The Personal Democracy Forum sounds cool, but $595 for early-bird registration? Neither a personal nor a democratic price…

2012, really? Is there some kind of inside joke I’m not getting here?

Talmudic-Zionist-Satanist piece of shit

People will get out of this Left-Right political paradigma and they will realise that Noam Chomskies and Bill Kristols are all the same shit and your kike tribe will get what it deserves

And that time will come very very soon.

(Hi Henry, sorry to see you’re still so obsessed with the International Jew. I let your comment through, though, just so people know your opinion still exists.)

Yes, Nestor. Apparently a lot of folks (not me) still think of 2012 as some kind of calendrical marker. See Daniel Pinchbeck’s work for more on that. I don’t take responsibility for Propaganda’s beliefs, and do find most of that stuff silly. But young people in particular seem to sense more urgency when they adopt the 2012 mythology as part of their outlook on the war and environmental crisis. I think it’s ultimately a problem, because if 2012 passes without catastrophe, many might just conclude the problems have been solved or never existed.

Whoa! I know I’m jaded, because I’m most offended at the use of smiley faces as punctuation. Sentences without end punctuation are the worst, so uneven, just floating out there.

+ Okay, I was just checking in to make sure you’re still the Rushkoff I know and love. ^_^

Sup Sup…
About the ‘2012′ meme.
As I told someone when they thanked me for making a video ‘about’ 2012, I didn’t write anything about 2012.
My verse is about Global Climate Change, which I think most of us here can acknowledge that SOMETHING is going on with the climate.
The song and video, how it went down, was some friends (the cats who made the video) asked me and my friend NAADA if we would be down to create a song concerning te stuff that Daniel Pinchbeck was talking about in his ‘Towards 2021′ video.
He is talking about 4 things:
1. Global Climate Change
2. Our modern world’s interpretation of TIME
3. The ‘Technosphere’ where our internet technologies, and other stuff, is bringing humanity closer together (Alan Watta, Bucky Fuller, and Robert Anton Wilson, and Doug have all made the same argument)
4. The seeming evolution of our ‘psychic’ abilities. The Rise of Synchronicity, etc. What is called ‘The Noosphere’

If you listen to the 4 verses, you will hear that each MC on the track is rapping about each of the topics.

Personally, I considered this a chance to collaborate with some talented people and make a dope song/video!
And I think it is.

But I guess I need to clarify my own conjectures upon the 2012 meme.
I don’t think that some huge shift is going to take place on December 21, 2012.
The ’shift,’ if you will, has been happening, and will prolly continue to happen after that date.
This shift is not specific but it is something I think most of us can see.

2012 is just a metaphor as far as I’m concerned.
A ‘Media Virus’ of sorts, but the importance is that we do not get caught up in the meme.
View it with skepticism, but do not turn yourself away from exploring the topic just cause.

At the end of the day, it is an interesting topic.
But never get caught up in any of the hype.

Hope I was clear enough there.

PEACE

I’m not sure if we are all awaiting catastrophe on 2012 as we are awaiting the end of civilization. Sure, one can’t imagine the end of it without the catalyst of catastrophe, but there’s the rub.

It seems appealing to me because it’s just one other skin put on the same animal: whether its 2012, the singularity (Kurztweil’s or McKenna’s), Ken Wilber’s ideas of cultural consciousness level advancement, it all sort of points in the same direction.

Over the past eight years, which is when I really started turning onto these sorts of things, many have been warning we have been heading for a major shift in the way things work whether it be climate change, ecocide, peak oil, terrorism, and now an economy stretched thin by corporate control and unnecessary foreign war. It doesn’t take a Mayan calendar to see that. But as we approach this “end date” the cracks in the plaster have never seemed more visible to me.

And there’s the problem with riding anyone else’s memes – unless you really do want to be associated with them.

I think association is fine. It offers direction.

But when people start taking memes for dogma, that’s where wedges are driven between people who essentially agree.

Dogma kills.

