Ad Hoc Extrapolations on Art, Marketing, and Politics

Yes, I know you don't know what that title means. Humor it as I lead you into more insights into art, symbolism, marketing, advertising and politics. Consider it as mysterious as the ancient Egyptian Ankh, if you will, as it will be a key in decrypting all the doorways to your mind and soul, and may allow you to plateau on to another level of eternal life. 

I've been reading a book called The Hidden Persuaders, by Vance Packard, and he outlines the methods used in marketing to reach peoples' motivations and unconscious minds, and to, of course, therefore reap more profits. One of the people who originated this deep psychological form of marketing is Ernest Dichter. In the Hidden Persuaders, Packard discusses one of Dichter's core principles in motivating people to buy. Peoples' universal needs for security, protection, safety, peace of mind, connection, and belonging are powerful motivating factors, he discusses, in whether if a person will be interested in buying a product. These things are a part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. 

There are other core doctrines of marketing as well. One of the most important of them is the concept of identity. Obviously different people have different identities, personalities, behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. These individual tendencies people have are associated with the kinds of cars people drive, the foods they eat, and the people they know. Marketers and advertisers go into excruciating detail in researching peoples' psychologies so as to make better sales. The online social medias of today go beyond marketers' and advertisers' wildest dreams. People basically open their souls up to the world in the virtual world. 

I did some free association with words to continue on with the idea of identity in the market. I thought of things like "who you are, what kind of art you prefer, structure, strength, power, enforced, and steel." Some of these words sound like they don't have much to do with one another, but they do on an unconscious level. Just look at your dreams and how jumbled and irrational they can be. A lot of dream material is subtle symbols morphing and transforming across the different periods and places in your life.

Another day I had been discussing the magpie--a bird that is part of the corvidae or crow family--with a friend on Twitter. She told me that the magpie is a bad sign, or an omen in Native American folklore. I looked up the magpie, and, indeed, it is considered an omen in Native folklore. One aspect of the magpie plays the role of a trickster who is credited for playing deceptive schemes crafted by its intelligence on unwitting characters.

I continued on my own free association and research into the magpie. I found that "magpie" is a combination of two words. The first word is Margaret, or name, of which Mag is a nickname, and the second word is pie. So we have Margaret pie as the full name. Hence, the name "magpie" comes from Margaret + pie. It's really a trio combination because Margaret is a woman, and a magpie is a bird. So, really, magpie = woman + bird + pie to the unconscious mind perhaps; a woman with the name Margaret plus a bird from the crow family plus a pie. I wonder what kind of pie this combination would associate with?

Do lectures involving the usage of pie charts induce you to want to eat cheese cake after the lecture is over? The mathematical pi associates easily with pie, or cake, in the unconscious mind. Cheese cake is loaded with cream cheese and sugar, so it appeals deeply to our sense of sustenance, survival, and delicious taste. You could taste cheese cake on your taste buds from stored away memories from the past when I mentioned cheese cake. 

I associated further on the magpie and I thought of Margaret Thatcher. I watched a video of her on Youtube to refresh myself on her style and character: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2f8nYMCO2I&feature=youtu.be . She's a magpie with a blue coat and glasses in that video, symbolically speaking. I declared, at the time, that Margaret Thatcher is a magpie in politics and campaigning because her last name can easily be associated with human "nest building," i.e. thatched cottages for the peasants of the world. Houses, cottages, and homes are symbols of security, safety, family, warmth, etc. If you free associate from Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you just may have some great symbols you can sell to others through your own marketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs.png

I mentioned earlier that the Ankh is considered the key to eternal life in ancient Egyptian mythology. Another friend on Twitter had mentioned that the Ankh is her favorite symbol after I had asked the question: "what is your favorite symbol?" I remarked that I had seen an ad that positioned a models hands in such a manner as to symbolize the Ankh. You can learn more about the Ankh here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankh. She then did her own association and mentioned that the Ankh resembles the Christian crucifix "in the same way Guanyin looks like the Virgin Mary." I had no idea who Guanyin was, so I did my own research and discovered that she is the female bodhisattva who is associated with compassion from ancient East Asia. Learn more of her here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin.

I thought further on the Ankh and how it has an opening on the head of it. I considered to myself that this may symbolize the opening of a door, or a womb. I thought that perhaps the Ankh could be the feminine aspect of Logos. Logos is a word from ancient Greece that is associated with reason and philosophy. It is considered a masculine aspect. Going further with the Ankh, it can be associated with the current digital age, and all the encryption involved. 1s and 0s are the most basic form of coding in computers and programming. Binary coding composes the more complex symbols and instructions in a program. I thought of the Ankh and how it can easily be a symbol for computer access, decoding, decryption, and unlocking entrances on the internet. The Ankh can also be associated with Ying and Yang as well. 

