The Ghostdance For Children comic book was my first attempt to prioritize my thought in an expression of "everything about everything." By which I mean isolating and describing the elements of human behavior that most directly cause all our big problems, but escape our scrutiny for a number of different reasons. The Ghostdance For Children is an expression of what I describe as 4D thought. The work assumes that the reader has a more or less general to detailed knowledge of the dharma addressed therein. In effect the work acts as a Brain Chemistry Driver effectively providing bits of software that connect already present, but not yet connected data stored in the brain.

This works subconciously, sometimes instantly, sometimes there is a delay according to an individuals needs. Often emotions, preconceived notions, missing data or other factors affect the efficacy of the work. Whith my next attempt to express everything important I took a "step back" composed an autobiographical artist's handbook entitled More On Civil Disobedience.

More On Civil Disobedience is a series of meditations written simply in plain American English. I created an outline consisting of a list of everything I could think of that are essential elements of Life, Art and Culture. With that I wrote my second work to express a Universal Truth as I perceived it. This work languished for years. I published some of it as a blog called Bipolar Confidential, but I wasn't happy with it for some reason and deleted it.

Later I decided I would like to publish it as a thread on a Comic Book message board run by one of my favorite comic book podcasts. It seemed like a good fit because the few posts that appeared were from other artists, and I thought it would be cool to tell people my book was first published on the I*R Forum. I published the first two chapters which are mainly personal and political, but the moderater contacted me and said that because someone complained about my posts on that otherwise desolate forum he felt he had to ask me to take my book elsewhere. It hurt my feelings, but it didn't break my heart. All I can do is create my Art and do what I can to offer it; beyond that I'm not so concerned except with the next work coming.

find More On Civil Disobedience Chapters one and two here.

More On Civil Disobedience
Chapter Three part 2 of 2

To Consider all Aspects of Objects,

of People, of Events and of Situations

193

Inappropriate Lecture

I was experiencing this accelerated mania on the day I got to teach the fifth grade class. If I had stuck to the lesson plan it probably would have been okay, but rather than simply give the kids the project and let it occupy them, I improvised a little lecture about language and learning, and in my enthusiasm uttered one or two words that were inappropriate. Apologizing I asked the class to write down the inappropriate words I had spoken, and collected the papers. The teacher sat in the back of the room and shook her head, and I saw the entire project slipping away from me. I might have saved things yet if I had carried through with the lesson, but I panicked and ran.

194

Stupid or Crazy?

The next day I went back and Siro informed me that he couldn’t use me any more. I had expected this, and although it hurt I knew I had to accept it. Sadly Siro tried to give me a check for the lessons I had performed, and it offended me so deeply that instead of getting on my bike and riding away I sat down in the grass and refused to leave. The policeman asked me whether I wanted to go to jail or the mental health. I wasn’t afraid of jail, I hadn’t done anything wrong, but it was a Friday, and I probably wouldn’t see the judge until Monday. The mental health was a big unknown. Terry had told me all about it, and had sternly warned me not to sign anything. “The door is open,” he would stress over and over again. The cops took me to the Crisis Center, and refused to believe that I had never been there before. I refused to sign their permission to treat form for a long time, but I was frightened and confused and hungry and I wanted a cigarette, so I finally signed to get out of there. They told me to go to the hospital to see a doctor for a prescription within the week or the constables would come and get me.

195

A Bitter Pill

Sandy came and got me out, and she tried to reassure me that it was no big deal, but I was emotionally torn. For some reason I was deeply attached to my perceived sanity. I was ashamed and offended and refused to consider any sort of treatment. My week ran out and they came and took me away. Once incarcerated I realized that I had to co-operate if I wanted to regain my freedom. I allowed them to treat me with Lithium because I read, and was satisfied that it wouldn’t hurt me. I was, and am still less than satisfied with the safety of the various anti-psychotic drugs they prescribed for me, but I reasoned that the doses were so small they may not be dangerous.

196

Initial Incarceration

The day after I arrived at the Mental Hospital the Feds pulled their raid on Mt. Carmel, up near Waco. The enormity of the raid itself, let alone the horrendous results of the fire, was enough to reassure me of the moral bankruptcy of our federal government. There are simply no limits to its depravity, and no hope of effectively reforming it within its present structure. I believe I am a patriot, after all in many nations in the world I would be locked up or shot for holding and expressing my beliefs. I understand and revere my freedom and recognize from whence it came. It was with great despair that I sat incarcerated, seeing my life and my country disintegrating before my eyes. But if there’s anything I know how to do its how to go with the flow, and by accepting my diagnosis of being BI Polar, and promising to take my medicine I was eventually released.

197

Turned Out

Meanwhile Sandy had freaked out and didn’t trust me anymore. She contacted my parents, who came and moved all my possessions out of the apartment and back to San Antonio. Leaving Houston ended a period of unparalleled happiness and creativity for me, and without the patient support of my parents I would have surely sunk into depression. Not that I wasn’t plenty depressed by developments, but with a little help from my friends I was at least distracted, and set out to pursue my interests.

198

Fun With Language

At first I primarily pursued my interest in language. Not in learning other languages, but studying the nature of language, and other languages in relation to the English language. Mainly by translating certain English vocabulary words into other languages. I found that sub-consciously, in my elevated mental state, I could understand a good deal of languages I had no conscious knowledge of. I discovered that if you translate most any random group of words, using say, an English/Russian, Russian/English dictionary, The words tend to take a different turn in meaning in Russian than they had in English. These differences may be subtle or not so subtle, but they are always humorous. A collection of various language dictionaries is a valuable resource to anyone interested in writing jokes or comedy, and who practice the method I described. I longed to rekindle my interest in comic books, but in 1993 there was practically nothing being published I cared to read. Love and Rockets by Los Bros. Hernandez and Russ Cochran’s EC reprints were the only books worth reading that I could find on the stands. Fortunately my old friend Bill welcomed me back, and was always ready to let me bend his ear.

199

I Lost My Spirit

I found that I had lost my spirit. The intangible force that propelled me had dissipated, leaving me a practically worthless man. The strong attachment I held to my perceived sanity, and the perception that undergoing treatment somehow diminished this sanity upset my practice entirely. All the outward aspects of meditation and personal practices went on as always, but my spirit no longer buoyed my actions and perceptions. I cast about for a spell that would regain me my spirit. I reasoned that it had to come from my Art, so I began to simply park my truck in various places and put out my paintings to be viewed by drivers passing by in traffic.

200

Roadside Gallery

My intention was that people should see my work. I was not concerned with selling my paintings, in fact I regret the few I had sold up to this point. I perceived that my paintings were more valuable to me as an assembled body of work. The trick would be to stage an exhibition. Curiously I have never attempted to interest a gallery in my work. I am repelled by the idea of asking someone else to assume a financial interest in my paintings. What I desire is that galleries should come to me seeking a financial interest in my paintings. Perhaps a strange and unlikely to be fulfilled desire for an invisible man.

201

Folk Art

My paintings are very valuable, and their value is inherent. Not because I painted them, but because someone painted them, and they contain a level of thought and emotion and proficiency that they may speak to a person and impart their value. It is difficult to assign a dollar value to them, except to set the price at a level that is significant to my circumstances, so that parting with a painting is worthwhile.

202

Subsistence Resolution

I understood perfectly well that showing my Art on the side of the road is unlikely to attract the attention of a wealthy patron, such as one might hope to find in a gallery. I was nevertheless, more concerned that large numbers of people view my work, and getting feedback is at least as valuable to me as are sales. I resolved to work at a mundane job to support myself, and continue with my Art at whatever level I am able to manage.

203

Nick

By this time I had befriended a buddy of Bill’s from Johnson City, TX, named Nick. Nick was a burley, bearded, bear of a biker. Formidable in appearance but with a heart of gold, he often invited me up to his ranch, and always made me feel at home. When his new old lady and her children moved in, I became close to the whole family and attached to the children. I was taken with Nick’s contradictory appearance and personality, and persuaded him to pose for a painting. During this time I conceived an Arts Festival celebrating all the lively arts, and focusing on dance and human development. This festival required a great deal of space for various stages and facilities. God knows where I planned to get the money to pay for it but I had a scheme that appealed to Nick when I told it to him, and he consented to hold it on his ranch, and Bill agreed to maintain the financial end. I called the festival Ghostdance 96, a title that would prove ironic.

204

Summer of a Lifetime

I went to work for a temp agency doing carpentry work, largely for various grocery chains. I appreciated temporary work because it allowed me freedom to take time off when I felt it was necessary. One job took me to Houston occasionally where I renewed old friendships. In getting back in touch with Ricardo, he told me that he and his wife, Rene, wanted to offer his Galveston beach house to me for a month or so. I took him up on it immediately and packed up my truck with Art and supplies, and set out for Galveston. I contacted the Tanya’s Folks and arranged to do some improvements to their house on a part time basis. Working for them in Houston Friday through Sunday, and relaxing and painting Monday through Thursday. As I had been working regularly for some time, and still resented the daily medication and monthly degradation of the Public Health, I was careless and scornful of it. Embracing denial I built a magical dream house of Art there in Galveston, and entitled it Weekdays. I painted a small sign and set it out in the street to invite the brave to observe Art, books and beads within, on weekdays. I was blissfully manic.

