Month: January 2017

How Donald Trump Becoming President Changed My World

Months ago, I wrote a short piece rationalizing why Trump will not be president of the USA (unless the Republican party wants to commit political suicide). I was quite sure it will be the last time I’d mention his name on this website. During the following months, I was given a stark reminder that “nothing’s certain”. Not only did Trump get the presidency, but the Republican party is doing quite well.

I’m not ruling out political suicide just yet, but this doesn’t change the fact I’ve made a serious estimation error regarding Donald’s chances. It has been one of my most disappointing prognoses, so I chastised myself over it more than a few times. However, I spent far more energy into learning from this mistake. There are many teachings indeed.

First of all, it seems like some countries are failing to adapt democracy to the Internet age. Starting with the spread of lies about candidates through social media and ending with cyber warfare, I think that the democratic process is in serious need of renovation.

I wouldn’t really call it a teaching – since I was always aware of this – but the fury of the people should never be underestimated. Trump and similar candidates across the world are riding on this wave of anger. I just hope that Americans won’t regret installing Trump as their president like other nations regretted their choice dearly in the past. I can’t help drawing some parallels with a certain leader that got elected in Europe about 85 years ago. We’re still recovering from the emotional scars he left behind.

But the most important change in my life since Donnie Tea became president is that the event miraculously stopped me from reading the news three times a day (I’ve been trying to cut down for years). I’m now at about twice a week, having gained about 2-3 extra hours per week. As I said in the title of this posting, this is about how my world has changed. It’s one of the more subjective posts I’ve written, which is why I filed it under the new category “Life Fragments”.

I’m fed up seeing news feeds clogged with “Donald said that” or “Donald did that”. I’m done being coaxed into reading these venomous sensationalist stories. I can’t help sharing a comparison I made recently: “democracy without education is like capitalism without capital”. Unfortunately, many voters lack the education to properly detect fake and/or manipulative press.

I’m going to pass this season of the “all-you-can-consume information age”. Sure, I’ll keep an eye out on the news, but I’m done letting these companies infect my mind and therefore my life.

Before, during and after the election, many media cartels made tons of money writing about Trump. Most of the published stories consist of the endless repetition of a single event, or are of little relevance. Even in countries that had nothing to do with the circus of an election that occurred in the USA, his name was mentioned more often than the most important local politicians. For example in Sweden, Donnie’s name was mentioned in the press many more times than the country’s most important political figure, the Prime Minister.

For a while, I will stop writing much about politics. Even when I will, my approach will be very cautious. I’ll close this short entry with a few of the more relevant links written in the past few days about the beginning of Donnie Tea’s illustrious career as threat to human rights and civilization.

However, I know that I know nothing. Perhaps some of his and his party’s decisions will turn out quite beneficial for our civilization. So take my comments below as perhaps totally wrong. Let’s see how things look ten years from now.

Denying human-caused climate change and therefore setting back efforts to clean up our ecosystem:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/us/politics/trump-white-house-website.html^

Setting back the only recent attempt – however feeble – to improve healthcare in the USA:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-that-could-lift-affordable-care-acts-individual-mandate/2017/01/20/8c99e35e-df70-11e6-b2cf-b67fe3285cbc_story.html?utm_term=.7a657c600a5a^

Turning government into a discount shop for selling the tax payer’s hard-earned rights to a clean, safe and fair country (and accelerating the destruction of the ecosystem – also setting a bad example for governments across the world):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/23/trump-to-ceos-ill-wipe-out-75-percent-of-regulations-fast-track-u-s-factories/?utm_term=.89318c36c008^

Jeopardizing an already fragile geopolitical climate:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-reacts-to-trumps-america-first-inaugural-speech/2017/01/20/5452f9ca-df95-11e6-8902-610fe486791c_story.html?utm_term=.aabf5ad12666^

Using American influence to restrict women’s rights across the world (I’m not completely pro-choice, but I do believe that pro-life is a severe restriction of a woman’s rights, especially in special circumstances such as rape or very risk family environments):

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/abortion/315652-trump-signs-executive-order-reinstating-global-gag-rule-on^

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January 26, 2017
Tim Booth & Angelo Badalamenti – Dance Of The Bad Angels

A sensual, warm song develops into a majestic chant of shattering lyrical intensity. It’s always hard to write words about such amazing creations. Whatever I’d write would pale in comparison to the blinding divine poetry that is about to unfold. So I’m going to let the music be the stair and the lyrics the guiding light. Now close your eyes, sharpen your hearing and feel where it all leads to.

