The Secret of Happiness, the Awesome Power of Memes and Toxic Ideas

A little while ago, I discovered a site called TED. On that site I discovered a remarkable set of video speeches. One by Lawrence Lessig finally clarified why the man who created the Creative Commons License did so. Now I grok, where before I only supported.

Interestingly enough this lead me back to a memory of my studies of licensing, copyright, and other intellectual property issues that I carried out in the early Nineties, and which have never really stopped since then, though they have quieted down a bit now.

In one of these video speeches a philosopher called Dan Bennett offers The secret of happiness:

Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.

That’s what happened to me. I found something more important than I am, an idea, and I dedicated my life to it. That dedication is beginning to pay off, even as I write this. My dedication to that idea has kept me sane, happy and alive.

What’s a meme? “A meme,” as described by Dan Bennett in the video linked below is “an information package with attitude.”

He goes on to talk about memes in the course of talking about the replication of ideas and this has some relevance to being a Creative Artist. So I would like to recommend to you all that you take a few moments to watch his video because it is about as he puts it “[safeguarding] the benign and useful variants of our ideas as they continue to spread” and this is something important to Creative Artists as I have noted in many different areas and articles of the Free Articulator.

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Nine - The power of an aesthetic work of art is the power to change…

In NDK’s latest article on the points of the Code, he describes the importance of ideas to the development of society and how to avoid the destructive effect that can occur when one points out unworkable ideas without providing solutions. - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief
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The Creative Artist as Global Activist — Applauding Trent Reznor’s Example

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a creative activist. When it comes to being a Creative Artist, I think it’s vital to be informed about the world, and to have a well-developed sense of social, political and cultural justice that has a global perspective and not just a national one loyal only to one’s country, for as Creative Artists we serve our country best by embracing the world and serving it through the creation, development and publication of our works, and while these benefit our national economies for the long-term in ways we will be looking at in later articles, they serve humanity first.

As a Creative Artist I embrace without reservation the ideas of Lennon’s Imagine and support nationalism only to the degree that my country, of which I am justifiably proud (most of the time), acts in a socially global sense that has the interests of humanity and nothing else at heart. John Lennon’s website is beautiful, and I wholeheartedly recommend a visit.

Once informed, we utilize our ability to communicate to:

1. Increase awareness and attention about issues that affect humanity - this is non-partisan, apolitical, pro-survival and has the aspect of a care-taking custodial role.
2. Protect communication lines and channels that carry information and the quality of content on those channels.
3. Place constructive ideas into society.
4. Use this information to craft works of art & entertainment that while entertaining, also inform lives and make them worth living.

Why is this important to the definition and role of a Creative Artist?

Because, it is the people who lift us up on their shoulders when they support the publication of our creative works as we develop them, and help us attain positions of influence, that well-managed and from a traditional perspective, help us to balance the books of success when it is attained.

It is not a company or a corporation that Creative Artists owe our allegiance and loyalty to, rather it is the people of the world who support our works that we represent, and whose trust we must not abuse.

So, when I find out from Danny Schecter’s Media Channel that Trent Reznor is involved in tackling the media, I get excited!

Video: The Warning
ArtofMentalWarfare.com presents The Warning, a politically powerful new music video featuring Grammy Award-winning artist Trent Reznor. The Warning takes on the covert interests behind the war and our media saturated society. From war crimes to the destruction of the environment and a celebrity-obsessed culture, The Warning is a clarion call to action for an apathetic nation.

Opening Statement: Let The Media War Begin
The mainstream media is an elaborate and sophisticated propaganda apparatus that is designed and utilized to deceive, manipulate, dumb down, distract and marginalize the American public.

No, not only the American public. But also the rest of the world, who buy into and are subjected to the American mythology through works of culture that America exports all over the world.

Code Point 6 of the Code of a Creative Artist covers these aspects of being a Creative Artist. But many other points of the code are as relevant. This is not some arbitrary code created out of thin air, or vague imaginings, it defines and describes exactly how Creative Artists operate in the world, and by doing so, serve the world. It is our job to do so by imagining.

So I applaud, what Trent Reznor is doing as a Creative Artist. David Vincent? I’m not so sure about his grasp on the reality of blogging, probably he has not read the Free Articulator yet (chuckle), but I do agree with what he is saying and promoting with regard to big media and wish him every success.

The Editor and the Medium: How to Ensure your Success

Editing and proofing any work of art & entertainment is the final part of the production process before the work is delivered to the intended public. It is the most important phase in the ending of the work, and it is a demanding process requiring a great deal of knowledge and experience that can only be truly gained by doing it.

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The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Eight - Your work is your responsibility

In this article explaining the eighth point of the Code of a Creative Artist, NDK Creative Artist discusses the responsibility artists have to protect the integrity of their art. — Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

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Why Battlestar’s Naturalistic Sci-Fi is the Easy Way Out

A few months back, Joel sent me an “Interesting essay on this page about writing sci-fi.”

We’re both fans of “Battlestar Galactica” and this critique doesn’t change that one iota.

This article is developed from our conversation in Skype. I agree with Joel that it is an interesting essay. However, I do not agree with Ron Moore’s take on technology. Read more

Human Nature

“Come to the table, children.”

Grandfather beckoned us all into the dining room; it was supper time, time for one of his stories. We were finishing our after-dinner duties; straining the water left over from the boiled vegetables into the recycler, and putting the dishes into the sonic dishwasher.