205

Galveston

The first week I set out to write a comic book explaining my concept of the Ghostdance. Its eventual completion was a work of perfect expression of mania. It is the precursor of this book, and seeks to convey much the same thing at a higher level. I also set out to talk with as many people as I could, and to photograph as many skaters, surfers, tattoos and pretty girls as I decently could. I picked out my favorite jetty and made it my church, which I decorated with washed up debris, artfully arranged, with a cross of driftwood lashed with plastic six pack holders. I went there to meditate and pray every morning and night. I visited tattoo parlors and Art galleries and developed favorite haunts and restaurants. On Friday I went to the and performed my work satisfactorily, if somewhat lackadaisically. By this time my personality was at best somewhat obnoxious. I stopped taking my medicine, and resolved to be through with it.

206

Spirit Totems

The second week I continued. I had a number of objects with me, sticks and stones and the like, of interesting character, that I had picked up on Nick’s ranch and at the beach. I painted and decorated them with animal skins and feathers, beads, tokens and objects of various descriptions that convey some meaning. I thought of these objects as spells, or Indian books. I have studied and admired indigenous cultures throughout my life. I was born in Indiana; I am a native American. I am not however of an indigenous culture in the sense that I use the term “Indian.” If I have learned and practice certain aspects of Indian culture, I still have no claim to tribal rights maintained by Indian nations. However my tribe is the hippie nation, and we are like the stars in the sky, in our numbers and in the aspirations of my people. My Indian Books are like open, decorated and displayed medicine bags. A collection of seemingly meaningless objects that hold meaning to their owners. Each object representing some dharma that upholds her spirit. They are a means of organizing and storing vast information of the mind without words, writing, pictures or computers. Each piece contains the spirit of the object, stick or stone, the spirit of the animals who gave their skin or feathers, the spirit of the paint and the decorations all combines with the spirit of the artist to create an object that contains this spirit. Only an understanding of the spirit or affinity for it can bring appreciation of such objects or give them value.

207

Practical Aspiration

I don’t want to be in the business of mass producing cool objects, rather I wish to produce cool objects in a personal, invested manner. I perceive the market for my Art as quite large, if I can only reach it. It is certainly larger than I could service producing at full tilt boogie. I require only space, time and peace to produce volumes of Artwork, but I have produced so much that storing it is a problem. My Indian Books were a solution to bulky paintings by being compact and easy to maintain.

208

Misbehavior

By the third week my mania had accelerated to an oppressive level. My concentration and practice were greatly diminished, and I ate and slept erratically. I couldn’t sit still or focus on my Art, or running the gallery or working for the Urquieta’s. I was oppressively tired all of the time and spent countless hours walking in either the Montrose or in Galveston, befriending the homeless, observing the normal population and tourists, and experiencing a particular perspective that painted me as beautiful and repellant simultaneously. Most of the friends I made in my first week in Galveston I burned out by the third. I became exhausted and had neither the energy nor the spirit to complete my work for my patrons, and I misbehaved so that they dismissed me and no longer loved my company. I was fucked up.

209

Un-Psychic

I digress at this point to describe a practice I developed that I call Un-Psychic readings. I developed this technique through long association with all sorts of people, and a lifelong pursuit of literature. Anyone who has read a thousand books may certainly perform this service by their acquired knowledge of human experience and human nature. I talk to the subject conversationally about her concerns for perhaps five minutes. I ask a number of specific questions regarding any pertinent means, emotions or relationships. With this data one may assemble a 75-90% complete picture of her situation, and can pronounce insights to her life that she may find cathartic. There is nothing really psychic about it; I just know how to do it. I began this practice at a young age and perfected it during my positive manic period in the Montrose. It is an amusing parlor trick that many foist off as psychic deviation.

210

Really Hammered

After the third week I was doing this un-psychic reading constantly, to everyone. Without my little job with the Urquieta’s I had no income and resorted to hustling my few odd possessions, and asking my parents for a little bread. I realized I had a problem and attempted to get back with my medicine. I decided that what I needed was a little time alone in the woods, so I took off for Nick’s ranch. I was in a mental state akin to being on pure LSD, and I was flying higher than ever in my life. When I stopped at an isolated gas station off of I-10 west of Houston I was spotted by some local law enforcement officers, and taken into custody. Fortunately I had long since smoked up all my dope, so I was unafraid and co-operated entirely.

211

Busted

They took me to their county lock up at about 10 PM and cleared out the front tank, gave me a blanket and locked me up. I had suspended my concern about time. For it was beyond my power to control my situation. I folded my blanket and sat down on the concrete floor. I sat for some hours, and observed my mind as it incessantly ran down the minutia of my life and the past two weeks. After a while I got up and swept all the dust in the cell into the drain. I devised a musical scheme of the sounds made by the hot and cold water dispenser. I slept a little, and in all passed the most pleasant night in recent memory.

212

Yoko Eased My Pain

In the morning they came and led me into the general population area of the jail. As they led me to a small isolation type holding cell, someone approached me and sprayed something into my eyes. It burned like pepper spray, and they gave me a towel and shoved me into the cell. I thought of Yoko Ono. I saw her face and she told me there was water in the drain, and I soaked it up into the towel and bathed my eyes until the pain receded. I waited and after a time they brought me some food. Finally they opened the door and told me they were taking me to the Austin State Hospital. They wrapped me in chains, every kind of way to restrict my movement. They put me in the back of a cruiser and drove me to Austin, where they collected my chains and turned me over to a young lady at the admissions desk. The A.S.H. was like a vacation. It provided an open campus, frequent opportunities to go outside and smoke, and competent doctors and staff. They got my records and stabilized me on my medicine in just a few days. My parents came and got me out, and the next day I was on a bus back to Galveston.

213

No Easy Lay

I can’t explain the following events without being completely frank about my sexual preferences. I have remained celibate since 1989. Never in that time have I been tempted to break my celibacy, because no woman I wanted has wanted me in return. I define my celibacy as abstaining from vaginal penetration with my penis. Beyond that I am open to such human interaction as comes my way. In my life I have known any number of girls and women whom I befriended and analyzed at various levels. As a young man in Florida I experimented with sponging off lonely women for fun and profit. Many artists are faced with this aspect of life, and find subsistence there. But I conceived that sex has meaning, and I only wanted it with someone I cared about and who cared for me back. Not that my standards are so high, but I have to be at least interested, and she has to be willing. Sadly in my life I passed up most of the willing women I have met because I was busy trying to coerce the one I was after.

214

A Monk

As I am living as a monk, it is natural that I feel compassion, and listen to people who have problems that no one will listen to. The homeless, runaways, prostitutes, junkies, oddballs, religious fanatics, pimps and pushers all have their stories, and will tell them to you in minute detail if you take the time to listen. Listening isn’t painful because it’s all new, and by listening we can give dignity to a person who may receive precious little in her life. I have befriended many young girls and provided them with a little food and company, a safe place to crash, and even a little instruction in Art and Art appreciation, meditation techniques or whatever dharma was appropriate to their situation.

215

Naked and Free

In return I received a fair amount of hugging and squeezing, massages, nakedness and exchanged body heat on cold nights. I was regaled with horrors of human depravity and inspired by the courage of these young women, who only want a chance to be free. The essential non-sexual nature of our interactions was entirely understood and appreciated by both parties. My intention in these interactions is to provide a positive male role model to young girls, who badly need one, so that they have one man in their lives who didn’t screw them. So my preference is to interact as freely as possible with naked young girls. Their bodies please me enormously, and their hungry young minds excite me and we may innocently and properly interact in infinite manners, to the detriment of no one and to the benefit of all concerned. But I am only a monk, not a saint, and I don’t particularly care to hear another person’s complaints incessantly. My experience with people, but especially women, is that they are obsessed with their problems and express them endlessly. As this arises in my relationships my benevolence evaporates and my friends move on.

216

Walks on Shells

I was sitting in church one sunny afternoon and I observed some girls walking down to the jetty, which is composed partially of massive stones containing fossilized seashells, which are quite uncomfortable to walk across barefooted. Two of the girls walked gingerly across to the smoother stones, but one girl didn’t change her stride as she walked across the shells. She appeared to be about fifteen years old, and I conceived her as a symbol of the strength and power of all such young girls and named her Walks on Shells. Walks on Shells are a fully formed personality, intent on intellectual self-improvement. She is competent and intent on learning about, and accomplishing tasks that she undertakes. She is recognized for her abilities, respected for her activities and trusted for her character. She has the power of a young woman that I conceive she should keep for herself rather than abandon to ill-considered actions or self-objectification.

217

Girl Power

I think of Walks on Shells as a Girl Mind Scouts sort of operation that would promote mentor relationships for girls aged 14 to 16, in which they can participate in actual ventures and receive commensurate compensation. The point being to give status for achievement to a group who presently receive such status mainly by their appearance or sexual function. I have deduced that shoring up this small segment of the population just so will have a rejuvenating effect on our whole society. Are you Walks on Shells? In my manic condition I contemplate broadly and deeply, and connections branch out in webs, and I realized that if I could attract, captivate and empower a section of the population of Walks on Shells’ demographics it would generate enough power to propel my artistic intentions.

