#masse als matrix

[rwpohl]

das kunstwerk im zeitalter seiner technischen reproduzierbarkeit (s. 31- 41) in das kunstwerk im zeitalter seiner technischen reproduzierbarkeit, walter benjamin, edition suhrkamp band 28 1963, suhrkamp verlag 1977

[thesirencult]

Astrological Predictions I Wrote Down Last Year Which Are Still Relevant- and will continue to be!

Note: I'm not here to spread fear and anxiety. Bad aspects do not exist. Our lives and the way the Art Of Astrology is expressed in our reality is a mix of different colours and vibrations. These predictions have been made with my own personal way of interpretation so please don't ask how I came up with some things. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to see the "mechanics" and "practical details" behind the predictions, simply read them and see if intuitively you vibe with them. Keep in mind these are written in a "personal notes" style so it is a tiny bit chaotic!

A year ago I did not post any content about astrology and tarot online, at least at this scale. Posting these personal observations is not a way fro me to "toot-my-own-horn". I'm actually quite skeptical about Astrology's capacity to "predict" but right now, looking at those notes it is apparent that most of those things have already manifested or are beginning to take form in our physical reality.

Enjoy and let me know what your thoughts are about what's coming.

2023 MAJOR ASPECTS

Pluto In Aquarius (23/3/2023, 3 months and then again in 2024): 20 year cycle, society, tech, consciousness, innovation on STEROIDS, last time 795,819, 1781 -> discovery of uranus, islamic/arab domination in north africa, fall and rise of dynasties in europe (foundations of europe as we know it now, al-Khwarizmi founded the field of algebra

Saturn In Pisces (7/3/2023, 26 february, may 2 2026): structuring the "unstructureable"

Jupiter In Taurus (16/5/2023-25/5/2024): wisdom of nature, stay ready/still, green

17/7/2023 -> N.Node in Aries/S.Node in Libra: love-war, Ares-Aphrodite, war between the feminine and the masculine. Fall of red pill and radical feminism, individual vs parrtnership.

Where Jupiter goes, Saturn follows. Dune, The Hermit energy. In the past few years with Jupiter in Pisces and Aries disillusionment was IN! Fights through screens (Aries), were just another day. Saturn clears the way after Jupiter's orgy. Dreams NEED a practical use (note from now : we have this whole hustling culture thing of set goals and be practical, we are basically trying to give structure to our dreams and create a step by step path to our vision). Example: astrology, NFTs and crypto, drugs, manifestation, art -> how are they contributing to our society and the betterment of it? Dissolving-then Forming-> identifying, dreaming-act/plan -> success. Only through the loss of individual power we realize we are nothing without a link to the rest of "life". Submitting to something greater/ fear (misty) of something destroying us or confronting external life. Sacrifice/Servitude. Who are you when stripped away from the world? (prison): stripped off the matrix/network, inner contemplation, power to serve to experience unity, science+spirituality meeting. loneliness + isolation = going deeper within,monk mode. developing a conscious ego. Information utilized/weaponized to help/guide the masses. Increasing consciousness and broadening the mind. We are realizing we are experiencing the "shadow" not the "idea" (Plato/Jung/archetypes)/Antigone-> divine law / human law/ loss of faith and search dor a new framework of values. Discipline in meditation, yoga driven towards God. Fight between atheism+spiritualism/nihilism+purpose. Turning inside because you lost faith, there you will find God and meaning. The form has outlived its usefulness -> conflict with the status quo and law. No church in the wild/godless. Saturn's death by Jupiter (taurus = structure).

Transformation of rules, social norms, ideas of humanity and how we use science+technology to manifest those ideas. Social + technological REVOLUTION. Renaissance. Turning to humanitarian, liberal arts/spreading knowledge-teaching. Astronomical discoveries, vaccines/antibiotics(shortages?), innovations in trade, change in the way religions and churches are structured as well as other organizations. More open. Blockchain. "Anonymity" but transparency. 48 laws of power, the prince. philosophy-> utilitarian/kant/pure reason. "how to maximize happiness for the majority. streamlined techniques. Pluto in Aquarius will bring the desire to reform. After 2044 these changes will be established. Everything will be brought to the surface. going deep and facing demons. PROMETHEUS MYTH , FIRE -> DARK SIDE OF TECH (note: AI). decentralised internet, open sourcing, energy. YOU CAN'T REACH GOD THROUGH TECHNOLOGY/CAN YOU? Grid failures+extreme weather. Internet cables connecting countries -> separation from WEB -> Who are we? power over...= domination / power with...= networks Pluto -> Πλούτος, abundance but can turn to greed -> eruption -> realizations. Society = individuals -> change= self change!

Society is going to turn its hopes, wishes , knowledge, resources and tech powers towards abundance and sustainability. Physical environment = abundance. I'm seeing a rise in holistic+cyclical approaches, natural medicine and art expression close to natural processes. Expect movement from big cities to the countryside and creation of luxury reatreats/hotels close to nature-sustainable.

source:thesirencult

[roboromantic]

OKAY movie was really really good. I do have a couple minor critiques and general thoughts below; no real order just whatever I happen to remember wanting to mention

would it have killed them to have Alpha Trion just say "No child of Primus is born without a T-cog." It would've been significantly less clunky than "son or daughter" and more inclusive; it felt like a step backwards from Earthspark :/

I woulda liked to get to know the Iacon High Guard a bit more, we really didn't get much time with them. We coulda had a bit of a teaser of them by having them attack the train that OP et al. were on, which would also show that they sabotage Sentinel

that said I think the whole "we follow the strongest bot" thing and having Starscream actively push Megatron to fight him harder was a nice change of pace from the "Megatron abuses Starscream" narratives that have kinda been the norm since ...Aligned I guess? it does feel like that means they shoulda followed Optimus at the end since he clearly defeated Megatron, but it doesn't really bother me that much

also it's only been 50 "cycles" since the Primes went offline??? surely SOMEONE besides the High Guard would remember how things used to be

It's interesting that the Primes have been kind of downgraded from being made to fight against Unicron to being made to fight Quintessons, but hey I'm all for chucking the CoP stuff out lmao

speaking of chucking stuff — I don't think they ever mentioned an AllSpark. The Matrix of Leadership was what sort of healed Cybertron instead, which was interesting.

did the scene from the trailer where Megatron looked particularly purple get cut or did I just not notice it

using Airachnid's memory to transmit the incriminating evidence kinda felt like it came from nowhere? like yeah she "sees everything" but the idea of being able to just.....wave her head over a table or st didn't have any kind of setup

the synchronized Creation of both Megatron and Optimus. chef's kiss, perfection, and I'm pretty sure Primus pulling in Orion to transform him into Optimus was staged more or less the same as the scene where Unicron rebuilds Megatron into Galvatron in the '86 movie? very neat detail if true. anyway people in the theater were cheering when Optimus flew back out to fight Megs.

ough. the portrayal of the MegOp friendship and build up to enemity was sooooooooo good. was NOT expecting Megatron to actually shoot Optimus and OUGH GOING FROM "WHY DID YOU DO THAT" TO "I'M DONE SAVING YOU." SCREAMING, CRYING, ETC.

I kinda thought the Quintessons would play a bigger role in the movie, lmao. guess that's potential sequel material? sidenote but I think it would be very funny if they just called it Transformers: Two

establishing Bee as a guy who's been working a shitty job alone for who knows how long I think made him significantly less annoying then I probably would've found him otherwise. I don't think he was THAT bad but. yeah

ok that bit near the start of the movie where OP is like "I feel like I could drill down far enough to touch Primus himself!" followed by Elita saying "You don't have the touch OR the power" made literally no sense. it was very obviously just "hey y'all remember the '86 movie?"

I kinda thought Megatron was going to do a whole "You are being deceived" speech to the masses but sadly no 😔

[castleclerics]

possible origin for the idea of edward creel from the og inspo: montauk project, and other parallels

edward creel truthers pls listen to this part of this interview i’m gonna throw up

if you don't know, this is Preston Nichols, who wrote the book “The Montauk Project: an Experiment in Time” which is where the conspiracy that inspired ST originated from. in this interview he’s talking about Al Bielek, who was also involved with Montauk and their experiments for ref.

(I DO NOT KNOW WHY ET IS COVERING HIS FACE DONT ASK ME)

EDWARD?? NEW FAMILY????? GET ME OYUT OF HERE ,

(he also explains a lot of timeline stuff in there if u wanna look but it's hard to copy word for word bc he veers off a lot lmao)

i already knew about the Montauk MK-Ultra relations but only now am i finally relating all the experiments with time to all the time fuckery in this show

so Al claimed his name was actually Edward Cameron and to be one of the missing crewmen from “The Philadelphia Experiment” aka "Project Rainbow". here's some backstory:

so when this ship vanished it was said that a green or blue fog took it's place. which is so funny especially because what i believe the ST fog to be is a visual representation of when a timeline or dimension switch happens. and Al claimed he slipped through time at random and landed in 1983 at Camp Hero because of the vanishing ship.

like Vecna's victims get dragged to a different plane of existence or timeline when he has a hold on them (hence why they are no longer in their physical bodies) so cue the blue-green fog.

and at camp hero they did a lot of experiments with broadcasting to new alternate realities and time experiments. Duncan Cameron was used for these and they started to realize he could manifest objects outside the current time and they would appear hours or days later. which falls in line with ST. we see objects changing places especially right after some weird time-related thing just happened.

for example Joyce always "misplacing" her keys after shit happens to Will the night before, or Will's walkie falling in the bathroom but being right by his feet on the field.

eventually Duncan could open an aperture and they started abducting boys aged 10-16 to send through the portal (probably what Preston is talking about in that interview)

*cough cough Brenner controlling Henry or whoever tf to commit mass murder maybe who knows*

and their first training mission was always sending them way back in time to a world in ruins and without life.

