The Equation.

If you're new here, I'd like to offer two disclaimers.

1. I use references from religious figures here and there, although I am a de-facto atheist. I believe wisdom (like money) is good, no matter where you found it, and so I include religious wisdom here.

2. I'd like to say that nothing you are about to read is original, new, or shiny.

But it can change your life.

I'd like to say I'm not here to sell you something. I'm happy for you to leave just as ignorant as when you came in.

I expect it.

I'd like to say that I'm not a guru, or a Tony Robbins, or a celebrity with something that you can purchase, take home, unwrap from its amazing packaging, and put on a shelf for 5 years, 'til you throw it away.

I'm a loser, really.

And that's why people read me.

Am I sad about that? Nope, I celebrate it. I post it all up for you to read. Maybe you can feel better about yourself. The upshot of this thoughtless typing is, wisdom can happen. Accidentally of course, we sometimes stumble across a fact we had overlooked. There is no control, no game plan, no script. I have no idea where my posts will take me- I feel this one careening out of control already. It's out of my hands...the chaos has kicked in.

And so I think we're ready to begin.

Quotes:

"He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors." -Thomas Jefferson.

1 Corinthians 3:18 "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise."

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance." -Socrates as quoted in 'Lives of Eminent Philosophers' by Diogenes Laertius.

Some would contest we as humans are already there. We are ignorant, we keep ourselves ignorant. It's hard-wired into us, this denial. It's a necessary component in the circuitry of our will to live, our instinct for survival.

Half way there.

I don't know where you are. I'm in Australia. I sit in what we'll call a normal room for the sake of brevity, and I'm typing this for people I'll never meet. I do this not for you so much (although it's a pleasure to be of service, should that occur), but for me. Because physically writing/recording the lessons I learn seems to cement them into place within me, where I need them most.

If there's anything I know for sure, it is that, balanced against the vast storehouses of knowledge that collectively encompass human experience, I know nothing.

I know nothing, and in true Socratic spirit, I'm good with that. Good, because it means this empty vessel is ready to be filled. But no matter how full we get, we still know, comparatively speaking- nothing.

Between us, all of us, we might know something. But that remains to be seen. The proof lies in what we do with it. Clearly, if we as a species have missed the salient points contained within our shared experience, then we know, you guessed it, nothing.

So we know where we are, for the basis of this post.

I think it was Siddharta Gautama who said "The road to expectation is paved with disappointment". I love that.

Here we go-

We're all disappointed. "...the rich used to be content with their money, but now they want fame too." -Bob Lefsetz. Obviously, the poor are disappointed too, because they don't even get to have the money.

I hate essays that include dictionary definitions, but it may be in order here. The word is from Old French - 'desapointier', to remove from office. And so it is apt.

It is our expectation of life, our built-in feeling of entitlement, that leads to us being removed from the office of priveledge. Over the pavestones of disappointment. (This is starting to sound like The Lord of the Rings!)

Who among us would think mathematics would back up the sage advice of the Buddha? It does. It has to.

How many people are there in the United States? I don't know. Let's say there are 308 million. How many of them want to be famous/rich? Let's say 50% (which is of course, waaaaaaaaay lower than the real percentage, which we are not currently privy to).

So, we have 154,000,000 people out of 308,000,000, who want to be famous. 154 million people with expectations. Here comes the disappointment...

Is it possible, really, for that many people to be famous/rich at the same time? Is it possible for that many people to even be one or the other at the same time?

Of course it isn't.

And that, is the equation.

Sure, we know the media is evil, and they tell us things, and we believe them because we're fat and complacent, and living in denial. Yeah, we know that.

But read that last paragraph again without the sarcastic tone, and you have a nugget of truth we should be aware of at all times. It should be a filter through which we see the world, to keep us safe from not knowing how things really are.

Not because we're all conspiracy theorists, and want to live in trailers out in the desert and care very deeply about our right to bear arms.

But because you don't go see Avatar in 3D, and forget your glasses.

We have been convinced, and we are regularly reinforced, that we have the right to be famous. That being rich is our right! And if something is a right, then it's right. If you get what I'm saying.

