Buzzword: Efficiency

I managed an automobile repair shop under the name of one of the major oil companies for twenty three years. It was a complex contractual arrangement but essentially, we were a branded outlet. Early to mid eighties were relatively good times. Technology was certainly complicating things, but all in all it wasn’t too bad for the auto repair industry. Though I have a few friends who might feel some offence at this statement, I regret that the overall quality of American cars produced during this era was far less than it could have been, which made the repairs side of things more regular besides more complicated.

Coming out of the eighties and into the early nineties as contracts were periodically reassessed and “upgraded” or renegotiated (a more polite way of saying get ready to be screwed) an operational word began to be hammered into the lower end managers from the big boys at the top ... you know the ones you seldom ever really have any contact with but take it upon themselves to dictate how it is that the operations of your business should be handled. And not because they have any real experience in these situations (though some may have limited experience) but rather they have studied the models and have listened to their “efficiency” experts and have determined for you what is the best way to relate to your customers without actually having a relationship with them. You see, your customers are not really their customers; your customers (that you have spent years developing a trust and rapport with) are only numbers to them. OH ... I know their rhetoric would not make it sound this way, but how many of them realize a common time invested bonding with these they would call “customers” and in many cases “friends”. I dare say ... none. My customers and my relationships, the ones coming across the driveway were only one thing to these progressively higher echelons of business administration ... numbers.

It was during this time that the need to become more efficient became the mantra of the big boys, but it was not a matter of better serving the “customer” which I had always been taught and believed was the reason for being in business, but rather to make it possible to grab a higher percentage of the gross that may be realized. Of course as more numbers of individuals were expected to now come across the drive, more profit was expected to be made, thus justifying the lower percentage a small business person could expect. But what the hell there will be more customers, and surely streamlining your operation would cut costs and make it possible not to lose the net that had been realized prior. After all, many if not most of the less efficient operations will eventually be forced out of the market driving more “customers” to the survivors.
There is a certain “limited” logic to this model. But it falls way short of what is a human model. Business ... as it has evolved in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries ... is a far cry from what Adam Smith originally perceived. To Smith, who in fact was a moralist over and above being an economist, compassion was the foundation for capitalism. I know that sounds strange to many, but a minimal amount of research will bear this out. To Smith the purpose of the market was to assess and recognize the needs and desires of a society and thereby adapt itself to meeting those needs. Thus through meeting the actual wants and wishes of society, the customer is served and a reasonable profit can be realized. Everyone is served.

Adam Smith understood that a capitalistic society could not function “as a free society” unless the compassion motive was the foundation of the system. Well ... we’ve come a long way from that baby!!!.
Over the years, and this has been a slow but progressive raising of the market temperature (I think we’re boiling now – ready for consumption) the system somewhere along the path diverged from its moral imperative (some would argue it never had one). The market no longer serves society, but the (choke) “customer” is now only another commodity in the expansive and evermore expanding dominion of corporatized culture. Business no longer serves the needs of the society, let alone the individuals that make up that society, but the smaller parts only exist to submit to and serve that economic structure that evermore demands that greater part of the gross, and as it may be allowed, ultimately devours all it can. We are told what we need, we are told what it is we want, we are psychologically probed and manipulated to believe what it is they want us to believe, not for our benefit, not to serve, but to consume, and increase the net, but not that which we may enjoy and take comfort in, but what becomes the assets of the money managers pulling the strings.

It makes little difference whether there is one corporation accomplishing this or numerous ones of varying states of economic status, the effect is all the same. Compassion and serving the needs of the “customer” ... the individual ... the persons ... which thus make up the collective society ... this is not the purpose of business .... The purpose is profit ... and the customer a commodity ... a number to be counted coming across the drive. A fast food patron sold on the benefits of convenience and imported beef products and supplemented genetically engineered veggies. A part of the herd to be channeled through the stalls of Disney World, and satisfied with the illusion of experiencing world cultures all within the few acres set aside and molded into the image deemed to illicit the most “real” (gag) pseudo-experience imaginable ... and at a healthy profit too. And it all seems so real to us ...

Is there anyone else who gets the picture? ... Is there anyone else who can expand on just what is happening? ... Or am I in my own “never-neverland?”

talikin' 'bout My Generation

I may have shared bits and pieces of this in the past, I  don’t really remember, but forty years ago tomorrow (It was August 15, 1969) I was along some county or state highway in mid state New York walking to a place that I had no idea would become legendary.