“What a journey
So hard to describe
Your harbour so small
The ocean so wide
Spin the wheel, spin the wheel
Go wherever she spins
Surrender to this wave that’s rolling in

Homing fingers
Starting to dig
Raising expectations
Lifting the lid
There’s a show going down
Going deeper within
I long to lose myself
Inside your skin

What a feeling under the stars
My body’s rotating from Venus through Mars
There’s a war going on
Between my head and my heart
I wonder how they grew so far apart

I’m so shaken, about to explode
The myth of kissing princes
Is they turn into toads
There’s a war going on
Between the sun and the moon
Before they come to terms
We’ll be consumed

Oh my god, please take me now
I’m ready for ascension
If I only knew how
Give me wings give me wings
Now I’m stuck on the ground
Recieve this blood and bones
I’m homeward bound

See the statue growing wings
This singer was a virgin
Until he conceived
God is love, god is love
And her lover I’ll be
I long to leave the world in ecstasy

Dance with me around this fire
The dance of bad angels who’d love to fly higher
God is love, god is love
And her lover I’ll be
I long to leave the world in ecstasy”

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcdwyKwzESo^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/5JN2wPutS5Z9i0OOhnHCnO^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/2193761^

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January 25, 2017
Because You Are Here

For years I searched ways in which to thank you for reading these words. To thank you for having been here, for learning the art of communication, for bringing the light of your consciousness into this world and for contributing to the diversity of this existence. Echoes of your choices spread across the Everything, gifting experience back to this Universe that gave us birth.

These sentences will now become the conduit through which I will channel my gratefulness for your being. You may wonder how is it that I can write all this to somebody that I perhaps don’t even know. I will explain by showing you my image of gratefulness, for it is this feeling that guides and inspires me.

Reflecting the gift

Gratefulness is an expression of respect. Life doesn’t develop without effort. It’s thanks to an amazing coming together of astronomic odds that we are here as sentient individuals. According to some philosophies, our separation is only temporary, so isn’t the respect we grant to each other really the respect we grant to ourselves? By extension, everything that surrounds us is worthy of solemn respect.

Gratefulness is a bringer of peace. It stimulates empathy and patience towards each other. Knowing how to appreciate the gift of somebody’s presence is a transformative skill that leads to constructive outcomes.

Gracefulness is a species of humility. We have the means to accomplish what people centuries ago would consider miracles. Being able to share these words among us means we have so much more than our predecessors. I consider it humbling to even be read, so these words better deliver something worthy of being read.

Gratefulness is a propagator of wisdom. It is like an emotional key for opening doors of the mind. Discoveries or actions that conjure this feeling may lead to realizations that are conductive towards building up wisdom. Being grateful will keep opening new paths. Knowledge will come as a river, fed by a rain of curiosity.

Gratefulness is a compass for love. Few feelings are as magnetic towards love as this one. A gift is being given to us in the form of each unfolding moment of life. We experience each other and learn from the interplay of thoughts. Everything that touches our consciousness – a word, a mote of dust or the fiery sphere up in the sky – becomes a gift. A gift is an expression of love, a means of conveying it. If everything we experience is a gift, then we could say that these infinite gifts make up a sort of universal magnetic field.

To you

Everything that has the possibility of exercising free will is also a force of creation. It matters not what you create. Whatever it is you’re doing, you’re building experience, for yourself and for those around you. So thank you for creating. Life is the process of crafting experience. I am grateful to you because I’ve been shaped by the same process – in this respect, we’re siblings.

I sometimes wonder if I should be yet more thankful to those that have influenced me directly. If we’ve met even for one second, if I’ve heard something you said or read something you’ve written, then I have been touched. But gratefulness is a primordial emotion – it is or it is not. It’s unquantifiable.

