Fantasy Realms Bequeathed

As I write these bloglines from my Bombay abode, I relate to thee as a neo-Mumbaikar. I have only recently arrived in this urban agglomeration of around 18 million people. As such, I fit right into the landscape of the city, for I am a migrant in a city of migrants. One might call me a nomad, as I've lived in a significant variety of cities over the last few years. Nomads in fact generally fall under the Nomadic Tribes category here in India, but I most likely would not be characterized by the same (please note my liberal use of non-American anglicisms that are newly acquired from Indian-English). Anyway, one might properly label me an expatriate, as I belong to the spectacularly virtual online consortium otherwise known as BombayExpats. Furthermore, my demographic affiliation in this town would readily be identifiable as expat.

Santa's Ghetto
I-Look Israeli Street Fashion
the street's walker

All of the above being said, I pasted the above links and pics (both courtesy of Jah's army) in order to transport thee to a prior station in my life, that of the Semitic variety. As we reach the last days of the Gregorian year 2007, I ponder the events of the first six months of this wild year. I was living in a cosmopolitan bubble at the heart of a conflict zone. Tel Aviv was my city of residence for a meaningful chunk of my life, albeit a short period of time. My experiences at the core of Semitic civilization (P.B.U.H., H=Shem) englightened me in countless ways about the workings of this troubled universe that we inhabit.

Despite the violent character that pervades much of Semitic civilization today, why not hark back to the times I spent in an edgy place with all sorts of avant-garde problems, idiosyncrasies, and fashions. My longing for just a night in Florentine getting busy to B-More club spun by Botanika is indescribable. It is imperative that I can experience this sphere at least vicariously, lest I lose touch with where I laid down roots, albeit temporarily and/or hastily. I love Kna'an in all its manifestations. The land of milk and honey comes in many flavors, and I have savored many of these tastes.

Kna'an is a land of rebellion. Stubborn invaders meet tribal partisans who are hellbent on the hegemony of their deities and culture. The dialectic continues, as peoples always try to claim that they were the original inhabitants (known as adivasis on the sub-continent). However, the truth is that most of today's supposedly native peoples, first nations, and aboriginals were not the original inhabitants of the lands over which they seek further dominion. The map-crafting game is all about convincing a critical mass of laypeople, bureaucrats, academics that your group has legitimate historical control over a significant enough swath of territory. This in turn credits your people with some form of ideological land deed, which itself transforms into a birthright that can be inherited by future generations.

In the case of the warring parties in Kna'an, it is my belief that neither side had arrived in the Holy Land much prior to the 14th Century BC. It is clear that both sides have ancestors who hailed from somewhere very close to the Holy Land, but at some point, through a melange of benevolent migration and brutal invasion, the various peoples made their way into the Promised Land.




Therefore, since one people "originally" came from the seas to the west and the other people "originally" came from the deserts to the northeast and southwest, neither can claim exclusive privileges over the land, water, or airspace. There is one remaining year of Mr. Bush's reign, and Jah willing there will be some earth-shattering deals struck at the eastern shores of the potentially pacifying Mediterranean Sea.


^^^^(Shout-out to my home-dog Ditto!!!)^^^^



The maps below from Strange Maps deserve some blogspace due to their geographical splendor. The first one is infinitely scintillating for anyone who is fascinated by maps of metros, undergrounds, trams, monorails, or other public transit. The concept of symbolically linking together all of the disparate international metro systems (built, under construction, and/or planned) is a radical step. Check out the creators at Metro Maps of the World.

Next, the blondes of Europe map (courtesy of the le mec and originally from EUpedia) will stimulate anyone who is turned on by cartography, blondes, and/or genetics.

I hope these diversions are enjoyed as situationist spectacle. Jai Jai Jai!

Early ChriKwaNukah Present: Progressive Power

Given the decisive victory achieved by the Democrats in the recent midterm elections, one might expect that a left-leaning individual such as myself would be pleased with the result. Moreover, given my energies expended working for the Democratic Party in Baltimore City, one might additionally assume that I was a faithful member of the donkey establishment. The former is somewhat true, while the latter is rather distant from the truth. On the one hand, I am undoubtedly giddy that the elephant no longer snubs his fat trunk at the masses of Americans upon whom he's consistently stomped. On the other, what assurances do I have that the Dems won't continue to cook up the same ole can of rancid pork and beans? Therefore, I hereby declare my support for an imaginary third party that has not yet come to fruition. Since I am somewhat of a pessimist regarding the political future of these divided states, I anxiously watch the entrenched two-party system, as it continues to erode the basic principles of open, accountable, and democratic government. Hence my tardy midterm vote for the rebirthed Progressive Party of America.

