AndrewBrunelle.com

This was just an experiment I tried while bored and looking for a way to pass the time. It is just a collection of small sayings that, at the time, I thought were interesting. Here they are:

All these are copyrighted by me, so enjoy them at your own risk.

It should be obvious to anyone that the way we live our lives is not sustainable, at least here in America. Our consumption rate far surpasses the Earth’s ability to reproduce its resources. It is awfully hard to get this message out to those who do not think the same way as I do about allowing the rest of the species on Earth to have their space, too. Just because we think we are the smartest life form on this planet (and we probably aren’t) does not mean we should be allowed to take over the whole environment. It is just plain wrong. Let me compare it to if a species of aliens came down and started clearing out our homes to build superhouses of their own. If we ever stumbled upon their “property,” we would be shot or the “Human Control Center” would be brought in to “exterminate” us. I am not saying we should all move back into the woods, but have some respect for nature, the perfect balance.

I’m sure I’ve stated before that I believe the main reason we do not care for nature is because we are so far away from it now than ever before. Pretty soon, if the dominant paradigm stays in power, we will be able to accomplish everything without leaving the house. Us in our sterile little boxes, now more afraid of the outside world than ever before. We’re plugged into the Internet, the television (which reminds us constantly what a dangerous world it is out there), and other devices that further reinforce this worldview. We start losing sense of reality because all our time is spent on a machine of some sort, diverting the majority of our attention to this oil-guzzling electrosaur that we lived for hundreds of centuries without. And every day, more things come out that consume energy. More items come out that deplete our natural resources. And with the current population spiraling near seven billion, it almost seems as if a crash is coming. It is not something that anyone really wants, but it is coming and I believe it will no matter what.

A large number of jobs these days have to do with destroying the Earth and its resources. If we stop taking from the Earth, people lose their jobs. The economy falls. People go hungry on the streets, even though we have an abundant food supply. People in construction have nothing to do because no more buildings are being built. Some people would call this the next “Great Depression.” Maybe we should call it something else: “The Great Expansion.”

This will allow us to do the things we did for centuries. Plant our own food, build our own homes, and just let us be human again. It will get us all back in shape, as the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of many people leads to obesity. It will re-energize the community as a central unit of interaction. People will live closer together and in harmony. That is, after all the looting stops. But this brings me to a political statement about the War in Iraq. It is obvious we are there for oil. We know how tapped our resources are and if we can get enough for awhile, at least have more than our “competing nations,” then we will be able to defend ourselves better if there is an attack on us. As you know, our dollar is decreasing in value and oil will likely be the next form of “currency.” Whoever has the remaining oil will be in power. If we were not so dependent on this fossil fuel, maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But we are, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.

Our whole culture is brought up a certain way and it is really hard to break an entire culture’s way of life. I can start reducing, reusing, and recycling, but how does that help if most multinational corporations are dumping pollutants into streams and rivers, damaging our ecosystem to the fullest extent? I think the problem with humans is they fail to have a way to deal with problems that slowly creep up on them. If a catastrophe happens, like a tornado, people respond quickly. Look at 9/11. But if something as slow-moving as the end of oil or global warming, it is so easy for people whose agendas are fixed on the status quo to make a farce out of the whole thing. It is so easy to deny that which does not happen suddenly, but takes years, maybe centuries, to occur. If only oil did not warm our planet and was renewable…

There are solutions. There are several solutions we all can work on together. If we all move towards what I would describe as a radically simple life, one where we live in very small houses and do not drive automobiles or eat much meat, because we all know what damage those factory farms do to our ecosystem as well. We do not go out looking for external items to make us happy, but find happiness from family and friends, not from the almighty dollar. People say this is impossible, and they may be right. I, for one, believe that if the collective consciousness can band together and work towards getting this goal done, we may make at least one significant step towards becoming sustainable. We would also probably need to do voluntary population reductions, and euthanasia and other options should not be out of the question. But if we want to kill our species in one big blaze of nuclear missile strikes and widespread poverty, then we can keep living the way we do.