August 15, 1969, it was a Friday.  It was my 18th birthday.  My birthday present from my parents were tickets to a music and arts festival that I’m sure they never imagined would be so significant in my own life or that of my generation.  I’m sure if they’d known better I would never been given permission to go.

We’d set up our tent and left the car in some farmer’s field.  I’m walking down this highway, in the middle of a traffic jam, just following everyone in front of us.  We turn down this side road,  down the road we can see where everyone was moving more to the right and what appeared to be into the woods.  We passed a lot of porta potties and not to far past them in this clearing, just before the woods, was what appeared to be an encampment.  Walking past I noticed what looked like school buses and every sort and color and a small staging area.  I did not know at the time, but was told later that was the Grateful Deads entourage.

We passed some fences that were not fully erected, and heard somebody declaring it was now a free concert.  At this point it was pretty easy to know which direction to head to, just follow the sound of the music.  We came out of the woods along the ridge at the top of the hill.  To our right going further up the hill we could see some A frame like structures.  Directly in front of us we could see the light towers and sound booth and beyond that a large stage and one hell of a sound system.  But between that stage and to our left and to our right a sea of people that I found virtually unfathomable.  I had been to Anti-War and peace demonstrations on the Mall in Washington, DC and thought I understood what masses of people were, but this was pure fantasy.

I do not have a clue what artist was onstage, at the time I know it was some of the lighter fare.  But at this point the music really didn’t matter.  There was something bigger than the music happening.

Despite popular opinion while I was wandering around not once did I indulge in what was supposed to be ever so pervasive.  I tell you not joint one … nada … zilch.  And to tell you the truth I couldn’t tell you if anyone was trying to sell any acid or anything like that, I simply didn’t give a damn.  I didn’t f**king need anything.  Though you might ask me “are you sure you weren’t already tripped out?” You’re damn right I was tripped out, and it had nothing to do with altered states of consciousness.  The fact is something beautiful was happening and I couldn’t fully explain it, I’m not sure I can fully explain it, but I think after so many years of being separated from it and returning realizing what was missing, I am now able to recognize it.

I asked a friend if she considered herself to be a part of the Woodstock generation, she replied, “yes- i do consider myself to be of that generation but i am not so proud of it lately. it seems the generation that was going to change the world did-and not for the better. we have become a self absorbed greedy-me-me-me-i want it now generation. we have squandered a great opportunity to make the world a more generous and loving place and sadness is the outcome.” She is right.

These are my thoughts in reply “Yes "that generation" blew it. But I think some of us are coming out of it - realizing our stupidity. But I can't really hold any to blame ... there were (and are) no hard fast absolutes that could easily be taught, and I suppose each generation has to figure it out on their own. Maybe our biggest encumbrance was the megalith of the system we had to deal with, and it has certainly grown exponentially since. Yet at the same time I think some of us have matured to a point that dying for what has become our “absolute” inner sense of right and wrong is not such a bad thing, as there is in actuality no such thing as death - only transformation. They can't kill us all ... or can they? What is the nature of the battle? Are we willing to become engaged in it (you know that I do not infer any kind of violence). But what is the strength of our character as over and opposed to those who would exploit everything for their own temporal benefit?”

To be continued …

The Unthinking Man

I am regularly accused of thinking too much.  Or over-thinking certain things.  But I have no reason to apologize for my thinking.  I have no reason to apologize because I think unconventionally.  It is not a matter of “I think therefore I am”,  but rather, I am and thus I think.  I’ve been told to put away the monkey brains.  You know what I’m talking about ...  The mental capacities that have arisen and have themselves been defined as our ego personalities.  The entity that we think is us but in actuality is only the mechanics of the material infrastructure, only real on the lower planes of thought and dimension, divorced from our deeper hidden conscious being.  Now all this sounds fine at first listen, but I have not been told what to replace them with, nor has it been demonstrated to me that it is actually possible to do this.  Not on any kind of a consistent basis at least.  It would seem to be quite a simple matter to just empty one’s head and for a period of time let everything out.  And I have absolutely no doubt that many actually do this.  But I’ve yet to find even one who can do this consistently and still function and communicate in the real world, notwithstanding the virtual world.