I have gained a new interest in the types of art people like, the styles they are trying to communicate through their clothes, and the personalities they convey by the cars they drive now. For example, I was talking to some girl at a retail store, and she was telling me that she would hang Salvador Dali's art in her bathroom. What does this mean? I mean, Dali is very weird and surreal, but he's now considered mainstream and traditional through mass media. Perhaps Dali's art means nothing more than an accepted mainstream artist to this girl. I did mention to her however that the Spanish people revere the act of bowel moving much more so than other cultures. 

Later on, I walked through a women's section at JC Penney, and saw a big display of some oversized double doors opening to a special display of clothing. There were also seats for people to sit in this square behind the doors as well. The oversized display was painted bright lemon yellow. At first, I didn't really know what this symbolized and what the designers intended to communicate to consumers. Then later, in hindsight, I realized that the opening doors symbolize a welcoming and friendly attitude. The fact that the doors and the whole display is oversized symbolizes a "bigger than life" perspective. The color yellow is often associated with friendship, friendliness, sociability, an open and light attitude, sunshine, happiness, having fun in outdoor weather hence "fun in the sun" during the Spring season. 

In the evening, while I was networking online, I ran across a video by Dopplereffekt that plays an episode from the original Incredible Hulk TV series. I'd read about advertisers' research into the psychology of the alcohol drinker in The Hidden Persuaders, by Vance Packard, and what was discovered is that drinkers like the transformation that takes place while drinking. Their whole personality changes, and becomes un-inhibited so that they can be more of who they want to be. Again, identity comes up here. I realized that The Incredible Hulk is actually a symbolic story of an alcoholic's life. It also alludes the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. Watch the video here and perhaps you may see a symbolic and dramatized transformation in the Incredible Hulk as it associates with drinking alcohol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIMv2CY32Bk&feature=youtu.be. 

After operating on himself to give himself super strength and thinking he failed in his experiment, he leaves his laboratory, and gets stuck in the rain by the side of the road with a flat tire. His disappointed, and bitter state expresses the alcoholic's frustrated view of himself and his life. The rain storm symbolizes the drinking of alcohol, but it hasn't "hit" him yet. While he's in the frustrating throes of replacing his flat tire in the rain, something snaps inside of him, and he transforms into the Hulk. Many male alcoholics are known to fly into fits of rage while under the influence of alcohol. The rain falls from overhead in this video symbolically showing a man who is "under the influence." Water is often associated with emotions, and uncontrollability in unconscious symbolism. Alcohol allows many people to "unleash" and un-inhibit their emotions. 

The Incredible Hulk is green, therefore possibly symbolizing jealousy. Jealousy is one of the biggest reasons why many a man flies into a fit of rage--jealousy of a possible competitor to his mate or desired mate. Green is also associated with witches, witch craft, paranormal phenomena, and strange scientific experiments. 

While networking online, I then free associated some more and thought of symbolism in the media for people who are "anal." The first thing that came to mind was Metallica's untitled black album. It has a coiled snake on the front cover. The snake is depicted as tense, and coiling just like an anal sphincter muscle might while feeling stress and frustration. Listen to the song Don't Tread On Me, and you know in much more detail of the psychology of someone who is anally retentive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db1s-eV-Bd0&feature=youtu.be. I considered further what an anally retentive woman might imagine herself to be in her wildest fantasy of domination, since she feels very tight and controlled in her conscious life. I found this image while surfing the net and thought it might express a woman who wants to dominate with her sexuality and be completely un-inhibited from expressing herself fully: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/BDR-Domination-Hot-Pink-Complete-Outfit/2014359?id=2014359&slug=BDR-Domination-Hot-Pink-Complete-Outfit#.UTLe2NC37wE.twitter.

I then went on to explore some symbolism behind the basic square. Squares are symbols of groundedness, of structure, of direction (hence, "the four corners of the earth"), architecture, angles, shelter, safety, protection, stability, etc. I've been making a whole series of art works based on the square in my Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) art project. Here's one example of a most recent image I made as part of the Y series: http://twitpic.com/c88muc. Then I thought about food. Are there types of food that have more "structure" to them than others? I thought perhaps carrots do because of their crunchy consistency. Carrots don't excite the taste buds however. This doesn't matter though, as structure doesn't necessarily have to excite the taste buds. It just has to be safe, grounded, and secure. Carrots can easily fit that description. 

Perhaps ice cubes give drinks some structure. Do you feel like you're drinking the contents of a building while your drinking a special drink in a tall glass? Like you're drinking all the life, blood, thought, work and energy out of a glass building streaming with condensed water on the sides of its cylindrical shape? After all, it could be Friday after a bustling day at work, and that special drink is just waiting for you to conquer the rest of the day by unleashing all your pent up frustrations through a nice drink. What I'm doing here is showing you what commercials, advertisers and marketing schemers do to induce you to thoughtlessly identify with their promotions. 