This means it is fair to be equally grateful to everything that exists. It’s a misconception that this would devaluate the emotion. The universalization of a feeling does not make it disappear. Instead, the complete integration of a nourishing emotion leads to the enrichment of life.

To humanity, my brothers and sisters

We’ve had plenty of conflicts throughout history. We’ve made mistakes. But what I’d like to focus on is all the fascinating art that we’re creating, the progress towards understanding ourselves and our ecosystem and, perhaps more important than anything, the way we love and the way we dream. I believe that this is a bountiful source of gratefulness for having been shaped by this society.

It is thanks to everybody I’ve ever met – all the human teachers and their works – that I’ve come to welcome gratefulness in my life in this way. I may not know you, but knowing you is not a requirement for being grateful for your being here, reading these words.

This contact between two imaginations, two Universes of language, is both timeless and ephemeral. It is so beautiful in its instant simplicity that the only constructive outcome is to be entertained by the experience and perhaps draw a positive thought out of it.

Because you are here

Having the opportunity to share these thoughts with another consciousness – and all that this entails – is reason enough for having lived. It doesn’t even matter if you belong to the same species I do. Indeed, I do believe that the traces of our creations are not limited to this civilization.

Thanks for stopping by, for sharing some of your time, perhaps a tiny but undoubtedly important slice of your existence. Thank you for inspiring art, for creating it and for being who you are.

This article is the first part of The “Art of Peace” Trilogy^.

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January 23, 2017
The Tesla-driving Real Estate Agent

It was late August, 2016, when my wife and I parked our gasoline-powered Toyota Yaris in front of a house in Tullinge, a suburb of Stockholm. We were there for a showing. We arrived a bit ahead of schedule so we waited patiently in our car. After about five minutes, I saw a beautiful black Tesla car turning onto our street.

“Oh look, a Tesla”, I tell her.

This isn’t really a common brand around here. I always enjoy seeing it around because I like it when people support the underdog. It encourages competition. Not to mention that Tesla’s cars are part of a new generation of vehicles that is more forward-looking and cleaner than the outgoing petrol-powered generation.

To my amusement, the Tesla enters the driveway of the house we are about to view and, sure enough, the real estate agent exits. He brands a neat black suit and gives us a thin smile.

“Looks like we got an environmentally-friendly agent here”, I enthusiastically tell my wife.

The guy takes out sign that spells “Visning” (that’s “viewing” in Swedish) and places it at the entrance of the driveway. Then, he strolls over to the house. His car takes up most of the driveway so, he walks close to the garden. On his way towards the entrance, the thin green-leafed branch of a tree gently touches his head.

He takes one more step forward then suddenly stops, casually steps back and, with a firm and determined hand, proceeds to bend the branch backwards until it snaps. With its new-found shape, the mutilated branch can now be shoved among its sisters so that it can wither away from the foreheads of Homo-sapiens. The cheeky tree will interfere with people going to the viewing no more. It is all done with fluent, calm, precise moves. We’re seeing a true professional at work here.

It all happens so fast that we are barely able to think about it. As he calmly makes his way to the house to open the door, I find myself looking at my wife and am met by her equally shocked expression.

“Do we dare to get out of the car? I’m afraid now. This guy is going to break us”, she jokes.

***

I don’t remember if I heard the branch snap, but I have a pretty vivid imagination. I remember how I cringed when he did that. For sure, something snapped inside of me. To better illustrate my level of surprise, imagine how a passenger enters the bus through the front door and presents his ticket to the driver. Everything being in order, the passenger makes a step towards his seat then, as if he forgot something, comes back and punches the driver in the face. After that, he proceeds and takes a seat as if nothing happened. Like the driver, the tree was just doing its job, growing and making the garden prettier. The tall and “environmentally-friendly” agent ruined a thin branch that would have barely touched anybody.