It would seem to me that my problem with thinking is not my problem with thinking but others lack of thinking that cannot tolerate my thinking.  You see this transcends philosophy or ideologies, religion or spirituality. It is simply the nature of the lower material human being to find comfort and security in the knowledge that has been thus far attained and to measure all things by it, thus circumventing the necessity to have to do the work and actually consider new possibilities that may have previously been overlooked or sidestepped.

I do not find it necessary to apologize for the fact that I search through ancient philosophies and doctrines, mysteries and religions as I glean my way in search of what I can attest to as “my perception of the nature of reality”.  I do not presume that the Newtonian – Cartesian scientific mindset is absolute for judging the nature of what is.  Neither do I fully accept unequivocally the more modern quantum explanations as utterly sustainable.  But neither do I discount these.  They are only models.  Models do work well for a time, and are quite useful in helping us understand what it is we can understand to the extent that these can be proven true.  But like any model, the model is only valid to the degree that observation substantiates it.  The same holds true with religious mythology.  The difference being mythology should never be taken literally.  And as the mythology is only a metaphor it can be reevaluated, reinterpreted and carry its fundamental truths and multiple perceptions of truth as they relate to the human condition as we seem to be separated from that which is our innate being and connection with ourselves, our environment, and the rest of creation.

I am not so sure that modern man is the “crown of creation”.  It certainly would seem that there’s a great deal that we must remember if not altogether relearn.  It would seem to me that rather than scrapping our minds and ceasing to think it would be more to our advantage to reconsider the purpose of thinking in relation to our whole human character, and allowing that to occur in us as we, the human being, have evolved to be capable of.  That does not imply that we allow unfettered logic and reason to dominate what it is we are, neither do we allow ignorance and laziness to define what it is that is or is not acceptable thinking matter.

This I know ... “I have been told we can create our own reality” ...this I also believe. I believe it is an intrinsic innate quality that is the human being. “I have been told intention plays a great part in this” ... this I also believe. Despite and often in spite of what may appear to be temporal circumstance, I believe we – on deeper levels of consciousness are active in the creation and manifestation of our reality. Don’t ask me to prove it, I can’t, but it is something I “know”. Sure ... it is subjective. And some will choose to consider this aspect of my thinking delusional. So what? There are some who can not conceive that the process of meditation can be beneficial to “clearing out the crap that has accumulated in ones mind”. So what? There are many who have chosen to regard every possibility of psychic or ‘spiritual’ phenomena as bunk, or at the very least rooted in natural material reality. So what?

I believe I experience and realize a spiritual plane of existence that transcends the material. I normally would not speak of this openly, as our culture (though slowly progressing) simply can not handle it. But ... to one degree or another ... each and everyone of us have to relate to this lower common culture if we are to exist, let alone survive and prosper.

All I really want to do is play the stupid guitar. It doesn’t sound like to much to ask  ... a simple request. But there are a lot of things that went into learning to play that dumb inanimate configuration of, wood, brass and steel, and polymers. Many long hours of practice, playing the same riffs over and over, working past the tender fingers and cramped muscles, to reach a level of physical competence that allows me to move virtually anyplace I want to on the neck of the guitar ... “without thinking about it”.

But being able to go where I wanted to go was not a great deal of help, unless I knew where I wanted to go. So after so many years of following the chord charts of this song or that one, and haphazardly doing leads that may have been unique (but certainly were not very melodic), I decided to apply myself to understanding some music theory. This has been a long and slow process, but over the years a rather large collection of music concept has been accumulated and is both part of my mental and “real” library to be drawn on virtually at will, and as often as live interaction takes place ... on the fly ... as I choose to do it. To a degree I have reached a point that I can determine where I want to get to... and know that I have the ability to get there ... without thinking about it.

But ... for this to occur ... a lot of stuff had to be experienced first. A lot of that was mental discipline ... and a lot was purely physical training. The result is, in the appropriate environment, I can express and realize a spiritual manifestation that communicates across the barriers between the spiritual and the material. This is what artists do ...

I have found (and I speak for my own satisfaction, not anyone else’s) there are levels of human existence that some realize in differing degrees. And it would seem that the higher the level of perceived or presumed spiritual attainment (I balk here because all too many presume all too much) the more difficult it is to communicate and relate to the poor slobs down on the lower end of the ladder. Don’t ask me where I am on the ladder; I really don’t have a clue, moment to moment. I just know it seems like I’m going up and down as it suits the need.

