces of paper we worked so hard for throughout our entire life will be a worthy reflection to all our achievements.

Of course some people can do what they love and earn great amounts of money.. my point is, don't give up on what you love doing, simply if it doesn't bring you a big income... after all, you never know when you will die. So why waste your time on something you hate for something that isn't of real value.

I'm gonna leave you guys with this quote by Ayn Rand

"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?"

Welcome To The Machine

Education

The System of Today

For the World of Yesterday

Hello World.

First, I apologize for missing on two Sundays / Mondays which i haven't posted anything on, the reason for this is, I wrote 3 blog post drafts, and simply didn't think any of which were "good enough" to be posted.

So after watching a TED-Talks video on education, and creativity etc... I got inspired and simply couldn't resist to add my say to this subject!

Enjoy!

Surely all of us have heard, or even said it to our own kids that:

"without a good education, you won't accomplish anything in life, so listen well in school and get good grades because they are important for a good job in the future!"

 well something along those lines... we might not be so blunt when we say it, but it sure is what we imply.

Despite its oh-so promising encouragement of "good grades - good future", this statement has lost its value a long time ago... I suppose before I try to bring my point across, I'll quickly explain why I'm bringing this topic up in the first place...

In the beginning, there was the Industrial Revolution.
It was a time where people began making the transition from hand production methods to machines, we found ways to become more efficient and create higher quantities of merchandise through the use of factories and tons of other new equipment...

Simply put:
It was a different time which required certain needs for a certain lifestyle.

Because of the condition we lived in back then, skills such as languages and mathematics were valued more than other subjects because of its "high-in-need" status for its time, therefore schools got formed in a way that the education they provide serves the needs and requirements that the factory-workforce demands.

Our solution to a flourishing society eventually became the reason for its very own demise.

I believe Ken Robinson made a fantastic illustration of this matter by saying this:

Schools were and still are structured like the factories they were developed to serve. They treat education like an assembly line - you move from one task (Class) to the next - Day in and Day out. There is little collaboration or interchange between the work done in one department (Course) versus the next. The product (Students) are processed, as in a factory, in batches (By year of birth). 

The resultant product (Graduates) are therefore all from the same mold.

When this system first got put into place, students accepted it because it almost certainly guaranteed a job, a chance in going to a college, and then a better job.

Although many of us faithfully hold on to this image of what our current education "should" provide, the fact is... That's not how it works anymore.

"Even with great grades, there is an oversupply of graduates. Couple this with the boredom and lack of enthusiasm generated by this production line education and is there any wonder why there are more costly drop-outs and an overall uninspired set of students?" - Harvey White

Our world and the needs to our lifestyle had changed a long time ago... Yet our system of education fails to realize that...

If you ask our students a question ... most of them will probably tell you to hold on a second and take out their iPhone or laptop and Google the answer... Acquiring information is not a problem anymore now that we have the internet, it isn't essential to hammer facts into our children's heads... instead we must teach them how to put that information to good use!

We must stop seeing our world as it was back in the 70's / 80's / 90's... we do NOT need to waste the beautiful minds of our generations to come, into some factory machines... we are past that stage of the Industrial Revolution, right now we must seek improvement... we have to find ways to create a better world around us, and this cannot happen without Imagination and Creativity...

Don't think that you are not creative, or don't have the imagination to come up with something original...

Pablo Picasso said:

Every child is born an artist, the problem is to remain one once they grow up

We are simply conditioned to believe that a piece of paper with a couple of letters and numbers may govern our lives, by believing in this nonsense we choose to settle for "some job" and forget the fact that we should take risks in our lives, we should try everything we can, and not simply "settle" for something...

After all we only have one life! therefore forget what people tell you about education, be creative, be yourself and do what you want to do.

Albert Einstein said:

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

 Oscar Wilde said:

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. 

and so on.. I could go on quoting countless amounts of people, and list numerous individuals who decided to disregard the ignorance of "schooling" and finding their own way in life, and live with incredible success.. but I think you get my point.

At the end of the day, you'll only get as far as you want to.

Don't be another brick in the wall ;)

Thanks for reading, Should be posting again this Sunday/Monday & I'll try to make it more interesting next time :S