Well as far as ‘riding’ other’s meme’s, I think it is done way more than people would like to admit.
An yeah, I see little wrong with it, so long as you know how to speak for yourself and set your own definitions and present your own perspective.
I think part of this ‘networked’ social sphere we are all sliding into is that We are all ‘associated.’

Personally, as far as the 2012 thing and my own thoughts on the matter.
I am an artist/musician, who has recently graduated from one level of ‘paying dues’ to another. (Initiation is never over)
For those of you out there who have literally felt hunger pains which forced oneself to get creative about how you will get some change together for your next meal, in order to create, then you know what I’m talking about by ‘paying dues’!

When an opportunity comes along to be apart of a dope creative experiment, that also involves getting a little shine, I take it!
New York is a tough fricken market man.

And I’d much rather be involved with a video that brings up the meme of 2012 than the slurry of other crap video’s and ideas I see flooding the media today.

Ya gots to make some concessions Doug. Which I’m sure you know.

And I’m happy that stuff like this then gets brought up in places like here, because it gives me a chance to clarify my own ‘associations with memes.’

Personally, I think I’ve read waaaay to many books by Robert Anton Wilson to get caught up in any meme.
To strive towards a ‘zetetic’ approach towards any and every idea.
‘The scientist who claims to be a true skeptic, a zetetic, is willing to investigate empiracally the claims of the American Medical Assocation as well as those of the faith-healer.”

If one is able to explain coherently ones owns perspective then I see no danger in being associated with any particular meme.
As ee Cummings said to Ezra Pound, ‘You are cruel Ezra. You are asking your readers to Think for themselves’

That’s the way I feel about this stuff.

Also – Shawn – as for the price of the Personal Democracy Forum, I agree. It’s high (the speakers aren’t getting anything, either). But I’ve also noticed two main reactions when I do talks for things like this. Some people complain in the comments. Others email the organizers and get in for free.

re: 2012, i guess its a decent symbol for we better sustainablize fast, or there’s gonna be trouble and we’re all gonna be swimming with the Atlanteans. But like the Y2K bugouts, taking it too literally is ridiculous and prevents any message from penetrating past the choir. Anyhoo, Prop as usual waxes eloquently and wisely, buildin skills having fun collaborations while surfin memes, but at the end of the day, I’d just as soon never hear any “2012″ talk again, bc it distracts and dilutes the power of any underlying urgencies and wisdoms….and i agree w doug the that whole 2012 thing is slightly fetid, tweaky and not positive.

I think it can be a distraction if people don’t dig beneath the surface. But that’s what dialogue is for.
I think ‘2012′ touches on the ‘folk’ aspect of collective mindstates.
It can’t be viewed thru an ‘either/or’ lens.
I still think it’s worthwhile to read about, BUT
things like Community Building, Alternatives Currencies, Music, Art, Etc. rank higher on my priorities of things I invest my time in reading and writing about.

Let’s just all agree that the video is
DOOOOOPE!
haha
(I say that with all humility cause I had absolutely nothing to do with the editing and images of the video)

Not to be overbearing but I’d really like to drive this point home.
I am neither ‘defending’ the belief of ‘2012′ as the huge ’strange attractor’ event horizon shift. (I say those words with full knowledge of Doug’s book ‘Cyberia’)
Nor am I stating that the 2012 meme is way off the mark.

I think that there is some truth in what some writer’s have to say about 2012, and I think Daniel Pinchbeck’s exploration of it is very compelling and well-written.

We live in a world of ‘Maybe Logic’ as Robert Anton Wilson professed towards the end of his life.
And if we are to be true seekers on the road to truth, we must explore every corner and crevice, aided by the attributes of discernment, logic, and wit.
Please do not misperceive my own philosophical searchings because of your own associations with the 2012 meme.

