Am vorletzten Donnerstag bakam ich eine Karte eines früheren Schwarms von mir: Die Geburtsanzeige ihres ersten Kindes. Am Abend erhielt ich die Nachricht, Dädi sei verstorben.
Ein Kreis schliesst sich.
Dädi war ein einfacher, bescheidener Mann, ein Bastler, „en Chlütteri“, „en Chrampfer“. Kaum etwas ging kaputt, ohne dass er es nicht reparieren konnte – ja musste. Für uns, seine Kinder, ist das phantastisch: Seinen Drang, Funktionsweisen auf den Grund zu gehen, zu tüfteln, zu optimieren übertrug er quasi verlustfrei auf uns. Und: Selber machen macht mehr Spass und ist billiger – so sind wir alle kleine Mechaniker geworden. Und Maler, Schreiner, Stromer, und weiss der Kuckuck was alles noch – eben Bastler, „Chlütteris“.
Ein Kreis schliesst sich.
Aber das Ganze würde nicht gehen ohne eine entscheidende Eigenschaft: Der Wille, zu verstehen, das ewige Bedürfnis, zu lernen. Dädi wurde nie müde, die Welt zu erklären. Mit uns in Kiesgruben Steinbrecher und Bagger zu besteigen, um die ständigen „wie geht das?“ und warum’s geduldig zu ertragen. Mit uns Bäche mit Staudämmen zu verzieren, um uns ein Gefühl für Druck zu geben. Baustellen von Autobahnbrücken unsicher zu machen, wenn er uns Knöpfen die Statik zu erklären versuchte.
Beim zerlegen und vor Allem zusammensetzen revidierter Velos und Töfflis stand er immer mit Rat und Tat zur Seite. Es gibt keine Dichtungen mehr für diesen alten Töfflimotor? Kein Problem: Hier, Dichtungspapier und Messer zum ausschneiden, Stahlkugeln, um die Schraubenlöcher zu stanzen.
Ein defektes Auto war seine Materie, und wenn es nicht defekt war, gab es immer sonst was am Vergaser zu schrauben oder Bremsen zu entlüften.
Für uns ist es zum eigentlichen Spass im Leben geworden, die Welt zu erforschen – und Antworten einfach nach zu plappern zum absoluten Graus. Nicht nur selber „chlüttere“ war bei Dädi ständig angesagt – auch selber denken. Für mich persönlich sein wertvollstes Geschenk, das er uns machen konnte!
Epidemic Warning: Outbreak of malicious football-virus (pixelio.de)
I must clarify whether it is a possible to file an intelligence rape suit – because I have to listen to all the babble for months. No escape. I don’t want to change my brain with pressurized air. Poor, poor me.
Some time ago I had some thoughts on how to make football more fun and even more profitable, but they didn’t make it. Or, why don’t they play with just one goal? 22 men, constantly putting it in, one by one, the audience could start scream nonstop «GOOOO…» and ending after 2 hours with «…AAALLLLL!!!». Even hardcore hooligans will be out of puff – no riots, no police, no problems. Ecstasy in perfection!
Or, why not 22 goals: isn’t it unfair that only two of the guys got one? Why not to fairgoal? Yes, and 22 fairballs, nicely color coded: Yellow ball, yellow goal, etc. But, uh, no, that may be to difficult. The intellectuals are needed to shout on the tribune, the word has more than four letters and doesn’t start with «f»: «Gooaaal».
However, I must be grateful to be immune. Thanks, Dad!
Some time ago I found this video on dailymotion.com, which sent me on a real trip. Countless times I watched the video, meditating on it and pondering which meaning my oh so vain ego fulfils in this wonderful world.
Experience perishability in 120 seconds
(Edit: It’s a flv video which does not play right now… sorry. You can download it.)
See how the earth’s face changes in 650 million years in this continental drift animation. See all your egocentrism crushed by Africa – at least if you live in Europe… (not shure, but the vid might come from BBC)
If you think that someone threatens your little garden and wants to steal your accumulated riches, you should check the correctness of your values – fear is a bad guide. Just for this task the video is perfectly suitable:
First you will start to feel lost. Sometime after that you should have slowly dissolved, floating in a cosmic condition which is not easy to endure. But, slowly, you then should start to feel truly at home – and you’ll get closer to the mystical point of no return. No need to ask for what you want anymore, but to find out who you are…
Just to remind you: Homo Sapiens walks since 300’000 to 400’000 years – that’s not even half a million, while life started about 2500 million years ago and civilization is a few millennia old. Do you really think you control anything? If you do, then it’s your charity, nothing more.
