30.3.11

Seasonal Affective Poetry

Sprung Clean

The fever breaks like aquarium glass
spits pale limbs on soggy grass
the sun announces, “Hell has cracked!”
and peels off the cold

While seas that line where cycles glide
form tidal waves at tire side
the riders raise their speckled hides
for blue skies to behold

Swap snowshoes that were never used
for sump pumps and barbecues
the salt swept from the avenues
preserves what we unfold

But when the light of lingering days
reveals another year's decay
then pridefully we throw away
whatever can't be sold

So at the curb, a loveseat sits unloved
stained, torn and caked with hair and dust

Leaves are pulled from eaves with stiffened gloves
where April showers drip October rust

28.3.11

ANYTIME WILL DO, MY LOVE

ANYTIME WILL DO, MY LOVE,
ANYTIME WILL DO, WHAT CHOICE OF WORDS WILL BRING ME BACK TO YOU

words are like water flowing down the throat of a skinny woman at a water drinking contest for a new car
no!
Words are like the shoe box that sits atop my book shelf with all my old medicines inside only ever opened when i am in pain and or in search of a solution to a physical ailements

I can rap (or wax) about words and what they mean, and how important they are or can or should be.  About how powerful language is, how to be up in this society all you need is a mastery of the english language.

I started this by saying words flow like a symphony, but then erased it because that was cheesy and if there is anything words are not like, its a instrumental piece.

ANY TIME WILL DO, MY LOVE
ANYTIME WILL DO, NO CHOICE OF WORDS WILL BREAK ME FROM THIS GROOVE.


I got in a debate a few weeks back, while celebrating a win or a loss, but for sure a drink after curling,  he said "she is wanting for it"  and i jumped at him calling him a pig and misogynist, maybe i was too wrapped up in this whole judge Dewar debacle,  I knew he didn't mean the conclusion I jumped to, I always know what he means, cause I have pushed the limits of words beyond what most people can stand or tolerate.  I have pushed words to shouts and screams, to fights that could only be solved with months of silence, yet its words that are the thing that brings us back together.

ANYTIME WILL DO, MY LOVE
ANYTIME WILL DO, NO CHOICE OF WORDS WILL BREAK ME FROM THIS RULE

27.3.11

Oh?

I was thinking about Oprah Winfrey. While considering her impact on the world I got to thinking about the concepts of power, influence and integrity. Now, I don't have a thorough knowledge of Oprah's life and career but for my purposes here I feel that my limited understanding of the subject will suffice. So no further research necessary and none desired. I can remember watching Oprah with my sister after school when I was a kid. I found it mostly enjoyable. During the tenth season, Paul Simon's “Ten Years” was used as the opening theme music. I always looked forward to that. My sister and I would jokingly sing along. The show held no special place in my heart. I didn't watch it religiously, but when I did I usually enjoyed it. As I got older I watched it less and less. It rarely interested me and often annoyed me. In the past decade or more I've only seen a handful of episodes. I disagreed with certain recurring aspects of the show that I noticed. The exploitation of tragedy, grief and mental health issues. The celebration of excess and consumerism. The steady stream of charlatans who parade through, preying on the desperate with their systems of clever signifiers and straight talk designed to help us finally get our lives in order. The presence of the show is undeniable. It's wide reaching and highly influential. Despite my criticisms, the message put out by Oprah seems to be, in general, a positive one. As an African-American woman, Oprah Winfrey has not simply proven herself capable of competing in a world dominated by white males but has managed to conquer and dictate new rules for that world. Throughout her career she has continued to advance a position of compassion and acceptance. She has served as a model and advocate for the empowerment of victims of discrimination. She has used her position of influence to take a moral stance and attempt to have a positive impact on society. She is also a very rich celebrity, who most likely obtained her level of fame and influence, to some degree, by being ruthless and stepping over many others along the way.

Last year, I read Robert Greene's book “The 48 Laws of Power”, in which he lays out a set of rules for obtaining and maintaining social and political power. It draws on works such as Niccolo Machiavelli's “The Prince” and Sun Tzu's “The Art of War”, and uses historical examples to illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of these ideas. I found it to be comically evil, and also a bit frightening, as I'm aware of how seductive these ideas are to a large portion of the population, evidenced by the book's popularity. Here is a small sample of some of the “laws” that Greene explores:
  • Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit.
  • Learn to keep people dependent on you.
  • Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability.
  • Play on people's need to believe to create a cult-like following.
  • Disdain things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best revenge. 