We sat down at the table where steaming mugs of hot chocolate were waiting for us. This was a family tradition of sorts; a way to get the younger ones settled down for bed. Those scallywags would be running around the house for hours if they didn’t get their story.

“When I was a young man, there was a disease that was spreading throughout the planet. We tried to run from it, actually. We went to the moon, but it followed us there. When we abandoned the moon for this planet, it followed us again.”

Grandfather sniffed at the tray of powder on the table. He looked at us solemnly before carrying on.

“We called it AIDS. It destroyed lives, families. As the decades wore on, it grew stronger, harder to catch. Harder to kill.”

Grandfather’s stories were often stories of adventure. He was one of the first colonists. You know, a brave adventurer.

But tonight his face was hard. Stony. This was not a story of adventure.

“When we came to Mars, almost half of the population was dying of it. We knew we couldn’t beat those odds. The top scientists had given up looking for cures; they were just looking for new ways to make the pain bearable when the old ways stopped working. We were sure that humanity would be gone within a century or two.”

All the children looked each other up and down. Nobody at the table seemed to have any AIDS on them, right?

“But there was one man who wouldn’t give up. He worked day and night, looking for a cure. He never stopped. His mother died of this plague before we came to Mars. His father was bed-ridden – and in a few months he too would take his father’s place.

“It drove him, so he never stopped. Up at five every morning, and he didn’t leave the labs until the wee hours of the morning… until the day he found the cure. He was a smart man, though, and once he found it, he stored the information every where he could before telling anyone in person.”

We had to wonder – how did that make the man smart? Why didn’t he just tell everyone?

“Of course, storing so many data files across so many networks alerted the powers-that-be to the strange activity. The government, the corporates, they were all aware of what he’d done as soon as he did it.”

“Grandfather, what’s a kawprit?” asked one of the little ones.

“In the past, there were very rich people who used their money to control everyone else’s money. Anyway, the man was found dead in his home the next day. It was ruled a suicide but everyone knew that it wasn’t. He had just found the cure, after all!”

The children were shocked; even in his adventure stories, even when he talked about the colony wars, he always avoided that word. Dead.

“It was the corporates. See, they used AIDS to make money. People spent almost all of their money trying to deal with the pain of the disease. More than they spent on housing, or on food, AIDS medication was the biggest market in all of the worlds.

“The corporates had discovered the cure a very long time ago. A few scientists had also come up with it, but they weren’t quite so smart; they went straight to their bosses with their breakthrough. They all ended up dead, but we didn’t know why until much, much later. See, if the cure was to get out, their entire business would dry up.”

The children had heard about money in grandfather’s stories before, but it always seemed like such a silly idea.

“But this time, the cure was everywhere. People knew how to make it; it could be made from some simple ingredients, if you put them in the synthesizer in the right order. Within a few weeks, AIDS was a forgotten disease, except for the loved ones we had all lost for the corporates’ gain. So the people found new life, while all the corporates took their money out of the business and declared it bankrupt.

“Over the next few years, our technology boomed. Some of it had been in the corporate databanks for a long time, hidden well beneath the information that we had access to. Some of these things were new inventions that the corporates had suppressed over the years—they didn’t make them any money, of course.”

The little ones had dozed off, their hot chocolates sitting on the table half-emptied.

“We cured every disease. We found new ways to grow plants that didn’t require water, which, like today, was very hard to find. All the things that afflicted our societies had been eradicated, and at last, we thought we were a happy people.”

“But grandfather, why are people still unhappy? Why does mother cry?”

“Because, my dear, they fixed the world, and the world didn’t need fixing. It was human nature that was broken.”

~

I didn’t understand what grandfather was trying to say that night, but sooner or later, everyone figures it out. Even now, as I lay in the bunk of my prison cell, charged with sedition, stripped of my dignity for doing the job of exposing the truth, I know that he was right; our technology can’t fix what was already broken.

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Seven - Never invalidate another artist’s constructive work…

In NDK Creative Artist’s seventh article on the Points of the Creative Artists’ Code, we learn that every artist’s work is valid - it’s sometimes just a matter of how well it communicates its intention.

Modern art, for instance, fails miserably at communicating anything, so while there is often valid meaning behind the work, the work is an inadequate way of communicating that meaning. Read on for more! - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

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The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Six - Art is a powerful communication channel

The most important thing in this sixth article explaining the points of the Code is the truth - only, in a much different way than the subject of truth was approached in the last article. The only words with true power are those with true meaning, and any form of power that is based on lies and deception is not real and lasting. Those who run the communication channels of the world cannot create the entertainment that is broadcast on them; they come to us, and artists must protect these channels with the power of truth. This is so important to the direction of culture and civilization that if you are an artist, you need to read the following article, immediately. Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

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The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Five - Always seek the communication of truth to your public…

This is NDK Creative Artist’s fifth article in the series covering each point of the Code. It’s essential reading for Creative Artists who wish to give their works the gift of longevity. Think of all the great works that have stood the test of time and still remain great today and ask yourself why were they written? If you’re familiar with the works you’ll notice that they all communicate a great truth, and often, an inconvenient one. It’s quite a challenge to try and top Shakespeare in terms of longevity (and you won’t be alive to see it happen), but you won’t make any progress towards that lofty goal without first grasping the fifth point of the Code of a Creative Artist. Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

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