RAAAAAAAAAARARRARARARDRFDFDHSHF

Preston also claimed there was a large on-site library of videotapes for every mission

so that's cool

last fun thing is that this video of Preston is interesting because he has this sound room in his house and he lays down and listens to the swan lake theme and says this is the same recording they played at Montauk "for the matrix or the background of the transmissions(?)"

he also has lights set up that flicker with the frequencies of the music yayyy

bro it just reminds me of Victor with DALDOM and he says vague stuff about how your you can travel to different places mentally by doing this and he sees weird activity like people appearing out of nowhere LIKE SHUT UPPPPP

i think i covered everything all this digging was from months ago and i didn't take notes like an idiot so i had to research it all over again so i hope i didn't miss anything i originally wanted to include but this shit is wild !!!!

[vegansforfuture]

Eine außergewöhnliche Technologie hat das israelische Startup WandaFish entwickelt. Anders als üblich, kultiviert das Unternehmen Fett- und Muskelzellen gleichzeitig, was dann zu einem perfekten Thunfischstück führt! 👍😎🌱

Vegconomist dazu: "Das israelische Startup-Unternehmen Wanda Fish hat mit „Toro Sashimi“ seinen ersten Prototyp von kultiviertem Blauflossenthunfisch entwickelt.

Wanda Fish erklärt, dass es eine zum Patent angemeldete Technologie entwickelt hat, um die Bildung von nativem Fett in den Zellen des Roten Thunfischs zu induzieren, um dem gezüchteten Fisch die ursprüngliche samtige Textur, den einzigartigen Geschmack und die wesentlichen Nährstoffe zu verleihen.

Im Anschluss an das Zellwachstum wird in einem nachgelagerten Herstellungsprozess ein schnelles, kostengünstiges und leicht skalierbares Produktionsverfahren angewandt, um ein ganzes Stück zu erhalten. Laut Unternehmen wird die zelluläre Masse von Muskeln und Fett dabei in einer pflanzlichen Matrix vereint.

„Durch die Verwendung mehrerer Zellen des Roten Thunfischs, die sowohl Muskeln als auch Fett bilden, sowie durch unser pflanzliches 3D-Design, fangen wir die Essenz eines rohen Fischfilets ohne Konservierungsstoffe, künstliche Zusatzstoffe oder GVO ein“, sagt Malkiel Cohen, Vizepräsident für Forschung und Entwicklung bei Wanda Fish.

Laut Heffetz hat die skalierbare Plattform des Unternehmens das Potenzial, ein qualitativ hochwertiges Produkt zu einem Preis zu produzieren, der mit dem von gezüchtetem Thunfisch vergleichbar ist. Diese Effizienz würde die Einführung des Produkts auf dem Markt beschleunigen."

Quellen: ➡ LINK 1 ➡ LINK 2

CHANGE IS COMING! 😊💚

[moonyvali]

Il World Economic Forum lo ha detto chiaramente:

"Non POSSIEDERAI nulla e SARAI felice".

Bisogna quantomeno dargli atto dell'onestà intellettuale; non hanno detto infatti:

"Non POSSIEDEREMO nulla e SAREMO felici".

Per apprezzare fino in fondo lo straordinario pezzo che segue consiglio di tenere bene a mente due ambienti: da un lato le meravigliose case degli anziani di paese, che straripano di oggetti, foto di famiglia, ninnoli e cianfrusaglie; dall'altro le asettiche residenze minimali che tanto vanno di moda oggi, che somigliano più a Bed&Breakfast che ad abitazioni e che straripano di tecnologia ma sono prive di qualsiasi riferimento al passato o alla storia della famiglia.

Quando tutta la memoria sarà digitale, bastera un click per cancellare il passato e riscrivere la storia a piacimento.

Giorgio Bianchi

TUTTA COLPA DI FIGHT CLUB.

Di Lorenzo Vitelli.

La musica su Spotify. I film su Netflix. I documenti su Cloud. I libri su Kindle. L’enciclopedia su Wikipedia. Le foto su Instagram. Il lavoro su Drive. Il cibo su Glovo. Siamo nullatenenti. Affittuari di esperienze. E se vi dicessimo che la colpa è di Fight Club, un’apologia del post-capitalismo?

Fight Club, il film diretto da David Fincher e tratto dall’omonimo romanzo di Chuck Palahniuk, ha segnato profondamente l’immaginario dei Millennials, la generazione che comprende i nati tra i primi anni Ottanta e la metà degli anni Novanta. Interpretato dal riuscito binomio Norton-Pitt, il primo un impiegato mediocre, frustrato e insonne, e il secondo (in verità il suo doppelgänger) un carismatico e imprevedibile giovane kerouachiano a capo di un’organizzazione eco-terrorista, questo lungometraggio è uscito nelle sale statunitensi nel 1999, sul finire del secolo, quando qualcuno credeva che la storia fosse giunta al termine. Negli anni si è affermato come un vero e proprio cult movie, un contenitore simbolico da cui i Millennials hanno attinto citazioni e riferimenti anti-capitalisti, pose e stili di vita, poster e magliette, tanto che taluni hanno eletto il film a manifesto generazionale. Affresco schizofrenico della società tardocapitalistica il film offre una critica ridondante e fuori tempo massimo alla società dei consumi.

Si tratta di una critica all’americana della società americana, un’esplicita condanna all’accumulazione di oggetti, alla mercificazione del mondo, alla corsa ai consumi emulativi che caratterizza la classe media, in particolare i colletti bianchi, le masse impiegatizie e salariate incastrate nella gabbia trigonometrica casa-starbucks-ufficio e ritorno. A questa vita si contrappone il fight club, zona franca dell’escapismo selvaggio all’interno della metropoli. Un luogo dove si combatte a mani nude, senza regole, e che permette ai suoi adepti, quelli che si sono risvegliati dall’american dream – un risveglio che assomiglia all’effetto della red-pill di Matrix (film uscito nello stesso anno) – di riscoprire la cattività del loro essere interiore attraverso una violenza che diventa ricreativa e terapeutica, violenza redentrice che desta l’individuo dalla sua disforia esistenziale, rendendogli evidente l’asimmetria tra ciò che crede di essere e ciò che realmente è. In modo superficialmente nietzschiano, il film trasmette messaggi di questo tipo: “Tu non sei il tuo lavoro, non sei la quantità di soldi che hai in banca, non sei la macchina che guidi, né il contenuto del tuo portafogli, non sei i tuoi vestiti di marca, sei la canticchiante e danzante merda del mondo!”. Stampata sulle magliette, tatuata sugli avambracci, utilizzata per citazioni fuori luogo sui propri profili Facebook è una frase che per assurdo oggi suona come un claim pubblicitario: “le cose che possiedi alla fine ti possiedono”. Una lezione, questa, che noi Millennial a quanto pare abbiamo introiettato alla perfezione, finendo poi per vederci costretti a metterla in pratica. Infatti non siamo più posseduti dalle cose che possediamo, perché non le possediamo più! Macchine, case, vestiti di marca, conti in banca in positivo sono prerogative che la nostra generazione non contempla. Nullatenenti, al massimo possiamo affittare esperienze: ascoltiamo musica e vediamo film in streaming, leggiamo libri su supporti virtuali, non acquistiamo più riviste né giornali, abitiamo case dormitorio per tempi sempre più ridotti, guidiamo macchine non nostre, lo smartworking ci ha privato persino di un ufficio in cui lavorare stabilmente. Le città testimoniano di questo mutamento: niente più negozi di dischi, biblioteche, cinema, teatri, niente più uffici e forse, a breve, neanche più scuole. Pur rimanendo professionalmente frustrati come il protagonista, stavolta non per colpa della vita impiegatizia ma della precarietà, ci atteggiamo a Tayler Durden quando accediamo al nostro fight club customizzato inserendo un nome utente e una password su una qualsiasi piattaforma digitale, dove non ci sono più oggetti a possederci (ma i contenuti cattura-attenzione prodotti da un algoritmo).

Fight Club perciò ci ha venduto come una forma ribellistica di liberazione dalla merce, l’esproprio che in realtà il post-capitalismo stava già mettendo in atto con il nostro tacito assenso. Interiorizzata tra i Millennials l’idea secondo cui “i beni che possiedi alla fine ti possiedono”, la nostra generazione si è rivelata un parterre perfetto, ideologicamente e antropologicamente restio all’accumulazione di oggetti, alla stabilità e alla vita borghese, a cui si potevano disinvoltamente vendere i nuovi prodotti fatti di byte, la cui immaterialità assicurava di non partecipare alla società dei consumi (come la si conosceva prima dell’avvento di internet), lasciando accedere i suoi membri al nascente mercato digitale privi di sensi di colpa ma con spirito da pionieri anti-sistema. Fight Club ha raccontato implicitamente un passaggio di consegne da un’architettura capitalistica a un’altra: il vecchio mondo fordista e industrializzato muore – come nell’epilogo del film in cui esplode la città – ma perché nulla cambi davvero. Fincher e Palahniuk hanno fornito ai Millennials un libretto di istruzioni per farla finita con il vecchio capitalismo dell’accumulazione, e una cartina per orientarsi nella geografia del nuovo mondo, hanno dato vita a una delle più riuscite apologie della società post-capitalista, insospettabilmente complice dello stile di vita anti-materico che nel frattempo la Apple aveva cominciato a pubblicizzare con il suo design buddhista e il suo comunismo light dello sharing. La Apple era già promotrice dell’abolizione degli oggetti, delle case vuote e minimaliste, di un certo nomadismo esistenziale, delle vite precarie ma customizzate. Come dice Ian Svenonius in Censura subito!!!: “Apple sprona alacremente la popolazione a liberarsi dei propri beni. La musica? Salvatela sul Cloud. I libri? Sul Cloud. I film, le riviste, i giornali, e la televisione devono essere tutti stoccati nell’etere, non per terra o in un armadio. È come vivere in un monastero modernista il cui culto è la Apple stessa”. E aggiunge: “Apple ha operato un rovesciamento del mondo che ha trasformato il possesso materiale in un simbolo di povertà, e l’assenza di beni in un indice di ricchezza e potere”.

