Seeing yourself as a Sieve

The benefits of being a sieve

For some, a pause in their journey can offer a rare moment of quiet contemplation, a chance to plan an alternative route toward their destination or an opportunity to get off the ride altogether.

Other things can provide benefit by not being stopped.

Like a sieve which is having water poured into it from above, I let things pass through me. Whatever it is. I don’t hold onto anything because I can’t. I’m a sieve. It’s not something I’m capable of. It’s not my purpose.

That’s not to say that everything is in one ear and out the other. There’ll always be some sort of residue or trace left behind, however temporary, along the surface of the sieve where the water hit it, and that is where I came into contact with an experience head on, looking straight at it as it touched me before carrying on its way through.

I try not to hold onto any powerful experience or emotion running through me, whether it be beautiful, terrifying, hopeful, sad etc. Of course I try to feel it fully in the moment, and savour it in real-time, not file it away to be unpacked and perused over another day. I try to be 100% present. Right here. Right now. 

Looking long-term, I’d rather focus on what kind of residual mozaic will be left upon my soul after being touched by so many different hues of experience, and having some sort of overall shape or form in mind today as I go forward. A life-time piece of internal art which many people hope to only complete when they know they are experiencing their final hours, comfortable and wanting for nothing, surrounded by all the people that love them.

Seeing myself as a sieve I think was a strategy I had to adopt because I feel things too much. I needed a way to carry on feeling the essence of things but not have to block out those things that were too painful or too beautiful for me to contain. 

Holding onto things, even amazing things, trying to preserve them inside me forever always becomes too much, and something eventually gives way because I’m not allowing whatever it is, to carry on its way. And so the concentration inside increases as I harbour the experience/emotion against its will, and at some point  it will become toxic to me.

What the Garden of Eden story means to me now

I used to take it as a lesson in why you shouldn't disobey God because he will fuck your shit up for eternity if you do, but now I see it being about temptation (vice), and how resisting real temptation i.e. something you know is morally not good for you but gives you pleasure (made even more intense if you know you can get away with it), resisting the urge and impulse to gorge ourselves on that kind of seduction will keep us in a place of godliness i.e acting in perfect harmony with oneself. But with humans being humans, I'm tempted to claim that Adam felt life in the Garden of Eden was boring as fuck and fancied something different for his mind to get stuck into instead of lying around all day, being satisfied in every way. Adam was the first human to live a fully automated, luxurious lifestyle, who wanted for nothing and had an Alexa called God. Adam was an unwitting Neo who accidentally created the Real through his curiosity.

But anyway, I think that most people can begin the ascension to godliness through the resistance of their vices because the act of being able to say no to something your body is screaming yes for is a demonstration of supreme self-control, self-determination, it's morally nutritious etc, and these building blocks lead to heightened confidence, greater awareness of how one can realise one's potential...

Maybe that sounds like a no-brainer of a decision to make but I think most people are like anti-Icaruses, in that they become scared when they find themselves flying so high. They get vertigo. They're reluctant to soar above others for fear of making themselves targets, or they are afraid of being overwhelmed by the feelings of joy and exhilaration that resonate them from experiencing such a magnificent view. 

Why are we in such a rush to get humanity lived, over and done with?

The Accelerationists of this world seem to want it to spin so fast that it hums. Anyone that doesn't have a firm grip on the way things are going to be from now on will be flung off in due course. This is no time for laggards and toe dippers. Those who develop a mental illness in response to the incessant reconfiguration of their environment shall be steered towards machines that will teach them how to cope. The daily pursuit of hyper-optimizing our capacity for work will give us meaning and keep us moving forward. Those struggling to keep pace with the system unaided are encouraged to automate part of their function or take the necessary cognitive enhancers to help bring their level of operation up to speed. All time will be purposeful and accounted for. 
Free time is wasted time.

We're already living in a Black Mirror reality - How Facebook is polticising friendship itself

I've just logged into facebook. Facebook greeted me, as it normally does. There was a small note at the top of my feed from - 'The Facebook privacy team'. For some reason I thought I would actually bother to read it this time. It felt a little bit like I was the cashier in the supermarket who had been asked how they were and in a protested by not sticking to the script by saying "Fine, thank you".

