The best of my pre-2009 digital matricular technoschmaman doodlings are now here : CLICK
Most politically-engaged folks know that a majority of Israel’s “settlers,” living in what most people regard as the occupied West Bank, are religious fundamentalists, motivated by a religiously-inspired nationalism that regards all of Israel/Palestine as Greater Israel, a kind of politicized Promised Land that is God’s gift to the Jews. But what many of us in the spiritual community may not know is that many of those “fundamentalists” are actually part of the “peace and love” hippie crowd — nature-loving, long-haired young people who are likely to meditate, sing songs, and smoke marijuana before prayer. The cognitive dissonance can be shocking. In America, we’re used to hippies being for peace and love not just rhetorically, but politically as well. The only debate among the dreadlocked crowd in the states is whether to vote Democrat, Green, or not vote at all. But Israelis are all-too-familiar with the sight of shaggy-looking, floppy-kippa-wearing settler youth who both play guitars and carry M-16s. What’s going on? How is it possible that a population that says it loves peace is actually so vehemently against the most rudimentary steps toward achieving it? The answer, I think, has a lot to say to all of us who follow spiritual disciplines — much of which we may not want to hear. What I want to suggest is that, more than delusion and nationalism, more than hypocrisy and narcissism, more than the Bible’s endlessly co-optable expressions of (and certainly more than simple) hatred and ethnocentrism, it is the spiritual “spark” itself that animates the hippie-settlers of the West Bank. These are not people who mistake dogma for spirituality; they know about spirituality. The ones who are meditating; the ones who think religion is about spiritual work; the ones who are striving to be in the Divine Presence — these are precisely the ones who are among the most ardent pro-settler, anti-peace-process Jews in Israel.
Most politically-engaged folks know that a majority of Israel’s “settlers,” living in what most people regard as the occupied West Bank, are religious fundamentalists, motivated by a religiously-inspired nationalism that regards all of Israel/Palestine as Greater Israel, a kind of politicized Promised Land that is God’s gift to the Jews. But what many of us in the spiritual community may not know is that many of those “fundamentalists” are actually part of the “peace and love” hippie crowd — nature-loving, long-haired young people who are likely to meditate, sing songs, and smoke marijuana before prayer.
The cognitive dissonance can be shocking. In America, we’re used to hippies being for peace and love not just rhetorically, but politically as well. The only debate among the dreadlocked crowd in the states is whether to vote Democrat, Green, or not vote at all. But Israelis are all-too-familiar with the sight of shaggy-looking, floppy-kippa-wearing settler youth who both play guitars and carry M-16s.
What’s going on? How is it possible that a population that says it loves peace is actually so vehemently against the most rudimentary steps toward achieving it? The answer, I think, has a lot to say to all of us who follow spiritual disciplines — much of which we may not want to hear.
What I want to suggest is that, more than delusion and nationalism, more than hypocrisy and narcissism, more than the Bible’s endlessly co-optable expressions of (and certainly more than simple) hatred and ethnocentrism, it is the spiritual “spark” itself that animates the hippie-settlers of the West Bank. These are not people who mistake dogma for spirituality; they know about spirituality. The ones who are meditating; the ones who think religion is about spiritual work; the ones who are striving to be in the Divine Presence — these are precisely the ones who are among the most ardent pro-settler, anti-peace-process Jews in Israel.
Jay Michaelson, purported author of: “Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism” – what utter shite! The obviously psychopathic and scizophrenic attempting to re-sell itself cloaked in NewAge SEWAGE.
“More than simple” hatred and ethnocentrism…. yeah, it’s complicated. There’s simple hatred and ethnocentrism, and there’s complicated. Jews are complicated beings, Israeli settlers are complicated thugs from Russia.
When J says “in Divine Presence” what he really means is POSSESSED BY BLOODTHIRSTY DEMONS.
Out of a pang of conscience (actually these targets are not really worth my time) I removed my previous troll report on this awesome piece of internet gossip, so as to watch further comments roll in …. and, lo , they have, and Mr Pinchy and lackeys have taken a ROYAL ASS KICKIN by a Mr Harlan Wallner. This guy rocks!
Daniel Pinchy, obviously seriously sweating by now, hating himself and wanting a good beating, wrote:
As I said, I am not going to post anymore on this comment stream, unless viciously attacked.
He asked for it, and Mr Wallner took him up on it, in a way that can hardly be bettered. Therefore i’m removing my own attacks on this blog and simply referring you to the big heart of Mr Wallner.