But right now, looking around at what I see, the crash is inevitable. And maybe after the crash, those who survived will learn from civilization’s mistakes and work towards a much better way of life. It will have some old aspects of original human culture and it will bring in some new aspects as well. I’m pretty sure Monsanto will not be a part of it, though. I suppose here I will include a few things that may help you to reduce your ecological footprint and maybe, just maybe, slow down this crash I believe will happen in the next 20 years:

Cut out the television
Need less
Give more
Live a simple life
Find wealth in simple things
Drive less
Eat less meat
Learn to be self-sufficient
Learn how to fix things
Buy high-quality items
Buy local produce
Become a minimalist
Spend time with family
Do what you love

I hope these help you on your way. I am hoping to expand the list further in the future. Get ready for the crash. A lot of these skills may come in handy. And if we avert the crash, you’ll still be better off than your neighbors. Losing everything in a natural disaster might not sting as much. I am not saying here that it is inherently bad to be wealthy and have a lot of nice things. I just want people to look at the consequences of living such a lifestyle. Thank you for listening.

I believe it is obvious that television and materialism go hand and hand. For me, it is blatantly obvious and when and if I partake in watching the ever-expanding tube, I try to watch with a critical eye. To tell you the truth, most of the shows really impress me. To be blatantly honest, maybe two shows impress me and the rest–they are not for me. I am a big fan of stand-up comedy, but you won’t catch me watching a comedy special on Comedy Central anymore. I use Youtube now to get my comedy fix and even though they have advertisements on the sides and wherever else they may hide, they are not on the screen in which I am watching. It will not take up a significant portion of my valuable time to sit through the newest stupid, but funny beer commercial. “First time at the opera, boys?” The one aspect I love most about Youtube is if I want to find a specific clip from a specific show or comedy routine, all I have to do is type it into the search bar. And if the company who supposedly “owns” this intellectual property hasn’t threatened a lawsuit against Youtube, then I am able to watch it. And if I am not able to watch it, then I don’t think I want any part of that corporation anyway.

And I understand that these corporations want to make money by selling advertising so that they can have nice houses and cars and live the lives that are portrayed on television. You know the lives I’m talking about: six-figure income, nice clothes, nice car, disposable income, and all the other trappings this society hopes to lure us into. When we watch television, it projects a lifestyle that for some reason we regard as real. We think people really live the way that those on television do. We believe that to be a “good citizen” and have a “fulfilling life” that we need to buy this kind of car, that kind of wallet, a Prada bag, and since everyone around us is also thinking this way and taking these actions and going further and further into debt, we feel that we do not want to be left out. So we conform. We start small, maybe buying a nice watch or a sweet new car, and then we go further and further into debt, but by looking at the way the government spends our taxpayer’s dollars recklessly for whatever they want, we feel no guilt about going $50000 into the red.

But something happens. We start to realize how the things we own are now owning us. We are slaves to Mastercard and our 2500 square foot house. Our bank owns us. Our Tempurpedic Swedish sleep system owns a part of us. It is almost like we are a company and a certain amount of stocks go to the corporations. Then new industries form to take advantage of those in this predicament. All these debt consolidation companies I’ve seen advertised on television that say debt is okay. They say, “We understand you are in debt and we’ll help you get out. For a fee, of course.” It kind of reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons, where the lawyer character, voiced by Phil Hartman who said on his business card, “No Money Down,” but when Marge needs his legal counsel he says something like, “Those damn printers got it wrong again! It’s is supposed to be ‘No, Money Down.’” It is a way to lure you in, a promise of no money spent, when the reality, especially in the long run, is much more money spent. I am sick and tired of “Make no payments until 2009!” It is so misleading. Well, it’s not really misleading. It is true. But they never say how large the payments will be in 2009.

And no money down really does help the companies more because they’ll be able to squeeze more interest out of every person who does this. If you buy a car or put $5000 down on a car, you’ll pay significantly less in interest than if you come with no money down. This may not be true in all cases, like the real estate gurus who say that you can get cash back when you buy a house with no money down, but I am not going to delve into that subject because I know nothing about it. Television glorifies the get now, pay later mentality, but it never emphasize the pay later, only the get now. Once I move into my own little household in the (hopefully) distant future, I will probably not own a television and if I want to see a particular show, I can always order it on iTunes, even though I don’t own an iPod. I can watch it on my computer and I will be fine. I just hope they don’t come with commercials. If they do, I will buy them on DVD when they come out. And this is one, maybe two shows tops. Even though I own almost all the Seinfeld DVDs, I hardly ever watch them. I’ve seen them so many times, I need a break. I haven’t been to see a movie in over three months and I’ve maybe gone to see two in the last nine months. I’d rather rent them on-demand if I really want to see them. And that’s maybe one to two movies a year. I am just not very impressed.