218

Childhood Heroes

My assumption is that everyone is an artist, and for each individual developing their Art is the surest means to prosperity, and is for everyone their equal chance at fame and fortune. My childhood hero was John Lennon. He was a bad boy, middle class nobody whose Art brought him world prominence. His songs set the ideal for my personality and formed my perceptions of the world. I was just a kid when he got with Yoko Ono. Learning that such a person as Yoko Ono existed, and who practiced this mystifying form of Art that impressed John enough to leave that blonde was a penetrating reality to me at ten years old. Although I have never pursued any of her artwork nor even seen much of it, I take great solace in Yoko’s existence. If you were to ask me which living artist I feel the greatest affinity with I would answer Yoko Ono.

219

Women Suffer

Women experience half of the pain felt in the world, and at least the simple majority of that is psychic pain. Such pain may color a person’s whole life. It is a BI-product of our culture and our history, and is inflicted subtly or blatantly on all women in our society. Of course we can shrug off prejudice and stupidity, but a steady diet of it is distasteful, and oppressive to the spirit. The only practical solution is personality and intellectual development, and this can come only from within each individual. Like Art.

220

Carpenter’s Helper

Walks on Shells addresses a segment of the population who may begin to turn things around. My plan for the rest of the population is that they should combine their pursuit of their Art with a career that offers self-improvement. If you wish to improve your personality and develop your intellect, and wish to learn valuable skills, consider becoming a carpenter’s helper. A carpenter’s helper must be intelligent, alert, honest, hardworking, able to read a tape measure and use a saw with common proficiency. She must be able to get the lay of the land and accomplish the tasks that are necessary for the operation of the crew. She must keep her mouth shut and do what she is told. She must understand her function and fulfill her responsibilities, from cutting rafters to cleaning the job site. She makes good money, if not great, and may earn respect and status on her crew by hard work and efficiency.

221

Self Improvement

Practicing carpenter helping is beneficial to the artist in a number of ways. First you work with materials that are real and substantial, and the work makes you sure, and careful in its execution. Second you work with mathematics and spatial dimensions, which strengthens your mental functioning. Next you are responsible for showing up every day, because your function is essential to the working of the crew. By working hard you merit good treatment and regular advancement and raises. The requirements of a helper are modest, hammer, tape measure, square, pencil, utility knife, chalk box and a nail bag are all that’s required for employment. Many are called but few succeed in maintaining the position of carpenter’s helper. They are in constant demand, but most applicants fail because they don’t appreciate the dignity of the job, or the job gives them no dignity. It is a temporary job by nature because one transcends it with a few years serious application, or can find easier and more lucrative employment elsewhere with the skills of a good helper. The benefits are outdoor work, honest labor and accomplishment, and the satisfaction of creating homes that will shelter people for their lives.

222

Connecting Artists

My idea is to operate a sort of temp agency connecting artists seeking sustenance with builders who need competent, dedicated workers. With minimal training an intelligent artist could be prepared to step into any operation and perform effectively. Building homes is so pleasant that sometimes I wonder why everyone doesn’t try it, at least for awhile. Of course they don’t for reasons involving money, but if we all built houses we could all be substantial and become credit worthy, and we could build houses for one another, so that everyone had a home. Even though a thing is impossible it may still be considered. This is the essence of Art. There are other trades besides carpenter, and the helper principles can apply to any endeavor.

223

A Sinking Ship

In pursuit of the impossible I set off again for Nick’s ranch to seek the solace of the woods and the council of Nick and his family. I was still manic, but inspired and optimistic about the future. I arrived to a cheerful reception and we arranged my favorite campsite away from everything, and made plans for a Ghostdance POW WOW around the campfire that evening. I greeted young Holly and pronounced her Walks on Shells, and told her about my idea, and she kind of grooved on it. We socialized and partied for a while and a couple of times Holly innocently became a bit more friendly than I thought was good for a young girl, and I wanted to make her aware of my perception of her behavior. A rational person would forget it, a concerned person might take it up with her mother, but a whacked out, manic artist spoke up frankly, with apparently shocking vocabulary. Poor Holly, Debra, her mother, and Nick were appalled, and I sunk my ship before it could sail. Nick and Debra soon forgave me, of course, but the magic spell of the Ghostdance was dissipated, and before it could be rekindled Nick Martin passed away, younger than I, of a weak heart did. Nick touched the hearts and minds of a multitude of friends, and his funeral was the most densely attended in my experience. I was miserable as I left the ranch and returned to Galveston. The magic was over and Rick contacted me and informed me he had other use for his house.

224

Opportunity for Intelligence

I returned to San Antonio and temporary work. At this point my evolution as an artist is complete to my present stage of development as an outsider artist. Subsequent autobiographical information is fairly irrelevant at this point. I cannot separate my Art from my mental process or my mental disorder, so I have addressed them in the detail that I have to indicate how I evolved. Each individual has her own obstacles to overcome. If we can remove obstacles to personality and intellectual development from our youth, they may literally give us a golden future by creating their own for themselves. There is and never can be a shortage of opportunity for intelligent, hardworking people in a stable economy in a peaceful world. Therefore we must maintain peace at any cost, and husband our economies, whether individual, local, state, federal or global. Transcend Democracy, which is after all two wolves and a sheep voting on the menu.

The Law

225

Eat the Rich

Vote with your whole person, by right livelihood, and solve your own problems through application and community. Relegate political office holders to mere essential functionaries, without power or prestige, but to be honored and respected for their capability, sacrifice and wisdom. Return our federal government to the integrity of its Constitution and abolish the hated income tax and the oppressive bureaucracy. Our present government expends enormous resources to tell us not to drink and drive, to wear seat belts, not to do drugs, to nurture our youth, not to smoke cigarettes, to subsidize tobacco farmers and not to leave your keys in your car. My old World Book contained an article about that guy Goebles, who was a proponent of propaganda, which his government nefariously used to de-humanize people for political purposes. This was bullshit when the Nazis pulled it, and we kicked their ass for it, or so we thought.

226

Propaganda

Our government didn’t care what the Nazis did, only how they did it to allies. Within a generation of defeating fascism, America had adopted its form in total. Today’s propaganda is insidious and unnecessary in a society of thinking people. Propaganda is bullshit and most particularly when it is propagated by the state. This is an irrefutable law. Any such message that people may wish to propagate may be done by private subscription to better effect. Our freedom and our power come to us from only one source, and it is the foundation of all of our society, the law.

227

Unalienable Rights

Our law was established by the Magna Charta in the year 1215, at which time the people got King John’s back against the wall, and extracted certain unalienable rights for English speaking subjects and established English Common Law. People finally had a right to own property and not be deprived of it arbitrarily, and a right to trial and civil protections. These things were unheard of at the turn of the last millenium; today they are taken for granted. But our rights were hard won in human evolution, and are currently subject to political whim.

228

The Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is a unique and wonderful document, that elegantly constructs our Republic, which is meant to be self sustaining and offer minimal intrusion into its citizens’ lives and affairs. Our Constitution is vital for its structure of the functions of government, and its limitations of the power of office holders to act without consensus. It is the authority by which the federal and various state legislatures pass the myriad laws that regulate our society. Lessor bodies pass statutes and ordinances, and the President and state Governors may issue executive orders that perform as laws. These are all separate and inferior to Constitutional law, mere political expedients accumulated over time, and codified into an increasingly complex world of its own devise.

229

Baffling System

Such has been necessary perhaps with the existing level of human development, where a common working person was not expected to understand her own affairs, and needed to hire a lawyer to tend to them. As the general population became literate, lawyers evolved an increasingly complex and baffling system that insured their employment. As the population became sophisticated, law, regulation and taxation spawned an industry of lawyers, accountants and bookkeepers. The present system is bewildering and expensive, and jammed with people who are made criminals by political dictation. We have simply evolved as human beings beyond the limitations of our present system. We shall never solve our societal problems by fertilizing the status quo with money, ideas or activity. It is the season to prune.

230

Trust Your Practice

Practicing law is like practicing Art. It requires mental labor and dedication to self-improvement. It carries a trust to do good in your practice, and at the very least not to do wrong. Like the artist, the lawyer performs an essential service at our present stage of human development. An artist who pursues the practice of law may discover some means to simplify its practice and perhaps even readjust the economic dynamics of the industry.

Medicine

231

At Home in Our Bodies

No less immediate to our lives is the practice of medicine. We are at home in our bodies, and it behooves us to maintain them, as best we may. Medicine implies science, and we all profit by the study of science and the scientific method. Understanding nutrition is crucial to maintaining good health. Composing our diets of nutritious foods, and avoiding foods we know to be detrimental, is core to good health and happy prosperity. And what goes in must come out, a regular cycle with consistent result is most desirable, and anything less is cause for concern. When the body is excited and particularly stimulated it may experience orgasm, which is a real physical and spiritual thing. The mind experiences its own sort of orgasm called kundalini, which is a physical and spiritual sensation experienced by the mind as a result of chemical changes in the brain provoked by thought. Kundalini is commonly experienced by religious people, and is understood as rapture.

232

Of Orgasms

Of orgasms it is instructive to understand their function. They are notification and reward for successful copulation for reproductive purposes. For as long as people have existed it has been crucial that we reproduce, and this instinct moves us deeply. Life was short and unpredictable and a family was the ideal structure in support of life. Today we have essentially transcended this need and voluntary reproduction is quite sufficient for maintaining the population. This was not true in Christ’s time, and catholic values perpetuated the population to the extent that certain Biblical truth has become less relevant. Today the orgasm is essentially separated from its reproductive purpose. It is something of a commodity around which many structure their existence. This is natural because the orgasm is the cheapest way to experience the elevated mind.