I am amazed the comment was not deleted, so here it is in its entirety in case it does:
To Daniel, Jonathan, and Ken Submitted by Harlan Wallner on Tue, 03/02/2010 – 12:09. I for one, am torn. On the one hand, I’m pretty well shocked with the responses of Daniel, mostly, and Ken, and Jonathan a little less so but still certainly to an extent. You three have been petty, childish, arrogant, and unwilling to admit fault—even if your only fault was an incredible arrogance (which, Daniel, I feel was probably a HUGE factor in the financial fallout which you claim no fault in, and yes, I have read all your comments on the matter, and still find your behavior disgusting). I’m saddened, disgusted, ashamed, and angry with you three. Much more so than I am with Rob, for the very reason Daniel was so clear to point out. “He’s only a year into HIS transformational process”. So he gets a fucking pass, you dick. You can’t blame him if he’s still learning and growing. You, on the other hand, should know better. You, by proxy of the websites you are running, claim to be this evolved being, more in touch with reality, and on this thread you have been running around like a whiny, finger-pointing tattle tale—”He started it!!” “I didn’t do anything wrong, he did!!” He did do something wrong. Duh, he’s human. You have to forgive that. If you’re angry that he’s only been in his transformational process for a year, you should be angry at yourself. Since you appear to consider him a child in this process, you should have patience with him as you would with a child. For fuck’s sake, someone has to be the adult around here. So far the only mature voices seem to have been many of the readers who have weighed in. Yes indeed, this is not a journey you should be leading people on, moreso because you’re nowhere near ready yourselves. But the issues are far deeper than that, and they have touched my soul as well. I wouldn’t be writing in this manner, so bothered in this manner, if I wasn’t personally dealing with some of the same problems personally. It seems to me that there are some pretty serious and deep self worth issues here. Daniel, you have been so quick to point out that Rob’s basic (and esentially only) personal value is his huge bank account, which he should be sharing with you to reward you for all this important work you are doing, while implying that you are a far more worthy human being because you are Daniel Pinchbeck and are doing the work you do. You are giving yourself value and love because of this work, and when it’s threatened or rejected you are taking that as a personal threat and rejection, and going into super-arrogant self defense mode. Well, that’s my psychoanalytic interpretation, which I’m entitled to share to since you did a horrendously rude little psychoanalysis on why Rob did what he did. I’m possibly as off as you were, but how’s it feel? I was so ashamed of and for you when I read what you said about Rob in that ‘ok, here’s what really happened’ piece you wrote after Rob lifted the threat of a lawsuit. If you truly continue to feel as though you’ve done nothing wrong, I suggest you go back and reread all of your posts. You are bitter, spiteful, and egotistical, and for someone who claims to be doing transformational work, that’s about as wrong as it gets. And here I am putting you down. Why? To build myself up? Perhaps. I’m going through a similar struggle right now, where I’m giving what I feel to be the gifts I’m intended to be giving and meeting rejection and frustration, and am taking it personally. But as such I’m gaining a lot from your public humiliation. It’s almost a sacrificial humiliation, you’re taking it for we who are also struggling with true self love so that we may be humbled by your display. If that is the intention of this thread, it is brilliant. If it’s not, then it’s still a brilliant outcome, and I’m torn. Torn because I am gaining so much from this on the one hand, and yet still so disgusted with you on the other. It is also, I believe, going to teach me forgiveness. But not yet. Rob made some mistakes, sure. But in reading through this thread I honestly feel that his mistakes are far more forgivable than yours are, and I’ll probably be taking you up on your offer to stop frequenting the site. At least Rob is capable of admitting his own inadequacies and is still able to see the larger picture. Why was he, the “only one year into his transoformation boy,” the one who had to offer the olive branch to you? Because he’s a better salesman? Get off it. But what it comes down to, I believe, is self love, and a sense of self worth that grows from that. Who are you and why are you here? Are you here to personally revolutionize the economy from the inside out? To transform humanity? I don’t think so. It’s causing you too much bitterness and anger. “Humans are too stupid and ego based,” you said, in a thread where YOU come across extremely stupid and ego based. People are enslaved, you dick, we’re not fucking stupid. We have no way out. As you are rightly bothered by Robs situation—”it must be nice to have the financial freedom to just drop what you were doing and start a new life or have all the PR money you need”—since you don’t have the freedom to publicize like you want to, but at the same time billions of humans barely have the freedom to even fucking breathe deeply. Rob has that freedom, and you’re angry that he’s not doing what you would do with the money. But most people are trapped, forced to keep a truly shit job because we have to keep a roof because we’ve been trained to be utterly dependent upon jobs and roofs and grocery stores, and you’re angry at us because we aren’t waking up or evolving or whatever it is you want us to do that we obviously aren’t ready to do yet. And then yes, we do all the stupid things americans and humans in general do, because we have to find some way to escape the incredible pain of subsuming our wills to the soul crushing machine. Don’t call me stupid and ego based, you prick, I’m fucking trapped, and it’s killing me, and I’m aware of it, and I hate it, but there are very few options right now, and you’re a piece of shit for not realizing this, you so-called self-dubbed ‘evolved’ being. I know that there are far more options available to people than any of us realize, but if you’ve got $10,000 of your own money to invest in RS then you’re living in a world very different than most people and you’d better shut the fuck up about how stupid we are. Get the fuck off your high horse, you’re not doing ANYone any good up there. We are fucking enslaved down here. It’s not about evolution, it’s about fucking emancipation, you judgmental piece of shit! The machine isn’t going to let anyone off easy, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than some south american entheogens to get us free. In fact, this thread has indeed sapped much of my faith in entheogens, as you, a self proclaimed master of them, are even more petty than most people I know. You’re