Siamo dei nullatenenti, in definitiva, e ce ne vantiamo. Le cose intorno a noi stanno scomparendo. L’accumulazione di oggetti è diventata una pratica volgare e retrograda nonostante gli oggetti raccontino una storia, costellino i nostri ricordi. Gli oggetti erano, come dice sempre Svenonius, “dei ricettacoli di conoscenza, avevano un senso, erano totem di significato”, custodivano un sapere tramandato rispetto a quello sempre rinnovato, in costante aggiornamento virtuale, che troviamo online. Il fenomeno vintage testimonia la nostalgia per gli scaffali pieni di libri polverosi, i dischi accatastati, le videoteche e le dispense piene. Ma si tratta proprio di una posa in voga tra pochi privilegiati che conferma la tendenza della società a liberarsi degli oggetti, o comunque a dargli un’importanza sempre minore, a favore invece dell’esperienza connessa all’acquisto. Alla proprietà di qualcosa infatti, si preferisce fare l’esperienza di qualcosa: questo è diventato un mantra ormai banale tra gli startupper e gli esperti di marketing di tutto il mondo. La gente vuole fare cose, vuole condividere momenti, avventure, sensazioni, peripezie. È una rincorsa al consumo emulativo di attività esperienziali da rilanciare sui propri profili social. Siamo ancora la canticchiante e danzante merda del mondo, ma adesso non abbiamo neanche più degli oggetti dietro cui nasconderci. Vogliamo farlo sapere a tutti.

https://www.lintellettualedissidente.it/inattuali/tutta-colpa-di-fight-club/?fbclid=IwAR0x5vl4FC8oEg9lZV1UVoGoMc1CggtL7E-9IPBmDFksI_o1rASrFNUTA-4

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Q Presents: The Best of the Best 97 1998 Alternative Rock / Britpop / Big Beat

Folks, this little comp here, which was included as a freebie sampler in an early 1998 issue of British music magazine Q, really gets at something that I've been banging the drum about for years now, and it's simply that, writ large, UK music is just better than American music. And I don't know how long it's been that way, but it dates back to at least sometime in the 90s. The things that have always seemed to set us apart from each other are our relative eases of access to different types of music and the overall rigidity, or lack thereof, of our many-tentacled popular music industries. And I'm gonna simultaneously get into both of those things right now. 

For one, while electronic music in the US has largely been treated as this weird and foreign sideshow, the UK has managed to fully embrace it. They had their Second Summer of Love back in 1988, which saw teenagers and twenty-somethings taken hold by the acid house phenomenon, in which large warehouses were commandeered in order to throw enormous and illegal late night raves. And outside of London, Manchester caught the bug for it especially, which then spawned an iconic scene called Madchester, with bands like The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays venturing into alternative/indie dance territory by incorporating acid house into their own respective sounds. Versatile British dance trendsetter Paul Oakenfold would co-produce the Happy Mondays' most acclaimed LP, 1990's Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, and in addition to that, enterprising DJs were also hijacking the airwaves with pirate radio transmissions of their own too, so they could bring other underground electronic music, like jungle and breakbeat hardcore, to the masses as well. 

And the prevalence of both the warehouse raves and pirate radio then seemed to engender this tradition among a significant amount of youths towards clubbing. Nightclubs would be open every night, often with some sort of theme or genre allocated for each one of those nights, and the young people would have their pick of where they wanted to go. And this time around it was all legal, except for all the drugs that you might choose to do 😅.

Now, the US, of course, has had its own clubbing history and culture too, but clubbing seems to be a far less popular activity among Americans, and you'll almost never hear our most popular radio stations showcasing the kind of electronic dance music that gets played at a club, whereas the BBC will be hip enough to air sets from some of the UK underground's greatest contemporary dance DJs.

So with nothing like a Second Summer of Love ever managing to occur in the US, despite the fact that we invented both house and techno, we still never really had a generation that electronic music successfully permeated to a comparable point of ubiquity as the UK did. And I think that's the main reason why our music isn't as good as theirs. You'll find electronic music in plenty of American pop material now, but we are so far behind what the UK has already been doing for decades. They developed their own scenes for every electronic genre under the sun and it ended up serving as this connective tissue to make the UK such a sonically vibrant and dynamic melting pot. Underworld's utterly strange techno odyssey, "Born Slippy," went to #2; drum n bass was popular enough to chart; Portishead, Massive Attack, and Tricky were all huge deals; and the big beat scene that was helmed by people like Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and The Prodigy went simply bonkers. And the US really never had *anything* close to that, besides some of that big beat crossing over to soundtrack our futuristically-themed audiovisual media, like The Matrix, et al., and some car commercials.

And without that dimension of electronic music being able to flourish Stateside, the state of our own industry resulted in something that was a whole lot more cliquish and segregated. Little to no cross-pollination really ever occurred here and the most tangible thing we ever got out of it when it actually did happen was rap-rock and nu metal 😒. After grunge died, some of our biggest, most accessible American alt rock acts ended up being names along the lines of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Third Eye Blind, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Everclear, and over in the UK, they had Radiohead, Oasis, and Blur. And Radiohead would end up drawing inspiration from Aphex Twin and IDM, and Damon Albarn from Blur would go on to form The Gorillaz. Do you see what I mean?

So all of this is to say that while Q could produce a CD like this, comprised of fantastic music by mostly UK acts that the record-buying public over there was already familiar with, no widely read US publication would've been able to pull off the same in 1998 with a CD of mostly US acts. They might've been able to cobble together a better album with purely indie material, but then a lot of the names on that CD would've been obscure to a whole lot of folks. And while this comp from Q presents UK-made electronic music in the form of big beat from The Chemical Brothers, big beat-hip hop from The Prodigy and prolific abstract Big Apple rapper Kool Keith, and vocally soulful drum n bass from Roni Size / Reprazent, the best that the US probably could've mustered in comparison would've been something from someone like Moby, and *literally no one else.*

To be clear, America has produced plenty of great music without electronic music being popular enough to really inspire it, but the problem is really twofold: that amount of music, for the massively larger population that we have in comparison to the UK, is in nowhere near as much of an abundance, and for the great stuff that we have made, our industry, mechanisms, and apparatuses don't really do all that much in order to successfully raise its profile to a point of pervasiveness like the UK does. And I think a lack of electronic music being somewhere in the accessible ether definitely has something to do with it all.

Seeing as how this post is already long enough as it is, let me just provide one example of a song from this album that's a) very good and b) by a popular UK band that's not very well-known to Americans. I'm sure the US has had an indie group whose sound approaches that of England's Mansun before, but there's no way that what they ever made ended up amounting to anywhere near a similar amount of commercial success. Mansun's music has been available in the US, but they've only ever managed to chart once here, on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks list, with their 1996 single, "Wide Open Space," peaking at #25. And while the debut LP that that song is derived from, Attack of the Grey Lantern, didn't chart in any capacity in America, conversely, it managed to make it all the way to #1 on the UK's Albums Chart.

And the Mansun song that's on this Q comp here, "Mansun's Only Love Song," is from that same album too, and I think it's safe to say that no remotely popular American band has ever made anything quite like it. It's super catchy, melty, and silky-smoothly surging Britpop with icy synths and a distinct hip hop underbelly. And it's so good 🥰.

So, something that us music lifers always seem to be confronted with is this difficult-to-maneuver intersection between art and capital, which often leads to an axiomatic conclusion that striving for capital will always corrupt art, and sacrificing your art generates the potential to attain more capital. And while that's certainly borne out in the US to what feels like an extreme degree in more modern times, I don't feel like that conflict has ever been as dire across the pond, and this simple comp here of 15 songs that were mostly made by UK acts shows that some of those who are capable of making excellent and inventive music can also make a good chunk of change off of it as well, without having to either be a rare indie band that finds a way to strike rich, or a group of total sellouts. Whatever the UK's had in place, they've certainly managed to find that balance a whole lot more often than the US has, and one of the main reasons why they've been able to do it in the first place, in my opinion, is because the fertile ground that had been laid by acid house in the late 80s enabled electronic music, more broadly, to achieve a mix of popularity, accessibility, and inspiration that never came anywhere close to materializing in America.

Fin.

Highlights:

The Chemical Brothers - "Block Rockin' Beats (radio edit)" Texas - "Black Eyed Boy" Erykah Badu - "On and On" Bush - "Swallowed (7" mix)" The Prodigy - "Diesel Power" Supergrass - "Tonight" Portishead - "Cowboys" Depeche Mode - "Barrel of a Gun" Blur - "Country Sad Ballad Man" Mansun - "Mansun's Only Love Song" Primal Scream - "Burning Wheel" Roni Size / Reprazent - "Heroes" Oasis - "Fade In-Out" Radiohead - "The Tourist"

[echoeszip]

Ieri Keanu Reeves ha compiuto 59 anni.

Abbandonato dal padre alla età di 3 anni; cresciuto con 3 diversi patrigni; dislessico; il sogno di diventare giocatore di Hockey infranto da un brutto incidente; una figlia morta durante il parto; sua moglie morta in un incidente stradale; la persona a cui tiene di più, sua sorella, affetta da leucemia; il suo migliore amico, River Phoenix (fratello di Joaquin, con cui recitò in Belli e Dannati), morto di overdose.

