Thursday, January 21, 2010

We.are.living.the.dream.


Indeed, I am living the dream..I am not sure who's dream it is actually, but it is somebody's! Note the sarcasm. But hey, compared with a few million folks in Haiti this week we are ALL living the dream! So, it is relative, right? Are you "living the dream"? Who's dream is it? Or nightmare?

This world is moving very fast. Too fast. Perhaps the real revolutionary today would be the Buddhist..rejecting material complexity....embracing simplicity.

We are on information overload: cable tv, internet, cell/smart phones, satellite radio, computers at work, computers at home, computers in our smartphones, speakers on our ears, Ipods 24/7, newspapers, junk mail, someone's pager is going off and the traffic is nuts, why does anyone want to leave home? At this rate of acceleration, we shall become a mega-manic, techno-speed-greed, human rat race on steroids!

We are racing away frantically into the future...6 Billion and counting...on a road to nowhere...and we are determined to turn every plot of land into a strip mall or factory to make things to be sold at these strip malls or condos next to them to house the wage slaves buying and selling the goods of those even worse off in the sweat shops in Asia..making plastic crap we think we "need". Don't even get me started! Who, me cynical? No way. I am way beyond that, I am a philanthropic misanthrope. I really want to believe in the development of humanity, that we are on an upwards trajectory, moving towards a peaceful, just, healthy, balanced world. One with no homeless people, the sick getting medical care, all getting enough to eat, having a good education with a chance to succeed...not a free for all subsidy...but a basic standard for all, under which no one shall fall. And if we need to play Robin Hood for a while, so be it, not in the name of a historical "ideology", we are talking pragmatism! They are about to release billions more in bonuses on "we made your money fall" Wall Street. They are counting the money they Madeoff with from Bernie, the taxpayers and whoever else got schemed, scammed and slammed.

Ok, I've had enough pondering on reality. I'm going back into virtual land. I can't offer you salvation, solutions or workable utopias. I have way more questions than answers. As I move onwards towards my 4th decade on this spaceship Earth, I look back on the quarter-life crisis I had in my twenties. I realize I am really not much different now. Yes, scarred but smarter. Yes, less hair on my head, more fat on my belly, more bills in my inbox, and the temples are going grey. But fundamentally I still haven't found what I'm looking for, after thousands of miles traversed and trips to distant lands, mind trips through theories and philosophies and spiritual searching.. I am no more than the cliche of the U2 song, I still haven't found what I'm looking for..

The real money is NOT in plastics...
I am going to open my peace of mind shop. Franchised from here to Hong Kong with locations on all continents. I am going to become a billionaire, if only I can figure out how to package then sell the most sought after yet elusive thing after love. Peace of mind.
Got milk? Got peace of mind? We could all use some of that stuff. Sounds highly addictive. Open for bid-ness. If you can help me figure out how to launch this business you are now my business partner, 50/50. Let's make it happen. We need to compete against the factories churning out misery...Frustrated, Incorporated. (yes, thank you Soul Asylum)

Peace is not out. Peace is totally IN.