The Almighty Amero

Daniel Pinchbeck
amero-full.jpg

This article originally appeared in Conscious Choice magazine.

These days I feel lost in the immense suffering and madness of our world. Something has snapped in the spirit of the time; events have gone beyond human capacity to control, predict or even conceptualize. Those who insist they know what is happening are merely pretending, or dissembling. When novelty arises, when old structures disintegrate before new patterns reveal themselves, there are no experts.

Perhaps the best oracles we can consult are systems analysts like Erwin Laszlo. Laszlo studies chaos theory and believes global civilization is a few years away from what he calls "the chaos point." According to Laszlo, we are at a "crucial decision-window" of instability. "When we reach the point of chaos," Laszlo tells us, "the stable 'point' and 'periodic' attractors of our systems will be joined by 'chaotic' or 'strange' attractors." These "strange attractors" will propel us, like booster rockets, to evolutionary development or entropic debauch. In other words, we should prepare ourselves for the unknown and inexplicable.

The current economic crisis provides an intriguing case in point. For those of us with an interest in spirituality and a background in the arts, the conceptual concoctions of modern finance – derivatives, futures, quants, margin calls and whatnot – can seem as occult as sorcerers' spells. All of these entities are inextricably intertwined in the subprime mortgage market fiasco, which continues to unfold.

Apparently, after stocks dropped in the wake of 9/11, the government stimulated the sluggish U.S. economy by pumping up the housing market. In earlier and more reticent eras, banks and mortgage brokers required collateral before making loans. After 2001, these restrictions were relaxed, bringing the "American Dream" of home ownership – or mortgage debt refinancing – to a wider populace. Loans that began at low interest (only to balloon to high interest later), got handed out to all and sundry. Based on Pollyanna-ish projections that these high-interest loans disconnected from any tangible assets would be paid back, the sub-prime mortgages were packaged into "securities" and traded up the financial markets. Several million holders of sub-prime mortgages are now defaulting on their payments, with more to follow.

Stepping back for a moment, we might see larger historical dynamics at work. Over the last decades, much of U.S. industry was relocated and outsourced to the developing world, leaving a large populace that had little to produce but was still committed to a credit-based, cushy and consumptive lifestyle. Our financial sector – following the old adage, "if you got lemons, make lemonade" – cunningly repackaged the increasing burden of U.S. personal debt, turning it into a shiny product for the financial markets. Over the last years, these questionable loans, bundled into securities, became one of our major exports to the world. With nothing tangible left to sell, the U.S. turned individual debt into its chief export.

It seems inconceivable that the financial institutions and speculators didn't anticipate large-scale defaults. Perhaps they were counting on the Federal Reserve to bail them out. During the last months, in fact, the Fed, along with its European counterpart, has poured hundreds of billions of newly invented dollars into the financial markets, temporarily stabilizing the system and rewarding the speculators while doing nothing for the masses of people facing eviction from their homes and creating the prospect of hyperinflation.

The Fed, a private institution, "injects liquidity," quips the New York Times, without needle or syringe. As a Lehman Brothers economist notes, "All they do is write down a number and credit that amount of cash to the bank. It's a bookkeeping entry." The Fed's miraculous capacity to create instant cash brings up deeper questions about the nature of money today – what is it? De-linked from the gold standard, money is based on little more than our collective belief in it.

In Third World countries, currency crises – often brought about by predatory speculation - frequently lead to frozen bank accounts and long breadlines, followed by a change of currency that creates immense profit for the banks and the government. Of course, many believe that such a thing could never happen here. Recently, there have been rumors of a plan to form an American version of the European Federation, uniting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada under a new currency, the "Amero," and a new constitution, devised by the bankers.

