Season’s Greetings from the Cosmic North Pole
DalePendell.com
Sometimes things move fast.
In March I attended the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland, and was glad to discover there Dale Pendell, a Renaissance anarchist: poet, botanist, psychonaut, Buddhist, scientist, magician. I recorded a small group discussion with him there, and immediately plunged into his unique books on my return: Pharmako/Poeia, Pharmako/Dynamis, Pharmako/Gnosis and Walking With Nobby..
Recently, Dale contracted me to build him a website, which was—as you’d imagine—a deal more pleasurable to work on than much of the rent-paying work I end up doing.
When I first delved into web design, I had an idea for a site called Palaeogenesis, which I thought of as: “the study of archaic creativity”, “the creative study of the archaic” and “the creation of the archaic”. I got as far as a basic look and feel, but other directions took over.
Anyway, when Dale said he wanted a “palaeo-alchemical” feel for his site, I immediately found myself, with relish, reconnecting to that abandoned current of design in me. I quite like the result. To check it out, and read more about this splendid writer, visit dalependell.com. (Note that users of Internet Explorer 6 and—goddess forbid—below won’t get the full translucent design loveliness. Upgrade!)
Harpur & Hamlet
A few choice new items for your perusing pleasure…
The first item of content scheduled for the cancelled volume 2 of Dreamflesh Journal has been posted, an interview with Patrick Harpur. This happily coincides with the reissue of his alchemical novel, Mercurius; or, the Marriage of Heaven and Earth. I’d not caught up with this work previously, and it was a joy to do so. Read my review…
Also reviewed, the controversial classic of astronomy and myth, Hamlet’s Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend.
As ever, keep an eye on the Library for ongoing book reviews, and watch out for more Dreamflesh 2 content!
E.ON UK
E.ON is a power company seeking to build a new coal-fired power station at its site in Kingsnorth, Kent.
Obviously, in the face of the urgent need for action on climate change, this is lunacy, on the part of E.ON and everyone supporting them. What’s more, I’m more convinced each day that the current economic crisis has to be taken as a cue to stop listening to the pro-growth voices in society—which are either almost silent, as we take the benefits of growth as gospel, or loud and rabid, in defence against the increasing awareness that growth enriches the few, impoverishes the many, and endangers the planet (to paraphrase Richard Douthwaite). Equating growth with better quality of life is a delusion that will go down in history as a far greater disaster than the belief that a guy with a beard in the sky controls everything.
What to do? Well, one current bit of online activism put forward by Merrick on Head Heritage is to Google bomb E.ON’s website. Check out Merrick’s article for details.
This post is my contribution. All the links to E.ON here are pointing somewhere other than their website—click to find out. If you’ve got a blog or website, join in and add your little spanner to the works.
Economics as brain damage
As decades rather than years began to roll by, I sometimes thought that my lack of real comprehension of our financial systems—mortgages, inflation, interest and other such oddities—might be amiss. Surely I should have a good grasp of the basics of the society I lived in? Of course the basic mechanisms seemed clear enough when spelled out. But the “a-ha!” part of me just never got it. I could see how they worked, in a flat, literal sense; but some essential part of my understanding just glazed over and reached for a nice cosy book on occult philosophy.
When I read a quote by someone (Hazel Henderson, it turns out) saying, “Economics is a form of brain damage,” I realized I wasn’t just being intellectually lazy. (Physical laziness is much more my cup of tea.) I had always felt that to bring myself to truly grok our financial system, I would have to lead my neurons down pathways that would be inimical to their health. Naturally I knew that many fine minds had comprehended it all enough to critique it, and survived without descending into dribbling and hallucinating odd smells. But I realized more and more that I didn’t feel the risk was for me.
This morning, drifting in and out of sleep, I was fixated on the idea that the insanity of economics was being demonstrated with greater clarity than ever before by Gordon Brown. Forget the fact that Brown’s financial “steady hand” is a mere artifact of his dour appearance and recent economic events beyond his control (in 2004 he said: “in budget after budget I want us to do even more to encourage the risk takers”). Ignore the bland salad of jargon that’s used to make it sound like he knows what he’s doing. He’s clearly one of the more retarded specimens. A global crisis caused by excessive borrowing and irresponsible financial institutions? No problem. Let’s borrow even more, and give this money to the institutions!
I know, a Nobel Prize winner weighed in and said that Brown had “defined the character of the worldwide rescue effort, with other wealthy nations playing catch-up.” From where I’m sat, it looks like everyone suddenly got freaked by an apparent confirmation of that sneaking suspicion that our entire system isn’t built to last. And their denial was mightily relieved to see someone else—Brown, whose battle with denial was lost long ago—lead the way out of the unappealing corner we’ve painted ourselves into. Not as many people as you’d hope have seen that Brown’s solution is to just slap paint on our eyes.
Well, doing a quick web search for “economics brain damage” to track my favourite quote down, it was a sobering surprise to find a recent item on a “neuroeconomics” study in the Wall Street Journal titled ‘Lessons From The Brain-Damaged Investor’:
The 15 brain-damaged participants that were the focus of the study had normal IQs, and the areas of their brains responsible for logic and cognitive reasoning were intact. But they had lesions in the region of the brain that controls emotions, which inhibited their ability to experience basic feelings such as fear or anxiety. The lesions were due to a range of causes, including stroke and disease, but they impaired the participants’ emotional functioning in a similar manner.
The study suggests the participants’ lack of emotional responsiveness actually gave them an advantage when they played a simple investment game. The emotionally impaired players were more willing to take gambles that had high payoffs because they lacked fear. Players with undamaged brain wiring, however, were more cautious and reactive during the game, and wound up with less money at the end.