And I believe my lack of impression in regards to entertainment was that I was raised in a house that was allowed to watch no more than a half-hour to an hour of television a day from a young age until I was about 16. That is when I got my own television in my room and I watched maybe two hours a day, but mostly comedy shows. This was before I had any opinions on television whatsoever. I loved to read and still do and I love listening to podcasts online, especially ones that are thought-provoking, but I now know that the entertainment value of television is subpar because it doesn’t really care so much about the quality of the programming, but more about how many people they can get watching. A show like Deal or No Deal is very entertaining, but I forget about it less than a day after I watched it. And it doesn’t inspire me to become a better person. It just keeps you in the moment with this one person who is just randomly guessing cases and the only skill involved is knowing when to stop, but I know they have pressure from the network and the show to drag it out, make it suspenseful so that people keep watching. Everyone I know who watches this show says they would probably stop after one or two rounds and a modest six-figure offer, but they should also consider how boring a show like that would be and how low the ratings would be for a show like that. The show would be canceled.

But the show is not really providing value, is it? I would get so much more entertainment by reading a novel or writing a blog post. Why should I spend my life watching someone else partake in an activity that I could just as easily partake in. I always had the joke that if they had a show 24 for my life, where it depicts 24 hours in a day of my life, it would be so boring because about nine of those hours would be me in bed and the rest of it might be me enjoying a cup of herbal tea, maybe writing a blog entry, possibly going to work for six hours, and then going home and basically zoning out for a couple of hours, maybe working on my comedy career. There would be no ratings and I know that. Most people’s lives would not make a good TV show. I’ve thought about writing for a television show or maybe creating my own, but if it is always going to be about the advertisers and the ratings, then I might not want to do it, unless I can comment on certain aspects of the show, like saying in the middle of a scene: “We only did this because we knew it would boost ratings. Drink Pepsi.” I have ideas for shows, like one about just people having conversations. I believe conversation is an art form, a living, breathing thing, and in the movie Coffee and Cigarettes, although I felt most of the conversations were rather shallow, I liked the idea. Just a bunch of random conversations. There was one with Steven Wright and one with Bill Murray and members of the Wu Tang Clan. But a show like that, unless the conversations were really good, will get canceled. I even heard of a show like that but it used clay animals to talk, but the conversations were real. It was made by those Wallace and Gromit people, who I believe are very creative. But it was canceled in America, and I know it is probably still on the air in Britain. It just shows you the difference there, not that I am insulting America, just our attention spans.

I believe this ties into materialism signficantly because since our attention spans are so short, when we buy something, it doesn’t fulfill us as much as it used to. We are always ready to digest the next piece of equipment. Our overindulgence and our need to live the lifestyles of the rich and famous control our very existence and for the most part it is inescapable? You feel like an outcast if you don’t have an mp3 player or a cell phone. You can still function in society, but you become more isolated. There are a few people who may live like you, but the rest of the mass conglomorate of America is out shopping on Black Friday in droves because they can get more stuff at a reduced price. And they’re helping the economy, right? They certainly aren’t helping their personal economy. They are making themselves poorer and the rich richer. All in this need to have nice things.

And it’s not that I don’t believe in having nice things. Believe me. I believe in having very few nice and durable things and reducing the need to go out and get more nice things. Right now I have more nice things than I could ever need. I may have to get rid of some of these things to make room for nice things I’ll actually use. But compared to the general population, my nice things stash is far below the norm. And I’m proud of that fact. I might own 20 DVDs, a laptop, essential furniture, an mp3 player, but I can’t really use it because it hurts my head, a desk to put my laptop on, and some books. And a bookshelf. Do I need all of this? No. But I am still not deprogrammed from the social conditioning I endured since the day I could speak and understand the way people are “supposed to live.”