In his essay in the new anthology, The Mystery of 2012 (Sounds True Press), Peter Russell notes that transformations of human culture are built upon each other, with each new revolution requiring exponentially less time to manifest. The Agricultural Age developed over thousands of years, the Industrial Age required a few hundred years, and the Information Age – built upon the manufacturing technologies developed by industrialization - only took twenty years. Russell suggests that the next revolution would be from the Information Age to what he calls "the Wisdom Age." In just a few years, we could shift from a system based on data analysis rewarding corporate and individual greed to one that utilized human knowledge and foresight to institute a compassionate and equitable planetary culture. The overt irrationality revealed by the current financial crisis might act as a necessary awakening, leading to a large-scale shift in values.

 

The coin pictured above is of a fantasy amero. Image courtesy of Daniel Carr, the coin's designer. Please visit his site for more images of the amero and his work.

Comments

I'm feeling it too

Submitted by Tal.Leeds on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 00:46.
Dear Daniel, Here in Southern CA, with the Santa Ana's fueling an immense firestorm, the smoky skies and strange orange sunlight feels like an eerie harbinger of things to come. Another out-of-control natural (ish) (powerlines were involved in many fires) disaster, scenes of huddled, homeless masses packed into a football stadium (Quallcomm) and hollow words aimed at comfort provide dread coming from the mouths of Gov. Arnie and Dubs. It was two days ago that I sat and watched a short internet doc explaining how money is "created" and felt the the fear creep up my spine. I'm fighting like hell to keep it in its place. I see the dots in place and I think I understand how they are meant to connect. It doesn't look good. We got to get to work. But what? Where will our energies be best spent? I've heard you talk about sustainable cities preparing for peak oil and so on but what else seems viable? Are there some practical suggestions you have? I really want to know. How do we effect positive change in the growing chaos and (dare I say it) Fascist order that is potentially rising? How will we stay safe? I hope I don't sound too paranoid, but, from my perspective this culture (and financial system) is venturing into the dangerously insane. P.s. I was really glad to see you at bodhi tree when you came to speak. Respectfully, Tal

World on Fire

Submitted by Daniel Pinchbeck on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 20:46.

Hi Tal,

The more I have considered the situation, the more I suspect that it is necessary we go through a breakdown of the current system that necessitates transition to a new societal infrastructure, based on ecological design principles and equitable distribution of wealth across the entire global population. 

I have just finished Antonio Negri's "The Politics of Subversion," in which he argues that the essential lesson of the Twentieth Century is that "Capitalism is impossible," and not reformable. The failure of the New Deal and the Great Society revealed the impossibility of capitalism, and Empire, and now we are experiencing its prolonged death rattle.

The question of how are we as individuals going to survive the increasingly volatile crises of the next few years is, of course, an interesting one. I suppose it would not be illogical to find access to high land that is arable and has its own water supply. The people who are going to be in the best situation to deal with this are indigenous people such as the Mazatec Indians in the mountains of Oaxaca and the Maya in remote areas of Guatemala. 

A friend of mine went with Alberto Villoldo recently to Peru to speak with Incan elders, who are now coming forth with their own 2012 prophecies. When one of them was asked about what was going to happen in 2012, he said, "Well, we are going to miss our white brother."

 When we look at how disconnected most Americans have become from natural systems and how passified we are by a mass media created by a dominator control culture, I can see that the elder may have a point. However, in the brief time that remains to those of us who are now awakening, we can hope to spread the awareness as far as it is possible to spread it, to reduce the consequences of the destructive processes that have been unleashed by the "predator virus" of Empire. 

I still hold out the hope for a highly concentrated and accelerated transformation of global consciousness - a "fall of the Berlin Wall" scenario on the level of the collective psyche - that will usher in a new era at a speed that seems unimaginable to us now. You can feel the energy of consciousness somehow gathering force even beneath the incredible idiocy that is mostly apparent to us.

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

Ride my see-saw

Submitted by ST Frequency on Sat, 10/27/2007 - 00:20.

Daniel,

I sense in your posts and articles lately a shift towards acknowledgment of near-future scenarios which paint bleak pictures of our world: Peak Oil, the foundations of a fascist regime in America, and now a nod to the wisdom in relocating to "higher ground." (Perhaps this has something to do with recent reading materials?) While I appreciate your care to balance these suggestions with hopeful and positive potentials, I wonder if you are feeling more moved by the clarion calls of darker prophetic warnings these days?