233

Orgasm’s Power

The power of the orgasm lies in its reality. The sensory build-up around and the orgasm itself fall within the bounds of elevated personality and intellect. When we are getting regular sex we experience an elevated mental outlook and generally perform in a more efficient manner. A person may become proficient at creating her own orgasms and derive satisfaction even from that. Sadly all that sex can confuse a person and she may not perceive the elevated mind beyond sex. Do not make sex more than it is. The feelings that you express sexually represent more than an orgasm, and these interactions deeply affect your life.

234

Mental Orgasms

The rush of kundalini is a more subtle sensation than an orgasm, but emotionally it may be a much more fulfilling thing. It blossoms unexpectedly when the mind is functioning at high level, and may seem to invest our thoughts with divine affirmation. Kundalini is often experienced while smoking marijuana, and the familiar head rush prized among hippie dope smokers is the phenomenon I describe. It is commonly experienced as a prolonged and intense form called rapture. Thought of a religious nature which is closely held and experienced in life often triggers rapture, which is a temporary feeling of well being and great emotion by which you feel like laughing and crying all at once. I’ve seen books that discuss this phenomenon and they attribute all sorts of causes and effects of kundalini, both chemical and spiritual. I can only say for sure that it is a very real and welcome thing in my life, which I experience every day. My prolonged and continued mental labors have paid this dividend at least, that I may trigger these mental orgasms in my normal thought.

235

Medical Learning

Dreams are the release of the mind from the reality of mundane existence. They are significant, as are daydreams, and they serve dual functions in sub-conscious and conscious mental development. Finally physical exercise is beneficial to human health and development, and will improve and prolong life. All of these are personal concerns that we must each sort out for ourselves. If we are diligent and competent we may maintain our own health by a steady accumulation of medical learning.

236

Aches and Pains

Physical pain has causes. These causes may be diagnosed. Most diagnoses suggest remedies. We each must learn to deal with pain. Having read Kipling as a boy, I learned that pain is in the mind, and that a person may overcome pain by deciding not to submit to it. Consequently I am unconcerned with aches and pains generally, and when I am injured, beyond the initial pain I turn off the residual and it disappears. If we suffer injury or disease we must seek a doctor for treatment. Here money becomes a sad factor in our health equations. Mostly our health concerns are minimal and we manage to afford medical treatment. If we are lucky and can afford insurance coverage, but there also are many that cannot. When health care is denied for financial reasons, minor treatable conditions may fester into something worse, which creates a monstrous bill by it eventual treatment.

237

Universal Insurance

I cannot conceive that it would be unprofitable to offer modest insurance policies universally that could be paid for through payroll deductions, and allow all common medical care to be administered at affordable cost. Everyone would participate at a level she chooses to pay for. The level of demand for health care brought about by universally available insurance will rejuvenate the entire industry. Medicines with universal demand may be produced more economically. Devices and technologies may be mass-produced and distributed around the globe at arranged terms, beneficial to all parties. The impact of this phenomenon alone would spark economic prosperity in the entire nation.

238

Health’s Lottery

What about catastrophic illness and disease that may cost millions to treat? These things are like a lottery after all, we get our ticket at birth and our genes are a factor we can only now recognize, and cannot yet even structure an imagination of what they mean to us. Within our numerous populations some will get the AIDS, cancer, MS or MD or any of the others that devastate a family and their finances. Although their total numbers are enormous these unlucky people comprise only a tiny percentage of the population. It would behoove us to care for all such persons compassionately, for the cost is small split among us all, and any of us may succumb, ourselves or our family.

239

Health and Religion

So we live our lives as we choose, maintaining our health, and reaching a ripe old age. The question is less what comes after, surely that one is answered by what came before, but rather, was I happy? The accumulation of a multitude of good days in a lifetime makes it easier to shut our eyes for the last time. Who knows if or where or when we open them anew and begin another life. Interpretation beyond this point is meaningless, metaphorical and manipulative to present to others. Children profit from dogma, it gives meaning to a complex intellectual concept and a form of authority to adults and clerics who presumably understand the mysteries that confound us. Religion is a path to right livelihood, one as good as the next. Religion brings opportunity to serve personkind, and mental solace in life. I pray my hippie brothers and sisters around the world will advocate with their Art, the mutual respect and peaceful co-existence of all warring peoples. Compassion is the hammer that may flatten hatred to its smallest area. But hatred pursists bitterly, and must be consciously recognized and dismissed, sometimes for an intolerable period, but it may recede and disappear when we perceive that this is the best thing for ourselves.

240

Genetics

Although scientists have identified our genetic make up and can even make genetics do tricks; we are still far from comprehending the entirety of its nature. It is perhaps pre-mature to patent a gene, but such is proper so long as the license fee to study and exploit such genes is reasonable, so that research proceeds. Ultimately we need to collect enough data to understand the ramifications of genetic technology. It serves no purpose to impose ethical restrictions when we have not yet determined what we’re dealing with. If indeed fetal tissue may provide life saving properties, I think we should find out about them. Could we acquire fetal tissue naturally or without harming the fetus? Only diligent pursuit will bring us these answers. Artists who pursue the practice of medicine may imagine our way to conquering disease and physical decay, and perhaps the cure would not be worse than the disease. Maybe with all the facts we will learn stem cells may be derived from baby shit.

241

Mental Disorders

Of mental disorders I can speak from personal experience. Mental disorders are real things that the people who suffer from them know all to well. It’s dicey whether a person develops a disabling level of a mental disorder, it can happen to anyone. Today many debilitating mental disorders may be effectively treated with medication, but many mental health consumers need additional personality and intellectual development. Treating these three aspects of a person promises successful elevation over time. The history of my life is a chain of people who helped me when I needed it. They helped me to help myself, and this ability is my greatest asset. An artist who suffers a mental disorder might use her Art to express her unique perspective, and seek treatment, because for many disorders there are real benefits to medication. But I strongly enjoin you to investigate each medication you are prescribed, and satisfy yourself that it is safe. The mind chemistry is delicate and only a small dose of most drugs is needed to affect its action. Slight physical side effects are a worthy trade off for clear thought, but severe reactions make such medications ill advised.

Anthropology

242

Ascending Triangle

Anthropology reveals the curious fact that people are not influenced by something they have never experienced. People are entirely creatures of their experience, and this is why it is so important to expand our experience as much as possible. Through the constant struggle for improvement undertaken by a small segment of the population, the whole society they live in is elevated. Wassily Kandinsky wrote of the ascending triangle. Human development may be understood as an ascending triangle representing personkind. Imagine a triangle divided by two horizontal parallel lines into three sections. The top section represents the small segment of the population with elevated minds and developed personalities. Their efforts raise the triangle eternally upward. Beneath are the bulk of ordinary people who live their lives productively, and as the triangle rises they are carried to the place that the ones above once occupied alone. Beneath the general population are that group of incapable, unenlightened or immoral persons who exist despite all efforts to improve and reform them. Even they who cannot help themselves are brought up in intelligence by the ascending triangle, but always they remain at the bottom. The metaphor is accurate, and reflects what is happening in our society.

243

Future Help

As the next generation reaches computer literacy to complement its elevated minds, everything I have written may come true. The primitive people of Christ’s time were anthropologically far removed from today’s population. As the concept of the elevated mind spread, personkind developed at the pace that innovation could be disseminated. Knowledge is power, and as it has been widely disseminated and commonly absorbed we people truly have more power than ever before. We common people have wrested our freedom from the state in 1215 and 1776 and it is time to do it again to begin the 21^st century. There is much work to do in bringing the rest of the world to parity with the United States, but the recognition of certain inalienable rights of all peoples, and the institution of common law in areas that presently have none will make them the fields that shall grow liberty, equality and prosperity for people who today face only poverty, ignorance and degradation. The primary obstacles to peace and prosperity are the lack of understanding of their causes and the greed and short sightedness that prevents us from simply doing what is right. As we each individually embrace compassion and right livelihood we materially shift the balance of power towards redemption for society. Everybody counts.

Events

244

Happy Birthday

Events proceed through time and space. Events bring changes great and slight, and are in all cases keys to advancement, if we understand and anticipate them. The event of our birth created a vast, insatiable demand for the elements of life. So too it created a store of experience and capability to effectively produce a surplus of goods and services. Humanity is equal and universal in this capacity. The only differences fall into the three categories of the ascending triangle that I described.

245

Scale Waco

Everything falls neatly into a scale of three. Good, better best or good, fair, poor or fast, faster, fastest are all scales that allow us to assign specific value in communication and understanding. Of course a scale may have infinite graduations, but three is Holy and will serve you well in your considerations and meditations alike. Consider the siege at Mt. Carmel and apply your own scale of propriety to its conduct and outcome. The raid itself was sadly, not unusual here in Texas. A similar posse of BATF feds, state and local police officers pulled identical hijinx at Nick’s ranch a month prior to the Waco siege and confiscated a number of firearms. Fortunately Nick had the sense not to resist and the means to assert his rights, and his property was returned to him, except for such few guns as was stolen in police custody.

