Lots of Thoughts

"We are the target market
We set the corporate target
We are slaves of what we want
We are numb and amused and
We're just used to bad news and
We are slaves of what we want"

What I love about Switchfoot is that they are always setting the bar higher, always reaching for the stars and always challenging us to move away from comfort, luxury, and complacency, and to delve into the unknown, the mystery, and the wind of the spirit (at least that's how I interpret it into my own current perspective).

Here they bring up some very interesting thoughts. Lots of people blame the media or advertisers or whatnot for screwing up this society. If they don't say it out loud or actually acknowledge it as an opinion they hold, they at least feel it in such away that there is some amount of bitterness toward the world, toward corporate America, for feeding us too much junk. But keep in mind, they do so, not because they hate us and want us to suffer, but because they are going to do everything in their power to find out what it is that we want and sell it to us to make a profit. So who are we to complain if we buy what they're selling. Are we slaves to their system? No, we're slaves to ourselves, we're slaves to our wants, and we're not supposed to be that way. It hits closely with things I've been thinking about, in terms of addictions. In "What the Bleep" they claim that we, consciously or subconsciously, actually create situations in which we can experience the emotional reaction that we are addicted to. To illustrate this, they showed a girl swinging around and causing a server to spill a wine glass all over her bridesmaid's dress, at which point she moans and wails about how she knew something like this would happen to her and how such things always happen to her. A lot of us would be skeptical, saying, clearly she wouldn't purposely flail her arms around for that express purpose. The tendencies of physiological, emotional states cannot be so powerful as to foce fate to such a purpose, to create her reality for her. But what if they're right? What if the things that happen to us happen because we expect them to happen. Not so much that we expect it, I guess, but because our bodies are addicted to the feelings we get from them.

We're numb and amused and used to bad news. Is that true? Instead of getting up and changing things for the better, do we become addicted to the stink of bad news? Do we crave it? Do we crave disapointment and failure just as much as we feel the ache of that missing something that's eatiing us up inside because we know we're not supposed to be this way? Do we go through withdrawals when we start to emerge into something greater? I know sometimes I feel a sense of nostalgia for what I considered "deep" feelings, ones which were heavy and morose, self-pitying and self-deprecating. As I attempt to put such thoughts and feelings behind me, I start to feel superficial or I start to "miss" my dark side. Maybe it's just one of those days. I have been thinking too much, and I've spent most of the day reading.

Really, I just wish I really understood how this world works, how we work. Those questions in "What the Bleep" haunt me daily: who are we, where do we come from, where are we going, what should we do? I know christianity has made claims to answer those questions, and I have not lost faith, but they have always struck me as trite, even since I was in high school. When people asked such questions, the phrase, "Jesus is the answer" never really did it for me. It was just an easy way to dodge the question. That way you don't have to go into specifics, you don't have to do anything or really know anything or search anything. You just had to think about some unknown figure with the label that we know as "Jesus" and hope you had the right version of him in Sunday school. Or maybe that didn't matter, as long as you had the name. I don't know. I never liked it.

Geez, I keep thinking I'm going to end this post, and then I keep going. My mind just keeps whirring tonight. I can't enjoy many of the activities I usually enjoy, for some reason. Except reading. I've been readin the DaVinci Code all day.

V

Last night I saw "V for Vendetta." I think my biggest reaction right now is saying, "I have to see that again." There was so much in it, and I'm not usually the type to not follow along, but there was a lot that I feel I didn't take in properly. That being said, it was an excellent movie. Perhaps it was a movie for the conspiracy theorist or the radical artist, but I suppose I have a little of both swimming around inside me. Artistically speaking, I was dumbstruck. When V first comes on the scene and he speaks to Evie, he speaks in an amazing string of poetry that utilizes a plethora of words with the letter "v". Usually, alliteration is not all that impressive to me, because it tends to be trite or just silly, but this was amazing. I couldn't believe it. After the first few lines, I was impressed, but he kept going, and then he kept going, and I couldn't believe it. I was laughing out loud in amazement. I'm well aware that most of you reading this might be thinking what a nut I am and how such a scene is not really worthy of such rave reviews. But I guess I'm a nut, and I love poetry, plays on words, grandiose language, and a wonderful mixing of Shakespeare thrown in.

For the rest of the movie, what to say... to say the movie had an "agenda" is possibly an understatement. I don't know what everyone has said about this movie. I know there was talk of a homosexual agenda, but I think it was much more than that. I think it was more of a freedom agenda. The facts that the "hero" purported terrorism and violence in the achievement of his aims and that he had his good friend tortured to take away her fear, hopefully makes you think. You want to disregard the whole thing because the man's actions are immoral and subversive, but you can't ignore his message: that people can't just sit back and let their freedom be taken from them in exchange for protection from greater dangers. Similarities to 9/11 and Homeland Security are too clear to ignore, with theories going around about the terrorist attacks being sanctioned by America's own government. Most of the people I know would disregard such notions as erroneous, and I do not adhere to them myself, but I tend to believe that anything is possible. And long before seeing this movie, actually soon after the attacks in 2001, the thing that really scared me was the heavy tightening of security. To me it seemed clear that, if taken to extremes or allowed to go unchecked, such measures could lead to very great loss of freedoms, and no one would complain, because it was for their own protection and everybody knew that.

Anyway, I could go on and on about my thoughts on that, but I won't. The movie was great. It made me think on many levels. Most importantly, I was intrigued with Evie finding herself "without fear." Someone could hold a gun to her head, and because she believed so strongly in what she did and because she knew she was loved and she was not afraid of death, she could defy them, and she did. It reminded me of the Bible verse, "Perfect love drives out all fear." Or the Coldplay song, "I'm gonna buy a gun and start a war, if you can tell me something worth fighting for." I think many people are looking for conviction like that. Does it only come through torture? or misfortune? I don't know. It sparked a lot of thoughts for me, and I hope it might spark conversation.

Something I'm really, really enjoying

I just want to say that I am really really enjoying kicking the snot out of my friends at board games on Sunday night.

:D

Here's to all of you, my friends! :P