Some neuroscientists believe good investors may be exceptionally skilled at suppressing emotional reactions. “It’s possible that people who are high-risk takers or good investors may have what you call a functional psychopathy,” says Antoine Bechara, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Iowa, and a co-author of the study. “They don’t react emotionally to things. Good investors can learn to control their emotions in certain ways to become like those people.”
Now, as an avid J.G. Ballard fan, I’m not instantly repelled by the idea of “creative pathology”. And the article balances out in the end with a note that the brain-damaged participants in the study often performed less well in the real world (highlighting the “pathology” inherent in the blinkered nature of many controlled scientific experiments). The authors also remark on the fact that our evolved emotional reactions, especially regarding fear, may be maladapted to the modern world, which has arisen much faster than biology can remould itself.
Still, anyone who doesn’t accept the modern world without question can’t help but wonder whether neuroeconomics may end up undermining the worldview it’s designed to serve. To what extent does the potential “advantage” of brain damage in economic activity point to the inadequacy of our neuropsychology? To what extent does it highlight the inhumanity of economics?
One needn’t be fixated on a static idea of humanity to object to economics; to what extent does economics block us from healthier, more desirable ways of being in the world that have yet to be realized?
In any case, we need more than lip service to the fact that crisis is opportunity—not just a dire situation in need of patching up.
Further reading
That was the Day of the Dead that was
Many, many thanks to everyone who came along to our Day of the Dead celebration last night. We were temporarily beset by technical and practical nightmares, but it all came together in the end in its own spontaneous way.
I was a little unsure about how my info-heavy talk would go down following the wonderful party vibe that kicked everything off (thanks to Stephen and Allison’s voodoo ceremonials). I was amazed that everyone kept a respectful quietness going throughout. Maybe everyone fell asleep! Judging by the lively and mixed feedback I got, thankfully not. Though Donal Ruane and Dave Luke’s much livelier talks got people going.
The biggest disappointment of the night was undoubtedly the question and answer section being squeezed out by time constraints. Since starting public speaking, it’s always seemed to me that actual talks are best as preludes to Q & A, something to get people sparked up enough to start thinking and questioning. I sorely missed that group interaction. Next time we’ll make a point of it.
Of course the whole night was an experiment in treading the line between spiritual celebration, intellectual melting-pot and boozy shindig. It came off for me; hope you had a great time.
Cope busking tour
In the wake of his splendid Black Sheep album, inspired by the Clash’s 1986 busking tour, Julian Cope’s undertaking a brief, bold tour around England this week. Starting at 10am tomorrow, Monday 27th October, at the ancient law hill Swanborough Tump in the Vale of Pewsey, it sweeps through a fascinating array of landmarks in the history of British protest, ending at the C.G. Jung statue in Liverpool at the end of Wednesday.
There’s a list of days and locations; times for each performance are being left rough, ready and open. Pull a sickie and catch one.
Decadent Action vindicated?
I saw my old mucker Merrick at the Anarchist Bookfair—he has more stamina for selling wares than me, bless him. He seems to still be shifting the odd copy of Neither Work Nor Leisure here and there. He’s been photocopying from old copies, so it seemed like a good time to resurrect the fusty old Quark files and get some new, slightly up-to-date masters to him for future copies.
Going through the layout, I found a page I had lifted from The Decadent, something published by a nineties group called Decadent Action. It was encouraging people not to quit their jobs (losing a good source of cash), but to just slack off: pull as many sickies as possible, doss around, that sort of thing.
They don’t seem to be around anymore, but a manifesto is to be found, and they have an entry on the Wiki:
Decadent Action was a mock “consumer terrorist group” and “High Street anarchist-guerrilla organisation” (or culture jammers) which argued that only a credit collapse through excessive consumer spending could bring about the end of capitalism. It argued that bringing about excessive inflation through unrestrained consumer spending was the sole lever which could precipitate the economic collapse upon which any revolutionary action is predicated. Therefore it promoted the idea of irresponsible credit and excessive spending on hedonistic pursuits to achieve its goals.
Wow—result!
Dreamflesh suspended
It’s with a little sadness that I’ve decided to suspend Dreamflesh Journal.
Publication of Volume 2 got pushed forward by Archaeologies of Consciousness, and now was the time I’d slated to get things moving again. As it stands, the economy’s slowing (if not collapsing completely, disguised by short-term measures and wishful thinking). And while I’ve a number of exciting things ready for the next one, being non-profit and non-paying, it’s always a case of chasing and tracking down contributions rather than getting any great unsolicited material. I could make things work with some extra effort, but actually I find myself drawn ever deeper into some research and writing that I want to devote more time to.
Note that this is a suspension rather than a cancellation. I’ve no idea how long this might last, but I do want to leave the door ajar. That said, I’d rather formally put a hold on things than let the journal drift further into an undignified, unannounced hiatus.
For now, both Dreamflesh Vol. 1 and Archaeologies have been slightly reduced in price for direct online sale: both are now £7 (UK) or £9 (Rest of World), including postage and packing.
I’ll be posting more juiciness here on the site as a result: leftover content from Vol. 2, old material from Towards 2012 that I’ve not got round to posting, and eventually the contents of Dreamflesh Vol. 1. Watch this space…
Art Monastery: Call for proposals
The Art Monastery Project, a new artistic community in Umbria, Italy, is calling for “proposals for projects and proposals from individual artists interested in collaboration from all disciplines—including dancers, instrumentalists, singers, actors, designers, directors, stage managers, theater technicians, and visual artists—to collaborate and participate in the First Annual Art Monastery Festival from May to October 2009.”