I recall in the Rolling Stone feature you're quoted making a statement to the effect of "there's no running from the apocalypse, so why leave New York City?" While I can vibe with this stance, I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be such a bad idea to scout out a pleasant spot with some like-minded souls and re-tribalize? Atlanta is certainly not the place I'd like to ride out any degree of social upheaval or systems collapse...

-ST

Hi ST, Lately I am feeling

Submitted by Daniel Pinchbeck on Sun, 10/28/2007 - 09:17.

Hi ST,

Lately I am feeling like a two-track approach is the best. I stay in NYC because it is the place where I feel I can cause the largest ripples of consciousness change across the planet, and I will remain here with the hope that I can help change awareness. However I also think it makes sense to have some type of escape hatch in mind. It might be a good idea for us to conceive of our reaction plan in the face of an emergency like Katrina, the San Diego fires, or the approaching Atlanta drought, or a terrorist attack in NYC again. I can't say that I really have one worked out for myself, though I do know people upstate who would take me in, if I could figure out how to get there.

Still my hope is that "the system" holds together long enough so we can figure out how to fix it, and have something to move toward as the obvious collapse of the present paradigm accelerates. What is going to be required to salvage what can be salvaged is an enormous effort of fine-tuned collaboration across human communities.

By repurposing media and social network technology, we could potentially connect a national and even international community that would facilitate mutual assistance in the approaching crunch time of crisis. Working toward that goal, full-throttle, still seems to me a better bet for my own personal safety - perhaps everyone else's, as well - than "heading for the hills" at this point in time.

 

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

You've Got the Dynamic Right

Submitted by TaosJohn on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 10:56.
As you say, The overt irrationality revealed by the current financial crisis might act as a necessary awakening, leading to a large-scale shift in values. And not just for the financial crisis, but the whole damn thing: the horror of what we're up against, "the immense suffering and madness of our world," contains the seed of its own transformation. By pulling us into the darkness -- by bringing the "overt irrationality" into consciousness -- we're brought to where we can see the complement and sense the whole of which the horror is just a part. Paul Levy's wounded healer essay is right on the money concerning this.

One More Thing

Submitted by TaosJohn on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 11:12.
I say DON'T TRY to fight the fear creeping up your spine, but ride it instead. Just plunk yourself down right in the middle of it and luxuriate in every ghastly scenario you can think of. The culture IS insane, BTW, and a fascist order IS arising, but never mind. Ride that fear! Ride it all the way down to the bottom, and you'll see we're on an edge where things can fall either way. I'm convinced we don't get out of this by fighting or by joining movements. We effect positive change in the world by becoming whole ourselves, individually. That involves, basically, opening our hearts to love -- and in the broadest possible sense, returning the the Garden of Eden, where all is given.


But to open things up inside, we have to feel. The heart (as well as the head) needs cracking open. This either happens by accident or grace, or -- as in the default method -- through overwhelming tragedy and sorrow. The latter always works, but hang onto your hat.

I agree, but...

Submitted by Emanresu on Thu, 10/25/2007 - 07:00.
I agree with you John about opening our hearts to love and joining movements, but I can't grasp the concept of not fighting the fear. You clearly state that a fascist order IS rising, but nevermind? Maybe I'm interpreting your statement incorrectly. All I know, is that if a tyrannical government tries to harm me and my family, I ain't going down without a fight.

You're not alone.

Submitted by A.V. Michaels on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 16:09.
Something has indeed snapped. A friend reminded me we are 'between worlds' right now according to the Mayans; perhaps they knew better than we how difficult this period would be. It is vitally important that we pay attention - to the high strangeness of our government and the hidden agendas that haunt our world, as well as the way in which we choose to react to it. We're under attack - financially, spiritually, technologically, physically - finding that place of peace in the midst of the chaos, the eye of the hurricane so to speak, is perhaps the most difficult thing to do, and yet vital to our survival, physically and spiritually. I for one look forward to the age of wisdom. Finally a chance to relax. Surfing the Tao to a world of love, peace and harmony.