Con tutto quello che ha passato, Keanu non perde occasione per aiutare le persone che ne hanno bisogno. Quando girava il film "The Lake House" ha sentito per caso la discussione di due guardarobiere; una piangeva perchè avrebbe perso la casa se non avesse pagato 20.000 dollari e lo stesso giorno Keanu ha versato la somma di denaro sul conto bancario della donna; ha donato inoltre somme stratosferiche agli ospedali. Nel 2010 alcune sue foto hanno fatto il giro del mondo: per il suo compleanno Keanu è entrato in una pasticceria e si è comprato una brioche con una sola candela sopra mangiandola proprio davanti la pasticceria e offrendo caffè alle persone che si fermavano a parlare con lui.

Dopo aver guadagnato cifre astronomiche per la trilogia di Matrix, l’attore ha donato oltre 50 milioni di dollari (sì, avete letto bene) allo staff che curò i costumi e gli effetti speciali: i veri eroi della trilogia, come lui stesso li definì. Ha regalato inoltre una Harley-Davidson a ciascuno degli stunt. Una spesa complessiva di oltre 75 milioni di dollari.

Per molti film di successo (L’avvocato del diavolo con Al Pacino e Le riserve con Gene Hackman, ad esempio) è arrivato a tagliarsi il cachet anche del 90% per permettere alla produzione di assumere un’altra star hollywoodiana con cui farlo recitare.

Nel 1997 alcuni paparazzi lo scovarono intento a passare una mattinata in compagnia di un barbone a Los Angeles, ascoltandolo e condividendo con lui qualche ora. La maggior parte delle star quando fanno un gesto caritatevole lo dichiarano a tutti i mass media. #KeanuReeves non ha mai dichiarato di fare beneficenza semplicemente per una questione di principi morali e non per apparire migliore agli occhi dei fan. Quest'uomo potrebbe acquistare tutto, e invece ogni giorno si alza e sceglie uno cosa che non si può comprare: l'umiltà.

[venuemanagementport]

Entry 3 - eSports Events

This week's entry will explore the world of eSports and dissection the various discussions surrounding the legitimacy of the activity and whether it should be deemed a professional sport, or a recreational hobby. Hallmann and Giel (2018) described sport as “all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels” (pg. 14). This definition is very broad thus allowing almost any physical activity to be considered a sport as long as it is organised, contains social and physical health benefits, and is contested through competitions. Using this definition we can make an educated judgement on the validity of the activity through the definition of eSports provided by Wattanapisit et al. (2020) who describe eSports as the competition between players and teams that attempt to achieve video game-related activities through computer screen and technological interfaces. Therefore, comparing these two definitions implies that since eSports is conducted through physical activity, in organised competitions that benefit competitor's and audience members' well-being and social connections.

Artefact 4 – eSports Trophy Celebration

(Kosolapov, 2023)

Despite the appropriate characterisation of eSports, the general discourse from traditionalists is that eSports should not be considered a sport as it strays too far away from the conventional ideas of sport, and playing video games doesn’t encapsulate the true notion of sports (Tjønndal, 2020). Sporting traditionalists such as Tjønndal (2020) have also argued that allowing eSports to be considered a professional sport would open the floodgates when considering other recreational activities for professional status, suggesting that if eSports are added to prestigious sporting events such as the Olympics, then that opens the door for even less distinguished events such as ‘beer-chugging’. However, eSports isn’t simply a ‘recreational activity’, eSports has grown exponentially to a world audience of approximately 500M and generated USD1.2B in 2019 (Cramner et al., 2021). The popularity of eSports has grown considerably since its implementation to the point where prize pools for winning teams/players have exceeded $20M, thus becoming more financially gratifying than some of the most popular sports in the world (Funk et al., 2018).

Artefact 5 – eSports Revenue Data

(Gough, 2023)

Given the pop culture expansion that video games have had since the distribution of video game consoles, it is no surprise that eSports has become widely popular and heavily consumed by mass audiences. Considering how passionate and conservative sporting traditionalists are about sporting customs if they believe that eSports strays too far away from their precious sporting traditions, maybe they should consider removing the technological advancements that have furthered the facilitation of their favourite sports, such as instant replay, hawk-eye technology and data analytics. Improving technologies improves the sporting industry as well, eSports is here to stay and I’m sure that in a few years, the discourse surrounding eSports will ease, as people turn their attention and disapproval to the next innovation in the sporting industry.

References

Cranmer, Eleanor. E., Dann. Han, Dai-In., van Gisbergen, Marnix., & Jungt, T. (2020). esports Matrix: Structuring the esports Research Agenda. Computers in Human Behavior, 117, 106671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106671

Funk, D. C., Pizzo, A. D., & Baker, B. J. (2018). eSport management: Embracing eSport education and research opportunities. Sport Management Review, 21(1), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.07.008

Gough, C. (2023). eSports market revenue worldwide from 2020 to 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/490522/global-esports-market-revenue/

Hallmann, K., & Giel, T. (2018). eSports – Competitive sports or recreational activity? Sport Management Review, 21(1), 14–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.07.011

Kosolapov , R. (2023). eSports Trophy Celebration. https://ispo.com/en/sports-business/esports-history-how-it-all-began

Tjønndal, A. (2020). “What’s next? Calling beer-drinking a sport?!”: virtual resistance to considering eSport as sport. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm-10-2019-0085

Wattanapisit, A., Wattanapisit, S., & Wongsiri, S. (2020). Public Health Perspectives on eSports. Public Health Reports, 135(3), 295–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354920912718

[zooterchet]

Famous Relations

Jeffrey Dahmer: Letter to Congress, to serve in the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Given duties of SKI prison bailiff, as reform of prison sodomey and sexual assault, own request.

Ted Bundy: Economist of whaling and portside stations, music and literature attached. Found own sector of economy was being removed, defected to France, against wishes of MI-6; over ninety kills of foreign executives of British Intelligence, due to breed with "Booth" genome, mother's side; father, Chip Charlebois, still manages Bridgewater Triangle Keno; State Police Captain.

Barack Hussein Obama: Executed, electric chair; replaced, John Allen Muhammad, kindergarten CIA counselor, Jewish by miens and translated circuit, "frog"; raised to teach children to use weapons. Still attempting to deduce how inmate, "Chet", "Lee Malvo", continues to connect to internet, after mass e-mail ping in 1996, forcing deportation out of country through print of "The Matrix", self printed as "Neo", "Keanu Reeves".

James Madison: Rumored to be "German", by cousins out of Britain; Olly Olly Oxenfree, applied to man, as British boy, instead of British girl, resulting in crossing of Potomac; Puritan infantry out of Roanoke, still unaccounted for, sensitivity to Ginko Bolaba noted; as secret detective skills, "INTERPOL" organization formed in place; responsible for Great War, in "scientific method" test, to study "gay gene"; non-Talmudic book of law, US Constitution, as crafted by James Madison.

Robert the Bruce: Marijuana dealer to the richest men in Britain, Palestinian Arab in origin, "Ishmael"; arranged marriage, to Jacobin line, supported by blood of Shakespeare, "Booth" family; Booth, William Wallace, beheaded, much to shame of family, after marijuana stocks, released to common Irish of Northern Britain, relabeled "Scottish", "Utopian Society"; marijuana growing public, adding to British Empire's dominance over ale and barley crop, for beers and breads.

Pierre the Coward: Breton Crusader, in service to Frankhart; the defeat of Salah al-Din, through own troops of Arab conscript, having been given mark of Muslim, shaved heads and fast, through crops being burned by identical tactic of Saladin, hence those having found fast now in tithe to Church, the system of luxuries offered found inside of common tax of Europe to support of clergy through mutual payment of injury reported.

Joseph Chillton: Affair with Chinese-Indian woman, of high cast, "Mary", results in a bastard, refusing to serve in military campaigns of construction of roads and civilization in Judea. Military tribunal established, to see whom has themselves admitted to evidence to steal theft and proof of guilt, hence open admission of crime through practice of "Ramadan", placed on multiple days or holidays; actually forbearance with woman, of deliberate sect, preferring her drugged, with marijuana at night, to have sex with her as a victim of sexual assault; any retaining homophobia, as having refused sexual assault, therefore surviving parties, as having retained consumption of alcohol, citrus, and pig. Otherwise, a rapist, to be ignored and commonly mocked, as the Merovingian; refused a career as a police officer, soldier of military, lawyer of courts, criminal adjutator of assistance to government ward, or espionage officer in clandestine control of politician.

Samson the Arab: The prosecutor, and the first on record, having portrayed the love of his wife, as refused, due to her large buttocks, and those men preferring the bosom; thus having seduced to be rumored in arranged marriage, however only by woman, and only by man the rejected oath of poverty; the collapse of the entire Arab Empire, at the love affair, a homosexual androgynous having interfered, with the cult of fetish and domination, having demanded Samson, be on top of a woman, through her offering of her anus, as sodomey; despite the tradition of honeymoon, the woman sitting on the face, as preferable, outside penetration, that for a child; the traditions lost forever, and the Arabs banished, to the Dark, the Vampires; Gypsy, psychics.

[gabrielisscripta]

SÉANCE #10 L'allégorie de la caverne numérique

L’intelligence artificielle (IA) a connu des avancées technologiques impressionnantes ces dernières années. De plus en plus performante et accessible, l’IA a passé du statut d’innovation de pointe à technologie de masse (LePont, 2023). Cependant, l’IA pose des questions inquiétantes car elle résout des problèmes de manière que les humains ne peuvent pas toujours suivre ; cette opacité est souvent appelée le concept de la boîte noire. (de Castex, s.d.). En se complexifiant, ces systèmes rendent opaques, du point de vue de l’utilisateur, les procédés internes de leur fonctionnement. Cette opacité maximale, qui ne peut, par conception, devenir transparente, rend impossible d’établir rationnellement un lien de cause à effet entre les données de départ et le résultat final (idem). Faut-il comprendre les algorithmes pour leur faire confiance ? 

