"Live your life in a way that doesn't make a mockery of your values."

Today, back from the Midwest U.S. after 6 months, driven with a new yet familiar awakening of a fluid letting go-ness, a natural familiarity with the revolution driving me, I stop in a public library to take shelter from the rain. While waiting for a computer, I read in the current issue of Rolling Stone (Nov. 8, 2012) the story of the federal prosecution of a young DIY hacktivist described by a close friend as a "modern day Abbie Hoffman." It's the story of Jeremy Hammond, and the article is called "Enemy of the State: The Rise and Fall of an American Revolutionary." Feeling the necessity now more than ever, the sense of urgency, to make every moment real and new, to remove myself from any inhibiting traces of past ideologies, I'm inspired by a quote from Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader who influenced Hammond possibly while teaching at the University of Illinois--Chicago since Hammond was a student there at the same time. The quote originally appears in Ayers' memoir, Fugitive Days.

LIVE YOUR LIFE IN A WAY THAT DOESN'T MAKE A MOCKERY OF YOUR VALUES.

As I continue looking through the artifice, I take note of the signs, the messages, pushing themselves through my thick head until they register. This one will continue to be relevant, and I will try to maintain a consciousness of it.

The Future of Social Networking: A Vision [part 1]

what if each person's social online content was a book in its own right that had the full access and privileges to reach as many people as possible all over the world, that was able to ensure that it was reaching the people it intended to reach, to use the tools that are only reserved for corporate publishers, advertising and marketing agencies worldwide? would the system collapse, or would there be a system restore?

The Future of Social Networking: A Vision [part 2]

what if social networking wasn't just a term that referred to disconnected people finding each other through the internet? what if the infrastructure was in place to sustain a world that was based on sustainable relationships? what if people acted locally and thought globally, and welcomed people from anywhere on the planet into their local community as friends? or what if we bridged the gaps between those who have much and those who have little? how much longer can this possibly take? whether you have a nihilistic view that destruction of our species is inevitable, an idealistic view that the best for the world is inevitable, or a resolved view that both are inevitable and coexistent, one thing is common between us all: we want to know what we are. we want to go home. what are you doing to take us there?

J.O.R.Y.

This issue of J.O.R.Y., although the first to be officially released to the public, is actually the second created. The first was loosely buried somewhere in a preexisting hole in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Southwestern Washington State, in what had been just days before a free and independent outdoor marketplace created by the inhabitants of a temporary Rainbow civilization. The fate of this first issue which had been hailed as a collaborative masterpiece, a work of holistic genius, is a mystery to the creators of this publication, and without retrieving the original, it cannot be re-created. Although nobody who was involved in the production of J.O.R.Y. intended to let go of the finished product “prematurely,” that is, before copies were made, there is a vague sensation that we are subconsciously enacting a legacy, a new myth. Perhaps there will be a search for “the lost first edition of J.O.R.Y.” for years to come, or maybe someone has already found it and is enjoying it with their friends now. Maybe they would be so kind to share it with all of J.O.R.Y.’s friends. If we think of J.O.R.Y. symbolically as a character or person that has, in its own right, a voice, an individual uniqueness, having its individual experience and personal self-aware story, itself being an expression of its community of creators and the intentional force which comes through them, J.O.R.Y. looks like, at least through this lens, the timeless archetype whose purpose in sacrificing itself is for the common good: three individuals coming together in holy union for providing the birth; the arrival to its family; the burial; and now, in this issue, the rebirth or resurrection. Since J.O.R.Y. fears no loss of itself, it being a timeless and unstoppable act of creation dedicated to the common good, these events were only a natural expression of J.O.R.Y.’s identity. J.O.R.Y. would like to dedicate itself to the richly alive yet vacuous memories of its former form and identity--not only of the art inscribed into its pages, but to the Experience and lovers that gave birth to it. “I am a gift,” J.O.R.Y. says. “Those who have held me and modified me have only treated me with a special reverent awareness and have felt the gift of being part of the process, a sense of honor in being part of my story. Each soft touch of the hand, the light of the eye, the rubbing of paint, every contribution tickles me with an ecstatic aliveness! In my sense of aliveness, I know the pleasure of my creators, and I’m excited to keep growing, organically evolving and free-form.” In this dedication, J.O.R.Y. promises to serve you creators, you the readers, the writers, the artists, the thinkers, the sentient who are in awe of themselves as part of the sloppy and beautiful process of Life within some kind of grand Universal pattern, until it has been fully realized. With love, All from, of, with, through J.O.R.Y September 21, 2011 IPRC, Portland, Oregon

