First, thank you so much to everyone who has been reading! It makes me feel good to know that I can blab and even the people who don't like what I have to say still seem to make it through the posts enough to express themselves to me. It is no fun when it isn't a conversation and when no-one speaks up to object.
Most comments have simply been jokes about how ridiculous it is to call for simplifying life. Some also like to rub their wasting of resources in my face, like "I'll read your blog tomorrow after I drive my 6 mpg SUV to my brokerage firm, stopping along the way to leave my truck running in the parking lot--taking up two spaces, while I run in to pick up my 20 oz coffee at Dunkin Donuts." That made me laugh. And I think I've walked by you a couple times, X... I know (or at least hope) that you're joking. I suppose it is naive to think that people will give up their addictions to thoughtlessness and waste (that is: waste for the shear fun of it). But I'm not really speaking to them anyhow. Although they could waste a little money in a donation to this site...I mean what could be a better waste to brag about? But that wouldn't be as fun, because it might actually do some good.
And there may be a bit of a misunderstanding about spending money. I don't have any issue with someone who...as someone commented last night...goes out "for over-priced drinks...hee, hee, hee." I do that too, when I'm able to afford it. The point is, that this person wasn't spending the evening ladling trash from TV into her mind. It was worth her money (and I agree) to be socializing, listening to music, picking up guys (kidding), dancing...Just having fun with other people in a way that was not dictated by a TV show, a prudish, Victorian Nanny, or some over-bearing partner. People SHOULD spend a lot of money on the things that bring in new experiences; the real, live "datum of immediate experience" (Aldous Huxley). THAT is what life is for. If it makes you happy and is not hurting your over-all finances, your health or anyone elses, who can argue against it? Very frankly, I think it is healthier than buying another gold ring, or filling up the cart at Walmart with foreign-made, plastic junk, just for the sake of spending the money.
Other folks let me know that they're already on this simplicity kick, are bucking the system, and need to hold on to every cent, hence their need to apologize to me for not being able to donate. Well, let me say this: I'd rather that everyone be on their way to a simpler and more natural life, than to ever give ME any money. I'm thrilled that they know HOW to keep it. They are thinking for themselves and my words are simply reinforcement to what they already have a good grasp of. I want to see people discover what is Real in the world. If I just wanted money, I sure as hell would not be writing this foolishness...I'd whore myself back out to the financial industry. It is good money if I don't mind ulcers and heart attacks quite as much as I do. Walking clears those right up.
I've found that (not-surprisingly) most of the strongest comments are from people with a conservative bent. I am trying lately to use the word "conventionalist" rather than conservative, since even the real Rush Limbaugh types go around pointing out which of their equally fascist and ignorant fellows isn't "a real conservative." Frankly, that has really cracked me up lately. With all these folks eliminating each other from their shared-ideology I'm tempted to think there actually are NO conservatives out there. But...not THAT tempted...
Before making more posts I want to clarify my position on politics in this blog...I have none, other than my advice to not support the Republicrats--either party. Libertarian--Great! Green--Even better! Whatever steals the fire of the constipated mainstream. Yes, after leaving the Republican Party myself during the retarded W Presidency, which came after being disgusted by the Clinton abuse of power - realizing they're all the same anyway - I went to the Greens. But even I admit that the Greens aren't even the lesser of any evils. Where the courageous Libertarians believe in the decriminalization of cannabis, for example, the soggy Greens don't even have the guts to talk about it! I figured, perhaps wrongly, that if I'm going to be associated with any "party" I'd rather it be people who love nature (perhaps to death) than people who are actually Republicans hiding in a Libertarian closet. And I'd join just about any party besides the Democrats who suffer from a terminal lack of organization, a kind of "Republican-envy," something that Obama sure hasn't cleared up by being so "well balanced" that he can't seem to be strong and stick to his original passion for "change" (we're still at war - now on three fronts, the country is still divided, drug policy still remains a travesty, etc.). I do have hope that a second term will embolden him to become the prophet he was originally puffed up to be. But, hey, I tend to be overly optimistic. So again, I have no politics. That isn't my deal anymore.
The reason why I seem so pinko-leftist sometimes is because when all is balanced out, the so-called "liberals" are simply more likely to foresee that the propagated curves of hyper-conventionality, which they are just as responsible for, are still ruining the economy, the environment and cognitive liberty - the last of the great human rights to be addressed - into the ground. From what I've seen even these "progressive" folks are still way behind.
People reading this blog who are not familiar with my rants and raves at other blogs and forums may not understand just how much I despise "business as usual." My title for that is: Addiction to Ideologies. And it isn't only political views that become ideologies. Here are a couple paragraphs from a recent post called Freedom from Religious Addiction at my UBPhoria blog...