But for me to interact and relate to the lower end, the part where I need to concern myself with eating and sleeping, and keeping off the streets, a great deal of mental acumen needs to be exercised. Not that I particularly like it, but it does seem to come with the territory. And, as much of my dream – the dream I want to realize - will be experienced down here, the tools of the dimension (my mind) have proven to be a necessary factor in working it out.

At the same time, the issues that concern the lower end reality, whereas I access a higher end vision, need to be assessed and considered in order to apply a higher level value judgment. Though some may consider this non-applicable, I have found my mind to be beneficial in understanding and applying the “more” that I “know”. Higher levels of mind express themselves no less in the material than the spiritual, but logic and reason are more often than nor requisite.

Our minds are like fine instruments. They can be learned to be used appropriately, and mastered, and produce great things. Or they can be used to churn out slop rock ... It makes no difference to the mind ... It would be just as happy doing either. Or ... with the proper work and mastery, it can produce masterpieces of insight ... transcending itself ... I think there were a few who managed it ... but I do not believe they ceased thinking ... but took it to a higher level. I’d kinda like to do that ... the same as with the guitar.

Excuse me! ... but is this the way to Bellevue?

Random Thoughts 8-04-09

There are many levels of reality. For the longest time, like the most of us, I could only perceive but one. And even in that one, that which we might have called “spiritual” is not what it was presumed to be, but only a manufactured perception of what we desire broader dimensions of reality to be. A fabricated illusion hopefully sufficient enough to contain and hold all that we find to be the mystery that transcends our one common material plane of existence. But confined as we are to the limitations of the material, perception can only be perceived as theory or speculation. Not that this is true for all, but is a common experience of all. Some, and not necessarily those who are the most imaginative or vocal, are endowed, by whatever source it may be, to see beyond the limitations of the material. And some, though anxiously desiring to see that which is the unseen, will never enter into the realms of perception transcendent to time and space, as their material mental capacities are so centered on the egoic conceptions held in their minds.

I am an “alpha male”. But that is a naturalistic designation, deduced through the scientific study and observations within the dimension of material reality. But this is only a partial truth. For two alpha males to coexist a deeper relational experience needs to be realized. To live and function in relatively close proximity together, a lower level standard of rules and obligations can be established, one may voluntarily regress in their nature and submit to the other, or a higher level or dimension of experience can be entertained, entered into and experienced. This is no easy task, and depending on the lower level natures of the two may take some relative drastic reassessment of what it is to be “human” in relation to other humans. By “human” I mean more than that part of us that is the “animal” – the beast at the top of the food chain. I believe regardless of the lower level deficiencies and impediments that may be our material nature – the transcendent “human” nature that does reside in all humanity can surmount these and rise to a higher level of existence and relationship. Will we? … I mean the human race? I believe it is possible. But not as long as we stubbornly try to retain archaic and limited perceptions of truth as have been handed down to us and disseminated throughout human conscious thought without critically appraising what it is we believe. Change is threatening. And those dominating the lower level arena of commonly held perception will not find rising to higher levels to their advantage. Rising to higher levels of being implies an acceptance of egalitarianism that places perceived lower level “inferiors” on an equal level, or is perceived as lowering ones own elevated “lower level” status. Is it any wonder that the “unspiritual will persecute the spiritual”? Or … “except a man be ‘born again’ he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven”?

Do not confuse these normally spouted Biblical concepts as the same as the usual Evangelical Fundamentalist dribble that they have been associated with. There is NO connection … But there is spiritual truth … and it is not conventional religious “Christian” truth. It is truth transcending the religious literalism that would button-hole humanity into an empty and dead spiritual illusion, designed and propagated to keep the “human” from experiencing the full potential of that humanity, and maintains a religious hierarchy and order that serves the political and economic masters intent on controlling the masses. Religion equals control … Spirituality is freedom. But it is not the “freedom” defined by the managers of the world systems. It is the freedom to be who you are … regardless of the system that wishes to define, manage and dominate what it is you are.

We are held captive by our fears. And if our own immediate personal fears should prove to be insufficient to cause us to voluntarily acquiesce to the “authority” that is presumed to safe guard our ”freedom”, we can be sure that new reasons to fear will be created and manufactured for us in order to manipulate the collective consciousness of humankind and drive us, as the herd, into pens and corrals to be counted and made the commodified property of the Wal-Marts and Disney Worlds, and the cannon fodder for Halliburton and all the rest.

My humanity is more than this. And I ask myself … “How should I then live?” … I can’t go back … nor do I want to.