Further updates:

Having been refined in recent years into a freegan Taoist, I am currently considering three new living options:
1. A friend's invitation to stay at a ranch atop Larch Mountain in the Gorge. I would be staying in a tent that was given to me.
2. One of two rooms in one of two houses in a housemate scenario in Portland.
3. Independently sought out space, be it a studio or my tent pitched somewhere secluded.

The tent option would work as a viable living situation, especially since I am now a member of the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC). Having this physical workspace will significantly increase my resourcefulness and speed up the production of publication. For anyone who has been following my life, they will know this is HUGE.

With love as always,
Jory

So, once again, as the Arc is transforming, expanding out into satellite rafts, each one a perfect expression of creative individuality interwoven into a universal and symmetrical awareness, the Ob(life)ious project also expands its horizons....

Goodbye big blue house! So many memories stored up in our house! And all good things must come to an end, as all things thrown up must also come down. All things familiar tend to become forgotten.

What is most perfect seems imperfect;
yet it is complete.
What is most full seems empty,
yet it can be emptied forever.
What is great art seems artless;
what is great wisdom seems foolish.

Movement overcomes cold;
and staying still overcomes heat.
The Wise One by his serene calm
lets Heaven move in him.

--Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, from The Legend of Lao Tzu
and the Tao Te Ching, by DEMI

"Contradiction is perhaps the subtlest of all spiritual forces."--Albert Camus

The Ob(li)fious Project finally has found a home base at the Arc: Shelter for the Rising Waters. The Media Room (catchier name, please?) on the top floor, adjacent to our Meditation Room, is a dedicated space for regular dialog-oriented salons in order to generate material to consensually publish, and other demonstrations for engaging our community in the necessary process of discovery, a return to simplicity, to group awareness of what is happening, what needs to happen, radical redefinition, genuine fulfillment of creativity coming through openness and willingness to comprehend each other in rejuvenated layers of our shared interdependent coexistence. To link up with the Arc and the Ob(li)fious Project, check back here often, as well as the Arc's blog: thearchouseblog.blogspot.com. Thanks for your continued patience and participation! Every little bit counts!

What is your definition of status quo?

OB(LI)FIOUS PROJECT PROPOSAL OF RESOLUTION,
amended 30 January 2007; 23 November 2009

This project is the product of pursuers of peace who feel compelled to construct a collective narrative and model of living that accurately represents their individual experiences as they shift from archaic paradigms that were likely imposed on them. The project is being constructed so that persons who crave undistorted information, who are in the process of dissolving problematic dogma, may together learn ways of engaging in a creative process for surveying messages--in general, those of the dominant, imperialistic, and Eurocentric world--with the intention to examine, invent, and practice viable alternatives that would continue to drive an expansive awareness of peace that is unveiled as we spread it through our communities. It is becoming apparent that a revitalized sense of awareness is becoming a concrete modality at this historical moment, which may be seen as another development of certain socially significant movements, as traditional barriers to peace continue to dissolve within our communities. If you are not as proactive as you would like to be, this is the time to recognize new beginnings.

Dialog amongst us, whether in face-to-face discussion groups or elsewhere, may start from exploring the interdependence of concepts such as universality and relativity. Through such dialog, we will uncover alternatives to the components of an artifice permeating our lives, that, though designed, constructed, and reinforced by institutions that supersede us, is typically reinforced and perpetuated also by ourselves.

