A diverse instrumental landscape will delight the listener throughout this meaningful lyrical journey. The song begins with an evocative arrangement that sets the stage for the uplifting message. Without Harland’s voice this would have been “just” a good fusion between acoustic and electronic music. Not only does she deliver, but the lyrics are lovely too.
“I’m not afraid of the distance
The shadow left behind
I’m not ashamed to look my fear in the eye
I will embrace the emotion
Pain will disappear
Holding your face in my hands
I will wipe away your tears
We will find a brighter sun
As our secrets come undone Now the boundaries of our love need a new heaven, a new earth
Our hearts in the hands of time”
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Faced with the prospect of ever-decreasing popularity, the old religions are starting to take serious measures in order to catch up. Taking some cues from the world’s fastest growing religion, Consumerism^, the Catholic Church has launched a promising new product.
“SalveAtion is one part virtual church and one part shop”, declared father Pepe Monezi, archcoder of the application. “We’re streaming an ever-increasing number of sermons. Faithful Catholics will receive in-app currency when sharing religious content on popular social networks or when convincing their friends or relatives to join our religion. The app also provides an instant baptism service. All you need is to do is say ‘Hello Salvation, please christen me’. Converting has never been easier.”
The Church’s newly established Digital Deliverance department is in charge with developing the application under the leadership of archbishop Dominicus Panteos. We asked the archbishop for more details about the in-app currency:
“Our digital currency is the innoCent. The faithful will be able to gather innoCents by doing good deeds, listening and sharing sermons and convincing others to install SalveAtion and baptize themselves. Of course, innoCents can also be purchased with real money.”
Naturally, we became curious what can be purchased with innoCents via the application. Sure enough, the Catholic Church seems well prepared for bringing itself in the third millennium and has provided us with a list of services the faithful can enjoy, along with an example voice command that can optionally be used to activate said functionality.
“Hello Salvation, Washy my sins” begins an online confession with Washy, a virtual priest with a library of more than 2000 soothing phrases and 300 inventive suggestions for acts of contrition. The user needs at least 100 innoCents for the command to work. Otherwise, a “Be more innocent” error message will be spoken or displayed on screen.
“Hello Salvation, lift me up” sends a request for a favorable mention during the prayer of the nearest local priest. Cost: 200.
“I actually liked Benedict”. Cap with ex-Pope Benedict’s printed signature: 600.
“Helpdesk my sins”. Online confession through our Helpdesk: 999.
“Make me a bit pure”. Forgiveness of minor sin: 1500.
“I like to show off”. Poster signed by a genuine Vatican priest: 2000.
“Do me like in the church”. Online confession with a genuine priest: 3000.
“I want to get stoned”. Pebble from the gardens of the Vatican (transport not included): 5000.
“Make me really pure”. Forgiveness of major sin: 15000.
“I need more fame”. Mention of your name in the monthly “May These Faithful Be Redeemed” public statement, available on the Vatican’s website: 18000.
“Bling me up”. Flower bouquet from the gardens of the Vatican (transport not included, limited availability): 25000.
“Put in a good word for me”. Favorable mention during prayer in a random church in Italy: 35000.
“I ain’t no saint”. Submit your name for the monthly Virtual Canonization lottery. Winners’ e-mail addresses will be added in the application’s “Hall of Saints”. To add realism to the canonization, the user’s account will be purged from the database, so better do this when you have an exact number of innoCents. Cost: 52137.
“Hello Pope”. Ask the Pope a question (answer not guaranteed): 82000.
“Hello God”. Ask God a question (answer not guaranteed): 250500.
This text has been published in the “Satire” category for a good reason.
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/01850-CatholicChurchSalveAtionDigitalAssistant-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Catholic Church Introduces “SalveAtion” Digital Assistant’ desc=’Faced with the prospect of ever-decreasing popularity, the old religions are starting to take serious measures in order to catch up.’]
A certain sense of achievement can arise following the break with organized religion. Many people rightly feel they have been freed from a prison of outdated practices and mentalities. Yet, the human need for belonging and confirmation has not disappeared. Neither has the inventive human spirit, always ready to prey upon its own in the quest for profit.
Consumerism is defined as a social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. The way this behavior spreads and elevates its status in society is surprisingly similar with religious traditions. This text is about some rather amusing parallels that all but indicate that consumerism is taking advantage of the power void left by fall from grace of organized religion.
This is not to say that consumerism has any of the spiritual virtues that religion often promotes. That’s exactly the problem – consumerism is an economic tool that is capitalizing on an intimate need. It’s the wrong cure for something that isn’t even a problem. And it’s proving to be increasingly costly for the future of our ecosystem and thus, our quality of life in the coming decades and centuries.