Traditionally, women are depicted as passive objects of beauty in art. I recently made some drawings for a friend who is working on an independent film. He sent some images to me to work out some imaginative ideas for him to use in his film. I drew the images more like the scenes he sent me, rather than going off on my own imagination, and exploring different themes like he requested. Nevertheless, I keenly observed how the girl I drew in these pictures is doing something. She's actively involved in a creative process, which, traditionally, a woman wouldn't normally be doing. Please take a look at what I'm talking about: http://twitpic.com/c7fei9. 

I realize what I'm blogging about at length here is quite disjointed, seemingly unrelated and ad hoc. That's why I titled part of this article as ad hoc. It's thrown together from a bunch of recent thoughts, research, and discoveries I've recently made. To add to this seeming unrelatedness, I now want to briefly discuss politics and how the centralized public relations agencies, and mainstream media sources manufacture our perceptions of the world for us. One gaping example that I, and many others observe time and time and again, is the fact that the US's mainstream corporate/state media absolutely acquiesces to Washington's initiations and commands of military aggression around the planet. Things such as avoiding foreign entanglements prescribed by the forefathers of America are completely disregarded, and nonsensical acts of aggression are justified under mythologized, perpetual, and incipient terrorists that are implied as popping out at any minute and wreaking havoc on our lives. President Bush even claimed that the US has declared war on an un-definable enemy. In other words, anyone can be an enemy now according to the US government, and it's sidekick mouthpieces in the mainstream media. 

If a truly impartial observer were to view these states of affairs from the outside, she or he could effortlessly conclude that America's own dictators are promoted as good, and not dictator-like, while clearly acting and behaving just like dictators do by successively removing one basic human right after the other. Meanwhile, dictators in other countries--most preferably impoverished ones with rich natural resources--are promoted and advertised as evil and bad in the mainstream press. President Obama took this Orwellian nightmare a step further in his signing of the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year's Eve 2011-2012 which allows him to decide if you're a terrorist upon his own whims without being encumbered by any due process of law whatsoever. It is a law known pretty much in every culture around the planet that every fair judicial process includes the presumption of innocence. Under Obama, this natural humane law has been tossed out. 

I know that many people feel passionate about regulating guns now, especially after all the shooting tragedies that have occurred in recent times. I personally feel that this campaign to regulate guns in America is a political attempt to start stripping the second amendment to the US Constitution. With all the ideas I presented to you at the beginning of this article that are used in marketing and advertising, you ought to be suspiciously aware of the fact that deep psychological marketing techniques are used to manufacture perceptions in politics as well. To me, the US's centralized media is nothing more than psychological illusions designed to "key in" (alluding to the Ankh) on your deepest fears, insecurities, frustrations, hopes, desires, and dreams.

I wouldn't be surprised if members of the inside club of the Republican party are just as committed to the disarmament of American citizens as Democrats are. I personally take more liberal stances on a lot of issues since I've read enlightening books by Noam Chomsky, and Naomi Klein. I do take one conservative issue to heart however, and that is the second amendment, and the right to bear arms. This was originally signed by the founding fathers of America as an inalienable right, just like the freedom of speech is.

I recently asked the staff at Democracy Now! in a tweet whether if they thought that Malcolm X would agree with Obama's determination to start eliminating the right to bear arms. I see Obama's lawless activity in bailing out and protecting top financial frauds in the central banking system of America as indicative that he wants to disarm America so that he can feel more safe and protected for continuing his immunized criminal activity. His disregard for the Geneva Conventions, disregard for avoiding foreign entanglements, and his condemnation of innocent whistle-blowers such as Bradley Manning and Julian Assange is more proof. I already mentioned the National Defense Authorization Act, and, recently, he just signed for John Brennan to be the head of the CIA who will not say whether if he can now assassinate American citizens extrajudicially. I'm sure he's assassinated all kinds of people already, including American citizens. 

I get the feeling that Democracy Now! is relatively anti-second amendment. I don't blame them considering the wake of mourning from the recent domestic mass shooting tragedies. Looking back on the considerations of identity in forming political perspectives, I often associate the hosts of Democracy Now!, such as Amy Goodman, with the hippie movement in the late nineteen-sixties. This was a powerful identity change for American perception in general during the Vietnam war, and it was won through social movements that had the terms "flower power" and "flower children" attached to them signifying that peaceful methods are the best means for mass change. While I agree with this viewpoint for the most part, I also think it's an illusion to think that slowly disarming Americans of their right to bear arms won't affect the peoples' ability to socially, and peacefully move politicians towards more humane efforts. 