246

Pay Up Or Else

I believe David Koresh had a condition similar to my own. I too can read the Bible with an ancient sensibility, so that I perceive its lessons deeply. What Koresh failed to perceive was that the Bible is an enlightened work of literature, constructed to inspire enlightenment in those who study its meaning, no more, no less. God’s hand in its construction and constitution is surely evident, as it is in every work of Art. When the Davidians were threatened they grabbed their guns when they should have grabbed their checkbook, because that was the intention of all those stormtroopers who came to church to collect for Caesar.

247

Unlawful Legal Confiscation

Based on the video tape evidence of the initial raid itself I deduce that the feds fired the first shots. The Davidians foolishly fired back and the rest is history. Those few unlucky agents of the government who perished in the raid are a debt owed by the federal bureaucracy, not the seventeen children who were horribly murdered at Waco. We do not need a federal Gestapo confiscating legal property from citizens that has been made illegal by statute for political purposes. When our federal government feels that it can assault a church, burn it to the ground with eighty occupants, while gunning them down as they attempt to flee the flames, it is not too soon to examine that government closely, to determine if we cannot make some changes. The sort of revolution I advocate is in the nature of changing all the locks and quietly changing everything.

Situations

248

A Precarious Situation

Each of us finds herself in a particular situation, composed of where we live, where we work (or don’t work), our family and friends, our interests, pursuits and interactions. The events at Waco placed us all in the situation of observing our government commit a horrible crime, and then left to swallow it raw by the state’s lies and the abuse of power by supposed public servants. Waco was not the first such abuse of power, and Vicky Weaver was not the first person murdered by federal agents over a petty tax beef. But Waco was too severe to be forgotten, and the pain festers yet in many, many persons. This pain was demonstrated two years later in Oklahoma City, where demented persons inflicted a similar crime upon the government. Neither act had a shred of sanity nor dignity nor righteousness connected to them, and the blood of Timothy McVeigh will bring only cold comfort.

249

Two Vulgar Words

To be polite there are two words one must never speak. These two words are very old, and may well remain from the time when we all spoke the same language. Military men adopted these words in ancient times to train troops who had no education but could at least understand them both. Both words are simultaneously nouns and verbs, and flexible enough to serve together as an entire serviceable vocabulary for a soldier. With these two words one may acquire or transmit situational understanding immediately, with only a few words. Observe: shit is a feces, people shit feces while their shit sits on the ground next to them. Soldiers battle in the shit, and individual soldiers take little shit from one another. Shit rolls downhill and an officer who dumps his shit on you is himself a shit.

250

Situational Awareness

Similar various meanings can be said of fuck. Alone and in combination these two words can express a world of meaning. Their value in military training was in teaching higher level perception to recruits who were anthropologically only a few steps above caveman. I am unaware of other words that display this peculiar quality. That is why they are vulgar and not to be uttered before women and children, because it may prove embarrassing for such persons to attain the higher function of situational awareness.

251

Chain of Situations

It is always valuable to meditate on any situation we may find ourselves engaged in. A situation may appear favorable or not on first examination, but it is important to always remember that we are an element. Taking command of a situation entails certain commitments and certain sacrifices. Better to be quiet and uncommitted and wait for your opportunity to affect a situation. Time and observation and contemplation bring understanding. Our position is stronger based on understanding if we let it guide our speech and action. Dealing from emotion we commit errors in judgement which diminishes our situational effectiveness. Large and small a chain of situations makes up our lives.

252

Essential Attitude

Employment is a situation we all must pursue as necessary for life, beyond its monetary reward. Whatever job we pursue, great or menial, we must perform it with dignity, so that it fulfils our inner need for distinction. Though your compensation may be meager always remember you agreed to the work and wages. If you find that you made a poor bargain, fulfil your obligation and resign. It doesn’t matter how someone else regards us or treats us, as long as we behave with dignity, honor our word and consistently labor for our security and prosperity. Do not believe that performing a menial job is beneath a person of your station. Such perceptions are obstacles to clear thought and understanding. A person may invest dignity in any job, and dignity will accrue to any individual who performs her work competently and cheerfully. Be aware that most jobs in America make demands on a worker’s life and psyche.

253

Work Depression

An employer may demand a set of behavioral standards that require you to transform your personality to earn a paycheck. Most often our job is not what we would choose to do but only what events and our situation has led us to. We may have a lifelong career undertaken only for money. So many of us live from paycheck to paycheck, dispersing our life’s income on essentials for survival. We see plainly that we have no opportunity to transcend our situation, so we buy lottery tickets, drink beer, get high, get laid or anything else to kill the pain that comes when our dreams are forever beyond our reach.

254

Pays Off for All

The humblest menial employee, the most hardened convicted criminal and the most degraded and demeaned woman may overcome all obstacles and attain happiness, security, employment and prosperity if she meditates, thinks and develops personally and intellectually, develops and pursues positive interests and gets up every day to work with dignity. Remember that the Arts are open to all persons, and are our best hope for attaining prosperity.

Chapter 4

To Analyze and Juxtapose Art and Politics, Economics,

Education, Philosophy and Comic Books.

Thinking

255 Mind Resembles Computer

Like the cursor of a computer the present moment is the focus of our thoughts. Our mind is structured like a computer in that we have files containing data to which we refer and add data over time. The mind evolves this structure over time without our consideration, but we are able to tune our minds with effort and application.

256 Transcend Mindsets

Our mind’s structure may be completely attuned to our survival, and discount much of society as frivolous and unimportant. Such thought is necessary and desirable in a person who lives a primitive life of hardship and depravation. It is less appropriate or rewarding in a person who lives in a city and works at a job. The mind may be motivated by sexual drive, which cannot ignore the opposite sex. This may give advantage when the opposite sex is in short supply, or infrequently encountered, but may lead to misery when practiced in today’s society. Certain minds are structured exclusively for labor, and their lives are composed of work and drudgery. Such a mindset is almost always well rewarded financially, but provides little happiness to its owner. These are three illustrations of structures of mind that may be transcended with personality and intellectual development.

257 Path of Development

The simplest and most effective path to such development lies in pursuit of your interests. No matter whether grand or mundane, your interests offer the greatest opportunity for learning and expression. Motivation is necessary, but learning about our interests isn’t work, it’s gratification. This gratification is vital because it causes us to continue, although we don’t yet know exactly what we are doing. Even as we continue to learn it does not solve our problems for us. As we learn we must constantly examine ourselves and our situations for areas of possible improvement. It is a practice of fine tuning and slight changes with observed result. If you find yourself faced with a problem with seemingly no solution, probably you are constrained by certain assumptions.

258 Anyone May

An assumption is a thing you accept as true based on experience. Often assumptions are based upon various factors and circumstances that may evolve to a different reality, making the assumption false. The fact that a thing is not done or known does not indicate that it will not eventually be done or known, anyone may discover an unknown thing in their considerations because life has infinite variety and endless combinations are possible and we have barely scratched the surface. So be sure to challenge your assumptions, and don’t feel you need to make them in all cases, after all assumptions are what we must overcome to be successful artists.

259 Get High

So a person who wishes to elevate her mind and personality should go out, meet new friends, visit a gallery and criticize the paintings. Sit in cafes and coffeehouses and observe people engaged in life all around you. Get high with your friends and have intellectual discussions. Visit the library and master its organization, seek out books about your interests and read the dern things. Perform your job with dignity and accomplish your household responsibilities diligently. If you so desire you may join a church and find intellectual companionship. With work and application an intelligent person may advance to financial security.

260 I Know It

All of the data collected in the suggestions above and infinite others comprise the equation of your life. As a practical matter, the more you know the better off you are. Data you acquire one time and place in a certain context may later apply in a completely separate way. Data has certain definite qualities, and one quality much data shares is that it is shit. We must each define shit for ourselves of course but it is psychically valuable to know shit when we see or hear it.

261

First Step

Fear, greed, jealousy and doubt are the four horsepeople of your intellectual apocalypse. Anything coming in or going out of your mind having to do with these four emotions is a stone cold loser. These emotions are warning signs that arise naturally, essential in a primitive society but detrimental in most cases in modern society. Remember to observe and control your emotions so that they do not cloud your thinking. Do not imagine that what I am asking you to do is easy. No, it is hard and you must stay after it day and night for the rest of your days. But it’s all relative, and although efficient thinking is not easy, it becomes automatic suprisingly quickly. Practicing thinking is the first step to prosperity for all human beings.

Challenging Assumptions

262 Daily Transformation

Take a look at the world. It transforms every day in a thousand ways, and yet certain things remain unchanged as if carved in stone. Sadly it is usually the beautiful things that pass away and the unpleasant ones that remain as obstacles to our progress. Once people were isolated and limited in their ability to travel. The invention of railroads threw back the horizon and made travel accessible to anyone who could pay the fare. This shift in possibility created all manner of progress that had previously been impossible. Fundamental economic realities became reordered so that the previously impossible could now be achieved.

263 Bars to Progress

The telegraph, the light bulb, the phonograph, radio, the automobile, the telephone, television, civil rights, computers, the video recorder, cable TV and the compact disk are all examples of advances in technologies that have changed the status quo and redefined what is impossible. There are numerous bars to any progress. People are often constrained by a thing and yet do nothing to ease their oppression, fearing change may be worse. Most commonly finances are the primary bar to pursuing our dreams, however hard work and perseverance, sometimes over years and decades, may finally see them come true. We may lack knowledge or understanding related to our dream, or it may simply be inappropriate, all of these things are bars to progress.