Each bumper sticker-ideology that we paste on ourselves, precludes the discoveries found in any, so-called, "opposing" ideology. That is, unless you are willing to rip that sticker off, which always leaves a bit of itself behind, and find other ones to cover up those unresolved residues, you only get 50% of the info out there. I don't know about you all, but that is not good enough for me. I want to know it ALL (or as much as possible). My greatest handicap as a human on this planet - I mean ALL of us - is completely set in place, screwed into the concrete floor, by ideological decisions. Each one is a link in the chains that enslave and limit me, DISTRACT ME toward the mind and ideas (addiction, habituation and habits) of MAN.
All the while, I actually want and need to be looking for the mind of GOD: Lordee, I'm so confused!, am I a Buddhist, Islamist, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Humanist, Atheist, Agnostic, Liberal, Conservative, Republican, Democrat, Jungian, Freudian, Emersonian, Jeffersonian, Jesusonian, Green Peace Activist, Red Army Communist, Orange Shirt Rebel, Leftist, Fascist, Socialist, Capitalist, Anarchist, Meat Lover, Vegetarian, Vegan, Thrill-seeker, Intellectual, Pacifist, Hawk, Realist, Cubist, Technologist, Naturalist... no, No, NO! I've taken something from each of these. But I consciously try not to put: ic, ist, ian, ive, at, al on myself. And only now halfway through a typical earth lifetime, do I realize that *I* AM my own ideology and my own church. I'd spent so long searching for what everyone else was, that I didn't get to know myself.
My close friends have seen that I know there is a God. I don't believe; I know. They know that my religion is completely personal, as are many of theirs. I go to the sanctuary of my own mind to worship and pray. No building is necessary. And I have the good fortune of a growing community of people who do the same thing as my "church." No religious organizations or institutions are necessary. And though this blog won't be discussing religion (that's why I have the other blog), I do want to make the point that organized religion - even personal religion - too, can be an imprisoning ideology, if it is stocked with the concepts of HUMANS and not God. I still like to go to churches sometimes, but I certainly don't rely on their dogma and human-based morality lessons to center my life around. Even the people who are devoted to one particular religion rarely PRACTICE those ideals outside of church. They think somehow that just going to church wipes the rest of their hatred and sin away each week. I think such is not the case.
My objective in this blog is to be philosophical; not political, not religious; to offer ways of freeing the individual from reliance upon the thoughts and dictates of what we presume are "normal" in the society, and from the limited minds of other people. We are all human animals. But unlike other animals we are only half-alive. And this would be just ducky if we were JUST animals. But we are also trapped angels--souls grown out of the human experience and the guidance of a Creator (or Source, or even "Mystery" if you like). We have one foot in heaven and one foot stuck in the mud. No person knows what is better for you than you do, unless of course you are unwilling to discover who you are and what you need for happiness and satisfaction in your life. And if that's the case, honestly, you deserve to be only half-alive.
Now some of the smarter people reading this will say, "AHA! Isn't your desire to offer ideas to get people off of other ideas a hypocrisy, a contradiction?" Of course not, sillies! As a great philosopher of the last Century once said, "Just because I tell you why you shouldn't drive, doesn't mean I'm advocating a method of driving."
I'm just trying to shake myself out of my cultural slumber, and then hoping to show you how you can do it for yourself. Once you're awake though, I can't direct you. The whole idea is directing yourself. Are there things you want in life that you don't have? If they are material things, then this blog is useless to you. However, if you are a bit more high-minded and respect yourself a little more than using all of your extra time fulfilling a "thing fetish" of some kind, you may find that simplifying, becoming aware of how society is picking your pockets and giving you back trash in return, thinking for yourself, dropping the need for utilizing other people's ideas and then replacing them with your own, being intentional and artful about the way you live your life - not careless and spiritually ugly, you MIGHT get some of what I have to say.
Being a former Banking Specialist, Financial Educator and Personal Finance Councilor, I can tell you right now that simplifying your life in similar ways as I will describe here, and seeking non-material things, will AUTOMATICALLY keep more money in your pocket, free you from debt and give you the material options you need to fully realize your non-material goals, no matter what they are. Simplicity and money, rather than being incompatible, are the answers to spiritual joy and material comfort. But to achieve this not-so-far-away goal they must be considered in that order: Simplicity leads to money, not the other way around.
Ideally, after all the people who know they could do more with their lives by using less are the only ones left reading this broken little blog, maybe we can eventually WALLK together. I certainly have no answers besides waking up. And I'd love to hear the suggestions of other people. But I will say that at least for this blog I'm not interested in Dr. Dwayne Dyer's system, or what the Buddha has to say, nor Jesus, Mohamed, John Smith, or even Thomas Jefferson. These are all great people who have made mighty fine suggestions of their own. And many of these suggestions are worth integrating into our lives. But I want to know what YOU have discovered FOR YOURSELF. What is your little piece of novelty? What do you do to separate yourself from the hyper-conventional habits that society or some human being has demanded that you follow?
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