Before we continue, it’s important to note that this text is not against commerce and certainly not against spending or making money. We all need to sustain ourselves. We have to trade. Companies need to make their products known. However, thanks to consumerism, the principle of “profit trumps quality and ethics” has entered a phase of dangerous, accelerated spread.
Parallels
In the past few thousands of years we’ve been quite busy building various places of worship. This hasn’t changed with consumerism. There is a new type of building that has become not only popular but paramount to the faithful in almost any city touched by this new “religion”.
The shopping mall is where consumerism is preached to both those that are already converted and to those that haven’t yet become faithful shoppers. Here, people are busier than they’ve ever been in churches because the shops ensure there is some tangible value associated with the ritualistic visit.
The image above is a perfect example of consumerist indoctrination. What sort of person goes to a clothing store every day? The consumerist faithful, of course.
While religions split into opposing organizations, cults and sects, in consumerism we have companies. These are headed by a sort of bishop known as the CEO or the president – which is sometimes worshiped like some sort of saint. Most respectable companies have a unique “brand identity”, represented by images, slogans and even vague principles. Everything is carefully chosen to provide maximum marketing value with a minimum of transparency and accountability.
Corporate followers are encouraged to wear and disseminate this illusory identity wherever they go. The new breed of faithful has less fervor than those that believe in the gods of old, which is probably good, because it would get pretty chaotic when fans of clothing brand X engage in holy war with those of brand Y. Even so, intense rivalries continue to exist. In what is a fortunate ideological regression, the fanboy has taken the place of the crusader.
Consumerist faithful sometimes undergo pilgrimages to far-away shopping meccas – large cities that host veritable mall-cathedrals. For the most part, this venture is preoccupied with gaining status rather than the acquisition of items with reasonable value. As with any pilgrimage, the result is internal satisfaction. Unlike spiritual journeys however, shopping satisfaction stems from a sense of advancement through society rather than personal evolution.
It’s perfectly fine for people to go out of their way to search and find products they love, including traveling to other countries. But for the consumerist worshiper, this is not a necessity anymore. It has become a habit, a social obligation and sometimes an unrecognized burden.
Social restructuring
If consumerism were to have a creed, this would be planned obsolescence – a well-honed method of transforming value into junk as soon as possible. This is how consumerism funds its spread through the world. A vast amount of profit is generated by a system that takes resources absorbed from the earth, digests them in factories, puts them through the retail distribution system and then flushes everything as quickly as possible into landfills.
A significant part of the profit this organism produces is invested into evangelism. This goes way beyond advertisement. Huge sums are invested into opening new markets. This doesn’t mean only adapting and inventing products for those markets, but also modifying the cultural norms there. Sometimes social reformation takes decades of carefully planned reprogramming via mass-media, but the families behind the biggest names in manufacturing operate on a generational scale. For these pragmatic financial strategists, a century is a rather short time to accomplish the goal of economic supremacy.
A good example of social restructuring is the need to keep in pace with the latest fashion. People weren’t obsessed with perpetually upgrading their smartphones some years ago. But through clever marketing, based on merciless psychological manipulation, cultural norms were reformed. It’ll be “interesting” to see how the arrival of smart appliances and mainstream robotics will shape the commercial landscape.
Divide and conquer
Reward mechanisms in the brain mean that shopping can offer a quick – but very superficial – fix to other issues, either psychological or emotional. In consumerism, happiness is found in four bags loaded with products, deliverance is obtained through status. People educated in this economic environment find material substitutes for various emotional needs such as security or spiritual comfort. Unfortunately, there are few things indeed that are more insubstantial for one’s personal growth than substance itself.
The rampant, almost obsessive individualism that characterizes many societies –especially in the Western world – is a fertile soil for the consumerist dogma. It is quite likely that this was the intent in the first place. A divided society where people feel alone and disconnected is the perfect marketplace for all manners of fake medicine. Ripped from the support of true connection and friendship, many people wander meaninglessly across bland webpages whose only purpose is to guide them to the next shop.
Solutions
Getting rid of consumerism doesn’t mean that companies that depend on it have to suffer. Like I mentioned in a previous article^, economic entities can adapt and invent new ways to compete. What is required is that we, as shoppers, support those companies that embrace sustainable methods. Products that meet such manufacturing conditions will be more expensive, but they will outlast their cheaper alternatives making the investment well worth it.
Consumerism won’t last forever, even if for no other reason that the simple fact that chain reactions, even economic ones, are not sustainable in the long run. The companies that prepare themselves best for the next economy will be those that will rule it. What we can do as members of society is to make everything possible to ensure a soft landing after the inevitable crash that will follow when the consumerist bubble finally bursts. In this case, let’s wish it ends with a whimper, not with a bang.