264 Ennui and Degradation

Life itself is a difficult proposition. We must subsist on limited means, most of us. Our income is limited mainly by time, and as time passes we must begin to save for our retirement. If our job or career does not wholly satisfy us we are constrained in seeking other employment by the necessity of maintaining our personal status quo. Pursuing our interests in subjects outside of work may dispel the ennui and degradation of our employment. As we develop an interest and experience others who share that interest, we may conceive of a sideline we may pursue servicing that interest. Such service may be well received, so that eventually our old employment becomes less essential to maintaining our situation. Also we may determine that our situation is more complex and burdensome than is necessary, and simplification may possibly give new meaning to life. Nothing of all this may be prescribed generally, it must be determined by each individual for herself.

265 Separate from Exploitation

The key to right livelihood is to separate yourself from exploitation of people in favor of exploitation of ideas. Consider your interactions with other people. If our demands on others are slight, we will be regarded fairly highly, but if they are constant and manipulative only a tiny minority will welcome them, and most people will discount and avoid us. The path to success lies in persuasion not manipulation, and persuasion requires clear understanding and expression. Whether your dream is to produce a product, market a service, operate a business, create Art or merely pursue some interest anywhere in the world it takes you, you will achieve it most firmly and comfortably by honest, applied labor and fair dealing. Of course money can skew this equation and bring success without regard for ethics or hard work, but in such cases exploitation of others is inevitable, and it colors our success and makes it a lessor thing, likely to create discomfort for us in a steady diet.

266 Develop Your Mind

Once it was impossible to have a telephone in your car, then it was possible but impractical. Next it was impractical as too expensive, but today it may be economical for anyone who needs a telephone to have one anywhere. This progression is indicative of the nature of impossibility. What one person accepts as manifestly impossible may suggest to another an idea to its accomplishment. There is no imperative for anyone to do the impossible, only individual will to improve and learn. We may live our lives in a steady productive manner and acquire modest wealth without distinction or great accomplishment. We may misspend our opportunities, or even turn to crime, and find ourselves far-advanced in life without any physical, personal or intellectual accomplishments. No matter who you are or where you find yourself, it is not too late to begin to develop your mind and personality. It requires the same labor and dedication whether we start in childhood or as adults, and the rewards are equally satisfying whenever our mind becomes elevated.

267 Exploiting Small Opportunities

So pursue your interests, and make your plans. It is unimportant that they be practical so long as they are effective. You may be unable to make them reality at first, but they will hold until time is right for them. Each attempt at making our dreams come true is positive kharma in our book of life. It makes us smarter and more attuned with life and capable of exploiting small opportunities as they arise. Challenging the assumptions that confine our perceptions breaks them down surely and delivers clear vision of our strengths and limitations alike, so that faith and dedication is rewarded eventually with success. However do not assume that success will bring you happiness you didn’t have in striving for it. In fact success brings responsibilities and obligation you must bear, and a necessity to maintain or increase your labors to continue your success. We may come to a point in our success where we long for the care free days of our struggle.

Seeking Unseen Solutions

268 Individual Vision

To illustrate my discussion of unseen solutions I will discuss the comic book industry. Founded essentially on one man’s vision, Max Gaines, an itinerate salesman for a color press concern, conceived that the color Sunday comic sections his plant produced could be folded into a book that could be sold for a dime. Max had no idea from Art. He simply saw a product he could produce for a profit. In 1933 he published 10,000 copies of Funnies on Parade, a 32 page 7”x10” inch book of comic strip reprints in color for Proctor & Gamble as a premium giveaway. By the following year similar experiments were sold out on newsstands at 10 cents each. In the remainder of the decade the form of the comic book became standard, and many publishers entered the marketplace. Demand for comic books was phenomenal and they commonly sold half a million copies per issue.

269 Mostly Crap

At first comic books were exclusively reprints of newspaper strips pasted into comic book form. As this source of material dried up publishers considered original commissioned material. Although they were making a fortune from comic art, few publishers had any regard for the art form itself, nor respect for their customers, their readers who were considered to be children, nor much respect for the artists who created comic art. The only assumptions they made were that if they filled their comic books with anything half way decent, people would pay 10 cents for it. This assumption proved to be quite accurate to a large extent, and the content of perhaps 90% of all comic books is dreadful. But oh those few comic books that succeed have a magic quality to engage us as no other artistic medium does.

270 Economic Phenomenon

Children are an undemanding audience and this is why comic books were primarily aimed at them. As comic books matured and their subject matter became more sophisticated, there was no artistic recognition given to comic books. Quite the opposite, rather than accepting comic books as adult fare to be regulated by parental consent, the retailers, distributors and publishers alike elected to firmly establish the inferior status of comic books, by determining that they all be uniformly appropriate for children. After all the whole concept of ten cent comic books was based on the world economy that made newsprint cheap and available, that made ten cents a substantial sum in itself and allowed kids to have a dime in their pockets.

271 Inferior Assumption

Publishers assumed that their readers were children, and that their artists were inferior, and that their own product was not inherently valuable. This is the reason that comic books are held in such low regard in American society. It is the reason comic book publishers and artists make a little money instead of piles of it. Our hero Max Gaines was a vice-president at DC Comics a decade after his creation of the industry, which made him a wealthy man. He was apparently unhappy with his partner’s conduct of business, so he sold Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash for a small fortune and started his own publishing house, E.C. for Educational Comics. Publishing intellectually substantial if dreadfully boring comic books like Picture Stories from the Bible, Picture Stories from American History and Picture Stories from Science. Max had little success, and at the time of his untimely death in August 1947 his EC Comics were among the worst on the stands.

272 Entertaining Comics

EC Comics fell to Max’s son Bill Gaines, who was studying to become a chemistry teacher, and had neither knowledge nor interest in his fathers publishing concern. He had neither regard for comic art nor expectations of success, but as he applied himself, he learned the business and became creative in producing the stories himself. He worked with an accomplished cartoonist Al Feldstein and they labored to produce comic books of a quality unseen in the comic book form. Their formulaic stories of horror, science fiction, crime and shock were illustrated by a stable of artists whose talents are unmatched by any other publisher, before or since. The wordy, moody stories kick ass, and leave you wanting more. As may be expected, their efforts were financially rewarded but their success was their downfall. Countless publishers stepped in with imitations that were dreadful, replacing horror and artistry with gore and hackwork that rightly raised a hue and cry that such trash was unfit for children.

273 The Comics Code

Unwilling to differentiate quality from drek, political opportunists demanded that comic books be uniformly inoffensive, and certified as such in order to be distributed or sold. Thus an entire art form was reduced and stunted in 1955. Comic books were divorced from a serious adult market and unable to address any sort of adult themes. Max Gaines recognized that comic books could serve the function of literature for people who were disinclined to read a book, but entertained by a comic book, because of its undemanding nature. His son recognized that this is best accomplished with an entertaining product. When censorship and hysteria threatened his company, Bill Gaines pondered his situation in search of a solution. Bill had one comic book that was quite successful and that no one was attacking called MAD.

274 Question Authority

When young war title editor Harvey Kurtzman wanted a raise, Bill allowed that he could pay more money if Harvey created a new title. MAD began as a parody of EC Comics that over time evolved and parodied everything. MAD shook up a society that largely accepted everything at face value and craved conformity for advancement. It pointed to inconstancies and exposed absurdity in all aspects of American life. Bill decided to cut his losses in the comic book business and convert MAD into MAD Magazine, and in so doing created an icon of elevated thought that trained generations to question authority.

275 Work made for Hire

Harvey Kurtzman left MAD Magazine because of Gaines’ policy of only buying work made for hire. A common practice in the comic book industry. It means that artists perform their services for an agreed price and own no rights to their work, and are entitled to no residuals. This policy is most profitable for the publisher, and saves no end of bookkeeping. Many rightly feel that this arrangement is inequitable, but with no better alternative artists continue to agree to these terms.

276 Wise Faith

Bill Gaines proved to be the wisest of all comic book publishers, saving all the original art to all the EC Comics and MAD Magazine, so that fifty years later his efforts are still in print. He also had the foresight to save multiple copies of every issue, by which he profited mightily in later years. Bill Gaines became an unlikely millionaire by pursuing his interests and seeking unseen solutions to problems of the industry he found himself in. He looked within himself and to his friends to set his course, and fearlessly led his company to unprecedented success. Sure he made mistakes, and had no less than the US Senate investigate his activities, but he always had faith in himself and never abandoned intellectual development.

276 Don’t Give Up

His success did not come from inherited wealth or mental genius; it came from honest, constant labor, day in and day out, year after year. Offering opportunity to artists, paying them well and selling their work to a clamoring audience. None of us can be Bill Gaines, but any of us may reach similar success by emulating his work ethic, seeking unseen solutions and persevering in our own endeavors.

Formula

277 Wild and Free

Creativity is rarely wild and free. It blossoms most consistently with some formula on which creativity may rest as it unfolds its magic. To my thinking Art should communicate with its audience, and the more directly and clearly the better. The highest purpose of Art is to evoke emotion. It is what people need, clean, external emotional stimulation. It clears the mind in a peculiar manner that facilitates higher intellectual functioning. A formula is a construction of various elements of a physical, intellectual and spiritual nature meant to establish some truths as a basis for discussion, negotiation or action.