Sometimes people cheat our expectations in the funniest ways. I saw this guy as some sort of example of environmental-awareness because of the car he drove. Sure, I am fully aware of the fact that real estate agents earn a lot of money, especially during a time when Sweden has been experiencing a decade-long property bubble. Even so, I liked the fact that he chose to buy a Tesla. I was thinking that he’s probably such a swell guy. Perhaps he really is a swell guy, but his gesture betrayed a gross disrespect for environment and life (which is not incompatible at all with being a swell guy, among humans at least).

I don’t want to paint this man as if he’s an agent of evil. We’re all different. Diversity is beautiful. What we think is right or wrong varies wildly from person to person, especially when it comes to things that our culture doesn’t bother too much educating. I do find it sad that our species finds it easier to bulldoze nature around rather than collaborate with it.

Perhaps in the world this brother lives in, a low branch barely infringing upon the edge of the driveway counts as a nuisance, but for my wife and I, that branch would have brought our garden closer to us. The very reason why we’re looking to buy a house is exactly so that we can be closer to the earth, with all its life. We’re not fanatics about protecting nature, we’re aware that in order to survive we have to eat and at times manipulate our environment. But there is such a thing as taking it too far.

So, little did he know that in our eyes, he just committed an act of savagery against our possible future garden. Well, we didn’t get too far in the bidding process for the house anyway. But looking back, I think I should’ve told him, as a joke at least, that his gesture has just decreased our interest in the property with about ten thousand kronor. After all, real estate agents are interested to get as much as possible for a given house. Perhaps he would have thought more carefully about his gesture if a possible customer, especially a non-Swede, would have administered a bit of advice into the ways of respecting nature. Especially since Swedes pride themselves with having an innate respect for the ecosystem.

I won’t even remotely blame him for his behavior. It’s full of fake environmentalists out there. The only reason I’m even writing this story is because his gesture was in such stark contrast with who I thought I’m dealing with. First impressions can be deceiving.

More importantly, “deceived first impressions” will matter a lot especially during the first hours spent with a person. The guy turned out to be quite polite and friendly. But the indifference with which he snapped that branch seriously affected my opinion of him. Perhaps this is an exaggerated reaction, but I like to think of it as an indication that I can have empathy towards many forms of life.

Sure, plants are quite different than us, but they’ve also been here much longer than we have. Plants are the ramp upon which more complex organisms launched themselves into existence, ourselves included.

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January 21, 2017
Hol Baumann – A Forgotten Ritual

Mysterious in the beginning, mercilessly groovy all-throughout, here’s an atmospheric body-mover and a consistent head-bobber. Not only is this song full of energy, it is also very well composed and produced. It shines like black oil as it meanders its way through a labyrinth of vibration.

Electronic music has brought with it a staggering amount of diversity. The entire universe of sound suddenly became accessible, bringing with it supreme flexibility. Never before had artists such a freedom of experimentation as today. And it shows.

What does this have to do with this song? I just happen to find it a glowing example of what electronic music can mean today. Well, 8 years ago is not really “today” anymore but it’s contemporary enough.

You can listen to the song 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 Hol Baumann’s album :).

https://ultimae.bandcamp.com/track/a-forgotten-ritual^

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPVzPVnsIAw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPVzPVnsIAw^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/1MaPQ0w76FkI1sSfKKS1tJ^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/6146786^

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January 18, 2017
Why Google Did Away with Project Ara

Some months ago, Google killed Project Ara, an ambitious venture to create a modular smartphone featuring upgradeable components. And when I say ambitious, boy was it a moon shot.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/project-ara-googles-modular-smartphone-is-dead/^

It’s one thing to upgrade components in a desktop computer or a car, but the smaller the device, the trickier it is to engineer efficient connections between components whose bandwidth requirements and standards of communication vary wildly. Even notebook manufacturers struggle with this limitation as they attempt to engineer ever-thinner devices.

As a result, Project Ara phones turned out a bit on the bulky side and looked like the phone would disassemble if dropped. Regarding this second caveat, don’t get me wrong: dissipating impact energy by falling apart isn’t necessarily bad. Nokia was an expert in this “method”. Its bulky phones could withstand countless drops. But at least for now it’s difficult to get the best of both worlds.