What I ultimately see in this meme, for some people it could act as a wake up call.
Like how I first was interested in RAW’s ‘Illuminatus Trilogy!’ b/c it at first seemed like it was going to tell me ALL about who runs the world.
And for those who’ve read that amazing book, that is not what happens.
More questions are raised, and hence more answers are sought. As Crowley used to put it Soldiers (!) and Hunchbacks (?) ….DIG?

Bottomline, the planet may be going through some very crazy shit at the moment.
Crisis looms, but in that Crisis is an Opportunity
And that Opportunity is to Work Together to Find a Balance between us crazy little monkies and the biosphere as a whole.
I believe we can do it.
Places like this website are apart of it.

So instead of squabbling over whether this ‘meme’ or that ‘meme’ will be the one to catalyze mass amounts of wake-up calls, or whether this ‘meme’ is dangerous or not, we should all keep ‘Conscious of our own Abstractions’ (Korzybski, General Semantics)
And focus on what needs to be done today, right now.

And also, the video is still pretty dope…haha!
(I keed I Keed)

Anyone out there wanna make a video about Corporatized Fascism? I’m down.

Prop for Prez! Hey you are uber-eloquent n waxin wise on this matter, i sure wasn’t addressing you or your lyrics in any way, or thinkin that you are ensnared by that 2012 meme, cos you drop a measured yet potent brew that is totally yer own, and that’s exciting and entertaining! Prop Prop Shiz Shiz o what a relief it is to engage in quality discourse

i guess its a decent symbol for we better sustainablize fast, or there’s gonna be trouble and we’re all gonna be swimming with the Atlanteans. But like the Y2K bugouts, taking it too literally is ridiculous and prevents any message from penetrating past the choir. Anyhoo, Prop as usual waxes eloquently and wisely, buildin skills having fun collaborations while surfin memes, but at the end of the day, I’d just as soon never hear any “2012″ talk again, bc it distracts and dilutes the power of any underlying urgencies and wisdoms….and i agree w doug the that whole 2012 thing is slightly fetid, tweaky and not positive.

LOL…
Right on Jah.

I’m serious about the ‘Corporatized’ Video though…
If anyone wants to build on that
hit me up: stripmobi29 {at} yahoo(.)com