not healed, you’re not evolved, you’re no different than anyone else, well, except in that giant fucking ego. Whew. Bitterness purged. You’re angry that you’re doing all this work that you consider to be great work, and it’s not being rewarded, or even given what it needs to survive. Fuck it. If it’s dying, it’s dying. And, it IS keeping people in front of their computers, stuck in the virtual world, making connections with ghosts and vapors in far off places. I almost started a spore here in Orlando, and once I started researching I found an actual active community (not like the RS “community”, but actual people, actual friends, living close together, doing actual, important work, locally) already in place here, and so I just left the evolver idea as moot, especially since you want me to do paperwork for it. I guess you don’t realize that what you are implying with this idea is actually something like you want me to start up a spore and then jump in to the local community and offer to take over the local real community because ‘I’m With Evolver and I’m Here to Help! Are you people ready to evolve,’ right? Evolver is for computer junkies. The actual “evolved” (emancipated?) people are already at work in the community, and while they’re a damn sight more understanding than you are, they still aren’t very appreciative of internet junkies coming out and saying “Hey, I know all this stuff, and we should be doing more than what you’re doing since I know more than you since I just sit and read RS all day!” I’m exaggerating missing the point of your work, but I’m doing so to make a point. One, I’m mirroring yourself, and two, I sincerely spent a few hours looking at evolver and didn’t see the value since I couldn’t actually meet people on it, and once I started trying to set something up I realized the arrogance of what I had hoped to do and stopped. There are a lot of people out there who have been doing better work for a long time, and aren’t struggling with the internet consumption that at least a number of your followers are.If it is dying, it is dying because it is not meant to live. And then the point comes back to the fact that you have to have a grounded self worth. You can’t base your worth on this, or every time you meet an investor who turns you down or turns you away, you’re going to be rejected and hurt, and behave like a whiny child as you have here. I think it’s a problem for the vast majority of people in our culture (and it obviously still is for me as well), where we’ve been forced to behave by societal standards through the constant conditional love of our parents, friends, schools, society, workplaces, editors, etc. Eisenstein describes it far better than I could in this brief space, but I know it’s something I’m dealing with as well. I’m of the fight club sort: I am not my job, my car, my stuff, etc.; but then who am I? “Well I must be my ideas,” I unconsciously said, “and my gifts, and my work.” So then when my ideas, gifts, and work are rejected, I’m rejected, and I end up hurt pretty badly, like you are here. I internalize it more than you do Daniel, you seem to be throwing up your pain onto Rob here, while angrily and arrogantly defending yourself, poorly, but I’m pretty sure we’re both doing the same thing. Who are you and what are you here for (alive, on earth, on RS, whatever; however you wish to define “here”)? Why the fuck are you doing this work if a) it’s causing you so much stress, and b) you think the human race is about to go through the shredder because they are so stupid and ego based? I mean, it fucking astounds! If you are giving up on the human race, quit this nonsense and go to the hills to pray and meditate on your own self preservation. Stop bothering other people who are trying to do some good and who HAVEN’T given up on humanity with your bitterness and misanthropy. Look inward, Daniel, and there you will find the source of your problems, not in Rob, not in me, not in the economy, not in stupid ego based humanity, not in greedy investors; it’s in you. Rob’s human, yes, and he did mess up, as humans do. But so are, and did, you. And it’s unbelievably disgustingly hypocritical of you to sit here and on the one hand belittle Rob for being so young and infirm in his personal transformation, and on the other to blame this whole thing on him for being the savvy wall street fuck and not a sincere evolver like yourself. If, as you said yourself, it’s your experience that people who are early in their transformation have issues with old habits, then you fucking be understanding of that in him and fucking help him through it, not punch him in the face as soon as he does what you knew he was going to do. Holy shit! Someone has to be the adults here, and I don’t have words, profane or otherwise, to properly emphasize how strenuous I want to say this, it has to be the people who are claiming to already be evolved. It has to be you. It fucking has to be you. You have to be the adult if you’re going to be running a fucking website called Evolver. It has to be you. You have to be the mature and understanding one if you’re going to be running a fucking website called “Reality Sandwich,” where you are implying that you are both already more evolved and already more in touch with Reality since this is what you’ve been eating. It fucking has to be you, and when you pull the shit you, Jonathan, and Ken have done on this thread, you lose all your fucking respect, because you’re no different than a 10 year old. You have to grow up now. You have to grow up and stop this finger-pointing bullshit and grow the fuck up. Or you have to quit this work. You have to. This isn’t something that can go unaddressed any longer. How long are you into your transformation? Then why are you acting like a snot-nosed kid? You have to either be an adult now, an understanding, loving, mature, adult, looking out upon a sea of brave, wounded, beautiful human children—who are oftentimes hurtful because we are in so much pain—or you have to leave. Period. It doesn’t matter where you go, but you absolutely may not stay here and be the bitter misanthropic fuck you are showing yourself to be! And Jonathan, after that brilliant piece Treating America’s Psychopathy, where you so incredibly powerfully lay out the importance of acceptance and non-judgment, to see you come into this thread showing your ass and pointing the finger at Rob as you have, and not understanding his needs and fears, was unbelievably disappointing. And Ken, Seeker34 barely touched upon the idea of the payment of profits. The overarching gist of his comment was how fucking disappointed he is in you three, and I feel the same way. I’m not talking about the money, I’m talking about your responses to the situation. I understand the need for money. What I dont understand is your behavior. You all acted like public school 10 year olds. You have to quit that now. You have to accept responsibility for your childishness, you have to apologize to us, to Rob (and it better be fucking sincere this time Dan, or don’t do it), and you have to take some time to really internalize the magnitude of the public display of arrogance, judgmentalism, egocentrism, and stupidity you have shown. Or you have to quit. You don’t get other choices here. It’s gone too far. A few days into it you should have realized your arrogance and your fuck up and come forth appropriately, humbly, and apologetically. That you haven’t and continue to act arrogantly, pettily, and egotistically, is astounding to me. You said all this ugly, petty, childish crap in front of all of us, you have disgraced yourselves, and still you continue to come back in the same manner. So here I am, laying it all out. I’m humiliating myself, cursing like an angry teenager, coming across far too arrogantly and egotistically, for you, so that you may see just how ugly you have been here. I’m showing my ass so that you may perhaps see just how bare and shit-stained yours are. Go back and reread this entire thread, reread all your comments, with a beginning understanding that they are disgusting and childish to many of your readers. And if it doesn’t humble you, you have to leave. If it doesn’t humble you to the point where you are nearly too embarrassed to show your face again, you haven’t really grasped the magnitude of the situation, and you’d better not come back to this thread, or to RS at all. The next thing out of you three should be internet silence while you puke your guts up out of extreme shame and embarrassment, and then an incredibly humble, gracious, and sincere apology to the readers, the other RS writers whom you have shamed, to Rob and Chimbre, and to the medicine which you have so disrespected. And to the other readers who I’ve shown my ass to, I am truly sorry. It’s been days in the brewing, I’ve been trying to be forgiving, trying to be understanding, trying to be like Vee Har O., hoping beyond hope that they would see their errs and beg forgiveness, but they haven’t and I needed to get this out. I’m sure it will be a humbling experience for me as well as for the three stooges running this show, as I have said ugly and hateful things, showing my true colors as well, but this had to be said. Hopefully now I can begin to heal. Oh, and while I’m purging bitterness, Peter Deane, you’re not a shaman. You lived your whole life as a white man and just stumbled upon a long dead conquored ancestor and are now continuing the program of conquest. Stop posting on here as if you are, you are a disgrace to yourself, humanity, the people of the First Nations, and reality sandwich. And please oh please don’t ever pull some shit like that radio show in England where you call yourself a shaman even though you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. I realize the hypocrisy when I say you’d better learn some humility, but Peter, humility is one of the central personality traits of the first nations, so please stop talking about things you don’t know about, you too are doing far more harm than good.
To Daniel, Jonathan, and Ken Submitted by Harlan Wallner on Tue, 03/02/2010 – 12:09.
I for one, am torn. On the one hand, I’m pretty well shocked with the responses of Daniel, mostly, and Ken, and Jonathan a little less so but still certainly to an extent. You three have been petty, childish, arrogant, and unwilling to admit fault—even if your only fault was an incredible arrogance (which, Daniel, I feel was probably a HUGE factor in the financial fallout which you claim no fault in, and yes, I have read all your comments on the matter, and still find your behavior disgusting).
I’m saddened, disgusted, ashamed, and angry with you three. Much more so than I am with Rob, for the very reason Daniel was so clear to point out. “He’s only a year into HIS transformational process”. So he gets a fucking pass, you dick. You can’t blame him if he’s still learning and growing. You, on the other hand, should know better. You, by proxy of the websites you are running, claim to be this evolved being, more in touch with reality, and on this thread you have been running around like a whiny, finger-pointing tattle tale—”He started it!!” “I didn’t do anything wrong, he did!!”
He did do something wrong. Duh, he’s human. You have to forgive that. If you’re angry that he’s only been in his transformational process for a year, you should be angry at yourself. Since you appear to consider him a child in this process, you should have patience with him as you would with a child. For fuck’s sake, someone has to be the adult around here. So far the only mature voices seem to have been many of the readers who have weighed in. Yes indeed, this is not a journey you should be leading people on, moreso because you’re nowhere near ready yourselves.
But the issues are far deeper than that, and they have touched my soul as well. I wouldn’t be writing in this manner, so bothered in this manner, if I wasn’t personally dealing with some of the same problems personally. It seems to me that there are some pretty serious and deep self worth issues here. Daniel, you have been so quick to point out that Rob’s basic (and esentially only) personal value is his huge bank account, which he should be sharing with you to reward you for all this important work you are doing, while implying that you are a far more worthy human being because you are Daniel Pinchbeck and are doing the work you do. You are giving yourself value and love because of this work, and when it’s threatened or rejected you are taking that as a personal threat and rejection, and going into super-arrogant self defense mode. Well, that’s my psychoanalytic interpretation, which I’m entitled to share to since you did a horrendously rude little psychoanalysis on why Rob did what he did. I’m possibly as off as you were, but how’s it feel? I was so ashamed of and for you when I read what you said about Rob in that ‘ok, here’s what really happened’ piece you wrote after Rob lifted the threat of a lawsuit. If you truly continue to feel as though you’ve done nothing wrong, I suggest you go back and reread all of your posts. You are bitter, spiteful, and egotistical, and for someone who claims to be doing transformational work, that’s about as wrong as it gets. And here I am putting you down. Why? To build myself up? Perhaps.
I’m going through a similar struggle right now, where I’m giving what I feel to be the gifts I’m intended to be giving and meeting rejection and frustration, and am taking it personally. But as such I’m gaining a lot from your public humiliation. It’s almost a sacrificial humiliation, you’re taking it for we who are also struggling with true self love so that we may be humbled by your display. If that is the intention of this thread, it is brilliant. If it’s not, then it’s still a brilliant outcome, and I’m torn. Torn because I am gaining so much from this on the one hand, and yet still so disgusted with you on the other. It is also, I believe, going to teach me forgiveness.
