Saturday, January 29, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Dialogical Degree
Sometimes I use language
The same way
I use toilet paper.
Sometimes that's a necessity.
Other times I use language
The same way
I paint escapisms and fantasies,
Which is also holistic.
When a hinge theme is found
In this dialogical discourse,
The spirit of freedom rejoices,
And sings odes of joy.
Thus I elevate trash,
And beautify the worthless.
I turn dross into gold
In an alchemical process.
Revolutions can then occur
On spinning grind stones,
And flailing galaxies...
They can happen in coffee shops
Where intellectuals
Thrash their papers,
Like chickens in a chicken coop
Who excite a storm
Of dust and feathers
Because of an approaching stranger.
Could it be
The blissful ignorance
Of the average American?
Of whom the rest of the world
Wrestles to get the attention?
Or is it just
My philosophical arrogance
That assumes this,
And the rest of the world
Really could care less?
The grinding stone of life
Doesn't stop for just one mortal man.
Yet perhaps a course shift
Of one degree
For future generations
Will make all the difference.
eVan––January 15th, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
My Thoughts About "Knowledge"
I have been pondering, exploring and reading about the educational process. Authors such as John Taylor Gatto, Paulo Freire, Naomi Klein, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Paine and Robert Kiyosaki have definitely influenced my educational process. Since I am an artist, I'll add that the American philosopher John Dewey, who wrote Art as Experience, has influenced my current train of philosophical thought as well.
I'd like to address the Biblical origin of "knowledge." Most of us know that knowledge was attained by Adam eating the Fruit of Knowledge, or the Fruit of Good and Evil, after being tempted by Eve who was initially seduced by the serpent, or Satan. After Adam and Eve both ate the Fruit of Knowledge, they were banished from the Garden of Eden. They were "condemned" to live a life of mortality and shame.
Fast-forward to our present epoch of knowledge, understanding and education. Many of us have heard the popularized quote that "knowledge is power." How is knowledge power? If you can critically understand a subject or situation overall then you have a much better ability to affect yours and others' surrounding situation. This means you can use your attained knowledge for the benifit of all, or you can use it for the benefit of yourself without any thought of others outside of yourself or your circle of relationships.
Now comes the term "awareness." That, of course, means what you are aware of in your relationships with others and also in your current surroundings. It can also extend out to surroundings that are not in your immediate vicinity, but are physically adjacent to your immediate area. An example would be your next door neighbor. That would be what I would call a locational awareness. A dispositional awareness––as I define it for the time being––of your neighbor would be understanding or having knowledge of her or his current livelihood, such as his job and his relationship with his job.
There are some people who actively believe that "ignorance is bliss." This means that the less one knows the more happy one is. This is a philosophy, if you can call it that, which some people don't personally impose on themselves, but impose upon others. This would apply to people in influential positions of culture and society who have a critical impact upon physical surroundings, and, most importantly, other peoples' lives and livelihoods.
It is well known that our contemporary American culture of capitalism is hinged upon the famous biologist Charles Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest." This is intended to promote a healthy form of competition amongst people who own businesses or are involved with business in some way. Since most of us can't escape the reality that we live in a capitalist society, we have all adapted in some way to our living situations, our way of surviving, and the forces surrounding us. Education becomes a very critical deciding factor in how well we prosper or survive in these circumstances.
After reading a few books about education, money, capitalism, philosophy and government, I have settled upon a "satisfactory" theory. A book that introduced me in my current process of learning was written by an author named Robert Kiyosaki, called Rich Dad's Conspiracies of The Rich. What is so compelling about this book is the fact that Kiyosaki is a capitalist and he professes to educate people how money works in our contemporary capitalist society. He explains how very wealthy and powerful people have no interest in educating people about how money works because it would create a real problem of competition with them, their power, their influence, and their wealth. The connections should be apparent of how "ignorance is bliss" and "knowledge is power”; and how a "guiding hand" in the educational process for the general population would be highly important for the status quo to manage and control.
Kiyosaki suggests reading Weapons of Mass Instruction, by John Taylor Gatto who taught in the public school system in New York for thirty years. The research he compiled in his book is relevant, critical and historical in understanding how modern public schooling is designed for a highly conditioned ignorance amongst the general population, for the benefit of a smaller percentage of the wealthiest people in our society. One example, that both Robert Kiyosaki and John Taylor Gatto point out, is the fact that money is not even a basic subject taught in schools.
Going back to the original idea I started this blog off with about the Garden of Eden, and the Fruit of Good and Evil. I have had the personal experience or awareness that when I learn something new I feel obligated to tell others about my learning. It could also be a desire to share knowledge, for the benefit of all, for trust, for alliances, and, ultimately, survival. How can that be, when our genes are supposedly designed for "survival of the fittest"? Another thing I noticed is that the more critical to survival the knowledge I may have gained, the more "weight" or moral obligation I feel in relation to knowing about it. This is my current interpretation of the ideas presented in Genesis in the Bible.
I conclude that people with the most material power and influence see it as imperative that the majority of people remain ignorant about money, worldly affairs, their affairs, and economic affairs. Hence, a blissful ignorance is taught and promoted, and critical awareness and knowledge is branded as "off limits," secret, private, and is considered suspicious if someone has it.
eVan––January 9th, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
New Business Cards for Art of eVan 2011!
Brochures for Promotion, Virtually and Physically
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
A Ghost Haunted by The Flesh
Trophies in cases,
And double-doors leading.
Trophies in cases,
And double-doors leading.
Double-locked binds,
And found signs on the margin
Bound by a societal lick,
And an absolute belief
In the entity of consumption.
Strangely shaped warriors,
Mis-figured habits,
And fumbled hands tumbling
Over wooden fences
Of South Western ranches.
Easily,
Because of dust in the desert,
Allies and tumble-weeds
Rack the nerves
Of a blue-tailed lizard.
I broke words,
And switched letters.
I confused you,
And made sense to other folks.
They lined your subconscious
Like Ester eggs in an egg carton.
They hatched Eastern religions
Like squash bugs on zucchini.
More like baked ziti, though,
And the up-side-down crucifixion
Of the worthy St. Peter.
There is no betrayal on the left hand,
Especially when it shakes the right.
Especially when it shakes the right,
And lone bass guitars
Scathe the walls
Of a cavernous night-time canyon.
There is no betrayal
On left-hand thumbs,
In people who aren't numb,
And other marginalized bums.
There is none
Where none is.
And there is, no more,
A house that is haunted.
Yea! Even the haunt
Was abandoned,
And all that's left now
Is the ghost of a ghost
Who used to wail
And gnash her teeth
Through layers
Of bedroom cloth
And wedding vales.
Dresses hanging like
Trophies in cases
And double-doors leading...
Like trophies in cases
And double-doors leading
Past double-binds,
And soulless entities of mass production,
Munching on flesh,
And twentieth century
Reprocessed, and refined repast.
And, oh, the soul
Of her abandoned city!
The prince of trade,
And economic foul-play.
Where lost spirits
Twist like spiritual hurricanes,
And post-apocalyptic eddies...
Oh, their destroyed properties!
Their stake in the vision.
Their contribution
To a vampiric evolution.
Their lost genes of double-helix retribution.
All boiled down
To toxic geysers
Spewing Mother Earth's tears
On the remaining frame
Of another high-riser,
Rusting by a proud but battered fire hydrant,
Rusting by the cracks
In the pavement
Of a street who's signs no longer show.
---eVan, August 2010
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