I like to take the road less traveled. It is not just rebellion, but it just feels right for me. I’ve never fit into the mold that society has placed out for me and I feel that for me to conform would be an insult to myself and I would probably become numb and give up. While people are going out and buying things this holiday season, I am slimming down, giving away what I no longer use to those who will use it. If you actually use something on a daily or weekly basis, it is not a waste. If it fulfills you, then you made a good choice. But as soon as that item is looking at moving into the closet or the garage, why not give it to someone who would appreciate it? Why hold onto it? Why have to buy a bigger house just because you have too much stuff? Here is a good rant about suff from Geroge Carlin. I’m not sure if this link will work, because most links I use from Youtube always go to a page saying that the video was removed due to terms violations. Just search “George Carlin talks about stuff” if that link doesn’t work. “A house is nothing more than a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.” Classic, but that’s just my opinion. I don’t need a big place for my stuff. If I go with the essentials, I become less tied down. And this is why I try so hard not to watch much television. I don’t need these artifically created needs that I would never even consider if I hadn’t watched that particular ad.

If I may, I would love to direct you to a website that is amazing when it comes to describing the effects of television and it even has a radio podcast, at least 30 or so hours of footage, about television and other issues in the news. It is called Turnoffyourtv.com and the radio podcasts are on Turnoffyourtv.com/radio. It is bypartisan supposedly, but I know this guy leans towards the left. Or maybe he is so far left, he does not affiliate himself whatsoever with a side. The man’s name is Ron Kaufman and I like this website and it speaks louder than words. What it preaches mostly is not the evils of television, but more the fact of all the much better things you could be doing instead of watching television. You could be out not buying unnecessary things. You could be out having fun. You could be spending time with family. Take it from me. Things will not be there to hug you at night. Things will not tell you everything’s going to be okay. But people will do these things. Television just wants you to keep watching. It happens to me. I say I’m just going to watch this one show and before I know it, it is three in the morning and I have to get up early the next day and I can’t sleep because I’m so wound up from Lawand Order: SVU. But I weaned myself off that show and those marathons. And I hope you can, too. Good luck.

Shopping malls. Factory farms. Death camps. Slavery. Corpocracies. Oligopolies. Television. The Internet. Is all of this really “progress?” Is the continuing rape and destruction of land and environment going anywhere? What are we, as a species, trying to prove by doing such things? How is this helping us raise our consciousness? The media keeping us in fear over how many people died today, that you could be murdered in your sleep by one of those faceless evil monsters that always seem to be lurking around in your neighborhood. Or the advertisements that come on for security systems right after. “If you buy this ADT alarm system, you will be safe from all predators.” The media is nothing more than an advertising medium to persuade people to further participate in the destruction of the world by buying more things that come not from the store, but from the Earth. Consumption is an addiction, but to everyone, it’s okay. No one is judged for it, and yet it is far more destructive than anything else.

And I don’t blame people for being in this sort of mindset. It is forced upon you at every angle. The next thing you buy will solve all your problems. That new camera phone will allow me to preserve my memories for just this much longer. The new laptop will be faster and easier to use, so that the rest of my valuable time can be taken up watching television shows that depict people who are living beyond any means I can ever afford. Television will tell me how to live my life and what I should consider important, not to mention which brands I should buy. It will tell me how to think and how to react to certain circumstances and I have to passively accept it as the images just keep flowing, all of which I have no control over. I am doing exactly what they want me to do, and it is making corporations a whole lot of money, but not myself. I am in debt up to my eyeballs and my house has a foreclosure on it, but at least I have that new deluxe, premium, luxury printer-copier-fax machine-toaster-washing machine combination with three free stacks of printing paper and one box of fabric softener.

I guess most of these people take their spending habits from their government. Look at how far the U.S. as a whole is in debt. If the entire government isn’t going to be responsible with their money, then why should the citizens? Why shouldn’t they just all max out their credit cards and spend the rest of their lives (and beyond) paying back to these corporations that get richer and richer from your 18% interest every month of every year? These companies even market to people with bad credit because they know that these people will make them a whole lot of money because they have a history of buying things they cannot afford. It is this type of manipulation that really pisses me off. And I feel bad for the people who are trapped in situations like that. They are dead broke and are thousands in debt and there is no way out, except bankruptcy. Then they are owned by their credit score and can’t get a loan, can’t buy a house, a car, a fucking toaster without surrendering to a credit history report.

