Did Rage Against the Machine change the World?

You know what would be awesome - instead of voicing the problems we face in this world why not sing the solutions. I was am a big Rage fan, and even through singing and playing their songs I did not actually “hear’’ the message. One of my Favorite songs from them is “Bullet in your Head” - They had a message and they tried haring that message, but without an actual solution. All this does is create more anger and more Rage. 

It’s like “Yea man, I see that I’m being told what to do, the system got me, I’m angry about it,  thanks for letting me know”. I did not go a step further and ask myself “What can I do about it?”.  

So yes – this is a far better than the shit we hear on the radio and the message that RATM represented is still a millions time better than the Shit we call music these days, but in the end it did not change anything significantly – they did not have an impact in the world. 

They did however have an impact on the individual level, planting the seeds of questioning WTF is going on in the world so from that perspective it’s awesome – but they did not present any real solutions. They had the following they had the power, but they also did not know what to do to bring real change. 

From my perspective they did not understand the full problem. Yes, people are being manipulated and brainwashed in the name of capitalism and control and are being screwed “by the man” – BUT that is not the real problem. The problem is that all the problems we face in this world are created by US – we the people – Humanity. We created  the system, the machine so its time to top raging against ourselves.  It’s all the result of our human nature – what we see in this world is what we all created. It’s our Nature that is destroying us – we are our own worst enemy.

Human Nature is the problem. You change Human Nature you change the world. Now comes the real question: How do you change human nature?

 

Start with yourself.

Day 320: Solitary confinement – The Torture Must End

Solitary confinement does not work. Prison is supposed to be a place to rehabilitate people and get them ready for Life when they are released, but what happens when you confine somebody for decades   and then just release them into the world?

We should have a World based on constructive and supportive methods.

www.desteni.org  

• Mother Jones article- children in solitary:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/juveniles-kids-solitary-confinement-ohio-new-york

• Friend’s Service Committee’s fact sheet : The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice

https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts

• AmnestyUSA

http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/entombed-isolation-in-the-us-federal-prison-system

• American Civil Liberties report:

Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons across the United States

https://www.aclu.org/report/growing-locked-down-youth-solitary-confinement-jails-and-prisons-across-united-states

• American Friends Service Committee: Stopmax Campaign

https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts

• http://solitarywatch.com/facts/faq/

Children in Solitary: A 2012 Human Rights Watch report notes: “Youth offenders often spend significant amounts of their time in US prisons isolated from the general prison population. Such segregation can be an attempt to protect vulnerable youth offenders from the general population, to punish infractions of prison rules, or to manage particular categories of prisoners, such as alleged gang members. Youth offenders frequently described their experience in segregation as a profoundly difficult ordeal.”

Dat 313 - Is the 5000% Price hike of Life saving drug Justified?

No, it’s not. It’s almost as if we live in a world where corporate greed is more important than the lives of people. It’s almost as if we live in a world where companies don’t care about others…Oh wait.

Day 310 -How Our Beliefs Can Ruin Someones Life

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/muslim-boy-arrest-clock-sparks-outrage-150916143739052.html

A young student from Texas - Ahmed Mohamed - got arrested fro making a clock, because the teacher thought it resembled a bomb.

How is this still a thing?

Why are so quick to judge something based on our beliefs and ideas and perceptions of others ? How can we ever reach a point of equality when are all so judgemental?

Stopping Exploitation with a Living Income Guaranteed

 

When you hear about drives that got their licenses suspended you probably think it was because of reckless driving, but it is not the case.

In Florida 88% of suspensions were due to failure to comply with summons or fines.

Now here is things get extremely problematic and nonsensical – Most people drive to work so losing your car affects everything in your life. In New Jersey a Survey was done that found that 63% of low income drives that lost their car also lost their jobs.

How are they supposed to pay their fine if you take away their means of paying it?

It gets worse:

There are private probation companies that supervise people that have minor offenses and collect their outstanding fines at no costs to the courts, instead they get their money from the probationers in exchange for their services.

Here is an example of how that works based on an actual event:

One Woman was fined $25 for not wearing a seat belt as well as $16 for the court costs – a total fine of $41. She was unable to pay the fine at that stage and thus was handed over to one of these private probation Companies. Now here is where things get really messed up:

She was then put on a monthly payment plan in order to pay the fine, but the costs of this payment plan was $35 per month. All moneys that the woman sent in was applied to the service fees first before going to the actual fine, meaning she first has to pay the $35 before she is able to pay the actual $41 fine. Now, she I not able to afford that $35 monthly fee, so this is starting to accumulate – eventually she sat with a $299 bill PLUS the $41 fine. Eventually if you  cannot afford the bill you can be sent to jail because you cannot afford the bill.