Throughout history, dictator after dictator disarmed the people of their country so as to better brutally control them. Carl von Clausewitz, the military strategist for the Prussian army during the Napoleonic wars described in his book, On War, that one of the most important acts that must be performed in defeating an enemy is disarming him. I am not a proponent of war, but I am a proponent of self-defense, and with all of the previously reliable institutions symbolically and socially crumbling through rampant corruption practically everywhere around citizens in American society, I feel all the more passionate about defending the second amendment. Like Ingo Swann, the teacher of remote viewing for the US government, might state it from his books, Secrets of Power, the number one rule of those in power is "de-powering" everyone else in ANY meaningful and possible way. 

I see power as a big wave, and those who own the means to surf that wave have already created a marginalizing societal pyramid scheme for everyone else. In this way, everyone else is preoccupied with "climbing the ladder to success" while the whole ladder is just a manufactured tool to keep the rabble preoccupied with marginalizing activities while elites play the real games of power. Nevertheless, as Ingo Swann discusses in Secrets of Power, power arises from that which is insignificant, and he compares this process to the origination of a tornado from a mere wisp of wind among millions of wisps of wind. 

This leads into an idea that I've long held as integral in the development of one of my styles of art. I consider trash as universally, and stereotypically insignificant and repulsive to "everyone." Therefore, I imagine that, as an artist, I often want to look where no one else will look so as to attain rejected creativity, discarded "power," and thrown away love. While living in Nebraska, I was lucky enough to have a nice sized studio in the basement of the old house on the family farm. My grandfather had left all kinds of farm work materials and equipment behind after he died. Even after the farm sale, there was still a whole bunch of junk that really couldn't be used for original purposes anymore. I used some of this junk and put it into a lot of pieces of art, as well as many items that would normally be considered trash collected by my grandmother. My grandmother lived through the great depression of the 1930s in America, so she was very conscientious about saving every possible thing that "might be of use."

Since it looks like America is headed for another great depression, I mention that last paragraph above to inspire people to creatively use their junk and trash for other purposes they can use them for if they use their imaginations. I also raise that point to symbolically involve people in the process of empowerment through so-called insignificant means. This is to help people show themselves that power and creativity resides within themselves, and not in the leaders of Washington who live in a matrix of lies and forcefully try to grow an empire corrupted by deception more and more every day. The great ponzi scheme heisted on the rest of the world by the central financial fraudsters of Western imperialism is starting to bust at the seams as evidenced by the failing quantitative easing money printing strategies to spur economic growth.

To me, power on earth is a mere crimp in the grander scheme of things. I visualize it as a small crimp from a canvas stretcher on a vast piece of canvas. It's an attempt by a select few human beings who grant themselves statuses of "apotheosis" so as to excuse themselves from the laws applied to the rest of humanity by themselves. This, of course, is just an indoctrinated fallacy applied to everyone so that people stop seeking the infinite possibilities that are inherently a part of every human beings' potential and heritage. Your job as subjects to these politicians and fraudulent investment bankers is to remain thoroughly unquestioning in the false hopes they weave around you through public relations campaigns, political campaigns, corporate sigils, advertisements, marketing schemes, religious institutions, and educational institutions.

Most people seem to prefer the lies of politicians over the straight forward exercising of militant power by political leaders on "radical groups" and their "little rebellions." The "bigger picture" to elites is basically ownership and domination of the world. Yet, they can't even find success in financing the wars they wage, and country invasions they initiate. 


--eVan, March 4th, 2013

Cycles in the Vast Fabric of Existence

Recently, I saw some connections between a few ideas. These connections include quantum phenomena, the probable nature of reality, the big bang, and what many spiritual traditions deem as a separation from the source of creation. Some new age and self help gurus, as well as experimental scientists and psychologists advocate focusing on the positive things in life and positive attitudes so as to create positive outcomes. I have researched some Eastern religions over the span of my life as a scientific layman, and I often note that these religions give homage to negative aspects of reality.


In the Western world, the negative aspects of reality traditionally don't sell politics, businesses, financial frauds, marketing schemes, advertising, etc. so it's suppressed. The Western world is completely invested in its own bubble of illusion as evidenced by a never ending debt, both in Europe and in America. What I'm attempting to explain is that, even though there are an infinite number of probabilities to our realities, there's still a general model or structure to the universe of probable universes.


To begin with, I apply the cyclical and dichotomous nature all of our physical reality is based in to the unfathomable domain of probabilities. I assume that our world, our personal lives, and the universe is a probable based reality in which free will has the opportunity to express itself in the myriads of decisions made through our selves. I see an inchoate quality of Ying and Yang in the vast, multidimensional ocean of probabilities. And I believe that at least the physical universe seeks homeostasis. Homeostasis is how the human body works in its natural state, and homeostasis is how the ecological system on earth works when it is in its natural state. Even when the body is diseased, or the earth is polluted, these systems still seek out balance.