Endlich ist es soweit: Die Erkenntnis der Perversion unserer Finanzökonomie hat es in die Mainstream-Medien geschafft! Nachdem die Politik werbewirksam griffige Massnahmen zur Eindämmung der Spekulationsgeschäfte versprach – es dann aber dabei beliess, den Markt mit billigem Geld voll zu pumpen – merken nun langsam auch die Letzten, dass genau dieses billige Geld die neuen Spekulationsblasen schafft.
The gap between rich and poor
Die Politik gewährt der globalen Hochfinanz eine steuerfreie Wertschöpfung aus einem virtuellen Kapital, das sieben Mal grösser ist wie das des weltweiten, jährlichen Bruttoinlandproduktes, bis das System zwangsweise kollabiert. Im Auftrag der Politik verleihen die Nationalbanken neues Geld quasi gratis und ohne Auflagen den Banken, die es gewinnträchtig in Staaten investieren, die durch den Kollaps bakrott gegangen sind. Somit werden nach den öffentlichen Infrastrukturen ganze Staaten privatisiert.
Zugegeben, der letzte Absatz ist etwas reisserisch – wie anders könnte man etwas auf den Punkt bringen, das nicht mal Fachleute in seiner ganzen Komplexität erfassen. Der Rekord von 140 Milliarden Boni im Jahr 2009 ist ja auch nicht ganz unreisserisch. 🙂
Etwas ausführlicher geht es in dieser ZDF-Dokumentation zur Sache:
Für tiefergehende Lektüre kann ich Artikel zum Thema von blog.4st.ch empfehlen. Auch der Film Let’s make money ist ein guter Konsumtipp. Nach überwundener Wut, Übelkeit und Hoffnungslosigkeit checkt doch mal die Bücher in aller Gründlichkeit, um eure Rendite sauber zu halten.
Profit aus unendlichem Wachstum auf einem endlichen Planeten ist schlicht nicht möglich. Das ist etwa so, wie wir die Schuldenkriese mit neuen Schulden bekämpfen. Und in der Medizin wird tatsächlich noch diskutiert, ab wann man hirntot ist – um Volker Pispers zu zitiern.
Der vermutlich einzige Weg, da wieder raus zu kommen, wird eine Geldentwertung sein. Die, die heute unverschämt viel haben, haben dann immer noch viel, während unsereins gar nichts mehr hat. Bliebe zu hoffen, die Vertreter des staatlichen Gewaltmonopols wählen einmal die gerechte und nicht die profitable Seite…
Wenn wir es nicht schaffen, dem ganzen Irrsinn ein Ende zu setzen, wird das wohl in einigen Jahren eine der Überschriften sein, mit denen Medien um Quoten kämpfen. Nichts desto trotz kann man es heute schon sehen – auf Wikileaks. Die Site versucht aufzudecken, was Konzerne und Behörden zu verschleiern versuchen.
Bei diesem Zwischenfall im Irak 2007 waren unter den Opfern auch zwei Reuters-Mitarbeiter. Zwei Kinder wurden verletzt, als ihr Vater einem verwundeten Reporter helfen wollte. Vater und Reporter wurden dabei erschossen. Das als geheim klassifizierte Video wurde nun am 5.4.2010 auf Wikileaks veröffentlicht:
Es spritzt kein Blut wie in gängigen Filmen, es sind keine Geschlechtsteile zu sehen, das Video sollte jugendfrei sein. Also keine Angst beim Hinschauen, es ist nichts zu sehen! Man kann sich nur vorstellen, wie ein 30mm-Geschoss einen Körper zerfetzt. Cool aus einem Helikopter, rechnergesteuert treffsicher aus vielen hundert Metern Entfernung. Hübsch, nicht? Was Technik alles kann, faszinierend.
Kein Wunder, dass Völker, wirtschaftlich und militärisch dermassen dominiert und in ihren eigenen Interessen übergangen, sich zur Wehr setzen. Und wie sollten sie das tun, wenn nicht mit Guerilliataktik, Terrorismus und Fanatismus als Mittel des Zusammenhalts?
Immerhin hat das Video nach einer Woche bereits 5.5 Mio Aufrufe. Es scheint mir sinnlos, auf diesem einzelnen Fall herumzureiten, aber er zeigt Eindrücklich die Realität des Menschseins, die nach wie vor animalisch ist: «Nice shot – Yeah, got them…» Auch nach zehn Jahren sind wir noch nicht im dritten Jahrtausend angekommen – obwohl heute in zehn Jahren soviel passiert wie früher in einem ganzen Jahrtausend.