Here is another terrifying example of this Ruined Hariet Cleveland’s Life:

“Cleveland’s $140 monthly payment – $40 of which went to fees – was a terrifying burden. She lost her day care job during the recession and was barely scraping by. She paid what she could, even when it meant her money was only going toward the company’s fees.

Finally, Cleveland didn’t have any more money to give. She received a notice in the mail: Pay $2,714 or go to jail. Not long after, a police officer arrived and arrested her while she was babysitting her grandson. A judge sentenced her to 31 days in jail because she was too poor to pay.” - https://www.splcenter.org/news/2014/08/26/splc-lawsuit-closes-debtors%E2%80%99-prison-alabama-capital

These Companies are making money out of people who have none. Why are we punishing people for being poor? This is an Impossible situation for low income people where they really have no way out. This kind of exploitation is something that must be stopped.

This is something that we can change with a better system, one that considers the individual needs of people in different situations. Not only would these people above live far better lives with the Living Income Guaranteed, but we can implement solutions to stops the obvious exploitation of people in these situations so that no person’s life get ruined just because they are poor.

Day 303 - How can we make the Impossible into a Possible reality?

If you had a choice would you want to live in this world with all its suffering? I would not choose this world, so why don’t we change it?

Movie ‘The Giver’ - What does it show about ME?

 

Where shall I start? At the beginning. The reason behind the memory wipe the community decided on was because they saw that Humans were destructive. The only way to ensure survival was to take away the things that caused humans to be destructive: Emotions and free will and making everything the same.

That is part of the big problem we humans face and those 2 things play a major role in why the world is so screwed up currently. Free will and emotions actually work together – The things we do and decide upon are largely based on emotions. We follow what we feel and are directed by our emotions, so in the movie they take daily medications to suppress emotions.

Now, the concept behind the new way of life the people in the movie are living is actually quite cool, BUT it’s all based on the assumption that the only way for humans to live together in peace is to block all emotions, take away everything that represent diversity and live in “Sameness”. Essentially removing anything that could possibly trigger all the bad stuff humans are made of.

The thing is that it’s not our emotions or freewill or diversity that makes us do all the bad stuff we do like fighting, greed, spite and jealousy. Sure, removing that stuff like they did in the movie might stop it for a while, but the problem is that it’s only suppressed. It’s still existent inside the people in the movie, it’s just suppressed.

The key here is to realize exactly what the problem is: You and I. Each of us has accepted greed and anger and all those things as part of who we are – we accepted this to be “Human Nature”. We are allowing ourselves to be directed by our emotions and that determines our whole existence. And that is the real problem. We do not really have freewill when our decisions are based on our emotions. The problem is also the solution.

By understanding and seeing that we do not have to accept this as part of our nature – or more that we as humans have the capacity and power to change our accepted nature. We can remove the triggers within ourselves – all the things that makes us not able to live on this planet in peace. We can End Wars, End Poverty, End Famine, End Abuse – We have that power within us. The power to Change.

Day 266: How to stick to this New Year’s Resolutions

 

 

It's that time of years again and many are in the tradition to every New Year write down things they would like to change about themselves and many don't manage to actually stick to them. Some would like to kick habits like smoking or biting nails, other might want to quit drinking or simply become a better person, maybe not be so angry or sad or stubborn.

Unfortunately it is not so easy to change oneself. It is very easy to say you are going to do it, but when it comes right to it – more often than not – we fall back into our same old patterns. That is what it actually is – patterns and behaviors that we created over time and seem to be stuck in it.

When changing something like for example biting nails – there is usually a reason why you started biting nails in the first place. You could be an anxious person and whenever the anxiety comes up you bite nails. So it’s important to first find the reason for the anxiety or frustration in order to stop the nail biting. We need to find the source of these habits and patterns we would like to change.

Once the source is found the next step is self –discipline and commitment. This is where most fall, because to stop a habit or pattern is not an easy thing, but if you are committed and have self-discipline to do what you said you will then you will be able to stick to the New Year’s resolutions you created.

Thing that come up while stopping habits is all kind of excuses and justifications – you will subconsciously try every sneaky thing to go back to the habit and not stick to stopping it. A cool way to look at this is when you make the decision to stop a habit – everything that comes up after you made the choice that will make you “fall of the wagon is simply an excuse or a justification. It could be a thought or a feeling and would make so much sense, but all it is is a trap.