let me also say that the negative sentiments expressed toward the 2012 meme reeked of i don’t want to change i am comfortable how i am, i don’t know what else to do and frankly i am afraid to imagine anything else as necessary, which recalls the contrast between novelty and order expressed in club zero G, so obviously the 2012 meme as i perceive it argues in favor of novelty, i mean it is what you make it, so if your avoiding embracing it and making it work for you in this way, how do you deny that is simply out of a fear of chaos or love/comfort with order, depending how you want to spin it, okay you got maslow’s hierarchy of needs, ascending from the most basic to the most esoteric, water, food, shelter, sex, social acceptance, and finally self actualization, but if you live in a first world country you can choose to live at any level, there is plenty of free food, and if you don’t accept your self nobody else is, so stop trying to improve or change to gain acceptance, and maybe everyone else will stop doing so as well, okay, i am one of those poor punctuation, young kids, who bought into the 2012 meme, i say it past tense because i buy into it to a different extent depending on where i am at in a given moment, henceforth, this discussion has led me to examine the essence, content and context of all of my various levels of commitment to this meme, at the deepest level, there are no words for the shift taking place, i say it is all about manifesting our collective/individual will, no differenece, fullfilling human potential, ect. waking up to realize who we really are, creators, ie. alot of corporate executives are likened to shamans, dreaming consciously, or not so consciously according to your sensitivity, the dream change coalition takes ceo’s down to south america to re-awaken them to an environmental awareness to change their buisness practices, maybe as emile durkheim says, we all (generalizing) suffer from anomie a state of confusion (gruhen transfer? sp>) because no precedents exist for living in our time, so it is all about figuring out who we really are, doing it with community, as far as i am concened if you are not out there waking people up, asking them what they think the biggest problem in the world is, what they are looking forward to, catalizying conversation, stirring up intentional community living, via real conversations, radical honesty, revolutionary actions if one is not afraid to spend one’s time having real moments in dialogue and interaction with others, rather than chasing material gain for conspicuous consumption, wake up, i have been engaging others in real conversations, interviewing and dialoguing on camera, and writing, a script, when i really get on a roll, i feel like the characters in testament, sensing the story unravelling from inside the frames, like something much bigger than me is driving me, am i in danger, look i know this is all way out of order, and poorly written, thanks for reading, maybe you want to hear about the script, and if your anywhere near the mainstream conspiracy sentiments, we are in danger of being set up with a catastrophic event for greater control/ police state ect. . Now i never felt 2012 was about catastrophe, which i find oddly pessemisitic, in the movie we create a catastrophe to stage a revolution like the situationists in france back in the 60’s and the story is told from the dystopic/utopia, of a collapsed society, cities leveled, communications severed, and society forced to entertain itself and rebuild community, as self actualizing, myopic parties, experiements in radical self expression, from the perspective of a journalist on the ground reporting on the state of society after the collapse and investigating, the nature of the collapse, and the various flashbacks, to our time now before the collapse when the central revolutionary cell was born and forming it’s core, platfrom, ect. The catch is they hear the collapse occured soon after the wide release of a movie made by this group, and then it just gets weirder from there on out, i mean was it the group or the government or the people who caused the collapse, is the collapse a good thing, are we more joyfull afterward, should we keep watching this movie, and then it goes really meta, when the govt. approaches the group or at least the writer/director, purportedly to prevent the collapse because they have time travel technology, and they say that the film was a pivitol ideological influence in the minds of soldiers on both sides of the battle at meggido, so they found a way for the writer/director, to release different versions in parralell realities, to filter the release of different ends to the world, when people create a virtual reality via sensory depravation tanks, simulating the future dystopic/utopia, in the astral realm, when more and more people spend more and more time, or just drop out all together from the present, and this actually sends the present world towards chaos and this is what the govt. really wants the help of writer/director in conjunction with time travel info from future govt. to solve, when the writer/director struggles morally with the release and the changes necessary, he discovers, that when he makes improvements in the timeline he gets more time, and finds himself waking up at an earlier date in time, with the same opportunity to make changes, what changes does he make, i am asking you, what world is he trying to create, that is so catchy, and/or wholesome, that the logos or hyperspace grants him more time, when does he stop, and i have some more ideas, let me know, if you want to hear, should i worry about somebody stealing this idea? oh and the original flashback of somebody going in and out of his apartment on timelapse when it slows down to examine a change in the routien, when the guy comes out tumbling instead of walking, this creates a ripple effect of novelty, what from does it take, try to put it into words, any other interesting ideas, if it sounds like rushkoff, than i owe him thanks, i probaly need to re-read bull/exit strategy, i was the guy wearing a bright blue disney t-shirt at your panel on testament during comic con 2006 who neglected to approach you and sat down, in fear instead, lol

as far as the brights go, am i supposed to assume that consciousness is purely physical, as this guy on bluelight purports, http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=376806

i find the discussion relates back to what are the pro’s and con’s of embracing either perspective, bringing the novelty/control debate front and center in a way you might not expect . .

because i tend to fall toward the bright side until i read quantum physics, but how is that any different from a purely materialist perspective? Well isn’t that the question we all are asking! There, I used proper punctuation. .

if you want to read more, i just got back from a mental health meeting and blogged on my page

iznb….like Whoa!
Man that script sounds very interesting
From what I see, you got the Doug influence there
The Grant Morrison ‘Invisibles’ influence
and the Phil K. Dick influence
But you prolly have your own voice in there as well.

It sounds cool. I hope it comes to full fruition!

Yo, I just wanna publicly thank Mr. Rushkoff for posting the link for the video.
And then become silent.
I really do not wanna monopolize space on this board here.
And I think I’ve delineated all the points I need to regarding the video and the associated me-me’s!
HAHA

Gracias Doug
You Rock Man
PEACE
PropAnon

Hey Iznb,
Say hello next time!