What ever happened to saving for things until you had enough money? The joy of counting your money as you saved up for the new bike or the video game your parents wouldn’t buy for you. I’ll tell you what happened. The invention of credit cards makes it so easy to buy something now and pay for it later, at a much higher cost. But when you are out buying it, no one thinks of the consequences until the bill comes in. Then it’s like, “Oh, shit. Remember that 4-pack of HD-ready televisions we bought? Yeah, they want $8000 this month, and that’s just our minimum payment.” I love how these commercials say “No money down,” and that attracts people because they don’t have to pay for it right away, but they still get to have it. “Look at our beautiful couch. Cost us nothing, so far.” But the whole notion that buying these things will ease our insecurities and make us feel good about ourselves is just the advertising industry trying to tell us how to live. “If you don’t have and iPod, you’ll never fit in. You’ll be the outcast of society.” “Well, I’d better go pick up that iPod. I don’t want to be some loser with no friends. I must conform or suffer extreme isolation the rest of my life.” And that’s the consciousness that advertising attempts to shove down our throats. The fact that some item, some thing, will ease our problems and make life so much better. And most of the time, these advertisers are wrong.

This is why I choose (consciously) to adopt what I refer to as minimalism. You own the bare essentials. You only hold onto what is useful , beautiful or brings you joy and discard the rest. You embrace what is referred to as a simple lifestyle, but in a voluntary way. I did a joke onstage about my minimalism once that went something like this, “Instead of looking for apartments in the want ads, I look for any empty closets.” It is liberating to think this way because instead of looking for what else you can accumulate, you now look for what you no longer need to do without, like my life-size Spongebob Squarepants doll. I am further limiting my television exposure as well and the Internet, which has become my surrogate television with the advent of Youtube and other television-esque websites. I just bought this wallet online called the Jimi, which is a very small and compact wallet that only holds the minimal of items. Five cards and three dollar bills. I just don’t want to have a wallet like George Costanza from Seinfeld. I remember a quote from that episode: “Everything in that wallet I need.” And then Jerry takes out a card, “Show this card at your local Miami area gas station and receive a free ‘Save the Tiger’ T-shirt.” I guess free clothes is one of his top priorities.

Being minimalist is soothing, liberating, and just wonderful to be exact. The best part about it is I do not need to work excessive hours to meet my needs. I sympathize for the people who work 60 hour work weeks to keep up with buying all the unnecessary items they think they need, like a new outfit every week. I really feel for you, and I want you to know there is a way out. Move into a smaller house, get a smaller car, buy less stuff, sell all the extraneous clutter that has found its way into your life, quit your evil corporate job and find something that suits you, that really fits your character. Drop out of the rat race and start to slow down to the speed of life. Do only the essential tasks to bring you joy, happiness and fulfillment. Don’t buy into buying things just because your neighbors do. The one who dies with the most toys does not win. The one who dies with the most toys is dead, just like the one who dies with five dollars in his pocket and no current residence. And you can’t take that new stereo system with you. You can bury it with your body, but where your spirit is going, you might as well sell everything and give the money to charity before you depart into the big sleep. Contribute gently into that good night, and do it peacefully.

I have to admit the first thing that sparked this minimalist behavior was a movie from Hollywood. It was called Fight Club. It was the one line that really said it all to me: “The things you own start to own you.” And there were other various lines in the movie along the same premise and it was what some would call counterculture. It was what others would call Zen, enlightenment, or liberation. Now, I didn’t accept the whole film’s message and start underground boxing rings and terrorize cities, although I did so something similar on one of the college campuses I attended. It wasn’t nearly anywhere as extreme. It was only after I got out of there that I started practicing minimalism and the theory that a cluttered home equals a cluttered life.