278 All Wet

Formula is also a recipe or prescription giving method and proportion of ingredients for the preparation of some material, like television programming, paintings, comic books, etc. Our ABC’s and all such numbers and symbols representing all natural elements and chemical compounds are expressions of formula. The ponderous workings of our Justice System and the manner in which cases rise to higher courts to gain final adjudication is all by formula. H2O is the familiar formula of the molecule containing two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms. The inter-relationship of these three atoms in this formula is water, I think.

279 Formulaic Expression

Every chemical, compound, recipe, problem, event or situation may be expressed in a formula. Individual artworks, class activities and even people’s lives are subject to formula, and it’s appropriate application and study is always profitable to a person who pursues it in gratification of an interest. Always remember, with formulas, their complexity composes their truth, and the extent that you deviate from the formula, so it deviates from the truth. Chemical formulas are precise, but personality equations are by nature incomplete and preliminary.

280 Art Formula

My dilemma as an artist is how to contrive some formula for creating artwork, and another to wring support from and for my Art. Exhibiting my Art at shows, Flea Markets or on the side of the road satisfies my need to put my Art before an audience, and receive feedback, but it provides little financial reward. Statistically the people I reach in such venues are little inclined, and can ill afford to spend several hundred dollars perhaps, for a painting, regardless of their opinion of it. This is due to the subjective nature of the value of Art. The content of an artwork counts for little in determining a painting’s monetary value. The money lies in the artist’s reputation. No matter how proficient an artist may be or how beautiful her paintings may be they are considered only as furniture, with their value limited to perhaps twenty dollars to one hundred dollars or so. To transcend this role of furniture maker an artist must seek representation by a gallery of established repute, whose presentation and representation of her paintings certifies their pedigree as actual Art.

281

Generally Willing

My previous formula had been to set up my Art to attract attention. I understood that people couldn’t buy my paintings, still when they came over to talk to me about them they are interested and generally willing to part with a dollar or two. Sadly it is not customary to tip visual artists. I’ve tried comic books and beads as side lines whereby I might bring in a sorely needed dollar or two. What I needed was inexpensive prints of my paintings that I could sell profitably for a few dollars each. This formula becomes potentially profitable, and the labor and effort involved in exhibiting my paintings becomes more rewarding. By testing, evaluating and adjusting a formula it may become a roadmap to personal, intellectual, artistic and financial advancement.

Theory

282

Daily Lives

We are constantly forming theories in our daily lives. Perhaps that lane will go faster, maybe I’d look cool in that hat, or is that chick checking me out? To test any of our theories we first need the facts. Our deepest, grandest theories are contemplation’s of life’s meaning and our place in the scheme of things. More commonly our theories are the basis of our plans, organizations and actions, supposing that they shall suit our intentions.

283

Structurally Sound?

A carpenter proceeds in framing a house on the theory that her method is the most efficient, and achieves the most structurally sound house she is capable of. This theory is supported by her experience over years of learning and improving. In considering the needs of all the various contractors who build a house, the frame carpenter’s business is complex and minute. She must tailor her product to a dozen trades and physically make possible the structure that becomes a home. Ironically the person who physically built the house makes only about four per cent of the cost of it, in most cases less than the realtor who sells it.

284

Why Not Carpentry?

It is interesting to observe the state of the market for experienced competent journeyperson carpenters and trained carpenter’s helpers. Careful consideration of the trade inspires various theories about why people pursue carpentry work. By nature one sinks or swims in the trade. The wages of carpentry, although generally above poverty, are still modest compared with most professions. Upon acquiring the full range of skills that make a fine carpenter, one finds a more lucrative career indoors out of the sun. As my experience is primarily in Texas, it may be understood that outdoor work in the summertime is provocation to seek an air-conditioned workplace. This fact of carpentry is, of course, true equally of all races of people. Many people hold the theory that immigrant workers will take the jobs of Americans. I have a theory that free immigration will expand opportunity and create good jobs that may allow all workers to support a family.

285

Alien Carpenters

In support of this theory consider carpentry. If a crew needs workers it may accept an immigrant, but that person must be capable of performing her job or she won’t last long. It requires certain strength and stamina and above all mental acumen and ability to communicate. You may not believe it, but many; even most Americans cannot even function as a helper. The physical aspects or the mental ability to measure and calculate or the demands of daily labor under the sun is too much for most of the people I’ve seen come and go. If you truly know how to operate a tape measure, square and level you are miles ahead of most helpers and a disquieting number of carpenters I have encountered. This is true because carpentry mainly catches people with nothing to sell but their time and abilities, which include conceptual reasoning and manual dexterity.

286

It Ain’t Like the Old Days

Often men who today are employed as carpenters could scarcely call themselves helpers thirty years ago. This has been said for generations, and always it has been true. As industry, commerce and technology advance, opportunities are created for intelligent and capable people. Constantly the best carpenters are lured away to more secure and rewarding occupations. Of course the demand for carpenters expand, as prosperity becomes more general, consequently more and more houses are being built by less and less competent and experienced carpenters.

287

Where Are All the Carpenters?

As fewer and fewer Americans are pursuing carpentry, immigrants are stepping in with valuable skills that are sorely needed in the trade. An immigrant has fewer opportunities, and more modest expectations for a career. The prevailing wages for carpentry are low here in Texas. This is true because of the level of the work performed and the general inexperience of the work force. In fact an influx of talented, experienced carpenters would elevate performance throughout the trade, and this increased productivity should elevate the pay of all carpenters. This is only true of course if the level of quality and quantity of carpentry work materially increases, but with free immigration such would certainly be the case.

288

Immigrants Squeeze?

Wouldn’t all these skilled immigrants squeeze Americans out of jobs? Yes and no, some people who today are earning top wages with only moderate skills may be reduced in circumstances, and people who apply for work may need to be better trained and more competent to get a try, but talented carpenters will naturally continue to find employment and good helpers will always be in demand. In the face of the labor shortage in Texas, there is no justification for protecting the jobs of people hardly qualified to fill them. This is no aspersion at the countless talented carpenters working in Texas, merely recognition that many carpenters are less than talented, and through no fault of their own.

289

Old Timer Shortage

There simply is no opportunity to learn the finer points of the trade because there are so few experienced old timers to pass them on. Most carpenters learn a formula and build in that way. If she goes to work for another contractor who uses a different formula, the carpenter is reduced, and must start a new process of learning to reach the level she previously enjoyed. Such carpenters may acquire great skill, but with narrow focus, and rarely achieve master status or the broader understanding that comes with it.

290

Honest Asset

Free immigration need not mean open, unrestricted borders. Ideally each immigrant must pay a substantial fee for probationary entry into the specific state where she intends to seek work. Upon obtaining employment immigrants may pay an alien worker tax, collected by the several states to offset various costs and services consumed locally. This will insure that immigrants are skilled, hard working and determined to earn a living through honest labor, and that once in the United States they become an asset to American society.

291

Import Consumers

As a society we do not materially benefit by any person’s nationality, only by her production and consumption is a person’s impact felt. Immigrants will buy homes, or rent them. They will travel and work and produce and earn. They will buy gasoline and food and beer and diapers and everything else Americans profit by selling. And any surplus enjoyed by these hardworking immigrants may find its way back to their homelands, where it may create prosperity and industry. This is the logical and proper source of foreign aid from the United States. Americans must have the courage of their Foreparents and dare to be free. This entails competing for our proper place in society, and earning our prosperity through hard work and diligent application.

292

Festering Sickness

Any consideration of government subsidy or entitlement to industry, business or individuals is anathema to our Constitutional government. Where it exists it marks the spot of festering sickness in our society. Every such government expenditure represents an injustice to everyone that toiled to finance our government’s largess. Every Social Security benefit payments wrongs the worker who must pay for it. Every farm subsidy received by an individual farmer wrongs another farmer who did not receive like payment, and must survive without it. Every military expenditure wrongs the taxpayer that opposes military adventurism. All these expenditures are unethical and unreasonable because they are Unconstitutional, unsupportable and financed by a hocus pocus of legalized extortion.

293

De Facto Slavery

The income tax is de facto slavery. We are forced to labor for the state a proscribed period of time each year to pay our tax debt. Government maintains that these taxes are necessary for an ordered society but in fact it provides nothing material to a well-ordered society. Everything that exists does so despite government assistance, not because of it. The number of persons, businesses and industries that benefit by government subsidy are insignificant beside those who are hindered, constrained and confounded by taxes and regulation.

292

Social Engineering

Whatever social engineering we need and desire from government would be properly delivered at the state and local levels, authorized and paid for voluntarily by the citizens of the respective states, With Federal surplus divided equally between them. Capital intensive projects such as the armed forces, NASA, administrating public lands and patronage of the Military Industrial Complex will be accomplished through voluntary subscription, by which individuals may determine which programs they choose to support with their voluntary Federal contribution. In this way we would each contribute to the aspects of society we believe in and are not coerced into supporting aspects we are opposed to.

293

Eliminate Handouts

The diversity of opinion that exists in a free country will insure that all essential functions will be funded. Of course an individual may feel that no government activities merit their financial support, and in such cases no contribution would be required. Certainly federal revenues would plummet in such a system, but the elimination of federal handouts would allow all revenue to apply to designated programs, and would create a surplus in most categories.