Unterstützen wir Wikileaks! Zur Zeit wohl die beste Plattform für unbequeme Wahrheiten, seit wir auf den heute quotendominierten Journalismus nicht mehr zählen dürfen.
Ich will nicht parteisch sein. Im Krieg ist kein Soldat zimperlich, hier werden 9 Marines umgebracht:
Krieg ist eine hochdynamische Angelegenheit, Entscheidungen auf Leben und Tod müssen in kürzester Zeit gefällt werden – Fehler passieren da früher oder später. Manchmal erwischt es so auch die eigenen, Remote-War sei dank:
Krieg ist so ein verdammtes Scheissbusiness – ausser für die Ökonomie – dass ich nicht verstehen kann, weshalb Arbeiter und Bauern nicht die fettgefressenen Machthaber aufeinander hetzen, die ja das ganze Trallalla anzetteln. Das System Krieg ist so unzulänglich, dass man es um jeden Preis vermeiden sollte! Mindestens so lange, wie die Andern nicht anderer Meinung sind, nicht war?
What may a man dream freezing to death? This... (picture source)
Governments donated billions to the financial industry, and so managers and their bodyguards, villas, security cams, pools and bank accounts got subsidized in a way farmers would never dream of.
For a really real small-small part of that money it would have been possible to buy some sleeping bags for all these men and women who had to freeze to death in this winter: 212 since November 2009, up to now, in Europe.
It’s a shame! Why don’t we do that?
... or that?
I think, the answer is only logical: All who are in responsibility think in resources: money, oil, accounts, pools, human resources etc. So you have frozen resources? Don’t panic – just defrost it! No resource need a sleeping bag. Beside the upper ten thousand when they go camping.
But they are not a resource, they are God. And God made it that way…
Wir spielen am 31. Dezember 2009 im UNION Basel. Details zum Anlass sind hier zu finden. Es spielen noch tamilische Keyboardschüler und eine Afrofunk Band – es wird also bestimmt ein bunter Anlass. Wie sich das gehört…
Only one word to start with commenting the outcome of todays acclamation:
FEAR
This voting shows clearly how fear works in politics. I’m always surprided how simple it is. The message «Islam wants conquer Switzerland, Europe, the world and Minarets are the spearheads» get us on a level of lowest animal insticts and as fast as you can’t wink Christianity feel threatened with extinction. What a bullshit, today, in the year 2009!
Playing the claviature of fear: Minaret ban poster by the SVP-party
On the other hand, a message like «America wants to dominate the world and Coca Cola tins are the bullets» works absolutely the same way. How surprising. I call this behavior our bioligical heritage and it works since hundreds of million years. If you know how to play this claviature of fear you don’t need any good rational arguments, you only need to fuel the animal interface.
Now, what really fears me ist the fact that this works on our level of education. This makes me thoughtful. In an evolutionary era where religions are going through their last jerks, because moral changes from dogmas to educational insights, we have such a backslide. But, that’s normal in evolution, unfortunately.
The convinience of belief systems is that it gives you simple answers and you can, but don’t need to think for yourself. Even if one do, most will think in conditioned ways which leeds them to the conclusion, that they and their group is right and all others are wrong. Now fuel the animal interface with fear and you can go to war – no one will ask questions, they become fanatics. Since we know that we know nothing, all is belief – so it works with every belief system, whether religious, political, scientific or anything else like climate or Peak Oil discussion, e.g.
In this context you may want to read about the Dunning-Kruger effect on Wikipedia (The unskilled suffer from illusory superiority, rating his own ability above average). Please do, you may see public discussios from a different angle.
Polarization is what’s happening right now. When the force of separation breaks, as more apart the poles are the harder the clash will be. The secret of power is to balance between polarization and clash: Polarization to absorbe intellectual advance and clash to conquer to spread power (and heal economics, if you are clever. That’s why swiss citizens didn’t vote against export of weapons in another voting proposal today. What a crime in the year 2009! But I’m not sure it’s so clever in the end.)
Mosque at the Fort Al Hosn in Abu Dhabi (Zillertaler2000 at pixelio.de)
To me the signs are obviously: Through polarization we’re hardening our belief systems which will lead in a collision. In combination with high tech (power of atoms, bio- and nanotech, etc) it could be disatrous – and I fear it will be. But I refuse to project my fear onto Minarets – my logic does not allow this. It’s like saying because Catholics doesn’t allow condoms and therefore the pope is a mass murderer (what is sadly true in times of AIDS), we tear down catholic spires to stop him/them.