So we buy into it. Is that so bad? Yes. Why? Because when we don't make it, we feel like we have failed at life. Worse still, that the good life is still out there, taunting us- the losers who couldn't get on the train before it pulled out on its way to good time Island.

I think we're all inherently good people. Exceptions abound, but I believe that is either mental conditioning, or physical damage. Once we learn as children what it's like to be hit, we tend to ease up on the hitting. Sure, it's a self-serving, fear of retribution kind of goodness, but that's how we learn (and also why the Bible and conceptions of Hell have worked so well in determining how anthropomorphic individuals will react to being told what to do by a Deity they have never truly met).

We generally want "...peace and happiness, and all that good stuff" -Steve Vai.

But this expectation of fame, this fallacious right to riches, makes machines out of us. Machines that break down, when the fame doesn't come. Machines that question themselves, that hurt themselves, that kill themselves, when the riches don't eventuate. So many of us actually live our lives, well out of our financial depth, and are shocked when our sports car or SUV is reposessed, or we lose the house. Those that actually had a house or a SUV to start with.

Why would we hurt ourselves because we tried to fight mathematics, and lost? Why would we act surprised at all? It's a lottery.

We think we're special. We think we deserve more. More than what? Everyone else? Why don't they deserve more? And if we all deserve more, who deserves less?

Recently, we as citizens (of the Western world) have been learning more and more about the importance of sustainability. In finance, with regards to the environment, and even through the unsustainable business models of dinosaur record labels. It's easy to point fingers at others, but from my experience, that has never helped me grow.

Let's get off this ridiculous treadmill of expectation, and see the numbers for what they really are.

None of us have the right to be rich, so live within your means.

None of us have the right to be famous, so develop your talent and try your best. But don't take it personally when the public chooses Lady Gaga's Warhol/Madonna pliagaristic pastiche over whatever you're doing that may really push a boundary or two.

Maybe you can help me, but there is an amazing Frank Zappa quote regarding the publics myopic and voracious appetite for songs that sound the same...if anyone can provide a link, I'll post it up and credit you here.

The shit that is being thrown at us has been getting thicker and thicker lately, mass media overdrive. So hard to see the truth from the spin...so what do we do?

Turn off the tv.

Turn off the radio.

Put down the magazine about who Gerard Butler is fucking now.

Stop hitting F9 on chatroulette for the fifth consecutive hour.

Unfollow all the pretty Twitter girls that post about nothing in particular ever.

Use this internet for what it was designed- information! And try to work out your place in the Universe.

I was lucky enough to receive advice from one of my readers recently (Thank You!), regarding what the point to life is. They made the point that life is meaningless, but rather than hit the Nietzsche button, to instead pump life full of meaning...of your own.

Like most pearls of wisdom, it was so obvious and yet so genius, I had never previously considered it. Now, however- it's part of my programming.

Let's help each other out. Most people don't, so let's see if we can.

Let's raise our heads above the media shit-stream and actually talk to each other! Person to person, like we used to. Let's pass on good wisdom, with no thought of financial gain or fame. Because if my friend knows something that can help me, it would be good to know it. And vice-versa. Let's not rely on Governments or media to tell us what is going on- let's start telling them. All you have to do is look away, and they will start caring very deeply about your opinions. All you have to do is stop buying, and Nike and McDonalds will suddenly be open to changing their business model. All you have to do is stop caring, and Simon Cowell, Mark Burnett, and Simon Fuller, will no longer get paid ridiculous sums of money to insult your intelligence.

As long as we people hold on to the thought that we are unique and special, the actual uniqueness of us is destroyed. As long as we think "I'm not going to make a difference", you've made a difference- you've helped us all to fail.

As long as we dream of being p.i.m.p.$ and divaz, we may as well dream of being fucking spatulas or air conditioners for all the good it will do us, or our species.

I'm not saying go live in a treehouse. I'm not saying you can't party. I'm not saying you can't stand on a stage and blow us all away. Just don't expect it as a God given right...devote yourself to your art, and if you're truly good, people will see. It's hard to see anything right now. We're drowning in the irrelevance.

Some of us are meant to just be mechanics.

And I think that's amazing and awesome.

This is knifey, from 'the internet'.