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Here's a Thought

 

“Here’s a Thought,” is a series of commentaries relating to modern political and sociological behavior of American culture. These commentaries are not absolute, but rather observations about the world in which we live. Their purpose is only to inspire thought through contemplation. These thoughts are to address freedom, democracy, spirituality, art, and technology. Although these ideas are abstract concepts, that is to say non-material, their meaning is real and clearly understood by those who wish to control their outcome.
 
As an artist it is my responsibility to reflect upon the issues, and concerns that dominate the culture. Through art, we capture the moment for others to reflect and consider.

Opinions

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Here’s a thought - We have all heard the phrase, “you’re entitled to your opinion.” But what happens when your opinion contradicts accepted perceptions of reality such as laws of physics, rules of gravity, and scientific fact. Those things that are clearly obvious to any reasonable person, such as don’t stand in the middle of a busy highway, don’t jump off a 10-story building, and don’t drink bleach to cure a virus. In many ways, this is what the 2024 presidential election was all about. It’s not about Democrat versus Republican, or liberal versus conservative. It’s about basic human understanding and the ability to distinguish between right from wrong. It’s about the two party system, good or bad, and if it should continue to exist. It’s about representative government, or whether we should elect a president who will dictate who should be allowed to have freedom? It’s about whether a woman should have the final say over her body or should the government control her biological choices? And it’s about whether a convicted felon, a pathological liar, a narcissist, and a person with clear psychological idiosyncrasies, should be in charge of a nuclear superpower. Given all these questions, along with the blatant denial of substantiated evidence by a majority of Americans, how does the facts turn into nonsensical opinion??
Googlement

Here’s a thought - If American democracy fails, what might replace it? How about Googlment. Google provides a wide assortment of tools with enough data storage to have information on just about everything and everyone needed to run a government, minus democratic participation. Google is a private company,   and therefore not required to abide by US Constitutional law. When you use Google, you give up your rights to the data you create. Yes, it’s still your information and they cannot take away your ownership, however, they can use your information, sell it to other companies, or use it for their own political needs. Have you ever heard of an “EAT Score?” Eat stands for: Expert, Authority, and Trustworthy. For every website listed through the Google search engine and EAT score is assigned. Google uses AI technology to evaluate websites validity according to Google ideology. Websites that do not comply to their AI evaluation, receive lower EAT scores and therefore lower visibility. That is to say those websites are much lower on the search list, or maybe deleted altogether. In another words, they make it harder for you to find things they don’t want you to know, and easy to find  those things that align with their corporate values. So the next time you do a Google search, ask yourself, is the top result the best result or is it Google AI feeding you their choice?

Climate Change

 

Here’s a thought - Over the years here in California, summers seem to be getting warmer and winters warmer as well. In the last few years, long stretches of hot temperatures over 105° are becoming regular throughout July and August. Severe weather conditions across the United States with massive floods, terrible tornadoes, unbearable heat waves, and historic hurricanes are now common place. Climate change is real and we can no longer ignore the truth. As concerned Americans, we must face the fact and begin to drastically change our careless energy habits. To do this, policies must be set to restrict the use of fossil fuels. We need to subsidize through tax incentives the cost-effective use of solar energy, electric vehicles, and other energy saving technologies. We must work to put in place renewable energy resources while making them affordable for all households and businesses across the country, and tax those who refuse to acknowledge and remedy the environmental crisis that is happening on a global scale. In fact, the technology for unlimited clean energy is already here. Solar, wind, water, geothermal, and something known as resonant field energy are just a few of the renewable energy resources available. The only thing preventing humanity from transforming our world, is greed by a select few!  Those so wealthy they can pay any price and not be concerned. Those people more interested in making profit than protecting the health of the human species. Why is it that so many on the planet need to suffer by a handful of people that have so much, they want for nothing?

The Rightwing Philosophy

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Here's a thought. - Why is it that the rightwing of the Republican party seem to be so angry and heartless? Do they not have children to care for? Do they not need food and water to survive? Do they not suffer pain, or feel the pain and suffering of others? No, it’s because of their Darwinian philosophy, survival of the fittest. That is the only way to be as a “real” American. Everyone out for themselves, or those with whom they directly hold allegiance. The rightwing of the Republican party believe the poor, the week, the disabled, and the politically correct should stop complaining and pick themselves up by their boot straps or fall by the wayside. No snowflakes, wimps or fairies allowed. This ideal was a core value of the Aryan race in Germany during the 1930s. Therefore, in America today, only rich white male Americans should have rights. Now the rightwing Republican philosophy, influenced by the MAGA movement has taken it one step further. No longer is It the survival of the fittest, it is now survival only for the richest. No one, no person, no environment, no political structure, no social services, no healthcare, no education, no opportunity, no democracy, and no freedom is allowed for anyone unless you are part of the wealthy elite or owned by the wealthy  elite. Just like a gang mob mentality, the corporate elite are pimping out Republican representatives to pay for their elite luxuries, while everyday Americans starve, becoming the surfs of the rising corporate kingdom.
The Ego