Dans l’imaginaire collectif, la narration adoptée face à la montée technologique est méfiante. Les grandes productions telles que Matrix, Terminator, Black Mirror ou encore le livre 1984 antagonisent la progression technologique. Ces œuvres fictives deviennent un point de référence quant aux conséquences potentielles de l’avancement technologique ; la mégarde est de mise.  Les premiers abords de la population générale sont naturellement sceptiques quant aux accomplissements utilitaires possibles de l’IA. Certains pensent que c’est possible et appellent le problème de la boîte noire un mythe (Bender, 2019). Le modèle d’apprentissage profond, de l'hôpital général du Massachusetts, surpasse les radiologues dans le dépistage des mammographies (idem). À cause du processus derrière la boîte noire, les résultats ne sont pas explicitement compréhensibles, mais diverses méthodes en langage machine permettent d'interpréter ces résultats. De plus, certains médecins pensent que pour utiliser ces systèmes, ils doivent comprendre comment l’IA prend ses décisions. Cependant, la médecine est riche en technologies avancées qui fonctionnent d'une manière que les cliniciens ne maîtrisent pas totalement (idem). 

L’exemple du dépistage est un exemple modeste et le début d’un phénomène global dans le domaine de la médecine générale (Amisha et al, 2019). Il existe un point de basculement potentiel où l’intelligence artificielle dépassera l'intelligence humaine. Elle pourrait être capable de s'améliorer elle-même à un rythme exponentiel, conduisant à des avancées technologiques inimaginables. (Ziegler, 2023). À ce point, notre compréhension serait un fardeau sur son vrai potentiel. 

source: BingAI, 2023

Références bibliographiques

Amisha, M., Pathania, M., Rathaur, V. (2019, juillet). Overview of artificial intelligence in medicine. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care. 8 (7). 2328-2331. DOI: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_440_19.

BingAI. (2023). DALL-E (Version 3) [Une représentation visuelle des concepts de l'intelligence artificielle, la singularité technologique, et les implications éthiques et sociétales mentionnées dans le texte]. URL.

Bender, E. (2019, 4 décembre). Unpacking the Black Box in Artificial Intelligence for Medicine. Undark. URL. 

de Castex, E. (2019, 20 décembre). Le problème de la boîte noire : pour faire confiance aux algorithmes, faut-il les comprendre. Anthropotechnie. URL. 

LePont. (2024, 5 mars). Quel avenir pour l'intelligence artificielle: bilan pour 2023. URL. .

Ziegler, R. (2023, 29 mai). La singularité est-elle une menace pour l'humanité. Tomorrow Bio. URL.

[thejase]

My Thoughts on 2023

Firstly are you ok?

I did consider whether or not to write my annual round up this year, given the horrendous things happening in the world right now, but it’s always been a kind of yearly catharsis for me so I’ll forge ahead as per usual, avoiding the topics of war and genocide because there’s no humour or satire to be found in the horrors currently taking place which are entirely beyond my comprehension.

2023 kicked of with a visit from Thor – not the god of thunder but a wandering Arctic walrus who decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Scarborough. However instead of going on a massive bender Thor just hung out on the beach after realising the local Wetherspoons no longer served Skol. The council cancelled its planned firework display so as not to disturb Thor which seemed entirely reasonable since his visit was the most exciting thing to happen in Scarborough since Cannon and Ball did a Summer season there in 1983. No doubt the usual suspects decried this as ‘health and safety gone mad’ and accused Thor of being a ‘woke walrus’ before sending him packing off to Iceland.

February saw the tragic death of Nicola Bulley and the discovery of her body resulted in the arrival of a small army of one of the most peculiar and disturbing phenomenons of the 21st century – the web sleuths. No crime scene is complete now without a seething mass of vlogging Columbos all trying to achieve influencer status by hampering investigations, tramping all over evidence and generally ignoring the feelings of the victim’s relatives and friends. 

In May we were treated to the biggest cosplay event since Comic Con with the coronation of old sausage fingers Charlie. Stealing the show for middle aged men was voluptuous sword mistress Penny Mordaunt. Regally attired in a Poundland themed dress, Penny demonstrated that her magician’s assistant training made her capable of simultaneously holding a sword and walking. Up and down the land blood pressures were going through the roof and you could hear the loud collective ‘phwoar’ emanating from the suburbs. 

Tragedy struck again in June with the disappearance of the Titan submersible as it was en route to the Titanic (possibly not the best omen). A group of very rich people paid $250,000 each travel in a vessel which according to the waiver they signed “has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.” The incident did confirm for me something I’d long suspected – that being a billionaire is rubbish. I mean, I’m sure it beats living in poverty, but constantly having to fill the monotonous void of your existence with increasingly ridiculous and dangerous pastimes seems like a lifestyle choice I’d rather forgo. Also you have to spend your time hanging out with other billionaires which seems about as much fun as boiling your own head.

Speaking of billionaires, July saw memelord Elon Musk instigate the worst rebrand since Marathon became Snickers, with the renaming of Twitter as ‘X’. Gone was the genial birdy icon and in came an aggressive looking X which pretty much sums up the platform’s decline. X just doesn’t really work as a verb the way ‘tweet’ did. “That’s funny, I’m gonna X that!” Nope. Not feeling it. Maybe it’s because Elon Musk believes that we don’t really eXist and are in fact al living in a version of the MatriX. But it’s probably because he’s a knob.

The cultural highlight of 2023 was the cinematic Ying Yang known as Barbenheimer. What started as a joke became a PR start so cunning that no one who works in PR could ever have thought of it. Apparently the way to do it was to see Oppenheimer first then watch Barbie (preferably dressed in pink) as a kind of palette cleanser. Maybe this will pave the way for future contrasting film mashups – ‘Saw Patrol’, ‘Mission Impaddington’,  ‘Killers of the Flower Dune’ anyone?

The Tories gathered in Manchester for the annual round of infighting and back stabbing collectively known as the Conservative Party Conference. Bizarrely the hot ticket seemed to be Liz Truss who managed to pack the room for her speech whilst the main hall was littered with just a few old duffers looking for somewhere to kip. Whether they had turned up to hear her speech or just to see if she could find the door this time is anyone guess. Meanwhile Rishi Sunak decided that his visit to the north (or Plebland as he calls it) would be the perfect opportunity to announce the cancelling of the HS2 train line to, you guessed it, the north. So pumped was he with cancelling fever that he went on to cancel a load of stuff which didn’t even exist. Sunak seems to have decided that his political fate lies in the hands of ‘Meldrew Man’ – someone too old to worry about climate catastrophe but is incandescent with rage about pot holes. However nothing could top sexy sword queen Penny Mordaunt. She went full Henry V with a speech encouraging the nation to “Stand up and fight – because when you stand up and fight, the person besides you stands up and fights…” Fortunately most people in the auditorium were too old to stand up so it didn’t all kick off but it did leave everyone a little perplexed as to what exactly they were supposed to be fighting against.

2023 saw a run of celebrity scandals. In May we had Phillip Schofield who had apparently not been honest about something or other he’d done in the past that I thought everyone knew about anyway. It was a bit confusing but it was probably just payback for the cardinal sin of jumping a queue the year before. The most bizarre bit was Holly Willoughby taking on the role as a kind of light entertainment grief counsellor for the nation. It was never like this with Frank Bough. 

In July heat was taken off Phil with The Sun running a story about a “high-profile BBC presenter” paying a 17 year old for “sordid images”. Obviously the ‘newspaper’ wanted to create a bit of mystique around the identity of the presenter to increase sales, prompting an intense period of Shaggymania with just about every eligible BBC presenter declaring “it wasn’t me”. 

Then in a turn of events even less surprising than having Dave Grohl turn up at a gig and perform a guest spot, along came the ‘shaggers shagger’ Russell Brand. In recent years Russy Wussy has rebranded himself as a kind of cosmic guru and – yawn – champion of free speech. Obviously sensing his #MeToo moment was on the horizon he’d been assembling an army of useful idiots eager to believe whatever conspiracy theory he spouted who would rush to his defence with claims of ‘witch hunts’ and plots against him by the ‘mainstream media’. Let’s hope he gets some time to contemplate his actions in ‘jailey wailey’.

November saw political and technology leaders from around the world gather Bletchley Park for the AI Safety Summit. Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak also turned up and set out to prove their tech bro credentials by demonstrating that they had both seen The Terminator. Personally I welcome our AI overlords. Recent history has shown that democracy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and maybe humans are not quite evolved enough to but put in charge of anything more dangerous than a bouncy castle. I’m all for future government policies being written by ChatGPT, or even a roomful of monkeys with typewriters.

A round up of 2023 couldn’t go by without a mention of Suella ‘Priti, hold my beer’ Braverman. This was the year she went rogue and became the nation’s twisted firestarter in the hope of becoming PM before the next election. Suella was fired for suggesting that people choose homelessness in order to get a feature spread in Hello magazine and was replaced by James ‘spike my beer’ Cleverly – surely the most ironically named man in politics. Jame’s replacement as Foreign Secretary was none other than David ‘put my beer in an offshore trust’ Cameron, the man who had ostensibly screwed everything up in the first place then whistled a jolly tune as he trotted off to his million pound ham cave. Bravo.

Finally, I discovered a new word this year:

weltschmerz

(n.) lit. “world-pain”; the depression you feel when the world as it is doesn’t reflect what you think it should be.

I guess it sums up how I’ve felt since I began writing these. However, this year I’m gonna take hot Penny’s advice and stand up and fight – well maybe after I’ve had a cuppa.

Happy New Year. X 

[clarktooncrossing]

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT IS I, SANTA CLARK! Chestnuts are roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost is nipping at your nose. Mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again. All the dogs in the neighborhood somehow learned to bark Jingle Bells in sync. Yet retail workers are still more annoyed with Mariah Carey. Snow is getting shoveled, tossed, and formed into sentient beings leading parades without permits. It makes for an excellent distraction as the Krampus abducts children for bad behavior. Fruitcake is exchanged only to find its permanent home in the garbage. Terrorists have hijacked the Holiday office party right before your boss can give you a Jelly of the Month Club membership as your bonus. And of course, the Turducken has returned to wreak its fiery vengeance upon an unsuspecting world! If all this doesn’t put you in the Christmas spirit, perhaps this festive slice of cheer from the Clarktoons will!