To recap as to what you will require to actually sticking to your New year’s resolutions:

1. Make a list and make sure its practical.

2. Make the Decision and stand by it.

3. Find the source of the problem.

4. Don’t give into the thoughts and feelings that will make you go back to the habit.

5. Don’t give into the excuses and justifications.

6. Be self-disciplined and committed.

The best thing to do is not wait for every new year before making changes, but to realize that change can be made in every moment. For more info on changing self go here.

Day 260 - Would you like some Plastic and Plutonium For Dinner? You may already have...

 

 

Researchers working around the world have come up with the most comprehensive estimate to date of the amount of plastic clogging the oceans, and it’s bad, bad news.

The grand total? They tallied 5.25 trillion individual pieces of plastic, weighing a collective 269,000 tons.

The study, which was spearheaded by Marcus Eriksen of the nonprofit 5 Gyres Institute and published in the journal PLoS One, found that most of the pollution consisted of microplastics, those tiny particles that remain when larger pieces of plastic break down — plastic being non-biodegradable, they never disappear completely.

“We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that ingested fishing lines,” Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western Australia, told the Guardian. And the team identified less visible threats as well — plastic particles, they note, can soak up pollutants, potentially introducing toxic chemicals into the food chain. “Bigger fish eat the little fish and then they end up on our plates,” Reisser explained. “It’s hard to tell how much pollution is being ingested but certainly plastics are providing some of it.” - http://www.salon.com/2014/12/10/over_5_trillion_pieces_of_plastic_are_floating_in_the_worlds_oceans/

We are eating plastic.

Even when I was child I heard the stories of how much we are damaging the oceans with our plastic. Plastic takes many decades to degrade and in that process it turns into micro-plastic particles. These particles get consumed by the fish and various ocean life. We humans then eat the fish.

We are eating more plastic.

The ocean has become humanities favorite dumping area. Its Huge, the ocean takes up most of the earth’s surface area and we humans can’t really do anything with it in term of living space. We need land. So what can we do with all that space? We have detonated a total of 2053 Nuclear bombs in the ocean. Yes – two thousand and fifty three nuclear detonations. Bound to be consequences there. Also we have dumped tons and tons of nuclear waste barrels. Apparently over 100,000 tons worth. Metal tends to rust - these barrels are leaking.

We are eating plutonium.

we need to stop seeing the earth as this huge infinite place where the thing we do have no consequences. Sure we do not see the effects right away or they do not affect us directly, but we are all on this ship called earth. Anything affecting the earth affects us all directly in a way. Our individual actions have consequences and its time we realize this. If we do not change our ways...we cannot live on plastic and plutonium.

Day 258: Life lessons through Music – Specificity

 

 

Lately I have started practicing piano and currently I am working on a classical song that is very difficult for me. The thing about playing piano or any instrument is that to be good at it you need to be very specific in terms on finger placement, finger speed and velocity. If you are not specific in it you are going to make mistakes and play the music wrong.

What I do is learn the song one section at a time – once I am able to play it without mistakes I move on to the next section. Now, there are many sections in this song and what I found was that as I progressed I tended to rush through the sections. There are a few sections where I always make mistakes at the exact same place every time I play the song through.

This got very frustrating, but I finally realized why. When I first learnt and played those sections and when I first made the mistakes – I did not stop to correct them effectively. I kind of just skipped it because it’s such a small point I rather want to get on with the next section so that I can learn the whole song. Now what has happened is that I formed a habit and that mistake is actually now part of how I play the song. All because I did not stop and correct it the moment I made the mistake – I was not specific enough the first time I played it. Now I have to unlearn the mistake by repeatedly playing it correctly over and over until it sinks in.

And this basically related to life as well. We go through life and we make mistakes along the way. We learn how to deal with events in our lives and how to deal with things. For example as a kid somebody said something nasty to me and I took it personally and became angry – From that moment whenever a similar events plays out I do the exact same thing, because when it first happened I did not stop for a moment to realize that taking things personally is not necessary – I am the one who creates the reaction within me.

There are so many examples of how we all made mistakes in life and never really learned from them, but instead created a habit to repeat those mistakes and that has become part of who we are. And to change that behavior requires us to consistently and repeatedly correct it whenever it comes up. For example with me and taking this personally – whenever I took something personally I to stopped and breathed and let go of the anger and reaction. Eventually over time this behavior faded away – I had to unlearn it.

Sure it would have been easier to stop the behavior as soon as it happened, but we are not taught or shown how to respond practically and effectively to situations in life.

A new Website opened where you can find video recordings all about supporting you in your life’s journey.  The video you’ll find there deal with everyday problems that you may be facing at the moment, that you have experienced in the past or that you may run into in the future. They offer insights based on common sense and solutions that you can apply in your life instantly. go here to find out more: Self and Living