I started listening to media sources outside the mainstream, such as anti-television personas such as Ron Kaufman, and adopted some of the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. I began perusing simplicity sites and forums to see how much further down I could go. I surely didn’t want to end up with an empty room or an empty house, but questioning what was necessary and what made me happy as the only essentials, I began to strip down significantly. Some of my family members would gasp as they saw my perfectly organized room, free of clutter. They gave me praise for being so diligent and disciplined, but I did not do this for their approval. I did this for myself. I did this to avoid spending countless hours looking for my cell phone or glasses. I did this to feel free of the consumer culture and that mindset that rules ever fiber of our being. I breathe easily knowing the consumption will only get worse and more unsustainable until it destroys itself and completely vanishes. It will be the next step in our evolution. Some people say this will happen as early as 2012. It’s certainly possible, but I don’t see it happening that fast, but I can’t rule anything out. I try to keep an open mind.

So very few blogs of today talk about minimalism and its benefits. Simplicity is big, but minimalism is not as big, but they are essentially very similar, but minimalism is to the extreme. They should have it in the X-games. The challenge could be to see who could live on nothing but so much food, a bed, and a shack in the woods for a year. Just tossing ideas out there. I take great comfort in knowing that my wardrobe will probably last me at least five more years, except undergarments of course. The cost of a thing is the amount of my life I have to give up in order to attain it. I am not saying that everyone is trying to sell you something, but I find it interesting, studying Zen and all, which pretty much endorses the minimalist lifestyle, saying you have to buy special mats to meditate on and a Zen garden, and some sort of robe. Mostly everything, but not completely anything, is a marketing campaign and I am so glad I am no longer a part of it. Come join me in my minimalism. As long as you’re not a minimalist whose only agenda is to maximize profits, you’re golden in my book.

Why can’t I just be normal? Probably because I do not want to be a carbon copy of conformity. I don’t want to become a victim of groupthink. And I certainly do not want to be susceptible to dogma. I don’t buy into the wisdom of crowds, nor do I accept consumerism. I don’t let fear shrink my perspective, nor do I use cliché terms to describe my life. I am unique, just like everyone else, but it is that uniqueness that separates me from the rest of the world. According to the type of brain cancer I had, I truly am one in a million. And I embrace that fact every day. I live in the present, not in the past or future because the present is all we truly have. The future does not exist, and when it does, it will be the present. And vice-versa for the past. I disrespect authority and challenge conventional wisdom. I am not a sheep, nor am I a sacrificial lamb. This is my creed. I take the road less traveled and the path those are afraid to navigate. And even though I may not be at the top of my game yet, I can see the forest for the trees. Well, I guess I use some cliché phrases. I think about death and where we are going in an associative way, not the dissociative way those Goth kids do. And this is why I simply don’t fit in. But I don’t justify my behavior from external approval. I can see the bigger picture. I know my lifestyle is worth something to me, and that it will help ease the burden on our ecosystem and I allow for myself to be.

I loathe politicians and know they only give us the illusion of freedom of choice. I think the education system is meant to just get us smart enough to be obedient to a system that is screwing us over big time. I embrace that fact and resist it to its very core. And I completely understand why our government thinks they need to wield more and more power over us because they are scared of a revolution. They are in a good position and if I were there, I’m not saying I would behave the same way, but I don’t think I would be willing to give up all my power, But I am not there, so I am not so attached to power. I am more attached to unconditional love, but I feel attachment is the root of all suffering. I am an Eastern man living in Western culture. I am a minimalist whose only interest is maximizing joy. I believe laughter truly is the best medicine and the side effects are a lot less severe than prescription drugs. But more importantly, I just am.

My inner child is still alive, my shadow self is running rampant, and my consciousness is on the rise. My mind is clear, my perception is in the present, and I take a universal perspective. I’m an optimistic nihilist who enjoys reading dark novels while looking at the lighter side of life. I’m an avid fan of dark comedies and think suicide can be funny. Take this for instance. “I’m suicidal, but I’m also a procrastinator, so I don’t think I’ll ever do it.” It is a joke I am currently working on. I can laugh at myself without my ego or pride getting in the way and I discount social conditioning. I am independent while at the same time interdependent. I believe Zen is basically sitting around doing nothing, but it feels good, so I run with it. I think the iPod must have been created by Satan and the iPhone, some people are too dependent on technology. I don’t derive my happiness from external circumstances, but rather bring happiness to them. I am a survivor who has no fear of death. As Forrest Gum once said, “Mama says that death is a part of life.” So true when you think about it. I believe in South Park’s reasoning that either it’s all okay or none of it’s okay. And if someone gets offended, well, they need to realize it is all a joke. You shouldn’t take life too seriously; no one gets out alive.