>You control who can like and comment on your posts
Ben, it looks like someone recently liked your post. We want you to know how to control who can like and comment on your posts

Initially I thought, cool. More control. I don't want any perverts look at my stuff and exciting themselves over it. Shortly after this moment of empowerment had passed, I considered a scenario in which I am in a pub with friends and I want to shout over that I like my friends new style. I open my mouth but find that nothing is coming out because my friend with the new hairstyle has forbid me to express any fondness for it. They now look over to me and we make eye contact. We both know that I've been muted in this social setting. I feel really frustrated and obviously no longer wish to express how much I like my so-called friend's hair. I suddenly feel ostracized by the whole group, perhaps I'm just over reacting? But I do have a horrible deep pang of paranoid fear that even more of the  people I'm presently sat with, that are joking and flashing smiles at me could have actually censored my ability to like their things. find myself sat there in uncomfortable silence, feeling increasingly emasculated as the party vibe din of the pub continues unabated by my realisation,

A new facebook saga in the making


Facebook again creates and hands us a another power which is essentially destabilizing in its nature, and as users are bestowed with this new level of "control", it helps alleviate facebook of blame for any of the dynamic corollaries that subsequently take place.

On the surface it looks like a courteous little reminder of what facebook features are available to you, but it's banal placement and servile language help mask the reality that facebook is gradually becoming a highly politicised space, and they are now moving into the business of politicising friendship itself.

Is Paralympic sport classification fit for purpose?

A brief response to this article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/41253174?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_sport&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport

I think it's important something like this is fixed immediately. When you get Olympic medalists handing back their medals because they felt the system gave them an unfair advantage to win then you have a problem which can hemorrhage integrity, trust and respect over night.

The reports by ex-classifiers of the kinds of tactics that are being employed to feign the appearance of increased impairment I found extremely saddening at first, then the reality kicked in. Add the factors of money and funding and wanting to survive in a tough industry and it suddenly makes a lot of sense. The scope for gaming the system in the paralymipcs I think is a lot greater than with able-bodied Olympics as making accusations and then backing them up is such a delicate and time consuming process. It's also tied to sentiments of human dignity and scenarios we read about in the news daily where the DWP has assessed a disabled person as being 'fit to work' despite glaringly obvious reasons why it would be impossible for them to do so. 

Leveling such an accusation at an athlete which basically says" You're not as disabled as you are making out to be" is one that can only be reached with any degree of confidence after a lot of resources, deliberation and cross-checking have been spent, and if the issue is as wide ranging as some athletes fear then the eradication of the problem may itself end up killing off the Paralympics in its current form or force it to become something radically different in order to survive.

In the future, celebrities will judge each other by the upkeep of their anus

In the near future, the nipple-slip will be replaced by the anus-peep and it will be desirable to have a part of the body not normally associated with cleanliness, to be clean and always kissable, such is society's obsession for paradoxes and maintaining impossibly high standards that set apart the elite from the plebs.

Soon, music celebrities will be suffering from 'wardrobe malfunctions' that accidentally reveal their delicately bleached perfect puckers.

In turn the general public will become anus crazy, another taboo will have been conquered and personal grooming will have reached its zenith.

Is Civil War in Trump-Era America Inevitable?

Civil war maybe a bit of an exaggeration. But something not far off that.

There is definitely a foreboding air of inevitability at the moment in the US. I had a crazy daydream that eventually Trump will need the threat of another civil war in order to stay in power. He'll need a situation so critical and dangerously loaded  that any idea of removing him from office at that time could be the spark that sets things off. At that point he will become the ideal person and only person capable of quelling the rage his loyal followers will want to unleash.

It took something like Charlottesville to force Trump into overtly showing his cards. He knows he would be finished if he didn't at least send some sort of signal of solidarity to the white nationalist's/sympathizers as they constitute a high percentage of base.

As long as he can satisfy his base by saying what they want him to say - he doesn't necessarily have to act upon what he says - but as long as the ideas his loyal supporters like to hear keep circulating, they stay emboldened, they stay relevant and have purpose going forward, which is why they will do absolutely anything to keep him there. Part of their identity is at stake and they're past the point of no return now in terms of how low Trump can go yet still receive their support. They have Trump's back no matter what.

This is where the daydream went a bit OTT

There'll be a last stand. Evangelicals will tie the narrative of how events play out into biblical prophecy and see the threat of civil war as an of end of days scenario, something which they have been preparing for and almost hoping would happen for millennia. An event which simultaneously annihilates humankind but provides them more importantly with the validation that their faith wasn't in vain.

As things stand now, I don't see a way out of this situation unless the tension which has reached ridiculous levels is released in a massive way.

It would seem from watching mainstream news that the memory of Nazism has faded to the point where the warning to future generations it left us has disappeared. I'm worried that humankind has to create another reason for us to have a period of real peace, and the best way it seems to achieve peace time is by having a war and then reflecting for a long time on how evil and wrong it is.