Let's make like The Ghost of Christmas Past and rewind back to 2014. Folks were suffering from Frozen Fever, both as a result of the movie and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. That year also saw Jimmy Fallon take over The Tonight Show after Leno stepped away for real this time, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 swung low while the Guardians of the Galaxy aimed high, people still cared about Kanye and Kim's relationship as if either people are worth your attention, Bill Cosby was outed as the horrible monster that he is, and most importantly of all, I initiated the 12 Days of Christmas event. Yes, clearly that's as major a moment as those other things I mentioned. Starting December 14th I would post a new pic or comic everyday leading up 'til Christmas. Our first year saw the Pizza Bites writing their oddball letters to Santa (with help from Mr-Herp-Derp), Crocie visualizing his perfect yuletide, and even a full length action comic starring me as a seasonal superhero. And in case anybody asks: no, the Holiday Knight isn't coming back. Sadly, neither will the 12 Days at this rate. Despite my continued best efforts, this festive event hasn't been able to return ever since 2020. Blame that on the last four months of every year becoming an increasingly busy time for. Should the choice arise, I will always pick spending the season with my family over drawing. Weird to hear, I know. Still, that's not to say I haven't been hard at work. You can tell I have considering this giant page of sketches I found lingering in Clarktoon Christmas limbo. Thus we have Dumpster DUDELZ: Regifted Edition! Let's take a peak to what's waiting under the tree?

[1] KARL THE KRAMPUS People credit that crummy 2015 horror movie for introducing Krampus into the popular culture. To that I say; you're all wrong! Clearly I did that a year earlier with my own character, Karl. Being a Clarktoon take on a German folk monster, naturally he became a big, bumbling goofball envisioned to have the voice of Richard Kind. It also meant he encountered Croc's Swamp Gang the most, Xena and Bumper especially. After years of the two (or at least Xena) tormenting the fluffy demon, it was time for a facelift. Honestly this design is a drastic upgrade over the original, making Karl more monstrous while not losing his approachability. Cuz only in the Clarktooniverse will you meet a cuddly monster who drags naughty children of to hell. XD

[2] NUTCRACKER: REB00TED CAST Nutcracker freak'n sucks! I have made my opinions regarding this boring ballet no secret over the years. For crying out loud, I compared going to see it to the Five Stages of Death. Nothing against anybody who does enjoy it, just don't count me among your masses. Getting me to like adaptations lacking Mickey and Minnie is a challenge. Then again, I enjoy a good challenge. While contemplating what I would do with the story one year, an ad for Matrix: Resurrections dropped onto YouTube. After seeing it I thought: what if the world of Nutcracker was set within the Matrix? Hence we have Nutracker: REB00TED! I plan to diverge more plot details later, but for now you can at least meet our cast. Starting from left to right we have Prince Leon, the Nutcracker Prince who's grasp on reality is slipping. Helping to guide him is the Count Drosselmyer, turned into Love-A-Lot Larry Beary. Don't let his cuddly facade fool you, he will whoop yo' @$$! Alongside his niece Clara, the badass ballerina determined to rescue her beloved and free the kingdom from the evil Rat King! What does the king look like? Good things come to those who wait...

[3] ROSIE MEETS THE HOGFATHER Any excuse to draw Rosie Stardust is an awesome one! Even if the sketch is last minute like this one. During the Holiday season last year this random little idea sprung into mind of Rosie exploring Christmas contemporaries across the multiverse. This would include Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Hearth's Warming Eve, Life Day, and of course Hogswatch. Anyone familiar to the works of Terry Pratchett will recognize the name. Just like those esteemed few will also recognize the mini-Claus counterpart the Cosmic Cutie's encountered. It's not the Hogfather she was expecting, but she will gladly take it!

[4] WILBUR'S PLASTIC TREE You'd think a collection of coupons would be the easiest to complete. Just like you'd think the monkeys would stop flying out of my butt at some point. Nope, that ain't happening. Blame it on my nitpicky attention to details, otherwise Wilbur's White Elephants coupons are already a third of the way done. In fact, the sketch here is already fully colored just waiting to be posted. Being the cheap sonuv'a bush he is, Wilbur naturally won't go for a natural Christmas tree, instead opting for plastic. No, the other kind of plastic. The kind that'll guarantee some poor tree manufacturer in Hoboken will get an angry phone call from an irate store manager. And in case you're wondering what he sounds like, my ideal voice actor is Daran Norris doing his Jameson voice from Spectacular Spider-Man!

[5-7] REDESIGNS FOR RANDOLF, CUPID, AND ZED My, here's a jolly trio that haven't been seen in a good while. Probably because I keep wanting to give them better designs! This is an itch I can't ever seem to scratch! Since I've listed all three of them together, let's go over each character:

RANDOLF: The cocky but caring step-brother of a certain red-nosed reindeer, Randolf hosts the famous North Pole 1 radio show alongside his bear buddy Zed whenever not hosting the even more famous Reindeer Games. Out of all the characters, Randolf is the one who's design if the toughest to crack. I want him to look young, but not super young. Think early to mid 30s if you will. It'd probably help if I could pin down a potential voice for him. Sam Rockwell is the top contender in my mind.

CUPID: Following some messy drama between princessofDisney27 of Disney and I, the original version of Cupid was thrown out and reworked from the top down. With an extreme hairstyle I 'borrowed' from MLP and an athlete's need for speed, Cupid lives up to her namesake who first pulled Santa's sleigh years ago. No idea on who would voice her if I could afford it.

ZED: Raised by gay penguins on a diet of Polar Cola and smooth jazz, Zed is a laid back bear with a beach comber's attitude.  So long as wherever he is has a heater and is populated by his buddies, Zed will go with wherever the flow will take him. His design is the easiest, being a polar bear in a Hawaiian shirt. One of these days I wanna draw him with his two penguin papas too, but for now we at least have the bear. Again, not sure who I'd have voice him.

[8] BUMPER'S A STAR! A sad truth about my Christmas tree is that I can never put a star on top of it. Everything we've tried is too top heavy. For the longest time I meant to make one featuring everybody's favorite floating marshmallow, finally following through on this desire this year. I made a shape template in Illustrator, drew the front and back of Bumper around it, colored it all in Illustrator, printed both sides out and glued them together. I would've just printed both sides on one sheet of paper, but printers are evil devices meant to torture mankind as a whole. I hate them! But I love this tree topper! ^^

[9] PANICKED TURKEY It's a shame Panicked Turkey didn't get to come out of hibernation this year. Especially when I had some good ideas for tips involving Canon Events, certain cartoon rodents, time traveling, dragons, and Rosie. Chances are I'll be able to use these ideas again in the future, but for now I just wanted to post something with the cowardly bird. So here's the sketch detailing his redesign from last year. Like Karl, this is another change I really like, PT feeling more expressive than he previously was. Hopefully we'll get to see this design in action again next year!

[10] I'll Have a BOO Christmas Without You ...I'm not even sorry! XD

[11] ALIENS OF THE ROCKAPOCALYPSE! Hey look, more characters you haven't seen in forever! This is Phil, the Clarktooniverse's resident one-eyed rockstar from outer space. Back in the day I used to do mock album covers for Christmas, Phil's girlfriend Yezzi standing in for Mariah Carey on one particularly great one that still holds up. Sadly there's only so many iconic Holiday CD covers you can do that aren't just the same generic 'things coming out of a box' design. Heck, it's why the last one of these I did was based on a Manowar album. That following year would've seen an all-new, totally original creation depicting Phil and Yezzi rocking around a dried out Christmas tree in a Nuclear Winter Wonderland. Sadly the full sketch was never realized, save for Phil's rocker gear here. Worse still, these characters have been retired until I can iron out the finer details of their story. Once I do, expect the ultimate comeback tour from the Aliens of the Rock! Just in time for the yuletide / end of the world!

[12] PANICKED WHO? What turkey? I don't see any turkey. All I see is this friendly induvial with a mustache! One who was just drawn randomly with no other intent behind it. Totally. XD

[13] KREEPY KRAMPUS Once upon a time I was able to complete entire comic storylines before Christmas. That couldn't be said for this one comic where Bumper and Xena both try to buy each other Christmas gifts, each of them going after different notable Christmas creatures to pay for them. Bumper would've gone after the wild Nog while Xena would've picked a more frightful foe: the Krampus! This image of the German monster is what she'd find while searching for information online, my intent to be truer to the original folklore than my usual interpretation. It would've made Karl's inevitable appearance that much funnier. Part of me still wants to see this comic fully realized someday. Until then; let this haunt your nightmares!

[14] ANGELICIA, THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON Remember earlier when I mentioned a comic centered around me as a Holiday hero? The one I will never bring back? Part of that idea involved a literal spirit of the season named Angelicia, an adopted sister of sorts to Finjix's own character Aklamos. Both of us have tweaked and upgraded her overall appearance over the years, this being her last for an intended Sketch BOOM that was scrapped. I really should use this character again, the question is for what?

[15] A TURKEY DINNER TO GO! Like I said, there was once a Holiday Sketch BOOM that was never completed. This Panicked Turkey sketch is one of the few things to survive from it. Ignoring how this design was pre-2022 makeover, I still think this silly little pic is hilarious! Next Thanksgiving I'll make sure to remake this in full color!