While imbalances are a part of the Ying Yang quality that permeate the probable nature of the universe and ourselves, these qualities are still seeking homeostasis. After exploring this idea in a little depth, I can simplify it. The probable nature of reality is regulated by homeostatic balances. The great separation, or big bang, that I mentioned as a couple of the original ideas that I saw connections to can be re-interpreted into a sort of myth. Events that most people associate with the darker aspects of reality, such as loss and death, are really the mourning of a spiritual separation from the source from which human souls and spirits came.


Living a life on earth as a physical being really is a great loss in itself. We decide to forget our heritage, our previous lives, and our exponential abilities as an agreement to live a very focused and extremely limited life on earth. Many a philosopher has noted the forgetful nature of humankind. The great mourning of separation from the source of all creation would tend to make all of creation mourn its loss. And yet it's really a sacrifice for consciousness to experience self-hood, individuality, and differentiation. We are all separate individuals. At one time, supposedly, everything was one. We mourn this loss in uncountable ways in this state with which we find ourselves. We are expressions of the desire to be separate, and to experience creation as "separate" creations.


Existence on earth is a bi-polar and dichotomous "physical" reality. It's a temporal state for a transient consciousness to process through and grow, develop, and die. We have night and day. We have old and young. There is hot and cold, and there is North and South. As humans, we have categorized all of these phenomena into a system of duality that is stereotypically easy to understand without too much thought. If you consider the nature of quarks and their behavior of "spin," or, if you observe the negative charges of electrons, and the positive charges of protons, you see that atomic and sub-atomic particles give expression to the dual nature of reality, and also the concept of homeostasis.


Atomic and sub-atomic particles have shown us that they aren't necessarily solid and constant pieces of matter. In fact, this level of "physical" reality is really a medium of bundles of waves, and energies. This level of reality has also shown scientists the unpredictable appearing and disappearing act that particles, in their more physical expression, display. Because the systems we are familiar with in the known universe seek homeostasis without our willful influences, I extrapolate that the probable nature of reality also seeks a general homeostasis. This is a much larger, more complicated idea to understand. Nevertheless, sub-atomic particles really are weaving in and out of different probabilities in the disappearing acts that they display when observed.


The matter that composes our bodies is really one big, complicated wave assimilation when it is understood that matter is really just quanta, or bundles, of energy. I saw a movie a while back based on Phillip K. Dick's novel, A Scanner Darkly. In the beginning of the movie, a man is shown speaking to an audience. The surface of his clothes and body is constantly morphing and changing into different people, like he's a chameleon of constantly changing identities. This movie gives a good visual example on a humanly understandable level of the unpredictable, and changing reality that happens on a sub-atomic level.


This is where I conclude my theory that the probable based reality that we determine is regulated and structured by a generally negative and positive quality. The negative experiences we have are counter-balanced by the positive ones, and conversely. Every time we experience a loss of a loved one, or a change in our lives for the worse, we're actually re-experiencing the very first separation we had from the source of creation. All the tragedies we experience are just part of this great ongoing mourning. Yet, this is only a half of the experience of creation. The other half, of course, is reunifying, coming together, harmony, and so forth.


Many authors have noted that the only two most basic emotions we can ever really experience as human beings is either love or fear. There are an infinite number of nuanced emotions we can experience, of course, but love and fear seem to be the roots of them all. And we don't experience love and fear simultaneously. This is why I conclude that the multi-dimensional ocean of probabilities is really just cycles of experiencing, and re-experiencing love or fear. Just like there is night and day on planet earth. The experience of fear is not necessarily completely a thing to be eliminated absolutely, as it is just part of a cycle of experience. It is one side of the probable nature of reality seeking homeostasis. Through our own inherited willfulness, we can indeed persist in manifesting perpetual experiences of fear however. I theorize that this propensity only awaits a counterbalancing so as to fulfill homeostasis. This is much like the nature of a swing swinging back and forth. The harder one pushes the swing to go higher, the harder it will plummet to the ground, and then on to the other side of the set from its inevitable reversing points.


As I said before, the traditional 20th century Western world has done most everything to suppress the negative aspects of reality and of experience. Death, for example, is a thing most Americans try very hard to be unaware of and unfamiliar with. We like to put our elderly in nursing homes. We put our dead in graveyards away from our living places. We dread any kind of loss, and constantly seek any kind of gain for ourselves. Western worlds have not always been like this though. Death was a more accepted and real experience in the lives of people during medieval times.