When I look at religious systems with an evolutionary point of view, I ask myself, where does this door lead us? Allthough we’re supposed to be in information age, we still fight on a basis where one has to be wrong so the other can be right. This goes until death of several people or a whole system.
In the medium therm there may be, assumedly, a winner. But I’m certain, in long therms such „hard“ systems, which totally negate any foreign information, are not survivable, because they will break in cases of „collisions“, sooner or later.
Evolution is a sequence of collisions. On the big scale, galactic superclusters hit each other, same to galaxies, star systems, planets, etc. On the small scale, electrons hit each other, atoms, genes and mutated genes, monads, etc.
Collisions between hard systems will free up highest amounts of energy in shortest time, leaving behind destruction – speaking in context of life, this means most likely death. Collisions between soft systems are more like dancing: Some do tango, others do Rock’n’Roll, some dances may even look like fighting – but the energy is moderatly freed during a longer time, leaving behind rather new formations or informations than destruction.
Brahma symbolizes the aspect of the Supreme Reality, is traditionally accepted as the Creator of the entire universe and is the first member of the Hindu Trinity that also includes Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. He carries a rosary in one hand, a sacrificial tool (sruva) in the other hand , the Vedas (knowledge) and a water pot (kamandal) in other hands respectively. The four faces represent the sacred knowledge of the four Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva). Couldn't Brahma be compared to God in christian trinity? (http://www.dollsofindia.com)
Clashing galaxies may cost some star systems as collateral damage, but altogether they doesn’t destroy themselves. The same goes for genes and other soft systems. Clashing planets, on the other side, like atoms, get a real hard life, including the surroundings, weather hard or soft.
If we break this down to religious systems, what can we learn? First, religions are mostly not hard or soft systems per se – obviously this depends heavily on interpretation in most cases. The more fanatic, the harder the system is. But overall I think that Hinduism is a softer system than classic monotheistic religions. With a look at history we may see that Hiduism is the oldest believe system with the fewest changes in its evolution (leaving out indigenous beliefs).
That doesn’t mean any monotheistic religion is „hard“. Personally I’m a mystic – there is one which (not who!) is all together at the same time, so different names and different systems can mean the same belief with different words. It’s nothing more or less than a question of definitions and informations – a question of fanatic, hard or liberal, soft interpretation.
Narrowing the point of view on the last two, three millennia, its Hinduism that fits best in a survivable evolutionary system. I don’t preach we all need to become Hindus, but the basic concept of Hinduism is very soft and history prooves it’s a lasting one.
With all the praised Saints in Catholicism I'm not sure about the fact that it is truly monotheistic. Don't they play a role somehow similar to the halfgods in Hinduism? (Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven, National Gallery, London; Fra Angelico, 15th Century)
If humanity stay alive long enough I assume that, in a long therm, we will see a kind of global polytheism, where everyone accept that he sees the white light through a coloured window of his choice. Furthermore I assume that modern physics will proove that there are „Wonders“ – well, better named phenoena, then. As in one of my most beloved quotes: „Miracles are not contrary to nature – only in contrast to what we know about nature“ by St. Augustin, Apostle of England, and first Archbishop of Canterbury, ? -604/605. It seems he was the very first quantal physicist.
By that time in far future it may be official fact that there is god and there is no god; that everything and everyone is god, but it’s only one; that there are no answers – only options. You don’t have to be wrong so I can be right.
smarti.bluesalot.ch spielen am 18. Dezember 2009 um 21:00 im UNION Restaurant in Basel, zu finden an der Klybeckstrasse 95 (Plan). Ist sehr zu empfehlen – ist ein schöner und angenehmer Platz! 🙂
“In a world overflowing with riches, it is a outrageous scandal that more than 852 million people suffer hunger and malnutrition and that every year over 6 million children die of starvation and related causes. We must take urgent action now.” (Jean Ziegler, April 2008)
In other words, imagine every 7th human you see on street has nothing or not enough to eat. Sit on a shopping malls gallery, watch people passing by while thinking about this…
It is not science. It is not technology. It is not anything but us. It is the way we think and the way we react on and experience our environment. Up to now there were only a few smaller collectives of people who became witnesses of destructions of their environment. Otherwise we would collectively remember that and its consequences. But we don’t.