I have generally advocated voting Green to show support for various candidates - in order to build awareness about the party. But such a strategy is not viable if such a vote cast will come at the expense of handing the election to a horrific right-leaning candidate. The solution to this problem is ranked-choice voting (also known as prference or instant run-off voting), which has already been instituted in Australia and San Francisco.

There is undeniable difficulty inherent in third party action in the US, due to a robust yet diseased two-party tradition that has served America as a relatively stable outfit. Nonetheless, it is time for a drastic change. Political realignment is the best course currently, not merely for Progressives such as myself, but also for the median voter, who is poised to benefit from the injection of a higher dose of honesty in the political discourse of our day.
My dream would be to promote the emergence of a Progressive Party that would fill the void that has existed on the left for quite some time. Since the nation drifted rightward in the aftermath of all those lib movements, civil rights, student protests, and social upheaval, the political center in America has been rather to the right. As the perceived excesses of the Warren court were undone by subsequent judicial activism from the right, by legislative destruction of regulatory and social welfare provisions, and by a rash of executives committed to neoliberal ideology, the spectrum shifted. It is now time to reverse the rightward drift of the political standard. Rise up, barons of leftist ilk! Reclaim thine positions and reload your civic weaponry.

In such a scenario envisaged above, the current Democratic Party would continue its rightward migration and would become a truly centrist electoral behemoth. Renaming itself as the Liberal Democratic Party in the true sense of the term "liberal," this machine would promote the efficiency of corporate power, relatively small government, fiscal conservatism, and diplomatic prudence in the international arena. This party would inevitably receive upwards of 50% of the national vote total, as McCain-type libertarians, Arnoldesque Machiavellians, and Lieberman lovermen would flock to the erstwhile Democratic Party, which would still indeed be the proud home of the Clintons and many others.

On the right, the Christian Nationalist Patriotic Front would emerge with the support of approximately 30% of the national vote. As the unabashed tent for religiously reverent folks, cultural moralists, and admittedly chauvinistic souls, this camp could strive to represent candidly its egotistical yearnings. With most of the business types having vacated the party, this front could focus on the cultural and racial issues that the moderate Republicans never stomached. It has yet to be determined whether the isolationist or the aggressively neoconservative elements would win out, but it is likely that, without corporate support, the neoconservative comrades would be discredited. Even so, the paleocon base would abandon any allegiance to unrealistic international ambitions regarding the promotion of political buzzwords such as "freedom" and "democracy" in certain occupied countries but would also realize that their imperial goals propel America to similar ideological ends as the neocons.

The Progressive Party, which I wholeheartedly embrace, would base its platform upon much of what the current Green Party stands for but would create a broader set of goals. Public campaign financing, re-urbanization of America (i.e. an urban Marshall plan), universal healthcare, green energy, internationalist foreign policy orientation, increase in corporate taxation, and the reversal of massive socioeconomic disparities would be the tenets of this energized movement to incorporate the populist roots of fin-de-siecle progressivism, fulfill the needs of people excluded from the neoliberalist-dominated mainstream, and uplift Americans who had previously been deceived by cultural facades that masked ulterior economic motives. Progressives of the world, UNITE!

Circuit of Theory into the Future

At this juncture in the evolution of American political fashions, it has become necessary to segregate the various forces of ideological power in our multi-faceted system of domination by mainstreamed, neoliberal influences. These methods of incursion deem the benefactor not worthy of postcolonial liberation or even the slightest admission of credit-based tender and meeting the simplest of requisites for the injection of truly polyamorous government into American World War IV Society. That being said, in terms of the eventuality of primal dictatorship over the currencies of comprehension, we are pushed ultimately into the peripatetics of a residentially inept climate in this era of increasingly demolishable and demonical corporate control over the strictures and victuals that pervade our long lives. Is this proper to yield such aggressive and formidable interplay between the divergent mantras of central importance to the creation of an entirely novel set of norms that bridge the multiple discourses of geopolitical exaltation in such a way? That might encourage the adoption of a bifurcated disaster of a strategy to knock down the towers of the two party system. Ok, I must show you the two towers that now dominate the discourse on dispelling the occupation. Did you know that the two parties of the American political system are maintaining a complex of severe and strangulating occupation of our collective turf? The occupation will face a hasty end. This will come about as a result of the emergence of a Progressive Party that throws off the shackles of neoliberal domination and thusly inculcates the new front of forwardly oriented imaginations with a thoroughly green, black, and orange drapeau, articulating the future of international political expression.

