Philosophy, Politics

Gutless Law Enforcement In Canada

If you want to create some legislation, then you’d best be prepared to enforce it. Otherwise, you have no credibility. This seems to be the case in Canada right now. New pandemic regulations are exemplary of a society wanting to “do good” and then balking when it comes to following through. Doug Ford wants to “throw the book” at the “yahoos” in Brampton, Ontario who flouted regulations by convening a party with two hundred some guests in the face of our pandemic. I’ll be interested to know the fine for the property owner and guests.

Why is there this complacency in heeding new regulation? Is it because our politicians have lost their credibility through morally bankrupt behaviour in the context of managing the public purse and immunizing themselves from conflicts of interest? I suspect this plays a role. There is also simple immaturity at work unfortunately. Factor in an erosion of values in recent years due to a segment of society being raised in single family homes stationed behind computer games apt to be influenced by aberrant opinion online ….and we see minds being led astray. You know it. I know it. 

Finally, apply liberal policies of correction whereby any deviant is exempted of fault due to their sob story and society learns that the coast is clear when it comes to personal conduct in Canada, almost.

Personal Development, Philosophy

Place For Satire

I muse about what witty comedians of yesteryear would make of our “new world order”. I’m thinking that they’d be stupefied by the abundance of new material right at their fingertips. Without question, there’s an introversion going on with the internet playing a role which is restricting folks from escaping their rational mind. Twitter is the platform right now which most readily exemplifies the overblown pragmatism facing mankind. My new coined phrase is “intangible tolerance” when comparing today to pre-internet. There used to be something healthy about not knowing and not having google at our fingertips. We could just let it all be and since we didn’t know…we could count on our friends and family not knowing either. Therefore we need not have judged or be judged – so much. Of course this is an oversimplification but I digress further.

Mind space pre-internet had more plasticity because neural receptors weren’t so fatigued with stimuli. Cognitive freshness was easier to access and within such a state would be acute to satirists stirring the social landscape for fun. You’ve all seen your good jokes fly overhead more because of the receiver distracted by reactionary thoughts compounded through a bombardment of stimuli. Receivers have simply not been in the ready position and you witness it every day. 

A whole industry has evolved around assisting those stuck in the reactive mind. Ekhart Tolle comes to mind as an author who eloquently portrayed the phenomenon is his book “The Power of Now”. There are others more attuned at helping those transfixed by thought obsession. However; I might suggest diagnostic tests you can perform on yourself. Do you feel “heavy” or “light” in reacting to stimuli? Another test is whether you believe your level of concentration meets a standard set by yourself. Thirdly, you want to know how readily you can enter a place of creativity in absorbing and expressing.          

Uncategorized

Musicians Without Gigs Hit The Basement

I literally had a tear welling up after watching Rhett Schull’s video referencing the work he and his crew put  into setting up a basement studio  in anticipation of his first Youtube Livestream to happen this Saturday July 11th at 5pm Eastern.

Rhett has his wife, his dad, and a sound engineer friend along with band mates pitching in to make this thing go off. Apparently, it hasn’t been easy to set up the acoustics for a whole band in a basement. Thankfully, music vendors stepped forward to help with equipment sponsorships.

This is a fellow who has identified an obvious problem with playing live in the context of the new world order and has simply rolled up his sleeves to adapt. Although, it’s taken some time to get up and running, he wanted to do it right and there would have been many sound recording learning episodes along the way. It’s evident as he gives us the run down that he has encountered hurdles in troubleshooting the sound he wants to deliver to you. 

I’ve watched Rhett’s backstage pass series which has showcased the good times of touring as a lead / rhythm guitarist. He certainly is a talent on the guitar but now will be incorporating home audio technology with effects that will hit your home computer speakers with live video. Imagine that!

Should you decide to tune in live, do consider making a donation to the performance. Keep in mind that the “Superchat” (through youtube) method of donating will appropriate a material percentage to youtube. Hence; consider an alternate donation option available during the live stream which the band will make available. 

Here is Rhett’s Shull’s youtube channel in order to access the stream. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCJ56k8nBeqWLoxNa6DToAQ

Lifes Lessons

Smart Yet Wrong

Throughout social media we’ve had these colourful dialogue boxes espousing COVID-19 denial. The President of the United States with his manhood expressed so succinctly to Marco Rubio during the GOP nomination process wouldn’t be seen wearing a mask in contrast to the official recommendation of government officials’ position on them being an effective tool. Then there was this reference to “mind control”. Oh ya. The mask would be seen by some self esteem lacking individuals as a symbol of repression during a pandemic. Try squaring that logic.

Now we have these Republican governors out of Texas and Florida back tracking on their perverted sense of referencing civil liberties in the context of extinguishing a virus. Now in the face of overbearing case statistics, these chest beating Trump bimbos have needed to reverse course on their misplaced usage of libertarian ideology and actually implement recommended protocols. It’s really something to behold how political hay is being made out of a pandemic. The radical right needed even a pandemic to push its agenda of civil liberties.

Unless people return to an era of common sense and objectivity in tackling problems in real time proactively instead of reactively consequentially, I’m afraid that the quality of life for masses of people is going to continue to decline. Yes, I said “continue” because 2020 has materially impacted life quality negatively and either politicians learn from errors or continue to drive unproductive narratives based on ego rather than logic.      

Uncategorized

Are You in Pain?

Somewhere around the world today, tens of millions of people will be in pain. While in such a state, they won’t be thinking about their shopping list, their hydro bill, or their political affiliation. They will be thinking about alleviating pain. They will be vulnerable and may need assistance. The state is one which every living being will encounter at various times in our lives.    

This vulnerable state has a benefit believe it or not. It serves to round off the edges of our ego in order to more easily emote empathy. You see, for good reason youthful ideals sprout early in life with a healthy self-determinism at our core. The journey encounters curves and junctions and potholes which add sustenance to character. However; one day a wheel can literally fall off of what we once thought was a finely tuned machine and we humbly call the mechanic.

Gratitude re-emerges if it had been suppressed from our vigour as we drive away from the shop. Our view points are revisited amidst a broader context having come to re-evaluate the convenience of owning a car.

Having recovered, we count our blessings and wonder about those less fortunate who may not have had the luxury of good health care or a car mechanic. We think about struggles faced by single mothers raising kids alone because they’ve lost their husband to a disease residing in a country void of social programs. We think about diseases overcome and forgotten in the first world but still lingering amongst the poor. We think about who will not get their pain alleviated due to circumstance.

It’s really difficult to know for sure when you haven’t been there and seen it. It’s easy to take a position and become absorbed in it thereby refuting reasonable conflicting data. It’s easy to jump in with the mob which looks smart so that we too can appear smart. Pain has no intellect. It is not going to be appeased by rational minds administering debate on transgressions of “the deep state”.