If it would be something like “Go and run against a spiky branch!” obviously nobody would follow. Nobody will sniff slurry for having fun I assume. We are programmed to protect us from harm.
Where the shit hits the fan
There are dangers where our protection algorithm breaks down: Changes, happening so slowly that we simply adapt to, and therefore overlook the upcoming situation. This is a pure failure in our modern consciousness because – for humanity as such – there was no need to learn this lesson, until now.
Different people react differently on situations like this and the following is no judgment but a kind of analysis. A zero-dimensional mind just sits on a point in the here and now, eats when hungry, sleeps when tired. A one-dimensional mind gets a way: If thirsty, it goes straight to the well. A two-dimensional mind sees the surrounding area and takes a longer way to the well because it may be less exhausting. A three-dimensional mind may be asking about what is up there in heaven and down here in hell, whereas a four-dimensional mind sees how time influences the fire which is trying to burn us.
We all know all of this conditions, more or less, it got nothing to do with our western-style intelligence. If you are sitting in a dock of a bay, you are a zero. If you put a water pot on ball bearing wheels, you are a three – and a four, if you share the water. The question is: What is your motivation?
If the situation brings comfort, you tend to be even a five. If it seems like a lot of work and hassle, you will be a big zero. This is the way Godmother has created us, it is our biological heritage. And it will be our downfall, because Godmother and the tree of evolution never thought of atom bombs, let alone of blowing all the carbon and cesium into the air. They are creators, not destroyers.
Since anyone got a kind of main character, fours tend to be leaders, which get the threes to build guns, which the twos will use, while the ones are singing Hallelujah, and the zeros play cannon fodder. This is true for secular and religious leaders.
Now I do not think we all need a rat-race to become the highest possible number. The New World needs autonomous thinkers and tinkers, who do it with all their hands, brains and hearts. Brains we have enough in the First World, hands we shipped to the Chinese, hearts we loosed some time ago.
My vision is to follow the numbers, put the pedal to the metal and BE, HERE and NOW. I’m sure, anyone likes this! Put the pedal to the metal and MOVE, mentally too, do not stop. Then put the pedal to the metal and LIVE TO SEE, explore. Put the pedal to the metal again and THINK, be an inventor. No stop, put the pedal to the metal once more and DECIDE whether you would like the others to do the same as you do.
If our decisions are not based on IQ, EQ and SQ (intelligence, emotional and soul quotient), we will neither save the climate nor anything other, not even our selves, obviously. But one cannot order people to be like that – you and me have to start! We need political pressure, civil and industrial disobedience, to stand together against our biological heritage of laziness. Every penny we spend is a vote for tomorrows productions. Every action leads to a reaction. You decide!
Do not wait for others, hurry! Time is running out! Good thing is we have the Star Trek and Babylon 5 Seasons – if we do not make it that far, we have at least dreamed about it…
Defective thinking
(If you do not think that it is that urgent, think again. Think of all the normal, poisoned or radioactive waste in the seas and everywhere, used depleted uranium munitions (google it), other poison everywhere, sick bodies, sick minds, sick souls, climate change, acquisitiveness, craving for power, economic growth, overfishing, extinction of species, you name it. To me it seems like a wonder that it did not got worse. Or maybe it had, but we still do not know… This is hard to face, but we have to. Let me assure you: putting the pedal to the metal is fun! Do it as long as possible.)
Are you blogging? And you’d like to see changes thowards a New World?
Then please consider becoming a part of Blog Action Day and unite with other thinkful minds! Right now there are over 2000 Blogs with 8.5 million readers to write about Climate Change on 15. October 2009.
Went to watch this documentary last weekend and been deeply impressed! From an artistic point of view: It’s a piece of art! From a didactic point of view: It’s brilliant! Looking at it’s content: You simply hear the naked truth.
Now you might think this is a film where you’ll walk out and go to jump straight form the next bridge. You’ll not. Perhaps you’ll hesitate to buy your next comemercial ultra-cheap t-shirt in favor to a fair traded one — but I won’t consider that bad. 🙂
Furthermore you might start to see who’s working for your money which’s working for you. And you might ask yourself whether it is right to steal the persons produced overvalue, especially because best profit comes from places with blood on streets.
One could write a big pile of books about this, so I stop here. And it’s much easier for you to go and watch this movie than to read a pile of books! I promise you’ll see things differently afterwards — if you already do you’ll be glad to be part of a new species with open eyes. You’ll have pity on the ones who can’t see that their way had turned out a dead end, as some said since decades and even longer.