The House of Tikkun and Spiritual Progressivism

For about 13 months, my spritual and religious development has been profoundly influenced by the musings and movements of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, as embodied by Tikkun magazine and as expressed during High Holiday services at Beyt Tikkun. This celebration of the New Year has been the culmination of my attempts to reconcile organized religion with my renegade philosophies. I've found that my views are compatible with a certain format of religious discourse and interconnectedness. As the esteemed Rabbi Lerner interjected, "This ain't your Grandma's shul!" Sure isn't. This hippie religion is way too experimental and irreverent for the old guard of the Hebrew faith. But, that's how we do out here in the Bay Area. The I-Thou challenge is deconstructed into a systematically alternative concept of how to believe. Belief becomes the acceptance of all disbelief as an integral part of its all-encompassing framework. How can this be? The emphasis on social wellbeing, ecological sanity, and pantheistic philosophy coheres into a rather holistic way to form the principles of the Tikkun movement.

So, how exactly do belief systems expand to include those who are fundamentally nonbelievers? How do you bring nonbelievers in from the coldness of nihilism, persuading them that their nonbelief is inherently some sort of belief - one that has not yet been defined or articulated? This is apparently the undertaking that the Tikkun movement has embraced, by opening the floodgates primarily to the masses of skeptical atheists, young urban professionals, and progressive-minded activists who formerly could not properly fit into a traditional faith niche.

This movement is attractive for people who seek to inject a sense of purpose into political and social realms where there is a dearth of teleological justification. The intangible wealth that comes with the open embrace of spiritual oneness cannot be ignored. This society's enthusiasm for logical systems that lack spiritual grounding can only contribute so much to the health of humankind. We must continually seek to enrich our lives from a different sort of metaphysical perspective, thereby providing ourselves with a balance between the aggressively expansionist mentality of capitalist life and the sanctity of inner calm. Righteous folks may attain such a state through a reconciliation of their own psychological and spiritual proclivities with a broader understanding of the implications of political and social relations. Tikkun works towards accomplishing these two simultaneous objectives: honing one's own spiritual growth and sharing one's productive sense of purpose with the polity in the interests of building a more fulfilling civic and communal arrangement.

Progressive political power is on the rise. The spiritual progressives are avant-gardistes who are rightfully taking the godhead back from the religious right and instilling humanity, rather than a mere handful of chosen people, with the energy to launch the Progressive Revolution.

GOD & BIBLE

The following text is excerpted from an email written to my father upon arrival in New Orleans on October 29, 2005:

I'm not certain what to think about an enlightenment type of rationalism, which was always prevalent in american history (ie founding fathers and DEISM). I professed adherence to this sect in middle school when mr. clapp demanded to know what halloween costume i was wearing, and i replied philosopher and then proceeded to name which philosophies i followed. however, i experience a marked shift in my ideological bent after 7th grade, when i definitely grew cynical of the power of enlightenment rationalism, humanism, classicism, etc. Turning towards postmodernism, surrealism, existentialism was a response to the failure of pure rationalism in desribing the world and making sense of it.

So, i definitely have a problem with coldy scientific-rational atheism because it is rootless and ultimately unfulfilling. i'm currently reading thru this tikkun magazine to determine whether spiritual progressives are on the mark. i dont think faith is bad. i think faith is good for society, as long as its progressive, open, tolerant...i think it gets people into trouble when they push their system onto others and develop attitudes of spritual and ethical exclusivity. but in terms of the philosophy we want to push in the new BIBLE (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth), i think we just need to go shopping to see whats out there intellectually. because utlimately we have to place our system in the spectrum somewhere. while its nice to feign neutrality, objectivity, pure rationality, atheism, etc, i think this is an ill-advised course, replete with spiritual alienation and disingenuous motives.

Human life is ulimately and profoundly self-regarding. we exist to propagate ourselves. as an extension of this, we seek to reproduce our intellectual systems by spreading our cultural moeurs and ideas. so we certainly do have a stake in it all, and theres no sense pretending we don't follow a god (god being either the guy in the sky, one's guiding principle of PI, or just the admission that we can't really figure out WHY). so while logical humanism, positivism, and all those beautiful western constructs are certainly a central part of our social and emotional universe, they're so full of incorrect assumptions about human nature, economics, world history, civilizations...regardless, GOD is just an excuse that gives people a justification for how they wish to act. in that way, i wish fundamentalists would just admit that they personally dont like black, Arab, or gay people, rather than pretending that their authority is based on some textual or holy precept that issues them the right to exert moral suasion...god just describes anyone's vision of a controlling identity/entity, the super mover and shaker, intelligent design, original energy, higher power...but in an everyday sense, it desribes SOCIETY and the SUPEREGO.