As it is this project's goal to resolve transparadigmatic disagreements, the project's collaborators embrace change as a crucial constant of the process by which there is growth, and therefore seek constructive criticism.

At its core, then, the Ob(li)fious project is the logical extension of a community that seeks to promote, besides the things stated, its own solidarity. The participants thus resolve to provide a forum for discourse that is open to all who accept the challenges outlined in this proposal, and who recognize the dignity of every individual and her right to participate in this dialog.

Another crucial component of the Ob(li)fious project is self-publication of educational media, to be determined by all collaborators. All are welcome to participate.

Consistent with this community's humble intentions, the project's participants recognize this very statement as being in a state of perpetual revision. As a living, growing, breathing organism that appreciates, reflects, and resolves an indefinite number and style of perspectives, the Ob(li)fious project seeks to be a passive (malleable) vehicle for spreading peaceful thought and action.

Notes on paper:

The "whoa" concept and the universal conversation: the materialization process of metaphor.

I will prove that all information is true, seeking to resolve conflicting stories and paradox, showing how, like puzzle pieces, the information exists to expose confusions, their sources, and a universe that is livable by and inclusive of everyone, thus deflating and dissolving behavior patterns that have proven to negatively impact others and the planet, proving that they are counterintuitive to growth and all life on the planet, although, as I shall also prove, necessary in themselves for the duration they served. I am aware of how ambitious this project seems, and one who assumes it is ambitious would be correct in that assumption. I am ambitious, as well as persistent, and I am attracting many who share in this ambitious, if lofty, goal, so that what is being constructed, by no means intended to be an imposition of a reality on everyone, is a product of people who share this level of commitment to creating a world we imagine for ourselves. And yet, I feel everything is exactly the way it has to be.

A proposal of a new paradigm, where, for example, there is nothing "wrong" or "right," calling in my thesis for a radical reinvention of language and government structures to reflect this statement.

Also, a study to discover how accurately the moral majority portrayed in the media represents an actual demographic.

i. bandwagon
The LED orange hand flashes at your eyes, you defy it.
One person walks and the clustering pedestrians, hesitant,
decide it's ok to defy the hand. You're shaking the branch,
and leaves disattach and fall.

ii.etymology and reappropriation
An iconic tapestry of modern icons:
Safeguard is a soap (an epiphany).
Coke is a staple food.
First Unitarian. First Church of God.
Second Church of God.

"Bless you" is something you have to say when someone in the room sneezes,
but only if you're sharing the same space. This is because you believe that some mysterious force like the plague might take their life if you don't call for a blessing.

"So. . ." is how we explain things open-endedly, intentionally stopping before finishing our arguments, suggesting that an assumption that we may or may not be implying is self-evident, so. . . .

Suggestions and Themes for Transmission

***ViDEo"tApE" People Talking; Up-LoAd He(A)re!<-->;)***

Here's a brief list of suggested themes I've come up with. Use them as you see fit, maybe as connectors to one or more of the infinite possibilities they inspire. Please take a few minutes to comment at the end of this post with your own suggestions. Let's move forward together in the creative process!

Keep in mind, it is not necessary, nor is it advisable, to attempt to answer all the subtopics associated with any particular topic you may choose to address. These ideas may be further explored through a creative exchange, where there is no mandated form. I am not particularly set on the magazine being limited to include only ("academic") "papers," since such an exclusion would seem to limit the scope of its perspectives. Therefore, freedom of expression in form and content is encouraged.

* Where is abbreviation taking us? Trace the history and origins of the abbreviation trend, using examples in language, in collective thought, in business, etc., and weigh its value against sacrifices made. For instance, it seems that with one technological advancement after another, the mechanization movement has meant making our culture move faster (e.g., a progression from the Industrial Revolution to the present reveals sudden changes transitioning a culture, one may argue, from a slow-paced age emphasizing quality over quantity into a fast-paced age emphasizing quantity over quality, a culture that promotes ease of use over hard work, introducing in rapid succession the railroad, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, the freeway, the television, the computer, e-mail and internet, the text message, the i-phone app), as it seeks immediate gratification. Advertising in the past hundred years also reflects the rapid progression in the collective psyche: from the lengthy text ad that was once common to the minimalist pop image of today. What have been the psychological effects on the individual caught in this wave? What are the pros and cons of this trend? Is it indefinitely sustainable? Is this trend facilitating a movement into a new paradigm?