Monetary Earthquake

Submitted by Morgan Maher on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 17:18.

 

Beware the aftershocks, outgoing IMF head Rodrigo de Rato warns

The world economy has lived through “an earthquake” in financial markets and the aftershocks could include an abrupt fall in the dollar, protectionism in Europe and crisis in emerging economies, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/...

Hang on tight...

Submitted by JGex on Thu, 10/25/2007 - 09:23.
These days I feel lost in the immense suffering and madness of our world. Something has snapped in the spirit of the time; events have gone beyond human capacity to control, predict or even conceptualize. Art Bell calls this "The Quickening," & I've adopted it as a way to describe these feelings of angst. I enjoyed reading this, Daniel. It's time for everyone to start learning what the Federal Reserve is and how farked this country is financially. I'm also holding onto the hope that somehow a mass consciousness is going to prevail, but like you said in your last comment, I almost can't see it happening unless there is a massive breakdown in the current system.

Turning Attention

Submitted by Morgan Maher on Thu, 10/25/2007 - 13:01.

"It's time for everyone to start learning what the Federal Reserve is and how farked this country is financially. I'm also holding onto the hope that somehow a mass consciousness is going to prevail, but like you said in your last comment, I almost can't see it happening unless there is a massive breakdown in the current system."

It seems to be (painfully) clear that many people are fully aware that things are "farked". One way or another, it is widely understood that there is corruption, decay and chaos with"the current system".

This recent and present chaos from political realms through war through terrorism through 911 through Katrina through the California fires through the collapsing economy and so on, is surely a breakdown.

But I wonder, why should it hold one's attention so? Is it the same rubbernecking transfixed gaze adopted on passing an automobile accident? Yes, there needs to be a certain awareness of these things in order to understand it and overcome it. Yet it does no good to be consumed by these processes. As Terence McKenna put it "The predator first learns to think like its prey, so that it can be in the path of the prey and ...have dinner!"

One thing that strikes me is, by and large, government/politics isn't addressing an evolving consciousness and planetary awareness. From a wide angle level it seems they have their own (antiquated) mission, call it Manifest Destiny, call it a hidden agenda, call it what you will. But they seem to just do whatever they want, according to presuppositions, fanaticism, misinformation, ego, power. Wearing proudly, as Wade Davis puts it "The crude face of domination".

When those planes crashed into the towers I thought "If someone can do that, now it is possible to do anything you want."

Wade Davis, acclaimed author and National Geographic's Explorer in Residence stated in this lecture that "We (at the National Geographic) believe that politicians will never accomplish anything, we think that polemics are not persuasive but we think that storytelling can change the world. We are going to take our audience to places of such cultural wonder that they cannot help but to come away dazzled by what they have seen. And hopefully therefore embrace gradually, one by one, the central revelation of anthropology, that the world deserves to exist in a diverse way, that we can find a way to live in a multicultural, pluralistic world where all of the wisdom of all peoples can contribute to our collective well being."

There's history and mystery and now, yourstory.

A Fork in the Road

Submitted by sidecross on Thu, 10/25/2007 - 21:06.

This topic Daniel Pinchbeck has stated is one I am in agreement; those who refuse to grasp and learn how the world economy works are victims of ‘the three card trick’ that street hustlers have used in the past. Today’s economy ‘street hustlers’ work with the guile that people today are too busy to see how the new updated ‘hustle’ is being used.

 

On Daniel’s web site Breaking Open the Head there is a topic called ‘Big Bump in the Road’. http://www.breakingopenthehead.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33122#post33122

 

This is a small primer on how ‘the three card trick’ is being used today.

 

We are truly at a fork in the road on one side the road continues to the cliff’s edge and the other road leads to our understanding of our place on planet Earth.