Saying that god does not want me to steal just means that my society has a law forbidding this. god arose in the human consciousness when people began to understand morality as a guiding force and the idea that maybe their past and present actions had an effect on the present and future. so essentially, i dont think you can eliminate the word GOD from the discourse. to do so would be myopic. it doesnt matter how much people talk about god if their morality and worldviews are progressive. it's just that fundamentalists have monopolized the discussion of god. its the same thing with regards to "values." in america, values connote this traditional sense of nostalgia for some mythical past in which the family, state, and society were so much better. when it comes to rational-humanist discourse, the vocabulary always comes down to the words pragmatic, practical, secular, etc...i think this hurts the discourse because leftists and progressive try so hard to be objective, practical, idealistc.

But the truth is, leftists are pushing values too, they believes in a certain code and have a specific vision for human society. this is wholly subjective and a function of cultural, psychological, and personal background. i think we have to be partisan in this discourse. and not exclusive, hardheaded, arrogant like the traditional leftist-secular-atheistic-rational discourse. the leftist-secular-atheistic-rational creed implies a GOD no less than any other creed. it's just that this GOD is certainly contained in us all, since in the lockean-jeffersonian code (derived from a blend of renaissance neoclassical philosophy and protestant theology,) we are all created equal with the same ability to reason. so in our new BIBLE, our god might instead be some type of earth-shattering and novel conception. i think its just being honest to say that one's outlook, motivation, sense of purpose, etc...is equivalent to god. god is internal, external, everywhere. dont bother excluding god. its not only a waste of effort, but its embracing a different lie. while that lie isnt as blatant as the religious-fundamentalist-originalist lie, its a lie nonetheless. atheists just have a different god. they worship (among other things) civic duty, science, western culture, neoprimitive culture, etc. god is just a way of naming what is considered most important in life. if YOU believe that a viable, progressive code of ethics, personal happiness, and future generations are the most important things to you, then this is your god...that god happens to be more individualistc, compassionate, progressive, etc than the typical western-christian god, but this is nonetheless a god.

The fact that 90% of americans believe in god just means that 90% of americans enjoy being part of the herd. its just a group mentality. despite all the dispossession, spiritual dearth, and cultural alienation of modern life, people like to feel that theyre a part of something greater than themselves...and this manifests itself in a romanticized conception of the past (family, morality, country) and this has been monopolized by the religious right. americans are so outwardly religious because they are so overworked, brainwashed, burnt out that they must desperately proclaim faith in something in order to die knowing that they lived for some greater good. i read a great article a while back saying that bush won because people are way too overworked and that people wish they had more free time...ie they dont have enough time to think thru the issues and they vote for a simpler, manichean, binary candidate who addresses their spiritual needs. thats the republican way. brainwash people so they can all be your corporate slaves then in the little free time they have, make sure they worship the god of free markets and god of white christianity a little bit more and then they can die happy.

The western corporate-governmental-bureaucratic-media-entertainement-legal-medical-scientific-intellectual power structure has gotten so much more exponentially powerful every single year for the past 100 years, especially in america, that people have no choice but to turn to the irrational, the faith-based, and the frankly stupid answer because it comforts them. and which side of this power structure are we on? do we side with the corporate-governmental-bureaucratic-media-entertainement-legal-medical-scientific-technological-intellectual elite? i think its comforting to identify with the dominant culture because it involves the path of least resistance. however, we both certainly have innate tendencies to resist this conformity. yet, insurrectionary intentions are not rewarded in our system. i tend to give credit to people who are individuals and can resist this power structure. i believe that this is what makes people unique, when their energies, creativies, imaginiations, can resist the allure of our oppressive social order. even if there cannot be a revolution at this point, there are little ways in which all of us can be progressive, compassionate, unique. i just fear that i will ultimately succumb to this power structure because it is indeed a mammoth. in my capacity as intellectual-journalist-activist-artist-social scientist-humanist-existentialist-postmodernist, the behemoth SUPEREGO is my enemy. my freudian ID does not appreciate the absolutist-totalitarian controls that the MAN imposes. but, the truth is, the only way to understand, then critique, and then vilify the SYSTEM is to get inside of it...

And the only way to get inside is to be a part of it. so my answer is to be simultaneously inside and outside. Is my perspective useful to the system in that its criticisms are constructive and can be used merely to strengthen the systemic controls over ordinary people? Or is my perspective parasitic in the sense that it attacks intellectually the source of its own material, social, and cultural heritage? perhaps this is eternally the role of the outcast-outsider-wanderer who is simultaneously so successful at beating the system, being the system, and bringing down the system.