Completing this article’s tragi-comical mood, here’s an awesome video about the craziness on Black Friday. Perhaps the early third millennium shopper does have a crusader’s fervor after all.
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Here, help yourself to an exotic listen. It’s quite a challenge to define the exact genre this song belongs to. Yes, it’s electronica with heavy dub-step influences, but then what do we do with the lullaby-style singing or with the tormented violins? For sure though, this is a melody that begs experiencing at least once in a lifetime, if only to get exposed to the mish-mash of styles and sound that somehow manages to sound amazing.
Beware, for some, this song has become an addiction (but then again, any song can become an addiction – it just needs to find that mind with which it can attain perfect artistic magnetism).
You can listen to the melody for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location.
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/01539-FilastineLoot-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Filastine & Nova – Gendjer2′ desc=’For sure, this is a melody that begs experiencing at least once in a lifetime, if only to get exposed to the mish-mash of styles and sound that somehow manages to sound amazing.’]
Parenting advice is a dime a dozen these days. A part of it comes from well conducted studies and centuries of pediatric experience. Sometimes, even more convincing advice comes from a person’s entourage and originates from all sorts of personal experience that parents tend to generalize. This torrent of theories and information falls prey to its own diversity. Conflicting advice becomes commonplace and it can all become very confusing before you know it.
I knew all this way before becoming a parent. I’ve seen the frustration of other parents as they try to combine advice from many different sources. So, when becoming a parent, I gave this matter some serious thought. What if there was no advice at all? What would I do then? I brought it down to these three words which, so far, I’ve found to be a solid foundation for being a good parent: loving, patient, careful.
Be loving. Love can bring out the beauty, humor, playfulness and teaching of almost any situation. Children are amazing at sensing, reacting to and recording feelings. Before they can comprehend speech, this is the way they communicate with their parents, getting information about the world they have entered. Love is a powerful statement that they are safe. This brings the best in any child. Even when a baby is in distress, a loving parent will make the situation much more manageable for both.
Love transpires from every action. Even if a parent is stressed or worried, if the love is there, it will make the other, more negative feelings, much easier for the child to cope with. And besides, it’s important for children to see that their parents can be stressed or worried. These are facts of life on Earth. As long as the love is there, a child will use it as shelter whenever exposure to other feelings becomes overwhelming.
Be patient. Patience is a key ingredient in tackling most difficult situations. It allows one to keep one’s wits about. Love and patience have a synergetic relationship, enhancing and completing each other. The feeling of love stimulates the practice of patience. In turn, patience ensures love has a space to unfold. The disarming innocence and budding intelligence of a child is like a restless sea. Only the patient explorer will find peaceful land.
One of my patience-stimulating tricks is to think about parents who are in a much worse situation than I am in at a given moment. At times, my parents had to wash my (cloth) diapers with melted snow at the light of a candle. Other parents have children with serious issues or are themselves going through difficult struggles. There’s almost always something worse that could happen, so a poo in a freshly changed diaper at 3 AM isn’t such a big deal now is it? At least there was something to poo!
Be careful. There is very little room for error when it comes to children. Fortunately, this is instinctive knowledge. But it never hurts to emphasize this. One mistake can turn a happy childhood into a life-long relationship with the healthcare industry. And I don’t necessarily mean physical harm. Parents have to be careful to everything they expose their children to: environment, food, entertainment, people, chemicals and medicine.
Here’s an example of a recent mistake I’ve made. We recently agreed to perform a blood test for rare diseases on our son. If I were more careful, I’d have read more information about how the blood is extracted. I didn’t, so we went to the test and it turned out that the nurse had to drill with a needle in our son’s hand for more than five minutes while complaining that “they have tiny blood vessels”. It was completely barbaric and unnecessary in my opinion. Maybe children don’t remember what happened to them in their first years, but they are definitely influenced by it. That’s my belief. But because I wasn’t careful, I didn’t even get the chance to act on my belief (and skip the test).
Love, patience, care – that’s the only foundation any parent needs for their child’s education. It’s a foundation that will only allow good parenting advice to be built upon. And the marvelous thing about such a foundation is that it can be used for any undertaking in life and to life itself. Loving, patient, caring people will always go the extra mile, succeed in the final challenge and live to laugh and celebrate the teachings that life brought to them.
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/01840-ParentingInThreeWords-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Parenting – in Three Words’ desc=’A solid foundation for being a good parent: loving, patient, careful.’]
Enigma went all optimistic on this one. The percussion carries the song, at least until the evocative singing pushes the adventure towards uplifting chanting. A wild and happy chase rushes the listener on corridors of sound where acoustic instruments are fused with well-chosen electronic textures.