Eastern religions show a much more accepting attitude towards death and experiences of fear. I think that the Western world would do well to embrace this general attitude that Eastern people hold, as our world is on the brink of financial collapse. Western governments have been designed on concepts of perpetual and indefinite expansion. This false assumption has brought the Western world into the biggest debt in all of economic history. Western planners of economy, politics, and society did not implement the natural ebb and flow of nature into the architecture of the Western world. Because of this, the loss and collapse is even more detrimental to Western people due to their indoctrination that gain is the only possibility to any kind of fulfillment.


Mankind is not the ruler over all of nature and the universe. Nature, and the probable nature of reality, have ways of regulating imbalances and eliminating excessive toxins. And it is mankind's wayward will that will be kept in check. Even if we do bring ourselves to ecological suicide, the planet will re-evolve a new intelligent form of life after our own age has come and gone as the human species. And, even if we do destroy planet earth so completely that life cannot exist on it, there will be other worlds in the universe that will evolve other intelligent life-forms who will then serve as homeostatic balances in the vast fabric of existence.


--eVan, February 25, 2013

Desire in the Strategy of Spiritual Unfoldment

Some more philosophical extractions for you... The desire to control desire is the death of desire because all desires have goals, even desires to un-do desire. Buddha is said to have claimed that desire is the source of all suffering. So someone's desires are thwarted, and if that person is in a position of power, a war is then often fought. Some have speculated that the Eastern philosophy of extinguishing desire really was Eastern elites' way of controlling their populations.

If you want something, and you haven't let the pain of failure and disappointment numb you with the clouds of forgetfulness, then you haven't fully desensitized yourself from the things you want. Therefore, you have goals, and strategies to reach those goals. Many people play the game of double bind with themselves. Or, they expect to be disappointed with something or another, and then distort their true desires.

The above is a philosophy of pessimism. Pessimists insulate themselves with a minefield of projected disappointments, so as to numb disappointment. For example, if a pessimist is watching their favorite football team on television play against a "better team," they will project "their" team's loss at the end of the fourth quarter. This helps mitigate the palliatives for the advocates of pessimism. Pessimists are therefore caught in a double-bind woven by themselves. It's like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" way of thinking. Winning and losing are then miserably and successfully pushed away.

True wants and desires become a very painful thing to be avoided for many in this world. This world is manufactured for unfulfillment. Another example I've noticed is that with people who want to make art, but claim they "can't draw," are actually avoiding disappointment. The hurt and the pain that they imagine that they will encounter from their own judgments and their friend's judgments make them avoid drawing. This is an example of a thwarted desire, not an example of someone who has no desire to make art. Absence of desire isn't a problem here.

I say that this world is "manufactured for disappointment" for obvious geo-political reasons, but also because of spiritual reasons. I believe that human beings are animated by an immaterial spirit which exists beyond the physical body. Our spirits, souls, ethereal bodies, or whatever you want to call them, are part of a larger family of spirits or souls. Because we chose to embark on this physical plane of forgetfulness, distortion, and illusion, we are separated from our greater selves. Yet we all still feel the pain of separateness in so many unconscious ways. Loneliness is a universal problem humanity has for example.

Many people are constantly trying to assuage this sense of loneliness and separation through a plethora of tawdry societal schemes. The architects of our current western civilization constructed our world and their world based on the philosophical principle of service to the self as the primary motivation that moves the geo-political economy. Ideas such as this can be found in the writings of Ayn Rand, as well as The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith. Sigmund Freud contributed to this egocentric quality that people universally display on many different levels of function as well.

Materialism is a perspective that contributes to the numbing of spiritual qualities, characteristics, understandings, and unfoldments. So the pursuit of material experiences and items tends to shunt aside real individual growth and development, as well as interdependent social developments. Many writers have written about the strategy to keep citizens afraid of one another and in competition with one another so as to keep people from joining in unions, public meetings or any other kind of threatening solidified social forces elite members of society are terrified of.

It's not my aim to completely denigrate materialism. I believe all of the opportunities for experience and learning that the west's declining material culture provides are valuable feedback mechanisms that can allow for growth in understanding. The tools that are the of result western science are magnificent accomplishments for the good of all. Computers are one example, and the concomitant internet subsequently released for public use afterwards exponentially multiplied the benefits of communication, information, and connection with other people all across the planet.

At present, I am criticizing what I feel is a very lop-sided vacuum of wisdom and spiritual evolution the western worlds maintain. Eric Fromm and Carl Jung both wrote about the west's pursuits of materialist science at the consequence of avoiding any kind of education about our spiritual and even religious inclinations. I believe that in the years to come as the western cultures rapidly decline due to evil financial and political malignancies, people will be losing many of the dreams manufactured for the twentieth century generations.