 

 

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

T. S. Eliot

invader dreaming

Submitted by AstralGlamBoy on Fri, 10/26/2007 - 12:03.
Daniel, another great piece. I appreciate how you frame everything with a positive statement, because it certainly seems like things are getting unglued. I like your discussion of Empire. The Australian aborigines call it, "invader dreaming." While I agree a collapse would certainly expedite change, some environmentalists think that such a collapse would be incredibly bad for the environment because it would unleash an all or nothing grab for resources. Without a power grid, for example, forests will be shredded. I'm a big fan of Lazlo and as I read him, he states there are two different paths, one where we get our shit together, the other in which we basically descend into global barbarism. I'm over simplifying it at the moment because I'm too lazy to look in the book to identify his terms (and also I have a crying baby on my arm so I can only type with one hand), but my observation is that both are happening. Apocalypse Now! My whole life I have had dreams in which people start sorting themselves out into different realities. I think the hell realms are here and now, and so too are the heavenly spaces. We need to be guides for those too trapped in delusion to see their way out. Antonio http://mediacology.com

A hair's breadth separates the false from the true

Submitted by Thom K Evans on Fri, 10/26/2007 - 17:48.

AstralGlamBoy wrote:  While I agree a collapse would certainly expedite change, some environmentalists think that such a collapse would be incredibly bad for the environment because it would unleash an all or nothing grab for resources. Without a power grid, for example, forests will be shredded.

This is something that has been on my mind recently. A serious socio-economic collapse could have disastrous effects on ecosystems. The last thing we need are liberated 'cavemen' charging around hurling sharpened golf clubs at anything that looks consumable. I wonder though if this 'dominator' model might be based on capitalist assumptions. If the capitalist has so obviously and publicly blown it, maybe he'll just sit in the corner and weep, while others with more realistic models kindly brew tea for him...without murdering trees. The jury is out.

Interestingly related perhaps, an evolutionary theorist is dreaming of or channelling ideas of population bifurcation. Here's a choice morsel from the bbc webgrove:

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6057734.stm   

Anyway, I feel that we will indeed experience a "fall of the Berlin wall" moment, as Daniel puts it. I expect it to be a close run thing however, testing our boundaries of trust and fear. As Omar Khayam (I think) notes, "a hair's breadth separates the false from the true."

We are all the magical elusive 100th monkey. Clarity of intention and vision will burn away the fogs of fear that the blind and dumb black magicians in the boardrooms are pumping out into our minds.

Political processes are deeply compromised - nation state democracy is a puppet show that ignores our delighted applause. I suspect that McKenna was right: only a revival of shamanism can have the necessary rapid transformative effect on western society that will circumvent a collapse. The birth of this new being began perhaps a hundred years ago, but only recenty has it begun to speak with many voices (and this website would be one of the first boards on the vocal wave.) There is a very old and very wise and very strange being in speech.

Also, I wonder sometimes if all the weird and violent  applications of technology we are seeing will be suddenly supplanted by a radical refreshing of that original and still most powerful technology, language. The human voice box may be the only tool we need.

Indeed, maybe the human imagination is a truth machine, and language, that divine spark of the logos, is where it will be decided whether we are diabolic or symbolic beings.

Production of Subjectivities

Submitted by Daniel Pinchbeck on Sun, 10/28/2007 - 09:03.

Hi Antonio,

 

A comment on your comment: Naomi Klein's new book The Shock Doctrine discusses Milton Friedman, who apparently realized that when there is a huge crisis, the ideas that get used are the ones that are available, "lying around." We can see that crisis is approaching on a mega-scale, but at the moment the only ideas lying around are the NeoCon and Neoliberal ideas that got us into this mess. Therefore we - the Left - need to have a full set of offerings available for an alternative social paradigm, and also have those ideas marketed in media-friendly form as shit hits fan. This was my purpose with my last attempt to start a media and network company, and remains my purpose here.

Part of the problem is that we don't have a compelling model of societal redesign mapped out. My perspective seems to be becoming increasingly extreme and socialistic as I think through these issues. I agree with Fuller that the goal is to create a "win win" situation for global humanity, and that is now going to take a massive redistribution of resources, along with a transformative shift in consciousness and understanding.