But not yet.
Rob made some mistakes, sure. But in reading through this thread I honestly feel that his mistakes are far more forgivable than yours are, and I’ll probably be taking you up on your offer to stop frequenting the site. At least Rob is capable of admitting his own inadequacies and is still able to see the larger picture. Why was he, the “only one year into his transoformation boy,” the one who had to offer the olive branch to you? Because he’s a better salesman? Get off it.
But what it comes down to, I believe, is self love, and a sense of self worth that grows from that. Who are you and why are you here? Are you here to personally revolutionize the economy from the inside out? To transform humanity? I don’t think so. It’s causing you too much bitterness and anger. “Humans are too stupid and ego based,” you said, in a thread where YOU come across extremely stupid and ego based. People are enslaved, you dick, we’re not fucking stupid. We have no way out. As you are rightly bothered by Robs situation—”it must be nice to have the financial freedom to just drop what you were doing and start a new life or have all the PR money you need”—since you don’t have the freedom to publicize like you want to, but at the same time billions of humans barely have the freedom to even fucking breathe deeply. Rob has that freedom, and you’re angry that he’s not doing what you would do with the money. But most people are trapped, forced to keep a truly shit job because we have to keep a roof because we’ve been trained to be utterly dependent upon jobs and roofs and grocery stores, and you’re angry at us because we aren’t waking up or evolving or whatever it is you want us to do that we obviously aren’t ready to do yet. And then yes, we do all the stupid things americans and humans in general do, because we have to find some way to escape the incredible pain of subsuming our wills to the soul crushing machine. Don’t call me stupid and ego based, you prick, I’m fucking trapped, and it’s killing me, and I’m aware of it, and I hate it, but there are very few options right now, and you’re a piece of shit for not realizing this, you so-called self-dubbed ‘evolved’ being. I know that there are far more options available to people than any of us realize, but if you’ve got $10,000 of your own money to invest in RS then you’re living in a world very different than most people and you’d better shut the fuck up about how stupid we are. Get the fuck off your high horse, you’re not doing ANYone any good up there. We are fucking enslaved down here. It’s not about evolution, it’s about fucking emancipation, you judgmental piece of shit! The machine isn’t going to let anyone off easy, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than some south american entheogens to get us free. In fact, this thread has indeed sapped much of my faith in entheogens, as you, a self proclaimed master of them, are even more petty than most people I know. You’re not healed, you’re not evolved, you’re no different than anyone else, well, except in that giant fucking ego. Whew. Bitterness purged.
You’re angry that you’re doing all this work that you consider to be great work, and it’s not being rewarded, or even given what it needs to survive. Fuck it. If it’s dying, it’s dying. And, it IS keeping people in front of their computers, stuck in the virtual world, making connections with ghosts and vapors in far off places. I almost started a spore here in Orlando, and once I started researching I found an actual active community (not like the RS “community”, but actual people, actual friends, living close together, doing actual, important work, locally) already in place here, and so I just left the evolver idea as moot, especially since you want me to do paperwork for it. I guess you don’t realize that what you are implying with this idea is actually something like you want me to start up a spore and then jump in to the local community and offer to take over the local real community because ‘I’m With Evolver and I’m Here to Help! Are you people ready to evolve,’ right? Evolver is for computer junkies. The actual “evolved” (emancipated?) people are already at work in the community, and while they’re a damn sight more understanding than you are, they still aren’t very appreciative of internet junkies coming out and saying “Hey, I know all this stuff, and we should be doing more than what you’re doing since I know more than you since I just sit and read RS all day!” I’m exaggerating missing the point of your work, but I’m doing so to make a point. One, I’m mirroring yourself, and two, I sincerely spent a few hours looking at evolver and didn’t see the value since I couldn’t actually meet people on it, and once I started trying to set something up I realized the arrogance of what I had hoped to do and stopped. There are a lot of people out there who have been doing better work for a long time, and aren’t struggling with the internet consumption that at least a number of your followers are.If it is dying, it is dying because it is not meant to live.
And then the point comes back to the fact that you have to have a grounded self worth. You can’t base your worth on this, or every time you meet an investor who turns you down or turns you away, you’re going to be rejected and hurt, and behave like a whiny child as you have here. I think it’s a problem for the vast majority of people in our culture (and it obviously still is for me as well), where we’ve been forced to behave by societal standards through the constant conditional love of our parents, friends, schools, society, workplaces, editors, etc. Eisenstein describes it far better than I could in this brief space, but I know it’s something I’m dealing with as well. I’m of the fight club sort: I am not my job, my car, my stuff, etc.; but then who am I? “Well I must be my ideas,” I unconsciously said, “and my gifts, and my work.” So then when my ideas, gifts, and work are rejected, I’m rejected, and I end up hurt pretty badly, like you are here. I internalize it more than you do Daniel, you seem to be throwing up your pain onto Rob here, while angrily and arrogantly defending yourself, poorly, but I’m pretty sure we’re both doing the same thing.