294

Safety Net

Freed of the constraints of taxation and regulation, commerce and industry would naturally expand and opportunities for employment and prosperity would become universal and limited only by a person’s willingness to work, learn and improve. This universal prosperity will even create a safety net for individuals who still cannot manage to support themselves and their family, for private agencies shall be established by concerned persons for their support with the surplus derived from the elimination of taxation and regulation.

295

Distribute This Concept

Of course all of this is theory, but it is based on sound and true economic principles, and does not propose anything that is extraordinary or impossible to achieve. Such a program will never be instituted by our government of its own accord, but broad distribution of this concept throughout our society is one step towards its institution. Reorganization of the root injustice, inefficiency and impracticality of our political redistribution of resources is the first step toward revolution. We must strip politicians of the power to spend our money for us, and limit expenditures to areas mutually beneficial to all Americans. It may appear that federal regulation protects and benefits us by preventing exploitation and environmental degradation, but in truth such activity is not prevented by regulation in any real way. Instead they restrict harmful activities to huge corporations that use their size and economic clout to skirt regulation and do just as they please through massive political contributions which indemnify them from the letter and the spirit of political regulation and environmental laws.

296

Theory or Truth

We have allowed government to assume the role of determining what is right and wrong. Consequently it has come to dictate to us how we must behave, work and spend our money. This is fundamentally opposite to the vision of our Founding Parents in the establishment of the United States. It is for us to dictate to government how it shall serve us, not the other way round. Only the realization and acceptance of this truth by each individual in America will bring fundamental change and reform to American government. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

Testing

297

Necessary for Progress

Testing is an act or process that reveals inherent properties. We think of tests as onerous, but we submit to them as necessary for our progress. Tests must be relevant to our purpose and interpreting their result is often problematic. Nevertheless we must test our theories carefully before we build upon them. First of all this is true of our personalities and intellectual pursuits, but also of all aspects of our family and professional lives. Often we pick up ideas or habits or practices that seem appealing, but which when put into effect create negative consequences we hadn’t anticipated. An employer may institute an apparently logical economy in her company only to transform some worker’s job from tolerable to oppressive. We may choose to wear a shirt that reflects our mood, but that other people may feel is garish, ugly or inappropriate. We may go to great effort to arrange a special date with another person, only to find they don’t appreciate our interests. We are free to learn from such tests, or to ignore what they reveal.

298

Drug Tests

In assaying a person there is much to consider. What are her education, her experience, and her demeanor? Any applicant for employment may expect these pertinent questions. As important is to ascertain her ethics, her morals and her behavior. American business has concocted various schemes, devices and chemical processes to test applicant’s character, but as an enterprise expands beyond one person’s ability to know her employees intimately, her ability to be assured of their character is diminished.

299

Are You Moral?

Some may resent that an employer dares to inquire into a persons morality, not to say her religion, but in fact this is entirely proper, and what’s more an applicant should be mindful of an employer’s morality before devoting her labors to its ends. The testing we undergo professionally is constant, no matter how skilled or menial our position. Performance, attendance and punctuality are factors we are graded upon and which determine the mutual acceptability of continued employment between our employer and us. For the vast majority of persons this test establishes the predominant boundaries of their lives, interests and expectations. For any individual the test of diligent and cheerful performance of the job they have undertaken is the first they must pass to transcend mundane labor for survival and achieve a mental and spiritual capability to make her dreams come true.

300

Three Good Things

There is nothing more valuable than a happy, capable and dedicated person. These three properties must be cultivated in us as people in a society so that we may each continue our education and gain experience as we choose, rather than as circumstances may have relegated us. In fact the demand for workers is increasingly in more complex and technical positions, and the supply of such workers diminishes each year because of the expense and unattainability of conventional higher education by many people in our society.

301

Ordinary Survival

Our system of primary education ultimately fails some majority of its students by its failure to instill basic practical language and mathematical skills, leaving so many graduates unable to effectively use the English language to think clearly and communicate effectively, or use mathematics in pursuing technical, scientific or artistic professions. Instead we emerge from school ill equipped for all but the most mundane and unfulfilling of employment. Even a majority of those lucky few that arrange finance of a college education find themselves unprepared for the rigors of higher education. Many dropping out, and countless others achieving only minimal accomplishments, and in either case a person is left saddled with an enormous debt that must be serviced on top of ordinary survival.

302

Why School Sucks

All of which underlies our educational system, which fails on four counts. First school teaching is not prestigious and under certain circumstances difficult, frustrating and even dangerous. Second curriculum is stilted, and no regard is given to its entertainment value to students. Third students are bored, and even oppressed by the presentation of the subject matter. Fourth although parents must set the discipline required for learning and development, some parents do not assume this responsibility and some students do not have parents.

303

English Wild and Free

Just like carpenters, schoolteachers have fallen prey to the economic realities that give a person with the skills to be a superlative teacher the ability to sell those skills more dearly outside of public schools. Therefore teachers in public schools are mainly journeyperson level practitioners, if you are lucky. In effect the teaching profession as practiced in our public schools, is mainly a fall back occupation for anyone who has invested in college credentials. This is a quaint holdover from a time when an educated English teacher was expected to have mastered Latin and Greek and be able to impart these to students in provincial schoolhouses. Learning to wield the English language is a baptism of fire. Its wild variety and free ease of communicative function make it precious to whatever degree one understands it, and can communicate in it.

304

Education is Political

American public education is a political construction operated with the aim of instilling functional knowledge of English, mathematics, science, history, literature, Art, music and whatever else is taught. My perception of the fault of public schooling is its format of segregated learning requiring all students to absorb each subject separately and as an isolated entity. Better to have science lessons in reading class, and language lessons in Art class, and math lessons in every class. In this way we may learn that our lessons have applications in life, and we may create a tapestry in our minds that connects the myriad knowledge we accumulate. In addition such a combination of material is stimulating and gratifying to experience. It doesn’t take a genius to predict that making school as entertaining as a comic book will improve the performance of the students.

305

Worth While

Entertainment may relate the imperative that mastering the English language is worthwhile for every person because it empowers us by allowing us to express and understand exactly, precisely and completely what can be said or written. Wielded as a surgical instrument, English can describe almost any thing, process. Idea, concept or action, and this is a groovy and empowering metaphysical magic at anyone’s disposal.

Recording

306

Not Only English

It is ironic that so much of the English Only faction of our society exists for reasons of misguided nationalism, selfish concern for personal convenience or uncompassionate and even mean disregard of people of different cultures. People around the world acquire various pidgen-english vocabularies to improve their prospects for economic and cultural advancement. A tremendous number of people develop the functional proficiency cultivated by Americans in our public schools, but continue to think in their native tongue for reasons of precision and deeper understanding. This is true because of the inherent weakness of the English language, which is that at a level of functional understanding it is cluttered and confused by nature. English only achieves its crystal clear currency with superlative mastery and exercise. Observation makes it painfully obvious that some majority of Americans are content with functional English skills, after all this is all that is required to effectively earn money, pay bills, obey laws and raise children. To the extent that these are our goals in life, functional knowledge of English is sufficient, but if we desire deeper fulfillment we shall find it most reliably by pursuing superlative understanding and use of English. This is most easily attained by the enjoyment of literature and careful observation of the structures of grammar and usage.

307

Got Words?

The continued practice of the study of words, is delightful and rewarding. Words evolve, and as they gain currency they may take up a dozen lines of definition in a good dictionary. This allows the flexibility of the English language. Many are unaware that in many other languages words are more specific generally, and sentence structure may be fundamentally different. The most limiting thing is to be oblivious to these concerns entirely, and simply see the world’s peoples as so many dispossessed Americans who think and behave as we do. In fact most other peoples think, speak and write in manners totally other than we Americans do.

308

Can’t Buy Me Love

Although our lifestyle generally is more materially prosperous, our culture sacrifices many of the intangible aspects of life that evolve with more limited means. Peoples that cannot satisfy their every want materially evolve their personalities and intellects, and such cultures that provide closer support know gratification not experienced by the average American.

309

What Do You Know?

It serves no purpose to assert one culture is superior to another, Each has its benefits and limitations for the individual lucky enough to be born into it. What is important is to realize that something exists beyond our circumstances, and that people think differently in different places. We must strive to overcome attachment to ways, thoughts and beliefs if they become obstacles to our personal development. Remembering our experiences, recording them as evidence for our theories, comparing the results and assimilating our knowledge into a comprehensible tapestry is the method to transcend our situation by the accumulation of knowledge.

Thought is exhausted here. Love...Comic Book Shaman 2000

2011 years later and still thinking recreationally; Watch this spell.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Origin Of A Shaman: Texas Chops

Sunday, August 14, 2011

100 Million Comic Book Reasons

Saturday, August 13, 2011

More On Civil Disobedience Chapter 3 part 2 of 2

Thinking

255

Mind Resembles Computer

256

Transcend Mindsets

257

Path of Development

258

Anyone May

259

Get High

260

I Know It

First Step

Challenging Assumptions

262

Daily Transformation

263

Bars to Progress

264

Ennui and Degradation

265

Separate from Exploitation

266

Develop Your Mind

267

Exploiting Small Opportunities

268

Individual Vision

269

Mostly Crap

270

Economic Phenomenon

271

Inferior Assumption

272

Entertaining Comics

273

The Comics Code

274

Question Authority

275

Work made for Hire

276

Wise Faith

276

Don’t Give Up

Formula

277

Wild and Free

278

All Wet

279

Formulaic Expression

280

Art Formula