I am thinking a lot lately about the "production of subjectivities," which Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt discuss at length. The production of subjectivities is the most important form of production in our postmodern world. That is why control of the media and the education system is so critical for the dominator system. The media is where capitalist "subjectivity" is reinforced, and creates a context where class consciousness and class solidarity is hidden.

Why is Bush against the child health care bill? One reason has to do with the way that class consciousness is currently suppressed, by creating an apartheid-like system where there is a large (ever-growing, these days) excluded group. What is excluded is kept out of discourse, but haunts every aspect of our social world. The political framing that allows for millions (billions, worldwide, living on $1 or $2 per day) of excluded subjects masks the exploitation that has engineered this situation.

The question is whether the accelerating crises will lead to a further regression of consciousness or an empathic opening to the excluded others (humans and species) across the world. I feel the battle zone, right now, is the media and new tools such as this one, that could allow for a different type of subjectivity to emerge. Small groups can be "tipping points" that influence and transform vast social processes.

 

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

I had a lucid dream... (of the future?) hmm maybe..

Submitted by ourtimeisnow on Sat, 10/27/2007 - 01:55.

I had a very lucid dream where I saw on T.V. the news announcing a complete break down of the banking system. In this dream people where rushing to the banks to pull out all their money but the ATM machines did no longer work. There was overall panic as people where rushing to try to 'save' their money.

 

Further on in the dream, i thought, wow i must go and get my money out of the bank too! At this thought i was scolded at (by a voice), for this was not the correct reaction.

 

I interpret the dream now as a warning, that if such a thing comes to pass, one must be prepared to remain sane and without attachment, and not get immersed in the prevailing panic and madness. Money and banks are in the end only a collective illusion to support a consumption centric culture. I feel that what really matters is within us, our inner power to work together to create, to share and to love. If we remember this during times of crisis we will come out unscathed, yay!

"Heading for the Hills"

Submitted by sidecross on Sun, 10/28/2007 - 09:32.

There are too many people and not enough hills. Anyone using this method better be armed with an AK47.  

 

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

T. S. Eliot

Bad education

Submitted by AstralGlamBoy on Sun, 10/28/2007 - 14:06.

I am thinking a lot lately about the "production of subjectivities," which Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt discuss at length. The production of subjectivities is the most important form of production in our postmodern world. That is why control of the media and the education system is so critical for the dominator system. The media is where capitalist "subjectivity" is reinforced, and creates a context where class consciousness and class solidarity is hidden.

 

Daniel, I think you nailed here. The "subjectivity" of the "invader dreaming" is one of my biggest concerns, and strangely, I think the root of it is the alphabet. Not that I think it's a bad idea-- writing, that is-- but as a type of mental software it exaggerates the left brain, which is overly rational. I think the war of the present moment is between the left and right brains, and if you think of the world as a head with the Northern hemisphere as the left brain, and the Southern as the right, you can see where one mentality has come to dominate the other. I like McLuhan's the idea of the "resonant interval," a space between the hemispheres that we can surf. The Web and new media are actually moving us back to right brain thinking, so there is one benefit of the media system. Now we have to shift the intent behind it.

On a related note, I think one of the most damaged and corrupt institutions in the United States is public education. Unfortunately, when one criticizes education, there is a tendency to get lumped with Fundamentalists, who feel the same way. The problem is that the education system replicates the invader dreaming. If I could do one thing in this country, I would eliminate the educational system and replace it with something entirely different. Antonio

http://mediacology.com

The Spell of the Sensuous

Submitted by Daniel Pinchbeck on Sun, 10/28/2007 - 15:29.

Antonio,

In his great book, "The Spell of the Sensuous", David Abrams develops the thesis that the origin of our current crisis is based in the shift from direct participation in sensuous reality to abstracted intellectualized perception that had its origins in the construction of an alphabet that lacked real-world referents. He looks at phenomenologists such as Husserl and Merleau-Ponty and indigenous cultures. I do think that this is a great thesis, but I would say that it doesn't really answer the question of what caused the original shift.