The idea behind Project Ara was good, the timing was not. Our technologies are a bit too scattered right now for this to properly work. There are different manufacturers for each phone component and countless standards in place. Building a prototype was easy (with Google’s money), but getting all those manufacturers in the same boat and getting a good selection of upgradeable components in shops around the world is a daunting logistical challenge. However, the largest obstacle was undoubtedly the fact that…

There is little customer interest in such a project. Who wants to carry around a phone that has 20% extra weight and size only so that they can upgrade a component or two once a year? Some people maybe will, but we live in a world where those that could afford or have interest in upgrading phone components will most probably choose to buy a new phone altogether.

Kudos goes to Google for making the attempt and opening the way. We still have a lot to learn regarding miniaturization, standards and logistics. I think we’ll see something like Project Ara come back sometime in the coming decades. For now, looks like we’re stuck with Samsung and Apple and their consumerist phones for which one can’t even replace the battery (not really, there are plenty of brands that allow this; it’s a pity people don’t press this requirement and instead let themselves fall prey to planned obsolescence).

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January 15, 2017
Sofa Surfers – Out, Damn Light (feat. Mani Obeya)

It’s one of those songs that flow, one of those songs that go from start to finish in a casual, unassuming way. The singer probably contributes a lot to this feeling. So do the lyrics. It’s also one of those songs where the music and the singing are so tightly intertwined that taking away the voice would seriously cripple the composition (there are entire albums out there that work just fine in an instrumental-only guise).

I find the musical style quite original too. Sure, I guess it can be classified as post-rock or something like that, but I feel there’s more to it. There’s a little extra novelty, and that’s pleasant for the ear to digest. While I haven’t really understood the meaning behind the “out, damn light” verse, I have to say that I like the lyrics too.

“I own nothin’ more than the ground that I sit on, the ground that I sit on
So I make myself comfortable cuz’ I’m the king of the Earth
Sitting on my throne of dirt and I’ll rule these stinking slums
In a rain of a walkin’-talking’-ticking bombs”

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLA8B9jUTUU^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/1PIxcaOMcagPFrwIuZmoCP^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/58913001^

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January 11, 2017
Today I Rise

Although I do not consider myself a feminist, I have advocated women’s rights for as long as I can remember. This is one of the most inspirational and moving works of art created for the purpose of empowering women:

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/today-i-rise/^

Most societies on Earth are still a long way from treating women fairly. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can reach peak efficiency as a species. It’s not about tapping into the full range of human talent, although a solid business case could be made. It’s about making the gender symbiosis work as it should: from the procreation of the species to the procreation of ideas that will lead to the next evolutionary step.

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January 9, 2017
Younger Brother – Shine

Soft sound textures lead the listener into the infinite halls of a Universe where frequencies echo and pulsate. And then we’re suddenly aboard the singer’s vehicle of expression, soaring to uplifting heights. When things are dark, remember that you can always shine. Yes, shine my brothers and sisters!

“Be there when I need a shoulder
When I need a heart
When I need to feel the beat
Beat of my heart

[…]

Sometimes you shine
Sometimes you fall
Sometimes you know
Nothing at all

Want to see you shine, shine, shine like I know you can
Want to see you shine, shine, shine like you know what I am”

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_9Bt6MG-3Y^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/4CDUC8VbXAqQCR0Q0qGeQb^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/97200654^

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:

When things are dark, remember that you can always shine!

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January 6, 2017
About Them Crazy Conspiracy Theories

Finally, somebody was able to explain why certain beliefs or theories manage to propagate through society with amazing success. Here’s an excellent short essay called “Crony Beliefs”:

http://www.meltingasphalt.com/crony-beliefs/^

Using a clever analogy that compares beliefs in the brain with employees at a company, the author explains how utter falsehoods are able to infiltrate the collective intellect, devouring minds with viral voracity. The essay goes through several solutions that seem reasonable, explaining why they are not sufficient. But worry not, a solid – although difficult – solution is proposed as well. Read the essay and get ready for the intellectual struggle of elevating our society’s resistance to lies and toxic reasoning.

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January 5, 2017