I believe the semicolon has its uses and the single quote is overrated. I believe email hurts the economy and also damages our spirit. I believe the best way to contact someone is through a hand-written letter. I hate phones and cell phone especially. I believe the best communication is face to face. I guess I’m just old-fashioned. I don’t even know what to call this post. Is ita mission statement or a manifesto? I’ve never been big on labels. Labels are very limiting. Just like judgments. I don’t judge people anymore than I judge myself. Who am I to judge? Even if I was a judge, I wouldn’t feel right. Who am I to say how people should live their lives? People need to make their own choices and live with the consequences, whether they are good or bad. I’m not here to save anyone. Let the Christians do that with their evangelical nature. I’m looking forward to the Rapture because I know I’ll be left behind. And I don’t think Jesus could leave anyone behind anyway. And I don’t want to say he’s not coming back, but I think when and if he does, he will get an iPod. How else is he going to listen to all the Christian rock music?

I believe that life is nothing but a dream, so peaceful and serene. I have been trying to become lucid in this dream. I believe if you cannot laugh at a situation, then you need to broaden your perspective. I live moment to moment and I have no regrets. This was fun. I’ll have to write something like this again. Until next time, do whatever you feel is right. Don’t become one of those robots I see running around like a chicken with their head cut off. Become what you aspire to be. What else do you have to do?

I wrote in my last post that I feel our species is headed for our ultimate destruction at an accelerated pace. And I am fine with it. I feel that the way our nature is, there really is nothing we can do to stop it. And that is completely all right with me. If we take a good look at all these things we’ve created in an attempt to discover some sort of meaning in our lives, we will be utterly shocked at how much destruction we’ve caused to the beautiful planet. It was fine for awhile. It really was. There weren’t so many of us, you know? But the accelerated pace at which we have reproduced, a quadrupling of the population in 150 years or so, we have to step back from our printing presses and our construction crews and take a good look at what we have done. We need to see the big picture. How far are we willing to go? How far will Planet Earth let us go? We see the temperatures spiking and it is almost like the Earth has a fever. Our home is getting sick. Yet we keep on clearing out forests and swamps to build minimalls and Wal*Marts. But I don’t think it will be for long.

But I have a distinct feeling the planet will be fine. The people, not so much. The Earth has tried to control our population, but we outsmarted it. We have protection against almost any disease it can throw at us. I’m living proof. A brain tumor growing from birth was an ultimate death sentence 100 years ago. Now, we have overstayed our welcome. And we can’t help ourselves. It is our nature to destroy the world around us for our own gratification. And it is not our fault. We grow up so detached from nature, from the environment, that we view it as something separate from us, something “out there,” instead of in our bones. I can totally see why people don’t have compassion for nature. They haven’t really experienced it very much. Living in cities and apartment complexes is hardly a naturalistic scene. And who even knows what we are doing. Is building more and more plazas and multiplexes going to make us feel better? In the short term, yes. But in the long run, I believe it will be the cause of our extinction.

I’ve heard a statistic, and it may be dated, but it stated that every eight seconds an acre of trees is cut down. Every eight seconds. That’s almost 400,000 acres of trees a year. Trees are vital to most life on Earth. Trees take in carbon dioxide and spit out oxygen for us to breathe. They also absorb a lot of the carbon dioxide from our car emissions and provide shade, a necessary entity. And it’s fine if we cut some trees down on a small scale, but this is ridiculous. But no one ever sees the big picture. You know why? Because no one is a part of the whole thing. It is all compartmentalized. It is like the Manhattan Project. Everyone does their part, but only a select few know the entire blueprint. And our inability to know how to fix this problem, and the amazing apathy about global warming I see every day when I look on message boards or Youtube videos is astounding.