In our society, beyond the suggestion of democracy there is the reality of the cold, dehumanized strategy of an amoral game. Contained within its exclusive discourse are rules just like the ones listed above. Conviction is a weighty burden on anyone who should try climbing the ranks of this system. We see these kinds of laws quickly and organically assert themselves in reality game shows like Survivor, those little mirrors of the American dream. Now, I'm not suggesting that everyone who has reached high levels of social and political influence is completely devoid of morals. I don't believe that all acts of political goodwill are just strategic facades. I think the ambition that leads many to enter into this game comes from a mostly moral place, the belief that one has something of value to offer society and that society will, in turn, have something to offer them. If that belief is strong enough one will easily make compromises on their integrity to see it realized, and no matter how selfless the end goal, ambition is inherently self-centered. For many, power itself is the end goal, and for others it becomes that over time. To what degree, however, is positive social evolution possible from within the machinations of this system? Can challenging, progressive ideas survive it's corrupting nature?

Now, I know Oprah is a flawed example of this. She's far from radical or revolutionary. The truth is, I was just thinking about Oprah and it triggered this string of thoughts, but Oprah is perfect in some ways, in that, within the sphere of show business she's almost a caricature of power and influence. Her audience is diverse and wide reaching. She's an expertly marketed brand with an enormous cult-like following. Many would argue that, through the ways she has chosen to exercise this influence, someone like Oprah is essential to the persistence of our society's power dynamics. Her acts, no matter how well intended, simply create a pacifying illusion of progress. Oprah is the opiate of the masses. The ultimate extension of this line of thought is that the only honest progress is full-scale revolution, a concept that doesn’t even register on the radar of the vast majority of our society, and I don’t imagine that it will be put there by a bunch of fractured schools of all-or-nothing idealism, each with its own exclusive discourse. And I don’t want to dismiss idealism. It’s highly important. Ideals are essential to the pursuit a better world, whatever one views that to be. Skepticism, criticism, and moral integrity are indispensable tools that everyone should carry, but the danger lies in that these tools can easily turn into cynicism or smug conceit that is counter-productive and exists only to serve itself in a sort of academic or cultural elitism. I suppose the essence of the question I'm trying to get at actually is idealism. What is the ideal way to affect change? Can the integrity of an idea be maintained if one attempts to escape the loop of preaching to the choir and appeal to a broader audience? Can one escape moral corruption if they choose to compromise and negotiate with the powers that be? Is revolution the only answer, and if so, what exactly lies at the end of that revolutionary rainbow? How do we measure improvement?

I think I've gone on long enough. I'm not sure if I said anything. I may have gotten a bit messy and unfocused. If I learned anything a few evenings ago while having drinks with Greg and Jamil it's that the mere mention of Oprah's name can spark hours of heated debate, and in the end you may be left wondering “What did Oprah have to do with any of this?”


Mino Wicewitonan



25.3.11

The Tourist Trap: An Alternative View of Tourism in the Global South


The Great Escape
It is very easy to fall in love with the notion of travel as it is packaged and sold to us from the very lucrative world of advertising. Since birth we have been receiving innumerable messages that have fortified a vision of a paradise that awaits us. From naked virgin beaches, to beautiful, exotic locals, to the seemingly endless adventures of the backpacker’s trail, travel seemingly has something for everyone. It is not a difficult task for the advertiser to lure people away from the painful uniformity of life in the Western workforce.  We are sold a thousand blindfolds by the time we even set foot on foreign land.  We are so blinded by our yearning to flee to paradise that we overlook the consequences of the industry that has been built in order to satisfy it.

The Culture of Tourism
One of the most bizarre consequences of tourism is its extraordinary homogenizing power over tourist spaces.  While tourists set out to presumably take a break from the monotony of their tired, uneventful lives, they contradictorily look for a place that allows them to live out a one-size fits all fantasy amidst all the same types of people they knew back home.  It is an opportunity to meet other privileged people from across the globe to discuss how foreign everything is and to talk about how great it is to live a life of luxury, to have this great opportunity to ‘escape’.
The locals that tourists confront, hotel workers, bartenders, tour guides, etc., are inevitably themselves a homogenous group, in so far as they contrive a disposition somewhere between the clichés of their specific culture and those of the Western one.  Local tourism workers are trained to a specific standard and consequently behave a particular way towards tourists that simultaneously draws feelings of comfort and exoticism from the visitors. 
The adventure into the unknown landscape is more of a well-structured mirage than a place that is attainable to the traveler. Even for the most courageous traveler, the tourist trap, like a straight jacket, is very tricky to escape. The more developed tourism becomes in any particular country the more the traveler’s ‘adventures’ are preordained by the structures of tourism. 
Tourist spaces are a product of extensive market research, which inevitably arrives at what has always worked in the past.  There is little creativity, just the bottom line.  Creativity is just a question of how old pleasures can be repackaged and sold fresh.  And so a beach resort in Thailand mirrors the beach resort in Guatemala.  A thrilling tube ride down the Mekong River in Laos has all the appearances of the drunken orgy of Mardi Gras celebrations.
The culture of tourism is a culture of excess.  It is an excess of food and drink, an excess of lustful desire, an excess of trinkets and souvenirs, and an excess of carefree living.  In short, the culture of tourism is an excess of excess.