* Examine the ideas of "political correctness" and "tolerance." Do these social pressures establish whatever their assumed agenda is? Are they responsible for reinforcing old prejudices?

* Pick a popular expression, word or ad campaign and examine its viability. It may be old or new, as long as it's still in popular use: for example, one may argue that the overwhelming popularity of anti-drug campaigns and breast cancer awareness campaigns, while benefiting their specific target audiences according to their respective agendas, overlook and promote ignorance of other epidemics, such as heart disease, which is the number one killer of women, and alcohol, which causes more health problems, arguably, than marijuana.

* What kind of information has priority in the dominant (Western) culture? What kind of information has priority in other cultures? Compare and contrast. For example, examine the top news stories from different sources, from American media and elsewhere. One may find it useful to inform one's argument by examining concepts such as media conglomeration, imperialism, and marginalization.

More than observing what we perceive to be ingrained social problems, the purpose of ob(li)fious is to discuss and suggest alternatives for creatively re-envisioning our world.

Each issue of the magazine we publish may explore a certain theme, representing a diversity of critical perspectives.

One's Treasure
The Ob(li)fious portfolio, which I have been compiling since my third year at Webster University, was in a messenger bag that was stolen earlier this month from an anti-profit coffee house in Portland. I am excited that the portfolio, a packed museum of notes, relics, nonlocal articles, paper topics scrawled on post-its losing their adhesive, and ideas for meetings and the collective, in general, was recycled back into the cosmos, so ideas can be born fresh again. I sincerely hope whoever has found it has found some use for it.

Please contribute.Ob(li)fious is a site intended for gathering together an active movement that seeks reassessment of traditional constructs and ideas through peaceful dialog, emphasizing the necessity of responding to concepts conveyed through various languages and media with our own language and media. The group promotes awareness and intelligent though not elitist dialog, rather than doctrine or dogma, and is driven by the idea that the world is invented by an array of people and ideas that are sometimes voiceless due to suppression or lack of an arena in which the voices can peacefully assemble and come to recognize a viable agreement. All perspectives are encouraged, as we seek information through careful research. The group will conduct its own research, which will be documented, synthesized, and explored through various creative projects that the group will determine autonomously and collectively. In accordance with the group's intention to share information freely, one of its outlets will be an independently published magazine, seeking neither notoriety nor profit.

Judge it by its Cover

"Loosen a rivet from the lapsed mind
and out pours the obvious like thick rain."—Noah Eli Gordon, Novel Pictorial Noise

The cover of Ob(li)fious, like the cover of my personal journal, is a collage of everyday symbols, words, clichés. I am a cliché. “I” “am” “a cliché,” where “a cliché” is a cliché itself. A phrase seems to begin to approach cliché when it is recognized by the collective consciousness as representing something which seems true. This collective consciousness, perhaps, perceives itself vaguely as an abyss, rather than as heaven; if this were true, it would seem to follow that a cliché, just like a belief, sinks into this abyss (what Jung calls the "unconscious"), and informs the popular collective worldview. This collective consciousness may be either supraconscious or subconsious, heaven or hell, depending on what position one chooses as one's perspective. Like Nietzsche writes in Beyond Good and Evil, "And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

Although it's considered cliche to quote Nietzsche these days, as his name is hugely iconic and misrepresented, his ideas are nonetheless relevant. As I hope will become apparent, this example of a cliche, however irritated one is by it, illustrates an argument I touch on here but would like to argue further at a later time; that is, that cliches should not be avoided just because of the cultural taboo surrounding the use of the cliche. When something is labeled culturally as cliche or archaic, there is an implication along with this categorization that the "old" ideas and images are to be strictly avoided. This seems, however, to be a modern concept, and I would like to question its viability as we move toward a less, in my opinion, short-sighted temporal awareness that values the archaic, not just what is viewed as "new" (although, perhaps, as these modern values themselves, too, become archaic, they can be reasonably justified).