Social ecologist Murray Bookchin's book, "The Ecology of Freedom", argues that it was the inception of hierarchy - dominator relationships - that caused the shift. I am fascinated by Pierre Claustre's "Society Against the State", which argues that tribal and aboriginal societies were organized to make it impossible for relations of dominance and hierarchy to arise. The Chief was not in a position to order anyone to do anything - he was the best talker, therefore the best mediator, and also the storyteller and myth-spinner of the tribe.

(Claustres describes how the Chief's job includes speaking out loud, for hours every day, telling stories etc, while nobody pays him any attention, everyone just go esabout their business. However they are still reassured by his background resonance. When i read this, I was intrigued by the similarity in the use of television today by many people - TV is kept on in the background, not really watched, kind of ignored, but an ever-present frequency. In this way, television fulfills the function of the tribal chief, perhaps.)

Then of course you have Riane Eisler and the notion that it was the emergence of patriarchy and the suppression of women that was the originary cause of the modern perceptual shift.

Julian Jaynes talks about the modern self emerging as a voice speaking in the head which is first perceived as an outside voice, and then seen as the self - the myth of Athena breaking out of the head of Zeus symbolizes the emergence of the modern self.

Then Gebser suggests that our relationship to spacetime is primary, and "mutational breaks" develop out of crises of anxiety. Robert Lawlor proposes that there was some sort of change in the Earth's electromagnetic envelope that had a "field effect" on human consciousness in the North - the Australian Aboriginals felt it least, living in the South and remaining without clothing or houses, so they stayed in continual contact with the Earth's electromagnetic pulse.

I suppose I would say that all of these are possibly valid, and that we may never find an originary cause that is definitive. The astrological vision of Rick Tarnas in "Cosmos and Psyche" - or the cyclical view of the Mayan wizard time-scientists - is probably equally sensible. There seems to be a nonduality of processes, less a cause and effect than an archetypal pattern that unfolds or crystallizes within our limited perception of space-time. It is very interesting from this nondual perspective that, for instance, the electromagnetic fields around the Earth appear to be changing dramatically at this point in time, no doubt influenced by human technology (though the quickening of our technological development would also be seen from this nondual perspective, as less something we are "doing" than something that is simply happening, compelled from the needs of the surrounding universe, working through us as its agents).

I did a lot of research into this question of the origin of the perceptual shift into left-brained "rightness" because it seems like we can't move forward properly unless we have a good foundational understanding of what forces impelled us into this current situation.

Perhaps this leads back to the crucial question of the "production of subjectivities" through media and education. Negri and Hardt's focus is on discovering a new potentially revolutionary subjectivity that has developed due to changes in the structure of labor since Marx's time. The work of the "multitude" requires collaboration and communication across global networks. The need for a boss or an authoritarian power structure has, actually, been obliterated by this development of collaborative potencies across the global multitude - all that is lacking is the general awareness of what this means, and a new social infrastructure to facilitate it. A vast effort on the part of the ruling oligarchy has gone into denying the awareness of a unitary social consciousness through instilling fear (nuclear and terrorist threat), somehow normalizing a policy of exclusion (our soldiers matter, Iraqi civilian deaths are inconsequential. Affluent white people matter, not poor orphans in the favelas), and instituting a false consciousness that has now reached bizarre and suicidal dimensions.

This weekend I went to several events in NYC, including a loft party and a children's Haloween party, and what struck me is how we have constructed our social events in a way that makes real exchange about the visceral realities of our time to be almost impossible - not only because of blaring noise, but because of social codes that allow for only the most insipid banalities to be exchanged. When is the crust going to break, and allow some reality in through the cracks?

However as depressing as these events were, I felt some strange confirmation of Negri and Hardt's ideas when I happened upon a synchronized event across the planet to establish a world record for the most people doing the same dance at the same exact time - in this case, gyrating together to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," in which the Zombies briefly come to life, appropriately. This type of global coordination - based on memes that happen to catch, for reasons only a genius media theorist might fully understand - suggests that the moment of the Multitude is in fact approaching, but as N and H ask, what will this new "social flesh" of the Multitude do when it awakens within its new global body?