Here’s a Thought – The ego, more of an abstract concept than a physical thing, is important to our existence.  It protects our consciousness from verbal abuse, it provides the drive for achieving great things, and it supports our self-image. However, it teeters on the fine line of good and bad. For a healthy ego, balance is required. Just like a circus performer in a high wire act, the over leaning to either side spells doom. Leaning to the right, that is to say, having no regard for anyone else but the interest of ones-self can cause great harm to others. On the other side, leaning to the left, having little confidence in the decisions we make, hesitating on every step can also lead to a bad outcome. Without a balanced ego, extreme, physical, and emotional results are easily achieved. To believe you are right about something and no matter what the evidence shows, your ego continues to defend your position, can affect others in negative ways. This can lead to closemindedness and denial, while preventing growth in personal knowledge. On the other hand, being so doubtful that you even question the purpose of your own existence, can lead to addiction and possible suicide. When it comes to the balance of the ego, perhaps the best idea is to let go of the ego and concentrate your efforts on helping others. By doing so your ego is positively charged with the psychological energy that you made a difference in someone else’s life. Whether that difference is good or bad…well, that’s another thought
The AI Tool

Here’s a Thought - AI, or Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool. In music, we use AI to generate musical phrases, complex chord structures, intricate rhythmic and melodic patterns, and even whole songs with just a click or a swipe of our finger. Using AI in computer graphics, we can simply describe verbally a landscape or a house, and with just a few details construct an image that is representative and believable. This holds true for video production, poetry, and photography. AI is also widely used in discerning information, collecting specified data out of a mass collection of information. Just think, everything we do throughout our day online is collected, sorted, targeted, and disseminated by AI algorithms and AI bots. Early on in the AI revolution, we are beginning to see how AI can be used to confuse and distort reality. If you consider that AI is linked to all facets of computer technology, and computers are dispassionate and logical to the extreme, given instructions buy a controlling and dominating political force, AI could easily lead two hour personal destruction. It must be noted that we now commonly use the acronym, AI, instead of the more descriptive term, artificial intelligence. Is this practice diluting the impact of what AI truly means, or is it just to save time? Perhaps we do this to separate ourselves as intelligent human beings who use AI, from the frightening realization of an artificially intelligent being using us. Yes, AI is here, and it will be a significant part of our future. Just remember the more we rely on AI technology to accomplish an outcome, the less we really need to know the discipline. The less we need to know, the stupider we become, eliminating the need for human intelligence altogether.
The Validity of Electronic Music
 
Here's a Thought – Music has always been considered as the universal language. As long as you can perceive the music, the vibrations, tones, rhythms, melodies, and chords, the music will have some kind of an emotional and/or intellectual impact on the human consciousness. According to the French physicist Joseph Fourier, and I’m paraphrasing here: any periodic acoustic event can be broken down into sign waves at various harmonic frequencies, amplitudes levels, and phase angles. What this means is complex sounds over time encompasses a wide variety of sonic parameter variations adding envelope, velocity, harmonic structure, and wavelength. It is this variety of parameters within a given sound that creates the fundamental interest in the music. Of course, it is not just the variety of sonic parameters that creates the interest, but how that variety of  parameters are intentionally organized. This organization of parameters is known as music composition. The accepted mechanism used by composers throughout history is the visual method of notation. Notation was and is necessary for a composer to convey their musical ideas to the performer or orchestra. In turn the orchestra becomes the necessity for the audience to experience the composer’s work. All of this has now changed with the introduction of music technology. From Thomas Edison’s recording and playback of Mary had a little lamb, two the electronic and computer music pioneers such as Bob Moog, Don Buckla and Dave Smith, the creation, recording and playback of music composition changed dramatically. Today, music composition can be created in as many ways as there are instruments in the world, or music applications on a hard drive. So which form of music composition, acoustic or electronic, holds more weight in the eyes of the academic music making establishment? Does the visualization of music give traditional music composers more validity, and thereby greater recognition? Is it necessary to judge a composition by its method of creation, and not by its artistic impact? Is music theory and visual notation a form of classical conditioning? Is it not more important to express the art and love of music regardless of methodology? As an electronic music composer working with the basic sound parameters mentioned above, creating composition from that perspective, there is really no difference.
Eternity

Here’s a Thought – For just a minute, consider the possibility the “after life,” is conclusively proven to be non-existent. That upon death, your experience is exactly the same as all the time that existed before you were born and became conscious. The infinite time before our existence and the infinite time after our death leaves no memory and therefore, has no relevance. All that we know as our existence is now. How would you feel about your own life and that of others. Would you hate people different from you for their existence? Would you take everything you could get regardless of whom or what you might hurt in the process? Would you just not care about anything and be like the proverbial grasshopper? Or would you understand that what you do throughout your life is captured and retained as part of the human condition. Although you cease to exist, your life leaves a positive or negative historical impact on those not yet dead, or those still to come. Would you start to appreciate every day of your life, and be grateful for all that shares your existence with you? It’s true, that which we cannot know, we can have no knowledge. This is the struggle in life we face. Confronted with this realization, focusing on what waits for us upon death is fruitless. At some point, we are all going to die. Knowing this truth, frees us from holding allegiance to any ideology that restricts our thinking, and opens us up to all that is in the world. In the end, what is important is how we love, respect, and care for all things in nature. So here’s the final question, how would you like to be remembered? It is for that reason, creating art serves as our living eternity. So now, go ahead and create something meaningful.
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