[16] THE NOG Along with Karl, the Nog has become a seasonal staple of the Clarktooniverse. For years mankind has wondered where the eggs for Eggnog have come from. Some silly saps think they come out of chickens, but we all know that's a lie! Obviously the eggs come courtesy of the wild, North American Nog! These rambunctious creatures hail in the colder climates, sticking primarily to the North States where they graze on wild berries, tree bark, and rare flowers. Whenever it's not foraging for food it's fending off wild predators, displaying its tusks for potential mates, running for Congress, or raising their young. That is, the young that actually get to hatch. Good luck drinking that next ice-cold cup knowing the Nog is 100% real and you're feasting on what could've been one of its young you sick monster!

[17-18] TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE DOVES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Doves! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Doves! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Doves! Heroes for the Holidays! BIRDY POWER! Back in 2019 I made a silly little parody of the Ninja Turtles based on the beloved Christmas carol "The 12 Days of Christmas". Was it an extremally obvious joke to make? Yes. Does my earlier pun prove I will stoop to such lows? Heck yes! Thus these two goofy characters were born and eventually given the names Currier and Ives by AnimatedTigerGirl. Currier is the one with the bo staff on the left. At home he's a easy-going party animal, but in the field he's a dedicated leader fighting to keep his family safe. Next to him is the nunchuck-wielding Ives, a hot-tempered brainiac with a big heart. Together the two must save their mother, face the 10 Evils of Christmas, and help out their new human friend Ash.

Standing in for their April O'Neal is Ash, one of their few human friends who helps her fine-feathered friends move about New York. Since this story is set during the 90s, she's naturally a skate-boarding tomboy ready to prove to her dad that she's more capable than given credit for. That chance comes suddenly when her father is abducted by the Partridge Crime Family and their ten specifically themed assassins. Now Ash must rescue her dad alongside these two magically enhanced bird-themed ninjas. Y'know, that old chestnut!

[19] SHORT-E AND SHER-I Dang, it's been a while since these two were seen either. I'm sensing a pattern here. At leas these designs have held up the best. Heck, they look especially good in their winter ensemble. SHORT-E wears basic gloves and a jamaica while SHER-I went shopping with EMIL-E to get fancier gloves and a beret! SLAY, QUEEN!

[20] SNOW CONIE MEETS THE NOG Yes, another refuge from the scrapped Sketch BOOM. This one featuring the unofficial mascot of the Sketch BOOMs, the Snow Conies! Or at least one, facing down the angry snout of a mother Nog. I envision these creatures having the temperament of wild hogs, much to the misfortune of this innocent sentient dessert!

[21] SIR PANICKED TURKEY, THE CANADIAN! Along with redesigning this cowardly bird, I also made a special bonus Panicked Turkey tip for Canadian Thanksgiving. It was very last second, going through a few iterations before settling on the final idea. Before then the plan was to either have PT surrounded by angry canucks with guns in a style similar to the John Wick posters or the giant chicken disguising himself as a Mounty, not yet realizing he'll find no peace in the Great White North. Ultimately both were dropped in favor or one menacing Mounty looming over the frightened fowl, which I thought wouldn't work until I saw the final product. Funny how that works, innit? Still, what about the entre in shining armor? That has to do with an idea I mentioned earlier, but I dare not spoil the surprise further than that. Like I mentioned, said idea can be reused for next year. So when Turkey Day rears its ugly head, Sir Turkey turned tail and fled!

[22] UGLY SWEATERS, TROPICAL WEATHER Yet again another idea I hope to bring back, though slightly modified. Originally the plan was to make Ugly Sweater pin-ups for the couples (or friends) of 3K with my friends Finjix and @burningthrucelluloid. This one was the only one sketched before Alec lost his Adobe art programs that would've allowed him to help in this project. Even then, my nitpicky attention to details got the better of me again and too much time was wasted attempting to draw the other pics. All we got out of this failed collaboration were Nerva and her buddy Weed Eater in their Hawaiian-style sweaters, the latter not happy about his situation. He was even depicted eating the sweater and partridge at one point. Who would've guessed the living Christmas tree would be a humbug?

[23-24] CROCZILLA VS TURDUCKEN When I released by Terror of the Turducken posters back in 2020, peeps said they would totally pay to see that movie. Hopefully the same can be said for its sequel, an epic clash between the titular Turducken and the colossal Croczilla! Why are they fighting? Who cares, it's two giant monsters beating the stuffing out'a each other! No doubt the posted to go with this creature feature would've been a legendary one! At least had it not been for my nitpicky attention to details. Plenty of poster designs were drawn up, including this one that was inspired by the then-current Godzillva vs Kong posters. Perhaps I can recycle this idea next year when the sequel comes out and the two fight another giant monkey. Until then, feel free to place your bets on which of these festive Kaijus come out on top!

And if you're rooting for the Turducken, enjoy this redesign of the character where each of its heads feel more distinct. Hey, if nothing else it's cooler to look at than another freak'n ape.

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

[b2bcybersecurity]

Oracle: 508 neue Sicherheitspatches für 132 Produkte

In seinem Oracle Critical Patch Update Advisory – Juli 2023 patcht Oracle gleich in der Masse: Es gibt 508 neue Sicherheitspatches für 132 Produkte. In der Matrix finden sich Updates für über 70 kritische Schwachstellen mit einem CVSS-Wert von 9.0 bis 9.8 und unzählige hochgefährliche Schwachstellen. Administratoren sollten umgehend handeln.  Oracles Critical Patch Update Advisory – Juli 2023 ist ausgedruckt viele Meter lang. Die diversen Matrixen stellen 508 Updates für 132 Produkte vor. Mit dabei: die Fehlerbeschreibung inklusive CVE-Nummer und dem CVSS-Wert. Über 70 Schwachstellen gelten als Kritisch und haben einen CVSS-Wert von 9.0 bis 9.8. Die Anzahl der hochgefährlichen Schwachstellen, die mit einem Wert von 7.0 bis 8.9 eingestuft sind, lassen sich kaum zählen. Oracle: Über 70 kritische Updates Oracle erhält weiterhin regelmäßig Berichte über Versuche, Schwachstellen böswillig auszunutzen, für die Oracle bereits Sicherheitspatches veröffentlicht hat. In einigen Fällen wurde berichtet, dass Angreifer erfolgreich waren, weil Zielkunden es versäumt hatten, verfügbare Oracle-Patches zu installieren. Oracle empfiehlt Kunden daher dringend, aktiv unterstützte Versionen beizubehalten und kritische Patch-Update-Sicherheitspatches unverzüglich anzuwenden. Die Updates betreffen 132 Produkte aus Bereichen, wie etwa Oracle Banking, Communications, Data Integrator, Enterprise, Financial, Retail, Utilities. Die Liste auf der Update-Seite führt Verantwortliche schnell zu ihrer Update-Matrix mit Versionsnummern und CVSS-Werten.   Passende Artikel zum Thema Lesen Sie den ganzen Artikel

[hatemeorloveme6]

CCClique

[click click click clack! "Ich bin ein Computer, eine entsicherte Waffe, der Sekundenzeiger in deiner Uhr. Gib auf mich Acht, du kleiner Bastard. Warum sonst dringe ich so aufdringlich an dein Ohr?"]

Erster Schritt: Sich der eigenen Situation bewusst werden.

Zweiter Schritt: Sich dazu entscheiden, nichts zu tun.

[Ein Teufelskreis]

K: Menschen sind die wahren Missgeburten der gemeinsamen Mutter "Natur". Wer sonst unterliegt ihr und muss ständig bei der Hand genommen werden, damit er sich selbst hilft? Sie wollen doch allesamt gesagt bekommen was zu tun ist. Sonst tun sie nämlich gar nichts.

J: Worauf willst du hinaus?

K: Rote oder blaue Pille? Rote, nehme ich an. Du hältst dich für einen kalten Rationalisten. Dabei bist du genauso wie alle anderen blauen Pillenschlucker- Eskapisten.

J: Tatenlosigkeit lässt sich rational begründen, die Tat an sich meist jedoch nicht. Tat ist intuitiv. Wenn der Mensch dazu bewegt wird eine Handlung auszuführen, die ihm sonst schamvoll oder mühsam vorkommt, passiert das aus einer inneren Motivation heraus, die stärker als die eigene Schuld oder der Schmerz wiegt. Die meisten begründen ihr Handeln schließlich damit, dass es sich "richtig angefühlt hat" etwas zu tun. Sie versuchen ihr Dasein mit inneren Werten in Einklang zu bringen.

Menschen rationalisieren sich gerne, obwohl sie es oft besser wissen. Es ist nun einmal menschlich, Schmerz zu meiden und ihm entkommen zu wollen.

Solange du im Leben dahin treibst und dich mit den Pflichten des Alltags beschäftigst, trägst du keine unmittelbare Verantwortung für die Mitgestaltung deiner Zukunft und die der anderen. Solange du es nicht weißt, braucht es dich selbstverständlich auch nicht zu kümmern. Das Leben zieht ohne dich weiter während du dich abkapselst. Und das ist die beste Zeit die du je in deinem Leben haben wirst und haben kannst. Du bist glücklich, weil du nichts anderes kennst. Allegorisch wählst du die blaue Pille. Im wörtlichen Sinne bist du feige, aber willst dir das nicht eingestehen. Sonst würdest du dich ja nicht selbstrationalisieren. Verstehst du worauf ich hinaus will?

K: Wissen oder nicht wissen, das spielt doch keine Rolle. Es kommt darauf an, was du mit der "schmerzenden, brutalen" Erkenntnis machst, die man dir anbietet. Anbietet oder aufzwingt.

Die rote Pille ist genauso eine Lüge wie die blaue. Sie verspricht dir radikale-absolute Wahrheit, ein Herausheben aus der Masse, einen ziemlichen Ego-Boost. Aber höchstens zwei dieser Versprechen sind wahr- wenn es ganz ganz gut bei dir läuft.

Was eigentlich passiert ist, dir wird ein falsches Bild der Realität vermittelt um dich für die Zwecke anderer zu radikalisieren. Und wenn es das nicht ist, wirst du nichts mit dem erlangten Wissen anfangen, weil man dir nicht sagt was konkret zu tun ist. Lebensverändernd. Lebensverändernde Wahrheit, was für ein Witz.