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

Spiritual Anarchy

Submitted by GeneAll on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 13:19.
Greetings fellow Noospheric thought forms! I am new to this spaceless gathering, but groove with everyone's inspired movments towards the unfolding shift. But jumping right into Daniel's initial post, I think we've got all the info, tools, technologies, techniques, we need, now it's time for action. As we notice the collapse of the limited materialistic ego-centered capitalism of our age, we are caught wondering, "what's next?" Clearly none of the old structures will do, and given the postmodern collage of relative sujectivities, it seems clear to me that the only guiding Force that will truly lead us to the next evolutionary stage is within. No ideology will do, as there is always an alternative....what needs to happen is a collective shift toward that inner mystical guiding Force that is grounded in the undivided wholeness within. From that deep knowing of who we are at our core, there is no question that we help eachother, we share resources, knowing that health is only meaningful within wholeness. You dont tell your neighbor what to do, but act from that inner Source, which inspires that type of action in others. So as the collpase unfolds, the centralized energy-power structures will collapse under their own weight. But this is no problem, as we now know scientifically and mystically that energy abounds....every point in space-time has unlimited energy. We just need to know how to tap it. This means tapping our individual power Source, that deep mystic well within, to heal our fractured psyches and hearts. Then, we flood our families and communities with the radiance of our Source, which is Love. Now that we've got the vibrational foundation we invest in the technologies that harvest the energy where we stand. Solar/ wind, to power our Global Neural Web; bio-regional sustainable green economies, supporting organic local economies. We just stop buying that which is not home grown. Period. We DONT have a choice. To get a carrot in Cal grown in Florida makes no sense, as the transporting trucks flood our airs with pollution. But even better, grow your own. If you live in the suburbs, rip that lawn apart and create a mini-farm. If you live in a building, take the rooftop over and create a living farm on top. Grow veggies as house plants. We need community gardens, taking over plots to grow food and oxygen for our planet, simultaneously creating aesthetics that inspire the soul. Every school NEEDS a garden, for what we need to reclaim is the KNOWLEDGE of how to grow food and feed our selves. STOP commuting! Telecomute, ride bikes, or move to where you work, for sitting in trafic is no longer an option. We need to get over our money/ time programing, reclaiming the organic unfolding of integral existence. "Every decision you make should have the next seven generations in mind." We need to stop waiting for Big Brother to legilate or whatever, fuck them.....we do it in every moment, in every decision. It is time folks. We are the change, and we are already living in Nirvana! Its only that the rest need to catch up..... Peace and Love to All! Gene All

aaaaahhhhh

Submitted by entropy898 on Sat, 11/10/2007 - 01:37.
entropy898 Hey Novios y Novias...lets just scream....aaaahhhhh!!! We're all gonna die!!! I say this with mirth, what can we do besides every mindful thing..we can call up our kundalini through our hearts, project beauty, love your neighbor like yourself, keep shopping at target for you megarolls of toilet paper, try kissing your own ass while doing your yoga poses and rise up that energy, never allowing fear to bring you down, as..All the Power That Ever Was or Will Be is Here Now....if it doesnt work out, see you in the next life..love you all

hhmm...I think I have a solution

Submitted by entropy898 on Sat, 11/10/2007 - 02:07.
ok, lets import a colossal crystal into times square and gather around it, I will pull david blaine up to the top with a pulley, where he can do a headstand for days and you people from reality sandwich can drink your potions. we can call on our ancestral spirits to break up the toxins in our society and we will beam a new world order onto the world, with the help of our sacred crystal. our first mission will be Wah-shin-ton deeee ceeee. at this point david can use his full on psychic regalia to chant the dirty secrets of top offials! Say, YES!!!!!!

Money Today

Submitted by Seeker on Sun, 03/09/2008 - 14:25.
For a good read into the nature of money today and money delinked from the gold standard check out Want to know. info, click "other" in top menu, click on concise summaries, click on, "Blueprint for Total Control" and read Nick Sandberg's inside information. The discourse is definitely food for thought.