[FoRK] Snippets of Life - Mountain View, CA Edition

[Sat N]

Lion,

I wasn't thinking of your emails.

I haven't read rest of your email, because its too long and I have a
policy of not reading any email longer than 2 paragraphs. Its just not
worth it. ( no offense intended but people who can't communicate in
shorter emails often have nothing important to say ).

On Dec 18, 2007 9:02 AM, Lion Kimbro <lionkimbro at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 17, 2007 8:51 PM, Sat N <sateesh.narahari at gmail.com> wrote:
> > "Dude, there are symbols everywhere, the reptiles are taking over -
> > you can find their symbols on dollar bills, on state buildings
> > everywhere in the world. They even created religion and they are about
> > to destroy the mankind. They created religions, so they fight with
> > each other. Its obvious Christians and Muslims kill each other.
> > ...the symbols are everywhere. I just look for symbols.
> > [...]
> > It brought back memories of a long FORK discussion.
>
>   <sigh>
>
>   Ah, right -- because I interpret movies.
>
>   Because I see "V for Vendetta," and looking at the "symbols,"
>   I see that it's a warning about the present political climate in
>   the UK and the States.
>
>   And from there, it's just a short hop to reptile men
>   and ancient secret brotherhoods and so on...
>
>   Right, right, I got ya.
>
>
>   Look, the fact is, the activist scene has an ongoing and
>   perpetual conversation, and they strategize, and have thoughts,
>   and they write books, and so on.
>
>   Joanna Macy
>     http://www.joannamacy.net/
>   Ken Wilber
>     http://wilber.shambhala.com/
>   David Korten
>     http://www.davidkorten.org/
>   Paul Hawkin
>     http://www.blessedunrest.com/
>
>   ...there's a lot of these people, and probably hundreds of
>   thousands if not millions of lesser knowns.  Jjust like in
>   the Free Software world, you have RMS, ESR, Linus
>   Torvalds, and then you have the uncountably many Free
>   Software / Open Source Software developers, but they
>   know each other.  Luis Villa has "heard of" Richard
>   Stallman, at the very least.  All these people in the activist
>   world, who you may have zero concept of, they talk with
>   each other, know of each other, and so on.
>
>   The ideas from their conversations make it into fiction, either
>   because the activists directly write them into stories, (Alice
>   Walker and The Color Purple, ...)
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Walker
>
>   ...or due to some indirect path.
>
>   One of Alice Walker's influence was her professor Howard
>   Zinn, for example.  No "secret order of the masons" here,
>   just a college professor.
>
>   This is no different from, say, people in the Free Software
>   world reading Douglas Engelbart or Myron Kroeger or Alan
>   Kay and being influenced.  Congratulations, you're now in
>   the "Smalltalk school" of Object Oriented thought.  Welcome
>   to the Bavarian Brotherhood of object oriented occult studies.
>
>   There are no conspiracies here, no reptile people.  People
>   waking up to some aspect of life, and studying, is rather
>   ordinary.  In my case of awakening to Free Software,
>   it was discovering Slashdot and getting curious about
>   Linux & Free Software, in 1998.  In the case of activism,
>   it was the WTO in Seattle;  I had to ask myself, "Why are
>   police firing canisters at protesters outside my window?"
>
>   I have since been engaged in the activist world.  I know that
>   many times, I have seen fellow activists asking the
>   question, "How can we communicate with the public through
>   the movies?"  That urge is present.  I think it is reasonable to
>   believe that, through either intentional paths (directly
>   contacting screenwriters,) or unintentional paths (a
>   screenwriter has a friend who knows these sorts of ideas,
>   and talks with the screen writer.)
>
>   Why?  Because "Bee Movie" is, without a doubt, (and I
>   challenge you to say that this is lunacy,) an ecologically
>   oriented film, and reflects many themes found in the lit.
>
>   Why?  Because in interviews with the Wachowsky
>   brothers, they say, "We're reading the Age of Spiritual
>   Machines, and we're reading Hegel, and we're reading
>   Jean Baudrillard."  Because they hand Neo a copy of
>   "Simulacra and Simulations" (it's a book; look it up)
>   right there in the very movie.
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation
>
>   I glance at that page, and see that the Wachowsky
>   Brothers required Keanu Reeves to read that book, as
>   well as Out of Control (which is about **you guys,**
>   if you haven't read it, or know of it,) and Evolutionary
>   Psychology.
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Control:_The_New_Biology_of_Machines%2C_Social_Systems%2C_and_the_Economic_World
>
>
>   God damn, I feel like I'm talking to pre-schoolers here;
>   Have y'all *never* put this stuff together before?  Are these
>   earnestly new thoughts for all of you?
>
>   Help me out here -- understanding my audience:
>   Is it a *genuinely new thought* here that Bee Movie is
>   an ecologically oriented movie?  Did any of you notice
>   that "V is for Vandetta" might have a *purpose* in it's
>   making?  Perhaps Philip Pullman might have a
>   message, that his books might have been written for
>   something "more" than just purely entertainment
>   purposes?
>
>   Or do you only see ideas in movies when they
>   support an atheist agenda?
>
>   Feh, ...  I know where the lizard people are;
>   They congregate on FoRK!  They lack limbic systems
>   and a neocortex.
>
>   Frustrated,
>     Lion
>
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