The loss of material pursuits, such as good paying jobs, stable families, and equity, such as spacious homes and luxurious cars, will introvert masses of people, and will require them to reach into themselves and search for deeper meanings to their lives. And it hopefully will help in promoting deeper societal connections between people, therefore solidifying efforts for social causes through shared suffering.

--eVan, January 5, 2013

Resources Are What International Conflict is About

Disclaimer: I am not making any money off of my political blogs. I post links to videos and articles I am currently interested in and learning about. I am, however, selling my various forms of art work, and you can contact me through the various ways I have provided on my profiles on the internet. Thank you.

As I have been learning about the global political economy, presently and historically, I have come across economists, and authors who are particularly noteworthy in my research. One author of note is Martin Armstrong who is an American financial specialist, and who developed the Economic Confidence Model. You can read more about him on Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_A._Armstrong. I keep up to date with Armstrong's blogs, and, recently, he posted a blog in which I disagree with on a point. In his article on Iran & The Fate of the Middle East, he says that the Asian market is now the financial capital of the world. Please read the whole article here http://armstrongeconomics.com/iran-the-fate-of-the-middle-east/.

I have also been a fan of Gerald Celente's who is also a very accurate economic forecaster. Take the time and listen to his various interviews, as he has educated me and many other people as to why and how Asia is heavily dependent on Western countries buying the products they produce. Here is his official media blog on which you can listen to his interviews with various media outlets http://www.geraldcelente.com. I realize that there are various bloggers who are ripping off of Celente's name, and I want to be very clear with everyone that I am in no way affiliated with them.

Now, having gotten those very important points asserted, let's explore some of the things I've learned. While it is true that Asia, and China in particular, have become quite economically successful, it is largely true that China is very dependent on Americans buying and consuming their products. It was only decades ago that China was considered to be a poor country by Western standards. They are now a major and growing contending force on the global market. Keep in mind that China has become powerful with the assistance of the United States. One event in particular that accelerated this trend is when President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement on January 1st, 1994. This agreement basically allowed for businesses, corporations and manufacturers to send American labor to impoverished countries overseas. This was done essentially so that manufacturers wouldn't have to spend so much in paying for labor, worker safety, as well as taxation (not that corporations are taxed in the same way as living individuals are taxed).

You can see that the economies of the world are dependent on each other just by the brief example outlined above. Celente has asserted in many of his interviews that China is dependent on the West buying their products, and, if the West keeps on declining with a devaluing dollar, and an inability of Americans to buy China's products, then China will also decline on the global market as well. This only makes too much sense to try to explain further. How will China be able to maintain its pristine economy when Americans no longer consume their cheap, worthless junk at a profitable rate?

A business relies on the loyalty and buying capability of its customer. Will at least $16 trillion, or more, dollars of US debt be able to continue buying from China? The US is in a debt that it will never be able to pay off, and continues to devalue its currency with quantitative easing policies that have no limits. In other words, the Federal Reserve of the US (a privately owned bank) is employed by our political and economic leaders to print money unto infinity in order to rescue the US's failing economy. China gets a lot of its natural resources from South American countries. China's economy also runs on oil, just like America's, Europe's, Russia's and the rest of the world's economies. China has trade agreements with the Middle East for oil, just like the US does, and like Russia does as well.

As best as can be known by an American citizen like myself, the US has had negative and failing foreign policies with the Middle East. A large part of that conflict has to do with the implementation of Israel as a sovereign state in 1948 in land on which Palestinians had lived on and established for many, many generations previously. Basically, elite Zionists cleared out Palestinians through war crimes after world war two on the scale of what the Nazis committed upon Jewish, and all manner of other peoples during world war two. Needless to say, all of which were completely illegal according to treaties made after world war two to keep countries from invading each other, and "clearing out" established populations.

Another part of the conflict the US has with the Middle East and why the US is so intimately involved with Middle Eastern affairs is the fact that the Middle East is one of the most oil-rich places in the world, if not the most. Resources are the number one priority of any economy. Oil is undeniably a central resource that all economies of today run on. It is a feat of artistic imagination that inferior men such as Hannity or Limbaugh can keep audiences convinced that US military force is in the Middle East to fight for freedom and democracy. But that is the collective level of stupidity, conviction, and mindful mindlessness that many Americans represent.