Who are you and what are you here for (alive, on earth, on RS, whatever; however you wish to define “here”)? Why the fuck are you doing this work if a) it’s causing you so much stress, and b) you think the human race is about to go through the shredder because they are so stupid and ego based? I mean, it fucking astounds! If you are giving up on the human race, quit this nonsense and go to the hills to pray and meditate on your own self preservation. Stop bothering other people who are trying to do some good and who HAVEN’T given up on humanity with your bitterness and misanthropy. Look inward, Daniel, and there you will find the source of your problems, not in Rob, not in me, not in the economy, not in stupid ego based humanity, not in greedy investors; it’s in you. Rob’s human, yes, and he did mess up, as humans do. But so are, and did, you. And it’s unbelievably disgustingly hypocritical of you to sit here and on the one hand belittle Rob for being so young and infirm in his personal transformation, and on the other to blame this whole thing on him for being the savvy wall street fuck and not a sincere evolver like yourself. If, as you said yourself, it’s your experience that people who are early in their transformation have issues with old habits, then you fucking be understanding of that in him and fucking help him through it, not punch him in the face as soon as he does what you knew he was going to do. Holy shit! Someone has to be the adults here, and I don’t have words, profane or otherwise, to properly emphasize how strenuous I want to say this, it has to be the people who are claiming to already be evolved. It has to be you. It fucking has to be you. You have to be the adult if you’re going to be running a fucking website called Evolver. It has to be you. You have to be the mature and understanding one if you’re going to be running a fucking website called “Reality Sandwich,” where you are implying that you are both already more evolved and already more in touch with Reality since this is what you’ve been eating. It fucking has to be you, and when you pull the shit you, Jonathan, and Ken have done on this thread, you lose all your fucking respect, because you’re no different than a 10 year old.
You have to grow up now. You have to grow up and stop this finger-pointing bullshit and grow the fuck up. Or you have to quit this work. You have to. This isn’t something that can go unaddressed any longer. How long are you into your transformation? Then why are you acting like a snot-nosed kid? You have to either be an adult now, an understanding, loving, mature, adult, looking out upon a sea of brave, wounded, beautiful human children—who are oftentimes hurtful because we are in so much pain—or you have to leave. Period. It doesn’t matter where you go, but you absolutely may not stay here and be the bitter misanthropic fuck you are showing yourself to be!
And Jonathan, after that brilliant piece Treating America’s Psychopathy, where you so incredibly powerfully lay out the importance of acceptance and non-judgment, to see you come into this thread showing your ass and pointing the finger at Rob as you have, and not understanding his needs and fears, was unbelievably disappointing.
And Ken, Seeker34 barely touched upon the idea of the payment of profits. The overarching gist of his comment was how fucking disappointed he is in you three, and I feel the same way. I’m not talking about the money, I’m talking about your responses to the situation. I understand the need for money. What I dont understand is your behavior. You all acted like public school 10 year olds. You have to quit that now. You have to accept responsibility for your childishness, you have to apologize to us, to Rob (and it better be fucking sincere this time Dan, or don’t do it), and you have to take some time to really internalize the magnitude of the public display of arrogance, judgmentalism, egocentrism, and stupidity you have shown.
Or you have to quit.
You don’t get other choices here. It’s gone too far. A few days into it you should have realized your arrogance and your fuck up and come forth appropriately, humbly, and apologetically. That you haven’t and continue to act arrogantly, pettily, and egotistically, is astounding to me. You said all this ugly, petty, childish crap in front of all of us, you have disgraced yourselves, and still you continue to come back in the same manner.
So here I am, laying it all out. I’m humiliating myself, cursing like an angry teenager, coming across far too arrogantly and egotistically, for you, so that you may see just how ugly you have been here. I’m showing my ass so that you may perhaps see just how bare and shit-stained yours are. Go back and reread this entire thread, reread all your comments, with a beginning understanding that they are disgusting and childish to many of your readers. And if it doesn’t humble you, you have to leave. If it doesn’t humble you to the point where you are nearly too embarrassed to show your face again, you haven’t really grasped the magnitude of the situation, and you’d better not come back to this thread, or to RS at all. The next thing out of you three should be internet silence while you puke your guts up out of extreme shame and embarrassment, and then an incredibly humble, gracious, and sincere apology to the readers, the other RS writers whom you have shamed, to Rob and Chimbre, and to the medicine which you have so disrespected.
And to the other readers who I’ve shown my ass to, I am truly sorry. It’s been days in the brewing, I’ve been trying to be forgiving, trying to be understanding, trying to be like Vee Har O., hoping beyond hope that they would see their errs and beg forgiveness, but they haven’t and I needed to get this out. I’m sure it will be a humbling experience for me as well as for the three stooges running this show, as I have said ugly and hateful things, showing my true colors as well, but this had to be said. Hopefully now I can begin to heal.
Oh, and while I’m purging bitterness, Peter Deane, you’re not a shaman. You lived your whole life as a white man and just stumbled upon a long dead conquored ancestor and are now continuing the program of conquest. Stop posting on here as if you are, you are a disgrace to yourself, humanity, the people of the First Nations, and reality sandwich. And please oh please don’t ever pull some shit like that radio show in England where you call yourself a shaman even though you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. I realize the hypocrisy when I say you’d better learn some humility, but Peter, humility is one of the central personality traits of the first nations, so please stop talking about things you don’t know about, you too are doing far more harm than good.
FUCK YEAH!
Trey & Matt’s position on anti-semitic commentary pretty much matches my own and may help new readers understand what I’m on about when I say ” With Jews, YOU lose!”
For an exhaustive analysis of Jews from an unbiased perspective, the definitive, authoritarian source is the Encyclopedia Dramatica page.
mp4 wins for quality, file size & compatibility, but is potentially a liability in the future if the publishers of the proprietary video format, who have released it under a closed licence, decide to start charging for its use online.