Logically, some clichés are based on assumptions which are just beliefs, some of which may be true. For example, Kai Chang states in his essay “The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of ‘Political Correctness,” “What's striking about the repetitive droning complaints about "PC" (from both conservatives and liberals) is that the expression itself — not to mention the concept it invokes — is as sloppily unexamined as it is pedestrian.”1 However, there is such a thing as “anti-cliché,” which is a device commonly used by writers to free the cliché from the absurd back into the realm of viable ideas. A cliché seems to work as a symbol. As one becomes aware of the prevalence of basic shapes and images detached from contexts, where one adjusts one's assumption from believing these images to be exclusively Capitalist symbols (when in the market), or exclusively natural symbols (when found in nature), these symbols begin to situate themselves for the observer within a macrocosmic context which keeps everything alive with meaning, rather than cliche. For an instance of this, there's evidence to suggest that the extinct Mayan civilization based their economy on a currency of cacao beans, demonstrating direct connection to their ecosystem, their source of food and well-being, promoting a sustainable lifestyle and a subject-subject consciousness paradigm.

It seems that one possibility, if reduced, for the vestige of empirical civilization we're experiencing now is that when a people--tribe, community, civilization--begins resisting its cosmic-global worldview, it starts limiting itself by defocusing from life as a cosmic phenomenon. In place of an image located within a cosmos, people born into this new culture may start viewing an image or concept as something which exists as if in a vacuum, having no value or meaning apart from a limited historical perspective (that history which the culture has written for itself as a way to insulate the people--who see themselves for the most part as inseparable from the proscribed culture itself--from any history before or after it). Instead of things having living value, therefore, being integrally embedded in all time and space and therefore informing a paradigm for a people who believes itself likewise to be situated within an infinite cosmos of free and creative possibilities, symbols in such a disconnected culture would be dead metaphors (by definition, isolated from their origins). Symbols, therefore, might take on the shape only of the meaning applied to them within a limited historical perspective.

Words may form just as beliefs do, from concepts assumed to be absolute, unquestionable truth. If a language, then, inherently within its very structure, carries limited beliefs, which, through the language, are repeated or maintained by everyone within a certain nation, this language is impelling every individual who hears and speaks it into accepting an entire system of assumptions. This idea is further realized when the technology becomes available to broadcast such repeated messages into every home, to every car, to every person's ipod, to every movie theater, etc. Society is an artifice. It is possible, then, for the people of an entire nation to believe their choices to be their own, without realizing that even they are part of the artifice.

There seems to be a necessity, therefore, to question the fundamental truths. It seems there has been a mass erasure, inherent in the artifice of Western society, of origins. There also appears to be a great dismissal of the necessity to analyze simple concepts. An analysis of origin, though, tends to inform the thing itself, reclaiming its meaning and taking it out of the realm of cliché. There, in its proper environment, an idea that has been expressed as a dead phrase is in a better position for one to decide if the idea is something one wishes to adopt, abolish, or reinvent in(to) or from one's own life.

This independent magazine seeks this, and related challenges as its mission. It is a project intended to increase awareness by being a medium through which anyone can critically discuss and challenge ideas. While deconstruction of existing beliefs is at the forefront of this publication's goals, the magazine's contributors will also seek constructive alternatives. All who are interested in participating in this challenge are welcome.



1 Chang, Kai. “The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of ‘Political Correctness.'” Zuky: Open Mind and Open Hand Strike. 2006. Kai Chang. .

Organizational Procedures, part 2

Ob(li)fious will soon be available as an online fusion of zine and academic journal, and will be distributed locally in paper copies free of charge for the first issue, hopefully at Powell's and Reading Frenzy. Once a local production team and small reader base is established, the journalzine should be released nationally to high schools and colleges, which will pay solely for production costs.

