from "Revolution on Canvas: Volume One"
Think about your direct bodily experience in life.
No one can lie to you about that.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a television screen? A computer screen? Behind an automobile screen? What are you being screened from? How much of your life comes at you through a screen, vicariously while you sit and watch. Is watching things as exciting as doing things? Do you have enough time to do all the things you want to? Do you even have enough energy to?
Do you think for yourself, independently, or do you take others’ word for truth? How often do you find yourself repeating something you heard another say without it having any bearing on your personal experience; your personal truth? How many hours a day do you sleep? How are you affected by standardized time, designed solely to synchronize your movements with those of billions of other people? How long do you go without knowing what time it is? Who or what controls YOUR minutes and hours? The minutes and hours that add up to your life.
How do you feel in large crowds of anonymous masses? Do you find yourself blocking your emotional responses to other human beings? Can you put a value on a beautiful day? How many dollars an hour salary does sit take to stay inside and sell things or file papers for someone else? What will you get later that will make up for this day of your life? How many days have you given to such things? (years?!?)
Do you have ideas or do ideas have you?
Who prepares your meals? Do you ever eat by yourself? Do you ever eat standing up? How much do you know about what you eat and where it comes from? Do you trust it? Of our many time and labor saving devices, do you find yourself with more time or ironically less than ever? Is it even possible to “save” time?
They are buying happiness from you
Steal it back
How are you affected by being moved around in prescribed paths, in elevators, buses, subways and sidewalks? By moving, living and working in two- and three-dimensional grids? How are you affected by being organized, immobilized, and scheduled…instead of wandering, roaming freely and spontaneously? How much freedom of movement do you have - freedom to move through space, to move as far as you want, in new and unexplored directions?
How often are you waiting? Waiting in line, waiting in traffic, waiting to eat, waiting for the bus, waiting for the bathroom - learning to punish, ignore and control your spontaneous urges? How do you feel when you suppress your desires, when you delay or deny yourself pleasure?
Do you ever need to be around nature? Have water, leaves, foliage, and animals been replaced by your pet, aquarium, and houseplants?
Do videotapes of yourself and your freinds fascinate you, as if somehow you are more real in image then in life? Would a movie about your life be interetsing? How do you feel about the non-stop barrage of audio, visual, print, billboard, computer, radio, and robotic voices that guide you through a forest of advertisements? What do they want from you?
How often does your happiness come in conjunction with buying something?
Do you feel like without the mainstream stimuli that you will miss something? Will you? Does it make you tired reacting all the time instead of thinking on your own? When was your last true moment of silence…not white noise but pure silence?
Have you ever asked yourself these things?
Do you feel violent impulses?
Do you feel inexorably lonely?
Are you really happy?
Do you ever feel like you are going to lose control?
Do you have the energy to create change?
No one can lie to you about that.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a television screen? A computer screen? Behind an automobile screen? What are you being screened from? How much of your life comes at you through a screen, vicariously while you sit and watch. Is watching things as exciting as doing things? Do you have enough time to do all the things you want to? Do you even have enough energy to?
Do you think for yourself, independently, or do you take others’ word for truth? How often do you find yourself repeating something you heard another say without it having any bearing on your personal experience; your personal truth? How many hours a day do you sleep? How are you affected by standardized time, designed solely to synchronize your movements with those of billions of other people? How long do you go without knowing what time it is? Who or what controls YOUR minutes and hours? The minutes and hours that add up to your life.
How do you feel in large crowds of anonymous masses? Do you find yourself blocking your emotional responses to other human beings? Can you put a value on a beautiful day? How many dollars an hour salary does sit take to stay inside and sell things or file papers for someone else? What will you get later that will make up for this day of your life? How many days have you given to such things? (years?!?)
Do you have ideas or do ideas have you?
Who prepares your meals? Do you ever eat by yourself? Do you ever eat standing up? How much do you know about what you eat and where it comes from? Do you trust it? Of our many time and labor saving devices, do you find yourself with more time or ironically less than ever? Is it even possible to “save” time?
They are buying happiness from you
Steal it back
How are you affected by being moved around in prescribed paths, in elevators, buses, subways and sidewalks? By moving, living and working in two- and three-dimensional grids? How are you affected by being organized, immobilized, and scheduled…instead of wandering, roaming freely and spontaneously? How much freedom of movement do you have - freedom to move through space, to move as far as you want, in new and unexplored directions?
How often are you waiting? Waiting in line, waiting in traffic, waiting to eat, waiting for the bus, waiting for the bathroom - learning to punish, ignore and control your spontaneous urges? How do you feel when you suppress your desires, when you delay or deny yourself pleasure?
Do you ever need to be around nature? Have water, leaves, foliage, and animals been replaced by your pet, aquarium, and houseplants?
Do videotapes of yourself and your freinds fascinate you, as if somehow you are more real in image then in life? Would a movie about your life be interetsing? How do you feel about the non-stop barrage of audio, visual, print, billboard, computer, radio, and robotic voices that guide you through a forest of advertisements? What do they want from you?
How often does your happiness come in conjunction with buying something?
Do you feel like without the mainstream stimuli that you will miss something? Will you? Does it make you tired reacting all the time instead of thinking on your own? When was your last true moment of silence…not white noise but pure silence?
Have you ever asked yourself these things?
Do you feel violent impulses?
Do you feel inexorably lonely?
Are you really happy?
Do you ever feel like you are going to lose control?
Do you have the energy to create change?