Who cares? For now, the best way to go about doing online video is to encode your (SD or HD) videos as mp4 (ideally using the x264 codec), playable by flash player and by browsers without flash (many mobile devices) that support the upcoming HTML5. You will need to use a video converter that encodes mp4 for the web, using the “fast start” or “streaming” option. Dual-pass encoding takes longer but the results are worth it, noticeably better quality at the same file size.
If you’re serious about setting up a site/blog for online video, you’d do well to use a host that has ffmpeg installed on their servers. This will convert & stream videos for you.
The best place to read up on this whole tangled issue of codecs, formats, browsers, and intellectual property landlords is this page on Mark Pilgrim’s most excellent Dive Into HTML5 website. This man is a wonderful teacher. He and others have written and published scripts and HTML5 code that will allow any modern and future browser to play your videos with or without plugins.
This apeared in my mailbox today, no clues as to the source:
The water froze the instant the wave broke through the ice. That’s what it is like in Antarctica where it is the coldest weather in decades. Water freezes the instant it comes in contact with the air. The temperature of the water is already some degrees below freezing. Just look at how the wave froze in mid-air!!!
STRIPED ICEBERGS Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by layers of snow that react to different conditions. Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form. When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe. Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.
Xenophobe is usually a long-term discussion forum participant and he thinks of the forum as his private compound. Xenophobe regards new forum arrivals as mentally deficient and perhaps even having criminal tendencies, and they are invariably approached with suspicion and condescension. Xenophobe will mount a furious attack if a Newbie has the temerity to make critical observations about the forum’s social dynamics, or questions its prevailing opinions.
Fragile Femme is very needy and insecure and regards the discussion forum as her personal support group, and will lash out when her feelings are not “validated” by the others. Fragile Femme will often refer to the forum participants as her “family” and becomes distraught at disharmony of any kind. She regards a minor disagreement with her as devastating personal assaults and will often dissolve into hysteria when confronted. Her hyperactive sense of injury renders her fighting tactics fairly ineffective, but Innocence Abused, Cyber Sisters or Weenie will often spring to her defense.
Bliss Ninny doesn’t understand why people just can’t get along. While it is entirely unintentional, Bliss Ninny’s utterly vacuous comments can drive the more pugnacious Warriors into a frenzy of aggression. Often in the heat of battle Bliss Ninny will discuss her cat.
Evil Clown is very quick with a joke, but his jests always have a barb. He has little patience for in-depth discussions and will often disrupt exchanges between serious forum participants by introducing irrelevant topics, fatuous quips, and offhand comments. His greatest thrill is to taunt and humiliate weaker or more plodding Warriors with his snappy ripostes. Not a particularly powerful Warrior, Evil Clown will attempt to avoid defeat by accusing his attacker of having no sense of humor.
Is it just you or does this guy seem to babble on and on without making any sense whatsoever? Does he lurch from one non sequitur to another? Are you baffled by his obscure metaphors? Are there so many typos you think that maybe he was typing while wearing a catcher’s mit? Can he really MEAN what he just said? What in the hell is hey talking about, anyway? Is this guy smoking something? Well, yes…in fact he is, and lightly tethered in orbit high above the Earth Bong remains far beyond the grasp of the even the most powerful of Warriors.
The fear that everyone will access the internet through appliances, killing the “open internet”, was enshrined in a book a couple of years ago by the Berkman Center’s Jonathan Zittrain. I have a theory about this, based on some years in the techno utopian wilderness of Silicon Valley. Often with people with a very simplified view of the world – as these Berkmanites do – is that they “birthed” at a particular time. They had very little sense of identity or self worth before this great moment, and so they’re left imprinted with the world as their birthed self first took the blotter, I mean, opened their eyes. And they want things to be exactly as they were then. It’s like a duckling that thinks “Mother” is a pair of yellow Wellington Boots, because it’s the first thing it sees that provides nourishment. They’re imprisoned in a static view of the world and inevitably regress further and further into infantilism – doomed to follow a pair yellow Wellies for the rest of their lives. … It’s strange to present the “future of the internet” as one of threats, rather than a set of technical challenges – that’s the Puritanism I think, and no one at Berkman is noted for their tech savvy, or engineering credentials. They just talk about the web a lot, which is not the same thing. Environmentalists have already proved that scaremongering is a great way to get in the papers, and the Berkmanites like to get into the papers. It’s a rejection of politics, and an implicit assumption that we’re thick, to approach a subject in this way. But even if you’re going to look at threats coolly and rationally, which is quite legitimate, then this is a very selective view of the world. The internet has one choke point, and it’s called Google. Computer networks are now so rich and diverse and cherished by us, that nobody can ultimately dominate. But what Google can do, that a Verizon or BT can’t, is come quite close, by setting the economic parameters for others. So by reducing the ability of access networks to make a profit, it aggregates value in its own data centres. By reducing the value of copyright to zero, it bolsters its primary business, which is advertising. Naturally, you will not hear more than a token squeak about this from Zittrain and chums, because Google is still the Mother in Yellow Wellington Boots. Oh, and it splashes the cash around readily amongst the cyberlaw schools, so they can fight the good fight. I’d also have more faith in the Berkmanites if they didn’t cosy up to some of the creepiest cults going. – from ICANN (the unaccountable domain name quango birthed at Berkman) via Google, to the cult of Wikipedia, another shrine to top-down control and the world’s most bureaucratic disinformation factory. (Fact: Jimmy Wales once played house-sitter for Lawrence Lessig, which is surely the oddest couple since Harold and Maude).