Anyone with average intelligence can see that Washington and Wall Street "need" and want to own the Middle East. I've already posted quotes from historical US officials such as George Kennan and the grand design outlined by American foreign policy planners after world war two, so I won't go into detail proving that there is indeed a grand plan to ultimately own the whole world in some kind of new world order with Washington supposedly at its center. There is a whole history of Washington propping up puppet dictators in Middle Eastern countries so as to have them serve America's interests--primarily the monopoly of owning oil fields, and, secondarily, to keep the brutalized and impoverished populations there "stabilized." Please read this article by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, who has also educated me immensely with his articles, to learn more about the United States' involvement in the Middle East here http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/10/05/interview-world-affairs-monthly/#.UHfU37XdQE0.twitter

It is not a feat of the imagination to conclude that there are conflicts of varying degrees between the US, China, and Russia in regards to access to Middle Eastern oil. Israel and the United States have a very exclusive relationship in the war crimes they commit now on a daily basis in the Middle East. The psychopathic war criminal, and leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu wants to invade Iran like a dog scratching his ear to get a tick out. He tries to convince the world of Iran's intent to destroy the planet with non-existent inter-continental nuclear ballistic missiles by drawing a red line through a drawing of a bomb that very much looks like an incomplete bomb that Wile E. Coyote would use to try to finally get the Roadrunner before his American audience. He did this strategically, by the way, right before elections so as to pressure President Obama into helping him invade Iran.

It must clarified to the reader that Iran and Syria are the only two sovereign countries left in the Middle East. The rest of the countries are just roiling in chaotic turmoil induced by Washington's military. China and Russia are more or less passive/aggressive supporters of Syria, and Iran. Russia has been found recently to be providing arms to pro-governemental forces in Syria. These arms are used to fight the rebels in Syria who want to oust their president Bashar al Assad. The rebels of Syria, counteractively, are strongly backed and funded by Washington and US military forces. Once the US accomplishes destroying Syria's sovereignty and securing it with military forces, all that will be left to accomplish in the Middle East will be the destruction of Iran and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Russia and Asia are particularly concerned with the United States essentially owning Middle Eastern oil fields and governments, and I can see that there would be conflicts between the major powers of the world if it came down to the US and Israel waging war with Iran on blatantly deceptive reasons, just like the US's waged war with Iraq. I really don't think Russia and China will be happy and willing slaves to US foreign policy, and unwittingly assist the US take over the Middle East to their own strategic and economic detriment. I am certain that Russia and China do not want the asinine, corrupted, and now officially fascist government of the United States dictating to them oil prices to run their economies, and that they will militarily intervene with an attempted Middle Eastern takeover by the soft-handed warmongers of the US. They will do what they can to protect the independent investments they have in Middle Eastern oil. Who knows? Perhaps the still biggest military in the world--the United States'--will continue to maintain the upper hand over the psychologies of Russia and China.


--Evan Travnicek, 10/19/2012

A selection from Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) W series

 Exculpation 1

 Important File Cabinets Seated @ Table 1

The North-Western Edge of Flat Earth 1

Here are a few examples of some of my art from the Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) W series. I put this project off for a while again, and yet tonight I stoked up some more sub-series. I used some of the panels I created physically from the Wrecked Tangle 3D Hyper-Cube -- Always -- project in these three works you see here. I plan on finishing the W series before the end of April, and I may post some of that work on Flickr. Keep an eye out for unexpected creativity, as it rarely happens on assembly lines.

eVan--April 8th, 2012

Always (the title of the finished Wrecked Tangle 3D Hyper-Cube)

Here are some pictures of the the completed project of the Wrecked Tangle 3D Hyper-Cube. I now officially title it "Always." It should be apparent that it is pointing in all six directions on a three dimensional axes, therefore it really is all ways. It's also a symbolic expression of zero-point energy interpenetrating all points in the universe. As I said in some tweets on Twitter, this work has layers of text, graphics and pastel composed on each plane. This is to symbolically represent the lies, suppression, and illusions that the corporate/state owned media manufactures for the masses to digest and not think about reality.

Thank you all for your interest in this now finally completed project. Someone suggested making a three dimensional helicopter in this style, so you just might see that as an upcoming project. In the meanwhile, I will probably make another painting for the Paranormal Portrait Project, or I might embark on finishing an already prepared semi-three-dimensional work to hang on a wall. We'll see!

Sincerely, 

eVan---February 27, 2012

Constructing the Wrecked Tangle 3D Hyper-Cube...

Here is some more of an idea of what I'm doing while constructing this Wrecked Tangle 3D Hyper-Cube. You see those planes I showed you a few examples of in the last blog post pasted together around the center cube. I finally have the whole thing pasted and pinned together. I now need to paste printouts and texts on to the wooden axes rods, and put cardboard constructed pointers on the ends of them. Then I can stick them through the middle of the cube in the center of this piece.

As I mentioned before, this object is intended to be hung from the ceiling. I suppose anyone who purchases this work of art can do anything they want with it. It looks interesting as coffee table piece. Nevertheless, I plan on putting a ring through the top axes so I can attach a chain to it for hanging on a hook on the ceiling. I'll have take a few pictures of this project when it's finished and show all of you, my wonderful followers, and even you vengeful talk-show hosts.

Love,

eVan---February 21, 2012