The organization may decide to run itself as a nonprofit, driven by volunteers and funded by subscriptions and grants. At that point, copies will be sold online and at local independent bookstores and publishing companies, such as Powell's, Reading Frenzy, and Microcosm Publishing. As with all decisions of the group, these decisions will be made collectively, where anyone may offer her recommendations and reservations.

Welcome to the new Reference Library Catalogue. In it, you may find valuable resources headed under various topics of interest. To start us off, I have included some that are in my personal collection and that I would recommend as staple components of any contributor's personal library. I have also included a few, such as the OED, that are available for public use at the city library. As you discover additional resources, please e-mail them to me or include them in a comment to this continuous blog and I will update our resource library here.

Language

Oxford English Dictionary
American Heritage Dictionary

Philosophy and Inquiry

Christian, James L. Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering, 5th Ed.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Wilson, Edward O. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge.

Writing

Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference, 5th Ed.
Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style.

Media Literacy

Silverblatt, Art. Media Literacy: Keys to Interpreting Media Messages.

Jesus Caught Dancing on MAX; Is Science Merging With Spirituality? Princeton's Global Consciousness Project Encourages Dialog on Compelling Evidence


AA--Is exclusivity of institutionalized ideas dead?

We posed this question recently to what some are calling, "Jesus Christ," spotted recently hitching a free ride on the MAX transit train in Portland, Oregon. The alleged "Messiah" was laughing and dancing, and miraculously, NOT spilling his mug of water that was determined to have somehow transmuted, according to one report, "in just three easy minutes, into green tea complete with a Tazo tea bag (a local company)--it was organic" (unknown source).

Harold Buttwack, 31, was also on the MAX when "Jesus Christ" allegedly made his entrance.

"I was trying to download the light saber app for my iPhone, so I don't really know what happened. You know, (mass transit) rides are notorious freak shows, so it's not like I would have noticed anyone 'out of the ordinary.' I did notice some slight shaking and bursts of light, but I take MAX to work every day. I just thought it was a typical rough Trimet ride," Buttwack says.

Also present was Serendipity Dooda, 31. "It felt like this guy was breathing pretty heavily down my neck, like, I heard some sort of snorting accompanying it, and there was some cold water on my neck, it felt like, and so, of course, I turned around to see what the fuck was going on, and there was this Arab-looking dyke who was just laughing, like silently, with her mouth wide-open. I asked if she would please shut her mouth, that her breath was tickling my neck, and I didn't want my neck tickled, not to mention cold water thrown on me. She handed me a cup of water, and I told her, you know what I told her? I told her, 'I don't want your fucking cold-ass water in the middle of December!,' and I yanked the cup out of her hairy hand, and dropped it in the same instant, cuz it was fucking HOT, and it splashed on my face. I couldn't believe it! That was when I knew this dude was like metaphysical or some shit, like how was I supposed to know it was Jesus Fucking Christ?! So yeah, it tasted like green tea, and that's all he had. I swear it was cold when it was on my neck. It was like he had his own goddamn invisible microwave technology from the future or something!"

Despite our best attempts to catch up with him (may have been a lesbian/intersex/trans-gender post-op--he was wearing plaid), we could not track this "Jesus Christ," down for the interview, as his dance seemed to have been exponentially generating variations of itself into dimensions we could not quite assimilate. Perhaps his laughter, too, could have been recorded and then slowed down in tests to determine if he, in fact, was answering our questions, and perhaps giving us a whole sermon on the MAX? He did point to two advertisements on the walls of the train, one conversation between a couple teenagers, and a billboard at the intersection we had stopped at, effectively drawing our attention to the words, "global" "conscious" and "project."