The fear that everyone will access the internet through appliances, killing the “open internet”, was enshrined in a book a couple of years ago by the Berkman Center’s Jonathan Zittrain. I have a theory about this, based on some years in the techno utopian wilderness of Silicon Valley.
Often with people with a very simplified view of the world – as these Berkmanites do – is that they “birthed” at a particular time. They had very little sense of identity or self worth before this great moment, and so they’re left imprinted with the world as their birthed self first took the blotter, I mean, opened their eyes. And they want things to be exactly as they were then.
It’s like a duckling that thinks “Mother” is a pair of yellow Wellington Boots, because it’s the first thing it sees that provides nourishment. They’re imprisoned in a static view of the world and inevitably regress further and further into infantilism – doomed to follow a pair yellow Wellies for the rest of their lives.
…
It’s strange to present the “future of the internet” as one of threats, rather than a set of technical challenges – that’s the Puritanism I think, and no one at Berkman is noted for their tech savvy, or engineering credentials. They just talk about the web a lot, which is not the same thing. Environmentalists have already proved that scaremongering is a great way to get in the papers, and the Berkmanites like to get into the papers. It’s a rejection of politics, and an implicit assumption that we’re thick, to approach a subject in this way.
But even if you’re going to look at threats coolly and rationally, which is quite legitimate, then this is a very selective view of the world. The internet has one choke point, and it’s called Google. Computer networks are now so rich and diverse and cherished by us, that nobody can ultimately dominate. But what Google can do, that a Verizon or BT can’t, is come quite close, by setting the economic parameters for others. So by reducing the ability of access networks to make a profit, it aggregates value in its own data centres. By reducing the value of copyright to zero, it bolsters its primary business, which is advertising.
Naturally, you will not hear more than a token squeak about this from Zittrain and chums, because Google is still the Mother in Yellow Wellington Boots. Oh, and it splashes the cash around readily amongst the cyberlaw schools, so they can fight the good fight.
I’d also have more faith in the Berkmanites if they didn’t cosy up to some of the creepiest cults going. – from ICANN (the unaccountable domain name quango birthed at Berkman) via Google, to the cult of Wikipedia, another shrine to top-down control and the world’s most bureaucratic disinformation factory. (Fact: Jimmy Wales once played house-sitter for Lawrence Lessig, which is surely the oddest couple since Harold and Maude).
How has this come to be, how is it even allowed? How has this company become an info-funnel through which most internet users must pass?
Check this, as reported by The Register in World of Google zombies mistake news story for Facebook : ReadWriteWeb publishes a news item titled “Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login.” This becomes the top Goolag news result for a “Facebook login” search. “Myriads” of people (Google zombies) just click on that , end up on the ReadWriteWeb site and start posting comments asking why they can’t log into their Facefuck.
Eventually, ReadWriteWeb added a new paragraph to the middle of its story – in bold letters: Dear visitors from Google. This site is not Facebook. This is a website called ReadWriteWeb that reports on news about Facebook and other Internet services. You can however click here and become a Fan of ReadWriteWeb on Facebook, to receive our updates and learn more about the Internet. To access Facebook right now, click here. For future reference, type “facebook.com” into your browser address bar or enter “facebook” into Google and click on the first result. We recommend that you then save Facebook as a bookmark in your browser. Facebook does want to be the “one true login.” But clearly, that will take some doing. Google search is such a web focal point, it’s usurping the duties of the browser itself. It’s not just that Google has become – literally – a synonym for search. It’s not just that Google controls 60 to 70 per cent of the search market – and perhaps more. For so many of the world’s (rather clueless) web surfers, Google is more than a search engine. It’s a gateway to every page they ever visit. In other words, those top-secret Google algorithms have a tighter grip on the world’s web traffic than you might think.
Eventually, ReadWriteWeb added a new paragraph to the middle of its story – in bold letters:
Dear visitors from Google. This site is not Facebook. This is a website called ReadWriteWeb that reports on news about Facebook and other Internet services. You can however click here and become a Fan of ReadWriteWeb on Facebook, to receive our updates and learn more about the Internet. To access Facebook right now, click here. For future reference, type “facebook.com” into your browser address bar or enter “facebook” into Google and click on the first result. We recommend that you then save Facebook as a bookmark in your browser.
Facebook does want to be the “one true login.” But clearly, that will take some doing. Google search is such a web focal point, it’s usurping the duties of the browser itself.
It’s not just that Google has become – literally – a synonym for search. It’s not just that Google controls 60 to 70 per cent of the search market – and perhaps more. For so many of the world’s (rather clueless) web surfers, Google is more than a search engine. It’s a gateway to every page they ever visit.
In other words, those top-secret Google algorithms have a tighter grip on the world’s web traffic than you might think.
People who use internet filtering and connection monitoring software (like Little Snitch on Mac OS) can see just how often their browser wants to connect to Goolag during a browsing session – and decide on the matter for themselves… but since Goolag has wormed its way into many websites that use it as their site search engine, blocking Goolag permanently can limit your internut experience, and you wouldn’t want that , would ya?