Because of this, we are probably not going to last here on Earth as a civilized species for more than another 100-200 years. The population will reach 10 billion by 2050 and one billion Americans are projected to be living here by 2100. And then, due to our close quarters and unsustainable living practices, something is going to happen. An extinction event. Our life expectancies will go down rapidly, chaos will ensue. There will be a shortage of jobs, a shortage of places to live, a shortage of basically everything. Clean water will come at a premium. And I don’t think we’ll be able to weasel ourselves out of this situation. And that will be the end of us, the observer, the writer, the philosopher. And, like I said before, that is okay. If you look at this problem from the perspective of the entire physical universe, it is like losing less than a grain of sand. “But look at all we’ve accomplished.” It will all turn to dust. Impermanence. Everything is temporary. You cannot get too attached to anything, as it always changes. Seven years from now your body will have replaced every one of your cells.

So, to answer the age-old question “Where are we going?” I must say that we are going to our ultimate demise. It may take awhile, but it is a grim fact nonetheless. But it is the truth. As a species, I think we were too smart for our own good and found a way to control everything around us for a feeling of security that was never fully satisfied. The more land we control, the more we want to control. There is actually someone who bought space on the moon. He claimed the moon. Now real estate is going outside the planet. What does that say about our universe? Pretty soon, to steal a quote from Fight Club, there will be a Planet Starbucks. A Microsoft Galaxy. Just think how pissed the aliens from another galaxy would be if they found out they are now property of Microsoft, Inc. I would be, too.

Some people would say this is a pessimistic take on the state of the world. That is not so. It is basically a factual observation. It is facing the truth of what we have done. It is knowing that our lifestyles are unsustainable. It is knowing what factory farms are doing to our ecosystem. It is simply knowing that something is fucked up. And you can try and put it out of mind, drown out your sorrows with television, which ironically conveys a materialistic lifestyle only attainable by those who are rich far beyond your wildest dreams and only encourages you to buy more things you cannot afford and do not need at the expense of your wallet and the planet. But I don’t have any solutions. I know where we are and I know what we are doing is unsustainable, but no one is going to take this seriously. As the old quote goes, “Human beings cannot bear very much reality.” It will be our utter demise. We spend so much time trying to support a family or whatever else you do and when it comes time to worry about the sustainability of our species, no one has the time, nor the energy to put forth. It is a giant commitment. And everyone else around you is living lavishly while you are recycling aluminum cans and not buying new stuff. People start to talk about how you’ve lost your mind. And you eventually assimilate yourself back into the culture of unsustainability. Just so you can fit in again.

And every time you buy a new thing, a new car, a new stove, you get this feeling of temporary satisfaction, but then you go back down to the state I would call “normal.” And you need to buy something else to get that “high” again. And after you do that, you go down a bit below normal. And now you need more just to sustain that same feeling of satisfaction. And eventually, you have all this stuff in your house and you’re miserable because you are in credit card debt and have a foreclosure on your home. And then you’re living on the streets because you had to have that Hello Kitty desktop organizer/mp3 player. You’ve sold much of the stuff you bought and now you spend your whole life trying to get out of credit card debt, but the wages you get are so low that it seems impossible. And the planet is worse off because of all that wasted stuff you never got to use because you were too busy either working to pay for the stuff or out getting better, newer stuff. And you forgot. You forgot the key to happiness is inside yourself, not out there in some object of your desire. But now you remember. You remember that you no longer need all these things to be okay. You are okay right now. And now is all that really matters because you see the grim future ahead, and do your best to enjoy every passing moment.

And that may be the best we can do right now. Adopt a minimalist lifestyle, do not contribute to the consumption so much. Minimize our “ecological footprint.” Not drive so much, which is not so easy because most cities are designed for driving and not walking. Where I live there aren’t any sidewalks and every grocery store is at least five to ten miles away. But I can only do the best I can right now, but so can everyone else. It may lessen the blow on our species. I don’t want to see us crash and burn so quickly. Stop having so many kids in affluent nations. I can understand a woman giving birth to eight children in Africa because the odds of them all surviving are low. But in America, it is not necessary. Stop at one. This will slow the popul