Cultural Voyeurism
Those few who are brave enough to venture off the resort, or go as far as to backpack through smaller towns and other off the beaten path destinations, still rarely achieve any ‘real’ adventure.  The most their exploits realize is what can only be characterized as cultural voyeurism.  It is to take a quick glance at a culture through a looking glass.  Without any significant, prolonged interaction, what really takes place is a visit to the zoo rather than the kind of meaningful, life-changing dialogue that the adventurer had imagined would impact them forever.

Tourism as Colonialism
What the tourist industry achieves alas is the disbursement of large tracks of land for colonial interests, earmarking the most beautiful land in the world for exclusive access by the rich, privileged few.  For the wealthy, every tourist space on earth has become an extension of their kingdom.
Locals are diminished to the status of servants.  After a hard days work serving the insatiable thirst of ‘all inclusive’ demands, playing the role of the exotic, and plastering on a thousand plastic smiles, they go home.  For many it is a home far removed from the luxuries of resort life.  Tourists are forewarned not to venture too far from the resort.  For they might accidentally witness that the servant’s quarters do not match the picturesque, utopia that they intended to visit.  A trip outside the fantasyland of tourist compounds might awaken the tourist to real issues and real people, the real world that they so desperately wanted to escape.
Like most industry in so-called developing nations, tourism is modeled onto a dependent relationship with wealthy nations.  As adept students of capitalism, we ignorantly pat ourselves on the back for the great contribution that tourism has made to the local economy (as though the act of tourism were charity itself).  We overlook the structures of global trade that allow us, the privileged, to go where we please, to consume what we want, to name every beautiful place on earth for ourselves, and to turn local people into servants.  These are the true consequences of global tourism.  And until we challenge the global relations of power that tourism is premised upon, tourism will remain a wholly unethical practice.


Note

"And I’m still as stupid as anyone, but I know my mistakes." - Propagandhi.  This quote has stuck with me since jr. high school.  I, for the record, adore seeing new places, learning from new cultures.  But I have found that it is very easy to travel unethically.   Many of these criticisms were first spoken looking directly in the mirror.

13.3.11

bass for your face

There are things that i am a slave to, my emotions being the biggest slave master of them all.  The whim of a feeling can change the thoughts in my head, the way my day pans out, my ability to interact with others or how much i smile, or don't for that matter.  Sometimes i can't bring myself to get out of bed, let alone leave my house, and i lay here and ponder depression and what is making me feel this way, but then Monday comes or the next day comes and i am up and out the door.  It leads me to question what rules my life more, my heart or my head.  When it comes to passions, i can honestly admit i make an attempt to live my passion everyday, that being said i fail at that often.  But which is it, head or heart, when you look at depression and other mental ailments its always associated to your head.  I know people who live their lives out in their heads.  On the flip side i have seen people have their hearts torn out by not using their heads.  So which one head or heart?

Once we address that debate, we then have to deal with all the fall out, regardless of head or heart, you still can't do everything, or most things, or sometimes anything you want.  When your body ignores head and heart and shuts down, or falls apart it makes that whole argument void.

Then there are our vices, i have always been limited to three vices, alcohol, sex, and work/overwork.  I have done them all to excess, push boundaries in each and crashed hard in all three.  As much as I am a slave to my emotions and feelings, i have made more choices based on sex or not enough sex then i have just based on any one feeling.  Then you add alcohol and the choices i have made intoxicated and that is a whole separate ball game.  The there is the fact that my vices all play off each other, is that normal or natural or healthy?  I know i am not the epitome of health, but i keep my mind sharp and i am always ready to push my body to new limits or at least till it pushes back!



What am i getting at?  do i have a point to this?  that is the golden question, my head hurts, and my body aches, and i will drink or fuck it all away and when that stops working i will pour my heart and soul into my work until i need a drink and a good lay!

this is what i was listening to while writing this!