Elmo Snuffalopagus, Professor Emeritus, City College of Whosville, Whoseville, EMN, where he taught, for over 35 years, comparative religion, language, and comparative mythology, will be taking questions in an open discussion format at Macy's in Portland, Oregon, during the "12 days of Solstice" event, beginning December 21. Snuffalopagus, 31, is the author of 13 books, including Is Exclusivity of Institutionalized Ideas Dead? A Chronicle of Contemporary Discoveries, Myths, Beliefs and the Pseudo-"Westernized" Psyche, due out from Hardcourt, 2009.

An extensive study conducted by researchers at Princeton University for the past few decades, The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) has been compiling data on the interrelationship of thought and matter. Simply designed "random number generators" attempt to measure nothing. Ones who quantify the data notice patterns of synchronicity (quantum mechanics implies that the idea, and certainly, the belief, of clinical objectivity is a fallacy). What is interesting about this scientific project is now that the research phase has shifted into one of proselytization, the collaborators are rather emphatically promoting dialogs that are not only encouraging interdisciplinary perspectives, but are encouraging any and all perspectives, most notably, ones that tend to poetry, art, and philosophy.

It seeks convergence with other traditions, recognizing that in order to discuss these findings, exclusively scientific perspectives are proving ineffective (i.e., if you are a dancing Jesus, you're hired!). The project, therefore, is inviting perspectives across disciplines including those that are typically seen as exclusive from the sciences, such as the fine arts and the "humanities," to engage in a dialog emphasizing a philosophical approach to the findings.

The GCP is enticing as an example of a radical and pioneering shift in academic leadership, where Princeton has funded what appears to be a major credited new construct that is replacing old paradigms and completing theories such as Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Green's String Theory (both of which, incidentally, also originated from Princeton authors). The greater community of academics is beginning, as a growing coagulated entity, an exploration of new territory, implying a recognition of the former program's limitations, as well as their own, and offers an indication of a radically new paradigm that has been suggested for decades in terms of a global renaissance emerging that is enticing to those of us who are inclined towards a balance between the the technical and technique. Ironically, Science seems finally to have been something that can be its own dissolution, itself perhaps a method, program, project, into which we all were systemically abducted, not unlike religion, for understanding what it is to be human situated within a kosmos, putting definition on the mysteries. In the end, though, as the world is pulling together, finally, in a messy crisis of never-seen-before proportions, it seems we are finding that the general sentiment that "everyone together creates the world" is not just wishful thinking.

More information is available at the GCP's official website that contains forums, wikis, and open-sourced data, continuing its mission to comprehend and discuss the implications of the research: http://noosphere.princeton.edu.

See also the article, "Do We Need a 'Scientific Revolution' in Order to Create World Peace?," by Jonathan Rowson (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~t656_web/peace/Articles_Spring_2003/Rowson_Jonathan_Stress.htm).

U.S. Media and Infrastructure:
A Comparison of Symbols



which one of these is not (un)like the other?



















Is it possible that the big picture hides in plain sight?
Does it stare us in the face?



















STARE BACK.










SHARE BACK. Ob(Li)fious welcomes discussion and written submissions.



















Images courtesy: Google images

Organizational procedures, part 1

Writing
Research and explorations are conducted by all collaborators, submitted pieces for publication are selected based on unanimous decision of the editors. Final revisions, after being reviewed by the editors, are entrusted to the publishing committee, which will oversee the sustained production of a magazine and/or website. Blogger.com, a free-access blog website, may serve as a suitable medium for publication until the community decides otherwise.

Education
The primary educational mission of this collaborative project is duplicitous: 1. educate ourselves through intuitive experience and research; 2. open our discoveries to dialog through publication and creative enterprise. Educating ourselves necessarily involves being receptive to persons who are not necessarily in socially acknowledged positions of authority or credibility.

In addition to publication, other means for engaging in education and dialogue will be decided upon and conducted by all members, which may include interactive performances, demonstrations, and exhibits.

Government
The community will internally hold open dialog exploring its organizational structure that will give all persons operating by free will within it an environment that is comfortable and conducive to advanced learning processes.

The community will have full rights to rearrange its constitution, in keeping integrity to its ideals here set forth.