“Following the sun, to find the one
Who’s giving you the wings to fly
Following the sun, the golden one
Losing sense for space and time”
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/01442-EnigmaVoyageur-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Enigma – Following The Sun’ desc=’A wild and happy chase rushes the listener on corridors of sound where acoustic instruments are fused with well-chosen electronic textures.’]
The concept of a life’s Great Work is often mentioned in association with famous artists, social leaders, scientists and so on. That is simply because the Great Works of these people went on to influence very many others. However, we all have these experiential masterpieces hidden within us, just waiting to be manifested fully. It’s not a matter of fame at all. A Work is Great if even one being is greatly thankful for it.
Life has an infinite amount of potential. Often though, we find ourselves at a crossroads, unsure how to unlock what lies within. And this is where Robin’s book comes in. You can see it as a map for reaching a life’s hidden potential:
The book’s description resonated deeply with me. I completely agree with the message. As I explained in a previous posting^, I am of the opinion that art is “anything that expresses free will in order to stimulate an intense emotional response”. By reinterpreting the definition of art and celebrating its myriad facets, I share the belief that a Great Work lies within everybody – as an obvious effect of the fact that we are all artists, expressing through our various professions. A scientist turns future-telling into art, a social leader turns communication into art and a good driver weaves speed and safety together into an artful drive.
I am extremely happy to see that this book exists. Having such a wide definition of art also means that I am very encouraging towards people to express their talent in any way they can. I would have loved to take this encouragement I have inside and put it into the perfect words for it to be transmitted. I realized I had this wish only when I learned about this book. I felt like lo and behold, the Universe has been merciful and here it is, a book that encourages and stokes the fire of creation and then some!
I believe we are all not only capable, but are right now completing our Great Works. Life is one’s Great Work. But sometimes, much of it remains under wraps, hidden in the “corner of hope” of our imagination. Let’s shine some light towards that corner and bring out the beauty!
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This is a song of fascinating intensity. It isn’t all that surprising given that it is a progressive metal band’s interpretation of a hymn for love. What is surprising is just how much message Devin Townsend & Co. managed to cram into these six minutes of epic ride. The singing is top notch as for the instrumental side, well, this is Devin Townsend we’re talking about so expect nothing short of sublime, diverse and relentless.
“We know that it’s only human
We know that it’s only love
We know that it’s far too close to home
To see it now
Love all we can before
We learn all we came for
Learn all we can before
The road leads to home
[…]
Never fear love
(High)
Never fear love
(Road)
Never fear love
(Warning)
[…]
I know the way, and you know the way
We all fall down if we fear love”
This Weekly Song entry has been brought from the FaceBook archive of Weekly Song^. This exploration was originally started through a FaceBook page, about 13 months prior to launching Mentatul. Slowly but surely, the entire FaceBook archive will be brought here.
Original post:
A strong song with a strong message that I care a great deal about. This is one of those melodies where the lyrics are not only pleasant to read, but they have to be understood and integrated.
The concert recording of this video, available on YouTube, is pretty darned epic.
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/01458-DevinTownsendEpicloud-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Devin Townsend – Grace’ desc=’A progressive metal band's interpretation of a hymn for love. Expect nothing short of sublime, diverse and relentless.’]
This cute pun is quite old indeed by now, but I praise the anonymous that put forward these most beautiful words. A disarming, naked truth shines with amusement from this simple sentence, a lyrical gem.
Personally, by “art” I do not understand “the arts”, as in: “a rather limited range of accepted creative expression and style”. My definition of art is “anything that expresses free will to draw an intense emotional response”. Food can be art, coming up with a beautiful surprise for a friend can be art.
And when I say “free will”, I mean whatever each being uses as a motivator for actions. We call it “instinct” in other beings in order to separate it from the higher level of consciousness at which we believe ourselves to be. But a wolf has free will even if in its world it has a completely different (wolf-)rationalization than in ours.
From the long lasting to the ephemeral, art has infinite manifestations, just like the Universe that gave it birth. Living this life is the art we are all given time to perform.
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Groovy and meaningful this melody is. It develops in unexpected ways, switching fast from electronica to a sort of electro-funk. The composition is diverse, offering plenty good moments during its six minutes. Where this piece truly shines though is the lyrics.
“A person with a problem
I believe there’s no such thing
As a person with a problem
If there is a problem it’s a problem with the system
The system of home and family
Of school and community
He is not in this alone
He is not the problem
[…]
The problem
Expel the problem
Make it go away
Expel the problem
Make it go away, make it go away
Make it go away”
One more thing: this song is rather unrepresentative for KMFDM. You have been warned.
You can listen to the melody for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did purchase KMFDM’s album :).
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