Der Dealer der sie dir zuspielt braucht keine zwei paar Hände um sie dir zu geben. Dieselbe Hand die dir die blaue reicht, bietet dir die rote an. Wie soll das funktionieren, wenn jemand dich zugleich blenden und erleuchten will? Warum sollte er? Vielleicht weil er dich schützen will. Ha ha.

Bietet er dir wirklich eine Fluchtmöglichkeit oder ist das nur Manipulation? Wer will denn auch schon als Schläfer in der Masse betitelt werden.

Das funktioniert bereits rein vom System her nicht.

Wir sind – im wortwörtlichen Sinne - nicht in der Matrix. Morpheus ist in unserer Welt kein gutmeinender Schwarzer, der eine Gruppe an Rebellen führt und auf ein Ziel zum Wohle der Menschheit hinarbeitet. Wobei er bereits alle nötigen Schritte getan hat, um eine Chance der Veränderung zu ermöglichen. In unserer Welt gibt es nur Morpheus den Schläfergott. Gott der Träume. Die Fähigkeit zum Aufwecken dichten wir ihm an, dabei gibt es dazu gar keinen Grund. Wer Macht hat, gibt sie nicht einfach so auf.

In unserer Welt ist Morpheus entweder Politiker oder Terrorist.

In jedem Fall gibt es keine absolute "radikale Wahrheit" die alle anderen Sichtweisen nullifiziert.

Wenn unser Morpheus uns anbietet DIE WAHRHEIT zu erkennen, ist das nur eine Farce.

Ich gehe den Ablauf nochmal mit dir durch:

Unser Morpheus bietet dir eine rote und eine blaue Pille an. Seine Haut ist bleich, ungestört vom Sonnenlicht des Tags. Sein Anzug ist grau und völlig faltenlos. Wenn er lächelt, sieht man die Art vollkommen weißer Geradlinigkeit, die bei Zähnen in 100% der Fälle auf einen kosmetischen Eingriff hindeutet. Im Licht der über euren Köpfen hängenden Lampe, glänzen die Kapseln ein wenig. Du weißt nicht was ihr Inhalt ist. Aber er verspricht dir für die rote Pille eine lebensverändernde, wenn auch unangenehme Wahrheit über die Welt, die dich aus dem schlafwandlerischem Zustand der Masse wecken soll. Die blaue Pille hingegen lässt dich eskapieren. Du entfliehst dem Schmerz der Erkenntnis, du lebst dein Leben weiter wie bisher. Ungestört und zufrieden mit der täglichen Dosis an Glück die du dir verabreichst. Und bis an dein Lebensende wirst du in diesem seelischen Frieden verweilen. Du darfst wählen zwischen der Konfrontation und dem Eskapismus.

Darauffolgende Gedanken:

"Morpheus ist ja mal mega sexy."

"Was werde ich erfahren, wenn ich die rote Pille nehme?"

"Ich bin kein seelischer Schläfer in der Masse, mein Leben ist voller störender Banalitäten."

"Kann ich mit dem Wissen der Pille leben? Wie soll ich mit ihr umgehen. Vielleicht ist es doch besser die blaue zu nehmen. Weil ich dann wenigstens glücklich bin. Mein Leben ist schon anstrengend genug gewesen und die blaue klingt doch nach einem lebenslangen Trip?"

"Wenn ich die rote Pille nehme, bin ich kein Schaf mehr. Ich kann endlich etwas bewirken. Ich bin mir über etwas sicher, nämlich der Wahrheit. Ich werde endlich wichtig sein, yea man"

Währenddessen lächelt dich Morpheus weiter an, ohne dass der Bastard dir sagt, dass es irrelevant ist welche Pille du nun nimmst. Du bist auf die ein oder andere Weise gefickt. Entweder du bist bis an dein Lebensende ein passiver Zuschauer, während man über deinen Kopf hinweg über dein Leben entscheidet. Andernfalls radikalisiert man dich um die selbstnützigen Pläne von Morpheus auszutragen. In beiden Fällen hat man dich verarscht. Du bist nur ein weiterer Idiot in der Rote Pille-Armee.

J: Aber alternativ ist Morpheus auch jemand der dir tatsächlich eine objektive Sicht der Dinge anbietet und dir unparteiische, unabhängige Quellen vorlegt. Die Wahrheit lässt sich anhand ihrer Unfehlbarkeit beweisen.

K: Ich gehe dieses Szenario mit dir durch. Du nimmst die rote Pille: Du fühlst dich kurz schlecht, wegen der tiefen schmerzenden Wahrheit über den Zustand der Welt. Du fühlst dich erleuchtet, man ist stolz dass man etwas erkannt hat, dass allen anderen verwehrt wird. Und dann gehst du weiter deinem Leben nach, unter Umständen mit dem kleinen Unterschied, dass du dich jetzt als etwas besseres siehst. Unter anderen Umständen stürzt du dich jetzt auch einfach in eine depressive Episode oder schließt dich den Nihilisten an. In allen Fällen wirst du Gründe finden, warum du nichts tun kannst oder musst. Vielen Menschen reicht es aus, die Dinge zu wissen um sich befriedigt zu fühlen. Das ist für sie fast genauso wie eine blaue Pille. Andere sind wiederum gelähmt vor Angst und verlieren sich im zerstreuenden Pessimismus.

Wenn Menschen nichts tun, lässt sich das immer mit denselben Mechanismen erklären.

Was ich sagen will ist, es spielt keine Rolle welche Pille des alternativen Morpheus du nimmst. Beides wird dich lähmen. Und Morpheus hat sein Ziel erreicht, alle träumen. Niemand wacht vollständig auf. Schließlich setzt das Aufstehen selbstständige Bewegung voraus.

Wir werden schon sehen wohin uns unser halbfertig gedachter Nihilismus führt.

Das rote Pille/blaue Pille System ist beschissen und wurde bereits lange von Rechtsradikalen und Frauenhassern überrannt, die es als Menschenrecht sehen andere Menschen zu besitzen und dominieren. Natürlich um ihr fragiles Ego zu kompensieren, da die Versager an der Front sonst keinerlei Macht haben und im wirklichen Leben talentlos sind. Da ist es doch einfacher zu hassen um Macht ausüben zu dürfen, statt an sich zu arbeiten.

J: Dann biete ich dir eine Alternative zum rote Pille/blaue Pille System an.

Es wird keine Empfehlung oder Anleitung sein, sondern ein Modell um das Individuum in einer politisierten Gesellschaft einzuordnen.

Du wählst zwischen einem von zwei Attributen, dann eine Handlungsmöglichkeit.

Entscheiden oder entscheiden lassen?

Entscheiden → Mitspielen, aussteigen oder zusehen?

Entscheiden lassen → Zusehen

Entscheiden: Man will mitbestimmen oder den Ton angeben. Von der eigenen Lösung für etwas überzeugen. Man informiert sich aus unabhängigen/voreingenommenen Quellen und involviert sich. Ob nun durch Wahlen, zivilen Ungehorsam, Demonstrationen, in politischen Verbänden, Bewegungen, Bürgerinititativen. Egal was es ist, man setzt sich für die Dinge ein, die einem wichtig sind. Andernfalls kämpft man auch gegen wahrgenommene Bedrohungen (selbst dann wenn man nur eigene irrationale Ängste auf diese vermeintlichen Feinde projiziert).

→ Mitspielen: Man bleibt innerhalb des politischen Systems und verletzt ihre Grundsätze nicht. Manche versuchen das Spiel der Macht mitzuspielen, um die eigenen Ziele durchzusetzen. Das Recht ist auf der eigenen Seite. Vielleicht wird man ja Politiker oder Lobbyist?

→ Aussteigen: Man versucht das bestehende politische System mit seinen Grundsätzen zu stürzen und ein neues aufzubauen. Entweder das oder man setzt sich dafür ein. Vielleicht rebelliert man auch einfach nur gegen das bestehende System.

Vielleicht empfindet man die demokratische Methode als zu mild oder ineffektiv. Vielleicht ist es einem auch einfach nicht möglich, auf die demokratischen Methoden zurückzugreifen. Die Ziele sollen dann durch Gewalt durchgesetzt werden. Man agiert außerhalb des Rechts.

→ Zusehen: Man entscheidet passiv/repräsentativ mit und spielt damit innerhalb des politischen Systems, indem man sich darin einfügt. Man geht zur Wahl, demonstriert oder befolgt die Anweisungen des Herrn Diktators, weil man keinen Grund zur Veränderung am bestehenden System sieht. Und wenn man ihn sieht, kann oder will man es zumindest nicht stürzen oder einnehmen.

Entscheiden lassen: Man ist unpolitisch, vielleicht oberflächlich informiert. Vielleicht diskutiert man über die Dinge die man erfährt, aber man urteilt nicht. Man entscheidet sich dazu die Dinge so zu belassen wie sie sind und andere entscheiden zu lassen. Weil man falsch liegen könnte, weil es zu viel Arbeit ist. Vielleicht der Funktionalität wegen oder aus Desinteresse. Und wenn die unmittelbare Dysfunktionalität bevorsteht, gibt es immer noch genug Gründe nichts zu tun. Aus Bequemlichkeit oder Nihilismus.

→ Zusehen: Das ist selbsterklärend, nicht? Man schaltet den Fernseher ein, schenkt sich etwas ein und sieht dem Weltuntergang zu. Oder ignoriert ihn. Man gibt auf, ohne überhaupt angefangen zu haben. Pure Akzeptanz der Dinge, ein selbsterklärter Realist/Rationalist.

K: Du bist ein verkappter Zyniker.

J: Und du versteckst deine eigene Scham unter dem Deckmantel "Kritik".

[Ende des Transkripts]