12.3.11

Isolated Incident

It's about four-thirty in the morning. Light snow. I buy a large black coffee and a bottle of water from the Husky, clean the taillights on my trailer and head west out of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. I'm hauling a load of washing machines or bike racks or whatever. Once up the hill and out of town, it's pitch black. Just my headlights reflecting off of big medallions of falling snow. There aren't very many vehicles on the road at this hour. Just a few other big rigs. As I get further into the tree-lined darkness the snow begins to pick up. The high beams turn my path into blinding static, so I shut them off. The highway is blanketed in snow now, making it difficult to tell where my lane is. There are no tracks to follow so I just try to stay right but avoid the soft shoulder. The snow is beginning to build up on my windshield. I roll my window down to get fresh air and some sense of contact with the world I'm moving through. It's like white clay caking up in front of me. My windshield wipers are helpless. Just two skinny arms, frantically waving me to stop. But there's nowhere to stop, and if there was I wouldn't see it. I hunch over and squint, trying to peer through the gaps in the snow. I know there will be sharp curves and steep hills. I try to feel the energy of the space. I go slow, but not too slow for fear of getting stuck going up a hill. I spot the occasional pair of headlights coming towards me, and we pass each other with care. The cold air and snow blowing on me through the window keep my senses heightened. I take a sip of coffee to feel something hot inside of me. I am fully in every moment and somehow navigating my way through this. A couple hours have passed and my neck and shoulders are rattling with tension. Slowly, the sun begins trickling in to dilute the blackness. The snow relents and I spot a little area off the highway to pull over. I clear off the windshield and knock my wipers clean. One last mouthful of cold coffee and I carry on. The sun is out in full display now. The snow has stopped completely. A break in the trees reveals the white-capped waves of Lake Superior crashing up against the snow covered cliffs. And I think, “Well this is something else!” And I want to tear my clothes off and run through the snow. I want to taste flesh and blood and soil. I want howling blackout sex. But I'm alone, the day has just begun, and I have a job to do.

10.3.11

“Fuckin’ Hippie!”: Thoughts on the Urgency of a Critical Society


We live in a society that abhors freethinking.  Thinking that challenges the status quo is immediately marginalized by the mainstreamers of society.  Critical thinkers are dismissed as fanatics, hippies, communists, etc.  Quick labels that sweep confrontation under the rug at the first sign of disobedience.  Individualism it seems has been designated to the fetishized wonderland of consumer spaces.  (Spaces which have crept into every facet of our daily lives).  Only then do we seek to peacock ourselves over the crowd and screech our consumer chorus: “Buy me!”
The version of reality that people develop through their lives is extremely resilient to change.  The mind employs a number of defense mechanisms which attempt to maintain and reproduce its conception of the real.  To question widely accepted ‘truths’ creates a distressing degree of discomfort.  This discomfort leads to shame, shame to anger and anger to an irrational, fear-based refusal to contemplate alternative viewpoints.  The chilling prospect of public ridicule, or worse still social exclusion, is so intense that death, so long as it is coupled with a sense of belonging, is a much more desirable fate for most.  Conformity is the soothing refuge of the consumer society.    “Sssshhhhhhh!  The television is singing our song.”
Without criticism, we are the walking dead.  Our existence is relegated to the unconscious reproduction of the very systems that enslave us.  Uncritical recognition of social structures is the source of contemporary slavery.  It is the definitive forfeiture of our inalienable right to impact the social world. Critical thinking is the most valuable weapon that citizens have in the protection of freedom and the imposition of the right to a dignified existence. Citizens that voyage the social terrain unarmed with this basic tool are defenseless, and ultimately doomed to the oblivious acceptance of social control. One fleet of empty vessels floating along in time and space to the pacifying rhythm of consumer jingles.  “Everything is for sale!”
So seek out the ‘truth’.  Assume nothing.  Disobey, explore, question, and criticize. These are the true expressions of a free society.  Challenge your friends, colleagues, family members, and political representatives.  Challenge everyone you know.  But most importantly, challenge yourself.  Cause if you truly value your freedom you are going to have to be prepared to wake up and fight for it.  “Fuckin’ hypocrite!”

Note: This article/blog is largely a concoction of the views of four brilliant philosophers that have enduringly pursued a more conscious citizenship: John Ralston Saul, Zygmunt Bauman, Jean Baudrillard and C Wright Mills.  If these views appeal to you, please contact me for more information.